Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-06-11-Speech-2-016"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20020611.3.2-016"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, our group attaches great importance to this report, which comes after Valencia and follows the Esteve report, which received huge consensus in this House. It also informs the Commission and the Council of the European Parliament’s desire to make the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership a political, strategic priority for the Union, and the Maghreb dimension of this partnership must be fostered and supported.
Mr Cohn-Bendit is right: we need to progress from a bilateral to a multilateral vision of this relationship. Moreover, there are positive signs coming from the countries which have resumed contact and cooperation after many years; the desire for cooperation is clear from the fact that a meeting of Arab Mahhreb Union Foreign Ministers was held last January and that it has been decided to hold a meeting of these countries’ Heads of State in Algiers on 21 and 22 June next.
This signal must therefore be sustained, not just as regards regional free trade but also as regards social issues, the management of complex phenomena such as immigration and the development of human rights and the rule of law in these countries. In this regard, I would point out that there is a desire on the part of these countries to cooperate in the management of immigration policy, and this is important for us if we want to protect the Union’s external borders, but we cannot, as Europeans, focus solely on this aspect: we must also be open to discussions with these countries on how and under what conditions managed, lawful immigration is possible. Often, however, European governments’ policies run counter to these principles, and that could place us in a position of conflict with these countries too.
Then, as regards human rights, I will not repeat what Mr Cohn-Bendit said – with which our group fully agrees – about using Article 2 to introduce dialogue and evaluation with a view to advancing the development of the rights of the people and institutions which enforce it.
As regards Algeria, I too am a little disappointed by the Commissioner’s words. I myself had the opportunity to be in Algeria during the recent elections with a Parliamentary delegation and I would warn that the situation in Kabylia should not be underestimated, for the rift is deep. Similarly, we need to encourage greater openness on the part of this country for its attitude towards other countries is still too closed and lacks transparency. I feel that we should pursue this objective through the association agreement, but dialogue on these issues is a requirement of the association agreement."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples