Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-04-Speech-4-173"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20020704.9.4-173"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, by their deeds rather than their words shall you know them – I agree with Mrs Schroedter that the case of Grigory Pasko will increasingly become a test case for whether or not Russia is working towards the rule of law, and thus an important test case for relations between Russia and the EU. I often get the impression that our policy on Russia is a successful combination of deceit and self-deception, in which one is not quite sure where the deceit ends and self-deception begins. We saw this at the NATO summit in Rome. We see it in the OSCE. We see it in the Council of Europe here in Strasbourg, and we see it also in relations between Russia and the EU.
There is constant talk about how Russia is well on the way to democracy, or even about how it is a functioning democracy. This has nothing to do with reality. We can see that in Chechnya, but we also see it very clearly in the fate of Mr Pasko, who has done the thing that the institutions I have mentioned are always talking about. He took a stand for freedom, democracy, health and public safety. He protested at the commission of a crime. He brought to light a crime that put people in danger and through which they would have been in even greater danger if the crime had not be brought to light, and, as Mrs Schroedter so rightly said, in doing that he did his duty.
It is now high time for us, too, at last to do our duty and say clearly that we stand behind Grigory Pasko, journalist and defender of citizens' rights. He has done us all a service, and we must stand by him in this situation in which his health and freedom are in the gravest danger, not only for humanitarian reasons, but also for the sake of the credibility of the European Union, for whose ideals of freedom he too has taken a stand, and for the sake of relations between the European Community and Russia, for no real partnership with Russia can succeed if, far from the rule of law in that country being strengthened, Russia is suffering further setbacks on the road to it. There have been major setbacks in recent years, and we must fear that what is left of democracy and the rule of law in Russia will be endangered if victory goes to those who want to make use of the Pasko case in a struggle for power within Russia, by which they want to demonstrate that the armed forces and the secret services are still in charge. That is incompatible with European principles, and so our credibility is also at stake."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples