Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-20-Speech-3-254"
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"en.20021120.6.3-254"2
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"Madam President, this afternoon we have heard three very important statements on the core issue of this particular debate – one by the Council, one by the Commission and one by the chief observer on the European Union mission, who was officially representing the three institutions during the election itself.
I am particularly pleased and happy with the statement made by the Commission. I very carefully note the balance and the content and I say to the Commission representative here this afternoon that it is a statement that is exceptionally relevant to the situation that developed.
I say to the Council that I expected more. I expected honesty and I expected the facts. I say to the President of the Council that his statement embarrasses me, and if it does that to me it must surely embarrass our colleague, Mr Haarder, who we all have known and respected as a man of principle and integrity since his time in this House. His statement is totally irrelevant to the true situation that emerged. We have heard from our colleague, Mr Cushnahan, who went there at great personal risk to fulfil a mission, who reported honestly and in a principled fashion on the situation that he witnessed. But before his statement could be taken for what it was worth, it was totally undermined by the Council.
Mr Haarder, on behalf of his colleagues in Council, did not tell us on what Council's judgement was based. He said: 'Council's judgment was', and the statement that was issued was 'Council's judgment'. It is most regrettable that the Council described the situation in this way. We all want to see democracy restored in Pakistan.
The general took over in a coup. Bloodless or not bloodless, a coup is a coup. We in this Parliament decided to terminate our parliamentary relationship with Pakistan. Now we have the chief observer on behalf of the European Union being somewhat rubbished by a statement from the Council, which was excellent in its artful dodging and with no reference to the serious flaws in the electoral process, just a bland reference to the reports of manipulation. Elsewhere the Presidency commends the Pakistan authorities for their cooperation with the observer mission for assuring a widely secure and free election day.
In conclusion, I welcome the statements made by the Commission and Mr Cushnahan, but regretfully the statement made by the Council does this House an injustice because it is an insult to our intelligence and for what we stand."@en1
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