Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-15-Speech-3-179"
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"en.20030115.10.3-179"2
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"Mr President, I was privileged to visit Lebanon for the first time some 20 years ago as a journalist, and have followed the unhappy events in that country over the years. It was the occasion when the Palestinians were expelled from Jordan by King Hussein and swept into the Lebanon, destroying what had been up till then a haven of relative peace and civilisation in the Middle East. It had, from the point of view of the visitor, whether a journalist or a tourist, three great advantages: the charm of the Lebanese people, the fact that the electricity and water had been put in by the British and that the cuisine had been installed largely by the French.
On my most recent visit there I was encouraged to see that those three great traditions are reasserting themselves in the rebuilding of that country. It is, as the Commissioner has said, undergoing this process of rebuilding in possibly the most difficult times, especially from the economic point of view. But I am confident, as are many other Members of this House who know the Lebanon well, that the energy and the determination of the Lebanese people will win through. They have survived the past in an extraordinary fashion and remained civilised and perennially charming. It is very important that we maintain the closest links, as the previous speaker mentioned. The francophone connection is only one of many which we have between the members of the European Union and the rest of the Middle East. The Lebanon is a focal point from which we can operate and through which we can operate.
I look forward in the not too distant future to returning to Beirut, a city of which I have the fondest memories, but also to welcoming more people from the Lebanon, especially parliamentarians, here. We can do so much by example that it is important for this House to maintain these links.
Finally, I would point out that it was always through the Lebanon that many of the contacts were made with the other Middle Eastern countries. With the tensions that we have in the Middle East at the moment, it is essential for us to maintain those links, especially for the Commissioner who, no doubt, has fallen in love with the Lebanon in the same way as many of us have, and for the Commissioner to be able to use the Lebanon as a bridge through which he can talk to sensible, democratically-minded people in the other countries of the Middle East."@en1
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