Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-29-Speech-3-011"
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"en.20030129.2.3-011"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I was saying that I am always happy to appear before you, but today I am doing so at a time when I am extremely worried.
The second important point is Iraq’s responsibility to cooperate actively with the inspectors. You have good knowledge of the report which Dr Blix and Mr ElBaradei presented the other day to the Security Council, and you saw them directly, because the President of the European Parliament had the opportunity to speak with the inspection chiefs by means of a videoconference with New York. I also had the opportunity to speak with them subsequently, and I will therefore not insist on this since I am sure that the Presidency has informed Parliament in a clear manner.
The third point, which I believe is essential to point out, is that we must give all the necessary support to the inspectors. The inspectors are the eyes and ears of the international community. If they are capable of convincing the Security Council of the situation, I am sure that the Security Council will also convince public opinion of the current situation in Baghdad. Therefore, whatever the implicit or explicit requests – and I insist, implicit or explicit – of the inspectors to the members of the Security Council, I believe Europe should help them. And there are essentially three types of suggestions or requests that the inspectors could make to us, firstly: that they require more resources, more resources than they currently have, more inspectors and more logistical resources; secondly: they may need more time; and thirdly: they may need more information or more intelligence. I believe that the international community should respond positively to these three requests from the inspectors. In other words, they should be offered resources, time and intelligence.
And the fourth point, which I believe is absolutely essential and which must be defended by the Europeans, is that the whole of this process relating to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and more specifically the issue of Iraq, must remain within the framework of the United Nations Security Council. It must be carried out within the framework of the United Nations, which is the institution which must provide the legitimacy for any action in relation to this issue.
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr President, you are well aware of the differing positions expressed by various Members of the European Union, but you also know that there are not just the opinions of the leaders in the European Union, but we also have clear and convincing surveys of the thoughts of the European citizens. I believe that the European citizens are clear about two things: one, that they do not want war; and the other, that they do not want dictators in the world. And we must make the two things compatible in the eyes of the population, of the citizens of Europe. How to make preventing armed conflicts and preventing the existence of dictators compatible is the great challenge facing the international community. Our intention as Europeans must be to ensure that Resolution 1441, which was unanimously approved by the United Nations Security Council and which was approved unanimously by the Arab League two days later, should become a reality and that Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi regime can disarm without the need for military force.
Therefore, the countries of the European Union and all of us who serve the European Union will work with all our might, day and night, to try to prevent a conflict and to ensure that Saddam Hussein abandons weapons of mass destruction without our turning to military force.
As you know, a debate began today in the Security Council on the basis of the report produced by the inspection chiefs 48 hours ago. Let us wait and see how that debate develops before taking a position on it.
As you are aware, yesterday the President of the United States made an important speech. I would like to welcome an expression, a phrase, an idea, which was suggested in this speech, which is the idea, the suggestion or the commitment that the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, would appear before the United Nations Security Council to explain the information and intelligence in existence in those countries which have privileged information or privileged intelligence. I believe and I insist that the centre of gravity of this process must continue to be the United Nations Security Council and I therefore believe it very appropriate that the information that certain countries currently have should be debated within it and that, if possible, that information should also be passed on to the inspectors.
You also know that there will be other consultations in the coming days …
The international situation is not good and the time has come for us to hold a debate within this institution to consider how the most burning issues currently on the international scene can be viewed, and if possible resolved, from a European perspective.
… and let us hope that the inspectors can have more time to continue their work and, if possible, as I said before, to complete their mandate in accordance with Resolution 1441.
Ladies and gentlemen, Europe is involved in this process: four Members of the European Union are on the Security Council, one candidate for membership of the European Union is on the Security Council and I am sure that the countries making up that Council will make every possible effort so that what we are saying here becomes reality in the coming days.
Since you have information from the President of Parliament on the conversation yesterday with Dr Blix, I will not say anything about the comments made and I will move on briefly to the second point I wanted to discuss with you, ladies and gentlemen, which is the issue of the Middle East.
Yesterday elections took place in Israel, and I believe we must learn at least three important lessons from these elections. Firstly, the low turn-out. It is surprising – or at least it surprises me – that in view of the situation we are facing in the Middle East electoral turn-out should be so low. It is the lowest turn-out since the 1967 elections. That is the first point to stress.
The second point to stress is the enormous, and very significant, victory of Prime Minister Sharon. I would like, on behalf of all of us, to congratulate him on his victory and the victory of his party. Sharon’s victory is like none other of his previous victories. And I believe we should say to Prime Minister Sharon, on behalf of the European Union, that at this time when he has enormous opportunities to form a coalition government, that he should form a coalition government that concentrates on resolving the problem of the war and finding permanent peace in the Middle East. That is the demand that with respect I believe we should make of him since it has been demonstrated that a huge number of Israelis have voted for him.
The third issue we should highlight and on which we must draw conclusions is the heavy defeat of the Labour Party and the defeat of the Meretz Party. The two great parties, which have historically defended peace, which have been the centre of gravity in terms of peace, have suffered damage. We must analyse why this situation has come about. It will primarily be their job to do this. We have seen that the Secretary-General of the Meretz Party has tendered his resignation. But, in any event, from a European point of view we must maintain our policy and our policy is still the one contained in the work of the Quartet and the one contained in the road map which was approved in Washington not long ago. Once there is a government in Israel, we must mobilise all possible mechanisms in order to speed up a process which will lead to the road map becoming a reality and not just remaining a piece of paper.
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have the obligation, as Europeans, to do everything possible to ensure that this process, which will begin following yesterday’s elections, will be a process which leads to a good result, and so that the initiatives taken do not meet the same fate as previous initiatives, such as the Mitchell report or the Tenet Plan and other important reports which have been adopted but which have not been able to be implemented. My appeal would therefore be that we should do everything possible to ensure that these documents do not remain simply documents in the archives but that they be implemented in reality.
Ladies and gentlemen, during the short time available to me for this first speech, I would also like to make one or two comments on North Korea. Ladies and gentlemen, the situation in North Korea is serious. It is difficult. As you know, the decisions taken by the North Korean Government are serious decisions and I do not believe they are decisions which should only concern the countries of the region. As I said at the beginning, I would insist that the issue of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is an issue which affects all of us, regardless of which part of the planet we are living in at this time. And we must therefore involve ourselves to some extent in the issue of North Korea.
As you know, we hold meetings and telephone conversations practically every day with the most closely involved countries in the region: South Korea, Japan, China, Russia, the United States, and in the General Affairs Council on Monday the decision was taken, if necessary, to send a European Union mission to North Korea to present our position and also to cooperate in finding a solution to this dramatic problem which, if things carry on as they are, could lead to the existence of nuclear weapons of mass destruction in part of the Korean peninsula.
Ladies and gentlemen, I will move on to the last point I wanted to mention this afternoon, which is the situation in the Balkans and specifically the situation in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. As you know, at the Copenhagen Summit an agreement was reached on relations between the European Union and the Atlantic Alliance. We are currently working so that in March we can for the first time in history deploy a peace-keeping force in that Republic. The work is going well, the issues that have to be tackled with the Atlantic Alliance are making substantial progress, President Trajkovski of Macedonia has now accepted the presence of European forces from March and I believe we will be in a position to do that.
I have seen the placards that some Members of this Parliament have displayed very clearly, and I would like to say that unfortunately, or fortunately in other respects, I am talking to you from the point of view of an old Europe, because of my age, but also because of my affection for everything which is represented by the Europe of yesterday, the Europe of today and the Europe of tomorrow.
We also want to send a clear message to the countries of the Balkans; our strategy is not to abandon the Balkans. Our strategy does not just consist of remaining there, but of them remaining with us, of offering the countries of the Balkans the opportunity to participate in the construction of a wider Europe, so that they may come ever closer to the European institutions and so that they may establish themselves firmly as the important countries they should be in that region.
The deployment of military force in Macedonia would be the second peace-keeping operation taken on by Europe, since, as you know, since 1 January this year, the European police force is deployed in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a replacement for the police force which was there under the flag of the United Nations. Therefore, in a relatively short space of time, we have been able to implement two peace-keeping operations in an area close to our hearts and close geographically to our capitals and to Brussels.
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr President, I do not want to expand any further during this first speech. I know that the honourable Members will have plenty of questions to ask me. But I would like to say that we are living through a relatively difficult time and I would go as far as to say that this is perhaps the most difficult time those of us in this parliamentary sitting, during this period of European parliamentary life, have had to live through. It is essential that we Europeans remain strong, clear and tenacious in our positions in order to do everything possible so that this crisis, which currently has so many fronts and so many manifestations, is one that can be resolved through the good will of everybody by means of agreement, dialogue and diplomacy. Force is the last resort. Diplomacy must always be our method.
Mr President, do not imagine that I am so old, I am going to carry on working and pestering people for a few more years.
Mr President, in the short time available to me this afternoon, if the honourable Members will allow me, I would like to discuss four or five points which I believe are essential to a global understanding of the international situation. The first is undoubtedly Iraq. But I would also like to take this opportunity to debate with you, if only very briefly, the situation in the Middle East on such an important day as this, the day after the elections in Israel. I also believe it would be a mistake not to say a few words about North Korea, given the dramatic situation at the moment, and I will end with a very brief comment on the operations the European Union is beginning to plan for the deployment of forces in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
I will begin with the first point: the situation in Iraq. As you know, ladies and gentlemen, the General Affairs Council is taking place this week and next week and they are going to be extremely important weeks in terms of finding a solution to the Iraq crisis. On Monday morning, for the first time, there was a concertation procedure, in accordance with Article 19 of the EU Treaty, between the Presidency, the troika and the members of the European Union sitting on the United Nations Security Council here in Brussels at ministerial level. This is the first time that anything of this nature has taken place; there had been many concertation meetings in New York, but there had never been a meeting here in Brussels at ministerial level of the two permanent members and the two non-permanent members of the Security Council together with the Presidency, Commissioner Patten and myself.
I would like to say very briefly that in the meeting there was general consensus at least on four essential points which the European Union wishes to defend in all fora. I will run through the four points, although the honourable Members know them very well. Firstly: we all have an interest in Iraq getting rid of weapons of mass destruction and this is something that all Europeans should agree on. One of the most serious problems we are going to face during this century is unquestionably the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. And we Europeans cannot ignore this problem, a serious problem for which a solution must be found. Therefore, to try, by every means possible, and in accordance with the resolutions of the Security Council, to ensure that Baghdad gets rid of all weapons of mass destruction must be a priority for the European Union."@en1
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