Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-03-20-Speech-4-037"
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"en.20030320.2.4-037"2
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"Mr President, I am afraid that all endeavours to bring the Iraqi crisis to an end without using force have failed. Thus, an intervention is being carried out which, I would point out, is based on at least three United Nations resolutions: 1441, 678 and 686. I share Mr Poettering’s opinion on Saddam Hussein: it is he who is responsible for the current events. He could have avoided armed conflict by putting an end to his bloody dictatorship, as was suggested to him until yesterday afternoon not just by many Members of Parliament but by the Government of Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries too. We cannot compare President Bush to Saddam Hussein. We cannot compare the President of the largest Western democracy to a bloodthirsty criminal autocrat who has annihilated all trace of democracy in Iraq and is the only dictator to have used weapons of mass destruction.
I am afraid that Europe has shown itself to be divided on this matter. It is our immediate duty to seek to restore unity to the Union. Today’s European Council, Mr Papandreou, can be the start of a new endeavour to give Europe a single foreign policy and a single defence policy. We can take practical steps to reinvigorate the European action, Commissioner Patten, once the Iraq conflict is over. The Union, together with the United Nations, must take the lead in building the new Iraqi democracy. It will thus have a major role to play which involves, not least, taking powerful, coherent measures to combat terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. However, this politically strong Europe will have to be an interlocutor on an equal footing with the United States, another major leader in international politics, although we cannot, as President Prodi said, hope to build the Europe of tomorrow from a position of opposition to the United States.
Moreover, a number of criticisms have been made of the Italian Government which do not deserve a reply, for they are unfounded and were coarsely expressed in the manner of those who always give partisan interests precedence over national and European interests."@en1
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