Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-26-Speech-4-009"
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"en.20040226.1.4-009"2
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"Mr President, a terrible war is going on in Europe. The Second Chechen War is now into its fifth year. It will soon have been going on for as long as the Second World War did. Every day that the war continues, the leaders of the Russian State demonstrate their inability and unwillingness to bring the civil war to a peaceful end. The war has become self-perpetuating. European leaders and the EU must be more active in pursuing peace in Chechnya, and we must demand that the Russian army comply with the rules of war in their dealings with the civilian population. There must be an end to so-called mopping-up operations, which amount to nothing other than robbery and kidnappings, and Russian soldiers who do violence to the civilian population must be brought before the courts.
With the collapse of totalitarian Soviet Communism, there were high hopes and expectations of the way in which Russia would develop and draw closer to the rest of Europe. Now that we see how developments have taken another direction in certain parts of the country, we must make demands and not just express expectations. State-controlled media and a so-called controlled democracy have no place in a modern, democratic constitutional state. President Putin announced the departure of the Russian Government a few days ago. He quoted as a reason for forming a new government the fact that it would work more intensively on developing democracy in the country. That sounds all well and good. We must hope that it will also become a reality.
It is unacceptable to the EU that, prior to enlargement, Russia has not approved agreements drawn up with Estonia and Latvia on the delineation of borders. It is also unacceptable for Russia to oppose an extension to the partnership agreements.
Russia has huge environmental problems. This is in large part a legacy of the Communist era when the environment had very low priority. The greatest risk of an environmental disaster that might also hit the EU area is presented by the outmoded and oldest nuclear power stations of what is termed the Chernobyl type. They exist in Sosnovy Bor, not far from Estonia’s border with Russia, and in Kursk, near Moscow. We must clearly emphasise to the Russians that the continued operation of these first-generation RBMK reactors is unacceptable. They should be phased out as quickly as possible, and other nuclear power stations in Russia must be upgraded from a safety point of view in accordance with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s) safety standards. EU cooperation with Russia on upgrading the safety of nuclear power must become more effective.
This report is no doubt of its time and has come in for a lot of attention. I wish, in conclusion, to thank Mr Belder for his constructive cooperation."@en1
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