Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-11-Speech-4-182"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20040311.10.4-182"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Ukraine is without doubt a European country – one of the largest – and we must not forget how this European country was for decades oppressed and plundered as a Soviet colony. There is no room for self-righteousness in the criticisms we level at Ukraine today, for we, thank God, have been spared a fate such as theirs – or, at least, most of us have been. There is much, then, that we have to appreciate and understand.
For Ukraine to develop will take some time. We in this House have, over recent years, done a great deal to support Ukraine, and even before the great changes between 1989 and 1991 there were elements in Western Europe who cooperated with it. I am thinking here of the Ukrainian university in exile in my electoral district in Munich, or of Radio Liberty, which used to broadcast from Munich, which was perhaps something of a free Ukrainian metropolis. That has always given us a great deal of sympathy and understanding for the Ukrainian people in their aspiration towards a life of their own.
We cannot, however, show any consideration towards politicians who are not merely corrupt, who are not merely dragging their heels when it comes to getting their country to make progress, but are even doing the very opposite by trying to freeze to death the tender shoots of democracy and the rule of law, who are actively using criminal methods to counter their opposition, and attempting to silence their critics in the media. To take one example, it is an appalling scandal when a Member of this European Parliament – Mrs Stauner, and she is surely not the only one – is shadowed by an officer of the Ukrainian secret police, because she brought members of the Ukrainian opposition into this House or raised critical issues, such as the trade in organs, the trafficking in children and many other problems that there are, unfortunately, not only in Ukraine but also with Ukraine.
Our policy, then, must be an utterly unambiguous one. While we must, in principle, be sympathetic towards the Ukrainian people as an important European partner, we must speak out strongly against, and take firm action against, all those who, in whatever way, seek to whittle away and destroy the democracy that is coming into being in their country."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples