Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-15-Speech-3-048"
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"en.20040915.2.3-048"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, like all of you, I heard the President-in-Office of the Council speak to us of good and bad news, and I felt that he dwelled too much on the good news at the expense of the bad. I would like to thank Commissioner Patten for having, with his customary subtlety and frankness, invited us to cross the somewhat simplistic gulfs between Atlanticism and anti-Americanism, between unilateralism and multilateralism. That is indeed what we must do.
Today, though, nearly two years after the onset of this crisis, we have to say that we are facing failure, as none of the aims that were set have been fulfilled, and I am not talking about weapons of mass destruction. There is no evidence of the region being stable, democracy has not proved infectious, Iraq is not a safe place, and the fight against terrorism has got nowhere. On the contrary, I would even say that military action on its own has led, in Iraq, to a growth in terrorism of all kinds. All of that is worthy of condemnation and of serious thought. We can take no pleasure in this failure, on the contrary: we have to act, to learn our lessons and try to be effective tomorrow. Today, though, what should galvanise us, what should be a priority for this House, is of course the issue of the hostages taken in Iraq – Italians, French, in short, Europeans – along with those accompanying them, whether Iraqis or Syrians. We must move to liberate these hostages, for liberty is a precious good, and because it is not just any professions that are under attack; these are journalists, humanitarian activists, workers for NGOs, in short, people who take risks. As Mr Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra said, I believe that it is for all their sakes that this House must speak out today, on the basis of the principles of unity and solidarity, in favour of these hostages being released.
At the same time, this will not mean that we will have finished with Iraq; we have to ask ourselves other questions if we are to be able to take the different political road to which Mr D'Alema referred. I will limit myself to setting out a few of them. We must therefore call for a change in the nature of the multinational forces. I believe it is now time to put this force, for all practical purposes, under the aegis of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. All of us, together, must concern ourselves with the democratic process. We know that elections are planned for early 2005, but, right now, it has to be said that they are not guaranteed and it is absolutely vital that they should be held under free and fair conditions. Finally, I believe that it is now time to call an international conference in support of the political transition and to facilitate the restructuring of Iraq.
Finally – and this will be the last I shall say at this stage – I believe that we must be more insistent than we have been, more perhaps than the Council has been, on respect for human rights by all the parties on the ground. Commissioner Patten said it, as did Mr D'Alema, and it is indeed the case that we are confronted by intolerable images of war depicting an utterly hopeless confrontation. Ladies and gentlemen, we have to get back to Iraq. We have to consider what is happening now in the aftermath of the conflict. Let me repeat, however, that the priority is for the whole of this House to get behind the efforts to free the hostages, and I call upon all of us, on every side, to accept a resolution to that end, which will proclaim that we speak with one voice."@en1
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