Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-01-Speech-3-047"
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"en.20041201.10.3-047"2
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"It is very difficult to say anything original before this House today. Yet this is a very good day for the European Parliament, as we are expressing our opinions on issues of the utmost importance to the European Union. We are discussing our largest neighbour, which has a border of 700 km with the European Union. The EU’s 25 Member States are experiencing problems relating to social apathy, yet there is a country in Europe in which electoral turnout is almost 80%. In that same country, several hundred thousand people have been standing in the cold for ten days in many towns, demanding the right to free and honest elections. After ten days, the people of Ukraine are now becoming impatient, and there can be no doubt that they are also exhausted.
Now it is up to us, the international community, to take the initiative by bringing pressure to bear on those in power and by calling for fair elections. We should adopt a clear stance on this issue. In my opinion, four key principles must be upheld. The first is that those in power should avoid any kind of solution by force. The second is that Ukraine’s territorial integrity should be maintained. The third is that the second round of elections should be held again, with OSCE monitoring and an electoral law preventing widespread irregularities such as voting away from one’s place of residence. Fourthly, the candidates should have equal access to the media. We appear to have already forgotten that this was our key principle even before the first round of elections.
There are also things we must demand of ourselves. For example, observers are needed, and in far greater numbers than previously. A thousand observers from the 25 EU Member States, the European Commission and the European Parliament are needed for the next round of elections. I ask for this figure to be agreed on, for the costs to be shared and for an appropriate number of observers to be sent. This will prove that we are genuinely opening up to Ukraine."@en1
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