Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-15-Speech-3-281"
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"en.20041215.10.3-281"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, promoting democracy and human rights in the world should be one of the priorities of the EU’s external relations.
We feel empowered by our own, widely-held understanding of the concept of the human race and of every human being, and also by the knowledge that the democratic world is also a freer world, a world that can be fairer, a world capable of building justice in freedom and, consequently, a more peaceful and safer world. By firmly committing ourselves to the European initiative on democracy and human rights, we are promoting democracy, peace, the human race and security, all at the same time. We must never lose sight of this, as we fine-tune the instruments that we establish and as we administer the resources that we allocate directly to this action area.
After a number of years’ experience, I should like to make some observations. Firstly, Parliament should be more involved in programmes specifically developed and supported in this field. The amendments that have been proposed to the regulation will address this question sufficiently, provided, of course, the Commission accepts them in the right spirit and makes a broad and extensive interpretation of the new guidelines, thereby taking relations with Parliament to a more open and closer level. This is what we are calling for. It is also necessary, however, to express our opinion on other issues that concern us more.
Firstly, are we going to dilute these instruments into more and more areas, more lines and more themes, or are we first going to set out a clear strategy, and then concentrate on a guideline that drives us forward and on fundamental priorities? I believe that the latter is the right way. The concept of human rights is increasingly broad and also sometimes more vague. There is also the temptation to use those instruments for anything and everything. This to my mind would be the wrong way; it would reduce the effectiveness of what we do and lead to a waste of scant resources, or to the duplication of instruments.
There are many other instruments for policies on cooperation and development with third countries, but these instruments of the European initiative for democracy and human rights are highly political and should be focused primarily on promoting democracy and that fundamental nucleus of civic and political rights, freedom of conscience and religion, freedom of expression and debate, the separation of powers and the rule of law, freedom of organisation and activity of political parties and civil society, the opportunity to hold free and fair elections and the vitality of open and plural societies.
We must also be capable, however, of setting out priorities as regards the regions of the world or countries with particular strategic impact on the actions that we support, for various reasons: firstly, because the country concerned is our immediate neighbour and therefore our most immediate security is at stake; secondly, because these are situations that can have a positive snowball effect at local level, in terms of establishing democracy and stability; thirdly, because in those areas of the world with particularly knotty problems we can find the weak spot that can be unravelled into democratic transformation; fourthly, because there are special historical links and cultural ties that bring us together; and fifthly, because our help can make all the difference in the short term and can have an instantly positive impact.
To conclude, we must also ask ourselves if we are going to take the path of increasing bureaucracy and officialdom in carrying out these policies, or will we be able to make those instruments more agile? This, more than anything, is what I ask of the Commission; that it be capable of taking risks and that it set out the most adventurous, most daring and most incisive lines of action. Bureaucracy and officialdom would lead to those instruments being totally unused for one simple and intuitive reason. We cannot rely on dictators to encourage and promote democracy in their countries. We must therefore be more agile and must know how to take our help to exactly where it is needed, exactly where it is lacking and exactly where it will make a difference."@en1
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