Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-15-Speech-3-283"
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, perhaps we should start with the very timely question posed quite rightly by Mr Fava regarding the dialogue between our institutions. It is a recurring theme, which by the way makes this late sitting at this late season of the year worthwhile. On this subject, Commissioner, we have heard you say and we have read – and you also said in your hearing – that you wanted to maintain a dialogue that people can describe as they see fit, but which I in any case understood to be regular, relevant, open and prolonged, or, in short, structured.
This proposal, the offer of dialogue, is clearly one that Parliament will jump at, because, as you know, the Members of this House are eager to have the opportunity to engage in in-depth discussions about the direction and ongoing monitoring of this initiative and to receive information about programming. Ladies and gentlemen, the ball is in our court and I am sure that the Commission would be delighted to see a proposal emanate from our ranks, from our committees and groups, in short from our Parliament, so that this dialogue can get underway very quickly, because it is urgently needed, with a group of Members who are well-motivated and have some expertise on this issue, and there is no shortage of such people in this institution.
Let us return to the initiative. I think that we need to reiterate the extent to which it brings added value to all of the actions that the European Union might undertake on democracy and human rights. It has perhaps not been said often enough that it is the only means at our disposal to support, against the will of governments that are often autocratic or dictatorial, civil society, activists and NGOs working in conditions that are often extremely complicated. It is the only instrument that enables us to act in this way, and it is extremely precious.
In addition, I would add that the aid that is given to NGOs in this way is perceived on the ground as being neutral, that is to say that the European Union is not providing these grants in a bid to dominate or take over and is not perceived as doing so, contrary to the claims made when American agencies work on the ground, with such claims very often heard in Maghreb, in any case. It is a very precious asset, made possible by the quality of the European Union’s intervention.
Of course there is still room for improvement. One of the issues, and we all know of many examples, is that some NGOs cannot, for one reason or another, be supported under this initiative. The governments of third countries which do not wish to see democratic movements develop in their midst are not lacking in resources or imagination. We have cases of legal NGOs being granted support under the initiative and then being quite simply banned from receiving the grant by a political decree or by direct censure. All of the decisions have been taken, but these NGOs are prevented from benefiting from the funds granted to them. We have other examples of associations which quite simply do not legally exist. In such cases we have to resort to subterfuge, and we therefore need the ability to be flexible and find ingenious solutions on the ground to achieve our goals.
I should like to conclude by saying that this debate would serve no purpose if we were not already thinking beyond 2007. And there, as other Members have rightly done, I would draw attention to the fact that we will need to work within this Parliament to ensure that this precious asset, that we can always improve, is able to endure beyond 2006. That is what is at stake in the debates that we are going to have to hold at various different levels within this Parliament."@en1
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