Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-15-Speech-3-287"
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, many thanks for this debate. Firstly, let me say to the Vice-President, Mr McMillan-Scott, that if he had not already invented this interesting procedure, we would have to invent it now. I am absolutely convinced that it is a good thing, for I have always been highly committed to human rights. In other words, you can count on the fact that you are dealing with someone who really believes in what they are doing.
Let me say again that there will be genuine dialogue, not only at my level but also at working level. I would like to reiterate this point unequivocally. I do not agree that all we have done is observe elections. I can cite a host of examples demonstrating that this is not the case. We need only think of Ukraine, where a variety of projects is under way. Let me cite a few examples to show you that we really cannot view the situation in such narrow terms. The Commission is already providing support here: for example, it has given EUR 300 000 to the European Centre for Common Ground, EUR 334 000 to the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights: Improving the Human Rights Situation in Ukraine through Legal Aid Provided by NGOs, EUR 787 000 to the European Roma Rights Center: Defending the rights of Roma in Ukraine, EUR 685 000 to the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, and so on. These are just a few of the projects. Let me turn to another region of the world which is very important to you and, indeed, to me, namely the Southern Mediterranean, the Arab region, although this does not only include the Arab countries, it also includes Israel, of course. One example is the project entitled Palestine: Democratization from the Grassroots, Media and Networking as a Tool for Community Development, which is important in that it focuses primarily on civil society.
Let me reiterate: I am particularly pleased – and I think this is a fortunate coincidence – that I was able to present seven action plans recently to the Commission and again here in Parliament on Monday. The Commission and the Council have adopted the proposals and everyone spoke about them in very positive terms. Why? Because these action plans will enable us to bring our values, namely human rights and everything with which they are associated – namely the rule of law, human rights and democracy – to these countries, such as Ukraine, as soon as free and fair elections have taken place there. After that, the implementation begins. However, they also focus on a poor yet important country like the Republic of Moldova, where we also need to take action. Belarus is a separate case which I will come back to in a moment. Then, of course, there are the major countries in the Middle East which are ready for this process, notably Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Palestine and Israel. The presentation of these seven action plans at this time offers a really good opportunity, in my view, to work together with and on these countries. Naturally, the action plans also offer opportunities for us to present our priorities alongside the countries' own priorities and promote democracy and human rights.
I would like to outline some of the campaigns which we are carrying out within our human rights programme. I admit that they do not amount to a massive sum, but it is still considerable, and I believe that there is a great deal that we can discuss in detail."@en1
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