Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-23-Speech-3-015"
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"en.20050223.5.3-015"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it is highly symbolic that Viktor Yushchenko, the President of Ukraine, the EU's largest neighbour on its eastern border, is about to address the House on a day when we are also debating the EU's relations with its southern neighbours in the Mediterranean region.
In the North, there is Norway, with which relations are friendly; in the West, there is the Atlantic, which means that our primary focus must be on our neighbours to the east and south. With all our neighbours, we want to pursue a policy of dialogue, partnership and, if possible, friendship.
Our parliamentary group – like the House as a whole – actively supported the establishment of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, and the best tribute that we can pay to our late fellow-MEP Mr Renzo Imbeni is to make this Assembly a genuinely effective and forward-looking parliamentary body. With our support, and together with our colleague Giorgos Dimitrakopoulos, it was Renzo Imbeni who created this Parliamentary Assembly. Let us honour him by doing good work there.
We want to work towards joint solutions with our partners in the Mediterranean region, your personal commitment to which, Commissioner, I regard as very commendable. I myself would have welcomed a Commission decision to appoint a Commissioner responsible solely for the Mediterranean region, but I have no doubt that your tremendous involvement will amount to virtually the same thing.
Our task, then, is to discuss the future of the Mediterranean region with our partners, and, to the Arab and Islamic world, we say this: we want partnership rather than a clash of civilizations, and our relations with the Arab and Islamic world are among our key policy priorities. This includes achieving peace between Israel and Palestine.
To President Bush, who is visiting Europe from the United States, we say this: let us make a joint effort to ensure that Israel can exist within secure borders and Palestine can exist within secure borders. After all, both countries – if I may call Palestine a country – are represented in the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, and we must use our opportunities there to bring peace to this region.
We urge Syria – with which we are about to conclude an Association Agreement – to renounce all activities that encourage terrorism, and to give Lebanon a genuine chance. Its former Prime Minister, Rafiq Hariri, has been assassinated along with his bodyguards, and we must find out who is responsible. We urge Syria to make its contribution to peace.
Let me make one final comment: we want partnership, we want economic contacts, we want political contacts, and we want guaranteed human rights across the Mediterranean region. This too is a significant contribution to dialogue, partnership and peace in the Mediterranean."@en1
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