Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-03-10-Speech-4-230"
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"en.20050310.26.4-230"2
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"Mr President, the European Commission thanks Parliament for bringing forward this resolution on Saudi Arabia. It is a well-drafted and balanced resolution, which has the merit of pointing out the positive and less positive aspects of the Saudi elections and the on-going reform process. The Commission also welcomes the visit to Saudi Arabia by the European Parliament's Delegation for Relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council, and encourages it to pursue its efforts.
The Commission shares Parliament’s view on the need to promote a substantial strengthening of EU-Saudi relations. In June 2004, the European Council adopted an EU Strategic Partnership for the Mediterranean and the Middle East. That document reflected EU political will to intensify efforts to resolve conflicts, ease tension, build trust, strengthen governance and improve the lives of the people living on the shores of the Mediterranean and in the Middle East, and not least to address the situation faced by women in some of these countries.
Our current EU-Gulf Cooperation Council Agreement and our future Free Trade Area Agreement - which will include human rights as an essential element - will remain the framework for our cooperation. However, we will be further developing our relations with each Gulf country according to its particular needs, capacities and will to move towards.
The European Union’s determination to promote both stability and change throughout the region is at the core of this process. Indeed, we must pursue stability through change and reform: political and economic reforms are needed for the region’s development and the well-being of its peoples.
The Commission, as you know, is keen that an initiative for reform should come from within the region itself. This requires that the region speak out clearly in favour of political, economic and social reform. Whilst reforms cannot be imposed from the outside, they can be encouraged. For example, the EU should encourage the Saudi Government to accelerate the pace of reforms that contribute towards women’s empowerment.
The EU will continue to raise such issues in its official contacts with the Saudis, not least at the next EU-Gulf Cooperation Council ministerial meeting to be held in Bahrain on 5 April.
In addition, Saudi Arabia has now been included as one of the countries on which the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights can focus. That means we will assess initiatives from NGOs willing to support the efforts made in the region."@en1
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