Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-26-Speech-3-329"
Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
---|---|
rdf:type | |
dcterms:Date | |
dcterms:Is Part Of | |
dcterms:Language | |
lpv:document identification number |
"en.20051026.22.3-329"2
|
lpv:hasSubsequent | |
lpv:speaker | |
lpv:spokenAs | |
lpv:translated text |
".
Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to start by congratulating Mrs Jäätteenmäki on her report on the Barcelona process revisited.
I would now like to turn to my proposal. Next month, the European Heads of State or Government will meet their Mediterranean counterparts to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Barcelona process. The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership was intended to provide the ambitious prospect of a better, varied future, simultaneously political, economic, social and cultural. The results, 10 years on, are mixed. We have created a forum for discussion and cooperation with our Mediterranean neighbours, which I welcome, but we are far from achieving all the objectives set. The conflict in the Middle East has not been resolved. The region is still unstable. Human rights and democratisation are not progressing, or are not progressing enough. The southern shore of the Mediterranean and its population have not benefited from the expected economic and social well-being. Unemployment, particularly among young people, is still too high and results in hopeless migration flows.
On the economic front, I will mention just one example: the end of the Multifibre Agreement, which has added to the difficulties experienced by the region. Although the new rules of cumulative origin, as proposed by Commissioner Mandelson, are moving in the right direction, South-South economic integration is still far from complete. We are the privileged partner of this region and all its hopes are turned towards us. Caring about these people primarily means responding to their concerns and their aspirations, in other words our ability to achieve greater social cohesion and sustainable economic development.
The new Neighbourhood Policy proposed to us is a positive element, because it calls for greater democracy, even though the aid will have to be shared more broadly amongst our neighbours to the east and to the south. I hope that this new policy will pursue the objectives of the Barcelona process and that it will take account of the difficulties specific to this region. I am also concerned by the absence, in the neighbourhood and partnership instrument as proposed by the Commission, of a specific reference to the Millennium Goals.
In the global environment in which we live, liberalisation cannot be the answer to the problems raised. That applies to the protection of our environment – given that we are responsible for our planet – but, even more acutely, to the issue of public services that meet the basic needs of the people, namely education, health, culture, and access to water and power, which the Committee on International Trade, of which I am a member, proposed and which the Committee on Foreign Affairs did not adopt.
We agree with the view that our work is not yet done. Let us be in agreement tomorrow to achieve a common goal."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples