Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-12-14-Speech-3-124"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20051214.14.3-124"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in view of the extremely serious matter raised by certain newspapers, and if what for now remains mere supposition or fantasy is actually confirmed, then I too consider that Parliament has a duty to play its part in shedding light on the matter and ensuring that there is complete transparency in the relations between the European Union and all non-EU countries. I believe, however, that it would have been more useful right now to spend our time debating more concrete facts.
I do not want to go too far back in time, but I should like somebody to stand up and tell me whether in those days the United States trampled on the sovereignty of European Member States when it sacrificed thousands and thousands of its men to save Europe. It is always you on the left who remind me of such things. Well, then, are the people of the United States our friends or not? They cannot be our friends when it suits us and not our friends when it does not suit us. I still do not understand how even people who have important roles in the institutions and who ought to hold objective views and avoid making destabilising allegations can possibly utter such damning statements when there is actually no evidence for the events and
when the very countries involved deny any illegality.
Nobody, of course, wants to deny Parliament’s crucial role in guaranteeing and monitoring respect for human rights and protection of the freedoms of individuals and peoples. Even so, nobody is authorised to hold court and to pass judgment based on suppositions and suspicions, just on the basis of some newspaper articles.
Nonetheless, I declare myself in favour of setting up a working party to look into the matter more thoroughly, making use of the information supplied by the Council of Europe. According to the European Convention on Human Rights, the Council of Europe is the only institution charged with investigating possible human rights violations in the Member States. I would not want this whole attitude – this aversion to a country that is Europe’s friend – to be just the product of a perverse feeling, which is noticeable in the speeches of certain Members of this Parliament, although certainly not in my political group.
To conclude, I sense that a veiled but widespread feeling of ideological anti-Americanism reigns in this Parliament, and especially in certain of its constituent committees. Certain groups seem to be permeated by a visceral, deep-seated anti-American, anti-Western feeling, which clearly reveals old Soviet friendships that have never dimmed."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples