Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-01-18-Speech-3-379"
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"en.20060118.24.3-379"2
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".
Mr President, neighbourhood policy can take two forms, and they are both very different. The first is based on pure self-interest, on attempts to make the environment subservient to the economic and military demands developed within the European Union. Countries pursuing this model are happy to have as neighbours countries that supply them with oil and gas, that keep refugees from their territory and that subject their own people to dictatorial measures designed to stop the interests of the countries adhering to this model from being adversely affected.
In a model of that kind, neighbourhood policy is also a means of keeping those countries that experience a lower standard of living, less democracy and fewer human rights out of the rich Fortress Europe once and for all. All that those countries are needed for is to provide cheap labour. Neighbourhood policy of that kind is very reminiscent of the way in which the United States treated Latin America for two centuries.
There is also a totally different form of neighbourhood policy possible, namely one that recognises that we in this part of Europe have organised many things better than in other countries and that we have something to offer them. Promoting democracy and human rights in Belarus, Tunisia, Algeria and those Palestinian regions that are still occupied is in keeping with this type of policy. It also means that we contribute to economic development which should raise the level of prosperity in those countries to our level. In a number of cases, namely the Western Balkans, but possibly also in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Turkey, it could also represent a transitional phase to full EU membership.
Whilst my group emphatically denounces the first form of neighbourhood policy, it wholeheartedly embraces the second. Fortunately, it is this second variant that dominates Mr Tannock’s report. Also, most amendments put democracy, human rights and solidarity above economic and military advantage. If the Council and the Commission follow this line, then our neighbourhood policy is bound to move in the right direction."@en1
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