Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-01-18-Speech-3-391"
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"en.20060118.24.3-391"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, links with neighbours are extremely important to both people and countries. Relations with neighbouring countries are also important to the European Union. They must be positive relations framed within the objective of creating a circle of countries around the Union that are peaceful, prosperous, respectful of human rights and stable and that share our principles of democracy and the rule of law. Achieving that circle is necessary to the Union’s interests, as the Commissioner has just acknowledged.
With globalisation and interdependence, it is clear that no wall can isolate the European Union from its closest neighbour countries; hence the importance of an active and generous neighbourhood policy.
As the report by Mr Tannock indicates – and I thank him warmly for his work – I believe that specific neighbourhood policies must be differentiated essentially according to the neighbouring country in question. The difference must not depend on the continent to which the country belongs; if that were the case, we would be giving the impression that we have one first-class neighbourhood policy and another second-class one for the non-European neighbouring Mediterranean countries. That would be a mistake, since many of these Mediterranean countries have very close and long-standing relations with the Union, closer and more long-standing than those that the Union has with several European countries which are also subject to the neighbourhood policy.
In accordance with our commitments, these Mediterranean countries hope to achieve the closest possible relations with the Union. Furthermore, they need greater cooperation from us in order to remedy their backwardness in the fields of institutional democratic development, economic and social growth and so forth.
A closer European neighbourhood policy, however, also involves promoting reforms geared towards democracy, respect for human rights and the market economy. There must also be progress in fields such as economic openness, border control, and cooperation in the fight against terrorism, organised crime and illegal immigration. It is clear that progress in these fields will benefit the neighbouring countries in question as well as the whole of the region.
Mr President, I would like to make an additional comment. I very much regret that, at the Barcelona Summit of last November, the level of attendance by our neighbours from the South of the Mediterranean was so disappointing. I believe that they have squandered a perfect opportunity to demonstrate their interest in enhancing their relations with the Union. Despite this disappointment, however, we must look to the future and to the Union’s strategic imperatives. This means that we must prioritise our relations with our neighbours, not just for their benefit, but for our own as well."@en1
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