Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-05-17-Speech-3-202"
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"en.20060517.19.3-202"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, in my opinion it is perfectly natural for Parliament to make greater demands of the other institutions and, of course, I listened to your speeches with close attention. I think that criticism is necessary if we are going to make progress, but I have also noted, both in Mr Howitt's report and in this debate, some positive comments regarding our policies, for which I would thank you once again.
In a field such as the promotion and protection of human rights, the assessment is inevitably mixed. I should like to tell you how I see the situation. First, is the EU an important player in this field, which counts and is counted on? My response to that, without doubt, is yes. We have continually seen this demonstrated. Our state and non-state partners, both States and international organisations, are continuing to turn to us and to see us as a major player, and sometimes as indispensable, owing to our political credibility, our influence, our expertise and the instruments we have at our disposal.
Secondly, does the EU have the right tools to perform its activities? My response to that too is yes. We have access to international instruments as part of the United Nations and the Council of Europe, to name but two. We have the framework of our widely quoted bilateral agreements, including human rights clauses, and common political guidelines in many sectors, political dialogues and approaches of all kinds. We also have the financial, geographical and thematic instruments.
Thirdly, are we contributing and doing enough? To that, I would tend to say no, particularly if our actions are examined in general terms. If we look at specific situations, however, such as the adoption of the resolution establishing the new Human Rights Council or cases relating very specifically to countries and individuals, there are many instances where we made a difference. In any event, the EU, including the Member States, has certainly been the player that has made the most important contributions at global level and really has had a very strong presence, even though we are not always as visible as you or we would wish.
Finally, is the human rights policy we are pursuing effective? Are we having an impact? For my part, I, like Parliament, should like us to increase our effectiveness and impact. To do so, we need to take a big step forward in quality terms, particularly in terms of consistency: consistency between the policy pursued at EU level and those pursued by the various Member States, and consistency between the EU's political will and the national interests that come to light at certain key moments in bilateral relations. And we need, in some cases, to create a better balance between our multilateral agenda and the bilateral agenda. We also need to mobilise all the institutions of the Union, including, of course, the European Parliament.
As I have already said, we are very much in favour of a report drawn up jointly by the three institutions. Let us work towards this! Parliament can certainly count on me. Neither I nor my services will spare any efforts. You can count on us for the assessment and also the implementation of the human rights policy, even if we too are often faced with a political reality that is not easy to control. However, if we want to increase the impact of our policy, particularly by improving the consistency of our actions at European and national levels and between the various institutions, Parliament's annual report, like Mr Howitt's, must in my opinion be the inspiration for our actions."@en1
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