Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-10-25-Speech-3-010"
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"en.20061025.3.3-010"2
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".
Mr President, Madam President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it is one of the most noble tasks of a politician to work for peace. We all want peace on Earth, in Europe and in Spain. There are, however, often differences of opinion about how to achieve this objective. This is the case again today.
This debate is not about party-political tactics and gains, but principles and fundamental convictions. For this reason I ask that everyone here show great respect in this debate today and that we do not deny each other the mutual good will that sustains our conviction. We in the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats would like to know how it is that we can trust that ETA and Batasuna want peace when they have not expressed a single word of regret or apology or made any kind of appeal for forgiveness to the families of the over 800 people that they have murdered. Until this occurs, we must expect that they will begin to kill again if they do not achieve their goals through negotiation.
Today, our sympathy, our respect and our solidarity are with the victims of the acts of terrorism and violence carried out by ETA and Batasuna. I can see from here our highly esteemed fellow MEP Mrs Dührkop Dührkop, whose husband, the then Chairman of the Socialist Party in the Basque Country, was murdered in 1984. Several attempts have been made on the life of Mr Iturgaiz Angulo, and seven of his political associates from the Partido Popular in the Basque Country have been murdered. We owe it to the victims to ensure that the murderers are punished. This is in accordance with the guiding and basic principles of our system of states under the rule of law. If it is to be credible, the process of reconciliation must begin with reconciliation between perpetrators and victims, including the victims’ descendants.
We call upon ETA and Batasuna to give your victims – who are surely on your consciences – a sign of conciliation and of apology. We would remind people that ETA and Batasuna are on the EU’s list of terrorist organisations. They have not surrendered their weapons. These weapons remain a threat to the constitutional order of Spain, as well as of France and thereby of the whole of Europe. The Commissioner has reminded us of the events of the day before yesterday in Nimes. A woman and two children were taken hostage and the French authorities have stated officially that this took place as part of an ETA weapons robbery. In other words, weapons remain an instrument of political argument. We have to ask ourselves what goal ETA and Batasuna are trying to achieve. A statement was issued on Euronews on 24 October from a high-ranking representative of ETA and Batasuna. The statement said that weapons would not be surrendered until the Basque Country was – in their words – independent.
MEPs have received a letter from Batasuna, which states in English
This form of words is a bad sign, since, if the negotiations fail, the blame is already being laid at the doors of the Spanish and French states.
What we in the PPE-DE Group, have to say to this is that we want dialogue. Spain and France are free and democratic states. They are not dictatorships, they are not tyrannies, against which one may express resistance through violent means. No, they are free states, and in free and democratic states it is democratic dialogue and not violence that must be used. As we share this conviction at the deepest level, our group, the PPE-DE Group, has tabled a resolution. It is not merely a resolution on the part of our Spanish allies in the Partido Popular, it is a common resolution on the part of the whole of our group, and we will defend it with solidarity and now, today, and in this debate, commemorate the victims."@en1
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"‘Regarding the negotiation between ETA and the Spanish and French states it will be them who decide all about the demilitarisation of the conflict.’"1
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