Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-11-Speech-2-280"
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"en.20071211.37.2-280"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, I wish first of all to say that we in the European Parliament delegation attended two summits: first the parliamentary pre-summit with our colleagues from the Pan-African Parliament, and also the official summit. Mr President-in-Office of the Council, I think you cannot be aware of the status we had there, in other words the degrading status of observers: Members of the European Parliament, even if they had worked well on previous occasions, had no access to the official summit. I very much wished to inform the House of this, and I feel that we, as Members of the European Parliament, represent European citizens in the same capacity as heads of state or government. Thus it would be right if we were also represented at the next summit.
The official summit, however, was a splendid initiative, and it is good to know that it has been held after seven years of failed attempts. I do feel, however, that the main lesson to be learned from the summit is that the African continent is finally becoming emancipated and organised as an African unit, and this is certainly good news. This reminds me of the discussions we had at our parliamentary pre-summit with the Commissioner, where we stressed the contradiction between, on the one hand, the political display of the EU’s vision and the new approach to its partners, and, on the other hand, the pressure exerted by the EU to get the economic partnership agreements signed. I now wish to ask the Commissioner about the status of these partnerships, these interim agreements to be signed, because I must remind you that the African countries rejected this type of agreement and this kind of pressure.
Finally, Commissioner, another question on a matter of some concern: the nuclear issue. The question from the Group of the Greens is as follows: why did nuclear talks commence with African countries? African countries are now in need of renewable energy. Our technology, our solar energy, photovoltaic systems and wind-energy systems are truly suited to Africa. What, then, was the reason, particularly when we are aware of the difficulties this can entail, such as with Iran at the moment? Why, Mr Vice-President? This is a very important question. I would also like to know which country forced the EU to add the nuclear issue to the strategy. Was it my president, the worldwide nuclear sales representative? This is totally unbelievable. It is renewable forms of energy that Africa needs at the present time."@en1
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