Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-07-Speech-3-140"
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"en.20080507.15.3-140"2
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"Mr President, it is of course a great pleasure that I can again participate today in the joint discussion in plenary about two key reports in the field of human rights and democracy: the Cappato report on the EU annual report on human rights and the Salafranca/De Keyser report on election observation missions (EOMs). I would like to congratulate the three rapporteurs on their excellent work.
I think what we should say is that the past year has been characterised by the pivotal changes seen within the UN human rights systems with the finalisation of the institutional design of the Human Rights Council. Now the first round of Universal Periodic Reviews (UPRs) has come to a close and the second round started on 5 May. With both some EU Member States and third countries under scrutiny, I think it will be very useful to analyse in a detailed manner whether this key innovation will contribute positively to enhancing the Human Rights Council’s effectiveness. The relevant EU Council group (COHOM) – this is in Geneva – has started to improve coordination in view of a more coherent EU position in the Human Rights Council and will discuss in detail conclusions to be drawn from the first two rounds.
I am not going to go into all the details now. I think the rest will come up in the debate, and I will then be ready to answer all the questions.
I also welcome the fact that the two reports on human rights and on election observation are discussed jointly because I think this is a living proof of our shared conviction that human rights and democracy go hand in hand and should not be considered separate. Human rights are the foundation of democracy, and democracy is indispensable to protect and promote human rights.
Let me address the two issues on our agenda today one after the other. Obviously I am only giving a general overview here but I am ready, of course, to go into more detail afterwards in the debate.
Election observation is a success story of European Union foreign policy and thank you, Mrs De Keyser, for what you have said. As a result, I think, of consistent, rigorous methodology and independent, impartial long-term observation, the EU ranks among the most credible international observer organisations. This was confirmed in recent EU observation missions to delicate election processes such as, for instance, Kenya (that was Mr Lambsdorff), Pakistan (Mr Gahler) and Nepal (Mr Mulder). Upcoming missions include Cambodia and Rwanda, both recovering from a very painful past. As in 2007, these missions will be financed in full respect of the agreed budgetary framework.
The well-established cooperation between the EU EOMs and the European Parliament combines technical expertise with political sensitivity and ensures that the EU speaks with one voice. I would therefore again like to congratulate all chief observers so far for their outstanding work. In fact, the professionalism of the European Union EOMs has been a top priority for me since the beginning of my term of office, during which there have been chief observers in some 36 countries.
I agree that EU election observation cannot be a stand-alone policy but must be part of a broader human-rights and democracy-support strategy. There is a need for enhancing political and technical follow-up to EU EOMs. We all have to play a role and the Commission will use the forthcoming review of the country strategy papers to devise more coherent policy approaches at country level, as suggested in the report, to ensure that our actions in the fields of protection and promotion of human rights, democracy promotion, electoral support and development assistance aiming at improving democratic governance and the rule of law are mutually reinforcing.
There is certainly room for further improvement of the policy. I will continue to do so in close dialogue with Parliament. In this context I propose to hold a second joint seminar on election observation in the autumn, building on our successful meeting last year which pointed to the essential issue of follow-up as well as of sustaining the quality of the observation work. In these areas we have already taken important steps: EU EOMs are now systematically thought into the electoral cycle and there is an increasing awareness for integrating recommendations of EU EOMs into dialogue with partner countries. The two entirely reviewed methodological guidelines which have just been released, as well as the continuous support to training programmes for observers, will help us to sustain the thorough high-quality work by the chief observers and their teams on the ground. The second seminar could focus on enhanced visibility for EU EOMs and the political dimension of the election support.
We can, of course, discuss possible further opening of our missions, as mentioned by Mrs De Keyser. So far we already include observers for instance from Switzerland, Canada and Norway.
I will try to be short on the second part because our Council President has already said a lot. This year is an important year for human rights as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 15th anniversary of the World Conference on Human Rights."@en1
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