Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-08-Speech-3-048"
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"en.20081008.14.3-048"2
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"Madam President, Minister, Commissioner, my message to the Commission and Council is this: in the midst of this financial crisis, let us not forget the follow-up to the extraordinary Council meeting of 1 September, and particularly the Georgia and Belarus question.
Georgia lost the war but should win the peace, and we have to do our utmost to make this happen. It means two things: helping Georgia with strong financial support for reconstruction and helping to consolidate democratic reforms.
The European Union was quicker and more efficient than our American friends in handling the Caucasian crisis, and our response was coherent and based on a common approach – and thanks and congratulations to the French presidency for that.
We have to take into account the impact of the Georgian crisis on the whole region and on the European Union itself. It is more necessary than ever to set up our relations with eastern neighbours, namely through eastern partnership at a higher level. We need a strong democratic Georgia, as Georgia needs us. There is also our common European interest, and I mean here energy security and the availability of a Caucasian corridor for alternative transit of oil and gas. We expect from the Commission and Council that they ensure the protection of existing pipelines and develop further the dramatically missing common foreign policy on energy.
Now on Belarus: the situation there is slightly improving and there are the first signs of liberalisation. Elections were not democratic. We need to respond with a new policy to end the isolation of Belarus, but with a measured opening, based on strict conditionality and a gradual give-and-take approach. That means the following elements: selective application of European neighbourhood policies and human rights instruments, selective suspension of visa sanctions for officials, lowering by half the cost of entry visas for Belarusian citizens, re-establishment of political dialogue, support for opening more economic cooperation with the European Union, protection of civil society, NGOs, national minorities and free media, and all that in close consultation with those representing the democratic position in Belarus."@en1
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