Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-02-03-Speech-2-439"
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"en.20090203.23.2-439"2
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"Mr President, in every Member State of the EU there are groupings of people who are seen as different because of characteristics like ethnicity, language, how they dress, the music they play and how they worship. When the people in that country are committed to respect for the innate dignity of every human person, these differences are seen as enriching, and people are valued. In fact, when the dignity of the human person is valued, we do not view minorities in a negative way at all. However, in many countries, this respect is weak or non-existent. This leads to discrimination in which minorities are abused and relegated to the poorest of circumstances.
We insist in the Copenhagen Agreement that a country wishing to join the EU must have at least a minimally acceptable level of respect for everyone within its borders. This principle falls down when we ignore these criteria and allow membership to countries where people are being marginalised and mistreated.
In Ireland, for instance, many children and adults with disabilities were institutionalised in the worst of circumstances at the time of our accession and for years after our membership.
Today, in spite of the introduction of the Copenhagen criteria, there exist similar terrible circumstances for vulnerable minorities in countries which have recently joined the EU or which plan to. The Copenhagen criteria were clearly ignored in those cases, and the treatment of minorities was not considered an obstacle to membership. This negates the purpose of the agreement. If a country, in order to join the EU, must fulfil the Copenhagen criteria in respect of the treatment of its people, it should be possible to suspend membership when it does not."@en1
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