Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-01-Speech-3-024"
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"en.20090401.12.3-024"2
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".
The Socialist Group in the European Parliament considers Russia a key strategic partner. The European Union and Russia depend on each other, as Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner has also confirmed.
I would like to mention that as far as gas supply is concerned, we depend on each other, because Russia would not be able to sell their gas to anyone else. We should be clear about this. It is very important that a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement be worked out and concluded. This report should have served that purpose, but it does not.
The Onyszkiewicz report, which has been adopted in the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the tone of which is at times explicitly rude, may cause serious damage to the network of relations between the EU and Russia. The Socialist Group agrees that Parliament should express its rightful criticisms of Russia. The Socialist Group firmly condemns violations of human rights. We demand that democratic rights and fundamental values be respected.
We call upon Russia to respect the principle of the independence of the written and electronic media. We call on the Russian Government to take every possible measure to investigate the attacks and murders perpetrated against journalists. The Russian law on NGOs endangers the independent operation of these organisations.
The Socialist Group views with concern the way in which the most recent Russian Duma elections and presidential elections were conducted. We are critical of the Russian side in the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine, and in the conflict between those two countries. At the same time, it is nevertheless our conviction that Parliament’s recommendations must serve the improvement of EU-Russia relations and the elaboration of a new strategic partnership. This report does not serve that purpose. It was for this reason that we voted against it in the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
The Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats and the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe are going against the thinking expressed by the Commission. They run up against the new United States policy, if they consider that the Obama administration, in particular through the statements of Vice-President Joe Biden, has changed its style, then the European Union will fall behind the new American policy, although this would not be in our interest. So our concern is not with the criticism, but with the style.
It is not didacticism that is needed, but justified criticism. It is not for the European Union to be the schoolmaster and give lessons to Russia. Therefore, the Socialist Group will only find this draft report acceptable if all six proposed amendments which we submitted are approved by Parliament; otherwise this will simply be a counterproductive report that does not serve the strategic partnership between EU and Russia. However, it is in the European Union's interest to develop a successful Russia-EU cooperation."@en1
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