Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-11-24-Speech-2-477"
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"en.20091124.37.2-477"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I would like to stress that Commissioner Ashton’s absence is not due to the post that she will take up from 1 December, but to other institutional commitments relating to her current post.
I will attempt to answer your questions, where possible. Any answers that I am unable to provide will be supplied to all Members in writing, as I will forward your questions to Commissioner Ashton and her staff.
I would emphasise that the European Commission’s commitment to human rights has always been at the heart of its every action. With regard to my department too, namely transport, we have always made every effort in all of our initiatives in Africa to give priority to ensuring political stability and respect for human rights and the rules. This commitment is part of the European Commission’s political project. Furthermore, the free trade agreements always contain cooperation clauses.
I would therefore reassure all Members that the Commission never underestimates the importance of respect for human rights and its obligation to remind countries with which negotiations are under way of this issue. Situations are continuously monitored, and if this is the case for countries which have requested membership of the European Union, there is all the more reason for it to be continued for the negotiating countries.
As for Syria, the association agreement broadly follows the pattern of the other Euro-Mediterranean agreements insofar as it requires regular political, economic and social dialogue and cooperation in many sectors. It lays down the progressive creation of a free trade area over a maximum of 12 years and, at the same time, it contains more wide-ranging and substantive provisions in a vast number of sectors, such as trade-related provisions not covered in other Euro-Mediterranean association agreements. I am thinking of the abolition of the global tariff on agricultural products, the provisions concerning technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, trade facilitation, the right of establishment and services, public procurement and, lastly, the trade dispute settlement mechanism.
With regard to Libya, following a difficult period of relations with the international community, this country has taken steps to normalise political and economic relations with its foreign partners.
Even during a trip to Libya as Commissioner for Transport, I noticed the desire to reverse a trend which had always existed in the past. I would say that Libya always agrees to the objectives and the general content of the draft legal texts on trade in goods, services and the right of establishment, trade rules, including rules concerning public procurement, and regulatory cooperation in a range of sectors of the Community
. Libya has also agreed to uphold other clauses, but I repeat that the Commission will, in any case, continue to be vigilant.
I hope to have been as thorough as possible in answering your questions.
On the other hand, as for the exact number of free trade agreements being negotiated by the Commission, we will provide clearer and more complete answers in writing via Commissioner Ashton’s staff."@en1
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