Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-04-20-Speech-2-249"
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"en.20100420.10.2-249"2
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"Mr President, today I sit in the Commission’s space as well. The honourable Members have made a number of important points and I will try in the short time I have to capture and address as many of them as possible.
Mr Brok, with Mr Tannock and others, talked about the importance of this being one of the poorest countries in Central Asia and, of course, one of the main recipients of EU assistance per capita. I could not agree more that social and economic development is essential as part of the strategy that we need to put forward. Mrs Swoboda talked too about the importance of making sure that what we have before us is a genuine political reform. We are working very closely with the UN and with the OSCE. Together, the people who have been in the region in the last few days have made this point consistently that we need to see the importance of reform as central to what happens next and I agree completely about the political stability of the region. It is very important.
We need to look again very carefully. There is a strategy for this part of Central Asia, it will be reviewed, but I am looking at it in the context of the External Action Service and what we should be doing within this region to pull together the different elements of Commission and Council support. Mr Rinaldi and others too I think rightly described that we need to be cautious, positive and constructive in our attitude and I would agree too with a number of honourable Members who talked about the value and importance of the rule of law. It is core to everything that we will do in the country to make sure that there is indeed the rule of law in operation and that applies in the legal system of course, but also in the political and constitutional reform that is so essential.
Mr Lunacek talked about the elections falling – I think that the actual words were used in the briefing I had – significantly short of the standards that we would wish to have internationally. And I think the elements which I would put into the mix of things would include financial support, of course, and I have mentioned the rule of law, political and constitutional reform and the elections and the link that we want to make economically too. One small example of that, of course, is that it is one of the great water-rich countries in that region, and it provides water to the regions, as honourable Members will know. We have been assisting them with their water management for more than five years, and I hope that we will be able to return to that work which is so essential as soon as the crisis is overcome and we have a legitimate government firmly in place.
Those are just some of the elements that I would include. I think that we are probably right in the level of presence in the region. Pierre Morel has been there for several days. He has just come back. He will be briefing Mr Borys of the AFET Committee on 27 April to bring the committee up to date with all the events. We are in touch by text every few hours and we have spoken several times and he has been in touch of course with colleagues too. We have had a strong presence in him, I pay tribute to him and to his team for the work that they have done.
The importance of democracy, as Mr Provera said, can never be underestimated, in my view; we have got to get beyond some of the issues that Ms Vaidere talked about: the instability, rumours, insecurities, the issues, which are clearly of enormous importance and, as I have indicated, we have set out what we wanted to do over these first vital few days which I hope honourable Members will feel has been responsive.
I think that the final thing that I would say is this, that some of the current members of the government in formation are the former human rights defenders on the opposition who were oppressed by the former President and who were supported by the European Union including, of course, Members of this House. So, although I do not have any illusions about the nature of politics in this country and, indeed, in the region, I think that we have to try and give this government a chance to form itself properly, to agree to do the political and constitutional reforms, which are going to be so essential, to hold the elections it says it will have and, if it is willing to do those things, to support it now into the future. And on that basis, I am very grateful for the comments which have been made and we will pursue the strategy as I have outlined."@en1
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