Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-02-01-Speech-3-282-000"
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"en.20120201.17.3-282-000"2
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"Mr President, it has been an evening of congratulations for those who are sitting in the presidential chair, so allow me to add mine – to you and also to Sir Graham Watson who has just been elected President of the ELDR Party. Good luck is all I will say to you. I know how you like to take on new positions.
The report is really important and I am grateful to you for the work you have done and also for the contributions that have been made to our thinking on how we deal with what we call restrictive measures guidelines. These are an important foreign policy tool that the European Union uses, and the Foreign Affairs Council on 23 January 2012 perhaps demonstrated the importance we attach to them.
The purpose of these measures is to bring about a change of policy or activity in a country, in a government, in entities or indeed in individuals. In that sense they are preventive instruments, which should allow us to respond swiftly to political challenges and development. It is essential that any sanctions taken should minimise the impact on the general population – they need to be targeted – so consistency in their application is important, as you have recommended in your report, Sir Graham, and that is clearly very welcome. They also, as you equally recognise, have to be tailored to the specific objectives of each restrictive measures regime.
The uniform and consistent interpretation and effective implementation of these measures is essential if we are to ensure that they are effective in achieving the desired political objective, and that is directly related, of course, to the adoption of similar measures by third countries.
We want the restrictive measures that we impose to be properly understood. We have to be actively engaged in communication about our sanctions, including with the country that we have targeted and with its population. These steps are never taken lightly and they are taken with a specific objective in mind. I want to be very clear here, using the example of Iran. The purpose of the sanctions on Iran is to persuade them to fulfil the obligations that they signed up to in signing the Non-Proliferation Treaty and to allow the inspectors to do their work and convince us of Iran’s desire to have only a civil nuclear power programme, if that is what they wish, but certainly not a nuclear weapons programme.
When countries and regimes fail in their objectives in terms of either their commitments internationally or, as we have seen in Syria, their ability to support their people – and when, indeed, they turn to violence against their people, we are obliged to act, both morally and, I believe, internationally because of the positions that we hold. However, the purpose of the sanctions is to achieve that change. That, I think, is really important. It is important that it be understood here, and that it be understood by the country and especially by the people. Whatever we do, we have to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, due process and the right to an effective remedy in full conformity with the jurisprudence of the European Union courts.
I wanted to make those points not only to clarify our policy but also because they reflect the outcome of the RELEX working group that has been updating our best practice on these measures; and the working group’s document was welcomed by the PSC in January. I believe they also echo the recommendations made in the report that you have put forward this evening.
I note, too, the concerns that you mentioned in your introduction, Sir Graham, in relation to individuals and commercial interests, particularly those of some leaders. You will know that during the Arab Spring we froze the assets of senior figures from the former Tunisian, Egyptian, Libyan and Syrian regimes. Even where we have a successful democratic transition, the issue of assets misappropriated by former regimes remains. Those assets that have been frozen cannot simply be released; they have to be rightfully transferred to the new state, and that is very complex. I just wanted to inform honourable Members that we are ready to assist those states concerned. Indeed, the European Union, together with the World Bank, is planning a workshop in Tunisia bringing the relevant experts together to provide help and to support them in getting back the assets that rightly belong to the people of Tunisia.
I recognise the importance of the report in making sure that we are consistent and that we look to the ways in which we direct our sanctions or restrictive measures – ensuring not only that they are effective but also that they do not afford loopholes that may damage their credibility and, equally, being ready to lift them quickly when we are in a position to see that assets are returned to the people. That is an area of work that will be extremely important in the coming weeks and months, and I am very grateful to you for the report."@en1
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