Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-03-14-Speech-3-453-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20120314.25.3-453-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, first of all, I would like to thank you for all of the analyses, comments and proposals. It has been exciting to listen to the debate, and I will make sure that some of your views are passed on to Baroness Ashton, so that she can be inspired by them.
I would like to mention three points to conclude the debate. Firstly, I believe that everyone in the EU shares the disappointment over what has been referred to as the manipulations leading up to these elections, including in the form of a lack of approval of candidates, a lack of, and unequal, access to the media, and in relation to the instances of fraud that have been found, where the results of the elections themselves were manipulated. The EU has also expressed its criticism of this, and it is important that we continue to express this criticism in order to get Russia to hold considerably freer and fairer elections. Russia has undertaken – in relation to the Council of Europe as well as in relation to recommendations by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) – to hold free and fair elections. I would like to emphasise that if we are to move Russia from where it is now to where we want it to be, it will be by continuing the dialogue. We need more dialogue, not less, in order to enable the Russians to move to where we want them to be with regard to this issue.
At the same time – and this has also been discussed in the debate here today – we must appreciate the positive aspects of these elections. Firstly, President Medvedev promised to contact the Russian opposition. We believe that this represents an outstretched hand. We also have more international observers there than we have had before. It was previously extremely difficult to bring in observers – this time we succeeded. This also represents progress. Civic engagement in the elections in a number of areas indicates progress compared to previous elections. The large public demonstrations are probably, in reality, an expression of what we also know from other countries, namely, a vibrant democracy, where people also have the right and the opportunity to demonstrate.
This is a new situation, and it is one that we must utilise. We must use it to exert pressure for the economic and political modernisation of Russian society. We must use it to gain contact with all parts of Russian society. We must ensure that we instigate and continue to maintain contact with Russia in a large number of areas. Thus, I believe that we will achieve the most by continuing a dialogue because, as some speakers also pointed out today, there are a number of international contexts in which it is absolutely crucial that Russia is involved. One speaker mentioned Syria, but I could also mention Iran. I could mention the whole immense discussion concerning the forthcoming Rio+20 conference. Therefore, we need to bring Russia even closer to steadily increasing democratic rule. We must continue in our efforts to bring this about."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples