Speeches

Speech from Mr Hans-Gert Poettering,
Chairman of the EPP-ED Group,
in the European Parliament
on Wednesday, 14 November 2001

Council and Commission statements - International situation





(translated from the original German)

The day before yesterday, on Monday, an aeroplane crashed in New York and we all held our breath once again, because we felt that it was a terrorist attack. Thank goodness it wasn't. Although the event was nevertheless terrible.

The suspicion on Monday demonstrates, however, that terrorism influences our lives. It can't just disappear off the agenda. We look upon terrorism as a huge challenge, a political and economical challenge but also a military one. I welcome what you said, President in Office of the Council, in fact it is absolutely identical to the words I have noted down myself. We have to get rid of these terrorist networks. This is why we focus our attention on Afghanistan. We have seen images of joy in Kabul, but we have also seen pictures of the corpses of people who were massacred. The Northern Alliance, which was lead by Mr. Massoud - whom we were able to welcome here in April - should behave in such a way, so it can prove that it is a good representative of human dignity and can give a better future to this devastated country.

I also agree on the question of action taken by the UN. It is good that our American friends are involving the UN. But we need something else too, and that is that the European Union plays an important role. We need an alliance, a coalition, for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. We should not commit the error that was committed in the 1980s and 1990s, when Afghanistan was left on its own. We should help this country.

The role to be played by the European Union, well, this has been quite sad in this whole dispute. Of course the military issues are primarily national ones. We haven't reached the stage yet where we as Europeans can generally act together. As far as certain countries of the European Union are concerned, what they have aligned themselves to in the last few weeks has been highly embarrassing.

First of all there was this meeting of three at the Ghent Council meeting, and there was the meeting in London. I have to say quite frankly, that I find that embarrassing. We don't have any self-appointed chiefs within the European Union. We have a European Union with a Council, Presidency and a Commission. In London, what I found particularly embarrassing, was that people invited themselves, including the Presidency of Office in Council. The UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgian Presidency and others attended the meeting in London, while Greece, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark etc. were not invited.

Now, I have a very positive view of the Belgian Presidency, particularly of Guy Verhofstadt, the Prime Minister, but I think that they should have protested against such a meeting, because it ought to have been the task of the Council Presidency to organise a meeting of this kind. I hope that we won't see a repeat of such an occurrence.

I hope that we will learn from these mistakes. As far as my Group is concerned, it is crucial that we work together. Not just at intergovernmental co-operational level, but we want this Community, Europe to act. We ought to support the Commission. I urge you, Commissioner Busquin, to call upon the President of the Commission, and other colleagues in the Commission to make the voice of Europe heard clearly. Let it come across loud and clear. Let us not put up with the kind of things we have seen during the last few months. We do have a chance provided that we show determination and resolution ourselves. I think that we are quite resolute amongst ourselves. We will support the Commission and the Presidency of the Council, when we are talking about acting as a Community and the European Union, and I would urge you to do that. If you do, you will have us by your side.