Ghent, 19/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - In her speech before the Heads of State and Government at the opening of the informal European Council in Ghent, the President of the European Parliament, Nicole Fontaine, spoke at length of the consequences of the attacks on 11 September. "After the unanimous show of feeling and solidarity, the public in our countries is expecting a first assessment from you - a European assessment - of the measures that have been taken in Europe and throughout the world", she said. She specified that this assessment is desirable at three levels: military, humanitarian and political. Speaking of the humanitarian and political aspects in turn, she pointed out that the humanitarian organisations fear the "threat of famine and almost certain death" for nearly ten million adults, children and old people in Afghanistan, unless provisions are taken to send food, blankets, tents and medicine before the arrival of winter. She hoped the Fifteen would send "a very strong message" to ensure, with the collaboration of the relief agencies, that the "population survives the winter, and it must do so not in a fragmented fashion but in a way capable of dealing with the magnitude of the problem". "You can count on the support of the European Parliament, which plans to ensure that large sums of money are made available from the Community budget to help a desperate people", she added. The Union should also confirm its determination to be at the forefront of operations when reconstruction of the country begins, "as soon as the return of peace and freedom allows", continued Ms Fontaine. She went on to explain that "what we must make possible, while respecting the wishes of the Afghan people themselves, is not just the appearance of national unity, but a government that is truly capable of bringing about lasting unity, that is to say a government which represents all the ethnic groups and which respects universal human values, including the rights of women, values that the Taliban and those who served it have treated with consistent contempt". Speaking personally, she declared that it would be "dangerous to entertain the possibility of strikes involving any country other than Afghanistan". She added: "any veiled threat against other states which could be perceived as unilateral, or worse still as a pretext, could only breed confusion about the aim of the coalition, which would lose in strength as a result. It could only heighten collective resentment and lead to a breakdown in the precious international union which followed in the wake of the attacks on 11 September". After having insisted on the need to strengthen north-south solidarity and Euro-Mediterranean dialogue, the Parliament's President again urged for the peace process to be relaunched in the Middle East. Speaking of her meeting with Yasser Arafat, last Tuesday in Dublin, she stressed that Mr Arafat had insisted that an EU monitor be sent to the country. She proposed that the European Council should envisage increasing the number of European experts charged with security action which are already present in small numbers. "I can tell you that, in the eyes of Mr Arafat, they are already playing an important moderating role".
"Our fellow citizens are expecting this Council meeting to provide an answer - an answer which, once again, is not only national but European" to the new chemical or bacteriological threat, said Ms Fontaine, who suggests that an extraordinary joint Council of Interior Ministers be held in the near future to adopt concrete joint measures, mainly in the medical and civil protection fields. The president of the Parliament also expressed her concern about the uncertainties surrounding the proposals being discussed on the subject of the European arrest warrant and the common definition of terrorist crimes. She regretted that the Council had not for now been able to find the compromises needed.
Nicole Fontaine also spoke of:
- the introduction of the euro and cross-border payments. Stressing that the Parliament should logically adopt the Commission's proposal in November, "without any major amendments" (see EUROPE of 18 October, p.16 on the Peijs Report), she felt that it would be "extremely damaging if the Council itself did not succeed in withdrawing the objections to the proposal raised by some Member States, including those relating to the still massively widespread practice of payment by cheque, and the fact that cheques are at the moment free". These States, including France, fear that banks will take advantage of the situation to impose fees on cheques but, said Ms Fontaine, "it is difficult to see how national exceptions based on free cheques and, in exchange, non-payment on current accounts could last long in the face of competition between banks". She also hoped for stronger commitment on the part of political officials in the defence of the euro when it is introduced: "We do not say enough, in any of the Member States , about the advantages the euro has already brought - stability in intra-Community competition - and what it is doing at this very moment to help us face together, and more effectively, the impact of the new world crisis.
- the future Convention: taking up the words used in a letter sent by the Chair of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Giorgio Napolitano (Democratici di Sinistra) to Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, the President of the Parliament placed special emphasis on the need "to seek a consensus on a coherent proposal, which does not, however, preclude the possibility of presenting minority alternatives". "The future of the Union is a matter of concern to all our fellow citizens. The experience of Nice has shown that they wish to have clear proposals presented to them", she added before pleading in favour of "an appropriate, that is to say well-proportioned, representation in the future Convention".
Speaking to the press, Nicole Fontaine said that her speech had been well received by the Heads of State and Government, who in particular highlighted: - the efforts made by Parliament to allow for an intensification of the fight against terrorism (example, the directive on money laundering); - the importance of making real progress in "Justice Europe" (the Union's "credibility" depends on it); - the need that humanitarian aid to Afghanistan measures up to requirements (Nicole Fontaine's spokesman, Jacques Nancy, recalled that the EU's "Development" Committee was having a hearing on the subject on 7 November). My proposal of holding an extraordinary meeting of Home Affairs and Health Ministers on the dangers of bio-terrorism did not seem to me to have raised objections, she answered to a question, hoping that the idea would be followed by the "same effects" as her suggestion (which she was the first to make) of holding an extraordinary European Council following the 11 September attacks.