Brussels, 29/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - On 23 June in Brussels, the sub committee for human rights at the European Parliament (chaired by Hélène Flautre, France), organised a hearing on “Freedom of expression and development of democracy in the Euro-Mediterranean region”. The event was overseen by Josep Borrell in is role as president of the European Parliament and the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly. The president of the European Affairs Committee, Elmar Brok (CDU) and MEPs and other political personalities and from the EU, southern and eastern sides of the Mediterranean were present together with Commission representatives: Michael Leigh, Deputy Director General for external relations (in charge of neighbourhood policy) and Danièle Smadja, director of multilateral relations and human rights. The hearing noted the recent report from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) on human development in the Arab world.
At the opening of the hearing, president Borrell said that in the Mediterranean they “had to be able to speak frankly and directly about political aspects in mutual respect”. Borrell congratulated the European Parliament and its human rights sub committee for having worked “so energetically” in defence of freedom. Borrell said that this was the dialogue that had to prevail because “democracy is not exported or imported”. He also noted that MEPs were bringing added value to ministerial declarations as they were able to discuss sensitive subjects openly and “without taboos”. Hélène Flautre summed up the activities of the sub committee she has been chairing since the beginning of the year (hearings on Syria, Tunisia and contributions to different forums). She said that she wanted a network of parliamentarians to be set up that would fight for human rights in Europe and partner countries. In his intervention, Elmar Brok called on the EU to not put itself in the position of teaching others lessons but rather to constantly recall the principles it defends.
The session was continued by the presentation of the UNDP report in which one of the conclusions, according to representatives of the UN organisation, is the situation regarding human rights in the Arab world which was “going from the mediocre to the mediocre”, although in some countries social freedoms had been obtained. The UNDP point of view has been confirmed by witnesses from the former Tunisia MP, a Moroccan parliamentarian and the deputy head of the Egyptian opposition (Aymar Nour, who was prevented from going to Brussels for the EP hearing (EUROPE 8976), who explained the many political barriers, as well as physical and material, which prevent them from fully carrying out their mandates. The Egyptian delegate explained that the absence of freedoms is not necessarily the absence of a democratic culture. He pointed out that Egypt had “experienced the era of enlightenment in its history, which revolutionary soldiers had put an end to by handing power over to Nasser. He also drew attention to the worrying development of corruption, which is often instigated by members of the families in government, which had to be a priority of those fighting for freedom. During the course of the debate, the question of the role of the far right Muslim movements was posed. The Egyptian delegate said that the powers that be were always seeking to benefit from this and used an example of president Sadat helping them develop before ending up as one of their victims. He said that in order to deal with these currents, “Egyptian political parties had to agree on a code of ethics. At the opposing end of the spectrum from his North African colleagues, an Algerian MP painted an idyllic picture of life as a parliamentarian in his country. Ms Flautre ironically congratulated him by saying that she was happy to hear that his country was in such “perfect a situation”. Zyad Abu Zyad Palestinian MP and member of the Euro-Med parliamentary assembly described the work of politicians under the occupation. Michael Leigh illustrated how the European Commission had worked to promote human rights and freedoms and underlined that the new approach, in the new financial instrument, was planned in the new financial perspectives and which would reward political merit. Leigh announced that a seminar on racism and xenophobia would be organised by the media would be organised during the next half of the year. Danièle Smadja highlighted support for electoral processes.