Full Minutes of the Meetings

SESSION OF WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2003

Preparation of the European Council in Thessaloniki

Karamanou (PSE). – Mr. President, in the enthusiastic comments of my colleagues regarding the ability, sensitivity, and effectiveness of the Greek Presidency, I would simply like to add the satisfaction of those of us who experienced firsthand what President Mr. Prodi called passion and intelligence.

The Thessaloniki agenda includes a series of contentious issues that divide both the Member States and public opinion. The Draft Constitutional Treaty is of paramount importance, and we hope the assembly will reach a comprehensive proposal that will resolve the European Union’s identity crisis, rather than merely a list of alternative solutions. I also hope, along with thousands of women’s organizations across Europe, that the Constitutional Treaty will fully enshrine gender equality in all areas, the elimination of any gender-based exclusion, and ensure balanced participation of men and women in European democratic institutions. Women will never accept a constitution that leaves gender equality out of the values and objectives of the Union. Women will never accept that the escalating violence against them and the rise in trafficking and sexual exploitation cannot be addressed due to the lack of a clear legal basis in the Treaty.

On the issue of asylum and immigration, the logic behind the United Kingdom’s plan to revise asylum policies, which literally undermines the 1951 Geneva Convention, must be rejected. Any political decisions taken in Thessaloniki should seriously consider the proposals of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. As Mrs. Terron I Cusi also stated, most immigrants in the European Union enter through legal channels. Therefore, we need better management of migration flows, not further strengthening of borders, repression, or the linking of immigration to the activities of criminal networks.

Finally, at the EU-US Summit, I believe that the agenda should include, first, the abolition of the death penalty in the United States, second, the treatment of detainees in Guantanamo, and third, what we have referred to here in this room as the “lie of the century,” the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Mr. President, a clear perspective for the integration of the countries of the Western Balkans should be given from Thessaloniki, and pre-accession preparations should begin as an essential condition for peace and stability in the region.