Mr President, unfortunately the crisis in Ivory Coast means that today we have once again to deal with this country – which was not very long ago a good example of political stability – its economic progress and the living conditions of its inhabitants. Six political groups in this House are sponsoring a resolution, which we will certainly approve this very morning, in which we essentially call for the strict application of the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement as the surest way of re-establishing the Rule of Law and the peaceful coexistence of all the parties in conflict. I entirely agree with the Commissioner, Mr Nielson, who has just stated that all efforts will be doomed to failure if the conflicting parties do not show clear signs of goodwill to achieve those agreements and live in peace together. I must say that this lack of vocation or capacity for agreement amongst them seems to me to be the most serious obstacle we are facing in terms of achieving peace in Ivory Coast. A few months ago this Parliament visited the country and spoke with representatives of the whole of civil society, the authorities and the opposition. What we saw was not in every case a good example of a will to resolve the crisis. It is well known that the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement was not accepted with satisfaction by significant sectors of Ivory Coast society. When Mr Gbagbo returned to Abiyan, he was received with huge protests against the agreements which he himself had accepted – then he told us that he had not signed them, using a kind of double language which seemed to me to be unacceptable. Within the government itself, some of the ministers representing what we could describe as the ‘rebel sector’ gave a clear demonstration of what it means to be a rebel. Their words were not at all friendly towards the other part of the government, to which Mr Gbagbo belonged. Mr Gbagbo himself, who was very friendly and very pleasant and who, during a meal which we were invited to in the presidential palace itself, explained to us his view of the problem, he said things in the presence of many of us who were there – no less than 10 or 15 people – which I believe do not point in the right direction, such as, for example, that he had to strengthen his army and that he had plans to buy certain military materials in the countries of the East. We believe that this is the completely wrong direction. There are other examples, such as the ethnic issue, which, as we say in the resolution, is not at the root of the conflict and is probably not its only cause. But I must say that this issue of ethnicity and Ivory Coast citizenship was brought up in all our conversations – several dozen of them – during which every one of our interlocutors spoke about the problems caused by the thousands, hundreds of thousands of people originating above all from Burkina Faso who create problems and who are victims – themselves, in many cases – of violence. I therefore believe that we must continue to make every effort to ensure compliance with the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement, establishing greater coordination between all the parties with the DAC, the United Nations and the European Union. Having seen what we have seen, and in view of what I have summarised briefly, I cannot be very optimistic about the immediate future of that country which is so in need of peace.

Political group: PPE-DE