Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner Patten, I can endorse what has been said in the previous speeches, for this is one of those cases in which one has to find a balance, in which one can describe the glass as half full or half empty, and in which, therefore, one may justifiably come to different conclusions without there being any reason to reproach anyone. It is in fact my belief that what Mr Cushnahan has been telling the House for months, and what is expressed in his resolution, does amount to apposite points of criticism that must be addressed in dialogue with Pakistan. There is no doubt about the fact that it does not present evidence of fully-fledged democracy, the rule of law, observance of human rights or of the rights of women in the sense in which one would expect on the basis of the United Nations Convention on Human Rights, which is, after all, universal. For this reason, it is certainly right and necessary that this third-generation cooperation agreement should also be used in such a way that the Council, the Commission and Parliament can work together in monitoring its further progress. Another possible model is that the Commission should regularly report to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy and to Parliament on progress in these fundamental issues of human coexistence, which is the proper way of moving the process along, a process also announced by the President of Pakistan. On the other hand, we have to concede that progress may have been unsatisfactory, but there has been some. In particular, though, it has to be clear to us that, in what is one of the greatest conflicts Western civilisation has seen, Pakistan is very definitely on the side of those who are fighting terrorism, and that, if there is to be cooperation rather than confrontation, Pakistan’s position in a conflict affecting Iraq and Afghanistan is of the utmost importance. We are well aware that, in this Union of ours, mistakes have often been made, and misguided positions have been taken up. We know that both the United States and Pakistan have taken up positions on the Taliban that we would today regard as ill-advised, but, even so, we have to realise that it would have been impossible to make progress, in the aftermath of 11 September, without the help of neighbours such as Afghanistan and other countries, of which Pakistan is one. That is why I see ratification as necessary; we have to open up the way for the Council to take a decision and for the Commission to make use of its instruments accordingly, always, though, taking the positions expressed in the Cushnahan resolution as our starting point, so that there may be real development and progress in this area. At the end of his speech, Commissioner Patten said that he was, on balance, in favour of recommending this agreement. I think this ‘on balance’ will have to be reconsidered, in the course of months and years, if the resolution that – I hope – we are about to adopt with a view to going forward, is to continue to be justified. Let me once again invite the Council and the Commission to cooperate with Parliament in this joint project, this model project aimed at improving relations while at the same time causing human rights to prevail.

Political group: PPE-DE