madam president can i start by congratulating the vice-president high representative on her personal success in negotiating the compromise in the united nations on eu speaking rights where others had failed
whatever people in this chamber or anyone else in the european union think about our common foreign and security policy this is the most outstanding objective endorsement of the ambition that you and we have for the lisbon treaty a foreign policy that has real trust and respect from our foreign partners
as socialist coordinator on human rights i also want to congratulate the high representative on her strategic review of human rights and on the commitment in her letter to foreign ministers to integrate human rights with trade development and other eu policies and to achieve specific deliverables
in this parliament we called on her to create a human rights and democracy directorate and to consistently meet human rights defenders in all of her visits and we thank her for doing so
when she says that ending the death penalty is her personal priority this parliament must also give her our strong support
our group supports ms muñiz de urquiza in calling for greater visibility for the eu in the human rights council
we back mr albertini in saying that the eu must act as well as speak in the face of human rights violations
we emphasise mr gualtieri's conclusion that respect for human rights can never be compromised
on behalf of my group i also want to record our support on the issue of returning tax revenues to the palestinians
this is our annual debate on foreign policy and in the next year we hope to see clear outcomes to the human rights review and significant steps to developing a human rights culture in everything that the european external action service does
