madam president together with everyone else in this debate i share deep concern for the peaceful protestors in egypt particularly in the light of the further violence of today
i want to record in this debate concern about the continued closure of al jazeera which europe has been silent on so far and the arrest of six al jazeera journalists as well as the need for us to engage with the it companies internet service and mobile phone providers including vodafone from my own country on the choices that they made in egypt during the course of the last weeks
i also wish that eu leaders had said before what they are saying today
president sarkozy said in december two thousand and seven i d like to tell president mubarak how much i appreciate his experience wisdom and moderate vision
president mubarak is for us a friend
today he calls for a transition
or there is alistair burt uk foreign office minister saying he wanted stability in egypt more than anything
william hague declining to say how soon he would like to see elections taking place is now calling for transition
finally i agree with baroness ashton our high representative
europe is good at transitional justice at elections and democracy building at civil society development
whatever the wrongs and the baggage of the past she and we should see this as a crisis in the region but an opportunity for europe to devote our resources to building respect for democracy and human rights
these are not values that we are imposing from europe
they are demanded on the streets of tunis and cairo and it is our duty to listen
