madam president last month on behalf of parliament i went to the administrative borderline in georgia established by the south ossetian separatists following the russian military invasion
looking at the checkpoint where there was no formal communication on either side it certainly did look like a scene from the cold war
if we are not to move backwards one concrete step the russians could take is to help instigate full access for the very successful european police mission to both sides of the line so that they can properly fulfil their ceasefire monitoring duties
it would be a small but concrete step to build confidence and i call on them to do so
i also share the view expressed by many in this parliament that the more european solidarity we have the better europe-russia relations will be
this fact was underlined again this week by russia's attempt to get separate not common agreements with eu countries on the import standards for fruit and vegetables
in this respect i regret the speech today by the leader of the liberal democrats that sought to paint the socialist position as soft on human rights
not only will we vote to criticise russia for breaching international election standards for undermining freedom of expression for the incarceration of political prisoners and for the intimidation and harassment of human rights defenders but the speech simply demonstrates the very same point-scoring on russia which is itself an example of the lack of solidarity which holds us back
russia is affected by the economic crisis like every country suffering from the plummeting oil price with a one-third devaluation of the rouble and a seventy-five drop in their stock market
today president medvedev is playing a full part in the g twenty meeting in london
i believe that now the time is right when russia does need our cooperation and may be more open to change if only we have the determination and the unity in the european union to pursue it
