madam president i want this afternoon to strongly emphasise the need for the eu to work with south sudan in democratisation and institution-building
yes this will be a country with one of the highest infant mortality rates and lowest educational indicators in the world necessitating fast-track accession to the cotonou agreement with access to the european development fund and fair debt alleviation
but just as the eu should be proud that we have contributed to a largely peaceful and credible referendum process and i pay tribute to my colleague veronique de keyser for her personal leadership the eu must give priority to helping south sudan with its constitutional review process entrenching a multi-party system and preventing corruption from taking any root from the start
madam president for south sudan the nine july date goes before everything else for north sudan although the comprehensive peace agreement may be coming to an end its obligations do not
the threat of violence remains not just in south sudan itself but in the neighbouring blue nile and south kordofan provinces of north sudan and still in darfur
indeed i want to ask mr piebalgs in his reply to explain what the eu is doing to combat continuing and deteriorating human rights violations in particular concerning human rights defenders such as hawa abdulla from the au-un peace-keeping mission who has been subject to arbitrary detention and beaten
i was privileged to be present in east timor at the birth of the world's first new state of this millennium
i hope that south sudan can achieve its independence while averting the tragic transition suffered by the people of east timor and providing peace and prosperity for the sudanese people who have suffered too much during the longest running civil war in africa
