Mayol i Raynal (Verts/ALE). – (FR) Mr President, what is termed the Barcelona process certainly has all the sympathy of men and women of good will. The capital of the Catalan nation was indeed worthy of being the place where a policy aimed at building bridges across the Mediterranean was launched. I must mention here in passing the memory of two illustrious Catalans who anticipated this policy each in their own way in the Middle Ages: Raymond Lull and Anselme Turmeda. I welcome the intelligent and understanding effort implemented by this policy, and in particular in the documents which are the subject of our debate.

Nevertheless, given the general situation, I wonder about this policy’s chances. In order to fly the flag for democracy and human rights, we must be exemplary. We are far from it. As recently as yesterday, lawyers in this lovely city of Strasbourg publicly placed a funeral wreath in front of the prefecture mourning the death of the presumption of innocence as a result of a law which has just been voted on in France. A year ago, a Spanish judge ordered the closure of Egunkaria, the only daily newspaper in the Basque language, and imprisoned several journalists – some are still in prison. To this day, one year later, no contradictory debate has been organised to justify this blatant violation of press freedom. The criminal war waged by the United States against Iraq was subject to the active or passive complicity of the majority of Member States of the enlarged Union. This horrific wound is still bleeding, and it will do so for a long time. For many Muslims in the world it is an additional humiliation.

This list is unfortunately far from exhaustive. If we are not careful, the obsession with security and the hijacking of the war against terror for partisan ends will undermine this policy, and many others, despite all the intelligence and good will of those who will try to implement it.