Mayol i Raynal (Verts/ALE). – (FR) Mr President, our rapporteur Mr Gahrton is without doubt one of the most knowledgeable people in Europe about the situation in the South Caucasus. There is no need to remind you that it is thanks to his initiative that the European Union now has a representative in the region.

The one and a half minutes allotted to me allow me just a few very quick thoughts. There is one aspect of the region which, no doubt for diplomatic reasons, does not seem to me to be explicit enough in the report, namely the strong American presence. Will that presence have a destabilising influence, as it has in other parts of the world? As you know, in November 2003 there was a kind of revolution or coup d'état in Georgia. I happened to be there at the time as a member of this Parliament’s delegation. The events are known as the ‘rose revolution’ because there was no bloodshed. Well, I can tell you the rose revolution did not smell of roses. It smelt of oil and if it did not smell of dollars, that was because we have known since ancient times that money has no smell. There is further diplomatic silence about the dissident regions of Georgia, such as Adzharia.

Finally, there is one point on which, as a supporter of Catalan independence, I want to distance myself from this report. It is the question of separatism. There will be no peace in the world, in my view, unless we respect the wishes of peoples. The right of peoples to self-determination is fundamental. The international community has a duty to allow the democratic exercise of that right in the South Caucasus as in Western Sahara. This applies to the Adzharians, the Abkhazians, the Ossetians and to the Azeris of Nagorno-Karabakh.

On the subject of Nagorno-Karabakh, Mr Gahrton says that he explained to its president that the solution might be based on a principle of broad autonomy, as was the case of the Åland islands under Finnish sovereignty. The president replied that he would accept Finnish sovereignty. Why not take him at his word? Finland could be offered a kind of international mandate with the task of ensuring basic rights are respected and organising a referendum so that ultimately the peoples of the region can shape their own destiny, in complete freedom.