http://www.sarahludfordmep.org/speecharchive.php Recent Speeches from Sarah Ludford MEP en-GB Sarah Ludford MEP http://www.sarahludfordmep.org/ Prater Raines Ltd http://www.praterraines.co.uk/ (c) 2010 Sarah Ludford MEP 2010-07-30T15:55+01:00 United Kingdom http://www.sarahludfordmep.org/speeches/000224/sarah_speaks_to_the_european_parliament_on_israelturkey_relations_and_the_gaza_flotilla.html Sarah Ludford (ALDE). - Mr President, I am a friend of Israel, but I do not regard it as delegitimisation of the State of Israel to criticise the actions of the current Israeli Government. I not only regret the nine deaths and thirty-odd injured but I deplore the overreaction and disproportionate use of force by the Israeli army. I want the blockade to end, with checks on illicit arms. 2010-06-16T15:10+01:00 http://www.sarahludfordmep.org/speeches/000225/sarah_speaks_to_the_european_parliament_about_bosnia_and_herzegovina.html Sarah Ludford, on behalf of the ALDE Group. - Madam President, Bosnia and Herzegovina incites, at least in me, feelings of both affection and frustration. It needs tough love from us and I think that is what it gets from Doris Pack. 2010-06-16T15:00+01:00 http://www.sarahludfordmep.org/speeches/000223/sarah_speaks_to_european_parliament_about_new_eu_law_on_language_rights_in_criminal_proceedings.html Sarah Ludford, rapporteur. − Madam President, it has been recognised by most of us for over a decade that the EU needed to act to strengthen the rights of suspects and defendants throughout the Union and to give safeguards necessary to ensure fair trials. This is in the context of much tighter cooperation on policing and prosecution, the introduction of the European arrest warrant and the fact that many EU citizens take advantage of free movement rights and may have a brush with the law in an unfamiliar environment. 2010-06-16T11:39+01:00 http://www.sarahludfordmep.org/speeches/000222/sarah_questions_commissioner_malmstrom_on_eu_counterterrorism_policies_and_cia_rendition.html Question from Sarah Ludford: EU counter-terrorism policies and CIA rendition 2010-05-18T15:00+01:00 http://www.sarahludfordmep.org/speeches/000221/sarah_speaks_to_the_european_parliament_about_the_stockholm_programme_and_the_rights_of_individuals_in_criminal_proceedings.html Madam President, for me the best bit of the action plan is the list of five concrete measures regarding rights of the individual in criminal proceedings that comprise the road map endorsed by the Stockholm Programme. 2010-05-18T15:00+01:00 http://www.sarahludfordmep.org/speeches/000220/sarah_speaks_to_the_european_parliament_about_counterterrorism.html During the last decade, international cooperation on counterterrorism has been made more difficult because of human rights concerns, including in the practices of the US Administration. 2010-03-09T13:00+00:00 http://www.sarahludfordmep.org/speeches/000219/sarah_speaks_to_the_european_parliament_about_the_binyam_mohamed_case_and_the_secret_service_in_britain.html Sarah Ludford (ALDE). - Mr President, I want to talk about respect for the rule of law by intelligence services. A ruling today by the UK Court of Appeal has blasted open the British Government's attempt at secrecy. It has confirmed, as Parliament said three years ago, the shocking truth that UK secret services did collude in the torture of British resident and rendition victim Binyan Mohamed. 2010-02-10T17:00+00:00 http://www.sarahludfordmep.org/speeches/000218/sarah_addresses_the_european_parliament_about_the_european_arrest_warrant_and_andrew_symeou.html Sarah Ludford (ALDE), author. - Mr President, I frankly and fully acknowledge that these two oral questions tabled on 1 December last year have been overtaken by events, but this debate is still worthwhile to acknowledge that the issue of procedural rights is fully back on the table after a regrettable absence of several years and to stress the urgency and priority of this programme. 2010-01-22T15:00+00:00 http://www.sarahludfordmep.org/speeches/000217/sarah_speaks_to_the_european_parliament_about_democratisation_in_turkey.html Sarah Ludford (ALDE). - Madam President, many of the reforms we constantly call for in Turkey come together in the saga of the repeated closure of Kurdish political parties, of which that of the DTP last month is only the latest. 2010-01-22T15:00+00:00 http://www.sarahludfordmep.org/speeches/000216/question_to_commissionerdesignate_stefan_fule_enlargement_and_neighbourhood_policy_about_bosnia.html I am now going to give you the chance to specifically talk about Bosnia. Last year a US academic charged that the EU lacked a viable policy towards Bosnia. And indeed, you omitted any mention of Bosnia in your list of policy priorities in your written answers. Meanwhile Bosnia and Herzegovina is a dysfunctional state sliding towards disintegration. It was judged unfit to get visa liberalisation on December 19th, while Serbian citizens among others did. 2010-01-13T12:00+00:00 http://www.sarahludfordmep.org/speeches/000215/sarah_speaks_to_the_european_parliament_about_the_middle_east_conflict.html Sarah Ludford (ALDE). - Mr President, the Council conclusion is indeed a welcome vigorous statement of the EU position and its intention to play a much stronger role in a reinvigorated Quartet engagement. Do the Council and Commission therefore agree that the approach urged on it by some, which is to boycott Israel, is completely the wrong route to that engagement? You cannot boycott and engage at the same time. Indeed, the right approach is the one also stressed by the Council conclusions, which is to reaffirm the further development of bilateral relations with Israel. However tempting it is, the Council can only be an influential player politically, as well as with economic support, if it resists the temptations - motivated sometimes by frustration at one or other of the parties - to have some sort of sanctions or punish one or the other. It is too complex a situation and it simply undermines a consistent, coherent EU pressure on both parties to get back to the table and have a peace agreement. 2009-12-16T18:00+00:00 http://www.sarahludfordmep.org/speeches/000214/sarah_deplores_closure_of_turkeys_kurdish_party.html Sarah Ludford (ALDE). - Mr President, I want to deplore the deeply worrying decision of the Turkish Constitutional Court on Friday to close the Democracy Society Party, which represents largely Kurdish interests, and to ban from politics its leading MPs. This is a very retrograde step and will be used as a pretext to return to violence by extremists. It closes off the democratic political option which the Prime Minister, Mr Erdogan, has said he wants to pursue. 2009-12-14T12:00+00:00 http://www.sarahludfordmep.org/speeches/000213/sarah_speaks_to_the_european_parliament_about_the_european_arrest_warrant_defendants_rights_and_andrew_symeou.html Sarah Ludford (ALDE). - Mr President, the Swedish Presidency is to be congratulated for the way they have pushed the overdue question of defendants' rights to fair treatment across Europe. This is absolutely essential to accompany the European arrest warrant. We need to ensure that mutual recognition really can be based on mutual confidence in all the national criminal justice systems. This is not the case at present and there are severe weaknesses. 2009-11-24T15:20+00:00 http://www.sarahludfordmep.org/speeches/000212/sarah_questions_commission_president_jose_manuel_barroso_about_reform_in_bosnia.html Sarah Ludford (ALDE): 2009-11-24T01:12+00:00 http://www.sarahludfordmep.org/speeches/000211/sarahs_speech_to_the_european_parliament_on_visafree_travel_for_the_western_balkans.html Sarah Ludford, rapporteur for the opinion of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. − Madam President, the commitment supported in the Fajon report and backed by the proposed Council and Parliament declaration is a far-sighted one. It is to give visa-free travel to all the people of the Western Balkans. This is not solely a generous and altruistic move. It is also hard-headed and shrewd, since security in the widest sense of the word will be promoted and advanced. People who are free, and free to travel, tend to be committed to peaceful solutions and less prey to introverted nationalism which is a security threat. 2009-11-11T16:55+00:00