Independence, competence, European commitment, these are all fine qualities, but in practice, I notice that this House has no problem with accepting people such as Louis Michel, who, in his former capacity as the Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister, ran counter to the very notion of European cooperation by demonising Austria; Mr Michel, in respect of whom it is generally known that he regards the European code of conduct for weapons export as no more than a scrap of paper; Mr Michel who, in March, during a flying visit to Cuba, said that things were not that bad over there and that the human rights organisations should stop defying Mr Castro.
Oberoende, kompetens, engagemang för Europa – allt detta är fina egenskaper, men i praktiken har jag märkt att parlamentet inte har något problem med att acceptera människor som Louis Michel, som i sin tidigare ställning som belgisk utrikesminister motverkade själva begreppet europeiskt samarbete genom att demonisera Österrike. Louis Michel som, vilket är allmänt känt, betraktar den europeiska uppförandekoden för vapenexport som endast en bit papper.Europarl8 Europarl8