Suspend Russia from Council of Europe says Euro-candidate (Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen Liberal Democrats)

Cymraeg
English

Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen Liberal Democrats <Brian.Thomas@blaenau-gwent.gov.uk>

Suspend Russia from Council of Europe says Euro-candidate

September 14, 2008 12:00 AM
Originally published by Welsh Liberal Democrats

Dr Alan Butt Philip, the lead candidate for the Liberal Democrats in Wales at next year's European elections, will tonight call for the suspension of Russia from the Council of Europe.

Speaking at a fringe meeting organised by the John Stuart Mill Institute at the annual autumn conference of the Liberal Democrats in Bournemouth, Dr Butt Philip will say that the Cold War was being replaced by a "Cold Peace", which demands a tough response to preserve trade links.

"EU-Russia relations are stalled and this is not good news," Dr Butt Philip will say. "We all need good relations with Russia because the EU shares long common borders with Russia, because we need to buy Russia's oil and gas, and because Russia wants and needs our foreign investment and know-how to exploit its natural resources. Increasing amounts of trade are also flowing in both directions between the EU and Russia.

"It is of course a huge step forward that the Soviet Union is confined to the history books. But we should not deceive ourselves that Russia is a functioning liberal democracy like any other. In fact since the arrival of Vladimir Putin at the helm, the Russian state has retreated step by step from core democratic principles - such as freedom of the broadcast media, free elections or an independent judiciary. Instead there has been a growing concentration of power in the Kremlin and a growing repression of the opposition and independent journalism. We have moved from the Cold War to a cold peace.

"By all means we should be in constant dialogue with the Russians, but we should no longer pretend that Russia is something which it is not. The Russians need to know that certain consequences follow from the abandonment of liberal democratic principles. Above all, I believe that Russia's membership of the Council of Europe should be suspended while an independent review into Russia's blatant non-adherence to theprinciples which that body was set up to defend. I hope that the Liberals in the Council of Europe will press for this as soon as possible."

The fringe meeting, which starts at 8pm, will also be addressed by Graham Watson MEP, leader of the Liberal group in the European Parliament.

Notes:Dr Alan Butt Philip is the #1 candidate for the Welsh Liberal Democrats for the European Parliamentary election in 2009.Alan works as the Jean Monnet Reader in European Integration at the University of Bath.He is the author of books including: The Welsh Question - Nationalism in Welsh Politics, Reforming the European Union and John Stuart Mill & Modern Liberalism.He has acted as specialist adviser to the House of Lords and the European Parliament on policy issues, and has published widely on many European policy and decision making issues, including environmental policy. Ends/diwedd