European Parliament
Véronique De Keyser  (S&D ),
blue-card answer.
(FR)
I would not wish to ‘let the cat out of the bag’, as it were, Mr Engel, but what I can say is that we have not disregarded the human rights issue, in the groups at least. There has obviously been the question of
realpolitik
, in light of issues such as energy, our crisis and what Azerbaijan might mean to us in terms of pipelines to allow us to bypass Russia, and so on. You know the issue as well as I do. However, there is the argument that runs as follows: ‘If we only signed agreements with countries that are true democracies, we might just run out of steam’. What I can say, in any case, is that not only was the issue of human rights raised, but that it remains absolutely central to us. I believe that one day we shall have to link – and that is essentially our ambition here in Europe – issues of trade to those of democracy. It is a constant balancing act to achieve this.

