Mario Giro, Vice Ministry about international cooperation of Renzi Government declares: “Italy congratulates friends of Colombia for signature of peace agreement today. We will help you in building peace!”.
23/06/2016
GUE/NGL MEPs congratulate Colombia on the historic ceasefire agreement between the Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and offer support on the road to peace.
GUE/NGL MEPs congratulate Colombia and offer support on the road to peace
Spanish MEP, Marina Albiol, Vice-Chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly, comments: “We would like to congratulate the Colombian people for this historic gesture which is an important step in the path towards ending violence throughout Latin America. It is an important opportunity to consolidate peace in Colombia and end murder, blackmail and harassment of human rights defenders.” “We urge the Colombian Government to strengthen its negotiations with the National Liberation Army (ELN), since peace will not be completely achieved without an agreement with them. «We also regret that the recent arrest of the former leader of the ELN, Carlos Velandia, was a move in the opposite direction.”
Spanish MEP, Tania González Peñas, Vice-Chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Countries of the Andean Community, adds: «After 50 years of conflict, 220,000 lives lost and nearly 6 million people displaced, it is important that the implementation of the ceasefire and the final agreement is made with respect for human rights, particularly memory, justice and reparation for the victims.»
«We want to congratulate the people of Colombia and offer our support on the road to sustainable and inclusive peace, based on gender equality and protecting the rights of the most vulnerable.
«We will endeavor to ensure that the next government of Spain supports this process bilaterally, and within the EU, the Organization of Ibero-American States and the Security Council, as well as contributing to the UN mission to be deployed in Colombia to verify the ceasefire and cessation of hostilities, and oversee the disarmament of armed groups.
«The peace process in Colombia is an example for the world. We want to take this opportunity to reiterate our commitment to conflict resolution through dialogue and mediation, against those who want to impose their reason through fear or violence,» she concluded.
S&Ds in full support of the Colombian peace process
28/01/2016
To support the intensive negotiations of the Colombian peace process taking place in neutral territory in Cuba between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas as an attempt to restore stability in the country, there was a public hearing today in the European Parliament at the initiative of the Socialists and Democrats Group, in regards to the EU’s support to the Colombian Peace Process.
It is the first time the Colombian government and FARC negotiators have appeared on the same panel to address the European public. In addition to the Colombian representatives and EU Special Envoy to the peace talks, Eamon Gilmore TD participated in the hearing. Following this hearing Richard Howitt MEP, S&D Group foreign affairs coordinator and organiser of the public hearing, said: «In the week after the European Parliament demonstrated unprecedented unanimity in its vote to support the Colombian peace process, this hearing proposed by the S&D Group, but with similar cross-party support here in Brussels, was intended to demonstrate the same high level of support and encouragement directly to both sides and to the Colombian people, and to demonstrate to them international support in favour of peace.
«This is the first time that negotiators have appeared together on a panel to address the European public, and we thank them for agreeing to do so. «Last year I had the privilege of personally being present at the peace talks in Havana, as part of a delegation convened by the NGO ‘Justice for Colombia’ advising on lessons from the Northern Ireland peace process. I came away believing an end to the world’s longest-lasting civil war can and will happen, and that Europe has a duty to do everything possible to support peace for the Colombian people, and to be present to support and safeguard the future final agreement which we hope will be made.
«Today has been a follow-up to that visit. I hope it will broaden that belief both here in Europe and in Colombia itself. «Ms Mogherini has pledged this and I am proud that her Special Representative, Mr Gilmore, was also here with us today. «I hope the European Parliament can play its own constructive role to support security guarantees and justice and democracy-building in the same spirit of the peace negotiators themselves. «Europe can help Colombia forge a different future and an end to the long years of deaths and abuses, which continue even today.
S&D MEP Ramón Jáuregui Atondo added: «The peace in Colombia puts an end to guerrillas’ movements which caused bloody civil wars in many Latin American countries throughout the 20th century. «We want to congratulate the government, President Santos and the FARC for their courage to make possible two principles; firstly the decision of the FARC to make politics without violence, understanding that no cause, political or social, can be defended by killing, and secondly to the Colombian government because it has decided to open the political system to the defence of the ideas of the FARC. «The Peace in Colombia will definitively settle democracy, the rule of law and peace in all Latin American countries.»
(http://www.socialistsanddemocrats.eu/newsroom/sds-full-support-colombian-peace-process)
Diversidad en Movimiento 