Strasbourg, April 23rd, 2008 - Renate Weber, MEP's from Romania (NLP, ALDE) has spoken in the European Parliament, during the debate in the plenary of the Declarations of the Council and the European Commission on the UE-Latin America and Caribbean Summit.

The Summit will take place on April 28-30, 2008, in Lima (Peru) and Renate Weber will participate as member of the Delegation for relations with the countries of the Andean Community.

The text of the speech below:

"Mr President,

I think that human rights and women’s rights should also be a high priority in the relationship between the European Union and Latin America. I would like to draw your attention to a specific situation in Nicaragua. The ban on therapeutic abortion, which was legally imposed in 2006, has already had tragic consequences on women’s health, with all victims of rape, such as a nine-year-old girl or a paraplegic twelve-year-old girl, obliged to go through with their pregnancies although their own lives are at stake.

Moreover, lawyers and human rights defenders are themselves under criminal investigation for incitement to commit crimes, merely because they challenge this inhuman legislation or because they defend doctors. This is unacceptable and the European Union cannot afford to be silent.

Last week, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution on access to safe and legal abortion in Europe, which means that we care about women in Europe. But, if we want to convince our citizens that human rights are values that we genuinely treasure, we must prove that we do not apply double standards with regard to partners with whom agreements negotiations are ongoing."