The Sub-Committee on Security and Defence (SEDE) exchange views on maritime security off the coast of Somalia, in the European Parliament in Brussels.

Brussels

exchange of views

meeting

Subcommittee on Human Rights

VAN ORDEN, Geoffrey (ECR, UK)

GOMES, Ana (S&D, PT)

DANJEAN, Arnaud (EPP, FR)

maritime safety (T)

Maritime security off the coast of Somalia: extracts of the exchange of views

SOUNDBITE (French), Didier LENOIR, Head of the Integrated Strategic Planning Unit of the Council, Coordination doensn't come from obligation but natural choice so it has to,prove that it can provide added value.

SOUNDBITE (French), Didier LENOIR, Head of the Integrated Strategic Planning Unit of the Council, A second important element which is link to the specificity of the maritime theatre is kinked to the nature of the problem, we are talking about small, mmobile vessels that go pretty far East and that make it necessary to have an operation area which is very wide.

SOUNDBITE (French), Didier LENOIR, Head of the Integrated Strategic Planning Unit of the Council, The EU is obliged to deliver results so it attaches great importance to the mission being carried out in the best possible conditions , because it is the most important aspect of our presence in this area so coordination has to, take into account that we have to deliver results.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maurits R. JOCHEMS, NATO Ambassador (operation Ocean Shield), NATO recognises the need to support and complement efforts to generate regional capacity in order to allow the countries in hte region to engage effectively in the deterence and prevention of piracy. NATO considers building capacity as integral to a more an during solultion the piracy threat and there are a wide range of existing tools in NATO which could usefully be exploited to support the identified areas of requirements as set out in the report of the needs' assesment mission.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maurits R. JOCHEMS, NATO Ambassador (operation Ocean Shield), Stability in Somalia is of course the ultimate sollution to the problem of fighting piracy off the Coast of Somalia as such and that there is a need for the internaitonal community to continue to look at the piracy problem in a holistic way focusing its attention not only at sea but also at land.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nobutake ODANO, Ambassador, Mission of Japan to the European Union, In order to protect the lives and assets of our people , we really need consulted internaitonal efforts to confront these piracy problams in this regard japan and the EU features like minded partners and share common values can surely cooperate further and tackle this issue hand in hand.

SOUNDBITE (French), Arnaud DANJEAN (EPP, FR), What happen in terms of pirated when they are captured . what do you do? Do you normally detain thelm and release them because there is no legal agreement which would justify their continued detention, obviously that undermines the efficacy of the whole operation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ana GOMES (S&amp;D, PT), We have neglected to possibly invest in the two only structures that could give some measures of delivery of accountability in somalia which are possibly Somaliland and Puntland I'l like to know what is your perception about that, because we can keep the mission for twenty years but things are not going to get better , are going to get worse if we don't actually tackle the question of the rule of law in Somalia.

SOUNDBITE (English), Geoffrey VAN ORDEN (ECR, UK), Actually we are talking about the same naval forces having to provide ships for both Eu and NATO missions and that is pure politics and it's non sense and we need to recognize that for what it is.