Sarah's speech in the European Parliament on Globalisation

Speech by Sarah Ludford MEP delivered to European Parliament on Wed 14th Nov 2007

Madam President, I also believe our reaction to globalisation should not be based on fear but on a sense of opportunity mixed with intelligent adaptation.

As the resolution says, the EU as a global player is one of the major beneficiaries of an open world economy. You would not always realise that from the volume of European anti-globalisation rhetoric. I agree with Mr Czarnecki that liberalism has spread across the world. But, unlike him, I am glad about that.

The EU can only achieve its objective by being active and organised on the world stage, and this is particularly true of migration. I am grateful to see that a paragraph I drafted for the ALDE Group has survived almost unscathed into the final resolution. I really do think that migration deserves to be a priority on the EU agenda, on a par with climate change and energy. We see the pressure from outside; we see the social tensions and, indeed, the racism from inside the EU. But still there is no comprehensive EU policy on legal as well as illegal immigration, and on integration.

Finally, let us not forget the potential of global communications and especially the internet to promote human rights. Okay, maybe it is not as inevitable as we once thought - if you look, for instance, at the censorship being successfully practised by China - but, still, globalisation and the internet and other global communications are a very potent force for good. That is also part of globalisation.