GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
I would like to ask the Commissioner something very simple, which might have more to do with the questions asked earlier. I am rather late in asking my supplementary question. Commissioner, do you consider to be fair the situation that you and other Members have just described – in which huge ships from the Member States are fishing in the very fishing-grounds in which the Community fleet is trying to conserve stocks – or do you believe that this is a situation we should be able to avoid, for example through a series of measures that we are now going to implement over the remaining months of debates to reform the common fisheries policy? Do you consider it acceptable that, in the fishing-grounds abandoned by the Community fleet, or in those with very high Community requirements to conserve stocks, large ships should be putting such great pressure on stocks even if they are not receiving any Community funds? That is my question.

Political group: PSE
Since its inception, the European Union has sought to bring peoples closer together. Although it may be difficult to have the various sensitivities, histories and, sometimes, contradictions live side by side, enlargement must adhere to this concept of peace and take part in the creation of a community that transcends ancient geographical and ideological borders, guided by common values and rules. Nevertheless, in order to prevent Europe becoming nothing more than a free trade area, the European Union must provide clear answers to the institutional, social and economic questions that enlargement is bound to raise. We must, as of now, adopt a pragmatic approach to the implications of a Europe not of 15, but of 25 or 30. We must respond in an appropriate way to this enlargement which will considerably increase the number of poorer regions, and think carefully together about the risk of accentuating imbalances in Europe, in order to ensure that Europe does not become one huge heterogeneous mass. This is why we must show imagination in reformulating the criteria for granting structural aid, in order to guarantee appropriate support for the poorest regions of the candidate countries, as well as those in the current Member States. For this reason, I hope that the outermost regions, six out of seven of which always feature amongst the ten poorest in the EU, benefit from the Structural Funds, no longer just according to the sole criterion of GDP but also according to geographical, demographic and, especially, social indicators. Enlargement must not be financed by the poorest regions. This concept must guide institutional, economic and financial reforms throughout the accession process. Only on these terms will it be understood and accepted that the principle of solidarity, which aims to improve economic and social cohesion within the EU, will become a reality. Mr Brok’s report addresses the concerns I have just shared with you and, consequently, I voted in favour of it.

Political group: PSE
Madam President, I take exception to the fact that a Commissioner arrives late for a meeting in Parliament, never mind where it takes place. We did not choose to be here in Strasbourg. In my opinion, if he is half an hour late, the debate should start then. I find it in any case unacceptable that he is late. I would like to address my second point to Mrs Roth-Behrendt of the group who referred to the fact that we should start as we would all be making similar points in any case. I am from the Group of the European People’s Party. We are not a record which you play over and over again. We hold original views and our input will bear witness to the fact that our ideas are clear and that we act on current situations.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to urge you most earnestly to adopt the recommendations drawn up by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy. They represent an attempt at making a new start and desisting from the disputes of the past. They are about finding a solution to the problem of how we help the people of Iraq in the aftermath of war, and that of the competences of the United Nations, which must progressively take over the leadership in this area in order to be able to permanently stabilise the region. It is for this reason that I am pushing for the rejection of those amendments that seek to re-ignite the disputes between us from the time before the war in Iraq. We owe it to the people there to look to the future rather than perpetuating old disputes, and so I would recommend that you reject all the amendments, with the exception of Mr Sakellariou’s on the International Court of Justice, which I recommend that we adopt. If you do, you will achieve a great majority in this House, enabling the European Union to be in a stronger position when it goes to the donors’ conference and us to take on a great deal of responsibility in a constructive way. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE
I want to thank Commissioner Nielson for his positive answer. In answer to Mrs Theorin’s justified question, he has produced an important clarification to the effect that this does not mean any change to the criteria for assessing whether an organisation, in this case ECPAT, is or is not eligible for continued EU subsidy. Allow me to say that your fellow Commissioner, Mr Liikanen, has, in the same way as yourself today, Mr Nielson, given positive answers to questions raised by myself and a number of fellow MEPs here in the European Parliament. It feels as if there is a genuine commitment to fighting the assault on human dignity constituted by one of our modern age’s most loathsome forms of the slave trade. Allow me also to say – and I believe I can also speak here on behalf of Mrs Theorin – that we hope that the time is past when we have to ask questions about long-term financing for ECPAT’s activities and for the fight against child sex tourism. Let there be an end to this jumping from one Directorate-General to another.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, in the part of Helsinki where I grew up, a waste truck is doing the rounds this week. WEEE waste can also be put into it upon payment of a special fee. One kilo per person per year is collected in the district. In another part of Finland, where ‘Rosk'n Roll’ operates, waste is collected and advice dispensed in return for a special eco-fee. Europe’s fifteenth largest waste recycling company also operates here – on the principles of the market economy. Eight kilos of WEEE waste per person is collected. I think we have something to learn from this practical example, as we also have from the matter of oil waste at sea and the way in which it is treated. There must be common systems in which the principles of the market economy apply. There must be no benefit from throwing things away. I support the rapporteur’s proposal because I believe that it fulfils these requirements. I would nonetheless observe that the proposal on brominated flame retardants does not in reality take account of the environment because it may lead to our having a great need to collect waste as long as we are not able to use plastic in some other way. I do not in actual fact believe that the amendment concerning flame retardants is of any benefit to the environment.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, in this year we should highlight the problems but also celebrate the achievements of people living with disability, not just people of genius – the Beethovens, Miltons, Van Goughs and Stephen Hawkings – but those who are unknown. For example, the boy from the north of England who had learning difficulties and was written off by the education service, but was then found to have musical ability. Whereas had he had a job in industry he could not have read the safety signs, he went on to play in the orchestra at Covent Garden. Then there is the dancer who trained at the Ballet Rambert School. She was profoundly deaf, but learnt to dance through the rhythm of her feet and went on to dance with the Portuguese National Ballet. I knew a tiny, frail, 23-year-old girl who had been confined to a wheelchair all her life and had undergone 26 lifesaving operations. She was a trainee at the SHARE community. She decided to do a sponsored wheelchair push, self-propelling the wheels with her tiny hands. As she herself said, it was the first time in her life she had the opportunity to help other disabled people. People can and do achieve, despite severe physical and mental disabilities. For a few that means successful careers in business, politics, the arts or professions. For most it means more local, private, domestic achievements: coping with living and contributing to the lives of those around them. We have a duty to help not in an intrusive or invasive way, but by removing legal, physical and psychological barriers. They bring the courage. They deserve from us the opportunity and the dignity. In government I was able to bring in a system of direct payments so that a person was not provided for by social service departments if he or she preferred to have the cash equivalent to purchase the services from the supplier of their choice. If you buy your own services, meals, transport and so on, then you are in charge, you have a form of dignity and independence which too often is lacking in the relationship between state services and citizens. That is the route we should be seeking from this year on.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I should like to thank Mr Nicholson for his report, and for the speed with which he researched and did the work. I appreciate his very open and honest attitude to this. He has not gone back and told fishermen around the Irish Sea that the European Commission is trying to persecute them or to do them an injustice. He has put the problem to the public at home the way he has put it here. A problem exists. Our colleague over in the far corner of the House spoke earlier and quoted the Bible. The Bible, someone said, tells us that there will always be fish in the sea. Well, I want to quote a more up-to-date document about the codfish. I am quoting the author Mark Kurlansky in his book 'Cod: A Biography of the Fish that changed the World'. According to Kurlansky, the Encyclopaedia of Commerce and Navigation printed in New York in 1858 said that the codfish was a species so well-known that there was no need to explain anything about it, that it was extraordinarily prolific and that someone had counted the eggs of a middling-sized codfish and found that there were 9 835 000 eggs. The encyclopaedia came to the conclusion that mankind could never exterminate this species. We have proven both the Bible and this nineteenth-century encyclopaedia wrong. Mr Stevenson is too young to remember the cod wars which were fought around the coast of Iceland in my lifetime – in fact, at a time when I was already in politics. The British – with due respect to all States in the Union – sent warships to Icelandic waters to ensure that their fishermen were protected when going there to fish the stocks in Icelandic waters. It is good that opinion in Britain is changing in favour of the right of coastal fishermen, which I always accepted, to exploit their own resources. With all due respect to Mr Stevenson, who is a good representative of his people and very enthusiastic, I do not accept that the common fisheries policy is a failure. I do not accept that British fishermen have been wronged, because if you look at the figures the British fishing industry is getting its natural share of European fish. The only country that has been 'wronged' are the Irish fishermen who have been denied their natural share and who were never allowed to exploit the seas. In the sixteenth century the British went to war with the Hanseatic League over Icelandic cod and they only withdrew from that war after some casualties because they discovered a new source of cod off the coast of America. This is an old story. But do not go back and tell the fishermen of Europe that it is the European Commission which is to be blamed. It is trying to solve a difficult problem.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, we must certainly tackle the issues of overproduction and high prices in the Community market, in addition to the problems caused by CMO rules. I support the rapporteur's basic proposal, however, to extend the current system until 2006, in accordance with what was established at Berlin, in that I see the need to allow time for production conversion and diversification so that the, albeit necessary, measures do not lead to a drop in income for producers and cause acute social hardship in some of the afflicted areas where the product is produced. I feel that it is necessary to reach agreement on the basic proposal, and we will support this proposal.

Political group: PSE
We all have to condemn the assassinations that took place in Papua on 10 November. There is a real danger that more assassinations are being planned. There is an onus on the Indonesian Government to investigate thoroughly and to bring in the international investigation teams if necessary. It is essential that those responsible are brought to justice. It is also essential that the Indonesian Government protects witnesses from intimidation and murder and it should also protect organisations, NGOs and others from the same threat. It is also important that the Indonesian Government should replace its Kopassus units because they are seen daily as a threat to the Papuan people. We also believe that the Indonesian Government should call a halt to the army's commercial activities in Papua. Thousands have died on Sulawesi alone, where there has been two years of fighting. The Indonesian Government needs to make an effort to ensure coexistence between the Muslim and the Christian populations, which had been possible for many years.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Madam President, may I ask why the most radical amendment, No 23, is not being put to the vote first?

Political group: PSE
Mr President, I should like to convey to you a message I received when I was in New York last week. I met a group called 'September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows'. They are relatives of some of the victims of the 11 September atrocity and they asked me to convey to you and this House that they do not seek revenge. They do not want a war against Iraq in their name. They want a peaceful future for their children, the children of Iraq and the children of the world. They are looking to Europe for support and in view of that I would ask you to contact President Bush and the leaders of all the Member States that are members of the Security Council, to convey the very clear decision made by this Parliament some weeks ago that there is no basis for a unilateral or pre-emptive war and that the inspectors should be given adequate time to complete the peaceful disarmament of Iraq. (Applause)

Political group: PSE
Commissioner, I should like to ask whether you are now able to address the Chechen people directly via the Russian media, as I have read reports from ECHO which indicate that this access – especially via radio broadcasts – has not been granted by the Russian Government. Are you able to do this, and is it helpful, for humanitarian aid purposes, to be able to contact the civilian population directly? My second question follows on from this: do you not think it is necessary for the Commission to visit the refugee camps in Georgia and the other neighbour states officially in order to make contacts there?

Political group: PPE-DE
Madam President, the European Union is beginning a new stage in its history. The greatest enlargement in 47 years has been completed. The EU’s population is rising to half a billion people, and one of the biggest single markets in the world is coming into being. This is a source of hope, above all to young people, who have no first-hand experience or knowledge of the Second World War or of the Cold War that followed it. They are so used to peace that they do not see the peace policy dimension of this enlargement as the most important thing about it. Nevertheless, this is probably the most important thing associated with what happened on 1 May – the enlargement, or, as one might say, the reunification of Europe. What we now have to do is to work towards partnership with our immediate and more distant neighbours and make the best possible use of it in the interests of all parties. It is important that a Europe that is still grappling with its own constitution should work together to further the common interest and think in regional terms. Only together will we be able to cope with the challenges that the enlarged Union will face. Only together will we be able to resolve the problem of illegal immigration and win the war on organised crime. In this, investment in securing the EU’s new external borders is every bit as important as the use of resources for scrapping dangerous nuclear power stations. The European Union now needs time to let enlargement become a success. It is logical that the next stage should involve Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia – the last of which would be very desirable as a new Member State. As far as Turkey is concerned, it is time that we appealed to the Council to ask the Commission to add to its report on the political criteria – which has not yet been produced – a study of the potential impact on the Structural and Agricultural Policies and on the EU’s institutions.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, with an issue of this importance it is necessary that we indicate to those still on the premises that a vote is taking place. It is very unusual for a vote to be called in this way with about 12 Members in the House. Many others outside are completely unaware – as are those of us who are here who happen to wish to speak in this debate – that this issue is being considered. If there is a way in which you can alert those on the premises of Parliament to that fact that there is a vote and adjourn until they are present, maybe we will get a more representative result.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, there is no doubt that the Commission has a difficult task in ensuring that the rules of the single market and competition policy operate fairly and properly across the continent and all sectors of the economy. I recognise their commitment and determination to do that and, of course, that sport and especially football are big business and cannot expect to be exempt from the normal rules of business. I am far from convinced that the football transfer system should be at the top of the Commission's hit list at the present time. It would be very prudent for the Commission to allow plenty of time for this, to allow it to go into extra time, not just so that we get a result but that we get a good result, a result that would be good for the single market and good for football. I know that FIFA have played for time already and has waited far too long before coming up with any response to the Commission's formal statement issued back in 1998. In many respects they have only themselves to blame for the present situation. However, let us not forget that football is of crucial interest to millions of our citizens. As a famous English footballer, Jackie Charlton, said, it is not just a matter of life and death; it is more important than that. The EU must not shrug its shoulders and say 'tant pis' if banning the transfer system does irreparable harm to football. Many small clubs depend on the revenue stream that comes from transfer fees. The transfer fee is not just a wealth distributor, it is a wealth retainer. If transfers go, then what is to stop the upward spiral of footballers' wages? The manufacturers of Alfa Romeos may do very well, but that money will be lost to football. I certainly agree with the Commission that there is no need to have a mention of sport in the Treaty. What we need is an intelligent and flexible way of interpreting the present rules. I urge the Commission to negotiate positively with the national and international football authorities. I suggest that the Commission give much higher priority to other abuses of the single market for instance, the parallel import of designer goods. I would like to see much more effective moves to create a single market for newspapers and journals across Europe. The car industry too is still full of obstacles to trade. I suggest to the Commission it puts those at the top of its list and does not allow football to become an own goal for the European Union.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, it has been said that this is an inevitable, unstoppable process, but it is a process that must be kept under control. We must recognise the efforts of these countries but, at the same time, we must also ask ourselves some questions about the more sensitive aspects of this process. As has already been said, Bulgaria and Romania are countries that have been left behind and form part of an area – the Balkans – that in itself is a critical area historically, let us remember, an area that sparked off disasters during the last century. What do you intend to do, Mr Commissioner and Mr President-in-Office of the Council, to speed up the process of integration and approximation of the Balkans to the Union? The second point I should like to make concerns relations with the Mediterranean countries. There is a kind of double vision in this House: on the one hand, two hours ago we all applauded the initiative that our President proposed, seeking to adopt a different, more participatory approach to the Palestine peace process; on the other hand, after Barcelona, our Mediterranean policies are practically dead. How can one think of holding an effective dialogue if one is unable to understand that it is also possible to further peace through practical forms of aid? Then there is the matter of public opinion. I was pleased to hear that we will be getting a coherent package as regards agricultural policies and Structural Fund policies. Public opinion is distrustful of the enlargement process, especially inside the countries of the Union. Of course, some people are more sensitive and others less, but all in all there is distrust in all the Member States. I believe that, from this perspective, answers need to be forthcoming. A final point: languages. Here I support everything Mr Böge has just said. I believe we must retain the principle of multilingualism. With continued enlargement, on the one hand we are taking up an historical challenge that we do not, of course, want to miss, but on the other we must also do what we can so that the identity of our cultures and our peoples is not lost.

Political group: PPE-DE