GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Mr President, Commissioner, this is an important report about an important matter, on which I am happy to speak on behalf of the Group of the European People’s Party . I value the way in which the rapporteur has tackled the topic. It is positive that he, in line with my group's approach, has strengthened the foundation of this report. I should like to share with him my appreciation for the good working relationship. This topic touches the very heart and foundation of our constitutional state. More than two years after the United States transported some 660 foreign detainees to Guantanamo Bay in the framework of the fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, there is, unfortunately, still uncertainty: uncertainty about the charge, uncertainty about the duration of the detention, uncertainty about the possible judicial process, uncertainty about legal aid and uncertainty about contacts with the country of origin. In short, there is a legal void. The American Supreme Court is now looking into the question whether the American courts are competent to assess the legal status of the detainees. Although the great effect that terrorism has had on our American ally in the wake of the dreadful attacks of 11 September speaks for itself, we are now a few years further down the line and the prisoners on the Cuban base have still not had access to the courts. This situation cannot, and should not, be sustained. Precisely because the transatlantic dialogue is so meaningful and irreplaceable, it is important to keep the lines of communication with our American friends open. Allies are allowed to make urgent appeals to each other. I appreciate that the Convention of Geneva of 1949 is no longer fully adequate to accommodate new threats such as terrorism. It is important that international law should develop in such a way that a legal basis is in place for addressing new security issues. Even the worst terrorist is entitled to a fair trial. That is a basic principle underpinned by international law. I would mention by way of example both the habeas corpus principle and the need to properly safeguard the administration of justice, as well as, among others, such important treaties as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention of Geneva, to which the rapporteur has already made reference. All those treaties involve the task of guaranteeing a humane treatment of prisoners and the right to a fair trial. In the final analysis, this is about human dignity; every person counts. I gladly subscribe to what the rapporteur has raised in this respect. Finally, I urge the Council to continue to bring the case of the Guantanamo detainees to the attention of the authorities of the United States. This case is deserving of this, and more.

Political group: PPE-DE
The reason why we are not opposed to this draft text is so that workers who so desire can leave employment before retirement age. Several aspects of the draft text are, nonetheless, unacceptable. It is unacceptable, first and foremost, that job cuts are not being made on a voluntary basis and that all those who so desire cannot benefit from being released from their duties. What is equally unacceptable is that 600 officials are being encouraged to retire, whilst only 273 are being taken on. This means there will be additional work for those who remain, whereas the report acknowledges that 1 254 positions need to be filled. And, if the institutions are planning to compensate for the lack of employees by increasing job insecurity and sub-contracting – which is often one and the same thing – this is no better. All this is unacceptable in a context of unemployment and job insecurity. Therefore, whilst we are not opposed to the draft text, we did not wish to give it our backing and we abstained from the vote. - Report Bakopoulos (A5-0280/2002)

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, the progress made by the European Union in combating illegal immigration and the trafficking in human beings is to be welcomed. This is particularly the case with respect to improved safeguards against fraud and the securing of the EU's external borders. It is intolerable that over 500 000 illegal immigrants should find their way into the EU every year. They are a constant source of criminality, oppressing and enslaving people, endangering the life and limb even of children. Those who traffic in human beings must therefore be punished as severely as those who deal in drugs. Both shamelessly exploit human misery for financial gain. Eastward enlargement has proved the occasion for the German Federal Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, to bring off the flop of the year with his intention to take the candidate countries hostage to the internal reform of European agricultural policy. The European Union's current inability to do its homework in good time is not a reason to jeopardise the reunification of Europe. The fact that the Americans are currently massively increasing their agricultural subsidies means that Chancellor Schröder's threat to suspend direct payments to European agriculture would have a catastrophic effect on its competitiveness. It is precisely in difficult times like these that Europe must keep on course. Your proposals, Mr Aznar, like those of the Commission, Mr President of the Commission, are a sound basis on which to further develop of the European Union, but the outcome of the second Irish referendum continues to hang over eastward enlargement like the sword of Damocles. This is where the European Union has to improve its overall image in order to reach people's hearts.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I would like to make it just as clear that although my first name is Bertel, I have not become a Lord. (Laughter) (Parliament adopted the resolution) *** Motion for a resolution (B5-0037/2001), on behalf of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Security and Defence Policy, on relations between the European Union and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Parliament adopted the resolution) EXPLANATIONS OF VOTE - Sjöstedt report (A5-0387/2000)

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, like Mrs Figueiredo, we also welcome this action plan against social exclusion. We think that certain things have been achieved – as always, in conciliation processes not everything we want is achieved – and, although the budget is still low, the budget for NGOs has been raised and the role that the European Parliament plays is very important. I think that there is some fine wording in this document: I would remind you of Article 2 – which asks for a high level of employment and a fight against poverty – and point out that the Council considers the current levels of poverty that still exist in the European Union to be unacceptable. However, we are running the risk that applying this action plan – whose implementation next year is welcomed by all of us – will be like putting a small sticking plaster onto a large gaping wound. In the previous debate we talked about the virtues of the market in terms of sustaining airlines, yet we talk less of the 12 000 jobs at Sabena. We run the risk of losing much blood whilst we try to stem its flow with a small sticking plaster. Nevertheless, Mr President, this plan against social exclusion is very welcome.

Political group: GUE-NGL
We are in favour of the development of life sciences, biotechnology and, more broadly, of science in general. This is because it is the means to provide the material basis for the progress of humanity and the intellectual basis for its emancipation from all types of prejudices, starting with the obscurantism that is used by religions and various reactionary ideologies, some of which are very fashionable at present, and which periodically bring back the kind of society in which men are not in control of their destiny but are crushed by an unjust, harmful and abhorrent social structure. We reject, however, the many direct and indirect indulgences in the report of private companies. These companies are in no way concerned with what is useful to humanity in terms of the development of science, but rather with what can be sold to customers who have the means to pay for it and provide a profit. We also reject all the calls for public funding in the interests of private capital, even if those interests are hidden behind the needs of research. We therefore abstained from voting on this report.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Madam President, I should like to state – also on behalf of my group – that referring this report back to the committee responsible in accordance with Rule 144 of the Rules of Procedure would actually be the correct course of action for Parliament to adopt, because I prepared a report and only found out afterwards that the Council had plans in this field. Since we were not given sufficient notice, it would make more sense to wait for the legislative proposals and only then have Parliament deal with this point so that we do justice to the problem. For this reason, I would request that the report be referred back to committee without there being a debate on it in plenary today, and the committee responsible, the Committee on Citizens’ Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs, will certainly be able to deal with this matter properly.

Political group: PSE
Mr Commissioner, the problem is that when Mr Aznar comes to the European Union to receive money for all the people of Andalusia, he counts all of them, but when he goes to the Andalusia Council to pay for services, he fails to notice 400 000 Andalusians, and this is very serious, because 400 000 children are the equivalent to the whole of Strasbourg or a city larger than Granada, full of children. This question is very important and I would like to know – since this is a kind of ‘baby fraud’ – whether the Commissioner will see to it that these funds are not taken away from the Andalusians, so that the funds which the European Union are going to pay to Andalusia, based on the census, will take into account these 400 000 children which Aznar does not count when it comes to providing them with schools and services.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, full employment, which the Lisbon Summit established as an objective of the EU’s work, is a very major step forwards. People in work are a guarantee of peace and freedom in Europe. This must apply, however, to the whole of the EU, including those areas far from the EU’s geographic centre. If the employment objective is to become a reality, EU policies must all be compatible with one another, just as the Committee says in the report. We must make use of regional policy on both a large and a small scale. Among large-scale concerns, we in Sweden include general welfare policy (including social services), education, research, infrastructure and cultural policy throughout the EU. The importance of the latter cannot be emphasised enough. Small-scale measures include aid to companies and the use of Structural Funds, that is to say aid directed more specifically at areas where very special conditions apply. These areas may, for example, be characterised by industrial conversion or low living standards or be of the type which exist in northern Sweden and Finland, with low population density, harsh climates and long distances between centres of population. Where such areas in Sweden are concerned, we have for a long time used reduced social charges for companies as a form of aid. This is now being brought into question by the Commission, something I find hard to understand. If the major Structural Fund investments the EU is making in these areas are to be effective, the other parts of regional policy have to function, too. The Structural Funds cannot operate in isolation. We also refer to that principle in the report. I should like to hear the comments of the Member of the Commission regarding this principle that policy areas must be compatible with one another. The Structural Funds are therefore very important and have to function well. The criticism of the Funds that I have heard in my region is that they are complicated to use. This is something which we must be helped at all levels to change. I support all ideas of partnership and decentralised administration, as well as the idea that the Funds should be used to meet the needs of the regions. There must also be built-in assessment mechanisms. Finally, Mr President, I want to emphasise that the whole of the EU must share in European growth. I agree with the person who said that wherever people live is the centre of the world.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, in the world rankings for freedom of the press compiled by Reporters sans frontières, Laos occupies the unenviable place of 133rd out of 140. To give you some indication, Italy comes 40th, after Benin and South Korea. In Laos, the media remains entirely in the hands of the only political party and its parliament is taking its time over adopting a law that will allow private media ownership, which was promised in 2001. There is still no news of the five leaders of the October 1999 movement who have disappeared, including Thongpaseuth Kenakoun, the author of several articles and pamphlets on the situation in Laos and the need for democratic reform. The case of Thierry Falise and Vincent Reynaud is not, therefore, a judicial accident. It has arisen in a climate of ongoing breaches of human rights and the scandalous verdict that sentenced them to fifteen years in prison on 1 July raises at least two questions. The first is that of the freedom of the press in general, which as we have seen is often flouted, even in Europe. This freedom is one of the pillars of democracy and we must defend it at all costs. The second issue concerns the democratic clause of the cooperation agreements, which could often be described as a clause in form only: a hollow shell. Can we expect Europe to be taken seriously, however, when, having signed an agreement, it does not ensure that this clause is respected, by means of appropriate sanctions? We know, as Mrs André-Léonard has confirmed, that the joint pressure exerted by Belgium, France, the United States and the European Union will probably lead to the release of Falise, Reynaud and Naw Karl Mua, which will be a relief for everyone. I call on Parliament, however, also to call for the release of Thao Moua, Tha Char Yang, the two guides, Pa Phue Khang, their driver, and a fourth, unknown Laotian, because they are neither reporters nor foreigners. They are simply Laotians. The sentences they received range from 12 to 20 years in prison and we cannot, Mr President, wash our hands of them.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, I wish to make two relatively brief points. Firstly, a request addressed to the Commission. I spent some hapless years working as a junior official in the TACIS programme some years ago. What I experienced, as I tried to interest everything from local transport authorities in Kishinev through to energy ministries in Uzbekistan was the following: just as in so many other EU policy areas, in TACIS projects we perhaps try to do too much across too many geographical boundaries in too many sectors. I think we are all aware of this danger of the dispersal of EU assistance in far-flung places. Could I make a plea that when this regulation comes into place the many loopholes which still remain in the regulation and which would allow a continued proliferation of small and excessively multiplied projects are closed and that a real, and perhaps in some cases ruthless, concentration of implementing projects is enforced. On the second point I address the rapporteur. It concerns the political issue of the partial suspension of at least the TACIS programme under the budget year 2000. I am glad to hear that the rapporteur has very much moved towards the amendment which the group tabled. Many of us are instinctively still not convinced that any form of suspension is the right way to respond to present circumstances but nevertheless that seems to be the drift of debate. In those circumstances, I would suggest that we at least make our words on the partial suspension of the TACIS programme under the budget year 2000 entirely compatible with what was decided in Helsinki, mainly and most particularly, that if we are going to save the democracy budget line we should also equally save the budget line which applies to nuclear safety projects.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, due to the dramatic developments in Georgia in recent weeks and the imminent presidential elections on 4 January, six groups in the European Parliament have tabled a motion for this urgent debate. With their peaceful and thankfully bloodless revolution, the Georgian people have gained a hearing and all our respect. That is convincing evidence that despite their grave economic plight, the people of Georgia are yearning for democracy. There is now a chance for a new beginning. Properly conducted elections are a prerequisite for stability and development in Georgia. A great deal of time has been wasted since the transforming events of twelve years ago. Surprisingly, Georgia’s state coffers are almost empty. Georgia has received financial assistance not only from the European Union but from many other parts of the world, but its people have gone away empty-handed. The Georgian people have high expectations of their new President. He must create a democratic order but also provide for the people’s basic needs. I would like to thank the European Parliament for making it possible for our special delegation to travel to the elections. In this way, we are also showing that in the European Parliament, we take the task of supporting peaceful development in Georgia very seriously. At the Brussels Summit, the European Union’s Heads of State or Government have just reaffirmed, yet again, the Union’s determination to build a balanced and reciprocal strategic partnership with Russia, based on the values of the rule of law, democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms and a free market economy. The national governments and the European Parliament, however, must accept that this kind of strategic partnership is only possible with states that honour their pledges. Russia has failed to fulfil the international commitments it made to Georgia in Istanbul in 1999 and by adopting this position, it has greatly obstructed democratic development in an already fragile region in the past. I can only hope that Russia will in future support constructive negotiations in all parts of Georgia, as agreed in the OSCE accords in 1999, and will not further impede democratic development. Russia plays a key role in Georgia and the entire Southern Caucasus. We in the European Parliament must address this issue when we deliberate our relations with Russia. However, our task now is to help Georgia overcome its crisis.

Political group: PPE-DE
I would like to speak on a point of order, Madam President. The statements that we have just heard were indeed very interesting, except for the fact that apart from Mr Liikanen’s last comment, they had nothing to do with the subject on our agenda, namely Echelon.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, this report represents a huge missed opportunity. I urge Parliament to think about what kind of message we will send to the European tax-payer and the farmers in the candidate countries if we roll over again, as Mr Daul proposes. I have no problem with Mr Daul personally rolling over for the sugar producers – as he is one. He can roll over as much as he likes, but this Parliament should resist any temptation to roll over the sugar regime yet one more time. Why is it that with increasing pressure on farm spending, any real chance to reform the CAP is greeted with a shrug of indifference in this Chamber? This report demonstrates how powerful the farming lobby is, although pressure for reform is mounting, not just from European citizens but also from far-sighted farmers themselves, who recognise that the current regime is clearly unsustainable in the long term. It has remained unaltered for 32 years and its highly protectionist nature has kept the EU sugar price at three times the world level, discriminating unfairly against consumers and damaging the competitiveness of the industry. We now know that the WTO and enlargement commitments mean that another roll-over would wreck the EU's international credibility. A recent Court of Auditors' report concluded that the sugar regime leads to substantial costs for the EU budget and for the consumer. So what we need is serious, well-thought out reform. The long-term ramifications of Mr Daul's plans to do nothing will mean deeper and deeper quota cuts shrinking the industry and threatening employment. We have sadly been bombarded by a series of unfounded claims on storage levy and the ACP, ignoring the fact that the money saved could actually be redirected towards other agricultural expenditure. I am angry with the outcome of this report and concerned that the unanimously agreed view of the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy was ignored by the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, I would firstly like to congratulate the rapporteur on her work and also thank her for the good relationship she has had with the rapporteur for this group, accepting many of the amendments and proposals we have presented in committee. I agree that this proposal is important, and the creation of this network of liaison officers is important, particularly in view of the fact that we have decided – we have discussed this here many times – on the importance of communication and communication strategy in the countries in which immigration originates, providing information on the means of legal entry and on the dangers and deceptions surrounding illegal immigration. I would like to point out that in this very Parliament we recently approved a resolution on the European Union's information and communication strategy, and that Recital N stated that immigration policy and respect for human rights were considered a priority within the Union’s information policy, and furthermore called on the Commission to make its offices in the countries in which immigration originates partly an antenna for informing these countries of the means for legal access to Europe and of the dangers involved in illegal immigration. I therefore believe that the amendments which have been introduced in this regard into the rapporteur’s report are particularly important, and oblige the Commission to participate, in some way, in the meetings of liaison officers, and provide it with the opportunity to inform citizens of these countries in which immigration originates of the means for legal entry and of the dangers of illegal immigration. On the other hand, I believe that perhaps one of the amendments presented by the Committee on Foreign Affairs is rather over the top insofar as it could constitute a first step towards the creation of a European Union foreign service, but it is the case that these liaison officers, with the support of the offices of the Commission in relation to information and coordination, are without doubt a first step towards the creation of this Community immigration policy which we all want to see. In this way, we want the countries in which immigration originates to see Europe as a single region and for the offices of the Commission to act as a coordinator to some extent of the immigration policy which we all want the European Union to have. Finally, I believe it is important – and I wish to address this to the Commissioner – to accept that the countries which do not have representatives in the countries in which immigration originates may delegate that task to liaison officers from another country which does have representation in that country.

Political group: PPE-DE