GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Madam President, it seems like only yesterday that the Commissioner and I were talking about other issues regarding the safety of some of these foodstuffs. Does the Commissioner still believe that his statement of 28 June was a necessary and sufficient answer to the concerns that have been raised? He has just told us that the FVO missions to Brazil and Thailand, and probably elsewhere, were cancelled because 100% testing is now in place within the Member States. If the Commissioner did not say that, then I misheard him. It is certainly true that in some of those Member States – notably Germany and the Netherlands – considerable concern has been expressed about the degree of nitrofuran residues in poultry and the extent to which even a very sophisticated Member State cannot guarantee by itself the degree of testing. The issue is not only what happens within the Member State – as the Commissioner knows, there have been a whole series of rapid alerts during 2002. I would like to know how many rapid alerts throughout the European Union have been proclaimed in this calendar year as a result of this continuing anxiety about carcinogens like nitrofuran when residues are discovered in imports. I would like to know whether or not he feels that poultry imports from countries like Brazil give cause for serious concern. I would like the Commissioner to put on record the opinion of the Commission and its own residues experts on the number of tonnes of poultry from the states in question that have passed into the European Union without proper inspection. My information is that something like 2000 tonnes of Brazilian poultry have entered the EU in this way. How close does the Commissioner believe we are to achieving 100% safety testing in the Member States? Why are these missions being postponed? Is the SANCO DG under pressure from other directorates? Are there questions here about endangering trade talks, meaning that one should not throw suspicion on any other states? If that is the case, it is not a sufficient answer to give to those whose primary concern is – as is the Commission's – food safety. Finally, how soon will these proposed missions take place? The Commissioner said earlier today in the debate on foot and mouth disease that he did not like disguised forms of protectionism – nor do I. However, I do not like disguised forms of concealment either, where there is a risk. If the money is not available and that is why these FVO missions have been postponed – tell us so. There are members of the Committee on Budgets here now. Parliament is very keen to support you, but we need candour in order to do it.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, Commissioner, the regulation on the Structural Funds, which covers the ESF, the ERDF and the EAGGF, stipulates a commitment to the achievement of equality of opportunities. The same commitment applies to the Equal, Interreg III, Urban II and Leader Plus Community initiatives. However, as we have already heard from the previous speakers, the implementation of the objectives to be pursued to achieve equality between men and women in these programmes leaves a great deal to be desired in practice. The Commission has undertaken to present a mid-term review of the Structural Funds by the end of the year. I believe that this own-initiative report by Mrs Avilés Perea could provide a good foundation for that and I would like to briefly mention a few more of our aspirations and identify some of the shortcomings here. There are a number of things that need to be improved as regards the allocation of funds. There needs to be balanced participation by men and women in the bodies responsible for decision-making, selection and monitoring at local, regional and national level. Information needs to be provided to applicants and project management staff on how equality of opportunities can be effectively incorporated into draft measures. One of the important things here is for Structural Fund plans and programmes to include financing programmes which identify funding available for individual measures and actions to improve equality of opportunities. This would both emphasise and guarantee that equal opportunities are being taken seriously and are really to be implemented in these programmes. The difficulties, resulting from structural weaknesses, involved in reconciling professional and family life still represent a problem. If equal opportunities are not systematically incorporated into all stages of programme planning and implementation, they will continue to be scandalously neglected in the future as well. The Social Fund needs to be used far more intensively as an instrument for remedying the inequitable treatment of women in the labour market. Women's demands for equal pay for equal work go back a very long way, but they have still not been met. We need to promote women in the areas of information technology and entrepreneurship. There is also a failure to develop adequate new forms of employment. Although the Member States have formally committed themselves to equal opportunities, implementation of them still falls short in many areas, despite legislation to promote equality of opportunities. So the question that arises once again is this: what is the point of having excellent legislation if failure to comply with it has virtually no consequences? (Applause)

Political group: PSE
I wish to raise also the discovery of eight people dead in a container of furniture in County Wexford over the weekend. The dead included a four-year old boy, a ten-year old girl and a sixteen-year old boy. There were three adults found dead also – two men and a woman – and there are five survivors. It appears that, so far as we understand it, about 11 of these people came from Turkey, one from Albania and one from Algeria. It seems to me quite appalling that we have a situation in Europe where people are so desperate that they have to put themselves into the hands of criminals in order to try and find a new life in Europe. We have done something serious about dealing with the criminals on the one hand and with our approach to immigration on the other. We cannot continue to allow the situation where people are so desperate that they will do anything and even put themselves and their children at risk in order to find a new life. I would ask those in this House who are supporting Mr Berlusconi in opposing the European arrest warrant to ask themselves why are they supporting a situation where the criminals who put these people into this container will escape the justice which needs to be meted out to them? Could I also ask, Madam President... (The President cut off the speaker.)

Political group: PSE
Mr President, I am very grateful to you for giving me the opportunity to table an oral amendment and to explain what is behind it. Unfortunately, it did not scrape past the required 314-vote mark. That is a pity as far as the amendment is concerned, but it does not alter the fact that in compromise Amendment No 25 Parliament has called on the Commission to bring forward a legislative proposal. That means that the codecision procedure will be invoked and that we can deal with this by means of a regulation of our own. I wish to call on those Member States that have not so far called for a ban to make sure that these substances, which are dangerous if they are not properly treated, are properly disposed of. I expect that during the transitional period until a regulation governing all this is submitted, the Commission will use its control functions to make sure that we do not have a repeat of the disasters that we have already experienced – foot-and-mouth disease and swine fever – which can be caused by untreated catering waste. (Applause)

Political group: Verts-ALE
Mr President, the Commission’s preliminary draft budget contains few surprises when it comes to those issues that fall within the area of responsibility of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. We therefore support its main features and have also clearly expressed our support for the amounts proposed by the Commission. I nonetheless wish to make a few comments and recommendations. Those measures that are supported within the framework of budget line 02 05 01 (‘Industrial competitiveness policy for the European Union’) – for example, for the purpose of analysing the effect of the information society on competitiveness and of stimulating the development of electronic trade – involve no genuine European added value and should therefore be discontinued. We therefore propose that these appropriations be transferred to budget line 02 02 03 (‘Programme for enterprise and entrepreneurship, particularly for SMEs’), where the funds could be of direct use to European businesses. We are also concerned about the problems and irregularities in connection with Eurostat and therefore want the European Parliament to ask for 25% of the appropriations to Eurostat’s administrative expenditure to be placed in Title 31 (‘Reserves’) until the Commission has given Parliament sufficient assurance that the problems have been solved and that the people responsible have been identified and appropriately penalised. We also support the information campaign concerning the euro and welcome the fact that the Commission has proposed increases in the funding for this. These extra resources will be needed, given that the EU is to acquire ten new Member States that have all undertaken to introduce the euro as soon as possible. We are nonetheless still concerned about the implementation of this budget line in recent years and therefore want again to call upon the Commission to report each quarter to Parliament’s relevant committee on the implementation of the programme in the current year and on the planning for next year. We also want to call upon the Commission to ensure that additional funds for the information campaign concerning the euro are available if further needs should arise, for example as a consequence of referendums in any of those countries that do not at present have the euro. As an aside, I regret that, following the result of the referendum last week, my own country, Sweden, will not be eligible for funds for the information campaign concerning the euro. The committee nonetheless supports the Commission’s draft budget, but with the reservations I have expressed.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I am sorry to have lost the opportunity to bend Madam President’s ear. I wanted to ask her to plead with Air France not to switch, as is rumoured, its flight from City Airport to Gatwick – that is if the flight works, because this week it was cancelled. I wanted to thank her for being willing to give her personal attention to these matters. If we are navel-gazing and examining our working conditions and those of our staff this morning, it is not a question of comfort and convenience, but because we want to be efficient as elected representatives and in spending taxpayers’ money. Strasbourg is indeed a beautiful city. If I was a tourist I would have no problem spending one week out of four here, it would be delightful. Many parts of this building are impressive and beautiful, although it is also, in my opinion, grandiose. I concur with what has been said about waste and the need for recycling and energy saving and I believe that we must practice what we preach both in the area of health and safety and energy saving. I would like to raise three particular points. First of all I am unhappy that we have lost one-third of our offices to an unnecessary bathroom. Please could I get mine removed and have extra office working space instead? Secondly, in the ladies toilets we are faced with constant flooding, and it is particularly unfair on the cleaners who have to constantly go round mopping up. As far as I can see, it is a very simple problem of excessive water pressure so the water spills everywhere around the basin and on to the floor. Could someone reduce the water pressure? Finally, could we start the session on a Thursday at 2 p.m. instead of 3 p.m. and have the votes on urgencies at 4.30 p.m. This would mean that I could catch the 6 p.m. flight, assuming of course it still exists, to City Airport. This might help a lot of people if we could leave on Thursday night instead of Friday. I am conscious of the fact that it costs, I think, around EUR 200 million a year extra to have this travelling circus and I am indignant that the European Parliament is unable to decide its own place of work. We are wasting taxpayers’ money and we are not as efficient as we ought to be as elected representatives. I take my job seriously and I am sure all my colleagues have also come here to work, not to treat this place as a club, but to actually do their jobs as elected representatives. I want to be able to go back to my constituents and tell them that I am an efficient representative.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank Mr Langen for preparing this report on what is a difficult subject. As the report states, important restructuring of the shipbuilding industry has come about by adjusting quantity and quality. Shipbuilding, however, is still in a serious crisis, as a result of dumping by the Koreans. We must attend to the competitiveness of European shipbuilding by creating equal opportunities for shipyards on the world market. Improvements to the competitiveness of shipyards must be extended with the help of internal measures and agreement procedures. Operating aid has not, however, solved the problems of the shipyard industry. Shipbuilding is a sector that demands high technology and whose competitiveness can be improved through cooperation with a view to specialisation, as well as through continued technological development, research and development. Neither will operating aid, not even specifically-channelled aid, solve the Korea problem: that has to be firmly dealt with by means of trade policy, for example.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, I wish to use this point of order to state that I understand the issue raised by Mr Nogueira Román, but this is a question of timing, as the President said. We must understand this. This is precisely why I understand and support the issue raised by the Chairman of our Committee on Fisheries, Mr Varela Suanzes­Carpegna. The truth of the matter is that the Morocco situation is an extremely important issue for many of us and it would be appropriate for the Commissioner to speak right at the beginning of the debate on this issue. I would say that, given the political importance of the Moroccan question, strict adherence to protocol on the agenda is of secondary importance. I therefore think that it would make sense to arrange the debate as I have suggested.

Political group: PPE-DE
I congratulate the Earl of Stockton on his excellent report on the annual report of the European Ombudsman for 2002, to which I give my support, in particular as regards the need for all the institutions of the Union, especially the Commission, to adopt the Code of Good Administrative Behaviour. In this context, I should like to highlight the role of the Ombudsmen in the democratic process of Europe, in ensuring that all people have the right to have their affairs handled impartially, fairly and within a reasonable time by the institutions and bodies of the Union; access by citizens to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents; and the right to refer cases of maladministration in the activities of Community institutions or bodies (with the exception of the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance acting in their respective judicial roles). I should also like to congratulate Mr Söderman on concluding his term of office, which he has exercised in such a way as to enhance the role of the European Ombudsman in the process of European integration. - Report Perry (A5-0203/2003)

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, we all understand how fragile our society is when civil aircraft with people on their way to meet others are turned into bombs targeting citizens of the world in the metropolis of New York, a city in which people, at the start of their working day in the service industry or finance, become innocent victims of fanaticism and fiendishly well-organised terrorism which will stop at nothing to vent its hatred of the open, civilised and diverse society in which we live. At the same time, however, all democrats throughout the world have realised that this open society is worth defending and that we have to work together to combat terrorism and lack of freedom. US President George W. Bush has therefore, to his credit, been successful in creating global coalitions for freedom. The UN, NATO and the EU have acted vigorously in this common struggle. The common will in the European Union must manifest the ideals of the open society. Let us not panic and introduce legislation which eliminates the principles of a state governed by law. Do not let the protection of human rights be seen as incompatible with the fight against terrorism. Do not let the prevailing mood be exploited for the purpose of closing borders or increasing prejudices between people. Madam President-in-Office of the Council, make sure that Ghent is used to strengthen the EU’s ability to promote the open society. Trade is increasing links and understanding between the people of Europe and the rest of the world. It is therefore disgraceful that certain countries in the EU are at present outside the common currency, which is one of our best tools for increasing partnership. It is therefore also foolhardy of the Belgian Presidency to play the anti-globalisation game by bringing up the Tobin Tax, which would directly counteract economic recovery and increased trade. Madam President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, Europe’s best long-term contribution to a more open, freer and safer world will be in terms of obtaining concrete results now on the reuniting of Western and Eastern Europe through enlargement. You must not only handle an emergency and increasingly clear threats, but you must also fulfil the EU’s most important and historic task. I wish you the best of luck in Ghent.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in the spring we approved a ceiling for transfers of relevant funds to the guarantee fund. Later, in the summer, something unexpected happened: the earthquake in Turkey. We quite rightly decided to grant humanitarian assistance to Turkey via the European Investment Bank. But that will cause a technical problem with the budget, because now, as a result of this unexpected event, we are approaching the ceiling that has been imposed for such transfers to the guarantee fund. If anything else should occur unexpectedly, we will either have to exceed the ceiling or make cuts in other areas of financial aid. We have brought this problem to the attention of the Commission and received a very vague reply from them to the questions we asked, but, despite that, we cannot jeopardise the implementation of this financial aid. It will be jeopardised if we now adopt the proposed amendments. For this reason, although the Commission has not given us a completely satisfactory reply regarding the technical aspects of the budget, I wish to withdraw these amendments, and at the same time I would say to the Commission that there is a problem here, which we have drawn attention to, and we hope that in the future the Commission will take account of it and propose the ceiling be exceeded in the event of unexpected situations in which funding is required.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, the economic factor has always taken precedence in the building of Europe. Without a doubt, its greatest achievements are the single currency and the creation of the European Central Bank. Aside from their strictly economic significance, which is huge, these institutions are positive proof to the people that the creation of new Community institutions, entrusted with exercising integrated policies in place of the governments or the national bodies of the Member States, is not a betrayal but a more efficient way of jointly exercising national sovereignty. The lesson learned from the single currency gives us an invaluable weapon for deepening our institutions further, which is essential if we wish to promote enlargement of the Union without endangering its cohesion. These new and necessary institutional developments or completely new institutions, such as the particularly important military corps that has just been decided on, could lead to dilemmas as to how to divide power between national and Community authorities. But let us not forget the message of EMU: Community institutions are only successful when the principle of subsidiarity is applied and when the power of the larger partners is counterbalanced by protecting the rights of the smaller partners. All this is arming us for the unusually ambitious enlargement process. It is not about patching together new pieces of territory, it is about assimilation and transformation under the influence of a Union of truly integrated human societies. It took a great deal of courage on the part of the Turkish Government to accept the challenge of becoming a candidate country, as a result of which huge social changes are inevitable and will certainly include satisfactory restoration of the rights of the Kurdish nation. It also took a great deal of courage on the part of the Greek Government and of Prime Minister Costas Simitis to bet on the success of this change, to trust in the possibility of a good outcome and to put out its hand to Turkey and agree to do business with it just as it does business with its European partners, the members of the Union. Undoubtedly, the fact that Cyprus has been guaranteed unimpeded accession played a large part in the Greek Government’s decision. All this gives us hope that a new chapter was opened in Helsinki and that this new chapter will be crowned with success.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, my fellow Members have said some very important things about foreign policy and that the European Union must not become ‘Fortress Europe’. I would like in my own speech to stress that we must also practise good neighbourly cooperation in our neighbouring regions. The Danish Presidency in fact offers a new opportunity for this in the Nordic area. The Danish Presidency’s programme makes mention of strengthening the so-called Northern Dimension. This is welcome news as far as I am concerned, and I would like to propose that the Commission and Denmark, during its presidential term, should together also begin to draft the next Northern Dimension Action Plan, as the current one becomes void at the end of 2003. I would really like to know what the Commission’s position is on this Northern Dimension question. Does the Commission take the matter as seriously as Denmark, as the country holding the presidency? This is about cooperation between the whole of the European Union and its northern neighbouring regions and not just cooperation between the northernmost Member States and such counties as Russia, Iceland, Norway and Greenland. This is actually a programme within whose framework we must be able to resolve our common problems. These relate to the huge challenges we face. For example, the gap that exists between the standard of living in Russia and that in the European Union and the difference in the rate of development are so enormous that this in itself constitutes a threat to security. There are nuclear power plants, the transportation of nuclear material, and then there is this problem over the Arctic region. Do the Commission and Denmark also now intend, within the framework of the Northern Dimension, to look into the issue of the so-called Arctic Window in the Northern Dimension, and what in concrete terms do they intend to achieve in doing so?

Political group: Verts-ALE