GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Mr President, Commissioner, we all know that Mrs Lulling is not only the European Parliament's queen of wine but also its queen bee. I should like to thank her very warmly for this commitment, because we should be aware that this has been a matter of concern to the European Parliament for decades. Back in the 1980s, the Bavarian Member of Parliament and pan-European, Heinrich Aigner, who sadly is no longer with us, brought together hundreds of Bavarian beekeepers to inject some impetus into this issue. We have been working on it for 30 years, and unfortunately we have not made a great deal of progress. I have to say quite clearly, Commissioner, that I am grateful to you for your precise answers and for taking this important issue so seriously, because an ecological crisis is slowly developing in this sector. In Bavaria and Austria huge numbers of bee colonies died in the spring frosts, but also of course because of insecticides and diseases, and we are feeling the ecological effects very keenly, for example with our fruit. That is why I really believe that now is the time to promote something that is under serious threat, namely passing on beekeeping to the next generation. A very high proportion of beekeepers are old, because fewer and fewer people from the younger generation are prepared to take on this arduous, but ecologically necessary, task, not least because the financial rewards are ever more meagre. That is why I should like to say quite clearly that I – like Mrs Lulling – call for all measures to be taken to support the marketing of natural European honey ahead of cheap, undeclared artificial honey, with which we have repeatedly had to contend, or honey from abroad. I would also call for something that is always the subject of some ridicule, but which is ecologically important, namely the pollination premium for colonies of bees, so that we promote this activity by giving beekeepers more support. I should particularly like to thank you, Commissioner, for your examples from France, which plays a leading role in this sector. Your country also has a former agriculture minister for president and it is a country, which, thank God, takes healthy eating and delicious food very seriously. I actually believe that we in Europe should finally see this issue, which is regarded by some perhaps as a bit of a joke, for what it is, namely a health issue and a prerequisite for a functioning environment and ecological system.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, the Conference of Presidents decided, by means of a vote, that this debate would not be followed by a resolution. The reasons for this are very clear. Following the dismal role played by the European Union in the Iraq crisis, we think that this is not the moment either to deepen divisions or to ascribe blame to anyone. Instead, it is a time for finding a common will and forging a consensus in order to enable the European project to move forward following the pitiful spectacle offered by this Parliament at its last plenary session when we were incapable of agreeing upon a resolution. We are very keen in Parliament on beavering away at putting the world to rights and demanding of the Council of Ministers that it have the ability to speak with a single voice on the international stage, but we are incapable of agreeing upon a resolution. My group is therefore in favour of a debate and of statements by the Council and the Commission, but not in favour of a resolution, at least until such time as this Parliament is capable of agreeing upon a resolution. (Parliament rejected the request)

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I do not know if the problem lies in the wording, but this does not appear to answer the question I was asking. In fact, on tomorrow’s agenda, the Conference of Presidents has tabled its proposal for the establishment of a temporary committee, not a committee of inquiry. This, however, is not the issue: what I am asking for is a vote on the decision by the Conference of Presidents, with the motion that there should not be a committee of inquiry. There is another motion, but that is not it. You have therefore not answered my question.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, as a follow-up to the conclusions of the Tampere European Council of October 1999, the Commission has drawn up various proposals to control migratory flows and to combat illegal immigration. The fact is, however, that the image of Fortress Europe that the European Union has generated, as a result of its profoundly restrictive immigration policies, stands in stark contrast to the real economic need for immigrant labour. This is why this Commission proposal presents immigration as part of the solution to the ageing of Europe’s population and to the decline in its active population. I deplore the fact that the Commission attaches greater importance to the economic and demographic aspects that lead to immigration than to the social and human aspects or to improving the living and working conditions of immigrants in the various countries of the European Union. The fight against illegal immigration and the trafficking of human beings cannot result in a repressive policy that targets illegal immigrants. It must instead target the traffickers and employers who exploit this situation. This is why we have presented a set of what we believe to be important proposals to improve the Moraes report, in the hope that they will be adopted. These include opposing the content of the Council directive on family reunification, which contravenes the fundamental right to live in a family and contains an unacceptable proposal to subject all immigrant children of at least two years of age to a test, before deciding whether they can join their parents. I would also highlight our appeal to Member States to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, adopted by United Nations General Assembly Resolution No 45158 of 18 December 1990. In addition, however, the overwhelming majority of immigrant workers who do not have residence permits but who do pay taxes and social security contributions in their host country should be automatically legalised. We also hope that account is taken of the fact that the overwhelming majority of immigrants are citizens of third countries who emigrate to European Union countries to flee situations of extreme poverty in their country of origin and who must, therefore, be treated as victims and not as potential criminals. Lastly, I am sorry that the European People’s Party seeks to use the Moraes report to call into question established political rights, specifically the right of immigrant workers to vote in local elections to the European Parliament. Immigrants must not be viewed as disposable workers who can be thrown away after use. Immigrants, and women in particular, should be deemed worthy of reception conditions that respect human rights, fundamental freedoms and equal economic, social and cultural rights.

Political group: GUE-NGL
The rapporteur has made important observations about the social, economic and environmental fields of our fisheries sector with regard to fishing in international waters. I believe it is crucial, however, that both the European Commission and the European Parliament, under the reform of the common fisheries policy, address the issue of how to comply with the provisions agreed on in the Action Plan of the Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in 2002, in particular eliminating all subsidies to illegal, unsustainable and unregulated fishing and the need to recover endangered fish stocks by 2015.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I would like to take this opportunity to inform the Commissioner that, together with the Interparliamentary Union, the European Parliament will, as we have done before, be staging an event in Cancun. The object of the enterprise is that members of the parliaments of countries belonging to the WTO should meet together in order to exchange information. An additional consideration is that, in our view, many trade issues are moving further and further away from what have traditionally been considered as such, with which they formerly coincided, and touch on very sensitive areas that are of great interest to many members of the public. These include the service sector among many others. The event will be held in Cancun on 9 and 12 September, and this House will be playing a leading part in it, with many of our Members being present. We would of course be glad if all Members of this House with an interest in these matters were to circulate information about this event. Let me also address a second point, one raised by Mr Clegg, that being the issue of whether you will at all agree – whether or not the Convention so decides – that this House must approve the agreement negotiated in Cancun, no matter when or how it is concluded? Now for my third point. Might you consider reiterating today that Parliament is to give its approval and have – within the Article 133 Committee – a right equal to that of the Council to be involved and informed, and, furthermore, are you able to make a statement to the effect that Parliament should also have a part to play in allocating seats on it?

Political group: PSE
Madam President, I would like to start by thanking the Commission, the Council and the High Representative for agreeing to take part in a debate on this subject and to reassure the High Representative that we are not going to reopen here a backdated debate on the motives behind the operations in the former Yugoslavia; it would not be right, apart from anything else because the context has changed radically. Today we have a reasonable hope of including these countries in the European Union; yesterday we were in the thick of the nightmare of ethnic cleansing and atrocities encouraged by the nationalistic dictatorships of Izetbegovic, Karadzic and Milosevic. It is appropriate for the European Parliament to be the forum for a responsible, transparent debate on the issue of the possible relationship between the use of depleted uranium shells and a substantial number of deaths and cases of ill health among the soldiers of different countries who have participated in operations, initially in Bosnia and more recently in Kosovo, and on the concern regarding the direct and indirect impact on the civilians involved. There would be no cause for alarm if there were no more than the suspicion that the frequency of these cases exceeded the average for the same age categories, and it is precisely for this reason that we must establish the exact causes. To this end, various initiatives have already been undertaken at national and international level. We call upon NATO itself to support these initiatives, making use of the contribution of the US administration where necessary. In order to obtain all possible reassurance from the world of science, we call upon the Council and the Commission to take an active part in this coordination operation and exchange of information and we urge the Commission to set in motion its own autonomous scientific enquiry. Lastly, the moratorium and the precautionary principle: this is not a question of asserting a principle, the precautionary principle, which was established in the context of food safety, and transferring it wholesale to foreign policy. Rather, it is a matter of realising that the military problem has become a civilian problem and concerns the protection, for a long time after the operation itself, of the health and lives of civilians as well as soldiers.

Political group: PSE
Dictatorships are keen to detain critical foreign visitors at their borders or send them straight home from their airports. The United States, too, has a tradition of barring those regarded as enemies or as dangerous influences. The most effective way to get into the US as a suspected person is to have one’s visit enforced by means of an extradition order by an American judge. Visits of one’s own free will are already in practice affected by the attempt to demand thirty-nine items of personal data on each and every passenger on transatlantic flights, including the choice of meals as a means towards determining whether someone is a Moslem. On 20 May, I was one of those who took part in the protest against this at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands. Europe cannot prevent the US from refusing entry to visitors from abroad, but that does not mean that the EU itself must cooperate in collecting data of this sort within Europe for the Americans’ purposes. Such cooperation is and remains contrary to European standards on the protection of privacy. I am glad that the Committee on Citizens’ Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs has lent its unanimous support to a ban on the transmission of data by airlines and automated booking systems, if this discriminates against those who are not US citizens, the data is kept for long periods and if information or review procedures are not in place. - Motion for a resolution (B5-0410/2003) – Beekeeping

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, I also commend Mr Parish for his hard work and the excellent report. In the brief time I have I wish to stress that one of the greatest difficulties facing young farmers entering the business today is capital and cash-flow problems in the first year of operation. I am backing this proposal because young people must be given the opportunity to come into the industry on a sound financial footing. After all, young farmers hold the key to the future of all our rural communities. The lack of young people entering the agricultural industry in the UK is a very worrying problem. Statistics show that in Ireland 14.8% of farm owners are under 35, in France the figure is 13.2%, but in the UK it is a mere 6.8%. I stress that farms are also important employers in our rural communities. Employment protects our countryside, it keeps our post offices, schools and services open there. Farming and the viability of farming is the life blood of the future of our rural communities as we know them. If all small businesses – which includes farmers – were to employ just one more person each, then the whole unemployment situation throughout the European Union would be solved overnight. Of all the European Union countries, only the UK and the Netherlands do not operate a specific aid scheme for young farmers. European rural development regulations allow a grant of EUR 16 500 to be made available for people under 40 years of age to establish themselves in a viable farm holding. Yet the Labour government in the UK has not taken advantage of this excellent scheme. I therefore fully support making installation aids mandatory across the European Union. The farming industry needs young blood in order to inject a new vibrancy into an industry which at present is aged and disillusioned. Young farmers are the future of the farming industry and vital components in urban communities. I thank Mr Parish for his report and wish his report all the best to ensure that we can follow up these important decisions taken by him in a specific and constructive manner.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Community fleets account for over 20% of the world tuna catch and are among the main sources of raw material supplies to the tinned fish industry. Portugal accounts for 6% of EU tinned tuna production, which in turn represents around 40% of Portuguese tinned fish production. This illustrates the importance of the tuna fleet and industry based in less developed, outlying regions that are highly dependent on the fisheries sector. The sector has lost competitiveness in the face of pressure from foreign imports, as a result of bilateral and multilateral commercial agreements, and has also been adversely affected by the last reform of the common fisheries policy, which took place in December 2002. I therefore endorse the main idea underpinning this report, namely that the Commission draw up a study on the state of tuna resources, the fleet and the industry as a whole, and subsequently present an action plan for the tuna sector that provides a global framework of structural aid and a plan to protect the sector against competition from third countries. We have always advocated the need for compensation or consumption subsidies to support the canning sector and for monitoring imports, in order to ensure that imported fish meets the same criteria for food safety and quality as products from the Community industry.

Political group: GUE-NGL
I refer to the vote on the amendment by Mr Elles. It was not carried because it needed a qualified majority.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, it is painful to have to stand by as a stubborn president, who has also earned a great deal of credit, uses unscrupulous party activists to help him systematically ruin a country, with no scruples about using deadly force in the process, because he cannot come to terms with the threat of losing power. Like Mr Gahler, I was one of the parliamentary election observers at the time and saw for myself how Mugabe and his rent-a-mob were driving the country straight towards catastrophe. Despite massive attempts to intimidate the electors – and we shall no doubt see an action replay of that now – and despite massive support for the opposition candidates, which has ended in death in a multitude of cases, the MDC achieved a remarkable result, clearly signalling to Mugabe that political change was on the horizon. Now, with presidential elections imminent, Mugabe is again tightening the screw of force and terror. There is no sign of the return to the rule of law promised in the Abuja agreement; on the contrary. By using more and more legislative repression, massively restricting the freedom of the press, threatening the opposition, continuing to occupy farms and permanently undermining the rule of law, Mugabe is isolating himself more and more, including from his traditional allies in southern Africa. This was blatantly obvious at the last meeting of the ACP/EU joint parliamentary assembly in Brussels in October. These countries are being sucked into free fall by the humanitarian and economic disaster in Zimbabwe and further pressure is needed to make Robert Mugabe change direction and hold the presidential elections in accordance with the standards of free and fair elections, and this is where we also need the support of the institutions of the European Community.

Political group: PSE
Madam President, while flying from Milan to Strasbourg I was in the pilot’s cabin chatting with the pilot, as I sometimes do, and he was telling me all about his problems relating to working hours, pay and pensions. I told him that administrative procedures in the civil aviation sector, including provision for regulating the work of aviation employees, were due to be debated in the European Parliament, along with technical regulations, and I assured him that I would ask for a recommendation to the Member States to give pilots higher and earlier pensions, for pilots are of key importance for our safety.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, the loud, sustained applause that greeted the presentation of Mrs De Sarnez’ report is indicative of its value and excellent quality. European added value has been mentioned with regard to Erasmus Mundus. There is also Parliamentary added value through the amendments which Parliament will make to this European response to the challenge of global competition between universities. This challenge consists of responding to the brain drain by attracting brains, without imitating formulas from outside Europe, while developing a specific objective: linguistic diversity. A knowledge-based Europe is a multilingual Europe, the development of an original system of movement between universities, a vision of the organisation of the academic Community as a network: these are the innovative elements. What are we asking for in order to achieve this? A small budgetary increase, a little budgetary oxygen for Erasmus Mundus, a small financial step, Mr President, for a great leap towards excellence.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, I thank the Commissioner for his explanation and for the fact that he came in to talk on this subject this morning. What he said is news to me because my understanding was that the proposal was a special tax on all foreign vehicles, which we assumed was all non-UK vehicles using the roads of the United Kingdom. I see this as a political gesture rather than as a political or fiscal measure. My understanding is that costs in the UK, taking into account the new proposals, without this particular charge are on a par with the rest of the European Union and on a similar level to French transport costs. Even if the Commission says that a country may introduce that charge and put the same charge on its own vehicles, I still regard it as a distortion of the single market because presumably British hauliers will apply for their tax disc and every charge will be included in the single payment that they will make. Other users of British roads will be required to pay a special tax at the border on entry into the United Kingdom. No matter what the Commission thinks, this is a distortion of the single market and a distortion of free trade. This proposal is particularly hard and vexatious for Ireland. Ireland, is obviously a very small but open market, yet most of what we buy comes from the United Kingdom. We buy GBP 11,000 million worth of goods from Britain annually as against only GBP 7,000 million from the rest of the European Union. That shows the extent to which Irish industry and commerce favour the British market, although with the current strength of the pound sterling, this situation will not be maintained if the value of the currency does not change. At the moment every Irish citizen buys EUR 5,000 of goods from Britain. I believe that this measure is certainly contrary to free trade even with the improvement that has been mentioned by the Commission.

Political group: PPE-DE