GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, to put the environmental dimension on the same level of importance as the economic and social dimension and to act accordingly means stopping talking about sustainable development and actually getting down to implementing it. To be vigilant and demanding in relation to the application of the sustainable development criteria in the Member States with regard to their compliance with European legislation and the application of Community funds is the obligation of the Community institutions. The motion for a resolution from the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy is an initiative which insists on these aspects and it therefore deserves the support of this House. However, to bring a national issue such as the National Hydrological Plan to the European Parliament, in the context of this resolution, is a grave error which has nothing to do with the desire for sustainable development but which has to do with an intention to abandon the principles of subsidiarity and autonomy on the part of the Community institutions. Mr de Roo, to try to deprive a Member State, a priori, without good reason, of the Community funds necessary for its economic development and for the social cohesion of its regions is, in reality, to go against the very sustainable development of that Member State. The Spanish National Hydrological Plan is not an enemy of sustainable development. Its approach is based on a total commitment to compliance with Community environmental legislation and the criteria underlying the sustainable development strategy. It has the majority support and approval of the competent national institutions and constant national and Community scientific and technical supervision. Improving the quality of life of more than fifteen million people depends on its implementation and the immense majority of the Spanish population show support and solidarity towards it. Our electors expect us to offer appropriate responses to the issues on which we have to take a position. The best political responses are the result of reflection, prudence and a profound knowledge of the issues; under no circumstances do they result from demagoguery. (Applause from the right)

Political group: PPE-DE
I wholeheartedly support the report by my Socialist colleague which calls for new measures to tackle road deaths and promote road safety in Europe. Shocking statistics show the severity of the problem. It is simply unacceptable that as many as 42,000 people are killed and over 1.7 million injured on roads across the European Union every year. Of course, the numbers vary from country to country. In Portugal and Greece, there are as many as 243 and 212 deaths per million, whilst at the lowest end of the spectrum, there are 60 and 61 deaths per million in Sweden in the UK, respectively. Every person killed is one too many. Every case is an individual tragedy which tears apart a community. We desperately need to improve road safety with safety equipment in cars, seat belt campaigns and better road signs. The Labour Government in Britain is at the forefront, leading a campaign against drink-driving. The lives of all our citizens, especially our young people, are too precious to take for granted. - Poli Bortone Report (A5-0358/2000)

Political group: PSE
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, for the second time within the space of four months, we find ourselves debating the restructuring of companies in Europe. This is – as it was the first time round – sparked off by the reorganisation of large companies, which is linked to a drop in employment. I would like to make it quite clear that the is against any political interference in companies, in terms of both finance and management. Our task is to draft legislation and to monitor to ensure that it is observed. It appears that Goodyear in Italy received Italian and European subsidies to the tune of approximately EUR 40 million. The company went under despite this. This goes to show that jobs cannot be bought. The market is a law unto itself. As such, state aid costs the government twice: first in subsidies and then in unemployment benefit. Surely this cannot be the role of your, my and the citizens’ tax money? All this, of course, does not mean that our Group does not share the concern of the Italian Members regarding the effects of the closure on the region concerned. My Group is also opposed in principle to the naming of specific companies in this resolution, for two reasons: firstly because this creates selective responsibility. A company is pilloried one day and not the next. Why should this be the case? Michelin caused a great stir. But I did not hear a squeak when Nissan and IBM were discussed, where, similarly, a great number of European employees were involved. Secondly, this is not fair towards employees of other companies where reorganisations also take place and where it hurts too. My Group has signed a joint resolution with EPP and UEN, in which, however, we made it clear right from the outset that we are against the naming of company names. This is why the will vote against paragraph 8 and the second section of paragraph 9. If these paragraphs are nonetheless adopted, my Group will abstain from the final vote. I do hope that this will not be necessary.

Political group: ELDR
It must be possible for both women and men to combine family life and working life. We therefore welcome a Framework Directive in this area which establishes objectives in terms of, for example, working time, access to child care and minimum periods of parental leave. We do not, however, think that issues concerning the ways in which welfare is to be organised should be decided at EU level. We have therefore voted against wordings that require special forms of tax relief or the use of what are termed vouchers or that in other ways regulate welfare policy in detail. We also wish to emphasise that families can take different forms in terms of how their members live together, and we therefore support the wording that states this. Families that do not consist of mother, father and child must also be recognised and be given the same legal status as the traditional family.

Political group: PSE
This Commission proposal seeks to remove VAT exemption for postal services, which has been in place since the sixth directive on VAT of 1977. The Commission is thereby seeking to achieve two things: to continue the process of establishing a single VAT system and to contribute to the current process of liberalising postal services at EU level, as recommended in directive 2002/39/EC. Consequently, as a result of this process of gradual liberalisation which I reject because this undermines public service and its universal scope the effect of removing this exemption, which would oblige public operators to charge VAT at the full rate, would be higher costs for the services provided, especially for private individuals and would encourage the subcontracting of external services. I therefore agree with the recommendation by the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs to reject this Commission proposal, even though this is not the position held by the rapporteur. Consequently, I welcome the rejection of the proposals for amendment tabled by the rapporteur himself, with the support of his group and of the Group of the European People’s Party , which sought a compromise that would make it possible to adopt this proposal for a directive.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, when I look at the proposal the Commission presented, I cannot help thinking of a scene in which a man is sitting by a stream in Finland, trying to catch salmon with a net. But the mesh is so wide that every salmon slips through. With that image in mind, I find it commendable that we are trying to tighten the mesh of the Commission's proposal in exactly the same way as we did with air and water quality. The first thing we need for this is a framework directive which prescribes measuring procedures and action plans, thereby establishing the basis for a general standardisation of noise-abatement policies. Secondly, we need daughter directives which establish quality standards. In the realm of noise-abatement policy we must take particular care in determining the quality standards we wish to have; they must provide a basis on which the noise produced by air, rail and road traffic can be compared as well as taking account of the effects of different dosage levels. We must know the precise levels at which exposure starts to harm people in the long and short term. This means that daughter directives have to be developed very carefully, and this effort must go hand in hand with the development of limit values for particular sources of noise in a combined approach. So we do need a framework directive and we need the combined approach, and I therefore regard much of what the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy has decided as right and proper. I have problems, however, with Amendment No 10 and Amendments Nos 36 and 37, which would bring the specific matter of aviation noise into the framework directive, thereby forestalling the daughter directive. We should examine that very carefully and then pursue the implementation of both parts of the combined approach, namely the establishment of limit values for the various sources of noise on the one hand and quality standards for noise sources on the other. This, I believe, is the way we should proceed. (Applause)

Political group: PSE
Mr President, on a lighter note, it is traditional for Parliament’s spring part-sessions to be pleasantly besieged by schoolchildren, by groups of pupils and students from all over Europe. It is the season for organised school trips. However, not everybody is equally able to take advantage of this great opportunity which we could be offering to all our European young people: indeed, the pupils and students from the furthest, outermost regions cannot come for reasons of money, because of the costs involved. Up until a few years ago, Parliament gave tangible assistance and funding to schools and schoolchildren throughout Europe, but then, in order to save money, this funding was stopped. I have looked into the matter briefly and discovered that some funding is given to the Regions – to the regional authorities – but that it is up to the Regions how they administer it. It does not seem right, Mr President, that schoolchildren who come from far away should not have the same opportunity as those who live nearer to come and see how we work and what we do, as they would have had in the past. I feel that, out of all the money we might spend on groups of visitors, the money spent on young people is, without a doubt, the most important and such as to warrant a small financial sacrifice too. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, on a point of order, it was suggested by both Mrs Lambert and more indirectly by Mr Parish that I misled the House when I claimed that the Groups had tried to block the De Rossa report from appearing on the agenda. While I accept Mrs Lambert's personal enthusiasm for this report and the fact that she proposed that it be drawn up, my criticism was of her Group's attitude and that of the other Groups. The matter was raised by the Chairman of the Committee on Petitions at a meeting of the Conference of Committee Chairs some time last autumn. They were opposed to the Petitions Committee using the Rules of Procedure to produce this report. The matter was referred to the meeting of the Chairs of the Political Groups, where initially the only vote in favour of the report was that of Mr Barón Crespo from the Group. It took considerable heavy lobbying of the other Groups to persuade their chairmen to change their minds and allow this report to be produced on the important subject we have in front of us today.

Political group: PSE
I would thank Mr de Miguel for his reply. Two hundred thousand children are affected, most of them boys. This is a considerably widespread problem for these children in West Africa. The answer I received has much to say about agreements. Is there anything more we can do other than calling for appropriate conventions? Can we bolster the education system and take steps to change attitudes towards people and, in particular, children in order to make it clear that children are not a commodity and that the civilised view of humanity we wish to build on holds that the value of children is sacrosanct and that they must be treated as people in their own right? Is there any possibility of coordination with the US and Japan in order to help these children in West Africa?

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I think that the final version of Mrs Schroedter's report, as adopted in committee, throws up some interesting views and proposals. I am thinking in particular of the extended partnership which the report supports in the form of tripartite contracts with the regions and Member States. I think this proposal is a daring move; it will make it easier to apply the principle of subsidiarity and cut out a lot of unwanted red tape. We should also be encouraged by the fact that the most efficient programmes have been those based on maximum participation. Any innovation, however, needs to be introduced carefully, under some sort of failsafe procedure, if we are to avoid rocking the boat and ensure that financial prudence under the Community budget is left well alone. I therefore think it would be advisable if the Commission were to fine tune this proposal, so that we can evaluate how and to what extent it can be implemented in the initial phase and then go on to examine application guidelines for it. We shall also have to monitor the implementation of this extended partnership closely, in tandem with the potential for decentralisation of each Member State, both old and new. I should also like to point out that, despite the simplifications and changes decided under Agenda 2000, there is still a serious take-up problem and appropriations are not turning into payments. So what do we conclude from all this? Do we need to keep simplifying procedures or is there perhaps a deep-seated structural problem which the Commission and Member States need to address? Has Community funding perhaps become so complicated that it no longer holds any attraction for investors? To close, may I point out that this matter deserves our serious attention, especially in the run up to enlargement, which will obviously exacerbate the take-up problem in that our new partners will also have to deal with difficulties caused by their lack of experience in applying the acquis communautaire.

Political group: PSE
Madam President, the situation today is the result of continual intervention of one form or another by the Americans and their allies over recent years, both to overturn the popular democratic regime in Afghanistan and impose their mercenary Taliban and to directly invade and occupy Afghanistan militarily on the pretext of fighting terrorism. Unfortunately, in the proposed motion, all this is passed over in silence. Not a word is said about the criminal responsibility of the Americans and, in essence, support is given to the foreign-born Karzai government, the credentials of which, as we know, are non-existent. The report accepts these interventions and tries to propose solutions without disputing the present situation. It considers the transfer of the responsibility of the occupying forces to NATO to be positive and proposes new funding which will strengthen its position in the controlled areas, while there is no guarantee whatsoever for the management of these funds for the benefit of the Afghan people, especially women. It welcomes the new constitution approved by the Loya Jirga, while at the same time highlighting its negative aspects, which make it unacceptable. It nurtures futile hopes of democratic elections, while recognising that the conditions for them are not in place. At the same time, while finding that today the main source of income is from the cultivation of opium, the primary revenue from which goes to local warlords, it does not concern itself at all with its further movements in the world and the involvement of the CIA in it. That is why, although we congratulate and thank the rapporteur, André Brie, on the huge effort he has made, we unfortunately cannot support his report, because it is clear from the foregoing that the report does not face the facts. The Afghan people, victims of the new order, will be able to find their way if they resist the forces propelling it, either in the form of religious fanaticism or under the cloak of a poor copy of a western-type bourgeois democracy, the military interventions and the occupation. We must support them in this fight.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Physical, sexual or psychological violence exists in every country in the EU. The statistics gathered in the various countries are quite high, varying from 14.5% in Germany to 56.3% in Portugal, with 52.8% of women suffering physical violence at the hands of their partner or spouse. Since 1991, Portugal has had a law to protect women who suffer domestic violence. Nevertheless, this law was adopted under international pressure, and not as a result of any greater awareness, which means that there are almost no measures in place to implement the law. Violence perpetrated against children, adolescents and women must be condemned, because it violates their fundamental rights, entails serious consequences for society as a whole and constitutes an obstacle to gender equality. The Daphne programme to combat violence involves policies combining prevention, punitive action and victim support. To comply with the objectives that have been laid down, sufficient funding is necessary and it is, therefore, crucial that we increase the budget for forthcoming years.

Political group: PPE-DE
We have voted for the introduction of new instruments that will provide substantially better protection of the Community’s funds. We believe in the first instance that it is a good idea to supplement the OLAF scheme by setting up a unit under OLAF. This unit is to head investigations and ease prosecution proceedings in the national courts. The unit is only to be involved with criminality committed by EU employees. Such a prosecuting authority under OLAF is necessary because experience shows that far too often no prosecution follows from OLAF’s work. It is often not clear in which country a case is to be brought and difficult procedures for the exchange of evidence mean that the case often lapses under the statute of limitations or is dropped. Unfortunately inter-state cooperation is not sufficient. The inter-state anti-fraud conventions are not ratified. There are still five Member States that have not ratified the Convention for the protection of the EU’s financial interests of 1995, for example. In the longer term, one should therefore consider the introduction of a European Public Prosecutor, who would take care of the prosecution proceedings in connection with fraud involving EU funds in the Member States. At the moment, the Member States do not do enough to combat fraud involving EU funds. Moreover, 80% of cases of fraud are cross-border cases. Here prosecution is often problematic. There are major differences as regards the definition of illegal acts and penalties as well as with regard to procedure, rules on evidence and the authority of the prosecuting authority to carry out checks. It is to be feared that the problem will become worse with the removal of the borders that has given organised crime even greater freedom of movement. The fraudsters will seek out those countries that have the least protection. Consequently, we must establish the necessary instruments for more effective combating of fraud involving EU funds as soon as possible.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, to date, the European Parliament has always been very devoted to the basic principle of equal opportunities. The same applies to the Commission as we know it. That entails a task not only for the Commissioner who has equal opportunities in his or her remit, but also for all Commissioners in their respective areas. I should like to have the assurance that that will be the case in the new Commission too. Needless to say, we are delighted that there are three female Commissioners, but we expect all Commissioners to raise the flag – if I may put it that way – for equal opportunities for men and women. With all due respect for the new Commissioner, Mr Borg, who is undoubtedly highly qualified, he did not convince me with regard to development cooperation during the hearing. Surely development cooperation should also have a strong gender dimension. Would the President of the Commission be able to confirm once again that equal opportunities are still important to the newly-expanded Commission too, that the Peking platform, which has been signed by all our Member States, remains a guiding principle for it, and that sexual and reproductive rights and health, for both men and women, remain an area of concern for the Union?

Political group: PSE
Mr President, I ask you to accept the inclusion of this additional clause. (Parliament agreed to the presentation of the oral amendment) (Parliament adopted the joint resolution) *** Joint motion for a resolution on Laos(2) (Before the vote)

Political group: PSE
Mr President, as somebody keen on helping countries to create jobs and transfer technology, I have to say that the ECIP programme is extremely good and, in principle, that was the objective. But as my colleague and friend, Mrs Theato, has mentioned, it is full of worms. It is almost as if the project was a wonderful, beautifully-wrapped box of chocolates, but inside was absolutely packed with worms. The reason for that is simple. If you look at Facility 1, it grants up to EUR 100 000 for simply identifying a potential joint venture. So, clearly, when you look at Facilities 2, 3, 4 and 1b, you soon realise that the work was not done by somebody who was a banker, but by somebody who perhaps was a bureaucrat and knew nothing about finance and lending to projects which could be viable. In short, I would say if such an instrument is ever to be invented and devised, it should be done with bankers and industrialists, people who know what they are talking about, not bureaucrats sitting in the European Commission. Therefore, the sooner this project is wound up and the European Union saves money that is being wasted, the better. I feel very strongly that such investment projects should be very carefully thought out with input from industry and bankers so that maximum jobs are created where they are needed and where there is wide coverage and public accountability and transparency. When I was a member of the Budgetary Control Committee and met the people who were managing this project, I was not at all impressed with the knowledge that they had of running such an enterprise, and I come from an industrial and financial background.

Political group: PPE-DE