GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Mr President, I should like to begin by congratulating everyone who has been involved in this work: Mr Caudron, Mrs Sandbæk, the Commission and the Council, for this is a crucial action programme. We have promised the developing countries that we shall eradicate poverty there, something that will not be possible if we do not overcome diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria. I think that, now that it has been debated in Parliament, the proposal is better than it appears, for the Commission’s proposal gave far too much emphasis to the purely medical aspects. Like other speakers in the debate, I believe however that success depends crucially upon preventive work and efforts made before the disease has broken out. The issue of access and prices is of course incredibly important. What we must not forget is that treatment with what are known as retardant medicines is, however, an extremely complicated form of medication that also requires a functioning medical and health care system. Finally, I want to put the same question that Mrs Sandbæk put to the Commission: has any work already been begun? What have the Member States done? What, in practical terms, has the Commission done? Noble intentions and fine words on paper are no longer enough. What, instead, is required without delay is practical action.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Mr President, with the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, the West began from the principle that the Russian Federation would be given unreserved support for her regional unity. Presumably, the Russian leaders also received some sort of promise regarding this when they were making their contribution to the peaceful dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union. This has also been the West’s common position in its attitude to events in Chechnya. The Russian leadership, however, apparently fears it is losing those regions whose population is mainly made up of ethnic and religious minorities. Military withdrawal from Chechnya was seen as a dangerous precedent. The events of Dagestan gave cause to presume that the disease is spreading. The Russian leadership’s worry concerning their country’s regional unity is doubtless well-founded. They should, however, realise that a country’s sovereignty cannot be secured through military force. The only realistic way forward is for the minority peoples living in the southern parts of Russia to be satisfied with their circumstances and feel that belonging to the Russian Federation benefits them. Military might is necessary, but it should be used only to keep terrorism under control. The West must clearly condemn the excessive use of military force in Chechnya – more clearly than what was the case at the Helsinki Summit meeting. We must influence the Russian government so that it would try to solve its country’s internal problems both through political means and by promoting economic and social development. EU and Western credibility and capacity for action generally is unfortunately made weaker in this matter by the recent war waged in Yugoslavia on humanitarian grounds.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, may I just make a brief comment. In connection with human rights, only a brief mention was made here of the Romanies. During the IMF Summit, people came out of prison with broken ribs. This means that they had not been allowed to exercise their rights of free speech and freedom of assembly. This report does not .... (The President cut the speaker off)

Political group: Verts-ALE
Mr President, during the night of 26 to 27 September, the ship de Joola sank off the coast of Senegal, taking with it many Senegalese, a group of Europeans, and Roel and Lisette Arendshorst from Groningen. President Wade of Senegal has taken responsibility for this disaster. Since his own country has no money for the recovery of the ship, President Wade has already talked about a burial at sea. This is unacceptable. For the relatives of the victims, it is of the utmost importance for the bodies of their loved ones to be recovered as soon as possible, since problems of identification will arise as time goes on. As an inquiry has shown that the ship is stuck on a sandbank, it would be relatively easy to recover the bodies with the aid of sub-aqua divers. This kind of recovery is not terribly costly but may still be too expensive for Senegal. Last week, I already made an urgent appeal to Commissioners Nielson, Patten and Bolkestein to release European funding from the European Development Fund. Time is pressing. I still have no reply. I should once again like to urge the Commission to offer financial support to Senegal as soon as possible so that the parents and siblings of Roel and Lisette, and the relatives of the other victims, no longer have to live with the anxiety and can bid farewell to their loved ones in a dignified manner.

Political group: PSE
This report reflects the European Commission’s policy of giving priority to competition policy, even when, in the name of this policy, workers’ fundamental rights are threatened, or privatisations go ahead. These privatisations turn public-sector companies that are accused of enjoying a monopoly into effective private monopolies and often undermine public services that are essential to improving people’s quality of life, which is what has happened in Portugal. The social dimension is totally absent from the report and the rapporteur even goes so far as to state that “when examining whether a conduct restricts competition, focus should be on the harm caused to competition, not to the competitors.” Its view is that that “competition cases should be based on economic analysis”. The report also advocates mergers between companies, even between those on a large scale, on the pretext of international competitiveness, but it ignores any social consequences that may result from this situation. We therefore felt bound to vote against the report, which is what we did. - Jonathan Evans report (A5-0281/2000)

Political group: GUE-NGL
Madam President, I should like to express my respect for those who do not smoke and to state there must indeed be routes which allow them to move through the Parliament building without being affected by smoke. I should also like to express my respect, however, for those who do smoke, and to defend their right to smoke. It is important for my mental and physical wellbeing that I smoke, and I must point out that if there were no ashtrays, we would be creating even more unpleasant situations. There must be ashtrays, just as there must be separate areas in which smokers can smoke and non-smokers can feel comfortable.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, in order not to adopt something that is not true, I would simply ask our colleagues who tabled this amendment to withdraw 'Denmark', because Denmark has ratified the Convention.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, the truncated speech by Mr Haarder and the much longer statement by Mr Patten give us cause for concern, dismay and alarm, particularly after the British Prime Minister's warmongering in Sedgefield yesterday. It is evident that the unstated assumption by the European authorities – with the remarkable exception of the German Republic – is that war is, by now, a certainty. Never mind that there is no scrap of evidence that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction, even nuclear weapons, never mind that Mr Blair has again postponed the publication of his own private dossier on the matter. There is no doubt that, as with Enron's creative accounting, the CIA are working on creative evidence. Confronted with such an imminent disaster for humankind, the Council and the Commission are taking the wrong – although expected – stand. As the French newspaper le Figaro puts it, 'confronted with American intransigence Europe excels again in its inclination to compromise'. Compromise in this case is offered by the figleaf of the United Nations, a figleaf that in this specific case covers much more than has been covered by UNSCOM and UNMOVIC. Unfettered, unconditional, intrusive access by United Nations inspectors, let us say Anglo-American inspectors, to every site in Iraq – something which Mr Rumsfeld himself expects to be rejected out of hand by the infamous Baghdad dictator. After that only one alternative: war. Unfortunately, what we have heard today from Mr Haarder and Commissioner Patten confirms our belief that there is a growing gap between the people of Europe and these governing bodies, a gap which this war will enlarge with deleterious consequences for the future of the Union.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Freight transport by road has increased considerably over the past 20 years. This has led to bottlenecks and pressure to keep widening motorways and to build new roads. This form of transport takes up a great deal of space, is noisy and contributes significantly to the greenhouse effect. The Commission is right to conclude that this problem must be addressed by shifting from the roads to rail, inland shipping and coastal shipping. A majority on the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism are opposed to this and want to spare road traffic. A modal shift is said to be too costly, and the alternatives are also faced with shortages of capacity and environmental objections. It is true that the often ageing diesel locomotives should become cleaner and that the canal network has been neglected. This is now being seized on as an argument for handing out subsidies to restrict pollution and congestion on the roads. Furthermore, the thresholds for those subsidies are being halved. It is also true that the remaining road traffic should become cleaner. Nevertheless, I fear that although the EU will be handing out much more funding, little will actually change as a result. Road transport will then get the taxpayer to pick up the tab for the necessary environmental investments, and demand for more motorways will continue to rise.

Political group: GUE-NGL
For several years now, the ΕU has been systematically promoting the penetration of big business into a series of sectors in public ownership and under public control (energy, telecommunications, railways, post offices and so on). In 2002, a regulatory framework was decided for telecommunications which imposes full liberalisation, with uniform regulations, in order to prevent acute contrasts, facilitate competition for the new 'players' with the predominant former public corporations which are now strong monopoly companies and ensure the telecommunications monopolies efficiently penetrate the markets of the new Member States. The Community decisions have still not been applied in seven Member States, including Greece, against which the Commission has started judicial proceedings. This delay shows the inability of the ΕU to impose unequivocal solutions between conflicting interests and the reactions to the clearly negative results of liberalisation. The report by the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy laments the delay and threatens fire and brimstone in the event of non-compliance. It even goes so far as to call for a ban on price reductions by 'incumbents'. The MEPs of the Communist Party of Greece not only have no reason to lament, but we also condemn once again the selling off of public wealth and put forward our standard position, which is that there should be solely public services in crucial sectors of the economy such as telecommunications.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, I too would like to thank the two rapporteurs for their hard work. I would particularly like to congratulate Mr Färm on the part of the report which concerns internal policies, which includes a clear, explicit reference to policies for the elderly, who represent an increasingly significant proportion of our society. The report rightly focuses on both social integration and the importance of ensuring dynamic economic growth. However, I would like to draw your attention to and focus on a different matter. I refer to Argentina, a country which does not currently appear to be following the path of economic growth that we are but which merits a special effort on our part. Argentina’s current situation raises disturbing questions regarding the future of the country, a land of immigration which, in the past, has absorbed thousands upon thousands of citizens from all over Europe. I feel that, not least in order to prevent the crisis spreading to the neighbouring countries, the European Union needs to give a specific sign of its commitment. I have tabled an amendment to that effect together with Mr Naranjo Escobar, which I hope the House will adopt. With regard to the Stenmarck report, I would like to thank its author for incorporating so accurately the sense of controlled multilingualism, that is the need to balance the requirement that all the Members should be able to express themselves in their own language with indisputable budgetary requirements. Lastly, one more point: there is a phrase which should perhaps be expressed differently. I refer to that part which states that the administration must be ‘politically balanced’. In my opinion, the expression ‘politically neutral’ would certainly have been much more acceptable.

Political group: PPE-DE
Madam President, I too would like to express my concern over the lot of development aid in the budget. Rigour is the watchword. Budget headings are removed and reduced, and I feel we are far from a budget that meets our needs and expectations. Apart from the fact that the increase in this part of the budget is only superficial, since account must be taken of the inclusion of pre-accession aid for Cyprus, Malta and, in particular, Turkey, the general trend conveyed by the figures is not an indication of a great desire on the part of the Union to shoulder its responsibilities with regard to the South. How odd it is to set the objective of eradicating poverty and, at the same time, cut funds for development aid. The cuts are clear: less for food aid, less for Latin America. They are particularly serious for the Mediterranean and the Balkans, without counting the possibility of further cuts which will have to be made if funding for aid to Afghanistan is not found from other resources. Who can we convince that this so-called reallocation of funds to other headings will lead to more appropriations, greater effectiveness in responding to the needs of the people concerned? Without a proper review of the Financial Perspectives, the pressure on heading 4 is becoming untenable. Following the abolition of the Development Council, such a budget would send a very bad signal. Another example is the negotiations which have just begun with a view to the signing of economic partnership agreements with our ACP partners. Considerable adjustment efforts are asked of them; that is a financial constraint which cannot be sustained by the ACP countries themselves or by the EDF, but which requires supplementary funds to be specially allocated by the European Union. Lastly, I wish to lend my support to my group’s proposal to create a specific heading for aid to Palestine. Some claim that the projects funded by the European Union should be abandoned, if they are destined to be systematically destroyed. Several months ago now, Commissioner Patten estimated the destruction of such infrastructures by the Israeli army at EUR 20 million. Nevertheless, the Union must certainly not give in to the law of the survival of the fittest and must act as required by law. That is what Commissioner Patten has constantly reiterated, calling for a serious and concerted effort required to reform and rebuild the Palestinian Authority, as the only viable interlocutor in future peace talks. This will be achieved through the political and budgetary transparency of this objective.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, Commissioner, we must be very careful as Europeans about taking issue with separatist movements of the kind being discussed here. I say that because many of the borders involved in these great island kingdoms – the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia – are purely and simply colonial borders that we drew artificially to suit our own political and economic interests and which destroyed historical structures. To that extent, we are responsible for many of the conflicts in this region. That does not mean that it is not up to us Europeans to ensure that these structures do not disintegrate, with all the dangers that would imply. We should not put ourselves on a pedestal. We have to recognise that we bear a lot of the responsibility for these developments. Nevertheless, it is, of course, our task to create peace and stability in this area, and in particular to take action against all those criminals who, on a political pretext, have, in the most appalling way, kidnapped and maltreated innocent tourists who are citizens of the European Union. There can be no political justification for ill-treating people as is happening there. We therefore appeal to these criminals to release these citizens of the European Union and all the hostages immediately, and we give our full support to Mr Solana and everyone else trying to help to bring this hostage crisis to an end. We should also take this hostage crisis as a warning to us to stop ignoring these parts of the world or simply pursuing our own economic interests there. Instead, we should be helping to create stable and peaceful conditions there, because these areas of conflict are like open wounds that we ourselves have often inflicted in the past in these regions.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I sincerely believe that the most important factor in relations between the European Union and Turkey is to avoid making U-turns and complete shifts in policy. It is essential not to give out wrong or unrealistic messages either to the Ankara Government or to the Turkish people, and to base our position on two principles. The first one is that relations between the European Union and Turkey are vital to both parties, now and in the future, in all areas and at all levels. Secondly, that the European Union must give priority to promoting Turkey’s democratisation in an intelligent way. To achieve this, we have to use the means available to us – the Association Agreement and certainly the Customs Union too. The European Union must demand that Turkey fulfils the Copenhagen criteria, but we must not add new ones. I was perturbed to hear how Mr Poettering, on behalf of the European People’s Party, added a so-called cultural criterion to our relations with Turkey. What was he referring to? To the fact that there are unavoidable cultural differences between Europeans and Turks, which prevent Ankara from having the chance that their country might join the European Union? I am radically against this unacceptable view. We can require that there be political principles, democracy, respect for human rights, and fair treatment of minorities and of the Kurdish people, and that international law be respected. But to add other criteria would certainly not be European in the best sense of the word. I would therefore like the EPP and Mr Poettering to make their position clear on this matter. Turkish public opinion, a progressive public opinion in terms of politics, society and business, requires that we give a clear message. But this message includes a rapprochement between the European Union and Turkey and at the same time, a push for the democratic values which today are still not being fulfilled. Leyla Zana is surely the most striking example of what I am talking about.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, a precise assessment of the effects of the first directive is the least we can ask for when approaching the future of the public postal service. It would be obscene to wish to settle the fate of hundreds of thousands of postal workers, millions of service users, in a great rush. But, despite the unfavourable opinion of ten European postal services, a form of unacknowledged privatisation is brewing in the corridors of the Commission. By lowering the price/weight threshold reserved for public postal services and by liberalising mailshots or cross-border post, the second directive may offer the most profitable sectors to the competitive sector. Postal services may then keep whatever does not whet the appetite of the private operators. Whether total or partial, privatisation will only make an already dismal situation worse. Just the example of the privatisation of British rail services should suffice to prove the extent to which opting for maximum profit is antipathetic to maintaining a socially useful service. Instead of fighting amongst themselves, public postal services should cooperate, take staff on and guarantee decent, stable working conditions, while meeting the needs of service users in terms of both post delivery and savings bank services.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, Commissioner, in 2000, more than 216 000 women contracted breast cancer in the European Union and more than 79 000 women died because of it. Breast cancer is the most common cause of death among women between the ages of 35 and 55. Cancer rates differ substantially from one country to another in the European Union: they are higher in the northern European countries and lower in the southern countries, such as Greece and Spain. Lithuania and Latvia also have low rates. In all countries, the rate is rising every year. Economic, environmental and even cultural factors have a large impact on these figures and breast cancer primarily affects women in higher social classes. The European guidelines for the early detection of breast cancer, which is the most effective means of achieving good results and a high chance of survival, are only recommendations and are not binding from a legal point of view. States draw up their own prevention and treatment plans, and these differ significantly from one State to another. In some countries, the programmes are regional, and there are still some Member States where early detection programmes do not even reach all women within the high-risk age bracket. This report, which is timely and very well written, aims to raise awareness throughout the European Union of this problem, which mainly affects women. Its publication has been a wise move on the part of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities. Every woman should have access to high-quality screening for, treatment of and aftercare in the event of breast cancer. As a result, we must do away with the disparities that currently exist among the Member States, whose survival rates vary by up to 16%. The most effective means, at this stage, of treating the cancer is still early diagnosis. The Community programme ‘Europe Against Cancer’ has been very effective and an excellent example, and we should therefore follow the same path in the future. Early detection, with programmes to ensure regular screening of women aged over 50, must be established in all of the Member States and the accession countries. The collaboration and increased awareness of women are of enormous importance: self-examination is an extremely useful tool, although mammography screening is the most effective technique for the early detection of the cancer. The fight against breast cancer must be a health policy priority and the Member States must draw up effective health policies and strategies to ensure better early detection, diagnosis and treatment. The report is very comprehensive, detailed and precise, and I congratulate Mrs Jöns on her willingness to accept suggestions and amendments that have improved the text.

Political group: PPE-DE