GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Madam President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr President of the Commission, other members of my Group will be speaking on various aspects of the Stockholm European Council. For my part, I shall stick to just one subject, which should, in principle, have been central to the work of the summit: the subject of employment. The ink was not even dry on the final declaration by the Fifteen, in which you reiterated, and I quote, ‘the goal of full employment’, and in which you welcomed the initiatives taken by businesses to promote corporate social responsibility, when suddenly, like a bombshell, came the announcements that 1 780 jobs were being axed by Danone and that Marks [amp] Spencer were closing all their stores outside the United Kingdom. These are just the latest examples, so far, of shareholder value, in other words, shareholder law, and just like Michelin, Ericsson, Nokia, Telefonica and so many others, they illustrate everything that is no longer acceptable. I ask you this, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, what are you going to do about these company directors who so brazenly thumb their noses at your declared intentions? The Commission, you write, in the conclusions of the Stockholm Summit, and I quote, will ‘present in June 2001 a Green Paper on corporate social responsibility’ and will ‘encourage a wide exchange of ideas with a view to promoting further initiatives in this area’. All well and good, but will you now, in the light of these new facts, be defining precisely what the Commission’s mandate will be? And will we, Parliament, be waiting, arms at the ready? I suggest that we should decide to create, perhaps within the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, a new permanent body – let us call it a ‘subcommittee’, since that is the sort of language we use – which will be responsible for monitoring the strategies of major companies in Europe, a subcommittee open to contributions from trades union organisations, works committees, consumers’ associations and elected representatives. We could thus help to create, at our level, an effective monitoring device, which would be able to put some meat on the bones of the intermediate employment objectives that the Stockholm European Council has just set itself. We already know who the first employees will be: those of the French agri-food group that I have just mentioned, whose shareholders have just seen a 17% rise in the net profit from their shares, and those of the British chain whose shares have just gone to blazes on the London stock exchange. If we ourselves take action to demolish the divine right of the big companies to sack people as they see fit, we shall, after all, be doing nothing more than defending, by our actions, a European project that is worthy of the name, and a Parliament that is closer to the people. (Applause)

Political group: GUE-NGL
Commissioner, I support Mr Kreissl-Dörfler’s report and I congratulate him on the unanimous consensus reached in the Temporary Committee on Foot and Mouth Disease. The committee has shown that, in the light of events thus far, the European Union can no longer get away with not altering its policy and ensuring more effective use of vaccinations, given that our aim is to keep the greatest number of animals as possible alive. The concerns relating to animal welfare and the social and psychological damage caused by the considerable sacrifices demanded by last year’s crisis must take precedence over commercial matters, as the Chairman, Mrs Redondo, has rightly pointed out. I fully support Mr Kreissl-Dörfler’s report because, taking an epidemic as a starting point, he has described a general situation which encompasses more than just the issue of foot and mouth disease. For example, take the proposal to extend compensation to sectors associated with livestock breeding, which were – albeit indirectly – heavily penalised by the problems caused by foot and mouth disease. Again, in considering the idea of a guarantee fund or an insurance scheme covering the costs deriving from epidemics, which are increasingly rare and cause extensive market distortion, we are addressing all the problems of the farming world. In this regard, Commissioner, we need to reflect carefully and at length on the role of the public veterinary services. Because of the increasingly disturbing general state of public finances in many of the Member States, we are witnessing a drop in the number of veterinarians, which is totally unacceptable, and we also need the public veterinary services to develop a new kind of relationship with the farmers: we need new forms of cooperation. If the legislative package you present includes a revision of directive 92/102 leading to a very close relationship between farmers and the public veterinary services, then it may well be that, in the future, we will be able to avoid a whole range of situations that we have experienced hitherto.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, Italy, which so long ago was among the founders of the European Community, today has the great task of taking Europe fully into its historic continental enlargement and the launching of its first Constitution. This is our hope and also our commitment but, frankly, it is bad for Italy and for Europe that the person who is to represent us during the coming six months is Silvio Berlusconi. The whole of Europe knows that he represents an anomaly unparalleled elsewhere in the world. An immense weight hangs over him and his actions because of the ongoing conflict between his own personal interests and those of the people of Italy and Europe as a whole. He is the richest man in Italy: his immense economic power and his private affairs, which are present in every field of activity, conflict with the laws, the standards and the very principles of the State; they conflict with justice, and that is the truth. It is very sad for Italy and for Europe to have to read fierce criticism of him in the most respected newspapers in every country. You have all read it, ladies and gentlemen, so I will not repeat it: it is harsh criticism, but it is true. For all of us it is a cause of the greatest concern to see someone at the head of the Council who, during the war in Iraq, acted not to unite Europe but to divide it, by coming out against the feelings expressed by the vast majority of the people of Europe and once again adopting subservient positions towards the United States; someone who on international issues departs from the prevailing European line, on relations with Israel and Palestine, for instance, or the dramatic immigration question; someone who, on economic and social issues, starting with the attack on pensions, has espoused an extremely laissez-faire and deeply anti-popular line. Mr Berlusconi is the right, and the worst, most dangerous kind of European right, and I therefore have no illusions. Frankly, I expect the Berlusconi term of office will prove to be a total disaster. I hope at least that, in the interests of Europe and my homeland of Italy, the damage can be kept to a minimum. Let this be quite clear: for this reason we shall act decisively out of a pure sense of national responsibility and a staunch European spirit. For this very reason, we shall oppose him and his politics.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, what these reports and this action programme show is that the EU is on the right road, the road towards being a union of security, and is demonstrating that security begins at the border. If we want our internal borders to be open, our external borders need surveillance systems that work, and we also need compensatory elements along the lines of cross-border surveillance. That is underlined here with broad strokes of the pen. It is for this purpose that we need the new ARGO action programme. This is not only because the money from Odysseus has been used up. It is also because it must be our objective to build up and create an equal level of security on all our external borders, including those we will have in the future, in order, on the one hand, to safeguard ourselves against illegal immigration, organisations that traffic in human beings, and international organised crime, and on the other, to have available to us opportunities for monitoring, assistance and legal immigration and also for preparation for the grant of asylum. It seems to me particularly significant that such measures as the establishment of unitary standards for the use of information technology are highlighted, or that emphasis is laid on the fact that, at the end of the day, we are endeavouring to create common core training, that is, to achieve a common standard of training and qualifications. We should also be trying to tackle our future need for border security operations composed of experts from several Member States. I consider it significant that – as formerly with Odysseus – the possibility is envisaged of the candidate countries also being able to participate in the programme, whereby we are guaranteeing that they will be optimally prepared for greater security in the greater European Union that we share. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE
Decisions on safety are usually preceded by fatal accidents. Other considerations are all given priority until regulation becomes unavoidable, and then the emphasis is on freedom for business, limiting costs and free competition. Yet everyone knew beforehand that allowing professional drivers to drive too long would result in accidents. Unfortunately that has never stopped people in this industry from being allowed to work for longer consecutive periods than in other industries where less harm can be caused. Businesses want to avoid taking on a second driver and avoid waiting times at all costs, as these measures cost money. What is more, drivers want to be protected against overworking and overtiredness, but they also want to get home quickly after a long trip. Self-employed drivers even believe that they are exempt from the regulations, and businesses who want to exploit this have sold their lorries to their drivers. If we give in to such counterforces, honest hauliers and the railways will be driven out of business. Getting all lorries and courier services that drive within the EU, even those driven by self-employed drivers or those from outside the EU, to comply with the standard of not less than 12 hours’ rest a day and working not more than 9 hours a day and 90 hours over two weeks is therefore an important step in the right direction.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, I would like to draw attention to a matter which is of direct relevance to this House, namely the situation of near anarchy that exists around the entrances to the Channel Tunnel at present at the freight depot. Since Saturday night, rail freight has been prevented completely from going through the tunnel. This is a direct consequence of the activities of illegal migrants coming out of Sangatte. The tunnel was closed last Wednesday. It has been effectively put on quarter-time since November 2001. This is affecting jobs in the UK and elsewhere. It is affecting businesses. Nobody seems to care about what is happening here. The authorities in France are not doing anything; the Commission is not taking action. I have asked the Commission to address this situation. What about the single market and the free movement of goods between France and the United Kingdom? No-one seems to care. This is a matter which requires immediate attention.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, we were indeed suggesting that as a Parliament we are looking for reform of this institution. I do not think going on beyond 1.30 p.m. is a reform. We should break at this stage and take the votes that remain at 5 p.m. this evening.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, although Bavaria, Saxony and Austria were also very badly hit by the floods, I have had an opportunity, as Federal Chairman of the Sudeten German Association, to mount a major relief programme for the Czech Republic. This stems not only from our traditional links with the country our families come from, but also from the fact that in situations like this we realise that as neighbours we are dependent on each other, for good or ill. Sometimes there are what you might call neighbour disputes, but in emergencies like this we see the value of good neighbourliness. Czechs were in action in Germany and in Austria, Austrians and Germans were in action in the Czech Republic, and I believe that there are two important points here. The first is that no victim of the floods should be worse off in the Czech Republic, which is a candidate country, than they would be in the existing Member States of the European Union. Secondly, we also need to show solidarity when it comes to prevention. We need to recognise that we are all in the same boat and that what is happening in central Europe today could happen tomorrow in southern Europe or northern Europe. Above all, we should avoid something which I heard in this House earlier – by which I mean adopting the disdainful tone we heard during the topical and urgent debate about victims of the floods in the south. A lot of people from the north said that is typical, special pleading for the south, and vice versa. We Europeans are all in the same boat, and that is the key message of this disaster.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I will be brief. The next speaker but one on the list is down as Mr Franz Xaver Mayer. But it is Mr Hans-Peter Mayer who will be speaking for our group. One is a first-class politician on agricultural matters; the other is a first-class jurist. I simply wanted to clarify that for you to avoid there being any confusion about who will speak.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, the Pensioners' Party, which I represent, and the pensioners of Europe expect a great deal of the European Investment Bank. In my opinion, the EIB should not stop at its already excellent work of lending money to the industries who need it, but it should make greater endeavours to bring about the creation of a European pension fund to pay pensions in Europe. I feel that we will genuinely succeed in improving the lot of the elderly of all the 15 Member States when we have a single European pension fund which, as such, will be stronger and better able to resist the fluctuations of the market, thus resulting in larger pensions and more comfortable lives for the elderly.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, firstly, I would also like to congratulate the rapporteurs, Mr Valdivielso and Mr Piétrasanta, and say that I share the views of Mr Piétrasanta and Mr Naïr. The deep schism that divides the Mediterranean world is obvious. The Conference of Barcelona was the European Union’s reaction to it. We should now be working at a steady speed to achieve the aims established there, but that is not the case. Many reasons have been given for this. The MEDA programmes have always been surrounded by too much fuss, and they still are. It is totally pointless to return dwell on this fuss. I prefer to look forward. The Commission has proposed a new MEDA regulation and in it asks us for speedier decision-making procedures. We agree absolutely with this. My group and Parliament – if we reflect the vote of the relevant committee – proposes to place more trust in the Commission so that it may decide on projects of less than EUR 5 million and we also ask that the Commission be accompanied by a Council advisory committee. Of course, the Council and Parliament cannot expect the Commission to do things which they do not give it the power to do. In this regard you have our support, Commissioner. You also have our support – and this is expressed in the amendments we are tabling – in order to solve any problems relating to staffing and to management ability that you may have. I would like to remind you, Commissioner, that the Barcelona agreements talk about an area of free trade and economic cooperation and of security and they also talk a great deal about the cultural and human dimension. Commissioner, I believe that in order to develop these three pillars on an equal footing with one another, we must continue to show our confidence in Mediterranean society and, far from ending decentralised cooperation and small projects, we should implement these effectively and by incorporating all the players: entrepreneurs, unions, cities, NGOs, immigrants – as Mr Naïr pointed out – professionals etc. I wish to believe that we share the aim of reducing the gulf between the, at least two, Mediterranean worlds. To this end, Commissioner, we ask, and my group will act in accordance with this request in the budgetary debate, for the restoration in the regulation of the amounts allocated to MEDA, so that these will remain at least equal in real terms to those allocated during the previous period. While the problems in the Mediterranean remain serious, and there has been considerable delay in implementing the Barcelona decisions that were designed to tackle them, we cannot accept a reduction in investment.

Political group: PSE
Every effort has been made to coincide with the proposed line as far as possible, given that the original report faced great difficulties in committee and that conflicting national interests are at stake. Where the EPLP vote differs from the line, the reasons for doing so are related to maintaining consistency with the UK government negotiating position on the future of the CFP. The EPLP vote differs from the line on the following points: recital B, Amendments Nos 6, 24, 17 and 16, paragraphs 20, 12, 26 (original text), 45-47, 60, 64, 67, 68, 72, 73, 82, 84 and 91, Amendment No 5, paragraph 2 (part 2), Amendment No 3, and paragraphs 119 and 120. - Hudghton report (A5-0458/2001)

Political group: PSE
Mr President, in view of the vote on the Papayannakis report I should like to ask the Commission to convene a conciliation committee next week so that we sort this out before the 1 September deadline. Please convey that to the Commissioner please, as she is not listening at the moment. *** - Schierhuber report (A5-0124/2000)

Political group: PPE-DE
The Νicholson report voted on today by the European Parliament basically adopts the American argument on Iraq (criminal state etc.), thereby providing practical cover for the intervention planned by the USA. It is unmoved by the dramatic consequences of the embargo against the Iraqi people and fully justifies the imposition of it. It admits that the ultimate aim is to topple Saddam Hussein and the terms and conditions which it sets for lifting it are tantamount to not lifting it. The text is riddled with provocative proposals for crude intervention in the internal affairs of another country, overlooking the fact that interventions to date have basically strengthened the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. An example of the ΕU's feelings towards the long-suffering Palestinian people is given in the reference to the campaigns by suicide bombers, which it calls 'the very worst acts of Palestinian terrorism'. Communists know all about crude violations of democratic rights and persecution and freedom fighters and Communists were the first to fall victim to the Hussein regime. But we believe that the fight against undemocratic regimes is a matter for the people suffering under them. International solidarity also plays an important part, but that seems to be the last thing on the EU's mind. It is for these reasons that the least we can do is to vote against the report.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, Mr Morillon has already explained my Group’s position, which is in favour of this joint resolution. For my part, I would refer to the procedure which seems to me in this case to be important. This is a debate on topical and urgent subjects of major importance, which has been devalued insofar as we are not getting a declaration from the Council, as Parliament had requested, on including this point as a Council declaration. I would like to say that, without presenting any valid argument, this attitude on the part of the Council seems to me to show a lack of respect towards Parliament, especially when Parliament offers the Council the opportunity to make any declaration on any subject, as laid down in Rule 37. It is truly contradictory that this Parliament cannot obtain a Council declaration on an issue as sensitive as this. Therefore, Mr President, I would like to say that my Group intends to ask the Committee on External Affairs, at its next meeting, to present, pursuant to Rule 42, an oral question to the Council so that the Council will reply. If this initiative is not successful, my political group will present, pursuant to the same article, an oral question to the Council so that the Council really takes seriously the worries and concerns of this Parliament and really does what is laid down in the Treaties, that is to say, to inform and cooperate with Parliament in all those areas which affect and concern the citizens of the European Union.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, it is highly irregular that people are behaving so undemocratically as to continue to make comments during the vote, and secondly, we have now voted. It is for you to announce the result of the vote, and then we will simply carry on with the debate. I believe that is the only way, and the best way, to deal with a topic that we have already spoken about on so many occasions before. (Parliament rejected the motion)

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. First of all, I would like to comment that in the nine years that I have been working in this Parliament I have never been lobbied by any acquaintance so aggressively, so often, so impolitely or so freely. There must really be a lot at stake, although I can understand that people are worried. The aim of this proposal is to harmonise the European regulations. At present there is legal uncertainty on what is patentable and what is not in the area of software. This is because the rules of the European Patent Convention are interpreted differently in the Member States and are not being tested. This legal uncertainty has adverse effects in terms of the operation of the internal market. The Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy is therefore positive about the aim of this proposal: recognition of the patentability of computer-implemented inventions and more transparent rules. It is illusory to think that no patents have been granted for software in Europe up to now. The European Patent Office has awarded more than 30 000. The directive now being proposed will not make patents for computer programs possible as such and will thus restrict the existing practices of the European Patent Office. In general terms, nothing will be made patentable that was not patentable already. The Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy is of the opinion that the directive must be strictly limited to unambiguous cases. The condition of technical innovation is essential. This is characteristic of an invention, as opposed to an idea. Unlike in the USA, we want to prevent so-called trivial patents being awarded, for example on business matters. The possibility of linking equipment in order to achieve interoperability is a method of achieving an open network and preventing the misuse of dominant positions. I am therefore asking you to support the standpoint of the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy, article 6A of the report, and of course the other amendments as well. Finally, I am asking for your support for the introduction of a grace period. This will prevent an inventor from being cheated out of his invention if he publicises it in order to sound out interest in the market shortly before applying for the patent.

Political group: ELDR