GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Mr Prodi, we are particularly concerned about the fact that, in recent years, matters of vital concern relating to the quality and safety of food and the protection of the health of European citizens are continually in the news, which does not always guarantee valid and reliable information. I am particularly pleased that you yourself are here today to inform us about a most important issue, even though I believe that it is too soon since the new Commission was nominated for you and your fellow Commissioners to have come up with specific proposals. It is true that there is now an urgent need to set up a system of continuous scientific control not only for the safety, but also for the quality of food. Mr President, the Green Paper on food was discussed two years ago, and we are still waiting for the White Paper which I hope will outline specific initiatives and the responsibilities of the European policy on food issues. I would like you to tell me what steps you will be taking over the next six months and to clarify who will be responsible for the portfolio for food safety, because I believe that, up until now, there has been some overlapping of competences. Now that we are undergoing institutional reform, I would like to know who will be responsible for announcing the relevant information and for tackling the crises when they do crop up. As part of the reform of the common agricultural policy, I wonder, Mr President, whether you should perhaps look at promoting small producers, so as to ensure better quality goods. Unfortunately, all too often, citizens have been informed about everyday issues which concern them when it is too late. For such sensitive matters, preventative action should be taken so that the food chain can ensure the physical and psychological well-being of all consumers and not be an object of exploitation for purely financial interests.

Political group: PSE
The draft report presented to us is unacceptable in its current form. First, because it provides a confused response to the fundamental questions of competition between European ports and financial transparency in the allocation of grants to these ports. But also, and in particular, because the indiscriminate liberalisation of all port services constitutes a dangerous threat to safety, the environment and employment. To safety, because opening up to competition highly specialised services such as piloting, requiring specific skills adapted to each port, carries the potential risk of seriously jeopardising the safety conditions in which these professions are exercised. To the environment, because liberalisation does not allow it to be taken into consideration sufficiently. On these two points, the report and the directive contradict the ‘maritime safety’ and environmental risk reduction reinforcement policy launched by the European Union following the Erika disaster. Lastly, such liberalisation poses a threat to employment, because opening up port services to competition, in particular those employing the most staff, such as freight handling, carries the risk of plunging the European ports into a dangerous downward spiral with regard to social benefits. This tendency would be unsustainable in areas that are often vulnerable or in labour market areas that are already severely affected by industrial restructuring. I cannot, therefore, approve all the provisions that would lead to port services being opened up to competition with no compensation or safeguards. That is why I voted for all the amendments aiming to exclude port services such as piloting, mooring and freight handling from the scope of the liberalisation proposed by the directive. As these amendments have not been adopted, I voted against the report.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, I have stood before this House many times over the past four years and called for revisions to the way in which European Union Structural and Cohesion Funds are administered. Today is no different. It is extremely rare that an instance occurs when I can say that I am in complete agreement with a member of the UK Labour Party. This happened recently in a landmark speech by the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, who, as we all know, called for the repatriation of regional aid. In essence, this is a good idea. The current system is, as we have repeatedly seen, unworkable, and the bureaucracy is becoming increasingly stifling. Time and again we have seen reports passing through the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism highlighting the inequalities that exist as a result of a system that fails the very people it sets out to help. I know that the idea Mr Brown mooted was not well received here – or indeed in the Commission – not least by members of his own party. I have my doubts over just how far the UK Government will push for this idea. I voted against the Mastorakis report in committee, not because it was a bad report but because there were references I felt we could not ignore. Clearly, paragraph 2's stout defence of the Commission's stance in rejecting renationalisation would differ from my own view, as we have already discussed. Nor can I support any reference to tripartite contracts: by allowing the Commission to institute such actions directly with regions, we would be allowing our nation states to be bypassed. I have always voiced my concerns at these repeated attempts to circumvent national parliamentary scrutiny. I shall continue to do so because I see this as a dangerous precedent, opening the door to a Europe of the regions by stealth – something I totally reject. I conclude with a stark fact: billions of euros are still in the Commission's coffers, without a chance of being spent. In future, what we need is a more focused and concentrated approach on coordinated priorities for funding, cross-border projects or major items of Community interest – the rest should be left to the Member States.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, as one of the previous speakers said, what we are all after is the best possible public transport at the lowest possible cost. As another speaker said, we need appropriate solutions for each particular environment. That is the main reason why the principle that local authorities can be free to decide how best to organise public transport within their own areas is such an important one. I would like to make a few comments about running metro systems in large urban areas such as London, where there is a real danger that if we do not allow local authorities to make those decisions, the contracting out will lead to the creation of a monopoly and we will not be any further forward in what we are trying to achieve with this report. The other thing that could happen in areas such as London and other large cities is that the system could be broken up, which could lead to quite severe chaos. So I would urge you all to support Amendment No 61.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, I did not understand what was to happen with Mrs Sörensen’s report. Will the debate continue following the debate on topical and urgent subjects of major importance? Otherwise, when is it intended that the debate should take place? According to the information I received earlier, we were to continue the debate on Mrs Sörensen’s report today, following the vote on topical and urgent subjects of major importance. You did not say that this was to be the case, however, and I should therefore like to have it confirmed.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, my congratulations to Mr Casaca on his excellent report, which amply demonstrates that we have still not managed to bring olive oil regulations into line with the demands of modern agriculture and the fact that this agricultural policy is in need of radical reform. I should like to cite two examples here. First: one of the main objectives of production aid is to give olive farmers a fair income and guarantee market balance. As the Court of Auditors quite rightly states, the objective of production aid in relation to producers' income has never been defined. In other words, no one knows if this objective has ever been achieved, because we have never been able to assess it. The same applies to market balance. In 1998, the Commission established that there are 180 million olive trees. That came as something of a surprise, because Olistat had reckoned with a lot fewer trees, some 140 million. That is a difference of 40 million trees, a discrepancy of about 31%. Just consider, you think you have market balance and then you find out that you have 30% too much stock. The increase in stock over the last two years does, in fact, indicate that there is a surplus. Secondly, there were similar weaknesses in the consumption aid abolished at the end of 1998. There was no obligation to keep records or ledgers of accounts payable. As a result, there was a huge amount of fraud and irregularity. EUR 429 million in undue amounts have still not been recovered for the 1985-1998 period. Only 6% has been recovered so far. Just think how financial control and recovery were reorganised in connection with the reform of the Commission. We really do have our work cut out here. As far as export refunds are concerned, just 13% of the money has been recovered. Anyone who takes the protection of European taxpayers seriously just wants to get on and reform this agricultural policy. Mr Casaca's report shows us how.

Political group: PSE
Madam President, the report on Afghanistan is to be welcomed in so far as it demonstrates that land of the Hindu Kush, having become a focus of international attention in the aftermath of 11 September 2001, will not again be forgotten, and that the European Union is maintaining its financial and political commitment in order to help achieve stability. The essential picture painted by the report is a very pessimistic one, which, in my view, takes too little account of the positive elements, one of which was, without a doubt, the Loya Jirga’s adoption of the constitution last December. The constitution is primarily intended to strengthen central government, without which this country, divided between ethnic groups and torn asunder by decades of warfare and Soviet occupation, has scarcely any chance of building itself into a nation or of normal development. The next thing needed is democratic elections, which will, in this country, be a difficult process. Even though the preparatory work has got underway too late, the elections should be held as soon as possible, on the presupposition that they will reinforce the stabilisation process. I am aware that the Americans are insisting on the elections being held in June, but, if the situation is to be kept calm, and the conditions for a more or less democratic election created, it is not absolutely necessary to stick to this date. We said in August that it would be no disaster if they were to be held rather later. All the other measures intended to help pacify the country can be compared with the proverbial glass of water, which is either half full or half empty. The security situation is as dire as it was before. The militant Taliban have apparently re-established themselves in the south-east, and the Americans are not excluding the possibility of using land troops in a spring offensive. Although the extension of the ISAF’s operations to the areas outside Kabul is to be welcomed, its mandate is so limited that German troops stationed in Kundus – the safest area, incidentally – are in fact simply onlookers while opium smuggling continues to be one of the country’s main sources of revenue, which, in its turn, has made Afghanistan the world’s largest producer of opium. The opium trade is in full swing, still helping to maintain the warlords and their armies, and that is one of the main problems. IN THE CHAIR: MR COLOM i NAVALVice-President

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, over one hundred years ago, European colonial powers divided tribal lands in Africa to establish national boundaries. African countries inherited the legacy of tribal conflict as major tribes sought to dominate national politics. Some examples are the Afars and Issas in Djibouti, the Kikuyu and Luo in Kenya and the Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda and Burundi. I believe the EU has to focus on how the ruling elite, the Tutsis in Burundi, can be persuaded to reconcile and cooperate with the majority Hutu to achieve peace. The EU must insist that neighbouring countries do not interfere in Burundi and EU aid to them should be conditional on their cooperation. This Parliament and the European Commission can help Burundi and this resolution is a very good step in that direction.

Political group: PPE-DE
Madam President, the big problem is that so much is happening on the world stage. Looking at the instances individually, we wonder why they are not given the highest priority. This is the case for Algeria. But then there is also the visa obligation which Russia has unilaterally imposed on Georgia since 5 December 2000. Whoever is acquainted with the situation across the entire region, knows that this is a burning issue, and we can thus expect conflicts to flare up once again. Our parliamentary committee has explicitly asked to prioritise this topic, which was shelved last time. So I think it is only fair that we should turn the spotlight on this region, so as to avoid conflict at a later date as far as we can, and also to bring it to the attention of the Russian authorities.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, the only way to guarantee a high-quality universal postal service is to keep this as a public service. A universal service offering high-quality postal services at affordable prices throughout the country forms the basis for the operation of the whole postal system and must lead to a uniform nationwide tariff. This service must therefore be kept public. This is the only way to guarantee that the network, from collection to distribution, will be a comprehensive network which cannot be broken up or used only in part and according to the convenience of postal service operators. However, further to the directive on common rules for Community postal services, the Commission has undertaken studies which have not been forwarded to the European Parliament. We are therefore unaware of the impacts of the directive’s application on either the level of service provided to the people or the current European postal operators in terms of both economics and employment. In our opinion, the whole process of applying this directive must therefore be halted, including its timetable. Any change to the current situation must be preceded by a rigorous study of its various implications, with the objective always being to guarantee a high-quality public service and to retain the current public operators and existing jobs.

Political group: GUE-NGL
-in-Office has attended a G8 or G7 meeting. The precedents will show the honourable Member, as they showed me, that it is not our custom to promote our friends in politics by having resolutions after such meetings.

Political group: PSE
Madam President, we are busy drawing up long wish lists. We talk about the forthcoming knowledge society and about lifelong learning, and there are no limits to what we all want. However, this is only a kind of policy of piracy, since the reality of education policy in the Member States is completely different. Priorities have to be set and expenditure on education has to be weighed up against other forms of expenditure. Education budgets are being cut at the moment. It is not, therefore, very helpful if we sit here discussing our long lists. Instead of drawing up long lists, we should prioritise. We should prioritise the most important items of expenditure. I agree with those who say that, if this is the case, we should prioritise the needs of the undereducated, for education exaggerates differences unless some sort of compensation is built in. I would point out, in particular, two aspects that I believe are important and that are perhaps not adequately stressed in the long lists. First of all, there is a great need for proper vocational retraining. It is not enough to have a little training here, a bit of additional training there and an extra course there. Training is needed if people are to be able to shift from jobs that are no longer required – agricultural workers, lumberjacks or fishermen, for example – to jobs in an expanding service sector. A transition such as this cannot be achieved after a six-week course. Instead, long training programmes are required. Such programmes are quite expensive, however, and it is consequently difficult to obtain political support for them, yet this is vital since we in Europe are facing major problems of structural change that will require radical job changes. Secondly, I should like to emphasise training organisations or training on the job. This is, of course, mentioned in the Commission’s justification, but it should be accorded greater attention. Since we know that it will be difficult to get funding for in-school training, it is extremely important that we try to create the kinds of organisations and jobs that provide scope for continuous training, education and learning as part of the labour process. It is difficult to send people on courses, but it is perhaps easier, cheaper and better to make sure that people can learn on the job. We can take the new IT sector as an example. All the small IT firms that sprang up in the 1990s could afford to let people experiment and learn in the workplace, and the IT sector was very successful. That is something we can learn from .

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, Cuban-EU relations, which had been steadily improving in recent years, have recently been plunged into crisis by President Castro's arbitrary and provocative decisions to imprison 70 dissidents and human rights activists and carry out executions. For a long time the Cuban Government has been able to blame all the country's woes on the American embargo. As soon as serious discussions take place on a possible relaxation of the embargo, the Cuban authorities engineer a provocation to scupper such developments. These latest moves appear to be part of that pattern, albeit aimed at a European audience this time. Nevertheless Cuba cannot escape with impunity, and it is vital that we send a clear signal to the authorities that violations of fundamental rights, including a lack of medical care for prisoners, cannot be tolerated. Nor should Cuba be allowed to participate fully in the interparliamentary meetings between representatives of the European Union and Latin Americans, such as the Parlatino, as though it were a functioning democracy, whilst Castro's suggestion that EU humanitarian aid can only be given if it is distributed in a disguised fashion via other agencies is totally unacceptable. Aid needs to be transparent. Cat-and-mouse games need to give way to a more reasoned dialogue in which ways are found to open up the country to change, whilst preserving some of the genuine achievements of the revolution. I generally do not support the closing of European Community delegation missions abroad, so a small presence in Havana is useful. However, it is bizarre that we have an office there but not in some of our neighbouring European countries- we do not have an office in Chisinau, Moldova, nor in Minsk in Belarus. The latter is another country where contact with human rights activists is also essential.

Political group: PPE-DE
Madam President, this is a highly political issue and I would therefore ask that you arrange for it to be examined by the relevant committee. These linguistic shenanigans are in fact political points. Otherwise what we put in before was also a linguistic correction. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I wish to speak, like my fellow Members who have just spoken, about trafficking and the fight against the illegal trade in light weapons. As in 2001, when the United Nations Conference on the illegal trade in light weapons was held and we welcomed the action plan, we now welcome the assessment meeting that will take place next month. Precisely with regard to this assessment meeting, we wish to recall, as has already been said, that 500 million small arms and light weapons are at large in the world and cause thousands of deaths every day, according to the 2001 Independent Weapons Study. Furthermore, most of the victims are women and children. The illegal trade in small arms and light weapons to developing countries, which are often embroiled in conflicts, originates mainly in Member States of the European Union, in addition –as has also already been pointed out – to the United States and Russia. The Conference and the action plan now under review have not managed to establish a binding international legal instrument that prohibits illegal trading. The European Union must focus its efforts on producing a code of conduct that prevents weapons reaching these warring countries, regimes that systematically breach human rights and armed groups that, as has already been said, recruit child soldiers. We should, therefore, translate these aims into joint action, first by the Member States, whose national laws on the matter are – unfortunately – totally disparate, and then apply these to the international community as a whole. The assessment meeting presents a good opportunity to achieve this. Light weapons must fall under the control of an international system, as has been done with anti-personnel mines and chemical and biological weapons. The European Union should, therefore, take the following proposals to New York: firstly, to establish an international registry of weapons sales; secondly, a specific ban on the sales of light weapons to regimes that breach human rights and thirdly, to establish a system for tracing weapons. Together with these requests to the Council and to the Member State governments, requests that we put forward in the resolution we would like to see adopted, we also wish to take this opportunity to ask the Commission to step up its cooperation in demobilising armed groups in developing countries. At present this applies most particularly to Africa. The current conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Liberia amongst others demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the policy we have implemented to date and the need to monitor weapons sales.

Political group: PSE
I am new in this Parliament and I regret that the first question whose reply I was expecting to hear in this Parliament cannot be replied to orally due to lack of time, but I doubly regret the fact that this is due to the attitude of some people who, by raising questions in this House which, in my opinion, do not belong here, deprive us of the pleasure of hearing Mr Fischler speak today of the problem of our fishermen’s daily bread, for example.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Mr President, with the association agreement that is currently being negotiated with Morocco, this is now the time when this issue is beginning to gather strength and when the agricultural concessions that will be granted are to be discussed. European farmers are extremely concerned at the negotiating proposal that is being planned by the European Commission or which, at least, has been announced in the press. The Commission appears to prefer to negotiate over the export of cereals, milk, meat and oilseed rather than to go for a 5% annual increase, but is echoing Morocco’s calls to reach 217 000 tonnes of the tomato quota, which is something that really concerns European farmers, especially all fruit and vegetable growers. I should like to ask the Commissioner whether what has been written in the press is true or whether the Commission’s idea is that this burden of proof should be divided equally among all European countries and that it should not always be the farming sector that foots the bill for the association agreement being negotiated with Morocco.

Political group: PPE-DE