GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Further to the vote on the Rothley report concerning the fixing of book prices, I should like to say the following. Most countries already use some method or other for fixing book prices, or they are considering introducing this in the foreseeable future. In its resolution of February 2001, the European Council drew attention to the book's special cultural value and the importance thereof for promoting cultural diversity within Europe. He has therefore asked the European Commission to take this into account when applying competition rules and rules on the free movement of goods, and only to act if existing national fixed price systems are deliberately being circumvented and if this has an adverse effect on trade between Member States. In its agreements with the German book industry on 22 March 2002, the European Commission clearly took this on board. It thus appears that the book justifies its existence as a cultural entity and falls within the remit of Article 151 of the Treaty. On this basis, I conclude that I have to vote for Mr Rothley's report, in which he points out that every Member State shall be entitled to introduce fixed price systems for books, but that agreements must be reached at European level in the case of cross-border trade, and particularly in the case of national price fixing schemes being deliberately circumvented. What is important is that all market operators involved obtain legal certainty via a stable, economic and legal framework, but also, and this is just as important, that the cultural diversity, of which the 'book' as an item of cultural value forms part, is respected and promoted. - Trentin report (A5-0161/2002)

Political group: ELDR
Madam President, of course Mr Swoboda is entitled to receive an accurate reply. I just want to ask your services to give it on the basis of the midday debate. Not to be too blunt about it, I had the feeling that Mr Swoboda, on the day itself, tried to use an amendment of the Minutes to change the outcome of this House's vote. For this reason, I ask that the midday debate should be taken as the basis of any answer your services give to Mr Swoboda, and please be so kind as to let me have a copy of it. I am quite sure that your services understood perfectly well what this House had in mind!

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I would like to draw your attention and the attention of the House as a whole to another case of severe violation of the most basic human rights, of violation, above all, of the freedom to choose where to live. This is the situation, what is happening at this time, even as we speak, in Tunisia. The facts are these: an Italian woman, married to a Tunisian citizen, was taken to Tunisia with her two children, aged 16 months and 5 years, for a week’s holiday – or that is what she was told by the father. When they got to Tunisia, the father took away his family’s passports and is now forbidding them to leave Tunisia. He expects his wife, an Italian citizen, to stay in Tunisia against her will. A few minutes ago, I was informed that the Tunis Minors’ Court has granted custody of the children to the mother, recognising that the father is not able to look after the children, but that it does not as yet intend to allow the family to go back to Italy, where they have a house, where the children were born and which is their natural home. Mr President, we who have bilateral relations with these countries in all fields also have the duty to make them understand that they must bring their legislation – whose authority we respect – into line with the changing conditions in the world so that dialogue can take place between parties on equal terms, with equal dignity and in mutual respect. If they wish to enjoy good relations with the European Union, they have to understand that we have certain rules which we intend to uphold, starting with laws guaranteeing human rights and the free movement of persons.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, on a point of order under Rule 9a and Annex XI of the Rules of Procedure, I should like to ask the President if he would refer the events of this morning's STOA management committee to the Anti-Fraud Office for investigation. The committee voted by 11 votes to 8 to suppress a scientific report on inedibles, in respect of which the European Academy of Sciences' advisory committee stated: 'This report is, overall, a reasonable, impartial and balanced piece of work on a very difficult topic.' The peer review would lead me to conclude that it should definitely be published. It is important that the general public realise that this decision was made on the basis of grave political errors, rather than believing that the committee has become a majority-owned property of European chocolate manufacturers. (Applause from the left)

Political group: PSE
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the internal market probably got its best birthday present today in the form of the Commissioner's words that, despite its achievements, his patience is wearing thin. I thank you for your impatience, hoping that, for the good of the internal market, all who operate in it and especially all who impede its progress will be made increasingly aware of how impatient you are. Europe must become a continent, and the EU must become a political union. We therefore give an unreserved ‘yes’ to an internal market that is developing fully and is able to give full expression to its dynamism for the good of Europe. We have only a year left to implement the internal market strategy for 1999/2004, a year in which we will need greater seriousness of purpose in place of half-heartedness, more speed in place of hesitancy and greater responsibility for the whole rather than parochialism. There is no mistaking the internal market's significance, which became apparent in the aftermath of 11 September. The stronger our internal market, the stronger is Europe's position in the world, and the more independent we are. This, then, makes me very glad that we are now discussing enlargement, as enlargement will extend our internal market and thereby strengthen Europe. The euro has made the internal market into a domestic market for many countries and thus strengthened it overall, so I also want to expressly welcome the internal market safeguard clause in the accession treaties. Directives need to be transposed with greater speed. We need the decision-making process to be speeded up, rather than have it take twenty-eight months as it did with company pension schemes. We need a debate to get the regulation of competences revised in the light of the internal market strategy and of the Lisbon strategy and made the basis of the work in the Convention. So what I expect of you – even bearing your impatience in mind – is that you avail yourself more of your right of initiative and name names rather than keeping quiet about those who are blocking progress.

Political group: PPE-DE
Madam President, I am very displeased to see that in this resolution, cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia - ICTY - is one of the conditions for further Western Balkan engagement with the EU. That condition must be in respect of progress on association agreements rather than financial assistance. I will join my Socialist colleagues in voting for that change tomorrow. It has emerged from repeated meetings between the European Council and the ICTY Chief Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, that this cooperation is still not occurring, which is seriously jeopardising future integration. She has said that even the most basic cooperation, such as access to documents and witnesses, as well as arrests and the transfer of fugitives, is still not satisfactory. A large number of indicted war criminals are still at large in Serbia-Montenegro, including Ratko Mladic, who was responsible for killing 7 000 people in the genocide at Srebrenica. Of particular concern is the case of Croatia. I join others in welcoming Croatia's European aspirations. However, requests for cooperation from the tribunal are taking up to a year to process, which is totally unacceptable. For example, there is the matter of General Ante Gotovina, ICTY's third most wanted man, who was responsible for arranging the killing of at least 150 Serb civilians and the expulsion of 150 000 others in 1995. Miss Del Ponte has outlined information that he is still in Croatia, with reports that he is being sheltered by people working for the Croatian authorities. He is reported as: 'enjoying his summer holiday, sailing on a yacht'. Until further moves are made towards Gotovina's arrest, Croatia is still not fully complying with UNSC Resolution 1503. There can be no serious moves towards EU accession until this essential step is taken.

Political group: PSE
Thank you, Commissioner, you are of course quite right. What counts is the progress made from one year to the next and that is precisely why I should like to ask you if any indicators apart from the Internet, which you referred to, have improved? And secondly, as regards the third Community Support Framework, which makes provision for all the major budget items which you mentioned, has Greece actually started spending any money? We are already more or less at the end of the second year. Thirdly, I should like to ask a question which I have been asking repeatedly for several years now, Commissioner, because I have been unable to obtain a reply. Has anyone ever – not last year or the year before, because that would be impossible – but let us say five years ago; has anyone ever actually counted how many jobs have been created over a period of time from funds budgeted for job creation, just to give us a snapshot of exactly how efficient it is.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, like many other Members, I voted in favour of granting discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the 1999 financial year, not least because I firmly endorse recital D of this document, which states that the Member States and the Council are responsible for the effective use of resources. With this statement, the report is saying that we have no control over how the Community’s funds are spent. The European Union spends its budget on improving the living conditions of the European citizens, but who verifies whether this expenditure actually serves any purpose? The Member States! What does this mean? If the Member States are in control of everything, what are we doing here in Brussels adopting directives and regulations and, most importantly, spending money when we have no control over how it is used? An intelligent statement then, recital D! - Sustainable development strategy

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, the Commission draft on the socio-political agenda contains many positive concepts such as full employment, quality of work, social quality and modernisation of social protection. But it lacks substance to some extent. Mrs Van Lancker’s outstanding report makes good the deficiencies of the Commission draft as regards content. We support a pact for employment and social cohesion, a European action plan for employment with a view to boosting the social economy and local employment initiatives, social regulations for new forms of working such as tele-working and new forms of self-employment, the minimum wage, and guaranteed income. The European Union has already stood idly by for far too long, watching poverty and social exclusion take hold in the Member States. Indeed Mrs Van Lancker’s proposals for improving the information available to, and participation of, female employees, and for social clauses in public contracts, mergers and international agreements, are long overdue. We object to the fact that the Commission and the Council are unwilling to make additional resources available for the social agenda. Social quality cannot be achieved free and gratis. It sometimes seems to me that the concept of modernisation is often tantamount to the undermining of social protection. Extending people’s working lives is not modernisation, no more so is funding pensions by freezing or lowering the statutory pensions level, and advising people to take up investment opportunities on the financial markets. We need modern, European social harmonisation, not deregulation.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, every time we discuss the issue of the poor countries, out comes the usual catalogue of figures: 800 million people suffering from malnutrition; 40% of the world’s population suffering from malaria; 2 million people contracting aids each year in Africa alone; almost a billion children who cannot read or write; water shortages; health and social problems and so on and so forth. It has become almost a customary ritual to trundle out these data each time. However, Mr President, we need to take action. There is an urgent need for more practical measures from industrialised countries and international financial institutions, not least through more effective cooperation, without duplication or overlapping of effort. That means more careful monitoring of the allocation of development funds. In other words, we need practical measures implemented with the greatest transparency and with the minimum bureaucracy necessary for the monitoring process. Of course, the March 2002 International Conference at Monterrey and the Johannesburg world summit to be held subsequently this September will be extremely important in this respect. Their success would certainly be a clear signal for further, more general acceleration of measures boosting sustainable development. Key areas for action include mustering local financial resources for development and international resources, including countries in international trading and so on. The European Union is certainly the main donor but, together with the individual States, it has a key role to play in this respect. We need closer cooperation with United Nations organisations such as the FAO in order to ensure that the allocation of these funds genuinely serves to improve the levels of nourishment and living conditions of poor peoples.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, two Zimbabwean politicians are listening to our debate today. They have been tortured in the past and their colleagues have been killed. At lunch they told me very calmly: ‘We are here but when we go back we are going to be arrested and killed. We have passed our sell-by date: we were supposed to have been killed two weeks ago.’ We are sitting here, wringing our hands, writing resolutions, talking about human rights but, at the same time, we seem to have double standards. If black people kill other black people, we avert our eyes and let them get on with it. It is all right for a right-wing dictator like Pinochet to be arrested for human rights violations in Chile. Why do we treat people with a different skin colour in a different way? We are supposed to have one standard for all. We are supposed to be not only a global economy but a one-world family. But is that the way we react? No! We need to do something about it. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, the report on the WTO negotiating package quite rightly calls for agricultural issues to be retained as an essential element of the negotiating mandate within the framework of the existing agreement. There must be no trade-off of concessions in the agricultural sector in exchange for concessions in other negotiating areas. This is necessary in order to safeguard the continued existence of the small-scale agricultural landscape, rural employment, environmental and resource protection, and modulated agricultural programmes, and to protect them from the impact of global market liberalisation. Adopting and guaranteeing a high level of consumer protection in the EU makes substantial demands on agriculture in particular, and is the main prerequisite for fair trade in agricultural products without border controls. Over recent decades, the European food industry has benefited considerably from global market development, especially as regards the processing of agricultural products with high, or the highest, value added. As the second-largest exporter of agricultural products, and by far the largest exporter of processed food, the European Union, therefore, has a significant interest in a well-functioning system of global trade. What is important for the negotiations is to ensure that the actors from sustainable agriculture are not played off against one other, and that this form of agriculture is harmonised. The issues of food safety and rural employment, consumer protection and the environment, as well as the sparing use of all resources, are viewed in different ways by the various actors, who also afford them different political priority. At the same time, the WTO should be focusing on issues which are moving up the public agenda. They include health, the environment, and social affairs, and not just as three separate issues. (Applause)

Political group: GUE-NGL
Madam President, we need to establish the facts in this case. We have received certain assurances from Mr Solana but we know, and our Italian colleagues in particular will remind us of this, that it will be difficult for those whose sons have died of leukaemia to accept that assurance unreservedly. These days we cannot easily accept death when better health and prosperity seem to have brought us so near to immortality. We now need to reinforce Mr Solana's assurance with repeated testing offered as widely as possible and with the maximum openness from the American authorities. I have been asked, particularly by my colleague Lord Inglewood, who represents the area of Cumbria where test-firing of these weapons has taken place, to insist that the question as to the possible effect upon the civilian population should be taken into account when this testing is carried out. If he is going to reply to this debate, Mr Solana might like to address that point. There were a large number of British soldiers in the Balkan War and, of course in the Gulf, and as a British Conservative I will say this: Of course, we are concerned about the possible impact of the use of depleted uranium, but against the background of Mr Solana's statement, we do not believe that NATO should adopt a moratorium on the use of such weapons. We have to fight terrible wars against terrible people. Such a moratorium could place our forces at a potential disadvantage and thereby potentially endanger more lives than the NATO forces. As Mrs Wallström has said: The real and immediate danger in the Balkans comes from general environmental degradation following years of neglect, corruption and war. This is what the European Union needs to address while we monitor very carefully the results of medical testing. In conclusion let me say that Mr Wurtz's contribution was very revealing of the constant agenda of the left which aims to separate the European Union from the United States and would result in depriving Europe of any real influence in the world. (Applause from the right) IN THE CHAIR: MR SCHMIDVice-President

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I would like to thank my colleague, Mr Mombaur, for an excellent report. The liberalisation of the energy markets is the only real way to safeguard consumers’ rights and the credible viability of the Internal Market. The Commission must take care that the energy market is opened up in a genuine sense and in a spirit of fair play. Various apparent barriers to competition, such as the bottlenecks created by the power grid operators, must be straightened out without delay. In addition, the largest European “energy players” must fall into line. For example, France, whose energy sector is among the most progressive, stubbornly protects its own markets. What does such a competitive country have to fear in conditions of free competition? The liberalisation of energy markets also means that the Commission will have to approach various forms of energy on an equal footing. I cannot help wondering about the statements made by the energy Commissioner, Mrs de Palacio, which suggested that free-flowing water would not be on the list of renewable energy sources. The Commission must reconsider its position. Hydroelectric power in the Nordic countries is an environmentally friendly and natural energy source that can often be produced at a competitive price, as is the case at present, thanks to a good water supply. Hydroelectric energy can currently compete at a price that would even rival imported energy from Eastern Europe and Russia, so there is no call to label future imports of electric power from the east to the Nordic countries, at least, as dumping. Protectionism among the big energy players in Central Europe is the main reason why cheap hydroelectric power is only getting to the Central European markets with difficulty. Certification systems will guarantee that consumer choice is in direct relation to the pricing of electricity.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I must be lavish with my praise of Mr Schnellhardt, rapporteur for this and the two previous reports, for the soundly thought-through piece of work that he has done and that we in the Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party support almost 100%. There are certain small details about which we do not agree, but these are so insignificant that I do not need to list them. I think you have done some incredibly constructive work on all three of these reports, which are technically difficult and which are incredibly important for everyone in Europe. The fact is that we normally eat at least three times a day. Scandals crop up again and again. As Mrs Corbey said, adding things to meat is the big thing right now. Water and artificial proteins are injected, as if meat were not protein in itself. In the light of this, there is only one route to go down, and that is one of total openness in our systems. When we come across fraud and when labelling and declarations of content are not in accordance with the contents of the package, we must make the public, that is to say the consumers, aware of the fact. There must be a system of naming and shaming for those businesses that are careless. In financial terms, the EU is at present in danger of benefiting the ‘bad guys’ and penalising the ‘good guys’, and we must be extremely careful not to do this. I shall appeal once more for complete transparency. For example, our ordinary food law is extremely transparent. Let us not therefore be deflected in our course. There is a lot to be said for the view that the best inspector is the person who is to buy and eat the product. Clear and focused legislation is needed, because we all know that the real inspections take place on the ground, locally and regionally. Whatever titles and job descriptions the inspectors may have, they need to be backed by very clear and robust legislation that leaves no one in any doubt as to their authority and rights. When it comes to small businesses, I must ask that we turn some of our attention to my own report, which will be appearing shortly and which deals with the costs of the inspections. It is not right to exempt small traditional businesses from the rules governing hygiene. They must, however, be exempted from unduly high costs.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, I voted for the Lehne report on combating money laundering. The French term used for money laundering is ‘blanchiment des capitaux’, which literally means ‘bleaching or washing capital’, that is, making something white which was not white before, cleaning something which is dirty, making an ugly thing beautiful. Well then, I thought: why can we too not manage to be as clever as criminals, who do succeed in making ugly things beautiful? Why can we not manage to make ugly things beautiful too? I refer, Mr President, not to myself, who some people might consider ugly, but to the pension laws throughout Europe. Will we manage to make those ugly laws – and there are a great many of them – beautiful?

Political group: PPE-DE