GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Most companies used to be small-scale and linked to a town or an area. Their ownership was not anonymous and their staff worked there all their lives. For a long time, governments supported the efforts of companies to remain in regional or national hands, and the setting up of companies on a non-commercial basis, so that they could better serve the interests of employees and consumers. In a society where everything is subordinated to a free market and worldwide competition, companies have now become a commodity. If it suits the purchasers and the old shareholders, they are closed because their profit margin lags behind the rest of the group, because their brand name can be stuck on other products or their production can be transferred to a country with low wages and inadequate environmental regulation. The consequences for employment, social cohesion in an area around the company, consumers and the scope for a democratically determined government policy is extremely negative. That is why manageable, checkable and small-scale companies are far preferable to global giants, that are constantly surprising others and laying down the law to them. Mergers that provide no right of veto for trade unions and government lead to accidents. I reject this trade in companies and am voting against the proposal.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, on a point of order, I would like to bring to your attention, and I hope this will not take up part of my speaking time, that I have received no news relating to the absence of the Commissioner responsible, Mr Patten. I was wondering whether the presidency had received any news of his absence and if it could provide any information. I cannot see the Commissioner here, which is very strange because he always comes to debates on foreign policy when he can. I would like to know whether the presidency or the Commission have any information that justifies, as will surely be the case, the absence of the Commissioner responsible, Mr Patten.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, the Middle East is the spiritual home of the three great revealed religions of the world, but sadly also the inspiration for those misguided few who invoke Islam as a justification for terrorist killings, invoking in particular the bloodthirsty traditions of Salafism and Wahhabism. The Middle East is a source of vital oil supplies to the West and the location of one of the longest and bloodiest disputes between the Arab world and Israel. It is also the location of some of the most ruthless regimes, ranging from the old Iraq of Saddam to the current government of Iran. Saudi Arabia is also brutal in its decapitations for misdemeanours, like alcohol consumption. The Middle East is a source of many of the EU's refugees, particularly from Kurdistan, and if we allow Turkey into the EU, the EU's borders will stretch into the Middle East to face Syria, Iraq and Iran directly. Therefore stabilising this region in peace, democracy, good governance with the rule of law and respect for human rights is essential to the EU's interest, as well as the people there who have suffered under tyrannical governments for so long. That is why I support the roadmap for peace, for a two-state solution in Israel and in Palestine, for a democratic Palestine alongside the State of Israel. But I remain critical of the fact that EU money was given in direct budgetary assistance without adequate safeguards to prevent diversion of funds to corrupt practice and possibly even terrorism in a theatre of war and in a zone where such practice is commonplace: this, I believe, was wrong. Tomorrow, Parliament's working group looking at this will regrettably be publishing two separate reports. I have always supported and continue to support the liberation of Iraq from Ba'athist tyranny and remain optimistic that eventually we will see a new Iraq emerge which will serve as a catalyst for democratic change elsewhere in the region. Lastly, I hope to see more dialogue between moderate Muslim leaders and the EU's political classes if we are to avoid the much feared clash of civilisations as a scenario.

Political group: PPE-DE
draftsman of the opinion of the Committee on Social and Economic Affairs. – Mr President, I would like to congratulate Mr Cashman for an excellent report and for taking on board a lot of the points that were raised in the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. I found it very useful working so closely together on Article 13 across the board under the Hughes' procedure. The Action Programme must enable groups that are discriminated against to take action themselves. It must ensure equal access to the programme for disabled people and it must make sure that funding does not fall below the preparatory actions. We must also prepare further for anti-discrimination legislation on all grounds in the future, including a disability directive. It has been brought home very strongly to me how we much need one in the light of the Article 13 hearings. Jenny was from the Access Charter, she was the coordinator for the group and I invited her to the hearings on Article 13. To start, with she could not get into Parliament except through the swing doors. Next we booked a disabled access hotel only to find that a single bed was put across the bathroom. She tried to get a taxi in Brussels and was refused. She tried to get into a restaurant to have a meal and was refused entry on the grounds that her physical appearance would put other diners off. The final indignity was that when she went to Brussels airport she was subjected to a full body search and then, when she remonstrated, was told: 'Have a nice trip, I hope your plane crashes.' That is why we need anti-discrimination legislation. Briefly, on the employment directive, I would like to congratulate Thomas Mann for an excellent report. Again this was a close working relationship. This is ground-breaking legislation and it is a gigantic step forward but we must go even further. I also urge you to vote for the amendment by the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs on age. Discrimination on any grounds is wrong, equally wrong. We must vote for both these pieces of legislation tomorrow and at long last demonstrate our commitment to stamping out discrimination in all its forms. (Applause)

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, and Mr President of the Commission, I wish to limit myself to speaking about Mr Karas' report. Firstly, it is to be welcomed that a distinction is drawn between actual economic consequences of 11 September and political and economic deficiencies that preceded them by some considerable time. It goes without saying that the European Union must allow Member States to support enterprises with serious problems that really are attributable to the consequences of the attack, in order to alleviate or prevent adverse effects on their employees, whether these effects are direct and commercial or are associated with these and of a social nature. Secondly, though, it is irresponsible for enterprises to take steps to rationalise – in other words, cut jobs – out of hand, and unjustifiably defend this by reference to the events of 11 September. It would in fact be nonsensical and damaging to use State aid to intervene in such situations. Thirdly, the assertion that the European Central Bank's cutting of interest rates and the introduction of the euro in Europe could nip an international financial crisis in the bud, is one that I consider incapable of being proven. Fourthly, additional adverse consequences for the economic situation, such as the rapporteur fears, might be brought about by increased expenditure on the armed forces and on internal security, can be drastically minimised by a sensible policy of development, which would focus on removing such causes of terrorism as poverty, oppression, exploitation and cultural intolerance.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, it is appropriate, I suppose, that this measure has reached this plenary in World Health Week, with its particular emphasis on mental health. The week before last, in Parliament, we were launching the epilepsy White Paper. Some 15 million of our fellow Europeans will be afflicted by that illness during their lifetime at a cost of some EUR 20 billion per year, plus the cost to the individual and families of lost income and the cost to Member States of lost tax revenues. Multiply that by all the diseases and disorders, physical and mental, add the impact of ending the communist system in Eastern Europe and the two-way cross-border movement of health problems, from environmental pollution to sexual and drug-related diseases, and the economic impact of health problems is colossal. The European Union has no competence for health services, but it has always had competence for health and safety at work, and then for public health and infectious diseases which have no respect for national borders. More recently it has been given competence for health promotion and illness prevention and health impact assessments. Now we have to take this forward with the reforms of our health action programme that this report suggests. I commend this report, the work of the rapporteur and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy's additions to his work. We shall raise standards of health in the European Union, not by directives, but by research, education and the identification and dissemination of good practice. It will not cost the tax-payers an arm and a leg: just EUR 83 million per year, if our committee position is accepted – a tiny sum for a massive challenge. We are told that the Council will not accept EUR 83 million per year for six years, but EUR 63 million per year is what was being spent under the old programme. If you just add some 5% per year for six years, that would mean EUR 83 million. If you take the Commission proposal of EUR 50 million and reduce it by the same amount then you would be cutting health budgets to EUR 37 million in real terms when we are taking on these new responsibilities. If they do, let it be on their consciences that they voted against EUR 20 million per year for health, while endorsing an annual budget of over EUR 1 000 million for subsidising the growing of tobacco.

Political group: PPE-DE
Madam President, the failure in Cancún is a snub inflicted by the countries of the South on the imperial powers of the United States and the European Union. The latter have tried, once again, to impose their rather cynical logic, which consists of maintaining protectionism for their own agriculture and obtaining free access for their industries the world over. The suicide of the leader of the Korean peasants symbolises in a tragic manner the despair of millions of men and women dishonoured by this fool's bargain. Under very difficult conditions, the demonstrators in Cancún affirmed their refusal of the rules of the WTO which impoverish them more and more each day. This failure on the part of the WTO will not suffice to change the systems in order, at long last, to satisfy fundamental needs. Nonetheless, it constitutes real encouragement for the rejected of the planet – and they are numerous – to develop their philosophy and fight towards an ambitious objective: to create, at long last, a fair, mutually supportive world. Specifically, today, Mr Lamy, it is necessary to stop demanding, in our name moreover, the liberalisation of 102 of their services. On the contrary, it is time today to cancel the debt of the countries of the South. That could, at long last, open up the possibility of real development for the developing countries.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, just a follow-up question. Will the sessions of the forum be held openly and in public? Will MEPs, therefore, be able to attend, as observers, any of these sessions?

Political group: PPE-DE
As in the vote on this report on 6 September 2001, I now choose to oppose the position adopted by my political group when it comes to the rules for sending unsolicited advertising material out to consumers via e-mail. Generally speaking, e-mail advertisements involve inconvenience for the consumer, partly because it takes time to open and delete advertising communications. Moreover, it is the consumer who has to bear the costs of receiving and reading the advertisements The division proposed in the report between, on the one hand, e-mail advertisements and, on the other hand, advertisements via text messaging, fax and automatic calling I also consider to be artificial. Whichever of these methods is used, it causes just as much inconvenience for the consumer, and an opt-in solution is consequently to be preferred to all other methods since it constitutes the most effective protection against unsolicited advertisements. In view of how important it is for this report to be adopted by Parliament as soon as possible, the compromise that is on the table must, however, be viewed as an acceptable, if ultimately less desirable, alternative. In the final vote, I therefore choose to support the report, irrespective of what transpires with regard to the aforesaid issue. Turco report (A5-0370/2001)

Political group: PPE-DE
Madam President, I would like to join Mrs Patrie in warmly thanking our rapporteur, Mr Liese, for all his efforts to find a consensus. We are dealing with a particularly important directive here. It may contribute to improving clinical research in Europe and hence the welfare of millions of sick people. The sector is sensitive. It is a matter of scientific progress, but also ethics and morals: in short, value judgments. Since the first reading, Parliament has concentrated on the protection of people incapable of giving informed consent to these clinical trials: children and adults with a mental handicap. These groups must remain within the scope of the directive. Excluding them would mean obstructing research into conditions specifically affecting them. In some cases scientific and experimental research is their only hope. Besides, we know that empirically dividing the adult dose to treat children has already led to tragedy in the past. Then there is the opposite extreme, children not treated because, although the specific medicine to cure them exists, it has not been tested for them. So we want these groups to benefit from advances in research, while laying down conditions for these trials which are as severe and strict as possible. That is the aim of Amendments Nos 36 and 37 in particular: full and objective information, adapted to children – a point I consider very important; informed written consent from parents or legal representatives; exclusion of any financial advantage; control of protocol by ethics committees. In these amendments we also refer, not once but twice, to the fact that the interests of the patient are always more important than those of science and society. Children and disabled people are fragile people who need maximum protection. But there must be no ban: these patients must not be shut out beyond the gates of hope research represents for them, sometimes the last thread still linking them to life. One more word, on another point I consider highly important, I mean Amendment No 30 which concerns non-commercial clinical trials. It is crucial that the directive take account of this academic research. Nor must it be penalised. It is especially beneficial to the patients concerned. I am particularly thinking of cancer research, but there are many others.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, I would like to heartily congratulate Mrs Emilia Müller on the extremely well-balanced report she has produced. Indeed, as a research scientist, I cannot fail to appreciate the scientific rigour with which such a sensitive subject, where there are so many sometimes conflicting positions, has been treated. I would like to thank the Commission for accepting the amendment I tabled on the need for good manufacturing practice to be followed in the preparation of the different vitamin and mineral supplements, for that is the greatest guarantee of quality in terms of consumer protection. Similarly, an excessively permissive position was not adopted on the doses to be used, and rightly so; indeed, the framework of the recommended daily intake was used in specifying doses, thus avoiding encouraging the idea that the greater the dose the greater the effect. As a pharmacologist, I must point out that, both in terms of pharmacokinetics and in terms of pharmacodynamics and toxicology, for example, excessive doses can have the opposite effects to those desired or can even, if taken over long periods, harm major organs and systems of the body, which means that there is absolutely no need to increase the doses of mineral vitamins to the maximum level tolerated. In conclusion, Mr President, in my opinion, Parliament can adopt once and for all the document adopted by the Commission.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr Verheugen, I understand your anger with the media. I have three questions. Firstly, it was announced in the media in Poland that fifty-one complaints have been lodged, and in Parliament it is said that an iron fist is needed. Perhaps you should also use the iron fist in your area, but when the iron fist is directed against people, then it will be difficult and not just the officials will be affected. I have the impression that the social burdens in Poland will increase; the wind is blowing in the government’s face. The second question is what do you think about the regional processes in the candidate countries? In Prague there is 3% unemployment, in the industrialised area of Northern Moravia there is approximately 30%. My third point is that we want good partnerships. We have just spoken about the Roma and if we want to have a good partnership with Russia then the issue of Russian minorities in the Baltic States must be tackled with greater consistency and seriousness, without political reservation and discrimination, but rather in a way that really leads to a solution.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, Commissioner, on behalf of the Group of the , I would like to highlight this Group’s contributions to the joint motion for a resolution, both in terms of promoting dialogue with the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan, as well as in the firm position which has to be maintained on this issue. We believe that there is an objective need for Taiwan to have a greater presence in the international institutions; this Parliament can promote that. We therefore support the existence of relations between this Parliament and the Taiwanese Parliament by means of the delegation from our institution and also the need to open a European Union information office in Taiwan. Having said this, we also want this dialogue to have an objective basis, as have the declarations of the new President, Chen Shui-bian, to which, however, the People’s Republic of China has replied with a renewed display of nervousness, arrogance and a disrespect for democracy. We must reject these threats since they are absolutely unacceptable, but also because they are an objective threat to the dialogue which is so necessary to the resolution of this problem.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Mr President, the European Parliament has already issued two resolutions on the question of child soldiers, one in 1999 and one in 2000. Why use the procedure for urgent cases, then, to include on the agenda a recommendation for a new resolution, one which goes further, of course, since it extends not only to child soldiers, but to all forms of trafficking in children? The reason is that the problem is still growing and the European Union is not showing enough determination. Three hundred thousand children, boys and girls, are enlisted in combat units in more than 30 countries. Every year, 1.2 million children are victims of a traffic which has now become a rapidly-expanding ‘industry’, worth almost EUR 3 billion per year. After drugs and small arms trafficking, it is the third most lucrative criminal activity in the world. The fight against this scourge – beyond comprehension in the twenty-first century – should be a cornerstone of European Union development policy. It is a sad fact that this is not the case. On the world stage, however, more and more action is being taken, as demonstrated by the coming into force, in 2002, of the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. We request that the Council encourage Member States to ratify this protocol with immediate effect, for too few of them have done so up to now. We also request that children’s rights become a political priority for the Union, to be reflected in budgetary decisions involving the allocation of sufficient resources to a specific heading, with a view to improving their effectiveness and raising their profile. This priority is also to be reflected in a common strategy. The Council, of course, adopted such a common strategy in principle on 10 December 2002, but the final document should appear and come into force without delay. Our motion for a resolution suggests several courses of action in this connection. These include the appointment of a high-level representative for children’s rights; a common policy focusing on preventive measures; support and protection of victims; closer cooperation with the countries of origin; and international arrest warrants against the organisers and perpetrators of this unspeakable traffic.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, my apologies for interrupting you. I appear to be the last speaker in the year 2000, although not by design. I noticed a rather unusual mistake in the second part of the report by the Committee on Budgets which should, I think, be corrected. In the Greek text Mrs Jutta Haug is referred to as a male rapporteur and Mr Markus Ferber is referred to as a female rapporteur. I should imagine that this double sex change in a day and without surgical intervention is the first of its kind and it deserves a mention in the Guinness Book of Records, unless of course the necessary corrections are made and all changes of sex avoided.

Political group: PPE-DE