GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Mr President, I just wanted to say that it was standard practice under the other presidencies to give a precise answer to a supplementary question. The President-in-Office must know if he met Mr Maskhadov or not. How can he say he does not have any precise information?

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I want to tell Mr Poettering that I am in absolute agreement with the proposal he has made. I do think that, if we want to have a proper debate on Chechnya, we must not have it as a matter of urgency with one or two minutes available, but in the context of a statement on this issue by the Council and the Commission, so we could have a serious discussion about it. Apart from that, I do not wish to respond to the constant attacks by Mr Dupuis and his crowd, such as, for example, Mr Pannella and the rest of them.

Political group: PSE
At the Council’s meeting in Cologne, it was decided that an EU Charter of Fundamental Rights should be prepared. The Charter was to assemble and establish the rights which are to be found in the treaties and make them clearer and better known. We welcome such a Charter of Fundamental Rights which can also, of course, include rights under existing international conventions signed by the Member States. At the same time, human rights must be regarded as an international and global issue and not only as a matter for EU citizens. We are, however, hesitant about making such a Charter legally binding before it has been fully clarified what that would mean in practice. The relationship between the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights appears, for example, to be legally complicated and could undermine the European Convention on Human Rights. We believe that there are a number of questions which ought to be investigated before one particular model is opted for exclusively. We are therefore abstaining from voting in the final vote.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Madam President, there were no flights at all from Amsterdam to Strasbourg this morning. The flight was once again cancelled. I have drawn your attention to this on several occasions in this House. The number of flights, which was originally three per day, has been cut down to two. We then assumed that those flights would probably continue to operate, but Air France has once again decided to cancel the flights altogether. I should like to draw your attention to this. We all had to fly via Paris, Brussels or Frankfurt again, which meant that we were late arriving here, although we were at the airport before 8 a.m.

Political group: ELDR
Establishing a European Maritime Safety Agency is the right move following a number of tragedies at sea over recent years, the worst of which, for Greece, was the shipwreck of the 'Samina' ferry boat. The Council's position has been improved by a number of amendments made by the European Parliament in connection with transparency, forwarding the agency's findings to the Member States, the role of experts on the agency's administrative board and combating fraud. The Mastorakis report is a considerable improvement on the Commission's initial proposal, which is why I shall vote in favour of it.

Political group: GUE-NGL
The Commission’s proposal came at the right time: on the eve of enlargement, people are worried about the possible consequences of a 25-nation Europe for their lives, starting with their employment. While European policies more often than not sing the praises of SMEs and of flexibility at the same time as sometimes adopting measures such as the software patent that make the lives of SMEs impossible, I welcome an initiative that acknowledges the continued status of our industries as major economic and social players. I also welcome the work of the rapporteur who, in choosing to place her document in the context both of the three pillars of sustainable development and of the conclusions of the Lisbon and Gothenburg European Summits, emphasises the importance of an industrial policy that is social and environmental. The Right has attempted to remove these emphases, fortunately without success. The profound changes that are to come in the industrial fabric are so many opportunities to reduce the environmental impact of certain activities. Unfortunately, the document continued to contain a paragraph – which the Group of the voted against, because it viewed fuel cells and hydrogen as alternative energy sources – which called both for investment in nanotechnologies, with no legal framework and no idea of the health and environmental consequences (one has only to think of the consequences of GMOs) and for investment in the security and defence industry. Apart from this paragraph, the will support this report.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Mr President, when Mr Solana came to visit our group last week and was questioned about the outcome of the Cairo Summit, his answer was that the atmosphere had been good, which is more important than an outcome. I disagree with him on this. Commissioner Nielson also said something to that effect. I think that the atmosphere is important, but as a basis for reaching sound agreements. If the agreements are not forthcoming, then a good atmosphere is neither here nor there. Nonetheless, an EU-Africa Summit is to be welcomed. I also feel positive about the Portuguese Presidency’s initiative. This huge continent is still beset with a lack of democracy, war, human rights violations, drought, flooding and chronic poverty affecting large parts of its population. There are most certainly a number of countries which are better off, which boast sound growth figures and where the first signs of prosperity are visible, but there are also countries where the situation has dramatically changed for the worse. Mr President, the European Union has over the past 25 years invested a great deal of time and effort in development and cooperation. It is disappointing to have to state that this aid has not always had the required effect. In our opinion, we need a new Africa policy, a policy in which democracy and sound management are prerequisites for aid and cooperation. The Union can then also be expected to adapt its agricultural and trade policy in such a way that it is of more benefit to Africa and not, as is now often the case, a source of further disadvantage. In return, we can expect African countries to cooperate better at regional level, open up their markets and give their economies a fair chance. At the same time, Africa needs sound budget management combined with effective social policy, good education policy and sound health care. Excessive spending on defence or futile projects should be avoided. Mr President, the African countries have asked us to clear their debts. This is vital for the poorest countries, especially if these enjoy good leadership and a balanced budget. But more than anything – as underlined by Commissioner Nielson –we need to treat Africa in an adult manner. We need to support what works but we also need to dare to speak up if certain things are unsuitable. We need to support good leaders and good governments, but offer no support to dictators, bad leadership or countries riddled with corruption. If the Africa Summit in Cairo has led to this kind of realism, then we have created more than just a good atmosphere and we are probably on the right track. IN THE CHAIR: MR PROVANVice-President

Political group: PPE-DE
Madam President, I voted for Mrs Foster’s report on airport security. I am pleased to highlight the fact that this document calls for surprise, unannounced inspections. This seems a logical course of action which, until now, has very rarely been taken, hence my appreciation. I notice, however, that only EUR 1.215 million is being appropriated for these inspections. This is an extremely modest sum and simply not enough. Whyever did Mrs Foster not ask for more money for these inspections? One might almost say that she wanted to economise on the European Parliament budget. This seems rather stingy, Mrs Foster, an attitude perhaps more suited to the Scots or Genoese. I am Genoese and I suggest and believe it would be better to use more money for these airport inspections.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I rise to raise an important issue for individual Members of this House relating to Council Question Time. I was informed yesterday by the questions office of this House that my question relating to the Middle East would not be taken by the Council today because the matter I was raising, the Association Agreement between Europe and Israel, would be dealt with by the Council in debate yesterday. The Council did not deal with that issue yesterday, so I contacted the office again today to have this question restored to the order paper. I have now been informed that the Council will not deal with my question or ten other Members' questions because it claims it has not had time to prepare its replies. I do not think that is acceptable. This is one of the few rights that individual Members have: to question the Commission and the Council directly in this House. It is a display of contempt for the Members of this House for the Council to seek simply to push aside important questions which individual Members may want to raise. I would ask you, Mr President, to make the strongest possible protest to the Council to ensure that my question and the other Members' questions are restored and in fact replied to; and to make it clear that neither this Council nor any other council is entitled to treat this House with such contempt.

Political group: PSE
I am very grateful for your reply, Commissioner, which, furthermore, contains reasonable arguments, and I am glad to see that the decision to remove CONNECT is not irreversible. I must tell you that we have the opportunity to renew a budget line which is very successful and viable because, with a truly modest amount of money – as you have said – almost a hundred very interesting and innovative projects are being carried out. My supplementary question is as follows: Do you not believe that, even if only provisionally, CONNECT should be renewed as a coordination programme for the other programmes? Do you not believe that, if we remove CONNECT, it could be interpreted as a new milestone in the tendency for the issues within your competence to lose importance. I am beginning to suspect that this is what the Council intends: to see to it that all educational and cultural fields should lose importance.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, I should like to address the Commission in order to express my wish that the year 2000 should enable us to make progress in the general direction of coherence, particularly in the field of agriculture. The fact is, if the European Union intends to fight for alternative rules for international trade, if it is to defend the European farm model, then it must acknowledge that there is still a lot to be done in order to put its political decisions into practice. In the banana case, for example, we have not so far been able to reconcile the interests of our producers, those in the ACP countries, with the demands of the WTO. Why not? Quite simply because the WTO, according to the Marrakech model, does not permit this, or permits it only with extreme difficulty. So why, after so often declaring that the WTO must incorporate social and environmental regulatory mechanisms, and that the European Union intends to guarantee advantages for LDCs, does the Commission still adhere exclusively to the prospect of market liberalisation in this sector? Since Seattle has challenged the inadequacies of existing WTO agreements, I would argue strenuously in favour of the Union handling this issue in accordance with the rules which we intend to see predominate in international trade. I would make the same call for coherence in another area, the management of the pigmeat crisis. You will be aware that, as a result of this crisis, which has now lasted for more than two years, many independent producers find that they have been relegated to being mere casual workers for firms or other large-scale producers. This is a situation which runs totally counter to our European farm model which is based on a multiplicity of diversified and multifunctional family farms. Here too, Mr Prodi, I would like to sound the alarm, and I would call upon the Commission to put forward new measures which are properly suited to managing this type of crisis, in addition, obviously, to what you are already proposing, i.e. a solidarity fund. My final point concerns the preparation of the budget for 2001. Admittedly, the budget lines for agriculture may be examined in order to reflect the need to show solidarity with the Balkans. This is true. We should, however, pay attention to meeting the commitments made in Berlin regarding the CAP and, more especially, to retaining adequate safety margins in order, in particular, to confront the crises which are damaging the fabric of agricultural and rural life.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, as well as congratulating Mr Casaca on his excellent work, I must thank him for his support for the opinion of the Committee on Agriculture. This opinion has tried to correct the Commission’s approach, which ignores most of the essential elements, not only for control, but also for administration. This source of information is found in the administrative information resulting from the payments of the EAGGF. Regulation (EC) No 2390/1999 demands that the Member States provide the Commission with the data on the payments of the EAGGF-Guarantee. Nevertheless, it only demands that that information is communicated to them on request and exclusively for the preparation of verifications in situ in the process of the settlement of accounts. This situation creates various control limits. Effective administration must be able to provide the institutions responsible with the elements for analysis and decision and amongst these elements is the cost-efficiency index. This approach must be applied systematically and must be based on the analysis of the payments corresponding to each regulation. The fact that this information can only be requested for the preparation of verifications in situ in the process of the settlement of accounts sets a time limit on the availability of the fundamental information for administration and control. Once the process of the settlement of accounts is over, it is no longer possible to make any analysis of administration or control activities. However, as well as these verifications relating to the settlement of accounts, effective control requires other instruments such as, for example, the cross-checking of the different information available. In order to reduce these deficiencies, it has been proposed to use the information available within the framework of the above-mentioned Regulation (EC) No 2390/1999 in the integrated administration system, which Mr Casaca spoke about earlier in this magnificent report. Therefore, in the first stage of the establishment of this integrated administration and control system, it would be sufficient to regulate the conditions for delivering the information mentioned and the need for the Commission to store it.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, on a point of order, I should like your clarification that when you are looking around the Chamber and judging how many people vote for or against, you are not taking into account any political preference. I am sure you are not, but I would hate my British Socialist colleagues to be embarrassed by the way they have just voted, in some cases against the UK budget rebate.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, firstly I would like to thank the rapporteur, Mrs Haug, for an excellent report, and for having come to hear the views of the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism. Our committee tabled two amendments for the report. Owing to tight meeting timetables, they have been brought to the plenary session via my own group, and I hope that they may be adopted. Amendment No 19 reminds everyone that there must be adequate payment appropriations for Structural Funds programmes, trans-European transport networks and other budget headings relating to transport, so that the programmes may be effectively implemented right at the start of the programming period. In this way payments made at the end of the programming period – as was the case the previous year – are avoided. Amendment No 20 concerns innovative measures. The appropriation must be kept at the level decided at Berlin. We have to remember that the Interinstitutional Agreement contains a pledge that the reduction in appropriations by EUR 200 million made the previous year should be made good this year. Our committee is not proposing to move appropriations set aside under the URBAN initiative to be used for innovative measures: the compensating appropriations have to be found elsewhere. The importance of innovation was stressed both at the Lisbon and Feira summits. Innovation must therefore be adequately supported. The implementation in practice of innovative measures in the area of Structural Funds has not got under way because preparatory work on the part of the Commission has lagged seriously behind. Our committee supports the policy of support for employment and the importance of SMEs in Mrs Haug’s report. The Commission and the Member States should also simplify and speed up administration procedures relating to Structural Funds. More attention should be paid to the success of projects at approval stage.

Political group: ELDR
Mr Solana, you will not be a Lord Grey in any sense; you are very welcome here. Mr Solana, wearing your two hats as “Mr CFSP” and Secretary- General of the WEU, you are going to have a great responsibility in our common endeavour to establish a European order of peace. First on the agenda is the matter of complying with the Cologne decisions on crisis management and conflict-prevention initiatives. These decisions also include the Member States’ undertakings to establish a specific military capacity in such a way that the EU’s ability to take credible initiatives in accordance with the principles of the UN’s Charter is reinforced, and this without any Member State’s interests being compromised and without the EU’s taking on NATO’s basic tasks. Right now, a lot of energy is being spent on crisis management, something you talked a lot about. We are seeing more and more proposals on the way. Against this background, I should like to ask you the following question. You said that our citizens feel that we ought to be able to intervene in a crisis. Yes, but I think our citizens want us to be able to intervene before crises break out at all. My question is therefore as follows: do you share the view that measures to prevent conflict are at least as important as the crisis management which in fact kicks in at a stage where politics and diplomacy have failed? What measures are you therefore going to take in the area of conflict prevention so that you can, as it were, start taking charge of preventing fires rather than turning out to fight them? The Cologne decision ought not to lead to our one day finding ourselves in the same situation as my second home country, Switzerland, where, following studies of possible threats to the country over the next decade, the conclusion was reached that Switzerland is well equipped to deal with dangers which no longer exist. I would mention in this context that the Conflict Prevention Network (CPN), established by Michel Rocard on the initiative of the European Parliament, warned, long before the Kosovo conflict, that war was going to break out, and that a variety of visiting delegations from Parliament did the same thing. The CPN still exists, but the problem, then as now, is that there is no structure in the Commission or in the Council which can effectively utilise the experience and expertise of the CPN and others.

Political group: PSE
Madam President, on a point of order. Following the tragedies in New York and Washington, many other aspects of our lives have inevitably been changed for ever and I would like to ask the Commission to make a statement on the issue of state aids to airlines. In a small peripheral country such as my own, the survival of a national airline is of vital importance to the economy and already in Ireland over 700 jobs are threatened at Aer Lingus. I would ask the Commission to lift its ban on state aids to national, particularly small, airlines.

Political group: PPE-DE
Everyone is entitled to protection against administrative arbitrariness and against exploitation by privileged parties. In a society that is based on universal equality, as well as the right to individual diversity, individual and social constitutional rights that are legally enforceable are indispensable. The EU’s Charter of fundamental rights that was produced in 2000 does not go as far as some provisions enshrined in Member State constitutions, the European Social Charter and the Council of Europe's European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which applies to an area greater than the EU alone. This is why it is wrong to equate a proper arrangement of constitutional rights with a document that is no more than the outcome of a discussion of a convention that mapped out the common denominator of various wishes without taking a vote. A weightier status for the Charter can lead to two quite conflicting results, namely more scope for propaganda on the part of the EU and, at the same time, fewer guarantees for rights of EU residents. This is why the suggestion to start accession negotiations to sign up to the ECHR is, in my opinion, the most positive part of this report. In fact, why do we not adopt the ECHR instead of the Charter straight away?

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, speaking personally, I wish to repudiate the attacks made on Mrs de Palacio. Not in any way did she attempt to exert negative influence on the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism; on the contrary, she offered help in bringing the trans-European networks dossier to a conclusion, and that was very valuable. What I would like to ask the President-in-Office of the Council, though, is whether he has nothing to say to us. Are our questions so unimportant that he is unwilling to give us an answer?

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I would also like to talk about the Singapore issues, because there is massive hypocrisy at the heart of the Commission and Council position. According to your rhetoric, Commissioner, these negotiations were supposed to be heralding a development round which prioritises the concerns of developing countries. You like to portray the EU as a supporter and advocate of developing countries and yet the EU is now perceived as bullying these countries into a new set of issues on investment and competition, in spite of the fact that the vast majority of them have already categorically said that they do not want negotiations in these areas. Even the ACP Group – a group with which this Parliament is supposed to have a special relationship – has issued a statement stating it does not want them. The least-developed countries do not want them. On behalf of my group, I would like to issue a challenge to you today. If you are serious about this new round genuinely being a development round and if you genuinely want the EU to be seen as a supporter of developing countries, will you ask the Council to withdraw the demands on these issues? If not, can you tell us how you square your so-called support for developing countries with your agenda, which is running precisely counter to their interests and wishes?

Political group: Verts-ALE