GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
draftsman of the opinion of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy. – Mr President, I apologise to Mr Schmitt and to Mr Collins for the fact that I was delayed elsewhere and did not hear their introductory remarks. The opinion of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy, of which I was the draftsman, was unanimously carried and we are delighted to see that many of our recommendations have been endorsed by the two rapporteurs. We have to move on from the old excuses, the legal challenges mounted by IATA and the opposition to even modest voluntary agreements which we still hear on some sides. This is essentially a matter of the safety, as well as of the convenience, of the consumer. For that reason we particularly welcome the adoption of amendments on consumer health and safety in the Schmitt report's emphasis on the provision of information on health and safety requirements for airline passengers and the Collins report's adoption of the proposal that there should be an evaluation of health risk and research into matters like deep-vein thrombosis. The fact is that passengers today suffer not merely from being dumped from airlines, from the problem of lost baggage, but from other things which are often not the fault of the airlines themselves. They principally suffer from a lack of information. If the new agency does one thing, like the food standards agency which we are about to set up, it must be open, it must be transparent. We need to see how its investigations work. We need to see how its personnel are selected. It must be done on the basis of merit and without any links to the industry. All of those are possible if we adopt these two reports. I hope the House will give an emphatic welcome in the vote tomorrow.

Political group: PSE
I congratulate Mrs Gröner on the excellent report she has drawn up on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council decision establishing a second phase of a Community action programme to prevent violence against children, adolescents and women, and to protect victims and at-risk groups (the Daphne II programme, 2004-2008), which I fully support, in particular with regard to the need to provide the programme with greater funding. I also wish to emphasise that the programme’s implementation must enable its reach to be extended, to encompass the accession and candidate countries or any other countries that enjoy privileged relations with the Union.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, in all my time on the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market, this is the first time that I can recall that one of our major directives has received such prominence in the Parliamentary agenda. I hope that trend will continue. In fact the report was called so early that I was not here on time, and I apologise to both the Commissioner and the rapporteur for not being here to hear their speeches. I have listened with interest to what Members have had to say and at this stage in the debate I would like to reflect on what this report is really all about. We have an objective to create the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-driven economy in the world. Patents are an indispensable part of that. I want to remind all of you here, and everyone listening to this debate, that there are hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of people across the European Union working on inventions that have been protected by patents. That patentability has stimulated investment to develop those inventions into products that the world wants to buy. What we are talking about here is a regime that is legitimately going to encourage invention in all fields. Part of the problem we have had in dealing with this is that a lot of the issues that have been raised have come from one particular direction of creativity: writing elements of computer programs. Actually, patents are about protecting a genuine invention, a new way of doing something, something that is - as this directive says - susceptible of industrial application. I would like to remind colleagues that when you apply for and are granted a patent it does not have to include all the details. In today's world almost every technical and industrial innovation requires some form of computer-aided activity. Why should we deny protection to people who are working on inventions in that field? The Commission has made a persuasive case, supported by a lot of research, that we need a consistent framework so as to ensure that people know that they can get patents for these types of invention. They will also know that they cannot get patents for trivial business process inventions that should not under any circumstances be patented, and will be discouraged from applying for them. We know this is difficult to do, which is why we have argued about the wording. That is why Mrs McCarthy has done such a good job as rapporteur on this directive. She has consistently seen the importance of this in a knowledge-driven economy and has led us in looking at ways of improving and making this work better. She has not allowed herself to be diverted by all the noise around her. I hope that you will support this directive, and that you will support the thrust of the Legal Affairs Committee's amendments. There will be some other amendments but I hope you will resist some of the complicated and abstruse concepts that have been put forward by some people which will make an inventor's life far harder. It is invention and creativity that we are here to support and nothing else.

Political group: PPE-DE
Madam President, the conference on the world climate may have broken down but substantial progress was made nonetheless. Nuclear energy has no chance of making a comeback. The developing countries said: if you northern countries are going to stop using nuclear energy then we do not want it either, not even if it is subsidised. Progress was also made in the field of enforcement. The developing countries are to receive USD 1 billion after 2005. If the clean development mechanism starts working then they will receive between USD 5 billion and USD 25 billion in addition, annually. President Pronk acquitted himself well as far as the developing countries are concerned but his compromise was lacking in terms of environmental issues. The forests proved to be the major stumbling block this time round. Three years ago, in Kyoto, the United States wanted to use Russia as a means of getting round having to take any measures in their own country. Now the Clinton administration wanted the cheapest measures, i.e. to allow forests to grow. Of course forests eat up CO2 but once they are fully grown this no longer happens. Besides, forests burn down, which is happening increasingly often. The solution must be found in energy efficiency and renewable sources of energy. The negotiators working on behalf of the European Union certainly wanted to leave quite a lot of leeway for forests, but no more than 20% of all measures to be adopted. Prescott’s deal, whereby the United States would be allowed to emit 1/3 via forests, 1/3 via hot air and 1/3 via CDM, was a poor and unacceptable deal. Fortunately, 14 of the 15 Ministers for the Environment were of the same mind on this issue. But we must press on, and equality must be incorporated in Bonn, in May 2001. Every citizen of the world has an equal right to CO2-emission, i.e. the Americans do not have the right to emit 200 times as much as the Africans. Only if equality is incorporated will the developing countries start to participate in the fight against climate change after 2012. In order to stabilise the climate on the basis of equality, the United States will have to cut back on their emissions by 90% and the European Union will have to cut back by 80%. China will then have to stabilise its emissions, and then India will be allowed to double its emissions. There needs to be a breakthrough in May next year, without the United States if need be. The Kyoto Protocol can, and must, be ratified, even without the United States. I hope we will come to see the wisdom of this.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Mr President, both the question and the answer have perturbed me somewhat. I have the feeling that the incursion against Yugoslavia has whet the appetite of those warmongers who want to join the United States of America in its role as the world’s gendarmerie. I must confess that the second reply of the Council delegate increased my concerns. Perhaps he could tell us if the European Union really does intend to invade North Korea.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Madam President, Commissioner, Mrs Villiers, Mr Skinner, let me start by saying that both directives are part of the Financial Services Action Plan and thus help to strengthen and complete the internal financial market. The second thing I want to say is that both directives are triumphs for this House and for the parliamentary codecision procedure. Thirdly, both directives, as they stand at present, have made substantial changes to the Commission draft and to the Common Position and have brought them more into line with this House’s point of view. Turning to the transparency directive, reference has already been made to the fact that the mandatory introduction of quarterly reports, as proposed by the Commission, for companies listed on EU stock exchanges is now off the agenda, and quite rightly too. The transparency requirements in the case of loans have been vastly improved. The wording on the publication of company information that has now been agreed on ensures that Member States can require their own companies to publish information in printed form. The requirement that information be disseminated simultaneously has been done away with. The only thing I can say about the investment services directive is that I would have been happier if Article 27 had specified a minimum account size, or if Recital 49 had been deleted, but it is important that the report has enabled us to steer a middle course between the various national interests, the European interests of the internal market, and our egoisms, and on that I warmly congratulate Mrs Villiers, the rapporteur. Thanks to her, three states that are highly important to the financial market – the United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden – are now on board, although they did not initially endorse the Common Position, and participants in the market can now avail themselves of a better directive.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, Mrs Cerdeira Morterero’s report is attempting to make positive adjustments to the Commission’s initial proposal, in a climate characterised by security laws and the de facto criminalisation of emigration. This is the case, for example, with regard to the ending of discrimination in the field of family reunification. But we might ask ourselves whether it is not a question of a fool’s bargain, as asserted by certain fellow Members, since the Council already reached an agreement in February, with which Commissioner Vitorino was satisfied. Therefore allow me, in turn, to express doubts over the desire to take the opinion of the European Parliament into account. Allow me also to express extreme concern over the current trend where several countries of the Union are hardening their migration policies. For example, we understand why the French Government called this agreement – an important part of the policy on the control of migration flows. While harmonisation of national laws is necessary, is this taking place based on compliance with the rights and protection of third-country nationals, in the very spirit of the Tampere agreements, or will the transposal of this directive on the contrary be the pretext, for some, for a reduction in the level of protection already guaranteed by the Member States? By increasing the conditions of entry, for example, for children and choosing between qualified and non-qualified job-seekers, Europe is becoming a fortress. This policy plays no part in creating a European citizenship which upholds the values of tolerance, democracy and solidarity in accordance with, in particular, the Geneva Convention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This is a real opportunity for the Union: immigrant populations should instead take advantage of free movement and a welcome which enables them to participate in local life and have a reasonable income. We would be a long way from the fantasy of invaders in that case. In this respect, the 2002 report on the Continuous Reporting System on Migration set up by the OECD re-establishes the truth. In France, whether the Minister of the Interior likes it or not, the total number of permanent entries totalled 119 000 people in 2002, that is, less than the figure for 1998, and the principal reason for this migration remains, in 77% of cases, family reunification. Lastly, following the example of human rights associations, I am today anxious to condemn actions which the Danish Presidency in a way allowed in its Return Action Programme of November 2002. I refer to chartering flights which are loaded with ‘undesirables’. It will have taken barely four months for Mr Sarkozy in France to disappear into this organisation of forced returns, shameful for this day and age, and above all, a far cry from a humane and fair immigration policy.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am one of several Basque Members of this House. I am also fully committed to the defence of all human rights, especially the most basic right of all, namely the right to life. As some honourable Members will be aware, Domingo Durán, an officer in the Spanish national police force died last Friday at the age of 51. Eight years ago he was guarding a Bilbao office processing national identity cards and lost the use of all four limbs as a result of an attack by ETA. Mr Cox, I believe it would be appropriate for you to issue a condemnation of violence of any kind in your capacity as President of the European Parliament. In particular, I call on you to condemn terrorist violence in pursuit of political aims, and to convey the condolences of the House to the family of this victim of terrorism. As an expression of our solidarity with the people of Spain and especially the Basques I would also like to call on all those present in the House today to join in a minute’s silence in defence of freedom, political coexistence and respect for the rule of law.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, when we embarked on this exercise all of us knew that the reform of the Commission was never going to be easy, it was never going to be smooth and it was never going to be quick, because we had 40 years of entrenched views and in trying to change that we were always going to have to overcome some problems. Despite these obstacles, I have to say, having listened to the Commissioner, we have congratulate him on the progress that he has made so far and we also have to congratulate the staff trade union for having gone into negotiation and made headway in a number of areas of reform. It is important that this question is down here because I would like to touch on a couple of points that some of my colleagues have raised. Mr Harbour – rightly so – raised the question of timing. Timing is important because, if you get the timing wrong, it impacts on the morale of staff and once the morale of staff starts to fall then that has an impact on career improvements, advancement, etc., and once that starts – they do not move forward. All these points go together. I was glad that Mr Harbour touched on the question of the linear career structure, it is a big issue and one that we have to face up to as the Commissioner is well aware. I would add that I agree that whistle-blowing is now in the public knowledge. However, whistle-blowing has a different ramification in the west of Scotland: it tends to indicates flutes and that does not go down too well in my part of the world. I slightly disagree with my colleague Mrs Guy-Quint. On the question of consultation: we have been consulted at every opportunity. She did argue again for a more protracted period of reform, but as we said, if we spin it out longer and longer it impacts upon the morale of the staff and that impacts on the performance of the staff. We have to keep this as short as possible. The whole question of retirement: I was the person responsible for piloting the question of the retirement package through Parliament and it is a wonderful package. I would love to be offered the same. Can I say to the Commissioner, we heard quite clearly about the breaking of the Heading 5 ceiling. We realise that it is not in the domain of the Commission and maybe it is high time that some of us were to look at some of the other institutions and how they were getting on with on with that. In conclusion, we have made significant progress. It is important that we are kept informed of the progress. I am glad to hear what the Commissioner said, because only by that and by monitoring what is happening can we have an impact. If obstacles do occur, we can then start trying to tackle them, here and in the other institutions as well.

Political group: PSE
Commissioner, thank you very much, that is very promising. When the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs debated this Commission proposal on which I was a rapporteur, we found that none of us in the Committee were aware at all; and I wonder if the public listening to Question Time in the gallery are aware either. So there is still a great deal to do. Thank you for your offer to send me more information. I accept your offer and since we 626 MEPs are the contact between the EU and the public, would you like to write each of us a simple little letter making all of us in the Parliament aware of it? You could just print these off in the eleven languages and every Member will become conscious of it and we could all help to publicise this European Union facility in our Member States!

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, I have an interest in a sector affected by the Commission communication which is the subject of this report. As a result, I will not take part in any vote on this report. I must do likewise with regard to the following report by Mr Alyssandrakis on radio spectrum policy, unless you can immediately formally acknowledge my declaration.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, while Mrs Thors was speaking the Commissioner was interrupted by two different people, so he was not paying attention to what she asked and what she said. It was vitally important to me, as someone trying to learn from this debate, to ascertain the facts of the situation. I was very interested in what Mr Rothley and Mrs Thors said as to whether we should even be discussing this issue in this Chamber. But Mr Nielson was otherwise distracted. I would hope that he gives us a proper response when his turn comes to speak.

Political group: PPE-DE
The Swedish have today voted in favour of significantly stricter rules for the tobacco industry, including the proposal that as much as 40 per cent of the space on packets of tobacco products should be taken up with health warnings, compared with the 25 per cent proposed by the Commission. We are also in favour of no longer permitting any references to ‘light’ or ‘milder’ tobacco, as well as of phasing out subsidies for tobacco cultivation within the EU as soon as possible, for this form of subsidy is directly at variance with the EU’s efforts and initiatives to improve public health. Moreover, we wish to abolish the peculiar tobacco derogation granted to Greece. When it comes to the continued ban on sales of snuff to other EU countries, we Swedish consider that account should be taken of the unwillingness of these countries to introduce a new product they consider to be habit-forming and destructive from a public health point of view. Sweden ought not, in the name of free trade and the internal market, to force snuff products upon other countries and peoples if they do not want them. In the same way, the Commission ought to have shown similar respect for Swedish alcohol policy by having extended and made permanent Sweden’s 1994 derogation concerning private imports of alcohol.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, can I therefore deduce from Mr de Miguel’s answer that the Council considers that to propose any initiative against acts of discrimination suffered by European citizens of both sexes because of their sexual orientation does not fall within its competence, and that therefore, it considers that the provisions of Article 13 of the Treaty of Amsterdam, Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and the Council Decision of 27 November 2000, which establishes a Community action programme to fight against discrimination are also not within its competence? I would remind him that, unfortunately, there are many European citizens of both sexes that call upon this Parliament every day describing the discrimination they have suffered purely because of their sexual orientation and this is something that I, as a Member of this Parliament, am naturally concerned about, and I was under the impression that this did fall within the Council’s competence, quite apart from the specific circumstances of the case that has been mentioned here today.

Political group: PSE
The human rights situation in Egypt is giving rise to increasing concern. As other Members have told you, the suffering that Mrs Nawal El Saadawi is having to endure is edifying and it has also been said today that she will soon have to appear before a criminal court and risks imprisonment and a forced divorce. Several other human rights defenders are also experiencing legislative and judicial harassment. The state of emergency, the law on association and the judicial system have been put in place to repress all freedom of expression, which reveals how far off course the government is with regard to respect for human rights, especially where torture and ill treatment are concerned. As for the torturers, they continue their ruthless acts with total impunity. The government does not respect the obligations of international law or the international undertakings given over recent years, including Article 2 of the Association Agreement concluded with the European Union. It is therefore vital that the Egyptian authorities condemn all these expressions of violence and ensure the protection of its citizens. It must implement real measures, especially on behalf of women, minors and prisoners. It must guarantee an independent system of justice with investigations and inspections and renounce any legislation which restricts freedom of expression and association. It must not enforce a state of emergency whenever it wishes to restrain democratic freedoms and the activities of all these human rights campaigners.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Madam President, I would ask the various parliamentary units to listen to yesterday’s tapes before recording Mr Baron Crespo’s opinion in the Minutes, as, to my mind, the opinion he expressed this morning is not the same as that he had yesterday.

Political group: GUE-NGL