GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Mr President, the closure of the Chernobyl nuclear plant has, of course, been widely applauded by Members in political groups in this House, but it could have happened earlier and the reasons why it did not are instructive. The Ukraine does not wish to increase its dependence of supplies from Russia and therefore it wished to complete the reactors at Khmelnitski and Rovno and in their eyes we have been rather slow in operating the memorandum of understanding that was concluded in 1995. However, the decision to make the Euratom loan available to complete those reactors marks a very important step towards improving EU/Ukraine relations because the loan agreement marks the willingness of Ukraine to operate its nuclear plant to safety standards equivalent to those in the European Union. It is one thing talking about the operational standards of safety, the other important aspect is the regulation of the industry. I am pleased that the Commissioner made such reference to the support that we give to regulators throughout eastern Europe, because this is the area that gives us the greatest concern. It is not in any way to challenge the competence of the regulator or his staff in Ukraine. It is a question of the power of the regulatory body to authorise start-up procedures to ensure stoppage for maintenance and to be the final arbiter for loading and restarting. There is still an outstanding need to satisfy the West that the status of the regulator in Ukraine, and in some other eastern European countries, is equivalent to western practice: it certainly should be established before K2 is finally commissioned. Paragraph 12 of the joint resolution calls for closer cooperation and dialogue between Ukraine and the European Parliament on energy-related matters. This is crucial to building up the Ukraine economy, because structural and technical improvements are also needed in the gas, oil and coal sectors and while the commitment of Ukraine to improving energy efficiency and developing renewable energy sources is welcome, the dominant factors for the foreseeable future will be fossil fuel and nuclear power. It is essential that this Parliament, its committees and its delegation to the Ukraine are linked into the work of the subcommittee of the political cooperation agreement which handles energy and environment issues. Parliament should also be kept fully informed of progress in the shelter construction, the decommissioning of the site and the completion of the two reactors. These are the pressing practical matters which must follow from the voting of this resolution.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, Commissioner, rapporteur, allow me to start by thanking the rapporteur for his excellent cooperation in drafting the report. I speak on behalf of my group when I say that we fully support the rapporteur. Europe is a continent rich in forests and forests are tremendously important. We should all bear in mind the fact that the use of forests is not only in the economic interest, it is, above all, in the environmental interest of all of us. What I mean is that forests have a multi-functional role. I should like to remind you today of the major avalanche catastrophe a year ago in Galtür because it demonstrates how important it is for all of us to treat nature with respect; the alpine area in particular is a very sensitive zone, as people who know the area are obliged to testify time and time again. Not only the people who live in the Alps, but everyone who likes to go on skiing or walking holidays in the Alps each year, appreciates an intact mountain environment in which the dangers are kept to a minimum. The reforestation of the Bannwald is particularly important. That is why reproductive material, which guarantees that forests will withstand the harsh climate, is absolutely essential and indispensable to the safety of the Alps. I consider it absolutely essential for the reproductive material to come from the very area where the climatic conditions apply genuinely, and for the reproductive material to be appropriate to the climatic conditions. Member States must therefore have the facility to stipulate the selection criteria for reproductive material in a non-bureaucratic manner, because nothing will be more devastating than when it is too late to prevent damage to the forest land as a whole. I should like to point out that it is not only the Alps but, above all, the Nordic areas, the polar areas and also the southern areas which have special requirements in this respect.

Political group: PPE-DE
Madam President, on a point of order. This was advertised as a 'catch the eye of the President' session, open to all Members of Parliament. In fact it has been nothing more than a private meeting of Parliament's Bureau. Group leaders have been invited to speak, Mr Poettering was invited to speak twice and the groups have been asked to put forward speakers. It has not been an open debate and I really do not know why the rest of us turn up if you are going to conduct business this way. This is not in the interests of Parliament. I must protest at the way in which you have conducted this matter. (Applause)

Political group: PSE
Mr President, I should like in the short time at my disposal to put a question to Minister Antonione and Commissioner Nielson, which has to do with paragraph 135, which stresses the central role of education to mutual understanding and so forth. We are at the start of the school year; in the occupied part of Cyprus, there was only one school, in Rizokarpaso, which was allowed to operate. Today, Mr Denktash’s occupying authorities are not allowing the secondary school to operate and two or three days ago they also expelled the primary school teachers. This is an urgent matter. The school year is starting, the children may be left without a school and families will probably leave to go to the part of the Republic of Cyprus where all the schools are allowed to operate. That is why I should like an answer from Mr Nielson and Mr Antonioni as to the extent of the action they will take in order to raise this matter with the occupying authorities.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, on my own and Mrs Boogerd-Quaak’s behalf, I would state that we voted against the Fourtou report in the final vote. Certainly, it is important that measures be taken to combat piracy, but the regulations as amended go much further. In particular, extending the regulations to include patents would be a mistake. We can also concur with Mr Schnellhardt’s criticism of the procedure, a criticism that can also apply where this point is concerned. For example, the group had extremely few opportunities to discuss this matter before we faced having to make a final decision. There is also justification for observing that more than 50 leading experts on intellectual property law in Europe appealed to Parliament to look more carefully at the matter, something we have not, however, done. The legal basis can also be questioned, since the procedure is now at issue. Pursuant to Article 95 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, the Community has not usually approved such procedures. I wish therefore to observe that we have obtained regulations that may damage small enterprises and that are not limited to combating piracy, which is what is important.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, I am very pleased to be taking the floor in order to illustrate my support for this programme, put forward by Mrs McNally, on including women in science as much as possible. For the first time, I am speaking as representative of the Pensioners’ Party. While I am national secretary of the Pensioners’ Party in Italy, its leader, Giuseppina Cardazzi, is a woman, and we are therefore fully aware of the importance of women. It is more important to achieve equality between men and women in science more than in any other field. We have only had male scientists so far: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, von Braun, Einstein, to name but a few. Just imagine, Commissioner Busquin, what would have happened if women had had the same opportunities as men over the last 2000 years! Just imagine, President Provan, if women had already been, over the last 2000 years, in the position where the Commission now wants them by means of this proposal. I am absolutely certain that, if this had been the case, we would have progressed much further than is actually the case. As we know, women live much longer than men. We are still wondering what on earth they have that men do not, but I am sure that this certain something, that we still have not pinpointed, will also become apparent through scientific research. The fact that this measure allows women to express their scientific ability – hidden until today – is much more important than the fact that it offers them job opportunities. This is why I take particular pleasure in declaring my support for this report.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, last month we witnessed the remarkable sight of Bulgaria, an ex-communist country, electing the party by its former King, Simeon II, to office, having removed all legal barriers to his entry, ironically in preparation for EU membership. I have always believed that the great benefit of enlargement of EU to the east is to anchor these countries in a climate of peace, prosperity and an institutional respect for democracy and fundamental human rights. However, spare a thought for Simeon’s unfortunate Italian cousin, Prince Victor Emmanuel of Savoy and his son Philibert, who are not only formally barred from standing from public office in their country, a founder Member of the EU unlike Bulgaria, but have nurtured the dream since childhood of being allowed to enter the territory of the country of which they are citizens both by birth and descent. In the past, I have spoken with concern in this house on the Charter of Fundamental Rights with regard to the attempt to make binding its new controversial, social and economic rights, as opposed to the civil and political rights enshrined in the much respected 1950 European Convention of Human Rights. The EU Treaty right to freedom of movement and establishment also enjoys universal support, and yet is so clearly breached by Italy’s 13th so-called transitional constitutional article, which exiles in perpetuity the male descendants of the House of Savoy from their own country. There is no derogation afforded to Italy to discriminate on the grounds of sex or birth with regard to freedom of movement of all its citizens, other on the basis of threats posed to public security or health. It is frankly ludicrous if the Republic of Italy feels threatened by one old man and his son wanting to return home. I therefore call once again on this House to show compassion and non-selective respect for human rights by joining me in supporting my Amendment No 7 calling on the Italian Parliament to honour the commitment by the last government of Italy to put a speedy end to this cruel and anomalous situation, and align its constitution with the right of all EU citizens to move around the Union freely. I congratulate Mr Cornillet, in this respect, on his report in what is a very difficult area.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, in view of the delicate situation in relation to Kaliningrad and the imminent accession of the Baltic States, the Northern Dimension takes on even greater significance. We have to try to ensure that in all our policies we have as close a relationship with Russia as is possible. The Northern Dimension has ensured that we are able to focus on developments in the Baltic area, in terms of energy supplies, telecommunications, and economic assistance. I would therefore be delighted if we could continue that process at the moment, particularly emphasising the importance of Kaliningrad as a major source of difficulties and issues for the European Union to resolve.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, I should like to thank Mrs Smet for her very dogged and persistent work on women’s rights. It has in actual fact been admirable. I should also like to thank Commissioner Patten for his speech, even if I have to say that I felt myself to be far more in agreement with a long list of other speeches than I actually did with this one. Here in Parliament, we very often discuss EU defence, foreign and security policy, and the Commissioner takes the lead in these areas. We would also say in this connection that the EU should not only be an economic power in the world, that is to say a ‘soft’ power, but also a ‘hard’ power, in other words also have a military preparedness and become, if not a superpower, then in any case a military power. I do not disagree that we should have a common foreign, security and defence policy, but anyone and everyone, and especially the Commissioner, knows that it will take some time before this happens. It is not tomorrow that we shall obtain the military capacity and agreement on EU foreign and security matters for which we might all wish. We are, however, already an economic power. We are a powerful factor in the economic area, and that is a factor I think we should exploit much more intensively than we do. We might well, of course, help the oppressed half of the population, that is to say women, that genuinely suffers from a long list of injustices on a variety of fronts: partly cultural traditions, decided by men; partly violence when men do not get their way; and partly trade, because men want to make profits from women; and so on and so forth. We might well intervene and do something more in these areas. Mrs Smet has herself mentioned the Taliban regime, which did not only take the most basic rights, such as educational rights, away from women, but also every possible other right. This is an area in which the EU can do something, but are we doing enough? The Commissioner says we are doing a lot, but are we doing a sufficient amount, and are we doing it systematically enough? I think that one of the things we could perhaps do in response to this report might be to debate further whether we might not be able to do things more systematically, whether it might not be possible for us to obtain some reports from the Commission on what is actually happening in connection with certain cooperation agreements, and whether anything at all practical ever happens at all when violations of basic human rights, and not merely of women’s rights, occur.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, this directive is supposed to harmonise the legislative framework for traditional herbal medicines. While I believe it is very important that we try to cut out cowboys and people who operate in a completely unacceptable manner, this legislation was supposed to provide a simplified registration procedure that would allow the registration and marketing of certain traditional herbal medicines that have been on the market for a specific period of time. In the first reading it was quite clearly limited to herbal medicinal products or pharmacological activity and excluded food supplements. Many feel that it is extremely important to protect the herbal supplements already on the markets of most Member States. These herbal supplements should be regulated under food law. We need to safeguard the long-term future of traditional medicines, which I believe are much more important and beneficial than the synthetic and pharmaceutical approaches to health care. Member States must also be allowed to introduce national rules on their territory to accommodate any traditional or non-conventional approaches to health care not covered by the directive. Health care must take precedence over commercial considerations. Where Member States wish to have control over any health care tradition that they consider to be of value to their citizens, they should be entitled to do so, regardless of the aspirations for commercial harmonisation. Harmonisation should not mean that diversity is destroyed. European citizens have a right to retain their local cultural traditions. This is particularly important where the cultural traditions relate to health care products that are not yet scientifically understood. Traditional medicines should be protected as living traditions. In many EU countries traditional medicine is a living tradition that has continued to evolve over many years and has the capacity to continue to evolve. The natural evolution of traditional medicine is stunted by this directive that defines 'traditional' in a purely historical context and restricts its application to what took place many years ago. The scope of traditional medicine is greater than the directive recognises. This must be taken into account. Traditional medicines are used extensively to treat a wide range of serious conditions in Member States, which should be entitled to introduce appropriate regulation to accommodate such practices. I believe that if you stunt the possibility for traditional medicines, you are doing a disservice to the consumer and the public. Everyone recognises that there are people who act in an unorthodox manner, but I believe that traditional medicine is much more beneficial, in the long term, than the pharmaceutical approach.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Mr President, I propose that we should reject that suggestion, for the simple reason that in its opinion the Commission clearly spelt out that this is a very serious proposal. (Applause) We have now been discussing this subject for five years, and it would not make any sense at all to re-run all those discussions. It is high time we made a decision on this subject, and I can only call on the House to reach a decision now and not to perpetuate this never-ending debate. I therefore call on you to reject the proposal for referral back to committee. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE
Madam President, Commissioner Patten correctly said that we have no quarrel with Islam. I say that we have a quarrel with those who abuse Islam and who turn the principles of Islam into weapons against the innocent. In the same way, we have no quarrel with the Afghan people. Our quarrel is with bin Laden who shelters in Afghanistan and with the Taliban, they seem to be almost one and the same, and we pity the situation of the Afghan people. They are already one of the poorest nations upon Earth. Two million Afghan refugees are sheltering in the Islamic Republic of Iran and they have been for some years now. It is sad to see how little international help has been given to those refugees or to their hosts, the Iranian government. These refugees fled acute starvation and utter brutality in Afghanistan to find a haven in Iran and there are huge numbers of new refugees now on the move. The psychological terror that our new alliance has properly caused against terrorism in the region is causing the new flight of so many new millions of refugees. We must ask ourselves, how we can save lives? We have always supported NGOs. We have perhaps given less interinstitutional support. I plead here to the Commission to look closely at how best to involve our work with that of the United Nations, particularly UNHCR and the World Health Organization, for only the UN, can command the volumes of support that are needed in such a situation, in terms of food, clothing, shelter and the provision of basic needs. I ask the Commission to assist the refugees who have already fled and are in situ elsewhere. May I also include the 3.5 million Iraqi refugees in the region. We must do all we can to help.

Political group: ELDR
I apologise for the lack of clarity. The oral amendment alters Amendment No 5 to paragraph 19 as follows: we want to keep “stresses the vital role played by NGOs” and then the words in bold in the original amendment are to be altered thus: “which may also include humanitarian organisations in Europe that have set themselves the task of receiving and supporting the victims”. And so ‘the Churches and religious organisations’ is to be replaced by “humanitarian organisations”, because that is a much broader concept.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Mr President, Secretary-General, thank you for your magnificent speech, which was very apt and brought each country face to face with its responsibilities. We are honoured to have you with us in this House – your presence here is highly symbolic – and in our turn we too welcome, with respect and sympathy, the family and friends of Mr Vieira de Mello and the other victims of the dreadful terrorist attack in Baghdad. One year ago, Secretary-General, almost to the day, the European Parliament adopted a resolution in support of the mission of the United Nations inspectors in Iraq. Many of us still wanted to believe that it was possible to avoid the war, which we sensed would cause great devastation. In the period that followed, it became apparent that what was happening in the United Nations reflected world public opinion as never before. The public took to the streets in their millions to demonstrate, while in the Security Council the majority of the Member States resisted and did battle. On all sides the goal was the same: to try to prevent a bloody, destabilising and irresponsible conflict. Rarely has the UN been able to be as faithful as it was in those days to the first words of the Charter, ‘We the Peoples of the United Nations’. We did not succeed, but the lesson was learnt. A particular idea of how the world should be organised was, admittedly, seriously flouted by a coalition of States, but since then it has, however, been spectacularly validated by the collective experience, to the point that the former gung-ho warriors are now appealing to the UN. This idea is firstly that war is certainly no way to resolve the world’s problems. Secondly, it is that no nation, even a hyper-power, can ignore the global challenges facing the international community. Finally, it is that there is more to building a world of peace than taking action against terrorist networks. If, to our dismay, the tragic deadlock in the Middle East should persist – 13 Palestinians were killed yesterday in Gaza by the occupying army and 10 Israelis have just lost their lives this morning in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem; this is the kind of thing that must stop at all costs – should the Iraqi occupation, the war in Chechnya and the dreadful conflicts in Africa continue; should the peace plans such as the one for Western Sahara remain unimplemented; should there continue to be humiliation and despair nourished by social and cultural divides and should violations of human rights continue to mar the world, it is probable that, in the future, the world will not be safe and no one will enjoy a peaceful life. It is in all our interests to be aware of this and we all have a responsibility to create a new order. That, Secretary-General, is how we understand the particular tribute that we are paying to you and, through you, to the countless others who embody the universal values symbolised by your organisation. (Applause)

Political group: GUE-NGL
Madam President, I simply wished to say that last weekend there was a terrorist car-bomb attack in the city of Bogotá which killed more than 30 people and injured hundreds more. I would like to ask you, Madam President, to communicate our condolences in relation to this criminal act to the families of the victims and also to express our solidarity with the Colombian Government and the people of Colombia as well as our support in the fight against terrorism.

Political group: PPE-DE