GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Our society does not have enough confidence in young people. In my political life I have always been struck by the fact that the future of young people and their concerns are not at the heart of public debate, and neither the political world nor the power of the media really tries to help young people. That is especially true in Normandy, the region I represent, where too often youth is associated with deviance and delinquency, forgetting the vast majority of young people who work, dream, love and live, the bearers of all our hopes. The European ‘Youth’ initiative is a first step in that direction, and bears witness to a growing awareness of young people in the EU institutions. But it is essential to maintain this effort over time if it is to bear the desired fruit, in the interests of young people and therefore of Europe. So I am convinced that other initiatives, especially aid to youth associations, should be massively encouraged and financially supported by the European Union. - Graça Moura report (A5-0099/2000) Gasòliba i Böhm . – (ES) Mr President, we would like to express our satisfaction on behalf of the Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party at the approval of the Graça Moura report on the European Year of Languages 2001. We believe that it is a magnificent initiative on a European level to dedicate a special year to languages in Europe, to knowledge of them and to the recognition throughout the whole of the European Union of the importance of languages as a reservoir of cultural and historical wealth and an expression of the very identity of the societies which make up the Union. We have supported this report but there are two aspects which we are not happy with. I am referring to some amendments which we have presented, both on behalf of the as well as the group of MEPs headed by Mrs Ferrer, in order to incorporate in a clear and specific way the official languages which are recognised in the Member States so that they may participate directly and in an institutional sense in the development of the European Year of Languages. This amendment has not been taken up, and we regret the line followed by the European Commission, with the participation of the Member States, because it leaves aside, at risk of marginalising it, a form of participation which is particularly important in this field. I would like to remind you that this Parliament recognised Catalan as a European language and gave it a specific personality. It is this language, together with others, which must be taken into account in the application and celebration of this European Year of Languages. (Applause)

Political group: PSE
Mr President, to tell the truth, this answer simply consists of reading out the agenda of meetings, which I think has no real political value and is very misleading, given that the question that was, in fact, asked, was what exactly will be the contribution of the Spanish Presidency to our relations with Morocco. Mr President, the President-in-Office had nothing of substance to say. This ready-made mould for meetings could be used for our relations with any other country. Mr President-in-Office, please do not answer me with an agenda. Tell me the precise objectives and priorities of the Spanish Presidency with regard to Morocco. Something that we can understand as being an objective or a priority and not simply a agenda of meetings that, I fear, will be no different from the usual blah-blah we always hear.

Political group: PSE
Madam President, the presentation by President Prodi today has necessarily been a fairly broad brush affair. We will be looking for the detail year by year, for example in the social action programme to be unveiled this year. We will also be looking at this from the perspective of social and employment policy, and will be applying a number of tests. We will be looking at the extent to which we can create an equilateral policy triangle combining economic policy, employment policy and social policy. At the moment, social policy is trailing well behind economic and employment policy. Within the employment strategy we will look for a deepening and broadening of the strategy following the review under the Portuguese presidency and within the framework being proposed by the Portuguese Presidency. Within the social dimension we will be looking for a deepening of the internal market with a social aspect. The spate of mergers, takeovers and transfers that we are experiencing with the deepening of the market means that we must act to update the matrix of information and consultation directives that we have adopted in the past; but we must also complement them with the new general framework of information and consultation and an updating of the works council directive. We also need a code of corporate conduct to make sure that companies in fact work in partnership with their workers in the management of change. That is the successful way to manage change, and I hope the Commission will act to make sure that is put into place. Finally, with the emergence, the resurgence, of the xenophobic Right within the European Union I hope that our institutions together will do their utmost to give reality to Article 6 by using Article 13 to combat discrimination, and Article 137 to combat exclusion. We need to move that agenda forward with great urgency now. The aspirations are fine, President Prodi, we want those aspirations to be matched by action.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, if we are to achieve the ambitious objectives set in Lisbon and make the EU a knowledge-based economic area and the most competitive and dynamic in the world, we must first step on the accelerator, then define its target groups more clearly, and finally apply the instruments with greater consistency. If the proportion of women in employment is to be increased to 60% by 2010, the Member States will have to become more pro-active – as they did when combating youth unemployment – and set benchmarks, in order to promote women in the seminal information technologies. Their share still ranges only between 10% and 20%, with the percentage of women owning small and medium-sized enterprises under 20%. The representation of women at the top in business management is only 10% at most. What has become of their impetus? Although the structural regulations include equal treatment of women as a priority and the strategy framework on gender mainstreaming holds remedies in readiness, women earn, varying between countries and business sectors, between 20% and 30% less than their male colleagues. Young women expect much from Europe and are demanding flexible child care facilities, and, Mr President-in-Office, so are the children's fathers, because they share responsibilities and want to combine work and family life. European initiatives such as lifelong learning and Community initiatives such as EQUAL take this into account. Now is the time for further steps to be taken. New forms need to be created, and we do not want women to be disappointed, as they are by the Convention, where, unfortunately, only 20% of the delegates are women. (Applause)

Political group: PSE
Mr President, I should like to thank the Committee Chairman, Mr Rocard, for his words of praise in connection with my opinion. Supplementary health schemes have also developed, over and above the reasons quoted by Mr Rocard, because there is a need for improved care as the result of advances in medical treatments, which are too expensive for national health services to pay for. However, they are also needed in order to compensate for the increasing shortcomings of national health services as the result of public-sector management, high costs and cutbacks in expenditure by governments, expenditure which has steadily decreased in all the Member States during the 1980s and at the beginning of the 1990s. As in the past, these gaps are being filled and the increase in the demand for better health services is being increasingly covered by subsidiary and voluntary supplementary health schemes set up by public- or private-sector agencies on a profit-making or non-profit-making basis. However, there are huge differences between one country and another and we have no detailed or comparable statistics to help us ascertain reliably what applies where, what works best, where the weaknesses lie etc., which is precisely why my opinion, which was drafted on the instructions of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, stresses the need, before any generally-applicable rules are introduced for supplementary health insurance, for the Commission to submit a Green Paper containing an analysis of all these separate issues, together with the relevant information. We could then use the conclusions drawn from the paper to introduce some general rules for all the Member States, in order to improve the quality of supplementary health insurance and ensure that it adequately meets the needs of the weaker sections of the population. However, these rules would need to take account of the subsidiarity principle, facilitate competition in the favourable sense of the word and not hamper the efficiency or speed of the private sector or its economic viability. I should like to end by stressing that the distinguished rapporteur, Mr Rocard, took extensive account of the scientific observations and many of the suggestions in my opinion. I should also like to thank my fellow members, Mr Pronk and Mr Karas, for their valuable contribution to the final report.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, our group voted in favour of this report. It is extremely important and we commend the European Parliament which played a very important role in the campaign to ban anti-personnel mines. The NGOs have played a fundamental role. They have pushed for a long time to get this through while some governments were very reluctant, saying it was unrealistic. But if the will is there a lot can be achieved. Governments must take a leading role and be forced to sign the Convention. They must insist upon the new applicant countries signing the Convention as well. When you look at what is happening around the world, it is intolerable that long after wars have ended people continue to suffer as a result of landmines. Innocent civilians, women and men, and particularly children have been maimed and killed as a result of a weapon that was in place long after the war ended. The idea that industries make money out of such inhumane materials is quite unacceptable. Someone mentioned earlier the other weapons that are produced. We must look at the production of all weapons, not just landmines, especially in the European Union since we must look outside our own front door first. It is not acceptable or ethical that we are providing jobs or making money with things that kill, maim and injure people. We should seek alternatives. The idea that technology, know-how and money is spent on creating weapons that destroy people and the environment is unacceptable. The move on landmines shows that progress can be made towards a humane society which does not profit from death and destruction.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Mr President, there can be no doubt that Greece has been at great pains to fulfil the convergence criteria. This is definitely deserving of recognition, but as the rapporteur, Mr Goebbels, said, Greece does not completely make the grade. The question of sustainability has reared its head again. Mrs Randzio-Plath has once again stressed the importance of sustainability in the context of compliance with the convergence criteria. When we look around in Europe, we see that wherever governments are in office, or have just come to power, there are problems to do with sustainability. This affects the large countries such as Germany, France and Italy as well. As Guardian of the Treaties, the Commission cannot just ignore this, and behave as if everything was fine. The decision we have to make today is significant because there are other Member States waiting to join the euro zone, and so we must be sure to impose the criteria on Greece. Greece joined the European Monetary System two years ago and revalued the Drachma early this year. It has largely fulfilled requirements in this respect. Secondly, it succeeded in getting the rate of inflation down to the required level not so long ago. Whether this lasts remains to be seen. I would have preferred it if Greece’s entry into the euro zone could have been deferred for a year, to 1 January 2002. As has already been pointed out, Greece does not, by any stretch of the imagination, fulfil the criteria laid down by the Treaty of Maastricht pertaining to the interest-rate margin. It could only reduce the public debt by a small amount: only by 6 percentage points over eight years, in contrast to Italy and Belgium, which were able to reduce their debts by a far higher amount. I really very much doubt whether we can talk in terms of sustainability in this respect. Privatisation of state enterprise has made little headway. As before, no more than 49% of state assets can be sold, which means that it is nothing more than an exercise in private provision of capital. It certainly is not privatisation in the real sense. The decision as to whether Greece should be admitted to the euro zone ought not to be taken lightly. There is a significant minority in the European Parliament that would like to see Greece join, but believes that it is still too early, and the course of action we take now will play a part in determining whether the euro is stable or not, internally and externally, in the long term. Allow me to say a final word about the comparisons that have been drawn with the Deutschmark in 1985. There is no comparison whatsoever. We did not even have the Single European Act in 1985. The internal market is a reality now. One cannot compare apples with pears, my friend, and so join us in pushing for strict adherence to the convergence criteria.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I wish to begin by thanking the House for allowing the President-in-Office to present his important message uninterrupted. I am a great Italophile and a friend of Alleanza nazionale and of Forza Italia in Parliament. Mr Berlusconi wisely refers positively to the wider European debate. I agree, and I welcome strengthening the links with Ukraine and Moldova in particular. I would ask for a formal acknowledgement for the first time that under Article 49 of the Treaty they are entitled to apply for eventual EU membership. Nevertheless, the absence in Chisinau of a European Commission delegation and the fact that Italy, unlike Britain, France and Germany, does not have an embassy in Moldova – in spite of links with the Romanian-speaking peoples – is regrettable. Pressure must be brought to finally resolve the Transnistrian question, which truncates and corrupts the Moldovan state. The regime recently snubbed a delegation of MEPs from this House from entering the occupied territory. Pressure on Russia and Ukraine would help solve this matter. It is important also that the EU engages constructively with Belarus where, notwithstanding our differences, we must engage positively in areas of mutual interest, like border controls, and in order to encourage reforms and democracy and discourage self-isolation by that government. I call upon the Council to grant a political mandate to the EIB for the first time to extend its operations to Ukraine and Moldova in expectation of their eventual EU candidatures. After all, the EIB is already active in Russia, where I, of course, welcome Mr Berlusconi's interest and engagement. I applaud the beefing up of the trans-European networks and a good start would be for a fast train between Brussels and Strasbourg to make our lives as MEPs much more bearable. I also welcome the reinvigoration of the Lisbon Agenda, without which our continent will lose out to the emerging markets of the East and the proposed free-trade areas of the Americas. Lastly, I welcome Italy's efforts to robustly secure Europe's southern frontiers against illegal immigration. However, how can this be reconciled with the Commission's communication on a wider Europe, which seems to controversially promise eventual freedom of movement to people from the Euro-Med partnership countries?

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I failed to catch the President's eye this morning. We should not allow this plenary session to pass without paying some attention to the fact that the Nobel laureate and Sakharov Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, is still denied her freedom. It is exactly ten years since she and the National League for Democracy won that election which the dictators proceeded to completely ignore. There has been a whole decade of dictatorship in that country. Next Monday, Aung San Suu Kyi will be 55 years old. It is a very poignant birthday for her. In March, her husband died of cancer. He asked for permission to visit her to say goodbye to his dear wife. The military junta in Burma refused permission for him to see her. These military dictators remain terrified of a small and gentle woman who has no malice, no uniforms or tanks to protect her. She and the people of Burma will not give up. What I am asking today is for the European Parliament to do what she asks. She says: 'Please use your liberty to support ours'. I ask the President of this Parliament to write to the military junta in Burma to say: stop the human rights abuses, return to democracy and give freedom to Aung San Suu Kyi. (Applause)

Political group: PSE
Mr President, I just put two very specific questions to the Commissioner. He dealt with one, but has not replied to my question concerning premiums for beef. Perhaps it was not conveyed through the interpretation. I should like to repeat it if I may. Will the Commissioner authorise specific measures for heifers aged between 9 and 24 months and will he adjust the special premium for the slaughter of steers, changing the criterion from age to weight, namely 185 kilos? He has not provided an answer to these queries.

Political group: PPE-DE
Commerce and centralism are the backbone of the European Union’s current policy. Based on the notion that this will strengthen Europe’s position on the global market, silly measures are being imposed on all Member States. The course of affairs with regard to foot-and-mouth is the latest illustration of this failing. Between 1956 and 1992, we had managed to control this animal disease effectively thanks to a massive preventive vaccination campaign. Due to the one-sided consideration of export interests, we are back where we were half a century ago. Instead of introducing preventive vaccination and banning the transport of live animals over long distances, a choice is now being made in favour of pointless mass slaughter in order to destroy healthy animals. In the absence of the possibility of vaccination, this primitive approach is considered to be the only means of curbing the further spread of the disease. Even rare animals in nature reserves and zoos are now being sacrificed to the mad ban on vaccination. Farmers are bewildered and at their wits’ end. Restricted emergency vaccination and taking time out for further research are not solving the problem. In my opinion, the Member States can no longer adhere to the vaccination ban and must carry out vaccination immediately, even if this should lead to an even further setback in exports.

Political group: GUE-NGL
All proposals aimed at improving the environment in Europe are to be welcomed. Trying to incorporate piecemeal water policies in one framework directive represents a considerable challenge. The binding commitment the European Union has made to its Member States to eliminate discharges of hazardous substances into water within 20 years is certainly a step forward, even if 3 years are enough for certain chemical products. Although we welcome the introduction of water management plans based on hydrographic basins, we must remain vigilant when applying these policies; here I am thinking particularly of the project to divert water from the Rhone basin towards Spain. In that specific case, priority should be given to water management and the water savings that can be made, before massive projects to transfer water from one hydrographic basin to another are proposed. The European Union now also needs to consider water pricing. It is unacceptable for multinationals alone to fix water prices, on the pretext that they are providing a technical water management service. This directive represents a step in the right direction, but there will have to be more precise rules to reduce water pollution upstream. - Florenz report (A5-0212/2000)

Political group: Verts-ALE
I should like to thank the President-in-Office for her most satisfactory reply. We all know that the European Union is very sensitive about respect for human rights and that this sensitivity is expressed in the Treaties and in the European Convention on Human Rights. However, Madam President-in-Office, anyone who reads the recent Amnesty International report on the torture suffered by thousands of people throughout the world because of their sexual orientation will feel that what we are doing in the European Union is not enough. The UN Commission on Human Rights recently took an initiative to encourage people to file charges if they are tortured or their human rights are violated because of their sexual identity. Are you perhaps planning to take a similar initiative at European Union level?

Political group: PSE
Mr President, we especially welcome the report. It is an excellent report, explaining without ambiguity the national parliaments' tasks and role in the area of legitimising and monitoring national governments' legislative activities in the Council, in intergovernmental cooperation, where this monitoring function is not at all adequate, but also in the involvement of the national parliaments in the development of a European constitution, summed up in the word ‘Convention’. It is interesting to note, in this context, how this issue keeps appearing on the agenda, for there is no conflict between Parliament and national parliaments, nor is their task unclear. It occurs to me that this conflict is always engendered when the Council and the national governments want to resist Parliament's claim that it should become a fully-developed legislature. It is then that the impression is conveyed that parliamentary democracy at European level would be to the detriment of the national parliaments. It is a false argument, but a systematic one and a deception in the true sense of the word. This discord between the parliaments is intended to maintain the Council's position of power. Parliamentarianism in Europe is, however, indivisible. The commitment to parliamentary democracy is made at the European level. Parliament should therefore give a serious but wary reception to certain announcements made in advance by the Convention's president-designate, who has for weeks, via the press rather than by direct contact, and without yet being confirmed in office by the Convention, been giving voice to ideas about this constituent assembly which bear little relation to what Parliament demands or to the development of European democracy and parliamentarianism. I strongly appeal to this House to play its part in making the Convention a working, parliamentary and public convention and not, as it has been to date, a legitimising façade for the Council. (Applause)

Political group: Verts-ALE