GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Mr President, Commissioner, first and foremost, may I offer the rapporteur my warmest thanks for her outstanding work. The considers promoting energy efficiency to be a key factor in the European Union’s energy policy. However, if the Union wishes to pursue a credible energy policy, then the time will come when the Commission and Council will, at last, have to draw conclusions from the previous SAVE programmes. This is a necessary prerequisite for the third SAVE programme, which has a great deal to offer, being able to achieve the desired effect. The liberalisation of the energy markets is currently in full swing, resulting in considerable price reductions. According to the economic principles that normally apply, offering energy at lower prices is diametrically opposed to the call for consumption to be reduced. Energy-saving measures risk fading away against such a background. That is why it falls to us to adopt the SAVE programme so that the liberalisation of the energy markets can go hand in hand with increased energy efficiency within the European Union. It will only be possible to secure the effectiveness of the SAVE programme if adequate publicity is given to the initiative and there is substantial follow-up to the SAVE III programme projects and activities which are to be financed. This can best be achieved by setting concrete objectives. That is why the Liberals will give their full support to amendments 2 and 5 which aim to increase the energy efficiency of the final demand by 1.5 extra percentage points per year. If we want to achieve our goals, then we really do need to have the courage to set high standards. Ladies and gentlemen, the reference to renewable energy sources, on the other hand, appears to me to be inopportune. It can only cause confusion with the ALTENER programme. In any case, to my mind, the best thing to do as regards renewable energy sources would be to enter into a preparatory and searching debate about access to the electricity grid. I am convinced that governments have an important role to play when it comes to leading by example in matters relating to rational energy consumption. This position is in stark contrast to the observation that, equally, government buildings could be described for the most part as archetypal wasters of energy. Citizens that have cause to enter government buildings ought to be able to see that saving energy is a concern to which the government gives priority. It would thus be a good idea to designate a Mr or Mrs Energy whose specific task would be to strictly monitor energy consumption in government buildings. Let us lead by example ourselves in this respect and start by designating a Mr or Mrs Energy in the European Parliament in both Brussels and Strasbourg. Simple measures are usually far more effective than long-winded programmes.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, Minister, Commissioner, the Assembly of the United Nations has once again offered an opportunity to demonstrate the progress made since the Beijing Conference, as well as the problems which remain and which need to be resolved. Education is still the most effective instrument for ensuring that women can freely exercise their rights and for allowing greater access to positions of responsibility, both in the workplace and in public life. Knowledge of new technologies has been considered to be of great importance in terms of allowing full participation in the society of the future. The media is of enormous importance as it can allow women’s voices to be heard, and can transmit an image, without stereotypes, which is committed to society and the quest for solutions to everyday problems. Women’s health is one of the priorities of the meeting’s final document, with special mention of the spread of Aids, especially in certain areas of the planet, which affects women in a particular way and requires special measures for prevention and treatment. One of the objectives is the eradication of domestic violence, which will be considered as a public issue and therefore subject to national legislation. Violence against women and girls will be punishable by law, which means that there will have to be legislative reforms in the countries where it is not yet considered a crime. Poverty particularly affecting women must be eradicated, and this is why the countries which have signed the agreement will send 0.7% of their GDP to development programmes aimed at eliminating what has come to be called the feminisation of poverty. Globalisation has generated new problems which particularly affect women, such as trafficking in human beings, prostitution and drug-trafficking, which should be combated so that women may live a dignified and free life in conditions of equality. All these objectives must be achieved in the next few years and, in order to ensure they are complied with, we are requesting a new meeting within the next five years. The fifth programme for equality promoted by the European Commission must serve to promote the position of women, to eliminate the remaining inequalities, integrating gender policies into all Community programmes. This meeting has therefore been of enormous importance in terms of making progress in the situation of women in all parts of the world. The European Union’s position, given that it has a higher level of development and, therefore, better conditions for women, must not allow us to forget the situation of women in other areas, where daily hardships are combined with malnutrition, extreme poverty and a complete lack of respect for their fundamental rights.

Political group: PPE-DE
, Mr President, thank you for reminding us that in fact the title of the item on the agenda that we are examining is hooliganism. Two months ago, I addressed Parliament regarding the need to take action against the crimes that hooligans would undoubtedly commit during Euro 2000. The measures taken by the Belgian authorities served to limit the clearly racist, xenophobic and homophobic violence of the hooligans. It is therefore becoming imperative to consider measures to deal with the instigators of such violent crimes, who are often manipulated by extremist right-wing movements. It is still too easy for hooligans to move around with complete impunity within the countries of the European Union. Instant sanctions must be taken in the countries where they commit crimes. Those who are identified and on file as having committed assault must be banned from entering stadiums during major sporting events. Supporters’ clubs and football clubs must be made to take greater responsibility, as it must be said that they sometimes fan the flames. The campaign by the French Minister for Youth Affairs and Sport, Mrs Marie-Georges Buffet made them take greater responsibility and this action has borne fruit. I therefore believe that Parliament can provide a real impetus for the Member States and the UEFA to implement such measures immediately, as the red card, Mr President, must admittedly be applied on the pitch, but must also be applied with regard to hooligans, both in and outside the stadium.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Commissioner, Mr President, the current climate conference in Bonn is crying out for more funds for renewable energies; to wit funds from the EU, both for research and for demonstration projects. The recent nuclear accidents in Japan and South Korea again show how overdue a new energy policy is. Regarding the EURATOM credits, we in the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy are asking that Parliament be consulted immediately. It is incomprehensible to us that our colleagues in the Committee on Budgets cannot support this as parliamentarians. The sole purpose of the budget lines in the area of trade is, professedly, to promote exports and create free market access. Yet this so-called “free market” only exists for multinational concerns because, for example, the SME cannot access either the information on money allocation nor the programmes themselves. In the last two decades exports from Latin America have increased by 300% whilst the gross domestic product in those countries has only increased by 3.3%. Since the beginning of the worldwide policy of a liberalised world economic area, there has been a massive redistribution from the rich to the poor, both within societies and between States. I advocate the opposite political trend. The result is that the financial assistance from the EU is indirect subsidisation. It is precisely this which contradicts the declared concept of free trade. Ultimately, what we are seeing here is another of the many inherent contradictions in WTO policy.

Political group: Verts-ALE
I very much welcome Mr Linkohr’s own-initiative report on ‘Investing in research: an action plan for Europe’ and wish to express my personal thanks to him. I endorse his call for a significant increase in the amount of money spent on research in Europe with the aim of achieving the Lisbon targets, even though prompt transposition will be made difficult by the present tightness of many Member States’ budgets. If research in the EU is to be built up on a long-term basis, any increase in expenditure must therefore go hand in hand with greater efficiency in the application and management of the resources and with a more pronounced bias towards basic research. I am glad that the lead committee has agreed to my amendments in this regard. However, it also rejected the motion that what are termed the new instruments in the current Sixth Research Framework Programme should be drafted more rationally. This has led my own group to reintroduce Amendment 1, in which Parliament ‘calls, in the context of the 6th Research Framework Programme, for the ideas of 'networks of excellence' and 'integrated projects' to be geared more closely to the guiding notion of the European Research Area, and that adjustments, particularly in relation to the size of projects – both in terms of the number of project partners and of the financial volumes involved – should therefore be made.’ It is our expectation that this will enable, even now, the EU’s research policy to be adapted to the currently prevailing realities. I therefore ask you to adopt this amendment.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, ever since Plato’s ‘Republic’, the Western world has regularly been tempted to replace government by the people with government by experts. Our Parliament first asked experts to help it evaluate the performance of the European Commission and they took advantage of this invitation to determine, themselves, what its future should be. In this second report, the experts have gone a step further and criticised some of the political groups in Parliament, which may have hesitated to remove the European Commission from office, since they shared the political affiliations of some of its members. The experts think that this problem will be resolved by banning the Commissioners from belonging to political groups. According to the experts, Parliament should no longer have the power to supervise the European Commission. This task should be taken over by a committee which will guarantee high standards in public life, and this should be a standing committee, not elected, presumably made up of another group of experts. In this, their second report, the experts tell us that Italy is financed by the Cohesion Fund, that the ERDF and the Social Fund represent two-thirds of the Structural Funds and that the principles of additionality and complementarity in the Structural Funds come to the same thing. They tell us that the farming lobby is forcing us to finance rural development through the EAGGF-Guarantee and that the principle of partnership only applies to the Commission and to the Member States. This lesson in wisdom is 100% ideology and 0% knowledge. This will not help us to reform the European institutions whilst fully respecting democratic institutions. The van Hulten report started out as a brilliant one and I would like to pay deep and sincere tribute here to what Mr van Hulten achieved. Unfortunately, it was then changed, and changed for the worse, which turned it into a document which in fact, proposes something that we cannot accept.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, Commissioner, congratulations to Mr Schmid on a very good report on the Commission communication “Strengthening the local dimension of the European Employment Strategy”. Having been the rapporteur on Parliament's guidelines on employment policy in 2000, I take pleasure in referring to what we in the plenary decided almost unanimously at the end of 1999. We decided that 'the special role and responsibility of local and regional authorities, other partners at the regional and local levels, as well as the social partners, needs to be more fully recognised and supported. In addition, the role of the Public Employment Services in identifying local employment opportunities and improving the functioning of local labour markets, should be fully exploited.' The call for Territorial Employment Pacts, sometimes couched in rather nebulous terms in the Commission document, is supplemented in the report of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs by the demand for the creation of employment pacts between the social partners in enterprises. I was recently convinced by an example in my constituency of how successfully an attempt of this sort can work. The Bürkert works in Ingelfingen were saved by this. There is a need for a binding guarantee of employment to be agreed in return for workers waiving their rights to certain benefits. This will be significantly improved by the incorporation of the local dimension into the European employment strategy. What this is about is European coordination of national employment policies while incorporating also their local counterparts, the objective being a joint strategy to tap society's potential for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. This is about subsidiary solutions that harmonise flexibility and social security. The right formula for the European employment strategy is “think globally, act locally” and it is with that in mind that we want to support Mr Schmid's report.

Political group: PPE-DE
At a time when José Bové has just been imprisoned in scandalous conditions for having uprooted a few genetically modified plants, we must not lose sight of the political background to this second reading. What we have in this background is the feverish desire of the Commission and the Member States, especially since the complaint lodged by the United States in the WTO on this matter, to lift the 1999 moratorium on GMOs. The most positive aspect of this compromise is that it allows Member States to adopt any measures they wish in order to prevent the contamination of traditional and organic crops by GMOs. These States would simply need to demonstrate the necessary political will to achieve this. Even if these directives, which are to be voted on tomorrow, provide a barrage of arguments against ‘any GMOs’, the problem of genetic contamination, of seeds in particular, still remains to be resolved. Tolerance of the adventitious presence of GMOs varies from 0.3 to 0.5 % depending on the species, whereas the same threshold of 0.1% should apply to all species. Such a threshold is crucial in order to guarantee the purity of the variety and the traceability and labelling of all seeds throughout the production chain; and to keep some sectors truly GMO-free. The liability of those who introduce GMOs into the environment, and I am thinking in particular here of the seed industry, including European companies, must be clearly established in accordance with the ‘polluter pays’ principle. In other words, the cost of remedying the damage must be borne by GMO farming. Since it is impossible to determine the precise contamination range of pollen produced by a genetically modified plant, it will be in the interest of the producers of these plants to have good insurance, unless they are able to train bees to gather pollen very selectively.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would imagine that certain honourable members are delighted. It is a most interesting coalition which we have here. I hope that you will always feel at home in this alliance. But I must say on behalf of the large majority of my group that we shall not allow ourselves to be discouraged by the result of this vote, which is of course in keeping with the Rules of Procedure. I shall apply on behalf of my group to the President – and I say this here openly – for this matter to be discussed at the next mini session in Brussels, in the hope that it can be brought to a conclusion during the Swedish Presidency. For the rest, I would point out that we were notified internally earlier that the debate on this subject would not start until 4.45, which is why we were surprised that things got off to such a fast start. As a good democrat, I do of course respect this result and I trust that those who snatched such a chance victory will be equally good democrats in the future. I should like to make perfectly clear on behalf of my group that we shall do everything we can to obtain a party statute because it is both good and necessary to the unification of and democracy in Europe. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE
We agree that the fishing industry has the most to gain from promoting respect for the marine environment. We must nevertheless bear in mind that there are many factors that contribute to damaging marine areas, such as contamination and pollution by oil tankers and other maritime transport, industrial activity, the pressure of human activity on coastal waters and, of course, uncontrolled fishing activity. It is worth emphasising, however, that small-scale coastal fishing is a good example of how fishing activity can be combined with sustainable development that does not threaten the marine environment. We feel that it is possible to create a fisheries management policy based on conserving the marine environment which is compatible with the interests of fishing communities. But in order for this to happen, we must specifically take account of the fact that there is a correlation between income from fishing and an increase in fishing effort. It is therefore necessary to adopt measures under the common fisheries policy and to provide appropriate financial resources to guarantee the income of those who depend entirely on fishing for their livelihood, such as fishermen, particularly at times when fishing activity is suspended or reduced. Hence the importance of our amendments, which sought to achieve this.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, following our appeal for a improved distribution of European film, we are now turning to the legal aspects we could employ to promote it. Mr Vander Taelen has again acquitted himself outstandingly of his task of commenting on the Commission communication, for which I thank him warmly. In the Netherlands, we stimulate investments in film production by means of fiscal measures for the limited partnerships that invest in film production. I welcome this mainly because the exemption clause for culture of Article 87(3) of the Treaty establishing the European Community allows for this. Yet, this is not sufficient. I should like to make two points. The EIB and the EIF can make an important financial contribution, especially where European film production is concerned, that involves production measures from different Member States. I would call into question whether we should go so far as to involve the EIB in the purchase of digital projection equipment for cinemas, as proposed by Mr Vander Taelen. My group fears that this would open the floodgates to arbitrariness and competitive distortion. Secondly, I should like to remind you that as long as we do not know what the public want, we cannot adopt a targeted promotion policy for the European film. It is therefore essential for research to be done into the motives of the film-going public regarding their film choices. In addition, it is of crucial importance for young people to be involved in European film too. Cinematographic training and e-learning are the appropriate ways of familiarising them with our film production and of teaching them to appreciate these. The exciting initiative to set up a pan-European children’s channel in order to broadcast the better European children’s films on a Europe-wide scale receives my warm consideration, and it is an excellent instrument to achieve this. In this way, the European citizen is made aware of our extremely diverse European culture from a very young age, as it is expressed, inter alia, in the European film, and we need to duly commit to this. IN THE CHAIR: MR COLOM I NAVALVice-President

Political group: ELDR
In order to achieve world peace, it is essential for people of different creeds and races to respect each other and live together in peace. This is not the case in an increasing number of countries in the world, and that is an extremely worrying trend. Unfortunately, Nigeria is an alarming case in point. Precious little is left of the hopes which the democratically elected president had raised as successor of the corrupt military regime. Ethnic and religious feuds are now the order of the day across the country. Not a month goes by without blood being shed. The number of casualties is running into the hundreds and the situation is getting worse, not better. In that light, the balance sheet for October is shocking. There was fighting between Muslims and Christians in Jos and disturbances in Kano where, moreover, there has been a cholera outbreak. The government army carried out ethnic atrocities and massacres in the Middle Belt. The government itself was shrouded in silence. Only after two weeks did President Obasanjo announce that a special committee would investigate the murders. The billion-dollar question is whether the president is actually up to the task of running this country which is extremely difficult to govern. Apparently, his position is not strong enough in order to keep the country united and allow the different nations to live together peacefully. It is frightening. Just now when we are nearly free of the Taliban, we are lumbered with regions such as the north of Nigeria, where the shari’ah is introduced. Autonomy for those regions should not go as far as observing their own rules that are diametrically opposed to national legislation and that suppress the population and women, in particular. To sentence a pregnant woman to capital punishment for having intercourse before marriage is barbaric. My question to the Commission is: What can the European Union do? In any event, the dialogue with Nigeria will need to be intensified. However, Europe’s hands are tied if the president and the government themselves lack the courage to act and to do everything in their power to allow the Nigerians to live together in peace.

Political group: ELDR
Chairman, as indicated last night, the question of a rapid implementation of the EU top level domain was part and parcel of the compromise which was reached between the three institutions. We heard last night the statement by Commissioner Liikanen, which was part of this package. There is still outstanding the statement by the Council, which I think the Presidency has received, so I would be grateful if you could read out to the House the statement from the Council.

Political group: ELDR