GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Mr President, Castro's Cuba has tried to present itself to the world as a model of anti-colonialism and social justice. In reality hundreds of people died in Cuban prisons in the early years of the revolution, and many more have been imprisoned or had their lives ruined for daring to speak the truth. Certainly the revolution has had achievements, but the economic, as well as the political, costs have been very high. The Cuban economy is bankrupt, not because of American sanctions, but because of communism. What is the advantage of good doctors if there are inadequate medical facilities and resources? Fidel Castro has failed to understand that the world has changed, and few of us were prepared for the recent crackdown on 33 dissidents, the rushed secret trials and the outrageous call for the death penalty for a Christian Democratic leader. This is a dramatic step which reduces the chances of Cuba becoming part of Cotonou. Fidel Castro must learn to respect human rights and introduce democracy. There is no room for tyrants in Latin America any more.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I voted for the Procacci report on rural development, not only because I endorse the major policy lines of the LEADER programme, but also because it complements the URBAN programme, which I spoke about earlier. Just as elderly people in cities are very isolated, so the elderly are fast becoming the sole inhabitants of rural areas because young people are moving to the cities: they are drawn by the bright lights, and the pubs, and the countryside and rural areas are being emptied. I therefore believe that it is very important for everyone to back this European Union plan and for it to be further developed.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I think Mr Swoboda's proposal is a very wise one.

Political group: PPE-DE
Paragraph 12 is inconsistent with the EPLP line that tobacco and alcohol excise duties should be harmonised upwards in order to achieve the social goal of reduced use and to indicate the strength of feeling held – that is, that you can tax for social reasons. - Carnero González report (A5-0409/2001) Fatuzzo . – (IT) Mr President, I voted for this report which proposes to give the European Union legal personality. I came here to Strasbourg, Mr President, two and a half years ago with great enthusiasm, and that enthusiasm has not waned. I want us to make progress in ensuring that the importance of the European Union is recognised, but recognition of its importance is not enough: Europe must progress towards becoming a genuine political unity. We cannot continue in this state of limbo: either Europe exists or it does not; either we make Europe an independent territorial public body existing in its own right with its own role, or else everything we have done will be a waste of time, including what we are doing now, and not just because I am speaking when I could have remained silent but because all our work will go to waste. I therefore hope – and I voted for the motion to this end – that this House, elected every five years by all the European citizens, will become the Parliamentary Assembly of a united political Europe.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, Commissioner, I have followed the work of the budget rapporteurs, Mr Jan Mulder and Mrs Neena Gill, carefully on behalf of my group. I want to thank them for their diligence and the transparent way in which they have worked, even though our conclusions for next year’s budget are not the same in all respects. Our group would have liked Mr Mulder to meet us halfway in Category 4 of the budget so that our proposal for appropriations for Palestine and East Timor could have been adopted. The serious problems of the Middle East have had too little attention paid to them in the debate on next year’s budget. Not everybody in our group likes Mrs Gill’s proposal to take an appropriation from the budget to start support for European political parties using Parliament’s funds. Many in our group feel that support for European parties will only restrict democracy, not increase it. That way the big parties in the big countries could subjugate the small parties in the small countries. I would focus your attention on the fact that the Council deleted the clause in the regulations governing the parties which said that a European party could not provide funds for national parties in national elections. Now it can, and this means European taxpayers’ money will be spent on national election propaganda. On the other hand, we support the ideas put forward by Mrs Gill on the committee regarding how necessary it is to make the work of the European Parliament more efficient. For example, the excess on the allowances for Parliament’s car service this year must be looked into carefully, and next year we cannot introduce a new system for claiming expenses for the use of taxis without a decision made in plenary. We also have to make a determined effort to endorse the Members’ Statute, so that we can do away with a system that allows travel expenses to be claimed for no clear reason. Most of all our group criticises the EUR 500 million appropriation in next year’s budget for the reconstruction of Iraq passed in the committee by a vote by the Group of the European People’s Party . That is not solidarity aid for Iraq, but for the United States of America. The Right in Europe seems to be lying prostrate before the United States. It wants to share in the costs of the US oil war in a way that greatly exceeds the need for aid set at EUR 200 million, as proposed by the Commission. By this means, the Right wants to use tax revenue from the citizens of the EU to support America’s illegal war, America’s illegal occupation and the puppet government America has set up in Iraq. Our group is prepared to discuss the Commission’s proposals to assist Iraq, but we reject the Group’s political gesture to President Bush and his war coalition. Other representatives of our group will adopt a position on problems relating to the Structural Funds in their speeches.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Madam President, I too would like to express an opinion on the issue raised by Mrs Frahm. I was a member of the delegation, as she rightly said, and like the rest of the delegation, I too was highly embarrassed in front of the parents of the political prisoners because, although they did indeed beg us to help their children, we were unable to respond. I am surprised that, despite repeated appeals, by both my fellow Member Mr Korakas and me, still no representations have been made to the Turkish authorities. I should like to ask you to make such representations as quickly as possible, before we start to mourn even more victims than we are mourning already from the attack on the prisons by the Turkish authorities in December 2000. ***

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, the Peruvian people’s desire for peace, democracy, justice and well-being is coming closer to being realised with the resignation of Mr Fujimori. The adverse effect that North American backing for him has had on those desires must be neutralised by another influence, a positive influence in favour of human rights and full democratic progress, coming from the European Union. For this reason, we feel it is necessary to highlight two aspects of the joint resolution that we are presenting. The first aspect is that the European Union should deny asylum – and not negotiate with other countries either – to a figure such as Montesinos, who is responsible for terrible crimes against humanity. The second is that a delegation should be sent from the European Parliament to Peru with the purpose of assessing the prospects for democratic progress and for peacefully overcoming the present problems, so that our contribution will be a very positive one.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, Djibouti has a population of half a million comprising two Muslim tribes, the Issas and the Afars. Djibouti's national assets are its port and its strategic position in the Horn of Africa. Western powers, including France, exploit its strategic position. Ethiopia uses its port. Trapped in the conflict between the Afars and the Issas and the problems of the neighbouring countries, and with the desires and strategic policies of countries which dominate its strategic position, it is caught in a situation where it is desperately poor and, of course, undemocratic. The leader of Djibouti today is doing things that we absolutely abhor. The Afars' leader is in jail, without trial, with his supporters in abominable conditions. He is going blind. Such conditions exist in Djibouti today that we really have to look at our policy because it is part of Lomé, it receives aid from the EU and one of our Member States, France, is very strategically placed and has considerable influence in Djibouti. This sort of dictatorship, this sort of terror of civilians and abuse of resources by unnecessary expenditure on arms for a country of that size is totally inexcusable. It ought to be like the Singapore or Hong Kong of Africa. It should really be a very prosperous place. So I hope that you will all support this resolution condemning the abominable conditions of prisoners and civilians in Djibouti.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, the rapporteur should be congratulated on his wide-ranging and important report and he has rightly identified the problems of transposition and application of Community law, mainly with regard to directives. But we may have seen nothing yet, because we are moving into an era of new legislation – the era of co-regulation. Will this in future form part of Community law, whose application and uniformity we should be looking out for? In its White Paper on governance, the Commission states that co-regulation will not be appropriate where rules need to apply in a uniform way. Nor will it be appropriate where fundamental rights or political choices are called into question. Yet this year we had to produce Parliament's own-initiative report on the EEJ-Net, a European alternative dispute network set up by the Commission using a co-regulatory approach. Yet what could be more fundamental than our citizens' access to justice or the way that law is applied and dispensed? Will we be watching every arbitrator and regulator to make sure that Community law is correctly applied? We have enough trouble at the moment with the normal judiciary. We need to be aware of these issues. They are fundamental to our citizens and also to the rights of this Parliament as a co-legislator, not to mention their possible fragmentary effect on the achievements of the internal market if they are not very carefully monitored by this Parliament.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, in my view, it is extremely unfortunate and a missed opportunity for this Parliament that this report has not been adopted. What can this be attributed to? To the fact that everything that was connected to the report was badly managed: in the first two phases, we had a rather liberal report, in fact, too liberal in my view, and we have ended up with a very restrictive final vote. Why is it unfortunate not to have a report? It is unfortunate because at the moment, we are allowing industry to carry on unmonitored: we have not concluded any agreements on the absolutely crucial change in patent law which restricts people in their chances of being cured. Neither have we made any agreements on genetic tests. We have not reached agreement on whether, in European countries, something similar can be demanded when taking out insurance cover. It is a missed opportunity, we have managed it badly and I think that we have done ourselves, but certainly also the citizens of Europe, a disservice by what has happened now after eleven months.

Political group: PPE-DE
Each Member State has a crucial role in defining its policy on combating drug addiction. We feel that we are upholding a policy which genuinely attacks its causes and effectively combats drug trafficking and the associated money laundering. We are also upholding a policy that does not penalise those who suffer from drug addiction or their families, who should be supported by means of adequate public services, which are free, in terms of treatment and reintegration into society. But the fight against drug trafficking and money laundering also requires action and coordination at EU level (and at UN level) in the fight that must be developed against powerful criminal organisations which, through illegal activities and money, undermine and tap into the economic and financial system. In order to achieve this, we need a genuinely “strong political will, expressed without any ambiguity”. We also need to turn words into deeds, by mobilising the necessary Community financial resources to combat this tragic situation that affects thousands of drug addicts and their families. We cannot continue to reduce “social costs” in order to meet the criteria imposed on national budgets by the Stability Pact, whilst repeating fine words about social support that are then never actually put into practice. We are convinced that if it has adequate resources, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction based in Lisbon can make a major contribution to deepening the study and the proposals for measures to combat the scourge of drugs.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, UNRWA ought really to celebrate its fifty-year anniversary by disbanding itself. For five long decades the way back for the Palestinians was closed off and the way forward was blocked too. All that time UNRWA was doing extremely useful work under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. All the endeavours to bring education and health care up to standard, no matter how valuable in themselves, were still unable to solve the political problem of the refugees. UNWRA has suffered a great deal on account of financial problems in recent years. Increased costs were not covered by additional revenue. Consequently, it had no alternative but to develop illegal secondary economies, much to the discomfiture of the Palestinians. Unfortunately there is nothing about the refugees in the Wye agreement. The Palestinians now feel desperate, forgotten about and left to their fate. Uncertainty about the future, high unemployment and restricted mobility cause tension and fear, which creates a breeding ground for fundamentalism. Therefore, giving support to UNWRA as proposed does not just serve humanitarian ends but is also of political importance, i.e. by bringing stability to the region. Israel must demonstrate more flexibility in the peace process. The Arab host countries, in turn, must take responsibility and stop misusing the Palestinian problem for political ends. They must assist in integrating the Palestinians into their country. The European Union, in its turn, should provide financial assistance here. Up until now, Europe has not known how to convert its financial assistance into political influence. It has given the refugees financial assistance for 25 years. It is high time for Europe to at last bring its political influence to bear in order to make UNRWA redundant once and for all.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, before we commence with the voting, I would like to ask you if you could ask the services to revise the language versions in the final version with due care. Problems have arisen with the translation of the words 'aanpassing van de werktijd' [adaptation of working time] and the words 'gecombineerd werken' [multi-salary employment]. I would ask you to ask your services to refer to the original French version.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, President-in-Office of the Council, Mrs Neyts-Uyttebroeck, Commissioner Lamy, ladies and gentlemen, we need more and not, as has been called for several times, less, international cooperation. For small and medium-sized enterprises, in particular, we need the basic conditions to be legally certain and foreseeable. The aim has to be to use world trade to create more wealth for our people. In so doing, however, we must not overlook the fact that Europe has 18 million small enterprises, which, at the end of the day, employ two-thirds of the workforce. This means that salaries are mainly being paid by small and medium-sized companies. Sixty per cent of GDP and, important for us politicians, 80% of taxes come from small companies. That is why where the WTO is concerned, we should not only consider involving and integrating the ILO in this process and reflect on how we might better structure it, but should also and especially bring the social dialogue and the social partners to the fore. The Everything But Arms initiative should not contain the clause ‘Everything But Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises’, but instead ‘Everything For Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises’. The economy is at the centre of this discussion, and this is something that we should not forget in the whole WTO debate. Very briefly on TRIPS: here we should consider, in particular, having compulsory licences and, above all, development aid; we should consider having calls for tender and also giving countries medicines of the necessary quality. As regards the dispute settlement mechanism, I should like to recall that many companies and individual firms are damaged by WTO rulings, for example because of carousel trade retaliation. Here I should like to ask: how do these companies obtain redress? How do they come to be damaged by an international agreement which is not actually in accordance with the law of the country concerned? Finally, we need to introduce more transparency into these areas and ensure that decisions are made closer to the people. That is why I welcome the fact that President Neyts will support the European Parliament and parliaments throughout the world in their efforts to bring more transparency and also in the end, I hope, more wealth into this world.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I am unable to vote on this topic due to financial involvement.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, my group backs the rapporteur’s conclusions, and that is why I can congratulate Macedonia on the fact that this former Yugoslav Republic is the first to sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU. An agreement will enable us to set up intensive relations in a very concrete manner. An agreement is an important instrument for the region’s further stabilisation and adds, as such, to the Stability Pact in a meaningful way. But there is more. A Stabilisation and Association Agreement is the first step towards EU membership. It is the culmination of the pledge which the European Union undertook, namely that a successful implementation of all elements of the Stability Pact will open up the way to membership of the EU. It underlines the focus on Europe and on European values. We hope that the Macedonian model will be copied promptly by the others. There are already negotiations under way with Croatia. With regard to Albania, preparations to that effect are being made. Hopefully, initial talks will soon be held in Belgrade too, provided that the Montenegro issue does not put a spanner in the works. And we should not overlook Bosnia, of course. The strength of this agreement lies not only in the provisions it contains, which enables cooperation in many areas. The close ties with the European Union which are based on this agreement, as well as the prospect of membership tied in with that, could have a moderating effect on the internal relations in these countries. That is a form of conflict prevention. We have actually noticed these effects in the candidate countries. The active role which the High Representative Solana and Commissioner Patten have managed to play during the recent disturbances in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is a shining example of this positive effect. The only conclusion we could draw therefore is that more of these agreements are needed in the region in the short term.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, climate policy is a process that will inform everything we do in the twenty-first century and I trust that Europe will continue to play a leading role here. I have something to say to the members of the parliaments. We have more and more global processes, not just now with Kyoto, but on other issues – I am thinking of the International Monetary Fund, financial policy, worldwide credit policy, environmental policy and trade policy – which are in fact decided solely by the executive. The parliaments rubberstamp them, they have no choice. The question is: surely, with increasing globalisation, parliaments could be more involved in the opinion-forming process? This question is directed both to us and to our parliaments. We need to find new ways of working together instead of just taking recourse to the executive – in this case the Commission. Secondly, Kyoto must be ratified and that will be our main job in New Delhi. We must convince our counterparts, especially our Russian counterparts, that this makes sense. Thirdly, when we talk of reducing CO2 – and other greenhouse gas emissions, but mainly CO2 – we always mention renewable energy in the same breath. And so we should. I have no wish to contradict that. It is just that, in New Delhi, we will be in a country that generates well over 50% of its electricity from coal. If they could bring their coal technology up to current European standards, we would save much, much more CO2 throughout the world than with all the other very costly reduction measures put together. This is a fact and we must face it. In other words, if we want a climate policy, we need an active coal policy and we should mention that in the same breath as renewable energy, because 80% of the world's energy is still generated from fossil fuels. Finally, I think that climate policy also gives us a chance to foster a new relationship with developing countries, in the form of emissions trading. The Commission itself conducted a very interesting study in its institute in Seville, with a time frame of up to 2030, when, it states, emissions trading with Asia will be worth around EUR 80 billion. That implies a capital inflow of around EUR 80 billion for these countries. Know-how will be transmitted to these countries and the advantage to us is that the reduction in emissions will be entered against our account, meaning that both sides will benefit from the trade off. We should be thinking more along these lines.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, as a result of competition policy, large sectors of European industry have lost jobs and a significant share of the global market; more to the point, they have lost hundreds of thousands of workers to the dole queues. This policy has helped create huge monopolistic groups which have acquired a dominant position on the market by promoting mergers, alliances and takeovers and greater unaccountability when it comes to price fixing, thereby ousting competitors – mainly small and medium-sized enterprises – from the market, and has resulted in massive waves of redundancies, spiralling unemployment and loss of wealth. The view that competition policy is the sine qua non to job creation has proven to be misguided, because exactly the opposite is happening in practice. What worries the European Union is the delay in finalising the liberalisation of the natural gas and electricity markets, the energy markets, and transport and postal services, and the delay in completing the full liberalisation of the markets and privatisations and making temporary and provisional forms of employment the norm. The MEPs of the Communist Party of Greece support the workers standing up against and opposing this liberalisation ... (The President cut the speaker off)

Political group: GUE-NGL