GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to start by not only thanking the rapporteur for her dedicated work, but also the Vice-President of the Commission for this ambitious proposal. I would like to express my gratitude to you, Commissioner, for having proposed binding targets, as I believe this directive to be of less value without them. It is true that we cannot expect too much of the directive. It will not resolve the whole climate problem for us, nor will it sort out all the difficulties we have with energy, but it has contributions to make to the security of energy supply and to climate protection, and it can open up new sources of income for agriculture. Now for the misgivings, which are as follows. One is that intensive farming will be promoted. Yes, of course there is such a thing as intensive farming, but there is also extensive farming, and I have never come across a refinery producing conventional fuels on an extensive basis. That is always about intensive and localised pollution of the environment. Mention has been made of the life cycle of biofuels and the pollution of the environment involved in their manufacture. Who is calculating the life cycle of conventional fuels? We must also take other factors into consideration, such as the transport from the oil-producing regions to Europe, and possible calamities such as that which happened to the tanker Erika. If the Erika had been carrying biodiesel, the environment would have been unscathed. Those who enumerate the drawbacks of biofuels should also mention those of conventional fuels. I believe in technology, and I believe in innovation. If we create a clear framework for them, biofuels in Europe will be a great deal more efficient, more cost-effective and also much more environmentally friendly. All we have to do is give them that framework. I therefore ask the House to support Amendments Nos 25 and 33 in particular, which give pride of place to eco-efficiency and make it a criterion in the directive. How I vote on Thursday, and whether or not I agree to a compromise with the Council, will be determined by whether amendments unanimously adopted in committee, such as Nos 25 and 33, are actually taken on board. If they are not, then I cannot vote for a compromise at First Reading stage.

Political group: PPE-DE
It is important to avoid interruption and to proceed with the extension of the existing programmes in the field of public health that expire in the short term, given that their objectives are to complement national policies in protecting human health. In this report, the rapporteur supports the extension of the six programmes until 31 December 2002, although he rightly criticises the Commission’s legislative schedule, which lies at the root of this problem, since four were to expire at the end of this year and two at the end of 2001. Note that these are major programmes aimed at improvements in public health, the fight against cancer, AIDS prevention, the fight against drug dependence, health monitoring and pollution-related diseases. As mentioned in the report, however, it is essential that there should also be an annual extension of the financial appropriation and that the necessary measures should be taken to ensure a problem-free transition while the new programme is drawn up. - Lehne report (A5-0368/2000)

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, I simply wish to refer to the official status of Strasbourg, a wonderful city which nevertheless has a series of defects. Yesterday, I left home before 1 p.m. and arrived here just before 8 p.m. I had been moving from airport to airport. Then, fortunately, the City of Strasbourg provides a service to bring us here, but it consists of a bus which picks up a large number of passengers and we end up wasting a lot of time. I believe that this is a great city, where we should perhaps all meet once a year, but the rest of the time we should act in a pragmatic manner, take a practical approach to finances and work in one single headquarters, where we should all be located. This is much more sensible, much more rational, and I believe that that is how we should view it and, while we should praise this great city for its official status, we have to operate efficiently.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, this protest from the left is unacceptable. We have just seen that the left is in favour of left-wing extremism, for it voted against an oral amendment against left-wing terrorism and left-wing extremism. (Applause) Italy has the Red Brigades and Spain has ETA. Now we can see that, in Europe, the left supports left-wing racism and is in favour of left-wing anti-Semitism! (Uproar)

Political group: PPE-DE
On 28 April 2003, the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development organised, at the request of Mr Souchet and myself, a hearing on the problems encountered by the beekeeping sector in Europe. The alarming conclusions of this hearing led to the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development appointing Mr Souchet and myself as co-rapporteurs of this own-initiative resolution. This was a success; it was adopted with a massive majority in October 2003 and exposes the serious difficulties encountered by our European beekeepers. At the same time, I made it a point of honour to follow the development of the 2004 budget. When the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development had been consulted, I therefore proposed doubling the proposed budget of EUR 16.5 million to EUR 30 million. Indeed, new countries are arriving in 2004 that are major honey producers and that are experiencing similar problems. In addition, given that there has been no increase in the ‘aid for beekeeping’ budget for several years, I was right to think that if this budget line were to be increased, it would be this year or never. I am sorry to say that the Committee on Budgets, faced with following a drastic plan, granted us only EUR 20 million (that is EUR 3.5 million more). So be it! We were, all the same, satisfied: few budget lines have been increased. (Explanation of vote abbreviated in accordance with Article 137(1) of the Rules of Procedure)

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, although the euro has been around for a while now, it is still an abstract concept. It is something which is not tangible in our day-to-day life, and there is still no so-called ‘euroreflex’ on the part of the population. The present currencies are not yet being converted into the euro. That is why I cannot stress enough the importance of this information and awareness campaign for the euro. It is not yet too late, but we must all realise that 2001 will be crucial in our efforts to involve the entire European population in this giant operation. By means of the amendments which I have tabled and which have also been included in the report, I wanted to underline a number of aspects of this campaign. In the first instance – and I will not labour the point as it was sufficiently highlighted this morning – the campaign must devote special attention to making young people aware and involve education in the information campaign. Secondly, an information campaign must obviously be tailored to specific target groups, such as the weaker members of society. I would also ask for special attention to be paid to people on extremely low incomes. As you know, there are two groups of people who spend a great deal of their time thinking about money: those who are extremely rich and have a great deal of money and those who have very little money or who need to budget every day to make sure they can make ends meet for the rest of the month. Well, the euro will have a great impact on them and it is they who deserve our special attention. For this reason, and for other reasons, but especially for this reason, it is important that consumers should not be cheated when they convert their money into euros. The switch to the euro should not lead to improper price increases. I have therefore called for the setting up of local hotlines within every local community to ensure that citizens can report improper price increases in a way which is simple and easy. I have also asked the Commission to submit proposals in this respect and to present best practices to the Member States.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, as the rapporteur has already said what this is about, I do not need to enlarge on that, but I have to make it unmistakably clear that giving local products 15% or 25% advantage is excessive. We do not agree with the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism, and, in the opinion I drafted, we proposed that these tax differentials be scaled down from 25% to 15% and 15% to 10% respectively. I regret the fact that the lead Committee on Regional Policy has not followed us in this. As regards the products listed in the various categories, various inconsistencies are apparent, which have been pointed out in the many comments I have had from Spanish producers and also from Members of this House, and I would like to point them out to Mr Bolkestein, who is, after all, such a great defender of the principle that there should be no market distortions in the common market. This is what I have to say to you. Category B includes rum, which, as we all know, is made from sugar cane. There are no sugar cane plantations in the Canary Islands, and the product, already distilled, is imported from abroad. The two dominant local manufacturers control 73% of the market and add aromatic substances and colourings to what they import from South Africa, selling the concoction as ‘rum from the Canary Islands’. So one cannot speak in terms of rum production in the Canary Islands supposedly maintaining jobs; there may well be a hundred jobs, but two families with an oligopoly of the Canary Islands market reap an immense profit from them. That is something of which you should take account. I also have to point out that there are a few other inconsistencies, for example, the levying of the new tax on gin, vodka and liqueurs, but not on whisky or other spirits. Make of that what you will. I suggest to you, Mr Bolkestein, that you take a good look at what you or your department have wrought there, and then you will see why we feel like giving you a clip round the ear when you keep coming back to us and telling us about inconsistencies! (The President cut the speaker off)

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, although I do want to congratulate Mr Konstantinos Alyssandrakis on his extremely comprehensive report, I have to say that, on this occasion, the Commission, in particular, and this final report have not been bold enough as regards the European space research initiative. As has already been said, there is no longer any competition between America and the Soviet bloc, and yet, for all its scientists and technical expertise, Europe is unable to launch itself into space and space research. We need to increase funding and create a specific budget heading for space research. The European Union should manage national space research budgets, for space research is, by nature, one of the main activities of the European Union and would clearly not yield satisfactory results if carried out merely at individual State level. We need to create a European Union space body which is separate from the ESA: the ESA is something different. We need to organise the launching of low cost European Union satellites to serve European industries. Finally, I would like to point out that pensioners should somehow be included in this space research. How can this be? Well, in the United States, a famous pensioner, the astronaut John Glenn, went into space at the age of 69. I am 55 years old and in 15 years’ time I will be 69. I am already a politician: I could become an astronaut, the first pensioner astronaut of the European Union. I am booking my seat today!

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, it was a matter of great satisfaction to us all that the Medina Ortega report was adopted by such a decisive majority. It really is an important issue for many of our constituents to regulate better the timeshare industry and related activities. Many people in the European Union – and certainly many of my own constituents – have had serious complaints about fraudulent behaviour and mistreatment at the hands of sharks operating in this market. This is very unfortunate because there are many honest, decent and appropriate operators, for example those represented by the Organisation for Timeshare in Europe, from which I have received important help in relation to my constituents. I am sure others have too. The real problem is the regulation of fraudulent behaviour and making sure that people in particularly vulnerable situations are adequately protected against it. The risk of sectoral legislation about one particular kind of fraud is that you simply regulate one part and leave on the margins new forms of fraud, which is unregulated or left under only general criminal law regulation. It will be important for the Commission to study that carefully and bring forward stronger proposals to us. It is a matter of real concern to all our citizens that this should be done properly. We call upon the Commission now to follow up the excellent report of my friend and colleague, Mr Medina Ortega.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Mr President, the common strategy on Latin America is a strategy that may contain highly novel elements for Europe in this ever more complicated world. This novelty will be seen in the way the relations between Europe and Latin America are to be organised around three themes: the first is the debate on the rules of the game in the process of globalisation and, particularly, the question of democracy and the reduction of poverty; the second is the question of regional political integration; and the third is the joint management of major environmental crises. In this sense, although we in our group support the general approach taken by the Salafranca report, it contains a few elements which we believe still reflect a view that does not give enough attention precisely to the novelty of the issues we should be responding to. In particular, my group strongly questions the emphasis placed on the commercial dimension of relations between Europe and Latin America, especially the need for them to be subject to the current rules of the World Trade Organisation, rules which are widely challenged not only in Latin America but in Europe too. Secondly, we do not agree with the a priori positive assessment of the Puebla-Panama plan, which is a plan for large infrastructure works which will have considerable social and environmental impact. Before the European Union joins the financial community in contributing to the success of this plan, as called for in the report, I think we should carefully assess this impact.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I would first of all like to congratulate the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport on their successful and fruitful open coordination! Open coordination – it sounds like a really modern logo. Coordinating political activities and political strategies requires a great deal of logic, and we are not always used to this in the work of politics. It is really very welcome! I had a few problems at home, trying to explain this open coordination to the Austrian public. We do not yet have a tradition of this in the way the Scandinavian countries do, for example. The first question people asked me at home was ‘And what role does Parliament play in it?’ I had to explain to them everything I have heard here this evening, and everything we hear over and over again in the committees. ‘Of course’, the citizens said, ‘not just out of respect for you as a Member of Parliament, and not only as a right that a Member of Parliament must assert for herself and on behalf of the population: we demand democratic legitimisation of this wonderful opportunity!’ Now, as to whether open coordination is indeed such a wonderful opportunity, as I have said, I have no experience to date; I am not yet a fan. Neither am I sure that conversion to the Community method is really the recipe for solving matters. I believe that we must look more closely at the details, which means that the three institutions must sit down at the table. This does not mean an act of mercy towards the European Parliament, but open, fair negotiations among the three institutions. It is all about the details: how is Parliament to be involved? How are we to have access to documents? What rules should we put in place? If we really do make good progress in this regard, I may yet become a fan of open coordination. In the field of culture, media, sport, education and youth, it would also be a possible step towards a kind of European cultural policy, but please do not misunderstand: I am in no way referring to harmonisation of national cultural policy, but rather to effective coordination of common policies in order to achieve common goals together. Because, as we all know, we are simply not strong enough on our own – particularly in these sensitive areas. This is the reason for my request, and I cannot repeat it often enough. I believe that Parliament came close to speaking with one voice here. This is what is expected of Europe in many areas. Let the Commission consider us a partner and coordinate with us – openly!

Political group: Verts-ALE
Mr President, all of us who have visited Turkey recently realise that the picture is very complex. The first impression is that there is a sort of EU euphoria in Turkey when it comes to the media. There is a very lively debate in the country. That is very important. Secondly, the trade unions, popular movements, etc. all say the same thing. They think it is positive that Turkey is a candidate country. We even heard Akin Birdal, on the eve of his imprisonment, say that a new Turkey has been emerging in the last five months. We must realise that we will have a lot of ups and downs in our relationship and that we will have both progress and setbacks. Perhaps we are seeing something new being born. But the old legal system is still there. That is what is working against democratic fighters such as Akin Birdal. But we also see the reformists who know very well what has to be done according to the Copenhagen criteria. One party leader said to us that at least 65 articles of the constitution and penal code had to be changed. When we spoke to people in that country during the Socialist Group visit we found three different approaches to EU membership. First you have the anti-reformists, the fundamentalists and so on, who do not want membership. And then you have the reformists – within the government, administration, human rights groups and other parts of civil society – who really want it. They certainly want membership. Then you have a third group, who say that they want Turkey to become a member, but on Turkish terms. Here the Copenhagen criteria, and the Commission and our screening are very important. Almost automatically they will have to deliver if Turkey is to become a member one day. There are two final impressions and messages received from the people we talked to during the two or three days we were there. The first was that nothing will prevail without a strong civil society in Turkey. People we met from civil society also said they appreciated the help from the European Union, but that some of it was slow. We know that and we would like the Commission to look into that. The other and last message is that yes, we have the road-map. But we need more precision from the road-map. Help us to be more precise with the road-map because we want to follow it.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, daily, and indeed almost hourly, we receive new information about potential dangers. That is why it is very gratifying that Parliament is dealing with this issue today. I thank the High Representative for promising us complete information and transparency. For us too, it is a new experience to be discussing matters of security and defence policy in this way. It will certainly benefit European security and defence policy to be discussed outside the constellation that prevails in the Member States, where governments and oppositions are constantly trying to score political points on these issues. In Germany, for example, the Red-Green coalition Government under their Minister of Defence has been trivialising all these risks, which is something that has certainly not been happening here in Parliament. We in the European Parliament have an opportunity to receive factual briefings and information, and that is a very good thing. What is damaging – and it has been a feature of this debate too – are belated recriminations about the Gulf War and the war in Kosovo. Mr Wurtz, if you cite the Charter of Fundamental Rights and our high European principles in this context, I must remind you that, at the time when fundamental European principles were at stake, when ethnic cleansing, expulsions and terror were the order of the day in the Balkans, your political grouping stood helplessly on the sidelines. This also has to be said in such a debate. We are calling for relevant information to be collected, for the information available in the Member States to be coordinated at the European level with UN data through the specialised agencies of the United Nations and submitted to Parliament again. An armed conflict must always be governed by the precept that no more force may be used than is necessary to achieve the military objective. For this reason we need information and research on weapons systems which are less harmful than the one we have been discussing today. This is where the European Parliament can exercise its responsibility in the framework of European security and defence policy by making its own constructive contributions.

Political group: PPE-DE
Madam President, we have voted today, in a second reading, on the promotion of electricity produced from renewable energy sources in the internal electricity market. The Commission’s White Paper has set us an indicative target, namely that 12% of gross energy consumption should be covered from renewable sources by 2010. In order to achieve this goal, we must promote the generation of electricity from renewable sources by means of various incentives, as we are still a long way from achieving this target. New technologies need unbureaucratic, simple and effective promotion mechanisms. I would like to take this opportunity to underline, above all, the importance of renewable energies for the rural regions. The production of energy and the cultivation of energy crops offer an alternative income-generation opportunity for our farmers in Europe, which must be exploited. The multifunctionality of the rural regions can thus be strengthened and increased. I see this as a major opportunity for agriculture and dynamic rural development in a united Europe.

Political group: PPE-DE
Madam President, at the last part-session in Brussels you very kindly said that you would write to the Greek authorities about the 12 British and two Dutch plane spotters who were arrested. I was wondering whether you have had any reply to that letter. My constituent Wayne Groves is still in prison after nearly five weeks with no charge and no trial. I believe it is against the European Convention on Human Rights. I should like to know whether there is anything further you can do on their behalf and whether you have had that reply.

Political group: ELDR