Mr President, it is an honour for me to be standing in this chamber presenting what is not only my first report as an MEP but also a report that relates to a subject so close to my heart. I would like to express my sincere thanks to my co-rapporteur, Elizabeth Lynne, for her cooperation and constructive comments and extend that gratitude to all Members of the Article 13 Rapporteurs' Working Group. As rapporteur on the Action Programme to combat discrimination, I have tried to improve the Commission's text on behalf of the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights. I should point out to Members that the Council working group agreed unanimously to recommend to the Council that the type of committee in the action programme should be modified to a mixed committee, a combination of the management and advisory procedures, thereby increasing the power of the individual Member States. The Council informed Parliament before the vote in committee, but only just before, deliberately ruling out any chance of further debate with myself or Parliament. As rapporteur I believe the original Commission proposals on the composition of the committee to be the best approach to achieving Parliament's and the programme's objectives. A politician can have no greater responsibility than to be given the opportunity to redress the wrongs so often visited upon minorities. I accept that responsibility eagerly, with a determination to ensure that this action programme to combat discrimination, not just in the EU but also in the candidate countries, is not the end of a noble process, but the beginning. For those of us comfortable and secure enough to fashion our own working and social environment, we can only begin to imagine the appalling, and sometimes life-threatening, discrimination which people face daily. Why does such discrimination exist? It is illogical, irrational and based on ignorance. It exists because good men and women do nothing or we begin to do something and never finish. We are partial in our approach and application. We favour certain minorities and groups, but not others. We become chastened by public opinion or the media. By being chastened, we create and confirm a hierarchy of oppression. Whilst compiling my report, I was sad to realise that some NGOs believe their continuation is more important than that of other groups. Only one NGO made the connection between its oppression and the oppression of all the groups cited in Article 13 and that was the UK-based Stonewall Group. That is why I, as a member of a minority, issue this stern warning that unless we recognise that discrimination against one group is discrimination against all we will achieve nothing except the proliferation of NGOs and other groups. No one group should advance at the expense of another. We must remember that we are dealing with real pain and suffering and real lives. Members may have received queries from NGOs on funding and specifically core funding. I understand their concerns, but I have assurances from the Commission that NGOs will still be able to bid for funds on this and other programmes and initiatives managed by the Commission. In my report, I have called for greater representation and involvement of NGOs, greater accountability to Parliament, the production of an annual report to be debated by Parliament, the highest possible degree of transparency, promotion of remembrance of the past in the fight against prejudice and the recognition of multiple discrimination. The EU does not have a good record on eradicating discrimination. Now is the time to do the job and it must be done with every fibre of our being. We can never buy off the bigots; we will only encourage them further. Imagine the world through the eyes of a child growing up in a world which discriminates against it because it is female, a member of an ethnic minority, disabled or a lesbian. We have so much to do for that child and for others. This is no time for the faint-hearted. If we lack the courage to end discrimination, than at least we must have the integrity and the decency to admit it exists. As politicians, we must have the courage to be unpopular in the short term to do what is right and just in the long term. I urge Parliament to support my report. (Applause)

Political group: PSE