GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Mr President, a thank-you first of all to Mrs Jackson for the initiative behind the debate we are having here today. I think that climate change is one of the best documented of any of our environmental problems and, at the same time, the biggest threat to the environment and to future generations here on earth. That is why the US administration’s rejection of the Kyoto protocol is, of course, also completely irresponsible. I think we have to acknowledge that Mr Bush and his administration have shown themselves to be just as primitive and populist as might have been feared. However, that attitude in the United States ought, of course, only to give an edge to Europe’s responsibility for global environmental development, as Mr Da Silva too pointed out. We must stick by the Kyoto Protocol at the conference in The Hague. We must ensure that the Member States and the EU are in the vanguard of efforts to get the Protocol ratified so that it can, if possible, come into force next year. With that in mind, we must naturally try to make Japan stick to this solution. Like Mrs Van Brempt, I would warn against entering into a sub-standard conciliation or agreement with the United States. Experience has shown time and again that when the United States has ended up with what, in our eyes, is a really bad agreement, it fails to honour it when the time comes to implement it. On the contrary, we in Europe must ensure that our climate change programme is implemented effectively. As quite a few people have mentioned, we also have problems here in Europe. At the moment, we are seeing a clear negative trend in the area of transport, for example. We must work to ensure that, given the future we are now confronting, the United States does not obtain a competitive advantage from showing the kind of irresponsibility we have seen so far. I hope that the Bonn conference may nonetheless be a decisive step towards meeting the enormous challenge we are all facing.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, I agree that the report as it stands is now admissible, but that is because changes were made that I and Parliament's services asked for and which the services upheld.

Political group: PSE
I am grateful for that answer, Commissioner. In particular, I am glad that you have been listening to the representations of the least-developed countries and that all options remain on the table. I should like you to comment more specifically on their argument that the fall in price that is integral to two of the Commission's three options would 'make the EBA initiative meaningless for sugar. The Commission seems to prefer maintaining free access for the LDCs into a market with a price that is too low for them to compete, over that of negotiating with the LDCs an orderly market that achieves a price that allows them to compete and create development'. Commissioner, do you not see a parallel with that in the arguments from sugar beet growers in Europe, not least in the UK, who also call for an orderly market with, as they say, European price levels that would allow both domestic and developing country industries to invest for a sustainable future? Given that the arguments are coming from both developing countries and developed countries within Europe, surely a higher sustained price with a managed reduction is the better course of action. Could you comment on that specific point, Commissioner?

Political group: PSE
Mr President, European regulation on work times of professional drivers is necessary for three reasons; firstly for the social protection of the workers, secondly to improve the safety of road traffic and thirdly for reasons of competitiveness. We take a favourable view of the points achieved in the Conciliation Committee, and are as one with you on the points you have already mentioned, namely the inclusion of the self-employed, a clear definition of self-employment, clearly-defined work times – in respect of which, of course, more redress can again be demanded of enterprises – and the need to define exceptional circumstances as regards weekly work times and work at night. My colleagues have already stated that, without controls and sanctions, no directive will achieve any kind of progress. I believe that this is where we have to make a start. The Commission has presented a new regulation on the harmonisation of certain social security regulations relating to road transport, which will, in consequence, soon be on Parliament's agenda. There are, at present, marked discrepancies between the results achieved in the Conciliation Committee and the new proposal, which must be cleared up, and this is something on which coordination is needed. This, of course, means that we also have an opportunity to play our part in laying down sanctions and controls in much stronger form, for it is a regulation we are dealing with, and that means it is legally binding and effective in quite another way. What is most crucial in my view is that, whilst taking into account the harmonisation of competition, we should put in first place the need to harmonise social security regulations and improve the safety of road transport. If we succeed in doing that, we will already have achieved a great deal.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Madam President, Commissioner, in this House, time flies by irretrievably. We must prepare our European home for the accession of so many new countries. After all, not everything is ready, not even in our own backyards. Having focused too much on what they have to do, we must now deepen Europe, while, at the same time, we must formulate a clear answer for the other countries. We know that by 2007, another two countries will join us, but Turkey is a candidate as well. Today, however, we cannot claim that Turkey is ready to open negotiations. It is clear that the Copenhagen criteria are not being met, whether in the practice of the law courts or that of care for minorities. The Kurds, in particular, are complaining that, despite changes in legislation, they cannot discern any real improvements to the day-to-day situation, and, following a trial that was a mockery of justice, Leyla Zana is once again locked up together with her elected parliamentarian colleagues. This is a clear illustration that Turkey is not ready. We would therefore like to urge Turkey to conform to the Copenhagen criteria and inform us of its own accord when it is ready. In anticipation of this, we want to put our own House in order with, as I hope, the new countries by our side.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, you see before you a frustrated Member of the European Parliament. Frustrated because, after lengthy debates within the Committee on Budgets and after the commendable efforts of the general rapporteur, to whom I must pay tribute, I cannot see exactly what Parliament’s intentions are regarding the key problem of the revision of the financial perspective. By and large, we have two standpoints, that of the Council which persists in wishing to fund the new requirements of Kosovo and Serbia from the budget total established in Berlin without revision, and that of the Commission which is proposing to revise the financial perspective in order to finance these new requirements without seriously affecting the other policies, particularly the MEDA programme. To date, Parliament has always been in favour of avoiding redistributing funds within category 4 in order to finance the new requirements. It therefore declared itself in favour of revising the financial perspective. Today we feel that it is continuing to fight on this line, but not down to the last bullet. In spite of the rapporteur’s bolder proposal, we have voted in a text which does not mention the word “revision”, as if it was too vulgar a term, the r word rather than the f word, nor does it mention amounts, as if it were possible to reach any negotiated solution without specifying the amounts involved. I am concerned, and since I belong to a group that occasionally remembers that it was once Christian Democrat, I should like us to be faithful to the word of the Gospels and let your yea be yea and your nay, nay.

Political group: PPE-DE
Madam President, I should like to apprise you and the House of the following incident: last Tuesday, 6 June, I travelled from Brussels to New York in order to attend the UN World Conference on Women. The travel document which I used was the pass issued to all MEPs by the European Parliament. However, at New York airport I encountered serious problems with the authorities because I did not have a visa. That is because I am Greek and Greece is the only country in the European Union whose citizens need special permission to enter the USA. I never realised, Madam President, that the special European Parliament pass was not valid for certain members because of their nationality and I spent two trying hours at New York airport until the authorities decided to grant me a visa so that I could attend the UN conference. With all due respect for the laws and regulations under which a sovereign state is run, I consider that the problem which I encountered was more political than personal and I therefore ask that you give it your due attention.

Political group: PSE
Madam President, with regard to the amendment tabled by the Chairperson of the Committee on Budgets, I support the proposal made by our rapporteur and, also, in agreement with what the Commission said, I would like to say that we have always spoken about this proposal from the point of view of fisheries and we do not involve ourselves with the budgetary aspects. However, although what Mr Wynn proposes is true – that, as is stated here, the proposal was not included in the financial perspectives – it is nonetheless certain, and for this reason the House must also be provided with this information, that the Commission has requested the use of the flexibility instrument, providing this proposal, in due time, with EUR 197 million. Therefore, we are in favour of this proposal from the Committee on Budgets, but we would remind our fellow Members in this committee, and the Council, that they should come to an agreement with regard to the use of this instrument and provide the proposal with this EUR 197 million, which is necessary so that fishermen and the families affected can resolve this problem. (The President noted that there was no opposition to considering the oral amendment) (Parliament adopted the legislative resolution) *** Report (A5-0384/2001) by Mr Lehne, on behalf of the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market on the approximation of the civil and commercial law of the Member States [COM(2001) 398 – C5-0471/2001 – 2001/2187(COS)] (Parliament adopted the resolution) *** Report (A5-0363/2001) by Mr Chichester, on behalf of the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy, on the Commission Green Paper Towards a European strategy for the security of energy supply (COM(2000) 769 – C5-0145/2001 – 2001/2071(COS)) – Before the vote

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, Members of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, enlargement beyond the former Iron Curtain is the work of peace. Peace brings hope and war destroys it. As we are demanding obedience to the law and an end to corruption of the applicant countries, we ourselves also have to establish the principles of equality and honesty. But differences in income among us have only grown, as has the information gap in many cases. Enlargement should not be achieved, however, by choosing the new NATO countries first. That would be tantamount to compliance with the logic of the war machine. Neither can we base enlargement on the idea that a given applicant naturally has priority over another as if, without it, the whole process could not start at all. The applicant countries must have equal status and their accession must depend only how much progress they have made. Certain notorious parties offering a shortcut are like dishonest judges at a sports competition. The Union will not be ready to accept new members if our unemployment rate remains as high as it is. It will inevitably lead to conflict, and even more instability caused by extremist movements. This is where we have to set to work. We must bring down the iron curtain that exists among us, as getting rid of social and educational inequality is a much more important condition than all the weight of the votes of the Commission or the Council. The ignorant and the excluded cannot make up the information society: they are a sure sign of its failure. I wish to warn all those who are ripping the Union in two, into an inner circle and the rest. We are just doing away with a divided Europe, and we are not going to create a new one now. The best way to simplify bureaucracy is to concentrate on those issues for which we must find a solution together. In the Member States and the local authorities it is essential to take decisions on those matters that relate to these common problems. Otherwise we will be moving towards a terrifying, controlled society, ruled by an ever-darkening core. Mr President, I suggest that the Commission give Parliament its assessment of how the internal preconditions of enlargement are developing, in the light of unemployment, exclusion and digital discrimination.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, in brief, since I can do little more within one minute, I would first of all like to thank the rapporteur for seeking a compromise which has led to 11 amendments being signed, the majority of them, by several groups, for the revision of this Directive. I would also like to point out that this proposal represents the fulfilment of one of the objectives of the Sixth Environmental Action Programme and say, like the rapporteur, that the objectives of the proposal are ambitious but achievable, as certain Member States are demonstrating by already complying with certain aspects of this Directive on packaging and packaging waste. We must place particular emphasis on compliance with the Directive (one of the most serious problems we are facing is very frequent non-compliance with Community environmental legislation). We must stress the need to ensure that exporters carry out the process of recovery or recycling under conditions which are not merely similar to those laid down in Community legislation, but exactly equivalent to them. Finally, Mr President, we must also act quickly to guarantee the selection at origin of materials that create less waste, are less harmful and reduce waste as much as possible, since that waste has increased over recent years in the majority of Member States.

Political group: GUE-NGL
May I thank the Minister for that answer in which he shows that he has come to the same conclusions, namely that this is a problem. On the other hand, he does not perhaps indicate equally clearly how this problem is to be solved. It is not just a question of our being able to report to each other upon how many drugs the police are confiscating or upon what the Customs are doing. Instead, it is above all a question of the statistics we have for drug abuse among young people in Europe today. These are what are most interesting because they show us what the trend is, what increase is to be found and which drugs are being used. With this information, we can attempt in a more effective way to administer the European Community’s resources for combating any increased use of drugs. Statistics are important because they reveal the trends. The fact is that, at present, we are to a certain extent taking each other in by having different concepts when it comes to producing statistics. Then we put everything together at the Lisbon Institute and send it around the European Union. In that way, there are no reliable statistics. Nor, perhaps, are the programmes we present reliable. This is a task for the Council too, I believe.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, I rise to raise the case of Hans-Martin Tillack, a journalist arrested ten days ago by Belgian police, under instructions from OLAF. It was fairly heavy-handed stuff, I believe, with the gentleman being incarcerated for ten hours without access to a lawyer, and there are many other problems with the case. I wonder if you could raise this matter with OLAF because, on the subject of Eurostat, there did not seem to be the massive speed that was required for this case and it would be a much more interesting case for us in this Parliament. I am also very concerned about freedom of the press in Belgium and I wish you would take this up with the Belgian Home Office. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I am very surprised at what I heard from our British fellow MEP, Mr Hannan, for he presented himself in the Danish media as a Member of the European Parliament. If he were there as a private individual, he should have let this be known in the Danish campaign. All things considered, I think Mr Hannan should stay at home in Britain and mind his own business, and leave us to get on with it in Denmark. We have no use for people like that acting the fool in Denmark.

Political group: PSE
Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, some of my fellow Members have already commented that 2005 will be a key date for the textiles and clothing sector. The Commissioner’s speech soothed and calmed our worries, but did not banish them completely. The proposals and strategy he set out for us here today seem to be moving in the right direction. The European textiles and clothing sector has been tossed on many threatening and stormy seas. We must also remember that it was the first sector in Europe to be affected by the industrial revolution. This sector should be treated with care, not considered redundant, as occasionally seems to be the case in the discourse of certain Eurocrats and negotiators. For it is exposed to competition from products which, as we all know, are produced at minimal labour costs, in truly dire social conditions. Naturally, Commissioner, Portugal appears anxious and expectant, as do other European regions and countries. Some of my fellow Members have already said that this is a vital issue for Portugal, especially for northern areas of the country, and this point always bears repeating. Are other countries, such as France, for example, not worried by the liberalisation of agricultural markets? Does France not fight for the famous principal of cultural exception? Since that is the case, it should come as no surprise that other countries of the European Union, with very significant industries and sectors in social and economic terms, demand justice and the proper defence of their rights, and will not make exceptions. Encouraging poorer countries to develop is an ideal shared by all of us, particularly those on the left, such as myself. Not, however, to the detriment of the most vulnerable economies and poorest citizens in the European Union. That is false justice. The cost of the complete liberalisation of the textile industry will not be distributed fairly if the negotiations are badly managed by all countries and companies involved. Some will lose more than others, and the European spirit will be the weaker for it. I wish you every success in the negotiations, Commissioner. Moreover, when we are able to assess their results, we hope to be able to praise and applaud you as we have done in hope here today.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, now that we have adopted Amendments Nos 48 and 49, I would like to ask the whether Amendment No 47 automatically la s. That is my question, as we have agreed that the Commission must put forward appropriate proposals. I assume that Amendment No 47 now la s.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, in my capacity as draftsperson of the Committee on Petitions, I should like to congratulate Mr Evans on his excellent report on the mobility of students, researchers and persons undergoing training and to thank him for having taken the concerns of our committee into account. Of all the petitions we receive, many relate either to mobility within the European Union, and in particular that of students, researchers and persons undergoing training, or to the recognition of qualifications. The difficulties encountered by the petitioners are due, on the one hand, to the lack, or the complexity, of legal texts and, on the other hand, to governments’ failure to respond to the seriousness of these problems. The Commission needs to draw up a list of the problems encountered by European citizens, particularly with regard to the issues of freedom of residence and freedom of establishment and, most especially, with regard to their right to work, study and obtain recognition of their qualifications in other Member States. This list must be accompanied by practical measures such as the establishment of objectives to be achieved by the Member States and the obligation on the latter to prepare periodic reports on the progress achieved. Student mobility would be improved if the periods of study completed in each Member State, together with the qualifications and certificates acquired, were to be fully recognised within the European Union. The European Commission should take ambitious initiatives designed, in the short term, to provide for the reciprocal recognition of academic qualifications between Member States. By responding to the problems of daily life, this European Parliament and Council Recommendation should make it possible to bring Europe closer to its citizens, in particular its youngest citizens who should be the forces involved in creating a European identity.

Political group: PPE-DE
Madam President, Helmut Kohl was recently asked on German television what he thought about the accession of Turkey. His answer made reference to the Copenhagen criteria. Even after the reporter put many more questions to him, he did not say ‘no’ to Turkish accession. I think he was right. As Turkey has been promised accession for 40 years, anything else would only unsettle the people on the Bosphorus and the overall political climate in Europe as well. Parliament should therefore not adopt anything that would constitute an obstacle to the accession option; it follows that several motions that have been tabled should not be allowed to pass. Quite clearly, the ball is in the Turkish court. The Turks must demonstrate compliance with the Copenhagen criteria. We can see that much has been done, but not yet enough. There is still a long way to go on the road to democracy, to the rule of law, to freedom, and, as regards the last of these, our express concern has been for Turkey’s minorities, especially the Kurds. Much has been set down in black and white, but it is not yet working in practice – in schools, in television, or when it comes to the use of their language. I get letters from members of the public, complaining about the arbitrary treatment they receive from the police and the justice system – a grim business to which Turkey must put an end! Their police and justice systems are not democratic; there is much still to be done here. I also believe that all power must be in the hands of the civil institutions, and that the armed forces must go where they belong – to their barracks. It cannot be acceptable that the armed forces, the National Security Council, should have the upper hand when decisions are taken in Turkey. I agree with Commissioner Verheugen’s assessment that Turkey has made a start on a major project of reform. For an Islamic country, a constitution based on democratic and liberal principles is also a major experiment, and something that we should support. So, instead of saying ‘no’, we should leave the door of opportunity open to further reforms and vote accordingly later on.

Political group: PSE