GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the two rapporteurs, Iñigo Méndez de Vigo and António José Seguro, took on the difficult task of evaluating the results of the Nice Government Summit in December 2000 without hurting anyone while at the same time setting our sights for the future and expressing the hopes and demands of the European Parliament. They deserve our sincere thanks. Political closeness to the governments in the home countries obviously plays some part in the evaluation of the results of Nice. Whether the practice of appointing two rapporteurs from different groups will still be meaningful for the European Parliament in the future needs to be looked at carefully. As Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, I should have liked the language to have been clearer. I know that large parts of the Group and not only my German colleagues agree with me. In our view, the results of Nice are not sufficient to create the institutional conditions for enlargement. We regret that precisely because we want enlargement and want it as quickly as possible. We have reservations in particular about the complicated voting procedure in the Council of Ministers, but also about the number of MPs and the composition of the European Parliament; that this should not be settled until 2009 is completely unsatisfactory, will create legal problems in the meantime, create injustices for some candidate countries and also cement the continuing democratic deficit because it fails to link the codecision process to majority voting in the Council of Ministers. Nice set out four topics for the new Intergovernmental Conference, of which the definition of competences is of the utmost importance for us and must be settled before the first accessions. Unfortunately, the draft repeatedly speaks of a constitution. I want to argue here for the clear legal concept of a constitutional treaty. Lastly and most important of all: the forthcoming Intergovernmental Conference must not only be prepared for more carefully, it must be over by the end of 2003, and that means that the way must be definitively paved in the form of the convention, timetable and content by the time of the European Council in Laeken at the end of 2001 at the latest.

Political group: PPE-DE
I would like to draw your attention, Madam President, and that of Parliament, to the unacceptable and discriminatory behaviour of the Albanian authorities towards the Greek minority in the town of Chimara particularly, where, last week, special police forces demolished buildings, physically abused members of that minority, to whom the buildings belonged, even women and children. The buildings included the minority’s administrative headquarters, the infants’ school and several shops, which, on the pretext that they had been poorly constructed, were destroyed by bulldozers on the instructions of the town’s mayor, whose election, it must be stressed, was not recognised as legitimate by Council of Europe observers. Madam President, I think that Parliament should take on board these extremely regrettable actions when preparing for the forthcoming negotiations on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the European Union and Albania. Thank you. ***

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, the British authorities have been rather evasive in providing information on the export destination of live animals. I should like to know, Commissioner, whether it would be possible to obtain a list of the countries to which the United Kingdom may have exported live animals that could possibly have been infected with foot-and-mouth disease.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I am very glad that Mrs Randzio-Plath mentioned the very important context of our debate because up until now no other speaker has done so. The advent of the euro at the beginning of last year unleashed enormous competitive forces within European business which are being met by a merger wave of quite unprecedented proportions. For example, the figures for last year now show that the total value of mergers in the European area was EUR 1.4 trillion, which is seven times the level of merger activity at the peak of the last European merger boom in 1990. This poses enormous challenges for competition policy, which I hope it will be able to meet because, for certain, many of those mergers are going to be designed to protect profit margins of the businesses from competition rather than merely to enhance productivity and make those businesses able to operate on a bigger scale. Commissioner Monti and his colleagues have a tremendous challenge ahead of them and our worries in the Group are that there should be no weakening in the thrust of competition policy either in the examination of mergers or the monitoring of restrictive practices. Delegation to national authorities is all very well but we would emphasise what Mr von Wogau said in his report on the need for regular monitoring of national authorities to ensure that there is no slippage in the European element, and, particularly would ask the Commissioner to reassure us that there would be random checks on that.

Political group: ELDR
Madam President, I was told quite explicitly that I had to be present to indicate that I wanted to make a written explanation of vote. When I was not here on a previous occasion I was rapped over the knuckles for not being here.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the use of sustainable renewable energy sources must be one of the principle objectives of a modern energy policy in Europe as well, but there must also be obligations and certainties, dictated by common sense, of course. In this sense, hydroelectric power is important, and it has been both a burden and a blessing for the mountain peoples, for they have had to pay a very high price for their land and have watched local industrialisation processes spring up, associated precisely with the presence of this energy source. Now this resource – renewable energy par excellence – must be fully exploited: without further harm to the environment, of course, and along with the introduction of compensation and repossession mechanisms for the mountain peoples. This directive does, of course, take the desired line in that here, at last, is genuine exploitation of renewable energies.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, I have asked for the floor because I cannot remain indifferent to the speech made by the Member who has just spoken, and I do not think there is a Spanish Member present to respond. I cannot help feeling indignant at what I heard him say, and the best interpretation I could put on the Member’s words is that it was a case of vice paying tribute to virtue. In the end, however, it was not that. The Member who has just spoken does not condemn torture; he does not condemn the violence that the organisation he defends metes out in Spain, kidnapping people and putting them in veritable holes, oppressing them and turning them into objects. He protests against possible acts of torture by the Spanish state. Mr President, the Spanish state will certainly be condemned if it commits any act of torture, and proceedings have already been brought in Spain against police and authorities who used torture against members of that organisation. That is correct practice, democratic practice. I cannot listen to what the Member said without protesting, because in fact what he said is the opposite of what he actually means.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, on Monday afternoon, Parliament proposed that the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs should look into the situation of the workers of the European corporation, Danone, threatened with the loss of 3000 jobs in the biscuit sector, 1700 of which are in France. We do not know when the committee is going to meet to discuss this matter and it is very urgent as the European Board of Danone is going to meet tomorrow. Today, the workers of this company, in France at least, are on strike. I would like to hear your reply on the subject of this inquiry and, in the meantime, on behalf of myself and my fellow party members, I would like to express solidarity with these workers. It is appalling that a corporation worth millions should be able to drive thousands of workers throughout Europe into unemployment and poverty.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, we are required under the advisory procedure to debate a proposal for a Council regulation on the implementation of operations within the framework of the pre-accession strategy for Cyprus and Malta. This proposal is similar to the proposal submitted for other candidate countries and, once it is implemented, will replace the financial protocols which have now expired. Pre-accession instruments are designed to provide technical and financial support for efforts by candidate countries to meet the demands of the Community acquis. The Commission’s analysis has in fact shown that, although classified as high income countries by the World Bank, Cyprus and Malta have the same difficulties as the CEECs in transposing Community law due to their lack of administrative and judicial capacity. It was pointed out, during the discussion of Mr Brok’s excellent report in committee, that both countries can also benefit from the MEDA budget line for horizontal projects of regional interest. I would be grateful if the Commissioner could explicitly confirm that. As far as Cyprus is concerned, part of the technical and financial aid provided for in the instruments will be used to bring the Greek and Turkish communities closer together and solve the problem of the partition of the island once and for all. The declarations made on the Cyprus question by the Council and the Commission were therefore most opportune and I should like to thank the President of the Council and Commissioner Verheugen. Since 4 July 1990, when Cyprus applied to join the EU, the European Parliament has passed numerous resolutions calling for a political solution in accordance with international law and the relevant resolutions of the Security Council of the United Nations. In April 1999, Parliament again reiterated its position that the accession of Cyprus should benefit the whole island, and help towards a political solution, but that accession should not be dependent upon such a solution. In other words, accession should not be held hostage to a political solution. The two processes are separate processes. This unequivocal position on the part of the European Parliament gave rise to a certain degree of controversy. We must therefore welcome the fact that the Helsinki European Council put an end to the speculation and stated in its conclusions, and I quote, that “If no settlement has been reached by the completion of accession negotiations, the Council’s decision on accession will be made without the above being a precondition”. The position is clear and we must now hope that the improved climate surrounding relations between the European Union and Turkey and between Greece and Turkey will bear favourably on the Turkish Cypriot community and that it will withdraw its refusal to send representatives to the accession negotiations. The presence of these representatives will not prejudge the final political solution in any way whatsoever. On the contrary, it will allow the interests of all concerned to be highlighted as and when Cyprus joins the European Union and prepares for a turning point in its history.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, I represent the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market as rapporteur for the Directive on market abuse. We of course primarily tried during our discussions to make sure that what emerges here goes as far as possible to ensure that the directive is legally correct. The main problem we faced was the issue of comitology. The original draft directive provided a very general definition of market abuse, beyond which the bulk of the detail, the actual definitions, are relegated to the Annex and made accessible to the comitology process. We are convinced that criminal law – and we are talking about criminal law here – can only be adopted by the actual legislature and not through the comitology process. That is why in the first place we are very grateful that the rapporteur of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and also that committee as a whole adopted changes in order to move in the direction requested by the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market. The second legal aspect which is vital here is that although we have some sympathy for the fact that the Commission attempted to adopt a result-oriented rather than a blame-oriented approach, it is a problem for us – and this is a general legal principle – that without blame, without guilt, no penal sanctions can be applied. If that approach were to be adopted, it would fly in the face of all the fundamental rights provisions that have become part of the traditional order in our Member States, and it would also be counter to the Charter of Fundamental Rights adopted in Nice. So without any guilt whatsoever it is impossible to apply such sanctions. We also considered the degree of guilt. It is our opinion that market abuse is an offence very similar to other offences against property, such as fraud. However, there is no such thing as negligent fraud or negligent theft. Such offences can only be committed intentionally. For this reason it was one of the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market's wishes that intent should also be included as a matter of principle. We are very grateful to the rapporteur for his willingness, in a spirit of compromise, to incorporate these points from the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market into his draft. It now only remains for us to make an appeal to the Council that when it makes its decision it should take account of fundamental rights. This appeal is, for very good reasons, particularly directed to the Finance Ministers, who are responsible for this. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE
Commissioner, I am sorry to say that you have taken refuge in broader issues to the extent that you have almost glossed over the behaviour of the multinational Bombardier as regards the industrial restructuring it is carrying out. You call it industrial restructuring, but I would call it a ‘process of industrial cannibalism’: in other words, Bombardier bought companies as going concerns, absorbed them and then closed down some of these industrial units in various European countries – so far in six, including my own country, Portugal. I believe, however, that behaviour of this kind is unfair. The Commission and the European institutions must, of course, concern themselves with ensuring freedom of competition – this is one of our golden rules – but legislation must also be enacted against the behaviour of multinationals or companies undertaking restructuring operations that sometimes border on the criminal because they will destroy the extremely important industrial legacy of knowledge, skills and know-how, as happened at Sorefame, in Portugal. Rules must also be drafted to protect against the practice of relocation itself. We are entering a new phase and the Commission must have an industrial policy and protect its industry, without indulging in protectionism.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, I must contradict Mr Markov quite categorically. It is not apportioning blame to one side to talk of the genocide committed by Russia against the Chechen people, as Lord Judd does in the report by the Parliamentary Assembly delegation of the Council of Europe. Of course, both sides are guilty of infringements, but Lord Judd’s diagnosis is pretty unequivocal: genocide. That is reason enough not to ask Russia to investigate infringements and war crimes. It would be highly unusual to ask the murderer to investigate himself and we need international bodies to do this. What we need is the international criminal court and we must bring those responsible to justice. Of course, we must call on the Russian authorities here but we too must become more involved than previously, because this is not a simple internal matter of state; it is a question of human rights violations on a massive scale in an area subject to the Human Rights Convention of the Council of Europe, in an area subject to the system of rights and values of the OSCE. We seem to keep forgetting that the Chechen government was elected under the supervision of the OSCE and that we also need to intercede for this legitimate Chechen government, except that we cannot find this government today, because its representatives are holed up in the mountains fighting for their very survival. That is why I warn against a pseudo balanced approach. Naturally, we must condemn infringements on both sides, but we should not confuse the perpetrator of genocide with his victims and that means that we must take good care not only to provide humanitarian aid – that must be done and it is high time that something was done by the EU here – but also to ensure that a political solution is found to the conflict. A political solution to the conflict cannot be enforced using the arms of the Russian army, because then the war will just keep breaking out in new forms as guerrilla war or as terrorism or as some other form of underground war. So we need to ensure that a negotiated solution is reached with the elected representatives of the Chechen people. Today we discussed the right to self-determination in the Western Sahara; I should like to point out that the Chechen people also has a right to life and we must safeguard the Chechen people’s right to life, either jointly with Russia or on our own. We have not yet reached that point, but we did hear how Russian society is currently becoming more radical from an expert this morning. We interceded for the release of the Russian journalist Mr Babitsky. He was due to visit the European Parliament today and give us an eye witness account of the situation in Chechnya, but he was not allowed to leave Russia. He was not allowed to come to Strasbourg because the Russian authorities are frightened of the free and open report of an independent journalist who looks at both sides critically and wished to throw some light on the truth here and reveal the genocide being committed against the Chechen people. It is a scandal and we cannot accept it. Freedom of the press for Russia is also a service to the Russian people. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, today, Mordechai Vanunu is to be released. He is one of the heroes of our time, the man who confirmed that Israel has significant stocks of nuclear weapons that could turn the whole of the Middle East into a nuclear desert. For this achievement in the service of peace, his reward was to be kidnapped by the State of Israel and sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment. The surrounding world largely forgot him. Israel is allowed to possess its nuclear weapons in peace, while Arab and Muslim states that attempt to obtain protection for themselves against the threat of Israel’s nuclear weapons are bombed to smithereens and destroyed. Why does the world community not intervene in regard to Israeli nuclear weapons? Why does the same not happen to Dimona as happened to Ossirak? The unbalanced approach on the part of the world community is one of the reasons for the despair that now prevails in the Middle East, a feeling confirmed here in Parliament yesterday by two of the area’s foremost peace campaigners, Abraham Burg and Yassir Rabo. In Le Monde, Egypt’s President Mubarak stated that hatred of the United States in the Arab world has never at any time been as strong as it is today. The United States backs Israel 100%. For that reason, the United States cannot bring about peace on its own. A better balance is needed, and the EU could bring this about by backing the Palestinians as strongly as the United States backs Israel. The EU could translate its words into deeds and implement Parliament’s call for the association agreement with Israel to be suspended. The EU could despatch troops to protect Palestinian areas. The EU could demand that Israel dismantle its stocks of nuclear weapons. The EU could issue an invitation to Vanunu and grant him asylum in the EU country of his choosing. The EU could go still further. Some years ago, I met Shimon Perez. He proposed that both Israel and Palestine should be offered EU membership, on condition that they had achieved a stable peace. Clearly, the EU has an attraction beyond its borders that it does not always have among its own Member States. Let us make use of the fact. Offer EU membership to Palestine and Israel as a reward for achieving a definitive peace.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Mr President, I wish to congratulate Mrs Peijs on a successful report. There are many problems and bottlenecks with regard to transport in Europe: roads and air space are congested and the competitiveness of the railways is poor. This week here in Parliament there have been many important reports on the subject of transport, all aimed at relieving congestion and reducing bottlenecks. Mrs Peijs’s splendid report aims at exploiting the opportunities offered by short sea shipping. It is an important addition to the reports on railways and air traffic. We indeed need viable and competitive logistical chains linking road traffic, rail transport, short sea shipping and, in addition, modern information technology. For remote countries across the seas, and that includes Finland, short sea shipping is an absolutely vital necessity, just as Mr Paasilinna there just said. I wish to mention the importance of the suitability and availability of ports and port services. Ports must be included in the Trans-European Network as part of the transport infrastructure. For the measures proposed in the report to be implemented, good levels of co-operation will be required between the Union, Member States, players at local level, and companies too, as will genuine investment of time and money in short sea shipping.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, the recent Taliban offensives must obviously concern us. Terrible suffering has been caused by this conflict. I, too, support the joint resolution, of course. But I want to join previous speakers in emphasising two concerns. The first issue is the position of women. It is not something we can get used to it. We must never trivialise it. They still endure appalling conditions: they are denied access to work, health care and education. They live in destitution and permanent insecurity. They are regularly victims of stonings. They are suppressed in the true sense of the word. All Afghan women, whatever their age, are faced with systematic violation of their most fundamental rights. That is why I also believe they should be entitled to the right of asylum. The European Union must renew its solidarity with all Afghan women in their struggle at home and abroad against the Taliban regime. The second issue is that the Taliban are clearly seeking international recognition, on the grounds that they now control virtually all of Afghanistan. So peace, stability and respect for rights can only be re-established through a political solution. Greater involvement of the European Union is definitely needed. And in that search, I believe it is vital for the Council to reinforce the restrictions it has decided on. There can be no recognition by any Member State, as long as Afghanistan maintains its policy of violation of human rights, notably its systematic discrimination against women. The Commission should also take much stronger emergency humanitarian measures for the people, doing everything possible to enable the NGOs to provide aid to Afghan women and involve them in their activities.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, since Mr Poettering has raised this issue, I would remind him that, for the last six months, we have been waiting for Mr Bolkestein to speak to us, as we requested, on the remarks he made about Islam. I think that we must start at the beginning, because otherwise, only the Group of the European Popular Party will be able to raise these issues and I believe that we all have the right to have the Commission make a statement.

Political group: PSE