GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Mr President, this is a comprehensive report and I congratulate Mrs Redondo for the great deal of work that she has put into it. The House might be interested to know that Mrs Redondo very kindly accepted my invitation to come to London during the formulation of this report to take evidence from representatives of the UK pig industry and senior officials from the National Farmers Union and the Ministry of Agriculture. We happened to be in one of those meetings on Tuesday 20 February this year, the very day the first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the UK was reported. As you can well imagine, this brought our meeting to an abrupt halt. Indeed, it is partly because of foot-and-mouth disease that I wish to direct my remarks to the question of feeding catering waste or pigswill to pigs. I know that my colleagues from Germany and Austria have serious reservations about the proposal to ban such material from being fed to pigs throughout the EU. As Mrs Redondo has just said, Amendment No 33 seeks to permit controlled swill feeding, subject to stringent exceptional arrangements, if it can be guaranteed that the pathogens which cause epizootic diseases have been destroyed by treatment. Amendment No 37 seeks to achieve a similar objective. I would ask the House to reject both these amendments this evening. In the UK we had stringent controls of swill feeding in place. We ensured that pig farmers only used the most appropriate and up-to-date equipment for boiling catering waste to the correct temperature to destroy all pathogens and we ensured that regular inspections of the farms using such equipment were carried out. Of course you cannot legislate for human behaviour, however. It now seems almost certain that infected catering waste was delivered to a farm in the north-east of England, which for whatever reason, was not properly treated, or perhaps was not treated at all. This simple error, whether deliberate or just a mistake, has led to the destruction of over six million animals in the United Kingdom and tens of thousands of animals in Ireland, the Netherlands and France. We have now banned swill in the UK entirely. I urge the House to do the same across the whole of the EU.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, first of all, I would like to thank Mrs Avilés Perea for her thorough work. She has resubmitted a number of amendments that will receive our Group’s full backing, especially the definition of health. This is an enormous improvement to my mind. Many people, men but also women, still think that violence against women has become a rare occurrence within the European Union. Nothing could be further from the truth. One in five women within the European Union has been a victim of such violence at some time, including in our immediate surroundings. One does not have to look far. There are probably more victims but they never reported the crimes to the police or relief centres. In fact, most incidents of violence occur in the home, which means the phenomenon is less visible. Many women still want to keep their dirty laundry inside. They feel ashamed. The link between violence within the family and child protection is often overlooked. For example, if the court allows contact between the violent partner or ex-partners and their children, then the woman will remain exposed to violence via the children. I would once again draw attention to this fact. The specific aim of the Daphne programme is to encourage and support non-governmental organisations and other institutions to combat all kinds of violence against children and women. I welcome the fact that national measures are to be lent added value. Great! Liberals do not wish to harmonise Member State legislation on violence against women and children. My group, however, is of the opinion that the Member States that are behind in this respect should be encouraged to bring their legislation up-to-date. I also think that the perspective should be shifted. Instead of trying to change the behaviour of women, the behaviour and attitude of men should be examined. This is not about short skirts, Mr President. Awareness and information campaigns on violence against women are desperately needed. This issue should, as far as I am concerned, feature high on the political agenda.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, firstly I would like to add my congratulations to the rapporteur and to all involved in bringing about this report. It is a balanced report and has been a good initiative. It has been good for this Parliament because it has proved that it could produce a report that the national parliament was afraid to. I would like to comment on one of the Commissioner's remarks. He said that the effect was the same as other diseases or previous outbreaks of foot and mouth and we need to act, but the question is how do we act? That is what has to be addressed. This report and investigation brought home the wider effects. Coming, as it did, on the back of BSE in the United Kingdom, this disease wrecked the rural economy and destroyed many farmers in the UK. I come from Northern Ireland, and Mrs Doyle has referred to the fact that she comes from the Republic of Ireland. The reality is that we were very lucky. Let us not underestimate this. We were not all that good, but we were very lucky. A load of sheep left Longtown market, went all the way across the Irish Sea, were dropped off at Larne in the middle of the island of Ireland and it took a long time to detect them. Let me be clear: we need better controls there as well. What will remain with us is the sight on our TV screens of the burning pyres. It brought home to us how horrific the situation was. There has to be a better way of controlling it. Ring vaccination has to be the way in which we look at trying to control it. We should put in place more resources and more finance for research and development to achieve a traceable vaccine, so we know that animals have been vaccinated. I will finish by re-echoing what has already been said on border controls: border controls are totally inefficient. Meat is being brought into the European Community, into the United Kingdom and other countries, and it is not being caught. We are going to have to deal with this as other countries have done. They have been more effective than we have been. We must ensure that our ports and airports are properly controlled in every way. The truth is that this disease can strike anywhere and at any time. I hope it does not, but we must be ready if it does.

Political group: PPE-DE
-terrorist statute which was adopted in December, gives judicial powers to the armed forces. This is another area of grave concern. This Parliament has to be very careful that it does not allow President Uribe to use this opportunity as a propaganda stunt, to give an impression that somehow the human rights situation in Colombia is improving. We know from the grassroots organisations on the ground that this is far from the truth. That false message must not be allowed to be sent out from this Parliament.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, the negotiations on the directive on investment services and regulated markets have once again shown how difficult it is to bring together the different European market philosophies and traditions, in particular the continental model of stock exchanges, which have in the meantime lost their public-private character to a large extent and have been privatised, and the investment banks’ new internal trading systems. To allow these two systems to coexist at European level and to organise fair competition as well as protecting the interests of investors at the same time is a difficult task, and that will become particularly clear when we see what high sums are transferred every day and what effects the development of the financial markets will have on European and world economies. That being so, I hope that the compromise, which was reached through very tough negotiations in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, will encourage the Council to come to similar compromises so that this important legislative act on implementing an integrated financial services market can actually be passed in this term. I believe that we have tried to consider the interests of all market participants, including non-professional investors, and that we have implemented the principle of transparency in all key areas, just as the Commission intended. For example, in the interests of price transparency and investor protection, it is necessary that contracts limited to internal trading systems, if they cannot be carried out by the internaliser directly, can be directly transferred to the regulated markets, unless the customer explicitly rules this out. A quick transfer offers the best chances for the best possible completion of the contract in the interests of the customers. I thereby believe that we have reached the right decision in this House, as is the case for the disclosure requirements in Article 25. I hope that with this directive competition of all trading systems will have a chance without the protection of investor interests being neglected.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, I wish to begin by thanking Commissioner Byrne for the commitment he has shown to the work of the parliamentary Temporary Committee on Foot and Mouth and, indeed, for ensuring that the main findings of our report have featured prominently in the Commission's directive. I also thank Mr Kreissl-Dörfler for working so tirelessly on the matter since day one. To have reached this final stage is a positive advertisement for the European Parliament. When the temporary committee visited regions affected by this terrible disease, including my own country of Wales, we were told by people how grateful they were that the European Parliament had set up this inquiry as they had no other way of voicing their grievances within their own Member States. This directive makes several valuable recommendations relating to the tightening of import controls – which has already been mentioned – setting contingency plans, establishing expert groups and moving emergency vaccination to the forefront of disease control, in line with the welcome changes made to international trade rules. Central to the UK Government's mishandling of the 2001 crisis was its lack of a clear-cut policy on whether and when vaccination should have been used. This led to the unacceptable continuous culling, which was based on flawed scientific evidence, and the blinkered decision to reject vaccination. In the event of future outbreaks, slaughtering should be limited to infected premises, based on sound laboratory tests. We owe it to our rural communities everywhere to learn the lessons of 2001.

Political group: Verts-ALE
Mr President, Madam President-in-Office, Commissioner, the Group of the asked the Commission to make a statement on the topical subject of football transfers and for it to be added to this joint debate. I welcome the statement made by the Commissioner, which has our support. I recommend that, in future, she should come to Parliament before so many leaks occur from the Commission administration, which forced the Commissioner to face the press with great courage and determination, not afraid to tell them the truth. It would be better if they came to Parliament first and had our support. The subject of transfers is perhaps an example that sums up the current situation of sport. There are two reports, the Zabell report and the Mennea report, drawn up by Olympic champions. On the eve of the Sydney Olympics, I would like to recall that the first, and perhaps the best, contribution to peace made by Europe, that is, by ancient Greece, was precisely the Olympic Games. They talk of sport as a citizen’s right, with a social and cultural function. There is a component of transfer fees that is justified in terms of the contribution that is made to training and preparing sportsmen. This makes sense and needs to be regulated, and we need to support young people and small clubs so that they can promote themselves. Another dimension is the big business involved, which in many countries is becoming the second largest sector in the economy. We are dealing with uncontrolled, unsustainable long-term speculation. A major club in my native city made the biggest transfer in football history – EUR 70 million. The person involved has said that it is absurd, and the chairman of the club has said that it is in a very grave economic situation. If we were applying the rules of economics, we would have to act differently. Therefore, I think that the Commission should act. It has managed to make FIFA begin to see sense. My group and I would like to show our support for the Commission and we maintain that action has to continue that will really express and guarantee this right of Europeans. Finally, I would like to point out that there has been talk of the colla of the world of football. In the United States in the 1940s, under anti-trust legislation, the same measures were applied in Hollywood as those that the Commission is proposing. But Hollywood did not go under. Quite the opposite. We now have a considerable economic problem in coping with the clout of the American film industry. Therefore, keep going, Commissioner.

Political group: PSE
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office, Mr President of the Commission, the European Council in Thessaloniki has a very demanding agenda. The future of the European Union is at stake – nothing more and nothing less. That is why the Convention has had to present a draft constitutional treaty for the European Union under enormous time pressure, a constitution that will prevent the European Union from becoming an impotent giant when it admits 10 new Member States. This enlargement presents the European Union with an enormous historical opportunity, an opportunity that we must seize. However, we can only take full advantage of this opportunity if we try to take into account the principles of equal rights for all Member States, the balance between the institutions and the ability of the European Parliament to play a full part in the legislative process. There should not be any attempt to make the European Union artificially smaller, to create a core EU of the original six members with the remaining members outside this inner circle. A multi-speed Europe in which the influence of Member States varies would weaken the cohesion of the European Union. The criteria for the future treaty of the European Union should not be large or small nor old or new. This applies in particular to those accession countries where referendums are still to be held and where there is a very definite scepticism about a European superstructure. Austria has therefore worked successfully for the interests of the smaller Member States – not that these countries needed us to act as their advocate. However, in politics conformity of interests is a valuable means of achieving legitimate demands. The hallmark of an EU constitutional treaty should therefore be that it does not unilaterally strengthen the intergovernmental approach at the cost of Community institutions like the Commission and Parliament, that it should not paralyse the EU by creating artificial functions that do not necessarily bring the EU any closer to its citizens and only eat up taxpayers' money, and that it should strengthen the EU's ability to act, both externally and internally. I therefore welcome the de facto agreement on the European Foreign Minister. Although the dual presidency concept has not been totally abandoned, we need to seek models which prevent paralysis of the EU and which at the same time grant every country a Commissioner's post and which strengthen the President of the Commission and provide for that President to be chosen by Parliament. At least as important as the draft constitution is the fight against illegal immigration, which is very closely linked with the creation of an area of freedom, security and justice. With 500 000 illegal immigrants entering the EU every year, we need to find ways of tackling this real problem, in other words we need to create means of offering support to refugees on the ground and to provide for rapid decision making in the asylum process. Asylum policy must be based on the Geneva Convention and on common minimum standards.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, the chairman of the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism himself has already stressed that this is of course an unusual procedure. On the other hand, the deadlines are very tight, making the urgent procedure necessary. I would therefore propose that we accept the request for urgent procedure. (Parliament agreed to urgent procedure)

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, Commissioner, we have waited a long time for a system of environmental liability, a system which would be sufficiently stringent but at the same time objective and workable, so as to protect the environment without harming either the industrial or the agricultural economy. Moreover, it is essential that the application of such liability should not cause any distortion in competition. However, I have to say that this proposal seems to me to be disappointing and rather ineffectual, and it does not completely satisfy our expectations. The polluter pays principle is a fundamental principle, but it must be accompanied by financial guarantees. This proposal does not talk about the marine transport of hydrocarbons, and this is something that I deplore. For example, when we see the example set by the IOPCF in the sad affair of the Prestige, when we observe the constant stream of incidents of fuel dumping at sea, we might think that there was still a lot to be done in order to make certain occupations aware of their liability. On this point, our anger is in direct proportion to the extent of the damage done to biodiversity. The proposals on this subject are inadequate, and I should also be interested to hear what the Commissioner thinks about the decision by the IOPCF. Finally, this liability must be in proportion to the acknowledged fault. We must avoid any question of joint and several liability, which would shift part of the liability onto other people. The taxpayer should not have to support financially the damage caused by others. In conclusion, I should like to say that remedying does not appear to me to be the only solution. There should be more prevention. Moreover, I welcome any efforts that businesses can make in this direction by means of voluntary agreements – something that we shall be talking about shortly – but at the same time I am most anxious to ensure that an effective system of financial guarantees should be put in place. That is all I wanted to say to you. I am convinced that it will certainly be necessary to talk about this system of environmental liability again.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, I would firstly like to say that I am in favour of the two reports, which provide us with a good analysis of the application of both the Cohesion Fund and the Structural Funds in 1999. On the basis of the analysis contained in these two reports, I would like to refer to three points. The first is obvious: the cohesion policy comes within European Union policy and a fundamental element of that cohesion policy is the funds which we are discussing here. The regions which are at a lower level than the European Union average cannot do without these funds, with or without enlargement. It is therefore inherent to the European Union’s cohesion policy that the least-developed regions of the Union receive funds and resources so that they can try to eliminate the current territorial imbalances. As has been said, there is still a budgetary margin in the Union which can be used to meet these needs. The second point is that these reports refer to 1999. There are a series of criticisms about application, which should be taken into account. Let us hope that in 2001, thanks to the action of the Commissioner and his team, the restrictions and shortcomings pointed out may be eliminated. Thirdly, we must bear in mind that the series of statistics analysed and the studies done on the long-term application of the funds in the European Union, with very few exceptions, demonstrate that in the least-favoured regions the level of imbalance in relation to the European Union average has been reduced. Therefore, since we are talking about the future application of these funds, this must be taken into account in the Union’s new policies in this field.

Political group: ELDR
Mr President, if I heard the Commissioner correctly he said the possibility of guidelines 'could' be considered. Did I mishear that? The House needs to know whether they 'will' be considered.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, the Group of the supports this proposed regulation on the renewal of the fisheries agreement with Madagascar. We also support the excellent report by Mrs Fraga Estevez , and we ask the Council to incorporate the amendments approved by the Committee on Fisheries. On many occasions we have complained, always justifiably, about the lack of coherence of the Commission and the Council, which sometimes verges on the arbitrary, in relation to the negotiation and signing of fisheries agreements. It is the sector itself which suffers from this lack of direction, and it does not feel that it is supported by the Commission. The Commission sometimes gives the impression that it wants to forget the conclusions of the Luxembourg Council of October 1997 on the policy of fisheries agreements with third countries, which explicitly recognised the socio-economic advantages of those agreements for the Community, both in terms of the supply of raw materials and employment, and which are – and will continue to be – an essential element of the common fisheries policy. I share the concern mentioned by the rapporteur in her report relating to the fact that more than 62% of the cost of the agreement corresponds to development cooperation actions and has nothing to do with financial compensation for the agreed catches. We are in favour of development cooperation and budgetary transparency. These actions must therefore be financed by the European Development Fund which, to date, has financed the development of the fishing sectors of the developing countries to the not inconsiderable tune of EUR 421 million. This agreement, like all fisheries agreements with third countries, is aimed at a specific form of fishing – in this case, tuna – clearly outside the 6-12 mile zone, and includes absolutely limited and measured annual fishing opportunities for an also limited and measured number of ships – 80. The shipowners pay an amount per tonne – EUR 25 – which, as the rapporteur has pointed out, is something that only happens in the Southern agreements. The shipowners are obliged, furthermore, to employ a significant number of Malagasy seamen, which is rising from 6 to 40, as has also been pointed out. I congratulate Mrs Fraga Estevez once again on her excellent report which clearly demonstrates that, of the fisheries agreements signed by the developing countries with third countries, it is those which they sign with the European Union which achieve and guarantee a greater degree of transparency and control of fishing activities in those areas.

Political group: PSE