GwendalTsang/DEFT09-parquet huggingface dataset:
Mr President, I wish to begin, very briefly, by expressing my agreement with what Mrs Lalumière has said, because I believe that the issue of the Western Sahara must be looked at before any report on the Arab Maghreb Union can be considered. In any event, with regard to the report – and I offer my congratulations to both rapporteurs – I wish to highlight some points that have been made and some omissions. Amongst the points that have been made, I would highlight in particular the value attached to the political dimension; with regard to the omissions, I would mention in particular the insufficient value attached to something that could be extremely important and which concerns the Agadir declaration – and also the Valencia declaration – which enabled a significant partnership effort to be made in the field of Justice And Home Affairs, and consequently, for there to be a support base for combating terrorism and trafficking in human beings. Although economic issues are of undeniable importance, the political value attached to this partnership is, despite everything, and I repeat, in terms of resolving the problem of Western Sahara, a fundamental aspect, which must be emphasised.

Political group: PSE
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, hampered by the law as you are, imagine that the rules of the 1980s still applied in the football World Cup, to which reference has just been made. At that time, tackling from behind was still permitted. The great players did not have a chance. Intelligent adjustments were made to the rules of football. We are dealing with the very same thing in this area of CSR norms. We live in a different world. Small nation-states like Germany – not to mention countries like Austria, which are small-fry in global terms – can no longer raise sufficient taxes, perhaps not even to a reasonable amount, but enterprises have a responsibility, and one that they also want to take seriously, and if they are not bound by regulations, it is the ones who play fair who get penalised, because the foulers can carry on playing. This we must change. The crucial thing is transparency. That is why these requirements for annual social reports are significant and a matter of absolute priority. (Applause)

Political group: PSE
Mr President, Russia is a vast country and its contribution -historically speaking – to European culture is immense. It remains a major military power and deserves recognition on the global centre stage. Although economically it has shrunk, it is a vital source of gas and oil to the EU and has a common enemy in international Islamist terrorism. I believe that Mr Putin will win the presidential election, and that we must recognise his democratic mandate to rebuild a strong Russian state. I do not accept calls to expel Russia from G8 because of its handling of the Yukos affair. Only two weeks ago the Russian courts handed down a lenient sentence to one of its executives convicted of tax evasion: hardly the signs of judicial bias. I sympathise at the loss Russia faces with the ending of the bilateral free trade agreements with the acceding EU states, but overall, the tariffs drop from 9% to 4% and Russia cannot fail to extend the Partnership and Cooperation Agreements to the Baltic Republics because of disputes over ethnic Russian minority rights there. The Kaliningrad question is settled now and work on visa-free or flexible travel to the EU should commence once a readmission agreement is struck. Russia sees the EU as muscling in on its sphere of influence from Georgia to Ukraine, hence its attempts to reconstitute some of the binding elements of the former Soviet Union in the Yalta agreement with Ukraine, Belarus – a country where Russia could use its special influence to do more to encourage democracy – and Kazakhstan. I also urge Russia to withdraw its troops from Transnistria, allow a peaceful reunification of Moldova and consign the Tiraspol gangster regime to the dustbins of history. Lastly, I am concerned that there has been mass migration west of ethnic Russians away from the far eastern territories, where Russia is attempting now to forge close links with Japan and Korea on resource exploitation. These ethnic Russians are being replaced by illegal Chinese migrants, a situation which may cause tensions in the future in that vast, under-populated but resource-rich territory.

Political group: PPE-DE
Madam President, Mr Newton Dunn is perfectly correct when he draws attention to Rule 2, but what he forgets is that the elections in 1999 took place under proportional representation. No elector voted for Mr Newton Dunn, or indeed for me or for Mr Heaton-Harris. They voted for a party list and Mr Newton Dunn represented himself as fully in support of the Conservative Party, its leader and its European policy. He has now completely abrogated that position and he is therefore denying the democratic rights of the voters of the East Midlands, over 40% of whom voted Conservative. I call on Mr Newton Dunn to resign.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, the ports of Harwich, Felixstowe and Tilbury are in my constituency. Hundreds of dockworkers are concerned today about this directive, one I believe was never required in the first place, mistaking, as it does, competition within ports for the real aim, which should be competition between ports. Nevertheless I am very proud that the European Parliament has passed amendments ensuring that action is taken against unfair public subsidies, that pilotage is excluded for good safety reasons, and - perhaps most important - that the new providers have to protect workers' rights properly and work under the EU flag, not one of convenience. Above all, with a 36-year phase-in period where there is major investment, I believe that no dockworkers currently working in Harwich, Felixstowe or Tilbury need have their jobs affected for their lifetime. I call on those involved in the conciliation to stick resolutely by Parliament's amendments, so that we can ensure that the safety of our docks and the jobs of our dockworkers are put first.

Political group: PSE
I voted in favour of the report on the representation of women among the social partners of the European Union. According to statistics produced by the European Trade Union Congress, the proportion of women in positions of leadership is under 25%, which is far too low. I believe that it is particularly important to achieve balanced representation of women at leadership level in trade unions, which, in wage negotiations, play an important part in promoting equality of opportunity. It has emerged from various studies that women are seriously under-represented in wage negotiations, the consequence of which is that women's issues are taken too little into account in the labour market. Women know what the real working conditions of female employees are and where equality is lacking. If more women were to be in charge of negotiations, I am quite sure that greater consideration would be given to women's interests in the labour market. I therefore call on the social partners to devise support programmes for women in order that their presence in decision-making circles may be enhanced. The interests of female employees must not be ignored.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, I would like to raise two points. The first one is that not so many weeks ago this Parliament passed a report on shark fins. It was interesting to see that this week one of the things on the menu in Parliament's restaurant was shark fins. We are setting a very bad example by this. We need to look at what is on the menu in the Parliament and what kind of example we are setting in relation to ecological sustainability and the protection of certain species. The second point I want to raise is that this morning I received no less than five emails trying to sell pornographic material. It is extremely offensive to come in to the office, switch the computer on and find that people are trying to spam you with pornographic images. Surely something could be done in this Parliament to delete these before they get into the system. I do not know what the procedure is to trace who is sending them, but something needs to be done. I find it grossly offensive to come in and be slammed in the face with pornographic, offensive images on my computer. So, please, can something be done about it?

Political group: Verts-ALE
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I believe that we all agree that we in the European Union urgently need immigration, since our economy's labour requirements simply cannot be met by the numbers as they are at present. This is the reason why immigration is so necessary. It is also evident that any such immigration has to be managed in the best way available in order to meet the needs of the labour market at the same time as those of the population and also of the immigrants themselves. On that we all agree. It is also self-evident that there are economic areas in which we will need workers and others in which we will not. We agree on that as well. It is equally clear that we cannot allow, and do not want, our own workers at home to have to face competition. Thus far, we are all of one mind. If I may consider Mrs Terrón i Cusí's report, let me observe that we can be grateful to her for having been so bold as to endorse the Commission proposal and making a contribution to our eventual shaping of the uniform provisions as regards immigration and the European labour market. Her having done that makes it a matter of course that some will end up having problems with her proposals, just as they do with the Commission's. On the other hand, though, Mr Nassauer, I do not see why either this report or the directive from the Commission should be destined for the dustbin. Why does the Treaty on the European Communities have to be treated as if it were holy writ? And why do we, European politicians that we are, who want the competences in all other areas of European policy to be laid down in Brussels, suddenly have colossal problems because the labour market is involved and want to have everything organised at national level? I think this is where we could take a long view, a rather more generous approach, and demonstrate more willingness. Things that do not fit in today's thinking could perhaps be European policy in five years' time. It is for this reason that I can well imagine that we could adopt a much more generous approach in this area. (Applause)

Political group: PSE
The invention of e-mail and the Internet offers unprecedented opportunities to people other than the users themselves. It can be abused by anyone who wants to make money by pestering fellow citizens with advertising for things that the people involved do not want at all. Worse still is when the recipients themselves have to pay for the privilege of receiving unsolicited advertising. There is therefore every reason to offer people legal protection against floods of unsolicited information which cost time and money to receive. At first reading on 6 September 2001, I spoke in favour of an opt-in instead of an opt-out. This finally appears possible now, thanks to the proposed decision. I had therefore decided to vote in favour until it appeared that a new problem was arising. This time it is not the pushy private money-maker that is the villain, but the intrusive government, feared for its security standards. In the past, mail and telephone confidentiality was introduced to guarantee people freedom, but the compromise between the two main groups now makes it possible to abolish the protection of personal data. Tapping and recording communications might be unavoidable in extreme criminal cases, subject to a court warrant, but this must never become common practice.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Mr President, while I listened to the Commissioner as carefully as I always do, in my mind was the thought that this is another case of a never-ending conflict between our desires and our capabilities. Indeed, it is easy to let emotions take over when we discuss matters such as this, but I would remind you that this is a legislative House and that we have to respect the rules we make. I therefore agree with the position expressed by Mr Medina Ortega in the conclusion to his speech to the effect that, when we draw up the new version of the Treaties, we must reflect once and for all on the European Union’s competences in this field. The lengthy analysis in the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market was a very serious process. With the first advertising directive having been annulled, the second proposal, although less comprehensive, is still wide-ranging and, in our opinion, it still leaves ample room for further recourse to the Court of Justice. In terms of primary law, the draft presented does not fully respond to the issues arising from the Court decision. I feel that, if we are to do the job properly, two minutes are not enough to go into the complexities of legal issues. I will therefore limit myself to two very brief points. The first concerns the prohibition on advertising in the press, with regard to which the general statement deriving from the decisions of the Court of Justice on the advertising of tobacco products to the effect that a ban on advertising can be contemplated, in principle, on the basis of Article 95, should probably be understood according to the very narrow Court interpretation of the Community’s competences in the area of the internal market and not as a kind of carte blanche for the issue of a general ban on the advertising of tobacco products in the press. This is as the current legislation stands. The second point is the ban on Internet advertising. As regards the ban on tobacco advertising through information society services, it is difficult to perceive any potential future barriers to the freedom to provide services or distortions of competition. At best, such a ban can be based on the need to avoid the possibility of a further ban, and at this point, this means that the principles of Community competence and responsibility are being overturned and reduced to competences in principle, and that is extremely dangerous from a legal point of view.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President-in-Office of the Council and dear friend, I am not in the mood for arguing about a choice of words. A few months ago there were certain actions by the Cuban authorities which the European Union reacted to with measures which you thought were appropriate and which I thought were disproportionate, unfair and absurd – particularly those adopted in the field of cultural cooperation. I do not know what you want to call these measures. You say they are not sanctions. I would like to find another word. I do not know if they are restrictions, reprisals, pressure, coercion, cultural blockade – as the Cubans themselves say. I would like you to tell us what word we should use so that we can really receive an answer to what we are asking. Apart from that question, I would reiterate the question which I have put: do you believe that the measures adopted in the field of cultural cooperation help or harm Cubans and Europeans? And, secondly, does the President-in-Office of the Council believe that the conduct of our civil society, participating en masse in activities which have been, if not boycotted, at least hindered by the European Union, is a way for civil society to raise doubts about the Union’s policy with regard to Cuba?

Political group: PSE
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in order to bolster the competitiveness of Europe in the world economy, the Union supports the transition of businesses and regional authorities to operational methods based on knowledge and technological innovation. The immensity of this task must not be underestimated, since the less prosperous regions are already lagging far behind in innovation, research and development in the various fields of new technology. This very technology, on the other hand, presents them with a means of making up the leeway, provided that the economic players in the regions are capable of using innovative measures to grasp the opportunities available to them. The fact is that the technological gap between prosperous and backward regions is considerably greater than the difference between their respective Gross Domestic Products. Unfortunately, as in the last planning period, expectations will far exceed the available funding framework of EUR 400 million. Without adequate funding, these measures simply cannot achieve the desired results. For that reason, the allocation must not, on any account, be reduced further still. The innovative measures would then generate more frustration than enthusiasm. We should spell that out very clearly. The main aspects of the Markov report, which analyses the situation properly and arrives at the right conclusions, can be commended to the House. It is a good report, based on a good paper from the Commission. On one point, however, I tend to support the line taken by the Commission. I cannot endorse the rapporteur's expression of regret that the Commission has opted against a project-based approach and in favour of a programme-based approach, to be implemented by the national and regional authorities. On the contrary, I see this as an opportunity to shift a greater share of responsibility to the local level and to allow project operators more latitude. Contrary to what the report concludes, I do not believe that this would automatically result in a loss of any European added value. With these guidelines, an experimental laboratory, as Commissioner Barnier put it, really can be developed, enabling the regions to test new ideas and to convert the most successful of these into standard practices.

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, speaking for my group, I assume that the report on the proposal for a directive on the marketing of compound feedingstuffs will obtain the consent of the European Parliament. I also expect the Commission to stipulate the necessary measures along with a strict timetable in order to ensure that the directive is applied in the Member States of the Union. The basis for the introduction of open declarations, in other words the full listing of all feed materials, differs extremely widely between Member States. The standards are scarcely comparable, let alone transferable. In the long production chain for compound feedingstuffs, there are sharply divergent degrees of interest in the traceability of feed materials. The BSE scandal was the worst and most notorious example. Farmers are still suffering today from that utterly criminal failure to protect consumers. As we have seen, it took years to rectify matters. Let me say categorically that the application of the numerous necessary rules and regulations on the control and monitoring of feedingstuffs must, in my opinion, proceed from the premise that transparency for the consumer is paramount. When it produces its own report, the Commission can prove that transparency is not a modern word for bureaucratic procedures and that danger exists, since the legal provisions on food safety are supposed to cover the entire soil-plant-animal cycle. The report does not make it immediately clear to everyone precisely whom or what this transparency is intended to benefit. Let me finish by stressing that the report, like the labelling of beef, will come down on the side of the consumer more than on that of the production chain. Given the surplus production in Europe, this is the safer bet and will pay dividends in the long run.

Political group: GUE-NGL
Among the now adopted items I have voted against are the following: Paragraph 20 calls ‘at least in relation to decisions on proposals by the European Foreign Minister, for majority voting’. Paragraph 26 states ‘that the joint costs of ESDP operations, including those of a military nature, must be financed through the Community budget’. Paragraph 28 calls for a European defence budget and paragraph 46 for a ‘homeland defence’ for Europe. Swedish wish to strengthen EU foreign policy cooperation, without its leading to each Member State relinquishing its own right of military decision-making or being forced to cofinance military activity it cannot support. The right of veto must remain for defence cooperation, together with the principle that EU military cooperation should not be developed alongside the North Atlantic Pact but within the fold of NATO cooperation. - Universal moratorium on the death penalty

Political group: PPE-DE
Mr President, I should like to thank the Commissioner for what he has said, and also Mrs Sandbæk for so eloquently defining why this is such an important and urgent regulation for us to deal with tomorrow. The WHO estimates that 88-98% of all maternal deaths are avoidable if women have access to proper reproductive and obstetric health services. Recently on a visit to Rwanda I learned that 2 000 women die per 100 000 live births. In my own country, the United Kingdom, that figure is seven. Maternal mortality continues to rise in developing countries. Women die from haemorrhaging, from infections, from high blood pressure, from obstructed labour. They also die from unsafe abortions. The last speaker talked about the rights of governments to choose. I would emphasise that women in these situations also have the right to choose. If women in a country like mine have that right, then I would also argue that a woman who wishes, because of a variety of different circumstances, to make that choice, then that should be her right. Providing for reproductive health is not a euphemism for abortion services. Women have the right to reliable information and to compassionate counselling. We must at all costs avoid being drawn into debates which are only about us reflecting United States domestic policy. The reality is that if we do not receive a positive vote tomorrow, there will be no budget line. We will be guilty of turning our backs on a maternal carnage such as we see in developing countries. Is that the signal we want to send from this Parliament to the suffering women of the developing world? Now the European Union – and I emphasise also the governments of the south – needs to do more on maternal mortality, on HIV, on reproductive health and on contraception. North and south need to work together on everything from the country strategy papers which we produce with developing countries to prioritising gender issues and reproductive health and rights. Finally, I should like to say that it is very important that we have an understanding of gender and reproductive rights as a cross-cutting issue. We must invest more resources and interest to ensure that women can bear children in safety and with the freedom to choose if, when and how often to do so. (Applause from the

Political group: PSE
Mr President, thank you for allowing me, as rapporteur for this report, to make one additional comment on Amendment No 8 which was tabled by the Group of the . Much has been said about subsidiarity being a theological principle. I should like to recall a speech by John Paul II of four weeks ago in which he explicitly welcomed the fact that the principle of subsidiarity was being applied politically. I should like to recommend to all colleagues that they follow this wise piece of advice.

Political group: PPE-DE