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Why are no-smoking areas not enforced ?
I think this is a better solution than proceeding now to extremely time-consuming explanations of votes .
The Social Fund has certainly improved our third-level institutions , financed our post-leaving certificate programmes and put in place comprehensive schemes to help combat youth and long-term unemployment , assist early school leavers and promote higher standards of adult literacy .
But the report before the House tonight is a prime example of how , if we are not very careful , we can produce very grandiose-sounding ideas that lack the substance to make them relevant to the people who benefit directly from them .
Past experience dictates that , as the elected representatives of the European taxpayer , we should , and indeed must , demand financial probity and transparency in the disbursement and auditing of this money , hence our amendments and additions relate to achieving what are known as " value for money " indicators in the grant-giving process .
A slim right-wing majority succeeded in removing any reference to market failures .
We need competition if there is the least unemployment , for a smooth-running healthcare system , for social justice , for high social standards , and , of course , we also need - these are competition criteria to do with the economy - business management competition so as to achieve highest-quality products , equal market access conditions for all enterprises , and environmentally-friendly products .
Orders in the steel industry and the ship-building industry - we also spoke about this a while ago - have decreased drastically , resulting in a loss of jobs .
I live in a region where the ship-building industry now has very serious problems : Asturias .
Aid that is based on the self-seeking ambitions of a nation gives companies unfair advantages , thus distorting competition and leading to an ineffective , uneconomic division of Europe ' s meagre resources .
Mr President , Mr Monti , the reform of competition rules calls for a commitment by the European Union , not only in the light and as a consequence of changes which have taken place through the years , but also with a forward-looking view to the Union ' s enlargement .
The guiding thread running through all the aspects of the reform of competition policy , which we shall have the opportunity to address together , aims to ensure more effective protection of competition , reduce the bureaucratic burden weighing down businesses and take decision-making processes closer to the European people .
The Commission will make every effort to define the legislative framework , both through general provisions and through its decision-making practice .
Mr President , in relation to the Schroedter report , I am aware , and have had it confirmed to me by Mr Barnier , that the rules on additionality concerning Structural Funds apply only at the level of Member States and do not apply in a transitive and transparent way inside Member States in favour of self-governing regions such as Wales or Scotland .
We could say that , in this state of affairs , we have once again missed the opportunity to really strengthen sustainable urban development by ring-fencing ever-increasing urbanisation and , hence the destruction of the countryside .
You are going to commission a fact-finding mission .
I realise that this is a somewhat time-consuming exercise but , nonetheless , the establishment of legislation arising out of the opinions of the Authority is - I believe - the way forward .
Equally , the scientists will wish to have some input into the legal process or the policy-making process or the law-drafting process , to ensure that the legislation meets the ills that they have identified .
Equally , the scientists will wish to have some input into the legal process or the policy-making process or the law-drafting process , to ensure that the legislation meets the ills that they have identified .
No indications of contamination were found in Kosovo during the BTF fact-finding mission .
From a desk assessment coupled with a fact-finding mission the report concludes that the risks , if any , are limited to an area around the target .
Thirdly , one of the best approaches to this issue is to integrate gender as an important and cross-cutting issue into the most popular courses for development officials and above all perhaps for the project cycle management course which is key to good management of projects on the ground .
In its resolution , this Parliament stated that discharge could not be granted until we had received serious , far-reaching proposals for reform from the new European Commission .
It is an excellent opportunity for this Parliament to introduce far-reaching reforms to these plans .
The Commission should now produce an ambitious and far-reaching reform programme .
This is not a straightforward issue and calls for a much more wide-ranging analysis , but I shall restrict myself to raising only a few points , in order to make people more aware , if possible , of what we are talking about .
Mr President , may I begin by paying tribute to the painstaking and , from what I hear , the pains-accepting work of Mr van Hulten in preparing his report .
Likewise , we cannot simply record the rise in xenophobic feelings in Europe and the increasingly common discrimination without taking wide-ranging action .
The two identical-sounding questions which are under discussion are , of course , underpinned by a mantra of the kind which , in recent years , has increasingly transformed politics into a type of ideology - fine-sounding , but pernicious .
My first point is that Parliament must not be excluded from the important decisions to be taken in this area and that its participation in the decision-making process must be guaranteed , especially with regard to this project which affects the citizens , as the Commissioner has explained very well .
I am , up to a point , concerned about how the Council will fight for the principles contained in the Treaty of Amsterdam and whose purpose is to ensure that citizens have a better opportunity to participate in the decision-making process .
Does not the Council ' s representative think that this makes it difficult to participate in the democratic decision-making process ?
This is the intention behind the question and we must then follow the ordinary procedures of reports from committees and plenary debate in order to reach a balanced and really forward-looking proposal .
Those who oppose taxation on currency dealing are in favour of those tax-recycling centres , the tax havens , of which there are 62 in all .
The low rate Tobin tax would not cause tax-recycling problems .
Two years ago , in Cavalese in Italy , an American aeroplane from the Aviano NATO base cut through the cables of a cable car during a low-flying exercise which exceeded safe limits , causing the deaths of more than 20 Europeans .
When we suddenly refused this offer , an inflammatory and rabble-rousing propaganda campaign began that is beyond our comprehension to this day .
Madam President , to begin with , I would like to make one thing abundantly clear : Austria is not in danger of experiencing a resurgence of a one-party system or of a totalitarian system of right-wing persuasion .
However , in my view , he will be no more able or willing to be integrated into this , into our political system , and into the Europe of today , than any other extreme right-wing movement .
The more powerful this Europe becomes and the more vigilant it is towards authoritarian tendencies in the Europe of today , the more successful we will be in striking at the roots of right-wing extremism .
We know the social causes which contribute , along with unemployment and instability , to fuelling tendencies towards this ; we know the accompanying cultural causes - xenophobia , racism - but with the inability and unwillingness of these extreme right-wing groups to settle accounts with nazism , we cannot fail to point out the possibility of an explosive mixture being created in Europe .
Not a word was said by these same EU governments about coalition governments involving fellow-travelling communists in French or Italian governments , or in German state governments , or even the British government ' s willingness to promote those with terrorist associations as ministers in Northern Ireland today .
Finally , will this whole decision-making process be carried out in a transparent , public way ?
It is indeed the case that globalisation of national economies , but above all the introduction of the euro and the associated stability pact have led to a situation where we need to do more than analyse decision-making processes .
In them we say that the forthcoming IGC must look into a decision-making system that pays greater attention to national sovereignty .
I wish to add a voice of concern on the topic of subsidiarity , not just between Union and Member States but between Member States and their own internally self-governing regions .
If you apply the existing principle of digressive proportionality , six seats for every state and then one more seat for every half a million inhabitants , you already have the situation where Luxembourg with 367,000 people has more Members in this Chamber than Wales , which is a partly self-governing region of the United Kingdom .
What kind of horse-trading system is this ?
Let us have the courage to put together a ground-breaking directive .
He has led efforts to end provision for Austria ' s Slovene-speaking minority and assistance to immigrants .
The European Union bears a large measure of responsibility - and along with it the two dominant political movements , the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats - because , by their dogmatic adherence to the harsh financial policies of EMU , their dislocation of the welfare state and their deification of uncontrolled competition , they have pushed broad strata of society to the limits and made it possible for right-wing extremists of the Haider type to recruit support for their neo-Nazi ways .
Some of these parties , despite declaring themselves to be republican and democratic , adopt the demagoguery of the extreme right , either out of connivance or as a vote-winning ploy , if only in openly and hypocritically blaming the immigrant workers in our countries for unemployment , and generally making their lives more difficult .
Today , as previously in the history of Europe , right-wing extremism is the result of insecure social and economic conditions of life .
The policy of cut-backs which has followed in the wake of adjusting to EMU has promoted the successes of right-wing extremism .
The success of the Austrian Freedom Party owes as much to the endorsement of respectability provided by the Austrian right wing and social democrats as to the policy of the latter , whose social disasters paved the way for extreme right-wing populism .
Of course I , in no way , agree with the publicised statements of this right-wing populist and fully condemn xenophobia and any downplaying of the Hitler regime .
It is not a very time-consuming matter , but it is extremely important that it should get through Parliament now and that there should be no delays .
We ask for a guarantee that the decision-making bodies for the projects are represented equally by three elements : political representatives and public administrations , companies and economic operators , and social operators , including unions and non-governmental organisations .
The emphasis is on local groups in which the authorities , non-profit-making organisations and profit-making companies join forces .
The emphasis is on local groups in which the authorities , non-profit-making organisations and profit-making companies join forces .
However , I should like to stress INTERREG ' s particular importance for the Balkan area , where political developments and hostilities over the past few years have had major economic repercussions for neighbouring countries and especially for my own country , Greece , which is the only Member State on that long-suffering peninsula .
I should just like to say , in accordance with the Rules of Procedure , that if I am not here when the Commission responds - not that I have asked any specific questions , but I should nonetheless hope that the Commission has been paying attention - then that is because the Committee on Women ' s Rights and Equal Opportunities is meeting to discuss women in the decision-making process at the same time as the present debate is going on .
On this specific point I think it is important that we address the reform of the internal decision-making procedures of the Commission .
What we need are not just reforms of the World Trade Organisation and the economic architecture - and , significantly , the President of the Commission forgot to mention the reform of the financial institutions and international financial architecture ; we also need confidence-building measures for our citizens , who rightly expect help and support from and in the EU with the inevitable and painful process of adapting to new global circumstances .
We must hold fast to joint decision-making institutions which embrace the Member States .
In this way , a decision-making system can be created that is more effective , clearer , more open and more democratic .
You are now proposing to give all decision-making power to a handful of officials .
In its present form , what is being proposed is more like an advisory agency to the Commission rather than an independent body that would have decision- and law-making powers more similar to those of the US Food and Drug Administration , which has already established credibility in this particular field .
Mr Prodi , you set great store in your reform efforts on introducing a forward-looking employment policy throughout Europe .
We must point out , however , that even if the actual appropriations available for LEADER + were increased , the Community initiative would still be ineffectual because such programmes cannot compensate for or blunt the anti-farming nature of the CAP that will be implemented in the context of ' Agenda 2000 ' and the WTO .
Although local action groups should consist of a balanced and representative selection of partners drawn from the different socio-economic sectors of the territory concerned , government officials must be involved at decision-making level , whether they come from the municipalities , departments , regions or national governments .
We have to ensure that the whole system of traceability , of following the animal from birth until slaughter and right through the whole food chain , is part of that confidence-building mechanism .
The Commission already has a list of 32 priority substances , many of which have a hormone-deregulating effect .
For the substance TBT , this means that it can no longer be used as an anti-fouling substance .
I would like to finish off by expressing the hope that the European Parliament will pick up once again its green image and will argue in favour of the close-to-zero option for dangerous chemical and hormone-deregulating substances by the year 2020 .
The decision-making process concerning this framework directive on water has reached a crucial stage .
In his poem " Herinneringen aan Holland " [ " Reminiscing about Holland " ] , a famous Dutch poet mentioned water too , which , with its never-ending trail of destruction , was feared and respected .
We must not bow down before the agricultural or chemical industry lobbyists ; on the contrary , we must use our vote to promote and express that fact that we want the polluter pays principle and , hence , cost-covering prices .
Clearly , the importance of recognising the economic value of ecological factors in setting prices and making operators accountable through the adoption of incentives for non-polluting systems , seems unquestionable in the light of events that characterise the relationship between economic development and the protection of our environmental heritage , particularly our water resources .
You have set a very good example of time-keeping today .
Mr Haider has actually been in government in the southern province of Carinthia where he has led a racist and xenophobic campaign against the Slovene-speaking minority in that region who are Austrian citizens , where he has attempted to abolish dual language education and where there has been clear discrimination against the Roma and immigrant communities .
It is clear that in a process such as this , where we are discussing the disposal of a considerable stream of both electrical and electronic waste in Europe , there is an on-going dialogue between the different parties concerned .
More women in decision-making positions on various environmental bodies would extend the predominantly male terms of reference beyond business alone to embrace social justice as well .
One of the programme 's aims is to develop and supervise methods , strategies and measures for promoting gender equality in the decision-making process and in positions of responsibility .
As regards our external partners , all we can do is set them a good example and encourage their efforts to democratise their decision-making processes .
This state of affairs must be encouraged so that women have a chance to secure managerial posts or reach high-ranking positions in the environmental field .
Account will also have to be taken of other programmes where decisions are to be made within the framework of the joint decision-making procedure .
My group is pleased that the Social Affairs Council gave the go-ahead for a better cooperation strategy as early on as the end of last year and that , in fact , a group of high-ranking officials has already been commissioned to submit to the Council an initial report by June 2000 .
Having a group of high-ranking officials as the focal point for the pooling of experience and for the coordination and evaluation of the ways in which social and labour market policies are being developed is also something we can all benefit from .
Based on a number of recommendations , reports and communications , the Commission has made another step in the convergence process by setting out objectives and by setting up a working party of high-ranking officials .
He has done a great deal of work on behalf of Parliament in producing a wide-ranging consensus on what is , by any definition , a thorny issue , not just in this Parliament but in virtually every Member State .
Hypocrisy and fine-sounding words such as convergence , benchmarking , modernisation and concerted action are not going to extricate us from those contradictions .
The agreement also concerns questions dealt with in accordance with the co-decision-making procedure .
As regards the first of these , it seems to provide an effective solution for the long-standing demands by the creators of artistic and literary works , while at the same time creating a framework of protection in relation to issues such as distribution , rental and the presentation of their works to the public .
The success of this is bound to involve a need to strengthen decision-making mechanisms and institutional structures relating to the common foreign and security policy , so as to secure better coordination between instruments of development policy and instruments of foreign policy .
It is difficult to imagine achieving greater coherence in the European Union ' s policies without the Development Council playing a more active and interventionist role in relation to political decisions , which clearly come under the development banner and which are being dealt with in other Councils , in other decision-making forums , ranging from the Agriculture and Fisheries Councils to the Environment Council .
So without a more active role for the Development Council in the overall coordination of political decision making which , although it directly impacts on the European Union ' s development policy , is largely being dealt with outside this decision-making forum , it will certainly be difficult to establish a more coherent European Union policy on development objectives .
No single donor is in a position to address the whole spectrum of themes , ranging from macro-economic issues to the regulatory framework or from sectoral policies to a variety of new cross-cutting themes such as gender , environment , good governance and institutional reforms .
I should like , naturally , to refer to a specific sector to which I am very closely attached , i.e. agriculture , the main water-consuming sector .
The Commission and the Andersson report are not proposing a social policy ; they are giving Brussels exorbitant decision-making powers as regards funding , i.e. as regards the organisation and the provision of social protection services in the countries of Europe , which is why we voted against this text .
They see a never-ending series of local wars .
Finally , if you asked me : What if there is no life out there among the stars , what if we are alone ? - which is an equally awe-inspiring thought - I would say : Do not you think we have a responsibility too to make our children behave properly , before letting them go out to populate other planets ?
However , agreement has also been reached on the possibility of including other issues , and the representative of the northern part of the island , Rauf Denktash , has suggested three new topics : sovereignty , confidence-building measures and the issue of lifting the embargo on products from the north of the island .
The European Union should be taking a more decisive role that goes further than merely providing financial support , although that is important , by promoting and guaranteeing reconciliation between the two communities through the setting up of fora and confidence-building programmes .
Mr President , all over the world work is being done to resolve long-standing conflicts and bring together communities divided by history and by old tribal enmities and hatreds .
So , Mr President-in-Office of the Council , is it not a moral obligation that we should try to create civilised conditions for the long-suffering inhabitants of Kosovo , and above all , keep our promises to them ?
With regard to the problems afflicting Macedonia , higher education for the Albanian-speaking citizens deserves our special attention .
Mr President , Commissioner , we hope the agreement can achieve all its objectives but we cannot delude ourselves that peace , stability and prosperity in south-east Europe can be achieved without dealing with the very wide-ranging problems we are trying to eliminate .
We are not deluding ourselves by believing that , once agreement is obtained , the mandate we are giving the Commission today could constitute a first major step towards peace and stability in that long-suffering region , where the people have already shown they have the right to seek membership of our area of freedom and development .
It is important that , in time , there should be a more or less similar-looking form of protection under criminal law in all countries .
Special risk-spreading rules are proposed in respect of such investments , involving both quantitative and qualitative criteria .
In addition , the Commission ' s proposal puts forward special risk-spreading rules for funds whose aim is to replicate a particular stock index , a so-called index fund .
The present proposal is complex , because it deals with agreements between Member States but has far-reaching consequences for the citizen-government relationship .
This draft convention therefore aims to complete and facilitate the application , at Member State level , of pre-existing conventions on other legal areas .
We can but thank the parliamentary committees , which have - via the introduction of numerous amendments - made far-reaching modifications aimed at providing guarantees to a report which , in its initial format , we did not find at all convincing .
From the data which I am referring to today , it is evident that this disease is taking a disproportionate toll on the developing countries least capable of responding to its wide-ranging impact .
In all matters , we attach importance to the fact that there should be the greatest possible transparency in connection with the decision-making procedures involved in EU cooperation , for example with a view to guaranteeing the necessary democratic control .
This precarious wage-earning position weakens these immigrants and their families and makes them vulnerable .
The lynch mob and their extreme right-wing mentors are the mortal enemies not only of the workers , but of society as a whole .
I think that the European Union and the western world in general has had Mr Savimbi in their crossfire for some time now , with no discrimination whatsoever , but corruption is now so rife in Mr Dos Santos ' s regime that even his long-standing friends are starting to find it hard to pretend not to see anything .
Mr President , a journalist is on a fact-finding mission and this calls for freedom .
The European Union has condemned the use of anti-personnel landmines and we are supporting de-mining operations through an international NGO .
Moreover , it is all just words , because the Socialist governments , which are now in a majority in Europe , are just as incapable of taking action to prevent redundancies as right-wing governments .
We may congratulate ourselves on this , but we intend that this should continue and this is the reason why one can only deplore the fact that the European Parliament is today being excluded from the main decision-making process which will determine the fate of the postal sector in Europe .
Frequently liberalisation leads to guaranteed standards and the on-going standardisation of the measurement of the quality of service also contributes , as these standards will better reflect actual performance .
Nevertheless , Mr Bolkestein is convinced that the studies undertaken provide enough clarity and precision to form the basis of the decision-making process .
So far , unfortunately , in Spain and France , just the opposite has been happening as regards the on-going conflict in the Basque country .
In order to do this , we have created a completely new policy-planning mechanism , a system which will allow the College to set annual policy guidelines and to establish the budgetary procedure on the basis of these , to assign well-defined objectives to the Directorates-General and to keep the relationship between available resources and activities assigned under control , which is of fundamental importance .
Firstly , with regard to the decision-making bodies , the Political and Security Committee met for the first time this morning , 1 March 2000 .
I am thinking partly of the forthcoming and important humanitarian , peace-keeping and peace-making tasks .
The first question concerns the training of this rapid intervention force of 60 000 men , which , as you have said , is likely to be deployed to perform peace-keeping and peace-building missions and be capable of maintaining them on a long-term basis , if necessary .
During the recent trip by the President of the European Parliament to the Middle East , which you mentioned , the various conflicting parties were in agreement about asking for a more active presence from the European Union in the on-going peace process in the region .
Can I perhaps also turn to Mr Patten as well and ask , in terms of the conflict prevention work we are going to be doing , to what extent will it be possible for us to look at long-term conflict-causing situations such as environmental degradation and shortage of water and then incorporate them into mainstream EU policies , particularly in development , because there is no point trying to rapidly respond to something we have had years to put right .
Some weeks ago , you were evidently misquoted in the German-speaking media , whereupon your press service put out a statement correcting matters .
Women in the decision-making process 
The next item is the declarations by the Council and the Commission on women in the decision-making process .
The recent initiative by the Finnish presidency to develop indicators recording and reflecting the representation of women in the decision-making centres is extremely important .
Nor must we underestimate the representation of women in economic decision-making centres .
The various political groups generally agree on the easily verifiable observation that women are under-represented in the decision-making process , in both the political and the economic and social spheres .
We are convinced that the participation of women in the decision-making process will be beneficial to society as a whole .
There must also be a clear and real will to allow more women , who are ready and able , to assume responsibilities and commitments in political life and therefore in the decision-making process .
Today , we are focusing upon the ways in which more women might be able to participate in the decision-making process .
In the authorities of the French departments , the leading French party is that of independent elected representatives , in right-wing or left-wing categories .
It is by reviving the principle of meritocracy that we shall improve in quantity and quality the presence of women in the decision-making process in quantity and quality .
The presence of women in decision-making bodies , in particular , is a question of democracy .
If we consider the fact that more than half the population is made up of women but that that there are many more men than women present in these decision-making bodies , it is clear that we are still far from true democracy .
During the Finnish presidential term , a report was produced that reveals an image of the whole decision-making process , and , on the basis of this report , I hope that the Commissioner proposes legally binding ways of improving the position of women in decision making .
This means that we need to amend policies in various areas if we are to guarantee that women can participate on equal terms in the decision-making process .
Madam President-in-Office of the Council , Commissioner , I am a right-wing Member of Parliament but I have the same battles as my colleagues in supporting and assisting fellow citizens in my country to gain power and access to decision-making posts , which should be feasible not only in the political arena but clearly also in all sectors of society .
It should have existed for a long time because women represent more than half of society and it seems quite clear to me that it is natural for them to represent at least 50 % , if not more , of those within decision-making bodies and , inter alia , in the political arena .
So I believe that we are conducting this battle to assist our fellow countrywomen to achieve decision-making power , to gain responsible posts in the political arena , but I believe that it will only be achieved if we completely change the way people think .
We shall all have to be sufficiently strong to force our political leaders to voluntarily impose women ' s participation in the political decision-making process .
Women are the prime victims of armed conflicts but are under-represented in peace-keeping efforts , conflict resolution and reconstruction work .
We are at the start of a millennium and a century which we hope will be decisive for women and for their opportunity to occupy decision-making positions .
That is why the Intergovernmental Conference must introduce into the Treaty the principle of balanced representation of women and men in all the institutions of the European Union and in all democratic institutions and political decision-making centres throughout the Community .
Mr President , today ' s debate is devoted to the subject of the composition of decision-making bodies and changes to the decision-making system in Europe .
Mr President , today ' s debate is devoted to the subject of the composition of decision-making bodies and changes to the decision-making system in Europe .
The problem which we have to deal with is how to change the composition of the decision-making centres .
Amendment No 1 clarifies the point that , although the data are to be scientifically based , they are being collected for wider decision-making purposes .
The Scottish salmon-farming industry is the biggest in the EU , spread throughout some of Europe ' s most peripheral communities .
We remain committed to eradicating the disease , an objective that will be beneficial for both the environment and the salmon-farming sector .
Scientists must process this data and pass it on to the relevant political decision-making authorities .
Amendment No 4 specifies the obligation upon scientists to process all the data and pass it on to the relevant authorities , including national and regional authorities , in order to contribute to the decision-making process .
Since 1995 , promoting women in the decision-making process has been one of the priority areas of the European Union action programme for equal opportunities , and is included among the commitments reiterated both by the Union institutions and by the Member States when they discuss equality between men and women .
- Some progress has been made recently in increasing the number of women present in decision-making bodies around the Union .
Women have the right to be involved in the decision-making process as ' individuals ' and not as token females .
Mr President , a well-functioning labour market which strikes a sustainable balance between supply and demand is a widely cherished desire .
But they alone will not give growth the stimulus it needs to enable long-lasting growth , effectively generating jobs , to be organised at a high level .
He said that it must not be a literary convention , referring to the numerous non-binding declarations made at many summits .
They will bolster the role of the European Council in the decision-making process .
And then , underlying this decision-making process at European level , there is another crusade to be fought , and one which each of us must embark upon within our own Member States , since it is pointless laying down fine policy guidelines if the budgetary discussions that we enter into within our Member States fail to accommodate these guidelines .
The most important issues that will be addressed this year will be the reform of the EU decision-making procedures , so that the enlargement process can take place in a streamlined and structured manner .
I support the enlargement of the Union , but such a process cannot take place until key EU institutions , including the Commission , the Council , and of course Parliament , reform their internal decision-making operations .
The elected representatives of the people are awarded monopolies on power , while fundamental documents from the decision-making process are kept secret .
ACP cocoa-producing countries would experience a considerable reduction in their market and their income .
We must prioritise information for consumers and the interests of African cocoa-producing countries , associated to Europe under the Lomé Convention .
In order to appease the multinationals , consumers would have their lives made more complicated as labelling would become more creative and reassuring , small specialist chocolate makers would have to establish a ' quality chocolate ' label , cocoa-exporting countries would have to adapt ... and you dare to speak to us of a Europe that is close to the citizens , that is generous , transparent and respectful of cultural differences !
Is it really asking too much to want to check what the effects of this directive will be on , for example , export and the sustainable development of cocoa-producing countries ?
We must not forget that shea nuts are just as essential to the countries which export them as cocoa is to the cocoa-exporting countries .
What makes defending cocoa-producing countries an ideological matter , I ask you ?
If we direct developments in such a way as to create a situation in which there is only the one tradition of chocolate manufacture within the EU , cocoa-producing countries will be in danger of losing out since there would be a great risk of total chocolate consumption within the EU appreciably decreasing .
The common position also provides answers to the questions and concerns of consumers , of cocoa-producing countries and of countries which produce chocolate , with or without vegetable fats .
Another amendment , regarding a more far-reaching alternative , Amendment No 23 , stipulates that the ECHR , as well these social international standards should be acceded to .
If , however , we were to examine what a citizen of the European Union today can actually do , how much he or she can influence the decision-making process , we would see that there are not so many opportunities to do so .
We have contributed to de-mining and mine destruction as well as to victim assistance and research into new de-mining technology .
Mr President , the present proposal reinforces , improves upon and tightens up on the voluntary eco-labelling system which has existed in the EU since 1992 and which has not , unfortunately , been as successful as had been hoped .
I consider , however , that the proposal needs to be reinforced in certain ways , above all when it comes to the role played by consumer and environmental groups and the co-existence of different eco-labelling systems .
Those who argue the case for having only the one eco-labelling system are making a big mistake , I believe .
I am totally convinced that , wherever there are well-functioning eco-labelling systems , it will be possible also to introduce the EU flower that much more easily and more quickly .
In Scandinavia , which perhaps has what is at present the most efficient eco-labelling system , there are now already a number of eco-labels complementing , and operating fairly well alongside , each other .
I believe that the relationship between the Community ' s eco-labelling programme and the national eco-labelling programmes is better and more clearly defined in the current proposal .
I believe that the relationship between the Community ' s eco-labelling programme and the national eco-labelling programmes is better and more clearly defined in the current proposal .
With regard to Amendments Nos 2 , 3 and 7 , which relate to certain aspects of cooperation and coordination with national eco-labelling programmes , the Commission is convinced that common supporting activities are important , particularly with a view to making the Community ' s eco-labelling better known .
We should not be constantly re-regulating incinerators .
To be able to act sensibly and correctly we have to bear in mind something that has already been spoken of here , which is to say the waste hierarchy : the prevention of waste , recycling , the exploitation of its energy-producing potential through incineration , and its final treatment .
The first stage is the Interim Environmental Objectives to be achieved by 2010 , which means cutting health-threatening ozone loads by two-thirds by that year .
There are one or two that went through that I have some doubts about , particularly Amendment No 7 , which I cannot see as being environmental at all , or as contributing to the overall attempt to reduce the amount of ozone-depleting substances at ground level anywhere in the Union .
No Member State has fully met the requirements of the habitats directive , for example , let alone met them within the legally-binding timetable .
There is no political excuse for oppressing people , be it from an extreme right-wing or an extreme left-wing point of view .
Democrats who gear their actions towards human rights , who want to include basic rights in their constitutions and apply them , must show that they are prepared to fight right-wing and left-wing extremism on the political battlefield so that there is no cause whatsoever for human rights to be infringed and I think that , here too , we must make it clear to all sides that , for us , human rights cannot be used to justify a specific political system to a greater or lesser degree , and that it is the individual rights of the people which are at stake here , that it is human dignity which is at stake here and that , for this reason , political motives are no excuse for infringing human rights in any manner or at any stage of development .
This means that democrats must stand together in fundamental consensus against any form of extremism , not only against right-wing , but also against left-wing extremists .
Which is the decision-making authority ?
The consequence of this absurd step is that , as is the case in Italy , anyone who is part of the judiciary as an investigating magistrate will become dependent upon the decision-making authorities , with the genuine risk that it will not be possible to conduct inquiries into corruption and the abuse of political power without fear of political pressure .
They gather dust on the shelves of the Commission and in the offices of well-meaning people and governments .
The proposition made in a book by the left-wing philosopher , Jean  Paul Sartre , according to which the Jew is basically an artificial creation of the antisemite is clearly false , like the rest of this philosopher ' s thinking .
We are Haiders when , in Rome , parties of the right-wing opposition and the new centre incite the people to hatred and prevent the authorities from accommodating the Roma safely in places with running water and electricity .
For this reason I give my full support to the proposals contained in the resolutions which promote and lend support to all those elements which contribute to a culture of peaceful coexistence and all-embracing citizenship .
This is for reasons connected with safeguarding the legitimate interests of cocoa-producing countries and also reasons relating to consumer protection .
It is quite clear that a step of this kind would inevitably have an adverse effect on cocoa-producing countries .
Madam President , the presentation by the Council of a first EU annual report on human rights was a welcome contribution to the on-going debate .
I wish to make two comments with respect to the reports in front of us ; one on the Belder report , which contains a version of an amendment which I have tabled concerning the treatment of the Russian-speaking minorities in Estonia and Latvia .
What was happening 15 years ago in Austria was that Mr Haider was actually persecuting the Slovene-speaking minority there .
I refer to the Russian-speaking minorities .
But they must be persevered with and the past , in other words what was done to these minorities by the occupying forces , must be overcome so that a new common future can be built in the Baltic states together with the Russian-speaking minorities .
In response to a European Parliament resolution in 1997 the Commission has conducted an awareness-raising campaign on domestic violence within the Member States .
It was not right-wing extremists , although , of course , we do unfortunately have them in Austria , perhaps in the order of 3 to 5 % , just as other countries do .
Although it is important , the Article 13 package is only part of an on-going process to develop new ways of tackling racial discrimination .
I should like to state the following for the record : I have nothing to take back as regards my statement that the extreme right is abusing this House for rabble-rousing purposes .
I cannot imagine that either the Council or the Commission might wish to construct this system in such a way that it could include restrictions of any kind upon the freedom of law-abiding citizens .
Analysis of test data is carried out on an on-going basis by a special TB investigation unit .
Just to continue on the question of the IGC , Parliament will probably ask , under institutional reforms and especially the chapter on decision-making procedures , to have assent for international agreements and codecision on other matters .
So , all in all , the on-going agreement has not allowed Mexico to protect vulnerable labour , intensive sectors and minimal environmental standards .
On the contrary , this must be taken into account when frequencies are being allocated so that it can fulfil its purpose as an opinion-forming institution which provides a platform for a variety of opinions .
Far-reaching harmonisation concerning commercial communication is therefore urgently needed .
The subtitle of the e-Europe initiative , " An Information Society for All " , or we could also say as Mr Seppänen has said here , " A Knowledge-based Society for All " , is an indication of the far-reaching objectives of this initiative .
Our point of departure is that the work on reviewing the treaties must progress following the Nice Summit and that the EU ' s Charter of Fundamental Rights should form part of this on-going process .
Diseases must be kept at bay , the landmines littering the area must be cleared and re-housing schemes must be established .
Turning to the rehabilitation phase , during my visit I announced an initial amount of EUR 21 m in additional funds from the development budget , of which 5 to 10 m will come from the NGO co-financing budget line and the balance from redistribution of earlier EDF funds .
Throughout Europe , extreme right-wing parties are hoping to exploit the entry into power of this coalition with its fascist connotations .
The Ludford report is not an account of the good or bad situation as regards racism in the European Union ; it is the political programme of an extreme left-wing libertarianism that , in the end , shows little concern for the natural rights of man .
These are the extreme left-wing ideas represented in this House .
The delegation for relations with the US is planning , as you probably know , a transatlantic legislators ' dialogue using video-conferencing techniques so that we can discuss and understand - and clearly the Americans need to understand - what the powers of this Parliament are , the positive powers and also the negative powers and also the importance of timing in our joint negotiations .
The Mediterranean policy is set in a context of wide-ranging interests and latent tensions , and it therefore has to include various different elements such as the development of peace-keeping initiatives - now that the Middle East peace process has been relaunched - and we are grateful for the way that the Pope ' s visit to the Holy Land is improving relations between the different religions , leading them towards mutual understanding and support , and the creation of partnership projects involving Northern and Southern Europe , for the very reason that the objective of transforming the Mediterranean into an area of dialogue , tolerance and cooperation that guarantees peace and stability cannot be achieved without firm political will and sustainable , balanced social development .
The Mediterranean policy is set in a context of wide-ranging interests and latent tensions , and it therefore has to include various different elements such as the development of peace-keeping initiatives - now that the Middle East peace process has been relaunched - and we are grateful for the way that the Pope ' s visit to the Holy Land is improving relations between the different religions , leading them towards mutual understanding and support , and the creation of partnership projects involving Northern and Southern Europe , for the very reason that the objective of transforming the Mediterranean into an area of dialogue , tolerance and cooperation that guarantees peace and stability cannot be achieved without firm political will and sustainable , balanced social development .
I also consider it necessary to create an immigration monitoring centre because , in addition to coordinating statistical data , this would allow sociological studies to be carried out on the phenomenon of migration , which would help in the decision-making process .
The Committee highlights the importance of appropriate training for women , moving beyond the traditional mould , promoting on-going training , specialisation and the integration of women into the phenomenon represented by new technologies , so that society may gain a large number of highly qualified women whose participation at all levels - business , political and social - results from both qualitative and quantitative criteria .
In order to deal with this methodological inconsistency , we have proposed an amendment which expands on this thought-provoking concept .
These are extremely serious matters , involving high-ranking personalities , but it is all still perfectly concealed , completely outside the scope of the justice system .
On the one hand , we say , there are the advocates of renewable energy sources , ecologically-minded , forward-looking people .
I personally come from Upper Austria and , at present , Upper Austria has broken the energy-saving and energy-renewing records .
Some members of staff of the European Parliament both here and in Brussels , when they try to enforce European Parliament rules - in other words , no smoking in no-smoking areas or any of the other European Parliament rules - are sworn at and abused by some Members of Parliament .
I do not think so , but I do promise to consider very carefully the comments you have made regarding both the no-smoking areas and attitudes towards the ushers .
The legitimately and ultimately repressive message of this report will only be heard and be useful if , at the same time , we clearly reassert the basis of a life-enhancing culture , a culture which respects life , applicable to all people in all places , and if , at Member State and Union level , we provide the practical resources necessary to achieve this .
I should simply like to remind my fellow Member that one of the very first measures on jurisdictional , judicial and police matters taken by the left-wing government in France was to order the destruction of the file on sexual perverts .
Mr President , as someone who is deeply dismayed by the on-going out-of-hand condemnation of Austria by fourteen Member States , I am particularly pleased that the initiative for the report in question has come from Austria .
We also welcome the fact that the non-banking sector will be subjected in this regard to a degree of banking supervision and that a minimum reserve requirement will be stipulated .
That discharge was accompanied by numerous , far-reaching calls to the Commission which provided strong momentum and incentive for the reform of the Commission and which are incorporated in the Commission ' s White Paper .
This is borne out by the far-reaching reforms which the Commission has now undertaken .
Is it not about time we commissioned an independent inquiry into the decision-making process for building projects ?
My own country ' s government opposes this , and so do we who are sceptical about this self-fulfilling development within the European Union .
The proposed measures to promote SMEs are confined to analyses and to drafting yet more non-binding declarations of intent .
We must also ask ourselves why we in Europe have a system that is so state-led and so interventionist that it regulates the competitiveness of the economy in a damaging way , and which , in the guise of arguments about society and stability , sometimes conceals high-spending strategies and even , very often , strategies for helping their political cronies .
A far-reaching debate on the problem of employment in the European Union would inevitably , therefore , have to address these issues properly .
The present situation , which is exceptionally advantageous to employers and the property-owning classes , arises specifically because of the extent of unemployment , the pressure that this exerts on wages and the generalisation of precariousness .
Mr President , congratulations on a particularly focused summit as regards : the clarity of the objectives ; the analysis of the tasks needed to meet those objectives ; and the built-in progress-chasing system .
In Lisbon , our policy-making action was focused mainly on this issue , and certain major horizontal decisions were adopted which engage both public opinion and our own imagination .
Mr President , I appreciate that wide-ranging coverage of the issues by Mr Corrie .
Finally , this meeting could have resulted in a far-reaching action plan of concrete actions .
First , it is astonishing and highly unsatisfactory that the European Parliament was not included in this allegedly forward-looking conference .
It has been stated that we want to make a large contribution and take part in a much more far-reaching debt burden initiative , provided we can link this in with social development .
There was therefore a problem in accommodating within one summit , which I repeat was a summit of equals , not a summit of parties of a different status , an institution which the other co-sponsoring organisation did not have .
This is something that should not be forgotten in the on-going discussions .
Do you not foresee an opportunity here to bring ECHO under your policy-making umbrella so that we have a more cohesive approach to emergencies when they arise ; so that we do not have this problem of different instruments ; so that we are addressing the problem with one mind and can then deliver with urgency and efficiency ?
We are in favour of the self-regulating effect this has .
From now on , the Commission will be acting as go-between between the two decision-making institutions on this matter .
The judge has ruled , in a devastating judgement , that he was " an active Holocaust denier , anti-Semitic and racist and that he associates with right-wing extremists who promote neo-Nazism " .
As regards the decision-making procedure in the European Parliament , there is broad consensus that no revision of the Treaty should be effected which involves changing the existing institutional balance .
There is also the idea that these reforms must be submitted to public opinion in the candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe so that the impression is not given that these are reforms which must be rushed through , not to improve the European Union but to prevent the new Member States from having access to the EU ' s decision-making system .
More generally , the rigid federalist approach reflects a more or less unconscious desire to set up institutional barriers against enlargement , which will once again call in question a whole range of long-standing patterns of behaviour .
However , any changes within the internal decision-making procedures must be balanced and fair .
Recommendation for second reading , in the form of a letter , on behalf of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development , on the common position adopted by the Council with a view to adopting a European and Council Decision on the application of aerial-survey and remote-sensing techniques to the agricultural statistics for 1999-2003 ( 13300 / 1 / 1999 - C5-0065 / 2000 - 1998 / 0296 ( COD ) )
- ( FR ) I am extremely disappointed at the way the second-reading vote on the amendments to the draft directive on procedures for authorising genetically modified organisms ( GMOs ) went .
In purely practical terms , this means regulations which guarantee a minimised risk of the spread of GMOs , a halt to the use of antibiotic resistance markers , an increase in independent research into the risks presented by GMOs , liability for damages based on the principle that those who release GMOs into the environment with deleterious effects upon health or the environment should be held strictly liable , long-term evaluations of the socio-economic and environmental consequences of the release of GMOs into the environment , permanent labelling of GMO products , compliance with all current regulations , such as the Biosafety Protocol , and an open application and decision-making process in which the public are entitled to express an opinion and in which each application is dealt with separately and no simplified application procedures are approved .
With such fast-changing science and a host of possible unknown effects , it is important to protect Europe ' s people and our environment .
And this was done with the complicity of all the left-wing governments present in Lisbon .
If the European government leaders are serious about new countries joining , they must display the necessary political courage and agree to far-reaching reforms .
Manifestly , the first and main issue is the quality of the decision-making process in the Union .
But today I want to address those MEPs who see , behind this closer cooperation , the risk of too far-reaching consultation between the large countries .
For this purpose , it is essential to extend majority decision-making to all legislation , except for constitutional matters , and have codecision power for Parliament , as well as the well-known double formula in the Council decision-making process .
We have to find answers to the challenge of enlargement , but the Union at its present size also needs to re-establish the rules of the game and the decision-making process .
This will be followed by further shipments through Djibouti and Berbera in view of the limited port-handling capacity .
For me , in public-spending terms , the crucial year is always year one - you are lucky if you get to year two or three .
Subject : Women in the new CFSP decision-making bodies Has the Council provided for any measures for women to be adequately represented in the new CSFP decision-making bodies , or made any recommendations to this effect ?
Subject : Women in the new CFSP decision-making bodies Has the Council provided for any measures for women to be adequately represented in the new CSFP decision-making bodies , or made any recommendations to this effect ?
We all know , without bothering to be diplomatic about this , that the role and representation of women in the decision-making process , either within the CFSP or generally within other structures , is inadequate .
It should be realised that pro-active policies do not work in some areas of the decision-making process .
We believe that , as all representation within the European Union is carried out by people from the Member States , it is the latter which are mainly responsible for mobilising as many women as possible who can rise within the decision-making process .
Mrs Laguiller , the people trusted the states and the governments , especially the pledges made by left-wing governments , but they have been left with peanuts .
Mr President , it is high time that we resolved this complex and long-standing issue once and for all .
Therefore , it is a good thing that the Commission is receptive to the report by Mr Dary , who I congratulate , and the amendments tabled , which are intended to achieve the following : correct the imbalances created by globalisation and persuade the Commission to be sensitive to the problems of banana-producing families , not to submit to imports with single customs tariffs and to fight where necessary to maintain , for a reasonable period , its commitment to the citizens and the agricultural organisations involved .
The Commission is grateful for the wide-ranging discussions that have taken place here today .
Last Monday we did indeed have a wide-ranging discussion in the Committee on Budgetary Control on the admissibility of this question , and on whether , as chair of the committee , I should make use of Rule 161 .
We are of the opinion that the Intergovernmental Conference must reconsider the construction of the EMU , reassessing the currency union 's lack of democracy and its right-wing policies .
It is especially important that this matter be discussed on an on-going basis with Europe ' s citizens .
If an efficient decision-making procedure is to be maintained , there must be a change in the way the seats are distributed .
I denounced them yesterday in my speech and Parliament has adopted them , in particular as regards the composition of the Commission and the decision-making procedures .
This is reflected in the proposal to almost totally eliminate the unanimity rule , to make the codecision process the norm , to institutionalise the European political parties , to create a European electoral club , to integrate the Western European Union , to strengthen Europol , and , to constitutionalise the Treaties in a far-reaching way .
On the pretext that it is necessary to adapt the institutions to the prospect of enlargement , it is now being suggested that there should be a disproportionate strengthening at various levels of the decision-making powers of the large countries and an intolerable reduction of the decision-making powers of the small- and medium-sized countries .
On the pretext that it is necessary to adapt the institutions to the prospect of enlargement , it is now being suggested that there should be a disproportionate strengthening at various levels of the decision-making powers of the large countries and an intolerable reduction of the decision-making powers of the small- and medium-sized countries .
In February Mr Hans von Sponek , the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Iraq , followed in the steps of Mr Halliday when he also resigned in protest at the on-going sanctions and the bombing of the Iraqi people .
We have also heard that there is the possibility of a joint parliamentary delegation undertaking a fact-finding mission on an ad hoc basis under the best possible conditions with a view to looking around the territory of Chechnya wherever it sees fit to do so .
We support the proposal from Mr Lukin , the Co-President of the Interparliamentary Delegation of the European Parliament and Russian Duma to send a fact-finding mission to Chechnya to gather information on the ground .
In 1998 , he survived an assassination attempt by right-wing extremists , but since then his health has greatly deteriorated .
Finally , I want to reiterate my long-standing demand - disregarded by the Commission for many years - for revision of the existing directives on equality of treatment of women and men in terms of social security , in the same way as it applies in legal and professional systems .
I think it is rooted in common sense , and a very far-reaching sense of consistency .
Finally , I would ask you to consider the following , and I am addressing this to my colleagues in the Greens and in the left-wing Groups of this House , who have the somewhat remarkable impression that through the Rules of Procedure you can change the free mandate into an imperative mandate with a duty to be present for all votes .
One of the goals of the Commission communication ' Air transport and the environment - towards sustainable development ' is precisely to launch the debate on the suitability of establishing a Community framework for decision-making procedures concerning the operational restrictions to be imposed on airports in the Union for environmental reasons .
This is why we are insisting on the fact that these new standards should be sufficiently ambitious to counteract the environmental effect of the fast-growing air industry .
However , I welcome the fact that all those who have spoken before me also condemn the manoeuvres and they are the hardest-working Members of this Parliament .
Under the Prodi government , the Italian legislature had already considered the possibility of cross-financing road - i.e. road tolls - and rail transport and indeed approved it .
For it is they who have to live with the ever-growing avalanche of traffic .
What we need is to complete the Brenner base-level tunnel rapidly , for the sake of the population concerned , the environment and a sustainable , forward-looking transport policy .
At present , one in three flights is delayed and 450 000 flight hours are lost annually , and unless far-reaching measures are taken , the situation will only get worse .
These are the first crucial steps in the decentralisation of financial control , which is of course critical to the empowerment of management at all levels in a money-handling institution .
That is why we need changes to the law and more far-reaching harmonisation in some respects .
I think that we should , and can , learn from this close cooperation between Parliament , the Presidency and the Commission in order to accelerate the decision-making process in policy areas which fall under the codecision procedure .
Europe has always been one of the highest-producing continents in the agricultural sector .
Nevertheless we are here now , and the Socialist Group supports the rapporteur ' s recommendation for adoption of this regulation with the minimum of amendments , already agreed in principle with the Council , in order to allow a fast-track , one-reading approval of the extension , and in reality to allow refugee support projects this year to go ahead rather than be cancelled .
Now that the Commission is presenting both the budget for implementation and this new way of dealing with the support for establishing the EU ' s part in the civilian administration , it is important that we should not focus solely upon the overall figures or the formal decision-making processes .
These considerations must not lead to the aid programme becoming bogged down in vague decision-making processes .
Do not forget that it is the intermediate regions that will be the first to suffer the effects , not the good cereal-growing areas , the main cereal-growing areas , but rather the regions where there are average production levels , where many farmers are currently experiencing problems .
Do not forget that it is the intermediate regions that will be the first to suffer the effects , not the good cereal-growing areas , the main cereal-growing areas , but rather the regions where there are average production levels , where many farmers are currently experiencing problems .
The mere fact that both my trousers and jacket are made of linen and flax which is processed in Flanders and partly in Zeeland , and grown in France , bears out this product ' s long-standing tradition .
This has put life-saving programmes at risk and any delay now would exacerbate the existing impression in South Africa of a European Union which seeks only to serve its own interests first .
Following a few incredibly intricate episodes , successive adjournments and time-wasting manoeuvres by the South African negotiators in accepting a regulatory text for this agreement , both parties finally agreed that a new draft of the regulations for this agreement on wines , which is due to enter into force by 1 September , is to be laid down by the end of June .
They are trying to have these wine-producing issues covered by the WTO TRIPS dossier , which the European Union feels does not adequately protect Community designations .
Furthermore , it appears to be a position that has been reached in conjunction with other New World wine-producing countries , given that the South Africans were negotiating bilateral agreements on wines with the European Union and then they suddenly changed their minds and wanted to postpone everything .
We are fighting here for technical measures which , hopefully , will not turn into a long-running saga .
Such measures will blacken the reputation of meat-producing countries in which there have been no cases of encephalopathy and will also discredit sheepmeat and goatmeat , since there is no substantial scientific evidence as to whether this meat is sensitive to spongiform encephalopathy pathogens .
For the sea-fishing sector , the European Parliament managed to secure a maximum working week of 48 hours , over a twelve-month reference period .
This is , however , an infinitely more wide-ranging issue , of course .
It is not possible to do this well without being more or less organised like other well-performing donors .
At this point I should like to support the call for more authority to be given to the merely advisory voice of the social partners in the sectoral committee and for the European social partners to be granted equal decision-making powers similar to those in many national regulations , when resolutions are passed .
If the best solution had been cooperation between national companies , then they would have done this a long time ago and we would not be faced with this long-standing problem , namely that rail transport is on the wane .
It is not just manufacturers and governments that should be represented during the decision-making process pertaining to rail systems - in respect of which , incidentally , there is much room for improvement - but also the railway companies themselves .
In particular , the high-level waste tanks pose a serious , on-going risk to the east coast of Ireland because of the risk of a release of large amounts of radiation should the cooling tanks overheat .
There was no actual breach of safety , only a breach of record-keeping regulations for one particular customer .
The importance of European Union action in this matter is that it will be a confidence-building measure , and what the public want are confidence-building measures .
The importance of European Union action in this matter is that it will be a confidence-building measure , and what the public want are confidence-building measures .
We were promised a euro-cum-mark that would be stronger than the dollar , and which would compensate for the weakness of economic growth by means of the on-going revaluation of assets .
I come from a country whose people enjoy the rare privilege of being consulted in connection with such far-reaching decisions as participation in the euro system .
This would mean that we could make far-reaching tax reforms which would contribute to a more favourable environment for our economy , for business initiative , to freeing up resources and promoting them by fiscal means in an area which is one of our priority commitments : to be up-to-date and competitive at the most advanced levels of the information society and in the application of new technologies .
Almost half of the public debt was due to on-going transfers from the state to public undertakings .
Every self-respecting economist knows that Greece , despite the impressive achievements of the past couple of years , does not yet have inflation and government debt sufficiently under control or in order .
This is the opinion expressed by the Nobel prize-winning economists Friedman , Tobin and Modigliani .
Therefore , I would ask whether the Council is aware of all the initiatives which have hitherto been adopted by each individual country of the Union to reduce or cancel the debt of highly indebted poor countries , and whether it would be possible for a résumé to be produced showing the practical actions which have been undertaken by these countries and the commitments made , to prove that these initiatives are not just mere political vote-winning manoeuvres , as they all too often appear to be .
In spite of this , the debt continues to grow exponentially , and there is consequently an ever-widening gap between these countries and the industrialised countries , which often behave like unscrupulous moneylenders .
There is hardly any money left for education , health care or for building well-functioning government machinery .
A further deterioration of the situation in Zimbabwe could have far-reaching effects on the African continent in general , and on South Africa in particular .
Subject : Decision-making powers of the Euro 11 The media quite frequently make reference to the ' Euro 11 ' as if it were a formal decision-making body within the EU 's institutional structure .
Subject : Decision-making powers of the Euro 11 The media quite frequently make reference to the ' Euro 11 ' as if it were a formal decision-making body within the EU 's institutional structure .
However , Ecofin remains the decision-making body .
In the light of this statement , will the Council say what exactly takes place at Euro 11 meetings and what implications it may have for the EU 's regulated decision-making procedure ?
We are all aware , from newspapers or from conversations in corridors , that various countries in Europe , particularly the Nordic countries , regularly coordinate their positions in a framework that predates the Community decision-making process .
Now that the eEurope initiative - with all its worthy objectives - has just been approved , it is being obstructed by the imposition of a new ' digital divide ' , a greedy fee-charging principle .
He has drawn up not only a very concise but also a very hard-hitting report .
Therefore , in looking at the market-opening regulations , we have to look at methods of competition and encourage competition between the different parts and elements of the platforms .
As part of an on-going exercise of monitoring by the Commission , the Fifth Report sets the scene for many of the conclusions and recommendations made in the communication ' s review , which was issued at the same time , and on which we , and the European Parliament , are working right now .
We have also made a revised recommendation on interconnection pricing and now we have on-going enforcement measures and infringement proceedings , for example , against a number of Member States on carrier pre-selection and local tariff structures .
We have the on-going radio conference in Istanbul where issues like Galileo or third generation spectrum will be discussed .
Furthermore , the fifth research plan only includes one person per project , although it is impossible to carry out a far-reaching project with grant holders alone .
There was very little in the way of cooperation , and had it not been for the fact that Mrs Gröner and myself had hard-working collaborators , then there would probably not have been a report now .
The fact that the world ' s governments refuse to acknowledge that , from the cradle to the grave , girls and women are exploited and persecuted has , throughout the ages , been the most flagrant and far-reaching violation of human rights .
Opinions may be divided about Austria , but when it comes to making it clear what our position is on racism in Europe , we should not get bogged down in a formal debate as we did just now , we should make it plain that we are clear-thinking people .
In Belgium , 40 percent of the victims end up on the labour market , in the textile , hotel and catering and fruit-picking industries , bakeries and the construction industry , or as house staff or au-pair girls , obliged to work as slaves in degrading conditions .
Has the air-conditioning system now been switched off ?
All-embracing budget lines of this kind blur our cultural and political diversity and increase the distance between ourselves and the citizen .
An in-depth discussion would have been desirable , certainly given the far-reaching consequences which this legislation can have on legislation and legal systems within the Member States and the fact that it will infringe on the Member States ' sovereignty .
You will remember that the author of these CVs was offered an interview for the French-sounding name but received a rejection for the foreign-sounding name .
You will remember that the author of these CVs was offered an interview for the French-sounding name but received a rejection for the foreign-sounding name .
The impunity enjoyed by the rebels in Sierra Leone and the weakness of the peace-keeping forces , who can neither leave the country , for political and humanitarian reasons , nor effectively confront the armed rebels , are a threat to any future United Nations peace mission .
We should congratulate the British Government on taking effective action in a peace-keeping capacity .
As with the oil of Congo-Brazzaville , Angola or Nigeria and the mineral resources of Chad , Niger or the Democratic Republic of the Congo , and as in the latter generally or in Angola , Liberia and Sierra Leone , the causes are indeed economic and the fight for control of the diamond-producing areas is the basis and reason for this continuing conflict .
The European Union has issued two statements condemning the RUF ' s violations of the peace agreement and the abductions of UN peace-keeping personnel .
The recent support provided to the UNAMSIL peace-keeping force by the United Kingdom is welcome - the honourable Member , Mr Titley , made the point well - as is the release last weekend of 139 of the 486 hostages , following the intervention of President Taylor of Liberia .
The issue of the place of the Tamils in Sri Lanka is a long-standing problem dating back to at least the year of independence in 1948 .
There can be no political justification for ill-treating people as is happening there .
Because they were not afraid to publicly turn against a far-reaching lack of freedom in society , which is perpetuated by undisguised terrorist tactics generated by the state machinery .
This resolution looks at the security and safety arrangements ahead of Euro 2000 so that decent football-loving supporters from across Europe can go to , watch and come away from football games this summer without fear or concern for their safety : a fairly apt thing to call for considering the recent events in Copenhagen .
Mr President , it is quite incredible to stand in this Chamber - I can hardly call it an Assembly right now - and realise that we , in fact , have an on-going slave trade in the European Union , too - here , where we commend ourselves for creating peace , freedom , democracy and human rights .
The point I am trying to make in this explanation of vote can also be found on page 11 , line 14 of the report , and it is the only line out of the 722 making up the report which reaches the crux of the matter : it states that we must fight for " information and awareness-raising activities with a view to reducing the demand side " .
The next item is the report ( A5-0101 / 2000 ) by Mr Varela Suanzes-Carpegna , on behalf of the Committee on Fisheries , on the proposal for a Council regulation laying down certain control measures in respect of vessels flying the flag of non-Contracting Parties to the North-West Atlantic Fisheries Organisation ( NAFO ) ( COM ( 1999 ) 570 - C5-0041 / 2000 - 1999 / 0231 ( CNS ) ) .
The problem for the European Union was previously the lack of a unified system of control when checking vessels of non-contracting parties in EU ports because they are obviously not subject to Community law .
The NAFO regulations - and their assimilation in a unified system - which control and , if necessary , sanction the non-contracting parties and their frequently stateless vessels and fishing , are therefore the most important matter dealt with in the regulation .
It is extremely important and it is very important to support the attempts of NAFO to halt this very problematic activity of non-contracting parties .
The reality of the situation is that " vessels from non-contracting parties " usually means vessels flying flags of convenience or flags obtained from countries which have open registers .
They have also found a transport vessel , flagged in Panama and owned in Japan , both contracting parties to ICAT by the way , which was receiving fish from non-contracting vessels from Belize .
This is why I must applaud the fact that this proposal aims at incorporating into Community legislation three NAFO recommendations on controlling activities of vessels of non-Contracting Parties , and in particular non-Contracting Parties whose activities are , without a shadow of a doubt , much more suspect than those of any Community fleet .
This is why I must applaud the fact that this proposal aims at incorporating into Community legislation three NAFO recommendations on controlling activities of vessels of non-Contracting Parties , and in particular non-Contracting Parties whose activities are , without a shadow of a doubt , much more suspect than those of any Community fleet .
As you know , the aim of the regulation is to implement at Community level a very important NAFO scheme intended to counteract non-contracting party activities which risk undermining the effectiveness of NAFO conservation measures .
In fact , recital 3 of the version proposed by the Commission is correct because we are actually dealing with the practice of using non-contracting party vessels .
What is more , this wording is drawn from the language used in other legal texts , for instance the Council decision concerning the approval by the Community of the FAO compliance agreement and the Council regulation laying down certain control measures in respect of vessels flying the flag of non-contracting parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources .
Furthermore , the terms " proceed to a formal sighting " can be construed as an obligation for the Community inspection vessel to direct itself towards non-contracting party vessels in order to make a sighting formal .
I would like to congratulate Mr Varela on his report on vessels flying non-Community flags that are non-contracting parties to NAFO , which was adopted unanimously .
These women work in a self-sacrificing way , working long days digging up hectares and hectares of beach in very difficult conditions for very low incomes .
But the solution must include treating political democratic forces in Europe equally , including those which define themselves otherwise and which , for example , are critical of the EU , and not excluding them from this problem-solving process .
We must also ensure that this Treaty improves our decision-making mechanisms and we should not forget the huge shortcomings brought to light in the organisational disaster in Kosovo , which are the reason for the lack of an arms export policy and which have so far forestalled unity in the EU Treaty .
As Liberals , we consider it absolutely crucial for the EU to be able in future to intervene with personnel and resources in countries in its immediate vicinity , to be able to engage in civil crisis management , humanitarian efforts and peace-keeping exercises based on European values and human rights .
A draft of the necessary decision-making mechanisms is in place .
We must therefore have effective mechanisms for managing crises using non-military means , for developing and ensuring the compatibility of the military capabilities of the Member States , for mobilising adequate financial resources in the national and Community budgets and for establishing effective decision-making structures .
I congratulate Mr Maaten and I shall take this opportunity , ladies and gentlemen , to tell you that I have received several letters from Members who would like us to respect the non-smoking areas because they suffer from asthma .
The report contains excessive statements which are reminiscent of a certain type of terrorist propaganda which I do not feel would advance our awareness-raising operation , also because whenever we go to extremes in these sectors and these fields we obtain the opposite effects to those desired .
As Member for a tobacco-producing region , I would like to express my reservations about the proposal for a ' tobacco ' directive .
The MEDA programme for democracy , on which Parliament has strong and positive views , has financed training , information and awareness-raising projects for NGOs and for public opinion in this field .
It is true that not all of the Union ' s Member States have , like France , had the privilege to have developed very long-standing links with Tunisia , which enable France to understand that the reality of the situation does not match up to the caricature that some fools in the media have managed to spread throughout Europe .
Subject : Increase in Community budgetary resources Much time has been devoted so far at the Intergovernmental Conference to issues such as the need to revise the decision-taking procedure in the Council of Ministers and the number of Commissioners .
Subject : Turkey disputes the sovereign rights of Greek islands in the Aegean Prompted by the NATO exercise ' Dynamic Mix ' , Turkey has put the spotlight back on its long-standing dispute concerning the established regime of Greek sovereignty over islets and island rocks in the Aegean .
Conversations and negotiations are now occurring in this respect and bilateral contacts are being made , accompanied by confidence-building measures .
In its resolutions , Parliament has condemned this situation and has asked the Commission and the Council to support the Council of Europe ' s initiative to set up confidence-building measures in the area .
For example , troikas of heads of mission have been sent on fact-finding missions to Tibet .
Clearly , their right of final veto over any decision is always guaranteed by the decision-making mechanism itself .
We know that in El Salvador , for example , the erstwhile Calderón government diverted aid of EUR 1 million in order to win votes in the right-wing camp .
A cost-sharing policy must also be established .
I should like to have known whether it plans to formulate proposals on conditions for setting up debt-collecting agencies , which is one of the issues which we discussed for a long time in the course of the preliminary work but which we left out of this directive for a good reason .
Mr President , I had asked the Commission whether it intended to submit a proposal on conditions for the setting up , and mutual recognition of , debt-collecting agencies in Europe .
The future of the development of Europe and the validity and sustainability of the institutions of the Union is at stake , with the now sure and fast-approaching prospect of enlargement to include a further 12 countries , and our relations with the citizens and their approval and support are also at risk .
Of all the issues not dealt with in Amsterdam , for lack of courage or political will at the time , this is undoubtedly the key point , and it is indeed the only thing that can prevent and reduce the real risk of deadlock in the enlarged Union ' s decision-making process .
In this way the people of each country can become involved more democratically and more directly in the process of building their Europe and in defining the Community decision-making methods .
We require a far more formal decision-making procedure of a parliamentary type .
In the meantime , the essential need to involve the people in these debates is being forgotten , particularly those people who are most disadvantaged and distant from the decision-making centres .
The first is total observance of the acquis communautaire ; the second is the abolition of the right of veto for every Member State ; the third is full respect of the roles of Parliament , the Commission and the Court of Justice in the decision-making procedures with regard to the initial introduction and implementation of closer cooperation .
It is a Conference which has a specific mandate of technical refinement , particularly in terms of the decision-making systems , in order to allow enlargement .
There are left-wing forces which wish to introduce social objectives into the Treaty .
Therefore , what is required is a simple benchmarking of projects to compare and contrast their effectiveness , to be undertaken perhaps by an independent auditor and used in conjunction with a clear and well-planned end-programme which will allow the termination of poorly operated projects and put an end to on-going waste - in essence , to introduce private-sector disciplines into this system .
The far-reaching management and control measures which the Commission proposes are therefore very appropriate indeed .
Part of the reason for this , and you are right in saying this , is undoubtedly the keen international competition which exists , but the main reason is that there are various structural deficiencies in the main nut-growing areas .
The various amendments , including those dealing with the Centre ' s Management Board , are therefore intended to ensure that the Board uses genuinely effective data-gathering methods which are capable of interpreting the data in the light of unit criteria and provide useful indications regarding the efficiency of the various national anti-drugs policies .
Another important point : each year , the Centre and the Commission tell us that there is a data harmonisation problem because the data-gathering criteria differ from country to country .
Mr President , as one of the longest-serving Members in the House my memory goes back right to the first committee of inquiry into drugs in the Community on which I had the honour to serve .
The purely information-gathering centre is to be converted into a drugs-combating centre .
The purely information-gathering centre is to be converted into a drugs-combating centre .
Instead of solutions being sought , however , the mandate of the originally neutral information-gathering centre is now to be extended to cover criminal prosecution .
I hope that Mr Seixas da Costa ' s personal opinion can be endorsed by the out-going President of the Council , because I believe that would be very positive .
The public do not want yet another grandiose-sounding piece of paper .
It was , I repeat , a great pleasure to work with the Portuguese Government , with its ministers and its extremely hard-working officials .
If we do not establish a collaborative network to monitor and combat money laundering then one day we will no longer have an overall picture of money-laundering activities .
It is therefore necessary and appropriate for us to avail ourselves of the results of the work of the money-laundering task force without delay .
Finally , it should be noted that money-laundering operations should also be included in evaluations of respect for human rights because illegal activities are often linked to the arms and drugs trades and the trafficking of women for prostitution and children for paedophilia .
Therefore , an evaluation of whether to accept a candidate State for enlargement should include careful investigation of its illegal money-laundering activities !
Rather than stick with the hysterical , drum-beating report that the rapporteur produced , which , if truth be told , had little originality , no sense of direction and no suggestion on how to move ahead constructively , the committee decided back in March to postpone the discharge and to set out seventeen clear conditions which we expected the Commission to sign up to in the space of a couple of months .
I am glad that this subject has been raised , for it is an issue of major importance , the furthest-reaching implications of which have not yet been fully examined .
Does one have to be modern to have the support of a few well-meaning broadsheets ?
Far from clouding the issue , today ' s debate has offered some clarification as to the direction of the action to be undertaken in the months and years to come , which I shall sum up as follows : bringing Europe closer to the citizens , all the citizens without exception , be they close to the decision-making centres or remote , economic modernisation and a social Europe , efficiency and a strong presence in the world .
A review of decision-making mechanisms in order to prevent paralysis and a review of the functioning of the Council and the Commission are all on the agenda and I think that the projects for tomorrow and beyond must not conceal what is required today .
The vote-counting processes were not cause for controversy either .
The outcome of the legislative elections could mark a major transformation in the country 's political culture , the transition to a multiparty system in which Parliament will replace the ruling party Zanu PF politburo as the main policy-making institution .
Only in this way can democracy preserve its self-remedying nature .
More specific action could be also be undertaken with regard to developing awareness-raising campaigns on the real possibilities of legal immigration and on all forms of trafficking , as well as increasing the ability of the authorities in the countries of origin or transit to effectively combat this type of crime themselves .
In our resolution , we at least call for the application of the principle of solidarity and make a few very specific proposals for far-reaching cooperation in the fight against the trafficking in human beings .
It is a symptom of the ever-widening gulf that separates North and South , and the incentive to emigrate is all the stronger since images of Western prosperity are invading the screens of the third world .
I cannot help wondering about the statements made by the energy Commissioner , Mrs de Palacio , which suggested that free-flowing water would not be on the list of renewable energy sources .
But in the long term , we will need some sort of complete cost-covering method , similar to the principle applied to the roads .
Otherwise we shall never manage to get more freight back on to the railways because this is precisely the problem faced by certain railways , including the German railways , to quote just one example : when the complete cost-covering method is used in the present situation , many companies refuse to use the railways ' services because they are simply too expensive .
The euro system will continue to pursue this forward-looking strategy in order to maintain an environment of stable prices , which is also conducive to sustained economic growth and job creation in the euro area .
It is the comprehensive analysis of the monetary and macroeconomic situation and the economic disturbances affecting the euro area economy which is the relevant input to forward-looking policy decisions .
However , let us guard against interpreting the principle expressed in Article 105 of the Treaty too freely , for Article 108 reads : " When exercising the powers and carrying out the tasks and duties conferred upon them by this Treaty and the Statute of the ESCB , neither the ECB , nor a national central bank , nor any member of their decision-making bodies shall seek or take instructions from Community institutions or bodies , ... or from any other body . "
There is an enormous need for information and awareness-raising measures going beyond merely technical information on the changeover .
In addition to the need to have sufficient staff in the Commission ' s directorates-general to cope with the change , coordination is also a key area if we are to send a clear message to the public through a wide-ranging communications strategy with adequate financial resources and an appropriate time frame .
I read here that the euro is an ' essential , identity-building factor in the process of European integration ' .
( PT ) Faced with the task of setting new objectives for the European Union , we consider it essential to carry out a wide-ranging revision of the financial perspectives with special emphasis on Heading 3 , " Internal Policies " and Heading 4 , " External Actions " .
I regard this as a very unfortunate procedure , which demonstrates the democratic deficit in the Community decision-making process .
It is not so long since farmers and meat-processing plants were threatened with annihilation , and it has only been through a combination of comprehensive information and strategically sound and effective marketing measures that it has been possible to rebuild consumer confidence to some extent .
There are now amendments to be considered in plenary sitting , and approving some of these amendments would have far-reaching consequences , above all in terms of timing and as regards the adoption of the regulation .
The presidency report to Feira indicated that the conclusions of Cologne and Helsinki could be implemented without it being legally necessary to amend the Treaty unless the Council 's decision-making powers were to be altered or the Treaty 's provisions regarding the WEU needed to be amended .
- Since the beginning of the present conflict the European Commission , via its humanitarian aid office , has allocated a total of EUR 12.6 million in humanitarian aid to the victims of this on-going emergency .
Bearing in mind that a quick return of all the displaced persons currently residing in Ingushetia becomes more and more unlikely , it will also be necessary to duly take into consideration an adequate follow-up to the on-going operations in this area .
The attitude in the Council of the Member States , even those with well-developed inspectorates , was unanimously in favour of non-binding legislation at this stage .
As directly elected representatives of the people , we also have a legal and moral right to be part of the decision-making process in the field of cultural policy .
The Member States must overcome their perhaps justified anxiety as regards the management of their airspace and , at some point , must take a longer-term view of newly-emerging needs which goes beyond their borders and beyond the present situation .
No to the Commission representing the Member States with regard to external States , thereby destroying any political decision-making power in the field of air transport .
We have done so because we should like to repay a good presidency which has set a commendable and forward-looking agenda for Europe , as is also reflected in the section of the resolution concerning the follow-up to the Lisbon Summit .
It was a great shame in fact that the Belgian police overreacted in such a way by clearing bars of decent ordinary football-loving supporters , taking them with the dross that are the football hooligans .
It is therefore becoming imperative to consider measures to deal with the instigators of such violent crimes , who are often manipulated by extremist right-wing movements .
Our parliamentarians and Commission officials should go on fact-finding missions to Iraq to meet members of the Iraqi Parliament , EU diplomats , international agencies and NGOs .
Secondly , we propose that our Parliament should take the initiative in sending a fact-finding mission on the ground .
While the aim of familiarising Europeans with their future currency is a perfectly legitimate one , given that the decision to give up national currencies has already been taken ( in conditions which I deplore ) , I am adamant in rejecting the propaganda this text puts forward in support of what Mr Karas terms " an essential , identity-building factor in the process of European integration " .
We should also bear in mind what this means for the economies of the areas in which there is a ship-building industry .
This means a revitalisation of the whole area , as is well known by the people who live in those cities , in those regions , in which the ship-building industry is a very active element in the local economy .
This being the case - as we have this hindrance to movement - we hope that this ice-breaking operation may be supported , as the obstacle has been ordained by the Lord , and we cannot do a thing about it .
Denmark has proposed that more far-reaching measures be taken at EU level to fight environmental crime .
For example , it would appear appropriate to place an ashtray at the point which marks the end of a smoking area and the start of a non-smoking area in order to avoid cigarette butts burning the floor , but this is a question of common sense .
The Commission principally defines three initiatives for achieving greater efficiency : on the one hand , making the decision-making process more dynamic , focussing the activity of the " MED Committee " on strategic planning and programming .
There has been particular criticism of sub-contracting associations such as RTM .
The Commission has proposed a new MEDA regulation and in it asks us for speedier decision-making procedures .
The Commission 's objective in revising the MEDA Regulation is to streamline the decision-making process so that we can deliver assistance promptly , in line with the political priorities of the European Union in the Mediterranean .
Mr President , last week , I was in Indonesia on a fact-finding mission and all I can say is that the EU delegation out there provided me with outstanding support .
We have not laid down that the ECIP has to remain an autonomous instrument or that the ECIP can and must be integrated into a wider-reaching instrument .
The lack of sufficient staff to ensure the smooth management of an ever-increasing number of actions resulted in delays in the implementation of the programme , which in turn caused growing discontent among its beneficiaries .
Mr Imbeni said earlier - I do not know if the Commissioner heard what he said because he was talking at the time , but it seems to me to be very important - that there must be an awareness-raising campaign on the significance of humanitarian aid , on what this humanitarian aid means to us , the European Union .
We believe it would be wrong to overload ECHO with an ever-growing number of tasks simply for reasons of administrative ease .
Six weeks after talks broke down at Camp David , Bill Clinton is due to meet Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat in New York tomorrow , after a month of intensive , albeit less media-attracting negotiation .
Finally , the instability of a fast-changing world , sometimes at the Union ' s very door , actively encourages us to take on such a role .
That is why the Commission participates fully in the decision-making process in the Council , that is why we have a shared right of initiative - not a sole but a shared right of initiative - in these issues .
The Commission is holding wide-ranging consultations on options for accelerated national and international action and innovative approaches to address these diseases .
I am convinced of the need to provide European social partners and policy makers with a tool which enables us to adopt a forward-looking approach where industrial change is discussed at European level , with a view to managing it through positive and preventive action .
Mr President , the European Union is facing far-reaching changes in our economy , globalisation , the new economy , the expansion of new technology and all kinds of demographic factors as well .
She wants to keep loss-making industries on life-support systems when we should be releasing the resources of labour and capital so that they can work in viable new enterprises .
Mr President , the social partnership should be a forward-looking partnership .
I am glad that we have been able to achieve far-reaching agreement .
Furthermore , what makes the Commission think that , because it did not utilise the fishing allowances during the previous protocol , it will not do so during this one , given that its cephalopod-fishing fleet which was fishing in Morocco has been out of action for nine months and there is no solution in sight ?
The assessments are to be carried out at as early a stage as possible in the planning process , partly so that alternative solutions might be found before the decision-making process is taken any further .
A crucial argument when the Commission finally tabled this proposal in 1996 was that the assessment at project level enters the decision-making process much too late .
In actual fact , this is one of the main points in the directive - that an environmental assessment should be made early on in the decision-making process .
Ports are required to draw up waste-processing plans and to ensure that there are waste-processing plants or organisations that implement these plans .
Ports are required to draw up waste-processing plans and to ensure that there are waste-processing plants or organisations that implement these plans .
It is also a victory for Parliament over the Council ' s reluctance to imposing a common-sense fee-paying system .
Increasing the European Parliament ' s participation in MEDA ' s decision-making process is another point that I believe to be crucial .
Amending the MEDA regulation with a view to improving the decision-making process and simplifying the procedure for implementing projects is an important stage in the Euro-Mediterranean partnership .
This vote also confirms what we have always said about communitising immigration policy by means of the Treaty of Amsterdam , which is being applied here to the particular case of family reunification by means of Article 63 ( 3 ) of the Treaty on European Union : the transfer of decision-making powers from national level to European level is being used not to strengthen nations , as some have claimed in order to deceive voters , but instead to demolish their defences more completely .
The second point which will come through in our consideration of the telecom package , is that in this very fast-moving world there is concern within the industry and amongst investors that excessively rigid targets in terms of market share thresholds for investigation - and that can be too much or too little in many cases - should not be allowed to inhibit your consideration of areas where there is a genuine competitive issue at stake .
( Applause ) The Commission has absolutely no intention - and it was most certainly the very last thing I intended - of introducing any new political conditions into the negotiating process or the decision-making process .
Let us give our work the epoch-making status it deserves !
There is no need for us to have yet more discussions on the decision-making process regarding the introduction of the euro to Germany .
His idea was that , having demonstrated such great curiosity about how to make the animal races more beautiful and better , how shameful it was to completely neglect the human race , as if it were more crucial to have big , strong oxen than vigorous and healthy people and to have sweet-smelling peaches rather than wise and good citizens .
I would urgently call on the British Government to reconsider its far-reaching decision and would ask the British Parliament not to back this proposal .
The next stage will be commercial exploitation , which our own bio-patenting directive allows for .
Would it not be desirable to redirect the European tobacco-growing industry towards such benign purposes and to further promote this type of research ?
Farming , forestry , fisheries and , in particular , the horticultural industry should also be involved in the decision-making process so that the required combination of voluntary restraint and state regulation is achieved .
Mr President , I would like to start by congratulating the Commission on a very timely and far-reaching communication which explicitly acknowledges the rapidly growing environmental impact of air transport and clearly recognises that this growth is unsustainable .
The colourants concerned are xylidines which may release any of the 21 cancer-causing amines listed in the proposed directive .
Fourthly , it is particularly important that there should be more awareness-raising campaigns in order to convince all relevant target groups that undeclared work needs to be combated .
Specific measures should be taken to protect the health of young athletes , especially to prevent any recourse to performance-enhancing drugs , and to ensure that they complete their education and vocational training .
One need only consider the increase in the consumption of performance-enhancing drugs by young amateur sportspeople .
The credibility of the anti-doping effort depends on it .
Europe should therefore look into the possibility of promulgating Community criminal legislation which would be valid in all the Member States , and should consider setting up an independent , transparent , European anti-doping agency .
The International Olympic Committee cannot be serious with its talk of ' clean ' Olympic Games when we all know that 1,000 syringes of erythropoietin were stolen from a Sidney hospital a month ago and when one legend of the Olympic spirit after another now openly maintains that there are anti-doping tests for every banned substance only the International Olympic Committee prefers to bow to pressure from big business than to apply them .
At the same time , as has already been pointed out , there is also a downside to sport , namely violence around the pitches , the use of doping , an increase in the use of performance-enhancing substances - also increasingly so in amateur sport - and the huge pressure on sportsmen and women due to the major economic interests involved .
There is no way we can change those facts unless we create greater transparency , and unless we set up an independent anti-doping agency which is accessible to everyone and which everyone understands .
I am personally shocked by the ease with which young sportsmen and women can supply themselves with performance-enhancing drugs , without being checked at all , through the Internet or in certain countries of the European Union .
In view of the non-binding nature of the economic provisions of the framework directive on water resources and the Commission communication , there is a danger that there will be a considerable delay in implementing these provisions in the countries actually being targeted , if they are , in fact , implemented there at all .
Yet we chose not to support the rapporteur because the amendments he has proposed will adversely affect safety , our safety , the life span of tyres and their road-holding properties .
The ever-increasing influx of private capital into public operators that have become multinationals is now encouraging these operators to wage a ruthless economic war .
We should set up a European anti-doping agency instead of waiting for a world-wide agency to do what an individual state cannot achieve .
It is a shame that Europe has not understood this , and that today and over the coming years it will find itself involved in a very tough fight , where it will have to use much more incisive , firm and hard-hitting means .
Share-capital companies , sports-club factories , from Manchester United to AC Milan , not to mention the US basketball and golf circuits , doping , the industry of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs , which have left Pankov ' s Germany and the Soviet Union to spread throughout the world , Adidas , Nike and other sponsors who want to see results , transfers to the tune of dollars beyond our wildest dreams , the EU Court of Justice ' s judgments , including the famous 1995 Bosman judgment that everyone criticised but that ensures the free movement of young sportsmen and women and sports merchandise , the huge commercialisation , the alleged re-broadcasting rights and the collusion between sport and business - that is the real face of the industrialised world of sport that comes under our Community legislation .
Share-capital companies , sports-club factories , from Manchester United to AC Milan , not to mention the US basketball and golf circuits , doping , the industry of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs , which have left Pankov ' s Germany and the Soviet Union to spread throughout the world , Adidas , Nike and other sponsors who want to see results , transfers to the tune of dollars beyond our wildest dreams , the EU Court of Justice ' s judgments , including the famous 1995 Bosman judgment that everyone criticised but that ensures the free movement of young sportsmen and women and sports merchandise , the huge commercialisation , the alleged re-broadcasting rights and the collusion between sport and business - that is the real face of the industrialised world of sport that comes under our Community legislation .
This awareness-raising process has been set in motion , not least thanks to - and I would like to stress this here - those directly involved : Russian citizens and social organisations with a sense of responsibility .
Burma , the world ' s second-largest drug-producing country , after Colombia , has dismantled its own parliament , has had numerous parliamentarians killed and imprisoned in the process , and forces its minorities into slave labour , especially in the construction of infrastructure .
The aim must be to arrive at a mutually agreed solution to the present situation , re-establishing respect for international standards of human rights in Burma .
It is simply populist to gloss over the long-standing failure or lack of interest on the part of politicians towards this issue by threatening a veto - it will not have the desired effect and it will not create a constructive basis for negotiations .
Lastly , and above all , there is the lack of any genuine environmental education that goes well beyond the necessary prevention and awareness-raising campaigns .
These upstream provisions cannot replace the need for downstream investment in adequate fire-fighting equipment in sufficient quantity to be deployed in all the EU countries .
I believe that the area destroyed by the fires was twice as large as at any other time and a great many people were killed despite the fact , of course , that the Greek Government was well prepared and despite the fact that Greece now has some of the best fire-fighting equipment , aeroplanes and human resources in the world .
In general , the decision on the acquisition of such fire-fighting equipment will remain the responsibility of the Member States .
Further input will be provided by the report of an ACP ministerial fact-finding mission to Fiji which took place in mid-August and which was led by the Foreign Minister of Papua New Guinea .
If we look back at the history of what has happened in Fiji , we see a sweeping electoral victory by the Fijian Labour Party in the May 1999 General Election when they won , with their supporting parties , 58 out of the 71 seats , ousting the incumbent right-wing government .
Thirdly , on 4 September , right-wing extremists beat up a person whose parents are of Tunisian origin .
The reason for this is the difficulty of replacing tax revenue in the short term , and the long-term consumption-curbing effect of taxes whereby we aim to have an impact on the future state of our environment .
The prime cause is the increase in production prices due to the oligopoly carefully organised by the oil-producing countries .
They seem to be engaging in a self-fulfilling prophecy .
However , we must oppose the reference to " load-bearing surfaces " as they will cause confusion over what is meant by " deck " .
Especially as , even though we have the most stringent fair trading legislation , the real world in which we live is a world in which large monopolies abuse dominant market positions , in which mergers , take-overs and acquisitions by corporate behemoths are a daily occurrence , giving rise to monopolies of global proportions which almost always lay off thousands of workers and have a huge impact on employment and which then monopolise wealth-producing resources , markets and consumers .
The European Parliament has done justice to the weightier responsibility it bears by virtue of its increased decision-making powers .
This is just one example to illustrate that I am a firm believer in the principle of providing services , technical information and advice on a modus operandi to these peoples , so that they can sustain their forests themselves , for I am sure that it is in their interest to operate in this way rather than conducting mass tree-felling operations and laying waste to vast numbers of these areas which are so valuable for our planet ' s atmosphere .
The political leaders and the civil society of the partner States must have their decision-making powers strengthened , as must the EU delegation posts in situ , which is already happening with the elaboration of national indicative programmes within the scope of ACP cooperation .
If the same energy had been put into developing confidence-building systems instead of into lobbying which has not always been very professional , I believe that a lot would already have happened to create the confidence and confidence-building systems which are required if consumers are to have the courage to begin trading .
If the same energy had been put into developing confidence-building systems instead of into lobbying which has not always been very professional , I believe that a lot would already have happened to create the confidence and confidence-building systems which are required if consumers are to have the courage to begin trading .
It does not strip consumers of their pre-existing rights .
The phrase ' directs such activities to ' is an ambiguous one , which could cause problems by being open to interpretation and could drag us into a never-ending discussion on what are positive , active or passive web sites .
Citizens ' initiatives , various religious denominations and other social groupings have been warning against right-wing extremism for years .
In the East , right-wing groups no longer regard themselves as a minority , but believe they hold centre stage in society , and they have cult status among young people .
A Europe founded on the inviolability of human dignity and which guarantees freedom of movement , must take a zero tolerance line with right-wing violence .
So it is time to break our silence over the right-wing violence that has become an everyday occurrence in parts of the European Union , even if we stand accused of running down our own countries .
Mr President , in response to an inquiry from the PDS Group in the Bundestag , the German Government revealed that in 1999 , a total of 2031 right-wing extremist and anti-Semitic criminal offences were committed in Germany .
The well-known German newspaper ' Der Tagesspiegel ' records that there have been 93 murders with a right-wing extremist background over the past ten years .
But there are just as many reasons that have to do with the developments that have taken place over the last ten years , for example the dissociation of economic and social development in eastern Germany from that in the former Bundesländer , the lack of respect for East Germans ' curriculum vitaes and their experience , and the lack of rigour in the debate on right-wing extremism past and present .
Long-established right-wing extremist parties and organisations are transferring their infrastructure , organisational set-ups and funds from the old Bundesländer to the new Bundesländer on a massive scale .
The feeling of helplessness that grips so many people in the face of socially and culturally destructive global competition , and the suppression of politics and democracy in favour of profit-making business interests .
Mr President , last Friday , the German Lower House discussed adopting a more hard-line approach in order to fight right-wing extremism at home .
The spokesperson of the Greens , and as such a fellow member of the party of Mrs Schroedter , who submitted the oral questions , argued on that occasion that there are no easy solutions for combating right-wing extremism .
However , to him , the many initiatives against right-wing extremism from the citizens in the new federal states offer a ray of hope .
This reasoning immediately brings to mind an obvious follow-up question : why do racism and right-wing extremism thrive within the territory of the former German Socialist state of workers and farmers , the GDR , of all places ?
The writer of the Frankfurter Allgemeine ' s leader quoted him approvingly yesterday as saying : ' One of a number of causes of right-wing violence is definitely to be found in the GDR . '
The German commentator , Lutz Rathenov , is bringing this viewpoint even more into focus : ' The GDR used to treat foreigners in a way which right-wing extremists would dream about these days . '
According to Rathenov , right-wing extremism cannot be eradicated as a localised and clearly identifiable evil .
Whilst those of a left-wing persuasion define their position at a comfortable distance from Stalinism , Communism and left-wing extremism as if it were the most natural thing in the world , they are evidently incapable of recognising the difference between the right , right-wing extremism and fascism .
Whilst those of a left-wing persuasion define their position at a comfortable distance from Stalinism , Communism and left-wing extremism as if it were the most natural thing in the world , they are evidently incapable of recognising the difference between the right , right-wing extremism and fascism .
Whilst those of a left-wing persuasion define their position at a comfortable distance from Stalinism , Communism and left-wing extremism as if it were the most natural thing in the world , they are evidently incapable of recognising the difference between the right , right-wing extremism and fascism .
The question we must ask ourselves is this , ' Why are five thousand people in my homeland - which is North Rhine Westphalia in Germany - prepared to take to the streets in protest against a decree on fighting dogs , but only 300 turn out to protest against right-wing extremism ? '
Mr President , as a Radical and a European Federalist , an anti-fascist and an anti-communist , I put to you this question : which is worse in terms of racism : the programmes of extremist right-wing parties or the practical policies of European governments , which are prohibitionist and repressive on matters of immigration , drugs , new forms of employment and everything else ?
The fact that the crimes were committed in all these different places , however , shows that racism and right-wing extremism are not problems specific to East Germany , but are to be found throughout Germany , indeed throughout Europe .
I have seen often enough how right-wing extremists have harassed - or attempted to harass - foreigners , or even those who hold different beliefs .
It is wrong to picture East Germany as being predominantly right-wing extremist in its leanings .
The vast majority of people are open-minded and tolerant , and an ever-increasing number of them are prepared to nail their colours to the mast .
I believe it is also wrong to maintain that the young people are right-wing extremists .
I myself , together with many other people throughout Germany , condemn right-wing extremism and xenophobia , and we need the support of the rest of Europe in our fight against it .
We have just seen that the left is in favour of left-wing extremism , for it voted against an oral amendment against left-wing terrorism and left-wing extremism .
We have just seen that the left is in favour of left-wing extremism , for it voted against an oral amendment against left-wing terrorism and left-wing extremism .
We have just seen that the left is in favour of left-wing extremism , for it voted against an oral amendment against left-wing terrorism and left-wing extremism .
Now we can see that , in Europe , the left supports left-wing racism and is in favour of left-wing anti-Semitism !
Now we can see that , in Europe , the left supports left-wing racism and is in favour of left-wing anti-Semitism !
In addition to this , Mr President , on behalf of the Group of the Party of European Socialists , I should like to say that I found the references one member of Parliament made to our support of radicalism and the extreme left , wholly unacceptable , as indeed was the reference made to the idea that the terrorist group ETA , which a few hours ago murdered someone in my home town , is an extreme left-wing group .
Many of those who do more than propose amendments by way of voicing their criticism of the situation in Austria , come from countries in which hostels for asylum seekers have been set on fire , right-wing extremists are on the march and gaining in influence , problems to do with minorities and foreigners go unresolved , and a great deal more .
Unfortunately , these 79 or 80 victims fell foul of large , profit-seeking shipowners .
Essentially , we need to take the measures which I have outlined and which have been outlined by the Commission and others in order to achieve a joined-up approach to raise the level of risk capital in the European Union and to extend the job-creating benefits to all parts of the European Union .
Mr President , the rapporteur and all the other Members who have spoken in this Chamber have quite rightly stressed that more efficient risk capital markets have an important role to play in supporting economic growth , creating new and long-lasting jobs and promoting a European knowledge society .
Cooperation should range from the fight against money laundering to environmental commitment and confidence-building measures in security policy and to commitment to food and water supply safety .
You quite rightly mentioned that one of the key points at the Asia-Europe Summit will be the wide-ranging dialogue , that is to say the expression of various different interests on the part of Europe and Asia .
We would save time , money and energy procedurally speaking if the Council could appreciate and accept that a common position is not the end point of the decision-making process .
Nevertheless , there are certain points on which it will be difficult to make progress , since , while we can make progress between Parliament and the Commission , we should not forget the fundamental role of the Council in this decision-making process .
Without the requisite institutional changes , the prospect of almost doubling the number of Member States would pose insurmountable problems in terms of decision-making capacity .
There is no need for me to remind this House of our tragic inability to act in the Balkan war , precisely because of the fragmentation of our decision-making processes .
I use the word ' merely ' , although I believe that , despite its declaratory nature , the EC Court will have to apply the Articles of the Charter in their judicial practices as self-binding principles , with which the interpretation of the court must naturally be in harmony .
Would it not be worth defining the responsibilities at each level in the decision-making process more clearly , rather than seeking to proceed with a legal allocation of powers on the basis of a traditional federal model ?
It now transpires that these proposals are mainly a cost-saving exercise , at the expense of safety .
A binding and all-embracing charter with completely legally enforceable rights could result in difficulties at a later stage .
It is quite specific , on the other hand , regarding the right to property and freedom to conduct a business , affecting primarily the capital-owning minority , the right to exercise this and to abuse it .
Enlargement is a wide-ranging goal which we must approach with a great deal of generosity and with vision .
On 8 November , the Commission will present more detailed thoughts on the principles which should inform how we deal with derogations and how the corresponding decision-making process should be organised .
The EU has a lot to learn from Estonia ' s free trade agreement , the route the country is taking towards the new economy and the work it is doing on integrating its Russian-speaking population .
Immediate confidence-building measures are essential as a way out of the current deadlock .
Your rapporteur therefore proposes that the series of confidence-building measures and measures to dismantle the status quo should begin with the demilitarisation of the island , something that has , in fact , been demanded by a number of Security Council resolutions since 1983 .
That means that we must use the first stage following accession to jointly iron out social differences , especially if we are to be able to jointly build up confidence-inspiring relations in border regions .
There is no doubt at all that right-wing forces have been involved .
Do we react as overfed Westerners who only care about our own fast-growing prosperity and certainties or do we take a wider view ?
I am not surprised , under present circumstances , that enlargement has hardly penetrated the consciousness of our citizens or that it is increasingly accompanied by worry and suspicion , whereas today ' s debate and all thirteen reports demonstrate the common commitment of large sections of the European Parliament to enlargement to the east and to enlargement configured in a responsible , forward-looking manner .
While an amendment , as we said , welcomes the Slovenian Government 's intention to ascertain whether the laws are in conflict with the Copenhagen criteria , the Slovenian parliament ' s Foreign Policy Committee , which has decision-making power , stresses that the bases established between 1934 and 1935 , upon which Yugoslavia was created , are fundamental , and requests that the Slovenian Government firmly enforce this position in its entirety , that part of the country ...
These legal hurdles have now been overcome , as a result of which , many Russian-speaking citizens are now prepared to recognise the citizens ' rights and duties , both in Latvia and Estonia , which are the countries worst affected .
In the long term , Slovakia should earn an ever-increasing amount of its foreign currency from economic sectors that have nothing to do with the processing of oil , or weapons production .
Otherwise we will be moving towards a terrifying , controlled society , ruled by an ever-darkening core .
They managed to be both realistic and pragmatic in their analyses , without losing sight of the far-thinking objectives that give real meaning to the European project .
Amendment No 33 deletes the possibility of exporting non-complying consignments to the country of origin .
The possibility of re-exporting non-complying consignments to the country of origin should remain open .
The possibility of re-exporting non-complying consignments to the country of origin should remain open .
Indeed , it addresses a long-standing concern of Parliament , which has at times , in 1997 and 1999 , asked for a review of current legislation on the marketing of compound feedingstuffs .
As stressed in the report by these two committees , this proposal was initiated by the European Parliament out of a concern to improve both traceability and the provision of information through the labelling of compound-feeding stuffs .
They say nothing about the resurgence of nationalist tendencies , and do not even bother to name the large Turkic-speaking minorities in the Balkans , and the ethnic Russians in the Baltic States , in order to avoid having to comment on the ordeal imposed on such people as a result , for example , of their being denied the right to citizenship .
I abstained in the vote on this never-ending resolution on enlargement because I believe that Parliament would be doing a disservice to the politically important and worthy cause of eastward and southward enlargement of the European Union to the south and east with this semi-digestible screed of paper .
In general , we are all in favour of enlargement , but this will only fully come about when the candidate countries have carried out the necessary structural reforms , when the European Union 's institutions and decision-making processes are capable of handling such a situation and , most importantly , when we at last realise that Europe is not a question of political status but , more than anything else , a story of roots and common history , blood , sweat and tears , dreams and visions , which unite us above and beyond political and economic issues .
This is ground-breaking legislation and it is a gigantic step forward but we must go even further .
First of all , we are dealing with a different decision-making procedure involving the European Parliament which , with regard to the implementation of Article 13 , cannot yet fulfil its role of co-legislator .
After all , as the great democracies of the English-speaking world teach us , racism and discrimination must be fought with liberal democracy , not by restrictions and the gradual erosion of freedom of opinion , freedom of expression , freedom of association and economic freedom .
First there is the proposed wider-ranging definition relating to the implementation of the programme , which goes beyond the comprehensive definition .
There are a great many other important points , but I would just like to end by saying that transparency dictates a greater involvement of national parliaments at decision-making level and the participation of NGOs .
The rapporteur was right to point out that , without such control , we have a situation where military personnel from EU Member States , acting in a peace-keeping capacity , have , in the recent past , been confronted by weapons manufactured and supplied by EU companies .
Commissioner , I would like to draw your attention to a very long-standing issue for whoever has been involved in research .
Is it not the case that there should be at least as much consideration given to the safety of people in the latter environment , particularly since , in the time since the 1999 directive came in we know a great deal more about the possible harmful effects of ionising and non-ionising radiation on young people ?
If the European Union ' s action beyond its borders is to be coherent in the way that the European Parliament never tires of asking that it should be , must not the priority of the arms-exporting States , in a sphere ultra-sensitive to public opinion , be that of simultaneously paying attention to human rights , conflict prevention and the European Union ' s external security ?
There should be greater transparency to improve monitoring of this trade , a legally-binding code and , finally , Mr President , a ban on the manufacture , promotion or sale of any equipment designed for torture , cruelty or the death penalty .
In the past we often found that excessively lengthy decision-making processes disappointed the applicants and led to a loss of confidence in the European institutions .
Firstly , we must promote the development at national level of information and awareness-raising policies targeting families and the world of education in general .
We must make sure women benefit from the new jobs generated , while avoiding reproducing the inequalities that exist in more traditional sectors : less skilled jobs , part-time work ( sometimes not by choice ) , insecure contracts and difficulties put in the way of access to decision-making posts .
The Finnish Presidency ' s report on women and decision-making sets out clear indicators for evaluating the progress made .
We are aware that women do not participate sufficiently in the decision-making process in politics , business or unions .
Women wish to take part in decision-making processes , in politics , unions , and business , and we know that the contribution of women is positive for everyone and for the progress of society as a whole .
More women are needed in decision-making positions , because it is quite simply unacceptable that so much human ability is being lost .
Some problem areas : women often have two jobs , unemployment is higher among women , childcare has deteriorated , there are too few women in decision-making positions , violence against women is on the increase in many candidate countries and several candidate countries are at the centre of the increasing trade in women .
With regard to participation in the decision-making process , either at political level , in the business world or in the trade union movement , women are still in the minority .
Whilst this situation can be explained to some extent by the difficulties women face in the labour market and within the family , it is also true that political parties must shoulder their democratic responsibility to guarantee equal opportunities for women to participate in political life and in the decision-making process itself , in order to put an end to the scandalous situation that still exists at the beginning of the new millennium .
Today we are witnessing the pauperisation of wage-earning women all over Europe , including France , where 15 % of them live on less than FRF 3 650 a month .
So there is a need to strengthen national and regional awareness-raising campaigns on the protection of minors in the media context , involving families and the education world .
It appears to me that cooperation between Slavonic Macedonians and especially Albanian-speaking Macedonians is an extremely important topic which could manifest itself in the fight over the important initiative to establish a university in Tetovo .
Fortunately , this initiative is now being backed by a parliamentary majority , as a result of which a key problem in the inter-ethnic relations has been solved , not only because it is so important to teach in Albanian at the universities , but especially because it considerably enhances the social position of the Albanian-speaking Macedonians .
I welcome with the utmost satisfaction the new law on higher education , which will create the conditions needed for the Albanian-speaking community to set up a private university .
The directive on life-saving equipment , life-jackets and life-rafts was infringed .
But , surely , this is precisely what our proactive Committee on Regional Policy , Transport and Tourism is doing and - as we all know - it needs serious and often time-consuming dialogue and procedures in order to decide what needs to be done on each occasion .
What we certainly do not need today , or indeed next week , or in the future , is a point-scoring exercise between our Greek colleagues in the run-up to the general election in Greece .
In the cut-throat world of tendering , all too often companies can be pushed into cost-cutting measures and I would not like to see safety measures being sacrificed .
Equally dangerous is the modus operandi of the regulatory authorities and the shipping register which , by operating as a private , profit-making company , is basically controlled by the very shipowners it is supposed to be controlling .
Hurrying to suspend cabotage in Greek seas , as earnestly called for , including in this joint resolution , will intensify profit-seeking competition between the shipping companies , with even more tragic consequences for passengers .
A series of far-reaching provisions was introduced in order to improve the safety of ferry passengers .
More stone-throwing youths ?
We must play our part in bringing the violence to an end and re-establishing negotiations : the fighting must cease , the Israeli soldiers must be withdrawn , there must be an international inquiry , at which Europe must be present , and the Palestinian people must be protected .
Firstly , the public will never take any interest in our debates if Parliament persists in side-stepping discussions on every important issue .
Equality in participation and representation , balance in the decision-making process , greater participation in political life , whatever the process adopted , in order to achieve an increase in the participation of women , until we reach the 40 % figure proposed by the Commission .
Women are still not adequately represented in politics and in economic decision-making processes .
It is the familiar 5-pronged strategy of participation of women in economic life , at the decision-making centres , in social policy , in civil society and in human rights , together with the new model of gender equality for the mass media and education .
We have received a reply from the confederation of producers of registered designation of origin ( AOC ) wine , saying , " We support the position of the Committee on the Environment , Public Health and Consumer Policy , as it offers the guarantee that European regulations are not going to permit the implementation of procedures to authorise the sale of genetically modified wine-growing materials which may be harmful to the brand image of wine growing . "
We have reason to believe that the new or updated terms of the proposed directive offer a satisfactory response to the expectations of workers in the vine nursery and wine-growing sector and that they should contribute towards improving the quality of the proposed material and make it easier for the competent authorities to supervise the movement of vine cuttings and plants carried out by the institutions responsible for this .
Everything , then , could be for the best in the best of all possible European wine-growing worlds .
Furthermore , the General Affairs Council confirmed the Union ' s intention to contribute to re-establishing navigation on the Danube and to actively participate in modernising infrastructures in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia within a regional context .
Beyond this , it would seem to me that the Biarritz Council scored several points on this issue , which is crucial to the future of the European Union and its decision-making procedures , and we can only welcome that .
Faced with this paradox of having negotiated a binding charter and then ended up with a minimal text and a non-binding charter , there is a real need , as some of the other Members have said , to take a series of decisions at Nice .
We all know that enlargement of the Union cannot take place until decision-making procedures within the key institutions are reformed ; however , such a reform process must be fair and balanced .
It must strike the balance between ensuring that the enlargement process can proceed and ensuring that smaller Member States retain a strong voice in the decision-making procedures of the European Union .
In the Italian Parliament , we voted for the Charter but with a different motion from that of the left-wing majority , in which we stressed the need for the Charter to provide greater protection of individual freedoms .
It is not just the cartel of oil-producing countries we should be concentrating on though , but also that of the oil companies .
Mr President , I come from a land , an island , which has always had this problem , a never-ending problem - like other Italian islands and , I believe , tens and hundreds of islands of other countries - an island which has always made a major contribution , which has always been firmly in favour of national development and which , today , values European development in addition to and alongside national development .
Next , the creation of a proper reference text clearly establishing the principles and objectives of the European Union and , finally , the distribution of competences between the various decision-making levels within the European Union .
The previous round of European elections showed us just how far the Union still has to go to achieve this goal : low election turn-out , prejudice , justifiable frustration at the lack of democracy and transparency , over-regulation , bureaucracy and opaque decision-making processes .
The main aim behind this , which is not clearly stated in the resolution , would be to lay down for Europe , even for the fundamental texts , majority-style collective decision-making procedures , completely different , therefore , to the unanimous Council votes or the votes on ratification by Member States used today to amend the Treaties .
The icing on the cake for the property-owning classes is the report ' s recommendation of something already practised by many States , which is " the contributions in respect of fiscal and parafiscal charges " by the authorities on " domestic work " , which clearly means taxpayers ' subsidising the maids and chauffeurs that the rich are likely to hire .
Yesterday , the proposal of the Greens and Social Democrats to postpone the decision on the Klaß report until a broader decision-making process on the genetic manipulation of plants is in place , was turned down by a narrow majority of this Parliament .
In April 1999 , the Commission proposed a wide-ranging reform of the Community system of competition with regard to the application of Article 81 ( prohibiting agreements between undertakings ) and Article 82 ( prohibiting the abuse of dominant position ) .
I would also point out that many Irish-speaking areas within the constituency of Connaught / Ulster and Udaras Na Gaeltachta will also be playing a pivotal role in creating new industries in the Objective 1 region over the coming years .
Three years ago , we launched our employment initiative , which involved helping small and medium-sized enterprises to acquire risk-bearing capital .
Nor should we have to contend with things of the kind that have gone on recently in the Council , for example when the agricultural ministers rejected a cost-cutting proposal from the Council , i.e. they voted for higher expenditure and then the Council of Finance Ministers reduced expenditure in the agricultural sector .
Like the budget before it , Budget 2001 had almost insoluble conflicts to contend with : on the one hand the pressure of consolidation and cost-cutting policy , as agreed under the Interinstitutional Agreement , in order to secure the financing of the enlargement process , and on the other hand , the acute financing needs of the Stability Pact for the Balkans .
The Union must realise that certainly not all citizens dream of far-reaching integration .
It is no secret that I am a member of a left-wing government , a left-wing coalition , and I belong to a political party , the Socialist Party , and as such , it is true - forgive me , Mr President - I frequently have the opportunity to meet my friends on the left wing in this House .
It is no secret that I am a member of a left-wing government , a left-wing coalition , and I belong to a political party , the Socialist Party , and as such , it is true - forgive me , Mr President - I frequently have the opportunity to meet my friends on the left wing in this House .
Mr President , unlike Mr Bourlanges , I am not frustrated by this procedure but I must say that this must be the most mind-numbing budget I have known in the Committee on Budgets for years .
It is perhaps a kind of transitional year , a year wedged between last year ' s nerve-racking events and those which may lie ahead next year .
Mr President , Commissioner , as Mrs Sudre rightly emphasises in her very commendable and extensive report , it is indisputable that the outermost regions have five characteristics which put them at a permanent or very long-lasting disadvantage .
The European Union is often the most important contributor to financing de-mining actions , and international actions are carried out in the relevant countries .
Further progress needs to be made with support for de-mining programmes , assistance for mine victims , and research and technological development .
At the current de-mining rate it would - as was mentioned earlier - take well over 100 years to clear the planet of anti-personnel landmines .
In this area we have to pay special attention to de-mining programmes and humanitarian actions .
There is also a recognition in this plan , which is reflected in the EU Social Policy Agenda 2000-2005 , of the need to ensure that re-training opportunities are given to people in the existing workforce .
The EU Social Policy Agenda recognises that re-training opportunities must be given in the field of technology and Internet activities for the existing workforce .
Following the EU ' s failure in the Balkans , it is incredibly important that the EU as a whole should have the ability to act in its own immediate vicinity and be able to make personnel and resources available in time for conflict management and peace-keeping measures .
Not one single EU rule should stand in the way of far-reaching cooperation , subject this to conditions or require that others join in .
In assessing the amendments , my group has tried to tread a middle path between the most far-reaching demands of those protecting the interests of the outermost regions and the indifference towards , or even repugnance for , this topic felt in Member States which cannot relate to it in any way .
A serious problem for society and food safety has been caused by the serious crises and scandals involving food products that have arisen in several countries in the European Union because of the use of methods aimed at making the maximum profit from food-producing activities at any cost , ignoring the interests of consumers .
Voter turn-out dropped to 43 % compared to 53 % in 1998 and support for the region 's pro-Beijing parties increased in marked contrast to the decline in support for the pro-democracy parties .
The remaining 36 seats are returned by a mere 179 000 electors drawn from Hong Kong 's powerful business and professional interests as well as pro-Beijing groups .
The executive is totally separate from the legislature , which is left to operate more like a watchdog rather than a real decision-making body .
Three recent , controversial legal cases have far-reaching implications for the integrity of the rule of law and ultimately for the autonomy of Hong Kong itself .
As regards my comments on the dominance of the Li Ka-shing family - which was the subject of much media interest in Hong Kong today - in some sectors of Hong Kong 's economy , I should like to point out that the reason I have raised this matter is that it has been raised with me by leading figures in Hong Kong and indeed was the subject of major media debate during a recent visit there by myself .
Conflict prevention also involves the fight against poverty , the reinforcement of democracy and civil society , better control of the illegal arms trade , the setting up of an African peace-keeping force , as well as an international regulation on the use of mercenary armies and better control of the worldwide ban on child soldiers .
Budget line limitations and comitology-based decision-making procedures limit our options for flexible and quick reaction .
This Parliament and , for what it is worth , this Commissioner , have been long-standing opponents of the death penalty .
The Italian government , which has set aside ridiculously small sums given the scale of the disaster - of which , moreover , warning was given - in a key production area for Italy and Europe , is treating these hard-working people inappropriately , irresponsibly and inefficiently , as it did the people affected by the earthquakes in Umbria and southern Italy .
Compare , after all , our common agreement with the experience we had just recently at that tele-conferencing session with members of the US Congress , which frankly was a very depressing experience .
However , at the same time , there is still great uncertainty concerning the collective consequences of the many endocrine-disrupting substances .
Numerous female health problems have been linked to exposure to endocrine-disrupting substances .
A further problem is the fact that it is almost impossible to set limit values for hormone-mimicking substances .
I believe that we really are taking genuinely forward-looking steps as far as the European public is concerned .
The proposals for fruit and vegetables are part of the more general , anti-farming direction which the EU is taking , now that it has decided to persecute farmers .
The root of the problem lies in the fact that everything , including the quality of the environment and the climate , is sacrificed to capitalist exploitation of wealth-producing resources and excessive profit .
Awareness-raising campaigns directed at the public , at consumers and at people in professions which are at risk of exposure to endocrine disrupters ( farmers , industrial and other workers ) must be a basic concern if these efforts are to be a success .
Whatever the case , with the advent of an economy based more than ever on knowledge and technological innovation , the Commission absolutely must ensure that the boldest , most innovative , risk-taking companies are helped to grasp the opportunities on offer and reap the rewards of their enterprising spirit .
The report does not breathe a word about that , because it would mean admitting that all the talk about small businesses is just a popularity-seeking justification for granting aid to big business .
In fact , I wonder how much longer we will have to wait until the European Union is empowered to amend the regulations that govern small and medium-sized businesses throughout Europe and above all , when we will see a change in a climate which in 45 years of left-wing or predominantly left-wing government has dampened the entrepreneurial spirit of European companies .
Law should be made close to the people , and local knowledge , whenever it is the most relevant knowledge , should always be applied , rather than the grand over-arching scheme .
May I finally commend to the House Amendment No 1 which asks that the Commission and the European Union take seriously the fact that we have , as well as the Union of the States , autonomous self-governing communities within .
From this trip we can deduce that the meeting on the 30th will not just be one more and that finally , a Moroccan delegation will be present in Brussels with negotiating and decision-making powers .
Is the problem the rather unhelpful attitude of the Moroccan Government , which prefers to negotiate with companies on an individual basis , instead of negotiating with the European Union , with which it shares important and long-standing interests in several areas ?
The Italian Government , which comprises left-wing parties who constantly extol the virtues of European laws , rights and treaties , must act soon on both these issues if its commitments to the values for which it claims to stand are not to generate widespread cynicism in other Member States about Italy 's commitment to uphold European law .
My report clearly supports the crux of the rationale behind the framework decision , with proposals that seek fundamentally to enable Member States to confiscate goods gained from serious crimes and to force them to punish offenders committing money-laundering crimes and to legislate against them , without the flexibility offered by the loopholes in previous legal instruments which made it easy for criminals to thumb their noses at the law and to control whole economies .
Secondly , will strengthening judicial and police cooperation allow us to combat the role of tax havens , of offshore centres and companies and , often , of the Member States themselves which , with their policies on transactions involving government securities , bonds and interest-bearing bills of exchange , help money launderers enormously ?
Let us be clear that it is one of two things : either we want to develop this area and not just leave a fine-sounding phrase in the Treaty , or - let us bow to the evidence - we do not want to carry what we have put in the Treaty through to its ultimate consequences and achieve this area of freedom , security and justice .
According to the United Nations , the annual volume of money recycled through money-laundering operations is approaching USD 1 billion .
At the same time , this is the most vulnerable area in such organised crime because money-laundering activity is the point at which it is attempted to filter the proceeds of illegal activities into the lawful economic system .
I therefore wish to congratulate Mr Marinho on his excellent report and to say that I share his concerns that we are moving closer and closer towards a definition of money-laundering offences that must lead to the adoption of common sanctions at European level .
For the Commission ' s part , and we await Parliament ' s opinion on this , we feel that the decisions not to allow tax and banking confidentiality to be invoked if this impedes the prosecution of money-laundering crimes are essential instruments to guaranteeing the success of this legislation at European level .
We welcome the fact that there is a change in the policy under the new programme , moving from giving the money into the care of the policy-making Directorate-General to giving it to people who are engaged in research .
Quite obviously , the Charter does not confine itself to merely restating pre-existing rights , with a little updating .
Therefore , Mr President , the Charter only represents the start of what is going to be a difficult , time-consuming task , but a task which , at the same time , excites enthusiasm .
I also want to highlight a particularly positive feature of the Charter , namely its concern with the issue of establishing very far-reaching provisions to rule out discrimination against minorities .
One example is the report drawn up under the responsibility of Mr Demirok , Secretary of the Turkish Supreme Coordination Council for Human Rights , who has proposed a very wide-ranging raft of reforms to the Constitution .
Just a few days ago , the Greek and Turkish foreign secretaries confirmed that both countries wished to agree on and implement further confidence-building measures , both bilaterally and under the aegis of NATO .
We , in the Conservative Party , are looking into ways of ring-fencing competence which will run with the letter and spirit of the Treaties and recognise the position of the Member States at the heart of the European political process .
Everyday topical events , from maritime transport to animal meal , show us that the markets and economic operators must be much better regulated and controlled and that established short-term profit-making interests must be opposed .
I should therefore like to turn to the Commissioner and the President-in-Office and ask them , given their level of support for the Morillon report - as they themselves have said - , why they were so lacking in inspiration and loath to include in the accession partnership which they formulated issues such as the Kurds , the Cyprus question and peaceful , non-threatening coexistence with Turkey 's neighbouring countries , issues which have been left out of the basic debate with Turkey .
The Mediterranean policy is now operating in a world of extremely varied interests and latent stabilisation , and it must therefore include certain elements such as the development of peace-keeping initiatives - but it must not , I would stress , be limited to this - and the creation of partnership projects which involve northern and southern Europe , precisely because the objective of making the Mediterranean an area of dialogue , tolerance and cooperation and a guarantee of peace and stability cannot be achieved without firm political will or without the lasting , well-balanced social and economic development of less-favoured peoples and the social development of the coastal peoples , improving their employment possibilities , in order to put an end to the multitude of problems caused by the tremendous number of emigrants leaving the Basin and now affecting all the countries of the Union .
Mr President , I share the President-in-Office 's view that extreme right-wing parties in governments have lost nothing ; nor could they in Austria because extreme right-wing parties are banned in Austria .
Mr President , I share the President-in-Office 's view that extreme right-wing parties in governments have lost nothing ; nor could they in Austria because extreme right-wing parties are banned in Austria .
My question to the President-in-Office is this : how is it that extreme right-wing parties are not banned in France and what is the President-in-Office 's opinion of extreme left-wing parties in government ?
My question to the President-in-Office is this : how is it that extreme right-wing parties are not banned in France and what is the President-in-Office 's opinion of extreme left-wing parties in government ?
If , for example , and here I am talking as a Minister , France was to elect an extreme right-wing party to office tomorrow , I would hope that the other countries would take measures against it similar to those taken against Austria .
I have a supplementary question : how do you behave towards extreme left-wing parties and what is your opinion of them ?
When you say that extreme right-wing parties are banned in Austria , that is all well and good , but one might also question what does or does not constitute the notion of the extreme right .
It sets out the over-arching objectives for assistance for the main principles governing programming , comitology for programmes , but not for individual projects .
I have been an observer in some regional organisations and I can assure you that it is pathetic to see two or three mid-ranking officials , exhausted and hardly getting any sleep , trying to react to problems that could be seen coming months earlier and facing high-powered delegations , which are high-powered either because they are from great powers like the United States or Japan or because they have followed an intelligent policy of forming alliances in advance .
He has turned the Commission 's pathetic proposal into a reasonable , anti-cyclical , structure-securing proposal , which is why our group will vote in favour of this proposal and I trust that it will secure a majority tomorrow .
Mr President , changing a market organisation is always a difficult decision and the objective , when weighing the alternatives , is to achieve as accurate a market-regulating intervention in supply and demand as possible , so as to ensure that production , in this case the production of pigmeat , secures farmers ' incomes .
This is not acceptable , as consumers should also have a right to obtain information on on-going investigations - provided that this information is not covered by professional secrecy in the manner that I described earlier and drawn narrowly .
" Welcomes the start of negotiations on confidence-building measures agreed on 31 October 2000 , by the Foreign Ministers of both Turkey and Greece " .
Women do not enjoy the same rights as men , there are still fewer women representatives in public institutions and also at decision-making levels in private enterprise , and they are still the main victims of domestic cruelty and sexual violence .
As the rapporteur states , it is important that the Commission considers the fact that a prerequisite of any genuine democracy is that all its citizens - men and women alike - should participate and be represented in equal measure in economic life , in decision-making forums , in social and cultural life and in civil society .
Simplifying the decision-making process , creating decentralised operational centres ( and not just in Pristina , which has gained in importance now that it has broken away from Yugoslavia ) and dealing with the twin structure between the Governing Board and the Commission may prove to be the right moves in a bid to deal with the huge bureaucratic shortcomings at the European Agency for Reconstruction .
- I welcome this report which seeks to improve the delivery of EU assistance to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by simplifying the decision-making procedures and making them more transparent .
It cannot be in anyone 's interest for smaller pig farming units in particular to have to give up because they cannot cope with this kind of on-going disaster scenario .
But even if the co-financing aspect was to be dropped from the proposal , the proposed fund would still not be in a position to address the frequency and depth of the crises in the sector .
The ambiguity of the pre-accession procedure prevents real cooperation between Turkey and Europe from developing along healthy and clear lines , even if there is a powerful common interest for Turkey - with its influence and weight and the privileged relations it now has with the Turkish-speaking countries of central Asia - to be a powerful stabilising factor in a region which is in great need of stability .
In this respect the conciliation process achieved a good result , as Parliament ' s proposal for stricter nitrogen oxide emissions in all new cement kilns co-incinerating waste was approved .
As in the past , these gaps are being filled and the increase in the demand for better health services is being increasingly covered by subsidiary and voluntary supplementary health schemes set up by public- or private-sector agencies on a profit-making or non-profit-making basis .
Mr President , I would like to offer warm thanks to Mr Rocard , and also to Mr Marinos , for their trail-blazing report , which is on the table today .
There is at present an on-going discussion in the Netherlands about structural changes to the system .
Despite all the commitments that the Council gave recently at the Lisbon Summit , however , and despite the emphasis it placed on the existing correlation between economic and social progress , the proposals that have been presented are little more than face-saving measures with regard to the countless promises to fight for the eradication of poverty .
I also hope that the amendments seeking to ensure that qualifications and integration into professional life are given particular attention will be adopted , which is why it is important to take account of the ever-increasing phenomenon of social exclusion and poverty despite paid employment .
Social integration must be seen as a cross-cutting issue , and the results of our efforts should therefore also be included in the spring report .
As you will remember , the Stability and Growth Pact stipulates close , on-going supervision of the Member States ' budgetary position during the third phase of Economic and Monetary Union .
I mentioned the Dutch system before , which already has obvious pre-funding elements .
They are also moving towards making a public pay-as-you-go scheme compatible with private pre-funding schemes , and of course they are also compatible with support for the setting up of specific investment funds , which may obtain long-term tax advantages and may help to deal with the ageing problem .
Madam President , I am glad of the opportunity to update you on the latest developments in the on-going crisis in relation to BSE .
We need far-reaching measures to be adopted at a national and European level if we want to avoid economic bankruptcy and a major health scare .
Madam President , Mr President-in-Office of the Council , Commissioner , I would like to take this opportunity to denounce the scandalous eviction from this Chamber of our colleague , Jean-Marie Le Pen , who would have been able to remind us that the group representing the European right-wing parties was the first , by a long chalk , to reveal to this House , in September 1990 , that the pathogenic agent for BSE was able to jump species and to spread to humans .
This may prove to be the last straw for thousands of small pig-farming businesses .
What we need here is a wide-ranging information campaign .
After all , on the one hand , this directive is an important element in the series of measures taken to enable us to honour the commitment the EU entered into in Kyoto regarding the reduction of greenhouse gases and , on the other , it is a praiseworthy attempt to reduce the European Union ' s dependence on the oil-producing countries .
We need a secure market for sustainable energy , because a non-binding approach will not suffice in this case .
Women must participate fully in all peace negotiations , in all reconstruction work and in peace-keeping operations .
We cannot allow this state of affairs to continue , because the rights , priorities and interests of women are often ignored in peace negotiations and also because the few examples of women in decision-making positions in these areas have proved to be very effective .
As a feminist and a pacifist who is involved , together with other women , in building relations and bridges of peace in places of conflict , I have found that this report contains the wealth of experience gained from many peace-building projects carried out by women in recent years .
But these projects and the skills which women have , diplomacy on a practical level , which provides an alternative to State diplomacy , can no longer be disregarded ; they must be used in decision-making forums and at all levels of diplomacy .
These regulations provide for a legal basis for our political activities vis-à-vis third countries as regards action taken by the Union to prevent conflict , deal with its consequences , implement confidence-building measures , promote humanitarian law and support international , regional and local organisations involved in conflict prevention .
I have sought in vain at European level for an all-encompassing study that could give us an idea of the scale of the sector and the problems within it , the regulations - however incomplete they may be - in the European countries , the pilot projects , and any experiments that may have been instigated by the left or right , but I have to say that there was nothing to be found in the Commission .
It will take a lot of patience and wisdom for us to identify , through talks in the republican and federal parliaments and a wide public and expert debate , the best solution for restructuring the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia into a good , operational , rich and just state that cares about the interests of its citizens , and safeguards the full equality of the nation-building traditions of Montenegro and Serbia .
Mr President , openness and public scrutiny of the basis of a democratic form of government are the prerequisites for citizens being able to follow the public decision-making process and to participate in this process .
Mr President , like Mrs Malmström , I too would like to emphasise that transparency is the essential precondition for democratic control and participation of citizens in the decision-making process .
There are fewer exceptions and it gives Member States the option of retaining their own national , more far-reaching legislation .
If the Council of today is supposed to be a co-legislating organ , a sort of upper House with legislative power , then , logically , the Council 's votes and proceedings ought to be made public .
At the same time , we Members of the Bonino List feel that we must not go too far and introduce extreme regulations allowing indiscriminate access to information or opinions which are of no decision-making import .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , transparency ensures greater participation by the citizens in the decision-making process together with greater legitimacy , efficiency and responsibility on the part of the administration in a democratic system .
We must see to it that the work of all the institutions is based on transparency , clarity and intelligibility , and that means that the decision-making structures are clearly visible .
As the proposal indicates , the Commission feels that providing citizens with access will mean that they are guaranteed better information on decision-making processes , and that administrations will have greater legitimacy , efficiency and responsibility in a democratic system .
So what I would actually like to ask now , is whether Parliament can pursue its own decision-making process , in a sense independently of the Commission ' s position , and then we can explore how the rapporteurs can engage in further consultations with the Commission in order to reach a definitive viewpoint .
When a bank fails it has wider-reaching implications than a failure of another sort of business because people 's savings are jeopardised and the stability of the financial system can be jeopardised .
Not only does it raise the financial services issue , it could have far-reaching implications in terms of our procedure , in terms of the codecision procedure and in terms of our relationship with the Commission .
But the Ivoirian people did not allow the junta to play their murderous game to the bitter end : they forced the tyrant to flee and , by electing a long-standing opponent , Laurent Gbagbo , to rule the country , they brought Côte d 'Ivoire back onto the track of democracy .
These national provisions are life-saving measures .
The forthcoming changes to own funds rules for credit institutions and investment firms will have a far-reaching impact on the banking sector and beyond .
Having good staff and officials is obviously in itself essential for well-functioning institutions and this can only be assured if the recruitment procedure is impartial and as objective as possible .
If he reads the records of some of the representatives from his own Member State , the United Kingdom , in those days they were extreme left-wing socialists who forecast everything which seems to scare him with the same hysterical sort of attitude to European Union .
We find the objectives of the proposal are excellent : to establish training programmes for senior officials and staff in the police forces of Member States , but also applicant countries , in all crime-fighting areas necessitating cross-border cooperation .
The corruption of the authenticity of long-standing tradition has cemented the tendency and the pressures of the power of money , aided kindly by a poorly understood Community legal framework , to destroy everything that is of real cultural value and impose a single market of closed leagues and a money-obsessed spirit .
Taking the long-term view , it is important that we convince the American public of the dangers of the do-nothing option , rather than agreeing a compromise with our opponents .
The European Parliament will bring transparency to this decision-making process .
It is therefore no way to tackle the fact that the decision-making process within the European Union is still akin to wading through treacle .
No , this is a much longer-standing issue .
If we are serious about deepening European cooperation then it is absolutely vital to exercise effective democratic control over the European decision-making process .
In discussing Madame Lalumière 's comprehensive and interesting report on the common European security and defence policy in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs , we concentrated on the institutions and decision-making procedures .
Moreover , Javier Solana is a member of the fact-finding committee that is meeting in New York on Sunday , which we hope will set to work very quickly .
I plan to go there myself , on behalf of the presidency , after Nice , in connection with the work to be undertaken by this fact-finding committee .
The Commission would certainly have something to say about these matters if we had the time , but to put it simply , all the efforts that we are actively making , because it truly is a long-suffering country , will never be effective unless all of the neighbouring countries , or the countries that are involved in some way or another and have some influence in Afghanistan , decide once and for all to stop intervening and interfering .
If we perceive European foreign policy as nothing more than a support instrument for European arms-manufacturing consortia , we have completely misunderstood its function .
I believe , Mr President , that if you were to ask the public for their opinion , you would find that they think we deal with foreign policy and security here in the European Parliament , and that this is also where the centre of gravity of our decision-making power lies , which is not the case .
Finally , I want to point out how important it is for the political leaders of the European Union to involve the people of Europe in these important and far-reaching plans by making it clear to them how very ambitious the plans now are .
However , in regard to commitology , the Member States all too often promote national interests that are at odds with those of the Community and consultation of their committees slows down the decision-making process and increases the cost .
The crisis which led to the Commission ' s resignation last year demonstrated the absence of adequate provisions for dealing with genuine , honest complaints put forward by hard-working officials .
The public is going to judge us according to the degree of transparency , closeness in the decision-making responsibilities , coherence in the distribution of responsibilities , and according to the efficiency which is finally achieved .
The Regulation is a financial-planning instrument , and as such it has also been retained .
With regard to the Intergovernmental Conference and the subsequent reform of the European institutions , it is particularly serious that moves are being made towards strengthening the power of a small number of large countries to the detriment of the decision-making ability of the great majority of small and medium-sized countries .
I would like , in particular , to highlight a number of elements that I believe could hold inherent danger for the future stability of the Union as well as raising questions as to the democratic legitimacy of the decision-making process .
Lastly , it should be noted that in Nice , as the report states , the definitive CESDP bodies - Military Committee and Military Staff - may be set up with responsibilities and decision-making powers enabling swifter progress to be made towards the implementation of the common security and defence policy .
This resignation , imposed by the elected representatives of the nations of Europe , revealed the pressing need for far-reaching reform of working methods within the various Directorates-General of the Commission , and of decision-making procedures and structures , in order to improve the utilisation of the available resources in the management of Community resources and policies .
This resignation , imposed by the elected representatives of the nations of Europe , revealed the pressing need for far-reaching reform of working methods within the various Directorates-General of the Commission , and of decision-making procedures and structures , in order to improve the utilisation of the available resources in the management of Community resources and policies .
For our part , we take the view that , especially because of the widespread lack of bureaucratic transparency which prevails and the scandals and inefficiencies of a still recent past , Member States must be more than ever involved in the decision-making process .
The Union for a Europe of Nations Group welcomes in principle the response represented by the Commission White Paper to the appeal made by the European Parliament inviting it to carry out far-reaching reform of its human resources policy .
It is extremely important that the no-smoking rules are complied with .
Legislative procedures do not take place in a vacuum ; as the negotiations for the framework agreement on tobacco control in the World Health Organisation have shown , there is a worldwide trend towards increasingly far-reaching control of what the World Health Organisation refers to as the tobacco epidemic .
By merging three pre-existing directives , we are obviously staying strictly within the boundaries of improving the operation of the internal market without , however , renouncing forging ahead with a harm-reduction strategy and curbing a true scourge : smoking , which is costly in both social and economic terms .
The ban on advertising these lethal products should be confirmed , and the collective rules on no-smoking areas should be extended .
We are also in favour of the ban on habit-forming additives .
My group would rather the proposal had taken an all-encompassing approach .
All we can adopt at second reading is a watered-down version of the most far-reaching proposals that we voted on six months ago after the first reading .
It is important in terms of the legal basis , more far-reaching harmonisation of the market , better consumer protection and so on .
Particular sectors involved in this , for example , IT and computers , transport , communications , air and rail , have said to us and to the Commission that they would find it very helpful to know that there will be summer time every year , that it will be permanent , so they can make forward-planning arrangements .
Madam President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , once again I see that a far-reaching debate is raging about the pros and cons of summer time .
Not everything needs to be regulated at European level ; if it did an all-embracing competence would have been inserted in the Treaty .
Often , when we address issues of justice , we devote too much time to the penal system , to prisons , to crime-fighting forces , to criminal codes and even to the claims of those in the legal profession .
For the first time - and I would remind you that I took part in Maastricht and in Amsterdam - Parliament has been given less weight in the European decision-making process .
Any clear-thinking person can see that they herald the very serious consequences to which the project of a Federal Europe of 27 or 28 Member States is leading us .
Into what situation will all these people have dragged France when the European bubble bursts and the French have nothing in their mouths but the bitter taste of having been conned once again by their mediocre and self-serving leaders ?
Freedom of association is of fundamental importance in a democratic constitutional State , which is why we oppose a demand for non-profit-making organisations to be approved by the State before they are allowed to offer support to victims of crime .
The decision-making process in the Council is to become more complicated , at the same time as it is to become more difficult to take decisions .
The decision-making mechanism in the Council of Ministers has become far more complicated and the hurdles have been raised .
Fourthly , and finally , the decision-making mechanisms cannot be explained back home .
The decision-making system in the Council may well incorporate the principle of a double majority , but it has become somewhat complicated and has upset the balance between large and small Member States .
Although we would all have liked to increase our powers in codecision - and despite the disputes between large countries , between large and small countries and between small and medium-sized countries - it is obvious that the following , although not spectacular , are all steps in the right direction , as President Prodi said this morning : a Commission whose president has his powers increased ; a decision-making process in which more decisions - not all those that we would have wished - are taken by qualified majority ; a clarification of the role of enhanced cooperation ; and also - why not come out with it ? - a reweighting , imperfect though it may be , of the votes in the Council of Ministers .
In this context , as Parliament will know , at the last summit between the European Union and Russia , Romano Prodi launched a far-reaching dialogue on energy .
That makes the decision , or non-decision , of Nice rather disappointing : the complexity of the majority-voting system makes things difficult enough for the current round of enlargement , but they will become much more difficult when it comes to enlargement towards south-eastern Europe .
On the economic front , the market must throw off the shackles of far-reaching state interference and attract new investment .
Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , I voted against the Theato report in committee and also in my group , the Radical Group , and I will vote against it tomorrow because of the Manicheism and inward-looking attitude characterising both this report and the activities of the Committee on Budgetary Control in general or , at any rate , some of its members .
Now - for some strange reason - the former UCLAF officials are no longer in favour and we have to banish them and give an OLAF director the power to decide the life or death of these hard-working officials ; upon the decree of the Committee on Budgetary Control , these officials have to leave OLAF , being originally from UCLAF and UCLAF was all that is wonderful for some people , to the extent that we forced the Commission to resign .
That is the principle on which perhaps we will divide tomorrow : what should be the over-riding concern of a law regulating takeovers .
Furthermore , it is essential for the Member States to have the possibility , in accordance with the overall objectives and in the framework of the directive , to adopt useful , further-reaching rules , such as for example the provision on the promotion of equal treatment of all shareholders that we have in our current Austrian take-over law , by ...
Madam President , Commissioner , what we have learned from the debate or , rather , the controversy created by Commissioner Bolkenstein in his quest to liberalise the postal services , undertaken in the absence of any assessment of the first phase and in contravention of the rules defined by this directive is that , under cover of progressive and status-enhancing terms such as modernisation , liberalisation and keeping pace with rapid technological developments , we are slipping into a situation in which the social quality of countries is declining .
As a Frenchwoman , I am only glad that I have no part in the dismantling of that reassuring and life-affirming network of 17 000 post offices and sub-post offices , knitted together over 550 000 km2 of our territory and embodying public service for our citizens , in both suburban and rural areas .
When the left-wing coalition cites realism in an attempt to obtain a compromise solution with a right-wing party , it is a way of disguising its own capitulation to private interests .
When the left-wing coalition cites realism in an attempt to obtain a compromise solution with a right-wing party , it is a way of disguising its own capitulation to private interests .
All we can now do is hope that , one day , we shall be able to move on from the present stasis and give real impetus to the European project by overcoming the various forms of self-aggrandising corporatism .
I trust that , with the passing of time , the system of distribution known as the ' regatta ' system , in other words , ' first come , first served ' , may be accepted by the banana-producing countries .
A European Public Prosecutor established according to Corpus Juris would have wide-ranging powers to carry out investigations in Member States .
That would be a very important step , because there is a real prospect of finding a genuine solution to this long-standing problem in the very near future .
Mr President , I would like to warmly welcome the report on aviation fuel tax because it addresses head-on the fact that aviation is the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions and that far from discouraging these emissions , the current exemption of aviation from a fuel tax actually promotes and artificially stimulates the aviation sector and the environmental damage that goes with it .
I would like to emphasise that , apart from the difference in insight to which I referred a moment ago , there is far-reaching agreement between Parliament ' s and the Council ' s approaches and in particular , about registration , threshold amounts and reallocation of revenue , and that in further talks in the Council , the points which Parliament has brought forward will be taken into consideration .
Subject : Anti-dumping duty on import of coke of coal in pieces European foundries and the insulation industry are using coke over 80 mm in diameter and are employing more than 100 000 people within the Community , while Community producers of coke employ no more than 800 people .
As a result of the investigations , it was concluded that there is no doubt about the dumping and the damage it causes and that the effect of the anti-dumping measures on the user industries would be limited .
Coke-using industry employs a total of 70 000 people , but this product represents only a very marginal portion of its costs , in the region of 2 % .
It has also been established that the coke-using industry was able to pass on a moderate increase in its prices to its clients .
There are therefore unlikely to be harmful effects on employment and competition in the coke-using industry .
The increase in prices which would result from the anti-dumping measures should enable the coke industry to become profitable again .
In the light of all the arguments presented , it has therefore been concluded that imposing anti-dumping measures was in the general and overall interests of the European Union .
I believe it is important to emphasise that here we are looking at a coke industry that has only 800 employees , but that we have a user industry with over 6 000 employees that would be adversely affected in purely competitive terms by such an anti-dumping duty .
Can you comment on the analysis given by some NGOs that the least-developed countries , without capacity-building measures , without a change in the sugar price , given the fact that they are net sugar importers , may not be able to exploit what we are offering ?
As from 2001 it is the Commission 's intention to finance actions against sex tourism by implementing the on-going programmes against child sex tourism .
Mr President , I would like to thank the Commissioner for the rather hope-inspiring reply that it would be possible to use Interreg funds .
Owing to the fast-changing nature of this sector , the EU needs to take immediate and concrete measures since the new communication technologies are already generating demand for content , products and services as well as having considerable social impact .
In this connection it is worthwhile to notice that as part of the administrative reform , the Commission has recently adopted a communication on the simplification of its decision-making procedures .
Now that traffic noise , especially , is ever increasing , far-reaching measures have become inevitable .
Now that it has transpired in the Committee on the Environment , Public Health and Consumer Policy that our more far-reaching wishes cannot count on the support of the two major groups , I hope that at least the rapporteur ' s moderate proposals will secure a majority .
The Commission recognises the importance of promoting good governance and transparency in its decision-making process .
Essentially , use of the precautionary principle can be seen as a risk management strategy in the face of scientific uncertainty or a tool to allow the involvement of the public decision-making authority in managing scientific uncertainty .
Instead of what is suggested by the words " of producers and artists , especially from the non profit-making sector " , my primary intention was that we should include in this circle representatives of content providers .
As a result , their governments can continue to reassure a critical population of their on-going independence , although that is less and less the case .
She said to me : " Yes , vote for the motion " - and I followed her advice - " but you must call upon the European Parliament to start to be resolute in presenting the proposal that Parliament should have exclusive decision-making powers where certain subjects are concerned .
They may have succeeded in this , at least for the moment , but at the cost of serious problems , such as greater supranationality , less democracy and greater German influence in the decision-making process .
These are firstly the advance of supranationality to the detriment of national democracies and secondly the advance of German positions in the supranational decision-making process .
At the same time , the discrepancy between the number of German Members of the European Parliament and those from other countries such as France is increasing even further , which will have certain consequences in the context of the decision-making powers acquired by the European Parliament .
There is thus a real risk that it will become more difficult to implement essential legislation on the environment , consumer protection and the working environment , and we strongly recommend the states to demonstrate responsibility and to make the decision-making procedures in the Council more efficient .
In fact , neither the adoption of a Charter of Fundamental Rights on the cheap , nor the extension of qualified majority voting in areas of lesser importance , nor the on-going liberalisation of public services , nor the increasingly widespread use of enhanced cooperation in the field of defence will persuade the European public that Europe is heading in the right direction .
We cannot , however , ignore the fact that the solutions found for the complex decision-making system in the Council and the corresponding vote weighting increase the gap between the more and the less highly populated states , which is something we regard as less positive because of our concept of a Europe of sovereign nations .
Major assets , such as the experience gathered in the course of energy-saving schemes for small- and medium-sized businesses , will be cast aside .
At the same time , pressure on Korea must be stepped up , and we must involve the OECD if necessary , by taking anti-dumping measures .
On the one hand we have a government with no connections to the armed forces and with a card-carrying member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament as Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office , using the armed forces as a political tool to further its ambitions in Europe and apparently realising rather too late that the European Union defence scheme would indeed damage the NATO alliance and transatlantic relations .
The very existence of the oldest human rights league in Africa and the Arab-speaking world , the Tunisian League , is under threat , despite being recognised by President Ben Ali .
We particularly supported the involvement of the elderly in various forms of voluntary work , without overlooking the need for social security in these areas , and we believe that the European institutions and the Member States should not miss the opportunity of conducting a broad information and awareness-raising campaign directed both at the government agencies responsible for applying social policy and society as a whole , because the citizens themselves must realise that a society needs intergenerational solidarity .
With new technology and distance-learning possibilities open to older people , real , new opportunities offer themselves to them and they should be allowed to take advantage of this .
The proposal to make pension systems dependent upon demographic change in order to create a self-sustaining system is linked to a high level of employment among the elderly .
This is a miscalculation , considering the current and future demographic situation , and also considering the fact that today ' s working population will be tomorrow ' s non-working population , in economic terms .
Mr President , as the chairperson of the European Parliament Intergroup on Wine : Tradition and Quality , I am obviously especially pleased that information provision and promotional activities in favour of agricultural products may also now apply to quality wine-growing products .
However , doubtless the opinion-forming and decision-making process in the European Council offers the best bet for accelerating the procedures between the European institutions .
As part of this on-going determination by the Commission to simplify legislation , I would like to see much greater cooperation between Member States and the Commission about the whole life of legislation and , particularly , involvement with the people who have prime responsibility for enforcing the legislation , who are often local and regional actors .
The transition to the knowledge-based society , the globalisation of the economy , social , democratic and environmental change , together with far-reaching changes in the world of work , due not least to the new technologies : these are the big challenges we face in the third millennium , and they also require renewed efforts in the educational field .
This simplifies neither the decision-making process nor the selection procedures .
They are cultural treasures , and bear witness to epoch-making changes and unique occurrences in nature .
We do not find the report ' s critical attitude to the aid given to the major cereal-producing regions to be satisfactory either , even though the report does , admittedly , pay special attention to the smaller cereal-producers within the European Union .
Quite frankly , we were rather perplexed at the evaluations it contains regarding the agricultural sector , for , if the data and figures are to be interpreted so harshly for a sector which is undergoing such great , all-encompassing change as the world of agriculture is due to the common agricultural policy , we are concerned about the decisions to be adopted .
Parliament has expressed its profound concern at the often slow-moving materialisation of the PEACE programme in Northern Ireland and has called for a transparent budget .
I hope that all colleagues who continue to ruin their health by smoking , will find themselves comfortably installed outside the Chamber and will stop smoking in the non-smoking zones .
I welcome the fact that there is now going to be a smoking rather than a non-smoking zone .
I hope now that all Members and all members of staff observe the no-smoking areas across the whole of the European Parliament building .
So I plead with everybody , now there is a smoking area , to use it and not the no-smoking areas , including the corridors and going up to the lift .
I was just wondering whether anybody is going to inform the particles of smoke where the smoking zone and the no-smoking zones are .
As the rapporteur highlighted , there is an imbalance between European countries and the rest of the world with regard to recognised natural and cultural sites , and therefore third countries must be supported and encouraged , in a wide-ranging approach , to add to the list of natural and cultural heritage , so that they can be afforded protection .
Only in that way will long-lasting solutions be obtained .
This is a very far-reaching problem , but one of great importance to many people .
These amendments are not intended for additional or more far-reaching measures , but should help improve the workability of the current rules .
If , for example , you receive repeated complaints , instead of dealing with them through time-consuming correspondence , you should take a persistent and decisive stand and make sure the legislation really is implemented .
The fact that the Member States have been granted far-reaching powers to designate nature reserves , species to be protected , and certainly as far as the nitrates directive is concerned , the sensitive areas .
But this cannot apply in other far-reaching directives of a broader scope , such as the habitats directive .
This effect is significantly magnified by quota systems and by production-limiting schemes .
Now that the rural development programme is in place it is important to examine how this programme can be used to strengthen training and re-training facilities in our agricultural colleges .
Despite the fact that , apparently , the Commission will have to be notified of such measures , there is a great deal of concern among farmers , and also amongst those in the meat-processing industry , and certainly among our local butcher shops , who , at the end of the day , will have to take the first blow .
In the conclusions to its communication the Commission lists among its priorities : better coherence between the various objectives pursued by the CFP , such as conservation of resources , the economic efficiency of the fleet and securing employment in fisheries - dependent areas , taking account of the economic dimension of fisheries management , better integration of environmental and fisheries policy , improvement of management tools such as multi-annual management objectives and strategies , management of fishing effort , and full integration of the Mediterranean into the Community management regime , a more accountable decision-making process and maintaining the external dimension of the common fisheries policy .
Mr President , Commissioner , I trust that we have not bitten off more than we can chew this late in the day because this first fisheries debate of 2001 really is a far-reaching debate .
The CFP is in need of very far-reaching changes that will provide solutions for a fishing industry which , unlike the rules which govern it and even despite them , has managed to survive and has done everything it can to evolve and continue to provide coastal regions with wealth and jobs .
What is needed , therefore , is a thorough review of the common fisheries policy , involving fishermen and other interested parties in the decision-making process , to ensure that their experience and knowledge can contribute to the creation of a more workable and realistic system .
Now we must work to ensure that a common policy is genuinely achieved in this typical sector , but in order to do so we must respond to those who are complaining - namely the operators - that there is insufficient participation or backing for the choices made , therefore that there is no cooperation in the decision-making process .
Meanwhile , the Commission Presidency is trying to settle a very long-standing problem at the last minute .
There are big problems to discuss with the Government of Bangladesh , notably its inefficiency : it performs as badly as the Commission , so the two of them have a lot to talk about , but we know that and we are clear about it saying " our delivery problems are clear and well-known , but please do not add to them by also being slow and unclear in your decision-taking process " .
I know from them and from my visit that Bangladesh is a country of proud , hard-working people and a country with great prospects , but one which does need assistance from the more wealthy and developed parts of the world like the European Union .
We have the knowledge and experience , for example in the Netherlands , to help improve low-lying land and land susceptible to flooding .
Madam President , ladies and gentlemen , Members of the Commission , the information concerning health risks posed by depleted uranium to the population and to staff in peace-making missions in the Balkans , as well as its possible environmental consequences , has caused great concern in Europe .
The issue of possible health risks to those soldiers who take part in peace-making efforts in the Balkans is mainly a responsibility for NATO and participating States .
Madam President , ladies and gentlemen , the crucial issue we are confronted with is to establish clearly whether there is a link between the use of these weapons and the illnesses notified by the troops or by those who served in peace-keeping operations in the Balkans , or whether , on the contrary , the incidence of these illnesses is no different from that usually recorded amongst our troops .
Such openness and transparency must be common to all : they must permeate all the Member States of the European Union , relationships between the Member States of the Union and NATO , and those between NATO and other allies involved in peace-keeping operations in the Balkans .
Young men and women must be able to report for peace-keeping and peace-making service in the confident assurance that everything is being done in the interests of their safety .
Mr President , we have a responsibility towards two parties : on the one hand , the young people who took part - commendably - in the military operations in Bosnia and Kosovo and , of course , their families , and , on the other , the beneficiaries of those peace-keeping missions , the Balkan peoples .
Particular efforts have been made to avoid introducing or maintaining superfluous structures which delay the decision-making process .
Who knows whether more far-reaching coordination and guidance will be possible in the time to come .
A fact-finding expert mission will be sent shortly to assess needs and identify areas in which pilot technical assistance projects could be pursued .
This concept , for some sort of European gendarmerie , has far-reaching implications and no place in the Commission proposal under discussion .
This example has already been proven in certain areas by voluntary agreements in Irish waters and by maintenance of these non-fishing areas - so-called set-aside areas , to give the analogy with the common agricultural policy - for a certain period of time .
Real left-wing politics must give top priority to employment even in matters of economic policy , instead of to the dogmatic monetarism which currently dominates the EU and economic and monetary union .
However , the fact that EU leaders were able to agree a reform of the decision-making procedures within the EU institutions at Nice before Christmas is certainly a step in the right direction .
Applicant countries can now take solace from the fact that the EU has reformed its internal decision-making procedures so that the mechanics of the enlargement process can take place in a streamlined and structured manner .
The Treaty of Nice has been called an enlargement treaty , but it is a non-binding declaration which specifies the seats and weighting of votes in Parliament , while the binding enlargement protocol of the Treaty of Amsterdam is to disappear .
During a first stage , parallel to the discussion begun under the Swedish Presidency , at the invitation of the European Council and in fact as early as possible there should be a discussion and opinion-forming process at the level of the national parliaments , which would then , just like the European Parliament , have to submit a proposal by , say , Spring 2002 on this distribution of powers .
I trust that Sweden will also actively pursue the goal of a more open decision-making process .
Non-profit-making organisations - churches , religious orders , asylum organisations and private networks which support asylum seekers - are threatened with penalties .
This would be in direct contradiction with the signing of OSPAR , under the terms of which all parties are called upon to defend the non-processing option .
However , this does not mean that we should disregard the drink-driving issue , and I would therefore not be against slightly higher common blood alcohol limits , even though Italy might lose out slightly .
Many measures have already been taken to combat drink driving , including many awareness-raising measures .
In the first stage we will have to implement the final priority measures established within the framework of the road safety programme , which is currently under way and , in particular , propose that the obligation to install speed-limiting devices be applicable to a greater number of lorries , specifically by lowering the tonnage above which such a measure is required .
Because the framework conditions are so complex and because the development of intermodal transport is still far from being a self-sustaining process , we need a great number of successful pilot projects .
Balanced participation of women and men in the decision-making process 
The next item is the report ( A5  0373 / 2000 ) by Mrs Karamanou , on behalf of the Committee on Women ' s Rights and Equal Opportunities , on a report from the Commission to the Council , the European Parliament and the Economic and Social Committee on the implementation of Council Recommendation 96 / 694 of 2 December 1996 on the balanced participation of women and men in the decision-making process [ COM ( 2000 ) 120 - C5-0210 / 2000 - 2000 / 2117 ( COS ) ] .
The need for women to be promoted in the decision-making process and for a balanced participation of women and men in the democratic institutions , reflecting the balance of the sexes in nature , is a sine qua non of democracy and peace and of the cohesion and competitiveness of the European Union .
In response to this need and on the basis of documented proposals by the European network of experts which made up the Commission in 1992 , the Council adopted an important recommendation to the Member States on the balanced participation of men and women in the decision-making process in December 1996 .
Now that women are fully involved in the production process and outnumber men at European universities , there is no excuse to exclude them from policy- and decision-making processes , nor is it right that women should bear the burden of family obligations and home-making alone .
What is certain is that , once there is a critical mass of women in the decision-making process , priority issues relating to the quality of life , such as environmental protection , social policy and welfare , medical care , education , the fight against drugs and trafficking in human beings and the peaceful resolution of conflicts will emerge on the political agenda .
On behalf of the Group of the European People 's Party ( Christian Democrats ) and European Democrats , I would like to congratulate Mrs Karamanou on her report , which includes many important sections , such as the demand for the role of women to be enhanced or for action to be taken to counter women 's inadequate representation in management and decision-making bodies within companies and also , I have to say , in trade unions .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , the policy of the Group of the Party of European Socialists is for every female citizen of the EU to have access to decision-making processes at local , regional , national and European level .
We have now been able to increase the proportion of women in the European Parliament to 30 % , and it is , incidentally , markedly higher in the left-wing groups than in the Conservative and more right-wing groups .
We have now been able to increase the proportion of women in the European Parliament to 30 % , and it is , incidentally , markedly higher in the left-wing groups than in the Conservative and more right-wing groups .
' A social system based on hierarchical relations between men , structured so that the decision-making processes are controlled from the top down and so that women as a sex are placed in a subordinate position .
By equal opportunities I do not mean levelling down , I mean equal opportunities for equally qualified women to join and progress in the decision-making process and in professional life , for example by eliminating differences in salaries between men and women doing equivalent work .
We know from the statistics that in nearly all countries at least half the electorate is made up of women , yet the number of women in decision-making positions in companies and in public bodies is remarkably low .
Mr President , Commissioner , this report deals with the balanced participation of men and women in the decision-making process by analysing the different situations and the lack of participation of women .
Nowhere is the rift between de jure and de facto equality greater than within the decision-making process .
I propose that the EU ' s objectives regarding women in the decision-making process be based on the average of the three most successful Member States within each field , with annual reports from the Member States .
The equal participation of women in decision-making processes is not only a matter of demanding social justice and democracy , but is also essential if women ' s experience and knowledge is to be made the most of .
Failure to utilise women ' s decision-making abilities is an unacceptable waste .
We need more women in decision-making positions , but - and this is where I agree with Mrs Theorin - not because they are women but because it is unacceptable for so much skill and experience to go to waste .
Parity democracy , which we have been talking about for many years , is an instrument which is intended , through balanced representation , to put an end to the model of structural power which has kept women out of the decision-making process .
The reality of the situation shows that , despite various recommendations and resolutions , this is an area in which major imbalances still remain , with a huge under-representation of women in decision-making bodies , both in economic and social spheres of activity and in politics , and this contributes to maintaining existing imbalances and discriminations .
We must also encourage new anti-discriminatory practices , and that includes within political parties and public and private administrations too , with the aim of eliminating the psychological and practical obstacles to the participation of women in decision-making structures and in political life , thereby preventing retrograde action such as the recent case in Portugal , where the government abolished the Ministry for Equality .
Mr President , Madam Commissioner , I am in favour of a much more balanced participation of women and men in the decision-making process than is currently the case .
But , unlike our rapporteur , I am not conceited enough to claim that everything would be different and better if women participated equally in the decision-making process .
It must , of course , be said that , despite the good policies of equal treatment and equal opportunities which have been developed since 1975 by the Community and , above all , despite the well-intentioned recommendation of the Council in 1996 on the balanced participation of women and men in the decision-making process , progress towards these objectives is slow .
The reason why I voted against this draft resolution on the Commission report in the Committee on Women ' s Rights and Equal Opportunities was because it makes a number of exaggerated claims and demands , which are counter-productive for women who want to participate fully in the decision-making process .
There is a marked imbalance in the involvement of men and women in the decision-making process , and there are alarming differences between individual Member States .
The title of the report : " The balanced participation of women and men in the decision-making process " has a dual meaning .
The decision-making process takes place in the centres of power ; but it also means balanced participation in the most important decision-making process for the future , which takes place in the family .
The decision-making process takes place in the centres of power ; but it also means balanced participation in the most important decision-making process for the future , which takes place in the family .
So it refers to both sexes and the numbers of women in decision-making centres cannot be increased unless the proportion of time which men spend on family matters is also increased .
The second type of policy concerns specific measures and specific positive action to support the policy of participation in the decision-making process .
Nevertheless , production controls ensure that many farmers cannot increase their income from farming and , therefore , alternative income-generating opportunities from off-farm activities are vital if rural populations are to benefit from economic growth .
Forest-based industries use renewable raw material and the most up-to-date recycling and energy-saving methods , so its contribution may well be especially important for sustainable development .
So any attempt to make out that my group , because a majority of its Members voted against the Karamanou report , is in some way opposed to balanced participation of men and women in the decision-making process , any such attempt is certainly doomed to failure .
We of course voted against the right-wing amendment which apparently viewed the report ' s proposal that the proportion of women , or of men , in elected bodies should be at least 40 % as excessive .
We voted in favour of this disputed clause in the Karamanou report even though we are convinced that quotas are no solution , far from it , to the inequalities which women suffer both in decision-making positions and , much more , in society in general .
The Communist Party of Greece sees the problem of the lack of participation by women in the decision-making process not simply as a problem of democracy ; it is a sign of social inequality and exploitation of the classes , which is why it mainly affects working class women .
We shall not oppose administrative measures to improve the participation of women in the decision-making process , provided that they are accompanied by the corresponding grass-roots policy and can therefore effectively remove barriers to the participation of women .
I have just spoken to the office responsible for humanitarian aid in Nicaragua and I would like to communicate to this House , and to the Commissioner , the great concern of all those self-sacrificing people who , today , are working on emergency aid , and who , tomorrow , will be involved in cooperation work , and the concern of the Spanish and international media about the fact that we have yet to send the promised economic aid following hurricane Mitch , when we are now facing the next tragic event .
Mr President , I really must say that I am quite amazed at how one can manage , in a debate about an earthquake in El Salvador , to say that one was a reserve officer in the German army and a " positive " member of the generation of 68 and to talk about stone-throwing members of the 68 Movement .
The first issue I shall raise is that of a global environment undergoing rapid and far-reaching change , which affects each of our countries and hence also the European Union as a whole : the issue of globalisation and the context of new activities based on intelligence and knowledge , the new economy , the information society , and the issue of demographic structure .
A new policy of trilateral trade , safeguarding typical productions , including European productions , condemning and preventing counterfeiting and fraud , food and environmental safety , the development of craft products and the establishment of programmes to fight desertification and facilitate the conversion of non-drinking water into drinking water and the development of tourism are some of the many points which we have discussed .
Then perhaps we might be able to shape the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Forum on the model of the ACP-EU Joint Assembly , which meets twice yearly and can set up working parties and initiate fact-finding missions .
In the face of the Palestinian , Arab or Middle Eastern citizens , who die every day , assassinated by their Saudi or fundamentalist right- or left-wing regimes , assassinated by the firm , historic alliance of Sheikhs and Middle Eastern rulers , who are allied with the great oil multinationals and with you , the more or less communist left ; in the face of the situation of the Kurds , which is not just a Turkish problem but also an Iraqi problem and the problem of others as well ; in the face of the everyday lives of the Saudi and Palestinian men and women , you are only concerned with them if Israel is involved , and it may have done them some serious damage .
If anything , the right to national and personal independence is not to have 60 % of your money spent on the armies of the local dictator , on consolidating corruption and class , bureaucratic , military and extreme right-wing control of men and women everywhere !
This is a hellish and never-ending rise and fall - and it is also a bit like the legend of Sisyphus - which threatens to sap the strength and even the hope of almost everyone .
It might be useful to recall that just a few days after his election victory - which incidentally was the greatest and most significant victory by a Colombian President in recent years - President Pastrana met with the top leadership of the FARC , the largest and most long-standing guerrilla group in the Americas .
Mr Salafranca condemns abuses by left-wing and right-wing groups .
Well then , I would like to take the opportunity afforded by this debate to condemn another incident : since 15 September 2000 , three Italian citizens , engineers employed by a company which makes sweet-making machines , have been in the hands of the National Liberation Army .
I believe there are some very important steps , namely the specific steps it contains , but also the forward-looking stance that goes with them .
Far-reaching changes will not be achieved over night .
Certain Member States have already implemented more far-reaching liberalisation measures , with very mixed results .
Stretches of track have been shut down en masse at regional level , there have been railway station closures , ever-increasing cycle times , repair workshop closures , and drastic cuts in staffing levels .
Nevertheless , the ever-increasing challenges faced by European companies call for a more clearly defined legal framework and for a single budget line .
The energy-saving potential of this equipment cannot be underestimated , and by introducing such a label the European Union will be providing the impetus needed to encourage people to use energy more sparingly .
For example , the aim for household appliances should be that all power-consuming circuits should be switched off .
I wish to emphasise that it would perhaps be more productive , at the appropriate time , to call for a more categorical and complete arrangement , either using the working method or the institutional framework method of the ' third pillar ' , according to the Community method , which would thus ensure greater control by the Court of Justice , as well as decision-making processes that involve greater participation by the European Parliament itself .
At a time when the Union has proclaimed the Charter of Fundamental Rights , it is our duty to seek to act in such a way that the progress made in the field of judicial cooperation , the mutual recognition of judgments , the coordination of crime-fighting activities by the police and the courts and the simplification of extradition procedures accord with the principles that we advocate and that they are not achieved at the expense of the rights of individuals .
I know that many of these very far-reaching decisions are needed because past mistakes are still catching up with us .
Although differences exist between Member States , it is surprising that , over time , the logistical resources for analysing and eliminating meat meal or risk-containing material have not been found .
The evidence is overwhelming : an average 27 % drop in consumption and an ever-increasing number of export embargoes .
We might consider a temporary levy on meat , as a result of which we would at least be able effectively to cover the cost of far-reaching measures this year .
This assembly is well aware that the current ban on use of hormones for growth promotion was challenged at the World Trade Organisation and that the final ruling in 1998 criticised the risk assessment on hormones used in food-producing animals presented by the European Community .
We take it for granted ; but we may equally take something else for granted , something that has been receiving less attention , namely the fact that the book-publishing chain will change out of all recognition , with publishers and bookstores assuming a more central role , because electronic publishing will completely transform the distribution system .
The e-learning initiative , which I launched in May of last year , relates to the infrastructure of the education system , because any future action in that field depends on a sound educational infrastructure .
The services of the Commission have prepared a detailed programme for the implementation of the e-learning initiative .
We need to ensure that the e-publishing agenda is fully taken on board and that this important field can be developed in a meaningful manner alongside the traditional form of publishing , and that there is room for both .
I have already touched on the issue of regulating working hours , and I will not go into the incredible cost-cutting tactics adopted - even on the roads - by means of artificial self-employed status in the road haulage industry , nor into the " Willi Betz syndrome " and associated regulations , which have also been mentioned several times , nor into issues relating to tariff classification , also including , of course , the issue of external costs .
It takes more to shape Europe than a few high-flying speeches by Foreign Ministers ; it means working day in day out on Europe as our project for the future .
This means talking about everything , in other words , putting forward a very wide-ranging proposal .
Here today , too , it has been said many times over that the public must be included in the decision-making process , although , unfortunately , this very often gets forgotten in practice .
The democratic decision-making procedure needs to be strengthened , I agree with you there .
Is civil society the guardian , so to speak , of parliamentary debate and the decision-making process ?
Self-regulation is sometimes euphemistically referred to as a " cooperative decision-making model " .
Of course , we must ensure that this decision-making process is transparent and public and not , as is the case at present , opaque and private - that applies in particular to the Commission and lobby groups .
For the rest , we need to consider , now that nearly all the Heads of Government have said that the decision-making structures decided at Nice are poor structures , what we can do to put things right , perhaps even before the post-Nice process starts - for example in connection with enlargement agreements , which always clarified this in the past .
Likewise , simplifying the Treaties would serve the public interest , but this must not be the pretext for introducing a fully-fledged European constitution , especially if the latter were the founding document of a federal state whose preamble was a legally-binding charter of rights .
This body will have to make proposals which do not necessarily require unanimity because there will come a time when we will have to make such far-reaching proposals that it will be difficult to achieve unanimity .
Of course , I agree with the objections I have heard - that it cannot be a very large body - and , given that there are four administrative structures to be represented , it will therefore be difficult to keep the numbers involved in this institutional structure , this decision-making body down .
Mr President , Commissioner , the cases of industrial restructuring which are most traumatic , because they are unforeseeable , are those dictated by aggressive , acquisitions-seeking behaviour in the market .
We must , in a very fast-moving world , take responsibility for our work but be prepared to modify it in accordance with what is going on in an entirely new world .
Consideration of the ethical issues surrounding human genetics demonstrates that biotechnology can have far-reaching consequences .
Mr President , the Commission 's attention was given to the use of depleted uranium in armour-piercing shells as long ago as 1993 .
The movement of uranium away from the test-firing location by tides and currents could not , therefore , be distinguished from natural background concentrations .
We need tax incentives to facilitate the sale and use of less-polluting vehicles that are easy to use , improve traffic and are more integrated into our cities .
In my opinion , these should certainly include - as Commissioner Diamantopoulou said in her first speech - the new activity of caring for the ever-increasing number of elderly and disabled people carried out by young workers who are able to find work in this field and , at the same time , make life easier for the elderly .
I have already tabled this amendment in committee , Mr President , but I am afraid that the left-wing section of Parliament , the socialists that is , rejected it .
The regulation is a confidence-building measure .
The business community is already complaining of fact-finding overload .
I hope that the Commissioner will shortly explain in clear and specific terms to what extent , and in what kind of timeframe , the far-reaching proposals from the motion for a resolution can be put into practice .
Has this belt-tightening policy been abolished on the basis of the Lisbon decisions ?
I naturally hope that , at the Stockholm European Council , the Swedish Government will highlight and prioritise the left-wing model which stresses the importance of full employment and a socially responsible development policy and rejects the trend towards liberalisation , deregulation , flexibility , etc .
It is especially important that the success of young up-and-coming musicians and performers is not jeopardised by piracy .
My group has said it is in favour of implementing the White Paper on food safety in a more forward-looking way , not only to avert distorting the market , but also to implement the overall concept of the White Paper more ruthlessly .
Measures focus chiefly on the development , programming , monitoring , follow-up and assessment of the European Employment Strategy , with a forward-looking emphasis .
The countless political prisoners , the ban on organisations , the press censorship , the army ' s internal war against the Kurdish-speaking population , the denial of the mass murder of the Armenians and the Turks ' persistent refusal to completely abolish the death penalty , show that Turkey is still a very different sort of country at present than a large majority of people in the current Member States would think desirable .
The European Investment Bank is a non-profit-making body because that is what the Member States ' governments decided , since its mission was not to obtain economic benefits but rather to contribute to the balanced development of the European Community through granting medium and long-term credits and guarantees for investment projects in the poorest regions , thus fostering economic and social cohesion .
What is required is not to touch them up to make them look better in one way or another but to make far-reaching change to the policy in this field .
Thanks to a forward-looking policy which included opening up markets , Swedish industry in both the old and the new economies shows significant success .
In actual fact , technological developments make it possible to view universal service in an offensive and proactive manner rather than in a defensive backward-looking fashion , as a limited set of often mediocre public services , which people carefully avoid using , unless really driven to it .
In the report under discussion there are enough generic references to the United States model and phrases that have become the canon of right-wing economics that they cannot be accepted uncritically by those of us who try to keep a balance between broad economic objectives and building fairer societies .
On the one hand we have right-wing liberals maintaining that the EU is only necessary for deregulating and opening the markets , creating free trade , etc , while the battle against unemployment and the development of social welfare are exclusively national issues .
But our motion for a resolution , which we tabled together with the other left-wing groups of this House , contains a clear and , I think , urgent request for the Council to lay the directives , the regulation and the revision of the regulation on the table by the end of the year .
They are using groundless arguments , such as longer life expectancy and the allegedly excessive cost of labour , in order to introduce measures such as increasing the retirement age , reducing employers ' contributions and replacing insurance funds by private , profit-making companies .
Sweden will take part both in humanitarian and civilian measures as well as in peace-promoting and peace-keeping operations .
Internally within the Council , the various bodies that prepare the considerations have a duty to use the various steps of the traditional decision-making process to ensure good coordination in order , as best as possible , to meet the challenge set by the European Council .
Mr President-in-Office , thank you for that very wide-ranging answer .
Unfortunately , one of the problems of wide-ranging answers and short times is that you get breadth but you do not get depth , and I would like to ask for a bit more detail .
The benefit of this action on the ground was to guarantee lasting respect for fundamental rights , amongst other things , and this was a serene and heartfelt fight without the histrionics that characterised the fight for which the Sakharov prize-winners were rewarded , and yet it was carried out with similar efficiency and with equally far-reaching effects .
As for my second reason , Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , my speech is intended to mark an important point in the debate on this report , because in addition to being a long-standing member of this House , the rapporteur is a former President of one of the Member States of the European Union with a history that honours us all , not only the members of his party or his compatriots , but all Europeans .
It is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world .
We must address these challenges as one wide-ranging issue .
These criteria draw on the replies we received in a wide-ranging opinion poll of all those involved in research , which we ran on the Internet throughout the year 2000 .
For the perpetrators of this infamy , it is not just a matter of terminology , as the police force of the Socialist Prime Minister , Mr Jospin , has just forcibly expelled illegal immigrants that had take refuge in the Parisian church of Saint Bernard in precisely the same way that his right-wing predecessor , Juppé , had people deported from the same place four years previously .
This very month he will present an all-embracing plan of action for the reconstruction of Chechnya .
I believe it was the wrong judgment in the context of such an important precedent-setting example .
It has been a difficult year and I am aware that some sections of our staff are concerned at these rapid , far-reaching changes , which have come on top of an already heavy daily work schedule .
Because we cannot be content to copy or imitate blindly any of the national administrations : either we succeed in the ground-breaking experiment of combining the different traditions and cultures to create a single tradition and a single culture , or we will have failed in our task .
In the medium term , my group is certainly in favour of far-reaching reform of the common agricultural policy , a reform that would put an end to spending all the budget on illegitimate funding of agribusiness which centres on high productivity and is dangerous to human health and to the environment .
Thirdly , what has been said demonstrates the need for the European Parliament to gain real decision-making power on all agricultural expenditure , including expenditure that falls under subcategory 1-A .
For all these reasons , far-reaching measures will be required which will have to be effective in the very long term and on several different levels if it is going to be possible to restore confidence .
This would only complicate and slow down the decision-making process .
Finally , as part of the sixth Framework Programme we should use a significant part of our financial resources to solve questions such as the new internet protocol 6 ( IP 6 ) , e-banking standards , etc .
There must be further wide-ranging discussion with regard to the position of virtual operators .
It also endeavours to place this action in a broader framework with wide-ranging scope , in line with what was laid down at the Helsinki European Council .
Thirdly , I think it is cynical of rich countries - including Germany - to encourage a brain drain from developing countries , thereby pulling the rug out from under a self-perpetuating upswing .
The Committee on Development and Cooperation has adopted a range of amendments on all three of these points , namely reproductive health , the involvement of developing countries as cooperation partners and the involvement of NGOs and civil society in the decision-making process .
Bearing in mind the fact that women , and especially women of child-bearing age , are the mainstay of development and the fight against poverty and the fact that reproductive health also includes the fight against HIV / AIDS , malaria and tuberculosis , it is significant that , in general , the Commission rarely refers to health , including women ' s reproductive health rights , other than in an aside .
It is of the very greatest importance that the EU should help combat these life-threatening diseases that are partly responsible for halting the development process .
I would also like to draw your attention to the Community decision-making procedure in this field .
As regards catches of small fish , the ever more popular practice of setting purse seines on FADs , rather than free-swimming schools of tuna , has led to high exploitation of juvenile tuna .
This is a modest agreement , both in terms of fishing opportunities and in terms of financial compensation - since 1994 it has been restricted to tuna-fishing ships - but it is no less important for that .
We should continue to insist on a comprehensive global and balanced agreement which aims at a deeper political and cooperation relationship as well as wide and far-reaching trade liberalisation .
It is becoming obvious to us all that , over the longer term , Europe ' s agricultural policy , which may have had the distinction of helping to develop our agricultural industry in the 1960s , is now having adverse effects - handouts , bureaucracy , price inflation and intensification , which poses a health risk - to such an extent that far-reaching reform is inevitable .
Secondly , we believe it would be misleading to suggest that the nuclear industry act in a self-regulating capacity , especially when it comes to safety .
The reason I am representing the Commission here today is not that the issue of the transportation of nuclear materials has been transferred to the stealthy and all-embracing range of activities of the Commissioner responsible for external trade .
As the second-largest exporter of agricultural products , and by far the largest exporter of processed food , the European Union , therefore , has a significant interest in a well-functioning system of global trade .
And are you considering more specific initiatives to enable developing countries to participate in the decision-making process , e.g. by covering their legal costs and taking other similar measures which could be arranged on a bilateral basis ?
That is , after all , what we did when the common organisation of the markets in other arable products was about to undergo far-reaching reform .
The system for producing sugar from sugar beet is a self-financing system .
There is a danger that the current unprecedented crises in the livestock sector - mainly BSE and foot-and-mouth - might be used to introduce far-reaching reforms to the common agricultural policy which would not otherwise have been contemplated .
This would seem to me to be inappropriate because exemptions can no longer be justified within a self-financing system .
I object strongly to the backing-winners approach of ' your money back ' if you have transported a winner in the asylum-seeking stakes .
The Council of Ministers must be tied down to deadlines when it takes decisions on the implementation of the temporary protection of displaced persons , and the European Parliament - this , too , is an old complaint , Mr President - must be more involved in the decision-making process .
And that transparent decision-making system is essential , for peer-group pressure has a role to play here : it must persuade everyone to agree to cooperate in the matter of reception , including the physical reception of beneficiaries of temporary protection .
It needs to be approached in a rational , generous and forward-looking way , as the rapporteurs have done .
We Members often forget or prefer to forget this fact , but , as we know , under the Treaty , we have no decision-making power or influence over the outcome of the legislative process .
Can there by any doubt that what we have here is an inhumane interplay of the interests of slave traders , immigrants , war-mongering imperialists and those who exploit immigrants in the so-called host countries who , basically , as modern-day slave-masters , encourage unemployment and illegal immigration in order to attack the interests and rights of local workers in the coarsest manner ?
I do not want to go into the issue of a European Union which widely funds a United Nations crime-fighting body .
This will benefit the sugar-using industry and consumers as well as enabling observers to evaluate the effects of limited competition on the EU sugar sector .
They are detrimental to the sugar-using industry and the consumer , and a degree of competition must be incrementally introduced in this sector .
In our opinion , it is wrong just to talk about reviews and subsequently delay the decision-making process , which will ultimately lead to a decline in social support for agriculture .
Whilst there is , of course , a strong case for genuine asylum seekers applying through the usual routes , the influx of illegal immigrants being smuggled into British ports , often by people-trafficking gangs , is alarming .
That means indeed that the OLAF Director will be given full autonomy and far-reaching powers to conduct investigations within all European institutions .
One of the highest-ranking officials within the Ministry of Agriculture , the Chair of the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund , was closely connected with flax processing companies .
As I understand it , the decision-making process in one Member State was described by the Committee on Budgetary Control as if responsibility had been shifted from national to regional level .
The Commission is working with OLAF on a Green Paper concerning the establishment of a European Public Prosecutor 's Office , because we do not intend to give that idea up and will now be seizing the opportunity for a more open and wide-ranging debate .
I believe that what we are debating is a far-reaching study .
A calf-processing premium was also offered for the early slaughter of calves , not only in the United Kingdom but also in France , Portugal and Ireland .
The calf-processing premium has been funded in full from the Community budget .
The Community action to tackle the first BSE crisis , however , also included full funding of public storage and an early-marketing premium for calves as well as additional direct aid amounting to EUR 1 309.9 million .
This direct aid - the early-marketing premium and the grants for public storage of more than 700 000 tonnes of meat - benefited all the Member States .
You know that the discussion process and the decision-making process on these issues have only just begun .
My personal view is that town-twinning arrangements can be an extremely useful instrument in this context , because they enable us to operate through existing contacts and avoid the need to establish these contacts from scratch .
I regard this entire law-making exercise as a failure .
Where the Member States are concerned , instead of getting bogged down with levy increases or the introduction of a CO2 levy , they should just focus on creating incentives for investments in energy efficiency , for example by reducing VAT rates on energy-saving appliances and services , or by reducing property tax for buildings which meet high energy-efficiency standards , and on granting special tax benefits for cogeneration , in particular .
This year , the Swedish and the Belgian Presidencies will work with Parliament and the Commission to encourage wide-ranging discussions with all parties concerned : representatives of national parliaments and of public opinion , schools and universities and representatives of civil society .
The final decision-making stage of this debate which , as you have said , Madam Minister , we hope will be as short as possible , will , of course , be the Intergovernmental Conference in 2004 .
What will the decision-making procedures of this body or this future convention be ?
More democracy , greater transparency , a greater ability to act and take decisions - all were left out of the Treaty , which is why the follow-up to Nice must tackle a programme of ambitious and truly far-reaching reform with a twofold purpose .
Only in this way will we be able to achieve , by 2004 , a decision-making body that is properly equipped to take the decisions of the future .
Within the Member States there are self-governing countries - called , in the parlance of this House , " regions " .
I should like to point out that , as Hungary and the Czech Republic will be using the enlargement agreements to deal with institutional matters , precisely because they have no voice in the European Parliament , the question of improved decision-making procedures in the Council should be taken into consideration during enlargement negotiations , meaning that enlargement negotiations also form part of the post-Nice process .
Furthermore , the decision-making process itself can be unclear , as the convention submits proposals and the Intergovernmental Conference has to reach decisions .
Therefore , I think it is important that this also be included as part of the on-going discussion .
Achieving this , as Baron Lamfalussy points out in his report , requires a more efficient decision-making process .
We therefore need a wider-ranging overview of pension systems and a discussion of the design of childcare and possibly also health care and care of the elderly .
I have picked this topic because it is particularly close to my heart and because it has huge scope ; because it has far-reaching implications for all our policies and because it will take us from Stockholm to Gothenburg , which means sustainable development ; and because it is an issue that will stay with us for many years to come .
In other words , a shrinking workforce will have to support a rapidly growing number of non-working people even in the enlarged European Union .
On the one hand , they were characterised by a clearly right-wing financial policy of deregulation and privatisation and , on the other hand , by a left-wing policy of full employment , which thus , for the first time , became an official goal for the EU .
There was talk of a social agenda , social cohesion , combating poverty , lifelong learning for all , etc . , in other words natural elements of left-wing policy .
I wondered how it was possible to unite - or balance , as Mrs Lindh said - right-wing and left-wing policy at the same time .
Right-wing policy is clearly dominant ahead of the Stockholm Summit .
When , in the past , the Swedish Government was heading the campaign for Sweden to join the EU , it said the goal was not only to retain the Swedish welfare state but also , together with other left-wing forces , to pursue a social welfare policy throughout Europe .
Right-wing policy is promoted in the EU , and the Swedish welfare policy is at risk .
This is taking place despite the fact that the economy is sound , despite a majority of left-wing governments in the Council and despite a left-wing majority in the Swedish Parliament .
This is taking place despite the fact that the economy is sound , despite a majority of left-wing governments in the Council and despite a left-wing majority in the Swedish Parliament .
What will happen if the economic situation deteriorates and the Council gains more right-wing governments ?
There is the ever-increasing scandal of food fraud , and mass distribution has an enormous responsibility for guaranteeing the distribution of food that is safe for consumers to eat and for preventing the systematic destruction of the whole of small and medium-sized distribution - which is an essential factor for local speciality products and preserving jobs .
On such a sensitive issue , one the citizens are particularly concerned about , we are simply consultants - well paid , of course , but without any decision-making power .
These crime-busting measures must be implemented from Blackburn to Barcelona .
Herman Schmid addressed the problem of there being a " right-wing policy " when we talk about economic goals and economic reforms .
First of all , therefore , I have to stress the on-going need for cooperation between NATO and the European Union .
As has been mentioned by Minister Lindh , soldiers today carry out peace-making Community activities .
I think it is urgent that we act , that we move more quickly , and that we restore the confidence of the Macedonian population and the Albanian-speaking population of Macedonia .
Ireland would be proud to play its part in a European Rapid Reaction Force with a humanitarian and peace-keeping role , but that and NATO must not be the only option .
Therefore I have to ask the Commissioner , how it is that the Commission 's policy planning and early-warning units , provided for in the Amsterdam Treaty , have 20 members of staff , 11 of whom are engaged in working in Balkans whereas only one is assigned to the world 's most conflict-prone region , Africa .
Are there plans to have a more balanced approach in the early-warning unit ?
It is followed by the demand for a geographical division between the communities within a single state and the formation of self-governing minorities , develops into inter-community clashes , a division into separate states and , finally , secession as a separate country .
One of the main points of the meeting will be to continue discussions on how we can work with the Russian Government on the on-going fight against organised crime , which can unfortunately be found in many parts of Russia and which constitutes a cause of many of the conflicts we see around Russia ' s borderlands .
However , we note the proposals and will naturally bear them in mind in our on-going deliberations .
It has been invaluable for the Council and the presidency to be able to discuss these issues with you on an on-going basis .
I wish to make a few comments on the Wise Men ' s proposal , but I shall start by thanking Baron Lamfalussy for his highly intelligent and far-reaching report on this subject and then take a position on the first part of this report , i.e. on the question of a fast-track procedure .
In this work , it is important that people receive on-going information in order to be able to assess connections and the whole picture .
Would it not agree that it will be useful to obtain from the national governments all the information required for a proper assessment to be made of the national appointments ( including any parliamentary initiatives taken in this connection ) , and to consult the European Parliament on a non-binding basis ?
So the Commission will firmly oppose any moves towards lowering the decision-making system from a qualified majority vote to a simple majority vote .
Competitiveness is judged by whether it makes full use of its wealth-creating resources in comparison with other economies .
That might also be the way to establish a coordinated presence of the monetary Union as such in institutional decision-making forums like the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank and , in addition , the relations of the eurozone with third countries , in particular with the producer countries of raw materials and energy sources .
With this common strategy , the European Union and its Member States have demonstrated their willingness to give the necessary technical and financial back-up , provided that the Ukrainian political leaders are willing , and have the courage , to take control of a process of far-reaching reform .
This on-going scandal is also affecting the European Union .
The prospect of European Union affiliation or membership is a great incentive for countries that have lived under communism for many generations to put their political and economic house in order and to resolve long-standing problems with neighbouring states .
TACIS customs and border-crossing programmes are aimed at improving both operational capacity and the efficiency of customs and border controls to curb criminal activities .
I do not think that it required all the subsequent authorship to which it has been subjected but he showed a good deal of long-suffering charity in his remarks , which is also not surprising .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , I am all in favour , as the report says , of democratising the whole decision-making process in connection with the management of the Internet .
The Commission failed to consult , through the joint EU-ACP trade committee laid down in Cotonou , in recent discussions on " Everything but Arms " , whilst the long-running problems over the banana regime remain unresolved .
So it is with great pleasure that I tell you that in my own country - the UK - this Friday , a biannual awareness and fund-raising extravaganza for Africa , called Comic Relief , will see otherwise serious citizens don red plastic noses to raise cash and a laugh in solidarity with Africa .
Secondly , the Joint Parliamentary Assembly has taken on a new role , but decision-making powers are not everything .
Another method would be to introduce cost-covering prices for water and to irrigate plants individually rather than submerging the fields and allowing between 90 % and 95 % of the precious water to evaporate .
However , whatever the case , it goes without saying that measures such as saving and re-using water are considered to be fundamental in the alternative plan put forward by our party the Partido Socialista .
Biotechnology offers major advances in the production of food in Europe to the advantage of farmers and consumers alike and benefits those parts of the world which struggle against drought and saline soils and fast-increasing populations .
On the other hand , there are dangers associated with new technology , which are worth bearing in mind as early on as possible in any decision-making policy of the EU .
To prevent the concentration of development , the EU must guarantee there are adequate public resources available for research , and support research and development in small biotechnological enterprises and plant-breeding institutes .
Lisbon set far-reaching goals for the next decade - to create the world 's leading knowledge-based economy by 2010 , to create 20 million new jobs across Europe by 2010 and to promote economic and social reform which combine competitiveness and social cohesion , investing in people and raising skill levels .
We must press for these life-saving drugs to be made available as cheaply as possible .
The social infrastructure must also be called upon : women ' s organisations , trade unions , schools ; we must involve these much more in the battle against life-threatening diseases .
Instead , it seems there is one standard in Europe for handling right-wing dictators and another for socialist tyrants and terrorists , such as Mugabe .
It is all right for a right-wing dictator like Pinochet to be arrested for human rights violations in Chile .
The idea is to identify weapons so that they can be monitored , to keep a register of weapons , to encourage all States to strengthen their controls and their domestic legislation on exporting and re-exporting weapons , to organise the prosecution and punishment of traffickers and , finally , to finance and push forward national weapons ' collection and destruction programmes .
The EU joint action on small arms and light weapons proposes the adoption of a series of confidence-building measures including measures to promote increased transparency and openness .
Self-perpetuating change in market institutions often traps the economy in an unproductive situation , creating monopolies and safeguarding the interests of the few at the expense of society as a whole .
That is why we are in favour of tightening up on the use of allergy-causing substances .
It really is not up to us to repeat industry 's panic-inducing arguments about jobs .
The aim was to get all interest groups involved in the decision-making process at an early stage , in order to ensure that the preparatory work with regard to the issue was transparent .
The European Parliament must be fully informed about everything , a situation which is a world away from the lack of decision-making power it currently suffers with regard to most expenditure in the field of agricultural policy , which is , therefore , a thoroughly undemocratic situation .
We also need greater involvement by Parliament in the decision-making process .
Neither is there any room for extra spending with regard to the social and re-training policy for the benefit of the fisheries sector , never mind extra investments for the working conditions and safety on fishing vessels .
What we are talking about now is instead of using the old 1975 basis to use the new statistical basis so as to avoid statistical double counting or costly re-accounting procedures that lead to many errors .
This will mean a delay in the whole decision-making process .
The introduction of an independent disciplinary chamber able to carry out a fair and neutral disciplinary procedure , with the officials responsible being appropriately held to account , is also another long-standing request from Parliament that the Commission has failed to comply with .
It is , naturally , regrettable that the discharge of the Economic and Social Committee has been postponed for the fourth consecutive time due to deception involving non-existing airline tickets .
Today 's debate on a report on the use of animal testing and ingredients in cosmetics and toiletries raises concerns about the use of allergy-causing ingredients , as well as substances used in cosmetics which have been linked with cancer and hormonal problems .
This control extends to many areas , as the EU budget is very substantial - it amounted to EUR 84 billion in 1999 - and above all it covers a wide variety of activities , ranging from support for olive oil , nuts and school milk to student exchanges ; from the development of petrol-saving cars to space research or information on the euro , from support for educating women in Africa to the restructuring of the fishing fleet or to food aid after an earthquake or after a civil war .
Mr Blak , the general rapporteur for the budget discharge , adopted exactly this approach to the wide-ranging control of a broad spectrum of policy areas in respect of which public money is spent .
In anticipation of what I have heard about the content of some of tomorrow 's proposed amendments - which had not been submitted in writing by the start of this afternoon 's sitting - I say this : we will not support any attempt to introduce an automatic process which effectively requires us , as Parliament , to cede our own right as the decision-making body on the issue of discharge and makes us a kind of secretariat for the Court of Auditors .
Subject : Non-polluting vehicles The third oil crisis which recently hit the European Union raises a number of issues regarding the transport and energy policy pursued by the EU , the implications of that policy and the fact that it is having little effect in combating greenhouse-gas emissions .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , the Commission 's proposal for a Public Health Action Programme for 2001-2006 is a well-meaning attempt to overcome the current fragmentation of European health policy into numerous individual programmes .
But in particular , I have grave reservations about the undoubtedly well-meaning proposal calling on the Commission to set up a Health Coordination and Monitoring Centre ( HCMC ) to ensure the efficient operation and coordination of the programme .
This proposal also covers the important legislative initiatives in areas such as safety of blood and blood derivatives , and the implementation of wider anti-smoking campaigns .
Competition-distorting aid must be prevented as and where possible and an internal market for services must at last become a reality .
It therefore surprises me that at the Stockholm Summit the first step was not taken towards wide-ranging reform of agriculture and food policy , as this is the question possibly most under discussion over the breakfast tables in Europe , even - as I have understood - in the Prime Minister ' s own home .
The outrageous on-going lack of social service provision , the discriminatory treatment of pensioners , the poverty zones which are becoming increasingly common throughout Europe , require clear , courageous choices to be made .
Responsibilities must be clearly outlined and we must make clear that we need decision-making mechanisms here which bring about results .
Having said that , I do acknowledge the objections raised and comments made by many Members on the issue of decision-making processes , on the need for new decision-making processes .
Having said that , I do acknowledge the objections raised and comments made by many Members on the issue of decision-making processes , on the need for new decision-making processes .
In Community-speak , this means cutting back on health spending , shifting the responsibility and the cost on to the people , strengthening private initiative and turning health care into a profit-making activity , the aim being to convert the health sector into a ' competitive market ' and secure the best possible terms for the powerful monopolies to win market shares and achieve market penetration while , at the same time , reducing employment and social rights and everything the workers have fought for in the health sector to the lowest common denominator and cutting back on public spending in this sector .
As far as special education and training are concerned , apart from a few generally positive but non-binding proposals relating mainly to tertiary education , the text is based on the unscientific approach of placing pupils with disabilities in mainstream schools , ostensibly with a view to integrating them into society as a whole .
Here policy must be able to intervene and pull these points back into the decision-making process of the policy .
Europe ' s high tech industry will be at the top of the world league in this forward-looking sector .
I acknowledge that , although we have made a good start , we are entitled to have conflicting feelings about the Union ' s decision-making power in this field .
At the present time , the Kurdish people , scattered over several countries , are experiencing pitiless oppression which highlights the on-going struggle to force the government to respect the right to self-determination and to respect national minorities .
We accepted a far-reaching declaration incorporating this very holistic perspective that deals with both a legally secure asylum , reception and integration system and measures to achieve good border controls and an efficient visa policy .
It is a matter of record also that the proportion of our aid budgets that goes to the LDCs has fallen while the proportion that goes to middle-ranking countries , such as Morocco and Algeria , has risen .
Europe ' s political authority is achieved from its capacity to stand up to an all-consuming globalisation governed only by the laws of commerce and of money .
Mr President , I really do hope that the Commission will help ensure that there is no hiding behind mere words with , as a result , resolutions being adopted that consist of non-binding statements in the form of recycled wordings to which the Member States have agreed at other international meetings .
What measures will it take to facilitate the opening of talks between the political leaders of the Albanian-speaking population of southern Serbia and the Yugoslav leadership ?
These compensatory schemes were always shrouded in an atmosphere of protectionism and wheeling-and-dealing because the decision-making process did not reflect the market mechanism .
Our most important and repeatedly expressed aims in the on-going negotiations include preparing the way for a rapid ratification of the Kyoto Protocol , so that it can come into effect by 2002 at the latest , and bringing about genuine reductions in greenhouse gas emissions .
We still have to live with transport policy specifications from the last century , admittedly from the middle and the second half of the 20th century , but hardly forward-looking models for the 21st century .
But what was important was to clarify that superstructure is defined by reverting to infrastructure , in order to ensure that there is no competition-distorting aid .
Mind you , we are not only dealing with a systemic crisis in the sector but with the need for confidence-building measures in favour of consumers .
If we talk of confidence-building measures , then we must stand up for an open declaration and for a positive list of permissible feed materials for feedingstuffs .
They at least should know that any further delay in amending the money-laundering Directive is irresponsible , especially since the money-laundering mafia is becoming increasingly adept .
They at least should know that any further delay in amending the money-laundering Directive is irresponsible , especially since the money-laundering mafia is becoming increasingly adept .
Attempts are once again being made , rightly so , to get a tighter grip on money-laundering practices .
We should even extend the scope of this proposal to include high-spending gamblers and auctioneers at the top end of the market .
Similarly it refuses to support the use of fallow land under the set-aside system , because this would be in conflict with the WTO ' s blue box that requires agricultural aid to be conditional upon production-limiting measures .
That is literally a life-threatening development .
In other words , we must take immediate action to ensure that humanitarian workers can work in safety in Somalia , this long-suffering country , and provide a long-term policy of support to democracy and human rights against a background of national reconciliation .
Today at midday , we voted in second reading on the money-laundering directive which dealt with such obligations .
If we in the European Parliament - in contrast to many national parliaments - still grant such wide-ranging protection , then every single Member should behave in such a way that we are justified in maintaining this practice .
We have established a self-evolving text which , I am sure , will be improved upon in the course of time .
And to cap it all , with regard to documents which do contribute to the decision-making process of European policy but which originate from outside , the author has a veto regarding both the inclusion in the register and the disclosure of the document .
This is in itself a major problem because , in tackling such an essential area as public access to , and scrutiny of , documents - which is fundamental to our having democratically active citizens able to influence the decision-making process - it is crucial to involve people , partly in the debate as to how the rules are to be designed , and perhaps , in addition , to go so far as to listen to some of people ' s objections .
One of the areas in which , in my view , there is a major problem is that of internal documents which are not clearly defined in this proposal and which can be kept secret if it is thought that publication will have a decisive influence on the decision-making process .
All right , but is that not precisely what transparency is all about - enabling people to have a decisive influence on the decision-making process ?
I too would have preferred a more far-reaching compromise .
See also recital 5a concerning the actual decision-making process , recital 7 concerning countries ' right to classify documents , recital 9 concerning personal information which , for example , makes it more difficult to know who sits on the 1 500 committees , and Article 6a , Paragraph 3 which excludes sensitive information from the registers .
Openness and public access to official records are necessary elements of a democratic and efficient administration , and if people can follow the decision-making process in the EU ' s machinery , then there will also be an increase in confidence .
In some Member States , including Sweden and the Netherlands , there are more far-reaching rules governing access to documents .
But all hell is breaking loose precisely at a time when the University of Tetovo is turning over a new leaf by offering opportunities to Albanian-speaking groupings in Macedonia , as a result of which the official apparatus will probably be less one-sided .
Everything we have heard here about what the European Union should be doing , in the form of action rather than high-flying words , Greece is already doing .
To solve this situation , we do not need a new type of nuclear power station , but rather a recovery plan for the affected area , alternative ways of generating energy , as well as energy-saving measures .
This self-seeking collusion between the political elite and the nuclear lobby rides roughshod over the total disapproval of Ukraine ' s citizens and the potential that Ukraine has for renewable energy sources and energy savings .
The autocratic and repressive regime in Belarus , which wants to play down this public health crisis as far as possible and to silence scientists such as Mr Nesterenko and Mr Bandazhevsky , can no longer be used as an alibi by the European Union and pro-nuclear lobbies to hide the reality of Chernobyl and abandon the long-suffering communities of these contaminated regions , to their fate .
On welfare , therapeutic and economic grounds , it is essential that European veterinarians have access to the fullest possible range of veterinary medicines to treat all food-producing animals , while at the same time keeping consumer health protection at the top of all our agendas .
No veterinary medicinal product can be used in food-producing animals unless maximum residue limits , MRLs , are set up for its active substances .
A recent evaluation of the EU product licensing procedures observed , and I quote , " significant concern in the veterinary sector about the decreased availability of established medicinal products for food-producing animals as a result of the introduction of the MRL requirements . "
The MRL problem gives rise to greatest concern in these minor food-producing species , such as horses , goats , rabbits , fish , bees - minor in terms of their economic importance for the pharmaceutical companies , hence their lack of defence of the various veterinary products required .
None of the other minor food-producing species I have mentioned exhibit similar features as the length of the life span , sections of the industry not being oriented towards food production , high monetary value of individual animals and the recreational and sentimental value .
In conclusion , I would urge the Commission to ensure that as quickly as possible we have a short-term resolution to the crisis for minor food-producing species in relation to the availability of state-of-art veterinary medicines .
That is a long-standing debate .
Internal documents are not defined and are to be kept secret if their publication would have a decisive influence on a decision-making process .
Throughout the decision-making process , the Commission has worked against increased openness and access for its citizens in order instead to defend the classifying of documents .
Yet , the report calls for veterinary medicinal products for which no maximum residue limits have been established to be excluded from the ban on the use of these products in feeding and fattening food-producing animals .
This is on the basis of our longstanding opposition to the death penalty in the United States but in this particular case it is reinforced by the increasing evidence that the bombing was not carried out by a crazed lone bomber but as part of a conspiracy by the extreme right-wing Aryan Republic Army .
This text is , once and for all , a significant example of how the European Union intends to respond to the citizens ' ever-increasing demand for protection of their health .
The number of non-smoking train compartments must be increased everywhere .
More and more we insist on using and meeting in non-smoking areas .
Mr President , I also wish to congratulate Mrs Paulsen on her diligence in preparing and seeing through this report , and to echo a previous speaker who said of Mr Maaten 's report - but it is equally true of this one - that it is a model of the second-reading procedure .
A correct interpretation of the principle of subsidiarity : the e-Learning action plan has succeeded in finding a niche in the sensitive debate on the use made by the States of their national education systems , demonstrating that the term ' European educational area ' is a realistic , positive concept in which we must have confidence without fear of undermining the cultural identities of our countries .
The second positive element lies , in my opinion , in the fact that the e-Learning action plan favours a positive and - I would add - social approach to certain typical effects of globalisation .
They are to be increased and recompensed because it is the responsibility of all of us to realise that the effect of the e-Learning action will not just be reform of parts of our education system but genuine reform of the way we think .
Mr President , Commissioner , the Committee on Budgets has attached the greatest importance to this matter , the e-Learning initiative , because of the great contribution it can make to European citizens enjoying , through appropriate training , better living and working conditions in the new information society .
I would remind you that , under the broad economic guidelines for 2002 , adopted on 3 April , which are an important political instrument in budgetary matters , specific consideration is given to the e-Learning initiative as an important stage in the process of achieving the strategic objective established by the Lisbon European Council .
I am pleased , and Parliament can be pleased , that there is now an e-Learning initiative .
My group , the ELDR , attaches great importance to the e-Learning project for both pupils and teachers .
I remember the time when language labs were introduced into schools ; it was a great , fashionable surge and all self-respecting schools had such a language lab .
We are living in an era in which there is once again a process of inward-looking nationalism which is opposed to globalisation - clearly a misunderstood concept - and this process tends to divide States and regions .
Mr President , I welcome the paper on the e-Learning initiative and congratulate the rapporteur on its content .
Without the necessary tools to meet the aims of the e-Learning agenda , the goals of the Lisbon Summit will not be achieved .
The e-Learning action plan is also helping to change things .
With regard to the e-Learning reports by Mr Alavanos and Mr Mauro , I should like to thank Parliament , its rapporteurs and its committees , many of whom were involved , for the support that they have given me on this issue right from the beginning .
This is of vital importance , because here too this process helped us considerably at crucial moments , in defining the concept of e-Learning immediately after the Lisbon Summit , and in formulating the e-Learning action plan , immediately after the last European Council .
You know that immediately after the Lisbon Summit the e-Learning plan gave rise to various initiatives in some Member States , aimed at installing computers in the classroom .
This is why , last week , I organised the first e-Learning summit in Brussels , in partnership with both the public and the private sectors .
May I say that it is always with great pleasure that the European Parliament receives delegations from the Knesset , given our close and long-standing relations .
I regret to say that it is since a certain right-wing party , the party of Mr Sharon , took control of Israel that , as a result of that appalling right-wing policy , the world has lost control of the overall situation .
I regret to say that it is since a certain right-wing party , the party of Mr Sharon , took control of Israel that , as a result of that appalling right-wing policy , the world has lost control of the overall situation .
Let us therefore set about introducing an initiative which will go beyond the paper-pushing games that have been played by the world 's parliaments for too long now and lead us to resolute , tangible , decisive action to save the innocent lives of women , children and the elderly with peace .
We need a new , wide-ranging attitude to security and we hope that at the forthcoming meeting in Gothenburg , the Commission and the Council will make that attitude a central item on the agenda , in the open , frank , free and confident dialogue with President Bush .
The Treaty of Amsterdam had already transferred these matters to a Community framework by taking them away from the national parliaments , but with two vital derogations from the usual procedures : the Commission must share its power of initiative to propose texts with the Member States during a transitional period fixed at not more than five years after the entry into force of Amsterdam ( i.e. until 1 May 2004 ) ; the Council will take its decisions not by a qualified majority but unanimously for at least five years , which means that for the time being each country retains its sovereign decision-making power .
We take the opposite position : if it came to the point that immigration questions were decided by a majority , that would take the power away from the countries and put it in the hands of uncontrollable lobbies , or perhaps even to one member country that was better placed than the others in the decision-making procedures .
In particular , direct decision-making power should be returned to the national parliaments .
Having failed to deal with the root cause of the disease in 1990 , which is what Jacques Delors and his gang refused to do so as not to interrupt the triumphant march , firstly towards the single market and then towards the euro , we have since adopted numerous financial and technical stop-gap measures to ward off the never-ending effects of what has been a disaster in health , trade and financial terms .
The European Union should assist this reform process by supporting financially and also technically certainly carefully selected confidence-building measures , without which the fasting will not cease .
For that reason , I think - and I should like to make a minor correction to what Mr Swoboda says - we should offer the prospect of possible membership , but only if , for example , that dreadful concept of a state-constituting nation disappears from the constitution and statutes of Macedonia .
It will not be possible to reform this European social model under the auspices of new forms of enlightened despotism as advocated by those who believe that select groups of experts , high-ranking bureaucrats or certain Finance Ministers should rule the world .
It also welcomed the intention to extend the range of mainly structural matters dealt with in this forum , with due regard for the conclusions of the Luxembourg European Council meeting , i.e. that the Eurogroup be informal and without any decision-making powers .
In this respect , at the end of last year the EU submitted a proposal to the parties concerned for a number of humanitarian and trust-building measures .
As has been mentioned previously , adjustments have been made to the Regulation so that account might be taken of the misgivings experienced in this regard in the European Union and the banana-producing ACP countries that do not belong to the group of least developed countries .
In connection with the Cotonou Agreement , the EU acknowledged the overwhelming economic importance of exports to the EU for banana suppliers in the ACP countries and agreed , if need be , to take measures to guarantee the continued profitability of banana-exporting companies in the ACP countries and continued opportunities to sell their bananas in the EU market .
We believe that the duplication of decision-making bodies and the development of a military staff separate from NATO will inevitably exacerbate policy differences between allies , to the detriment of the transatlantic relationship and the long-term security of our people .
Of course , we shall also give our input so that a forward-looking policy for the world and for Europe as a whole can be developed .
We need to speed things up in the coming year and try to embrace reform and modernise our working methods and decision-making processes .
All of us know that enlargement will have far-reaching effects on all aspects of Parliament 's services .
I recognise that it is already on the agenda of the Bureau and is an on-going discussion , but it is so important that we have time to consider the issue properly that I believe we need a special meeting of the Bureau and I hereby request you to convene that meeting .
The Committee on Constitutional Affairs has added several points in its opinion , including the reference to the Charter of Fundamental Rights , a definition of the party as having legal personality so that it can conduct legal transactions , and further-reaching proposals on controls , including on revenue from donations .
They are parties that live outside society : an expression of this - read last month ' s Eurobarometer - is the ever-increasing distance between you , your bureaucracies and the citizens .
They are an essential part of a functioning democracy and constitute a link between citizens , the groups and the public in the opinion-forming and decision-making process .
In approving the Regulation that we are discussing today , we are making a contribution towards strengthening European democracy , intensifying the opinion-forming process and the debate within Europe and making the national parties more European .
In reality , Mrs Schleicher , the pompous name of European political party disguises a trick as old as the hills , the great lottery for the benefit of the lottery organisers or , if you prefer , a comfortable pension granted to the parliamentary groups most docile towards the institutions this Parliament is actually either responsible for controlling - like the Commission - or supposed to share decision-making power with - the Council : a pension granted by those institutions themselves .
Maintaining pensions systems based on solidarity is possible even under current and future conditions as long as policies are guided by the principle of social justice rather than the self-seeking interests of banks , investment funds and insurance companies .
It is completely unacceptable that far-reaching decisions have been taken by the Council of Justice and Home Affairs ministers when there has been no debate in this Parliament on the subject .
We would like to avoid having such restrictive and off-putting rules for participation - these have no place in the Sixth Framework Programme .
We feel that Nice was just a continuation of Amsterdam and was therefore a wasted opportunity for Europe to take a solid and far-reaching step forwards , in its process of gaining political and social depth .
Because we want serious and far-reaching solutions .
Secondly , we want a wide-ranging debate , not one limited to the four issues listed in ' Declaration 23 ' .
We also succeeded in extending the codecision-making procedure to encompass new areas in which the European Parliament , together with the national governments , can ensure that the decision-making process is democratically rooted .
We also succeeded in extending the codecision-making procedure to encompass new areas in which the European Parliament , together with the national governments , can ensure that the decision-making process is democratically rooted .
In paragraph 3 of the proposal of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs it says that the Conference makes ' the decision-making process within the Union more confused and less transparent ' .
In neither area were the desired results achieved , and as far as the decision-making structures are concerned , they were actually made worse .
We must therefore ensure that where this European Union has powers it is able to take decisions , so that its decision-making ability gains it acceptance .
Post-Nice must tackle an ambitious , really far-reaching reform , a reform that must achieve two things .
Mr President , President-in-Office of the Council , Commission , the European Union leaders when they met in Nice last December to review existing treaties had one single objective in mind : they sought to change the internal decision-making procedures within the institutions of the Union to guarantee that enlargement of the European Union could take place .
The decision-making process in the Council of Ministers will become more complicated , not simpler .
We hope that the Swedish Presidency and the Swedish government will not move an inch from the idea that it is the national parliaments that must have decision-making rights over the treaties and that it is they who must control developments when the treaties are produced .
A great deal went wrong at Nice , but the most serious mistakes have been the complicated decision-making processes that have been created , which are even more complex and opaque than before , and the fact that on a number of scores , a qualified majority vote was taken without approval from the European Parliament .
There are , of course , major problems with the Treaty : it makes the decision-making process no simpler , no more efficient and scarcely any more comprehensible to our citizens .
I believe that it is over-hasty to say that the decision-making process is worse following the Treaty of Nice , as some speakers have done .
When we evaluate the Treaty of Nice I believe that we will see that in practice the decision-making process has actually been improved .
The reunification of Europe is indeed a historic turning point , but a turning point which calls for a far-reaching reform of the institutions of the Union .
Another core issue for the decision-making competence of every national parliament and national government concerns defence policy .
They are particularly concerned that the traditional , consensual , decision-making process of the EU is being abandoned in favour of a system whereby larger Member States will exercise power at the expense of smaller countries .
However , if we do not have a well-functioning planet in ecological respects , it will be very difficult to discuss social and economic issues .
There are many important points which I will not have time to address now , but I would like to point out that the Committee has done a good job in deciding that the relevant strategies as well as the targets , funds and timetable should be drawn up as a framework directive , so that the matter can be handled in a democratic manner in Parliament and by the Council and so that we can enter the decision-making process and influence it .
The directive must also naturally be seen as a complement to the environmental impact statements on projects , but these come much later in the decision-making process .
There can be no doubt that the wide-ranging efforts to protect the environment and human health and the careful and rational use of natural resources are necessary and important .
In the compromise , we passed the ball back to the Commission , which is now under heavy pressure to prepare more far-reaching proposals on noise production in tyres in future .
Noise-reducing tyres are already available .
A hefty noise reduction cannot only be achieved by including noise-reducing tyres in a European standard , but also by using noise-reducing asphalt .
A hefty noise reduction cannot only be achieved by including noise-reducing tyres in a European standard , but also by using noise-reducing asphalt .
Even in my own country , the Netherlands , where 40 % of the population complain about traffic noise , a pilot project is running , involving noise-reducing asphalt , which produces a reduction by ten decibels .
I hope that in its new proposals , the European Commission will not only consider noise-reducing tyres , but will also look into noise-reducing asphalt , for the noise of traffic is a thorn in the side of an increasing number of people .
I hope that in its new proposals , the European Commission will not only consider noise-reducing tyres , but will also look into noise-reducing asphalt , for the noise of traffic is a thorn in the side of an increasing number of people .
The Commission ' s proposal is a strengthening of a previous directive , which states that all passengers in a vehicle equipped with safety belts must use them , that all children must , without exception , be restrained in approved child car seats , that children under three may not travel in cars without suitable child car seats , with the exception of taxis , and that the use of rear-facing child car seats is forbidden if the air bag has not been de-activated .
The wide-ranging findings of accident research and the modern safety restraint systems developed by the industry make the present-day situation unacceptable .
One is Amendment No 1 , which would oblige the Commission to launch an awareness-raising campaign in parallel with the implementation of the directive .
Amendment No 6 ( 2 ) , according to which the Commission should , in conjunction with the car industry , study the possibilities of using more user-friendly airbags , especially where rear-facing restraint systems are being used .
In short , it says that here in Europe , the champion of human rights , women do not have the same rights in practice as men , they are still less represented in public institutions and in decision-making positions in private entities , and they are still the prime victims of ill treatment within couples and of sexual violence .
It is thus a move away from voluntary , non-binding provisions .
I hope that in the future constitutional process , this Parliament will maintain a self-respecting position , which is more responsible , especially with regard to the interests and aspirations of our citizens .
Up until the Intergovernmental Conference , we supported a so-called narrow agenda and also voted against the European Parliament ' s very wide-ranging wishes .
Nonetheless , we are very concerned that there should be a general debate on the future of the Union in all the countries and in the EU , so that the next Intergovernmental Conference can be much better prepared than that which ended in Nice , with much greater openness in the decision-making process and an underlying basis of visionary ideas concerning the future of the EU .
We are of the opinion that the future Intergovernmental Conference must reconsider the construction of the EMU , reassessing the currency union 's lack of democracy and its right-wing policies .
( NL ) The Nice summit focused on EU enlargement , but definitely not on a more democratic and transparent decision-making process in the EU .
My party cannot approve paragraph 25 of today ' s report , which opens the way for the introduction of a European level of tax , and what is more with decision-making rules based on qualified majority voting .
Another key issue , apart from tax law , when it comes to the decision-making ability of each national parliament and government is defence policy .
The Environment Committee of the European Parliament will continue to play an important co-ordinating role in this regard .
These include the launching of an information campaign about the danger posed by an air bag to a child transported in a rear-facing safety seat fitted to the front passenger seat of a vehicle .
Rear-facing child restraint systems which are fitted to the front passenger seat are only permitted if the airbag has been deactivated .
During the preparatory debate , we made our contributions , specifically by tabling amendments arising from working meetings in Portugal with union activists in sectors in which women make up a large part of the workforce , such as commerce and services , textile industries , the garment and shoe-making industries and the electrical and electronic components sectors .
Remember that greenhouse-gas emissions would have to be reduced by 80-90 % over a period of 50 years in order to halt the global-warming process .
There is an ever-increasing postbag of letters from the general public and from Members of Parliament on animal welfare issues .
Ring vaccinations are permitted in exceptional cases but with such far-reaching implications for the exports of the Member States involved that , in practice , that also involves removal .
Mr van den Bos provided the most far-reaching contribution of any of us here .
The Commission is ready to consider the use of ICT within the existing priority areas and cross-cutting themes - if and when they are cost-effective in achieving stated objectives , and indeed that is increasingly the case .
The Commission has reservations about the proposal to create an e-development unit within EuropeAid Cooperation Office and has created a unit for innovation with a similar mandate in mind for cross-cutting themes across the various geographical directorates , and feels that this meets its needs adequately .
It should also conduct a public information and awareness-raising campaign , making all the necessary information available on the Internet .
How can we oppose the creation of a European food agency in the face of the growing concern on the part of consumers , a concern which is exacerbated by the sensation-seeking attitude of the media ?
Thus it must be quite clear that , although the authority is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the rapid alert system , in other words that tool which is so essential in risk assessment , it is the Commission , in other words the political decision-making body , which has to retain the responsibility for risk management , in other words it must be in control of the measures to be taken .
We must put an end to situations like this , mainly by making crucial and far-reaching changes to the European common agricultural policy .
It is proposed to require the use of pressure-cooking standards for animal by-products even if the resulting material is incinerated .
That is not how you deal with the irresponsible , the profiteers and the criminals ; instead you take away newly acquired freedom from ordinary well-meaning people .
However , it would be asking too much to expect the governments of Europe to abandon the long-standing dictatorships which protect the interests of their trusts .
Those who are responsible at local level should take effective town-planning measures , in the context of sustainable development , without , however , harming the competitiveness of our businesses .
We did not deal to any great extent with the substance of the Council ' s case , although the substantive argument did meet with some opposition and engendered lively discussion in committee ; we chiefly focused on the expression of our desire to be fully informed in future and to be included in the decision-making structures used by the Council and the special committee established under Article 133 .
Perhaps the main point , and the reason why we attach so much importance to this issue , is that section 211 of the Trademark Act is one of those cases that relates to our long-running dispute with the United States over the Helms-Burton Act .
The EU says it is committed to reforming the World Trade Organisation but a first place to start would be to reform the decision-making machinery of the EU itself .
It is quite simply imperative to guarantee an open and transparent decision-making process on the basis of Article 133 .
A case in point is the on-going controversy regarding Beijing ' s claim of sovereignty over the South China Sea .
This is the concept of sustainable development , which hinges on job-creating growth , social progress - entailing the effective implementation of ILO framework conventions - and environmental protection , including the sustainable management of the tropical rainforest which is a crucial aspect in this region .
There is great consternation and concern at the serious problems which would be created for the Italian-speaking population , given that Italy 's status as a friendly nation and founder member of the EU should ensure the existence of full Italian / Croatian bilingualism in the border areas .
the basic principles and ' acquis ' of the EU are reaffirmed and there is no question of suspending the right of the Italian-speaking minority to recognition of its cultural identity or that right being declared unconstitutional .
Considering that this was also a principal reason for the resignation of the Croatian Minister for Integration , I am wondering whether there is an internal struggle going on to the detriment of the Italian-speaking minority , or whether , instead - and this would be even more serious - the Croatian constitution really does not protect minorities and particular cultures .
In addition , the Swedish Presidency has drawn up a status report ahead of the European Council in Gothenburg , in which facts are presented on the initiatives taken at national and European level to promote wide-ranging discussions between all parties , including representatives of national parliaments , political , economic and academic circles , civil society , etc .
This report demonstrates a keen understanding of these fast-moving markets , their technologies and how and where they are developing .
Where are the wide-ranging public and pluralist debates , at which everyone lays their cards on the table , on the issues at stake , the difficulties to be overcome , the values to be upheld and , finally , on the political choices that need to be made completely transparently and democratically ?
Added to that , there is the less than engaging spectacle that the Fifteen offered the public in Nice , so that it is not surprising to find a general feeling of disenchantment if not the return of a populist and inward-looking trend .
That is the fruit of the anti-European campaign run by nationalists and left-wing romantics and supported by reactionary Britons and former Danish communists who have always opposed European cooperation .
The idea of a non-binding convention , to which other speakers have referred , is an idea whose time has now come .
Europe and its institutions can only be built with the long-lasting support of its peoples .
The second point is that according to Amendment No 8 , employers should count the time a non-driving worker spends sitting next to the driver whilst the vehicle is in motion as working hours .
This insight is something we come up against almost every day in the European decision-making process .
The first is the need for greater democracy , to enable the various players involved in this sector to have a say in the decision-making process .
These are the requirements which the Group of the Party of European Socialists has repeatedly stressed and reiterated with the amendments tabled in plenary and unexpectedly rejected in committee : autonomy and independence , as I said ; the membership of the Administrative Board , which would exclude without any reasonable grounds both direct and indirect representation of Parliament ; the decision-making powers of the Agency ; in short , its role and usefulness for achieving the goal which all undoubtedly endorse .
We shall need much more than one inspector if we want to use serious , prompt , all-encompassing controls in order to prevent further disasters on our or anyone else 's doorstep .
As a result of this new initiative , all European Union Member States will establish formal incident-reporting systems to facilitate the collection of information on actual or potential safety deficiencies involving aeroplanes in Europe .
Income-generating activities for women , which encourage self-sufficiency , are increasingly supported by ECHO .
There is great consternation and concern at the serious problems which would be created for the Italian-speaking population , given that Italy 's status as a friendly nation and founder member of the EU should ensure the existence of full Italian / Croatian bilingualism in the border areas .
Around 20 % of production could be saved simply by using energy-saving windows .
Of course , everyone agrees that we need to develop energy-saving technologies and promote renewable energy sources .
First of all , the dialogue with oil-producing countries could lead to a greater diversity of suppliers .
As has been said , the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development proposes partly solving this problem by introducing a common welfare-marking system .
The aim was to promote sustainable development and strengthen job-creating production sectors .
Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , although the outermost regions were fully acknowledged in Article 299 ( 2 ) of the Treaty of Amsterdam , we are still awaiting the first far-reaching measures .
I do not see how anyone in this House could actually support the use of EU funds - EU taxpayers ' money , that is - to allow shipowners to escape controls and then fish in competition with law-abiding shipowners .
With regard to the first package of proposals , which aims at revision in the sense of increasing the rates of assistance under the Structural Funds , it is important to make a greater effort by slightly increasing the Community co-funding percentages , particularly as regards agri-environmental measures and public aid to the productive sector , given that these regions are among the poorest in the European Union and their production , processing and marketing structures need to be strengthened .
The European Parliament must effect this demarcation by showing restraint in what it applies itself to and seeks to have decision-making competence over .
Mr President , seldom have we encountered such a brief proposal with such potentially far-reaching effects .
The Human Rights Watch today reports the very latest atrocity in this never-ending story : 60 citizens imprisoned and official , residential and commercial buildings destroyed .
All this is extremely urgent , not just to help uphold human rights in that country but also to prevent the Taliban from helping to spread a fanatical , blood-shedding image of Islam in the West , which would add to the image cultivated by our own fundamentalists and racists .
Mention has been made of a proposal by some of our left-wing friends - the Greens and the Communist Party - who would like us to make a special condemnation of the Cachito massacre .
Mr President , in order to obtain as broad a consensus and as broad an agreement as possible , I would suggest that we introduce an oral addendum to replace Amendments Nos 2 , 3 and 4 as a new No 5a which reads as follows - and I trust you will forgive my poor French , I did not know we had a French-speaking president in the chair :
These were the problems that we wrestled with during the passage of the Brussels regulation : how to allow Europe 's consumers access to cross-border justice without over-burdening business and yet , at the same time , exposing business to necessary competitive forces .
As you know , the intention of this report has been to act as a platform for a wide-ranging discussion among Member States , the European Parliament and the sector .
Clearly , the airport authorities can be persuaded to grant derogations , to make exceptions in order to increase the volume of traffic , but if the local authorities have decision-making powers and take a stance , then it will be the communities involved who will decide the interplay between money / trade / profit and noise prevention , not just the airport managers .
To avoid any misunderstanding , let me say that I am most definitely in favour of resolutely fighting Fascists and right-wing extremists wherever they appear , politically speaking , and whenever they use force .
We also know , and I can quote a major European newspaper , that the hard core was an anti-Fascist group of left-wing revolutionaries taking belligerent and critical action against the European movement and against world trade .
We would have expected you to be just as critical of those left-wing revolutionaries who use force as we are against those on the right who resort to violence .
The EU ' s policy of increased employment is often singled out as a ' left-wing project ' designed to counteract the right-wing policy of the currency union .
The EU ' s policy of increased employment is often singled out as a ' left-wing project ' designed to counteract the right-wing policy of the currency union .
That is not much in the way of left-wing policy .
Their immigration policy , the culture of making excuses , defending the rights of hooligans in the name of human rights , the abolition of the death penalty are all factors which encourage crime , which are favoured over pointing the finger at a handful of left-wing protesters , which , moreover , Mr Barón Crespo rather curiously called fascists unless Mr Barón Crespo had wanted to acknowledge that fascism had found its origins in socialism , all his leaders having been socialist leaders before becoming fascist leaders .
Madam President , it is unfortunate that today ' s debate on the Swedish presidency - which was of course something new for our country , with all that that entails - has to begin with an observation that it is in danger of being remembered for stone-throwing anarchists trying to stop the meeting and ruthlessly smashing up Göteborg ' s pleasant main street and , with it , quite a few good intentions .
Sometimes , the talk is more of how the decision-making processes are to be organised than of what we are to cooperate on and what the EU must not meddle in .
Let us ensure that these practical achievements loom larger than the stone-throwing and hooliganism on the part of the left-wing extremists .
Upbeat terms such as " cooling-off period " and " additional trust-building measures " are supposed to ward off the deep-rooted violence .
So , as of September , however it may be done - perhaps you could let off a siren at ear-piercing levels - the Commissioner should be heard , like any other speaker in this Chamber , in dignity and silence .
Current criticism with regard to European cooperation is that the decision-making process is not transparent , that citizens are not being heard and that the people at the top know it all .
The practical messages for the public that you are proposing as regards the awareness-raising campaigns can be introduced by means of the cooperation that Parliament is pursuing with the consultative group on the practical aspects of the changeover to the euro , which is made up of the individuals in charge of the various national campaigns .
We are convinced that with regard to the Commission proposal we have had wide-ranging discussions and taken points on board .
Subject : ACP capacity-building Would the Commission clarify why it is that none of the Euro 20 million ACP capacity-building project , which has been designed to prepare the ACP countries for the beginning , by September 2002 , of negotiations on economic partnership agreements with the EU , has yet been disbursed ?
Subject : Police capability Recently there was a first Police Capability conference with a view to the agreed goal of creating a five-thousand-strong police force to be available for the Union ' s civilian peace-keeping operations .
At this stage , the Commission can only require parties to ensure that when they conclude network-sharing agreements , competition among themselves and with third parties is not restricted or affected .
In any event , the freedom of contracting parties to disengage from their network-sharing cooperation and deploy their own networks in areas where they previously shared infrastructure should be preserved .
We have not had a revision of these directives for nearly 20 years , so we are engaging in a bit of a fine-tuning exercise to modernise and update them .
The more wide-ranging reform in this area will come with Solvency II .
Nonetheless we need to ensure that we get the minor amendments properly sorted out before embarking on the more wide-ranging reform which we will see in the Solvency II regulation .
In conclusion , this is a worthwhile enhancement of the European Union 's information society capabilities in a very fast-evolving world .
The Commission would like to state that the wide-ranging discussions of recent years are now producing results , as the general importance of the radio spectrum and the need for efficient decision making are starting to be recognised .
However , I would finally like to emphasise that the Commission greatly values Parliament ' s seeking to play an active role in the decision-making process regarding the radio spectrum .
This is a far-reaching debate with huge implications .
This means revising our institutional system and the decision-making process .
We are in a period of far-reaching conversion and restructuring .
Secondly , we were by no means able there to confirm and clarify decision-making conventions in the European Union .
No referendum on European expansion plans , no referendum on the introduction of the euro and no referendum on Europe ' s ever-tightening grip on strictly national powers over , for example , culture or social security .
I am also particularly pleased that you mentioned the Council in this context , which will have to be active as a legislator , as a second chamber , and - crucially - in public , so that in this way we really can foster public involvement in the decision-making process .
I call on the Belgian presidency , together with its colleagues , to make the introduction of the euro really a top-level issue so that we not only have brochures being distributed but also confidence-building measures being initiated by your side , so that as the euro moves from being a virtual currency union to being a reality it is accompanied by confidence and credibility .
Against this background , Belgium must succeed in having a declaration approved at Laeken which must , at any rate , contain an improvement in the decision-making process and must increase democratic legitimacy .
As far as the improvement of the decision-making process is concerned , two things are essential .
Nevertheless , the government must not now give in to the KLA ' s demands so as to avoid civil war ; instead it must take account of the long-standing demands of the elected Albanians in Macedonia and seek solutions with them .
The long-standing plan to decentralise power and strengthen the cities and local authorities must finally be executed .
This private , non-profit-making company is concerned with four key Internet sectors , including DNS ( domain name systems ) and allocating Internet Protocol addresses .
The ECB report , however , emphasises that " the first two years of the euro have also shown that the policy-making framework at European level is satisfactory " ( page 3 ) .
So I can only agree on the need to look at this subject in the context of the on-going reorganisation of the Commission following the changes brought about by the Treaty of Amsterdam , looking ahead to the entry into force of the provisions of the Nice Treaty and especially with a view to the forthcoming enlargement .
First of all , may I also commend Mr Wuori for his wide-ranging report and Mr Cornillet for his boldness and his vision in trying to fashion a new procedure for the annual report on Fundamental Rights in the EU , linked to the Charter .
A massive consciousness-raising campaign must be launched and Europe must put this crude form of racial discrimination on the international agenda , to begin with at the forthcoming World Racism conference in Durban .
The Commission feeds us a never-ending stream of fresh statistics .
Subject : Laeken Declaration In view of the increasingly important and prominent involvement of the sub-state levels in the various EU decision-making procedures , the broad debate on the future of the Union which is taking shape mainly around the Laeken Summit should also provide answers to institutional issues relating to the involvement , from the legislative and judicial points of view , of constitutional regions ( sub-state entities with their own legislative powers guaranteed under the Constitution of the State to which they belong ) in the development , implementation , monitoring and assessment of EU policies .
Will the Laeken Declaration recognise that a further democratisation of the European decision-making process calls for a more radical reform , with legislative power vested in two chambers , the European Parliament and a reformed Council that would subsume some aspects of the present Committee of the Regions and would strongly enhance the role of the constitutional regions ?
Subject : Declaration No 54 attached to the Treaty of Amsterdam on subsidiarity Declaration No 54 attached to the Treaty of Amsterdam , on subsidiarity , states : -It is taken for granted by the German , Austrian and Belgian governments that action by the European Community in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity not only concerns the Member States but also their entities to the extent that they have their own law-making powers conferred on them under national constitutional law . '
Similarly , Declaration No 23 attached to the Treaty of Nice , on the future of the Union , states in its third paragraph : ' In 2001 , the Swedish and Belgian Presidencies , in cooperation with the Commission and involving the European Parliament , will encourage wide-ranging discussions with all interested parties ' ; and , in its fourth paragraph : ' the European Council , at its meeting in Laeken in December 2001 , will agree on a declaration containing appropriate initiatives for the continuation of this process ' .
We fear that if the constitutional regions are not represented well in the European decision-making process , a gradual aversion to Europe will grow within those regions , because we will feel that our regions cannot have their say , that they are suffocating , as it were .
That is why I should like to ask you , as the driving force in a discussion which is about to start , how you will try to actively involve those regions in the decision-making process and how you will ensure that the Council actually makes a statement in this connection in the foreseeable future .
Will the Laeken Declaration recognise that a further democratisation of the European decision-making process calls for a more radical reform with legislative power vested in two chambers : the European Parliament , and a reformed Council that would subsume some aspects of the present Committee of the Regions and would strongly enhance the role of the constitutional regions ?
It should cover both operational and abandoned sites and disposal and contain provisions for mining waste action programmes as well as provisions to facilitate more sustainable extraction : site cleaning , waste reduction , and dry-tailing disposal in the case of metal mining waste .
We are faced with wide-ranging problems that cannot be solved , at least not adequately , by the Member States alone .
" Shall " is not the right word in a non-binding instrument , such as a recommendation and therefore the use of this word in Amendments Nos 29 , 32 and 34 cannot be accepted by the Commission .
It would be a great mistake to see this as a question of right- or left-wing politics .
Unfortunately , the images of the rioting and stone-throwing minority will again attract a great deal of TV and media attention .
Mr Callanan and the Committee on the Environment , Public Health and Consumer Policy are to be congratulated for the amendments which aim to simplify the noise-testing procedures , produce the conformity assessment costs for SMEs and clarify requirements in the case of replacement engines .
The Commission can accept the amendments which aim to clarify and improve the wording of the initial text in relation to partly completed craft and weather conditions , as well as those concerning the simplification of the noise-testing procedures .
The amendments concerning the distinction of stern drive engines , the formulas to be used for the noise-testing procedures and clarification of the coverage of replacement engines can be accepted in principle .
' A more consistent crisis prevention policy ' presupposes removing the oil multinationals from positions where they can do damage , like Total Fina Elf , whose war-mongering role in southern Sudan and Congo is increasingly apparent .
However , there are a number of elements in the resolution with which many of us disagree , such as : the redefinition of human rights ( paragraphs 50 , 51 and 72 ) ; the unbalanced condemnations of Turkey ( paragraphs 88 and 89 ) ; the misunderstanding of the nature and status of caste in India ( paragraph 106 etc . ) ; the call for legally-binding criteria for arms exports ( paragraph 113 ) .
Regarding some other questions , I would like the report to have had more far-reaching views in the area of , for example , the adoption rights of gay and lesbian couples .
I remembered the title of that Oscar-winning film , ' Life is Beautiful ' , and realised that our work does occasionally bear fruit .
It is sometimes good in a wide-ranging resolution and in a broad framework to zoom in for a moment on something very concrete .
Mr President , in the context of the long-suffering continent of Africa and , in particular , for the whole subcontinent of southern Africa , the Republic of South Africa stands out as a crucial factor for political stability and for development .
In an ocean of instability , however , of never-ending wars and conflicts , such as in the long-suffering Angola , one regional power could guarantee a degree of order and peace in southern Africa - the Republic of South Africa .
As the Commission itself stated in this House on a previous occasion , and I quote : " The automatic reduction in quotas for non-complying countries seriously undermines the basic principle of the common fisheries policy which is that of relative stability " .
On the other hand , in order to be consistent , we must begin immediately to develop non-polluting forms of energy such as bio-fuels through the use of tax incentives .
My group believes that Parliament must deliver an opinion on the results - or the lack of results - of the G8 summit , as well as on the extremely serious events which took place during the summit , and on the extraordinary success of the initiatives of the Genoa Social Forum , which also concern us at a time when we are involved in a far-reaching debate on the future of the European Union .
What is more , the timely participation of the Company committees in some of the decision-making processes has certainly yielded positive results , first and foremost for the workers in areas such as health , safety and equal opportunities but also for the companies in that the number of disputes has fallen .
For example , the call , set out in the second paragraph , for information and consultation to take place at regular intervals before the decision by the company or group , so as to allow the workers genuinely to influence the management ' s decision-making process .
That is why I would like to stress how important we consider that the imminent reform of this directive does not take the shape of a far-reaching reform of its spirit and particularly , that we retain the difference in terms of function between the Directive itself , which is the tool of social dialogue in a company , and its Annex which punishes the failure of social dialogue .
These are not fanatical and far-reaching changes , but very constructive ones , and I hope that the Commission will take them on board when it proposes a new directive .
In view of three new factors , impending enlargement on an unprecedented scale , the quest for the deepening of the European Union and the ever-increasing rate of legislative intervention , we need to radically rethink how we control the application of Community law .
Mr President , the application of Community law is the cause of an ever-growing number of problems , for according to the Commission ' s own report , it has opened 2270 files on this subject since 1999 , compared with just 124 in 1978 .
My problem is that I do not want to speak only English with a mother-tongue English-speaking Director-General of the Commission , for example , and I do not want one culture to have excessive influence .
But if in the end we do not succeed in making all the changes that are needed in the time available , one thing I want to ensure is that every tax-paying citizen and every voter in the European Union understands that a failure to meet the targets and deadlines is in no way the responsibility of the European Commission or the people who work for it .
The European Union backed the report of the ' fact-finding commission ' , widely referred to as the Mitchell Commission , whose recommendations were published in New York on 21 May 2001 and accepted by both parties .
These efforts need to be supported by a range of confidence-building measures to overcome the current deep distrust , not only between the leading politicians , but also between the two peoples .
I want to remind Parliament that in the past two years alone the Commission has allocated about EUR 50 million to peace-building programmes fostering Israeli-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian cooperation in particular .
We should recall for a moment that the key findings of this fact-finding committee include the following recommendations : the government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority should reaffirm existing agreements and immediately cease violence ; there should be a resumption of security cooperation ; there should be establishment of a meaningful cooling-off period and incitement in all forms should be discouraged .
Enlargement must not be sacrificed to growing alienation between Europe ' s citizens and the European institutions and decision-making processes .
This is bordering on a perverse interpretation of global worker unification , as the so-called anti-globalisation left-wing extremists are now calling for , with the help of many slogans .
On the other hand , the only solution is to restore the role of nations and national Parliaments in the European decision-making process .
The decision-making process is certainly lengthy in the European Union and it is sometimes tedious as well , but what do you actually expect in a Community of 15 sovereign states , where each state - and , incidentally , not least the small ones - is asked what its position is ?
To the Slovakian Government , but also to the population which has managed to sit and wait for far-reaching reforms , which also have their drawbacks , of course .
Gay rights are now part of law , an anti-trafficking law has recently been passed and domestic violence law has gone through .
With regard to relations with neighbouring countries , it has , notably , a cultural agreement with Austria in which it acknowledges the existence of a German-speaking community in the country and , not long ago - and this is a very important issue - the sea and land borders with Croatia were defined .
The far-reaching privatisation programme which was adopted in 1999 , and which includes plans to privatise major utilities over the next five years , is also heading in the right direction .
As long as the candidate countries cannot co-determine far-reaching cooperation in various areas of policy - such as the CFSP and the asylum , immigration and monetary policies - the European Union may not impose new criteria in these areas .
The Hungarian political representatives have , in spite of the adoption of new administrative borders that were promoted by nationalist and left-wing parties and deprived them of chances of adequate political representation , signalled that they are ready to continue in the government but that their future participation is dependent on giving real content to the administrative laws .
That said , the conclusion is very simple : to strengthen the legitimacy of European cooperation , to make contact once more with the citizens , great influence and a much more visible role need to be given to the nation states within the European decision-making process .
For example , how can it be that , in your White Paper , we find developments in the involvement of regional and local structures in European politics , developments in decentralised management , in coregulation with various - non-identified - organisations , and how can it be that there is absolutely no mention of the essential role of national Parliaments in the European decision-making process ?
An objection was raised regarding the direct responsibility of local authorities in the decision-making process .
The Commission and the European Investment Bank have separate decision-making processes .
The European Commission has been co-funding measures against child sex tourism since 1997 .
The transfer of the management of budget line B7-626 - fight against child sex tourism in developing countries - from the Enterprise DG to the European Cooperation Office means that the human rights and democracy unit of EuropAid is now in charge of identifying and co-funding projects dealing with child sex tourism .
Bearing in mind that the Commission 's Humanitarian Aid Office has spent around EUR 40 million on these children since the start of 2000 , will the Commission act on the wish expressed by the Commissioner responsible and develop a standardised information system which might be used by those responsible on the spot - peace-keeping troops , staff working for humanitarian organisations , etc. to gather and record data , which would help to determine the real scale of the problem and deal with it more systematically ?
From 2003 onwards , all new vehicles would be fitted with anti-blocking brakes .
The second message from Bonn is a change in the economic model : from a fire-based , fuel-using economy , to one which is coal-based .
The Commission proposal for a European Aviation Safety Agency comes in response to a long-standing demand by Parliament .
Sparks obviously fly when these agencies are created because decision-making powers are transferred to external institutions even if , Mr Schmitt , the final decision does not , of course , always rest with these agencies .
I fully agree with the rapporteur when he states that it is necessary - and I would say quite urgent - that we improve the current level of protection in cases of denied boarding , flight cancellations , unjustified delays which , in many cases , lead to connections with other flights or with other means of transport being missed and a long list of similar problems , which is growing every day , not to mention the fact that we Members of this Parliament are long-suffering victims of these inconveniences .
This report and tomorrow 's vote are about a decision with far-reaching implications .
We should all being pulling together to find good , forward-looking solutions to European transport problems .
The EU must expend its energies on the key areas : the internal market , economic policy , foreign policy and asylum and immigration policy , and that is why we must also be very cautious about otherwise well-meaning initiatives in the area of cultural policy .
Quite simply , the group of English-speaking countries managing Echelon is doing what it likes with the privacy of European citizens , as is explicitly noted in point 26 of the conclusion , cited by Mrs Flesch moreover , which means that Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights is being infringed .
The temporary committee ' s report expresses a thought-provoking blend of power and impotence , something we can , of course , see in the introductory quotation from one of the great satirists of antiquity , Juvenal , who formulates the hard but highly thought-provoking question , ' Who watches the watchmen ? '
The temporary committee ' s report expresses a thought-provoking blend of power and impotence , something we can , of course , see in the introductory quotation from one of the great satirists of antiquity , Juvenal , who formulates the hard but highly thought-provoking question , ' Who watches the watchmen ? '
Today , economic conflicts can be very serious and industrial espionage is only an instrument and , therefore , we should perhaps take care to ensure that we do not use this sort of war-mongering vocabulary to refer to our allies , and , even more so , to the EU Member States .
Mr President , I would also like to thank Mr Schmid in my capacity as a member of the Temporary Committee on Echelon for his extensive , far-reaching endeavours in collecting and organising a truly impressive mass of highly technical information .
It has , in fact , been maintained that a form of huge-scale , global non-differentiating interception such as Echelon , based solely on recognition of a number of keywords and using search engines , would be invaluable for combating terrorism and crime .
Mr President , Mr Watson ' s report confirms that the European Union is powerless and has painted itself into a corner in its fight against the ever-increasing phenomenon of terrorism .
Madam President , given the formulation of the amendment and given our concerns about the on-going discussion in Slovakia on regional decentralisation , we can support this amendment , also in the context of the knowledge that negotiations and talks are going on about the competences of these provinces .
The British Conservatives voted in favour of the Watson report in order to send a message that we will give no quarter in the fight against terrorism , and particularly to show solidarity with our colleagues involved in the on-going fight against terrorists , notably ETA .
We feel that it is premature to grant Europol far-reaching powers , and maintain our conviction that different national legal traditions mean that the way forward must be by cooperation , not harmonisation .
Only by sealing their markets off from disrupting and currency-consuming imports did they manage to protect their industry and create a level of security for 40 years .
This indifference dashes our hopes , although we continue , nevertheless , to call upon the Slovenian government to acknowledge without delay that the concept of democracy also includes acknowledging the damages and suffering that they have inflicted on many Italian-speaking citizens in the past and providing appropriate compensation .
( NL ) Unfortunately , I am unable to support the Poos report because it assumes that the government which rules Greek-speaking southern Cyprus , is also authorised to conduct negotiations on the country ' s accession to the EU on behalf of the Turkish-speaking north .
I do not expect that the withdrawal of that army will result in the Turkish-speaking minority wishing to rely again on the Greek-speaking majority .
I do not expect that the withdrawal of that army will result in the Turkish-speaking minority wishing to rely again on the Greek-speaking majority .
I wish they would serve Parma ham , spaghetti with pesto from Genoa , polenta from Veneto and sweet-smelling tomatoes from Naples ! "
Although the report suggests some measures for developing systems and adopting protection mechanisms , specifically to protect privacy , in the face of this system - and other , similar ones ... and although it discusses measures of cooperation between Member States , which must take place at judicial level and not be information-gathering measures , on the basis of case-by-case analysis , under the supervision of the courts or even measures for monitoring information systems , particularly by national parliaments , what lies at the heart of all of this is that the system will continue to function and that an EU-level information system could be created and integrated into the CFSP and the CESDP , which is equally unacceptable .
The WTO ' s decision-making rules are indeed unfair in that they penalise the poorest countries compared with the rich ones , if only by giving the poor countries limited access to the information that would enable them to play a proper part in this decision making .
It is not Italy which needs to be placed under observation but that part of Europe which speaks of human rights in this Chamber and then allows those same rights to be violated , and the self-interested generosity of certain left-wing voices which condemn violence as a means of persuasion .
Of course , we will choose the Genoa Summit over international fora where it is the dictatorships of this world that have the majority and the decision-making power and whose final decisions are those of a racist conference , not a conference on racism .
The second does not , for all that , tempt us to support the brutal and deliberately violent counter-demonstrations that were organised and that did not create too much indignation among their ranks so long as they were used against the national right-wing parties .
My question is quite obvious and simple : if a left-wing government had been in power in Italy , would there have been the same mobilisation of forces in this Parliament , with pilgrimages by our fellow Members who had never dreamt of going to previous summits but who - as if by coincidence - were present in Genoa ?
It is rather a bad Parliamentary habit , and we should try to resist these headline-grabbing temptations .
I would therefore like to say to the Council that it should not come and cry on our shoulder now that many of these money-wasting decisions are taken at European summits .
IST projects focus in particular on the development of confidence-building technologies .
The 40 year old procedure under Regulation 17 had become a bureaucratic paper-pushing exercise .
Because to participate , although in a very modest way , in the process of repealing Regulation 17 of 1962 , against which I have fought a long-standing battle and on which I have written repeatedly in a very critical manner , is , I must confess , hugely gratifying .
The Commission has already undertaken to introduce such a system , whereby it can issue reasoned written opinions in cases where there are gaps in the existing rules and decision-making procedures .
We consulted in depth patients who are particularly concerned , and here I am using a euphemism , about the ever-increasing dependence on imports of American plasma in particular .
Amendment No 43 would ban the import of such literally life-saving plasma and I urge the support of this House for the rapporteur ' s compromise amendment .
I am determined to ensure that this new directive will not unwillingly contribute to shortages of life-saving therapies .
Because the time-consuming procedure up to final judgment by the European Court is bereft of any material value if the damage has already been done and cannot be reversed .
We have entered a season of reform , defence and strengthening of the institution of petitions and we believe that season of reform will give us the power to defend the citizens and , at the same time , make the European institutions better known to our ever-growing population .
We do wonder if we should not aspire to faster working methods and other decision-making methods , for we do not believe that that is what the public wants .
And we voted against all the amendments that could endanger or restrict the giving of blood on a voluntary and non profit-making basis .
In those states , the euro can at best acquire the position of a second currency , additional to the national currency and involved in an ever-fluctuating exchange rate battle .
But more than anything it teaches us that the 50-year old asylum-seeking system instigated by the United Nations is not working any more .
We need to find common problem-solving strategies in the form of regional conventions , set and update criteria and data on mountain areas and fund practical , mountain-related projects under the sixth framework programme , extend the basic infrastructure needed and provide training and further training so that the population keeps abreast of events and strengthen transport networks in mountain regions , taking account of the principle of sustainability , in order to safeguard these regions as habitats and economic areas and nature areas .
The least productive areas where the losers wound up are not only the mountain areas , but also low-lying wetlands , that is , old bogs , the bottom of which consists of peat , a water retaining vegetable material that , when dry , shrinks and disappears .
It will assess the intelligence-sharing mechanism and the respective roles in this context of institutions such as Europol and Eurojust , as well as assessing the two proposals for framework decisions it received from the Commission .
Now is not the time to refuse to hold talks , or to cancel them , but a time for dialogue and confidence-building measures , so that peace may be achieved there .
At this time most of all , we need peace developments and confidence-building measures in the Middle East .
Confidence-building measures must not be viewed as recompense , but rather such measures must be an integral part of this process .
That is why we are on the side of America and of every peace-loving individual who wishes to support this international order .
Hopefully , it will also undermine their fund-raising capabilities , particularly when their paramilitary wing still retains the weapons of terrorism and mass destruction and fraternises with other terrorist leaders .
We are piling up funds rather than fast-tracking aid , and fast aid is good aid , because we want many countries and regions no longer to need aid when enlargement actually comes about .
Is the idea , put forward in recent days by Mr Giuliano Amato , the former Italian Prime Minister , of far-reaching innovation leaving the European Commission power over major strategic investments and decentralising regional development actions really so unrealistic and impossible ?
The delays in the start-up of some programmes in 1994 and 1995 have , therefore , been overcome for most of the actions under the on-going programme .
Thirdly , we need equal representation in the social partners ' decision-making bodies .
It is also important to involve women more in wage negotiations and in the decision-making process in general , and to recruit more women in decision-making bodies .
It is also important to involve women more in wage negotiations and in the decision-making process in general , and to recruit more women in decision-making bodies .
Even in Scandinavian countries , where women have achieved equality , even in political life , it is proving difficult for them to enter decision-making positions in privately owned companies , where salaries are higher .
There are many forms of harassment and as I said , smoking in the workplace in no-smoking areas is a form of harassment .
As a Danish professor of criminal law expressed it very clearly yesterday , the alarming thing is that ' the EU Commission and other institutions are merely using the attacks in the United States as an opportunity to promote far-reaching harmonisation , and harmonisation means that the national traditions of criminal law , criminal procedure and police investigation are eliminated in favour of arrangements adopted in more or less of a panic that make controls more stringent and damage civic rights ' .
Madam President , the proposal for a Council directive on procedures for granting refugee status , which , as defined in the Treaty , is supposed to be binding on the Member States as regards the outcome to be achieved , whilst leaving it to the national authorities to decide what procedures and means to employ , is in fact an extremely nit-picking document .
It was prepared chiefly on the basis of information drawn from a wide-ranging consultation process based on a working document presented in March 1999 .
How can we attempt to set limits without a detailed and wide-ranging study , based on commonly established assessment criteria ?
It is necessary if the decision-making process at parliamentary level is to become more democratic , but it is by no means enough .
The decision-making processes must be simplified and made clearer .
There must be regional , as well as local , involvement at an earlier stage of the decision-making process , and we must discover mechanisms for regular consultation at these levels for it is , after all , regional and local authorities that will be implementing the majority of the EU ' s decisions .
Not only should we consult the sectors about the decision-making process .
An open convention which works out the decision-making basis for the Council , with representatives from the Commission and from national parliaments and from the European Parliament , together with representatives of the Member States and the candidate countries and from the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee sitting as observers , is an appropriate and essential forum for bringing the Union closer to its citizens and achieving transparency , and it must supplement and support internal reforms .
It will not be a cost-cutting exercise by any means .
We need to be clear about this aim ; that is , we must set up a procedure to streamline the decision-making process , because , I repeat , it is slow and poorly understood .
I say this quite clearly because you will never have heard the Commission proposing , for instance , to bring civil society into the Convention in a role involving decision-making aspects .
I shall repeat the sentence which is the key to the latter part of my speech : we have never said - and I confirm this today - that civil society can play a decision-making role .
In committee , many centre-right and right-wing Members voted against my report in whole or in part .
We need to prevent European legislation conflicting with our national laws because we do not want left-wing permissiveness , which was rejected by the Italian electorate , to penetrate our legislation via Brussels .
I can tell you straight away that this is not the position of the group of right-wing Europeans .
Madam President , we are facing a war against terrorism that all freedom-loving people must embrace .
Other measures aim to educate people to respect human rights , change their mentality and to grant non-discriminating access to education .
Mr President , Commissioner , Mr President-in-Office of the Council , I find it a very positive indicator that this conference was held in Durban ; that there were wide-ranging discussions ; that a resolution was drafted ; and that there has been a conclusion .
This framework will be a further building block and a weight-bearing pillar for developing our own satellite navigation system .
Lastly , we are proposing - and this is important - to set up an advisory ethics committee , whose task would be to ensure respect for the aforementioned requirements and which would assist the Commission and the European Space Agency in their decision-making duties .
Computer equipment is sold worldwide and the educative , awareness-raising aspects of seeing the Energy Star logo on computers is worthwhile .
This programme has already been a success in the United States and has led to considerable participation by manufacturers , the large majority of which have introduced energy-saving devices into their products .
I will give you some examples : the UK , Ireland and France , for example , are world-leading suppliers of science and engineering graduates ; the Netherlands , Sweden and Denmark are ahead in home Internet access ;
In addition , the development of the common , foreign and security policy ( CFSP ) and the European security and defence policy ( ESDP ) could have long-lasting effects .
That means , in the simplest terms , that we are going to have to implement wide-ranging measures if we are going to be in a position to defeat the scourge of international terrorism .
Regardless of its composition - I hope that the candidate countries will be given a strong role to play in this context - the Convention will contain a large number of hard-working parliamentarians who need to know that the work that is put in is taken very seriously .
Let us finally realise that the post-Yalta organisation of the world needs to be rethought to take account of the incredible developments since the last war : the emergence of nuclear powers , whether official or not , the fall of the Berlin wall , more than a billion Muslims around the world desperately seeking recognition and respect , new giants like India , limitless technological developments in every field , developments that are accessible only to the few , the ever-widening gap between rich and poor .
Mr President , the accusations made in this Chamber against the Italian Parliament by certain Members of this House represent an extremely dangerous precedent , in terms of both the democratic nature of this Parliament and the credibility of its decision-making process before the European public .
We regret that some right-wing Members have referred to terrorism and immigration in the same breath during the debate .
In addition , Morocco has expressed its solidarity with the United States and all freedom-loving countries in no uncertain terms .
A wide-ranging approach to the financing of development is also required .
They may also have far-reaching consequences for civil liberties and for the global economy .
Some years ago , the Commission in its McDougal report concluded that central tax-raising powers of at least 7 % of GDP would be needed to allow counter-cyclical spending and transfer payments to make a single-currency zone function properly .
However , it also makes it clear that we need to embark as quickly as possible on a new review of the TWF directive , if we are to keep pace with the fast-moving developments in the audio-visual sector in a time of increasing digitalisation .
Mr President , I am sure Parliament will have the opportunity to begin a wide-ranging debate on the development of cinema in Europe .
It began this year with a wide-ranging consultation with the industry .
All these governments have pursued money-saving policies with regard to essential public services , have got rid of railway lines , local post offices or hospitals , which are not considered to be profitable .
In this respect - apart , of course , from the highly intense relationships within the European Union with the national competition authorities - outside the European Union we have set up close bilateral working relationships and begun most welcome and far-reaching cooperation in particular with the competition authorities of the United States , and last week we held an intense session of work in Washington , at which we planned further development of such bilateral cooperation .
This is one of the essential market-opening principles of the internal market .
In general , most of the liberally-minded market-opening fraternity were pleased to get it on the statute book .
Some standard features of terrestrial banking , like applying the money-laundering provisions by looking your depositor in the eye to ask where her or his money came from , require fresh thought in an e-depositing world .
Some standard features of terrestrial banking , like applying the money-laundering provisions by looking your depositor in the eye to ask where her or his money came from , require fresh thought in an e-depositing world .
I am delighted that Mrs Berger is going with the flow of that for many of us felt that her initial report really did not do full justice to what we regard as an imaginative proposal , a wide-ranging proposal , and one that is of crucial economic importance to the future of the European Union .
In the case of tuberculosis , although there is a vaccine for the prevention of this disease , its effectiveness is highly disputed and there is an ever-increasing amount of resistance to treatment .
Moreover , we regret that diseases such as filariasis , trypanosomiasis , sleeping sickness , the Ebola virus or various forms of diarrhoea are not the subject of the Commission ' s communication as they are causing an ever-increasing number of deaths .
There are now alternatives - cheap copies of life-saving medicines .
This would be a form of deceit and would lead to recklessness in consumption and risk-bearing investment .
( EL ) The real world today is a world in which huge monopolies abuse dominant market position , where gigantic companies merge , consolidate or are taken over on a daily basis and where monopoly groups acquire terrifying power , invariably accompanied by thousands of redundancies , which have a huge impact on employment , and the monopolisation of wealth-creating resources , markets and consumers .
If the European Parliament and the Lisbon European Council have set a deadline of 2005 for establishing an integrated market in financial services , we cannot afford to adopt incoherent legislation or keep re-examining decisions which have already been taken , unless we have very good reason to do so .
HIV / Aids , malaria and tuberculosis are , therefore , a terrible threat to the social and economic development of the poorest communities , and as Mr Khanbhai argues , require a rapid , effective and wide-ranging response , in which the EU must take the lead .
EUR 12.8 m under the Rapid Reaction Mechanism to repair and reconstruct houses , to repair electricity and to support confidence-building measures , such as mine clearance , election monitoring and police training ; and EUR 50 m in macro-financial assistance still to be disbursed from a previous macro-financial package , which is being combined with an additional grant of EUR18 m to help FYROM cope with the specific needs arising from the crisis .
Nevertheless , I am sure that , as well as supporting this resolution , this House will join me in praying for the long-suffering people of Colombia and in hoping sincerely that the FARC and the guerrillas will see the folly of their evil ways and that the Colombian Government will achieve a policy of reconciliation without compromising justice or freedom .
Mr President , like the honourable Members of Parliament the Commission welcomes what could be called the positive developments that have occurred in Burma / Myanmar , in particular the on-going talks between Aung San Suu Kyi and the ruling SPDC , the release of a growing number of political prisoners and the reopening of 20 party offices of the National League for Democracy .
I am convinced that Members share the Commission 's hope that the on-going talks will lead to concrete results , which could enable the European Union to consider positive measures to support the process .
Madam President , I would like to put on record my disappointment that we will not be able this week to discuss the money-laundering directive .
Every single job lost in the European aviation industry as a result of the Commission 's decision , will create an ever-widening pool of resentment towards Europe , not towards national governments which may be pursuing their own agendas .
And will the ground-to-air missiles deployed around the re-processing plant in The Hague be effective against a suicide attack ?
This applies to the examples given regarding the security of the Sellafield and Cap de La Hague re-processing plants .
The debate on the money-laundering directive showed us how vital it is in this area to define terms .
This is why the support we suggest in these proposals is aimed not only at co-funding projects carried out by public and non-public institutions and organisations in the Member States , but also at funding Commission actions , such as actions aimed at ensuring the correct application of Community law in the civil field , which I am convinced will be of benefit to citizens .
Mr President , full , effective participation by the public in the decision-making process in environmental matters is necessary and we support it .
This , in turn , increases accountability in the decision-making process and makes it more transparent , and helps to raise public awareness of environmental matters .
The citizens will be able to participate fully right from the initial stages of the decision-making process , especially as regards the development of plans and programmes , the environmental impact assessment process and the prevention and overall reduction of pollution .
In short , public participation will contribute to the transparency of the decision-making process and the acceptance of the outcome , namely the plans and programmes .
The rapporteur , clearly inspired by the way things work in her country , which is possibly democratically more developed , more advanced than others - proposes participation that is too peremptory , too authoritarian , participation that could ultimately slow down , if not block or paralyse certain decision-making processes , upon which there will never be total convergence between the direct democratic base and what is known as the authority , that is the administration appointed to deal with these issues .
In accordance with the Aarhus Convention , the Commission proposes to ensure that the public at large is fully informed about planned developments which might affect them , whilst giving the right to participate in the decision-taking process to those having an interest in or likely to be affected by the developments , that is , the " public concerned . "
Amendments Nos 6 and 12 aim to give effect to a best endeavour clause under the Aarhus Convention and are formulated in a non-binding way .
There is now a good balance between a well-functioning market and reasonably secure protection for consumers .
I believe it to be important that we should look at the flow of capital under the influence of globalisation in terms both , on the one hand , of the yield accruing to institutional investors and of the economic and social situation , and on the other , from the point of view of the capital-importing countries .
Furthermore , we believe that the decision-making procedures and the composition of the governing body of the International Monetary Fund should be substantially reviewed .
This role of catalyst in stages of growth can preclude negative effects of the policy , such as an increase in the burden of debt for up-and-coming countries .
The fact is that , both in terms of the continuous implementation of Community law , the continuing hope of ever-increasing cohesion and , lastly , the forthcoming practical introduction of a European Company which would provide greater protection of employees as regards participation than other forms of legal entity , the issue had to be closed , with the identification of major , related questions ranging from the contents of the information to the termination clause , from the time frame for initiating the procedure to the parties involved and to the sectors where it is to be applied , and all this in respect , on the one hand , for the fair trade requirement , which , also in this case , would be guaranteed by the different behaviour of the Member States , and , on the other hand , for the reasoning of the open coordination method , which has , at last , started to be applied practically in social policy .
This is a wide-ranging declaration , within the chapter on solidarity , which includes not only the measures taken against obvious risks , such as the risk of falling or risks faced when dealing with abrasive materials , but also those preventative measures used against risks that could go undetected by the majority of those who are not experts in this field .
We have also stated on various occasions that we will not accept new needs and new challenges being met to the detriment of longer-standing needs which are still as topical as they ever were .
More and better employment also means more and better support , more and better support mechanisms for small and medium-sized businesses , progress on the e-learning initiative , which we would very much like to see have a corresponding legal basis and also the consolidation of common policies in the field of asylum and immigration .
For years , the Commission has faced ever-increasing tasks which have had to be dealt with without additional human resources .
The on-going debate on the final form to be taken by the Union indicates that there are many different opinions on the subject .
This year , we have had far-reaching discussions on assistance to refugees , the Global Health Fund and other efforts to combat AIDS etc .
Agricultural spending is being constantly eroded , with tragic consequences for farmers , in a bid to make national budgets pay for the anti-farming policy decided in Brussels .
We all understand how important co-ordinating work and family life is for young families and our children too .
I can tell you that all those I met were more than aware of the European Parliament ' s long-standing contribution to the peace process in Northern Ireland .
Therefore , intensifying our joint efforts is a very positive move , but we may wonder why the important question of industrial activities has not been mentioned at all , particularly with regard to nuclear power stations and re-processing plants , where large quantities of radioactive and fissile substances are stored , which could cause an ecological and social catastrophe in the event of an aircraft crash , intentional or otherwise .
As for the crucial issue here , namely the interventions and follow-up provisions where policing and the law are concerned , we are being faced with a demand to implement the most far-reaching infringements of legal rights we have seen in the history of the EU , and they are to take place almost overnight without any preparation .
We could perhaps thereby take the first step towards a peaceful solution and a forward-looking outlook for Afghanistan .
So I regret all the more that individual Member States have an ever-increasing tendency towards bilateralism .
Secondly , we would point out the urgent need for a Commission and Eurogroup initiative to reach long-term agreements with the oil-producing countries in the Middle East in order to secure the continuity of oil supplies and the stability of oil prices in Europe with a guarantee in euro .
I say this with pleasure in order to stress my personal hope - in addition to what is , I believe , the hope of all of us - that the regions in Europe will gain increasingly in political and decision-making importance and that they will be allowed to participate more fully in the production of the European directives and regulations which concern them .
They concern the presence of Council ministers at our important debates as well as speeding up the legislative procedure from the first-reading stage .
That is why I think , Mr Poos , that your report is an extremely important element , which will spark off the wide-ranging debate about to open on the institutional framework of the EU , its effectiveness and its democratic legitimacy .
This situation calls for particular consideration of how determined we are - as you mentioned in the report - to encourage consensus between Parliament and the Council from the first-reading stage within the codecision procedure .
This , however , does not prevent us from performing a global assessment where there are no taboo subjects , to repeat the phrase that Mr Verhofstadt used this morning , when he stated that there were no taboo subjects where the wide-ranging debate and the Laeken Declaration are concerned .
Mr Poos has much long-standing experience of how the Council operates .
And that negative image dominates the entire decision-making process and the way the Union is viewed throughout the Union .
Think of the impact of the WTO rules on matters such as the environment , safe food , workers ' rights or the freedom of governments to regulate public services without running the risk of being taken to court by profit-seeking multinationals .
The technical aid which the EU and the other industrialised countries are called upon to provide is crucial for these countries ' future real involvement in the decision-making process .
Commissioner , if the decision-making process in the WTO is not made more transparent and democratic then , in the long term , the people of the WTO Member States will not stand for it , because we cannot have nation states increasingly referring crucial issues to the competent supranational organisation , while parliaments and , therefore , also society at large remain prevented from exercising their democratic right to monitor and participate in its work .
Without it all the well-meaning words and the great aid-giving we indulge in will come to nothing .
However , the key point of the report is Paragraph 29 , which extols Turkey 's contribution to the fight against terrorism , clearly dismissing the Kurdish fighters , and its peace-brokering efforts in the Balkans , obviously meaning its open support for the KLA criminals , and it incites it to facilitate the application of the ÍÁÔÏ treaty .
Mr President , we expect Turkey to show signs of cooperation , and a sign in precisely this area - addressing this long-standing dispute with the Kurdish people with courage and tolerance , in a tolerant , civilised manner - would be very well received by the entire European Parliament .
In last year 's annual assessment report the Commission concluded that , although a wide-ranging debate on political reforms had begun and Turkey had signed several international human rights instruments over the past year , the situation on the ground had hardly improved .
The Commission welcomes the confidence-building measures agreed .
There was clearly no space at this summit for a social Europe ; on the contrary , the summit demanded pay restraint and far-reaching reform of the labour market .
The basic reason for the Council 's existence is to manage the collective affairs of the property-owning classes in the various European countries , so that their respective interests do not conflict and that a general consensus may be established .
The large countries are promoting the interests of their multinationals , at the expense of the less developed countries , without so much as a word about the long-standing request of these countries to have their debts cancelled .
I reject this part of his proposals , although I do share his views on the struggle against money laundering and against the international drugs trade , finding a humanitarian and political solution for Chechnya , strengthening the peace-building capacity of the United Nations and making aid for Macedonia dependent on the implementation of the agreed amendment to the constitution .
Given the fact that 80 % of my own nation - Wales - is designated by the EU as less favoured and that sheep farming is the only available method of farming in many part of Wales , this report has far-reaching implications for Wales and its hill and upland farmers , as indeed it has for their European counterparts .
We must protect our sheep-farming industry because to lose more farmers from the industry would have a catastrophic effect on the make-up of rural communities where small family farms play such a vital role .
Mr President , honourable Members , ladies and gentlemen , the Commission welcomes the very wide-ranging report and the proposed motion for a resolution , the content of which was formulated by the Committee on Development in close cooperation with the Committee on Fisheries .
We ask for preventive measures , with a view to preventing accidents , both in relation to the design of vessels and life-saving equipment and to the introduction of rules of management of resources with consequences for human safety , the size and power of vessels .
Just as I said earlier in connection with Mr Gallagher ' s report , those of us in the Group of the European Liberal , Democrat and Reform Party are concerned that , in line with developments , we allow the self-funding sector , that is to say the ship owners and fishermen , to pay a larger contribution towards those agreements from which they of course benefit most .
It called upon the Member States not to ratify the Europol Convention until it had been placed under the control of the Court of Justice , that is , until the Court of Justice had been given the necessary decision-making authority over its interpretation and proper implementation .
With regard to extending Europol 's mandate , the Commission takes note of and shares the concerns expressed in the report about the decision-making structure under the Union 's third pillar .
Why is it that European film attracts such a small audience , while the cinema-viewing public is on the increase ?
Firstly , I fully support the call for the funds made available to the film-making industry to be increased .
This is a long-running issue , and I unreservedly support the report Mr Maat has presented .
These have resulted from our wide-ranging consultation with the European research sector , European politicians and all the organisations and citizens with an interest in the European research sector .
We set out to turn this work into an opportunity for a wide-ranging debate to strengthen the important link between science and society .
He has really tried to make a reality of the wide-ranging citizens ' debate of which he speaks .
It is a choice with far-reaching implications , one to be made on the basis of conscience .
Could the Commission please tell me whether this means that the money can only be spent in Europe or whether it is possible to use this money to finance the pan-African malaria vaccine-testing network , which , unlike the EU , is ready to test the malaria vaccine now ?
The Euromed Conference held in Brussels on 5 and 6 November was an opportunity for a wide-ranging exchange of views on the question of the stability and security of the Mediterranean region .
It concerns the idea of sending a UN peace-keeping force to Kabul to ensure that the situation there does not get out of hand .
Has the Council discussed in any way or at any time the fact that European countries , or the Union perhaps as a whole , would make a contribution to the UN peace-keeping force , or does the Council hold the view that it would be best if this UN peace-keeping force were to comprise representatives from Muslim countries only ?
Has the Council discussed in any way or at any time the fact that European countries , or the Union perhaps as a whole , would make a contribution to the UN peace-keeping force , or does the Council hold the view that it would be best if this UN peace-keeping force were to comprise representatives from Muslim countries only ?
In other words , is future involvement by the EU provided for in this UN peace-keeping force ?
Mr President , after congratulating the rapporteur , I would like to begin by stressing that the ship-building industry throughout Europe is facing a serious crisis which could affect the very credibility of the European Union and perhaps endanger the continued existence of this sector in the Union , given the unfair competition on the part of South Korea .
Despite this , and precisely because this is one of those cases , I would like to express my total support for the Commission ' s proposal and the amendments presented by the competent committees , which propose a defensive and temporary mechanism in the ship-building sector in order to confront the unfair practices of South Korea .
It is true that the Commission has begun proceedings before the World Trade Organisation to combat this unfair competition , but it is also the case that , while this procedure is under way , the European ship-building industry could disappear , with significant repercussions for employment .
We now have an international bank account number , the IBAN , we have a bank identifier code , the BIC , the reporting requirements to the Central Bank have been lifted when amounts up to EUR 12 500 are involved , and that coincides with the permitted maximum of the money-laundering directive .
However , the Commission has been asking for this matter to be looked into for the past eleven years , but in all that time , too little progress has been made , and for those reasons , the Commission is unable to give a positive response to those MEPs who proposed to grant the bank sector a certain level of self-regulating authority .
In the current economic downturn and at a time when we are also facing particular challenges because of the adverse economic consequences of the terrible terrorist acts of 11 September - and in considering these issues we have to take into account a new aspect , the collapse of consumer confidence - we must also ask ourselves the following question : what can we do to stop a self-fulfilling prophecy , which states that we are sliding into recession , from becoming a reality ?
There are small , competitive companies able to take on , to employ people who would be willing to take part in co-sharing operations on European routes .
That translated into political profiteering , political appointments of the manifestly incompetent and political interference by the Belgian Royal House to keep the company in French-speaking hands .
The extremely difficult situation should also prompt the Commission to clamp down on competition-distorting practices in transatlantic relations .
We are waiting for a forward-looking vision of economic development , a project which is humane and intelligent , and which will enable sustainable development to be achieved .
Transport policy needs to be revised so that greater use is made of public transport , renewable sources of energy need to be supported and encouraged and research is needed into the most efficient generating systems and the cheapest , least-polluting consumption systems .
Increasing tension in the Middle Belt has at the same time illustrated my growing concern for the ever-widening chasm between religions that is fanning out towards the middle and south of the country .
The European Union has proposed , as part of its joint action on small arms and light weapons , to introduce a series of confidence-building measures , including measures to improve transparency .
It is not , then , some concept that we are defending , but rather its content and political essence , so I want to make it very clear today that , to put it mildly , there has been great disquiet in Parliament about the Council ' s and the Commission 's long-standing efforts to draft an action plan for better lawmaking , about the working parties that have already and secretly been drafting papers with the objective of putting this programme of action on the Laeken agenda - all of which has been done without involving or even informing Parliament , the joint legislator .
Their perceived isolation from the decision-making process has left them frustrated and cold .
I would , though , also like to extend my warm thanks to the rapporteurs , Mr Leinen , Mr Méndez de Vigo and Mrs Kaufmann for having focussed their excellent reports so well on the vital importance to us of making Europe 's decision-making structures more democratic and more efficient and for pointing out that there must be no contradiction in this , much as that might have appeared to be the case here and there , with elements of democracy having to be sacrificed for efficiency 's sake .
Both as regards the Convention and legislation , what matters to us is that we , as the people 's directly elected Members of Parliament , are convinced , not that we can do everything , which would be quite false , but that we should have control of the decision-making process .
We want this ' call back position ' only in the event of a delegated decision-making structure being incapable or coming to the wrong decisions - wrong , that is , in the sense of being contrary to what the legislature intended .
We must do so and bear in mind three objectives , namely to clarify the decision-making process , to improve the efficiency and transparency of this process , and to encourage the involvement of citizens .
It calls for a more wide-ranging agenda .
Therefore , do not underestimate the Convention due to the fact that it is not a decision-making body ; do not underestimate its political weight or its political force .
To give the Egyptian courts their due , it was not the owners per se or the master of the ship who were responsible , it was the three unfortunate lower-ranking members of the crew .
If I rightly understand the indications from the Member States ' governments and from the Council , these will meet with wide-ranging agreement between Parliament and the Council .
As such , it constitutes no ground for the enormous political pressure and the break-neck speed of the decision-making process .
Such a proposal revolutionises the application of national and European criminal law and therefore deserves a well considered and transparent decision-making process , preceded by a proper public debate .
The proposal for a directive is meant to insert into the criminal law of all the Member States a standard definition of offences such as fraud , corruption , money-laundering etc. to the detriment of the Community Budget .
The Green Paper will , of course , initiate a wide-ranging discussion .
This meeting was arranged following the completion of our fact-finding mission , which took us from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and Ramallah .
We are considering for example , at the moment how to deal with the situation in Afghanistan - whether we should put a task force into Afghanistan in order to get quick-acting projects going as soon as possible .
Some adaptability is also needed if we are to be a well-functioning partner in this endeavour .
Finally , the committee addressed the most far-reaching dilemmas of the new frontiers of research into stem cells , which offer extraordinary potential for possible applications .
Mr President , after about a year of intensive investigation into human genetics and its effects on medicine , after countless hearings and conversations during on the spot fact-finding visits , I now have less hope than when I started .
Mr President , Mr Fiori ' s report on genetics marks an important stage in the European and international debate on a sensitive , far-reaching issue which demands close attention in the political world because of the responsibilities it involves .
We know that at any given moment in a decision-making process , there comes a time when it is necessary to look up from what we are doing and ask ourselves the question , ' Shall I go on or shall I stop ' .
Do we really want to be blinded by the interests of self-seeking researchers ?
I do not want English-speaking people who look at this amendment to think for one second that I voted for that .
Forcing civil aviation operators and the largest among them , the companies running airports and the airlines , not only to comply with long-standing security measures but also to bear the costs of these themselves would be a straightforward matter .
The ' in ' shows that the current priority should be to involve the national parliaments in the European decision-making processes , so that it can reforge links with the citizens .
The involvement of all these agencies does nothing to change the substance of the debate , nor does it provide any basic opportunity to intervene , in that , apart from anything else , it will have merely advisory rather than decision-making powers .
In the confusion resulting from it , the linchpin of the European decision-making process , the national State , is abandoned .
Madam President , I wish to draw the House 's attention to the vigorous protests and exasperation of Greek farmers , who are again involved in mass dynamic demonstrations against the anti-farming policy of the European Union , which is turning them off their land , ruining them and forcing them to abandon the countryside .
We do not want to see an all-singing , all-dancing bureaucracy - we want an authority which is focused on safety , on the assessment of risk , on giving guidance where appropriate to the managers of risk .
It is clear from the amendments on which Parliament will vote that compromises have been sought which should enable the regulation to be adopted without a time-wasting conciliation process .
This House had requested that whenever frequency reallocation , in particular , was at stake , Parliament should , through the codecision procedure , be consulted and involved in the decision-making process .
In the decision , or rather in the Belgian Presidency proposal that I now have before me , I see that by deleting two little words in Amendment No 1 , that is to say ' in particular ' , the decision-making power is in fact to be considerably extended .
In this rapidly-moving period of change , we will make up for lost ground ; and particular attention has been paid to the importance of convergence , of rapprochement .
The relationship between the development of the regulatory framework and the dynamics of the markets should be pursued using a forward-looking approach which favours competitive conditions , ensuring the rapid distribution of innovative services , in order to provide direction for the market and the future exclusive application of the procurement rules which are gradually replacing ex-ante rules .
Those are broad-ranging provisions that will develop as services expand .
Yes , we are dealing with a very fast-moving market and rapidly evolving technology , and we have tried to take that into account by acting relatively speedily .
This is a very fast-moving market , and so we need fast decision-making processes that produce binding rulings and , above all , more legal security as well .
This is a very fast-moving market , and so we need fast decision-making processes that produce binding rulings and , above all , more legal security as well .
The three institutions , Council , Parliament and Commission , were aware that the time factor was vital in the case of one of the fastest-developing technologies .
The next item is the debate on the report ( A5-0422 / 2001 ) by Mr Bushill-Matthews , on behalf of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs , on the Commission report to the European Parliament and the Council : Growth and Employment Initiative - Measures on financial assistance for innovative and job-creating Small- and Medium-sized enterprises ( SMEs ) ( COM ( 2001 ) 399 - C5-0459 / 2001 - 2001 / 2183 ( COS ) ) .
The Commission 's report is encouraging , this criticism notwithstanding , providing , as it does , evidence that it is worth investing in these forward-looking sectors , and that is entirely in the employees ' interest .
Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , there is a saying that what is good is worth waiting for , and Mr Graefe zu Baringdorf , the rapporteur , has referred clearly to the never-ending story of the matter under discussion .
It is specifically with reference to co-decision that it has at last been made clear that Parliament keeps on coming up with good ideas that find their way into work like this report on the never-ending story about the declaration of compound feedingstuffs .
In the meantime , a wide-ranging debate on the future of the Union is already taking place in all the European countries , and that debate must be ongoing and must provide input for the work of the Convention .
It should be possible to set up a joint database to monitor the decision-making process for each topic .
Each Commissioner stands before the relevant Parliamentary committee on average seven times a year to discuss political issues relating to his or her responsibilities , to his or her portfolio ; 80 % of subjects are dealt with in plenary by the committee responsible ; a record-breaking number of confidential documents has been sent to Parliament ; each year , to date , we answer over 3 000 questions from Members of Parliament and dealt with 200 petitions referred to us by the Ombudsman .
The negotiations will aim to further improve market access and dismantle the different types of trade-distorting aid .
This is also in line with your own resolution , which called for the rejection of competition-distorting measures , and it corresponds to our own mandate , which commits us to negotiate on domestic support while retaining the concept of the blue box and green box .
Sustainable development and the inclusion of environmental considerations in trade policy decisions were agreed to be an all-embracing objective in future talks , something that is certainly of crucial importance to us , the countries in the Union .
We made progress on the method and thanks to India we had a system not of prior evaluation but of ongoing evaluation during the negotiations : textiles , agriculture , anti-dumping measures , subsidies and even intellectual property were negotiated - with the possibility of renegotiation .
He said to me : " If I had the financial where-with-all , despite the fact I am 70 years old , I would open new restaurants throughout Europe serving trenette with pesto , Genoa-style chick pea flour , Recco focaccia and Camogli pan-fried fish " - apologies to any of my fish-loving friends who are listening - " for these are excellent dishes and I would like to take them to the whole of Europe .
The Commission proposal merely serves the objective of reinforcing the European venture capital market by setting up financial intermediaries , who are neither controlled nor operate on the basis of job-creating criteria .
This really shows how important it is to have a balancing instrument , a fine-tuning instrument .
We have organised and funded capacity-building support to provide very strong assistance in this effort and this is what we have to do right now .
This mission identified serious wide-ranging deficiencies in the operation of official controls and production standards in this sector .
Partly , because Europe , like other rich countries , refuses to cut down on market-distorting aid .
There may be the political explanation that patent law should not obstruct the production of life-saving medicines in emergency situations , this explanation is not entirely satisfactory .
The Singaporean Ambassador has again drawn my attention to his country 's long-standing desire to conclude a free trade agreement with the EU .
This is true in the case of transparency , and it is true as regards having a much larger number of the actors who sit around the WTO table being involved in the decision-making process , but I think that at Doha we probably went as far as we could in terms of what informal action can add to formal action , and I think that we shall have to think about this matter very soon .
Instead , sufficient time is needed to transpose these far-reaching measures into national legislation .
Such regulations could lead to ever-changing regulations in the period 2003 - 2006 .
The competence of a state to examine a file and the decision-making responsibility should be decided on the basis of the asylum seeker ' s choice of country of residence rather than by the country of arrival , which is so difficult to decide in a Union that has supposedly abolished borders .
Let me point out that this is not so much a question of making unrealistic and well-meaning proposals and but rather of analysing the situation objectively , which means we must look at this external dimension as a key part of our policy .
However , it also illustrated all the limitations and ambiguities of a decision-making process based entirely on unanimity .
They will have to reflect on how the next Intergovernmental Conference could introduce institutional changes and reform the decision-making mechanisms in such a way as to ensure the full achievement of the area of freedom , security and justice .
This is a dual question , since it concerns , firstly , your institution ' s role in the decision-making process in the field of justice and home affairs , and secondly , how it can exercise its powers in the appropriate manner .
Moreover , there is some risk that this situation could block the decision-making process ; even if this risk is overcome at the price of artificially separating acts that in fact have the same aim , this deadlock would make the Union ' s action unintelligible to the citizens .
I say this particularly to the Italian left-wing Members , the diligent supporters who regularly find room to express themselves in this House and also in the newspapers , thanks to the work of partisan reporters with little objectivity .
Our desire to reform the European decision-making process and to close the so-called democratic loophole are well-known .
It asks for the introduction of a phase of active openness in the Council ' s decision-making process .
I propose that we lay down such a modest reform of the decision-making process in a new interinstitutional agreement , and if anyone thinks that this is asking too much , they should say so .
It is therefore our duty to reject all the attacks made on the Italian Government by left-wing MEPs who do not understand the situation in Italy and who , beginning with the leader of the Socialist Group , Mr Barón Crespo , have made absolutely unfounded attacks on the Italian Government and on Italy .
Mr President , I wish to denounce the unacceptable behaviour of Mr Schmid , who was acting President this morning , who during the debate allowed some left-wing Members to make really personal attacks on Members of the Italian centre-right and in particular the Italian Prime Minister , Silvio Berlusconi , as well as involving President Fontaine by accusing her somehow of blocking in an evidently improper manner the request to waive Mr Berlusconi ' s parliamentary immunity .
Hospitals are going into the commercial market ; people with the most money can queue-jump and loss-making treatments are being scrapped .
The Council on Monday strongly encouraged the parties to take the first steps to end this devastating and self-fuelling cycle of violence that we have seen over the last 14 months .
Do we at least repeat our long-standing call for international observers to be sent to the region ?
There should be an international peace-keeping force monitoring the implementation of the Mitchell Agreement so that a start can be made with the immediate withdrawal from occupied territories and the immediate dismantling of all settlements .
This register contains all the documents that have been put before the Council or the preparatory bodies and which either serve as the basis for consultations , or have a definite influence on the decision-making process , or give an indication of the situation in certain files .
If the European Union wishes to strengthen its conflict-preventing role , also in the light of Cotonou , it must be adequately equipped .
The second objective of our communication is to raise the effectiveness of our actions in tackling ' cross-cutting issues ' such as trafficking in drugs or arms , the trading of illicit goods , environmental degradation and so on .
Last month , we committed funds under the rapid reaction mechanism to support the inter-Congolese dialogue , to launch preparatory actions for the reintegration of child soldiers and to support independent media or other confidence-building initiatives .
It is like saying to a neighbour with whom you are on bad terms , for whom you have little respect left , " Let us sit at the same table , but just remember that I think you a vulgar , good-for-nothing thief " .
There is , therefore , probably little scope for a formal process of open coordination which , as already mentioned , relates to topics which fall within the decision-making remit of the national states .
Giving concrete form to the equal rights of homosexual employees of the European institutions appears to be turning into a never-ending story .
Secondly , we must recognise the importance of the role played by professional beekeepers by maintaining their status in the face of large bee-keeping operations , since they thereby allow the existence of a fully sustainable stock-breeding activity , which favours rural development and which , furthermore , produces healthy and high-quality products , and which is socially very beneficial , given its important contribution to environmental quality and its active role in conserving bio-diversity by means of the pollination carried out by bees .
Secondly , we must recognise the importance of the role played by professional beekeepers by maintaining their status in the face of large bee-keeping operations , since they thereby allow the existence of a fully sustainable stock-breeding activity , which favours rural development and which , furthermore , produces healthy and high-quality products , and which is socially very beneficial , given its important contribution to environmental quality and its active role in conserving bio-diversity by means of the pollination carried out by bees .
A week ago , in Kabul , I saw de-mining activities funded by ECHO .
I am convinced that they will succeed in building up their own organisations so that they too can influence the economic and social decision-making processes .
A report by a local humanitarian fact-finding mission , which visited the area ( including Poso and Tentena ) last week , suggests that the situation is now relatively calm , but that it remains very tense .
With the Cotonou Agreement , the Union has confirmed that it had no intention of reducing our long-standing cooperation in Africa and the EUR 15 billion envelope that we have outlined and will commit over the next five years clearly demonstrates this determination .
Even the main languages of the European Union , such as French , which is also one of the UN official languages , Spanish , which is one of the up-and-coming world languages and was officially used for the first time in the American electoral campaign and will soon become the second language of the USA , and German , which is the mother tongue of the majority of the inhabitants of the EU , are now minority languages .
The ' Community method ' has enabled the Union to become what it is : a union of peoples and a union of States , requiring an innovative decision-making structure with common institutions and a single voice representing all the countries , both large and small .
The willingness to contemplate a constitution for Europe , is necessary not just for reasons of simplicity but for reasons of stating and re-stating ideals , contemporary values , citizens ' rights , institutional balances , and creating the proper checks and balances .
What people want from Europe is liberation from oppressive American imperialism , to drive back much more aggressively the rule of unilateralism , to develop a wide-ranging strategy of conflict prevention by meeting the needs of development , equality and dignity of the people of the south .
There will be broad-ranging representation at this Convention which will afford all participants a time for real reflection as to the direction that the European Union must take in the immediate years ahead .
Parliament ' s key objective at Laeken was to see a Convention launched with a broad-ranging agenda .
In my opinion , it is impossible to overestimate the significance of the fact that a majority of the members of the Convention will be democratically-elected members of the national parliaments and the European Parliament , that it will meet in public and talk to all kinds of organisations from civil society , and that the candidate countries will be involved in drafting proposals for the most far-reaching reform in the European Union 's history .
The delegates in Laeken Palace did not hear the stentorian voice of the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators from all over Europe : the voice of the poor , of the unemployed , of the people with no job security and of the victims of soul-destroying exploitation who actually create our wealth .
It is very representative of the different components of the Convention and of the European decision-making world .
Finally , I also believe it was a serious mistake to back off from a decision to nominate a European Union peace-keeping force for Afghanistan under a UN mandate .
This Convention is much more reminiscent of the American nation-building exercise in Philadelphia in 1787 .
One of the main characteristics of my candidacy is its firmly left-wing stance .
Since that time , the Spring Councils have provided the opportunity to discuss economic , social and environmental issues as part of a wide-ranging strategy for sustainable development .
The prevention of the use of the European financial system as a money-laundering route for terrorism must continue to be a priority for our Union .
Mr President , it is a shame that , yet again , some of the left-wing Members have adopted a presumptuous , party-political position of opposition to Italy , to a people , that is , who elected their government freely and democratically , with regard to the development of the future and present European Union .
This is a job-destroying agenda .
We agree with the Commission in any case that lawmaking and the decision-making process in the European Union should again and again have their effectiveness monitored .
This suggestion has prompted broad , far-reaching debate and could lead to the report being referred back to committee if a position supported by a sufficient majority is not achieved at the vote .
An inventory should be established of environmentally-damaging subsidies , and these must be phased out by 2010 at the latest .
Regarding Mrs Myller ' s reference to the common environment tax , I would make a point of mentioning recent reports in Sweden to the effect that the dramatic fall in the quantities of climate-changing gases is due precisely to the carbon dioxide tax .
These are not the inspired ramblings of a Green mind , they are existing policy in Denmark and Sweden , and even the new Danish government , that is from the right-wing school of thought , has no intention of changing this policy .
As the report points out , if space activities are to be intended only for peaceful purposes , this can include military uses for peace-keeping activities , as requested in the amendment tabled by Mr Chichester and Mr Radwan on behalf of the Group of the European People ' s Party ( Christian Democrats ) and European Democrats .
Here we have Amendment No 1 , which says : ' ... which can also include a military application for peace-keeping operations . '
A Europe that is willing to involve its citizens more in the decision-making process , thereby giving a practical example of governance .
The driving profession , with the ever-increasing demands made upon it , must be built up and made more appealing .
Another of the aspects dear to my own heart is the move towards establishing a far greater input into the decision-making process by fishermen , scientists and conservationists .
Thirdly , the new common fisheries policy must establish a sustainable management system , integrating the skills , knowledge and expertise of professionals into the decision-making process .
The forthcoming revision of the common fisheries policy will also ensure much more far-reaching implementation of the common decisions in all the Member States .
I urge you , in your term in office , to ensure a thorough reform of the decision-making procedures of this Assembly .
In recent years , drivers have faced ever-increasing demands as part of their job .
It is dishonest of the EU , on the one hand , to demand of the ACP States efforts to develop a self-supporting economy , whilst at the same time using export subsidies to stifle early attempts at doing so .
I believe that they will want , in the coming weeks , to try to find between our institutions a way to recognise the substance of these issues , which is about our role as a Parliament in representing citizens of the Union and their concerns in the law-making process .
The transition from relief to reconstruction and development requires flexibility in the decision-making process .
We have all identified the same difficulties , such as the unduly slow decision-making processes , problems related to the scope of financing instruments and the need to find the right implementing partners .
We also wanted to define those buildings which are excluded from the application of energy-saving measures and , also , in order that our proposal is not rejected , we have proposed , like Mr Vidal-Quadras , that we accept the Commission ' s proposal aimed at reducing the area of the buildings affected .
The advantage of that could be that , by means of the financial resources available within the Bank , and also with the available reserves , more could be done and more risk-bearing action could be taken than is currently the case , provided that sound supervision is in place .
This should have far-reaching consequences for the type of transport and energy projects that can be supported .
This is matched by the claim that the committee wants to enhance democratic control over this fast-moving area .
My third point is that whoever wants to do that must take all necessary steps to enhance the efficiency of the decision-making procedure and accelerate the legislative process .
The insurers Allianz have said that they will only go into markets where they will be among the top three , and that , on an international level , will become a self-fulfilling prophecy .
Which is why I am against the amendments tabled by Members trying to support the anti-smoking campaign by raising prices .
Mr President , it is obvious to us , too , that increased prices lead to a drop in the consumption of tobacco products , particularly cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco .
That is precisely why we are against abolishing or even reducing tobacco-farming subsidies , as many would have us do .
We are increasingly concerned that ever-spiralling levels of tax on cigarettes may lead to increased smuggling .
The implementation and integration of the securities markets must , however , be based on a more effective decision-making process - I refer here to the Lamfalussy report - which safeguards the interinstitutional balance while fully respecting all the levels of democratic control established and in operation .
I should like to thank the Commissioner for a wide-ranging reply and I note that two of the central achievements are those which Parliament has pushed through very strongly .
Gender is a cross-cutting issue in all projects funded from the Aid to Uprooted People budget .
I agree that the best way to tackle this ever-increasing fraud is to have close administrative cooperation between Member States .
As a rule , public warnings are always desirable , above all when it is suspected that a product has been widely distributed , which is always the likely case in the never-ending cycle of food production .
At the moment , the Members ' Statute , which is a long-standing ambition of this Parliament , towards which we have been working for many years , is not simply something we wish to see .
What is , however , highly problematic about certain areas of this decision-making process is the circumvention of Parliament - of Parliament , which represents the citizens of our European Union and the involvement of which is required by law and Treaty , indeed it must be involved prior to a resolution of the Council rather than afterwards .
In actual fact , I agree with Baroness Ludford that legal certainty is not , in all Member States , at a level that can justify such far-reaching surrender procedures as are at issue here .
The Monterrey Conference needs to be an innovative event , by tackling development and the fight against poverty from an all-encompassing position , covering the various aspects and encouraging the participation of all players .
Therefore , we consider that the defence of the democracy , of good governance , of strengthening the institutional development of aid-receiving countries , the Rule of Law , peace and security , and human rights , are crucial elements of economic and social development as a whole .
This is why Europe , as the world ' s largest donor of development cooperation and as the largest international trading power , must be prepared to throw its weight into the balance , building on the successes achieved at Doha , with a view to reaching authentic binding agreements in Monterrey about aid , education , health care and far-reaching debt relief .
Aid must help set up good governance , democratic structures and a well-functioning market economy .
What we need is an all-embracing concept of the peaceful development of the poor countries .
This has already happened with cotton , using high nitrate levels and environmental protection as a pretext , and with tobacco , using the anti-smoking campaign and the protection of public health as a pretext .
The European Union intends to issue a message in defence of its values , which I listed previously : the defence of democracy , of good governance , of strengthening the institutional development of aid-receiving countries , the Rule of Law , peace and security and human rights .
By then hand-wringing resolutions deploring human rights abuses by a re-elected Mugabe government would be no more meaningful than were the protests of the then League of Nations following Mussolini 's invasion of Abyssinia .
These are the appropriate solutions to pursue , not those which would lead to confusion of the roles of the European Parliament and national parliaments and add to the unwieldiness of the Union ' s institutional structure and decision-making mechanisms .
We need the European Union to be made , in a far-reaching way , more democratic and parliamentary , we need definite constitutional reinforcement of the existing parliaments , but we do not need another chamber .
The third element which I have to mention is the report ' s wise , categorical refusal of a Chamber composed of representatives of national parliaments , thus avoiding making the decision-making process more unwieldy and , most importantly , preserving the distinction between the competences of national and European parliaments .
That is why I added a minority opinion to the Napolitano report in order to explain that there will not be any true democratisation of the Union unless we reassess the value of the national parliaments , and unless they acquire direct power in the European decision-making process .
I also say that we do not need a third chamber , something that would bring no added value and would only make the decision-making arrangements as a whole more complicated .
In order to achieve this , we do not need to complicate the decision-making process , to impose competences or to continue to foster suspicion .
We now know that we may have two options : either indirectly , by improving the prerogatives of each national parliament in each of the Member States , or directly , by introducing new procedures to enable the national parliaments to intervene more directly in the European decision-making process .
The European decision-making process is already sufficiently complicated , not to mention , of course , the risks of institutional conflicts that might arise between the third chamber and this House , with which the Commission has , for many years , shared and defended a certain vision and ambition for the Community model .
Despite that belief , I call for a far-reaching reform of the EU 's regional policy , without critical examination of which the future of the enlarged EU , especially as regards its post-2006 financial arrangements , will be uncertain .
All issues relating to the regions may be dealt with within the Convention and the latter will make what it feels are the appropriate recommendations to the Intergovernmental Conference on the importance of the role of the regions in the Union ' s decision-making process .
This decision is a serious new violation of international law and democratic freedoms , since it is directed against a large popular movement in Colombia which has considerable support not only inside the country but also abroad , including in many EU Member States , because of its long-standing struggle for a political settlement to the conflict in Colombia , democratic agricultural reform , democratic and trade-union freedoms and an end to the death squads ' reign of terror .
And since I am speaking about a concept of Europe , I want to tell you , ladies and gentlemen , that the debate on cohesion , which I launched a year ago and which I will be seeing through to completion , in a genuine and decentralised manner , with the Member States - you can count on me to do this - the debate will be part of the other wide-ranging debate on the future of Europe .
If we impose the same speed limit on all HGVs , we are pre-programming traffic jams into the motorway system .
Violence , poverty and poor health among women are also commonplace , as is their absence from or under-representation in decision-making posts and , hence , their absence when Euro-Mediterranean cooperation is being negotiated and planned .
The Commission is taking a far more proactive and forward-looking approach in its proposals .
In order to preserve this traditional agricultural activity , which generates jobs at every stage of cane-sugar-rum production , the current system sets a minimum level for imports from the FOD into France which is strictly limited and supervised in order to compete with the ever-increasing sales of rum from third countries , which are not subject to the same production specifications .
The international community must , as a matter of urgency , adopt new initiatives that lead to an end to the violence , to re-establishing trust and to reopening negotiations between the two sides , in accordance with international law and with the relevant United Nations resolutions .
Where seats in regional parliaments are concerned , we are nonetheless proceeding on the basis that the rapporteur is referring to such parliaments as have independent legislative power and not to such parliaments as have delegated decision-making power , such as the Swedish county councils .
Consequently , in future we must see national parliaments as standing at the centre of the decision-making process , rather than on the periphery .
Citizens in the European Union generally see elections to their national parliaments ( and , in some countries , elections to the national presidency ) as the fundamental democratic choice between , for example a left- or right-wing government .
the non-binding nature of the monitoring of project implementation .
This proposal concerns not just earthquakes , but floods , fires and major accidents such as those which occurred recently in Austria and France , and makes provision for a first decision-making level resulting in a form of cooperation and proper coordination of national mechanisms , so that exponential results can be obtained from the mechanisms in the individual Member States for dealing with disasters .
I am confident that this House will support the Commission as we strive to find solutions that will ensure that the European Union ' s decision-making process is both efficient and democratic .
However , the major shareholders in the bank will be the European Investment Bank , the Commission , the share-holding countries and , most importantly , the countries of the southern Mediterranean .
This is the most important debate in terms of the European Parliament ' s work over the next year and we are dealing with it as if it were a question of procedure and a rubber-stamping debate .
However , the strategic role assumed at Lisbon by the research and development policies of promoting education and lifelong learning and increasing the active population and the employment of older workers requires that these goals be part of an economic and social policy developed and decided by a single entity according to an agreed decision-making process , not least using forms of open cooperation .
This does not mean seeking revenge or retaliation , but to ensure that justice prevails as an essential condition for long-lasting peace and reconciliation in every situation where there has been serious conflict .
The search for this wide-ranging support for the Court should inspire our efforts .
These are not interinstitutional posts but Commission posts for which the Commission itself is the appointing and decision-making body .
We have therefore witnessed a complete change from the sluggishness of the decision-making process for which , with good reason , we are often blamed .
The same applies to delays in paying out assistance , because when only small sums are involved , the beneficiaries need to receive them as quickly as possible and the pre-financing stage needs to be shortened because , in addition to doing the work , they generally have to pre-finance the projects as well .
I can assure you that we will persevere to ensure that simplified administrative procedures and shorter decision-making processes become the norm .
In spite of the fact that we acknowledge the rapporteur ' s efforts to defend important social objectives and that we have supported many of his proposals , we believe that the report as a whole has acquired a clear right-wing bias and indicates a path of development that will create major problems for ordinary people around Europe .
Mr President , I am sure that , like me , you were pleased to see that Mrs Lucas ' report seeks to increase the use of the bicycle as a mode of transport , for it is a clean , non-polluting mode of transport which is good for the health of those who use it , even if they are not called Coppi , Bartali , Merckx or Gimondi .
One of the over-riding imperatives of Europe 's economy must be to compete in the global market , and this change is a necessary precondition to that end .
The mechanisation and automation of post-handling services are a case in point .
I do feel , however , that the difficulty will now be preventing the Commission distorting the meaning of the text when it interprets and applies it , thus upsetting the balance reached and , worst of all , violating Parliament 's decision-making rights .
The first EU country to introduce effective data protection was , interestingly enough , the country with the most far-reaching rules when it comes to openness and transparency .
It seems to me that we need a priority-setting , forward-thinking agenda , which is why we are supporting the idea of a study , so that we in the Budgets Committee should have an idea where the money is coming from .
It is very likely that the Green Paper will be a painful document , considering the situation of cod fishing in Scotland and the far-reaching implications of that .
In the future , you see , we also want renewable energy , energy efficiency and energy-saving measures to be focal points .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , the great merit of Mrs Izquierdo Rojo 's report is that it has triggered another wide-ranging debate about the influence of religious fundamentalism on the emancipation of women .
As a left-wing traditionalist , too , I believe that the state and the employer have a duty to protect workers from workplace hazards .
The Commission therefore brought intensive pressure to bear on the Romanian Government to embark on a radical overhaul of the entire system , starting with the legislation and including the institutions , structures , procedures and decision-making channels - indeed , every aspect of the process .
I would now like to ask whether the Commission has considered any tools that might be used through our policy on development cooperation to lessen this ever-growing exploitation of religious tension .
Is the Commission envisaging toughening the current , protracted complaint-making procedure to penalise Member States who consistently fail to comply with EU law and what would these reforms consist of and when would they be launched ?
Please answer me , but give me an answer that talks about alternative jobs and practicalities and do not try to silence us with rabble-rousing talk , or some nonsense about alternative crops .
For example , they will also focus on a regime for export credits , the export subsidy element of various food programmes , and trade-distorting practices by state-owned trading companies .
Mr President , Madam Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , species extinction and the loss of biodiversity in Europe and worldwide are proceeding at an ever-increasing pace .
The common agricultural policy must for that reason alone undergo far-reaching changes .
A new type of food product is being advertised here , and the advertisements often focus on additional health- and performance-enhancing qualities , sometimes proven but often imputed , of these products .
Mr President , Commissioner , the matter under discussion is very intricate and complex , and is one that will have a very far-reaching effect on the food industry .
We do not intend to make vegetarians of them , any more than we can induce carrion-eating birds to stop eating carrion .
I have also ordered wide-ranging reports on the implementation of the directive .
Nice saw the adoption of an agreement that did not go far enough , especially in the areas simplifying decision-making mechanisms , reform of the Council , and reform of the Commission 's structures and democratisation .
Our institutions and our decision-making procedures are like a Trabant , when what we need is a Mercedes .
The regulations and directives enacted through the three decision-making procedures in Europe must be streamlined and simplified .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , I wish to thank Parliament most warmly for the wide-ranging support it has given the Presidency of the Council and the Commission in the enlargement process , and I consider it highly significant that this common purpose and cooperation are continuing .
The relationship between the European Union and the United States is based on strong and long-standing ties between our respective peoples and governments , and rests on fundamental values such as the respect for human rights , personal freedom , the rule of law , a democratic form of government and the system of free trade .
At first reading , the majority of the EP rejected a further weight decrease of postage under 150 grams for distribution in a competitive market , as well as more far-reaching forms of liberalisation in due course .
On-going debates , lack of scientific certainty and permanent differences of opinion on the effectiveness of substances cannot be resolved by legislation which from the outset lumps together anything which deviates from established medical science under the umbrella of fraudulent practices .
He wants to buy votes in steel-producing areas come November and is so desperate to do so that he will gladly sacrifice his international credibility - and we in the EU and others elsewhere in the world are meant to pay the price !
The reversal of the unemployment trend and an upturn on the Nasdaq contrast , in fact , with the sharp rise in oil prices , perhaps because of the winds of war blowing through the oil-producing countries .
We are talking now about the Trentin report , which we unanimously adopted in committee , and which relates to the broad economic policy guidelines and to a decision-making process which in the first place concerns the Commission .
A large contribution may be made by company profit-sharing schemes , which allow ordinary shares in the company to be acquired up to a certain percentage of gross profits .
The pay of those who join profit-sharing companies goes up , while those that leave have to bear a substantial pay cut .
What institutional mechanisms does it believe need to be brought into being or strengthened in order to get a joint decision-making process under way between the Mediterranean partners ?
By way of conclusion , I should therefore like to propose that both the Commission and the European Parliament take initiatives for such a far-reaching discussion .
However , it is hard to reconcile various other areas of tax coordination with a forward-looking approach .
Merging the three pillars and streamlining the decision-making structures are all things that we have already approved in the Leinen-Méndez de Vigo report and in various other reports .
Mr President , I should like to warmly welcome this report by Mrs Carlotti and congratulate her on her very thorough and far-reaching work .
The fish-processing industry depends on imports for over 50 % of its supplies .
One thing is clear ; the fish-processing industry does not cause pollution and toxins .
The moral of the story is that the fish-processing industry needs a higher profile in Europe .
Like the European Parliament , the Commission also sees the European fish-processing industry as an important sector of the economy .
May I remind you that it is addressed in our structural policy , especially in items 4 to 7 , 14 and 22 and have already supported measures to modernise the European fish-processing industry .
We do not see money-making institutions taking swift measures to try to monitor their methods .
It is unacceptable socially because it disadvantages tens of thousands of tobacco-growing families in the poorest areas of the European Union , who are unable to grow alternative crops .
( NL ) The European Union pursues a policy which , on the one hand , discourages the smoking of tobacco products while , on the other , encouraging the production of tobacco by granting subsidies to tobacco-growing farmers .
We should have , on the one hand , reaffirmed that each nation is sovereign in this area and , on the other hand , made broader proposals than those which aim to make NGOs exempt from paying VAT and to include , for example , all the cultural events staged by non profit-making associations .
We believe that a change of this kind can , in itself , be made while retaining the existing decision-making models and institutional structure .
At the same time , FARC is continuing its extortion activities , claiming a supposed right to impose taxes on drug-trafficking organisations , which I believe has completely stripped it of any legitimacy , because an organisation that takes part in acts of gratuitous violence and which , furthermore , tries to make money out of drugs trafficking , ultimately loses any basis for legitimacy .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , the Commission shares Parliament 's concern about the current situation in Columbia and also shares the view expressed in the resolution , that negotiations are the only feasible way of helping to resolve the long-standing conflict in Columbia .
An uneasy air of confrontation has recently arisen between the Communist Government of the Republic of Moldavia and the Romanian-speaking nationalists .
We cannot be satisfied with theoretical policy decisions ; we also need wide-ranging cooperation as regards our economies , the financial sector and also between the peoples involved .
Along with the many initiatives envisaged by the Spanish Presidency with a view to bringing about ever-increasing integration and greater development of information systems for combating terrorism , the Barcelona measures must be speeded up without delay ; moreover , we are determined that , although Professor Biagi 's life has been lost , his ideals and projects for reform will live on .
Two or three delegations of left-wing members of the Italian parliament have been stopped at Tel Aviv airport and sent home again : they did no more than visit the inside of the airport , creating further disturbance and generating further concern .
In this respect , we must recognise that the current system of cooperation between police forces , based on non-binding agreements and ad hoc contacts fostered at each match , has demonstrated its weakness if not its inefficiency .
Admittedly , it does nothing more than combine five already-existing programmes , but this combination creates homogeneity and clarity , which is particularly necessary in the difficult area of judicial cooperation in criminal matters .
I have therefore proposed a number of systematic clarifications , which met with wide-ranging support in the committee .
However , it must be said that if a rigorous approach means not a police state but , first and foremost , a guarantee of the proper implementation of procedures for granting asylum ; if being rigorous means first and foremost distinguishing between irregular immigrants and illegal immigrants and criminals , distinguishing between honest immigrants and drug smugglers and slave traders , well then , if this is the case , I welcome the rigorous approach , a carefully considered rigorous approach ; not least because the well-meaning people have nothing to fear from us being rigorous and asylum seekers will receive only a welcome , understanding and help .
This is a paradox for the population , and in my report , I urge for more efforts to be made in order to make it clear to the people in Kosovo that energy-saving measures will need to be stepped up , and that energy will also need to be paid for in order to achieve a more sustainable policy .
They are not suited to the settlement of party-political disputes , and there should not , therefore , be constant and self-tormenting calls for them .
Our world is expanding at an ever-increasing rate , although this Chamber might not always be willing to admit it .
Europol has become fully operational since July 1999 , and since 1 January 2002 Europol can deal now with combating broad-ranging types of serious international crime .
However , to extend this principle - as in Amendment No 13 , as we understand it - to include family members who are already in the country for other reasons could have far-reaching consequences , for it could cover all kinds of lawful reasons for having been granted a residence permit , for example in connection with studying .
We in Parliament have now got used to the presence of an ex-general , namely our fellow MEP Mr Morillon , but to my knowledge this is the first time that we in this House are addressing true generals - high-ranking military , I assume .
It is clear to the Communist Party of Greece and other peace-loving forces in Greece that this policy does not foster peace .
That is why this policy does not have our support , the support of peace-loving forces with visions of a different world , diametrically opposed to today 's world which , unfortunately , relies more and more on the law of the jungle .
High-ranking military representing more or less the entire European arm of NATO commented on television that the Yugoslav National Army , in a state of collapse , would prove invincible for us .
It is so much more gratifying to listen to MEPs and leaders of the political groups demanding that action should be taken , that the options under the Association Agreement should be used and that , in particular , peace-keeping troops should be despatched .
This has since been dealt with in the Watts report , which requires ships to comply with maritime traffic systems , improvements to be made to ship-locating systems and so on .
Consequently , we believe that the discussion in the three working languages within the Bureau does not contravene these principles , because it would also have a cost-saving effect and avoids all procedures being conducted in English .
The disposal of gases with a considerable global-warming potential is not very effective .
It is the fastest-growing part of the waste stream , indeed it is growing three times faster than the average .
That is why I think that we do not need to wait for a never-ending story to unfold to analyse the risks but to unite and promote a balanced solution .
We remain concerned about the persistent difficult operating conditions for humanitarian organisations in the Northern Caucasus , notably the opaque and time-consuming system of access and work permits for Chechnya , and also the denial to humanitarian NGOs of the right to use VHF radio communication which is very important for their safety .
It should also take account of the opportunities for mobilising an ever-increasing flow of foreign investment .
The far-reaching changes anticipated within the European Union should be taken into account when establishing a free trade area .
Conditions on the ground , however , as experienced in Cyprus , where 37 % of the island is still occupied , or by the long-suffering people of Palestine , subject to a criminal all-out attack by Israel , unfortunately not just tolerated , but still being funded and armed by the European Union , are somewhat different .
At institutional level first , the proposed annual summit of the countries involved in the Barcelona Process and the proposed parliamentary assembly , responsible primarily for monitoring Association Agreements , will provide a far-reaching tool which can last the course .
Only thus , I feel , will we be able to create a far-reaching area of democracy , economic growth and emergence from poverty , which are essential conditions if we are to promote and uphold the need for an area within which there is a shared policy of respect for the individual and safeguarding of human rights , which is the prerequisite for the success of any peace policy .
They may be right in some cases , but to admit to them that they are right would offer scope to less well-meaning competitors who , with less responsibility and therefore lower prices , would like to take the markets by storm and expand .
They are a peace-loving people who are thrown into prison in their thousands .
We have received blood-curdling accounts and testimonies on this score .
This topic is far too important to be permitted to be left exclusively to a closed circle in which far-reaching options are decided on .
We therefore hope that the non-binding method of open coordination can contribute to the setting of common objectives and to speedily turning these into national policies .
I would like to see wide-ranging discussion on this issue in Parliament in the future - with specific reference too to the legislative work of the Convention .
I should like to draw your attention to the efforts made by the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and to emphasise that my colleagues have helped to ensure that this report is today a more ambitious , more wide-ranging report , which also makes greater demands for the follow-up process .
Alcohol imports from third countries are finding it increasingly easy to gain access to the EU market due to new openings arising from preferential systems , GATT tariff-cutting agreements or bilateral negotiations with specific third countries that produce a large amount of alcohol .
I want better research and funding for Internet-tracing software .
It is worth trying to set every possible wheel in motion to harness the high-quality human resources available in order to improve the quality of training , so that culture and education become sources of life-giving energy which remains with people throughout their lives .
There are also long-standing ties with the Communist International in the region .
Children must be treated as fully-fledged partners in the decision-making process .
We also need to involve children in certain decision-making processes at appropriate levels .
However , having been reduced to a pathetic caricature of a country , with its people living a life of hell on earth , hope came to this long-suffering nation the day after the Unita rebel leader Jonas Savimbi was shot to death .
We could scarcely have imagined at that time that events would move on at such a pace that , today , great expectations for peace and reconciliation have appeared in that long-suffering country .
From this point of view , it is by improving safety on the ground that we shall be able to start using specialist organisations in mine-clearing operations , for which serious financial resources have already been earmarked .
I would also like to stress that practically all the Member States of the Barcelona Process attended at ministerial level and there was therefore an extremely high level of attendance and decision-making capacity , for which I am grateful to the countries of the South and the East of the Mediterranean as well as all my colleagues in the European Union .
I repeat my strong support for the UN-led fact-finding mission to Jenin .
At the same time , though , we declare it to be criminal to talk young people into strapping self-detonating devices to themselves in order to kill both themselves and others as well .
I shall conclude by saying that I support a UN-led international fact-finding mission to investigate events in Jenin , and I ask all those who , today , are in favour of this , bearing in mind that the State of Israel is a democratic country , why then did they refuse an international fact-finding mission being sent to Algeria , when Algeria is not nearly as democratic as Israel is today .
I shall conclude by saying that I support a UN-led international fact-finding mission to investigate events in Jenin , and I ask all those who , today , are in favour of this , bearing in mind that the State of Israel is a democratic country , why then did they refuse an international fact-finding mission being sent to Algeria , when Algeria is not nearly as democratic as Israel is today .
I would therefore like to use my time today to read you some of the things said by Palestinian and Israeli women who came to Parliament together to call for a European peace-keeping intervention .
I wish to ask : are we going to continue to churn out the fine words , the stirring speeches and the impressive-sounding votes , which we know are not really having any effect , when we have within our grasp the means to force Mr Sharon to change policy ?
As a long-standing friend of Israel , it pains me to have to say that Mr Sharon is irredeemably tainting Israel 's honour and is putting his country in a morally indefensible position and in a greater situation of international isolation than ever before .
Mr President , I welcome both Commissioner Patten 's contribution to this debate and Kofi Annan 's decision to send a fact-finding team to ascertain exactly what happened during the Israeli bombardment of Jenin refugee camp .
The time should be past when the European Parliament adopts politically lightweight resolutions simply in order to achieve what , from an objective point of view , is an impossible consensus across the whole political spectrum , from left-wing socialists and communists by way of social democrats to green liberals and Christian democrats , Eurosceptics and members of the radical right .
While we must be ever watchful of the civil liberties of our citizens , we must ensure that human rights legislation does not intrude excessively into operational areas which affect our ability to protect our law-abiding citizens and our democracies , particularly at a time of heightened threat .
People who live below the poverty line often have too little control over , and access to , services , sources of aid and goods and are barely involved in the decision-making process .
We repeatedly call for increased participation of women in these jobs , a better balance between men and women , but we still notice a difficulty in achieving the presence of women in decision-making posts .
We must monitor compliance with the Community objective of equality between men and women in programmes financed by European funds , pursuant to the Treaty , and to promote a greater participation of women in decision-making posts .
The fact is , the European job market is still fragmented along gender lines , women 's salaries are much lower than men 's , only 25 % of businesses belong to women and women are kept below the glass ceiling and out of responsible managerial and decision-making positions ; all examples of violations and discrimination against women .
With regard to the pay gap between men and women , the under-representation of women in positions of responsibility and the balanced participation of women and men in decision-making processes , we need to be more forceful in making everyone - the social partners , the political organisations , the institutions and the Member States - shoulder their responsibilities , and we should maybe introduce more effective instruments that provide better incentives than those used hitherto .
Another topic of core significance is the balanced representation of men and women in decision-making processes .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , I think that today we must determine why Member States are competing in an unfair and negative manner to win the prize for being the most off-putting State in terms of the way it welcomes nationals from other countries .
But I can in no way accuse you of xenophobia , as last year , we worked together in El Ejido on a fact-finding mission , precisely in order to protect those who have been victims of xenophobic aggression .
The events of 11 September had a far-reaching influence on the way the international community saw and understood this conference , bringing as they did in a tragic way the extent to which we depend on each other to the attention of a vast public quite apart from those who concern themselves with issues of development policy .
We must not forget that Europe has a responsibility to provide essential support to the poorest countries of the developing world through a long-term undertaking to help these countries and support them during a process of far-reaching change and economic and social development , in addition to cancelling the debt .
From the position of left-wing maverick in the previous Flemish Christian-Democratic Government , he is now on his way to seeking affiliation with the Liberals , which are now Belgium 's largest party in government .
I agree with the rapporteur that the directive should apply immediately , which is why we need to avoid time-consuming amendments to individual regulations .
In the light of ever-changing labour market developments , it is important for us to have enquired about all kinds of new categories of employees which have been referred to in discussions for some time and in respect of which we would , in fact , like a definition of the terms employer , employee , self-employed , self-employed without staff , etc .
The Commission highlights the complexity of this sector due to its diversity and its wide-ranging nature , which gives it little visibility at political level , a situation that does not properly reflect its true economic and social importance .
Clearly we need to incorporate the tourist parameter into all Community decision-making procedures and Mrs Torres Marques ' excellent report paves the way for just that .
In Jordan , which along with Malta and Cyprus , sets an example in the Mediterranean region , the proportion of women in higher education is already over 50 % , but that on the teaching staff of universities and colleges , and in decision-making positions in them is still very small , making the picture there similar to that in the European Union as far as the presence of women in leading positions in universities and colleges is concerned .
Only then will this initial impetus become the forward-moving process that Europe 's young people have every right to expect .
The White Paper is a logical step for a forward-looking youth policy .
I followed the long , anguished decision-making process on the Sixth Framework Programme closely ;
I know that some of these issues may be dealt with by the convention and I know the Council is talking about opening up its decision-making process to permit greater transparency .
The aims of the European Year , amongst which we would highlight making education and sports organisations aware of the need for cooperation , highlighting the importance of voluntary activity and providing incentives for including sporting activities in school curricula - and also the financial means to be provided - a financial package of EUR 11.5 million - clearly show the importance of this new line of awareness-raising action .
At national level , arguments that we neither want nor need are served up in beer halls , whilst , at the European level , the left-wing clientele is kept happy with demands that the public neither understands nor supports , such as , recently , for all applicants for asylum to have access to the labour market from day one on and to have freedom of movement right across the European Union , even though only 10 % of them can acquire refugee status .
Further shadow boxing and fine-sounding speeches are more in evidence than actual results .
In particular , deficits in Portugal and Germany have risen to levels approaching the 3 % of GDP reference value which prompted the Commission to activate the early-warning mechanism .
The focus of attention in recent months on the number one issue - the early-warning mechanism - has meant that several important measures that strengthen the quality and coverage of EU budgetary surveillance have been somewhat overlooked .
The recent economic downturn and the experience with the early-warning mechanism have underlined the importance of looking at underlying budgetary positions when assessing the budgetary positions of the Member States .
As you know , the Council decided to close the early-warning procedure as both countries reiterated their willingness to implement their stability programmes in full so as to avoid a breach of the 3 % of GDP reference value and to resume the process of budgetary consolidation in order to reach their medium-term targets by 2004 .
With regard to this first experience with the early-warning mechanism , in my view it is necessary to distinguish between the process , which was difficult , and the outcome which to date has been broadly successful .
The Commission , the Council and indeed the European Parliament must take note of this first experience with the early-warning mechanism and must learn certain important lessons from it :
( DE ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , since the publication of our Green Paper we , the Commission , have held wide-ranging discussions with all interested parties on the future of the common fisheries policy .
What is more , this does not have any effect on the delay in the decision-making process , because even if we had agreed the Commission 's proposal three weeks ago , the timing of the first discussion in the Agriculture Council and also in this House would have been the same .
( DE ) Mrs Miguélez Ramos , I would like to remind you that in my introduction I clearly indicated that we originally brought forward a Green Paper a year ago , and that provided a basis for a wide-ranging debate .
Lastly , the Commission has also launched various anti-doping measures , with particular reference to minors .
Lastly , the Commission is currently working on ideas for the implementation of a new Community anti-doping plan , which is intended to give even greater weight to the problems of combating doping amongst young people .
That is why we need such an action plan , which will take particular account of the need for doping checks and anti-doping measures .
With great skill , the rapporteur covers all the economic issues and major summits , from Lisbon to Barcelona , focusing on the major challenges represented by the ever-increasing number of elderly people and by economic refugees and their families , who represent an uncertain variable for the host State because of their tendency to work illegally .
The profit-sharing system and the profit-related pay system , which benefits 20 % of the workforce in employment in the United Kingdom , are models which must be further explored and applied to good effect .
But HACCP is a food safety management system devised for highly sophisticated food-processing operations .
Member States with up-and-running procedures governing the inspection of game before it is released onto the market must be able to retain their rules .
I should like to congratulate Parliament in particular on the ambitious and far-reaching initiatives contained in the resolution of 15 November 2001 .
We have concluded negotiations with Chile on an extremely wide-ranging agreement , as we said , which many faint hearts thought impossible .
But may I take this opportunity to point out in all modesty that the European Parliament has cultivated very close relations with Latin American parliamentarians for years now ; in fact , the longest-standing relations between the European Parliament and other parliaments are with Latin America and date back to the early 1970s .
I am hopeful that Chile will shortly become the most recent signatory to a wide-ranging cooperation agreement with the EU , as Mexico - whose President Fox is visiting us here in this House today - did following the first summit meeting in Rio in 1999 .
I have been a long-standing supporter of European research efforts .
Hunters who give away or sell small quantities of game directly to the local retail trade after the hunt cannot and should not have to meet the same requirements as large meat-processing factories .
Finally , the gradual and ever-increasing shift of power away from veterinary departments in the Member States and towards a Commission super-service , of which they then become outposts , may serve other suspect political objectives to which we are violently opposed , but it does nothing to foster effective control or consumer protection .
I therefore call upon all the elderly citizens of Europe , instead of dividing their votes between all the right- or left-wing parties that exist in their States - thus breaking up 33 % of the votes , for the elderly represent 33 % of the electorate - to form a pensioners ' party , which would then receive 33 % of the votes and send 208 representatives to this House , who would certainly be more effective than a single representative .
When one is on the ground and is able to listen to the evidence of the long-suffering populations , to assess the scale of the physical destruction and to guess how deeply the moral scars run , one can gain a better understanding of the meaning of the news that is now coming from the region .
I understand this , but all countries should consider that when the day comes that we are twenty-something countries , they will have to wait a long time for the Presidency to come round again .
Mr President , Secretary-General , in its resolution of 22 October 2001 on the reform of the Council , the European Parliament expressed the opinion that the proper operation of the Council is essential in order to guarantee the democracy , efficacy and coherence of the decision-making process in the enlarged Union .
Instead of being interested solely in the CFSP , they should pay more attention to horizontal issues and should once again become the principal decision-making body and the principal body preparing for the European Council .
Blurred structures , overly complicated decision-making processes and , above all , a lack of transparency and openness are the reasons why much is beyond our citizens ' comprehension , when they even know about it , that is .
Secondly , we need a Council that meets in public when it is legislating , with television cameras to relay debates and votes and allow the public to follow the decision-making process .
Mr President , whatever the outcome of the forthcoming Intergovernmental Conference , one of the Union 's main problems will be preserving its decision-making capacity , its governability and the coherence of its policies .
What we want to avoid , when decision-making procedures are dealt out , is a situation in which the European Council becomes the supreme legislator in the European Union with no codecision ties to the European Parliament - a situation in which only the Council can legislate .
In the light of the above , what measures will the Council take to encourage a dialogue process capable of resolving the long-standing conflict in the Basque country , bearing in mind in particular that , because the region is situated between France and Spain , this is an internal European question ?
I would like to reiterate before Parliament that the Spanish Government , which currently holds the Presidency of the European Union , will not only take another step , but will take all the necessary steps , while we have this responsibility and beyond , to achieve the release of this prisoner who , as we have been told , has suffered loss of health to an almost life-threatening degree .
It is also true that we work within a regulated system where Council is obliged to send documents to Parliament where this is a requirement of the legislative decision-making process .
There are some documents that do not relate to the legislative decision-making process , which fall within the competence of the Member States and , with regard to which , there is no requirement to communicate them .
As Mrs Rodríguez Ramos is well aware , in 1994 the Council adopted the Directive on the establishment of a European Works Council in order to consolidate the position of employees of multinational companies operating at European level by means of mechanisms for involving those employees in decision-making processes .
The authority , indeed the moral obligation , to set up such a far-reaching framework in the interest of economic welfare is provided by the Principles chapter of the EC Treaty , which lists among Union activities the adoption of an economic policy based on the definition of common objectives which can and must achieve , in particular , harmonious , balanced and sustainable development of economic activities , a high level of employment and sustainable , non-inflationary growth , as well as social protection .
I do think that this is the decisive point of departure for achieving real decision-making power , getting responsibilities clearly defined , thereby gaining their acceptance , and at the same time guaranteeing legal certainty .
I attribute this tension to the fact that the realities of the decision-making and opinion-forming process not being sufficiently clearly and transparently communicated .
Clear competences lead to clear responsibilities and clear parliamentary authority and thus to the decision-making process becoming more transparent .
May I thank , in particular , Mr Lamassoure , who had no hesitation in carrying out very wide-ranging consultations in order to complete his report , even though the time limits imposed on him were extremely strict .
So what does the report recommend that is different , that adds value to this very long-running debate ?
The Commission shares the Court of Justice 's opinion that truly national book price-fixing systems are not contestable as long as they respect the principles defined by the Court and do not have a restrictive effect on trade between Member States .
I notice that the honourable Member 's resolution aims to provide a Community definition of " circumvention " of the national price-fixing system and that this can be extended to booksellers in other Member States .
The Commission will continue to observe the markets and examine their effects on potential circumvention of national price-fixing systems , taking into account the cultural diversity of the book market and the existence of clear case-law of the Court of Justice .
It is absolutely vital to avoid perverse scenarios , such as food-producing crops disappearing because of cheap imports of agricultural products and , as a corollary to this , developing countries gearing themselves up to export cash crops - which do not foster local development - or raw materials , which are an unreliable basis for sustainable development because of the huge variations in price .
Above all , however , we cannot forget that it requires us to exploit fisheries and promote the development of food-producing agriculture on a sustainable model .
With a view to achieving the stated aims of this partnership , the Commission Communication points out the need for administrative arrangements : the ongoing negotiations on the so-called ' verification clause ' , which would ensure there is sufficient information on the use of available Community funds , must be brought to a quick and satisfactory conclusion ; the 1999 EC-UN framework agreement should be renegotiated with a view to changing to an approach oriented more directly towards co-financing operations , output-based budgeting , and upstream programme financing .
The contributions from the Member States of the European Union represent 47 % of the UN budget and more than 40 % of its spending on peace-keeping operations but , with the addition of direct contributions from the Union , our contributions exceed 50 % of the resources for the various UN funds and programmes focused on development and humanitarian and food aid .
A broad fact-finding exercise on mandates and capacities of potential UN partners was launched in November 2001 to determine how their key capacities match with our priorities .
Together with the EU diplomatic missions in Jakarta , we have been monitoring the situation in the Moluccas since early1999 and we have participated in two fact-finding missions in late 2000 and early 2001 .
Like the diplomatic missions of several Member States , the Commission Delegation in New Delhi sent a fact-finding mission to Gujarat to assess the situation on the ground .
Moreover , we have emphasised that in Zimbabwe - once a food-exporting country - the present food shortages are mainly the product of misguided policies and only partly the result of drought .
It is not an exaggeration or mere rhetoric to say that only far-reaching reform will guarantee our fishermen and our fish stocks a future .
We also want to apply the principles of new governance within the new fisheries policy by guaranteeing openness and transparency in our measures , involving the sector itself , setting clear responsibilities , developing swift decision-making procedures and guaranteeing coherence with other policies .
The current debate and all that has gone before have shown that this block exemption regulation , however esoteric it may sound , directly affects all our voters and will have far-reaching ramifications throughout Europe .
But , first of all , I want to join in the congratulations to Professor Monti on having the courage to move ahead with such a bold and a wide-ranging reform .
The European Parliament will come to its decision tomorrow and I for one would be delighted if the Commission , starting with Commission President Prodi , were to respect the vote of the only elected representatives of the people of Europe , even though we are not officially involved in the decision-making process here .
It is for our Parliament in particular to demand energetically that the Colombian politician Ingrid Betancour be released from the hands of left-wing guerrillas .
What took place after 1492 was the grafting of a European element on to a pre-existing reality .
2. after enlargement of the Union , this decision may well cause excessive slowness , or even result in an impasse , in the decision-making procedure , given that the Convention stipulates and will continue to stipulate that all decisions relating to Europol must be taken by the Council acting unanimously .
Mr President , the ever-increasing threat from terrorist organisations , and the greater concentration of terror in the murdering of public figures , with the recent hideous murder of one of the Netherlands ' leading politicians , make this matter one of vital importance today to Parliament .
Trying to answer this question has stimulated a wide-ranging discussion of new ideas .
So the effect of the directive we are debating today could be that if I download information about right-wing radicalism from the Internet now I could at some point in the future lose my job as a civil servant .
We should also be aware that major new scientific issues might arise that would necessitate requests for additional data , thus delaying the decision-making process .
The Greens are in favour of restructuring aid because we have an obligation to support restructuring in coal-producing areas so as to provide future prospects for the workers and their families living there .
I believe that this cohesion was absolutely necessary and I consider , personally , that the new objectives which have been proposed to us are probably sustainable objectives which will go beyond the other re-focussing phases of these projects .
The area of the European Community 's competence is thus increasing by whole sectors at a time , and the principle of subsidiarity is being systematically misused , to the advantage of the ever-increasing competence of the Union .
We shall vote against the report and stand by small and medium-sized farmers in their fight to overturn everything which the rapporteur takes as given and tries to put a spin on and the anti-farming policy which is wiping out and bankrupting European farmers with mathematical precision .
It has now been proved that these products , which contain the active substances imidacloprid and fipronil , have a damaging effect on the nervous systems of honey-gathering insects , not only on the crop which undergoes the seed treatment but also for subsequent crops in the rotation , since these systemic products persist for several years in harvesting residues which are ploughed into the soil and subsequently in humus .
The whole of the bee-keeping sector is being damaged by the deaths of tens of thousands of beehives every year .
I must begin by congratulating Mr Corbett on the very comprehensive work that he has carried out in this wide-ranging review of the Rules .
At that time it was thought it would be brought forward quite quickly , and then could be amended if necessary , as part of the more wide-ranging debate about the Rules we are currently engaged in .
This decision-making power also brings with it a certain responsibility which is expressed in two ways .
This is an abstract debate behind closed doors , now being played out again briefly by a number of Members , but with very wide-ranging effects .
This ensures the balance between the Council and the Commission , if at the expense of making the decision-taking procedure more difficult .
France will do it because of its history , its natural inclination , its interest , and also because it naturally cooperates with the Maghreb countries as part of the French-speaking community and also , in quite a broad context , as part of the community of French-speaking culture .
France will do it because of its history , its natural inclination , its interest , and also because it naturally cooperates with the Maghreb countries as part of the French-speaking community and also , in quite a broad context , as part of the community of French-speaking culture .
Already , 8 % of adults in the European Union , and 3 % of children , suffer from allergies , the effects of which can range from respiratory illnesses to life-threatening symptoms .
But the completely new and most attention-grabbing thing in the amendment of the directive is , for me , the list of allergenic substances based on the Codex Alimentarius .
It is a far-reaching proposal as it covers the marketing and use of a large number of textiles and leather articles .
Legislation of this kind must be covered by a democratic decision-making process .
The FAO Summit which opened in Rome yesterday in witness to the renewed commitment towards and interest in the problems affecting the southern hemisphere paints a discouraging picture , an on-going holocaust : someone dies every four seconds .
The Commission could also develop non-binding guidance to reduce the risk of divergent interpretations of the framework directive at national level .
I would also particularly like him to confirm that he will be undertaking a full regulatory impact assessment of this wide-ranging proposal and that he has not excluded the possibility of meeting the undoubted requirements he has set out for improving the quality of consumer protection by means other than a directive .
Subject : Creation of European sugar-refining cartel with Community support
However , as the Court of Auditors ' special report No 20 / 2000 , Paragraph 91 , points out , there is no true common market in the sugar sector , and competition between the various sugar-refining enterprises does not exist .
In its opinion of 10 April 2002 the committee confirmed the risks posed by growth-promoting hormones to consumers that it had identified in its earlier opinions .
In particular the committee concluded in its 1999 opinion that for 17ß-oestradiol there was a substantial body of evidence that it has to be considered as a complete carcinogen and that it exerts both tumour-initiating and tumour-promoting effects .
I hope the Commission will be able to work with Parliament and the Council in order to ensure an on-going process .
Mr President , the White Paper on European transport policy lays down that , unless new and wide-ranging initiatives are adopted , by 2010 traffic from heavy goods vehicles will increase by between 40 % and 50 % in comparison to its 1998 levels .
That much is clear , but such an audit needs decision-making parameters that are more accurate and more responsive to individual cases , or else innovation and initiative will be systematically ruled out rather than supported , and we will end up , as we did with the European Structural Fund , with an accumulation of funds and wasted resources .
This was the idea behind the White Paper on European Governance : to exploit all the opportunities available in the present legal framework in order to improve the legislative and decision-making process .
In addition , the Commission 's right of initiative and a majority decision-making process in the Council should not be absent ; that much is obvious .
I feel that expressions such as ' improve and simplify legislation ' , ' give practical substance to the concept of citizenship ' , ' improving legislative technique ' and ' working faster and better ' are liable to be meaningless and even to serve as fig leaves covering up the lack of democracy in the European Union 's legislative and decision-making process .
If this is conceded , it will be a step forwards ; if it is not , none of the rest - not even more effectiveness or better organisation - will make any difference to the European Union 's decision-making process .
However , more far-reaching proposals , such as abandoning the rolling presidency system , are also doing the rounds .
These are the improvement and revaluation of the General Affairs Council , the improvement of the decision-making procedure and especially the public nature of Council legislation .
As far as the decision-making procedure is concerned , I should like to advise the Council to study the 34 types of decision in order to find out whether improvements can be made in the Council on this score without amending the Treaty .
What they see is a penny-pinching attitude , driven by an accountancy approach to politics , rather than the statecraft our citizens are crying out for .
These amendments mainly relate to restricting speaking time , to time-consuming procedures for selecting more rigorously the amendments to be voted on and to opportunities for presidents , on their own initiative , to give the floor to backbenchers sympathetic to them .
Our assessment that ten countries will be in a position to conclude negotiations at the end of this year , provided their reforms stay on course , has been confirmed and I am much obliged for the far-reaching consensus in the analysis and conclusions .
I think that Lithuania deserves a great deal of recognition for the courageous and far-reaching decision which it has taken in the interest of the whole of Europe and I for one am very , very grateful to it .
Although the majority of its political elite opposed this move , Latvia has amended one of its electoral laws and granted the Russian-speaking community an unlimited right to stand for election .
I would just like to express one concern in what is , on the whole , a positive picture for Poland , regarding what appear to be clumsy attempts on the part of the current left-wing government to influence , or rather to restrict the independence of both the press and television and the National Bank of Warsaw .
Madam President , we would stress that the principle of solidarity and economic and social cohesion must be the basis of the Community institutions ' political action if it is to achieve the goal of a European continent based on shared values , and we would also like to mention the great importance our group attaches to the impending enlargement , to the pillar of economic and social cohesion and to the ever-increasing endeavours in the field of cohesion .
While on this subject , I should like to reflect a little on the codecision procedure , and this makes me think that , if this procedure is generalised , it cannot and must not lead to proceedings becoming unnecessarily lengthy or , if the co-legislating institutions start from different positions , to each one sticking to its own position without coming to any reasonable agreement .
It is in this context that any reform of fisheries policy must be seen , whether it is a wide-ranging reform or one designed to address specific situations , such as this one .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , I would like to start by very warmly thanking Commissioner Liikanen for the very important and forward-looking step the Commission has taken .
The compromise that has been achieved represents the new decision-making culture and is a step forward for dealing with matters faster and more flexibly .
Mr President , the non-binding motion for a resolution accepts for now the voluntary agreement by the European car industry .
Those crucial commercial services - such as banks , home-shopping services , access to transport - being able to order transport and look at timetables - need to be made accessible to disabled users .
This is about the Internet , that is to say the alternative to the performance laid on for you here , and about direct access for you to something that can constitute the democratic opinion-forming process .
The way the dossier on the recovery of cod and hake stocks has been handled is typical of an inward-looking approach by the Commission which misdiagnoses the situation because it is cut off from reality and thus makes poor decisions .
The joint resolution on the Seville European Council once again calls on major international institutions like the UN and NATO to play a fire-fighting role in various conflicts , ranging from the crisis in the Middle East to the border conflict between India and Pakistan .
Furthermore , the Commission has also made children a cross-cutting priority for humanitarian assistance .
The Union has welcomed the power-sharing agreement reached by the Government and the MLC .
After he abrogated the democratic constitution in 1996 , the OSCE sent a mission of observers to the country with the aim of re-establishing dialogue and helping to restore the foundations of a democratic order .
For some reason , the Group of the Party of European Socialists , together with the Group of the European Liberal , Democrat and Reform Party , the Group of the Greens / European Free Alliance and the left-wing socialists and former Communist parties here in the European Parliament have chosen not to say anything at all about the abolition of the death penalty in neighbouring countries such as China and North Korea .
We should be grateful to our American allies for the enormous contribution they have made to peace-keeping operations in Europe .
In my country , last Friday , the upper house of the German parliament decided in favour of full exemption from taxes , which is a very far-reaching thing , but one that is not on the agenda in other Member States .
This is why I would stress that , even now and especially considering the heading 5 problems facing us and more long-standing problems such as the RAL , we must force the Council to find a political solution and follow it through as necessary .
Even if the EU were the right body to take over an ever-increasing number of tasks from the national governments ( which it is not ! ) , the implementation of the Budget belies this increase in funds .
However , rather than simply setting new targets for achieving progress on immigration and asylum , Heads of State and Government would do better to stop clogging up the decision-making process with national initiatives and to back Commission proposals under the Community method .
The promotion of e-business activities , e-health programmes , e-government and e-learning initiatives under the auspices of the e-Europe Action Plan 2005 is being implemented in its entirety across the length and breadth of Europe .
We would also have preferred the Community method to be formally confirmed at every stage of the decision-making procedure .
They include co-financing work to digitise archives , supporting digital projection equipment , as well as calling for tax incentives to be introduced by Member States for audiovisual products and services ; the wide spectrum of proposed measures is vast .
At the current juncture , even though the appreciation of the exchange rate of the euro will contribute to easing inflationary pressures , we will continue to closely monitor all relevant developments , against the background of the risks that the deviations from price stability , which followed the exceptional clustering of upward shocks on inflation over the past couple of years , may be transmitted into longer-term inflation expectations , thereby potentially affecting wage and price-setting behaviour .
These projections play an important role for us , but they have by no means an all-encompassing role .
Therefore , our decision to clearly separate the production of the projections from the analysis of the Governing Council is fully transparent as it honestly reflects the decision-making process within the ECB .
At the same time , in its report , Parliament encourages the ECB Governing Council to exploit the decision-making process made possible by the EU Treaty by voting .
Wide-ranging reforms of international finance are therefore essential .
That also applies to the decision-making process and at all costs we want to preserve the phenomenon that the Governing Council 's decisions are decisions by a collegiate body and that every individual member of that body will defend and describe the outcome of certain discussions as if he had been 100 % enthusiastic about those decisions .
Secondly , the strategy will support the promotion of CSR in small and medium-sized enterprises , in particular through awareness raising and capacity-building initiatives , because CSR is by no means the sole preserve of large multinational firms .
The question by Mr Crowley concerns withdrawals of money from cash-dispensing machines .
We believe these measures are an important step on the road to re-establishing consumer and public confidence .
It would turn the clock back more than five years , before the adoption of the Novel Foods Regulation , at the very time that international consensus is emerging , particularly in Codex Alimentarius , that all foods produced from GMOs should be subject to a pre-marketing approval process .
It makes fundamental demands on the governments of the accession countries , which are completely excluded from the decision-making process .
The Van Lancker report is balanced and the rapporteur has been flexible and generous with the right-wing groups in negotiating amendments , yet the representatives of the Left do not want to know .
We shall be keeping a critical but well-meaning eye on this work during the course of next year .
Let us prepare ourselves while we have the opportunity to do so ; let us not get bogged down in unimportant details - let us concentrate on the big , forward-looking policies .
Regrettably , the Commission has inserted into both of the draft regulations a voting and decision-making method that will sweep aside national freedom of choice .
The report makes substantial demands of their governments , demands that have not been included in the decision-making programme in any shape or form .
In any case , I am firmly convinced that this kind of behaviour is not the right way to foster confidence in the EU 's democratic decision-making process .
The Johannesburg summit could be an opportunity to make other choices , to focus on other avenues as yet unexplored , such as guaranteeing the right of developing countries to protect their rural economies with a view to defending their food security against multinational corporations and to supporting local food-processing businesses .
By seeking to remove US personnel operating under UN mandate from the jurisdiction of the ICC , the ASPA might restrict US participation in peace-keeping operations .
Indeed , I am afraid that the real aim of our US friends is not so much to scupper the International Criminal Court as to get out of the peace-keeping operations and thus in some way attack the United Nations system .
Mr President , for a few days now , attention has mainly focused on America 's refusal to agree in the UN Security Council on the deployment or enforcement of every peace-keeping force .
What is termed the Ankara text constitutes a non-binding attempt to define guidelines which , at the same time as taking account of these misgivings , can prepare the way for being able as quickly as possible to fulfil the promise of developing close and transparent links between the EU and NATO .
The dialogue with Cuba , which was broken off by the Cuban authorities in April 2000 , was officially resumed on 1 and 2 December of last year when the EU Troika , consisting of high-ranking officials , travelled to Havana .
We have seen right-wing extremism and populism on the rise .
This reluctance to take the bull by the horns is tantamount to offering racists the right to continue serving the ends of the extreme right or engaging in populism and rabble-rousing sophistry for electoral purposes and to do so with impunity .
On the other hand , however , the Commission has always stressed that this must be a fight of a cultural nature and has for this reason already adopted various awareness-raising measures to combat racism and xenophobia in fields such as employment , immigration , asylum policy and the education system .
We regret that there is no separation between the investigating and decision-making authorities .
We must therefore think about the structural or management changes that will be needed to accompany this reform package , particularly how to take further the matter of rights of defence and the matter of strengthening our economic capacity and the role of economic analysis in our decision-making procedure .
As our rapporteur says , fishermen 's support and respect for fisheries regulations will improve if fishermen 's organisations are involved in the decision-making process .
Lastly , I wish to thank everyone who worked on drafting this report , and I am convinced that the success of the fight for equal opportunities for men and women , not least in political life and in decision-making bodies , depends also on the greater involvement and political will of us all , both men and women .
The objective of open coordination is not just that a few experts , officials and high-ranking politicians should meet and confirm each other in the view that we have a good policy .
There must be no exceptions and that means the abuses which are systematically accepted in the massive informal sector in many developing countries , and deliberately encouraged in export-processing zones in many more too , have to come to an end .
Led by France , several countries rejected such measures , which run counter to their long-standing tradition of welcoming immigrants .
( PT ) As the report states , compliance with the common fisheries policy depends to a large extent on the participation of the fishermen and their associations in the decision-making process .
It is a peace-building method which encourages the emerging administration and closer collaboration with regional and local administrations .
Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , it now seems that the regeneration of Angola and its people has taken on a positive and long-lasting character - in the same way that the tragedy caused by this conflict was appalling and endless .
The action plan identifies a financial package of EUR 125m aimed at addressing the most pressing concerns at this stage , including emergency relief , food aid and food security , reintegration and resettlement of refugees and displaced persons , and de-mining operations .
Increased security on the ground will make it possible for the Commission to implement , through specialised organisations , the substantial funding already earmarked for de-mining operations .
But you will not resolve the problems of the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe by simply turning a blind eye and pretending they do not exist , nor by allowing President Mugabe to leave the country and attend conferences .
Of course , numerous members referred to what we too have stressed , i.e. that Zimbabwe was a food-exporting nation and that the current food shortage is mainly the result of misguided policies and only due in part to the drought .
The Egyptian press law prohibits the publication of details in on-going investigations which might prejudice the trial outcome , which was blatantly disregarded with the publications of stories of alleged homosexual orgies , gay weddings and the identity and pictures of all the defendants .
Mr President , we meet here as the World Summit on Sustainable Development is meeting in South Africa , following the ground-breaking meeting of the WTO in Doha last year .
They have a wide-ranging agenda in Johannesburg , just as we have here .
The production of oil-bearing plants for biofuels such as methylester and for biolubricants and biodegradable solvents is important in the concept of this debate because oil cake is produced as a valuable by-product .
Shortly afterwards , the European Council in Nice took note of the Commission 's intention to analyse the supply of and demand for oilseed and protein-bearing crops in strict compliance with the financial perspective .
The EU therefore needs to increase its self-sufficiency by cultivating oil-bearing plants , and I am also able to endorse the various initiatives put forward by the rapporteur in his report .
Maintaining or increasing imports of these products which are not surplus to requirements , such as non-genetically modified soya and corn from developing countries , must be an important part of our cooperation policy but , at the same time , it must also be a priority to promote self-sufficient and sustainable agri-breeding systems within the least-favoured regions of the European Union , which create employment and sustain the rural population , primary genetic resources and the necessary production of biofuels .
The only other genetically modified type of soya in the USA and worldwide contains a high percentage of oleic acid and is subject in the USA to strict trademark safeguards , being capable of being sold at very high prices by reason of its health-giving properties .
However , in order to accomplish flexible use of the airspace , the military airspace users must be involved in the daily decision-making processes in the Single Sky committee .
Although I can generally live with the outcome of the votes , I remain concerned about Eurocontrol 's role in the decision-making process .
This is why I have proposed Amendments Nos 81 and 82 and have asked , on behalf of my group , for a split vote on Amendment No 51 , so as to establish a better balance of power between Eurocontrol and the Single Sky decision-making process in this way .
We also need to make arrangements , in conjunction with the military sector , in order to protect its decision-taking powers on defence issues and ensure that current common foreign policy and defence levels are not exceeded .
Its far-reaching consequences and the many interests involved have meant that this proposal has spawned quite a reaction , to which the Commissioner referred earlier .
Unfortunately , they have not been heard sufficiently , not to mention listened to , except by a few left-wing Members .
A better part of the proposal is the idea that farmers should grow more leguminous and oil-producing plants as part of a crop rotation system .
The Member States and the Commission again agreed that we should not interfere in the opinion-forming exercise in Ireland by making statements about what we would do if the second referendum again had a ' no ' majority .
We can see that now and realise the far-reaching consequences .
I , for one , am very keen to see a wide-ranging information campaign using every possible means and involving every agency in the overall campaign in the European Union and the candidate countries , which will reach small , particularly remote societies where , as we know , violence persists in the family , in schools and on the streets .
However , I welcome the fact that - whatever the underlying motives may be - there has been very wide-ranging criticism indeed in this House of these preparations for war .
So we Europeans have to ask ourselves this fundamental question : Can we position ourselves as partners and take part in the decision-making process , or we will just be ordered into action when the decision has been made and a war is imminent ?
You are well aware that there are on-going difficulties with the Pashtuns .
It must be pointed out , however , that the military operations carried out by the United States or the West in Afghanistan , like the random detention of alleged Islamic extremists in Guantanamo or the compilation of ever-expanding lists of suspect organisations , have not enabled us to stamp out the al-Qa 'ida criminal network .
Unlike the sorcerers ' apprentices who , not so long ago , supported Islamic extremist networks in their attempts to destabilise whoever their enemy happened to be at any particular time , we are calling for responsible , on-going management of security issues ;
However , since the right-wing Members voted in favour of the report , my colleagues from the Delegation of the Republican , Radical and Citizens ' Left and I had to vote against the motion .
In this light , each regulation that grants tiny scraps of state aid appears an improvement on a harsh , all-encompassing form of liberalisation which makes problems completely impossible to solve .
The West must now be prepared to extend the mandate of Turkish-led ISAF forces beyond this December at the UN and extend their remit to Afghan provinces as well , to end the warlordism and extend the government 's authority in the provinces as part of the nation-building exercise and construct a national army and police force and distribute much needed aid to a desperately poor country .
The Union must multiply its endeavours to ensure that the hopes which were raised at Bonn are not completely dashed and that the present situation of far-reaching inequality , discrimination and failure to respect human rights does not become established in the long-term .
Regarding the difficult security situation , especially in the areas outside Kabul , it is my view that the most realistic and forward-looking approach at the moment is to strengthen the transitional government 's ability to take care of security itself , partly through assisting with demobilisation , building up the army and the police , developing programmes designed to root out drugs production and setting up an efficient judiciary .
Mr President , I should like to thank Mr Maaten who has produced a distinguished report on a particularly wide-ranging subject .
I also wish to thank both the Council and the Commission for the forward-looking manner in which they are handling relations between these two areas of the world .
Mr Solana undertook a major visit to four Asian countries in July , participating in the annual ministerial meeting on security cooperation in the ASEAN Regional Forum where , as is well known , the EU makes efforts towards intensifying cooperation and presses for the move to be made from mainly confidence-building measures to what we call preventive diplomacy .
The decision-making mechanisms in the Commission 's individual offices should also be as clear and transparent as possible .
It is a thorough and thought-provoking report which raises important questions .
Nevertheless , this phenomenon should be seen in the context of the more global trend of a steady decline in voter participation which , as far as we are concerned , could be effectively countered by clarifying the European Union 's institutional framework and by drafting a genuine constitutional text which enables the citizens to identify as closely as possible with the decision-making process at European level .
The need for a developed EU citizenship thus becomes clear , a citizenship that provides a better definition of the basic contract between the individual and the EU and balances rights and restrictions in the same political decision-making system .
It has already been the subject of frank and , at times , lively debate between those who call for the citizens to be fully entitled to be involved in certain structural policies at the decision-making stage and those who feel that the political , technical and administrative institutions set up to perform the task of decision-making should have a greater degree of competence and autonomy .
In short , the Council intends to confer on the citizens ' organisations a consultative role - an important role but not a decision-making role - giving the legislators elected to take decisions on the basis of the input of civil society sole responsibility for doing so but without rendering it impossible for exceptions to be made .
Thirdly , the public must be entitled to express both minor and far-reaching comments and adopt positions without prejudice to any options .
I believe that when people are granted the right to participate they will also exercise that right responsibly and will eventually enjoy even fuller rights as citizens and that it will not occur to them to upset or terrorise the decision-making process .
In our opinion , the limits of the directive must be based on Amendment No 3 , that is to say , ' effective public participation in the taking of decisions enables the public to express , and the decision-maker to take account of , opinions and concerns which may be relevant to those decisions , thereby increasing the accountability and transparency of the decision-making process and contributing to public support for the decisions taken . '
The concept of the public has also not been defined , this wide and all-embracing concept ranging from a physical person to an association , as well as the more specific concept of the public concerned .
To be quite specific , very small food-processing companies need more information and motivation and less bureaucracy and documentation .
It is also suggested that the presence of universities in the media be increased as well as the promotion of distance-learning universities - they have asked us for this - and at the same time that a ' centre for universities ' be created , as a centre for the universities to meet so that their relations are not maintained via the Internet and at a cool distance , but that there may be a place in Europe for debate on universities .
This proposal is innovative , but it is down to the Member States to give the public effective opportunities to take part in the decision-making process .
The MPF delegation believes , of course , that transparency of information and public participation in the decision-making process must be encouraged and well defined .
Secondly , account must be taken of already existing structures and available awareness-raising instruments , such as the European judicial network and the European civil and commercial network , must be fully exploited .
We see an open coordination method as leading to the Community decision-making procedure being bypassed and to Parliament being left on the sidelines .
Unfortunately , the world is not a paradise full of well-meaning people .
Hence the need for a common interpretation of law and , I beg of you , a forward-looking approach to an agreed policy .
If you see the proposals that the Commission has put forward on economic governance , you will see that our proposal is to use the open coordination method to determine legally-binding targets , making the open coordination method more effective and therefore achieving more concrete results .
It is certain that nobody would wish to see a repeat of the kind of outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease we recently saw in the UK , with its enormous losses to the farming and non-farming community .
Genetic engineering is a ground-breaking discipline and strikes me as very useful .
We must also accept that countries may take more far-reaching measures in order to achieve a higher level of protection .
If the Commission is intent upon developing ' motorways of the sea , ' promoting sea transport and establishing shipping links as part of the trans-European network , sea-faring countries such Ireland must be given equal treatment .
We welcome the rejection , by a slim , right-wing majority , of the Evans report on asylum .
Thus , the first solution proposed by the left-wing Members of the House to reduce the number of bogus asylum seekers was to open up our borders more , and to take in such people as legal immigrants !
Therefore , for the left-wing Members of this House , the main objective is to take in individuals who are persecuted , regardless of their numbers .
Seeking refuge was praised as a freedom-loving act , which presupposed universal solidarity .
On the other , we have many parliamentarians from other countries - primarily from developing countries - who cannot meet the costs , even for travel and accommodation , in order to attend these debates and play a role in this decision-making process .
The European Union needs efficient , well-working courts without undue delays , without delays in court dockets .
I feel that this subject requires specific attention because , looking at the matter objectively , we are blocking a set of resources when , really , what is absolutely essential is a spring-cleaning operation which might shed light on the matter , especially where commitments made many , many years ago are concerned .
As for fisheries , this Commissioner has also launched far-reaching proposals aimed at sustainable fisheries , that are also in line with the agreements made at the Johannesburg Summit finally to reach true sustainable fisheries .
Secondly , we are facing far-reaching decisions .
Thirdly , far-reaching decisions in the fisheries sector also means that a number of regions will actually be affected .
This means that employment , namely indirect employment in the ports and indirect employment in the fish-processing industry , will be badly affected in those regions .
Several Members have indicated that they are opposed to these across-the-board cuts of 0.8 % and I too am against a systematic cut of this kind ; furthermore I believe that generally speaking this is a book-keeping exercise and not a political act .
I applaud the fact that new initiatives will be encouraged by this programme , ensuring that traffic is phased into junctions by using light-emitting diodes etc . , things which are cheap but which are very effective and absolutely vital .
I applaud everyone involved in this very forward-thinking scheme .
We need sufficient investment in the whole transport infrastructure , but the EU cannot be primarily responsible for finance , as we do not happen to be a money-dispensing machine .
Transport is the fastest-growing source of global warming gases in Europe .
The second concerns the adaptability of the individual to the ever-increasing demands in companies and society .
Having said that , I still want to emphasis that , although the European employment strategy has gradually transformed conditions for drafting and implementing national employment policies and enabled better coordination with economic policies , it has not , however , contributed to kick-starting growth or fundamentally changing the employment situation .
Secondly , where incentives are given to entrepreneurs and to businesses to invest in new jobs , in new infrastructure and in research and development , giving a longer-lasting guarantee to the creation of manufacturing in other service jobs .
One of the problems that needs to be resolved is the poor transposition of the Strategy at the decision-making level in the field of employment .
So we too need persuading , as European institutions , as national governments and as social partners , that the involvement of women in decision-making procedures within the social partnership will not merely add credentials to their authority and quality to democracy ; it will also , in the final analysis , promote our development objectives , since it will help increase employment , improve the quality of work and increase productivity and competitiveness .
As far as the involvement of women in decision-making processes is concerned , it is the only opportunity to take account of the demands of women , both employed and unemployed , to develop social responsibility for the benefit of working women , to create the conditions needed to develop creativity in the workplace , to take account of specifically female aspects and to deal with wage differentials , which is the most basic problem of all .
So we need a broad information and awareness-raising campaign in every direction and to motivate working women themselves , because they too must take their share of the responsibility .
The balanced participation of women in decision-making bodies is an issue which is frequently raised and with regard to which Europe has often emphasised the need to take measures , and this issue has by no means been resolved .
There is very little information available about the participation of women inside the organisational structures and internal decision-making bodies of the social partners , while even less information is available about the gender-specific composition of delegations of negotiators in the social dialogue .
In any case , these studies reveal a pyramid structure , in which about 40 % of the total number of trade union members are women , and the percentage falls to less than half that figure the nearer one gets to the decision-making structures at the top of the pyramid .
It is true that all this has yielded significant positive results but they have been almost exclusively at local level : progress stops when we reach national decision-making levels .
There is a direct link between the participation of women in decision-making bodies and negotiating bodies and the pursuit of an equal opportunities policy .
It is therefore necessary , as Mrs Smet 's report calls , for the European Commission to make a start on the compilation of data and the establishment of a database relating to the representation of women among the social partners so that indicators can be established with a view to increasing the influence exercised by women in decision-making bodies , to create a database relating to the results of collective bargaining in the context of equal opportunities and to use it for the dissemination of best practice , and to urge the social partners to create networks among women negotiators and women administrators with a view to their exchanging experience and expertise and , in their employment policy , to develop further the role allotted to them in the promotion of equal opportunities .
Mr President , Commissioner , although the European institutions have in various documents highlighted the need for a more balanced and proportional representation of women in the various decision-making structures and political and social bodies , also where the social partners are concerned , the fact is that profound imbalances and enormous inequalities still remain , as Mrs Smet 's report points out , and as Commissioner Diamantopoulou confirmed a short while ago .
We call for timetabled performance targets to be established - on the quantitative and qualitative representation of women , both in internal decision-making structures and in collective bargaining , including at the forthcoming trilateral social summit - and I now wish to draw the Commissioner 's attention to this matter - and also for reports to be drafted on the progress made and the impact of the measures adopted .
Mr President , in all of the European Union 's Equal Opportunities Action Programmes , for example the Fifth Action Programme for 2001 to 2005 , great importance is attached to there being balanced representation of men and women in decision-making bodies .
Databases should be created so as finally to provide a precise overview of female representation in expert fora and decision-making bodies .
In order to remedy the glaringly obvious shortfall in the representation of women in the decision-making structures and bodies of the social partners , three measures , in particular , are to be emphasised .
Nevertheless , such changes are not matched by the level of women 's participation in the decision-making processes and many inequalities still persist .
Lastly , I wish to remind you that various studies confirm that the presence of women in decision-making bodies and in collective bargaining has a very positive impact on the implementation of equal opportunities policy .
Poverty eradication was the over-arching theme to which we linked all the concrete issues .
If the agreement , taken from the Johannesburg plan of action , that trade policy should not affect the development of poor countries and is taken seriously in the area of the environment , this will have far-reaching consequences for European agricultural and trade policy .
Although many strategies have been implemented in order to remedy the underrepresentation of women in the upper echelons of these organisations , as well as in delegations to social consultation and advisory bodies , we must , as the rapporteur recommends , make a start at European level on the systematic compilation of data relating to the role played by women in the decision-making process .
Awareness-raising campaigns prior to trade union elections and the establishment of networks among women negotiators also constitute incentives for increasing the representation of women .
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 .
As part of the European Parliament 's objective to be proactive in terms of the participation of women in the decision-making bodies of the various organisations , the report by Mrs Miet Smet is an important milestone , and I am pleased to support the report in this House .
Thirdly I should mention Crisis Management and Conflict Prevention which must become a cross-cutting issue for all CFSP and external relations initiatives .
We share several of the suggestions presented in the report , such as those referring to arms-brokering activities and the production of military goods under licence , as well as the control of the end user of arms exports .
It seems that the Sharon Government actually does not want democratic decision-making structures and free elections in Palestine at all .
However , we also need to safeguard certain principles : the principle of independence of the Union 's decision-making system and the integrity of its institutions .
The common response essentially consisted of telling the Americans that the EU remains committed to its obligations to support the ICC and the integrity of the Rome Statute ; that the American proposal has far-reaching implications necessitating the more detailed analysis in which we also invited the candidate countries to participate ; and that we would come back with an answer as soon as the analysis had been completed .
By acting together , Europe can contribute greatly to making the ICC work , and thereby reassure the USA that the Court is serious and poses no threat to their law-abiding nationals .
I ardently support this view and believe that , as we are discussing opportunities for citizens to have an influence , we should at long last include citizens as participants in the decision-making process and not just as the subjects of that process .
I have voted in favour of this report , firstly because I believe that the role of the European Ombudsman is of enormous importance , especially considering the increasing distance , in decision-making processes , between the institutional bodies of the EU and the citizens of the Member States .
I have decided to support this report and its motion for a resolution bearing in mind , specifically , some points that I wish to highlight : its request to the European Convention to also look into consolidating the right of petition ; its call for the adoption of new data-processing tools enabling petitioners to follow the processing of their own and other petitions over the Internet , its criticism of the lack of enthusiasm in the Council for cooperation with the Committee on Petitions ; and also its call for petitions to be studied and processed more rapidly .
Focusing on our new European neighbours , however , should not make us any less receptive to the ever-increasing expectations of the Mediterranean countries , expectations that we have not yet managed to fulfil .
At the same time , I believe it would be conducive to the climate of the negotiations and the decision-making process if the Czech Republic could find the courage to clarify the situation , which would entail a reappraisal of the Bene ?
We are only discussing the legitimacy of the decision and decision-taking procedures .
It would , along with the threat to oil supplies , globalise an already-escalating conflict .
The UN and its decision-taking procedures have underpinned the international legal order for the last 50 or 60 years and have been used to resolve the most serious of political issues .
Is this taken into consideration in the Commission 's decision-making process ?
Madam President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , Mrs Bastos ' excellent report highlights the dual necessity to integrate Eures into the Member States ' employment services and to involve local authorities and the social partners in the activities of Eures so as to bring about ever-increasing decentralisation of labour mobility initiatives .
In this context , the Council and the Commission must use all the instruments to ensure that the death penalty is abolished , that genuine cooperation is established in the fight against terrorism , and that progress is made on issues relating to decentralised decision-making structures , taking account of the different conditions within the country , and in particular , to ensure that progress is made on economic and social development which deprives terrorism of its breeding-ground .
We maintain on the contrary that this is an opportunity for industry , for research and the consumer and represents a genuine boost for research into insulating material and heating and air-conditioning systems .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , not only does combating fraud seem to be becoming an ongoing task in the EU , but the Commission is also showing a great deal of imagination when it comes to the ways and means , and it is again showing its capacity for fantasy with this communication on the fraudproofing of legislation and contract management - a high-sounding title in very truth .
Now I do not want to use this opportunity to enlarge on criticism of the Commission 's book-keeping system , although there seems to be a certain amount wrong with it , but it is rather sad how the Commission continues to deal with criticism .
Personally , I absolutely accept the need for a cap in allowances in each Member State although I acknowledge that some of my colleagues in my group are concerned that the requirements being placed upon their nations by the burden-sharing agreement are already onerous .
That is why I am pleased that Parliament will today vote to give a temporary opt-out to those emission-trading schemes already established .
Mr President , I would like to begin by thanking the rapporteur for his very extensive work , but above all for being really skilful in his cooperation with other groups and for trying to find wide-ranging solutions .
The way this sort of burden-sharing works is that a country such as Germany , with its minus 21 % , is playing a very large part , whereas Portugal , for example , is permitted an increase of a further 27 % over against the 1990 basis .
This is all very just and responsible , but now , when Germany and Great Britain are the only states to be able , even without the Commission 's bureaucratic emission-trading monster , to point to successes , you cannot penalise them on the basis that those who did it voluntarily must now pay an additional penalty for having made a success of it .
Then there are the competition-distorting factors of burden sharing among the Member States generally , the relationship between emissions trading and the fiscal interests of individual states , and that between emissions trading and the free energy market .
This temporary opt-out provision should only last for the pilot phase because from 2008 onwards we are obliged to achieve legally-binding targets under the Kyoto Protocol .
It is a very far-reaching proposal as it bans the sale of these substances and all their possible mixtures to the general public .
I wanted to support those and the Finnish delegation wanted to see more possibilities for Member States to opt out from emission-trading systems .
As you will doubtless recall , we proposed developing information and economic analysis concerning the eurozone , improving the system of statistics we use , clarifying the principles common to fiscal and structural policies and , lastly , making our decision-making system more efficient .
In any case , the shortcomings of the decision-making mechanism are still there for all to see .
Mr President , Mr Prodi , if the implementation of a policy to limit the new debts entered into by states adds up in practice to inflation-cutting measures combined with a simultaneous increase in economic growth , then there is nothing to be said against it .
Indeed , by immediately adding that in order to have a flexible Pact , there would have to be an authority in Brussels with decision-making power , Mr Prodi clearly showed that he wants to move towards a super-State .
There is nothing , though , to equal the mendacity involved in you delivering great speeches in this House on asylum policy and allowing yourself to be lauded as the defender of refugees ' rights , while your own left-wing governments , in Great Britain and Germany for example , boast about their strict policies on asylum .
A forward-looking asylum policy in the EU must also take into account the circumstances and needs of the people in our Member States .
It is not the Commission proposals that are blocking the Council 's decision-making ability .
I feel that , in our never-ending debate on culture , we still mean that either culture will be dealt with by the Community , or it will be a matter of subsidiarity , and therefore we must not touch it .
Firstly , theatre exists by the grace of its producers , directors and actors , and I should like to add the theatre-going public to this list , for without an audience , there is no theatre .
The facts of the matter are that a lot of fragmented information is already available on the web , at least for English-speaking patients .
This has two major drawbacks : firstly , it discriminates against non-English-speaking people and , secondly , it means that the information can be piecemeal and unreliable .
The main objective of the proposals is to ensure a high level of health protection for each citizen , particularly by providing rapid access to innovative and safe products , by developing a preventative and on-going system of pharmacovigilance , as well as by improving the competitiveness of the pharmaceutical industry within the framework of its search for new treatments .
A balance has been sought between making some provisions more flexible , such as the ' cascade provisions ' and maintaining the highest level of safety for the consumer , in the case of food-producing animals .
The Commission is proposing to extend the compulsory prescription to all medicinal products designed for food-producing animals , which poses a problem for some Member States , including Ireland and the United Kingdom .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , we have before us today a wide-ranging revision of the law on medicinal products in Europe .
Firstly , I would like to warn against the Commission 's proposals under Article 67 that all veterinary medicines intended for food-producing animals should be available on prescription only .
Thus the key to safety is an effective post-licensing surveillance system , sensitive enough to identify adverse reactions speedily and to enable swift and effective action to be taken .
I am in favour of making self-regulating information accessible on the web .
In eight years ' time , tattoos will become illegal and our hamsters and guinea pigs will be welcome in all the Member States , and it will not be long before we have a budget heading for asylum-seeking animals .
We reject the hard right-wing view of those conservatives in the EPP who seek to restrict the right to asylum and protection .
We were all thoroughly enjoying our meal , but the chef said to us : ' Soon , you will no longer be able to enjoy rice if you Members of the European Parliament do not do something to help agriculture in the reform of the common agricultural policy that is currently being carried out in the European Parliament and the European Community , for the agricultural activities of rice-growing areas such as Vercelli , Novara , Pavia , Milan and other areas of Europe must be safeguarded too . '
The hallmark of the Budget as we draw it up at present is that heated debates rage during the budget-setting process around every million , sometimes even every thousand euros , yet during the year we often have to shift funds around and restructure the Budget .
Madam President , once again this year we have been struggling with the strict ceiling on category 4 , given ever-increasing demands arising from growing international instability and a consequent diminution of the poverty focus of EU aid to developing countries around the world .
This framework decision is one of the most far-reaching instruments so far when it comes to the approximation of criminal law .
One of the ways of doing this would be to give people an opportunity to participate , play their parts and be partners in the whole of the decision-making process taking place in and between the institutions of the EU .
The same applies to the proposal for a directive on workplace ergonomics and issues concerning the manual-handling directive .
Only last month on a farm next door to mine in Scotland , the young husband and father of a family died after being caught in a potato-harvesting machine .
The application of health and safety legislation to self-employed workers is an important subject , not least because of the ever-growing number of self-employed , subordinated , sub-contracted or atypical workers .
Perhaps , though , this wide-ranging creativity in legal matters does indeed contribute towards legal veracity , by which I mean the application of laws currently in force .
We support the Commission 's proposals to phase in income support to farmers for the new Member States , but we also expect all existing Member States to commit themselves to far-reaching reform of the CAP , as proposed in the mid-term review .
Now that Saturday 's events make it possible for us to get back to discussing Nice 's critical aspects , it is right and proper that we make it clear that , in structural policy for example , the Convention must accept majority decisions , thus giving us better decision-making structures for the reforms in 2006 , and enabling us to implement the necessary reforms at the right point in time .
If we find somewhere where the environmental acquis is not being fully transposed , I do not know why we should have , in the candidate countries , a fast-acting instrument whilst having to use normal infringement proceedings as regards the present Member States .
( PT ) The creation of information-sharing systems from various civil aviation authorities ' reporting systems will enable all the actors involved to collate information about their errors and to produce a safer system for all air transport users .
It is therefore crucial that an effective prevention policy is implemented , followed up by actions for training and information and by awareness-raising campaigns .
Thus , even when the House can itself witness the harmful effects of this inflexibility , it is carried away by its long-standing deformations and its ultimate objective to become a super-State , and always returns to its old ways .
How can a legally-binding document claim that all rights are equal - whether it is the right to life or the right to strike ?
After 11 September , the United States , although undeniably bound up in what is , not least , a political web of interests with the oil-producing countries , attacked without hypocrisy the issue of fundamentalist terrorism , declaring out and out war on the many-headed hydra of Al-Qaeda .
It is not necessarily down to fundamentalism ; there is a huge number of peace-loving fundamentalists .
The cooperation between intelligence-gathering services and police forces at European level in the fight against terrorism since 11 September can be successful .
This was the underlying objective of the Commission Communication on Network and Information Security , which proposed a number of measures , such as awareness-raising actions and improved exchange of information mechanisms .
Following the adoption of the regulation on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions , a wide-ranging security review took place .
Instead , the Justice and Home Affairs Council is now talking about far-reaching competences of the Member States for data storage of both telecommunications and the Internet .
Until it does , it will continue to be invited as an observer to the meetings of the Euro-Mediterranean Committee and to the meetings between the high-ranking officials with responsibility for political and security issues .
It decided therefore to embark upon such a dialogue on the basis of the conditions , timetable , subjects , benchmark points - that is to say , objectives - and choice of interlocutors discussed in the course of the EU 's fact-finding mission to Iran .
Furthermore , the destruction of traditional food-producing farming caused by single-crop farming for export does not benefit anyone apart from huge multinationals .
First of all , a proper anti-dumping policy is necessary in order to bring about more reasonable world market prices .
More freedom has also been created for the individual Member States , meaning that individual Member States can pass more far-reaching measures .
A first-reading agreement , though it is not absolutely certain yet , is what we would like to see .
For the future , in order to provide the possibility both of giving secondary legislation more regulations of a technical nature and of providing colegislators with final decision-making rights , a ' call-back ' procedure , amending Article 202 of the Treaty , absolutely must be provided for .
This makes clear rules and confidence-building measures necessary .
The first is that the insider-trading directive , which has provided the framework , is thirteen years old .
Mr President , Mr Beysen has tabled an excellent , forward-looking report which takes account of important basic documents such as the White Paper on renewable sources of energy , the directive on the internal market in electricity and the directive promoting electricity from renewable sources of energy .
The amendment by the Group of the European Liberal , Democrat and Reform Party would bring financial journalism within the scope of the directive , but responsibility for implementation would be left to existing self-regulating bodies .
Yet it is precisely the market economy which has driven these countries to abandon food-producing traditions in favour of single-crop farming for the world market , and this same market economy which means that even the growth of the world economy leads to more poverty and hunger for over a billion people .
The question is : surely , with increasing globalisation , parliaments could be more involved in the opinion-forming process ?
But we do not want to be informed , Commissioner , once you have made your decision ; we want to be included in the decision-making process .
We feel that this is a core amendment to the directive and we want to be included in the decision-making process .
We are planning a fact-finding mission with our opposite numbers and representatives of civil society and we shall lobby for the final text of the agreement , if it comes to that , to include a clear , express clause on women 's rights .
As long ago as July , the Commission , by opening the mid-term review , prompted a wide-ranging debate on the future of the agricultural policy .
Mr President , President-in-Office of the Council , Commissioner , with the decision-making arrangements we have in the European Union , there is the chance occasionally to experience unexpected and exciting situations .
I believe that it would be preferable to undertake a balanced reform now , before 2004 , which guarantees that the markets and their regulatory instruments will be managed , which guarantees Community preference and which guarantees aid for farmers , rather than to do so after enlargement , with the inherent risks of uncertainty about the negotiating and decision-making procedures in the first few years of the enlarged Union .
I welcome the fact that the Commission has presented this review on schedule , and I would specifically like to express my thanks for its forward-looking nature .
The challenges of enlargement are certainly not limited only to discussions on decision-making procedures or the distribution of competencies .
I would go so far as to say that these are penny-pinching plans .
We should encourage all European regions to involve themselves in the cohesion-building process .
I would also like to announce , given that this House , in accordance with the new Rules of Procedure , does not allow us to table resolutions , that through the Committee on Fisheries I shall propose a resolution to establish protected European sea-fishing zones in susceptible areas , which will increase the required distances to be maintained between these zones and ships carrying dangerous goods and bring forward the obligation for this type of ship to have a double hull , which is currently laid down for the year 2015 , and I shall call for it to be brought forward to the year 2005 .
Lastly , Mr President , we are aware that this is what is known as a cross-cutting issue .
The wide-ranging nature of concentrations merits particular attention .
Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , there is no need for a dictatorship that relies on military force in the information society if in the same hands there is a self-perpetuating mega-power , a mighty conglomerate that represents the media , the economy and political control .
Preventing tobacco-related illnesses would do more to help the citizens of the Union than any other life-saving measure , and tobacco companies are wrong to claim that advertising does not promote smoking but only promotes brand loyalty for a legal product .
This change would not bring any improvement at all in conditions of public health , just an increase in the revenue of extra-Community companies , and , worst of all , it would have a considerable negative impact on employment levels in European tobacco-growing areas , in other words in the south of Europe , where more unemployment is the last thing they need .
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 .
This is a long-standing issue and it arouses understandable emotions .
I do think that the directive will lead to discussion in the Member States as to what the ' right way of implementation ' is , as , on many points , it makes no provision for specific rules , allowing instead wide-ranging discretion for the national supervisory authorities .
With regard to the Stevenson report , although it is somewhat contradictory , it does take account of many of the proposals and positions that we called for and which are important to Portugal , specifically the installation of 12-mile coastal zones as a permanent feature of the CFP , the participation of fishermen 's organisations in the decision-making process , socio-economic measures to compensate for the effects of the reform , which must take account of past efforts , greater investment in research and ensuring that there is no legal vacuum .
We have to face reality and cannot set sail in an ever-increasing fleet in search of the mirage of stocks that last for ever .
Of course , there are good decisions and we should highlight them , such as controls and sanctions , involving the relevant parties in the decision-making processes , improving knowledge of fishing techniques and resources .
It will be after Copenhagen that the public will realise that we are taking the first step with ten countries seriously , and that a wide-ranging discussion will ensue in the present Member States of the European Union as to how much further we should go .
After that , that is to say , post-Copenhagen - as was said in this House this morning - the parliaments will have their moment , when the political decision-making process is set in motion .
It is very definitely not being said that the decision in Copenhagen will represent an end to the peace-making effort if matters have not already been brought to a conclusion before Copenhagen .
I take the very same approach where waste-burning reactors are concerned .
Waste-burning reactors will , post-enlargement , be a problem for us all , and so they are another area in which I consider flexibility necessary .
We have very long-standing relations with Turkey , not only in the EU as a candidate or imminent candidate , but also mainly as a NATO member .
This morning , we heard a representative from Lithuania express concern about what would happen to Lithuania 's decision-making freedom when it would be represented by eight MEPs in a European Parliament with 732 members .
The only way to prevent democracy being diluted in the future , to avoid the impression of no longer controlling anything , is to increase the involvement of the national parliaments in the European decision-making process by giving them a genuine right to say ' yes ' or ' no ' to their countries taking part in this or that decision .
We would again point out that parties and governments need to promote the equal participation of men and women in decision-making procedures .
There is no such thing as a credible policy which does not promote gender equality in decision-making procedures and future planning .
This brings me to the final problem , that being that the EU 's internal decision-making process is far from structured .
Nothing has happened to justify such a measure , so the basic conditions governing an international , confidence-building project cannot suddenly be changed .
It may also well be that over the next few years we shall no longer be able to develop more far-reaching legislation in a Union of 25 members .
It is a wide-ranging issue with major political implications , on which , however , there are a whole series of operational decisions to be taken , for we cannot limit ourselves to making declarations of principle .
The right has attacked the German Government for this , pretending to forget that right-wing governments in Portugal , Italy and in particular France , are moving ever further from the stability policy .
I know that telling Member States how to handle their decision-making processes is not an option , but making recommendations is obviously possible , not least within the framework of the open employment process .
The debate has been very wide-ranging debate as regards how we legislate in this process .
Having accomplished this , we should strive to simplify binding legislation , transforming it into non-binding recommendations ; regulations can be transformed into framework legislation , total harmonisation directives into minimum harmonisation directives , and uniform rules into voluntary rules .
The lack of coordination between the various crime-fighting bodies can only benefit those involved in such activities , which means that we must , to this end , improve mutual assistance in the fight to capture the proceeds of organised crime .
The on-going conflict in Chechnya featured prominently among these .
On the economic side , progress was less marked , except for the change in the EU anti-dumping regulations , which now accord Russia market economy status .
This hostage-taking incident has also somewhat changed Parliament 's standpoint on this issue .
Elections are not one-day events and the whole process , including the pre-voting period , has to be assessed .
That is not a backward-looking sentence ; rather , it states that despite everything , we are talking about the step from pure dictatorship to something that is less pure dictatorship , that is , something that also has a democratic element , even with all the criticism that can otherwise be mentioned .
In addition to the questions that other speakers have already raised about Parliament 's participation and also about the significance of postponing the creation of the Tripartite Social Summit , I should also like to ask the President-in-Office of the Council the following : what measures are you planning to adopt in order at least to increase the participation of women in the social dialogue , in terms of the decision-making bodies , in terms of legal bases and also in terms of the content to be addressed in this entire process ?
The Legal Service of the Council is however of the opinion that this provision cannot be used because it does not give the Council unrestricted decision-making competence .
Inevitably this is a learning-by-doing process .
We must also take into account the need to establish efficient decision-taking structures before enlargement .
Mr President , I support the extension of the Lamfalussy procedure in principle and I hope the interinstitutional difficulties can be resolved as soon as possible , so we can move forward and modernise decision-making structures in relation to banking , insurance and financial conglomerates .
We must also take into account the need to advance so that we have efficient decision-making structures before enlargement .
The use of herbal medicines is a long-standing tradition in Europe .
With around 10 million jobless and a shaky economy in the European Union , we must be sure that our well-meaning intention - to guarantee a basic level of social provision for temporary workers - does not paralyse an entire sector .
We were warned at the time of the part-working directive that it would cost hundreds of thousands of part-time jobs , particularly for women workers within the European Union .
It is , as has already been said , a very problematic dossier , because the different countries have very different systems to deal with this matter - they range from situations of all-embracing guarantees to a lack of any kind of protection .
This is why I call on everyone to conduct a much more far-reaching dialogue here in this House , and with the Commission , on these issues .
The thrust of this report is fully in line with the Lisbon Summit objectives and continues the forward-looking attitude consistently demonstrated by Parliament .
I share that approach in principle , but I would at the same time warn against we in Parliament 's expressing too many wishes , legitimate enough in themselves but meaning that we cease to focus upon the EIB 's main tasks , namely those of promoting regional development , supporting forward-looking technology , taking account of the environment and concentrating on the candidate countries and what are termed the partner countries .
The other improvements to the decision-making process which I plan to propose include : the formalisation and extension of the existing system of cross-checks in all cases which reach second phase investigations ; greater transparency , allowing access to the dossier and dialogue between opposing market views at an earlier stage than is currently the case ; more human resources in the Competition Directorate-General , both in order to work in a more appropriate fashion with regard to the high standards set by the Court and to improve our economic analysis capabilities .
We therefore want the Commission to speed up its discussions on this basis and to propose new tools soon in order to ensure free choice , resources for services of general interest , and competition , as well as to safeguard non profit-making activities .
Our final point in the Committee on Industry is a long-standing demand on the part of Parliament .
I also note the willingness to keep the European Commission as the decision-making body , under the judicial review of the courts .
However , I can , of course , content myself with the fact that it is ultimately only a non-binding instrument , which must serve as an incentive for the Member States .
This is not a piece of legislation , but merely an initiative that gives an opinion on Parliament 's behalf , a non-binding recommendation for the Member States , of which they are free to make use as they see fit .
May we emphasise once again , however , that an anti-smoking campaign is not the same thing as an anti-tobacco campaign and that the anti-smoking campaign should not take the form of a campaign against tobacco cultivation in ? U member states , as the EU argues in Amendment No 17 of the report .
May we emphasise once again , however , that an anti-smoking campaign is not the same thing as an anti-tobacco campaign and that the anti-smoking campaign should not take the form of a campaign against tobacco cultivation in ? U member states , as the EU argues in Amendment No 17 of the report .
( PT ) Despite the fact that the European Court of Justice has annulled the directive on advertising and sponsorship of tobacco products , of 14 May 2001 because it overstepped Community competence , we see that this report contains a set of non-binding recommendations , which places the emphasis on reducing tobacco consumption by raising consumer awareness .
In short , young people are smoking more and more , and currently no anti-smoking policy is capable of curbing this infernal trend .
This is why I welcome the adoption by the plenary of the report by Mr Maaten which , by taking up the major anti-smoking measures advocated by WHO , proposes measures to the Council that would be effective in preventing smoking and prevent teenagers from being conditioned by cigarette manufacturers .
The two largest groups have reached a compromise that prevents the more far-reaching protection that my group has proposed .
Despite this , Dutch employers are trying to persuade their counterparts in other Member States and the Right-wing section in this Parliament to reject even this minimum level of protection and to ensure that the rules are either rejected or relaxed .
The right-wing elements in this House will do everything in their power to obstruct this process .
Secondly , our mandate as agreed by the Council on 17 October was to seek a forward-looking discussion on more inclusive and longer-term global cooperation based on broader and balanced action and participation consistent with the ultimate objective of the Convention .
Government forces are blanket-bombing regions in the south with heavy civilian casualties .
And finally , in point 11 , it says ' maritime and / or fishing areas ' and , in Spanish , it should say ' maritime-fishing areas ' .
It is these aspects that have such a great part to play in the Budget , and especially in the balance sheet , but the budget-spending centres must be able to get more information from the accounts .
The framework of budgetary implementation in 2001 outlined by this report is characterised by a very strong implementation of the budget , which in particular affects appropriations for the pre-accession and Structural Fund programmes , due to ongoing shortcomings in Community accounting procedures , which need to be reformed as a matter of urgency , and also due to the persistence of long-standing problems , such as the lack of transparency in the Commission 's handling of the system of protection for the European sugar industry .
In Copenhagen we hope to be able to take a historic decision on the greatest enlargement in the history of the Community to date , and I also dare say the enlargement with the most far-reaching consequences and the broadest historical perspective .
They have not been , but Turkey has made impressive progress with the far-reaching reform package .
In the debate about dates , I agree with Mr Brok that we must not allow the subject of Turkey to eclipse the decision-making process about ratification in the Member States , and there is probably already a real danger that it will .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , we are dealing with a never-ending story here .
That is why this time I would like to see on our desks not only a well-meaning letter from our President , but also a definite statement from the Council .
We also emphasised , however , that , when such drastic measures for reducing the quotas are being proposed , we really need to be sure of the facts , for the measures would have very far-reaching consequences for the fisheries sector not only at sea but also on land .
The participation of fishermen and their representative organisations in the decision-making process is also crucial to the common fisheries policy and to stock management , specifically through co-management , so as to guarantee genuine decentralisation .
The new protocol is the ninth since the Fisheries Agreement between the European Community and Angola entered into force in 1997 ; this new protocol applies to the period between August 2002 and August 2004 , provides access for 33 tuna vessels and 22 shrimp-fishing vessels .
The Commission wants to act as a substitute for the Council of Ministers in decision-making processes .
This is how to ensure they remain law-abiding men and women .
Clearly , this is a particularly delicate and bold proposal , but , in my view , the proposed arrangement divides decision-making power more fairly between the representatives of the national governments and the representatives of the people , that is , between the Council and Parliament .
In political terms , what is at stake is questioning , debating and defining ' things ' as simple as the democratic legitimacy and the governability of the European Union ; also at stake are the aims of the Union and its place in the world , the allocation and the definition of EU competences and their adaptation to the Community acquis , the simplification of the Union 's instruments , its democracy , transparency and efficiency , the role of national parliaments , the efficiency of the decision-making process and the functioning of the institutions in an enlarged Union and the drafting or otherwise , of a European Constitution .
The monopoly of initiative , strengthened by the requirement for unanimity within the Council in order to dismiss the Commission 's proposals and by extending the majority needed to accept them , distorts the entire European decision-making process and certainly contributes to the rift perceived between the Union and the citizens .
Adhering to Jean Monnet 's vision and the Community method , the Commission is today reinvigorating its ambitious and forward-looking role in European integration with a blueprint that meets our expectations .
As Mr Prodi has said , what we are looking for is a supranational democracy in Europe and that will be , in important ways , a democracy sui generis , not exactly like that of any pre-existing state or society .
The issues of the decision-making process , codecision and the extension of qualified majority voting , and the replacement of the Council decision-making process stemming from the Treaty of Nice by the simple dual majority are essential approaches that could lead to improvement .
The issues of the decision-making process , codecision and the extension of qualified majority voting , and the replacement of the Council decision-making process stemming from the Treaty of Nice by the simple dual majority are essential approaches that could lead to improvement .
We are also looking forward to the end of this never-ending task because I believe that , with everyone adopting a position , with everyone drafting their own Constitution , it is fortunate that some members of the Commission are concerning themselves with this common task and are making their contribution .
There are many other points which need to be clarified and discussed but we agree that we should not create new , unnecessary institutions and that the decision-making power of the Eurogroup and the Union 's financial system should be strengthened .
And , at worst , it manifests itself in the ever-increasing number of workers out of a job : today , there are almost 20 million people unemployed in the European Union , and in addition , there are millions of workers who have only precarious employment .
Mr President , on Mr Jové Peres , the EPLP voted differently from the proposed PS line in order to be consistent with the approach taken by the UK Government on fisheries and to reflect our support for the following : to look at fisheries management on the basis that absence of scientific evidence does not mean postponing conservation support for a strong role for regional management councils with decision-making power and access support for extension up to 24 miles , support for 12 miles and support for 50 miles for remote areas , for effective measures to reduce fishing capacity and for a continuation of relative stability .
I also think that to press ahead and agree that package with its wide-ranging consequences will , in fact , torpedo the CFP reform package and prevent any perception forthcoming from the Council that the EU actually means what it says when it states that it wants to do things in a better way .
I thought you might want to be aware of this before the discussion and prize-giving ceremony tomorrow .
We therefore need a specific , in-depth debate , which will lead to forward-thinking decisions in accordance with our current needs .
And above all , let us state very clearly that what characterises a law is codecision , and that codecision must become the only decision-making procedure for the whole legislative bloc .
They will be less inclined to forgive us if we put before them what are manifestly tax-raising powers for the European Union without actually calling them that .
We could have a tremendous argument about the introduction of tax-raising powers for the European Union , but I do not believe that it is acceptable , even with the best will in the world , for it to be simply decided on , along with much else , under the heading of ' typology and hierarchy of acts ' .
We will bring Europe closer quite simply by giving national parliaments the right to intervene directly in the European decision-making process .
I am in favour because he takes account of the long theoretical work that this Parliament has been developing since Maastricht , because this is a parliamentary acquis that must be included in the text of the Convention and lastly , because this work has resulted in clear instruments and effective decision-making procedures , which are crucial to the smooth functioning of the future Union .
In other words , the current decision-making process , based on constitutional modifications being made unanimously , is a procedure which does not lend itself to the development of an institution such as our Community , which so far at least has been effective .
Mr President , the hierarchy of acts is a topic that under normal circumstances would drive any normal human being from the room , but I believe it is becoming evident how important this report by Mr Bourlanges is in terms of the EU 's legal capacity and , of course , also in terms of the comprehensibility and - as we shall see - democratisation of the decision-making process .
This is necessary because this illness-inducing substance has for far too long been treated as the solution for everything , because dwellings and industrial buildings in Eastern Europe contain high levels of Russian asbestos and because also people other than those handling asbestos can become affected .
My group considered that a balance had been struck and that this report could be accepted as it was , even though some particularly crowd-pleasing paragraphs remained .
We believe that in a number of areas which are contentious - for example , the dangers of non-ionising radiation - not enough is known within the science for us to pass this by .
Not only must future policy include effective emergency plans for the combating of epidemics , but all the Member States must check how their communications networks and decision-making structures would perform in an emergency , and run cross-border emergency exercises in real time .
First of all , prevention is essential , and this prevention involves providing better information , on-going training of farmers - who were not always able to identify the disease early enough - animal traceability and more animal health professionals who can be called up more easily .
With the progress made in vaccinations - we now have vaccinations with a broader spectrum , longer-lasting vaccinations and marker vaccinations which make it possible to distinguish vaccinated animals from infected animals - it is now possible to give Member States the freedom to authorise or even make compulsory prophylactic vaccination , in other words preventative vaccination , as applied before 1992 , where the risks of epidemics are the highest .
Much more far-reaching consequences than simply economic ones are involved .
Not to mention the market sectors opened up for New Zealand sheep , New Zealand being part of the UK-USA alliance of English-speaking countries , of which the US is also a member , and the US has benefited from BSE , which also broke out on the territory of its ally , Britain , which would officially declare that transmission to humans was feasible in 1996 , in other words at the peak of the battle between Europe and the US on hormone-treated beef .
Everyone who has come into contact with the decision-making process knows that precisely these documents are important .
This means that the arrangement we adopted previously will operate still better and that the public will more easily be able to follow the decision-making process .
In fact , this initiative only concerns the creation of an information-sharing system between Member States , and this instrument lacks genuine operability in the fight against organised crime because the initiative does not seek to create , at the same time , any mutual recognition of sentencing with a view to its implementation , which is a prerequisite for the disqualifications it is seeking to achieve .
These are arbitrary , insignificant , incoherent proposals , sometimes dictated by the national political agenda , and transform the third pillar into an ever-expanding universe , containing chaos in all directions ; a bureaucratic ball of thread without ends .
The students taking part in these activities are not just increasing their own knowledge and abilities to deal with the ever-changing nature and shape of the world in which we live , they also represent the future building-blocks for a new society and a new understanding and tolerance of the cultural diversity within the European Union .
These programmes aggressively impose the Euro-unifying education model in the field of education and youth and are designed to familiarise young people with so-called European ideals .
The Convention 's efforts to bring about a uniform decision-making structure based on codecision and the Community model within a combined ' constitutional treaty ' amount to important changes with a view to democratising the EU 's decision-making process and making it easier to grasp .
The Convention 's efforts to bring about a uniform decision-making structure based on codecision and the Community model within a combined ' constitutional treaty ' amount to important changes with a view to democratising the EU 's decision-making process and making it easier to grasp .
The report contains sound proposals for new terminology aimed at clarifying the ways in which the EU 's legal instruments work and at making the decision-making process more easily accessible .
Taking Europe further along its current path , this method would distance the Member States from the European decision-making process .
The word ' directive ' creates the impression that these are non-binding recommendations , hence well-meaning advice .
The word ' directive ' creates the impression that these are non-binding recommendations , hence well-meaning advice .
This frugal and forward-looking budget has resulted from good cooperation such as one can only dream of - with Parliament , and with the rapporteurs .
I would particularly like to thank Mr Stenmarck for his cooperation in working with me on the other institutions ' budgets and , crucially , the implementation of the front-loading exercise .
It was introduced in 1997 and extended to all fund-managing departments in 1999 .
These substances are banned for use in food-producing animals in the European Union because it has not been possible to set a safe level of residues due to their toxic effects on human beings .
It is a far-reaching proposal as it bans the marketing and use of all articles containing these substances .
Madam President , ladies and gentlemen , I too am very pleased that these two important directives have now finally reached the last stage of the decision-making process .
I would also like to sincerely thank the Commissioner because it is also an important forward-looking step in the area of refuse and waste and because small and medium-sized firms are being given completely new opportunities here .
In this context , I should also like to emphasise that the European Parliament must , under the decision-making process that leads to the adoption of Community acts , call for the clarity of texts , simplified procedures and , when appropriate , mechanisms that ensure the effective management and evaluation of the act in question .
We must simplify the decision-making procedures and stress the EU 's values .
I therefore warmly welcome the EU-NATO agreement concluded at the Summit , which will enable us to conduct military peace-keeping operations in the Balkans from as early as next year .
Only by strengthening the Union 's decision-making process can we build the more cohesive , united Union that will earn their respect and admiration .
As soon as citizens start to feel that they are not genuinely involved in a project , as soon as they feel their lives are dependent on inaccessible decision-making bodies , which rapidly churn out standards , laws and various injunctions that often have serious consequences , they immediately perceive , rightly or wrongly , the risks rather than the opportunities of any new undertaking .
The same applies to the need to provide secure employment and training and to safeguard services of general interest , to the necessary pre-eminence of political choices over market requirements , to the role of the Union on the world stage and to the part played by social players in the decision-making process .
Give the new countries free membership instead of theoretical Structural Fund subsidies , which they cannot receive on account of our bureaucratic procedures and the co-financing requirement .
We still have to decide how an EU of 25 or more can work , because failure to reform our decision-making process will guarantee that this enlargement is the breaking and not the making of the European Union .
I welcome the determination to resolve the Cyprus issue and would point out that , because we have always said that we would not allow third parties to veto our future , this is forcing us finally to reach a settlement in this long-running debate .
I found this to be a positive , confidence-inspiring commitment ; one which has unfortunately been paid far too little attention in the Council .
I therefore believe that it goes without saying that a European Union that wants to call itself democratic should organise binding referenda on such a far-reaching step in all European countries - a step with consequences that are barely calculable , a step that could cause a massive migratory flux of people to the West , a step that could even result in the complete implosion of the European Union .
For , if the newly-acceding countries are to be enabled to absorb change , efforts must be stepped up to develop the necessary administrative capacities in these countries .
An enlarged EU must , though , strike a new balance between flexible and efficient decision-making and the aspects of the decision-making structures that have to do with democratic policy-making .
I see that as highly problematic , as not enough governments have made public commitments to transparency and public access , especially as regards their decision-making structures .
For decades , all the policies of left- or right-wing governments and those of the European authorities have moved in this direction in order to increase the wealth of the ruling classes .
( PT ) I have , of course , voted in favour of this important report , which seeks to establish common criteria for access to information , to ensure public participation in the decision-making process and access to justice in environmental matters , because I believe that this access to information - and I am talking about high-quality information - on environmental matters must today be considered to be a standard prerogative of citizenship .
The second aspect is that since this has clearly had a terrible effect on fishing and shellfish farming , we must consider a more integrated and far-reaching package of measures that will provide practical responses for the communities that have been affected .
Moreover , the time has come to consider seriously the forward-looking ideas that were recently presented by the High Commissioner , Ruud Lubbers , and which have been blessed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Executive Committee .
Mrs Sbarbati is right that something must be done for asylum-seeking minors in particular , and I can only state that in my home parliament I have introduced a Bill which ensures that an adult is present , that a lawyer is present when necessary and that cases involving minors are processed extra quickly .
At the moment , if there is any severe criticism in our report , it is criticism of the European education systems , which are devoting increasingly less time to the playing of sport in schools and under which there are an ever-increasing number of schools with dilapidated sports facilities .
Leaving aside for a moment the benefits of having a regular , wide-ranging hobby and an attitude to life that goes with it , even a little exercise prevents heart and vascular diseases , ailments that affect the organs of locomotion , rheumatic illnesses and mental health problems .
In simpler terms , that meant that there had to be an end to the inconsistencies arising from unclear case law and the Commission 's never-ending attempts to use its competences in the field of competition to meddle with the definition and functioning of services of general interest .
We do not need an examination of the need for a framework directive ; rather , what we need is for the Commission to present a framework directive , in accordance with Parliament 's long-standing request that it should do so .
The result is an ever-increasing disparity between the expenditure ceiling agreed in 1998 and actual spending .
I think that now more than ever we need to conduct a broad , ground-breaking dialogue with society and with those responsible for exercising European policy .
The absence of women through balanced representation in decision-making bodies is significant , particularly social partners and other bodies .
Additional efforts must be made so that the presence of women in decision-making bodies becomes a reality .
Yesterday , television stations broadcast the human and heart-breaking image of the minute 's silence expressing condemnation and rejection of the latest terrorist attack by people , men and women , who were working to recover Galicia 's environment , the marine environment , in the fight to deal with the consequences of the Prestige disaster .
It is a fact that resistance , with attitudes and structures generated by this long-standing patriarchy , often proves to be stronger than political will or even legislation .
The committee is actively working on the priority themes for 2002 and 2003 - the reconciliation of work and family life and the participation of women in decision-making processes .
Women need to be involved in decision-making processes at all levels .
The Commission 's approach is based on the assumption that a wide-ranging consultation process will now take place , and that this will subsequently be extended to the detailed legislative provisions as soon as they are presented to the Legislative Council .
Why should the extreme right-wing powers in Israel be worried by the friendly admonishments from the major powers every now and again when the Israeli army goes beyond certain limits ?
Will the path to constructive dialogue now peter out again in the aftermath of the Communist party conference and the far-reaching changes in personnel brought about by it ?
To this end , the motion for a resolution which is now to be put to the vote in the plenary session of this House contains important proposals : the inclusion in the new constitutional framework of the principles of respect for regional and local identity and , therefore , of the application of subsidiarity , not just in relations between the Union and the Member States but where regional and local authorities are concerned too ; committing the Commission , not least on the basis of its White Paper on Governance , to involving the representatives of regional and local authorities in the preparatory work on its proposals ; calling upon the Member States to promote and enhance - each in accordance with its own constitutional system - the participation of regional and local authorities in the Union 's decision-making process .
As a general rule , we need to take care not to reduce the effectiveness of a decision-making process which is already subject to a large number of constraints by applying a set of checks and balances of varying degrees of rigidity .
The regions must be able to count on the European Union to involve them systematically in all stages of the European decision-making process .
We point out the democratic deficit arising from the under-representation of women in decision-making bodies and administrations in all areas of political , economic , social and - not least - professional life .
The European Union 's regions are significantly handicapped in their cohesion and in their development as democracies by the continuing under-representation of women in decision-making processes .
In any case , it is not the place of the Community to decide - or even suggest - that regional and local authorities should play a greater part or participate otherwise in a given European decision-making process , as indicated in the Napolitano report .
We must correct this in the following way : firstly , the regions must be consulted at every stage of the legislative procedure in the European Union ; secondly , we must urge the Member States to allow them the greatest possible participation throughout the European decision-making process in each of the States , including at the level of representation within the Council of Ministers ; we must also increase the role of the Committee of the Regions and allow the regions to be able to act within the framework of the principle of subsidiarity .
The Napolitano report attempts to define the role of local and regional powers in the Union 's decision-making process .
Furthermore , the Member States are completely free to organise , each for their own part , the participation of the regions in their decision-making processes .
We have witnessed a complete lack or only relative participation of the regions in the Community decision-making processes .
We consider it to be a thorough and wide-ranging piece of work that highlights many positive points about the state of human rights within the European Union , even if many parts of it make extremely uncomfortable reading .
The Pirker report drops into this wide-ranging framework a number of practical proposals on how to achieve integrated management of our external borders , without interfering in the territorial sovereignty of the individual States but rather defining the ideal formulae for harmonious cooperation .
In an internal market for railways designed in this way , it will be crucial for modern , forward-looking railway undertakings to attract more freight and more passengers onto rail by providing services that customers want and that run on time .
It also entails corporatism and national vote-winning measures .
Even before the compromise of the end of 2000 concerning corridors for goods transportation by other companies comes into effect , attempts are already being made to push through even more far-reaching liberalisation with the aim of putting international goods traffic first , then domestic goods traffic , then international passenger traffic and finally all traffic in the hands of companies that have fewer obligations to society as a whole .
However , there are other amendments which cause us difficulties , for example those which would effectively confer decision-making powers on the agency , when we believe that it must only have the capacity to make technical proposals .
The seat behind the wheel in buses and lorries is a back-breaking place of work .
Changes would have far-reaching consequences for the sector .
I consider it vital , in order to counter this trend , and as has indeed already been proposed , to strengthen action under ECHO , and to develop awareness-raising campaigns for the citizens of the European Union , so as to bring these actions closer to the public , and of course to reverse the negative trend identified in the budget .
We are conscious that the Commission 's second railway package , and in particular the proposal for a directive on the development of the Community 's railways , which is the subject of the Jarzembowski report , touches on important long-standing issues in various Member States , including my own - Portugal .
( FR ) During yesterday 's debate here in Parliament , I pointed out that the participation of the regions in the European decision-making process advocated by the Napolitano report would open a Pandora 's box , which would then release all kinds of surprises .
We agree with regionalisation and with the idea of strengthening the role played by regional and local authorities within the constitutional framework and within sovereign decision-making processes in each Member State .
Nevertheless , although some positive amendments have been adopted , the Napolitano report is still inspired by the more or less explicit objective of trying to create direct links between the institutions of the European Union and regional and local authorities , thus bypassing the Member States ' sovereign decision-making powers .
The Committee on Constitutional Affairs believes that the hierarchical and pyramid-like structure of the EU 's institutional system should be abandoned in favour of a system involving regional and local authorities more in Europe 's decision-making process .
Although I agree in principle about the effective existence of different traditional and specific administrative approaches in each Member State , I part company from the report when , politically speaking , it tries to relegate the Member States to a subordinate role , encouraging interference in the Member States ' decision-making processes , promoting their legal and institutional fencing-in with powers being assumed by the European institutions and the regions , and advocating that the political legitimacy of the regions should be artificially equated with that of the Member States in the Treaties .
We hope here to adopt directives on the reunification of families of long-standing immigrants .
I also endorse the far-reaching decision by the Greek Presidency to choose peace : I endorse it and I call for unified peacekeeping measures from the countries and the European institutions .
These countries are a benchmark of world-beating performance and prove that the right policy mix can bring development on all fronts : economic , social and environmental .
It is vital that we promote research into world-beating products and clean technologies , and we must help businesses turn knowledge into commercial opportunities .
Whereas our young people , who are going to the United States in ever-increasing numbers , stay there for the most part , I can tell you that the majority of Asians and Chinese - and there are currently tens of thousands of Chinese studying in the United States - go back home .
The Prime Minister , Costas Simitis , who is here today , said recently , speaking in a French daily newspaper , that ' Greece believes we need a strong Commission rather than two decision-making bodies , the Commission and the Council , otherwise the European Union could risk turning into an intergovernmental Union and not the federal model we are hoping for ' .
On studying this statement carefully , we learn that , according to the Greek Government , the Commission should possess greater decision-making power than even the Council .
The plan of action identified a financial package , originally EUR 124 million , from unspent EDF funds and budget lines aimed at addressing the most pressing concerns at this stage , including emergency relief , food aid and food security , reintegration and resettlement of refugees and displaced persons and de-mining operations .
The decision on all this will be implemented through different UN agencies , EuronAid and FAO for the food security component and different NGOs for the de-mining operations .
Specifically , can Kosovan institutions count on very wide-ranging autonomy in the future ?
We no doubt all view the present situation in the Middle East as one of unimaginative tit-for-tat exchanges , and I personally think that the military action on the part of Israel is such as to make it almost impossible to imagine the Palestinian people 's being able to unite around a well-functioning society .
Starting with the need to reform the post-trading environment , with the aim of eliminating confusion between infrastructures and functions and destroying existing natural monopolistic positions , there must be an arrangement for core settlement services managed for legal purposes as a user-owned service governed by the rules of non-profit status .
That should not prejudice their private or public status , but allow them to be run as non-profit-making bodies and be accessible without discrimination to all users .
Hence the proposals to separate non-profit-making activities from fee systems based on costs .
In this report we are presented with proposals to remove the barriers and distortions in the European Union post-trading environment , to create a level playing field between institutions , a common regulatory view and the development of rights of access and choice .
Now the same principle must be applied to post-trading infrastructure .
An early step will no doubt be the revision of the investment services directive which provides for the possibility of choice of systems for post-trading activity .
I am also astonished at the sweeping proposal for a non-profit system of this sort , even though it is far from being proven that such a model would be preferable to a system run on a profit-making basis .
This is all the more the case - and , in my view , right and proper - when we are engaged in an intermediate consultation , that is to say in the midst of the opinion-forming process .
One of the difficulties is the nursing shortage : in fact , an ever-increasing number of nurses will be needed .
The number of new policy-coordinating proposals and inventories will not , in my opinion , promote good care and assistance but will rather impede it .
We must not accept being told that this is impossible and that the ratio of people of working age to those of non-working age does not allow it .
The problem is not this ratio between people of working and non-working age , but the ratio between the considerable profits of large companies , the ever-increasing income of the wealthier classes , and the constantly decreasing income of employees , both when working and as pensioners .
The problem is not this ratio between people of working and non-working age , but the ratio between the considerable profits of large companies , the ever-increasing income of the wealthier classes , and the constantly decreasing income of employees , both when working and as pensioners .
I should like to reiterate the European Union 's commitment , in cooperation with the United Nations , to help Afghanistan eliminate the illicit production and trafficking of narcotics through accelerated implementation of reconstruction programmes , including in poppy-growing areas , the development of law-enforcement institutions , and provision of an alternative , better livelihood for the local people .
In a period when the basic units of the army and police are being trained , in a country where the private militias have 30 times as many men as the Afghan army , it would have been prudent to extend the International Security Assistance Force 's mandate geographically , especially in the main opium-producing regions that support the warlords .
There is a compelling argument for the international peace-keeping force to deploy to key locations outside Kabul until the Afghan National Army is in a position to assume its responsibilities , but such forces will be highly vulnerable .
Thirdly , the introduction of the labelling requirement for an after-opening date as well as the labelling of allergenic fragrance ingredients .
We are to have special safety requirements in relation to children ; allergy-producing ingredients are to be labelled ; and details are to be provided of the shelf-life of individual products .
Mr President , today , a fortuitous left-wing majority of five votes has done damage to the cause of human rights .
I have grave doubts as to how secure a basis there is for the far-reaching assertion in item133 to the effect that in seven EU Member States , including Sweden , a ' climate of impunity ' prevails in relation to misconduct and violence by police and prison staff .
The funniest thing is seeing the rapporteur - a banker by trade - explaining that we would need to create a genuine , non-profit-making public service , which would make cross-border transactions easier and less costly !
As Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs , as Mr Diamandouros 's colleague at the University of Athens and as a long-standing friend , may I say that I am delighted and excited by his election to this post .
Mr President , Mr Yiannitsis , Mr Patten , the EU-Lebanon Association Agreement marks a step forward in our long-standing relations .
In principle we are in favour of developing relations with this country of great culture and ancient traditions , that is so close to Europe in general , and in particular the French-speaking tradition that I , amongst others , represent here .
The warlords remain , there is still no Rule of Law or free media , as we saw again just recently at the last summit of French-speaking countries , drug-trafficking and corruption remain , and terrorist bases , in particular , as has been pointed out , Hezbollah bases , still remain .
May the Commission organise itself in such a way that the development of the Northern Dimension is the responsibility of a high-ranking official in just one Directorate-General , as is the case with the MEDA Programme .
I hope that the EU , the three Baltic states , and Poland , even before these latter four join the EU , will engage in detailed talks with Russia in order to make it possible for their border-crossing procedures , from 2004 onwards , to run as smoothly as those we find at the crossing points between Finland and Russia , which have already been modernised .
These arrangements will guarantee the full participation of the new Member States in the institutional framework of the Union and the operating costs of their participation in the Union 's institutions will be dealt with under the appropriate decision-taking procedures .
What initiatives will the Council take to thwart the attempt by the external forces supporting the Venezuelan economic oligarchy to overthrow the legally elected President Chavez with the aim of controlling the 5th most important oil-producing country , and to ensure that the verdict of the Venezuelan people is respected at international level ?
The EBRD 's micro-financing projects deserve particular mention in this context .
Their aim is to further increase the importance of the criterion of employment and taking trade unions into account when evaluating co-financing projects , even though I am aware that this is already the case .
Are there not also problems in terms of achieving a balance between profit-making and loss-making projects ?
Certain fish-farming activities are indeed very often seen as polluting or are thought to harm the environment .
Globally , aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing food sectors .
As we all know , under the reform of the Common fisheries policy , the Commission has made thorough-going changes to management policies and to fishing fleet renewal policies .
I am confident that the communication on association agreements in the fisheries sector adopted by the Commission will provide a basis on which we can achieve significant and ground-breaking progress concerning the external dimension of the common fisheries policy .
Not only has that country , which is a brutal , secretive , communist dictatorship , repeatedly violated international agreements such as the 1994 one to end its bomb-making uranium enrichment programme , it has also in the past violated every standard of civilised behaviour , from kidnapping Japanese civilians - which the government justified , almost unbelievably , on the grounds of needing language instructors for its spies - to engaging in political assassinations such as blowing up the South Korean cabinet in Rangoon a few years ago .
Consequently , the EU must tread carefully and concentrate on delivering humanitarian aid to its long-suffering people .
We are currently working so that in March we can for the first time in history deploy a peace-keeping force in that Republic .
The deployment of military force in Macedonia would be the second peace-keeping operation taken on by Europe , since , as you know , since 1 January this year , the European police force is deployed in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a replacement for the police force which was there under the flag of the United Nations .
Therefore , in a relatively short space of time , we have been able to implement two peace-keeping operations in an area close to our hearts and close geographically to our capitals and to Brussels .
My group would like to be able to state these values , state these requirements in Iraq itself , without the slightest leniency towards the authorities , Mr Watson , quite the opposite - nobody , furthermore , will find in my entire political history the slightest leniency towards this dictator , nobody , which is not the case of certain right-wing governments - ...
At the same time , however , we must issue a warning about the need to prevent the Iraqis from indulging in time-wasting manoeuvres in order to put off complying with the UN resolutions without good reason and to ensure that the current status quo remains in place .
No to any move to accommodate the sabre-rattling president of the United States acting as the mouthpiece of multinational interests .
I also repudiate the tendency of several Members of this House to allow themselves to be used by Iraq as propaganda tools , which contrasts with Parliament 's fact-finding mission to the UN in New York .
Unfortunately , war and violence are your preserve , the preserve of the men who rule in the decision-making centres , while the victims of war are mainly women and children .
Destabilising the Korean peninsula would have more far-reaching consequences .
Over and above our high-sounding declarations of principle , human rights are being violated in far too many countries : Chechnya , China , the African countries at war , Israel , the USA with the death penalty and so on and so forth .
Like many of you , I feel indignation when fundamental human rights - the right to life , freedom of thought and movement - are ridden roughshod over in countries professing to be democracies too , and , today , illiberal , death-dealing acts are being carried out in the name of the war against terrorism , although that is not to say that terrorism must not be combated , as in the case of the massacre in Mazar-I-Sharif .
At the March conference , we must take tangible decisions such as sending a peace-keeping force to protect the civilian population in the occupied territories and refusing to allow Israel to obstruct or even fire on humanitarian missions .
An all-embracing system of democracy can only be established if all associations and political groupings are included in the process .
The minerals : zinc , lead , iron , tungsten , cadmium , cobalt and germanium are unique , and germanium has semi-conducting powers that are now used to make the most powerful microchip in the world , to say nothing of radium , lithium and niobium , which produce superconductive alloys at high temperatures , or diamonds , silver , platinum , and so on .
In the on-going reform process , the Commission is moving in the direction of a system of control and accountability .
One of last year 's priorities was to make the utmost use of the opportunities for simplification without going through the entire decision-making process , in other words to have recourse to whatever was administratively feasible .
It has already been said here that the directive will fully entitle the public to participate in the decision-making process right from the start , especially as regards planning and the implementation of programmes , the environmental impact evaluation process , the prevention of pollution , and the reduction in pollutants in general .
This will obviously and quite properly increase the transparency of the decision-making process and help to increase public interest in , and knowledge about , environmental issues .
At the time , as a result of a fairly heated debate and decision-making process , the European Parliament managed to push through the world 's most stringent quality requirements for fuel in road vehicles .
We also support the need for an on-going review of the situation to ensure progress does not give rise to social or economic problems .
It is therefore crucial that rapid and far-reaching measures are adopted in order to put an end to this situation , which must surely weigh on humanity 's conscience .
We must , for example , provide a more substantial response to campaigns for high-risk areas , such as the awareness-raising campaign ' Hunger in Africa ' , launched by the World Food Programme .
It is disgraceful that we are in no position to take more far-reaching decisions in this area .
Unfortunately this proposal was seriously toned down for rice and sugar at the time and was postponed following pressure by the European sugar industry and sugar-producing countries .
It is also true , however , that it was the deep-seated differences between the European Union and the developing countries , especially in the trade and finance dossier , that prevented more far-reaching results from being achieved .
What is needed is an integral strategy with wide-ranging education and prevention campaigns .
Overall , however , I welcome the inclusion of the granting of certain operating permits in these Directives and the great accountability required of decision-making bodies .
So much duplicity , so much cynicism concealed under the cover of a well-meaning attitude when we are talking about the death and destitution of hundreds of thousands of human beings should be unreservedly condemned .
This vote might well be celebrated in Baghdad and has , to this extent , at least one positive aspect : it highlights the deceptiveness of the argument of those who are rooted in an archaic left-wing ideology and have boundless rhetoric that appears to condemn but in fact simply plays into Saddam Hussein 's hands .
¡ Basta Ya ! won the Sakharov Prize in 2000 and Mr Pagazaurtundua came to our Parliament to attend the Sakharov prize-giving ceremony at that time .
At present in Russia it is possible to solve problems informally with reference to arbitrary , unwritten and ever-changing laws , which only adds to corruption .
It also appears that the exemptions discriminate against smaller countries which lack the manufacturing base to produce the required life-saving drugs under compulsory licences .
It is clear that this is necessary for institutional balance and the whole decision-making process .
This is why , in addition to the anti-dumping measures , technical assistance for these countries is of great importance .
The great danger is already present that this will prove no long-lasting protection and that the abandonment of European subsidy policy will then begin in earnest , because there will as yet be no political majorities , and where they do exist , they will be compromises .
All this has taken place against the background of references to ' Old Europe ' , or even cheese-eating monkeys .
There is the failure to challenge the issue of dependency on oil-producing crops , even after the opening-up of former Eastern bloc countries and the consequences of mad cow disease .
I think that there are two points on which I believe the Commission is encroaching too far on the Member States ' decision-making authority .
I would have preferred to have produced a resolution rather than a package of amendments - which are unlikely to be read or taken into account by those people with real decision-making powers .
It is a form of logic that may have far-reaching consequences .
Furthermore , we feel this far-reaching agreement has taken place too quickly , in particular given the impact assessment unveiled at the same time .
Mr President , according to the Commission , the new Association Agreement between Chile and the European Union is the most ambitious , most innovative , most far-reaching agreement ever negotiated with a non-candidate country .
It was important when what was known as the Transit Agreement was being negotiated between 1992 and 1994 , a time when we even made our consent to membership of the Community conditional upon the finding of a sound and forward-looking solution to this problem .
Now , following our resolution in Parliament , we will be calling on the Council , at the meeting of its transport ministers , to pass a formal resolution adopting the compromise which has already been arrived at in this matter , and it would be important in view of this if we in this House were also to be able to express our belief in a joint , sound , and forward-looking solution to this problem .
Far from previous traditions , this new transport deal should include environmental requirements first and foremost in its studies , place the transport-using citizen at the heart of its definitions and liase with NGOs in all of its deliberations .
As long as there are unemployed people , the existence of more young people will not solve the problem of the elderly : there will just be an ever-increasing number of young people who are unemployed , who are unable to pay for the pensions of the elderly .
It is not a radical reform , but it will have far-reaching consequences for future transport policy .
The Member States must also be able to maintain a protection from imports system that would make possible a national , health-promoting policy on alcohol .
Although it proposes a range of non-binding measures , the stress on the role of local communities , especially police , social workers , local authority healthcare staff and others is the right emphasis .
The decision taken by Arcelor to gradually close its hot-working steel facilities on its continental sites was , of course , received with concern in the regions concerned .
It was also received with anger , in particular in the Liège region , because it is ruthlessly breaking the commitment made by Usinor before merging into the new Arcelor group to invest in the smelting works in Liège , in order to ensure that hot-working production lines were maintained .
Moreover , at the same time as announcing the death of the European hot-working sites , the Arcelor group is seeking to purchase Polish companies , but above all it is heavily investing in the Brazilian continental hot-working steel industry .
Moreover , at the same time as announcing the death of the European hot-working sites , the Arcelor group is seeking to purchase Polish companies , but above all it is heavily investing in the Brazilian continental hot-working steel industry .
I should like to underline this request and say that the European Parliament certainly does not want to interfere in politics the world over , but it does wish to offer good mediation services wherever a reasonably well-functioning democracy is in danger because it is under threat from populism on the one hand and fear and uncertainty on the other .
As you know , that is a long-standing position of Parliament .
In your letter last October to the Chair of the Committee on Industry , External Trade , Research and Energy , you accused Parliamentarians of making false claims about what you called the alleged intransparency of the EU decision-making process .
Unless , though , majority decisions are legitimised by democratic politics , the decision-making process in the countries - and there above all - is called into question by this discussion of fundamentals .
We need one to pre-empt this never-ending series of debates on culture .
Those amendments which seriously restrict this approach - since , in various ways , they hinder self-handling operations - restricting them exclusively to seafaring people , cannot be accepted .
Furthermore , the future European transport system will only succeed with efficient and forward-looking ports .
We cannot , therefore , accept the fact that this directive will allow any port user , who may or may not be accredited , to engage in cargo-handling activity , in contravention of national legislation on labour or on the operation of ports , which is binding on all port operators , under conditions other than those laid down , specifically for the use of operators ' own equipment and workers , and possibly on docks for which a public service concession has been granted .
As I stated , the obligation on current port operators to absorb the labour force contracted to ports on salaries around three times higher than the average in sectors with identical operational requirements means that the directive will not be able to allow a port user to engage in cargo-handling activity without having to be accredited , thereby using workers in more favourable conditions than those binding current port operators under the law and under collective bargaining agreements .
At the same time , however , we are creating - and I do not understand this , Commissioner - an additional competition-distorting element in this directive itself .
The Member States and their constitutional bodies with competences in this area must maintain their capacity to include their specific rules on invitations to tender for service-providing contracts and for the protection of the workers involved .
One , what does self-handling mean ?
These lights represent information beamed from the satellite-tracking systems .
Businesses are already feeling the pain from the interim cod recovery measures : not just the fish-catching sector , but whole communities .
As to that future , I have no doubt that the industry must be involved in the decision-making process .
That is why the ELDR Group is especially keen that the somewhat stalled talks in the interinstitutional working group , which is looking at the way in which we all collectively improve our law-making capacity , should conclude as quickly as possible .
I have come across some amazingly talented , committed and hard-working people , but for every one of them there are two who just appear to float .
Parliament is one of the two component parts of the decision-making authority , and we will not allow the Council to present us with faits accomplis in these matters .
Europe is undergoing demographic change - and this is where we have to look slightly further ahead - in that it has an every-increasing number of older people and ever fewer young people .
Another linguistic outrage is the fact that the European Parliament visitor 's service no longer has a Finnish-speaking official .
However , I would particularly like to thank President Prodi for stating in a very wide-ranging speech a political fact : these are terrible times but the Union must press ahead with its projects and ambitions .
In other words , agricultural spending is to be slashed in line with the WTO approach and under pressure from the USA , and this will be compounded by mandatory restructuring and an anti-farming slant to the partial reform of the CAP .
Under the new system , terms and operating licences will be the preserve of a decision-making centre , which will be different from the past port services provider , because the same agency cannot act as both service provider and port manager .
( FR ) This directive is far from perfect - the States must be able to demand that the rules in force for land-based personnel should apply to seafaring crew carrying out self-handling activities cited in the annex to the directive - but it is welcome nonetheless .
No , they were not ; but there are trend-setting countries that do not feel sufficiently bound by the promises .
What we have here , then , are two different approaches , but not varieties of right- or left-wing policies , for I know that many people in industry prefer good , strong small businesses and that it is precisely to these businesses that they wish to provide capital , opportunities for growth and support in terms of knowledge .
Mr Mann 's report contains a number of constructive proposals for a modern and forward-looking policy of this kind towards small businesses .
Secondly , decision-making bodies have to act taking account of the interests of the Eurozone as a whole .
Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , we will all - institutions and politicians alike - have to review and reshape our communication strategies , priorities and working methods , but also our decision-making and opinion-forming processes in the light of the European Union 's enlargement to what will probably be more than 30 states - if we include the Balkan countries - but also in the light of the political challenges which are being set for us and which we are setting ourselves .
We also welcome the fact that a clear political message has been sent that the ECB should in future regulate its decision-making mechanisms itself , and that we do not want to make any special provisions here .
Mr Friedrich 's report , considerably compromised by the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs , proposes fundamental principles : the principle of one member one vote and principles concerning representativeness , transparency and accountability and about taking the lead in devising a new decision-making model that will be more efficient but also designed in such a way that all members still participate .
For myself , coming as I do from a country that is facing a crucial referendum on exchanging the krona for the euro , it feels only right and sensible to recommend a decision-making model that can be efficient and responsive in the long term and , at the same time , give everyone the opportunity to participate in a process in which it is also possible to demand accountability .
The second criterion , which the Chairman of our committee , Mrs Christa Randzio-Plath , has mentioned , concerns the transparency of decisions within decision-making bodies .
The work of the European Central Bank 's main decision-making body must be reformed in order for effective decision-making to be possible after enlargement .
In addition , the government has invited the Vice-Chairperson of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly 's Committee on Health to the Slovak Republic on a fact-finding mission .
The objective of the reform has to be on the one hand to address the consequences of this external trade policy and on the other to ensure that at the same time the typical landscapes are preserved in traditional rice-growing areas , such as in southern Spain , where there is of course even a national park where rice is the main crop .
Firstly , I believe that we should be a little mistrustful of high-sounding slogans and goals such as the Lisbon objectives , to which we are constantly referring .
In addition to constantly stressing these objectives and performing analyses - the European Parliament is a political body , not a research centre - I feel we should discuss the reason why these high-sounding goals are not being met and which are the political costs which we in Europe do not have the courage to face in order to achieve them , to convert them into practical reforms , the reforms discussed in the reports before us today .
It is also a market-opening measure without using sledgehammers to crack nuts .
It would have far-reaching consequences for the UN 's future legitimacy .
Mr President , military intervention should only be used as a last resort and to use it now in Iraq would be premature and unjustified , with far-reaching consequences beyond its immediate target .
It is known that an ever-increasing share of the EU 's own resources is dependent on the gross domestic product .
I am pleased to note and endorse the rapporteur 's recommendation that the Commission should ' be cautious and undertake in-depth studies and wide-ranging consultations before considering proposing any legislative initiatives ' .
After the Copenhagen decisions we are now moving towards a wide-ranging set of arrangements with NATO - described by the Foreign Minister - which will enable our strategic partnership with them to go hand in hand with the entry into operation of the ESDP .
These funds have been focused on de-mining , housing reconstruction , local infrastructure rehabilitation , confidence-building measures and institutional reforms required under the Framework Agreement .
It is for that reason that the Committee on Foreign Affairs ' resolution proposes that we should , in the coming months , send a fact-finding delegation to the theatre of operations , in order to enable us MEPs to get our own picture of how the European Union 's first military mission works .
It is predicated on the bizarre idea that if we set up separate EU decision-making structures , distract NATO 's Deputy Commander by giving him two sets of political masters to serve , and stick different flashes on the arms of the same troops in the Balkans , NATO 's capabilities are somehow reinforced .
I should also like to comment on two or three questions raised by Mr Laschet , Mr von Wogau and Mr Van Orden about our cooperation with the United States and European Union / NATO decision-making mechanisms and the danger of operations .
First of all , the European Union 's decision-making mechanism , the ESD ? mechanism , is being tested for the first time , especially as regards military operations .
As a result of these efforts by the Commission , the United States first postponed the entry into force of the new requirements until 5 February and then agreed to waive the imposition of penalties on non-complying airlines until 5 March .
That said , I hope that we can engage the United States at a much earlier stage in the policy-making process in discussing these security issues .
This is how it works in a partnership between well-meaning countries .
The most important aspect of this report is that it highlights the need for political will at all decision-making levels , in the administrative structure , in the Bureau , in the Conference of Presidents and in the functioning of the political groups , if we are to achieve better results in gender equality .
The basic thought behind this approach , that is that women 's problems are cross-cutting problems , goes back much further however and was applied in policy far earlier .
Although the European Social Fund focuses on promoting employment , major actions still need to be undertaken , such as reducing segregation in the labour market and pay inequalities , and promoting the role of women in the fields of information and communication technologies , entrepreneurship , new employment opportunities and the decision-making process .
Greater integration of women into decision-making bodies would undoubtedly facilitate this task .
The gaps are many and various : the low level of women 's participation in information and communication technologies , the low level of entrepreneurship amongst women and their lack of representation in the decision-making process .
It is necessary , therefore , to develop the tools of statistics , the presence of women in decision-making positions and committees , and impact assessment indicators .
I would like to stress that these three objectives have been designed with the three following cross-cutting ideas in mind : To help achieve integration of consumer concerns into all EU policies , such as competition policy , transport and justice ; to maximise the benefits of the single market for consumers - this is a result which should benefit business and consumers alike ; and , last but not least , to prepare for enlargement .
The framework directive will simplify the regulatory environment on unfair commercial practices by repealing the predominant business-to-consumer provisions of the misleading advertising directive and by repealing , for example , the inertia-selling provisions in the distance-selling directive .
The framework directive will simplify the regulatory environment on unfair commercial practices by repealing the predominant business-to-consumer provisions of the misleading advertising directive and by repealing , for example , the inertia-selling provisions in the distance-selling directive .
I also wish to highlight the need for actions taken under the European Social Fund not only to affect improving women 's participation in education , in vocational training and in the labour market , but also in reducing segregation in the labour market , in reducing pay differentials , in promoting the role of women in the fields of information technology and communication , entrepreneurship and decision-making processes .
I have asked for attention to be given to this problem before in written questions on organisations of people from the former state of Somalia and of the left-wing opposition driven out of the Philippines .
That is why I am voting against the majority of the GUE / NGL Group and for the EU taking over peace-keeping responsibilities in the north-west of the Republic of Macedonia .
Here , gender mainstreaming is appropriate long-term for integrating gender issues into political and administrative decision-making processes and ensuring equal treatment in all policy areas and at every level .
I repeat my long-standing criticism that the structures mean that abuses are inherent in the system .
I also agree with the idea that the Commission should give serious consideration to establishing databases that will enable the exchange of information and the creation of an early-warning system , allowing Member States to undertake coordinated actions when faced with a flagrant breach of consumer rights .
If this is to be done , the enterprises must have thought out a forward-looking policy and must also demonstrate social responsibility .
What power do they have if they cannot or do not want to force at least the major profit-making companies to keep on their employees , by forbidding them from implementing mass redundancies ?
On-going tensions with Thailand and an atmosphere of political intimidation are characterising the run-up to the general elections of 27 July .
The lesson to be drawn is that we all support the United Nations and are willing to reform it to ensure that our common peace-keeping institution is capable of keeping the peace .
Mr President , the current situation lends a great deal of weight to the opening sequence of Roman Polanski 's award-winning film ' The Pianist ' , released last year , which showed a Polish family joyfully celebrating with champagne when it is announced that the French and British have declared war to go to the aid of Polish democracy in September 1939 .
On Iraq , I welcome the forward-looking nature of the European Council conclusions , brokered by the President-in-Office , and their focus on humanitarian assistance , on rebuilding Iraq and the central role to be played in this by the United Nations .
In these circumstances in particular , it was surprising and positive that the Member States were actually able to issue a joint , forward-looking declaration on Iraq in which the European Union also exhibits a sense of responsibility by promising both humanitarian aid and implicit help in reconstructing the country .
I find that a good left-wing stance .
At the next meeting of the UN Security Council , Member States must take a wide-ranging initiative in order to impose the force of law as against the law of force .
Like Mr Harbour , I would like to draw your attention to certain statements made by the Council that appear to seek a penny-pinching cutback in the pension plan , in complete contradiction to proposals forwarded to us by the Commission .
I also pay tribute to the intensive efforts undertaken by the other members of the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market and to the opinion-giving committees and their draftspersons .
As some Member States have already taken far-reaching measures to reduce the use of , the risks from and dependency on pesticides , it is reasonable to anticipate this .
It is a very far-reaching proposal , as it bans the marketing and use of nine different applications where the substance could be released into the aquatic environment .
These substances accumulate biologically in aquatic species , and they have also been shown to have an endocrine-disrupting effect .
It is a far-reaching proposal , as it bans their sale and all their possible mixtures to the general public .
As we know , this fraud and crime are a long-standing concern of the European Parliament , and Article 280 of the Treaty of Amsterdam gave the Community power to take effective and equivalent measures in all the Member States .
In the Convention 's decision-making phase that now lies before us , it is of the utmost importance that Parliament gives a clear sign .
( FR ) We voted against the Brok report because the European Parliament 's self-seeking fight against the attempt to discontinue its budgetary prerogatives has led it to assume the ludicrous position of refusing to allow the people themselves to take a budgetary decision instead of their representatives , by adopting the Treaty .
Having been decided at European level , it has since been used to convince the national parliaments that they no longer have any real decision-making power when the time comes to set their annual contribution to the Union .
At the same time , however , I believe it is necessary to point out that Saddam Hussein 's regime has led directly to this end result because of the massacres he has carried out , in particular using weapons of mass destruction , and his endless time-wasting tactics in response to requests to disarm and change his behaviour .
It is time to focus on the humanitarian needs of this long-suffering people and on the reconstruction of this beautiful country .
I think , however , that the report goes too far and is somewhat unrealistic in some of the products it suggests prohibiting and , with regard to the use of tax-gathering mechanisms , imposing taxes as a deterrent , I have the greatest reservations about the logic of Community taxation that , as we know , is removed from the sphere of the European Union 's competences and powers .
We believe that the piecemeal approach to tackling fraud within the EU has been insufficient , and , whilst agreeing with the establishment of Eurojust , OLAF , strengthening the Court of Auditors and fraud-proofing legislation , we do not believe that these measures will tackle the problem of prosecution of EU fraud .
That is why I also believe that far-reaching reforms are necessary .
On the subject of diversity , I would like to emphasise how close to our heart it is that this long-standing objective of the European Union should be reflected in the requirement for written and oral competence in two EU languages in addition to the mother tongue .
The incorporation of new tools and eLearning methods concerns both traditional universities and distance-Learning universities .
Fifty years on , we can say it was a successful experiment , and , today in particular , I would like to draw attention to that peace-preserving plan , to understanding between nations .
The European budget covers a broad spectrum of expenditure programmes , from the marketing subsidy for dairy products to slaughtering premiums for cattle , bee-keeping subsidies , restructuring measures in the fisheries sector , youth exchange programmes and support for research in biotechnology , not to mention aid to provide schooling for girls in Afghanistan or food aid in Southern Africa .
I must concentrate here , however , on a few points that proved the most important in the discharge process , namely the accounting rules and the book-keeping system , the contracts with the Statistical Office and the question of the rate of implementation of the budget .
This far-reaching reform is the fruit of the intensive work undertaken jointly by Commission and Parliament in 2001 and 2002 , and I would also like to mention the Council at this point .
Even before Mrs Andreassen made the headlines , we on the committee had a hearing about the book-keeping system and we had discussions about it with the Commission 's Internal Audit Service and with the Court of Auditors .
In one case a high-ranking member of the CoR is alleged to have organised fake meetings on the eve of official meetings to be able to claim additional daily allowances to the tune of EUR 10 000 .
The irony is that throughout this discharge procedure we have heard a lot of sound and fury from the right and the right-wing press , and yet all they could muster after all that was three measly votes in committee .
Under the principle of subsidiarity , I welcome giving national parliaments a monitoring role through an early-warning system , the obligation on the Commission and the European Union to give reasons justifying every proposal and , in general , all measures that favour greater transparency in invoking and applying the principle .
With regard to goods transport , I have been calling for a long time for priority to be given to re-establishing rail transport and to revitalising short-sea maritime transport ( or cabotage ) and inland waterways , instead of focusing attention on the more than overloaded road system .
Their presentation of the free-thinking attitude to drugs almost makes you doubt .
He had to bid farewell to his jobs with the United Nations and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction when his free-thinking intentions became known .
The free-thinking policy is supposed to lead to undeniable successes .
Instead of supporting the realistic and practical approach which I proposed in my first report and which has since received widespread endorsement in the Council and the Commission , the left-wing majority are continuing to romp about here in their ideological playground .
Furthermore , it is important that wage evolution is compatible with price stability and increases in productivity , in order to re-establish the profit margins needed to promote the expansion of employment-generating investment .
In June 2001 the Commission adopted a follow-up communication to the Council and European Parliament on the implementation of the Community strategy for endocrine disrupters - that is , hormone-disturbing substances .
In this context , the availability of agreed test strategies and methods to identify and assess endocrine-disrupting chemicals is a basic requirement for comprehensive legislative action .
The main duties of this task force are to develop an internationally harmonised testing strategy and to coordinate and oversee the work of different sub-groups charged with developing new test guidelines , or revise existing ones to assess the potential endocrine-disrupting properties of chemicals .
A total of EUR 20 million was allocated to this initiative and , together with further funding under the Fifth European Research and Development Framework Programme , approximately EUR 59 million is currently being spent on research into the potential impact of endocrine-disrupting chemicals on human health and the environment .
I would like to ask about the last thing that Commissioner Wallström mentioned , namely the issue of getting hormone-disturbing substances included in the category of ' hazardous substances ' in new chemicals legislation and as an independent hazard criterion , on a par with what may be carcinogenic or mutagenic substances .
On the contrary , we all feel a need to press on and ensure that we as quickly as possible obtain test methods and systems for working with these hormone-disturbing substances .
The fact that , in the discussions we have had so far , specific mention has been made of the group of endocrine-disrupting substances is a factor pointing in the direction of future clarity .
Thus , following the accident , an impressive range and quantity of resources - including 15 oil-combating vessels , more than 20 kilometres of booms and several specialised surveillance aircraft - were put at the disposal of the national competent authorities affected .
Free movement opens up the borders to the best-functioning part of the internal market , namely cross-border crime .
If we do not fully perform our parliamentary functions at regional , national and European level , the connections between them and the interlinked decision-making mechanism cannot be presented in a transparent way .
The prospect of enlargement was combined with a far-reaching reform process in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe , and gave direction to this transformation .
The fact that no ethnic tensions have arisen in Estonia and other Baltic states despite the large Russian-speaking minority and despite the tragic role the Soviet Union played in their history must be ascribed to the level-headed policy of the Estonian Governments and their willingness to follow proposals made by their European partners along the road to the EU .
I would also like to see the programme for integrating the Russian-speaking population pursued with greater enthusiasm and the obstacles to citizenship lowered .
It is consequently one of the most best-performing economies in the region .
Mr President , I also voted against the Brok report despite my own , and my party 's , long-standing commitment to a wider Europe .
I regret that we , who for many years have been helping to prepare and encourage enlargement , have not revised our competence and decision-making mechanisms to make ourselves efficient and effective , both within the European Union and in the area of common foreign and security policy .
I find it very regrettable that there are those here who were not big enough to take a forward-looking view of history , but remain imprisoned in their old feelings of desire for revenge .
Secondly , because the economic impact of this accession on decision-making procedures will only be slight .
The Union 's decision-making process will not have been significantly improved , so blocking is only to be expected .
The long-standing fight by all the Greek MEPs and many of their honourable friends has finally ended in success .
On many occasions the heads of state and government held forth that we needed to adapt the Union 's decision-making structures and mechanisms before the current wave of enlargement , or any subsequent enlargement .
In fact , it made the Council decision-making process more complicated .
This veto risks destroying any suggestion of establishing qualified majority decision-making procedures for matters such as the common foreign and security policy , fiscal and budgetary policy , and economic and social policy .
The European Convention is currently deliberating on the strengthening of the decision-making structures .
Another is the illusion of a Europe which is independent , powerful and authoritative because it has broken with the United States , an illusion which resurrects the short-circuiting tactics of Gaullism , both hostile towards the United States and insensitive to European supranationality , particularly in matters of foreign and defence policy .
In the field of security and defence , Mr Morillon 's report responds to this objective by trying to establish a series of procedures which improve the decision-making process , which promote compatibility between military weapons , which consolidate the formation of the Council of Defence Ministers and which provides this policy with the financial resources necessary to implement it .
It must depend on a legitimate and democratic decision-making process .
In fact , it complicates the Transatlantic Alliance , produces no additional troops and has no real purpose , except to shift defence and security decision-making responsibilities away from NATO headquarters - where European countries sit around the same table as our American allies - to the European Union , from which Americans are specifically excluded .
However , as General Morillon - a French general but a leading player in Europe - said , one cannot expect to take part in the decision-making process if one does not share the burdens too .
Will the Council set out its general views on the prospects for accession negotiations with the countries of the so-called Western Balkans and on related political issues linked to the practical implementation of the Copenhagen criteria and in particular how to ensure the freedom of movement and establishment of persons and the lifting of barriers to the movement of recent or more long-standing refugees from these or neighbouring countries ?
The committee has not adopted any more far-reaching amendments .
There are individual speakers who say that Article 152 is not an adequate legal basis for the committee 's more far-reaching proposals .
I have spoken to many legal experts and my view on this issue is that the legal basis is entirely viable for the more far-reaching proposals that we have put forward , because everything we have proposed concerns not purely ethical issues but ethical issues relating to the health of donors and recipients .
Thirdly , for the sake of democracy , it must enable Parliament to be involved in the decision-making process right the way through from beginning to end .
The first was to employ practical sensitivity with regard to small and medium-sized enterprises , a particularly good example of this being the establishment of the derogation , without - we trust - giving any less consideration to the need to provide ever-increasing protection of the environment , public health and animal welfare .
I am able to support the proposals concerning bans on the use of carcinogenic and other poisonous substances in detergents , and I am also able to support the supplementary proposal to the effect that the ban should include those chemicals that are difficult to break down , together with hormone-disturbing chemicals .
I do not accept the amendments tabled by the Green Group , which go too far , not least on the somewhat absurd eco-labelling proposals .
I have therefore chosen to recommend to Parliament that , on the grounds that we have had our proposals concerning cosmetic products accepted , it adopt this second-reading recommendation concerning the Council 's common position .
We are currently supporting initiatives in the context of the International Coffee Organisation , the platform for dialogue between the coffee-exporting and -importing countries , in both the public and the private sectors .
That makes us a key player in the market and with key responsibilities to the coffee-producing countries .
Ten years ago coffee-producing countries received around one-third of every dollar spent on coffee .
The new rapid payment system , furthermore , makes it impossible to help coffee-producing countries .
They are the ones that reduce the price paid to farmers in order to make ever-increasing profits .
This gives us the resources to make a real difference , and we should focus on quick-dispersing initiatives which are designed to provide decentralised budget support to coffee-growing areas , to ameliorate the effects of the coffee crisis on access to health care and education .
This gives us the resources to make a real difference , and we should focus on quick-dispersing initiatives which are designed to provide decentralised budget support to coffee-growing areas , to ameliorate the effects of the coffee crisis on access to health care and education .
Look at the experience of the USA or Canada and of the countries that are obliged to introduce GMOs , through food aid , making States ' food policies and farmers dependent on the huge food-producing multinationals .
We welcome the release of democracy activist Saad Ibrahim and share the satisfaction of all true friends of Egypt that this long-running saga is over .
Less than half of the population in Ireland has public breast-screening services available .
We have , of course , prepared minor amendments for this reading , but I think that the basic principle we hammered out together for sustainability in the area of energy supply will have very far-reaching effects .
The ' remedying ' aspect would be limited to Natura 2000 areas and would exclude non-profit-making activities such as leisure activities , which the directive treats as equivalent to occupational activities .
We have naturally been used to this modus operandi in other sectors for some time , but it is and remains a far-reaching principle .
I think that we must accept this far-reaching liability scheme , but at the same time I am convinced that the scheme must be legally secure , workable , efficient and reasonable , and therefore I am prepared to vote for the report as it has come from the vote in the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market .
The European Commission initiative : the future of the European Employment Strategy ' A strategy of full employment and better jobs for all ' ( COM ( 2003 ) 6 final ) , principally laid down three wide-ranging objectives : full employment , quality and productivity in work and an inclusive labour market .
( PT ) I broadly share the rapporteur 's concerns with regard to the need to promote the rational use of energy and to the strategic preference for non-polluting forms of energy .
In fact , in addition to the lower volume of CO2 emissions that it will lead to , the decentralising nature of cogeneration generally hampers the construction of major energy-producing units , thereby diminishing the environmental effects of their infrastructures and their lines of transmission .
We welcome the fact that the Commission 's initiative has taken the form of a non-binding communication .
A high-ranking health official in Canada , however , has been quick to deny the possibility of infection .
It is incredible that the Canadian health authorities should succumb to a childish , face-saving quarrel about where the disease has come from .
Given that IT expenditure in Parliament is one of the highest compared with other institutions , I would like an explanation as to why the Europarl site is not state-of-the-art or very user-friendly , and why we have limited access to technology and video-compositing facilities .
We need to move from a pure administration aspect of staff matters to a more modern , strategic and forward-looking staff management and also recognise that information technology has changed the way we work and look at our administration .
It has been major , important and time-consuming work , because we in actual fact have demanding and important tasks ahead of us .
Looking back on the events of the last year , does the Commissioner now accept that the Commission has a lot to learn in its handling of internal disputes between high-ranking members of staff ?
The current priorities for ECHO are to support the rapid restoration of social services , especially health care , including the resumption of vaccination campaigns , the effective coordination of humanitarian assistance , mine awareness and de-mining activities .
The Barcelona process , the comprehensive dialogue , the human rights and on-going political and cooperation negotiations with Iran , the on-going negotiations for a free trade area with the Gulf Cooperation Council , the ministerial meetings and our very tight political links with Turkey - all these constitute a solid basis on which to build an active and constructive EU policy in the wake of the Iraqi conflict .
With the exemptions and its limited scope , it is being reduced to a ' fig leaf ' for monopoly interests , in that it does not include overall protection of biodiversity , oil pollution , nuclear damage , non-ionising radiation , GMOs etc. and provocatively exempts from liability charges those who cause huge ecological damage through unprovoked and barbaric military interventions .
We can see this in the right-wing amendments submitted , which seriously limit liability .
Only the left-wing amendments , taken as a whole , can make this proposal in any way acceptable .
Firstly , the content of the neighbourhood agreements has at times been defined by the expression ' everything except the institutions ' , which may be mistakenly interpreted as meaning ' everything except decision-making power ' .
The only prospect being offered to the surrounding countries is participation in the internal market , not participation in the Union and its decision-making process .
On the other hand , neither the ? U nor Russia appear to be ready to proceed with a radical reform of the framework , a reform that would also presuppose time-consuming procedures for new negotiation and ratification .
Both sides are in full agreement that we have wide-ranging relations on a long-term basis , and that these relations need to be based on common values and should be further developed in the direction of a strategic partnership .
This buck-passing game has backfired badly on Europe .
I believe that the low cost option tends to create perverse self-perpetuating mechanisms and that education is not an optional extra .
For a long time many of us who have wanted reconciliation in Cyprus with due regard to the interests and concerns of both communities have called for some serious confidence-building measures on the part of the international community in relation to Turkish northern Cyprus .
I will conclude with an appeal to the Council , which now has a real opportunity to ensure that we get a forward-looking Statute for Members of the European Parliament .
Mr President , what this boils down to is that this Statute for Members of the European Parliament , with which we are dealing , is a never-ending story , and the way in which it has gone backwards and forwards , backwards and forwards , in this House for years on end , actually passes all understanding .
Does it not foster distortion of competition in favour of the larger states and energy-producing companies as against smaller ones ?
One concerned the question of ice-breaking ships carrying fuel in the Baltic .
We share the view that Mr Belder has just expressed that we are currently suffering from a genuine lack of flexibility and from the fact that all aspects of the decision-making process in the field of macro-financial assistance to third countries are extremely cumbersome .
Unfortunately , so far these attempts have failed because for this type of assistance - no doubt because it also implies having recourse to borrowing and lending - the vast majority of Member States wish to retain a decision-making process that requires unanimity on a case-by-case basis , which all sounds very familiar .
We are therefore counting on Parliament , in its wisdom , to share this difficulty that we both have to live with , of an instrument that can only evolve if majority voting replaces unanimity in the decision-making process .
It does not make sense to cite , as now in this proposal , an ever-increasing quantity of measures and detailed objectives .
However , the fact that the European Employment Policy allows national objectives and decision-making leeway is another indicator of how astute it is .
Additionally , like the rapporteur , whose approach I warmly applaud , I think that the decision-making process , follow-up and assessment should be carried out with the greatest openness .
In this field , which is so sensitive , it is crucial to uphold the decision-making procedure that was agreed on by consensus in Nice , as proposed in Amendment No 12 .
It happens that the largest and most important areas of bird life habitat in Europe are located in such traditional rice-growing areas .
We do , though , have to consider the drawbacks of such a course of action , which includes such things as the market-distorting effect of coupled aid , or the constraints that prevent farmers from doing the most economically sensible thing for their businesses .
It is far too early to extend decoupling to the animal-rearing sector , rice and durum wheat , considering , not least , the definitive nature of the measure .
We welcome the introduction of a distinct animal-rearing sector , with the goal of preserving traditional rearing methods and the use thereof in the territory .
As the farmers are fighting not to embellish but to overturn anti-farming reforms , we shall vote against these proposals .
These are regions whose farming consists of small and medium-sized family holdings , based on land and pastures , regions that have considerable milk-producing capacity and which , because they did not have the necessary milk quota when they joined the Community , have undergone a Malthusian modernisation , which has led to the disappearance of tens of thousands of holdings .
With regard to the dairy sector and reform , we back the Jeggle report and , partly based on a CDA amendment , we have decided in favour of far less far-reaching decoupling and also for change .
Reports concerning anti-doping measures in sport are more and more worrying and sportsmen are increasingly vulnerable .
Things are also difficult , however , for all those who believe in sustainable development and in the need to reverse the trend of over-exploiting fishery resources and of exterminating species , which is leading our oceans and , with them , our fishing communities , to disaster .
Before the terms of a final EU Treaty are agreed upon , we must ensure that cautious , careful and wide-ranging discussions take place with all interested parties from both the large and the small countries .
The risk exists now , and it can be inferred from the text adopted thus far by the Praesidium of the Convention , yielding to the growing pressure from certain heads of government of the larger countries , particularly with regard to the Chapter on the Institutions , the Council 's decision-making procedures and also the future procedures for reviewing the Treaty .
Nevertheless , there are far-reaching problems .
The debate needs to be an open one and it needs to be held in the European Parliament , because we Europeans must , on the basis of a wide-ranging debate , reach a common position on these important issues .
Using the right of veto does not achieve anything worthwhile as it only hampers and prolongs the decision-making process .
It is high time we made a decision on this subject , and I can only call on the House to reach a decision now and not to perpetuate this never-ending debate .
I have no particular regard for or trust in nation-saving soldiers the world over , who see any free expression or action as a military target to be neutralised using every means , not excluding , of course , bans , imprisonment , torture and natural extermination .
Whatever their motivation , those in the United States who reject multilateralism must know that such an approach contains a depressing element of self-fulfilling prophecy .
However , I believe that our common interests and concerns are best served by the European Union and the US Government working more closely together on a wide-ranging set of issues .
We must have an early-warning system in place to pinpoint areas of potential disagreement at the earliest possible moment .
It merely establishes a different planning and decision-making regime that specifically excludes the Americans .
There is a great lack of transparency in the decision-making process and in the reasons why some elements of the method are , or are not , being used .
Despite all the important points made in this report , despite the planned request to the Commission to first of all draw up a study , and despite the call for a broad-ranging debate on the effectiveness of the OCM , I still have serious reservations about a method that takes this form and is based on these principles .
Whatever the case may be , profit-sharing systems of various kinds can in any event create good incentives for employees , give rise to greater enthusiasm for the job in hand and strengthen the link between company and employees .
Companies ' profit-sharing systems are the concern of companies and their employees , and it is therefore with them that this issue should reside .
Here , women are not represented in the decision-making bodies in a way that is commensurate with their achievements in professional sport .
It is an all-embracing means of increasing understanding that transcends barriers of language , nationality , religion and colour .
In view of such a dramatic situation , in 1996 the International Olympic Committee decided that , by the end of 2000 , 10 % of all posts in all decision-making structures should be reserved for women , including in the international federations and bodies belonging to the Olympic movement , with a view to raising this quota to 20 % by 2005 .
The Scottish breast-screening programme currently invites eligible women aged 50-64 every three years .
Awareness-raising campaigns must be promoted , to show that early diagnosis of the disease increases the probability that it can be cured .
A wide-ranging reform of the CAP has become necessary , guaranteeing similar levels of support and market regulation for Mediterranean produce .
The powerful role of the Indonesian army , which has been guarding minerals and suppressing ethnic minorities for many years , can be explained by this , as can the long-standing occupation of the former Portuguese Timor and an earlier attempt to annex the former British Malaysia .
Mr President , a never-ending drama seems to be unfolding in Burma .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , in Zimbabwe too the situation seems to be developing into a never-ending story .
We also have a great simplification of methods , Mr President : we have ended up with five decision-making procedures and we have managed to use a language which was far-removed from the Community jargon .
We have greatly simplified and reduced the number of decision-making procedures .
We have not always achieved what we set out to achieve , but no Intergovernmental Conference since the Treaty of Rome has produced such significant changes , with such a far-reaching impact , as those now envisaged by the Constitution .
Secondly , the possibility that the unanimity obligation would obstruct the decision-making process in key fields in a 25-Member State Union .
Exceptions to the normal decision-taking model in this Convention must be taken care of at the next Convention .
The abolition of the revolving presidency , the composition of the Commission , the cutback in unanimous decision-making and the definition of the qualified majority show that this is about redistributing power for the benefit of the strong and handing over more national sovereignty to the imperialist , Euro-unifying centre .
But I would like to insist that in a genuinely record time , in less than two weeks from the first contact with the Secretary-General of the United Nations , the European Union has been able to implement a whole complex operational set-up for the first military peace-keeping operation carried out by the European Union autonomously in Africa .
At the beginning of 2000 , following the meeting of the European Council in Helsinki , we were asked to put ourselves in a position in 2003 or at the end of 2003 to be able to carry out peace-keeping operations of a military or civilian nature .
I believe we can all be proud , Parliament , the Council , the Commission , all the citizens of Europe , of the fact that halfway through 2003 , the European Union is currently committed to three peace-keeping operations : one in Bosnia , as you know , continuing operations begun by the United Nations , another in Skopje taking over an operation begun by the Atlantic Alliance and one currently in Ituri , an operation begun by the European Union which I hope can be completed by the European Union .
This operation in the Congo is not just a peace-keeping operation .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , if , tomorrow , we adopt this compromise in the form in which the political groups have joined in presenting it , we will have reached the end of a never-ending story , and it is to be hoped that the ending we will give it will be a happy one .
Why has this been a never-ending story ?
To mention just a few examples : cooking with poorly vented stoves has a significant impact upon health ; hundreds of millions of women and children spend several hours a day gathering firewood for household needs ; lack of electricity means inadequate lighting , limited communications and no access to refrigeration and to a host of labour-saving devices and income-generating opportunities .
To mention just a few examples : cooking with poorly vented stoves has a significant impact upon health ; hundreds of millions of women and children spend several hours a day gathering firewood for household needs ; lack of electricity means inadequate lighting , limited communications and no access to refrigeration and to a host of labour-saving devices and income-generating opportunities .
From the global perspective in which the Group of the Party of European Socialists approaches the notions of development and cooperation , energy should be seen as a cross-cutting issue in cooperation actions .
Here too , taking the same line as the Commission this time , we have proposed specific training measures on managing emergencies for all staff , including the staff of sub-contracting firms .
Parliament has been calling for many years for antibiotics to be banned as growth-promoting additives in animal feed , and today we are going to make it a reality in Europe .
The use of antibiotics as growth-promoting additives in the fattening of livestock will now be banned in the EU once and for all with effect from 31 December 2005 .
I also think the European Commission should be prepared to join occupational , regional and local associations , especially in the private sector , in promoting awareness-raising activities ( conferences , seminars , etc . ) , to serve as a practical incentive and to contribute to improving the economic actors ' understanding of the potential benefits , framework and responsibilities associated with their projects .
At second reading stage , and in recent days , we succeeded in getting a free choice of supervisory authority for non-dividend-bearing securities with a denomination per unit of at least EUR 1 000 , which amounts , de facto , to a free choice of supervisory authority .
Our approach and our thinking were in every respect guided by the practice of the market , so that , if I am able to recommend approval of this second-reading compromise , it is more on the basis of the general weighing of the interests involved .
I feel that if we leave the choice of competent authority to companies , we encourage the lowest-bidding regulator .
In the Member States where such delegation exists , the stock exchanges to which these tasks are delegated have very often become private profit-making organisations .
It appears from this debate that the opinion-forming process is not yet complete .
If we are struggling to make improvements , our primary concern here is with restoring the current legal position rather than with going back to what preceded it ; secondly , this is not about mandatory criteria along the lines of every contract-awarding body having to apply every conceivable criterion ; rather , it is about them being able to do so if that is what they would like to do and if they are transparent in the way they do it .
Decision-making procedures must change so that we can guarantee that decisions can be taken within the different EU institutions in a streamlined and structured manner .
We must reform the EU that much more quickly in order to obtain more supple and flexible decision-making structures suited to Europe in its entirety , with very big differences between countries .
Finally , during the Greek Presidency an abortive text was approved , the creation of an anti-democratic Convention , which strengthens the pro-monopoly , anti-working class character of the European Union , the power of the strong and the militarisation of the European Union , in order to claim a more active role within the frameworks of international imperialism at the side of the USA .
I do not want to see our states , deprived of their decision-making powers , become mere regions of Europe .
Genetic modification of plants and seeds holds out the possibility of better food production in harsh climates and of assuring future food supplies to a fast-growing world population .
Over recent years , however , public discussion has not been about the pros and cons of genetic engineering , but has instead been a campaign mounted along ideological lines , aimed at obstructing a modern and forward-looking technology , so it is not to be wondered at that the results of surveys show the majority regarding genetic engineering as the work of the devil and abominating it .
Both regulations , along with the lifting of the de facto moratorium on authorisation , are crucial to the implementation of a forward-looking strategy for European biotechnology , demands for which Parliament endorsed at the beginning of this year .
Achieving real and long-lasting benefits to patients is a key objective of pharmaceutical policy .
To many people 's surprise , the group was able to report back in May last year , with 14 wide-ranging recommendations .
I agree entirely with his arguments and I would like to ask the Commissioner whether he would be prepared to adopt the following five measures : firstly , to show the utmost commitment to anti-dumping cases , bearing in mind that Chinese companies are subjected to much less stringent parameters and levels than European ones in the fields of employment and the environment ; secondly , whether he is also prepared to show that utmost commitment to anti-fraud measures , bearing in mind that , at this moment , it is possible to import without a mark , in any European port , Chinese goods which have a label in that port ; thirdly , to strengthen research and development so that European companies can face up to Chinese competition ; fourthly , to promote the entry and establishment of European companies in China , in view of the fact that , as the Commissioner knows , despite the fact that there has been a tariff restriction , entry tariffs in China depend on the port and the importer ; and finally , whether he is prepared to set up an observatory to provide better knowledge of the practices which discriminate against and harm European industry .
( NL ) Mr President , I can well imagine the disappointment felt by Mrs Plooij-van Gorsel , but , as I have indicated before , the legislator - which thus includes the European Parliament - was of the opinion that far-reaching harmonisation was not desirable .
Wine and beer , however , do not contain such allergy-triggering ingredients .
Coming from a wine-producing region , of course , I would have preferred it if the burden of proof - in other words , the production of the technical dossier - did not fall on the shoulders of producers who are sometimes small operators .
The UK is meeting its existing recycling targets , but it is simply not possible to meet and implement this legislation by 2007 without an expensive , crash-spending programme .
The IPP strategy has to do with this , our resource-use strategy as well as a new waste-recycling strategy .
I want to be able to go back to my home city - which is a large port through which much of this adulterated meat comes in - and tell our local authorities that they can now expect legislation to back up their long-running pursuit of this deceitful and harmful trade .
This new Financial Regulation brings far-reaching changes for financial management .
The recommendations made at that meeting stress among other things the importance of a pre- and post-conflict strategy and the necessity of making this subject a cross-sectional topic in the European Union 's entire decision-making process .
Europe can be cured of its Hamlet syndrome and decide to become a wholehearted , active player on the world stage ; it can acquire the diplomatic , economic and military means to perform that role convincingly , without jeopardising its autonomy , its roots or the great freedom-giving structures defended over the years within the framework of its Western alliances .
Mr President , a constantly-changing society demands from politics new debates , the ability to take rapid decisions and , above all , the willingness to reflect deeply , with full knowledge of the facts , on the geopolitical and different economic and cultural situations which , in some respects , contribute to the ever-widening gap between north and south and between citizens .
Mr President , a constantly-changing society demands from politics new debates , the ability to take rapid decisions and , above all , the willingness to reflect deeply , with full knowledge of the facts , on the geopolitical and different economic and cultural situations which , in some respects , contribute to the ever-widening gap between north and south and between citizens .
Nevertheless , the absence in Chisinau of a European Commission delegation and the fact that Italy , unlike Britain , France and Germany , does not have an embassy in Moldova - in spite of links with the Romanian-speaking peoples - is regrettable .
The true aim of politics must be the noble government of people 's needs , in a society that is constantly changing at an ever-increasing rate .
( FR ) In the series of second-reading amendments , we have voted in favour of everything that is in pursuit of transparency and of as comprehensive a labelling as possible .
The question is whether it would not have been preferable if we had provided for confidence-building measures , namely objective information on a massive scale .
That is why I voted against , and I call urgently for the speeding up of research programmes for the production of non-polluting energy .
I believe it to be the latter , because the Member States are simply unwilling to accept these undoubtedly forward-looking rules , but I will also make it abundantly clear that Parliament champions the cause of the Single Sky , one that will guarantee greater safety and also greater efficiency .
It has a number of far-reaching proposals .
Do those who live in the lower-lying parts of Austria have more of an entitlement to special rules than do those in other countries through which transit routes pass ?
That problem cannot be solved on a voluntary basis ; this particularly applies to the attachment of bull bars to energy-guzzling jeeps weighing up to 3.5 tonnes .
Although 45 % of the residents of Latvia are Russian speaking , the Russian-speaking universities were closed in 1998 and although the full ban on Russian primary and secondary schools was ultimately revoked in the face of protests , it was limited nonetheless to just 40 % of lessons .
This is a direct result of lobbying by right-wing elements in the Church of England hostile to homosexuals .
Therefore , Mr Radwan 's objective to involve the European Parliament in the capital adequacy debate and to add democratising elements to the decision-making process is most welcome .
One of the causes of the accidents that occurred after the Tricolor sank was a breakdown in communication between an English-speaking captain and the French pilot services .
The conclusion of a readmission agreement with Russia will be an important confidence-building measure in this context .
Firstly , the CDM is primarily a private sector or business sector instrument and public funding would be used only for enabling and capacity-building purposes or similar catalytic actions .
The next item is the report ( A5-0270 / 2003 ) by Elizabeth Lynne , on behalf of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs , on the Communication from the Commission ' Towards a United Nations legally-binding instrument to promote and protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities ' ( COM ( 2003 ) 16 - 2003 / 2100 ( INI ) ) .
I believe only a specific , legally-binding convention will do , rather than any other instrument .
That is why we need a legally-binding convention covering a whole raft of different rights , including the right to quality of life .
This will give us a first official reaction on the part of the Member States to this second , important step which , politically , is clearly a step which the European Union needs to take , but which it needs to take at the right time , with important preconditions to success , both at the decision-making level and at the level of practical implementation .
I am pleased tonight that Members on all sides of the House have supported the principle of a legally-binding convention .
Mr President , it is extremely important that we have a legally-binding convention on the issue of people with disabilities .
( IT ) Mr President , Mr President-in-Office of the Council , Mr Giscard d 'Estaing , ladies and gentlemen , I would like to start by expressing my warm thanks to all the members of the Convention , and to you , Mr Giscard d 'Estaing , in particular , for the dedication and intelligence you have shown in the long months of intense work that have distinguished this phase of the constitution-building process .
Today this Parliament , with this Constitution , is a fully democratic Parliament , fully integrated into the decision-making process .
But we have also managed to integrate the national Parliaments into this decision-making process .
Those promoting the anti-grass roots policy have the nerve to call by the name of ' constitution ' a text which not only fails to crystallise the democratic achievements of the people , but also reduces them to a text which establishes capitalism constitutionally , which redistributes power for the benefit of the strong , which hands over more national sovereignty to the imperialist , Euro-unifying centre and which dangerously extends the militarisation of the European Union .
I voted for Mr Koukiadis ' report , Mr President , because what it asks and calls for is one of my long-standing dreams , when I manage to dream - which is not very often nowadays , given the approach of 13 June - for I sleep well .
This is not a legally-binding document .
It is an important fact which reflects our constantly-evolving approach to these issues , which are no longer confined to ethical statements and declarations of principle but are increasingly going to influence political decisions in relations with third countries .
Mr President , Mr van den Bos is to be congratulated on his work , but the trouble with a wide-ranging report like this is that it eventually includes everyone 's pet hobby-horse and the key messages may be obscured .
But I am not convinced that the human rights of mass murdering terrorists or those that aid and abet them in any way deserve the same consideration as those of decent law-abiding citizens .
What you have delivered is unfortunately an ideological wish list , a shopping list of left-wing ideologies .
Highly indebted countries have debt-servicing obligations that can siphon off as much as a quarter of the value of their exports .
A private , commercial , short-term , profit-maximising philosophy is clearly detrimental to handling water in developing countries .
However , I would argue , as I am sure many speakers in the debate would argue , that trade liberalisation is not a panacea for generating the kind of self-sustaining growth and poverty reduction that we want to see as a result of our policies - we are talking about coherence here - let alone the objective that we have of promoting human development .
These examples show that health problems in the developing countries , especially among children , certainly do not always result from life-threatening diseases .
I advance the proposal that the delegation should manage its own small-scale , capacity-building funds - a model which is effective for some Member State interventions , including those in the United Kingdom .
The Flemish Government has always refused to sign this agreement - with good reason - since French-speaking Belgians who have moved to Flanders want to misuse it in order to have French recognised as an official language in Flanders .
It mainly concerns people who refuse to fit in with the Dutch-speaking character of the region , and who , in fact , turn failure to teach another language - in this case Dutch - into a political point of debate .
It became clear that what the selectively over-sensitive Euro-unifying hypocrites cannot forgive socialist Cuba is not the so-called authoritarianism of the socialist regime or any weaknesses in it , but the fact that Cuba , despite the open war and the forty-year criminal embargo by the imperialists , is maintaining and continuing to improve the standard of living and education of its people , which is the highest in the whole of Latin America , that socialist Cuba and Fidel Castro are a beam of light , a source of fighting inspiration to the peoples in the area and mankind as a whole .
About EUR 8 million of the EUR 50 million are earmarked to support the ECOWAS peace-keeping operation and for the creation of the office of the special representative .
I thought it would be interesting to find out how many Catalan-speaking citizens have requested a subscription for this magazine in its Catalan version .
Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , today finds us again devoting our attention to analysing the causes of the wreck of the Prestige , and its grave and far-reaching consequences .
They must remain on the political decision-making table .
Above and beyond these initiatives , however , it is vital to go further and implement new rules , such as establishing shipping lanes further away from the coasts , inspecting ships carrying dangerous substances within the 200-mile zone , drawing up a code of conduct for manufacturers and freight companies , establishing a European fleet of pollution-fighting ships , laying down minimum requirements for resources and equipment for providing assistance , rescue and preventive measures .
In conclusion , I would like to reiterate something of which I am profoundly convinced , and which has manifested itself in the last few years , that the price of energy can change dramatically over the coming years as a consequence of decreased availability and of the increasing instability in the crude oil-producing countries .
Mr Trichet also supports amendments to the ECB 's voting procedures , which fundamentally distance countries like Portugal from the financial decision-making process .
It is deplorable that the socialists and other left-wing Members should have rejected the proposal for an oral amendment , tabled by the rapporteur himself just before the vote on a sensitive amendment - Amendment No 11 , on the setting up of a temporary committee - which might have produced an even broader consensus on the final wording of this excellent and comprehensive report .
This has become a useful tool for the decision-making process , and although we have an annual budgetary procedure , it is important to be aware of the likely multi-annual situation , so that the right strategic choices can be made , for example in buildings and staff policy .
Furthermore , the most recent Luxembourg agreement on CAP reform ensures that payments will shift away from trade-distorting subsidies to payments based on services to society provided by our farmers in areas such as the environment , food safety and animal welfare .
In conclusion , I welcome the statement from Commissioner Fischler on the proposal to decouple aid for tobacco producers , which will hopefully lead to a reduction in the production of this health-damaging crop .
For instance , automatic mandatory mobility for senior management and for people in money-handling , contract-handling posts will in itself provide a safeguard against a repetition of the double accounting that we have detected in Eurostat .
They should not be discouraged by the fact that it takes some time for them to be informed about the co-financing projects .
Regional consumer organisations are eligible for grants for specific projects and can also benefit from the capacity-building actions we offer to consumer organisations .
As I have stated before , it is an all-embracing problem , in fact , whereby , often , women are at greater risk of losing out than others .
Temporary agency working would become an ever-growing bottom tier in a two-tier labour force .
These are the ever-increasing life expectancy rate combined with low birth rates , substantial long-term unemployment and people entering employment late in life .
This is mainly due to the decision-making process and the unanimity requirements in the Council .
Just as the Commissioner says , the long period required for discussing this issue shows how important it is for us to obtain a sensible decision-making procedure .
I nonetheless hope that the Intergovernmental Conference can devise solutions when it comes to energy and environmental taxes , together with a robust decision-making system .
I would also say equally clearly that it will not be possible to alter the balance of power established in Nice , so that just one or two States pay the price for a new decision-making method .
Whereas Nice created only the formal conditions for enlargement , this constitution creates the conditions under which the enlarged community will be viable , with its viability made manifest by its greater capacity for action , improved decision-making mechanisms and the extension of the principle of majority decision-making .
If competences are clearly delineated , then they are an area in respect of which one can demand improved decision-making processes and greater capacity to act , and there will be fewer grey areas .
I believe that it is also extraordinarily important in terms of the Community 's internal health that the national parliaments have gained for themselves this role , without the levels being confused or decision-making processes made complicated .
It is a step forwards because the Community method is , for the most part , used in this area , a method which should be the only decision-making method in a federal Europe since it respects the values of democracy and the rule of law , both founded on the principle that laws must be approved by representatives of the people , and , consequently , that European laws must be approved by the European Parliament .
Please ensure that our bid for codecision-making powers in the Committee on Fisheries is endorsed .
The concept of subsidiarity is expressed far more effectively through the national and also regional parliaments being given their own roles to play in the European decision-making processes , so that the Union 's activities can be carried out a great deal closer to the European citizen .
The shortcomings I should like to mention are the lack of a qualified majority in the decision-making process on foreign policy , trade agreements and financial perspectives .
We are undergoing a Constitution-building process , of which the Intergovernmental Conference ( IGC ) must be one stage , and it must not dilute or reduce the fundamental content of the main progress made in the draft Constitution .
All the governments must contribute to achieving this , doing so with the same agreement-seeking spirit which existed in the Convention , strengthening the consensus in it and in the whole of the draft Constitution .
Chile is , as you know , a country with which we have one of the most far-reaching association agreements for trade and we in the House should extend our normal welcome to Senator Zaldívar .
Will this draft by the Convention give us fair and , above all , truly transparent decision-making structures ?
A Constitution should clearly mark the boundary between the public and the private , as well as the EU 's decision-making competence in relation to the Member States .
We maintain that the EU should not be given any decision-making competence for social policy and taxes .
I welcome the concern to bring the Union closer to the citizens , enhance its democratic character and improve its decision-making capacity , in the context of enlargement .
I am very critical of what is termed the passerelle clause in Article I-24 concerning the ability to change the decision-making rules in the Council by means of a unanimous decision , and this without the approval of the national parliaments and without the calling of an Intergovernmental Conference within the EU .
Basically , the WTO has a clear structural problem : the lack of a structure organising the negotiators , leading to the absurd situation where we have a presidency which first extends negotiations , at Doha - those who were present at Doha will remember - for over 36 hours and then , however , cuts the Summit short in Cancún ; then the mini-ministerial meetings , a useful pre-negotiation exercise , which , however , failed to resolve the issues ; lastly , the greatest flaw - a WTO which now has 148 members and , yet , is without efficient decision-making structures .
I feel that we did a good job , not least as regards the most vulnerable , with the Development Agenda itself , with Everything but Arms , with technical assistance measures and capacity building , with the ground-breaking decision on lifesaving medicines , with regard to which we showed ourselves to be willing a long time before the United States .
Confidence-building measures are required if a new global coalition of fair traders is to be brought about .
My sixth point is that the WTO needs a different organisational and decision-making structure , and should be restructured in such a way that multilateral agreements can be hammered out in a fairer and more transparent manner .
What we cannot tolerate , however , is an attempt to simply ' write off ' the contribution we are making by virtue of our own reforms , so that for example commitments to make reductions are not based on the amount we agreed last time , during the Uruguay Round , which was taken as the starting point at that time , but that instead any competition-distorting support measures we are currently implementing are treated as the baseline .
The Van Miert Group has done its work , involving high-ranking representatives from every single Member State , and its reports affirm that the Member States agree with what it has , as it were , thought out and presented .
The role of MODINIS will also be to finance preparatory actions in the area of network security , such as awareness-raising actions of Members States and analysis of security risks .
The computer also represents an environmentally friendly and paper-saving way of working .
Injury to consumers ' health due to problematic new ingredients such as allergens , or long-lasting damage to interiors due to heavily volatile components of decorative paints , must , in any case , be prevented .
What is to stop us from making protection in all the countries of the EU just as good as in the Member State with the most far-reaching measures , so that those who work with paint may stay healthy everywhere ?
It would not hurt too much to accept amendments on those questions as well and to give us a rounded proposal we can all be proud of , that we might even get a second-reading agreement on .
Secondly , because 250 ° C is the boiling point chosen to define VOCs in the EU eco-labelling scheme .
It is not the Italian presidency 's fault ; it is a long-standing problem involving all Councils .
The Committee on Petitions often delays its final conclusions because we have a time-consuming procedure on the part of the Commission on the question of petitions .
I am opposed to the amendment which aims to increase the maximum boiling point for a volatile organic compound from 250 ° C to 280 ° C. Since this has practically no environmental benefits , and since it is even doubtful whether it complies with the eco-labelling rules , this amendment may have highly negative repercussions for paint-manufacturing SMEs .
Five hundred thousand Russian-speaking residents , or 40 % of the population , who have no citizenship , are excluded from political life .
First of all , it is coherent with the proposals we made in the better law-making action plan ‘ ’ of June 2002 .
This would be a peace-keeping buffer force supporting the efforts to be made by both parties .
On the issue of a peace-keeping force – mentioned so eloquently by Mr Poettering and also , in a different context , by Mr Cohn-Bendit and others – we support anything that bears the prospect of hope .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; In spite of the good intentions displayed , the Better Law-Making report ‘ ’ and interinstitutional agreement are unconvincing .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; . – I believe it is essential to improve the coordination of the law-making process .
The draft agreement also addresses the issue of better transposition of Community law into national law , whereby the institutions undertake to ensure that all directives include a legally-binding time limit for their transposition that is as short as possible .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; . – Like the rapporteur , I welcome the European Commission s intention ’ to carry out a wide-ranging review of the Community anti-trust or competition system , within which this proposal for a regulation is another important step .
The reintroduction of the fire-fighting dimension appeases us : progress has undeniably been made .
This proposal is part of the Community 's on-going efforts to reduce emissions to improve air quality in order to protect the environment and the health of our citizens .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , Commissioner Reding , training and education will be a major issue in the Council , the Commission and in this House , and I believe that , if we want to do justice to the -Learning programme , in order to bridge the digital divide between individual countries , regions and generations , then this report has certainly taken a step in the right direction .
When new programmes are initiated , they should also be implemented with the necessary determination , which means that they should & # 160 ; & # 160 – ; as the -Learning programme & # 160 ; actually does – & # 160 ; show visible signs of success after three years .
I have attended the prize-giving ceremony and I was deeply impressed with what was on offer , to which this prize gives a boost .
The e-Learning programme now under discussion will hopefully extend that series of success stories .
The e-Learning programme is a good example of how pilot projects can claim a place in European Union policy .
The main focus of the e-Learning programme will be the e-twinning of schools .
The e-Learning programme does not give direct support to this , but hopefully in future we can also invest in the development of content .
The amended proposal made by the Commission is for an Administrative Board comprising six representatives of the Council , four representatives of the Commission , and six non-voting representatives of the industry , in other words of the relevant railway undertakings , and rail users .
Others fear that liberalisation will only lead to a separation between profitable and loss-making activities and to cutbacks in infrastructure , service and staff , resulting in a deterioration in safety and a rise in fares .
Speaking both personally and as a member of the Confederal Group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left , the left-wing group of the European Parliament , I would like to remind you in the clearest possible terms of the principles that must inform the assessment of this European rail package .
The French Government cannot , at one and the same time , conduct a merciless anti-smoking campaign and ask for the prolongation , in Corsica , of a privilege that helps promote nicotine addiction , particularly among young people .
Now , after the vote in plenary , the compromise has diminished the overall report , which contained deeper and more wide-ranging amendments on monitoring and developing forest fire prevention measures .
Only when I pressed for far-reaching measures to counter the advance of the new disease SARS was there short-lived support for a more active policy .
We cannot stop supporting our farmers while the Americans and others continue with their export-enhancing schemes .
The answer is to be found in the budgets : year after year , Europe churns out impressive-sounding speeches which , in reality , fall considerably short of what is needed .
The cutbacks in Community spending on agriculture , within the framework of the philosophy of the WTO and in agreement with the USA , come within the anti-farming framework of the partial reform of the CAP .
Because the interim reform of agriculture policy has very far-reaching consequences for the European countryside .
Moreover , the blame can and should be shared by the two decision-making tiers .
A first requirement seems to be to reduce the complexity and cut back on the endless decision-making procedures .
We felt obliged to take note of this problem collectively without , however , interfering in the decision-making independence of the individual Member States .
The Commission has already put forward suggestions for organising an enlarged Commission that would ensure it is effective in decision-making terms as well as having full legitimacy .
The activities of previous Italian left-wing governments have , I am afraid , been characterised by huge-scale , foul theft from the people of Africa .
Criticism of Nice in this House focused on the decision-making methods in the Council , and that is something that we should not forget .
They are discussing with great authority and wisdom issues of institutional arrangements , which are indeed complex but ultimately of lesser importance , whilst nothing has yet been said on the most crucial issue , the principle itself of a constitution for a supreme body , which closely resembles a super State , with its supranational decision-making procedures and the absolute primacy of European law .
The increasing fixation on the ideal of what is termed national sovereignty and national interest sparks proposals that are mainly focused on the question as to how we can frustrate the decision-making process in Europe .
Some want to maintain veto rights , while others want to reduce the blocking minority and yet others want to structure the Commission in such a way that all objections related to the Council decision-making process return to the Commission .
Finally , with reference to what Mr Karas stated , we are facing all these national referendums which , together , form a very undemocratic decision-making tool , because one small majority in one country can cause the whole of Europe to grind to a halt .
The third area relates to appropriate and effective decision-making mechanisms .
Peace-making operations , as discussed in paragraph 34 , are measures in accordance with Article & # 160 ; 7 of the UN Charter , that is to say direct military measures , and may only be taken following decisions by the UN Security Council .
The European Parliament is a long-standing opponent of the death penalty and has been instrumental in promoting this process .
I believe that an initiative of this kind carries more weight and has more far-reaching impact if twenty-five states adopt it .
Only an improvement of the security situation and re-establishing freedom of movement would significantly improve the situation .
Israeli society is more right-wing today than it was a few years ago .
If they were implemented immediately , they would bring instant peace to the long-suffering people of Israel and Palestine .
The exclusion of certain body parts is still under discussion , and the Commission will follow these up very carefully in the on-going discussion .
The recent events and their dramatic dénouement prove the need for the European Union to continue strengthening its long-standing partnership with Bolivia , to promote respect and trust for democratic principles , to assist with desperately needed economic recovery and to support Bolivia 's efforts to alleviate poverty and stamp out social exclusion .
In the international arena , the very serious situation in Iraq and the help to be provided for its long-suffering citizens and for its sorely tried infrastructures require some simple principles and ideas to be recalled .
The rapporteur , Mr & # 160 ; Brok , levels the accusation that the Council s report ’ on foreign policy in & # 160 ; 2002 is just a book-keeping exercise listing action , without opinions on objectives , priorities or the meeting of costs .
As we emphasise several times in the report , effective implementation of the common fisheries policy depends , first and foremost , on fishermen s acceptance ’ of and compliance with the rules governing fisheries , which will increase if fishermen s organisations ’ are enabled to participate in the decision-making process at all levels .
I am particularly anxious about tobacco-producing areas .
Nor does a proven healthy product , such as olive oil , escape the European Union 's eternal anti-farming policy .
The hypocrisy becomes crystal clear from the anti-tobacco rather than the anti-smoking campaign , at a time when the cultivation of modified crops is being promoted .
Commissioner & # 160 ; Lamy , I feel it is irresponsible to undertake such a far-reaching reform without any information on the implications for jobs .
The African & # 160 ; Union has dispatched the African & # 160 ; Mission & # 160 ; In & # 160 ; Burundi peace-keeping force known as the AMIB .
The rapporteur s concern ’ that representatives of the sector should participate in the various phases of the decision-making process must also be given priority .
I think that is where it belongs in the first place , as it is very difficult to have a wide-ranging discussion in plenary on an opinion poll , the overall basis and background of which I have at present only fragmentary knowledge , derived from references in the press .
I found it particularly encouraging , during my visit , that the LTTE or the Tamil Tigers , as they are more popularly known published their proposals for an interim self-governing administration .
As far as the Commission is concerned , it is ready to do that , under the same conditions as I outlined a month ago : to enhance the draft Constitution with regard to a limited number of points , without jeopardising its overall balance ; to make all the provisions clearer in order to avoid misunderstandings or confusion when the text is ratified ; to carry out what I would call the legal fine-tuning exercise entrusted to it by the Convention .
The power of the purse is a core function , a most central and long-standing power of the parliaments in all our Member States .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , we all agree that decision-making procedures within the EU institutions need to be streamlined to take account of the ten new countries which are joining the Union next May .
It seems to me that if there is a Convention spirit , a European spirit reigning over this IGC , I would hope that it is that spirit which enables us to identify the listening phase that we are passing through now as being the phase that allows us to confirm the fact that , if we all pursue our individual arguments to their logical conclusion , our collective decision-making process will reach an impasse .
This proposal provides for a general increase in cooperation with these regions and emphasises common rules and procedures to be followed , such as implementing procedures and decision-making processes .
However , in an inter-continental context , this charitableness finds expression via specific policy actions and co-financing organisations .
However , it should be noted that over 60 % of the new jobs created are in the high technology sector , where women are underrepresented , especially at the higher levels of technical specialisation and at the decision-making level .
In the world of business , the higher up the decision-making ladder you go , the fewer women you find in the new information sector , although I believe this is to some extent the case in all sectors .
We must improve the role women are given in the fields of ownership , supervision and management in the ICT and media sectors , by providing the necessary assistance to women who set up their own businesses , by funding projects and by cooperating on implementing action plans , particularly in knowledge-based sectors , by supporting awareness-raising campaigns and by encouraging women to grasp job opportunities in the new technologies sector , once they are trained .
Women must also play a major role in decision-making bodies and in society in general .
We must also warn people about the risk that they face of falling into the hands of unscrupulous smugglers or of finding themselves involved with a slave-trading network .
I put it down to unnecessary interference from Brussels , but surely it is absurd that they themselves have already taken that step of a European arrest warrant , which is a very far-reaching measure on the road of European cooperation in the judicial sphere , and are now refusing to restore the balance between repression and civil rights , in respect of which civil rights agreements should be made at European level too .
This has been a long-standing point of difference between us .
The Commission considers the composition of the administrative boards of agencies to be a cross-cutting issue which should be addressed in the follow-up to its communication on the operating framework for the European regulatory agencies .
The British Conservative delegation the hopefully ever-growing DE will not be voting to grant discharge , but the PPE will be doing so , and we thank you for all your work .
We must never forget , however , that from the environmental point of view and also for geopolitical reasons , the final objective must be to replace current fuels with non-contaminating and non-conflicting sources of energy .
Mr President , honourable Members , ladies and gentlemen , the ever-increasing speed at which technology advances and the increasing pressure of competition on global markets are compelling car manufacturers to adapt their production methods and also their business structures to changed conditions .
For this to happen , it will have to anticipate the ever-growing component of electronics in the added value of a car .
Today , with the drastic streamlining measures at the Ford Genk factories , Flanders is yet again facing a tragedy in the car-manufacturing sector .
If Europe wants to avoid tragedies of the kind that have unfolded in Vilvoorde and Ford Genk in future , far-reaching measures will need to be taken across all EU Member States in order to guarantee to industry , too , the , Community preference , which has , quite rightly , been applied in agriculture for decades .
This too emphasises the importance of bringing about balanced representation for women and men in the decision-making process , especially in the run-up to the elections to the European Parliament next year .
As pointed out in the report , all the Member States have committed themselves to implementing the UN s action plan ’ from the 1995 Beijing Conference , together with a series of other international programmes in support of the principle of equal participation by women and men in decision-making bodies and in the decision-making process .
As pointed out in the report , all the Member States have committed themselves to implementing the UN s action plan ’ from the 1995 Beijing Conference , together with a series of other international programmes in support of the principle of equal participation by women and men in decision-making bodies and in the decision-making process .
Balanced representation for women and men in the decision-making process and in all areas of life is also the central theme of the Commission s 2003-2004 Work Programme ’ .
The main aims of the database are firstly to measure progress in relation to the commitments made and , secondly , to bring about increased awareness in the present Member States , the EEA countries and the candidate countries of the situation regarding women and men in decision-making positions .
We know that when there is no special assistance , through positive action measures , with laws to facilitate this great presence of women , we women have real problems accessing institutional posts , political posts and therefore political decision-making posts and positions of power .
It is precisely for this reason that it is important and significant that we are stressing this at the moment , and we are not forgetting the countries which currently belong to the European Union , in which the percentage is no greater than 30 % in the majority of cases – with the exception of the Nordic countries – and in others that percentage is even lower and women are still facing significant difficulties in terms of accessing decision-making positions .
They are still significant because there are no electoral laws – with the exception of two countries – laying down the obligation for women to be present on lists and because our ability to be present in decision-making bodies and parliaments depends essentially on the political parties , on the mentality of political leaders and on the awareness we are able to communicate to society on the importance of this issue .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Madam President , it really is curious , after 50 years of European policy on gender equality and 100 years since the right of women to vote was claimed and recognised , that we are trying here to persuade everyone of the self-evident , in other words that men and women should share all the responsibilities and all the obligations of both private and public life equally and fairly , that there should be a balanced participation of men and women in democratic institutions and in all political decision-making centres .
The Lisbon strategy , like other ambitious European policies , urgently needs the full participation of women at all planning and decision-making levels in order to achieve its objectives .
It is rather ironic reading the Council recommendation from December 1996 , which stresses that the under-representation of women in decision-making posts leaves their experiences unused and undervalued and thus constitutes a loss for society as a whole .
The aim of an equal society is dimly visible as decision-making without the need for quotas , with the highest decision-making bodies representing the genders equally .
We can only congratulate our fellow MEP , Mrs & # 160 ; Dybkjær , who emphasises the wide-ranging importance that the change in attitudes to integrating women into political life on an equal basis with men may have for the entirety of the social and political contracts we have with our fellow citizens .
The transparently weak representation of women in the decision-making process raises the problem of the legitimacy of the political structures , for the operation of a democratic system reflects the society it advocates or defends .
We can see from the number of women elected to national parliaments that the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands are in the lead , that the southern European and English-speaking countries are trailing way behind , and that the role of women in the East has even been forced into a decline .
Finally , the Commission is proposing to further strengthen the contribution of all the interested parties and of the basic protagonists in the policy-making dialogue , so that we have major and permanent changes in the economy and society as a whole .
Most importantly , however , it brought the policy of the Disabled People 's Movement itself to the forefront , by putting into practice the slogan ' Nothing about us without us ' , meaning they must be involved at all planning and decision-making levels .
We want full equality rather than the former demeaning sympathy , and , instead of being patronised by well-meaning people , we want the right to autonomy .
The fact is , there is a host of difficulties for people with disabilities , making clear the need there now is for a new , all-embracing directive concerning the rights of people with disabilities .
The Council Minutes specify that the Commission will table a proposal in which further ' guidelines ' are given for the decision-making principles concerning Community funding of research projects that involve human embryos and human embryonic stem cells .
If we are serious about promoting research in the European Union , if we are serious about promoting the economy of European Union Member States , then we should not support these backward-looking amendments that seek to restrict research in this way .
I had hoped that we would get a first-reading agreement on this but this proved not to be possible .
I wonder whether this really is a problem of such magnitude as to merit such a far-reaching measure , total harmonisation , as proposed by the Commission .
This strikes me as illogical and certainly not a reason for tabling a far-reaching proposal for harmonisation .
If we do not seize this opportunity , Europe will become an ever-expanding giant , but one enfeebled and dried out .
Early this year , we launched a wide-ranging debate on the new Financial Perspective .
Via the European Parliament , a whistle-blowing regulation was introduced .
We might perhaps regret the fact , moreover , that the Commission has not , in its wide-ranging programme for 2004 , addressed more explicitly the question of economic governance , above all given that the conditions in which the Commission is intending to prepare the spring summit , particularly as regards the implementation of the Lisbon strategy , do not yet appear to be quite clear .
What we have instead is an apparently never-ending consultation process by the Commission .
In order to remove the concerns surrounding the enhanced self-handling possibilities in shipping companies , quayside service providers and trade unions , I have received written pledges from both the Social Affairs Minister and the Transport Minister , our former fellow MEP , Mrs Peijs , that they want to create new policy to put strict guarantees in place to ensure that Dutch labour law is observed in the ports .
In these conditions , self-handling amounts to introducing the social jungle of the maritime sphere into our ports .
Whether one likes it or not , self-handling amounts to allowing social dumping , even if it is now accompanied by references to security and to staff being qualified .
This means that pilotage might also be undertaken on a self-handling basis , with the potential consequences for maritime and environmental safety that this entails , and this is something we cannot accept .
It must be painful for the Commissioner and Mr Jarzembowski to see such wide-ranging opposition to this proposal as there is here today .
I can report that , building on the work done to date by ECHO , a first package of EUR 29 million has been set aside for the UN 's work in water and sanitation , health , education , employment and income-generating schemes : all areas in which the UN has been active and where the UN 's 4000 local agents are still working .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Thank you , Commissioner , for a comprehensive and wide-ranging answer .
My worry is more related to the weak character of the inclusion , consultation or real participation of parliaments in the debate at national level , and in the decision-making process regarding national strategies .
The fact is that I suspect that this is not just about issues of security in the infrastructures Members – have already mentioned data security – but also about many other aspects that are equally affected , and initiating another wide-ranging discussion of these issues could be very interesting .
However , the implementing measures required for a fully-functioning system of electronic identification on a Community scale have yet to be developed .
This impressive legal fine-tuning operation has produced an excellent result , improving the overall editorial quality of the Constitutional text as compared with the content approved by the Convention .
Yesterday several of them challenged the famous clause , which permits the steady development of the Constitution and of a decrease in the number of exceptional , non-normal decision-making procedures .
That is why I am counting at this point on the presidency adopting a pro-European position , and to take on the faint hearts and the backward-looking members of the Council in order to achieve a satisfactory solution .
Thirdly , we must combat human-trafficking mafias more decisively , and this involves more active participation in the fight against illegal immigration .
Addressing himself to strategic considerations , President Putin expressed Moscow ’ s concerns at the short- and medium-term consequences of enlargement on both economic and trade relations and political relations between the Russian Federation and former Soviet Bloc countries & # 160 ; & # 160 ; – with particular reference to the Russian-speaking minorities in the Baltic states & # 160 ; & # 160 – ; in view of the extension of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement to the new Member States .
President Putin 's westward-looking government has described the European Union as its ' natural political partner ' , and until recently Russia has appeared to dress in the clothes of Europe : the clothes of free trade , the clothes of political and civil rights , the clothes of infant democracy .
This is why I am totally behind Parliament s urgent appeal ’ to the Council and the Commission to emphatically urge the Russian authorities to provide a clarification of this long-lasting abduction , which has now lasted for more than 460 days , and to sort this matter out .
Mr President , 3000 deaths since the beginning of the year , 300 people missing , 50 mass graves discovered and elections known to be a farce : this is the balance of the war in Chechnya , and a story of long-standing impunity : the Italian Presidency really ought to call President Putin to account over this .
What we have here is a non-binding recommendation in an area outside Parliament ’ s competence .
On the possible involvement of an executive agency for the management of part of the programme , particularly in relation to management of the large number of projects in the town-twinning part of the programme , the Commission emphasises that such an approach conforms to Article 55 of the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities .
I am obliged to the Commissioner for his wide-ranging appreciation of my report , but I nevertheless want to contradict him on one point .
Two years on , even though this was one of the areas strategically identified in the resolution we adopted , highlighting the need for a major awareness-raising campaign , the situation remains more or less the same , due to the shortcomings of the Commission and to the lack of interest of the Member States .
We want to encourage women to play their part in the decision-making process ; we want this programme , and the organisations , to support the fight against all forms of violence .
Bearing in mind the new reality that has emerged since 11 & # 160 ; September 2001 , the proper use of our monitoring and information-sharing mechanisms for monitoring our borders – in particular the new technologies – must be guaranteed .
In the process , however , we lost sight of the fact that the issue of self-handling cannot be considered separately from the policy on authorisations , since the Member States can make self-handling subject to prior authorisation .
The aim of the amendments proposed is consequently to ensure the participation of the European Parliament in this decision-making process for nominating a Special Coordinator and to establish a deadline for the duration of the term of office of the appointee .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; We in the Moderate Party have always been of the view that non-profit-making organisations are more efficient than state organisations at the job of combating destitution and hardship in the non-industrialised world .
In fact , there is more reason to be furious about the draft produced by the Convention , which managed , under the tutelage of the European institutions , to enshrine a huge increase in the budgetary powers of the European Parliament in its articles on the finances of the Union , giving it the same powers as a national parliament , with the exception of the power to levy taxes ; moreover , it charged the Council to legislate on the modalities relating ‘ ’ to the Union 's own resources , thereby leaving the door ajar for further developments in the direction of tax-raising powers .
I also support his call for a speedy settlement of the permanent status of Kosovo on the basis of far-reaching autonomy or independence .
The relays act as a uniquely important bridge between the European Union s policy-making mechanism ’ and the citizens to whom we are all accountable .
In its motion for a resolution , it expresses the desire to invest more in a well-functioning information network , includingInfo-Points .
With the hope of re-establishing dialogue , on behalf of the human rights group of the Committee on Development and Cooperation , I organised , in October , a discussion on the critical situation in Atjeh and Papua .
Even local NGOs , backed by foreign co-financing organisations , are saying that they will shortly have to discontinue their aid to the indigenous peoples .
Call in foreign co-financing organisations for this purpose .
Furthermore , the original mountain-dwelling minority Christian community has been continually harassed , arrested and imprisoned by the Vietnamese Government .
The proposals on the table will have to be examined in a long-term perspective with a view to the institutional needs of a Union that , in 10 to 15 years time ’ , is likely to be even larger and will , therefore , have to be endowed with decision-making abilities that are adequate and easy for the citizens to understand .
The key task for the Intergovernmental Conference is now to decide how the enlarged Union can achieve its goals and increase its decision-making capacity .
There is a simple solution which preserves the equality of all Commissioners : a Commission made up of one Commissioner per Member State , with a more decentralised decision-making structure , and a system of checks and balances to ensure total collegiality .
Any change should be aimed at facilitating the College s decision-making process ’ .
The Commission will now take careful stock of the situation and prepare a forward-looking initiativeto take on that challenge .
It is clear that the likely direction of the decision-making process within the Parliament and within the European Council is going to be based on codecision and majority voting procedures .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Presidents , ladies and gentlemen , like Mr & # 160 ; Cohn-Bendit , I also take the view that there is no hurry , because the Nice declaration , which started the entire process , scheduled the Intergovernmental Conference for 2004 and I believe that a good and long-lasting agreement which takes a long time to reach is better than a bad agreement reached quickly .
Next , there is no need to use this too forward-looking vocabulary ‘ ’ , including ‘ minister ’ or the word ‘ constitution ’ itself .
It would appear that some are determined , as part of the constitution-framing process , to have this core right of the European Parliament in their sights .
Mr President-in-Office of the Council , the present Treaties state that decisions on the Trans-European Networks , including the priority list – perhaps the President-in-Office of the Council would be so kind as to listen to me , and the honourable gentleman could perhaps move to one side – according to the present Treaties , the revision of the Trans-European Networks is subject to codecision by the Council and Parliament and is not within the decision-making competence of the European Council .
This leaves the fight being maintained by Spain and Poland , who are seeking to have the same weighting in the decision-making process as the other large countries ‘ ’ .
This agreement , formulated as ‘ Council conclusions ’ , has very wide-reaching implications which go far beyond the simple application of the Pact in France and Germany .
Growth and an increase in demand will not , however , be achieved by cutting wages or by longer working hours , but by taking the tax burden off the low and middle income groups , through public investment , capital-widening investment by businesses and by increasing private consumption .
At the time of the Austrian elections , when the coalition came into being , we accused this law-abiding country of illegality and sought to use all our powers to get our own way , and the same is happening now .
In that way , Parliament and the Council , and I even think the Commission , gain a clear insight into who exactly examines these legislative proposals and into the fundamental policy choices that are made during the policy-forming process .
By drawing up contracts directly with the regions , the Commission can enter into legally-binding agreements with local and regional bodies on regional and other policy issues such as the environment .
We do not wish to touch the Director s decision-making powers ’ , but we need a stronger counterbalance .
The audit that has been planned for OLAF is crucial , as is moving from the current Supervisory Committee ‘ ’ , which is simply a figurehead , to a monitoring , evaluation and decision-making body with ultimate authority .
If one also takes into account the audits by the internal audit service , the regular evaluation of the examination of the control systems by the Central Financial Service , the investigations by OLAF and , of course , the ever wider-ranging audits by the Commission s external auditors ’ , then it becomes apparent that an extensive structure is in place for monitoring the European budget , to which one must add the checks carried out in the Member States in respect of 80 % of the Budget .
The Committee on Budgetary Control will have other questions to ask about reform of the accounting and book-keeping system .
Also significant is the consideration that ‘ the recent failure of the WTO Conference in Cancún demonstrates the need to reform the rules , procedures and decision-making mechanisms of the WTO . ’
Equally important , in my opinion , is the creation of a single Internet portal for all the institutions , through which citizens can follow the decision-making process from start to finish , and the use of external experts .
The Union must demonstrate determination to introduce and enforce an anti-corruption culture at all levels of political activity , in both the public and private sectors and at both national and Community levels , because corruption constitutes a threat to law-abiding society , distorts competition and hampers economic development .
- a highly administrative , bureaucratic and federalist outlook , which is not very participative and would exert little political control over the major economic and financial powers , specifically : off-shore investment houses , banking , clearing houses , in other words , genuine money-laundering institutions .
Transparency in decision-making processes , something that I have always fought for , cannot disappear when it comes to adopting legislative acts .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; . Mr President , ladies and gentlemen – , what is at issue here is the transplantation of cells and tissues , a fast-growing branch of medicine .
We could now bring this never-ending story to a close .
What I ask this House to do is to bring this never-ending story to a full stop by voting in favour and letting the end of this year be marked by a real success for the European Union .
Mr Lehne 's argument that it would have complicated the decision-making process is not convincing .
The only reason he does not want this to be included is that he wants to press for a first-reading agreement , but in our opinion this takes away Parliament 's right to have any input in the discussion .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , you will no doubt recall as vividly as I do the late nights in Luxembourg in June 2001 when we last went through this exercise , followed by the heated third-reading debate in this House shortly thereafter , which was lost by a tie .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , we know that allowing companies to mount hostile takeover bids can jeopardise the right of States to maintain control over strategic businesses and decision-making bodies that are crucial to their development , specifically over companies that perform a public service .
Virtuous circulation means more productivity , more growth , more competitiveness and & # 160 ; - & # 160 ; I am addressing the left-wing Members here & # 160 ; - & # 160 ; more employment .
In the discussion on this subject , various drawbacks have been mentioned , including the fear that in future , an ever-higher price will be charged for an ever-worsening service .
Since an amendment with far-reaching defence measures , full exemptions and exceptions , has been adopted , this amendment has not made it unfortunately .
In these circumstances , to have an all-or-nothing principle - either something is covered by a permit and , therefore , exempt from any liability , or it is not covered and fully liable - seems like a mistake .
It has been said before : firstly , nuclear energy , secondly , pollution by sea-going ships and thirdly , damage caused by GM crops .
He has taken only right-wing views into consideration , as illustrated by the amendments relating to good agricultural practice .
The Commission proposal also includes a ban on installing side-facing seats in any vehicles designed for transport of persons , with the exception of city buses with more than 22 seats .
The Commission cannot support the rapporteur s proposal ’ to allow , despite everything , the installation of side-facing seats in coaches .
The Commission was then called upon to carry out a study on the safety of passengers travelling in side-facing seats .
This study showed that there were no technical solutions adapted to this layout of seats and it recommended a ban on side-facing seats in all vehicles for the transport of people .
With this in mind , the Commission is now proposing that side-facing seats , for which there are as yet no effective restraint systems , should be permitted only in buses used in urban and interurban regular traffic , there being , in the Commission s view ’ , no particular danger to the persons using such seats .
On the contrary , it strikes me as utterly illogical that the Commission , in its proposal for a directive , seeks simply to ban side-facing seats of this kind only from comfortable coaches , in which only a few of these are to be found , as individual seats forming part of comfortable groups of seats of a type with which few of us will be familiar .
The answer , though , was provided by the discussion in the Committee , in the aftermath of which two – admittedly populist questions – forced themselves into my mind : firstly , is the Commission prepared to expose people in the cheap side-facing seats ‘ ’ in buses in urban and interurban traffic – which it wants to permit – to a greater safety risk than the people who use similar seats in luxury coaches , or , secondly and contrariwise , is its call for a ban on cosy corner seats in luxury coaches founded on envy and ill-will towards those who can afford to travel on what are regarded as luxury vehicles .
We should , however , call upon the industry to develop appropriate restraint systems for side-facing seats of this kind as well .
We must aim to provide an equal degree of protection for people wherever they are seated in a vehicle , that is , whether in side-facing seats or in those facing the direction of travel .
There is no difference between us on the core of the proposal , but merely on this issue of side-facing seats .
If we prohibit seats without seatbelts that face forward , why then - if the rapporteur has his way - are we not doing the same thing for side-facing seats ?
There is no sound logical reason why side-facing seats are safe .
Indeed all the research from the Commission suggests that these seats are simply not safe and that no safe technology exists to secure the occupants of side-facing seats .
Given that there is no technology for side-facing seats , then we must say to industry that these particular seats must be phased out .
To be pragmatic and practical , if industry can come up with a safety-belt for side-facing seats then the PSE Group will of course , think again , as , I am sure , will the Commissioner .
This fundamental step forward will be made in accordance with the decision-making procedures of the Union using an inclusive approach that will allow some countries to proceed more rapidly on the basis of a specific protocol governing the military capabilities required for participation in this permanent structured cooperation .
In the course of the most recent bilateral meetings that the Presidency conducted at a spanking pace through the days and nights of Thursday , Friday and Saturday , a solution to some of these issues appeared possible , although all the Heads of State or Government assembled felt the need to point out that the institutional framework of the future Union should ultimately be evaluated in its entirety by means of a general , all-encompassing agreement .
I believe , therefore , that we must make every effort to achieve genuine , ongoing , constant , far-reaching dialogue between the West and the Muslim countries .
With this decision , a matter that , up until a few months ago , was the object of far-reaching division among the Members of the European Union has now been brought to a positive conclusion in an institutional framework .
I am also thinking of the increased role of the European Parliament , to which the draft Constitution gives , at last , greater decision-making powers in the area of the Union 's budget .
To this end , not only are we calling for recognition as historic nations , but also a role in the democratic decision-making processes .
I believe that this is the West s duty ’ and hence Europe s duty ’ , and I believe that Europe will be able to achieve this result only if it can endow itself with a decision-making method that is not based on unanimity : as we saw just two days ago in Brussels , you only need one country to oppose a decision for it not to be made .
The peace facility will make it possible , with all the guarantees provided by decision-making procedures , to fund a specified range of activities which are part of peacekeeping operations carried out by African forces .
It would also mean that the port of Abidjan would be definitely doomed as a fish-landing port for probably several years to come .
It is very important that this facility should only cover those actions relating directly to peacekeeping or peace-building activities which cannot be funded by other sources .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Mr President , a debate on the removal of the arms embargo on China has a natural tendency to produce crudely-drawn arguments and discussions , and , as I believe that certain Members are over-simplifying matters , I will try to introduce a few nuances into the debate .
Compensation should be limited solely to the Natura 2000 areas and exclude non-profit-making activities , such as leisure pastimes , from professional activities .
I agree with the rapporteur s view ’ , however , that banning side-facing seats in certain vehicles is excessive .
On the one hand , it glosses over the culpability of successive French governments , which , following a long period of colonial oppression , supported Houphouët-Boigny s dictatorship ’ and then the authoritarian regime of his successor Bédié , who , in the course of his struggle for power with his rivals , devised the rabble-rousing concept of ‘ .
We have been told by the users – the operating companies in the various Member States in which electronic toll-charging systems are in use – that this can be done .
The original draft from the Commission would eventually have given German industry an enormous opportunity ; it could have marketed the new and innovative toll-charging technology the length and breadth of Europe .
It is a source of bitter anguish to me that the amateurish approach adopted by the German Federal Government , particularly when negotiating the contracts to introduce toll-charging technology , has resulted in such a debacle , one that leaves us , at European level , no solution other than the one I have now proposed to you .
If we look at the examples in Switzerland , and at the , and so on , we conclude that we require an abundance of forward-looking technology .
The directive only covers the charging system and does not include road-charging policy as such .
These are : creating awareness-raising activities for users as regards technological developments , implementing legal procedures for monitoring and preventing fraud , analysing types of compensation for investments that have been made or which are being made by operators in parallel technological , financial or commercial processes whose viability is threatened by the requirement to switch to the new system .
Not in any way , though , is this about using toll-collecting technology as a means of justifying the extension of Galileo .
I will not comment further on this never-ending story with its pitiful outcome .
How can we find a continuation of the ecopoint system that does justice to Austria s legitimate interests ’ if Austria does not take part in the decision-making process ?
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Commissioner – , you know that our party , the Communist Party of Greece , has raised the problem of the rights of the Russian-speaking minority in the Baltic States on numerous occasions .
Cogeneration , involves the simultaneous production of electricity and heat in what is usually an energy-saving process .
In any case , as a proposed amendment to the recitals makes clear , it is the whole of Community development-related funding which should contribute towards gender equality as a cross-cutting issue .
As far as I am concerned , if I still have any decision-making powers as the rapporteur , I would argue once again that this text should enter into force in January 2004 .
It has clearly been improved during its parliamentary phase , since we have insisted on key issues , such as the participation of women 's organisations on the ground , which are the real protagonists in terms of the progress of their communities ; also , control and access by women to training and health services and decision-making processes .
There are aspects that are crucial to gender equality and women s independence ’ and it is to these that particular attention must be paid , with particular emphasis on areas such as health , education , training , access to economic and social activities , and also access to employment and to infrastructures and participation in decision-making processes .
I would very much regret it if Parliament did not act on this issue in a manner that will create a smooth and rapid decision-making process .
The report asks the Commission to establish legally-binding definitions of the terms ' adventitious ' and ' technically unavoidable ' .
Our own-initiative report calls for comprehensive regulation at Community level , since the guidelines proposed by the Commission are a collection of non-binding recommendations .
We in the Socialist Group believe that this agreement is of great benefit to the port of Abidjan , which is the largest tuna-fishing base in West Africa , where catches are the raw material for a large local processing industry which is a key element in Ivory Coast s development ’ .
I join others in congratulating the rapporteur for such a wide-ranging report .
This is a technical report , and the internalisation of external costs will be regulated next year when we deal with infrastructure-charging systems .
I welcome the perseverance of the rapporteur ( who was supported unanimously in committee ) in inviting the Council to engage in a constructive and fruitful debate after seeing a large number of the first-reading amendments rejected .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; . – The ever-worsening fish shortages in European seas make concluding agreements with former European colonies in Africa an attractive proposition .
Yes , the ambition of seed-producing firms that have earmarked significant funds for research and for the development of genetically modified varieties is , of course , to obtain the maximum return on investment as quickly as possible .
However , and I agree with them entirely on this point , prevention is inconceivable without a far-reaching reform of the Structural Funds .
The country s financial and economic situation ’ must also be subject to far-reaching reforms aimed at eliminating corruption .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr & # 160 ; President , the predominantly Romanian-speaking region that was previously known as Bessarabia and is now called Moldova was part of Romania between the two world wars , but belonged to Russia before and afterwards .
The Romanian-speaking majority in the rest of the country would probably have joined Romania long ago if that country did not lag so far behind western Europe .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , last week at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation , India and Pakistan announced that they will meet again in a month 's time to take bilateral confidence-building measures , including talks on Kashmir .
It makes no sense that when one buys a package deal all types of information is given on the hotel , meals , and also sometimes sight-seeing trips , offers of supplementary activities etc . , but there is usually no information on precisely which airline is going to operate the flight .
Finally , the text allowed us to put an end to the various Conventions being interpreted differently and will , therefore , contribute to legal certainty by also simplifying the procedure for re-flagging passenger ships between registers and will , therefore , also lessen the regulatory burden within the EU and make it less bureaucratic .
At the same time , the Commission suggests promoting the reflagging of ships by bringing passenger vessels under existing easy-going rules and by limiting what is termed the quarantine period .
There has been an interesting debate about whether this should be a directive , which is binding , or a non-binding instrument .
Finally , a last question , if you would allow me : how does the Commission intend to set about asking France to provide the public with wide-ranging information on the transport of nuclear material , when this issue has been classified as a top-secret defence matter since last August .
Our increased use of gas does , it is true , mean that we are improving our record on CO2-emissions , but elsewhere , more CO2 is being produced from coal-burning power stations , or nuclear power is being promoted .
I absolutely agree that the decision-making rights of decentralised administrative bodies should be defended and strengthened , but I am convinced that the market will steadily erode them unless the Union acts as a guarantor of these rights and takes its due share of responsibility .
With certain services in particular , such as health , education and social services , the national authorities must have the right to lay down the rules which govern the provision of these services by private , profit-making agencies .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; . Mr President – , I would like to start with the most warm thanks to Mr Herzog , who had a difficult task as rapporteur and , having an explicitly left-wing stance , did not always find it easy to put his position across .
The Commission alone possesses decision-making powers in respect of services of general interest – it has had in recent years an increasing tendency to take up these matters – and also as regards lawmaking in connection with competition law .
I have nothing negative to say about Greece , but the decision-making process simply cannot be taken seriously .
This largely technical report seeks to update and extend the scope of the Joint Action and to improve the exchange of information , risk assessment and control of synthetic drugs and narcotic drugs on the basis of current procedures such as the early-warning system ‘ ’ , the mechanism for assessing the social risks to health , amongst other things – by a scientific committee – and the procedure of monitoring by Member States .
Coordinating on three aspects – a early-warning system , risk assessment by a scientific committee , EU action to subject notified substances to control measures in the Member States – the Joint Action has proved its effectiveness , fully justifying its existence and the clarification procedures , and I , like the rapporteur , welcome extending its scope to new drugs and the introduction of deadlines for each stage of the procedure .
Specifically , France led the proposal on the part of four African countries at the WTO ministerial conference in Cancún to remove aid for cotton and has subsequently presented a European initiative on cotton which attempts to promote a Commission-led action programme in favour of the African cotton-growing economies and , at the same time , includes a reference urging reform of the system of aid for cotton , partially decoupling it from production .
At any rate , he shows that he is open to reforms not only on export subsidies – that these should be eliminated , also as regards market liberalisation and the adoption of a less trade-distorting system of domestic support – but he also indicates that ways of providing better support to the very poor countries , which are wholly dependent on cotton production , should be developed through development assistance .
Indeed , as you know , there is a proposal to amend our cotton regime , which would result in less trade-distorting measures for cotton ; in other words , a mix of blue box and green box measures .
Although the overuse of bushmeat is a fast-growing problem everywhere , this report concentrates on Africa because the bushmeat problem there is the most significant and best-described in the literature .
This crisis can be taken up in the context of natural resources , rural development or governance issues , or as a cross-cutting issue to be addressed through Environmental Impact Assessments and Strategic Environmental Assessments .
We can help with appropriate support-building capacity and with injecting the views expressed when we are revising country strategies , but the ownership of the problem is crucial .
I wish to concentrate on one important aspect of the report , namely the AIDCP or Agreement – on the International Dolphin Conservation Program – to which the EU is a signatory , as is the United States and most of the tuna-producing nations of Central and South America .
Parliament ’ s sole aim in producing this report is to call for a detailed and through-going study of the current situation and to set out the future prospects for this sector of fishing .
As well as the ethical question of mass-medicating members of the public , who do not want fluoridation in their tap water , could you comment on the ethical and infant-related issues ?
These images are particularly dangerous for children , because their eye-catching nature increases the risk of children ingesting them .
I should also like to welcome the agreement by the members of the WTO in August 2003 , despite the differences and time-consuming procedures and delays which intervened , the efforts of the UN to provide high quality drugs to patients with the AIDS virus and the decision by the Council of the European Union on increased incentives for the pharmaceutical industry , with the aim of selling drugs more cheaply .
The establishment of a peace facility to back African-owned and African-led peace-building actions will mark a breakthrough .
I also see that it would be very meaningful in the Joint Parliamentary Assembly to discuss the performance of oil-exporting economies and other similar extraction industries in Africa .
On this point I welcome the continuous and long-standing support of the European Parliament , support which warms my heart and which never weakens , and support which helps the Commission to make progress in its actions aimed at implementing the Treaty in the area of cultural diversity .
Anyone who fails to respect a person s culture ’ does not respect the person himself , does not invite mutual respect and does not show any signs of being prepared to engage in a cultural dialogue which , in a world of ever more far-reaching globalisation , is necessary for cultural development .
Even today , the Dutch culture and language , particularly in the Flemish periphery around Brussels , is treated with disdain by the numerically dominant French-speaking minority .
This will involve a wide-ranging agenda including asylum , immigration , police , judicial cooperation in criminal matters and civil law cooperation .
If you want applause from the Spaniards , perhaps you could explain to me how Europe can have an effective decision-making process using approaches such as those suggested by Mr Aznar .
I welcome the wide-ranging speech that the Taoiseach made to the House , which covered many key issues with which this House is concerned .
What would its place be in the new majority decision-making process ?
Frankly , without a reform of our decision-making structures , enlargement will break the Union – it is as simple as that .
I have therefore quite understood your desire to make every effort to encourage the decision-making process , because institutional confusion should not cause us to forget the historic event of the ten new Member States joining the EU , countries that have largely proved themselves worthy of joining a Community of value and freedom .
A new SARS epidemic is looming and I am asking the presidency to take the initiative to ensure that the Public Health Ministers grant the Commission – in this case , Commissioner Byrne far-reaching powers – to take crisis management measures , such as uniform controls at airports , should this prove necessary .
Whatever happens , we cannot allow the decision-making mechanisms in the Council to exceed the thresholds established at Nice .
It is an abomination for both Russia and Europe , and the war may have far-reaching consequences for peace in our part of the world .
Ireland , a smaller country than Scotland , will be setting the agenda and leading the EU decision-making process , while Scotland does not even have a vote in the Council of Ministers .
I voted in favour , as I feel that the problems arising from poverty-linked disease are so serious that only by establishing a broad range of far-reaching policies and strategies will we be able to solve them in all their aspects .
In the worst-case scenario , the EU will eventually evolve into a power centre , with the power ending up in the hands of a Europe-wide English-speaking elite , putting anyone who does not speak this language at home or has an insufficient command of it at a disadvantage at work , and in terms of their ability to participate , and have a say , in politics .
Every effort must be made to encompass areas as diverse as social security , training , enterprise initiatives , the inclusion of women in the decision-making process , extending working life , domestic violence and the trafficking of women .
During the Finnish Presidency in late 1999 , the Council established nine indicators with regard to women in responsible and decision-making jobs , to which were then added French indicators for the reconciliation of work and family life , Belgian indicators for unequal pay and Danish indicators for domestic violence against women .
Too many words and statements have been uttered in reaction to urgent situations which actually require strong political decisions , such as the decision to stop the use of children to advertise or promote income-generating activities , and the decision to make certain economic relationships with third countries conditional on respect for human rights .
In short , it is at best a whistle-blowing body , but one which even in these terms has never done its job properly , precisely because it is composed of opposing blocs in which everyone protects the members of their own regional group .
Looking at the government of those countries – and here it is not my intention to enter into controversy , but I should just like to say it , because the other side frequently enters into controversy – I see that countries with a left-wing government are by no means doing any better than those with a right-wing government .
Looking at the government of those countries – and here it is not my intention to enter into controversy , but I should just like to say it , because the other side frequently enters into controversy – I see that countries with a left-wing government are by no means doing any better than those with a right-wing government .
That is evidently still not enough for a large number of people whose countries have left-wing governments , although they cannot push it through in their own countries .
Cooperation is necessary , but this cooperation can also take a less far-reaching form than the Commission is proposing .
Promoting common asylum and return policies and introducing more secure documents or undertaking awareness-raising campaigns in the countries of transit and of origin of illegal immigration are areas in which innovation can be demonstrated .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , I would like to begin by personally congratulating the rapporteur on her work and the exhaustive nature of her proposals in the job-creating service sector .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr & # 160 ; President , Commissioner , I wish sincerely to thank the rapporteur , Mrs & # 160 ; Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou for her forward-looking report on developing the service sector in such a way as to create new and , I would emphasise , important future jobs .
Thus , in the aim of achieving efficient prevention of all forms of violence at work , other non-binding measures , such as recommendations or other non-legislative initiatives , such as guidelines , information and awareness-raising campaigns and enhanced training activities for employers and employees , may be complementary rather than mutually exclusive actions , in conjunction , of course , with a legislative text .
Thus , in the aim of achieving efficient prevention of all forms of violence at work , other non-binding measures , such as recommendations or other non-legislative initiatives , such as guidelines , information and awareness-raising campaigns and enhanced training activities for employers and employees , may be complementary rather than mutually exclusive actions , in conjunction , of course , with a legislative text .
At the same time , we are going to work with all the other options , including recommendations , guidelines and an awareness-raising campaign .
We all know that it is a very wide-ranging proposal that covers a large variety of issues of great interest to the professions and also more generally .
The complexity of the subject-matter coupled with the different nature of various professional activities , self-serving interests and errors of political judgement give rise to out-and-out confusion and in-fighting within the political and professional classes .
The professions must learn to pursue an all-embracing unity of purpose in their own interests and in the interests of the consumers who rely upon them from day to day .
Any objections are self-seeking rhetoric designed to stymie the progress of the internal market and this important sector .
As such it is an ambitious and wide-ranging directive , very much in line with the agenda set out in the Commission 's action plan for skills and mobility .
We shall have to analyse whether the Parmalat affair resonates on these two subjects and we shall have to be attentive to the on-going debates in the United States on registration of hedge funds to ensure that there are no distortions to competition .
This report might have won our vote , were it not for the adoption of a large number of amendments tabled by the Confederal Group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left , which added little to the substance of the report and turned it into a left-wing document and not a compromise acceptable to the whole of Parliament .
This is a fact-finding paper by the European Parliament , and I think that if , when it comes to the vote today , it is adopted with a similar passion and support as it was in Committee , then this Parliament will have a foundational document on which both it and the next Parliament can build .
Specifically , my colleague , Mr Harbour , talks of the customer , but I prefer to use the word consumer , differentiating between the two classes of client : the final consumer , that is , the long-suffering citizen who has to watch television and radio programmes , and the intermediary , who buys the intellectual property rights , uses them and exploits them .
Just like Buch , this resolution explicitly addresses South Africa s attitude ’ to the ever-worsening situation in Zimbabwe .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Mr President , it is lamentable that the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe is turning into a never-ending story .
On-going hostilities and human rights abuses must halt .
Worse , the recently-formed Haitian National Police has been able to enforce the rule of law and has been severely criticised by human rights groups for its own abuse of protesters protesting against President Aristide 's rule and for failing to protect them from machete and gun-wielding government-supporting militias .
Worse , the recently-formed Haitian National Police has been able to enforce the rule of law and has been severely criticised by human rights groups for its own abuse of protesters protesting against President Aristide 's rule and for failing to protect them from machete and gun-wielding government-supporting militias .
What has to be decisive is that the decision-making structure should be more efficient than that proposed in Nice , and should enable an enlarged Community to act ; that has to be the crucial yardstick , and I believe that , if we take this as our basis and apply the requisite capacity for imagination , we will be able to find compromises that will enable this to be accepted by those countries that often have difficulties on this point , for it is connected – or can be – with other issues as a means towards reaching a compromise that , while being truly fair , does justice to the three goals of democratisation , transparency and efficiency .
The Intergovernmental Conference has , however , stalled on this issue and it is clear that the decision-making method which allows the veto is the real cancer of the European Union , it is that which is killing Community solidarity of any kind .
As from September 2003 , there has been a new figure , the Chief Competition Economist , operating within the Directorate General for Competition , who is providing a new input into our decision-making procedure in terms of economic analysis .
Although we are in favour of tight controls on mergers , their strength must lie in their taking into account their effects on society and on employment and in their giving workers and those who represent their interests a say in decision-making processes .
I cannot , though , do other than agree with Mr Fava when I say that , as regards the functional airspace blocks , which are at the heart of the Single Sky , the result was less than what the facts of the situation demanded , for a real Community solution would have been needed , with the Commission having clear decision-making competence .
Furthermore , the packaging-producing industry is already making huge efforts to improve the design of their products for the simple reason that it means a reduction in costs and , at the end of the day , that is a competitive advantage .
In the coming week , the Commission will also adopt the progress report on the modernisation of the accounting system and improvements in the early-warning system .
After all , what we encountered in this particular instance were hair-raising conditions as regards responsibilities , structures and information processes .
I want to pay tribute to Parliament for its unwavering support on these matters and I want to say that it was thanks to this encouragement that the Commission launched a wide-ranging debate in Europe on the future of the space sector , a debate in which some Members of Parliament were directly involved .
Secondly , following the abolition of quantitative restrictions , there will be the temptation to adopt alternative ways of restricting imports for protectionist reasons : anti-dumping measures and safeguard clauses , for example .
There are two ways of doing this : one is the establishment of a common and strong European Union foreign and defence policy ; the other is to make progress towards a European Union presence on the Security Council in a positive way and on the basis of speeding up the current constitution-building process , which ensures that the voice of its peoples , by means of their representatives , are respected by governments and that we establish as soon as possible a European Constitution which allows us to implement a common foreign and security policy worthy of the name .
With its calls for reform , the EU is the only constant in an ever-changing world .
The charge is laid against us that it produces more rhetoric than action , that it is ineffective and is often ignored , and that the system under which every state has a vote allows the developing world to dominate the decision-making process , in that the number of votes bears no relation to the capacity to act . ’
Would you agree with me that this tragedy , whilst clearly on British soil or – in British waters – is equally a European or international issue , and that we must work together to counter the international people-smuggling gangs that were exploiting these poor people who were being paid as little as one pound per day for their work ?
If we are to talk about rating agencies and if we are to be delighted with our rapporteur s initiative ’ , it is because the market is blind and because , in this blindness , rating agencies have obtained , or are obtaining , an altogether essential decision-making power that will have far-reaching consequences for the future of enterprises and , therefore , of jobs .
If we are to talk about rating agencies and if we are to be delighted with our rapporteur s initiative ’ , it is because the market is blind and because , in this blindness , rating agencies have obtained , or are obtaining , an altogether essential decision-making power that will have far-reaching consequences for the future of enterprises and , therefore , of jobs .
As to how we solve those difficulties , we could look to social partner agreements or re-rostering arrangements that have been put in place in certain parts of the EU to deal with the implications of those cases .
The EU should strengthen its aid to the developing countries according to the criteria of whether enterprises are modernising by moving towards democratisation in decision-making processes , with more transparency in the operation of public service enterprises .
That is why the creation of a centre which will focus on prompt diagnosis and on evaluating and publicising existing and re-emerging risks to public health in a fast , flexible and efficient manner is long overdue .
I would hope the farce over the multiannual aspect of the decision on the package will later on mean there will be an amendment to the decision-making process ; although the decision to establish the new agency is obviously governed by the requirement of consensus in the Council , such a detail as its geographical location should be decided by a majority .
The latter only gives rise to national chauvinism , and that should be curbed where possible by revising the decision-making structures .
The Commission considers that a board of 30 members is unwieldy and may hamper the decision-making process .
I do not believe it is realistic to retain far-reaching market regulation or prices set by politicians , nor to have a regulated supply of the type we have involving quotas .
This is not just about the distributing chains , but also about the cooperatives , some of them managed by farmers , which pursue their price and market policies in decision-making bodies , and it is about better payments for raw materials agricultural raw materials – .
Arguments which have proven to be thoroughly disorientating and hypocritical in the past are being shamelessly used again today , precisely in order to continue the same anti-farming policy .
With it , a far-reaching liberalisation of trade in agricultural products has been put on hold for the time being .
Let us not forget that more than six million tons of pollution-producing waste is deliberately discharged into the sea every year .
We must , in fact , obtain reliable data on population units and on the incidental catches of cetaceans in various fishing grounds and at a later date , draw more wide-ranging conservation measures .
Finally , there is a demand for the interested parties and the regional advisory councilsrun by fishing professionals to participate in the decision-making process .
This was only allowed to happen because the rating agencies are a product of the private sector , a self-regulating product of the market that creates mechanisms to assess the creditworthiness of entities that finance themselves by collecting money from third parties , such as companies that float on the stock market and even States , in terms of issuing public debt .
As a self-regulating instrument of regulation , the rating agencies serve to extend the liberalisation of the capital markets .
The report manages to ask questions and make diagnoses , but does not prescribe any medicine , which only serves to encourage these self-regulating instruments .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; . – To economists , major profit-making international businesses , based in Europe , America or Japan , are often the benchmark for the developing countries , which would automatically prosper if those businesses were given the freedom to take over loss-making activities and export raw materials .
This has led the Commission to embark upon a wide-ranging consultation process with all those concerned .
In both these areas there is the ever-worsening problem of dwindling interest on the part of private-sector researchers , it being apparent that profits will not be as high as they would be if large quantities of medicines or plant protection products were involved .
A well-functioning rural environment is inseparably linked with a well-functioning system of agriculture .
Mr Souchet is one of the most hard-working members of the Committee on Fisheries and his expertise in this area has earned him the accolade of being appointed rapporteur on the recovery of southern hake , a report which is currently in the pipeline .
However , because of the specific tasks assigned to ENISA and the pressing need for its establishment , the Commission has not stood in the way of a first-reading agreement between the legislators .
I do not know if the Commission is in a position to comment on the proposed anti-dumping measures .
In recent days , both the Irish and UK Governments made a joint application to the European Commission for new measures to safeguard our salmon-farming industry .
In recent times , looking from Scotland , it is perfectly possible to believe that certain campaigners are making it their business to talk down specifically the Scottish salmon-farming industry and talk up specifically , as has been suggested , wild salmon from certain other areas .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Mr President , Commissioner , Europe cannot remain silent in the face of what is happening in one of the Union s most important steel-making sites ’ : without any prior notification the Thyssen Krupp Group has decided to halt the production of magnetic steel in the steel plants of Terni .
The subsidies paid to private entrepreneurs such as Riva , Lucchini , Falk and other foreign groups have been used for the remodernisation of production capacity and the specialisation of the Italian iron and steel industry along profit-making lines .
In my view , we should do this in three situations : first , regularly once every six months , secondly , when we prepare our annual debate and thirdly , when a debate is held on a legislative matter that is either of particular strategic importance to pushing through the entire area of freedom , security and justice , or which is rooted in its decision-making process and in which it is useful , in order to uproot it , to extend the Trans-European debate .
It is worth noting that the regulation on public access to EU documents , adopted in 2001 , promotes transparency and provides for greater participation of EU citizens in the decision-making process .
What he has presented is not only a balance-sheet of one year s developments ’ but also gives a more wide-ranging view of what has been achieved in this parliamentary term .
The Commission has launched awareness-raising campaigns on the Charter of Fundamental Rights , on some of the legislative instruments that we have adopted and which might have a more direct impact on citizens lives ’ .
However , there has been no rush to implement the 2002 anti-trafficking framework decision to catch the criminal gangs , and recently in the UK 19 Chinese immigrants tragically died .
I acknowledge that the task we have set ourselves is enormous and extremely ambitious , but unless the pace picks up and the Council s decision-making ability ’ is increased , we will reach the end of this five-year period having failed to meet the objectives set out in Tampere .
The EU s ideologues overlook ’ two basic facts in the sociology of law : firstly , that viable and democratic legal systems require something other , and more , than ideological phrases , legislative agreements and technological implementation ; and , secondly , that the objectives pursued should be realised through the least far-reaching means .
Clearly , the current decision-making process has resulted in a somewhat schizophrenic situation .
It was , however , also a time that suffered from the hypocrisy , hesitation and deadlock that national strategy and ideological prejudice impose on the Council s decision-making ability ’ .
I wish the Netherlands and the Luxembourg presidencies every good luck and good fortune in establishing a new forward-looking perspective , to create a new and challenging agenda under the broad rubric of Tampere II .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Madam President , Commissioner , very recently , a thought-provoking analysis of the political situation in Afghanistan appeared in the with the headline : ‘ Afghanistan : The Gulf between Report and Reality ’ .
The full support of the European Parliament will be crucial to the success of this , which is , I repeat , a ground-breaking approach , in one of the most difficult regions of the world with respect to human rights and democracy .
It strikes me as important that – as was previously the case in Central and Eastern Europe – such democracy programmes should increasingly draw on the experience of the European Parliament and of its MEPs , not only by consulting them , but also by involving them in the decision-making process .
I believe that many agreements should be linked to the establishment of human rights , and that much funding should be linked to the development of democracy , in order thereby to establish checks and balances that make possible the practical application of democracy and human rights , on which stability depends , and saves them from being merely fine-sounding words .
Further deterioration in the region could have far-reaching consequences .
A high-quality , wide-ranging debate must be held regarding audiovisual policy at European level , before decisions can be made regarding the bases of any future programme .
As we all know , MEDIA PLUS and MEDIA-Training programmes constitute one of the pillars of Europe ’ s audiovisual policy .
In addition to the establishment of a dedicated parliamentary committee , I also welcome the Commission s intention ’ to ensure , for 2006 , that continuity is provided to operators and professionals who are involved in the MEDIA-Training programme , which would therefore be extended without any structural changes until 31 & # 160 ; December , with increased funding .
Whilst left-wing nationalism and socialism had no opportunity to constitute an alternative , a medieval variant of Islam was given renewed opportunities to organise popular resistance .
I had been there on a fact-finding trip with a number of other Members of this House to get some information about the so-called security barrier and I was shocked by the sights that met me there .
The decision taken by the Commission on 20 & # 160 ; February amending the description , designation , presentation and protection of certain wine sector products is important because the problem does not just affect Portugal but all European wine-growing areas .
I should point out that the aim is now long-lasting development and this calls for new measures to adjust and improve implementation .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; . Mr President , ladies and gentlemen – , I would like to take this opportunity to point out that , as Mr Prodi explained in his letter to the President of Parliament dated 20 February , he could not be here today as he had long-standing engagements with the Prime Minister of Romania and the President of Côte d Ivoire ’ .
It is all well and good to refer to the development of services , but it is also necessary to respond to the concerns regarding ever-increasing relocation and the need for an industrial strategy for Europe .
We are not having a liberating effect at the European level , because every day we adopt new regulations , entangling governments and businesses in ever more complex and costly decision-making systems .
It is for the Member States to bring forward the reforms that are needed in the labour market , in the social field , in fiscal policy , in making locations attractive and in promoting forward-looking sectors of industry .
Today , Finland keeps on being hailed as the highest-achieving country in the European Union , and it has not even been a Member State for that long .
I would ask the President-in-Office of the Council – and this is my first point – to say , here and now , loud and clear , whether he acknowledges Parliament ’ s full decision-making rights in all these matters , be they the Quick Start list ‘ ’ or any other list .
The Commission will need to make every effort to achieve sound financial management , a well-functioning information system and fully reliable accounts .
This has been very a useful exercise in achieving a second reading agreement on an important proposal , one which is tackling a persistent , organic and very long-standing problem .
Perhaps such grand-sounding aims should move a step closer to something a bit more concrete .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; This readmission agreement between the European Community and the Macao Special Administrative Region forms a part of the more wide-ranging strategy for fighting illegal immigration defined at the Tampere , Laeken , Seville and Thessaloniki Summits , and is the second such agreement negotiated and concluded with a third country .
As today is International Women 's Day , I remind the House of the resolution , adopted in 2003 , in which Parliament committed itself to adopting and implementing a policy plan for gender mainstreaming with the overall objective of promoting equality of women and men through genuine and effective incorporation of the gender perspective in policies and activities , including decision-making structures and human and financial resources so that the different impact of measures on men and women is fully assessed and taken into account .
In order to make a more accurate analysis , the rapporteur proposes different actions for the minority groups referred to in the report , such as , for example , the development of statistics and the carrying out of a specific study , the involvement of these women in decision-making procedures , the promotion of information technology , training and education and protection of their sexual and reproductive health .
Nor are they properly represented at national and international decision-making levels .
Eighteen transnational projects were selected which focus on awareness-raising actions and exchanges of good practice .
As regards the representation of women in politics , for example , the under-representation of women in the political decision-making process constitutes a serious shortcoming , which , unfortunately , is mirrored across all of our European democracies .
The attempt on 3 & # 160 ; March in the Assembly of the Republic to amend the law was rejected by members who make up the current right-leaning government majority , upholding a situation that is an embarrassment to Portugal and which primarily penalises less well-off women who cannot make use of the safe health services of our neighbouring country .
In developing countries , complications arising from pregnancy and birth are the main cause of death and disablement for women of child-bearing age .
The UN believes that last year USD 2.3 & # 160 ; billion were generated by the drug trade in the major opium-growing areas in Afghanistan .
By producing this proposal to establish a European Agency for Operational Cooperation at the External Borders , the Commission is now , at last , responding to a long-standing demand by this House .
Providing as it does for revision of the directive , especially in line with changes to Community legislation , this is a forward-looking compromise .
Mr President , please allow me to remind you that this is a codecision procedure and that this Parliament is a co-legislating body .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , I wish to support my colleagues who have taken a very broad-ranging view of this important proposal .
We are voting on a very important report , one that has a wide-ranging impact on economic affairs and on the citizens of Europe .
On approving the interinstitutional agreement , I and the members of the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market stress the danger of creating a decision-making process which is entirely out of line with the will of the citizens .
Given the need for prior authorisation and the time taken to obtain this , many anti-drug-trafficking operations end in failure on the high seas .
Indeed , a recent programme on a French television channel criticised the fact that no awareness-raising campaign against violence has been launched on that channel .
The issue addressed in this report is difficult due to its history and its far-reaching ramifications .
This is extremely dangerous as it opens the door to the abuse of these anti-counterfeiting measures .
We must launch an awareness-raising campaign , as soon as possible , in collaboration with these professionals .
It calls on the Member States to ensure the effective application of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and specifically states that migrant women should be able to participate in political life and in the decision-making process .
Secondly , because as a Portuguese citizen , these reports on this issue , chime with a very lively debate currently taking place in Portugal , in which a right-wing majority is obstructing debate and serious and humane decisions , using arguments and means that are truly disgraceful , not to say criminal .
The rules in question have also been agreed so that we have decision-making processes through which we can solve problems , and which allow us to deal with cases in a dignified way for both parties .
Meanwhile , in the Commission – and , I emphasise , explicitly in the interests of the Union – we were glad to note that most , if not all , delegations realised that making a distinction between voting and non-voting Commissioners would simply not work .
In this regard , Mr President-in-Office of the Council , I would like to express the support of my group – and specifically my Party – in order to unblock the situation in my country , in order to replace the cat-fighting method with constructive debate .
A total of 84 out of the 105 members of the Convention were representatives of the national parliaments and of the Heads of Government : this demonstrates anew how closely the Member States are involved in the consultation and decision-making processes of the European Union .
Mr President , this report represents a wide-ranging analysis of the problems facing Romania in its development to meet the high standards we demand for joining the European Union .
Another problematic issue remaining in most countries is food safety , the modernisation of food-processing establishments and their supervision for the protection of public health .
At the first reading of the proposal for a common position , I felt obliged to vote against it , because I was unhappy that the report was undermined by the heavy-handedness of the proposals , which mainly received the votes of the left-leaning Members of the parliamentary committee .
On behalf of the seven Radical Members , we intend to declare our support for the amendments tabled by the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development with regard to the support system for the tobacco-growing sector .
There are still deficits in some areas , however , on standards in food-processing establishments , for example .
I was also pleased to find that my report triggered a political debate about what is probably the country s greatest social problem ’ , how to better integrate the Russian-speaking population .
In different ways during my work with enlargement , I have met many ambitious , hard-working people .
Hopefully , it will not have turned out to be just a self-seeking exercise .
This development is thrown into particularly stark relief when we consider the road taken by those states that have been able to overcome what was called ‘ actually-existing socialism ’ and to find their way to freedom and democracy .
Speaking personally , I am grateful to the people , parliament and government of Latvia , who , with the European Union s support ’ , have created the conditions for solving an extremely complex problem , that being the progressive integration of a large Russian-speaking minority .
I am convinced that the Russian-speaking minority will be successfully integrated into Latvian society , but that will depend on these citizens giving unmistakeable demonstrations of their loyalty to the Latvian state .
I think we also agree that people in the new Member States have shown a willingness to change , a willingness to go along with far-reaching reforms that some of us might like to see in our own countries .
As the accession of Turkey appears to be under serious consideration by our governments – a possibility that I personally object to have – they thought about the far-reaching consequences of the reforms that they are proposing , which risk giving Turkey a central decision-making role in a Europe with uniform rules ?
As the accession of Turkey appears to be under serious consideration by our governments – a possibility that I personally object to have – they thought about the far-reaching consequences of the reforms that they are proposing , which risk giving Turkey a central decision-making role in a Europe with uniform rules ?
Parliament s proposals ’ are not nit-picking amendments .
It rather bluntly stated that the European Union would have the power to extend for the first time anti-dumping disciplines from the trade in goods to the trade in services , without a great deal of detail about how that would take place .
The decision-making process has led to strong support from all the institutions in order to reach a compromise .
It would , on the contrary , create a level-playing field ultimately leading to increased competition , greater choice for postal users and lower prices .
Let us bear in mind that the Commission proposal seeks to remove VAT exemption for public postal service providers , in order to create a level-playing field with the services provided by private competitors being subject to full VAT .
Israeli security will not be obtained by building an ' apartheid wall ' , which has less to do with security than with Ariel Sharon 's long-standing plan to annex Palestinian territory .
Our country , for example , is accused , among other things , of not having yet put its old people out to work , of not having proceeded with far-reaching changes in the pension system , of not having reduced employers social security contributions ’ , of not having made contracts of employment sufficiently flexible , of not having adequately promoted part-time employment and of not having completed privatisations .
The radical Members of the believe that the text adopted should have been much more critical of the Commission , the Council and the Member States , in particular , by condemning the unbalanced way in which the institutions that hold the power of initiative and decision-making power in such sectors have acted and are acting .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; In the Swedish referendum on EU membership in 1994 , all the political parties campaigning for Swedish membership of the EU asserted that marriage legislation and issues relating to cohabitation and abortion did not come within the decision-making competence of the EU .
There were at least as many reasons to seriously criticise Romania when it was under its former right-wing government as there are now that the present one , which calls itself left-wing , is in power .
Some Member States are struggling with long waiting times for certain treatments and ever-dwindling numbers of doctors , health care professionals and suitably qualified health care providers .
I was also expecting France to be congratulated for not being cravenly disinterested in a country with which it maintains cultural links and with which it has long-standing ties of affection , even though this country is in immediate proximity to the United States .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr & # 160 ; President , a dispute has arisen in Italy , to be specific in my region , the Trentino-Alto Adige / South Tyrol , regarding the ethno-linguistic census organised under the region s statute ’ of special autonomy and assiduously carried out by the German-speaking administration .
All they do is suppress the rights of ordinary law-abiding citizens , without them having any right to legal redress .
From training seminars for senior civil servants that were never held , to mass defrauding of the CAP , this eye-opening record of failure is there for all to see .
We also found it very regrettable that the final Commission proposal for a directive took no account of education , decision-making processes , and the content of media and advertising .
We had for a long time hoped for a more wide-ranging directive , encompassing numerous fields in which to promote gender equality .
The second issue concerns the vastly reduced scope of the proposal presented by the Commission , which covers only access to goods and services and the supply of these , and excludes other fields , such as media and advertising content , education and decision-making processes .
This is an appalling state of affairs , particularly when one sees the discrimination that persists in the media , in advertising and in decision-making processes .
The authorities in the Member States should also act quickly to ensure that enough personnel are available to be able to comply with the wide-ranging regulations .
Tax competition does have its benefits but , more importantly , this is an issue of tax sovereignty , with far-reaching implications for a State s social and environmental choices and tax structure ’ .
– awareness-raising activities and dissemination of information ,
– actions to promote the reconciliation of private and professional life , and the participation of women in decision-making processes ; as well as actions to combat violence against women , gender stereotyping and discrimination in the workplace ,
Following significant misgivings and strong resistance on the part of several interest groups , in particular the media sector , the scope of this directive has been watered ‘ down ’ to only now cover access to , and supply of , goods and services , thus leaving aside other areas such as media and advertising content , education and the decision-making process .
I support all amendments which provide for the most far-reaching protection , even if today , regrettably , they do not yet receive a majority .
I also hope that our friends across the Atlantic are recognising that our long-term , consensus-building approach has some value , based , as it is , on building common agendas that respect differences of approach in different countries and regions .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , the negative spiral of violence in the Middle East does not seem to be going into reverse , and plunged to another depth last week , when the hatred-sowing Hamas leader Yassin was cold-bloodedly murdered at the behest of the Israeli Prime Minister Sharon .
Kosovo 's separation from Serbia and the creation of an independent state are being promoted , as pursued by the autonomist organisations of Albanian Kosovars from the beginning , by safeguarding the purity of the Albanian-speaking population .
That is why , Commissioner , I , as rapporteur , have called in Article 8 for a feasibility study on binding and non-binding guarantees , and if we get one in 12 months time ’ , then I am sure we will be able to look further ahead .
Mr President , firstly I would like to thank the rapporteur , Mrs Thors , and the draftsman of the opinion of the Committee on Industry , External Trade , Research and Energy , Mrs Corbey , for their hard work on this legislative proposal , on which we are close to a first-reading agreement , following a swift and constructive interinstitutional dialogue .
I think it would be a very good idea to round this off in a first-reading agreement .
Even though the rapporteur has attempted to improve the labelling rules , the decision-making procedures , including the procedure for authorisation by the European Food Safety Authority ( EFSA ) , and access to public documents , the report , as it stands , is still unacceptable to the Greens .
We have been fighting for a very long time against the ever-increasing exposure of consumers to a whole host of additives and we refuse to let these become more widespread , which would be damaging to health .
For example , in the refrigeration and air conditioning sectors there is a strong upward trend in the use of fluorinated gases due to the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances .
As we know , CFCs are much more environmentally damaging than HFCs , being ozone-depleting gases which we have very successfully grappled with under the auspices of the Montreal Protocol .
We will not immediately be looking to remove HFCs from fire-fighting uses , where they are clearly very useful and the alternatives are , in my opinion , not yet proven .
These are refrigeration and air-conditioning installations , mobile air-conditioning installations and foam products .
These are refrigeration and air-conditioning installations , mobile air-conditioning installations and foam products .
The fact that the use of air-conditioning increases fuel consumption in the car is far more widely known .
Member States must have the opportunity to take further-reaching measures , particularly in view of the geographical differences and the fact that air-conditioning is superfluous in northern countries .
Fifthly , CO2-based air conditioning systems are European technologies and European products , which , I think , also makes it apparent that , if we move on down this road , from f-gases to CO2-based air conditioning systems , the air-conditioning system of the future will indeed no longer be a climate-killer ; on the contrary , the air conditioning unit of the future can also be a hit where European jobs are concerned .
My group does , though , also see it as important that the conciliation procedure has produced a proportionate result , for the fact is to use – an adage quoted in the first-reading debate by Lord Inglewood , who will speak later – that the better is the enemy of the good .
This directive , as a number of colleagues have said , has a very slow-burning fuse to it .
The Group of the Party of European Socialists is very happy with the legislation we now have on waste from the mineral-extracting industry .
You can rely on our support for every further step in the Constitution-making process .
Finally , with regard to the possible and desirable modification and completion of the European Constitution – which has been opened up following the appointment of Mr Zapatero as candidate for the Presidency of the Spanish Government , together with other movements in Europe – we believe it is important to take this opportunity , together with the necessary reform of the decision-making process , to achieve more democracy and solidarity in the European Constitution , with scrutiny by Parliament and by popular sovereignty with changes to the Stability Pact , which will lead to progress throughout Europe .
We have succeeded in getting double majority accepted in principle ; now , though , we must also have figures for the double majority , so that it enables greater decision-taking power .
In my London constituency yesterday British police arrested eight British citizens of Pakistani descent with half a tonne of bomb-making material .
Law-abiding citizens have no cause to fear in Europe .
But our goals continue to be the return of democracy to Burma , an end to human rights violations and the realisation of peace and prosperity for the long-suffering people of Burma , which we all want .
Furthermore , it seems to me truly deplorable that the only elements constituting a guarantee for the preservation of the rights of the expelled persons are , in this resolution , placed in a non-binding appendix , which is particularly revealing of the Council s intention ’ to build a Europe that is nothing but a fortress .
At this point I would , therefore , ask the Commission whether , instead of going through the motions of making us vote , it might not consider it better to hand over the issue to the only democratic institution with decision-making powers that is involved in this case , that is to say the United States Congress .
Signing the Århus Convention requires measures to be adopted that are legally binding on the European Community s institutions ’ and bodies , and this regulation does this specifically as regards the three pillars of the Convention : access to information , public participation in the decision-making process and access to justice in environmental matters .
I agree with the rapporteur s suggestions ’ that the know-how acquired by already-existing structures should be incorporated into the institutions to be created , specifically by transferring the knowledge of the European Space Agency ( an organisation that has been very closely involved in this programme ) , to the Supervisory Authority .
I am very pleased that there are not only good relations with neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina , but that both the previous government and the present one have demonstrated that Croatia is now interested in a common Bosnia-Herzegovina and not only in the well-being of the Croatian-speaking population there .
Mr & # 160 ; President , I would also like to congratulate Mrs Boumediene-Thiery on her far-reaching report .
You just have to read the report by Reporters Without Borders , who certainly did not get together within the Italian Prime Minister s organisation ’ but are , as you know , an organisation of left-wing journalists .
The promotion of cleaner and less greenhouse-gas-emitting energy sources in developing countries , with a particular focus on the promotion of renewable sources of energy , are in keeping with meeting the objectives of the EU s long-term climate ’ change objectives .
Mystery surrounds the existence or otherwise in Mozambique of an international child-trafficking network for obtaining organs .
I think it is important to call a halt at last to the authorities ' data-collecting zeal , which is spiralling out of control .
Any step to one side or the other can have undesirable and far-reaching consequences .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , Madam Vice-President of the Commission , ladies and gentlemen , as the rapporteur , Mr Marinho , pointed out , people have always sought , and continue to seek – and in ever-increasing numbers better opportunities or protection – outside their country or origin , in their attempts to flee persecution , war , human rights violations , or simply poverty and unemployment .
The Thessaloniki European Council reminded the Council of the need to ensure that the still-outstanding proposals for directives on minimum standards for asylum and immigration were adopted at the earliest opportunity .
I believe that as things stand the ACP can now hold its own in the budgets on the basis that it is by no means the worst-performing region that we deal with under external relations .
In my view , given the ever-increasing volume of air traffic , these efforts to achieve harmonisation come at the right time .
As one of the longest-serving Members of this House , let me say that it was a pleasure working with you , especially on the issue of air travel , over such a long period .
Firstly , in the multipolar world in which we live , Turkey is an Eastern power ; it plays a dominant role among the Turkish-speaking peoples of Central Asia and shares lengthy borders with Iran , Iraq and Syria .
It is to be a society based on the rule of law with democratic stability and respect for human rights and for minorities , it is to have a well-functioning market economy , and so on .
As we have already pointed out , confirming and effectively implementing the principle of establishing all the languages of the EU countries as official and working languages is all the more important because we are now seeing a trend in which some languages those – of the most populous countries , such as the United Kingdom , France , Germany , Spain , Italy – demonstrate a real and ever-growing preponderance , to the detriment of the languages of the other countries that make up the European Union .
The second argument hinges on the need to involve fishermen in the decision-making process , making use of their experience and heeding their concerns .
The report confirms a fundamental principle that we have always argued for – the good governance of the common fisheries policy - which ‘ requires proper involvement of all the fishing industry s professionals ’ in the decision-making process for framing and managing the policy ’ .
My contribution to the report consists of requesting the creation of intermediate structures corresponding to coherent and homogenous geographical sub-units , whose role will be to propose technical recommendations to the RACs at the outset of the decision-making process .
This idea is worthy of consideration , particularly as it ties in with a suggestion we ourselves have made in the past , that a variable-geometry Europe would more readily welcome Turkey as a partner , as it would establish free relations between sovereign countries , and would avoid the explosive situation of being subject to a supranational decision-making system in which Turkey would carry very considerable weight .
Under the pretext of monitoring compliance with the Copenhagen criteria , Parliament calls on the Turkish authorities to adopt a new constitution , to spread federalist propaganda in this famously civil society , and then unscrupulously subjects Turkey to international condemnation for these never-ending breaches of human rights , and so forth .
We regret that we were unable to change the whole pro-incineration approach to a pro-recycling approach .
As you will know from my statement at the last part-session , I have invited a Member of this House , who has been prominent in the German-speaking print and broadcast media , to forward to me whatever specific allegations there are so that I can fulfil my duty of care to this institution and to its Members and their reputation .
We do not , of course , want to interfere in a state s internal affairs ’ – we are a Union with a great deal of pluralism and much diversity – but , when there is evidence of clear risks and of long-standing breaches of these values and principles , that is the time for the EU to act .
Cutting off funds from Brussels , not to mention withdrawal of the entitlement to participate in decision-making bodies , is of course the sharpest weapon one can use , but we have to make clear our willingness to introduce it if necessary .
This is hardly the safe , well-functioning market that we had in mind to create , nor have we got the level of confidence that we really need .
This action plan is based on the firm belief that a self-regulatory market approach , based solely on non-binding recommendations , is clearly not always sufficient to guarantee the adoption of sound corporate governance practices .
The Lisbon objectives of becoming the most innovative and fastest-growing region in the world are held up to us repeatedly .
The third point that has made me rather sceptical was the proposal for a very wide-ranging comitology procedure .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; . & # 160 ; Madam & # 160 ; President , ladies and gentlemen , the draft directive establishing a framework for setting out the environmentally-friendly requirements applicable to energy-using products is somewhat innovative .
As its title indicates , the proposal is aimed at improving the environmental behaviour , what could be termed the Eco-design , of energy-using products .
I have in mind for example rapidly-changing technologies and arrangements for consulting stakeholders .
Madam President , first I should like to thank the European Parliament and especially the rapporteur , Mr de Roo , for the work on the report and , in particular , the very constructive attitude in the negotiations on the compromise package , which should allow us to reach a first-reading agreement on this important proposal .
A first-reading agreement on what is termed a ' linking ' directive will have been reached within a mere 10 months , confirming the European Union 's strong continuing commitment to the Kyoto Protocol and its flexible mechanisms .
A first-reading agreement reaffirms the high priority that the European Union gives to taking concrete action to tackle climate change .
As we know , Member States all too often agree to what should be legally-binding targets in the certain knowledge that the pathetically cumbersome enforcement procedures that the Commission has at its disposal will mean that they never actually have to meet those targets within anything like the timescales proposed .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , Madam Vice-President , as the chairman of the non-standing committee for the improvement of safety at sea , I would like to extend warm thanks to the members of the committee and to the rapporteur , Mr Sterckx , for the extraordinarily sensible way in which they conducted their deliberations and for their excellent report .
A majority in this Parliament is – quite rightly – in favour of a far-reaching form of cooperation between the different coastguard services , with the establishment of a common European coastguard service as the ultimate goal , if necessary .
I would like to finish by emphasising the fact that the Commission has made an effort to offer the European Parliament a text that is acceptable to everyone ; the transit countries must be capable of applying a system of charging that allows them to promote their own network within a perspective of sustainable transport development and , at the same time , the peripheral countries of the Union and their freight transporters will be the first to benefit from an effective charging policy in Europe that provides them with well-functioning networks .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , the general plan adopted by the Council in 2002 on the suppression of illegal immigration and human trafficking in the European Union provided for the introduction of a new early-warning system , which is now to be further developed into a secure web-based Intranet site .
The measures proposed will also make it possible to eliminate some existing problems that are the result of the far-reaching changes that have taken place since 1977 .
We must also strive to ensure that disabled people s organisations ’ play a more active role in the decision-making process at EU , UN and national level .
The report calls for organisations representing persons with disabilities to play a more active role in the decision-making process .
I voted in favour of this proposal for a directive because I believe that the ecological design of energy-using products should be encouraged and I therefore believe that Parliament must support the Commission in its Integrated Product Policy ( IPP ) .
We need to target resources effectively so that we build a growth-enhancing infrastructure throughout the Union that contributes to the improvement of transport links , with investment in communications and new technologies .
The latter is a long-standing principle .
The funds earmarked for measures such as the creation of a chemicals-testing agency are essential expenditure if we are to ensure that the new approach to chemicals policy , which involves testing old substances for their impact on the environment and public health , does not become a bureaucratic impediment to the chemical industry but should actually speed up the innovation process .
I must also make the Commission aware once again of the long-standing position of the Committee on External Affairs , Human Rights , Common Security and Defence Policy .
We have various directives which seek to guarantee that the workers are fully involved in the decision-making procedure in the event of restructuring .
The results of the preparatory action were positive with regard to the opportunity and convenience of sustained support for these innovative synergy projects , and the e-learning programme was born .
Through their patient and determined efforts in cooperation with the parties , the Secretary-General and his hard-working team have created a unique and historic opportunity for a settlement of the Cyprus problem .
The summit in Ottawa also gave a chance for the President of the Council and Prime Minister Martin to lead their EU and Canadian teams in wide-ranging discussions on major international issues , including looking at ways to promote effective global governance through revitalised international institutions .
Of course , we were once again saddened at the attempt by the Group of the Greens / European Free Alliance , accompanied in this action by the Confederal Group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left and by some Italian left-wing democrats – with an amendment which , fortunately , only received about 50 votes – to abort the continuation of the plan for the Messina bridge on the trans-European route from Berlin to Palermo .
Such a proposal would have far-reaching consequences for patterns of ownership in quite a few Member States .
Meanwhile , a majority of the Turkish-speaking Cypriots are probably in favour of reunification and reconciliation on the basis of the UN Secretary-General 's plan .
It now looks like a majority of the Greek-speaking population will be voting against on 24 April because it wants more rights for itself and fewer for the Turkish-speaking minority .
It now looks like a majority of the Greek-speaking population will be voting against on 24 April because it wants more rights for itself and fewer for the Turkish-speaking minority .
By only admitting the Greek-speaking part to the EU initially , the Turks could be forced to choose between poverty outside the EU or submission within the EU Member State Cyprus .
After the failed referendum , we will have to look for another way of admitting the Turkish-speaking part to the EU , if it so wishes .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , in the past I have been a long-standing critic of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in terms of its human rights violations , in particular the ongoing persecution of Christian and Ahmadi Muslim minorities ; its ambivalent and lukewarm cooperation in the fight against Islamist terrorism , which has led to the destabilisation of Afghanistan by aiding Taliban forces to regroup ; ongoing Jihad infiltration across the line of control into Indian Kashmir ; and – as Mr Ford said – most importantly of all , the Pakistani export of nuclear technology to rogue states such as North Korea and former terrorist-supporting Iran and Libya , which threaten global security .
Also , as a friend of India , historically Pakistan 's giant neighbour and foe , I take great heart at the peaceful rapprochement as evidenced by several confidence-building measures , most visibly and recently the successful cricket tour .
Unless we can improve the way we coordinate the EU s internal and external human rights monitoring processes ’ and put them on a par with one another , unless we are able to engage in more vigorous post-monitoring activity and disregard irrelevant political motives and hidden agendas , we will be leaving a sad legacy to the next Parliament .
Mr President , unless there is an electoral miracle in June , or a mass self-sacrificing resignation among my colleagues , this is the last occasion on which I shall have the pleasure to address this distinguished and honourable House .
We would have expected greater severity and more passion from some right-wing Members when , for example , denouncing the legal gap that exists – which runs counter to all the rules of international law – on the status of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners .
Integration does not mean continuing with two colleges within the Union and its selection and decision-making processes made up of old and new Member States .
This motion of censure is the work of the inward-looking club ‘ ’ of people who reject common policies , fight against European progress waving flags of fear , and reject the contract of trust that is the European Constitution proposed by the Convention .
It would be a retrograde step if the view were to be taken that the greatest merit of the decision-making bodies were that they were constituted on a national basis , because that would reduce the chances of bringing about the greater efficiency that is needed .
In short , the compromise that has been reached demonstrates the bold and forward-looking vision that we should all adopt towards the crucial transport sector .
That is why – and I agree completely with the rapporteur – it is so important that this e-content programme should be seen in conjunction with the e-learning programme , since people first have to be taught to utilise the content before it can be of real benefit .
Nor is the funding of growth-promoting investments any more adequate , and we should also be including in the broad economic policy guidelines coordinating measures to combat unfair tax competition and tax evasion .
I do not intend to allow another wide-ranging discussion .
Therefore , in the vote on the report by Mr Wynn , Chairman of the Committee on Budgets , I voted with the French Socialists and with the Spanish Socialists in favour of the idea that , before enlargement , the Committee on Budgets – and this Parliament also – should have promoted the idea that to finance this Union , this Community , the easiest thing is to do it on the basis that everyone must pay , under a tax system which the citizen understands and which is not based on the tax-paying capacity of the States , but on the incomes of each of our fellow citizens .
A certain trend in left-wing opinion is very unhappy at the idea that they cannot entirely monopolise the media .
We are concerned at the growing concentration of media ownership among an ever-decreasing number of companies .
Because I was shocked by the flagrant violation of European law , imposed by the left-wing dictatorship ‘ of the majority ’ , I did not take part in the vote , in line with the outcome of discussions between the Union for a Europe of the Nations Group and the Group of the European People s Party ’ ( Christian Democrats ) and European Democrats .
However , I must point out that , in comparison with other regions of Europe , such as central Europe , the Balkan countries have the highest level of exclusion of women from political decision-making positions .
The Commission pays the utmost attention to ensuring that gender issues are integrated into the mainstream of all European Community assistance programmes as a cross-cutting issue .
In Nicaragua , working together became in itself part of the reconciliation and confidence-building process .
In the first two and a half months of this year no fewer than 30 people-smuggling operations were closed down and about 70 attempts to leave the country illegally were thwarted .
We owe it to the peace-loving people of this island which attracts so many European tourists .
This oil-producing country , where the extreme wealth of a tiny minority contrasts with the extreme poverty of the population , is once again the scene of religious confrontations which , last month , caused 20 deaths when a village was attacked in the state of Plateau , a state principally inhabited by Christians .
He , too , was only a matter of months away from an election , and he was speaking in a February , the same month as the decisive moment in the constitution-making process , and I regret the fact that Parliament has not found it in itself to adopt this Convention draft and submit it to the national Parliaments for ratification .
I will close with some words from Jean Monnet , words that I would urge all governments and ministers to bear constantly in mind , the most up-to-date words that can possibly be said in today ’ s constitution-making process : ‘ We are not coordinating states ; we are bringing people together ! ’
Mr President , it is worth recalling the challenges that the Laeken Council issued to the Convention : the challenge of setting out clearly the division of competence between the Union and the Member States , so as to explain more clearly to the public who does what in the European Union ; the challenge of simplifying the Union s texts , instruments ’ and decision-making procedures ; the challenge of bringing added value to the European institutions and decision-making processes , in terms of democracy , transparency and efficiency ; and even , perhaps , the challenge of fulfilling the dream of adopting a European Constitution .
Mr President , it is worth recalling the challenges that the Laeken Council issued to the Convention : the challenge of setting out clearly the division of competence between the Union and the Member States , so as to explain more clearly to the public who does what in the European Union ; the challenge of simplifying the Union s texts , instruments ’ and decision-making procedures ; the challenge of bringing added value to the European institutions and decision-making processes , in terms of democracy , transparency and efficiency ; and even , perhaps , the challenge of fulfilling the dream of adopting a European Constitution .
The decision-making process must be made more transparent .
Consequently , the decision-making process in the Council of the European Union should be based on a spirit of compromise that takes into account the interests of all States , large and small .
A larger Union is of no use if its decision-making structures do not make it effective .
As we have stated on many occasions , this Constitution is an attempt to extend capitalist integration in the European Union still further , which clearly consolidates the federal nature of the Community s institutions ’ and the dominant position of the major powers in the decision-making process , including unacceptable primacy over national constitutions .
I believe that the setting up of the ESDP mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the setting up of peace-keeping operations elsewhere in the world are signs of the European Union ’ s growing foreign policy agenda and of the attempts of Member States to speak with a single voice in the international arena .
I represent the Russian-speaking minority of Latvia , which makes up about 40 % of the country 's population .
On 1 May , tens of thousands of the Russian-speaking residents of Latvia participants – in a rally – entrusted me to greet you and expressed a real hope that the European Union will develop not only as a union of States and economies , but will also become a real union of the peoples who live in the European Union and that the European Union will devote more attention not only to the economic aspects but also to such spheres as human rights .
United Europe , however , must be constructed on the basis of a forward-looking perception , with positive prospects , supported on principles of humanitarianism , freedom , diversity , pluralism and peace .
Indeed , some may be moving towards self-fulfilling prophecies .
Within this framework , the expression ' coordination of economic policy ' is used as a general term , which covers an entire spectrum of interactions between policy-making factors , at both national level and European Union level .
The methods used include exchanging information , discussing best practices , engaging in policy-making dialogue , drafting jointly agreed rules and policy objectives and taking jointly decided action .
The decentralisation of policy-making procedures gives the national authorities the necessary room for manoeuvre , allowing them both to apply policies in keeping with national economic structures and preferences and to adapt to the economic developments noted in each individual country .
The objectives of the European Central Bank must be redrafted to include job-creating investments and industrial projects .
Let the journey they have travelled serve as an example to us and let us continue focusing on keeping the balance in Europe between the needs of a smoothly-running market and the wishes of the public .
We may , of course , have great reservations about this model , but socially fairer and more forward-looking models are very difficult , if not impossible , to devise .
From this side of the House , I welcome the enlarged Europe and the concept of neighbourhood – as a European model for living and not a symbol of window-dressing rhetoric – which will be the path to follow , provided that we maximise the wealth of various situations institutionally , economically , socially , culturally , and not the ideological straitjacket of an omnipotent paradigm , of an omnipotent neo-liberal , federal and militarised Constitution , on the pretext of the spectre of a threat to security .
It is crucial that we modify the current decision-making method , with its cases of overlapping initiatives or delays resulting from the unanimity rules as well as flagrant delays in incorporating Community legislation into that of the Member States .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , I first want to say how grateful I am to President Pat Cox for inviting President Lech Walesa to yesterday s flag-raising ceremony ’ at the flagpoles in my home town of Gdansk .
It is also important that we restate and establish once and for all the long-standing principle of individual responsibility of Commissioners to Parliament for their policies and their departments .
Throughout the mandate , we in Parliament alone – of the law-making institutions of this Union – can boast at the end of our mandate a 100 % legislative record , of which , in terms of delivery , we can be truly proud .
European public policy and regulation is deeply embedded in the national political decision-making environment , but for all that we have Europeanised policy we are still searching for the way to Europeanise politics itself .
I admire him for his left-wing commitment on what , in our view , are crucial issues at stake , particularly in the international sphere .
The vice-presidential role is not just a ceremonial role in presiding over these debates but a key decision-making role in the Bureau .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , my group also wishes to congratulate the Taoiseach and his team for their prize-winning presidency : canny , courageous and committed .
He is one of the most right-wing finance ministers in Europe .
Where the Constitution was to be signed was a long-standing bone of contention for the Italian Presidency , which made it possible for something to be able to be signed in Rome by coming up with the text .
I always find it interesting when a Socialist mentions a ' right-wing person ' : definitions are always interesting .
We fear that , as a result , unemployment will increase in Europe , that the weaker members of society will pick up the tab of the cost-cutting measures and that you , with your candidate Mr Barroso , are not going about things the right way if we want to win the fight against Asia and the US .
While this is an opportunity for continuity and for adjustments , you have also taken on long-standing liabilities , and so there are two things I call upon you to do : one is to put a stop to the Council s blocking ’ of a decision on the Members Statute ’ and give us , by the end of this year , the Members ’ Statute that we have demanded .
And , in order that we may speedily conclude the road-pricing directive , I ask you to bring the Council round to a single line on transport policy .
I will say in more general terms that in my opinion for all the major positions of responsibility within the Union we need men and women who are prepared to consider far-reaching challenges to the severe trends that are plunging Europe into crisis before our very eyes and making it helpless in the face of many of the world s problems ’ .
However , there are ever-increasing pressures to sacrifice personal freedom to the quest for security , to compromise our humanitarian obligations to refugees and to fail to integrate legal immigrants .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Madam President , Mr Barroso , as a left-wing MEP , I shall vote against you , because I want a Europe which does not act as Mr Bush 's delivery boy , as you did in the Azores , because I am against your neo-liberal policy in Portugal and , furthermore , because I refuse to allow the European Parliament to simply ratify the orders of the summit .
On the other , we need to deal with the contradiction between the two factors which come into play in this type of accident : urgent practical decisions and measures for dealing with the environmental emergency which has taken place and the much more time-consuming issue of the legal requirements relating to disputes , together with the problems of identifying the people ultimately responsible , resulting from the tangle of interests in the field of maritime traffic , something which this House has repeatedly condemned .
It was of course right to freeze all programmes under the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement after 1996 , and it is right to break off contacts with high-ranking officials of the Lukashenko regime , but our policy lacks political will towards Belarussians themselves .
Ladies and gentlemen , there is such a thing as an official Belarussian ideology , and there are high commissioners in each of the institutions and high-ranking executives responsible for ideology .
We have exceeded our competences , but I felt that it was right to do so and I feel that I was right to undertake this anti-doping action , which is the only way to protect our young people and to bring fair play back to sport .
It is essential that we increase the international presence on the ground , with both African Union ceasefire monitors and peace-keeping forces , and the humanitarian agencies , human rights monitors and an international police force .
That is an option to be avoided , most of all because we would risk turning this region into a never-ending war zone .
It follows that the European Union must offer the Russian people , and President Putin , every assistance in attempting to prevent such far-reaching calamities from happening in future .
Quite recently , militiamen in Moscow beat up an ex-astronaut , purely because he had a Chechen-sounding surname .
It was a nerve-wracking experience for both of us .
What is of importance now is for a fact-finding mission to visit Iraq and to give a more definite picture of the possibilities for EU action .
In practical terms , they are asking for a clear , firm stand on the part of all EU Members against the sustained involvement of Iraq s neighbouring countries ’ in the insidiously-growing terrorism on Iraqi territory , failing which , the EU itself will eventually be called upon to foot the bill .
In conclusion , to all those who are in Iraq , to the soldiers on peace-keeping missions , to the NGOs , which with admirable perseverance have chosen to stay and carry on their work of aiding the civilian population , to the victims families ’ and , at this moment , if I may , especially to the families of the hostages – to all of them I believe the whole Chamber here in Strasbourg should raise its voice loud and clear in solidarity and fellow feeling .
My questions are concrete and I should say beforehand that I welcome the proposal by the President-in-Office of the Council to perhaps send a fact-finding mission to Iraq later on this year .
We are , however , firmly opposed to life-prolonging measures for an instrument which is designed to destroy the European social model .
Furthermore , the enforcement of the Pact needs to be stepped up , but there is a great deal of wishful thinking about the greater impact of what is referred to as peer pressure , which certainly did not work for the big countries , and there is little in the way of more power for the Commission or of a decision-making alternative in the Council , which would lead to truly better enforcement .
They both want to see Iraq develop into a stable , democratic and self-governing country .
This summit was an outstanding opportunity to draw up a forward-looking agenda , and , as you know , was the occasion for the adoption of seven joint declarations on the main priorities for cooperation between the EU and the United States .
Long-standing members of the Portuguese Medical Association and of the Portuguese Pharmacists Association have ’ protested .
The Commission and Parliament cannot and must not remain indifferent when men and women belonging to a non-governmental organisation from one Member State , invited by an NGO from another Member State , with the aim of jointly promoting awareness-raising activities on sexual and reproductive health , have been compared to drug traffickers , illegal fishermen or smugglers .
The political events which we are considering so diligently today have been the subject of wide-ranging discussion in the Committee on Women s Rights and Gender Equality ’ .
The Portuguese police have been bugging the telephones of law-abiding citizens and of their family members or of medical professionals whom they suspect may be involved .
Such a practice would leave the door open to all kinds of bargaining , and out of respect for the Member States commitments ’ and for our own principles , a transparent decision-making process should remain the golden rule in international conventions .
It is unlikely that the proceeds of such taxes would be used to mitigate the effect of the emissions , leaving such schemes as nothing more than revenue-raising exercises .
What touches the selective sensibilities of the ΕU , which interprets existent and non-existent infringements of human rights as it pleases , is that Belarus has not come running on bended knee to ΝΑΤΟ , the ΕU or the other imperialist organisations and refuses to sell off its wealth-producing resources to European and American monopolies .
On the pretext of freeing hostages , with references to a so-called democratic , independent Iraq , it is helping to create the conditions needed in order for the EU to qualify for a share of the imperialist spoils and in order to secure the interests of big business in the wider area , control wealth-producing resources and oil routes and exploit the people .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; . – We are voting against the resolution on the situation in Vojvodina , which we see as an attempt to create particularly dangerous conditions in order to pave the way for further gratuitous imperialist intervention in the long-suffering area of the Balkans .
Since 1989 , the autonomy for the large Hungarian-speaking minority has also been driven back considerably .
I would already like to give this fact-finding mission a number of urgent questions to take with them , questions that I would also like to address to the Council and Commission .
On 22-24 August , the EU Presidency led a fact-finding mission that met with various ministers , some of the detainees and several eyewitnesses .
On Thursday , 7 October , the FBI , acting on federal orders , asked Rack Space , a US service provider , to hand over to them the hardware of two servers hosting all of Indymedia s material ’ , in other words the material from dozens of locations in this international network , which works with non-profit-making groups and associations .
Therefore , at first alone but later with the support of an ever-growing consensus , we pressed for reforms that would be equal to the demands of running a Europe of 25 or more Member States .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , before I begin my planned remarks , I wish to correct the PPE attempt to rewrite history : the PPE and its right-wing allies voted on Monday to stop Mr Buttiglione being a Commissioner at all .
The Dutch presidency aims to complete the decision-making process before the end of its term .
It is arguable that if we concentrated on more cooperation between Member States and organisations , instead of creating complex and over-reaching structures , we would achieve more practical results for our citizens and we would thereby encourage greater acceptance of the sort of Europe that they can really accept and benefit from .
The Commission should be looking at far-reaching proposals , such as proposals that would in general allow a least-developed country export to qualify for duty-free access to the EU if at least 40 % of a good 's value is added in a least-developed country that is not necessarily the final country of export .
In the Court s view ’ , the International Olympic Committee s anti-doping regulation ’ does not , therefore , fall within Community competition law .
This ever-increasing phenomenon is in fact not being fought with the severity it deserves and this is also probably why more and more athletes start using drugs , in some cases in the foolish belief that they are practically harmless or at least not very dangerous .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , dear friends , I spoke in Kurdish for the first time in 1991 from the parliamentary chamber during my oath-taking ceremony in the Turkish National Assembly .
Such tests must distinguish between genuine medication and performance-enhancing drugs .
As the number and sensitivity of drug-screening tests increases , athletes discover new , undetectable drugs or combinations of drugs , or other ways of avoiding being caught .
There is an anti-doping charter , we do not have to invent the concept of doping nor details of the banned substances and methods , we cannot do very much here .
I have never used performance-enhancing drugs and I do not want my children to become the victims of cheats .
Given the tense situation in Abkhazia and South Ossetia , I welcome the proposal to convene an international conference on the conflict and to set up a peace-keeping force that will genuinely help Georgian society to recover its stability .
As the European Parliament pointed out last January , the European Union and its Member States provide more than half of the contributions to the United Nations system and to peace-keeping missions .
The Ministry of the Treasury has attempted to dismiss the director of the state-owned enterprise Polska Żegluga Morska , contrary to the independent decisions of the enterprise s self-governing bodies ’ , and has also announced that all state-owned enterprises in Poland are to be transformed into State Treasury companies .
In addition , the state-owned enterprise s director and self-governing bodies ’ were refused the right to appeal to an independent court to have the Ministry s decisions ’ verified .
Furthermore , was the Ministry s refusal ’ to acknowledge the right of the director and the state-owned enterprise s self-governing bodies ’ to appeal to a court not a violation of Article & # 160 ; 6 ( 2 ) of the Treaty on European Union and of the 1950 & # 160 ; European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ?
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; & # 160 ; & # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr & # 160 ; President , I should like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Mr & # 160 ; Buttiglione , who has recently become the target of a chauvinistic attack by the Left of this House and by all Left-wing extremists .
This again relates to oil price developments and possible second-round effects stemming from wage- and price-setting behaviour .
The fact is that a central bank also has the task of sounding the alarm when ever-increasing concentration of ownership gives the private banking sector more power over the market and when cuts in key interest rates serve primarily to increase the finance houses ’ profit margins , instead of being felt by smaller enterprises and consumers .
I believe that we are a long way from having forward-looking concepts for the motor or mobility industry – – , where a lot of opportunities for innovation have been missed in recent decades .
I regret that the President of this Parliament diminished his office by joining the left-wing herd in what , however it is dressed up , amounts to a denial of the Commission-designate 's right of freedom of thought and speech .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Madam President , in common with you I have the honour and responsibility of taking part for the first time in the decision-making process regarding the European Commission of the enlarged European Union .
We also admire the untold efforts all countries have made to take the many and often far-reaching measures that were necessary to join the Union within a short space of time .
A good balance struck between central and delegated government can avoid the Union conjuring up the image of an all-encompassing bureaucracy that alienates people .
That is a far-reaching ambition and is an indication that this organised Europe feels affiliated with the ideal of an equally organised world .
Mr President , the fisheries advisory councils have been the great innovation of the reform and the only instrument we have for ensuring the participation of the sector in the decision-making process .
I am not referring to enlargement or cohesion , but primarily to aid for Iraq , new tasks in the field of security and defence policy and the ever-increasing number of agencies .
The strong position the House has adopted this time will have a far-reaching impact on future annual budgets , but above all on the 2007-2013 Financial Perspective .
We in Parliament , or the Council , which forces us into making these choices through its penny-pinching miserliness ?
This , however , presupposes the elimination of the far-reaching differences between the Member States and within regions in the Member States .
During this period both the European Union and Turkey will experience economic developments which are as yet unknown to us , the budget of the European Union may undergo far-reaching changes of which we are unaware , and expenditure on related policies may also change .
We can fairly accurately predict that we will commence negotiations with Croatia at the beginning of next year , and we know that it will be at the end of this year that the great decision , with its far-reaching implications , must be taken as to whether or not to start negotiations with Turkey .
We are afraid that you are pushing Europe further and further into the conservative corner , and thus actually exchanging the Lisbon agenda for a right-wing agenda .
We then made the mistake of confusing the long-standing pursuit of a social Europe with the quest for as many jobs in the commercial sector as possible .
A real debate about the civilised order has begun that may have far-reaching consequences for the greater good of Europe .
If the Commission is to have the support of the Member States , the Member States governments ’ must have a major part to play in its appointment , even if this sometimes prolongs the decision-making process .
The ball is now back in the court of the President of the Commission and the EU Member States , but this decision-making process should not be allowed to drag on , as Europe needs a new Commission , just as Europe needs a strong European Parliament .
At the summit , the EU will encourage India to continue to make progress in agreeing on substantive confidence-building measures , through improvements in transport , trade and economic links and more personal contact across the Line of Control .
Assistance to civil society is already a long-standing policy of the EU .
Furthermore , it is an unusually vivid example of what could happen to Ukraine if we do not carry out far-reaching reforms of our neighbourhood policy towards the latter .
Its close relationship with Russia and its role in the UN , illustrated by numerous Ukrainian contributions to peace-keeping operations , are clear proof .
That would be a new , more far-reaching step in the way we conduct accession processes compared to previous accession procedures .
With regard to the last question , as you know , there are far-reaching plans to improve cooperation and the exchange of information within the European Union , but the questioner was right to point out the major importance of improving cooperation with bodies outside the European Union too .
Ever-increasing numbers of people in Poland are affected by poverty .
Blocking the use of such sonars in any EU waters would deprive those who defend us of a useful early-warning tool that we might well need in a dangerous world .
The situation we are discussing is a kind of never-ending story that just goes on and on .
Parliament decided that the delegation for relations with Serbia and Montenegro would send a fact-finding mission to Vojvodina , in Serbia .
The delegation for relations with Serbia has not found five Members to send on the fact-finding mission .
The fact is that Slovak and Czech establishments and businesses apply a dual-pricing system for tourists who visit their countries .
It has already been mentioned ; the problem lies in the fact that , on the one hand , that code is still too vague and , on the other , that it is not yet a legally-binding instrument and criminal penalties cannot , therefore , be applied in the event of its violation .
But it is not yet sufficient and we must therefore remember – as the report points out – that we must insist on the need to revise the text of the code , to make it stricter , to demand that it become a legally-binding instrument – although we do not yet have consensus , we must work to achieve it – to demand that governments increase transparency and improve the information they provide on authorisations and refusals of licences , to call for the code also to be applied to the export of material which can be used for torture or executions , to demand that the European Union create instruments to improve the registers of arms intermediaries , whether they operate from the European Union or whether they are registered strictly within it , and that the legislation controlling exports be harmonised upwards .
Other objectives are social policy , labour market policies , vocational training and treatment of illegal immigrant workers , as well as reconciliation , confidence-building measures and bicommunal projects .
Does this now entail a greater role for the Bureau or does it mean that we can expect a larger , all-singing , all-dancing delegation and a larger embassy ?
It is a prototype for a much more far-reaching arrangement than the present one .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , first of all I would like to thank the rapporteur for her outstanding work in this important and thought-provoking Directive on packaging waste .
Cuba and its left-wing allies all over the world constantly present us with the myth of the revolutionary event that took place several decades ago , when the corrupt Batista government was overthrown .
It is based on Member State contributions , the Commission evaluation of Tampere and the European Parliament s recommendation ’ of 14 October of this year , particularly in respect of decision-making methods .
First of all , I share your wish to resolve the long-standing issue of the statute of the Members of this Parliament .
Sudan is walking a fine line between war and peace , with an agreement possible to end what is now Africa 's longest-running conflict ' .
But , much more than this , I have marvelled at the unfathomable depths of forgiveness that have allowed the people of Rwanda to sit together in village assemblies to discuss what happened , the killers , together with those who carry the indelible scars of the savagery or who lost relatives and friends as a result of the blood-letting orgy .
It would seem obvious that we should avoid a self-fulfilling prophecy whereby , because of what was not done , we would say that David Harland was correct when he said that ' out of Africa there is always something depressingly familiar . '
Unfortunately , the Greek-speaking majority , in a referendum , rejected this peace solution , which had been presented by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan .
I have sympathy for the Greeks and Greek Cypriots who would prefer Turkey to resign itself to a minority position in an overwhelmingly Greek-speaking country , as was the case between 1960 and 1964 , but that remains impossible .
I welcome the fact that the European Commission has looked for ways to prevent the Turkish-speaking minority , who wanted peace and conciliation and voted in favour of the peace plan in the referendum , from being penalised for the fact that it was impossible on 1 May to include their area in the EU .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Peacemaking and confidence-building measures in Bosnia and Herzegovina are extremely desirable .
COP-10 offers a good opportunity not only to build on the decisions taken at previous Conferences of Parties , and in particular in Bonn , Marrakesh , New Delhi and Milan , on implementing the Kyoto Protocol , but also to start a wide-ranging debate on the main issues for the second commitment period with a view to attaining the EU objective of the average global temperature increase peaking at less than 2 ° C above pre-industrialised levels ; reiterates its position that in the long term the principle of equal rights for every world citizen must be applied .
However , I must say that I should have voted for it even more willingly if the Council had realised that , among the very many objectives it set itself , it would have been good to include that of re-establishing trust between the citizens and the governments of European countries .
In fact , the position of the majority of farmers is now very difficult , and this in spite of a food-processing industry that , in itself , is flourishing .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; & # 160 ; & # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr & # 160 ; President , ladies and gentlemen , the Independence and Democracy Group was and still is opposed to the European Commission , both the outgoing Commission and the Commission-designate , as it is a non-democratic and non-transparent body that retains vast decision-making powers for itself .
The right of the Member States to appoint Commissioners themselves is therefore contested when the Commissioners concerned are Catholics with right-wing leanings but not when they are Communists and people with special financial interests .
The EU contains , for example , Communists , as well as Catholics with right-wing leanings who share Mr & # 160 ; Buttiglioni s position ’ .
However , we remained concerned that the objectivity in the process of judgment of your Commission team was corrupted here by left-wing politicians in this House .
Parliament ’ s new , pride-inducing legitimacy as something more than a simple recording chamber or rump parliament cannot now be called into question by clever presentation and a certain talent for oratory .
Secondly , it has strengthened the decision-making capacity of the EU by improving interinstitutional relations .
It has changed the system and the culture , and I believe that your office should be a similar force for change , not just a problem-solving office for the individual but one that can change the system for all citizens and for the better .
The moral is that to be a European Commissioner , one must be Euro-compatible , that is to say politically , mentally and even religiously correct , as well as being an aficionado of tolerance , of the principle of non-discrimination and , above all , of human rights , the latter-day bible of right-thinking people .
I feel that the Ombudsman s role ’ in fostering accountability and democratic responsibility in the EU s decision-making processes ’ and in the administration of the EU represents a major contribution towards a Union in which decision-making is as genuinely close to the citizens as possible .
That is why we think we need far-reaching reforms not only of France s ’ , but also of the European Union s ’ , policies on Africa .
In its dialogue with China , the European Union has already regularly expressed concern about the extensive use of the death penalty , referring to its long-standing position in favour of abolition .
It is also true that we are starting to dream that the EU can take a similarly coherent and effective stance in other EU-neighbouring countries where the will of civil society is stifled by authoritarian and autocratic leaders .
We should beware of a self-fulfilling prophecy and should consider how we dealt with confrontation between the European Parliament and the Council about the annual budget .
This discussion is a two-way street , therefore we had no objections to Russia raising the issue of Russian-speaking minorities in the Baltic States .
We also have nothing to hide with regard to the treatment of Russian-speaking minorities in the European Union and with regard to the situation of such minorities , as we have done a lot for them , and it is to be hoped that we will continue to do so .
On the one hand , we are linked by extremely close economic ties that benefit both sides , yet on the other hand , tensions are increasingly being felt between the two parties in the political sphere , and very far-reaching differences of opinion are becoming apparent .
It is , of course , not enough that well-meaning Commissioners such as yourself or Commissioner Michel should be committed to the fight against AIDS .
They are also concerned with reviewing the comitology procedure , so that Parliament and the authorities responsible for data protection are involved in the decision-making process .
To conclude , I feel that joint effort on the part of all the institutions is crucial to step up security in the Union , whilst ensuring that the legitimate rights of law-abiding citizens are respected .
Even before the Commission had a chance to vote on this , however , the Council tabled its own , much more far-reaching proposal .
In that context I must point out that in Italy I have brought a ground-breaking suit against a site that puts out false information about Members of the European Parliament and about Europe .
Unquestionably , terrorist and guerrilla organisations have committed acts of terrorism , but let us not forget that many left-wing trade union leaders in Colombia have been assassinated by paramilitary organisations .
It is the Council that is , and must be , the sole decision-making body in issues concerning standards and procedures to be followed by the Member States when they carry out checks on people at the EU s external borders ’ .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Mr & # 160 ; President , a month has now passed since I drew Parliament s attention ’ to the fact that on 16 & # 160 ; September we adopted a resolution stating that a fact-finding mission would be sent to Vojvodina to report on acts of violence against national minorities .
Why does it take four and a half months to send a fact-finding mission ?
For Turkey there was no such catalyst for change except the long-standing aspiration to join Europe and probably the desire for drastic economic change after the devastating economic crises in 2000 and 2001 .
Mr President , Mr President-in-Office of the Council , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , this Friday , the seventeenth day of December , the Heads of State or Government have a decision to take , and it is one of far-reaching significance .
Never before in the history of the European Economic Community , of the European Community and of the European Union has there been a decision with such potential for far-reaching consequences as that on Turkey ’ s membership of the European Union .
In Greece , my homeland , we hope that this difficult journey towards Europe , which is due to start for Turkey in a few days ' time , will make it a better , democratic and peace-loving neighbour , a demand which is also motivating the civil society in our neighbouring country .
Turkey is a long-standing issue on the European agenda .
It could and should be a normal European state with wide-ranging guarantees of civil rights and guaranteed stable relations with neighbouring countries , whereby all of Turkey s neighbours ’ must be given an internationally binding guarantee .
For example , improvements to the law on languages were intended to benefit only one particular linguistic minority : English-speaking businessmen .
Whether or not Turkey ultimately becomes a Member depends upon whether the Turks themselves are prepared to implement the far-reaching changes to their society that are required if Turkey is really to become a Member .
Mr Poettering , Mrs De Sarnez and many others have underlined the importance of involving the citizen in this far-reaching decision .
First of all , Turkey and the EU are bound by a customs union which constitutes a far-reaching instrument of bilateral cooperation in the area of trade and economic cooperation , implying a great degree of economic integration .
Thirdly , it creates efficiency , because it fosters understanding and recognition of qualifications and skills for an ever-increasing number of young and not-so-young people .
These useless loss-making monsters are actually subsidised by the German Government and the European Union .
The newly-established European Commission inherited the pre-existing situation of an expanded Europe and if you are from one of the new Member States , you sometimes have the impression here in Parliament and also in other European institutions , that Europe , the European Union , has not fully realised the scale of its expansion yet .
In many different ways , this House is reminding President Barroso of the fact that , under pressure from the European Parliament , he has made far-reaching promises at times .
He said that a referendum about an issue of this kind would open a debate with vicious arguments about Islam , among other things , which would only play into the hands of Right-wing parties .
If Turkey were allowed to join , the borders would be blurred , and the door would be open to a large number of Turkish-speaking countries , including the countries of the Caucasus such as Georgia .
Moving on to another , equally important , issue , I welcomed Mr & # 160 ; Barroso s hard-hitting remarks ’ on the EU s Financial Perspective ’ .
I should like to congratulate all the Members of this House , myself included , on the wide-ranging nature of the debate , and to express the hope that every other important decision will be preceded by a debate of such calibre .
It will be a decision of ground-breaking importance , and a decision imposing a great responsibility on the Member States , the EU and the Council .
It appears to me to be questionable , if not irresponsible , to pursue a policy of never-ending enlargement at a time when the political dimension of the European Union and its social and tax harmonisation are far from a reality .
It appears to me to be questionable , if not irresponsible , to follow a policy of never-ending enlargement at a time when the political dimension of the European Union and its social and tax harmonisation are far from a reality .
A better option would have been for well-performing candidates , such as Estonia and Slovenia , to have been able to join much earlier .
There is a strong historical and linguistic bond between Bulgaria and the Slavonic-speaking part of Macedonia .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Minister – , allow me to respond with a supplementary question : does the Council consider that this long-outstanding issue of the name might create problems in the desirable further of this country towards the European institutions ?
The European Initiative is a well-functioning instrument : this is borne out by the statistics on the use of its budget funds as well as by almost all the human rights organisations which pay tribute to the Initiative and its valuable work .
That this should be so certainly has to do with the subject matter , but also with the fact that what we are dealing with here is a never-ending story .
With regard to the issue of the decentralised agencies , I believe the time has come to find a structural solution to the ever-increasing volume of funding that they need , and to reconcile their funding with the needs of internal policies .
It is a package that is nicely wrapped ‘ ’ up in the language of concern for social issues and of good intentions , a package that seeks to cover up its contradictions and the true nature of the right-wing policy effectively pursued at EU level , with the devastating impact that it has .
The most fundamental of these is the long-term and wide-ranging exploitation of developing countries by a number of world powers , including European countries .
It increases the powers of the European Parliament and provides for citizens actively to participate in the decision-making process through a petition with one million signatures .
It is worth adding that this was then achieved through the Coal and Steel Community gaining control of the weapons-manufacturing industries .
It follows , for that very reason , that we need guidelines and structures whereby we can reverse the trend of maintaining the main decision-making centres at a distance from the people , and whereby we can reclaim popular sovereignty and the power to make political choices , instead of submitting to the laws of the market , even if that means encouraging fatalism , that deadly enemy of democracy .
Let me say , fourthly , that European unification was , for fifty years , an inward-looking affair , focussing on the accession and integration of new Member States .
The Constitution is of such far-reaching significance that its rejection in one or more of the Member States in the forthcoming referenda would render it void .
Its policies are underpinned by a common code of all-embracing values and objectives ; for the first time , it declares social rights to be human rights as traditionally understood .
The shaping of a European peace framework still calls for great deeds to be done , and so I would have liked to see us not only vote by a large majority to adopt this Constitution , but also open up prospects for the continuation of the constitution-making process .
For want of arguments , they trot out the same backward-looking slogans , which are today devoid of meaning because they bear no relation to reality .
With regard to minority rights , the Hungarian Constitution is far more generous than the European Constitutional Treaty , as it includes collective rights , acknowledges national minorities as decision-making factors in legislation , and in addition to equal treatment , it emphasises the importance of favourable treatment , positive discrimination and allows minorities to establish their own institutions of self-government at all levels .
More democratic accountability is introduced by removal of much decision-making from the backrooms , and by making the Council s decision-making meetings ’ public .
The provisions in this Treaty for incorporating it into the EU law-making process are inadequate .
Particularly helpful in this regard is the fact that we have a clear delineation of competences between national and European levels , and the early-warning system for subsidiarity monitoring will also have a positive impact .
I therefore hope that regulation of a clearer and more transparent structure of competences , and the early-warning system for subsidiarity monitoring , will allow us to achieve more effective and better cooperation with our national colleagues , in order to make legislation in Europe even more transparent .
When this Treaty has come into force , there is no chance that it will lead to the creation of a European superstate : on the contrary , its spirit and text will effectively block any self-seeking aspirations on the part of states , groups of states or extremist movements .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , a long-standing dream of this Parliament , and one shared by many of Europe ’ s citizens , is becoming reality .
The result of the Convention s work ’ , on which we are to vote tomorrow , shows the will to introduce more democracy , transparency and efficiency into the European Institutions , strengthening them and making the decision-making process more efficient .
We will have to continue to compromise because we are 25 Member States with different traditions , languages , political decision-making procedures and views .
Thirdly , to remove all children involved in work in the cocoa sector , to prevent children at risk from entering such work , and to improve the income-earning capacity of adult family members , particularly women , through social protection schemes .
She has told me what I wanted to know about the Commission s support ’ for the education programmes and , in particular , for the instrument I referred to in my question , the Summit of Iberoamerican Heads of State or Government , which is made up of the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries of Latin America , as well as Spain and Portugal .
As you are probably aware , in Italy it falls on the one hand to the Minister for Justice and , on the other , to the judiciary s self-governing body ’ to take action against judges who commit illegal acts .
The two main blocks of the draft action plan are : first , the setting up of appropriate coordination machinery to ensure that Member States , the Commission and other key actors are part of the process of working towards common data-gathering methods and harmonised definition ; the second element concerns the implementation of developing comparable statistics .
The decision-making system has naturally become more complicated .
Mr President , I am relying on Parliament to drive forward the decision-making process on the financial perspectives .
Enlargement has had a far-reaching impact on solidarity .
I see that as a splendid symbol for the ever-growing cooperation between Parliament , the Council and the Commission .
The European Union s role ’ must not contrary – to what we are told by not a few high-ranking representatives from the Middle East be – merely a matter of providing financial support , but should involve us , as an honest broker , making our contribution to bringing peace to the Middle East .
Finally , it matters a great deal to me that something should be said , in this debate , on the epoch-making events in Ukraine , which is a European state , one that has , in the last month , demonstrated its desire to be one of us , and its ability to enrich the European family with its convictions and its experience .
I see the statute as too important an issue to be a plaything for demagogues , and so I would ask you to ignore the rabble-rousing utterances that have been made and go ahead with what you plan to do with all your strength and in earnest , addressing this issue and finding a solution to it .
I would call upon you to raise the matter in the Council so that the regulation relating to parties is either abolished or supplemented by arrangements for those who do not wish to belong to a supranational party but wish to engage in corresponding European information-providing activities , for example concerning the Constitution .
Fourthly , there are other measures which the Council will need to examine , such as the development of an EU rapid response capability , or in other words an early-warning system .
The Member States and Commission agreed in the General Affairs Council to offer direct support to the countries in their efforts to develop early-warning systems so they will be better able to respond to future disasters .
The Commission is also considering proposals for a new European Union approach to reinforce capacity for disaster prevention and , as discussed in the extraordinary Council meeting last Friday , we intend to look at early-warning mechanisms and preparation for disaster management , the ways to further improve the Commission 's humanitarian aid provision , and civil protection , with a view to developing our rapid response to crises in third countries in full respect of the specificity and principles of humanitarian aid .
This is exemplified by Parliament ’ s reinforced role in the decision-making process , the confirmation and strengthening of the subsidiarity principle , the creation of one uniform legal framework and the simplification of the legislative instruments .
The regions that make up Europe are not allocated a single ( formal ) role in the European decision-making process .
The role of the constitutional regions in the European decision-making process remains precarious .
The Constitution would essentially transfer decision-making power from the Member States to the European Union .
We need to make global the early-warning system that could have saved lives ; the EU 's Galileo system could help .
In addition , a special early-warning system should be put in place to protect the international community from similar disasters in future , and special funds should be set aside for these measures .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , natural disasters cannot be prevented , but the political dimension of such an issue can be found in international cooperation in the development of emergency and early-warning systems .
It has now been decided to establish an early-warning system in the Indian Ocean region .
The European Union has embarked on more wide-ranging negotiations with Iran ; we have high hopes of them , and that not only in the nuclear sphere .
The EU and the United States should be involved together in the financing and building of effective early-warning systems in areas prone to risk .
The last EU-US summit called for a forward-looking strategy to promote integration , drawing on ideas from both sides of the Atlantic .
The Commission is following this debate closely to ensure the transparency of the decision-making process .
We therefore need to have a forward-looking vision and not just appease our consciences by saying : the debt is reduced or cancelled ; now let them get on with it .
I believe that this idea deserves to be looked at more closely and submitted to the Council ’ s decision-making bodies .
The total savings also took into account the total cost of the language-training programme , each teacher being replaced at retirement age by a contractor employee , and the total cost of the same language-training programme executed exclusively by contractors as from September 2004 .
The total savings also took into account the total cost of the language-training programme , each teacher being replaced at retirement age by a contractor employee , and the total cost of the same language-training programme executed exclusively by contractors as from September 2004 .
More public investment is needed , into researching new and more efficient sources of non-polluting energy and into support for implementing those that already exist .
They were granted for the purpose not of strengthening the economies of these countries and combating grass-roots problems , but for the purpose of control of the markets and wealth-producing resources and fierce exploitation of the peoples , with the result that these loans exacerbate the position of these countries , increase their dependence on the international imperialist centres and strengthen the position of the large monopoly groups , the multinationals , especially the American multinationals , so that they can control the markets .
In their relations with China , the Commission and Council must not work from the assumption that this is a big country with a fast-growing economy , but that this is a country which refuses to release colonised peoples , puts economic growth above anything else and for the rest also violates human rights .
The constant increase in the number of landless people in Cambodia is contributing to an ever-worsening situation , in that these people have no prospects unless they sell their sons and daughters .
In circumstances such as these , millions of women and children are forced into life-threatening work and tricked with promises of legal employment .
It is for this reason that this House s resolutions and debates ’ will do little to improve the situation , as even educated people in high-ranking positions mock the sanctity of the human being and the family .
Could we have two separate votes , please , first on Mr & # 160 ; Sonik ’ s oral amendment , and second on the UEN-Schulz-Poettering package ?
Conferences and awareness-raising activities are positive measures that can contribute to increased tolerance and a more humane society .
I am also concerned at the fresh outbreak of anti-Semitic attacks and incidents , perpetrated and incited mainly by extreme left-wing organisations and Islamic radicals , as well as the Nazi extreme right .
That is precisely why we cannot understand the failure to appoint an Italian-speaking spokesperson .
In the name of the peace-loving majority in Northern Ireland , I take this opportunity in this international forum to refute and reject that vile attack upon those I represent .
Europe is what it rightly should be ; a Europe with a significant voice in global decision-making processes , and we must maintain this role by continuing to reinforce the foundations once laid by Schuman , De Gasperi and Monnet , based on principles that have enabled the European Union to come as far as it has today .
Do the people who are arranging these matters consider that the elected representatives of the people of Europe are also important in the decision-making process of the World Economic Forum ?
Although there has been a great deal of empty talk – particularly on the part of Mr & # 160 ; Barroso – it is fashionable nowadays to use impressive-sounding phrases while continuing to pursue the same policies as before .
It is the G8 industrialised countries that make decisions , often led by their own self-serving agenda .
Mr & # 160 ; Costa s report ’ is full of fine-sounding idealism , but the ideals and the good intentions suffer from the unfortunate defect of generally lacking a basis in reality .
A concerted policy , by virtue of the very fact that it is a concerted policy , does not jeopardise the Member States decision-making powers ’ in this area .
The one additional point I should like to make is that I cannot understand why such far-reaching exemptions have been granted to public service broadcasters .
It will be very positive for the two important issues being debated in Parliament today and being debated in the Commission and in the Council to come together at the March European Council , so that we can reach a forward-looking agreement , improving the relationship between the two strategies and , of course , keeping a clear view of the principles of each of them .
It is the idea of a famous actress and Greek Minister for Culture who , in her Oscar-winning song ' Never on Sunday ' , made Piraeus the cultural capital of the world during the 1960s .
Luxembourg has expanded its project across the entire region Sarre – , Rhénanie-Palatinat , Wallonie , Lorraine and the German-speaking part of Belgium – in other words , five regions and three different languages .
As long as those further steps cannot be taken , it is useful that agreements be made in the areas of VAT , smuggling , corruption and money-laundering practices .
As this wide-ranging impact of the Natura 2000 network on all current and planned conservation area activity will demand a good deal in the way of resources and financial investment from the EU Member States , we really must ensure that sufficient , comprehensive funding is assigned at EU level to the administration of the Natura 2000 network by means of a separate financial instrument .
Yet without wishing to disparage the Commission s efforts ’ , this Action Plan is an investigation – and not only that , but an investigation for which the latest findings could unfortunately not be used – rather than an effective , detailed and far-reaching measure aimed at rectifying a situation that has been recognised as a problem .
When you look at the disgraceful treatment of legitimate tourists in Greece on a plane-spotting holiday , we now know just what pan-European Union justice can mean !
If the product is of Ukrainian origin and is imported into the Community market at dumped prices thus causing injury to Community producers , the latter are encouraged to lodge a request for the initiation of a new anti-dumping investigation in line with the relevant provisions of the basic anti-dumping regulations .
If the product is of Ukrainian origin and is imported into the Community market at dumped prices thus causing injury to Community producers , the latter are encouraged to lodge a request for the initiation of a new anti-dumping investigation in line with the relevant provisions of the basic anti-dumping regulations .
The Commission 's trade defence services are at the disposal of producers to explain the relevant requirements and procedures for anti-dumping measures to be exposed .
I can , moreover , inform the Commissioner that the European manufacturers , in line with procedures , have submitted a request to review anti-dumping legislation .
The aim of introducing an authorisation is to ensure , among other things , that self-handling suppliers comply with the salary and working conditions that apply in a port .
Evaluations of rural development programmes show the relevance of support for the less-favoured areas to maintain mountain-farming populations and for the land management in mountain areas , including landscape and environmental protection .
The authorities of the Member States allocate these quotas to their sugar-producing undertakings .
In the meantime , can she give us an assurance that the single farm payments that are going to come about as a result of decoupling , and which we know will have an environmental element , will have a strong tree-planting element as well ?
It must , of course , also encompass disarmament , aid for sustainable development , respect for the environment and forward-looking management of migratory flows .
This has been one of the long-standing challenges .
In the context of the United Nations , the publication of the High-Level Panel s ’ report ‘ A more secure world : Our shared responsibility ’ triggered a wide-ranging debate on the reform of the UN and of the Commission on Human Rights in particular .
These two words of accusation can destroy the innocent lives of peace-loving citizens .
This is a matter of increasing concern to Europe ’ s citizens , above all because of the constant increase in four types of disease : respiratory diseases , asthma and childhood allergies ; neurodevelopmental disorders ; childhood cancer ; and endocrine-disrupting effects .
However , we must ensure that any UN reform process promotes respect for human rights , the promotion of humanitarian law , the rule of law and democracy , all of which are at the core of our peace-building response of the United Nations .
Finally , the Union has appealed to the Moldovan Government to take into account the concerns raised by the OSCE ’ s fact-finding mission and to implement the joint recommendations established by the OSCE and the Venice Commission in 2004 .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Mr President , the predominantly Romanian-speaking area that used to be referred to as Bessarabia , and is currently known as Moldova , alternated between being Romanian and Russian .
Both in the Romanian-speaking sector to the west of the Dniestr and in the Slavic sector to the east , there is shared nostalgia for the kind of society that existed in the days of the Soviet Union .
In my own region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais , historically an important textile-producing area , towns such as Elesmes , Roubaix and Tourcoing have witnessed the closure of their businesses .
It is worth asking why European taxpayers ' money no longer goes to the most hard-working group of Europeans , namely farmers , but instead to markets outside the borders of the 25 Member States .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Mr President , it can sometimes be difficult to explain to European tax payers , our constituents , why it makes sense to use their money in order to destroy vessels that may well be seaworthy and which could be used in some way , even for non-fishing purposes .
So far as the money remaining from previous project-funding EDFs is concerned , the Commission intends to organise support for the presidential and legislative elections should the government express a desire to hold them soundly and transparently and if the time available allows .
Furthermore , and reiterating Mr & # 160 ; Mann s comments ’ , we cannot condone cutting off aid to Tibet , just as we cannot agree to the suspension of civil rights , to arrests , to the closure of press outlets or to far-reaching restrictions on freedom of speech .
We can take it as read that the chaos and the reversion to old ways have resulted from the long-standing discrimination against the people of the interior , who are poor , ill-educated and least urbanised .
They rebel against the English-speaking inhabitants of the coastlands , whom they regard as colonials .
Charles Taylor , as a former warlord , ruled Liberia brutally between 1997 and 2003 as a bloody dictator , sanctioning rape and summary executions at the end of that country 's 14 years of civil war , but he was forced into exile as part of a peace-making deal mediated by Nigeria .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; For Croatia to become an associate member , it has pushed through far-reaching reforms in the last few years in order to meet the European Union s political , economic and legal requirements ’ , the so-called Copenhagen criteria.The Council has recognised these efforts , thanks to which in December last year Croatia won the status of associate member , and a date was set for the start of accession talks .
After a journey in life-threatening conditions that lasted several weeks , they arrived at the forced labour camps in the so-called evil land , where temperatures fall as low as 40 & # 160 ; ºC .
This murder must be condemned by all right-thinking people .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , I would like to start with warm thanks to the rapporteur , who has worked outstandingly well with us , so that we have managed , in a short time , to bring a long-standing project to a successful conclusion .
We have attempted to define the framework conditions that will be required if this is to be achieved : the calculations of rates to be made public , the calculation of costs to be transparent , and wide-ranging requirements for information on the part of the network operators .
We have the very large oil-producing countries in the Middle East , where there is unrest and where oil resources are limited .
Let me remind Mr Turmes that oil prices are driven up not only by the oil-producing countries and the crude oil companies , but also and primarily by states , through taxation .
This is a problem from which this sort of question should not divert attention , and I am grateful to the Greens and Liberals for having broadened the issue and enabled us to have a proper and wide-ranging debate today .
My third point is that I too thought it important that the follow-up to this directive must cover , step by step , the staff right down the safety chain with any involvement in the decision-making process , for this is where there must be harmonisation across the board and where mobility must be ensured .
For that reason , women , and the Committee on Women s Rights and Gender Equality ’ , are still calling for quotas , which are necessary if women are to have a share in political decision-making processes .
They also decided to intensify actions to prevent and combat all forms of trafficking in women and girls through a comprehensive , multi-disciplinary and coordinated anti-trafficking strategy .
Discussions have indeed been held in the European Union on the importance of having women in peace-keeping forces , and on the need to provide all of those involved with training on the particular problems faced by civilian women in conflict zones .
The European Union also stressed that it is important to ensure that the needs of women in post-disaster relief and reconstruction situations are properly understood and are addressed in programmes , and that it is also important to ensure that women have equal access to information on disaster reduction by means of formal and non-formal education , including through gender-sensitive early-warning systems .
Therefore the Commission has set up a database on women and men involved in the socio-economic and political decision-making process , which is available on the website of the Directorate-General for Employment .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Mr President , women continue to be the main victims of discrimination , unemployment , violence , poverty and social exclusion and are barred from holding key positions in decision-making bodies and political authorities .
This directive promotes the separation of ' flight safety service providers ' from ' national government supervisory authorities ' and transfers control of the single European area to the Euro-unifying monopolies which rule in the air transport sector .
We regret that this report was rejected by the right-wing majority in Parliament , which is uncomfortable debating social problems , which does not accept the causes of those problems being highlighted and which rejects any attempt at changing neoliberal policies .
We , too , like those demonstrators and like the united people of Lebanon , are waiting for clear answers to emerge from the inquiries being held – both the fact-finding mission dispatched by Kofi Annan and the investigations being undertaken by the Lebanese authorities – to identify precisely who was responsible for this appalling act .
The Council should perhaps take the initiative of organising a peace conference on Lebanon , with a view to taking advantage of the climate currently prevailing in the Middle East , which favours the settlement of long-standing conflicts .
These courageous people , along with all peace-loving people in the Middle East , deserve our support .
The current rules in the European Patent Convention leave patent examiners very wide decision-making powers .
Mr President , given the wide-ranging issues raised I do not have time to deal with all these points , but on software patents I clearly indicated that the ball is in the court of the European Parliament .
The most recent agricultural reform packages adopted by the agriculture ministers in 2003 and 2004 have to a large extent eliminated the trade-distorting nature of the common agricultural policy and contributed to more market-oriented agricultural trade .
In the Doha negotiations , the EU committed itself to a substantial reduction in trade-distorting subsidies , eliminating export refunds and offering improved market access .
The TEN energy guidelines are currently under discussion at the European Parliament , though mainly in relation to co-financing feasibility studies .
This has been pursued through the consensus-building approach of the Florence and Madrid Forums which led to the regulation on cross-border trade in electricity that entered into force last year , and the equivalent regulation on gas , which we expect to be adopted very soon .
This should in particular include a detailed examination of the adequacy of the already-existing measures .
The report should form a basis for a detailed , wide-ranging debate that enables conclusions to be drawn in 2006 .
It is the longest-running conflict in Africa , and , if the information is correct , 2 million people have now been killed and 4 million people are on the run. have , over the past few days , issued a report on the occasion of International Women s Day ’ in order to bring the issue of rape and violence against women once again to our attention .
Mr President , you will be very familiar with the work of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly , having been a very effective and hard-working Vice-President of it in the past .
Here , too , the Commission will be coming up with new and far-reaching proposals .
Europe ’ s right-wing parties have still not yet embraced the central fact of globalisation that the nation-state and the free market are no longer compatible .
He brought to an end the long-running saga on the withdrawal , revision or retention of the Bolkestein Directive , explaining that there is no question of withdrawing this text , despite the fact that it had been rejected on all sides .
The latter are a prerequisite for the implementation of the strategy , and include in particular far-reaching liberalisation of the labour market , a lower level of welfare protection , an exhaustive review of regulatory barriers and major cuts in the amount of public money that is redistributed .
During the last parliamentary term , when it was found that 94.5 % of Europe s schools ’ had Internet connections but only 25 % of teachers knew how to use the new technologies for teaching purposes , we spent a long time hoping that the -learning initiative would materialise .
Despite the grounds for contentment that I have mentioned , I must once again criticise the fact that the use of Portuguese and the availability of interpretation in this language which – , it must be remembered , is the third most spoken European language in world communications – are repeatedly passed over in the Joint Parliamentary Assembly sessions in favour of other languages ( and very much minority languages in the ACP context ) , thus denying Portuguese-speaking parliamentarians a level playing field with the remaining members of the Assembly .
The social and environmental goals of the Lisbon Strategy mark one have been done away with , and all-encompassing competition and productivity put in their place .
This European Council comes at a very important time , firstly because it is taking place just as a new Parliament and a new Commission are starting to find their feet and to set out their working methods for the next few years , and also because a wide-ranging debate on the ratification of the Constitution is due to take place , a debate that will focus on the type of Europe that we want and the type of Europe that we are capable of building for our fellow citizens .
I would , in supporting the Commission , particularly stress the importance of simplifying the procedures in FP7 , because the message I have heard loud and clear from Scotland is that the administration and the bureaucracy have been major off-putting factors in previous framework programmes .
As regards Secure Flight and CAPPS II ‘ ’ , you will be aware that the US Transportation Security Administration has dropped its controversial computer-assisted passenger pre-screening system – also known as CAPPS II – in favour of a new programme called ‘ Secure Flight ’ .
That programme will use passenger data for pre-screening passengers on US domestic flights against a terrorist watch list , with the aim of helping to identify potential terrorists .
At the same time , when funding rural development , there should be an initial awareness-raising campaign because , in reality , environmental concerns and agriculture are relatively incompatible , and because the policy underlying Natura 2000 caused many landowners to lose land or have their activities curtailed .
The only beneficiaries from the reform would be a few major sugar-growing countries such as Brazil , which , in contrast to the EU Member States , invariably produce their crops to very low environmental and social standards .
It would be a forward-looking strategy if we were to use the market organisation for sugar as a means to come up with a development strategy and to consider the fundamentals of the shape global trade should take .
First , they should ensure that all sugar-producing regions are treated equally .
If there is a genuine desire to do something constructive to benefit the poor sugar-producing countries , it is the ILO that should be strengthened and , in Brazil , President Lulla too .
I welcome the communication from the European Commission , which aims to remove trade-distorting subsidies from the EU sugar regime .
Under the quota transfer system , as laid down in the Commission communication of last July , quotas may be transferred between sugar-producing companies , against payment , across national borders .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , if I had been given the chance to speak in the debate on International Women s Day ’ and Beijing + 10 , I would have said that it was actually a shame that violence against women is a long-running issue in this House , although thankfully it is less prevalent than other important problems that affect far more women – untold millions of them , in fact , who have for years been waiting for solutions called for , I might add , by overwhelming majorities in this House .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; In the context of the long-standing and more far-reaching objective of securing total compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty , if we are to be realistic , some concerns are more urgent and serious than others .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; We support a radical reform of the sugar market within the EU with a view as soon as possible to liberalising this market and giving sugar-producing countries outside the EU the ability to compete on fair conditions .
Their situation should not , however , be remedied through a less far-reaching reform of the sugar market .
Their situation should not , however , be remedied through a less far-reaching reform of the sugar market .
The European Union , the Commission and the Member States have now spent a total of EUR 1 billion on the office in Phnom Penh , observation missions during elections , financial support for mine-clearing operations , and suchlike .
It is a well-drafted and balanced resolution , which has the merit of pointing out the positive and less positive aspects of the Saudi elections and the on-going reform process .
The facts are blatantly clear : Mr Rodríguez Zapatero s government ’ has carried out a reform of the organic law on the judiciary , breaking the pre-existing pact on the judiciary , changing the rules half way through the mandate of the General Council of the Judiciary and preventing any judicial appointment from going ahead without the political green light from a blocking minority taking their orders from the government .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Mr President , I wish to inform the House that a project has been approved and is being implemented in Thessaloniki , with European Union funding , for the construction and equipping of a sports and cultural centre with enhanced accessibility for disabled persons , by the non-trading , non-profit-making company Adapted Physical Activity Cultural Development Centre 2000 , with the participation of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and the municipality of Thermaiko .
It will be difficult for us to obtain more mutual trust if we are not in a position to define the tasks of each decision-making level , the expected responses and the measures to be taken in case of a failure to act .
The former reflects a trend that has been apparent in debates over recent months , whether on counter-terrorism or data collection ; one cannot help thinking that the Council has for some time been wandering around the outermost limits of the existing Treaties , and has ever – more glaringly and with ever-increasing frequency been – going against the guarantees of fundamental rights .
You will not be unaware that the European Parliament has decided to discuss the Lampedusa situation and the camps in Libya in the context of its topical and urgent resolutions on Thursday , that the delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Maghreb Arab Union ( including Libya ) , which will be travelling to Libya next week , has decided to visit a reception centre for aliens and that the Committee on Civil Liberties , Justice and Home Affairs is thinking about undertaking a fact-finding mission .
Contrary to what some of you believe , we do not engage in salami-slicing tactics in relation to Parliament .
The Commission has made it very clear , though , that this far-reaching proposal should not affect national legislation of the different Member States that is designed to combat terrorism .
It is wrong to present sustainable development as the third pillar of the Lisbon Strategy , because sustainable development is a cross-cutting strategy that affects all other policies and hence relates to all aspects of the Lisbon Strategy , such as the environment , fisheries , agriculture , public finance and social security .
The reinvigorated Stability and Growth Pact , by allowing public-spending policies to be adjusted in response to cyclical trends and by enhancing the impact of investment , will help to promote growth .
I have no faith in the sudden conversion to the own people first principle ‘ ’ of so many Left-wing politicians who are anxious about the outcome of the referendums on the European Constitution .
I use the words ‘ would be ’ advisedly , as freedom of economic activity remains theoretical , despite long-standing provisions in the Treaty to that effect .
Now that we are being confronted with increasingly aggressive worldwide competition , along with an ever-changing world and an ageing population , we have to rise to the additional challenge of safeguarding our social model , which presupposes economic growth in the first place .
On the contrary , as the new Member States have demonstrated so clearly , it is the liberalising economies that are the successful job-creating economies .
Overall , we are allocating new responsibilities to the political decision-making body , and we must try to make these responsibilities promote integration rather than dissociation .
-calling for the adoption of clear and forward-thinking provisions on coexistence in order to avoid the release of genetically modified varieties ;
French representatives of the Independence and Democracy Group have voted against the Van Orden and Moscovici reports for several reasons , which have to do with their implications for Bulgaria and Romania , member countries of the International Francophone Agency , and long-standing friends of France .
We voted in favour of this second reading despite some differences of opinion on certain aspects of the new directive establishing design requirements for energy-using products .
I welcome the main objective of the proposal before us , which is to ensure the free movement of certain energy-using consumer products , to improve their environmental performance and to help reduce their energy consumption .
The purpose of this recommendation for a second reading is to set design requirements for energy-using products throughout their life cycle , the main aim being to reduce the adverse impact of such products on the environment .
Mr President , I thank Parliament , and the rapporteur Mr Samuelsen , for the forward-looking resolution on the Western Balkans and for the commitment of Parliament and of its Foreign Affairs Committee to the region .
In view of these factors , we should not be ashamed to say that the European Union does indeed wish to acquire military decision-making structures and capabilities .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , I would like to start by thanking Mr Kuhne most warmly for his wide-ranging report .
What this report spells out is that Parliament supports the Council and the Commission in their efforts to overcome the self-seeking attitudes that the nation states still have in this area .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , I too believe that the only way to deal with the greenhouse effect is to make use not only of renewable energies , but also of nuclear power and energy-saving measures , but , if the questioner is asking what should be done to promote the generation of electricity from wind , wave and tide power , and whether these new initiatives are being hindered by the oil lobby , I would ask you what initiatives are being set in motion in the nuclear energy sector , and whether these initiatives are being interfered with by the renewable energy lobby .
This is a very time-consuming procedure that can take up to six weeks in Austria , and the requirement is imposed only on companies and workers from the new countries .
The pilot projects were a positive and encouraging network-building exercise for all those involved .
Secondly , apart from co-financing pilot projects , the Commission financed three studies on doping-related issues .
Around half of the anti-doping pilot projects that received Community funding 2000-2002 were education-based .
In fact , amongst the three studies on doping carried out in 2000-2001 , one looked at the possibilities for a pan-European anti-doping campaign .
In the absence of a specifically dedicated financial instrument , it may be possible to integrate anti-doping research more firmly and more visibly into existing Commission activities .
I would like to deal with this issue by insisting on the need to provide anti-doping research with a European dimension .
Some countries of the European Union have already included research programmes in their anti-doping plans , both with regard to what may be considered the new doping substances and their effects on the human body , and with regard to the possibility of providing laboratories with better and more appropriate instruments for detecting these substances .
But this issue obviously has a clear international dimension , and it is therefore very important for the European Union also to support the inclusion of anti-doping research in our research and development plans .
Furthermore , Unesco is drafting a global anti-doping convention .
Dangerous performance-enhancing substances have made their appearance in the field of leisure sports and gyms too .
The pharmaceutical industry is developing products , constantly improving them , making them harder to detect , and bringing them onto the market in the most diverse formats , and improving its access to an ever-expanding interest group .
As has been pointed out , doping has far-reaching effects on our societies , not least on young people .
We all hope that it will constitute a binding standard-setting instrument for the protection of cultural diversity .
Within this framework , however , efforts are being made by a limited number of non-European countries , mainly in the English-speaking world , in a bid to weaken the proposed UNESCO Convention .
Sport should be seen not as a highly profitable money-making scheme for the benefit of a few , but as an educational , cultural and social activity that plays a key role in every aspect of a person s physical , psychological and social makeup ’ .
Last year , Germany ’ s national anti-doping agency carried out 8 & # 160 ; 000 inspections of training camps and competitions .
There is a law in Italy – the Turco-Napolitano law – introduced by a left-wing government and unchanged by the current centre-right government , Article 10 of which is being used to confront this issue .
Mr President , I would like to refer to just four points in this comprehensive and far-reaching report .
On behalf of the 106 new representatives , however , I would like to take this festive moment to thank the long-standing members for their friendship , helpfulness , tolerance and solidarity .
At the same time , of course , we will not lose sight of the fact that the Member States bear the primary responsibility for health and long-term care , and that the European Union s job ’ is to support political bodies with decision-making powers at national level .
State funding must be available for public hospitals , preventive medicine and all other loss-making areas .
I am thinking of such things as home care services , for which there is an ever-increasing demand , and which make it possible for old people and the sick to be cared for in familiar domestic surroundings , something that is psychologically important and plays an important part in helping people to live longer and more healthily .
With regard to unemployment , it is a long-lasting strain on the sum of revenues required to finance social protection and healthcare .
Fine-sounding declarations of principle are not enough ; what is needed is research and instruments , developed by this agency in order that standards may be arrived at and legal measures drawn up , and in order that it may be possible to monitor whether the rules we lay down are actually adhered to .
The first is that although the work of CESR is , in wide-ranging fields , doubtless something to be welcomed , it must comply with clearly-defined ground rules .
Secondly , although the big banks are making the case for deliberate and far-reaching harmonisation , it still needs to be clarified to what extent this applies to all sectors of the financial services industry .
I would ask the Commissioner and the President how the international European Community can be expected to wield any power on the international scene if we make such far-reaching concessions in a matter such as this , which appears to be quite straightforward .
Mr President , first of all I would like to thank Mrs & # 160 ; Handzlik , the rapporteur , for her all-encompassing research , and I have to say that the report shows that , one year after they have become part of the European Union internal market , all in all the situation in the new Member States with regard to the adoption of legislation does not seem any worse than in the older Member States .
Parliament should , in my view , take this into consideration and that is why I regret that there was no far-reaching agreement between the Council and Parliament at second reading .
The self-cleaning capacity of a lake and that of a sea are clearly different .
For that reason , my political group does not think it is right that these wide-ranging rights of the citizen should be abused where an appeal is concerned , with the aim of slowing down projects on purpose or providing a forum for fund-raising campaigns organised by NGOs .
For that reason , my political group does not think it is right that these wide-ranging rights of the citizen should be abused where an appeal is concerned , with the aim of slowing down projects on purpose or providing a forum for fund-raising campaigns organised by NGOs .
The effect of this directive must not be that ports have to undergo never-ending inspections , carried out by countless different bodies .
Those who believe they are not compatible are the people who are seeking to perpetuate the opt-out or those who are seeking to define on-call time as non-working time .
Tomorrow , we will be able to take a step in the right direction by voting in favour of a flexible , modern and forward-looking revision of the Working Time Directive .
Then it calls for a new regulation to be drawn up , encompassing the amendments to the content of Regulation ( EC ) No 999 / 2001 , in other words , the amendments to the rules for the prevention , control and eradication of certain transmissible spongiform encephalopathies , given that such amendments require in-depth knowledge of the situation as it stands , the progress made in categorising countries , scientific progress and a thorough-going debate on the revision of the regulation in question .
Switzerland will be granted the status of non-voting observer , will be treated equally as regards the supply of environmental data , information and analysis , and will establish an infrastructure for providing uniform data on the state of the environment .
That is why it is even more important that the EU dare to conduct a consistent policy involving far-reaching objectives .
With future regulations , the Commission intends to play a more active role in monitoring , which would mean we can gather information on any on-going relocation processes and deliver it to Member States .
I hope this delegation will complete its work before the fruit-buying season starts , and that we will manage to provide the necessary assistance and take the necessary measures before it is too late .
I am from Castilla-La Mancha , which is a great garlic-producing region .
In the past , intervention by way of market withdrawals failed to improve the sector s stability ’ , and so , in 1996 , the reform of the common organisation of the market in fruit and vegetables introduced a new instrument in the shape of what was termed the operational funds , thus transferring resources from intervention to a modern and forward-looking instrument .
Although large swathes of Poland s potato-growing areas ’ have been abandoned , the country remains the leading potato producer .
Poland ’ s starch production quota of 144 & # 160 ; 000 & # 160 ; tonnes bears absolutely no relation to either the production potential of its 13 & # 160 ; potato-processing plants , which is currently estimated at 220 & # 160 ; 000 & # 160 ; tonnes , or to the amount of potatoes it grows .
None of the bodies of the Council have discussed a strategy for the World Bank , or the coordination of a possible common European position in this regard , or the decision-making procedures within that institution .
The Commission currently participates solely as an observer in the meetings of the Bank s Development Committee ’ , the main decision-making body of that institution .
The European Union has pledged to guarantee and to facilitate a greater level of co-partnership from developing countries in global economic decision-making processes , including international financial institutions .
I believe that they also have a duty to urge the World Bank to make far-reaching changes to its poverty reduction strategy , in the framework of UN reform and the Millennium Development Goals .
Well , these countries are on the drug-trafficking route .
It would still be possible to add the qualification of master craftsman to a higher-ranking category , however , by including it in Annex II of the directive .
Until now , the European Parliament has had but a & # 160 ; minimal influence in the foreign policy area , which was largely exercised through decision-making powers with regard to the budget .
We should therefore eliminate the democratic deficit and make sure that the European Parliament is directly involved in the decision-making process with regard to foreign policy .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , the European External Action Service is a wide-ranging undertaking in administrative terms , and probably the most important structural issue to emerge from the Constitution , at least as regards the shape of the European Union ’ s future executive activities .
Mr Moreno Sánchez has underlined the need to make progress on all the issues in this wide-ranging agenda , with a clear emphasis – which I strongly support – on the objectives of poverty reduction and sustainable development .
I think it is a rather self-defeating approach to make .
They set the particularly strict terms for the accession of China to the WTO , for the purpose , in other words , of opening up its markets , of liberalising the markets and of privatisation , so that they could exploit China 's wealth-producing resources and workers .
That there is ever-increasing interpenetration of goods in the global economy is self-evident , and it is of course the case in China too .
In common with the rights already enshrined in the Convention , it is also important to lay down precise provisions ensuring that the public is properly involved in the decision-making process concerning GMOs , and directives guaranteeing public involvement in international fora .
The Member States need independently to determine their attitudes to participating in the decision-making process concerning GMOs and to establishing a funding system designed to guarantee funding on a predictable basis ( paragraph 4 ) .
To take , today , the commemoration of the end of Nazi rule as an opportunity for depicting 1989 as the actual day of liberation , is to trivialise the Nazis regime ’ of terror , to slander the Soviet Union and the immense sacrifices made by its people and the Red Army , and to encourage the resurgence of nationalism , right-wing extremism and the growing tendency to relativise the Nazis crimes ’ in Europe .
The Russian-speaking majority elected a Russian president against a Mari candidate , which can be understood .
It is a matter of concern that it will be difficult for women ’ s NGOs to access Community funds , and we believe that a more comprehensive forward-looking framework strategy for gender equality is needed .
When it comes to economic policy , I personally think that we should concentrate more on growth-promoting measures everywhere in Europe in order to get growth under way .
I further believe that achieving growth in human capital by assisting the disadvantaged , the chance of new training and employment opportunities for women , and wide-ranging provision of training opportunities for young people , who are today most affected by this element of uncertainty , comprise appropriate instruments for contributing both to social cohesion and to economic growth and prosperity .
This will not enable us to resolve the issues and give people greater confidence in the political decision-making process .
We must also , at the earliest opportunity , carry out a thorough-going impact assessment on economic and monetary union and the rise in the value of the euro in terms of the European economy ’ s loss of competitiveness , and in terms of economic and social cohesion .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; As a member of the European Parliament ’ s fact-finding mission to Vojvodina , I would like to draw attention to the fact that the situation has not improved since the visit we made nearly six months ago – and especially not the situation of minorities there .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , on September 16 the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning the offences committed against minorities in the Serbian province of Vojvodina and , as a consequence of this , in late 2004 , a delegation led by Mrs Doris Pack visited the province on a fact-finding mission .
Kasza was the person who was most vociferous in condemning the violent acts committed against Vojvodina Hungarians and he cooperated closely with the European Parliament ’ s fact-finding delegation .
The result of all this is an increase in the number of cases of unfair competition , and ever-worsening problems for European metal industry entrepreneurs , including those in Poland .
I would ask you , Mr President , to inform all the Heads of State or Government that it is because we do not want to interrupt the constitution-making process that the European Parliament is opposed to self-willed decisions appealing to popular national sentiment and premature statements by Heads of Government – such as the one made today by Tony Blair .
Mr President , in expressing my appreciation of Mr Herbert Bösch s extraordinarily thorough ’ , thought-provoking and forward-thinking report – on which I also heartily congratulate him – I am speaking not so much in my capacity as Chairman of the Committee on Budgetary Control , or as spokesperson of the Socialist Group .
There is a never-ending stream of proposals for new directives , even though it is the poorest among us who have to bear the brunt of their costs .
There is a possibility of conflict in the world s rule-making bodies ’ on anti-competitive measures , which we know the US would strongly resist .
Through successive anti-farming policies , we are seeing a dismantling of Irish family farming and , as a result , of our rural communities .
You also suggested we bring the co-financing rate for the outermost regions and the Greek islands up to 85 % , as is proposed in the cohesion policy regulation .
Firstly , like you , I believe that the co-financing rates for these regions should be higher .
This is why we proposed a co-financing rate that is actually 5 % higher for each axis .
All the early-warning systems must be unified in ARGUS .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr & # 160 ; President , terrorism is an amorphous and multifaceted phenomenon which has hit Europe hard and which , unfortunately , will continue to pose a major threat to our democracies if we fail to reach a wide-ranging consensus in order to fight it , if there is not a firm commitment to cooperation between us and if we do not adopt an overarching strategy to eradicate it .
In the light of the referenda in France and the Netherlands , it beggars belief that any attempt can be made to squeeze Parliament out of the decision-making process .
It is not the remark of some left-wing agitator , but a sober assessment by the upper chamber of the British Parliament – the respectable House of Lords .
But so far , not so good , because , as far as surveillance is concerned , we have established an early-warning system to detect airborne chemical agents , but its usefulness is limited , since it only operates for certain substances and would not guard against the contamination of water or food supplies .
It is our duty as politicians to ensure that our police , security and intelligence services are given every possible means and support for their difficult and often dangerous work , with proper safeguards for the liberties of our law-abiding citizens .
It is right that there should be fresh measures in our counter-terrorist inventory in order to deal with an ever-changing threat and that these measures should be part of a seamless strategy .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr & # 160 ; President , I would first like to thank the seven rapporteurs for their exemplary work , which clearly shows that an all-embracing approach needs to be adopted towards the fight against terrorism , an approach covering many fields .
We are a long way from the Orwellian vision of an all-controlling state .
Furthermore , wide-ranging research work is being carried out under the Sixth Framework Programme on Research and Technological Development to enable a better response to acts of this kind .
As a result , extremists have benefited from ignorance and misjudgement of Islam to recruit ever-increasing numbers of militants , many of whom are drawn from the lower strata of the Muslim population .
This approach , in fact , has come under increasingly heavy criticism in the Member States since the establishment of the European arrest warrant , because the fairly harmless-sounding formula mutual recognition ‘ ’ turns out , on closer inspection , to be a very potent instrument .
Is the Lisbon strategy not an illusion , and one that is currently being eclipsed by a rabble-rousing war against the free market ?
And finally , it takes up the European Parliament 's long-standing demand that the European Development Fund be integrated into the general budget .
We need to be visibly proactive here , enabling town-twinning schemes to flourish , enabling artists to meet each other and enabling people to have a real experience of Europe s cultural riches ’ .
Nevertheless , the administration of the Union will not become any cheaper : on the contrary , the dream of a European foreign minister , the dream of embassies , the more than 3000 opaque regulatory and advisory bodies , and the all-penetrating regulations set out in twenty languages will make operating the Union more expensive .
Mr President , I should like to congratulate the rapporteur on a tremendous and at times nerve-racking job that he has been doing .
Tampere and The Hague gave particular prominence to this set of issues and to compliance with the Geneva Convention , and in late 2003 this Parliament approved an epoch-making resolution in the report by Claude Moraes .
We should take the report as the starting point for a wide-ranging debate on health and social provision and for a debate on how to achieve a better balance of national competence in relation to European responsibility .
Our decision-making capacity is intact , even if , obviously , the provisions of the Treaty of Nice are inadequate , in view of the political , economic and social challenges that the EU and our Member States must deal with ever more urgently .
For all our grand plans for transnational cooperation , we have failed to explain to people what we are doing at European level and why , and to address their fears about jobs , careers and a productive retirement in a fast-changing world .
As the President has said , we have to meet the challenges from China , India and other parts of the world with fast-growing economies .
On the one hand , there is the right-wing voter who has a clear anti-European sentiment and says ‘ no ’ to the European project .
With a whole series of referenda , there is a risk of setting a self-perpetuating spiral of ‘ no votes ’ in motion .
Instead , they wish to participate democratically in decision-making processes and in European integration based on free cooperation between free countries .
We should not be frightened by the idea or of the possibility of re-examining policies .
However , the decision-making process should then be re-started , perhaps even in a coordinated form , with the remaining decisions on the constitution all being made at the same time .
First of all , I shall ask that the Council be invited , as proposed in paragraph 4 of the resolution , to indicate the positions of the national delegations , duly named , within the framework of the legislative process , instead of keeping them secret , including from the European Parliament ’ s rapporteur , and this with the peculiar notion of protecting the effectiveness of the Institution s decision-making process ’ .
The committee should also help to ensure that reconstruction and peace-keeping strategies are consistent .
We are equally committed to seeing progress in the field of post-conflict situations and , therefore , we support the proposal for a peace-building commission as an instrument that will fill an existing gap between post-conflict situations and long-term sustainable peace .
Like us , the Americans undoubtedly support the proposal to create a peace-building commission , but it now has to be given a more concrete and , above all , operational remit .
We are taking an ambitious , forward-looking approach in developing our relations with the United States and are working actively in the areas mentioned in the draft resolution .
We should therefore start work on a resolution on mutually beneficial , balanced and forward-looking relations .
In the Bösch report on the fight against fraud , adopted only yesterday , Parliament asks the Commission and the Member States to use the payments accruing from the agreement to fund measures to prevent and combat cigarette smuggling , including anti-counterfeiting activities .
Therefore , the proposals drawn up by the Commission are truly well-timed and necessary ; however , as a representative of the Lithuanian state , which has always showed due diligence in implementing stringent fiscal policy and cost-saving measures at the expense of public services so as to execute all European Union requirements , I can only regret that we have learnt now that we possibly may not have had to implement those requirements .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Questions relating to increased monitoring of the state of budgets , such as the issue of speeding up and clarifying procedures applicable in the case of excessive deficits , are those where parliamentary institutions , as independent and directly-elected institutions at both EU and Member State level , can and should play the role of guardians of the soundness of economic policies , especially as regards their budgetary and deficit-generating consequences .
Paragraph & # 160 ; 5 says , and I quote , ‘ social dialogue should help to identify the best-performing sectors ’ .
However , when we see , from the other side , that the need for diversity and the fostering of diversity are entrenched both in decision-making processes and in the minds of Europeans , then it will be hard for us to simply leap this hurdle .
The proposal also specifies the role of the Regional Advisory Council , a body expressly created to promote the direct involvement of fishermen , and the vehicle for bringing first-hand experiences to the decision-making process , in order that Community legislation is increasingly in line with reality and the problems of the fisheries sector .
That is the reason for the long-standing debate – in committee and with you , Commissioner – on various minimum sizes , which we would have liked to fix more decisively : sardines and cod caught in the northern seas do not have the same rate of biological growth as the fish fauna of the Mediterranean .
It might also serve to show the EU s future role ’ , as I said , in a good light , as regards this Agreement , by safeguarding its content , and throughout the eco-labelling process in the EU .
A high-quality education system is one that is able to adapt effectively to conditions in a rapidly-changing labour market .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Mr & # 160 ; President , ladies and gentlemen , Mr & # 160 ; Laschet , opposition by three right-wing parties – three nationalist parties – has been suppressed in Azerbaijan , in advance of the opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline .
Under the Presidency s proposal ’ , the CAP would have been the only sector where expenditure fell considerably , while , for instance , all forward-looking investment would have increased .
Attempts by an all-seeing elite to bestow happiness on people by force always prove counter-productive .
Let us get away from a Union characterised by the egoisms of bureaucrats , lobbyists and technocrats with no knowledge of the people ; let us move on to a Europe of self-determining peoples and mature citizens .
Root and branch changes are essential , in which the primacy of the nation state should be reestablished and Brussels centralisation reversed , with wide-ranging powers repatriated to national governments and parliaments .
If you want to put an end to double standards behind padded doors , you have to give parliaments more of a say in decision-making processes and say a resounding yes to the Constitutional Treaty .
I would also like to express my admiration for the new Member States , for their solidarity and forward-looking effort to avoid the breakdown of the budget negotiations .
Furthermore they will not deliver on a forward-thinking budget that the 21st century EU requires .
Accordingly , there are themes that must be addressed : the enlargement and governance ; the EU s financial model ’ ; the decision-making process and subsidiarity ; integration and social , economic and political pluralism ; the Constitution as a driving force or the Constitution as a framework .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , this is without a doubt an epoch-making moment in the history of this House , for this debate and vote are , strictly speaking , illicit , and the content of this Statute now amounts to a package of privileges that undermines democracy .
The Luxembourg Presidency has had the courage to face the problem and to dedicate a lot of time , energy and good sense to it , aware that this is a compromise that does not satisfy anybody completely , but which will undoubtedly put an end , I hope , to a long-standing situation which , as the Minister has said , was not acceptable .
It is an essential means of reducing inequality and promoting human dignity as well as of guaranteeing freedom of expression and information , pluralism of opinion and popular involvement in decision-making processes .
Our partners , like ourselves , should be assured of a voice in the system of governance and of the preservation of their sovereign decision-making powers .
Indeed , the report clearly identifies the main issues of the summit , namely the development dimension and the importance of the social component of the digital divide , the role of technology in improving essential public services , in increasing popular participation in decision-making processes and , ultimately , in developing participatory democracy .
Mr President , the Commissioner is of course new to this saga , but unfortunately for many of our constituents , both in the UK and elsewhere , this is a long-running tragedy that , as we have seen , dates back to the 1970s .
Did you go out and meet your trumpet-blowing people in your recent general election ?
I believe that many labour representatives in the United Kingdom want far-reaching changes .
I also commend his conversion to a long-standing Conservative policy , that of wide-ranging reform of the EU ; reform which is essential now that the EU has ceased to command the respect , or to engage the enthusiasm , of the public .
This pragmatic and future-looking approach , which is of enormous value , could give a fresh impetus to the development of Europe s nations ’ and to cooperation between them , by supplanting the illusory idea of a superstate with a constitution , the latter being fortunately dead and buried .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , Europe will never be brought closer to the people , and national parliaments can never hope to hold Ministers to account so long as Europe 's most powerful law-making body continues to meet in secret .
I would also , however , like to say that this economic project is not at odds with a constitutional treaty ; on the contrary , the latter creates the conditions without which the former cannot succeed , by creating better decision-making structures , greater transparency and more participation for the public .
The truth about that should be made known and remembered by everybody , and even recognised by some with a feeling of apology , as it was such a bloody and long-lasting tragedy .
The problem is that , after nine years of refusing to sign a border agreement with Estonia , Russia finally did so last month , but the Estonian Parliament , following typical parliamentary procedure , added a unilateral non-binding declaration saying that the legal continuity of the State is enforced even when territory is given up .
We ought to conclude that this communication strategy should be reviewed , and that this is particularly relevant now , during the on-going discussions on the future of Europe .
This is why the European Investment Bank is involved in implementing the action plan and has urgently developed facilities such as its support for low carbon investments related to the European Union emission-trading scheme .
This is one of the cases where regulation has led to the emission-trading system and is a very important incentive for developing new technologies .
Let me finish by reiterating the importance of an ambitious and forward-looking air strategy .
The rules on software patents that we are debating here today could well turn out to be a job-creating measure – the jobs in question being created for lawyers , who will have a lot to do if we do not reject the demand made of us today .
The Commission would certainly like to see Member States making use of public-private partnership in the implementation of the cohesion policy and I can tell you that the original proposal has been modified in order to allow Member States to define the co-financing rate at programme and not priority level .
All these have resulted in a wide-ranging debate in the Committee on Women s Rights and Gender Equality ’ and a report supported by almost all the groups .
At the highest decision-making levels of the 50 largest listed companies , the proportion of women amounts to a mere 10 % .
Anyone who fails to differentiate between anonymous , civilian-killing criminals and the coalition forces , made up of soldiers risking their lives in Iraq , is quite simply a liar , and I would protest against such lies .
Those are the challenges , and the answers are capacity-building aid , untied aid , micro-credit schemes to build economies from the bottom upwards ; avoiding putting money into the pockets of corrupt officials and politicians ; avoiding making aid millionaires ; helping to end tyrannies in countries like Zimbabwe ; avoiding waste on consultancies and top-heavy charities ; cutting subsidies in Europe and removing the obstacles to trade from developing countries .
Today I voted against the Common Position on the Directive on Computer Implemented Inventions ( CII ) in view of the increased control and over-powering dominance it would give to large software companies and the consequential harmful effects that it would impose on small and medium sized enterprises .
We do not believe that the EU should regulate issues of this type in far-reaching reports along the lines of political programmes .
The Report also incorporates key PES demands for the EU and its Member States to promote a new UN Security Council Resolution on Iraq which would lead to a decision on " substitution of foreign troops in Iraq by a UN peace-keeping force " , the withdrawal " to be progressively implemented following a clear timetable . "
This is also expressed in the approval by the ΕU of the US-ΝΑΤΟ plan for the Middle East as a whole , which endeavours to control the wealth-producing resources and the countries of the area in order to safeguard the interests of the multinationals , big business and imperialist sovereignty .
International aid efforts should be coordinated by organisations that have long experience and wide-ranging legitimacy , such as the UN and UN bodies .
In Japan , a nationalistic renaissance can be observed , not founded on a young generation movement , but on an elite s wish ’ to change a so-called self-denigrating attitude ‘ ’ in Japan .
If nonetheless managed well , the Tokyo-Beijing rivalry could lead to constructive competition and thus would open the way to addressing long-standing conflicts , as witnessed , for instance , by the India-China rapprochement , followed by a visit of Prime Minister Koizumi to New Delhi and Tokyo s ’ increased interest in South East Asia .
If nonetheless managed well , the Tokyo-Beijing rivalry could lead to constructive competition and thus would open the way to addressing long-standing conflicts , as witnessed , for instance , by the India-China rapprochement , followed by a visit of Prime Minister Koizumi to New Delhi and Tokyo s ’ increased interest in South East Asia .
I begin by paying tribute to the long-standing work on this issue by Mr Van Orden .
The Council s conclusions ’ welcomed the decisive progress made by Turkey in its far-reaching reform process and express confidence that Turkey would sustain that process of reform .
In addition , what pressure can you bring to bear through the Council on the governments of Egypt and Saudi Arabia to stop them broadcasting to the Arabic-speaking communities resident in EU Member States listening to this hate-filled type of broadcasting ?
The European Union deserves fulsome tribute and credit for its long-standing interest in issues of development related to Africa .
We are talking to the EIB about simplifying the decision-making structure for the facility s projects ’ .
He is even studying the options for reforming the EIB , to make it more sensitive to development issues and to ensure that , within the decision-making bodies , the development aspect is taken more broadly into account , which is clearly difficult as things currently stand and given the composition of the decision-making bodies .
He is even studying the options for reforming the EIB , to make it more sensitive to development issues and to ensure that , within the decision-making bodies , the development aspect is taken more broadly into account , which is clearly difficult as things currently stand and given the composition of the decision-making bodies .
It is particularly important that no support be given to projects that do not meet the criteria of the World Commission on Dams , that is to say major dam-building projects .
These proposals comprise a regulation establishing a voluntary licensing scheme for imports of timber and a recommendation for a directive on a mandate to negotiate partnership agreements with timber-producing countries .
This whole process has far-reaching consequences , both for the countries illegally exporting this wood and for our own countries .
The call for new competition legislation is a misguided call for a short-term directive , with the risk that it will develop into wide-ranging legislation on clearing and settlement before we have the results of the different Commission impact studies .
In parallel with these trade measures , the European Union should implement a transitional practical plan to assist restructuring and retraining for the entire sector , with a view to helping textile-producing regions and safeguarding the future and competitiveness of the sector on international markets .
Is it to be done on the basis of ‘ first come , first served ’ , or is there to be preferential treatment for those who already have longer-standing contracts to supply ?
Commissioner Mandelson s decision ’ to impose anti-dumping duties on certain synthetic fabrics is welcome so far as it goes , but often such fabrics are then further processed in China to give them added value , thereby avoiding the anti-dumping duties .
Commissioner Mandelson s decision ’ to impose anti-dumping duties on certain synthetic fabrics is welcome so far as it goes , but often such fabrics are then further processed in China to give them added value , thereby avoiding the anti-dumping duties .
For example , a synthetic fibre that might be subject to that duty is given added value by making it into a roller blind , whereby it escapes the anti-dumping duty and is dumped in the EU at ridiculous prices .
The following actions need to be implemented urgently : approving without delay – as Commissioner Michel stated in this House this morning – the proposal for a regulation for the compulsory marking of origin of goods imported into the European Union ; laying down industrial policies aimed at providing support to the sectors most exposed to international competition , including through the use of the Structural Funds ; strengthening the trade protection instruments available to European businesses , including anti-dumping measures – as has been done for leather shoes – and anti-subsidy measures as well as the safeguard clauses ; making the fight against counterfeiting a European priority , by supporting Commissioner & # 160 ; Frattini s initiatives ’ ; and steering the Commission s choices ’ towards bilateral agreements .
Mr & # 160 ; Allister who , I see , is generally well disposed towards this agreement , will appreciate that the management of Chinese trade thus put in place obviates the necessity for the anti-dumping measures that he was recommending .
I have not yet seen it genuinely guaranteed in totalitarian states , even left-wing ones .
The proposal currently before us maintains the previous programmes , but proposes a radical change of philosophy , whereby the management of programmes is made easier and the decision-making process is brought closer to those principally affected , namely the regions themselves , whilst at the same time maintaining the level of support granted in the past .
This will be achieved by means of stepping up participation in the decision-making process , which is a positive step and one that the Socialist Group in the European Parliament wholeheartedly supports .
This idea would merit consideration by the Community as a whole , including the new Member States , which have long-standing ties with their non-EU neighbours .
The Member State in question has been helped by support programmes from the European Union to build up innovative and self-supporting agriculture and to create jobs .
In documented cases of minority and human rights violations such as this , the European Parliament has a duty to consider the facts and not the self-justifying statements made by the relevant Serb politicians , who are implicated in these incidents .
When the mechanism was activated in Portugal at the government 's request , the European Union managed to organise the despatch and intervention of a number of fire-fighting vessels and helicopters from France , Italy , Spain , Germany and the Netherlands within 24 hours to support the Portuguese fire-fighters and , with this assistance and more favourable weather conditions , it proved possible to check the fires within a few days .
We must of course prepare ourselves for the disasters that seem to come our way with ever-increasing frequency .
Back in January , I held in-depth discussions in Brussels with representatives of Slovak local authorities on the possibility of EU aid for the highest-lying regions of Slovakia , having organised the meeting in my capacity as an MEP and as President of the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic , in order to provide the representatives with information on the opportunities available and the way in which the European institutions work .
Instead , proper waste-processing facilities should be built .
Particularly where non-hazardous , non-inert waste is involved , the imposition of excessive burdens on small and medium-sized businesses in the quarrying and earth-moving sector is indefensible .
As far as I am concerned , however , the most important and most forward-looking aspect – in view of the impending accession of Romania and Bulgaria , and the large-scale mining projects currently in preparation or under way that present a risk to the environment and to neighbouring countries – is that the new directive must also be taken into account by newly acceding Member States from the date it enters into force .
Our aim has been to prevent accidents and the consequent damage to the environment and human health that can result from the handling and disposal of waste materials from the mineral oil-extracting industries , and we have sought to do this by laying down minimum standards to improve the management of this sort of waste .
Time-consuming programmes of action to deal with sunburn will be devised ; lifeguards in open-air swimming pools will virtually have to wrap themselves up , and serving staff in hostelries with gardens will evidently have to carry not just trays but also a variable parasol or two .
Surely , the failure of the referenda in some Member States – while others hesitate to move on with the decision-making process – shows that the public will accept the European Union only if we concentrate on the essentials , take the issues really seriously and make use of our powers and responsibilities .
Yes , we want informed choices from a health point of view – everybody , not just employees , should be informed of the risks to over-exposure but please – , say to President & # 160 ; Barroso for all of us , that , if he is serious about Lisbon-proofing regulation and about less regulation being better regulation , then we do not need this nanny-type regulation and solar radiation must be removed from the directive .
Without wanting to reopen old wounds , I have to say that I am firmly convinced that , if there are in future to be no more officially free-standing action programmes to promote equality of opportunity , reinforcing this in all areas to which the programme relates and measures taken under it is what is needed to win over the Women s Committee ’ .
I also want to throw my support behind calls for an increase in the financial aid proposed and for a co-financing rate of 90 % , rather than 80 % , in relation to the role of NGOs and social partners .
Gender equality should have a free-standing programme of its own .
Thirdly , the awaited creation of the Gender Institute , gender mainstreaming and a relevant and free-standing equality programme will , in matters of equality policy , make the EU and this House of ours very visible to women ; all women will see that Europe is actively working for them .
As a consequence , I welcome the continued reforms whereby half the total aid to the tobacco sector ( EUR & # 160 ; 484 & # 160 ; million ) will , as from 2010 , be set aside for restructuring programmes in the tobacco-producing regions , and this within the framework of rural development .
As a consequence , I welcome the continued reforms whereby half the total aid to the tobacco sector ( EUR & # 160 ; 484 & # 160 ; million ) will , as from 2010 , be set aside for restructuring programmes in the tobacco-producing regions , and this within the framework of rural development .
The purpose of the Commission s proposal ’ is to introduce the obligation electronically to record and report information on fishing activities , whereby Member States will be required to equip their fisheries monitoring centres with technology that is compatible with the remote-sensing vessel detection system ( VDS ) .
I hope that the Commission will regularly seek the views of those most closely involved in plans to implement anti-discrimination measures , and ensure that co-financing levels should not be so high as to discourage local networks from participating .
The arbitrary cuts of around 4 % that have been made to all areas , with the exception of the much-favoured common foreign and security policy , will make it impossible for us to meet the never-ending stream of fresh challenges .
Both institutions with budgetary decision-making powers endorse the principles of budgetary discipline and the rational use of EU taxpayers ’ money .
I must reiterate that the accession of ten new Member States in 2004 , which is only the beginning of a long-lasting cohesion process , is a new challenge to the cohesion policy , meaning that the implementation of the cohesion policy should focus on regions in order to avoid possible future conflicts between the new Member States and the less developed regions of the EU-15 .
This is an ever-changing situation and the inherent dangers are very great .
Information and awareness-raising campaigns , continuing education of teachers and instructors , and also the introduction of a quality label for providers subscribing to a certain code of conduct , are urgently required .
Furthermore , it reviews and updates the scheme for small and medium-sized enterprises and simplifies the distance-selling arrangements .
Eczema , disabling autism , cerebral palsy , diabetes , epilepsy and arthritis are all increasing , as well as life-threatening leukaemia and tumours – the list goes on and on .
We need to do some serious soul-searching and serious research , not just into drugs and that kind of profitable research , but into children 's growth and immune system development , and identify the new factors in our environment , in our food , our birthing and child-rearing practices , in our medical practices and in our lifestyles , and find the culprits that are sickening and even killing our children .
Medical and paediatric research programmes , licensing requirements for medicines and post-marketing studies must become beneficial means , both for patients and for medical and pharmaceutical research centres , so that we can safeguard maximum possible medical efficiency .
Another measure of a democracy ’ s strength , though , is that it is able , at the same time , to show itself tough and also to guarantee its upright and law-abiding citizens their fundamental civil rights .
Is it worth us losing all of these things in the name of the war on terror and in the name of pushing yet more of our law-making ability towards the European Union ?
I would also like to have put on the record of this House my absolute horror and condemnation of all terrorist acts , speaking as somebody who comes from the island of Ireland and who understands the effects and impact of terrorism , the way that it can undermine not only that very basic human right , the right to life , but can also undermine the power of the State , the power of the institutions and the right of good and free-thinking people to undertake opposition to political movements and go about their daily lives .
You utterly disregarded the Constitution and the fact that its rejection in France and the Netherlands was demonstrably not a rejection of the European constitution-making process , but an expression of disappointment at unfulfilled expectations .
I gather that many Members are reluctant to endorse far-reaching measures , but the restrictions and objections presented here in Parliament do not make it easy to work with data , and so I would ask Commissioner Frattini whether concrete measures can be identified that could boost confidence in the Commission and Council proposals .
These are the most far-reaching proposals for relations between Iran and Europe since the Revolution .
The key to resolving this issue is for Iran to take the confidence-building steps requested of it by successive IAEA Board resolutions and restore the suspension .
This consists of a EUR & # 160 ; 40 & # 160 ; million infrastructure facility geared to labour-intensive , fast-disbursing projects to restore essential services in the West Bank and Gaza ;
We are , for example , ready to fund a new presence at border crossings as a confidence-building measure , if the parties so request .
Continued colonisation in the West Bank runs counter to the idea of long-lasting peace , in the same manner as the encirclement of East Jerusalem and the way in which Israel is gaining ground there .
Those are just five points that I have picked out of Mr & # 160 ; Queiró s wide-ranging report ’ .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; . Mr President – , an effort is being made to use an insipid wish-list about the development of tourism and environmental protection in order to bring tourism more into line with the anti-working class Lisbon Strategy .
The anti-working class policy of the European Union and of the governments in the Member States deprives workers and the working class – from taking holidays .
Tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries in the European Union .
This is not only a task for the Commission but also for the Council , for the report appeals to the Council to speed up the decision-making process on the reduced VAT rate .
I believe it is fair to say that there has been a long-standing debate on this matter and the position of Member State governments has been very clear for some time .
I am fully aware of the long-standing interest in , and concern about , the issue of Turkey expressed by certain representatives in this Parliament .
I would respectfully suggest that if he is concerned about and desirous of a thorough answer , then that rather vindicates the point that I sought to make in terms of the need for EU heads of mission to prepare a very thorough statement in terms of what should inform the European Union 's decision-making process .
I am sincerely grateful to the honourable gentleman for the question that he raises and pay tribute to his long-standing interest in this matter .
Similarly , the fight waged by women for the privileges and rights due to them must not degenerate into aggressive and conflict-generating rivalry with men .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr & # 160 ; President , the report in question is remarkably rich and demonstrates a far-reaching ambition in the number of points it addresses .
What is important is that we understand that we need to examine the gender dimension in all our national and Community strategies and in all research programmes and all information and awareness-raising strategies , because women themselves must be informed and protected .
Direct and indirect expenditures on medical treatment account for an ever-increasing share of the budgets of the Member States of the European Union .
Given the way the schools are organised , in that in addition to mother-tongue teaching , there is teaching of certain subjects in Community languages , the system as it stands at the moment places an unfair burden on English-speaking countries , which provide proportionately more teachers because there is a demand within the European schools for English teaching .
I also believe that it is important to apply and to revise the so-called criteria , which have been adopted after careful discussion by the Board of Governors , the decision-making body of the European school system .
Mr President , the European schools are important to the identity-building process and also to the making of a true European citizenship .
Is it not also true that , in reality , as a cost-accounting matter , these additional costs should be factored in from the outset when locating and relocating agencies ?
High-achieving pupils are rarely being stretched or encouraged .
The standard-of-living gap in the north is the widest in Europe .
It naturally leads to the development of hotels , together with other forms of accommodation , such as self-catering cottages and family-run guest houses , that are outside the hotel system proper .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , the report we have to debate and vote on today is one that takes a wide-ranging approach to issues associated with the development of tourism , especially in developing countries .
Nonetheless , it is the case that pleasure-seeking travellers to developing countries frequently resort to drugs .
Tourism is the fastest-growing area of the economy and is already providing millions of people with jobs .
This resolution , which also refers to disasters in other Member States deserving of our solidarity for similar reasons , will help the decision-making process and the implementation of the measures required .
I am sure that will come as no surprise to him , for he has presented a very even-handed and forward-looking report on an important subject , and I hope that it will receive the backing of an overwhelming majority in this House .
The pharmaceutical industry must emerge from an exclusively profit-making mind-set and revise its commitments and its priorities , in particular in the research and development sector but also in the marketing sector .
Far-reaching changes and reforms in the state , society , the economy and agricultural production are needed .
Other countries in the region must also be involved in this programme , since we will otherwise be faced with an ever-increasing number of related problems as the desert spreads south .
Weather patterns , food production , markets , technologies , sanitation , health care , education and child-rearing practices have all played their role .
With regard to Niger first of all , it is crucial that , in addition to humanitarian efforts , a long-lasting solution be found to addressing the country s vulnerability ’ , by enhancing the food security strategy .
President Assad appears to be too weak to overturn the autocratic , nepotistic and back-scratching regime which permeates the political system .
But decisions to scrap directives and to improve scrappy directives are a process involving Parliament , and we expect a say in withdrawing or re-writing laws .
The now fast-approaching prospect for which my group has , moreover , given its full support - of these two countries entering the European Union in fact only makes a genuine change in direction for the EU s economic , monetary , budgetary ’ , fiscal and trade policy all the more urgent and decisive .
As a rational democrat , he has learned lessons from the French and Dutch referenda and scrapped this freedom-annihilating text .
I agree with the Chairman of our Committee that we are engaged in making laws that will have far-reaching effects on Europe s financial sector ’ and small and medium-sized businesses , and , speaking on behalf of our President , I would remind you , Mr President , and the Bureau too , that this House possesses full legislative powers in this area .
The problems in relation to comitology began some years ago now , when the Commission presented Parliament with the financial services action plan , which proposed the rapid implementation of forty-something measures in the field of financial services .
A large part of our economies dynamic ’ is based upon the institutional competition we have between countries when it comes to developing efficient and growth-promoting institutions .
Secondly , as regards this level playing field , all the big American banks which are in direct competition with European globally-operating banks will be covered by the Basle framework .
Fear of Islamic terrorism and crime must not be used as a misguided excuse for a backwards-looking asylum policy .
This amendment to the decision-making procedure is vital , as is the need to adopt common asylum and immigration policy in the short term .
If we want to wipe out Europe s people-trafficking industry ’ , which is a cause of suffering and unending misery , if we want to prevent those granted asylum from being drawn into the criminal milieu and to help those refugees who have not come to us for economic reasons alone , applications for asylum without a genuine need for asylum being demonstrated are simply no longer acceptable .
It is the result of many years of bilateral negotiations , during which the United States was granted and renewed specific authorisations on wine-making practices , certification and labelling rules , completely ' for free ' .
These never-ending negotiations affected the trading environment in a negative way .
These include important issues for us , such as the future of the ' ex ' semi-generics , geographical indications , the use of traditional expressions , wines not covered by the agreement , wine-making practices , certification and the creation of a joint committee .
Lastly , I have heard some criticism to the effect that the Commission has granted the United States mutual recognition of its wine-making practices .
We will continue to accept United States wine-making practices currently covered by Community authorisations .
We will also accept existing United States wine-making practices not covered by the present Community derogations .
New wine-making practices will be analysed and only accepted in the Community if no objections are raised .
The fact is that the Commission has acted to say – the least – shamelessly and unacceptably in making these concessions in the EU-US Wine Agreement , and that I say , as a Member for one of the oldest vine-growing regions in Germany , also on behalf of the vine-growers of the Moselle .
Over the last 20 years , the European Union , as you quite rightly said , has constantly granted the USA derogations relating to wine-making practices and the labelling of American wines imported into the Community .
First , protected names are not adequately safeguarded , it would appear , in the agreement , while the recognition given to the wine-making practices of the USA , allowing 7 % water to be added or for wines to be matured with wood shavings in the barrel , which are not of course a health hazard , jeopardises the reputation of wine as a quality product .
Secondly , this recognition of the lax wine-making practices of the USA will act as a precedent for imports from other countries .
On the other hand , that the European Union takes a far greater stand on ensuring that the registered designations of origin are observed , on wine-making practices and on protecting sectors that are genuinely vital to the existence of our territories and to a great number of rural territories throughout the European Union , and that it fights to protect this quality and these designated origins .
This situation is exacerbated by the increase in third-country imports , which has had a highly detrimental effect on farmers and wine-growing regions .
With regard to both labelled designations of origin and traditional wine-making practices in Europe , this is what must be done if the quality of wine is to be maintained and consumers are to be protected .
Well , under the agreement , the European Union recognises the wine-making practices of US wine producers .
Although we have succeeded in providing a certain stability for wine exports to the United States , not least through the easing of procedures , we have at all events gone too far on wine-making practices and we do not yet have sufficient guarantees regarding the misuse of protected names .
You accept the United States chemical and not wine-making practices ’ – – .
And since I am from La Rioja , the wine would naturally be a Rioja , which has an international reputation and whose renown and prestige are due to an ancient wine-making culture .
I therefore believe that the Agreement reached with the United States could lead to a profound change to our wine-making culture , which would not always work to our advantage , because , fortunately or unfortunately , the commercial success of our wines has always been linked to a production method that conforms rigorously to the most purist definitions of the wine .
The definitive authorisation of the import of wines treated by means of dubious wine-making practices that are very different to ours could jeopardise our own wine-making culture , upon which – I would insist – the commercial success of our products has always been based .
The definitive authorisation of the import of wines treated by means of dubious wine-making practices that are very different to ours could jeopardise our own wine-making culture , upon which – I would insist – the commercial success of our products has always been based .
It is clear that the chapter on wine-making processes will be one of the sticking points to which particular attention will be paid in the forthcoming reform of the COM in wine , because the agreement that the European Commission has just reached with the United States will , I fear , have repercussions which will go beyond trade with that country .
However , they do leave the Community market open to United States wines produced according to wine-making practices not authorised in the European Union , such as watering .
We need to hold a dialogue on traditional terminology , certifications and wine-making practices and , in particular , it is necessary to create a joint committee for wine-making issues .
We need to hold a dialogue on traditional terminology , certifications and wine-making practices and , in particular , it is necessary to create a joint committee for wine-making issues .
It would also be desirable for the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development to produce an initiative report so that what has happened does not happen again and so that this Parliament ’ s opinion is taken into account in order to try to save the European wine-making sector .
This agreement has also enabled progress to be made in the area of wine-making practices .
According to these concerns , this agreement is in danger of further aggravating the crisis that is currently hitting the wine-producing sector and , in the long term , of destroying once and for all the individual nature of European wines , which are characterised by their traditional roots in the soil and by natural and quite specific wine-making practices .
According to these concerns , this agreement is in danger of further aggravating the crisis that is currently hitting the wine-producing sector and , in the long term , of destroying once and for all the individual nature of European wines , which are characterised by their traditional roots in the soil and by natural and quite specific wine-making practices .
Mutual recognition of the wine-making practices on both sides of the Atlantic poses a problem – my fellow Members have spoken at great length about it – all the more so because some of these practices used by European wine growers are also banned by the WTO .
Being traditionally attached to production models in keeping with their environment and subject to an arsenal of stringent Community regulations , European wine growers , who are anxious to deliver quality products , are in danger of ending up in a situation of unfair competition if the United States s practices ’ are accepted , so much so that , in the long run , they will find themselves forced to abandon their ancestral practices which have , over hundreds of years , created the individual nature of Europe ’ s wine-making sector .
It is therefore a question of continuing to defend and promote our wine-making practices ; it is a question of supporting the quality-focused efforts of our producers , in particular at the WTO , and , finally , of agreeing on a definition that restricts the production models that are unacceptable and that give rise , as I have already said , to a kind of competition that is detrimental to our quality products .
We hope that you will vigorously defend this point of view in Hong Kong , because it is a question of the future of quality products and of Europe s wine-making culture ’ .
Commissioner , the European Union has always pursued a policy of quality in the wine sector by means of very specific and very selective rules on wine content and wine-making procedures .
Our wine-making traditions , Commissioner , are no less important .
Like many other Members of this House , I consider it essential that in phase two the Commission does not lose sight of the priorities for the Community market , which are to ensure definitive results regarding the protection of denominations of origin and regarding the restrictions to be placed on the recognition of wine-making practices .
The main weapon available to us if we were not to accept the wine-making practices of the United States was , precisely , that our designations of origin should be recognised , and we have lost that weapon .
Furthermore , we are running the risk that , from now on , certain Community producers may also call for greater flexibility in the Community rules on wine-making practices , which could lead to unwanted changes and put an end to our ancient wine-making culture for good .
Furthermore , we are running the risk that , from now on , certain Community producers may also call for greater flexibility in the Community rules on wine-making practices , which could lead to unwanted changes and put an end to our ancient wine-making culture for good .
Besides , several provisions of key interest to the United States , such as the approval of their existing wine-making practices not covered by current Community authorisations and much simplified certification requirements , will only kick in once the United States has notified the Community it has changed the status of the 17 famous European wine names that are semi-generics in the US .
On the most-favoured nation risks mentioned by several of you , I can state that the Commission 's aim in these negotiations and those with other new wine-producing countries , is to improve the dialogue between us and our negotiating partners and avoid the trade conflicts and WTO panels that would be extremely costly for European producers .
The most favoured nation clause is well-known with regard to tariffs , but the situation is completely different when it comes to its application in relation to procedures for recognising wine-making practices .
In order for the same concessions to be granted to another third country , that third country would have to be in a similar situation as regards acceptable wine-making practices and monitoring of those practices and of the wine .
On the question of mutual recognition , as I said in my introductory statement this agreement does not grant the United States mutual recognition of its wine-making practices .
However , since the US did not agree to phase out the use of the 17 EU semi-generic wine names used in the US , we did not agree to grant them mutual recognition of their wine-making practices .
As I said , we will only maintain the existing Community authorisations on United States wine-making practices .
We will accept the other existing US wine-making practices only when the United States has changed the status of our semi-generics .
We will have the possibility , for new wine-making practices , to raise objections and hence not to accept new US wine-making practices .
We will have the possibility , for new wine-making practices , to raise objections and hence not to accept new US wine-making practices .
The Commission is proposing a far-reaching strategy based on three priorities : competitiveness , accessibility and regional integration .
Good teamwork has made it possible to produce this balanced but forward-looking report .
My plain-speaking constituents have no time for regionalism and I doubt if they would be interested in strategic spatial impact evaluation procedures .
In future , we will have to give more attention to the question of how and where subsidised investment actually does attract more investment , and whether our use of investment subsidies in isolated areas might not in fact result in an ever-increasing need for support .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , I would like to take this opportunity of thanking Commissioner Hübner for the fact-finding missions that she keeps undertaking in various parts of the Union .
It is through such an all-embracing approach by EU policies , enhanced by the territorial component and with subsidiarity maintained , that we will be able to move the EU a significant step further down the road towards becoming a Union of all citizens .
On the new agricultural fund , here , as you know , we have proposed maximum co-financing rates that are higher for the outermost regions , while the intervention areas have also been extended .
I would like to point out that some proposals are being withdrawn as part of a wide-ranging review of Community policies , although the Commission is retaining the option of , after this process , submitting revised proposals accompanied by a comprehensive assessment of their cost .
The Greek authorities requested an ERDF co-financing rate of 50 % , a level that the Commission has approved .
The financing provided by the Commission is EUR & # 160 ; 40 & # 160 ; million 50 % – of this element of the project – which comes under the ERDF co-financing system .
I cannot say so with 100 % certainty , but my feeling is that it is not so much co-financing problems as the national contribution to the funds which makes it difficult for the Greek projects to be finalised properly .
This is a fact-finding exercise and the contractor will not advise the Commission on its future policy options .
This is a fact-finding exercise .
My main concern is the length of the decision-making process .
Mr President , Mr President-in-Office of the Council , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , scarcely any political issue has such far-reaching implications for the existence of the European Union as the possibility of Turkey becoming a member of it .
Fourthly , it is absolutely vital that we also give support to the Turkish-speaking population of Cyprus .
We have a lot to say – and rightly too – about the island s Greek-speaking majority ’ , but let us not forget that it was the Turkish minority that said a resounding ‘ yes ’ to reunification and a resounding ‘ yes ’ to Europe .
It is not a case of the West subjecting Turkey to a long , never-ending examination , but it is essential to base enlargement on foundations of democracy and respect for civil and international rights .
I think that the Turkey issue is becoming the most striking and most politically frightening illustration of the way in which the European Union is suspending the normal democratic decision-making processes and is ramming decisions down the public s throat ’ , if need be with all the dirty tricks of the trade , and , in the case of Turkey , with lies and deceit .
Their only interest will be in reducing costs by closing down lines , thinning services , increasing charges and discouraging the many loss-making customers .
Various village contests and town-twinning partnerships have proven their worth in giving impetus to this living space , which is home to two-thirds of all Austrians , for example .
I am making this my priority in my bilateral contacts with other major energy-consuming nations and through the International Energy Agency .
To this end , the Commission will strengthen producer-consumer dialogue with oil-producing countries , including OPEC .
Other dialogues with important oil-producing countries – like Russia , Norway and the Persian Gulf countries – with the oil and gas industry and with the main oil-consuming countries in the world – like China , India and the United States – will also be continued .
Other dialogues with important oil-producing countries – like Russia , Norway and the Persian Gulf countries – with the oil and gas industry and with the main oil-consuming countries in the world – like China , India and the United States – will also be continued .
While most of this international collective effort will initially consist of releasing security oil stocks in the international market , the Commission strongly advocates encouraging energy-saving behaviour , which may lead , if needed , to the use of demand restriction measures by Member States if further actions are required .
In the same way , there is little hope that the oil-producing countries will have a genuine interest in making the oil market more stable or the ability to work together with oil consumers to achieve this .
The recent nationalisation of oil companies in Russia and Venezuela , which was ideologically and not economically motivated , has made the oil-producing sector in these countries less transparent and less predictable .
On the other hand , however , EU institutions must adopt a more forward-looking approach to the closure of existing energy installations .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , while I welcome what has been said by the Council and the Commission , the reality today is that there is an ever-growing demand for fossil fuels .
Eventually they will be competing directly with the US for ever-diminishing supplies , which is a forbidding thought and , as we know , fossil fuels are running out very quickly .
We feel it is crucial that the issue of assessing resources and the drive towards prospecting for and developing hydrocarbons at both European and world level be the subject of far-reaching debate .
So we should take heart from the fact that the far-reaching commitments made by G8 leaders in July to increase aid , to reduce debt and to expand trade have essentially been safeguarded at the United Nations summit .
The summit agreed to establish a new peace-building commission , which will bring together United Nations member states , UN agencies and the international financial institutions to close a critical gap in the UN 's ability to help countries emerging from conflict to make that vital transition to long-term stability and avoid relapsing into war .
The European Union fully supports the long-standing principle of budgetary discipline .
Seen in that context , it is really mind-boggling that Japan , to name but one example , should fund 19 % of the cost price of UN peace operations , yet has no say in the decision-making process – not quite a democratic way of going about things , one might say .
Will he take steps to initiate a review and public consultation aimed at sweeping aside the backward-looking approach of the Council Secretariat and providing the public with a first-class source of honest , factual and accurate information ?
The current oil crisis , in particular , has made it increasingly clear that finite sources of energy must be replaced with constantly self-renewing sources .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , I wish to congratulate the rapporteur on a highly informative report on the 21 types of renewable energy , which will play an ever-increasing role in the 21st century , whether from a climate-change perspective or that of the security of supply of fossil fuels and increasing prices .
The investigation into anti-competitiveness practices in the electricity market announced six months ago by Commissioner Kroes will no doubt show that the ESB our Electricity Supply Board – – like its French counterpart EDF , still holds an effective monopoly and abuses its dominant position as the gatekeeper of the national grid , instead of ring-fencing generation from grid operation with cross-subsidisation of uneconomic fossil fuel generation with the national grid profits .
With the final status discussions drawing near , the exclusion of the Roma from the decision-making process would be one more proof of the lack of respect for East European citizens .
It affords temporary protection to the current position of many vulnerable and poorer countries in the EU market and avoids a wide-ranging trade dispute with the EU 's second largest trading partner .
In the immediate future , let us encourage China to concentrate on supplying its internal market , let us re-establish the quotas according to the 2004 standards and let us not forget the poor textile-exporting countries that are the main victims of this irresponsible policy .
Question four : given that the problems facing the footwear industry are similar to those of the textiles sector , can the Commission confirm the rumours that anti-dumping measures are in the pipeline for implementation in 2006 ?
This House ’ s left-wing Members in particular are calling for the market to be sealed off again .
One measure , for instance , is the ongoing anti-dumping investigation on footwear .
This framework agreement will of course have an important and forward-looking agenda on the trade and investment side .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , the shortage of bras in our department stores has indeed proved to be a beneficial crisis because it has exposed the EU for exactly what it is : a backward-looking customs union , an anachronism in the 21st century , and a bloated bureaucracy that failed to spot the obvious happening , while the Commissioner was enjoying a lengthy holiday .
In addition intellectual property protection regulations and the certification of quality and origin must be tightened and the procedure for bringing anti-dumping cases to court must be simplified .
The resolution of the European Parliament on reducing oil dependency , which I supported with my vote , comes at a particularly hectic time of constantly-mounting oil prices that endanger the economic stability of the Union .
Europe must diversify its energy sources and energy supplies , and strengthen its strategy of supporting energy-saving measures and decentralised renewable energy sources .
On the other hand , it is necessary to adopt a more forward-looking approach to the ill-considered decommissioning of existing energy installations .
I take the view that Europe must venture to compete with up-and-coming economies such as China s ’ , provided this is done on a level playing field .
Within this context and in view of the ceasefire declaration by the Maoists , and following the first steps taken by the alliance between seven parties to promote a political process aimed at resolving the armed conflict , King Gyanendra must respond with a governmental ceasefire and must begin constructive talks with the political groups and with the Maoists , with the ultimate objective of re-establishing democracy in Nepal .
In its report last month , the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation reported that since an EP fact-finding mission has been based in Vojvodina since the end of January , no fewer than 32 new incidents have taken place , with minorities specifically targeted .
The fact-finding mission led by Mrs Pack was very positive , but only managed to bring a temporary improvement as the situation has not actually been settled .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Mr President , we passed a resolution exactly one year ago in respect of the problem we are discussing now , and the fact-finding mission of the European Parliament to Vojvodina was also implemented as a result of that resolution .
In line with the recommendations issued by the European Parliament after the fact-finding mission of last January , we have urged the authorities to take concrete measures in the field of police and judicial reform .
It is for that reason that we opted for this all-embracing title and are inclined to stick with it .
The recent tragic events mentioned by some of you and by Minister Alexander which occurred in the towns of Ceuta and Melilla remind us once again how important it is to find a comprehensive and forward-looking response to migration issues .
It is clear that we are still far from implementing the burden-sharing policy .
Since the outset , the emphasis has been placed on our four long-standing issues of concern : weapons of mass destruction , terrorism , the Middle East peace process and human rights .
Along with the ever-increasing flow of reports of executions of juveniles under the age of 18 and of others being sentenced to death , there is also the fact that Akbar Gandji , having been arrested over five years ago , is still in jail and is in a critical condition .
The loss of two soldiers and two civilians belonging to the African Union peace-keeping mission in Darfur has been a shock for all of us .
We must be aware of the fact that the interests of Europe and of certain countries are a factor and that it is this that is preventing us from making faster and more far-reaching progress .
This is unachievable because young scientists , once graduated , are emigrating in ever-increasing numbers , mainly to the United States .
We will therefore reiterate our long-standing demand that the Member States should , once and for all , legislate for a guaranteed minimum income .
I should also point out , in conjunction with my fellow members of the URBAN intergroup , that the URBAN-housing intergroup was set up in 2005 .
If we squander this potential , we cannot be surprised when many people in Europe see the decisions taken in Brussels or Strasbourg more as interference in their internal affairs than as forward-looking action .
What is needed today is an all-embracing approach to urban planning , involving jobs no less than issues around suitability for children and senior citizens , the supply of affordable housing or the development of transport connections .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , today ’ s wide-ranging debate on Mr Beaupuy s report ’ and , above all , the pertinent and meaningful speech by the Commissioner have outlined in the House today the new European city , taking enlargement into account as well .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , could you inform me of by what democratic decision-making process our esteemed Chinese fellow parliamentarians have been elected ?
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; . – The debate on Iran in the European Parliament , on the pretext of the nuclear problem and violation of human rights , relates to more general imperialist plans and the vying for control of the wealth-producing resources of Iran and the area as a whole .
The peoples in the area as a whole need to be mobilised against American and Euro-unifying imperialism .
It is the brake on enterprise and business exerted by the ever-growing bonds of regulation and red tape from the European Union .
These grossly illegal actions are causing much concern to the civilian population , risk causing a dangerous confrontation with Cyprus defences ’ and are seriously undermining efforts to achieve long-lasting peace in the region .
Another positive step forward is that settlement-level and local government youth work is relied on to an ever-increasing extent .
I would be very glad if ‘ Media 2007 ’ led to better utilisation of underused studios and other film-making resources .
You are probably familiar with the example of the British undertaking which , in March of this year , was caught illegally exporting no fewer than 60 sea containers full of rotting and foul-smelling household waste to China .
If things go well , we will end up with ever-decreasing quantities of waste .
the recommendation ( A6-0294 / 2005 ) , on behalf of the Committee on the Environment , Public Health and Food Safety , on the Council common position for adopting a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council relating to emissions from air-conditioning systems in motor vehicles and amending Council Directive 70 / 156 / EEC [ 16056 / 5 / 2004 C6-0221 / 2005 2003 / 0189A – – ( COD ) ] ( rapporteur : Avril Doyle ) .
I wish to begin by thanking my colleagues in the PPE-DE Group and all the political groups for a wide-ranging discussion and debates .
The background is that the fluorinated gases were introduced in the nineties to replace the ozone-depleting CFCs and HCFCs .
The Council decided , in the end , to change the form of the Commission proposal , but kept it as a package of measures , with a directive especially on the question of hydrofluorocarbons ( HFCs ) in vehicle mobile air-conditioning systems ( MACs ) and a regulation covering the remaining issues in the original proposal .
We in this House have always defended the interests of small and medium-sized enterprises , and it is particularly with regard to air-conditioning units that our objective gives rise to concern and criticism on their part .
While the goal – an ambitious one , and important in terms of environmental policy – of changing air-conditioning units over to non-fluorinated gases by 2011 is to be welcomed , it has to be said that it does create problems for small and medium-sized enterprises , and that is why , at first reading , this House adopted a derogation , according to which , if the number of units produced is less than 50 & # 160 ; 000 per annum , the new arrangements can be introduced two years later – that is , in 2013 .
A number of countries in the Council have voted against it because they have already more far-reaching measures in place .
With the internal market legal basis , Austria and Denmark would have to withdraw their more far-reaching measures , which is really unacceptable .
If that is not the case , the environmental legal basis is more suitable because it allows the Member States to introduce more far-reaching measures themselves .
The Socialists would have liked to push car manufacturers into replacing f-gases in air-conditioning systems more quickly .
I would also point out that f-gases were pushed onto the market as replacements for CFCs , which cause ozone depletion and skin cancers , precisely by the same big chemical companies – like DuPont or , in my own country , Ineos , as ICI is now known – that were , themselves , major producers of ozone-destroying substances .
The EU s burden-sharing agreement ’ commits different Member States to very diverse targets for the reduction of greenhouse gases , and so individual Member States need to take different measures to achieve them .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , in voting on the directive on mobile air-conditioning systems , my group , like the majority of this House , will follow the rapporteur s sensible path ’ and adopt the Common Position without major amendment , for it represents a good compromise .
Setting the GWP at 50 would exclude all the alternatives to CO2 as refrigerants for mobile air-conditioning systems , but it is not for the legislator to prescribe one single technology to the industry .
There is no apparent reason why we should have different legal bases for stationary air-conditioning systems on the one hand and for mobile ones on the other .
All EU Member States are members of the International Labour Organisation , and have ratified treaties that grant far-reaching powers to trade unions .
The Community s four education and vocational training programmes Socrates ’ – , Leonardo da Vinci , the Action ‘ programme to promote bodies active at European level and support specific activities in the field of education and training ’ and the e-learning programme – are set to expire at the end of 2006 .
We are being asked once again for non-binding advice on Council framework decisions in a key area of internal security , of judicial and police cooperation , which 25 & # 160 ; parliaments are ultimately supposed to transpose into national law .
First , it is right to ban jelly mini-cups with gel-forming food additives in order to prevent choking in children , but the banning of gel-forming food additives in general is unwise because these substances are only hazardous when used in jelly mini-cups .
First , it is right to ban jelly mini-cups with gel-forming food additives in order to prevent choking in children , but the banning of gel-forming food additives in general is unwise because these substances are only hazardous when used in jelly mini-cups .
Both institutions with budgetary decision-making powers – the European Parliament and the Council – endorse the principles of budgetary discipline and the rational use of EU taxpayers ’ money .
After a wide-ranging discussion within the Committee on Budgets , taking into account the experience of last year with inflated budget votes and the resulting failure to achieve Parliament s budgeted expenditure ’ , it is proposed to reduce Parliament s budgeted expenditure ’ by 20 & # 160 ; million euro as compared with the administration ’ s requests .
If HFCs continue to be used in practically all new air-conditioning equipment , it is to be feared that these f-gases will become even more widespread , with a 5 % increase to be reckoned with by 2010 , which is not justifiable .
European cooperation could make a useful contribution to connections between two neighbouring countries , or across the territory of a third country between two non-neighbouring countries .
Similarly , the new EU directive , instead of introducing stricter measures than those which apply today , becomes very relaxed on certain issues , giving the facility to large poultry-rearing companies to derogate from bans on the intra-Community trade in poultry , even in areas which have been attacked by highly pathogenic influenza .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , the Klamt report , which , we , I am sad to say , approved a moment ago , can best be described as a sort of naïve wish-list , and as a description of ideological , left-wing concepts that are totally unrelated to the real world .
We propose specifically a European research council that is the equivalent of the American National Science Foundation , that will support the funding of research and development projects and give us the chance in Europe to be forming the world-beating companies in the technologies of the future .
Those should focus on things like the radicalisation of people inside the European Union , the protection of our infrastructure and , in particular , how we exchange information and protection more effectively , how we retain that , how we get cooperation between the different security and police services inside the European Union in order to protect our people better and , as the Home Secretary , Charles Clarke , said to you when he was here in the European Parliament , we are happy to deal with this under the first pillar , so that it can be part of the codecision-making process .
If we are able to do that , and if we are able to meet the scale of the challenge in the way I have suggested , I think , in other areas , too , we can develop world-beating companies across Europe .
In yesterday , James & # 160 ; Wolfensohn reportedly accused Israel of acting almost as though there had been no withdrawal , delaying making difficult decisions and preferring to take difficult matters back into slow-moving subcommittees .
The safety of critically-minded and free-thinking journalists cannot be guaranteed ; one who comes to my mind is the late Elmar Huseynov , whose murder has still not yet been satisfactorily investigated .
As mentioned by the Commissioner , we must note that last week President Aliyev dismissed several highest-ranking government officials or ordered their arrest and detention on remand on charges of attempting to stage a .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; & # 160 ; & # 160 ; & # 160 ; Madam & # 160 ; President , freedom of speech is one of the key factors in the democracy-building process .
I therefore believe that efforts to convert this industry must be redoubled , in order to guarantee jobs and the economic survival of producers in Portugal and all of the European tobacco-producing countries .
On the pretext of identifying tobacco farming with the anti-smoking campaign , Community tobacco is being proclaimed dangerous and imported tobacco is being proclaimed ' innocent ' .
This legislation is a gross affront to justice and the human rights of victims ; it is a stomach-churning illustration of how low governments can stoop when they set about appeasing terrorism .
The European model , therefore , needs an overhaul which , without compromising the important social progress achieved in the 20th century , will help it to get closer to the people and thereby respond more effectively to the demands of a constantly-changing society and of an economy now operating on a global scale .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Madam & # 160 ; President , this report has been prepared at a time when the residents of the European Union Member States are harbouring ever-increasing concerns about the processes caused by or imputed to globalisation .
The international community ’ s future approach to planning should ensure that new broadcasting and non-broadcasting services can operate in the same bands .
In the end , provided that nothing unexpected emerges from the imminent Hong Kong Summit , the Commission will have to seek a negotiated solution with the Latin American banana-producing countries .
You have been accompanied by certain national governments , such as that of my own country , and the governments of certain banana-producing regions .
I can only assure those of you who have an interest in this difficult , long-lasting issue that we will do our utmost to arrive at a positive outcome so that the tariff-only system enters into force on 1 & # 160 ; January 2006 .
This is a very fast-growing development in the UK and Ireland , where in particular new participants in schemes are not given a defined benefit system .
If pensions are to be secured in future , other areas of capital-building retirement provision will have to be promoted and managed with vigour .
It follows that management has expanded and become more complex with the involvement of an ever-increasing number of authorities and organisations .
In the European Commission we believe that these negotiations cannot simply be conducted for the benefit of a few large farm exporters in very rich or fast-developing countries .
We must do far more than we have before to explain , defend and justify every single law-making initiative to the public , and we need to be sensitive in the way we do it .
Above all , we must afford efforts to sustain those less able to cope with challenges and opportunities of life , those who live with disabilities or life-threatening diseases and poverty .
However , in the context where those anti-Europeans in my country and others portray the European Union as one massive bureaucracy-producing machine spewing out regulations , it is incumbent upon all of us to point out that , when we get it right , European legislation is an exercise in cutting red tape , relieving burdens on business , providing one set of rules for the common market , one patent , one registration for a trademark , one form to fill in , one fee to pay instead of 25 .
Mr President , honourable Members of the European Parliament , let me begin this debate by congratulating all those committees , and their many individual members , who have participated in the discussions on REACH , which is one of the most far-reaching proposals that the Commission has ever adopted .
To reach a balance in a regulation of such importance , when so many often-conflicting interests are affected , is , in contrast , rather more difficult .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; & # 160 ; & # 160 ; & # 160 ; As a member of the Committee on the Environment , Public Health and Food Safety , and in particular as a doctor , I should like to voice my support for a hard-hitting version of the new REACH regulation on chemical substances .
As rapporteur on the Framework Directive on Health and Safety at Work ( 89 / 391 / EEC ) , I believe we must adopt a hard-hitting version of REACH if we are to implement this Directive in practice .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; & # 160 ; & # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr & # 160 ; President , the debate that has been held so far on REACH , both within the House and outside it , has revealed that Europe is not yet ready to adopt this directive in its present hard-hitting form .
This report will also have far-reaching implications for health or – at least we hope it will and – for industry .
I should like to conclude by drawing the House s attention ’ to a study carried out by the European Trade Union Confederation , which found that 50 % of cases of occupational asthma and skin disorders would be prevented by a hard-hitting version of REACH .
After all , if there is one example of a political decision-making system crying out for rationalised and coordinated organisation , it is unquestionably the European regulatory agencies .
Under the system laid down by EU data protection legislation , the Member States data protection authorities ’ and the European data protection supervisor are the competent authorities to monitor the lawfulness of personal data-processing activities by Eurodac .
This is why the Commission has proposed taking an approach based on establishing partnerships with the wood-producing countries .
On the functioning of the WTO , the EU has put forward a number of proposals for improvements , notably relating to the preparation and management of ministerial conferences , with the aim of facilitating more efficient negotiations and decision-making amongst an ever-growing membership .
The 133 Committee that is composed of representatives of the governments of the Member States is not a decision-making body , but a consultative body .
The Commission has acted promptly by initiating two anti-dumping investigations .
The Commission is now analysing the question of market economy treatment of the exporters concerned , the definition of the different categories and models of the products involved , the question of whether there is dumping , the impact of these imports on the Community s shoe-producing industry ’ and the position of traders , retailers and consumers .
We have to be very careful that we assess precisely not only what the effect on the Community interest is , but what the impact would be if we were to take anti-dumping action on a variety of different producers and economic operators in this sector .
Would the Commissioner agree that it would be quite wrong if those companies were caught up in any anti-dumping duties ?
In specific connection with this matter , I should like to know why the anti-dumping investigation also extends to include sports shoes , which have been exempt from Regulation 467 / 98 and , overall , have been exempt from all import restrictions for many years .
She should not assume that anti-dumping duties will be levied on such sportswear producers .
Greenpeace has warned that this year ’ s experience could be a sign of things to come if practices such as deforestation and emissions of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere do not stop .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , I should first of all like to thank Mr Wijkman for his excellent and hard-hitting report .
In my view , the most that can be endorsed are the hopes for a cut in harmful and potentially climate-altering emissions , but there is a great difference between that and approving a document of doubtful scientific value , which is even presumptuous in its aims .
The proposed changes to the Working Time Directive are a good example of well-meaning legislation that will not achieve what those changes are set out to do , and where method and outcome have become grievously confused .
It follows that we have to make the same effort at national and at European level if people are to have confidence in the policy-making process .
So far there has been nothing concrete behind high-sounding claims such as the Lisbonisation ‘ ’ of resources and the globalisation fund .
My biggest fear arising from the failure of the Hampton Court summit and a lacklustre British Presidency is that it will make my government over-eager to secure a face-saving deal on the budget in December and that , as a result , Mr Blair will concede far too much on the British rebate , just so it can be said that something was achieved by the British Presidency – that is to say something other than ensuring EU bankruptcy by opening the door to Turkish accession .
The way in which the Presidency is putting off the debate on the Financial Perspective until the last minute , as well as preparing the budget proposals behind closed doors and talking in Orwellian newspeak about the problems of civilisation faced by the world instead of holding a hard-hitting debate on the business at hand , amounts either to time-wasting or to a deliberate attempt to pass the hot potato of the budget on to Vienna in December .
Kofi Annan , the United Nations Secretary-General , spoke for the world when he stated that Israel is a long-standing member of the United Nations , with the same rights and obligations as any other .
I hope that in the course of the six months of the British Presidency , we will have been able to play our part in resolving what has been a long-standing issue , which has brought no credit to the European Union and on which I hope a way forward can be found in the months and years to come .
All of us with an interest in building and sustaining support for the European Union and its efforts amongst European citizens have a strong vested interest in seeing this long-standing problem being resolved .
I welcome the question from the honourable Member who I know has a long-running interest in the issue of comitology .
As has already been said several times , this proposal has been criticised by anyone who is involved in this area – by the scientists , by animal welfare groups , by pro-hunting groups – because it is not based on the latest scientific research evidence and it certainly does not prevent , or even reduce , the suffering of animals in traps .
The aim is no less than to impose far-reaching restrictions on derogations from the general rules of economic competition Article 296 – of the Treaty enables Member States to use and abuse the derogation system – and a number of national monopolies have been profiting from this at the citizens expense ’ .
It should be legally binding , be a separate and self-standing initiative , cover all conventional arms transfers , set out the principles defining illegal transfers , include monitoring , and be broadly based .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; . Ladies and gentlemen – , late yesterday evening there were also wide-ranging debates on the issues of weapons and the arms problem and , in view of the fact that it was necessary to dispel a few concerns in connection with my report , I have carried on working at this time , with the result that two oral amendments are necessary .
I should like to take the opportunity presented by my statement of how I voted on REACH to congratulate the animal welfare and environmental protection organisations on their great and wide-ranging commitment .
After a long a complex vote my initial assessment is that Parliament has just about struck the right balance between the vital issues of protecting human health and the environment on the one hand and not over-burdening industry or creating a legal requirement for unnecessary animal testing on the other .
Although it forms part of the broader discussion on the REACH regulation , the proposal for a directive before us addresses a subject on which wide-ranging agreement is easier to obtain .
I know it is difficult because of the long-standing dispute over Kashmir , but I hope that the applications can be processed quickly .
It is also the scene of one of the longest-running conflicts in South Asia .
Let us hope that the Burmese dictators will , on this occasion , take more serious note of our condemnations and concerns and that they will proceed speedily along the only logical avenue open to them , which is the one that leads to the democratisation of their long-suffering country .
Developing countries would benefit from the eradication of trade-distorting export practices and the reduction of domestic subsidies that can undermine otherwise competitive production in these poor countries .
We must work towards abolishing all developed countries trade-distorting subsidies ’ .
It was a necessary and right thing to do , as it allowed us to have the first real negotiations at the political level on industrial goods and services , anti-dumping rules and development .
On non-agriculture market access the Commission is demanding far-reaching liberalisation that will threaten the very survival of local manufacturing in some developing countries .
Nine , the WTO must be democratised as a matter of urgency , each member country enabled to take part in the talks on equal terms , the transparency of the debates guaranteed and elected representatives involved in the decision-making process .
They will not thank us then for a headline-grabbing , ego-satisfying deal at the WTO if we have cut off from ourselves a secure supply of reliable food that is home-produced .
In all likelihood we should reconsider the means of decision-making at the WTO in order to avoid favouring the special interests of countries and blocking open discussions and decision-making processes .
We have achieved a far-reaching reform programme for European agriculture in 2003 .
We must , however , remain vigilant that sport is not used as a vehicle for propaganda – I refer , for example , to Cuba and to totalitarian regimes in general or – for spreading hatred or racism – I refer to the recent unpleasant incidents we have seen in certain Italian stadiums or the instances when the fundamental values of sport and competition are betrayed by athletes who use performance-enhancing drugs .
It codifies the procedure for the approval process , the organisation of the hearings , the questions , the issues of transparency and the decision-making process of each committee .
That would mean that , if Parliament were excluded , only two of the European Community institutions – the Council and the Commission – would be participating in the decision-making process in matters of Community competence .
In particular , the sector was excluded from Article & # 160 ; 81 , which prohibits the conclusion of competition-limiting agreements , and from Article & # 160 ; 82 , which prohibits the abuse of a dominant position .
Higher rates should , perhaps , apply to certain luxury or environmentally-polluting factors .
Taxation policy is a political instrument for steering the economy , and if there is not greater clarity about it at European level , if we are not given more powers to deal with it , if there is no wide-ranging debate about it , if we are not given a uniform basis of assessment for the taxation of businesses , if we do not close the tax loopholes , if there are no uniform tax arrangements for occupational pension schemes – then we will be unable to achieve many of our policy objectives for growth and employment , for we will not be in possession of the wherewithal to do so .
In order to make people vote in favour of the Constitution , the French Government had boldly to confirm this promise throughout the entire campaign , a long-standing promise , in reality , since it had already featured in the programme of the Presidential candidate , Mr & # 160 ; Chirac , in 2002 , and even in 1995 .
I particularly support the Amendment calling for : the phasing-out by 2010 of all forms of export competition , including food aid , export subsidies and state-trading entities , by all industrialised countries in parallel .
On this occasion , the US multinational has just announced the closure of one of its units , the Linhó cable-making factory , which had employed 1 & # 160 ; 200 people and is now pressuring the remaining 300 to take redundancy .
Battery collection schemes have been a success in several Member States thanks to diverse and long-standing endeavours .
My country has not yet managed to set up any accumulator-processing plants , and our accumulators are disposed of in Slovenia and Italy , while Hungary purchases large amounts of lead for its battery and accumulator manufacturing industry .
Two fact-finding missions were sent to Valencia , which gave the committee members an opportunity to meet with representatives of all those concerned and to have a first-hand experience of the situation on the ground .
This report is extremely important for a number of reasons , because it seeks to demonstrate to the citizens of Valencia that this European Parliament is not only a law-making body – which of course it is – but also a voice of the people of Europe when their rights are threatened .
Mr President , we are dealing with a profoundly European issue , a question of rights : we cannot apply European legislation without dealing with the land-planning scandal in the Mediterranean .
We cannot even apply the Treaty in relation to human rights , neither can we apply the directives on public contracts , the framework directive on water , the strategic environmental assessment directive , without dealing with what the President of the Higher Council of Colleges of Architects this very morning described as the land-planning horror : he said that the Mediterranean coast is bursting at the seams , that the territory is suffering from great overcrowding and an irreversible impact that will leave an excessively serious ecological mark .
The conversations we held with the petitioners , both during the fact-finding mission and during our meetings , revealed to us the full extent of the tragedy facing these individuals , who had had so much of their property taken away from them .
I believe , however , that this issue is being brought to an end today and also that , by means of this report , the Socialist land-planning model that existed in the Valencian Country , which the Socialists implemented when they were in government , is going to be called into question .
I am therefore dismayed about the fact that , over the last three years , complaints about land-planning abuses have increased very considerably .
As a European citizen , born and resident in the Valencian Country , I sincerely regret that we need to hold this debate , but we must remember that , if this is the case , it is due to the fact that the complaints presented in this Parliament have been from thousands of European citizens who feel themselves to be victims of land-planning abuses .
I therefore entirely agree with the criticisms of the land-planning situation in Valencia : the criticisms of the law and the criticisms of the government .
In June of this year , a delegation from this House went on an information-gathering trip to Valencia , where they interviewed various parties , members of the public , and residents in the region , as well as representatives of the regional governments and of the constitutional court .
Petitions to the European Parliament and two fact-finding missions attest to this fact .
We would also have liked the targets to be binding , but it is good that the compromise at least lays down certain mandatory actions , including public procurement requirements and the introduction of energy-efficiency action plans , which will be used to measure Member States progress ’ towards the energy-saving targets .
It is only when people have such knowledge that they can start to adapt their behaviour and choose energy-saving options .
Alongside competition in the production and sale of electricity and gas , this directive will make for more vigorous competition in relation to investments in energy-saving technologies , in what are called ‘ negawatts ’ .
It has been accepted that there is a need for more transparent energy billing systems , which can help users to adopt an energy-saving approach .
If we are to harmonise the tax base , we must be aware of the fact that we are , by so doing , obliged to make a deep incursion into the nation states ’ tax-raising competences , and we want nothing to do with that either .
The Council can no longer look on from the political grandstand while we cope with the unhealthy distortions of competition that result , to an ever-increasing extent , from its fiscal policies .
I am quite sure that it will be a long time before we forget the team spirit demonstrated by the members of Parliament s delegation ’ during these nerve-wracking negotiations .
The European Union is a self-perpetuating mega-bureaucracy that has carte blanche to finance its own programmes .
Both institutions with budgetary decision-making powers – the European Parliament and the Council – endorse the principles of budgetary discipline and the rational use of EU taxpayers ’ money .
Finally , another aspect included in our resolution is the extension of the scope of the directive on buildings in favour of a more wide-ranging policy on insulation and in favour of better building insulation .
Mr President , I should like to thank my colleagues from the various political groups who have worked so hard and effectively to achieve today ’ s first-reading compromise package with the Council and the Commission : in particular , Mrs Wallis , Mr Wieland , Mr Lehne , and Mrs & # 160 ; Berger from my own political group .
We must therefore spread this kind of awareness-raising initiative in order to combat discriminatory attitudes and to ensure that the citizens are kept informed about their rights and obligations .
It would have been a competition-distorting factor in the single market .
We have adopted a money-laundering directive .
To be candid , there was some scepticism in the Council at the idea of going down the course of a first-reading deal and a process of this kind .
This is a fast-moving picture and it is important that all the institutions work together to keep us up to date on the best way to deal with it .
Rather than this being allowed to become a never-ending story , what we wanted was a prompt result .
The Council would have moved no further ; the whole thing became a never-ending tale of framework decisions and disputes .
Furthermore , there is a risk that procedures resembling those of a police state could be used , which would further the government s short-term political goals ’ while subjecting citizens to long-term and far-reaching surveillance .
Networks are the modern criminality , whether they are terrorist , paedophile , drug- or people-trafficking networks .
In March 2006 , the United Nations intends to start a wide-ranging consultation with a view to the preparation of the Internet Governance Forum .
Lastly , Tunisia is a model of cooperation in the French-speaking world .
This has borne fruit these last few months with the launch of the Lisbon national reform programmes , setting a forward-looking agenda of reforms for every Member State .
To take one example of which we have heard , we would remind you that promising money to the Hungarians for house-building touches upon this House s rights ’ , for it is we who have to pass the legislation that would make it possible for this to be done .
If it is not too much of a shock for Mr Alexander , I would also like to congratulate the Presidency on its cooperation with the Parliament , which has led to huge progress on some very difficult dossiers , noticeably REACH , the long-running Eurovignette saga , and hopefully data retention .
Once again , the Cuban Government has demonstrated its systematic violation of the human rights of the population of our country on a daily basis , by denying five peaceful and defenceless women permission to travel and to be with you at this prizing-giving ceremony , despite having completed all of the bureaucratic procedures that it had demanded of them , the majority of which are unnecessary and incomprehensible , including the efforts of this Parliament and of certain European personalities and governments .
Let us stop thinking that we have this kind of inexorable duty to remember , with these anniversaries and never-ending commemorations .
The aim of this directive is to institutionalise horrendous discrimination against the vast majority of citizens , honest and peace-loving people , whom we should instead be protecting from this kind of abuse .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; In principle , the June List believes that a decision with such far-reaching implications for people should not be taken on the basis of a qualified majority .
Before we enter into any discussion on the report , I wish to say that we should welcome the fact that this issue has given rise to such a wide-ranging discussion .
I look forward to a stimulating and thought-provoking discussion this afternoon .
The Council is aware of Parliament ’ s long-standing interest in this issue and has already had the opportunity to reply to several questions from Parliament on these matters .
Implementation of the Directive , including market surveillance and the monitoring of bodies charged with the task of certification by the Member States and notified to the Commission as such , has been made more efficient as a result of Parliament ’ s far-reaching amendments at first reading .
I want to draw his attention to another crucial machinery category , which is also partly affected by this directive , which is the whole issue about road-going machinery .
This in turn would also make it possible for us to have a well-functioning market in this sector .
In addition , there will be increased possibilities for the participation of women in the decision-making process .
However , in order to make equal opportunities a reality , all policy-making levels need to take responsibility : the Commission , and national as well as regional and local levels .
It is also necessary to increase the participation of women in decision-making processes , and therefore a recommendation from the Commission to the relevant bodies so that they take the necessary action in this regard would be very positive .
It depends on these actions as to whether or not young boys and girls remain in fishing areas , so that traditions , with valuable , long-standing practices , can be maintained with new technology and can bring about added value for the European Union .
That being said , given that , in our view , it is of key importance that fishermen be involved in setting out and implementing the common fisheries policy at every level , we have also tabled a proposal that support should be provided for setting up or promoting representative associations of small coastal fishing , far and away the most important part of the sector , and that such fishermen be involved in decision-making processes in regional advisory councils .
But once one of the free-wheeling states is asked to pedal , then there are cries for equity , for fairness and for a level playing field .
As the honourable Members are aware , the Community has a long-standing relation with the Seychelles in the fisheries area .
2 - Above all , though , this reform is unfair to the poor sugar-producing countries .
We are very pleased , on the other hand , that our proposal aimed at funding measures to promote or set up small-scale coastal fishing representative associations , and to ensure their involvement in the decision-making process of the common fisheries policy was adopted .
The Community budget provides for funding and specific programmes to protect consumers , for example by supporting organisations or bodies involved in protecting the interests of consumers and promoting the involvement of such organisations and bodies in the Community-level decision-making process .
European regional policy , which is largely paid for by French taxpayers , is therefore not content with being more and more stingy towards our regions ( the French-speaking region of Hainaut has lost the structural funds under Objective 1 as a result ) .
These will enjoy Community support and will have the following objectives : to make the role of women in the sector more visible ; to increase the involvement of women in the decision-making process on the common fisheries policy ; and to draw attention to the need to preserve fisheries as an economic , social and cultural activity that is of key importance to the development of fishing communities in different countries .
No doubt the Chinese will again say this is an internal matter for China , but the international community cannot sit idly by when peace-loving people are subjected to this kind of treatment .
It is a well accepted fact that NGOs and non-profit-making organisations are often key to developing a strong and well functioning civil society .
This meets a long-standing demand of the European Parliament , and the British Presidency is to be congratulated on achieving this breakthrough .
It supports the participation of long-standing immigrants in local elections .
There is also a need for information campaigns in the countries of origin and of transit , along with an annual Anti-trafficking Day ‘ ’ with a logo making visible the enormity of the problems involved .
Major sporting events also offer an opportunity to engage in the people-trafficking business , in which women are forced into prostitution .
Trafficking in human beings is the fastest-growing type of organised crime .
Women s unemployment ’ and the shortage of sources of subsistence make it possible for criminals to trap their victims with simple lies of well-paying jobs abroad .
Firstly , there is a risk of some front-loading of negotiations on agriculture and NAMA industrial goods – – and then back-loading negotiations on services , rules and GIs .
We should not accept further feet-dragging either in services , geographical indications or in rule-making areas , and the same is true for industrial goods .
Despite the world s poorest countries ’ joining hands to make the Doha Round a development reality , they were put in the impossible position either of accepting a text which left much to be desired , or of being on the receiving end of the finger-pointing blame game which plagued progress .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Mr President , with a uniform strategy the European Union and the United States of America , despite their antagonisms , have used the sixth ministerial conference of the WTO to step up exploitation of the peoples and the plundering of the wealth-producing resources of developing countries .
The WTO , as an organisation with its own regulations and decision-making procedures has , in the last five years , failed to come to any decisions ; we have to admit that the WTO is undergoing a crisis .
Fourthly , a significant , forward-looking project needs to be developed , Commissioner , with a view to carrying out a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the economic and social impacts on Europe of all these negotiations .
I think that he is negotiating from a particularly difficult position , because his mandate is known to the public beforehand and is the result of a public decision-making process in the Union .
A thorough , forward-looking dialogue will be held on the basis of the Convention , in the form of four workshops to be held over the next two years .
Changes affecting self-handling are re-igniting criticism of social dumping .
It is politically irresponsible because we withdrew a directive on crews , which was a social directive , and we are keeping the port services directive ; because , in the context of the better lawmaking initiative ‘ ’ , we withdrew 60 European Parliament texts in the course of proceedings , yet we are keeping the port services directive ; and because , in actual fact , this text gives food for thought and proves all the card-carrying Eurosceptics and those most fervently opposed to Europe , right .
Under this directive , Liverpool s communities ’ , which are already among the most deprived in Europe , will witness hard-grafting dockers being put out of work .
Dock work has a glorious , long-standing tradition , which has created rights and prosperity by linking trading activities with the towns that welcomed them .
I would stress that we should conclude agreements with our key partners and up-and-coming countries , such as China , the United States and Russia , as soon as possible , whilst not forgetting our immediate neighbours .
The first is that , while we welcome the Commission s move ’ towards the progressive extension of Community agreements with third countries , the far-reaching effects on the transport sector as a whole , on the environment and on competition and the internal market prompt me to urge you to again consider whether foreign policy as it relates to air transport ought not really to be dealt with via the codecision procedure .
The issues raised by this report are highly interesting and worthy of far-reaching discussion .
One should keep in mind that this particular dispute , as it affected the EU , was resolved in a very short time , but we must be prepared for longer-lasting disputes .
Close cooperation in the energy field and the possibility of sharing energy reserves constitute one of the most effective and indispensable confidence-building measures both within the Union and between the Union and its neighbourhood .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , Mr President-in-Office of the Council , Commissioner , I believe that the way the talks are going between Ukraine and Russia makes it unmistakeably plain that Europe – which is more than just the European Union – needs a new and modern all-embracing energy policy .
The situation today is definitely more complex than it was then , and will probably have longer-lasting consequences in the energy area than was the case 30 & # 160 ; years ago .
This arrangement would enable us to prevent destructive triangular trade while ensuring for the least developed countries that their local populations working in the sugar-producing sector will actually benefit from the preferential trade regime with the European Union .
Irrespective of how justified it may be , the reform including – , in particular , the reduction in prices – will have harmful and far-reaching consequences for some of those poorest countries in the world that cannot cope with free competition in the world market .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – I am sorry but today 's debate , as far as Parliament 's opinion on the sugar industry is concerned , is a mockery , given that the Council has decided and the national governments are planning to implement the harsh , anti-farming decision under which thousands of small and medium-sized holdings will be wiped out , sugar factories will close and the workers will join the ranks of the unemployed .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; & # 160 ; & # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr & # 160 ; President , I am fully aware that ever more far-reaching reforms of the common agricultural policy must be and will be carried out .
In future , many sugar-beet-growing regions in the EU will not be able to grow as much sugar beet for food purposes or , in some cases , any at all .
This agreement itself was the result of a compromise that was achieved by toning down the harder-hitting proposal by the Commission .
The Convention will have to enhance transparency , responsibility and good governance in such diverse areas of public action as energy , agriculture , transport and tourism , by recognising a series of rights aimed at guaranteeing the effective participation of the citizens in public decision-making processes .
We need to place particular emphasis on the need for the integrated provision of electronically digitised information , as this will provide the basis for the proper implementation of public participation in all environmental control and awareness-raising procedures .
While there are many excellent NGOs and pressure groups , which bring to our attention legitimate concerns on environmental matters and act as watchdogs holding the institutions to account on our behalf , I would urge caution in allowing any self-legitimising group to put an added burden on the institutions and clog up an already overburdened justice system .
The most important part of the Convention is public participation in the decision-making process .
The PSE Group is working in general , and in this particular case , for a clean environment and for public participation in the decision-making process .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; . Mr & # 160 ; – President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , we have travelled a long road , with many ground-breaking discussions along the way , and today we are meeting for the finale , so to speak .
Of course , we could add French , hoping that more tourists will come from France and other French-speaking countries .
It is true that a fair amount of time was needed for the review but careful discussions were needed on such an important , broad-ranging strategy .
Both the Lisbon Strategy and the sustainable development strategy are predicated on implementing this objective in a fast-changing world .
Moves by Israel now to comply with international law would be a tremendous confidence-building measure and an important step on the road to stability in the Middle East .
The second is that Israel s largest right-wing group ’ , Likud , has never , ever , in any way agreed to make the slightest concession whatsoever on its vision of Israel ’ s future , a vision of Biblical Israel , ‘ or ‘ Greater Israel ’ , on the pretext of exchanging land for peace .
One of the EU s key objectives ’ should be equal representation in the political decision-making bodies .
Integrating women into the decision-making process is a modern-day necessity and an absolute prerequisite in strengthening democracy .
It is a horizontal and transverse element that cannot be ignored and cannot be reduced to a mere box-ticking exercise in an impact assessment .
Here again we encounter another problem , though , as the health care systems of the Member States are , in accordance with the subsidiarity principle , subject to the purview and decision-making powers of the Member States .
Ladies and gentlemen , if , as paragraph 23 of the report states , the aim is to achieve greater coordination between gender equality policies and the Lisbon Strategy in order to take better account of the gender perspective in fulfilling the objectives set out for the European Union in 2000 , I would like to draw attention to what is still the very small number of women both in the scientific and technological fields and in important decision-making positions in the business world .
The majority in Parliament , including the Portuguese socialists and social democrats , has adopted an all-singing , all-dancing report .
A fact-finding mission would doubtless be a very good idea , and I would recommend that European Parliament representatives be sent to the country as soon as possible , once an agreement has been reached with the Cambodian Government .
As you know , the accident on 19 January involving a Slovakian army aircraft led to the deaths of 42 soldiers as they returned from a NATO peace-keeping mission in Kosovo .
We are being asked to help , and today there is a fact-finding mission in Kinshasa , and I hope that in a few days time , on the 7th , it will be able to give us its results , so that we can see whether , in the end , the Member States of the European Union can take the decision to support the United Nations in response to this offer , or request .
Russia is an important partner , and , in maintaining a dialogue with it , we need to highlight the values of which I have spoken ; it goes without saying that human rights are another issue that needs to be raised with Russia , and they are , in a very wide-ranging dialogue .
However , the Council decided on 12 December , in view of the change in the situation , notably the prospect of elections to the Knesset in Israel , not to publish this study , but instead to inform high-ranking representatives of the Israeli Government of the European Union s concerns ’ in this area .
I believe that this Hamas victory reflects a situation in which Israeli policy has managed to realise a self-fulfilling prophecy .
The European Parliament must now make its own constructive contribution and , as soon as possible , invite a delegation from the newly-elected Palestinian Assembly to Brussels , for it is now that confidence-building measures – rather than threatening gestures – are urgently called for .
Let us think of the great difference in the form and depth of the seabed off the Adriatic and the Atlantic coasts , the issue of multispecies fishing , and the long-standing problem of fish sizes , when rules on mesh and net sizes are already being obeyed .
‘ Farm-Fed Chickens ’ , a long-standing poultry factory in Coleraine announced its closure with 350 & # 160 ; job losses , and ‘ Barber Threads ’ in Lisburn was a casualty with 85 & # 160 ; job losses in the textile sector .
3. the implementation of special measures to support specific groups and objectives , such as access for women to decision-making positions and the integration of female immigrants and women from ethnic minorities .
Most of the measures referred to in the motion for a resolution will be flagged as priorities in the roadmap , along with support for the economic independence of men and women , equal access to decision-making positions , compliance with the principle of equal treatment and the fight against domestic violence and human trafficking .
Until we have sufficient numbers of women at decision-making level , they will not be mainstreamed in policy responses and will not be adequately addressed .
It is a condemnation of the European Union that 13 & # 160 ; years after the completion of the single market , there are huge obstacles to cross-border postal activity , the work of the expanding home-shopping market and indeed for newspaper and magazine publishers .
The development of a European public sphere is of course a very far-reaching project and it will take time .
Our White Paper encourages debate on how we could improve our use of these tools to make more in-depth analysis and use that more efficiently to feed into the policy-making process .
All this can be summed up under three headings : improved road safety , better working conditions for drivers and , above all else , helping law-abiding haulage companies to be more competitive rather than sitting back and watching those that sit lighter to the law getting away scot-free with forcing their drivers to work longer hours than are permitted , simply because they are not checked up on .
We must therefore pay particular attention to the territorial and social dimension of postal networks when we are called on to make decisions on the reforms in the sector , in light of the far-reaching impact that those decisions may have when the postal services are entirely opened up to competition .
We therefore recommend that this House should , in March or at some appropriate time , have a wide-ranging debate on this issue , but , as far as a resolution is concerned , our group did – as in the past – take the view that we need one .
The improvement to our decision-making process has come to a halt .
This escalation of hatred and violence was triggered and fuelled by the liberal left-wing media who have long been attacking religions of all kinds .
Now we find that the whole time-consuming process was a meaningless charade .
They see that the broiler chicken is subjected to two daily medical visits , which are carried out by a veterinary surgeon who must be at least three metres away from the chicken ; the area in which the chickens are kept must be illuminated by a non-flickering light with an intensity of 50 lux , 20 lux or 100 lux – no one quite knows measured – at bird eye level ; the inside temperature of the farm must not exceed the outside temperature measured in the shade by more than 3 C ˚ ; the chicken s litter ’ must be 5 cm deep ; certificates are required for the purposes of keeping chickens and of castrating chicks that are less than ten days ’ old ; the chickens foot pads ’ must be examined , and the stocking density of the chickens must be limited to 28 , 30 , 35 or 42 kilograms per square metre , although it is not specified whether this means one kilo liveweight or metabolic weight .
Two weeks ago , a poultry-processing plant in Northern Ireland closed with the loss of over 400 & # 160 ; jobs , not to mention the other jobs on the farms and in the feed compound mills .
It was my predecessor , Philip Whitehead , who tabled this question on behalf of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection , and I know that he would have wanted to ensure that we support the SOLVIT system and encourage the Commission to refine and develop the problem-solving network on behalf of EU citizens and consumers .
When errors or problems arise in the implementation of EU laws , not only are citizens denied their rights , but the very credibility of the EU as a law-making institution is undermined .
At the same time , it has the potential to be the customer service face , or the front desk , of the EU law-making process .
As is indicated in our question , the committee certainly believes that the online problem-solving network can find pragmatic and rapid solutions , which do not have to end up in the courts or as infringement cases .
Mr President , the Commission very much appreciates the interest expressed by the European Parliament in the EU problem-solving network SOLVIT .
There are currently two issues that need to be addressed to allow SOLVIT to reach its full potential : the need for Member States ’ authorities to change administrative practices and habits , and ensuring that sufficient resources are available at national level to handle SOLVIT complaints and to engage in awareness-raising activities .
In addition , Parliament asks to be involved in the decision-making process for initiating consultation or suspending an agreement , or indeed for suspending any appropriate negative measures that have already been imposed on a country .
I finish by saying that as human rights feature more prominently in a range of foreign and security policy domains , and as cross-cutting issues demand more consistent participation , our knowledge and proficiency must be drawn on as joint decision-maker when it comes to initiating consultations and suspending agreements on the basis of human rights .
It is absolutely necessary , if we are to increase transparency and democratisation in decision-making processes , for the European Commission to inform Parliament and interested parties in the public sphere regularly , ideally on an annual basis , about the implementation of clauses dealing with the upholding of human rights and democratic principles , including studies of individual cases and of the approach taken by the Council over a given period , the success of given measures and suggested approaches for the future , in case a situation does not improve .
We can therefore say that with the adoption of this regulation the legislative component of our integrated border management strategy is fully completed ; and , if I may say so , I very much hope that we will continue to work together effectively in the future , for instance on the decision-making process and on other very sensitive issues such as the legal basis for the VIS and SIS .
This is a classic example of the often painfully slow nature of the European decision-making process .
Globalisation offers fresh opportunities in terms of access to the world s markets ’ , and yet many European citizens take a dim view of it , given the far-reaching effects on the European textiles industry of the restructuring and relocations currently taking place .
One of them , which must ultimately be decided by the European Parliament because it will have to be in the form of a law , is to set a quota for the study of medicine dentistry – and human medicine – that will be based not on nationality but on possession of the Austrian school-leaving certificate that guarantees access to higher education .
It is important for us in Europe to reach agreements with Japan , the US , and similarly with other consumers , to achieve a goal for which the oil-producing countries are also aiming : stable long-term prices .
I am working on the assumption that the Member States will , and should , retain their decision-making authority and competence over the relatively long term , but that we should also establish – in particular through this directive ways – to make it easier for European employees with pension funds to transfer their pension rights throughout Europe , which the introduction of minimum standards would of course make considerably easier .
Which of these mobility-increasing measures will you be proposing to the other Member States in the course of your Presidency ?
Mr & # 160 ; President , I think that all people in Europe , of whatever educational level – and in the German-speaking countries this includes a large number of apprentices undergoing vocational training – should have the same opportunities that perhaps used to be restricted to people with tertiary , academic educations .
This really is a far-reaching compromise .
It may involve only a non-binding declaration , but there is extensive reference to public interest as a ground for restricting the activities of service providers .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; ( ) We are on the point of taking a far-reaching decision affecting the fate of one of the basic freedoms of the Union , which has formed part of European law for more than fifty years .
However , let us learn one clear lesson for the future from all of this : a matter of such importance deserves thorough and long-standing preparation , particularly preparation of Europe ’ s public – the citizens we seek to represent and who in large number we seem to have managed to antagonise over this proposal .
Contrast that with this present method : one far-reaching proposal for a directive literally dumped on the table at the end of the last mandate .
The original sense and purpose of the directive must not be sacrificed in the interests of what are often far-reaching compromises .
The agreement is to provide a global advanced purchasing scheme to make sure that life-saving vaccines are commercially produced at affordable prices and that these are produced in ways of which we in this Parliament should all approve and which we should find essential at this time .
Over recent years , the EU has spared no effort to find a solution by negotiation and to urge Iran to adopt confidence-building measures with regard to its nuclear programme .
Yet this requires that Iran show sufficient willingness to be cooperative and open , in particular towards the IAEA , and to take urgently needed confidence-building measures such as suspending sensitive nuclear activities .
That this state will continue to need international aid for the foreseeable future is not a matter of doubt , but the aim must be to replace the international community s ’ ‘ push embodied ’ – above all in the High Representative s all-embracing prerogatives ’ , the so-called Bonn Powers ‘ ’ , by a pull ‘ ’ exercised from Brussels .
These highly complex decision-making processes have been and still are to a large extent geared to preserving peace and to fostering cooperation between the three national communities .
This was at a time when Paddy Ashdown s mandate ’ had already ended and Mr & # 160 ; Schwarz-Schilling s ’ had not yet begun .
A complex institutional structure means that the political decision-making process is not transparent , while expenditure on administration at all levels is a considerable burden on public finance .
However , national provisions introducing car taxes , tolls or charges have to be in line with the general principle of the EC Treaty and , in particular , should not give rise to border-crossing formalities in trade between Member States and should respect the non-discrimination principle .
It has initiated a far-reaching process to that end .
However , even before it was mentioned in the debate , the Commission , in its original proposal and together with the European Investment Bank , tried to develop an instrument called a risk-sharing facility ‘ ’ .
That was the idea behind introducing the risk-sharing facility with the EIB .
Will you make it your business to protect the ACP sugar-producing countries at this time , when they are feeling so vulnerable ?
But it has been important for the Commission to send a clear signal that we care about the possibilities for these sugar-producing ACP countries .
I do not , unfortunately , believe that anything will happen until the European Parliament obtains real influence over agricultural policy and until we get rather more people with farther-reaching visions of Europe in the committee .
State-owned forests are a self-financing , profit-making institution .
In view of its serious nature , this problem needs to be tackled , and a committed and far-reaching approach adopted , as a matter of urgency .
The imperialist attacks on and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan which followed the bombing of the people of Yugoslavia revealed once again in its true colours the repulsive face of American and Euro-unifying imperialism and its hideous crimes against peoples and mankind .
- the oral question to the Commission on EU measures against trafficking in human beings and the launch of an anti-trafficking day , by Karin Riis-Jørgensen and Elizabeth Lynne , on behalf of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe ( O-0011 / 2006 B6-0011 / 2006 ) ,
- the oral question to the Commission on EU measures against trafficking in human beings and the launch of an anti-trafficking day , by Hiltrud Breyer , on behalf of the Group of the Greens / European Free Alliance ( O-0017 / 2006 B6-0014 / 2006 ) ,
- the oral question to the Commission on EU measures against trafficking in human beings and the launch of an anti-trafficking day , by Lissy Gröner , on behalf of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament ( O-0019 / 2006 B6-0015 / 2006 ) , and
- the oral question to the Commission on EU measures against trafficking in human beings and the launch of an anti-trafficking day , by Eva-Britt Svensson , Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann , Kartika Tamara Liotard , Feleknas Uca , Ilda Figueiredo and Věra Flasarová , on behalf of the Confederal Group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left ( O-0021 / 2006 B6-0016 / 2006 ) .
I should like to finish , Commissioner , by mentioning that you proposed 25 March as an international anti-trafficking day during your recent visit to Athens .
This despicable trade is being unwittingly fostered by a policy agenda governed by man-hating lesbians with no knowledge or understanding of the real world .
In fact , many dentists – my own included – have long since stopped using mercury-containing amalgams , as the more modern alternatives – the white-coloured amalgams – are safer , more aesthetic and cost the same .
The conflict was not , however , between left-wing and right-wing forces , and the old Member States quickly found a compromise among themselves : some defended their large companies , while others protected their trade unions .
The working paper is going to be a stock-taking exercise to capture the wide range of different circumstances across the Member States , but at the same time – and I keep reiterating this – my views on ownership and media pluralism have not changed .
The role of public investment in safeguarding the open nature of ICTs should be considered fundamental , in order to guarantee the development of technical resources and cultural tools permitting all citizens to benefit from an ever-increasing volume of communication and information services .
I & # 160 ; admire and appreciate their work on this report , and in particular their patient awareness-raising campaign advocating the setting up of the Institute as a coordinator whose task will be to provide technical support for EU gender policy implementation , stimulating and acting in partnership with existing institutions , disseminating information and enhancing the visibility of issues relating to gender equality .
The Charter of Fundamental Rights , a politically correct , left-wing policy document enforced by an equally politically correct office for fundamental rights , along with job quotas and the other measures proposed in the now deceased but ever-looming European Constitution , are framed by the same ideology .
Thus the most repulsive article of the ' European Constitution ' about solidarity in the event of terrorist actions has come in through the back door because , as we know , the definition of terrorism is elastic and is adapted by Euro-unifying capital to circumstances and directed mainly at the mass , grass-roots movement and its fight against the anti-grass roots , repressive policy of the EU and the governments .
The resolution adopted by Parliament on company relocations was the only feasible resolution , because , by rejecting the amendments that we proposed , the compromise agreement between the dominant political forces , namely the social democrats and the Right , turned its back on a more far-reaching resolution .
On the one hand , I feel it is extremely important to realise that in terms of new technologies , almost everything that is said reflects a backward-looking approach .
Our proposed anti-dumping measures on leather shoes tackle , in contrast , unfair competition .
I fully understand the situation on anti-dumping measures and agree entirely with the Commission s outlook ’ on it .
Would there be a risk of us perhaps being taken to the WTO on the extent of anti-dumping measures or support ?
Mr President , I have a few questions and I will not be able to speak on behalf of my group in this case because , as with the anti-dumping cases , I think we are pretty much divided and have our own views on this issue .
My starting point is that the anti-dumping measures and instruments need to be taken quite seriously .
Unless we suppose that the consumer is benefiting , I believe it is worth noting that the anti-dumping duties are not likely to lead to increased consumer prices , but to decrease the profit margins of the importers .
It appears that the anti-dumping measures in no way comply with Community legislation or case-law and may have an extremely negative impact on the whole system of EU trade policy and consumers : we should therefore conduct a wholesale rethink of the WTO s laissez-faire doctrines ’ .
Following complaints by the European industry against China and Vietnam the Commission has opened an anti-dumping enquiry , which is the largest of its kind ever launched by the EU .
How are the anti-dumping enquiries proceeding and what are the prospects for the protection of EU interests ?
In this context , we should welcome the Commission s decision ’ to adopt anti-dumping measures , after it emerged that China and Vietnam had resorted to unfair practices , such as the artificially low pricing of its exports in this sector .
The gradual implementation of anti-dumping rights , from a low starting point , may lead to an immediate increase in advance imports from China and Vietnam , which would make the current situation much worse .
To add insult to injury , the Commission then went to the press with its plans for anti-dumping duties on leather shoes before even the Member States received the proposals , let alone this Parliament .
The anti-dumping duties – and this should be understood – are not a protective measure ; they are a measure of legal commercial defence and , if this measure is to be effective , the duties must be proportionate to the degree of dumping .
The new international division of labour has encouraged low-wage countries to specialise in labour-intensive industries , while high-saving countries concentrate on very capital-intensive industries .
On the other hand , though , I am also seriously worried about the ever-increasing role played by the state in dumping , about the unjustified prices for land , about the tax reliefs for export businesses , about the banks unrecoverable loans ’ , about the subsidised costs of raw materials , and about much else besides .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; I wish to begin by expressing my support for the proposal to adopt anti-dumping measures in the footwear sector .
This is what will happen with the proposed gradual approach to implementing anti-dumping measures .
However , we need to ask in whose interests these anti-dumping duties are being imposed .
If the Commission truly feels that retailers are making too high a margin on shoes , then it should launch an investigation into the competitiveness of the shoe industry , not punish retailers and the supply chain by using the blunt instrument of anti-dumping duties .
The application of anti-dumping measures has taken place with a sluggishness that has not been seen before , and above all anti-dumping duties are being proposed that are not sufficient to tackle a situation of unfair competition that the Commission itself defines as serious .
The application of anti-dumping measures has taken place with a sluggishness that has not been seen before , and above all anti-dumping duties are being proposed that are not sufficient to tackle a situation of unfair competition that the Commission itself defines as serious .
In the time I have available I think it would be better to stick to shoes , but I can assure you that the question of any anti-dumping duty on bed linen will be properly assessed and properly applied as , in my opinion , it is at the moment .
I should like to say , though , that I agree particularly with Mr Papastamkos and Mrs Saïfi , both of whom see the need to intervene against anti-competitive and trade-distorting behaviour by our partners , but at the same time to do so with a degree of perspective and balance that I think it behoves me to uphold .
We were not , as in this case , dealing with anti-competitive measures – dumping actions – that attract an anti-dumping measure in the form of a tariff duty – not a quota and not a physical limit .
If China were to do that , and to respond to the anxieties felt in Europe and around the world about the growth of its export capacity in a way that rebalanced the terms of trade – so that as well as people seeing goods coming in ever-growing numbers from China , they were also to see those containers being refilled and returned to China with European and other goods – it would do more than anything else to still public anxiety about what we are seeing in China .
However , China has a responsibility to make sure that no artificial or unreasonable barriers remain in place to European goods and services being sold to the Chinese market in ever-growing numbers .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; I welcome the Commission s diligence ’ in listening to the demands of small and medium-sized European enterprises worried by the increase in imports from non-EU countries , and the latest proposal for compensatory anti-dumping duties on leather shoes , against China and Vietnam .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; I want to raise with the Commissioner the plight of a factory in my constituency ' Dickies ' – in Midsomer Norton , near Radstock in Somerset – whose future and workforce are threatened by any adverse outcome from your services ' current investigation of an anti-dumping complaint regarding protective footwear imported from China .
I have met with representatives of both management and the workforce , including trade union representatives from GMB , and they are united in stating that jobs and livelihoods are at stake should the Commission impose anti-dumping duties on this particular sector .
It is carried out in the course of discussions with high-ranking officials from the countries concerned .
We are all aware of this , but the situation is further complicated if the Commission is not prepared to introduce greater transparency into its decision-making process .
Europe must consider that if we now have 38 non-working pensioners for every hundred workers , this may double in the coming decade unless a change in employment policy is implemented .
We must never forget that the great majority of men and women involved in the sector are honest , dedicated and extremely hard-working people .
Turning to the amendments : with regard to Amendment 1 on centralisation and co-management , the Commission would like to see substantial RAC involvement in the elaboration of technical measures without , however , any change to the decision-making process .
First of all , there is the need for the Commission to take a more wide-ranging view of measures to protect the marine environment and rebuild depleted fish stocks , in particular by studying factors other than over-fishing that may cause fish stocks to be depleted , such as pollution and global warming .
The sustainability of resources needs to be based on a wide-ranging approach to measures to protect the marine environment and to rebuild depleted stocks , in which other factors such as coastal and offshore pollution , industrial and agricultural effluents , deep-sea dredging and maritime transport are also taken on board .
It is in every fisherman s interest ’ that future stocks are protected and , if we must have controls , then let the industry be part of the decision-making process .
With regard to the point raised by Mrs Corbey , we are looking at the question of certification and labelling regarding sustainable fisheries by means of the eco-labelling proposal , which we hope to present during the course of this year .
Naturally , this event will provoke further reactions and tensions on both sides , leading to what might be described as a never-ending story ‘ ’ .
Consequently , as we suggest in the resolution that we tabled , it is vital that the Lisbon Strategy be replaced by a European strategy for solidarity and sustainable development , which will promote investment in research and innovation with the aim of balanced and long-lasting development , in the quality of work in all its aspects , in improving qualifications , in basic infrastructure for supporting industry , in public services , in environmental protection and environmental technology , especially in energy and transport , in improving labour , social , environmental and security laws , in order to achieve harmonisation at the highest levels , and in the social economy .
The all-encompassing welfare state of the Eighties is no longer the answer .
Close cooperation in the energy security field is indispensable and the most effective confidence-building measure , both within the European Union as well as between the Union and its neighbours .
We should summon up the nerve to scrutinise the ways in which social security systems are funded , for the demographic reality is drawing nearer at ever-increasing speed .
While we are fully supportive of the efforts of the President of the Commission and some Member States to reduce burdens on business and impediments to job creation , we are concerned that some of the measures outlined in the resolution could lead to higher costs on business and detract from the over-riding priority of making Europe more competitive in the global market place and thus significantly reducing unemployment levels .
The attack by Euro-unifying capital is being extended and embraces all the basic links , with the invasion of capital in and the commercialisation of health , education and energy , the dismantling of labour relations and the sweeping away of any rights acquired by the working classes , with the new attack on its insurance and pension rights .
Public opinion in Montenegro and Kosovo , areas where four years ago , along with 12 Member States , the euro was introduced as legal tender , take it as read that they will soon be admitted to the EU as independent states , while the Hungarian-speaking people of Vojvodina expect protection against Slav dominance .
This term was never clearly defined and today is nothing more than a clever-sounding excuse , a cheap explanation for backing out of the enlargement process .
It has set far-reaching goals .
As far as the question of trade is concerned , it can still be addressed within the framework of the recent agreement on discussions of a package of confidence-building measures .
Commissioner Olli Rehn knows very well that there is no solution without autonomy for Swedish-speaking Finns in Finland , and there cannot be a solution in the Balkans or for the Kurds living in Turkey , either .
Looked at objectively , 3 October last year saw the taking of political decisions with far-reaching implications ; what is ahead of us now – ‘ us being ’ the Council and the Commission with our partners around the world – is a period of quietly working on the issues .
Unfortunately , this case has also become a weapon for the right-wing government in its fight against the independence of the Polish National Bank , which is also the central bank .
This problem , in particular , has made clear to us that we have to specifically take the route of forward-looking dialogue between the EU and the Islamic world and with Muslim communities in Europe .
The challenge for us now is to make use of all the appropriate opportunities for dialogue to successfully continue the long-standing efforts towards bringing the peoples on both sides of the Mediterranean closer together .
In this case , the data shows that in terms of reducing poverty , the immediate gains are considerably lower , although other benefits may accrue from the far-reaching changes taking place in the economies of our Mediterranean partners .
Capacity-building issues will also be centre-stage at the third meeting of the parties .
Complementary medicines with a holistic and person-centred approach are attracting an ever-widening public .
There is a similar problem with consumer protection , which is sometimes nothing but high-sounding phrases because of the predominance of wealthy monopolies on the market which look after their own interests and pour vast resources into advertising .
However , it is appropriate for the EU to encourage health-promoting lifestyles and at least require minimum health service standards in the various countries .
However , I do not think EU funds should be used to promote profit-making health industries ; they have plenty of funds to promote themselves .
Second , we allow the ever-more powerful multinational tobacco manufacturers to lobby and influence important decision-making centres freely ; they certainly freely lobby MEPs .
We have no structured anti-smoking teaching programmes in our schools .
Many Member States pay for expensive departments for smoking-related diseases , but they do not pay for smokers to go on anti-smoking programmes before they become ill .
We have completed more than one hundred so far , and we will continue to improve their quality and ensure that they make a real difference in our decision-making process .
Parliament recently adopted an amendment seeking an ambitious but realistic target of 60 % of electricity in the European Union coming from ultra-low or non-carbon-emitting sources .
On one point , however , the proposal is deficient , and that is in relation to the decision-making centres .
The question I put to each and every one of us is : ‘ Can Europe be governed by 25 different governments , or has the moment perhaps been reached when European strategy regarding foreign policy , security and energy should have a single decision-making centre in order to be able to deal in a timely and consistent manner with the challenges now thrown up by the fast-moving modern world ? ’
The European Union has to beware of pressure from energy-producing countries , and if it is to do that , then greater diversification of energy suppliers is a political necessity .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; The next item is the statement by the Council on criteria for peace-keeping operations , especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo .
In this context , the UN , which has the largest peace-keeping mission in its history in Congo , has called on the EU to help the elections scheduled for 18 & # 160 ; June to pass off peacefully .
Months have passed since the inquiry and the inconclusive fact-finding mission to Congo and since New York , yet there is still no sign of a political plan or a clear task .
I consider that in recent weeks serious deficits in the European decision-making process have come to light , deficits that remain to be removed .
Without demanding unrealistic treaty amendments , we need to achieve an outcome whereby a review of decision-making processes is conducted without delay at Council level , so that in situations in which decisions have to be taken more quickly than is the case at present , it is actually possible to take those decisions .
I believe that we are in danger of two things happening : that we will make fools of ourselves by announcing very high figures for very little in terms of achievement and , above all , that there will be a boomerang effect on our tax-paying constituents , who are going to wonder how on earth we can put the sums announced to good use .
Let me be quite clear about this : we do not want negotiations that reflect the style and behaviour of a colonial power ; we believe that the decision-making sovereignty of our partners in the ACP countries must be preserved .
I believe , though , that we are obliged to describe political parties as being , in a sound parliamentary democracy , an important link between the public and the decision-making process and that this is not to be had for free .
This is of enormous importance today because we are engaged in far-reaching reflections on the future of Europe , which call for broad dialogue with its citizens .
This is a particularly dangerous tendency ; therefore , it is essential to strengthen Europe 's local parties that each would have either left or right-wing ideology , which would become a landmark for parties of the left and right in different states , in every way possible , in a financial sense too .
The Commission s view ’ is that the CFR will be a better law-making toolbox for achieving coherence when revising existing legislation and adopting new instruments in the area of contract law , particularly consumer contract law , on which the currency of our work has been refocused .
This type of support will allow us to combine contacts with middle-ranking officials to reduce the self-isolation of Belarus ; cooperation with NGOs ; and support directly benefiting the population , for example in the health sector , the environment or in the Chernobyl-affected area .
This far-reaching revision process should aim to isolate the authorities in power without isolating Belarusian society .
Belarus is now saddled with a paranoid , self-isolating dictator , Mr Lukashenko .
In order to be able to face the challenge of demographic change and sustain an ever-changing society , we need to ensure the determined implementation of the Lisbon Agenda .
I am also asking for support on Amendment 20 , which seeks to recognise the potential of assisted-living housing .
Coping with demographic challenges must be a long-lasting solution which reaches even far beyond the Lisbon deadlines .
We must not go back down the route of farm subsidies , only to realise a few years later that our well-meaning policy is incompatible with WTO requirements .
The key to securing Europe ’ s future – and this is a revolutionary development of which we have yet to take nearly enough account – lies to an ever-increasing extent in our rural areas and rural , decentralised structures .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – The EU decision to send the military forces of the Euro-army to the Democratic Republic of Congo relates to competition between the imperialist forces to control the markets and the wealth-producing resources of the Congo and Africa in general , which has paid for this policy with millions of lives .
The unbridled increase in scale of the decision-making process in a Europe which should , mark well , consist of very different and very definitely sovereign Member States , is the surest way of reducing democracy and making decision-making even less transparent by introducing bureaucracy that is virtually impossible to monitor , something of which there are many examples these days , by the way .
What is needed is more high-quality jobs with rights , better public services , more employment-generating investment and greater social inclusion , along with fairer distribution of wealth .
Democracy consists of allowing nations to govern themselves or to choose representatives to defend their interests within decision-making authorities , parliaments or governments .
The report promotes the upgrading of their role and makes the funding system more flexible , so that they can be used as part of the brain-washing mechanism in preparation for the Euro-Constitution and its policy , in order to break grass-roots opposition .
Fast-growing willows and poplars can be used , as I saw some years ago in Austria , to provide small-scale heat and electricity supply in remote , isolated areas .
At the same time , moreover , we would produce energy-saving technology and use renewable energy sources .
If and when it is , the Commission will examine it very carefully and impartially and will conduct a wide-ranging investigation to assess its possible impact on the steel industry in Europe .
It is not acceptable that the EU ’ s most important law-making body , the Council , still meets behind closed doors when acting as a legislator .
For this to happen , there must be a decision-making process based on transparent , open negotiations , and proper cooperation between the institutions , without any unwanted secretiveness .
By having one of our law-making institutions meeting and deciding issues in private , behind closed doors , we are denying the creation and the birth of that political space .
We are paying into the round with proposed real reductions in agricultural tariffs , as well as trade-distorting subsidies , if these are matched by real cuts in industrial tariffs and genuine additional services liberalisation by those who can contribute .
We agree with the approach taken by the rapporteur , who has underlined the need to make progress on all issues in this wide-ranging agenda , with a clear emphasis on the objectives of poverty reduction and sustainable development .
The WTO has taken concrete steps to improve the transparency and democratic participation in its decision-making processes , yet there remain basic flaws , which many of my contributions to this report have sought to address .
As it turned out , other WTO members have shown no such far-reaching desire to offer concessions , and what is more , they have blamed the European Union for the lack of progress in the negotiations .
Concerning equal opportunities for men and women , the spring session of the European Council adopted the European Pact for Gender Equality , and the Council also adopted the Commission proposal to launch a wide-ranging debate which should lead to the adoption of common principles in the area of flexibility and security ( ‘ flexsecurity ’ ) by the end of 2007 .
It is especially important that child care and other areas be developed so that it is possible for men and women alike both to work and to have an up-and-running family life .
Just in the last few months , Polish workers have been discovered in France , living in hovels , malnourished , unpaid and with no care – they had been brought to the country by a German sub-contracting company .
Over and over again , we ram home the point that an improvement in the employment situation is essential , but , at the same time , the EU encourages workers to be mobile and more flexible , even though studies have proved that the reality is that new forms of work – such as part-time working – do nothing more than share out a scarcely-changing amount of work around more people .
The general impression that comes out , however , is that Brussels ' competition policy is the expression of the Commission 's ultraliberal doctrine against ' economic patriotism ' , paradoxically put into practice by a nit-picking bureaucracy that continually interferes in business strategies and national policies .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Τhe Kommounistiko Komma Elladas voted against the report on the assessment of the Doha Round , because it moves in and repeats the reactionary , anti-grass roots framework of the WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong and the extravagant claims of Euro-unifying capital , as defined and promoted in splendid cooperation with the USA .
The objective of the ΕU and the USA during the negotiations which are under way is even greater exploitation of the peoples and the wealth-producing resources of the developed , capitalist countries and even more of the developing and less developed countries .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; , . – The EU broad economic policy guidelines for 2006 include all the anti-grass roots measures which will bring about higher prices and greater inequality , poverty , uncertainty and unhappiness for the working class and grass-roots classes and greater wealth for Euro-unifying capital .
The decision-making process needs to be as transparent as possible for the general public .
This is where governments have already been represented at the decision-making process , where Parliament and the Commission have been involved , but when it comes to transposition there is a difficulty because of a local domestic political dispute or because of a fear of a backlash in that political area .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Commissioner , bearing in mind that the IRA is believed after its Northern Bank robbery to have exploited money-laundering opportunities in Bulgaria , what specific steps are being taken to ensure that the authorities and organisations there , and indeed in Romania , are ready and able to implement the legislative requirements on money laundering and terrorist financing ?
Incidentally , a Green Paper on the development of employment legislation in Europe will be published shortly , and will become , I hope , the basis for some very far-reaching discussions on the customs , methods and development of employment law and employer-employee legal relationships in the EU Member States .
I should therefore like to ask , once again , whether , as part of its approach to the problem of Western Sahara , the Commission intends to ask the Polisario Front what it thinks of this agreement , given that it will have far-reaching implications for Western Sahara .
For the parts of Europe concerned , there will be a higher co-financing rate under the structural funds and the Cohesion Fund .
The co-financing rate under this additional allocation will be at the level of 50 % ; this additional allocation amounts to EUR & # 160 ; 35 per year per capita in each of the seven outermost regions .
This programme is one of the tools that could help the EU to achieve these objectives , by means of town-twinning activities , citizens projects ’ , building up European networks in the civil-society sector , and adult-education centres .
I should like to make one final point – one already touched upon by Mr & # 160 ; Battilocchio : we need town-twinning activities , which do a wonderful job .
As Mrs & # 160 ; Pack has just said , one key aspect is town-twinning activities , which foster mutual acquaintance and understanding by means of common selective , but also structured , multiannual agreements .
For this reason , I should like to thank Mr & # 160 ; Takkula , who has made real efforts to achieve a balance and also to refrain from making any cuts in the small budget , for example in the field of town-twinning activities .
The Commission therefore welcomes measures taken by Member States to reduce national emissions in order to meet their burden-sharing target .
This legislation is a fascinating case study for anyone interested in the institutional decision-making processes of the European Parliament .
Fluorinated gases were introduced in the nineties to replace the ozone-depleting CFCs and HCFCs .
The additional paragraph 3 in Article 9 gives the Member States , and in particular Austria and Denmark , the option of retaining their existing further-reaching bans on the placing on the market of fluorinated gases .
What is more , I would like to know from the Commission – and I hope its members are listening to me – whether or not its intentions to improve the decision-making system relating to external programmes are genuine , because there are conflicting opinions on this that I would like it to clarify for me .
The ageing of the population in Europe is , in fact , not so much a challenge as a life-threatening problem , not only in terms of keeping our social security systems , and therefore our economies , intact , but also , quite simple , of securing the continued existence of European peoples .
As regards SMEs , a particularly important step was the encouragement by the Austrian Presidency and the Commission to reduce the red tape that hampers so many potentially job-creating initiatives by companies .
You are here today as a Head of State , but we are well aware of your long-standing commitment to European integration , as Prime Minister of your country , for many years — the years of Malta s journey ’ towards the Union .
The Union that they had grown up in was altered by the 1995 enlargement and even more by the 2004 one , and in the light of globalisation the Constitutional project appeared to entail never-ending change .
However , there are other challenges to which Europe responded too slowly and in relation to which there is always an ever-increasing need for action at European level .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; .I obviously support this report aimed at bringing the citizens and the European institutions closer together , which is something of an objective , if not a necessity in today ’ s Europe of ever-increasing scepticism .
Exorbitantly expensive , historically disconnected , superficial cultural programmes run by venture companies , agencies and sponsors on vulgar , commercial / profit-making criteria which overshadowed any enlightened exemptions .
I believe that that analysis can explain the result achieved by the Labour Party , and that achieved by the Pensioners ' Party or those parties with a limited social or linguistic base , including the Shas party or the Israel Beitenu party , the party of the Russian-speaking community .
The inward-looking focus of the Israeli electorate has a parallel in Hamas s ’ desire to focus on Palestinian issues and to ignore an Israel whose right to exist it still rejects .
That act must be aimed at providing new and clear reference points leading to an outlook based on law and at restoring hope among the peace-keeping forces throughout the region .
Only a peaceful , negotiated settlement can address the legitimate and long-standing concerns of the roadmap process .
In conclusion , and with regard to determining the methods and entities for awarding financial aid to free Belarus , I urge the Commissioner to include in the relevant decision-making bodies people with a good knowledge and understanding of Belarus , its circumstances , problems , and national identity which I mentioned earlier .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – I truly wish to congratulate my honourable friend , Mr Casaca , on his question , but I should like to add that , over the last year , numerous distinguished journalists and numerous distinguished intellectuals who were left-wing fighters in Lebanon have been murdered .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , I would like to welcome those who have taken this initiative , and there are many involved in the decision-making chain , and it therefore seems to me to be exceptional .
Commissioner , as I have said , we believe that this co-funding mechanism — contributions from Member States for measures that have always been of an exclusively Community nature — would set a serious precedent within the CAP and could jeopardise the principle of the single market .
The much-heard argument that vaccination leads to sales problems has almost turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy , because as long as Europe , as a prosperous market community , hides behind this argument , worldwide vaccination will itself continue to be treated like an contagious disease .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , I thank Mr & # 160 ; Cornillet for his excellent and wide-ranging report , which covered all the points raised in the debate this morning .
I suggest to the Commissioner that we recognise and acknowledge about 200 & # 160 ; civil servants in each developing country as the key players in the decision-making process and include them in budget support .
We in this House should sweep away this foul-smelling filth from in front of our own front doors first .
Weak moral principles promote both self-serving transactions and the concealment of those transactions .
I hope that Parliament will also take a stand on the presidential elections in the oil-producing countries of Kazakhstan , Uzbekistan , Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan , and other countries which are not free and where the results have been falsified .
If such an eventuality were to be negotiated , it would not adversely affect the wellbeing of the Turkish people ; through the establishment of long-lasting stability , it would bring peace and prosperity to the whole of Turkey .
Consequently , it must send , without delay , under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter , a tough , well-equipped stabilising force , in so doing preparing the groundwork for a suitable-sized UN peace-keeping operation , both with a significant European contribution .
It seems to be a sort of ‘ never-ending story ’ .
What I believe matters is substance , that proceedings should be embarked on where there is real reason to do so , and I do believe that Bulgaria , like Romania , is endeavouring to make charges stick and take hard-hitting action where corruption is to be found .
I pay tribute to Brazil in contributing to nuclear non-proliferation and to several Latin American countries for contributing to peace-keeping operations in Haiti , but I also hope that the Vienna Summit secures support from our Latin American partners for a WTO round which genuinely targets development , not least because countries from Bolivia to Honduras to Nicaragua are themselves highly indebted poor countries and have most to gain .
It is this all-embracing approach to human rights that we should make our own , and ideological speeches such as Mr Tannock s ’ get us nowhere .
It is liable to make the Palestinian population more radical at a time when it needs aid more than it does lessons if it is to keep hoping for a just and long-lasting peace and to believe in democracy .
Last October , a request for the European Commission to initiate anti-dumping measures against China , Malaysia , South Korea and Thailand was submitted by the Czech company Tesla Ecimex ‘ ’ and the Lithuanian company Ekranas ‘ ’ , both of which manufacture cathode-ray tubes .
On 11 January this year , it was reported in the Official Journal of the European Union that an anti-dumping investigation had been launched .
I urge the Commission to apply anti-dumping measures more actively and do what it can to aid European manufacturers and honest competition .
To be absolutely clear , this is not about the issue of having the seat of Parliament in Strasbourg – that is laid down in the Treaties – but about whether it is really the purpose of such a sub-letting situation that , in the rent we are paying to the city of Strasbourg , we are giving a direct subsidy – for that is exactly what it would be – to the city 's budget .
Many of the issues that have come up are recurrent , and we can therefore talk of a cross-cutting analysis of issues that have emerged across the various agencies .
I therefore think it is important that the Commission should make the services of EPSO , the Commission s Directorate-General ’ for Personnel Selection , available to them , as well as supplying other cross-cutting services such as training and the legal service .
This system of surveillance must be rational and just give answers – are the proper policy-making decisions implemented properly or not ?
The Lamfalussy principle should apply to those areas of the directive that are amended in order to achieve flexibility and facilitate adaptation to rapidly-changing markets .
It will of course be possible to trigger the alarm manually , for example if one witnesses an accident or gets into a life-threatening situation oneself .
The fact is that there is no democratic basis whatever for the favoured position accorded to English and French within the EU , and , particularly given the greater importance of German as a consequence of the enlargement , it is not acceptable that the EU should disregard long-standing agreements and more or less ignore German as a working language .
We live in a very fast-moving world .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , on behalf of the Group of the Greens / European Free Alliance in the European Parliament , I too should like to stress that if we do deny Parliament its discharge , as Mr & # 160 ; Ferber proposes , this will send the clear political message that we want to gain another six months in which to investigate this matter thoroughly , to go on a fact-finding mission , working through the details of the two buildings in Strasbourg with a fine tooth comb – .
This money-making scheme , which sucks the manufacturing economy dry and tramples over the rights acquired by many workers , maximises the profits of the banking industry and management companies , whilst increasing the risk of financial and economic crises .
What could be better than to control private banking , the banks , including State banks , in order to put an end to this aspect of the drug-trafficking business .
The Assembly and its power-sharing executive have been suspended by the British Government since 2002 .
It is time for Ian Paisley s Democratic Unionist Party ’ to move forward with the rest of us , on the basis of equality , to fully restore the North of Ireland Assembly and the power-sharing executive .
Our group is behind the consumer and well-meaning enterprises .
The existing decision-making tools create undue delays and , even more regrettably , do not ensure proper democratic scrutiny .
The Commission proposes improving the decision-making process in these areas .
You are going to propose to the Member States a reform of the decision-making process in the field of judicial and police cooperation .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Mr President , Commissioner , in Ancient Rome , when a high-ranking man was condemned , he had the right to have someone else punished on his behalf .
Despite the on-going ups and downs surrounding the financial perspectives , an amount to the tune of EUR 400 million is available for this new Marco Polo programme , which is double the amount that has so far been available annually .
There is an ever-increasing incidence of obesity in Europe , affecting more and more children .
For myself , I want a complete list of ingredients and a mention of any nutrient-damaging process like irradiation , bleaching , saturation etc. to which the ingredients were exposed .
This includes , for example , the construction and / or adaptation of barrier-crossing mechanisms along rivers .
The European Parliamentary Labour Party & # 160 ; is concerned over the impact of the proposed fisheries agreement on the position of Western Sahara and the prospects for resolving that long-running conflict .
In voting on this report I am extremely concerned about the impact of the proposed fisheries agreement on the position of Western Sahara and the prospects of resolving that long-running conflict .
We also have a network of 23 awareness-raising projects , which provide advice to children , teenagers , parents and educators about the risks of the Internet and the way to deal with them .
Let me say today that I am sure that with the help of Parliament the Safer Internet Day in spring 2007 will become a real important awareness-raising day in all our Member States .
At the end of the year , when we present this study , it will be most beneficial to organise an awareness-raising campaign on those filters in order to inform parents what they can do to help their children .
In this context , it is important to underline that the EU is making continuous efforts to improve energy relations with other energy-producing organisations – such as OPEC , the Gulf Cooperation Council , the countries of the Caspian Basin and north Africa – as well as with the consuming regions in the framework of the International Energy Forum , the International Energy Agency , G8 and through bilateral agreements and dialogues .
The impossibility of distinguishing these proteins and bone spicules , which do not pose a TSE risk from proteins of ruminant origin which could contain BSE-carrying prions , resulted in a number of high-profile , extremely costly , wasteful and unnecessary withdrawals from shipments and , more controversially , beet-based animal feed , owing to this harmless and unavoidable adventitious presence of non-ruminant proteins .
Small firms , of course , do not have the resources for time-consuming translations .
If it had been a company operating in a fast-changing environment , I would have advised the ECB , when it was drawing up a profile for a new board member , to look at this aspect of diversity .
He is convincing on account not only of his personal integrity , but also of his wide-ranging experience and his competence , particularly in matters of monetary policy .
It thus , in fact , wants to punish these countries for implementing far-reaching reforms of their public finance systems .
This agreement also clearly recognises the role Parliament will play in the wide-ranging review covering all aspects of EU spending and resources , which will be one of the top priorities in the coming years .
Public spending cannot replace the far-reaching reforms needed to make the Union competitive .
This interinstitutional agreement locks us into never-ending wrangling between the net contributors , the net recipients , old Europe , new Europe , the Council and Parliament , at a time when we must be one Europe or we risk being no Europe .
It uses lots of high-sounding words that give the impression that the EU is professional , well organised and has properly-maintained financial records .
This will be one of the most significant and far-reaching votes in this part-session .
Something that I am sure nobody knows , or few people know , is that the President of the Hellenic Republic visiting us today was a pole-vaulting champion in his youth .
I believe that its institutional role will be strengthened as the process of European integration progresses and I am convinced that this development is the natural way forward for our political culture , especially in times when the citizens of Europe feel insecure about their future and , often , remote from the decision-making centres .
The worst thing is that society has developed a deep distrust of the decision-making centres .
The budget is still not large enough now , and the budgetary wrangling needed to satisfy the justifiable and ever-increasing demands aimed at financing all of the EU policies will be very difficult over the next few years .
That is why the measures proposed are a higher retirement age , flexible forms of work , lifelong learning and the strengthening of companies , in other words measures and objectives that want slave workers to work without rights to employment , a pension and the basic human necessities , so that euro-unifying capital can increase its competitiveness and profits .
Secondly , I am grateful for the recognition of the effectiveness of the EU election-monitoring activities .
I shall be writing to you shortly setting out some ideas on the establishment of a Peace-Building Partnership to improve practical implementation of civilian peace-building projects .
First of all , a series of amendments Amendments 48 – , 50 , 51 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 65 , 66 and 67 propose – to establish separate policy-setting regulations and a multiannual financial framework to be adopted by codecision in addition to the DCECI .
Parliament essentially exercises its competences in the policy domain at three levels : determination of political priorities – which means codecision at policy-setting level , monitoring implementation , and budgetary powers .
We should also not permit the human rights instrument , which Parliament has consistently been calling for , to be used to make us relinquish our policy-setting powers .
Previous financial instruments are being combined and the decision-making process reformed .
Hitherto , cross-border cooperation has been very unwieldy , as the decision-making systems for funding under TACIS in external relations and regional development financing within the Union have been very different .
For all the financial instruments we need a decision-making system that safeguards Parliament ’ s influence even after the regulations are adopted .
To do so requires a flexible decision-making process and a Council that is capable of action .
Let me now turn to the decision-making process in the bodies of the Energy Community and to the positions to be adopted by the European Community in these bodies .
Parliament is not directly involved in the decision-making process agreed with the parties to the Energy Community Treaty .
One important aspect of this decision-making process is the requirement for Community positions on Energy Community decisions falling under Titles & # 160 ; III and IV of the Energy Community Treaty to be in line with the , with the exception of measures falling under Chapter IV of Title IV of the said Treaty , which concerns mutual assistance in the event of disruption of energy supplies .
In these circumstances it is essential for the Union to develop a coherent , over-arching strategy which will better define its strategic priorities in the 21st century for the world outside , and that must begin with this budget .
In conclusion , the 2007 budget procedure , as the first budget of the new financial perspective , represents a real opportunity for a broad mobilisation to adjust to the new policy challenges of a fast-changing world .
I should also like to congratulate the rapporteur on this report , because it is a hard-hitting document that gets its priorities right .
As for agriculture and horticulture , it is all hands on deck , for the Council s easy way-out ’ , allowing countries to transfer , on a voluntary basis , 20 % of the premiums to rural development , could well prove to be a stab in the back for hard-working farmers and horticulturalists .
The recent Barnier report also explores certain forward-looking suggestions for our response to disasters .
It aims , , to support the efforts of Member States in the field of forest fire prevention , mainly through the implementation of knowledge-related measures such as training and awareness-raising campaigns .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; . Mr President , Commissioner – , ladies and gentlemen , faced with the ever more frequent occurrence of natural disasters – for example the many forest fires and floods , not least in the summer of 2005 – there is an ever-growing demand for European solidarity .
I am in favour of a Solidarity Fund and of giving aid to the victims , but let us genuinely seek out the causes , otherwise we are just going to make changes to a never-ending problem .
In the light of this far-reaching agreement between our two institutions , the Commission appeals to the Member States and the Council to rethink their position which , up to now , has certainly been much less favourable than that of this House .
These are areas where the Conservative Party has had a long-standing opposition to moving to the Community method .
Consequently , there needs to be a compensation fund , especially for small- and medium-sized holdings which , unless they receive compensation from the ΕU and the state , cannot continue their activities because , apart from the consequences of the anti-farming policy of the ΕU , they have to deal with climatic dangers , as in my country , in the areas of Thrace and Thessalia , where their production has been destroyed by floods and they face an acute problem of survival .
If I & # 160 ; were a & # 160 ; judge in a & # 160 ; figure-skating competition , I & # 160 ; would give very good marks for artistic performance , but less on the technical aspect .
The questions and their answers , yet to be found , cannot prevent the will of the deciding majority to be taken into account in the decision-making process of the European Union .
However , this can only be achieved by the renewal of the institutional and decision-making system of the European Union , because the Union cannot be enlarged any further if it does not change the way it functions .
Without high-standard legislation , a more efficient decision-making mechanism and a stronger role of Parliament , the European Union may not only lose its efficiency , but its ability to function , as well .
As a result , many moderate-thinking Muslims see certain efforts being made to combat terrorism as adding to the problem and fuelling fundamentalist thinking , rather than providing an effective solution .
Building on an awareness of how things really are and proceeding on the basis of the New Transatlantic Agenda of 1995 and of the economic agenda that we have had since 1998 , which has been upheld at all the summits , in all the decisions of the European Parliament and in the Commission s work programme ’ and which was upheld and confirmed in the legislative dialogue that took place a couple of weeks ago in Vienna between our fellow Members and the Americans , we should therefore take a further step – not an earth-shattering step , but just a small one – and say : let us at long last remove the barriers that are causing problems .
It goes without saying , then , that it is a matter of central importance for every Presidency that a strong and well-functioning network of relations should be in place .
On the air services agreement , we will have to keep pushing the US Government to go ahead with the rule-making changes and resist protectionist pressure from Congress .
Be assured that we will exhaust all our informal channels with the United States and try everything possible to avoid going down the expensive and time-consuming route to Geneva , whenever this is avoidable .
Yesterday , I received an e-mail from the left-wing antiglobalisation movement .
We have had lengthy and extensive debates in this House on the renewal of patents for research-conducting producers of medicines , and sometimes there was haggling over each individual month of renewal .
If the research-conducting producers of medicines require an additional incentive in order to develop their products , then they should get it .
The rules used when assessing individual Member States must be clear , and the decision-making process must be totally transparent .
Experience gained from previous European Years shows that these campaigns are crucial for achieving the awareness-raising objectives , and evaluation reports have always pointed to scarcity of resources as an issue in this respect .
The reason for this is simple – a lack of financial resources to establish wide-ranging dialogue between people at national and at bilateral and multilateral international levels .
The report that we will approve tomorrow also includes recommendations that are worth highlighting here : the need for massive investment in improvements to infrastructures given – that we suffer an average 12 % loss in transmission networks , with losses of up to 20 % in certain Member States ; the completion of the internal energy market ; greater investment in research , development and innovation in the field of more efficient technologies ; the introduction of stricter requirements for domestic appliances and tighter controls of products available on the European market that do not conform to minimum standards ; efficiency criteria in relations with developing countries ; and strengthened dialogue with the main energy-producing countries .
I will comment briefly on minimum efficiency standards for energy-using products , as well as labelling .
Possible areas where savings can be made mostly relate to different buildings and their heating and air-conditioning needs .
Secondly , we need to invest in the decommissioning of old , small-scale , outmoded local heating plants and to connect housing estates , particularly in the new Member States where such estates exist in large cities , to heating networks powered by modern , co-generating heat-and-power stations of optimum capacity .
That is part of the budget-making procedure .
Awareness-raising campaigns should be set in motion and infrastructure and equipment set up to support infancy , maternity and paternity .
There is also an awareness-raising programme and different campaigns .
I firmly believe that the obstacles confronting the Roma , particularly Roma women and children , are the legacy of a long-running clash between two differing principles of civilisation .
Today in the displaced persons ' camps , the sexual exploitation of women and children is still , whilst not permitted , common practice , including by the peace-keeping forces and members of the diplomatic corps .
We must also train our peace-keeping forces , now that we have them , to ensure that they , too , respect the rights of women , that they are sensitive and that they also include women in their midst .
It is also necessary to stress the fundamental role played by women in peace-building processes and we are therefore calling upon the Commission and the Council , as well as the Member States involved in the management of conflicts , for greater sensitivity to the issue of guaranteeing the technical and financial assistance necessary to promote programmes to enable women to be actors with their own voices in those processes , as requested by groups of Kosovan women , for example , who are asking to be included in the negotiating delegation , whose current seven members are all men .
As I see it , the most important demand in Resolution 1325 is the one that reads : ‘ there must be increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national , regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention , management , and resolution of conflict ’ .
Millions of women are suffering under the effects of the vicious cycle of poverty , discrimination and fanaticism , and they are often the ones who suffer the most from armed conflicts , particularly due to pre-existing inequalities between the sexes in terms of literacy , health and income .
‘ Points out that the Commission shall publish its findings on countries that are considered not to be ready yet to join the euro area each time an evaluation is carried out , and present this to the European Parliament in order to ensure a high level of transparency and accountability in the decision-making process at EU level . ’
We do not believe that the EU should regulate issues of this type in far-reaching reports resembling political programmes .
For example , we are , as previously , sceptical about the European Parliament ’ s information-providing activities , which tend to take over the roles of the MEPs and political groups .
The allocation of quotas for women in peace-keeping and peace-making bodies and in peace negotiations is in danger of getting in the way of the goal of preventing suffering .
At the time , we felt it was of pressing importance that the issue of equality between the sexes in conflict prevention and resolution should be incorporated , and that women should take part in the political decision-making process and in defining conflict resolution strategies .
In the body , nitrates are converted into toxic nitrites , which increase the risk of cancer and can lead to life-threatening cyanosis , especially in infants .
Another concern is that Irish governments have systematically polluted surface and groundwater for the past 40 years in the water fluoridation programme , with the daily addition of hexafluorosilic acid , a bio-accumulating toxin .
There are no epoch-making decisions on the agenda , but the Austrian Presidency s harvest ’ – where it has not already been brought in – will be just outside the barn door .
Former Commissioner and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier has presented a very comprehensive , stimulating , forward-looking report , which will undoubtedly be examined closely by all the institutions of the EU in the coming weeks and months .
We should focus particularly on young people , the Europeans of tomorrow , and mobilise more women in the decision-making process .
Fifty-seven of these were adopted through a joint decision-making process .
I very much welcome the initiative for greater transparency in the decision-making process .
The President-in-Office said , in all modesty , that there were no epoch-making decisions on the Council s agenda ’ .
Yet if he succeeds in putting the idea of a referendum on the Constitutional Treaty on the same day throughout Europe in front of the other Heads of State or Government and in winning support for it among them , he will be able to say , in all modesty , that he has produced epoch-making decisions .
If , however , we also state clearly and unambiguously that we first need to strengthen and reform our institutions accordingly – people will understand – then that will be an important signal ; one could even say that it was an epoch-making signal that this European Council was sending out .
In Romania , for instance , there is a large Hungarian-speaking minority , whose rights must be fully recognised before Romania enters the European Union as a way of recognising internal diversity .
There can be no further enlargement without an improvement in the decision-making mechanisms , without a sufficient budget , without new resources and without a genuine agreement on the nature of the European project .
These Treaties have a basic flaw in that they do not provide for the involvement of civil society either in shaping Union policies or in the decision-making process .
In addition to the death penalty for drug barons , we also need to see a radical change in mentality in order to silence the left-wing ideology of the last 40 years .
This left-wing discourse has only exacerbated the problems .
I regret that the Commission is not planning at this stage to draw up comprehensive legislation to combat discrimination given that traditional national minorities urgently need a framework policy standard to create effective participation in decision-making processes concerning their identity , not only to overcome the double standards established by the Copenhagen criteria but also to combat a lack of any rules in the Member States .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Another wearisome debate dominated by the slow-learning fanatics of a failed and rejected Constitution .
The fact that the EU s power-wielding elite ’ is now trying to explain away this state of affairs is a democratic scandal .
The MEPs of the Greek Communist Party will make use of this extended period of reflection to continue to inform and to reveal the inhumanity and barbarity of Euro-unifying policy and , at the same time , will call on the people to fight to overturn it .
In my opinion , however , what is really needed is to update and consolidate the structural decision-making model of the EU within a framework that is democratic and that respects national identity and diversity , given that the EU in its current configuration finds it difficult to cope with the realities of life with 25 Member States , let alone 27 , 28 or 29 .
Biodiversity continues to be impoverished and climate-affecting emissions are still increasing in the majority of Member States .
Sustainable development is an over-arching objective of the Union .
The need to have better coordination with other cross-cutting strategies like Lisbon is well established , but we also need to have better coordination within the sustainable development strategy itself .
There is , however , a PPE-DE one-sizing problem .
Women at present earn less than men throughout Europe and are not represented in decision-making bodies to the same degree as men – be it in political , economic or public life .
This strategy is , in our view , the result of very wide-ranging discussions and ambitious negotiations .
However , let us for God s ’ sake not allow it to become another weapon in the political campaign conducted by the left and the European liberals against the political parties that lean towards the right and countries where right-wing parties have come into power .
I am glad that I have a of good , sensible , rational Polish friends , because if that is liberal history , then for goodness sake , I do not want to see what right-wing conservativism is !
The general approach of the legislators is that no weapon-carrying security officers should be present on aircraft .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; The next item is the report by Seán Ó & # 160 ; Neachtain , on behalf of the Committee on Fisheries , on inshore fishing and the problems encountered by inshore-fishing communities [ 2004 / 2264 ( INI ) ] ( A6-0141 / 2006 ) .
It should be pointed out here that their organisation prevents them from being properly represented in decision-making bodies and at public hearings .
It needs to analyse how adequate the current instruments are for responding to the sector s needs ’ , and it should involve representatives from the industry to a greater extent in the decision-making process .
It is so important that inshore fishing be developed , making it attractive to the employment-seeking youth .
Commissioner , when we began this whole adventure , some members of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs argued that , besides the market itself , we should concern ourselves with what happened further down the chain , with what are known as post-trading activities , namely clearing and settlement .
As you yourself observed , these post-trading activities are too costly today .
The first of these is the ever-increasing level of activity in the Member States in terms of uncovering irregularities and abuses relating to European Union funding , although there are unfortunately countries among the old Member States which pass on information regarding abuses to the Commission several years late .
It also provides for local and regional authorities to be involved in the decision-making process as regards the granting of funding for building new infrastructure .
We welcome the focus that is being placed on meeting our international obligations but believe that the time has come to focus on enforcing and monitoring existing targets and regulation , rather than creating a never-ending stream of legislation that is enforced – at best – inconsistently .
Paragraph 11 is inspired by the inability of the Left to accept that right-wing parties win democratic elections and form governments .
What is most worrying is the sudden regrowth of racism , homophobia and anti-Semitism in Poland , aided and abetted by fellow-travelling colleagues in the current Polish Government and European Parliament .
The Council ruled on this new wine-making process in Regulation ( EC ) 2165 / 2005 of 20 December 2005 .
Under Regulation ( EC ) No 1493 / 1999 on the common organisation of the market in wine , Member States may stipulate stricter conditions for wine-making processes in respect of fine wines originating from specified growing areas and for table wine with a geographical marking , in order to ensure the preservation of the essential characteristic features of these fine wines .
Long-term use in other wine-producing countries and numerous experiments carried out under EU control show that the process does not have a negative effect on the health of consumers .
The Commission is of the opinion that greater flexibility in permitting new wine-making processes will enable producers in the Community to increase their market and to reach more consumers , especially through exports , and also to enhance the competitiveness of the wine sector vis-à-vis third countries .
However , the legislation of other wine-producing countries , in particular the United States , Chile and South Africa , does not provide for such a ban .
Furthermore , the basic Regulation for this COM allows Member States , in relation to wine-making practices and treatments , to impose stricter national conditions in order to ensure that the characteristics of their quality wines are maintained .
We would also like the Commission to explain to us why it is fragmenting the debate on wine-making practices , when they should be dealt with jointly .
There is absolutely no doubt that we need to reform the restructuring , planting and grubbing up systems in order to respond to the needs of the market over the medium to long term , but we also need to preserve the surface area of vineyards – in other words , we need to preserve the European Union 's wine-growing potential .
The International Organisation of Vine and Wine , which is the international reference body in this sector , approved this process in 2001 and considers it to be a good wine-making process .
The Timorese authorities also demonstrated unity and convergence when two days ago they submitted to the United Nations Security Council requests to strengthen and extend the remit of the United Nations Office in East Timor ( UNOTIL ) from being a police mission under UN supervision to being a peace-keeping mission under the mandate and leadership of the UN , should the need arise .
Against a background of general shortages , the authorities are distributing food in such a way that high-ranking party and military officials are favoured , and ordinary citizens are missed out .
It is aimed at reflecting the request made by the authorities in East Timor at the United Nations Security Council for a peace-keeping mission with a UN mandate , should this prove necessary .
That is a respectable compromise : a total of EUR & # 160 ; 4 billion extra for forward-looking programmes , a raised limit for expenditure , and also the setting aside of two Budget positions amounting to EUR & # 160 ; 4 billion more : these things correspond exactly with the priorities that Parliament had set .
Mr President , I wish to begin with an apology as , contrary to all principles , I cannot stay until the end of the debate , because I have a long-standing commitment to be present in the Belgian Parliament , where I shall meet both chambers – the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies .
I was the long-suffering leader of the parliamentary party back in 2000 when the issue was raised of how to deal with Austria .
One of the consequences of this Financial Perspective as it stands is ever-increasing cuts to spending under the EU budget on key objectives , such as territorial cohesion and the creation of a level playing field in terms of development opportunities for the poorest regions .
I am , of course , also in favour of the Greek Cypriot Government , that is to say the Government of Cyprus , doing everything in its power to pave the way for the Turkish-speaking population to share in a single state and hence in the European Union .
Hours of on-going uncertainty about the Belgian Government 's voting behaviour when determining the common position on the Services Directive perfectly demonstrates the need for this .
On the eve of the World Cup I handed over the final list of signatures to the anti-trafficking campaign to Commissioner Frattini .
This reveals the weaknesses of our decision-making structures .
Thousands of investors have lost money because of the cost of over-bonusing with-profit life assurance policies ‘ ’ .
On the contrary , we cause them to worry that the money-saving moves being mentioned , and those yet to be mentioned , take place at the expense of their working conditions , or even worse , at the expense of their job .
From this point of view , Commissioner , you who have the law-making initiative have a tremendous responsibility .
Shipping conferences were developed for the transportation of raw materials and in international trade in general , mainly between the northern European shore and shipping monopolies , and they secured huge , astronomical profits for euro-unifying capital .
The aim of the new legislative initiative is obviously to strengthen competitiveness , expand the insulting privileges of the euro-unifying monopolies engaged in maritime transport and allow them carte blanche to increase their profits .
There was general support for exploring certain issues at EU level , for example the issue of ‘ one share , one vote ’ , at least by carrying out a fact-finding study , or the rights of shareholders .
That continues to place Irish citizens at a disadvantage , as Aarhus is the world s most far-reaching treaty ’ on environmental rights and guarantees public rights to access to information and public participation in environmental decision making .
There is all too little transparency , and it is too hard for committed citizens to participate in the decision-making process , as the previous speaker so eloquently described .
Finding the balance between the ever-increasing publicity and maintaining the institutions ' ability to operate is not an easy task .
I believe that we can expect civil organisations wishing to exercise their rights to operate in a law-abiding manner themselves , and in exchange , we should not infringe their rights with unjustified exceptions .
That put an end to a great hope , because that republic had come with the intention of promoting democracy and carrying out necessary wide-ranging reforms : agricultural reforms , military reforms , the separation of Church and State , the establishment of social security , Statutes of Autonomy for the regions , rights such as votes for women and divorce , within a profoundly patriarchal society .
A decision-making process favouring consensus and veto , leading to reasonable compromises in the Council , would be removed from the equation .
An unspoken attempt is manifestly being made to create a state , because an organisation with tax-raising powers is effectively a state .
The significance of today 's discussion extends far beyond the possible closure of a car-manufacturing plant in Portugal .
Productivity is likely to grow faster than demand , and anyone with any knowledge of economics knows what that means : it means that the pressure on car-manufacturing jobs in the older Member States will become even greater .
We are doing this on the level of the Member States , and it is very important that there is a wide-ranging emphasis on innovation policies and initiatives in the national reform programmes for the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy , and that the Commission accords the highest priority to innovation in its reassessment of the Lisbon Strategy this year .
To this end we require an up-and-coming generation of researchers capable of competing on an international level .
This is demonstrated by the Commission 's anti-dumping research , which aims to take into account the interests of businesses that have transferred production beyond the EU .
We thus need an openness that ensures that Europe can be a world-beating economy .
To procrastinate on amendments and regulations setting technical requirements and administrative procedures in such a fast-growing business sector as aviation is , I believe , no longer permissible or forgivable .
That seems important to me , especially when it comes to the non-reducing clauses , which guarantee that this text will be unable to bring about a reduction in safety in the Member States in which the standards are higher than the basic standards featuring in the regulation .
As I see it , the question arises of what the position is in this area as regards consultation between the Commission , Parliament , and the relevant Member States , or of what is going on as regards the new strategy , according to which the Council s nuclear working group ’ is , in effect , seizing powers exclusively for itself and treating our other partners in the European decision-making process in a manner that has no place in the present time .
We want to make headway in developing a wide-ranging innovation policy .
The Heads of State and Government at Lahti can expedite the necessary decision-making process .
If there is to be a wide-ranging innovation policy there will have to be more effective cooperation and decision-making in the Union , for example , in standardisation , in the protection of intellectual property , and in the development of the financial markets .
You are right to say that we need the passerelle clause ‘ ’ , but that has nothing to do with any cherry-picking approach ‘ ’ to the Constitution .
They are : i ) to conclude the period of reflection in order to relaunch the constitutional process in practice ; ii ) to make the decision-making process and , I would add , the administrative process , more transparent – in this connection , I am grateful to the Finnish Presidency for its commitment along these lines , a commitment that , I hope , will have concrete results ; iii ) to try to find a convincing and practicable solution to the issue of Parliament s ’ having two seats , a problem that certainly does not contribute to the image of efficiency and circumspection that we want to present to our citizens .
Promotion of competitiveness to increase the profitability of Euro-unifying capital through even more oppressive exploitation of the workers .
For that reason , Finland , during its Presidency , wants to see confidence-inspiring action which has importance for people ’ s everyday lives .
That is why Finland needs the support of the other Member States and this Parliament for its work when the decision-making process in justice and home affairs is being improved .
We cannot compare terrorism with Israel ’ s military decisions , or with the human rights violations that we do nonetheless condemn , but if Hamas ' decision-making powers are in the hands of the media-dependent butchers from Syria and Iran , what can the MEPs feeble requests ’ to the Hamas government accomplish ?
This regulation provides for a range of technical provisions that will have a far-reaching impact on safety , which in general terms is to be welcomed .
Some Left-wing Members of this House wanted to take advantage of the activities of the interim committee to indulge in cheap anti-Americanism , of which this biased report is a manifestation .
One cannot avoid forming the impression ( and I am about to wind up my speech ) that in the course of committee deliberations the left-wing MEPs have abandoned fact-finding in favour of maligning the United States , the country that has taken the lead in fighting terrorism .
- firstly , the decision-making level in the European Union ; in other words , if decisions will be taken at Community or national level ;
With this in mind , when the Hague Programme is being re-examined , the Presidency also intends to look at how we might improve the decision-making procedure on cooperation in policing and crime .
In addition to this , the Commission has issued a communication which contains proposals regarding both the content of the policies on justice and home affairs and an improved decision-making procedure .
You cannot automatically translate that into a more wide-ranging policy .
We pushed hard to establish a clear correspondence between the effort that we would make in agricultural market access and the effort that the United States in turn would have to make in the reduction of domestic subsidies close to the G20 levels of average cut by us , to be matched by close to G20 reductions of trade-distorting subsidies by the US .
The amendments I have now tabled jointly with the shadow rapporteurs of the PPE-DE and PSE Groups reflect the common intention to secure a first-reading agreement .
The Commission ’ s written explanation also reflects the long-standing demand by Parliament to advance the idea of a European Civil Peace Corps .
Such a broad-brush definition is capable of covering practically anything , for example justification for the policy of non-engagement in the case of right-wing coups such as the putsch carried out by General Franco .
I feel , however , that the proposal to set up a European Globalisation Adjustment Fund is a timely reminder of the scale of the problem , to which we must find far-reaching solutions .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Mr President , I voted against the Fava report on the grounds that it is a typical example of Left-wing bias .
People who consider that their rights have been curtailed can go through the proper , well-functioning channels to enforce these rights and claim redress .
As the Lambrinidis report emphasises , there is still much progress to be made in the Europe of 25 Member States if we are to make a success of this integration , particularly in the fields of access to employment , non-discrimination , the education of women , language-learning programmes and political participation .
Some have even said that the meeting was counterproductive , with an atmosphere even more difficult than before , but perhaps the silver lining is that developing countries are united in insisting that rich countries put development at the heart of the process as a matter of course and deliver on their extremely long-standing promises .
I know that the US has recently opened a dialogue with various parties about prospects for confidence-building measures .
A large majority of the federal parliament has given its support over the last few days to international peace-keeping forces intervening in Somalia as part of the national security plan .
I can confirm that the Commission intends to make EUR 22 million available immediately to support the short-term governance and capacity-building priorities set out by the Transitional Federal Government .
The two particular pretexts for censorship that are adduced are , on the one hand child pornography and on the other right-wing extremism , but , although both are deserving of forthright condemnation , child pornography is criminalised throughout the world , and those who , wherever they are , access such sites make themselves liable to prosecution , while right-wing extremism one example – of which is what Mr & # 160 ; Giertych came out with in this House a few days ago – is something we have to deal with politically .
The two particular pretexts for censorship that are adduced are , on the one hand child pornography and on the other right-wing extremism , but , although both are deserving of forthright condemnation , child pornography is criminalised throughout the world , and those who , wherever they are , access such sites make themselves liable to prosecution , while right-wing extremism one example – of which is what Mr & # 160 ; Giertych came out with in this House a few days ago – is something we have to deal with politically .
We should remember that the long-standing struggle between freedom and censorship never ends and that it is also a battle between good and evil .
Belt-tightening measures and privatisation in this sector , supported by the European Union , have so far had only the opposite effect .
In the countries of the Mediterranean south , huge amounts have been invested in fire-fighting resources .
Consequently , solidarity must be shown with the communities affected , urgent support must be provided for pastoralists and farmers who have lost their cattle-grazing land in , for example , the Serra de Soajo , and burnt wood must be removed immediately as fair payment for farmers , small forest owners and those sharing common land .
At the same time , however , we must not fail to analyse the possible influence on these fires – the majority of which are believed to have been caused deliberately – of extensive planting of non-native species over previous decades , the confused changes of use or town-planning reclassifications of burnt areas , the paper pulp factories ’ interest in obtaining cheap wood , or the alleged vengeance of former forest wardens who have not been employed for supervision purposes this summer .
We must also analyse the extent to which all of us and the common agricultural policy are responsible for the forced abandonment of traditional agricultural activities by those people who , unable to find any alternative work , have left the rural areas and upset the land-planning balance , and therefore no longer look after the forests , or raise early alarms , or prevent arson attacks .
Just after that first round , I had the satisfaction , on 1 & # 160 ; August , of signing , together with my counterparts from throughout the world , from the African Union , from the French-speaking community and from the Carter Foundation , a joint declaration that was basically designed to point out how impressed we were – and I quote – with the strong turnout of Congolese male and female voters and with the participation of the political party witnesses and the national observers in the election of 30 & # 160 ; July .
I think that the planned European Parliament mission will be a further step towards re-establishing order in a country which deserves to finally enjoy some peace .
This is evident from the textiles debate and from the anti-dumping debate with reference to shoes , and there are many other examples .
Failure will mean that protectionism will fill the vacuum as momentum towards wide-ranging reduction of barriers ceases ; the world economy will slow down and global trade imbalances will continue to rise ; financial markets will become more unstable ; and international economic cooperation will break down further .
Time and time again I have stood in front of you , Commissioner , and reflected on the finger-pointing blame game that has plagued progress .
New things are happening in the migration field , and there is much important work to be done on the people-trafficking front .
We would like to see the Commission produce a free-standing directive and thereby demonstrating that it attaches the highest political priority to the campaign against violence .
It really is quite essential that a free-standing directive be put in place , and , while I am on that subject , let me say that I would like to hear the Commission say something today about something concerning which we , in this House , have passed numerous resolutions , whether on International Women s Day ’ or on other occasions .
Preventative action must be taken in the form of awareness-raising campaigns , for example the European Year against violence against women .
Having said that , I should like to express my support , my full support , for the report by Mrs & # 160 ; Gröner , whom I congratulate , and in doing so I shall highlight an amendment that I consider particularly important , which is the one that specifically mentions national , regional and local authorities as targets of awareness-raising actions .
This means that we need to stir up a debate in workplaces , in schools , at the dinner table and even amongst the peace-keeping soldiers we send abroad in the name of the UN .
I would also like to mention the anti-stalking law that is now in place in Austria , the object of which is to address the issue of psychological violence , something that is not yet taken seriously .
The matter of the cross-border movement of people also needs to be addressed with exactly the same wide-ranging approach .
Having wide-ranging influence is the surest path to the settlement of conflicts .
There are thus ever-growing expectations with regard to international action on the part of the European Union .
In the weeks and months to come , the EU must persist with its programme of active and wide-ranging diplomacy .
Violence against women , children and young people is an ever-increasing phenomenon and a fundamental breach of the human rights of some of the most vulnerable sections of our society .
There are a number of weapons at our disposal in the fight against these barbarous acts : draconian legislative measures , zero tolerance , listening to the victims and awareness-raising campaigns .
The report makes a useful and thought-provoking contribution to the debate launched at the Hampton Court European Council in October 2005 .
I feel that Parliament ’ s report in its original form takes a wide-ranging approach and conveys the most important points .
Given that , from a geographical point of view , European integration is a complex concept , we could hold a series of wide-ranging debates , although in principle where we find the European social model , there we also find the boundaries of European integration .
This is where there must be far-reaching reforms if sustainable funding is to be ensured .
We have no need either of wide-ranging approval procedures or of new bureaucracies , and we certainly have no need of the privatisation of public capital .
This can be entrusted neither to an exclusive role for public institutions nor to self-regulating market forces , but to solidarity of three kinds : individual solidarity , spreading positive values among people ; the solidarity of social groups that organise themselves into social networks ; and institutional solidarity , with few essential and universally accepted rules , for a State that can make the most of all its society s energy ’ .
Another major theme of this far-reaching debate was the realisation that the European social model is not merely a statistical entity , but that it is , broadly speaking , founded on active participation , and in some cases is founded on work .
The rapporteur wisely underlines that it is time to call for EU-wide renewal of the social dialogue while deepening cooperation and exchange of best practice through the enhanced open method of coordination as the key policy-making instrument in the fields of employment , social protection , social exclusion , gender equality in the labour market , pensions , and healthcare .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; I wish to congratulate the rapporteur for the deep and thought-provoking analysis regarding social Europe .
Although economic growth and increased competitiveness are indeed preconditions for safeguarding the achievements in the social sphere , these in themselves can no longer raise up those social groups which have fallen behind or are unable to keep up with or even participate in the ever-accelerating competition .
What practical steps is the EU taking to promote such alternatives in order to make us less dependent on both American oil policy and the oil-exporting countries ?
It also aims at strengthening the producer-consumer dialogue with oil-producing countries in order to promote new exploration and development to meet rising global demand ; promoting transparency and predictability of the oil market and being well prepared for emergencies , especially by ensuring that Member States maintain the stocks as set out in the relevant EU legislation .
We firmly believe that the Bureaucracy reduction ‘ and better lawmaking project ’ is a cross-cutting task for the whole of the Commission , a task that involves all the Directorates-General , and will make a vital contribution to strengthening the role of SMEs and encouraging more people in Europe to start up their own business , to take a risk themselves , and thereby provide jobs for others .
Within this framework , the Commission is also implementing an institution-building programme through the Technical Assistance and Information Exchange Instrument ( TAIEX ) , in order to help prepare the Turkish Cypriot community for the future application of the in that part of the island .
I would want them to have hope and not self-fulfilling despair .
Studies estimate , frighteningly , that by 2020 neuro-psychiatric disorders , with depression at the top of the list , will be the highest-ranking cause of illness in the developed world .
The European Union fully supports the combined efforts of the UN Secretary-General s special representative ’ for Kosovo and Kosovo s ’ temporary self-governing bodies to implement standards .
We have to find a solution that can ensure broad-ranging autonomy for the Kosovo Serbs and the Roma as well , a solution that is guaranteed by the constitution , and for which the international community takes responsibility and offers guarantees .
Nobody seemed interested in the peaceful mass opposition under the of the later President Ibrahim Rugova , during which all Serb state institutions were boycotted and the Albanian-speaking population set up its own government and school system .
Legal certainty and a well-functioning business environment are necessary preconditions for making economic progress in Kosovo .
At the same time , there is another precondition : whatever the precise outcome of the status settlement , it must include treaty-making powers for Kosovo .
As Mr & # 160 ; Kacin said , treaty-making powers are needed so that we can negotiate with Kosovo and make it part of the stabilisation and association process .
Likewise , Kosovo needs treaty-making powers in order to make deals and contracts with the international financial institutions , which is another precondition for making economic progress and improving the employment situation there .
Following right-wing dictatorship , foreign occupation and left-wing dictatorship , what is immediately apparent at the moment is chaos and the intolerance between the political parties .
Following right-wing dictatorship , foreign occupation and left-wing dictatorship , what is immediately apparent at the moment is chaos and the intolerance between the political parties .
By its delaying tactics , the Council is making it less likely that it will be possible to draw on grant funds promptly and complete grant-making procedures more simply and without delay .
After Kosovo , the Cham issue is the last major national issue concerning Albanian-speaking peoples .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; . – The Greek Communist Party voted against the report on the European social model , the product of the agreement between the Group of the European People 's Party ( Christian Democrats ) and European Democrats and the social democrats , reveals in the most cynical manner the nightmarish future being prepared by euro-unifying capital for the workers .
Over the longer term , the international community must remain engaged , with a focus on supporting institutional recovery and promoting Lebanese state-building efforts , including those undertaken via the national dialogue .
The context must be our long-standing aim of building up the institutions of a future Palestinian State , working with the Palestinian Authority , which in turn means that the EU should be ready to respond pragmatically to the formation of a Palestinian national unity government .
We need to go beyond the roadmap , beyond the specific individual Security Council resolutions on Iraq or Lebanon , and realise that the time is ripe right now for an all-encompassing approach that can somehow get all the countries involved in the region to sit down around a table for formal talks on all the unresolved issues , crisis points or areas of cooperation .
We need to rework existing structures , we need a genuine common decision-making process , in short : we need a big step forward , towards the Common Foreign and Security Policy .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Mr & # 160 ; President , ladies and gentlemen , the message given out when a foreign minister of a founding Member State of the European Union – the foreign minister of my country walks arm – in arm with a top-ranking Hizbollah representative is not a positive message for Europe to send out to its citizens , to people who seriously want peace and want to help solve the dire problems in which that area is floundering , particularly a tormented country like poor Lebanon .
Our response to the challenges posed by China needs to include a thorough-going reassessment of the assumptions that have underpinned international trade theory until now .
Secondly , the Commission must adopt a joint anti-dumping policy towards China as soon as possible .
It particularly needs to introduce high anti-dumping customs tariffs in the sectors most susceptible to unfair competition , especially the textile , shoe-making and metal sectors as well as the farming sector .
On the long-standing issue of the arms embargo , it is true that we are willing to continue working towards a possible lifting of the embargo , on the basis of our joint statement of 2004 , the EU-China Summit and the subsequent European Council conclusions .
On the very specific and important issue of shoes , let me say that on 30 & # 160 ; August 2006 the Commission adopted a proposal to impose anti-dumping duties on certain leather shoes from China and Vietnam .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; The next item is the report by Carmen Fraga Estévez , on behalf of the Committee on Fisheries , on launching a debate on a Community approach towards eco-labelling schemes for fisheries products ( 2005 / 2189 ( INI ) ) ( A6-0219 / 2006 ) .
I am happy to see that the Commission and Parliament share the same views on the overall objectives of eco-labelling schemes , on the principles and features that credible schemes should contain , and on the need to address properly a complex and currently rather anarchic reality .
I see these as the prerequisites that will help us make the most of eco-labelling schemes and that will contribute to the sustainability of fisheries .
Based on that work the Commission will draft guidelines for the setting-up of eco-labelling schemes and will propose a list of minimum requirements against which private eco-labelling schemes could be assessed .
Based on that work the Commission will draft guidelines for the setting-up of eco-labelling schemes and will propose a list of minimum requirements against which private eco-labelling schemes could be assessed .
With regard to Amendment 3 , it reiterates some of the advantages of adopting the third option for establishing minimum requirements for voluntary eco-labelling schemes , as mentioned in the Commission communication .
I am confident that at the end of this process we can put into operation a proper basis for eco-labelling schemes that should have far-reaching and positive effects .
We have our doubts about the option favoured by the Commission in this debate , namely that of establishing minimum demands – as referred to by the Commissioner – regarding these eco-labelling schemes .
We support that decision , but it must be stressed first and foremost that the implementation of an eco-labelling system will have a strong impact on production in the entire sector : we must begin by starting and developing a debate with operators in the sector so as to carefully assess the consequences for the sector that will result from the decisions adopted for this certification system .
The most that the EU should do is to set minimum requirements to be met by voluntary eco-labelling schemes .
A number of new , high-quality eco-labelling schemes have appeared around the world , including one in my country , POPA ( the Azores Fisheries Observation Programme ) , which certifies the tuna catch in the Azores Autonomous Region .
Among the different proposals put forward by the Commission in this communication , the one that can best serve the interests at hand is that of establishing minimum requirements for voluntary eco-labelling schemes .
In this way , on the basis of these pre-established minimum requirements , eco-labelling schemes can develop freely , on a flexible , voluntary basis , via public or private initiatives , yet within a generic regulatory framework .
Promoting and applying eco-labelling systems strengthens environmental awareness among consumers , thereby encouraging environmental responsibility among producers , by making them more aware of the environmental repercussions of fisheries and aquaculture .
Firstly , the Baltic states decidedly support the idea of establishing minimum requirements for eco-labelling programmes , in line with the expectations of the parties involved , namely the fishermen , processors and consumers .
Obviously , when it comes to that legislative phase , the involvement of Parliament will be a top priority prior to finalisation of the whole process relating to the eco-labelling scheme .
The Commission s preferred option ’ for establishing minimum criteria for eco-labelling schemes will , however , bring order to the system , where necessary , and increase consumer confidence .
On the point raised by various speakers on the preference for a single eco-labelling scheme , it is still early to take a definitive and final decision .
The communications spells out that eco-labelling schemes , if based on clearly-defined criteria and appropriate indicators , can assist in both monitoring the progress made on sustainability in fishing and in raising public awareness on sustainability issues .
FAO criteria will be taken into account when it comes to laying the basis of eco-labelling schemes .
For more than 100 years , The Hague Conference on Private International Law has worked tirelessly and with an ever-growing number of countries across the globe to put together numerous international conventions on civil law subjects : sale of goods , testamentary dispositions , child abduction , maintenance obligations and road-traffic accidents .
It is difficult work , taking account of an ever-increasing number of legal traditions and cultural values .
We need strict and legally-binding purpose- and access-limitation provisions .
Today we are living in a rapidly-changing world .
These differences , in contrast to the ever-growing globalisation of culture , form the real underlying wealth of our common heritage .
The EU s global cultural heritage strategy ’ needs to become a real cross-cutting element in other policies , just as environmental sustainability is , and all policies need to be integrated together in this respect .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; We have today voted in favour of the report on launching a debate on a Community approach towards eco-labelling schemes for fisheries products .
However , I question the need for the EU to introduce centrally an eco-labelling scheme for fisheries products .
The launch of a common EU eco-labelling scheme is in danger of creating superfluous bureaucracy and may limit the opportunities of companies , fisheries organisations and the Member States to produce their own eco-labelling schemes .
The launch of a common EU eco-labelling scheme is in danger of creating superfluous bureaucracy and may limit the opportunities of companies , fisheries organisations and the Member States to produce their own eco-labelling schemes .
Furthermore , resistance has grown to the destructive policies of the IMF , the World Bank and the WTO and to the multinationals all-consuming domination ’ .
This must be done in a fair and balanced way , and in such a way as to benefit the most competitive producers , the most hard-working exporters and , that no less important but oft-forgotten player , the consumer .
The targeting of schools and hospitals in northern Sri Lanka is not the action of a responsible , democratic and peace-seeking government .
The Tamil-speaking population is very mixed .
There is a risk of civil war breaking out as a result of the ever-intensifying clashes .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; Mr & # 160 ; President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , this in fact concerns a very serious episode , which is a sign of an extremely far-reaching situation , as my fellow Members have already pointed out and as the text of the resolution makes clear .
It has become something of a never-ending story , and in many respects Zimbabwe is a world record-beater with 70 % unemployment , the highest rate of inflation in the world , 3 & # 160 ; 200 deaths from AIDS each week , and the lowest voter turnout in the world , namely 15 % .
The peace-keeping forces deployed there by Russia were supposed to guarantee peace for the local people and indeed for the whole of that area of the South Caucasus .
According to the information provided to us by the Finnish head of the OSCE detachment , Major & # 160 ; Lehtonen , the Russian peace-keeping forces are not , however , taking any steps to identify the underlying causes of these confrontations and if necessary pursue the individuals who are provoking them .
I would therefore like to draw the attention of this House to the fact that it is unacceptable to allow such an important part of our continent to remain under the sole control of a single military peace-keeping force .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Mr & # 160 ; President , in some European Union countries we are witnessing new forms of right-wing extremism that are of great concern to all democrats .
That is why we need to tackle pollution at source in relation to cars and heavy vehicles , ships , agricultural feed , energy-using products and so forth .
Everyone who has spoken today has mentioned the importance of a clean environment , and that is why this does not just concern car manufacturers , but also the builders of heating systems ; it has to do with power-generating plant and with loading systems – with , indeed , a really big and wide-ranging area that has to be addressed .
Everyone who has spoken today has mentioned the importance of a clean environment , and that is why this does not just concern car manufacturers , but also the builders of heating systems ; it has to do with power-generating plant and with loading systems – with , indeed , a really big and wide-ranging area that has to be addressed .
I support Mr & # 160 ; Hegyi in his striving towards non-polluting transport , the protection of historic city centres , the adoption of careful water management , economical energy consumption and protection for areas of natural beauty .
It is important to teach children and young people these values from a young age , to promote them and adopt them as a full immersion subject in their education , so that we might understand what it is to be a European in an ever-integrating world , and so that we might be proud of that , as well as of our national roots and our continent .
Single-sector initiatives are needed – you referred to some of these yourself – in areas such as health services or social services of general interest , and cross-cutting initiatives are needed too .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Mr President , Mr President of the Commission , it is a wide-ranging area that we are discussing today .
Then we will find a solution on the decision-making instruments .
We must develop a clear national strategy that will take into account the gradual withdrawal of UN peace-keeping forces .
The over-concentration of power and a closed political system bred corruption , restricted access to the decision-making processes , limited the space for civil society participation in the processes of governance , and fuelled ethnic and class animosities and rivalries over time .
Overall , Bulgaria and Romania should be commended for their far-reaching efforts and achievements to adapt their legislation and administration to the laws and rules of the European Union .
We can only reply that our goal is to increase economic strength and social cohesion , and to export the integration of culture and peoples as a peace-building project .
From now on , no further enlargement should be embarked on until we have provided the European Union with effective decision-making mechanisms and with a sufficient budget .
China comes second , with about 14 % , together with the European Union , but in order to have the equilibrium which is needed regarding the contribution by each country to the battle against climate change , we have to take into account what the United Nations Climate Change Conference states , i.e. that each country should contribute in a common but differentiated way , which means that countries like China , India and other fast-developing countries , which have contributed to a smaller degree historically to the creation of the greenhouse phenomenon and have only a fraction of the per capita income of the developed countries , have to contribute in a different way according to their capabilities and their possibilities , without hindering their economic development and without creating unfair competition with other countries .
The third is settlement on some long-standing operations carried out mainly by delegations and representations under the imprest arrangements abroad .
Admittedly we did not succeed in pushing through an independent action programme , but we did push through a cross-cutting task .
It may also make sense to extend the search project by means of text-messaging business people to enable the perpetrators to be arrested , which is already being done in Austria with some success .
They need regional structures with real development power , real decision-making powers for the regions .
Because in Ireland there is no regional authority with real decision-making powers .
Receiving manufacturers would pay a licence fee to the Galileo-operating company in order to have their receivers Galileo-enabled .
On that basis , the question arises as to whether , 14 years after the Treaty of Maastricht , the political conditions – in the form of mutual confidence – have finally come together , enabling the Member States to agree to apply the normal decision-making procedure provided for since Maastricht to this highly sensitive field of cooperation .
As we all know , the need to maintain unanimity prevents rapid and effective decision-making of any kind , and this at a time when the seriousness of the threats to the EU since the attacks of 11 & # 160 ; September and those on Madrid and London should encourage a much more rapid decision-making process .
Member States and their authoritative bodies are responsible for controlling their external borders and immigration and carrying out asylum-seeking procedures .
As you know , the Commission s position ’ has always been very close to Parliament s ’ on this issue , as we consider that the bridging clause represents an appropriate and important tool for the Union and Member States to ensure greater efficiency , transparency and accountability of the decision-making process in addition to greater democratic legitimacy , given the stronger role of Parliament .
Despite the borders , the terrible risks , and the ever-increasing tolerance of violations of international law , we will not succeed in stopping immigration , and that has to be a point on which we are all quite clear .
You can see , then , where the problem lies , so I ask you to put your particle-accelerating skills to use ; you can enable Germany to make a good job of its term in the Council Presidency .
If the European Council has the will to remedy the decision-making incompetence of the Europe , in this respect there is only one decision to take : to shift these subjects from the third pillar to the first pillar .
Something else that is left hanging in the air is the presidency s ’ remark that majority decision-making works .
As far as immigration is concerned , it is necessary to coordinate the structures involved in managing migration flows and simplify decision-making procedures using the qualified majority .
It is useless to utter beautiful-sounding words like ‘ solidarity ’ , but then continue to fail to act .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; We have had a very comprehensive , whole-morning debate on a single subject .
In this connection , I consider it very important to improve the decision-making process .
We must be able to implement a decision-making system that aims at better and more credible security .
Since this can , ultimately , be determined only by , for example , a judge in state B repeating the whole proceedings from state A complete with the collection of evidence – which would involve such things as re-interviewing witnesses and would be neither desirable nor workable – it must be sufficient that he should have good reason to doubt that the act was punishable .
Over and over again we see well-meaning programmes like this that fail to deliver .
We still do not know , and that is why I shall continue to advocate over-arching texts that enable us to put subsidiarity on a firmer footing .
The EU 's lust for endless enlargement is driven by a craving for ego-building world status , which goes hand in hand with the drive for super-statehood through the rejected Constitution .
The accession process has also brought to the surface contradictions in the way the major powers share control over the EU s decision-making process ’ , and has served to deepen the divisions between the ambitions of the major European powers and the USA , in terms of their subordination to , or participation in , North American imperialism .
Perhaps , then , this genocide might be halted if there were an agreement to send a multinational peace-keeping force composed of Africans and Muslims , in other words a joint intervention by African Union and UN troops .
Capacity-building efforts must focus on the poorest states , enabling them to use funds effectively .
True , it has not been smooth sailing and Indo-Pak disputes have stalled progress , but strong leadership in the region has led to trade now being used as a confidence-building measure , particularly over Kashmir .
Nuclear power is used just as a deterrent in the long-standing war with its neighbour Pakistan , but it is little used to promote ecologically sound development , and that makes the country dependent on energy from abroad and forces it to look around the world for the energy sources it needs for its development .
Ever-continuing discrimination based on the caste system in the country contributes to the unequal distribution of wealth and even the dwindling opportunities for economic growth .
I also call for enhanced regional cooperation and economic integration of India and Pakistan with SAARC and SAFTA , which enhances the confidence-building measures between the two states which , until recently , were on the verge of war .
It is India that is abusing the anti-dumping rules ; it is India that is using social and environmental dumping .
In the future , if the EU concentrates more of its efforts on economic policy instead of other distractions , I see the potential for a massive free-trading alliance .
If women are to achieve equality with men in terms of their access to power and occupying of decision-making positions , then quotas are still indispensable ; effective quotas that represent more than lip-service will help to establish gender parity in international trade relations , and so I am glad that the Committee on Women s Rights ’ has drawn on an initiative taken in Norway , where companies quoted on the stock exchange have been required , with effect from 2006 , to increase to 40 % the percentage of women on supervisory boards .
This is because lack of equality between the sexes means that women do not have equal access to the market means of production and that , in relation to social and political issues , they are not part of the decision-making process .
As she points out , women in general experience more difficulties in gaining access to education , property , credit , other resources and factors of production , as well as political decision-making bodies , and these inequalities restrict women s ability ’ to use the advantages of trade liberalisation .
The benefits associated with trade liberalisation and globalisation as far as women are concerned include , in particular , new and often well-paying jobs .
This should ensure that women are not only part of the production process but also part of the decision-making process , and not only at lower levels but also in executive and managerial positions .
They are often excluded from the decision-making process and from services .
This aid must compensate for the permanent loss of income arising from the disappearance of jobs , and for the reduction in income resulting from recovery plans and from far-reaching changes in cost-effectiveness due to external circumstances .
We face the prospect of the extinction of many shark species slow-breathing creatures – that have lived on this planet for many millennia longer than our own species .
Better marketing and awareness-raising measures are required to increase the consumption of organic products .
For example , new medical treatments are being developed for severe diseases such as brain tumours and Alzheimer s disease ’ ; it is helping the environment through more efficient catalysts , better batteries and more efficient light sources ; and smaller , lighter and better-performing materials , components and systems are being created .
It is clear that nanosciences and nanotechnologies represent one of the fastest-growing industries of the 21st century .
Unfortunately , we have few technologies available that use tunnel microscopy or self-organising phenomena .
The role of the EU in this context should be restricted to setting up a patent-monitoring system for this field , establishing ethical and environmental policy standards and possibly providing funding of very large-scale projects along the lines of fusion research .
We need to better coordinate the provision of aid , abandon the redundant formalities and strengthen control in order to be able to respond to the ever-changing situation .
The EU must take a cross-cutting approach that opens up channels for legal immigration , and encourages the integration of migrants into the host society .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; In the opinion of the June List , the EU s common immigration policy ’ is one of the primary causes of the tragic situation to which many migrants expose themselves when , in the hope of a better life , they embark on what can quite properly be called a life-threatening journey to the EU .
& # 160 ; & # 160 ; – Mr President , Commissioner , thank you for your efforts at getting this slow-moving vessel steaming ahead again .
This action increases North Korea 's international isolation and it is difficult to see how it can serve the interests of the country 's long-suffering population .
With regard to securing the supply of energy , the ever-increasing dependence on energy imports is a particular challenge for the EU .
In external energy relations , the Member States need to reach a common understanding and establish a view concerning what sort of strategy should be adopted to make progress in relations with countries outside the EU , and what sort of common outward-looking goals the EU should have .
We have set our goal of a wide-ranging agreement to follow the current partnership and cooperation agreement .
In European terms , we also need a European Union decision-making process .
Anti-dumping measures are certainly along these lines , but could we not have other strong political decisions , such as a demand for equivalent quality standards for all goods imported into the European Union ?
In the name of the new liberalism , the EU 's right-wing forces want to break and crush good educational systems and the good social security system .
In Europe we are currently in need of courage , vision and a forward-looking strategy .
Many of those who have spoken in it have put forward factual analyses , have set the right goals and have told hard-hitting truths , but what comes next ?
Apparently , two debates have been left off the agenda : one on our ' functional ' or ' assimilation-related ' ' absorption capacities ' , that is to say the enlargement to include Croatia and Turkey , and the other on the so-called institutional reform ( the composition of the Commission and Parliament , and the Council 's decision-making process ) .
The next item is the debate on the oral question to the Commission on the definitive results of the anti-dumping investigation concerning footwear from China and Vietnam , by Enrique Barón Crespo , on behalf of the Committee on International Trade - B6-0432 / 2006 ) .
I fear that Commissioner Mandelson 's review of the EU 's anti-dumping rules comes a year too late .
In 2003 , the shoe-making industry in Poland consisted of 123 firms , while in 2005 there were only 93 .
( PT ) In imposing the anti-dumping tax on leather footwear imports from China and Vietnam , the EU took a good decision , albeit a long overdue one .
What is happening shows that the authorities of these countries are unwilling to change their behaviour and , in view of their repeated unfair practices , I would have preferred the original version of the sanctions , which called for anti-dumping tariffs for five years , rather than for the two-year period that has finally been decided on .
Why have the anti-dumping duties been imposed for two rather than five years , which is a first in the history of this instrument , and why are the duties so low when there is a blatant violation of the international trade rules and when businesses are suffering serious losses ?
With the imposition of anti-dumping duties on Chinese and Vietnamese leather footwear for the next two years , EU Member States trying to compete in the footwear manufacturing sector have won a temporary victory against those EU countries that have moved their production to Asia .
For this reason I believe that the introduction of anti-dumping duties is justified , as is the use of any other methods that would restrict the import of shoes that fall short of European requirements .
( PT ) Advocates of free trade believe that trade protection instruments such as anti-dumping measures should only be adopted in extraordinary , objectively verified , circumstances .
The Commission maintains that dumping has taken place and says that it has presented all the practical results of the anti-dumping inquiry .
The trade defences such as anti-dumping measures , and thus the maintenance of tariffs , are the first and the minimum indispensable tool ; but they are not entirely satisfactory , since the unfair competition that is in danger of flooding the markets with much cheaper products is the consequence of the huge advantages offered by production factors .
( IT ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , if this debate were to be confined to weighing up the arguments for and against anti-dumping measures for leather footwear from China and Vietnam , it would truly serve no purpose .
That is why the introduction of anti-dumping measures is justified from a legal and economic point of view .
It is not true that such anti-dumping measures are protectionist but , on the contrary , it is the Chinese and Vietnamese states that are using protectionist , market-distorting measures .
It is not true that such anti-dumping measures are protectionist but , on the contrary , it is the Chinese and Vietnamese states that are using protectionist , market-distorting measures .
The aim of the anti-dumping duties is precisely to offset the effects of China 's and Vietnam 's protectionist , market-distorting practices .
The aim of the anti-dumping duties is precisely to offset the effects of China 's and Vietnam 's protectionist , market-distorting practices .
( NL ) Mr President , while northern Europe considers the anti-dumping measures to be protectionist , and brandishes consumer interests to back up its argument , southern Europe considers the measures to be inadequate to protect their shoe industry against unfair competition .
It is unfortunate that the government of my own country , the Netherlands , uses this very argument against taking anti-dumping measures .
Does the Commissioner agree with me that we must work on a new anti-dumping policy that rules out arbitrariness and brings unity in the EU ?
Right from the start we realised that this would be a very tough and complicated case , and , after a thorough investigation , the Commission in April imposed temporary anti-dumping tariffs .
All the conditions of anti-dumping tariffs were met ; there is no doubt about that .
Consequently , the effect of anti-dumping tariffs will be minimal , and in any case they apply to just 11 % of the Union 's total imports .
( FR ) I am very pleased that the 25 Member States of the European Union have at last adopted definitive anti-dumping measures in relation to the import of Chinese and Vietnamese shoes .
Therefore , the safeguards or anti-dumping measures must under no circumstances be put in the same category as protectionist instruments .
( PT ) Mr President , I should like to take this opportunity to salute Portuguese workers and their union confederation , the CGT-IN , who will be holding a general day of protest tomorrow , 12 October , against the right-wing policies pursued in Portugal .
We do not support any amendments calling for the non-binding application of voluntary animal-protection standards at national level .
I would call on everyone to let their compassionate hearts speak tomorrow in respect of our fellow creatures and give their full backing to more far-reaching amendments in favour of animals .
on behalf of the PSE Group . - ( HU ) The action plan prepared by the European Commission is a good foundation , and the anti-dumping decision regarding Chinese strawberries is positive , although this is not a lasting solution .
( PL ) Mr President , we are debating the soft fruit sector in a situation where the European Commission has , after nearly two years of efforts on the part of many Members , decided to impose anti-dumping duties on frozen strawberries imported from China .
Yesterday , the Commission presented to the Member States and the Anti-Dumping and Anti-Subsidy Committee a proposal to impose provisional anti-dumping measures on imports of frozen strawberries from China .
Rather , its structure and network should assist the Council of Europe , and above all , to the decision-making forums in Europe : the Council , Parliament and the Commission .
The issues surrounding the CIA 's prisons , the transfer of data , the slow pace of investigations and the governments ' foot-dragging cooperation have dealt public confidence a blow from which it will take a long time to recover .
For this reason both the internal decision-making processes within the institution and the appointment of its decision-making bodies must be transparent .
For this reason both the internal decision-making processes within the institution and the appointment of its decision-making bodies must be transparent .
Mrs Gál even begins her statement by saying that the suspension of the Constitution-making process makes this the right moment to promote fundamental rights .
It will in fact be much better for the authority of the institutions of the police and judiciary if they are guaranteed complete transparency regarding procedures for carrying out their crime-fighting activities .
Proposals from the Commission have legitimately given rise to a wide-ranging debate on the scope of the competences of such an agency .
Otherwise , it will degenerate into a self-serving paper mill , incapable of real influence .
We have to put special emphasis on combating Europe 's dark demons : the racism , xenophobia and anti-Semitism that resurface from time to time , and - especially in the case of some new and newly-joining states in Central and Eastern Europe - atrocities and discrimination against the Roma and other ethnic or national minorities .
I completely understand that Europol needs to carry out internal adjustments , but it makes no sense for Parliament to issue its opinion , because , as an intergovernmental institution , Parliament does not play a relevant role in this institution 's administrative decision-making process .
( SV ) ' In view of the actually suspended constitution-making process of the European Union ( EU ) , the rapporteur considers that it is the right moment for Europe to flag the protection and promotion of fundamental human rights . '
The recent accession of Venezuela gives the agreement a further external policy dimension , as this is not only an oil-producing country but also a country to which the EU needs to pay special attention .
The claim is that the Commission wants there to be a balanced approach in dealing with ethanol-producing countries .
Because the Irish Government did not do due diligence in its negotiations with the Commission for the compensation package as part of the closure of Mallow and Carlow under temporary sugar restructuring rules , we now find that the Commission is inflexible about turning these factories into ethanol-producing plants .
There are many people - for example , hard-working people with poor fingerprints - who it would not be possible to identify with certainty using fingerprints .
It is , after all , thanks to him and his negotiating skills that the decision-making procedure on this important and complex package of legislation has been finished in time .
The lack of data protection makes it all the more worrisome that the Parliament is asked to give up its decision-making rights concerning biometrics .
This , together with the increasingly frequent use of biometrics are likely to be the - let us say - technically necessary result of inward-looking policies on freedom of movement and immigration .
I want to call on the European Parliament here , however , to do some serious soul-searching about why we so often insist on having codecision , only to give it up again as soon as we can actually use it , and about our flip-flopping attitude concerning data protection .
on behalf of the GUE / NGL Group . - ( DE ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , I really am very grateful to Mrs Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou for her wide-ranging report , which we in the Confederal Group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left fully endorse , and adds a great deal to the information available on the rights of women migrants in the EU .
The first is that market makers cannot be compelled to invest the financial instruments that they keep for market-making activities in a separate account , although the supervisory authority can require a separate account if the market maker is unable to identify , at any given time , the relevant financial instruments when asked to do so .
We are delegating a large part of our decision-making powers to the Commission and we want to ensure that the legislation enacted in the Lamfalussy process gives the best possible technical quality , as well as democratic legitimacy .
Secondly , on allocation of funds , the budget , ring-fencing etc . , Parliament has tabled an amendment aiming at adding the whole EUR 100 million extra to the LIFE + instrument .
To stay with the case of Hungary , I would remind you that high-ranking communists played a major role in that country in the movement contesting the regime .
Supporters of the leading right-wing opposition party are themselves claiming the role of the true heirs of 1956 .
Psychological help should also be permanently available , and to this end , an educational awareness-raising campaign should be launched , aimed at employers and the workplace in general .
More clarity is needed about the effects of hormone-regulating substances in the environment and the use of hormones such as medicines and contraceptives .
During treatment , if patients receive radiotherapy , it will be carried out by a low-ranking technician .
Moreover , the individual governments should introduce national breast-screening programmes in all the Member States , because early detection of breast cancer can significantly reduce mortality rates .
This funding could then be doubled through co-financing instruments up to € 50m .
We also support the creation of a targeted , appropriate emergency communications network , the launch of extensive information campaigns , and the adoption of educational and awareness-raising initiatives aimed at the public and in particular the youngest members of society .
A coordination centre able to assist in directing fire-fighting helicopters to where they are most needed at the time is , however , a sensible and cost-effective idea .
We shall take the liberty of re-tabling amendments along those lines in plenary .
Europe , though , must also do more towards a forward-looking energy policy ; we need to invest more in research into renewable energies that would make us less dependent on Mr Putin and enable us to be more forthright in our criticisms of his autocratic regime .
Studies have estimated that by 2020 depression will become the highest-ranking disease in the developed world .
The Council can , and will , make scapegoats of Parliament and other bodies , even though it sometimes drags out its own decision-making processes over many months , and this is something we have to be on our guard against .
The Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute will also be strengthened in its basic capacity as a standards-setting body and in the area of metrology .
As a result of our reforms in Europe we are curing ourselves of the trade-distorting impact of our agricultural support mechanisms .
The object of ' European Voluntary Service ' is involvement , for a period of between two and twelve months , in non-profit-making activity for the common good in a country other than one 's own , and this project is to receive 23 % of the funds .
I am sure that the Commissioner will agree with me when I say that every Erasmus student , every Comenius student - and I have met a huge number over the years - every student ends up having a life-forming experience .
Constantly developing technologies and competitive challenges call for qualified employees , and this must be an on-going process .
- ( LT ) Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , I would like to re-emphasise that the programme being discussed provides citizens with more favourable opportunities for on-going training and becoming active participants of the knowledge-based society .
People feel that they are a long way from the decision-making process , and therefore they feel that European Union programmes are remote .
Town-twinning activities are a good means of contributing to this .
Firstly , on the town-twinning movement , I could not disagree more with the previous speaker .
In my own country there are town-twinning associations which have existed for 50 years and others which have been newly founded .
But some thousand extreme right-wing rioters changed everything last night .
Every democratic party has to condemn extreme right-wing ideologies and violence .
With regard to fire-fighting foams , I can agree that the marketing and use of new foams should be prohibited and that a period of 54 months should be granted for the continued use of existing stocks .
Under the compromise with the Council , PFOS is also prohibited in fire-fighting foams .
They also have some specific industrial applications in products as wide-ranging as microchips , fire-fighting foams , chromium plating and hydraulic fluids used in aviation .
In the case of dangerous fires , fire-fighting foam may continue to be used for some time .
That is why I am pleased that we have managed to elaborate and improve the Commission proposal , and that we have deleted a number of unjustified derogations - such as the one for fire-fighting foams , for which there are alternatives .
Logically , the derogation for fire-fighting foams has been deleted , as unlimited quantities of these can be released into the environment .
The Commission report relates some of those significant cases , namely the ' Zeroing ' case with the United States , the Indian anti-dumping cases , the South American and Austrian farming cases and , in general , the extensive and unfair use of safeguards .
We need tightened disciplines in the anti-dumping system .
It is in that spirit that I recently launched a reflection process on how Europe 's trade defence instruments such as the anti-dumping instrument operate in the modern global economy .
However , when we consider the anti-dumping measures of third countries , we in the Community need to show moral leadership and avoid hypocrisy .
Import quotas , anti-dumping duties and administrative obstacles for agricultural products cost every European household approximately USD 1 500 a year .
Shoes , yes , was an anti-dumping measure , arrived at after considerable investigation , analysis , recommendation , discussion , debate and finally decision amongst our Member States , as it properly should be .
Law-abiding citizens have learned to live in fear ; many have been permanently threatened in their daily lives .
A statement was issued on Euronews on 24 October from a high-ranking representative of ETA and Batasuna .
It is not for us in the European Parliament to intervene directly between the Spanish Government , political parties and the long-running conflict in the Basque country , but nor can we turn a blind eye .
In particular , we believe that our decision-making system should be adapted .
Very soon we will be negotiating the emissions-trading system with Russia , which has signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol .
The Council guidelines include actions on all three levels - economic , political and military - designed to allow the Euro-unifying monopolies to secure a strategic agreement with Russia and acquire a larger share of the spoils from exploiting natural resources in third countries .
However , we do not need an institution which will uproot the long-standing university tradition in Europe ; we need one which will respect and make maximum use of it .
He remained a left-wing politician , but he undertook an historic role , he accepted the fate that the revolutionary Hungarian nation offered to him .
In principle , though , I take the view that no region or minority ought , in striving for autonomy , to have recourse to violence , for that way of doing things runs counter to the European values that we have been defending for over sixty years , and this I say in full awareness of my being here as a representative of the German-speaking community in Belgium .
The response to their demands should not be military or judicial oppression of the kind meted out by former Spanish governments and advocated by the present Right-wing opposition .
Furthermore , some derogations initially laid down - cases of chrome plating of metals and fire-fighting foams for which there are now safer viable alternatives - are to be removed .
The famous area of freedom and security of the ΕU is now revealing its repellent and nightmarish form as an area in which basic human rights and fundamental freedoms are throttled , an area of uncontrolled action by the forces of repression to protect the power of Euro-unifying monopolies from the peoples ' resistance and the workers ' and grassroots movement .
How neutral can we expect the peace-keeping forces in South Ossetia to be when they are predominantly Russian ?
So , then , the neighbourhood policy and greater cooperation with Russia are , of course , tools for us , but you will forgive me if I cannot share the Council 's position on the replacement of the peace-keeping forces .
We should perhaps - or should I say , definitely - be prepared to make a contribution , should it prove necessary , to the replacement of the peace-keeping forces .
It is for that reason that there is only one response ; as Mr Landsbergis said , we have to be prepared to have a structured , peace-keeping presence - be it international or European - wherever in the world conflict arises , whether in Transnistria or Abkhazia , South Ossetia or Chechnya , so that the situation can be brought under international control once and for all .
To that end , firstly , since CIS peace-keeping forces in South Ossetia are not able to carry out their task , they should be replaced by international peace-keepers .
( FI ) Mr President , firstly may I say thank you for this wide-ranging debate .
Part of this preparation work took the form of a wide-ranging debate by the Environment Council on 23 October , that is to say the day before last , at the end of which the Chairman gave his conclusions on the EU 's preparations for the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention .
Moreover , I would say to my fellow MEPs that I would not like to be in a Green-Leftwing alderman 's shoes when discussing the Proba Koala file ; the question is therefore whether prosecution will follow and if so , whether it will also cover Member States .
This includes the preparation of guidelines to be adopted in connection with the application of the new waste shipment regulation next year and the organisation of awareness-raising events in Member States .
And yet , in 2006 we are witness to a situation in which 500 tonnes of toxic waste is transported from an EU Member State and dumped upon the long-suffering people of Côte d 'Ivoire .
Syria is a long-standing partner under the Barcelona process and is a potential candidate for the European Neighbourhood Policy in the medium term .
These far-reaching proposals would form a basis for a long-term agreement and would give Iran everything it needs to develop its current civil nuclear energy sector , and they also take account of international concerns .
I can see that you are trying to have confidence-building measures between Europe and Iran , to try to better relations between the two of them and act as honest broker in this serious situation ; but the idea of sanctions does not really work .
The European Union will stress in particular that combating climate change may be combined with fast economic development and , furthermore , that policies to reduce emissions must be incorporated into decision-making procedures in crucial sectors .
Other alternatives include energy-producing greenhouses and houses , geothermal energy and solar mirrors ; so much can be done .
One of our main objectives will be to bring on board the United States and other fast-developing countries like China and India in a common but differentiated way , as provided for by the United Nations Convention on Climate Change .
on behalf of the PPE-DE Group . - ( HU ) Vice-President Barrot has sketched a wide-ranging programme concerning inland waterway transport , on which we can only congratulate him .
Speaking from the perspective of Parliament , we consider this parliamentary report , prepared by Mrs Wortmann-Kool , to be a worthy statement and report on this wide-ranging programme .
As in road transport , incentive schemes for the introduction of the reduction of emission and energy-saving measures in inland waterway transport also help make the fleet more environmentally-friendly .
We in Austria know how important it is - not only for our own country , but also for Europe as a whole - to have a better , by which I mean above all better-functioning system of waterways .
Non-binding clarifications in this area would enable us to provide the necessary guidelines , without stifling innovation .
However , the added value lies in the cross-cutting focus on the various ways in which alliances between the public and private sectors are built in the extremely sensitive field of services involving citizenship rights .
rapporteur . - ( DE ) Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , the Services Directive is one of the most important directives in terms of the freedom to provide services , making possible , on the one hand , fair competition among service-providing enterprises right across Europe , while also , on the other , containing unambiguous rules for the protection of the posted workers , and also setting down minimum standards applicable to all , while nevertheless providing sufficient flexibility to enable these standards to be enforced by the various national systems .
This requirement has far-reaching implications , because setting up legal representation falls under the principle of freedom to establish an enterprise , and not that of freedom to provide services .
In presenting today 's report to us , the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs is aiming to completely do away with even that small and non-binding opportunity .
I also hope that this Parliament will advocate that the Council , when giving its opinion on approving a nomination to the Board , should exercise its decision-making power in full by making its choice on the basis of a number of different candidates .
What we would say at this stage is that if , and only if , the ECB and the euro system are to have an active decision-making role in this , this should involve sound monitoring and democratic decision-making ; that much we agree on .
Yet the Sunday Times in London recently published an extensive article detailing much evidence about the use of these notes in Spain , Italy and Greece , directly for money-laundering purposes .
So there are three opportunities each month to exchange views and gain as full as possible an understanding of how the decision-making process really works .
Cost-reducing measures should not lead , though , to multilingualism being under threat .
The European Commission set out to indicate ( in a non-binding document ) that there are upper limits to social protection and administrative regulation of the market , and that these cannot be exceeded in the Member States in order to avoid impinging on the principle of freedom to provide services ( until the entry into force of the Services Directive , the Posting of Workers Directive remains the main legal basis for the market in services ) .
author . - Mr President , China 's Communist occupation of Tibet is a long-standing scourge on democracy and an open wound on the principles of justice and freedom .
Time and again , we have strongly condemned the thoroughly indefensible and brutal way the Chinese regime has been treating a small peace-loving nation , isolated at the roof of the world .
The fate of the Tibetan people is particularly unfortunate because they are one of the most peace-loving nations in the world .
One of the high-ranking guests present , an Italian deputy prime minister , said that these celebrations left the people out .
Unfortunately there is resistance on the part of some Member States - for the decision depends on them - to re-allocating part of their structural funds towards this new initiative .
As for energy , despite the chronic instability of the oil-producing zones , despite the gas blackmail exercised by a neighbouring country , despite global warming and despite power cuts extending across half of Europe , it is all to no avail and the response remains the same : to complete the liberalised and deregulated internal energy market in Europe .
With regard to the currency area as a whole , I should like us to take what is , by now , a long-standing invitation from the Commission seriously this year , and that is to devote a specific chapter of the European Council 's conclusions - when it examines the progress made by the Lisbon Strategy - to the euro zone , a chapter that includes the structural reforms that we will have to implement within the various member states of the euro zone .
I would like to stress that this report is the product of collaboration with non-governmental organisations and representatives of this field in industry , with whom wide-ranging debates took place even before the expiry of the deadline for submitting proposals , and that many of their ideas were included in the report .
The amendment needs to be implemented quickly , without the decision getting caught up for years in the International Maritime Organisation 's decision-making machinery .
( ES ) Mr President , Commissioner , as a representative of Galicia , a milk-producing region par excellence , I think that this oral question put to the European Commission today is very opportune .
Moreover , the text reflects the non-cofinancing requirement for an amount of EUR 320 million as part of the Rural Development Fund allocation to Portugal , which was also agreed at last December 's Council meeting .
Particular attention must be paid to ensuring the necessary funding for the new Member States in respect of their huge need for basic investment and the need to secure wide-ranging support for rural development .
( HU ) Mr President , the use of the current Community payments , when placed alongside the decision of the European Council taken in December 2005 , according to which Portugal receives special treatment through an exemption from the cofinancing requirement , raises serious questions about the budgetary decision-making process .
Some ground-breaking research may have been done without all the necessary paperwork , and conversely , one can find projects that were brilliantly executed in terms of the formal rules , and all the paperwork was done , but the objectives were not achieved .
The cash flow and interest-bearing consequences of that are important and hitherto unknown .
Members of the medical professions regard sphygmomanometers of this kind as indispensable , especially in certain life-threatening situations , and so we should wait until safe and equally reliable alternatives to these devices have been developed before extending the provisions to the health sector .
It would be appropriate to introduce Community level marketing restrictions on mercury-containing measuring and control equipment for consumer use and , with some exemptions , in the healthcare sector
As regards a potential blanket ban on the use of mercury in all devices , which is the aim of this proposal , it should be emphasised that the experts the Commission consulted came to the conclusion that hospitals need a high level of accuracy to treat life-threatening conditions such as hypertension , arrhythmia and pre-eclampsia .
The problem has been the insistence , mainly by a few English , Dutch and Belgian colleagues , that modern antique-looking barometers manufactured by a very small number of SMEs in England , Holland and Belgium should still be allowed to contain mercury .
Remember that the purpose of this directive is to ban the marketing of mercury-containing devices .
This report is entirely in line with a very long-standing tradition of cooperation , and it is logical that we should create privileged relations by means of the youth of the European Union and of Canada , who are the sons of Europe .
It is particularly in my capacity as rapporteur on the extended powers of the European Air Safety Agency ( EASA ) that I wholeheartedly endorse the Community 's declared objective of guaranteeing a high-performing air safety infrastructure that will make possible the safe , energy-efficient and environmentally friendly development of air travel while making use of the technical advances of such programmes as GALILEO .
In line with our long-standing position on matters relating to the euro and euro area , I and my British Conservative colleagues have abstained on this report .
Something that this House has had to discuss over and over again during the last few plenary sessions is the threats facing minorities in the European Union , among them a growing potential for extremism , not least of a right-wing nature , for xenophobia and anti-Semitism , for minorities , even in the European Union , are increasingly under threat , under attack , and in need of protection .
As well as the one-sided Lisbon Strategy , the Gothenburg strategy is also to be treated in isolation , with economic growth being treated as having higher priority than sustainable development in what is a completely backward-looking policy that represents the selling out of our living resources and amounts to writing off our rural areas , thus abandoning the interconnection of our economic , social and environmental goals .
They are significantly below those in the oil-producing countries - the USA and Japan included .
There are many types of reintegration-related measures that are conceivable in the medium term : to implement effective readmission systems between all of the countries concerned , while respecting people 's dignity and fundamental rights ; to emphasise training and admission so as to help returning illegal immigrants reintegrate into their countries of origin ; to financially support national and regional programmes aimed at reintegrating migrants ; and to promote information and awareness-raising campaigns for potential immigrants on the risks of illegal immigration .
The main proposal by the Commission for improving the decision-making process relates to the use of the passerelle clause under Article 42 of the Treaty on European Union .
Among the legislative measures and other measures which have recently been adopted or which are to be adopted soon , it is worth mentioning in particular the European Parliament and Council Directive of 2005 for the setting of ecodesign requirements for energy-using products and the European Parliament and Council Directive of 2006 on energy end-use efficiency and energy services .
In fact , El Salvadorian workers have for years seen incredible resistance by their own Government , company owners and the right-wing media to try to avoid , or at least delay , the implementation of core labour conventions , and it is very unfortunate that an EU Member State , Spain , has seemingly supported them in that attempt .
It is a pioneer in the granting of financial aid and the sending of troops to the peace-keeping force in Lebanon .
The vote at second reading was cast on a backwards-looking text in comparison with the vote at first reading .
Demonisation is the tactic used by those who are deprived of it : it is , I might add , amusing to note that , in the Socialist camp , only a last handful of diehards , including the French-speaking Belgians , are still rejecting this compromise , which has been accepted by everyone , including the trade unions !
Mr President , in the formal sitting this morning we were reminded that these problems of recurrent violence in the Middle East can only be resolved by means of a fair and all-encompassing solution .
The clearance of explosive remnants of war is an ever-growing burden for the international community .
In it , Member States committed to taking measures to strengthen the Convention , such as an announcement of any confidence-building measures that have been taken .
The Community civil protection mechanism must be strengthened with greater resources and more wide-ranging powers .
However , as far as the decision-making process is concerned , the European Parliament , for example , would only have a consultative role in the content of the future regulation .
Climate change is making the Arctic more accessible to human activities now , such as exploitation of natural resources and increased shipping , but the Arctic also has an important role to play as an early-warning sign for potentially catastrophic global climate change .
What we need is effective decision-making machinery , a clear command structure , no doubt about who is empowered to do what , competent personnel capable of being deployed quickly and kitted out with modern equipment , and the logistical capacity for getting troops quickly to where they are going to serve .
Transnational succession is an extremely wide-ranging phenomenon , and it comes up against an increasing number of difficulties stemming from profound differences between the system of private international law and the substantive law systems of the Member States .
There was also a call for an urgent change of culture in the office of the Deputy Secretary-General for peace-keeping operations .
One priority of the roadmap is promotion of the participation of women and men in decision-making processes .
Amongst the Commission 's strategic actions for the next five years , the establishment of a European network of women in economic and political decision-making can be highlighted , as well as awareness-raising campaigns , data collection , analysis and exchange of good practices involving all stakeholders to combat gender stereotypes .
As you know , the Commission has a strong and long-standing commitment to mainstream gender across the board in our external relations .
In 2007 , in cooperation with the United Nations and the International Labour Organisation , we shall be launching a new capacity-building programme , this time directed principally at our partner governments , civil society and other programme-implementing partners in third countries .
In 2007 , in cooperation with the United Nations and the International Labour Organisation , we shall be launching a new capacity-building programme , this time directed principally at our partner governments , civil society and other programme-implementing partners in third countries .
The fact is , then , that it is also important from a democratic point of view for women to participate as fully as men in the political decision-making process .
The under-representation of women in the political and decision-making process is sometimes associated with the difficulties of trying to balance one 's social , family and work life , and is also often the result of discrimination at work and in professional education .
The Commission is supporting the designation of an anti-trafficking day , possibly on 11 June .
This anti-trafficking convention and protocol have been ratified by 121 States across the world , including most European countries , but seven EU Member States are still to ratify , which is unacceptable .
( DE ) Mr President , Commissioner , Mrs Bauer 's report not only affords us an in-depth analysis of this ghastly state of affairs , but also very wide-ranging proposals as to how strategies to combat people-trafficking - one of the cruellest branches of organised crime - may be successfully implemented .
That means ensuring greater transparency of the EU decision-making process and working to develop best practices to meet citizens ' expectations and safeguard their rights .
It shows that the division of competences between the institutions and the decision-making processes are still unclear to many European Union citizens .
This will allow them to feel that they are card-carrying citizens of the European Union , whose welfare is important and whose voices count .
I am glad to see that your report acknowledges the importance of civic education and citizens ' involvement in the decision-making process .
I do not think that the European common position on the longest-running conflict in the Middle East can continue to be the old policy of ' two peoples , two states ' .
It would be a major confidence-building measure towards a comprehensive settlement , thus meaning also a prospect of the return of Varosha .
Its peace-loving inhabitants went about their daily lives , working hard to achieve progress and prosperity .
The long-standing decoupling of the return of the town from the overall settlement is one element I want to comment on .
Returning Famagusta would be an excellent opportunity for Turkey to show not only the original inhabitants of Famagusta but also the EU and the rest of the world that it is a peace-loving and peace-supporting nation .
I recall how , on one occasion when I was in Northern Cyprus , I had a Turkish Cypriot driver who spoke good Greek , and said : ' I have deep sympathy with my Greek-speaking fellow-Cypriots , and it is not the Greek Cypriots that are our problem , but the Turkish army and the settlers that have been brought into the country artificially . '
If the European Union works consistently and decisively in the direction of confidence-building measures - and it can , Commissioner - then the necessary preconditions can be created for the resumption of an honest dialogue with the objective of a viable and operational solution to the Cyprus problem .
What brought about this constitution-making process was not insight or idealism ; nor were the Heads of Government inspired by a vision to embark upon it .
The most democratic way forward is to negotiate legally-binding protocols to address the concerns raised by the pro-European French and Dutch electorates .
Since the veto has a paralysing effect in the area of security , Member States increasingly resort to informal arrangements , thereby ducking both national and European parliamentary control in a kind of parallel , opaque and undemocratic decision-making structure .
How often do you propose - through your intergovernmental , self-aggrandising management of the Lisbon process - to report to the public that it has yielded nothing ?
The whole thing was a package deal , an all-embracing compromise , and it must not be torn asunder .
Our wide-ranging discussion on matters crucial to relations between the EU and Russia was conducted in a constructive atmosphere .
The dialogue on the environment endorsed at the EU-Russia Permanent Partnership Council ( Environment ) in October will create a basis for wide-ranging cooperation .
Romania has made further progress in modernising its detention facilities and has launched a new awareness-raising campaign against corruption .
Car-manufacturing groups engage in blackmail to milk the areas where their plants are located , and once they have sucked local budgets dry they start to look for pastures new where the grass is greener .
An ever-growing number of workers accept life on the brink of the abyss because they have no alternative .
These measures must also ensure that European works councils are fully involved in decision-making processes , including the right to stop dismissals and relocations , and that there is effective control over Community funds allocated to such multinationals , thus forcing them to comply with all their workers ' rights .
There is a far-reaching contradiction here .
Just as many of my French-speaking colleagues would not think of having lunch without a glass of red wine , our traditional Czech lunch without a half-litre of high-quality Czech beer would , for me , be unthinkable .
Instead they should be vanquished by a European political leadership that is capable of offering us a grand dream : a noble vision of a Europe that is secular , tolerant , modern and courageous , and thus capable of opening up so as to conquer the external enemies and above all the enemies within that cause ever-increasing worry .
In satisfying their dependency , they are providing life support for the flourishing drug-trafficking criminals .
Framework Programme 7 offers us an excellent opportunity to set out the far-reaching effort to be made to regain our competitiveness at the level of the whole European Union , by fully implementing the Lisbon scenario .
Let me highlight some welcome advances : the adoption of priorities associated with people 's everyday lives , such as health , energy , the environment , support for information and communication technology , the impact of which cuts across all the policies of the Union , the increased consideration given to small and medium-sized enterprises , the engine of competitiveness , through the risk-sharing fund , and , lastly , a prospect of future resources that inspires confidence , with the enhancement of the Marie Curie scholarships and the creation of the European Research Council .
This need not be done at European level , and together with the EIB 's risk-sharing finance facility , considerable investments can be made .
We will have to deal with a risk-sharing finance facility , which you mentioned , and I am fully aware that you are expecting simplified procedures , which will not be easy to achieve .
The fact is that concerns and questions remain , especially with regard to the participation of SMEs , where the access costs for participants and access to the risk-sharing finance facility still pose problems , with regard to coherence and the absence of confusion with other Community policies , with regard to the dissemination of knowledge , where quality and respect for intellectual property are issues , and with regard to the role of Member States in the governance of the programme .
Mr President , I should just like to thank the rapporteur and the Members once again for their excellent work , and to say that we are looking forward to a first-reading agreement .
They range from patients ' rights laws to non-binding patient charters , legal obligations for health professionals , patient ombudsmen , etc .
Only the coordinated and all-embracing efforts mentioned in the report will enable improved results to be obtained more rapidly .
The concept of the disabled being able to enjoy their full rights as citizens must become more than fine-sounding words .
( SV ) We regret the fact that it has not been possible for the Constitution to enter into force and that , because of this , there is no codecision making in the very significant and far-reaching area of justice and home affairs .
they play a key role in the European economy , contributing to stronger and longer-lasting growth ;
It is present : with its diplomatic action , its development and humanitarian aid , its corporate relations in the Mediterranean and its participation in peace-keeping forces .
Addressing the Italian Chamber of Deputies and the Italian Senate on 9 November 2006 , you stated that there appear to be four possible scenarios for the Constitutional Treaty : retaining the text with an addition here or there ; salvaging the main elements and drafting a shorter Treaty ; re-opening negotiations on certain points ; or abandoning the Treaty and waiting for a better time to renegotiate it .
Few children are being born , European society is ageing , and an ever-smaller number of workers is supporting an ever-increasing number of pensioners .
The most important issue we have to deal with at present is internal reform of the Union , which involves strengthening the role of the European Parliament and improving the decision-making system .
The important thing now is to start implementing it : we have provided for a number of what we might call self-regulating mechanisms and deadlines , which will allow for adjustments to be made as work progresses , on the basis of the practical experience that we have gained .
The obviously legitimate demand that the Member States should be able to have more far-reaching legislation has not been approved , either .
Behind the façade of fine-sounding slogans about protecting health and the environment , the big players are trying to do away with small and medium-sized enterprises .
This is further proof that we have managed to harmonise the health and environmental protection considerations with the small entrepreneur 's cost-bearing capability .
Because we want to make injury surveillance more comprehensive we include mention of risk-taking behaviour , drugs and alcohol , gender considerations , social and environmental condition .
The Commission has embarked on a wide-ranging review of Community animal health policy .
One of the primary areas of interest for discussion today and one which generated considerable interest was the possible introduction of an insurance or cost-sharing element to help fund disease eradication costs .
That would be a good time and opportunity to discuss further-reaching changes to the present rules and , if necessary , to set up a new legal framework .
I support the objectives outlined in the report , which are as follows : to maintain Community banana production , in view of its vital contribution to employment , to economic and social development and to safeguarding the environment in banana-producing regions , especially in the outermost regions .
As I have already explained in my introductory speech , a report on the implementation of the POSEI programmes will be presented not later than 2009 and will permit the assessment of the situation in the banana-producing regions .
It is important that we do not forget that the new system offers a number of tangible benefits to the banana-producing farmers .
In general , I can say with some confidence that our proposal on the budget will be very good for the banana-producing countries .
I also support the amendments tabled by the Group of the European People 's Party ( Christian Democrats ) and European Democrats , particularly my amendment - which has been adopted - calling for no further-reaching amendments to be made to the legal act from now on , to enable swift action .
The Regulation sought to curb the European Parliament 's general decision-making powers , and it did not adhere to the principles of development cooperation policy , conflating economic cooperation with developing and developed countries .
However , I am concerned and disappointed that the legal services of the institutions prevented elected MEPs from tabling more far-reaching amendments to this controversial piece of legislation .
However , we express our disappointment that the legal services of the institutions prevented elected MEPs from tabling more far-reaching amendments to this controversial piece of legislation .
Our liberal attitudes permit the Pervõi Baltiiski Kanal , which has its headquarters in Riga , to turn the Russian-speaking inhabitants of the three Baltic States against our countries ' legal governments .
Secondly , mainstreaming is a never-ending process ; we need to constantly maintain our efforts and introduce new tools .
The fight for human rights must increasingly involve cross-cutting aspects , such as the promotion of democracy , governability , conflict prevention , crisis management , humanitarian law etc .
Overall it has been a significant achievement to adopt the amendment to the Financial Regulation in a situation where there are ever-growing pressures on making financial administration more efficient .
The point is that on the basis of very reliable studies there are overall positive effects , but at the same time we want to leave it to the Member States - and we have to leave it to the Member States because that is the decision of the Council of the European Union , which is the highest decision-making body in cases of this kind in the Union .
The EFF contains specific provisions promoting gender equality , both through better women 's representation in decision-making processes and in the programmes to be implemented by Member States .
Even in the Chamber , there are often reservations when we deal with the issue - which is unresolved at the European level too - of women , above and beyond the laws which provide guarantees , still not able to benefit in earnest from equal opportunities and the chance to take part at all decision-making levels .
This is presented as a multifaceted phenomenon , which I am sure is true to a certain extent , although it does raise the fundamental question of whether this really is a matter of equality and human dignity or rather the creation of a new left-wing ideology .
This can be seen , for instance , in the continued differences in the pay men and women receive and in the marked underrepresentation of women in all forms of decision-making bodies , be they political , public or private .
This is , in my view , an unacceptable state of affairs , certainly if we consider that the measures are necessary in order to have good air quality levels and that , moreover , according to the Treaty , Member States may take more far-reaching measures to protect the environment .
This is why I have re-tabled Amendment 59 of the Committee on the Environment , Public Health and Food Safety in order to spell out the fact that Member States may take more far-reaching measures in order to achieve the air quality standards .
( DE ) Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , firstly I wish to congratulate the rapporteur , Mr Groote , who comes from the car-making country of Lower Saxony , a German province where many cars are manufactured , which is why he has taken the trouble to consider the industry 's point of view as well .
That is why enlargement is a self-serving objective .
For the time being , we believe , like Mr Stubb , that a further enlargement cannot take place without new decision-making mechanisms , without new resources and without new representation of the Union .
The reform of the decision-making procedure and the debate over integration capacity must not slow down the process of enlargement , and must not be a pretext for putting the brakes on enlargement .
It is a report that promotes efforts to increase the operability of the Union at the level of decision-taking procedures and to institutionalise it such that decisions are basically taken by its leading nucleus without any right of veto for the smaller and once more independent states .
Instead of extending the rights of citizens and information for them , they clearly understand the operability and the decision-taking procedure of the European Union as an almost exclusive right of the strong circles of the European Union .
We need a new Constitution , irrespective of whether more Member States join the Union , to ensure , amongst other things , a modern decision-making process .
Obviously , the criteria relating to democracy , human rights and a well-functioning state under the rule of law must be met .
Every European nation is entitled to join the EU and is entitled to be treated not as a guest , but as a potential and welcome member of this ever-growing family .
We talk about the need for far-reaching reforms , and quite rightly , as we cannot afford to be weak if we want to achieve success .
The demand for the Member States to be able to adopt more far-reaching chemicals legislation has likewise failed to win approval .
I do , however , regret that a long-lasting solution should not have been found to the problem of imports from third countries .
That said , on the issue of maximising the effectiveness of the decision-making process in this field , we underline that , on this issue , it is solely for Member States in the Council to decide .
As has become the norm , the majority in Parliament has adopted a report based on the idea that EU enlargement should be pursued on the condition that federalism is guaranteed and even deepened , that is to say , on the condition that the domination of the major powers in the EU 's decision-making process can be guaranteed , thus pandering to the interests of their large economic and financial groups .
The pressure , coercion and huge conscience-guiding operation reflect the deep concern of the political forces of the ' one-way street ' in Europe at the increasing questioning of the reactionary construct itself by the peoples .
This is a security-screening system making a risk assessment of international travellers , relying among other things on PNR data .
If the Member States really want to show that they are determined to work together in the fight against illegal immigration and on immigration policy , justice and security , they now have a good opportunity to demonstrate this desire : by making the decision-making process at European level simpler , faster , more effective , and more practical !
The issue of the never-ending enlargement of a Europe without defined borders was an important factor in the ' No ' vote when the Constitutional Treaty was rejected .
Yes , the EU needs to make its decision-making mechanisms more effective and more flexible and to adopt the fundamental principles contained in the European Constitution , with which , let me remind you , all of the EU-25 governments have identified .
Mr President , illegal immigration is a very serious problem , with far-reaching consequences , and a space without borders , such as Schengen , affects all of us .
They speak of a name change and of a ( pseudo ) ' mini-agreement ' , with the accent placed on institutional issues ( on the pretext that the EU needs to function , but in reality guaranteeing that the major powers dominate the decision-making process ) and on what is termed ' the EU 's role in the world ' ( in other words its militarisation and foreign interventionism ) .
This was discussed by various working groups in the Council and the Permanent Intergovernmental Group L 'Europe de l 'enfance , which is made up of high-ranking officials with responsibility for child and family policy in the Member States .
It is also clearly not practical to have 110 different-looking driving licences , which can be displayed but not understood , so the idea of having a single format and code for categories is reasonable .
Without a functioning internal market , the emissions-trading system - the cornerstone of our efforts to deal with climate change in a competitive manner - will not work properly , nor will we achieve our aims of competitiveness and security of supply .
The Committee on International Trade , having observed how far behind the European Union is in both the consumption and production of biofuels , has proposed that we increase imports , which is quite natural , but also that we focus more closely on European industrial production , with the dual aim of achieving energy independence for the EU and of providing outlets for agricultural crops such as sugar-producing plants .
We are not talking about right-wing kilowatts or left-wing kilowatts .
We are not talking about right-wing kilowatts or left-wing kilowatts .
( EL ) Mr President , the Green Paper is being promoted within the framework of the anti-grassroots Lisbon Strategy and yet again donates more profit to Euro-unifying capital .
I therefore particularly support the amendment which , taking account of serious environmental warning signs , proposes a global objective in terms of the percentage of non-carbon-generating energy sources .
Firstly , on Amendment 328 to line 22 02 02 ' Transition and institution-building assistance to potential candidate countries ' : this is accepted with + EUR 2 million for commitments and payments .
Since 1994 , amongst the one hundred thousand personnel deployed as peace-keeping forces , more than three hundred cases of sexual crimes against children , against people with few resources , have been investigated .
This Resolution is therefore intended to praise the role of the United Nations , but also to state that we need the Member States responsible for peace-keeping forces and soldiers to behave in a civil manner that respects human rights .
This support was expressed once again by Parliament 's delegation that visited New York a few weeks ago and that held talks with the Secretary-General and the people in charge of peace-keeping operations .
It will also be an important tool in the development of a new , wide-ranging policy on innovation , which has also been one of the Finnish Presidency 's main themes .
The European Council conducted a thorough and wide-ranging discussion of the EU 's policy on enlargement , in line with the mandate given it by the June European Council .
Now that the groundwork has been done , we expect the spring European Council to formulate some forward-looking innovation-policy guidelines .
It is true that we would have liked the European Council to have gone further in the streamlining of the decision-making process in the area of justice and home affairs .
I have to underline once again that we need a more efficient decision-making process in the area of justice and home affairs in the European Union , and not only in that area .
It is clearly not making best use of the possibilities , as you recognise a few paragraphs later , when we say that responding to the expectations of citizens is difficult with the existing decision-making procedures and that the framework needs to be strengthened .
That is why it is necessary , with a view to the future of the EU , to strengthen the Union 's integration capacity and to launch a truly comprehensive , far-reaching reform of the Union of 27 .
If we call for far-reaching changes , we do so in order that the citizens of our 27 countries might recognise that the Union is theirs .
I am referring to a globalised world , to the progress it has made and to the ever-growing injustice within it .
His experience as one of the longest-serving Members of this House will be of immense value to all of us .
Not only the advent of cars and a widely available motorway network , but also tax exemption for aircraft fuel and the advent of price-cutting airlines has meant that rail transport is considered expensive in relative terms .
It is necessary if trains in the EU are to be able to deliver a sufficiently competitive alternative to other forms of transport and , in so doing , provide more environmentally friendly and energy-saving transport .
Why not schedule a fourth rail package , which could look in detail at funding mechanisms , and particularly coordination with public service obligations , as well as the funding of loss-making lines ?
It should allow loss-making railway lines to continue to be funded if they meet public service objectives .
( EL ) The ' third package of measures ' on rail transport in the ΕU paves the way for full liberalisation , in other words for the railways to be handed over to the monopolies , in order to safeguard and increase the profits of euro-unifying capital .
Nevertheless , the decision-making process with the ACP countries would benefit from being enriched by the participation of the European Parliament .
Anything else , like this report , is demeaning to women , and any self-respecting woman should find this report offensive .
Let me mention but a few of them : women and poverty ; education ; women and health ; violence against women ; armed conflicts ; women and the mass media ; the participation of women in decision-making processes and in political and social structures .
What has become of our demand for women in decision-making positions within Parliament ?
We must not criticise the failure to promote women to decision-taking positions ; we must criticise the fact that worthy women are prevented from competing with worthy men .
The situation regarding administrative positions of responsibility in the European Parliament 's political decision-making bodies is equally unsatisfactory .
rapporteur . - ( DE ) The third part is a free-standing question , and it is for that reason that it must be voted on separately .
These words of George Bernard Shaw , pronounced almost a century ago , are being endorsed by an ever-increasing number of people and a majority of countries .
All of that is , of course , right , and the idea of encouraging people to use less-polluting vehicles seems to be a good one .
Finally , ladies and gentlemen , while I am not being Sinophobic - please believe me when I say that - I would ask once again : is there any sense in all of our unilateral efforts regarding sustainability when , in one year , China and the Asian economic tigers emit as much climate-changing gas into the atmosphere as is produced in ten years by EU countries ?
There can be no doubt that the development of new energy-generating installations should be based on carbon-free technologies .
Renewable sources , which we have so often advocated , and quite justifiably too , will scarcely be able to meet the ever-growing demand .
Our developed Member States have exported their energy and natural-resource-consuming activities to less-developed countries , exporting greenhouse emissions and environmental damage as well .
That will of course have to involve a burden-sharing arrangement , with every country in Europe having to take on a certain percentage and thus make it possible for the 20 % target for primary energy consumption to be achieved by 2020 .
Global warming is not a figment of the imagination of a few publicity-seeking scientists and politicians ; it is a reality that we must now come to terms with .
We direct our attention not only to our own economies , adopting appropriate solutions , but we also want developing countries to use non-polluting renewable types of energy and non-polluting technology .
When stimulating economic growth , it is essential to implement sustainable development in all sectors , to invest in non-polluting technologies , to introduce alternative energy technologies , and , most importantly , to apply entrepreneurial behaviour standards .
In the absence of improved access for the EU to third-country procurement markets , Commissioner Mandelson and I are reflecting on a market-opening instrument to enhance EU access .
In Britain , SMEs are unfairly shut out of public procurement due to well-meaning requirements such as corporate social responsibility and environmental standards ; quite often a requirement for three years of audited accounts , which many small businesses cannot meet ; a lack of competitive tendering ; the bundling of contracts that become too big for SMEs and favour the large companies ; and secrecy and a lack of transparency .
We live in a fast-living society ; when both parents work , time for the family , for bringing up children and for cooking is often lacking .
Mr President , this is the third time I have taken the opportunity to use a one-minute speech to bring to the attention of this House the fact that another poultry-processing factory in Northern Ireland has closed with a substantial loss of jobs .
It is that the European Community is a peace-building project .
The problem lies mainly in the high level of illiteracy , which stands at 25 % , rising as far as 40 % in some regions - and the still very small number of women in decision-making positions at local and national level .
I would like to call to mind , from recent history , the work on the chemicals legislation REACH , the elaboration of the services directive and the debates on the financial perspective , in which we constantly strove to set forward-looking priorities and managed to push them through , in tough negotiations with the Council and the Commission in some cases .
We must not only organise formal sittings characterised by high-flying rhetoric , but must also make things happen from day to day .
You will allow me , however , to express what lawyers in the English-speaking world call a dissenting opinion .
If we add to this the fact that less than 20 % of waste is recycled , that - in 50 % of cases end-of-life materials are not recycled and end up scattered throughout the countryside and that , moreover , allowing incinerators and waste that is dangerous to the environment and to public health to proliferate is not a tenable policy , what we have is a whole waste management philosophy that needs to be re-thought , and to be re-thought along three main axes : eco-design as a priority of waste prevention policy , given that 80 % of the environmental impact occurs at the time that a product is manufactured and processed ; the implementation of green taxation , which is intended to have a deterrent effect and which discourages excess packaging and energy-guzzling products ; and the closure of Europe 's 10 000 illicit rubbish dumps or the modification of these dumps to bring them into line with the 2001 EU Landfill Directive .
Since climate change presents us with the challenge of the century , we are firmly determined to bring about ambitious and forward-looking resolutions , including quantitative targets , in this area too , and the proposals put forward by the Commission for full coordination on energy matters provide us with a good basis for this .
As demonstrated by the speeches made in the Chamber this morning , there is a certain European left-wing tendency that continues to demand new legislation , but shows little interest in how much it is actually applied or applicable .
What does that mean , in particular in terms of an employment-intensive and forward-looking transformation of energy and transport , and what would need to happen in order for a really sustainable solution to work-related , social , environmental and global problems to be set in motion ?
We have held inter-parliamentary conferences here in this House , with an ever-increasing number of participants from the parliaments .
Firstly , the electricity and gas distribution networks need to be managed and administered economically independently of the energy production process if the long-lasting failure of the electricity and gas market is to be brought to an end .
Nor should we defer the creation of a permanent dialogue between energy-consuming states and energy-supplying states , to prevent an increase in global imbalance and the development of instability .
Nor should we defer the creation of a permanent dialogue between energy-consuming states and energy-supplying states , to prevent an increase in global imbalance and the development of instability .
Consequently , in the alternative resolution to this debate tabled by our group , we have opted to give prominence to a genuine pact for economic progress and social development , and a European strategy for solidarity and sustainable development based on greater solidarity on the part of the most developed countries with better and further-reaching distribution of Community funds .
We must remember that the recent increases in energy prices will in future become an ever-increasing problem both for world energy markets and for economic development .
Those calling for parliamentary rights , for example the early-warning mechanism via better lawmaking , have to be able to decide on the level - national or European - at which they believe regulations are needed and should be adopted .
What we need to focus on today in this review is the objective of keeping the European sector at the top of the world league , the simplification of Community legislation , compatibility with other European development policies , product recognition , the proportionality of products and the cohesion of all wine-growing areas .
First of all , I believe that this is at odds with the Community position that rural development measures can make a substantial contribution to the required improvements in the wine-growing regions .
Likewise , before assigning new planting rights , the situation in the individual wine-growing regions with regard to illegal plantings should be examined .
If we are to achieve an ambitious , forward-looking trade policy for wines , we must take a tailored approach in thinking about the present funding .
The compromise on the wine-growing traditions of the individual Member States consists in respect for the various traditions - and enrichment with sucrose also ranks among traditional oenological practices .
In addition to its economic value , wine-growing forms part of the cultural heritage of the various regions of the EU .
on behalf of the ALDE Group . - ( FR ) Commissioner , Mrs Batzeli , ladies and gentlemen , the European Union 's wine-growing sector represents an extremely important economic activity , particularly in terms of exports .
In terms of œnological practices , the new wine-producing countries have more flexible regulations .
The regions should be assured here , too , that these funds will remain at their disposal - according to specific social and environmental criteria and with regard to the market - so that these regions can continue to be wine-producing regions .
This pretext is a joke , because the liberalisation of imports from third countries of must and wine and the legalisation of the practice of mixing them with Community must and wine , together with the recognition of wine-making practices which use foreign materials in vinification , thereby converting wine from an agricultural to an industrial product , mean that imports of cheap wines are facilitated and quality is undermined .
It is this , this land grabbing , that is the true tragedy , because wine is not just a common market organisation : it is more than agriculture , and even more than culture , despite the painters , the 275 poets of wine , and the structures of the 5 000 wine-producing villages of Europe - wine is the interface with the divine .
The European wine-making sector has problems .
We must improve and supplement all of the qualities of wine , controlling wine-making practices , promoting responsible consumption and above all researching , developing and innovating .
North and south , the individual wine-growing regions - a wide variety of opinions and interests have been represented .
The Commissioner has taken the trouble to visit many wine-producing regions in recent months , and for that I am obliged to her .
It is therefore a very positive thing that this report reflects to a large degree the views of the Greek wine-growing sector .
It could be claimed instead that it did not go far enough in adapting its operating rules and decision-making procedures to the challenge posed by the enlarged EU or in introducing the new Community policies that are needed .
Staunch defence of human rights , the rule of law and democracy , which I advocate , cannot be delivered by political action underpinned more by naïve left-wing anti-Americanism than by the actual defence of these values .
The priority of euro-unifying capital is the effective and fast promotion of the guidelines of the Lisbon Strategy , which expresses its ambition to increase its profits , so that it can be imposed on monopoly competition through a barbaric attack on all the rights earned by the working classes .
Secondly , the Commission is an important provider of capacity-building assistance to some 80 third countries aimed at improving governance and administrative capacities in related areas .
That is evidence of the fact that , if we want to be more secure against terrorism and organised crime , we need the European Constitution as a more effective means of making obligations in the common sphere more binding and improving the decision-making process .
As long as visas are required , they need to be made easy and cheap for law-abiding citizens to acquire .
The final reason is that national decisions must in turn follow an integrated , cross-cutting approach , and the prearranged plans and priorities must be reflected in the national budgets .
The Bullmann report , by focusing on the role of SMEs , research and development , the environment and the energy sector , aims clearly at creating greater coherence in the policy-making processes and the economic governance of the Union while attempting to develop a genuinely effective and inclusive European labour market .
The webcast and the online availability of documents relating to public sessions have thus considerably improved opportunities for following the debates and decision-making processes in the Council .
After 20 years of civil war the comprehensive peace agreement may be the last chance for the Khartoum regime to show that the federal power-sharing form of government can work for this vast country .
I too welcome the report 's call for the Commission to present its eco-labelling proposal by June .
I also believe that the possibility of using sugar beet to enrich wine in wine-growing region A must be retained .
This report is schizophrenic : on the one hand it talks about promoting quality , while on the other it comes down in favour of enrichment with sugar ; on the one hand it talks about protecting geographical designations , while on the other it opens the door to new wine-making practices , such as wine with shavings .
Just to give an example , I would like to point to Regulation ( EC ) No 316 / 2004 which liberalised 17 traditional designations , in reality opening up the market to wine-making piracy .
For all these reasons , while I voted in favour of the report , I would like to express great concern for the future of the high quality of the wine-making sector , particularly the Italian sector .
Given that the EU is the world 's biggest producer and consumer of wine and that the sector accounts for 60 % of the EU 's exports , I feel that there should be far-reaching reform of the current common organisation of the market in wine , which would help consolidate traditional markets and develop expanding markets .
With a view to optimising European wine production and wine-making , I have tabled an amendment on behalf of the Union for Europe of the Nations Group that underlines the need to maintain the ban in Europe on using the new wine-making practices for ageing wine ( such as the use of oak shavings instead of the traditional period spent in the barrel ) .
This is a blatant attack from inside the wine-producing industry and should be forever rejected for future reports in this area .
We are therefore sceptical about this opinion-soliciting resolution from the European Parliament .
This is a problem not only for the people of Tibet , but also for those of the neighbouring and more readily accessible region of Xinjiang , home to the Uighurs , who are related to the Turkic-speaking peoples , such as the Kazaks , Kyrgyzs and Uzbeks .
Only through forward-looking dialogue will pragmatic solutions be found that will meet the aspirations of the Tibetan people and fully respect China 's sovereignty and territorial integrity .
I should particularly like to commend the Egyptian authorities , which is the non-bordering country that has done by far the most to welcome these refugees , and I should like to make a heartfelt plea to the Egyptian authorities not to prevent these refugees from arriving or to suspend the conditions for hosting them when they arrive .
Otherwise a resolution would not have been put forward ; we would not have received the results and the very explicit recommendations of a fact-finding mission sent to Malta ; and the Commission would not have recommended , as my fellow Members are very well aware , that the Maltese Government should not authorise the spring hunt in the country this year , in view of what has happened in previous years .
( PT ) Mr President , the main function of business is wealth creation , but companies are , in certain circumstances , capable of being more than merely wealth-generating machines .
on behalf of the GUE / NGL Group . - ( CS ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , the Commission 's approach , the result of which is the recommendation on collective cross-border management of copyright and related rights for legitimate online music services , is unfortunately further evidence of the unacceptable , and indeed completely needless , circumvention of the democratic decision-making process as regards the role of the European Parliament .
The object of the draft directive put forward by the Commission last autumn is greater legal certainty , undoubted reliability and clearly-demarcated decision-making processes , and , since all the interested parties are agreed on these , we have therefore supported it .
Mr Lehne has already referred to the problematic aspects of this recommendation , and Mrs Berès has - I think rightly - surmised that a survey entrusted to ISS , the European Corporate Government Institute , and Sherman [ amp ] Sterling might well not be as objective as the matter in hand might require , and so I appeal to the Commission to delay its practical proposals until after extensive and objective consideration of how things stand in Europe and after a critical and all-embracing assessment of our experience with the Takeovers Directive .
Secondly , today , Commissioner Mandelson and others are discussing economic partnership agreements with ministers from developing countries and the Union 's ministers for development cooperation , a wide-ranging issue indeed .
Mr President , Vice-President of the Commission , there is much to be welcomed in the strategic approach you presented to us this morning , but I still find something lacking with regard to the cross-cutting priorities and the strategic focus of bringing issues together in a more coherent and holistic manner .
We need a debate on the kind of agriculture we want to see , on how much or how little aid it should receive and on whether it is possible to shift resources from agricultural policy to more forward-looking areas such as research and investment in transport .
This non-binding gimmick appeared in the United States as far back as the 1950s .
Regulations are needed in this area in order to strengthen the consumer 's hand and reinforce the supporting structure of the odd well-meaning company .
We do not believe that the EU should express opinions on issues of this type in far-reaching reports resembling political programmes more than anything else , and we object in principle to the general trend whereby the EU institutions endeavour to achieve influence and competence within ever more areas .
We support very strongly the current mission of Dr ElBaradei to North Korea aiming at the return of the IAEA inspectors as part of this accord and I share his assessment that this is a crucial confidence-building process .
Since 1957 , the Euratom Treaty has provided the Commission with wide-ranging responsibilities .
The inadequate care that the state provides for children of pre-school age is one of the reasons why women are less likely to secure roles at decision-making levels .
Is it in the best interests of a family to have two full-time career-chasing parents who rarely meet up at the family dinner ?
It is rather a practical recognition of the fact that in a complex , fast-moving world we have to be light on our feet and we have to find new solutions to deep-seated challenges .
At the same time , the promotion of harsher anti-labour measures , the ' adaptability ' of the labour market and ' flexurity ' are being speeded up in the aim of holding down labour costs , in order to increase the profitability of Euro-unifying capital .
The summit has been a success and sends an important signal to the rest of the world in two respects : it is a signal of our unity , and a signal of our organisation 's pragmatic , forward-looking approach .
The problem is not that the left-wing opposition believes in principle that those in power are not doing enough of the right thing .
Such is the self-defeating merry-go-round that is this regulation-crazed European Union .
We must tell those who complain at the cost of developing non-polluting technologies that this investment will grant Europe leadership in the sector and will create new and better jobs under the Lisbon Strategy .
The devil is going to be in the detail and I suspect there will not be anything like so much agreement when the burden-sharing proposals are announced , and some of the specific targets are open to challenge , not least by environmentalists .
Even more than that , however , I like the idea of replacing energy-wasting with energy-saving consumption .
This way well-performing states can compensate for the underachievement of weak or lazy states .
At the same time , the promotion of harsher anti-labour measures , the ' adaptability ' of the labour market and ' flexurity ' are being speeded up in the aim of holding down labour costs , in order to increase the profitability of Euro-unifying capital .
We interpret the concept of ' public-private partnership ' as referring to the existence within the social services sector of a variety of services that are publicly funded and that are provided by a number of different actors such as public limited companies , non-profit-making organisations , cooperatives and private companies .
The year 2007 will also be important because it will be the year that we define and implement far-reaching action plans to help create a brighter future for the region : the Horizon 2020 plan , whose aim is to depollute the Mediterranean Sea ; the Istanbul action plan on the role of women in society , adopted in November 2006 ; the practical implementation of the Tampere programme , adopted during the conference of Euro-Mediterranean Ministers of Foreign Affairs ; and the action plan for implementing the free-trade area that is the subject of Mr Arif 's report , to which I would like to turn now .
Mr President , Mr Vice-President of the Commission , honourable Members , I am delighted to see that the subject of today 's debate is the future of the European aerospace industry , for this industry embodies Europe 's forward-looking approach , its high technology and its potential for future growth , and makes a considerable contribution to achieving the goals of the Lisbon Strategy for growth and employment , with Airbus being its most prominent project .
The fact is that , by doing away with 10 000 jobs and dividing by six the number of sub-contractors , the ' Power 8 ' plan is eating away at those things that make Airbus rich : its workers ' know-how and the network of sub-contracting businesses on whose cooperation it could rely .
It was that cooperation that made Airbus a high-performing business , and that is the reality of what ' Power 8 ' is going to destroy by making workers , sites and nationalities compete against each other , something that the workers are quite right to repudiate .
This business also shows just what is lacking in European social dialogue , with workers ' representatives completely absent from the decision-making structures .
The decision-making process can also be improved and we need to ensure that decisions are taken by Member States based on the well-founded research carried out by independent Community bodies , rather than on the basis of national interests , or , if you prefer , national selfishness .
Thirdly , since the new trade defence system proposed by the Commission assigns a role to all possible interested parties , including those not related to the production of goods falling under the scope of the investigation , do you not believe that the time has come to allow trade unions to lodge a complaint , as foreseen by the WTO anti-dumping agreement ?
Somebody asked how this review fits with our attempts to reform anti-dumping rules in the WTO .
I can understand them , as it is frankly ridiculous that the Member States should only be given a few days in which to assess thousands of pages prior to decisions on anti-dumping duties .
In terms of the process of anti-dumping investigations , there is widespread dissatisfaction across stakeholders with the access they currently enjoy even to non-confidential documents and information .
We emphasise that we are opposed to a distorted use of anti-dumping measures and to forms of disguised and non-agreed protectionism presented as fighting unfair competition , of which our global competitors accuse us .
We do ask , however , that reform of anti-dumping rules by the European Union should not act as indirect support for those in the world who have not come out in favour of liberalisation .
Firstly , anti-dumping tariffs are imposed by the Commission on a product on the basis of proof that its price on the EU market does not exceed the cost of production .
These instruments , however , are much faster and easier to use than anti-dumping tariffs .
Currently this takes many months , and for anti-dumping tariffs as long as nine months , which exposes European producers to huge losses .
For example , in the case of frozen strawberries from China it took several years to put anti-dumping measures in place , by which time numerous farms had folded and gone bankrupt .
Anti-dumping measures must not be abused for protectionist purposes .
Furthermore , I would urge the Commission to quickly carry out anti-dumping studies , as delay on this has already bankrupted the Lithuanian telescope manufacturer ' Ekranas ' .
But I have heard the call of many in this House to ensure that our anti-dumping system is clear , transparent and objective .
on behalf of the PPE-DE Group . - ( ES ) Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , the reports presented by Mr Yañez and Mr Meyer respond to our Parliament 's long-standing call for the Andean and Central American Communities also to have association agreements , like those that we have with other parts of the region , and hence to benefit from the most well-tuned and developed instruments that the European Union has in its relations with third countries .
This should come on stream shortly in line with the Committee 's needs , and I hope that the work of the Committee will help prepare the ground for the overall solution of the long-lasting conflict in Cyprus .
That is why I think that our debate may form a bridge for the creation of confidence-building measures leading to reconciliation and the reunification of the two communities within the framework of a united Republic of Cyprus within the European Union .
In the draft 2007-2013 Cohesion Policy General Regulation , issued in July 2004 , the Commission specifically proposed granting a co-financing rate top-up to these regions .
Finally , we must not underestimate the ever-increasing impact of illegal immigration on island communities , particularly in the Mediterranean .
It must not prop up structurally loss-making activities , particularly those that are very damaging , for example , to our environmental or climate change objectives .
The EU spends huge sums in these countries subject to terms and conditions , so that economic development and political structures serve Euro-unifying capital and its profits and circumvent any national sovereignty for the states in the area .
Minorities , whose error is not to belong to the great right-thinking mass of Eurofederalists .
on behalf of the ALDE Group . - Mr President , sometimes I wonder how it is possible not to see the blindingly obvious , and then I think of the Canadian Government 's persistence in allowing an annual festival of blood-spilling carnage to be carried out on hundreds of thousands of defenceless baby seals .
The stability of the regime in power and the ever-increasing concentration of authority over the different regions in Moscow are given absolute priority .
Initially , with American aid , a Right-wing regime was put in power with no goal other than to sabotage China and Vietnam .
Furthermore , the mix of fierce competition for membership , the low level of professionalism , political influence and a low degree of control over members have made for a tense atmosphere in some of the garment-manufacturing establishments .
I feel that she has already made a difference and that more women are needed in decision-making positions .
While the Constitution does not , in itself , solve any problems , it does provide us with the framework of legitimacy and decision-making competence that enable us to do so for ourselves , and I hope that it is , for this reason , clear to all twenty-seven Member States - and I am following the Commission in saying this - that they have to have very good reasons for not going along with that process , and so we have to ensure the European Union , as a community of twenty-seven , faces up to this challenge rather than disintegrating into the little blocks that would result if it could not , as a whole , succeed in doing so .
These are aimed at fostering the creation of a European supervisory culture , a mediation and delegation mechanism , and also electronic data-sharing arrangements and common formats for reporting .
As a follow-up to that exercise , the Council will reflect in 2007 on how better to address cross-border crisis situations and clarify burden-sharing arrangements .
As a result of the talks , Mr Ahtisaari further extended some of the already far-reaching provisions for the protection of the Kosovo Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church .
It contains wide-ranging provisions intended to secure the future of all communities in Kosovo , as well as protection of religious sites and cultural heritage .
I would like to make it clear that , as passionate Europeans , we are always in favour of greater decision-making powers for this Parliament , which is the European Union 's highest democratic expression .
on behalf of the UEN Group . - ( PL ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , soccer has moved from being a sport and providing entertainment to being a money-making machine and a way of gaining power .
Moreover , as has been said , the ever-growing importance of European football involves , as we can see , consequences of considerable significance in all sectors .
It is illustrative of the importance and dynamism which football exerts , magnetising millions of sports-loving politicians - and not only politicians - throughout the world .
The ministers agreed to continue work on the establishment of a European network of anti-doping agencies , which is one of the contributions to ensuring the transparency and credibility of our actions .
Mr President , honourable Members , I am very glad that we are able today to talk about the regulation on medicinal products for advanced therapies , which has been long awaited , and is of enormous importance to innumerable sick people in Europe , to many of whom these new therapies offer hope of new and life-saving treatment .
If this is the case , this regulation would become a fully-harmonising measure for all products including those prohibited in some Member States .
Mr Mikolášik , you also said that we should have a first-reading agreement .
One form that I regard as particularly serious is the counterfeiting of brands of generic medicines , which are often marketed in developing countries , and I am delighted that the executive secretary of the World Health Organization 's anti-counterfeiting task force has spoken out in favour of the report , since it specifically refers to the health risks and rates the counterfeiting of medicines as being extremely serious .
Customs should be able , in future , to put better and more effective controls in place , thus preventing sea-going vessels , such as the one in Hamburg that was loaded with three million pairs of shoes - all counterfeits from China - from slipping through customs without anyone noticing .
There is room for wide-ranging discussion on the factors that led to the proposal to exclude technical solutions from criminal protection .
In this regard , I would like to congratulate the rapporteur on his work , particularly on the compromise reached on excluding violations for personal and non-profit-making reasons , since they do not deserve to be treated in the same way as a deliberate infringement of an intellectual property right committed on a commercial scale , which I do believe should be punishable in the appropriate manner .
Therefore , EU institutions were asked to increase the production quota , which would have created conditions for economically worthwhile operation of the factories and a continuation of the potato-growing tradition in Lithuania .
The ever-growing number of agencies does not always reflect the real needs of the Union and its citizens .
I should like to finish off with the never-ending story about the voluntary pension fund .
The June List is of the view that comprehensive reform of the sugar market within the EU is necessary with a view to liberalising the market without delay and giving sugar-producing countries outside the EU the opportunity to compete on fair terms .
I believe this is a similar mistake that will lessen the attention that must be paid to extreme right-wing organisations and parties in the Union , particularly within some of the new Member States .
I am opposed to the overly penny-pinching approach of the rapporteur , who is proposing a maximum period of time during which regions may receive structural funding .
Furthermore , and regardless of prevailing opinion on the EU 's enlargement process , we welcome the removal from the report of proposals aimed at creating a different accession status for new countries whereby they would be completely integrated into the internal market but without any involvement in the institutions or in the decision-making process , thus creating a form of neo-colonialism in which the so-called aid would always be conditional on the countries concerned yielding to political pressure .
The British Government , ever with an eye for an additional taxation opportunity , plans to use it to implement road-charging schemes so that British citizens can help pay for it by being charged for the privilege of driving on their own roads .
We have to tackle it , which is the purpose of the two amendments tabled by Mr Stockmann and myself , through which we seek to ensure that this House debates what constitutes a genuine security-building measure and what is merely a placebo .
At this juncture I wish to thank Commissioner Dimas and his staff , the shadow rapporteurs and the German Presidency , all of whom have worked very constructively with me to achieve an agreement at second reading , a far-reaching agreement that covers all the key issues .
Since a low-lying country such as the Netherlands relies on many of its neighbouring countries where water management is concerned , it is important for Member States not to take measures that lead to increased flood risks in other countries .
As I highlighted earlier , a number of ambitious targets related to resource use are already in place , for example the strategy 's over-arching goal to decouple negative environmental impacts from growth on a European and global scale .
At the EU Spring Summit on 8 / 9 March we agreed on far-reaching climate protection goals and an energy action plan .
If the information shared is based on dubious profiling or data-mining exercises , or if it is tainted by torture , what value does it have ?
Paragraph 16 of our motion for a resolution notes the disappointment that the United States has refused to move on issues such as emissions targets and the creation of global carbon-trading schemes .
Instead , as the report points out , we want to encourage an all-embracing process of truth and reconciliation involving all the interested parties , both in Croatia and in the rest of the Balkans .
I rejoice to be able to tell you that , over the past month , the European Parliament has set up - quite separately from the delegation to SAARC - a parliamentary delegation for relations with India , an action that takes account of the ever-increasing importance of your country to the European Union .
Both my own group and the other take the view that specific rules would offer better protection for passengers on inland vessels , since the present regulations , on which we are to vote , apply to sea-going traffic , and so I would just like to point out that we are doing no less for the passengers ' safety if we table our amendments , and then - it is to be hoped - get a majority to vote for them .
The EU has even penalised free access of workers to intellectual creations so as to stifle this sector of human creativity and boost the profits of euro-unifying capital .
I support the principle of reorganising the tax levy , so that growth-impeding taxes on labour , capital and consumption are replaced by taxes on activities that harm the environment .
We have decided to increase the support grant under the new European neighbourhood and partnership instrument to EUR 120 million per annum , have initialled the agreement on visa facilitation and returns , and , on the trade front , are preparing extensive measures that , taken together with the new and wider-ranging agreement , will move us closer to a free trade zone .
In April , the EU Member States and the Commission will be making preparations to send a fact-finding mission to Manila in the near future to assess the need for specialist assistance .
The recent situation in the VW car works demonstrated in particular the need to inform and consult with workers in the decision-making process at the earliest opportunity , so that they are prepared for restructuring and so that this is carried out in everyone 's best interests .
As representatives of the people in Europe , we shall gladly play our part in adapting the rules to the changes in the world of business and employment , for we all know that the only successful employers of the future will be those who act responsibly and with due regard to the rights and welfare of their employees , while well-informed employees who are involved in corporate decision-making processes will give of their best and be committed to the success of their company .
on behalf of the PSE Group . - Mr President , Airbus , Alcatel , Lucent and Delphi Systems are just the latest in a never-ending stream of instances of major restructuring that have led delegations of workers to come to us complaining of breaches of EU information and consultation laws , not just the Works Council Directive , but others too : directives on collective redundancies and transfers dating from the 1970s , and the Directive establishing a General Framework for Information and Consultation of Workers .
For several years now , we in the Socialist Group in the European Parliament have been calling for these texts to be revised in a bid to ensure that information and consultation of workers early on , at regular intervals and at all levels of decision making will enable them genuinely to make their presence felt in the decision-making process .
Our support for this proposal is based , however , on a vision of the RACs as an instrument for encouraging the decentralisation of the CFP , for ensuring that the fishermen and their representative bodies are involved in the decision-making process regarding the CFP - which we feel is not completely the case at the moment - and for guaranteeing that the interests of all Member States on the issue of fisheries are fairly represented .
After all , as in the Geremek issue on which nobody spoke with any authority yesterday , this is how the Left-wing inquisition on the issue of so-called homophobia in Poland took the moral high ground without any knowledge of the subject , or intellectual honesty for that matter .
Their impressive , even oppressive , presence in front of the central committee 's session building certainly had an impact on the decision-making process of politburo members in favour of Mugabe 's appointment as a Presidential candidate .
We know how difficult it is to accept that a liberator can evolve into a tyrant , but it is in Mbeki 's hands to go down in the annals of history as someone who , in the end , has also helped human rights and democracy in Africa on the road to success by taking the side of the long-suffering people .
For its part , the government rejects these accusations and suspects , at least in part , purges within the militant left-wing camp .
The Russian Government , the Russian-speaking minority in Estonia and everyone else do , of course , have the right to criticise activities such as the removal of a bronze statue .
The year 2007 could certainly signalise our relations with a region undergoing radical change ; a region with great expectations of a far-reaching partnership with the EU .
What , then , is the point of this well-meaning report , which , by the way , is a real antidote to the cartoons of Mohammed ?
First of all , it is not a well-meaning report , but a bold statement and a tremendous message of confidence in the democratic potential of the Arab world , in the diversity of its non-governmental actors , in the strength of its civil society and in its culture .
Although Malta is small , car owners find it terribly difficult to change their cars to more efficient energy-saving cars and those which produce less exhaust .
If employees are no longer to be held hostage by rampant restructuring projects , they must be allowed genuinely to make their presence felt in the decision-making process within the management boards of companies .
The harsh reality , however , is that these directives are either simply not complied with or , when they are , they often fail to guarantee workers ' rights - for example to employment - in the never-ending processes of relocations , restructuring , mergers and closures of companies , which have serious economic and social consequences .
That is why they have been excluded from the Services Directive and must be dealt with in their own right , as part of a more wide-ranging assessment of the health sector in Europe .
Decisions must be taken as part of the democratic decision-making process .
I would like to congratulate Mrs Vergnaud on her report , for the broad outlines incorporated in it make of it a positive and forward-looking work showing one way in which we can address these issues , and I am very glad that the Commission , in the person of Commissioner Kyprianou , as well as the Ministers on the Council of Ministers have expressed their wholehearted willingness to go down that road , so let us go forward and address these issues in a specifically sectoral directive , thereby completing a good work for the public .
You , my honourable friends of the right-wing majority , have contributed once again to the lack of credibility of the Union , by unexpectedly reintroducing the question of bringing health services under the Services Directive , known as the Bolkenstein Directive .
I fully share the view that cohesion policy is essential to reducing internal EU disparities on the one hand and closing the gap between the European regions and the world-leading economies on the other .
This task force should be made up of experts in the area of trade and development policy , and could help develop and implement specific trade-enhancing measures .
That is the Commission 's task in putting into practice the wide-ranging concept of ' aid for trade ' and I appeal to you , Commissioner , to pay particular attention to these aspects .
But again , when we hear from negotiators , their perception is that the Commission is pushing them very hard to open up our services markets and to make other market-opening offers .
Instead of some of the more far-reaching proposals suggested to us , the Committee on Constitutional Affairs proposed a modest revision of Rule 47 ( which would be renamed ' Procedure with associated committees ' ) .
The proposals for improving this procedure contained in the report are apt and should help to simplify the functioning of this decision-making system .
This vote has replaced this policy with a strategy aimed at the wide-ranging liberalisation of services and of investment in developing countries , one that will meet the expectations of European manufacturers , to the detriment of economic development needs .
They ' should be WTO-compatible , comprehensive , ambitious ' and should ensure far-reaching liberalisation of services and investment , going beyond both existing multilateral commitments and those expected to result from a successful conclusion of the Doha Development Agenda ' .
I would like to take the opportunity , on this point , to thank all those throughout the world who are working on peace-keeping missions , particularly in Afghanistan , Lebanon and Palestine , starting with the approximately 8 000 Italians .
I have always believed there was a need to simplify and make more transparent the decision-making processes and institutions of Europe , as the Laeken Declaration envisaged .
You will hardly want to shoulder some of the responsibility for the far-reaching lawlessness in that area .
It is aware of the link with the fast-growing demand for palm oil .
We are also supporting the creation of a European anti-trafficking day , which aims to increase the visibility of the problem connected with trafficking .
( LT ) Mr President , Commissioner , you have truly presented a thorough crime-fighting programme , and you mentioned some special telephone hotlines .
That is why it is so important that for instance the access for control for adult content should be available and that there be awareness-raising campaigns for parents and grandparents - who often buy mobile phones for their grandchildren - and for the children themselves .
What we are speaking about here is not the illegal content as such , it is the dangers which can occur for children , and here the awareness-raising campaigns are the most important .
A Hungarian-language teacher-training faculty has been set up in Subotica , which has been operational since October last year .
on behalf of the Verts / ALE Group . - ( FI ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , it is important to distinguish between the Russian-speaking people in Estonia and Russian policy .
The Russian-speaking people in Estonia have the same civil and human rights as us , but the problems and differences of opinion do not entitle Russia to interfere in Estonia 's affairs , such as demanding that the Estonian Government should resign .
The events have shown clearly how poorly the Russian-speaking population has integrated into Estonian society .
It is also indisputable that the discrimination and restriction of civil rights to which the Russian-speaking population of Estonia is exposed constitute the biggest breeding ground for conflicts .
Responsibility for the conflict we are now discussing also resides with the Estonian Government , which does not respect the Russian-speaking population 's civil rights .
I represent the Russian-speaking minority in Latvia and I have said on many occasions that we do not want to be hostages to geo-political games .
( SV ) The riots following the removal of the bronze soldier in Tallinn were a shock for all those who have made efforts to integrate the Russian-speaking population into Estonian society and to strengthen the bonds between the population groups in Estonia .
As long ago as 1920 , the Russian-speaking minority was given a strong position by Estonia 's first constitution .
I supported this first-reading compromise agreement .
The annual report proposes strengthening the military and political sector of the CFSP to the tune of EUR 1.8 million , which is three times the expenditure for the period 2007-2013 , in order to step up the EU 's aggressive policy , so that it can claim a greater share of the spoils for the Euro-unifying monopolies from the imperialist interventions under way against the peoples .
The EU proposal and the report debated in plenary of the European Parliament with the misleading title of ' decent work ' ( COM - 2006 - 0249 ) are the new reactionary , anti-grassroots framework of the ΕU for achieving the objectives of the ' Lisbon Strategy ' , minimising the price of labour and striking at the workers ' fundamental rights , in order to increase the profits of the Euro-unifying monopoly business groups .
The European decision-making model does justice to the equality of the Member States , as well as to that of its citizens .
A very important lesson we need to take away from the referendum is that the Dutch want to be certain that they have a say in the decision-making process .
Let us seize this opportunity and let us reach an agreement among the 27 on the key issues , namely Europeans ' rights and the decision-making process .
This is different from the constitutional text that calls for an ever more far-reaching liberalisation of services and free , unadulterated competition .
They want an answer to the question as to whether the EU exists to protect people or markets ; they want something done about dumping - wage dumping , social dumping and tax dumping , and that is what you should be picking up on , for that is where forward-looking solutions are wanted , so stop shadow-boxing with the symbols of European integration .
You will agree that the European Union is simply unable to exist without legal personality and is unable to decide whether the single-country veto is its decision-making rule .
Mr Bushill-Matthews , the Council would refer you in the first instance to its answer of 5 March of this year to the written question on this subject , in which it explained why it was that , in 2001 , anti-dumping tariffs were imposed on the import of integrated electronic compact fluorescent lamps originating from the People 's Republic of China , and in which it also stated that the Commission , on 17 July 2006 , had begun a review further to the imminent cessation of these measures ' applicability in line with Article 11 ( 2 ) of the Anti-Dumping Regulation and that it was expected that this review would be completed within at most 15 months , that is to say by October 2007 .
Mr Bushill-Matthews , the Council would refer you in the first instance to its answer of 5 March of this year to the written question on this subject , in which it explained why it was that , in 2001 , anti-dumping tariffs were imposed on the import of integrated electronic compact fluorescent lamps originating from the People 's Republic of China , and in which it also stated that the Commission , on 17 July 2006 , had begun a review further to the imminent cessation of these measures ' applicability in line with Article 11 ( 2 ) of the Anti-Dumping Regulation and that it was expected that this review would be completed within at most 15 months , that is to say by October 2007 .
This begs the question as to whether such wide-ranging simplification is not tantamount to restricting specialisation , and the loss of sensitivity to specific agricultural conditions .
I would also tread carefully on the matter of transferring the Council 's regulatory authority to the Commission , as it may give Member States less say in the decision-making process concerning the functioning of the first pillar of the CAP .
On the political front , there have been many positive developments , which , for the first time in many years , give some hope that this long-standing issue is getting closer to a solution .
I would just like to add that I would have loved to have stayed for the whole debate but , as communicated , I have to leave before the end due to long-standing commitments which I could not alter after Parliament 's change to the agenda , but my colleague Mrs Grybauskaitwill take over and stay on in the debate .
The report is accurate and primarily recognises that current ongoing bilateral confidence-building talks between the Indian and Pakistani Governments remain the best strategy to achieve a just and enduring peace between these two nuclear-armed states .
We welcome the confidence-building measures .
Both India and Pakistan must be given the chance to persevere with their confidence-building measures and to continue to allow people to cross control lines .
in writing . - ( PL ) Madam President , Poland , Lithuania and Latvia need both the Via Baltica and other investments in road-building projects , as well as measures to protect the natural environment , including the Rospuda Valley .
The issues raised in this report are complex and have far-reaching implications .
With regards to combating terrorism , we have supported the more constructive and forward-looking language in amendments 55 and 56 , which acknowledge that there has been progress in decreasing the levels of infiltration by militant groups , but that further action needs to be taken in parallel with meaningful demilitarisation .
We call for confidence-building measures and greater democracy : democracy cannot flourish in such circumstances .
I herald the confidence-building measures proposed in this report , in particular the joint monitoring cell for the sharing of data on seismic activity to provide early warning against possible earthquakes .
They basically want to restore the status quo ante in Venezuela , they want the wealth-producing resources in this country and they want the exploitation of the people of Venezuela to continue and the European Parliament and the people of Venezuela themselves will not allow it .
What was supposed to be a lightning strike has turned into a never-ending nightmare : 40 years is such a long time that entire generations of Palestinians have never known anything but occupation , humiliation , checkpoints and then the wall and almost total imprisonment .
We should add to that the commitment that the international community should consider making to send in a peace-keeping force to prevent the violence of recent weeks in Gaza from degenerating even further , to re-establish the basic conditions for people to lead normal lives and for international law to be respected , and above all to break the vicious circle of endless violence .
It is therefore making strenuous efforts to ensure that this institution-building process is successfully completed by the end of the first year .
We expect immediate action to be taken on the burden-sharing principle , on the revision of Dublin 2 and on logistical and administrative assistance in order to effectively coordinate the joint patrols , which up till now have been practically ghost-like and which were promised to us long ago by Frontex .
( NL ) Mrs Hennis-Plasschaert , I think this is also attributable to the lack of efficiency in the Council 's decision-making procedure .
Following lengthy discussions , an anti-dumping price for Chinese strawberries was introduced .
I believe that the anti-dumping measures taken in April have clearly been a step in the right direction .
The Constitutional Treaty is a landmark document which provides a blueprint for a more dynamic and effective European Union , strengthens the democratic character of an enlarged Union and enhances our decision-making capacity and ability to act on the world stage .
The Union must be given adequate resources to meet the citizens ' concerns regarding the challenges of globalisation and climate change , thereby contributing towards strengthening the democratic control over its decision-making processes .
With the right legislative and budgetary procedures for giving the EU the maximum amount of decision-making ability and for making its policies as effective as possible , the new Treaty may help resolve some of the serious problems that Europe is facing .
Any ' Constitutional ' Treaty will be a treaty which safeguards and promotes the interests and ambitions of big , Euro-unifying business , just like the current treaties of the EU and , previously , of the EEC .
So my colleague would like to conclude with these words : ' For the time being , let me congratulate the Council Presidency and Parliament for their very successful collaboration , which I hope will be endorsed as a first-reading agreement by Parliament in view of a final adoption once the WTO notification procedure has been brought to an end in two months ' time ' .
But , at the same time , it allows other long-standing producers of vodka to continue to market their products on the European market - and they will be labelled .
However , this first-reading compromise - the product of lengthy and very heated exchanges - is something that , in the spirit of that compromise , I am now prepared to accept , and I hope that the House will accept it tomorrow .
Some traditional spirit-producing countries have become members of the European Union .
Now that traditional vodka-producing countries have become EU members , we would like to see that namely alcoholic spirit beverages made from grain , potatoes and sugar beets be called vodka and be labelled as such .
Like everyone else in the book , he too calls that horrible-tasting , foul-smelling dishwater gin .
This is our tradition , the tradition of the vodka-producing countries , and it should be acknowledged in the regulation .
A high-ranking official sent a letter to the representatives of 24 Member States and not only referred to the position of the influential lobby group the European Vodka Alliance , but also failed to send this letter to the representatives of two of the countries most involved in this dispute , namely Poland and Lithuania .
I listened to the different contributions and to my two colleagues from Scotland who protested that they have the longest-standing whisky .
The vodka-producing countries , in which 70 % of vodka is produced and consumed , do actually know what they are talking about .
Our current legislation on spirits is from a time when the vodka-producing countries were not members of the EU , and so it needs to be updated .
I agree with you about the value of these tools for a forward-looking policy .
At present the Commission has no grounds for a wide-ranging review of competition in these particular sectors , but this does not mean that we cannot take a couple of thoughts out of it .
This is why importers often give cat fur products various invented names to mislead the well-meaning customer .
In Poland only 1 % of people with MS are treated with disease-modifying drugs , compared to 50 % in Sweden .
The mission under the Common Foreign and Security Policy , together with the police cooperation mission , are remaining in place , and , as a decision-making part of the EU 's budgetary authority , this House should firmly support that decision .
I am aware of the fact that improved safety , hygiene and health protection of employees envisages the elimination of asbestos and all asbestos-containing materials from the work environment , as these materials are extremely dangerous to human health , since they are associated with carcinogenicity .
Products such as vodka are associated with certain regions of the world , which often boast many years of vodka-making tradition .
in writing . - ( FR ) The battle over vodka really took place at midday in the Chamber during the vote on the revision of the legislation on spirit drinks , a vote during which the European Parliament certainly displayed fairness , but not firmness , in defence of culinary and wine-growing traditions .
When all is said and done , it is not consumers who will be the losers in this affair but , rather , a certain conception of cultural heritage and of food or wine-growing traditions that are strongly rooted in our regions and territories .
The Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe , including myself , chose in the first place to vote in favour of a narrow definition of vodka which , from the perspective of the vodka-producing countries , should contain only grain and potatoes .
It is Parliament 's responsibility to state things clearly and exert the pressure needed to ensure that at least the European Union keeps to its progressive plan for achieving the 0.7 % target for Official Development Assistance by 2015 exactly and without book-keeping tricks .
Now , there is more and more to indicate that it is in actual fact we in the rich world who , through our life-style and our substantial emissions of carbon dioxide and other climate-affecting gases , have caused climate change in sub-Saharan Africa , as a result of which the inhabitants of that region are unable to provide themselves with enough food and water .
If we are to manage to do this , we need both drastically to reduce our emissions of climate-affecting gases and to support developing countries so that they might cope successfully with the huge adjustment that the world has to make .
Nor , if we seriously want to reduce mortality due , for example , to HIV , AIDS and unsafe pregnancies , should we allow religious notions to stand in the way of people 's freedom of choice and their ability to protect themselves against life-threatening diseases and unwanted pregnancies .
We have a wide-ranging agenda and , whatever lists we may wish to make , all our work relates to the Cotonou Partnership Agreement , which is a binding , contractual agreement between Europe and the ACP member states .
Whilst fact-finding missions in Malta , Spain and Senegal may be useful , they brought few new insights this time round , unfortunately .
There is an ever-deteriorating security situation in Darfur , and let no one think otherwise .
The drafting procedure adds legitimacy to the decision-making process .
Fact-finding mission to the regions of Andalusia , Valencia and Madrid ( debate )
the oral question by Marcin Libicki and Michael Cashman , on behalf of the Committee on Petitions , to the Council on the fact-finding mission to the regions of Andalusia , Valencia and Madrid - B6-0127 / 2007 ) , and
the oral question by Marcin Libicki and Michael Cashman , on behalf of the Committee on Petitions , to the Commission on the fact-finding mission to the regions of Andalusia , Valencia and Madrid - B6-0128 / 2007 ) , and
We have now sent three fact-finding missions .
Mr President , let me start by thanking Mr Libicki and Mr Cashman for their hard work in preparing the report on behalf of the Committee on Petitions on the third fact-finding mission to Valencia .
The mere fact that a town-planning project is approved does not give anybody the right to jeopardise the conservation of water resources and valuable land of several generations by covering everything in an avalanche of concrete .
( ES ) Mr President , this Parliament 's missions to the region of Valencia have resulted from the reported cases of town-planning abuse , which have been reflected in the media and which have been of concern to many citizens .
I would like to say , finally , that my party , the Socialist Party , is once again willing , as it has been on several occasions , to contribute to resolving this problem ; in the case of the region of Valencia , therefore , it would say once again that a broad social and political agreement is needed which includes all of the parties affected and which involves the reform of Valencian town-planning law in order to bring it into line with the Treaties and in order to increase the legal security of all of the parties , and which also includes the establishment of assistance and dispute-settlement mechanisms for citizens who feel that they are affected by town-planning abuses .
I would like to say , finally , that my party , the Socialist Party , is once again willing , as it has been on several occasions , to contribute to resolving this problem ; in the case of the region of Valencia , therefore , it would say once again that a broad social and political agreement is needed which includes all of the parties affected and which involves the reform of Valencian town-planning law in order to bring it into line with the Treaties and in order to increase the legal security of all of the parties , and which also includes the establishment of assistance and dispute-settlement mechanisms for citizens who feel that they are affected by town-planning abuses .
Buying residential property represents a difficult and time-consuming challenge for consumers .
Nevertheless , the Commission supports initiatives that promote transparency in European housing and mortgage-lending markets .
The 1998 Aarhus Convention is of particular importance in this connection , as it provides for access to information , public involvement in the decision-making process and justice when it comes to environmental issues .
This year awareness-raising events and meetings have been organised with the Member States , with a view to improving implementation and compliance with the rules on the transfer of waste in the Member States .
At that time there were not yet any common decision-making structures in the EU to enable the implementation of such operations .
( SK ) First of all , allow me to thank the rapporteur , Mr Papadimoulis , for highlighting in the report the need for banning exports of mercury , mercury compounds and mercury-containing products .
With regard to mercury and mercury-containing products , the European Union must ensure that mercury supplies are consistent with needs and demand .
We can ask the Commission for a proposal to extend its scope , when we know enough about its wide-ranging effects .
Throughout the intervening period , the God Mercury has continued to exact a heavy tribute from native populations in gold-washing areas , such as French Guyana , and the same applies to those on the other side of the globe who , in unimaginable conditions , recycle our industrial , electronic and other waste , not to mention the workers in Europe who operate in battery-recycling plants .
Throughout the intervening period , the God Mercury has continued to exact a heavy tribute from native populations in gold-washing areas , such as French Guyana , and the same applies to those on the other side of the globe who , in unimaginable conditions , recycle our industrial , electronic and other waste , not to mention the workers in Europe who operate in battery-recycling plants .
The resolution on the Community strategy on mercury , approved in March 2006 , states that ' consideration should be given to the possibility of using Almadén for the safe storage of the existing metallic mercury stocks or metallic mercury sub-produced by industry all over Europe but not mercury-containing articles that have become waste , thus making use of the infrastructures , local manpower and technological expertise existing there ' .
Amendments 1 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 20 , 21 , 22 and 44 imply a significant extension of the scope of the proposal through the introduction of an export ban for cinnabar ore , calomel , mercury compounds and some mercury-containing products , as well as through the addition of an import ban .
As mercury compounds and mercury-containing products are concerned , we would need a much more developed information base to justify such an extension .
The time limit available to Parliament is determined , on the one hand , by the approval of the convergence report by the Commission and the Central Bank , but also , on the other , by the dates decided upon by the Council for its decision-making procedure , both in the European Council and in the meeting of the Ecofin Council , and that is clearly not in the hands of the Commission .
As long-standing opponents of ESDP , the British Conservatives oppose proposals that extend the Commission 's hand into the defence arena .
I must be mentioned here that the arms industry 's highly lucrative enterprises continuously produce more advanced killing machines in greater numbers and at an ever-increasing pace .
We would wish it to be a legally binding , separate and self-standing initiative that would cover all conventional arms transfers , set out the principles defining illegal transfers , include monitoring and be broadly based .
We expect the forthcoming EU summit to lead to an international conference which will , by the end of the year , produce a new draft treaty and that this treaty will give the Union a legal personality , abolish the current pillar structure , reduce the number of categories that apply to legislation and simplify and unify decision-making procedures .
One element of our cooperation with countries outside the EU is the support provided by the European Union to institutions and to capacity-building efforts .
For this reason , I very much welcome the fact that the rapporteur has highlighted the importance of decision-making processes that enable the European Union to make its own decisions .
( DE ) Mr President-in-Office , mass legalisation of illegal immigrants in various Member States has often been interpreted as an invitation , and has led to veritable waves of refugees , as well as gift-wrapping a boom for people-smuggling gangs .
( MT ) Although I agree with the President that what has to be discussed are the causes of emigration , I would like to know what the German Presidency 's position is regarding Malta 's burden-sharing proposal .
In this connection , however , I should like to reiterate that there has indeed been movement on this issue in general terms , particularly between Russia and the United States , who have agreed to an intensive exchange of views on the subject and to confidence-building measures .
The aspect you have mentioned certainly has far-reaching implications .
The growth in extreme right-wing parties in Europe and , unfortunately , within our own Parliament , obliges us to strongly condemn any speech that incites hatred .
In the current political climate , where support for right-wing extremism across Europe has brought racism into the mainstream , moderates must use this legislation and the dialogue that will surround its implementation to take back ownership of the diversity debate .
on behalf of the PPE-DE Group . - ( PT ) Mr President , I should like to congratulate Mr Pirker and to say to him - although I am sure Mr Weber will do so with greater authority - that the Group of the European People 's Party ( Christian Democrats ) and European Democrats will of course support his report , which is aimed at improving cooperation and the decision-making process in asylum policy .
on behalf of the PSE Group . - Mr President , I would like to welcome this report because over recent months we have clearly seen a fall in the overall number of asylum-seekers coming to the European Union from the key asylum-producing countries .
Judging by the lateness of the hour , the politicians working on home-affairs policy are the hard-working ones : we are still at work .
( PL ) Mr President , it is very important , in terms of cooperation and improving the quality of decision-making process within the framework of the common asylum system , to create greater flexibility in the use of the European Refugee Fund .
We therefore propose the following : a worldwide campaign to be launched by the Commission to highlight the dangers of counterfeit medicines ; the creation of a Europe-wide early-warning system to combat fraudulent activities on the Internet ; and an extension to the scope of contracts on which bans are to be imposed due to unfair contractual arrangements .
In return for their compliance , they can then enjoy the protection afforded to law-abiding consumers in the traditional market too .
The easy , rapid flow of information , the frequent lack of information for consumers and the quick and extensive spread of illegal behaviour are just some of the many reasons why anyone using the Internet can cross the boundary of law-abiding consumer activity , even acting in good faith .
It is our political responsibility as politicians to devise those tools for Europe 's digital environment , which will allow our Internet users to remain law-abiding consumers .
Based on the model of traditional markets , the digital market too depends on law-abiding behaviour .
Fact-finding mission to the regions of Andalusia , Valencia and Madrid ( vote )
The latter include left-wing governments in Europe .
In line with the Resolution , I call for an independent fact-finding commission , since the members of Ethiopian Parliament 's own investigation board have either been jailed or forced into exile for seeking to expose the truth about these events .
In addition to decisions on climate protection , further agreements of long-term importance were also reached at these summits : with the US and Canada we agreed to strengthen regulatory cooperation ; with Russia we agreed to establish an early-warning system for energy crises and to open a dialogue on investment ; with Japan we agreed to enforce the protection of intellectual property rights more effectively .
My wish is that in 50 years ' time , in 2057 , the citizens of Europe will say : back in 2007 , after strength-sapping , nerve-racking discussions , the European Union at last set the right course ; back then , in 2007 , the European Union set off on the right path to a prosperous future .
The tyranny of a veto-wielding minority is as undemocratic as it gets .
The typically Belgian compromise - if I can put it this way - about the decision-making process takes no account of the fact that the smaller Member States will lose out in terms of influence .
I am referring to the enhanced powers of the European Parliament , to the Common Foreign and Security Policy , to the new majority decision-making rules and to the shift to unanimity on a number of issues and , therefore , from this point of view , I hope that the outcome will make it possible for the progress contained in the draft Constitution to be confirmed .
I am convinced that we are going to carry on functioning perfectly well until 2014 or , in exceptional circumstances , for three further years , with the decision-making procedure adopted in Nice which , in the end - I would like to point out - was approved precisely in order to deal with enlargement .
It may not be an exaggeration to further emphasise the excellent institutional cooperation between the European Parliament , the Council and the Commission , and also the fact that this is the first time that , from start to finish , an agreement has been reached by twenty-seven Member States , that is , the longest-standing members and the newest members .
The principle of double majority in the decision-making process suitably balances and counterbalances the interests of the large and small countries .
Those in favour of integration were not seeking to create a European superstate , but wished to strengthen the common , or if you prefer , the supranational will in the legislative and decision-making process .
rapporteur . - ( EL ) Mr President , Commissioner , I call on you to give due attention to the question of promoting health , which must be seen not only as a valuable commodity and indicator of social prosperity , but also as an investment-generating parameter .
The work presented by Professor Séralini was not a new study but only a statistical review of the existing rat-feeding study , which supported the authorisation of this product in the European Union .
It would be appropriate to introduce Community level marketing restrictions on mercury-containing measuring and control equipment for consumer use , with some exemptions in the healthcare sector .
As regards a potential blanket ban on the use of mercury in all devices , which is the aim of this proposal , it should be emphasised that the experts the Commission consulted have come to the conclusion that hospitals need devices with a high level of accuracy to treat life-threatening conditions such as hypertension , arrhythmia and pre-eclampsia .
Thus , the marketing of mercury-containing fever thermometers will be banned completely , for example , and the sale of all other mercury-containing measuring instruments to the general public will be prevented .
This directive does not only safeguard human health and the environment , it will also serve to maintain the internal market , since it will introduce harmonised rules for the marketing of mercury-containing measuring devices everywhere in the Community .
I must confirm what the rapporteur has already said : the majority of experts still consider mercury-containing blood pressure meters , sphygmomanometers , essential in the treatment of certain life-threatening diseases .
I must confirm what the rapporteur has already said : the majority of experts still consider mercury-containing blood pressure meters , sphygmomanometers , essential in the treatment of certain life-threatening diseases .
This view is not shared by some colleagues who hold the opinion expressed in Amendments 1 and 2 that there should be a permanent derogation for traditional-looking barometers .
Thanks to new technologies , for example the Internet , as well as the far-reaching liberalisation of the market , for example where the supply of electricity and gas is concerned , many infrastructural provisions are already part of bigger networks .
In this way , we hope to overcome the backward-looking position that we had to accept in the Committee on Transport and Tourism and with which my group still does not agree .
rapporteur . - Mr President , this is , for us , the final chapter of a very long-running play that started with a Commission proposal in July 2003 , but had a longer period of preparation stretching back beyond that .
The debate has brought to the fore how useful labour law can be in resolving issues relating to cuts to the workforce in a fast-changing world with large mobility of capital and technologies .
Very careful thought shows that there is no non-working time , but rather time for personal life in addition to family life ; that we have been wrong to identify the new frontier in social conflict as a conflict between insiders and outsiders ; that the relationship between flexibility and security is a two-way relationship and includes the needs of employers and the needs of workers ; that extending rights is an action that must not be so many words on a piece of paper but that requires change and transparency , action against undeclared employment , a coordination of policies and renewed vigour in harmonisation towards the goal of European employment law .
In the confidence-building measure of easing visa restrictions , we should nevertheless ensure that the old scandal is completely cleared up , and there will be no further abuse of the system .
Capitalist restructurings in the public health sector come under the general anti-working class policy of the ΕU , the deteriorating terms of insurance and the increased retirement age of the workers .
The total ban on mercury instruments destroys a long-standing craft industry in the UK and is the product of obsessive meddling by Brussels in matters far beyond what is necessary or sensible .
It needs to be simple and straightforward to do things in a law-abiding way , and such a state of affairs needs to be brought about through the provision of information - understandable information , mind you - in people 's own language .
Billions have been invested , on the other hand , in extending the space-guzzling motorway network .
Secondly , with regard to wet-leasing contracts , this is a balanced Regulation that , on the one hand , takes account of airlines ' needs in the event that seasonal pricing movements occur or an exceptional need arises and they have to rely on such a model ; and , on the other , makes clear that the circumvention of European safety and social standards is unacceptable .
The White Paper will be the framework for sound and wide-ranging transport decisions over the next few years .
But new pollution-cutting and fuel-saving technologies cost money , and we have to develop them further to bring down their price , as cheaper technology in transport is cheap transport , and cheap transport means a competitive economy .
I am in favour of making the best of the opportunities offered by the dynamic development of relations with China , especially following my visit there , when I was able to see first hand this fast-developing world power .
Unfortunately , this is a phenomenon that , while until a few years ago was restricted to high-end products ( luxury lotions , perfumes , watches and bags ) , is now expanding to include products within the reach of an ever-growing number of users , leading to a high risk for consumer health .
I see that you have set out a wide-ranging programme for the Portuguese presidency and I wish you every success .
I know that some elements that were in the Constitution are missing , but this is a historical moment in which what has been agreed has to be transformed into a legally-binding document .
Ecodesign requirements for energy-using products ( vote )
Starting with the economic situation , in 2006 the economic recovery in the eurozone became a self-sustaining process with domestic demand acting as the main driver .
The efficient and smooth functioning of economic adjustments within the euro area requires the removal of institutional barriers to flexible wage- and price-setting mechanisms as well as the completion of the Single Market and thus greater cross-border competition .
On this issue , the European Central Bank must also pursue the recommendations contained in Mr Mitchell 's report , namely prudence when it comes to raising interest rates , because decisions that should rest with governments , decisions on reform and much more far-reaching decisions in the fight against protectionism should not be pre-empted .
That concern is also present in the committee , even if Mr Juncker is trying to reassure us , and it can be heard in the wide-ranging debate in this House today .
I believe that several us of have said this , including the President of the European Central Bank , who recently opposed these ever-widening gaps .
The Commission has resumed its long-standing efforts to build the institutions of the future Palestinian State .
The resolution will take note of confidence-building talks between Salam Fayyad 's government and the Israeli Government , as well as the renewal of security cooperation .
It is important that we have a dialogue not only with Kosovo but also with Serbia , to give them the encouragement to move forward and to find a new path in the nation-building process .
It is essential to expedite the decision-making process in the UN .
As far as both technical and wider-ranging questions raised by the honourable Members are concerned , it is not the Council 's responsibility to assess the technical effectiveness of the mechanism , created by the WTO 's decision of 30 August 2003 .
Regarding the mainstreaming of cross-cutting issues such as the promotion of human rights , gender equality , democracy , good governance and environmental sustainability , of course we intend to do this .
It has helped shift the policy mix of public investment in Member States towards growth-enhancing investment .
Why did the liberal , right-wing nationalist and conservative groups drop the subject from the agenda of the last plenary part-session ?
The Commission 's Monitoring and Information Centre was able to coordinate the assistance offered by 14 Member States , and the international community provided additional fire-fighting assistance , thereby playing a major role in preventing the fires from spreading .
With the assistance of the Commission , Greece 's European partners were able to supply specialist airborne assistance with 13 Canadair water bombers and 20 helicopters - this information will be updated on Monday - and fire-fighting units on the ground , vehicles and other facilities .
The increase in the number of calls for assistance , however , brought about a situation which eventually affected the operational limitations of airborne fire-fighting operations .
The European Union ought to give first priority to the possibility of mobilising additional capacity , and equip itself with extra fire-fighting facilities by approaching either non-EU countries or the private sector .
In 2006 the Commission proposed using Community funds from the Civil Protection Financial Instrument to provide extra civil protection facilities such as airborne fire-fighting units for large-scale fires .
We also believe - Mr Špidla mentioned this , but please allow me to highlight this point - that the Commission should consider the creation of an independent supplementary force consisting of private fire-fighting aircraft or of European countries which do not face a serious fire risk during the summer months .
It is a country of 2 million unauthorised buildings , many in forest areas ; villas can easily be built on burnt land and later connected to electricity and water thanks to vote-winning amendments made by governments .
It also has a duty to look critically at the reasons why these fires had such a catastrophic effect , to analyse what went wrong in terms of prevention and fire-fighting effectiveness and to draw conclusions that might guide us in the future .
It seems that forests were left without adequate anti-fire zones , without functioning emergency water points and reservoirs , without proper plans for fire-fighting or for the orderly evacuation of villages , without up-to-date fire-fighting equipment and without , in some cases , modern training for fire-fighters .
The fires in Greece have demonstrated the ever-increasing threat of yet another form of terrorism : arson terrorism .
· derogation from the Community rules on agricultural and stock-rearing quotas , state aid , and tax exemptions .
I hope that the Commission will engage the most competent and specialised personnel on matters of forest protection and forest fire control in order to improve forest fire-fighting techniques .
However , I believe that the European Union should also encourage research into the development of aerial fire-fighting resources capable of operating nocturnally .
How absurd that military aircraft should be able to operate at night , whereas aerial fire-fighting resources used against such a serious direct threat to the whole of Europe should not .
We should rationally scrutinise this programme , which prohibits the creation of fire belts and access paths for fire-fighting vehicles .
Time constraints must be laid down to act as a bar to illegal construction in farming and animal-rearing areas .
New Democracy and its allies are collectively responsible for the insufficient human and material fire-fighting resources , but also for the absence of something fit to be called a fire prevention policy .
It is of the utmost importance that this body , which will offer advice and support in developing a culture of high-quality impact assessment inside the Commission , acts independently of the policy-making departments .
It is important to have a counterbalance to the ever-increasing bureaucracy of all our local and national authorities and , one might also say , of the institutions of the European Union .
Community bodies should be given more responsibility for the law-making process and the overall transparency of the process should be improved ;
What I have in mind here is that Parliament should have the same law-making initiative as the Commission , which would undoubtedly have a positive effect on the process of simplifying and improving the quality of the legal environment in Europe .
As I have stressed in one of my adopted amendments , the Commission should make a special effort to guarantee transparency , visibility and public accountability in the procedure for approving non-binding Community acts , and guarantee increased use of impact assessment in the decision-making process .
Community law is binding only in areas where the Member States themselves have delegated decision-making rights to the Community .
All you have to do is look through the existing regulations to see which statistical , information and record-keeping obligations exist and whether we actually still need them to this extent , based on current practice .
I think that EURES could be used not only in order to inform and improve the security for those who would like to move to another country and another labour market , as Mr Andersson pointed out here earlier today , but it could also be used in order to inform all the decision-making institutions of the remaining obstacles we have in the European labour markets because the gap between vision and theory on the one hand and the reality is quite big .
Commissioner Kuneva is leading a wide-ranging review of Europe 's consumer protection laws .
We would like to see the yard undertaking a genuine far-reaching restructuring so as to become a successful company capable of competing on its own merits in the EU and world shipbuilding markets .
Apart from that , this new case , which highlights to the point of absurdity the narrowness of the criteria now applied in the name of preventing distortions of competition , reinforces the view of my group that , before any final decision is taken on the future European treaty , it is vital to have a thorough , public and wide-ranging debate on the aims of the Union and whether these are consistent with the policies put into operation .
Such soft law instruments , which can legitimately be used as interpretative or preparatory tools for binding legislative acts , should neither be treated as legislation nor be given any norm-setting effectiveness , and it is for each country to decide on their use , in particular where they cast light on the interpretation of national measures adopted to implement them or where they are designed to supplement binding Community provisions .
The difference between binding and non-binding acts of the Community is a matter of fact and this recommendation does not change either the reality of their existence or their essence .
In conclusion , on the occasion of the first Anti-Trafficking Day on 18 October next , the Commission will draw up recommendations with and for Member States on identification and support of victims - first of all vulnerable categories like children - based on close cooperation between law enforcement , prosecutors ' offices and NGOs and other service providers .
So all these proposals , together with the possibility of improving on an annual and everyday basis , will give more powers to the democratically elected European Parliament and will further democratise the decision-making process .
We also think information and awareness-raising campaigns are needed , to alert people to the risks of alcohol abuse .
( PL ) Mr President , the resolutions that have been prepared and other preventative measures aimed at counteracting the negative effects of alcohol abuse cannot at the same time promote the consumption of alcohol advertised as being part of the European cultural heritage and lifestyle , as well as questionable WHO opinions about the health-promoting effects of alcohol , which are problematic , since the harmful effects of this product have been proven .
Drink-driving accidents are even more revealing : two thirds of the people involved were between 15 and 34 years old and 96 % were male .
I think it finds the right balance between recognising established cultural habits and the very worrying trend of harmful consumption of alcohol , particularly the growth in the hazardous binge-drinking culture among our young people .
The European Parliament must put forward a resolution without any ambiguity , to give some time to draw up other information and awareness-raising methods so that it provides the Member States with an efficient framework for combating abusive alcohol consumption and promoting moderate and responsible alcohol consumption .
I therefore welcome the focus on information and awareness-raising campaigns such as through school-based educational programmes .
I have received what I think will prove to be a ground-breaking report from a public-private expert group that I have established , which contains around 50 valuable concrete recommendations to improve security of explosives , precursors and detonators across the EU .
Thanks to political correctness , the indigenous peoples of Europe are all too easily labelled right-wing extremist or even racist for insisting on their basic culture , whilst migrants seldom face this problem .
Mr Szymański expressed an extreme right-wing view that we cannot pay too high a price for security .
In order to play an efficient part in the decision-making process at European level , we need total involvement of the Parliament in the co-decision procedure .
An information campaign and presentation of all conflict-generating issues should trigger citizen involvement , together with the institutions , in order to eradicate this phenomenon .
Moreover , this is not altered by the fact that a significant majority of these acts are separatist in nature ( something Europe has spent decades getting used to ) , such as Basque or Corsican terrorism , or the left-wing anarchy in Greece .
To accomplish legitimacy in this field we need increased democratic control through codecision , and European citizens should play a larger part in the decision-making process ; we need more transparency and more democratic legitimacy .
Finally , regarding road safety , apart from the risks posed by damage to infrastructure , the very size of these road-using monsters represents a danger for all other users .
The problems of valuation of complex securitised products and market-clearing mechanisms in stressful market situations also need further analysis .
Sixthly , what was the role of credit-rating agencies in this crisis ?
Potential conflicts of interests of credit-rating agencies is another concern : on the one hand because they act as advisers to banks on how to structure their offerings to get the best mix of ratings ; on the other , credit-rating agencies provide ratings that are widely relied upon by investors .
Potential conflicts of interests of credit-rating agencies is another concern : on the one hand because they act as advisers to banks on how to structure their offerings to get the best mix of ratings ; on the other , credit-rating agencies provide ratings that are widely relied upon by investors .
The role of credit-rating agencies needs to be clearer : what they do and what they do not do , the extent to which they can be relied up and the extent to which they cannot .
We ourselves acknowledged the role of non-banking institutions in the SEPA Directive .
Thus the regulation of non-banking institutions is also necessary - common regulation , which would make the rules of the game the same for both banking and non-banking institutions .
Thus the regulation of non-banking institutions is also necessary - common regulation , which would make the rules of the game the same for both banking and non-banking institutions .
I also think it is essential now , not only in looking at credit-rating agencies , but also with regard to the risk that European banks are being exposed to because of the policies of some of those investments , and next week ...
In the face of all this , listen to what L 'Espresso reveals about some Italian left-wing politicians - a fact that is worth emphasising - as well as some centrist figures , but above all left-wing ones .
In the face of all this , listen to what L 'Espresso reveals about some Italian left-wing politicians - a fact that is worth emphasising - as well as some centrist figures , but above all left-wing ones .
In the light of the conclusions of the General Affairs Council held in Luxembourg on 17 and 18 June 2007 concerning the extension and consolidation of the global approach to immigration , as well as the problems posed by the implementation of permanent intergovernmental cooperation measures in this field , what measures could the Council envisage with a view to developing more effective Union policies , including , notably , real decision-making powers for the Commission or Frontex in such matters as establishing pilot association projects ?
There are no plans at present to extend the scope of the decision-making competence of the Commission or of Frontex in this context .
The political and economic situation in Zimbabwe has reportedly assumed ' life-threatening proportions ' .
Inflation - the highest in the world - is the result of the never-ending printing of money with which the Government pays civil servants , police officers and soldiers .
I also think that it would be a good idea to include Members in the decision-making process on the instigation of a new dialogue and to inform them about the aim , forms or procedures for its institution .
I would like to stress that the road to maximising the benefit of dialogue lies in tightening up cooperation , especially where the Union decision-making triangle is concerned .
It is extremely important to involve regional advisory bodies if we are to implement a forward-looking fisheries policy .
First of all , the Commission welcomes Parliament 's support for a mixed approach to the review , consisting of a combination of horizontal instrument-regulating aspects which some different directives have in common , and maintaining specific aspects in sectoral directives .
This is especially true regarding the latter , because 90 % of them are SMEs , which are the driving force behind many fast-developing economies .
One of the solutions proposed by Mrs Patrie is a combined approach to the consumer acquis involving full harmonisation in the cross-cutting definitions and minimum harmonisation at sector level .
In my view , Commissioner , the decision-making process and the submission of your Green Paper are an exemplary model of good cooperation between Parliament and the Commission , highlighting that we need this kind of effective cooperation in other areas as well .
I think this is one of the possible avenues for doing important things right now to raise awareness , but the Commission will launch an information-gathering process in order to determine whether consumers suffer detriment as a result of the lack of coverage of digital content and software .
in writing . - ( PT ) The problem of drug addiction requires the adoption of a set of cross-cutting policies encompassing , among other aspects , prevention , treatment and reintegration , as well as the fight against drug trafficking , organised crime and money laundering .
Having expressed my support , I nevertheless believe that given that the Commission is preparing the most extensive review of the consumer acquis to date , Parliament could have solicited more modern , innovative and far-reaching changes , particularly in the following five priority areas :
Yet , as is stated clearly in Recital N : ' the EU and Bangladesh have good long-lasting relations and are important economic partners ' .
We should react swiftly , providing wide-ranging aid ; if we fail to do so , we cannot expect the elections to take place at the appointed time .
( SK ) In August this year an extreme right-wing group known as the ' Hungarian Guard ' was formed in the Republic of Hungary .
These funds provide the opportunity for investments in renewable energy , energy savings and other climate-promoting measures .
I want to congratulate the rapporteur , Mrs Thomsen , on a magnificent report based on wide-ranging discussions with all parties .
Its economy is and will be dependent on the price of raw materials as well as political stability in oil-producing regions .
I would like to thank the rapporteur , Mrs Thomsen for a very far-reaching report .
We could perfectly well lower the rate of VAT on energy-saving materials and renewables in construction still further , perhaps even to zero .
The European Commission in any case has plans - you know this better than I , Commissioner - to put forward new proposals for lowering VAT by 2009 , and they could ideally include these ideas for energy-saving measures in the construction sector .
I quoted that , even the UK , where today there is not so much penetration of renewable energy , there are calls for this policy - meaning this attitude - and that we need binding targets because , to achieve a long-lasting policy goal , only binding targets matter .
It is one thing to be a trailblazer , whatever the price , achieving one 's targets and percentages , and quite another to find multi-sectorally sustainable energy solutions that have far-reaching consequences .
That is why I call on the Commission to submit a forward-looking proposal for a legal framework for renewables .
All passengers now have basic rights in very important areas : liability , rights of persons with reduced mobility , information , and then , stage by stage and at times unfortunately with very long transitional periods , further-reaching rights for all .
( DE ) Mr President , Commissioner Barrot , the report now before us is a third-reading compromise and can broadly be described as a victory for the European Parliament over the Council , over the Member States that are often over-protective of their national rail authorities and shield them off .
In addition , it will be possible to finance loss-making railway lines if they have a public-service remit .
Sugar-producing countries outside the EU must be given access to the internal market without restrictions .
( CS ) Ladies and gentlemen , there is no doubt that far-reaching reforms are needed in the sugar industry in the European Union to enable it to remain successful in the future .
( DE ) Mr President , when we hear about toxic substances in babies ' bibs , children 's clothing and toys , or even of self-igniting batteries , it is clear that our system of controls is not working properly .
in writing . - ( PL ) Mr President , the movement of goods is a self-regulating system .
Furthermore the wide-ranging regulations are not proportionate to the value added which will be created by the replacement of regulations that already exist at Member State level in those countries which have opted for national legislation .
in writing . - ( SV ) The June List supports a radical reform of the sugar markets in the EU with a view to liberalising them as quickly as possible and giving sugar-producing countries outside the EU the chance to compete on fair terms .
I will support this report , but I think we must be realistic in what can be achieved with wind or wave energy , especially when matched up with the ever-increasing energy demands of the EU .
The whole of Europe , except for Belarus , is already on board , and more and more states from all continents are joining an ever-growing list of abolitionist countries .
I must also tell you here that I am very proud that those co-authors include Portuguese-speaking countries representing Africa , representing Asia and representing Latin America too - countries which like us , like the Portuguese , are also underwriting respect for the total value of life .
50 % for area and 50 % for production for that part of the envelope which is specifically related to promotion in third countries , which I consider to be a new and very important forward-looking policy for the wine sector .
ITER consists of long-term international partnerships and commitments , bringing together partners that represent over half of the world 's population to address issues central to our common future , the development of sustainable , non-polluting sources of energy at the service of humanity .
The EIT will be able to offer the best universities and colleges a new and long-lasting opportunity to work closely with companies which are hungry for innovation .
When we realise that in the construction sector in Russia alone , as much gas is consumed unnecessarily as is otherwise exported from Russia to the European Union , then it is clear how much we can gain if we implement our efficiency strategies at home and then also turn the outward-looking energy strategy of the European Union into a viable method for Russia .
We need confidence-building measures in order to dispel this mistrust .
Europe cannot therefore continue to support corrupt and oppressive regimes in oil-producing countries .
Many developing countries are heavily dependent on high carbon-emitting sources of energy .
With every human tragedy , during a desperate do-nothing decade , Liberals and Democrats have asked one simple question : how many people must perish before governments see that lifting the drawbridge of Fortress Europe serves nobody 's interests ?
You as President-in-Office of the Council have demonstrated far-reaching ambitions , and yet reality shows us that the EU still has a long way to go when it comes to taking global responsibility .
Unfortunately , this is echoed in the exasperatingly slow decision-making procedures in the Council , when the Council decides to go for harmonisation , but ends up with the lowest conceivable minimum standards .
It is astounding that although the European Union is one of the largest aid-providing organisations in the world , we do not set many conditions relating to corruption , respect for human rights and democracy in recipient countries .
On behalf of my group , the PPE-DE Group , let me say that we are pleased that our fellow Members from the left-wing parties in this House have also moved towards our position in many areas , notably on the issue of a robust policy on return , the issue of leaving quotas to national decision-making , and establishing effective border controls .
This was certainly one of the fullest , most detailed and all-encompassing debates that I have had the honour of chairing , attending and participating in within the Council and this Parliament .
Black-and-white-thinking environmentalists should realise once and for all that burning ' eco ' fuels and biomass massively increases the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and that a reasonable , decisive proportion of nuclear energy is necessary .
Broadly , Conservatives support the aims of this report although we reject the need for a single powerful co-ordinating figure to speak on this matter .
on behalf of the ALDE Group . - ( ES ) Mr President , Parliament adopted a resolution on this issue , the Council of Europe adopted another text on this same issue , clear and explicit in all areas , but those of us with some legal knowledge are aware , and it comes as no surprise to us - I say this with a certain amount of irony - that there is a rule of law , especially criminal law , whereby no one is obliged to make self-incriminating statements .
This is true even if , as certain high-ranking security officials in Berlin claim , relations with the US Government are being soured by the work of the Munich public prosecutors , who are simply doing their job in the prescribed fashion : this speaks volumes about these people 's mentality and their attitude to the rule of law .
on behalf of the UEN Group . - ( LV ) Madam President , on behalf of the Union for Europe of the Nations Group I would like to stress that we support the ESDP military mission within the largest peace-keeping mission in the world , in Chad and the Central African Republic .
We will promote consumer education and awareness-raising initiatives .
rapporteur . - ( CS ) Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , the European Union is facing a number of connected socioeconomic challenges : the emergence of highly competitive countries , the ageing of the population , migration , a fast-changing labour market structure , and booming information and communication technologies .
Often , children - even gifted children - are written off as intellectually weak or clumsy by well-meaning teachers and education authorities because they do not have the expertise to tell the difference .
Any attempts to block the EU 's decision-making process should be ruled out .
This is an allegedly lower-ranking document , just so that it does not have to be put to referendums .
Andrew Duff had talked about a self-serving mentality .
We want public relations work to be carried out on the added value of the Reform Treaty and the further extension of the European Parliament 's co-decision-making rights , because only by doing this will Europe become more democratic , closer to its citizens and more transparent .
I congratulate the Portuguese Presidency on the far-reaching rapprochement on the EU 's southern borders , but we should not for a minute forget the eastern dimension , especially as the results of fair and free elections in Ukraine have presented us with the chance of a democratic , free-market and pro-European stabilisation of the eastern border of the European Union .
Of course , it reflects the political situation and the difficult political game that comes after a long period of actually having discussed how we can adapt our decision-making procedures to enlarge the European Union of 27 Member States ; how we can actually incorporate also the new issues that have emerged lately , like climate change and energy ; how we can be more open and effective .
I would like to take the opportunity to stress that the institutional aspect of the Reform Treaty needs to be coherent and that , as regards the question of double majority , which will ostensibly enter into force only in 2014-2017 , the Treaties should not contain any gentlemen 's agreements like the Ioannina compromise , which remain in force but , whilst they are legally recognised in the current framework , would merely serve to block the decision-making process in the Council .
I myself speak for the Swedish-speaking population of Finland and for the province of Åland .
Still , on this total uncertainty over the electorate we wish to construct a criterion or a castle that has its own internal consistency - apart from the basis or foundation - and this will give us a composition that in no way respects pre-existing realities or the citizens .
It is natural , and probably a duty , for those who find themselves injured to go before the courts as the extrema ratio , as the supreme decision-making body for such an important decision .
The Commission also supports projects on education and on awareness-raising interventions aimed at engaging all adolescents in programmes aiming at changing their behaviour in relation to violence against girls and women .
( HU ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , the institutions of the European Union are making up for long-standing neglect .
In any case , I hope that increased transparency will also boost the confidence of the public in our decision-making system and in the notion that we here want to make the right kind of decisions on the financing of agriculture as much as in any other area .
We must ensure that the European Union and our decision-making system are open and something which our citizens can trust in and which they feel they can support in the future .
I would like to discuss a couple of these in greater detail , without starting a very wide-ranging debate about the Health Check or anything else .
This , in terms of Europe 's decision-making process , is very fast .
I would like to thank my colleague , Mr El Khadraoui , for his report and warn him that he perhaps may beat my record of being the longest-serving rapporteur in parliamentary history if he continues with this particular dossier !
The aim of the Directive now in force is to regulate the competitive conditions for third-party handlers and self-handling companies .
( SV ) The report on airport capacity and ground handling is an own-initiative report with high-flying plans as regards central planning on the part of the EU .
The ' health check ' envisaged must therefore serve only one purpose : to create a better , more reliable and longer-lasting framework , not to bring about reform by brute force and cause our last remaining farmers to throw in the towel .
in writing . - ( PT ) The conclusion of this agreement is intended to meet long-standing needs on both sides of the Atlantic , with obvious benefits for consumers resulting from further liberalisation and regulatory convergence worldwide .
The work carried out to conclude this agreement must therefore be applauded as the new legal framework ensures wide-ranging agreement on the creation of an integrated transatlantic aviation market that will be to the benefit of both consumers and companies .
We have a rapidly growing population in Ireland - it is the fastest-growing population in Europe , both in terms of natural increase in population as well as overall growth .
It is the fastest-growing population in the EU , in terms of national increase and overall growth .
Human rights enjoy a high-ranking importance in the European Union .
I find it hard to see the need for a master plan at EU level governing the way ground-handling services at airports are organised , less still why Brussels should create extra rules and charges in connection with employee training or the location of airports .
in writing . - ( SV ) The own-initiative report on airport capacity contains high-flying plans for what can be achieved through central planning on the part of the EU .
Likewise the question of ground-handling services should be a matter for each specific airport and not be regulated at EU level .
I would like to remind you of the nature of patriotism , particularly after the speeches made by certain left-wing MEPs who have insulted national governments and patriotic attitudes , perhaps because they do not understand the difference between love for one 's country and the hatred that characterises such attitudes as chauvinism .
I hope that the European Parliament may in future support the most forward-looking positions on this question , instead of yielding to the latest siren calls from manufacturers representing a deadly industry .
When pesticides are even being found here and there in drinking water , it is undoubtedly high time to make the slow-grinding wheels of EU bureaucracy turn faster .
We therefore need to guide the market in such a way that manufacturers producing smaller , less polluting vehicles can be more profitable than those producing big high-polluting cars and , as well as setting standards , we expect the Commission to propose strategies for moving in that direction .
However , anyone who thinks that we will have solved anything by reducing carbon dioxide emissions from the ever-increasing number of vehicles we use to 120g or 95g is gravely mistaken .
With oil at USD 90 a barrel , it is time for Ms Harms to recognise that nuclear power is the cheapest , safest , cleanest , most sustainable and most predictable base-load-generating technology available .
Nowadays , when we are experiencing ever-growing energy consumption on the one hand , and a lack of technologies to replace the existing energy sources on the other , an overly unidirectional orientation towards renewable sources could paradoxically accelerate the growth of Member States ' dependency on energy imports from other countries .
In Scotland , we had at Peterhead a world-leading proposal for a demonstrator site .
However , we cannot spend decades waiting for research findings without doing anything else and therefore we must now concentrate on measures which must be implemented immediately , namely reducing CO2 emissions , energy-saving measures and a general transition to renewable sources of energy .
This was a very efficient and very time- and bureaucracy-saving procedure .
I welcome the fact that the European Data Protection Supervisor is to be a voting member of the Advisory Committee , whereas the Director-General of Eurostat has only been granted non-voting membership .
Apart from the issues that I have mentioned , the concern of the Portuguese Presidency was also to build into the Treaty those rules and exception clauses that were in the mandate , naturally respecting the positions of the Member States that wanted to obtain them , but always concerned to avoid detracting from the Community decision-making process and the overall coherence of the Treaty .
This Treaty improves the decision-making process , specifically by extending qualified-majority voting to the area of freedom , security and justice ;
I think that when we look at the overall example that has been given with this Lisbon Summit , we can see positives from it : we can see movement forward being made and , most importantly of all , an opportunity for a new zone and a new area of the development of the European Union to come into play , in particular with those areas where codecision now reigns on issues of environment , globalisation , research , education and the necessity of the response of the European Institutions to an ever-increasing speed of change within the world .
It is the case that democracy and the capacity to act have been created with the removal of the third pillar and that with the new decision-making methods in the Council for the expansion of codecision , the capacity to act has been improved .
A larger Union needs different , more wide-ranging rules .
In order to reach agreement on the Reform Treaty , too many gifts were handed out behind closed doors in Lisbon : Italy receives an extra seat in the European Parliament and Bulgaria the Cyrillic ' evro ' , Poland can continue to block the decision-making process for a number of years to come , and Austria can exclude German students from its universities .
I regret however , that here in Parliament , through the Greens and left-wing Members , preference was given to populist proposals such as a ban on pesticide use either in full or at a local level .
Finally , I believe that the Commission should do far more to share its vision for the Galileo project and particularly the post-development phase of the project and the on-going situation .
2008 is the last budget year in which we shall be receiving money for this anti-smoking campaign from the tobacco fund .
Both initiatives involve ground-breaking projects of vital importance in terms of policy on innovation and industry that deserve our full support .
The Committee on Industry has been arguing very clearly in favour of funding not being at the expense of other forward-looking programmes .
In view of this , it is good that we have found , in the form of pilot projects and preparatory actions , a financial instrument to increase funding for regional development , safety of navigation , simplification of border-crossing procedures , and above all , protection of the environment .
This is forward-looking policy , which must also be reflected in the key areas of regional policy .
From the beginning the Italian authorities reacted correctly , rapidly and effectively , so one can now say that the situation is at a much lower level , even though we still have on-going cases .
At the same time we asked Member States - and this is a legal obligation on them - to notify the Commission and other Member States through the early-warning response system .
These are available and are currently being used by the competent authorities to facilitate decision-making processes at national level .
We are , however , working on capacity-building programmes and engaging in direct dialogue with the Jordanian and Syrian authorities to strengthen our implementing capacity in these countries .
Lastly , it is correct that no new anti-dumping investigations were initiated in the first half of 2007 .
However , it should be pointed out that anti-dumping investigations are industry-driven and are not initiated by us .
Finally , I would draw your attention to the fact that in September 2007 two new anti-dumping investigations were initiated against imports from China : one for citric acid and another for monosodium glutamate .
My group , too , intends to invest the maximum effort in this , and also to support all the supporting anti-smoking campaigns .
I also think that awareness-raising measures about the dangers of smoking are crucial .
The success of the anti-smoking campaign shows us that multinational companies , such as the tobacco companies , are not unbeatable .
Regulations structuring the tax systems of individual Member States are not part of our competence , nor are wide-ranging bans on smoking .
In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity , I express my support for the non-binding nature of the European Qualifications Framework in the Member States and for the creation of national qualifications systems in accordance with national legislation and practice .
As a Left-wing group , and especially as AKEL ( the Progressive Party of the Working People of Cyprus ) , we are confident that the prospect of Turkey 's accession to the EU will ensure compliance with its obligations , especially as regards ending the occupation of Cyprus by Turkish troops .
Article 301 of the Penal Code on insulting Turkishness has resulted in many convictions and , in March - rather bizarrely in my view - a court in Istanbul issued an order denying access to the video-sharing website YouTube when allegations were made on the sexuality of the founding father of modern Turkey , Kemal Atatürk .
We want to turn the page on this long-standing dispute .
However , the final text adopted accentuates the federalist nature of the European Parliament 's proposal by setting specific dates for the adaptation and correlation of the various education and training systems used in the Member States , despite specifying its non-binding nature for the next few years .
The report can inspire consumers not to choose , at a market or in a supermarket , only the best-looking produce but to give priority , for the sake of their health , to less visually appealing but healthier bioproducts .
Our citizens do not wish either to be affected by carcinogenic or toxic substances , or by substances with endocrine-disrupting properties .
We think that CO2 capture can be an important part of reducing CO2 emissions , but other energy-saving , efficiency-boosting measures and the development of renewable energy are more sustainable in the long term and should be the final goal .
In addition , I think the introduction of restrictions should be accompanied by a wide-ranging information campaign that should cover more than the harmful effects of smoking .
However , with these particular groups , it would be more helpful if people set a good example and maintained existing anti-smoking campaigns .
You cannot overtake extremist right-wing nationalists even further to the right , which is what some people are trying to do .
( NL ) Mr President , Mr Kacin 's solid wide-ranging report gives a balanced view of the socio-economic development of Serbia .
This may have far-reaching consequences for our continent in the future .
The Committee on Petitions is in favour of speeding up procedures to ensure that the Ombudsman 's annual report is considered more quickly , and it is also in favour of amending the Statute , provided that the amendments simply involve a qualitative expansion of the Ombudsman 's powers , without affecting the nature of his competences or the non-binding effect of all his decisions .
This is important to me and the whole Commission , and you can be sure that we will do our absolute best to cooperate and find good , forward-looking solutions .
The Lisbon Treaty just agreed opens the door to the European Union 's exit from a long-standing phase whereby its ability to function effectively on behalf of its citizens has been held back .
There are no data on administrative inefficiency and injustice in my country , and I am sure that if such data existed and were brought to the attention of the European Ombudsman , Italy would be well in the lead , especially the left-wing administrations of my country .
in writing . - ( FR ) The European Parliament has defended its priorities well at this first-reading stage of the 2008 budget , and I support what the two rapporteurs have achieved , particularly in relation to cohesion and sustainable growth .
The situation in Iran is a never-ending story of breaches of human rights .
We in the world around it cannot keep silent about the influence and decision-making power of the military regime in all areas of society .
I am not especially a fan of Benazir Bhutto , whose period in office as Prime Minister was marked by widespread corruption , but , ultimately , a democratic and secular-leaning government under civilian control is always preferable to a military dictatorship , compromised in this case by its links to Islamist parties and the Afghan Taliban .
The economy continues to grow , and Pakistan has also engaged in confidence-building measures with India with regard to the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir .
Above all , as Charles Tannock said , we must encourage Pakistan to keep pursuing the confidence-building process with neighbouring India .
This , too , is a never-ending story .
on behalf of the ITS Group . - ( NL ) Mr President , we have , of course , all expressed our horror at the shocking attacks in Pakistan last week , which , as the previous speaker said , are a never-ending story .
Sudan : Killing of African Union peace-keeping soldiers 
author . - ( ES ) Madam President , I naturally wish to add my voice to the vigorous condemnation of the killing of the members of the peace-keeping forces .
Sudan : Killing of African Union peace-keeping soldiers ( vote )
While preparations for the European Union summit were taking place in Mafra , in the Russian city of Kazan , 720 kilometres from Moscow , another round in the long-running battle between the authorities and the media was being played out .
Mr President , the European Court of Human Rights recently made a ruling with far-reaching implications .
It is a joint task for PE teachers and parents to teach and encourage children to have a healthy lifestyle and to take regular exercise , and to draw their attention to the harmful physical and mental effects of prohibited performance-enhancing drugs , alcohol and other drugs .
With the conclusions approved in Majorca in 2002 , the European Council asked the Commission to propose a comprehensive , far-reaching strategy on soil protection embracing general principles , appropriate quantitative and qualitative targets , and schedules for gauging and evaluating the planned measures .
Why , then , are we presenting overlapping legislation , entailing yet more burdens , particularly for Member States that already have a well-functioning soil policy ?
Some MEPs reject the framework directive because their country already has far-reaching legislation on soil .
According to the Commission 's own figures , all its proposals are currently going to achieve is that , by 2020 , instead of aviation emissions growing by 83 % under a do-nothing scenario , they would grow instead by 78 % .
The scheme needs to be broadened to include other climate-impacting sectors in order to achieve the climate goals we have set ourselves .
At the moment it is frequently the case that longer , and therefore more climate-damaging flights , which also make a stop en route , are cheaper .
in writing . - ( HU ) An ever-increasing proportion of the population of the developed world understands the threat posed by climate change .
Of equal importance is to ensure that the EASB governance system is reviewed and adjusted so that regulatory authorities can support its standard-setting process and its result .
Combating right-wing extremism is therefore not only about addressing the issue on an ideological level ; it is of course about social issues as well .
In debates of this kind it must always be borne in mind that the Commission has a responsibility and a quite special role to play in the Community decision-making process .
This proposal was possibly aimed at exempting the said companies from the anti-dumping duties that apply to products exported to the Union at prices that are significantly lower than their normal value .
So let us have the things like eco-labelling proposals coming forward .
The emergence of ever-increasing immigration in recent years is a big challenge for all the countries of the EU .
Moreover , it is vitally important that all 27 Member States should have a minimum level of legislation in this area and that education and awareness-raising campaigns be introduced .
Aviation is an important and fast-growing source of GHG emissions , and taking action to curb those emissions is vital in the fight against climate change .
This marks a ground-breaking step forward , about which we are very happy because it guarantees additional freedom of movement .
Today 's decision is truly symbolic , and it can be experienced most keenly by those of us who grew up behind the barbed-wire fence , who were able to cross the border to the West every three years , and who today can remember the stomach-churning moment of crossing the border .
Padania is a land of honest , hard-working people .
Good cooperation with partner countries and detailed knowledge of the situation on the ground in terms of labour needs , skilled shortages and capacity-building requirements are essential to this effort .
The second measure aims to allow political parties at European level to build financial reserves by saving income generated by the parties themselves in excess of a new reduced minimum co-funding level of 15 % .
So we are happy with that and we are happy to seek first-reading agreements with the Council by postponing the vote .
Secondly , like you , I was in Belgrade last week , and as you have said , the longer the decision-making process takes , the more destabilising the effect on Serbia will be .
As many of my colleagues are aware , Airbus 's government loan funding is a targeted and non-trade-distorting use of a government 's limited research resources .
I believe we should urge the Commission to direct Airbus and Boeing to develop a forward-looking arrangement that provides a stable environment for both sides to compete and develop state-of-the-art aircraft well into the future .
on behalf of the ALDE Group . - ( DE ) Madam President , Commissioner , to many observers , the WTO dispute between Airbus and Boeing is starting to sound like a never-ending saga .
The demand for ever more economical , safer , larger , faster and more modern aircraft assumed dimensions in the 1990s which ultimately left only two well-performing companies in the running : Airbus and Boeing .
Against this background alone , the developed economies have a massive interest in ensuring that well-performing air transport options are available to them .
on behalf of the UEN Group . - ( PL ) Madam President , I should like to thank sincerely the rapporteur , Mr Iturgaiz , the members of the Committee on Petitions and also its secretariat , headed by Mr Lowe , for the trend-setting work they have undertaken during the past three years of this parliamentary term .
In this connection , I should like to emphasise the enormous contribution made by the Committee on Petitions to the work of the European Parliament in terms of communicating with the citizens and promoting transparency and responsibility in the Union 's decision-making process .
In 2003 there were 200 million people affected , with 45 million people in need of life-saving assistance .
Protectionism for Europe , which is the biggest exporter in the world , would be a self-defeating doctrine .
Economic growth and social welfare must go hand in hand - that is the crucial point , and it highlights the error of right-wing politics in Europe .
It is also necessary to firmer against China within the WTO , and to make systematic use of anti-dumping measures .
In 2006 , however , TATA 's automobile-manufacturing subsidiary had a higher stock exchange value than General Motors , while no-one had heard of the MITTAL Group until it launched a hostile takeover bid against ARCELOR , triggering panic in Paris , Brussels and Luxembourg .
Madam President , this has been a very wide-ranging debate and at the end I would like to bring it back to a focus on social policy as a productive factor .
It does not take into account existing and well-functioning legislation that is already in place in the Member States .
Organised human-trafficking gangs are constantly on the lookout for new gaps in our defences through which they can flood the EU with migrants .
And in line with the above examples , it maintains the political pressure on the Russian Federation , even seeking to promote intervention instruments , while ignoring the unacceptable situation of the most basic rights of the Russian-speaking population in Latvia , an EU Member State .
Finally , I would caution against an over-reliance on carbon-offsetting mechanisms .
As a colleague of mine memorably pointed out , carbon offsets are about as useful as an anti-smoking campaign that pays someone else to stop smoking in the developing world while you continue cheerfully puffing away .
In an uncertain and ever-changing world , the EU needs to develop good and enhanced relationships with countries on its periphery that are based on security , stability and mutual benefit to all .
Last year I called for CIS peace-keeping forces to be replaced by international peace-keepers .
Do you feel that , over the last six months , Council members , including those in Western Europe , have taken seriously their burden-sharing commitment regarding these places , which are in an emergency situation ?
I believe the situation created by this fishing plan would be feasible only for large tuna-fishing vessels that exclusively catch tuna , not for small craft intended for tuna and other fish .
Nevertheless , it has taken two years for this piece of legislation to reach this stage and I hope therefore that an agreement can be finalised with the Council and that it will be approved at this first-reading stage .
The first amendment means , in practice , an increase in the bureaucratic burden placed on small businesses , but there is an ever-increasing percentage of employees in just such businesses and therefore information about the situation in these businesses is increasingly useful .
The Recommendation has far-reaching consequences for the copyrights market and major players in the market are already acting on the basis of it .
It is precisely for this reason that I have been able to win the support of the whole Parliament and all the political parties for my report , in the interests of bringing to fruition a decision-making triangle , so that Parliament cannot be left out of the legislation of such an important area , and I have recommended that the Commission draw up a framework directive .
However , the Commission did not carry out the necessary and wide-ranging stakeholder consultation that was required , including with Parliament , which was a breach of democratic procedures .
This recommendation , which aims in practice to create more freedom for copyright owners to select the institution that provides collective management , depending on requirements , would have far-reaching consequences for the copyright and related markets and would create a potential threat not just to competition rules , but also to cultural diversity .
So we need no finger-pointing lessons in human rights .
The most important thing must be to create a flexible labour market by raising the level of education through training and re-training programmes .
If we understand security not just as training allowances but also as assistance with the various activities and decisions occurring during a person 's lifetime , then we will break new ground and make forward-looking proposals , rather than harking back to the ways of the past .
An attempt is being made here to champion a European wage-setting policy which would increase existing national minimum wages by an average of 20 % .
We are extremely determined in this area , as we have been in other areas of political action where we have not hesitated to pass far-reaching laws on rights or to take forceful decisions on foreign policy when we have been against certain actions .
Energy production must be built on firm foundations , consumption must be brought down to a lower level , and waste must be halted with the introduction of energy-saving technologies .
Parliament 's resolution , prepared by a political group , sets out clearly the need to look forward to these now fast-moving negotiations .
Sparrows were crushed beneath his wheels as he roared along the Allée de la Robertsau , blasting past slow-moving vehicles in traffic queues at speeds of more than 100 km / hour and forcing startled pedestrians to leap to safety off the zebra crossing .
I should therefore also like to thank the rapporteur for so skilfully endeavouring to involve Parliament in the decision-making process regarding assistance to Lebanon .
China is currently increasing its electricity-generating capacity every year by the equivalent of the UK 's total capacity .
It is only through well-functioning world trade that we will be able to sell our modern technologies around the world and thus make a contribution to protecting the climate .
The European Union has taken the lead in proposing far-reaching solutions on how to tackle climate change .
The European Union has taken the lead in proposing far-reaching solutions on how to tackle climate change .
in writing . - ( PT ) We completely agree with the report when it states that ' the current economic model , which entails constant maximisation of consumption , production and trade , is unsustainable as this results in ever-increasing demand for resources and transport and a growing quantity of waste and emissions ' and that the current trading system produces ' a global division of labour which is based on a very high input of transport of products ' , which could be produced locally in a more sustainable way .
The actions the Union has already taken in certain fields , such as aviation , promoting less-polluting vehicles , fuel quality and air quality will have effects both in fighting climate changes , and in stimulating economic development .
These are the principles of open governance , transparency and , above all , accountability in the decision-making process .
Being a Member of the European Parliament and a representative of the biggest opposition party in Bulgaria and a right-wing political force sharing the values of the European People 's Party , I believe that the existing status quo of the political model in Bulgaria alienates citizens from the decision-making process and increases their perceptions of corruption .
In 2005 , all 27 Member States agreed to abide by the framework for the setting of eco-design requirements for energy-using products .
Pollution from the ever increasing number of fish-farming units also places severe strain on the marine environment and the functioning of ecosystems .
In zones and conurbations where many contaminant-emitting entities function , for example coal-fired furnaces and plants using old technologies , adaptation to meet the directive 's requirements will require time and considerable financial outlay .
( NL ) Mr President , today , the European Parliament is providing clarity in the long-running debate on the specification of the standards required for reasons of public health with regard to particulates : PM25 and PM10 .
The current European policy priority which concentrates on the rapid and far-reaching introduction of cohesive and uniform legislation aimed at guaranteeing air quality is the right approach .
It is worth pointing out that the Member States already have very considerable difficulties in complying with pre-existing provisions on air quality improvement .
China is currently setting up its own national rapid-warning system , copying the European one .
Thirty-eight out of fifty mine-producing countries ceased production , including four States not party to the Convention : Egypt , Finland , Poland and Israel .
Thirdly , we must set up a very effective and quick mine-clearing service which would be available on request to states that are not capable , i.e. for reasons of cost or lack of expertise , of dealing with such a problem on their own .
As is well known , the United States and Russia are developing a new alternative to the Convention : controlled and self-destructing mines .
The Instrument for Stability is necessary and helpful , of course - and I , too , continue to do what I can to ensure this as rapporteur - in carrying out mine-clearing work in short-term measures .
It is an old-fashioned , inefficient , ineffective , costly and trade-distorting support and , this being said , I clearly understand the importance of keeping the balance between enrichment with sugar and must in order to arrive at a compromise supported by the wine producers in both the southern and northern parts of Europe .
Our wine-growing sector needs a fresh start : new life blood , new energy and new proposals .
We should reinforce this respect for the consumer with labelling that includes details of the wine-making practices followed .
My homeland is mainly a wine-consuming country .
We also call for more attention to be paid to ecological vine-growing methods , which still require significant various chemical products and additives .
At stake are the European wine-growing heritage and the future of vast regions which not only form wine production areas with designations of origin or geographical indications , but also areas producing good table wines .
Thus I have the feeling that , rather than overproduction , what we have here is a sales problem , mainly down to marketing , and that is why I do not want the reform proposed to us today to be tempted to lower the sector 's standards even slightly in order to fall into line with the new wine-producing countries .
There are countless questions , because it is obvious that this reform is essential but will be to the detriment of the poorest wine-producing regions .
- ( CS ) Mr President , Commissioner , there is no doubt that new rules of play are needed in the wine-making sector .
Only a good reform of the wine sector can help preserve the best wine-making traditions in the EU , strengthen social structures , and enhance the quality and attractiveness of our countryside , while protecting the environment .
I am sure visitors to all the various wine-growing regions of Europe will appreciate and enjoy sampling the characteristic wines produced from locally-grown grapes .
In the same way , the immediate consequence of decoupling the premium for maintaining suckler cows would be the disappearance of the natural carbon-absorbing meadows , which are particularly effective in combating greenhouse gas emissions .
Agriculture is attracting ever-growing interest in Europe .
in writing . - ( EL ) Plant hygiene and the certification of propagation material for fruit-bearing plants and fruit trees are of the highest importance for the producer because the initial establishment of an orchard , when properly accomplished , is a guarantee of good produce .
in writing . - ( PL ) We are living in the 21st century , and have no option but to adjust to new and fast-changing circumstances .
In 2008 , then , we shall have a tight-fitting budget , although we should have preferred something more comfortable .
It felt as if rather than being actively involved in reaching the agreement and party to it , the role of Parliament 's delegation was that of some kind of observer in a deal-making arrangement between certain national delegations .
The institution-building phase of the Human Rights Council has been more or less successfully completed , and there is ground for cautious optimism , provided the Council addresses human rights violations in a timely manner whenever and wherever they occur .
Therefore , the third energy package makes wide-ranging proposals to remedy those structural problems , in particular by proposing ownership unbundling of the transmission system operators .
There are some cases where municipalities are now considering the use of cables , which will be ground-breaking cases .
It must be emphasised that the so-called Reform Treaty is a very high-ranking document , since it leads in fact to restrictions on the sovereignty of the Member States .
In the long term that will undermine the opportunities for jobs and prosperity , but it will not give us the opportunity to be a world-leading economy as well as defending European values .
Vice-President of the Commission . - Mr President , thank you very much for this wide-ranging debate , which I think will provide valuable input to the meeting in Lisbon and to the summit in Brussels .
I also welcome the high-ranking delegation accompanying King Abdullah , particularly the Speakers of both Houses of the Jordanian Parliament .
The only problem , however , is that the Commission 's long-standing refusal to present a proposal to this effect has distorted competition .
( EN ) Madam President , today 's vote on the reform of the wine market is a resounding success for the European Parliament and for the various vine-growing regions and wine producers .
Madam President , my constituency of south-east England is the fastest-growing wine-producing region in Europe .
Madam President , my constituency of south-east England is the fastest-growing wine-producing region in Europe .
Equally , we regret that the proposals we made to maintain planting rights and support the restructuring of wine-producing areas , especially family farms , small and medium-sized wine-growers and wine cooperatives were not adopted , although we note with satisfaction that some proposals were approved , notably the proposal advocating the distillation of alcohol intended for drinking .
That proposal ignored the social realities of the wine-growing sector and would have resulted in further land lying fallow , to the detriment of the landscape .
in writing . - ( DE ) In the common organisation of the wine market , the Commission seeks to take account of the special characteristics of wine-producing regions by delegating more responsibility and creating more scope for initiative .
It should not be determined in decision-making processes between the EU institutions .
In particular , I supported four amendments that I consider essential not only for safeguarding the European wine-growing industry , especially in Burgundy and Franche Comté , but also for making it more competitive .
It is , in fact , vitally important that we should maintain the wine-making traditions of chaptalisation that are carried on in many regions of Europe , including Burgundy and Franche Comté - which I happen to represent .
We will continue to be critical of allies ' policy where there are policy differences , however we recognise and welcome the on-going co-operation between the EU and democratic states , especially the important relationship between the EU and the US , in the field of Justice and Home Affairs .
In those circumstances , when you stand in front of those right-wing extremists , you say to yourself , ' This is scarcely believable ' .
For the growing extremism , the growing influence of extreme right-wing parties and organisations is a direct threat to the existence of the European Union .
Today , the extreme right-wing attacks exactly these principles ; it attacks the very heart of the European Union , without which it could not possibly exist .
I believe that there is no political group in this Parliament to remain indifferent to the fact that right-wing extremism , racism , xenophobia are gaining new grounds .
on behalf of the ALDE Group . - ( ES ) Mr President , a few weeks ago a young man by the name of Carlos Palomino lay dying of stab wounds in the Madrid metro following a clash with right-wing extremists .
Action is needed at European level , firstly on the part of the Commission and the Agency for Fundamental Rights , in order to examine what kind of ramifications and networks there are behind all this - if any - what links there are between the various extreme right-wing movements , in order that we can apply legislation , contribute through education policies and support educators who teach about diversity , and , where necessary , forcibly denounce those politicians , social leaders , sportspeople etc. who , either passively or actively , lie behind these actions .
Mr Weber is right : there is left-wing extremism and right-wing extremism , but there is not just left-wing and right-wing extremism , there is neo-liberal extremism , Catholic extremism , Muslim extremism , ecological extremism and anarchic-insurrectionist extremism .
Mr Weber is right : there is left-wing extremism and right-wing extremism , but there is not just left-wing and right-wing extremism , there is neo-liberal extremism , Catholic extremism , Muslim extremism , ecological extremism and anarchic-insurrectionist extremism .
Mr Weber is right : there is left-wing extremism and right-wing extremism , but there is not just left-wing and right-wing extremism , there is neo-liberal extremism , Catholic extremism , Muslim extremism , ecological extremism and anarchic-insurrectionist extremism .
The problem in Europe , however , is the growth of right-wing extremism and the problems which are causing right-wing extremism to proliferate .
The problem in Europe , however , is the growth of right-wing extremism and the problems which are causing right-wing extremism to proliferate .
More and more extremist right-wing parties which base their ideology and political practices on intolerance and exclusion are voted into national parliaments .
It has been shown that attitudes that made workers receptive to right-wing populism include prejudice against immigrants , nationalism , authoritarianism , social dominance and political weakness , with prejudice against immigrants emerging as the most important factor among these .
What we have now , and what we have had at other times in the course of 20th century European history , is a great deal of uncertainty , a certain desperation , a certain aimlessness , and what we need to do is provide hope , a forward-looking spirit and strong leadership so that everyone feels a part of the European Union .
Mr President , eight years ago Jörg Haider 's immigrant-hating party entered into a coalition government in Austria .
Democratic forces must give an example , especially to the right wing , and the democratic right wing has great responsibility for distancing itself from the extreme right-wing phenomena that are running riot in Europe .
Today no EU country is free of right-wing extremism , not even my own country , Sweden .
We Swedish parliamentarians need help in making that more difficult , precisely as others need help in their countries in stopping the spread of right-wing extremism , which is on the increase throughout Europe .
The right-wing extremist parties oppose both a more open Europe and the development of the EU .
( FR ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , the rise of extremism in Europe is certainly very worrying and all the European institutions need to mobilise to stem the growth of these extreme right-wing movements that are becoming ever more threatening as they not only promote suspect values but increasingly attack human rights on the basis of their racist ideology .
In my view , it is difficult , and I say this frankly , to use the instruments of the law , the police or the secret services to undertake a far-reaching investigation of this or that party .
In fact , some of them were born just before the end of those campaigns , and they did not benefit from those awareness-raising initiatives that were taking place then , and that is why we have the results I have just mentioned .
Long-standing issues such as the problem of free riders and the risk of moral hazard must be addressed in that context .
I have noted the suggestion that the EFDI participate in general burden-sharing discussions .
Therefore , I am unable to support the suggestion to include the EFDI in general burden-sharing discussions .
New challenges constantly appear in this fast-moving business .
I have been following this dossier since the very beginning of my mandate , noting the extreme difficulties of designing its scope , area of competence and decision-making structures to the satisfaction of all actors involved .
As a result of this practice of subjecting everything to comitology , Parliament is divested of its decision-making rights and its powers of scrutiny , and so we only discover at some later date that obligations have not been honoured .
The Commission negotiated with China a double-checking surveillance system for 2008 that will cover eight textile-product categories with particular sensitivities .
As regards China , we express our concern at the application of the double-checking system instead of the extension of quotas to the ten categories of products .
Some specific points have been made , for example about the double-checking surveillance which will be in operation in 2008 .
This includes double-checking surveillance and any other monitoring means at the Commission 's disposal , such as the TAXUD surveillance , which provides trade data on the basis of actual trade .
We seek far-reaching liberalisation in trade in goods and services , as well as in investment .
Left-wing extremism is evidently something that by definition cannot exist , and clearly no-one here has heard of the rising Islamic fundamentalism .
After all , as my colleagues have already said , there is no such thing as left-wing extremism .
maintain that the double-checking surveillance system will serve no purpose unless it prevents any repetition of the situation that occurred in 2005 and that new safeguard measures are required ;
This is unacceptable and the Council and Commission therefore urgently need to speed up the decision-making process to enable this operation to be conducted as rapidly as possible .
The second , of course , was to give Europe better decision-making ability .
The declaration that I have the honour of signing after this sitting with President Pöttering and Prime Minister Sócrates is a wide-ranging policy statement about our objectives , principles and good practice approaches to humanitarian aid , delivered both bilaterally by Member States and by the European Community .
Data-sharing arrangements are dangerously ahead of arrangements for data protection and data security .
Proponents of the Treaty here today state that its primary purpose is to streamline decision-making powers .
After wide-ranging debates , Parliament approved a proposal that was much more open , less bureaucratic and much more flexible than the Commission 's .
The propaganda campaign is being prepared by the powers and power elites which , in the various countries , support right-wing policies , attempting to escape referendums , except in Ireland , where it is compulsory .
It is estimated that prices will rise by approximately 10 % this year and by 20 % over four years , because the emission limits have also significantly affected the electricity-generating industry .
86 % of the Romanian population are Eastern Orthodox , and Romania is the only Romance-speaking country where Eastern Orthodoxy is dominant .
In conclusion , ladies and gentlemen , I would just like to point out that it is essential to take into account the pressure on the European automotive industry and the ever-increasing competition .
The Commission proposes far-reaching legislation focused on compulsory reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from engine exhausts , improved vehicle technology and use of biofuels .
Finally , we have to sell the idea of eco-driving and training , run attention-grabbing campaigns and adopt regulations for obtaining a driving licence .
The proposals suggested by the Socialist and Communist , and perhaps the left-wing representatives too , demonstrate this , although the Maastricht criteria , I believe , put a stop to this .
I will not espouse the ideological arguments put forward by some Italian left-wing union members who , on learning last June of the closure of the factory , set themselves up as champions of safety and declared that they were responsible for and took care of safety at the factory .
From one side the fact that workers can move about freely is encouraging , but , from another , we are saddened by the ever-increasing number of instances of foreign workers being treated badly .
For my part , I have not tried in the report to recommend far-reaching changes to the text , simply because we are waiting for reports by Mrs Bozkurt and Mrs Lambert on Regulation 2003 .
We are developing a dedicated European website for children , written and presented in a simple way , which explains , for example , how to guard against the many safety threats to children in everyday life in a non-aggressive and non-shocking way ; it explains how to , let us say , steer clear of such dangers .
With increasing cultural blends , we must continue to acknowledge the importance of embracing all children in our ever-changing society .
At the same time , however , an ever-increasing number of areas coming under EU jurisdiction have a direct impact on the rights of the child .
Such a narrow national approach puts the Parliament outside the principal decision-making process as regards the rights of the child and makes us , the Parliament , into a purely advisory body .
First , there must be a prompt diagnosis and response to the problem of violence and abuse against children , with the establishment of a special record-keeping system , which will progressively contribute towards effective prevention of the problem .
The Member States are responsible for supporting parents in their child-rearing duties in many ways .
Attentive education allows uninformed young offenders to grow into informed , law-abiding citizens .
I hope at least that this House becomes more aware and better informed about a question which is not just Italian , and unreservedly condemns what is happening by voting in line with my request , as head of Azione della Fiamma as well , to apply all possible sanctions against the regional and the national government which , although responsible , seem utterly incapable of resolving this long-standing issue and are failing to take the dignified route of resignation .
Let me list in shorthand just a few means to this end : adaptation of working hours , flexitime , distance-learning programmes and informal learning paths .
A constituent of mine has pioneered the successful handling of some of the most difficult fish varieties and also the environmentally friendly fish-farming techniques that they require .
In my view it is right and important for Europe to smooth the transition from work and working age to non-working age , during which people are just as entitled to learn and to be educated .
Commission measures in 2008-2013 to make use of CAP remote-sensing applications ( debate )
The next item is the report by Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf , on behalf of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development , on the proposal for a Council regulation on the measures to be undertaken by the Commission in 2008-13 making use of the remote-sensing applications developed within the framework of the common agricultural policy - C6-0273 / 2007 - .
When we look at it from a technical point of view , the resolution of the remote-sensing images generated by the system is far too low to allow any controls , and this system - it must be clear as well - has nothing to do with our Integrated Administration and Control ( IACS ) System .
Remote-sensing techniques make it possible , among other applications , to monitor cultivation and to forecast harvests .
( PL ) Mr President , I would like to support the view taken by the rapporteur and emphasise that remote-sensing techniques can be useful to the European Commission : first of all , in helping to manage agricultural markets , secondly , by making it possible to monitor cultivation and at the same time to forecast harvests , and thirdly and finally , this forecasting should have an impact on the prices of agricultural raw materials , which will be particularly important in the next few years , in a situation where the prices of foodstuffs are constantly rising .
Michel Debatisse , the French farmers ' leader , put forward a remote-sensing proposal in this Chamber back in the 1990s , the area of application in that case being stock rearing .
There is an obvious danger with this aim of gathering information , improving statistics , producing forecasts and , indeed , creating a website : I am tempted to call it the danger of a remote-sensing elite , for the technology will be accessible only to large farmers or very rich regions , and not everyone will be enabled to anticipate prices - a particularly useful facility when the price of grain is rising .
At the end he warned against right-wing radicalism , as though communism might have been a right-wing extremist system !
At the end he warned against right-wing radicalism , as though communism might have been a right-wing extremist system !
I hope that in future years this information - as one of the amendments in this report suggested - can be spread via the internet to all those people across the European Union who would like to see it , especially to the various national audit authorities in each Member State so they can see , for example , if in Greece they are claiming more acreage for olive-producing land than they actually have .
I did so because any kind of remote-sensing apparatus is bound to lead to longer-distance surveillance .
I was talking about it in a Conservative meeting in the village of Harpole at the house of a man called Michael Orton-Jones who raised it with me personally , about the consumer credit directive and the money-laundering directives that are passed in this House .
in writing . - ( FR ) I voted for the resolution on the report by my German fellow Member Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf and on the proposal for a regulation on the measures to be undertaken by the Commission in 2008-13 making use of the remote-sensing applications developed within the framework of the common agricultural policy .
I support the proposal that the remote-sensing activities should be financed by a proper budget and not by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund ( EAGF ) .
The proposal took account of a pilot project on remote-sensing techniques , under the auspices of Council Decision No 1445 / 2000 / EC , initiated in the meantime .
Now the Commission is proposing the continued application of remote-sensing techniques in agriculture for the period 2008-2013 , in the field of monitoring agricultural markets .
The remote-sensing applications would thus constitute a tool for the Commission to implement and monitor the common agriculture policy , although the information could be useful to the Member States .
She invited me to join her on her return to Pakistan , and it was very much a heart-wrenching moment for me when I received her New Year 's greetings days after she had been murdered .
President-in-Office . - ( SL ) The ever-increasing cost of energy , especially fuel , and of food is a global problem and therefore also a problem for the European Union .
Mr President , I would like to wish the Slovenian Presidency every success for its term over the next six months , and also to wish a safe and successful peace-keeping mission to the EU forces that are going to Chad .
Naturally , it is proper that peace-keeping and peace-making operations are about cooperation under the patronage of the United Nations .
Nonetheless , neither the Member States nor the European institutions have really moved forward in promoting the inclusion of the Roma , although it is in the interests of both the European labour market and European societies successfully to integrate Europe 's most populous and fastest-growing minority .
These range from the European Parliament 's decision in 2005 to introduce the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All to the work of the high-ranking group of experts on the integration of ethnic minorities and the European Economic and Social Committee as well as the conclusions accepted just recently by December 's European Council , to which reference has just been made .
We have therefore taken the firm decision to use every instrument available to us , such as legislation , structural funds and information and awareness-raising campaigns , in order to improve this situation .
According to the European Council 's conclusions of December 2007 , these guidelines will for the most part deal with the Roma problem and the recommendations of the high-ranking group of experts on the integration of ethnic minorities .
This Green Paper should trigger wide-ranging debate on the subject and maybe lead to a plan of action at European level .
The true goal is to bring about equal access to work , education , housing , health , social services and the environment needed to exercise civil rights , starting with decision-making processes .
I can 't even venture to imagine that right now you are concerned by the extremely low pensions of retirees in Bulgaria or for the honest , hard-working Bulgarians who become victims of gypsy crime on a daily basis .
As for Georgia , which has undertaken wide-ranging reforms since 2003 and experienced the turbulence we know about , we are pleased that the presidential elections went off peacefully , but the very tense climate and allegations of human rights abuses lead us to ask the authorities to set up an inquiry into the complaints lodged , without delay .
Finally , the Commission will shortly relaunch an awareness-raising campaign for enterprises about gender stereotypes .
Lisbon stands for growth in employment rates , significant increase in the employment of women , demand for the provision of proper conditions for the employment of female employees , and wide-ranging support for equal opportunities - over and above the positive role of women in the economy .
The role of women in industry affects all facets of society and has wide-ranging implications for employment and welfare policy , family and child policy , not to mention economic policy .
Perhaps , however , the most novel contributions have been , firstly , power-sharing measures : this could , for example , produce a balanced number of women and men on company boards and in all decision-making posts in line with the new law introduced in my country , Spain .
Perhaps , however , the most novel contributions have been , firstly , power-sharing measures : this could , for example , produce a balanced number of women and men on company boards and in all decision-making posts in line with the new law introduced in my country , Spain .
We will create a network of women in decision-making posts , probably during 2008 .
Member of the Commission . - Madam President , the idea of an Internet Governance Forum ( IGF ) was born at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in November 2005 and defined as a non-binding forum for multi-stakeholder policy discussion .
Therefore , the Commission sees value in upholding the main characteristics of the forum , notably the participation of the various stakeholders and its non-binding nature .
First of all , we should ensure we are committed to , and support , the IGF process and its independent and non-binding character .
We have been fighting organised crime and terrorism quite effectively , through proper long-standing cooperation between police forces .
I therefore believe that only when the Treaty of Lisbon is ratified and comes into force in all 27 Member States will we be able to introduce procedural changes and improve this situation , as the Treaty will also reform the decision-making process within the EU .
in writing . - ( PL ) Clearly , European industry is undergoing far-reaching change .
in writing . - I support paragraph 33 because such proactive measures need to be taken - at least on an interim basis to ensure participation of women in the decision-making process at all levels .
Our humanitarian and health programmes take into consideration the gender violence they mentioned , both from a creative and awareness-raising perspective .
For that very reason , Egypt cannot act the way it did when it prohibited the registration of non-governmental organisations , it must not destroy freedom of speech and it must in particular defend the long-standing rule of law that has always existed in Egypt .
As far as the emissions-trading system is concerned , it is , when all is said and done , the best-known and the time-tested system .
Hungary spends a mere fraction of the money it receives from the EU on energy efficiency and energy-saving measures .
It was scandalous enough that many countries - including , I am sorry to say , the United States of America - stood by and watched as the bomb was developed in Pakistan and as bomb-building technology was transferred from there to Iran , because Pakistan was seen from the sole perspective of the common struggle against the Soviet Union and hence against Afghanistan too .
The delegation is on a three-day fact-finding visit to the European Parliament , and I had the pleasure of meeting its members yesterday .
Are we , at our taxpayers ' expense , paying for poverty relief in one of the richest oil-producing nations in the world because they have chosen to spend billions on a nuclear weapons programme ?
Mr President , Gaza remains a human tragedy , and none of us in this House can blame its long-suffering Palestinian citizens from rushing through the Rafah border-crossing breech in the wall to buy goods in Egypt .
The PSE Group accepts that a great deal of Parliament 's first-reading position has been accepted by the Council , and this will guarantee the universal service ; it will guarantee the financing of that service ; it will also recognise that social protection must be in place , and it delays the implementation by two years to the end of 2010 for all the old Member States and 2012 for the new ones .
But we need the playing field to be level , and I hope , with the reservations I have outlined , that we can conclude our work on this dossier based on our first-reading position and get back to the most important issue of providing a reliable , regular and affordable postal service to our citizens , and to recognising the important work done by all those postmen and women throughout the European Union .
Mr President , with regard to the upcoming referendum in Ireland on the Reform Treaty , I would like to put into context the importance of this from an economic point of view , because the Reform Treaty , if nothing else , is about making the European Union more efficient in its decision-making capacity , which in itself will lead to greater economic success and greater growth .
I thank Ms Hall for her wide-ranging report and I commend it to colleagues .
It is what we in the Netherlands call a ' low-hanging fruit ' : if we seize these opportunities , then we can very quickly help to achieve the common targets we have set ourselves and that we reiterated in Bali and confirmed again in the Commission 's package of 23 January .
This prompts us to reiterate to the European institutions the importance of two major objectives : increased substitution of EU energy imports with other sources , effective ways of ensuring security of supply , and the need to promote energy reform in the Black Sea region and in EU-neighbouring countries with a view to creating a transparent and sustainable energy sector .
The practice is amoral , unethical and completely unsustainable and results directly from the Common Fisheries Policy , which criminalises fishermen for landing by-catch , thereby forcing them to discard - fishermen who are desperately trying to make a living while faced with ever-depleting levels of fish stocks .
( ES ) Madam President , in general terms I support the rapporteur 's report as an expression of the long-standing concern about the rigidity of the common fisheries policy when it comes to tackling problems which are entrenched in our fisheries management system , of which discards are simply another example .
The situation requires much more wide-ranging action - a complete change of approach and thinking on the matter .
Drawing on the experience we gained during the years of the INTERREG Programmes we can conclude that the absence of an initiative-taking structure with its own legal personality has hindered its effectiveness , and we welcome the Commission proposal to establish European groupings of territorial cooperation as instruments with their own legal personality .
Such far-reaching solutions are not present in any democratic Parliament , so we wished to vote against this , but owing to the mistake referred to by Mr Piotrowski , we voted in favour of it .
I think and am convinced that what has become possible today owing to this unbelievably far-reaching empowerment of the President is opening the floodgates to despotism .
That said , I very much regret that the European Commission as well as many governments of the Member States are guilty of neglecting energy-saving measures and continuously underestimating their strategic importance and the need to make them a political priority .
This may be the most efficient way of reversing the trend because year after year the increase in energy consumption is still higher than the savings made by applying energy-saving technologies , and this will continue in the future .
The public-private partnership will support research into , and practical application of , energy-saving technologies in accordance with the Lisbon Strategy .
I would call for the removal of all obstacles that lead to the insolvency of non-profit-making associations and local authorities , thus making the implementation of further projects impossible .
In this way the majority in the EP - representing the same political forces that are at the centre of right-wing politics in each country - is seeking to take one more step along the path of dismantling this essential public service .
These opinions prove that the EU is in favour of promoting the US-NATO plan for ' democratising the Middle East ' , which aims to subject nations and peoples to control of their wealth-producing resources .
It seems particularly unreasonable to pick on patio heaters ( paragraph 16 ) , which have become widespread as a direct consequence of the UK Government 's anti-smoking legislation .
However , in this report , we fall back into the Malthusian and guilt-apportioning vision present in all Parliament 's reports on the subject : blind stigmatisation of motorists , bans on certain equipment , the desire to dictate individuals ' behaviour and to press-gang children from their earliest years , to meddle in planning and construction policy , to promote energy taxation and pricing schemes that in fact will harm only the most fragile sectors of the population .
However paragraph 16 which ' Urges the Commission to establish timetables for the withdrawal from the market of all the least energy-efficient items of equipment , appliances and other energy-using products , such as patio heaters ' , would have been better without singling out one particular piece of equipment for a ' ban ' , since it is only one among many that raise concerns over energy wastage and it is one that many people enjoy using , not least in an urban social context like my own London constituency .
in writing . - ( DE ) Energy-saving measures and greater energy efficiency are desirable for environmental and economic considerations .
But this must come about through educative and opinion-forming action on the part of each Member State to instil in each new generation an appreciation of the equal value of all human beings .
Since then , nothing has happened , apart from promises and high-sounding words .
The national governments and the EU restrict themselves to high-sounding declarations , while avoiding concrete measures .
We can dance the most brilliant spirited dance through the field of budgetary control at European level , but as long as the Member States do not dance along it will never be a prize-winning performance .
The statistics reveal an ever-increasing number of irregularities .
in writing . - ( HU ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , congratulations on this report , which highlights not only the successes of the recent past , but also some lamentable shortcomings and long-standing debts .
For me this report is very topical because in Hungary a decision has been made to establish a national anti-counterfeiting body .
Thanks to the constructive approach of Parliament , a first-reading adoption of this legislation can now be achieved .
The Commission has already carried out a wide-ranging consultation , thereby demonstrating its intentions within the context of its broader strategy for a global Europe , intentions that we support .
Thus I feel able to announce the support of the Socialist Group , with a request that the rapporteur take into account some of the main amendments we have tabled , in due accordance with the ideals of a left-wing group .
Can we find a way to make sure that these changes do come in and that we debate the more far-reaching proposals properly some time ?
The fact that this complex and sometimes very technical-looking package has been brought to a successful conclusion in such a short time is truly remarkable .
Since states are duty bound to protect their citizens against life- or health-threatening products , some of them introduced regulations subjecting certain categories of goods to various requirements such as markings and certificates , and the relevant national authorities were made responsible for monitoring and supervision .
The single market is still a multiple market and so , to eliminate all the regulatory and technical niggles that have the effect of subtly re-erecting borders , the Commission suggests we adopt the principle that importers bear the cost : importers are to be responsible for the safety of the products they import , and the burden of proof is to be reversed .
There has been some discussion regarding whether it was right or wrong to prepare a first-reading agreement .
This is not decision-making close to the people ; it only makes us look ridiculous in the eyes of the general public when we legislate on matters such as the installation of lighting and light-signalling devices on wheeled agricultural and forestry tractors .
This is not decision-making close to the people ; it only makes us look ridiculous in the eyes of the general public when we legislate on matters such as the installation of lighting and light-signalling devices on wheeled agricultural and forestry tractors .
in writing . - ( IT ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , I welcome the report presented by Mr Pomés Ruiz , as it represents a further measure to make the European institutions more accountable and transparent , and is designed to enable all citizens more closely to scrutinise and monitor the decision-making process surrounding the use of EU funds , thereby enhancing the basic principles of our democratic system .
Let us not shock anyone ; let us not ruffle any religious sensibilities ; let us be non-discriminatory : it hardly amounts to an effective recipe for tackling the ever-growing threat of Islamic terrorism !
We want to pursue an ambitious and forward-looking programme for 2010-2014 that will replace the Hague Programme .
Organised crime is an ever-growing problem in Europe .
When we strengthen crime-fighting operations we must also strengthen the rights of the individual .
For a long time to come we shall be deeply involved in assisting the state-building process in Kosovo .
The European Parliament 's greater involvement in the decision-making process bears witness to the fact that more account is being taken of European citizens .
The world economy is heading into ever-increasing uncertainty .
Re-establishing stability within the financial system should not stand in the way of the tasks of the financial system : promoting the growth of Europe 's businesses .
I agree that a healthy and stable macro-economic environment requires large-scale budget consolidation and an intelligent private and public investment policy that delivers forward-looking infrastructure and open 's up tomorrow 's markets .
But if one looks at the execution itself - especially looking back at that execution through time and along the full decision-making chain - it is another story .
In the context of the 2007-2013 lifelong learning programme , all languages are eligible for financing , thus including German-speaking minorities .
( DE ) Commissioner , did I understand you correctly that German-speaking minorities cannot receive support until 2013 ?
I must admit that Member States have responded very positively by including the Roma issue as a cross-cutting issue in many national strategic reference frameworks and also through direct references in operational programmes .
This system , based on the experience of 27 national regulators and the experience accumulated by the European Network and Information Security Agency ( ENISA ) , aims at reinforcing the coherence and consistency of EU rules , improving the decision-making process and contributing to promote a high and effective level of network and information security .
This is why we have established two extensive European networks : the INHOPE network of hotlines , where members of the public can report illegal content , and the INSAFE awareness-raising network , which aims to spread knowledge about the safer use of online technologies to children , parents , schools , policy-makers and the media .
I am sure Parliament will take an active part in this decision-making process .
As our EU Special Representative , Pierre Morel , has said on countless occasions , there is no way an energy dialogue can develop unless we help with the construction of properly-functioning states .
And properly-functioning states mean democratisation .
Madam President , this report expresses concern that the new Kyrgyz Constitution , voted on in a referendum in October 2007 without wide-ranging debate , could alter the balance of power .
It will improve the efficiency and simplify decision-making processes .
The Lisbon Treaty introduces a package of politically far-reaching changes that will serve as a foundation for our political agenda .
The Treaty of Lisbon gives the EU the means to undertake far-reaching reforms to achieve this .
I know that the United Kingdom is a strangely insular place , and it is true that even its Government is too frightened to face up to nationalists and xenophobes and has insisted on asserting self-defeating opt-outs from key areas of European unity , sometimes pushing Britain to the margins .
This Treaty is not about reform or efficiency ; it is a carte blanche for further erosion of democracy , and its self-amending clauses alone are evidence of this .
For us , the provisions that reinforce democracy within this complicated network of interests are particularly important , such as those that extend Parliament 's legislative powers and powers of scrutiny , or the changes to Council decision-making procedures .
With a simpler decision-making structure we can expect interests to be clearly revealed , and political bargaining processes to be rendered more transparent .
I warn you : do not be surprised if , some day , these same long-suffering citizens refuse that cooperation .
Is it because it consolidates power in a self-perpetuating bureaucracy ?
They democratically legitimise , whether directly or indirectly , the EU 's decision-making bodies and expect successful action .
I must give special mention here to the fact that the rights of individuals belonging to minorities have at long last been included in the eighty-thousand-page acquis communautaire , since every seventh citizen in Europe , in the European Union , belongs to a long-standing minority .
However , with this Treaty , we are witnessing the most far-reaching development of the European Union that there has ever been : more power , more political areas than ever before and a greater loss of control for the European nations than there has ever been previously .
As the rapporteurs correctly point out , this Treaty strengthens democratic responsibility and decision-making powers , and in this way gives citizens more control over the Union 's activities .
If the people of Ireland vote ' yes ' to the Lisbon Treaty , they will also be conferring legally-binding treaty status on the Charter of Fundamental Rights , to the benefit of all Irish and EU citizens .
It would not be such a bad idea if the public were asked about it , as the decision-making process will acquire greater legitimacy if the people are allowed to influence it .
Unlike the majority in Parliament , we believe that it is good that an ' emergency accelerator ' has been introduced into the decision-making procedure in areas that are sensitive in terms of national sovereignty .
in writing . - ( PT ) The Treaty of Lisbon is the best compromise for overcoming the institutional crisis and bringing greater flexibility to the decision-making mechanisms that are essential for an enlarged European Union of 27 Members to function in today 's globalised and constantly changing world .
On the one hand it describes as ' greater effectiveness ' the increased domination of the decision-making process by the great powers of the EU and as ' an increased role for the national parliaments ' the transfer of the national parliaments ' competences to the supranational institutions of the EU .
Greater codecision will mean more scrutiny and more daylight in the decision-making process .
It is crucial that the EU builds on its strengths as a diplomatic and peace-building power .
With greater involvement from both National and European Parliaments in decision-making procedures , we are giving the European people what they have always asked of the EU : a greater voice .
This means a clearer decision-making structure and more power for the EU 's only popularly elected assembly , the European Parliament , a strengthened common foreign policy and new posts , such as the High Representative for Foreign Policy and the President of the European Council .
It should also be pointed out that a more effective decision-making process has been introduced for EU institutions .
Today Parliament weeded out some of the most far-reaching questions .
( EL ) Mr President , we are faced with a state of affairs that may have far-reaching consequences , not only for the Balkan region but also internationally .
I am thinking here , particularly , of the innovation of human rights pledges submitted by candidates for election ; the ability to hold special sessions on urgent human rights situations , a far cry from the annual ritual of its predecessor , the Commission on Human Rights ; the development of ' interactive dialogues ' with UN special procedures , a very public means of focusing attention on human rights violations ; and , finally , the adoption of the all-important institution-building package by consensus .
Priorities for the Seventh Session fall between addressing urgent human rights situations effectively - increasingly , the standard by which the Council should be judged - and continuing to implement the institution-building reforms .
We see the Seventh Session of the HRC as a crucial one , because it will be the first to examine a large range of substantial issues under the new working methods stemming from the institution-building reforms package adopted in 2006 and 2007 .
Therefore , I simply cannot understand that some hypocritical Austrian right-wing populists are against this mission .
The report also rightly emphasises the changing relationship between the working and non-working sectors , stressing that the Member States will have to take all possible measures to deal with future shortages of workers in the labour market .
Given the far-reaching consequences of demographic change , it needs to be considered from the point of view of the public administration and the social fabric , requiring the mobilisation of all economic , cultural and social operators in a structured analysis and debate on the various options as regards the measures to be taken .
That relates to the ever-changing question of what constitutes a family , which needs to be revised , and the fact that in today 's well-off society , having children is connected with the fear of poverty .
This represents an immense loss of hard-working hands and educated minds , people who were educated in their countries at great cost .
Member of the Commission . - ( CS ) Ladies and gentlemen , let me emphasise once more the high quality of Mrs Castex 's report , as it clearly provided the platform for a wide-ranging debate , which touched on almost all the fundamental issues .
The report also maintains that this is a non-binding framework , but that anyone adopting it will have to abide by it .
It is a threat to solidarity between the generations , because a smaller number of professionally active people than at present will have to bear the ever-increasing cost of benefits , allowances , pensions , care and health services for those who are not in work .
The Commission , for its part , through my colleague Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner , has expressed its satisfaction with the release of the prisoners , which has been a long-standing request from all EU institutions , including the European Parliament .
It does not seem that this is likely to succeed in an area like the Democratic Republic of Congo , where life-threatening diseases reign , the environment and the land are over-exploited , and people remain completely without rights .
( CS ) Commissioner , I appeal to the Commission here in Strasbourg to release funds reserved for crisis situations now and to start immediately reconstruction projects , notably with a wide-ranging programme of general medical support for civilians in North-Kivu .
We have traditionally been one of the most important donors in the east , via our humanitarian assistance and our rehabilitation and capacity-building programmes .
The Union needs to be courageous enough not just to condemn all the crimes committed by both sides , but to point to the main cause of all the problems , the occupation , with its grim succession of cruelties and humiliations , never-ending sources of hatred , despair and thirst for revenge .
This long-standing work is continued through two schools which aim to equip hundreds of children with skills that will help them to develop , creating the conditions for them to adapt to their social environment in a critical and sustained way , on the basis of principles of justice and solidarity .
This important change is further proof that the Greek Cypriots genuinely want a resolution of the long-lasting conflict with the Turkish Cypriots and with Turkey , which is occupying 40 % of the island .
And that has potentially far-reaching implications for the industry , but for the user too .
on behalf of the Verts / ALE Group . - ( DE ) Mr President , this has been a very long-running saga , and I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate my sincere thanks to Mr Costa .
These are a few examples of wide-ranging action which is , it must be said , one of the main priorities in my term of office : greening transport , whilst at the same time ensuring that all the citizens of Europe have access to transport .
Because , like the no-smoking rule in the Parliament dining rooms , MEPs ignore it !
The rapporteur is in favour of technological innovations and other energy-saving methods .
A genuine effort needs to be made to reduce urban congestion and thus also air-polluting emissions .
( FR ) Madam President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , in this own-initiative report Mr Albertini has emphasised the need to establish a cross-cutting policy taking all aspects into account : transport , energy and the environment .
Coordination and cooperation are the keywords of this cross-cutting policy .
Finally , with respect to the proposal that vessels should pay the total cost of the agreement in proportion to their catches , let me just say that we have established a reasonable cost-sharing balance between shipowner contributions and the Community compensation .
I very much hope that Parliament will be in a position to deliver its first-reading opinion on all the proposals flowing from the Commission work programme before the end of this parliamentary term .
In this context , I am looking forward to the second-reading adoption of the European Institute of Technology - one of our flagship actions - later today , and I would like to congratulate this House on the excellent job it has done on bringing this to fruition .
Indeed you even wanted to continue cancelling the largely inadequate anti-dumping instruments !
We do not represent our voters in the very important agenda-setting function .
My country , which is not concealing its direct interest in the idea of setting up the Institute , sees an opportunity for the communities to function through a shrewdly conceived bond with the Institute , though with no limitation on their wide-reaching independence .
I mean for example , Polish-speaking Portuguese , Spanish-speaking Estonians and Slovenian-speaking Swedes .
Ladies and gentlemen , by having risen from your seats , by having applauded so enthusiastically , you have thanked the President of Estonia for his highly congenial and , for us as a Parliament , friendly , but above all forward-looking speech .
Having brought the 21 regulations applicable to the common organisation of agricultural markets together in a single all-encompassing regulation in order to rationalise and simplify the legal framework of market policies such as intervention , private storage , import tariff quotas , export refunds , safeguard measures , state aid and competition rules , and the communication and reporting of data , it became necessary to update this text to take account of decisions taken since 2006 in the sugar , fruit and vegetables , processed fruit and vegetables , seeds , beef and milk and milk products sectors .
In fact , I believe it is of prime importance to create a simpler and more flexible legislative framework that enhances freedom and decision-making power in the implementation phase of laws , compared with previous measures that were too detailed .
Pollution caused by transport must be considerably reduced very quickly by placing restrictions on emissions of pollutants , altering the composition of fuel mixtures , and continuing to provide incentives for the purchase and use of environmentally-friendly and non-polluting forms of transport .
In our view such forward-looking promotion and preservation of the entire sector can be made possible only in this way .
Increasing production by at least 2 % and reassessing at a later stage whether further quota increases are needed will support and maintain strong , forward-looking milk production in Europe and create a smooth transition to the abolition of the quota system , which was introduced in 1983 - incidentally as a transitional arrangement - owing to the development of whole milk powder and butter mountains .
I should like to point out that it is acceptable for the Commission to show this kind of flexibility in matters of developing the market for agricultural produce , particularly foods , especially during a period when the stock-breeding sector is facing viability issues owing to the crisis on the international market .
However , it is also a matter of principle that such a crisis cannot be resolved by the same measures and policies for all types and sizes of stock-breeding operation .
We must move away from protectionism and the market-distorting measures that are built into the current system .
Similarly , as regards the credit-rating agencies , we can only refer you - or refer Commissioner McCreevy - back to what we said before .
By the end of 2008 , the Commission has also committed itself to conduct a cross-sectoral stock-taking exercise of the coherence , equivalence and actual use of sanctioning powers among Member States .
On 23 January 2008 the European Commission put forward a far-reaching package of proposals that will deliver on the European Union 's ambitious commitments to fight climate change and promote renewable energy up to 2020 and beyond .
For this reason , the Commission proposes that , from the start of the third trading period , allowances should no longer be allocated free of charge to power-generating companies , and in the industrial sector , free allocation will be progressively curtailed with a target of complete abolition in 2020 .
This is an important sign that their commitment to integrating trade and development strategies in a progressive , forward-looking way .
I would also like to highlight the LEADER programme in this context , which contributes to improving the involvement of women in the decision-making process in the local action groups .
Failure to do so has far-reaching consequences .
This kind of development-disrupting policy is also prompting young people , including women , to leave for the city and to emigrate abroad .
full involvement of women in the decision-making process and enhanced capacity to change / influence the decisions that affect them directly ;
The Member States should prepare public policies to encourage the participation of women in the labour market , in the decision-making process , and should control any forms of discrimination .
It has environmental benefits by reducing the emission of powerful climate-altering gases , such as methane and nitrous oxides .
Extra research support to exploit second-generation biogas as a biofuel is a forward-looking necessity .
I believe in the EU we grossly miscalculated in over-indulging biofuels .
We expect the European Council to call for measures in four main areas : enhancing transparency for investors , markets and regulators , improving valuation standards , strengthening credit status and invigorating risk management in the financial sector and , last but not least , improving the operation of the market and the role of credit-rating agencies .
Wide-ranging reforms are also required for the job market , which must be more mobile , more flexible and also more secure .
I believe that this team effort has produced a policy-blocking cartel with a shared mantra : business as usual .
When Mr Bullmann talks about a ' policy-blocking cartel ' , his criticism is completely unjustified .
I am convinced that savings , new energy-saving technologies and of course diversification of energy sources represent the key , or at least one of the keys , to solving this problem .
On the one hand , I support the idea of capping subsidies , as proposed by the Commission , because , bearing in mind the ever-increasing weight of public opinion on subsidies for farmers and following the implementation of the SPR ( Soil Protection Review ) , which has made the system clearer and more transparent , certain imbalances have become apparent .
Through your activities and meetings with high-ranking guests during the Year of Intercultural Dialogue , you are strengthening one of the basic European traditions , that is to say the fact that mutual respect and understanding are the basis of coexistence in Europe as well as in the world as a whole .
If we do not search together for low-carbon and energy-saving solutions , we will not succeed in slowing down climate change .
The European Union should play a vital role in Iraq as a mediator between different political and religious factions to establish a well-functioning society .
Let us not kid ourselves that it is only countries outside the EU that are supplying arms to conflict states : 7 out of 10 of the world 's top arms-exporting countries are EU Member States .
Ever-increasing hostilities have deepened the humanitarian tragedy and increased the already large number of refugees and displaced persons .
The EU peace-keeping mission has unfortunately suffered its first fatality , after a French peace-keeper mistakenly strayed into Sudanese territory .
In my view , and due to the current humanitarian and security situation , the deployment of the European peace-keeping mission has become indispensable .
Sudanese military and peace-keeping agents largely support the well-armed Chadian rebels in the border area between Darfur and Chad , and in addition to the Sudanese Government they also get support from the Arab militias in Darfur .
It is therefore important for us to participate in wide-ranging mediation involving international institutions so as to encourage the leaders of both countries to resolve contentious issues .
Member of the Commission . - ( FR ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , I also wish to begin by paying homage to the French soldier who died on active service during a dangerous peace-keeping mission .
in writing . - ( GA ) Irish soldiers are famed for their involvement in peace-keeping operations with the United Nations in places where there is crisis or conflict .
It should be the United Nations who leads the way in terms of peace-keeping operations , but this cannot be achieved by participation in European battle groups of this kind .
( DE ) Mr President-in-Office of the Council , in relation to the development of a common asylum procedure , one objective is to expedite the decision-making process that determines whether people are granted refugee status or not .
The European Union should adopt a wide-ranging approach to this challenge , because demographic tendencies affect many areas of politics , including employment , housing , education , social assistance and health care .
We must avoid such tax-raising acrobatics .
From a left-wing perspective it must also be emphasised that energy conservation and efficient energy use is a social issue too , given that it is often the poorest people , in particular , that waste the most energy .
Distance heating , in theory , is an energy-saving system and has the advantage of being easy to adapt to renewable energies , while in the case of individual heating this would need to be carried out on a house-by-house basis .
In mid-February , with all these things in mind , the European Commission launched the third capacity-building programme for the new Member States .
It looks like the new Member States still need a period of adaptation to the decision-making systems in the Council and to its priorities in the field of development cooperation .
The new Member States are being urged here to organise information and awareness-raising campaigns .
Member of the Commission . - ( FR ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , let me begin by congratulating the rapporteur on this extremely thorough examination of a very important cross-cutting subject .
I deplore , however , that many DCI country strategy papers merely refer to gender as a cross-cutting issue , failing to specify concrete activities , targets or financial allocations .
In many countries women continue to lack access to basic health services , education and participation in decision-making processes .
That is why Silesian women are demanding that the local authorities ensure them equal involvement in local government and the decision-making process , access to promotion and the pursuit of business activities , equal opportunities with regard to employment , working conditions and pay , and freedom from violence .
As we know , our societies are marked by ever-increasing life expectancy .
They prey on these countries and plunder their wealth-producing sources , which all results in hunger and the impoverishment of millions of people .
It is important to expand the micro-financing networks , because micro-credits can help improve women 's economic situation .
I would like to appeal both to the Armenian authorities and , of course , to Azerbaijan to endeavour to settle this long-lasting conflict .
We must support that consciousness-raising process .
At a time of ever-increasing unpredictability in the global economy , it would be very wrong to rest on one 's laurels and discontinue the reforms .
We must enable them to reap the full benefit of the internal market , yet the Council could achieve much for European competitiveness by bringing the long-running disputes over a European patent and private company statute to a successful conclusion .
In my view , what has happened is a self-fulfilling prophecy .
Do we seriously think , ladies and gentlemen , that we freedom-loving people will be able to shake hands with leaders who are holding a machine gun in their other hand ?
That outburst is due to the long-standing humiliations , pain and gross human rights violations endured by the Tibetans in Tibet , where they are becoming a minority as a result of the aggressive policies of Beijing .
This might be one way of resolving the present situation too : for Tibet to be part of China , but having very wide-ranging autonomy under the leadership of the Dalai Lama , because the current level of autonomy falls short of what the Tibetan people want .
Violence has never , as I said before , achieved long-lasting results .
Our governments are slaves to the market , devotees of free trade and communism , and will always be opposed by free-thinking citizens like myself who will continue to protest against injustice .
Lebanon 's political crisis and ever-worsening security situation means that the EU must improve the political dialogue and assist a return to the rule of law and democracy .
It seems to me that we - that is , Parliament , Council and Commission - share the basic view that we will certainly continue to support our long-standing partner , Lebanon , in this very critical phase .
To prevent a country in southern Europe from becoming a member of NATO when the possibility arose is , to my mind , not a particularly wise move , given the complexity of the situation in the Balkans right now and all the challenges we face : independence in Kosovo , which is a fait accompli , the departure of the government and new elections in Serbia and still-ongoing police reforms in Bosnia .
Intensifying the existing regional political cooperation in the form of a Balkan Council will enable these countries to enter into practical , forward-looking cooperation , which will offer an opportunity to stabilise the region and make those countries that are not yet Member States or official candidate countries more prepared for accession .
Up to now , both parties have been expert in explaining the other party 's long-standing commitment .
I also hope that the respect for the rights of ethnic and national minorities will continue to be a priority of the Macedonian Government in order to ensure a solid system of protecting all communities , including the Romanian-speaking people .
This situation has arisen because of the unrestricted industrial and commercial turf-cutting right across the EU , which has resulted in virtually all of Europe 's raised bogs being destroyed .
In this context , at national level there must be full compensation for the loss of turf-cutting rights , and flexible arrangements will have to be put in place so that we can balance the rights of owners against the need to conserve the raised bogs .
It is also vital to ensure that workers are protected from cancer-causing substances - around 8 % of all cancers are caused by exposure to carcinogens at work - and we need binding limits on crystalline silica , which can cause disabling illness and fatal lung disease .
Many speakers spoke about anti-smoking campaigns .
( SK ) The Eurostars joint research and development programme supports research and development-performing SMEs in executing market-oriented research in transnational projects , implemented on behalf of various SME associations .
The fact that this is a bottom-up programme , directly adapted to the needs of research-performing enterprises that participate in it , is a very positive aspect .
So they have a 75 % co-funding rate in the Framework Programme , while the rest of the bigger companies have 50 % , which means that we are stimulating their participation .
The essential principles and proper decision-making procedures related to the management of this fund are defined in the multiannual technical guidelines for the research programme of the Research Fund for Coal and Steel .
In an increasingly globalised world , the outstanding specific qualities contained within the nucleus of Europe 's cultural richness constitute genuine European added value and their identity-giving role is vital for Europe and the Union in that it helps them to understand the world , bring about cohesion , emphasise their uniqueness , and assert themselves in relation to other peoples .
I therefore repeat that I support the overall conclusions of the report , to the effect that no decisions should be adopted until we have studies covering all Member States and the different types of fisheries plus a wide-ranging debate to assess all the variables involved in this issue .
I strongly agree with the report when it points out that the current fisheries management systems within the EU , specifically in the area of TACs and quotas , do not provide an answer to our problems , and that it is necessary to hold a wide-ranging debate .
By focusing on the main spheres of activity , however , and carefully analysing the budget requests , as well as evaluating the possibilities for re-allocating officials internally before creating new permanent posts , it is possible to keep the level of expenditure in the European Parliament 's budget within the 20 % limit .
This will require considerable investment , forward-looking decisions and cooperation across borders .
I am therefore calling for integrated policies , all-encompassing policies that we can adapt to society , which must listen to our recommendations and comply with them .
The European Commission should prepare a pan-European awareness-raising campaign , providing information on preventive measures , early detection and diagnosis of cancer and its treatment .
The latter also bear an ever-increasing responsibility for the undue emission of greenhouse gases .
It is our long-standing policy not to take a position on issues which do not affect the United Kingdom and from which we have secured an opt-out .
I consider that all of the network 's activity should be more useful so that the bodies involved in the decision-making process can make practical use of its work .
We need to do more to revive our coal-mining communities .
That is why we tabled an amendment which argued for the Member States , as interested parties , to be active participants in the procedures , in particular decision-making procedures for the granting of authorisations in this area .
We are also critical of formulations to the effect that the European Parliament should call on Croatia to conduct an awareness-raising campaign aimed at focusing public attention on the environment .
I share its concerns over the increase in transport emissions and slow-moving efforts towards energy efficiency .
Thus the decision to send the EULEX peace-keeping force to Kosovo to take over the role that until recently had been played by UNMIK is a tactical error .
To commemorate this event , a group of Members from European hockey-playing countries , led by the Slovak Member of the European Parliament , Mr Peter Šťastný , organised an exhibition in the European Parliament in Brussels , reminding us of both the successes as well as the difficult times when athletes were oppressed in some countries under the communist regime .
( CS ) Mr President , the 20th century in Europe was the century of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes , of Nazism and fascism , of communism and its most terrible offshoot , Stalinism , of various right-wing dictatorships in Spain , Portugal , Greece and other countries .
Right-wing politicians , journalists and so-called historians , many of whom used to be members of the former communist regime and obtained the title of doctor or engineer from the communist regime 's educational establishments , constantly attack social democratic parties as if they were some kind of communist or post-communist parties , in spite of the fact that it was in fact social democrats who , both at home and in exile , fought communism for 40 years .
We were only consulted at the last minute , in haste and in a non-binding manner as the instrument was about to be incorporated into the Community acquis .
Only the non-coding parts of DNA , in other words the zones containing no genetic expression , may be transferred .
Now , it is certainly right actually for us not to make it easy for potential assassins to download bomb-making instructions from the Internet and of course closer cooperation among Member States is to be welcomed .
The purpose of cooperation in matters of security is to keep Europe a safe place to live in and to protect law-abiding citizens .
Thirdly , international cooperation in detecting cases of organ trafficking should be more organised and more serious , because hidden trafficking and its consequences can destroy the hopes of thousands of patients waiting for life-saving organs .
Certified establishments engaged in the legal transplantation of human organs would have this life-giving information available instantly and could set up bipartite agreements , while the poor and vulnerable would be protected from becoming victims of organ trafficking .
I also believe that a system should be put in place across all European funds , whereby voluntary activity is recognised as a contribution to co-financing projects .
There is increasing recognition within the EU of the usefulness of voluntary activity and voluntary organisations are being more closely involved in decision-making processes .
I agree with Commissioner Wallström that it would be splendid if we could conclude these long-standing negotiations under the Slovenian presidency , so that we are properly prepared to face voters at the elections in spring 2009 .
A third avenue for exploration would be to strengthen the audit committee provided for in our Statute , and to convert it into a quasi-banking supervisor .
I also expressed puzzlement about the low utilisation rate for payment appropriations for anti-polluting measures at sea , despite Parliament 's continuing support for these measures .
I would like to thank the European Commission which , in the end , negotiated a tight follow-up with us , also under pressure from a tough-talking rapporteur from this committee .
The annual European Court of Auditors report established that the European Commission had taken numerous steps concerning the use of structural and cohesion funds as part of its far-reaching supervision .
It is , after all , part and parcel with discharge of the Commission which we are addressing today , and the Court of Auditors delivers a devastating criticism , which must lead to wide-ranging reform of the common fisheries policy .
Volunteering has a long-standing tradition in the countries of Western Europe and in the US .
In contrast , non-governmental and non-profit-making organisations in post-communist countries introduced voluntary activities only after the democracies had been installed .
Nevertheless , the Council , the EU 's supranational decision-making body made up of representatives of the various Member State governments - which will see its powers increased if the ' Lisbon ' Treaty is adopted - would appear to be immune from such ' demands ' as it has not submitted its annual activity report .
With regards to the Agency , I regret that the utilisation rate for payment appropriations for anti-polluting measures at sea is too low ( 67.7 % ) , while Parliament has largely supported this type of measure in the context of the budgetary procedure .
The EU must produce the majority of its food , and food of good quality , and must also assist countries not in the EU with know-how , knowledge transfer and developments in agricultural production , so that this global problem of ever-increasing severity can be solved .
That is , first of all , to stop the anti-dumping legislation on phosphate and potash , in particular , and nitrogen , coming into the European Union and going to the rest of the world .
Parliament 's negotiating delegation , under the chairmanship of Angelika Niebler , ITRE Chairwoman ( Committee on Industry , Research and Energy ) , and with the participation of shadow rapporteurs and representatives of opinion-giving committees , submitted the text approved in the first reading as part of the informal trialogue to the ITRE Committee .
There is nothing in the court judgments which means that they conflict with different types of collective agreements or other pay-setting arrangements .
It is a fast-working committee and will complete its work by June .
This Agenda , which I will unveil next June before the College , will of course include the results of a wide-ranging consultation launched on the new social realities .
It has constructed a vast network of partnerships around the world with a clear commitment to re-establishing relations .
This is fair enough , but when we suggest real labour-sharing strategies to them , we get no response .
Democratic scrutiny of the European Parliament , first of all , with the budgetisation of the EDF - and this time I hope that we will not miss the deadline for the review of the financial perspectives in 2010 - and democratic scrutiny of national parliaments , with a reinforced capacity-building programme .
This is long-standing quarrel between the European Parliament and the Commission , I know .
The decision-making process is not very clear .
Lastly , to prevent us from falling into some rather typically European romantic temptations with respect to terrorism or organisations which , like the FARC , are now drug-dealing guerrillas , not the romantic paramilitary groups of the 70s , they could also be called upon to abandon violence once and for all , unilaterally and unconditionally .
( PL ) Mr President , the countries of Latin America have undertaken far-reaching pension reforms with significant involvement by the World Bank .
If we want reforms in the major international institutions , we shall only achieve that through a fairly far-reaching agreement between Latin America and the European Union .
Our climate and with it our future depends on how well we retain the original extent of these life-giving rain forests in Brazil , Columbia , Ecuador , Venezuela and other South American countries , along with their biodiversity and richness of fauna and flora .
The European Union will continue to be a success story , provided it preserves its dynamism , proving that it is a political world actor with ever-increasing importance , and I would add - a political importance .
The Lisbon Treaty includes the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and an improved decision-making procedure that will , in connection with human rights , facilitate the adoption of courageous and creative solutions .
The Chinese economy requires ever-increasing supplies of energy and raw materials .
At the same time we should also be aware of the Chinese thirst and hunger for natural resources - their sort of resource-seeking motives .
A forward-looking drugs policy must be based on effective smashing of drug rings , instant deportation of foreign drug dealers and the adoption of targeted priority actions , along with the provision of better treatment services for drug users .
Indeed , thanks to their experience in the field , therapeutic communities can support awareness-raising campaigns by providing more and better information about the risks inherent in drug abuse and about possible prevention programmes .
Some time ago , an agonising decision , I have to admit , I voted in favour of a report which supported facilitating a switch to legal poppy cultivation in Afghanistan , with production being used in pain-relieving drugs .
It was not created to recover starving children in Eastern Europe , led by their parents on a never-ending voyage of migration .
This is a ground-breaking agreement , of major significance , and deserves Europe 's attention and support .
Parliament will take on an ever-growing role in designing and driving such policy , in particular once the Lisbon Treaty enters into force .
To respond to the economic and political realities , the World Trade Organisation , as a trade system with rules which are binding on international trade , ought to make improvements to its rules of operation , organisational structure and decision-making procedure , and exhibit a more pragmatic institutional flexibility and adaptability .
Unfortunately , it had an extremely negative effect on countries within the European Union , like Ireland whose sugar industry was destroyed , and on the poorest sugar-producing nations of the African-Caribbean-Pacific countries like Mauritius , Belize and Fiji .
Moreover , what are the environmental concerns of major oil-producing countries such as the GCC states ?
Our environment is suffering under the insults inflicted as a result of an ever-increasing world population and man 's uncontrolled appetite for materialistic consumption .
Secondly , we need to look at how the IASB 's agenda-setting process can be improved .
In particular we should seek means to ensure that the views of European stakeholders , especially proactive input to the IASB 's agenda-setting process , can be put to the IASB in a more timely and coherent manner .
It was certainly a very wide-ranging debate with diversity of views on many of the issues and we have taken note of them .
Moreover , I recognise that we in Europe should better organise ourselves to guide and provide input to the IASB standard-setting process .
In addition , we need to intensify preparations for a wide-ranging review of all aspects of EU expenditure to enable the Commission to submit a report by the end of this year .
author . - Mr President , following many years of British colonial rule and a period of apartheid dictatorship by Ian Smith , the then Rhodesia , now Zimbabwe , was led to independence by a group of freedom-fighting persons , including Mr Mugabe .
Nobody can deny the contribution of these people to achieving freedom for Zimbabwe but , as is so often the case , excessive and long-lasting power , along with opportunism and an uncontrolled appetite for personal materialistic gain , soon corrupted the altruistic spirit of freedom and democracy and turned the ruling regime of Mugabe into an oppressive governing body with no forward vision and with excessive totalitarian manifestations .
In addition , the Iranian authorities are conducting an ever-increasing campaign of repression of female activists and women 's rights defenders in general .
Passport checks are a thing of the past within the Schengen area and there is no longer any need for expensive , time-consuming currency changing .
This is what the majority of the EU 's population demands , in the face of Shell and BP 's EUR 4.2 million-an-hour profits for the sake of the so-called free market , while workers are being hit by ever-increasing job insecurity and a drop in the real value of wages .
This does not even take into account the undemocratic and unaccountable decision-making processes of the European Central Bank .
Secondly , a truly multilateral peace-keeping mission needs to be set up in Georgia .
Georgia 's appeal to the international community and international organisations to consider the possibility of replacing the Russian ' peace-keeping ' forces with another format ought to be taken into consideration and supported by the Council and the European Commission , which should also examine the possibility of providing a peace-keeping mission under EU supervision in Georgia 's Abkhazia region .
Perhaps the best way for the European Union to help is for it to invest in confidence-building measures to help both sides on the road to renewed dialogue .
The efforts of the European Union Special Representative will certainly continue and the efforts of the European Commission will continue and be stepped up , in particular as regards the implementation of a package of confidence-building measures - we very much appreciate Georgia 's support for this package .
This is the area that this afternoon 's discussion concentrated on almost exclusively - the big , far-reaching issues , sometimes involving global politics , that have been mentioned here .
It has been clear for a long time that the minimum number of 1 000 employees is far too high to be able to represent employees sufficiently in the ever-changing company management situation throughout Europe .
We said that new legislation had to be introduced to ensure earlier , more timely provision of information and improve consultation , to reduce the limit on the number of workers to a European works council , to bring in more , different and better-functioning sanctions for the eventuality of the legislation not functioning properly , and to improve the circumstances under which European works councils must function .
In a rapidly changing industrial landscape , in which swift adaptation is required , decision-making bases that depend on reaching unanimity , as is the case for BUSINESSEUROPE , are impractical .
It was because of this decision-making mechanism of the social partners that , in 1994 , politicians like Helmut Kohl and the European Parliament negotiated and pushed through the European Works Council Directive , but even then , provision was made for revision and further adaptation five years down the track .
Now it is 2008 , and the Commission again wants to initiate a negotiation procedure that will inevitably last beyond this legislative term , even though industry is not willing , or is unable , to negotiate owing to its internal decision-making mechanism .
We cannot stop here and the Commission must defend its decision-making powers .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , policies to promote human rights first of all require effective international policy-making powers , which the EU has .
However , when it comes to political will , and at times this is conquered thanks to the European Parliament , which has no international policy-making powers , we are able to make significant progress .
The European External Action Service should , for example , include a centre focusing on the cross-cutting nature of human rights .
In February last year , we approved a far-reaching decision in this matter , and it is therefore alarming that the amendment proposed by the Group of the Greens / European Free Alliance was rejected by the Committee on Foreign Affairs .
The EU 's double standards are a long-standing disgrace .
We expect to see covered the avoidance of environmental damage from deforestation and palm oil extraction and , while recognising the need to keep anti-dumping mechanisms at our disposal , we would much prefer avoiding the need for them by pre-emptive intervention and negotiation .
There are four cotton-growing countries in the EU : Greece , Spain , Bulgaria and , on a very small scale , Portugal .
I worked with members of my committee , whom I thank , with Spanish representatives of the manufacturing and cotton-ginning sectors , and , of course , with my compatriots from Greece .
I am confident that the implementation of the new scheme will help preserve a flourishing cotton-producing sector in the EU and a viable ginning industry .
Lastly , I would like to thank the Commission once again for the constructive way in which it has responded to the needs of the cotton-producing countries .
It is also clear that we need an industry-restructuring plan .
That is the de-coupling system .
Furthermore , this report makes a special effort ; significantly , in the cotton-growing countries I have visited , the producers themselves have assured me that they are keen to produce quality cotton .
Thirdly , there must be proper safeguards in place to ensure the independence of the political decision-making process in Parliament and the Commission .
We have therefore introduced the following elements into the report , which are new features compared with the previous situation : firstly , a relatively wide-ranging definition of what lobbying means , or what it is , namely ' activities carried out with the objective of influencing the policy formulation and decision-making processes of the EU institutions ' .
We have therefore introduced the following elements into the report , which are new features compared with the previous situation : firstly , a relatively wide-ranging definition of what lobbying means , or what it is , namely ' activities carried out with the objective of influencing the policy formulation and decision-making processes of the EU institutions ' .
I am convinced that the report as it stands is a real step forward to improving transparency in the European decision-making process .
The European Commission is convinced that the activities of interest representatives are legitimate and offer valuable input in the decision-making process , but things have to happen in a transparent manner .
But , having said that , we would wish to emphasise the particular openness of this institution as a democratic decision-making body ; further , that lobbyists should be treated equally .
The latest report by NGOs indicates that lobbyists ' influence on the European Commission 's decision-making process has become a serious problem .
Let us take the debate and the decision-making process on the much-discussed and contentious topic of the REACH draft legislation , which aims to improve safe use of chemicals , as an example : if citizens hear that out of 132 proposed amendments , 32 were identical and were accompanied by written recommendations from the chemical industry associations , if citizens hear this , they will of course steadily lose faith in Europe , and they will have the feeling that European policy-making is simply there to do the multinationals ' bidding .
Serious and transparent lobbying activities help to enhance the efficiency of the decision-making process .
We have the correct definition before us : anyone who seeks to influence the policy formulation and decision-making processes of the EU institutions is a lobbyist , and that includes lawyers .
The power of corporations to influence politicians can lead to unequal access to law- and decision-making processes vis-à-vis the ordinary citizen .
Through the White Paper , the European Parliament seeks to adopt measures allowing athletes not be forced by their heavy schedules to resort to performance- and stamina-enhancing substances .
If we take the role of sport seriously , then sport should not just be a profit-generating sector ; we should be seeking to ensure that governments not only put their moral weight behind sport but also much greater financial support than previously .
As a sports leader myself , I am delighted that the document also refers to the autonomy , self-regulating capacity and specificity of sports organisations .
But modern times have made sport into a business , a milieu pervaded by the negative influences that we already encounter almost everywhere : money , corruption , lobbying , racial prejudice and also the new phenomenon of various performance-enhancing drugs , factors that damage the integrity of sport and reduce the positive potential that sport has for bringing up young people or breaking down barriers between peoples and races .
( PL ) Mr President , the White Paper refers to long-standing problems such as doping , and to issues regarding financial disputes between television companies over broadcasting rights , which obviously have negative consequences for both fans and viewers .
I voted for the Friedrich report because it rejected the attack on the unique and wide-ranging role played by the recognised churches in society , and also offers a more nuanced view of the role of lawyers .
It is necessary for the EU and the USA to undertake this search for barrier-reducing initiatives .
However , let us not delude ourselves about our own adherence to democratic standards here in the EU : not as long as someone who voices unpopular truths is written off as a right-wing radical ; not as long as a Treaty which was rejected in referenda in two Member States is pushed through the parliaments in a cosmetically enhanced form ; not as long as the population is allowed to vote repeatedly until the desired outcome is achieved ; and certainly not while there are plans to allow Turkey 's accession to the European Union against the popular will .
For me lobbyists are all those who want to come into the Parliament , Commission or Council to influence the decision-making process , whether employers or employees , consumer groups , producer groups or special interest groups .
For this reason , I believe the Commission and the Parliament representations should fulfil the function of transmitting the opinions and various initiatives of the citizens to the European decision-making institutions .
I agree with the definition of lobbying as all areas of activity carried out with the objective of influencing the policy formulation and decision-making processes of the EU institutions , and that all players falling within that definition should be considered lobbyists and treated in the same way .
I therefore call on the European Commission to come up with a much more far-reaching package of measures .
in writing . - ( PT ) The changes in our globalised world and their consequences on the institutions are undoubtedly resulting in ever-increasing exposure to various social actors .
I believe that these measures are important steps for ensuring greater clarity and legitimacy of the decision-making process of European political decision-makers , particularly as , in the vote , certain amendments were rejected which would only have served to devalue the correct assessment of this activity , in the name of outdated ideological preconceptions .
in writing . - ( PT ) The report contained proposals that we tabled in committee recommending that the specific associations for the different categories of persons involved in sport should also be appropriately represented in the decision-making bodies of international and national federations , and defending preventative measures and health checks for young sportspeople , ensuring that all the rights enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child are respected .
More proposals that we tabled were adopted in plenary , in particular recommendations on : the need to provide ' dual career ' training - sporting and academic - to young sportspeople to ensure the reintegration of professional sportspeople into the labour market at the end of their careers ; the importance of encouraging people to play sports , by guaranteeing access to sport for all and equal opportunities and by investing in the training of teachers and sports coaches as well as in more public sports facilities , with the state having to assume the costs of safety at non-professional competitions organised by non-profit-making bodies ; the importance of giving recognition to sporting successes achieved by women and the fight against discrimination in prizes ; the defence of career opportunities for women in fields linked to the world of sport , including in decision-making posts , and drawing attention to non-professional sport .
More proposals that we tabled were adopted in plenary , in particular recommendations on : the need to provide ' dual career ' training - sporting and academic - to young sportspeople to ensure the reintegration of professional sportspeople into the labour market at the end of their careers ; the importance of encouraging people to play sports , by guaranteeing access to sport for all and equal opportunities and by investing in the training of teachers and sports coaches as well as in more public sports facilities , with the state having to assume the costs of safety at non-professional competitions organised by non-profit-making bodies ; the importance of giving recognition to sporting successes achieved by women and the fight against discrimination in prizes ; the defence of career opportunities for women in fields linked to the world of sport , including in decision-making posts , and drawing attention to non-professional sport .
The White Paper underlines this point and is also an appropriate basis on which to deal with aspects of concern to all countries , such as youth development , anti-doping programmes and anti-discrimination in sport .
( DE ) Mr President , in the debate on the Lisbon Treaty in Germany , some left-wing groups are alleging , and invoking the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in support of their allegation , that the Treaty would reintroduce the death penalty , so that - as they claim - people could be executed for the purpose of quelling an uprising .
This is an issue beyond the decision-making powers of the European Union institutions .
The aim of these extreme right-wing organisations is to support nationalism and racism , and intimidate non-nationals and anyone with left-wing opinions .
The aim of these extreme right-wing organisations is to support nationalism and racism , and intimidate non-nationals and anyone with left-wing opinions .
This , indeed , is the reason why we concluded a first-reading agreement .
on behalf of the ALDE Group . - Mr President , as has already been said , we should thank Mr Nassauer for his work on this first-reading agreement ; also particular thanks should go to the Commission for helping us get there in the end .
As Mr Medina has just said , it has been and will be a noteworthy first-reading agreement .
on behalf of the Verts / ALE Group . - ( IT ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , my Group does not usually like first-reading agreements , because the quality of the law is often compromised in the rush and pressure to reach agreement .
I would add that an impact analysis is being carried out of the needs that will be generated when the simplified treaty comes into force , and that adjustment of the estimates will be possible until the first-reading vote on the budget in the autumn .
In the WTO framework we urgently need better rules designed to outlaw , as far as possible , trade-distorting measures such as export duties .
Nor am I very hopeful when I see what is happening at the present time with regard to Russia 's accession to the WTO , and I would like the Commission to take great care to ensure that no more trade-distorting measures are introduced .
Climate change , written in the language of floods , droughts and record-breaking temperatures , is only making the situation worse , particularly for the world 's poorest .
This will start in the budget year 2011 and go , as an additional Community support , to tobacco-producing regions .
It is important to note that it is earmarked for the tobacco-producing regions .
First of all , let me point out to my colleague in the Committee on Budgets that we are against smoking and are in favour of a large-scale anti-smoking campaign .
Madam President , tobacco growers are being cruelly persecuted , as the anti-smoking campaign is tantamount to an anti-tobacco policy .
Ever-increasing numbers of tobacco growers are unemployed .
That is the message in the television adverts the European Union itself is having shown in all 27 Member States as part of a big anti-smoking campaign .
Part of the subsidies must also not be used for anti-smoking campaigns as a fig leaf , as the Commission wishes .
The Commission also considers that the experience of the EU interventions in Northern Ireland and the peace-building initiatives should indeed be recorded with the objective of passing on good practice to other areas of the world , emerging from conflict or facing similar problems of social integration .
The peace-building aspect of the programme is crucial for the future of Northern Ireland and offers lessons for other EU Member States with a history of conflict .
It also outlines how lessons learned and best practice achieved should be shared with those who are engaged in other international peace-building work .
I am pleased that the rapporteur accepted my amendment , which states that it is vital that peace-building programmes , in particular those involving community and voluntary groups , continue to be financially supported when the PEACE funds come to an end .
The ever-increasing importance attributed to the assessment of Community policies must not result in the creation of superfluous statistical tools .
Why take away the possibility of choice for Member States keeping different dispute-solving mechanisms ?
A new , broad and over-simplifying approach in the form of a framework directive is the wrong response to the legal uncertainties that exist here .
I fully support the call for a comprehensive , wide-ranging directive .
So when I listen to the high-sounding affirmations against discrimination I think of many young Protestant constituents who wanted to join the police , scored higher than Roman Catholic applicants , but who saw those people appointed over their heads because discrimination is statutory , provided for in legislation .
Awareness-raising campaigns , information , action , but not the centralising of legal issues through new EU legislation .
The debate now taking place in Parliament is certainly an important source in the decision-making process .
Suffice to say that we have entered an important decision-making phase and that your debate is part of this decision-making process .
Suffice to say that we have entered an important decision-making phase and that your debate is part of this decision-making process .
In an unprecedented move , many European non-profit-making bodies have spoken in favour of a horizontal directive to provide this protection ; similarly there are several umbrella organisations active in various fields in Brussels such as the European Women 's Lobby , AGE and several others .
According to this article , national minorities need a framework policy standard enabling them to participate effectively in decision-making processes concerning their identity by means of various forms of self-government or autonomy .
Furthermore , it is essential to improve the working conditions of seafarers , guaranteeing jobs , respect for the principle of equal pay for equal work , a reduction in working time and no application of the multi-skilling requirement , and resisting any renewed attempt to liberalise port services at EU level , in particular as regards intra-Community shipping ; the ' sound financial basis ' for the maritime policy should not be built at the expense of the European Fisheries Fund and the common fisheries policy , but should be based on the principle that new priorities will require new financial resources .
The energy of our belief in the potential of this initiative must not be expended on halfway measures or the mere mouthing of generous-sounding ideas which are basically much less ambitious than we would like .
It is important to underline the fact that the financing earmarked for the Community Tobacco Fund will be used to cover all initiatives and education and awareness-raising campaigns on the damage caused by smoking .
Therefore , I hope that the proposal to extend the anti-smoking communication fund is supported by my colleagues , thereby also protecting the interests of the consumer .
For the EU to financially support the growth of tobacco is ridiculous , to use part of this money to support anti-smoking campaigns hypocritical .
Anti-smoking campaigns are useful but can easily be financed in other ways .
By proposing to increase the percentage rate of the deduction for subsidies paid to tobacco growers and releasing additional funding of over EUR 81 million for anti-smoking campaigns , the report manages to satisfy both camps with regard to certain sensitive areas .
in writing . - I voted in favour of the de Brún report on the PEACE Programme which rightly highlights the importance of local empowerment in the peace-building process .
Furthermore , climate change forces us to manage this energy-guzzling market differently : extraction of minerals is to be discouraged , and localised food production and consumption are preferable to the global trade in agricultural products .
To arrive at an effective consumer protection policy , however , the EU must invest a great deal of energy in improving market surveillance , if necessary by stepping up international cooperation , and in education and awareness-raising campaigns for the consumers themselves : until consumers have been persuaded that its products are completely safe , the European market cannot realise its full potential .
I am convinced that the fast-growing road transport sector constitutes one of the foundations of the single market for the free movement of goods and passenger transport , and that the Community 's legal regime needs to be modernised , in order to be made more efficient , to have greater control , and to ensure honest competition .
Neither left-wing nor right-wing governments have managed to bring about any change over recent decades as regards acceptance of the Roma , and this is why I believe it is extremely important to give this issue a regular place on the agenda and in debate in this House .
According to my fact-finding mission , this story is false : the police have no record of this ; there is no investigation concerning this case .
It has been said that the Italian Government is not being charged , but in the speeches that I have heard , there has been frequent mention of populist right-wing policy .
Unfortunately for some , however , it is guilty of not being a left-wing government .
, in writing . - ( RO ) The increase of violence against Romanian immigrants and the Roma population in Italy is the direct result of extremist speeches of fascist type , promoted by the right-wing and extremist right-wing parties in the recently ended electoral campaign in Italy .
in writing . - ( RO ) The recent events in Italy and the xenophobic position of the representatives of right-wing and extreme right-wing parties , which have formed the new government , against the Roma people prove that , unfortunately , speech and actions of a fascist nature are present in 2008 Europe .
Concerning judiciary reform , we are providing legal and technical assistance for Croatia under the institution-building part of the instrument for pre-accession .
They correspond to the Slovenian presidency 's compromise text and they pave the way for a first-reading arrangement .
I say that not just as the usual courtesy , but because the decision has come to plenary this week as a first-reading agreement thanks to much support from my parliamentary colleagues and the help of the Commission in supplying additional text .
This non-binding target has been in place since 2000 and has brought very good results .
It concludes that transparent and fair assessment is not in itself enough to increase the representation of women in decision-making mechanisms .
Our priorities are : reconciling private and professional life ; promoting equal participation of women and men in political and economic decision-making bodies , as well as in science and technology ; and eliminating gender stereotypes in the fields of education , training and culture , and also in the job market .
We must have more women in work , and we must have more women in managerial positions and decision-making bodies .
I have also emphasised the fact that in most European countries there is a still a marked under-representation of women on scientific committees - yet another example of women 's lack of representation in decision-making bodies .
I would like to say a little more about the second , and perhaps more interesting , part of my report , namely the forward-looking solutions and proposals .
If we are to change the situation , we must ensure that there are more women in decision-making bodies , so that efforts can be made from the top down to create a new culture .
The reality today , however , is that that myth unquestionably influences the distribution of employment and the decision-making process associated with the funding of scientific research .
I fully understand that this must have been a very difficult and time-consuming process .
However , I must express my dissatisfaction at the final stage of this process , namely the informal meetings that were held with the Council with a view to reaching the second-reading agreement .
We do not think that the compromise amendments go far enough : we think there should be specific references to the problems caused in Almadén , one of the primary mercury-mining areas in the Community , and we think they should be addressed .
The actual restrictions make sense given mercury 's increasing toxicity , although I would have liked to see more far-reaching restrictions in many areas .
I do not understand why the rapporteur has put at risk a second-reading agreement and the adoption of the regulation in advance of the UNEP discussions in October 2008 , where hopefully we will get a legally binding agreement on this most important area .
Finally , I think we should also support the development of a competitive and clean European ship-recycling industry .
We also support the creation of a ship-dismantling fund .
Secondly , we shall examine the question of developing a competitive shipbreaking and pre-cleaning industry in the EU , without endangering the viability of South Asian breaking yards .
This can be ascribed to a number of factors : the ever-increasing evidence of the known change to the climate , the scientists ' hard work , and an improved dissemination of scientific discoveries .
This symmetry between ever-increasing knowledge and our own flexibility is very important .
I would urge colleagues to support these amendments , as Parliament 's decision-making report should be as comprehensive and as integrated as possible .
Environmentally friendly investment should be promoted , along with clean energy and energy-saving installations .
I am pleased that , in addition to metallic mercury , the ban includes mercury-containing products that cannot be sold or distributed in the European Union , cinnabar ore and mercury compounds .
Few women are members of the decision-making bodies of European higher education institutions , and it is therefore difficult to implement policy on gender equality in these institutions .
A non-binding target quota of at least 40 % women and at least 40 % men on selection panels is one way of ironing out imbalances between the sexes in academic occupations , but applicants ' skills and qualifications must always be paramount .
On the other hand , I wholeheartedly support the recommendation to introduce non-binding targets requiring that both genders be represented by at least 40 % each in scientific committees of various kinds .
No agreement has yet been reached on standards outside the framework of the IMO , basic standards for ship-recycling businesses , reporting obligations ( including inter-state notification ) and enforcement instruments .
The fact that approximately 10 % of the Turkish population capable of work are employed in the countries of the EU is an indicator of the depth of the long-standing relations between Turkey and the EU .
Yes , we must maximise humanitarian aid , considering food and supply drops as a necessary tactic ; but ultimately the restoration of democracy is how this once-thriving country will reclaim its position and put the people 's needs before the junta 's preservation .
The Irrawaddy Delta is Burma 's largest rice-producing region and plays a key role in food production .
The European Union and its Member States reacted at once , and the Commission too took decisive action , sending EUR 2 million in emergency aid to China and assisting relief efforts by dispatching mobile hospital units , drugs , rescue equipment , and rubble-clearing gear .
But if you want to discuss radioactive weapons , why not hold a debate on Mr Litvinenko 's murder and its far-reaching consequences ?
In addition , far-reaching standardisation and policy coordination at Union level should be introduced , linked to the policies of the Member States .
The endangered species of captains of industry has now been replaced by sombre-talking slot machines .
It is not enough to say that we want a forward-looking industry .
It is important that phase-in periods be shortened and that the number of stages in the phase-in process be reduced , that Directors-General be involved in the decision-making process , that our agencies be more closely interlinked , that procedures be transparent and that information , including information to Parliament , be imparted without delay .
A study will be launched this year on the development of an EU harmonised responsibility and cost-sharing scheme to be considered in the context of a review of the currently available financial instruments .
Firstly , I must express some concern about the creation of a legal framework for a cost-sharing scheme with regard to major disease .
The arrangement set out in the proposed Article 7 , whereby Parliament can appoint three non-voting representatives , is inexpedient .
We want the chance to be efficient players in the Board 's decision-making processes and not mere embellishments .
I must address some frank words of criticism to the Council , whose negotiating tactics , following the achievement of consensus in the first round , involved topping up the Council representation to 27 and then initially failing to understand why we in Parliament also wished to be represented on the Board and then , finally , agreeing to three specialised representatives , but as non-voting members .
Those countries which receive aid must be entrusted with greater responsibility for what we might call the problem-stating prerogative in aid work .
Such an intention was that of the authorities in the countries beneficiary of development assistance , namely to bring the decision-making process closer to them , motivating that they know best what their needs are .
Since they are little present in the decision-making documents , their needs are considered minor , and the gender sensitivity of those in power is low , even lower than ours and the attention given to programmes designed for these needs , especially sexual and reproductive rights , has decreased .
Increased demand for food and increased affluence of the inhabitants in fast-growing countries such as India or China have also had an impact on rising food prices .
Fast-rising food prices combined with unemployment could also lead to social instability in these countries .
I can sympathise , however , with the Council when it says it fears that citizens ' rights could be abused when it comes to lodging an appeal in order to slow down projects or establish a level playing field for fund-raising campaigns staged by organisations .
( CS ) Having been a participant in the European Parliament 's fact-finding mission to Darfur and Chad in 2004 , I am a responsible political traveller .
Because Belarus is a dictatorship , the views of citizens who would like a more open and even westward-looking dialogue have no legal way of being heard .
However , this also strengthens the need for the establishment of a peace and reconciliation commission as a confidence-building measure .
author . - ( NL ) Mr President , just like Sudan , which we were discussing earlier this afternoon , Burundi is an ethnically divided land , with long-standing disharmony between the various population groups .
Numerous attempts by the international community , as well as by regional players , have not yet resulted in the much desired long-lasting peace and stability in the area , although it has to be said that much progress has been achieved .
We have to look back in order to evaluate as usual , but we also have to take a forward-looking approach .
Certain others have insisted on a miserly and self-defeating policy that military costs should lie where they fall .
To the ever-increasing security challenges there is one convincing answer : solidarity and enhanced coordination of common foreign and security policies .
Unfortunately , the European Union has neither the decision-making mechanisms nor the means to promote effectively an interventionist policy .
The problem is the unchecked rise in the price of oil , the increasing demand from a number of countries with rapidly growing economies , regional disturbances in oil-producing countries , as well as the fact that renewable sources of energy or natural gas will cover a mere fraction of Europe 's energy needs .
This is , in my view , unwise and hazardous behaviour , because any work on asbestos-containing structures inevitably releases carcinogenic fibres into the atmosphere .
He wants to set up a small online company that will offer photo-framing services .
Among the issues we recognised jointly as being the most important are : strengthening Parliament 's role in the system decision-making process - to increase transparency , legal certainty and democratic control ; to make it easier to establish the country of origin principle - in order to optimise the application of preferences , e.g. through inter-regional cumulation , which will at the same time promote regional cooperation in poorer countries ; equal treatment for all countries as candidates for GSP + , regardless of when they meet the system 's criteria ; and last but not least , the most penetrative , complete and detailed analysis of the effect of the system before its next review for the years 2013-2014 .
Now we are told this money will go on anti-smoking propaganda , not Third World aid .
For these reasons , I believe it is far too early to conclude that there are deficiencies in existing investor protection regimes which call for new cross-cutting legislation .
The question arises once more : does the idea of seeking a guarantee of effective punishment through its far-reaching formalisation take account of the differentiation in the catch potential of the European seas ?
In fact , I am so much in favour of it that I would even advocate protecting them against all destructive practices , including non-fishing practices .
It is an issue which is both symbolic , in that it is the crowning achievement of 40 years of increasingly advanced customs integration , and pragmatic , in that it reflects the need for a more efficient customs organisation in an increasingly complex , fast-moving world which will not wait for us .
After all , a coordinated policy is required in related areas , such as gender-specific prevention strategies , including in the countries these women and girls come from , and also awareness-raising measures and an evaluation of their effectiveness .
Two years ago at the football World Cup in Germany , we initiated a wide-ranging debate here in Parliament and launched a campaign to ensure that the huge wave of forced prostitution the experts initially feared and the corresponding negative spin-offs were able to be prevented thanks to the support of the fans through the opinioned public .
On the first EU anti-trafficking day which was on 18 October 2007 , GLS issued recommendations on victim identification and referral services .
In this way , we will not make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to participate in European events !
Joint investment in infrastructure - such as ports , sea links and energy grids - will bring our peoples together far more effectively than the high-sounding declarations which characterised the Barcelona Process .
By 2009 all food-producing companies must be licensed .
The Commission emphasises that the ECURIE system is an information-sharing system about nuclear incidents , and the Commission considers that a full transparency approach is the most appropriate response in cases of nuclear incidents .
The energy and wealth-producing resources of the region will be plundered .
This policy , together with the anti-farming CAP , aims to promote and increase the profits of the multinational monopolies and attack the incomes of small and medium-sized farmers .
We must have a wide-ranging debate to show that we are listening both to the views expressed by the Irish people and to the views expressed in every other Member State , most of which , if not all of which , wish to proceed with this Treaty .
As a result of the Treaty of Trianon , several thousand Hungarian-speaking settlements ended up outside the country 's borders , and we have a right to call these places by their Hungarian names .
There was , indeed , an urgent need for these , and I look forward confidently to a future in which waste separation and recycling will be practised to an ever-increasing extent throughout Europe .
Wherever there is no water treatment plant , we are putting ever-increasing amounts of poison into our scarce water resources .
We must adopt a wide-ranging approach that considers how to deal with , prevent and recover from disasters , so it is important we ask the Commission to urgently present proposals to prevent disasters in the European Union .
The far-reaching abolishment of customs among the Member States of the European Union is without a doubt one of the most important achievements of the Union .
If we do not achieve these aims , any self-sustaining development will be undermined , and the success of any development cooperation will be put at risk .
( NL ) Mr President , the seriousness of the situation regarding the total lack of firm action against the scourge of the millions of illegal immigrants in Europe has become clear from the hysterical reactions to this Returns Directive on the part of politically correct left-wing opinion-formers .
( SK ) The problems associated with illegally-staying immigrants in the EU call for transparent , clear and just rules .
The Confederal Group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left , a left-wing group , protests against these inhumane practices .
It is too late for a debate on setting the Maastricht criteria for fast-growing economies .
I would also like to point out the fact that , with Slovakia about to become the 16th member of the euro area , it is essential to ensure that an efficient decision-making procedure is put in place for the European Central Bank 's Governing Council .
It will not be just the Slovak Republic but also the European Union as a whole that will benefit from this deeper integration when this very successful and fast-developing economy joins .
Lighting and light-signalling devices on two or three-wheel motor vehicles ( codified version ) (
Lighting and light-signalling devices on wheeled agricultural or forestry tractors ( codified version ) (
The Commission and the Council have agreed to include a statement with the first-reading agreement and I would like to ask the Commissioner , whom I do not see here , but he made the declaration last night during the discussion ; he presented the statement included with the agreement ...
Looking at the matter from the perspective of the Czech Republic , I consider the provision allowing the reclassification of municipal waste incinerators as waste-using facilities to be highly unsatisfactory .
Once again we have succeeded in producing a good and forward-looking directive , a proposal that reinstates the principle of shared responsibility and joint regulation by Member States of water courses that cross national borders ; it is also a proposal that shifts the emphasis from emissions to immission , in other words it shifts the priority from the interests of industry to those of the river biota .
Although I would be intrigued to hear the Members of this House fiercely debating the political significance of lighting and light-signalling devices on wheeled agricultural or forestry tractors , I fully support using the accelerated working method for official codification of legislative texts in such matters .
The EU should be setting firm targets for waste reduction , not producing non-binding aspirations for some far-distant future date .
in writing . - ( CS ) Forward-looking politicians in almost all countries of the world have for years been monitoring the avalanche-style increase in waste generation .
The Group of the Greens / European Free Alliance supported some 30 compromise amendments , but also tabled further-reaching amendments seeking to tighten up the text with regard to hazardous waste , the treatment of bio-waste , ' end-of-waste status ' and the concept of by-products and waste that has ceased to be waste .
As veterinary medicinal products used for the therapeutic treatment and the welfare of animals which are destined for human consumption may give rise to residues of such products in food-producing animals , a risk assessment of the safety limit of residues of all pharmacologically active substances contained in veterinary products needs to be carried out .
In the country where I come from , Romania , after 3 years of right-wing government , 40 % of the Romanian employees live below the poverty threshold because they cannot afford to pay the costs of the minimum consumer basket and of the current bills during winter .
Due to the 2005 introduction of the single tax rate by the right-wing government , an excessive polarization of society has occurred , as well as an increase in poverty .
We also take a critical view of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion , an awareness-raising year which features prominently in the report in question .
With this far-reaching package , the Commission has one objective in mind : the interests of the citizens of the European Union .
A number of amendments proposed by the committee regarding the decision-making powers of the Agency are not compatible with the principle established by the Meroni judgment .
In the course of the debate on this regulation we have become more convinced of the need to go beyond the Commission 's proposals for the Agency to create an agency with more independence and more decision-making powers .
So we proposed new decision-making powers for the Agency , in particular over the development of the technical codes which my colleagues just mentioned , and the investment plans of the TSOs and a greater regulatory and financial independence .
The Agency should be given sufficient decision-making powers .
In these times of ever-increasing energy demand and steadily rising oil prices , leaving the energy market to the mercy of the private energy giants will be disastrous and cartels are likely to be formed .
It must not be forgotten that the ever-increasing profits of the Gulf States , thanks to rapidly rising petroleum prices , are also used to promote Islamic fundamentalism around the world .
Indeed , this has already clearly been put into practice in the Netherlands with good results , including with regard to investment and the well-functioning market in both the gas and the electricity sector .
Given the current conditions in energy security , we absolutely need a well-functioning gas and electricity market in Europe .
All the European citizens must feel part of and close to the European decision-making process .
In view of constantly diminishing fish stocks and rising world demand for fish and shellfish , fish farming is assuming ever-increasing significance .
The exercise that we have carried out in the public consultation process has indicated the need to further develop organic means of production and we are looking at ways and means to ensure that in the communication , in the package which will be coming forward later , there will be specific reference to organic aquaculture : to how we can help promote it further and what sort of measures , such as eco-labelling schemes , can be taken so as to increase consumer awareness that it makes sense to eat organic products .
On a question also connected with all this , it is important to underline that we are looking at the possibility of eco-labelling aquaculture products , as I said before .
We are looking at the parameters and obviously we will be coming back to Parliament later with proposals aimed at introducing or facilitating the introduction of , or establishing minimum criteria for the operation of , voluntary eco-labelling schemes in this regard .
Let me remind you that there was a long-standing request by the USA for approval of four AMT substances for use in decontamination of poultry carcases .
What happens next is part of the decision-making process .
The European poultry-rearing sector has heavily invested in compliance with the Union 's strict regulatory framework that applies to the entire food chain , from production to distribution .
Quite apart from anything else , the matter of the European poultry-rearing sector 's competitiveness is under scrutiny , and we know the Commission 's proposal is an expression of support for US interests in the Transatlantic Economic Council .
Some of these - for example , frontal protection and brake assist systems - have been considered in this report , but one of the most important of all life-saving vehicle specifications is not given attention : this is a speed limiter .
In towns and cities , areas that used to be the domain of pedestrians , children playing , trees , parks , gardens or free-standing tram tracks were converted into space for cars between 1950 and 1980 .
The Commission is now very pleased to see that a first-reading agreement is possible on the first and third omnibus proposals and that good and fair compromise solutions have been reached between the three institutions .
Comitology is justifiable and has an irreplaceable role within the policy-making and law-making process .
Use the passerelle clause to speed up Europe 's problem-solving potential .
on behalf of the Verts / ALE Group . - ( IT ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , we have always said that what the European Union needs is a short constitution , with a charter of binding rights , democratic and transparent decision-making procedures , limited but genuine powers and the requisite economic resources .
In this context , if other Member States decide to exercise their sovereignty and ratify the Lisbon Treaty , or otherwise , no real democrat , no flag-flying democrat who today claims to be Irish , can legitimately object .
It is bizarre that Mr Farage and his right-wing troops here prefer to let a referendum in a foreign country take a decision on behalf of , and in place of , the British sovereign Parliament .
The Council must make the decision-making process accessible to the public and stop deceiving the citizens .
At the same time , the absence of such a dialogue may be an early-warning sign for forthcoming interreligious tensions and conflict .
Let me share with you two experiences from my recent fact-finding missions , which demonstrate that interlocutors do not have to go far in order to conduct a meaningful dialogue .
I believe that this directive substantially improves the rights of irregularly-staying immigrants in many European Union countries .
The Romanian citizens from abroad , who are , most of them , correct and hard-working workers , bring incontestable benefits to the economies of the countries where they work .
Immigrants and irregularly-staying immigrants have not chosen to be in that position : they cannot stay in their homeland because in many cases their basic needs are not covered .
Voting ' no ' today is the easy , headline-grabbing way out , and in this case I am convinced that it will not serve those primarily concerned , namely the migrants themselves , who have to be helped and in some cases reasoned with .
Competition for Gazprom and the oil-producing states will come not from the biogas cooperatives but from the big European companies .
That system is a non-profit-making resource between production and sale , but ownership of it can be misused to impose a high toll on consumers and any competitors .
According to the rapporteur ( from the PPE-DE Group ) , we must go beyond the Commission 's proposals and give this Agency more independence and more decision-making powers .
Removal of bull-bars from vehicles for which they are not necessary or not intended - non-farm-working vehicles , for example , - is another instance of how the EU can be consistent as regards pedestrian-friendly enhancements .
Following the screening of the existing legislation and on-going procedures , the European Commission presented this proposal covering 59 legislative acts to be adapted to the new regulatory procedure with scrutiny .
In its decision of 12 December 2007 , the Conference of Presidents designated the Committee on Legal Affairs as the lead committee to deal with this comitology alignment and the specialised committees as opinion-giving committees .
As regards the substantial profits which , naturally , are also not mentioned , I have appealed to the Commissioner several times and , given that there is apparently no way of introducing control mechanisms , I have asked him at least to ensure , by means of voluntary agreements , that some of these profits are invested in energy-saving measures , the development of alternative energies , and research .
Why not propose EU-coordinated national taxation with part of the revenue going towards supporting renewable sources of energy , clean energy , and energy-saving programmes ?
In your concluding speeches , I expect you to explain to us why you have been quick to reject proposals submitted by right-wing governments , such as that of Mr Sarkozy , and not by left-wing governments .
In your concluding speeches , I expect you to explain to us why you have been quick to reject proposals submitted by right-wing governments , such as that of Mr Sarkozy , and not by left-wing governments .
It underscored the need to foster energy efficiency and alternative energy sources , increase the transparency of oil markets , promote competition in energy markets and enhance dialogue with oil-producing countries .
Further measures are planned to encourage the shift to energy-saving technologies , cushion the socioeconomic impact of the crisis , and facilitate the reprogramming and the disbursement of EFF funds .
It also appears to be urgent to examine once and for all the price-setting mechanism .
A second provision relates to the increase in the EFF aid intensity for fuel-saving equipment .
For example - just to mention one point in addition - it is proposed to double the EFF pre-financing amount paid by the Commission after the adoption of the operational programmes from the current 7 % to 14 % of the total EFF contribution .
As regards the long-standing problem of Siberian overflight fees , the EU will continue to press for signature of the existing agreement .
There is every indication that these troops are not fulfilling a peace-keeping role , and that they are in fact a party in the conflict between Abkhazian separatists and the government of Georgia , as evidenced by the shooting down of a pilotless Georgian aircraft by a Russian one .
If the gas pipeline is to become a reality , clear confidence-building measures are needed from two quarters , from Russia and from Germany .
To this extent , it is a forward-looking directive which could remain valid for the next 50 years .
Fourthly , those Member States which already possess well-functioning road infrastructure safety management systems should be permitted to continue using their existing methods , provided that the requirements of the directive are fulfilled .
This is not simply a face-saving compromise in relation to the version submitted .
Mr President , since being appointed rapporteur for this report in June 2007 , I have opened up a wide-ranging series of discussions with interested parties , including farming organisations , representatives from the lamb-processing sector and consumer organisations .
Mr President , since being appointed rapporteur for this report in June 2007 , I have opened up a wide-ranging series of discussions with interested parties , including farming organisations , representatives from the lamb-processing sector and consumer organisations .
Can I echo the words of Mr Nicholson that it is great to see you here , Commissioner , and I am glad to see that you come from a sheep-keeping area of Italy , so I am sure you will be able to shed light on this whole project .
At the same time , however , I await the next progress report with great curiosity , and I am confident that I , too , with my modest resources , have contributed to the goal of fostering the deployment of life-saving , environmentally sound , traffic-optimising systems on as wide a scale as possible .
In the statement explaining her report , Mrs Gurmai writes , ' Ever-increasing road traffic generates serious social and environmental problems : congestion of road networks and urban areas , damage to the environment and to public health , energy wastage , accidents and , above all , the needless loss of lives ' .
If the potential thus made available is to be exploited to the full , however , awareness-raising campaigns must include brief , clear and comprehensible information on the new intelligent vehicle systems and must reach the largest audience possible .
Their high costs , which even now mean that the safest cars are luxury cars for many people , and the lack of dissemination and awareness-raising campaigns on their benefits prevent greater market penetration .
They are getting a little bit from me , but I wonder if it would be possible for you and your assistants to go back to the relevant authorities and look for a way of ensuring that , in the event of the debate finishing at 11.30 , as it has done this morning , with nothing scheduled until 14.00 , something could be put in to fill the half-hour gap between now and 12 noon , whether it be the urgencies from this afternoon or something else of mind-boggling importance ?
It would not , moreover , be logical to criticise or worse to reject such a technical text , the wide-ranging consultation on which has involved and has been qualitatively informed by so many experts from the Member States .
The report , against the wishes of British Conservatives , also includes a call for legally-binding instruments .
No progress is visible in the resolution of this long-running conflict and the information that is coming out is horrifying .
The reasons for these increases are a never-ending story , and have something to do with policies on industry in Europe .
In comparison with 2008 , payments under expenditure sub-heading 1b have decreased by almost 14 % .
This is a difficult time for the 2009 budget , on which Mrs Haug produced an outstanding report with her new approach to the major issues and her wide-ranging consultation .
For many months the situation in Italy has remained bad , and indeed instead of encouraging real action , the parties are creating hysteria and use the Roma issue for their own short-term , self-serving interests , and it is easy for them to do so since the Roma civil society organisations are too weak to protest against or oppose it .
The second-reading compromise consisted , therefore , of appropriate guarantees given for some herbs and spices that exempted them from limits set out in Annex III .
There are food additives such as konjac , a humectant , and beeswax , an anti-caking agent , which have been used in the preparation of food and drink for centuries .
We have come a long way with the Council and the Commission by clearing up contentious areas , excluding as many ambiguities as possible and reaching the second-reading agreement .
However , as we have heard , other confidence-building measures will also be needed if this project is to become the strong uniting bond between the EU and Russia that we hope .
Their petition resulted in a public hearing and in a European Parliament report , which highlighted the need to include other countries , and the EU in particular , in the decision-making process .
They really have to go for more ownership in their state-building process , and this comes , of course , with its own responsibility and with a vision for a stable country for the future .
Many of my left-wing colleagues would possibly say that this applies to the occupation too .
Help given to Afghanistan should involve short-term and long-term measures made possible by far-reaching improvements to the system of government .
He has succeeded in reaching a compromise with the Member States at Council and , although it may not be as ambitious as some might have hoped for ( perhaps that is the sign of a good compromise ) , it does deliver the framework for including the fastest-growing transport sector in the EU ETS from 2012 .
First of all , I emphasize the agreement for establishing a reserve of free allowances for fast-growing airlines .
rapporteur . - Mr President , due to transport difficulties in reaching Strasbourg , I was not in a position last night to thank colleagues , particularly fellow rapporteurs Åsa Westlund and Mojca Drčar Murko , and indeed my colleague Pilar Ayuso , who stood in for me in the debate , and all our respective assistants and staff for their cooperation over the last 12 months , in reaching a very satisfactory second-reading agreement on this important package on food measures .
The House services tell me that we do in fact have a problem with the electronic vote-counting procedure , and thus I would ask you to be patient for a few seconds until the problem has been solved .
Their petition resulted in a public hearing and in a European Parliament report , which highlighted the need to include other countries , and the EU in particular , in the decision-making process .
I supported this report because I agree with the rapporteur that it is scandalous that a cross-border project of such a far-reaching nature should be treated as a bilateral issue between Russia and Germany .
In the case of failure , the Western countries might become reluctant to engage in future conflict prevention and resolution interventions and in peace-keeping operations .
This particularly applies to smaller Member States with relatively insubstantial power-generating undertakings .
Certain emerging countries , notably oil-exporting countries , have large surpluses .
Does a political agreement refer to a first-reading agreement or to preparations for an early second-reading agreement under the French Presidency ?
Does a political agreement refer to a first-reading agreement or to preparations for an early second-reading agreement under the French Presidency ?
My support also extends to the proposals on the social dimension , envisaged for specific groups , and to the proposals on improving education , training and awareness-raising campaigns , which could contribute to changing the behaviour of citizens .
In addition the Governing Council is strongly concerned that price and wage-setting behaviour could add to inflationary pressure through broadly-based second-round effects .
For instance , the question of transparency of the decision-making process is a signal in that direction , an attempt to find out more and more , and also to step up influence on the decision-making process .
For instance , the question of transparency of the decision-making process is a signal in that direction , an attempt to find out more and more , and also to step up influence on the decision-making process .
The ECB has perfectly managed the turmoil in world financial markets , provided liquidity in the amount of EUR 95 billion and carried out further fine-tuning operations to stabilise the very short-term interest rates .
The committee has also anticipated the proposed extension of the Equalities Directives and has proposed two measures particularly relating to people with disabilities - one a cross-cutting measure to ensure that Member States take the needs of people with particular disabilities into account when they are communicating with them and , secondly , in terms of providing for payment for the expenses of someone to accompany a disabled person who needs urgent medical treatment abroad .
When the ITS Group was formed in January 2007 , he said quite openly that the Regulation would be amended specifically in order to block the formation of right-wing groups in future .
We therefore reaffirm the need for a break with this right-wing policy and the false autonomy of the ECB , which only serves to hide the fact that it is at the service of big capital .
The rapporteur is also right to note that different levels of economic growth , different indicators of growth or different levels of maturity in EU economies could create problems for the ECB 's decision-making process .
For this reason I believe the suggestion to undertake a review of possibilities as regards making changes to the decision-making process to be a sensible one .
Finally , we should not prevent those countries which want to progress further from being impeded by the more Eurosceptic , nationalist or sovereignty-seeking countries .
I only want to make one cross-cutting point of a general nature .
I will just repeat that the tobacco reform was agreed by all tobacco-producing countries in 2004 , so therefore I see no reason to re-open this discussion .
The Committee on Civil Liberties , Justice and Home Affairs adopted my report last November and I am sorry I am not able to present a first-reading agreement today , but I believe that is partly because the Council has been rather slow , but also because it does not appear willing to respond with a real movement towards the points that we are making .
On outsourcing , I have no problems with the general concept , in so far as it improves services for visa applicants and as long as it takes place under conditions ensuring the integrity of the visa-issuing process , that it is a last resort and that the service provider operates in the building under diplomatic protection , ensuring consular officials are present to supervise the staff of the service provider .
Further measures are planned to encourage the shift to energy-saving technologies , cushion the socioeconomic impact of the crisis , and facilitate the reprogramming and the disbursement of EFF funds .
We also welcome your own announcement that other , wider-ranging proposals are in the pipeline such as those intended to improve marketing and also the price-setting mechanism , with a consequent increase in the de minimis regime , which , as you said , depends on the outcome of an economic impact study .
We also welcome your own announcement that other , wider-ranging proposals are in the pipeline such as those intended to improve marketing and also the price-setting mechanism , with a consequent increase in the de minimis regime , which , as you said , depends on the outcome of an economic impact study .
The Roma issue is neither a right-wing nor a left-wing issue but simply a serious and unsolved problem requiring urgent action , and that has been put off for too long .
Nevertheless , I call attention to the fact that a mere resolution will not solve the basic problem , since this legislative act is of a non-binding nature .
in writing . - The treatment of Roma people in Italy should be a wake up call to the fact that minorities in Europe are being treated in an inhuman , discriminatory and degrading manner by a populist right-wing government .
Presidents , ladies and gentlemen , while we are trying to equip ourselves with a better decision-making tool , our problems are building up .
We cannot complain about petrol being too expensive , yet at the same time allow the car industry to build gas-guzzling vehicles .
One last word , Mr President : this weekend , in front of your European guests - the President of Parliament , the President of the Commission and in front of 2 000 French right-wing business executives - you concluded your speech with words which were interpreted by the trade union movement in its entirety as an incitement - and a very unwise one - by stating that now , when there is a strike , the French people no longer even notice .
That would not be reasonable , it would not be responsible and it would not be worthy of a self-respecting statesman .
Regarding immigration , you addressed the left , but you will also recognise that left-wing governments have had ideas that have enabled you to prepare a less closed and more progressive package , which I think Parliament can improve further , but we need to work relentlessly on this issue .
We should therefore support a solution that finally gives the Kashmiris some breathing space , finally creates political freedom and provides a sensible compromise solution , for this is one of the longest-running conflicts of all .
Current proposals for boilers will require manufacturers to apply an energy-rating label to the boiler , as well as heating controls , pumps and some renewables .
The peaceful Pride Festival in Budapest this summer was brutally attacked by extreme right-wing groups , and stones and eggs filled with acid were thrown at the participants .
Transnistria should have an international peace-keeping force ; we should offer Moldova a plan for closer partnership and allow Moldovans to enter the European Union without visas .
But I also expect their help in coming up with a decision-making process with Qualified Majority Voting ( QMV ) , because otherwise we are stuck .
This may , however , cause huge congestion at the EU 's external borders , mainly at inland border-crossing points during holiday periods or on public holidays .
This is what we need : either this , or a well-functioning mechanism , one of solidarity , which permits immigrants arriving in a country bearing such a burden to proceed to another EU country .
That is precisely the reason why the ALDE Group has been arguing all this time for a compulsory burden-sharing mechanism alongside the Dublin system , not only in terms of financial and material resources but also in terms of putting in manpower on the ground .
It is ready to support confidence-building measures and the development of regional cooperation .
Thirdly , the so-called Russian peace-keeping forces must be replaced with international peace-keepers , respecting Georgia 's territorial integrity .
That is why this has been a lengthy and wide-ranging debate , but it has also been a good debate .
Nevertheless , we need to continue to provide assistance and help the reconstruction of the affected regions in Georgia , support confidence-building measures , as well as the development of regional cooperation .
A year ago the Committee on Civil Liberties , Justice and Home Affairs went on a fact-finding visit to the Mediterranean .
As I have already mentioned , the Commission will in all likelihood shorten the present academic draft and it will probably be necessary to amend the remaining text in order to make it useful for policy-making purposes .
The Commission has offered both of these radical options for consideration to the ECOFIN Council , but so far Member States have not shown the political will to take such far-reaching measures .
The income gap has become an ever-widening chasm .
Join the world market of an ever-growing population .
Call a halt to the never-ending stream of directives and regulations which only hinder business .
Bombastic talk that produces only ambiguous and non-binding texts seriously undermines the credibility of the work we do .
It is true that right-wing governments have contributed much to the demolition of the European social model .
If we also forget that the surest foundation for social policy is economic growth , we may lose ourselves in fine-sounding slogans that have no connection with reality and may also , like the provisions on non-discrimination , breach the principles of subsidiarity and common sense .
( PT ) Mr President , this so-called social package merely sows illusions regarding the seriousness of the social inequalities affecting the 80 million or so people who live in poverty , including the ever-increasing millions of poorly paid workers with insecure jobs and the millions of unemployed , while the scandalous profits of economic and financial groups and multinational relocations continue .
There will be no discrimination in the EU over democracy and subsidiarity , no jingoistic verbiage about who is in power , or about right- or left-wing affiliations , as has been heard here .
Europe needs a much more go-getting agenda in order for it to be close to the public and I hope that at the next elections , and this is not an entirely rhetorical matter , the Europeans who are seeking other policies give European politicians a new , more social face .
But if a doctor is on call in a hospital , for instance , and a patient with a life-threatening condition could arrive at any moment , that cannot be regarded as a rest period , which would be possible under the Council 's compromise .
Attempting to limit early school-leaving combats poverty .
in writing . - ( RO ) I voted in favour of this report because it aims at reducing the decision-making time for granting European financing though the Culture Programme 2007-2013 .
in writing . - I welcome the proposals to cut bureaucracy in the decision-making process for the Europe for Citizens programme .
There are ever-increasing cases in which dangerous criminals use the freedom of movement and the elimination of borders within the European Union to avoid judgment .
The amendment voted today in the European Parliament is to the advantage of the EU citizens and third-country nationals , who do not need a visa because , in this way , the jams at the land border-crossing points would significantly decrease .
Regrettably , the more the European Parliament , an institution which proclaims itself to be the temple of democracy , gains decision-making powers , the more fundamental freedoms - particularly the freedom of research , opinion and expression - are flouted .
I also cannot identify with the call to introduce European burden-sharing mechanisms , since I am of the view that the existing mechanisms for the financial compensation of the States most affected by asylum applications are quite sufficient and there is no reason to interfere with the sovereignty of Member States in the field of asylum by means of further regulation .
This is self-evident given the ever-increasing migration flows to countries that , for the most part , are located on the southern periphery of the EU .
For that reason the results of the current studies by specialised bodies must be taken into account in the political decision-making process on the distribution of the frequency spectrum .
Here too , we have adopted various amendments , including one I tabled in the Committee on Industry , Research and Energy , which went into a little more detail on the possible form of a risk-sharing system if companies make the requisite investments and competitors are to have access to the networks right from the start .
In Sweden , for example , we have had a wide-ranging debate about file sharing .
rapporteur . - Madam President , I find myself in the uncharacteristic position of having the last word in this major debate so I will perhaps make a few broad-ranging remarks at the end .
in writing . - ( NL ) The new telecoms law that we are discussing today has far-reaching consequences for all of us Internet and telecom users .
Furthermore , according to many Member States , the interpretation made by the Court of Justice gave rise to fundamental problems and had a far-reaching impact on the financing and organisation of public health care and emergency services .
The general participation of women in the decision-making process is subject to obvious distortions in Romania , as well , which is the only country where not a single woman holds the position of Minister and , in Parliament , women represent only 9 % .
Both arms of the legislature agreed to reach a first-reading agreement as soon as possible , in time before the automatic expiry of the current regulation .
The measures I propose refer to national , self-regulating bodies which already exist and which represent producers , advertisers and consumers .
Both masculinity and femininity , the dual form of the human somatic constitution , are personality-forming elements .
( SK ) Sometimes we are not even aware that the consequences of advertising policy have far-reaching effects on the retention of stereotypes , which means an almost insurmountable obstacle to the changes needed to achieve the defined targets , including the Lisbon targets .
I myself thought that the final result was watered down and lobbied to pieces by industry , but at least it is there , the world 's most wide-ranging chemicals legislation .
Vice-President of the Commission . - ( DE ) Madam President , ladies and gentlemen , this vigorous , lively debate has shown that we are dealing with an important and far-reaching subject .
( IT ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , a few days ago on a small island near Sardinia , without violence and in the interests of environmental conservation , Sardinian separatists declared a new republic with the poetic , Polynesian-sounding name of the ' Republic of Maluventu ' .
We have asked that the Russian and Georgian authorities provide information as to the location of cluster bombs dropped during hostilities , so as to hasten de-mining activities .
Amid the web of conflict and rivalry between the EU , the United States and Russia , the European Parliament 's resolution is almost identical to the US policy because it takes a one-sided stance against Russia in order to gain a better negotiating position for a share of Eurasia 's markets and wealth-generating resources .
More than ever we need to attend to the double dimension of the subject : on the one hand , ensuring equality in all policy areas ( gender mainstreaming ) and , on the other hand , introducing targeted measures to curb discrimination against women , including awareness-raising campaigns , the exchange of best practice , dialogue with citizens and public-private partnership initiatives .
Member States have self-regulating bodies like the Advertising Council , through which the national advertising industries gradually create and adjust acceptable models for advertising activities .
I believe it is essential to have more cohesion between Member States in the future , both during the decision-making process as regards sanctions and in relation to their correct application .
It is questionable whether they are legitimate as an all-purpose , non-differentiating instrument and unclear when and how their effectiveness is in fact guaranteed .
In September 2004 , this House made a decision to send a fact-finding mission to Vojvodina , the northern part of Serbia , which is not only a human rights matter but also a solidarity matter since there are very many Hungarians , and also Romanians and Germans , living there who ended up there through the storms of history .
Most of all , however , some of those responsible for this freedom-killing legislation sit in this Parliament .
The principle of voluntary choice should therefore guide this programme of action , which seeks to provide universal access to a full range of safe and reliable family-planning methods - which , of course , is the priority - and to reproductive health services which are not against the law .
The Commission has , for example , received a complaint relating to courses to be purchased on an English-speaking website , which were then delivered in another language .
I have written to all the relevant Ministers asking them for their support , because we are at a really crucial stage as regards having an equally well-performing consumer market all over Europe .
My request to the Commissioner is that she look to the resources that she has available to do even more of these missions in the future , if possible , because I also agree that they are an extremely valuable , attention-raising measure .
These schools then subsidised free education for the non-working poor .
( SV ) Mr Kamall calls for the far-reaching opening up of the service markets in developing countries .
Mr President , in thanking the rapporteur for his report , I recognise his efforts to try and get a first-reading agreement on this important dossier .
A first-reading deal would indeed have been possible if the Council had accepted the Committee on Transport 's position .
Madam President , paragraph 44 of this report calls on Member States to employ a trans-border approach to the use of existing capacities when co-financing port infrastructure .
I would therefore like to urge my fellow Members to support this option and reject the amendments of many left-wing Members aimed at undermining and diminishing the importance of the Greek programme for sea ports .
Many European ports deal with differences between the storage and loading-unloading capacities , deficient organization of terminals , insufficient routes and maritime or land access , long waiting time , insufficient security for trucks , trains and barges , low productivity and excessive , slow and expensive formalities .
Therefore , let us talk about practical sound-proofing measures on the railways , on the trans-European networks and on the dual use of the rail network .
( RO ) The international " BioInitiative report ” on electromagnetic fields and their effects on human health raises concerns and finds that the existing limit values as regards the protection against non-ionizing radiations are out-of-date and immediate actions are required in order to reduce people 's exposure to the radiations generated by the equipment used by the mobile telephone operators .
We need to continue the research in this field and the fields related to mental health , such as stress and depression , in order to determine if they can be truly associated with non-ionising radiations .
A first-reading position was adopted by the European Parliament on 14 November 2007 .
The first-reading agreement was struck in June with Council and Commission , after comprehensive debate and support in my - Transport - Committee .
However , this is a long-standing custom in the country .
- ( NL ) Mr President , fragile democratic regimes in Africa which are overthrown by a military coup : it is a never-ending story , a saga that goes on and on .
There was no law at all in Soviet Russia , simply the will of a single all-knowing individual and of his department , namely the KGB .
Quite apart from the medical consequences of albinism in the tropics , including a high risk of terrible skin cancers , the long-suffering albino people are at best traditionally considered as freaks or curiosities , and at worst they are murdered to satisfy demand for traditional medicine that is more akin to medieval sorcery .
The current intolerance could be countered and the number of attacks against albinos reduced in future by penalising those guilty of murder whilst at the same time undertaking fundamental awareness-raising work within Tanzanian society .
Indeed , as a small state , Ireland is well aware that our economic situation is peripheral to the policy-making concerns of the ECB and that , therefore , the positions often adopted by the Bank are not always in the bests needs or interests of the Irish economy .
I believe it is a good opportunity for us in this Chamber to commit to enhancing all measures to combat this scourge which infringes the rights of so many people and in particular to combat the traffickers , and poverty , by providing improvements to increase educational and employment opportunities and by implementing awareness-raising strategies in the countries of destination with the aim of making the issue the topic of public debate .
Therefore I wish to express the wariness caused by the ever-increasing number of GMO authorisations , and when I do this I speak on behalf of the majority of the citizens of the European Union .
Instead , the Commission continues authorising an ever-increasing number of GMOs to enter the EU agricultural market .
It is essential to create a code of best practice as regards methods for re-establishing balance in the present management structure of companies .
Credit-rating agencies then gave respectability to these high-risk products by assigning low credit-default risk to them .
Mr Rasmussen has flagged in his report many of the most pressing areas : conflicts of interest in credit-rating agencies , the need for improvement in the valuation of illiquid assets and the misalignment of incentives in the ' originate and distribute ' model .
Over the past year I have kept Members informed , both in plenary and particularly the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs , of the work we have been doing on improving capital requirements in banks , as well as my ideas for regulating credit-rating agencies .
We have also been looking at strengthening the supervision of cross-banking groups .
In the next few weeks I will be proposing to the Commission two separate regulatory measures to deal with these and other issues : firstly , an amendment to the Capital Requirements Directive and , secondly , a regulation on credit-rating agencies .
No-one can provide a clear definition or common characteristics , other than rapid profit , for these schemes , which have ever-increasing control within the global economy , schemes created by the plutocracy and exploitable by it alone , with the help of specialist market organisations .
Recovery from this crisis depends on creating a supervisory system capable of inspiring and re-establishing confidence .
In this critical situation the European Central Bank 's false independence must also be abandoned in order to ensure a change in monetary and financial policy objectives , and far-reaching measures must be taken to combat stock market speculation .
We are now seeing the collapse of the international non-banking system .
Why should we not think about what was said previously in the Katiforis report : that credit-rating agencies must only provide ratings and all other activities should be prohibited ; that transparency is important , not for the markets , but for citizens ?
For a number of months - for nearly a year now - I have signalled that I am going to do something in the area of credit-rating agencies .
Credit-rating agencies are referred to in this particular in the Rasmussen report .
Last year we made six fact-finding visits to Germany , Spain , Ireland , Poland , France and Cyprus , each of which resulted in a report .
on behalf of the ALDE Group . - Mr President , first of all I want to say well done to the rapporteur , Mr Hammerstein , on his very comprehensive and wide-ranging report .
I daresay this is a ground-breaking report because it is not the same one we present every year ; it tries to highlight certain cases that the committee has attended to .
In addition , in 2007 as many as 6 fact-finding visits were organised to Germany , Spain , Ireland , Poland , France and Cyprus , as a result of which recommendations were prepared for all interested parties .
It helps us to view culture as a creative part of society , not as a consumer , not as ' something , sometimes ' , but as a permanent part of the economy-creating process .
rapporteur . - ( HU ) It has long been humanity 's experience that a decision-making authority , and particularly the authorities in implementation situations , cannot go without parliamentary monitoring .
With the first-reading agreement reached on the so-called ' second omnibus ' , an additional set of legislative instruments will be brought in line to the revised comitology decision .
Cultural diversity , as well as the ever-increasing need for integration of the migrant population and of minorities , along with the importance of providing quality information to the active population , are the priority reasons for creating a Media Freedom Charter .
Instead , there is a clear tendency towards a radical right-wing slant and bottomless manipulation .
The other aspect concerns the activities of statutory television broadcasting that exclusively serves the interests of the present right-wing government and is so tendentious in news coverage and journalism that the term statutory does not apply to it any longer .
Doha should lead to an action-oriented forward-looking outcome that facilitates an effective implementation of the Monterrey Consensus in all its dimensions , including mobilising domestic resources , foreign direct investment for development , international trade , external debt of developing countries , financial and technical cooperation and global governance .
The report also stresses that delays or incorrect enforcement of European regulations affects consumers and enterprises and requires Member States to enhance their efforts to promote SOLVIT ( a problem-solving network used by Member States in order to solve any problems that may arise due to the inappropriate enforcement of internal market legislation , without recourse to the courts ) .
Providing highly-qualified teachers to give Roma children the challenges found in mainstream schools is of huge relevance to the education future teachers receive in teacher-training colleges .
The text we will be voting on today is a particularly sensitive one because talking about combating terrorism spells danger for the rights of European citizens , whether this danger comes from the terrorists themselves or from the freedom-destroying potential of the measures adopted to combat the problem .
The advantages of the Internet appreciated by law-abiding citizens are unfortunately exploited for criminal purposes .
Under the Lisbon Treaty a European public prosecutor is planned , with wide-ranging powers to investigate and prosecute those charged with offences against the Union 's interest - aided by Europol , whose officials have immunity from prosecution for anything that they do or anything that they say in the course of their duties .
All this is being done in the name of protecting us from terrorism ; but what is actually happening , of course , is the never-ending mission of the European Union to increase and entrench its own power and dominion in every area of our national lives .
In addition , last week 's disgraceful hearing in Rome , at which a few extreme left-wing Members of this House accused the Italian carabinieri of torturing Roma children , was an insult to the Italian people and did not befit this House .
The war on terrorism must nevertheless not become an all-encompassing incantation .
Who needs to know whether you purchase the right-leaning Daily Telegraph or the left-leaning Libération ?
These were right-wing extremists , and their behaviour in public was such as to jeopardise public safety .
Any attempt at embarrassing individuals or any form of attempted blackmail - be it political , financial or otherwise - should be a particular offence and should be strongly condemned by all right-thinking people .
( RO ) As a representative of Romanian citizens , I believe that it is extremely important that the European Parliament takes part in the decision-making process concerning the protection of personal data collected in the context of law enforcement .
It never ceases to amaze me how the same MEPs who , in a Stalinist way , call for bans on public speaking or even prison sentences or the loss of parliamentary immunity for right-wing dissidents , get cold feet when it comes to common-or-garden data processing - in the context of the fight against terrorism , mark you .
in writing . - Augustín Díaz de Mera García Consuegra 's report on the status of staff regarding privileges and immunities seeks to clarify pre-existing guidelines on the issue .
Another important aspect is dialogue and a two-way exchange of experience between businesses and universities , so higher education institutes should strengthen cooperation with the private sector with a view to discovering new and effective mechanisms for co-financing student mobility .
Much of the economic success of recent decades in Europe , the United States and in fast-growing economies is precisely because of the agility of the financial markets .
Well-functioning markets depend on the respect of transparency across the board , and this report is a step in the right direction .
Recent months have shown what problems can arise in a complex and fast-moving market if there is no possibility of understanding and following advanced products as well .
No less than 65 petitions concerned Ireland in the year 2007 , and the country has been visited by a Committee fact-finding mission due to the breach of EU Directives concerning water and the environment .
The fact-finding visits by committee representatives are very helpful to its work .
The well-functioning secretariat does a lot to increase the effectiveness of its work .
However , the members of the VVD do not agree with the provisions of the report that anticipate the decision-making procedure in respect of the CAP ' health check ' , particularly the plea for a 20 % national reserve .
I am convinced that mountainous regions require new means of protecting their territory against flooding with the emphasis on flood prevention , whilst farmers and foresters could support anti-flooding measures by means of the direct area-related payments which they receive under the common agricultural policy .
Ladies and gentlemen , there would be no point in creating an authority that is independent from the influences of political power if it is not provided with the necessary resources and decision-making capacities , but what is even more serious is to invest it with powers if , when the moment of truth comes , it is only left with one option : compulsory accommodation of the vessel , even if it does not have insurance or guarantees .
The still incomplete investigation into the accident involving the tanker Prestige shows where such a buck-passing dispersal of responsibility for an investigation leads .
I fully back Parliament 's attempts to maintain the principle of independence in the decision-making process for accommodating a vessel in distress in a place of refuge .
An information-gathering mission , consisting of European experts from the Military Staff of the European Union and the Secretariat-General of the Council , is currently in the region , refining a strategic plan .
In particular , there are some large-scale joint missions , financed by both donors and beneficiaries , so that co-financing mechanisms are in place .
effective and unambiguous decision-making processes ;
Even if bad governance and corruption in timber-producing countries plays a significant role , we cannot ignore demand , as has also been said many times , because that is the most important factor .
Illegal wood production causes erosion , undermines the subsistence of local communities and constitutes a loss of EUR 10-15 billion a year for wood-producing countries .
Yet there is something new in the report in the way it brings in the Conference of Presidents as an intermediary decision-making body between the President and the plenary .
This solution is not problematic in itself , yet it would be good to take this opportunity to stress that the European Parliament must never lose sight of the traditional parliamentary principle of concentrating all final decision-making power in the plenary .
After all , I am not demanding a large amount of left-wing criticism or self-criticism , but what we are demanding , time and again , as Martin Schulz recently made very clear , is the strengthening of the social dimension and scrutiny of all Commission projects in terms of their social impacts .
Despite being aware that there is clear opposition and resistance by workers , consumers and public-service users to privatisation and liberalisation , to unfair health and social security reforms , and to the ever-increasing distribution of income to economic and financial groups , thus worsening social inequalities , the European Commission is insisting on maintaining and continuing with the same instruments and policies that led to this situation , in particular the Stability Pact and its irrational criteria , the liberal Lisbon Strategy and the false independence of the European Central Bank .
I am sure that this will enable all of you , through contacts with your Indian partners , to convince them that the EU is the most successful and forward-looking phenomenon in international governance of modern times and that we have much to offer each other .
India has a fast-growing economy , which is having an impact on the demand for energy .
In today 's fast-changing world the Union is called upon to promote and defend rights and inalienable principles such as an individual 's right to freedom and tolerance , and a nation 's right to self-determination .
Mr President , I , as a long-standing rapporteur on this issue within this Parliament , welcome the EU-India Summit , which is due to take place very soon .
Furthermore , by reverting to our first-reading positions , we have refused to follow the Council in abandoning two important proposals on flag state control and shipowners ' civil liability , for which we received no common positions .
The PPE-DE Group withdrew its support for this amendment after the left-wing groups ( PSE , Verts / ALE , GUE / NGL ) linked their support for the del Castillo Vera report ( creation of the European Electronic Communications Market Authority ) to this issue .
The report 's vision for a Board of European Regulators that acts as a bridge between both the Commission and National Regulatory Authorities is one that adequately accounts for the complexity of the market and its ever-expanding nature .
As you know , this includes concrete initiatives on enhanced transparency for investors , markets and regulators ; revised capital requirements for banking groups , and clarification of the role of credit-rating agencies .
Work is progressing at the Commission , and the Commission will soon come forward with proposals on a revision to the Capital Requirements Directive - next week - and new legislation on credit-rating agencies , I hope , before the end of October .
Even if now , the oil price is USD 106 or USD 110 per barrel , which is much lower than it was some time ago , at USD 145 , the daily volatility still makes the situation relatively difficult to predict , and it is definitely making a major , wide-ranging impact and deserves a response .
I would emphasise the two proposals made by Prime Minister Berlusconi in recent weeks : a coming-together of all energy-purchasing countries and hence the setting of a maximum price ; and the launch of a major plan for nuclear power stations .
Can the Commission explain why it is not working for consumers in Northern Ireland and why , instead of stability and price savings , we have seen a massive 52 % hike since January of this year and an ever-widening gap with prices prevailing in the rest of the United Kingdom , where in the same period the price rise was 29 % ?
I believe that the problem of high energy prices could also be brought under control by an adequate energy policy , intended to offer incentives to energy efficiency , renewable energy sources and environment-sparing products .
We should stress that households have an energy-saving potential of nearly 30 % , which means that one third of the energy currently consumed by apartment buildings can be saved .
That is why , whenever I can , I urge the Commission and the Council to provide financial support to improve district-heating systems in order to make it socially acceptable and environmentally efficient .
Other relevant factors include , for instance , growth-enhancing expenditure on research and development .
The Commission is currently working to ensure that this road map is delivered on time , including concrete initiatives on enhancing transparency for investors , markets and regulators , revised capital requirements for banks and the regulation of credit-rating agencies .
It is also considering legislation on credit-rating agencies .
The main topic of the strategy is linguistic diversity and the best way of using and developing it in order to foster intercultural dialogue , to stimulate the competitiveness of European companies , and to improve the skills and work-finding abilities of European citizens .
During these months of study , however , I have realised that all too often this aspect is underestimated by public opinion , which indulges in wholly justified alarmism and awareness-raising campaigns about anorexia but also takes an equally unjustified consolatory approach towards overweight , with slogans such as ' big is beautiful ' , and so on .
The White Paper also contains preventive measures in the form of far-reaching recommendations for food producers , consumers , restaurant owners , food outlet chains and the advertising industry .
So may I congratulate the rapporteur on his wide-ranging report and his very difficult task , picking up from his predecessor , and dealing with so many shadows with so many ideas of their own .
For us in the Socialist Group the key messages - and there are some very positive points here - are that we need good food-labelling regulation and we want to see front-of-pack labelling , if possible using colour coding , included in the forthcoming discussions .
I am thinking here of two hard-hitting proposals that we have made in the report : the first is to prevent discrimination and the stigmatisation of obese people by officially recognising obesity as a chronic disease , as has been done for example by the WHO and Portugal ; the second is to ensure that all schoolchildren have access to physical exercise and sport - two hours a week would be the minimum requirement in my opinion - along with better funding of school canteens so that fresh products are put on the children 's menu , and here I welcome the Commission 's initiative for the free distribution of fruit at school , as referred to by the Commissioner .
Let us take the White Paper on nutrition , overweight and obesity-related health issues as an opinion-forming tool which provides food for thought for society , not as an opportunity to impose even more conditions and create new legislation !
Third , the proposal contains an exemption from VAT on cost-sharing arrangements , including those which operate across borders .
The final result , encompassing a specific exemption from VAT for businesses involved in cost-sharing arrangements , will increase certainty for the industry and budgetary security for the Member States , prevent competition distortions and improve competitiveness for the banks and insurers without increasing the costs to consumers .
They are totally independent but they have de facto become the accounts-standard-setting body for the globe because IFRS , which came out of the IASB , has now become the de facto worldwide accountancy standard .
I would just make that particular comment in passing , because there are people among the IASB trustees who are not too anxious to accommodate some of the more far-reaching governance arrangements that we are proposing for them .
Member of the Commission . - Mr President , I have already had the opportunity to discuss this proposal at length with various stakeholders and players in the decision-making process .
All too often we look at health-care-acquired infections or cancer-screening guidelines ; the answer is on our doorstep , and it is about time that we started learning from each other more effectively .
The concrete measures proposed in the Social Package to meet these challenges , such as the preparation of a communiqué concerning meeting the needs of the ageing population , or the preparation of a green book as regards the issue of employees in the healthcare sector , give us some hope that we shall not remain only at the wish-making stage .
In cases of life-saving treatment or treatment of a serious illness , no other obstacles matter .
This is needed for people to be able to function in today 's fast-moving world , where people travel hundreds of kilometres to attend a specific meeting .
When you look at the difficulties to be resolved by this text alone , you can see that it was unlikely that proposing a wider-ranging text would have been the best way of making progress in terms of resolving certain very practical problems , such as reimbursing healthcare for patients moving to another European country for the purpose of study , work or simply holidays .
An ever-increasing concentration of ownership among media companies that are competing in this sector has led to a situation where information that is valuable from the social and cultural points of view is difficult to find in the maze of easily accessible and standardised news for everyone .
While discussing the issue of energy , one cannot but emphasise the need , first of all , to intensify the work being done on increasing the proportion of energy obtained from renewable sources , including nuclear energy , secondly , the introduction of new coal technologies and thirdly , we must introduce a wide-reaching programme to improve energy efficiency .
And despite complaining that the ' Union is creating de facto police and judicial cooperation with third countries , notably the US , by means of bilateral agreements on a range of issues , thereby circumventing the formal democratic decision-making procedures and Parliamentary scrutiny ' , the EP does not call it into question .
Cultural diversity , as well as the ever-increasing need for integration of the migrant population and of minorities , along with the importance of providing quality information to the active population , are the priority reasons for creating a Media Freedom Charter .
A wide-spanning media system is essential for nurturing democracy and free thought .
An ever-increasing concentration of ownership among media companies that are competing in this sector has led to a situation where information that is valuable from the social and cultural points of view is difficult to find in the maze of easily accessible and standardised news for everyone .
In today 's world , the mass media have an enormous and ever-increasing influence .
However , we voted for the amendment advocating reduced VAT on energy-saving goods and services , since that is one of many possible ways of stimulating the switch to more energy-efficient alternatives .
I know that Parliament has already signalled its openness to fast-tracking proposals , and I hope that we can work together on this very important and sensitive issue , because financial stability is a public good .
It is obvious that we need more efficiency in the decision-making process of Europe .
The measures are the correct ones - and you are right , they must be coordinated throughout Europe - because we need to establish confidence and regain trust , because we need to conquer fear , otherwise this fear will become a self-fulfilling prophecy and merely accelerate the collapse that we are trying to avoid .
In relation to the CRD proposals , the measures for the credit-rating agencies : it is not quite clear to me what measures you are going to present on the recommendation on executive pay .
Turning now to your report on the ' Lamfalussy follow-up and future structure of supervision ' , I would like to congratulate the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee - in particular Mrs van den Burg and Mr Dăianu - for their excellent work in producing such a thought-provoking and wide-ranging report .
Let me mention here some of our most important ongoing initiatives , such as the Solvency II proposal , the proposals for revisions to the Capital Requirements Directive , which was adopted by the college of Commissioners last week , and the legislative proposal on credit-rating agencies , due shortly .
Soon we will also go forward with a proposal on credit-rating agencies .
The proposal will aim to introduce a legally binding authorisation and robust external oversight regime , whereby European regulators will have to supervise the policies and procedures followed by the credit-rating agencies .
First , the mandatory colleges for all cross-border financial institutions , with legally binding rules on how they operate , how they share information and what kind of decision-making procedures they use .
Maybe on this issue , the Commission could give a little bit more room for manoeuvre to Level 3 Committees , so that they would not only be consultative but also decision-making bodies in the future .
Mrs Kauppi alluded to it : the wide-ranging establishment of colleges to supervise cross-border financial conglomerates ; the strengthening of the Level 3 committees .
So this is about the next generation of supervision , rather than a fix for the current crisis - though we think it will help prevent any similar occurrence , and now there should be more willingness at Member State level to have formal integrated decision-making structures .
I also have the impression , like Mrs Kauppi , that in the Commission you would only prefer to have these supervisors as advisors and not really have an independent role for them to play , for instance in the international connection , in connection with the IASB standard-setting board or the FSF .
Obtaining a Schengen visa is a complex and time-consuming process .
Transparency in the decision-making process is especially needed when European democracy is questioned .
We need an open decision-making process respecting the overriding public interest without infringing institutions ' or the individual 's rights to confidentiality .
It clearly shows that the legislative process in the EU must be under the democratic scrutiny of the people and that protecting the institutions in the decision-making process is of secondary importance .
If we are going to be honest , there is a problem with the type of documents : meeting documents or documents that accompany the decision-making process .
These are all documents that are vital for learning about the decision-making process .
In fact , the joint resolution in front of us reflects very faithfully the declaration of the Global Parliamentary Assembly in September , which expresses very serious concerns about the very little development content that remains in the Doha negotiations and is very critical of its ever more exclusive deal-making procedures .
Fourthly , Europe really ought to try to become a global leader in water-saving technology .
I would emphasise in particular the water-pricing principle also included in the report .
I fully support the movement towards a water-efficient and water-saving economy and of course the full implementation of the Water Framework Directive , which I was very involved in a few years ago when my former Austrian colleague Marilies Flemming was the rapporteur .
The water-saving potential in Europe is huge : 33 % in households and 43 % in agriculture .
The rule on the symbols of the European Union is at present part of the acquis communautaire , of European legislation : the flag with twelve stars and a blue background , the anthem based on the Ode to Joy , the long-standing meetings of the heads of State and Government , and even the headquarters of the European Parliament , Strasbourg , and of course we hold our sessions in Strasbourg .
Thus , in order to increase the popular support for and commitment to the European Union in the forthcoming years , it is imperative to maintain and adjust these symbolic elements , so as to bind the European institutions and decision-making processes to acknowledgement of the ' demos ' factor .
Nonetheless , I should like to draw attention to the danger threatening my fellow citizens because of the Polish Government 's current plans to transform all healthcare entities into commercial profit-making companies .
A safe living environment ( preventing domestic violence and substance abuse ) , reducing stress-causing factors in school and at home , prevention and awareness-raising should be of the highest priority .
Through appropriate awareness-raising measures for citizens , the intention is to adapt and harmonise standards .
Sustained and far-reaching efforts to combat poverty and social exclusion are needed .
It aims to establish a framework for strengthening the wide-ranging communication elements by encompassing them within a broader structure launched by the White Paper on a European communication policy , which advocates a two-way street , characterised by the active participation of citizens and Plan D ( ' Plan D for democracy , dialogue and debate ' ) .
The EU enlargements in 2004 and 2007 are having far-reaching effects .
Nevertheless , the report is characterised by interventionist ambitions and far-reaching proposals on ways for the EU to control developments in a number of policy areas in Ukraine , including energy policy , financial policy , telecommunications , water , tourism and education .
For example , the European Parliament calls on Belarus to abolish the early-voting procedure .
In addition , a specific culture of responsible water saving should be developed through an active awareness-raising policy .
It has also shown how the directive has attracted a genuinely strong consensus , which has emerged from the far-reaching debates and the agreement and support of the social partners .
I think that to reach a first-reading agreement is really a good confirmation of this support .
As a Member of the European Parliament and a long-serving teacher of higher education , I have often witnessed the benefits of contacts between institutions of higher education and between students .
They will then pave the way for a successful first-reading agreement with the Council .
For prevention purposes , suitable education and wide-ranging information are required .
On Amendment 18 , for legal reasons I cannot accept the deletion of the reference to the decision-making procedure .
Moreover , the fishing industry and the relevant Regional Advisory Councils in the Member States should be more involved in the evaluation and decision-making process so that account is taken of special regional characteristics and needs in the future development and extension of the management mechanisms .
Mr President , the constant refrain of the Commission - and , indeed , of this report - is ever-declining cod stocks .
Year on year , we drive down TACs and push up the discards as a result , and so perpetuate this self-defeating eco-crazy policy .
The Alliance should put forward concrete initiatives on this front , such as the creation of green belts around towns in the global South in order to promote food-producing agriculture .
I hope that Parliament and all other EU decision-making forums , mindful of our post-WWII desire for lasting peace and cooperation , will strive for an equitable solution to ensure that we are members of a long-lasting , prosperous , mutually supportive and cohesive community .
Today I have heard social democratic speaking : Nicolas Sarkozy , long-standing leader of the UMP , conservative French President , speaks like a veritable European socialist .
New emissions targets for the car industry will not be in force until 2012 : the emission-sharing proposals apply only after 2013 , long after the global economy is forecast to pick up .
On the other hand , where I would disagree is with the idea that , for the last 30 years , only right-wing governments have erred , and left-wing governments have always been right : that would be a rewriting of a painful history on both sides .
On the other hand , where I would disagree is with the idea that , for the last 30 years , only right-wing governments have erred , and left-wing governments have always been right : that would be a rewriting of a painful history on both sides .
On the institutional question , first of all - I think that President Sarkozy has already explained this very clearly , but allow me to say this on behalf of the Commission - we are not conflating respect for well-established decision-making procedures , in particular codecision and the central role played by the European Parliament , with the need for a strong consensus among the Member States on something as important as the climate and energy package .
I am aware of your campaign , your campaign against corruption and for a fully-functioning democracy .
Last but not least , I welcome the decision to strengthen the EU 's relations with its eastern neighbours , in this case the Republic of Moldova , through signing a new far-reaching cooperation agreement .
An agreement has been rushed through which we ultimately welcome , but we cannot forget the Commission 's excessive passivity when a modicum of prudent and forward-looking vision was needed .
This is quite problematic , as it entails far-reaching amendments to criminal proceedings in the Member States .
These negative consequences can affect all Member States , regardless of whether they are large or small , long-standing Members or new entrants .
The report is full of well-meaning statements , but essentially lacks concrete proposals for how the administration of the structural policies is to be improved with a view to rectifying the huge shortcomings that exist with regard to the control of the economic aspects of the structural policies .
In order to legitimise the decision-making process and counterbalance any political influence as part of the public consultations during the preparatory phase of the operational programmes , it is extremely important for local and regional authorities as well as civil society to be involved .
If we want the EU to be capable of responding to the needs for which a European decision-making level is justified , we should consistently and wisely avoid flooding Europe with legislative projects and powers that can be effectively established at national level .
The true problem is their proliferation and the fact that they are spreading throughout Europe , their seats being handed out like vote-catching presents .
The benefits of this educational programme are evident - not only will the EU benefit from attracting intelligent , high-flying students from third countries , which will improve EU research and innovation , but our own students will also gain improved language skills and increase their employability , both at home and abroad .
If you are a member of the scouts , you have to be a law-abiding member of the scouts .
So if we take into account that the boom , with an assured inflow of orders and ever-increasing prices , created favourable conditions for conducting a far-reaching restructuring in Poland , then that chance has not been utilised by Poland .
So if we take into account that the boom , with an assured inflow of orders and ever-increasing prices , created favourable conditions for conducting a far-reaching restructuring in Poland , then that chance has not been utilised by Poland .
Public authorities shall therefore have the opportunity in the future to set an example and act as a catalyst for the automobile sector so that the latter develops and invests in the production of environmental vehicles with ever-decreasing CO2 and pollutant emissions .
After much debate over its first report , the Commission submitted a revised proposal last January , the aim of which is to contribute to making the EU a highly energy-efficient and low-greenhouse-gas-emitting economy through the promotion of clean and energy-efficient vehicles .
Might I suggest that this directive might be an important addition to the non-trading agenda of Member States to reduce CO2 emissions in our general thrust in the climate and energy package ?
Let us hope that the motor industry will take this as a stimulus to intensify research which will lead to the faster introduction of new , environmentally friendly and energy-saving technologies .
Therefore , could the Commission outline what events could lead to the storing of this data , how it would be protected , and whether ( and how ) it could be ruled today that this possibility would not be used , so that it could be ruled out completely , thereby greatly alleviating many of the concerns of law-abiding passengers ?
This will also mean that this solution is in keeping with our better law-making agenda .
The main objective was to protect consumers from abuses committed by certain ' holiday clubs ' , without harming the development of legitimate and job-creating businesses such as those known as ' timeshares ' .
Sun-loving northerners wish to thank both the Commission and the rapporteur and shadow rapporteurs .
In order to develop appropriate cultural policies , we need to build cultural statistics and indicators to enlighten decision makers and the decision-making process and to monitor and assess the implementation of those policies .
Mr President , I want to mention Amendment 3 , where we criticised a number of Commissioners for having downplayed long-standing requests by the European Parliament to propose legislation for better supervision of the financial market .
Ten young people were later murdered by this gun-toting lunatic in a school in the Finnish town of Kauhajoki .
The directive passed by the European Parliament on the pretext of safeguarding the so-called ' equal rights ' of workers allows slave-trading offices misleadingly called ' temporary employment agencies ' to open and trade .
In reality , it releases the real employer from any obligation towards workers who are considered to be employees of the phantom slave-trading company , which only employs staff on paper .
The alleged protection of workers ' rights proves to be protection for the slave-trading companies , legitimisation of the unaccountability of capital and savage exploitation of the working class .
It means taking a multi-level approach involving parents , schools , telecoms operators , ISPs , NGOs and self-regulating bodies .
This is a time- and money-saving matter which will satisfy both manufacturers and consumers in Ireland .
This is just a never-ending illustration of true pro-European schizophrenia .
If these allow less beneficial foreign collective labour agreements or less beneficial foreign legislation to apply , an increasing number of employers will start to go for those cost-saving options , and the income of the employees will fall dramatically .
I think it is time to carry out a more ambitious and forward-looking review of the long-term budget .
rapporteur . - ( DE ) Mr President , Commissioner , Mr President-in-Office of the Council , ladies and gentlemen , I read recently that Bosnia is a well-meaning state , but a state that is not working .
Decision-making levels must be reduced to the absolute minimum and brought as close to the citizens as possible , if the requirements of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement and for accession to the EU are to be met .
If Bosnia and Herzegovina is to become a member of the European Union one day , it is in the interests of both entities and of all three groups to work together to create a united and properly-functioning state .
( DE ) Mr President , Mr President-in-Office of the Council , Commissioner , the conclusion of the Association Agreement is , without doubt , a good thing for both sides - for the European Union and for Bosnia and Herzegovina - but only under certain conditions ; namely if it is ratified quickly and , most importantly , if the implementation of reforms - especially of the administration in Bosnia and Herzegovina and of the political decision-making processes - takes hold quickly .
The on-going reduction in drug-related infectious diseases and drug-related deaths , on the one hand , and the EU-wide implementation of harm-reduction measures , on the other , suggest a clear correlation with the Action Plans , even though such a link is notoriously hard to prove beyond any reasonable doubt .
I would ask you to clarify for me , as far as possible , what specific actions are proposed with regard to cooperation between the Member States and between the police and judicial authorities of the Member States , on the one hand , and between the Member States and the producing countries , in particular , the cocaine-producing countries , on the other .
This was verified by the three fact-finding missions on the spot : one in 2004 ; two in 2006 .
In the matters referred to by the honourable Member , the Commission has been informed by OLAF that it is aware of on-going cases in Germany and Greece but that , until now , OLAF 's direct assistance in matters involving Siemens in Germany and / or Greece in respect of structural funds has not been requested by the judicial authorities of either Member State .
So there are on-going changes every day , practically .
We have some on-going cases but these are all in national judiciaries .
What is important is not so much the text that we use but the sentiment that we are trying to express in our resolution - solidarity with Ukraine on the 75th anniversary of the massacres perpetrated on its long-suffering people .
I hope now that we can agree this directive at its second-reading stage .
If implemented , this harmonisation of airport charges is likely to be as successful as the harmonisation that brought us the common agricultural policy , the common fisheries policy and the ever-increasing burden of EU regulation on businesses , which costs the UK at least GBP 26 billion per annum .
With regard to pre-financing airport investments , Member States should refer to ICAO policies or establish their own safeguards .
That involves substantial improvement as regards increasing the transparency of decision-making processes and the functioning of the European Union 's administration .
in writing . - ( SV ) We Swedish Social Democrats regret that the EU should be funding tobacco producers , at the same time as investing large amounts of money in public health campaigns and anti-smoking measures in the EU .
For example , it is mad for the EU to be funding tobacco producers , at the same time as investing large amounts of money in public health campaigns and anti-smoking measures in the EU .
At the same time , there is a need to consider the whole picture , and the good news is the ever-increasing awareness that significantly larger resources need to be invested in what really is joint expenditure - in this case , on climate .
in writing . - ( PL ) The directive on airport charges will put an end to the long-standing conflict and debate between airports and airlines concerning the cost and quality of services .
This new imperialist operation will mean even greater plundering of the wealth-producing resources in the area , more exploitation of the people in order to safeguard monopoly profits and new dangers of opportunist wars on the battleground of the competing imperialists .
How can we accept , for example , the attitude of the Portuguese Government - my country , unfortunately , for which I am ashamed - which is bowing down before the Venezuelan Government , which has a boot-licking policy and which has recently become the European receiving room for the tyrants ?
Mr Chávez 's new Left-Wing doctrine is known as Christian Socialism but it has little in common with the social teachings of the Church .
Meanwhile , in Kosovo , the Roma are still living in life-threatening settlements tainted by lead pollution , and in Hungary attacks with Molotov cocktails or firearms have been perpetrated in nine settlements against the houses of Roma families .
- ( SK ) In October last year I made a written declaration warning about the emergence of an extreme right-wing organisation called the Hungarian Guard .
I underline how important the role of the European parties is in carefully selecting its partners , because when you exchange quality for quantity , the first victims are the EPP 's credibility , the stability of the national political systems and , of course , the beliefs of the ordinary right-wing voters .
The current crisis is also an opportunity for far-reaching reform of the European monetary and financial architecture .
We do not need academics and experts to realise that discrimination is above all the result of left-wing materialist ideology , the lack of implementation of ethical principles , lack of personal development , selfishness , greed , taking advantage of the weak and poor , and not just in terms of salaries , but in terms of the growing practice in the European Union , which goes down even to the poorest and weakest states , of discrimination against Catholics and persons with views differing from those imposed by the political correctness which is required here .
This means that our task is clearly to help in ensuring that the existing legislation contributes towards solving this long-standing problem in such a way that the labour market becomes a fairer place .
Such awareness-raising campaigns should be tailored to the specific needs of the audience and are most efficient when run at the national or even local level .
Secondly , it also suggests the use of resources from the risk-sharing finance facility to support CCS .
I acknowledge that the present Article 69 is much too narrow and too restrictive to be used in a forward-looking way , so we are now opening up possibilities in the new Article 68 .
( LT ) First of all , I would like to thank all those who worked so hard on what are complicated , important and , in my opinion , the most important law-making projects of the year , especially rapporteur Mr Capoulas Santos .
This is ridiculous : farmers should be allowed to get on and farm and produce the necessary food that is required for an ever-increasing population .
It is expected that the growing worldwide demand for dairy products - which will be up to a 35 % increase by 2020 - will lead to some intensification of Irish dairy production , making it most likely that our suckler herd will be affected if a reduction in our cattle numbers has to be considered to meet EU climate change targets under the effort-sharing proposal .
The way forward in Europe is for Parliament to be fully involved in the decision-making process , and that will only be finally achieved by having codecision .
They face ever-rising taxes and ever-rising prices .
They face ever-rising taxes and ever-rising prices .
It has been shown that this programme is effective , with long-standing results across the age range 4-12 and these results stand up regardless of gender , school size and socioeconomic factors .
The promotion of healthy eating models and the consumption of healthier , non-fattening products in childhood and in youth are an investment in the health of future generations .
Given the ( potential ) expiry on 31 December 2008 of the double-checking surveillance system for exports of certain categories of textile and clothing products from China , we need to establish mechanisms limiting imports from any country to the EU .
By calling for greater market efficiency instead of greater competition between lenders , this report continues to pay lip service to the myth of the self-regulating market .
This scheme should be on the list of main priorities in terms of decision-making factors so that it can be implemented as soon as possible .
Equal representation in the European Commission and European Parliament may be our political signal for a better representation of women in all decision-making bodies and , implicitly , for eliminating these pay gaps .
Working women should not forget that , on the pretext of applying the euro-unifying legislation on gender equality , the EU and the centre-left and centre-right governments of the Member States have proceeded to abolish their vested rights , such as the ban on night work for women .
It is a very wide-ranging response and we shall present other proposals , some of which , indeed , we have already presented .
You are fast-tracking marketing licences .
You are issuing approvals , meekly following the advice of the European Food Safety Authority , whose opinion is itself based on toxicity studies conducted by bio-engineering companies .
Why do you not say quite clearly that the ever-widening gap between rich and poor is no longer acceptable ?
The return of national governments to the role of market regulators has to be welcomed , but the unfortunate thing is that this often means the return of the self-seeking nation state .
Reserve should turn into thought-provoking policy .
It is not bankers and right-wing politicians who are losing .
Not only do we need rapid and confidence-building macro-solutions , but we need to prevent a similar financial crisis from occurring again .
France has traditionally had a long-standing connection with Christians in the Near and Middle East .
I also support , however , the opinion of the European Parliament that there is no need to create a special process allowing the Commission to revise this limit outside the usual decision-making procedures .
The stability of Hungary will certainly not be achieved by curbing social expenditure alone , social expenditure which is actually not too high anyway ; this will only help the anti-European right-wing populists .
Amongst the main advances of this summit , we should especially note the commitment of the states in the region to send , if necessary , peace-keeping forces to the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo and , if necessary , to appoint a high-level team of facilitators , consisting of the former president of Nigeria , Mr Obasanjo , and the former president of Tanzania , Mr Mkapa .
At its extraordinary summit in Johannesburg , on 10 November , the SADC also stated its readiness , if need be , to send a peace-keeping force to the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo .
Following such a discussion , and with Europe 's heart-warming efforts that are aimed at reconciliation , there has to be a future for North and South Kivu and , indeed , for the whole of Congo .
Now , this swift about turn by the European Union regarding the possibility of sending a peace-keeping force to the region sends the wrong signal , as usual , because our preference is for focusing on diplomacy , as if diplomacy were enough to convince an ugly customer like Laurent Nkunda to withdraw .
This is a sector which , all told , employs 12 million people in Europe and has a far-reaching impact stretching into other sectors .
Therefore , the European Union should not be surprised by the ever-worsening maelstrom of problems since it has worked industriously to bring about the downfall of this once blooming sector through a flood of regulations , for instance , that have been rained down on the motor industry .
The industry is not on a drip , nor does it need to be , because in its technical position and its competitiveness , it is quite clearly the best-performing motor industry in the world .
For a while now , the EU has been trying to come up with a comprehensive package on migration , including measures to tackle illegal migration as well as measures to push Europe 's forward-looking strategy on legal migration .
The Presidency wishes to draw the attention of all Members to the on-going negotiations on cluster munitions within the context of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons ( CCW ) which is the only convention that the largest military powers - the United States , Russia , China and India , or countries such as Georgia - agree to participate in , which is not the case for the Oslo convention .
Finally , the financial support supplied by the Commission for awareness-raising campaigns should be stressed .
Member of the Commission . - To be honest , this is quite a far-reaching question .
By 2030 , the ratio of working to non-working population will be 1 : 2 .
The sustainability of the pension system , aligned to both demographic and economic developments and based on risk-avoiding investment strategies in the long term , should be accorded high priority .
However , it involves the significant risk of the report becoming a long wish list and catalogue of requirements for all right-thinking people .
By the end of 2030 , the ratio of working to non-working population will probably reach 2 : 1 .
We need the on-going research and development , and we need care because fewer people are actually dying of AIDS ; more people are living with it .
Like Mrs McGuinness , I do not come from a wine-growing area , so I will be very careful what I say - thank you Mrs Lulling .
For wine-growing farmers , it will be a bonus at the end of the day .
First , we need to develop research into the parasites , diseases and viruses decimating these hard-working insects .
They include eligibility of expenses , pre-financing settlement and the payment of incorrect amounts .
I would like to thank all of you for your wide-ranging support for this work , because this support will represent a success for this Parliament and it is also necessary for its success .
We are part of the codecision-making procedure and we will require the EU Commission to take part in the procedure as well .
As a compromise , a non-binding recommendation was adopted .
There was not a crowd - nor was Mrs Hennicot here - yesterday evening towards midnight , which is understandable , to follow this excellent and very substantial debate aimed at encouraging the Commission to step up its efforts in the face of this very worrying crisis in the bee-keeping sector .
in writing . - ( EL ) The report reveals the full extent of the deeply anti-grassroots aspirations of the EU and euro-unifying capital in terms of abolishing social insurance systems .
recourse by workers to private insurance ( ' individualisation ' in the euro-unifying terminology ) , the so-called ' third pillar ' .
The working class must reply to the increasingly savage attack by euro-unifying capital with a counter-attack , by setting up an anti-monopoly alliance which will claim its grassroots power and lay the foundations for the satisfaction of grassroots needs and grassroots prosperity .
However , with the adoption of the PPE and PSE amendments , I fear that Europe 's forward-looking strategy on legal migration will soon vanish into thin air .
in writing . - ( RO ) The demographic forecasts indicating that the EU 's working population is going to shrink by 48 million by 2050 and that the dependency ratio is going to double , reaching 51 % by 2050 highlights the fact to us that , in the future , ever-increasing numbers of immigrants with a variety of skills and qualifications will be attracted to some Member States to counterbalance these negative trends .
However , we cannot support Amendment 6 , which rejects all indirect military use , as a large number of applications , such as satellite navigation and communications services , are also used in peace-keeping efforts , which in some cases are military in nature .
First , this is not a judicial civil matter , as some ill-informed or ill-informing Members of this House might propose : it is clearly a political matter ; it is a continuation of the policy of successive Israeli Governments to kick Palestinians out of their homes and lands and to absorb by force - or by using legalistic tricks - as much of the Occupied Territories as possible into the state of Israel .
In a situation of this kind , the European Parliament can do nothing more than to support to the best of its ability the declared intention of the Israeli state and the peace-loving section of the Palestinian population , which I cannot guess the extent of , in order to come to a peaceful and consensual solution .
At a time when confidence-building measures are urgently needed to support the negotiation process started in Annapolis , such measures are extremely unhelpful .
We have to demonstrate unity , the same decision-making capacity we exhibited last October when a coordinated response had to be found to the risk of the entire financial sector collapsing .
We will sign off and , while I fully support the objective of first-reading agreement , please be warned that it will not be at any price .
With regard to supervision in Europe , concrete progress has already been reported over the last few months : greater convergence between the practices of national supervisory systems so that each implements the documents in an equivalent manner ; strengthening the supervisory systems of cross-border groups by establishing supervisory boards ; and more efficient operation of European supervisory committees , with the introduction of qualified majority voting for their meetings to improve decision-making procedures .
In addition to the European endeavour ( through the EU 's budget plus the European Investment Bank , and here the Ministers did actually agree to increase the capital , as the Commission had proposed , by the end of 2009 ) , we also asked the Member States to make an effort amounting to EUR 170 billion in 2009 by adopting what they considered to be the most appropriate demand-boosting measures in their current circumstances .
Regulation : we hear a lot , especially from our leftward-leaning friends , that we must have more and more regulation , destroy the hedge funds and private equity , credit rating agencies and so forth .
( PL ) Mr President , a long-lasting conflict provides an opportunity to reflect on and analyse its causes and aggressive behaviours , and to seek solutions .
Therefore , I think that the commitment which the Minister has made here this evening , like so many other commitments undertaken by so many others in other circumstances , needs to be converted , as we approach the end of the French Presidency , into a far-reaching stimulus , especially next week , so that the code of conduct can at least be ratified by all Member States .
on behalf of UEN Group . - ( PL ) Mr President , the European Union is attempting to establish a facility which will enable it to offer rapid assistance to poor and non-developing countries , to ensure that their populations survive if food prices rise .
The ever-increasing scale of biofuel production has contributed towards raising the price of foodstuffs , which has in turn had a large effect upon the people of the world .
The price of foodstuffs has skyrocketed on the world market because an ever-increasing area of arable land is now being put aside to grow oil plants to be used as raw material in the production of biofuel ( for example , to produce 50 litres of fuel , 200 kilograms of corn is needed , on which a Zambian or Mexican child could live for a whole year ) .
The positive opinion expressed by Parliament in the draft report on the cutting of deadlines and the rapid progress of the work conducted on this issue within the Council bode well for the more far-reaching proposals that the Commission will adopt in the near future .
Reform of VAT is a long-term and time-consuming process .
Since women constitute half the population , they must be given a decision-making role in the same proportion .
At the same time , hard-working women must be given the opportunity to balance professional life with family commitments .
I am very proud of the fact that the motion which I am introducing here today reflects a wide-ranging compromise , which I believe makes the European Parliament 's message a clear , unambiguous and strong one .
The participation of women in the decision-making process is essential to achieving a substantial change in their status in society and will have concrete significance for future improvements .
However , this is not a question of imposing our will but of being persuasive and making the necessary efforts to ensure that balanced , forward-looking decisions can be made .
As such , in Bali , we promised the rest of the world we would come up with a far-reaching climate change package , and we should not disappoint them .
If we are to secure an international agreement , if we are to lock China in - which gets 80 % of its electricity from coal - we have got to deal with the problem of big power stations , big fossil-fuel , carbon dioxide-generating power stations .
- ( FR ) Mr President , it is rare for the European Parliament to deal with subjects that have such a far-reaching impact on the peoples of Europe , and even of the world , as the energy and climate change package does .
( DA ) Mr President , it has been fascinating to be involved in negotiating the climate package , first in the committee and then in the trilogue negotiations in which I am taking part in the capacity of shadow rapporteur on the effort-sharing directive .
Therefore it is crucial to reach a first-reading agreement on the climate change package , not only to meet those expectations but to go to Copenhagen with a unified position .
The first two points mean that we need a realistic , viable and hence effective international agreement that includes the large CO2-emitting countries , which are also therefore large coal consumers .
Madam President , climate change can no longer be viewed rigidly in environmental terms , but must instead be mainstreamed as a cross-cutting concept through varying policy areas , including development and human rights .
Since a radical VAT reform is both a long term and a time-consuming project , the report proposes using conventional means .
Any kind of improved cooperation is undoubtedly of benefit , as long as it does not degenerate to the effect that the EU usurps the decision-making powers of the Member States for itself .
Clear wordings in the present report also recommend far-reaching interference in the internal affairs of the Balkan States , a development to which the June List is highly opposed .
Mr President , long live the French-speaking world , long live regional languages , long live linguistic diversity !
It is very true that in the Council the right-wing governments have adopted the same position , regardless of whether their geographical location is in the east or west .
Unlike the previous dossier , this is a first reading , but we provisionally have informal agreement in trialogue , which will mean that there is first-reading agreement , assuming colleagues support it in the vote tomorrow .
Mr President , I welcome the first-reading agreement on the recasting of the European Works Council , which was due in no small way to the skill of our shadow rapporteur , Mr Cremers .
It naturally requires an improvement in information and consultation as tools for creating a conflict-reducing business culture .
Though the amendments voted through committee were not what he wanted - in fact he wanted no amendments - he nevertheless defended the committee position in the negotiations which led to this first-reading agreement .
My view is that we would have achieved a first-reading agreement even if we had not gone through this particular process .
Well-functioning market surveillance is a very important element in the directive .
I repeat : children are among the most vulnerable people in society , and their fast-developing organisms are fragile .
I welcome the directive , but the Confederal Group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left would have liked to have gone further , namely by introducing a complete ban on allergy-inducing substances , carcinogens , mutagens and substances toxic to reproduction .
This is changing now as a result of the cutting back of the barriers to transfer and the harmonisation and simplification of the rules , something that will , of course , benefit market-driving countries .
My country has a highly competitive defence industry and we have good credibility in an international context with regard to peace-keeping operations and efforts to promote democracy .
ERDF , ESF , Cohesion Fund ( revenue-generating projects ) ( debate )
- The next item is the report by Mr Arnaoutakis , on behalf of the Committee on Regional Development , on the proposal for a Council Regulation ( EC ) amending Regulation ( EC ) 1083 / 2006 laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund , the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund in respect of certain revenue-generating projects ( 13874 / 2008 - C6-0387 / 2008 - .
rapporteur . - ( EL ) Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , the new financial management rules in the general Regulation ( EC ) No 1083 / 2006 include provisions for financing contributions from the funds and , in particular , on revenue-generating projects ( Article 55 ) , projects which , as there is a clear danger of their being over-financed , need special treatment in order to take account of revenue when calculating the maximum percentage of Community financing .
During the new programming period , according to the Commission 's proposal , which the Council has accepted , a more precise and stringent approach is applied when calculating Community financing of revenue-generating projects .
Under Article 55 , for the 2007-2013 period , a revenue-generating project means any operation involving an investment in infrastructure the use of which is subject to charges borne directly by users or any operation involving the sale or rent of land or buildings or any other provision of services against payment .
An important difference therefore , in the new period is that , according to the definition in paragraph [ ... ] , the provisions of Article 55 apply to a broad spectrum of projects which qualify as revenue-generating projects and not just to projects to invest in infrastructure which generates large net revenue , as was the case in the 2000-2006 period .
This technical amendment will simplify the management of revenue-generating projects where possible , by limiting the administrative burden in accordance with the principle of proportionality .
Member of the Commission . - ( CS ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , on 15 November the Commission adopted the draft revision of Article 55 of the general regulation on Structural Funds , which applies to the conditions for taking account of revenue-generating projects within the framework of the cohesion policy programme .
The current wording of paragraph 5 , referring to a sum of EUR 200 thousand as the maximum monitoring procedure cost , is replaced with a text whereby the provisions concerning revenue-generating projects will only be applied to operations funded by the European Regional Development Fund or the Cohesion Fund if their cost does not exceed EUR 1 million .
In other words , the funds must not only be spent , but spent for genuine , revenue-generating investments .
The streamlining of revenue-generating regulations has a twofold benefit .
One of the effects of the amendment would be to exclude revenue-generating projects funded by the Cohesion Fund from the scope of Article 55 .
- ( CS ) The bill under discussion deals with the problem of revenue-generating projects .
The latter , represented as always by the various Directorates-General which such a wide-ranging report involves , constantly and closely monitored our work and made a major effort to ensure a successful outcome .
We also recommend , in this area , that media-teaching modules be constantly updated so as also to ensure continuing education in this field .
ERDF , ESF , Cohesion Fund ( revenue-generating projects ) (
( DE ) Mr President , in constantly repeating the dogma of the self-regulating market , the EU has not only omitted to set clear limits , lay down rules and carry out oversight , but also continuously failed to free itself from the financial markets of the United States .
There is probably one issue that would unite all of us in this Chamber here this morning , and that is that first-reading agreements do justice neither to respecting parliamentary procedure nor to the substance of the legislation , especially when the issue is very complex and technical .
First-reading agreements must , therefore , be rare and the exception , and only exceptional circumstances deserve such an exceptional response .
For example , in Poland , a cheap energy-saving light bulb used to cost around 5 zlotys .
( DE ) Mr President , I find it particularly regrettable that , despite broad support by Members , my own-initiative motion on keeping Sunday as the non-working day has not been included in the vote in this House .
This Directive would have been exactly the right place to give Sunday a real footing as the non-working day throughout Europe , and that is why I find this regrettable .
This includes , in particular , heating and air-conditioning systems and many economic sectors ( transport , small industrial installations , the services sector and agriculture ) that are not covered by the ETS , but which still make a significant contribution to greenhouse gas emissions .
in writing . - ( SV ) I have chosen to abstain from the vote on the effort-sharing directive .
The proposal for the non-trading sectors is far too weak in these respects .
The regulation is flexible by calculating a manufacturer 's target based on the average across their fleet , meaning that they can offset a more-polluting car with a less-polluting car .
The regulation is flexible by calculating a manufacturer 's target based on the average across their fleet , meaning that they can offset a more-polluting car with a less-polluting car .
In addition , to begin with , a discount of up to seven grams is to be allowed for ' eco-innovations ' such as solar roofs and economical air-conditioning systems .
Today 's agreement is another time-buying exercise .
The car industry only has a future if it opts in favour of energy-efficient and non-polluting cars .
In the Commission 's and Parliament 's proposal , the issue is dealt with by means of a supranational decision-making process under the EU 's first pillar .
Increased cooperation across the EU in the enforcement of speeding and drink-driving laws is to be commended , and I accordingly voted in favour of the Ayala Sender report .
I think it might have led to certain thought-provoking reassessments of our relationship with China .
At this very moment , Member States and the Commission are currently undertaking a wide-ranging review of the EU 's policy on standard political clauses in external agreements in general , in order to strike the right balance between key , ' untouchable ' principles of the European Union on the one hand and , on the other , the need for a certain flexibility to negotiate on various parts , because we need to try and reach agreement .
The European Union has thus conducted awareness-raising campaigns in third countries so that they adhere to the Rome Statute , negotiated the inclusion , in agreements with third countries , of clauses making it compulsory to sign up to the Rome Statute , or adopted declarations reiterating the obligation on the Sudanese Government to cooperate fully with the International Criminal Court .
Protecting fundamental rights in what is precisely a European area of freedom , security and justice is , in fact , an on-going challenge and , like you , I believe that it is specifically through the protection of fundamental rights that developments in the area of freedom , security and justice should be interpreted .
We must reinforce our on-going efforts to implement human and fundamental rights , not only in Europe but also worldwide .
The majority of the rest , as a direct result of Russification , are the ' Russian-speaking immigrants ' .
Law-abiding citizens in Europe deserve to know that their own rights are protected against people who would seek to attack them .
We are therefore conducting an on-going dialogue with the US Administration on this issue .
That is why the Agency 's on-going concern is obviously to work within its sphere of competence while complementing the action of the Council of Europe .
Given that you mentioned the Commission 's work and the European Investment Bank 's commitments , I would like to ask whether , generally speaking , banks , which are involved in an on-going dialogue , and which are receiving a great deal of support , have also signed up to a policy that ensures the more or less smooth functioning of the SME sector ?
The Commission has adopted and published some cross-cutting standards explaining the criteria that we are using in these exceptional circumstances to analyse whether those plans comply with the rules of the Treaty .
I have personally visited pilot projects relating to quality assurance in mechanical vehicle training for young people in my own country , where there is on-going cooperation that is proving extremely fruitful .
The committees and the Commission hope to come to very close first-reading agreement on two important instruments .
This strategy will make it possible to develop a new action plan relating to customs in order to combat counterfeiting and piracy , and to establish new approaches that will make it possible to improve information collection , promote public awareness-raising campaigns and increase the effectiveness of cooperation networks at all levels .
With regard to awareness-raising and warning consumers of the ever-increasing risks , the Commission believes , of course , that this is a major issue .
The second area where we need action is the on-going work of law enforcement agencies such as the police , trading standards officers and customs authorities .
We revised the sugar regime and the ones who got rich are the multinational sugar-exporting companies , not the producers from the poor developing countries , according to official statistics .
The ultimate objective and option should , therefore , be to achieve far-reaching harmonisation to the extent that companies that do not qualify as micro-entities , benefit from a similar , very simple , system .
However , wanting to scrimp and save all the time will not fundamentally change the situation : excessive standardisation , countless decision-making levels and systematic constraints continue to be created in parallel by the Commission and imposed on European businesses , no matter what their size .
First of all , supranational financial reporting standards would make it easier to assess and compare the financial situation of companies in different countries , and this would facilitate the decision-making process with regard to investments .
It has been difficult to address this subject in such a short time , especially as it has such broad , cross-cutting aims .
There are no binding standards for noise-producing toys either .
What is more , the Agency 's tasks seem destined to increase , to become more complex and , in fact , insurmountable so long as the root of the problem is not tackled : on the one hand , Europe remains a social and financial Eldorado for would-be illegal immigrants , in spite of the dangers of their journey and the problems they encounter on the ground ; on the other , cooperation policy , as inadequate as it is , is being threatened by the immigration of degree-holding professionals orchestrated by the EU itself .
in writing . - ( SV ) The June List supports the free internal market and welcomes constructive proposals aimed at countering market-disrupting phenomena , including trademark counterfeiting .
This proposal adds additional weight to pre-existing legislation and is of potential benefit for countries from this legal tradition .
author . - Madam President , in the past few years Zimbabwe has figured so often in these debates that we could be forgiven for running out of condemnatory words to say , but we must speak up because the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe have themselves been denied a voice by this ruthless despot , Robert Mugabe .
The Carpathian basin , within the territory of historical Hungary , was at one time the site of one of the largest grape-growing areas in Europe , extending over some 600 000 hectares .
Madam President , I would like to raise my concerns about the ever-increasing lack of scientific rigour in the draft proposals presented to this Parliament by the Commission and , indeed , in some of the reports and amendments for which we as parliamentarians are responsible .
We will end this unscientific , never-ending game of numbers , this hocus-pocus surrounding limit-setting , with the clear cut-off criteria .
It is a magic moment for Europe because this decision to phase out highly toxic pesticides is unprecedented and it is unique worldwide , and we can thus put the European Union in the fast lane for ground-breaking health protection and Europe will be the trailblazer worldwide .
In the present climate we cannot afford to decrease EU food production and be less competitive in our market-leading potential .
Madam President , let me join those Members who consider the second-reading agreement a well-balanced compromise , given the complexity of the matter .
( NL ) Madam President , the Directive on the sustainable and risk-reducing use of pesticides and the Regulation concerning the placing of pesticides on the market are both extremely necessary and useful .
For me this debate highlights two follies : first the abject folly of the EU , without pausing for even an impact assessment , dashing down the road of banning multiple plant protection products , not caring that there are no substitutes and that indigenous food production will drastically suffer , particularly in the cereal and vegetable sector , and thereby forcing ever-increasing dependence upon imports from countries who care nothing about these things .
In my low-lying country , the situation is very specific .
- ( PL ) This is the first time the European Commission , the Council and the Parliament have adopted such a thorough and wide-ranging approach to provisions concerning the quality and safety of food .
We now look forward to the formalisation of the second-reading agreement .
To date , 60 % of EU money has been used for road-building projects , while only 20 % goes into public transport and rail .
If 22 Member States are against revision or intensification because we have different framework conditions and different markets , then it is quite wrong to want an extensive administration , a time-consuming test procedure such as this obligatory ex-ante test , or European interference with an unwieldy bureaucratic concept .
It protects the ability to keep up with changes in our fast-moving media environment .
At the same time , we need to give strong backing to compliance with European standards concerning the rights of persons belonging to national minorities in the Western Balkan states , including the rights of the Romanian-speaking communities in Valea Timocului , Vojvodina , Istria and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia .
This would resolve the issue of lack of democracy and demonstrate that the citizens also play an important role in the decision-making process within the European Union .
Some of the documents relating to the Community decision-making process are still not accessible , and thus we need to continue the process aimed at further increasing the accessibility of Community working documents .
However , the creation of the euro was not just a decision with economic and financial effects ; it also sent a very clear signal that the European Union is in a position to implement far-reaching decisions in order to build a common , prosperous future .
I am one of those people who think that it is better to avoid the ever-increasing number of commemoration ceremonies , but this one is justified because it marks the greatest contribution to European integration since the election of the European Parliament by universal suffrage in 1979 .
But I have the misfortune to represent Britain 's largest growing pea-growing area , which has given me a huge problem with the Breyer report .
However , the means of achieving this objective , namely cooperation and mutual acceptance of each other 's certification findings in the areas of airworthiness and maintenance , are set out in the annexes to the agreement , unlike in conventional agreements , where these measures are usually set out in separate non-binding agreements at civil aviation authority level .
However , in the report it is claimed that the EU has addressed the potentially trade-distorting elements of EU agricultural policy that can negatively impact on farmers in the developing world .
in writing . - We support any and all efforts to empower citizens , communities and civil society organisations with regard to political decision-making processes , including the EU .
Many countries require that the citizen applying for a passport actually present him or herself in person , together with their documents and photographs , and in these cases the officials at the passport-issuing office can see if that person bears a resemblance to the photo presented .
In my country , Portugal , collecting the fingerprints of children aged six years and upwards is already a long-standing practice , which is perhaps why I have no objection to it .
Mr President , no law-abiding citizen should be worried about his or her identity or their children 's identity being substantiated .
DNA finger-printing technology today is quick , it is cheap and it can be carried out on just a few cells which can be obtained either from a quick mouth mucosal swab or from a drop of blood taken from , for example , the umbilical cord .
European Union governments meet in the Council with law-making powers and , like any law-making assembly , they should be bound to make their work and their decisions public .
European Union governments meet in the Council with law-making powers and , like any law-making assembly , they should be bound to make their work and their decisions public .
Europe has advocated from the outset a decision-making process which is as transparent and close to the citizen as possible .
The European Parliament , by its very nature , is the first to promote public access to the decision-making process , since different opinions about legislative or non-legislative work help increase European citizens ' confidence in Europe 's institutions .
In the course of the decision-making process , the parties involved are faced with different opinions , sometimes contradictory .
It reinforces the democratic nature of our institutions and facilitates the participation of the citizens in the decision-making process , so ensuring greater legitimacy for public authorities by making them more effective and answerable to the people .
That is why I also applauded the decision of the Court of Justice in relation to the Turco case , in which it concluded that there exists , in principle , an obligation to disclose the opinions of the Council 's Legal Service relating to a legislative process ; those opinions could be crucial to understanding the direction that the decision-making process took .
Citizens need to clearly see what amendments have been submitted by MEPs during the European decision-making process , in addition to the reports , resolutions and plenary debates .
Minutes are available for individual committees and the information can only be put together by conducting a meeting-by-meeting investigation .
According to the present Treaty but also according to the Lisbon Treaty in the future , tax decisions require unanimity at EU level , and I do not foresee any kinds of changes in the decision-making framework in the near future .
On the structural funds and what we are already doing : In negotiations with Parliament in agreeing the 2009 budget , we already agreed and have made a declaration that we will accelerate the absorption and we will make the decision-making process more flexible for Member States , including on how to use structural funds .
For example , cholesterol-lowering medication is taken on a mass scale , although little is known about the effectiveness of various products and very little , indeed , is known about which product is the most effective .
Look at the alternatives that are available : NMP has been available for 11 years , but only now is found to be reprotoxic ; there are flammable solvents that can cause glue-sniffing problems ; there are date-rape drug substances that are seen as safe alternatives ; there is DBE , about which not much is known ; and there are the more basic blowlamps and sanding methods that can be used , although dust and other problems arise there .
I would also like to make it clear , Mr Holm , that I would also have voted in favour of a more far-reaching compromise .
The Commission has been clear throughout the process , at least with me , that if the Council and Parliament had reached a more far-reaching compromise involving a total ban , the Commission would have accepted it .
This sector therefore requires wide-ranging regulations and far-reaching international laws , able to ensure the appropriate safeguarding of the living and working conditions of fishermen throughout the world , who are often exposed to situations of harsh exploitation .
Just as then , however , we consider ourselves a long-standing part of the great family of proud European nations .
I think the existing situation , with the arrival of the new American administration , gives the European Union an opportunity to invest not only money in that region , but also its problem-solving initiatives and a higher level of activity .
The situation in which a single passport can be issued to a holder and his or her children , by including their names and surnames , or containing only the biometrical data of the passport-holding parent , may be conducive to child trafficking .
It does not encourage the existence of far-reaching markets in Europe , where the States ' defence budgets are drastically reduced .
in writing . - ( FI ) The different policies Member States have when it comes to ethical questions gave rise in the political groups , and especially in our own , to just the kind of wide-ranging debate we might have foreseen .
Despite the non-binding nature of the report , it is the most harmful document approved during the term of the present Parliament .
In order to obtain much wider support for its positions , the EU must create coalition-building mechanisms and start to organise regular meetings on specific issues with all the democratic states on other continents .
In fact , the EU , which places human rights and democracy at the heart of its own external relations , above all in the action it takes within international human rights organisations , has been committed from the outset to maintaining an active and visible role in the creation and operation of the Human Rights Council , with the aim of upholding the highest standards in terms of human rights , by sponsoring or co-sponsoring texts defining standards .
Unfortunately , the European Union often lacks the capacity to anticipate issues ( due above all to the time-consuming procedures that are sometimes required to draft common positions ) , and to show leadership in human rights initiatives .
Transparency allows citizens to participate more closely in the decision-making process and guarantees that the administration will enjoy greater credibility , be more effective and responsible towards its citizens in a democratic system .
Mr President , long-lasting conflict and occupation give rise to anger , rage and disappointment at the efficacy of legal authorities , producing something we call the ' Hamas effect ' , as a serious factor .
The long-running conflict must be ended through a political agreement based on a two-state solution , enabling Israelis and Palestinians to live together in peace within secure , internationally recognised borders , and striving to build a peaceful system of regional security throughout the Middle East .
It seems from this distance that some of them relish the new civilian - including child - martyrs and the publicity it gives their cause , no matter how horrible it is for right-thinking people to take that in .
It could not happen without the political right-wing elite in the United States of America and the EU closing their eyes .
In an effort to tackle this problem of divergent views , the idea of a joint fact-finding mission by the presidency and the Commission , led by the Czech Minister of Industry and Trade , Martin Říman , and by Matthias Ruete , the Director-General of DG TRAN , emerged , and it obtained the mandate to do this from an extraordinary COREPER I session , which we called on 5 January 2009 , the first working day after the holidays .
I know that whatever solution we will find now is temporary , so to restore the credibility of this transport route we will need a long-lasting solution ; so the contacts between those parties will definitely be continued during the Czech presidency , but will also , unfortunately , have to continue under the Swedish presidency .
( RO ) I would first of all like to congratulate my fellow Members for this fact-finding mission to one of the most perilous regions in the world and certainly one of the most disadvantaged .
The shortcomings in the decision-making mechanisms in the field of foreign and security policy were not conducive to preventing the terrible crimes in Srebrenica .
The welfare of horses for slaughter continues to be a serious concern , and there is on-going evidence of some Member States ignoring - perhaps choosing to ignore - the legislation in this area .
The European Commission , of course , has no formal powers to support such a request within the framework of UNESCO , since it is not a member of UNESCO and it cannot therefore participate in the decision-making process .
Having clarified what the Mediterranean diet means to me and the majority of the people involved in this field and the reason behind the nomination , and with the confirmation of the Commission 's willingness to cooperate , let us consider , Commissioner , that , although the Commission is not a member of UNESCO - as we already know - nor does it participate in its decision-making processes - as we are also aware - the Commission can support the nomination with indirect actions which would doubtless have a positive effect on the perceptions of those involved in the voting procedure .
You have stressed that you do not have decision-making powers with respect to the UNESCO procedure .
It is now , more than ever , when the international community is showing signs of being fatigued by a seemingly never-ending crisis , that the EU must take a leading role .
This resolution is welcome because I hope that , through this measure , an ever-growing number of Belarusian citizens will have easier access to visas for European Union states so that they can learn from us about our values and tradition .
If we take such action , then we can be sure that the authorities in Tehran will take us seriously and will think twice about continuing with the persecution of their democracy-seeking citizens .
author . - Mr President , the story of Shirin Ebadi , Nobel Peace Prize-winning lawyer , the first Muslim woman and first Iranian to receive the prize , may be well known to most of us here today .
The challenge facing the international community in the following months is to support Guinea in its transition to democracy and in the arrangement of free and democratic elections for a law-making assembly and a president .
That would reassure us of Kenya 's purported commitment to a free society under a power-sharing coalition government .
Europe has put forward a far-reaching proposal on agriculture but , unfortunately , our efforts have not been reciprocated by other countries .
The Commission is ready to support initiatives to set up partnerships in the textile and clothing sector designed to anticipate restructuring with the aim of protecting employment and , overall , the sector benefits from the fact that there is a long-standing framework for social dialogue .
Europe needs new rules , but it also needs reciprocity and increased efforts to fight counterfeiting and piracy , to take real action on anti-dumping measures and , specifically , to approve the regulation on origin marking .
For your information , linen textile manufacturers have now been trying for two years to initiate an anti-dumping case against linen fabrics of Chinese origin , but so far have been unable to do so because the Commission does not provide any assistance .
As we all know , the double-checking system is no longer in operation .
In this regard , let us strengthen our exchanges of information with Japan and the United States - California , in particular - but let us not delude ourselves : our relations with these energy-consuming countries are founded on both cooperation and competition , especially in terms of energy technologies .
It is more than obvious that , without the sensible and , I should like to emphasise , considered and most wide-ranging application of these technologies , we shall succeed neither in reducing energy consumption nor in limiting the adverse effects of climate change .
I was appalled last week to learn that the European Commission 's Recovery Plan is revisiting all of these strategic distortions and adopting the same backward-looking approach as this Strategic Energy Review .
What are we going to tell them : that Mr Barroso 's cabinet cut EUR 500 million from the town-twinning budget between Monday and Wednesday of last week ?
I should like to say that the position of networks in the future structures of Europe is very important and that these networks are far more important for a cohesive Europe than the ever-growing bureaucracy both in Brussels and in the Member States .
( BG ) Madam President , Commissioners , first of all I would like to highlight the constructive debate in the Committee on Industry , Research and Energy on the report by Mrs Laperrouze , and especially point out her role in preparing an objective and all-encompassing report .
As you know , we will be adopting the high-efficiency light-emitting diodes - the famous LEDs - which , already today , will cut 30 % of energy consumption in lighting and up to 50 % by 2025 .
The voting in the Committee on Women 's Rights and Gender Equality was the result of much wide-ranging discussion and accommodation .
It is an extremely important proposal , which has wide-ranging possibilities for the whole of the European economy .
Indeed , where this has been already rolled out , we see the experience where businesses , even if they do not produce the winning solution , have had an element of their research and development funded that they can then go on and use to develop other revenue-generating products .
Sexual abuse and the various types of exploitation , especially child pornography , are despicable crimes with deep-seated , long-lasting effects on its young victims .
Only an all-embracing approach will be successful .
I am especially pleased because , until now , many left-wing groups in Europe have been fighting openly for the greatest possible sexual freedom , while not giving attention to the consequences of this course of action in relation to children .
An ever-growing number of children are being left behind : some are unsupervised , while others are left in the care of grandparents and neighbours , and even in institutions .
In addition , the verification and notification obligations incumbent upon employers as specified by the report play a proper role in making the latter accountable with regard to this acute problem which we are facing in the EU with ever-increasing frequency .
The amendment tabled by the Group of the Greens / European Free Alliance which I voted against , has , in fact , completely nullified the report and does contain a number of very questionable elements , including the attack on the Czech Presidency and the gratuitous claim that raising children in the home would , in fact , have a role-confirming effect .
in writing . - I agree with the rapporteur on the need to emphasise the importance of data gathering , proportionate regulation , airport and airspace capacity , and environmental sustainability , whilst acknowledging the importance of one of the fastest-growing industries of our time .
We voted against the references to the Lisbon Treaty in line with our long-standing policy of opposing it .
We must reduce our energy consumption , although critics doubt whether the compulsory introduction of energy-saving bulbs will achieve this , and we must push for the use of alternative forms of energy .
I only hope that the ideas and indications she has supplied in her report will be adequately appraised by the Commission and interpreted in the most positive and wide-ranging way possible .
These indicators include energy dependency ( whether on Russia or on the main oil-producing countries ) and its consequences ; increasing energy costs , whether because of higher prices brought about by greater global demand or because of the decreased purchasing power of states impoverished by a severe economic crisis ; and the environmental consequences on various levels of constantly increasing global energy consumption , which the economic crisis is unlikely to reverse .
Alongside energy efficiency , energy-saving measures are of key importance .
The entire left-wing spectrum in the European Parliament voted for the alternative resolution .
in writing . - ( EL ) The political forces which support imperialist barbarity , war , the plundering of wealth-producing resources and the exploitation of peoples are jointly responsible for the daily crime being committed against millions of children in the world .
The fact is that while , in theory , the Member States are aiming for far-reaching harmonisation , in practice they take decisions that have exactly the opposite effect .
This is the situation of an island of only a few square kilometres where thousands and thousands of people have been continuously disembarking for many years - and during this period , left- and right-wing governments have come and gone .
The Commission is aware of the specific circumstances in which the Russian-speaking minority in Latvia find themselves .
When speaking about Russian-speaking non-citizens , one cannot use the concept of a ' traditional minority ' .
We can already see what the next steps could be , as shown by the development of the long-term situation in such places as Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia - Russian passports would be handed out in these self-governing areas .
Why does a large proportion of the Russian-speaking population not want to apply for citizenship ?
It has , in my view , become an all-encompassing report with nearly 200 recommendations , and really worthwhile .
It is about an urgently-needed transition not to a Europe based on the ever-increasing consumption of natural resources , but to a steady-state economy for Europe ; not more aggregate quantitative growth , but real qualitative development .
I have one question for Commissioner Dimas : following our first-reading agreement on my report on the revised EU-ETS six weeks ago , could the Commissioner put on record today exactly what work programme is in train for preparing the comitology decisions , particularly the timing and involvement of this Parliament and the stakeholders ?
Let us use the crisis as an opportunity to get the badly needed development of renewable energy and energy-saving technologies off the ground .
During numerous months of discussions on the subject , far-reaching amendments were made to this package .
Is it an exponential graph - a runaway - where CO2 in extra amounts causes an ever-increasing rise in global warming ?
Because we will save money on energy through energy-saving measures .
In Poland , the far-reaching restructuring of the economy between 1990 and 2005 , resulted in reductions in carbon dioxide emissions of around 30 % .
In addition to wide-ranging destruction of electricity systems , water systems , sewage systems , in addition to roads and vital facilities , public and private buildings , this Israeli war has claimed the fruit of the blood and sweat of our Palestinian people , hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people who worked all their lives and lost the fruit of this work .
Our people look to you and to all peace- and justice-loving nations and call upon you : the time has come for the international community to assume its legal , political and moral responsibilities in order to provide adequate international protection for it and enable it to get rid of this occupation and to live in peace and freedom .
While progress is being made , I do not support Member States having to meet their non-trading sectors ' targets for emissions reductions by the compulsory reduction of Europe 's cattle herds .
The green economy being promoted by the EU and the USA offers a way out for the purpose of over-accumulating capital , safeguarding profits for the monopolies and increasing the exploitation of workers and natural resources .
I would like to stress that the climate change issue requires a cross-cutting approach at all levels of public policy making , and that investment in ' green ' technologies is also a requirement of the current economic crisis , in that it will help create more jobs .
The report calls on ECONFIN to introduce reduced VAT rates for renewable energy and energy-saving products .
ICT should become the solution of the future for practically all energy-consuming equipment , helping to achieve significant savings in terms of energy consumption .
There is absolutely no doubt that European carmakers will be engaging in an accelerated implementation , during this year of economic crisis , of the re-structuring measures that have been planned for some time .
The second goal is to increase the competitiveness of the European motor industry in the long term and to durably establish Europe as the world 's leading car-producing region .
The car industry today is experiencing an unprecedented crisis characterised by a drop in demand , by a need for finance for manufacturers and subcontractors but also consumers , and by a structural competitive challenge for companies facing ever-increasing competition worldwide .
As a result of this decision , around 50 000 jobs are now being cut in the Polish ship-building sector itself , while over ten thousand jobs will be lost in related industries in the future .
( IT ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , the ever-increasing mobility of European citizens clearly means that consulates must work together .
The Commission had to launch infringement procedures against most Member States concerning the obligation to establish inventories of large PCB-containing equipment and PCB disposal plans .
It highlighted how seriously we as a country view food safety matters , and helped maintain our reputation at home and abroad as a quality food-producing nation .
We continue our road map monitoring work , and we also deploy state-building assistance , including in sensitive areas such as the rule of law and border management .
The murder of a Polish engineer - being held hostage in Pakistan - by the local Taliban has had far-reaching repercussions recently .
All this has been backed up by concrete proposals for the improvement of our operational structures and our political decision-making process , which I heartily endorse .
The increasing need for the EU to operate more efficiently and promptly , and events demanding intellectual answers with increasing urgency , call for a review of the organisational and decision-making mechanisms for governing our foreign policy , and for the provision of suitable structural answers .
In the current situation where Member States are facing an ever-increasing variety of challenges to global security , ranging from interethnic conflicts in the immediate vicinity of allied territory to global terrorist networks and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction , they must attach particular importance to the process of reflection and dialogue on this issue and support the alliance reform processes .
In that , at a stroke , she both humiliated hard-working farmers and displayed crass ignorance of basic requirements for the distribution of EU funds .
Even though the centrist party , Kadima , received the largest number of votes , the fact that the right-wing parties now hold 65 seats in the Knesset , compared to 50 in the previous elections , reflects the changing views of the Israeli citizens about the Israel-Palestinian conflict .
Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , there is now an ever-increasing awareness that there is no health without mental health .
As a relatively new science , mental health is not widely recognised as a priority , but recent technological developments have allowed us to explore more of the human brain , showing the way to new , life-changing treatments for individuals .
I think that we should take far-reaching steps to defeat these diseases of civilisation .
The current energy savings objective of 20 % of primary energy saving in 2020 today represents a non-binding target , as you know .
Firstly , Commissioner , the amounts laid down in the Seventh Framework Programme for marine research , which should have been a cross-cutting issue , seem to be insufficient for the integrated approach that is currently desired for this issue .
Areas such as house renovations and extensions , energy-saving improvements , and perhaps gardening and landscaping work and , as Olle Schmidt said , care for the elderly and care for children , are the ones which would get people into work and probably increase the tax-take , because those people would be paying tax on their incomes as well .
In view of the above facts and arguments , the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe will support the Commission 's proposal to ensure there is sound support in the European Parliament for this important stage of the decision-making process .
From the economic and environmental policy viewpoint , it is also important to apply a reduced VAT rate to energy-saving materials and services connected with energy saving and energy efficiency .
The elected representatives of 27 countries with their broad spectrum of political opinions and views constitute a unique audience , just as the European Union itself has been a unique and essentially revolutionary experiment for over half a century , attempting to improve decision making in Europe through transferring a significant part of the decision-making process from individual states to pan-European institutions .
Therefore let us not underestimate the concerns felt by many Member State citizens that decisions affecting their lives will be taken elsewhere and without their involvement and that their ability to influence the decision-making process is very limited .
Where the state has failed to provide education for poor children , parents themselves have come together , finance non-state education and , therefore , are also able to subsidise the non-working poor .
During its fact-finding mission in Bulgaria from 27-30 October 2008 , the Commission did not ask for the views of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church .
This aims to ensure that , throughout the process of restructuring companies , particularly industrial companies , employees ' representatives have access to information and the possibility of intervening in the decision-making process , including the right of veto , in cases where companies do not comply with their contractual obligations .
There is now an ever-increasing awareness that there is no health without mental health .
The right-wing dictatorships in Portugal and Greece were allowed to join in , there were bilateral agreements with a similar dictatorship in Spain , and the French colony of Algeria was forced to belong to NATO territory until 1962 .
Our Member States must find ways of encouraging and supporting women 's participation in the decision-making process and in politics at both national and international level .
I believe that would be a further-reaching request on which you could hold an initial vote .
According to the Agency 's estimates , Tehran has increased the number of uranium-enriching centrifuges by 34 times in less than three years .
Romania offers ethnic minorities wide-ranging instruction in their mother tongue .
However , long-lasting solutions to other issues , such as tackling climate change and achieving a sustainable Europe , are essential as well .
We cannot support the Surján report as it stands , as this would mean promoting competition-distorting measures and throwing more money at high-earning institutions and industries .
We cannot support the Surján report as it stands , as this would mean promoting competition-distorting measures and throwing more money at high-earning institutions and industries .
We must step up our energy-saving campaigns , along with Europe 's citizens .
That is why they are looking to register their companies ' offices in countries where regulations and economic conditions create cost-cutting opportunities , because the legal requirements , such as the minimum wage or pension contributions , are lower .
The fourth thing I want to say is that the argument on the part of left-wing Members - none of whom stayed for the debate earlier on - that the proposal should be rejected does not take account of the substance of the report - Mr Medina Ortega is absolutely right about this .
Therefore , I would suggest that the left-wing Members , too , consider rereading the report and the amendments and then discussing them once again with their group .
As a result of the major discrepancies in the decision-making processes which the 27 Member States use for dealing with asylum applications , the rate in terms of acknowledging applicants ' refugee status varies between 0 % and approximately 90 % .
Her report formulates numerous forward-looking recommendations , calling for example upon the Commission to take into consideration in its technical policies the impact of the policies toward the Roma , and to recommend introducing a unified system of requirements into development programmes .
At the same time , consumers , as we all know , are showing an ever-increasing interest not only in food safety but also in the origin and production methods of food products .
In this regard , too , in a number of points I cannot list exhaustively here , this report attempts to point out that we must step up our efforts to make unconventional oil resources commercially viable : so as to contribute to diversification , to answer the question as to how transport routes too can be changed , and to raise the question as to what contribution foreign policy can make in terms of strengthening relations and mutual dependency and reliability between the European Union and the oil-producing countries .
The first-reading deal that we now have before us , which was negotiated by four MEPs - including myself as shadow rapporteur - differs markedly from the text adopted by Parliament .
Despite that , many Member States are saving themselves the effort , because there is good money to be had even in pollution-spewing installations .
On the issue of large combustion plants , the EU ETS operation today does not safeguard against design lock-in of unnecessary pollution in many new high-cost and high-emitting installations , particularly in new coal-fired plants which , when built , would expect to operate for over 40 years , thus making it difficult and more expensive to meet overall climate goals .
Installations could also comply with the standard in other ways , for example , by co-firing biomass or by using the heat from cogen techniques .
I supported the introduction , from 1 January 2020 , of a limit value of 350g of carbon dioxide for electricity-generating combustion plants bigger than 500 MW as these plants cause an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and , by implication , a deterioration in global warming .
I look forward to an interesting and thought-provoking discussion to come .
The subject deserves that , and our citizens are entitled to expect clear and well-functioning legislation on public access to our documents .
Citizens find it difficult to penetrate and understand the decision-making process within the EU system and feel , quite rightly , that decisions are taken and legislation is created at EU level without them having any real opportunity to study all of the documents .
( PL ) Mr President , it is clear to everyone that the decision-making process of the Community 's institutions and bodies must take place openly and publicly .
The use of documents and information is key , and one of the big problems we have - and we acknowledge it , and the Commissioner in the Chamber currently is one of the best practised - is to get knowledge of the EU 's decision-making process out there , because people do not understand the process .
Particularly important in my opinion is the requirement that every initiative or document designed to somehow influence the decision-making procedure must be published .
( NL ) Mr President , I voted against the Catania report , as it clearly reflects an extreme left-wing bias aimed at rendering any efficient asylum management system simply impossible .
This own-initiative report on the future of the management of the EU 's external borders is a reasonable one , and it is tinged with a degree of realism in that it proposes , as a first stage in re-examining border management in the EU , a critical , in-depth analysis of the operation and effectiveness of the existing systems and how they interact .
There must be a gender mix in the decision-making process for the performing arts and various other areas .
The amended text attaches some value to public consultation and the role of environmental NGOs , takes into account the interests of micro-enterprises and SMEs and reclaims some decision-making power from the European Commission .
Unfortunately , however , the report has been hijacked by the protectionist elements in the Committee on Agriculture , and particularly by those who seek to justify massive market-distorting CAP subsidies and who want to make it harder for produce from third world countries to be imported to the EU .
I believe that the subject is extremely important , since food quality has an ever-increasing effect on the quality of life of European citizens .
Along the same lines , how many more maritime and environmental disasters do we need to have before the Commission , the Council and this Parliament will finally turn their attention to the long-standing scandal of flags of convenience ?
The far-ranging package also considers measures on investigations , on competences and on just sovereignty in the event of maritime accidents , a compendium which , I hope , will help clarify issues of liability and compensation .
In future , therefore , the major decisions will be in the hands of independent committees , who will make rigorous , authoritative , immediate and capable use of decision-making tools .
As the man on the English-speaking street says , though , ' Where 's the beef ? '
That is why the Committee on Transport and Tourism is calling on you to actually table a proposal for a directive on the introduction of noise-related track access charges so that , by re-investing the money collected by means of such track access charges in the railway companies - including private companies - we will be able to help see new noise-reducing brakes actually installed .
Excluding CO2 from the Eurovignette would be particularly unfair given that all Member States now have binding CO2 reduction targets to meet under the effort-sharing decision .
I should like to start by asking my fellow Members not to be fooled by the off-putting statistics some have put forward .
It is also worth noting that our neighbour , the Council of Europe , has developed a series of international legally binding and non-binding instruments on these issues , which all show that cyberspace is not a lawless area and that Member States are bound to protect individual rights and freedoms through their national laws , inter alia , the Cybercrime Convention and its additional Protocol 3 .
In the last decade , brain-imaging technology has backed up those observations , demonstrating that there is a definite shift in the child 's brain that allows him or her to internalise the primary care-giver , usually the mother , so that she is available to the child in active memory even when she is not present .
In actual fact , Qimonda is months ahead of the competition when it comes to research into energy-saving chips , and it is specifically in this regard - in this potential for innovation - that investment should be made .
We are also working to get rapid adoption of the regulations on the protection of bank deposits and on credit-rating agencies .
We need greater coordination and wider-ranging effects .
Especially now , at a time of financial and economic crisis , we need not only solidarity but also strict and fast-operating rules and instruments as a common defence against the crisis .
This is not a forward-looking concept which would stop people from worrying about the loss of their livelihoods .
Reform was necessary in the competition with up-and-coming economies and is , indeed , still needed .
The right-wing policy is pretty simple : the crisis is a bad thing but we need to be patient , it will pass ; we need to take some technical measures and things will calm down by themselves and we must express our sympathy to the people who will be hit .
This has not been a neutral crisis but a crisis inflicted by specific policies , mostly by right-wing governments .
I would therefore like to ask the next Council Summit to seriously consider the creation and retention of jobs through co-financing measures related to reducing non-wage labour costs , on a temporary basis , in countries seriously affected by financial or economic downturn .
I was also in support of the wide-ranging remit given in this report to address the current crisis .
They are a sensible , level-headed people and can recognise a self-serving argument and spot a racket when they see one .
More should be done to adapt road infrastructure to the increase in traffic but , above all , a commitment should be made to sustainable transport , with priority given to low carbon-emitting modes of transport .
The Commission has published a package of communications about ' making transport greener ' , a ' strategy for internalising external costs ' and ' noise-reducing measures for goods and equipment ' .
The purpose of the all-out attack on insurance and labour rights and on the incomes of grassroots families and their standard of living is so that the EU can assure the euro-unifying monopolies that they will be ' in an advantageous position when the economy recovers ' compared with the international competition .
On this too , I share the analysis of your rapporteur and Mr Vondra as regards the future challenges such as judicial reform , the fight against organised crime and corruption , and reform of the ship-building sector and bringing it into line with our state aid regime and competition policy .
There is a unique chance this year to reunite the island and bring to an end this long-standing conflict on European soil .
This is about what unites European citizens , the rule of law , independent and impartial justice , the freedom of speech , a well-functioning press and an individual civil right for each citizen .
Conflict broke out recently in schools in Struga between Albanian- and Macedonian-speaking parents .
There is a need for increased EU support for domestic war crimes investigations and trials and for the Copenhagen criteria to include even more support for a well-trained and high-performing judiciary , but the legacy of this is that the Tribunal must also contribute to reconciliation and inter-ethnic understanding , and the work of NGOs deserves more resources .
For the EU 's efforts to fight climate change to deliver , it is absolutely crucial that we bring other major world CO2-producing economies on board .
The Commission is right to say that there are new and re-emerging threats to health , such as communicable diseases .
The Eastern Partnership provides for a real increase in the level of political cooperation , including new types of association agreements , far-reaching integration with the EU 's economy , easier travel throughout the EU for citizens of the countries covered by this partnership ( provided that security requirements are met ) , agreements aimed at improving energy security , which benefit all those involved , and increased financial assistance .
Consequently , exchanging experiences and cooperating in this sector may prove to be very useful to the European Union and , conversely , renewable energies and energy-saving measures will be very useful to Brazil .
Consequently , the strategic partnership should , in light of the Lima Declaration , promote a wide-ranging dialogue on migration , covering regular and irregular migration and the protection of migrants ' human rights .
Mexicans are the largest Spanish-speaking population in the world and share common cultural values with Europeans , which includes close ties with Romania 's cultural heritage , based on their Latin legacy .
I would add that Brazil has been increasingly active in cooperation with the Portuguese-speaking countries of the South and in Africa and could therefore cooperate actively in this sector with the European Union .
( PL ) Madam President , in the early 1950s , the Chinese Government forced Tibetan representatives to sign an agreement in which it guaranteed Tibet far-reaching autonomy .
Amendment 10 contradicts the fact that the CFSP is part of the Community aquis for the EU and the Member States , and third countries cannot be given carte blanche to participate in planning and decision-making procedures .
However , video games are no longer targeted only at children as an ever-increasing number of them are designed specially for adults .
The street criminals of the future will be just one outcome of the influence of aggressive games on behaviour , psychology and late-manifesting habits .
At the same time , a cocaine-smuggling route passes through the country .
In addition , as Guinea-Bissau has in recent years evolved into an important drug-trafficking country , we urge not only the country 's authorities but also the international community to do their utmost in fighting effectively this deadly curse .
Unfortunately , these violent acts follow the successful legislative elections , which paved the way for enhanced EU and international support for the country 's peace-building efforts .
author . - Madam President , it was entirely predictable that President Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan would respond to his indictment by the ICC with a political gesture , but by expelling NGOs and aid agencies from his country he has reinforced the popular image of a brutal tyrant , without any concern for the plight of the long-suffering people he nominally governs .
While this might seem to some like an unjust response to the killings in Darfur and effectively grants some form of partial immunity , it would remove the main protagonist and spare the long-suffering people of Darfur more bloodshed and enable Sudan as a country to move on .
( IT ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , ( ... ) how the aims of this new law on safety at sea fit with the plans for two methane-producing regasifiers in the Gulf of Trieste , an area of heavy shipping and high urban concentration where the sea is shallow , not more than 20 metres deep , and the seabed must not be touched as it is steeped in mercury .
Thus , the Commission definitely deserves criticism for failing to involve the European Parliament in the decision-making process and for not following the normal procedure .
What financial , technical and administrative support measures are foreseen within the framework of re-establishing trade and development partnerships ?
The run-up to the December 2007 deadline for interim EPAs has given rise to an impression of steam-rollering ACP concerns , but I want to reassure Parliament that these interim agreements are only a temporary solution to safeguard and improve ACP access to European Union markets .
To return to where I began , Parliament has an historic opportunity today to give its assent to the first examples of a new generation of agreements that safeguard our special relationship with the ACP ; agreements based on genuine partnership , not paternalism ; that harness trade as the motor of development ; that promote and encourage the regional integration that will help ACP countries flourish in a globalised world ; that are flexible in terms of content , respectful of tradition , and are the latest manifestation of this long-standing trade relationship built on a respect for sovereign states .
All EU countries and an encouragingly ever-increasing number of other states have signed up to the ILO conventions on the minimum age for employment and on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour .
We are talking about a gigantic , and ever-growing sector , for the EU cosmetics industry generates annual revenues of EUR 65 billion .
in writing . - The rise of sub-contracting in Europe has had far-reaching consequences for labour relations .
I strongly support this ETUC endorsed report which calls on the Commission to establish a clear-cut Community legal instrument introducing joint and several liability at European level , and , also requests the Commission to launch an assessment of the feasibility of an instrument on chain liability as a way of increasing transparency in the sub-contracting process .
achieve growing bilateral benefits for an ever-increasing number of citizens
At the same time , Europe is in many respects the symbol of disappointment , of boredom or of bureaucracy for those who are already inside the gate : EU citizens , whether opinion-shaping intellectuals or ordinary citizens .
This could allow people 's opinions to be recorded , which would be evaluated later on and incorporated as part of our decision-making process .
As chairwoman of a citizens association in Bulgaria , I strongly believe that getting citizens involved in the decision-making processes will give them the opportunity to contribute directly to the political process at EU level .
However , the decision-making power on matters of language policy lies primarily with the Member States .
I would also like to alert the Commission to the risk of micro-credit being abused for money-laundering purposes .
Concentrating on growth-stimulating activities , such as spending on research and development , innovation or active job-creating instruments , should give the European economy a stimulus and ensure a return to growth .
Concentrating on growth-stimulating activities , such as spending on research and development , innovation or active job-creating instruments , should give the European economy a stimulus and ensure a return to growth .
We can achieve that something extra by making sure that in the newly launched JASMINE programme , we are able to train and involve new micro-financing institutions that are close to the people .
It is a very important point that additionality should mean that the micro-financing intermediaries should not lead people into usury .
In Flanders we face the problem of a large number of French-speaking immigrants who refuse to adapt to the Dutch-speaking character of Flanders , and it is not Europe 's job to interfere there and to promise all kinds of non-existent rights .
In Flanders we face the problem of a large number of French-speaking immigrants who refuse to adapt to the Dutch-speaking character of Flanders , and it is not Europe 's job to interfere there and to promise all kinds of non-existent rights .
For that matter , it is unacceptable that the European Parliament should speak of further increasing ' the transparency of the EU and the involvement of citizens in decision-making processes ' when a majority rejected the holding of referendums in their own countries on the draft Treaty of Lisbon , precisely because they were afraid of the majority opinion of their people .
In view of the global financial crisis and the ever-growing level of consumer debt , active dialogue with Europe 's citizens means that European institutions and civil society need to make efforts to improve consumers ' level of financial education , particularly with regard to their rights and obligations , as well as the best practices in the areas of savings and loans .
in writing . - ( DE ) The recent campaign to make energy-saving bulbs mandatory , which the manufacturers in particular will profit from , highlights the gap between the European Union and its citizens .
The obstacles which posed problems until now include impenetrable documentation , ever-changing eligibility criteria or short deadlines for submitting dossiers .
However , we are utterly opposed to several of the far-reaching wordings relating to the Member States ' criminal law .
A European Agency on linguistic diversity would quickly become a means for the French-speaking minority to circumvent the compulsory use of Dutch in Flanders .
It is at the same time a common obligation that is based on needs and the difficulty of re-forging multiculturalism into a clear strength which unites the Community , which will also have an impact beyond its borders and give Europe its rightful place in the world .
That is why I support the motion of the rapporteur , who is asking us to adopt appropriate national institutional , legal and commercial frameworks to promote a more favourable environment for the development of micro-credits and to establish a harmonised European framework for non-banking micro-finance institutions .
This is a world of change , and we should remind ourselves that the most epoch-making decades in European history have never been fully understood as they have happened .
We want concrete results on a stimulus for the world economy and on the regulation of all financial actors , from banks to hedge funds , to new rules on credit-rating agencies .
In the European Union , the frontier is already moving : proposals on capital adequacy and credit-rating agencies have been presented by the Commission and are currently being discussed also by this Parliament .
Therefore , you are right in saying that we need European and worldwide regulation for private equity , hedge funds and offshore centres , which must be closed , and we need rules for credit-rating agencies .
Should it become a real asset manager for parts of the global savings pool , second-guessing speculators , preventing panic , stabilising markets ?
How can we reform its decision-making structures to reflect the demand for more democratic oversight and the power of emerging economies ?
It earned Parliament 's sympathy in a decision-making procedure in which Parliament formed its own opinion .
The Commission also undertook to present a full , wide-ranging budget review covering all aspects of EU spending , including the common agricultural policy , and of resources , including the United Kingdom rebate , in 2008 / 2009 .
At the same time , the report fails to propose any cost-cutting measures .
This is why it is so important that this report calls for forward-looking agreements in good time and ensures that they involve full commitment .
Recently we have been able to observe far-reaching changes in the structure of the EU budget .
Within CARS 21 we have established the basic conditions for a forward-looking car industry and are constantly improving them .
It is clear that , as the market develops , recourse to mergers or strategic agreements is another possible route , but this must not be at the cost of Europe 's car-making tradition , which is the jewel in the crown of the Community manufacturing industry .
Many of the key Member States of the European Union have decided to support the vehicle-manufacturing sector .
We , Europe , must now take control of and lead the switchover to a sustainable automotive sector , something that is only possible if we guide the sector through this severe and life-threatening recession .
We must tackle these challenges with a European , sectoral and forward-looking approach and through social consultation .
In a few days , we will be meeting with the European metal-working unions and automotive unions and , of course , the unions are the main parties involved in the round-table meetings , which I have already mentioned .
With the support of the representatives of the French and Czech Presidencies , whom I would like to take this opportunity to thank , we successfully managed to balance the decision-making relations and skills between the Member States and European Commission , particularly with regard to the performance scheme , a key element in the SES II package .
I am grateful to Mr Marinescu , with whom I have a long-standing friendship forged by our working together , side by side , in Parliament - I know his abilities , which he has been able to show once again by working alongside the Commission and producing an important result in a very short amount of time - and , with him , I should also like to thank all the shadow rapporteurs , who have enabled the institutions once again to support the people of Europe .
Thus faced with a crisis of this kind , we are however capable of introducing cost-cutting standards .
I fully agree with them that we must put an end to the ever-growing number of chargers and that it must in future be possible to charge mobile phones using a single , standardised charger .
Unfortunately we could not get a first-reading agreement , so in July 2008 I asked Parliament to endorse my report ; however , during the French Presidency we were able to make sufficient progress for me to be able to recommend adopting this compromise at second reading .
I do not have any problems with the general concept of outsourcing , but there must be secure conditions to ensure the integrity of the visa-issuing process , to ensure that outsourcing is only a last resort and that data protection and security are guaranteed .
The CFCs and halons that have the strongest ozone-depleting effect have been completely eliminated , save for a limited number of exceptions .
The preamble to the new regulation states that the production and use of ozone-depleting substances is to be ended or minimised as far as possible .
That allows the Member States the possibility of adopting more far-reaching measures to protect the environment .
Point seven is that the reuse and recycling of ozone-depleting substances for existing apparatus may only take place within one business .
The final point is that , in order to prevent leaks of ozone-depleting substances , the monitoring and enforcement system is to be tightened up .
There is , however , more to be done in order to tackle the problem of stored ozone-depleting substances .
These will now be incorporated in this recast regulation to accelerate the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances ( ODS ) and to further limit exempted uses of these substances .
This recast regulation is essentially about bans and restrictions on the production , import , export , placing on the market , use , recovery , recycling , reclamation and destruction of these ozone-depleting substances .
Due to the phase-outs on the use of these ozone-depleting gases - CFCs , HCFCs , halons , methyl bromide , with very few time-limited exceptions for certain ' critical uses ' , for example halons in fire-protection equipment in aeroplanes - there has been a 95 % reduction in the consumption of ODS compared to the 1980s .
These substances , we must remind ourselves , also have a global-warming potential .
We have truly managed to work as a team , which also made it possible for us to conclude this far-reaching amendment of the law within six months .
the reduction of ' banked ' ozone-depleting substance ( ODS ) / greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere is necessary as according to estimates , by 2015 these global banks will add up to 2 million ozone-depleting potential tonnes or 13.4 billion tonnes of CO2eq .
new ozone-depleting substances : new scientific evidence shows that the ozone-depleting potential of certain chemical substances not currently controlled by the Protocol is substantially higher , while marketing of these substances is growing rapidly .
new ozone-depleting substances : new scientific evidence shows that the ozone-depleting potential of certain chemical substances not currently controlled by the Protocol is substantially higher , while marketing of these substances is growing rapidly .
Consequently , I totally agree with additional measures being taken to limit or even ban ozone-depleting substances .
Indeed , the European Union has set an example of unity and leadership which , if followed , will pave the way for more wide-ranging solutions at international level .
For Parliament and the Council to secure first-reading agreement on these measures before the election recess would send out a powerful message that the EU knows what it has to do to restore order to the financial system .
This honesty stands in marked contrast to the disingenuous and self-serving speech delivered by the British Prime Minister in this Chamber yesterday .
It was Washington 's long-standing refusal to engage in any form of regulation of highly-explosive financial paper that laid the cornerstone for the current financial dilemma .
Only the Member States will have the legitimate instruments needed for any far-reaching action , and they will have to remove the shackles of the EU and the euro if such action is to be achieved .
- ( NL ) Mr President , at every European summit we really can complain that the European dimension does not come through strongly enough in the decision-making process .
However , the programme made only a very small contribution to transforming the EU into a low carbon dioxide-emitting economy .
I really believe that it is not with self-defeating speeches and some kind of inferiority complex regarding the United States of America that we will succeed .
in writing . - ( CS ) The Single European Sky is an attempt by European states to improve the traffic-carrying capacity of air space for civilian aviation .
This is a recast of the Regulation on substances that deplete the ozone layer , which is the main EU instrument for transposing the Montreal Protocol requiring ozone-depleting substances to be phased out .
in writing . - ( RO ) I voted in favour of the draft European Parliament legislative resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and Council on substances that deplete the ozone layer ( recast ) - C6-0297 / 2008 - , because I believe that emissions of ozone-depleting substances must be cut or even stopped to allow life on Earth to evolve in normal conditions .
Their aim is to impose the power of capital and the overexploitation of their manpower and wealth-producing resources .
To conclude , our priority is not to express our expectations in a self-deceiving way , but to build on realistic assumptions of what the European Union and the United States could deliver , while increasing our capacity to deliver .
This agenda is still very broad , but I would like to concentrate on one subject that is important and this is the Airbus-Boeing case , which is before the WTO and is being postponed continuously .
On the other hand , there is dislike , and even hostility , especially from many Left-wing Members , to American policy , to American religiousness , and to American capitalism .
For a long time it has been a very inward-looking country .
Personally , when I read ' Turkmenistan report ' , I actually read ' Nabucco report ' because , at the end of the day , we are interested in the energy , in the gas of this third biggest gas-producing country in the world .
It certainly did nothing to loosen the grip on power enjoyed by Europe 's last self-isolating dictator , President Alexander Lukashenko .
They cling desperately to unworkable rules , and there is absolutely no scope for real dialogue with the European institutions and the sportspeople themselves to seek solutions with the potential to produce an anti-doping policy that is effective and does indeed respect the civil rights and privacy of sportspeople .
With regard to anti-doping policy , to what extent has the European Commission taken it upon itself to establish a consultation on the protection of the civil rights of European sportspeople , and how does it believe a consultative framework for sport should be established - both in general and in this kind of matter ?
We will support the Anti-Doping Conference .
I have also said publicly that there is NADAS , the European network of cooperation between national anti-doping agencies in our countries , whether they are public or private .
We have managed this time to achieve a very large , cross-group majority and a really viable compromise , which can also be used as a guideline for future work by the European Commission and later , during the law-making process , by Parliament and the Council .
I do not agree , however , with the co-financing percentages proposed in certain amendments , because they could lead some Member States to limit their participation in the programme .
Indeed they were recently the subject of a TV documentary by ITV North East , where some of these heart-rending cases were brought to life and were examined for the public of the north-east to see .
I also welcome the rapporteur 's call for the entire funding for the food aid programme to be provided by the EU , since the Commission 's co-financing proposal could lead Member States to limit their participation in the programme , particularly at times of economic hardship such as many states are currently experiencing .
Small and medium-sized food-processing companies have also suffered severe consequences .
But , in each case , the constituent has subsequently had to suffer illegal land-grabbing demands by the Valencian authorities .
The evidence brought by this committee following fact-finding missions in the area have clearly shown the encroachment caused by the construction industry and the need to defend the rights of Spanish citizens as enshrined in the treaties .
in writing . - We voted in favour of the report on urbanisation in Spain because it reflects the result of several years of detailed work by the Committee on Petitions to respond to hundreds of related petitions by several thousand petitioners , including fact-finding visits and discussions with all interested parties and it was adopted by a large cross-party majority in committee .
It is there that most long-lasting exchange programmes and joint projects between areas of different traditions , customs and achievements arise .
Indeed , it is essential if we are to see a solution to long-standing conflicts .
Where is our position on human rights that we hide behind in relation to , for example , Russian-speaking minorities living within the territory of EU Member States ?
I also see a lack of balance precisely in the fact that the report criticises Russia for its programme to support Russian citizens living abroad , while at the same time remaining silent on the position of Russian-speaking non-citizens in the EU .
This means that we must also listen to the concerns the Russian side expresses sometimes with regard to some developments inside the European Union including , for instance , the issue of Russian-speaking minorities .
It drew attention to the far-reaching implications of environmental change for the Arctic and it recognised that these could have consequences for international stability and for European security interests .
The bulk of the estimated reserves of minerals , oil and gas are either on the sovereign territory of the Arctic states or in their exclusive economic zones , and some of them have far-reaching plans for further exploration activities .
In this respect - and let me point out that I am not known as a left-wing fanatic - I have to say that I am surprised and dismayed by the amendment tabled by our fellow Member , Mr Weber , whom I respect , and several others .
If property is being rented or sold , we cannot prevent left-wing or right-wing extremists from taking it .
It is a step which corresponds to the European Parliament 's long-standing demand for even simpler procedures and greater flexibility in the application of the rules of the Structural Funds .
Although I will be pleased if our findings and recommendations are at least partially realised , I am saddened to note that a fire-fighting approach is being taken to tackle these difficulties .
To achieve this situation in Romania , the population needs to be informed about the economic benefits which can be gained through energy efficiency management practices , providing , with this purpose in mind , consultancy to all those who are interested in accessing ERDF funds for the latest energy-saving methods .
The Community Code on Visas is necessary to render more uniform the processing of short-stay Schengen visas and , above all , to improve visa-issuing service and thus the perception of the European Union in third countries .
I would request that , in this report , you look not only at the introduction of the provisions but also at the Regulation itself , and that you proceed to a wide-ranging evaluation that gives the sector the opportunity to raise with you the concerns I have just discussed .
A wide-ranging evaluation is what is required , therefore , so that we can look at where improvements can be made .
Commissioner Barrot , given your knowledge of the matter , I am pleased that you are replacing Commissioner Tajani today , and I sincerely hope that you are able to promise us this wide-ranging evaluation .
rapporteur . - Mr President , could I start by thanking all my shadow rapporteurs , and indeed the French Presidency for facilitating an early second-reading agreement ?
Setting an MRL is the first step that must be accomplished before an application can be submitted to the regulatory authorities for authorisation of a veterinary medicine for a food-producing species containing a pharmacologically active substance .
It defined minor food-producing species as all species except cattle , pigs and poultry , and they included salmonidae .
It will also call on and help Member States to inform citizens about their rights by means of awareness-raising campaigns .
rapporteur . - Mr President , like Mr Tatarella , I would like to begin by thanking the people closely involved with helping us reach first-reading agreement today on the EMAS report .
In the long term , ensuring and promoting wider distribution of these products will only be possible if accompanied by price-limiting measures and tax or other advantages .
Beyond keeping prices stable , we must not forget about the need for wide-ranging information to consumers and producers , and therefore EU institutions and the Member State governments must provide information about the advantages guaranteed by the label and about the inventory of products participating in the scheme .
The European Ecolabel needs clear criteria and could put an end to the proliferation of all kinds of well-meaning hallmarks .
In my view , the textiles sector is a good example of the fact that we should not only make approval procedures for new products - in this case , new fibres - more flexible , but also endeavour to strengthen the Ecolabel , together with wider-reaching measures , so that the sector as a whole moves towards sustainability .
( DE ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , while 10 of the 27 Member States are embroiled in an on-going court case due to their failure to transpose the first directive , we have today still seen a simple majority in this House vote to lay a second directive on top of the first .
From experience in my Franconian home , I know of the efforts of political extremists , neo-Nazis and left-wing radicals attempting to acquire property and thereby generate widespread publicity in their favour .
Essentially , the fundamental problem with this is that it takes power away from us , as elected politicians or national politicians , and puts it in the hands of unelected judges to interpret and re-interpret the legislation in ways that were never envisaged at all by the very well-meaning sentiments of some of the authors of this report .
It is true that so-called right-wing politicians have made precious few efforts to demand democratisation in Eastern Europe , but it is even truer that very many left-wing politicians actively supported these Communist regimes , even though they play the holy innocent today , even in this Parliament .
It is true that so-called right-wing politicians have made precious few efforts to demand democratisation in Eastern Europe , but it is even truer that very many left-wing politicians actively supported these Communist regimes , even though they play the holy innocent today , even in this Parliament .
But rather than accepting that and trying to suit our institutions to public opinion , we attempt to suit public opinion to our pre-existing institutions .
In an effort to deal with the constantly increasing tide of opposition to the anti-grassroots policy of the EU , of the euro-unifying construct itself , they are calling on the EU to step up its false propaganda and to promote the non-existent advantages of European citizenship .
In particular I doubt that these initiatives will be effective in promoting linguistic and cultural identities , considering that they are not backed by additional wider-ranging initiatives and policies .
However , it is also a sister nation that we should support and not criticise unendingly , as many right-thinking ultra-Europeans do , especially in this report , which calls the rescue of the Russian-speaking minorities in Georgia a ' disproportionate counter-attack ' that ' puts a question mark on Russia 's readiness to build , together with the EU , a common space of security in Europe ' .
However , it is also a sister nation that we should support and not criticise unendingly , as many right-thinking ultra-Europeans do , especially in this report , which calls the rescue of the Russian-speaking minorities in Georgia a ' disproportionate counter-attack ' that ' puts a question mark on Russia 's readiness to build , together with the EU , a common space of security in Europe ' .
Due to the ever-changing nature of this field , we need to re-evaluate the regulations protecting our citizens .
Although our Parliament adopted in both 2004 and 2005 a resolution in response to the physical and psychological attacks carried out against non-Serb inhabitants of this area and also took the exemplary action of sending a fact-finding delegation to the area in 2005 , incidences of violence , intimidation and humiliation against the minorities living there , primarily Hungarians , are not only continuing , but seem to be getting worse .
My objective has been to create an agency with greater independence and decision-making powers .
Indeed , our very strong first-reading agreement on ownership unbundling gave the negotiating team a lot of leverage during the talks .
What is required , therefore , is the opening up of a competitive market , ensuring long-term investment and contracts from firms in the sector , particularly in the new Member States , where the creation of new infrastructure would also make it possible to resolve long-standing problems relating to energy dependence .
By doing so , the label will pull the market towards better-performing tyres while avoiding improvements on one aspect being achieved at the costs of others .
It will not be enough actually to provide the transparency and consumer protection promised here by many well-meaning Members of this House .
I also recall that during the previous debate two years ago on reducing mobile phone roaming tariffs we had a very wide-ranging discussion .
( HU ) During this cycle the European Parliament has had the task of exercising control over the administration of an ever-increasing number of agencies , a fact also mentioned by my fellow Member , Mr Fjellner .
Looking back on the past period , what is gratifying is that during budget monitoring we have not only established conformity or lack of it , but we have also been able to make forward-looking recommendations to the institutions that have been audited , which have attempted to successfully implement them .
The proposal also aims at ensuring that national regulatory authorities in charge of nuclear safety are independent from any governmental decision-making body and any other organisation that would have an interest in nuclear matters .
The report clearly recognises the obligation of the Member States to respect the Safety Fundamentals stemming from the IAEA and the provisions of the Convention on Nuclear Safety , as well as seeking to reinforce the role of nuclear regulatory authorities and ensure their independent decision-making role .
I would also like to thank my colleagues for their outstanding cooperation in bringing us to the point of tomorrow 's vote ; shadows and staff have truly pulled out all the stops so that we could complete Parliament 's first reading in the shortest possible time , so as to be in a position to seek a first-reading agreement and thus to avoid any further delays .
As I said earlier , we had really hoped to get a first-reading agreement .
A new decision-making structure is being proposed , using a Council-level decision for the general and essential provisions and comitology for the more detailed and technical region-specific provisions , thereby avoiding micro-management at a political level .
According to the principles of IPA , environmental protection , good governance , civil society development , gender equality and non-discrimination are all cross-cutting issues and are an integral part of project design .
In addition it is also true to say that a good collaboration with the national authorities and the organisation of fact-finding missions are definitely useful ingredients for your work .
This report also makes a number of forward-looking recommendations .
Nowadays , there is an ever-increasing number of women becoming involved in politics and making major decisions in companies .
We are about to successfully conclude the adoption of three key measures : firstly , the regulation on credit-rating agencies ; secondly , the recast of Solvency II , as well as , thirdly , the revision of the Third and Sixth Company Law Directives on domestic mergers and divisions .
Firstly , the agreement reached on a regulation on credit-rating agencies will help address one of the problems that contributed to this crisis and thus will offer some prospect of restoring market confidence .
The proposal adopted by the Commission last November sets some clear objectives for improving integrity , transparency , responsibility and good governance of the credit-rating agencies .
The thrust of the initial proposal is preserved in this regulation , which will in particular secure the analytical independence of credit-rating agencies , the integrity of the rating process and an adequate management of conflicts of interest that existed before in the rating process .
European regulators will supervise the conduct of credit-rating agencies and take enforcement action where necessary .
All G20 members have agreed on regulating credit-rating agencies through the introduction of mandatory registration and oversight regime .
I made the original amendment in part with the report on Equitable Life in mind , but in the context of the financial crisis it has a wider resonance and I have achieved similar inclusions in the capital requirements and credit-rating proposals .
I was concerned that the rabidly hostile scapegoating of credit-rating agencies would result in excessively intrusive and counter-productive regulation , with an overwhelming Eurocentric , protectionist and extraterritorial dimension .
The EU regulation on credit-rating agencies will improve integrity , transparency , responsibility and good governance in the credit-rating activities .
The EU regulation on credit-rating agencies will improve integrity , transparency , responsibility and good governance in the credit-rating activities .
rapporteur . - Mr President , Parliament has moved from its first-reading position on the Electricity and Gas Directive .
I remain uneasy about the non-binding nature of the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators .
We share your views in this area of course , which is highly important if we want to achieve second-reading approval over these two important legal regulations .
( DE ) Mr President , service-providing enterprises are there for the users of these services and not primarily for the service providers themselves .
I do not have time to analyse and comment on the individual suggestions and facets of such a wide-ranging debate , rather , since I must sum up in the few seconds that remain of my speaking time , I will use two adjectives to encapsulate and bring together your thoughts and suggestions .
But could I ask , when you discuss the disability action plan , that you as a Commissioner and as a Commission bear in mind that the effect of Alzheimer 's is a cross-cutting effect across disability , the field of ageing and public health and that you maintain a comprehensive strategy , not just identifying Alzheimer 's but including all the related aspects and that you maintain your priority ?
According to recent analyses by international financial institutes and credit-rating agencies , a major economic decline is to be expected in south-eastern Europe accompanied by the danger of loan default on the part of consumers and undertakings .
Member of the Commission . - Throughout the past year the Commission has recognised that marine science and technology is a cross-cutting priority area .
If we look at its main instruments , Enterprise Europe Network exclusively benefits SMEs by providing information on access by different types of SME finance and identifying project-funding opportunities and helping to find technology and business partners .
This dialogue takes into account our long-standing policy of openness and inclusiveness and it also reflects the wide differences in the policy fields and the diversity of stakeholders .
I myself make an effort every few months to alert stakeholders to the various consultation processes that are ongoing and I genuinely believe and would ask you , Commissioner , if you do not agree that it would be very useful for the Commission offices in each country to draw up a list , a very wide-ranging list , of all stakeholders and ensure that they are alerted to the consultation process , so that they would know and could take part .
Vice-President of the Commission . - The Commission supports and complements the communication efforts by the European Parliament and national authorities and political parties by carrying out thematic , awareness-raising activities at both European and local levels .
I would like to thank everybody concerned with the debate , particularly the rapporteur Brian Crowley , not because he is a colleague of mine from Ireland and a long-standing friend , but because he has put in an extraordinary amount of work to try and make this compromise acceptable to as many competing interests in Parliament as possible and also facilitated a compromise which , as Mr Medina Ortega has said , has a reasonable chance of acceptance in the Council of Minsters as well .
That is why we shall continue , in the interests of the citizens , to try and ensure that , when a citizen drives another ten or twenty kilometres in Europe , he does not stumble upon a traffic-calming zone which he believes to be the same as in his home district , only to find that totally different rules apply .
In this context , the Commission has produced the Intelligent Transport Systems Action Plan and submitted a proposal for a directive which should promote ITS use by kick-starting standardisation .
Secondly , there is an ever-increasing danger of all the data collected being misused .
People 's privacy is in ever-increasing danger .
My personal long-standing fight for the mass introduction of eCall , the electronic emergency callout system , brings the urgency of this home to me almost daily , and intelligent transport systems can do so much more .
The Council will review the text of the report in detail , as well as all of the amendment proposals , and will carefully consider incorporating them into the common position of the Council in order to support a second-reading agreement .
We consider that there must be exceptions for rare diseases or life-threatening situations on waiting lists .
I would like to ask two particularly political questions , since it is decision-making time .
I recognise that any agreement today will come too late for a formal first-reading agreement during the Czech Presidency , but I understand that there is already substantial political agreement within the Council in principle , thanks to the work the Presidency has already done , and I wish to thank it for that .
I would be annoyed with myself if I did not mention here the considerable financial support also provided by citizens ' actions : the Téléthon in France and Télévie in French-speaking Belgium .
In times of ever-narrowing margins and extreme competition , overtaking manoeuvres by lorry drivers , coupled with overtired drivers and overloading , are a fatal cocktail of risks .
The largest newly-emerging economies achieved full recognition of their role in the global economy .
The above commitments also involved an agreement that the G20 countries would do everything in their power to ensure rapid implementation of the April 2008 reforms to IMF decision-making structures , which are currently delayed by slow ratification in national parliaments .
Similarly Moldovan interest in the possibility of the dispatch of an EU fact-finding mission is positive .
European consultation regarding the far-reaching consequences of such a sweeping decision is certainly reasonable .
It means developing a consensual approach and being prepared to make far-reaching changes .
Bosnia Herzegovina must carry out significant changes to its internal structures and decision-making processes .
After the military inventions led by the Americans against Iraq , Afghanistan and other regions , we found ourselves in an era of ever-increasing crises and the prospect of even talking about nuclear disarmament could barely be dreamed or hoped of .
The Commission is proposing a solution for the most pressing problems arising in connection with the internal market , through improved coordination of Member State tax regulations and improved decision-making processes .
Thus , the compromise improves the definition of ' energy-related products ' by clarifying which products could be covered by implementing measures , such as window-insulation materials or some water-using products like showerheads or taps .
From my consultations with stakeholders , I realise that forward-thinking businesses do not wait for regulations in order to become compliant , but take proactive measures .
An improved product design would avoid waste and provide consumers with more efficient , more reliable and longer-lasting products .
It essentially consists of extending the scope of the existing Eco-design Directive beyond the energy-using products that it currently covers to include all energy-relevant products .
It has already proved its worth and we are seeing good results when it comes to energy-using products .
The Commission intends to continue its on-going work on the approximately 25 implementation measures for the eco-design directive that were set out in its working plan for the 2009-2011 period .
It is not simply about energy-using products , but also about energy-related products , and I am fully in agreement with the rapporteur that it should in fact be about all products .
This is a law-making process that has created great challenges for us all , but we must be clear that what we are talking about here is the future of an extraordinarily important sector .
There is also the risk of the real criminals adapting to the profile by using innocent-looking people as drug mules or suicide bombers or by changing travel routes away from those monitored .
All of us as Members , in these last days of this mandate , are spending our time tearing around , going from trialogue to trialogue and first-reading agreement to first-reading agreement , arguing about sets of words , the contents of sentences in legislation .
All of us as Members , in these last days of this mandate , are spending our time tearing around , going from trialogue to trialogue and first-reading agreement to first-reading agreement , arguing about sets of words , the contents of sentences in legislation .
We have been rushed through the legislative process for a first-reading agreement in order to get this measure enacted before the European elections .
We were forced to discover that other women had been shot , such as the highest-ranking police officer .
By the way , these are the people who have exposed the Tehran secret nuclear programme and are opposing the terrorism-exporting regime by peaceful means .
First-reading approval with the Council was not possible because some of the Member States did not agree to a compulsory statement of conformity .
To support ever-increasing integration , chiefly between young people , it is our duty to back the increase in funding and the number of study grants available in the EU for students and researchers from the western Balkans within the framework of the Erasmus Mundus programme .
This activity has started affecting an ever-increasing number of European citizens too .
Under these circumstances , I would not support the idea of introducing a legal obligation concerning adjustment of working hours for breast-feeding women .
I believe that pregnant or breast-feeding women should have the possibility any time of refusing night work without having to state their reasons for doing so .
The Council also made concessions during the debate on harmonising work and family life in the deadline for providing supplementary daytime rest and in the definition of top-ranking employees , and I could list further examples .
The Council 's rejection of the compromise solution , which was confirmed by two readings in the European Parliament and supported by groups right across the political spectrum on both the left and right , has come right at the time when across Europe there is an increasing number of jobs being lost , large companies are queuing up to announce their redundancy plans and ever-increasing amounts of taxpayers ' money are being used to help banks which are in dire straits and to alleviate the damaging effects of the economic crisis .
rapporteur . - Madam President , we have a compromise ; we possibly have before us tomorrow a first-reading agreement .
I am very pleased that it is possible tonight to reach a first-reading agreement on this highly sensitive file .
I would , therefore , like to stress again the importance of reaching first-reading agreement on an issue which is so important to European Union citizens .
I therefore urge you to support the compromise package in full , without amendments , to ensure a first-reading agreement .
Therefore , I call on all Members of this House to reject all the more far-reaching amendments that have been submitted and to vote in favour of the amendments from the Group of the European People 's Party ( Christian Democrats ) and European Democrats and the Socialist Group in the European Parliament .
These tests have been restricted to life-threatening illnesses and brain diseases .
We have produced a working document and you will recall that the IMCO Committee working group , led by myself as chair and rapporteur , made a decision not to rush this proposal without taking full consideration of all its implications , in particular since it has been described as the most far-reaching change in approach to consumer law in Europe .
This is most surprising and , in addition , does not stem from Commissioners themselves but , rather , from certain high-ranking officials - very few , but from some high-ranking officials - convinced that they are permanent members of staff in contrast to Members of Parliament and even Commissioners who are , by definition , interim staff here on a short-term basis .
This is most surprising and , in addition , does not stem from Commissioners themselves but , rather , from certain high-ranking officials - very few , but from some high-ranking officials - convinced that they are permanent members of staff in contrast to Members of Parliament and even Commissioners who are , by definition , interim staff here on a short-term basis .
( FR ) Madam President , though presented on the legitimate grounds of protecting artistic creation , the so-called ' Hadopi ' law , which is being drafted in Paris , is in fact a freedom-destroying law .
I am very grateful to the rapporteur , Mrs Podimata , for producing , in a short period of time , the report on a highly complex proposal , giving the opportunity for a second-reading agreement , when the Council will really enter into the discussion .
Secondly , energy efficiency can be part of the solution to the current economic recession : addressing energy demand and energy use can help create long-lasting growth and solid job opportunities .
Our solution is to give producers and retailers the possibility of providing information on specific energy-consumption-saving aspects .
It has rid the market of energy-wasting equipment , and that model has been followed in such countries as Brazil , China , Argentina , Iran , Israel and South Africa .
These will make the European decision-making process more understandable , increase the level of transparency and improve the practices of the institutions .
Labelling will also be applied to commercial and industrial energy-using products , such as cold storage rooms or chilled display cabinets .
The EU is committed to shouldering its fair share of that , which of course also requires a fair internal burden-sharing agreement .
You should say frankly that the legal trump cards are now in the hands of those who did not ratify the Treaty of Lisbon , the Irish and the other free-thinking peoples in the EU .
Please also bear in mind that the Treaty of Lisbon was rejected not only by Irish citizens , but , for example , by the prominent German left-wing politician Oskar Lafontaine , by the prominent Christian Democrat politician and former President of the Federal Constitutional Court and President of Germany , Roman Herzog , and by the former member of this Parliament , Graf von Stauffenberg , son of the would-be assassin of Adolf Hitler .
I congratulate Mr Silva Peneda , in particular , on his extensive and far-reaching report which covers a wide range of issues , and which calls specifically for an ambitious social policy agenda .
This wide-ranging report is complemented by that of Ms Lambert on how to include people who are frequently excluded from the labour market .
Within the European market , where more and more citizens are exercising their right to freedom of movement , employment has been a long-standing concern in both national and European politics .
The EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk agreed on 22 April to hold further talks in order to find a negotiated solution to the long-running dispute over hormone-treated beef .
Furthermore , what solutions does the Commission envisage , if it should not withdraw its proposal to lift the ban on blending , in order to prevent the collapse of this fragile market in rosé wine , which has a short shelf life , and the weakening of the economic fabric of a whole region , which offers a whole range of cultural and tourist activities based around the wine-growing industry ?
In certain regions , wine-makers have invested a lot of effort to develop a high-quality rosé wine based on a precise product specification , and have limited the wine-making practices for rosé wine to traditional methods .
The discussion on wine-making practices , including on blending , started back in 2006 during the negotiations on the wine reform .
Following wide-ranging discussions which took place last autumn with stakeholders and with all Member States , the Commission proposed the abolition of the ban on blending red and white wine .
In-depth impact assessments were carried out by the Commission 's services when drafting the wine reform and we do not therefore intend to restart the work undertaken in 2006 and 2007 to prepare the wine reform , nor to make an in-depth impact assessment of all different individual wine-making practices , so we base ourselves on the work that is taking place in the OIV .
Madam President , this is what I wanted to say : ' It is a Freudian matter , not a wine-growing matter ' .
In addition to that , 25 million fur-bearing animals are slaughtered .
In the Committee on the Environment , Public Health and Food Safety we voted through my opinion , in which we demand , among other things , shorter transport times and waiting times at slaughterhouses , investments in mobile slaughterhouses , that fur-bearing animals be included under this regulation , that Member States be able to go further and have more stringent provisions and that animal welfare inspectors and the proposed national reference centres for animal welfare be independent and be given greater powers .
It is gratifying that the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development supports our proposal on mobile slaughterhouses and to include fur-bearing animals .
We do not want to open the floodgates and have hundreds of amendments rewriting lengthy resolutions by a committee of 700-and-something Members , but on the other hand a limited right of amendment where there is a strong wish for it , we felt , was a reasonable compromise and a right balance .
Second , the point raised by Ms Frassoni about opinion-giving committees having the right to table amendments in plenary .
If necessary there will be fact-finding visits in situ to establish facts or indeed to seek a solution .
Re-injecting funds into an unrestrained economy is just throwing money down the drain .
Rejection may eventually cause not only a shortage of money for energy-saving projects , but also a lack of funds to ensure reliable supplies of gas to our homes .
Today I am particularly pleased to welcome the prospect of a first-reading agreement on two key measures : the Community programme to support specific activities in the field of financial services , financial reporting and auditing , and the review of the Capital Requirements Directive ( CRD ) .
By avoiding the reliance of the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation , the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group and the international Public Oversight Board on voluntary funding from non-diversified potentially interested parties , we can improve the quality and credibility of the standard-setting process .
It is an essential element of the EU 's influence in the standard-setting process of the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation .
I hope that the banks will prove to be more cooperative than they have been in the last few months , when I saw them more in the role of a brakeman than a partner in search of forward-looking solutions .
Normally I would have thought that we would vote on the most far-reaching amendments first , so I would ask you to use the power that you have according to Rule 19 in the Rules of Procedure and change the order of the vote so that we vote on the amendments .
However , this report is above all an unexpected opportunity to adopt in extremis a mind-boggling amendment , despite it having been rejected in committee , and drafted exclusively to prevent a single individual from performing a duty that is , moreover , recognised in all the world 's parliaments : that of the oldest Member chairing the election of the President at the inaugural session .
in writing . - ( SV ) I am voting against this report , as guarantees should be given that parts of the available spectra will be used for nonprofit-making purposes and not go to the large telecoms companies .
The assistance for ' sustainable cities ' would have enabled wide-ranging projects to develop district heating and combined heat and power as well as improvements in housing .
We thought at one point we might have got a first-reading agreement on this , but time and , indeed , our desire to pull together the package of measures looking at the European common asylum system mean that we have not got that far .
This same solidarity is also inherent in the European Parliament 's proposal to introduce a burden-sharing mechanism which will no longer be voluntary but legally binding across the board .
I therefore believe that this is a benchmark for the civilisation of our political initiative and our law-making capacity .
As far as regional agreements are concerned , the procedure established by the proposal in the area of the family law will apply to the amendment or renegotiation of two already-existing conventions between the Nordic States .
President-in-Office of the Council . - Mr President , this debate has been extremely interesting , and it seems that we are very close to reaching a first-reading agreement on the proposal in the area of applicable law .
As I stressed earlier , the first-reading agreement on the proposal in the area of applicable law has an impact on the other proposal in the area of family law , given that the two texts are largely identical .
Through the first-reading agreement we have , therefore , also paved the way for an early adoption of the other proposal .
Moreover , the European Community and the Member States are participating in ongoing negotiations , such as the draft anti-counterfeiting trade agreement , in order to render the protection of intellectual property rights more effective at international level .
Allow me also to recall that last spring the Council and Parliament successfully negotiated a first-reading agreement on the Commission 's proposal to establish a European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion in 2010 .
The Council welcomes the agreement for a first-reading adoption of this revision and goes by today 's vote in plenary .
European unification is abhorrent to them and they are afraid that this Europe could gain popularity through greater democracy and transparency and also enhanced decision-making abilities to face the challenges of the future .
In this area , the Treaty of Lisbon has provided a very decisive , forward-looking response .
The programme in question is also relevant because it takes into account the impact of technological developments in the field , all the more so as an ever-increasing demand for audiovisual content has actually been generated .
And the promotion on the distribution has been done , for instance , by the European Producers Club , which organised co-producing workshops in China and in India .
The other option would have been to open up slots completely , resulting in all likelihood in a scenario where the most powerful airlines would turn their empty aeroplanes round on the best slots , would abandon the least profitable spatial-planning slots , and where the low-cost airlines , which have a different economic model , would take advantage of it to sell off a few slots .
For as long as the political debates of representative democracy are focused on the elections to the national parliaments , it should be the national parliaments that are the highest decision-making bodies within the Union - not the European Parliament .
We Social Democrats object to the policy on asylum and immigration that is being conducted by the right-leaning majority in the European Parliament .
The EP is hiding the fact that , with regard to the supposed enhancement of the role of the national parliaments in the decision-making process , what is actually happening with the Treaty of Lisbon is that these parliaments are losing much more than they are ( falsely ) gaining , bearing in mind the extensive transfer of powers to the institutions of the European Union .
In my opinion , Mr Brok 's report should have come to the conclusion that , for as long as the political debates of representative democracy are focused on the elections to the national parliaments , it should be the national parliaments that are the highest decision-making bodies within the Union - not the European Parliament .
It is undoubtedly a way of bringing European citizens closer to the European institutions and raising their awareness of and increasing their participation in the decision-making process .
The African Union , the Southern African Development Community , the International Organisation of French-Speaking Countries , the Interparliamentary Union , the European Union , speaking via the Commission , the United States , and a large number of countries , including my own and Norway - to speak of countries from the European continent - have condemned the coup d 'état - for that is what it is - which has taken place in Madagascar .
The Commission proposals on capital requirements , deposit guarantees , credit-rating agencies and on the Solvency Directive for the insurance sector have all been adopted by the European Parliament and by the Council .
The WTO confirms that the number of trade-restricting measures has increased considerably in the past three months .
Most important of all , however , is the fact that having the Treaty of Lisbon in place will close the chapter on an inward-looking phase of EU cooperation .
I want to see a Europe that develops its social model further , a Europe that combines a well-functioning welfare system with growth - with social cohesion , a Europe that through work , enterprise and healthy public finances creates room to maintain and develop our welfare models , in the best interests of all our citizens .
With the proposals already made - many of them already approved by this Parliament and by the Council , some still in our decision-making process - we are indeed taking the lead globally in the reform of the financial international system .
We need to build an economy and a society based on opportunity , responsibility and solidarity , an economy which will have to reinvent new sources of growth because we cannot rely for ever on monetary and fiscal stimulus ; a Europe of open and well-performing markets ; a Europe of smart , green growth ; a Europe with more effective regulation and supervision of financial markets ; a Europe that deepens its single market and uses its potential to the full ; a Europe that resists the trends for fragmentation or protectionism .
in writing . - ( EL ) The priorities of the Swedish Presidency mark an escalation in the anti-grassroots attack by the EU , the aim of which is to safeguard the ongoing profitability of euro-unifying capital by shifting the burden of the capitalist recession on to the working class and grassroots classes .
The strategy on the Baltic has paved the way for a more aggressive approach by the euro-unifying monopolies in the countries on the eastern borders of the ΕU , in a bid to strengthen their position in the imperialist competition .
In fact , when we decided in 2003 to set up those relationships within the framework of a comprehensive strategic partnership , we were committing ourselves to an extremely ambitious enterprise , and this is very much reflected in the broad and wide-ranging relationship which we have with China today .
Economic and trade relations have been transformed , people-to-people contacts are multiplying and we are engaged in dialogue on an ever-increasing range of issues .
The latter , which make up almost half of the population , are for the most part Sunni Muslims of Turkish-speaking origin .
( FR ) Mr President , our peace-loving principles must not lead us to give the impression that , by appealing to both parties of the current conflict to show restraint , we believe that the perpetrators of the coup d 'état in Honduras and the constitutional government are as guilty as each other .
We must consider the enormous progress and democratic changes made over recent years in a series of countries , changes which strengthen constitutional and democratic freedoms , which defend the concept and essence of policy against the uncontrolled position of the market trying to oust it and which break the long-standing bonds of neo-colonialism .
( HU ) The spectre of extreme left-wing and extreme right-wing ideology , reflecting the two dictatorships that dominated Europe in the 20th century , is returning to haunt the European Union in the 21st century .
Ladies and gentlemen , we must not allow ourselves to be seduced by sweet talk used as a smokescreen to conceal ruthless and inhumane right-wing policies .
Currently it is trying to wriggle out of legal requirements that it uses air-conditioning coolants with a much lower global warming potential than those used at present , and already it is lobbying to try and weaken the Commission 's proposals on CO2 emissions from vans and light commercial vehicles .
The European Community Mechanism for Civil Protection was used by France , Italy , Spain and other Member States of the European Union to provide aerial fire-fighting resources in Greece , Italy , Portugal and other countries .
In fact , for the first time , two Community fire-fighting aircraft were involved together with Greek , Portuguese and French aerial resources in fire-fighting efforts under a pilot programme to create an independent Community fire brigade .
In fact , for the first time , two Community fire-fighting aircraft were involved together with Greek , Portuguese and French aerial resources in fire-fighting efforts under a pilot programme to create an independent Community fire brigade .
On the occasion of these recent fires , many voices were again raised by politicians , scientists , journalists and simple citizens , calling for the creation at European level of a specialist fire-fighting force able to intervene directly and effectively when national fire-fighting resources are insufficient .
On the occasion of these recent fires , many voices were again raised by politicians , scientists , journalists and simple citizens , calling for the creation at European level of a specialist fire-fighting force able to intervene directly and effectively when national fire-fighting resources are insufficient .
It allowed us to secure funds to charter fire-fighting aircraft and , for the first time this summer , over the period from 1 June to 30 September , we set up and commissioned an airborne fire-fighting force under the supervision of the European Commission , the EU forest fire tactical reserve , whose aircraft were involved in fire-fighting operations in various countries .
It allowed us to secure funds to charter fire-fighting aircraft and , for the first time this summer , over the period from 1 June to 30 September , we set up and commissioned an airborne fire-fighting force under the supervision of the European Commission , the EU forest fire tactical reserve , whose aircraft were involved in fire-fighting operations in various countries .
It allowed us to secure funds to charter fire-fighting aircraft and , for the first time this summer , over the period from 1 June to 30 September , we set up and commissioned an airborne fire-fighting force under the supervision of the European Commission , the EU forest fire tactical reserve , whose aircraft were involved in fire-fighting operations in various countries .
In fact , the national airborne resources , be they Greek , Portuguese or Italian , and those that came from other countries , were joined by the purely Community fire-fighting aircraft , which fly under the flag of the European Union , not under the flag of a Member State .
Also , there are arguments that the existence of a European fire-fighting force would give a false sense of security to many national authorities , which might neglect the necessary investment required in human resources , in fire-fighting resources and , more importantly , in the prevention of fires and other natural disasters .
Also , there are arguments that the existence of a European fire-fighting force would give a false sense of security to many national authorities , which might neglect the necessary investment required in human resources , in fire-fighting resources and , more importantly , in the prevention of fires and other natural disasters .
For example , what criteria and what priorities will be used to determine how European airborne fire-fighting units are to be used where fires break out in several countries at once , for example , in Portugal and Greece at the same time .
We believe that long-term protection of forests and biodiversity is only feasible if viable risk prevention and management policies are applied at national , regional and local level , by actively involving local communities , by keeping people in the countryside , by creating new ' green ' professions , though lifelong learning and training , and by strengthening forestry services with the emphasis on voluntary forest fire-fighting brigades .
When I use the words ' colleagues ' or ' comrades ' , I do so because I myself have been a member of a voluntary fire-fighting organisation in Austria for decades and so absolutely do feel sympathy and empathy for the efforts made .
I would also be more than happy to actively help and be involved in such a project together with my colleagues in the Upper Austrian provincial fire-fighting association .
The inadequate anti-flooding works and the unsound soil as a result of the fires , in conjunction with the intensity of the rain , caused one death and massive damage to villages , roads , bridges and other infrastructure .
We also welcome the fact that the pilot project of tactically reserving fire-fighting planes could , in future , really become an intervention body , which I do think is important .
Dismayed as I am by this assessment made repeatedly , year after year , and mindful as I am of the multiplier effect of global warming on fires , I call for European awareness of the need for more coordinated efforts and for the pooling of fire-fighting resources .
For example , insufficient numbers of fire-fighting teams and the inability to solve and prevent crimes that might result in fires are behind the tragedies this summer .
However , aid is also important , for restoration , for re-establishing production potential and for compensating for the social costs and job losses .
I would also like to call for a reform of the decision-making process so that the poorest countries can have a greater say in decision making , particularly within the Bretton Woods system .
The key elements of this concern : an additional EUR 95 million in commitment and EUR 60 million in payment appropriations to support the Palestinian Authority and reconstruction efforts in Gaza ; and the need to consider the establishment of Bananas Accompanying Measures in view of the possible trade agreement that will affect the preferential regime of ACP banana-supplying countries .
The top priority is to get some proper management of the flows , which are usually what are called ' mixed flows ' of refugees and job-seeking migrants , so as to distinguish between the two .
We need more solutions based on a burden-sharing approach as it is the only adequate response .
The FRONTEX agency must play an ever-increasing role in the process of improving the monitoring and control of Romania 's external borders , representing more than 2 000 km of the EU 's external frontier , in other words , the Schengen area 's future external border .
The event which Krisztina Morvai spoke about took place in 2006 when these extreme right-wing protesters set the Hungarian television broadcasting corporation 's central building on fire and ran riot for days , resulting in 113 police officers being injured .
This was the first time in the country 's history , since the change of regime , that the police had had any experience of dealing with extreme right-wing protests .
You have a majority here in Parliament , a right-wing majority , and clearly we are unable to identify with this majority .
The anti-working class policy of the EU does not depend on persons or on the President of the Commission ; it is determined above all by its very character as an imperialist union of capital .
For example , by reducing the consumption of imported oil , not only do you save money , and you do not pay it to the oil-producing countries , but you also reduce CO2 emissions .
What view does the Commission take of the environmental damage caused by opencast lignite mining and lignite-burning power stations in the Czech Republic and central Germany , and of the progress with plans to decommission lignite plants and return affected land to nature ?
It ' notes with great concern that the crisis already bears major human costs , and has devastating effects for the vulnerable in the poorest countries with an expected increase of 23 million more unemployed , up to 90 million more extreme poor in 2009 alone , life-saving drug treatment for up to 1.7 million people under threat , and 200 000-400 000 more infant deaths per year on average between 2009 and 2015 ' .
I would simply say that , as far as I am concerned , since taking up my duties , I have obviously noted the fact that the Council asked Judge Bruguière to go and carry out this fact-finding mission in the United States .
The European Union is of course France , the United Kingdom , the Federal Republic of Germany , and Italy - all members of the G4 - but it is also Austria , Belgium , Estonia , Latvia , Romania , Poland , Hungary , Luxembourg and so on , which were excluded from an important phase in the decision-making process in 2008 .
Scientific research therefore needs to be developed so as to improve risk assessment procedures , fire prevention systems and fire-fighting facilities , and the requisite financial resources must also be released .
This was because I note that the majority in this Parliament believes that combating forest fires at the European level should not be restricted to support and coordination but that , in reality , a kind of separate European fire-fighting corps would have to be established , yet another European body that would cost vast sums in order to duplicate work already performed by others .
We should be clear about one thing : the freedom-loving people of central Asia are among our most important partners .
I think it was Mr Arlacchi who mentioned that Afghanistan remains the first opiate- and heroin-producing country in the world and , of course , the whole transit takes place through Tajikistan and through other Central Asian countries .
The EU 's commitment to combating human trafficking is clear from the adoption and implementation of both legislation and non-binding instruments on this issue .
The countries that have the resources would expect more forward-moving decisions .
Why have they not up to now been involved on an equal footing in the planning and decision-making processes ?
( FR ) Mr President , the independence of our region 's energy supply and the security of energy installations and consumers ought not to go hand in hand with defiance of the interests of the peoples of the gas-producing countries and the transit countries , otherwise we risk generating conflict .
I would like to begin by saying that , if we look back at the last five years , Commissioner Piebalgs has probably become one of the most successful commissioners for the balanced , forward-looking policies which we have jointly accepted with Parliament up until now .
If we want to have a well-functioning diary market we must support farm investments in modernisations , small producers and young farmers .
It will , in fact , increase the influence of the EU in the international arena and make us stronger in meeting global challenges , and I know that you in this Parliament will also be given a more significant role in the overall decision-making process .
Mr President , I oppose the Lisbon Treaty from a Left and Socialist perspective and reject the intervention of xenophobes and right-wing forces .
The single market promotes trade and prosperity ; world-leading companies such as Airbus in my constituency have shown what we can achieve when we pool our industrial resources .
There is now a very heavy burden and responsibility on the shoulders of those who wish and desire an even deeper centralisation of the decision-making process here in Brussels .
Parliament will finally have decision-making powers equal to those of the Council of Agricultural Ministers , thanks to the agreement of the Irish and the favourable votes received in the national parliaments , including the Czech Parliament .
This Treaty is , first of all , a step forward in terms of making the decision-making process at EU level more democratic , allowing those of us in the European Parliament to be among the first to enjoy the positive exchanges of opinion provided for under this Treaty .
( PT ) Mr President , Minister , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , I would just like to say a few words to applaud the historic and far-reaching result of the referendum in Ireland and to highlight the decisive role played by Fine Gael and its leader , the next Prime Minister of Ireland , Enda Kenny , in leading this process .
There is no doubt that the Treaty will serve for the benefit of the European Union by simplifying its decision-making process and creating a better field for its effectiveness .
On behalf of the Hungarian people , I would like to call for your solidarity now because , according to reliable information from human-rights-sensitive , high-ranking members of the Hungarian police , on the third anniversary of so-called Bloody Monday in 2006 ( 23 October ) , the Hungarian police will again use massive violence against the Hungarian people during our demonstrations or commemorations .
The European Parliament sent a fact-finding delegation to Serbia in January 2005 .
I want to emphasise that these people are always the first to lose their jobs , see a fall in their incomes , have few opportunities for a livelihood and experience a drop in their standard of living , not to mention the ever-dwindling support given to the social organisations representing them .
As a result of changing travel habits , an ever-increasing number of people are making their own travel arrangements , without availing themselves of the services of travel agencies .
The size of this sector warrants that regular European surveys should analyse the companies ' flight policy , complaint-handling mechanism and the simplicity of the refund procedure .
What I should have liked to see from the Commission was an initiative to restore freedom of expression and information in all European Member States wherever these are under very real threat from freedom-killing legislation , often on the pretext of supposedly combating racism .
Globalisation of the markets and the ever-increasing use of the airwaves now require more targeted European legislation to regulate this sensitive matter , which has such a strong influence on public opinion and therefore also on the principle of popular sovereignty - which underpins the European Union and not just the Italian Republic - and on the ways in which this principle is exercised .
If this wall of illiberality and anti-democracy really does exist in Italy , why , in so many years of left-wing government , has it never been brought down ?
As luck would have it , most of those millions went to the four main left-wing newspapers .
And , inevitably - as luck would have it here too - it launched this campaign only after Prime Minister Berlusconi had made a legitimate claim for compensation from two left-wing newspapers that had defamed him , accusing him of disgraceful behaviour , accusations based on complete fabrications that are beneath any form of journalism worth its salt .
Out of respect for thousands of people who suffer oppression and a lack of free expression in many countries in the world , it is obscene to describe the Italian regime as a freedom-destroying regime .
On the one hand , the economic crisis and its social consequences require urgent measures to restore job-creating growth .
The resolution calls for the strengthening of international imperialist organisations ( IMF , World Bank , WTO ) and paves the way for a ' green ' return on capital on the pretext of climate change and the complete liberalisation of international trade , which signals even greater penetration by the monopolies on the markets of developing and poor countries and the plundering of wealth-producing resources and human resources .
The considerable growth in International Monetary Fund resources and changes to that organisation 's decision-making system are two reasons for thinking there may be positive developments .
I would appreciate it if you , Mr President , could speak with the power-sharing executive in Belfast about the importance and influence of multilingualism in general .
This agenda is very often exploited by right-wing extremists , who spread claims that the Schengen area actually allows various criminals to penetrate into the countries that are inside the area , and the citizens of our states quite justifiably ask us how we intend to prevent this happening in the future .
Therefore , like the rapporteur , my preference is for the draft to be returned to the Commission and for us to insist that a joint decision-making process be incorporated into it and that the entire principle be simplified and the entire process made more transparent .
This being so , I believe that we should carefully consider temporarily re-introducing controls at internal borders .
Unlike my left-wing fellow Member , I feel that it can bring about a huge change in terms of quality for the benefit of European security .
Then the objection was raised that Article 186 deprives Parliament of its decision-making prerogatives , thereby giving carte blanche to the Commission .
We must provide the dairy farmers with serious and long-lasting help .
The global-warming fixation is a classic example of how the political class here is out of touch with the little people who have to pay the bills .
We have the most ambitious and the most far-reaching targets in the world .
I think that it is even one of the victims of this phenomenon because drought and floods are affecting us all in Europe with ever-increasing regularity , but their impact is felt primarily by farmers .
Secondly , we will need to come up with an all-encompassing agreement in Copenhagen , one which includes all countries .
I also believe that every European citizen must participate in the battle against climate change , and comprehensive energy-saving campaigns are required to achieve this .
The second point is that we expect the Commission to bring forward a proposal as soon as possible for how it will fund the anti-smoking campaign Help in future after the tobacco fund has run out .
Let there be an end to money for corrupt countries , to the Globalisation Fund and the Cohesion Fund , to the travelling circus and to the left-wing projects , and let us give Dutch bakers , butchers and greengrocers their hard-earned money back .
Its aim was to devise original and complex solutions for dealing with the wide-ranging problems affecting Roma communities .
In addition , information and awareness-raising campaigns will also be run in connection with the pilot programme .
In the economic sphere , the proportion of women with decision-making powers is very unsatisfactory .
I have a question for you , namely how can it be that , over the last five years , it has only been male high-ranking members of the Commission that I have had the opportunity of working with ?
I am keen to stress that in this regard , Parliament considers it essential to be involved at every stage of the decision-making process in order to guarantee democratic scrutiny , and this is why we believe that the Commission should notify Parliament in advance of how it will actually use these new powers conferred under Article 186 for the milk sector as well .
We are therefore calling for a real emergency financial plan , not a plaster to treat a life-threatening illness .
( DE ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , as a farmer , I see the tabled amendment of Articles 78 and 79 as a deviation by the Commission from its hitherto sound route through agricultural reform at the expense of efficient and forward-looking farms .
Yesterday , Mr Barroso rightly said that we need a Council President over whom we have no influence , but who can work well with the Commission - and I would add here with the Parliament - and who believes that the community method lies at the heart of the decision-making process .
In the debates on the future direction of the EU , we should , in my opinion , behave towards each other with an appropriate sense of humility and , at the same time , we should calmly respect the sovereign decision-making mechanisms of the various Member States and their constitutional actors .
Social security , health , welfare and education systems are being laid on a Procrustean bed , with sweeping changes being made to the detriment of workers , further paving the way for the penetration of monopoly business groups in these wealth-producing sectors for capitalism .
One typical example is the long-standing crime being committed against the workers of France Telecom , where 25 workers have been pushed into suicide by unacceptable working conditions and the intensification of slavery .
President Klaus is known for his long-standing opposition to the Charter , and particularly its social sections .
The internal security strategy must be developed with a view to combating mounting extremism in the Member States , eliminating the tension stirred up by irresponsible politicians and through concrete solutions over such sensitive questions as , for example , immigration , asylum policy or the issue of the Roma and national minorities in such a way that these issues are not exploited by right-wing extremists .
Yes , Mrs de Sarnez , we hope to be able to make progress in discussions on a more unified European view with regard to Afghanistan , based both on the military presence that the European Union has there and on increased support for civil society and the democratic , state-building processes .
This agreement may , in many respects , inspire the European Union to have a more efficient decision-making process .
The purpose of this Treaty is obviously to simplify the decision-making process after the EU 's expansion towards the east .
' whereas the European Parliament shall not accept double standards ; whereas , in order to put political pressure on journalists disclosing corruption cases linked to high-ranking officials and ruling party politicians , the Government administration in Hungary has recently introduced steps to launch criminal proceedings against such members of the media ; ' - namely Mr Tamás Pindroch , the journalist from the Magyar Hírlap - ' whereas bearing in mind in particular that criminal proceedings were launched against the journalist who was investigating the scandals of a high-ranking former member of the government and one of the candidates for European Commissioner ; whereas this has resulted in an atmosphere where the press is under political pressure in Hungary ' .
However , this gives rise to a situation where manhunts exist and where only one man is targeted obsessively , and to a civil war that , fuelled by a certain left-wing element , may result in very serious consequences .
This left-wing hypocrisy is abhorrent .
Once again , after the immigration-related accusations made against the Italian Government in this House by those who are on the opposition not because of a strange conspiracy that they see themselves as the victims of , but because of the sovereign will of the people , an opportunistic , ridiculous and self-serving attempt has been made to distort the reality of the situation in Italy , with the sole aim being to denigrate the government and our country in the person of our Prime Minister , Mr Berlusconi .
Freedom of the media is also universal and important when it is under threat from Left-wing governments .
The situation in Italy constitutes a serious attack on media pluralism and , in this respect , the actions of the right-wing government , led by Mr Berlusconi , have been unacceptable .
We regret that the right-wing groups once again refused to ask for a European response to a European problem .
As an elected representative , I believe it is my role to support moves to prevent an over-controlling media presence , not only in Italy but across European Member States .
Think of newspapers such as La Repubblica and of the entire left-wing press .
The aim of the report is to ensure that foreign policy serves the interests of military expansion by the major powers within the European Union , by taking advantage of what they inserted into the Treaty of Lisbon in order to bolster their decision-making powers , even though there are Member States that hold different views .
Many States have already applied those recommendations and there are a lot of awareness-raising activities going on to discuss this issue .
One also has to be cautious with new suggestions and programmes which expand policies at EU level in a way which could damage already well-functioning systems such as the ones civic society has built up over the years .
A list was provided for the debate on the fact-finding mission to Georgia , but names of certain speakers , including mine , have been deleted .
on behalf of the PPE Group . - Madam President , first of all , we take note of the report just given to us on the independent fact-finding mission .
When decision-making politicians lose hold of their senses , the consequences are unpredictable and wide-ranging .
This is a fast-growing phenomenon in many armed conflict zones .
Now a new horror threatens , with reports that the Rajapaksa Government plans to settle Sinhala people in the east and north of Sri Lanka - in other words , to colonise the areas where Tamil-speaking people are in the majority .
I have in mind here the rejection of the cult of profit at any price , regardless of the long-term and irreversible consequences , the rejection of the cult of quantitative growth and ever-increasing growth , the rejection of the crude ideal of catching up with and overtaking America or China or whoever else , and the rejection of a dangerous and unplanned colonisation of the Earth and the mindless looting of the planet with no regard for the environment or the interests of future generations .
This solution would also mean that appointments to the Commission would not have to be made in such a complex way in accordance with the nationality key and the European Council would not have to have such complex vote-counting arrangements .
It is not about whether Sweden will soon become a great wine-growing region - although I do not begrudge you that .
Please , now that the Treaty of Lisbon has been adopted , be courageous and honest and admit that we need much clearer , transparent decision-making structures for the Commission and for the top posts .
This , then , is a balance between learning from the problems we had and creating better-functioning financial markets , but also the discussions and the decisions needed to get better competitiveness and better-functioning labour markets here in Europe .
With regard to Euro-Atlantic Security , we will urge Russia to take an active part in the Corfu Process prior to a forward-looking decision being taken in Athens .
This is a very wide-ranging directive .
Setting up the points of single contact for business is a ground-breaking proposal , again , in any European directive .
Diseases of this type are affecting an ever-increasing number of people in the EU .
Similarly , tree-planting programmes in Rwanda have resulted in such an increase in the flow of rivers towards the capital that it can now be powered solely by a hydroelectric plant .
It is unacceptable for a Member State 's long-standing membership of the EU to be a variable in the formula for calculating structural fund allocations , dividing up Member States into new and old , which will render Article 299 ( 2 ) of the EC Treaty meaningless as regards the outermost regions ' access to structural funds .
Social spending is , of course , important - it must be preserved - but here , too , we must trust the Member States to adopt the measures needed to rectify the situation and not carry out nit-picking checks , which would be ineffective anyway .
Furthermore , I strongly disagree with my fellow Member , Mr Gauzès , when he recommends not carrying out nit-picking checks but waiting for the next request to examine the quality of aid spending .
There are no right-wing or left-wing coup leaders or dictators , merely repressive and freedom-destroying ones .
There are no right-wing or left-wing coup leaders or dictators , merely repressive and freedom-destroying ones .
This would have far-reaching consequences for the process of Central American integration and for the negotiations on an association agreement , meaning many years of stagnation , with the people the ones to suffer .
( ES ) Mr President , I would be pleased if certain left-wing Members of this Parliament who are issuing resolute condemnations of Honduras would issue similarly forceful condemnations of what is happening in Cuba , or what Mr Chávez is doing in Venezuela and in Latin America , because , unfortunately , some people still hanker after and support the Berlin Wall , the purges of Stalin and even the mummy of Lenin more than democratic elections in a country , as in this case in Honduras .
The EU is a jungle - not only in terms of its subsidies , but also in relation to its competences , its decision-making processes and even its Internet presence .
The objective seems to be to extract as much money as possible from the pockets of the hard-working citizens of Europe and , in particular , the Netherlands .
( PL ) Mr President , there is no doubt that the Lisbon Treaty introduces far-reaching changes concerning the budget and procedures for its adoption .
According to the report of the fact-finding mission , it was a war or military conflict in Georgia between Russia and Georgia , where some additional units of Russia 's allies and mercenaries from the north Caucasus were involved as well .
However , we take note of the concerns expressed by Russia regarding infringements of human rights in the EU , especially with regard to Russian-speaking minorities in the Baltic States .
Additional costs also arise as a result of the associated problems for these conditions , as patients tend not to get additional physical complaints looked at and often have a self-denying reaction to medical treatment .
The European Mediator has played a key role in increasing transparency and responsibility as part of the European Union 's decision-making process and administrative system .
( RO ) The situation of the Romanian community in Italy is a cause of ever-growing concern .
Romanians are facing ever-increasing problems on a daily basis , along with growing intimidation and fear .
It would be disappointing if the Council , through non-binding declarations , put across the message that it somehow wanted to have its cake and eat it by denying a fair balance of powers between Member States , BEREC and the Commission , as emerged in the final compromise .
The wide-ranging nature of the final text and the safeguards it provides for consumers ' rights are a tribute to her negotiating skills .
Over the last couple of years , information exchange in the area of judicial and law-enforcement cooperation has become a high priority for the European Union and its Member States in the crime-prevention and crime-fighting potential .
I therefore urge my esteemed fellow Members to join in rejecting the proposed instruments , without lessening our support for the European Police Office - which we do indeed support - until the Council allows Parliament to be part of the decision-making process .
Rather , we want to take part in the decision-making process .
Allow me to add a thought concerning the European Union 's increasingly outward-looking stance and the increased synergy between internal security and defence .
We would like to do this in close cooperation with the European Parliament in order to ensure that in the future , macro-financial assistance proposals are dealt with in a manner which , on the one hand , is rapid and allows for an effective crisis response but , on the other , meets the requirements of the Lisbon Treaty for detailed scrutiny by legislators within the joint decision-making process .
There will be a framework agreement and then there will be a rapid decision-making mechanism about the size of the assistance .
Furthermore , I would like to know why Mr Corbett , who was voted out by right-wing radicals precisely because he does these kinds of things , is allowed to sit in Plenary today , virtually in the role of a supervisor .
Instead , they are simply making fine-sounding declarations of intent and empty promises .
As an army of global-warming zealots marches to Copenhagen , the truth is that their Orwellian consensus is based not on scientific agreement , but on bullying , censorship and fraudulent statistics .
Europeans will not be satisfied with publicity stunts , with non-quantified declarations of intent , with non-binding targets that can be disregarded once the media spotlight is off them .
For example , I cannot understand why anyone would be opposed to clean , green , non-polluting industries based on new technologies which perform well .
It does not protect internet users from the abuses of freedom-destroying laws such as the first version of the Hadopi Law in France , or from the wrath of administrative authorities duly authorised to carry out such abuses .
By refraining from re-collecting data that has already been taken , we can exploit synergies that will lead to a reduction in bureaucracy and additional burdens .
However , the principal question being debated here today is whether Parliament , less than a week before the Treaty of Lisbon enters into force , should renounce its new institutional prerogatives relating to crime prevention and police cooperation and thus do away with the possibility of playing a part in the decision-making process for all these issues under the codecision procedure .
However , the principal question being debated here today is whether Parliament , less than a week before the Treaty of Lisbon enters into force , should renounce its new institutional prerogatives relating to crime prevention and police cooperation and thus do away with the possibility of playing a part in the decision-making process for all these issues under the codecision procedure .
However , the principal question being debated here today is whether Parliament , less than a week before the Treaty of Lisbon enters into force , should renounce its new institutional prerogatives relating to crime prevention and police cooperation and thus do away with the possibility of playing a part in the decision-making process for all these issues under the codecision procedure .
However , the principal question being debated here today is whether Parliament , less than a week before the Treaty of Lisbon enters into force , should renounce its new institutional prerogatives relating to crime prevention and police cooperation and thus do away with the possibility of playing a part in the decision-making process for all these issues under the codecision procedure .
Parliament is going to acquire proper law-making power and will be able , along with the Council , to make decisions on measures , in accordance with the codecision procedure , aimed at encouraging and supporting the actions of Member States in the area of crime prevention .
However , the principal question being debated here today is whether Parliament , less than a week before the Treaty of Lisbon enters into force , should renounce its new institutional prerogatives relating to crime prevention and police cooperation and thus do away with the possibility of playing a part in the decision-making process for all these issues under the codecision procedure .
However , the principal question being debated here today is whether Parliament , less than a week before the Treaty of Lisbon enters into force , should renounce its new institutional prerogatives relating to crime prevention and police cooperation and thus do away with the possibility of playing a part in the decision-making process for all these issues under the codecision procedure .
( FI ) Mr President , Commissioner , with reference to last week 's meeting , I would like to ask if you yourself are happy with the selection process by which two important top posts were filled , or do you also agree that some of the Union 's decision-making procedures could still do with a large dose of extra transparency and democracy ?
We cannot allow national or administrative borders to prevent the crime-fighting authorities from carrying out their work efficiently .
Cross-border crime-fighting cooperation has been developed , but we still have more to do to achieve effective European police and criminal law cooperation .
The fact that we have been able to arrive at a quick decision with regard to the Support Office is a good example of an efficient and well-functioning codecision process .
You are going to become colegislators now in virtually all areas of justice and home affairs , and it is therefore true that this parliamentarisation of the European Union represents increased powers for the European Parliament in the decision-making process , but also greater control by the national parliaments of their respective governments .
This is a serious responsibility and my group - as our hard-working rapporteurs Mr López Aguilar and Mr Berlinguer have set out - has its priorities .
It is disgraceful that the right-wing authorities in the Republic of Poland , by succumbing to pressure from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church , are denying Poles rights to which they are entitled .
An ' act ' in this sense is a new political instrument that we developed for the first time in connection with small and medium-sized enterprises - you will remember the Small Business Act - and we will be bringing forward an innovation act that brings together legislative measures , policy initiatives and politically-binding guidelines in a major package .
In the very important and far-reaching proposals that relate to protection against counterfeit medicines in the legal supply chain , exactly the same rules apply to the manufacturers of medicines as to those carrying out parallel trading .
The Forum , involving the representatives of consumers , industry , national energy regulators and national administrations , seeks to improve implementation of energy legislation and may develop elements for codes of conduct with self-regulating and even quasi-binding effects on the industry .
Meter-reading frequency is not defined by EU legislation .
I wonder , would the Commission consider only funding , from a safety and interoperable point of view , rail systems that are operated electrically , and phase out over a period of time diesel-guzzling locomotives - I know in my own country all the rail systems are operated thus - and set a target date to have safe , interconnected and environmentally friendly rail systems across the entire European Union ?
In addition , I wish all of us a positive and , above all , a forward-looking outcome .
( BG ) The entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon should entail greater transparency , greater democracy and greater effectiveness for the decision-making process .
The FYROM has been a candidate country for the past four years and , over the past 18 years , it has been in a virtual frozen conflict with Greece , its southerly neighbour and a long-standing member of the European Union .
I think some of the comments made today unfortunately by Mr Farage were over the top , but at this stage I am becoming aware of the fact that Mr Farage is like a long-playing record .
We must put in place appropriate re-training measures to ensure that the people who lost their jobs at Dell can secure employment in the near future .
It is totally unacceptable for the EU to support the very parties who bear the responsibility for these tragedies by giving its political and financial backing to the relocation and transfer processes that they are carrying out for purely profit-making purposes .
The Treaty of Lisbon will bring more speed , legitimacy and democracy to the decision-making process in the European Union , which is responsible for measures that affect us as citizens every day .
The people 's interest lies in opposition , in breaking with the anti-grassroots policy of the EU and the European Parliament which supports it and in overturning the euro-unifying construct .
With proposals for ' a viable green economy ' and an economy of ' low carbon ' growth , the EU is trying to pave the way for even more investments by the euro-unifying monopolies and , at the same time , to satisfy the speculative expectations of capital with a ' pollution exchange ' .
At this special moment , when the decision-making powers of the European Parliament will increase significantly , the role of national parliaments in the process of making Community law will also increase .
In future , the European Parliament will not only be playing an advisory role in these policy areas , but will also be part of the decision-making process .
The fact that some politicians in the Member States of the European Union have distanced themselves from this promise under the pretext that strengthening the identity and institutions of the EU takes priority over further EU accessions has not only increased the mistrust of the candidate countries , but has also had an inhibiting effect on the democratic opinion-forming process and the reform processes in the region .
This is the only way in which Greece , as a long-standing member of the European Union , will be able to fulfil its ambitions , and honour the responsibilities it has to this region .
in writing . - Iceland is already an active and long-standing partner in the wider European integration process .
Apart from the many positive developments , efforts must continue to be made to eradicate ethnically incited violent crimes and the ever-increasing incidence of beatings against Hungarians from Vojvodina completely .
The idealised ' Polish Mother ' bravely bearing her cross in the form of a wife-beating husband is an absurdity which must be opposed socially and legally .
This support to the Kenyan judiciary system includes a sort of mixture of capacity-building measures for prosecution , police , judicial and prison services .
A regional information-sharing centre in Sana 'a , Yemen , has also been identified for funding in 2009 .
To date , more than a third of Member States have adopted wide-ranging legislation prohibiting smoking in workplaces and enclosed public spaces .
At EU level , the issue of smoke-free environments has , up to now , been the subject of several non-binding resolutions and recommendations which do not provide detailed guidelines on how to set up smoke-free environments .
Simple logic , if not the appeal to concepts such as the right of the non-smoking majority , should convince us to make this effort a priority .
This reality should guide us when drafting and supporting anti-smoking legislation .
When I say that Europe must introduce a ban , and therefore guarantee this non-smoking area for all workers , as an overwhelming majority of citizens are asking us to , that obviously does not mean that we are launching a crusade against smokers .
In addition , in recent years , restaurants and bars were required by law to set up smoking and non-smoking areas on their premises .
( HU ) An ever-increasing number of scientists in the world are saying that a severe oil , water and food shortage will develop simultaneously by 2030 .
I cannot help but mention the huge , unfair discrepancy between the maximum level of attention given by the representatives of this group of countries , which account for 60 % of global GDP , to saving the banking system and their disregard for the tragic reality of famine affecting an ever-increasing number of our fellow human beings .
Let me now take this opportunity to explain in more detail the extremely effective cascade of risk-mitigating measures that we have in place for beef imports and which ensure the highest possible level of protection for EU public and animal health , whilst taking account of OIE standards and remaining fully in line with the principles of the SPS Agreement .
Third , beef-exporting countries must have an approved monitoring plan for specific residues from veterinary medical products , growth promoters and performance enhancers which are restricted or banned in food-producing animals in the EU .
Third , beef-exporting countries must have an approved monitoring plan for specific residues from veterinary medical products , growth promoters and performance enhancers which are restricted or banned in food-producing animals in the EU .
Even though it concerns last year 's budget , let us make it a forward-looking procedure .
I join my colleagues from Europe 's right-wing parties in totally opposing any exclusive situation resulting in a monopoly .
( SK ) The recommendations of the Council on non-smoking environments have the aim of assisting the Member States in their efforts to protect people more effectively from tobacco smoke .
I would like to conclude with an important request for consistent monitoring to include responses to the activities of the tobacco industry aimed at torpedoing anti-smoking measures .
Bearing in mind the ever-growing interdependence of local communities in a globalised world and , at the same time , the worsening extent of individualistic behaviour , it is becoming vital to encourage social participation by citizens .
The EU enlargement process is taking place at the moment against the background of a harsh , far-reaching recession , which has hit both the EU and the countries involved in the enlargement process .
I welcome this resolution enabling Parliament to support the Commission 's highly voluntary anti-smoking policy .
Firstly , I believe that smoke-free policies should be decided by the Member States and that the role of the European institutions , while respecting the subsidiarity principle , must remain at the level of non-binding recommendations .
The proposal in the resolution dealing with non-smoking areas envisaged a considerable change - the imposition of a smoking ban in pan-European public institutions and public spaces .
At the same time , the EU is trying to maintain a balance with our long-standing commitment to support the development and stability of this developing country and the Central American region more generally .
It is important for the EU and China to engage in dialogue , and I believe that China , too , will realise that the country can only make progress by making its decision-making procedures more transparent and by guaranteeing its citizens the right to express their opinion .
on behalf of the ECR Group . - Mr President , I have been a long-standing critic in this House of the lack of human rights in the People 's Republic of China .
I would like there to be a wide-ranging discussion in future before an EU-China Summit on the relationship between China and the EU , covering all the subject areas .
However , I want to concentrate on just one area where we can act , and that is the low-level presence of unauthorised GMOs in feed imports and its impact on the EU feed industry , because this is an over-arching issue .
The need to make the price-setting system transparent and to restore balance to the negotiating capacity of the parties concerned , within the framework of current legislation , are issues that are still to be resolved .
For instance , the market-opening obligations for developing countries will not be the same as for the developed countries , and the poorest countries - the least-developed countries - will not have to open their markets at all .
These wide-ranging changes leave their mark right through society and we should never try to prevent them from happening .
Let me begin by saying that when I became rapporteur for this programme , I thought that I would have a very easy job , given the wide-ranging consensus and support on this issue , something which was also in evidence during the debate .
The third aspect which received , and still receives , wide-ranging support is the fact that the European Union 's resources are growing , which I think is the finance ministers ' dream .
The micro-financing instrument is specifically aimed at assisting these groups of citizens to find alternative employment and to become micro-entrepreneurs themselves .
In view of the fact that both bodies support the micro-financing instrument , it was possible to make considerable progress over the essential wording of the proposal .
As you know , the micro-financing proposal forms part of a package which includes a proposal to transfer EUR 100 million from the Progress programme .
The Commission 's proposal addresses this very problem and , as the rapporteur said , this proposal really has wide-ranging support and consensus .
We do not agree to funding for the micro-financing instrument being obtained from reserves or from other budget chapters .
Madam President , ladies and gentlemen , the draft decision passed by the European Parliament and the Council establishing a European micro-financing instrument in the area of employment and social inclusion is , in essence , a draft which adapts the original Progress programme to the current economic reality of a Europe marked by the financial and economic crisis .
Even before the onset of the economic recession , many educated and hard-working citizens had no real opportunities to find employment and therefore , a large number of them emigrated beyond the European Union .
Ladies and gentlemen , the discussion has clearly shown Parliament 's support for the micro-financing instrument and I believe there are no fundamental disputes as far as the substance of the issue is concerned .
On 2 December , I received a Communication from the Commission , addressed to the European Parliament and the Council , concerning the consequences of the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon for ongoing interinstitutional decision-making procedures .
The budget should not be used as a backward-looking tool preserving the status quo , but as a forward-looking instrument to sharpen the institutional regulatory framework of the EU which , in turn , should aim at strengthening the single market .
The budget should not be used as a backward-looking tool preserving the status quo , but as a forward-looking instrument to sharpen the institutional regulatory framework of the EU which , in turn , should aim at strengthening the single market .
Therefore , there is a strong incentive to bring this long-lasting saga to a successful resolution as we will then be in a position to fight the nasty impact of globalisation with a truly powerful tool .
It is about linking up parts of the interinstitutional agreement into a multiannual financial framework , which has a different decision-making process on the basis of the Treaty of Lisbon .
Instead , the errors should be eliminated from the system by means of far-reaching renationalisation measures , for example , in the agricultural sector .
I get the feeling that the banks are deliberately inventing an ever-increasing number of additional terms for no other reason than to prevent them from issuing credit .
Micro-financing concerns micro-credits ( loans of less than EUR 25 000 ) and micro-enterprises ( enterprises that employ fewer than 10 people ) .
We are very committed to Prime Minister Fayyad 's state-building plan and to enhancing the institutions , particularly in terms of the rule of law .
The list also has far-reaching side effects .
We therefore appreciate the stated Georgian policy of strategic patience , which increasingly recognises the need to maintain links with the breakaway regions without restrictions , in the interest of citizens , and of re-establishing stability in the region .
The EU 's relationship with Georgia does raise very far-reaching questions about what we are about , what the EU is , and what we aspire to be .
Due to the irresponsible policy of right-wing governments , Latvia risked going bankrupt without financial assistance from outside .
This region suffered from the ever-increasing burden of the instalment repayments covering the inherited debts , as well as the using up of its cheap natural and human resources , while all these generated very significant financial revenue in the Western countries .
This is why it has evoked such fury and aggression among the clergy and Right-wing politicians .
I am pleased that the EU managed to convince the G20 to agree on far-reaching changes to this policy .
We had to agree on high-ranking positions - on the President of the European Council , and to nominate the High Representative .
First of all , regarding Copenhagen , I am also very surprised when I see many European colleagues with a self-defeating rhetoric .
The second is the external dimension of fundamental rights , which will now be a cross-cutting dimension of European politics .
I regret the fact that the issue of emergency situations has been politicised by giving the Council the responsibility of declaring that an emergency exists , and I also regret that the potential scope of direct supervision by the European supervisory authorities has been limited to credit-rating agencies only .
The Treaty of Lisbon has strengthened Parliament 's role in the European decision-making process and , by extension , the legitimacy of this institution in the eyes of Europe 's citizens .
In the framework of the Stockholm Programme , the Council reaffirmed the importance of transparency and invited the Commission to examine the best way to ensure transparency in the decision-making process , document access and good governance , in view of the new opportunities offered by the Treaty of Lisbon .
Whereas Article 215 seems to exclude Parliament from the decision-making process , Article 75 lays down the ordinary legislative procedure and hence this House 's participation in defining and adopting measures to prevent terrorism and associated activities .
These organisations were the first to declare publicly that fine-sounding declarations about international protection of human rights could not just remain declarations .
In terms of the international response , I welcome hearing the Commissioner talking about kick-starting cooperation and particularly mentioning India .
I have the impression , Baroness Ashton , that Europe is full of high-sounding talk , but it is shameful how small and inadequate its actions are .
In Pakistan , it is promoting a free trade agreement which will allow greater penetration of the euro-unifying monopolies in southern Asia .
I wish to thank you for a constructive and forward-looking debate .
Wanting to encourage the authorities in Belarus to carry out reforms , the Member States agreed to a temporary lifting of sanctions on freedom of movement which had been applied to high-ranking representatives of the Belarusian authorities .
We will continue our wide-ranging commitment in the country and will continue to speak plainly wherever international law and human rights are infringed .
One need only read the United Nations and the Human Rights Watch reports that I mentioned to understand the scale of this never-ending tragedy .
( DE ) Mr President , the expulsion of millions of people , thousands of rapes and hundreds of murders must not be the sad legacy of the largest UN peace-keeping operation in the world .
Essentially , we need a coordinated European security policy and peace-keeping operations , but above all , in the area surrounding Europe and not in far-off Africa , where the ethnic fronts are unclear .
In my opinion , the EU must concentrate its peace-keeping operations on the crisis regions in its own backyard , such as the Balkans or the Caucasus .
Measures are also required to put an end to money-laundering activities , arms trafficking and gold trafficking , which results in more than 37 tonnes of gold being illegally removed from the Congo every year , with a value in excess of EUR 1 billion .
( DE ) As we know , the so-called micro-financing instrument planned by the EU is not going to be financed by new money , but from the Progress programme .
The EU is playing a key role - a bridge-building role - in a process with a view to ultimately reaching a legally binding agreement : hopefully , a politically binding agreement now , with a clear timetable to reach a legally binding agreement for the period starting 1 January 2013 .
It is a ground-breaking proposal and it has a broad scope with enormous practical and financial implications .
In response to your question , without first having the general overall far-reaching directive , it is very difficult to set standards of a European character in the area of discrimination against disabled people .
It is a long-running issue because new professions and new job descriptions are , of course , constantly coming into existence .
As a result , those countries who currently shoulder a large proportion of the Union 's financial burden , like the UK , will discover they must finance an ever-increasing pool of Member States qualifying for support .
The consequences will include reductions in programme budgets , less investment in the wider economy in Wales , and broad-reaching loss of jobs connected to programme management and project delivery .
( PL ) Mr President , Podkarpacie - the region I represent - is a region of wonderful , ambitious , hard-working people , a place where many energetic businesses operate .
I am particularly pleased that , although this is the last budget negotiated on the basis of the Treaty of Nice and although , on this basis , the European Parliament has no formal decision-making authority on agricultural spending , we have succeeded in negotiating a budgetary item of EUR 300 million to support dairy farmers .
Instead of continuing to inflate the EU budget , far-reaching renationalisation of the subsidy system is needed .
Since Parliament acknowledges European citizens ' wish for a safe and secure Europe , it welcomes the increases in sub-heading 3a on freedom , security and justice relative to the 2009 budget .
The openness of European institutions and the transparency of their procedures are guarantees that civil society and public opinion in the Member States are not only kept informed but are also an integral and informed part of their decision-making processes .
Since a Commission document has just come out , dated today , saying that EU - Morocco negotiations on the agri-food and fisheries sectors are progressing , I should like to know if it was these negotiations that the Chairman of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament was referring to this morning when he used the negotiations as an argument to delete from today 's agenda the topic on Aminatou Haidar , the Sahrawi fighter who has been on hunger strike for 32 days and is in a life-threatening condition at this very moment .
We provide targeted support under the comprehensive institution-building programme .
Therefore , I hope that , today and tomorrow , the European Union and the European Parliament will be able to rise to the challenges and come up with ambitious and wide-ranging objectives to halt the loss of biodiversity in all sectoral policies in 2010 .
The proper management of reservoirs has been replaced by cost-cutting negligence by United Utilities , leading to safety margins being ignored and a panic-stricken decision to open sluice gates and release a man-made deluge on the town .
As the European Union and the European Commission , together with the Council , we could play a leadership role in re-establishing state institutions physically , and also in terms of people .
I believe that , as a European Union , we must face up to a wide-ranging process of reconstruction in Haiti , while , at the same time , boosting the stability of the state 's structures .
Do you think we should now move on to adopt more hard-hitting measures or do you instead consider that a softly-softly approach is the best way of negotiating with the Iranian regime ?
I know that this is a narrow window of opportunity , Mrs Ashton , but do you not think that we must do more and do better here , that we must help Iran 's young people , who are proclaiming their outrage on the Internet , that we must denounce the recurring calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and , above all , that we must support this civil society and the opposition , this democratic movement which is defying this vote-robbing president and his militias ?
Therefore , I can confirm that we share the same objective with you , which is to create fair , effective and growth-enhancing tax systems and effective tax administrations , as well as to strengthen the participation of developing countries in international tax processes .
This morning , at the hearing of Commissioner-designate Mrs Malmström , we also saw a positive response to our proposal for an EU anti-trafficking coordinator .
Trafficking in human beings is a rapidly growing lucrative business , and it is attractive because the punishments are mild compared with other money-making forms of organised crime such as drugs and the arms trade .
( DE ) Mr President , begging , prostitution , theft and burglary - human traffickers and people-smuggling gangs need people , primarily women and children , for these and other , similar objectionable activities .
We therefore need to be aware that the vast majority of people-smuggling gangs are active in moving people from eastern and south-eastern Europe to central Europe and that the victims are not only recruited in third countries but also come from the Member States themselves .
I believe that this wide-ranging debate has served to highlight that we are faced with an enormous problem , a problem that poses us an enormous challenge .
I believe that a hard-hitting information campaign is required , especially among minors from disadvantaged areas and groups , to improve the effectiveness of preventive actions .
Victim protection costs money , and this life-saving money should be spent wisely .
The reason why - and I am saying this only once - we as Socialists specifically support you is that we believe that your government in Spain is a forward-thinking government .
Include the regions , build decision-making processes with them .
It has already been mentioned , but I urge , finally , that , during your Presidency , Prime Minister , you will take the opportunity to resolve the issue of land grab and other issues which cause such distress and heartache to tens of thousands of law-abiding property owners across southern Spain .
I welcome the fact that the Spanish Presidency is assuming in the agricultural sector priorities which are really the most important among the objectives during this period : the continuation of the debates on the future of the common agricultural policy and the adjustment of the common agricultural policy to the ever-changing realities of present-day Europe .
Also the report expresses our regret that parliaments ( European Parliament , JPA and national parliaments of the ACP countries ) were not consulted by the Member States and had no input in the decision-making process leading to the identification of the areas and articles for revision and to the establishment of the negotiating mandate .
I welcome the support that Parliament has given to the ACP countries , which want to see climate change addressed as a cross-cutting issue in the second revised version of the Cotonou Agreement .
However , I regret that the parliaments ( the European Parliament , the Pan-African Parliament and the national parliaments of the ACP countries ) have not taken the opportunity to contribute with proposals and to participate actively with Member States in the decision-making process for revising this important agreement .
We are not taken in : the ' development ' referred to is a front for the self-serving motivations which have dominated this dismantling of the Lomé agreements .
In this legislative process , if we now start it , the Group of the European People 's Party ( Christian Democrats ) will apply clear decision-making criteria .
Mr President , this is a serious law-making process that we are beginning now with the Treaty of Lisbon .
In the case of international agreements of such far-reaching importance , that is simply impermissible .
Mr Buzek , the President of this House , worded it very precisely in his letter , saying that the SWIFT agreement provides for far-reaching infringements of citizens ' fundamental freedoms , which are constitutionally guaranteed in most Member States and are also guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights .
However , both high-ranking politicians and criminal experts doubt that , in the US , the data would be used solely for combating terrorist activities .
The decision-making rules in place need to be changed so that they can adapt properly to these new times and necessities .
Mr President , an ambitious , legally-binding treaty is needed urgently .
We should promote sustainable , climate-protecting development , which allows us to use the resources of our planet in a responsible way , for us and for future generations .
The EU and its Member States should develop their world-leading role in green technologies .
( HU ) Mr President , Copenhagen showed us that the EU failed to find partners for its far-reaching ideas .
The UN climate talks system needs life-saving surgery before Mexico at the end of this year .
Indeed , not only was the summit a damp squib , resulting in a non-binding agreement that was not signed by every country , but we also have to come to terms with our own defeat , because it was the key role played by the two most polluting countries on the planet , China and the United States , which was placed under the spotlight through the negotiations in Copenhagen .
However , the EU 's climate policy should not disadvantage new Member States either , as was the case with the internal EU burden-sharing agreement recently .
It should continue to take the initiative even if , instead of ground-breaking changes , climate politics will now be characterised by small , incremental steps .
That is the most suitable , most in-depth and far-reaching form of a policy of solidarity in the Union .
I believe that the European Union can play a catalytic role in the democratisation of Turkey by demanding full application of the European acquis without derogations , without self-seeking calculations and without applying a policy of double standards .
The initial draft of Slovakia 's position on the Danube Strategy has been discussed by the Council , Ministries , self-governing regions , municipalities and companies continue to work on the strategy .
International non-governmental organisations say that the security forces there torture prisoners and act with impunity , because they are protected by high-ranking officials .
We encourage the authorities to initiate as soon as possible an all-encompassing inter-faith dialogue with all religious beliefs to promote mutual understanding so that Malaysia can continue to develop peacefully in ethnic and social harmony .
The EU is also helping in the Mindanao peace process for the moment , mainly through support for social services and confidence-building activities , but we stand ready to do more if the process advances .
This will enable an ever-increasing number of people to learn that looking after their health starts with diet .
Diseases caused by obesity tend to place an ever-growing burden on Member States ' health care systems , and the connection between obesity and fast food is well documented .
Rampant bureaucracy and a never-ending stream of security measures will not contribute to security , but to inconvenience for air passengers .
What is at stake is indeed our capacity to react quickly to a massive fraud mechanism , but also the credibility of the EU emission-trading system .
Statistical data and various studies confirm that the complications of , for example , VAT collection , are caused primarily by confusing explanations and the thousands of widely-varying exemptions .
Such aid must be accompanied by a clause guaranteeing employment , training and wages , but it must also give impetus to a European strategy for cooperation between car-making groups in the fields of research and of the production of new , clean vehicles .
We are relying on the Commission to finally introduce a very modern , forward-looking directive on this question .
Getting more women into decision-making positions is the key to everything .
One single woman in a decision-making body will soon have to adapt her behaviour , to be accepted by the male majority .
As a starter , having a few women on a decision-making board could already make a difference , yet all these strategies will help little if we do not succeed in removing the biggest obstacle for women : reconciling family and working life .
There has been a significant increase in women 's involvement in the decision-making process in politics .
Member States and the enterprises concerned must be urged , therefore , on the one hand , to incorporate into their crisis-handling strategies the consideration of gender equality and , on the other , to refrain from financial restrictions detrimental to equal opportunities for men and women .
We have already mapped out a very ambitious and far-reaching programme in the field of justice and home affairs .
( HU ) The European Commission is the European Union 's defining decision-making body .
Today , in Wales , the national Assembly is starting the process for a referendum on more law-making powers .
It is evidenced by ever-shrinking election turnouts , people 's ever-dwindling confidence in fundamental democratic institutions and the fact that , in some European capitals , demonstrators are greeted with violence and , in others , the symbols of totalitarianism and similar regimes are being commemorated .
It is evidenced by ever-shrinking election turnouts , people 's ever-dwindling confidence in fundamental democratic institutions and the fact that , in some European capitals , demonstrators are greeted with violence and , in others , the symbols of totalitarianism and similar regimes are being commemorated .
It is a fact that particular provisions of the preliminary Framework Agreement on cooperation between the two institutions significantly strengthen Parliament 's role in the decision-making process , making this process more democratic .
Those of us up here in the back row represent an independent group of citizens who have played a key role in ensuring that the right-wing radicals in this House do not set up a group once again .
It is relatively simple to make the rich poor , but it is a rather more intelligent , challenging and far-reaching task to make the poor rich .
It is essential that Parliament , which is more and more by rights a partner of the Council in the decision-making process , should today merit the same attention from the Commission as it affords to the Council .
In view of the implications of the Lisbon Treaty regarding the operation of the European Union institutions and the reinforcement of shared responsibility in the decision-making process , it has become absolutely necessary to establish a set of procedures which ensure and guarantee the healthy and efficient exchange of information and points of view regarding the strategies for consolidating and developing European integration .
Whilst I voted today in favour of the new Commission , I object to the all-or-nothing system whereby Parliament must approve or reject the Commission as a whole .
These measures affect the secondary market in securities , but I believe there is a strong case to apply the same principles to the primary market , particularly in the unique situation of the eurozone debt-issuing members .
How is it that we accept the US credit-rating firms , such as Moody and others , as the official judges of the economic policy of the Member States and let them dictate economic policy ?
( NL ) Greece may even threaten to declare itself bankrupt along with other countries , thanks to years of weak left-wing policy by left-wing politicians who have held office in Europe : Gordon Brown , Barroso , Schulz , Cohn-Bendit , Guy Verhofstadt .
( NL ) Greece may even threaten to declare itself bankrupt along with other countries , thanks to years of weak left-wing policy by left-wing politicians who have held office in Europe : Gordon Brown , Barroso , Schulz , Cohn-Bendit , Guy Verhofstadt .
A second problem about which there is too little talk is the overall loss of competitiveness and the ever-widening competition divide between the North and the South .
It is true that the English-speaking countries have never been in favour of the euro .
on behalf of the PPE Group . - Mr President , with regard to CITES decision making , I am a firm believer that the decision-making procedure should be transparent and it should be purely based on sound scientific facts .
Despite strong and growing public opposition to these developments , and the unsuitability of many proposed building sites , the EU house-building programme in Britain thunders on in complete disregard of democratic processes .
I am glad to see that there is a strong consensus between Parliament and the Commission that accession negotiations should start , as expressed in Mr Thaler 's constructive and forward-looking report .
The credibility and validity of this promise represent an enormous incentive for all the states in the region to implement far-reaching reforms which will make these countries more secure , more stable and more prosperous .
In fact , I regularly propose to Turkish emissaries that a unilateral reduction in troops would be a bold confidence-building measure , but we all know that had the Annan Plan been put into effect , the Turkish troop presence would have been reduced to a mere 650 and the Greek presence to 950 .
Justice is now the area in which hard-hitting reform is still required .
I call on the Commission to consider the need for hard-hitting measures that address these issues during the final stage of the negotiations .
Legislation on gender equality is harmonised , but greater effort needs to be made to implement it in order to reduce the differences between men and women in terms of their participation in the labour market , politics and the decision-making process , as well as with regard to access to education .
I particularly agree with the content of paragraphs 4 , 8 and 9 , especially the parts stating that EU priority should be given to assisting with the reconstruction efforts and improving the humanitarian situation , focusing on vulnerable groups , such as women and children , and on providing shelter , medical facilities , logistical assistance and food ; we call on all Member States to be prepared to meet UN requests for further assistance ; we welcome the Commission 's preliminary commitments to EUR 30 million in humanitarian assistance ; we welcome the decision by the G7 countries to cancel their claims on Haiti 's international debt , and we also call upon the International Monetary Fund to provide full relief of the country 's outstanding debt - and we stress that any emergency earthquake assistance must be provided in the form of grants , not debt-incurring loans .
At the same time , I fully support the appeal of the authors of the resolution on the appointment of an EU anti-trafficking coordinator under the Commissioner for Justice , Fundamental Rights and Citizenship .
I expect the national parliament of Scotland to be included in any such meetings given its world-leading stance .
The resolution emphasises the importance of pre-school child care provision , child-minding services and the provision of assistance to elderly persons and other dependents .
Against this background , it seems only logical that the Turkish chief negotiator , Mr Bagis , does not take seriously our resolution and , therefore , our democratic decision-making structures .
I am grateful to the Americans for taking part in this far-reaching dialogue .
As noted previously by Parliament in 2008 , the use of body-imaging technology raises a number of questions , notably in relation to privacy , data protection and health .
It is our task to encourage Ukraine on the way forward and to support Kiev 's own leadership in a process of far-reaching reforms and modernisation .
The comprehensive institution-building programme envisaged by the Eastern Partnership is a case in point , as it specifically targets institutions within the Ukrainian Government which need strengthening in order to deliver on reform .
Can far-reaching reforms be carried out in a post-communist country without that promise ?
One sensitive area is , for instance , the situation of the Romanian-speaking minority in Ukraine and their right to education in their mother tongue .
For example , there is a Romanian-speaking minority in Ukraine numbering more than 410 000 .
With Viktor Yanukovich elected as president , Ukraine has a strong , easy-going leader who is open towards both Europe and Russia alike .
We cannot ignore these developments , which lead the United States to make further use of its trade defence tool or China to take issue with the WTO over European anti-dumping measures .
In relation to this free trade agreement with South Korea , as you say , there are undoubtedly many positives for Europe in this agreement , but for our car-making industry , it is , and remains , a disastrous agreement .
I am aware that this is a long-standing concern of this House .
We know that there is a major issue of under-reporting sharps injuries : estimates range between 40 % and 75 % and that is huge .
National rules are better suited to combating match-fixing fraud , although this type of fraud cannot be eliminated entirely , as demonstrated by some recent examples in Germany .
We should not forget about the toxic effects of sports betting either , as even now Europe is affected by a terrible match-fixing scandal , unfortunately associated with this issue .
A common regulation is required at European level , a regulation based on consumer protection and focused on prevention , to prevent the development of addiction , the association of online gambling with organised crime , and the match-fixing scandals jeopardising fair play .
author . - Mr President , let me first emphasise the utter hypocrisy of the right-wing groups in this Parliament which condemned the Venezuelan government for the temporary withdrawal of broadcasting facilities for Radio Caracas Television ( RCTV ) and pretend to be champions of the freedom of the press .
The power-sharing deal has been negotiated under the auspices of the African Union between the current President Rajoelina and the former President Ravalomanana .
I very much welcome Bangladesh 's willingness to allow our EP Delegation to South Asia into the country on a fact-finding mission .
We need to improve the link between private sector and academic research and work to facilitate the transfer of knowledge into job- and wealth-creating enterprises .
In my opinion , in addition to a well-functioning energy supply and infrastructure , this will require well-trained workers and not wave after wave of migrant workers flooding the labour market with cheap labour .
In the same way as we learnt lessons from the crisis of the 1930s , we must now also learn lessons from the financial crisis : more regulation , more monitoring of bonuses , a more far-reaching banking policy .
It must be based more on innovation and non-polluting energy sources , and focus on people 's state of health .
President-in-Office of the Council . - ( ES ) Mr President , I would like to thank the European Parliament for the opportunity to speak on this issue of the fact-finding mission , a mission sponsored by the United Nations , on the conflict in Gaza , which took place between the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 , and is known as the ' Goldstone report ' .
( DE ) Mr President , Israel 's right to existence , the protection of its people and the efforts to promote as close cooperation with Israel as possible are , for me , as a German and a left-wing politician , political givens .
While it makes far-reaching demands of Israel , it says little about Hamas .
We look with pity on the victims of this long-running conflict , but it is essential to have a reliable Palestinian partner for the peace negotiations , and that means a legitimate , trustworthy and responsible representative of the Palestinian people .
It is good that , tomorrow , our fact-finding mission is going to Belarus .
It is now with the High Representative , and the High Representative certainly would gladly take into account the recommendations coming out of the fact-finding mission that Parliament is starting tomorrow .
We still face in Europe strong stereotypes associated with women and significant gender pay gaps , while the progress made in terms of attracting more women to take up decision-making positions has been extremely slow .
( CS ) More than six months have passed since Canada took the unprecedented step of re-imposing visa requirements on one of the EU Member States , in this case , for citizens of the Czech Republic .
Instead of costly and administratively-demanding visas , Canada should , if anything , think hard about these conditions .
In particular , better coordination of rescue , police , military and fire-fighting forces is needed in the EU .
Continuous development of the energy infrastructure is the only way to cope with an ever-changing society .
The report points out certain fundamental aspects : investment in decentralisation ; promoting the empowerment of fishermen and the entire fishing industry to have decision-making powers ; giving them greater involvement in managing fishing , which will also allow a policy of compliance and responsibility ; the need to draw a distinction between small-scale and industrial fleets , with specific regulations for each ; the need to appraise management models that are better adapted to different fishing areas and different types of fisheries ; the importance of strengthening the market by fishing that is aimed at value-added products and increasing the first-sale price ; linking subsidies with good practice ; regulation of the modernisation of the fleet in terms of safety and hygiene ; decisive development of aquaculture , which is ecologically sustainable within the European Union ; and the development of other sectors involved in catching or processing fish .
Those affected will now be included in the decision-making process .
Illegal fishing must be stopped - it is very detrimental to law-abiding fishermen .
The best-performing countries in 2008 were the United Kingdom and the Netherlands , two countries that have opened up their markets .
It is striking that , time and again , we are finding nice-sounding arguments for delving even further into the tax coffers for this institution ; an unacceptable practice in these times of crisis .
On the other hand , I consider that a far-reaching easing of visa restrictions and a rapid inclusion of Ukraine in the common market is not sensible .
I also think it is important to highlight the need for a strong EU common position on the follow-up to the fact-finding mission on the conflict in Gaza and Southern Israel ; it is imperative , in this regard , that the recommendations included in the Goldstone report be implemented .
Male violence against women , human trafficking and women representation in decision-making bodies are priorities we should strongly address .
Therefore , apply your nit-picking checks to your own expenditure and be as rigorous as you insist the Member States must be !
Their overcapacity , eight years after the global summit on sustainable development , and the continuing decline in fish stocks , are additional reasons for a far-reaching reform of the common fisheries policy .
This is to be enabled by refining and standardising the framework conditions , better controls on the part of the Member States , and simplifying the decision-making system .
The idea here is precisely to find common forward-looking solutions at an EU level .
The question we must now consider is whether decisions with such a scope should be subject to a right to opt-out by Parliament and whether , in the end , there is the opportunity for Parliament to retract such a far-reaching decision .
The time has come for the EU to go on a fact-finding mission to investigate their particular lack of rights and , on the basis of the results , to remedy the existing serious discrimination among women inside Europe itself .
Secondly , a precise definition of legal liability and , last but not least , far-reaching consumer protection in the event of operator bankruptcy .
on behalf of the ECR Group . - Mr President , following on from the recent turmoil in the global financial markets across the world , academics , politicians and Nobel Prize-winning economists are rightly looking into finding a way to recoup the money which has been spent saving our financial institutions .
Firstly , we cannot support a measure which seeks to give tax-raising powers to the EU .
Against this background , we should now bring this never-ending story to a conclusion .
We cannot ignore the fact that SOLVIT is faced with an ever-increasing case load and , from this perspective , it is somehow a victim of its own success .
The SOLVIT online problem-solving network is based on a pragmatic approach , which will benefit both citizens and enterprises without huge amounts of red tape .
SOLVIT is an online problem-solving network in which the Member States work together in a pragmatic way to resolve problems that have arisen as a result of the misapplication of internal market rules by public authorities .
This bureaucratic web of interconnecting enforcements and self-perpetuating regulation will do for the small-business retail trade in Britain what the common fisheries policy has done for the British fishing industry : it will kill it .
( FR ) Mr President , Commissioners , ladies and gentlemen , the new online problem-solving network concerning cases of misapplication of internal market law , known as SOLVIT , is a very successful system insofar as it provides redress , without formal procedures , within approximately 10 weeks .
In addition , we must call upon the Member States to consult the consumer organisations as much as possible at all stages of the decision-making process where consumer policy is concerned .
I hope that instead of remaining a high-sounding idea , the new Community legislation will indeed provide practical support particularly to young people , students wishing to study in Member States .
This protocol , which will allow a variety of forms of pollution in the Atlantic to be combated , is crucial for ensuring the fight against contamination or the risk of pollution in seas or on coasts , through a mechanism that is aimed at ensuring cooperation between the contracting parties in case of a pollution-causing accident , and which will oblige them to establish and implement their own emergency structures and plans .
I agree with the importance attached by the Commission and the Member States to launching a communication strategy on consumer rights via web portals , awareness-raising campaigns and information points , while also promoting use of the ' eYouGuide ' website , and , at the same time , ensuring the reliability , credibility and impartiality of the organisations responsible for management and organisation .
Naturally , I also support the requirement for Member States to adequately consult consumer organisations at all stages of the decision-making process and of the transposition and implementation of consumer law .
There is a risk that consulting consumer organisations at all stages of the decision-making process will make this process rather drawn out .
I call on the Member States to ensure that consumer organisations are duly consulted at every stage of the decision-making process and during the transposition and implementation of consumer legislation .
European consumers should be fully aware of their rights and this problem-solving network should be easily accessible to everyone .
In the European Union as a whole , the number of people contacting SOLVIT seeking advice and help is increasing , and from this it can be understood that the importance of SOLVIT as a problem-solving tool for European citizens and businesses is growing .
In operation since 2002 , SOLVIT is an online problem-solving network in which the Member States of the European Union participate , with the aim of providing a pragmatic response to the difficulties which arise as a result of the incorrect application of Community legislation by the public authorities .
However , given the cross-cutting problems identified at national level , it is vital to consider a series of measures for improving the effectiveness of these centres .
As the budgetary authority with the same rights as the Council , the European Parliament will , in any case , have joint decision-making power concerning both the modification of the Staff Regulations of the officials concerned and the financial regulation .
( NL ) Mr President , Commission President Barroso , openness and transparency are fundamental values in any self-respecting democracy .
This is essential to protect the privacy of our citizens , to ensure a common approach to all data-processing activities within the European Union , and Parliament will , of course , be fully involved in the reform of the current legal framework since the codecision procedure also applies to the former third-pillar areas .
The Commissioner also spoke of an ambitious , legally-binding agreement .
It is a pity that the Left-wing Members have not realised that this is nothing other than a trap for them , because the greatest number of supporters of emissions trading are being recruited from among those who have caused one crisis already .
In recent years , a number of international organisations have developed forward-looking plans , but they have not been implemented at Member State level due to a lack of binding power , of the prospect of potential sanctions and of appropriate budget allocations .
We need a strategy based on an action plan which the Council intends to follow , bearing in mind the overall programme set out by the Trio of Presidencies ; for it is a far-reaching programme , a working action plan which should , without doubt , have the Structural Funds as one of its main instruments - for that is Europe 's most powerful tool for social cohesion - and which should be implemented through specific actions .
Subject : Long-standing minorities 
However , it is definitely in our common interest to have well-organised transport and a well-operating rail transport structure as a meaningful alternative , in particular , to road transport , which undoubtedly places a very significant burden on our environment .
In addition , counterfeit medicines can have life-threatening consequences for people who take these medicines unaware that they are counterfeit .
We therefore need a high representative / vice-president of the Commission who will be in a position to be present on the ground and not only in the European decision-making centres , but also in those elsewhere in the world .
We need a corresponding organisational unit for that purpose and so we are proposing the creation of a ' crisis management and peace-building department ' .
With regard to the proposal from the Group of the Greens / European Free Alliance to establish a Directorate-General for peace-building , I would say that , in contrast to my fellow Members who sit at the left-most edge of this Chamber , I believe the entire EU project , and specifically also our foreign policy , is a unique peace-building project .
To conclude , allow me just to add that I think that , on future occasions , we should pay more attention to Japan , our old and trusted friend , and not be so fascinated with China and other fast-growing countries .
Using objective methods and a wide-ranging gathering of testimonies , the Goldstone report exposed these atrocities and itemised which rules of international law Israel contravened by this brutal action .
First of all , we oppose new tax-raising powers for the European Union .
This resolution , as it stands , is too focused on a transaction-tax solution , implies EU , not Member State , tax-raising powers , suggests utilising the money raised for funding development and climate-change projects instead of stabilising the financial sector and , finally , suggests that an EU tax might be feasible without global participation .
As a result , an important decision-making tool for the responsible management of the affected enterprises would be lost .
I trust that our critical report today will persuade the Commission to reassess its approach to Parliament , which has joint decision-making powers in new areas , including foreign policy , thanks to the Treaty of Lisbon .
In these circumstances , Members of the European Parliament must be included by the other EU institutions in the decision-making process and in appointing staff who represent the EU internationally .
As a citizen of a non-aligned country , I cannot support this far-reaching report .
I believe that the original Commission communication was an amazing document in the way it brought together many cross-cutting issues across a number of DGs in the Commission .
But millions of hard-working voters are drowning in a sea of debt and taxes , and they are growing very impatient with the political class 's use of the global warming fraud to impose undemocratic international governance and bogus green taxes .
Furthermore , I believe that Iceland 's accession to the EU may contribute , first of all , to the diversification of Europe 's energy resources and secondly , to setting up multilateral governance in this region which is attracting ever-growing interest and may give rise , as has also been mentioned in previous speeches , to conflicts .
The issues linked to the Arctic region , ranging from the effects of global warming to the use of the resources and navigation in this region , have attracted ever-growing attention recently .
What is happening in Cuba brings disgrace upon all who are involved in politics under these Left-wing banners .
Fortunately , Chile is a country with a far-reaching capacity to respond in such times of natural disaster ; however , large areas of the world do not have that same capacity .
The people of the Middle East are the nameless hostages of this never-ending conflict .
We will be doing no one any favours if we now show solidarity without calling on Mr Papandreou to make even more far-reaching reforms than have been announced to date .
In essence , it is a mere palliative , a sham intended to suggest a modicum of citizens ' involvement in the Treaty of Lisbon without really bringing that involvement into the decision-making process .
It certainly cannot have equivalent value to the pre-existing petitions which are signed by a wide range of individuals - a clear distinction must be made - and it must therefore be regulated in such a way as to prevent its abuse and still allow broad discussion , as the expression of informed and verifiable popular consensus .
However , the most important aspect of the initiative laid down in Article 11 of the Treaty of Lisbon is its symbolic significance : the democratic deficit is being tackled not only by the decision-making power of the people 's representatives , but even more so by the very existence of a European people which is not just the mathematical sum of the citizens of the individual nations .
It is a new opportunity for European citizens to have a greater say in the decision-making process .
A far-reaching information campaign is necessary to let citizens know .
The citizens ' right of initiative would allow no fewer than a million citizens to call on the European Commission to take law-making initiatives in a specific area .
I think that strong and wide public consultations are taking place through the smart-legislating proposals .
This is one of the most important steps in the building of civil democracy and direct inclusion of the citizens in the EU decision-making process .
Would it not be better to improve the services provided in Biarritz by introducing non-polluting forms of transport ?
This issue has been dealt with in an ever-increasing number of European states on a bipartisan basis by parties which have a very different view of society in general .
At the same time , the Treaty of Lisbon cannot be used as some kind of new money-dispensing machine for Parliament .
Thousands of cancer victims are denied expensive life-saving drugs .
However , we should also still stress that , internationally and at the level of international trade negotiations , the Union must play its part by defending origin marking and origin-marking policies so as to avoid an inevitable policy of exchange of markings , which would cause damage to our products .
This represents a guarantee for sheltering them from market globalisation and for ensuring that the ' informed ' consumer can reject produce that does not bear the obligatory geographic indication of origin , that is not certified clearly , and that does not comply with marketing and anti-counterfeiting rules .
The G20 should act as an incentive to mobilise the international banking sector in favour of selective credit that would help employment , job-creating investment and promoters of a new , environmentally friendly economy .
Therefore , an integrated and forward-looking approach focused on policy action and clear operational arrangements is needed .
However , we must not forget that Member States outside the euro area were also themselves among those hit hard by the crisis and that intervention is required from the European Central Bank in this area as well , in the form of liquidity-enhancing measures .
Transparency is not only an excellent way to counter harmful risk-taking behaviour on the financial market .
On the other hand , there are several countries which use tax policy as well as their wage-setting arrangements to ensure they fall below this threshold .
The Council already agreed it would approve Parliament 's position ; thus , a first-reading agreement is to be assumed .
To be specific , these are measures which consist both of rules and of non-binding guidelines and they focus on the reception , search and rescue of people at sea .
This means that the Schengen Borders Code will now be amended as proposed by the Commission under the comitology procedure , adding the annex , with non-binding measures on obligations during sea search and rescue operations , to the directive .
I also voted for Amendment 5 , bearing in mind that unemployment is a key topic in current discussions and that , in order to be able to tackle fully the issue of the already high and ever-growing unemployment rate , the EU must implement an ambitious social agenda .
This report has an undeniable flaw : it includes agricultural policy in the self-serving logic of the pursuit of maximum profit , which is the opposite of the notion we have of agricultural policy .
This has been the case despite resistance and reports of their negative consequences from many of these countries , not to mention the failure to tackle the problem of foreign debt in a more far-reaching way .
Curiously , some have suggested that my own role in this process was merely that of a spectator whilst others have accused me of being a power-grabbing dictator .
This is why the Commission , and more specifically President Barroso and Commissioner Rehn , took the initiative , through a mixture of consensus-building work and public advocacy , to help Member States come together around our shared interests .
Its particular format is explained by its complex remit , which is rooted in a long-term perspective , making provision for a wide-ranging discussion of all possible options , not excluding possible Treaty changes .
European leaders were agreed that it is necessary to strengthen economic policy in Europe by defining future common guidelines and developing an early-warning system for Member States facing economic difficulties .
Here , and in the other steel-producing locations in the EU , the employees are very concerned about their jobs because the three large suppliers of iron ore are forcing price increases of 100 % on the steel industry .
This comes at a time when the potential areas for savings by means of cost-cutting programmes and reductions in the workforce , particularly after the most recent restructuring in the steel industry , have been completely exhausted .
The introduction of the novel concept of legislative acts has far-reaching consequences .
It should be treated as a fulfilment of the treaty , without which the position of Parliament will not be fully consolidated in relation to the other institutions in the decision-making process .
When it comes to capacity-building assistance for third countries , and certainly in the poorest countries , the European Union could provide much more help and know-how and ensure that the aviation authorities also have the necessary capacity to resolve the issues they have .
However , a concern persists that not all EU arms-exporting countries are abiding by the code and that European arms are still being supplied to conflict zones .
The European maritime sector is facing an ever-growing shortage of qualified seafarers .
That is the Laying Hens Directive , which requires the animal welfare standards of the cages in which egg-laying hens are kept to be upgraded by the end of next year .
Scientific research shows that this sector is uniquely capable of capturing carbon in a natural and non-polluting form .
In summary , I would like to say - and I believe that the report also reflects this opinion - that the current communication from the Commission still requires further refinement and that , before it is implemented , it needs to be given very careful consideration , because it will have far-reaching consequences for the farmers affected .
For example , stock-taking systems and possibly promotional activity for exports will also be necessary in the future .
( DE ) Mr President , Mr López Garrido , Mr Kallas , this flight ban brings us back to the wide-ranging debate on safety which has often taken place in Parliament and in which we have said that we , by which I mean Parliament , and also , I believe , the Commission , could and should introduce regulations in this area on a European level , if the Member States wanted this to happen .
It is true that the European Union currently has no decision-making powers either over the airspace of the Member States or over Eurocontrol , which makes it very difficult to take effective and coordinated decisions .
What we need is a forward-looking strategy : better measuring instruments in the airspace to predict atmospheric changes and the development of aircraft engines that use fuel more efficiently and are less sensitive .
What is needed is coordination , responsibility and a decision-making facility , all at European Union level .
It was immediately apparent that the events overtook the action of the Member States , who have decision-making powers to open the airports , and therefore , there was immediate intervention from the European Union .
Our very first priority must be to emerge from the crisis and to lay the foundations for sustainable , job-creating growth .
We need a thorough debate here , and not just in this Parliament but in the national parliaments , and the national decision-making authorities must be involved as well .
I also believe that we need far-reaching projects .
However , I am not sure that the details underneath these major headings do justice to this positive-sounding approach .
But I really think it is not a solution - unless there is dumping - to act via anti-dumping instruments , nor is it a solution to close our borders to other very important trade partners of Europe .
We are working hard to strengthen those relationships between the European Union and Latin America in what is , of course , a fast-changing world and where we can maximise the potential that we have .
The people of Kyrgyzstan are a peace-loving people and I imagine that many of you will have got to know them through the book by the famous author Chingiz Aitmatov , who was ambassador in Brussels up to 4 years ago .
I am delighted that the economic situation has improved in Canada during the term of the current right-wing administration , which has not happened during previous electoral terms in this country .
The main requirements for a successful decision-making process for this agreement are transparency , cooperation and the inclusion of Parliament .
However , we have conferences of this kind taking place across the world all the time and we need to ensure that we are harnessing the full diplomatic skills of the European Union to ensure we have a forward-looking strategy , that we use our resources effectively , and that we stop punching below our weight .
Ladies and gentlemen , I am confident that the new rules on credit rating agencies about which I have just been speaking will definitely improve the independence and integrity of the rating process , will make credit-rating activities more transparent , and will improve the quality of such ratings , including those relating to the sovereign debt of the Member States - the countries of the European Union - and of the EU 's financial institutions .
Mr President , Mr Papastamkos , I am aware of your long-standing commitment , and that is why I welcome this dialogue that you are opening between us for the first time today , because I personally have only been in post for a few weeks .
The Commission is fully committed to ensuring that general EU rules and principles relating to competition are respected , while taking account of the dynamic and fast-changing circumstances in the market .
Some 8 % of the banks ' assets are in the form of government bonds or loans , although the government and non-performing loans arising are not expected to top eight per cent in 2010 due to the weak economy .
Those suggestions will bring into focus the development of national broadband strategies covering the promotion of private investment using town-planning rules , mapping of infrastructure and clearing of rights of way ; and by doing that , the Member Sates can substantially cut investment costs and make them more viable .
Greater flexibility , because the proposed simplification measures allow for a reduction in the amount of information to be provided , for fewer controls , and for greater flexibility on revenue-generating projects .
We must ensure that efficient , forward-looking work is done that also corresponds to our policies , and therefore I ask that we all ensure that these agencies are able to work well and efficiently for us in the future too .
I believe there is some justification in this , bearing in mind that five years is also the period for financial transaction data that banks are subject to under EU anti-money-laundering legislation , but I am ready to hear Parliament 's views on this and take this matter to the Council by the end of the week .
I would ask my fellow Members to continue their support through the final stage of the decision-making process .
In conclusion , I would like to insist on the importance of ensuring high waste-recycling rates and improved resource efficiency in the extraction sector .
Anyone who experienced and saw the results of the environmental catastrophe caused by the failure of the technology in Baia Mare , and the subsequent release of toxic cyanide effluents into water courses , with far-reaching effects on fauna in the Tisza River in Hungary , as well as the Danube in Bulgaria , would do everything possible to ensure that something similar could never happen again in the European Union .
Consequences of the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon for ongoing interinstitutional decision-making procedures (
Furthermore , I am in favour of providing an additional pre-financing instalment for 2010 for the Member States worst hit by the crisis .
This is a real leap forward : there is less information to provide , greater flexibility with regard to revenue-generating projects , fewer checks by the Commission for environmental projects worth EUR 25 to 50 million , and so on .
The Council 's position is different , however , and merely points out that ' an additional pre-financing instalment [ ... ] is needed for the Member States worst hit by the crisis ' .
In some cases there will be differences at the level of the decision-making procedure , either because the scope of the ordinary legislative procedure has been significantly extended , or because a new approval procedure applies in respect of the conclusion of international agreements .
I voted in favour of the resolution on the consequences of the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon for ongoing interinstitutional decision-making procedures .
The entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon has not only imposed a new institutional arrangement and a new hierarchy of legislation , but also requires special precautions with regard to decision-making procedures that were still ongoing on that date .
In some cases there will be differences at the level of the decision-making procedure , either because the scope of the ordinary legislative procedure has been significantly extended , or because a new approval procedure applies in respect of the conclusion of international agreements .
in writing . - I vote against the Motion for Resolution on the consequences of the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon for ongoing interinstitutional decision-making procedures as it includes the regulation about the so called " direct trade ” between the EU and the occupied part of the Republic of Cyprus .
In this regard , I would stress the need to reach agreements on the subject at global level in order to combat the risk of reflagging to non-participating countries .
In Europe there has been and continues to be an active desire and long-standing tradition regarding decent treatment for animals .
The Member States and the regions must have the opportunity to implement more far-reaching animal welfare legislation .
Concerning the investment facility managed by the European Investment Bank ( EIB ) , which is a risk-bearing instrument funded by the EDF to encourage private investment in the difficult economic and political context of the ACP countries , I have very mixed feelings about the idea that the EIB should present a report as part of the discharge procedure , but this will be a point for discussion , especially if , as Parliament hopes , the Union becomes a shareholder in the EIB .
I am talking , obviously , about the largest Portuguese-speaking country in the world : Brazil .
The European Parliament has acquired greater decision-making powers through the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon .
I voted against that agreement , which was blocked by Parliament out of concern for the privacy rights of European citizens and companies , put at risk by unregulated bulk data-sharing arrangements .
Attempts are being made not only to safeguard the principle of non-discrimination throughout the data-processing procedure , but also to set up a European authority that is capable of receiving and overseeing the United States ' requests .
Cyanide has been recognised as a highly toxic chemical used in the gold-mining industry and which qualifies as a main pollutant and can have catastrophic and irreversible impact on human health and environment .
With the dictates from the International Monetary Fund , any semblance of a democratic decision-making process has been eliminated .
We have not included any of the issues that came up over the last few years in connection with the Lisbon Strategy and we have not given any forward-looking answers .
Before we talk about the implementation of Europe 2020 , we urgently need to put the strategy on hold and give ourselves more time for the decision-making process and we need to carry out an analysis of the actual challenges we face .
The standard must be a forward-looking perspective .
It is of particular significance to the citizens of my country , which Right-wing governments have deprived of the ability to protect the fundamental rights guaranteed by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights .
Some MEPs - Mr Belet , Mrs Matias - mentioned the problem of employment , but many other MEPs also spoke about the retraining of workers , because if we are to have an industrial system in the car industry which is highly innovative , which is focused not only on electric vehicles but also on the development of a transformed combustion engine - less-polluting combustion engines but all the other opportunities too - then we must focus on retraining workers as well , because our aim is to comply with the Treaty of Lisbon , which regards the market as the best vehicle for creating social policy .
As shadow rapporteur for the Group of the Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament , I wished , among other things , to highlight the following issues : firstly , the increase in annual cancer-related deaths caused by exposure to carcinogens in the workplace , but also the importance of better access to information on medication for cancer patients ; the implementation of the REACH Regulation and the regular updating of the list of substances of very high concern , which covers carcinogens ; the support for initiatives seeking to prevent imports of goods containing cancer-producing chemicals and to intensify checks to detect such chemicals within the European Union ; and , lastly , the drafting of guidelines for a common definition of disability covering persons suffering from chronic diseases or from cancer .
In another respect , however , the current economic situation in Europe means that the European Investment Bank needs to carry out a wide-ranging review of its mission .
However , in order to be able to function efficiently , this authority must be given far-reaching powers and must also have the mandate to monitor banks which operate across national borders .
We should also be dealing with the dangerous rise of right-wing radicalism .
It is crucial that the EIB applies bolder risk-taking in its lending policy towards SMEs in order to allow SMEs to access capital for risk-taking projects .
We can , of course , deplore the fact that this rich country - the leading oil-exporting country in Africa - is unable to invest this wealth to combat poverty .
As soon as an ever-increasing number of mass criminals are arrested and convicted , we will see a drop in the level of violence .
I am , furthermore , in favour of the provision for an additional pre-financing instalment for 2010 for those Member States that have been worst hit by the economic crisis .
The non-binding document that was agreed in Copenhagen to halt global warming at + 2 ° C would still mean a warming scenario for Europe , something that would be marked by extreme regional climate changes .
This would make it possible to carry out scientific research and a wide-ranging programme of anti-cancer prophylactic measures in all the countries of the Union .
In many Member States it has been possible to achieve progress in the fight against cancer in different ways , including use of anti-smoking strategies and specific methods of prevention .
It is therefore a good idea to harmonise the methods for measuring and quantifying energy performance so as to have data that enable us to develop innovative energy-saving strategies and to prevent the phenomenon of ' green disinformation ' .
It perpetuates social and economic inequality and it reduces the capacity of ICT to deliver wide-reaching benefits in terms of energy efficiency .
The answer to this question still needs to be found in the self-seeking ambitions of the Communist elite from the late 1980s .
You have already emphasised that the recast version will only be able to realise its full energy-saving potential if it is transposed effectively and quickly and if there are also supporting instruments .
We all know that , to rise to the challenge of energy saving , it is important that consumers both in the public and private sectors acknowledge and see the benefits which directly engaging with energy-saving initiatives can bring both in environmental and economic terms , but I will give you a warning because there has been an example in my own Member State of gold-plating the directive , particularly in the requirements for energy performance certificates in public buildings , and this has added , in some cases , extra bureaucratic costs with little perceived energy saving and led to a loss of public support ; that is regrettable .
In other areas that we have to address - power stations , the energy mix in general or the automotive sector - there are relatively few players to approach : energy companies or the 12 to 15 car-producing enterprises of Europe .
Unfortunately , in Central Europe , there is no system yet for providing greater incentives for investment in passive houses , even though such technology could help reduce the ever-increasing dependency on gas .
I would also like to give particular thanks to my shadow rapporteur , since although this is indeed a technical report - as has been mentioned a number of times - it has many wide-ranging consequences for our citizens .
I feel the work is again a demonstration of the ability of this House to be among the most flexible and consensus-building institutions of the European Union .
The amending budget of the European Parliament , which we are debating today , will secure the additional financial and human resources to enable Parliament to fulfil its new codecision-making role on an equal footing to that of the Council .
From the point of view of budgetary implementation , I would only ask Mr Alvaro if there could be some sort of clear and efficient de-blocking procedure for the case when we would need the money .
( MT ) Madam President , this resettlement programme which is being set up is filling a significant , long-standing void .
Madam President , I wish to thank everyone who has been working very hard on the seemingly never-ending story of SIS II : Mr Coelho and those in the field .
Contrary to what is being suggested , it will not be possible to mitigate these consequences using the measures that are being proposed relating to the sugar-processing industry ; all the more so when its gradual abolition is also being suggested .
In the Azores , the derogation for re-exporting sugar is being brought back and extended , both in amount and in time limit ; the region is also benefiting from the provisions on wine already mentioned for Madeira .
Now , only six months later , you have in front of you not only a proposal for a codecided decision , but also a first-reading agreement with the Council .
It is vital to inform citizens of these requirements and to encourage them , even when buildings are being renovated , to introduce smart metering systems ( to replace the hot water and air-conditioning systems with energy efficient alternatives , such as reversible heat pumps ) .
When liberals and left-wing politicians assert that day-to-day work with refugees is sufficiently covered by non-governmental organisations and state funding , it reveals their short-sighted cynicism and hypocrisy .
The latter , in effect , demands that the European Parliament be involved in the decision-making process and indicates that its favourable opinion is required before there can be any migration to the second version of the Schengen Information System .
Education and training issues are clearly of the greatest significance , given the never-ending advances of science and technology , and the increasing incorporation of scientific and technical knowledge into productive processes .
Good managers who are responsible and whose conduct is guided by ethics are central to the balanced decision-making process which leads companies to become competitive .
I voted in favour of the own-initiative report on deontological questions related to companies ' management as , above all , I support the European Parliament 's call for encouraging higher numbers of women to be assigned to management posts and the request for the European Commission to put forward a proposal to introduce a system for the filling of posts on company decision-making bodies , posts in other bodies and posts in general .
in writing . - I voted in favour because , though the EU strategy for youth is , by its nature , a wide-ranging and all-encompassing document , it is crucial to reassert that any new strategy must place education at the centre of its ambition and policy .
Young people are our future and we should be involving them more in the decision-making process at European level .
It is important for my country , Lithuania , together with most of its neighbours , to halt the ever-increasing brain drain of qualified workers .
On the other hand , we do not believe that it is the job of the EU to take decisions on equality policy , which have a far-reaching impact on the public finances of the Member States .
I would like to congratulate my fellow Member , Astrid Lulling , on the acceptance of her report , which represents an important step forward in resolving an extremely long-standing problem .
I welcome , in particular , the involvement of the European Parliament in this decision-making process as a consequence of the enactment of the Treaty of Lisbon provisions .
Meanwhile , the delay registered in the decision-making process due to the new procedure is regrettable .
The consequences of abolition of the milk quotas for the region 's economy - against which we have fought and will continue to fight - will not be mitigated with the measures aimed at the sugar-processing industry that are being proposed now , considering that the re-exporting of sugar is being prolonged .
With regard to the directive , I am very pleased that we are now close to a first-reading agreement following swift and constructive dialogue between Parliament , the Commission and the Council .
However , I appreciate the rapporteur 's efforts in increasing awareness on this issue and I hope that these are annexed to the final document in a non-binding manner .
There are many examples that show this , but the crucial thing is that , for the first time in history , it is now possible for high-ranking representatives of a State - civilian or military - to be called to account for having ordered war crimes or crimes against humanity .
Many are still slow to act when it comes to arresting high-ranking people for whom an arrest warrant has been issued .
Allow me , in closing , to also emphasise just how important the call for the EU to be represented at the conference by the highest-ranking people possible is .
However , the Commission will play an active role in the stock-taking part of the conference , and we count fully on the Spanish Presidency to lead the European nations so that their voice will make a big difference in this conference .
Local councillors , elected in a Russian-speaking city , are not allowed to use their mother tongue in meetings .
All the rest is do-gooding rhetoric that does not help immigrants to integrate , and certainly does not help our people .
I would like to underline that an ambitious approach in the decision-making process depends on the political willingness of Member States .
All Member States have replied to this questionnaire , and we are right now , in addition , preparing from the Commission side a stock-taking exercise of the main EU measures and policy initiatives taken in the field of counter-terrorism until the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty .
Member States have also demonstrated a strong political desire to implement the Small Business Act : for example , they have made the ' SME test ' part of national decision-making procedures , and small and medium-sized enterprises were amongst the main beneficiaries of the measures adopted by Member States in the context of the European recovery programme to deal with the crisis .
' The Commission 's decision confirms its long-standing policy line that national authorities have a wide margin in defining the criteria and conditions for social housing and other Services of General Economic Interest ( SGEI ) . '
( DE ) Madam President , Commissioner , public services and social services are beset by enormous economic and political upheaval , the more so given national cost-saving measures .
That is why , in the last week , I hosted a gathering of high-ranking officials from the major energy firms active in European waters .
Finally , oil companies are operating at ever-increasing depths , making intervention very difficult when there is an accident and putting the marine environment at risk .
They are drilling everything they can , and at ever-increasing depths , which clearly increases the risk of accidents .
The chaotic responses show a lack of coordination , and also hesitation , at a time when quick decisions should be made on re-opening air space .
This applies to both right-wing and left-wing governments .
Mr President , the most recent Council meetings indicate that far-reaching changes are under way .
The third is the virulence of the crisis and its challenges and , despite this , the exasperating slowness of the response and decision-making mechanisms that are typical of the European Union .
We are therefore behind in responding to all those millions of unemployed people who are looking to us , and we are raising difficulties that are not arising in other countries that are tackling the crisis with greater decision-making capacity .
We must discard the old approach of coordinating national policies and equip ourselves with strong decision-making instruments .
Faced with the crisis that they created , speculative financial capital 's decision-making centres - as well as their institutional extensions in the EU 's institutions and in governments - have just launched a new and different attack on the people and workers of Europe .
The economic and financial crisis has made it necessary in many Member States to introduce cost-saving measures and to reform existing structures .
As well as speeding up decision-making mechanisms , the Treaty of Lisbon is contributing to the fight against the democratic deficit , strengthening the roles of national parliaments and the European Parliament , and stressing the exercise of European citizenship .
The benefit is an expansion of Class A , allowing distinctions to be drawn among the constantly increasing group of energy-saving appliances while , at the same time , motivating producers to make appliances that are as energy-saving as possible .
Proposals to set one up are another pretty-sounding excuse for the further advance of an agenda that has nothing to do with patients ' welfare and everything to do with federalist dogma .
Consequently , it is important that an ever-increasing number of states acknowledge the authority of the International Criminal Court and that the signatories of the Rome Statute ratify the agreement as a matter of urgency .
Mr Hoang Ngoc , I should like , if I may , to point out that this pact has been supported for about 10 years now by both left- and right-wing governments .
It is a serious problem that so many of the decisions continue to be short-sighted and governed by a right-wing philosophy where economies in crisis are put on a starvation diet .
I want to refer to some points on that in a moment but I just want to support what Mrs Berès said about the wide-ranging nature of the debate this afternoon .
As beneficiaries of these policies , I believe that Member States must maintain the key role which they have in the decision-making process regarding the Cohesion policy within the Council .
In the euro area in particular , a more far-reaching approach to the assessment of budgetary policies seems justified , including a more pervasive review of the weaknesses of national budgetary plans ahead of their adoption .
We need to increase the numbers of women in decision-making bodies such as managerial and executive board positions based on a Norwegian 40 % quota model .
I would also like to underline that due to the dynamic market , the fast-changing working environment and the ever-increasing development of new technologies , institutions of higher education also have to adapt to the new changes - they must improve and reform curricula in order to ensure a high level of education and solve the question of graduate employment .
As the Group of the Greens / European Free Alliance , we are calling for the remaining 40 % of the EUR 300 million for the nuclear reactor withdrawal programme to be channelled by the Bulgarian Government to the management of radioactive waste and not to the development of environment-killing uranium- and coal-fired power plants .
We have not avoided tackling the question of conflicts taking place in the South , but we wanted to affirm very forcefully that it was precisely the approach of the Union for the Mediterranean , with specific projects , parity between North and South in decision-making bodies and the possibility , for example , of bringing Israelis and Palestinians to the same table , that was the right method for helping to resolve these conflicts and that , moreover , the Union for the Mediterranean should not be asked to pursue all the objectives at the same time and that it needed to focus on these specific activities .
Armenia has now made courageous efforts to resolve this long-standing impasse over Nagorno-Karabakh .
Finally , we cannot hide from our issue of ever-ageing populations .
Consequently , I support a review of the Pact and the search for alternative mechanisms for restoring the convergence of the economies within the EU , as well as the setting up of a European public credit-rating agency and closer coordination of Member States ' budgetary and monetary policies .
There is , of course , a fundamental contradiction in right-wing groups in this European Parliament claiming to stand for freedom and human rights in Pakistan , while supporting the war in Afghanistan which is having a severe spill-over effect into Pakistan with very detrimental consequences .
Mrs Bauer had no mandate to negotiate , on behalf of this Parliament , a first-reading agreement with the Council .
This Parliament questions at times the nature of a first-reading agreement because it reduces our ability to negotiate .
Now , in this instance , if Mrs Bauer 's amendments are approved , there will be a first-reading agreement that has not been examined by the bodies of this Parliament .
It is still possible for low-quality whiskies from countries like India , China and Japan to pass themselves off as the genuine article by carrying pictures , images or names on their labels which are reminiscent of the traditional whisky-producing countries in the EU in order to increase their competitive advantage and mislead the consumer .
It is not only the origin but also the ingredients and other characteristics that are becoming a fundamental part of the decision-making process .
The clearest indication of its general health-promoting properties would be the traffic light model , which even a child understands at a single glance .
Secondly , however , it is also my belief that a GDA system , as has also been proposed , is very likely to provide the information that knowledge-seeking consumers will find useful for making the right choices .
We must not confuse consumers with far too many labelling schemes , nor should we destroy the regional diversity of food-producing areas by imposing a detailed labelling system for non-prepacked food .
For the sake of better regulation , I believe that impact assessment should underpin the decision-making process at all times .
Consumers do indeed continue to occupy a special place in our decision-making process when it comes to safeguarding both their health and the quality of the goods that they buy .
I am concerned that so far , the statistics have not been a priority within this area in the ongoing decision-making discussions .
In any event , we must never again find ourselves in a situation - such as we did with Greece - in which it is only in retrospect that it becomes apparent that decisions with wide-ranging implications were taken on the basis of incorrect or falsified data .
They have greater bureaucratic burdens , too many complex regulations , a lack of transparency in decision-making processes and cofinancing rules , and delayed payments .
I particularly agree with the desire to provide a broad-ranging strategy that concerns not only technological innovation but also administrative , organisational and social innovation .
However , this must not result in the Commission being given such far-reaching powers that the Member States can no longer select their own projects and partners , for example .
The participation of society might occur in various ways in the decision-making process - allocating EU funds and implementing them .
The changes in commitment achieved with this adaptation of the Rules of Procedure for the Treaty of Lisbon are largely the result of efforts by the Group of the European People 's Party ( PPE ) to clarify and simplify the decision-making process in Parliament and its relationship with the national parliaments .
With the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon , Parliament needs to show that it has adapted to the new operating conditions and shared responsibility in decision-making processes .
Although the amendments voted on today concern , to a lesser extent , the fundamental changes related to the treaty which have strengthened Parliament in the decision-making process , they are an important addition to the changes to the Rules of Procedure and allow us to use the new possibilities to the full .
One of the basic causes of economic and financial instability is the development and increase in non-banking transactions , which include risk premiums and other financial derivatives .
However , it needs to be subject to specific and far-reaching regulations which will allow this Internet of Things to respond to the challenges of trust , acceptance and security .
This new technology will revolutionise and widen person-to-thing and thing-to-thing interaction .
The innovation lies in the thing-to-thing relationship .
Given the ever-increasing prominence of the Internet in the daily life of the public and the institutions , and even in the running of various countries , along with its impact on economic , cultural , social and human development , the governance of the Internet is a matter of paramount importance on the world stage .
I particularly agree with the desire to provide a broad-ranging strategy that concerns not only technological innovation but also administrative , organisational and social innovation .
I would also like to point out the importance of incentives for the private sector and a comprehensive , cross-cutting strategy for achieving European innovation policy as a priority .
Moreover , the MDGs have to be seen from a development-enabling perspective , while at the same time facing and tackling the root causes of poverty .
I welcome the adoption of paragraph 42 , which ' calls on all the Member States and the Commission to reverse the worrying decline in funding for sexual and reproductive health and rights in developing countries , and to support policies on voluntary family planning , safe abortion , treatment of sexually transmitted infections and the provision of reproductive health supplies consisting of life-saving drugs and contraceptives , including condoms ' .
I am a long-standing advocate of a country-by-country reporting system to enable developing countries to keep their own resources for their own development .
The Secretary-General of the OECD and some of his experts came to Brussels recently , and we are working with them and others to have an indicator of innovation that could be agreed upon by the academic community and the policy-making community .
However , even the coke-sniffing youngsters at the credit agencies know that Ireland , Greece , Spain , Italy , the United Kingdom and Portugal are broke .
( RO ) Against the backdrop of the current crisis , the activities of credit rating agencies are being subject to ever-mounting criticism due to the fact that they have failed to be objective in evaluating the level of credit risk for companies and even states .
It will also make it easier for regional banks to take out bonds , as the thresholds are being raised from EUR 50 million to EUR 75 million for non-equity securities , such as interest-bearing debt and structured products .
on behalf of the ECR Group . - Mr President , I know that this is not one of our most headline-grabbing reports , but it deserves to be , because this Prospectus Directive has actually been crucial to regulating European firms ' access to capital .
This situation obviously requires a wide-ranging review , which will include every aspect relating to the European Union 's spending and funding , including technical and political adjustments to the Multiannual Financial Framework and the interinstitutional agreement , as well as the revision of certain budgetary envelopes agreed up until 2013 .
Apart from the wide-ranging review , which needs to be carried out prudently and in detail , I think that a pragmatic approach is also required to facilitate the tasks ahead of us and help us emerge from this period more quickly .
The European Council therefore invites the Commission to undertake a full , wide-ranging review covering all aspects of EU spending , including the CAP , and of resources , including the UK rebate , to report in 2008 / 9 ' .
As I see it , therefore , an illegal decision-making process is being created that was forbidden by the Court in the judgment mentioned earlier .
From this point of view , not a day passes without the media or a top-ranking politician talking about the need for a stronger European budget .
The EU strategy for action on hormone-disrupting chemicals was adopted over 10 years ago , largely as a result of an initiative report by the European Parliament in 1997 .
Yet despite various political statements in support of the EU action plan on EDCs , and an agreed priority list of endocrine-disrupting chemicals ( EDCs ) , no practical action has yet been taken at EU level to remove hormone-disrupting chemicals from our environment .
Yet despite various political statements in support of the EU action plan on EDCs , and an agreed priority list of endocrine-disrupting chemicals ( EDCs ) , no practical action has yet been taken at EU level to remove hormone-disrupting chemicals from our environment .
In particular , at the end of 2009 , the Danish authorities published the results from a number of studies that examined the cumulative impact of different endocrine-disrupting substances on sensitive groups such as young children and female workers , as you mentioned in your question .
Finally , the Commission has recently launched a major study to consolidate all the latest scientific information and to make recommendations concerning testing strategies and criteria for the identification of substances with endocrine-disrupting properties .
Those of us who have worked on REACH and those who know REACH in detail - as I know you do - know only too well that cocktail effects have simply not been taken into account when it comes to the most hazardous substances : carcinogenic substances and endocrine-disrupting chemicals .
the report by Mrs Figueiredo , on behalf of the Committee on Women 's Rights and Gender Equality , on assessment of the results of the 2006-2010 Roadmap for Equality between women and men and forward-looking recommendations [ 2009 / 2242 ( INI ) ] , and
Effective measures are also required to increase the employment rate and social gains for women as part of the Europe 2020 strategy , as well as programmes for encouraging the involvement of women in the green economy , policies promoting greater representation for women in the managerial decision-making process , and lastly , suitable legislative amendments to get more women into management positions .
You are right : women are , except in university studies , severely under-represented in decision-making positions at all levels , both in public and in private companies .
Cost-cutting measures do not greatly affect most of the powerful departments of state .
Reductions in funding for social services , which mainly employ women , also come top of the list of cost-cutting measures .
It is the responsibility of individual governments also to look at the matter from this perspective when planning cost-cutting budget measures and their impacts , and to select a carefully balanced approach when placing burdens on the population at large .
If we really need women to be better represented in the decision-making structures in both the public and private sectors , introducing gender equality in Europe 's institutions is an absolute must .
However , the efforts made towards strengthening a woman 's role in the economy , equal pay and increasing the appointment of women to decision-making posts must not just remain empty words .
That is how we experience it , and will continue to pursue it until some chairs of political groups , be they male or female , understand that this must be regarded as a priority issue , and not simply an end-of-the-evening debate .
Unfortunately , numerous right-wing governments have abandoned their policies combating the gender gap , under the pretext of the recession .
Women are employed , principally , in the public sector , so they are directly at risk from redundancies made due to cost-cutting policies .
If you go out in a boat in the wonderful archipelago in summer , you are met by a decimetre-thick green , foul-smelling layer of algae .
These ever-increasing pressures are today threatening the capacity of the Baltic Sea region to continue to provide the diverse range of goods and services upon which we have all learned to depend .
The ever-increasing need for public goods , the growth in population numbers and the simultaneous shortage of natural resources make this more difficult to achieve .
Forward-looking targets have been formulated for the entire Community .
By the same token , ear-tagging rules were not enforced .
However , the EU welcomed the efforts made by Brazil and Turkey that led to the Tehran Declaration , pointing out its shortcomings but also emphasising its value as a potential confidence-building instrument and inviting Iran to seize the chance to resume serious negotiations .
Approval of the ' terror agreement ' confirms that the European Parliament supposedly democratically legitimises these deeply reactionary , anti-grassroots , euro-unifying policies .
The resolution acquits NATO of the war and the dismemberment of Serbia and supports the long-term presence of NATO troops and bases in Kosovo and the area as a whole and Euro-unifying interventions through the installation of their forces via EULEX .
My intention in voting against the resolution is not to hinder the wide-ranging efforts to combat AIDS , but to oppose the method and the content that I mentioned .
Given the existence of a joint motion for a resolution signed only by the left-wing and the extreme left-wing parties in Parliament , it is easy to see that this objective has been sadly undermined .
in writing . - ( PT ) The resolution takes a wide-ranging approach to the problem of AIDS / HIV , supported by current data .
The report on the future of the CAP after 2013 promotes the euro-unifying policy to uproot poor farmers from medium-sized farms and strengthens large capitalist agricultural production .
It is an important step towards preventing global distortions of competition and supporting honest , law-abiding fishermen .
I supported the report because I wanted to emphasise one threat in particular which it mentions : the lack of sound and wide-ranging information for consumers on the health properties , composition and origin of particular species of fish .
author . - Madam President , this resolution , purporting to be about human rights in Venezuela , exposes a massive hypocrisy among the right-wing parties in this Parliament .
The real agenda here is not to defend human rights but , in fact , to advance the overthrow of the government of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and to give succour to the right-wing pro-big-business opposition in Venezuela , which still controls large swathes of the privately-owned media and industry and landed estates and includes those who attempted an open coup less than 10 years ago .
His style of left-wing rule is reminiscent of the worst communist governments of eastern and central Europe in the period before the fall of the Berlin Wall .
In these exceptional times , we are convinced that they must all be encouraged and assisted to invest in ground-breaking ideas , in new technologies and in innovation .
Quality jobs are very important for people 's dignity , as well as for their profit-making capacity .
Gross domestic product must continue to be the main criterion , although there might be other indicators in other decision-making processes , and the regions and local bodies must play a fundamental role .
That is largely due to the forward-planning strategy used for employment , which sets out which factors to address and how to achieve the desired targets , and also to the use of the ESF as an operational instrument of this strategy , acting on education and training and furthering employment .
Trade deregulation in the textiles and clothing industry has brought about far-reaching changes in global trade patterns , with the upshot being a general trend to relocate production outside the EU to countries where production costs are lower , such as China and Morocco .
in writing . - Once again , the EP reiterates its long-standing opposition to the death penalty in all cases and under all circumstances and emphasises , once again , that abolition of the death penalty contributes to the enhancement of human dignity and the progressive development of human rights .
The Commission and the Member States must speak with one voice at COP 10 , and their internal decision-making processes need to be fast-tracked .
the Basel Committee and the Commission should clarify the treatment of reciprocal financial cross-holding agreements ;
In this context , non-profit-making systems with mixed financing from state resources , international support and public participation could help meet the immense challenge posed by health care in sub-Saharan Africa .
Multi-level governance must be encouraged , with greater involvement of regional and local bodies in the law-making process , as required by the new Treaty of Lisbon , and compliance with the principle of subsidiarity , as decisions must be made at the closest possible level to the people .
This directive may be in force for two decades ; today , we are merely at the beginnings of a long and difficult decision-making process .
Someone mentioned here in this debate that today employers ask women of child-bearing age whether they intend to have children .
We can see today that Member States with well-functioning rules for maternity leave also have a high rate of women in employment .
This contrasts with the situation in those countries with poorer and less well-functioning rules .
The new rules clearly define the political responsibility of both institutions and strengthen the powers which the European Parliament has recently acquired in the decision-making process .
It has been forced upon nation states , at least upon Hungary , my native land , under expressly dictatorial and anti-democratic circumstances , as it is a treaty that took away from people several decision-making powers concerning their own destiny , behind their back and over their head , and handed them over to Brussels .
The organisational structure has been updated , a clear division of responsibilities between the contracting parties , flag states and port states has been introduced , a more coherent decision-making process has been created , the system for contributions to the NAFO budget has been reformed and a mechanism for settling disputes which may arise between contracting parties has been provided .
Three institutions , the Commission , the Council and Parliament , must find an appropriate solution to avoid delaying the procedure and to realise one of the main aims of the Treaty of Lisbon , which is to simplify and accelerate the decision-making process .
It incorporates modern concepts of fisheries management ; it streamlines the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation ( NAFO ) structure ; and it introduces a clear definition of the responsibilities of contracting parties , flag states and port states and a more coherent decision-making process .
In this connection , I congratulate our Chair on her report , which points out that the control scheme adopted by the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission ( NEAFC ) must be transposed into European law without delay ; more specifically , I welcome the introduction of the programme promoting compliance by non-contracting party vessels .
The main changes are : promoting compliance with the rules by vessels in the non-contracting area , a new control system , banning landings of frozen fish whose legality cannot be proven , realigning with other conventions , fisheries management measures and new measures to combat illegal fishing .
These financial circles pay no attention to employees anymore , and their money-grubbing practices are not even halted by an ecological disaster .
At the same time , the report draws attention to a negative consequence of this principle : existing deficits in participation by societal stakeholders representing health and safety , consumer and environmental interests in the standard-setting process .
The Commission will explore practical ways of ensuring effective membership of European standardisation organisations for organisations representing societal stakeholders , and of helping to achieve more balanced participation by stakeholders in the standard-setting process .
However , while discarding time-wasting measures , we do formulate expectations , as it has already been done by previous rapporteurs .
How to unify functions associated with different policies and subject to different decision-making procedures in order to make the European Union 's external actions more consistent , without endangering the communautaire nature of certain policies , but embracing the contributions of bodies operating in the field of the common security and defence policy , was not merely a problem of European law or administration science or a test of the power relations between institutions .
This , too , is a self-perpetuating stigma , which is untenable .
Such measures are aimed principally at promoting compliance by non-contracting party vessels with the rules of the convention , and including a new monitoring system by the Member State of the port .
The proposed monitoring system includes provisions to promote compliance with conservation and enforcement measures for vessels from non-contracting parties , and thus ensure full compliance with the conservation and management measures adopted by the Convention on future multilateral cooperation in the North-East Atlantic fisheries ( NEAFC ) .
Among the positive measures , the following stand out : the simplification of the structure of this convention , the modernisation of contributions to the budget in line with the ' user pays ' principle in relation to the contracting parties , a new definition of obligations and a review of the decision-making process and the resolution of disputes with respect to the latter .
A new procedure is adopted with the aim of improving control and enforcement of its recommendations on fisheries and , in particular , encouraging vessels of non-contracting parties to comply with the rules .
The proposed changes include : modernising the NAFO structure ( merging the General Council and the Fisheries Commission into a single body ) , reforming the system of contributions to the budget , introducing clear guidelines on the rights and obligations of NAFO contracting parties , changes to the decision-making process and the introduction of a new conflict resolution procedure , in order to resolve disputes in an effective manner , which will benefit European Union interests .
Relations with fast-growing countries through such centres will benefit our economies in general , and SMEs in particular .
In specific terms , we have had to make cuts in appropriations for the ITER Fusion project , in the common foreign and security policy , and in aid for banana-producing countries and cooperation with newly industrialised nations .
Are we saying that the UK is axing child benefits and university funding , postponing school-building schemes and making other painful cuts just to fund more champagne and oysters for the European Parliament ?
Faced with the ever-worsening crisis , unemployment and living conditions for millions of people , all of us are thus once again aware what the much-vaunted European solidarity really means for some .
At a time when the British Government is proposing the most wide-ranging budget cuts in a generation we , as Conservatives , have been calling for a freeze on European spending .
( BG ) In the report from the Special Committee on the Financial , Economic and Social Crisis we call , above all , for a European response , strong political and intellectual leadership with a European dimension , far-reaching integration and completion of the single European market for the benefit of European citizens .
We need to control the credit-creating activities , i.e. the money-making activities , of the banks .
We need to control the credit-creating activities , i.e. the money-making activities , of the banks .
As regards these two issues , which pose a genuine threat to global growth and which cause significant imbalances on our planet , I believe that the European Union must unite around common positions , so that it is able to speak with one voice at the forthcoming G20 summits , both the one in Seoul and also at those that follow , and in a more all-embracing manner on the world stage .
Mr President , one of the most eye-catching features in these recommendations is the tax on financial transactions .
However , EU financial assistance to ACP banana-supplying countries affected by the Most Favoured Nation ( MFN ) liberalisation in the framework of the World Trade Organisation ( WTO ) should not be questioned , and the fiscal effort should not be held up .
Furthermore , there were no proper warnings of the impact on the banana-producing countries and regions of the EU , such as the Autonomous Region of Madeira .
The specific case that is being handled in this amending budget proposal is that of the ACP banana-producing countries .
This special aid takes the form of the liberalisation of the banana trade between the EU and 11 Latin American banana-producing countries .
in writing . - Due to changing trade arrangements , notably the liberalisation of trade within the WTO , the reduction of the preferential margin for ACP banana-exporting countries has had a negative impact .
The European Commission proposes therefore to support the main ACP banana-exporting countries by establishing Banana Accompanying Measures ( BAM ) with a budget of EUR 190 million over 4 years ( 2010-2013 ) .
Although the banana question is a long-standing issue , financing the BAM remains problematic .
This is due to a set of measures contained in an all-embracing family policy .
Finally , the European Parliament , in adopting measures that are not financially practicable and which could even be counterproductive in terms of women 's participation in the job market , is damaging its credibility in the European decision-making process .
I should also like to draw attention to the fact that the right to parental leave and the guarantee of the same job to come back to must be workable for employers , in particular , in small and medium-sized enterprises , or else they may well hesitate to hire or promote women of child-bearing age .
At the same time , I hope that the directive will facilitate the development of debt-collecting mechanisms , as late payments from public authorities cause imbalances in the operation of small and medium-sized enterprises and , by extension , of the market too .
In order for the consequences of late payment to be such as to discourage it , it is necessary that fast-acting procedures for the recovery of undisputed outstanding debt related to late payment be introduced within the establishment of a culture of prompt payment .
All these factors add up to the EU facing a poverty problem exacerbated not only by the recession , but also by the anti-social policies implemented by right-wing governments .
I echo the call of the European people to put an end to poverty and inequality through the implementation of effective , inclusive and forward-looking strategies that fight proactively against global poverty .
It must create added value , strengthen the instruments that have worked well ( such as the currency ) , refine those that can be improved ( such as the coordination of fiscal and budgetary policies ) , and create economies of scale for a rapid and long-lasting recovery .
This report even adds a profession of faith among the self-regulating virtues of the market , which it pretends to believe can be made more ethical .
Serious , far-reaching monitoring would probably have avoided the extreme situations in Greece and Spain .
The so-called Banana Accompanying Measures have a clear objective : to support the adjustment of 10 ACP banana-exporting countries to changing EU import tariffs for bananas .
Bananas were the subject of the world 's longest-running trade dispute .
I also agree that the European Union must find a way to continue supporting banana-growing countries , even after the World Trade Organisation banned the granting of soft terms from the start of this year .
On account of the privileged partnership that it maintains with ACP countries , the European Union nonetheless wanted to help banana-producing ACP countries to cope with this increased competition .
Consequently , Europe has pledged EUR 190 million until 2013 to help banana-producing ACP countries to adapt , be competitive and restructure their sector if need be .
In the report on which we will vote tomorrow , the European Parliament is reaffirming its commitment to , and support for , banana-producing ACP countries , and I very much welcome that .
( FR ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , the title of this debate is likely to create a certain optimism because in theory , it is about defining the procedures for helping banana-producing ACP countries .
Yet , despite this , they have made the effort to accept , at the WTO , an agreement which lowers the European customs tariff to EUR 114 per tonne , in order to put an end to a long-standing dispute with Latin American producer countries .
Secondly , the Commission had no other choice but to agree to negotiate a tariff reduction agreement with the countries competing with the banana-exporting ACP countries .
Need I remind you that , under the Belgian Presidency , the Council is still negotiating , and will continue to do so until the end , with the aim of gaining as much support as possible for a second-reading agreement on this cross-border healthcare package ?
( RO ) Minister , I would like to ask you whether you are considering linking climate change and pollution reduction objectives with the millennium goals because there are , admittedly , developing countries which think that it is too costly for them to move to an emission-reducing process , even though this can entail job creation and , by extension , a sustainable economy .
In so doing , it is following up on the conclusions of the March 2010 European Council , which highlighted the need to reduce the early school-leaving rate in Europe and which also set a collective target for bringing it under 10 % by 2020 .
At the same time , efforts will continue or will be stepped up at national level in order to gradually reduce the early school-leaving rate by 2020 , in accordance with the target set by the European Council .
This map-making process is therefore particularly important .
I think that the work in relation to early school leaving has got off to a good start under the Belgian Presidency and that subsequent presidencies , the Hungarian Presidency in particular , will certainly be able to initiate a draft recommendation , not only to reduce the early school-leaving rate , but also to draw conclusions from this mapping of the 27 Member States about what becomes of those pupils who leave school early , in particular , when they are marginalised and when they are not picked up by a more vocational education system , as you point out .
Another objective is to analyse the effectiveness of current national strategies in order to have a source of information that can be used , as we were saying previously , in the decision-making process .
Can the Council respond to comments by the respected Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz that the European economy risks sliding back into recession due to spending cuts imposed by EU governments in an attempt to reach the 3 % deficit limit laid down in the Stability and Growth Pact ?
( IT ) Madam President , ladies and gentlemen , I think it is paradoxical that instead of defending our jobs , the European Union puts them at risk by concealing the possible consequences of its actions behind well-meaning rhetoric of humanitarian aid .
The Internet is the most global , open and fast-moving market environment , where music , films , books and software circulate .
Of course , we are not alone and many of our partner nations are in the same position , but we have all got to come together and work towards harmonisation of anti-counterfeiting enforcement .
( SK ) The ever-growing number of counterfeit and pirated products on the international market increases the possibility of a threat to the sustainable development of the world economy , and undoubtedly also brings financial losses to the original manufacturers as well as infringing on the intellectual property of authors and subjects involved in manufacturing and production .
Next year , we will start implementing the Comprehensive Institution-Building programme under the Eastern Partnership .
Next Monday , drawing on the outcome of the fact-finding missions conducted in September by independent experts , the Foreign Affairs Council is expected to release conclusions that should address this issue .
However , it is also true that the internal political situation has been negatively affected by the long-lasting disagreement on constitutional reform .
Finally , concerning compensation for the damage caused by lost containers ; this can be addressed under Directive 2009 / 20 / EC concerning maritime insurance , and Directive 2005 / 35 / EC concerning maritime pollution and sanctions in the event of offences covers cases when oil-polluting substances have been dumped into the sea .
This report is more than a mere stock-taking exercise .
Firstly , in taking a forward-looking approach to the maritime dimension of the Europe 2020 strategy and ensuring sustainable growth in maritime sectors and coastal regions .
( DE ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , integrated maritime policy is a forward-looking area .
Mrs Meissner 's report reiterates the European Parliament 's view about creating an integrated , coherent and common decision-making process with regard to the oceans , seas , coastal areas and maritime sectors .
Furthermore , maritime surveillance is an important new initiative , which is set to engineer a huge change in all future actions by maritime authorities at sea and aims to install a common information-sharing environment for the EU maritime domain .
I would like to thank Mrs Meissner again for her comprehensive and far-reaching report .
Recently , we finished the longest-standing dispute in the WTO with Latin American countries on trade in bananas .
As the Committee responsible for ' Union 's ... external economic relations ' , including " financial , economic and trade relations with third countries ” ( i.e. with both developing and non-developing countries ) , the Committee on International Trade ( INTA ) was also the lead Committee at the time of adoption of original ICI Regulation enabling INTA not only to analyze this Commission proposal in detail , but also to look at a broader historical and institutional context .
I believe that the role of the European Parliament is eminently political with regard to the Commission 's proposal to create a programme of accompanying measures for Africa-Caribbean-Pacific ( ACP ) banana-producing countries .
As EU-ACP preference agreements are incompatible with the agreements signed between the EU and the World Trade Organisation and since positive results have been obtained in the ACP banana-producing countries under previous preference agreements , we should support the adjustment , reorganisation and competitiveness of the banana exporting sector in these countries .
I did not wish to vote against this report , either , because the ACP countries and Europe 's banana-producing regions urgently need assistance to cope with the consequences that have already made themselves felt following the Geneva Agreements and other bilateral agreements that have brought the customs duties on Latin American bananas down from EUR 185 to EUR 74 a tonne .
in writing . - The aim of the Commission proposal is to support the main banana-exporting countries in Africa , the Caribbean and the Pacific ( ACP ) via banana accompanying measures ( BAMs ) , which are intended to last four years ( 2010-2013 ) .
We reject the proposal to ' introduce economic market based instruments ' such as emissions-trading schemes into the maritime sector : these mechanisms have already demonstrated their ineffectiveness at achieving the environmental goals that they claim to pursue , even without having been applied to the maritime sector .
In particular in environmentally sensitive regions , in addition to catch quotas , no-fishing zones and regulations for aquaculture , it will be important to consider solutions for sensitive coastal tourism , military exercises , shipping , oil and gas extraction , sand and gravel extraction and also measures to prevent environmental catastrophes , like the recent torrent of toxic sludge .
Therefore I particularly support the call on Member States , anchored in the report , to take more action to plan a wide-ranging strategy to protect the marine environment .
An integrated approach is therefore desirable that includes , first , a framework for governance with all decision-making levels and , second , all sectors and cross-sectoral instruments .
This was the view cynically expressed by the man who will remain in history the creator of the cruellest , long-standing dictatorship in the world .
Thus , the political climate in Cambodia is tense , elections are approaching and vote-winning tactics are being employed , but there is also a drift towards authoritarianism , and I would like to mention , aside from the Rainsy case , that of NGO representatives who have been prosecuted : the politician Mu Sochua , found guilty of defaming the Prime Minister , the journalist Hang Chakra , imprisoned for having denounced the corruption within the Deputy Prime Minister Sok An 's entourage , and so on .
Any self-respecting democrat knows that you do not need a title , you do not need to be a human rights defender , and you do not need to be a member of Memorial or a Sakharov awardee to have the democratic right to criticise any head of State or Government .
( FR ) Mr President , Commissioners , I would like to come back to the anti-counterfeiting agreement which is currently being negotiated , in particular , with the United States .
Indeed , an anti-counterfeiting agreement that does not include China , India and Brazil , and which would not be implemented by the United States , would be seriously lacking in credibility .
He has been pursuing negotiations with the US transportation security administration to exempt US-originating passengers at EU airports from rescreening .
The all-embracing approach that we found disturbing at first has been amended in respect of key elements .
Behind the well-meaning principles , which have unfortunately been adopted by fellow Members who do not understand what financial management and macro-economics mean , lie hidden regulations which not only have nothing to do with preventing a new crisis , but will actually do nothing more than increase the costs of operating an alternative investment fund in an unjustified and absurd manner , which will be reflected in lower capital , smaller returns and fewer investments .
Long-term security is important , but we would ideally like a well-functioning instrument with a vision until 2020 .
The OSCE is the right place to conduct a wide-ranging debate on the subject of European security .
Far-reaching changes to the structure of the European population are currently becoming apparent .
The report proposes extending the scope of the Commission 's initial proposal , which we think is correct , especially in important aspects such as the financial regulation and the presentation of concrete proposals to simplify the calculation of average staff costs and to abolish time-recording mechanisms , including timesheets .
The Seventh Framework Programme is the largest and furthest-reaching programme that we have at a global level in terms of research , and the Commission 's proposed simplification is very welcome in that respect .
( PT ) We are all aware of the enormous difficulties that the European livestock sector is undergoing , the pig-farming sector in particular .
European livestock farmers have been facing ever-growing difficulties recently .
The launching of energy efficiency projects will create new jobs , make the economy greener and also enable us to be less dependent on oil-producing countries , which is particularly important in these times of crisis .
The Irish Government must act more swiftly to ensure that this aid is granted directly to those who need it , that it is not used to replace government funding , and that the training and re-skilling programmes offered are suited to the workers ' needs .
In political terms , Taiwan has completed a process of far-reaching democratisation .
To some extent , their inclusion makes it necessary to shift the focus from essentially cross-border projects to more regional ones , which will have a wider-ranging impact throughout Europe .
However , the lack of a legal personality and problems with the decision-making mechanism weaken this organisation , because it is not always able to respond to crises appropriately or in a timely manner .
I must emphasise a cross-cutting aspect to the proposals and initiatives : we have to come to terms with a world that is changing ever more rapidly , with marked repercussions on social and welfare systems .
The report lights upon this point , noting that the crisis and subsequent bail-outs and stimulus packages ' led to far-reaching austerity measures which ... heavily constrain the capacity of governments to act ' .
The Irish are the authors of their own misfortune : their government mismanaged their economy and fuelled a house-building boom unrelated to reality .
This plan comes up with a new decision-making method concerning the total allowable catch that will make it possible to ensure the sustainability of the stock in the long term .
However , like my fellow Members , I find it regrettable that the Council is challenging Parliament 's new joint decision-making power concerning the long-term management plans .
As this market continues to grow , it has also become the fastest-growing waste stream in the EU , estimated to rise to a huge 12.3 million tonnes by 2020 .
We stand on the threshold of a first-reading agreement on the recast of the directive on the restriction of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment - the RoHS agreement .
The Commission accepted the substitution of the obligatory provision by a recital encouraging Member States to follow this practice in order to facilitate a first-reading agreement , but it states that this should not be seen to be a precedent .
This was a milestone on the road to the introduction of a mandatory requirement under international law for the participation of women at decision-making levels in peace processes and security policy .
The second course of action : when we Europeans contribute aid to help rebuild countries , I believe we should consider making it a requirement for governing powers and local authorities on the ground - which we help - to introduce quotas to ensure the participation of women at decision-making levels .
They did more than overthrow a corrupt , backward-looking regime .
Other disasters did not result in requests to deploy the fund , although they had a considerable and , in many cases , long-lasting impact on the people affected , the environment and the economy .
The far-reaching effects of globalisation are resulting in more and more people losing their jobs .
Furthermore , I think that we should be more concerned by the fact that an ever-increasing number of governments in EU countries are raising their VAT rate to the maximum limit in order to tackle the challenges presented by the economic crisis .
I would like to call upon the Commission to put forward proposals to strengthen the Stability and Growth Pact by including specific targets for closing the competitiveness gap between European economies in order to stimulate job-creating growth .
The neoliberal ideology that is dominant in the European Central Bank ( ECB ) , which means that there is an ever-lurking threat of inflation , even when there is considerable untapped productive capacity , is making the euro area a hostage to the financial markets .
The ever-increasing interdependence between internal and external security is becoming clear .
On this point , I would like to highlight the need to speed up the provision of financing for civilian missions and to simplify decision-making procedures and implementation arrangements .
The state should not use taxpayers ' money to support non-functioning enterprises .
As a member of the JPA Committee on Social Affairs and the Environment , I think it is essential that a comprehensive analysis be made and a wide-ranging debate entered into next year on the environmental and social situation in the ACP states .
The time then is ripe for reflection on the future development of the AFSJ , and the European Parliament therefore calls on the Commission to initiate a wide-ranging debate involving all interested parties , including , in particular , judges and practitioners .
In specific terms , there are doubts as to whether we should use family law for the mutual recognition of civil status documents , in other words , marriage certificates , and , therefore , whether we should take into account the decision-making authority of the Member States with regard to the definition of marriage , following the procedure outlined in Article 81 ( 3 ) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union .
What Mr Blair said is the essential thing that Parliament wants to achieve : the engagement of the EU institutions and all involved parties to reinvent the financing of the Union and to base this financing on rational grounds and not on a horse-trading competition , which is the case today .
As a concrete example , by clarifying the rules on collectively managed copyrights , we can simplify the current framework conditions , encourage further cross-border activity and release important job-creating potential - not least in the promising digital sector .
( DE ) Mr President , Mr Barroso , the Commission has put forward an incredibly wide-ranging programme for 2011 and I would like to make it quite clear that I think it would be good if the prioritisation were improved .
Europe needs not only to upgrade the skills of people already in the labour market but also to ensure that people get , from the start , the right mix of skills to adapt and evolve in a fast-changing society .
But we also want to focus our effort on the acquisition of transversal skills , which are crucial for employability : for example , language skills , digital literacy or entrepreneurship , and initiative-taking skills .
According to this document , recovery must be based on job-creating growth but , since the economic crisis , economic growth in Europe has been uneven and weak .
In order to make environmental progress , we need a wide-ranging programme of education and training for all employees and , in particular , for those at lower levels .
The strategy seeks to do this by identifying good practice in using the structural funds to encourage people to live independently and in the community and aims to develop awareness-raising initiatives that target structural fund managing bodies at EU and national level .
Secondly , there are the restrictions relating to all the conditions , the never-ending reporting requested from farmers for everything they do : taking a trailer full of manure to a field , using a dose of fertiliser in another field , using a dose of plant protection product in a third field , and if they make a mistake , they are sanctioned .
This has been a long-standing call of this Parliament , and it strikes me that this is not just about doling out money but about sharing best practice and knowledge across the Union .
I hope that the European Commission will accept Parliament 's recommendations and will find a way within the scope of quality policy in the next semester to resolve these long-standing issues .
They are living in difficult times and cannot tolerate the slow and complex decision-making process at European and global level .
We all know that , on all these issues , our countries alone will be unable to find a viable long-term solution to meet the expectations of the 500 million Europeans , who , as I said at the beginning , are expecting their politicians - that is to say all of us here and back home in our capitals - to make forward-looking decisions .
The German-French Merkel-Sarkozy decision-making partnership has done a deal with Mr Cameron .
Is it perhaps because the treatment which one group of states reserved for what was , all other things being equal , the right idea of creating a permanent crisis management mechanism appeared to cancel out the added value of such a mechanism in practice , thereby sending the wrong message to the markets and putting us at risk of ending up with a mechanism that was a self-fulfilling prophecy of controlled bankruptcy ?
Some of the comments sometimes have a self-fulfilling prophecy effect .
Nowadays , it is possible to practise trade dumping without infringing the anti-dumping rules of the World Trade Organisation ( WTO ) .
I therefore call on the Commission to promote the fundamental principles of public health protection and access to medicines when negotiating the technical particulars of the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement .
It is important to note that the purpose of the Fund is not to provide compensation for private losses , but to repair infrastructure , and the Fund is a re-financing instrument .
I do not understand all the ' commotion ' that the issue has caused , especially in French-speaking Belgium , amongst consumers ' associations and mutual societies , supported by certain MEPs who , even before the discussions had started , had already condemned these two laws .
Given how important patient compliance and the correct administration of medicinal products are for successful treatment , it is vital that the public , that is , the patients , have access to good quality , non-advertising information that is true , current and not misleading , in line with the Summary of Product Characteristics .
There is much money to be made from this fast-growing market in waste , and so sound supervision and monitoring are necessary to curb the illegal export of electronic waste .
in writing . - ( FR ) Parliament today adopted the motion for a resolution on the international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement ( ACTA ) , to ensure better international application of anti-counterfeiting measures .
Indeed , we should stop and reflect today on how better to combat piracy , and this international agreement is a step in the direction of the more effective application of anti-counterfeiting measures .
Had I not decided to boycott the sitting after the lamentable episode of Social-Eurocratic totalitarianism that we have just experienced , I would have voted in favour of the joint motion for a resolution of the left-wing groups on the counterfeiting agreement .
The joint motion for a resolution required the Commission to present a number of time-consuming analyses before it was to sign the agreement , which would run the risk of creating a situation in which other parties would start to doubt whether Europe really is a serious party with which to conclude international trade agreements .
Thirdly , we need to make the decision-making process on nuclear issues more democratic .
Nuclear energy is only one of many potential sources of energy and , therefore , decision-making procedures must be the same as those for coal , renewables , gas and oil .
The moment one recognises peak oil , the majority of this largely well-meaning report becomes , sadly , incinerator fuel .
It is very clear that the legally-binding deal that the EU was ready for last year and that we are still ready for will , unfortunately , not be the outcome of Cancún - not because of us , but because others are not ready for it .
How much longer can the fascistic EU impose ever more punitive taxes and controls on ordinary citizens on the pretext of man-made global warming , when an ever-increasing number of real scientists are rejecting the theory as unfounded and demolished ?
AGW is baseless propaganda , a Josef Goebbels-scale big lie from the green industrial complex because they favour massive transfers of wealth from the little people to carbon-trading crooks , such as Al Gore and Goldman Sachs .
If Copenhagen was the all-or-nothing summit - as the President-in-Office of the Council said - Cancún must be the summit that provides a variety of viable and efficient options .
Hopefully the impending referendum scheduled for South Sudan , which will create a new sovereign state in the south , will provide fresh motivation for all the parties involved to seek a final resolution to this long-standing dispute over Western Sahara - a territory and a people which , in my mind , deserve a peaceful and prosperous future .
Secondly , ladies and gentlemen , the basic issue is that we are talking about an occupation by the military , police and Moroccan settlers ; an illegal occupation of a ' non-self-governing territory ' as defined by international law .
I am absolutely outraged that a Member State , in this instance France , should object to the request for a UN fact-finding mission looking into these events .
Europe , which likes to think itself exemplary in protecting human rights , must demand an independent and transparent fact-finding mission , under the aegis of the United Nations , and an extended mandate for the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara ( MINURSO ) .
For that reason , Mrs Harms is right in what she said , namely that we must now remain in very close contact with Ukraine and ensure that what has been achieved there in terms of democracy and human rights is not called into question once again by a backward-looking policy .
The same is true for the laws governing the framework for the anti-dumping discussion at the WTO .
The guiding principle should be careful , analytical policymaking on the basis of forward-looking objectives but also of realistic expectations .
Anti-dumping cases - state of play and prospects ( debate )
The next item is the debate on the oral question to the Commission on anti-dumping cases - state of play and prospects by Daniel Caspary , Cristiana Muscardini , Tokia Saïfi , Georgios Papastamkos , Kader Arif , Bernd Lange , Gianluca Susta , Metin Kazak , Niccolò Rinaldi , Marielle De Sarnez , Yannick Jadot , Carl Schlyter , Helmut Scholz , Robert Sturdy , Syed Kamall , Jan Zahradil , on behalf of the Group of the European People 's Party ( Christian Democrats ) , the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament , the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe , the Group of the Greens / European Free Alliance , the Confederal Group of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left and the European Conservatives and Reformists - B7-0562 / 2010 ) .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , anti-dumping measures play an important role in the world .
For us in the European Parliament , and I believe I can speak for the majority of Members here , this is not about protectionism , but about a sensible use of the anti-dumping instrument .
My second point is that on several occasions companies have approached me and asked me to make contact with the Commission and to prevent anti-dumping investigations from taking place in certain cases .
If you impose an anti-dumping duty , this will have a negative impact on European companies doing business in other areas , such as Asia .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , I would like to challenge the Commissioner to clarify as fully as possible the position of the Commission on trade defence instruments , which include anti-dumping measures .
However , besides a good legal basis there also needs to be an effective and predictable decision-making mechanism so that these objectives can be achieved .
The Commission is working hard and is certainly doing its duty when it comes to anti-dumping initiatives , but we are calling for action based on the following principles .
Secondly , there is space for the exercise of discretion in anti-dumping procedures .
Parliament cannot merely sit and listen to the players in society , including in anti-dumping matters .
When it comes to the question of the Treaty of Lisbon and which decision-making procedure we should have , perhaps none of those that exist really fit our purposes properly .
In this case , it may even be more effective to use anti-dumping measures to prevent carbon dioxide leakage within the Emissions Trading System , for example .
In this case it is , of course , much easier to instigate anti-dumping proceedings when a European company is affected by unfair competition on account of a lack of environmental responsibility in other countries .
The Commission is under an obligation to protect European companies and their employees from unfair competition using the anti-dumping instruments permitted by the WTO .
Some small and medium-sized businesses inside the EU are complaining that their interests are seen as less important than those of larger companies when the anti-dumping instruments are used .
While I agree that anti-dumping measures must be used where they are necessary , the problem is , of course , whether you use them as a protectionist measure .
The sheer number of anti-dumping investigations at the moment would suggest that they are being so used .
In actual fact they have come to an agreement and they have sorted it out themselves , yet you have not dropped the anti-dumping legislation against that particular company .
Finally , Commissioner , let me remind you that it was not you , not your predecessor but the predecessor of your predecessor who put in place anti-dumping legislation on fertiliser .
Yet the actual costs of fertiliser - because you have put in place anti-dumping legislation - have risen by 173 % .
Nevertheless , I can confirm that the decision-making process is effective , transparent and based on factual evidence and thorough analysis .
We have managed to avoid any significant increase which could have happened as a result of the world recession , and have ensured that the anti-dumping instrument would not be used for protectionist purposes .
Mr Schlyter , your question is an interesting one , I must say , because , as you most probably know , these anti-dumping cases are introduced by companies .
In detail , we do not understand and we reject the proposal to apply differential treatment to anti-dumping measures , which introduces elements of discretional decision making , politicisation and legal uncertainty to proceedings , which should instead aim to protect the legitimate interests of businesses damaged by practices of unfair competition .
At a time of serious economic crisis like the present , it seems unreasonable and masochistic to make the conclusion of anti-dumping procedures complicated and perhaps impractical .
Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , over recent years the number of anti-dumping procedures applied by the European Commission has increased .
Leaving space for political and diplomatic negotiations to decide on the application of anti-dumping measures risks perverting a process that should instead remain based on concrete , objective information .
I therefore call on the Commission , and I call on you , Commissioner , not to allow such a development , and for us to warn against anti-dumping measures being abused in the interests of protectionism and in the interests of closing the European market and European economy to the rest of the world .
The problem of anti-dumping shows how important it is to call for environmental and social standards , in particular , and also trade protection measures during negotiations on free trade agreements with third countries .
Anti-dumping duties can make supplies more expensive - including for SMEs .
Reducing the number of inadmissible complaints has been a long-standing request of Parliament .
This guide aims to direct complainants to the body best placed to help them , whether it be my own services , the services of national or regional ombudsmen in the Member States , or problem-solving mechanisms such as the cross-border online network Solvit .
It is very important for citizens to be guided to the most appropriate complaint-handling body from the outset and to be spared the frustrations and delays associated with having to identify the right institution on their own .
To further ensure awareness of the Ombudsman 's work , I stepped up cooperation during 2009 with other information and problem-solving networks such as Europe Direct and Solvit .
We need only consider the many complaints we have received concerning the long-standing waste crisis in Campania , despite a clear ruling by the European Court of Justice , and concerning the freezing of funds .
Let us concede , namely , that the European Union , as an international organisation , is , to a considerable extent , hard to understand , and not only in terms of its grants , but also in the area of its powers , institutions , decision-making processes and adopted policies and legislation .
When he was elected last year , I expressed the hope that the Ombudsman would do his utmost to ensure that the decision-making process within the EU was more transparent and relevant to its citizens and that we would collaborate effectively with the Committee on Petitions .
We will be glad to help you with the cross-referencing tables .
A well-functioning system for standard-setting is vital for the European economy as a whole and , in particular , for the information and communication technology sector .
The horizontal guidelines promote a standard-setting system that is transparent and that leads to predictable costs when licensing intellectual property rights .
This requires attempting to find a balance between the sometimes contradictory interests of companies with different business models involved in the standard-setting process .
In order for standard-setting agreements to avoid having to be assessed under the competition rules and to fall within the so-called safe harbour - meaning where they are presumed to be in line with the competition rules - there are three general conditions that need to be met .
The first is that a standard-setting organisation needs to have a balanced IPR policy , requiring good-faith disclosure of the relevant IPRs , and a commitment to licensing these on fair , reasonable and non-discriminatory terms .
The third is that the standard-setting process must also be transparent in a way that ensures that stakeholders are able to inform themselves of upcoming , ongoing and finalised work .
The Commission approach is to give standard-setting organisations incentives to have clear rules on disclosure of patents .
We cannot devise and approve well-meaning strategies without also providing the financial input for implementing them .
Acting responsibly also means fine-tuning trade policies on the basis of careful consideration of everything surrounding the issues .
Mr Jadot wants the EU to assume international leadership on this matter and examine the possibility of a financial transaction tax , reform of the WTO ( particularly its anti-dumping rules ) , prevent the European Investment Bank from granting loans to projects that have a negative impact on the climate and end agricultural export subsidies - all of which I welcome .
The European Commission is involved in wide-ranging consultations now that these regulations are up for review .
The resolution stresses the importance of listening to and considering as much as possible in the decision-making process the views of the stakeholders in order to achieve a realistic and balanced regulatory framework .
It highlights the importance of listening to and examining the points of view of the interested parties as much as possible in the decision-making process in order to achieve a realistic and balanced regulatory framework .
Please send a group of experts to the region on a fact-finding mission to establish where the threat to the bilingual system lies .
Can we really take ourselves seriously if we first adopt a resolution and then say , as the previous speaker put it - now let us send someone on a fact-finding mission to find out how bilingualism is under threat .
As a final point , I would like to recall the EU 's long-standing position with regard to Tibet .
As an example , she mentioned the most widely read right-wing news portal , www.kuruc.info , which , due to the anonymity offered by the Internet , was in the lead in exposing the infringements committed by the former government .
What I thought then and still think is important is that we create a level-playing field , where employees on loan will not be allowed to work for a lower wage than the usual staff .
Indeed , active involvement by local and regional authorities in the decision-making process even at the prelegislative phase , along with a relevant analysis of the effectiveness of share management mechanisms , with the various responsibilities that the Commission and Member States have , will actually guarantee that better results are achieved with regard to the absorption of European funds in the future programming period .
The Treaty of Lisbon allows territorial authorities to be more deeply involved in the decision-making process , which is an important step towards genuine multi-level governance .
The bottom-up decision-making process , with the involvement of the regions concerned , ensures support for development by harnessing specific regional aspects .
( HU ) Mr President , the forward-looking part of the report has already been pointed out by many of my fellow Members .
If the European Court of Human Rights clearly has no respect for such human rights , I cannot see that it is possible to recognise it here as an approved and appropriate decision-making body .
I also hope that in the near future , the Commission will put forward wide-ranging legislation in favour of victims ' rights , for which it has my full support and , I am sure , Parliament 's support .
The draft directive also has a provision on the European Anti-Trafficking Coordinator who , in the future , could contribute to a more comprehensive , more coherent and more coordinated anti-trafficking policy .
Moreover , we must not forget that voluntary and non-profit-making organisations play a crucial role when it comes to both preventing and combating human trafficking .
I agree that , in order to discourage demand , it would be a good idea for the European Union and the Member States to make a greater commitment to awareness-raising campaigns in the countries of origin , transit and destination of trafficking .
Every year in Europe , hundreds of thousands of people are sold as if they were objects and , fortunately , today we feel an ever-increasing need to protect the victims of trafficking in human beings from the use of false documents , from prostitution and from immigration .
I find it strange that 583 , or 22.8 % , of the 2 554 workers made redundant in total have a long-standing health problem or disability .
We must , in particular , always take into account the enticement to refugees , in other words , the fact that the measures intended to provide protection and financial security are exactly those that represent an incentive for many economic migrants to immigrate illegally into Europe on the pretext of seeking asylum from inhumane and life-threatening conditions .
As we will all remember , although the European response in providing aid to the people of Haiti was swift and on a large scale , it highlighted a number of critical problems in the management , coordination and visibility of the operation , which are down to the mechanics of the current system , which is based on voluntary and ad hoc contributions subject to different national decision-making processes .
Rapid and effective response in emergency situations is absolutely essential if we are to ensure that the EU demonstrates solidarity , whether with Member States or with third countries , and this requires strong political will from the various decision-making bodies .
Whether accidental or intentional , these represent a serious threat and have the potential to cause devastating and far-reaching effects on the security , welfare and health of the European public , as well as on the environment , our cultural heritage and basic infrastructure .
This assessment and standard-setting framework must be sufficiently flexible so that it can be adapted to changing technologies , which , as well as making our lives easier , can also become a deadly weapon when in the hands of terrorists .
I agree that the multi-level approach should be applied not only vertically but also horizontally , among actors of the same level , in all shared-competence Union policies including the cohesion policy , which plays a forerunner role in the application of multi-level governance , as an instrument to improve the quality of decision-making processes through the active involvement of sub-national authorities from the pre-legislative phase of the debates .
The Treaty of Lisbon has allowed territorial authorities to be more deeply involved in the decision-making process , to facilitate better and more effective implementation of cohesion policy measures , adapted to the needs of individual regions and their populations .
I voted in favour of this report because in cohesion policy , decision-making processes are improved through the application of multi-level governance and the involvement of sub-national authorities .
The resolution also points to the fact that application procedures are too complicated and have an excessive number of checks which discourages potential beneficiaries of cohesion policy , as well as to the requirement to consult the general public in order to legitimise the decision-making process .
I think that citizens ' interests will be much better represented if regional and local authorities are involved in the decision-making process right from the outset .
The incorporation by the Reform Treaty of sub-national subsidiarity into the Community law for the policies of shared competence allows today territorial authorities to be more deeply involved in the decision-making process , both for the design and the implementation of policies , as fully dignified partners , to participate in achieving the Community objectives .
It is crucial to place the emphasis on the pre-legislative phase of the decision-making process and on the added value offered by policies and best practices implemented at local and regional level to the development of territorial strategies in the EU .
The principle of sub-national subsidiarity , introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon , puts into practice the aim of involving the regions in the European decision-making process .
Regional authorities can now participate more directly and more actively in the decision-making process .
Emphasising the prelegislative phase of the decision-making process and the added value offered by the policies and best practices implemented at local and regional level to the development of territorial strategies in the EU helps ensure their effectiveness and sustainability .
The incorporation by the reform treaty of sub-national subsidiarity into Community law for policies of shared competence today allows territorial authorities to be more deeply involved in the decision-making process , both for the design and the implementation of policies , as fully dignified partners , to participate in achieving the Community objectives .
This takes into consideration the recommendations made by the Stockholm Programme and the procedures resulting from the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon , which allow reports to be provided for on a cross-cutting basis , as well as the first Council proposal for a European victim protection directive of 5 January 2010 .
I agree with a wide-ranging approach in order to include the victims of several types of crime , and with the amendments that provide for arrangements for revoking the protection order , for ensuring continuity of legal protection , for laying down a deadline for execution of an order and for clarifying the position as regards victims moving from one Member State to another .
I am convinced that the EP should clearly express the requirement for Member States to do more in order to discourage demand for the services of victims of human trafficking , through awareness-raising campaigns , education , training and so on , all of which should fully incorporate a gender perspective .
We now need to strengthen the work of the EU by providing incentives for anti-trafficking actions , collecting data in order to compile reliable statistics , and establishing closer cross-border cooperation , including the exchange of information and best practice , as well as closer collaboration with Eurojust and Europol .
Human trafficking is a lucrative and fast-growing business .
Left-wing romantics often shut their eyes and would have the public believe that these people are begging voluntarily and that there is no such thing as begging tourism or the begging mafia .
Member States must provide funds for assisting and protecting victims , including for the provision of compensation to victims and the cross-border enforcement of EU anti-trafficking law .
When we have believed there is evidence of dumping for instance , we have launched anti-dumping measures regarding China .
It has also become painfully clear that the Member States are showing an ever-decreasing amount of solidarity when they have to contend with a crisis , and it is precisely European solidarity that is the first value to be lost when savings have to be made in national budgets .
There is a danger of this in my opinion , and it is something regarding which any self-respecting parliament must express its criticism .
We have secured the necessary appropriations for research , energy and education , and in the area of foreign affairs we have found the money for Palestine and the banana-producing countries without making cuts in other programmes .
Our Parliament now has a joint decision-making power in budgetary matters .
It must ensure that it is respected , and we have to realise something : genuinely balanced conciliation procedures will probably not be possible until this joint decision-making power is exercised in the form of a negative vote .
Quite simply , having heard some Members say that they preferred not to approve the budget in order to affirm Parliament 's joint decision-making powers , I think that all the European institutions have much more to gain and will increase their standing if they can actually take the European Union forward by finding compromises , instead of everyone blocking each other and not moving forward with European projects .
This debate relates to a fundamental issue , namely , how we can reconcile the ever-greater divergence between expectations of the European Union , or , in other words , what the European Union is supposed to do - and we can see that the Member States and all interested parties , including the European Parliament , expect more and more from the European Union , since the European Union is supposed to deal with an ever-increasing number of subject areas , and is opening itself up to new policies , new areas of activity and setting new tasks for itself - a divergence between the aforesaid expectations and an ever-diminishing willingness to finance these new undertakings .
This debate relates to a fundamental issue , namely , how we can reconcile the ever-greater divergence between expectations of the European Union , or , in other words , what the European Union is supposed to do - and we can see that the Member States and all interested parties , including the European Parliament , expect more and more from the European Union , since the European Union is supposed to deal with an ever-increasing number of subject areas , and is opening itself up to new policies , new areas of activity and setting new tasks for itself - a divergence between the aforesaid expectations and an ever-diminishing willingness to finance these new undertakings .
We must therefore help science to speed up its work and to be in a position to provide reliable policy-making forecasts as soon as possible .
( IT ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , the 16th climate change conference in Cancún ended this time , too , with a non-binding compromise called the ' balanced package ' .
You know that the principle that we should , eventually , reach a global , legally-binding agreement , was retained in the Council conclusions adopted last October .
The strategy for these actions , specifically targeting women 's health , includes awareness-raising seminars on women 's health and exchanging best practices on gender-specific health policies .
Does the Commission intend to bring in quotas to ensure a greater role for women in the decision-making process ?
It is true that the lack of a high quality care infrastructure is one of the reasons , but not the only one , why so few women are in decision-making posts , so we will have a look at the Member States ' performance here .
We have succeeded in reaching agreement in many areas - not least , the ambition to harvest the low-hanging fruit resulting from boosting energy efficiency .
We also know that this eco-design or eco-labelling approach for cars and so on does not result in overall coherence and does enable us to obtain the results that we are seeking .
I think that wide-ranging consultations need to be initiated with local and regional representatives in order to set out well defined guidelines on energy efficiency and support must be provided in devising projects and ensuring access to the EUR 9 billion made available by the Commission via the cohesion policy .
The Energy Efficiency Action Plan therefore has far-reaching implications .
The Commission therefore welcomes the first-reading compromise between Parliament and the Council , which provides for the repeal of one directive by July 2011 and of the other seven directives by December 2015 .
The reality is that in both situations the EU was able to act but we need to put far-reaching reforms in place to ensure that such situations do not arise again in the future .
Let us build on that by accelerating growth-enhancing reforms .
Another important element of our approach for far-reaching reforms must be a permanent stability mechanism .
All of these elements - economic governance , fiscal consolidation , securing growth-enhancing reforms , effective banks , the European Financial Stability Facility , and its successor , the European Stability Mechanism - are interconnected .
I believe that we are confronted by a double salami-slicing approach .
However , there is also the salami-slicing approach on the other side .
The salami-slicing approach of not telling the people the truth , although you know that you will have to pay in your own interest , is just as damaging to confidence .
One of the conclusions to be drawn from this long-lasting discussion is that our measures are obviously not tackling the roots of the crisis , but simply treating the symptoms .
( FR ) Madam President , the euro is our common asset and , today , the trade unions told Parliament that they were concerned that employees themselves were paying the price for the crisis through a weak euro , a euro under attack and not through a growth-promoting , job-creating euro .
Madam President , I want to say to Mr Hökmark , the point that you are making about Socialist governments may be true to some extent , but right-wing governments basically choose to do the same thing by piling up private debt instead of public debt .
There are some very ignorant comments made in this Chamber by self-serving people who want to advance their own national causes by making inaccurate statements , and they will be challenged .
This will also be the time to solve the long-standing paradox of Europe .
( HU ) Madam President , ladies and gentlemen , an ideological debate has unfolded here , even though we could give several examples of how the Schröder government implemented a very serious reform policy , or how in Hungary the right-wing government currently in power used all means to hinder the then left-wing government in imposing fiscal discipline after 2006 .
( HU ) Madam President , ladies and gentlemen , an ideological debate has unfolded here , even though we could give several examples of how the Schröder government implemented a very serious reform policy , or how in Hungary the right-wing government currently in power used all means to hinder the then left-wing government in imposing fiscal discipline after 2006 .
Citizens ' interests are best protected when EU institutions are fully involved in the decision-making process and the general good takes precedence over the interests .....
If the up-coming vote confirms the same text ratified by the AFCO Committee , we shall be able to consider this agreement at first reading as a model of fast and efficient legislation at European level .
Madam President , I am very happy that this dispute , which not long ago seemed to be a never-ending story , has now found a solution .
The placing of citizens at the same level as Parliament and Council , by offering citizens the right to call on the Commission to bring legislation forward , has far-reaching implications .
Earlier development policy and consultations with citizens in the decision-making process have not always met the expectations of the European Union 's residents .
The Treaty of Lisbon has laid the foundation for the new European citizens ' initiative , which had so far been lacking in the European Union 's decision-making process .
I personally welcome this new opportunity , which responds to the frequent criticism that the functioning of the EU has a democratic deficit in its decision-making processes .
This deepens the relationship between EU citizens and EU institutions , as it eliminates this often-criticised democratic deficit in decision-making processes , and gets citizens directly involved in decision making .
In my opinion , the ECI brings European institutions closer to the citizens and it thus fulfils the principle of subsidiarity as a basic principle of the decision-making mechanisms of the European Union .
As it is well-known , I am the head of one of the longest-standing representative groups for persons with disabilities in Hungary , the over one hundred year-old Hungarian Association for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing .
The consultation process on the 2011 budget was not a confidence-building measure in this respect .
Are you talking there about Turkey 's constant provocations or the massive human rights violations in that country , not to mention the ever-increasing islamisation ?
The industry has also engaged in excellent self-monitoring procedures as regards codes of ethics , which determine what kind of advertising is permissible and good .
So many huge diesel-guzzling engines .
This compromise should be particularly appreciated because the decision-making procedures following entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon are new ones , and for the first time in history the European Parliament has made a joint decision on expenditure on an equal footing with the Council of the European Union and the European Commission .
Citizens ' ever-increasing mobility requires , on the one hand , more flexibility and , on the other hand , greater legal certainty In order to achieve this objective , this regulation must enhance the parties ' autonomy in the areas of divorce and legal separation by giving spouses the opportunity to choose the law applicable to their divorce or legal separation .
in writing . - ( LT ) I approved of this important resolution because I am convinced that the European citizens ' initiative will be a powerful agenda-setting instrument and will foster greater cross-border debates within the EU .
in writing . - ( LV ) Today the European Parliament has made a historic decision , which gives civil society the opportunity of becoming much more actively involved in the decision-making process .
Citizens must also become involved from day to day in the decision-making process , expressing their opinion on specific decisions or events on the political agenda .
Until now , European legislation has not contained sufficiently developed clear mechanisms for Europeans to become involved in the decision-making process and for drawing the attention of European institutions to citizens ' current concerns .
The European citizens ' initiative should be seen as an opportunity to involve people more closely in the EU 's decision-making process .
This is precisely why the citizens ' initiative not only offers European citizens the opportunity to participate directly in the decision-making process , but also empowers them to make a contribution to setting the European agenda .
I reiterate the importance of re-establishing job-creating growth by accelerating the EU 2020 programme of reforms .
Among these I would point to the one relating to peace and security , together with the EU 's efforts to provide predictable and sustainable funding for African peace-keeping operations , and to the need to create local empowerment , resilience and determination to protect civilians during armed conflicts .
Apart from the legal problems which judges in the Court of Justice of the European Union are also warning about , it is clear that a court which passes a judgment opposing the presence of crosses in classrooms is not a suitable decision-making body for the EU .
He notes that , according to the Commission , energy-saving benefits could amount to over EUR 1 000 per household per year .
in writing . - This report is a powerful and timely reminder to the Commission and the Council of the importance of a binding energy-saving target ahead of the crucial Energy Summit on 4 February 2011 and as the Commission prepares its energy efficiency action plan .
However , for such methods to come into use , an information campaign for the citizens is needed , as also is a reduction in the costs of energy-saving technologies .
As result of the light bulb ban , I have had to evacuate a room after an energy-saving bulb containing mercury broke , in order to avoid damage being caused to people 's health .
As to the impact assessment , the government reforms were prepared by far-reaching analysis in the EMU @ 10 study in 2008 .
Only then will mainstreaming be possible in all areas of policy and at a central decision-making level .
The security of the people of Afghanistan from terrorists and criminal attacks is a prerequisite for development , and this Parliament believes that the combination of peace-keeping interventions , multilateral diplomacy , domestic peace negotiations , effective poverty reduction measures , the establishment of democratic institutions and the protection of women 's rights are the pillars of a new , winning strategy in Afghanistan as elsewhere .
We should also point out that close cooperation between the EU and NATO is of vital importance , and this should be developed without prejudice to the principle of decision-making autonomy and with due respect for the nuclear status of some EU Member States .
Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy . - Madam President , thank you again to all those who have contributed to a very wide-ranging debate .
I must stress firstly that Parliament , in my view , should not be under any pressure to sign up completely to the proposed first-reading text in this regard .
If this means waiting for a second-reading agreement , then so be it .
Although the final agreement will allow the application of a simple majority voting system for the adoption of anti-dumping measures during a transitional period of 18 months , subsequently the measures will be adopted by qualified majority .
At the very opening of the anti-dumping procedures , we are changing from the objectivity of legal certainty to an intervention by Member States , which threatens to become the outcome of bargaining between the Commission and Member States .
If you will allow me , I will conclude by underlining the importance of legal certainty in this matter because , of course , when we are dealing with sensitive issues like trade , like anti-dumping measures , like countervailing measures , we need to have very well established procedures and we need to have a clear division of roles and responsibilities .
Many colleagues have voiced their worries about the fact that we are rushing into a first-reading agreement under pressure from the Council .
In the UK , the pig-farming industry learnt - to its great cost - the mistake of introducing higher animal welfare standards unilaterally .
Will the Commission ensure that countries that fail to comply will be prevented from exporting eggs to countries that do comply , or at least that eggs from non-complying units will not be exported ?
( IT ) Madam President , ladies and gentlemen , I abstained from today 's vote on this report on comitology because once again , people are trying to make anti-dumping procedures inapplicable or linked to discretionary political choices which , as we know , are still one of the few worthwhile defensive instruments to prevent unfair competition .
Madam President , I voted against the resolution establishing a permanent crisis mechanism for the eurozone , because in Ireland and Greece , we see the reality that such mechanisms are to bail out a crisis-ridden financial system dominated by speculators and assorted profit-seeking sharks at the expense of working people , pensioners and the poor .
in writing . - The annual report on human rights is inevitably a backward-looking exercise but I nevertheless welcome it .
In particular , we insist on the importance of conducting a thorough assessment of the human rights aspects of the European Neighbourhood Policy ( ENP ) , which should notably address the coherence and efficiency of the existing mechanisms such as the Action Plans , Progress Reports , Human Rights dialogues and the decision-making process of upgrading relations with non-EU countries .
I am convinced that any long-term solution must include concrete measures for the eradication of poverty , under-development and discrimination against women , enhancing respect for human rights and the rule of law , strengthening reconciliation mechanisms , ensuring an end to opium production , engaging in a robust state-building exercise , and fully integrating Afghanistan into the international community , as well as banishing al-Qaeda from the country .
in writing . - In general terms , the report was well perceived by all groups and the amendments tabled by the committee reflect the agreement reached with the Council and Commission for a first-reading agreement .
In order to streamline the current processes of economic policy coordination and remove overlaps and to ensure that EU strategy is understandable to market operators and citizens , it is necessary to move to more integrated approaches and to bring about a change in the decision-making process .
But the young , freedom-loving generation across the world is looking to the symbolic example that Tunisia has given and is looking to the EU for support , and there is no reason why we should not lead in defending people 's freedoms , including on the Internet .
The Commission welcomes the second-reading compromise between Parliament and the Council since , irrespective of its technical nature , this is a dossier of great importance .
I hope that this second-reading agreement will have real results and will encourage the free movement of construction products , improve standards across the EU , and promote the recycling of construction products in future whilst , most importantly , not increasing bureaucratic burdens on businesses or confusing consumers .
I would remark that it shows the importance of the second-reading procedure in this House , because we have been able to make significant improvements to the text of the position that we received from the Council .
The forests belong not only to the people of these countries but they are part of the ecosystem of the planet , they are key to the life-sustaining systems and they contain billions of tonnes of carbon .
At the same time , granting originating product status and an exemption from EU customs duties for fish products originating from Papua New Guinea and Fiji is believed to have led to a processing centre for these products , including some non-originating products , being set up by companies from neighbouring countries with the aim of enjoying the benefits of the exemption .
It goes without saying that common , strict criteria implemented by Member States are required to improve the care and living conditions for children living in institutions and who have been abandoned and to ensure their protection when they are adopted , especially in the current climate , where budget austerity seems to be the only thought which the European Union 's right-wing governments have .
However , on the other hand , the limited efforts made thus far are a result of the intergovernmental nature of the existing decision-making structures and processes .
It would be very worthwhile if Turkey , with the bridge-building spirit that I believe exists there , in spite of everything , was able to host this type of dialogue .
Activists from the left-wing movement ' Kazakhstan 2012 ' are being harassed and jailed .
Of course , for a long-lasting impact , humanitarian aid is not the right instrument .
A return to budgetary discipline should not just be a non-binding target ; it must be verifiable and , if necessary , enforceable at a European level .
Its action also enabled us to chart the best way forward to achieve our primary objectives : stability and the relaunch of job-creating growth .
The first step was taken last week with the presentation of the annual growth review prepared by the European Commission , in which we make very clear that the three priorities we need to focus our efforts on are reinforcing macro-economic stability - in particular , through rigorous fiscal consolidation - structural reform and job-creating growth .
Either there is another crisis-provoking development in Europe - and not only in the euro area - or there is an attempt to create efficient economic governance based on cooperation between all the Member States , but also based on strong action taken by the Commission .
In particular , we cannot underestimate the contribution that the supposed creation of a level playing field for the various European companies could make towards facilitating the monopolistic concentration of the sector - which is already under way - and the reduction of the Member States ' capacity to defend their flag-carrying airlines .
At the present juncture , when food prices are steadily rising and there is ever-increasing talk about a future food crisis , a large section of the European Union 's population is living below the poverty line and it is crucial for us to ensure that food is available to every section of society .
On the other hand , the agricultural sector has to meet the food needs of an ever-growing number of people , despite having to contend with dwindling natural resources and high production costs .
According to the FAO , food production needs to increase by a minimum of 70 % in order to meet the ever-growing demands of the world population , which is expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050 .
It is also about structural reform , fiscal consolidation and growth-enhancing measures .
He does not want to do anything until 2012 , even though you yourself have just said that it is already clear that the non-binding targets are not sufficient .
( RO ) Given that an ever-increasing number of families in Europe , especially in the context of the economic crisis and rising unemployment rate , are spending in excess of 10 % of their monthly income on energy bill payments , I would like to ask you what specific measures the European Commission is intending to take to reduce energy poverty .
( IT ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , this measure is certainly an all-embracing measure , and the rapporteur and those who have helped to finalise it deserve our heartfelt congratulations .
In addition , I must point out that small and medium-sized enterprises can benefit from other cross-cutting initiatives to access funding .
Above all , we need to give people the right mix of skills so that they can adapt to our fast-changing society .
In recent years , the Italian Government has tried everything possible to resolve the long-standing issue of the waste collection and disposal system .
If this is a serious debate aimed at helping the Campania region and trying to find a solution to a long-standing problem , then surely the resolution that we expect to vote on in February can be a common resolution .
It is revolting to see right-wing politicians scapegoating gay people in Lithuania .
They relate to a non-binding text which is the subject of a debate in the parliament of an EU Member State .
The Annual Growth Survey launches this process and its key messages are clear : bring back stability , do not delay structural reforms any longer , and speed up growth-enhancing measures .
Europe 's next budget must be a growth-enhancing budget .
Our institutional decision-making processes are complex and lacking in democracy , and our economic policy strategy is divided and ineffective .
If we can get everything in advance that we could otherwise only have obtained as the fruits of years of work , the very meaning of our work is called into question , and that meaning is increasingly transformed to mean the repayment of our ever-accumulating debt , and changing our whole attitude to work .
When Mr Sarkozy , the French President , was President-in-Office of the Council , he also gave a left-leaning speech here in Parliament and then proceeded to implement right-wing policies once he was at home .
When Mr Sarkozy , the French President , was President-in-Office of the Council , he also gave a left-leaning speech here in Parliament and then proceeded to implement right-wing policies once he was at home .
I wish the best of luck to Hungary , my freedom-loving home country .
Any self-respecting democrat must accept criticism of his or her political actions .
Even before it is clear whether or not the new act will be passed and what it will be like , the all-seeing eye of our Parliament 's high priests is keenly trained on Lithuania .
Research shows that minors deserve special protection from certain kinds of information which can have far-reaching consequences for the healthy development of the individual .
The fact that the directive introduces wide-ranging access to medical care for individuals suffering from rare diseases , and higher rates of reimbursement for disabled people , are additional points in its favour .
I welcome Europe 's concern for the protection of other countries ' natural resources , but I must stress that despite the regulatory framework under the agreements , any victory in combating the trade in illegal timber greatly depends on the governments and institutions of the timber-producing countries .
I voted in favour because I believe that the negotiation of these VPAs enables us to obtain guidelines on best practices that could serve as a precedent for the negotiations under way for other VPAs with timber-producing countries .
The approved partnerships with the Republic of Cameroon and the Republic of Congo include good practice guidelines , which may form an important precedent for other ongoing negotiations with timber-producing countries .
I voted for this resolution on the Interim Partnership Agreement between the EC and the Pacific States in the hope that this agreement - which is currently limited to two countries : Papua New Guinea and the Republic of the Fiji Islands - could prepare the ground for a wider-ranging agreement .
in writing . - Greens maintain their long-standing opposition to EPAs with any of the ACP regions , and consequently do not see the added value of the IEPA with two of the Pacific States .
With the support of the European Union , which we were preparing to join , Romania carried out far-reaching amendments to its adoption legislation , in spite of the huge international pressure not to resort to a drastic measure such as abandoning international adoptions .
Alzheimer 's disease is becoming increasingly widespread and affects an ever-growing number of people , especially as the ratio between the working and retired population continues to diminish .
It is necessary therefore to call on the Commission immediately to take the steps needed to end the still-pending procedure initiated in 1997 under the safeguard clause of Article 8 of Directive 93 / 42 / EEC .
Calls on the Commission immediately to take the steps needed to end the still-pending procedure initiated in 1997 under the safeguard clause of Article 8 of Directive 93 / 42 / EEC ; and
The Council is still blocking the introduction of a cross-cutting directive on combating discrimination aimed at guaranteeing equal protection against all forms of discrimination .
The law had been enacted by the right-wing unionist government of Margaret Thatcher - a government which had no legitimacy among the people of Scotland .
I agree too , however , that there should be harder-hitting measures , such as those proposed by Mr Protasiewicz or Mrs Ojuland .
( DE ) Mr President , we repeatedly read in the media that the reintroduction of the sanctions against President Lukashenko of Belarus , which were relaxed more than two years ago , would be tantamount to admitting that our long-standing efforts at rapprochement have failed .
I hope the collaboration between the European Union and Libya brings about the same results that were achieved with the Friendship Agreement between Libya and Italy , which , amongst other things , has settled the long-standing dispute over the country 's colonial past .
I believe that a front-loading approach , as advocated by the Commission in its recast proposal , in other words , improving the first-instance procedures , will allow us to make real economies of scale in the medium term .
There are certainly questions to be asked as to how we can improve the first-instance decision-making process , as Mrs Guillaume has done in her report , when roughly 50 % of first-instance decisions are overturned on appeal .
Furthermore , there is no proposal on a proper , legally binding burden-sharing mechanism and this , too , creates difficulties for a number of Member States , and indeed for this Parliament .
One of the recurring criticisms by Member States of the proposed recast of procedures is that it will lead to an unnecessary financial burden on them , but there is a significant body of evidence - and I pay tribute to what the Commission said on the Solihull project in the United Kingdom - that front-loading asylum procedures leads to better decisions at first instance ; quality decision making is a key element which we must not miss .
Will it create a transfer economy , with low growth and high structural unemployment , or will it have a wealth-creating economy that stands the test of global competition ?
In a letter , I reminded Commissioner Almunia of the long-lasting investigation into the German postal provider .
I believe that standing up for competition in key industries is the way that we will generate the true growth potential of the EU and reinvigorate our economies in this ever-changing world .
Competition is not about out-competing others .
It is therefore very important that the companies that are going to conduct explorations and drillings in that area do not go there with the profit-mongering mindset of the gold diggers of old , but instead with the sense of European responsibility that took shape by the 20th and early 21st century .
( LT ) Madam President , I would like to offer my congratulations to the rapporteur , Mr Gahler , on initiating a very important and necessary European Parliament report on the High North and on responding to the European Commission 's recommendation for the formulation of an EU Arctic policy with very specific and all-embracing proposals : from the inclusion of local inhabitants in the dialogue and stability and security in the region to future projects , environmental dimensions and climate change .
Madam President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , if the Black Sea region is to develop into an area of stability , security , democracy and prosperity and if these opportunities and challenges are to be fulfilled , we need an all-embracing strategy .
However , even in those areas that we would like to regard as areas of low-hanging fruit , as easy areas , it is impossible to reach agreement .
This House has at last been able to vote on a wide-ranging resolution on the situation of Christians around the world .
I voted in favour of Parliament 's resolution because it appeals to the European Commission to ensure that MEPs are more involved in the decision-making process concerning this policy , that more consideration is given to services of general interest , and that its services pay more attention to the activities of undertakings in the financial sector .
An ' early-warning system ' will act as a conflict prevention and confidence building tool in the region by anticipating any escalation of violence .
I see too many Pakistan-bashing exercises and I see a disregard of the effort that the Pakistani Government and civil society are making against extremism .
The relations of the victims of Cesare Battisti - who killed four decent , hard-working people in a senseless bloodbath in front of their families and children - came here yesterday in this spirit of trust .
This day , too , provides an occasion to reinforce this unity and to reassert that we , the Roma , are citizens of our countries and a state-creating factor ; free and equal European citizens .
Between 2002 and 2010 - in order to give you a clear answer - Hungary was , as it is now , a democratic state based on the rule of law with a left-leaning government governing according to democratic rules .
There is one thing I am sure of , however , and that is that your party is a right-wing extremist , neo-fascist party .
Large areas , such as the Middle East , Asia and Africa , are the scene for stiff imperialist competition and intervention to control wealth-producing resources and energy transportation routes , which is causing tremendous poverty , harsh exploitation and repression , in collaboration with the bourgeois classes at home and to the detriment of the people .
The time has come for orderly transition and a peaceful and far-reaching transformation .
As we know , their wishes may be granted on 9 July 2011 , when the independence of Sudan will be proclaimed , and only then will we be able to celebrate the end of this bloody and long-standing conflict .
Let us hope that greed does not blind us , and that our desire to help not only ensures that funding will be provided for state-building measures , but will also allow us to put in place programmes which will benefit society .
( HU ) As regards the livelihood of banana producers in the EU and in ACP countries , the Council is aware that banana production is of fundamental social and economic importance to the banana-growing regions of the EU .
However , we must also be realistic about the scope of the study , because it is aimed at a large number of banana-producing countries across the world - as well as a large number of countries in which bananas are a staple food - and it will therefore be difficult to conduct this study and to draw conclusions from it .
It is a country in which the large banana-producing companies make and break governments at their will .
I therefore consider the conclusions of the rapporteur 's recommendation - according to which the outermost regions ' interests should also be considered - to be a contribution of great relevance , in that Parliament should consent to the agreements if the Commission and Council : present to Parliament , as soon as possible , an impact assessment on the consequences of the agreements for banana-producing developing countries and for the outermost regions ; implement specific measures aimed at strengthening banana producers ' commercial position , and adopt measures to finance a programme in favour of banana-producing ACP countries .
( RO ) Madam President , I too share the sentiments of my colleagues who have drawn attention to the persecution of the political opposition in Romania , using the legal instruments of a government showing ever-growing evidence of authoritarian abuses .
As a reminder , we appealed at first reading for as many accompanying measures as possible for ACP banana-exporting countries , whose situation is liable to be made worse by the entry into force , within the WTO , of an agreement with US and Latin American producers to end the trade dispute over customs duties on bananas .
Since your last debate in October , the year ended without a first-reading agreement .
But in its first-reading position the Council rejected those of your amendments relating to delegated acts .
The accompanying measures are intended to support 10 banana-exporting ACP countries in their adaptation to a reduction in their preferential margin as a result of the Geneva Agreement .
It is of the utmost importance , therefore , that we preserve the EU 's credibility as an international trade negotiator by honouring our commitments and , in this case , we owe it especially to ACP banana-producing countries .
Madam President , ladies and gentlemen , the European Parliament will today give its verdict for a second time on the amendment to the financing instrument for development cooperation providing for the establishment of Banana Accompanying Measures for the main ACP banana-producing countries .
Nevertheless , to turn to the subject of the Banana Accompanying Measures , this agreement is embarrassing with regard to our ACP banana-producing partners .
We had a freer trade agreement which has now gone ' phut ' , and what we now have to do is to indemnify and compensate those banana-producing countries again .
This is about an ever-growing mountain of waste , but not just about waste .
Above all , however , what we need is to encourage the production of long-lasting appliances .
( PL ) Madam President , waste electrical and electronic equipment represents the fastest-growing waste stream in the European Union .
Many of you mentioned that this is the fastest-growing waste stream .
However , over the next few months the focus of the entire decision-making process will be on you , because a common position will now have to be agreed on .
Waste electrical and electronic equipment ( WEEE ) represents the fastest-growing waste stream in the EU .
We are saying ' no ' to the disbursement of funds that are used simply to strengthen corrupt politicians , unscrupulous businessmen and organised crime ; ' yes ' to European money if a credible , environmentally friendly waste plan is put forward ; ' no ' to uncontrolled landfill in national parks ; ' no ' to dioxin-producing incinerators ; and ' yes ' to recycling and environmentally friendly methods .
In view of the absence of any alternative proposal from the colegislator , and in view of the need to act quickly in the interests of the beneficiaries , I think that Parliament must confirm its first-reading position with regard to the proper procedure for the purposes of democratic control and application of delegated acts without entering into a new debate on individual changes at this stage .
At the same time , I agree that the Council must respond as quickly as possible to Parliament 's second-reading position so that we can find a solution and all the funds can be released .
The main ACP banana-exporting countries may face challenges in the context of changing trade arrangements , notably liberalisation of the Most Favoured Nation ( MFN ) tariff in the framework of the World Trade Organisation and the bilateral and regional agreements concluded , or in the process of being concluded , between the Union and Latin American countries .
The financial assistance measures to be adopted under the programme should aim at improving the living standards and living conditions of people in banana-growing areas and in banana value chains , specifically small farmers and small entities , as well as ensuring compliance with labour and occupational health and safety standards , and environmental standards , notably those regarding the use of and exposure to pesticides .
This draft legislative resolution , which consolidates an amendment to the Financing Instrument for Development Cooperation ( DCI ) Regulation and is aimed at supporting banana-exporting countries , has led to formal problems between the co-legislators regarding the strategic programming documents to support this sector.According to the proposals tabled at first reading , procedures relating to delegated acts must be included in the DCI Regulation , as provided for in the Treaty of Lisbon .
Indeed , in the light of the Treaty of Lisbon , I agree that such monitoring should be conducted on an equal footing with the Council , which would contribute to increased sharing of responsibilities between the European institutions and to mitigating any lack of democracy in the EU 's decision-making process .
Moreover , I should like to emphasise that the European Parliament has always been in favour of granting financing measures for the banana sector to the 10 ACP banana-producing countries .
These amendments are aimed at supporting the main banana-exporting countries in Africa , the Caribbean and the Pacific using Banana Accompanying Measures ( BAMs ) , which are intended to last four years ( 2010-2013 ) .
The main African , Caribbean and Pacific ( ACP ) banana-supplying countries may face difficulties following the liberalisation of customs duties implemented under the Most Favoured Nation tariff within the framework of the World Trade Organisation and the bilateral and regional agreements concluded , or which are in the process of being concluded , between the EU and certain Latin American countries .
Under the terms of this proposal for a regulation , which amends Regulation ( EC ) No 1905 / 2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council , the main ACP banana-supplying countries will benefit from Banana Accompanying Measures ( BAMs ) , aimed at assisting their process of adjustment to this new import regime .
The proposal for a regulation amending the financing instrument for development cooperation aims to support the main banana-exporting countries of Africa , the Caribbean and the Pacific ( ACP ) through measures known as Banana Accompanying Measures .
I feel I must emphasise here that the financial assistance measures to be adopted under the programme should aim at improving the living standards and living conditions of people in banana-growing areas and in banana value chains , specifically small farmers and small entities , as well as ensuring compliance with labour and occupational health and safety standards , and environmental standards , notably those regarding the use of and exposure to pesticides .
Granting this House power over what are known as ' delegated acts ' would help to shrink the democratic deficit in the decision-making process of the European Union .
In the light of the new powers granted to Parliament by the Treaty of Lisbon , the rapporteur explains the need to amend Regulation ( EC ) No 1905 / 2006 by extending its geographical scope , while at the same time putting Parliament at the heart of the decision-making process , alongside the Council .
It is also important for the EU to increase support for the main ACP banana-supplying countries , with assistance aimed at improving competitiveness and economic diversity , and at mitigating the social consequences of adjustment .
The Geneva Agreement signed on 15 December 2009 between the EU and Latin American banana-supplying countries settled a long dispute within the World Trade Organisation ( WTO ) .
In saying that , I wish to stress that the EU will gradually cut its import tariff on bananas from Latin America , and therefore the ACP banana-exporting countries will receive extra support through a new programme - the ' Banana Accompanying Measures ' ( BAM ) .
I voted in favour of this motion for a resolution following the agreement reached on 15 December 2009 between the EU , a group of Latin American countries and the US on customs duties on imports of bananas , which calls attention to the need to conduct an assessment of its impact on banana-producing developing countries and Europe 's outermost regions , and the need to provide adequate support to banana-producing countries in the African , Caribbean and Pacific Group of States and in the EU , to enable them to adapt to the new reality of the international market .
In this regard , we support the fact that , in addition to regular EU aid , the main ACP banana-exporting countries will receive extra support in what will be known as the Banana Accompanying Measures ( BAM ) programme .
It establishes an artificial level playing field between banana-exporting countries .
These agreements put an end to a dispute that , for more than 15 years , has seen Europe at odds with the Latin American banana-producing countries and the United States , which condemned the preferential treatment given by Europe to exports from the African , Caribbean and Pacific ( ACP ) Group of States .
Furthermore , the main ACP banana-producing countries will receive aid from the EU budget ( up to the sum of EUR 200 million ) to help them adapt to tougher competition from Latin America .
The situation in the European Union is very special , since bananas are the world 's fourth most important crop and there is only a limited number of banana-producing countries .
Under the terms of the deal , the EU will gradually cut its tariffs on imports of Latin American bananas from the current level of EUR 176 / tonne to EUR 114 / tonne by 2017 , which will naturally have a negative impact on banana-producing ACP countries and EU outermost regions .
In this respect , in addition to the planned supplementary aid for the main ACP banana-exporting countries - known as the Banana Accompanying Measures ( BAM ) - it is essential to make changes to the support package for EU domestic producers within the budget of the Programme of Options Specifically Relating to Remoteness and Insularity ( POSEI ) , so as to help them adapt to the effects of the changes on the world market in bananas .
Finally , under no circumstances should we attempt to finance banana-producing ACP countries by reallocating funds from development cooperation .
The agreement also contains a clause stating that Latin American banana exporters will drop all actions against the EU in the WTO : ' once the WTO certifies the EU 's new tariff schedule , Latin American banana-supplying countries will drop all their disputes on bananas with the EU at the WTO , and any claims they made against the EU after new member countries joined the Union , or when the EU changed its banana tariff in 2006 ' and will not seek further tariff reductions on bananas in the Doha Round .
Following the recent negotiations between the European Union and the banana-producing countries , which gave rise to new agreements - namely the Geneva Agreement - and ended protracted disputes within the World Trade Organisation , it is necessary to abolish the above-mentioned regulation .
As the report in question points out , waste electrical and electronic equipment ( WEEE ) represents the fastest-growing waste stream in the EU .
Waste electrical and electronic equipment represents the fastest-growing waste stream in the EU and we therefore face a range of challenges .
in writing . - ( LT ) I agreed with this proposal , because waste electrical and electronic equipment represents the fastest-growing waste stream .
Currently , waste electrical and electronic equipment represents the fastest-growing waste stream in the European Union .
Waste electrical and electronic equipment ( WEEE ) represents the fastest-growing waste stream in the EU and we therefore face a range of challenges .
in writing . - Waste electrical and electronic equipment ( WEEE ) represents the fastest-growing waste stream in the EU and we therefore face a range of challenges : 9 million tonnes now , growing to 12.3 million by 2020 .
We will need high collection rates , high recycling rates and adequate recycling standards , strong legislation against illegal exports , far-reaching producer 's responsibility , better designed equipment and a fair distribution of responsibilities and costs between producers , consumers and public authorities .
WEEE represents the fastest-growing waste stream in the EU , and it is essential to step up the collection and proper treatment of this waste .
Today 's vote was strongly opposed by Italy and by the majority of the representatives of the Group of the European People 's Party ( Christian Democrats ) , who supported the fight against the joint motion for a resolution on the waste crisis in Campania tabled by the left-wing groups .
I have not voted in favour of the motion for a resolution , because in my opinion it is primarily a statement of opposition to the right-wing government and does not take an unbiased approach to the problem .
I voted in favour of the motion for a resolution on the waste crisis in Campania , long-standing problem that it is , because I do not believe that the responsibility for the current situation can be attributed to one government alone .
So therefore , without neglecting or denying the importance of this topic , it is much better to allow this process to continue and reach its end in such a way as to have a wide-ranging debate which will lend credibility to our decision .
Mr President , as you have rightly remarked , we are in the presence of epoch-making events that are shaping an extraordinary increase in the flow of migration into Europe .
The main problems with the application of the directive , despite the fact that most Member States have made considerable progress , are basically due , as the report makes clear , firstly , to the lack of information for companies about what applies in each Member State and , secondly , to the unnecessary administrative burden in the form of time-consuming procedures .
Thirdly , the intention is to make the updating processes and the decision-making process more transparent and democratic .
The maximum levels must guarantee the safety of all citizens and we are all well aware of the fact that there are life-threatening cases like these in every country .
For these reasons , I would like to say that we should tread carefully when making changes , because both right and left-leaning measures can have a detrimental effect on SMEs , depending on where they are targeted .
The European Union strategy for the Danube region is the result of wide-ranging consultations which saw the participation of local , regional and national authorities , as well as of representatives of civil society , academia and the business sector .
Before drafting the strategy , we held wide-ranging discussions and consultations on issues relating to the priorities and the actual projects under the strategy .
With the French Presidency of the G20 , which has made international financial regulation a priority , Europe has a unique opportunity to pioneer a humanist vision in the face of an ever-changing world .
Generally , I am not in favour of first-reading agreements , believing that they are best avoided if at all possible .
However , in this case , a first-reading agreement provides clarity and certainty to a sector that is still suffering in the wake of the global economic crisis , whilst also setting the bar for the tough but fair environmental standards that we all wish to see .
We should make sure in future that we reach fewer first-reading agreements .
The second is the car park beneath us - Porches , Mercedes , BMWs , SUVs , a showroom of gas-guzzling luxury from the people who tut-tut in disapproval at many white vans and plot to make working lives even harder with speed limiters and financial penalties , all for a dogma based on discredited statistics pedalled by a clique of bought and paid-for academics , funded and hyped by super-rich vested interests in the green industrial complex - Al Gore , Prince Charles , Shell and Goldman Sachs - all of whom stand to steal a fortune from the taxes harvested through wind factory subsidies and carbon trading .
What we are seeing is an environmental and industrial policy decision that has clearly been influenced by the economic crisis and by the fact that so many European governments , conservative , right-leaning governments , have chosen to respond to this economic crisis by simply making cuts and not making any investments .
The extension of the amendment period until 2018 is positive and will make research into , and the production of , non-polluting vehicles more attractive .
Wrapping up this debate , I would just say that we have the benefit of the wide-ranging experience we have gained in the field of car legislation .
in writing . - I support this compromise on the rights of bus passengers , guaranteeing a right to transport , a right to accessible travel information , the obligation for bus operators to organise mandatory disability awareness training for drivers , a right to compensation for damaged wheelchairs , a complaint-handling mechanism for all passengers , with independent national bodies to enforce the regulation and issue penalties .
on behalf of the S & D Group . - Mr President , the model of power sharing between the state and the members of society determines the content of political decisions , while the predictability of the decision-making process and the correct enforcement of decisions are guaranteed by the honesty , professionalism and independence of the judiciary .
The European Union and Russia can do business together only if there is compatibility between their power-sharing models , their decision-making mechanisms and their judiciary systems .
The European Union and Russia can do business together only if there is compatibility between their power-sharing models , their decision-making mechanisms and their judiciary systems .
( DE ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , I believe it is important , alongside our wide-ranging cooperation in the field of business and in the face of global challenges , as has already been said , that we keep the subject of the rule of law on the agenda in all our discussions with Russia .
Recent events in Russia , in particular , the numerous attacks on journalists and representatives of independent non-governmental organisations , and the judgment handed down in the Khodorkovsky case , mean that there are grounds for wondering whether there is any real understanding of human rights and fundamental freedoms behind the noble-sounding demands .
We know that the supposed creation of a level playing field for the various European companies contributes to the process of facilitating the monopolistic concentration of the sector , which is already under way , as well as the consequent reduction of the Member States ' capacity to defend their flag-carrying airlines , and thus their legitimate interests , at a number of levels .
In the spirit which should preside over this similar agreement , all measures which remove obstacles to contact between European citizens and those of this other Portuguese-speaking country are obviously to be welcomed .
Fortunately , things have now quietened down and the left-leaning parties seem to have abandoned their dogmatic posturing on the Services Directive , the purpose of which , it is important to point out , is to remove the unnecessary and restrictive obstacles to the provision of services within the European Union .
I believe we managed to reach agreement with the Council on a balanced document , which will help reduce CO2 emissions and will encourage the automotive sector to invest in new and less-polluting technologies .
in writing . - Despite voting against the report in committee ( 32 / 25 / 0 ) the Greens / EFA agreed with the other groups that negotiations for first-reading agreement with the Council should be sought , mainly due to an assessment that political majorities are not likely to improve at plenary and negotiations with the forthcoming Hungarian and Polish presidencies would be unlikely to yield a better result .
The main content of the first-reading agreement was : delaying the binding 175 g CO2 / km average limit by one year ( 2017 ) ; lowering the 2020 target to 147 g / km , requiring to be confirmed by legislative procedure ; lowering excess emissions premium to EUR 95 / g ; and a slight increase and prolongation of super-credits until 2017 .
This would mean that these high-emitting vehicles would remain outside the scope of CO2 emission standards .
Having a single patent will significantly reduce administrative costs for small and medium-sized enterprises , stimulate innovation and help create new jobs at a time when the EU has an ever-growing need for them .
Although , at this stage in the process , we are only dealing with Parliament 's consent to the decision-making method in this area , which receives my vote , this House will shortly also be called on to give a verdict on the controversial language arrangements and on the two regulations to be drafted with regard to the rules of the European patent system .
There is no doubt that its legal basis must be adapted to the new Treaty of Lisbon in order to grant Parliament a role in the decision-making process concerning a regulation that potentially affects public health .
Research has proven that irradiation kills bacteria , but it does not destroy viruses or remove dirt or toxins which could get into meat in non-sterile and unhygienic slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants .
There are many other possibilities involving more wide-ranging modifications to the Treaty which would incorporate this fully into community policy .
It must also guarantee that the small countries are on an equal footing , because we know that the community structures not only ensure cohesion but also decision-making ability in the long term .
There are long-standing problems .
Looking at a more structured intervention , we should also explore the possibilities of better targeting EU assistance by promoting projects that are able to support income- and job-generating activities in the different regions of Tunisia , and I refer particularly to the southern parts of the country .
The Member States have already engaged in long-standing cooperation to learn from each other 's experiences and exchange good practice in pension reform .
I therefore thought that she would immediately relegate the pro-spending cuts Green Paper to the wastepaper basket .
What is particularly serious is the fact that the number of falsifications of life-saving medicines is increasing .
These falsified products are evolving : they now include life-saving medicines as well as lifestyle medicines .
In addition , all Member States will be encouraged to take the same approach in the procedures making up the national decision-making process .
It sets out an integrated approach to recovery with 10 priority actions under three main headings : first , a rigorous fiscal consolidation and restructuring of the financial sector to step up macroeconomic stability ; second , structural reforms for higher employment ; and finally , growth-enhancing measures .
We need binding commitments to reach headline targets and legislation in key job-creating areas , such as energy efficiency targets at a common European level .
It is an essential requirement if women are to benefit from long-term professional development which is adapted to labour market demands , if better use is to be made of their potential and if employment levels among women are to rise , particularly in traditionally male professions , low carbon sectors of the economy and senior decision-making positions .
The latest reports on the subject have indeed recorded a truly sharp increase in seizures of falsified medicines by customs , as well as a growing , and therefore extremely dangerous , trend for falsifying not only ' lifestyle ' medicines but also life-saving medicines , including medicines to treat cancer , heart disease , psychiatric disorders and infections .
We also saw an increase in the trend for falsifying even life-saving medicines , including medicines to treat cancer and heart disease , psychiatric disorders and infections .
As Mr Antoniozzi has already emphasised , the falsification of life-saving medicines is particularly profitable when those medicines are produced in India or China and then passed off as European products .
Herein lies the crux of this motion for a resolution : Parliament is calling for credit and loan guarantee programmes for small and medium-sized enterprises and a vigorous European drive that is more than just a pipe dream to combat the new - and for many prohibitive - business-banking requirements , particularly with regard to higher collateral guarantees and risk premiums .
Croatia 's accession to the European Union does not signify the abandonment of the Croatian people 's long-standing traditions .
All the more so given that experts are observing alarming tendencies : a sharp increase in seizures of falsified medicines by customs ( an increase of up to 384 % since 2005 ) ; a trend towards the falsification of life-saving medicines , which can have fatal consequences ; counterfeit medicines are increasingly being found in legal supply chains .
The report presented by the Commission notes that seizures of falsified medicines are increasing , and that life-saving medicines intended to treat cancer and heart disease are being falsified .
Lastly , because I believe that the falsification of medicines should not be viewed as a minor offence - we need only think of the implications of falsifying life-saving drugs - but rather as criminal activity that endangers human lives , I fully support the strengthening of sanctions .
The commercial availability of a variety of falsified medicines , especially life-saving medicines , has therefore rightly aroused the fears of citizens .
The report observes a trend from the falsification of ' lifestyle ' medicines to life-saving medicines , including medicines to treat cancer and heart disease , psychiatric disorders and infections .
The safety features should enable the verification of every pack of medicine that is supplied , regardless of the method of supply used , including those available via distance-selling channels .
in writing . - ( RO ) Given the ever-growing risks to patients from counterfeit medicines , I think that interim measures to strengthen patient safety need to be introduced urgently .
More and more innovative and life-saving drugs are counterfeit .
This is particularly important because the falsification of medicinal products has now become a very serious problem , which has widened to include life-saving preparations .
I believe that the document adopted today will reduce the growing problem of counterfeit medicines and introduce a well-functioning system for monitoring the European market , from the manufacturer to the patient .
In addition , increasing numbers of innovative and life-saving drugs are falsified .
The ever-increasing risk of these medicines entering the supply chain means there is an urgent need to update the legislation .
Consumer awareness of this risk needs to be improved , and so I welcome the inclusion of awareness-raising campaigns for the public which has been agreed as part of the compromise .
To date , counterfeit products have mainly come under the heading of ' life-style ' drugs , whereas there is currently a dramatic increase in the number of counterfeit life-saving medicines .
The Commission should also push for the removal of barriers to the development of European venture capital and bond markets , and should expand risk-sharing facilities for investments in equity .
The Commission should place stronger emphasis on programmes and financial instruments scheduled for the upcoming period , and on supporting these instruments with risk-sharing funds and facilities .
in writing . - Labour MEPs voted in favour of this non-binding report on pensions and the challenges of ageing societies and spending pressures being faced across the EU .
As a result , pensioners in Latvia have become hostages to the current Government 's risk-taking activities .
However , I was simply unable to support the report as a whole because I simply disagree that the EU should have anything beyond an information-sharing role for pensions .
I call for further active promotion of the participation of women in economic and political decision-making bodies , and for swift implementation of the Gender Equality Law , including the principle of equal pay .
Nor can I accept the Commission 's political interference in the internal decision-making process by supporting organisations that advocate accession in a country where , as the latest Eurobarometer shows , the majority of citizens believe that it would not be beneficial ; this is not surprising if we consider the antisocial nature of current EU policy .
( FR ) Madam President , Minister , Commissioner , all the hungry people in the world , all those who have to pay more to feed themselves or to clothe themselves , expect us to respond with more energy to the greatest calamity afflicting our planet today , that is , the calamity produced by money-grabbing food speculators .
The purpose of this facility was to respond to those soaring prices , the causes of which were mainly , though not exclusively , droughts in grain-producing countries and rising oil prices .
I would just like to add that , on a personal level , this debate has reinforced my long-standing conviction that , to tackle global challenges , such as hunger in the world , volatility of food and raw material prices , turbulence on the financial markets , regulation of financial products and services , there is a need for much more global governance and more global rule-making .
What guarantee does the nation of Hungary have that such incidents cannot happen under the government of your left-wing party , and that you will not have protests dispersed by force as you did between 2002 and 2010 ...
In Poland , where it could be said that the ruling party has an overall majority in every governing body , a monopoly of power , where it controls government , the Senate , the President , the National Broadcasting Authority , the body which oversees the media , and finally has control over public broadcasting and the support of the largest electronic media corporations , journalists are being thrown out of their jobs for the simple reason that they hold conservative , right-wing views .
In short , if journalists are dismissed only because they have left-wing views or only because they have conservative views , we should protest .
I would expect support and protests from Mr Schulz and from other socialist and left-wing members , because this would show that we are concerned with standards and not political point-scoring .
Interestingly , you only stand up for liberties when in doing so you can attack right-wing governments .
I welcome the first-reading agreement between the Council and Parliament on the Safeguard Regulation .
It has adopted a proposal for revisiting the VAT directive to remove barriers to electronic invoicing , with cost-saving potential amounting to billions of euros in the medium term .
Fundamentally , we must be sure that those individuals at the EIB and the Commission who are tasked with managing these financial products and making such wide-ranging decisions have the appropriate expertise to manage what they are dealing with .
There are left-wing MEPs , right-wing MEPs , Green MEPs and liberals who are very interested in these issues .
Some people may mistakenly want to enter these expert groups to be part of the decision-making process , but expert groups are not decision-makers .
Among the more odious provisions of the agreement , the EU succeeded in pushing Korea to massage its rules on CO2 emissions from vehicles in order to allow European car makers to export more big gas-guzzling cars to Korea .
This dramatically changes the long-standing trade rules between the EU and Korea .
Among the more odious provisions of the agreement , the EU succeeded in pushing Korea to massage its rules on CO2 emissions from vehicles in order to allow European car makers to export more big gas-guzzling cars to Korea .
New seeds , as well as input- and water-saving techniques , will be able to produce the required yields .
This cross-cutting issue must be discussed multilaterally as it affects people worldwide and the multiplying effects are indisputable .
What I have to say is that regulating the international financial system and the idea of a financial transaction tax are not left-wing subjects .
At a time when supposedly magical cost-cutting policies paradoxically require more income , I think it is more than necessary to institute the tax .
We are not here to defend speculators or those who played the financial markets as though they were at a casino , but , on the other hand , we cannot take face-saving measures partly influenced by demagoguery , which then , in practice , go on to do more harm than we are setting out to prevent .
These include a requirement for every Member State to send the Commission , through the accustomed data-processing support , an updated list of the vessels of more than 15 metres overall length flying its flag and registered in its territory that it authorises to fish in the GFCM area ( Article 18 ) .
The World Health Organisation cried wolf and , with its hysteria-fuelling forecasts , forced Member States to take steps that were disproportionate to the known and experienced severity of the H1N1 epidemic .
I support the rapporteur 's proposal for specialists working in the pharmaceutical industry to only be consulted and to be excluded from the decision-making process .
Yet the European Union - and MEPs - gave themselves a 36 % increase in healthcare last year , paying for things such as anti-ageing treatments , thermal spas , etc .
Furthermore , the right-wing government is proposing the merger of hospitals , even though some wards do not have sufficient beds for all the patients and always need to be supplemented .
The EU has already drastically reduced its trade-distorting aid , unlike key trading partners .
The next item is the report by Mr Häusling , on behalf of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development , on the EU protein deficit : what solution for a long-standing problem ? .
The principles that he sets out - legislative excellence , good management principles , being able to have accuracy and simplicity , and submitting cost-cutting plans - should apply not just to all institutions other than the Commission , but also to the Commission budget itself .
However , looking at the technological points that the rapporteur makes , it is not just in the longer term that we should be looking for savings , but also in the short term , when we should be able to come up with cost-cutting measures .
I stress also the need for positive action to increase women 's representation in political , economic and corporate decision-making bodies .
So we think that this should be tackled , mainly because all the economic evidence and the scientific evidence on economic functioning shows very clearly that companies with an balanced decision-making structure have a higher return on investment and make more profits than companies with solely male decision-making structures .
So we think that this should be tackled , mainly because all the economic evidence and the scientific evidence on economic functioning shows very clearly that companies with an balanced decision-making structure have a higher return on investment and make more profits than companies with solely male decision-making structures .
Discrimination still thrives in the workplace , there is deep segregation of the labour market according to gender , the pay gap continues , there is still a shortage of women in decision-making positions and politics and insufficient support for motherhood and single mothers .
( PT ) Madam President , women are in the majority in universities and are better qualified , but when it comes to decision-making positions , their rise is blocked by a glass ceiling .
People are forgetting , or perhaps do not want to see , that a quota is not being imposed on decision-making positions , and that a quota will not put incompetent women in positions of power .
Furthermore , it is women who shoulder parental and child-rearing responsibilities while , at the same time , participating in the very difficult and ever-changing labour market .
Furthermore , it is women who shoulder parental and child-rearing responsibilities while , at the same time , participating in the very difficult and ever-changing labour market .
I would like to state clearly that we should set ourselves new goals straight away , and these goals should be equal pay for various groups of women and parity in other decision-making bodies .
As for the reports under discussion , I would note that there is a strong link between growing insecurity at work and in the lives of young women , even though they are better educated and more skilled , the inadequate protection of atypical female workers - which most young women are - during maternity and parenthood , the shortcomings of current policies for achieving balance and the lower rates of female employment , the more frequent instances of poverty among women and children , and the lower level of their pensions and , hence , their exclusion from decision-making powers .
Fortunately , the figure in our Parliament 's main decision-making bodies is well over 40 % , and we are very pleased about this .
Women have struggled and achieved a great deal during those 100 years , but that has still not been enough to eliminate the existing inequalities , the discrimination that persists in accessing jobs with rights , the wage inequality which is reflected in pensions , the difficulty of career progression and professional achievement , and the obstacles to accessing management and decision-making positions in economic , social and political activity ; the tendency is for this situation to get worse at times of economic and social crisis .
( IT ) Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , female poverty is a long-standing issue that has historic causes and is certainly not the product of an economic crisis .
The European Parliament is sending out a strong message with the report that has been voted through , calling for directives on product safety to be consistent with other legislative acts , which will guarantee a better-functioning market surveillance system and clear and transparent regulations for entrepreneurs , and will provide consumers with a guarantee that the product they have in their hands meets legal requirements .
The crisis , brought about by financial market players , is being used as an argument by our right-wing governments to call for budgetary cuts , especially in social expenditure .
The Commission is currently preparing an analysis , but this has not prevented its representatives from pre-empting events on several occasions by expressing clearly negative views of a tax at EU level .
It is necessary to point to the hypocritical discourse of some right-wing leaders , calling for a form of taxation of the financial sector , but only at global level , where we all know it is most unlikely to be implemented .
This system - which has no checks and no limits - allows palliative treatments , promotes illegal immigration and encourages medical tourism , as well as every type of cheating imaginable , at an ever-increasing cost .
The ' EU protein deficit : what solution for a long-standing problem ? ' report from the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development has come up with a number of excellent solutions for dealing with the protein crop deficit in the EU , such as revising the Blair House Agreement with the USA , which permits protein crops to be imported duty free from the United States .
My view is that encouraging domestic protein crop production needs to be done in line with a reformed CAP which sees the EU moving towards sustainable farming and greater market orientation and , importantly , moving away from trade-distorting subsidies .
The EU has always been at the forefront of the defence of women 's rights , so I welcome the adoption of this report that aims to put an end to many of the discrepancies that still persist , such as wage differences , access to education and employment , difficulties in reconciling personal and professional life , and distance from decision-making positions .
However , these have not been enough to eliminate the existing inequalities , the discrimination that persists in accessing jobs with rights , the wage inequality which is reflected in pensions , the difficulty of career progression and professional achievement , and the obstacles to accessing management and decision-making positions in economic , social and political activity ; the tendency is for this situation to deteriorate at times of economic and social crisis .
As long as poverty and social exclusion apply to almost one in six citizens , as statistical investigations in the EU show , it is up to us , as MEPs , not only to challenge the Commission and the Member States , but also to mount effective pressure for the implementation of the specific measures adopted in the fight against poverty and against anti-social cost-cutting measures , and to limit further decline in the social area , particularly with respect to women .
We stress the importance of the role of women in decision-making positions , which are traditionally the preserve of men .
Combating gender-based violence entails launching awareness-raising campaigns and teaching children and young people about the horrors of this violence .
I also voted for it because it calls on the Commission , the Council and the Member States to prioritise support for binding measures instead of non-binding strategies on gender equality , and to pay particular attention to groups of vulnerable women : disabled women , older women , migrants , lesbians , bisexuals and transsexuals , women belonging to ethnic minorities , and women with little or no education and dependents in their care , disabled women and single mothers .
Women must also play an important role in decision-making environments , whether on boards of directors or in political functions .
It also calls on the Commission , the Council and the Member States to prioritise binding measures instead of non-binding strategies on gender equality , and to pay particular attention to vulnerable groups of women : disabled women , older women , migrants , lesbians , bisexuals and transsexuals , women belonging to ethnic minorities , and women with little or no education and with dependents in their care , disabled women and single mothers .
In this respect , I am pleased , as our rapporteur is , that a European micro-financing instrument has been created .
in writing . - Although women 's poverty is a long-lasting reality , the issue has only relatively recently started to be tackled in a systemic way .
Even though female poverty is a long-standing fact of life , the economic , financial and social crisis has greatly exacerbated this situation and we are witnessing the feminisation of poverty .
I would also stress the need for positive action to increase women 's representation in political , economic and corporate decision-making bodies .
39 ) ; increase female representation in political , economic and corporate decision-making bodies .
However , apart from dealing with this situation , which can be treated only as the tip of the iceberg , it is necessary to eliminate the gender pay gap , have more women appointed to decision-making posts , and increase the level of employment among women , as they are affected more by unemployment , using dynamic and realistic policies .
It is a necessary condition for entrenching job-creating growth .
We need genuine , understandable decision-making processes in Brussels , so that citizens from Greece to Denmark , in Germany and in Spain , trust in us .
( FR ) Madam President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , I cannot but endorse what has just been said by Mrs Goulard on the basic presuppositions that mean that while we are well aware of the need for effectiveness and speed in the decision-making process , it is essential for Parliament to be involved .
These are long-standing relations , which are made even closer by the country 's candidate status .
In doing so , the government should rely on Montenegro 's civil society , free-thinking intellectuals and non-governmental organisations .
The Roma inclusion strategy must be guided by an insider approach that is designed by Roma for Roma , which means empowerment of Roma , inclusion in the decision-making process , hiring of Roma staff and mediators in key positions at local , national and EU level .
As a result of a decision by the European Council in 2007 and subsequent resolutions by the European Parliament and the Energy Council - in other words , after wide-ranging consultation with Parliament and the Member States - the Commission submitted its proposal for an ecodesign regulation in 2009 .
This included the gradual changeover from conventional light bulbs to energy-saving bulbs which make more efficient use of electricity .
These will allow us to achieve both things : our environmental and energy-saving goals under the terms of the regulation , on the one hand , and the prevention of any possible risks , on the other .
Member of the Commission . - The Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base ( CCCTB ) is an important initiative in removing obstacles to the single market , and was identified in the Annual Growth Survey as a growth-enhancing initiative to be frontloaded .
I therefore regret the fact , Commissioner , that there is a certain amount of nervousness when it comes to issues associated with strengthening the European Union 's anti-dumping arsenal and to applying the general principle of reciprocity in trade with third countries .
The Member States , and Germany in particular , were part of the decision-making process and supported everything that was decided .
Redistribution policies and systems also need to be reviewed in line with a new cultural approach to industrial relations , with the company profit-sharing model at the focus of our reflections .
We need to find out whether there has been a breach of anti-dumping regulations with regard to the prices which industry in China pays in some cases for raw materials for processing and the surcharges imposed on European industry .
Is the Commission intending to take anti-dumping measures , where appropriate , in order to remove competitive disadvantages for our companies ?
Indeed , and I also say this for the benefit of those who are interested , including Mr Caspary , who I believe asked the question - if he wishes , I will forward it to him by tomorrow morning - paragraph 5 ( 2 ) of the document in the raw materials communication mentions possible anti-dumping measures and commercial action .
Madam President , as the Member States ' economies and industry recover , there will be an ever-increasing demand for gas .
Unfortunately , in this area , we lag at least a decade behind the United States , where the ever-increasing quantities of shale gas being obtained have completely transformed the gas market .
As many speakers have already said , in the last 10 years , from being a net importer , the United States has become a gas-exporting country as a result of these new technologies , which facilitate access to shale gas .
Based on these financing instruments and within the budget outlook for 2014-2020 , the Commission must also identify a financing solution for exploiting gas from alternative sources , which could have a far-reaching impact on the European gas and energy market .
A burden-sharing action plan to resettle refugees , a common asylum system , temporary protection measures - all should urgently be enacted by the European Union in compliance with the solidarity clause and the principle of non-refoulement , and as part of a coherent and long-term strategy to deal with the impact of political transition in the north of Africa , addressing the root causes of migration .
The West has been held to ransom by oil-producing states , and we have transferred billions upon billions of dollars to corrupt and despotic regimes .
This is why I want to stress the urgent need for the European Union to complete its still-outstanding asylum package ; to review Directive 2001 / 55 / EC on measures to protect displaced people in humanitarian emergencies and cope with the unforeseen mass influx of migrants ; to be able to prioritise the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union and the European Asylum Support Office , which are the tools at its disposal ; and , above all , to fill the human rights clause of its foreign policy with true meaning , making it not just a verbose clause , but a condition for the very existence of the European Union 's foreign policy .
Pierre Werner , whose plan may be regarded as the fundamental basis of the euro , included in his work the notion of a European economic decision-making centre that is answerable to Parliament .
Well , today , that economic decision-making centre can only be the Commission and Parliament .
Unexpected situations can always arise more easily wherever we do not keep abreast of affairs , and vice versa : every newly arising problem can be handled more easily wherever there are well-functioning relations .
By doing so , it will gain loyal , satisfied , self-respecting citizens , who - not inappreciably - enhance and add colour to diversity through their culture and traditions .
The European Union must develop a new legal framework and avoid continuing to deal with this problem through non-binding legislation , as this is insufficient and not suitable for achieving the goal in question .
Holding two part-sessions in one week is , above all , a gesture to European citizens , because it is their taxes which are used to pay for the expensive and time-consuming journeys not only of Members , but also of officials and assistants .
I am appalled at the European House of History being approved as part of this report : it is a 70-million-euro-and-counting vanity project which is completely at odds with the supposed claims of austerity .
European territorial cooperation , which is consolidated in this strategy through the aforementioned aspects , can contribute widely to the intensification of the integration process within the Atlantic region through greater participation by civil society in the decision-making process and the implementation of concrete measures .
in writing . - I voted for this report on the EU strategy for the Atlantic region which is of the opinion that this strategy should be set within the cohesion policy objective of territorial cooperation ( Objective 3 ) , and be based on an integrated , cross-domain and territorial approach , aiming at better coordinating policies between the various levels of governance on a given territory , with a focus on relevant issues , and is convinced that European territorial cooperation can contribute widely to the intensification of the integration process within the Atlantic region through a greater participation by civil society in the decision-making process and the implementation of concrete actions .
European territorial cooperation can contribute widely to the intensification of the integration process within the Atlantic region through a greater participation by civil society in the decision-making process and the implementation of concrete actions .
I am getting the impression that the Commission has still not started to change its priorities under the Lisbon Treaty and is conducting unjustified and long-lasting rhetoric with Parliament to further its own opportunities .
These issues relate to the exploitation of the people in this country , the servicing of broader imperialistic interests in controlling wealth-producing resources and the exploitation of the people in the Middle East , in North Africa and in the area as a whole .
Indeed , it has weakened its structure , slowed down decision-making processes and complicated the development of shared policies in crucial areas for the life of our continent .
In my opinion , a very important and so far also unresolved problem is the question of discrimination against ethnic groups and also against women , who are under-represented in decision-making processes and in public administration .
For the strategy on Roma inclusion read the systematic promotion of a small population in everything and everywhere , mandatory quotas in all areas , including in decision-making bodies and businesses , and the systematic public funding of its alleged needs , including housing .
In a typical do-gooding way , over many years now , attempts at socialising these groups have been begun but they have all failed , because they have not been accepted by the great majority of this nomadic people .
Education , healthcare , housing policy and the more rapid inclusion of Roma in the labour market - this is the key to solving a long-standing problem .
in writing . - Parliament 's Járóka report on the EU strategy for Roma inclusion was voted on in the Committee on Civil Liberties , Justice and Home Affairs on 14 February , with the majority of the Greens / EFA amendments accepted by the rapporteur or included in the compromise amendments , and many of the Group 's red lines to the issue included : namely , the Roma inclusion strategy should be guided by an insider 's approach : designed by Roma for Roma , which means empowerment of Roma , inclusion in the decision-making process , hiring of Roma staff / mediators in key positions at local , national , EU level ; stop unlawful practices that continue with EU Member State impunity : violence against Roma , violations of the right to free movement , increasing activity of extremist political parties , politicians , and policies , systemic segregation of Romany children in education , widespread residential segregation of Roma , trafficking in human beings , denial of access to healthcare and social services , coercive sterilisation of Romany women .
This report supports industrial progress through smart and forward-looking regulation and market stimulation , based on accurate expectations for market developments , and supporting the global trends towards clean , sustainable and innovative forms of production , distribution and consumption .
The European Commission has to realise that , with the crisis , the rules put in place are no longer suitable for today 's economy , and that it is time to seriously strengthen the European Union 's anti-dumping arsenal and the application of the general principle of reciprocity in trade .
At the second meeting I led on behalf of the E3 + 3 - China , France , Germany , Russia , the United Kingdom and the United States - in Istanbul , I presented to Iran our proposals for concrete confidence-building measures , including an updated fuel supply arrangement for the Tehran Research Reactor , as well as other transparency measures .
We have made wide-ranging offers .
I would like to ask the left-wing socialists and the appalling Group of the Greens / European Free Alliance in this House not to water down this report with all sorts of different amendments .
Iran is a rich oil-producing nation and has an important geopolitical position in the Middle East .
We remain committed to continuing to support their state-building plan and its implementation , both politically and financially .
The most heart-rending story was that of a little boy who brought his toys to school every day because he was not sure when he came home whether his home and his family would still be there .
Respect of national wage and retirement-setting mechanisms ( debate )
The first item is the Commission statement on respect of national wage and retirement-setting mechanisms .
I would like to highlight the fact that Ireland has a long-standing tradition of tripartite consultation on economic and social policy and that the successive pacts between the government and the social partners since the 1980s have been widely recognised as major factors in the success of the Irish economy .
They will not tolerate the far-reaching implications for social policies with lower wages , lower employment protection , weak social standards , reduced public services and the imposition of higher retirement ages .
I strongly get the feeling that the Commission is interpreting the EU 's competences in a very one-sided and , dare I say it , right-wing manner .
Only a month ago , I reminded the House that pensions were exclusively the competence of the Member States and here we go again using the same language of coordination and retirement-setting mechanisms .
I was there and I am from the socialist party currently governing the country and doing what it can to get it out of the very difficult situation caused by right-wing governments and it has had to make concessions on the question of collective agreements and I am telling you that we have not yet seen results .
Rainfall is more erratic and we have more droughts causing life-threatening fires across our continent .
Mr President , firstly , I would like to thank everyone for their wide-ranging contributions to the debate .
Achieving the Single European Sky and implementing SESAR would facilitate enormously the decision-making process and would reduce significantly the impact in the event of a crisis .
It is a question of the absence of these data and the non-participation of the operators in the decision-making process , as well as of the fact that the decision is taken at Member State level .
Last but not least , the participation of the industry is essential in order to facilitate a coordinated decision-making process .
Questions were put to the European Commission concerning transparency of collaborative decision-making processes and better coordination of responses .
Yet the resolution of the left-wing groups , which will be put to the vote at midday , completely ignores these facts .
The constant refrain of the lack of press freedom is old news , as are the continuous and anachronistic references to the Italian situation , in which , paradoxically , the major newspapers are controlled by left-leaning media groups and information runs freely , sometimes too freely , on the web .
One can only support this wonderful , awe-inspiring aspiration and firmly condemn those who attempt to suppress it by force , without hesitating to kill and wound thousands of civilians .
It is also well known that it has a narrow and self-serving conception of the declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 : the Universal Declaration of Human Rights .
The selectiveness surrounding the countries criticised in this report and the self-serving nature of this debate is clear .
The murder of a high-ranking state official , which took place on 2 March , means only one thing : in Pakistan , no one is safe from the radical Islamists .
This brutal incident , the victim of which was a high-ranking state official fighting for equal rights for minorities in Pakistan , is further evidence of how difficult the situation is in that country .
I would like to hope that the European Union will address the murders of those high-ranking officials in Pakistan with the authorities there and call on them to repeal the blasphemy laws that have caused the escalation of religious violence .
We think the recent events show the need for the existence of a legally-binding code of conduct for lobbies operating in the institutions of the European Union .
The current draft Council decision could create a decision-making mechanism on the stability of the euro that is outside the sphere of Parliament and the Commission .
The European Council will finalise this work at its next meeting and adopt a comprehensive package of measures to respond to the crisis , preserve financial stability and lay the ground for sustainable , job-creating growth .
This non-functioning pact does not need to be revised ; it simply needs to be implemented more - or rather , it needs to be implemented in the first place .
It is clear that we still have much to improve as regards our capacity for coordination , and much to improve too in the decision-making process .
Had we relied on this , we would ourselves have played a part in bringing about this clash of civilizations as part of a self-fulfilling prophecy .
The imperialists ' real objective is the oil , the natural gas and the wealth-producing resources of Libya , North Africa and the region in general .
The European Union must therefore show greater solidarity , by also providing assistance to non-euro area members , so that they become members of the club and recover all decision-making rights in the European Union and we would thus eliminate a temporary discrepancy in the EU accession agreement .
The financial crisis which turned into an economic recession and then into a sovereign debt and banking crisis has forced Europe to seek new ways forward , to consider all possible options and to take decisions with long-lasting consequences .
We must acknowledge that science and technology allow us to live longer , to live under better conditions , to live with a more confident outlook and taking into account that food security conditions have improved , that the conditions of our welfare systems have improved , that conditions in our forward-looking world have improved , precisely because it has been able to use and exploit science and technology .
I also support , as I believe it is necessary , the Commission drawing up guidelines which lay the foundations for a well-functioning safety system coordinated at a European level and guarantee the continued safe production of nuclear energy in the future .
I hope that discussions about alternative energy sources to oil can be addressed with objectivity , ensuring European citizens adequate and accurate information in order to prevent easy manipulation , making us even more dependent on unstable oil-producing countries .
Therefore , we need sensible , wide-ranging protection for consumers , but it is also important for us to take the interests of small and medium-sized enterprises into consideration .
Furthermore , we are showing today that the European Parliament , right-wing and left-wing parties together , is capable of responding to people 's day-to-day concerns , and I welcome that .
( ES ) Mr President , achieving a Consumer Rights Direcive , so establishing a horizontal instrument that will simplify , summarise and complement the four already-existing directives , is positive .
on behalf of the ALDE Group . - Mr President , I want to thank Commissioner Hedegaard for her long-standing efforts on this issue and for her positive announcement this evening .
During the debate and during the preparations , I had a sentence running through my head which has been said repeatedly by the German Environment Minister , Norbert Röttgen : We have already picked the low-hanging fruit when it comes to fossil fuels .
We had wide-ranging debates at the time when the Fuel Quality Directive was adopted .
The Commission has heard Parliament 's concerns on the decision-making aspects of the GSP regulation loud and clear .
Then , of course , you also have the internal decision-making process within the European Commission , on a subject which is far-reaching .
Trade is also an important and efficient tool which gives the countries affected the chance to move closer towards the rule of law and democracy and to develop a well-functioning economy .
The growth in population size creates the need for a larger volume of food , but we have an ever-growing shortage , based on the available supply .
The agreement includes a gradual phasing-in of traffic rights and investment opportunities , as well as far-reaching cooperation on a number of issues including safety , security , social matters , consumer interests , the environment , air traffic management , state aid and competition .
These relate to research and development , infrastructure for transport and energy and being able to realise the true potential of the internal market - a well-functioning labour market in the EU and a real basis for growth and competitiveness .
Commissioner De Gucht has undertaken to ensure that the European Parliament is closely involved in the decision-making process .
Parliament 's consultation process with regard to the latest GSP was insufficient , and did not allow for wide-ranging negotiation .
Even here , it is clear what the intention is : promoting the compatibility and interaction of emission licence-trading regimes .
We now recognise the need for more intense cooperation in order to face up to ever-changing challenges in the fields of security and the environment , as well as to promote further investment in order to guarantee free access to the market .
I supported this proposal because it will facilitate air transport , but mainly because it includes a gradual phasing-in of air traffic rights and investment opportunities , as well as far-reaching cooperation on a number of issues including safety , security , social matters , consumer interests , the environment , air traffic management , state aids and competition .
It includes a gradual phasing-in of traffic rights and investment opportunities , as well as far-reaching cooperation on issues such as : safety , security , social matters , consumer interests , the environment , air traffic management , state subsidies and competition .
in writing . - ( PT ) I voted in favour of concluding the EU-Canada Air Transport Agreement , which will enable European airlines to establish direct flights to Canada from any point within Europe , generating , firstly , new opportunities for European companies - in particular , thanks to the possibility of reaching code-sharing agreements and the progressive liberalisation of rules in the area of foreign investment - and , secondly , substantial economic benefits , both for consumers and with regard to job creation .
At present , the Gulf states are much more than mere trade partners , as they have an ever-increasing influence on the financial sector and diplomacy , not to mention other areas .
We must therefore oppose any attempt to limit the budget allocations for achieving the high-ranking objectives and flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 Strategy .
We have been working for years on an early-warning system , and yet we still do not have anything substantial to show for it .
The majority of those who died held high-ranking positions within the state .
This certainly calls for a separate and far-reaching debate .
Although it is extremely important to involve stakeholders in decision-making processes , this must always be done with a view to the practical and sensible implementation of the decisions .
Finally , we demand the maximum degree of transparency to ensure that the regulation provides a mechanism which informs stakeholders , such as human rights or peace monitoring and trade unions organisations , of the various stages that made up the decision-making process , including through a report to the European Parliament
Together with the agreements that we have reached on restricting the delegation of powers to the Commission - which I also had some concerns about - I am very pleased that first-reading agreement has been found with Council .
There is ever-growing talk at the moment about increasing the EU 's global competitiveness ; tourism is one of the most important socio-economic activities , generating approximately 5 % of the European Union 's GDP .
We will thus have reliable and effective databases , for use by the public authorities and professionals in the sector , which will enable us to adapt tourist services to tourists ' expectations , at a time when consumption patterns have changed and evolved and when competition is becoming ever stronger in this economically attractive , job-creating industry .
I have heard the most heart-rending stories from many women , and every one of these stories is also a shameful blot on the EU 's history .
This strategy and policy initiative should also be complemented by broad awareness-raising activities .
The European Parliament has far-reaching opportunities to improve this situation , particularly in countries where women are in a particularly difficult situation due to widespread poverty .
In order to put an end to violence against women , EU Member States and institutions have a duty to initiate as a matter of urgency some of the following actions : information and awareness-raising campaigns , setting up refuges for victims , setting up a single telephone number across the EU for immediate assistance and providing support for highly vulnerable groups of women such as immigrants and asylum seekers .
Protracted , long-standing conflicts and humanitarian crises in regions , such as the one we are talking about , are important factors fuelling South-South migration and migration towards the EU .
We have to mobilise the full range of policies and instruments at our disposal with regard to poverty eradication , early-warning systems and preventive diplomacy , humanitarian aid , crisis response actions , including sanctions , crisis management missions and post-conflict reconstruction and peace building .
This report remains in the tradition of this inward-looking fortress Europe , in defiance of its own interests , particularly its demographic ones .
The EU must , as of now , set up and plan a proper response , including a detailed burden-sharing action plan to help refugees resettle in a coordinated manner .
His only crime was to stand up without fail for the Hungarians of Slovakia who , together with the German-speaking citizens , were vilified en masse , and made stateless and displaced under the shameful Beneš decrees .
Women ought to be adequately represented in all political , economic and social bodies in the agriculture sector so that decision-making processes are informed by both male and female perspectives .
It is also important for women 's entrepreneurial skills to be facilitated and , across the board , for women to be involved in decision making at local and regional level , in farm organisations and , indeed , in all decision-making bodies .
This is the most important result and deserves the highest attention , more so than the decision-making process .
However , what I feel to be a little worrying is the fact that the Council seems to lack the will to change its own decision-making culture .
However , if you do not change your decision-making culture , I fear that in future you will not be able to take the necessary decisions when you are facing difficult considerations on the basis of the recommendations that I nevertheless believe that the Commission will be able to produce .
Not all Finns think like this , but it is a good illustration of the fact that the decision-making culture in the Council needs to change .
I am pleased about and it is the right decision for 60 countries outside the euro area , including my country , Bulgaria , to join the Pact so that they can actively participate in the decision-making process on economic policies , enabling Europe to move away from different standards and principles .
We are faced with having to choose between , on the one hand , a model of turning in on ourselves , where each country compares its competitiveness with the neighbouring Member State , where it looks at its rating on the financial markets and at the lowest possible contribution it can make to the European budget , and , on the other hand , a model based on solidarity - the only acceptable model - in which social standards are raised , in particular by upholding the position of social dialogue and of unions , with minimum social requirements across Europe and wage-indexing mechanisms that are protected , and in which solidarity between generations is guaranteed by a pension system which provides enough to live in dignity , as Parliament has recently stated .
We have few world-beating universities , we devote a smaller percentage of income to research and development than do the emerging and the developed countries and , at the same time , our businesses play a very minor role in research .
Despite this high percentage , women are not well represented in sector organisations and face discrimination in the decision-making process .
On the one hand , it claims to defend human rights in third countries , whilst maintaining a self-serving view of them when it comes to attacking any of these countries .
I believe that in terms of a forward-looking worldview , it will be necessary to make greater efforts for the sustainable use of rural areas , which must be efficient both in terms of energy and quality .
Their role also needs to be strengthened in the decision-making process .
The report also illustrates the importance of there being a well-functioning infrastructure and the basic provision of certain services , for example broadband and childcare , not just in towns , but in rural areas , too .
I invite you to take these figures into consideration when assessing the huge contribution women in many local communities make to development , which often follows a disproportionately low participation in decision-making processes .
The key to achieving these aims will be to include women of all generations in decision-making processes .
They have a much higher risk-absorbing capacity than private actors , since they do not have to pay taxes and make profit , and hence have more lee-way to break even on an extended credit than private banks .
They have a much higher risk-absorbing capacity than private actors , since they do not have to pay taxes and make a profit , and hence have more leeway than private banks to break even , even on an extended credit .
I am therefore in favour of the request for an instrument of criminal law which would define violence against women as a crime in itself , through the development of a directive against gender-based violence , to be brought in line with the multiple training , prevention and awareness-raising initiatives in order to fight all forms of abuse against women .
A second weakness in the communication is that it deals with the issue of non-discrimination as a cross-cutting theme in each of the four areas .
I am therefore very pleased that we have now been able to reach an agreement between the Group of the Greens / European Free Alliance , the S & D Group and the rapporteur to vote for the most important parts of our amendment , which will mean that we will now have a genuinely transparent decision-making process with regard to this House of European History .
In any case , one figure seems clear and confirms a long-running trend .
There is of course one question - a long-standing question - as to whether humanitarian aid reaches the real recipients and transparency plays a very important role here .
We plan to take this forward as a cross-cutting forum on all maritime-related activities , cooperation and funding in the region .
The risk is exacerbated by the conflict between the eligibility criteria and the usual cost-accounting practices of certain beneficiaries , in particular the requirement for beneficiaries to allocate personnel and indirect costs to projects while deducting various items considered ineligible for EU co-financing .
Either they do not obtain a loan to ensure the co-financing part , or the red tape is too much of a burden for them .
We designed an e-learning platform specifically targeted at SMEs .
I therefore welcome the forward-looking tone of the report and look forward to discussing its content tonight and in the future as well .
on behalf of the GUE / NGL Group . - ( DE ) Mr President , Mr Šefčovič , ladies and gentlemen , I can only welcome the fact that the European Parliament is taking a serious-minded and practical approach to the issue of the democratisation of European decision-making processes .
The interlocking European and national decision-making levels and the relations between the political parties could have been addressed more clearly as a common factor that is transparent and open to influence .
It is particularly important for the formation of political parties ' internal management bodies to be based on transparent principles , in order to ensure the democratic election of all party bodies and democratic decision-making processes .
The policies being applied are angering and disappointing our citizens and the decision-making procedures discourage their participation , as the recent European elections demonstrated .
( EL ) Mr President , the core issue raised by the report in connection with the funding of European parties and the policies to found them is the creation of a single statute for European parties in accordance with Euro-unifying legislation .
For this reason , we propose the inclusion of the possibility of increasing the EU co-financing rates provided for in the area of the collection , management and use of scientific data , both basic and supplementary , on the status of fish stocks .
Also , with regard to control activities , we propose a similar increase in the maximum possible EU co-financing rate , while maintaining the Commission prerogatives already in place regarding the possibility of financing some actions at higher rates .
I would like to underline that the measures proposed by the Commission address a long-standing request from Greenland .
The rapporteur has made every effort to convince his fellow Members of the need to increase the co-financing rate to a maximum of 75 % .
However , like the rapporteur , and given that one of the fundamental conditions of achieving sustainable fishing is ensuring up-to-date , accurate knowledge of fish stocks , I regret that it has not been possible to raise the co-financing rates as regards data collection , management and use .
I particularly thank Mr Harbour for the generous , forward-thinking attitude that he has stamped on the committee 's work throughout the last four months .
I would also like to thank Commissioner Barnier for an excellent and very broad-ranging presentation of the European Commission 's proposals in response to our reports .
The internal market was never intended to create all-embracing equality in Europe .
One minute , we hear of a profusion of penny-pinching measures , the next of difficulties in competing for public procurement , and , now and again , this is something we heard in this House just now , doubts about the very usefulness of Europe .
I abstained on the amendments because it would have involved endorsing existing EU law and a nit-picking exercise to decide which bits were worse than others .
I believe that in general , the EU Solidarity Fund should be mobilised as swiftly as possible following a natural catastrophe , and that applications for financial assistance should be dealt with in an effective and fast-acting manner , so that it is possible to provide urgent financial assistance to countries that have suffered natural disasters .
The EUSF is an important instrument for helping to remedy the almost always considerable and often long-lasting impact of disasters on people , the environment and the economy .
The EUSF is an important instrument for helping to remedy the almost always considerable and often long-lasting impact of disasters on people , the environment and the economy .
I believe that in general , the EU Solidarity Fund should be mobilised as swiftly as possible following a natural catastrophe , and that applications for financial assistance should be dealt with in an effective and fast-acting manner , so that it is possible to provide urgent financial assistance to countries that have suffered natural catastrophes .
To vote on the amendments would have entailed endorsing existing EU legislation ( which we don 't want either ) and a nit-picking exercise in order to decide which bits were worse than others .
As such , it is important that statistics for developing more effective tourism policies at European , national , regional and local level be as reliable as possible , since they are instruments for supporting the decision-making process in companies and in the private sector .
This report , which deserved my support , recognises the important role of statistics for developing better tourism policies at European , national , regional and local level , since they represent useful instruments for supporting the decision-making process .
In my region , which is home to the German-speaking community in Belgium , tourism is not only an important area of competence , but also a crucial economic factor .
Indeed , they are a useful instrument for supporting the decision-making process in businesses and the private sector .
As much as I share the objective of creating a place where the public can learn about the major phases of European integration since the end of the Second World War , I am nonetheless surprised by the relative approximation with which the necessary investments and provisional running costs are quantified and concerned about the opacity of certain decision-making procedures .
I share the rapporteur 's view that not all kinds of investments require the same high level of protection and that , for example , short-term speculative investments do not deserve the same level of protection as long-lasting investments .
Foreign direct investment ( FDI ) is defined as ' a long-lasting investment , representing at least 10 % of the affiliated company 's equity capital / shares and providing the investor with managerial control over the affiliated company 's operations ' .
In the definition given by the Court of Justice of the EU , foreign direct investment ( FDI ) means ' a long-lasting investment , representing at least 10 % of the affiliated company 's equity capital / shares and providing the investor with managerial control over the affiliated company 's operations ' .
The Treaty of Lisbon has introduced far-reaching changes to the area of common trade policy .
Secondly , the decision-making procedure has changed - the Council now makes decisions by qualified majority , while Parliament has gained the right of codecision .
The new powers given to the Union by the Treaty of Lisbon also indirectly affect the competences of the European Parliament , placing it on a par with the Council in the decision-making process in the area of foreign direct investments .
It is important that we have entered into such a wide-ranging discussion on the common , single European market , which has been operating for 20 years , but has not fully achieved its potential .
Above all , in order to ensure that the funding mechanism functions effectively , we must create favourable conditions for long-term investment in innovative and job-creating sectors .
In countries such as France which produce nuclear power , reducing its share is a precondition for any far-reaching decision .
The Treaty gives the European Union comprehensive legislative powers in the field of energy with only one far-reaching exception , which was included quite deliberately .
One example is Poland , a large and up-and-coming country which I very much respect .
This is a medieval-style dictatorship which uses western PR agencies to present its representatives as pseudo-modernising influences in glossy magazines .
The change is now continuing in Syria , Yemen and Bahrain , and the European Union must be present ; it must learn from what has gone before and take on the leadership of the international response , through far-reaching measures , Commissioner Füle , such as the well-defined European Neighbourhood Policy , and through concrete and immediate measures so that the population of these countries as well as the citizens of Europe know that there is no rift in the European Union 's commitment to freedom , dignity , democracy and human rights .
We - and especially the Greek MEPs - also want to resolve the long-standing issue of the name of this country .
As far as the European Union 's contribution is concerned , ECHO has already at this point envisaged EUR 30 million in humanitarian aid and , as I have also indicated in my introductory speech , a package will be prepared by the European Union in the near future which will provide the European Union 's support to the economic and institution-building goals of the legitimately elected President and government .
The clear perspective of membership helps to create a self-fulfilling prophecy , and if societies and those who govern these countries have the impression that full membership of the EU is an attainable goal , then it will certainly be more likely to be achieved .
The EIB was able to significantly increase its lending activity and , at the same time , to target the increase to the key growth-enhancing areas .
The infrastructure must be made into a well-functioning whole .
In other words , it left decision-making power solely with the Council , totally excluding Parliament .
First , I would like to assure the House that the Commission monitors the quantity of tomatoes imported from Morocco closely , attentively , using a cross-checking system based on designation of quantities imported by Moroccan operators and daily import records kept by national customs authorities .
Here , I have to say that the Commission , as I said , monitors tomato imports from Morocco using a cross-checking system .
Thirdly , the radical suggestions it contains require a national referendum , which , in my country , is to take place at the initiative of the left-wing parties .
I would therefore congratulate the Cape Verdean people , their government and their parties on this , as they have been able to take action in a responsible and respectable manner : this Portuguese-speaking country is today an example to be followed by the LDCs .
I would like to stress that economic reforms must go hand in hand with political reforms and that good governance can only be achieved through an open and transparent decision-making process based on democratic institutions .
The document that has been approved today highlights the clear need for additional support by the European Investment Bank ( EIB ) in areas strategic to the recovery of the European economy : small and medium-sized enterprises , midcaps and infrastructure and other key growth- and employment-enhancing projects as part of the Europe 2020 strategy .
Recent events should remind the world that the rights of the Tibetan people are constantly being violated and that the issue of Tibet is not a closed chapter , because the Tibetans will certainly continue to insist on respect for their independence , and they will do so with ever-increasing clamour .
Firstly , that as long as Robert Mugabe remained in power , protected by a small self-serving element in Zanu-PF and the security forces , pillaging the nation 's wealth for their own enrichment , there was little prospect of real change .
The MDC is supposed to be in a power-sharing coalition , but in the past few days , MDC Ministers and MPs , as well as human rights activists , have been beaten up and arrested .
Far-reaching reforms of the CFP are envisaged and , in light of that , and in a context of ever decreasing structural aid , many companies could need liquidity to restructure or adapt themselves with a view to 2013 .
Instead , they should be given the opportunity to redeploy their fisheries resources and to refocus their factors of production on energy-saving tools .
During recent years , they have also been faced with another huge problem - ever-rising oil prices .
In order to prevent this crisis becoming any worse , therefore , we need to take action regarding the fisheries sector 's problems ; swift and far-reaching action .
This is why I think that granting more public money to the fisheries sector in response to increased fuel prices would send the wrong signal during the reform of the common fisheries policy and would provide an incentive for vessel owners to use more powerful and more fuel-consuming engines .
Fifthly , the importance of an efficient inventory of spectrum use , which is an essential part of building an effective and forward-looking policy programme .
As you said yourself , it was clear from the start that a first-reading agreement was out of the question , but it is imperative that we reach an agreement by the end of the year .
Nevertheless , I believe that with the Parliament 's first-reading position , we will be able to take a big first step towards this goal .
Firstly , we need a well-functioning pro-competition telecommunications market at European level .
So instead of making proposals which do not achieve anything , we need to prepare a serious , wide-ranging offer of economic aid and cooperation , on a conditional basis .
Then , a wide-ranging aid programme would make sense ; wide-ranging and not limited to one or two branches of the economy .
This is a well-meaning measure and , of course , I fully accept that , but it is one we need to consider extremely carefully , given all the things that I have outlined in my brief speech .
We will therefore have to be alert to any new impact that a new and more far-reaching trade agreement may have on fragile sectors of the Indian economy .
Can I also welcome , Commissioner , this joint declaration made by you and the Indian Trade Minister , Anand Sharma , on 13 December 2010 stating unequivocally that nothing in the agreement would prevent the poorest from accessing life-saving medicines .
It is crucial to introduce a decision-making system which is effective and improves cooperation , and also to introduce measures to support training for individuals and organisations which will help the regions to develop .
For this reason , the European Parliament , as a codecision-making authority , as well as the public at large , must also be consulted .
This is a far-reaching debate .
Finally , I would like to add that we would be very open to finding a swift solution in the second reading - and we would be very grateful if this were possible - in other words , we would suggest that , rather than following the normal procedure of the second reading , we should try to find a so-called early second-reading agreement .
I refer , in particular , to the points relating to : firstly , the Commission 's discretionary powers to withdraw the authorisation to maintain existing agreements or to approve new negotiations to amend current or execute new agreements ; secondly , the provision to review the legal framework within five years ; and thirdly , the extremely time-consuming procedures for executing new agreements .
However , no one is entitled to take life-changing decisions without consulting the public .
From the point of view of climate change , ensuring the safety of forests is extremely important , as they are threatened more and more by natural disasters , especially such as fires or wide-ranging tree diseases .
The first is a long-running issue - an old favourite - that Parliament has been dealing with for a long time , and that is the national management declarations .
I hope that after the postponement of discharge it will be possible to reach a definitive and forward-looking agreement between the competent parliamentary committee , the European Parliament and the European Council on the issues related to the discharge of the Council .
We also urge greater efforts to decrease the frequency of refunding non-eligible expenditures , and we would like to draw the attention of the Commission to the need to accelerate decision-making processes relating to financial adjustments .
If we remind ourselves of the difficulties that accompanied the debates on the Council 's expenditure in 2007 and 2008 and the far-reaching concessions granted by Parliament in this respect , this year 's position is understandable .
If similar growth is recorded in the coming years , how will we cope with the financial crisis with our ever-increasing spending ?
The Agency is a reliable provider of independent environmental information for all Union institutions , the Member States and policy-making bodies .
Parliament specifically welcomes the Agency as a reliable provider of independent and assured environmental information for all Union institutions , the Member States and policy-making bodies .
However , I share the rapporteur 's concerns about the 27 % overstatement of the pre-financing costs to border authorities highlighted by the Court of Auditors and the advances made in excess .
The European Union is equipped with long-standing legislation protecting its waters , of which the most important part is the Water Framework Directive .
Therefore , I wish to emphasise the importance of the point proposed relating to the information-sharing mechanism , which must underpin this agreement .
Parties should cooperate to establish an information-sharing mechanism , preferably coordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organisation ( FAO ) , in conjunction with other relevant multilateral and intergovernmental initiatives , and to facilitate the exchange of information with existing databases relevant to the agreement .
A regulation providing for free-standing remedies that would allow interim measures to be ordered before , during and after the main proceedings will represent significant progress for European citizens in the fight against these dishonest debtors .
Both instruments should be free-standing remedies additional to those available under national law .
Among the intended cost-saving measures , it has been decided that an interpretation service will automatically be provided for meetings of working groups in six languages only ( French , German , English , Polish , Spanish and Italian ) , whilst other languages will only be made available if Members request them .
Wide-ranging duty exemptions must therefore be linked to an absolute obligation to respect human rights .
However , the vision that has prevailed in the end is a right-wing vision in which protection of private investors is given priority over these objectives based on the general interest .
I would like to express my thanks to Mr Busuttil and the shadow rapporteurs for their good cooperation and I very much hope , as I have just emphasised , that a first-reading agreement can be achieved by June 2011 , as was called for by the European Council in March .
However , current concerns from Member States are not reactionary , but instead the inevitable consequence of over 20 years of ever-changing circumstances in Europe and around the world .
We still have boatloads of fortune-seeking migrants reaching Lampedusa .
Unfortunately we have too many governments now which are playing to the extremist right-wing gallery .
If Europe is going to be even weaker , as right-wing governments desire , it will be increasingly tempting to ask ourselves whether remaining in Europe still makes sense , as the Italian Interior Minister , Mr Maroni , has done .
The communication mentions the pilot project for the resettlement of refugees in Malta , but it does not introduce the notion of a pilot project concerning relocation of unauthorised migrants or asylum seekers - and this despite the repeated calls for such a burden-sharing system from various Member States and Members of Parliament .
The right-wing populists are rapidly growing in numbers and represent a real danger for Europe .
I would call on the Danish Government not to allow itself to be dictated to by the right-wing populists .
I am not talking about the right-wing populists .
With all respect to the hard-working people in the Commission , I will reveal a secret to you .
Instead of stoking up right-wing populism , we should be working as Europeans to put the necessary legislation in place .
With the severe impact from the economic and financial crisis and from the repercussions of the Arab Spring with its far-reaching implications in terms of the requirements for controlling the flows of emigrants and access to oil resources , the EU is looking increasingly divided and likely to abandon one of its most valuable achievements - free movement in the Schengen area .
Therefore , I am absolutely convinced that the adoption of a common transparency register will represent a major further step forward in enhancing transparency in the EU decision-making process and providing a direct response to citizens ' concerns .
The register aims to give citizens more transparency as regards organisations and self-employed individuals engaged in EU policy-making or trying to influence the EU decision-making process .
It is another step in the right direction because openness and transparency are at the heart of the democratic decision-making process and we should be made aware of all of those who influence and sometimes have an undue influence on policy , procedures and outcomes .
on behalf of the ALDE Group . - Mr President , while the question of pursuing our energy strategy , with or without nuclear power , is now being debated in the Member States concerned , we should keep in mind that , whichever decision is taken , nuclear safety will remain a long-standing issue for several generations .
( PL ) Commissioner , from what you have said it appears that very far-reaching changes will be made to the common agricultural policy .
Firstly , the idea is to link research and innovation by bringing together all the relevant European Union instruments into a common strategic framework allowing for the introduction of genuinely cross-cutting strategies that cover the entire range of innovation systems , from research to technological development , demonstration and the market .
President-in-Office of the Council . - ( HU ) Mr President , Commissioner , Mr Manders , ladies and gentlemen , it is a great achievement that a second-reading agreement has been reached on the proposal concerning a regulation on the naming of textile fibres and the related labelling of textile products .
Some excited left-wing Members are suggesting that we agree on uniform sizing , while we do not know the origin of the goods worn by consumers .
This evening 's debate has certainly not been fruitless , because Mrs Győri clearly stated that the Council sets great store by the clause we are discussing - which is the key to today 's policy debate - and that it is ready to reach a forward-looking rather than a backward-looking agreement with the Commission and Parliament in order to provide our citizens with real answers .
Despite improving the perception of some Member States , all this did not succeed in re-establishing confidence within the European Union .
A total of EUR 427 billion in outstanding demands have now accumulated between the central banks in the accounts of the European Central Bank system and the TARGET2 payment transaction system ; this is because the system has intervened between the central banks in place of the non-functioning markets .
It is scandalous that European countries in the modern age are engaging in the kind of activity we saw in the Oscar-winning film Erin Brockovich , which featured Julia Roberts , and where we saw that only in California could something like this happen , with factories exporting toxic waste and people then falling seriously ill and even dying .
Europe is still effectively a bit player , at best a Tom Thumb in politics and geostrategy , despite the ever-increasing expectations of European public opinion .
Nevertheless , regime change in Damascus would definitely have far-reaching consequences for the entire region .
NATO , therefore , continues to be the only effective force , and the Left-wing voices in Parliament , expressed in writing in a minority opinion and demanding , among other things , the dissolution of NATO , are dangerous and frankly anarchistic .
If you do not mind me saying , you are like a hard-working ant , who achieves results little by little while the grasshoppers chirrup and laze around in the Member States .
Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy . - Mr President , I should like to thank honourable Members for what has been a full-ranging debate .
Israel 's initial response to the reconciliation , withholding Palestinian Authority ( P.A. ) taxes , is illegal and potentially catastrophic for peace , putting at risk the state-building efforts of Prime Minister Salem Fayyad .
It will leave time for more examination of the amendments that were adopted , and will allow Parliament and the Council time before the first-reading vote .
The fully legitimate demand for transparency , as reflected in the debate and the vote today , must , of necessity , be balanced so that we do not , with the best of intentions , destroy a well-functioning system .
This is a forward-looking draft report , and while it is not the finished article , it is undoubtedly a way of safeguarding the legitimacy of the activities and decisions of the European institutions .
The long-standing wishes of producers are focused on naming and labelling .
In a democratic system , which the EU aspires to , it is completely natural for there to be a high level of transparency in the decision-making process .
in writing . - The scope of the register covers all activities carried out with the objective of directly or indirectly influencing the policy formulation or implementation and decision-making processes of the European institutions .
The Council should also participate in the common register , which should be made mandatory and serve as a dynamic instrument in guaranteeing the transparency of the decision-making process .
The scope of the register covers many activities carried out with the objective of directly or indirectly influencing the policy formulation or implementation and decision-making processes of the European institutions .
Unfortunately , we know that there is sometimes a great difference between the nice-sounding words that are said and what is done .
The merging of the lists of lobbyists registered at the Parliament and the Commission represents a first step towards compiling an exhaustive register of the lobbies active in Brussels and , subsequently , towards greater citizen access to democratic checks and balances in the decision-making process .
Citizens must have easy and unimpeded access in the decision-making process to the influence and activity of interest representatives .
In addition , all in- and out-going post between EU institutions and lobbyists must be made public .
The banking crisis has also highlighted the collapse of the myth of the self-regulating market .
The final FTA should include a binding state-to-state dispute settlement mechanism , provisions on mediation regarding non-tariff barriers to trade ( NTBs ) , on anti-dumping measures and on compensation rights , and a general safeguard clause based on Articles XX and XXI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ( GATT ) .
Unsurprisingly , it could not hold out against the right-wing majority in Parliament , which is a shame .
I believe that we should speed up the process at the highest decision-making levels , which would result in closer trade relations between these two strategic partners .
The report takes a wide-ranging approach to the forestry issue , focusing on certain aspects which we believe to be important .
This report takes a wide-ranging approach to the forestry issue , focusing on certain aspects which we believe to be important .
The fact that we now have requested within this report legally binding sustainability criteria on energy-creating biomass is an important initiative .
Moreover , we must not forget that the European Parliament passed a resolution putting it at the vanguard of and seeking to legalise the war being waged against Libya by the EU , the USA and NATO , in order to plunder the wealth-producing sources of that country and control developments in the area as a whole , in the midst of serious imperialist infighting .
I would stress the need for women to be included in senior-level decision-making positions , regular consultations with civil society , and that capacity to work on gender issues within missions be enhanced .
Even if it did happen , it would necessarily be at the cost of governments ' decision-making freedom and of what national politicians regard as priorities .
We cannot demand something that involves a level of cost and bureaucracy that cannot be assumed by the food-producing sector , nor can we demand something that we are not capable of imposing upon third parties .
We hope that in future , you will put the people at the centre of your decision-making processes and not the market .
This is an issue we must address , and we must cultivate in Europe the risk-taking spirit that exists in the USA among the young generation of Americans .
These initiatives were created as the result of wide-ranging consultations with associations of small and medium-sized enterprises and the relevant authorities .
Accordingly , up-and-coming enterprises in the small and medium-sized business sector must be strongly incentivised .
Setting up a European capital risk fund and expanding the permanent risk-sharing products offered by the European Investment Bank through the Risk Sharing Financial Facility will also benefit SMEs .
It would share the loss more fairly between Greek taxpayers and external creditors ; stop the replacement of private debt by an ever-growing proportion of official debt coming from other countries ; offer Greece more growth opportunities by alleviating debt service ; make it much easier for Mrs Merkel to ' sell ' the default to the Bundestag , because it would mean supporting German banks rather than Greece ; and , finally , isolate the debt crisis from the competitiveness crisis and save the eurozone from contagion .
The main thrust of this report shows the need for a cross-cutting approach , promoting innovation in all areas of business , the economy and society in general .
Innovation may derive from research , but it can also be a wide-ranging ability to change things for the better in all areas of daily life .
This is the only way we will be able to achieve sustainable growth in Europe and resist the ever-growing pressure of globalisation .
Lastly , the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work and the Senior Labour Inspectors Committee have called for sector-wide information and awareness-raising campaigns on the protection of workers ' health and safety .
A year later , the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development , which I have the honour to chair , is here to ask the Commission to implement all relevant initiatives to resolve this long-standing problem , which can also have consequences for human health .
The future competitiveness of European animal husbandry may depend on how this problem is managed , and its cross-cutting nature calls for commitment and responsibility , through a coordinated approach and a shared political will .
I therefore call on the Commission not just to improve the monitoring mechanisms , but also to adopt the measures necessary for wider-ranging data collection , and for the series of incentives encouraging best practices in this area to be included in the common agricultural policy legislative package that is being drawn up .
A country like Denmark has shown that things can change and that , with sound , strict measures , you can maintain a strong and healthy cattle-breeding sector whilst using far fewer antibiotics .
The Commission has stated previously , and again this evening , that it will put forward more far-reaching measures in November .
There are various tools here : education , awareness-raising campaigns and so on .
Our EU budget should be used productively to develop the huge amount of creative energy around us into true wealth-creating businesses , providing sustainable jobs and a prosperous and rich future for our people in Wales and beyond .
We want to give outstanding and wide-ranging abilities to all our children , starting from the earliest years until they are in tertiary education .
Europe needs an ever-growing number of its school pupils and students to come into contact with a new social , educational and cultural model .
It contributes to a living and long-lasting democracy .
I very much agree with the call in the document for an all-embracing strategy to be submitted to the Commission , aimed at promoting non-formal education , and I would call for this document 's key recommendations to be directly linked to the multiannual financial framework .
I feel that it is vital for young people and the various youth organisations to be involved in the decision-making process .
In order for the EU 2020 ' Youth on the Move ' ( YoM ) flagship initiative to be successful , EU Institutions must create a pragmatic , comprehensive and wide-ranging policy supported by all Member States which focuses on connecting the areas of vocational education , professional qualifications , lifelong learning and apprenticeship to the labour market so as to ensure that each Member State will truly take ownership of the EU 's education system .
Early years education has far-reaching implications on children 's future development and their chances of success later on .
Amongst the most important aspects , we would stress : the need for a comprehensive and detailed evaluation of the reasons for the inadequate achievement of the objectives regarding development cooperation and the various lines of support for the fisheries sector in Mauritania ; the advocating of support for the fastest possible construction of adequate facilities for landing fish along Mauritania 's central and southern coastlines , including Nouakchott , so that fish caught in Mauritanian waters can be landed at national ports rather than outside the country , as is often the case at present ; and that fisheries agreements between the EU and third countries should be preceded by a wide-ranging debate in the countries concerned , allowing participation by the public , civil society organisations and national parliaments , thereby promoting greater democracy and transparency .
that fisheries agreements between the EU and third countries should be preceded by a wide-ranging debate in the countries concerned , allowing participation by the public , civil society organisations and national parliaments , thereby promoting greater democracy and transparency ;
A well-functioning procurement market is particularly important for fostering the integrity of the Single Market and stimulating innovation , and for achieving optimal value for public authorities and tax payers .
I voted in favour of this resolution , because a well-functioning procurement market is particularly important for fostering the Single Market and stimulating innovation .
Like the Audiovisual Media Services Directive , the Small Business Act Review does not learn the lessons of the Monti report for re-establishing citizens ' confidence in the European Union .
We are therefore faced with a truly cross-cutting issue requiring a coordinated approach at EU level that must seek to ensure that antimicrobials can remain an effective tool for combating disease , in both people and animals , must encourage prudent and responsible usage , and must limit any recourse to them to cases where it is strictly necessary .
It contributes to a lively and long-lasting democracy .
I support this report by my group colleague because it underlines the cross-cutting nature and the importance of culture in all aspects of life , and argues that culture needs to be taken into consideration in all EU external policies .
Instead , the EU has chosen an inward-looking language policy .
In view of the ever-increasing importance of CCIs , as well as the objective of strengthening this sector , which is of strategic importance for the achievement of the Europe 2020 goals , the Commission should draw up a White Paper which would unlock cultural and creative potential .
A united struggle of Sinhalese and Tamil people is still needed to defeat this regime and fight for the right of self-determination for the Tamil-speaking people .
It has to recover from a long-lasting crisis .
This indiscriminate violence caused deep psychological traumas for the victims , resulting in long-lasting fears , suppressed emotions , self-censorship and passiveness .
A first-reading agreement was reached with the Council on the basis that the introduction of the new modules proposed by the rapporteur would be subject to evaluation under the review clause so that , where appropriate , changes or improvements can be made to the quality of the data and the methods by which it is gathered .
In this respect , the risk-sharing finance facility is a real success , but it must take a more inclusive approach to SMEs and research infrastructure .
This initiative , the European Investment Bank 's risk-sharing finance facility , has worked exceedingly well .
The poor state of funding can be seen , inter alia , in the take-up of the risk-sharing finance facility ( RSFF ) .
( DE ) Madam President , we can be extremely pleased that our long-standing relations with Canada , one of our oldest and closest trading partners worldwide , have been defined by common roots and values .
As far as I am concerned , I believe that this agreement with a country with which we have a long-standing bond of friendship is important as long as it is entered into on the right basis , that of true reciprocity , and is a balanced and ambitious agreement .
Thirty per cent of Romania 's area is irrigated land , while the lack of water and prevalence of drought are creating problems similar to those of the other Member States , but without being able to provide support to farmers with this life-saving measure , in the event of this situation .
It should be based on a foundation model and the start-up financing should be provided by the finance sector by means of interest-bearing loans .
( SK ) Mr President , in the wake of the financial meltdown , the credit rating agencies , which assess financial product safety , were criticised for their unprofessional and self-serving ratings of financial products .
We will closely follow the discussions on implementation of the labour standards enshrined in the ILO Convention , and I would point out that the Commission welcomes the emphasis in today 's motion for a resolution on the need for the EU to promote the ILO core labour standards and the decent work agenda worldwide , including gender equality and non-discrimination policy as a cross-cutting issue .
At least 20 % of funding under the geographical programmes should go into these life-saving sectors of basic health and basic education .
There are now over 1 672 Shiga-toxin-producing E coli cases , and serious complications have developed in at least 661 people .
This is a long-standing subject that we now need to tackle more quickly because next time , it could be the case that the pathogen has to be treated with antibiotics but , because it is resistant , it is not possible to treat it .
Is it about intensive farming , hot-housing fruit and vegetables ?
Where is the genuine decision-making authority ?
Getting back to what we need to do : we need to establish a reporting obligation throughout Europe , define central laboratories and set up a central body within the European Union with the decision-making power in the event of an outbreak of such a disease .
After more than two weeks , the source of this life-threatening epidemic is still unclear .
In all the understandable panic , there must not , under any circumstances , be a witch-hunt , as that would drive many hard-working farmers throughout Europe to the wall .
In the United States , they have an early-warning system to that end .
In a well-functioning rule of law state , consumers have good reason to believe that the food that ends up on their tables and that they give to their children is safe to consume .
Although , at the moment , no precise figures are yet available on the extent of the losses in the European market-gardening sector following the E coli crisis , the economic damage caused to this sector will clearly not be negligible .
The transport policy of the Member States ' transport ministers consists of demanding a sustainable and forward-looking transport policy for the European Union every Sunday while doing everything under the sun during the week to actively prevent such a policy from being realised .
We could say that this is just a drop in the ocean , but I believe - and I am happy that this has been acknowledged by many during the debate - that we have made an extremely important first step towards internalising costs and re-circulating revenues into the sector , even if , as with every compromise , it is not the most perfect one , and I am certain that we will be able to take further steps in the following years .
The Council has already adopted its first-reading position on 14 February of this year , and we subsequently inserted a provision in the directive at the request of Parliament , to the effect that we will give a political signal to citizens concerning the environmental characteristics of heavy goods vehicles .
This exchange of data helps create a database for analysing the demand for drugs and secondary drug-trafficking activities , which is vital for publishing proper , objective information that can be compared at a European level .
EGNOS and Galileo can make an important contribution to road traffic management and an awareness-raising campaign in that sector is required in order to increase the use of the opportunities it provides in relation to fee collection , eCall , online booking of safe parking sites for trucks , and real-time tracking to contribute to safer and more environmentally friendly road transport .
The Treaty of Lisbon introduces new parliamentary competences , thereby granting the European Parliament greater decision-making powers , along with responsibility for ensuring the smooth flow of business , providing information and guaranteeing citizens ' safety .
Comprehensive agreements with neighbouring countries or significant global partners can provide substantial benefits by offering European passengers and freight operators improved services - in terms of both variety and cost - while giving airlines new profit-making opportunities .
in writing . - I voted against this amendment as it is imperative that the Commission is not permitted to establish revenue-raising capabilities , even via an indirect charge , particularly without the unanimous assent of the Council .
If a sustainable development policy is to have the desired effect , there needs to be enough information available for the decision-making process to facilitate the adoption of considered solutions .
My curiosity is still somewhat unsated on this issue and I would like to ask you if you would be prepared to tell us , in general terms , about these further negotiations concerning the Internet , as this is an important and far-reaching measure for the future .
Indeed , I want to ask Mr Piebalgs in his reply to explain what the EU is doing to combat continuing and deteriorating human rights violations , in particular , concerning human rights defenders such as Hawa Abdulla from the AU-UN peace-keeping mission , who has been subject to arbitrary detention and beaten .
This infighting is responsible for the risk of a new , even bloodier war , now that NATO , the USA and the European Union are directly involved , which is what the Euro-unifying forces seem to be seeking after the war in Libya .
We find it unacceptable that several Member States have suggested , in the Council , changing the legal bases for the proposal so as to exclude Parliament from the decision-making process .
This is a time-consuming process .
He would have noticed that economies are stagnating , jobs are being lost and industries struggling to compete in a fast-changing world .
Mr President , it is always interesting to see that , as soon as we start talking about a forward-looking budget , the debate is only ever about ' how much exactly ? ' .
Secondly , yes , Mr Ashworth , the budget should be renewed and made greener , it should be a forward-looking budget .
However , a forward-looking budget also means shifts in priorities and still more European money .
MEPs with a fresh , freedom-loving vision should throw this report straight in the bin .
Our citizens see this House as a money-devouring machine asking for more and more money .
It is completely understandable that our citizens should lose their personal orientation against the background of the impact of the structural crisis and the ever-increasing demands of globalisation , inevitably leading them to question the European project as a whole .
However , as we all know , good results require not just hard-working Members , but also excellent staff .
We are also throwing lots of ingredients and fine-sounding commitments and recommendations into the pot , but we are not at all sure that they will go well together .
Taking an ultra-liberal approach , the majority of Heads of State or Government in the Council are choosing to keep slashing budgets wildly and are willing to sacrifice investment in key forward-looking policies such as those funded by the European budget .
I think this is certainly a far-reaching proposal ; it is an ambitious proposal and requires important decisions to be made in the Member States , and we would ask them to rise to the challenge it entails .
A financial transaction tax could deal with two problems at once - how to finance ever-growing demands to put new EU policies in place , and how to make the financial sector contribute to the resolution of the economic crisis that it helped to cause .
The tax shortfalls of self-governing regions exceed 20 % of the budget , compared to the period before the crisis , which is unsustainable .
In a period when many Member States are suffering from the ' Mediterranean dilemma ' , whereby the country needs fiscal expansion in order to stimulate growth , but it cannot be done because never-ending austerity measures would be inevitable due to the country 's indebtedness , we cannot respond by decreasing or approving the current EU budget that is fundamentally aimed at development .
What a change in comparison to the era when Europe was scattered with border posts where checks - nit-picking ones at times - were the norm , not to mention the impossibility for citizens in the East to cross the iron curtain without risking their lives !
It has also addressed solid and far-reaching suggestions for the EU in various areas on the international level , such as engaging with the EU 's strategic partners within the UN system , ensuring the important role of the EEAS , enhancing peace , security and justice , and combating climate change .
I voted in favour of the report by Mr Lambsdorff because I consider that the challenges facing the EU , in a fast-changing world , require coordinated action at global level .
Specifically , I do not support Mr Audy 's call to increase funding for the European Research Council , as well as making it an independent legal entity with decision-making power which would be directly responsible for its own scientific strategy and administrative management .
Yet to achieve bigger and better results in the future , we need to simplify the administrative process , improve the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises , support innovation and adopt risk-sharing finance facilities .
It includes far-reaching chapters on Services , Procurement , Investment Protection , Intellectual Property and Regulatory Cooperation .
The aim of the ongoing negotiations on a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement ( CETA ) is the conclusion of a very wide-ranging agreement , with more ambitious goals than any of the economic and trade agreements negotiated to date by either the EU or Canada .
In a competitive and well-functioning market , the reputation of an agency is enough to ensure the quality of its ratings .
Because of the far-reaching consequences of ratings , intensive interaction with this sector is unavoidable .
Through the report adopted today , the European Union has committed itself to taking a world-leading role on social policy by promoting its objectives on a global scale , thereby underlining the importance of the role attributed to Parliament by the Treaty of Lisbon .
I agree that in order to fully realise the EU 2020 flagship initiative ' An Agenda for new skills and jobs ' , the EU institutions should embark on a more pragmatic , comprehensive and wide-ranging initiative supported by all Member States which should focus on connecting the areas of vocational education , professional qualifications , lifelong learning , apprenticeships and the labour market .
It also emphasises the importance , at local and regional level , of fostering effective cooperation between schools , training agencies , research centres and firms , in order to overcome the inward-looking nature of education systems and the mismatch between knowledge and skills and the needs of the labour market .
There is ever-increasing emphasis on a clear , results-orientated learning approach .
Furthermore , due to the constant technological changes , employers have ever-increasing expectations with regard to employees ' qualifications .
Account is taken of specific challenges such as : the demand for ever-increasing qualifications by the labour market , which puts low-skilled jobs at risk , the spiralling increase in youth unemployment , which is over 30 % in certain EU Member States , including Greece , and the failure on the part of the Member States to take adequate measures to achieve the targets set in the EU 2020 strategy ( for example , to reduce the percentage of early school leavers to 10 % and to increase the percentage of young people with a university education to 40 % ) .
I would stress the need for the following broad areas to be promoted : adequate funding within the available resources ; the effect of poverty eradication and Official Development Assistance ( ODA ) criteria ; geographic and thematic programmes ; procedures for programming EU aid , with better coordination and division of labour ; and bridging the democracy gap , with Parliament being called on to take part in the decision-making process .
However , they can in no way be a substitute for political debate and the legislator 's democratic and legitimate decision-making process .
I am voting for this initiative , which acknowledges that IAs have a key role in aiding the decision-making process .
Although they are in no way a substitute for political discussion or the democratic and legitimate decision-making process followed by law makers , and serve only to prepare the ground for political decisions , they draw the attention of law makers to the potential effects of their policies from the perspective of specialised content and help them to take decisions .
However , IAs can in no way be a substitute for political debate and the legislator 's democratic and legitimate decision-making process .
First of all , it underlines that impact assessment can never be a substitute for political debate and the legislator 's decision-making process , but should only help the technical preparation of political decisions .
This would certainly improve the decision-making process .
However , they can in no way be a substitute for political debate and the legislator 's democratically legitimate decision-making process .
However , they can in no way be a substitute for political debate and the legislator 's democratic decision-making process , merely enabling the technical preparation of a political decision .
With regard to the above , and in view of the fact that impact assessments can in no way be a substitute for political debate and the legislator 's democratically legitimated decision-making process , but merely permit the technical , substantive preparation of a political decision , I voted in favour of the motion .
However , they can in no way be a substitute for political debate and the legislator 's democratically legitimated decision-making process .
The independence of impact assessments ( IAs ) needs to be guaranteed , above all , because of their importance in the decision-making process .
It is , therefore , crucial to adopt any measures that might strengthen the guarantees that IAs will be transparent and independent , since that will help maximise this instrument 's role as an aid to the decision-making process , and as a guarantee of the quality and suitability of the EU institutions ' activities .
Impact assessment can only be an aid for making political decisions and should never replace political decisions within the democratic decision-making process .
However , they can in no way be a substitute for the legislator 's democratically legitimated decision-making process .
The most obvious obstacles which consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises face with regard to the Single Market are complex contractual relations , unfair terms and conditions in contracts , inadequate and insufficient information , time-consuming procedures , language barriers , different taxation systems , reliability of online traders , demographic composition of the population of individual Member States , concerns regarding confidentiality , complaint handling and intellectual property rights .
In 2008 , the EU decided to create its own satellite navigation system ( Regulation ( EC ) No 683 / 2008 ) , Galileo and the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service ( EGNOS ) , with the objective of ensuring Europe 's independence and autonomy , raising its market share and putting the industry in a position to be competitive in a strategic and fast-growing market .
While these Members bring Europe down to the common denominator of their contributions , which they would like to see fall , and of its financial returns , which they would like to see increase , this report argues for strong , integrated community policies , both in terms of long-standing policies and in terms of the new competences entrusted under the Treaty of Lisbon .
The proposals contained in this text are unrealistic and are nearer to mind-numbing mantras ; waste and bureaucracy still have a bright future ahead of them .
In my opinion , a better system ensuring fairness , transparency and sufficient budgetary revenues would make it possible for the budgetary decision-making process to focus more on the key priorities of the Union .
This will have to be financed by the net contributors , in other words , the hard-working citizens of Germany , France , Italy , the Netherlands and Austria , from their national budgets ; the first painful cuts are already being felt in these countries .
Productivity-enhancing policies , particularly those in green energy and research and development , must be recognised as the driver of the EU 's economic future .
The information from the current financial framework illustrates that , instead of being used to satisfy grassroots needs , the funds available under the euro-unifying budget are being directed against them , in order to support the profitability of the monopoly groups .
It calls for the money of the workers of the Member States which finances the EU budget to be used to promote capitalist restructurings , to sweep away labour rights , to support the profitability of euro-unifying monopolies , to consolidate the mechanisms of the ' memoranda ' and secure lenders in the debtor Member States and to support repressive mechanisms and imperialist interference by the EU .
Do you find it compatible with the prohibition of discrimination based on birth that the European Union has Member States , such as Spain , Belgium or Sweden , where citizens are entitled to hold high-ranking state positions , for instance that of the monarch , based on their birth ?
The ruling Fidesz party has introduced into the constitution versions of texts through which Hungary usurps the right to decide on the status , rights and political organisation of all Hungarian-speaking citizens in surrounding states .
I hope that the representatives of the European institutions will listen carefully and monitor the situation in Hungary , and that they will make an uncompromising statement very soon on the undermining of the borders and the Paris Peace Treaty , and on a Hungarian constitution which enshrines support for the collective rights of Hungarian minorities and the creation of collective self-governing areas .
The question raised by Ms Guillaume concerns an awareness-raising campaign on the work-life balance , which was supported by the Progress programme .
Finally , we should also use the summit to reconfirm our political commitment to make progress on crisis management cooperation - provided our decision-making autonomy is in no way affected .
As already happens to some extent , Moscow can supply us with mineral and energy resources as well as collaborate on military security and the fight against terrorism and organised crime Europe can contribute with financial resources , scientific and technological capabilities and our long-standing experience in the field of democracy and human rights .
We went on a local fact-finding mission - Mrs Lichtenberger accompanied me - and the impression that the European Union can act as some kind of supreme court of appeal is entirely misplaced .
In my constituency in Scotland , it is the elderly and people who run bed-and-breakfast establishments or self-catering holiday cottages that fall foul of this criminal activity .
If the tests should ever give negative results for particular installations , then these tests should have a binding effect on Member States , which would then have no choice but to close those non-functioning installations .
I welcome the extension of the UN Mission in Sudan and the deployment of additional peace-keeping forces because it is now particularly important to ensure the peaceful development of Sudan and South Sudan .
I voted in favour of the joint motion for a resolution on Sudan and South Sudan because I support all development efforts being made by the EU in order to restore peace and reconstruct this long-suffering area .
On the whole , the misleading trading practices in question consist of inviting companies , professional individuals and non-profit-making organisations to register free of charge in a business directory .
This irony cannot be lost on the long-suffering people of Madagascar , many of whom live in abject poverty .
Beyond that , we are now seeing an apparently never-ending power struggle being played out .
Finally , that is also the reason why we call on the Ukrainian authorities to avoid any perception of judicial measures being used selectively and insist that the maximum transparency of investigations , persecutions and trials be guaranteed ; we also call on the Commission to assist in the reform of the judiciary in Ukraine by making use of EU capacity-building programmes and to consider creating a high-level EU advisory group for Ukraine to assist the country in its efforts to align itself with EU legislation , including on the judiciary .
However , Ukraine must implement the necessary far-reaching reforms , in particular , of the judicial system , the electoral system and the constitution , in order to be able to enjoy the opportunities which this agreement can offer with regard to association and economic integration with the EU .
It brings together in one policy cycle the two arms of economic recovery : financial stability that is based on fiscal consolidation , reflected in stability and convergence programmes , and structural reforms for a smart , sustainable , socially-inclusive and job-creating growth .
We were rightly made to prove ourselves , to prove that we met the Copenhagen criteria , to prove that we enjoyed fully-functioning market economies and so on and so forth , but unfortunately this level of scrutiny was not applied to some European countries when entering the euro zone .
It is not only left-leaning economists - in its economics section yesterday , for example , Le Monde , which is not a left-leaning newspaper , made it quite clear : austerity on the one hand - yes , we need certain restrictions - but we also need growth and investment .
It is not only left-leaning economists - in its economics section yesterday , for example , Le Monde , which is not a left-leaning newspaper , made it quite clear : austerity on the one hand - yes , we need certain restrictions - but we also need growth and investment .
( PL ) Mr President , it has given me great satisfaction during today 's debate to see the two camps which have emerged in respect of the reasons behind this state of affairs and the recommendations ; the neo-liberals on one side , and the left-wing Members on the other .
In this context , I would like to draw the House 's attention to the ever-increasing number of people talking about the reintroduction of border checks .
With an ever-changing situation , there were also more and more reforms .
For the first time we are going to have a responsibility , a say , and be part of the final decision-making process .
Well-functioning farming structures would be dramatically affected by cuts in the second pillar .
Further financial assistance is needed in the future as well to help new Member States close the gap and ensure that they can access rural development aid with better co-financing conditions post-2013 , as well .
That is the best way that we can respond to the serious , all-encompassing challenges faced by agriculture in its present form in the 2000s .
It is because we have found that if we do not have an adequate automatic decision-making system in the Council , the necessary decisions do not get taken .
The first time a promise is broken , the country will be forced to pay an interest-bearing deposit , as we have called it .
We have to realise that the shock would have long-lasting effects unless we eliminate the core roots of the crisis .
Secondly , turning to the issue relating to a more stringent and automatic application of the procedures , let me mention the following : an additional sanction , an interest-bearing deposit for Member States in the excessive imbalance procedure , would be introduced .
You have achieved the opportunity for detailed discussion of country-specific situations at every key decision-making stage of the policy cycle , including confirmation of Parliament 's right to initiate dialogue with individual Member States .
According to the Treaty , taking into consideration objectives concerned with promoting a high level of employment , guaranteeing adequate social welfare and combating social exclusion is a cross-cutting aim that applies to this economic governance package also .
In our view , your approach and that of the right-wing majority in the Council pose the biggest threat to the very future of the European idea because they are destroying the notion of belonging to a community , the notions of solidarity and cohesion .
This was a right-wing government which for two terms of office disguised the figures with the help of Goldman Sachs Bank .
Today , a left-wing government is trying to get things back into shape .
Second example : in my country , Belgium , under a government with left-wing participation led by our fellow Member Mr Dehaene , in 12 years we reduced our debt from 130 % of GDP to 80 % .
From a strictly political point of view , I am disappointed that the left-wing Members continue to reject the principles of good budget management , against all the evidence .
It is unreasonable to expect the same hard-working countries always to pay for the mistakes of others .
in writing . - ( BG ) The lack of suitable instruments for diagnosing public finance problems early , along with the poorly operating mechanisms of the Stability and Growth Pact , are among the basic causes of the long-running crisis which the euro area and EU are going through .
Adopting the economic governance package will entail close coordination , fiscal discipline , economic supervision , effective decision-making rules , powerful European institutions , thereby underpinning the EU 's resurgence .
Long-lived high-level radioactive isotopes generated by nuclear plants are basically non-hazardous : they could be transmuted into short-lived low level isotopes , while enabling the facility to function as an electricity-producing power plant .
It is important for the national programmes to be clear on the decision-making process .
The issue is that during the last elections to the Latvian parliament , members of the Saskaņas centrs ( Harmony Centre ) group promised their Russian-speaking constituents , who in Latvia comprise more than 40 % of the population , that they would protect their native language .
I would therefore like to repeat my warning about the problematic wording of the Hungarian constitution , particularly in the formulation of Section D , which talks about the responsibility of Hungary for all Hungarians , about a single Hungarian nation , about collective rights and about the creation of collective self-governing authorities in other countries , based on the principle of ethnicity .
I would like to thank Parliament , all its Members and the rapporteur for this significant and far-reaching report .
You are calling on the Commission to make more far-reaching proposals in individual areas .
We would also ask the Council to stop thinking like an accountant and put on its politician 's hat for once , and not to do its calculations by trying to work out how to cut back on payments , because we could end up in the Court of Justice given that , as you have reminded us Commissioner Lewandowski , the payments are legal obligations deriving from pre-existing commitments .
However , what we in the Committee on Regional Development are calling for is for this single framework and coordination not to be confined to the policy planning stage but to be extended to cover all policy-making stages : planning , implementation and payments , auditing and evaluation .
However , in order to avoid pollution , traffic jams and time-consuming journeys , we need to find new arrangements , such as free park-and-ride schemes combined with flexible monthly cards for several modes of transport , such as bicycles , motorcycles , car sharing , metros , electric buses , underground rail systems , etc .
I therefore ask for the adjournment in order that we can conclude this or leave the door open to concluding it , with a first-reading agreement in July .
( DE ) Madam President , ladies and gentlemen , there is no doubt that the European Parliament is a very hard-working body , however we need to pay more attention to a balance in the voting times , so that we do not have a situation where there is nothing to vote on one day and an enormous number of votes the next .
That is why we need a clear decision-making process .
I voted in favour of Mrs Ţicău 's report as Canada should be seen as a priority partner for agreements of this kind , given that both Europe and Canada have world-leading aircraft manufacturers .
The report also underlines that one of the weaknesses of the Lisbon Strategy was the lack of well-functioning multi-level governance and the insufficient involvement of regional , local authorities and civil society in the design , implementation , communication and evaluation stages of the strategy .
The development objectives of a European Agenda should therefore be aimed at : improving social cohesion in urban areas , including but not only through economic progress ; implementing a well-coordinated policy at both European and local level which involves local elected authorities in the strategic decision-making process ; finding funds and providing incentives for investments to run new projects instead of creating projects in order to gain financial assistance .
Overall , this report marks an important step in the direction of securing the future of cross-border policy in the EU and will make it possible for the German-speaking community in Belgium , as a border area , to further strengthen and improve its partnership with the border regions .
However , in order to realise these objectives , territorial cooperation programmes will have to be simplified , and local authorities and the public will need to be more involved by encouraging better communication through a large-scale media and awareness-raising campaign .
I find it deplorable , however , that the involvement of local and regional powers in the decision-making process is not being viewed as a priority .
Greater flexibility of the funds , the simplification of their administration and strategic coordination between instruments , policies and actors is a long-standing demand and a necessary tool for the social inclusion of marginalized groups within a complex policy framework of integrated policies , making use of all the EU financial resources available under the EU funds , and in particular under the ERDF , ESF and EAFRD .
It is outrageous that the same hard-working countries should again and again be required to pay for the mistakes of others .
It is sensible to have this type of wide-ranging coordination , based on a scoreboard of various indicators that identifies imbalances at an early stage .
Regulations that do not provide sufficient scope for forward-looking investments and sound growth cannot be sustainable in the long term .
in writing . - ( LT ) I welcomed this document , because in the preventive part of the Stability and Growth Pact , the adjustment and adherence to the medium-term budgetary objective should be ensured through an obligation to lodge an interest-bearing deposit temporarily imposed on a Member State whose currency is the euro that is making insufficient progress with budgetary consolidation .
The interest-bearing deposit imposed should be released to the Member State concerned together with the interest accrued on it once the Council has been satisfied that the situation giving rise to the obligation to lodge that deposit has come to an end .
The non-interest-bearing deposit should be released upon correction of the excessive deficit while the interest on such deposits and the fines collected should be assigned to stability mechanisms to provide financial assistance , created by Member States whose currency is the euro in order to safeguard the stability of the euro area as a whole .
The system of sanctions proposed will ensure graduation and equal treatment between Member States , because the interest-bearing deposit , the non-interest-bearing deposit and the size of the fine will all be composed of a fixed component that equals 0.2 % of GDP .
The system of sanctions proposed will ensure graduation and equal treatment between Member States , because the interest-bearing deposit , the non-interest-bearing deposit and the size of the fine will all be composed of a fixed component that equals 0.2 % of GDP .
This report provides for the Member States to lodge interest-bearing deposits or pay fines , as part of the preventive and corrective parts of the Stability and Growth Pact .
In order to be able to come up with an all-embracing agreement before the summer recess , it is important to give the negotiations with the Council over the coming weeks every chance and not send out any political signals that could jeopardise a positive end result .
in writing . - The economic governance package approved by a right-wing majority in the European Parliament will risk entrenching austerity in EU law .
Right-wing governments are trying to push through a number of economic policies that cut deficits in the short term but provide no hope for economic growth in countries in the long term .
in writing . - ( LT ) I welcomed this document , because enforcement of the Regulation on macroeconomic imbalances in the euro area should be strengthened by establishing interest-bearing deposits , if a Member State has failed to comply with the recommendations and has not taken the corrective action recommended by the Council , which are converted into a yearly fine in cases of repetitive non-compliance with the recommendations to address excessive macroeconomic imbalances .
In order to ensure equal treatment between Member States , the interest-bearing deposit and the fine should be identical for all Member States whose currency is the euro and equal to 0.1 % of the gross domestic product ( GDP ) of the Member State concerned in the preceding year .
Consequently interest-bearing deposits must be applied to a Member State if it fails to comply with recommendations and does not carry out the corrective actions proposed by the Council .
In cases of repetitive non-compliance with the recommendations , the interest-bearing deposits are converted into a yearly fine .
I agree with the proposal that the interest-bearing deposit and the fine should be identical for Member States whose currency is the euro , in order to ensure equal treatment for all Member States .
The points to be further developed are : a stronger focus on prevention of unsustainable fiscal and macroeconomic policies ; the need for national reform programmes and stability and convergence programmes to be duly dealt with at national level before submission to EU-level surveillance ; a stronger and more independent role for the Commission in the surveillance procedure ; more independence for the Commission in relation to the Council concerning compliance with EU rules ; the need for the decision-making procedure based on reversed qualified majority voting in the Council to be introduced in both the preventive and the corrective parts of the framework ; enhanced transparency and accountability , in order to strengthen peer support and peer pressure ; a more independent role for the Commission in the decision-making procedure but also greater accountability on the part of the Commission ; and lastly , the need for Parliament to have a stronger role in the surveillance process , but not an executive role .
The points to be further developed are : a stronger focus on prevention of unsustainable fiscal and macroeconomic policies ; the need for national reform programmes and stability and convergence programmes to be duly dealt with at national level before submission to EU-level surveillance ; a stronger and more independent role for the Commission in the surveillance procedure ; more independence for the Commission in relation to the Council concerning compliance with EU rules ; the need for the decision-making procedure based on reversed qualified majority voting in the Council to be introduced in both the preventive and the corrective parts of the framework ; enhanced transparency and accountability , in order to strengthen peer support and peer pressure ; a more independent role for the Commission in the decision-making procedure but also greater accountability on the part of the Commission ; and lastly , the need for Parliament to have a stronger role in the surveillance process , but not an executive role .
The measures available range from interest-bearing deposits to the charging of fines , and so slot perfectly into the punitive philosophy of the package as a whole , with which I disagree .
It is regrettable that the ' no ' stance of the left-wing groups and Mrs Pietikäinen is due purely to matters of principle and completely ignores the risk that would be run if these exemptions were rejected : our factories would close down and jobs would be lost as a result .
The final compromise reached following the trialogues has resulted in a first-reading agreement for a 40 % exemption for tractors and a 37.5 % exemption for non-road mobile machinery .
In view of the controversies which are aroused by nuclear energy today and the fact that the EU institutional system has changed since the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon , I think the European Parliament should be included in the decision-making process in the area of nuclear energy .
I think this happened to the detriment of the transparency of the decision-making process for nuclear energy - a matter which is so important for the EU 's citizens .
The Commission 's proposal was well received since it was drawn up following principles already existing at international level , basing its proposals on the approaches already adopted in the most advanced Member States and providing a framework for a more responsible management , including : ( i ) a national framework based on a clear distribution of duties and responsibilities among those involved , ( ii ) a national programme ensuring milestones , timeframes and clarity of the decision-making process on radioactive waste , and ( iii ) balanced rules on transparency and information , oversight and control .
They must ensure that information on the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste is made available to the relevant local and regional authorities , workers and the general public , and that these parties are effectively involved in the relevant decision-making process .
It is outrageous that the same hard-working countries should again and again be required to pay for the mistakes of others .
I advocate that an end should be put to the dumping of Europe 's overproduction on the markets of the South because this market-disrupting practice devastates local producers there .
Mr President , allow me also to say that in the Commission 's proposal the supporting limits and guidelines for all of the actions and measures are determined on the basis of economic efficiency and energy-saving potential .
After all , we all know what this is really about : energy certificates for buildings , lower heating costs , air-conditioning , encouraging third-party financing of energy-saving investment in the public sector , insulation of new buildings , regular inspections of boilers , energy estimates in undertakings with high energy consumption .
I warmly commend this report and I very much hope that this will be taken on board so that we can not only assist the Eastern European countries , which , of course , we are already doing , but make a major contribution to combating the global-warming effect by assistance to the Third World .
I must point out the importance of co-ordinating co-operation with African countries which have particular and pressing problems , in particular in terms of training decision-makers in the energy sector and transferring techniques , experience and information .
Mr Bangemann , we were at the EMEA conference in London together , and I assume that you , as a forward-thinking consumer protector , will also support these demands .
At the international level , the pharmaceutical sector is going through a period of upheaval , caught between the globalization of competition and cost-cutting measures applied to public health systems .
I agree that specialized treatment programmes for patients are needed to deal with Ecstasy but also with heroin use , whether people inject or they smoke ; and finally , intensified Gárdai action at known drug-dealing locations is needed .
I ask the Commission to bring forward further programmes along these lines to tackle this life-threatening problem that faces all of Europe .
High-sounding words about the need for energy efficiency and CO2 reduction are being bandied about , but nothing is being done !
However , to keep it intact , we need to introduce the far-reaching reforms set out in the opinion put forward by the Commission on 28 February .
As a budget expert , I should like to add that the Committee on Budgets , as Barry Wynn pointed out , will contribute to a wide-ranging discussion of this matter .
That said , of course , we have to acknowledge that there are major difficulties which need to be addressed in the years to come , particularly in agriculture and the Regional Fund and in the decision-making structure .
Despite the fact that the resolution focuses on promoting employment and citizens ' rights , which we of course support , we , the undersigned Members , cannot vote for the resolution , partly on account of its express support for ' a common foreign and security policy worthy of its position in the world ' , which in plain English probably means a common defence and the incorporation of the WEU in the Union , and partly because the resolution supports the idea of the Union having greater powers through ' more effective ' decision-making procedures and of more legal and home affairs issues being incorporated in Community law .
Furthermore , it assumes that these countries should cooperate in the institutional development of the Union in the direction - and I quote - of ' Community decision-making procedures which will involve the transfer of part of national sovereignty to European level ' .
On the other hand , a European Union with 20 or 25 countries requires and demands far-reaching consideration as to the future Community budget , which means having at our disposal the bases and perspectives enabling us to respond effectively to needs arising from enlargement , without calling into question the legitimate aspirations of the peoples of the existing Member States , in particular in respect of the common agricultural policy , the structural funds and other Community policies .
Already we have seen a generation of children with grotesque and life-threatening malformations .
However , the issue of nuclear energy is a never-ending debate : on the one hand , there is the question of energy supply ; and on the other , there are the questions of the increased consumption of nuclear energy and the large number of nuclear power stations existing in the world .
I have already spoken about putting forward a range of trust-building measures to guarantee the continuation and support of the peace process .
Also , the initiative which it was emphatically announced was intended to secure a ceasefire has progressively been downgraded to a modest fact-finding trip by the French Foreign Minister , Mr de Charrette - a trip based on the strange assumption , moreover , that Lebanon is a sovereign , independent state , whereas unfortunately we know that it is nothing of the kind , and that it is Syria which plays the decisive role in the region , whilst not forgetting the influence of Iran .
Obvious examples are the reform of the CAP and structural funds and reform of the EU 's decision-making structures .
Further work needs to be done to guarantee the rights of Russian-speaking minorities in Estonia and Latvia .
Do you think that if all of us sitting here tonight were to say that British beef is safe , that would be a confidence-building measure and anyone would believe us ?
These are major changes geared to public safety and confidence , and they should be put across much more strongly , because of the far-reaching effect they will have .
I have one final remark to make regarding an amendment tabled by some of my colleagues concerning anti-fouling paints for ships ' hulls .
Mr President , this proposal for a directive on a common EU-approved list and approval procedure concerning biocidal products , i.e products used for the control of organisms that are harmful to human or animal health , has come up for debate in Parliament at what I believe is a most appropriate time , for alarming medical research has recently been coming from various parts of Europe on the number of growth-inhibiting agents and their residues which are harmful to human hormone activity and consequently tend among other things to weaken human fertility .
As regards the amendments to Annex 6 , it is the anti-fouling agents in particular which Parliament seem to have been interested in .
We prefer it to be based on Amendment No 61 , specifically naming the anti-fouling agents , and we are also in favour of restricting the supplementary extension period referred to in the amendment , to a further five-year period only .
I would also like to say in reference to Mr Blokland 's question on anti-fouling agents , that there will be a meeting of the IMO as early as this July , and that the Commission has proposed that a special committee be set up to see whether alternative agents can be found .
This would be implemented by the use of an early-warning system , relying on the appropriate financing mechanisms and promoting the strengthening of international cooperation .
The embryonic reforms of the international financial institutions have not been enough to establish an effective early-warning system , to ensure better intergovernmental harmonization , and to involve not only the G7 industrialized nations but also other countries in institutionalized cooperation .
What we need is to include the fast-growing economies of Asia in that process and , at the same time , look at how we can involve the developing world in that process .
The question of international cooperation in the monetary arena must also be considered in the light of monetary union , which will have far-reaching consequences for the international monetary system .
It would also be best if the EMU project - if it is implemented according to the current timetable - contained a description of the decision-making process .
We also regret the adoption of an amendment authorizing anti-fouling products for ten years , even though we know that mechanical methods exist which make the use of these products superfluous .
Auschwitz , which was and is the symbol of the ultimate limit of the Nazi and fascist aberration must become a place for conveying the historic memory and for creating a stronger and more far-ranging awareness , above all for the younger generations , of democratic values and tolerance .
Today we see an entirely different situation of right-wing fanatics bent on demonstrating antisemitism to try to show the world that they are in control and that they are going to close and cover up history .
Madam President , several speakers today have already pointed out that the demonstration by hundreds of right-wing extremists and skinheads at the Auschwitz concentration camp was an outrage which took place with the permission of the Polish authorities .
In the first instance I think we must support the African peace-keeping force in Liberia , ECOMOG , but they ought really to be given the freedom as soon as possible to disarm and detain , maybe re-educate and feed the young soldiers who are randomly running around shooting and stealing , most of them fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds high on drugs .
The issue at stake in the resolution on Mr Patrick Kelly is totally and absolutely confined to the humanitarian issue : Mr Kelly is suffering from a very serious disease - a life-threatening disease - and the humanitarian point is that he should be in a prison or a hospital as close to his family as possible .
This is a straightforward , central , humanitarian request to allow a human being , who is seriously ill with a life-threatening disease , to be as close to his family as possible .
It is therefore the duty of responsible politicians throughout the world , and of course in Europe , to take a firm stand against the dangers of destructive and deadly nuclear weapons - and I would happily include other weapons too - by promoting practical measures such as controlled disarmament and a test ban , and to divert the money spent on life-threatening arms into peaceful economic policies such as employment , social measures and a healthier environment .
Areas such as energy , transport , telecommunications , housing , jobs , de-mining operations were all discussed and it is good to see that the international donors are coordinating those priorities amongst themselves .
Fortunately the European Commission is increasingly recognizing that there is a need to balance the fight against drugs with the general social and economic development of the drug-producing countries .
I am not seeking blindly to hand over all decision-making power to the Council and take away responsibility from the Commission and Parliament .
Changing to a different procedure would mean a less effective decision-making process .
We should , however , remember that non-profitmaking organisations play a very important role in civil protection in our Member States .
We should also bear in mind the fact that , with this programme , economic and technical progress in the countries receiving the assistance , and the building up of democratic decision-making structures , are also in our own best interests , as trading partners and - as I have already mentioned - as political partners too .
I should like to offer my sincere congratulations on your excellent achievement and to express the hope that you are spending an interesting and thought-provoking day here in the European Parliament .
The third aspect of this issue is surely the question of labelling and of the carcass-processing industry and the safety of its processes .
Can you tell us whether , on those farms where BSE has been confirmed , the disease has been caused by imports of live cattle from the United Kingdom or by imports of meat-containing feed ?
This means that the European Union , in the mission entrusted to Mr Ajello , has announced and begun to operate the duty of backing the Organisation of African Unity in its dissuasive activity and also the activity led by President Nyerere in his fact-finding mission as well as the action taken by the United Nations in respect of military pressure .
Furthermore , your committee , in its report , asks that the Council and Commission ' consider urgently investment-stimulating measures and the provision of financial aid to SMEs ' .
It rejects the numerous proposals from the Member States , which continue to put forward drastic remedies in the form of tax-cutting and wage-cutting packages ; needless to say , such packages cannot have an impact in the European Union , whose social model is our strength and not our weakness .
The ' ins ' will have rights relating to the decision-making process and the definition and implementation of the Community 's monetary policy , while on the other hand , the ' outs ' will be obliged to implement the decisions of the first group of Member States , in other words the dominant ones , with harsher measures against working people in order to achieve the aims of the convergence programmes , under the illusion that if they can conform to these criteria , they too will enter the paradise of EMU .
As she has so rightly said , the report and the amendments to it go to the heart of the decision-making procedure in this field and democratic accountability .
I say finally , as this is a long-standing debate .
Deregulation , with ensuing privatization , which is implemented too rapidly can lead to reduced standards of service in sparsely populated areas and peripheral regions , which are merely ' loss-making areas ' , and to increased unemployment .
The longest-running rapporteur-ship on a dossier ever seen by the European Parliament is drawing to a close .
But I should like to point out that a report on a subject of such importance , at a time of economic crisis and inward-looking tendencies , could have been the subject of a more searching study .
We should like these proposals to be extended to humanitarian mine-clearing operations and we are not happy with the results of the Vienna Conference in this respect .
In my view the common position of the Council sticks too much to over-complex and time-consuming comitology procedures .
There is no evidence of harmonization with UN organizations ; so the possibility of giving the European Union a higher profile must not mean putting an end to on-going forms of cooperation and we must not set up separate bodies .
This would involve a more regional approach to food aid , helping specific regions to build up their food-producing infrastructure .
Does it not feel that the absence of the child-minding directive in a single country might distort competition between the states ?
The sardine processing sector has in fact been contending with a long-standing crisis which may lead , with the complete liberalization of the market - unless something is done - to its disappearance , with consequent unemployment and the consequent tragedy for some 15 000 workers in Portugal and many others in countries such as France , Spain and Italy .
Mr President , we are taking part in a debate which shows both sides of the coin of research projects and I congratulate both Mr Argyros and the Commissioner who have been able to explain to us in detail a series of thought-provoking ideas about innovation in the European Union .
I accept - Mr Santer pressed for this yesterday - that this is a decision of principle and I recognise that it depends upon British action in their programme of eradication of the disease , in an endeavour to restore confidence among beef-eating consumers .
I am a citizen of the United Kingdom but I think it is totally shameful and irresponsible of the UK Government to try to paralyse the entire decision-making mechanism of the European Union on this issue .
Mr President , I am sure you will join me in thanking the Commission for their continued effort towards finding a solution to the on-going crisis in the beef industry .
To rush through in this way , without time for careful scrutiny , an agreement with such far-reaching implications for people 's lives cannot be justified to the voters who gave us our parliamentary mandates .
That will have some beneficial effects , especially in the fast-growing markets of the developing and newly developed countries .
Madam President , ladies and gentlemen , the Kingdom of Morocco is destined by its history , its splendid civilization and its geographical situation to be an essential partner for Europe , and especially for France , which is linked to it by long-standing ties of friendship .
Obviously we are speaking of essential questions , as essential as the productive sectors of a little economy such as ours and , let us be clear , assuming that the ever-growing problem of human rights would be solved .
On the contrary , there are already more energy-saving coolers which are no more expensive to buy than the average fridge .
On a previous occasion , I found it helpful to ask the Commission to assess the growing volume of low-standard river-going ships operating in Europe which come from the former East European countries .
The catastrophe in Wales showed that double hulls are an absolute necessity in both small and large oil-transporting vessels , and consequently all vessels in question should be equipped in this way .
No solutions regarding taxation have been achieved at the EU level , and I would like to ask the Council whether it is aware of the enormous contradiction that is involved in aiming for a rapid implementation of the EMU and the complete inability to deal with taxation , a matter with far-reaching effects on the economy and on employment .
The exchange-rate mechanism is essential if we are to prevent currency fluctuations in non-participating countries and to protect the single market .
The Treaty states that the central banks must make themselves independent of the decision-making powers of their governments and parliaments by 1 January 1999 at the latest .
Mr Santer came to us with a package of confidence-creating measures which at the moment seems to many like a confidence trick .
I am well versed in this problem since in Portugal 's brother states , Angola and Mozambique landmines are still a scourge claiming countless lives among the younger generations in those Portuguese-speaking countries with so much to offer the future of our society .
That is the message which we are receiving from institutions such as the FAO ; it is the unequivocal message coming now from environmental organizations such as the Worldwide Fund for Nature , organizations which have begun to join forces with some of the world 's largest multinational food-producing companies .
Another aspect which we should pay special attention to is that of scientific research which carries out on-going analyses of stocks and changes in their patterns .
Another very important aspect which is also omitted from the report concerns the decision-making procedure in the NAFO Fisheries Commission .
As well as conserving stocks , we need more transparency and equal participation in the decision-making processes - e.g. in NAFO , where I must repeat my utter failure to understand the proposals to reduce the TACs without proper scientific grounds - or the case of cod , also in NAFO waters .
They are not happy about quota hopping by re-flagging devices .
Have all nuclear reactors in the EU been fitted with pressure-reducing filter systems so that even major accidents do not pose risks to the public ?
Over and above that , to my mind , it is chiefly a matter of seeking to adopt longer-term confidence-building measures to boost the consumption of beef .
Mrs Crawley 's question was about people in associated industries , the people who lost their jobs as a result of the ban , who work in the road haulage industry , the slaughterhouses , the meat-processing industry .
It is particularly important in the areas of shipping contracts , i.e. charter parties , commercial contracts , insurance , reinsurance , banking contracts and rescheduling of debts , which often specify English law as a law-governing contract even though neither of the parties is of English origin .
Guided by the Community-spirited principle of mutual trust between the Member States , Mrs Fontaine , you have drawn up a very far-reaching proposal .
The anti-tampering measures are absolutely essential , as are the stricter noise limits .
Amendments Nos 8 to 11 are intended to delete various provisions relating to anti-tampering measures .
We need to consider for a moment what is meant by anti-tampering measures - we are not concerned with DIY enthusiasts , Mr Barton , or young men who buy themselves a motorbike and then make alterations to it in an attempt to give it more power , all of which is perfectly understandable .
This is something which we really cannot accept , therefore , and for that reason we have to reject , in this context , these measures whose only purpose is to allow performance-enhancing modifications with a minimum of risk .
In that case , mediumweight and heavy motorcycles would be completely excluded from the scope of the anti-tampering measures .
There is an available solution for the fur-trapping nations and that is to ban this leghold trap and to use some of the different kinds of methods which are available .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , the issue of the so-called leghold trap regulation is a never-ending saga : this is episode five , if we are counting in years .
I can only agree with Mr Pimenta when he says that once legislation has been proposed , the result can never be that no legislation is adopted , since this would set a precedent that would undermine the credibility of the Commission and of the whole Community decision-making process .
Perhaps the British Government has cause to bring the European Union to its most serious decision-making crisis ever .
If the Florence Council really wishes to promote a common foreign and security policy and preventive diplomacy , it should point out very clearly to that mischief-making country that if it wishes to reap the benefits of European cooperation it must honour its obligations to the European Union and show respect for international legitimacy .
One of the lessons to be learnt from this saga is that the IGC must refine the decision-making structures of the European Union to ensure that there is no repetition of these circumstances when one Member State is able to hold the entire European Union to ransom .
I remain firmly convinced that the host Member State should be able to apply to legal consultations about the law of the host Member State the conditions that its legislation lays down for its own nationals , insofar as they are in conformity with the provisions of Directive 89 / 48 and inasmuch as they are justified by a concern for nondiscrimination in respect of its own nationals and by over-riding reasons of general interest .
However , as a concession to the wishes of the major fur-exporting countries , particularly Canada , its entry into force was postponed till 1 January 1996 - a most remarkable occurrence .
As rapporteurs , I and several other Members have just been on a seven-day fact-finding mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina .
Three weeks later , the agreement signed in Paris at the Elysée Palace Conference created two entities , the Croat-Muslim Federation and the Serb Republic of Bosnia , and decided on the deployment of an international peace-keeping force under NATO command , the implementation force , amounting on 1 February 1996 to 65 , 366 men .
It is no accident that one of the main items on the agenda at the Intergovernmental Conference is the reform of the decision-making mechanisms , and in particular how to move from unanimous decisions to majority decisions , recognizing that it will still be necessary to secure compatibility between the capacity of the Union to make its actions by majority decision effective , and preventing this from becoming an imposition on those supporting a different position .
The recent bomb attacks carried out in the suburbs of Pristina by Albanian-speaking groups and the clashes in north-eastern Bosnia between Muslims and Bosnian Serbs are reviving sources of tension and giving justifiable cause for concern that the region is once more about to erupt .
You have read out to us some very fine-sounding statements , containing demands that human rights should finally be respected .
Poseima is a wide-ranging programme for the autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores .
But the situation now seems to be becoming particularly grave , when decision-making bodies do not even have the shame to refer to it .
These options are not mutually exclusive : for example possible integration of the content of Schengen into the Treaty on European Union should in no way interfere with increasing the effectiveness of the decision-making procedures set out in Title VI at the same time .
When I then see that Mr Schultz 's main report has been adopted by only 12 votes for and 2 against , with 16 abstentions , I begin to wonder a little about how the decision-making system in this parliament operates .
Furthermore , it is no secret that countries such as Iraq and North Korea have made attempts to obtain bomb-building capacity .
In that benzene is an extremely hazardous substance which is also extremely common I intend to vote for the most far-reaching requirements which are put forward .
We most earnestly appeal to the next Turkish Government to end this never-ending saga of oppression and civil war , to liberate political prisoners and to seek to settle the conflict in the south-east by peaceful means and not force of arms .
Srebrenica must not mean that we are never again willing to take part in peace-keeping operations under UN auspices .
Mr President , this is a report the Commission submitted with a view to implementing the 1991 money-laundering directive .
The other extreme , if I may cite an example , is Luxembourg which by comparison has a very liberal money-laundering legislation which basically only comes up to the minimum standard laid down in the directive .
The representative of the City of London Police , for instance , pointed out that constant difficulties arise in the cooperation between the various countries ' judicial authorities because cases which constitute a criminal offence of money-laundering in the United Kingdom , for instance involving reciprocal financial transactions with other Member States , cannot necessarily be considered a money-laundering offence in those states , which leads to constant problems in terms of cooperation .
Here the experts called for closer harmonization - in plain English for the money-laundering directive to be tightened up - in order to facilitate cross-frontier measures to combat crime in Europe .
The demand that was clearly expressed at the hearing and which we also took up in the committees was as follows : the agreements concluded with these states we must also require that they adopt equivalent money-laundering standards to those we impose on ourselves .
The second problem concerns the following : with this money-laundering legislation we are intervening very deeply in the relationship of mutual trust between banks or financial institutions and clients .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , the Commission has presented a first report on the implementation of the money-laundering directive which is very useful and informative .
Mr Lehne mentions in the explanatory statement to his report that savings accounts in Austria could be used for money-laundering purposes .
The rapporteur is certainly not responsible for the mistaken philosophy on which the entire money-laundering legislation is based .
We can endorse many of them , especially the call to include a very wide spectrum of serious crimes in their money-laundering legislation , to continue work on the Europol Convention and for all the Member States to ratify the Vienna and Strasbourg conventions .
Nor is the Commission entirely sure that it has a firm legal basis for further-reaching measures to deal with the fact that the main emphasis of measures to combat money laundering is shifting away from the formal financial sector .
I would very much like to point out that money-laundering clauses form part of the partnership agreements and association agreements with these countries and that we are also supporting practical means of advancing along this road , for instance through technical aid under PHARE , so that the arm of the law can reach beyond our borders .
Unfortunately one cannot say the same for the German-speaking minority in Slovenia .
In future crémant may be produced in all wine-growing regions of the European Community in which quality sparkling wine has traditionally been produced , but subject to strict quality criteria .
Since I come from an excellent wine-producing region , the ancient kingdom of Navarre , it is with much interest that I have followed the excellent work done by my colleague , Mrs Klaß .
It is the non-producing countries with their high taxes on wine that are preventing lower income families from drinking wine .
The Belgian Government is inconsistent too , because it is not in favour of raising the reduced rate on firewood and wool , principally products from French-speaking Belgium , but is in favour of reducing the normal rate on cut flowers which are principally grown in Flanders .
But considerable efforts will be needed - good intentions are not enough - and we will need to translate into reality all the right-thinking declarations that are being made within the various international bodies .
The Intergovernmental Conference must update the current legislative and decision-making provisions of the Treaty .
The recent decisions of the NATO ministerial meeting in Berlin on the possibility of the WEU using the resources of the Alliance for its own peace-keeping operations make this dimension an objective to be pursued as a priority , and that includes the work of the Intergovernmental Conference , confirming complementarity with the vital transatlantic link in the context of a coherent plan for stability and security in Europe .
A genuine pact for employment and the environment should have come out of the proposed confidence-building package .
The United Kingdom 's blocking of the European decision-making process has been seized upon with both hands in various quarters as an argument for abolishing the right of veto .
With decision-making procedures the fundamental question facing us is in which fields and to what extent the countries of Europe are willing to work together .
Amongst the nationals of Member States too it appeared that there was strong resistance to more far-reaching centralization .
Cultural differences will play an ever-increasing role .
People have been referring here to a confidence-building agreement .
Mr President , this Parliament has always been concerned about the democratic deficit in the Community 's decision-making process and the defence of proper rights of representation .
Commissioner Bjerregaard gave an extremely far-reaching undertaking .
The European Parliament has a long-standing commitment to renewable energy .
The ICPD action programme reflects a worldwide and far-reaching vision while at the same time achieving agreement on the key questions , on highly sensitive questions which , after all , affect people in the most personal way .
Yet it was noted in Beijing that insufficient resources were being allocated and that there was a far-reaching rise in poverty , marginalization , discrimination and violence against women .
Well , now we are , and the Commission 's report is a response to this fast-changing situation .
Europe 's focus then is on high-risk , high-return entrepreneurialmanaged growth companies with trans-national aspirations whose Jack-and-the-Beanstalk growth often implies early years of loss-making expansion , a fact which would disqualify them from a listing on Europe 's more traditional markets .
A sphere in which the European Union has a clear responsibility , which it actually accepts , is the establishment of mechanisms for giving small- and medium-scale businesses access to risk-bearing capital .
More far-reaching proposals would quickly amount to an encroachment on freedom to contract .
Accelerated liberalization of public services , especially telecommunications because there are information highways to earn profits and for circulating , competitiveness and wage restraint , but not offset with any consideration of moderating speculative transactions that withdraw capital from its job-creating function , a clear threat of diverting structural policies away from their objectives linked to the now forgotten economic and social cohesion .
Transposition of the GPA is of far-reaching importance for the competitive position of European industry .
Consequently , there could have been technical deterioration and distortions , since not all Member States have a wine-making tradition .
Since the Commissioner is honouring us with his presence , however , I cannot resist taking this opportunity to express my regret at the fact that the Council has not yet established its common position on the reform of the common organization of the wine-growing market , which Parliament dealt with at first reading fourteen months ago .
Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , whether it is a matter of the wine-growing sector in particular or agriculture in general , I am committed to defending rural traditions , whilst avoiding the trap of social or economic regression .
Mr President , Sweden is not a wine-producing country but we in Sweden are consumers of the wines and other drinks concerned in this report .
Mr President , as the rapporteur said , this issue of groundhandling has been a long-running saga and , in fact , was initiated by the airlines themselves .
They should therefore be fully allowed to utilize these staff , as well as to make optimum use of all these facilities , so as to be able to offer a complete third-party and self-handling package at their home airport .
It is our view that the question of eliminating controls in the internal market is quite definitely an internal market issue , and that is why it belongs within the institutional decision-making framework of the European Union and cannot be decided solely by the Council of Ministers through a draft joint action .
I represent the biggest beef-producing constituency in England and the area with the highest number of BSE cases .
I should like to give the House a statistic regarding the job-creating potential of transport infrastructure construction - and I would say this to Mrs Eriksson , who maintained that this was something from the last century : for every 2 500 000 euros invested , 100 jobs will be created .
This paragraph proposes that tests which are predictive of genetic diseases or which may identify genetic predispositions to disease or disability should only be authorized for life-threatening conditions for which effective treatment is currently possible .
In any event , I welcome the fact that a wide-ranging restructuring of DG VI is under discussion .
It has been announced over the last few days that the Greek Government is at the last stage of the decision-taking process concerning the final approval of the project .
I believe that we must have a far wider-ranging debate on this subject .
The Commission has no other decision-making options .
I shall mention some of these : trading in human embryos , foetuses or foetal tissue must be forbidden by law , as must research into human embryos and production of them for the purposes of research ; only as many embryos should be produced as are required for transplanting , and not more than three ; the preservation of embryos by deep freezing should be permitted only in exceptional circumstances for medical reasons ; intervention in the human genome for the purpose of changing , or bringing about a change in , the germ line must be forbidden by law ; any transmission of the findings of genetic tests should be prohibited ; predictive tests should only be authorized for life-threatening conditions for which effective treatment is currently possible ; research on persons who do not have the capacity to consent should only be permitted in exceptional circumstances , if the legal representative has given his assent freely and in full knowledge of the facts , if the person concerned does not object , if the research is closely linked to the subject 's illness , if the research cannot be carried out on persons able to give consent and if the research is likely to benefit the health of the person concerned .
Again and again , of course , we are confronted by the problems of industry which , in championing the cause of human health and our right to treatment , urges us to come out in favour of the directive which would make it possible to patent living and non-living beings , including man , by enticing us with arguments about increased employment and raising the spectre of an invasion , in the field of biotechnology , by American and Japanese multinationals .
By the same token , our committee emphasizes the need to facilitate the activities of non-profit-making lobby groups , not only for reasons of equal opportunities , but because it is right that these groups should be able to operate in this House .
Finally , all other gifts or benefits are prohibited , and thus , in one fell swoop , the European Parliament is exchanging a set of weak and unsatisfactory rules on Members ' interests for the most far-reaching rules of any parliament .
Mr President , I shall conclude my speech by highlighting a similar need for vigilance with regard to the United States and its anti-dumping measures .
As regards the telematic networks , however , let me stress the need for rapid and flexible decision-making procedures ; it is precisely because of this need that I find Amendments Nos 8 , 9 , 10 and 11 inappropriate , even though the underlying principle is fair .
We will also seek to advance the Euro-Mediterranean partnership which offers opportunities for wide-ranging dialogue and cooperation with countries of the Mediterranean region .
For the wine-growing people of Europe , and especially for my wine growers in Languedoc-Roussillon , the memory is of ' Black Dublin ' , compulsory distillation ( in Catholic Ireland ! ) , the grubbing-up of vines that are one of the symbols of christianity , the freezing of prices , the change of course towards globalization , which Mr MacSharry was to confirm .
In this Parliament the decision-making process must be reformed .
If you look at Parliament 's diary for 1997 , you will find that 8 and 15 September are actually Sundays and week-ending days , not week-beginning days .
If you look at Parliament 's diary for 1997 , you will find that 8 and 15 September are actually Sundays and week-ending days , not week-beginning days .
A Union which has the decision-making machinery and the capacity to conduct peace-keeping missions is already one step ahead .
A Union which has the decision-making machinery and the capacity to conduct peace-keeping missions is already one step ahead .
Priority should be given to an IFOR-style peace-keeping force of the kind we have in Bosnia and to a EU planning and analysis unit .
And finally , we absolutely must improve the decision-taking mechanisms so as to increase the prospects of reaching agreement more frequently on joint action before it is too late .
I would prefer this renunciation not to dispel the idea that we have a common need to serve the United Nations ' peace-keeping missions , and to begin , at least , to equip ourselves with the intellectual resources of common security thinking before we draw any conclusions from it about defence .
As I indicated earlier , this means that budgetary consolidation efforts are not just needed for achieving sustainable public finances , they are also needed for improving the prospects for employment-creating investment by avoiding the crowding-out of the private sector , that is by avoiding the absorption of private savings by governments ' current spending .
The guidelines recognize also , however , that in order to tackle unemployment effectively , and particularly the hard core of structural unemployment , sound macroeconomic policies must be supplemented by structural policies aimed at increasing the efficiency and employment-creating features of both the product and labour markets .
These are : firstly , reorienting public expenditure towards investment ; secondly , creating a favourable environment for job-creating companies ; thirdly , analysing best practices in the labour market and education policies of all of the individual Member States .
There is a wide-ranging debate in relation to this and I will not go into it because of time constraints , but the Union can only move forward on a Treaty-based premise and we have to ensure that the concerns of those people who feel that the Treaty may not be strong enough to provide us with the sort of pact we require are also addressed and we have to seek within the framework of the Treaty the sort of pact that will bring about its objective , namely permanent monetary stability and sound finances .
Since 1976 the Community has been co-financing development projects with non-governmental organizations .
The Irish presidency intends to do all it can to ensure that a common position on the nongovernmental organizations co-financing regulation is adopted as rapidly as possible .
I appreciate not only his efforts in helping to prepare the Intergovernmental Conference but his long-standing interest in European affairs and his long-term efforts to promote the integration and the union of Europe .
We in this House - and that includes your group , Mrs Müller - have always emphasized the fact that we only participate in matters in which we as the Community have decision-making powers .
Thus , while the Maastricht criteria compel the Member States to pursue rigorous budgetary policies , the European Parliament is heading off in the direction of ever-increasing expenditure .
Mr President , the Commission welcomes the serious and far-reaching discussions between both branches of the budget authority in the framework of the ad hoc procedure for the 1997 budget .
In accordance with the Union 's decision-making procedures the Council should , before reaching a final decision on issues such as this , seek the views of Parliament .
Madam President , we Austrian Social Democrats want to see the European Parliament make an effective contribution to the search for a comprehensive , forward-looking security policy concept .
However , we cannot support the manifestly all-embracing objective of the Fernández-Albor report which is evidently to establish the EU as an interventionist military superpower ( and a nuclear one at that ) which , using a modern variation on the gunboat diplomacy of the past , is intended to participate in a kind of competition for world domination .
That the EU 's 15 Member States agreed on 106 declarations , 13 common positions and 10 joint actions should be seen as a positive result of intergovernmental cooperation founded on the unanimous decision-making procedure .
It had been the long-standing custom of the European Parliament to draw up reports on the political situation in particular regions through its committees , especially the Committee on Foreign Affairs , Security and Defence Policy .
Members will be aware that production of cereals in Europe - indeed throughout the main cereal-producing areas of the world - has fallen in recent years , mainly due to adverse weather : severe drought in the southern hemisphere , for example .
Now the area of cereal-growing land in the EU is to be expanded .
As for Amendment No 4 , which envisages permitting the production of protein-containing products for selfconsumption in areas subject to temporary set-aside , the Commission again cannot agree .
After the war he was a long-serving member of Liverpool City Council and devoted himself to tackling the problems of housing in that city .
It is already apparent that there is a need for a clear and wide-ranging approach based upon international cooperation and active collaboration between governments and NGOs .
There are those , even in this House , who welcome that fact , preaching the gospel of an imaginary and supposedly self-regulating freedom of communication .
I am also glad to hear the PPE say that it agrees with the proposal for a ' Marc and Corine ' non-profit-making organization , which we presented and supported .
We must realise that in view of the forthcoming , very far-reaching changes in our economy and our societies the production of public goods really must be established as an independent task and that we must counteract what I might call the neo-liberal frenzy to turn everything that can promote private wealth into goods .
For example , in my country , to which Mr Chichester referred , it is obvious - and there is a general consensus - that we have achieved growth which we had never previously achieved and , at the same time , that far-reaching reforms have been possible .
With regard to the involvement of regional and local authorities , let me point out that at the Commission 's instigation a special committee was set up in every region in order to involve the regions in the decision-making process and integrate the programme implementation more closely .
For many years he worked on the safety aspects of sea-going vessels .
As this report correctly points out , the advancing age of many sea-going vessels and the rapid deterioration in maintenance standards means that safety standards are becoming harder and harder to uphold .
Better training , life-saving equipment and working conditions , regular inspections , checks and safety exercises are examples of this .
Most of the rules applicable to sea-going vessels are set by the IMO , but even so major differences still remain between Member States .
It was for this reason that I proposed my only amendment , because I regard financing by means of a possible one-off tax on CO2 energy as somewhat uncertain , because in the long term , if it is successful , it will make an ever-decreasing contribution to the funding each year , and because unilateral reliance on this tax would place at risk the financing of local employment initiatives .
I would urge the Commission to give real additional opportunities here both to profit-making and non-profit-making bodies , but in any event to the private sector .
Secondly , we must incorporate them into more far-reaching objectives which must be pursued at the same time , such as : halving unemployment levels by the year 2000 , decentralization and local and regional development of the economy , culture and society , as our Portuguese colleagues have pointed out , as well as economic and social reform , and feminization , and that means the balanced redistribution of paid and unpaid work , and not the creation of a new servant class of housemaids and car-park attendants .
It means encouraging people themselves to identify and develop employment at a local level and it means making the most of the job-creating opportunities that exist in some major areas such services linked to daily life , services linked to leisure and culture , those linked to the environment and housing , as well as many other areas which might appropriately meet the new needs and thereby help to slash unemployment in Europe .
However , I do not think that job creation in any of the seventeen fields in the services sector will create jobs on a long-term basis , if it is not preceded by the creation of value-creating jobs .
Many of the welfare and non-profit-making services mentioned in the report are provided at local-government level in Finland .
We feel it is absolutely essential for the European Parliament to state its position on this issue , which has such far-reaching implications for the future of mankind .
We all know that examining and dealing with the issue of human rights is a complex and wide-ranging task , in the sense that there is a great variety of national standards , reflecting the different constitutional traditions which stem from the various histories and specific circumstances of the individual Member States .
The far right-wing parties in Europe are trying to use the kind of fascism we saw in the 1920s and 1930s to appeal to people 's baser instincts and to bring the oppressed minorities even further under the yoke .
Finally , paragraph 93 states that the extreme right-wing parties advocate xenophobia .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , protection of human rights is perhaps the most important opinion-forming issue that we , together with the Council of Europe and the national parliaments , have to deal with as elected representatives in the European Parliament .
It is an all-embracing report which leaves no stone unturned in its general approach and in the particular issues dealt with , even if we would have preferred a more distinct identification of violations of human rights , both inside and outside the Community .
That consternation is certainly not relieved by the fact that the right-wing lineup of this Assembly repeatedly prefers to skate over violations involving their own countries .
To conclude , Mr President , I call on the Commission to take a more far-reaching approach to the concept of public service in the Green Paper on new services , and I call for this as an urgent matter because time flies in the world of telecommunications .
Finally , I should like to call on the Member States to assume their responsibilities , setting a solid economic base for the European programme-making industry , now making some progress with the Guarantee Fund , giving backing to Europe-wide distributors already in existence and wholeheartedly assuming the costs of the public service as the best way of revitalising democracy .
What is shown on television reflects the spirit of our time , but it is also part of the opinion-forming process .
Both left- and right-wing extremism should equally be rejected .
We also want to stress that the multitude of concrete demands for human rights put forward in the report are and should remain a matter for the Member States exercising their sovereign decision-making prerogative and for intergovernmental cooperation .
To overlook the particular contribution of women to child-rearing and their self-sacrificing attention to the social needs of dependants , whilst at the same time participating in the world of work , would be to misunderstand the concept of equal opportunities .
In Britain we have a long-running comedy show called ' Auf Wiedersehen , Pet ' .
First , when we talk about sharing working time , we are fundamentally talking about sharing the income that work brings , whether it is shared through people voluntarily taking lower wages , through voluntary early retirement , through work-sharing options , through more family-friendly work arrangements , more part-time work , or whether through sharing that income through the redistribution of social security contributions which is a centre point of Mr Rocard 's report .
We engaged in a wide-ranging consultation exercise with all the parties concerned , including Mr Rothley , with a view to deciding how best to proceed .
Can the Commission give an assurance that the registration of Smoltine and Azamethipos , which are extremely important for the Scottish salmon-farming industry , will be based on objective scientific criteria and will not be unduly delayed ?
Subject : Administrative coordination of the forestry and wood-processing industry 
The forestry and wood-processing industry has a significant impact on the economy and employment in the EU Member States and for this reason measures to strengthen its competitiveness at Union level are extremely important .
However , matters relating to the forestry and wood-processing industry are administered by the Commission in piecemeal fashion - responsibility for the sector is currently still split between five different directorates-general .
What steps has the Commission taken , or what steps does it plan to take , to strengthen the coordination of matters relating to the forestry and wood-processing industry in the European Union and within its own administration ?
The smooth operation of the economic and monetary union will be based on two decision-making centres : one monetary , the other economic .
A relaxation of the efforts to achieve budgetary consolidation would be unwelcome , since the present situation still calls for the reduction in deficits to be continued , and in certain cases intensified , because - and I would stress the point , since it is crucial - this helps to boost the savings available for job-creating investment , and hence to bring down interest rates .
One of the options being considered is the partial privatization of the eco-label by commissioning a European eco-labelling organization to draw up criteria in cooperation with the relevant authorities and other parties concerned .
Rather , I am extremely grateful to him for his thought-provoking work .
It is important in its substance , but also as an opinion-forming example of processes in international trade .
( Applause ) Issues which need to be addressed include the extension of the co-decision procedure , the simplification and reduction of the number of decision-making procedures and the question of a ceiling on the membership of Parliament after enlargement .
It is an unending race towards an ever-receding convergence .
We agreed at Turin that Dublin One would not be a decision-making Council .
At best , schemes of this kind could be described as welfare-promoting measures with no stimulating effect on employment .
In Sweden wage-earning fathers of small children work most of all .
Unfortunately , despite this international protection , it did not prove possible to resolve the bitter and long-standing differences between the two main Kurdish parties of Iraq - the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan - after the Gulf War .
For some reason , a temporary cease-fire in the hostilities between the two factions was established and certain confidence-building measures were agreed between them , but the fragile peace that existed through 1995 has recently given way to renewed hostilities .
As Vice-President Marín of the Commission will explain to you in detail , the Union , which has a long-standing commitment to alleviating the humanitarian plight of the population in northern Iraq , intends to respond to the current refugee emergency as generously as resources allow .
A difference of opinion such as this is not simply resolved by institutions or decision-taking procedures .
I would repeat , as Commissioner Marin has stated , that the Union , which has a long-standing commitment to alleviating the humanitarian plight of the population in northern Iraq , intends to respond to the current refugee emergency as generously as resources allow .
The political situation in Turkey is complicated , and at present it is difficult to draw far-reaching conclusions about the direction Turkey will take as regards its foreign policy , and its relationship with Europe .
I am glad to see that authorities in some countries are working closely with network suppliers , who have a major responsibility in this area , with a view to applying a self-regulating code initially .
The European Parliament must not be kept outside the decision-making process .
The debate has ranged between the wine-producing regions and the non-wine-producing regions .
The debate has ranged between the wine-producing regions and the non-wine-producing regions .
I believe that excise duty should not be seen purely as a revenue-raising exercise , but also as an employment-creation instrument .
In the case of tobacco there is the strange exception to which Mrs Peijs referred , namely that hand-rolling tobacco is taxed much more lightly .
Paragraph 4 on the upward harmonisation of tobacco prices ; paragraph 20b on a considerable increase in the minimum prices for engine fuels ; paragraph 20c on the internalisation of externals costs ; and paragraph 20f on an all-encompassing taxation basis for mineral oils and their competing products all clearly point in the right direction .
The report advocates the maintenance of the zero rate for wine in those countries where it currently exists , because there is no justification based on taxation or fiscal harmonization for countries which account for less than 1 % of wine production and barely 10 % of consumption in the Community to impose an obligatory burden on wine , causing a decrease in consumption in the producer countries and generating economic and social problems in certain rural wine-making areas .
In this area in particular we find a great deal of suppression of evidence , a great deal of tax evasion , which is why the Commission must combat this tax evasion and aim at further-reaching harmonization .
As you remember , the Commission 's review led to a wide-ranging process of consultations about future policy in the sector of excise duties .
It is the fast-growing SMEs that invest in high technology which most need venture capital .
They provide an invaluable service in providing small and medium-sized enterprises with information relating to the workings of the European regional , social , agricultural and fisheries funds , as well as advising on the different European co-financing loan schemes and public procurement contracts .
My group is fully behind what is proposed by Mrs Read : emphasis on common guidelines set up by the Commission for interconnection agreements ; a good dispute-settling procedure ; emphasis on the development of a real , harmonised European telecommunication market .
We want a cross-border dispute-settling regulation and we want the retention of numbers , because if you go from one company to the other and you do not take your number , you cause an enormous blockade on liberalisation .
But UCLAF could be even more effective if it had comparable interlocutors with clearly defined powers and decision-making structures in all the Member States .
Of course , the whole decision-making procedure is a crucial problem , since we do not have a proper legal basis enabling us to take the measures that are required .
We would have avoided this if the Maastricht Treaty had included a more appropriate decision-making system for the third pillar .
If the newly created democratic structures really are to lead to democracy in an atmosphere of continuing hostility - understandable so soon after the end of the war - if the cease-fire in Bosnia-Herzegovina really is to lead to peace , the international peace-keeping force must continue to provide protection and we must maintain our presence and aid .
Shortly , once this parliamentary stage is completed , we expect to see the new directive launched and hope that there will be greater and more consistent involvement of artists , authors and performers at all stages in the decision-taking process .
There are ever-increasing signs of a confusion between their roles , because the public service enterprises have reacted to competition with an increasingly commercial service , whereas the commercial broadcasters are being subjected to a great many regulations and obligations .
This long-standing problem must be solved and it must be solved in a manner which gives the Kurds the reasonable amount of self-determination to which all peoples are entitled .
We have reached a point where a Minister of the self-styled Turkish Cypriot government - the Minister for Agriculture - himself became the murderer of Solomos , who like Isaac after all , was doing nothing more than calling for the restoration of legality to that long-suffering island .
It is also necessary that the peace-keeping force - regarding which an agreement in principle had been reached at Arusha - should be ready to intervene and , it must be said , should intervene at once .
Next week the ACP-EU Joint Assembly will be meeting and that is the context in which we shall be able to take those measures of economic retaliation which may produce more results than any number of high-sounding declarations .
The Commission has also heard - in this debate , once again - criticism from Parliament about the decision-making process concerning cooperation on matters of internal affairs and we have already had the opportunity to emphasize , in various circumstances , that we deplore the lack of consultation of Parliament .
Thanks to one of our colleagues , Mr Sonneveld , I and two of my colleagues from Britain had the opportunity earlier this year of visiting a veal-raising unit in the Netherlands .
It would thus be unfair to lumber the calf-rearing sector alone with the welfare problems arising in that sector .
For this to happen , policy systematization is fundamental and should be based on the following : as clear as possible a definition of what is meant by democratic principles and human rights which , as far as I am concerned , must be based on the notions of universality , indivisibility and interdependence ; promotion and defence of democracy and human rights conducted both through positive measures and through the implementation of the sanction , and , in the decision-making process , maximum limitation of Council 's discretion when applying what we might generally term the ' democratic clause ' , since success now also lies in actions in this sphere fitting into the framework of a genuine common foreign and security policy involving all players in our society .
No electoral farce can give legitimacy to people like Mobutu - one of many beneficiaries of a long-standing complicity on the part of various European countries .
A risk-sharing system of this type is pioneering and addresses the need to create European audiovisual products of high quality with prospects of commercial success , so that they will attract interest from major investors .
The idea that the fund should support co-productions , stimulate intra-European circulation of films , help co-production between countries with the smallest film-making capacity , and the five-year trial period , all of which , I think , sums up the main points made by Mrs Guinebertière - and I must say that , from the Commission 's point of view , we are fully in agreement .
The Committee on Culture proposes a budget of 86 MECU for the next four years : in my opinion , the Council is unaware of the role which culture has to play in today 's Europe , the one being constructed , nor does it bear in mind the job-creating capacity of investment in the field of cultural heritage .
Under that Article 128 and the Kaleidoscope Programme , two other programmes - Raphael and Ariane have now been set in motion but only after a rather picturesque fight in a climate of uncouth stinginess with masses of cuts , the outward signs of a grudging acceptance of the inevitable rather than the creation of a well thought out , inspiring and forward-looking project .
This will mark the beginning of a wide-ranging debate that will continue throughout 1997 .
In category 2 : frankly speaking , the cut on the part of the Council seems to have very little to do with a considered view of what to do about Structural Funds , but rather it has been shown to be a simple budget-cutting operation , without reflection on what it will do for the development of the Structural Funds .
This is why the House cannot accept these cuts and , as the rapporteur said , it is proposing the launching of actions to promote the development of the non-profit-making sector in the Union .
In fact , from the beginning of the year , when President Santer proposed a ' confidence pact ' for the Union , the Commission has been stressing that the Union needs a forward-looking strategy for growth and employment .
As for the ECU 1 billion cut in spending from the Structural Funds , that is not a cut at all - if you will forgive me for saying so - but merely a book-keeping trick , because everyone knows that our commitments still remain .
We are of course pleased that some budget lines - I am thinking in particular of those designed to reinstate certain appropriations , for example the lines on the long-suffering people of Tibet - have been approved , and we hope that the Commission will abide by them this year .
The rapporteur , Mr Brinkhorst , has tried hard to bring some degree of order , openness and transparency to these subsidies , but he was not supported by the committee 's left-wing majority , which wants obscurity to continue to reign supreme in this area .
At the same time , however , I would call on that group and the Green Group - whose spokeswoman , Mrs Müller , talked of a book-keeping trick in relation to cuts in the Regional Fund - to approve the Council 's proposal , because the fact is that the commitments will be translated into payments as soon as the money is required .
The immediate victims of this policy are the broader social strata of working people , farmers and craftsmen , since Mediterranean agricultural products are mortally affected by the new reduction of budgetary allowances for them and by the more general anti-farming framework of the CAP review .
Besides confirming the current sanctions , the draft common position includes a ban on visas for members of the SLORC and high-ranking officers , together with a suspension of visits to Burma by senior national officials under bilateral arrangements .
Unless there are major changes in that direction , unless we have renewed democracy , transparency , efficiency and decision-taking capacity , the threat to the construction of Europe may lie just around the corner .
However , after those two platitudes , there are serious and very hard-hitting measures and issues to be discussed .
Sadly , we see it devoting its precious time to secondary problems , like details of decision-making procedures in the European Parliament , to low priority questions , like the list of citizens ' rights to be included in the Treaty , rights which are already well protected at national level , or to palpable absurdities , like the extension of majority voting in the Council .
Not only that , but for some obscure reason Slovenia is still unwilling to grant an equitable minority status to these German-speaking people or those in the Gottschee area .
The wine-producing region of Collio will have to be protected by European registered designations of origin .
In this way , we can ensure that the German- and Italian-speaking minorities in that region will enjoy appropriate legal guarantees .
If this is a general view , as common sense seems to indicate , is the presidency minded to propose to the IGC that it should remove all ambiguities and affirm the democratic and transparent nature of European decision-making procedures by supporting the abolition of Article 235 ?
Before such a wide-ranging decision is presented to the Council there should be a period of reflection and consultation so that the sector itself can make its view known .
At that time Parliament had drafted a resolution calling on the Commission to submit proposals for more wide-ranging measures to prevent the misuse of the Community budget , including on-the-spot inquiries .
We are convinced that a far-reaching reform of the current common agricultural policy is essential if the EU is to meet the challenges of the next century successfully .
This is why our Parliament , by its votes , has been bent on re-entering appropriations which do correspond to its priorities , including the research sector , as it wished to re-enter an appropriation of ECU 100m to support the peace process in Northern Ireland .
Viewing tourism as a strategic industry for employment , development , growth , competitiveness , economic and social cohesion and as a contribution to the spread of the different national cultures and the strengthening of the European identity , should be the basis of every policy , whatever the decision-taking level within the European Union .
Its job-generating powers are well known , it is also an industry which is well represented by SMEs , a target group for development , as mentioned yet again by President Santer this week in the 1997 Commission programme .
In 2006 it is forecast that such mind-boggling figures will have swelled to $ 2.1 trillion , a doubling of spending which , if we are canny , can translate into a doubling of jobs .
Firstly , emphasis should be given to the decisive role that tourism could play in favour of economic and social cohesion and especially employment in late-developing regions , namely the ultra-peripheral and insular regions , whose assets are indisputable .
In particular , it finances projects on the land aimed at promoting income-generating crops to replace coca and poppy .
The base police and officials of the United Nations peace-keeping force were not even permitted to approach .
The situation is all the more serious in that officials from the United Nations peace-keeping force were prevented from visiting the scene of the killing .
Mr President , the Sudanese situation is one of these on-going situations where one keeps feeling that this regime cannot last .
The European Union encourages the efforts taken with a view to rapidly re-opening dialogue between the two communities , in order to find a global political solution to the Cyprus question under the aegis of the United Nations .
The most recent major incident is the massacre of 30 Bengali-speaking settlers .
That multi-dimensional character of tourism should make it the focus of unwavering attention and wide-ranging support in Community policy .
These measures will mean a far-reaching transfer of sovereignty .
In late August this year , at the request of the Association of Scottish Salmon Growers , the Commission opened an anti-dumping case against Norway .
But in micro-economic terms at the level of the salmon industry consider the implications of Norway , a state outside the Union which produces a massive surplus for export - and has the potential to produce much more in the immediate future - and floods our market to such an extent that the anti-dumping case when it is examined will hold .
This effort is being sat upon by a gigantic Norwegian effort - which has obviously been subsidized over the years - that will not allow the flagship of fish-farming activities which is salmon farming to get off the ground .
That is one of the main lines set out in the strategy document presented by the Commission in Madrid in December 1995 , whereby rural development was to be oriented towards both farming and non-farming activities , via a policy of active diversification and the development of a multi-sectoral policy .
Ultimately , we are convinced that a far-reaching reform of the existing Common Agricultural Policy is inevitable if enlargement is to take place unhindered .
Then we would carry out a wide-ranging debate only once the Commission had formally presented its proposal .
We do so despite the fact that we usually say , as is the custom in this Parliament , that we have to bring decision-making closer to the people , and that the people must take part in the decision-making process , because here we have a clear case in which professional associations , cooperatives and professional organizations should be taking part and at least giving their opinion on the process of reform of the COM in olive oil .
On that line there has been a crossing point through which , by long-standing agreement , people living in the occupied enclave have been able to pass in order to visit relatives in the free part of Cyprus or to obtain medical treatment , given that treatment facilities in the occupied part of the island are hopelessly inadequate even where they exist .
Mr President , our group wishes to lend its support to the Howitt report , both because of its mention of the amendments to the regulations accepted in first reading by the Commission , referring to environmental considerations , the prevention of conflicts and the fight against sexual violence , and because of its insistence on re-tabling amendments which we feel are vital .
This is particularly important in countries with a high level of illiteracy , and with limited personnel available for awareness-raising measures .
I should simply like to remind the House once again of the high-sounding commitments that were made after Rio and Berlin : reducing CO2 emissions to the level of 1990 was to be our foremost task , our most important task , a challenge , and so on .
On the contrary , SAVE II is turning into a face-saving programme for the Council , and it is fair to say that it is virtually falling apart .
I would reiterate that if we really implemented serious energy-saving measures , we would gain a double dividend : savings on both energy and costs .
You see , more effective savings can sometimes be made by spending additional money in a budget line meaningfully , rather than by indulging in a kind of axe-wielding frenzy !
We would cut carbon dioxide emissions , we would cut business costs , we would create jobs in the energy-saving industries - by one estimate , some 3.4 million job years .
I believe that we need a study from the European Commission of the job-creating potential of investment in energy-saving technologies and the opinion drawn up by my committee calls for this .
I believe that we need a study from the European Commission of the job-creating potential of investment in energy-saving technologies and the opinion drawn up by my committee calls for this .
Firstly , it is based on an evaluation of the first programme and reinforces action , namely the pilot schemes , which is already in progress and , secondly , it introduces new measures to improve on-going evaluation .
A common objective in all these reports is the efficient use of energy or energy-saving measures , yet the Council has reduced the budget for this to ECU 45 million spread over a five-year period , which just goes to show what kind of priority energy and the environment are given in Europe .
All of us here today agree on the urgency of the need , and not just as far as protection of the environment is concerned , to convince our citizens and industry and the state decision-making bodies of the wisdom of investment in energy efficiency .
We shall seek to promote greater cohesion between the regions via improvement of the transfer of know-how on aspects of energy-saving strategy from regions with a developed energy efficiency dynamic to regions which are significantly behind in that respect .
The Commission is empowered to propose legislative measures to improve energy efficiency in the Union , and does intend to do so in the future , but only after other possibilities , such as self-binding agreements with industry , have been exhausted .
The Commission firmly believes that there is a huge energy-saving dynamic which remains unexploited .
There has been a similar lack of progress with the introduction of land registers for rice-growing areas .
The reasons why payments fall short of appropriations are , amongst others : co-financing difficulties , the failure of the national administrations to cope with the demands made upon them , and absorption difficulties in the economies concerned .
By over-regulating advertising we actually jeopardize the quality of European programmes .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , it is intended that one of the main goals of the new broadcasting directive should be to promote the European programme-making industry and safeguard Europe 's cultural diversity in the audiovisual market .
Concerning the issue of quotas , these must be obligatory if they are to offer effective protection for the European industry against the American siege , at least during the coming decade and until a system is worked out for the protection of investments.-Concerning advertising , respect must be shown for citizens and consumers , in relation to both time and principles.-Concerning the protection of children , protection is needed at the European level .
The Commission and the European Parliament have recognized that with a small outlay , it is possible to harness the job-creating potential of the trade and SME sectors .
Accordingly , they have agreed an interest subsidy programme for job-creating measures in the SME sector .
The provision of loan guarantees will improve the access of small and medium-sized enterprises to external funding for job-creating investment .
It is now a question of re-establishing harmony between economic , competition and cohesion policies .
Indeed , last year , it raised the funding for budget line B5-322 , ' Employment and growth for Europe ' , by ECU 50 million to over ECU 57 m , because the programme for granting subsidies to SMEs for job-creating investment was successful and enjoyed a high level of support .
We firmly believe that , wherever possible , the Union must help small and medium-sized enterprises to overcome their shortcomings , because the job-creating potential of this sector deserves a comprehensive effort .
I should like to say in that connection to Mrs Peijs who made the long-standing request for a help desk , that I too consider that to be an important point in improving the infringement procedure .
It is , of course , surprising - to say the least - that a real right-wing politician from Turkey has been able to mislead experienced politicians without bringing in any real changes or reliable guarantees on human rights , and that these experienced politicians , without waiting for the Turkish elections , agreed to a customs union .
You know that the common foreign and security policy is on the agenda for the Intergovernmental Conference , and that one of the important points to be discussed is how to improve the decision-making process , on which a number of proposals have been made .
I hope that the results of today 's debate will make it possible for the Council to debate the Commission 's proposal regarding its next meeting of 9-10 December 1996 , and that the decision-making procedures can be concluded by June 1997 when the UN General Assembly holds its meeting to follow up on the Rio Conference .
Also , as to the claim that they are not profit-making organisations , that was not always the case of those NGOs which I have witnessed .
And the way in which they have raised people 's awareness of these matters and created the necessary pressure and encouragement so that decision-makers arrive at a forward-looking policy .
I have confidence in saying that all of us here recognize the NGOs as highly valued partners in the political decision-making process , and am therefore sure that together we will arrive at a proposal which will be of the best possible use to the NGOs , and thus to the environment .
However , I would endorse what Mr White said : I too find it a sorry state of affairs that the House always discusses on a Tuesday evening the important legislative business where Parliament has real decision-making powers , and that the press reports do not appear until two days later , causing everything to fall flat .
I can well understand why such proposals should be put forward when a communication of the type we are dealing with is not supposed to come from Parliament , even if we have joint decision-making competence , or at least some influence over the actual waste proposal .
One of the real environmental problems that faces us is the fact that the financial costs of re-using waste often result in companies investing in the gaining of energy instead of in the reclaiming of materials .
Therefore , I think it is wise to look again at the positions taken by the Commission and carry out a further-reaching analysis of the sector , putting forward more solid and positive proposals , articulated in a genuine plan of action , not limited to references to reductions in production , increased imports and losses of jobs and which the future developments will inevitably confirm the same horrific trend .
It has also resulted in an ever-increasing number of transnational enterprises dividing up the world between them , as it were , with territorial and price cartels , deals , oligopolistic and monopolistic positions .
That must not cause the industry to break the rules on quotas and anti-dumping measures .
Generally speaking , I find his call for European Union undertakings to have better information on trade-policy instruments very positive , and therefore believe that the three reports we are debating constitute an enormously positive step forward , particularly Mr Kittelmann 's wide-ranging report on the World Trade Organization .
I welcome this because Europe 's trade unions have been campaigning intensively for more than 20 years to ensure that international trade agreements , too , include safeguards of workers ' rights , especially in view of the ever-increasing density of economic interrelationships .
This system - exploitation on the one hand , exclusion on the other - is the product of ever-increasing competition .
The reasoning , incidentally , seems impeccably logical ; as long as ' substantial differences remain between the real economic variables , the external shock-absorbing mechanisms would inevitably result in differing processes of adjustment , with serious consequences for the process of monetary co-existence ' .
In the face of massive resistance from conservative circles , this Parliament has now launched , with the Hautala report , an important and wide-ranging debate which it is to be hoped will be successfully continued from now on .
' No comment , ' as my English-speaking friends would say .
Nor does Mr Colajanni 's resolution improve the position of the EU at all because it makes far-reaching pronouncements on East Jerusalem and the status of the Palestinian territories even before negotiations on these crucial and sensitive matters have begun .
We note with ever-increasing resignation that the real beneficiaries of Rabin 's murder are the assassin Yigal Amir , the Hamas terrorist groups and this same part of the Israeli political spectrum .
The proposals will reinforce the provisions of the current directive with regard to a central computerized database , a passport for each animal , a double ear-tagging arrangement for identifying each animal and registers of animals on each holding .
Subject : Anti-dumping measures 
The Commission is planning to introduce anti-dumping measures for the import of cheap footwear from China , Indonesia and Thailand .
Is the import of cheap footwear from these countries damaging the Community , making anti-dumping measures necessary ?
We have also launched this year Telefís na Gaeilge , an all-Irish-speaking television station .
If we are losing our way to some extent , in today 's Europe , it is because we lack such links , this field of popular representation which we must bring closer both to European citizens and to decision-making fields .
The Commission has got it right overall , i.e. in extending codecision to the entire legislative field , but this kind of all-encompassing statement comes to nothing , as the co-rapporteurs observe , when we actually move on to definitions and specifics .
This checking could be done by us , for example by inserting appropriate contractually-binding clauses in association agreements .
It makes more sense to set out , first of all , in a non-binding recommendation , just how a Community asylum law might look , and leave it to individual Member States to incorporate it into their national legislation , and then sign a convention that would make it legally binding .
The wide-ranging nature of these guarantees is of greater importance , if this were possible , in cases where legal provision comes up against someone whose status is particularly insecure , which is the case of asylum-seekers .
With the resolution in our hands , we might ask : how can we guarantee appropriate protection which also has common support and respects the humanitarian traditions of this part of the world and the 1951 Geneva Convention when there are no binding legal provisions and , moreover , Member States are allowed wide-ranging recourse to exceptions under their national legislation ?
Finally , this House should begin to recognize the fact that the asylum-granting process faces a serious problem in the form of immigration on political and social grounds and must therefore opt decisively for a genuine Community foreign policy which can help to solve the basic problem we are all familiar with .
I am thinking here of the following examples : the delayed transposition of the Package Holiday Directive , the judgment of the European Court of Justice , and the Time-Sharing Directive which , if I remember rightly , has to be transposed by the end of May 1997 .
And now , in this short time granted me by the absence of my colleague , Mr Añoveros , I would like to step back from my position as a representative of European citizens and speak to you , at this late-evening gathering which lends itself to confidences , as an ordinary citizen .
To guarantee the spread of energy-related technology , in particular for renewable and non-polluting sources , there needs to be close cooperation between technicians and scientists in the countries concerned to provide a transmission mechanism for technological information .
However , we must also create the appropriate framework conditions for such important forward-looking decisions , such as increases in the research budget and standardized European eco-taxes .
Mr President , I thank the Commission for the forward-looking report it has submitted .
I agree that it is an important task to create security of supplies in Europe by importing energy from third countries - and in particular by building up contractual relations with the main oil-producing countries in the Middle East - but here too I would like to add the criticism that in general the White Paper describes security of supplies in Europe too one-sidedly against the background of a rising dependence on imports .
If we think , for instance , of the large number of Mediterranean islands , we realize what it would mean to be able to provide them with their own non-polluting energy sources , which would generate jobs and be entirely indigenous and , naturally , clean .
We should not allow that debate to get in the way of a consistent policy-setting and policy-targeting framework .
More resources are needed on the other hand for research , development and practical projects which support renewable energy sources such as bio-energy , solar cells , wind energy , biofuels , energy-saving products and processes and new energy-efficient and environmentally friendly fuels such as ethanol , methanol , hydrogen gas , rape oil etc .
It also rightly makes the point that the introduction of internationally binding competition regulations will gradually reduce the need for the implementation of anti-dumping measures .
This is an important observation - not least when seen in the context of the very negative economic disturbance of the market that follows both dumping and implementation of anti-dumping measures .
The competent decision-making bodies have resolved not to extend or renew the ECSC Treaty when it expires on 23 July 2002 .
I should like to remind you that the development of non-industrial fishing in Senegal is due to the motorization of fishing boats , to the fact that they carry ice-making plant allowing them to go ever further into the open sea .
First , Mr President , the China that cruelly persecutes critics of the regime such as Wang Dan can no longer be considered a left-wing regime .
I should like to hope that those who wish to hold elections will realize that these elections just complicate the situation , and that they will postpone them and so demonstrate that they are prepared to go on to sincere and serious negotiations with the government of Georgia , to bring peace to that long-suffering area .
In this connection I also call on the Commission and the Council to use every means at their disposal to support the peace process by confidence-building measures , in cooperation with all parties involved .
We welcome the report on increased democratisation of the decision-making process in the EU .
The decision-making structure in the EU is at present very confusing .
The Council , which formally has decision-making powers , is dependent on proposals initiated and submitted by the Commission .
This would always be wrong but it feels particularly painful now at a time of austerity , when many law-abiding citizens are having to tighten their belts .
I am the rapporteur for demography in the Committee on Social Affairs and one of the trends we detect in the demographic development in Europe is that the birth rate is only 1.4 children per woman of child-bearing age in Europe .
Would you order an investigation into the events surrounding today and find out why it was so difficult for the animal-testing protesters to gain access to this building .
A taskforce of DG VIII is working out the details of this plan after an assessment mission to the region in coordination with ECHO and the special envoy , and taking into account regional and international peace-building efforts as well as the activities of other donors .
However , what I want at this juncture is to ensure that Parliament , like the Commission and everyone else , is focused on the efforts being undertaken to try to bring this particular dispute to a satisfactory and long-lasting conclusion .
This is an extremely important appointment with far-reaching consequences for normal development of the third stage of Economic and Monetary Union and the introduction of the euro .
First and foremost with regard to consumers and the question of a double-pricing , a contribution that was made by Mr Whitehead , I just want to say that from our point of view we intend in Dublin , for the week starting 9 December across the period of the Dublin Council , to request and obtain the cooperation of some of our large retail units , and more importantly our public houses , to introduce a system of double-pricing in order to provide our citizens with a sense of familiarity with this procedure and we expect , subject to final agreement , that the newspaper advertisements running up to the Christmas period for some of the large supermarkets will in fact have dual-pricing mechanisms in place .
All that would be needed would be for France to return to its former easy-going policies .
At any rate , the bottom line is that we in this Parliament reject Waigel 's notions of simulating strict compliance with the criteria with a European straitjacket designed to replace economic policy throughout the future EU with a purely mechanical book-keeping apparatus .
The second set of protagonists in this business are the big multinationals , always anxious to nibble away at the existence of independent States that might oppose their decision-taking methods .
In order to avoid negative consequences , we must take a transnational approach to the areas included in the fourth programme , such as information and communication technologies , marine science and technology , and renewable or less-polluting energy resources .
The rapporteur proposes knowledge-sharing technologies and targeted projects organized in matrix form .
The social benefits of cheap transport to people such as students , migrant workers in low-paying jobs and their families should not be underestimated .
It is also worth recalling that at the time when bus companies were not allowed to offer services from Ireland to London , the railway and ferry companies also operated a price-fixing arrangement which resulted in unnecessarily very high and exceptional fares .
They contain an accurate analysis of what the problem is , but unfortunately on the other hand the Commission is also promoting far-reaching liberalisation and far-reaching competition which alas contradicts sometimes the aims described in all these Green Papers .
They contain an accurate analysis of what the problem is , but unfortunately on the other hand the Commission is also promoting far-reaching liberalisation and far-reaching competition which alas contradicts sometimes the aims described in all these Green Papers .
When I called for a wide-ranging debate on the future development of public passenger transport in the European Union , there were those who felt that only a few special interest groups would actually participate .
At the time of the first oil crisis , in 1973 , governments the world over had to seek energy-saving measures and , in 1976 , Europe began its summer-time experiment .
This was a memorable and earth-shattering event and I am sure it is marked in his memory for ever .
Even the very generalized declaration of Prague , dating from 1991 , formed the basis for the further development of European transport policy as a whole , partly in conjunction with the regional conferences and sectoral conferences which have taken place in ever-increasing numbers .
The Wolf report contains a whole series of practical and excellent proposals , for example , reducing indirect labour costs below the wage scale , highlighting small and medium-sized firms , part-time work , or even shortening working time and re-distributing labour .
EMU is a highly centralised project which moves decision-making powers from the individual Member States ' democratic assemblies to bank directors in the central bank in Frankfurt who cannot be dismissed and who are immune to scrutiny and democratic influences .
Our Group is international , with ideological roots , and is not answerable to an existing European party ; in terms of programme and policy , it is a left-leaning compromise , a confederal Group in which the decisions of national parties , and their ability to transfer their views to the House , are fully respected .
We want to have transparency in relations between the parliamentary groups and the European parties , in both decision-making structures and financial structures , and I agree with Mr Martens that the European parties do not need any additional financing .
My response - so that I should not be held responsible for any delay - was to submit a full and wide-ranging report , and that of the Committee on Fisheries - likewise so that it should not be held responsible for the Council 's inability to take a decision - was to vote to reject the Commission 's proposal .
And so there has to be far-reaching change ; we need to preserve the biological and environmental balance and , at the same time , take responsibility for the conservation of stocks and for the social issues underlying the crisis in the sector .
I am glad that the Council presidency has not come to this second-reading debate , since there is nothing to discuss with it anyway .
Amongst these lines was the promotion of beef-eating line - the ' eat more beef ' line .
We refuse to accept pre-fabricated arrangements , notarial models and formulae , an opportunism compensated for by considerable material benefits , nor do we wish to exclude ourselves from the process of political negotiation adapting party political structures to real and ever-changing situations , and we are open to forms of cooperation and inter-party organization without any kind of preconception , as long as we do not call into question the identities resulting from collective experiences that transcend particular points in time and reflect profound popular expressions .
Of course , there can and must be transnational cooperation between the European political parties , but they must retain their national identity and decision-making capacity .
The challenge at European level consists of strengthening and enhancing the European dimension of the existing political parties in a way which frees them from dependence on concentrations of power in the economy and the media , without turning them into the agents of a self-centralizing state power .
In actual fact , we would have preferred to see a detailed preliminary study launched , showing how the external partners participating in the various EU working groups are designated at present , and how the system could be improved with due respect for all the stages in the democratic decision-making process .
The Union 's enlargement is a unique opportunity to turn the CAP from a museum piece into a dynamic , forward-looking policy .
Subject : Anti-dumping measures 
The Commission is proposing to issue anti-dumping measures in the form of higher levies on the import of cheap footwear from China , Indonesia and Thailand .
Does the import of cheap shoes from these countries harm the Community to the extent that anti-dumping measures are called for ?
Two anti-dumping proceedings concerning footwear are currently being dealt with by the Commission .
In accordance with the provisions of the basic anti-dumping regulation the Commission will only adopt provisional methods where imports have been found to be dumped on the Community market and where this dumping has caused material injury to the Community industry concerned .
It must base its appreciation on all the various interests taken as a whole and on a Community-wide basis in accordance with the provisions of Article 21 of the basic anti-dumping regulation .
She mentioned a number of new facts which I did not see in the Commission 's reply to the written question from Mrs Maij-Weggen , about the two anti-dumping proceedings that are currently being dealt with .
Surely this is the ethical approach that we would like to see being copied by other importing companies because this is the way to avoid some of the most unfortunate effects of the anti-dumping measures as we see them before us now .
We cannot only look at one Member State or one group that might be interested in this matter , we have to take an overall view when we look into anti-dumping questions .
Subject : New general co-financing conditions for development NGOs
In particular , the co-financing instrument for development measures by NGOs has assumed growing qualitative and quantitative importance .
Over the course of time , the NGO co-financing line has been gradually increased , particularly as a result of Parliament 's support , and it is now 100 times the 1976 level .
Bearing in mind that , generally speaking , the NGO co-financing projects are well thought-of , I do think that it is necessary - and here I wish to put an additional question to you - to understand the approach being considered in regard to the new co-financing conditions .
Bearing in mind that , generally speaking , the NGO co-financing projects are well thought-of , I do think that it is necessary - and here I wish to put an additional question to you - to understand the approach being considered in regard to the new co-financing conditions .
In the Spanish case , using the announcement of this directive as an excuse , the government is justifying the virtual disappearance of national coal supplies and therefore depopulation , increased unemployment and the impoverishment of the Spanish coal-mining districts .
All those living in the coal-mining areas are losing out .
Perhaps she was referring to the fact that the socialist government , whose party she belongs to , was the one which caused the loss in Spain of 25 , 000 coal-mining jobs and the fact that the current Industry Minister is attempting to salvage what he can from the socialist government 's disastrous energy policy .
This calls for a further wide-ranging adjustment of communications policy at European Union level , and of the pricing policy which is part and parcel of it .
We have also discussed this communication in a wide-ranging debate , in which trade unions and consumer groups have also been represented , and from which a fairly broad consensus has emerged , not least in the Council .
Here we have the latest chapter in the never-ending saga of the postal sector .
The European Council will review progress in the Essen Strategy , the package of restructuring measures designed to increase the job-creating capacity of the European economy , on the basis of a report on employment , jointly produced by the Ecofin and Social Affairs Council meetings as well as the Commission .
I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge again the essential on-going input which the European Parliament is contributing to the work of the conference .
In light of the rapid pace of developments on the ground , it is right that the means by which this help is delivered is re-evaluated on an on-going basis .
We particularly welcome the all-embracing definition of non-discrimination .
We have learnt the lessons of our history and we believe all decent-thinking people in Europe share that desire for tolerance with us .
Not only is the right of democratic control , which is exercised by elected parliaments throughout the world , not further extended in the draft , but the logic of the text would appear to weaken Parliament 's budgetary rights on the second pillar on a common foreign and security policy and , by the proposals for a hybrid arrangement on the third pillar on home and justice affairs , confuses rather than clarifies and simplifies decision-making processes .
We are also critical of the confirmation of the model and the time periods relating to the single currency and we would ask the European Council to embark upon a public and wide-ranging debate in which all the various positions are included and a dialogue to discuss this single-currency model and its consequences , particularly with regard to employment .
Are we not heading for disaster if the great institutional package , which should give the Union effective decision-making powers and the capacity to function after the next enlargement , is postponed until the end of negotiations , with all the dangers that a grand final bargaining session at the last minute can create ?
This document clearly states that in future there should only be three decision-making procedures and that the co-decision procedure should be the general rule for legislation .
I think very little progress has been made so far on the whole question of foreign and security policy or on the role of the decision-making procedures ; constructive abstention is merely an alibi and does not resolve the problem of a destructive country being able to block decisions .
That means that we have to give considerably more thought to the question of decision-making procedures and foreign and security policy than what is reflected in the documents and negotiations to date .
If it comes to the point where , against every rule of logic , the areas of the second and third pillar are also designated as compulsory expenditure , in order to reduce or even obviate any chance of Parliament having decision-making powers there , then I must tell the Member States that in this regard I would say that in Parliament 's view an intergovernmental conference that came to that conclusion would not have come to a satisfactory conclusion .
The Maastricht Treaty allowed for the creation of Europol as an intelligence-gathering agency on the illegal drugs trade .
Although it is true that the strengthening of the present weak state of integration cannot and must not be obstructed , it is equally true that , by substantially improving the efficacy of the decision-making process , we shall be able to present the public with a Union which is more dynamic and more consistent in its operation .
We were promised a revision of the decision-making procedure and we have not got that ; and far less have we seen any role that the European Parliament is to play in that decision-making .
Even though the immediate aim is to guarantee the smooth functioning of the internal market - an indispensable prerequisite for the success of the single currency - and to reduce the adverse effects of unfair tax competition by introducing new instruments of coordination such as , for example , a code of conduct , it would seem that the time has come to make a real move towards abolishing the principle of unanimity in tax matters in favour of less cumbersome decision-taking arrangements .
I therefore very much regret that this error or omission occurred on the part of the Spanish Members representing the People 's Party in connection with a subject which had such serious implications for the coal-mining sector in Spain .
We voted against because that paragraph flies in the face of common sense and the long-standing policy of the Labour Party .
The same might be said of their arguments regarding the Spanish Socialist Party 's coal policy in the coal-mining sector .
The factor which introduced anxiety and concern into Spain 's coal-mining sector was not the socialists ' amendment but the Industry Minister 's statements regarding his interpretation of the cited article of this Directive .
Responsibility for the future of the Spanish coal-mining sector lies in the attitudes adopted by the Spanish People 's Party .
Human rights represent an on-going problem where any presumed advance must be scrutinised closely .
The presentation of today 's reports demonstrates again the long-standing commitment we have to young people .
It is a responsibilitybreeding and enterprise-breeding approach to dealing with real problems in the community by empowering the community to tackle these problems themselves .
In all of these decision-making procedures we should take into account the practical implications of the decisions we are making and in order to do that a study should be done and we will go on pressing to try to have that study done .
Could we have some guarantee that there would be more cooperation and more openness between Parliament and the Council as legislative-making bodies to overcome those problems ?
There is hardly any other subject here in Parliament , I think , that is so complex but also so important in its details or that has such far-reaching implications for working life in Europe .
These include , amongst other things , the definition of the transfer in the first sub-paragraph of Article 1 ( 1 ) , the extension of the directive 's scope to sea-going vessels , non-standard employment and non-profit making undertakings , the provisions concerning transnational transfers , the reinforced acquired rights of employee representatives , the need to establish the joint liability of the transferer and transferee , and certain miscellaneous provisions .
Finally , let me stress the great tourist potential of these countries and the need to develop this job-creating sector .
This kind of extension has far-reaching consequences .
Is it because the producers of these films are only photographing the good-looking ones in this Chamber and cast aside the unphotogenic ?
Ladies and gentlemen , I have the impression that we are going to have a light-hearted morning , but I really cannot allow things to go on like this , because we do have a lot of difficult and time-consuming votes to get through today .
This legal problem , combined with the shortage of manpower , no doubt partly explains the self-effacing performance of the Commission .
With the support of the Commission , the Presidency-in-Office - the Irish presidency - has taken the initiative of sending a fact-finding mission to Belarus .
Since only the Security Council can decide to send a peace-keeping force , the European Council must continue to use its influence to ensure that that is done without delay , because any delay is likely to aggravate what is already an explosive situation .
That is why I support you very strongly indeed and , rather than being frivolous , we should follow up and stamp out once and for all the practice of ' playing the piano ' , which is a long-standing practice in this Parliament .
Mr President , as a long-standing member of the Committee on Petitions I was most honoured to be appointed rapporteur for this report .
Following a process of wide-ranging consultation amongst the Member States and NGOs of and for disabled people the idea of putting forward such a recommendation has been warmly welcomed .
1.It rejects the Commission proposal where it imposes the rigid reduction of capacities ( i.e. in promoting new boat reductions or reductions in fishing fleets as high as 40 % in the case of sardine fisheries in Portugal ) .2.On the other hand there are clear consensuses on the scarcity of resources and the on-going monitoring of their evolution , on impartial and effective controls of fish stocks , on a management of activities and techniques , on the need to defend coastal non-industrial fisheries , or on the attention to be paid to whoever has or has not complied with the reductions planned in MAGP III.3.It is also clear that renewed management of fisheries calls for as assessment of the social impact and additional financial means , whether Community or national , to deal with the loss of income resulting from the willingness of fishermen to introduce new methods.4.It is also clear that it is possible to manage without attacking jobs or putting at risk the social stability of certain communities or affecting productive capacities .
limiting the programme to 31 December 1999 instead of 2002 ; -taking account of the constraints associated with multi-species fisheries and multi-functional fleets ; -the elimination of discrimination between static gears and towed gears ; -taking into account of the social impact on employment aboard ship and on land.Amendments Nos 43 and 44 , taking into account the rate of utilization of each Member State 's quota and incorporating the amendments I had tabled in committee , seem to me just as important .
guaranteeing access , at reasonable prices , to the Union market , for traditional suppliers , without jeopardising the reserve fro up and coming producers ; -guaranteeing priority access to ACP producers in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Lomé Conventions ; -guaranteeing Union producers income support to offset their higher production costs and guarantee them arrangements to make them more competitive.After so many disputes and difficulties , with so many political compromises , the Commission has now come along and for some unknown reason decided to destroy that balance , by increasing the banana / dollar quota by 4 % and reducing the ACP quota by the same amount .
We must improve them in a way that enables measures to improve education and qualifications to be more effectively coordinated with job-creating investment .
I should like to congratulate the Irish authorities on their cooperation with the Commission to ensure on-going evaluation of how European taxpayers ' money is being spent .
To begin with , this report states the position of the European Parliament on a proposal for a regulation amending the co-financing criteria to help the Member States establish an integrated management and control system for certain Community aid schemes .
Parliament was asked to extend the co-financing period .
I would like to congratulate the rapporteur on her excellent and wide-ranging report .
The Union should allocate resources from its annual budget to intercept smugglers as the drugs are introduced to the Union , to control the distribution of substances used in the manufacture of drugs within the Union and to investigate the money-laundering activities of the drug barons .
We certainly welcome the proposed new chapter on employment , but the draft treaty contains no reference to safeguarding public services or to the orchestration of job-creating policies .
They include the following points : the adoption of an important series of measures in the area of justice and home affairs ; the progress made in respect of economic and monetary union , for example the approval of the structure of the new exchange rate mechanism ; the agreement on the rules establishing the legal framework for the euro ; the approval of the principles and main features of the growth and stability pact designed to ensure budgetary rigour in the economic and monetary union ; the important results concerning the growth and employment strategy , which led to the adoption of a declaration on employment , in other words a common programme to identify a broad range of measures to be implemented at national and Community level , to strengthen the synergy between the macro-economic and structural policies in the Member States ' programmes for employment and growth ; and the presentation , as requested by the Florence European Council , of a general outline document for a draft revision of the Treaties , focusing on three main objectives - bringing the Union closer to its citizens , strengthening and broadening the common foreign and security policy , with the aim of achieving greater consistency and efficiency , and ensuring , with an eye to enlargement , the proper functioning of the institutions and the efficiency of the decision-making process .
That is why I appreciate so much the long-standing service to the European ideal in the Irish context which the present Prime Minister of Ireland Mr Bruton has given and in which he has been well supported by Mr Mitchell .
Whichever way one looks at it , it is certainly true that the coming millennium coincides with far-reaching changes in Europe , changes which could finally heal the memory of our darkest hours .
However , we must not overlook the negative aspects associated with this , particularly the ever-widening gap between European government and its citizens .
We therefore also support the proposals to involve the national parliaments in the European decision-making process , for example by sending them early drafts of proposals for European legislation .
Secondly , it was offensive vis-à-vis the efforts made by governments , citizens and countries which believe in a European compromise and are doing everything to fulfil the belt-tightening policies which are called for .
Today , it is possible to find anything on the Internet , from bomb-making recipes and methods of torture to threats against employees and child pornography - anything at all which can be distributed - because no address is given for the provider .
There is , therefore , an ever-increasing need for a single management system for Europe 's air space to optimize its use by means of the same rules and control systems .
Services that are welldesigned , well-run and affordable to travellers are obviously more likely to attract fare-paying passengers in the numbers that are needed to cover costs .
I wish to put on record , as someone who has a long-standing interest in that policy question , that I ask whether I am entitled to receive a copy of the written and oral submissions which were made on behalf of the House on an issue which is of grave concern to many Members .
So even if the Council was able , in its wisdom , to accept a programme to limit fishing effort , that would not end the story , for there would be ever-increasing demands from the industry to allow more fishing .
I firmly believe that all three of those elements can play a full part in the new policy for rural development which , following the Cork Conference organized by the Commission , has opened up a wide-ranging debate on the whole of the common agricultural policy .
Meanwhile some banks in border regions have introduced cost-saving methods of transfer .
Positive from an ecological point of view is that we emphasize the protection function of the forest ; that we want to protect and enhance the biological and economic value of our forests , especially in threatened areas like mountainous regions ; that we ask to take into account the carbon sink function , especially by encouraging the production of long-living forest products .
The Thomas report has the great advantage of having aroused a wide-ranging debate on the subject of forests in the European Union .
But secondly , we also find it unacceptable to have a European company without far-reaching rules on participation .
My aim is to have concrete solutions capable of gathering the support required for the conclusion of this long-standing debate .
Another reason for the limited public backing for the EU is of course the ideas about closed doors and the self-perpetuating talk from men in suits .
To put it another way , a further justification for European cooperation is increased democracy and openness in the Union 's decision-making process .
Secondly , because we wish to have democracy , and openness in the decision-making process .
So we should aim at the necessary coordination of bilateral relations too , in order to ensure that our desire for cooperation is taken seriously by our Transcaucasian partners ; joint and even further-reaching proposals in the framework of bilateral relations , i.e. with Azerbaijan , Armenia and Georgia , could also act as incentives during the future negotiations .
Yes , Transcaucasia is a strategic region with close and long-standing links with European countries as reflected , for example , by the presence of a very large Armenian population in some of them , particularly in France .
It really is a reflection of the poverty of our own food industry that we have not managed to create these mass-processing distribution systems because it means we are losing large shares of the market .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , we have just been treated to a classic example of the rabble-rousing abilities of the far Right .
The Right-wing extremists are a handful of criminals , not organized into political parties .
Terrorism is a wide-ranging threat to the security of the civil population , which often increases the sense of insecurity in Europe much more than traditional narrower , mostly military security problems .
The Commission also believes the Union 's decision-making process needs to become simpler and more democratic , and more transparent and intelligible to the citizen .
Unless he possess psychic powers or is telepathic , how is the Commissioner going to reply to the debate before he has heard all the speakers and all the hard-hitting arguments which will be made after he has spoken ?
It is in fact part of the political Europe we inhabit and recognises that we have both left-wing and right-wing tendencies , and that we have special interests in the transport sector .
In their view , the current budgetary constraints and the need to avoid over-burdening firms taking part in statistical surveys reduce the attractiveness of such an initiative .
The Irish presidency has named it : it is ensuring the establishment of an effective decision-making process , founded , at least in the long term , on the qualified majority and the guarantee of democratic and jurisdictional control .
There is not one word about introducing binding legal environmental and safety standards for energy-producing plant in the Eastern European countries , at least for power stations that supply , for instance , electricity to the European Union .
The Union will in future have to do all it can through programmes like SYNERGY and PHARE to promote energy-saving measures in Eastern Europe , because they are sorely needed .
Mr President , there are grave defects in the Council proposal because the environmental and energy-saving clauses are aspirational only and the Charter will provide no binding legal instruments for dealing with what are admitted on all sides to be really grave environmental degradation and pollution and seriously deficient energy-saving norms in the Eastern European states , which they show no signs of changing .
Mr President , there are grave defects in the Council proposal because the environmental and energy-saving clauses are aspirational only and the Charter will provide no binding legal instruments for dealing with what are admitted on all sides to be really grave environmental degradation and pollution and seriously deficient energy-saving norms in the Eastern European states , which they show no signs of changing .
It was particularly noticeable during the exchange of views with Ambassador Rutten and Secretary-General Schutterle of the Energy Charter Conference that instead of defending the difficulties the Union might have in implementing environmental and energy-saving provisions of the Energy Charter , they stated baldly that some Member States did not wish binding provisions for dealing with the environment in the Charter but took the view that these should be dealt with under a separate agreement .
During the negotiations we did not manage to achieve more than what you have rightly criticized in regard to the non-binding nature of some provisions .
Various factors are involved , of which I shall mention only the most significant : first and foremost , obviously , the political instability that has marked the country over these past years - sufficient to say that Italy has had more than fifty governments in the fifty years since the Second World War ; the fragile nature of Italy 's administrative structures , both at central and , particularly , at regional level , and a certain inability to plan and implement programmes ; a proliferation of decision-making centres , caused not least by the fact that , when regional government was introduced in Italy , no real provision was made for the distribution of powers and responsibilities , which has led to an overlapping of decisionmaking powers ; the proliferation of sometimes contradictory legislation , with long-winded and highly complex bureaucratic procedures ; the lack of coordination between Community structures and Italian central and regional structures , which has resulted in long delays in passing on information and often , I have to say , in a lack of transparency of that information ; and , finally , the accumulated delay in the use of resources for the period 1989-1993 - in this respect , it is worth mentioning the possibility , offered by the agreement that Commissioner Wulf-Mathies reached with former Minister Masera , of extending to the end of 1997 the deadline for the use of funds that should have been used by the end of 1996 .
The structural funds offer Italy a unique opportunity , with a view to economic and monetary union , to make progress with budgetary consolidation , without disregarding forward-looking investment .
Sixthly , an important role can be played by the broad range of undertakings known collectively as eco-businesses - the great majority of which are small and medium-sized - which engage in such activities as pollution control , the production of new , energy-saving technologies and the provision of services for waste management and reduction .
And finally , mention must be made of the primordial role the local and regional authorities need to play , because their participation in the decision-making process and the management of the programmes must inevitably be increased to achieve greater efficiency , as the environmental impact is most obvious at local and regional level and that is where the most direct work on sustainable development can be done .
First , no environmental abuse must be committed in the use of them , as has happened in the past , and serious and far-reaching mistakes that have occurred must be corrected ; secondly , European Union cohesion policy must contribute to the protection , improvement and empowerment of the environment in Europe .
I thought one of the best things about the conference on social policy and economic performance was that for the first time in years , social policy came out of the shadows , and none of the speakers felt the need to defend themselves against right-wing criticism , but spoke confidently about how important social policy is in itself and for the economy .
It is now vital , therefore , to open up a debate at European level on the future of social protection , comparing our experiences and ensuring that a thought-provoking exchange of ideas will produce - if not immediately a convergence of views - then at least a coordination of provisions , whilst respecting national cultural differences .
Our group takes the view that this resolution preserves the main structure of the trading preferences granted to the banana-producing ACP countries , whereas the Agriculture Committee 's amendments contain provisions which conflict with the interests of those countries .
Social problems , the despair that people feel when they are faced with unemployment and see no future for their children , the despair they feel in the face of international organized crime , the mafia , the drugs problems , and the despair they felt when their very health was put at risk , must make all those in positions of responsibility in the European Union who are currently preparing the new Treaty realize that not only must our decision-making procedures be changed - though this too is important - but we must also try to get to the very heart of the social problems that millions of people face and the fear they feel , and we must let them know what we are doing about it .
It is a question , above all , of establishing transparency in the decision-making process - something which is fundamental to all democratic activity .
This raises the question of the safe disposal of offal from the meat-processing sector .
But scientists as such do not take the decisions , and I would quote Guy Debord : ' However much they participate in the decision-making process , they can only influence it by associating themselves with one of the clans , or by gaining the confidence of one of the politico-bureaucratic cliques which vie for power and take up important scientific and technical issues for show , or which , far more often , need experts to dress up in scientific clothing decisions that have already been taken and have other motives ' .
I would urge you to bring forward a practical , viable and forward-looking plan : not cosmetic changes , but genuine reorganization .
But what was significant was that no attempt was made to contradict one of the central messages of the report : that it was the British Government which was principally responsible for BSE because of the deregulation of the meat-rendering industry in the early 1980s .
Without mad cow disease not so much attention would have been focused on the fact that the EU decides on agricultural policy in a more restrictive manner than for other areas of policy , even though the agricultural policy is one of the longest-standing areas of cooperation and this remains the area which accounts for half of the EU budget .
For example , the cattle marking system amounts to an enormous population book-keeping exercise ; it relates to millions of individuals , which , moreover , are replaced rapidly .
With this proposal , the Commission is trying to adapt the Regulation by entrusting the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products with the task of examining applications for the establishment , amendment and extension of MRLs , and to streamline the decision-making process by means of this centralized procedure .
In addition , the Committee of Inquiry has brought to light serious structural deficiencies in a decision-making process which concentrates on particular interests and is impermeable to general interest .
However , the bad management of this crisis was mainly due to the deeds of the previous Commission ; the President of the current Commission has undertaken to correct the malfunctions and proposes to amend the system of scientific consultation , the decision-making mechanisms , the means of control and the Community legal bases with a view to increasing the Community 's competence with regard to health .
The specific allocations created in certain countries ( child-minding allowance , handicap allowance , etc . ) are very low and the spouse who has interrupted a remunerated activity to provide this type of service is in effect penalized : lower social insurance and unemployment benefits , reduced retirement pensions , ineligibility for additional pensions , etc .
Mr President , I too would like to wish Mr Whitehead well with his far-reaching report , for the most positive thing one can say about the Commission 's statement on consumer policy , to be realistic , is that it is far too vague and superficial .
It is time a case was brought before the European Court against the mandatory bonus / malus scale , the mandatory no-claim discount , the outlawing of interest-bearing sight accounts and other things .
No one will gain advantage from Algeria sinking into a ' hundred year war ' and forming , on our southern border , an area of long-lasting instability .
As regards the promotion of security through European Union initiatives for the region , the Council would point to the Euro-Mediterranean process under which confidence-building measures are being developed as one aspect of our political and security partnership .
In East Germany , the Abitur , or school-leaving examination , was obtained after twelve years of schooling , whereas in Bavaria , children obtained their Abitur after thirteen years .
Let me now draw your attention to the measures that have been taken recently to give real substance to what could otherwise be the flimsiest form of European construction : we have the Simone Weil Group mandated to consider the real problems of freedom of movement ; the package of proposals I have put forward for the abolition of frontier controls within a framework of security ; the ever-increasing number of actions for infringement we are bringing against the Member States , in particular for breaches of directives concerning the free movement of citizens and the recognition of diplomas .
We welcome a completely new and far-reaching approach to equality in relations between men and women also .
All in all , I believe that we need to embark on a process of reflection , but this should not take place behind closed doors but in the open , with wide-ranging discussion of this particular issue : the problem of companionship and de facto partners .
Self-respecting politicians want a society which survives , amongst other things , by loving its neighbour .
My colleague Mr Glante is one of the most long-suffering Members of Parliament sitting on these committees , and I must say that it is simply unacceptable for so much time to be wasted before the joint procedure with the Council and Commission eventually produces a result on a subject of this kind .
The work completed by the World Trade Organization on opening telecommunications services as of 1 January 1998 and on the free movement of data-processing products really gives us an idea of a world-wide movement that also involves many countries lying outside the traditional USA / Europe context and projects us forward into the great adventure of the 21st century .
So what we need is a kind of confidence-building process , and perhaps we may be able to persuade the Council that we need to set up a kind of informal group , an informal committee , bringing together the various national regulatory authorities , so that the national decisions can be discussed there , and perhaps their negative effects can be discussed too , and then , with luck , a kind of mutual confidence will develop .
With that in mind , I believe that we should now start by trying to get this confidence-building process in motion .
I regret it because such a vote , apart from sanctioning a Commission which I freely accept was not solely or even principally responsible , would have been a salutary shot across the bows of the institutions and the Member States , a few months away from the IGC , inviting them to question a decision-making system which has displayed its fundamental flaws , bureaucratic opacity , dilution of responsibility , and a system of sanctions which is rigid yet full of holes , making it impossible to reach the guilty parties and forcing us to sanction the whole Commission for the fault of one Member - slaughtering the herd , as it were , because of a single sickly animal .
Thanks to on-going research , much more knowledge is available to us today than it was eight years ago .
I believe that Europe 's policy with regard to Iran is too complaisant and that what we and , in particular , the European institutions should be doing instead is to pursue a hard-hitting policy .
I ask the Israeli Government to end the solitary confinement and to arrange for an early release of this long-serving prisoner .
Has the Commission sent any kind of fact-finding mission to the area ?
Secondly , the resolution attacks the activities of some of the extreme right-wing parties in the European Unions specifically the Front national in Toulon , Orange and Marignane .
And I am not talking about the National Front in France or the Flemish Vlaamse Blok or other extreme right-wing parties or of their loathsome declarations are predictable .
The first is that the left-wing opposition parties of various Member States are hoping to take advantage of a vote in favour by this House to use it against their respective centre / right governments .
We must also be very vigilant against attempts to outflank the Lomé process and deprive it , little by little , of its content : ever-increasing concessions granted to non-ACP banana producers ; a challenge to the status of cocoa in Europe by various food industry combines ; the perverse effects of trade preferences granted for strategic reasons to drug-producing regions .
We must also be very vigilant against attempts to outflank the Lomé process and deprive it , little by little , of its content : ever-increasing concessions granted to non-ACP banana producers ; a challenge to the status of cocoa in Europe by various food industry combines ; the perverse effects of trade preferences granted for strategic reasons to drug-producing regions .
I am also strongly in favour of ECHO , whose operational principles show that only real , effective and on-going coordination of European relief actions will achieve the desired objectives .
This can be very difficult to achieve , especially in humanitarian crises involving massive refugee flows and insecurity , but it is nevertheless essential both to make the best use of funds and to maintain public support for provision of life-saving aid in the longer term .
The awareness of the inherent risks and an on-going analysis of situations prone to crisis , whether due to political or economic reasons , is an important part of this work .
Overall , men tend to have more options than women , as they generally have greater control over resources , greater mobility and decision-making power .
This situation cannot of course be separated from the still poor representation of women in professional and interprofessional organisations and in the political decision-making process .
Mr President , this is the on-going saga of leghold traps .
In the interest of unfettered free trade , the Commission seriously expects the European Union to lie down and effectively chew off its own leg just as 600 000 fur-bearing animals caught in these barbaric legholds do every year in Canada so that fashionable women in Europe can wear fur coats , and the fur trade and the Canadian Government can continue to make millions of dollars .
We hope , now that the Commission is threatening to forget about an import ban and planning to enter into an empty free-wheeling agreement with fur exporting countries , that the European Council of Ministers will act quickly to make an import ban effective for the European Union and correct the ways of the European Commission .
Firstly , the abolishing of internal border checks on persons is an objective of the Union , and should therefore preferably be achieved by means of the Union 's decision-making procedures and legal instruments , which are gradually to replace those of Schengen .
In this respect , it should not be forgotten that the purpose of the White Paper was to generate a far-reaching debate on social change , and not merely on education systems .
The strong growth in air traffic and the more stringent noise requirements being imposed at airports impose a need for ever-increasing economy in the allocation of the available noise space .
Secondly , the admission of new entrants to the airports can only come at the expense of the established companies because you are opening up the market without retaining the slots reserved for the long-standing companies which have spent a great deal of money adapting their aeroplanes and engaged in substantial investment .
Even specialists in the car-making sector have been absolutely stunned by the developments , since Renault Vilvoorde was regarded as a model plant .
One of the future tasks of the chemical industry therefore - given the need for more market-oriented production - will be to protect employment in the chemical sector on a lasting basis and to offset the loss of jobs in traditional chemical branches by the creation of new jobs in forward-looking technologies .
So it is important if not vital for the chemical industry , as a highly innovative branch of industry , to promote new development in forward-looking disciplines , such as biotechnology , which can lead to new products and processes and also reduce the burden on our environment .
There is therefore much to do in Europe , but we must clearly make far-reaching changes beginning with training for those working in these sectors , first modernizing and updating our industries -and I want to mention oil tankers .
But at the same time there are countries which are lagging seriously behind in the on-going process .
Commission studies setting out all of its activities in this area , comparing measures and funding systems in the different Member States and assessing their relative effectiveness ; -compulsory training for teachers and young people , guaranteeing at the same time technical support accessible to everyone ; -strengthening the Community budget , setting up a sub-title in this area and the framework programme and transferring to the development of content some of which has already been earmarked for infrastructures ; -stimulating national inter-school and university networks , creating economies of scale ; -giving incentives to associations between enterprises and teaching establishments through tax breaks and other means to stimulate the quality of production and build this very important bridge between education and leisure.What we must do , Mr President , Commissioner , is make sure that the communication and information technologies - which we should now stop calling ' new technologies ' - should not be seen as an end but as a means for selecting and communicating knowledge .
Subject : Endocrine-disrupting chemicals 
These hormone-mimicking substances , known as endocrine disruptors , have been shown to have direct effects on animal reproductive systems and have been linked to declining human sperm counts , increased evidence of reproductive cancer , such as breast cancer and behavioural problems and neurological deficits .
This in its way is an even more wide-ranging practice and in my opinion it will be good for the Council to be aware of this .
The fishing industry and the fish-processing industry in Ireland have been severely hit by the storms of recent months .
Will the Council now instruct the Commission to immediately bring forward an urgent compensation package to assist fishermen and those involved in the fish-processing industry affected by these severe storms ?
Although there have not since 1994 been the serious disputes seen in previous years , that was because inspection vessels were permanently deployed by sea-bordering countries as well as a Commission monitoring vessel .
In actual fact , these are fishing vessels that derive 50 % of their annual turnover from the tuna-fishing season .
The rapporteur notes that , in fact , in order for the institutions to be properly respected , we really must change the administrative and political machinery so that the European Parliament can be consulted within a reasonable length of time and so that its opinion can really have an effective influence on the decision-making process .
With that in mind , my services have organized wide-ranging consultations both within the Commission and with the Member States and other countries involved in the common transit system , as well as with the entire private sector .
Finding the answer to that question was the task of the committee of inquiry , which investigated in the course of 16 hearings , various fact-finding missions and numerous meetings the devious routes goods can take after coming into the EU free of customs and excise duties under what is basically a regulated system and the way they can cross the entire continent , with the appropriate duties not being levied until goods reach their destination .
The cloning of animals intended for slaughter leads to a further rationalisation of animal production , more far-reaching industrialisation of agriculture and also undermines our aim to change agricultural production in order to achieve an ecologically sound agriculture .
After all , when it comes to medical assistance with procreation , there is already a particularly serious ethical objection raised by the technique of micro-injecting spermatozoa into an ovum , since it involves a choice , a deliberate selection of reproductive cells .
But it is also a source of frustration and anger for law-abiding citizens .
The wide-ranging recommendations contained in the report should be implemented , and soon .
A list of confidence-building measures has been drawn up and a plan of action devised , which serves to guide the work of the competent departments of the Commission .
In particular , we regard as most important the call on the Commission to draw up a special report on the human rights situation in the 12 non-EU signatory states and the proposal on the establishment of a European civil peace corps in order to strengthen humanitarian action , achieve a peaceful resolution of conflicts , prevent the outbreak of new conflicts and provide the requisite confidence-building measures .
We all know that he is a forward-looking man , rather like Batman visiting his website , and we like to know that he is well ahead of us in these information technologies and making sure that Parliament will be well provided .
United Nations family-planning programme in Asia , ECU 25 million ; and the most recent decision regarding the Philippines , ECU 19 million - to demonstrate that if we add together all we are doing on various bilateral cooperation programmes , the Committee on Development and Cooperation should have no trouble in confirming that , in this specific case , we are meeting its requirements - our presentation , however , is , of course , different .
Mr President , first I should like to congratulate Mr Linkohr , not least for his patience in this apparently never-ending saga of the refinancing of the fourth framework programme .
In political terms , the point is to help stabilize these three states , which are now of course , as former members of the Soviet Union , in the process of fundamentally reorganizing their societies , economies and political decision-making structures .
This applies to the chemical and textile-processing industries in particular , and that is undoubtedly also a point which must be taken into account in our cooperation with this country .
Do not forget that we are dealing with the world 's third-ranking nuclear power , a country which has significant mineral , energy and textile resources - including space installations - , one which is on the dividing line between Islam and Christianity and which is home to a significant Turkish-speaking minority , and also Russianspeaking and Polish-speaking minorities .
Do not forget that we are dealing with the world 's third-ranking nuclear power , a country which has significant mineral , energy and textile resources - including space installations - , one which is on the dividing line between Islam and Christianity and which is home to a significant Turkish-speaking minority , and also Russianspeaking and Polish-speaking minorities .
We believe that national parliaments should be the highest decision-making forum in Member States .
By abandoning efforts to secure the infinite growth of what is literally an ' institutional monster ' , of ever-increasing remoteness , complexity , opacity and uncontrollability , and start enthusiastically advocating genuine , controlled subsidiarity .
At the Clinton-Yeltsin summit , far-reaching proposals on the dismantling of strategic nuclear arsenals will be on the agenda .
Perhaps things have to reach that point for the House to realize how important such apparently minor contributions can be for peace in Europe , and what far-reaching effects they can have .
The Commission 's communication is predictably cautious and Europe must take a lead at UNGASS in calling for a more far-reaching programme , in particular to demand binding environmental legislation and targets .
The next item is the report ( A4-0077 / 97 ) by Mr Martin , on behalf of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development , on the proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation ( EEC ) No 1442 / 88 on the granting , for the 1988 / 89 to 1997 / 98 wine years , of permanent abandonment premiums in respect of wine-growing areas ( COM ( 96 ) 0706 - C4-0047 / 97-97 / 0009 ( CNS ) ) .
For example , my country , Germany , was given only 50 ha for the permanent abandonment of wine-growing areas .
Major problems arise simply from the question of how this small area is to be distributed among the 13 wine-growing regions .
The permanent abandonment of wine-growing areas , and thus the withdrawal of areas from wine-production , is a measure intended to stabilize the wine market in Europe .
The first market-regulating instrument in the case of wine has to be sales promotion .
Market regulation must be tackled with moderation and understanding , and the permanent abandonment of wine-growing areas must always be done - and here I agree with Mr Martin - on a purely voluntary basis .
As far as I am concerned , I still reject a general policy - a suicidal policy for Europe 's wine-growers - designed to control production by permanent abandonment with all its familiar effects on the countryside in wine-growing areas , on soil erosion , on the abandonment of the land resulting in economic decline , rural exodus and youth unemployment , not to mention the lost means of production for the world market .
Madam President , in some European wine-growing regions we are witnessing an escalating crisis of excess production which should be eliminated immediately by a carefully structured programme of action .
The need now is for the Commission to move quickly to present proposals aimed at reforming the common organization of the wine-growing markets , a project which has been hanging fire for two years although the European Parliament previously made proposals on the occasion of the Fantuzzi report .
Apart from the looming crisis , it is absolutely essential to preserve a future for our wine-growing regions .
Let us retain a degree of flexibility in the management of wine-growing enterprises , through temporary grubbing-up .
Regarding the specific case of Charentes , it would be suicidal to abandon permanently , as some people have nevertheless suggested , some 20 , 000 hectares - 25 % of the wine-growing potential of the region .
Instead I want to make the link with the general issue implicit in this morning 's debate , which is the need to renew structural measures in the wine-growing sector to update rules that are now obsolete and no longer capable of meeting current needs .
Action must also be taken through measures like grubbing-up and replanting to reinvigorate the wine-growing sector for the future and take account of the real situation in the geographic areas of the European Union .
Naturally this is not a final arrangement to improve the organization of wine-growing areas and wine markets ; that much is absolutely clear .
But I did so with a heavy heart , because of course any withdrawal from production of wine-growing land means a setback as far as our culture and civilization are concerned .
We are fortunate today , that our session is being presided over by a President who represents one of the best wine-growing areas of Europe , namely Lower Franconia .
Unfortunately , Ireland and the Netherlands have done nothing , and so we are now putting our faith in Luxembourg , which is itself a wine-producing country .
Mr President , our Group is in full agreement with the Pompidou report , which has made a worthy contribution and far-reaching improvements to the Commission 's communication on RTD cooperation with emerging economies .
How can anyone imagine for a moment that insurance companies , whose sole ambition is to make money , would do better than systems based on national solidarity at financing the cost of medicine - an ever-increasing cost because of technical advances and increasing life expectancy .
In an interview published on 29 March Mr Martens accused the CDS-Partido Popular , with which I work as an independent and of which my colleagues , Mr Girão Pereira and Mrs Celeste Cardona are stalwart members , of being an extreme right-wing party .
With regard to the decision-making process it is difficult to argue that a procedure in which the Commission and one Member State can prevail over 13 other Member States is in any sense part of a democratic system .
Who is responsible for this confusion , which on the one hand discredits genetic engineering , but on the other hand also weakens people 's confidence in the European decision-making process ?
The speeches by our colleagues give rather an image of the Commission as a political decision-making authority which is irresponsible , if not incompetent .
Secondly , the positive rights : these guarantee the participation of the individual in political and social decision-making processes .
I have spoken in a multitude of urgency debates on issues ranging from the bombing of trains in Italy by right-wing terrorists through to the horrors of the desecration of the Jewish cemetery in Carpentras .
Mr President , the arrival in the House of right-wing extremists in 1984 marked the start of a series of activities designed to combat racism and xenophobia .
Firstly , the inclusion of an article on non-discrimination in the Treaty of Amsterdam ; secondly , a code of conduct for political parties to prevent normally reputable parties from peddling extreme right-wing views for electoral reasons ; and , thirdly , a Monitoring Centre for Racism , which is the subject of this morning 's debate .
Perhaps this critical analysis of the annual economic report will help to bring about concerted political action and ensure that a market economy underpinned by a socially responsible economic order and job-creating growth finally sees the light of day in the European Union .
I will briefly recall the fact that transgenic maize has been made resistant to the larva of a crop-devastating insect .
But , on the other hand , there is a lack of realism : in an earlier reference in paragraph 5 ( ix ) we have the usual rehearsal of left-wing objections to the activities of speculators .
Subject : Anti-dumping duties in the textile sector
In carrying out anti-dumping investigations , including the one in question relating to the imports of grey cotton fabrics , the Commission is bound by the provisions of Council Regulation ( EEC ) No 384 / 96 which reflects the WTO agreement in this area .
Commissioner , my understanding is that this decision went to the anti-dumping committee where the vote was 7 to 7 with Germany abstaining .
Will anti-dumping duties continue to be provisionally imposed during that consultation period until we finally get a decision ?
If anti-dumping duties are ultimately rejected by the Council of Ministers , is there any question of compensation for those companies who have been adversely affected ?
Finally , given that the effect of these anti-dumping duties has been to distort the market in the textile industry and the relationship between spinners , weavers and finishers and that European finishers have been put at a serious disadvantage by these anti-dumping duties , is there not a case for anti-dumping duties to be imposed throughout the textile industry and not in just one part of it ?
Finally , given that the effect of these anti-dumping duties has been to distort the market in the textile industry and the relationship between spinners , weavers and finishers and that European finishers have been put at a serious disadvantage by these anti-dumping duties , is there not a case for anti-dumping duties to be imposed throughout the textile industry and not in just one part of it ?
Finally , given that the effect of these anti-dumping duties has been to distort the market in the textile industry and the relationship between spinners , weavers and finishers and that European finishers have been put at a serious disadvantage by these anti-dumping duties , is there not a case for anti-dumping duties to be imposed throughout the textile industry and not in just one part of it ?
I do not accept that it is possible to impose anti-dumping duties in relation to products about which there has not been a complaint .
But as soon as they reach a positive conclusion , we in the Commission will lose no time in bringing forward a proposal , and at that stage the normal decision-making process will begin - in other words , the Commission will submit a proposal to the Standing Veterinary Committee .
I have received many fine-sounding papers on what we are doing and what we might get out of it .
For example : disclosure of the principles of accountancy applied and improvements to the stocktaking and final accounting procedures , enhancement of the analytical account-keeping system for the monitoring of resources , and improved explanatory notes in the financial returns , as a result of which the actual status of implementation of Community aid is easier to assess .
We must of course welcome the policy of structural adjustment aid , and the fact that the Commission selected priorities here such as education and primary health care seems indicative of a more far-reaching policy on development aid than those of other financial institutions .
As the same time the Commission has acknowledged the wish to improve administration , simplify the decision-making process and to make things more transparent .
The Union must be present on the ground , especially at a time when the American government , which has been so involved , so active and sometimes so effective , now seems to be having difficulties in restraining the ardour of a rabble-rousing head of government .
Although definitive decisions are still needed in a number of areas , it seems likely that the activities of the international community will in any event include the following three elements : firstly , humanitarian aid with the European Union playing the leading role , together with a reinforcement of Albania 's police capacity , possibly with the European Union playing a co-ordinating role together with the Council of Europe .
It gave a warning then and it gives a warning now that , in this political crisis , as Mr Van den Broek has said , we must tackle the political problems first and , above all , neutralize , not for reasons of revenge but for the sake of Albania 's survival , the faction which is undermining the democratic process in Albania , before we do anything whatsoever about sending peace-keeping forces .
The Chinese seem unable to grasp the essential point , pointed out by Mr Watts and others , that it is not simply a money-making city ; its economic welfare depends on the wellbeing of its citizens , and that point has yet to be grasped .
The reduction in ozone-creating substances which the Commission proposes will mean that only 37 % of the territory of the European Union will meet the standard laid down by WHO .
Unfortunately it is possible to infer that the European Union likes to draw up great far-reaching plans without being quite clear as to how much they will really cost .
The sum of 12 million ECU has been made available for possible initiatives agreed with Cyprus for projects to promote confidence-building measures .
Secondly , we believe that engines should not only allow reduced consumption and improved performance in terms of reducing pollution , but that new engines should be envisaged which are capable of running on new , non-polluting sources of energy , such as solar power or hydrogenic energy sources .
This is because it is the custom in certain countries like Germany for the churches to have a tax-raising power .
These documents , the first of which is actually a legally-binding treaty which has been signed by the EU and all Member States , calls for measures which are more progressive than those which the Commission is requesting .
The contents of Amendments Nos 24-30 , 49 , 50 and 75 form part of the on-going negotiation process with the Council on the technical details of the annexes to the Commission 's proposal .
In particular , I believe that the linkage established in Article 2 ( 2 ) between fishing permits and pre-existing entitlements to fish and the fact that Article 2 ( 3 ) fixes the number of vessels at the status quo figure constitute unacceptable restrictions of the fishing effort .
In these car-producing countries particularly rigorous requirements have already been introduced for new cars .
I would urge you to talk to the political groups about reorganizing these topical and urgent debates , otherwise we shall end up going round in ever-decreasing circles , and that is surely not what anybody wants .
As has been pointed out , a fact-finding mission sent by the European Union concluded that such a referendum could be declared illegal and that the constitution did not establish an adequate separation of powers or the proper control and balance of these .
Commissioner Marín , do you know whether the Council will hand over the report of the fact-finding mission to Parliament and , if so , when that will happen ?
There are , then , at least three things that must be done : the first is to call upon the United Nations Security Council to set up an international peace-keeping force with a mandate to protect the humanitarian organizations , to disarm the Hutu militias and to guarantee the frontiers recognized by international law .
The overriding need is to ensure , in every country in that region , a framework of internal and international safeguards enabling the entire population to feel a sense of safety ; it is a task , then , for the United Nations , and for the countries represented there , starting with the Member States of the European Union , to prepare the ground for a peace conference and , especially , to resolve to send an international peace-keeping force .
Unfortunately , this left-wing fascist-type movement , which was responsible for the second holocaust of this century , has been integrated into the peace process .
Nevertheless the Commission cannot change the decision-making procedures within the Council , and in particular , it cannot replace the rule of unanimity with that of the qualified majority .
I only hope the special co-ordinating department which has just been set up within DG XXIII will be really effective .
These are not large industrial groups , mindful of the macro-economic measures taken by Brussels , but small structures which struggle daily to try to reconcile on-going management , the conquest of markets and practical difficulties .
The Commission has had wide-ranging discussions with the bodies of the sector in preparation for the Third European Conference on the Craft Industry and Small Enterprises scheduled for Milan in November .
It is a free-standing industry , it has its own identity and it must pursue its own interests as an industry .
There is no transparency , no accountability in the allocation of funding and decision-making bodies are run as government quangos with very little elected representation , although I have to say that the pressures from this House and from other colleagues across the regions has meant that we have made some progress in getting elected members on English regional committees .
There has been long-standing concern and debate within the United Kingdom on the government position on government programmes and how they are brought about .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , the populations of the outermost regions , and more specifically those of the banana-producing countries , have been concerned about the consequences of their integration , the degree of solidarity they may enjoy and the Community preference granted them , since the publication of the interim report of the WTO panel on the ' bananas ' OCM .
In respect of this aspect , our aim is to establish that the very bodies of the autonomous regions should be informed when legislative initiatives are being taken , so that the self-governing institutions can actually find out about proposals dealing with specific affairs relating to the regions before they are included on the Council 's order of business for discussion .
There is broad unanimity about democratization and opening up of the negotiations taking place in the EU , so it is difficult to understand why the European Parliament was not formally involved in this decision-making process .
And those proposals will provide a basis for wide-ranging debate .
Today , while regretting an emergency debate which has prevented us from having the necessary far-ranging debate , I tabled amendments to call for an extension of the seventh directive , to reiterate the importance of shipbuilding , to demand the principle of parity between the Member States , to declare the OECD agreement on this matter out-dated and to increase the rates of possible aids in all Member States of the European Union to bring them in line with the reality of the market .
Because it is such a report , it is essential that careful note is taken of its hard-hitting comments .
Over these months the Green Paper has been discussed in depth by four European Parliament committees , the quality of whose work is well reflected in the wide-ranging report presented by Mr Anastassopoulos .
Madam President , first of all I wish to express our support for the work carried out by Mrs Palacio because we can also conclude from it that the correct application of the subsidiarity principle should mean bringing European citizens closer to the decision-making process in initiatives leading to the development and consolidation of the European Union .
It must also be borne in mind that the subsidiarity principle , as interpreted at the Edinburgh summit , is emphatically designed to resist centralization and keep the decision-making process as close as possible to the people .
Those people are very worried about what they perceive as ever-increasing meddling by Europe .
Not to beat about the bush : no sensible person objects even to far-reaching forms of co-operation and debate at European level , but more and more sensible people are wondering about certain manifestations of over-harmonization , excessive European interference in regional or national matters .
Madam President , I should like to begin by saying that in our view the principles of subsidiarity model and characterise the decision-making process of the Community 's institutions .
But as close as possible to the people means that decisions in this decision-making pyramid should be pushed down as far as possible towards the pyramid base .
These aims have already been reached in terms of organic poultry rearing and there is already a tradition which has been developed , of bee-keeping , resulting in high-quality products given the abundance and variety of honey-producing flowers which exist in my country .
It rather seems to be saying that , if a French gourmet thinks goose liver is a mouth-watering delicacy , he is not thinking very seriously about the interests of animals .
In fact , in order to bring about a far-ranging change in the unfair shareout of support which is currently given it is vital that we introduce preferential aids to those on lower incomes and to family farms while limiting or even preventing aid which at present is given to farmers on higher incomes at set limits .
I think we need to emphasize that , now more than ever , it is necessary for us to have openness in our decision-making procedures , and I would therefore call on the Commissioner to look favourably on this proposal .
It covers a wide range of product types , such as disinfectants , wood preservatives , insecticides and anti-fouling products .
While we feel that lobbyists may bring considerable information to us parliamentarians , it is also our duty to ensure the maximum amount of transparency in the decision-making process and in the way in which lobbies attempt to affect our decisions .
The Member States must endeavour to use their democratic instruments in all those areas where the EU has no decision-making power .
The communication also provides for the arrangement of wide-ranging consultations before any environmental legislation is drafted , and the publication of an annual report on the application of Community environment law in the Member States .
Our government has applied over and over again for ever-increasing amounts of structural and cohesion funds without feeling that the EU has any right to scrutinize how the money is spent .
Here it looks as if the threat of a further Court judgment will be able to resolve these long-standing issues .
There is ever-increasing pressure for high levels of information , education and training to be available to every citizen - health professionals , technicians and commercial operators in the sector , managers in charge of health services or institutions and authorities responsible for advising both small and large communities - demanding increasing levels of responsibility .
Initial , further and in-service training have been improved , as has protection for pregnant and breast-feeding women .
This experience raises a fundamental dilemma for the EU : would its military and police operations be exclusively peacekeeping or should it have a peace-enforcing capability ?
The European Union ought to be promoting a new model of pan-European security , developing the OSCE by reforming its decision-making processes and increasing its capacities and resources , and coordinating the armed forces of Member States to perform ' Petersburg ' missions - but always at the request of the United Nations or the OSCE .
It is clear to me that a peace-keeping operation is inconceivable with just a civilian force .
I hope our socialist friends will understand that without institutional means and majority decision-making capacity , we will continue to find ourselves in the same situation as we are in today , with Europe incapable of doing anything at all .
I believe , then , that the WEU must be harnessed to the service of the CFSP , and that there must be not just cooperation between the WEU and the European Union but real , genuine integration with , maybe , the possibility of creating an opt-out - giving those countries which are unwilling to participate in military peace-keeping initiatives the right to withdraw .
Madam President , I congratulate the rapporteur on his thought-provoking report on European external and internal security policy .
I am glad Mr Tindemans , who was an enlightened Foreign Minister in my country , Belgium , insists on a strengthening of the operational structures of the WEU , on better cooperation between the European Union and the WEU , and on the creation of a European military and civilian peace-keeping force .
I really cannot understand this reluctance , since I believe it is a question of seizing an historic opportunity : the opportunity of being able to hope legitimately , for the first time , that by applying common European decision-making structures and capabilities we can make the use of force to achieve political goals impossible .
Madam President , in the light of the Union 's lamentable foreign policy performance , especially in the Balkans , the need for Europe 's people and politicians to pull together in the security field , to install more rapid and effective decision-making mechanisms , and to speak with one voice on the international stage is greater than ever .
Nor is it appropriate , in my view , to refer to the EU undertaking peace-restoring missions as distinct from peacekeeping and peacemaking operations .
Now we need to agree a common interpretation of them and then they should be turned into a legally-binding code of conduct .
In my view , therefore , this report fails to set out a forward-looking strategy for the European Union .
The Greens tried to make it more flexible in many respects , but the enthusiasm for hair-splitting detail won .
The Greens are in favour of increasing the Parliament 's decision-making powers in the Common Agricultural Policy .
I fear that the problem is more fundamental and it lies in the self-censoring reluctance to tackle big issues from a European perspective .
It is against this background that the Commission , even at this early stage of the Intergovernmental Conference , has made its contribution to that conference , making points that are very much in line with the recommendations of this report and of other resolutions adopted by the European Parliament : the preparation of our common action through this joint planning analysis capacity ; the question of the representation of the Union in foreign policy by the new model of troika , which is still under discussion ; the question of how we can change the decision-making procedures and whether some qualified majority could be introduced into the foreign policies , which is also still under discussion in the IGC ; the question of the defence component we discussed this morning in relation to the Tindemans report on the Common Security Policy ; last , but not least , a matter which is attracting some attention today , and rightfully so , the whole question of how we finance of the Common Foreign and Security Policy .
The Commission is particular concerned to see that the interests of the banana-producing regions of the European Union and the ACP group continue to be taken into account .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , from time to time European countries and regions as well as banana-producing ACP countries experience particular difficulties in marketing this farm product as a result of interference from third countries defending interests differing from the European Union 's .
The Community banana import regime defined by Regulation 404 / 93 stipulates that the European Union must respect its undertakings to banana-producing ACP states .
The common organization of the market in bananas was difficult to achieve but , overall , the result was a balanced one , including the banana protocol to the Lomé convention , a fundamental contractual agreement which is , moreover , recognized by the Marrakesh agreements and covering eleven traditional banana-supplying States which , if this decision were to be confirmed - would either be further impoverished or forced to abandon an opportunity for trade in favour of further forms of assistance .
Mr President , of course what we recognize in this debate is that the long-running banana drama actually crystalizes the elements of the debates in Europe about the whole issue of preferential access .
Mr President , Commissioner , if the European Union is forced to accept the findings of the WTO Banana Panel report , that would call into question the defence of the principle of Community preference and this would mean speeding up liberalization of the banana COM , calling into question also the already precarious economic and social stability of banana-producing countries , as well as the ecological and environmental balance as a consequence of abandonment of these crops .
This must happen according to the rules of the game : the establishment of an interim regime which will prepare elections , the holding of elections which produce a credible result , and then the establishment of a government with a legitimate authority after the elections - a legitimate authority which is worthy of receiving every support from the West to bring about stability , freedom and peace in this long-suffering country .
Can the Council , in its capacity as the Union 's highest decision-making body , oblige the Commission to disclose the report , at least to the Swedish Government ?
I am glad that he recognizes that some European countries which trade in the United States have been intimidated by the very possibility of legal action being taken against them and that there are other American laws which have been used against law-abiding Europeans citizens .
There are two cases : one concerns bycatches , which is rather a sore point with both conservationists and the local fish-consuming community ; the other concerns the desirability of hiring Sao Tomé and Principe crew on the fishing boats .
Under the current decision-making procedure on fisheries within the European Union , authorizing powers to be conferred on the Commission to incorporate binding legal acts adopted by international organizations to which the Community belongs , as proposed here , means Parliament , and moreover the Council , would be cut off from the decision-making process in respect of acts relating to a significant part of the common fisheries policy .
Under the current decision-making procedure on fisheries within the European Union , authorizing powers to be conferred on the Commission to incorporate binding legal acts adopted by international organizations to which the Community belongs , as proposed here , means Parliament , and moreover the Council , would be cut off from the decision-making process in respect of acts relating to a significant part of the common fisheries policy .
The report gives a realistic description of the Community fleet 's ever-increasing difficulties of direct access to the fishing grounds of other third countries .
This is a kind of money-losing machine with which we try to patch up the eastern European scrap-heap reactors without making them any safer .
Serving members of the Irish army have recently highlighted the need for upgrading their equipment if they are to continue to perform their peace-keeping tasks under the various UN mandates .
Finally it should be noted that it is unrealistic to aim for far-reaching liberalisation in the defence market because of the specific nature of this sector .
This painful affair calls for a far-reaching review of our diplomacy and our development policy .
At this moment , we believe that the Commission , by refusing to appeal , may have violated Community rules and we are referring here to the decision-taking procedure of Article 113 , Article 228 ( 3 ) 1 and 2 , and Article 235 of the Treaty on European Union .
Education and training for young people , the appointment of qualified teachers and adequate pay , village cooperation , the creation of trade and craft networks , active local awareness-raising measures and support for the NGOs ' work .
Every year the Commission should carry out a far-reaching examination of the energy policy of three countries , so that in five years we will have an analysis of all fifteen .
These services open up wide-ranging prospects for the growth of our industry and for innovation , investment , the creation of new jobs in Europe and consumer choice .
In Finland the regional and local authorities in fact hope that the decision-making power on EU funds will be transferred to local authorities .
In future the Commission should ensure that regional and local authorities are given full decision-making power in the adoption and implementation of programmes .
With regard to the internal borders , the INTERREG programmes implemented on some borders demonstrate that the Structural Funds are capable of promoting in-depth co-operation , with a single programme on both sides of the border , a steering committee and working groups that mobilize a wide-ranging partnership , and a single common fund for the financing of the projects .
We were very disappointed when the local military rulers did not allow the United Nations Centre for Human Rights and other agencies to send a fact-finding mission on humanitarian needs because the conditions imposed were such that it could not be accepted .
From the contacts we had with our special envoy who met the Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday , it would seem that the difficulties have been overcome and we hope that in the very near future a fact-finding mission on the humanitarian situation and of the needs to respond to quickly will be made inside the Democratic Republic Congo .
Thirdly , the provisions for the convergence programmes are made more realistic and bring into the regulation on surveillance a sense of strengthening those Member States not participating in stage three of EMU , by protecting them from profit making in the framework of the new exchange rate mechanism , i.e. protection by the European Union 's bodies from profit-making attacks .
Therefore , it is obvious that only if we have a stable and controlled budgetary situation and if our economies are converging can we coordinate efficient , job-creating employment policies .
For instance , we need to reduce the Union 's decision-making procedures to three and we want to see that happen .
In order to make progress , we need a European foreign and security policy which includes decision-making procedures .
As the European Union 's powers increase , however , a solution must be found to the serious problem of its democratic deficit : powers - and , consequently , democratic control - cannot be removed from the national parliaments merely to increase the powers of unelected decision-making bodies .
Your response to this situation is to strengthen intergovernmental mechanisms wherever possible , and even to propose that the whole affair should be managed by a middle-ranking official .
However , there does not seem to be any similar good news about the openness of the Council 's decision-making process .
What has been said about the decision-making process is important too .
It is my firm belief that , once decision-making procedures exist , it should not then be possible for individual Member States to block those procedures on grounds of national interest .
Given the need for budgetary discipline , we should support the automatic and systematic imposition of penalties in the form of non-interest-bearing deposits , and their subsequent conversion into fines .
The elements currently under consideration in the single market action plan are : measures to guarantee proper taxation of cross-border capital flows ; measures to abolish taxation in the form of deductions at source of interest payments and royalties between associated companies ; a code of conduct designed to limit damaging fiscal competition which impinges on the Member States ' tax-raising powers - the points for inclusion in the code , as listed in the Secchi report , will be a valuable contribution here ; and measures to eliminate competitive distortions deriving from a lack of harmonization in indirect taxation systems .
For the English-speaking world I would venture to put on record that the acceptance of non-conventional medicine is a core value in that culture and is woven out of three different strands .
I therefore believe that we must adopt Mr Lannoye 's thought-provoking report .
Non-conventional therapies are based on the same natural laws as conventional therapies , but seek to stimulate the body 's internal self-healing powers to a greater degree .
As part of my research and discussions for this report , I met with the construction industry 's federations across the Member States and they are willing to contribute financially towards a house-building programme in cooperation with the local and national authorities .
Ambiguity is evident in the cobbled-together text as to whether masters , as well as ordinary seafarers , are included in watch-keeping regulations .
Democracy is thwarted here because European citizens have the impression that the decision-making process is completely beyond their understanding .
The European Parliament does not have a law-making initiative and only intervenes to deliver an opinion in most cases .
We do not need competing or rival systems , but at the same time we do not need completely uniform and all-embracing ones either .
It appears that even where non-controversial issues are concerned , conventions , protocols , agreements and declarations are used because they are unavoidable in an intergovernmental context , with endless negotiations between the governments beforehand and time-consuming ratification procedures in the Member States afterwards .
We need firmly agreed deadlines , and all those people who are involved in the expansion and coordination of the electronic data-processing system could help here .
For example , on the petition about opencast lignite mining in Garzweiler , because we as a committee thought that the information provided by the petitioners was insufficient , we decided to send a fact-finding mission there .
Tens of thousands of new voters , almost by definition not Dutch-speaking , of course , are threatening to create a tidal wave of support for the French-speaking parties .
These French-speaking parties represent people who think that they belong to a sort of ' Herrenvolk ' that does not need to adapt itself to the language of the country in which it settles , but thinks instead that the native population , the Flemings , the Dutch speakers , should adapt themselves to the newcomers .
We have established that the quota system will be voluntary , and on this subject I have to say - and it was a very wide-ranging discussion - that everyone here in this House wants European programmes , and European films , to make up the largest contingent of our programmes .
In this particular area , there is no divide between the well-behaving countries and the badly-behaving ones .
In this particular area , there is no divide between the well-behaving countries and the badly-behaving ones .
That will be of particular help to nonprofit-making organizations .
You found the right approach with us , sure enough of yourself , your theories and your experience to accept an open dialogue , something that certain high-flying technocrats still do not dare have with parliamentarians .
Now the Fourçans report , once again by a Frenchman , proposes an economic government with far-reaching powers .
Firstly , it should be no surprise to us that right-wing governments in Europe are being thrown out by the people for failing to respond to the jobs crisis .
It is a growth and stability pact , requiring a proper policy mix of fiscal and monetary instruments to enhance the job-generating powers of EMU .
The political stakes are very high : without coordination of fiscal policies , respecting subsidiarity , there can be no social market economy at European level , and no well-functioning market economy .
Nor can there be a well-functioning market economy in Europe without fiscal coordination , given the obstacles facing firms , and indeed workers , in a single market without a minimum degree of fiscal harmonization .
The Danish Social Democrats favour very wide-ranging exchanges of information and coordination of initiatives between the Member States .
We disagree totally with the rapporteur 's proposals for a form of ' economic government ' The institutional edifice of the EU has no need of new political bodies or of any strengthening of the Commission 's information-gathering powers .
This system would take away national decision-taking autonomy ( is it not its main aim ? ) over a resource as vital for the States as this - since VAT receipts accounts , for example , for half of all French tax revenue .
Amendment No 14 provides for the introduction of complicated rules for determining the co-financing ceilings for the individual Member States .
The Commission will , however , continue to support thorough-going surveys of the economic position of the sector .
Amendments Nos 20 and 21 , which provide for the rules on compensatory payments for mountain and hill-farming areas to be extended to cover other species , need to be looked at more closely in the context of the Council regulations on structural policy .
As the European Parliament has stated , tourism has substantial job-generating potential , and it does , of course , provide work , in particular , for vulnerable groups in society such as women and young people .
Of course , it is possible that this is only a provisional reaction and , as yet , offers no guarantee for the direction to be taken by the decision-making process , given that this will only take place , at the earliest , at the June Council meetings .
Of course , it is very difficult to predict the decision-making process in the Council but , at present , you now know the personal position of its President-in-Office .
I think that it is not worthwhile to go on for too long about this subject and that it is not necessary at this stage in the decision-making process , given that many Member States have yet to make their opinions known in the Council .
As President , I will do everything in my power and I hope that we are going to be able to cooperate with the Commission so that the decision-making process concerning the prices package is completed at the Council meetings to be held on 23 , 24 and 25 June .
Unfortunately , I am sorry to tell Mr Baldarelli , the decision-making process has not yet reached a stage where a decision can be taken in the Council .
Certain Member States and representatives of the European Parliament have insisted on a rapid decision-making process concerning the set-aside percentage for the next year .
And I thought that the Goepel resolution that you are going to debate on Thursday insisted on a rapid decision-making process .
I support this position and hope that the Commission will also agree , because it is always in a position to do so , and I hope that , therefore , it is going to be willing to make a proposal in the short term because I think that that might also somewhat simplify the decision-making process in respect of the prices package .
Unfortunately , Mr Sturdy 's anti-farming positions are those of Anglo-Saxon bleeders of the land .
It gives priority to financing all production which costs jobs , with one scandalous exception - the tiny tobacco-growing area .
I think that it is obviously necessary for the decision-making process in the Council for it to receive an opinion from the European Parliament because , without it , the Council cannot do its work and I think that it would be in the interest of farmers and farms throughout Europe for a decision to be taken at the end of June on next year 's prices package .
( Applause ) I should once again like to emphasize that the stability pact , as its new name implies , is also a growth pact , therefore a job-creating pact .
We also still bank on the implementation of Jacques Santer 's confidence-building pact .
No one is going to cede major decision-making rights to organizations without being sure that social , employment and environmental policies can be implemented in the Union .
However , we welcome the fact that employment and the environment have been taken into consideration to a greater extent and that progress has also been made in the fight against international crime , that decision-making procedures have been simplified and that the European Parliament will have more clout in terms of legislation .
Yet we know that without real European democracy , without transparent and simplified decision-making processes , without an improvement in the procedures and methods of the Community institutions to put them in a position to neutralize what has been very effectively defined as the renationalization of minds , the Europe we want will not come into being .
It will only deserve that name if it consists neither of non-binding declarations nor of job creation programmes that would cost millions and are impossible to finance .
The European Union provides a synergistic effect by co-ordinating measures by the Member States , allowing a regular and intensive exchange of experience and supporting the implementation of model projects .
If we shy away from that responsibility we are doomed to being merely the paymaster for the peace-making efforts of non-European powers .
Madam President , the annual report on the progress of CFSP , as my group deplores , is unfortunately more of an occasion for a ritual celebration of integrationist fundamentalism than a far-reaching examination aimed at confronting aims and realities .
The fact that the EU accepts the Petersberg undertakings , peace-keeping and peace-making missions in other words , is positive .
We need a decision-making structure which respects the sensitivity of national sovereignty and the sensitivity of some of these issues to our Member States but still allows us to make progress .
The former complain that they have been relegated to the rank of chambers for rubber-stamping decisions taken elsewhere , including the European Parliament .
That is important in areas where the decision-making process is still essentially an intergovernmental matter , such as the common foreign and security policy , as well as justice and internal affairs where , like the European Commission , I feel that the European Parliament 's role is still too limited .
That does not mean to say that we should further complicate the decision-making process nor slow it down by creating new institutions and structures .
It may well be - as you pointed out , Madam President-in-Office - that Parliament has an important role to play , but our problem is that we have no decision-making power .
At the meeting of the United Nations Committee on Human Rights in Geneva , the European Union will submit to a far-reaching examination its current information sources concerning the human rights situation in China in order to adopt a coherent approach in the framework of future policy , thereby taking on board the various points of view of the Member States .
However , the new decisions by the Chinese authorities may mean that a democratic handover of Hong Kong in respect of human rights on 1 July 1997 will be possible , if the letter of pre-existing agreements is respected .
Is it not a fact that the real beneficiaries of the World Trade Organization decision , if it were implemented , would be American-based multinational companies which already control over 90 % of the world trade in bananas , and have we not therefore a duty , if we want to fight poverty in the world , to stand very firm on the agreement we made with the banana-producing countries ?
At an inter-state level this co-operation also includes non-binding support on defence issues and common efforts in international peace keeping missions .
We must have scope , for example , to organize a greater number of exchange programmes within the framework of town-twinning arrangements .
improving the competitiveness of combined transport in terms of prices and service quality vis-à-vis road transport ; -promoting high technology in the combined transport sector ; -improving access for combined transport companies , regardless of their size.These arrangements prefer innovative and practical measures to the launch of prior studies .
The crumbs left over from the budget proposed by the Council regulation for honey marketing and technical aid to health action of quality improvement bring the matter before a European Parliament which , on 20 January 1995 , already drew attention to the difficult situation facing the European bee-keeping industry .
For example , in order to mobilize all financial provisions in favour of positive actions for the bee-keeping industry , we demand that the investment needed to fight zoonoses , such as varroa , should be made part of the European Union 's veterinary policy .
Tourism policy calls for a high degree of coordination in the Commission , and the focus should be on a decision-making process with maximum transparency , but tourism policy should not have its own legal basis in the Treaty .
I would only recall the example of the French-speaking countries : how can you believe for one moment that if we had a single European foreign policy that the interests of the French-speaking community in the world would be defended ?
I would only recall the example of the French-speaking countries : how can you believe for one moment that if we had a single European foreign policy that the interests of the French-speaking community in the world would be defended ?
The dumping margin reached 110 % on persulphates for the textile and chemical industries in 1995 which , at the time , obliged the Commission to set a provisional anti-dumping levy of 83.3 % .
It also uses sport to promote public health , and I believe we should take that aspect into consideration by rectifying a long-standing omission and giving sport a legal basis in the Treaty , which is under negotiation again at the present time .
With its educational , democratic , cultural , social , integrative and health-promoting aspects , it has an enormous beneficial impact on our daily lives .
Mr President , as Parliament 's longest-standing rapporteur on sport , I am very pleased with the Pack report .
Catamaran ferries are the cause of serious environmental pollution , noise nuisance and disturbance to wildlife ; they endanger other sea-going vessels and are a nuisance to beach visitors .
The Danish Social Democrats would also like to see the transport of goods and passengers switched from catamaran ferries and other fast-moving craft to more environmentally friendly vessels .
It is a report of far-reaching significance for the future , in that it finally makes human rights and democracy a precondition for certain forms of cooperation .
On the decision-making procedure itself , the Committee on Foreign Affairs welcomes the Commission 's proposal to use a qualified majority vote in the Council .
As in all anti-dumping cases , each party including the Commission and the complainants retain the right to request or initiate a review .
So let me ask you a few questions : do you not think that one very important reform , intellectually , would be to review the excessively narrow concept of economic criteria that are accepted at these conferences , and that it might be high time to take account of a suggestion made by the World Summit on Social Development held in Copenhagen in 1995 which called for the child-rearing tasks performed within the family to be included in economic calculations ?
I want to reassure those Members of Parliament concerned that we are as concerned as they are about these aspects and we tried to devise a mechanism that , while providing a framework directive , causes the least disturbance possible to a wellestablished and well-functioning system like the British one .
Finally , there was the assessment and updating of strategy in the data-processing sector where the Committee on Budgets are collaborating very well with Vice-President Haarder who has responsibility in this area .
A substantial amount of money is being put into the reserve until the data-processing strategy is somewhat clearer .
The European Investment Bank can grant loans to new and fast-growing businesses , as was decided at last week 's European summit .
There is no shortage of fine-sounding words on the subject , but the specific proposals are not particularly impressive .
If it is true , as they say , that the brave new world is coming , the world of the information society replacing the industrial society , should it not be our priority to hold , at long last , a sensible and rational debate in this House about the future of the new technologies and their far-reaching consequences for the 21st century ?
It is the result of the introduction of new technologies , services and innovations at an almost mind-blowing rate .
A decision was taken by the Commission , by Parliament and all the way along the decision-making process in the Community .
And just because there are certain influential companies in the United States which have great influence on the Hill , the decision-making process in the United States , it does not mean to say that we should weaken our resolve on this issue .
Following the decision on banana imports , the WTO panel concluded that the European Union 's ban on imports of hormone-containing meat was contrary to the rules of international trade .
Let us recall that when the European Union decided to ban imports of hormone-containing meat from 1 January 1988 , the reason was not an artificial , protectionist attempt to prevent trade but an attempt to protect consumers against the harmful effects of hormones , whether natural or artificial - effects acknowledged by many scientific experts and by the European Veterinary Committee .
That means that in future we will have to consider a much further-reaching strategy , which will have to encompass an entirely new agricultural policy , an entirely new trade policy and an entirely new consumer protection policy .
In the past , large road-building schemes in the cohesion countries have destroyed more than they have really achieved .
For the rest , Member States are also putting more emphasis on the need to build up rail , sea , combined transport and urban transport systems and to give precedence to environment-friendly projects over huge road-building projects .
As I said , we have taken the opportunity of the annual reports to undertake a more fundamental appraisal of the PHARE programme , a forward-looking appraisal .
The Parliament and the Committee on External Economic Relations find that the Commission itself must assume more responsibility and in particular more political responsibility for matters which fall to policy-making officials who are subject to the authority of the European Union .
What we also need is more co-financing projects so that the Central and Eastern European countries can identify more closely with the projects concerned .
The list of measures includes a considerable reduction in the number of programme management bodies , integrating the programme more closely in the activities of the partner country 's authorities , a thorough examination of the on-going programmes with a view to speeding up their implementation , reducing the financial backlog and a thorough revision of the handbook on the decentralized execution of the PHARE programme .
Broadly speaking , the quality of European administration has been improved both institutionally and materially in the form of new , policy-reinforcing articles in the Treaty .
The idea of ' transparent government ' is also finally taking shape at European level , first of all by streamlining the decision-making procedures , as I have already mentioned , and secondly by making the Treaties rather more accessible to the layman .
Other important environmental measures taken over the last six months include the promotion of an integrated , sustainable water management system and the reduction of air-polluting emissions from road traffic .
The acknowledgement of respect for human rights ; the new no-discrimination clause , although it is such a pity that in the European Year against Racism and Xenophobia the Council could not adopt this competence with qualified majority voting ; the clear step forward on equal opportunities , the environment , public health and consumer protection ; the developments on transparency and openness and the reduction in the number of decision-making procedures and the stream-lining and extension of co-decision for the European Parliament .
Furthermore the slow progress in extending majority voting in the Council undermines the core of the process of integration of the Union , and represents a serious threat to the actual decision-making capacity of the European Union .
First , given the total failure to carry out institutional reforms we are surely faced with the following dilemma : either the already very poor decision-making structures in the European Union will worsen with the accession of new Members or we will have to postpone enlargement .
So if the first wave involves less than six Member States , there will already have to be an agreement on vote reweighting , while if the limit of 20 is exceeded , there will have to be institutional reforms which - as far as we are concerned - should cover not just the size of the Commission and vote weighting but also the decision-making procedures .
It is the most basic courtesy for a President of the Commission to reply to a Prime Minister regarding a problem with the application of Community law , which in fact is what the quota-hopping issue was about .
Knowing that the quota-hopping issue is a very sensitive one , not just for the British but equally so for the Spanish , Mrs Bonino as the Commissioner responsible and I myself wanted to ensure that the Spanish authorities were always kept informed about contacts with the British authorities .
I repeat my concern at the excessive weight and veto of the Member States in the decision-making process , the modest progress in the role attributed to the Committee of the Regions and the limitations now in existence for the development of European policies in the field of external relations , justice and domestic policy , even within the scope of economic and monetary policy which is absolutely necessary and essential since we are to have an internal European market and the prospect of Economic and Monetary Union and a single European currency .
There is an insistence on a federal framework , although it has not been adopted : decision-making powers are concentrated at Community level , the citizens are ever more remote from the decision-making and consequently democratic deficits are increased .
They give it the illusion that it has decision-making power .
We have a duty to set up a flexible system , involving the simplification of the decision-making procedures and greater additionality with other Community policies ( employment SMEs , the campaign against exclusion ) .
This means that the multinationals make huge profits from the biodiversity of developing countries and from the traditional knowledge of their inhabitants without a decision-making process , without consent , without legal protection and participatory rights for the populations concerned and that they even patent human or biological material .
Vaccination and antibiotics have dealt with many of the life-threatening illnesses of the past .
In a fast-moving industry the European Community has been lagging behind the very rapid progress made in the United States .
Let us make it a precondition for this directive coming into effect that an ethical committee shall be established and shall be a central part of our decision-making process .
In today 's newspaper an Austrian agronomist says that small plant-breeding businesses could actually shed jobs because larger enterprises will compete them out of existence .
Therefore , the Commission must examine how an ethical dimension can be introduced into the decision-making process related to the Directive . '
Since the Council must be in a position to oversee the Commission 's actions at any given time , it does not seem to us to be appropriate to modify the existing decision-making procedure , which does provide for the exercise of such supervision .
At the end of the day reforms will have to be put through , if that is what it takes , rather than having to make do with the conscience-salving post-facto corrective measures brought by the Ombudsman 's action .
This fragmented regulatory system makes it harder for those involved , who have no clear picture of the legislation in force , and creates an off-putting climate for investment in the sector .
Such programme agreements will be started up on a pilot basis with those NGOs which can demonstrate an appropriate development approach in partnership with local NGOs and with whom the Commissioners have a long and satisfactory co-financing relationship , and will be built up progressively .
Programme contracts will account for only a certain percentage of co-financing funds each year since the Commission will continue to finance individual projects for those European NGOs who continue to operate on a project-by-project basis or are too small to engage in programme contracts .
We have worked with the liaison committee of the NGOs in order to create this so-called co-financing support programme .
We hope that through these co-financing support programmes , the quality and the accuracy of reporting will improve , and therefore the idea is to extend progressively these pluriannual schemes to as many NGOs as possible .
The following information emerges from the details provided by the responsible implementing authority : firstly , the airport terminal cofinanced by the Regional Fund is not used by military personnel unless they travel as fare-paying passengers on commercial flights ; secondly , there are no restrictions on the tarmac .
Allow me to inform you that capital cities , insofar as they are cultural , financial and political decision-making centres , have the highest concentration of services in the country in question , but that this concentration also makes them a centre of attraction for local immigration and immigration from third countries , resulting in a most appreciable increase in the marginal population , the unemployed , and the consequent depopulation and impoverishment of the surrounding region .
We wish to express our concern at the ever-increasing demand for air transport , expected to double by the year 2010 , obviously placing an unprecedented pressure on our safety .
We know from experience that the mere fact of numbers complicates and slows down our decision-making process but we are also numerous in thinking that the historic gamble of opening up to new democracies undoubtedly wins the day over any other considerations .
It is an historic opportunity which can bring about far-reaching changes .
As the institutional protocol foresees , the European Union cannot expand by more than another five Member States without a more far-reaching reform of the provisions of the Treaty on the membership and operations of the institutions .
The Commission has selected four main aims for internal Community policies : creating the conditions for sustainable growth , basing growth on knowledge , undertaking a far-reaching modernization of employment systems and promoting a safe society based on solidarity , concerned for the general interest and respectful of the environment .
Mr President , the second part of Agenda 2000 is dedicated to the challenge of enlargement. it draws conclusions from the far-reaching analysis of the situation of the different applicant countries in terms of the Copenhagen political and economic criteria .
We shall achieve that aim if we work with courage and resolution , but also with patience and commitment , for the future of this ancient but constantly self-renewing continent of Europe .
A dangerous and provocative choice , in terms of Russia , that of rejecting Slovakia 's candidacy while continuing to enjoy good relations with that country while accepting Estonia 's , with the huge problem that that poses to the existence in that country of a considerable Russian-speaking minority which is not integrated and deprived of any civil rights .
Secondly , the charge that the Committee on Foreign Affairs is the co-ordinating committee is incorrect .
Patent law is very technical and difficult , and issues such as this have far-reaching ramifications .
There is no doubt that it is going to be enlargement which , in many ways and quite rightly , will be the headline-grabbing issue during the Luxembourg presidency .
But what we object to is the absence of a single Community strategy , and that , unfortunately , will not change until the decision-taking process is reformed and the principle of unanimity abandoned and we decide to accord the common foreign and security policy a priority role in the process of European construction .
This morning Mr Santer and Mr van den Broek asked very reasonably for Turkey to help find a solution to the long-standing problem of Cyprus , using membership of the European Union for Cyprus as a catalyst .
Finally , my group really welcomes and congratulates President Demirel and Prime Minister Simitis of Greece for their ground-breaking meeting and agreement in Madrid .
We need confidence-building measures , too .
The OECD worked with the Albanian authorities to prepare those elections , mainly using European money , and the multinational peace-keeping force , originally given a very different mandate , did in fact guarantee that things went ahead relatively smoothly on election day .
The multinational peace-keeping force should be given a new mandate until the new government has restored order .
Hundreds of EU citizens take part in humanitarian and peace-keeping activities in regions suffering from hunger , poverty , epidemics or war .
In this connection , is the Council in favour of the proposals for all basic infrastructure projects to be subject to a safety impact assessment and for motor vehicles to be equipped with speed-limiting devices ?
A European Union fact-finding visit led by a former Dutch minister of justice was sent to Belarus in January 1997 to find out whether the referendum was legal , to assess the new relationship between the different branches of the government - executive , legislative and judiciary - and determine whether that relationship complied with the principles of the separation of powers and also to check whether the opposition media were indeed the subject of harassment .
To that already time-consuming process were added the difficult negotiations carried out in the context of the Conciliation Committee , and those negotiations finally led to an agreement with the Council .
Later , in another paragraph , we say that we want to control ozone-depleting substances , and I am all in favour of this objective .
After our debate today , the Council will have a fresh opportunity to examine Parliament 's amendments , and I hope that the two institutions can conclude the decision-making procedure on this proposal before the end of 1997 .
Mr President , the five years that have passed since the well-meaning resolutions of the Rio Summit in 1992 have been characterized by a lack of commitment in the West to meet the challenges of climate change and environment and development .
It considers that the ECU 1 billion which is needed to support the workers in the tobacco-growing areas can be found under a number of headings , including , for example , the structural funds , EAGGF Guidance , budget lines B1 5010 to B1 5012 and a number of budget lines in Chapter B5 32 designed to stimulate small and medium-sized enterprises .
I should recall that it is no accident that tobacco-producing regions in Europe are , in the main , Objective 1 regions .
All Europe 's tobacco-producing regions suffer high levels of unemployment .
This so-called anti-smoking campaign , if not naive , is stupid .
We would like the words ' extremely ' and ' Objective 1 ' to be deleted from that recital , since there are tobacco-producing regions which are disadvantaged regions of Objective 5B .
Unfortunately , the Commission and the Council are trying to present the issue in a different way , claiming that there is supposedly a contradiction since on the one hand we spend money on an anti-smoking campaign , while on the other hand we subsidize tobacco growers , of whom there are approximately 150 000 within the European Union .
This is not the right time to start changing a long-standing policy because of heavy lobbying .
I therefore deplore the piecemeal approach adopted by the Commission to the universal service and call upon it , at long last , to prepare a strong , all-embracing Directive on a subject that is essential for the future .
Last-minute deals between anti-smoking lobbyists cannot conceal the fact that abandonment of the sector in favour of extraCommunity interests and markets is not an option for the future which improves the present situation .
So it is important for the European Union to equip itself with a European peace-keeping and peace-making body immediately .
No justice would imply a continuous threat to long-lasting peace and stability , thereby undermining the political and economic recovery of Bosnia-Herzegovina and hampering the return of refugees .
Today we express our deep concern at Peru 's long-standing failure to heed international protests against so-called faceless courts , which remain totally unacceptable to the international community .
I would say in response that the Commission welcomes the negotiations between the National Democratic Front and the Philippines Government to settle their long-standing dispute .
It is the opportunity to transform the political support expressed by 97 states at the Brussels conference into an international legally-binding treaty to be signed in Ottawa in December .
Secondly , to make full use of every option available within the scope of the relevant programmes , such as INTEREG II C and Regulation 308 / 97 , for preventive action and more effective fire-fighting measures in the Community 's high-risk areas .
I would begin by thanking you for agreeing to the urgent procedure , and by pointing out that the early green light from the Commission and the Council means that the hop producers affected by these far-reaching changes can be informed of them speedily and , above all , can obtain the aid they need as a matter of urgency .
The following conditions would have to be met : reusable hop-growing facilities must be maintained in good condition ; the areas must be given permanent grass cover to improve soil fertility ; and the areas under hops must not be extended to include other farmland .
The tradition of hop-growing dates back a long time in a number of Member States ; that is why we should help to secure its future , so that every now and again , when our work is done , we can toast each other with a glass of good beer .
I shall not go on and shall instead take this opportunity to stress that , among the SOCRATES objectives , there are language-learning actions , vital in order to create understanding between the fifteen and the candidates for accession .
In the future , there will be a flood of English-speaking people ; the economy needs them .
There is also the protection of products with the name of origin ; the wine-producing regions in particular requested this .
Mr President , of the many valuable and forward-looking ideas contained in this report I would emphasize the need to link cultural requirements with quality tourism .
What is needed is for all of us to unite our forces in this endeavour to change today 's society and create a society where sex does not decide who is first to become unemployed , a society whose members are not be excluded from decision-making positions because of their sex , or do not have equal access to information or education and training programmes because of their sex .
Helplessness at the lack of effective measures to promote equality , helplessness at the lack of stability in women 's employment , helplessness because we women are under-represented in decision-making positions , and , above all , helplessness at the lack of strategies in the Commission 's communication .
At the same time , however , long-standing prejudices and ideas about the participation of women in the creation and development of our society must be swept aside .
Rare indeed are the women who occupy decision-making posts .
In the fifteen Member States , women do not even occupy one position of responsibility in five , and we can just about take heart at the fact that 25 % of decision-making posts are occupied by women in the Commission .
They told me that French women do not want to do all the men 's jobs and that they do not harbour any socialist yearnings to become pneumatic drill-wielding soviet-style labourers .
They burst out laughing when they read the denunciation of the drop in women 's participation in decision-making procedures except in the Nordic countries .
The participation of women in the decision-making process at all levels must be promoted .
I believe that interim quotas are an effective tool for achieving this goal , and when there is natural equality of representation in the decision-making process the system of quotas can be ended .
So the proportion of women on decision-making bodies must also be increased immediately at the regional level .
Another example is the need for balanced participation of men and women in decision-making processes .
I note with satisfaction that the rapporteur stresses the link between mainstreaming and the participation of women in the decision-making process .
Sometimes we are astonished that we have wage discrimination and so few women in decision-making positions , which we were talking about only a moment ago .
Other serious forms of violence are : discrimination and sexual harassment faced by women in the workplace and their virtual exclusion from public office and from political decision-making centres ; the commonplace refusal of men to support their children morally and materially after divorce ; the abuse of women through advertising and the media ; pornography and prostitution .
Women in advertising should also make an effort to gain greater influence over the production and decision-making processes , and establish alternative agencies producing innovative advertising .
Perhaps those stereotypes have receded a little , but it would be going too far to say that the advertising world does not have trail-blazing work to do .
It also encourages a balanced participation by women and men at decision-taking levels of the advertising industry and the media , in order to strengthen the influence of women in this field .
I also hope that the Commissioner is taking note of what is being said in this Parliament which , as the Commissioner will see , is composed of a wide political and geographical spectrum , in which not only the banana-producing countries but also the majority of Parliament defend a stable regime .
Therefore the EU must change its current rules on the banana trade for several reasons : because it is in accordance with our international commitments , because it would benefit consumers , and because there are more effective ways to support the developing countries within the ACP in their efforts to find forward-looking structures of production .
Following the Commission 's rejection on 14 February 1996 of the amendment to Directive 89 / 552 / EEC ( Television without frontiers ) , the purpose of which was to prohibit advertising directed at under-twelves , Commissioner Oreja promised that the Commission would conduct a wide-ranging study of the effects of advertising on children .
Does the Commission consider that , as part of the process of privatizing the Spanish Steel Corporation ( CSI , S.A. ) , the acquisition of a third of its share capital by a major European enterprise , and its business management , constitutes a European merger as well as a transfer of the decision-making centre to another enterprise in which institutional and public investors of another Member State have a majority shareholding ?
The proposal requires a joint decision-making mechanism for the introduction , review and phasing out of temporary asylum .
The idea is that this joint decision-making process will form the framework for a real division of the burden of responsibility with regard to the mass immigration of people who are refugees and in need of asylum .
They are also permitted to apply certain other requirements according to various circumstances in individual wine-growing regions .
We should also , possibly , have raised the question of technology transfers and cooperation between large and small companies , particularly large companies and sub-contracting companies .
The financing of innovative companies and especially young people starting up and pace-setting companies by means of investment and risk capital is one of the keys to innovation .
A while ago German newspapers reported on how a seller of fire-fighting equipment had been arrested for illegally importing freons from China .
Our debate today would be completely unnecessary in a fully-functioning democracy .
Between you and me , Madam President , this is hardly earth-shattering news .
It would be helpful if the Middle East peace process could come under the heading of the Barcelona process and if it could become a permanent , on-going conference , within the Barcelona process for the Middle East peace process , which would be based on the creation of working groups .
Because without taking into account the rational economic and social development of Israel 's neighbours , the jealousy and fear of Israel , a hard-working democracy , will remain .
We have a great opportunity as a European Union to make sure that we can bring those conclusions and peace process together so that we do not need to continue this debate on a never-ending basis .
Subsidies are too bureaucratic : there won 't be a penny for the risk-bearing entrepreneur .
But how is it possible that , with unemployment the biggest nightmare in the union area , we are worsening the situation by taking away the better service of the corner shop and replacing it with pollution-making supermarkets .
Furthermore , the participants in the Observatory have succeeded among themselves in forming a smoothly-functioning network of scientific institutions that possess special knowledge about SMEs .
There was a well known sentence about the conditions concerning egg-laying hens , in 1988 .
True , it does not work when the need is not felt or when one of the parties makes exorbitant or over-constraining claims on other partners , but must we bemoan this fact ?
It concerns re-establishing consumer confidence in the safety and the quality of beef .
I would like to ask the Commission if , in December , in connection with the Monti initiative , it will at least discuss reclaiming tax-raising powers , namely on financial operations , company profits and property , as in view of the stability pact this can only be done through gains on the receipts side .
This can be achieved through confidence-building measures , both at bilateral level and multilaterally through NAFO .
As the previous speaker said , it is best if long-standing relations , such as concern fishing , can respect international law .
This is a wide-ranging package , and the Commission has put in very solid work .
We know that this is one of the forward-looking instruments .
However , in this respect we believe we have to point out the urgency of overcoming the present democratic deficit which , if it continues , will end up by perpetuating anomalies in European decision-making processes which can only be tolerated in the short term .
Mr President , Mr Alber , dear Siegbert , that sounds rather more normal in the German translation than in the Dutch , but I must honestly say that after Mrs Ewing you are the most long-standing member of this Parliament .
But , and here come the problems , as integration and the principle of supremacy are extended , the national decision-making processes are weakened .
The trade arrangements are the usual ones in such cases : provisions concerning rules of origin ; intellectual , industrial and commercial property ; anti-dumping procedures and subsidies ; safeguard measures required for infant industries and for difficulties with regard to trade and balance of payment ; and provisions for consultation within the Cooperation Council .
We must therefore speak our mind very forcefully to make sure that there is a 5th Lomé Convention , even before the year 2000 , based on the same geographical limits and the same essential principles as the convention currently in force , but with a far-reaching reorientation of its content .
Similarly , we must make sure that the enlargement of the European Union is not used as a pretext to divert the Union away from pre-existing forms of solidarity , notably with the ACP countries .
This report , which has wide-ranging consequences , is an expression of the consensus in the European Parliament , and I therefore ask Commissioner Pinheiro to include the main elements of it in the next mandate proposal for talks with the ACP countries .
They concern access of women in particular to basic services , be these education , health services , or even equal rights to participation in decision-making processes ; for the key to development lies in strengthening women 's rights .
It is an invitation to misuse a well-meaning law .
The facts are obvious : if for the sake of sheer greed we want to turn a cud-chewing animal into a feeder on carrion , then we have got it all wrong .
It is ironic that countries which cannot make up their minds about the single currency are those in which monetary union would have the greatest job-creating effect .
It has been a long-standing wish of the European Parliament and it will now happen .
The new co-ordinating directives have been implemented so badly that in the spring of 1996 the Court found three Member States guilty of not taking measures .
There is nothing to prevent a Member State 's recycling system from applying to all products , whether they be domestic products or products produced in other Member States or in Non-EU countries - provided , of course , that these systems apply to non-domestic products on non-discriminating conditions .
We are currently considering how to organize these consultation processes in such a way as to ensure that they enhance the decision-making process and do not upset the operation of the financial markets .
With regard to the single currency and expansion , for example , the Union 's decision-making process has demonstrated its failings , even if we share the final objects .
The Union 's decision-making rules had to be adapted to allow for enlargement .
But I have to acknowledge that beginning with the opening speech of the President of Parliament , and continuing with the other speeches , important points have been raised and a forward-looking approach has been adopted .
At the time when the Luxembourg presidency has just proposed a more wide-ranging approach , so that the debate is not focussed on the taxation of savings only , but drives on strongly towards tax harmonization so as to avoid unfair competition in the matter of tax advantages , and therefore includes all aspects of taxation , I note that , contrary to what some people fondly believed only yesterday , there is not one tax haven in Europe , but there are fifteen of them .
In particular I support the proposal to blacklist companies that are involved in cartels and price-fixing agreements .
Another matter of concern with regard to this Community action is the decision-making process .
Its application would , and we all know it , have had immense repercussions both on the quality of chocolate and on the revenues of the cocoa-producing ACP countries .
In the name of defence of the quality of chocolate and in the interests of the cocoa-producing ACP countries , I am in favour of rejecting the directive in order to give a strong signal to the Council .
The rules in seven countries have considered the cocoa-producing countries .
We are also voting on the way of life in cocoa-producing countries .
It is said that we should use cocoa butter out of consideration for the cocoa-exporting countries of Africa , but the dispute is after all only about the maximum 5 % of the chocolate product which vegetable foodstuffs can comprise , so this matter can hardly be catastrophic for the countries concerned .
The proposal of the Commission also raises a series of questions concerning , in particular , the relations of the EU with the less developed countries , particularly the cocoa-producing countries .
Mr President , I want to speak on the Breyer report , as a Member for Lubéron and LanguedocRoussillon , the premier wine-producing region of the world , but also of your country , President Imbeni .
This group is responsible for communicating all useful information to the government , evaluating the situation on the ground from day to day , assessing needs which may arise , for example , for fire-fighting equipment , and advising the government on the actions to be taken .
They have for years been the first to be expelled by fire-raising cattle ranchers and by Caterpillar tractors serving the tropical timber merchants , and they are also pressurized by landless peasants from other parts of Brazil .
The tunnel through Hallandsåsen is intended to become the largest time-saving measure on a very long stretch of railway .
I myself , since I I have been connected to the Internet and have started e-mailing people all over the world , have read and written more than ever before .
And I would conclude , Madam President , by saying that we also need to introduce press-reading modules into our school curricula , from the most elementary levels .
But with the flood of information and our fast-changing society parents need to be helped to fulfil their responsibilities .
In June 1995 the Council of Ministers adopted wide-ranging rules on the transport of animals .
However , the exporter can have a far-reaching influence on the organization behind the transportation process , for example , by demanding an agreement to ensure that the transporting company is obliged to make good the loss of any export subsidy which may result from negligence or maltreatment of animals .
It occurs to me that one or two of them might be farmers and their financial involvement and interest in the decision-making process would then affect how they voted and what they said .
It contributed to the fact that self-seeding land was destroyed , and plantations laid out because there was simultaneous encouragement for them .
We need a range of services to protect our children and an early-warning system to alert us to potential dangers .
I appreciate her call for an increased role for fishermen in the decision-making process and the emphasis that she has put on conservation of fish stocks and environmental considerations .
In the Sainjon report , therefore , the multinationals are re-evaluated as the driving force for prosperity through job-creating investment as well as promoters of the modern job culture , acting as ambassadors and almost de facto social operators in developing countries through their voluntary codes of self-regulation .
To fight against social dumping , we also propose including social and environmental clauses in all trade agreements and taxing capital movements to divert them towards productive , job-creating investment .
On numerous occasions the Members have stood as one and demanded action and measures from the Commission and have also made the Commission return with far-reaching proposals , all aimed at preventing new tragedies from occurring .
For the ferry companies in those countries , today 's decision will have no far-reaching consequences .
Politically we should ask ourselves whether we want a tale-telling society like the one this communication would ultimately lead to .
The proposals for a common European social policy , social convergence policy , harmonization policy , binding legislation and tax harmonization ( paragraphs 1 , 9 , 27 etc . ) would entail a far-reaching supranationality which I cannot accept .
Their role in the whole energy-producing scenario is only marginal .
Up to now the losers from Customs Union have been small and medium-sized businesses in Turkey , whereas EU exporters have been raking in ever-increasing profits .
The Committee on Legal Affairs opposes the amended legal basis and in so doing refers to the decision-making procedures in the Committee for the European Economic Area and in the Association Council with Turkey .
When I think that job-creating investment in production plant rose by 30 % between 1989 and 1996 in the USA , but by only 5 % in Europe , we can imagine the difference in the employment trend .
We must also encourage and support what we call the third sector or the social economy ( a loved child has many names ) which is concerned with cooperatives , non-profit-making organizations , small businesses , things concerned with cultural work , with nursing , caring and that type of activity .
In the last two years , around ECU 52 million have been allocated to mine-clearing measures in the countries most affected .
The directive includes far-reaching requirements for accounts of all the consequences of various methods of working and also for a public statement of emission risks .
Do not forget , Mrs Palacio , that Catholicism is not the only religion in Cuba ; there are others , with other types of problems , making this a much more far-reaching debate .
Let us see if we can reinitiate something we would like to see : far-reaching negotiations , adapted to the Cuban situation , which will allow us to persuade that country to enter into a privileged relationship with Europe .
It is an on-going debate and certainly we are going to hear more about it .
Yet these clear limitations and insufficiencies were quite clearly foreseeable , since , the budgetary resources provided for the period from 1994 to 1999 were and are insufficient , thus confirming the appropriateness of the ceiling for the Community Budget in 1999 as proposed by Jacques Delors in Edinburgh , or the essential need for the even greater sums suggested at that time by various economic fact-finding studies , which proved that such sums were vital to ensure a real convergence rate that could deliver genuine internal cohesion .
I consider the International Fund for Ireland to be an essential part of the confidence-building process for the communities , alongside the peace and reconciliation programme .
These are their channels and their programmes and they have the ownership of this community-building peace programme .
It is now their duty , with the assistance of Bar Councils and the ever watchful surveillance of the Commission , to fully implement and exploit this forward-looking directive , which will provide opportunities and freedom .
I and my committee are suspicious of the decision-making formulas generated in Amsterdam .
Nevertheless , this report manages to steer this criticism and these demands in a positive , forward-looking direction , enabling the Committee on Agriculture to change its initial " No ' vote into a " Yes ' vote for the Tsatsos-Méndez de Vigo report , which genuinely serves to mitigate the inadequacies of the Amsterdam Treaty .
Our main concern is to ensure that these rights can be effectively exercised , and we therefore fear that insufficient institutional reforms in Amsterdam will prolong the ineffectiveness of the decision-making process designed to implement the rules of the treaty .
I cannot however say the same , nor should I do so , of the objectives of the institutional reform which is recommended , since these are limited to the decision-making powers of governments , raising the spectre of a Directoire of major states in the face of public opinion and regrettably overlooking other major institutional issues which are relevant to enlargement , such as the reform of the Community budget and the role and resources of economic and social cohesion policies .
Whilst we recognize the changes that Amsterdam brought to the treaty by extending in some areas qualified majority voting and codecision and by introducing other minor institutional changes , we , who are so deeply involved , also recognize that not enough was done to create a decision-making structure for twenty-plus Member States .
Let us be glad of the developments on transparency and openness , the reduction in the number of decision-making procedures , the enhancement of the fight against fraud and the improved customs cooperation .
Beyond the absence of any overall , forward-looking view of this least ambitious of all treaties that have gradually marked the stages of the construction of Europe , beyond the fair criticisms we have heard in almost all opinions from the committees involved , I believe that this treaty provides a good representation of modern times in Europe .
This says that all in all , the new treaty only represents the measure of the national and even nationalistic electoral aspirations of its signatories without any forward-looking objectives .
It must also be noted that very many residents of Community countries who are qualified in foreign laws are currently registered with the Luxembourg legal authorities ' training course , and successfully meet the requirements of the end-of-training examinations .
It will definitely help to engage women more in the decision-making process , because they will start feeling stronger once their socio-economic position improves .
It is proposed that you can let nuclear power replace existing CO2-contaminating power stations , because nuclear power is one of the cleanest sources of energy which does not emit greenhouse gases .
Nothing will be possible without redistributing the wealth of capital towards labour , without European taxation of capital movements , without reducing VAT on essential products , in certain job-creating sectors or in sectors with a future .
However , historically , we must concede that the governments and leaders of the Member States have failed in the historic dimension insofar as they have not managed to give the European Union of the Fifteen greater decision-making powers , nor have they succeeded in making it capable of enlargement .
They also contributed to transparency , to a more social and a more community-oriented Europe , which is making a greater effort to move closer to its citizens and to simplify its decision-making procedures , to a more democratic Europe with a stronger role for the European Parliament and with the balance between large and small States essentially unchanged .
Mr President , like my Liberal colleagues I am in favour of the outcome of negotiations in Amsterdam because it contains a number of small improvements with regard to the principle of subsidiarity , the environment and simplified , democratic decision-making procedures .
Has the Union now got a decision-making system which is capable of strengthening the work in the field of justice and home affairs ?
Do we now have sufficiently smooth decision-making structures for the essential decisions which the Union will have to be able to take if we are to be able to defend ourselves against criminal networks which use the highest financial , legal and high-tech expertise ?
A further point which is self-evident is that only profound institutional reform will make it possible to create speedy and efficient decision-making mechanisms .
This involves streamlining decision-making procedures with a limited provision for qualified majority voting while preserving a national veto whenever vital interests are at stake .
This new balance will clearly require a change in the over-domineering attitude of the Americans .
Regarding the decision on increased use of majority voting , we are not prepared to support the report 's far-reaching demands for common majority voting .
An appropriate conclusion , in view of amongst other things the enlargement of the area in which the joint decision-making procedure is to be applied , and the required approval of Parliament for the appointment of the President of the European Commission .
A slimming down of the European portfolio would make European decision-making clearer , in the end , and would simplify the enlargement .
This situation is all the more serious as our destiny is increasingly conditioned by the decisions taken by an independent European central bank , without there being any government with decision-making powers in the economic field over the major areas of choice affecting economic growth , European competitiveness , and employment .
There is not a single sentence in the treaty which confirms that decision-making power is going to be transferred from the EU to the Member States .
Questions of major concern for Nordic countries about employment , openness and the environment have at best been given well-meaning words , but ultimately these could be forced to capitulate to the supremacy of the single market .
I would request that the co-financing rules be revised so that women 's NGOs can play their part in the PRINCE programme , as unanimously approved by the Committee on Women 's Rights , enabling the NGOs to include factors such as the value of work performed by volunteers and set-up costs when calculating their contributions .
In response to this question I would like to say that the recommendation of the Council , which dates back to 2 December last year , and which applies to the balanced participation of men and women in decision-making processes , lays down that the Commission will submit a report , both to the Parliament and to the Economic and Social Committee , for the first time three years after the adoption of said recommendation , and then on an annual basis , using the information supplied by the Member States .
Does he think that our democratic system works well when it indirectly excludes the equal and balanced participation of women in all decision-taking processes ?
However , it also believes that a minimum of universal services must be maintained and that each round of job cuts should be cushioned with job-creating measures to make it socially acceptable .
The UK Government claims that this is a distance-selling transaction , like the man-in-black case .
Mr President , like Mr Fischbach I wish to express my thanks for the good and wide-ranging debate .
I have therefore set in motion a study which I propose to present to the Council of Ministers and Parliament in the form of a wide-ranging report .
In making this statement on our voting , we wish to emphasize our view that in a number of areas , the report contains more far-reaching harmonization requirements than can objectively be regarded as justified in the light of the plans of action for combatting organized crime .
The Council is - and should be - the highest decision-making body in the European Union .
This is a long-standing ambition of a great many countries , and for that matter , of a large number of nongovernmental organizations which have contributed to keeping interest alive on this issue .
The supporting activities contribute to the development of a European position on the issue , and thus information and awareness-raising campaigns for the public at large are therefore being set up , and actions are supported which are aimed at creating coordination and cooperation mechanisms between NGO 's , the governments , the ad-hoc tribunals , and the United Nations institutions , whilst work on the establishment of the court continues .
The Commission acknowledged in its report that it is a time-consuming task to draw up implementing regulations for the exceptionally large area in which construction products are used .
This will have far-reaching results on the European social fund in the coming period .
This means more operational and financial responsibility will be left to the Member States , and for that it is necessary , as a guarantee of the interest of the Union in its entirety that a wide spectrum of interested groups takes part in the decision-making process .
Strengthening this agreement by means of a streamlined decision-making process and the participation of the EC as a member will significantly enhance its international significance .
There is a fear that a self-regarding circle of cultural elites would appropriate this money and make films which no-one would see .
Many small films , and not so much in the English-speaking world but certainly in the smaller countries of Europe , simply do not get off the ground in spite of the immense cultural impact they would have because of the difficulty of financing .
With regard to illegal fishing , for the first time this year the CCAMLR accepted a proposal made by the Commission relating to vessels of non-contracting countries , consisting of the obligation for vessels engaged in fishing in the region to be subjected to inspection in the ports of the contracting parties of the CCAMLR , if they were trying to unload their catches .
The fishing agreement with Guinea-Bissau , which is the longest-established , fullest and most diversified of those we are discussing today , allows Spain , Italy and Portugal to take up to 9600 tonnes gross of shrimps per year , suggests a figure of three thousand tonnes gross of shellfish per year , to be used by Spain and Italy , and also establishes the possibility of granting 89 tuna-fishing licences .
Partly because of many well-meaning friends in Turkey , the European Conference is also a suitable bridge to ensure that , in addition to the Customs Union , the links with Turkey will be enduring ones and will be protected .
This shows very clearly the all-encompassing nature of the enlargement process .
This pressure will come about once our citizens discover that with each new Member State the Union not only imports decision-making problems , but also extra crime .
All three have sizeable Russian-speaking minorities , especially Latvia and Estonia .
From the outset democracy in Hungary was taken for granted , and it was fortunate for Hungary that following liberation the free elections brought to power first a conservative government and then a left-wing government which , however , represented uniform views and worked together on the basic issues facing the country .
There are criminal codes and the law on criminal procedure to be rewritten , there are minorities to be better protected , there is the problem linked to the acquisition of Latvian nationality by the Russian-speaking minority , there are many " non-citizens ' , there is a so-called " windows system ' which does not work .
We are not talking about small reforms , we are talking about fundamental , far-reaching reforms which will adversely affect countless people .
Education and culture are an important component of confidence-building measures to secure an enlarged Union .
In this respect the institutional framework resulting from the Treaty of Amsterdam delivers us a Europe with a paralyzed decision-making capacity , increasingly resembling a huge market and less and less like the Europe our fathers wanted and this Parliament hoped for .
Ladies and gentlemen , 150 , 000 French-speaking Belgians with less rights than the Hungarians in Slovakia and no more rights than the Russians in Latvia live only a few kilometres away from our Parliament .
His attitude to the role of the State President , his disregard of the decision of the constitutional court , the partial exclusion of the parliamentary opposition from important decision-making bodies and his treatment of the Hungarian minority are important proof of his hitherto antidemocratic attitude .
However , when we look at the reports on the countries which our rapporteurs have written , and , for example , look at the report on Estonia and think that Slovakia would treat its Hungarian-speaking minority in the same way as Estonia would treat its Russian-speaking minority , then I do not know what the verdict on Slovakia would be .
However , when we look at the reports on the countries which our rapporteurs have written , and , for example , look at the report on Estonia and think that Slovakia would treat its Hungarian-speaking minority in the same way as Estonia would treat its Russian-speaking minority , then I do not know what the verdict on Slovakia would be .
Balance between policies - the internal market and economic and social cohesion - balance in our budgets and , most of all , balance between institutions in the European decision-taking process .
The first is an ever-increasing coordination between European policies , which is vital for the cohesion and stability of the European Union .
The second point is that this coordination has three aspects : to establish the basis of a coherent and effective economic policy at European Union level ; to ensure political debate on the various economic choices ; and to improve the decision-making process to ensure effectiveness and transparency .
The proposals about guaranteeing transparency in the decision-making process , about the participation of the Economic and Financial Committee and Parliament ( according to articles 103 , 104C and 109C of the treaty ) and about article 103.5 on derived legislation are all very important .
Mr Gasòliba i Böhm 's report has some interesting and thought-provoking aspects to it , but it has not freed itself from the strait-jacket of liberal thinking , the all-or-nothing approach of the financier , the monetarist , the theorist .
Mr Gasòliba i Böhm 's report has some interesting and thought-provoking aspects to it , but it has not freed itself from the strait-jacket of liberal thinking , the all-or-nothing approach of the financier , the monetarist , the theorist .
Like the rapporteur , I am delighted with the success and quality of the programmes arising from objective 3 in the context of Community structural measures in French-speaking Belgium .
Last month , in November , we adopted a far-reaching resolution with very few omissions in it .
In the ever-changing work scenario we need legislation to ensure the security of individuals .
First of all , we need an awareness-raising campaign to provide us with background information on , and thereby thwart , the aims of so-called recruitment agencies , the structure of their systems and their wheelings and dealings .
It would surely be pretty odd if these price-labelling regulations were to apply to auctions , for example .
I appreciate that this is a technical and difficult subject to address but a do-nothing solution would not be in the best interests of Europe 's postal services .
Madam President , I will continue with this back-scratching exercise that is going on .
Behind this very legal-sounding formulation hides a central problem of intergovernmental cooperation under the third pillar , that is cooperation in the fields of justice and home affairs .
Once caught they should serve long sentences on a par with those convicted of major drug-trafficking offences .
We also note progress in the choice of decision-making approaches , which are closer to the treaty , particularly in the area of joint action .
Thousands of years ago the Chinese built the first ocean-going ships .
I am seriously concerned , as many others are , with the ever-deteriorating state of the beef market and the confusion being created with regard to the vital matter of public health .
First , so that there are no misunderstandings here , the Commission first went to the Standing Veterinary Committee , which has decision-making authority , with the application to introduce certain modifications of the July decision .
It has confirmed its leadership throughout the world with regard to assistance in mine-clearing operations .
There are clear implications for the EU 's decision-making process and the shape and size of the budget ; and regarding the budget I am satisfied with the decision of the summit not to pre-empt the detailed negotiations that have yet to take place on the budget for the period 2000-2006 .
We must also remember our external policy , which demands far-reaching action , as regards both the World Trade Organization and the strengthening of our presence in the politics of diplomacy and security .
Is the Council considering sending international observers , or even peace-keeping forces , to Kosovo , and what means are being used to exert pressure on Belgrade so that it finally agrees to the opening of a European Union office in Prishtina , particularly in view of the fact that the United States has had such an office for a long time ?
It is quite morally wrong for us to give money to tobacco growers at the same time as we discuss other anti-smoking strategies here this evening .
We said that this must be based on scientific findings , and if science cannot offer any certainty , we would like to see a political decision-making process which is based on a scientifically-responsible risk management .
The solution to the problem must be sought in an extensive anti-smoking campaign , in providing information , in the drastic reduction of imports and in the promotion of actions to substitute production in tobacco-producing regions .
The solution to the problem must be sought in an extensive anti-smoking campaign , in providing information , in the drastic reduction of imports and in the promotion of actions to substitute production in tobacco-producing regions .
The Canadians are happy for it to have enough loopholes for a pack of wolves to run through , and the Russians love the self-enforcing , self-evaluating system .
This is a never-ending story , Commissioner Brittan .
The next item is the recommendation for second reading ( A4-0371 / 97 ) on behalf of the Committee on Development and Cooperation , on the common position established by the Council with a view to the adoption of a Council Regulation on co-financing operations with European non-governmental development organizations ( NGOs ) in fields of interest to developing countries ( C4-0442 / 97-95 / 0168 ( SYN ) ) ( rapporteur : Mr Paasio ) .
If the Commission changes the self-financing rules and their interpretation , this would be contrary to the principles of Danish development aid .
To follow such a course of action would be more consistent with an anti-smoking policy .
Energy-saving solutions are being developed and they will certainly have got an extra thrust from Kyoto .
Neither can we do without energysaving products and energy-saving technologies .
The European Union should be one of the main institutions involved in providing effective and wide-ranging support for the cause of human rights , from individual projects to programmes promoting human rights and democracy .
If there is confusion , if there is a lack of transparency , then let us carry out an internal examination of our budgetary control procedure , but you must see that the confusion which we find in this area is a sign , a symptom of a more far-reaching disarray , and this may well be seen around the world , even by people who do not even know that there is a Committee for Budgetary Control or even a European Court of Auditors .
Secondly , genetically modified foodstuffs are now a fact of life , whether we like it or not , in the US and Japan , and have been tested over multi-generation cycles , have been cleared for safety and efficacy and , indeed , have long since entered the food chain and the international food-trading market .
However , the foreign reserves allow far-reaching reforms in the country itself .
And , finally , the organizing of cooperation with third countries , not only with the long-standing space powers like Japan or Russia , but with the newly emerging space powers .
The Pérez Royo report rightly identifies concerns of some of the single currencies-watching spectators .
Dual-pricing campaigns must be part of this process , and such campaigns must take place in all key supermarkets and shopping outlets across Europe .
This summer I was on holiday with my daughter in Italy , and she changed 100 schillings in a money-changing machine .
Particularly in the area of condition-creating policy , the Union will still have to initiate a great deal , for example , in the sphere of company law , regulations for accounting , and stock market rules .
Unfortunately , Mr Souchet 's report on external relations does not reflect our views , in particular the parts concerning crisis management and the use of the armed forces , even if the latter are euphemistically described as peace-keeping operations .
This hegemony is fuelled less by the feeling of power of the United States , by its nuclear arsenal , by its global presence , and much more by the inferiority complex of the European Union which is due to the fact that top-ranking leaders in Europe operate as employees of the United States , by the inability of the European Union to fashion an identity of its own and to formulate a strategy of its own on the basis of which it can have talks with - and not be compared with - the United States .
The first is to get a dynamic of ever-increasing product quality going .
On any issue where we need to convince the public , it is of course right and proper that Parliament should participate in the decision-making process .
The presence of the Commission and the fact that the decision-making body will be the Ecofin Council , provide every guarantee that information will be given in a transparent manner in all the European countries , whether or not they have joined up to the euro .
The fact is that the present draft directive will impact on many areas and will have far-reaching effects .
It will be of great interest to see whether , assuming Parliament as a whole adopts the recommendation , as I hope it will , in the subsequent conciliation negotiations the minimal stance of the Council and the more progressive and realistic approach of the Commission - which I know places considerable importance on these proposals to the extent of unusually reserving its position - can be reconciled with the more forward-thinking proposals from this Parliament .
This provision - Article 152 of the Amsterdam Treaty - is clearly a recognition that the European Union must introduce confidence-building measures in the field of public and human health , in the light of difficulties which arose as a result of the problems relating to BSE and blood-contaminated products in many European states in recent years .
Finally , in its half-time review of Objective 1 regions , and within the framework of the second programme-planning period for Objective 2 , the Commission has called upon Member States to use the strategic potential of the information society for regional development purposes .
We will attack the drugs trade right at its heart by helping the drug-producing countries in Central Asia stem the flow .
We will use the British Presidency to put environmental considerations centre stage in the European Union 's decision-making process .
Tomorrow 's fast-moving world belongs to those who respond fastest , those who change fastest and those who modernize .
It is not popular or easy to raise what is often regarded as the navel-gazing issues of institutional reform .
This premium for the abandonment of wine-growing areas is also very dubious .
They are in agreement about special support for SMEs , in agreement about new training methods and the better mutual recognition of diplomas , but not in agreement about the decision-making levels .
In this non-binding instrument , the Council made eight recommendations to Member States for the promotion of participation and asked the Commission to draw up a report over four years on the development of participatory systems in Europe .
The Commission on its part will vigorously support the presidency 's efforts for far-reaching agreements between the Member States .
I believe that this important Sainjon report is a perspective and forward-looking document because the problems of employment and adaptation which face the industrial nations are quite clearly taking on a certain structure , and indeed these are addressed in the report , and also because it does not defend a new form of protectionism - but instead advocates a comprehensive opening-up of the market and the introduction of international controls .
We support a discriminating free-market analysis of the wide-ranging factors which are responsible for the relocation of industrial production , and we oppose interventionist regulations which would impose a burden on companies .
Article 109 emphatically states that the European Central Bank is not to receive instructions or recommendations from decision-making bodies , from Community bodies or institutions , from national governments of Member States or from any other quarter .
I hope that when the Commission has discussions with multinational companies , as we know it does , it will raise these points with them because in the absence of such information any plans to systematically tackle unemployment are reduced to mere fire-fighting exercises .
Firstly , I find it a sign of excellent goodwill by the Council , and I do not mind repeating this here , that it has decided to involve Parliament in the decision-making process concerning the establishment of this Eurodac instrument .
Since the introduction of an automated finger-printing system in Germany this figure has dropped considerably .
We reject the amendments of the d 'Ancona report equally obviously , amendments which on the one hand serve to hamper the much-needed fingerprints register , and on the other hand give the European Commission a decision-making position in asylum policy which the Commission is absolutely not entitled to .
This particular issue - the issue of a transit agreement with Switzerland - has involved a long-running series of negotiations .
In order for such an asylum policy to be achieved we need other measures and far-reaching work which will increase the consensus between the Member States on the need for a generous and humane asylum policy .
In the hope that , on the basis of its narrow definition , everything will develop spontaneously in the right direction , the Sainjon report therefore makes minimal proposals : a non-binding code of good practice for multinational companies , a confidence agreement between distributors , manufacturers and subcontractors ; the creation of a global ' social label ' by the ILO , etcetera .
the promotion of trade union freedom-combating forced labour-combating child labour-the elimination of discrimination in employment and careers , and equal pay for men and womenThe Danish Social Democrats are positive towards the proposal , because this proposal can contribute to a fairer labour market in third countries and ensure fair competition in a globalized economy .
That is why I believe that this House should take up this issue , and although many of us do not share the romantic fascination , which the archaic left-wing notions of the Zapatista movement have for some , this House should loudly condemn the Mexican authorities , and exhort them to finally open a debate on the many problems , particularly with regard to property , which they face in the state of Chiapas .
In this regard , I should be glad to know whether the Commission is prepared to go beyond non-binding declarations and statements , whether it is prepared to go a step further , to sign a binding agreement and make a worldwide ban on cloning .
The second reason is that , as other elections will be held in Africa in 1998 , this kind of moderation with regard to countries moving from a single party to a multipartite system should be extended to other countries and Frenchspeaking countries should not treated more harshly by this House than English-speaking countries .
There needs to be a relaxation of the rules to allow EU delegates on the ground to have more say in decision-making powers .
Mr President , this is a very wide-ranging report and there is much in it with which to agree , including the need for a comparative evaluation between EU development projects and those of individual Member States , our long-running demands for budgetization of the EDF , and the need to publicize the very many positive achievements of European aid programmes .
Mr President , this is a very wide-ranging report and there is much in it with which to agree , including the need for a comparative evaluation between EU development projects and those of individual Member States , our long-running demands for budgetization of the EDF , and the need to publicize the very many positive achievements of European aid programmes .
One omission , which Mr Vecchi referred to , is the expensive , wasteful , secretive and time-consuming operation of comitology procedures , which most certainly diminish rather than enhance the quality of our aid .
It seems to me , as a result of their long-standing relations with certain developing countries , the Member States have acquired a wealth of experience , from which an office like ECHO , which with its six years is only just beginning to find its feet , has a lot to learn .
In practice , Article 3 states that the aid in the form of non-refundable aid referred to in Article 1 , will be taken out of a single interest-bearing account , which will be opened for the purpose at the European Investment Bank and which from now on will be called the ' debt relief account ' .
This goal can be achieved by establishing minimum requirements for the occupational training and watch-keeping certification of seafarers , providing effective control of the application of international regulations and preventing the credibility of the certificates issued from being damaged by a general failure to comply with the provisions of the Convention , as has happened in the past .
The three amendments insisted upon by Mr Parodi have our support , in relation both to medical fitness and to watch-keeping conditions on the bridge , as well as the subject of restricted rest periods .
Another fundamental principle is that the amending directive must not make the non-binding part B of the STCW Code , which serves as a guideline for the national authorities , binding .
However , the addition proposed in Amendment No 2 corresponds to the wording of the non-binding part B , while the common position is in full agreement with the binding part A. Parliament will in any case be aware that the question of non-binding guidelines is discussed in the seventh consideration in the common position .
However , the addition proposed in Amendment No 2 corresponds to the wording of the non-binding part B , while the common position is in full agreement with the binding part A. Parliament will in any case be aware that the question of non-binding guidelines is discussed in the seventh consideration in the common position .
As a result , we are again faced with a long-running scandal .
The Commission shares the Member 's opinion that it is advisable to inform citizens of the Union 's decision-making mechanisms and the functioning of the interinstitutional procedures .
Besides , we must stress that the policy of broader information dissemination via networks and telematic applications to all the decision-making centres , and to the wider public , will also contribute positively towards the appraisal of solutions and help make people aware of the justification and use of environmentally friendly technologies .
We in this Parliament naturally want to take part in the important decision-making process that lies ahead .
As far as the obligation to consult the Scientific Committee on Food in Article 13 is concerned , this should not be confused with the joint decision-making procedure which the directive lays down for passing further provisions affecting public health .
It is also pleasing to note that the proposals are now on their way through the decision-making process , as waste is one of the areas where legislative protection is still incomplete .
How often have representatives of the party groups , which are now supporting the wishy-washy , war-mongering majority text , complained about the USA 's world hegemony ?
I have recently been involved in assisting a Northern Ireland organization , which is trying to develop a European market for an emission-reducing additive , in finding its way around the maze of Commission bureaucracy .
Is the Council prepared to give clear signals during the Session to countries like China , Mexico , Nigeria , Syria and Cuba , countries which are totally obstructive during the negotiation and decision-making process ?
Children 's rights must be a cross-cutting element in all the work of the Commission .
Another key cross-cutting issue for the Council is the human rights of women .
We must impose more far-reaching sanctions .
It is important that a new constitution is adopted after a wide-ranging discussion and the Union welcomes the constructive approach Albania is playing in regional issues and , in particular , in Kosovo .
Mr President , we would like to place the environmental considerations at the heart of the European Union 's decision-making process .
As far as the protection of consumers is concerned , the Commission has recently presented a proposal concerning denied-boarding compensation , whilst the current code of conduct on computerized reservation systems , as well as the amendments proposed to it , already provides for the operator of a flight to be clearly identified and for the passenger to be properly informed .
Again , it is extraordinary that a basic requirement like using fire-fighting equipment or life rafts is not checked annually .
Transport of dangerous goods by road -Distinguishing signs for motor vehicles - transportablepressure equipment
For the vehicle owners of the Member States who have already accepted , on a compulsory or voluntary basis , the use of the Community model - it is of course not a new invention - , the present proposal for a regulation takes up a long-standing desire for legal certainty and is recognition - let us call it personal - of the costs they often willingly incurred when buying this combined vehicle registration plate .
Members have a variety of names for this attendance-checking procedure - some of them rather rude - but you mentioned a new rule and change of rules .
A world population which is growing out of all proportion against a background of static-remaining areas for cultivation obliges us , across all party boundaries , not to shut ourselves off from the use of new technologies .
The European Union show that it is determined to ensure that the UN is recognized as the decision-making body , and refuse the de facto leadership of a single country , in this case the United States of America .
Secondly , Tuesday afternoon , but perhaps Mrs Green did not receive a complete copy of the report , the man sitting behind you , myself and a number of colleagues agreed to ask the Presidency to consider once more whether we should discuss these resolutions on calamities in future , and to come back to this point the next time we are re-examining everything related to urgencies .
Therefore , faced with the arrival of this new generation of products - particularly electronic money - which is still at a relatively early stage , the Commission decided to propose a non-binding recommendation .
This is the only way to obtain an accurate and continually up-dated perception of on-going developments , thereby permitting the necessary adjustment measures to be taken .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , Commissioner , this report by Mr Bardong is another example of a report with such an off-putting title that nobody will read it .
According to the internal agreement , the European Investment Bank and the Court of Auditors give a non-binding opinion on the draft of the text drawn up by the Commission .
We also wish to see the consumer voice integrated into European Union policy-making procedures .
Please allow me to state at this point that beside the practical reasons for a special approach to the labelling of wine and wine products -where all wine producers and all wine-producing regions are of a like mind -there are many arguments in law in favour of the Commission 's proposal .
She has handled an extremely wide-reaching area very well , because it is clear that food law in the European Union has gained considerably in importance with the realization of the Single Market and the pursuit of an active consumer policy .
We agree with Parliament where improved control of any surplus income produced by the self-financing agencies is concerned .
That does not mean we are not strongly in favour of transparent decision-making processes , nor do we think the bank will exist in a kind of laboratory situation , determining its policy in some kind of ' clean ' mechanism .
We are pleased with this because the constitutions , legal systems and institutional traditions of the Member States differ so greatly that far-reaching harmonization of transitional measures is out of the question .
We regard mandatory dual pricing , at least in the retail and distribution sectors , as the basic and minimum means to limit the profit-making tendencies which are characteristic of any changeover from one currency to another .
The first part of the question related to targets and I certainly applaud those Member States that employ a target-setting system .
The account of the intervention of fire-fighting teams during the fire in the Channel tunnel on 18 November 1996 indicates that rescue operations were hindered by the lack of precise information on the number of passengers travelling on the train .
Turning to the agreement itself , the ' first commandment ' of the agreement planned is a wide-ranging ban on discrimination against foreign investors .
I am concerned about the level of involvement of developing countries in particular within the decision-making process , even though it is primarily an OECD document at present .
Subject : Anti-dumping duties 
In view of the repeated anti-dumping complaints by Eurocoton , does the Commission intend to revise its procedures so that serial complaints will no longer be possible ?
The current Eurocoton complaint followed the rejection by the Council of the Commission 's proposal for definitive anti-dumping duties on unbleached cotton fabrics in May 1997 .
Since these requirements were met the Commission decided to open a new investigation on 11 July 1997 as it was obliged to do under EU anti-dumping legislation which is in conformity with WTO rules .
Consecutive anti-dumping complaints are extremely rare .
Grey cotton fabrics is the only case in the history of the EU anti-dumping regulation where a second complaint was lodged after the rejection of a Commission proposal by the Council .
In order to investigate anti-dumping complaints , the Commission has to come to a view on whether there is injury to the European Community cause .
Is it not the case that serial anti-dumping complaints are themselves damaging to the Community interest given the cost of dealing with the investigations , given the uncertainties which companies are then placed under , which makes it very difficult to engage in any sort of forward planning ?
Against that we have balanced all the points made by another section of European industry that says that injury would be suffered if there were anti-dumping measures taken .
I have received complaints against the anti-dumping measures .
There is no doubt at all that there are people within the European Union who complain that they are suffering from dumping and there are others who complain that they would suffer even more if anti-dumping measures were taken .
According to our information , meat imported into Sweden from another Member State is checked by the recipient under a self-checking regime .
We therefore ask that initiative-holding institution to present a specific programme against Alzheimer 's disease , a separate programme from the public health programme in general and the relevant budget , proposing precise and specific objectives : a means to provide temporal continuity for the many projects presented every year by so many non-governmental organizations representing Alzheimer 's sufferers and their families , within the scope of the Commission actions .
I wish to turn to the proposals on accidents and injuries which I believe could offer the furthest-reaching impact on the lives of ordinary citizens .
We could have added emerging or re-emerging diseases , considering that free circulation is bringing back tuberculosis , malaria and viral diseases such as the Ebola disease .
Secondly , Hungary has a long-standing tradition of democracy .
They already had a long-standing tradition of democracy .
Two major problems remain : the problem of the Russian-speaking minority and the subsequent naturalization process - the so-called non-citizens still account for 30 % of the population ; and the problem of the judicial and administrative system .
So important is this process that we must not allow ourselves to indulge in other bouts of institutional junkieism or go off onto self-serving ego trips during this debate .
I am merely re-emphasizing something which is already obvious in order to benefit transparency .
I believe that with this , all procedural aspects will have been discussed extensively , as there is a far-reaching level of agreement .
We must take into account that more far-reaching measures may become necessary if a disaster is to be prevented .
We disagree particularly with the way the report deals with the Baltic states ; it includes a highly critical statement on those states ' protection of minority rights , with special reference to the Russian-speaking minority .
Also , more attention should have been paid to how pollutants relate to the increase in the various allergies which affect us all to an ever-increasing extent in our cities .
As long as we continue to subsidize environmentally-damaging agriculture which promotes pesticide use , invest in anti-environmental road transport and support nuclear power production , diseases caused by this anti-environmental policy will continue to increase .
Curiously , it forgets that halting tobacco production in the European Union would simply give rise to higher imports and hence additional profits for the large tobacco-producing multinationals , which retain their empires intact and which are not even mentioned in the report .
We also met NGOs and would like to see more encouragement from the European Union to these hard-working bodies .
Madam President , I think that when we are talking about the principle of an international criminal court , it is hard to underestimate what far-reaching consequences this might have .
The European Union is encouraged by the ever-growing number of countries that support the establishment of the court .
Europe needs to meet the demands of a fast-moving world of constant innovation and technical change .
Could the Council please state clearly its position on the importance of tobacco-growing jobs in Mediterranean areas ?
That is true for all the tobacco-growing areas .
The activities are too numerous to list here but include : a Council initiative to stem the flow of drugs through the Caribbean and Latin America to Europe ; an initiative to begin to create a security belt around Afghanistan by working with the central Asian states to help improve their drug-fighting capacity ; the establishment of the European Monitoring Centre in Lisbon to give a clear and objective picture of the nature of the drugs problem across Europe ; the creation of Europol , shortly to become fully operational , to ensure that all of our law enforcement agencies have rapid access to the intelligence that they need across the European Union .
They are : to try to stop the flow of illegal drugs to people within the European Union and especially our young people ; to monitor what is happening in the communities where there are high levels of drug-taking incidents ; and to reinforce bodies like Europol who can play a potentially important part in counteracting this illegal trade .
All over Europe , there is significant progress in women 's sharing of bread-winning responsibilities in the home .
These include a lack of clear decision-making procedures , excessive scattering of resources across a range of small projects , excessive and technically counterproductive efforts to involve local partners , a lack of technical expertise within the Commission except in relation to the process itself , administrative overloading of the project manager , time-consuming bureaucratic procedures and , as we have already heard today , a lack of any proper European concept for a nuclear safety policy .
The new Commission proposal , drawn up in accordance with Article 16 of the MEDA Regulation , reintroduces the qualified majority decision-making procedure for the adoption of appropriate measures when an essential element for the continuation of support measures for a Mediterranean Partner is lacking .
Under the MEDA Regulation , the Commission should present proposals for a decision-making procedure which would make it possible to adopt measures when violations of human rights or other fundamental rights occur .
It is this decision-making procedure that the current report considers .
We have seen this Manicheism lead to war in Croatia and Bosnia , and this risks being rekindled until the Serbs are reintegrated back into decision-making processes .
It would be absurd if there were no demographic trends at all : longer life expectancy , fewer children , changing proportions between the sexes - all of this undoubtedly has far-reaching effects on society .
This particular resolution follows up that initiative , and pressure must be put on all the parties at the Consultative Group meeting to give relief at last to this long-suffering country .
However , having to draw up the accounts with the legitimate expectations of supporters worldwide , the fairest and most effective position seems to us to be that of ensuring the allocation of quotas assigned to the national federations and to the non-profit-making youth sports associations , in addition to direct sales .
We particularly underlined the importance of women 's rights and pointed to education , health and women 's participation in decision-making processes as examples .
In the meantime some very intensive consultation is taking place to find ways of applying human rights as women 's rights , of understanding democratic rights in such a way that the equal participation of women is carried through in all of society 's decision-making processes - in our ACP partner countries as well .
The entire ACP cooperation is aimed at long-lasting development .
These differences in environmental legislation between the European Union on the one hand , and the Czech Republic and other countries in central and eastern Europe on the other , as well as the granting of national subsidies can therefore bring about a widespread undercutting of existing steel prices in the European Union and result in an unfair competitive advantage for Czech steel which would inevitably lead to further anti-dumping measures by the European Union .
The uniform rules which would then also apply to the associated countries would make anti-dumping procedures superfluous and unnecessary ; these should be replaced by appropriate implementing procedures in the Association Agreements .
For example , I see that the Committee on Fisheries proposes to include in this proposal a ban on transfers from or to ships belonging to non-cooperating countries .
The recognition directive , which is supposed to give architects professional freedom of movement within the Union , is an example of hair-raising slackness and ponderousness which it is hard to top .
This applies to Ireland and the Netherlands , in particular , although those countries have a number of particularly long-standing training courses .
I am aware , as others must be , that there are now no areas in this House at all - even those that are declared non-smoking areas - which are free of smoking .
Mr President , it is actually a never-ending story in which I , as rapporteur , and many colleagues with me , never get a hearing .
We need a proper legal basis for implementing all budget lines thoroughly , quickly and effectively , that is to say we require thorough , effective and well-trained personnel to be present on the spot and , most importantly , we need a decentralized decision-making process - and this is something which is still clearly giving the Commission considerable cause for concern .
To my mind the new Commission proposals regarding Agenda 2000 comprise far-reaching improvements , even though the problems of combating fraud , the question of who the interest should be paid to , and how this should be calculated has not yet been sufficiently worked out in these proposals .
We were also given a legal instrument : the new Article 280 , with a qualified majority which provides for a much more efficient decision-making process .
Airports which make profits must be allowed to subsidize airports in the system which operate at a loss , since profitable airports would not be profitable if loss-making airports were closed .
By encouraging the different policy-making areas to work together , the EU can be sure to protect the tourist and provide for the industry to grow .
These fast-moving SMEs are , after all , the speedboats of enterprise on the Lake Geneva of Europe 's economy .
I am particularly pleased that small and medium-sized enterprises have now been placed at the top of the European agenda , recognizing their important job-creating role within the Union .
This would have a far-reaching influence on the relocation of companies .
This is a waste , maybe not of resources , but of the chance to improve not just the situation of SMEs , but above all their job-creating abilities .
In non-binding declarations , demands for the integration of people with disabilities are made repeatedly .
In other words , as when we were talking about the wine sector , for example , we have to take account of the various grape and wine-growing regions of the European Union - and I could , for example , add Penedés to the list we heard earlier .
If he will excuse me , I will overlook the commonplace , the popularity-seeking proposals and pious wishes which fill his report for , what concerns us most in this expressed desire to renounce a development policy which remains under the control of Member States , is the substance .
With regard to the composition of the ACP countries , that is , the list of participants , the best plan is to review the possible entry of new countries , given the new problems , for example , in South Africa , within the scope of the current regional areas , maintaining the unity of this long-lasting relationship , which is of great political value in itself but which should be made more effective and reformed in depth .
If we want to make the funds accessible to civil society , then it would demonstrate courage if the Commission and the Council were to look at a proposal , made at an earlier Parliamentary ACP-EU Meeting , to set up a kind of ombudsman initiative in the Pacific and in the Caribbean , initially in a French and an English-speaking country .
It faces great challenges , because these relationships will have far-reaching consequences on the negotiations which have just begun with all countries .
The EU 's unique and comprehensive process of enlargement makes security on a broad scale an even more urgent notion in the EU decision-making process , and that of its various bodies .
We must restore the autonomy of Kosovo under international control with international peace-keeping troops , for we have already gone beyond the eleventh hour there .
Of course , as well as numerous functions to aid the construction of authorities on the ground , they carry out peace-keeping tasks , and do it very well .
Summarized in one sentence : reconstruction aid for Bosnia with a non-existent or non-functioning administration of the whole state or the sub-states is something different from European legislative procedure or classical development aid with partners which can act and function administratively in the normal way .
Would he agree that the abolition of duty-free , which is , as he says , a long-standing decision , would allow both sea- and airports to resume their primary role , which is to transport people from one place to another .
The EIB generally has to follow the policies of the Union but it has its own decision-making structure and the Board of Governors is composed of finance ministers from the Member States and they are charged with implementing the policies of the Union in the execution of their duties .
I think that only one independent plenipotentiary representative , with exceptional powers and with specific decision-making powers can help in this respect .
What 's more , I think it is perfectly normal that the European countries accept responsibility for pursuing peace-keeping operations in what is a European country , after all .
I think it is excellent and well thought out , in particular when he says we should make ourselves more visible through decentralized decision-making processes , by increasing our presence with a clearer figurehead , with a large , effective staff and a wide remit to coordinate and take decisions .
With regard to blood for transfusion there is no legal recourse , under Article 129 , for us to take any action apart from non-binding recommendations .
We must also strengthen the trust of the citizens in the problem-solving skills of the European Union .
I would like to promote restructuring in the research budget , modern energy-saving technologies which lead to a real breakthrough .
The task of the Response Group is to provide the Government with relevant information and advice if needed , to monitor and assess the situation on a day-to-day basis and to assess possible needs , for example , regarding fire-fighting equipment , to improve the efficiency of measures taken by the Government .
That is simpler than being a law-abiding citizen in Europe .
That is the real reason for saying that we need a correct , verifiable and wide-ranging survey , so that we can reach a reasonable , rational conclusion .
The Commission is looking forward to a wide-ranging debate with Parliament on strategy in connection with future discussion of this communication .
The final shape and nature of the shelter ; the question of the removal of the fuel-containing material ; how to deal with the dust inside the sarcophagus ; and the treatment of the accumulation of water will only emerge during the implementation stages .
If they support Sir Leon Brittan 's personal initiative today , it is because they see an opportunity to enter the European decision-making process , in the era of the euro and enlargement .
As currently structured , the decision-making systems of the new assembly tend to reinforce and institutionalize the current divide .
It is consultative in that its main task is to draw up non-binding opinions for the Commission and to prepare the ground usefully for decisions to be taken .
The resolution which we are debating today will prepare for the opinion of the European Parliament on this epoch-making decision , as stipulated in the Treaty .
They are relying on the strength of the euro , which is no sickly premature baby , to bring about more investment and new , employment-creating growth , so that unemployment figures go down .
The return to a balance in public finances in the medium term is the only way to free up savings for job-creating investment and to find budgetary leeway once again .
What has the annual report to do with the frightening percentages achieved by a right-wing party in Germany ?
These , together with a far-reaching reform of education and training systems , can allow our citizens to adapt to the demands not just of the national job markets but of the whole European market .
These figures illustrate the need to promote more sustainable , employment-creating growth .
Mr President , Commissioner , the link has been made twice or even three times here between unemployment , lack of hope and right-wing voters , to the applause of the House .
May I ask you kindly what your response to this is , for I believe that you are just as frightened and troubled as we are at the German result of 13.6 % for the German People 's Union , financed by one person , a right-wing party without an agenda .
I am very disappointed that the Commission , in its anti-dumping policy , does not always comply with Community interests .
When Members States vote 10 to 5 against anti-dumping procedures , which they believe will not be in the interest of the industry , then you and the Commission must accept those decisions .
That is why we , as Socialists , have asked for the European Parliament to be associated with the anti-dumping investigation , for Parliament to have a role in terms of transparency and accountability , and not for the Commission to take unaccountable decisions counter to subsidiarity .
They could be in the form of a social anti-dumping tax on products reimported into the European Union by firms established in low wage countries , something which is rightly mentioned in paragraph 5 of the joint resolution .
It is also a question of putting all the resolutions of the Luxembourg Employment Summit into practice , as well as the necessary and vital fight against unemployment which , we all know very well , strengthens a little the position of anti-European extreme right-wing nationalists throughout Europe .
If the EU now resorted to trade barriers , such as by referring to social clauses or the need for anti-dumping measures , this would also damage EU countries which have already reformed their textiles industry to benefit from free trade .
Between 1994 and 1999 the state-training agency in Ireland received £ 428 million for vocational training and education .
In all of these three aspects mobility of people under-going training is so very important .
For instance , I do not know if the officials who are developing the post-Kyoto policies and measures are taking precautions against future WTO attacks from , for example , the oil-producing nations .
And in the same spirit , after the WTO ministerial conference in May , Sir Leon is going to ask his services to develop a transparent , wide-ranging dialogue about the repercussions of globalization so that , as we move towards the start of a future millennium round at the end of 1999 , European public opinion will be not only prepared but also committed to the European objectives in these important negotiations .
If , for example , you use a decoder for Sky television as an English-speaking viewer in Belgium , is that structurally illegal ?
On the contrary , within its reforms of the " large-scale farming ' COM , the Commission proposes a 0 % compulsory rate of fallow land , along with an alignment of the aid to oil-producing crops with that of aid to straw cereal crops , on the pretext of both the Blair House agreements limiting huge amounts of fallow land and a future possible gain in profitability in oil production using , of course , genetically modified seed .
The thorny question of how to tax these contributions and benefits whilst avoiding double taxation is one that will have to be examined at European level to ensure fair play for both the public purse and the hard-working citizen .
To conclude , Mr President , I would like to draw attention to the fact that the Europe of monetary union and the Single Market need a political Europe , a European government that is decidedly more democratic and closer to the wishes of its people , to manage a totally integrated Europe with decision-making processes underpinned by sufficient democratic legitimacy .
From our position as left-wing parties grouped together in the European United Left , we are calling for a new direction for the construction of Europe : this should be based on solidarity , on joint responsibility and on fully democratic institutions .
For the first time this century , thanks to a democracy which is not much more than twenty years old and a deep desire to be a genuine part of Europe , Portugal is in the vanguard , side by side with the most forward-looking countries and nations of our continent .
As we watch the irreversible and desirable process of opening up to an outside world in which the Portuguese-speaking countries to which we are so closely bound are becoming more and more relevant , we are also delighted to be among the first participants in a currency which is not obviously hostile to anyone , but on the contrary , one which will be an important factor for stability and progress both inside and outside Europe .
Madam President , the Treaty of Amsterdam left the European Institutions in prehistory , not least by having a Parliament without any final decision-making powers .
This Europe , based on the single currency and its Stability Pact , will represent a significant obstacle to the new stages in the changes desired by the French , who voted for a left-wing government , and will prevent the existence of any truly transforming political will .
It is not a union of states , that is to say a Europe of independent states , which is being built , but a federation : a political union with its supranational decision-making bodies .
We shall soon see that the people do not want a vague Europe built on a never-ending rush forwards .
This could have far-reaching effects .
That is why I am pleased that in the common position the Council has arrived at a very far-reaching formulation on cloning .
Members will remember that only a few months ago here in the Hemicycle , a report was blocked with great difficulty , which wanted to install a far-reaching policy of tolerance , along the lines of the Dutch model , for drugs which are ten times more dangerous than the synthetic substances we are discussing today .
In Category 3 , internal policies , the emphasis is again on employment and growth-creating expenditure : the employment and growth initiative of the European Parliament , the Fifth Research Programme and the reinforcement of the trans-European networks .
It is often claimed that there is no researched evidence as to how the anti-smoking lobby and a tobacco advertising ban leads to a reduction in smoking .
Mr President , the proper functioning of the internal market requires harmonization of laws on tobacco advertising , and that this harmonization results in far-reaching prohibitions is in line with Article 100a of the Treaty , whether you like it or not .
Because there is no European legislation in the context of health policy for such far-reaching interventions , even under the Treaty of Amsterdam , the Council and the Commission often resort to the harmonization instrument known as competition , despite their own better judgement .
On the request for studies concerning endocrine-disrupting chemicals , I insist on the fact that we are waiting for the Commission to put these research programmes in place as speedily as possible so that we have all the necessary information .
Secondly , there is the question of endocrine-disrupting chemicals .
We have introduced a parameter for endocrine-disrupting chemicals and we have called for a study .
The first relates to endocrine-disrupting chemicals .
The draft directive we are discussing today is a radical and far-reaching attempt to put an end to this tale of disaster .
It is the first time legally-binding emission limits have been set .
The consultation forum , which the Commission had inexplicably abolished , was then reintroduced and reinforced , to enable all the parties concerned to have more say in the decision-making process .
One big problem , however , remains , namely , section 1 of paragraph 11 of the Commission 's proposal on the possibility of banning national and multinational eco-labelling systems .
There is an obvious risk here of destroying an eco-labelling system which is working well , providing consumers with good information .
Mr President , we all have good reason to support Mr Poggiolini 's endeavours to improve the EU 's ecolabels , but the truth is the eco-labelling system is not working at the present time .
It works because national organizations are involved in the decision-making process , and the whole operation is very open .
I think it is natural to inform the House that at this point in the decision-making process , the Commission can only accept this limited number of amendments , but that the Commission will , however , be willing to consider further improvements to the proposal later on in the procedure .
This is covered in Amendments Nos 3 and 14 , and I regard that as an interesting possible development for the eco-labelling scheme .
Re-establishing the former eco-labelling consultation forum - as in Amendments Nos 16 , 17 and 27 - is an original proposal , approved by the Committee on the Environment .
The current role of the consultation forum is not satisfactory , mainly because its input is only taken into consideration at a very late point in the decision-making process .
However , since there is already provision for this kind of financing outside the framework of the eco-labelling scheme , the Commission views this amendment as superfluous .
The discussions we had then show that the question of burden-sharing demands further consideration .
The hearings in the European Parliament , on the other hand , have helped to redress this lack of confidence and to that extent our hearings were a confidence-building measure which benefited both the European public and the future European Central Bank .
So the hearing showed that there must be no renationalization of the decision-making processes and illustrated that the requirement of unanimity has once again pushed the European Parliament to the limits of its tolerance and the people of Europe to the limits of their patience and understanding of the process of European integration .
Of course , the negative response to the proposed publication of the Minutes of the ECB 's decision-making bodies after a lapse of five years was unsatisfactory since their publication is necessary to achieve greater transparency in monetary policy .
However , the Council 's behaviour at the political level will have to be assessed , and thought will have to be given to the inadequacy of a muddled decision-making process that is not very transparent and continually the hostage of the principle of unanimity , totally anti-historical factors considering the gradual assertion of the common European dimension .
The second point I want to mention is of particular importance to Parliament , especially for those Members of this House who are of a progressive or left-wing persuasion .
The decision-making procedure of the Council must of course be changed .
Remember that the Commission subcontracted the whole of the financial and administrative management of the MED programmes to ARTM , an international non profit-making association under Belgian law , created by the Commission , whose income comes exclusively from contracts granted to it by the Commission .
Association is a far-reaching project which now addresses all sectors of common interest , from questions of politics and security , through economic and financial cooperation , to the social , cultural and human dimension .
Of course , we could ask which high ranking politicians - Mr Chirac or Mr Kohl , perhaps - or which second-string politicians , Mr Waigel or individuals such as Mr Tietmeyer , for example , are responsible for the procedure .
There is an anti-fundamentalist reason : having given up smoking ten years ago , I do not understand the all-embracing fury against smokers on the part of people who want to impose their moral values .
If the Commission is serious about its anti-smoking policy then it would serve itself and the European public better by concentrating on education programmes rather than seeking publicity by ill-conceived and badly executed means .
None of the powers of jurisdiction currently vested in the European Union covers such a wide-ranging ban on the direct and indirect advertising of a product the consumption of which is not only not banned , but - to cap it all - to the production of which the European Union has actually contributed for many years in the form of EU funds , e.g. for tobacco and tobacco products .
In addition , it is also necessary to involve all the interested parties - customers offices , buyers and vendors , carriers , banks and insurance companies - in the decision-making process .
We have voted in favour of the motion to prevent eco-labelling schemes currently used at national level - such as the " Nordic swan ' , the " peregrine falcon ' and the " bra miljöval ' ( " the right environmental choice ' ) - from being abolished , to be replaced by the EU 's " eco flower ' .
We believe that existing eco-labelling schemes should be maintained in parallel .
Eco-labelling systems that have been successful on both of these points should not be allowed to be superseded by the EU 's " eco flower ' .
This is why the wide-ranging definition of education already given in the White Paper has been adopted for use in the programmes .
Its future role will be limited to dealing with crises like the current situation in the Balkans with a CFSP restricted to the performance of joint operational , humanitarian and peace-keeping WEU initiatives .
Peace-promoting tasks , including peacemaking , humanitarian actions , etcetera .
Perhaps India is expressing the feeling that it has been forgotten or is despised by the international community , and its lack of confidence in the ability of the international community to conduct peaceful conflict-solving processes .
Choose the path of peace and reconciliation through dialogue or continue down the path of ever-increasing violence and confrontation and face continuing and deepening international isolation .
We need not only international observers , we also need international peace-keeping troops to monitor the return to autonomy in Kosovo , leaving the Kosovo Albanians free to come to an independently negotiated solution with Belgrade .
In truth , I do not believe that the current murders will stop until we decide to impose our presence in Kosovo through observers , through the long-planned EU office and , if possible , through peace-keeping troops .
Does the Council believe that the long-awaited Late Payment on Commercial Debt Directive and the recently published Venture-Capital Programme for SMEs will encourage these vital , job-generating agents to participate more decisively in the Single Market ?
Thirdly , other awareness-raising measures so that parents know what tools are available for protecting their children .
Sweden is well endowed with reliable eco-labelling systems , having three of them , namely Bra Miljöval , Svanen and KRAV .
The EU is preparing to prohibit Swedish eco-labelling schemes .
Independent eco-labelling schemes , such as the Swedish Nature Conservation Society 's Bra Miljöval , are to be banned .
It was stated very clearly that it must be possible after a period of five years to guarantee that the Community 's eco labels are at least as rigorous as the labels used in the best of the national eco-labelling programmes .
The issue of common military defence and immediate integration of the WEU into the EU has been removed from the Treaty of Amsterdam , whereas humanitarian , peacekeeping , early warning and conflict-solving tasks have been considered to be important matters of common interest .
Fifth , the European society statute , which must at last be removed from the midst of the decision-making network in order to further the constitution of large European groups , large industrial groups .
This kind of competitiveness is based on increasing and apparently limitless adaptability of wages , that is to say employees , in an ever-widening deregulation of the market , and especially of the work-force , and the acceleration , if that were possible , of the privatization process , following the example of the United States with its wage dispersion and lack of social protection , and on doubts about the advantages and costs of reducing working hours .
However , it does require the actors involved to take on a considerable degree of responsibility , which must go further than non-binding rules .
We support the attempts made by the Commission in the context of the WTO and the domain names , as well as the international charter initiative , although in a more wide-ranging form .
I believe that we must overcome these ever-recurring obstacles and changes .
This will also help us in our debate with the USA as the USA is not always in favour of a very liberal and far-reaching type of self-commitment ; as is shown by the inscription example it is sometimes considerably tougher and more rigid than we here in the Union are .
Mr President , it is already a mouth-watering prospect that according to paragraph 6 of the report , information policy should ensure that " European citizens are provided with quality information , targeted where possible , which reflects their concerns and gives them a positive image of the European Union . '
Madam President , in January this year I was part of the European Parliament 's delegation which undertook a fact-finding visit to Malaysia .
Nevertheless , it will be necessary to ensure that self-monitoring procedures are properly implemented , so as to avoid possible discrimination between seed producers in different Member States .
In fact , because of the seasonal nature of agricultural products and the need to use temporary labour to carry out self-monitoring procedures , it is necessary for supervision to be carried out by sworn inspectors .
In conclusion , I would repeat that what the British government has suggested is a step in the right direction , but it does not go far enough , and the Commission is required to act in response to our far-reaching demands .
This could have been avoided and far-reaching damage could have been avoided if , when the problem was obvious , the need for compromise had been recognized earlier .
At the Cardiff Summit we urge that some concrete progress finally be made towards the achievement of political union , and for this reason the debate must be opened on reorganizing the European institutions : certainly more decision-making power should be given to the European Parliament , but we also need to identify a body that can represent all the Member States , initially at least , for matters relating to common defence , the fight against major crime , the defence of twenty million unemployed and forty million new poor , a body which may also begin to consider how to craft the Union 's foreign policy .
This must address the issue of pro-enterprise and a pro-opportunity agenda with measures to encourage enterprise combined with policies that ensure economic employment and educational opportunity for all , building on our long-standing strength of stability and cohesion .
We need a new way , recognizing that in a fast-moving world of constant innovation and technological change , governments can help to equip people to cope with inevitable change .
I must say that I was very happy to hear , today , both the President-in-Office of the Council and the President of the Commission recall the importance of institutional affairs for the future of the European plan ; moreover , signals have also been coming from beyond the official institutions : various personalities - from Jacques Delors to our President Gil-Robles , to the President-in-Office of the Council , Mr Blair , a few days ago - have expressed concern about the difficulties that may arise with the Union 's decision-making mechanisms in an enlarged Union .
The weak point remains of course the decision-making process .
It is important for the EU not only to speak politically with one voice but also to have available the necessary security policy instruments in order to take peace-keeping or peace-making measures , for the purposes of crisis prevention , whether it be in Albania or Kosovo .
May I begin by congratulating the President-in-Office on securing a ground-breaking agreement on the EU code of conduct on arms exports this Monday .
It is clear that any agreement will have far-reaching implications , not just for our future relationship with the Republic of South Africa but also with its neighbouring countries .
I should like to hear from the Council and the Commission whether more attention can be devoted in the aid-giving process to the security aspects of development .
The problem really has been this going on category by category , this book-keeping attitude and what is obviously now needed is the generosity and goodwill that various Members have spoken of .
We support the plight of the workers , which is taking on ever-increasing dimensions , and we shall continue to do so .
Madam President , it is the first time since the decision of 2 May that this Parliament has been asked to give an opinion on the subject of economic policy , in relation not to a decision-making act , but to a recommendation of the Commission to the Member States on their policies .
The aim is to ensure that investment and consumption gradually dispense with exports in order to achieve self-maintaining growth in the medium term .
The office of the European Ombudsman has been getting an ever-increasing number of enquiries .
I can therefore only rejoice at the fact that the inter-institutional decision-making process has reached a very positive agreement .
We have also received many suggestions aimed at helping the applicants by speeding up the decision-making process , so that it takes no longer than four months to reach a decision .
To bring Europe closer to island-dwelling citizens will mean bringing Europe closer to all the citizens of the Union too .
For reasons you have frequently stated , we have now introduced , for example , higher co-funding rates for the outermost Greek islands .
Finally , we must introduce a measure of flexibility in this quota-setting system to take account of climatic fluctuations which affect the volume of production .
Similarly , true subsidiarity should and must alter the institutional balance of the Union by proclaiming national precedence , re-introducing national parliaments in the European decision-making process and stripping the Commission of its exorbitant privileges .
Potential cost-saving measures must be examined.- Gasòliba i Böhm report ( A4-0193 / 98 )
Yet again , is it really essential that regional managers and practitioners in the field take on the entire decision-making responsibility for research and development in a framework of international competition , which actually belongs to us as a whole ?
Their rejection logically signifies the continuation of the present pain-inflicting system of trapping animals .
The victims are the fur-bearing animals of North America , Canada and Russia who are cruelly killed so that rich women in the West can wear their skins .
I do not believe that these weak agreements will prevent one single bit of cruelty to fur-bearing animals , and therefore they defeat the very purpose of their existence .
It looks like a never-ending story , because this agreement between the Union and the United States is even worse than the agreement we also rejected between the Union and Canada and Russia .
Mr President , naturally no-one can sympathize with the idea or practice of barbarous methods , of cruel methods of torture , in the hunting of fur-bearing animals .
But I see that several of my colleagues show such excessive sensitivity that , if they continue in this direction , looking for the ideal solution , in other words the abolition of hunting fur-bearing animals , we will arrive at an unacceptable impasse .
This , therefore , is a matter of renewing a pre-existing agreement for the period from 1 January 1998 to 31 December 1999 .
In view of the proposals for reform of the CAP and many of the major common market organization regimes - about which I will be saying more later - the Commission 's proposals for the 1998 price-fixing round are centred on those price decisions which are required for legal or technical reasons .
Non-producer Member States continue to draw attention to the high cost of the regime and the disparity between the budget for the Commission 's anti-smoking programme and the annual spend on subsidies for tobacco producers .
If the Community really wanted to reduce or to put an end to smoking , it should not implement an anti-smoking policy but should , within the context of an anti-smoking policy , reduce and even ban tobacco imports .
If the Community really wanted to reduce or to put an end to smoking , it should not implement an anti-smoking policy but should , within the context of an anti-smoking policy , reduce and even ban tobacco imports .
May I remind you that tobacco-producing areas are mainly situated in less-favoured regions , and tobacco growing is extremely labour-intensive .
And I believe that behind this anti-smoking campaign is hidden the attempt of large companies to import cheap tobacco which is of lower quality than European tobacco .
Europe 's tobacco-producing regions are among the least developed in the EU , and no new job opportunities have been found as an alternative to the work provided by tobacco growing .
We have an opportunity today to endorse the need to provide support in this sector according to the quality of the product and to reconsider the problem of subsidies between tobacco-producing countries in the south and north .
As a result , the Union has been requested to change the system by the dispute-settling body of the World Trade Organization .
Because of our long-standing relationship with the region we are acutely aware of their current dependence on banana production to sustain their whole economy .
I just wish to express my fear , my intense concern , that , with all this bureaucracy , the time-consuming procedures which are in force in relation to Article 169 and the commitology procedure , this blatant violation which is occurring in Greece concerning the advertisement slot will continue for a long time to come .
I do not think the European Union should be pushed around in this way by the United States and its friends in the multinational banana-producing countries .
Maintaining this sector in the banana-producing regions of the EU is the very reason for the existence of this COM .
We cannot set aside the fact that some of our ultra-peripheral island regions , which are marked out by their isolation and low levels of economic development , are among the European banana-producing regions .
If the quality is good enough - not merely adequate , but excellent - and if the decision-making processes are transparent , the advancement of European research will also be more readily accepted .
The Fifth Framework Programme must be got off the EU decision-making treadmill as quickly as possible , so that competitive European research can continue without interruption when the present phase of the programme has ended .
The Commission cannot be allowed to slow down the decision-making process by drawing out the debate until it goes to conciliation .
If ever there happens to be radioactivity in a given area , mineral deposits will reveal this without the need for the time-consuming examination of groundwater .
That is a big success , underlining the positive re-thinking process in EU policy .
Mrs Rothe has written an extremely wide-ranging report and I am delighted to see that there are supplementary reports from three other women .
Mr President , there can be no doubt that European companies have had to undergo far-reaching reorganizations in order successfully to meet the challenges of an increasingly competitive and open economy .
With a round the agenda-setting process is far more wide-ranging and there will be far more options for ultimate decisions than would be the case if a narrower , sectoral approach were pursued .
Of course our ideas do not yet command universal support and I hope that the consensus-building process will continue in such a way to enable an agreement to be reached to that effect next year .
Similarly , and this is my seventh point , we also want to support all those peace-loving forces in Israel who want to build bridges to the Palestinian and Arab population , who recognize the rights of everyone in Israel - including the Arab population - and who , above all , are promoting religious tolerance .
It is a good thing that Israel 's policy on colonization is being changed , given the frustration of economic development , and that it is being replaced by confidence-building behaviour which leaves room for the construction of a civil society on both sides and for person-to-person meetings in order to promote peace in the region .
It is thus in the common interest of the peace-making forces on both sides , which are lastingly interdependent , to stop Mr Netanyahu and the extremists he relies on burying the vital principle of land for peace whilst there is still time .
Parliament itself is sometimes guilty , that I admit , but we must succeed in making our decision-making process quicker and less bureaucratic , particularly when it comes to financial aid .
We , in the UK , have long-standing links with Caribbean countries in particular .
I understand that these changes to the import licence system will add to the cost of EU aid to the banana-growing countries .
It will be up to the European Parliament to make its political and , I hope , its decision-making character prevail .
If we had acted in Sarajevo as NATO wanted us to , Sarajevo would not have remained surrounded , fewer than those hundreds of thousands of people would have been driven out , fewer would have died , and we would not now be faced with the never-ending costs which we are all having to pay .
That is where the need for training and education is so crucial , so that there are products that will be world-leading products arising out of the economy of the European Union which is based on high education standards and good training .
I have to say that he must have a more lateral-thinking mind than I do .
Previously , the Council has called on India and Pakistan to engage urgently in dialogue on regional stability issues and agree confidence-building measures to reduce tension and urged them to sign and move to ratify the comprehensive test ban treaty , join negotiations on a fissile material cut-off Treaty , exercise stringent control over nuclear-related exports , and commit themselves not to assemble or deploy nuclear weapons .
I would advise the right-wing members of this Parliament to think twice before coming up with tangled concepts such as tax competition .
The package presented by the Commission is admittedly a good move for us politically , but only as a first step , that is , with the condition that further steps must follow , including those relating to the decision-making procedure .
As a result , competition-distorting differences in many areas , including environmental conditions for example , but of course above all the tax sector , will take on a new and greater dimension .
We have to go further , from coordination to far-reaching harmonization , and on that we had different points of view : this is one of the few points on which there were divergent positions , which I find perfectly normal since there are different philosophical and political views .
One closing comment : I rank amongst those who favour getting rid of the unanimity rule on taxation questions because , if I may say so , it would boost this Parliament 's decision-making role .
Mr President , the GSM system has given European producers a world-leading position and made it possible for the EU countries to build a comprehensive mobile telephone network .
We have maintained the European role in other areas of long-standing concern : in Bosnia we acted quickly to sustain the momentum behind the new Dayton-friendly governments in Republika Srpska and Montenegro .
I note that in the British papers this week you are quoted as saying that whilst you will insist , quite rightly , on sorting these out , you want to acknowledge that the overwhelming number of Members of the European Parliament are honest , hard-working people , abiding by the spirit and the letter of our regulations .
We do therefore want a Europe which is closer to the citizen , which to us means a simple decision-making system and the disappearance of the democratic deficit .
To us it seems paradoxical that , at a time when the euro is an important factor of integration and the European Parliament 's role seems to be growing stronger , a lot of Member States want a pause for reflection , warning about excessive decision-making powers .
To rectify this I propose the following oral amendment , which I shall read out in German : ' Stresses the importance of the monitoring committees not only for balanced monitoring , but also for revision and adaptation , and expects the composition of the monitoring committees to reflect the new requirements of EU regional policy and to safeguard their authority and decision-making powers . '
It is not the decision-making powers of the EU that are at issue here , but rather the decision-making powers of the monitoring committees .
It is not the decision-making powers of the EU that are at issue here , but rather the decision-making powers of the monitoring committees .
It is for this reason that I approve of the rapporteur 's implicit wish to incorporate the objectives of the Treaty in the Structural Funds reform ( on-going development , jobs , support for SMEs , innovation , the use of new technologies , welfare protection , equal opportunities and the environment ) .
By placing yourself in the camp of injustice and discrimination , by deriding the scientific foundations of the common fisheries policy , you have given our sea-going populations the image of a distant and cavalier European Union , one that is indifferent and contemptuous .
There is an urgent need for confidence-building measures between India and Pakistan and for jaw-jaw , not war-war .
In Indonesia itself , the population will demand genuinely free elections and , with so many people under the age of thirty , completely new forces could emerge to participate in a far-reaching transition which we must hope will be peaceful .
Thus , there would be little incentive for them to implement energy-saving measures .
In fact , mobile risk capital will escape from Europe while its honest and hard-working citizens continue to be fleeced of their savings .
In total contradiction to that guarantee , we have encouraged the dismantling of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ; we have urged the " friendly ' federated republics to align themselves individually with the European Union ; we have begun the accession process with Slovenia , thereby rewarding its leaders for their self-aggrandizing conduct ; we have raised all those who crafted the partition of Yugoslavia to the rank of allies of the European Union and " democrats ' , sometimes in defiance of the evidence ; we have multiplied sanctions , blockades and embargo procedures and military threats against the Srpska Republic , which stands accused of all the evils committed during the events taking place in that region .
In which case , we might see the Commission turn against any scientific analysis and leap onto the bandwagon of a public opinion largely ignorant of sea-faring matters , easily deflected and , in some cases , easily manipulated - a particularly loathsome example of which we have just witnessed .
Thirdly , with particular regard to the sardine-canning industry , to which Portugal is highly sensitive - and which is undoubtedly the industry which is most seriously affected - and following the partnership agreement with Morocco , we think urgent measures should be taken , including the establishment of a compensation fund for the Community canning industry and the maintenance of balanced subsidies for storage and freezing , to prevent market prices from fluctuating with seasonal variations , and here these subsidies should be granted to industries on production of evidence of payment of the minimum price for the product ; the launch of a Community campaign to promote canned sardines and their derivatives , bearing in mind the high nutritional value of the product ; and finally - as suggested by the rapporteur - we consider that the Commission should immediately conduct a general study of the present situation in the industry , concentrating particularly on the number of companies and the development of the sector over the last ten years in the various countries , so that the consequences of opening the market to non-EU countries become sufficiently clear , and including data on production , sources of raw materials , export and import figures , employment , technical and health regulations , duties payable , and in general the laws that govern the sector and , finally , how they are codified .
In the first place , and naturally on the subject of sardines , in the light of my honourable friend 's excellent report on the canning industry , I should like to re-emphasize what has already been said here about sardines , namely the need for compensation for the sardine-canning industry .
Fish meal is used mainly as animal feed in the poultry and pig-rearing sectors .
It has made Member States join the generalized system of preferences , particularly with drug-producing countries .
Some amendments refer to the legislative procedure and demand that Parliament is listened to at all decision-making levels .
This will obviously be damaging to bananas produced in the European Union - particularly in Madeira - and those imported from the African , Caribbean and Pacific countries , which have long-standing agreements with the European Union under the Lomé Convention .
The European Parliament expresses continued solidarity with the people of Northern Ireland and its new assembly in the on-going process of peace and reconciliation ' .
As you know , our position has always been to support co-decision within the whole decision-making system as much as possible .
With regard to democracy , it is clear that Jordan has a long way to go before it meets the main criteria for a well-functioning democracy .
Given the new public remit under the Amsterdam Treaty , criteria should be included in the new Structural Funds regulations on combatting levels of health-damaging pollution .
Last but not least , we must promote the active participation of women in all decision-taking authorities and in the planning of the societies and towns and cities of the future .
European cities are having to deal with an ever-increasing number of problems , from unemployment , environmental deterioration and traffic congestion to poverty and social marginalization , housing problems , crime and drug addiction .
That means that school-leaving qualifications , professional qualifications and diplomas should be equally valid in all Member States .
In practice , however , we are still a very long way from achieving an all-embracing guarantee of fundamental and civil rights , from recognizing the citizen 's sovereign role in integration .
On the other hand , we consider the rejection , in the Council 's common position , of some of the amendments which we originally tabled at first reading to be short-sighted , given that we need a strategic , and as I see it , forward-looking transport policy .
I had my doubts and I remember very well a discussion I had prior to the Summit with a member of the COREPER who tried to bring me to an understanding of the far-reaching consequences of the text to be adopted in 1989 .
This can have far-reaching consequences for the safety not only of these people themselves but also of other people .
It is to urge the Commission to produce its communication on fair trade which can act as a base for new legislation ; for global research which can bring direct support to developing fair trade networks in the south as well as fair trade principles in the north ; to support in principle a separate budget line ending the necessity of using NGO co-financing monies which are often not appropriate for producer cooperatives within the developing world ; to end European discrimination against fair trade in fiscal terms , bringing forward preferential treatment which is compatible with the WTO because of the voluntary nature of the labels ; and finally , to recognize the dangers of the proliferation of labels and the need to have a serious dialogue about the link between fair trade and the new ethical trading being promoted through codes of conduct , on which I am drawing up a report for the Committee on Development and Cooperation .
It is clear to me that our weak decision-making process in the context of the emerging global economy contributes to the erosion of the citizenship which we all recognize and which lies at the heart of much verbal , written and physical violence .
Mr President , we now know why large sectors of the population are afraid , are afraid of immigration , of non-existing rules .
Another important contention is that we try to prioritize cooperation between regional authorities , and that , in the future , when we have got rid of these administrative problems , funds available for the TACIS-CBC programme must be substantially increased , with environment , the narrowing of social inequality , and concrete solutions for border-crossing points as priorities .
The frontier between Finland and Russia is the frontier between the EU and Russia , and the European Union must also bear the responsibility for smooth and contained operations at border-crossing points .
The Commission has allocated ECU 1 million to regional capacity-building initiatives for 1997 .
I will be the first to defend Commission anti-dumping duties and quotas where they are justified , but , when they are not in the interests of the industry , I will be the first to defend my textile finishers , not only in my region but also across the EU .
We have to apply ourselves to the innovative development of high-quality products using considerable mental input , instead of pinning our hopes primarily on anti-dumping measures .
I note the rapporteur refers to the issue of anti-dumping measures .
The episode has displayed the extent to which the industry needs to be a prime candidate for anti-dumping measures .
Knowing that employment is a decisive issue for the European Union , and that most of the unemployed are women , we therefore demand immediate and far-reaching measures in that area , especially because it affects the least developed countries in the European Union , or those in industrial decline , and the regions that are heavily dependent on the textile and clothing business .
implementing properly monitored anti-dumping measures and social conditions in relation to third countries , for example by stipulating a ' social label ' ; -actively supporting small and medium-sized enterprises , especially in the National Action Plans for employment ; -more action on professional training schemes and adaptation to women 's domestic needs , since the great majority of workers in the sector are women ; -increasing subsidies for the promotion of Community textile and clothing exports , particularly by allocating more funds to budget heading B7-852 .
implementing properly monitored anti-dumping measures and social conditions in relation to third countries , for example by stipulating a ' social label ' ; -actively supporting small and medium-sized enterprises , especially in the National Action Plans for employment ; -more action on professional training schemes and adaptation to women 's domestic needs , since the great majority of workers in the sector are women ; -increasing subsidies for the promotion of Community textile and clothing exports , particularly by allocating more funds to budget heading B7-852 .
So the Commission should produce a new plan to make good these deficiencies and place the emphasis on training , innovation , technological development and anti-dumping measures .
We must see an end to the repeated use of anti-dumping duties against the very raw material - cotton greycloth - which our most progressive companies then use their skills and technology to process into high-quality textile products .
It is not really surprising ; it has been a long-standing policy commitment of the Labour Party , and was in Labour 's manifesto when it won power last year , so it is not surprising that this has come through .
Is it the Commission 's opinion that the World Cup and the organizing committee are non-profit-making organizations ?
As I understand it , in Amsterdam Germany 's Chancellor Kohl right at the last minute rejected attempts to ease the decision-making process on the question of environmental taxation .
They actually suggest that environmental taxation might be decided on the basis of Article 130 of the Treaty , which would certainly also facilitate the decision-making process .
I fully agree with what the report says regarding the desirability of a more effective EU decision-making process in this area .
And as long as the Treaty contains this prerequisite of unanimity , it will remain difficult to speed up the decision-making process .
However , the Commission did undertake a wide-ranging study of the consequences ; this is also attached to the proposal and it shows that the proposal would have a positive impact on the environment and on employment .
The inclusion of the European Parliament in the legislative decision-making process was one of the hallmarks of the British presidency .
I also firmly believe that the Council , right up to head of government level , should consider whether a little more transparency and openness would not be more people-friendly - and the Council is after all a quasi-parliamentary decision-making body .
We shall have to see whether the potential of the new troika , the planning and strategy unit , whether the decision-making potential will really lead to a higher level of European added value or whether it will just be a continuation of the classic intergovernmental approach of ' old policies in new bottles ' .
It is certainly not acceptable for the Council to inform us what we can do , and then cram everything it wants into its own decision-making process , and try to stop us to boot !
We need Parliament , the Council and the Commission to act as partners , and it would be good if the Austrian presidency could finally tackle this issue in the interest of democratizing the European Union 's decision-making processes .
I also need this support because the President of the Council - and you as long-serving professionals will know this better than one doing it for the first time - cannot force others to do anything in a dictatorial manner , but has the very difficult task , where possible , of mediating , cooperating , merging and combining often very contradictory individual interests .
That is not your fault personally , but Mrs Pack and many others here have often spoken - and the Commissioner , whom I would particularly like to welcome here , knows this - of the fact that the European Union must do more to support the peace-loving forces .
We share the blame if the democratic and peace-loving forces are weakened .
I believe that , in the case of Milosevic the dictator , Europe must speak with one strong , far-reaching voice , threatening clear and strong positions before it is too late .
We hope that will not be necessary but , nonetheless , we have to take the two-pronged approach of pursuing proper peace-making diplomacy while maintaining the option of force .
The peace-loving groups have not been supported there .
This relates to an long-standing demand which should be made concrete as soon as possible .
I am convinced that a permanent network of authorities and central epidemiological institutions in the Communities is the only way we can get anywhere near ensuring that effective medical treatment is given for communicable diseases , whilst also stemming the tide of the regrettable development of multi-resistant disease-causing micro-organisms already extant in some parts of the Community .
We would also like to remind you that the simplest and most certain way of bringing European representatives closer to the electorate - and not the other way round - is to give national parliaments back a major role in the Community decision-making process , making them more active players on the European scene .
However , we oppose the far-reaching proposal in the Olsson report that would spell sweeping EU harmonization of vital aspects of economic policy .
We believe that the environmental element must constitute a fundamental parameter of all policies and activities , that sustainable and far-reaching development must go hand in hand with the protection of the environment , that environmental policy must be based on prevention , on the imputation of responsibilities to those who are involved in its destruction , and on the taking of measures to repair the damage caused .
Mr President , Mr Camisón Asensio , on 30 January 1998 , the Commission tabled a proposal to the Council for a Council Regulation ( EC ) amending Regulation ( EEC ) 295 / 91 establishing common rules for a denied-boarding compensation system in scheduled air transport .
The second aim was that , in further-reaching integration measures and demands of a large majority of Member States , the practical veto of a minority of states or perhaps of a single state should not prevent these additional integration measures , except in constitutional areas such as the amendment of the Treaty for purposes of enlargement , etcetera .
But even this very modest scope was restricted in the Treaty by the provision that , for important reasons of national policy , each Member State of the EU can , by requiring unanimity , prevent any far-reaching demand for integration on the part of other Member States or the large majority of Member States .
So once again a national veto consisting of national interests has been incorporated with the result that , yet again , one of the main purposes of this Treaty provision has been thwarted , in that true , far-reaching integration has de facto been rendered impossible by a majority decision .
Only then should it be tested by qualified majority voting , which is , of course , the obvious decision-making method .
Perhaps there is then a celebratory debate , a time-consuming procedure with no outcome .
The question of access to documents is also closely linked to the existence of a properly-functioning register of documents in the institutions .
Mr President , it has been established in the Amsterdam Treaty that openness in the decision-making process shall be one of the Union 's fundamental principles .
Then we might really have been able to achieve an internationally guaranteed , far-reaching solution based on autonomy , just like the one we are calling for today .
It is regrettable that this possibility was not seriously considered , because of the prejudice in favour of a supranational currency-issuing agency .
Once again , the report submitted by the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs of the European Commission on the promotion of the freedom of movement of workers was used by the left-wing majority in the committee as an opportunity to overload it with ideological ballast on immigration policy and the rights of third country nationals .
Mr President , Nigeria has been the scene of a long-running saga of unrest and brutality , and the outlook for democracy and human rights remains highly uncertain .
This has highlighted the need for further confidence-building measures from those now in power , vis-à-vis Nigerian society as a whole .
I give far more credit to the Togolese Constitutional Court , to the African OAU observers , to delegates from the French-speaking world , to Americans from the Center for Contemporary Diplomacy and to the President of the Malian National Assembly , Mr Diello , than to the small team designated by DG VIII , and I hope that the Court of Auditors will be able to study how the money was spent , because I am really very fearful that the money has been wasted for ideological and partisan reasons .
Madam President , I can endorse much of what Mr Bertens has said , for the situation in Sudan really is a sad and never-ending story .
While we must of course approve of the interest shown by Europe in re-establishing peace and democracy in the Sudan , it would seem to us that the efforts designed to achieve these objectives require a new type of approach , a method based first of all on better information , in conjunction with arranging a mission on the ground or organizing hearings for representatives of parties to the conflict .
That is why the Council of Europe has endeavoured to implement a programme of confidence-building measures , such as the Ertoba Radio Company project .
In a law-abiding state which respects itself , recourse to the Ombudsman can really only be an additional method of ensuring the good conduct of the institutions .
Denied-boarding compensation system in scheduled air transport
The next item is the report by Mr González Triviño ( A4-0240 / 98 ) , on behalf of the Committee on Transport and Tourism , on the proposal for a Council Regulation ( EC ) amending Regulation ( EEC ) No 295 / 91 establishing common rules for a denied-boarding compensation in scheduled air transport .
I believe that we can be very happy with the Commission 's submission on denied-boarding compensation for scheduled air transport .
Given these circumstances , it is becoming urgent to review the Community regulation on the denied-boarding compensation system , in order to increase the protection and rights of users and to dissuade companies from using such methods , guarding against the legalization of a commercial practice which is unacceptable and reprehensible for users .
I should also like to thank the Committee on Transport and Tourism and , specifically , the rapporteur , Mr González Triviño , for an excellent report on denied-boarding compensation .
The rules laid down by the denied-boarding compensation regulation of 1991 have been useful in protecting passenger interests but new developments in the sector and failure properly to apply the regulation by too many airlines certainly justify a number of improvements .
This course is necessary to cope with the growing complexity of the wealth-creating process of our society and , if I may say so , to free us from a certain amount of inefficient bureaucracy .
It develops the suggestion by the Amsterdam Council that recalled how important it was for each Member State to have well-developed and wide-ranging legislation on the confiscation of the proceeds from crime and related money laundering .
New resources are being deployed and energy-saving aeroplanes are being introduced , and indeed that is a good thing .
It should go without saying in societies based on the rule of law that such all-embracing surveillance technologies require broad and open discussion .
Five English-speaking countries , including an EU Member State , are now helping to support and operate this system which originated in the USA .
And of course , when we undertake a legal measure , it must go through the legal decision-making process , and not least through Parliament .
As I have already stated , the work involved in implementing the Amsterdam Treaty - in particular , incorporating the Schengen secretariat and the analysis , early-warning and policy-planning centre under the second pillar - have made some exceptions to this rule necessary .
It augurs well not only for next year 's budget but also for the more far-reaching decisions which will soon have taken place on the next financial framework .
In order to follow up the meeting in Buenos Aires , and taking into account the national strategies which the Member States adopt , the Commission intends to present a wider-ranging implementation strategy for climate change in the first half of 1999 .
It is this last point in particular that I wish to recall , because if we are going to talk about solidarity and fairness in this debate , and if we are going to say - and here I can only reinforce what you said , Commissioner - that it is necessary for industrialised countries who , after all , have produced and still do produce high emissions of climate-damaging gases , to work harder at reducing them and set a good example - as we are trying to do in the European Union with the ' bubble ' , where we are also taking common but differentiated responsibility - then we also have to be fair when we are dealing with the various flexibility mechanisms .
We all know that it is cheaper for industrialised countries to buy hot air , than to implement even the simplest energy-saving measures at home .
This is a guarantee that no country can continue to convert forests into fast-growing plantations .
The polar icecaps and glaciers will melt , sea levels rise , low-lying ground and many islands will be submerged , tornadoes will increase in number and in violence , tropical storms will penetrate to our own regions , rainfall patterns will be disturbed , droughts will increase and render entire countries barren , etc . , etc .
For the first time , we politicians are faced with a very plausible-sounding hypothesis , to which we have to react , and if we do not react , then we might make the biggest mistake ever made by humanity .
As a result of this , decisions which could have a considerable impact on the nature of projects and which should , in principle , take into account environmental constraints , are taken too late in the decision-making process .
Secondly , the situation is clarified , since the strategic impact study must be carried out at the initial stage of the decision-making process .
To quote the Treaty ( Article 130s , paragraph 2 ) , by way of derogation from the decision-making procedure provided for in paragraph 1 ( qualified majority voting ) , the Council acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission shall adopt amongst other things ' measures concerning town and country planning ' .
The Commission 's aim through this proposal is to supplement the existing environmental assessment system at project level by introducing measures at the planning and programming stage in the decision-making process .
We think that the first area for the introduction of an environmental impact assessment system at the planning and programming stage in the decision-making process is that of town and country planning and associated sectors .
Does she not further accept that this directive , which is the one we are debating , says : ' Whereas the plans and programmes which should be assessed under this directive are those plans and programmes which are adopted as part of the town and country planning decision-making process ' ?
In fact , I answered both Mr Florenz and Mrs Jackson quite clearly in my first response , in which I stressed that it was our clear understanding that the legal basis was Article 130s , paragraph 1 , that the matter had been examined by the Commission 's legal service and that we took the view that it was the correct legal basis , that Article 130s , paragraph 2 , constituted an exception to the general rule and that it was not the intention of the proposal to intervene in town and country planning , but to give the planning authorities an instrument which they can integrate into their decision-making process .
Firstly , I would point out once again that whilst this proposal is well-intentioned , the benefit which this kind of positive development brings will regrettably be cancelled out by the ever-increasing number of aircraft movements .
I would propose , as a follow-up question , a practical problem : how to determine the exchange rate between the euro and the US dollar under this decision-making procedure , and what the Commission 's role would be in the matter .
Almost half of all Austrian banknotes currently in circulation are 20-and 50-schilling notes .
We shall then be able to rid ourselves of the long-standing difficulties we have experienced in establishing a clearly defined relationship between the institutions in this complicated area of the implementation of Community legislation .
These provide for limiting additional solvency requirements resulting from belonging to a group to cases in which risk-enhancing influences between undertakings may actually be possible as well , particularly where a dominant influence is being exercised .
How can we not consider transforming the interim committee of the IMF into a real decision-making body in the near future ?
I also hope that more relevant future actions will be undertaken which will allow us not only to avoid social deprivation becoming the territory of a few fundamentalist movements , but also to make it easier for non-practising Muslims and all those who practise Islam privately to become a full part of society .
Its motto has been ' Out with all-or-nothing postures and in with a gradual deepening of relations ' .
Madam President-inOffice , Mr van den Broek , 250 000 refugees is a sufficiently high number to warrant intervention beyond fact-finding missions or beyond the ' plastic surgery ' type of operation we have seen in the past few years .
But it is very difficult to take further-reaching measures at this point and try to achieve the maximum .
Azerbaijan is very close to us and we could conceivably draw up a far-reaching plan which , using Georgia as a platform , would create an area of stability in this region .
Fourthly , visible confidence-building measures should be implemented immediately .
In such a fast-changing world as that of the new market which is taking shape , as little as five years can render a directive obsolete , causing it to need updating in the light of a Community framework that is constantly moving closer to companies - especially small ones - on the one hand and , on the other , to consumers .
Mr President , it is doubtless a wonderful advertisement for the closer integration of Parliament into the law-making process when we do not only discuss abstract political subjects here in the plenary , but also talk about actual examples of implementation .
I realise that some people here would like to see VAT rates harmonised and they see this as the next stage in the development of a federal super state as such a step would restrict national governments ' decision-making powers in both financial and fiscal matters .
Taxation systems could also be devised for the main money-making sectors of our societies such as financial speculation , savings and accumulated wealth .
This could ensure a certain level of social justice , also through VAT , for non-profit-making organisations .
Here is an example of one of these debt-collecting agencies who put this note through my office door in Chester in the United Kingdom : ' Do you owe money ?
The aim of earmarking the funding allocated , which is unfortunately fairly modest , for awareness-raising measures rather than operational projects , certainly deserves our support .
Madam President , as a man and as a Member of Parliament , I cannot but acknowledge that we live in a society , be it in the north or south , in which women find it very difficult to enter decision-making positions in social , political and economic spheres .
Madam President , today , we in the European Parliament have once again shown ourselves to be a genuine lobby for women 's rights with this wide-ranging debate on the subject .
Secondly , far-reaching changes are required within the family , to allow both men and women to reconcile their private and working lives .
Since the harmonisation of such things as VAT rates will have extremely far-reaching consequences for the Member States , this should be carried out by cooperation between the countries .
More and more cars mean that , despite fuel-saving technologies , CO2 emissions are increasing .
Even European energy-saving programmes such as ALTENER II and SAVE II are merely paid lip-service by the Commission and the Council , but are not given adequate funding .
As far as advisory and decision-making bodies are concerned , the text recommends that we simply fall into line with the position adopted by President Clinton , ie the institutionalisation of the Group of 22 .
We would perhaps be better advised to put as much energy into actually achieving far-reaching reforms as into preaching about them .
The forces of democracy in Congo have made a series of demands which we should actively support : defence of unity and self-determination , opening up the government for democratic forces , precise arrangements for future elections , clear dissociation from xenophobic tendencies , mobilisation of the interministerial commission for the protection of Tutsis and expansion of this to the whole territory , establishment of a ceasefire , withdrawal of all foreign troops and return of Congolese refugees to their home territory , the need to establish clearly who attacked whom , use of the media to promote peace propaganda rather than the propaganda of war and hatred , and , not least , provision of a peace-keeping force to ensure peace between the Democratic Republic of Congo and its neighbours in the Great Lakes region .
We are witnessing the clashes of age-old ethnic hatred , stoking never-ending wars of extermination and retaliation , the reasons for which are lost in the mists of time .
Mr President , the by now multiple and widespread crises and conflicts in the Great Lakes region , in the Democratic Republic of Congo and also in other nearby regions , are probably the most striking and far-reaching shake-up in the national and regional status quo since the era of decolonisation .
I should also add that , as part of the relations between the European Union and China and as suggested in the European Parliament 's draft resolution , we can clearly cooperate on offering assistance and co-financing studies aimed at identifying the environmental and other causes and finding possible solutions to these disasters .
It is of extreme importance and reflects a long-standing concern of French socialists , who are convinced that such a measure would not only benefit consumption but also employment .
Madam President , the debate we are having today on two European Union fishing agreements , one with Madagascar , the other with Gabon , is concerned , exclusively in the case of Gabon , and mainly in the case of Madagascar , with tuna-fishing agreements .
This type of fishing is therefore not going to compete with the food-producing activities of local small-scale fisherman , who can continue to use their driftnets freely and legitimately .
Over recent years - and I do not want to comment further on this - we have witnessed a long-standing dispute between historians .
An early-warning system was put into place last year .
We do not question the need for reliable and timely statistical information , but the power to impose sanctions , particularly in connection with statistical information , could create a series of obligations and pressures whereby the ECB acquires new and more broad-ranging power without the necessary political and democratic constraints and limitations .
So I think this flexible approval procedure will allow the fast-growing telecom market to work better .
Only a new agrimonetary regime will be able to prevent these expenses , subject to a five-year transition period , and will only apply to non-participating countries , but we shall discuss that on Friday , especially the question whether a country such as the United Kingdom which has chosen not to sign up for monetary union should receive the same compensatory payments in future as it has received in the past .
As the rapporteur points out , this Communication is the result of a wide-ranging dialogue within the European Commission and with other Community institutions .
We face wide-ranging reforms as part of Agenda 2000 , and we saw with the MacSharry plans that some countries handled the reforms neatly by devaluing their currencies .
In fact , the report indicates that 4 out of 10 Irish school-going teenagers admit that they have used cannabis , which is twice the average in most EU states .
It is right and proper that this report insists on the need for more transparency in decision-making processes , for more clarity in the rules on tenders and for more effectiveness in internal controls .
I should like to conclude by saying that my personal experience has taught me that openness and transparency are of great value in pre-empting fraud and corruption in an organisation .
He has tried to play a peace-making role here and there , and it is absolutely essential that the presidential election in Gabon is totally transparent .
And it is a positive element that attention was paid to the future of the working people affected and the future of their families , and that measures are also envisaged for the economic conversion of coal-mining areas with a view to finding alternative ways and means of economic development .
The Commission 's decision on aid for the Spanish coal-mining industry is indeed an important one .
As you know , we have been involved in far-ranging consultations about the preparatory measures being taken for the euro 's introduction .
Those from countries outside the EU then gave detailed information about the organised crime and drug-trafficking situations in their own countries .
The elections in Latvia - as well as the referendum on integrating the Russian-speaking population - and the elections in Slovakia have shown that it was right to accept these countries as applicants .
In addition , it provides for a number of accompanying , confidence-building measures .
More far-reaching measures can only be taken with the support of a qualified majority of EU States .
Despite all the fine-sounding resolutions , I sense that some people would not mind seeing the violence go on .
I do actually believe that it is quite legitimate to ask whether , in the event of a negotiated solution being implemented , a multinational peace-keeping force on the ground might be appropriate , on the Bosnian model for example .
In this respect , it is typically the case that very often only a small number of officials from the institutions taking part in the decision-making process have an overall view of the dossier and the state of progress of the procedure .
Finally , whether we like it or not , we must allow for the differences , in terms of decision-making procedures , between Union expenditure and the financing system .
There is a wide-ranging annex on this subject .
Mr President , despite the sad tone of some of the preceding speeches , I feel obliged to point out to you that immigration into Europe from the southern Mediterranean countries is becoming a wide-ranging problem with dreadful consequences for those who attempt to reach Europe .
It was widely acknowledged that if the transition was unsuccessful there would be far-reaching implications for political and economic stability in the region and for relationships between world powers .
The Commission is monitoring the financial and economic situation from our office in Hong Kong , but also by means of frequent visits from officials in the SAR and through visits of high-ranking officials to Brussels .
It is further necessary to develop a better understanding of diseases such as multiple chemical syndrome or damage caused by hormone-altering substances .
The disturbing incidence of children with genetic defects and cancers brings home the fact that there are serious and even life-threatening diseases involved .
As I have already said , Parliament and the Council have undertaken to speed up the decision-making procedure for the adoption of the proposals which constitute the legal base providing for Community funding .
The framework programme presents measures connected with pollution in an unsatisfactory way , and in particular pays too little attention to the fact that energy-saving schemes can help us try and have an impact on people 's lives .
Taxation is an indirect way of influencing energy-saving schemes and it is perhaps the most effective means of all , since other technological saving schemes may be noticed in the market , but the price in the consumer 's mind is the decisive factor , and the price can be influenced by saving energy .
Since the Americans think too much in the short term and have not yet recognised that switching the economy over to energy-saving measures and the use of alternative energies gains much more than its initial cost , we as Europeans have the opportunity not only to take the lead in wanting to protect the environment , but also to push our own industry towards innovation .
The Court of First Instance currently deals mainly with competition matters , agricultural rules , state aid , trade policy protection rules , structural fund disputes , anti-dumping measures , intellectual property law and disputes between the institutions and their employees .
Yet the solution is not to be found in increasing the number of judges or in reducing legal security , but rather in applying a more restrictive policy as regards the transfer of decision-making powers from the Member States to bodies concerned with Community legislation .
A solution can also be found , however , in a transfer of decision-making powers from the EU to the national parliaments .
This requires much more permanent , employment-geared and forward-looking information and consultation procedures , compared to the formality of much of the present rules in this field .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , the United States owes the United Nations about USD 1.6 billion for the regular peace-keeping budgets .
Its responsibilities have increased with its peace-keeping role and I know from my own experience in Sri Lanka from where I brought thousands of documents about disappeared people , that the United Nations needs more money .
This is an extremely serious precedent , it is an appalling example on the part of a country which aspires to be world leader and it jeopardises all humanitarian aid and peace-keeping activities and indeed the very future of the United Nations .
These debtor countries are to be criticised first of all because their failure to pay reduces the UN 's total resources and hence its ability to intervene in crisis sectors , thus limiting peace-keeping possibilities ; and they are even more to be criticised because their example - and what an example , when we are actually talking about the leading world power ! - might have a domino effect bringing all UN activity to a halt and might make countries which have accepted the terms of UN resolutions in full , and have participated , like Italy , in peace missions , much more cautious , not to say reticent .
Nonetheless , overall , the Member States of the European Union contribute some 36 % of the United Nations ' operating budget together with some 39 % of the budget it allocates to peace-keeping activities , .
British pig farmers have additional problems brought about by the unilateral adoption of stock-rearing rules .
British farmers , normally a very phlegmatic , law-abiding group of people , are far less prone to demonstrate than their opposite numbers in some other countries .
Madam President , pig farmers are quite familiar with the phenomenon of yo-yoing prices , and it is not for nothing that we talk about pig cycles in economics .
This tragic situation shows us once more the negative effects of a technocratic type of decision-making system , which is very far from the real world .
The steady 7 to 8 % fall in the value of currencies like the Swedish krona and the Danish krone , which are the currencies of non-participating countries , compared to , say , the Finnish markka , give these countries a competitive edge in production .
Intensively produced , bland-tasting produce that looks nice is not real quality as even the big supermarkets are beginning to acknowledge .
Endocrine-disrupting chemicals 
The next item is the report ( A4-0281 / 98 ) by Mrs Kirsten Jensen , on behalf of the Committee on the Environment , Public Health and Consumer Protection , on endocrine-disrupting chemicals .
We therefore propose that the Commission should put forward a list of substances which can have an endocrine-disrupting effect .
The Commission must screen all EU legislation to see whether we have sufficient resources to intervene on endocrine-disrupting substances .
I hope that the House will approve the amendments we have retabled so that the wide availability of hormone-mimicking pollutants can be limited following the much-needed tightening of the authorisation procedures .
I would urge the Commission and the Member States to follow the ' better safe than sorry ' principle , if in doubt , and take hormone-mimicking pesticides off the market .
Finally , we have to recognise that we are limited and do not have an acceptable internationally-recognised test to identify hormone-mimicking activity by chemicals .
Mr President , there are more than 100 000 synthetic chemicals in use and only a fraction of these have been tested for endocrine-disrupting affects .
Moreover , the Commission , if possible in agreement with the OECD , must urgently provide a provisional definition of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in order to make empirical data substantially more comparable .
The Commission is already working closely with Member States and the OECD to help to develop a harmonised approach to the screening and testing of endocrine-disrupting chemicals .
Similarly , on the basis of the precautionary principle , we foresee the need to consult the scientific committees of the Commission for independent scientific advice in cases of direct or indirect consumer exposure to potential endocrine-disrupting chemicals .
It must also be remembered that agreed test methods are a prerequisite for legislative action , like the proposed amendment to Directive 91 / 414 on plant protection products , and the establishment of a definitive list of endocrine-disrupting substances .
All the EU countries are now working on special - albeit different - programmes to enable them to comply with the wide-ranging provisions of the Convention .
Whilst it is important to fulfil the requirements of the habitats directive and so on , we shall not be doing justice to the UN Convention unless we take an all-embracing approach to conservation .
In the case both of Parliament and of all the ' other institutions ' , this budget is unusual in certain respects : it is the first budget in euros , it is the one which will mark the turn of the millennium , with all the ensuing implications for computers , and it is the one which will see the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty and the new elections to the European Parliament , with the related expenditure for both Members and the data-processing sector .
Significant progress has been made in the data-processing sector , although some things still remain to be done - especially on e-mail applications within and between the institutions - and the effects of the transition to the year 2000 need further investigation .
We know that on 1 March 1999 the ban on landmines will become a legally-binding treaty of the United Nations .
This will not only have a positive impact on climate protection ; it will also provide increased employment opportunities in forward-looking technologies .
The Danish Social Democrats have voted against two amendments from the Greens on an immediate phasing-out of PVC and three phthalates - not necessarily because the Greens are wrong , but because the own-initiative report already contains a demand for the Commission to present proposals for the phasing-out of endocrine-disrupting substances .
Until we know exactly what the effects of the substances in question are , it is difficult to take far-reaching decisions on removing certain products from the market .
Hence there is increasing concern over the impact of chemical substances with hormone-mimicking effects .
They are , nevertheless , in equal need of support from a political union - culpably slow in the making - which could at the very least lend some shape to a disparate array of policies , and of an institutional reform to give the citizens a voice at long last by placing the European Parliament at the forefront of the legislative and decision-making procedure .
Some people miss the never-ending conflicts of pre-1988 budgets .
But I also wish to add that this procedure will only be able to prove itself in the long term and receive the support of this House if it is adjusted , firstly to take account of budgetary discipline , but also to provide some room for manoeuvre one way or another in the decision-making process , before the final decision is made .
In other words , the budget will cease to play an active part and become a completely passive book-keeping exercise .
We must also distance ourselves a little from the Council 's book-keeping approach which unfortunately tends to prevail .
The dispute-resolving procedure must be more balanced , so that the host country is able to take action against the investor .
This far-reaching decision is a noteworthy example for any government concerned about its sovereignty .
A clear endorsement of institutional reform , the improvement of our decision-making structures , so that we remain capable of taking decisions , and a clear ' yes ' to a common foreign and security policy that is really worthy of the name , in the interest of peace on this continent and in the world .
Of all the risks we face , the most serious , in my view , are the fact that the decision-making bodies are so widely scattered and the watering down of both the European Union 's decisions and its common policies .
What he is primarily saying is that decision-making procedures within the European Union will have to be changed if the European Union is to operate effectively when Poland , the Czech Republic , Hungary , Slovenia , Estonia and Cyprus accede to the EU .
I fully agree with the general principle that decision-making procedures within the European Union must be reformed but any reform must take place in a balanced and open manner .
In fact , German-speaking journalists have already protested about this in the House .
I wish to join in this protest and make it known to the public , on behalf of the German-speaking Members .
Thirdly , it is planned to determine by 3 November the procedure and rules for holding general elections for a provincial parliament and local self-governing bodies , including the courts , monitored by the OSCE , within the next nine months .
We wonder why the European Union , so attentive to human rights issues , is not drawing up a more effective and hard-hitting policy .
But perhaps these two different points of view can be coordinated if we realise that we must not try to make a self-fulfilling prophecy , in other words that the financial uncertainty should not lead us to regard Latin America 's economic prospects unfavourably , which would only help worsen the real economic situation , since the statistics paint an entirely different picture .
At the Latin American summit in Lisbon last week , even President Cardoso was prepared to remember his own left-wing past , in view of the crisis .
It was like Spain in 1936 , where the right-wing majority , Gil Robles ' CEDA , had its activities curbed and its leaders and militants assassinated , not to speak of the anti-Catholic atrocities .
Is a video-conferencing session between four people a telephone call with vision ?
However , with the public sector being unseated in the converging areas , the ever-shrinking world and the creation of huge , global monopolistic conglomerates through the many takeovers and mergers taking place , disquiet about what is happening to citizens ' rights is growing .
As you know , the system is currently in the throes of change , and we are striving to improve it with this cross-cutting approach , whereby no aspects can be overlooked , I believe , including the possibility of penalties .
Not because I do not wish there to be an agricultural budget : indeed , I consider this to be a very good budget , with the exception of those funds which are to be spent on supporting certain activities that not only I but also an ever-increasing number of citizens of the European Union reject , fail to understand and simply no longer want .
the need to play a decisive political role , apart from the market and the single currency , and to try to promote human rights and peace through its foreign policy ; involvement in the regulation of international economics and finances in order to bring about economic progress and social justice ( see the proposal by Mr António Guterres made on behalf of the summit of Heads of State and Government of the Ibero-American countries , meeting in Oporto last weekend , for the EU summit on 2425 October dealing with the international financial crisis ) , and in the creation of an area of freedom , security and justice ; -achieving enlargement in a fair way while maintaining cohesion between old and new Member States ; -applying subsidiarity not as a pretext for renationalisation nor in a spiral of centralisation but as a ' dynamic criterion ' in order to determine who , the Member States or the European Union , should exercise their powers in order to guarantee that the aims of the Treaty are effectively attained ; -carrying out an institutional reform to guarantee greater democracy , transparency , citizen participation and effectiveness - aspects which this resolution , unlike others , rightly and expressly considers to be unconnected with the question of the weighting of votes or other issues linked to the power-related status of the larger Member States.This is a resolution which , by laying such emphasis on subsidiarity , by defending the vital participation of national parliaments and by realistically enhancing the decisive role of the Council in a union of sovereign States , demonstrates that the widespread fears of federalism were unfounded - a federalism that only produced bugbears of benefit to nationalists .
the need to play a decisive political role , apart from the market and the single currency , and to try to promote human rights and peace through its foreign policy ; involvement in the regulation of international economics and finances in order to bring about economic progress and social justice ( see the proposal by Mr António Guterres made on behalf of the summit of Heads of State and Government of the Ibero-American countries , meeting in Oporto last weekend , for the EU summit on 2425 October dealing with the international financial crisis ) , and in the creation of an area of freedom , security and justice ; -achieving enlargement in a fair way while maintaining cohesion between old and new Member States ; -applying subsidiarity not as a pretext for renationalisation nor in a spiral of centralisation but as a ' dynamic criterion ' in order to determine who , the Member States or the European Union , should exercise their powers in order to guarantee that the aims of the Treaty are effectively attained ; -carrying out an institutional reform to guarantee greater democracy , transparency , citizen participation and effectiveness - aspects which this resolution , unlike others , rightly and expressly considers to be unconnected with the question of the weighting of votes or other issues linked to the power-related status of the larger Member States.This is a resolution which , by laying such emphasis on subsidiarity , by defending the vital participation of national parliaments and by realistically enhancing the decisive role of the Council in a union of sovereign States , demonstrates that the widespread fears of federalism were unfounded - a federalism that only produced bugbears of benefit to nationalists .
Democratization means European decisions would be made within a framework where the essential guarantees of democracy would be real guarantees , namely , the principle of majority rule , the political accountability of the authorities , control of parliamentary institutions and transparency in decision-making procedures .
Human rights are not left-wing or right-wing issues , they are universal , and they need our constant support wherever they are violated .
I helped to organise the first protest demonstration in London against the 1973 coup and I have never forgotten the heart-rending stories told by some of the refugees who came to Britain of suffering , of losses , of relatives barbarously killed .
Let me tell you that the steel industry as well as the entire precision-engineering and light-engineering industries cannot do anything at all with contaminated steel .
Looking at the existing nuclear facilities in Western Europe , we cannot but conclude that the first decades of the new century will see the decommissioning of an ever-increasing number of nuclear installations .
Mountain regions have a cross-cutting role which not only affects those who live in them : environmental protection and land management , hydrogeological monitoring , the promotion of agri-tourism , improved utilisation of resources , stabilisation of low-lying areas - it is not a commonplace to say that , in many instances , city defences lie in mountain regions - and also , where appropriate , cross-border cooperation and the management of forestry and grazing activities .
Mountain regions have a cross-cutting role which not only affects those who live in them : environmental protection and land management , hydrogeological monitoring , the promotion of agri-tourism , improved utilisation of resources , stabilisation of low-lying areas - it is not a commonplace to say that , in many instances , city defences lie in mountain regions - and also , where appropriate , cross-border cooperation and the management of forestry and grazing activities .
I congratulate the rapporteur on bringing forward a thought-provoking report on the EAGGF .
Could I ask you to increase the number of bicycle racks in the garage at the expense of perhaps two car-parking spaces ?
The report also mentions that libraries are probably never going to be a profit-making undertaking .
The word library conjures up images of shelves full of books and lending facilities , but for decades it has served as a place to store records in ever-changing forms , and new electronic services and networks are increasing all the time .
In the face of the fast-growing supply of all types of information there is indeed a great need to link up public libraries in the whole of Europe into a network which is accessible to citizens and which conveys knowledge and culture just like schools or other institutions .
It has made many far-reaching decisions .
This Conference was designed to provide the over-arching structure of the enlargement process , notably for second and third pillar issues .
It will ease the way for the naturalisation of mostly Russian-speaking non-citizens and stateless children .
Estonia is already part of the first wave but has it made sufficient progress in the treatment of its Russian-speaking minority and is Latvia not now overtaking Estonia in this respect ?
But where Latvia has made more progress than Estonia is in the matter of the Russian-speaking minority .
On the basis of these models , we would be able to review the decision-making structures at Community level and in the Member States .
I agree with the many comments which have been made to the effect that we are heading in a direction where we must do something and that people are becoming rather tired of all the speeches and well-meaning words .
Fourthly , the simplified registration procedure should be extended to veterinary homeopathic remedies for food-producing animals .
In taking account of consumer interests , there is no reason to exclude food-producing animals from the possible therapeutic benefits of homeopathic remedies .
Let me say in conclusion that I have learned from numerous conversations with colleagues in the veterinary field that it is essential to organic farming that we no longer exclude homeopathic medicinal products for food-producing animals from the simplified registration procedure .
We have to remember that , unlike the USA , we in Europe have opted for wide-ranging product legislation .
The main difference is the elimination of the Commission 's decision-making instrument , which was presenting the most difficulties .
He defends British truck owners - some of the nastiest , most reactionary right-wing people you could meet - and attacks French lorry drivers who are fighting for fewer hours and better social conditions .
On this point let me just say that , by definition , activities related to young people and their employment involve mainly voluntary provision at local level , usually with citizens ' associations and non-profit-making groups , in other words in some way related to third-system employment , a subject to which , as we know , the European Parliament attaches particular importance .
Practice with teamwork , group learning processes and good problem-solving skills all equip young people for future jobs .
Under no circumstances can we allow the European Parliament to try to take the place of the Member States by attempting to seize their legislative decision-making powers .
In addition , I also believe that the EVS , which I support wholeheartedly and which is very much a credit to the Commissioner and her services , can be improved upon , for example by adopting Philippe De Coene 's idea of providing a more precise definition of what the host organisations ( non-profit-making organisations ) and host projects ( activities which cannot replace jobs ) should involve .
This calls for serious thought and a wide-ranging debate on teaching children from primary school onwards throughout the European Union the same foreign language that can be used as a language of communication .
For example , the proposal imposes far-reaching obligations on the respective countries to remove obstacles to trade , which makes it impossible for countries to remain neutral in labour market conflicts .
Fourthly , the proposal imposes far-reaching obligations on the respective countries to remove obstacles to trade , which makes it impossible for countries to remain neutral in labour market conflicts .
The Commission 's wide-ranging report all too often fails to say clearly exactly what results have been achieved .
The inquiry is carried out by a higher-ranking official or officials than the official who is the subject of the allegations of mismanagement .
The problems arise because of the sum of the damage , not the individual damage , and they arise because ill-gotten gains are channelled back into the normal economic cycle through money-laundering operations .
The stolen credit cards are flown on by plane to other parts of the world the same night and used there to buy goods , which receivers of stolen goods then convert back into cash , which is then channelled back into the normal economic cycle through money-laundering operations .
As you know , there has been a wide-ranging debate in Parliament about the days on which these elections should be held .
The different formulas left-wing governments have come up with are very much at odds with one another .
One of his proposals is for economic and financial policy coordination - a very far-reaching enterprise indeed .
They contain too many non-binding measures instead of new proposals to expand European legislation .
This report has our support since , in our view , it should lead on to new and far-reaching discussions about the future of European social policy .
For example , there should be more active participation by working people in the decision-making process in companies , and the rights of their representatives should be amplified .
In future , the social dialogue will play an ever-increasing part in shaping EU policy .
If this agreement is finalised on 4 December by the decision-making bodies of the two organisations , a major step will have been taken towards achieving something which the PPE Group called for at the time of the Maastricht Treaty , namely full participation in European social dialogue by a partner speaking specifically for SMEs .
Mr Crowley raised the question of the involvement of the European Parliament in the decision-making process leading to the adoption of legislation based on European agreements .
The Council feared that the Commission 's proposal to call for a framework agreement with a general negotiating mandate would result in an uncontrolled transfer of national decision-making powers and scope .
Paragraph 5 called for greater cooperation regarding the management of crisis situations and the use of peace-keeping forces .
Apart from long-standing issues which are obviously harder to resolve , there are two newer issues causing me some concern in the current trade relations between the EU and USA .
My second concern is about anti-dumping measures in the EU and the USA .
Even the US Congress says in a major report that the ratio last year was 35 anti-dumping cases on the American side compared with just two on the European side .
Therefore , we have publicly called on the United States to desist from unilateral action and seek to resolve our differences according to the lawful multilateral channels which are readily available and are the sole means that a law-abiding country should choose .
Furthermore , I hope that future political and economic dialogue will address the question of anti-dumping measures .
Your first priority is the removal of so-called barriers to trade , and this includes political decision-making powers .
Mr President , the French left-wing government overturned the MAI agreement in the OECD , which it considered a threat to national sovereignty in social issues and matters relating to working life and the environment .
This only came about as a result of various fund-raising activities and the offer of an interest-free loan .
The report notes that for all categories of road-building projects subjected to checks , between 26 % and 95 % of the work was defective .
You may rest assured that the Commission has the greatest interest in urging all those concerned to fulfil their specific obligations now , so that the areas which need our assistance do not suffer as a result of the present standstill in the decision-making process .
Mr President , just briefly , when Mr Monti spoke about his Green Paper there was no mention of how the contributors to these funds , i.e. people who put their money in , are to be involved in the decision-making process .
The all-embracing proposal for a directive contained mathematical formulae and levels of detail that I could not understand myself , let alone explain to my electorate .
Through our actions , we have to demonstrate our wish to simplify regulatory activity and produce better , and less all-embracing solutions .
For instance , 1998 promises to be a record-breaking year for the Airbus in the large-capacity aircraft market .
With the introduction of the euro only a few weeks away , confidence-building measures are precisely what is needed , and they are precisely what these proposals will help to achieve .
I find it really rather comforting to note that - as Mr Rübig has also spelled out here - the German Minister of Finance has come right back into the race at the final bend by endorsing the call for confidence-building measures , instead of standing on the sidelines casting doubt on the sovereignty and independence of the Central Bank with ill-considered statements .
Instead of this wide-ranging debate , throughout the day you will hear the Members bemoaning the fact that they rightly consider that the measures proposed today are not equal to this historic challenge .
We also support the Commission 's proposals to decentralise the decision-making powers on micro-projects , and staff and funding must be made available for this .
As Mr Pronk just pointed out , establishing this Guarantee Fund was a long-standing aim of the European Parliament , because we could not agree to the Member States of the European Union giving guarantees unless these guarantees were safeguarded through a fund , especially in the event of defaults .
The most important of these would be reducing the fiscal pressure on small companies and raising employees ' wages through profit-sharing schemes , practical measures which should certainly be accompanied by initiatives to define the future of social dialogue precisely , and promote the adoption of a charter of fundamental social rights , also extending it to those partner countries which have not yet ratified it .
The Social Action Programme should preferably be a non-binding instrument for analysing problems that lead to social exclusion , poverty , unemployment and discrimination .
improving education systems-developing a wide-ranging investment programme-supporting the creation and development of SMEs , - promoting entrepreneurial spirit-exploiting the potential of the ' social economy ' for the creation of jobs.All these are praiseworthy indeed but are in danger of being nothing more than wishful thinking if we keep forgetting two parameters that are important for prosperity in Europe and which are also linked , namely the family and population growth.When children and young people fail at school - a real problem in Europe - it is not due simply to the failure of education systems to provide general knowledge and suitable occupational training , but largely to educational shortcomings resulting from the crisis of the family unit , to selfishness and to adults ' lack of awareness .
Characteristically , in order to prevent possible reactions , the Commission has chosen the method of sectoral agreements on which the European Parliament delivers non-binding opinions , instead of a framework agreement requiring Parliament 's approval , thus avoiding any possibility of greater control and intervention .
The aim of flexibility in pre-accession partnership also means that the Union needs new policy-making tools to increase cooperation with applicant countries , and one of the most significant elements here must be considered to be the Union 's northern dimension , as presented at the Vienna Summit on the initiative of Finland .
Mr President , this is really a first-reading type debate under the Hughes procedure and I must say that I shall welcome the new rules for the Hughes procedure when they come about and hope that the second reading will be subject to them .
In no way should the decision-making view of Parliament be by-passed by use of the performance review , although it is tempting for a budgets committee to find support for this .
We must use it to open up new employment opportunities above all in the third sector , the non-profit-making sector .
We do not expect the policy to be abandoned , but we expect a far-reaching and forward-thinking policy to be developed which will take into account the maritime dimension of the Union , one of its most essential characteristics .
In applying the principle of partnership a clear division of responsibility must be established and the decision-making process must not be allowed to be hampered , but we have to approach the question of listening and commitment on the part of the various parties flexibly .
To achieve this , we must concentrate the funds on least-favoured regions and channel them towards job-creating objectives .
It is important to emphasise that a whole series of pre-training measures is included , intended to reach the categories of people who would otherwise be irredeemably lost .
Better practical implementation also demands greater decision-making powers and greater autonomy on the part of the provincial authorities , which cover bodies with more detailed knowledge of the situation locally .
Now we should also be able to agree unanimously that once the Council has finalised its decisions by the Brussels summit in March , Parliament will then be able to take part fully in the decision-making process .
I should like to speak in particular about the social fund regulations and thank Mrs Jöns for her very visionary and forward-looking report .
It is essential that in an ever-changing world , in technological and financial terms , we upgrade people 's skills .
Yesterday , I criticised a report which appeared in an important left-wing newspaper from my region , La Dépêche du Midi , taken from the Sunday Times , which I hope was wrong and which stated that Israeli laboratories are working , and I quote , ' on the production of ethnic biological weapons , containing genetically modified micro-organisms that would harm Arabs but not Jews .
Changes are also possible to the decision-making mechanism , to ensure that Member States have a decisive say in the allocation of the reserve funds .
There is no doubt that the overall package , including the merging of several directives into a single directive for rural areas and their development , contains genuinely far-reaching proposals and new ideas .
There is actually quite wide-ranging agreement that this approach should be pursued in the domain of crop farming , irrespective of the size of the reduction in the intervention price and the amount of compensatory aid .
There is also very wide-ranging agreement on the objectives that should underlie the granting of assistance for the development of rural areas .
To achieve the latter we need LEADER type programmes to assist small-scale enterprises to develop new jobs in high technology as well as in tourism , traditional crafts and skills and environment-enhancing projects .
The length of the debates and the number of meetings that all Parliament 's committees have devoted to it lead us to expect a far-reaching project .
On the other hand , I voted against Amendment No 2 , which calls into question the future decision-making capacity on the financial perspective .
I also voted against Amendment No 5 , which , following approval of Amendment No 7 - which I again voted against - , could lead to a restrictive reading of the Council 's decision-making capacity concerning the regions in Objective 1 .
Unfortunately , she cannot participate today because she too has another long-standing appointment , which could not be further postponed .
This was an absurd way to settle the burden-sharing issue and thus also failed to be supported by a majority of the Council .
In our explanation of vote , we should like to focus attention on the importance of patent applications and other patent-processing procedures being carried out in all Member States ' languages .
Market forces have become increasingly liberated from the political decision-making process .
I think it would also be extremely worthwhile to tie in the money-laundering issue and ensure that the BIS international rules are rigorously enforced .
And we are talking about wanting to incorporate safety nets , set up early-warning systems , take accompanying measures , or even promote development policy .
However , if you consider the far-reaching consequences it would have if it were discontinued , then you should be far more sensitive towards this pressing matter of cultural policy .
However , it is precisely because of this that we need to maintain the price-fixing system for books .
Commissioner , when Beckett received the Nobel prize for ' Waiting for Godot ' , all 300 copies of this book were sold in the German-speaking area of Europe .
I would remind you that 40 to 45 % of the literary works published in Germany are translations , mostly from the English-speaking world .
Book price fixing is an absolute must for linguistic regions like the Dutch-speaking region which are homogeneous , span borders and constitute a market for the sale of books in the language in question .
We shall thus be voting for this resolution , even though it merely repeats what is so often called for by the culture ministers and is also a little bit detached from what is going on in the real decision-making bodies because , Mr President , we are talking here about a resolution whilst the Council meeting of 17 November specifically had book price fixing on its agenda .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , according to the Treaties the Council is not a decision-making body , but is the Union institution which can most legitimately carry out the vital task of providing a political impetus , since all the Heads of State and Government are directly accountable to their respective parliaments .
We are calling for the regulation of the financial markets and for job-creating investment not to be taken into account within the context of the stability pact .
Mr President , the citizens of Europe , and in particular the unemployed and the young , are indeed expecting a great deal of the European social model and hoping to benefit from the historic opportunity offered by the coming to power of left-wing governments in most of the European countries .
Linked to the Ocalan case is the problem of pressure , threats and acts of terrorism perpetrated or merely threatened by well-organised ethnic and religious groups which have a huge following in Europe , as reported by no less a figure than a leading German left-wing intellectual , Peter Schneider , who states : ' It is clear that Turkey is striving to manoeuvre the Turkish minority in Germany , like a sort of fifth column .
Estonia has continued to make steady improvements in most fields but has made disappointing progress on its legal treatment of the Russian-speaking minority .
It would note our many failings , how we are dragging our feet on institutional reform - which , to tell the truth , we have not even started yet - the never-ending negotiations on agricultural reform , and our inability to react appropriately to new developments such as those in Slovakia .
We have become painfully aware of the pitfalls of solving crises without the proper involvement of the affected regions in the decision-making process .
Besides the supervision of banks , we also need supervision of non-banking institutions .
If exports from the crisis countries with their devalued currencies now increase , we cannot suddenly hit the brakes with anti-dumping levies .
So we Liberals think it is important to apply the same standards , but that it is no use having a sort of security council for the economy or a decision-making power within the IMF .
1.It is not the place of the outgoing Parliament to take far-reaching decisions affecting the Members who will be elected in June 1999 .
But the plans to create an Economic Security Council , to invest the IMF 's Interim Committee with decision-making powers , or even to call upon private capital for emergency loans - together with the IMF - for countries affected by crises , will not only fail to solve the problem but also result in further restriction of the sovereign rights of the borrowing countries , the imposition of stricter austerity programmes on their peoples , and the creation of overcentralised structures with no accountability over the heads of national and regional authorities .
Mr President , I asked you last time to consider improving the bicycle facilities in this building , such as by allocating one car-parking space in the covered car park for bicycles .
Set one car-parking space aside so that cyclists have more room to store their bicycles out of the rain .
Well qualified and hard-working officials have in many cases been asked to do too much with too little .
It must be said from the outset that the budgetary authority is not in a position to solve the Court 's wide-ranging problems through an intensive recruitment policy , which would be virtually impossible over a single budget year ; it would however be possible if it were staggered according to a multiannual plan .
Yet some of the assertions made here are based on pure speculation as to developments in the non-participating countries .
On the one hand , financial support for cohesion , as agreed in Edinburgh ; on the other hand , employment-creating expenditure , for example trans-European networks research and education .
It was good though to hear from the Commission President that a new programme of health-promoting measures is on the way .
It talks about changing the composition of the Commission , extending the use of qualified majority voting , and giving new weighting to the votes within the Council , but it says very little about what we are all waiting for , that is , a far-reaching reform of the running of the European Union .
The decision-making process is too slow .
I totally agree with the rapporteur that the European Union should offer compensation for those that go out of the industry , and for retraining and re-equipping vessels for different methods of fishing for those that want to carry on .
In Vienna , the European employment strategy was given a new and far-reaching momentum .
We all know that not every Council can provide dramatic , earth-shattering changes .
So this is my verdict , Chancellor : this summit has not broken down the blockade on reform in the European Union in relation to enlargement and the decision-making ability of the European Union and its ability to master problems .
What does more efficient policy-making mean ?
The creation of a single market with a unified currency will have far-reaching implications for the marketing , production and supply strategies of Irish businesses .
EMU is a political project with a broad-ranging impact on ordinary EU citizens ' daily lives .
In 1997 , the European Parliament made it clear that it is important to prevent certain national codetermination systems from simply being exported , but also to prevent any weakening of codetermination in countries which already have far-reaching rights .
There is therefore a need for the Commission to organise the administrative and decision-making structures into a single body ; to reconsider the idea of creating a fully developed service for human rights and democracy ; to entrust a Vice-President of the Commission with the coordination of foreign relations and a Commissioner with responsibility for matters related to human rights .
Women find it doubly difficult to gain access to training and to establish a livelihood , and they are seldom appointed to decision-making posts .
But this is at least one human right fiercely claimed by extreme right-wing parties .
Furthermore , the European Union continues to call on both sides to take confidence-building measures in the framework of a comprehensive overall solution and to begin a process of progressive disarmament .
Of course the Council is carefully monitoring developments in the region and is endeavouring to contribute towards finding a peaceful , comprehensive solution to this long-standing issue .
Those who claim to be driving out alleged right-wing extremism never show any interest in left-wing extremism .
Those who claim to be driving out alleged right-wing extremism never show any interest in left-wing extremism .
The advantages of this are not just about being able to measure the success of consumption-reducing measures , but also about identifying the main trends in transport policy .
I believe that , as the rapporteur has already mentioned , more information should of course be provided in order to ensure honesty , because the test cycle , which unfortunately does not exist yet for light commercial vehicles , does not take into account any extra equipment such as air conditioning or pre-heating systems , which may increase fuel consumption by as much as 20 % .
Over ten years ago , with the Montreal Protocol , we found a way to control the phasing-out of ozone-depleting substances .
New ozone-depleting substances which are not covered by the Montreal Protocol or by the EU regulation on ozone-depleting substances are being discovered all the time .
New ozone-depleting substances which are not covered by the Montreal Protocol or by the EU regulation on ozone-depleting substances are being discovered all the time .
If we are to achieve the agreed objectives laid down in the Montreal Protocol , we must solve the problem created by these ozone-depleting substances .
To do so , we have to devise a simple and efficient system for controlling the whole area of ozone-depleting substances , so that arrangements are in place for when new substances are discovered .
I would therefore urge Parliament to support the committee 's proposals relating to the arrangements for controlling new ozone-depleting substances .
We all know that methyl bromide is one of the worst ozone-depleting substances .
Finally , HCFCs still have a very high ODP and a high global-warming potential .
Since these substances cannot be obtained outside the EU in sufficiently pure form , all trade in ozone-depleting substances with countries outside the EU must be prohibited .
It could be due to the fact that Member States do not or cannot support the resolution , or that the decision-making process has taken place so quickly that public opinion in individual countries has been unable to keep pace - in which case it is doubtful whether extending the qualified majority is the right solution .
We are therefore hoping , Mr Santer , for total clarity , a lack of equivocation and , in particular , a wide-ranging sense of responsibility .
Mr President , Mr Santer , ladies and gentlemen , our group will of course consider the wide-ranging proposals and pledges you have made and decide on our position tomorrow .
But be that as it may , as the longest-serving member and in all my work at the Commission I have to my knowledge never , never , condoned fraud of any kind .
But injustices have crept into the burden-sharing process , which must be rectified .
Mr President , Mr Fischer , I fully agree with your basic programme statements and they largely address long-standing concerns of Parliament 's Group of the European Liberal , Democratic and Reformist Party .
Our group is obviously delighted with this new left-wing majority and we hope that social problems , employment , social justice and citizens ' rights - I am thinking , in particular , of the rules for acquiring German nationality - will receive more attention than before .
Mr President , the Luxembourg summit put an end to the virtually endless series of non-binding statements about employment .
In addition to making political procedures and decision-making processes transparent , we must give the citizens a say .
The European Union institutions must develop mechanisms to enable the citizens to bring their own ideas and thoughts into the decision-making process .
It is this openness to the public to which the citizens of Europe have a right : open legislation ( not transparent legislation but legislation in public ) , the public justification by the administration of all its acts , rights of control and information for Parliament , in the second and third pillar too , public decisions and decision-making bases , in the area also of internal security and foreign policy , and the rights of the citizen to information ( not the information services ) , the press services , the public relations work of the European institutions .
This is of particular interest to me as it will be a way of bringing the Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa closer to the EU .
In the meantime it is not of course the Commission 's intention to refuse entry to the European market for Estonian products under the guise of anti-dumping legislation .
I pointed out earlier that the Romanian refineries in Ploesti are due to be modernised and that Romania plays a key role as a link between the Trans-Caucasian oil-producing countries such as Kazakhstan , but also and in particular Azerbaijan .
Under President Kim Dae Jung , Korea has started an economic reform beginning to address some of our long-standing concerns .
We believe that this is the right time to take stock of the European Union 's policy on such a sensitive and ever-changing issue , and I think that Parliament and the Commission have always cooperated actively and successfully in this area .
Finally , the Research Committee supports the Council of Europe 's proposal for the creation of a European Maritime Agency , which would be responsible for encouraging cooperation between centres of excellence in Europe , the European maritime industry and the relevant political decision-making bodies ; the cooperation model employed could be along the lines of Eureka .
For this reason , Mr Jarzembowski quite rightly recommends in his excellent report that the Commission should carry out a fact-finding study on the different types of sea port in Europe .
The first is their desire to strike a balance between the need to ensure that the new areas of business activity opened up by the electronic signature are not shackled and virtually nipped in the bud by excessively detailed and restrictive rules - for which we have had no shortage of proposals in Parliament - and the need to increase demand for these services and promote acceptance of electronic signatures by means of confidence-building measures .
This directive for the first time lays down a set of tough , legally-binding limits for emissions of the four major pollutants - sulphur dioxide , oxides of nitrogen , particulates and lead - to be met by 2005 and 2010 and based on 1997 guidelines from the World Health Organisation to protect public health .
Agriculture policy is no longer just a policy on prices and markets , but an all-embracing policy which includes policy on the countryside .
Therefore , if we wish to be serious and responsible , a thorough , far-reaching reform is urgently needed .
Finally , I would like to express my thanks to the rapporteur for his hard and time-consuming work .
Negotiations in the Council have now entered the decision-making phase .
We have also had a wide-ranging discussion in our group .
I must also congratulate Mr Rehder for having made a left-wing speech in this sitting , which is something I do not normally expect from the social democrats , while the Commission generally talks only of the market , using highly capitalist rhetoric .
We should like to point out that the Commission has never been regarded as independent , but as a joint decision-making body with Parliament and the Council .
In particular , we would like to stress that the Commission and those Member States who sit on the WTO 's decision-making bodies , when assessing applications , should make it a criterion of acceptance into the WTO that candidate countries comply with minimum social standards .
The suggestion put to the Commission to intervene in WTO decision-making procedures to ensure that respect for minimum social standards by the applicant countries is upheld as a criterion for admission is also very positive .
In the context of the celebrated public-private sector cooperatives , the Commission is trying in this branch as well to hand over the prime profit-making activities to the shipowners .
Already the Piraeus and Thessaloniki Port Organisations - though both are profit-making bodies - are among the agencies likely to be privatised with a view to bringing Greece into the euro and are in the process of being converted to limited companies .
We support the ' fair assumptions ' on which the rapporteur at least wishes cofinancing to be determined , but we disagree with the choice of Article 43 of the Treaty as the decision-making procedure to be followed .
As for the minor points , I cannot forget a few long-standing problems .
The outcome or compromise , as the President-in-Office , Mr Funke , deliberately repeated several times this morning , must however take account of a long-standing culture which is remote from the real interests of consumers and producers .
Mr President , Mr President-in-Office , Commissioner , Agenda 2000 already contains many far-reaching proposals from the Commission for making changes to the agricultural policy .
Mr President , Commissioner , ladies and gentlemen , a long-standing error is restricting the development of agricultural and livestock farming in those Spanish regions that are lagging behind economically .
Another element of this squaring of the circle is that , on the one hand , we rightly require agriculture to provide a livelihood for as many people as possible , but on the other hand we must constantly explain to the non-farming population , and also to the farmers themselves , that the total sum spent on agriculture is not a small one , when we take into account the European budget , the national budgets and part of the regional budgets in federal Member States .
That the presidency also wishes to speed up the decision-making process on institutional issues is a positive signal to the applicant countries , and I think it is in our mutual interest that this positive signal can actually be given as well .
The effects of this proposal for taxable persons residing in the Community are that , if the taxable person is identified for VAT purposes in a single Member State , the VAT is deducted there , irrespective of the Member State in which he incurred the VAT-bearing expenditure .
If the taxable person is identified for VAT purposes in several Member States , then if he is identified in the Member State in which he has incurred the VAT-bearing expenditure , the VAT is deducted in that state .
If the taxable person is not identified in the Member State in which he has incurred the VAT-bearing expenditure , the VAT is deducted in the Member State where he supplies goods or services for which the expenditure is used .
If you did not act for fear of the left-wing majority in the Council , then I have little sympathy .
I could give you some hair-raising examples here , but unfortunately there is not time .
It will also be necessary to develop forward-looking strategies and to establish generally applicable rules .
We must certainly heed your comments about democratic control in areas which we have always traditionally felt - and I am sure rightly so - are subject to the law-making process .
There is therefore also a need for a far-reaching debate here in Parliament .
Through them we have been able , over the past two years , to support hundreds of awareness-raising and confidence-building projects within the Union and around Europe .
The same can be said for the transparency and democratic supervision of the decision-making procedure .
To have voted for Mr Fabre-Aubrespy 's motion of censure to sack the Commission today , at the critical juncture when the Commission needs to be capable of taking major decisions on Agenda 2000 and reform of regional grants , could have thrown this decision-making process into paralysis .
Of course , it would have been in the interest of the Commission as a whole if a couple of Commissioners had accepted political responsibility for their actions , but as they have not done so , we shall in future have to find a way of avoiding a cliff-hanging censure vote potentially leading to the removal of the entire Commission .
We need an EU burden-sharing system with quotas for civil war refugees and asylum seekers .
This allows the sale of oil up to a value of USD 5 000 million over six months , in order to obtain humanitarian supplies and spare parts and equipment for the oil-producing plants .
Mr President , hundreds of thousands of Angolan people are today facing the threat of misery , starvation and death in central Angola as a result of the renewed outbreak of civil war initiated by Dr Savimbi and UNITA , despite all the efforts of the United Nations and other parties to bring peace and relief to this long-suffering country after decades of destruction and merciless hostilities .
In the interests of the long-suffering people of Angola , it is vital that the UN , subject of course to the safety of its personnel , continues to be involved in Angola .
In this respect , Guatemala has become a real baby-trafficking location , so that in 1997 it was estimated that more than two thousand children were sold at a price of 15 000 to 20 000 dollars .
However , I believe that the idea to establish an Internet charter which will be a legally non-binding document setting out internationally agreed objectives and principles in areas such as taxation , liability , jurisdiction and data protection would be a very good idea indeed .
It was Tony Blair who reached a ground-breaking agreement with British Telecom to connect every school in Britain to the Internet .
We can continue with these sorts of awareness-raising measures .
The poor results of the Lomé Convention as revealed in the Commission 's 1997 Green Paper led to a wide-ranging discussion about whether the Convention should be continued .
I naturally attach great importance to this report and to the Commission report , because the ever-recurring conflicts between the United States of America and Europe can be attributed not least to the fact that we have particularly close economic ties with 70 countries throughout the world and that great mutual support exists .
And what you told us about the steel industry verges on a brief protectionist declaration , not by yourself , but one that is increasingly to be heard in major parliaments , in Congress and in other decision-making centres in the world .
We can only get to grips with these developments through cooperation , joint strategies and a joint problem-solving approach .
It is a matter of strengthening post-landing controls , strengthening cooperation between Member States and the Commission , tightening controls on third country vessels and even using new technology such as satellite controls .
However , careful monitoring of fish-spawning grounds is also necessary and should lead to short-term closures of certain areas .
Where the decision-making process in relation to the environment is decentralised , different conditions will naturally obtain in the different countries .
But what we have also made provision for , especially in relation to encouraging investment in agricultural undertakings , is that if a farmer sets up stock-breeding systems that are particularly kind to animals and invests to that end he will receive greater support than a farmer who is only prepared to observed the minimum standards .
We do not want to retaliate though by creating a self-defeating cycle of protectionism .
As far as these are concerned , not only is concentration taking place , but enterprises are becoming increasingly interrelated both amongst themselves and with the financial groups which control decision-making bodies .
While , on the one hand , the European Union 's structural policy has contributed to reducing the existing development disparities , in particular in the cohesion countries , on the other hand it has also led to an ever-growing number of objectives , programmes and Community initiatives , a fragmentation of subsidies , and a complex and inconsistent approach to zoning .
We must take action to put the ACP banana-producing countries in a position to stand on their own feet and not keep them in a state of permanent immaturity , which in our view would be the result of accepting the ARE amendment .
We totally agree with the adoption of measures which will allow special tariffs to be granted to schools , libraries and other equivalent institutions and to charitable and non-profit-making organisations .
I have to say that I am opposed to the possibility of post -tendering negotiations because even if they could be done transparently - and I find that hard to believe as there does not seem to be much point to them beyond publicity as an end in itself - surely such negotiations would damage parity of conditions , given that only the successful tenderer would enjoy its results .
This is somewhat illogical when what really disrupts the welfare of the hens is that they cannot satisfy the particular egg-laying needs which are natural to them .
Europe should embark on a wide-ranging programme aimed at bringing about a switch from petrol to environmentally friendly fuels .
Without the family unit , there cannot be a well-functioning society .
The Kyoto Protocol adopted in December 1997 established principles and introduced legally-binding targets and timetables for Annex 1 countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , Commissioner , the debate on reducing greenhouse gases is like a never-ending story .
The Commission proposes an extension of the excise tax regime on hydrocarbons to a much more comprehensive tax base , including sectors that have heretofore been excluded in some or all of the Member States - sectors such as coal , gas , electricity and home-heating oil .
We want a more predictable base-deepening formula for determining the evolution of tax rates .
We do not need indirect tax-raising measures which will have a serious impact on people 's incomes .
If the European energy-consuming industries that are currently making great efforts to save energy are exempted , our competitive edge will be lost .
We must not forget that the telephone is also a useful job-seeking tool .
In order to achieve this , we could firstly devote our energies to potential job-creating sectors , for example the tourism sector ; it is a shame that the Philoxenia programme was blocked within the Council of Ministers .
Reorganising work in this way would ease congestion in access routes to major towns and would also allow us to eventually free up considerable human and financial resources that could then be used to concentrate on developing communications infrastructures in less-favoured regions and in job-creating sectors of activity .
The reason why I am withholding my support is that I do not wish to contribute to any decision whereby policy on taxes and duties is determined to an ever-increasing extent by the EU .
For me , the Cox report and the proposal for a directive on which it is based are a glaring example of the creeping harmonisation of Member States ' tax and duty policies which is currently taking place in the EU : harmonisation which is motivated first and foremost by concern for the internal market , but to an ever-increasing extent by concern for EMU and the single currency , the euro ; harmonisation which is logical and correct , if one is an advocate of the EMU and the euro .
The three fundamental principles - reproduction , communication and distribution - receive even-handed treatment in an article which allows room for manoeuvre , enabling the various Member States to maintain often long-standing differences which do not hinder the smooth running of the internal market .
In drafting and adopting this proposal - which , as you will remember , is the product of wide-ranging consultation dating back to 1994 - the Commission has taken the greatest care to retain a fair balance between the various rights and interests at issue , which are frequently in open conflict .
Firstly , a significant number of amendments concern the decision-making procedure .
Finally , the Committee on Agriculture , concerned about the future of the wine-growing profession , wanted all structural measures taken to give priority to young wine growers , either on their establishment or during the period when their holdings are growing .
At my request and at the request of the chairman of our committee , Mr Colino Salamanca , the European Parliament 's Directorate-General for Research carried out a study analysing the role of trade organisations in the wine-growing sector .
It is at this point - and I may be speaking on behalf of my group , but I do come from a northern Member State - that I should like to thank Mr Martin , because he has shown a feel for the peculiarities of wine growing , for how wine-growing traditions and also oenological practices have developed - over centuries , almost - and because his proposals have made it possible for us actually to forget the dispute we had for a very long time between northern , southern and central Europe .
Mr President , I hope it was not under the influence of wine that such wide-ranging agreement has been reached in this Parliament .
With regard to wine-growing potential , we must preserve the principle of limiting rights by providing for the right to growth of 3 % in the short term , with the possibility of updating this in line with market needs once a proper inventory of planting rights has been carried out .
As an elected representative of the biggest wine-growing region in Europe , whose vineyards have undergone considerable renewal , I can assure you , Commissioner , that quality is essential for the future of viticulture .
All of these structural measures , both in terms of wine-growing potential and vineyard improvement , must give priority to young wine growers .
Finally , I should like to point out that the Commission feels that if we are to take such a far-reaching initiative it could be very important to opt for an annual report which deals with a limited number of human rights themes , rather than perhaps seeking to produce a worldwide report .
What is more , it seems more positive to grant 1 % of the replanting rights in relation to the designated wine-growing areas in zones where demand is increasing , than to extend the limit to 2010 .
As regards market mechanisms , we fully endorse the increase in the volume of alcohol in wine-making installations to 15 % from 7 % through the vinification of grape musts .
This is why we endorse measures aimed at restoring balance to the decision-making procedures .
If we take a look at the world around us , we can see that Europe has lost its economic and commercial clout in this sector to new wine-producing countries such as the United States , South Africa , Chile , Argentina , Brazil , Australia and even New Zealand .
First , the 1 % increase in new planting rights is too low to develop the European Union 's vine and wine-growing potential .
With regard to wine-making practices and the possibility of increasing the alcoholic content of wine with sugar , we must maintain the status quo , the historical continuity of a product which is pre-eminently traditional .
However , it has now adopted a more positive approach , and it is indeed inconceivable that we should think of meddling with Europe 's wine-growing potential , with all its tradition and its wonderful variety , and simply abandon the European internal market and the world market to competition from third countries , whatever the World Trade Organisation may say .
I am sorry that despite all these efforts some of our colleagues from the south have again gone on the war-path against the centuries-old wine-growing practices in the north of the Community .
But the Agriculture Committee 's proposals are also well-balanced and sensible when it comes to wine-growing practices , new planting rights and flexible measures in the event of poor weather conditions or unusually abundant grape harvests , where maximum yields are involved .
Statistics given by the Commissioner show that , in 1994 , a dairy company received an average of ECU 13 140 million from the EAGGF , a combined meat and dairy company received ECU 11 536 , arable farmers received ECU 11 207 , while a wine-producing company received , on average , ECU 4 590 .
Existing regulations and their planned extension will , in my opinion , undermine the essence of the European Union wine-producing proposal and position .
Insisting on bottling at source is a well-meaning and naive attempt to protect jobs and the reputation of the wines from particular wine-growing regions .
I come from one of Europe 's northern wine-growing areas , from the Mosel region .
I would like to thank the Commission and our rapporteur Mr Martin , and also the Agriculture Committee , for making it possible to reach a compromise on this common organisation for wine , which , in recognition of the specific characteristics of individual regions , provides for traditional wine-growing practices to be maintained .
Our wine-growing regions have already set corresponding maximum yields per hectare .
This could have been an opportunity for trying to reach across it but , for reasons that other Italian colleagues have already explained , we cannot be optimistic about the chances of what I would venture - a little exaggeratedly perhaps - to describe as an almost epoch-making recovery from an age-old handicap , and it will be a few years yet before there is any possibility of even a partial recovery .
Although I regard this as an excellent decision-making procedure for major changes and above all changes of policy , it is simply too slow and cumbersome for purely technical market organisation measures , where decisions are needed so that we can react promptly to the market situation .
We support the European Parliament 's increased and more on-going involvement in determining global guidelines .
Mrs Berès is right : if we want to avoid the risk of paralysis in the decision-making system , we must extend this type of voting and bring it into general use .
Secondly , with regard to its scope , this report analyses the decision-making process in the Council and , in general terms , the difficulties the Council experiences in its operation .
Mr President , there is no issue of greater importance for the future of the Union as we move to have over twenty Member States , as will be the case in the next few years , than the reform of the decision-taking procedures within the Council .
We know that as we soon will have 20-something states around the table of the Council any area that requires unanimity will be an area in which the European Union is likely to be paralysed .
Who is to say that when we have 20-something states around the table that sometime some government or another will not be tempted to use a similar tactic ?
But here too the conservative side of this report gives way to the bolder side , with the suggestion that the European Council should meet , whenever necessary , as the Heads of State and Government , when for decision-making purposes it should adopt the procedures usually followed at normal meetings of Councils of Ministers .
However , a much-needed reform which should be implemented is the apportionment of roles , in other words the allocation of decision-making responsibility .
The latter must extend its role of laying down general guidelines and providing political impetus for the Union without becoming a decision-making body .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , I should like to begin by congratulating the rapporteur who , in my opinion , has presented us with a magnificent report that offers a forward-looking analysis of the institutions of an enlarged European Union and of issues that the Treaty of Amsterdam obviously failed to resolve .
I cannot accept this because it would give greater decision-making powers on the budget to the bigger contributors and is totally at odds with the Community method .
The Bourlanges report considers these questions and seeks constructive , forward-looking solutions to them .
It is an important amendment as it deals with a key problem in Europe today : the traditional exclusion of women from the decision-making process .
I therefore believe that by providing for this possibility , we are taking a major step forward in defending the necessary involvement of women in the decision-making process .
I am referring to the European Union 's decision-making process in the light of enlargement , an issue that many speakers referred to .
I would now like to look at the issue raised by the rapporteur concerning the need to strengthen the legal aspects of the Council 's decision-making process , including the decisions taken by the Heads of State and Government .
Accordingly , we should like to see an end to the Council 's tortuous decision-making process during the five-year period with regard to certain legislative issues .
Member States have watered down the role and the competence of the European Union 's democratic and judicial institutions , notably the European Parliament and the Court of Justice , and also the decision-making procedures for a period of at least five years .
But sometimes this debate has concentrated too much on the relationship between the European institutions , the balance of power and their operational and decision-making procedures .
Mr President , I wish to begin by complimenting Vice-President Gutiérrez Díaz on his interesting and thought-provoking report .
It is important that the European institutions that are directly accountable to the electorate - in other words , Parliament and the Council of Ministers - should continue to have - and be seen to have - the final decision-making authority on issues of importance to our citizens .
Foremost amongst these basic structures was , and still is , the principle that each country should have representation at decision-making level in all the major institutions .
Its aim is to increase hard-hitting tax measures at the expense of working people and to lighten the tax burden on businesses and capital markets , thereby increasing their profits .
Structural aid is targeted at forward-looking development models and economic sectors which have the potential to create new employment opportunities .
Our political objective was always the same : far-reaching self-government for Kosovo together with maintenance of the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and effective protection of all minority rights .
The Commissioner mentioned the idea of a peace-keeping force possibly being stationed in the area .
The full involvement of all interested parties in the consultation and decision-making process is very important .
Mrs González Álvarez , I am extremely grateful to you for that information and would in fact be most obliged to you if you could , as you say , put the relevant documents at the Council 's disposal so that it can take account of them in the appropriate decision-making processes .
In this regard , I am interested in the position of the Council , that is if it insists on solving the Cyprus problem on the basis of the recent Security Council Resolutions 1217 and 1218 , and if it considers that a loose federation , such as that sought after by Mr Denktash - and unfortunately Sir David Hannay appeared to agree with this idea - is the solution which the European Union could be happy with in respect of the Cyprus problem and in respect of the process of solving one of the longest-standing problems in Europe .
Various research institutes produce ever-changing data which are used as a basis for political decision-making , and which may be interpreted whichever way is desirable .
On the one hand we have so much scientific uncertainty , and on the other there is a rather dubious decision-making procedure for individual applications to place products on the market , so there would have been grounds to call a halt , and even the Commission 's influence has lacked direction .
As has been pointed out during the debate this evening , the directive currently before us seeks to make the decision-making process more efficient and more transparent , while at the same time ensuring a high level of protection for health and the environment .
The Commission is able to accept these amendments in principle , but we would like to see them reworded so that they ensure agreement with the Århus Convention on public participation in the decision-making process .
Despite the far-reaching concessions granted by the European Union during the reform of the COM , this new regime continues to be attacked by the United States which basically wants it to be dismantled .
Nor can we accept the US views on hormone-containing meat and on the question of genetically modified organisms .
By taking this step , we are not simply trying to legitimately defend the interests of the people and areas affected , which in this specific case are the banana-producing areas on one hand and the areas which would be hit by American retaliatory measures on the other .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , as I come from an ultraperipheral banana-producing region of the European Union , I wish to protest in the strongest terms and indicate my deep anger at the retaliatory stance taken by the United States of America in the latest dispute over the Community banana import regime .
I must take this opportunity to point out that the European banana-producing regions include some of the ultraperipheral island regions which are still suffering from a lack of economic development .
New products and practices have been developed , for example , a high-performance camera for medical imagery and a rapid photo-printing machine , to mention but two .
We need to establish a better and more complete system of Community aid and support for those wine-growing zones that are both in crisis and expanding , due , for the most part , to increasing competition from third countries .
If , for social reasons , the wine-growing countries wish to support their growers , then of course they have every right to do so , but to make taxpayers contribute in this way , over and above what they pay to purchase the wine , is nothing short of grotesque .
Two worlds were pitted against each other - the wine-growing areas of the south and those of the north .
I shall therefore be voting for Mr Martin 's report , and I do so in the hope that producers in all wine-growing areas will be spared any further rules and regulations in future .
Our colleague Mr Chesa , who comes from one of the most important wine-making regions in Europe , rightly highlighted the risks of a reduction in quality and of breaking the link between product and land that this move would entail .
Fortunately , the Martin report deliberately breaks away from this philosophy by rightly proposing a controlled restructuring and regeneration of vineyards and measures to improve the quality of grapes and wine-making facilities .
In fact , if the Commission 's approach were accepted , Italy would be at a distinct disadvantage compared with Spain , which currently meets the provisions in the proposal.-Finally , under Commission Decision No 94 / 173 / EC of 22 March 1994 , the wine-growing sector should be included amongst those benefiting from aid for product transformation and processing .
If Italian cellars cannot access European aid to invest in production technology it will be impossible to improve the quality of their products and entrepreneurs boasting one of the oldest wine-making traditions in Europe , who accept the market logic of product improvement and are counting on penetrating the upper segments of the market , will be penalised.- Barros Moura report ( A4-0030 / 99 )
The development of increased coordination between policies relating to EMU - above all employment and social policies , overall macroeconomic policy and environmental policy - should be based on more active initiatives and more closely coordinated objectives in these areas , rather than on static demands for changes in the Council 's decision-making procedures and the introduction of binding rules .
The outcome will hinge on how the new decision-making procedures work out in practice .
The rapporteur 's limited definition of constitutional issues for which unanimity would be maintained ; -Paragraph 33 , which would give qualified decision-making power in budgetary matters to the States contributing most .
As regards the comments made about the Council , I share the rapporteur 's concerns and cannot imagine enlargement ever taking place without there first being a thorough reform of the present decision-making process .
These are all important issues , but they must be the subject of wide-ranging debate in the Member States before politicians from this Parliament adopt a position .
Since the EU ought to be based on intergovernmental cooperation , the employment policies of the Member States should not be coordinated at Community level , although far-reaching cooperation is of course possible .
As well as resisting the attempts by the multinationals to water down these proposals , we have to eliminate fast-tracking mechanisms which would allow the gene industry to be unaccountable and uncontrollable .
President Nazarbayev announced last October a wide-ranging programme aimed at the gradual democratisation of Kazakh society .
Finally I call on the European Union to support the efforts of the Prime Minister designate , Francisco Fabu , to establish a government of national unity capable , above all , of serving the interests of the long-suffering people of Guinea-Bissau .
It is vital to observe the Abuja agreement and rapidly establish ECOMOG , the peace-keeping force of the Economic Community of West African States .
The West African intervention force has a peace-keeping mission , and that mission must not be complicated by other foreign forces hindering its action or pursuing other purposes .
The matters that fall under this pillar are not a proper part of the EU decision-making process , but they do call for cooperation among Member States .
Mr President , the Commission deeply regrets the heavy losses suffered by the Scottish salmon-farming industry due to the presence of infectious salmon anaemia ( ISA ) .
Madam President , I would like to thank the Commissioner for his helpful statement and for his recognition of the fragility of the salmon market and for the concern he expressed about the consequences of this disease for the hard-pressed fish-farming industry , particularly in Scotland , where it is of vital economic importance to areas such as the Highlands and Islands where there is very little alternative employment .
I get the impression from this debate that there is very far-reaching agreement on some points , which I would like briefly to summarise again .
The majority of Kurds are peace-loving people , as we all are , and simply want to live in peace and security .
Among other things , the draft agreement provides for the creation of a free trade area within the space of ten years and for the wide-ranging development of cooperation in the political , economic and development policy fields .
Similarly , some Member States are not happy with the negotiated import quotas and tariff-dismantling timetables for tinned fruit and fruit juices .
Madam President , Mr Grosch 's report introduces wide-ranging issues covering all the social aspects of transport .
This is a long-standing trade union demand .
The general public is normally only aware of such problems when heavy goods vehicle drivers periodically paralyse the whole of Europe with long-running strikes which inflict serious damage on the economy as a whole and capture the media limelight .
The wider-ranging discussions on Turkey 's accession to the EU distract us from the objectives we are actually pursuing with the exchange programmes and which should really be our main yardstick when we look at this question .
After all , that is the real basis for long-lasting peace and understanding in Europe .
We think that there should be an end to the preferential treatment given to shag and hand-rolling tobacco , which currently attracts a far lower rate of tax than cigarettes , with which it is in competition .
If there is any reason to tax hand-rolling tobacco or shag differently from cigarettes , then the tax should in fact be higher , because shag is generally more harmful than cigarettes .
This does not in any way mean that the hand-rolling tobacco industry has to come to an end , but simply that it has to lose its fiscally advantaged status .
Not only should hand-rolling tobacco continue to enjoy a tax advantage because that is good for jobs in the small business sector , but shag is supposedly the poor man 's cigarette , since the poor man cannot afford real cigarettes .
As the assessment carried out in order to draw up the report on manufactured tobacco products did not reveal any justification for progressively aligning taxes on hand-rolling tobacco with the existing taxes on cigarettes , the amendments concerning an increase in rates for hand-rolling tobacco are unacceptable to the Commission .
As the assessment carried out in order to draw up the report on manufactured tobacco products did not reveal any justification for progressively aligning taxes on hand-rolling tobacco with the existing taxes on cigarettes , the amendments concerning an increase in rates for hand-rolling tobacco are unacceptable to the Commission .
The hand-rolling tobacco industry is less automated than the cigarette industry and therefore needs a more concentrated work-force .
In order to safeguard their livelihood and also to safeguard employment , the lower rate for hand-rolling tobacco was deemed necessary .
Madam President , I refer specifically to Commissioner Cresson 's closing remarks to the effect that , even before the amendments on a small increase in the rate of tax on shag and hand-rolling tobacco are adopted , she could not accept this because it would be so bad for jobs .
I can only confirm what I said earlier : that it does not seem that these products , namely hand-rolling tobacco , are directly in competition with cigarettes .
Moreover , as I have already said , the hand-rolling tobacco industry needs a much greater workforce , even though this product 's share of the market is not very great , and it directly affects jobs .
We therefore considered that it was necessary to safeguard employment and the existence of this industry through the lowest level of taxation for hand-rolling tobacco .
It has been my consistent opinion that unless greater efforts are made to involve fishermen 's organisations in the decision-making process the best efforts of Community legislators will fail .
Other regional examples exist within the Community , such as the French local , regional and national committee systems , illustrating that developed regional management units , involving the industry and the decision-making process , can lead to a more rational , workable and realistic management system than presently exists .
It believes that fishermen 's support for fisheries regulations will improve by involving the local fishery organisations in the decision-making process .
Like Allan Macartney , I firmly believe that bringing the decision-making process closer to those who are most affected by the CFP and are responsible for its implementation would lead to more respect for the provisions of the CFP and for a more successful policy per se .
Complementary to involving the fishing industry in the decision-making process is the need to heed the concerns of the fishing industry as a whole under the banner of regionalisation .
However , this should not be at the cost of fragmenting the CFP with regional decisions , thus increasing bureaucracy and weakening the guarantees of impartiality in the decision-making process .
I have studied the Gallagher report carefully from this perspective , and I wish in all honesty to make two points : firstly , as you know , wide-ranging consultations are under way for the reform of the common fisheries policy in 2002 .
And the third point is that , in order to ensure uniform rules , it is necessary that the same decision-making procedure should be used , that the same rules should be applied , with the full involvement of the European Parliament .
As far as these things are concerned , we should not be engaging now in any sort of Kulturkampf between wine and beer or between wine-growing areas and beer-brewing areas .
As far as these things are concerned , we should not be engaging now in any sort of Kulturkampf between wine and beer or between wine-growing areas and beer-brewing areas .
A mere trifle like leaving out the digits ' 19 ' from the year gives rise to a life-threatening situation .
It is therefore particularly regrettable that Mr Donnelly 's report embroiders further on the theme of the problem-solving ability of human intelligence .
In view of this , it would be impossible to maintain this programme with an ever-decreasing level of resources , something that has afflicted the Socrates programme from the outset .
Brewers ' and cider producers ' attempts to amalgamate these products could harm the whole of the wine-producing sector .
This issue is therefore not restricted to bilateral EU-South Africa relations , as it risks setting a precedent which could be used against port and sherry by other wine-producing countries such as the USA ( California ) , Australia , Chile and so on .
However , this is not reflected either in decision-making bodies or in administration or business life .
She rightly points to the fact that women are still under-represented in decision-making forums , government and the world of business and industry .
But they are clearly under-represented on the managerial ladder and on decision-making boards in the healthcare sector .
Throughout the length and breadth of the planet cultural and political underdevelopment , hunger , wars and skirmishes , conservative and backward-looking societies , economic regulations , have all dealt a cruel blow to women , to their role in the economy , in society and in the family .
A qualitative study of women in decision-making positions has been carried out in France , Italy and Sweden .
In fact , in spite of the good intentions of which we are assured , the results seem to indicate some disparities , and numerous barriers and shortcomings still exist as regards the balanced participation of women and men in both the decision-making process and the implementation of Community policies .
The Commission and Parliament have five women officials in lower-ranked policy-making positions .
The real problem , however - and I can say this because I come from a southern country , Italy - concerns the presence of women in decision-making positions .
When they do exist , it will become possible to check the incorporation of equal opportunities in draft legislation , ensure a balanced gender participation in decision-making jobs and finally prepare statistical material that can be broken down into gender-relevant data .
Madam President , I think that , as has already been mentioned here tonight , the key is to have women in decision-making roles and in positions of power .
The only way we are going to get some sort of equality for women is when women actually occupy the key decision-making roles .
Mrs Eriksson , the rapporteur , also raises the issue of gender equality at the decision-making level .
The same figure also applies to the proposals concerning advisory committees , evaluation groups and , more importantly , decision-making bodies in the fields of research and technology .
As I said at the beginning of my speech , we have here a carefully crafted proposal for a far-reaching revision of our Rules , adapting them for a stage when the European Parliament will have greater legislative powers and significant political responsibilities , such as in the election of the President of the European Commission .
It responds to a social need and to long-standing requests by patients ' groups .
But as regards long-term effects , the current wide-ranging debate has brought to light many scientific investigations , some epidemiological and others related specifically to cells and tissue , in vitro as well as in vivo , which indicate a probable EMF effect on cellular connections .
The European Parliament , adhering to the precautionary principle , was the first body to request the Commission , in 1994 , to put in place legislation and standards to limit exposure to non-ionising radiation and to undertake actions , studies and research into the impact of electromagnetic fields on living organisms and especially on human beings .
I am confident that the Daphne programme will develop a coordinated policy between the Member States to promote public recognition for the role of women and I hope that my country will finally take the basic measures necessary to deal with the under-representation of women in decision-making posts .
The rapporteur 's requests include the following : an evaluation method to identify the impact of the measures taken ; the implementation by the Member States of the recommendation on the balanced participation of women and men in the decision-making process ; the identification by the Commission of the reasons why women with equivalent qualifications are valued lower than men in terms of pay , and the setting up of a working party between Parliament and the Commission to promote the objective of equality between women and men in all spheres of activity of the institutions .
I have no doubts at all about the rapporteur 's well-meaning proposals for limit values , but the committee was unable to accept them on the basis of the facts presented here .
This in now way implies that the principle of preparedness should not be vital for everyone , for example , in the elimination of the adverse effects of non-ionising radiation .
While there are calls for an increase in research into the possible problems of non-ionising radiation we have to ensure that resources are used effectively in the health sector as a whole .
The Commission 's estimates of what would be health-endangering values reflect the outcome of the research carried out .
We need proper research centres to be set up to ensure that the real effects of this kind of non-ionizing radiation are properly examined by independent assessors .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , since I represent a country with very remote banana-producing regions , I have to tell you of the deep revulsion felt by many communities in those regions at the frequency and duration of these never-ending conflicts over banana production .
Mr President , ladies and gentlemen , since I represent a country with very remote banana-producing regions , I have to tell you of the deep revulsion felt by many communities in those regions at the frequency and duration of these never-ending conflicts over banana production .
I can assure all concerned that I share the sense of indignation expressed , for example by Mr Smith and Mrs Kinnock , at the fact that innocent people , both in Europe and in the banana-producing countries of the ACP , are being taken hostage in a battle for which they have no responsibility whatsoever .
Given the cumbersome decision-making procedure in the field , more convergence of views will be required before an initiative can hope to have any possibility of succeeding .
The fact that Portugal 's current Public Works Minister used to be a member of the European Parliament may have something to do with the far-reaching transformation that has occurred in proposals for Community projects affecting Portugal .
I am therefore in favour of a Commission communication which generates a wide-ranging debate with Parliament and with European society , and is not merely a list of projects mediated by national governments .
That makes sense because the viability of infrastructure investments obviously depends on competitive revenue-raising services and competitive services clearly need quality infrastructure .
In my view , before introducing all these detailed requirements , it would have been wiser to wait and assess the long-term effects of the ground-breaking directives approved by the Council in 1991 and 1995 , which established the principle of increased competition in the rail sector .
Mr President , European railways need to undergo far-reaching reforms that tend towards liberalisation but that do not jeopardise their role as a public service .
Obviously , the cost associated with this re-engineering work would greatly exceed the purchase cost of the voyage-data recorder .
Finally , I can inform honourable Members that I support the objectives of Amendment No 3 , since it clarifies the exact scope and extent of inspections for life-saving appliances and equipment in line with the requirements of the Safety of Life at Sea Convention .
The European Parliament wanted the choice of city to be based on the quality of the projects , without reference to any contribution made by the Member States or choice made according to Community decision-making procedures , that is , the codecision procedure .
For the European Parliament , it was vital to involve as many members of the arts world as possible in the events , to instigate forms of lasting cooperation , to foster the creation and circulation of works of art , while enhancing our historic heritage and urban design , opening up initiatives to a wide-ranging public and avoiding Eurocentrism by involving as many non-European cultures as possible .
That is because interinstitutional consultations are playing an increasingly important part in the Community 's decision-making process and that is why the Group of the European People 's Party will be voting for this report without any hesitation or regret .
I want to say very clearly that the Commission is no longer be prepared to accept ever-increasing tasks without receiving the means to execute them .
The Cologne summit will establish a mandate for the next intergovernmental conference , and we should like to know from the German Presidency whether , when it is preparing this mandate , it will engage in a dialogue with the European Parliament about the issues which should take priority and be dealt with at an intergovernmental conference of this kind , and whether it is also prepared to involve the European Parliament in the negotiations on amendments to the Treaty , changes to the decision-making structures and so on .
There is a risk that agricultural reform will be confined to a mere cost-cutting exercise , rather than aiming for quality production and safeguarding the certificate of origin , the sole guarantee that a product is typical and meets consumer demands .
But precisely because of these potential programming delays it is important that in Parliament 's priorities the idea of transitional programmes are the same length for all objectives : six years to allow regions coming off regional aid adequate time to put into place self-sustaining programmes by using financial opportunities of loans and venture capital .
Among all this we have the on-going discussions between Parliament and the Council on the interinstitutional agreement .
It helps us to retain our sense of identity in an ever-expanding world , whether we be Bavarians or Germans , Gascons or Frenchmen , Smålanders or Swedes .
The ever-increasing volume of traffic on our roads brings with it an increase in the number of road traffic accidents and the human tragedies that ensue .
In the area of security policy in particular , we could present old proposals in Stuttgart , such as confidence-building measures and a stability pact for the Mediterranean , and new proposals , for example arms limitation and disarmament agreements .
I find this report balanced but , given the ever-changing situation , its content is repeatedly being called into question .
I wonder whether he has seen the blood-curdling images of cruel torture , the repression suffered by the leader of an entire nation and the excessive pride with which these images were broadcast throughout the entire length and breadth of this planet by Turkish television and by all the media .
Older reactors , especially first generation reactors , need to be decommissioned as quickly as possible , while modern plants need to be upgraded , and we particularly need to cooperate with the CEECs and the New Independent States to develop an all-embracing energy policy .
There is an ever-increasing role for the EU here .
The Commission will put forward new legislative measures where these are fully justified at Community level and in cases where other means , such as self-regulating agreements with the industry , have not yet proved effective .
What the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development is proposing , therefore , is that these amendments should be rejected - and we have already rejected similar amendments in committee - because , as we have said , we believe that there must be economic and social support in the tobacco-producing sector .
Because increasing subsidies does not persuade tobacco-growing countries to switch to other crops , but if anything encourages them to carry on as before , because ironically enough the cigarettes that are most damaging to health are those that receive the greatest subsidy .
What we ultimately need is an active , forward-looking employment policy , a modern form of vocational training for youngsters in Europe , improved opportunities for retraining , for lifelong learning and for research and development , investments in human capital by companies and Member States and through European programmes .
In concrete terms , this first step towards tax-raising powers for the Union also constitutes a major move towards a federal Europe .
The inhabitants of the villages situated along the route of the ski-lift know a thing or two about this , and they testified that extremely low-flying aircraft were a common occurrence .
Today , we have on the table a proposal from this Group , which the OSCE has entrusted with finding a solution to this long-standing conflict .
Such a commission of observers would operate as a political early-warning system , so to speak .
Despite all the human rights violations and the lack of political freedom in Cuba , Parliament - encouraged by the left-wing parties - has unfortunately always turned a blind eye and has thus allowed the situation to become entrenched .
Tobacco-growing subsidies should be phased out , not increased , with support for growers in Objective 1 and 5b areas to assist change to other products .
It fails to explain why , despite ever-increasing returns on investments , increased profits , reduced labour costs and low interest rates , there has been no stimulation of private investment .
I have amended the Commission 's proposal concerning the use of data-processing techniques for making customs declarations .
We would urge that this should be considered at a later stage in the decision-making process .
The report deals with a range of social questions which do not fall within the EU 's decision-making powers .
Those with high levels of income will have no difficulty in paying high levels of contributions to private , profit-making schemes , while the overwhelming majority of working people will be restricted to minimum , low levels of provision .
We are categorically opposed to attempts - in the name of cost reduction - to further reduce the level of pension provision from state social security services and to reduce pensions which provide a minimum survival income , which will benefit private profit-making pension schemes to which those people will turn who want to improve on state subsistence pensions .
We also feel that there are solutions - other than the ones put forward - to the immediate financial problems of social security organisations , such as the strict enforcement of existing provisions of social security legislation regarding contributions , combating the evasion of social security contributions and undeclared work , taxing profit-making movements of capital , and the abolition of exemptions in the taxation of income from movable assets and derivatives .
As markets become globalised , the European Union will perhaps be the main player , able to influence the framework for imposing conditions on the market within the context of the democratic decision-making process .
In my group 's view the second report must contain a more widely-ranging review of the Commission 's culture , practices and procedures .
The next Commission must improve its decision-making processes .
But a political war is being waged too : the majority in the next Parliament , which ought to appoint the Commission President , might in fact be different from that in the Council , which represents 13 left-wing governments out of 15 .
Let me emphasise how important it is that the rights of Parliament are properly respected throughout this decision-making process .
Let us now hope that this report really does become a blueprint for a thorough-going reform of the Commission 's working practices and , perhaps even more importantly , that the call for openness and transparency which has constantly been reiterated over the past few weeks and which has frequently been made by the European Parliament now becomes a reality .
The Council of Ministers will make very important decisions this week which we know will have a long-lasting effect on the future success and credibility of the European Union .
With so many important issues on the agenda , it is essential that the policy-making work continues .
There is no doubt at all , as far as relations with North Korea are concerned , that a crisis in the Korean Peninsular would have far-reaching consequences in North-East Asia and beyond and we have a responsibility , commensurate with our new role in seeking to be involved politically in that part of Asia , to do what we can to avoid it .
America too is conducting a wide-ranging review of its policy under former Defense Secretary Perry .
On the subject of briefing , another sign of panic on the part of the Council last year was that Parliament as a whole was not properly involved in the decision-making process .
The purpose of the document is to initiate a wide-ranging discussion with Parliament , the Member States and voluntary organisations on the framing of future asylum procedures in Europe .
This is an important issue , which is being hampered by the fact that Union 's decision-making machine is not working .
I believe that even at the time it proposed these legislative changes we could have expected the Commission to make further-reaching proposals , instead of spending years discussing something that should have been done a long time ago .
That report will be preceded by wide-ranging consultations , open to all the sectors concerned , in the form of a green paper to be presented as soon as this proposal has been adopted .
Second , economic globalisation and the liberalisation of trade and financial markets have brought about a shift in decision-making centres from the political authorities towards economic power .
The same is true of our contribution to all the buffer and peace-keeping troops and to mediation efforts , that is , what are known as the ' Petersberg missions ' in European jargon .
There has to be an end to decision-making methods which tend to end in deadlock .
It is really due to a lack of political will on the part of its members , to a failure to implement and observe its charter , to the fact that it has not been granted genuine decision-making powers or adequate resources , and to the absence of real democracy .
Firstly , I am pleased to say that the Council has agreed to many of Parliament 's amendments which were determined at first-reading stage .
The re-tabled amendments also aim to improve evaluation and monitoring systems and streamline and improve the management and decision-making procedures .
As the Wise Men 's Report also says , and I quote : ' It is elementary ' common sense ' that the Commission should have supported the Parliament 's decision-making process . '
We have had a splendid building constructed here , the Parliament building , with smoking and non-smoking areas clearly demarcated .
I am not against smokers : they may smoke in peace to their hearts ' content , but I wish they would respect those who do not smoke and keep well clear of the non-smoking areas , allowing us to enjoy a smokeless environment .
Furthermore , it has been made clear that sovereign tasks , such as aid to Eastern Europe or the southern Mediterranean , cannot be entrusted to private companies and profit-making agencies , which is unfortunately what the Commission has been doing since the days of Jacques Delors .
Cards are also available from international non-profit-making organisations , such as the ISIC pass .
The Left Party fails to see why a common university pass would be any better than the existing European and international student cards , and would stress the importance of ensuring that the EU does not curb the vitality and enterprise of the student movement and other non-profit-making organisations .
I think we were right to work together in this way , since much is expected of us and we must uphold certain principles : solidarity - the Member States must cooperate in this field , since only by doing so and by overcoming national apathy and egoism will we achieve our aim ; a commitment to transparency , which must apply to the conduct of all parties , including the Council ; and , in a clear break with tradition , a commitment to full participation in the decision-making process .
The Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs has therefore tried , by means of amendments , to make the non-binding phrases in the text binding so that there is some point to all of this .
Indeed , even within certain regions of existing Member States there are long-standing differences in the way that the law is administered and operated .
This is an important message with potentially far-reaching implications for all future cooperation .
The report proposes , amongst other things , a far-reaching harmonisation of criminal law in this area .
We want a more predictable base-deepening formula through an accelerator principle to determine the evolution of tax rates , given the new tax base .
In my opinion there are several reasons why the issue of energy taxation is one of the most forward-looking debates in the European Union and beyond .
Amendments Nos 3 and 32 on the granting of permanent abandonment premiums in respect of wine-growing areas and extending the deadline for submitting applications for premiums for the 1999 / 2000 marketing year from 31 December 1999 to 31 March 2000 do not cause any difficulties .
This being the case , I think it is too early for us to make more far-reaching changes than the ones proposed at this stage .
It is since the 1992 reform that the price packages have gradually ceased to be this policy-defining instrument .
We should lose no time in initiating a discussion on a more far-reaching reform of our agriculture and rural policies , not on the grounds of enlargement , but because it is needed .
My Group believes that now , together with the Council and a reforming Commission , we can set up a structure and decision-making process which is more appropriate , more in tune with modern governance .
I shall give the floor to Mr Martens on the same basis , but I would ask for an end to these constant personal references , which will turn this into a never-ending issue .
This of course depends on production tools in the industrial energy-consuming sectors not being relocated , as was seen for example in France during the 1970s in the horticulture sector .
As a result , we have a reasonable proposal from the Commission which , particularly in terms of sanctions , contains much more far-reaching measures which we all support and which would certainly not have emerged from a social dialogue .
It would be even more controversial if participation in the decision-making process , which this House has already asserted in various resolutions as being the right of employees , were added to information and consultation .
The report has of course amended the initial proposal by ruling out a number of derogations on non-profit-making companies .
At the same time , this begs the question of whether having extended and all-embracing rules at European level is compatible with the principle of subsidiarity .
In time , stability in the Balkans will have to be the subject of a far-reaching initiative , which was already outlined by the presidency at the last General Affairs Council .
Furthermore , you will be aware that , during a special meeting , the Commission adopted two far-reaching initiatives which it has forwarded to the European Parliament and to the Council .
Now that it has been rewritten by the heads of government in Berlin , it looks to us more like a catalogue of disappointments , as it is marked by so many uncertainties and contradictions , reflecting even more than before the uncertainties and contradictions of individual States , which , led for the most part by left-wing governments , have transferred into Agenda 2000 their now painfully obvious lack of ideas .
And the lack of ideas on the part of the mainly left-wing governments in Europe is proven by the fact that their leaders , meeting in Milan recently , decided to take up Clinton 's proposals on jobs and the economy , thereby demonstrating a worrying degree of scientific , ideological and cultural subservience .
In the agricultural field , we have not yet concluded a far-reaching reform that will help us to maintain the competitiveness of our agriculture and allow us to improve the quality of life in rural areas .
I can only underline what has been said about further-reaching aims .
You will be forced to defend yourselves at a people 's Nuremberg on account of your anti-farming and peace-shattering policy .
I have already been in touch with the chairman of the Committee on Budgets to try to arrange for the allocation of 100 million , which has to be found in the budget without damaging other important on-going programmes that , in fact , often benefit the same countries that we want to help with the additional EUR 100m .
This will not be the last time that we discuss this issue : it is an on-going process .
This must certainly be looked at as a medium and long-term process , at the end of which we do not envisage a new order in the sense of re-drawing borders or even persuading people to leave their home ; at the end of it we want to see a political strategy that enables the peoples of the region to cooperate and to co-exist peacefully .
It has already made considerable diplomatic efforts to make the Yugoslav dictator listen to reason , and will have an essential role to play in negotiating and guaranteeing peace , particularly by participating in a peace-keeping force which will act under a United Nations mandate .
Europe must bring aid to the refugees , offer asylum to those who request it , affirm their right to return , work to reestablish them and ensure their safety by means of a European peace-keeping force .
The NATO military initiatives in themselves are not a solution to the problem : they have been and still are the only way to try and stop activities which to all intents and purposes are now genocide as far as the Albanian-speaking population of Kosovo is concerned .
No peace-keeping force will achieve this result .
Secondly , we must not delay in bringing back into the debate two entities that have been wrongly excluded : the United Nations , a symbol of law , and Russia , which still has a great deal of influence in the Balkans and indeed in other countries in the region that could be useful in providing troops for a peace-keeping force that Milosevic would find harder to reject than he does NATO .
The EU must now call for a peace-keeping force under UN auspices , involving Russian peace-keeping troops , so that ethnic Albanians can return to their homeland .
The EU must now call for a peace-keeping force under UN auspices , involving Russian peace-keeping troops , so that ethnic Albanians can return to their homeland .
In the light of new and disturbing figures in some Member States , we could almost regard this as a never-ending story .
Further-reaching initiatives are needed here from the next intergovernmental conference , to ensure that if Member States delay and infringe the Treaties the Commission can take more rapid action , can initiate infringement proceedings more rapidly and can also impose sanctions more rapidly where there is a danger of this happening .
The European Council stressed in particular that economic policy coordination needs to be deepened and strengthened in order to ensure the success of economic and monetary union and to support sustainable , employment-promoting growth .
The aim here is to achieve low inflation , accompanied by sustainable and employment-promoting growth .
This is the new dimension of the EU as a peace-promoting enterprise .
The Commission 's wide-ranging consultation in connection with its Green Paper did not include the question of legal privilege for in-house counsel .
Seventy innocent Albanian-speaking citizens of Yugoslavia , among them women and children , were killed by NATO bombs .
It makes all kinds of malpractice easier because the properly-acting staff cannot speak about their concerns over the activities of the institution .
It is also essential that the Statute of the European Ombudsman contain a clear provision to give the Ombudsman the right to inspect all necessary files and documents , if unnecessary and time-consuming disputes with the institutions are to be avoided .
Madam President , we cannot achieve an internal market with wide-ranging freedom of movement and fair competition between economic agents within the territory of the European Union if we still have 15 inconsistent and disconnected customs systems .
Road tax and road-pricing systems vary enormously .
I was shocked by the publicity-grabbing handshakes between Mr Primakov and Mgr Tauron , the Vatican envoy , with the criminal Milosevic , while thousands of Kosovars were being expelled from their homes and expatriated by force .
The Union should call for a peace-keeping force under UN auspices , involving Russian peace-keeping troops , so that the ethnic Albanians can return to their homeland .
The Union should call for a peace-keeping force under UN auspices , involving Russian peace-keeping troops , so that the ethnic Albanians can return to their homeland .
However , since it deals with a key issue that has potentially far-reaching consequences , it needs to be approached carefully and pragmatically .
Firstly , yes , the timetable for implementation is ambitious but we are well on the way , with the Eurovignette agreement near conclusion , railway directives before the Council , the port-cost survey with Member States , airport-charging proposals , aviation charges under review , the Committee of Government Experts having met and commissioned the high-level group to report on cost-estimation methods .
That is what is meant by the high-sounding term ' interoperability ' .
I therefore prefer to focus on how to integrate and improve them , rather than on what I might describe as a backward-looking report .
From this point of view , I firmly support their incorporation into a single decision-making centre and a single budget line .
While the BSE crisis has certainly made it possible to change decision-making procedures within the Commission , my group wants those procedures to go further than the mad cow affair , so that the precautionary principle is managed as well as possible and so that the scientific committees cannot be subjected to political or economic pressure through the Commission 's experts .
We should be aiming towards such a policy of re-rooting people in human-sized communities .
I should like to refer to a paragraph in the resolution , the one concerning the participation of older people in decision-making processes , including the political process , since there are naturally those elements who take pride in presenting the list of candidates with the lowest average age .
What makes that all the more regrettable in my eyes is the high regard we have had for their work here , since it is undoubtedly discrimination against the ever-increasing number of elderly people to omit such competent and sprightly colleagues from the party lists .
The Commission has always been keen to ensure that the starch and starch-processing industries in Europe , and especially the biotechnology sector that uses starch and its derivatives as raw materials , remain competitive .
As usual , we were fascinated by the city 's immense beauty , but we were also very concerned - and still are - about its enormous and ever-increasing problems .
The technical consensus-seeking negotiations with the staff organisation have started and also the first political consensus-seeking sessions have taken place .
The technical consensus-seeking negotiations with the staff organisation have started and also the first political consensus-seeking sessions have taken place .
We believe it is very important to ensure that the people of Europe do not feel that the Community 's decision-making powers have been constrained as a result of the entry into force of the Treaty or because of the parliamentary elections .
However , some of the decision-making procedures are very complicated and difficult to understand .
Your main task , Mr Prodi , will be to ensure that the Commission exercises all the powers conferred on it by the Treaties , but does not encroach on the decision-making powers of Parliament and the Council .
In this respect , the institutional balance must be preserved : decision-making powers must remain with the Council and Parliament , which alone are politically responsible to the people .
You will allow me as a man of the left to remind you that these Heads of State and Government are also from the left and that the first duty of a left-wing democrat is to listen to the people .
Sweden has traditionally followed a different jam-making process from the European one , using more fruit and less sugar .
My colleagues will remember a French left-wing politician saying that you are legally wrong because you are politically in a minority .
These points are : the return of all displaced persons , the return of all refugees , acceptance of an international peace-keeping force to ensure a secure environment for the return of refugees , on the basis of a UN Chapter VII resolution with a NATO core and a high level of NATO participation , but also with the participation of Russia , Ukraine and neutral countries , and the simultaneous withdrawal of military and paramilitary forces and of the special police force of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia .
For this reason it will be up to an international peace-keeping force to ensure their safe return .
The crucial point , I must emphasise once again , is still the international peace-keeping force .
Any cease-fire solution that does not settle this beyond doubt will not in my opinion be capable of bringing about an actual cease-fire , because the return of refugees must be linked to a robust peace-keeping force with a strong NATO involvement , but also including Russia , neutral countries and others .
Even the call for a political solution , which Kofi Annan sought following his meeting with President Yeltsin , is scoffed at by those who fear that the military credibility of NATO will be compromised and that the Clinton policy on Kosovo will be discredited , if logic is brought to bear on self-sustaining acts of stupidity .
The northern dimension must be seen as an essential part of both the EU 's external relations and the decision-making process that impacts on its internal development .
I attach particularly great importance to this because we are looking at a report on road user charges , and the European Court of Justice declared the first directive to be void because of a legal error , namely inadequate consultation of Parliament , and declared that it would only remain in effect until the renewed decision-making process had been completed .
If we want the single market to work as well as it possibly can , then in the fast-developing area of new media like the Internet and e-mail , all consumers must be entitled to the same high level of protection in every Member State , irrespective of where a purchase is made .
The first remedy in the case of non-conforming goods is the right to repair without charge or a replacement product , as far as this is economically viable and feasible .
The fact that you have at the heart of the decision-taking system a body of full-time representatives in that full diversity that they represent , knocking on doors , making phone calls , asking awkward questions , probing , questioning , going through matters in detail and going back to their regions to talk about it with interest groups , trade unions , employers , consumer groups and local governments in their regions .
Thirdly , the possibility for first-reading agreements .
It allows for first-reading agreements and it tries to draw the Council into a dialogue with us in the first reading , as we have recently done in our new Rules of Procedure as well to encourage that sort of dialogue at an early stage .
In this way , we also wanted to put an end to the lack of confidence surrounding the European Parliament 's decision-making abilities , which centred mainly on bureaucracy .
The proposal which has been adopted in the Bureau means that for my journey from Copenhagen to Strasbourg , I get EUR 450 more in travel expenses than I received before the cost-cutting measures were set in motion .
I would , however , remind you that even when it was putting Agenda 2000 together , the Commission called for the questions first raised at Amsterdam to be settled and said that a more far-reaching reform should follow .
There is no doubt that the job needs to be done in stages ; but we certainly cannot have a state of never-ending construction work .
We cannot make high-sounding declarations about the principle of subsidiarity on the one hand , and constantly demand fresh initiatives from the Commission on the other .
On the common agricultural policy : the Berlin package contains the widest-reaching reform ever of the common agricultural policy .
He considered the public sector to be too large in scale and called for rationalisation and cost-cutting measures .
The continuation of the current set of rules postpones a long-standing desire of the European Parliament to finally achieve the principle of equality between all Members .
This political position is clear and it totally opposes the ever-increasing standardisation , the ever-increasing homogenisation , and the ever-increasing relentless competition , which pushes farmers ' prices and incomes down .
This political position is clear and it totally opposes the ever-increasing standardisation , the ever-increasing homogenisation , and the ever-increasing relentless competition , which pushes farmers ' prices and incomes down .
With this initiative we now have an important additional job-creating instrument .
Some new decisions by the Council are of great concern and , in my view , are inadmissible , particularly the desire to include in the wine-growing zone new Member States that are not traditionally wine-producing nations , that is , Ireland , Denmark and Sweden .
Some new decisions by the Council are of great concern and , in my view , are inadmissible , particularly the desire to include in the wine-growing zone new Member States that are not traditionally wine-producing nations , that is , Ireland , Denmark and Sweden .
This decision would go against that spirit since we might eventually see in these new wine-producing countries a shift towards using grape musts from third countries .
Therefore , in order to stave off this threat , the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development voted in favour of an amendment that excludes the possibility of extending the wine-growing zone to include any Member State other than those set out in the amendment .
Nevertheless this remains without doubt the most far-reaching reform the Union has ever undertaken in the agriculture sector .
My special thanks today go to the long-standing chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development , Mr Colino Salamanca .
If a Member State takes further-reaching measures of this kind , it must notify the Commission thereof .
The situation remains unchanged and I cannot see what other means of pressure we can apply against a country on which we have already imposed the most far-reaching sanctions at our disposal .
Even though many people would have wished for more far-reaching decisions in one area or another , we should perhaps accept that this reform meets the demands made on it .
A number of Member States simply cannot accept such cost-increasing proposals .
Mr President , Mr President-in-Office , ladies and gentlemen , in Parliament 's view the decision-making procedure for Agenda 2000 deserves to be praised and to be met with approval .
As the European Parliament and perhaps also as representatives of the Member States , we can agree under these circumstances , and with a clear conscience , to the results of Agenda 2000 and the decision-making procedure regarding this .
Mr President , Commissioners , ladies and gentlemen , this debate represents the end of a long discussion and decision-making process on the reform of regional and structural policy .
Mr Funke was certainly present when the former Federal Chancellor , Helmut Kohl , announced his watchword for the future wine-growing policy on German National Wine Day : we must drink more .
Secondly , the reduction in public participation in private revenue-generating projects , which , as it penalises companies , will also have an adverse effect on jobs .
That is why the European Parliament has sometimes had to take a firm stand , even to the point of blocking the decision-making process for financing committees from the Community budget .
The joint committee will only have very limited decision-making powers .
In the course of the decision-making process , it emerged that some of the Council Secretariat staff are virtually taking to the barricades in opposition to the absorption of the Schengen staff , who have not gone through the customary selection procedure .
The countries concerned will be able to make their voice heard , even though they will not have any formal decision-taking rights .
It would be very unfortunate if the European Parliament were to appear to be less liberal than the Commission , bearing in mind that we are talking of a very high technology , fast-moving area where Europe is in very grave danger of falling further and further behind the United States .
It is also important for us to ensure that , in enacting legislation , we do not create bottlenecks for businesses in this fast-growing sector .
The decision-making process which led to the establishment of new Structural Funds regulations has been followed attentively by the European Parliament .
It is a great pity that the Council has been reluctant to adopt these wide-ranging rules .
5.The Garot report , in which the skill and determination of the rapporteur meant that the beef sector could be partly protected , particularly suckler herds , which maintain the countryside , give structure to rural production , guarantee income for quality production without hormones , and safeguard the environment.6.The Martin report , the text of which my colleagues and I have altered considerably in a manner that favours all of the wine-producing industry - some parts of the industry have already said so - particularly with regard to the definition of wine , the ban on producing European wines with must imported from third countries and the preservation of traditional oenological practices and therefore of the quality that underlies our European cultural identity.7.The Fantuzzi report on COPs , even though the treatment of oil proteins is still far from satisfactory.I am convinced that European farmers and consumers will therefore understand the way in which I have voted and will be aware of the battles that still have to be fought in order that European construction may have a future in this field .
Surely it is unacceptable that wine-growing areas should suddenly appear in Ireland , Denmark and Sweden , thereby raising the spectre of wine being produced there in future with imported grape juice and being marketed as a product of the Community .
Our task now is to consider what this presence would consist of - police forces operating under UN supervision , or perhaps peace-keeping forces - and I would be very interested to hear the Commissioner 's views on this .
But this would require an international confidence-building plan with a fixed timetable , and there is still no mention of that .
No self-respecting democracy would allow the flagrant infringements of human rights that are occurring there .
This assessment does not come from me , but from very high-ranking diplomats and scientists .
In Austria we are shortly to hive off the Central Statistical Office , making it into an independent profit-making operation .
This will ensure that visitors , and in particular the younger generation , will have an eye-catching and thought-provoking experience .
It considered that reductions in social charges could distort competition between European producers , and it declared France 's textile sector plan to be illegal , demanded impossible repayments from firms and blocked the extension of this job-saving measure to other sectors .
You have also earned enormous respect in the House for your work , firstly as Vice-President , especially on days of difficult votes , and also for your long-standing involvement with Europe which has enabled us to work together on other projects and other platforms .
The Cologne decisions on the creation of a European Security and Defence Union have far-reaching implications .
The Charter should be based on a wide-ranging dialogue involving representatives of the European Parliament , the national parliaments , the government and the Commission .
This question , which in terms of far-reaching implications goes well beyond the next Intergovernmental Conference , is very soon to have a considerable impact on the debate on reform within Europe , indeed it must impact on it .
The two crises experienced over the last six months will have a long-lasting effect on the progress of European integration .
At the heart of this reform process must lie the long overdue acceptance of the majority system in the Council of Ministers as the fundamental decision-making instrument for this Parliament .
The Italian view is that you are sustaining a left-wing government ; the view in Europe is that you are associating yourself with political groupings to the centre and to the right .
In the long-term , I am convinced that , while the cart is in front of the horse - and that is the Commission exercising greater policy-making influence than the elected Members of this Parliament - throughout Europe people will remain apathetic toward this institution .
On those grounds , the question of where to locate the seat of those organisations involved in the rebuilding programme is a very important one and I would like to believe that Thessaloniki will remain the choice to serve as the main decision-making centre for the whole reconstruction project .
It is not advisable , in my view , to start off with sweeping statements and far-ranging plans at this stage .
I cannot help wondering why the right-wing group in the Parliament is attempting to postpone the appointment of the Commission using the report by the Committee of Independent Experts as an excuse .
The Union itself must be prepared to take up the challenges posed by enlargement by improving its decision-making capacity and improving the functioning of its institutions .
The guns may well have fallen silent , Mr President , but the anti-personnel mines continue their butchery ; the horror of war is over but not the horror of the discovery of mass graves day after day , a tragic , heart-rending testimony to a contempt for the right to live of individuals and populations , a right which is no less than respect for the diversity and identity of a people for whose affirmation we will fight both here and in our national parliaments .
Europe 's undertaking , then , cannot be understood as merely revolving around the reconciliation of the parties involved in the conflict , but the measure of its performance will depend upon the overall ability it displays in reconciling the Stability Pact , reconstruction and ever-increasing unemployment .
Working in conjunction with KFOR , UNMIG and UNHCR , these projects were prioritised and they are to supplement the on-going work undertaken by the humanitarian organisations .
But we should not forget that the mandate of the Cologne European Council meeting speaks of a non-binding statute which , initially , will not be incorporated into the Treaties .
As far as the future of the Union is concerned the most important tasks of the Council will be tied , on the one hand , to enlargement , and , on the other , to improving the Union 's decision-making machinery , both of which hinge on one another .
The large-scale programme of enlargement which is now on the horizon calls for a selection of bold reforms to the decision-making process .
The mandate must be drafted in such a way that the Union 's decision-making process is changed to cater for the needs of eastward enlargement as a whole and not the requirements of accession in respect of just five or six countries .
The Intergovernmental Conference mandate must therefore be broad in scope and include an investigation into the basic principles of the Union 's decision-making process .
Madam President , it is an extremely difficult task to rebuild Kosovo without disempowering the population and undermining the self-supporting powers of that country .
The Council has entered into a shameful , face-saving compromise for those who promised to locate the centre in Thessaloniki .
We have decided to narrow the gap between high-sounding proclamations and the practicalities of their implementation .
The great European plan for definitive peacemaking in the Balkans must not fall victim to complicated and penny-pinching calculations .
Thirdly , we also wish to introduce an early-warning system for animal feed products , along the lines of the one already in place for foodstuffs .
It was extremely important to inform these countries on the ensuing situation and of the precautionary measures taken by the Commission and to keep them updated on an on-going basis .
Neither do I think that we should ban an ever-increasing number of cattle feed ingredients .
But at the same time , we also feel very worried for farmers who are directly involved and who have been singled out for blame , and for the whole food-processing industry .
Thus , we would say : by all means have an enquiry , but first let us have a wide-ranging review of all Member States ' systems for dealing with food and health scares , starting with an evaluation of the British system .
What we have to prevent , therefore , is the mixing together of dioxin-containing substances or at least ensure that such substances do not enter the animal feed chain via another route in spite of sufficient controls .
Consumers must be able to feel confident that they will not be presented with health-endangering foodstuffs .
The French organising committee is not a normal commercial profit-seeking company .
Modernisation and reform are therefore necessary and they should be carried out if we want the Commission to be able not only to fulfil its basic role of guardian of the Treaties but also to be the promoter of the decision-making process and the effective manager of the programmes and projects assigned to it .
I would say that , as with their first report , which had a far-reaching effect on the College of Commissioners , I also think that this second report , if possible , should have an effect that is just as far-reaching and severe , where it is deemed necessary , on the structure of the Commission .
We all know that this is an on-going antagonism that characterises day-to-day life in the EU in everything , big and small .
The fact is , we have heard of many instances of irregularities , of non-observance of the Community Charter of Basic Social Rights for Workers within the European Parliament , especially in sub-contracting firms .
Specifically , the Committee of Independent Experts ' report proposes that the Union Treaties be amended in order to give the European Ministry for Public Affairs far-ranging powers .
The inclusion of these amendments may make managing it difficult , given the differences between the decision-making processes and the proposed Community framework .
After some hesitation , I have allowed myself to be convinced by Mrs Jackson ' s arguments in support of establishing minimum criteria for environmental inspections in the Member States in a directive , and not settling for the European Commission ' s proposal for a non-binding recommendation .
What new solutions do you offer in response to the increasing rejection of the galloping ever-growing threat to job security and even to life itself ?
Enlargement of the European Union will itself not succeed unless the internal decision-making procedures within the Union are streamlined and simplified .
We are faced with economic and social challenges in the wake of the single currency and must carry out a far-reaching reform of the institutions .
Secondly , the left-wing composition of the proposed Commission is wholly contrary to the views of Europe ' s voters as shown in June .
Our view is that a great deal of the disrepute of the European Union is related to its inability to fight effectively against the ravages of all-pervading neo-liberalism .
I subscribe totally to your programme , which is dedicated to glasnost , which is not about just tinkering with the institutions but about far-reaching reform , which strives for sustainable job creation through consistent liberalisation of the economy , which attaches a high value to the principle of subsidiarity and which considers it necessary to find adequate responses to demographic developments in Europe .
I must ask you though , what specific action are you planning to take - in co-operation with the UN of course - in terms of consolidating Timor ' s now irreversible independence and making it viable , and in terms of supplying emergency aid to the long-suffering people of Timor ?
In this connection , my group expressly welcomes Mr Fischler ' s statement that basic legislation affecting the way in which the general direction of agricultural policy is conceived should be decided as part of a joint decision-making process and that he would actively put forward this view at the future Intergovernmental Conference .
These are the reasons why I shall be voting " no " if no far-reaching change is to take place .
The questions which public opinion has been wondering about may be summed up as follows : where exactly does Europe offer added value and improve these decision-making systems of ours ?
We must ensure that decision-making structures are put in place at EU level which will guarantee that all decisions are accounted for .
If the codecision procedure is not operated in an effective manner , then inefficiency will take root in the internal decision-making procedures of the Union .
I would like to wish President Prodi , Vice-President Palacio , who is responsible for Parliament , and whose qualities I have every confidence in , and all the other Commissioners who will have responsibilities in my areas of activity - Mr Patten , Mr Verheugen and , above all , our long-serving colleagues Mrs Reding and Mr Vitorino - the best of luck and much success and I would like to offer them good and constructive co-operation .
It is clear from the current state of affairs as regards these payment appropriations in category 4 that a thorough and on-going discussion between the Commission , the Council and Parliament needs to get underway .
In unison with what is happening in our country , where the people have taken to the streets en masse , in order to demonstrate and to show their complete repudiation of what could be called Indonesia ' s betrayal and of the atrocities experienced by the long-suffering people of Timor , ( there has been a unanimous reaction in my country , and fortunately in many other countries too ) , we are working here , in our various political groups in order to draft a document which this Parliament can approve with a huge majority , if not unanimously .
It is time we got our act together and resolved these decision-making problems .
The Commission has primarily tried to find a solution that would involve some sort of quota system , but it has been very difficult to move from any kind of banana quota system to consensus on the matter with the banana-producing countries and the United States , as the interests of the countries concerned are very different regarding quotas .
He himself recognises the fact that everybody is fleeing Kosovo , apart from the odd few and the Albanian-speaking population .
I would therefore like to see us think carefully about autonomous decision-making bodies in Pristina , which would give the population the power to decide , in conjunction with us , what needs to be done .
So I think it is important to make more of an overall assessment , especially in light of an intervention policy which , as I read in the report on next year ' s Union budget , provides for a far-ranging reorganisation of the policies concerning small and medium-sized businesses located in border regions .
A stable , democratic and developed Balkan region is a prerequisite for the Union to have an effective and positive policy in the troubled Caucasian region and oil-producing countries which are threatening the peace and stability within that region .
It is about our fully re-establishing life in the region and being able to see more clearly what is also happening in Yugoslavia .
Following the request to set up an agency made by the Cologne European Council , the Commission ' s proposal is largely based on the model of all other existing European agencies : a structure with its own legal personality and decision-making powers and with the Member States represented on a governing board .
There are a lot of on-going problems .
When the underlying philosophy of the proposals in question centres around the meaning of " law-abiding citizens " and the need to " make those who ' threaten the freedom and security of the individual and of society ' accountable for their actions " , we cannot but detect a certain re-emergence of those principles which , in countries like ours , once formed the basis of anti-democratic laws and restrictions and the basis for the penalisation of all political and trade unionist activities .
Moreover , the latest IMF assistance will be cancelled out by debt-servicing payments due to the IMF by Russia .
The recent earthquakes , as several honourable Members have commented , were obviously unmitigated tragedies but once again they showed that the human capacity for mercy can be greater than any long-standing divisions .
Madam President , I agree with what my colleague has just said in thanking the workers and in expressing her appreciation for what has been done since July to improve the situation , and for the on-going building work aimed at further improvements .
I find it unforgivable that we call for a One Million Roofs Solar Programme , but we have not invested in renewable energy either in Strasbourg or Brussels and have not adopted the slightest energy-saving procedures here : for example , the vestibules to our offices are lit up day and night and the lights cannot be switched off , and so forth .
In the restaurants there is supposed to be a no-smoking area .
It is not observed and also the no-smoking area is through the smoking area in all the restaurants .
We are now at a time when we must go back to fundamental principles , to rise up and outline for our citizens the horizons of our continent ' s peace-loving organisation , which respects human rights and is founded on a European model of economic and social development .
From the recent past and its frenzied emphasis on high productivity , we have inherited a situation which , in the agricultural sector just as - too often - elsewhere , has subordinated policy to the major food-processing groups and major distributors resulting in mad cows , dioxin-contaminated chickens , motor oil in cooking oil , sewage sludge in cattle meal , and who knows what else ?
We saw that the Commission was fully responsible for the slowness of the decision-making process in the mad cow crisis .
The evaluation highlighted SAVE as a valuable policy instrument to promote energy efficiency but stressed that a clear and consistent strategy for pilot actions was required ; that dissemination of results is the key to long-term success ; and that long-term effectiveness requires better on-going monitoring and impact analysis .
That is why I would like , on behalf of our group , to urge the new European Commissioner to produce more far-reaching proposals which will enable the Kyoto objectives to be realised .
Energy-saving measures risk fading away against such a background .
In the five years of on-going negotiations , the European Parliament and particularly my own group have called for the speedy conclusion of this agreement and its direct entry into force .
I must add that both myself and Commissioner Liikanen intend to work in such a way that , in future , the Commission can concentrate on the more horizontal issues in business policy , because we now leave discussions on individual industries to other decision-making bodies .
The office has on-going contact with the International Red Cross , the United Nations organisations , the NGOs which are present in the country and Echo ' s own representative .
The result is , of course , that we still do not have a satisfactory situation with regard to a self-supporting sector of the economy , capable of development , above all in the middle range .
Moving on to the creation of a world-wide drug-testing agency , I can tell you , Mr President , that today , the Commission is already working on this issue .
This means , for example , that we have requests for additional support for existing co-financing projects with NGOs amounting to twice the available budget in 1999 .
A fact-finding mission to Cambodia has put forward a series of recommendations for practical cooperation on the basis of the Joint Action .
Subject : Cultivation of flax Does the Commission consider it reprehensible that high-ranking officials at the Ministry of Agriculture should have encouraged practices reminiscent of ' premium hunting ' with regard to the cultivation of flax , promoted them through administrative channels , and received perks for themselves and their families as a result ?
They will meet the task force , including President Prodi , in Brussels next month to discuss the implementation of the report ' s far-reaching recommendations .
The ratification of the Convention was merely a rubber-stamping exercise as it was impossible for the national parliament to propose any amendments .
Without the parallel use of peat , the volume of planned wood-burning boilers will not be sufficient nor will the operation be lucrative .
The time has now come to renew these two pre-existing programmes .
The matter of the " Port " official designation of origin is vital to the Portuguese wine-producing sector .
The answer which Commissioner Nielson gave me was couched in the vaguest possible terms and I am personally very surprised to observe that Parliament has been able today to give the go-ahead to the signature of this free trade agreement , even though the principle of protection of trade names and designations of origin has not been clearly acknowledged in the Annex to the Agreement and that no guarantee has been offered regarding the evolution of zero-rated imports and the consequences of this for the whole of the wine-growing sector in Europe .
This infringement of international regulations , enshrined in an irresponsible fashion in an agreement which is binding upon the European Union , constitutes a dangerous precedent likely to be extended to other States , especially wine-producing countries ( Latin America , Australasia , etc . ) if they make such a request of the European Union .
The situation in the agricultural and food-processing sectors has become more serious over the last few years , although we were theoretically covered by the Uruguay Round and the Marrakech Agreements , which were supposed to guarantee and organise access to the market , support for exports and internal support .
It is this model which , based on the Community preference , guarantees product quality , food safety and the survival and development of our agricultural and food-processing sectors .
Each measure that weakens our European fish-processing industry means large-scale job losses , mostly in regions which already lack infrastructure .
This is so that the liberalisation of trade will be accompanied by renewed stability in the money market , by wide-ranging policies on human resources , by social protection networks and by widespread compliance with the fundamental regulations on work .
We know that very far-reaching decisions will be made at the Helsinki Summit on how to take account of environmental considerations generally , and climatic issues in particular .
Targets may be set , for example , by measuring the percentage of women making up the labour force and the unemployed , by assessing the extent to which the equal pay directive is being implemented and measuring the percentage of women on decision-making bodies .
The Finnish Presidency has prepared an initial report on women ' s participation in the decision-making process .
B5-0153 / 1999 by Mr Schori and Mr Wiersma , on behalf of the PSE Group , on the on-going violation of human rights in Indonesia and in particular on the Moluccan Islands ;
The Commission continues through its assistance programmes in the field of democratisation and human rights to support confidence-building measures and dialogue between the different communities .
A wide-ranging investigation and a public explanation are required by those whose concerns have been justifiably raised by this very serious incident indeed in Japan .
Yet those who have this impression overlook or gloss over the fact that this is by no means a normal appointment procedure , rather it is a matter of filling a key post that has far-reaching powers and the right to conduct administrative investigations into every organisation and institution of the Union .
This is an important and forward-looking proposal because gaseous fuels are increasingly being used - and I refer for example to things like liquefied natural gas and petroleum gas - and there is also the prospect of hydrogen becoming a fuel in the future .
It is because of missing caps or ill-fitting caps on fuel tanks .
Therefore , the second amendment tackles this whole question of the ill-fitting caps and , sometimes , no caps at all .
I have had a seat in this Parliament for ten years now , and I have never had the opportunity to speak for fifteen minutes before , which , considering my temperament , has been a long-lasting source of frustration , and is finally coming to an end today !
The institutions seem extremely interested in inventing new requirements and job descriptions , so as to be able to justify their ever-growing need for staff .
It is very difficult for Parliament , as a decision-making authority , to scrutinise the chart of its own four thousand strong organisation and draw conclusions as to what new posts are needed for what jobs .
The Council , for its part , is committed to attending to the financing needs occasioned by the earthquake in Turkey with the help of a loan from the EIB , macro-financing aid , and the funds targeted at the MEDA programme .
At the start , I emphasised the need for a swift response from the budgetary authorities in ever-changing circumstances .
I believe that , through sound cooperation among the institutions , we will successfully steer home the decision-making process with regard to the draft budget for 2000 .
Veterinary and plant health expenditure is not just agricultural expenditure , but also expenditure in terms of sensible , forward-looking consumer protection .
Yesterday we bombed the Balkans and today we must help to reconstruct the region and re-establish peace , but this means re-establishing peace for everyone , including the Kosovo Serbs .
The Council maintains that the European Parliament is proposing very far-reaching reforms and that it will not be possible to accommodate these in Budget 2000 .
At a time when the requirement is for women to take greater part in the decision-making process , the corresponding budget lines are being restricted .
Let me also emphasise that the role of the ECB ' s internal forecasts in the decision-making process should not be overestimated .
Finally , I should like to recall that the Monthly Bulletin - especially in its extended quarterly version - provides a forward-looking analysis , including reviews of the outlook for price developments .
In addition , in operations of relevance to the single monetary policy , the decision-making bodies of the Eurosystem will be involved in assessing the compatibility of the envisaged operations with the pursuit of monetary stability .
And I already made some remarks in my introduction on the relativity of forecasts , even if they are published , for the decision-making process .
That is why we have a forward-looking strategy .
We are not moving towards creating a rigid system and the special character , the ability to act and the identity of ECHO as such , are all something I find important in order to avoid ECHO , as a humanitarian relief organisation , becoming involved in the very cumbersome decision-making machinery of the Commission in general .
We hope that the Council , with its decisions to ultimately create a common asylum-seeking process and a common status for those who have received asylum throughout the Union , has opened up the way for Europe to become a united area in matters of asylum and refugees .
Mr President , the issues discussed at Tampere are obviously of great concern to all decent law-abiding people : asylum , immigration , cross-border crime and not least the death-dealing drug-smuggling activities of the loathsome drug barons .
Mr President , the issues discussed at Tampere are obviously of great concern to all decent law-abiding people : asylum , immigration , cross-border crime and not least the death-dealing drug-smuggling activities of the loathsome drug barons .
Ladies and gentlemen , I am not talking about a definitive reform of the European institutions , but of a reform that is far-reaching enough to prevent the institutions being deadlocked or choked , a reform far-reaching enough , as a Member of Parliament said the other day , to enable further development in future .
If the Union was to have twice as many Member States as it has now , the decision-making process would completely run aground unless drastic changes were to be put forward , and they would have to be far more drastic than those that are now on the table .
On the one hand , it will need a far more efficient decision-making system , one that is of a political and no longer diplomatic order .
First , instead of the governing board having decision-making powers it could have an advisory role on certain issues including the selection and implementation of projects .
It must form the basis for far-reaching reforms within the European Parliament so that our institution too is in a position to win back the trust of the citizens of the European Union .
In our opinion , this , and taking into account the importance of the area of public freedoms , justice and security , demands that the Council ' s unanimous decision-making procedure be assured , with respect to the sovereignty of Member States .
Mr President , right at the outset I would like to say to Mr Helmer and others that people on this side of the House are not in the business of shackling or hampering the decision-making capabilities of businesses .
I find that totally reprehensible and I hope all right-thinking people in this House will feel the same .
I would be very interested to know how many car manufacturers , including those in public ownership , or tyre manufacturers , including those in semi-public ownership , still have such a major presence in Europe today and have not already quietly relocated , sometimes with the assistance of governments , including left-wing governments .
Following the nuclear tests by India and Pakistan the Commission has participated in the international taskforce set up to develop confidence and security-building measures and to engage these countries in constructive discussions on regional non-proliferation and arms control .
It may be that our best intentions where Russia is concerned will in fact run into a lot of difficulties and be threatened by on-going crisis .
I therefore think that it would be particularly misguided of this Parliament not to follow the rapporteur ' s recommendations , for you cannot keep saying that you think it is a shame that an ever-decreasing number of people vote in European elections , or that you regret that every inquiry shows that the EU appears to be ever more distant from the people of Europe , only to go making cutbacks in projects whose precise intention it is to bring the EU closer to the people .
The education of European youth is not an area in which money-saving measures are to be taken .
Moreover , the observatory ' s advice has been sought on several occasions and in several areas in the context of on-going contacts when specific information was needed .
We have noted a reduction in the Structural Funds , which proves that the heroic declarations to iron out social and regional inequalities were merely rabble-rousing tactics .
It would be naïve to expect a different approach when the external policy of the EU is marked by crass hypocrisy , oppressive controls and the ever-increasing subjugation of countries , not to mention open and multiple intervention in their own internal affairs , as is the case with the enlargement process and the Stability Pact for south-eastern Europe .
( EL ) The phenomenon of mass redundancies from large multinationals which seems to be having an ' avalanche ' effect is a sharp slap in the face for the high-sounding proclamations on tackling unemployment and job creation in the EU .
Extensive restructuring and company mergers have favoured increased profit-yielding activities at the cost of productive investments which , in turn , has led to mass redundancies .
I would like to inform you that on the 29th in our committee we will have a wide-ranging audience with the sector affected by this fisheries agreement with Morocco and the participation of the European Commission would also be desirable .
They are hard-working sea-faring people , who just want to work in the job that they know and for which they take such risks .
They are hard-working sea-faring people , who just want to work in the job that they know and for which they take such risks .
We welcome this study very much and hope that the Council will now conduct a wide-ranging debate , both within the Council itself and with other sectors of society , about these EU fisheries agreements .
These are not negotiations regarding just fishing , but are far wider-ranging negotiations , Euro-Mediterranean talks , or even WTO talks .
The cuts to the fisheries agreement to favour the Moroccan fishing industry only benefited the main owner of the cephalopod-fishing fleet , a family relation of the former Minister for External Affairs .
Mr President , I wholeheartedly endorse this excellent report by Mr Cunha as it brings very much to the fore the principle of sustainability which is necessary for a forward-looking fisheries policy .
I believe it is probably just a face-saving exercise on behalf of France .
That is the genesis of how the decision-making process actually takes place and the interaction between the Ad Hoc Committee and the Scientific Steering Committee .
Do you think that these are confidence-building measures ?
The one that I find quite positive would consist of creating an authority formed by a group of European experts without detracting from the decision-making power of national states on the fundamental issues which are the closest to citizens ' concerns .
It is my intention to take this into account over the next number of days in the on-going discussions .
The conclusions of Cologne also emphasised the fact that the macroeconomic dialogue is perceived as a sustainable and on-going process .
The document analyses the conditions necessary so that the policy mix may continue to be as balanced as possible , thereby allowing us to achieve longer-lasting growth .
They do not directly affect any of the facets of the equation , they have not got that decision-making power .
The two sides of industry there agreed to be included in the general directive so long as parallel progress was made in the road sector because they quite naturally fear a competitive disadvantage if they put in place wide-ranging arrangements to cover working time but the road sector does not .
Amendment No 7 provides for seafarers on board sea-fishing vessels to work an average of 48 hours per week over a 12-month reference period .
That is far too little , even if , within Latin America , it is still one of the top-spending countries .
Mr Lange , I hope you will not take offence if I say that this request regarding petrol and fuel consumption in independent vehicle heaters and air-conditioning units is one of these .
It is only starting to dawn on us what scope this approach gives us in the fast-moving area of e-commerce , for example , with regard to on-line complaints procedures .
Fair competition is difficult , especially if one time-sharing company observes the legislation but another one does not , for example , and nothing is done about it .
We are living through a historic time which has no precedent and which calls for a far-reaching ability to adapt to changes , in order to prevent the European model leaving the international arena with its tail between its legs .
Although it is something that has to be assessed case by case , I would like to stress - the proposed resolution , in fact , deals with this in one of the sections - the great importance of the mutual recognition of standards because they work faster , are more flexible in this fast-changing world and because they make sure they meet the requirement of subsidiarity .
The wide-ranging debate and the many suggestions raised in the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs on employment policy in general encouraged me to divide my draft report in two , with conclusions and a legislative part concentrating on the proposals for guidelines for the year 2000 , which the Council of Ministers must adopt in December 1999 .
The European Union and national Member States must implement programmes which take account of the ever-changing nature of employment , both in urban and rural areas .
I think that at least , given that employment policies at European level are already policies that make suggestions , recommendations and push for coordination between the Member States - so there is no actual concrete , decision-making power , which , all things considered , I believe to be positive for the subsidiarity principle , although it is a somewhat limited power - Parliament should be fully involved .
The EMU project creates unemployment and , where active labour market policy is concerned , it is transparently obvious that this presupposes local and national initiatives , and this on the very grounds that the labour markets in the countries of the European Union are organised on such widely different lines that it is impossible to implement anything other than the quite general and non-binding measures specified in the proposals we have before us .
Obviously , there is no question of re-opening yesterday ' s debate on this .
If the decision-making process occurs much later than necessary , then it is impossible for the car industry to accommodate this adequately .
More far-reaching investment into more economical engines , and not just for passenger cars , will certainly have an effect .
Mr President , we need more than fine-sounding declarations of intent .
We consider this to be especially important , and besides , it is part of a more wide-ranging issue which is concerned with preparing and accompanying the changes underway in the labour market , so that they do not produce negative results , especially as far as employees ' job security is concerned .
Of course , we are not under any illusions ; we too are aware that the Council was not about to perform a dramatic about-turn at some point from the spring onwards , and initiate far-reaching reform .
I believe you have been in touch with the monitoring committee , for which provision has specifically been made to reinforce its secretariat with high-flying personnel .
Legally-binding targets for renewable energies are an important part of this strategy , but we must also have very clearly the externalisation of internal costs in respect of traditional energy production .
In fact it might be said that Russia must turn to its resources in the north as in the south there appears to be an on-going period of fighting and wars .
We know of course that child abduction and the prospect of a subsequent judicial review can lead to tremendously heart-rending conflicts .
ECHO ' s on-going aid amounts to EUR 5 million in two tranches of EUR 2 million and EUR 3 million .
Yours is a universal and all-encompassing question and therefore it cannot be asked today .
So , the on-going interest in short-term results at the expense of the long term , a certain French President ' s need for personal glorification , a score of zero , and all these discussions and other protocols of Nuremberg are in danger of upsetting the subtle geopolitical balance of power which has existed for decades between the United States , France , Great Britain and Germany .
Of course , as the Europeans are not proposing any additional forces , the capacity for EU autonomous action refers primarily to the political decision-making process .
I would like , in line with what we have noted , any crisis management or peace-keeping operation to be planned according to a global view of its civil , police and military aspects .
The Development Committee wants to see WTO rules that do not hamper eco-labelling schemes and green public purchasing .
This is also evident from the fervour of the debate underway in Parliament , although it is still weak in decision-making power , but there have been new events in recent years that are taking supremacy away from the specialists .
With regard to the United States ' frantic rush to defend its own interests , we of course recognise that Europe is maintaining a position concerned with the defence of more human traditions , but we do not feel this is enough : it is not enough to state high-sounding principles - we must put them into practice .
It is indeed essential for parliaments to be involved in on-going consultation , with real respect for the procedures .
Violence against women and domestic violence are multidimensional problems , which have serious and wide-ranging effects on health .
Often there are children involved and a seemingly never-ending custody battle ensues .
By simplifying procedures and making judgements under EU agreements on matrimonial matters legally binding and directly applicable in all Member States , justice will be speeded up and an end brought to such long , drawn-out and heart-rending cases .
This has caused a number of civilian victims and an ever-continuing increase in the number of internal refugees .
The Union must have one single objective : to contribute to re-establishing peace , to find a new status for Chechnya , as laid down in the agreement signed between Russia and Chechnya on 31 August 1996 , and it must also remember that if Europe wants to defend human rights , it cannot continue to endorse the fact that Russia believes force and the army to be the only political tools .
And this is why we are against sectorial negotiations and are in favour of all-encompassing negotiations .
It is , moreover , bearing this concern in mind , that our plan of widely applied preferences allows us to provide free-standing reductions to countries that effectively apply the main ILO conventions .
The danger of crippling the decision-making ability of the legislature - of the Council and Parliament - as well as of making the Commission unable to translate the laws into effect is a significant problem .
We therefore demand , where legislative procedures in this area too are concerned , that the European Parliament be involved in the decision-making process .
We must be politically courageous enough to seek far-reaching solutions and institute the reforms the Union badly needs .
The intergroup is broadly based , its members ranging from British Conservatives to left-wing socialists .
In those areas , however , Parliament must obtain the right to participate in decision making and , in addition , the right to full decision-making powers where the agricultural budget is concerned .
Mr President , when , on 9 November 1989 , freedom-loving people climbed over the Iron Curtain , history was changed dramatically .
The wide-ranging discussion in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs showed that Parliament is concerned with being , at the same time , far-sighted and realistic , demanding and practical .
And we must respond to this major enlargement with real reform which must first , therefore , address the decision-making process .
The Commission , with its power to issue guidelines , the new authority conferred on its President , will have to preserve - I hope you do not mind if I say that it will not be easy , now that I am a Member of the Commission - its collegial character , its efficiency , and its decision-making process which requires a simple majority of its Members .
I prefer cohesion to efficiency , and as Commissioner Barnier raised the issue a while ago of there being 27 of us in Europe , I would like to say , Commissioner , that I think that in the decisions of this Europe of 27 , it is more important that all countries feel involved in the decision-making process , than discussing whether , when there are 27 of us , it will take us one hour , less than two hours or three hours to take decisions .
I think that other issues , such as the greater integration of the national parliaments in the Community ' s decision-making process , are useless elements that just complicate matters .
I demand genuine decision-making powers in connection with the basic aspects of the common fisheries policy and the regulations governing , for example , market organisation , the preservation and management of stocks , supervisory regulations and the tools of structural policy ; in other words , nothing less than codecision making by Parliament .
We need integrated multi-level decision-making processes .
In 1999 opium production grew by 100 % on the previous year , reaching the highest volume so far , with a figure of 4,600 tons , which is partly due to the considerable expansion of the crop-growing sector .
In view of the fact that the general principles and limits relating to the public ' s right of access , in accordance with Article 255 , to the above-mentioned institutions ' documents are to be established with the European Parliament in accordance with the relevant decision-making procedure by no later than 30 April 2001 , the Council will begin discussing any proposal for an Act as soon as it has received this .
On this basis a policy is being developed within the Council which will increase the federalisation of the EU : common decision-making bodies in which supranational decisions are taken .
There is no text prohibiting a Member of Parliament re-submitting amendments he considers politically important in plenary , even if they are rejected in committee .
Given the non-democratic nature of the European Union ' s decision-making bodies , the establishment of OLAF appears to be a derisory measure intended to provide a semblance of supervision even though there is no real , democratic supervision .
Where section 27 is concerned , we view as considerable progress the fact that the so-called Petersberg Tasks in the Cologne document ( humanitarian and rescue tasks , peace-keeping tasks and tasks of combat forces in crisis management , including peace-making ) are to be incorporated into the EU ' s range of tasks .
2 - The revision centres on an agenda that essentially only concerns issues of decision-making power and a corresponding new balance between Member States , which will reduce , in the name of fairness , the weight of economically less developed States in favour of the more economically powerful ones , to which it is being attempted to give the mechanisms for strengthening their influence .
In order to achieve an asylum policy of this kind , other measures and far-reaching efforts are required to further agreement between the Member States on the need for a generous and humane asylum policy .
We should , however , also like to be present when assessments of on-going projects are carried out so that we might see which road the European Union will continue to go down .
This would require a modification of the regulations which are currently applicable , which in turn would lead to a delay in the decision-making process on humanitarian aid , one of the principal characteristics of which is urgency , so that we may quickly relieve the existing problems in Turkey .
The anti-doping campaign will be in two stages .
I have been appointed by the Commission to negotiate with the Council and the President of the International Olympic Committee , Mr Samaranch , to ensure that this new anti-doping agency is established on a sound basis .
We must take the fight forward together and jointly establish the foundations for an anti-doping campaign .
The Research Commissioner will use the basic or applied research programmes of the Fifth Framework Research programme , as well as other options , in the anti-doping campaign in order to reinforce the means available to this campaign .
The Education and Youth Commissioner will allow the Socrates , Leonardo and Youth programmes to be used for providing training and establishing cooperation between young people so that the anti-doping campaign becomes something that is sought after by European youth .
On the enforcement side , the Commissioner responsible for third pillar issues , namely internal policies , will use existing plans and programmes to make the forces of law and order aware of this anti-doping campaign .
Madam President , you know that from next year , at both world and European level , we are going to make the anti-doping campaign a spearhead of our sports policy .
From next year , a wide-ranging dialogue will be held with all the federations , large or small , and the politicians in our Member States so that together we can decide how to ' regulate ' .
These are profit-making activities and , seen from this perspective , the Commission could therefore at least try to regulate the sector and its working conditions to a certain extent .
This is why our anti-doping plan intends to use all the policies which , in one way or another , can help to fight this scourge , such as research , health , education and the third pillar .
The Commission has been closely involved in the policy-making process , as a result of which new operational structures will be set up .
Finally , I would like to express my sincere congratulations to the country to hold the presidency for having succeeded , with no amendments to regulations , this has not yet been possible , in clearly increasing transparency in the decision-making process in the European Union and especially , in the European Council .
I have had on-going discussions on this matter with my colleagues .
We are starting by closely following the document tabled previously , with firm proposals and also a sense that , after enlargement , we shall be faced with the real issue that must be carefully and attentively defined , with a very far-ranging debate - the nature and borders of Europe .
I believe that we have to look much more carefully at this question , to tackle those countries that behave disgracefully ; the so-called fingernail-pulling governments need to be taken to task , and the European Parliament must be the institution that takes the lead in making sure that human rights are top of our agenda .
One contributory and forward-looking feature of this report is the fact that it acknowledges the role not only of political decisions but also of civil society in creating an environment where human rights have the profound and enduring support of the people .
Finally , I should say that , this year , the policy-making process has been delayed by the parliamentary election and by the special circumstances in connection with the Commission ' s departure .
If the most stringent aspects proposed are implemented , this part of the steel-making industry could be forced abroad , probably to eastern Europe , which brings me to my last point .
For the protection of the Baltic we thus need on-going fine-tuning , with smaller-scale measures , which are also dealt with in Annexes III and IV of the Helsinki Convention now being discussed .
I would just like to say to the House that I know what I am talking about because the forest economy has longed played an important role in our own undertaking and I would like in this context to point out the life-threatening situation in the Germany forest nurseries .
The measures taken must result in legal security and must be transparent , the citizens must be given comprehensive information , and a smooth-running changeover is an essential prerequisite for this .
I would therefore ask that we organise these elements - acceptance and confidence , a smooth-running changeover and frontloading - so as to increase citizens ' confidence in the euro in this phase , and this will entail frontloading and ensuring that adequate information is provided in the euro campaign .
In addition , the ever-growing number of credit cards in relation to the population is by far the greatest .
This use of forward-looking methods of adaptation of supply and demand by producer organisations should be of great assistance to the overall competitiveness and efficiency of the fishery sector as a whole .
The recent and on-going crises in the Scottish salmon industry as a result of the infectious salmon anaemia virus demonstrates more than amply that the aquaculture sector can also be volatile and unpredictable .
Firstly , although there has been a great campaign to promote the euro , particularly at the time when it was launched , although it is now legally in force and it has even experienced some nerve-racking misfortunes on the international markets , people seem to have completely forgotten that it exists .
We kept in contact on an on-going basis , enabling an exchange of views and information , which proved to be extremely useful to me in my capacity as a negotiator .
And finally , Mr President , I would like to end by saying that we support institutional reform that enables developing countries to be given greater consideration in the WTO ' s decision-making process .
The WTO is an intergovernmental organisation with over 130 members , so it will remain , by definition , a somewhat cumbersome decision-making forum .
This will not only help the democratic accountability of the WTO , help to provide an on-going interface with non-governmental organisations , but also help the gradual evolution of the non-trade concerns on the agenda .
In the on-going enlargement process this is absolutely essential !
President Karlsson emphasised in his speech that wide-ranging reforms are necessary in order to achieve better financial management .
This buck-passing game has to stop !
On the basis of the conclusions which will be drawn from this wide-ranging debate , the Commission will then present fresh proposals , on which Parliament will be invited to give its opinion .
Presumably it is slowly starting to resurface in the minds of longer-serving Members .
I would especially emphasise this for the benefit of those Members of the European Parliament who have had doubts about the value of hastening the phasing out of ozone-destroying substances .
I would emphasise that this proposal is not an attempt to prevent alterations to on-going climate change .
The European Union has always taken the lead on phasing out the production and use of ozone-depleting substances , and in terms of environment policy Parliament has been the European Union 's conscience .
In the European Union we must help in assisting Third World and developing countries to move quickly into new technologies that do not harm the ozone layer , that do not use ozone-destroying chemicals .
Action to tackle ozone layer degradation is considered to be one of the very few success stories of international environmental legislation , and since the mid-1990s ozone depletion does seem to have slowed down , mainly due to efforts to reduce emissions of ozone-depleting substances .
What is more , there are nowadays perfectly acceptable alternatives to the vast majority of ozone-depleting substances , and these are used in a variety of spheres .
Ozone-destroying substances have a deleterious effect over a very long period .
By means of the proposals submitted in this report , more powerful measures can be taken against ozone-destroying substances such as methyl bromide and chloroflourocarbons .
Mr President , partly thanks to the Montreal Protocol , ozone-depleting substances can be phased out quickly .
But this frustration becomes deeper still , more bitter when , in the light of new scientific evidence , such as in the case of ozone-depleting substances , bureaucracy and emotion take priority over politics and science , and do not render admissible amendments that are new and sound from a scientific point of view .
Nor can the Commission accept Amendment No 19 banning sales of used HCFC-containing equipment within five years after the respective use ban as it would increase the probability of illegal dumping and venting of HCFCs to the atmosphere .
While the Commission has sympathy for Amendment No 20 that would ban the production of HCFC-containing products for export over the three years after respective domestic use ban , we have to maintain the balance between environmental desirability and the risk that manufacturing would relocate elsewhere .
In our opinion , the firms involved in the mass production and use of GMOs are seeking to establish a fait accompli by spreading GMOs across the whole of the food-processing market .
The conclusions remind us that the on-going process does not mean the creation of a European army .
The leaders of the 15 countries presently comprising membership of the EU believe that there will have to be substantial changes to the internal decision-making processes within the EU if the enlargement process is to take place in a structured and streamlined fashion .
We all know that the enlargement process cannot take place unless there is some reform in the decision-making procedures within the European Union itself .
Among the disappointments we must once again include certain important issues with regard to the development of the single market and the Union ' s decision-making system .
The current scenario envisages 27 Member States and yet more in the years to come , requiring much , much more far-reaching reforms .
The lack of political will to make this unequivocal choice will paralyse the decision-making process as soon as Europe undergoes enlargement .
On this basis the OSCE can start playing a more wide-ranging role as a non-exclusive and civil pan-European organisation , also as a forum for open dialogue with Russia .
But for me , one thing is missing ; namely both the real involvement of the High Representative in the decision-making structures of the fora and the involvement of the Commission and the External Relations Commissioner in these structures .
The decisions to come out of Helsinki have far-reaching consequences for the future of the Union , namely the resolutions on the enlargement strategy , on the intergovernmental conference and on the common foreign and security policy .
On the legal security aspect , we must consider how the European Union Charter can contribute to improving the degree of protection of fundamental rights within the European Union and it is difficult to see how a non-binding text could contribute to clarifying and transcending the current system of protection .
I can assure him that in various Member States , an opinion-forming process is under way which aims to ensure that the shift which he advocates is carried out .
However , the Commission recognises the formidable and rapidly-evolving challenge in this field and hopes to be able to address the issue more comprehensively once we have been given the appropriate legal mandates .
The rules laid down by the Parallel Agreement coincide with those in the UNECE agreement , but a specific decision-making procedure is anticipated when a draft regulation is not considered within the framework of the 1958 agreement .
I invite you to state clearly how Parliament can be involved in the decision-making process , what can be done to ensure that we are involved in time , what can be done to ensure that there is continuity in reporting , for example by having standing rapporteurs or by having small specialist groups , and how the Commission and Parliament can jointly set themselves the objective of monitoring the 1958 agreement .
We must remember that these strategies are only the first step in what will hopefully become an on-going process of implementing and developing climate strategies .
Finland has also been involved in a wide-ranging dialogue with NGOs and representatives of business .
We are not talking solely of rising sea levels and the disappearance of small island States and the flooding of low-lying areas in Bangladesh or the Netherlands , which we are all aware of .
There is therefore a real urgency for wide-ranging measures to now be adopted in order to involve the people in decision making on this subject .
The first concerns the excellent work initiated by Jacques Delors on piggyback transport and the major non-polluting transport infrastructures to replace the lorry and the car .
As far as the participation of the European Parliament is concerned , we must acknowledge that , for years now , the European Parliament has been instrumental in raising public awareness both in Europe and throughout the world and in the decision-making process ; i.e. it has affected the decisions taken by the Council and the Commission .
No support is given to public research or to non-profit-making bodies which may also be capable of finding therapies .
These are used mainly in refrigeration technology and air-conditioning systems , as solvents and in the production of insulating foam .
The fight against the ever-increasing hole in the ozone layer is of major concern to the people of Europe and the world .
We examined with great interest the proposals aimed at developing alternative , non-polluting means of transport such as piggyback transport .
We should have been slightly more modest and slightly more receptive to the opinions of the people who are not particularly convinced by the results of the WTO or by the results of its work , given the ever-widening gap in development between North and South .
It would certainly have been preferable for all the left-wing groups to try and speak with one voice , while respecting their plurality , and I am convinced that a united European left , whose voice is needed in Europe , could have been formed on these issues .
We from this Chamber urged the Commission at that time to give priority to overhauling all its advisory and decision-making structures , so as to obtain a proper balance between women and men , and to encourage the Member States to implement fully the Council ' s recommendation of 2 December 1996 to the effect that there should be a proper balance between women and men in the decision-making process .
We from this Chamber urged the Commission at that time to give priority to overhauling all its advisory and decision-making structures , so as to obtain a proper balance between women and men , and to encourage the Member States to implement fully the Council ' s recommendation of 2 December 1996 to the effect that there should be a proper balance between women and men in the decision-making process .
Secondly , it has been established that the argument of cultural identity cannot justify the on-going suppression of women .
Thirdly , it has been stated that women ' s policy is not about fancy things for women and a place in the sun , rather the gender dimension should be added to all policy-making decisions .
In this light , I would like to know exactly what the Commission is going to do about establishing a food safety bureau on a European scale which is independent and has far-reaching powers .
However , nothing in this provisional document alludes to the far-reaching effects that the honourable Member mentions in the second part of his question .
We are pleased about the increased resources for dialogue between the two sides of industry , especially with a view to the importance of beginning to construct a well-functioning labour market in the applicant countries , with strong trade-union organisations and good social conditions .
We call for far-reaching reform , not least with a view to the forthcoming enlargement .
If such a confidence-building measure also speeds the end of the illegal French ban on British beef , then so much the better .
The outcome of a liberal , strictly market-conforming policy is , by definition , not free from value judgement .
That debate ended with the abolition of the book price-fixing agreement .
What has been preserved over a hundred years in the German-speaking area between Austria , Germany and Switzerland , what has permitted a large diversity of titles and has ensured that competition is not excluded and that there is a comprehensive supply of large and small bookshops in both town and country , should not be sacrificed to the unbridled and extortionate pressure of the market leaders , not in book shops , not in the mail order business and not in e-commerce .
Secondly , for the sake of maintaining the peace agreement , a pledge was made to deploy UN peace-keeping troops .
He completely relies on the West African peace-keeping force ECOMOG and on the Nigerians , in particular , but they have already announced that they wish to retreat from this bloody war .
This is why the European Union must urge the UN to deploy the peace-keeping force quickly in order to end the terror .
Mr President , to term these on-going brutalities in Sierra Leone as bestial is an insult to animals .
For Afghan women freedom of expression , freedom of employment , freedom to attend health and family-planning courses , access to education , all those things as we know them simply do not exist .
Politically , the most important message is contained in Amendments Nos 4 and 5 , which urges the practice of cross-tabulating subsidies received according to , inter alia , farm surface area .
How can we envisage re-establishing consumer confidence in food following all the scandals when the EU cannot even implement its own resolutions ?
Mr President , I sent an invite for a beer-tasting session about three weeks ago and it was very much to the taste of all those that received and took up the invitation .
Mr President , I simply wish to thank and congratulate Mr Mayer on the report he has carried out , which affects all the hop-producing countries of the Community and which , in the case of Spain , affects my region , Castilla-León , in the León area .
I wanted to say that in the spring there will be a large beer-tasting session for Bavarian beer in the Parliament courtyard here in Strasbourg .