Verbatim report of proceedings

Monday, 12 March 2007 - Strasbourg

16. One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

  President. We now come to the one-minute speeches on important political issues.

  Manolis Mavrommatis (PPE-DE). – (EL) Mr President, excessive charges for our mobile telephones, according to recent statistics, have increased in the unrestrained competitive race between the companies. The biggest loser in this specific scenario is the citizen. Commissioner Reding and the Committee on Culture and Education were therefore right to decide to put an end, with a regulation, to excessive mobile telephone charges in the Member States, by calling for a reduction in charges in all European countries, with a standard charge for roaming calls.

The citizens of Spain, in a show of protest about roaming charges, recently decided to stage a boycott by not using their telephones on a certain day. Their action was successful. It was the only method of protest to make the companies understand that they cannot keep behaving in this way towards consumers, when profits have been increasing exponentially over recent years. It was the first positive reaction and we, as the European Parliament, are obliged to support it and, at the same time, to welcome the decisiveness of the Spanish citizens. Their example must be followed by other citizens in the European Union.

  Gary Titley (PSE). – Mr President, you will recall that I recently wrote you a letter. Thank you for the speed and the positive nature of your response. One of the items I raised with you was the fact that, in view particularly of the summit that has just taken place and the emphasis on climate change, it is important that the European Parliament set an example and set out a strategy for itself to be carbon neutral, because it is difficult for us to tell other people how to behave if we do not have our own house in order.

I was delighted to read in your response that the new Secretary-General will be drawing up a proposal to make Parliament carbon neutral. I should like to urge that he proceed with all possible speed to reinforce the success of the spring Council meeting on climate change and, in particular, that he look at the specific difficulties we have in relation to the three places of work and how we can become carbon neutral in that context.

  President. Mr Titley, it is not often that the President of Parliament is thanked for something he has done. I appreciate it very much and it encourages me to go on.

  Pál Schmitt (PPE-DE). – (HU) In 1848, a series of democratic civil revolutions swept through Europe, creating the values that are the foundation of today’s modern European community. Europe’s peoples fought for civil rights, for free elections, for independent national parliaments, in short for constitutions guaranteeing all of the above.

Budapest commemorates that revolution this week, on 15 March. This is our greatest national holiday, which we would like to celebrate in dignity. Tragic events in the course of last fall’s anti-government demonstrations and during the celebrations of the 1956 uprising, brutal police actions against peaceful civilian demonstrators, prompt me to issue a call from this European Parliament to the Hungarian Government to allow a dignified, peaceful commemoration and to remove the illegal barriers erected four months ago from around the Hungarian Parliament building.

Furthermore, I call upon the Minister of Public Security to respect Hungarian citizens’ fundamental rights, as requested by Commissioner Frattini, and to refrain from intimidating those who are peacefully celebrating, from using life-threatening rubber bullets and other weapons that cause serious injuries and from all violent interventions.

  Claude Turmes (Verts/ALE). – (DE) Mr President, this past weekend, documents were passed to the German magazine ‘Spiegel’ demonstrating, or claiming to make clear, that the Leipzig energy exchange had been manipulated. The reactions to that news in Germany have, understandably, been very lively, but a European response is also called for.

Europe’s energy exchanges are interlinked, and if prices have been artificially pushed up on the one in Leipzig, that also has effects in the other countries, and so I urge the Commission to be proactive in dealing with these accusations, which have to do with the credibility of the European internal market in energy, and which are also of interest to the consumers who may well have lost out to the tune of billions of euros.

  Margarita Starkevičiūtė (ALDE). – (LT) I would like to draw your attention to the question of translation and interpreting services. The quality of translations and interpreting is not adequate, and I have enquired why. It appears that, in our office, instead of recruiting permanent translators and interpreters, the translation and interpreting section has begun to engage many temporary employees. Thus translation and interpreting quality requirements have been lowered. Explanations are offered that this is in order to save money; however, for four months now I have been trying to dispense with interpreters in those committees where I am the only representative from my country, but I have not succeeded. I would consider that all of this points to the fact that there are management problems in the translation and interpreting service, and I would very much like to ask the Working Group that has been formed to implement reforms in Parliament to consider the question of quality of management in the translation and interpreting service during their deliberations.

  Eoin Ryan (UEN). – Mr President, as many MEPs are aware, elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly took place last week. The overwhelming majority of the 108 members of this new assembly supported the creation of a devolved government in Northern Ireland on 26 March next. Dr Ian Paisley and the DUP secured a political mandate from voters for the policies that he is presently pursuing. I would urge Dr Paisley and his party to take the final historic step and form a devolved government in two weeks’ time.

The European Parliament has always supported the peace process in Northern Ireland and will, I hope, continue to do so. This has been with the support given by the European Union to programmes such as the Interreg cross-border initiative, the Peace and Reconciliation Fund and the International Fund for Ireland.

On 24 March 2007, we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the creation of the European Union. This is a celebration of a very successful political project whereby European leaders put aside their differences and chose the path of peace, as opposed to the path of war. It would be very symbolic indeed if a new government in Northern Ireland could be formed two days after these Europe-wide celebrations, as this would mark a very important step in building peace and reconciliation amongst all the people in Northern Ireland.

Finally, I welcome the fact that the European Parliament has named today European Commemoration Day for the Victims of Terrorism. We must never forget those people who have died or been injured at the hands of terrorists, be it in Ireland, Europe or other parts of the world.

  Gay Mitchell (PPE-DE). – Mr President, I was both interested and shocked to read the findings of a report last week which show that, since 2002, the total time allocated to physical education in European schools has declined steadily. Indeed, my own country, Ireland, ranks as one of the poorest with a minimum curriculum guideline of 30 minutes and a maximum of just 60 minutes.

Childhood obesity is on the rise across Europe. Indeed, obesity is five times more common now than it was after World War II. In Ireland alone 300 000 children are either overweight or obese according to the Department of Health and Children.

Obesity in our children today will cost society massively in the long run, from both an economic and a social perspective. In terms of direct cost, obesity accounts for up to six per cent of Ireland’s total healthcare costs. Obesity is directly linked to many serious illnesses such as type-two diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood-pressure and certain types of cancer.

With this in mind, surely it is time for the EU to give impetus to change by promoting a realistic and effective strategy in this field, which can be benchmarked by Member States.

  Magda Kósáné Kovács (PSE) . – (HU) It was with no small joy, indeed with a sense of vindication that I took part on 1 March with my colleague Kinga Gál, as representatives of the EP, in the inauguration of the Fundamental Rights Agency. Although opinions of the political elite were divided all along on this matter, in the end, we succeeded in creating a body within the European Union to deal professionally with human rights. The merit belongs in no small measure to the dedicated Vice-President Frattini, to the Presidency for its willingness to compromise, and last but not least, to our own Parliament.

The time has come for those who were sceptical until now to accept the existence of the Fundamental Rights Agency and give it their support in the future. And understand this: the political decision of the Council has made it possible, even if this is not in the law, to extend investigations to the third pillar, and thus to police cooperation as well.

Mr Schmitt: this House is not the place to bring nebulous accusations against Budapest. Instead, it is the Agency, founded and competent in this matter since 1 March, which must be asked to investigate. Mr Schmitt! They are the experts in this matter.

  Kinga Gál (PPE-DE). – (HU) What my colleague Mrs Kósáné Kovács said about the Fundamental Rights Agency, created on 1 March, is perfectly true. I would like therefore to point out, Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, that the work of the Fundamental Rights Agency did not begin with the inaugural ceremonies. The real work is only now unfolding, as decisions are made about the plan, the work and about the team that will be chosen to lead this new Agency so that it may indeed fulfil the expectations set out for it by Europe, the European Parliament, my colleagues and myself as rapporteur. Indeed, the task of this Agency will be to pay attention to all the fundamental legal problems that exist in the old but especially in the new Member States, helping them to put into daily practice the basic principles of the EU, the principles of the rule of law.

  Willy Meyer Pleite (GUE/NGL). – (ES) Mr President, in the Bay of Cádiz, in the town of Puerto Real, in Spain, the multinational Delphi is threatening to close down and leave 1 600 workers without jobs, as well as 4 500 indirectly.

It is one of the many multinationals that have received public aid, more than EUR 60 million, in order to keep all production going.

Furthermore, the company had committed itself to maintaining those jobs until 2010.

We are dealing with one more scandalous case of a relocation affecting the European Union. I would ask the Commission, and Parliament itself, that we try to legislate clearly in order to prevent a new kind of piracy. These companies receive public aid and then immediately close down the company, relocate it and throw thousands of workers out onto the streets.

The Bay of Cádiz cannot endure this crisis. I would therefore appeal directly to the European Commission to help us, and the Institutions, in this case the Junta de Andalucía, the local authorities affected and the unions, to stop this closure.

  Viorica-Pompilia-Georgeta Moisuc (ITS). – Intervenţia mea se referă la o situaţie cumplită care s-a petrecut în luna februarie în zona de la răsărit de Nistru, care este şi zonă de frontieră a Uniunii Europene. În luna februarie, bande teroriste din zona aceasta au distrus complet un cimitir situat lângă oraşul Tighina din Republica Moldova, unde erau înhumaţi 365 de soldaţi, ofiţeri români, germani şi suedezi din primul şi din al doilea război mondial. Cimitirul a fost organizat de Fundaţia Regina Maria a României în 1926. Crucile au fost aruncate la gunoi, osemintele au fost amestecate cu pământul. Zona a fost nivelată şi construită o platformă pe care se va ridica un monument al soldatului sovietic eliberator.

Acesta este un act de vandalism, demn de practicile staliniste, petrecut într-o zonă extrem de bulversată de perpetuarea la nesfârşit a actelor teroriste la Vest de Nistru, în zona Republicii Moldova, la adăpostul armatelor ruse situate în Transnistria.

Este clar că securitatea Uniunii Europene la est este ameninţată şi se impune o poziţie fermă. Fac apel la toţi colegii din Parlamentul European să semneze declaraţia pe care am pregătit-o pentru a se putea lua o decizie fermă în această problemă.

  Teresa Riera Madurell (PSE). – (ES) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, at this year's Wimbledon tennis tournament, the winner of the women’s competition will at last receive the same prize money as her male counterpart. This is a victory for women, and we should point out that this Parliament has made a contribution to it. Deliberately and consciously paying women less is just one of the reasons why women in the European Union earn 15% less than men. There are other more hidden reasons: more women working part time, on temporary contracts, in lower paid sectors, more difficulty gaining access to positions of responsibility etc.

Equal pay has been laid down in European legislation since its origins, but banning discrimination has not put an end to the wage divide. In order to do that, we need courageous solutions such as the one provided by the Socialist government of my country, Spain, which has adopted an equality law. I am also pleased that, to mark 8 March, the European Socialist Party has launched a campaign condemning this situation. I would call upon you to join with it in order to put an end to wage discrimination against women once and for all. This can be our goal in the European Year of Equality.

  Péter Olajos (PPE-DE). – (HU) After contamination by sodium and naphtalene sulfonates from Austria, last week we even began to receive oil along our rivers. It is now the sixth consecutive year that Austria has been contaminating the only wild river of Hungary, the Rába. Last year, during the Austrian presidency I appealed here in Parliament to Josef Pröll, the Austrian minister, and he promised that by the end of the summer they would put a stop to the contamination. Not only did they do nothing, but now they are even pouring oil into the river.

Mr President, enough is enough! The Hungarian delegation of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats has decided to stand up jointly against further contamination by Austria, and also against a planned garbage incinerator to be built at the border, the Austrian-Hungarian border. We will organise protests and demonstrations in front of Austrian provincial ministries because we can no longer tolerate that Austria, snubbing EU rules as well as its own verbal and written promises, should contaminate this common frontier river.

  Libor Rouček (PSE). – (CS) Ladies and gentlemen, at the end of the year, the United States asked two EU Member States, Poland and the Czech Republic for permission to locate elements of a US anti-rocket defence mechanism in Europe. The initial announcements of the representatives of these countries left no room for doubt that this was to be a bilateral operation between the United States on the one side and Poland and the Czech Republic on the other. The EU’s high representative for the common foreign and security policy, Javier Solana, expressed the same view two weeks ago. I do not share this view and I believe that the same goes for the majority in Parliament. The presence of US anti-rocket bases on European territory does not affect only Czechs and Poles. It has a much broader reach. It affects relations between Europe and the United States, between the EU and NATO and between the EU and Russia. There are also a number of disarmament treaties which come into play here. Furthermore, it affects reciprocal relations between EU Member States. In other words, it relates to the very essence …

(The President cut off the speaker)

  President. Mr Solana is coming to the mini-session in Brussels.

  Ioannis Gklavakis (PPE-DE). – (EL) Mr President, I wish to comment on environmental issues.

We all recognize that fisheries the world over have fallen dangerously. This is due to many reasons, but there are two main causes: one is pollution and the other is overfishing.

I shall not comment on the major problem of pollution, except to quote one statistic: that over the last 15 years in the Mediterranean alone 55 000 tonnes of oil have been spilled as a result of various accidents at sea and have polluted the shores.

Today I shall comment on overfishing. In the past we had areas in seas out of reach of human activity. Now we fish everywhere. Today protected areas in the Mediterranean total just 2%, while scientists are stressing that they should be 20%. There is an ecological need for us to define protected areas, for us to extend the Natura 2000 network to seas. Otherwise the future will be catastrophic.

To close, I wish to say that fishermen may be displeased, but the measure I propose is in their interest. If we do not take measures, we shall soon have dead seas and fishermen will have boats and nets but there will be no fish for them to catch.

  Gerard Batten (IND/DEM). – Mr President, last week the European Union announced plans to phase out incandescent light bulbs by 2009. Europe currently consumes about two billion such bulbs per annum and simply does not have the manufacturing capability to make two billion alternative lamps. Demand would require about 300 new production lines – that is about 75 new production lines for each one of Europe’s four main lamp manufacturers. None of them currently has more than ten production lines. The cost of new machinery alone would be about GBP 450 million. If this undertaking is enforced, then the lamps will have to be sourced from elsewhere – probably China – if indeed it can meet the demand.

Did anyone on the Council of Ministers not think to ask if we had any new light bulbs in the cupboard before they decided to throw away the old ones? This is another example of what the European Union does best, which is driving business elsewhere and destroying jobs.

  Jim Allister (NI). – Mr President, Mr Ryan reminded us that today we were to remember the innocent victims of terrorism: well might we and well might I, because in my country, Northern Ireland, we have had over three and a half thousand innocent victims of terrorism, most of them as a result of the IRA.

Mr Ryan then went on in the next breath to urge my party to embrace in government the party of the IRA, Sinn Féin. My party had a magnificent election result but on the premise that Sinn Féin had to deliver what any other democratic party would deliver. What party in the world would think it would be fit for government and yet not support the police of the community of whose government they want to be a part? This weekend we had an outrageous illustration of Sinn Féin attacking the arrest and charging of two former members of their organisation with attempted murder. They had attempted to murder a postman in cold blood.

Unless and until we get to the point where there is total and absolute support for the police – and that is only one issue – then we are some distance away from Sinn Féin being fit for government.

  Mirosław Mariusz Piotrowski (UEN). – (PL) Mr President, frequent use was made of the word solidarity at the recent European Council meeting devoted mainly to climate change and a common energy policy for the Union. This is a positive development. The Union has finally realised that in the case of matters of such importance, success will only be achieved if we take joint action and stand together in solidarity when dealing with external partners.

There is some concern, however, as to whether this oral solidarity is not simply the result of the wheeling and dealing political leaders are attempting to engage in behind their citizens’ backs. The outcome of these machinations was to be an understanding on the Constitutional Treaty. Heads of State or Government, the German Presidency and the European Commission cannot disregard the sovereign will of the people of France and the Netherlands, who rejected the Constitutional Treaty. They must also take into account the serious reservations about the document expressed in other Member States.

  President. That brings this item on the agenda to a close.

IN THE CHAIR: MRS KRATSA-TSAGAROPOULOU
Vice-President