Verbatim report of proceedings

Monday, 23 April 2007 - Strasbourg

15. One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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

  Erna Hennicot-Schoepges (PPE-DE). – (DE) Mr President, in Parliament’s offices in Luxembourg, the position of general manager has now been vacant for seven months. I put a question about this in December 2006, to which you, Mr President, replied, on 1 February of this year, that an internal trawl had proved fruitless and that the post was to be put up for external competition. Your department’s answer to Mr Turmes two months later was in exactly the same terms. The personnel list of this House now includes a Commission civil servant as a temporary member of staff, as if the woman currently holding that position, who has many years of experience, needed someone to watch over her.

What I would now like to know is whether someone – perhaps the Committee on Budgets or the Quaestors – has objections to this post being filled properly and promptly, or whether there is some other explanation for this delay in the recruitment process.

  President. Thank you very much. We shall look into that.

  Yannick Vaugrenard (PSE). – (FR) Mr President, the total amount of aid that Europe has given to Darfur since 2004 comes to EUR 304 million, and that is positive. But what is stopping us from acting more effectively at political level; from seeing an end, at last, to the crimes against humanity that are committed in this region of the world? Two-hundred thousand deaths, two million displaced persons – what more do we need to make us really take action and stop making do with conclusions that merely list our concerns? How many more deaths must there be before we finally decide to turn our statements into acts?

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has presented substantial evidence against individuals accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, one of whom is a minister of the Sudanese Government. We have been able to deploy a whole range of sanctions against the Moldavian separatists, the agitators in Congo, Liberia and the Ivory Coast, and the Belorussian leaders. Let us impose these same sanctions – visa ban, freezing of assets – on all persons implicated in the reports by the United Nations commission of inquiry and group of experts. Let us stop making conscience-easing statements, and let us finally act more practically, more politically, without worrying about geopolitical presuppositions.

  Graham Watson (ALDE). – Mr President, on 13 April, Members of this House due to speak at a multinational conference in Singapore were refused permission to address the conference by the Singapore Government. Indeed, they were told that if they spoke, they would be immediately arrested.

This conference was not specifically about Singapore. It was a conference of Liberal and Democrat parliamentarians from Asia and Europe on the development of democracy on both continents. The cooperation between European and Asian members of parliament, which has led to the staging of many such conferences in many different Asian and European countries – at which nobody has been prevented from speaking – has grown out of the work of the Asia-Europe Foundation. Such cooperation is a central part of the Union’s strategy in Asia. Coincidentally, the ban was imposed on the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Asia-Europe Foundation.

I ask you to write to the Commission President and the Secretary-General of the Council requesting that they should protest to the Singapore Government in the strongest terms and urging them to reflect on whether Singapore is an appropriate country to host the Asia-Europe Foundation if it acts in this way.

  President. Thank you very much, Mr Watson; that is certainly something for the President of this House to do, and I can do no other than endorse what you have said. The letter will be couched in the strongest possible terms.

  Zdzisław Zbigniew Podkański (UEN). – (PL) Mr President, Polish apple growers and producers of soft fruits such as strawberries, blackcurrants, cherries and gooseberries are facing disaster. I am therefore forwarding to you, Mr President, a document signed by several thousand individuals containing a protest and a range of proposals.

This protest is an expression of discontent with the current situation in the soft fruits market, and an appeal by thousands of farmers who find themselves in this critical situation as a result of errors in the common agricultural policy. They are making a public appeal for help as they feel they have been neglected and betrayed by the European Union and that the Union has denied them justice. It is incumbent on the European Parliament to heed this appeal and respond appropriately. That is why I call on the President and on the whole House to support the solutions advocated by Polish farmers.

  Milan Horáček (Verts/ALE). – (DE) Mr President, in its attempts at fending off demands for more democracy, Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian regime is having recourse to more and more violent means. Demonstrations organised by the opposition over recent months have been roughly put down. In an attempt at intimidation, more and more people are being arrested and interrogated, and police brutality reached its high point thus far the weekend before last, when they even attacked and arrested passers-by who were not involved – including journalists from the German television stations ARD and ZDF. The people running Russia are, then, no longer using only the law courts – as they did in order to deal with Mr Khodorkovsky and Mr Lebedev – but are now also bringing the whole security apparatus to bear in order to intimidate and silence their political opponents.

With negotiations on the new partnership agreement with Russia in the offing, the European Union cannot, therefore, allow itself to be led by its dependence on that country where energy is concerned. If there is to be further cooperation, it is very important that human rights – particularly the free expression of opinion and the freedom of the press – should be secured and that it should be established who is behind these goings-on, and the assorted contract killings that have been carried out.

  President. I can tell you now, Mr Horáček, something I shall be bringing to the Bureau’s attention straightaway, but I shall also tell you and the House, namely that, last weekend, a member of my staff visited Moscow, albeit for other reasons – issues that have to do with Andrei Sakharov.

When I learned of the demonstrations in Moscow and St Petersburg, I asked this member of my staff to establish contact with Gary Kasparov, and they did have a conversation. I asked the member of my staff to tell Mr Kasparov that, if he were to come to Strasbourg or Brussels, he would be very welcome to visit this House, and that we would give him an appropriate opportunity to tell us about what is going on. It is very likely that he will be coming to Strasbourg in May, and that will provide an opportunity for talks with him. I would also inform you that we are taking action along the lines you have outlined.

  Adamos Adamou (GUE/NGL). – (EL) Mr President, I should like to condemn the arrest of a member of the European Parliament, Mr Matsakis, by the authorities of the British bases in Cyprus during an official visit by the Committee on the Environment, Health and Food Safety, in fact on the bus, an action which constitutes a serious attack on the institution of the European Parliament. This colonial behaviour on the part of a Member State must stop and I call on you, Mr President, to request that the part of the agreement exempting the British bases in Cyprus from the European Union to be re-examined. It is unacceptable for a Member State to occupy territory in another Member State and for the acquis communautaire not to apply there. Are the citizens living in these areas not European citizens, Mr President? It is an intolerable situation.

  Urszula Krupa (IND/DEM). – (PL) Mr President, a certain Polish writer has suggested amending the NATURA 2000 environmental protection programme to include the lives of unborn children. Unborn children would then be safe, just as plants, worms and amphibians are. Their lives before and after birth would be properly protected.

The ruling against Poland handed down by the Court of Justice at Strasbourg because my country refuses to kill children exemplifies the deep moral crisis the European Union finds itself in. Stating that it is illegal to refuse to kill a child may be the first step towards recognising abortion as a human right. I should like to recall the teachings of the Polish Pope John Paul II. He warned that sooner or later a democracy devoid of values will turn into an overt or covert totalitarian regime.

How can one describe a system in which a group of people who have already been born claim a monopoly over the right to life, whilst denying that same right to those who are not yet born and to those whom they would subject to euthanasia on the grounds that they are useless?

  President. Thank you, Mrs Krupa. I see that as a matter for the Polish Parliament to deal with. We all agree that it is in the interests of your group that the principle of subsidiarity should be upheld, and so, if I may say so, that is a matter for the Polish Parliament.

  Ashley Mote (ITS). – Mr President, I must draw the attention of this House to a threat to its integrity. A ruling last week in the British courts held that after granting an application to lift the immunity of a Member who faces specific charges, the European Parliament can be assumed simultaneously and implicitly also to have lifted immunity against any other charges without further examination of the facts. Such a ruling is prima facie contempt of this House. It opens the way for blanket applications from Member States and implies the possibility of applications against any and all Members to be exercised by any future government at its discretion. If unchallenged, this ruling would profoundly undermine the Rules of this House and its procedures. I appreciate that this issue comes to light from a Member whose scepticism of this institution is well known, but I respectfully remind you that I am also an advocate of the rule of law wherever it is to be found.

Today, Mr President, I have sent you, the Secretary-General of Parliament and the Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee details of the situation, inviting examination of the implications of this ruling.

  András Gyürk (PPE-DE) . – (HU) At the March summit of the EU Member States there was unanimous commitment to a common energy policy. This at last creates the opportunity for Europe significantly to decrease its dependency, for sources of raw materials, on countries that are in a more fortunate situation.

One of the basic pillars of the evolving Community energy policy can be the construction of the Nabucco gas pipeline, a venture to which, in addition to the encouraging decision by the Member States, the commitment of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has also given new impetus. In light of the above, it gives particular cause for concern to hear Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány state that Nabucco is a dream and it is not dreams that we need.

These sorts of statements serve the interests of those who seek, for considerations of power that go beyond economic interests, to cause division within the European Union in the area of cooperation on energy policy. A common energy policy must be based on joint action and must avoid special deals, for the question of a secure energy supply for Europe cannot be sacrificed to short-term goals. On the energy question, only a Union that speaks with one voice and in solidarity is able to defend its own interests.

  Pervenche Berès (PSE). – (FR) Mr President, our Parliament must take action to demand and obtain the resignation of Paul Wolfowitz from his post as President of the World Bank. Everyone in this House will remember the circumstances in which Mr Wolfowitz, in the wake of some US internal political manoeuvring, was appointed as the head of that institution, one of the most important institutions of our international financial system.

Today, for reasons of method, we will be unable, under Rule 115, to argue that keeping Paul Wolfowitz as the head of the World Bank constitutes a violation of the rule of law within that institution. However, I call on all of the political groups to use the resolution that we shall adopt on transatlantic relations to demonstrate our determination to obtain this resignation and if, sadly, it has still not materialised by the time of our mini-session in Brussels, to have the Commission make a statement before our Parliament, so that we can stress that the World Bank must have at its helm someone who does not undermine the credibility of an institution that must be in a fit state to operate, at a time when the world order urgently needs it.

  Árpád Duka-Zólyomi (PPE-DE). – (HU) It is fifty years since the martyrdom of Count János Esterházy, the leader of Hungarians in Slovakia and their Member of Parliament between the two world wars and during World War II.

He was the only one in the parliament of the so-called Slovak State who in 1942 did not vote in favour of the law decreeing the deportation of the Jews, and he saved many Czechs, Slovaks and Jews. In 1945 the Soviets took Esterházy away and sentenced him to 10 years in a labour camp. In 1947, he was condemned to death in absentia by the Slovak People’s Court. In 1949, Esterházy, suffering from serious lung disease, was transported to Czechoslovakia, where he was sentenced first to life and then to 25 years in prison. He died in 1957 in the Mirov prison in Moravia.

János Esterházy was innocent. The Russians have rehabilitated him, but the Slovak authorities have not yet been able to do so. He died a martyr’s death, only because he fought for European Christian values, for human and minority rights, and for true tolerance among peoples. We owe great reverence to János Esterházy’s memory.

  Csaba Sándor Tabajdi (PSE). – (HU) At the moment there is no Community energy policy yet, although many people wish there were. There are two fundamental conditions. The first is that it should have a legal basis, and the second that it should have a community funding.

We must make it clear that the desire to diversify the sources of supply and to reduce dependency on Russia are very positive goals, but these conceal a good deal of political manipulation, many misleading arguments, and hard economic, transcontinental and European geopolitical interests and feelings. An unholy theological debate seems to be emerging in connection with Nabucco and the Blue Stream gas pipeline. Many support the building of Nabucco, as does the Hungarian government with unanimity.

Let us do everything we can to make sure that there is at last private capital to finance Nabucco, that sufficient Central Asian and Iranian gas is made available, and that there is stability in the region. Let us stop the false and harmful opposition! The Nabucco pipeline serves the diversification of gas supply, and Blue Stream helps diversify the transit route for Russian gas. Everything else is political manipulation and lies, and the disgrace of our own government.

  Eduard Raul Hellvig (ALDE). – De la 1 ianuarie 2007 România a dobândit statutul de graniţă externă a Uniunii Europene, pe lângă cel de graniţă externă a NATO. Este o poziţie geopolitică importantă, deopotrivă o provocare şi o responsabilitate care oferă României oportunitatea de a juca un rol activ în procesul de stabilizare regională. Unul dintre obiectivele principale de politică externă al României îl constituie crearea unui spaţiu de stabilitate, securitate, prosperitate şi democraţie în regiunea Mării Negre. Conectarea acestei zone geografice la structurile europene şi euro-atlantice reprezintă o modalitate de prevenire şi combatere a noilor riscuri şi ameninţări la adresa securităţii regionale. Pentru a se realiza însă acest obiectiv foarte important al politicii de vecinătate a Uniunii Europene şi, totodată, al României este adevărat că este nevoie de timp şi, când spun timp, mă refer la faptul că atunci când analizăm raporturile comunităţii euro-atlantice cu zona Mării Negre supunem de fapt cercetării un proces profund şi complex, un proces care în acest moment se bazează pe principii sau reguli de conduită mai mult sau mai puţin împărtăşite de unii actori individuali. Din aceste considerente cred că acest proces are nevoie de comunicare, determinare, acţiune şi eficienţă din partea tuturor actorilor de la toate nivelurile.

  József Szájer (PPE-DE). – (HU) Freedom of speech and of assembly are fundamental civil rights. We cannot call a country a true democracy if the authorities allow the police to use force, ban demonstrations against the authorities, and seek to break up the assemblies of peaceful protesters in order to silence views they do not like. Labelling peaceful protesters as extremists, and the police using force against demonstrators are unacceptable in a country that calls itself a democracy.

I protest against what took place in Russia last week. It is all the more important to recall the police brutality in Moscow and St Petersburg because these incidents occurred in a country in which Communist dictatorship ended only a decade and a half ago. We need to remind Russia and its current leaders that we can only consider them to be a true partner to the EU and a state governed by the rule of law if they respect civil liberties. There can be no way back to dictatorship.

But we need to know as well that the critique of the European Union will be credible only if we also systematically demand that our own countries unfailingly respect civil liberties. We cannot use two measuring rods: one for ourselves and one for others.

  Teresa Riera Madurell (PSE). – (ES) Mr President, science is a crucial aspect of our lives, and therefore of our culture.

Disseminating scientific culture requires the ability to bring information concerning science and technology closer to the people, stimulating the curiosity of young people and to provide adults with close and accessible mechanisms to help them get into these fields. It also requires greater support for the public dissemination of the results of research and of scientific policies.

It is these objectives that have inspired the government of my country, Spain, to declare 2007 the Year of Science, to coincide with the centenary of the creation of the Council for the Extension of Studies and Scientific Research chaired by the Nobel Prize winner Santiago Ramón y Cajal and which has been described as my country’s greatest experiment in modernising science. Unfortunately, this experiment was interrupted by forty years of dictatorship.

To that end, congresses, exhibitions and all kinds of activities for disseminating science are taking place, with the cooperation of both public and private bodies.

This is a very positive experiment, Mr President, which we must support and which I wished to raise with a view to encouraging other Member States to do the same.

  Georgios Papastamkos (PPE-DE). – (EL) Mr President, the President of the European Council, Chancellor Merkel, recently said:

(DE) I quote: ‘There is much that we could do to improve conditions for small and medium-sized enterprises, and, if we did, we would get one or two per cent more growth in Europe’. End of quotation.

(EL) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to point out that, despite the verbal pronouncements, the real result of the strategy to improve the regulatory environment, for better regulations on small and medium-sized enterprises, is trivial. Allow me to ask the Commissioner present, Mr McCreevy, on your behalf, if he supports increased access for European small and medium-sized enterprises to public procurement contracts within the framework of the negotiations at the World Trade Organisation.

  Willy Meyer Pleite (GUE/NGL). – (ES) Mr President, last week in the Bay of Cádiz, in Spain, there was a general strike supported by all of the citizens of the Bay to demonstrate against the closure announced by the Delphi factory, which is intended to lay off 1 600 workers.

The Delphi company is part of General Motors, it has received State subsidies and it had therefore committed itself to maintaining production until 2010.

At the same time — also last week — General Motors announced the disappearance of 1 400 jobs at its factory in Amberes, in Belgium. Quite symbolic. It seems as if the European Union, the European institutions, do not have the political capacity to regulate the automobile sector market and to opt clearly for a social model that prevents multinationals from indulging in piracy and trading with European workers. They are public companies that receive public subsidies, and yet they relocate businesses, causing irreversible harm to workers.

We therefore believe that this Parliament, together with the European Commission and the respective governments, should put an end to this situation and defend the jobs of our workers.

  Tunne Kelam (PPE-DE). – Mr President, I would like to join with Mr Szájer in expressing concern about the harassment and beating of peaceful demonstrators in Moscow and St Petersburg eight or nine days ago. This became a demonstration of force by the Russian authorities against their own citizens, as thousands of security forces outnumbered the Another Russia demonstrators by four to one. Sadly, such behaviour simply confirms the rating of Russia as a non-free country by the international organisation Freedom House. Opposition leaders Kasparov and Illarionov have both indicated that, on its present course, Russia is nearing the status of Belarus or Zimbabwe.

Russia is eager to be seen as a powerful state. It is absolutely counterproductive to demonstrate the might of the state at the expense of its citizens in the same way as the tsars or Brezhnev used to do.

Mr President, I am most thankful to you for sharing these concerns on behalf of the European Parliament and for having made initiatives to contact Mr Kasparov and others.

  Marios Matsakis (ALDE). – Mr President, last week’s barbaric killing of three Christian workers in Turkey is part of a chain of recent acts of brutality against the Christian minority in that country. Such acts are connected by a clear common political cause: to stop Turkey’s path towards Europe. The orchestrators of these provocative actions are well known both in Turkey and abroad. They are part of the deep state that Prime Minister Erdogan has been bravely fighting for many years now. These dark forces are no less than the Turkish army chiefs, for whom accession to the EU is anathema, as it means the termination of the army’s stranglehold on Turkey’s political life.

Turkey is at a delicate turning point in its history and this House must send a strong message to the army generals in Turkey that neither we nor the Turkish people are fooled by their provocative acts. We stand firmly behind the democratic traditions of Turkey and support the Turkish people in their fight for a more democratic, peaceful and prosperous European future.

  László Surján (PPE-DE). – (HU) We are citizens and deputies of countries where the use of our mother tongue is considered a fundamental value. We do not know what to make of the news I heard recently, according to which there is a candidate country where they want to dissolve a local government because its representatives have decided to make it possible for citizens to use the local minority language to take care of their official business. Similarly, it is incomprehensible to us that a mayor should face legal proceedings because he wrote a greeting card in a minority language to the citizens who voted for him.

Mr President, I am talking about Turkey. I think that we need to verify these stories, and make it clear to our Turkish partners that the Copenhagen criteria are binding on all of us. I hope we will be able to take effective action.

  Mieczysław Edmund Janowski (UEN). – (PL) Mr President, there is a strong tradition of inviting personalities from the contemporary world to visit the European Parliament. I therefore take the liberty of calling on you to invite the Holy Father Benedict XVI to the European Parliament. I am sure many others in the House today support my call. Pope Benedict has recently been invited to the UN.

Benedict XVI is both the leader of the Catholic Church and Head of State of the Vatican. His message to Europe and the world is not exclusively religious. It also relates to the main issues of concern to contemporary society. Extending an invitation to the Pope would not only demonstrate our hospitality but also provide an opportunity for the humanity and nobility of that figure in white to become better known. That person may not command any divisions, but he is nonetheless anxious about the future of Europe, a Europe that must not be ashamed of its Christian roots.

  Pál Schmitt (PPE-DE). – (HU) It seems several people are talking about Turkey today. Allow me, as Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Culture and Education, to say a few words about Turkish relations.

Now then, in the northern part of Cyprus, on territory occupied by the Turks, a great many works of art have recently disappeared. Protected artworks, icons, paintings, mosaics and other works of artistic creation, primarily from churches, which constitute an important part of all of Europe’s cultural heritage, have simply been sold on the market. We have been informed that these artworks have ended up for the most part in America and Germany. Moreover, judicial actions are in process. I would like us to somehow reach the point that the members of the Council of Ministers are able to take effective action – either via their ministers of culture, or some other way, I do not know – to ensure that these works of art are returned to their original owners: the lovely, more than thousand-year-old Cypriot churches.

  Panayiotis Demetriou (PPE-DE). – (EL) Mr President, there is only one town in the whole world that is a ghost town, uninhabited and in ruins. That town is the town of Famagusta. This town is in the Republic of Cyprus. The Republic of Cyprus is a member of the European Union and this town, in other words, a part of this country, is occupied by Turkey. Famagusta is a hostage of the Turkish occupation. All the inhabitants have been fighting for thirty years and dreaming of going home.

Last Sunday, the campaign to sign the petition for their return ended. The time has come for the European Union to stop this display of indifference. The time has come to stop the policy expressed by Mr Olli Rehn: that this issue is an issue for the United Nations. It is a European issue and the European Union should understand that the issue of Famagusta is an issue of its consistency, credibility and validity.

  Danutė Budreikaitė (ALDE). – (LT) The ‘Nord Stream’ builders have scheduled the construction of the gas pipeline to start in 2008, without having done a study of the bed of the Baltic Sea and with no knowledge of what is in the wartime ammunition dump on the seabed. However, they have now realised that it would be more convenient to lay the pipeline closer to the Estonian coast, within Estonia's economic zone.

If that were not enough, the Kremlin is now making preparations to authorise Gazprom to create its own well-armed army, which, together with the navies of the Baltic countries, would protect the gas pipeline being laid along the bed of the Baltic Sea toward Germany.

According to certain news media sources, such armed units would have the right to search people and their means of transport, and even to use weapons in the course of effecting protection of property and territory.

In this we can see Russia's intentions not only to increase its naval strength in the Baltic Sea, but also to take advantage of increased opportunities for espionage in the vicinity of the gas pipeline. Is Russia coordinating its actions with Germany? Is a new 1939 (Hitler-Stalin Pact) dawning? Are we, the nations of a democratic European Union, going to permit such self-indulgence?

  John Attard-Montalto (PSE). – (MT) Recently, we took a vote on hunting and trapping in Malta. The Maltese members of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament chose to abstain, and I believe that this decision was criticised because the reason for this abstention was not understood. We proposed amendments that gave the resolution tabled before Parliament a completely different slant.

Once these amendments were approved, they subsequently led to a diluted version of a regulation that, in our opinion, was previously too harsh. We could not, therefore, then vote against the very amendments we had proposed, because that would not have made any sense.

Thank you, Mr President, for this opportunity to speak.

  Alojz Peterle (PPE-DE). – (SL) I believe I must acquaint this House with the fact that, on 12 April 2007, Mr Anton Berisha, the Head of Kosovo’s Telecommunications Authority, survived what is already the second attempt to assassinate him this year.

The first assassination attempt was made on 28 February this year. The second attempt was carried out using anti-tank grenade launchers and it is only by an immense stroke of luck that Mr Berisha survived this second assassination attempt. Unfortunately, one of the police officers protecting him was seriously injured during the attack.

Parliament has consistently condemned acts of violence and breaches of most fundamental human rights, neither of which can achieve any good. The right thing to do would be for our Parliament to call on Kosovo’s authorities to do everything they can to track down the people behind such terrorist acts and bring them to justice.

Peace and confidence in public authorities will only be restored in Kosovo if the public security bodies work consistently to track down the culprits and institute criminal proceedings against them.

  Ryszard Czarnecki (UEN). – (PL) Mr President, thank you for acting in so liberal a manner towards Members wishing to speak, even though you do not hail from the liberal benches of this House.

Commissioner Kyprianou met with the Russian Foreign Minister yesterday in Cyprus. The meeting was largely devoted to the embargo on the export of Polish meat to the Russian Federation. Everyone is aware that this is really all about political issues, not Polish meat. It is about Russia’s strategy towards our Union. Russia wishes to pursue its own agenda as far as the Union is concerned, and is using this matter as a bargaining chip for future negotiations on completely different issues. This is an old Russian tactic that it has used throughout its history. When the Russians refer to meat, they actually have something else in mind.

I am confident that the European Union will demonstrate solidarity as it deals with this and other issues, and that in future it will act not only on behalf of the Union as a whole but also on behalf of individual Member States experiencing trading difficulties with Moscow.

  Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou (PPE-DE). – (EL) Mr President, this year we are celebrating the year of equal opportunities for everyone, but many of our disabled fellow men and fellow citizens do not enjoy equal opportunities as concerns their right to participate in insurance, such as insurance against accidents or insurance against unemployment.

As a result, they cannot execute other acts, such as taking a bank loan, as they are uninsured. In the event of an accident, their families may end up in poverty, because the money will be paid by them.

Please could all the European institutions support the disabled, so that they can be insured, taking account of their disability or illness, in the same way as all our fellow citizens.

  Péter Olajos (PPE-DE). – (HU) What I am holding in my hand is not a bottle of Alsatian wine, but a total disregard for European decision-makers, the deception of European consumers, the parody of inequality among Member States and the bankruptcy of the power of enforcement.

Here, at the seat of European lawmaking, the European Parliament, in the city in which the European Court of Justice issued its ruling on this matter, one can to this day purchase fake Tokaj wine. 13 years’ temporary exemption – Mr President – this is how long we have waited for those who produce products bearing names similar to the world’s best dessert wine, the Hungarian Tokaj, to remove their products from the market. As of 31 March 2007, this wine may no longer be marketed under this label. It would seem, however, that there are some to whom the EU legislation does not apply. What is the basis on which the Union operates? On the basis of the age-old cynicism of ‘Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi’, or on equality before the law?

I hope that Strasbourg will set an example in this outrageous affair, and impose exemplary monetary fines on those who violate the law. Thank you.

  Kyriacos Triantaphyllides (GUE/NGL). – (EL) Mr President, last week in Belgium, the management of General Motors decided to lay off 1 400 of their 4 500 employees working in the factory of its Opel subsidiary in Antwerp by the end of the year. The automobile industry in Belgium is now in dire straits; we all remember last year's redundancies at Volkswagen in Brussels. Unfortunately, while this is going on, the European Union remains on the sidelines, reminding us that the Lisbon Strategy is taking us into an economic nirvana.

As elected members of parliament representing the citizens of Europe, we cannot stand on the sidelines in the face of this social tragedy, whatever our political approach. I therefore call on us to organise ourselves and prepare a motion condemning the mass redundancies and giving impetus to a social Europe which, at the moment, only exists on paper.

  Monica Maria Iacob-Ridzi (PPE-DE). – Milioane de cetăţeni europeni sunt afectaţi de o taxă injustă şi care nu se regăseşte în spiritul european. Sub pretextul că apără mediul înconjurător sau că protejează locuri de muncă, câteva guverne din Uniunea Europeană au impus o taxă discriminatorie de primă înmatriculare la importurile autovehiculelor second-hand. Comisia şi Curtea Europeană de Justiţie au arătat în mod repetat că aceste taxe încalcă Articolul 90 din Tratat. După ce au fost declarate incompatibile cu dreptul comunitar, taxele au trebuit rambursate cetăţenilor. Problematice sunt însă două aspecte: un număr mic de oameni îşi pot permite un proces cu statul (în Ungaria numai 3% dintre păgubiţi au mers în instanţă) şi, în al doilea rând, statul returnează banii fără a plăti dobânzi şi penalităţi.

Deşi procedura de neîndeplinire a obligaţiilor a fost declanşată de Comisie printr-o scrisoare de somare, noul guvern al României s-a decis să rămână de partea prietenilor politici din industria auto şi să ignore acest preaviz, la fel cum ignoră şi corul de cetăţeni români revoltaţi de limitarea opţiunilor lor de a cumpăra de pe piaţa europeană. Guvernul României ignoră avertismentele Comisiei şi riscă un proces în faţa Curţii Europene de Justiţie. Doamnelor şi domnilor, aceste situaţii sunt anormale, iar Parlamentul European trebuie să transmită acestor guverne un mesaj ferm, în sensul că guvernul trebuie să pună în aplicare obligaţiile asumate în procesul de aderare.

  Umberto Guidoni (GUE/NGL). – (IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the US authorities have released the known terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, who has publicly admitted his guilt for the November 1997 attack which cost the life of Fabio Di Celmo, a European citizen. Carriles is known to have been responsible for the attack that cost the lives of 73 people on board a civil aircraft.

In the ruling setting him free, Judge Kathleen Cardone acknowledged Carriles’s part in some of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. Why, then, can such a terrorist walk free in the United States? We must protest against the Bush Administration, which has once again demonstrated double standards in the fight against terrorism.

  Małgorzata Handzlik (PPE-DE). – (PL) Mr President, there is an ongoing debate on health services in Parliament, notably in the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection. These services were excluded from the scope of the Services Directive because of their specific nature. A debate is to be held at the committee’s sitting this evening on whether it is appropriate to support a proposal to draw up a draft European Commission directive on the matter.

I am totally opposed to such a move for many reasons. One of these is that health services are part of the responsibility of individual Member States and the European Union has no mandate to regulate them. There is therefore no basis in the Treaty on which to found the call for a draft directive.

Instead of proposing more legislative acts we should focus on solutions that already exist in the market. I could mention improving cooperation and the transfer of information between countries, facilitating patient mobility, and as a last resort, the implementation of infringement procedures. I believe this is a much better and above all a more effective solution than proposing more directives.

  Tatjana Ždanoka (Verts/ALE). – Mr President, I should like to draw your attention to the scandalous process due to start in Tallinn in two days. The Estonian authorities are preparing to remove from the city centre the graves of soldiers who died in battle liberating Tallinn from the fascist occupiers in September 1944 and the monument to those soldiers. Exonerating those Estonians who fought on the Nazi side during World War II while ignoring the heroism of those who sacrificed their lives in order to defeat Hitler and his local allies is a part of present-day state politics. Unfortunately, a similar policy is being applied in my country, Latvia.

I am protesting against such dangerous politics, not only personally but also on behalf of a group of 37 representatives of Russian speakers, Jews and the Russian media from 15 EU Member States – including Estonia – which is visiting Parliament today.

IN THE CHAIR: MR MAURO
Vice-President

  President. That concludes the item.