Verbatim report of proceedings

Wednesday, 1 February 2012 - Brussels

19. One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

  President. - The next item is the one-minute speeches on important political questions.

  Eduard Kukan (PPE). - (SK) Mr President, the EU is based on common values, rights and duties, and on respect for these. It was created with this idea in mind, and can continue to function only with this idea. Hungary is from this perspective an important partner for us, often proving its indisputable place in the European family. It is therefore important to have no doubt about this, even today.

We are currently holding talks with Hungary on technical details relating to the independence of the national bank and the judiciary, as well as the attitude to values that are clearly defined in the EU treaties. These include, first and foremost, respect for the principles of democracy, human rights and freedom. No strong popular government can afford to underestimate these values. I firmly believe that it is our common interest to continue having a strong and reliable partner in Hungary, respecting the values that unite us. I believe that Hungary shares a similar interest.

  Cătălin Sorin Ivan (S&D). – (RO) Mr President, I wish to highlight that two extremely important treaties are currently being discussed: the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and the Stability Treaty. Both these treaties have a far-reaching impact on people’s lives. They involve very tough rules and measures which will be taken in the future and will affect European citizens’ private lives, as well as their workplace and standard of living. There are countries in the European Union where these treaties have not been subject to any kind of public debate at all. There are state presidents who have not discussed either treaty even once in their national parliaments. For example, no one in Romania knows what ACTA stands for or what the Stability Treaty means. This is not democracy, and if we want to exit the crisis and have a united, powerful Europe, we must defend democratic values.

  Izaskun Bilbao Barandica (ALDE). – (ES) Mr President, between the 1960s and 1980s, thousands of babies were stolen in Spain. The motive was financial. Many mothers were given the tragic, false news that the son or daughter they had just given birth to had died. A death certificate was issued and a pretend burial was held, but in fact those babies were kidnapped and sold.

In the Basque Country alone there may be as many as 600 cases, leading to 200 legal investigations. So far three graves have been opened – they were all empty. These crimes could only have been committed by means of an official, organised plot.

Until just a few months ago, there was silence on this issue. All formal complaints were shelved. The group SOS Bebés Robados [‘SOS Stolen Babies’] is raising awareness of this problem. It is made up of victims who are looking for their sons and daughters, and demanding justice and compensation.

Those who are responsible for what took place committed a criminal offence and created thousands of personal tragedies that cannot be undone, because they affect parents, children and adoptive families.

That is why I would ask you to show involvement, support and sensitivity. If the European institutions keep a close watch over this obscure subject, it will help to fully bring the matter to light.

  João Ferreira (GUE/NGL). – (PT) Mr President, the Eurostat unemployment figures that have just been published are an indictment of the EU and its policies. In Portugal, overall unemployment has already hit 14%. It is 31% among young people, something that has not been seen in 38 years of democracy.

These figures show the tragic consequences of the aggressive programme carried out by the IMF and the EU: more recession, more unemployment, the steep rise in the cost of living, attacks on public services such as healthcare and transport, the takeover of strategic sectors of the country’s economy, more inequality and more poverty.

These figures and facts give the lie to the empty rhetoric of growth and employment that came out of the last meeting of the Council. At the same time, foreign debt, which is used to justify this sordid programme, will grow in 2012, subjecting the country to stock jobbing and the predation of its resources by way of interest on the debt. This path can only lead to disaster. Disaster can be avoided by a change in policy. That is increasingly what they are calling for in Portugal and throughout Europe.

  Zbigniew Ziobro (EFD). – (PL) Mr President, on 18 November, I tabled a question to the European Commission on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. This is a subject which is extremely important and which has been the cause of a great deal of emotion and controversy in public debate in many of the European Union’s Member States, including in my country of Poland. Amongst other things, I asked if ACTA is consistent with fundamental rights, with the fundamental legal measures and standards of the European Union. On 5 January, I received a reply from the Commissioner, Mr De Gucht, on behalf of the Commission, in which he wrote that yes, ACTA is in line with the relevant European Union legislation, and also that it complies with the general – and I quote – principles of EU law and now also with the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. However, on 24 November 2011 the Court of Justice of the European Union handed down a judgment which ruled to my surprise that the situation is completely different, and that in fact ACTA does in one respect violate fundamental human rights and the rights guaranteed by the European Union. The matter therefore requires urgent explanation.

  Czesław Adam Siekierski (PPE). – (PL) Mr President, the year 2012 is exceptionally full of different important events in the European Union. Signing of the budget package which has just been agreed is planned for March. Other anti-crisis measures are also going to be continued. In addition, work on the Union’s Multiannual Financial Framework for 2014-2020 is entering a crucial phase.

This year, too, we mark the 50th anniversary of the operation of the common agricultural policy. It was one of the first policies to have an exceptionally large share in the Union’s budget, but its purpose, based on the Treaties of Rome, was also exceptionally important: to ensure the supply of a sufficient amount of food at reasonable prices, and also to guarantee reasonable incomes for farmers. During and after the war, Europe was affected by hunger, so the problem of nutrition became an exceptionally important objective of the Union’s work. The 50 years of experience with the common agricultural policy have been exceptionally fruitful. This year they are sure to be the subject of a number of conferences and a major information campaign, and the lessons which have been drawn from those years will help produce a correct prediction of how the common agricultural policy will operate in the years 2014-2020.

  Ricardo Cortés Lastra (S&D). – (ES) Mr President, the management of the multinational company Teka has announced that it will take action to terminate the employment of 198 workers at its factory in Cajo, Santander (Cantabria), a region that is already greatly affected by the growing unemployment of recent months.

This measure will also affect 400 related jobs with subsidiary companies that are also located in the region.

Teka does not have sufficient economic reasons to have taken this decision. Behind the move is the plain and simple fact that the company is relocating outside the European Union.

I would therefore call on the European Commission to demand that the Government of Cantabria and the Government of Spain make a greater commitment to the workers in our region by seeking an end solution to this social conflict and therefore examining all the options at European level, such as making the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund available to it.

Europe cannot afford any more unemployed workers, and I would particularly like to ask the President of the Government of Cantabria, who, in his election manifesto, promised to take care of the companies that were already established in his Autonomous Community, to do just that and turn his words into actions. The Teka employees are a priority for the industrial fabric of our region.

  Marian Harkin (ALDE). - Mr President, in Ireland we are told to keep the rules of the new fiscal treaty, as it will eliminate any risk of future crisis and will help solve the current one. From 2002 to 2008 Ireland did not once break the Stability and Growth Pact – unlike others. So we know from bitter experience that keeping to the rules does not always deliver and certainly will not deal with the current crisis. In 2007 we had a debt-to-GNP ratio of 30%. By 2014 it will have ballooned to 145%. No developed economy can survive those levels of debt.

We have just survived four years of austerity. Our debt levels, directly linked to bailing out banks in Ireland and in Europe, are unsustainable, and yet we are told that more of the same, without any commitment to Eurobonds, to redemption funds or debt restructuring, will solve our problems. It will not and it cannot, and given that our access to the ESM is tied to ratification of the Treaty, this is little short of blackmail. Those are the hardest words I have ever said in this Parliament. I hope I never have to repeat them. Europe can do much better than that for itself and for Ireland.

  Miguel Portas (GUE/NGL). – (PT) Mr President, now that Berlin has imposed a technocrat as Prime Minster of Greece, do you think that the country also needs a European Minister of Finance on top of that? Does Chancellor Merkel not know that the worst thing you can do to a people is to humiliate them, forcing them to crawl?

Mr President, there was a joke in the Soviet Union in Brezhnev’s time: the train of the revolution had lost its locomotive and the party, instead of fixing it, was asking the passengers to jump off. Of course, the train was just vibrating rather than moving, but the leaders, or rather elders, of that country only knew how to make believe. The same can be said of the current leaders of the EU. Time and again, they persist with the same formula, despite the failure of its results.

One day this will change. One day jobs will matter more than the markets. One day we will stop pretending.

  Georgios Papanikolaou (PPE). – (EL) Mr President, there is no need to remind you how critical the next few days – or even the next few hours – will be in terms of dealing once and for all with the Greek debt crisis. However, I should remind you that, in these difficult times, we must all do whatever we can to address this crisis. That, in my opinion, also applies to the European Central Bank, which should make a move that would reduce Greece’s public debt crisis by EUR 10 billion, by accepting a haircut on the bonds which it holds. I am not asking Mr Draghi to allow the European Central Bank to sustain losses. What I am asking is simply that it should forego a profit because the European Central Bank bought Greek bonds on the secondary market at approximately 75% of their value and is expecting to be paid 100% when they mature. Surely there is no other term for that except making a profit?

  Inés Ayala Sender (S&D). – (ES) Mr President, Spainair has gone bankrupt over the last few days, leaving 2 000 employees desperate and abandoned from one day to the next while 22 000 passengers have also been affected with no compensation or information, all of them victims of poor, irresponsible management by employers who have grown used to living off public money and not managing it properly. These people are also the victims of conflicts between airline companies and of an aid scheme that is criticised for being inefficient; the European Commission has even been blamed for this.

However, we would point out that, back in 2009, we requested legislative measures from the Commission specifically in order to lessen the impact of airline company bankruptcy and to resolve the total lack of protection for passengers and consumers, as well as the lack of procedures for protecting workers left in this situation.

Commissioner, we need a legislative proposal rather than exclusively voluntary procedures, and we need it immediately so as to be able to protect passengers and workers.

  Cristian Silviu Buşoi (ALDE) . – (RO) Mr President, many Romanians have been out on the streets since 12 January. They are European citizens like we all are, including those of us in this Chamber, and the European Parliament cannot continue to turn a deaf ear to their calls. They are citizens who want to live in a European country where elections are not held concurrently simply for the benefit of the parties in power. They want to live in a European country where the territorial administrative structure is not changed without any referendum or consultation, in a European country where laws are not adopted without any parliamentary debate, in contempt for political pluralism, and in a European country where the health-care system is not changed over night and where more than 1% of GDP is not cut from salaries to increase the expenditure on goods and services by a similar amount. They are European citizens who want to go to the polls as soon as possible to be able to bring about change.

  Willy Meyer (GUE/NGL). – (ES) Mr President, I wish to draw attention to what is happening on account of the policy to cut public spending in some EU Member States, specifically in my own country, Spain.

In Spain, both the central government and some autonomous communities are making drastic cuts in public spending on health and education, and this is causing an extremely serious deterioration in the public health and education systems, triggering the privatisation of those services. This is unacceptable.

As an example of this, in a small local district – although not that small – called Hospitalet de Llobregat, in Catalonia, attempts are being made to close the primary healthcare centre, which has led the citizens of the town to take action; they have locked themselves inside for the past 97 days in order to prevent the closure of the Bellevitge health centre.

This is a powerful symbol: the people are taking action to defend something that belongs to them – quality public health and education services.

  Rareş-Lucian Niculescu (PPE). – (RO) Mr President, I was deeply shocked when I saw a drawing in the morning press, a racist, xenophobic cartoon actually produced and published by a French politician who is a member of the National Front and a candidate in the parliamentary elections. It insults the Romanian people in an unacceptable and indecent way by using a statement which I find difficult to repeat. This politician says: ‘Watch out for the Father Christmas from Romania who comes into your house by the door and leaves with the TV.’ Mr Poncet is making an unacceptable generalisation, insulting a hard-working, well-educated people who have always been supportive of France and of the values which France represents. The leadership of the French National Front criticised this political message, and I also expect our three colleagues belonging to the National Front to do likewise.

  Corina Creţu (S&D). – (RO) Mr President, the political situation in Romania is going through a period of crisis where the democratic foundations of the rule of law are under attack. The situation has deteriorated in the last three years to the point where citizens have taken to the streets, as has already been mentioned in this House, in a series of protests which have been unprecedented in the last two decades. The current administration has governed badly, violated civil liberties, caused much social suffering, sidelined fundamental institutions, such as parliament, attempted to abolish political pluralism and invented parliamentary parties to support the government, but which have never received any endorsement at the ballot box. In these circumstances, the opposition has decided today to adopt a more radical form of political action by refusing to participate in parliamentary proceedings, thereby trying to ensure respect for dignity and constitutional rights. We also call for a return to a democratic and civilised form of behaviour, in keeping with European political values.

  Kristiina Ojuland (ALDE). - Mr President, the European Parliament came under cyber attack by Anonymous last week after the EU had signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in Japan. Meanwhile I have received a vast number of messages from EU citizens and beyond, who were concerned about their rights.

I find it bizarre that the EU and 22 of its Member States signed ACTA before addressing the concerns of the citizens in an appropriate transparent manner, as democracies should. Therefore, I call on the Commission and the Member States to increase efforts to communicate ACTA to citizens and to seek their consent when it is ratified. The EU and the national governments have to reassure citizens that ACTA will not violate the fundamental rights to freedom of expression and privacy.

  Csaba Sógor (PPE). – (HU) Mr President, the new basic law of Hungary has received much criticism both from the press and within the walls of Parliament. Many have voiced serious accusations against the Hungarian Government. I will not go into the details as many have already elaborated on them before me. Those expressing such criticism are often unfamiliar with the conditions, laws and everyday life in Hungary.

As a representative of the Hungarian minority of Romania I have been closely following the internal politics of not only Hungary, but also Romania, Slovakia and even Serbia.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you are concerned about human and minority rights, I would like to bring to your attention the state law that is still in force in Slovakia and the fact that people are being stripped of their citizenship even though this is prohibited under the effective Slovak constitution.

I would also like to draw your attention to the Slovak language law, and also to Romania, where the provisions of the education law in force are being grossly disregarded when it comes to the establishment of minority university faculties. When you express your concerns about the application of the rule of law, please do so in a credible manner and avoid even the appearance of your being interested only in the activities of the government of a single country.

  Elena Băsescu (PPE). – (RO) Mr President, I would like to draw your attention to a tragic incident that seems to have gone unnoticed in Brussels, which took place on 1 January in the separatist Transnistria region. A Moldovan citizen, Vadim Pisari, just 18 years of age, was killed at the Vadul lui Vodă checkpoint by a Russian soldier from the peacekeeping troops. This event has stunned the whole community and stirred a feeling of insecurity among them. This tragedy reminds us that there is still an unresolved conflict on the European Union’s doorstep, and failure to resolve it is delaying the Republic of Moldova’s move towards the European Union. The Romanian-speaking population in Transnistria is being subjected to discrimination and having their human rights blatantly violated. The settlement of the Transnistria conflict requires the peacekeeping mission to be turned into a civilian one, with an international mandate. I call on the EU to take a more robust approach to clarifying the situation.

  Silvia-Adriana Ţicău (S&D). – (RO) Mr President, the intergovernmental agreement signed by 25 Member States on 30 January is a commitment to tightening fiscal discipline. We regret the lack of just as strong a commitment to stimulating employment, especially among young people, and to boosting the financing of the economy. Feeling let down by the current government which has caused the number of families at risk of poverty to increase, has the lowest rate of absorption of Structural Funds, and has adopted by assuming responsibility fundamental laws such as the Labour Code, Law on National Education, as well as the Law on Concurrent Elections, which has fortunately been declared unconstitutional, Romanian citizens have decided to express their concern for their future publicly. The popular movements protesting in many Romanian cities over the last three weeks are making one key demand: we want to have confidence in politicians; we want to have confidence in democracy. Just like Romania’s citizens, all European citizens are expecting not only commitments for austerity, but also, in particular, respect for democracy and the chance to contribute to the development of the societies they live in.

  László Tőkés (PPE). – (HU) Mr President, two years ago, Parliament adopted with an overwhelming majority the resolution on a general ban on the use of cyanide mining technologies. Yet the European Commission, showing complete disregard for the fundamental European rule of representative democracy and referring to the national competences of the Member States, is unable to impose a ban on the use of cyanide in mining, and in Romania the authorisation of the Roșia Montană mining investment is proceeding unhindered despite all protests.

On the anniversary of the Tisza river cyanide disaster of 30 January 2000, as one of the rapporteurs of the resolution I call on President Martin Schulz to intercede on behalf of Parliament with the Commission and Romania to give effect to the resolution we adopted two years ago. If this plan of gigantic proportions were to be realised the Roșia Montană reservoir, which is forty times the size of the Baia Mare slurry reservoir, would represent a virtual ecological atomic bomb.

  Daciana Octavia Sârbu (S&D). – (RO) Mr President, at the moment the temperature in Bucharest is close to -20°C. Yet people are continuing to protest in the city centre, just as they have been doing for well over two weeks. The same is also happening in other cities in the country. These people are putting their health at risk because they have had enough of being humiliated and misled by those who govern them. They are all in despair, not only because their right to have a decent life in their country, Romania, is banned, but also because the political authorities are showing them contempt, ignoring and disregarding them. Their despair is only surpassed by the persistence they are showing in continuing their protest. More than 90% of Romanians want the president and the government to go. However, the regime is resorting to extremely antidemocratic actions, such as the attempt to postpone and hold concurrent elections and the amendment to the electoral law, thereby challenging not only the rules of democracy but also the people whose dissatisfaction is growing and who are demanding their country back.

  Anna Záborská (PPE). - (SK) Mr President, it is with great sorrow that I must inform the European Parliament of the death several days ago of Baroness de Vos van Steenwijk. Baroness de Vos was Dutch, and for many decades she was the Honorary President of the International Movement ATD Fourth World. She initiated the founding of the Institute for Social Research, which supported the fight against extreme poverty in the emerging European community.

Baroness de Vos went on to forge lasting relationships with the UN. It is thanks to her initiative that we have a special UN rapporteur for extreme poverty and human rights. After the first elections to the European Parliament, she encouraged the creation of the ATD Fourth World committee, at a time when intergroups did not yet exist.

I hope that her political views and activities in the ATD Fourth World family will move our consciences, making us aware at all levels of decision-making that extreme poverty is a violation of human rights, both in the EU and across the world. That is a challenge for all of us.

  Claudiu Ciprian Tănăsescu (S&D). – (RO) Mr President, the public debate which took place yesterday in the European Parliament about the serious deviations from democracy in Romania under the Băsescu–Boc administration has aroused increased interest among Romanians in the country and from the diaspora, as well as among many foreign citizens and fellow MEPs from different European Union Member States.

Although this event was organised by the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament and the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) was also present in the hall, being represented by several Romanian MEPs belonging to the party currently in power in Romania. The latter’s only involvement was restricted to their convoluted efforts to hamper the smooth running of proceedings and lower the level of debate, by using tactics that are very familiar to Romanians, in an attempt to distract attention towards trivial matters and topics completely unrelated to the content of the debates.

However, once again, the European Parliament proved to be a forum where such behaviour is not tolerated, with the audience immediately taking action against such troublemakers by openly showing their disapproval.

I wish to take this opportunity to thank fellow foreign MEPs and Romanian MEPs from my country and the diaspora who attended this event yesterday, and I assure them that Romanians will continue to fight in good faith to bring back a Romania governed democratically, fairly and honestly.

  Seán Kelly (PPE). - Mr President, my subject is safety at sea. Unfortunately there are always tragedies associated with the sea. Only two weeks ago in my own constituency a fishing trawler sank just as it was coming into the safety of the harbour. Our sympathies go to the families affected, in particular the Irish and Egyptian families.

Also at that time we had the tragedy with the cruise liner off Italy. It was reported widely in the media that what I might call showboating may have been responsible for this. I want to look at the wider picture. Can we establish whether there are practices like this, which are contrary to safety regulations, being undertaken by cruise ships – and maybe others? Also, what is the optimal size of a cruiser? A few years ago the average was one thousand passengers and now it is five thousand.

  Jacek Olgierd Kurski (EFD). – (PL) Mr President, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, is entering the final phase of the legislative process in our Parliament. The fight against counterfeit goods would seem to be a good thing. I do not hide the fact that I myself was one of the first victims of Internet piracy, when a film documentary I had made, the Polish documentary entitled Nocna zmiana, was put on the Internet and was illegally copied thousands of times as long ago as the second half of the 1990s.

I am, however, opposed to ACTA, because by its unclear provisions and its unequal treatment of the parties involved it entails a huge risk of giving rise to oppression in the Internet. This is why thousands of Poland’s young people took to the streets in 80 cities in Poland to protest against ACTA. You see, there was an incident in my country in which eight officers of Poland’s special Internal Security Agency entered the home of an Internet user in order to take control of a small website which had been criticising the public authorities. If the Internal Security Agency, which uses its officers to suppress freedom in the Internet, is given something like ACTA, there is no doubt at all that it will make use of these new powers. So it is imperative to defend freedom in the Internet. We should abandon ACTA. Long live the free Internet!

  Nikolaos Salavrakos (EFD). – (EL) Mr President, I consider that the concepts ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’ are concepts that are used and abused, because we infringe them as easily as we praise them. The representatives of the troika in Greece are demanding that measures be taken that will decimate Greek society, before a new loan is contracted for Greece. They are asking, among other things, for 150 000 civil servants to be made redundant and for private-sector wages and pensions to be cut, by abolishing the minimum wage and collective agreements. These demands conflict with the Charter of Human Rights and constitutional treaties protecting the right to work, which is a basic human right. There is a risk that the social fabric will be dissolved and of destabilisation in Greece. As regards the recent stand taken by the Greek Government, may I assure you that not only is it inapplicable; more to the point, it is an insult to the Greeks. The crisis will be over one day and, once it is over, we need to be able to look each other in the eye.

  President. - The item is hereby closed.