Rapporti verbatim tad-dibattiti

Il-Ħamis, 9 ta' Ġunju 2022 - Strasburgu

10.5. Strument kummerċjali ġdid biex jiġu pprojbiti l-prodotti magħmula bix-xogħol furzat (B9-0291/2022)

Mündliche Stimmerklärungen

  Eugen Tomac (PPE). – Domnule președinte, îl felicit pe raportor și Parlamentul pentru că am purtat această discuție importantă. Este esențial să avem un nou instrument comercial pentru a interzice produsele fabricate prin muncă forțată în Uniunea Europeană. Dezvoltarea și profitul economic, ca urmare a abuzului sclaviei sau încălcării drepturilor omului, nu au ce căuta în Uniunea Europeană.

Vreau să atrag atenția că munca forțată, exploatarea copiilor prin muncă sau traficul de ființe umane, sunt, din păcate, realități dure care există în continuare în multe din țările noastre. Tocmai de aceea îi îndemn pe colegii mei ca, împreună cu Comisia, să găsim noi pârghii interne pentru a ne asigura că eradicarea sărăciei și excluziunii sociale merg mână în mână cu abolirea muncii forțate și a traficului de ființe umane.

  Clare Daly (The Left). – Mr President, you know you’re never going to find anyone who’ll would stand up and say, ‘You know what, I’m in favour of forced labour’, but actually it’s everywhere. So why is that?

On the one hand, we have the reality of the most abhorrent forms – debt bondage, trafficking, and other forms of modern slavery. But actually the lines are quite blurred, because you look at situations of poverty and the consequences of capitalism in many societies, leaving people with no choice but to engage in appalling labour practices. This too is forced labour if the alternative is starvation, and we particularly see this in the Global South in relation to the unleashing of raw materials for the digital economy.

And I think it is incumbent on us to deal with this issue in a proper way, not to instrumentalise it the way we do, and the way we did in this plenary in dealing with the issue of the Uyghurs in China, where the very good work done by the UN High Representative in visiting the People’s Republic of China and discussing these issues with the Chinese authorities was undermined and debased for geopolitical reasons.

  Mick Wallace (The Left). – Mr President, of course we should legislate to stop all forced labour. But how many times have we had to listen to accusations about China, backed up by nothing more than the say—so of weapons—industry—funded think tanks and groups on the payroll of CIA cut—outs like the National Endowment for Democracy? Where are the full and rigorous investigations, the evidence? Screaming, unsupported accusations is not how to conduct international relations.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has just visited Xinjiang, has had discussions with many groups and representatives there, and hopes this is the start of a fruitful process towards transparency and high human rights standards in China.

For this stance, which shows goodwill and respect, some of the most rabid anti-China voices have called for the High Commissioner to step down. These are McCarthyite smear tactics, which expose the racist and fanatic ideology driving the groups making these claims. We have clear evidence of widespread slave labour in the world’s largest prison system in the world’s most repressive police state, the United States of America. Can we start talking about them?

  Der Präsident. – Damit ist dieser Tagesordnungspunkt geschlossen.