<CHAPTER ID="1">
<SPEAKER ID="1" LANGUAGE="" NAME="" AFFILIATION="President">
<SPEAKER ID="2" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   I declare resumed the session of the European Parliament adjourned on Thursday 29 September 2005.
<SPEAKER ID="3" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="(The House stood and observed a minute’s silence)">
<P>
   Ladies and gentlemen, today we are sharing in the pain of the families of the many victims of the natural disasters that took place last week: a terrible earthquake in south Asia and Hurricane Stan in Central America.
<P>
The earthquake, which has struck Pakistan, the north of India and Afghanistan, has led to thousands of deaths, many injured and immense material losses.
The damage has been greatest in Kashmir in particular.
<P>
A great tragedy has struck Central America.
Hurricane Stan passed through several countries in the region, caused huge material damage and irreparable human losses.
The consequences are difficult to overcome, and will continue to be so for a long time to come.
<P>
On behalf of the European Parliament, our President, Josep Borrell, immediately expressed our solidarity and our sympathies to the authorities of the countries affected by these tragedies.
<P>
The European Union has acted quickly, mobilising and offering emergency aid to the affected regions and their inhabitants.
We shall have to consider how we are going to contribute to the reconstruction effort in the regions that have been struck by these disasters in cooperation with the governments of the countries affected.
<P>
We in the European Parliament wish to express our solidarity, our love and our support to the families and victims in Asia and Central America.
We stand beside them at this extremely hard and difficult time.
<P>
I would now like to ask you, ladies and gentlemen, to observe a minute’s silence in memory of these people who have been taken away from us forever by the cruel forces of nature.
<SPEAKER ID="4" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="(The House stood and observed a minute’s silence)">
<P>
   It is also my sad duty to inform you of the death on 8 October of our fellow Member, Jürgen Zimmerling.
<P>
As you know, Mr Zimmerling was a Member of our Parliament during the last term in office and had been sitting once again on behalf of the Group of the European Peoples’ Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats since last July.
He was a Member of the Committee on Development and of the Delegation for Relations with the Gulf States, including Yemen.
<P>
It is now my painful duty to ask you to observe a minute’s silence in memory of our esteemed colleague, who has passed away serving Europe and the ideals that we all share.
<SPEAKER ID="5" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   The final version of the draft agenda for the present part-session as drawn up by the Conference of Presidents at its meeting of 26 September pursuant to Rules 130 and 131 of the Rules of Procedure has been distributed.
<SPEAKER ID="6" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Martin Schulz (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="(Applause)">
<P>
   Mr President, I have a motion in relation to the agenda.
On behalf of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, I move that the Commission should, in the course of this part-session, make a statement on its position in relation to the European social model, and we move that this statement be delivered jointly by Commissioner McCreevy and Mr Barroso, the Commission’s President.
<P>
By way of justification for this, let me say that, unless we have been misinformed, Commissioner McCreevy, in Sweden, gave the world the benefit of his views on the European Social Model, stating that the Scandinavian model of the European welfare state is not one that the Commission regards as compatible with the European internal market.
If that is what the Commission thinks, then they can reckon with determined resistance from the Socialist Group in the European Parliament.
<P>
I now gather that they can count on resistance from other groups, the Greens among them, and we are very glad to hear it.
<P>
When it comes to fashioning a social Europe, the Scandinavian model is one of the fundamentals on which we Europeans can rely, and so it is quite utterly unacceptable that the President of the Commission should assert to this House in every one of its sittings that he defends the European Social Model and then goes on to allow his Commissioners to go about saying the very opposite.
That is not on!
<P>
Our group therefore asks that the Commission should make this statement.
The summit at which the European Social Model is to be considered is now only a few days away. If it is to turn out to be the social model favoured by Commissioner McCreevy, then I can tell you on behalf of the Socialist Group in this House that the Commission had better prepare for stormy weather, for there will then be a fight about the direction that this European Union of ours is to take, and you can take it from me that it will not be going Mr McCreevy’s way!
We demand that the Commission should not delay in clearly stating where it stands on this.
<SPEAKER ID="7" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   In accordance with the Rules of Procedure, one Member may now speak against.
<SPEAKER ID="8" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Hans-Gert Poettering (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="(Applause)">
<P>
   Mr President, I have to say that I am now rather surprised.
Having considered this matter, our group has come to the conclusion that, if a member of the Commission makes a statement, this House is entitled to hear him, irrespective of the qualitative judgment that might be made about what he said.
We are insistent that this matter should be clarified, and so our group has decided that Commissioner McCreevy should clarify his position before this House.
<P>
I can tell Mr Schulz that it is for this reason that we are in favour of Commissioner McCreevy appearing, but I also ask that things should not be taken too far right now.
We do not regard this as an occasion for requiring the President of the Commission to appear before us; instead, we want to hear Commissioner McCreevy first.
If what he has to say to us proves to be unacceptable, then we can move on to call the President of the Commission before the House, but we support this only on the assumption that it will be Mr McCreevy who will be the first to explain himself to this House.
<SPEAKER ID="9" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   I believe that, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure, we should hear one opinion in favour of the motion presented by Mr Schulz and one opinion against.
<P>
Nevertheless, since the presidents of the different groups have requested the floor, I shall interpret the rules flexibly, but I would ask you ― Mr Cohn-Bendit, I would like you to listen to this request in particular ― to restrict yourselves to one minute and to speak extremely concisely.
<SPEAKER ID="10" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Daniel Marc Cohn-Bendit (Verts/ALE ). –" AFFILIATION="(Applause)">
<P>
   Mr President, now that we have a Grand Coalition, we want to make a bit of a crack in it.
We Greens endorse the Social Democrats’ demand that not only Commissioner McCreevy, but also Mr Barroso, should appear before this House.
This is not a circus, and, if Commissioner McCreevy can make that sort of statement at a time when the European Social Model is in place, then it is incumbent to the President of the Commission to say, on its behalf, what is acceptable and what is not.
<SPEAKER ID="11" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Graham Watson (ALDE ). –" AFFILIATION="(Mixed reactions)">
<P>
   Mr President, if this is a sign of things to come from the influence of the events in Berlin on this House, then they will do us no good whatsoever.
Commissioner McCreevy is entitled to his opinions.
What he said in Sweden is perfectly normal.
My group would not support calling Commissioner McCreevy to this House.
<P>
If we are serious about making the European Union work, then we owe each other solidarity.
Solidarity involves allowing companies from the new Member States to bid successfully for work in the existing Member States and carry it out.
That is part of getting our economies working together properly.
That is the reason why my group will oppose calling Commissioner McCreevy to the House.
<SPEAKER ID="12" LANGUAGE="FR" NAME="Francis Wurtz (GUE/NGL ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr President, if I thoroughly support Mr Schulz’s request that Mr McCreevy and the President of the Commission be simultaneously invited to express their opinions, it is because Mr McCreevy can be relied on not to pull his punches.
I think he is used to saying bluntly what a number of his colleagues in the Commission dress up.
For example, Mr McCreevy declared at a conference in London that it must never be forgotten that the single market is far and away the project that goes furthest in terms of deregulating the European Union.
<P>
We therefore want to know whether, when Mr McCreevy expresses his opinion, he in fact says bluntly and without beating about the bush what Mr Barroso does not dare to say in public.
That is why I suggest that, on these issues, they both express their opinions in this Chamber.
<SPEAKER ID="13" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Brian Crowley (UEN ). –" AFFILIATION="(Applause)">
<P>
   Mr President, I totally disagree with Mr Schulz with regard to what Commissioner McCreevy did or did not say, because if you read the 16 different press reports on the incident in Sweden, none of it was related to the Swedish social model.
The only person who mentioned the Swedish social model was the Swedish Minister for Industry.
There is nothing whatsoever in this storm in a teacup that is trying to be wrapped up by the Social Democrats against Commissioner McCreevy.
Indeed, if you want to judge him on his record, then look at his record as Minister of Finance in Ireland concerning the social model, where health care was increased, pensions were increased and the highest minimum wage was introduced under his watch.
In addition, more trade negotiations and more trade union negotiations took place at a national level and, over seven different years, there were four different programmes to guarantee the rights of workers and the right to participation of workers’ representatives.
<P>
This is an opportunist action on behalf of the Socialist Group to try to create a storm before the conference takes place in London.
We should wait to hear what the discussions will be and ensure that we focus our work on real and important issues for European citizens, not pie-in-the-sky attitudes.
I oppose the motion.
<SPEAKER ID="14" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Ladies and gentlemen, we have a formal proposal from Mr Farage.
<SPEAKER ID="15" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Nigel Farage (IND/DEM ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr President, you seem to have forgotten that there is at least one group in this Parliament that is eurosceptic, that opposed the European Constitution and, for good measure, is rather bigger than the UEN Group.
Though not known for being shy in my criticism of this Commission, could I with your permission ask Mrs Sinnott to speak on behalf of our group to give our position?
<SPEAKER ID="16" LANGUAGE="NL" NAME="Ria Oomen-Ruijten (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr President, two proposals have been tabled: one by the Socialist Group in the European Parliament to summon the President of the Commission before this House and one by Mr Poettering from the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) to give Commissioner McCreevy the right to repeat here what he said in Sweden.
That means, therefore, that two proposals should be put to the vote.
Commissioner McCreevy should be entitled, if the statements are false, to put these right here in Parliament.
I appeal to you, Mr President, to have both proposals put to the vote.
<SPEAKER ID="17" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Let us clarify this point so that we can decide on the basis of the true facts.
<P>
Mr Schulz, I understand that you are proposing formally that Commissioner McCreevy and the President of the Commission appear, the two of them.
<P>
Mr Poettering, could you clarify whether the Group of the European Peoples’ Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats is requesting that Mr McCreevy appear?
<SPEAKER ID="18" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Hans-Gert Poettering (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr President, politics is a trial, and we want to remain credible.
Our group has just decided that, if the Social Democrats move that Commissioner McCreevy be invited to appear before the House, we will vote in favour of that.
<P>
Now, though, another motion is before the House, to the effect that the invitation be extended to both Commissioner McCreevy and the President of the Commission.
We will not be voting in favour of that; we will, that is to say, be voting against it.
Although we did not table the motion that Commissioner McCreevy should appear, we do want to be seen to be credible, and so, if this motion, that the President of the Commission should also come, is voted down, you can have a second vote to decide whether Commissioner McCreevy should come on his own.
<P>
As matters stand, we owe it to our own credibility to take this decision.
<SPEAKER ID="19" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr Poettering, are you proposing on behalf of the Group of the European Peoples’ Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats that Mr McCreevy appear or are you proposing that we vote if Mr McCreevy appears?
<SPEAKER ID="20" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Hans-Gert Poettering (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr President, it is perfectly clear that, if the Socialist Group’s motion for both the President of the Commission and Commissioner McCreevy to be invited were to fail, we would then have to vote on whether to invite Commissioner McCreevy on his own.
That is how things stand as regards the vote.
<SPEAKER ID="21" LANGUAGE="" NAME="" AFFILIATION="(The European Parliament approved the proposal)">
<P>
In accordance with the decision of this House, the Presidency will contact the Commission in order to follow up on what this Chamber has decided.
<SPEAKER ID="22" LANGUAGE="NL" NAME="Kathalijne Maria Buitenweg (Verts/ALE ). –" AFFILIATION="Déclarations du Conseil et de la Commission sur l'immigration; situation à Ceuta, Melilla et Lampedusa">
<P>
   Mr President, the name of a specific debate has become the subject of a frenetic internal parliamentary discussion.
This frenetic response is really typical of the way migration, as well as criticism of national governments, is dealt with in the European Union.
<P>
One of the items on today’s agenda is: Current problems regarding immigration.
That is quite a broad subject that makes no specific reference to a name or country, although we all know exactly what this is about.
It is about the human tragedies in Ceuta, Melilla and on Lampedusa.
We should simply call it by its name.
<P>
Initially, most of the groups were in favour of a proposal by the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, who had stated that the debate should be entitled , and which had received the backing of most of the groups.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the Socialist Group has withdrawn support for this and the fog has lifted.
<P>
I want us to take another vote on this title, which should make it much clearer what we are talking about, and I also am relying on the Socialist Group’s honesty with regard to the debate we will be having today.
<SPEAKER ID="23" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="Wednesday:">
<P>
   Ladies and gentlemen, we must now consider some amendments to the agenda for today and tomorrow.
<P>
The first amendment relates to what Mrs Buitenweg has just explained and consists of adding, before the statements by the Council and the Commission on Iran, Council and Commission statements on the current problems in the field of immigration.
<P>
Mrs Buitenweg has just proposed an amendment to the title of this item on the agenda in order to specify certain places where the problem arises.
<SPEAKER ID="24" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Hannes Swoboda (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr President, I wonder whether there might not perhaps have been a misunderstanding.
While it is the case that there are specific examples of it, it is also clear that migration to Europe, being a general and fundamental problem, cannot be solved at the locations to which Mrs Buitenweg has referred.
It is for that reason that we opted for this all-embracing title and are inclined to stick with it.
<SPEAKER ID="25" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   In accordance with the Rules of Procedure, I can allow one Member to speak in favour.
<SPEAKER ID="26" LANGUAGE="FR" NAME="Francis Wurtz (GUE/NGL ). –" AFFILIATION="(Applause)">
<P>
   Mr President, I totally support Mrs Buitenweg’s request, because this is not just any old debate on immigration.
We shall have other such debates, moreover.
The problem is that, this time, men have died.
On this subject, I am sorry that, at the start of the sitting, we did not pay tribute to these innocent victims.
<P>
Extremely serious acts have been committed on both sides of Europe’s southern border, acts so serious that even colleagues who do not see European immigration policy in the same terms as ourselves could, I think, join us in deploring and condemning them.
That is why I fully support changing the title and specifying ‘Ceuta, Melilla’.
<SPEAKER ID="27" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Kathalijne Maria Buitenweg (Verts/ALE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr President, I should also like to make it clear to Mr Swoboda, who wants to have a general debate, that such a debate will take place during the next part-session in Strasbourg, as immigration/migration is on the agenda with the report by Mrs Klamt.
<SPEAKER ID="28" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="(Parliament rejected the proposal)">
<P>
   I would like to make it clear that the proposal is to add the names of specific places to this item on the agenda.
<P>
(1)
<SPEAKER ID="29" LANGUAGE="" NAME="" AFFILIATION="For other amendments of the order of business"/>
<SPEAKER ID="30" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="31" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Douglas Alexander," AFFILIATION="President-in-Office of the Council">
<SPEAKER ID="32" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Ján Figeľ," AFFILIATION="Member of the Commission">
<SPEAKER ID="33" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Ewa Klamt," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the PPE-DE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="34" LANGUAGE="FR" NAME="Martine Roure," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the PSE Group.">
<SPEAKER ID="35" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Graham Watson," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the ALDE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="36" LANGUAGE="NL" NAME="Kathalijne Maria Buitenweg," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="37" LANGUAGE="" NAME="" AFFILIATION="Vice-President">
<SPEAKER ID="38" LANGUAGE="IT" NAME="Giusto Catania," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the GUE/NGL Group">
<SPEAKER ID="39" LANGUAGE="IT" NAME="Mario Borghezio," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the IND/DEM Group">
<SPEAKER ID="40" LANGUAGE="IT" NAME="Romano Maria La Russa," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the UEN Group">
<SPEAKER ID="41" LANGUAGE="NL" NAME="Frank Vanhecke (NI ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="42" LANGUAGE="ES" NAME="Agustín Díaz de Mera García Consuegra (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="do">
<SPEAKER ID="43" LANGUAGE="ES" NAME="Enrique Barón Crespo (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="44" LANGUAGE="ES" NAME="Agustín Díaz de Mera García Consuegra (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr President, I would like you to hear this proposal.
The speaker before me has made serious false comments about me. I would ask for your support and would like to invoke this Parliament’s Rules of Procedure so that I can respond.
<SPEAKER ID="45" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President. –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="46" LANGUAGE="FR" NAME="Jean-Marie Cavada (ALDE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="47" LANGUAGE="FR" NAME="Jean-Claude Martinez (NI ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="48" LANGUAGE="IT" NAME="Stefano Zappalà (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="49" LANGUAGE="IT" NAME="Giovanni Claudio Fava (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="50" LANGUAGE="IT" NAME="Lapo Pistelli (ALDE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="51" LANGUAGE="IT" NAME="Luca Romagnoli (NI ). –" AFFILIATION="primi inter pares">
<SPEAKER ID="52" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Elmar Brok (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="(Applause)">
<SPEAKER ID="53" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Louis Grech (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="54" LANGUAGE="IT" NAME="Antonio Tajani (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="55" LANGUAGE="" NAME="David Casa (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="56" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Douglas Alexander," AFFILIATION="President-in-Office of the Council">
<SPEAKER ID="57" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Ján Figeľ," AFFILIATION="Member of the Commission">
<SPEAKER ID="58" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President. –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="59" LANGUAGE="ES" NAME="Agustín Díaz de Mera García Consuegra (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="60" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President. –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr Barón Crespo, you too have the floor on a personal matter.
We are not going to start a debate on the matter; only on something that concerns you that you wish to clarify.
<SPEAKER ID="61" LANGUAGE="ES" NAME="Enrique Barón Crespo (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr President, a careful look at the Minutes will reveal that I have not referred personally to Mr Díaz de Mera. In any case, I shall not respond to the inappropriate comments he has made; I would simply like to point out to him that there is a correct place to raise his serious and unfounded criticisms of the Spanish Government, which is the Congress of Deputies, in Carrera de San Jerónimo, in Madrid — and I can give Mr Díaz de Mera the address — but our job here is to examine the European institutions, not the Spanish Government.
<SPEAKER ID="62" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President. –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   The debate is closed.
<SPEAKER ID="63" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President. –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="64" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Douglas Alexander," AFFILIATION="President-in-Office of the Council">
<SPEAKER ID="65" LANGUAGE="" NAME="" AFFILIATION="Vice-President">
<SPEAKER ID="66" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Ján Figeľ," AFFILIATION="Member of the Commission">
<SPEAKER ID="67" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Michael Gahler," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the PPE-DE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="68" LANGUAGE="IT" NAME="Pasqualina Napoletano," AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Alexander, Mr Figel’, the decision by the Iranian authorities to suspend negotiations with the three European countries acting as negotiators is worrying.
I would like, however, to state right away and without ambiguity that we rule out any kind of military solution to this crisis.
<P>
On that point, we call on the United States Administration to become involved in these negotiations, as it did with some success in the case of North Korea.
We are, actually, concerned by this difference in the attitude of the United States, partly because many of Iran’s concerns about its own security spring directly from the attitude of the US, its policy in the region and the pressure that is being exerted, partly in military terms, in the military bases located in areas bordering Iran.
<P>
Iran, for its part, must suspend any activity designed to obtain nuclear material for military purposes; it must do so because it has signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, thus also undertaking to apply its Additional Protocol.
We therefore fully support the resolution by the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which mandated its Director General, Dr El Baradei – who has since been deservedly awarded the Nobel Prize for peace – to continue to pursue the path of negotiation.
<P>
We also welcome the European Council’s resolution of 3 October. Our endorsement is not at all a formality, since we believe that this approach is particularly wise.
Indeed, as is well known and as the Iranian authorities are well aware and as Mr Alexander also pointed out, this issue falls within the competence of the United Nations Security Council. The decision not to launch a procedure which could lead to an escalation of the situation is thus a choice which makes the path of negotiation even more persuasive, offering Iran a chance which should not be missed.
<P>
In the interests of greater clarity I should state that Iran, like any country in the world, has the right to equip itself with nuclear capacity for non-military purposes, and that is clear both in the resolution from the International Agency for Atomic Energy and in our resolution.
<P>
I would like to conclude with an appeal to the Council on the issue of human rights, an issue that everyone has alluded to.
In our resolution we referred to the cases mentioned by you, Mr Alexander.
I would like to encourage the Commission and the Council to continue the policy of dialogue, and never to separate human rights issues from trade agreements with Iran.
<SPEAKER ID="69" LANGUAGE="PL" NAME="Janusz Onyszkiewicz," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the ALDE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="70" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Angelika Beer," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group">
<P>
   .
Madam President, Mr Alexander, Commissioner Figeľ, I am obliged to you for what you have said and for giving attention to the issue of human rights, for we all know that peace presupposes human rights and vice versa.
<P>
Our debate today is being held at a time when nobody knows what is going to happen next, so – not least in view of the various resolutions we are to vote on tomorrow – we should argue them through very precisely.
It is the details that will determine whether we in this House meet our responsibility of finding a de-escalation strategy, which I would describe as being about opening up new negotiating options in furtherance of our policy objective of preventing further proliferation of weapons in the Middle East and Iran’s eventual possession of an atom bomb.
<P>
My group sees de-escalation as being achievable, but not – as we have learned from Iraq – by invoking the Security Council.
Our fear is that failure to present a united front to the Security Council will result in escalation, and that the IAEA will no longer be able to do its work in Iran without hindrance, something that we know will end up making military escalation more likely.


<P>
I do not doubt that we agree on the objective, and we must seek ways to keep the doors open, for the people of Iran – the people we are in contact with, the journalists who we know, the human rights organisations, not to mention the Nobel prize-winners – have expectations of us; they also expect us to give diplomacy a chance. On that point, I endorse what Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner said.
We have spoken to them this week; we have to turn our backs on the Security Council and seek political solutions.
<P>
We are worried about human rights for the same reasons.
It is not usual for us to talk constantly about human rights, but the human rights dialogue is one of the things that have been put on ice since President Ahmadinejad was elected, and the human rights situation is getting worse. Teheran has sent official representatives to listen to this debate, and I appeal to them to clarify for our information whether or not Akbar Ganji is still alive, to ensure that he is released at once without conditions, along with his lawyer, who was a guest of this House as recently as July and discussed these issues with us.
That is what our resolution is driving at, and I mean this very seriously. I would be glad of support from the Commission and the Council in achieving this objective.
<SPEAKER ID="71" LANGUAGE="NL" NAME="Erik Meijer," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the GUE/NGL Group">
<SPEAKER ID="72" LANGUAGE="NL" NAME="Bastiaan Belder," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the IND/DEM Group">
<SPEAKER ID="73" LANGUAGE="LV" NAME="Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the UEN Group">
<SPEAKER ID="74" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Hans-Peter Martin (NI ). –" AFFILIATION="force de frappe">
<SPEAKER ID="75" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Jana Hybášková (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="76" LANGUAGE="IT" NAME="Lilli Gruber (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="77" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Nicholson of Winterbourne (ALDE ). –" AFFILIATION="far">
<SPEAKER ID="78" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Bernat Joan i Marí (Verts/ALE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Madam President, I would like to emphasise that I am speaking on my own behalf.
I am not expressing the opinion of my Group.
<P>
In Iran the human rights situation has deteriorated after the new President was ‘elected’.
In particular, the situation of women and young people has worsened considerably. The number of public executions has increased.
The regime has been condemned in the UN for violations of human rights more times than any other country in the world: 51 times.
<P>
All hopes of Iran moving towards moderation have now evaporated.
There are also many reports of the Iranian regime becoming increasingly involved in Iraq in an attempt to set up a sister Islamic state.
Tehran has also decided not to respect any of its agreements with the EU with regard to nuclear programming, including the Paris agreement.
<P>
One of Iran’s main demands concerns the People’s Mujahedin Resistance Movement.
They were put on the terror list about three years ago without any legal basis. Many MEPs in the House as well as the majority in the British, Belgium and Italian Parliaments have called for the removal of the Mujahedin from this list.
We believe the only way to improve democracy in Iran is to support the main opposition.
<SPEAKER ID="79" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Gerard Batten (IND/DEM ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Madam President, we have heard about two key issues regarding Iran: its programme to develop nuclear weapons and its record on human rights.
However, a third factor is becoming apparent: Iran’s role in training and equipping insurgents in Iraq who are not only killing British and American soldiers, but also working to ensure that Iraq’s painful transformation to a democratic state is unsuccessful.
<P>
If Iraq does not successfully transform into a democratic state, then the whole region will be destabilised.
Mr Figeľ had nothing much to say except to offer more of the process of proffered dialogue and cooperation. As the British Government has discovered over the last few years, this approach has so far not yielded much success.
<P>
The seriousness of the situation and the difficulty in resolving it peacefully cannot be overstated, but it will not be solved by the European Union.
Once again the EU presumes to take on the attributes of a political state. The serious situation posed by Iran must be addressed by the properly constituted sovereign states working within the properly constituted international institutions.
<P>
If the EU successfully develops its European defence identity – that is, an EU military force – and if Turkey becomes a member of the EU, then a militarised EU will share a border not only with Iran, but also with Iraq and Syria. If the current situation is alarming, then just imagine that one.
<SPEAKER ID="80" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Karl von Wogau (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, on 1 August, in Isfahan, Iran resumed its recycling of nuclear fuel, which constituted an unambiguous breach of the Paris Agreement.
The IAEA’s Board of Governors stated on 24 September that past experience had led it to have no confidence that Iran’s nuclear programme was for peaceful purposes only.
<P>
What does that mean?
It surely means that it is not just our relations with Iran that are at stake, but also the future of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the dangers that result from more and more regimes getting their hands on nuclear weapons.
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.
<P>
One cannot fail to get the impression that Iran is using the European Union as a means of buying time for its programme.
It would also appear that Iran is working on the assumption that the European Union will, in future, still not have the capacity for joint action – something that was lamentably apparent to us from our experience with Iraq.
<P>
I am convinced that this is not the time for sympathetic resolutions and friendly visits; instead, we must present a united front in order to make it plain to Iran that it is harming itself by persisting on this perilous course.
<SPEAKER ID="81" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Richard Howitt (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Madam President, the situation in Iran is on a knife edge.
However, let me start by making it clear, including to the last-but-one speaker, that we would not be where we are today without the painstaking work of the ‘EU-3’.
<P>
Members across this House have called for a stronger, more decisive European foreign policy.
Our negotiations with Iran have represented just such an example of what we can do when we work together.
That is why it is right that today’s resolution calls for renewed negotiations, seeks to engage third countries internationally in support of our efforts and not as an alternative to them, and should be within the framework of the Paris agreement of last November.

In that context I am proud that the British Foreign Secretary said on 28 September ‘there is no question of us going to war against Iran, this can only be resolved by diplomatic means and by diplomatic pressure’.
<P>
Today’s resolution is also right in saying that the breaking-off of the EU’s human rights dialogue with Iran should be treated as seriously as the breakdown of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme.
Indeed, Tehran seeks to justify the arrest of human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani by labelling him as a nuclear spy.
Whilst Mr ElBaradei should be warmly congratulated for his Nobel Peace Prize, let us not forget today the former Nobel Prize winner, Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, who is currently in receipt of personal threats against her because of her work. The political and human rights issues are intertwined and again I welcome the assurances given this afternoon by the President-in-Office in this respect.
<P>
Finally, this morning further evidence came forward of the possible involvement of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in providing armour-piercing infra-red bomb technology to insurgents in Iraq.
Whilst I cannot attest to these claims with certainty, when eight soldiers from my own country, the UK, have been killed in Iraq in the last five months it is right that Europe does its utmost to dissuade Iran from the proliferation of civil as well as nuclear weapons.
<SPEAKER ID="82" LANGUAGE="EL" NAME="Georgios Karatzaferis (IND/DEM )." AFFILIATION="">
<P>

   – Madam President, the question is, what do we want: do we want a new Iraq in Iran?



<P>
We should not adopt an aggressive resolution which might be used as an alibi by the Americans for a unilateral invasion of Iran. I worry about seeing more innocent victims, as in Madrid and London.
I do not want to see oil go back up to USD 70 and 100. So we have to proceed down another path: .
To dispel Iran's fears.
To reduce its intolerance and to disarm its fanaticism. Fanaticism is worse than a nuclear bomb.
<P>
Deng Xiaoping said, never corner a cat, always leave it a way out. We are cornering the cat.
I do not want the cat at my throat, I do not want the cat at Europe's throat.
<P>
What the Americans want is irrational.
The United States is asking us to put Islam in Europe with Turkey and are asking us to fight Islam in the person of Persia. Let us at long last follow a clearly European policy.
<SPEAKER ID="83" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Charles Tannock (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="84" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Józef Pinior (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="(PL) ">
<SPEAKER ID="85" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Vytautas Landsbergis (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Madam President, the statements by the Council and the Commission, as well Parliament’s resolution, reflect another failure of the Union’s policies. The joint resolution carefully presents a line of justifications for Iran’s nuclear programme.
At the same time, the well-known ultimate goal of the Iranian Government is already not a distant one.
<P>
We must state clearly that there is a real danger as the terrorist and terrorist-supporting fundamentalist state is going to obtain nuclear weaponry by ‘confusing and deceiving stupid Europeans’, as it was openly described in July 2005 by the head of Iran’s nuclear programme.


<P>
If the European Parliament marginalises this great danger to international peace and to the future of democracies, this Parliament will marginalise itself.
Paradoxically, the only effective opposition to the rulers of the terrorist state was put on the terrorist list and persecuted in Europe.
If the Mujahideen movement were taken off this list, it would be a real and sound European policy.
<P>
I now turn to the resolution.
Special pro-Iranian and American warning points, as stated in Amendment 12, if adopted, would be politically unwise and counter-productive. Two amendments – the first and fourth – introduce the clause about the Security Council, which is to be supported.
Possible opposition to it should be explained as a service for Russia, in order to prevent it from an unpleasant veto in the Security Council. I do not understand why the European Union should lose face in order to save Russia’s.
In the event of such a veto, we would realise how strategically reliable our alleged strategic partner really is.
If Amendment 1 is rejected, the whole resolution has no sense but prevailing surrender.
<SPEAKER ID="86" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Helmut Kuhne (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="87" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Douglas Alexander," AFFILIATION="President-in-Office of the Council">
<SPEAKER ID="88" LANGUAGE="SK" NAME="Ján Figeľ," AFFILIATION="Member of the Commission">
<P>
   . First, I would like to thank the distinguished MEPs for their well-considered views, the great majority of which express not only support for a common approach to the nuclear question and observation of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, but which also touch very seriously upon the issues of human rights and support for dialogue with the emerging civil society in Iran.
<P>
Secondly, I would like to express my appreciation for the extensive draft resolution, which bears witness to the great amount of work done by the political groups, and which, in fact, constitutes an expression of support for the balanced, considered and responsible strategy towards Iran that we are pursuing.
<P>
Thirdly, I would like to express a wish for continuing constructive and effective unity among EU Member States, European institutions and the international community in this agenda, which is sure to bring positive results sooner or later.
<SPEAKER ID="89" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="90" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="91" LANGUAGE="SK" NAME="Zita Pleštinská (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="92" LANGUAGE="" NAME="" AFFILIATION="Vice-President">
<SPEAKER ID="93" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Neena Gill (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="94" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="95" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Marios Matsakis (ALDE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr President, avian flu is once again knocking on Europe’s door. The cases of highly suspect mass poultry deaths reported in Romania and Turkey are very worrying.
The fear of a global avian flu epidemic is real. Extensive plans on how to cope with this threat are being drawn up by all responsible European governments and by the Commission.
<P>
Unfortunately, the Turkish Government does not appear to be taking this problem seriously.
This has been clearly demonstrated in two instances.
Firstly, EU officials reported that the results of important tests were delayed and are still awaited because Turkey was late in sending samples to the appropriate laboratory.
Secondly, in a public statement yesterday, the Turkish Minister of Agriculture declared that ‘there is no reason for concern’.
<P>

Mr President, could you convey to the Turkish Government our deep concern at the complacent and irresponsible way in which the authorities in that candidate member country seem to be dealing with this extremely serious matter?
In addition, could you stress to the Commission that we expect drastic action to be taken in order to prevent this disease spreading from Turkey into other neighbouring countries?
<SPEAKER ID="96" LANGUAGE="PL" NAME="Andrzej Tomasz Zapałowski (IND/DEM ). –" AFFILIATION="status quo">
<SPEAKER ID="97" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="98" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Nigel Farage (IND/DEM ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="99" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<P>






   I should just like to report that national parliaments meeting under COSAC on Monday resolved that the Council should meet in public, so you have support there too, Mr Farage.


<SPEAKER ID="100" LANGUAGE="LT" NAME="Laima Liucija Andrikiene (PPE-DE )." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="101" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Arlene McCarthy (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="102" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Elizabeth Lynne (ALDE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="103" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Caroline Lucas (Verts/ALE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr President, I speak on behalf of one of my constituents, John Packwood, a British citizen who has recently been extradited from Spain to Morocco to face charges of drug smuggling in spite of a complete lack of evidence.
Not only has he suffered a gross miscarriage of justice, but he is also the victim of discrimination on grounds of nationality, contrary to the letter and spirit of EU law.
Mr Packwood was extradited under a highly discriminatory treaty between Spain and Morocco. It exempts Spanish nationals from extradition, but provides that other EU nationals can be extradited without the Spanish authorities being in any way obliged to investigate the merits of the case.
<P>
This is directly contrary to the EC Treaty ban on discrimination on the grounds of nationality and is fundamentally incompatible with the values of the EU.
I therefore call on the President of the Parliament and, in particular, Commissioner Frattini to take action to ensure the reality of an EU area of freedom, justice and security is put in place, by remedying both the injustice and the discrimination Mr Packwood is suffering.
<P>
Would the President of the Parliament please write to the Moroccan authorities to raise this?
<SPEAKER ID="104" LANGUAGE="PL" NAME="Urszula Krupa (IND/DEM ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="105" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Tunne Kelam (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="106" LANGUAGE="HU" NAME="Csaba Sándor Tabajdi (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="107" LANGUAGE="EL" NAME="Georgios Karatzaferis (IND/DEM )." AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   – Mr President, negotiations on FYROM start in a month.
There is an outstanding question: the question of the name is still outstanding.
They are claiming the name of Greek Macedonia. So we have to take certain initiatives after the failure of the American negotiator, Mr Nimitz.
<P>
I therefore call on the European Parliament to go and ask those who are enlightened, to ask the professors; I call on you to go to the library and find out what language Aristotle, Protagoras and Democritus wrote in, what language Alexandra the Great spoke and for justice to be done at long last.
We must not allow this to continue: the hijacking of a name which does not belong to them and of a history which does not belong to them either.
This nation, this friendly nation, came to the area in the eighth century A.D. How can it claim the history of Macedonia, which dates back to the fifth century B.C.? We are calling for justice at long last.
Do you understand?
The truth is killing us.
We want an initiative by the European Union. Europe must turn its attention to the issues on its own doorstep.
<SPEAKER ID="108" LANGUAGE="HU" NAME="Pál Schmitt (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="109" LANGUAGE="IT" NAME="Carlo Fatuzzo (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="110" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Gerard Batten (IND/DEM ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="111" LANGUAGE="SK" NAME="Milan Gaľa (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="112" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Proinsias De Rossa (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr President, I should like to raise the issue of a problem that an organisation called Frontline is experiencing. Frontline is an international foundation for the protection of human rights defenders, an organisation that seeks to help those who are working in various parts of the world defending human rights, and who themselves are at risk.
Frontline has organised a major conference in Dublin this week and eight of the participants in that conference have been denied the right to travel by their states.
They include a participant from Uzbekistan; a participant from Tunisia; a participant from Palestine who has been denied the right to travel by Israel; participants from Iran and Saudi Arabia; a participant from Western Sahara who has been denied the right to travel by Morocco; a participant from Syria; and a participant from Chechnya who has been denied the right to travel by Russia.
<P>
This is clearly a situation in which people who are defending the universal declaration of human rights are being denied the right they are guaranteed under that declaration to leave and to return to their own country.
I would ask the Presidency of Parliament to intervene on behalf of these people.
I will send the details of these cases individually to the Presidency.
<SPEAKER ID="113" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Kathy Sinnott (IND/DEM ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr President, VAT reductions on labour-intensive activities were used by countries to make buildings more affordable for people and families. These reductions will end on 31 December if we do nothing.
This would be counter-productive at this time with an ageing population which will require labour-intensive building adaptations of their homes. Similarly, with the increasing number of persons with disability, adaptations which are labour-intensive will be needed.
<P>
It is also ironic that we are taking away the VAT reductions at the same time as the EU is requiring and encouraging energy efficiency in houses. If we are going to make houses more energy efficient we need to be able to do very labour-intensive building, and renovation, and we are making it more, not less, expensive.
Are we serious about lowering our domestic energy use? If we are, we need to extend the VAT reductions of labour-intensive activities, particularly in the building industry.
<SPEAKER ID="114" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Den Dover (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="finish">
<P>
   Mr President, Mrs Sinnott and I have tabled two written declarations that focus Members’ attention on the fact that the lower rates of value added tax will at the end of December 2005 unless the Council of Ministers take the right and proper decision to extend them. We also try to extend the area of choice to make sure that the aged and the disabled will benefit from lower rates of VAT, which will give them cheaper housing accommodation, particularly when they have adaptations carried out.
<P>
At present, the construction industry – I chair the construction forum in the European Parliament – has no idea whether these lower rates of value added tax will continue in a few weeks’ time. It is important that early decisions are made.
<SPEAKER ID="115" LANGUAGE="ES" NAME="Antonio López-Istúriz White (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr President, as you are well aware, the Presidency-in-Office of the Council has approved a statement, on behalf of the 25 Members, in which it expresses its concern about the situation of three political prisoners in Cuba who have been tortured by the Cuban regime: José Daniel Ferrer García, Víctor Rolando Arroyo and Félix Navarro, who were on hunger strike.

<P>
While I know that the President of Parliament, Mr Borrell, will attend the Ibero-American Summit in Salamanca and that the dictator Fidel Castro has not been excluded from appearing in that city in the flesh, I would like to ask Mr Borrell to communicate the European Union and our Parliament’s final position to the Cuban delegates: the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Cuba.
<SPEAKER ID="116" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Paul Rübig (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, a party of mayors was here in Brussels last week, visiting Belgium, and one of them had his rucksack stolen in the Grand’ Place.
He wanted to report this to the police, but the officers on the Grand’ Place informed him that this would not be possible unless he gave his passport number. This is not the only case of its kind; this sort of thing is going on all the time.
<P>
In my office, there are mounting piles of complaints about parties of visitors being attacked and having things stolen, and I would ask the House and those who run it to consider setting up a helpdesk to follow up these complaints, not least with the Belgian authorities.
<SPEAKER ID="117" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="118" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="119" LANGUAGE="FR" NAME="Louis Michel," AFFILIATION="Member of the Commission.">
<SPEAKER ID="120" LANGUAGE="NL" NAME="Maria Martens," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the PPE-DE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="121" LANGUAGE="IT" NAME="Mauro Zani," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the PSE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="122" LANGUAGE="FR" NAME="Thierry Cornillet," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the ALDE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="123" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Caroline Lucas," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="124" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Luisa Morgantini," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the GUE/NGL Group.">
<SPEAKER ID="125" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Eoin Ryan," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the UEN Group">
<SPEAKER ID="126" LANGUAGE="PT" NAME="João de Deus Pinheiro (PPE-DE )." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="127" LANGUAGE="ES" NAME="Miguel Angel Martínez Martínez (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="128" LANGUAGE="LT" NAME="Danute Budreikaite (ALDE )." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="129" LANGUAGE="" NAME="" AFFILIATION="Vice-President">
<SPEAKER ID="130" LANGUAGE="DA" NAME="Margrete Auken (Verts/ALE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="131" LANGUAGE="PL" NAME="Marcin Libicki (UEN ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="132" LANGUAGE="" NAME="John Bowis (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="133" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Glenys Kinnock (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="134" LANGUAGE="SV" NAME="Carl Schlyter (Verts/ALE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="135" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Godelieve Quisthoudt-Rowohl (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="136" LANGUAGE="PT" NAME="Ana Gomes (PSE )." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="137" LANGUAGE="FR" NAME="Marie-Hélène Aubert (Verts/ALE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="138" LANGUAGE="FI" NAME="Alexander Stubb (PPE-DE )." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="139" LANGUAGE="ES" NAME="Enrique Barón Crespo (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like first of all to acknowledge the political courage demonstrated by the Commission, in particular Commissioner Louis Michel, in presenting this strategic plan for Africa, which I hope will not be remembered as a catalogue of good intentions — with which the road to hell is paved — but as a Michel Plan, to some extent in the mould of the Marshall Plan. That is your challenge.
Furthermore, I believe that this is the appropriate time to do it.
<P>
I would like to remind you that the President-in-Office of the Council, Tony Blair, also raised this issue — I regret that he is not here, because I believe that this is a commitment that we must all share — and I would like to stress something that has already been pointed out by the Commissioner: the President of the African Union has also been involved in the presentation of this plan, which demonstrates a desire for parity and partnership.
<P>
Furthermore, I would like to make two specific observations.
Firstly, with regard to the biblical drama we are witnessing — mass emigration of people fleeing, in the Sahel in particular, from hunger, from locusts, from wars and from drought — the European States have a minimal presence in the States of the south of the Sahel, including in diplomatic terms.
I therefore believe that we must take urgent action, which the Commission must initiate.
<P>
Secondly, Mr President, with a view to the Hong Kong Round negotiations, we must find a way to make the defence of our interests compatible with opening up to Africa in the agricultural field.
<SPEAKER ID="140" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Karin Scheele (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="141" LANGUAGE="EL" NAME="Panagiotis Beglitis (PSE )." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="142" LANGUAGE="FR" NAME="Kader Arif (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="143" LANGUAGE="FR" NAME="Louis Michel," AFFILIATION="Member of the Commission">
<SPEAKER ID="144" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President. –" AFFILIATION="Written statement (Rule 142)">
<SPEAKER ID="145" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Nigel Farage (IND/DEM ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="146" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="147" LANGUAGE="FR" NAME="Louis Michel," AFFILIATION="Member of the Commission">
<SPEAKER ID="148" LANGUAGE="SV" NAME="Anders Wijkman," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the PPE-DE Group.">
<SPEAKER ID="149" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Ana Maria Gomes," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the PSE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="150" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Fiona Hall," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the ALDE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="151" LANGUAGE="DA" NAME="Margrete Auken," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group.">
<SPEAKER ID="152" LANGUAGE="IT" NAME="Luisa Morgantini," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the GUE/NGL Group">
<SPEAKER ID="153" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Rainer Wieland (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr President, as a member of the delegation of short-term observers, I should like to thank particularly the long-term observers for the work they have done. The text as proposed states that the Ethiopians have demonstrated their faith in democracy.
I think they have done more than that; they have made their dignity a matter of record and proved themselves fit for democracy. It is they above all who deserve our gratitude and the gratitude of the spirit of democracy.
<P>
Once, in Ethiopia, at six o’clock in the morning, I counted a queue of 150 people; around noon, I saw 1 500 of them in various polling stations.
Like me, Mrs Gomes saw elderly people queuing up for hours on end without food or water and then casting their votes with broad grins. At a time when fewer and fewer of our own electorate were turning out to vote, it was in Ethiopia that I rediscovered democracy’s ‘sex appeal– if I might be permitted to use that frank and sloppy term.
I saw how beautiful democracy can be!
<P>
We also, however, saw how fragile the democratic process can be, with people whispering ‘please don’t go!’ to us as we left the polling stations.
We saw the sort of reputation the European Union has, and the faith people place in it as an entity that not only parades its ideals before it like a banner, but is also prepared to stand up for them, and, speaking personally, let me say that I have before never been so proud to wear the European Union’s ‘ring of stars’.
<P>
We also had the experience of hearing people who were election observers say that, once the count was over, they were going to disappear for a few days for their own safety.
When we were in Addis Ababa, we often heard it said that the government might not be willing to relinquish office, but also that the opposition might not be willing and able to assume it. In conditions of such insecurity, the European Union was well advised to be guided by caution.
<P>
Subsequent events have shown, though, that the government will probably not be able to remain in office, and that the opposition is better able than we had thought to exercise power.
The caution evident in these resolutions is something that we should progressively abandon.
<SPEAKER ID="154" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Michael Gahler (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="155" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Ursula Stenzel (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="156" LANGUAGE="FR" NAME="Louis Michel," AFFILIATION="Member of the Commission">
<SPEAKER ID="157" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President. –" AFFILIATION="(The sitting was suspended at 8.05 p.m. and resumed at 9.05 p.m.)">
<SPEAKER ID="158" LANGUAGE="" NAME="" AFFILIATION="Vice-President">
<SPEAKER ID="159" LANGUAGE="" NAME="" AFFILIATION="See Minutes"/>
<SPEAKER ID="160" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President. –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   The next item is the report by Mr Bono, on behalf of the Committee on Culture and Education, on education as the cornerstone of the Lisbon process (2004/2272 (INI)) (A6-0245/2005).
<SPEAKER ID="161" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Christopher Beazley (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="(Applause)">
<SPEAKER ID="162" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President. –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="163" LANGUAGE="FR" NAME="Guy Bono (PSE )," AFFILIATION="rapporteur">
<SPEAKER ID="164" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Ján Figeľ," AFFILIATION="Member of the Commission">
<SPEAKER ID="165" LANGUAGE="FR" NAME="Christopher Beazley," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the PPE-DE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="166" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Gyula Hegyi," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the PSE Group">
<P>
   .
Mr President, Mr Bono’s report is excellent and in my two minutes I should like to make a few brief remarks about it. The new Member States are less developed than the older ones in many areas, but not in relation to education.
Despite its ideological barriers, the Hungarian educational system became rather successful after the Second World War. There was hardly any social discrimination: children from different social backgrounds attended the same schools and extra lessons were either free or particularly inexpensive.
<P>
If we want non-discriminatory access to quality education, we should have more general standards and fewer exceptions in education.
For example, the teaching of foreign languages as part of the general curriculum should be paid by the budget and not by the parents themselves.
Non-discriminatory access should mean equal chances provided by the Member States to children from the lower classes as well as ethnic minorities.
<P>
In some Member States, such as Hungary, universities have entrance examinations.
The general schooling system should provide enough knowledge for those exams, because the special courses are exclusive and expensive for children of the lower classes, for single parents and for children from ethnic minorities.
The cooperation of the universities, on the one hand, and industry and its research centres on the other hand, should be regular and strong.
This should also mean not only the development of education but the training of teachers.
<P>
Just today I met a young Turkish expert from Junior Chamber International, hosted by our Socialist Group. She told me about a pilot project run by them and the European Union, which already provided useful information on entrepreneurship for around a thousand Turkish teachers.
This kind of pilot project should be encouraged by us.
<SPEAKER ID="167" LANGUAGE="SV" NAME="Lena Ek," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the ALDE Group.">
<SPEAKER ID="168" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Sepp Kusstatscher," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group">
<P>
   . Mr President, this report is full of good suggestions, and I hope that as many as possible of them will be put into practice.
There are just two aspects that I want to highlight – one is vocational training and the other is mobility.
<P>
Let me start with vocational training, and a brief account of an experience I had.
An Italian policy-maker in the educational field was boasting to me about how his region produced more people with advanced school-leaving certificates than any other, so I asked him two questions – firstly, what all these people do with their qualifications, and secondly whether it was difficult to find tradesmen if, for example, you had something wrong with the wiring at home.
Yes, he told me, both these things were major problems; many of these people were out of work or spending years ‘out of the action’ at university, and practical people, people who were skilled with their hands, were hard to come by in his part of the world.
That is an example of the wrong-headed education policy that is pursued in many parts of Europe, where vocational training is seriously neglected, with the consequence that there are lots of young people out of work at the same time that there is a serious lack of skilled workers.
<P>
Secondly, there is mobility; it is a matter of complaint that only 1.5% of Europe’s workers are resident in a Member State other than their own. One very useful means of training them and updating their training would be for them to serve as apprentices and journeymen, a practice that goes back to the Middle Ages and should be revived.
Socrates and Erasmus have injected life into Europe’s schools and universities with splendid success.
Apprentices and vocational trainees, young professionals and people undergoing practical training still need much more to be done to get them on the move.
<P>
When, though, we see how negligently and half-heartedly the Commission has been preparing itself for 2006, the European Year of Mobility, and knowing as we do how much effort has been required on the part of the Committee on Budgets, and how difficult it has been, over the past few days, to extract even a mere EUR 4 million for this special initiative, it is clear that something is wrong here.
No real initiative is in sight, unfortunately.
<SPEAKER ID="169" LANGUAGE="CS" NAME="Jiří Maštálka," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the GUE/NGL Group">
<SPEAKER ID="170" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Thomas Wise," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the IND/DEM Group">
<P>
   . Mr President, this report calls for greater investment in education in an attempt to achieve the Lisbon objectives.
It might even reflect a call by my Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who in 1997 launched his general election campaign with the mantra ‘education, education, education’.
However, decisions on education must be made by the Member States. It is certainly not within the competence of the EU, despite the wish that it should be.
<P>
The lack of realism within this report is emphasised by the appeal for a 15% increase in the number of science graduates in the EU between now and 2010.
This is unachievable because young scientists, once graduated, are emigrating in ever-increasing numbers, mainly to the United States. Even today the Commission’s own survey says 400 000 European science and technology graduates have emigrated to find jobs.
Why is this?
The answer is startlingly simple: endless EU regulation and red tape is smothering innovative businesses, leaving them with little choice but to relocate or close down.
<P>
In this context the report serves to highlight the fact that, irrespective of the level of investment made by the Member States in education and training, if businesses and industry have relocated due to suffocating regulation, the investment will not be returned.
This report ignores the fact that, at the current rate of progress, the Lisbon objectives will not be reached. Attempts to prevent this failure, even by further EU misguidance, are doomed to fail.
<P>
As I have said before, if the EU is the answer, it must have been a stupid question.
You do not have to be a graduate to understand that.
<SPEAKER ID="171" LANGUAGE="SK" NAME="Irena Belohorská (NI ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="172" LANGUAGE="CS" NAME="Nina Škottová (PPE-DE )." AFFILIATION="">
<P>
      Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, it is unlikely that any Member of this House will oppose the initiative to promote education in Europe as part of the Lisbon Strategy. Society benefits on a great many levels from the promotion of education, and the Lisbon Strategy, the aim of which is to achieve a highly dynamic and competitive economy, highlights the fact that education plays a supporting role as a cornerstone or foundation stone.
Since we are talking in such terms, I would have expected today’s report at the very least to set out interim goals and a strategic framework of objectives to be achieved en route to these goals, or in other words to provide a more readily comprehensible structure.
<P>
Although I am delighted that the report ‘stresses the crucial role of universities’, it does so in paragraph 21, which is the last but one paragraph and followed only by an instruction to the President to forward the resolution. Yet the recommendation that the ‘importance [of universities] be reinforced by strengthening synergies between European higher education, the European research area, European lifelong learning and the productive sector’ is of such significance that it may be regarded as a strategic priority.
In view of the time I have available, it is obviously impossible for me to discuss every detail of these synergies, which could ultimately result in more modern universities and hence better university education.
I should, however, like to highlight a number of points.
<P>
It is a well-known fact that research turns money into knowledge, and that innovation turns knowledge into money. Increasing university funding in an arbitrary fashion will not produce the desired outcome, however, and the involvement of universities in innovation is one of the crucial structural changes to which the European Union should lend its full support.
Economic research has shown that cooperation between universities and business, the availability of capital for innovation and development and the promotion of public-private partnerships make a major contribution to a country’s overall innovation potential.
<P>
Such areas therefore provide ample scope for EU funds to be targeted meaningfully and effectively, thus acting as a driving force and catalyst for measures aimed at improving innovation potential. The quality of projects must be the deciding factor when granting access to such funds, rather than compliance with convoluted official requirements.
Straightforward, flexible and transparent projects, together with the relevant legal requirements, are crucial if the modernisation of universities is to get off to a flying start.
<SPEAKER ID="173" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Marios Matsakis (ALDE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="174" LANGUAGE="EL" NAME="Athanasios Pafilis (GUE/NGL )." AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   – Mr President, the purpose of linking education with the Lisbon Strategy is to replace integrated education with fragmented and unscientific knowledge and information based on the needs of the market at the time. This, in our opinion, changes the nature of education and turns it into a vulgar commodity.
<P>






The objective of lifelong learning is the satisfaction of the demands of big business, flexible forms of work and the creation of lifelong semi-educated workers, who will be forced to retrain in order to constantly generate more profit.
<P>


The way is being paved for the invasion by companies of education and research, which will lead to the full privatisation of education and to a drastic deterioration in the level of education of workers, in a bid to uncouple education and diplomas from work and strengthen the nanny state and control their consciences.
Do you want to form cheap, docile workers to generate huge profits?
That is your strategy.
<P>
True democratisation in education does not mean access for all young people to retraining and to fragmented knowledge; it means a standard, free, state education up to the age of 18 which will give them an integrated knowledge base.
Education must educate, not produce cheap, docile workers.
<SPEAKER ID="175" LANGUAGE="EL" NAME="Manolis Mavrommatis (PPE-DE )." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="176" LANGUAGE="PL" NAME="Małgorzata Handzlik (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="177" LANGUAGE="CS" NAME="Tomáš Zatloukal (PPE-DE )." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="178" LANGUAGE="LT" NAME="Laima Andrikiene," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the PPE-DE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="179" LANGUAGE="SK" NAME="Ján Figeľ," AFFILIATION="Member of the Commission">
<SPEAKER ID="180" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President. –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="181" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President. –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="182" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Ján Figeľ," AFFILIATION="Member of the Commission">
<SPEAKER ID="183" LANGUAGE="SL" NAME="Ljudmila Novak (PPE-DE )," AFFILIATION="rapporteur">
<SPEAKER ID="184" LANGUAGE="CS" NAME="Tomáš Zatloukal," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the PPE-DE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="185" LANGUAGE="" NAME="" AFFILIATION="Vice-President">
<SPEAKER ID="186" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Christa Prets," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the PSE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="187" LANGUAGE="LT" NAME="Rolandas Pavilionis," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the UEN Group">
<SPEAKER ID="188" LANGUAGE="ES" NAME="Maria Badia I Cutchet (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<P>
   Mr President, Commissioner, many countries have made, and are making, considerable progress in the establishment of quality assurance systems and in promoting cooperation in the Union, which represents progress in the development of a European Higher Education Area.

<P>
Nevertheless, I would like to insist on the need to take a further step by means of effective cooperation and coordination amongst these bodies, both national and European, since achieving mutual recognition of quality assurance systems and quality assessments is positive for all of the citizens, in that it facilitates the recognition of academic qualifications amongst Member States and the mobility of students and teachers.
Both issues are key to improving our levels of education and the creation of a common European consciousness.
<P>


In order to make this possible, however, I believe that it is vitally important to promote the necessary mutual trust amongst all the actors involved.
This also means the involvement of universities, teachers and students.
<P>
Only in this way will we be able to successfully face the challenge of the Europe of excellence on the basis of investment in education, training and research, which is necessary if we are to achieve a fully inclusive knowledge-based society within the framework of the Lisbon Strategy.
<SPEAKER ID="189" LANGUAGE="PL" NAME="Mieczysław Edmund Janowski (UEN ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="190" LANGUAGE="SK" NAME="Ján Figeľ," AFFILIATION="Member of the Commission">
<SPEAKER ID="191" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="192" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="193" LANGUAGE="PT" NAME="Miguel Portas (GUE/NGL )," AFFILIATION="rapporteur">
<SPEAKER ID="194" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Ján Figeľ," AFFILIATION="Member of the Commission">
<SPEAKER ID="195" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Doris Pack," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the PPE-DE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="196" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Christa Prets," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the PSE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="197" LANGUAGE="EL" NAME="Manolis Mavrommatis (PPE-DE )." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="198" LANGUAGE="EL" NAME="Nikolaos Sifunakis (PSE )." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="199" LANGUAGE="FR" NAME="Christopher Beazley (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="le coeur">
<SPEAKER ID="200" LANGUAGE="EL" NAME="Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou (PPE-DE )." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="201" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="202" LANGUAGE="SK" NAME="Ján Figeľ," AFFILIATION="Member of the Commission">
<SPEAKER ID="203" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="204" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="205" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Doris Pack (PPE-DE )," AFFILIATION="rapporteur">
<SPEAKER ID="206" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Ján Figeľ," AFFILIATION="Member of the Commission">
<SPEAKER ID="207" LANGUAGE="NL" NAME="Ria Oomen-Ruijten," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the PPE-DE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="208" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Roger Helmer (NI ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="209" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Gyula Hegyi (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="210" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Christa Prets (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="211" LANGUAGE="SK" NAME="Ján Figeľ," AFFILIATION="Member of the Commission">
<SPEAKER ID="212" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="213" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="214" LANGUAGE="FR" NAME="Anna Záborská (PPE-DE )," AFFILIATION="rapporteur">
<P>
   . Mr President, in the words of Father Joseph Wresinski: ‘Wherever men are condemned to live in extreme poverty, the rights of Man are violated: it is our sacred duty to unite in order to ensure that these rights are respected’.
This leitmotif of the World Day to Overcome Extreme Poverty is also enshrined in the very philosophy of the European Parliament.
<P>
Poverty must be eradicated in the new Europe, going beyond strategies enabling it to become the most competitive and dynamic economy in the world. It must be eradicated in order to promote the dignity and responsibility of all of the citizens.
Is not the well-being of a society also measured in terms of the way it treats its weakest members?
It is true that work integrates an individual into a group, but that is not enough to make somebody a citizen, and experience has shown this. Yes, the partnership with the least-favoured citizens is needed because they are the experts in combating extreme poverty.
Poor people who have not been inducted into citizenship will not be incorporated into the life of society either.
Could they too not be recognised as true builders of the new Europe?
In order for the poorest people to become active partners, however, they first of all need a voice, they need recognition, security and integration. Combating extreme poverty means respecting the rights of everybody.
<P>
The demand of the Fourth World committee, the oldest intergroup in the European Parliament, comes at just the right time to strengthen the social inclusion strategy, to create real conditions in which people living in poverty can participate and, finally, to assess the true impact of our European policies on the lives of the poorest families in the Member States, which is absolutely crucial.
The fact that a person is living in poverty does not mean that others must decide what is best for them on their behalf. For example, why take children away from their families for socio-economic reasons relating to extreme poverty?
Would it not be better instead to support their parents, who also have the right to carry out their duties as parents. They feel the same joys, the same aspirations, the same fears and the same doubts, but in much more difficult circumstances.
And while poverty affects women more, it is they who have the greatest desire to defend their loved ones from poverty and social exclusion. Women, who build fundamental links and create peace, must be encouraged to promote human rights and dignity for everybody.
<P>
I would like to end by stressing that seventy-three amendments have been debated in committee.
With the exception of two or three of them, they have been accepted.
The report was then voted for unanimously, and I would like to thank my colleagues for their cooperation.
There is one point to make, though, since my colleagues from the Communist Group propose, by means of Amendment 7, removing access to primary health care by poor women. It is true that access to public health is an essential element in the quest for a decent common life for everybody.
But that is not enough.
Why not support women in their fight against poverty by allowing them to remain in good health?
What are we talking about?
We are talking about enabling them to eat healthily, to access clean drinking water, to plan their families and to have access to vaccines and basic treatments for common illnesses. And why refuse them the right to gynaeco-obstetrical health?
As a doctor, I do not understand that.
In fact, I find it insulting.
I would ask all of you to promote primary health care, including for the poorest women, and to reject Amendment 7.
<SPEAKER ID="215" LANGUAGE="CS" NAME="Vladimír Špidla," AFFILIATION="Commission">
<SPEAKER ID="216" LANGUAGE="SK" NAME="Edit Bauer," AFFILIATION="for PPE-DE Group">
<P>
   . – Commissioner, Mr President, the latest data published by the Commission shows that in seventeen of the twenty-five Member States the risk of poverty is higher for women than for men.
The number is only seventeen because some countries did not submit their data.
<P>
The statistics have long shown that two groups face an exceptional risk: first – single parents, 85% of whom are women, which shows that the risk of poverty is clearly gender-specific; secondly – women in the labour market, who are in a disadvantageous position mainly due to motherhood and differences in remuneration associated with it, which are also reflected in the size of their pensions.
Two-thirds of people of retirement age are women over 65 and yet, according to the European Economic and Social Committee, their average income is only 53% of the income of men of retirement age.
<P>
The 1995 World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen declared that it is necessary to devote attention to the needs and rights of women and children, who often bear the heaviest burden of poverty.
Poverty among women is often connected with the poverty of children, and results in the perpetuation of a poorly educated labour force of low employability. One result of this is the creation of an intergenerational poverty trap and an important barrier to the fulfilment of the Lisbon objectives, bearing in mind such figures as the percentage of school dropouts, which is as high as 18% among boys.
<P>
Mr President, poverty clearly has a serious gender dimension. I also want to emphasise this in connection with the fact that some of our colleagues believe that it is possible and necessary to abolish the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality.
<SPEAKER ID="217" LANGUAGE="PT" NAME="Edite Estrela," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the PSE Group">
<SPEAKER ID="218" LANGUAGE="ES" NAME="Raül Romeva i Rueda," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group">
<P>
   . Mr President, as the report states, we in this House generally dedicate much more time and effort to price stability or the budgetary deficit than to poverty, its eradication or the social dimension of the Lisbon Agenda, for example.
Nevertheless, as has been said, poverty has a female face in Europe as well.
<P>
In the majority of the Member States, social security systems do not take sufficient account of the specific conditions of women.

For this reason, this Parliament must make a clear appeal to the Member States to establish and guarantee a basic income as a fundamental instrument in the fight against poverty — which, I would insist, affects women mostly — within the context of an overall policy of promoting social and economic integration.
<P>
Furthermore — and we have presented this in an amendment — I would like to insist once again on the need to replace the expression ‘domestic violence’ with ‘gender violence’, since it is a form of violence which should not be characterised by the place in which it takes place, but rather by the way our society distributes roles amongst men and women, which often leads many men to believe that they are superior and that women are their possessions, which regrettably leads to violence.
<P>


In this regard, the amendments that we have presented relate to a structural dialogue which is often established in the European Union.


<SPEAKER ID="219" LANGUAGE="SV" NAME="Eva-Britt Svensson," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the GUE/NGL Group.">
<P>
   Mr President, we in Sweden’s Left Party believe that women should have equal and fair access to all health care and medical treatment.
We cannot accept that women should only have access to certain forms of health care and medical treatment.
We believe in equal access to all such care and treatment.
<P>
Poverty obviously affects people’s whole life situation and has bearing upon education, health, housing and social exclusion, but I particularly wish to emphasise the significance of women’s ability to provide for themselves.
Work is the most important route of escape from poverty, and it is therefore particularly worrying that the 1975 directive on equal pay for male and female employees has still not been implemented.
Women’s salaries in the EU are on average still only 85% of men’s. In certain countries, the difference is even greater.
<P>
Over and above these unjustified salary differences, women are directed to low-paid jobs, part-time work, poorer conditions of employment etc.
Moreover, this discrimination follows women throughout their lives, right up to retirement age with pensions systems that also discriminate against women. Women are not weak, but they are made weak.
<SPEAKER ID="220" LANGUAGE="PL" NAME="Urszula Krupa," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the IND/DEM Group">
<SPEAKER ID="221" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Brian Crowley," AFFILIATION="on behalf of the UEN Group">
<SPEAKER ID="222" LANGUAGE="SK" NAME="Irena Belohorská (NI ). –" AFFILIATION="you">
<SPEAKER ID="223" LANGUAGE="SK" NAME="Zita Pleštinská (PPE-DE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="224" LANGUAGE="DE" NAME="Christa Prets (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="225" LANGUAGE="PT" NAME="Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL )." AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="226" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Godfrey Bloom (IND/DEM ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="227" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Robert Kilroy-Silk (NI ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="228" LANGUAGE="NL" NAME="Kartika Tamara Liotard (GUE/NGL ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="229" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Maciej Marian Giertych (IND/DEM ). –" AFFILIATION="(PL) ">
<SPEAKER ID="230" LANGUAGE="CS" NAME="Vladimír Špidla," AFFILIATION="Commission">
<SPEAKER ID="231" LANGUAGE="" NAME="President." AFFILIATION="WRITTEN STATEMENTS (RULE 142)">
<SPEAKER ID="232" LANGUAGE="" NAME="Zita Gurmai (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
<SPEAKER ID="233" LANGUAGE="HU" NAME="Magda Kósáné Kovács (PSE ). –" AFFILIATION="">
