Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-01-19-Speech-3-057"
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"en.20000119.2.3-057"2
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"President Gama, we welcome much of what you have said – regarding Parliament’s role, the Intergovernmental Conference and the Statute for the Members – but we shall also need to discuss the enlargement of the European Union. Enlarging eastwards is important. We want to construct a political Europe, but we need to take a careful look at the large Mediterranean basin itself – and Portugal, like Italy, is a Mediterranean country – in order to create a major Mediterranean policy as well and balance the expansion to the east with expansion to the south.
As far as the European Council is concerned, we should briefly consider three issues in greater depth. You mentioned employment, and this is of the utmost importance for us. It is top of the list of urgent issues. We can fight it by assisting small and medium-sized businesses, boosting tourism with the help of the development policy and sharply reducing the tax burden.
Furthermore, justice – as you stressed – matters a great deal to us. The policy on European justice is of major importance. There are slow trials, unfair trials – and Italy, unfortunately, holds the worst record for these – and in many European countries there is even politicised justice, with some magistrates using their power, not for the purposes of justice, but for political ends, often to attack the opposition and minorities.
I would like to conclude by focusing on a third point, following on from employment and justice: the drugs crisis. This is an important social question of particular concern to us because it involves millions of young people. The fight against drugs must be one of the issues that the Portuguese Presidency, the European Commission and Parliament are committed to. We must combat the established drugs, but we must also and above all combat the new drugs, without giving in to the temptation to liberalise drugs and without giving in to the temptation to legalise and authorise the therapeutic use of substances, such as heroin, which Parliament has already rejected. Millions of young people pay great attention to what we are doing: they follow what goes on in Europe carefully, and expect Europe to give them an answer on this major issue."@en1
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