Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-12-19-Speech-4-071"
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"en.20021219.3.4-071"2
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".
I voted against the Watson report, which endorses the agreement signed between the European Community and Hong Kong on the readmission of persons residing without authorisation, because it is accompanied by a very dangerous parallel provision: the exemption of Hong Kong citizens from the visa requirement.
The Commission has tried to give me explanations during the debate, but they are not convincing.
Firstly, it claims that the two decisions are not connected because they are not simultaneous. It is true that they are separated by a year but, in terms of reasoning, they are very closely related. Moreover, they are presented as such at the start of the explanatory statement of the agreement.
Secondly, it states that the number of illegal immigrants coming from Hong Kong is very small. Even if this were true (and I do not believe it is), this decision to exempt Hong Kong citizens would still be irresponsible, given the special situation of Hong Kong, currently a Special Administrative Region of China.
To cap it all, we learn that the final approval was given at the beginning of December by an Agriculture Council meeting.
This is where we will end up if we continue to abandon our national powers of negotiation and ratification in favour of a system which is far-removed from the people and over which we have no control."@en1
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