Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-04-08-Speech-2-135"
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"en.20030408.3.2-135"2
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"Mr President, in the vast majority of cases I am prepared to support a compromise for the common good of the EU and to listen and form impressions, but definitely not today. Ladies and gentlemen, you need to know that there are two clear policies in the Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party. There is a limit to compromise, and one that Mrs Buitenweg has grossly exceeded. There is no reason whatsoever for demanding changes or a review of the UN conventions on drugs. It is not the conventions that are at fault. Instead, it is unwillingness on the part of the Member States to get to grips with increasing drug problems.
To those fellow MEPs – and there are some even in my own group – who say that I am inflexible and do not appreciate the importance of changes, I would say that, inflexible I may be, but I am also aware of what is behind this resolution. This is, of course, emphatically about politics, Mr Evans. You do not need to be Einstein to appreciate that. A visit the other day to the red-light district in Amsterdam convinced me even more, for it is a fact, Mr Evans, that those who are keen to review the UN conventions are the same persons who want to legalise and liberalise drugs policy. Mr Cappato’s rhetoric does not therefore ring in the least bit true. We know what he is after. We also know what Mrs Buitenweg wants, namely to legalise both soft and hard drugs.
Do not forget that those of us here in this Chamber are the representatives of millions of Europeans. More than a million people have signed what is termed the Vienna Declaration, rejecting any undermining of the UN conventions. Ladies and gentlemen, the signals we must send to Vienna and to all the young people of Europe, including those sitting here and applauding, are: no, we do not want legalisation; no, we do not want liberalisation. No we have not given up the fight for a drugs-free Europe. You should reject the resolution."@en1
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