Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-04-20-Speech-2-490"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20040420.22.2-490"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Mr Ceyhun’s report deals with a very important matter, drugs policy, and especially the agency, the monitoring centre in Lisbon. My group considers this to be a very useful instrument, that has helped it to base its policy on facts. In view of the politicisation of all discussion about drugs, and the politicising coming out of the Netherlands is very convincing, we really cannot manage without a centre like this any more.
The job of the centre, as the Commissioner just said, is to collect, standardise, analyse and compare data. To my surprise, an attempt is now being made in a series of amendments to broaden this task to include evaluating the policies of the Member States. That, however, is not something for a scientific-technical bureau or agency, that is remote from politics. Producing these evaluations is a job for politicians, and in order to be able to carry out these evaluations, we need to be given the resources through, for instance, this centre. My group finds it unacceptable for this policy to be put in the hands of technocrats, for this political task to be taken out of our hands.
Apart from this core objection, on which our vote for the report ultimately depends, we still have a few other comments. We do not think Members of this Parliament should sit on the centre's management board, that is a constitutional monstrosity. We think that a couple of representatives appointed by us, who are not MEPs, as is the case now, is much better and this solution has also worked very well. We do not want to be inhibited in our supervisory role because we are sitting on the board of management ourselves. That is completely out of the question. Nor do we have anything against good contact with the director, who has to keep us informed about what is going on at the centre on a regular basis. That need not be our representatives, although we can, of course, also call them to account. Unlike the rapporteur, we think that an advisory board such as an executive committee, that prepares the meetings of the management board, is a good invention.
With these comments the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats is following a route that others have taken before. I am assuming that the Council and the Commission also realise that a political mandate is something different from a professional mandate My group can give its unqualified assent to the other amendments of our esteemed rapporteur.
Finally, I would also like to commend Commissioner Vitorino, who has responsibility for this matter, for the efforts on his part that I have experienced over the past few years."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples