Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-07-22-Speech-4-010"
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"en.20040722.1.4-010"2
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"Mr President, I am just coming to the point that justifies this demonstration, which for us is very important. I believe my fellow Members have the right to know – although I think most of them do already – why we chose to make ourselves visible like this to Mr Barroso.
Right now in the Council there are nine governments that are in favour of authorising the entry of new genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into the European Union; nine are against and seven are abstaining. This means that the Council is unable to express a position. Eighty per cent of public opinion is against GMOs. The current Commission has nonetheless decided to use its powers and systematically authorise new GMOs, with incalculable consequences for the quality of our products and for European agriculture.
Mr Barroso, we believe this is a very serious mistake. What is more, the current Environment Commissioner thinks it is unnecessary to label seed contaminated with less than 0.5% GMOs, thus contradicting the European Parliament’s position which was passed by a huge majority at the end of the last parliamentary term. Within a few years, then, all organic and non-organic crops will be contaminated.
I am very well aware that you are not keen on this topic, and you told us this quite clearly during our meeting by hiding a little behind the notes that the Commission and its staff had prepared for you. Even so, if you are elected, we invite you really to look closely at this matter; we ask you to be brave and open-minded enough to change the current Commission’s attitude. We ask you not to bow to the multinational lobbies or our Big Brother in the United States, because it is our Big Brother who wants to call the shots on these issues.
Mr President-designate, if I may I should like to return to the matter I was talking about before: the war in Iraq. I should like to ask you to give us some idea about the future in your reply. Unfortunately, when you came to see us, you did not succeed in getting beyond a complaint about your decision as Prime Minister of Portugal to support the war. I ask you, therefore, also regarding the relationship that the Commission should have with the United States, to tell us what political subject you, as President of the future Commission, have in mind for your relationship with the United States.
At the moment, we as the European Union have our own independent position on a number of subjects and I should like to know how you intend to act on foreign policy, particularly on issues on which we hold distinct views, such as Guantánamo Bay, the WTO and Kyoto, because your replies have been rather vague and come more from the Portuguese Prime Minister than from the future President of the Commission."@en1
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