Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-16-Speech-4-024"

PredicateValue (sorted: default)
rdf:type
dcterms:Date
dcterms:Is Part Of
dcterms:Language
lpv:document identification number
"en.20040916.1.4-024"2
lpv:hasSubsequent
lpv:speaker
lpv:spokenAs
lpv:translated text
"Ladies and gentlemen, Commissioners, I should first like to mention the first victory in this debate. It has become clear that the Commission will request explanations from the Portuguese Government as regards the . In Portugal, at least one in four women has had a back-street abortion, which is, as much as anything, an extremely serious public health problem. That statistic speaks volumes; we cannot continue to bury our heads in the sand. How, therefore, shall we, the European Union, condemn these women? Should we have them arrested? What about those who terminate their pregnancy in London or in Badajoz? Should we close the borders? Should we keep them under constant European Army surveillance? Should we have all of the Portuguese newspapers that publicise foreign, or more specifically European, clinics carrying out safe and legal voluntary terminations of pregnancy confiscated? What if the were a train, or a TIR lorry? Would army tanks be stopping the train or the TIR from entering Portuguese territory, so as to make sure that there was no chance of the law being broken and so that the Portuguese people were not informed? Is the Commission aware that, although the two Portuguese war corvettes were in permanent use, no military or civil authority ever asked to board the and check for any potential dangers on board? Is the Commission aware that the Portuguese Ministry of Defence’s only information had come from a series of media cuttings and not from first-hand observation? Against this backdrop, it was important to know that the Commission clearly intends to ensure compliance with the Treaties. Otherwise, if Turkey accedes to the EU, the Commission will have to take military action in the case of a married Portuguese man moving to Turkey, having announced that he has a girlfriend there and who will therefore be committing adultery. Commissioner, it is crucial that action is taken at this time, so that we are not faced with the warped logic of ‘more of the same’, also in the EU. This is not a question of morals or of personal opinions, Commissioner; this is a question of legality."@en1
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata

Named graphs describing this resource:

1http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/rdf/English.ttl.gz
2http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/rdf/Events_and_structure.ttl.gz
3http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/rdf/spokenAs.ttl.gz

The resource appears as object in 2 triples

Context graph