Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-17-Speech-2-061"
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"en.20080617.4.2-061"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I would first like to thank you for the reasoned debate. With an emotional issue such as this, it is amazing that we are doing this so objectively. I must say that, considering the breadth of topics covered here today, I am proud to be a Member of this Parliament.
There was one lapse: Mr Catania accused us all of being responsible for the mass graves in the Mediterranean. I must reject this strategy of gaining political influence by appealing to popular emotions and fears. All of us here are trying to do our best to help the people there.
I do not want to say any more about the content of the Directive, as this has been discussed thoroughly already. I would like to say something about the process. Our Chairman in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs has spoken very wisely. He advised the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats to proceed fairly particularly in this process. We have withdrawn our amendments. We would like the amendments to be voted on, so we have made our contribution to that. We prepared hundreds of amendments in the Committee on Home Affairs and organised large majorities there. This meant that every Member who was interested in this issue could take part.
I would also like to say something about the NGOs. I understand that they are not happy. When we discuss environmental issues here, Greenpeace will never be happy with the result we achieve. The task of an NGO is to exert increasing amounts of pressure, but already today I can tell you what will happen: if we pass this Directive, then tomorrow, the very same NGOs that are now protesting will make use of these legal opportunities and will be instituting proceedings with the European Court of Justice. I also predict that the Members on the left, who are arguing against this Directive today, will tomorrow ask the Commission, or Commissioner Barrot, to implement what we have passed here. They will try to create advantages for people on the basis of this legal foundation. Therefore, I say: it is not an ideal situation, but we have made a great step forward.
One last thought: alas, Mrs Roure and Mr Fava from the Socialist Group in the European Parliament are not present. They are outside, giving television interviews and trying to present their position. They have not heard what Mr Mate said: that either we will take this step forward – many thanks, again, to the Slovenian Presidency of the Council – or there will be no progress for many years. We will keep on saying that we need to make decisive progress, but we will not achieve anything. Therefore, the question tomorrow is not whether the Directive is ideal or not. The question is simply ‘does it take the European Union forward?’ Tomorrow we can answer this question with a good, clear ‘yes’."@en1
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