Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-02-04-Speech-3-343"
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"en.20090204.18.3-343"2
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"I see Avril Doyle and I am asking myself whether I am the other side of this question: the last time we discussed this was in the only place in this building where I as a heavy smoker can smoke. I guess that you observed that, and that is one of the reasons why I now have the obligation to answer your question. My mother was always advising me to speak truthfully at every opportunity so now I have a dilemma: to read this or to speak my mind.
But I shall use this opportunity to start at the personal level. I am a member of the 30% minority in Europe: I am a heavy smoker, and I feel terribly discriminated against in this building. I appeal to you as a person, not on behalf of the Council, to provide better conditions for appeasing our habit. But now I have to respond to this question.
The question is about the state of the ratification process in the Czech Republic. I can assure you that the ratification process of the framework convention in the Czech Republic is in progress. It has been in progress since 2003, and the new attempt to find approval in the Czech Parliament is ongoing. The new Czech Minister for Health – who, like her predecessor, smokes – has the new proposal aimed at renewing ratification and will send it to the inter-agency process, so it will reach Parliament pretty soon.
The ratification process should be concluded if we find enough votes in Parliament. In the Senate I can assure you that this is not easy when our senators are travelling in Europe and are facing the same problem as I do in this building. But I think one thing is important: that the legislation is fully implemented so all laws abide by those commitments which are part of the convention.
Regarding our approach as the Presidency: the next formal meeting in the framework of the FCTC will be the third meeting of the international negotiating body on a protocol on illicit trade in tobacco products. Here my country, as well as the Presidency, is fully committed to fighting the illicit trade in tobacco products. That will take place from 28 June to 5 July in Geneva, so we will share this somehow with our friends the Swedes, because that is the time when we, the Czechs, will hand over the Presidency to our friends in Stockholm. That is the substance of my response."@en1
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