Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-02-08-Speech-1-086"
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"en.20100208.14.1-086"2
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"Mr President, chance often has a hand in things. At a time when we are debating the protection of privacy and of individuals, and when these debates are having new repercussions, the Members of this House have a wonderful opportunity to affirm some strong principles. Whether it is to do with the introduction of body scanners in airports or the SWIFT agreement with the United States, those who strenuously defend individual freedoms will not hesitate, this week, to make their voices heard, even if it means creating considerable diplomatic tension.
I regret, however, that their struggle for citizens’ freedoms is changeable and inconsistent. When it is an issue of protecting bank and financial data, the good suddenly turns into the evil. That which, in other fields, deserves protection, demands to be flouted in the name of a new imperative: the generally compulsory fiscal colonoscopy. Wholesale automatic exchange, which forms the basis of the Alvarez and Domenici reports, is the scanner that strips you at every turn; it is the SWIFT agreement writ large from which there is no return. However, this Parliament will not let a contradiction stop it. It can decide in favour of the automatic exchange of every conceivable type of data between tax authorities in Europe and, at the same time, reject the SWIFT agreement with the United States in the name of individual freedoms.
Can this incongruity, this inconsistency, be understood or even, at times, justified in the name of effectiveness? No. The golden rule, your golden rule, in other words, the automatic exchange of all fiscal, bank and financial data of all non-residents, will inevitably lead to a flood of unmanageable data. The precedent of taxation on savings should, however, serve as a warning to you. Yet that is not the case. Once again, you have to go down the wrong road and advocate a system that does not work. There is none so deaf as those who will not hear.
To those of my friends who seem to be worried about the bureaucratic excesses that the implementation of this structure might entail, I would like to say that the only solution is to oppose it, not to introduce it and then be surprised by its disastrous consequences.
Allow me, Mr President, to address a final word to Commissioner Kovács, who is fighting his last battle this evening. I wish him a happy retirement. Commissioner, in your career, you frequently chose the wrong fight but, kind soul that I am, I will not ultimately hold this against you too much. Have a happy retirement, Commissioner."@en1
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