Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-24-Speech-3-150"
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"en.20011024.6.3-150"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, first of all, I should like to extend a warm thanks to all those who have taken the floor in this debate, for the good wishes they have conveyed to Commissioner Lamy and hopefully the Council presidency too, and I hope that we indeed manage to organise a balanced trade round with a broad-based agenda.
My only comment in this respect is that I very much appreciate the fact that you have valued our respective efforts to improve the atmosphere prior to the start of such a round, and that you, as it were, assisted us in those efforts. This is a tremendous boost a fortnight prior to the start of this Fourth Ministerial Conference.
If you allow me, Mr President, I should like to respond briefly to the specific questions that have been raised, notably those by Mr Schwaiger and Mrs Mann about the role of parliaments and Members of Parliament. Mr Schwaiger, I can only respond on behalf of my government with regard to our position concerning an amendment to Article 133 of the Treaty. I can only say to him that it was not the Belgian government that has precluded an amendment to the article. We will continue to strive towards a broadening of the Commission’s negotiation authority under that article, and towards greater parliamentary involvement.
Secondly, I can say to Mr Schwaiger and Mrs Mann that I am delighted with the initiative for a parliamentary meeting in Doha; that appears to me to be extremely important. I will therefore be very happy to lend my support to this effort, and I hope that it will be possible to inject a little more stability into the meeting, because I believe it to be absolutely of fundamental importance for Members of Parliament – for in addition to MEPs, the meeting will, of course, also be attended by a number of national MPs – to learn to listen to each other. Maybe it will then be a little easier for us, members of the government, to convince our national parliaments of the accuracy of some of our claims when they hear those expressed by their colleagues from other countries, and particularly from developing countries. I welcome this development with open arms. It is significant in itself. It will also contribute towards more transparency in the activities of the World Trade Organisation.
This does bring me to one minor remark made by Mrs Lucas who believes that the World Trade Organisation should be reformed first, before negotiations can commence. I should like to say to her that I cannot see how any changes could be made to the way the organisation works without a negotiation round. I should like to draw her attention to the fact that the very careful preparation of the Doha conference in itself bears witness to an entirely different approach from before. Finally, I should like to remind her that the World Trade Organisation is, in fact, a very young organisation which is very much open to improvement, and we will happily take part in this exercise.
I gladly promise Mrs Mann, I will be organising a meeting with the Members of Parliament in Doha. Mrs Mann, you know very well that you and Mr Westendorp, as well as a few other MEPs, have had the opportunity to exchange ideas with us immediately prior to the start of the informal External Trade Council, so we will naturally carry on with this tradition."@en1
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