Official Journal of the European Communities Debates of the European Parliament 1996/97 Session. Report of proceedings from 15 to 19 April 1996

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• Publié par: EUROPEAN-PARLIAMENT
• Nombre de lectures: 29
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 9 Mo

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ISSN 0378-5041
Annex Official Journal
of the
European Communities
No 4-480
English edition Debates of the European Parliament
1996/97 Session
Report of proceedings
from 15 to 19 April 1996
Europe House, Strasbourg
General contents Sitting of Monday, 15 April 1996
1. Resumption of the session, p. 1 - 2. Welcome, p. 1 - 3. Approval of the
Minutes, p. 1 - 4. Order of business, p. 2 - 5. Energy efficiency, p. 4 -
6. SYNERGY programme, p. 9 - 7. Interoperability of high-speed rail system,
p. 13 - 8. Transport of dangerous goods by rail, p. 18
Sitting of Tuesday, 16 April 1996 21
1. Decision on urgency, p.2 -. 'Customs 2000', p. 22 - 3. Industrial policy for
the pharmaceutical sector, p.6 - 4. Prevention of drug dependence, p. 34 -
5. Votes, p. 44 - 6. Discharge for 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1994, p. 50 - 7. Question
Time (Commission), p. 68 - 8. Fisheries agreement with Morocco, p. 79 -
9. Health monitoring, p. 85-10. Alzheimer's - health card - blood safety, p. 89
Sitting of Wednesday, 17 April 1996 10
1. Approval of the Minutes, p.2 - 2. European Council in Turin, p. 103 -
3. Welcome, p. 109 - 4. European Council in Turin (continuation), p. 109 —
5. Preparation of CCEE for accession, p. 113-6. Votes, p. 124 - 7. Welcome,
p. 139 - 8. Chernobyl, prospects for EU involvement, p. 139 - 9., Situation in the
Middle East, p. 152 - 10. Question Time (Council), p. 160 - 11. Visby Summit,
p. 168- 12. Commission statement on BSE, p. 175- 13. Biocidal products, p. 181
- 14. Price indication, p. 186 NOTE TO READER
Parallel editions will also be appearing in the following official languages of the Union:
Danish, German, Greek, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch and Portuguese. The English
edition contains the original texts of the interventions in English and anh
translation, provided by freelance translators, of those made in other languages. In these
cases, the following letters appear in brackets after the name of the speaker to indicate the
language spoken: (DA) for Danish, (DE) for German, (EL) for Greek, (ES) for Spanish,
(ER) for French, (IT) for Italian, (NL) for Dutch, (PT) for Portuguese, (Fl) for Finnish and
(SV) for Swedish.
The original texts of these interventions appear in the edition published in the language
spoken.
Contents (continued) Sitting of Thursday, 18 April 1996 224
I. Approval of the Minutes, p.5 - 2. Monetary cooperation, p. 225 -
3. Economic and Monetary Union, p. 231 - 4. 1994 Cohesion Fund, p. 239 -
5. Votes, p. 240 - 6. Topical and urgent debate, p. 246 - 7. 1994 Cohesion Fund
(continuation), p. 265 - 8. North-South cooperation and the campaign against
drugs, p. 267 - 9. Civil protection action programme, p. 273
Sitting of Friday, 19 April 1996 277
1. Approval of the Minutes, p.8 - 2. Votes, p.8 - 3. Assistance to NIS and
Mongolia, p. 279 - 4. Interim agreement with Kazakhstan, p. 282 - 5. Cooperation
Agreement with Nepal, p. 284 - 6. Support for arable crops, p. 287 - 7. G
meeting on employment, p. 291 - 8. Adjournment of the session, p. 295
Abbreviations used for Political Groups as shown following the name of the speaker
(PSE) Group of the Party of the European Socialists
(PPE)p of the European People's Party (Christian-Democratic Group)
(UPE)p of the Union for Europe
(ELDR) Group of the European Liberal Democratic and Reformist Party
(GUE/NGL) Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left
(V) Green Group in the European Parliament
(ARE) Group of the European Radical Alliance
(EDN) Europe of Nations Group (Coordination Group)
(NI) Non-attached Members
Resolutions adopted at the sitting of 15-19.4.1996 appear in the Official Journal of the
European Communities C 141, 13.5.1996. 15.4.96 Debates of the European Parliament No 4-480/1
SITTING OF MONDAY, 15 APRIL 1996
Contents
1. Resumption of the session 1
2. Welcome
3. Approval of the Minutes
Oomen-Ruijten, Sturdy, Smith, Tilomas
Tomlinson, Puerta 2
4. Order of business
Oomen-Ruijten, Green, De Vries, Roth, Puerta, Pasty
5. Energy efficiency
Bloch von Blottnitz, McNally, Argyros, Fitzsimons, Plooij-van Gorsei, Stenius-Kaukonen,
Ahem, Macartney, Pollack, Teverson, Papoutsis (Commission), Bloch von Blottnitz,
Papoutsis 4
6. SYNERGY Prog4ramme
Soulier, Dimitrakopoulos, Bloch von Blottnitz, Lange, Plooij-van Gorsel, Ahern, Macart­
ney, Vaz da Silva, Papoutsis (Commission), Soulier 9
7. Interoperability of high-speed rail system
Castricum, Watts, Mcintosh, Dybkjær, Van Dijk, Blokland, Bellere, Sisó Cruellas, Le
Rachinel, N. Kinnock (Commission) 13
8. Transpon of dangerous goods by rail
Cornelissen, Simpson, Mcintosh, Bellere, N. Kinnock (Commission), Cornelissen, N.
Kinnock 18
IN THE CHAIR: MR HANSCH stay in Strasbourg and, of course, useful and interesting
discussions in this House!
President
(Tlie sitting was opened at 5 p.m.) 3. Approval of the Minutes
President. - The Minutes of the sitting of Thursday, 28
March 1996 have been distributed.
1. Resumption of the session
Are there any comments?
President. -1 declare resumed the session of the European
Oomen-Ruijten (PPE). - (NL) Mr President, on behalf of Parliament adjourned on Thursday, 28 March 1996.
my fellow-members from the Committee on Agriculture I
should like to ask you to change a few things in the voting
about the BSE resolution. Obviously one or two things
2. Welcome have gone wrong. Points 16 and 17 now contradict one
another whereas the voting showed otherwise. I shall be
President. - Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the House passing on to you some comments which you could
let me welcome a delegation from the Grand Committee of perhaps take up with regard to the voting.
the Finnish Parliament, i.e., the European Affairs Commit­
tee of the Finnish Parliament, led by its chairman, Mr Erkki President. - I will have to look into that, Mrs Oomen-
Tuomioja. I bid you a warm welcome! Ruijten. I cannot say anything at this stage. We will
consider the matter.
(Applause)
Sturdy (PPE). - Mr President, it concerns the speech
We are pleased at this visit, which reflects the increasingly made last week by Mr Fischler on BSE and reported in the
close cooperation between us and the national parliaments Minutes. Perhaps the Commission or you could clarify a
in the Union, and I wish our Finnish colleagues a pleasant point for me. It would appear that a speech made at the Debates of the European Parliament No 4-480/2 15.4.96
Sturdy
weekend by Mr Fischler indicates a change of his position. Puerta (GUE/NGL). - (ES) Mr President, I should like to
I welcome this change because he has said that he will eat deal very briefly with two matters. First, since we con­
British beef and that the ban was imposed specifically for demned at the time ETA's terrorist murders and kidnap­
economic and political reasons. pings, today we can give you the news that the hostage who
beats all records in Spain - almost a year's captivity, 342
Could somebody clarify that he has actually said this days, - has been freed, not, it is true, by the forces of public
please, Mr President, because it is a change of views. order, but he is at liberty. And I should be very pleased -
and so, I think, would all Members, particularly the President. - Mr Sturdy, I cannot see what that has to do
Spanish Members and perhaps still more those who are with the Minutes.
distinguished by being Spanish Basques - if you would
Smith (PSE). - Mr President, on exactly the same point as send a message to the hostage's family to congratulate
Mr Sturdy has raised. If Commission Fischler has made them on his freedom.
this statement, then he has said that it is not a matter of
Secondly I should like to point out, before the agenda is public health. If it is not a matter of public health, he has no
settled, that the importance of the bombardment of Leba­legal base, if he has no legal base then he may very well
nese territory by the State of Israel will make it necessary face legal action from the people his statement has dam­
to ask for a statement from the Council. These indiscrimi­aged.
nate and unfair bombardments not only infringe human
President. - Mr Smith, the same applies to your point; it rights but may also pose a threat to the independence and
has nothing to do with the Minutes. integrity of the State of Lebanon, which is guaranteed by
international law and by Resolution 245 of the United
Thomas (PSE). - Mr President, again on BSE. If Mr
Nations Security Council.
Fischler has changed his views does this mean the Com­
mission has? President. - Thank you! (')
This was actually referred to in the Minutes. He said that
any funding would also go towards supporting workers 4. Order of business
who had directly lost their jobs. So far nothing has come of
this in any scheme that has been put forward. Does this President. - The next item is the order of business.
mean the Commission has changed its view on supporting
The final version of the draft agenda as drawn up by the workers who have lost their jobs through this scare?
Conference of Presidents at its meeting of 11 April 1996
President. - I note that there are no comments on the pursuan