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resumption of the session

i declare resumed the session of the european parliament adjourned on friday 17 december 1999 and i would like once again to wish you a happy new year in the hope that you enjoyed a pleasant festive period

although as you will have seen the dreaded 'millennium bug' failed to materialise still the people in a number of countries suffered a series of natural disasters that truly were dreadful

you have requested a debate on this subject in the course of the next few days during this partsession

in the meantime i should like to observe a minute' s silence as a number of members have requested on behalf of all the victims concerned particularly those of the terrible storms in the various countries of the european union

please rise then for this minute' s silence

(the house rose and observed a minute' s silence)

madam president on a point of order

you will be aware from the press and television that there have been a number of bomb explosions and killings in sri lanka

one of the people assassinated very recently in sri lanka was mr kumar ponnambalam who had visited the european parliament just a few months ago

would it be appropriate for you madam president to write a letter to the sri lankan president expressing parliament's regret at his and the other violent deaths in sri lanka and urging her to do everything she possibly can to seek a peaceful reconciliation to a very difficult situation

yes mr evans i feel an initiative of the type you have just suggested would be entirely appropriate

if the house agrees i shall do as mr evans has suggested

madam president on a point of order

i would like your advice about rule 143 concerning inadmissibility

my question relates to something that will come up on thursday and which i will then raise again

the cunha report on multiannual guidance programmes comes before parliament on thursday and contains a proposal in paragraph 6 that a form of quota penalties should be introduced for countries which fail to meet their fleet reduction targets annually

it says that this should be done despite the principle of relative stability

i believe that the principle of relative stability is a fundamental legal principle of the common fisheries policy and a proposal to subvert it would be legally inadmissible

i want to know whether one can raise an objection of that kind to what is merely a report not a legislative proposal and whether that is something i can competently do on thursday

that is precisely the time when you may if you wish raise this question ie on thursday prior to the start of the presentation of the report

madam president coinciding with this year' s first partsession of the european parliament a date has been set unfortunately for next thursday in texas in america for the execution of a young 34 yearold man who has been sentenced to death we shall call him mr hicks

at the request of a french member mr zimeray a petition has already been presented which many people signed including myself however i would ask you in accordance with the line which is now constantly followed by the european parliament and by the whole of the european community to make representations using the weight of your prestigious office and the institution you represent to the president and to the governor of texas mr bush who has the power to order a stay of execution and to reprieve the condemned person

this is all in accordance with the principles that we have always upheld

thank you mr segni i shall do so gladly

indeed it is quite in keeping with the positions this house has always adopted

madam president i should like to draw your attention to a case in which this parliament has consistently shown an interest

it is the case of alexander nikitin

all of us here are pleased that the courts have acquitted him and made it clear that in russia too access to environmental information is a constitutional right

now however he is to go before the courts once more because the public prosecutor is appealing

we know and we have stated as much in very many resolutions indeed including specifically during the last plenary partsession of last year that this is not solely a legal case and that it is wrong for alexander nikitin to be accused of criminal activity and treason because of our involvement as the beneficiaries of his findings

these findings form the basis of the european programmes to protect the barents sea and that is why i would ask you to examine a draft letter setting out the most important facts and to make parliament's position as expressed in the resolutions which it has adopted clear as far as russia is concerned

yes mrs schroedter i shall be pleased to look into the facts of this case when i have received your letter

madam president i would firstly like to compliment you on the fact that you have kept your word and that during this first partsession of the new year the number of television channels in our offices has indeed increased considerably

but madam president my personal request has not been met

although there are now two finnish channels and one portuguese one there is still no dutch channel which is what i had requested because dutch people here like to be able to follow the news too when we are sent to this place of exile every month

i would therefore once more ask you to ensure that we get a dutch channel as well

mrs plooijvan gorsel i can tell you that this matter is on the agenda for the quaestors' meeting on wednesday

it will i hope be examined in a positive light

mrs lynne you are quite right and i shall check whether this has actually not been done

i shall also refer the matter to the college of quaestors and i am certain that they will be keen to ensure that we comply with the regulations we ourselves vote on

madam president mrs díez gonzález and i had tabled questions on certain opinions of the vicepresident mrs de palacio which appeared in a spanish newspaper

the competent services have not included them in the agenda on the grounds that they had been answered in a previous partsession

i would ask that they reconsider since this is not the case

the questions answered previously referred to mrs de palacio' s intervention on another occasion and not to these comments which appeared in the abc newspaper on 18 november

mr berenguer fuster we shall check all this

i admit that at present the matter seems to be somewhat confused

we shall therefore look into it properly to ensure that everything is as it should be

in any event this question is not presently included among the requests for topical and urgent debate on thursday

agenda

the next item is the verification of the final version of the draft agenda as drawn up by the conference of presidents at its meeting of 13 january pursuant to rule 110 of the rules of procedure

no amendments have been proposed relating to monday and tuesday

relating to wednesday

the group of the party of european socialists requests that a commission statement be included on its strategic objectives for the next five years and on the administrative reform of the commission

i would like mr barón crespo who made the request to speak to propose it that is if he so wishes of course

then we shall follow the usual procedure hearing one speaker in favour and one against

madam president the presentation of the prodi commission' s political programme for the whole legislature was initially a proposal by the group of the party of european socialists which was unanimously approved by the conference of presidents in september and which was also explicitly accepted by president prodi who reiterated his commitment in his inaugural speech

this commitment is important because the commission is a body with a monopoly of initiative in accordance with the treaties and therefore basically dictates this parliament' s political and legislative activity for the next five years

i would also like to point out madam president that this parliament voted to express its confidence in president prodi during the previous legislature

it did so again during this legislature in july and then in september it voted once more to approve the whole commission

there has therefore been enough time for the commission to prepare its programme and for us to become familiar with it and explain it to our citizens

to this end i would like to remind you of the resolution of 15 september which recommended that the proposal be presented as soon as possible

the events of last week which originated outside the conference of presidents that conference being used simply to corroborate and ratify decisions taken elsewhere present us with a dilemma either the commission is not ready to present this programme in which case it should clarify it

according to its president it is in a position to do so

given that the commission is represented by vicepresident de palacio i believe that before voting it would help if the commission could let us know how ready it is to present this programme as agreed alternatively parliament is not ready to examine this programme as some appear to be suggesting

in my opinion this second hypothesis would imply the failure of parliament in its duty as a parliament as well as introducing an original thesis an unknown method which consists of making political groups aware in writing of a speech concerning the commission' s programme a week earlier and not a day earlier as had been agreed bearing in mind that the legislative programme will be discussed in february so we could forego the debate since on the next day our citizens will hear about it in the press and on the internet and parliament will no longer have to worry about it

my group believes that since a parliament is meant to listen debate and reflect there can be no justification whatsoever for this delay and we believe that if the commission is ready to do so we still have time to reestablish the original agreement between parliament and the commission and proceed in a manner which fulfils our duty to our fellow citizens

therefore the proposal of the group of the party of european socialists and which you have mentioned is that the prodi commission present its legislative programme on wednesday including its proposed administrative reform because otherwise we could find ourselves in a paradoxical situation on the pretext that there is no text on the one hand the president of the commission would be denied his right to speak in this parliament and on the other hand there would be a debate on a reform when parliament had no prior knowledge of the texts on which it is based

therefore madam president i would ask you to request that the commission express its opinion on this issue and that we then proceed to the vote

(applause from the pse group)

madam president i would like to make it very clear that above all the commission has absolute respect for the decisions of this parliament and amongst those the decision establishing its agenda

we therefore respect whatever parliament may decide

but i would also like to make it very clear that president prodi made a commitment to this parliament to introduce a new debate as mr barón crespo has reminded us which would be in addition to the annual debate on the commission' s legislative programme on the broad areas of action for the next five years that is to say for this legislature

madam president i would like to say that the agreement reached in september distinguished this debate from the annual presentation of the commission' s legislative programme

i would also like to say that the commission is prepared and ready to hold this debate whenever it is convenient and that we were ready to do so this week as we had agreed originally on the basis that it would be presented the day before in a speech to parliamentary groups

therefore madam president i would like to repeat that the commission has debated the action plan for the next five years and when parliament decides this week if that is the decision we are prepared to come and explain the programme for the next five years and next month the programme for 2000 which is what we fully agreed upon

i propose that we vote on the request of the group of the party of european socialists that the commission statement on its strategic objectives should be reinstated

(parliament rejected the request) president

still on the subject of wednesday' s sitting i have another proposal regarding the oral question on capital tax

the ppede group is requesting that this item be taken off the agenda

is there a member who wishes to speak on behalf of this group to propose this

madam president i can hear a ripple of laughter from the socialists i was told that large sections of the socialist group were also keen to have this item taken off the agenda because at the vote in the conference of presidents no vote was received from the working group of members of the socialist group responsible for this matter

i do not know whether this information is correct but the ppede group would in any case be grateful if this item were removed because parliament has addressed this issue several times already

decisions have also been adopted against a tax of this kind

that is why my group moves that this item be taken off the agenda

thank you mr poettering

we shall now hear mr wurtz speaking against this request

madam president i would firstly like to point out mr poettering' s lack of logic

he has just been preaching to the group of the party of european socialists because they went back on a decision taken in a perfectly clear manner at the conference of presidents and now he is doing just the same

we discussed that matter and we were unanimous with the exception of the ppe and eldr groups as my fellow chairmen will recall i even mentioned that it was not a matter of knowing whether one was for or against the tobin tax but of whether one dared to hear what the commission and the council thought of it

it is not a lot to ask

i therefore repeat the proposal that this oral question to the commission and the council should be retained so that we can find out once and for all the positions of these two bodies regarding the proposal which is relatively modest but which would give a clear message to public opinion particularly after the tide of feeling generated by the failure of the seattle conference

we shall proceed to vote on the ppede group' s request that the oral question regarding the capital tax be withdrawn from the agenda

(parliament rejected the request with 164 votes for 166 votes against and 7 abstentions)

madam president i would like to thank mr poettering for advertising this debate

thank you very much

madam president has my vote been counted i was unable to vote electronically since i do not have a card

my vote was in favour

ladies and gentlemen once again we see it is essential for members to bring their voting cards along on a monday

clearly there is a problem here