Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-18-Speech-4-207"
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"en.20000518.7.4-207"2
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"Mr President it is a measure of the effectiveness and importance of this legislation that even in the midst of a comprehensive series of reforms of race relations legislation in my own country, we have a situation where further improvements can be made. I was going to make a speech of the normal variety, but having heard some of the responses across the House, I want to change what I was going to say, which is more in sorrow than in anger.
This House should recognise and change its tone on what it sees as Article 13. Of all the speakers, Mrs Diamantopoulou made the very effective point that words can be cheap in the question of anti-racism. Posturing is easy. Motivations are many and varied. My friend, Mr Sylla, and I are concerned about two important things. One is that we create a level playing field through Article 13. The burden of proof, the ability for organisations to take cases on behalf of individuals who have been harassed or discriminated against – all of these laws do not create an advantage for the majority of society. They create the opportunity for people of talent and ability to release their talents and abilities to enrich what we have in Europe to create wealth, to create the culture and diversity of Europe, not to suffer disadvantage for small- and medium-sized enterprises or anyone else.
We must start talking positively about these proposals mainly because the Commission and the Portuguese Presidency, many who have created this report, many of my colleagues who have worked hard on their opinions, have responded in the way that we have because we understand that this legislation is not about victims, it is about enriching EU countries. Many of those EU countries represented in this House do not pick and choose which race-relation legislation they have – they have none, many of them. We have some – we can improve ours. It is now an opportunity, a symbolic opportunity and an important practical opportunity for this House to make an historic judgement, to vote in full during a presidency which has helped us bring forward a law which I believe will enrich this House and that we, in time, will be very proud of."@en1
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