Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-02-Speech-2-069"
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"en.20011002.3.2-069"2
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"Mr President, at a time when we have all, I hope, been scandalised by Mr Berlusconi’s statements, demonstrating as they do such suspicion and hatred of foreigners, I believe that now, more than ever, it is time to combat racism, and to combat it in all its most insidious forms.
The Commission’s communication on a Community immigration policy, and the vote on the Pirker report, give us an opportunity to do just that. In that respect I welcome Mr Vitorino's statements.
We must not forget that for Europeans the Tampere Summit in October 1999, which sought fair treatment for nationals of third countries in comparison with citizens of the Union, was a very important event. We must start from one important established fact, which we were reminded of just now: the myth of zero immigration can no longer be a realistic concept, and in any case demographic problems and labour shortages will have to make us change our ideas about immigration. This is why, today, we must give our strong support to the Commission’s communication, because this future Community policy on immigration has a great many virtues, in particular that of combating all forms of criminal activity.
It has to be said that the rapporteur, Mr Pirker, has adopted a rather critical position regarding the Commission’s communication. Unlike Mr Pirker, we socialists are convinced that our approach to this question must be a humane approach rather than an economic approach, because we are talking here about the fate of human beings, not about common merchandise.
We must also remember, and we can never remember it enough, that if people emigrate and suffer the pain of separation from their country and their loved ones, it is because they are obliged to do so. They are not simply doing it for pleasure. The Commission’s position is fundamental inasmuch as it proposes a framework.
I shall end by saying, in addition, that in a European Union which is constantly becoming more integrated, and which now has the benefit of a Charter of Fundamental Rights, no Member State can now claim that its policy on admission is nobody’s business but its own. I therefore reiterate my full and wholehearted support for the Commission’s proposal, at the same time taking a critical view of the content of Mr Pirker’s report. As far as I am concerned, I defer the vote of the French socialist delegation on this report."@en1
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