Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-14-Speech-4-018"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20020314.2.4-018"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Madam President, Commissioner, whenever we debate the question of tobacco, I always wonder, even if we are all anti-smoking, why do we need to be anti-tobacco? These are two separate issues and I think that the Commission should realise that, as should many of the honourable Members.
We are against smoking and we must do all we can to stop it from spreading and reduce it. I have no objection to that. But if we abolish tobacco growing, all we shall do is condemn a number of European citizens to financial ruin and give a fillip to tobacco farmers in third countries. All we shall do is reduce our exports and increase our imports. All we shall do is increase the dole queues in the European Union. Is that what we are trying to do? Is that our objective? In other words, do all those who maintain that, if we grub up tobacco farms in Europe, we shall help reduce smoking, mean to tell us that we need to grub up vineyards in order to fight alcoholism? Do they mean to tell us we should close our car factories in order to reduce the number of fatal road traffic accidents?
It is time we stopped being two-faced, faced the facts and dealt with things in the proper manner. It is time we sat down together, with an open mind and our eyes wide open, called a spade a spade and worked out a strategy to drastically reduce smoking and its harmful effects and a strategy to develop the economy of the European Union."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples