Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-24-Speech-3-074"
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"en.20020424.4.3-074"2
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".
Mr President, while we are yet deliberating in this House, live pictures of Parliament are coursing through the world of the media, and they are of the collective ‘no’ that the overwhelming majority has just delivered to a man who is doing precisely the opposite of the things that this report stands for and which constitute Europe's core values. Together and quite decisively, we have said ‘no’ to those who would seduce us with their radicalism, and to those who treat humanity with contempt, and, in this report, we are saying ‘yes’ to human rights with no ifs or buts. This is far from being only something we call for in politics; it is also a challenge to the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy, and, although it might be wondered what it has to do with this issue, it is actually a great deal, because, in an age of globalisation, it is increasingly the multinational enterprises that are called on to take steps in this direction. Whilst we in politics have to hear the accusations of hypocrisy levelled at the former foreign policy of the USA and at the EU's foreign policy, which does not yet really exist, that accusation applies yet more to businesses. Only if they too manage to come round to defending human rights with no ifs or buts, will we be spared much of what we all feared was coming to us when the terrible events of 11 September struck us.
What is astonishing about this report is not so much that it pays lip-service to many familiar things, but that there was, in our Industry Committee, which is a rather conservative set-up and not very familiar with these topics, unanimous support for establishing social standards, and for a Green Paper that would trenchantly call for social responsibility on the part of enterprises, even though the person to whom today's ‘no’ was directed is also a member of this committee. Our decision was unanimous. Why? Because the despiser of democracy, who plays this down, was not even there and did no work on it! I hope that all of Europe's voters will see this, and, at the same time, also see when we are saying ‘no’ and to what we are saying ‘yes’, that is, to this report and to human rights without ifs and buts."@en1
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