Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-03-Speech-3-021"
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"en.20020703.2.3-021"2
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"Mr President, I would like to welcome my fellow-countryman and the Danish Presidency. Naturally I wish the Danish Presidency good luck with a great many of the points in the programme, especially of course with enlargement. Whilst we are well aware that we should have got the work on the economic aspects of enlargement finished back in Amsterdam and got the great battle over agricultural policy and structural funds out of the way, it is now too late to make these matters obstacles to enlargement’s taking place. I will simply ask the Danish Government to stand by its policy to date: that we must utterly and completely phase out the agricultural subsidies in favour of a fairer world, take national considerations out of the equation and instead place sustainability and the relationship with farmers in the Third World on the agenda. I would like to give my support to the maintenance of this policy.
However, there are other things that I do not wish the Danish Presidency luck with: I do not wish the Danish Government luck with obtaining influence over a common European refugee and asylum policy. I come from a country in which racism and such matters are viewed differently. In Denmark, you can be prosecuted for calling the Government’s closest cooperation partner and parliamentary lynchpin, Pia Kjærsgård of the Danish People’s Party, what she is called in every other European country and what European Voice most recently called her: an undisguised racist. You can be prosecuted for saying that in Denmark. We apply a slightly different definition of racism and such matters than is used in the UN and in the EU and, in reality, by most Danish citizens when talking among friends. Denmark is also a country in which people have a very special way of looking at aid to developing countries. We have cut it back, but the Danish Government thinks things are going unbelievably well so long as we are not at the bottom and not in the middle relative to other countries. It is also a country which attaches a great deal of importance to transatlantic links. This is also a matter included in the Presidency’s programme, where it talks about common interests. Is it an expression of common interests to cooperate with a country that refuses to recognise the International Criminal Court and to cooperate closely with a country that refuses to sign the Kyoto Protocol? Is it an expression of common interests, or is it simply that, in this joint fight against terrorism, we have to close our eyes to a great many things: to the Russian war in Chechnya, to how the Turks treat the Kurds, to how Israel is treating the Palestinian people – all because we are in an alliance against terror, a transatlantic alliance?
Many Members of the European Parliament can remember when the Danish minister, Mr Haarder was an MEP and the spokesman for human rights. It is plain that, in exchanging MEP Bertel Haarder for Mr Haarder the Minister, we did not get a particularly good deal. We would rather have had you as an MEP, Mr Haarder, to be frank, and I would call upon the government to re-read the speech that Mr Haarder gave when he was the spokesman for human rights in Parliament. You should re-read it as inspiration for your future decisions."@en1
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