Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-26-Speech-2-161"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20041026.12.2-161"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, on behalf of the Committee on Civil Liberties, I would like to begin by thanking the members of the Committee on Budgets and in particular the general rapporteur, our friend Mr Garriga Polledo, for having supported and approved the majority of the amendments presented by our committee. I would like to highlight four of them.
Firstly, following the Fourniret affair, which has recently shaken Belgium and France, we have provided for a new budgetary line to allow the Commission to make proposals with a view to organising the interconnection of national registers of criminal convictions for crimes such as paedophilia, sexual assault and serious crimes committed by repeat offenders.
Secondly, with regard to the visa information system, commonly know as the VIS, we have put most of the appropriations in reserve, and they will not be released until the Commission has presented a second proposal precisely defining the architecture and functioning of the VIS system itself, as it has said it will. This is a delicate area in terms of the protection of personal information.
Thirdly, with regard to the Agency for the management of external borders, we have placed all the appropriations in reserve. It is not that we question the importance of that agency and the need to make it operational as quickly as possible, quite the opposite, but we shall release the appropriations in reserve when the Council has made the decision on the final headquarters of the agency. We call on the Council to give its opinion before the end of this year. If this is a strategic agency, it cannot be content with a provisional headquarters with all the costs and operational inconvenience that would entail.
Fourthly, we have also put in reserve most of the appropriations requested for the line relating to the rights of passengers. We all know the differences of opinion between Parliament and the Commission on this, with regard to the level of protection for the personal information which airlines must communicate to the American customs authorities. The Commission has promised on several occasions that the current passive system for communicating data, the PULL system, would be replaced with an active system, the PUSH system. So far, the Commission has done nothing. The appropriations will be released when the Commission has fulfilled its commitments.
I must end by mentioning a final amendment which the Committee on Budgets has unfortunately not retained, to my regret. It concerns the Commission's desire to launch a preparatory action in the field of managing the return of immigrants who are not authorised to remain in Union territory. Of course it is desirable and urgent to organise better cooperation amongst the Member States in this field, but it must be done according to rules, and in a preparatory action there are no rules. In accordance with Declaration 5, annexed to the Treaty of Nice, the Heads of State or Government have formally been calling on the Council to rule on this issue since 1 May 2004, pursuant to the procedure laid down in Article 251, that is to say, qualified majority and codecision. The Council has done nothing, ignoring the will of the Heads of Government and the rights of Parliament. I would like the Council’s institutional infringement to be penalised, in accordance with Amendment No 146 presented by the Committee on Civil Liberties."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples