Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-13-Speech-3-392"
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"en.20050413.24.3-392"2
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"Mr President, I should like to start by warmly congratulating you on your election and on your first appearance as Vice-President. Commissioner, the outcome of today’s debate could not come at a better time for the many business people and citizens who believe that everyone has equal rights in the enlarged EU, and who want to sell their most valuable asset, namely their own labour, in the old Member States. Yet there are many people who no longer wish to work in the European Union. These people have already attempted to do so, but have been treated unequally and come up against government and local authorities that commit violations of law. These violations take the form of over-enthusiastic checks, frequently involving dogs and policemen, or arrests during which individuals’ hands are stamped and they are handcuffed. This is an infringement of their personal rights. These companies and individuals will never wish to work or provide services again in the old Member States. Is this what the market for services and labour is to look like in the United Europe? As representatives of our constituents, we are duty bound to defend their rights in the EU. I have not heard of a single instance of people being treated in this way in Poland, even though many thousands of foreign firms operate in the country, and a large part of industry and the majority of banks are controlled by foreign capital. Polish organisations, business people, ministries and embassies are regularly informed of cases in which Polish firms and Polish citizens who provide services as subcontractors to European businesses have been discriminated against. The case of the Apola company, which is based in Poznan, is a prime example of such discrimination, and one of the many that have come to my attention. The company’s employees and representatives were intimidated, arrested and persecuted by the French police and authorities in the Gard region. In many cases, such behaviour stems from the fact that the officials are human, or rather inhuman, and insufficiently acquainted with the rules. We bear no general grudge against nations or governments in this respect, but the issue should be discussed in this House, and it is for this reason that today’s debate should be followed up by a resolution in which such violations of the law are condemned. Finally, I should like to highlight one more instance of discrimination on the basis of nationality. It relates to new requirements brought in by the European Commission, which only apply to Polish nurses and midwives. The latter are now required to have worked for at least five out of seven years in order to obtain a certificate confirming their qualifications, without which they cannot work as nurses or midwives in the EU. Citizens of all the other 24 Member States are only required to have worked for three out of five years. As well as depriving these nurses and midwives of the chance to work and of their previous rights, these requirements, which are enshrined in European legislation, are an insult to their professional dignity. I have been waiting for an answer from the Commission on this matter for several weeks, and several hundred thousand nurses and midwives are waiting for a response to the petition they submitted to the European Parliament."@en1
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