Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-06-08-Speech-3-228"

PredicateValue (sorted: default)
rdf:type
dcterms:Date
dcterms:Is Part Of
dcterms:Language
lpv:document identification number
"en.20050608.19.3-228"2
lpv:hasSubsequent
lpv:speaker
lpv:spokenAs
lpv:translated text
". Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to start by thanking the rapporteur, our man on the Committee on Budgetary Control, for this initiative. The Commissioner has already made reference to the fact that we have devoted our attention, in a report that this House adopted yesterday, to the subject of cigarette smuggling, which is one of the really big problems that the European Union currently has to contend with. One reason for this is that, when the finance ministers find that the money has run out, the first brilliant idea they come up with is that of increasing the duty on tobacco. This means that illegal cigarettes start coming into the country, and so they still end up with less money than they had before. What is happening is that the Member States – some of them, I have to say, in full knowledge of what they are doing – are rolling out a red carpet to welcome organised crime. Reference has already been made to the agreement initiated by the Commission and OLAF. Tremendous though this is, it does – as the rapporteur noted – have an Achilles heel, in that we did not specify in the agreement what is to be done with the money. In the event of any such agreements being concluded in the future, it is vital – and Parliament demands – that a formula be specified for how the money is to be shared out. Moreover, Mr President-in-Office, I too would be very much in favour of the Council discussing what is to be done with this money; it cannot simply be left to each Member State. There is too great a shortage of customs staff. Too many of our customs offices are not yet computerised. Your institution, too, is obliged to give serious thought to this. We expect the money to be allocated to specific purposes when it is paid out. I wish to thank our rapporteur, Mr Staes, for this initiative."@en1

Named graphs describing this resource:

1http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/rdf/English.ttl.gz
2http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/rdf/Events_and_structure.ttl.gz
3http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/rdf/spokenAs.ttl.gz

The resource appears as object in 2 triples

Context graph