Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-12-Speech-3-231"
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"en.20051012.20.3-231"2
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".
Mr President, let me start by expressing heartfelt thanks to Mrs Pack, who last night, was appointed MEP for culture for the year 2005, something she owes partly to her role as ambassador for the circus.
I would also like to thank Commissioner Figel’ for the excellent way in which he responded to the questions that are included in Mrs Pack’s report.
Charlie Chaplin once said ‘I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that's a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician’. We politicians have to settle for that. There is, though, another quote from William Shakespeare, who said: ‘It is meat and drink to me to see a clown’.
Both statements indicate how highly a circus artist like the clown is rated. Indeed, we all treasure splendid memories of clowns, acrobats, jugglers, as well as animal trainers.
Although the circus has evolved with time, it is deeply rooted in our European culture. It has, in its current form, been around since the 18th century, but acrobats and jugglers also frequented markets and fairs many centuries before that. They moved from place to place to show off their skills. Not much has changed on that front.
Something else has, though, and that is the recognition – also the subject of Mrs Pack’s report – of this cultural heritage, of which it in fact gets very little. The circus offers not only entertainment, but also education, and also reaches a wide audience. Those are all reasons why this European circus culture concerns us all.
In this framework, the rapporteur is right in pointing out the significance of good schooling for children in travelling communities. Their access to good schools, vocational training, equivalent to education of other children, must be guaranteed. The rapporteur claims that ‘the circus is there for young and old, for children of all ages’ and I would like to follow that up with something with which Pipo the Clown, who was a famous Dutch clown, always used to end his television shows: ‘Goodbye birds, goodbye flowers, goodbye children’."@en1
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