Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-12-15-Speech-1-115"
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"en.20081215.14.1-115"2
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"First of all, I should like to thank all my fellow Members from all the groups, because I believe there is a large majority in this Chamber that says that human beings are not machines and that people and their rights come first. After that we can talk about other things, but we must start with their health, safety and family life.
Secondly, I welcome the Council and the Commission to the negotiating arena. It is late, but better late than never.
Watch out for the traps. In the directive that results from your common position, the opt-out is not like the one laid down in 1993, which was temporary, conditional and very much one-off. The Commissioner mentioned 15 countries. No, there was one with a general opt-out and several with minor ones. You, however, are proposing that it should be forever and for everybody, splitting Europe into countries that want long working hours and countries that do not.
We do not want something that was temporary and exceptional to turn into something permanent and normal, because it is not normal for people to work every week of the year and every year of their lives without seeing their families or being able to meet their obligations as citizens.
I think some facts have to be accepted. That workers and doctors are against this directive, Mr Bushill-Matthews, is a fact, not an opinion. I have not talked to 160 million workers or 4 million doctors, but I have talked to their representative organisations. Maybe someone or other agrees with you, but I assure you that the vast majority is against you, because all their organisations without exception are against what you say.
Lastly, let me repeat what I said at the beginning. Wednesday is going to be a very important day for citizens to start believing in Europe again and realising that these institutions are not made up of a bunch of heartless politicians who only think about the economy, or bureaucrats who live in a world apart. We are with the people. We stand up for their rights, and on 17 December social Europe will emerge empowered. After that we will negotiate. We will negotiate on an equal footing."@en1
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