Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-05-11-Speech-3-494-000"
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"en.20110511.33.3-494-000"2
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"Madam President, I would like to begin by expressing my sincere thanks to my fellow Members in this House and in the delegation for the universal support I received in the negotiations, right until the end. I am also full of admiration for the Hungarian ambassador, who really did all she could, as did Mr Dalli, in fact.
It is a real pity that we were unable to reach agreement in relation to clones. Consumers can still find cloned products on their dinner tables, unsolicited and unlabelled, even though 77% of European citizens are opposed to this. I would say to the Council that banning clones alone is the politics of symbolism. The real key here is the banning of offspring. The clones themselves are so expensive that you would not make a hamburger out of them. We were thus unable to reach a compromise on this issue. The Council and the Commission both kept reiterating that a ban on offspring would be in contravention of World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. Mr De Gucht then went further by coming to Parliament and saying that it would lead to a trade war. You can imagine, then, how surprised I was to read, clearly set out in a secret internal Council document that I got hold of – it is a document from the Legal Service of the Council of Ministers – that a ban on cloning offspring is actually perfectly justifiable under WTO rules. The document clearly stated that
‘The bans [on] food from cloned animals and [...] food from offspring of clones could be justified on the basis of the consumers’ ethical considerations’.
I would like the Council to tell me whether all the Member States knew about this document. If so, why the constant use of the argument about global trade wars so that no compromise could be reached with Parliament? I am now really curious to know what the real underlying reasons were. If the Member States’ negotiators were not aware of this document, that is a scandal as far as I am concerned. If they were aware of it, then disingenuous arguments were used.
Mr Dalli, the citizens await your next move. In my view, regulation must be brought forward very quickly now. You know that I am still prepared to collaborate and I am certain that we can find a solution. I will hand over the document to the Council."@en1
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