A report by David Kilgour, the Canadian Government’s former secretary of state for Asia, shows that one of the most persecuted groups since 1999 is Falun Gong, whose members have organs forcibly removed in Chinese work camps.

For this reason, Mr President, our group believes that the number of strategic initiatives needs to be reduced so as to avoid the pitfall of having too many of them. There is indeed a risk of moving away from a practical work programme – a development that could harm the European Union.

Since the last NAP, there has been a participatory evaluation research on health and task-forces on indicators and NAP actions involving stakeholders.

I also wanted to emphasise that this work was the product of a joint effort and the shadow rapporteurs from other groups were involved in this.

– (DE Mr President, the rapporteurs Duff and Voggenhuber, as well as the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, have done some sterling work. The report itself is sound because it conveys the key messages without going so far as to anticipate the work of the fundamental rights convention. I therefore nurture the hope that tomorrow in plenary sitting, this report will be adopted in the form we in the Committee on Citizens’ Freedoms and Rights drafted it in. However there is one point which I would like to be amended. I have tabled an amendment to this effect on behalf of my group ...[+++]. It concerns the question, raised repeatedly today, as to whether the European Union should sign up to the European Convention on Human Rights. This was an important goal in the past. It was an important and appropriate goal in the past precisely because there was no intention, at that stage, to create our own, autonomous catalogue of fundamental rights at European Union level; viewed in this light, it was far better to have that, as a second-best solution, than nothing at all.

Represents the social, economic and cultural interests of all gainfully employed people other than the self-employed (manual workers, white-collar workers, public servants, including apprentices or persons in a similar situation), the unemployed, even if they have not yet had the opportunity to be gainfully employed (other than in self-employment), pupils and students who intend to go into gainful employment (other than self-employment) and other occupational groups (such as freelancers or people working in private practice), provided they can be compared, in terms of their activity, with people who are gainfully employed other than in self-employment. Pro ...[+++]tects the collective interests of consumers pursuant to § 1, § 2(1) und § 14(1) of the UWG.