Speeches

Sarah Ludford, author . − Madam President, I would like to thank Carlos Coelho for initiating this important debate.

Sarah Ludford (ALDE), blue-card question. – Madam President, painful as it is to have family disagreements in public, will Mr Fox recognise that in the briefing distributed yesterday to UK MEPs it was said that the UK Government – and of course that is led by your prime minister Mr Cameron – is fully committed to EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights?

Sarah Ludford (ALDE ). - Madam President, I am pleased that the rapporteur is backing the amendment that I originally tabled in committee on the need for European accountability for rendition and torture abuses if the EU is to lead in the promotion of human rights in the world. I hope it will get wide support in plenary and that we will also push all EU states to sign and ratify the Convention against Forced Disappearances.

Sarah Ludford on behalf of the ALDE Group. - Mr President the diabetes time bomb has stopped ticking and has actually exploded so I am delighted that the Danish Presidency - as well as Parliament (where we also have Danish influence) - are supportive of a specific focus on diabetes. The fact that it accounts for 10% of our health care costs is reason enough. While the onset of Type I diabetes in children and teenagers is quite sudden Type 2 diabetes is often not diagnosed until it has been present for some years. This leads to complications such as blindness and kidney and heart disease which are both devastating and expensive and account for a lot of those costs. As the Commissioner noted not all diabetes is preventable and I would specifically mention those 10 to 15% who have Type I.

Sarah Ludford on behalf of the ALDE Group. - Mr President Ms Pack's report observes that the lack of job perspectives especially among young people is hindering the progress of the country and contributing to social discontent. One of the reasons I was so pleased to push hard in support of Ms Fajon on visa-free travel for Bosnians 18 months ago - with which we succeeded - was to allow travel for study and business in the hope of an economic boost as well as widened horizons.

Sarah Ludford on behalf of the ALDE Group . - Mr President there is some good material in this strategy paper. I fully support one principal theme and that is the importance of coherence. This is necessary not only across the range of external policies but also in the form of consistency with our internal record.

The EU cannot argue against torture and disappearance in the war on terror as effectively as is necessary when it has failed to fully clean house on our own collusion in secret prisons and rendition flights.

Sarah Ludford on behalf of the ALDE Group . - Mr President we are told that detention conditions are a national responsibility. It is shocking then that over one third of Member States have not ratified the Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture which establishes a system of inspection visits. We should be ashamed that the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture is having to take an interest.

Sarah Ludford on behalf of the ALDE Group . - Mr President I congratulate Ms Sippel as rapporteur for leading us to a successful conclusion and I as always welcome the full support and backing of Vice-President Reding.

It is clear that a person who is arrested or questioned is in a vulnerable position and deserves to know their rights and how to apply them but the quality of information provided is often poor. People often do not understand what rights they have and this ignorance is exacerbated by being a foreigner and not speaking the local language. A particular need given that we know that there is discrimination in granting of bail is to know how to contest pre-trial detention.

Sarah Ludford on behalf of the ALDE Group. - Madam President I am privileged to serve as vice-Chair of the Delegation for Relations with the US under the strong leadership of Elmar Brok. My own knowledge and expertise is principally in the area of justice human rights and security. Naturally therefore I put a great deal of emphasis on the parts of our resolution which stress the shared transatlantic values of liberty democracy human rights and the rule of law and also the cooperation we are pursuing to guarantee liberty and security.

Sarah Ludford (ALDE ). - Madam President the EU has a good story to tell about its work to protect children. Earlier this year in the strengthened law on trafficking we included a requirement to appoint a guardian for unaccompanied child victims which hopefully will help to stop their disappearance from care back into the clutches of the trafficking gangs.

The new directive will mean child sex abusers and porn merchants would face a greater prospect of life behind bars. MEPs rightly fought for tougher sentences. It is also very important that we successively insisted on the ability to prosecute EU citizens who go abroad as sex tourists. I heard horror stories on this on a visit to Cambodia a few years ago.