Translation of "consultation and engagement " (English → French) :

4. Affirms Members States’ sovereign right to launch national consultations and engage their citizens in a dialogue on issues which are of great importance and have a direct impact on them; recalls that consultations should reflect the readiness of governments to exercise responsible governance aimed at securing democratic political solutions and respect for fundamental European values;

– (FR) Mr President, Commissioner, rapporteur, first I would like to express my thanks to the rapporteur, Anne Van Lancker, and to the members of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats for the high standard of consultation we engaged in together to come up with this text, which sums up our shared convictions and the way we would like to see the Employment Guidelines change.

39. Welcomes the start of the EU human rights consultations with Russia; supports the Council in its aim of developing those consultations into a frank and genuine EU-Russia Human Rights Dialogue and calls for the involvement of the European Parliament in such a process; calls on the Council to continue urging Russia to agree that European and Russian NGOs be associated with the consultations, given the example of other dialogues on human rights issues; welcomes the Council's debriefing of NGOs on the consultations; however, regrets that there are no systematic consultations with the European Parliament; asks the Council to press Ru ...[+++]ssia to agree to have this dialogue also take place in Russia on an alternating basis and not only when the summits take place in the EU; is concerned that the new Russian NGO legislation will inhibit human rights organisations from carrying out their activities properly whenever respect for human rights is at stake or even from functioning at all; asks the Commission and the Council to raise this issue persistently with Russia, not least in international fora and, in particular, in the Council of Europe, of which Russia takes over the chair of the Committee of Ministers on 19 May 2006; asks the Commission and the Council to raise the issue of extrajudicial killings, disappearances and torture in custody in Chechnya, as well as attacks on human rights defenders engaged in investigating and speaking out about human rights violations in Chechnya;

39. Welcomes the start of the EU human rights consultations with Russia; supports the Council in its intention to develop these consultations into a frank and genuine EU-Russia Human Rights Dialogue and calls for the involvement of the European Parliament in such a process; calls on the Council to continue urging Russia to agree that European and Russian NGOs be associated with the consultations given the example of other dialogues on human rights issues; welcomes the Council's debriefing of NGOs on the consultations, however, regrets that there are no systematic consultations with the European Parliament; asks the Council to press R ...[+++]ussia to agree to have this dialogue also take place in Russia in an alternating manner and not only when the summits take place in the EU; is concerned that the new Russian NGO legislation will inhibit human rights organisations from carrying out their activities properly whenever respect for human rights is at stake or even from functioning at all; asks the Commission and Council to raise this issue persistently with Russia, not least in international forums and, in particular, in the Council of Europe, of which Russia is due to take over the presidency in May 2006; asks Commission and Council to raise the issue of extrajudicial killings, disappearances and torture in custody in Chechnya, as well as attacks faced by human rights defenders engaged in investigating and speaking out about human rights violations in Chechnya;

39. Welcomes the start of the EU human rights consultations with Russia; supports the Council in its aim of developing those consultations into a frank and genuine EU-Russia Human Rights Dialogue and calls for the involvement of the European Parliament in such a process; calls on the Council to continue urging Russia to agree that European and Russian NGOs be associated with the consultations, given the example of other dialogues on human rights issues; welcomes the Council's debriefing of NGOs on the consultations; however, regrets that there are no systematic consultations with the European Parliament; asks the Council to press Ru ...[+++]ssia to agree to have this dialogue also take place in Russia on an alternating basis and not only when the summits take place in the EU; is concerned that the new Russian NGO legislation will inhibit human rights organisations from carrying out their activities properly whenever respect for human rights is at stake or even from functioning at all; asks the Commission and the Council to raise this issue persistently with Russia, not least in international fora and, in particular, in the Council of Europe, of which Russia takes over the chair of the Committee of Ministers on 19 May 2006; asks the Commission and the Council to raise the issue of extrajudicial killings, disappearances and torture in custody in Chechnya, as well as attacks on human rights defenders engaged in investigating and speaking out about human rights violations in Chechnya;

The incentives to engage professional expertise range from offering SMEs a reimbursement of 50% of the costs for a business consultant (limited to a set number of consulting days), to providing special tax incentives for e-business related consultation services.