It is very unfortunate that we have both the Stockholm Group and the European Community.

According to the Chancellor reunification is a German matter arising from the Basic Law.

However, we need first of all to recognize how important German unification is.

I believe that Germany's unification ought to have waited a while till we had given our opinion in proper and due form.

The result would be separate countries and a period of new dependencies would begin.

German unification is a very important background to the 1991 budget.

Finally, Mr President, we feel the Commission should consider what further measures it should take with regard to eliminating cadmium completely and we look forward to further proposals from the Commission as the situation changes and as technical knowledge improves.

And so Parliament will view all the legislative proposals as one single package.

The problems of German unification and the Gulf crisis do not help us in any way whatsoever.

In other words, no changes so far as German unification is concerned at this stage.

We recognize that the debate on German unification and the other items should not be cut short.

The next problem I want to turn to, Mr President, is that concerning German unification.

However, Portuguese workers will still have to wait some years for that freedom to be given to them for other Community countries.

WIJSENBEEK (LDR). (NL) Mr President, joy was and is felt by every democrat, even by those sitting opposite, at the collapse of a baleful system.

ROTHLEY (S), rapporteur. (DE) Mr President, I speak again not because I am self opinionated, but because I want to clarify the situation.

Special account should be taken of this situation in approaching issues relating to the free movement of goods and persons.

For instance the whole area of the stabilization of Hard PVC when used externally has not yet been dealt with, because for the time being the use of cadmium cannot be abandoned here.

But the Commission also states that German unification will have no consequences for the 1990 Community budget.

If we can achieve that, it will be possible to fund the resources to meet many of the problems which we have discussed on a technical level.

He said that after some hesitation about confirmation of the present frontiers of Germany's territory.

That should contribute to more effective protection for man and the environment, as well as to the better operation of the internal market, with the imposition of the same restrictions in that sphere.

I also consider it very important to note that the situation has led to a rapprochement between foreign policies and I believe that the Helsinki process will offer an opportunity to respond to the dramatic situation in the Gulf resulting from the arrogant aggression of Arab fascism, on the basis of a united policy and approach which, I hope, the United Nations will continue to adopt until the time when Kuwait regains its position in international law.

So, for the socialists of the southern countries the challenge of political union runs parallel to that of German unification.

This amendment is not acceptable, for the following reasons the proposal for a directive proposes to prohibit the use of cadmium in three application areas pigments, stabilizers and plating.

On one question Parliament can make a contribution to the further process of German unification' namely, who will represent the people of the GDR in the European Parliament.

My group will be supporting the idea that we should include the revision of the financial perspectives for German unification in the 1991 budget.

We could not receive any comments from the Council because they, sadly, were not in attendance when we were debating German unification.

Of course they will observe, but their presence should in no way influence either the legal nature nor the actual political work of our business.

Although the proposal from the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights that the resources should also be shared among the various policies restricts the Commission, we do not necessarily have to demand a blank cheque for ECU 850 million.

Once somebody has paid value added tax in one Member State, that is it.

Because of German unification we will now see a rapid move to policies which will be adopted on behalf of the whole of the continent of Europe.

EPHREMIDIS (CG). (GR) I have been following with special interest the answers given by the President in Office, but he is applying an odd tactic which has obliged me to put this supplementary, or else I would have not taken the floor.

We do not regard Mr Vittinghoff's proposals for 1995 as being technically feasible and we think that they need far more scrutiny before Parliament votes on them.

VANDEMEULEBROUCKE (ARC). (NL) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I fully understand the desire for German unification.

I should be grateful if, on this particular point, Mrs Schleicher would give us her reactions to the solutions that I have just suggested.

IVERSEN (GUE). (DE) Mr President, we are about to conclude the European Parliament's consideration of the legislation that sets the framework for Germany's reunification.

In Category 1, EAGGF Guarantee, an additional ECU 1 135 billion will have to be entered in the 1991 budget as a result of German unification.

One result of the successful progress towards German unification is that large numbers of troops of the four occupying powers will be withdrawn from the Federal Republic.

Report (A3 313 90) by Mr Lamassoure, on behalf of the Committee on Budgets on the proposal for a revision of the financial perspective.

Before they become permanent, Parliament must fully debate them in all their aspects.

From being the often powerless spectators of German unification, we become, on the occasion of this debate and in the vote tomorrow, the indispensable agents of its success.

Whereas the process of unifying Europe has been under way for nearly forty years making headway, yes, but very slowly and fraught with difficulties the unification of Germany has been achieved in less than a year.

And we cannot overlook the new difficulties consequent on the process of German unification, and logical in any widening of the Community, which could have serious effects on the men and women of the former German Democratic Republic.

Firstly, specific standards concerning toxic gas particulates and emissions secondly, a timetable calling for these standards to be applied from 1992 and thirdly, the laying down of new standards, to enter into force only from 1997 onwards.

At its meeting on 29 August 1990 the enlarged Bureau pointed out that our committee should look into the regulatory consequences associated with the resolution of Parliament on German unification.