European Parliament
Wieland (PPE-DE ).
(DE)
Mr President, I am in something of a crisis as far as the Rules of Procedure are concerned. We are dealing here with explanations of vote. We now have written explanations of vote. They are used to ensure that Parliament does not have to deal with everything.
We now come to Explanation 5/2003. In the English version, there is a reference to ‘crimes’, while the German version has ‘
Verbrechen
’. In the German text a
Verbrechen
is an offence
(Straftat)
carrying a penalty of at least one year’s imprisonment. I believe this to be too strong a term, and therefore when I signed I added, ‘I sign this subject to the reservation that the correct translation would be
Straftat
’. The same problem occurs in Danish:
Forbrydelser
also means
Verbrechen.
I would ask you to pass on the question to the Committee on the Rules of Procedure as to how we should proceed in such a case. The interpreter was in despair and said that 260 people had already signed and he could not now replace the German and Danish language versions. In any case I should like to make it quite clear for the Minutes that my signature was not given for
Verbrechen
, but for the correct translation of the English word ‘crime’, which is
Straftat,
a term that includes both
Verbrechen
and
Vergehen

