This debate takes place against an extremely sombre background.

It's a sombre site but then, it is in a graveyard.

After Finduilas' death in , Denethor became sombre, cold and detached from his family.

To date, we have mainly sent out a negative signal and a sombre message.

Jackson said the film transcended its clichéd setup to become a wonderfully resourceful and sombre comedy .

The truth that emerges from a careful reading of the report is any thing but sombre.

Such sombre descriptions can hardly convince anyone to pack a suitcase and come to vacation in Ukraine.

I feel as if nothing could ever touch me, he said in a tone of sombre conviction.

Mr President, I think yesterday' s episode and today' s represent another sombre period for our Parliament.

By this point, the sombre mood of the music had a profound effect on the attitude of the band.

I hope that Milosevic, who is first among those responsible, is not now taking encouragement for his sombre plans.

Sombre days came, when vve worked here and there, in wind and rain, in a hapless struggle to survive.

Mr Annan should know that he has the full and determined support of the European Parliament in these sombre and testing times.

In short, the future presents a sombre picture if govern ment ministers like this are going to have to implement Mr Verhagen's recommendations.

Notwithstanding the self congratulation of the European Union's governing bodies, a rather sombre picture emerges from the situation of the Central and Eastern European candidate countries.

But it isn't all sweetness and light this may be a palace, but it's empty and cold a sombre curtain shrouds the cradle there are shadows creeping in...

Mr President, colleagues, after this rehearsal, sombre it is true, but also realistic, of the Community budget ary situation, some people might be surprised that the Commission is being granted discharge.

Apart from certain possible problems in the milkproducts sector, I feel able to take a much less sombre view of that situation than is the case with butter and skimmed milk powder.

If we of the North are not sensible enough to respond to these needs, we shall leave behind a sombre legacy to our children, for it is true that the develop ment of North and South are interdependent.

Yet, despite the open and sound communication we have had with the Portuguese President, Mr Peneda, the final assessment is after all a sombre one, for no decision has as yet been taken on the truly important proposals.

The fact that a number of inconsistencies have survived in the Cotonou Agreement and the unwillingness to reduce underdevelopment if this means abandoning self interest put the rapporteur in a sombre mood regarding the outcome of the development project.

The anthem usually prefaces The Queen's Christmas Message (although in 2007 it appeared at the end, taken from a recording of the 1957 television broadcast), and important royal announcements, such as of royal deaths, when it is played in a slower, sombre arrangement.

CASSIDY (ED). Mr President, I rise on behalf of my group to be rather sombre because I do not think things are going nearly as well as they should be in the implementation and enforcement of European Community legislation on the basis of what has been achieved so far.

I also think that it is necessary for Turkey, in the same ambitious way as Germany, to deal with the dark and sombre chapters of its twentieth century history. It is not acceptable for Turkey to go on denying the Armenian genocide of one and a half million Christians.

A feeble burst of many voices mingled with the tinkle of silver and glass floated up from the dining room below through the open door the outer edge of the light from my candle fell on his back faintly beyond all was black he stood on the brink of a vast obscurity, like a lonely figure by the shore of a sombre and hopeless ocean.

There are four of five major innovative objectives which must be examined in conjunction also with the national parliaments, at the same time enabling the public to orientate itself vis à vis Community law. Codification is an essential question, and without it the very transparency of this Community, which moreover has never been brilliant, is in danger of being very opaque and very sombre.

I felt this while I sat with my face over the paper and he fought and gasped, struggling for his breath in that terribly stealthy way, in my room I felt it when he rushed out on the verandah as if to fling himself over and didn't I felt it more and more all the time he remained outside, faintly lighted on the background of night, as if standing on the shore of a sombre and hopeless sea.

I believe that it is vital for this Parliament to be made aware of the sombre reality that providing less than the 780 enlargement related posts which we have proposed as essential for 2004 would have a major and very negative effect on the Commission's ability to manage the fresh task arising directly from the accession of ten new Member States which, universally and unanimously in Commission, Parliament and Council, we strongly advocate and stoutly support.