ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
44.

Asks the ECB to ensure the independence of the members of its internal Audit Committee; urges the ECB, in order to prevent conflicts of interest, to publish declarations of financial interests for its Governing Council members; urges the ECB to ensure that the Ethics Committee is not chaired by a former President or other past members of the Governing Council of the ECB, nor by anyone liable to conflict of interest; calls the ECB Governing Council to follow the EU Staff Regulations and Code of Conduct and require a two-year professional abstention period for its outgoing members after the conclusion of their mandate; stresses that the members of the Executive Board of the ECB should in principle abstain from being simultaneous members of forums or other organisations which include executives from banks supervised by the ECB, unless such membership is in line with established practice at global level and the ECB participates alongside other central banks such as the United States Federal Reserve or the Bank of Japan; considers that in these cases the ECB should take appropriate measures to avoid possible interference with its supervisory role and should not participate in discussions regarding individual banks under its supervision; takes note of the recommendations of the European Ombudsman of 15 January 2018 regarding the involvement of the President of the European Central Bank and the members of its decision-making bodies in the ‘Group of Thirty’;
6.

Stresses that opponents in exile must be able to return safely and without conditions, and that every citizen must have the right to stand as a candidate in the elections; welcomes the creation, with the participation of the African Union (AU), the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the UN, of a coordinated team of experts in charge of supporting the implementation of the electoral process and facilitating the mobilisation of financial, logistical and technical assistance to the DRC; supports the contribution of the EU to the DRC electoral process, and calls on the EU to condition any electoral funding on the realisation by the Congolese Government of concrete measures showing the demonstrable political will to hold elections on 23 December 2018, including — in particular — the publication of a realistic electoral budget, as well as guarantees concerning all fundamental rights and freedoms for all political parties and civil society organisations;
5.

Welcomes the fact that the Banking Union has improved the exchange of relevant information between supervisory authorities and has improved the collection and exchange of data on the European banking system, contributing for example to better benchmarking and enabling a more holistic supervision of cross-border banking groups; welcomes the excellent work of the JSTs; notes that the Commission has identified areas for improvement concerning exchange of information and coordination between the ECB’s banking supervision and the SRB, in particular as regards the crucial issues of whether an institution is eligible for precautionary recapitalisation and whether it is failing or likely to fail; notes that the current memorandum of understanding between the ECB and the SRB is not comprehensive enough to ensure that the SRB has all the information it requires from the ECB to perform its tasks in a timely and efficient manner; invites the ECB and the SRB to use the opportunity offered by the current discussions on the update of the memorandum of understanding between them in order to close existing gaps and improve the effectiveness of resolution actions; calls for an improvement of the practical modalities of cooperation and exchange of information between supervisory and resolution authorities, which is crucial for the smooth and effective conduct of resolution actions, and between all European and national bodies involved in early intervention and resolution; calls on the ECB and the SRB to keep improving their day-to-day cooperation and strengthening their working relationship; would welcome, in this respect, change in the relevant SSM Regulation to allow a representative of the Single Resolution Board to be a permanent observer at meetings of the Supervisory Board of the SSM; calls for an interinstitutional agreement between the ECB and the ECA to specify the exchange of information between both institutions in respect of their respective mandates as defined in the Treaties;
8.

Expresses its solidarity and full support to the people of Venezuela who are suffering the effects of a severe humanitarian crisis; calls for immediate agreement to be reached on a humanitarian emergency access plan for the country, and calls on the Venezuelan authorities to allow unimpeded humanitarian aid as a matter of urgency, and to grant permission to international organisations that wish to assist the public; calls for the rapid implementation of a short-term response to counter malnutrition among the most vulnerable groups, such as children; calls for the EU to help neighbouring countries, and in particular Colombia, to address the situation of the Venezuelan refugees; calls on the Venezuelan Government to provide Venezuelans living abroad and entitled to receive such social security rights with their pensions;
11.

Maintains, however, that such denunciation must not mark the end of cooperation between the EU and the Comoros in the fisheries sector; urges the Commission to seek to ensure that this relationship can be reactivated as soon as possible, proceeding from the premise that fishing communities and small-scale artisanal fisheries should be considered central to the country’s development and that, to that end, investment and technical assistance should be promoted in the following areas: — fisheries administration and governance system, legislation, institutional machinery, capacity-building for human resources (fishers, scientists, inspectors and others), and enhancement of the commercial and cultural value of traditional Comorian gear and fish; — monitoring and scientific capacities, coastal protection capacity, and capacities for inspection, surveillance, and quality control; — setting up facilities for refrigerating, distributing, and processing fish; — construction and upgrading of landing and security infrastructure at ports and harbours; — renewal of the Comorian small-scale fleet to improve safety, its ability to remain at sea, and fishing capacity;
25.

Calls on the Commission to establish a large-scale, long-term coordinated funding programme for research, development and innovation in the field of language technologies, at European, national and regional levels, tailored specifically to Europe’s needs and demands; emphasises that the programme should seek to tackle deep natural language understanding and increase efficiency by sharing knowledge, infrastructures and resources, with a view to developing innovative technologies and services, in order to achieve the next scientific breakthrough in this area and help to reduce the technology gap between European languages; stresses that this should be done with the participation of research centres, academia, enterprises (particularly SMEs and start-ups) and other relevant stakeholders; further stresses that this project should be open, cloud-based and interoperable and provide highly scalable and high-performance basic tools for a number of language technology applications;
6.

Notes with deep concern the warning in various UN reports that the Gaza Strip may become unliveable by 2020; deplores in particular that the health sector is close to collapse, with hospitals facing severe shortages of medicine, equipment and electricity; calls for an immediate and meaningful international effort for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Gaza, with the aim of easing the humanitarian crisis; applauds the work of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) providing food assistance, access to education and healthcare, and other vital services to the 1,3 million Palestine refugee population in the area;
18.

Considers that, in line with Article 20(2) of REACH (completeness check of registration), ECHA should not grant market access to chemicals with incomplete and inadequate registration dossiers and should make sure that the necessary information is generated as soon as possible; recalls that it is crucial that the information provided for registration dossiers is accurate, adequate, reliable, relevant and trustworthy; calls on ECHA to step up its efforts in the context of Article 41 of REACH (compliance check of registration), so as to end the situation of non-compliant dossiers and to ensure that no market access is granted to chemicals with non-compliant registration dossiers; calls on registrants and the Member States to play their part in ensuring that REACH registration dossiers are compliant and kept up to date;
26.

Underlines the very important and positive role of European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) programmes, and in particular cross-border cooperation programmes, in the economic and social development and cohesion of border regions including maritime and external border regions; welcomes the fact that in the Commission’s MFF proposal for 2021-2027, ETC is preserved as an important objective, with a more distinct role within cohesion policy post-2020, calls for a significantly increased budget, particularly for the cross-border component; underlines the perceptible European added value of ETC and calls on the Council to adopt the appropriations proposed in this regard; underlines at the same time the need to simplify the programmes, ensure better coherence of ETC with the overall goals of the EU and give the programmes the flexibility to better address local and regional challenges, reducing the administrative burdens for beneficiaries and facilitating more investment in sustainable infrastructure projects through cross-border cooperation programmes; calls on authorities in cross-border regions to make more intensive use of the support provided through these programmes;
11.

Considers that the EU-NATO Joint Declaration and the subsequent implementation actions mark a new and substantive phase of the strategic partnership; welcomes the tangible results in the implementation of the Joint Declaration, in particular regarding countering hybrid threats, strategic communications, coherence of output in the respective defence planning processes and maritime cooperation; encourages further progress and welcomes the new set of actions that were added on 5 December 2017, in particular those regarding counter-terrorism, military mobility and women, peace and security; welcomes the change in the culture of engagement and the smooth functioning of staff-to-staff cooperation in the implementation of each action; reiterates that although the process itself is governed by institutions, the success of the implementation of agreed common goals and actions depends on the sustained political will of all Member States; welcomes in this context the engagement also of Members of both the EU and NATO and emphasises that successful implementation of the Joint Declaration depends on the political will of all Member States throughout; considers it important to strengthen a better EU-NATO cooperation and dialogue and to ensure political will and proper resources for continued implementation and further improvement of cooperation; looks forward to a new EU-NATO declaration to be adopted at the NATO Summit in Brussels on 11-12 July 2018;
60.

Underscores the potential of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) as an alternative investment instrument in funding SMEs and innovative start-ups and to accelerate technology transfer; stresses that lack of clarity with regard to the legal framework applicable to ICOs can negatively affect their potential; recalls that legal certainty can be instrumental in increasing investor and consumer protection and reducing the risks stemming from asymmetric information, fraudulent behaviour, illegal activities such as money laundering and tax evasion, and other risks as highlighted by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in its 2017 report on ICOs; calls on the Commission to provide guidelines, standards and disclosure requirements, especially in the case of utility tokens that qualify more as a distinct asset class and less as a security;
28.

Notes that access to land is one of the main barriers to young farmers and new entrants to farming in the EU and is limited by the low supply of land for sale or rent in many regions, as well as by the competition from other farmers, investors and residential users, and problems in obtaining financing; believes that the circumstances limiting access to land in each Member State should be further studied; considers that the land access problem is exacerbated by the current direct payment structure, which may lead to higher land rental costs and purchase prices, requires minimal active use of the land and allocates subsidies largely on the basis of land ownership; believes that some farmers, whether owners or tenants, are incentivised to remain active in order to continue to benefit from subsidies by using service providers to enhance their land or by doing the minimum of work on their land; recommends increasing the activity levels required, taking into account new farming models, when allocating payments targeting support towards the achievement of particular outcomes (e.g. real working time spent farming, taking into account also new innovations, production of specific environmental or social goods), and prohibiting the combining of subsidies with the payment of a retirement pension, for which there is no justification;
23.

Strongly regrets that current programming appears to sideline the gender dimension in situations of crisis or difficult conflicts, which, among other outcomes, has meant that girls and women who are victims of war rape do not have access to non-discriminatory care, and specifically to comprehensive medical care; calls on the Commission to systematically implement GAP II in humanitarian settings where it must provide non-discriminatory access to medical services, and to actively inform its humanitarian partners that the Commission’s policy foresees that, in cases where pregnancy threatens a woman’s or a girl’s life or causes suffering, international humanitarian law may justify offering a safe abortion; urges that the provision of humanitarian aid by the EU and the Member States should not be subject to restrictions imposed by other partner donors regarding necessary medical treatment, including access to safe abortion for women and girls who are victims of rape in armed conflicts; welcomes the fact that many EUDs have focused on combating violence against women; insists in this context on the need to ensure the protection of the right to life and dignity of all women and girls by actively combating harmful practices such as gendercide; highlights that the use of rape as a weapon of war and oppression must be eliminated, and that the EU must bring pressure to bear on third-country governments and all stakeholders implicated in regions where such gender-based violence takes place, in order to bring the practice to an end, bring perpetrators to justice and work with survivors, affected women and communities to help them heal and recover;
5.

Takes note of Opinion 2/15 of the CJEU, of 16 May 2017, establishing that, apart from the question of portfolio investment and the arrangements for investor-state dispute settlement, the FTA with Singapore lies within the exclusive competence of the Union; asks the Commission and the Council to clarify at the earliest possible date their decision on the structure of FTAs in the future and to fully respect this distribution of competences between the EU and its Member States for the adoption of negotiating directives, the negotiations, the legal basis of proposals to sign and conclude, and in particular for the Council’s signature and conclusion of international trade agreements, in order not to further delay any agreed but not yet ratified trade deals with trade partners; points out that Parliament must be involved and must be kept fully informed from the onset of all trade negotiations, prior to the adoption of negotiating guidelines, in a timely manner, at all stages of the mandate conferral, and of the negotiation and implementation of trade agreements; demands that the necessary arrangements to be made through an interinstitutional agreement in the context of the Better Law-Making agreement;
22.

Points out that the transfer of personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade-union membership, genetic data or data concerning a person’s health and sex life is extremely sensitive and gives rise to profound concerns given the different legal framework, societal characteristics and cultural background of Turkey compared with the European Union; highlights the fact that criminal acts are defined differently in the Union from in Turkey; is of the opinion that such a transfer of data should therefore only take place in very exceptional cases and with clear safeguards for the data subject and persons linked to the data subject; considers it necessary to define specific safeguards that would need to be respected by Turkey as regards fundamental rights and freedoms, including respect for freedom of expression, freedom of religion and human dignity;
19.

Points out that the transfer of personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade-union membership, genetic data or data concerning a person’s health and sex life is extremely sensitive and gives rise to profound concerns given the different legal framework, societal characteristics and cultural background of the Kingdom of Morocco compared with the European Union; highlights the fact that criminal acts are defined differently in the Union from in the Kingdom of Morocco; is of the opinion that such a transfer of data should therefore only take place in very exceptional cases and with clear safeguards for the data subject and persons linked to the data subject; considers it necessary to define specific safeguards that would need to be respected by the Kingdom of Morocco as regards fundamental rights and freedoms, including respect for freedom of expression, freedom of religion and human dignity;
9.

Welcomes the agreement on the Veterinary Medicinal Products Regulation reached on 5 June 2018; welcomes the provisions laid down to restrict the use of antibiotics for meta- and prophylaxis; recalls its position on preventive measures and the EMA/EFSA joint scientific opinion ( 8 ) calling for: the use of breeding stock that grows more healthily and slowly, stocking densities that do not increase the risk of disease, smaller groups, isolation of sick animals (Article 10 of Regulation (EU) 2016/429), and implementation of existing welfare laws; trusts that the regulation will facilitate the much-needed action on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and stimulate innovation in the field of veterinary medicine; considers that the European poultry sector and national authorities are undertaking initiatives to reduce the use of antibiotics through the modernisation of poultry farms;
4.

Calls for the projected increase in journeys and in the volumes transported up to 2030 to be taken into account in order to calculate the scale and appropriately equip the new infrastructure; stresses the importance of the technological advances that are already under way or in the pipeline in the fields of batteries, hydrogen and energy storage, and stresses the need to take account of these advances in the strategic choices that are to be made; notes that new infrastructure must be adaptable to changes, both in terms of volumes and in terms of technologies; stresses, for example, that a massive increase in the number of electric vehicles coupled with an increase in the range of those vehicles to 400 km will have an impact on the deployment density of the network of charging stations, as well as on the type of charging required;
12.

Expresses serious concern at the annulment of the Transition Accord, which is due to take effect on 30 November 2018; notes that the RCC does not yet have the capacity to monitor and enforce health and safety requirements, with the serious implications for the safety and rights of factory workers that this entails; urges the Government of Bangladesh to immediately recognise and implement the Transition Accord and show greater readiness to take over all of the functions of the accord; calls on donors to support the Government of Bangladesh in order to make this possible; further calls on the Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) to continue their capacity-building work with the RCC;
15.

Is shocked at the amount of EU-made weapons and ammunition found in the hands of Da’esh in Syria and Iraq; notes the failure of Bulgaria and Romania to effectively apply the Common Position in relation to retransfers that contravene end-user certificates; calls on all Member States to refuse similar transfers in the future, notably to the US and Saudi Arabia, and calls on the EEAS and the Member States, in particular Bulgaria and Romania, to explain, in the context of COARM but also in public before Parliament’s Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE), what steps have been taken on this matter; calls on the EEAS to address the many cases revealed by the recent Conflict Armament Research report, and to explore more effective methods for diversion risk assessment in COARM and other relevant fora, including, in the context of the review process, making it obligatory for Member States to deny an export licence if there is a clear risk that the military technology or equipment to be exported might be diverted; decides to launch an investigation into this matter;
B.

whereas the completion of the Schengen evaluation process for Bulgaria and Romania and the state of preparedness of the two countries to implement all the provisions of the Schengen acquis were confirmed by SCH-EVAL experts, and by the Council in its conclusions of 9 and 10 June 2011; whereas in its draft decision of 8 July 2011, the Council verified that the necessary conditions for the application of the Schengen acquis had been met in all areas, namely data protection, air borders, land borders, police cooperation, the Schengen Information System, sea borders and visas; whereas in addition to the challenge of managing external borders of the European Union, the completion of the Schengen evaluation process has entailed both countries fundamentally restructuring their border surveillance systems and investing in increased law enforcement capacity; whereas according to the 2005 Act of Accession, the successful completion of the Schengen evaluation procedures is the only prerequisite for the full application of the Schengen acquis, including the abolition of checks at internal land, sea and air borders; whereas Bulgaria and Romania’s state of preparedness to apply the Schengen acquis in full has been acknowledged by heads of state and government in the Council on multiple occasions, as well as by the Commission and Parliament, most recently in the Commission communication of 27 September 2017 and Parliament’s resolution of 30 May 2018;