ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
50.

Recalls that according to Article 17(7) of the TEU, ‘taking into account the elections to the European Parliament and after having held the appropriate consultations, the European Council, acting by a qualified majority, shall propose to the European Parliament a candidate for President of the Commission’; underlines its determination to continue with the Spitzenkandidaten process for the election of the next Commission President in line with the Lisbon Treaty, and welcomes the support of the Commission and certain Member States in this respect; stresses that in the process of the investiture of the President of the Commission, proper consultations with Parliament are of paramount importance, as, after the elections, it will determine the candidate which can be backed by a majority of its component Members and will transmit the result of its internal deliberations to the European Council; recalls that the candidate must have been designated as a Spitzenkandidat by one of the European political parties and must have campaigned for the post of President of the Commission in the run-up to the European elections; considers that this practice has amply proved its worth, strengthening the societal legitimacy of the European elections and the supranational role of the European Parliament as an exponent of European citizenship and European democracy; warns once again that Parliament will be ready to reject any candidate in the investiture procedure of the President of the Commission who was not appointed as a Spitzenkandidat in the run-up to the European elections;
J.

whereas the surveillance and control measures in Tibet have been on the increase over the past few years, as well as arbitrary detentions, acts of torture and ill-treatment; whereas the Chinese Government has created an environment in Tibet in which there are no limits to state authority, the climate of fear is pervasive, and every aspect of public and private life is tightly controlled and regulated; whereas in Tibet, any acts of non-violent dissent or criticism of state policies with regard to ethnic or religious minorities can be considered as ‘splittist’ and therefore criminalised; whereas access to the Tibet Autonomous Region today is more restricted than ever before;
13.

Takes note of the establishment of the International Contact Group, which must be prevented from being used by Maduro’s illegal regime as a strategy to delay the resolution of the crisis with the aim of staying in power; notes the lack of any tangible results delivered so far by the contact group, whose main purpose should be the creation of conditions that can lead to snap presidential elections and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance to address the pressing needs of the Venezuelan population; asks the International Contact Group to collaborate with the Lima Group, as a leading regional actor; asks, in this framework, the EEAS, in collaboration with the European Parliament, to offer its expertise in the field of electoral assistance;
6.

Welcomes the Commission Notice of 8 November 2016 clarifying that the EU legislator’s intention when adopting Directive 98/44/EC was to exclude from patentability products that are obtained through essentially biological processes; welcomes the alignment by contracting states of the EPC of their law and practice, and the decision of the Administrative Council of the EPO to clarify the scope and meaning of Article 53(b) EPC regarding exceptions to patentability;
M.

whereas the 2014 survey by the FRA showed that one third of all women in Europe have experienced physical or sexual acts of violence at least once since the age of 15, that 55 % of women have been confronted with one or more forms of sexual harassment, 11 % have experienced cyber harassment, 1 in 20 (5 %) have been raped and more than one tenth have suffered sexual violence involving the use of force; whereas in many Member States over half of all female murder victims are killed by an intimate partner, relative or family member; whereas victims had reported their most serious incidents of partner violence to the police in only 14 % of cases, and the most serious incidents of non-partner violence in only 13 % of cases, which proves a vast ratio of underreporting; whereas the #metoo movement in recent years has encouraged women and girls to report cases of abuse, violence and harassment;
F.

whereas the European Court of Human Rights judgements (Association ‘21 December 1989’ and Others v. Romania; Acatrinei and Others v. Romania; Șandru and Others v. Romania) recognise that massive violations of fundamental rights — such as violations of the right to life, of the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment and of the right to respect for private and family life — had occurred during the revolution, and that these violations had been perpetrated by the forces of the communist dictatorial regime that opened fire on peaceful protesters and deprived a large number of demonstrators against Ceaușescu’s oppression of their liberty; whereas, even after so many years have gone by, neither the victims nor their heirs have learned the truth about the exact circumstances of these tragedies;
12.

Condemns any kind of discrimination or violence on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or sex characteristics; encourages the Commission to come up with an agenda that ensures equal rights and opportunities for all citizens, while respecting the competences of Member States, and to monitor proper transposition and implementation of EU legislation relevant to LGBTI people; welcomes, in that regard, the list of actions prepared by the Commission to advance LGBTI equality, including its communication campaign to fight stereotypes and improve social acceptance of LGBTI people; urges the Commission and the Member States to work in close cooperation with civil society organisations working for the rights of LGBTI people; calls on the Commission to make adequate funding available to support such organisations active at national and local level, in particular, by means of the Rights and Values programme; notes that field research by the FRA shows that public officials see EU law and policy as major drivers in support of national efforts to promote LGBTI equality;
3.

Expresses its deep concern following the publication of the IPCC report on the ocean and cryosphere in a changing climate, which recognises climate change as one of the main direct drivers of biodiversity loss and underlines that its negative effects on nature and biodiversity, ecosystem services, oceans and food security are projected to become increasingly significant in the decades to come; underlines the IPCC’s warning that the health of the ocean and marine ecosystems are currently affected by global warming, pollution, overexploitation of marine biodiversity, rising sea levels, acidification, deoxygenation, marine heat waves, unprecedented glaciers and sea ice melting, coastal erosion, and more frequent natural disasters, which are affecting marine and coastal ecosystems by altering their functioning and accelerating the decline of marine mammals and fisheries, as well as leading to the dramatic disappearance of coral reefs and mangroves; recalls that the ocean is part of the solution to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change; calls, therefore, for the EU to make the ocean one of its priorities in its Biodiversity Strategy, and calls on all Parties to the CBD (‘Parties’) to recognise the ocean as a common good of humanity in order to develop a new approach that places individual and collective responsibilities well above the traditional principles of freedom and ownership of the ocean in order to ensure its preservation;
77.

Invites the Council to adopt Parliament’s position on Article 5 of the future regulation on the EDF; underlines the need to finalise the EDF without delay; points out that this instrument has not yet been finally approved, with only partial and political agreement having been given in April 2019; stresses the importance of maintaining Parliament’s position concerning the amount of the EDF, the involvement of third countries and the establishment of an appropriate intellectual property policy in relation to security and defence in order to protect research results; recalls that the European defence market is remarkably open to third-country providers; reaffirms that the EDF can in no way be confused with any sort of protectionist instrument; calls on allied countries of the European Union to consider a reciprocal opening-up of their defence markets; draws attention, in that connection, to the highly sensitive and strategic nature of defence research, both for industrial competitiveness and for the strategic autonomy of the Union; calls for the initial lessons learned from the implementation of the EDIDP (in particular concerning the application of derogations for eligible entities), the pilot project and the preparatory action on defence research to be properly taken into account; calls on the Member States to be fully involved in the decision-making process as they are the final clients of the defence industries, in order to ensure that the programmes included address the strategic needs of the CSDP and the Member States; considers that the success of the EDF will depend on its ability to cater for the specific defence needs of the participating states, to promote defence material which can be deployed and to guarantee the availability of sufficient budgetary resources, while ensuring that industrial know-how is not duplicated, national defence investment is complemented, and cooperation does not become over-complicated and is based on common EU armament and military equipment standardisation and interoperability; considers that developing the European defence industry by regulating access for entities controlled by non-EU third parties to projects financed by the Fund is fully consistent with the European ambition of strategic autonomy and does not contravene the security and defence interests of the EU and its Member States;
9.

Urges the Commission to ensure that consumers are no longer obliged to buy new chargers with each new device, thereby reducing the volume of chargers produced per year; considers that decoupling strategies would allow for greater environmental benefits; stresses meanwhile that any measure aiming at decoupling should avoid potentially higher prices for consumers; underlines, furthermore, that decoupling strategies should be introduced with a common charger solution, as otherwise the aims of the directive would not be achieved;
12.

Notes that the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) does not contain a separate trade and sustainable development (TSD) chapter, as the latter applies to investment market access under the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EUVFTA); stresses that the EVIPA also contains a provision establishing an institutional and legal link to the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation (PCA), as well as specific references in its preamble to the TSD values and principles, as enshrined in the EUVFTA, and to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, thereby ensuring that human rights are placed at the core of the EU-Vietnam relationship; underlines that the Parties and investors must respect all the relevant international human rights standards and obligations; stresses the responsibilities of investors as outlined in the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights; points out, in addition, that the provisions of the EVIPA and the EUVFTA must be implemented in a complementary manner, especially with regard to human, environmental and social rights and sustainable development when these are applied under the Parties’ right to regulate; stresses the need, moreover, to ensure consistency with development cooperation objectives under Article 208 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU);
L.

whereas Parties are obliged to ensure that a child is not to be separated from their parents against their will, except when competent authorities subject to judicial review, determine in accordance with applicable law and procedures, that such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child; whereas such a determination may be necessary in a particular case such as one involving abuse or neglect of the child by the parents, or one where the parents are living separately and a decision must be made as to the child’s place of residence;
B.

whereas under Article 35 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union everyone has ‘the right to benefit from medical treatment under the conditions established by national laws and practices’, while other international human rights instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, recognise or refer to the right to health or elements of it, such as the right to medical care;
45.

Welcomes the strengthening of EU defence cooperation in the framework of the CSDP; believes that the growing importance of the EU level in arms production needs to go hand in hand with increased transparency; believes that there is still room for improvement in this area, particularly as regards the quality and uniformity of the data submitted by Member States; takes the view that the definition of a ‘European capabilities and armaments policy’ as foreseen in Article 42(3) TEU needs to be in line with Common Position 2008/944/CFSP; believes that increased convergence of common rules and standards of transparency of arms exports and technology fosters confidence-building among Member States and third-country partners; welcomes the efforts of COARM, in particular the guide to implementation of the Common Position by the Member States in terms of cooperation, coordination and convergence; notes that the COARM information exchange system and the guide to the implementation of the Common Position are useful day-to-day tools for control authorities; underlines the efforts of Member States to support the work of COARM in promoting exchanges of best practice; recommends to COARM: (a) to add the following additional categories in a revised reporting template, in line with internationally recognised standards, in order to implement the September 2019 Council conclusions: the exact type of weapon and the quantity exported, denomination of the munitions, the lot size and the specific end-user, revoked licences, and the value and duration of contracts regarding post-delivery services such as training and maintenance; to align the EU definition of small arms with the broader UN definition; (b) to develop EU- and internationally recognised definitions such as licensed value and actual exports, so as to facilitate the comparability of data between Member States;
40.

Calls on the Member States to investigate fully and in a transparent manner all reported cases of money laundering and related crime, such as murders and violence against whistleblowers and journalists; reiterates its position on the creation of a Daphne Caruana Galizia prize to be awarded by Parliament; calls on the Maltese authorities to deploy all available resources to identify the instigators of the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, and to further investigate those against whom serious allegations of money laundering are still pending since her reports were confirmed by the Panama Papers revelations; calls on the Maltese authorities, furthermore, to carry out investigations into financial intermediaries linked to Mossack Fonseca that are still operating in Malta, and is concerned by the ineffective self-regulation of the accountancy profession; calls for the extradition of the former owner and chairman of Pilatus Bank to Malta now that charges against him have been dropped by the US Department of Justice as a result of procedural issues, and urges the Maltese authorities to prosecute the banker over allegations of money laundering and other financial crimes;
6.

Reminds the Nicaraguan Government that free, credible, inclusive and transparent elections can only happen if there is no repression, and restoration of the rule of law and the respect of the constitutional rights of all Nicaraguan people materialise, including the right to freedom of expression, assembly, belief and peaceful protest; calls on the Nicaraguan Government to come to an agreement through democratic peaceful and negotiated means with the opposition groups, including the National Coalition, on electoral and institutional reforms necessary to guarantee credible, inclusive, transparent elections, currently scheduled for November 2021, all in accordance with international standards, by also implementing the recommendations of the 2011 EU Electoral Observation Mission, and of the OAS; believes, to that end, that the elections must be observed by duly accredited national and international observers;
7.

Takes note of the fact that the Seychelles fisheries sector, including its artisanal component, has not been sufficiently involved throughout the negotiations; calls for the participation of and dialogue with local communities and fisheries stakeholders to be improved, as much as possible, by keeping them informed and through their systematic inclusion in the implementation of the SFPA, its protocol and future renewal, with a view to ensuring that the interests and the development of the Seychelles fisheries sector are not undermined by the EU-Seychelles SFPA and to avoid a disruption in the activities of artisanal local fisheries;
33.

Highlights the potential dangers to fundamental freedoms and security with regards to the use of new technologies, especially artificial intelligence (AI) systems, including the risks related to the right to protection of personal data and privacy, bioethical concerns related to the use of AI in health care, possible direct and indirect discrimination and biases, potentially exacerbating prejudice and marginalisation and spreading of disinformation; points out that biases in datasets, and in the design and operation of these systems, may lead to biased outputs, particularly when used by law enforcement authorities, which may lead to these systems reproducing existing societal, personal and other biases, and may result in discrimination based on social, economic, ethnic, racial, sexual orientation, gender, disability status or other factors; emphasises that further safeguards are needed to ensure privacy and data protection in light of the development of new technologies, and that any implications for fundamental rights must be considered; calls on the EU institutions and the Member States to address the emerging ‘digital gap’, particularly in the areas of public administration and services; stresses that elderly people, together with those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged are some of the most affected groups by the ‘digital gap’; stresses that the approach to AI should be ‘human-centred’ and ensure that human values are central to the way in which AI systems are developed, deployed, used and monitored, by ensuring respect for fundamental rights set out in the Treaties and the Charter; calls on the Commission to put forward legislative proposals for a coordinated European approach to AI, drawing on Ethics guidelines for trustworthy AI prepared by the Commission's High-Level Expert Group on AI (AI HLEG);
1.

Welcomes the higher turnout in the 2019 European elections, which demonstrates that the trend of decreasing voter turnout in Europe can be reversed, but at the same time expresses disappointment at the continuing high abstention rate and that across the EU almost half of all eligible voters did not cast a vote; recognises the important role of campaigns led by the EU institutions and civil society organisations to increase turnout, in particular Parliament’s ‘This Time I’m Voting’ campaign; stresses that more actions need to be undertaken at local, regional, national and European level to incentivise voters to participate in European elections; considers that this higher turnout shows that an increasing proportion of citizens consider the EU to be the appropriate level at which to address the challenges of our time such as the economy and sustainable growth, climate change and environmental protection, social and gender inequalities, the digital revolution, the promotion of freedom, human rights and democracy, and demography, and geopolitical concerns such as migration and foreign policy, security and the role of the EU in the world; calls for all the EU institutions, therefore, to take responsibility and act upon the mandate they have been given, directly or indirectly, by the citizens;
D.

whereas the suffering of the Uyghurs also extends to the younger generation; whereas according to reports, young children have been sent to state-run orphanages even if only one of their parents has been detained in the internment camps; whereas according to research findings, by the end of 2019, over 880 000 Uyghur children had been placed in boarding facilities; whereas credible research shows that the Chinese authorities have implemented an official scheme of targeted birth prevention measures against Uyghur women in an effort to reduce Uyghur birth rates; whereas, as part of this scheme, the Chinese authorities are systematically subjecting Uyghur women of childbearing age to forced abortions, intrauterine injections and sterilisation, with 80 % of all new intrauterine device (IUD) placements in China in 2018 performed in the Uyghur region, despite the fact that it makes up only 1,8 % of China’s population; whereas such measures to prevent births within the Uyghur population could meet the criteria for belonging to the worst crimes against humanity;
38.

Stresses that the quality and amount of information provided to the applicants during the Dublin procedure is far from satisfactory, varies significantly between countries, and in some cases, within countries; notes that different factors affect compliance with the right of information, such as the quality and clarity of information, access to an interpreter, the availability of translated documents, access to information in due time; recalls that the right to information under Article 4 of the Regulation is essential given the complex nature of Dublin procedures, and for guaranteeing access to a fair examination of an asylum application in the EU; underlines that gaps in this field can attributed to a lack of resources, but also result from deliberate policy choices in certain countries where very few legal representatives have been appointed; urges the Member States, with the support of the Commission and the EASO, to improve the information made available to asylum seekers on complex Dublin procedures, to ensure that it is clear and accessible to everyone, particularly with regard to family reunification, in accordance with Articles 4 and 26 of the Regulation, and access to an effective remedy and legal assistance, in accordance with Article 27;