ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
7.

Calls on the Commission to ensure that sufficient financial and human resources are available to implement the relevant strategies, including financial support for farmers to apply appropriate agricultural practices for the management of Xylella fastidiosa and its vectors; urges the Commission to promote intensified research efforts without delay, including through increased international networking and by making funds available for research institutes, with a view to increasing scientific knowledge of Xylella fastidiosa and positively identifying the nature of the link between the pathogen, the symptoms and the development of disease;
4.

Is deeply concerned at reports by human rights organisations of increasing political violence and harassment of political opposition, and at the severe restrictions and intimidation faced by human rights defenders, who are often beaten by the police and arrested on false charges; regrets that, since the last elections and the adoption of the new constitution in 2013, little progress has been made with regard to the rule of law and in particular towards reforming the human rights environment;
47.

Emphasises that terrorist organisations and organised criminal groups are increasingly using cyberspace to facilitate all forms of crime and that cybercrime and cyber-facilitated crime constitute a major threat to EU citizens and the EU economy; notes that cybercrime requires a new approach to law enforcement and judicial cooperation in the digital age; points out that new technological developments increase the impact of cybercrime in scale and speed and, therefore, calls on the Commission to perform a thorough analysis of the powers of law enforcement and judicial authorities and their legal and technical capabilities online and offline so as to allow them to tackle cybercrime effectively, while underlining that all enforcement measures have to strictly respect fundamental rights, be necessary and proportionate and adhere to EU and national law; calls in particular on the Commission to make sure that the right to use encryption remains intact throughout the European Union and that, while the interception of communications in the context of a police investigation or judicial procedure can always be possible with the appropriate judicial authorisation, no measures interfering with the right of individuals to use encryption shall be implemented by Member States; asks the Commission to give the Europol Internet Referral Unit the additional resources necessary for its functioning rather than proceeding by internal redeployments of posts, including staff of the European Centre against Cybercrime (EC3), which must not be left understaffed;
5.

Calls on the Government of Nepal and the international community to ensure that children who have been separated from their families are reunited with them as quickly as possible and to place children at the heart of the humanitarian intervention; calls, furthermore, for special attention to be paid to the particularly vulnerable situation of children, including the many cases of malnutrition and the risks of abuse and trafficking; stresses the importance of bringing children back to school;
36.

Proposes that the Commission maintain entrepreneurship education and training as one of the objectives of a future Erasmus+ programme in the next financial period (post-2020) in all its actions, including mobility, to contain the following elements: (i) careful assessment of the impact of existing measures promoting entrepreneurship through education and training and potentially adapt them, while paying special attention to the impact on under-represented and disadvantaged groups; (ii) promotion of better-defined learning contents and tools for formal and non-formal education targeting all students — both theoretical modules and practical modules, such as student entrepreneurial projects; (iii) support for the initial qualifications of teachers, educators, youth workers, coaches and education leaders, and their continuing professional development and empowerment in the entrepreneurship education area; (iv) promotion of partnerships between educational institutions, enterprises, non-profit organisations, regional and local authorities and non-formal education providers, in order to devise suitable courses and provide students with the requisite practical experience and models; (v) development of skills in the areas of entrepreneurial processes, financial literacy, ICT literacy and skills, creative thinking, creativity, creative utility, problem- solving and an innovative mindset, self-confidence, confidence in one’s ideas, adaptability, team-building, project management, risk assessment and risk-taking, as well as specific business skills and knowledge; (vi) removal of all the physical and digital obstacles which people with a disability still have to contend with, since their full integration into the job market could be of key importance to the promotion of a sustainable and cohesive business culture; (vii) highlighting of non-formal and informal learning as a privileged environment to acquire entrepreneurship competences;
6.

Recalls that the EU’s partnership with Burundi is governed by the Cotonou Agreement, and that all parties are bound to respect and implement the terms of that agreement, in particular respect for human rights; notes that Burundi has also signed and ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and therefore has an obligation to respect universal human rights and freedom of expression; calls on the Government of Burundi, therefore, to allow genuine and open political debate to take place without fear of intimidation, and to refrain from misusing the judiciary to exclude political rivals;
15.

Recognises that the EU remains far from achieving the targets set in the Europe 2020 strategy, particularly those relating to employment, innovation and the reduction of poverty and social exclusion; notes that the social and solidarity-based economy contributes not only to a more sustainable, smart and inclusive economic model, but also to the European social model, and is part of the single market, deserving to be strongly recognised and supported by the EU and the Member States, as provided for in the constitutions of some Member States and various key EU documents; asks, therefore, that consideration be given to taking the social and solidarity-based economy into account when revising the Europe 2020 strategy, given the significant contribution it can make to meeting the strategy’s goals;
42.

Acknowledges that teachers play a major role in the formation of educational identities and have a significant impact on aspects of gendered behaviour in school; recalls that much has still to be done to empower teachers with regard to how they can best promote gender equality; insists, therefore, on the need to ensure comprehensive initial and ongoing equality training for teachers at all levels of formal and informal education, including peer learning and cooperation with external organisations and agencies, in order to build awareness of the impact of gender roles and stereotypes on their students’ self-confidence and their subject choices during their studies; stresses that girls need to have positive female and male role models in schools and universities so that they can identify and make the best use of their own potential without fear of discrimination or ambiguity on grounds of gender;
14.

Underlines the fact that the subject of data protection and privacy is key in order to promote broad public support for the use of civil RPAS, and is therefore also key in order to facilitate the growth and the safe integration of RPAS into civil aviation, while strictly respecting Directive 95/46/EC on data protection, the right to the protection of private life enshrined in Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (CFR), the right to the protection of personal data enshrined in Article 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU and Article 16 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU); calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that, in the development of any EU policy on RPAS, privacy and data protection guarantees are embedded in line with the principles of necessity and proportionality; calls, in this regard, on the Commission to foster the development of standards on the concepts of privacy by design and privacy by default;
H.

whereas many more children have since gone missing, or have been abducted or recruited to serve as fighters and house workers, with girls being subjected to rape and forced marriage or forced to convert to Islam; whereas since April 2015 some 300 other girls rescued by the Nigerian security forces from terrorist strongholds and around 60 others who managed to escape their captors from another location have described their life in captivity to Human Rights Watch (HRW) as being one of daily violence and terror, plus physical and psychological abuses; whereas, according to the UNSR for Children and Armed Conflict, the armed conflict in north-eastern Nigeria this past year was one of the world’s deadliest for children, with killings, the growing recruitment and use of children, countless abductions and sexual violence against girls; whereas UNICEF says that more than 23 000 children have been separated from their parents and forced from their home by the violence, running to save their lives inside Nigeria or crossing the border to Cameroon, Chad and Niger;
7.

Calls upon all WTO members for speedy ratification and implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement so that it can enter into force in time for MC10; considers that this agreement will bring significant benefits to all WTO members, and in particular to developing countries and to relevant economic operators, by enhancing transparency and legal certainty and reducing the administrative costs and the length of customs procedures, which would in turn enable them to benefit fully from the opportunities provided by the growing prevalence of regional and global supply chains and enable SMEs to take advantage of more open markets; points out that capacity building and technical assistance should continue to be made available to developing and least developed countries, and ought to focus on one-stop shops and the simplification of electronic documentation in order to enable them to increase their production capacities so that they can benefit from a bigger share of the value added in global value chains;
8.

Highlights the vigorous growth of the Chinese economy in the last twenty years and underlines that EU Member States should take greater advantage of the opportunities offered by this economic development; notes the Chinese interest in strategic infrastructure investments in Europe, and underlines the need to cooperate with China and other countries in the region in this respect on projects such as China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the EU’s Juncker Investment Plan, including rail links, seaports and airports; urges the VP/HR and the Commission to reflect on the impact of China’s global investment policy, as well as its investment activities in the EU and its Eastern Neighbourhood; emphasises, in accordance with the previously adopted positions of Parliament and in full respect of INTA competences, the importance of the Bilateral Investment Agreement between the EU and China currently under negotiation; calls for a fully-fledged sustainable development chapter to be included in the BIT which provides for binding commitments with respect to ILO core labour standards and key Multilateral Environmental Agreements; underlines the increasing tendency of European companies to complain that they are victims of capricious regulation and discrimination; stresses the importance of a successful outcome of the ongoing investment agreement negotiations in order to further facilitate investment and implement investment protection, market access, including public procurement, and fair treatment of companies both in Europe and in China; calls for further measures and active follow-up to guarantee more balanced trade relations following the elimination of trade and investment barriers to European companies; calls on China and the EU to further enhance cooperation in order to improve access for SMEs in both market blocs; underlines the EU-China commitment to an open global economy and a fair, transparent and rules-based trade and investment environment, guaranteeing a level playing field and opposing protectionism;
3.

Welcomes the results achieved with the return of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), reconstruction and property restitution, in line with the provisions of Annex VII to the Dayton Agreement; insists on the need for full implementation of the annex and the related strategy in order to ensure a sustainable return and also fair, comprehensive and durable solutions for internally displaced persons, refugees and other war-affected persons; underlines in this regard the need for the sustainable return of Croats, Bosniaks and others into the Republika Srpska; stresses the need to make progress in improving the socio-economic integration of those who have returned; calls for better coordination of efforts at all levels and more attention to be given to the most vulnerable displaced people, including Roma and women victims of violence; notes with regret that, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, there are still about 7 000 missing people whose fate remains unknown;
80.

Considers that, in view of studies estimating the annual value of tax fraud and tax avoidance to up to EUR one trillion (1 000 000 000 000), the Member States must ultimately tackle and restrict this practice; takes the view that reducing tax fraud and tax avoidance is fundamental to progress on the consolidation of state budgets; welcomes the recent adoption by the finance ministers of the G20 of new rules drawn up by the OECD on base erosion and profit shifting, which will improve transparency, close loopholes and restrict the use of tax havens; takes the view that, given its degree of integration, the EU must go further than the proposals presented in the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project in terms of coordination and convergence aimed at avoiding all forms of harmful tax competition within the internal market; stresses, however, that the OECD approach is still based on soft law, and that its action must be complemented by a proper legislative framework at EU level if it is to address the needs of the single market, e.g. in the form of an anti-BEPS directive going beyond the OECD BEPS initiative in areas that are not sufficiently covered; calls for an assessment of the economic, financial and competition-related impact of tax avoidance and tax fraud;
11.

Emphasises that, while islands face constraints, they also benefit from a territorial potential, which should be used as an opportunity for development, growth and job creation; stresses the importance of low tax and red tape reduction policies as key incentives for attracting investment; mentions, in this context, the development of sustainable tourism in addition to seasonal tourism, focusing on the promotion of cultural heritage and specific artisanal economic activities; stresses also the huge potential of ocean, wind and solar energy and the potential of islands to become important sources of alternative energy, to be as energy-autonomous as possible and, above all, to guarantee cheaper energy supplies for their inhabitants;
AE.

whereas access to housing is a fundamental right that can be seen as a precondition for the exercise of, and access to, other fundamental rights and for access to a life in conditions of human dignity; whereas guaranteeing access to assistance for decent and adequate housing is an international obligation incumbent on the Member States, to which the Union must have regard, given that the right of access to housing and to housing assistance is recognised in Article 34 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Articles 30 and 31 of the revised European Social Charter adopted by the Council of Europe and Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human rights, as well as in many Member States’ constitutions;
C.

whereas the EPCA will need to be ratified by the parliaments of all 28 EU Member States and by the European Parliament; whereas this agreement will not only strengthen political dialogue between the EU and Kazakhstan and serve to promote mutual trade and investment, but also puts a strong emphasis on international obligations; whereas it can be acknowledged that during the course of the EPCA negotiations improvements were made in terms of civil society engagement through measures taken to involve civil society in public policymaking;
77.

Welcomes the process of reviewing the EIB Complaints Mechanism policy, launched in September 2015, and the public consultation opened for relevant stakeholders; expects that the ongoing revision of the Complaints Mechanism will improve and enhance its independence and effectiveness and will contribute as well to the greater effectiveness and efficiency of the Complaints Mechanism Office; calls on the EIB Management Committee to take on board the recommendations of that office and to act on the opinions of the European Ombudsman; calls for a steady flow of information between the EIB Complaints Mechanism Office and the EIB Board of Directors; believes that there is a need to update the Memorandum of Understanding between the EIB and the European Ombudsman in order for the Ombudsman to exercise external scrutiny over the EIB more actively and to improve monitoring procedures and further accountability of the EIB;
7.

Urges the EU in consequence to enhance coherent and structured cooperation on defence research, the industrial base and cyber defence through pooling and sharing and other cooperative projects, in order to use national defence budgets more efficiently, to achieve the collective target of 2 % of defence spending on research and to launch an EU-funded defence research and technology programme in the next multiannual financial framework (MFF); considers that the role of the European Defence Agency (EDA) needs to be strengthened and its resources increased to enable it to act more effectively; considers also that Member States should take more responsibility for building urgently needed European capabilities and contributing to EU strategic autonomy, increase their military research expenditure through the EDA and strengthen the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB) and the European Defence Market (EDM); calls for more transparent and accountable use of security and defence budgets by Member States; calls also on the Member States to ensure that appropriate capabilities for fulfilling the tasks under Article 43 TEU are made available, including for relevant UN peacekeeping missions; considers, furthermore, that European intelligence exchanges should be improved and a true European intelligence and forecasting capacity developed, with the appropriate oversight mechanisms in place;
B.

whereas the European Union and the international community have repeatedly voiced their concern over the situation of human rights in the occupied territories and the systematic persecution of those who do not recognise the new authorities; whereas these so-called authorities have targeted the indigenous community of Crimean Tatars, a majority of whom oppose the Russian takeover of the peninsula and boycotted the so-called referendum on 16 March 2014; whereas Crimean Tatar institutions and organisations are increasingly branded as ‘extremists’ and prominent members of the Crimean Tatar community are, or risk, being arrested as ‘terrorists’; whereas the abuses against Tatars include abduction, forced disappearance, violence, torture and extrajudicial killings that the de facto authorities have failed to investigate and prosecute, as well as systemic legal problems over property rights and registration;
11.

Calls on the Member States, together with the Commission, to guarantee that family rights assigned by public policies, including parental leave, are equal in terms of individual rights and equally accessible for both parents, so as to encourage them to achieve a better work-life balance and in the best interest of their children; stresses that those rights should be individualised as far as possible to help achieve the 75 % employment rate targets for women and men set in the Europe 2020 strategy and to promote gender equality; believes that a certain flexibility should be given to parents in the use of the parental leave, and that it should in no case constitute an obstacle to reaching the 75 % employment rate targets for women and men set in the 2020 strategy; considers that the system adopted by the social partners should promote the solution whereby a significant part of the leave remains non-transferable; underlines that both parents have to be treated in the same way in terms of rights to income and the duration of the parental leave;
1.

Asks the Council and the Commission to take into account the following recommendations: (i) Ensure that the uniformity, integrity and effectiveness of common Union rules will not be adversely affected by the international commitments undertaken by the ratification of or accession to the 2010 HNS Convention in accordance with the settled case law of the Court of Justice (7); (ii) Pay greater attention in this regard to the overlap between the recast of Brussels I Regulation and the 2010 HNS Convention in so far as rules of procedure applicable to claims and actions under the said Convention before courts of state parties are concerned; (iii) Ensure that the possibility for a conflict between the ELD and the 2010 HNS Convention is minimised by taking all appropriate action to ensure that the exclusivity clause under Article 7(4) and (5) of the 2010 HNS Convention, whereby no other claim can be made against the shipowner except in accordance with the said Convention, is fully respected by the ratifying or acceding Member States; (iv) Ensure that the risk is diminished of creating and consolidating a competitive disadvantage for the states that are ready to accede to the 2010 HNS Convention, compared to those who might wish to delay this process and continue to be bound by the ELD only; (v) Ensure the removal of the permanent co-existence of two maritime liability regimes — a Union-based one and an international one — which would result in the fragmentation of Union legislation and, moreover, compromise the clear channelling of liability and could lead to lengthy and costly legal proceedings to the detriment of victims and the shipping industry; (vi) Ensure in that regard that a clear obligation is imposed on Member States to take all necessary steps to achieve a concrete result, namely to ratify or accede to the 2010 HNS Convention within a reasonable timeframe, which should be no longer than two years from the date of entry into force of the Council decision;
R.

whereas in its Scientific Opinion on the safety of caffeine the European Food Safety Authority concluded that insufficient information was available on which to base a safe level of caffeine intake for children but that an intake corresponding to 3 mg per kg of body weight per day would probably not give rise to safety concerns for children and adolescents (6);