ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
In order to meet the objectives of the Programme and to facilitate the lives of citizens and businesses, high-quality user-centric public services need to be put in place. This implies that public administrations will need to start working in new ways, bring down silos between the different parts of their administrations, and to engage in the co-creation of these public services with citizens and businesses. Moreover, the continuous and steady increase of cross-border activities in the internal market requires provision of up-to-date information on the rights of businesses and citizens, but also information explaining the administrative formalities. In addition, provision of legal advice and helping to solve problems which occur at cross national level becomes essential. Furthermore, connecting national administrations in a simple and efficient manner as well as evaluating how the internal market works on the ground is necessary. The Programme should therefore support the following existing internal market governance tools: the Your Europe Portal which should be a backbone of the upcoming Single Digital Gateway, Your Europe Advice, SOLVIT, the Internal Market Information system and the Single Market Scoreboard in order to improve citizens’ daily lives and businesses’ ability to trade across borders.

In order to meet the objectives of the Programme and to facilitate the lives of citizens and businesses, high-quality user-centric public services need to be put in place. This implies that public administrations will need to start working in new ways, bring down silos between the different parts of their administrations, and to engage in the co-creation of these public services with citizens and businesses. Moreover, the continuous and steady increase of cross-border activities in the internal market requires provision of up-to-date information on the rights of businesses and citizens, but also information explaining the administrative formalities. In addition, provision of legal advice and helping to solve problems which occur at cross national level becomes essential. Furthermore, connecting national administrations in a simple and efficient manner as well as evaluating how the internal market works on the ground is necessary. The Programme should therefore support the following existing internal market governance tools: the Your Europe Portal which should be a backbone of the upcoming Single Digital Gateway, Your Europe Advice, SOLVIT, the Internal Market Information system and the Single Market Scoreboard in order to improve citizens’ daily lives and businesses’ ability to trade across borders. In order to ensure that these governance tools are used to their full potential, efforts should also be undertaken to raise awareness, particularly of the Your Europe Portal, among local and regional authorities and other organisations who support citizens and businesses on the ground.
15.

calls on the European Commission to pay special attention to and provide specific support for public and private media and the audiovisual sector that create content and productions, work and provide their services in the co-official and minority languages that exist in the European regions, contributing to the normalisation of these languages and to respect for the cultural diversity of regions, while safeguarding the linguistic rights of their inhabitants. Such support, which should take the form of specific funding for these media, is particularly necessary to enable them to implement their digital transformation and thus guarantee a permanent place for them in the digital environment;
73.

supports coordinated preparation measures and a coordinated structure for effective action. The local and regional perspective must be integrated from the very beginning. The CoR recommends implementing the Baltic Master Project Action Plan through preventive preparation planning, developing and improving coastal area planning throughout the Baltic Sea Region as well as improving supervision of shipping movements in the Baltic Sea; draws attention in this context to the Regulation on single hull oil tankers (2) and welcomes the adoption by the European Parliament on 11 March 2009 of the third legislative package on maritime safety — the so-called Erika III package. The package, which will enter into force by 2012, covers not only compensation to passengers, but also inspections, equipping fishing ships with automatic identification and tracking systems (AIS), port state control, ship insurance, accident investigations and the designation of the authority to decide on the place of refuge for ships in distress; However, the Committee emphasises the need to extend the capacity to monitor transport that exists in the Gulf of Finland should be extended, to cover the whole Baltic Sea. Furthermore, it is recommended that a joint mechanism for monitoring compliance is established;
34.

stresses that all pupils should have access to physical and sports education and that no disability should be a barrier to inclusion in school sport programmes. PE at schools is where young people often get their first taste of and develop a passion for sports; youngsters with a disability are no different. In addition, the school sport environment provides the opportunity to educate pupils without a disability and makes them aware of the abilities of their class mates. In this regard, the introduction of ‘inclusive sports programmes’ shall be especially supported. The idea of reverse integration, meaning the inclusion of young sportsmen and women without a disability within sports for people with a disability, constitutes a good example to change attitudes towards the abilities of fellow participants. Similarly, initiatives such as mixed ability sport are to be supported and developed. To reach this goal, specific education and training for teachers in education centres, particularly PE teachers is essential, as is providing parents of disabled children with access to information on the various sporting activities available;
20.

requests a proper evaluation of the real potential of unconventional gas in the EU, an aspect which could be crucial to any energy plans and/or policies that might be implemented, as a transition resource towards a bigger percentage of renewable energy across the EU, as has been declared in such EU trend-setting documents for Europe's energy future as Roadmap 2050. This evaluation should also make it possible to examine the scope available for the more systematic use of local energy sources. One of goals of these plans and policies must seek to ensure that the transition to future, economically competitive, energy sources with a minimal carbon footprint is undertaken in such a way that the EU becomes competitive vis-à-vis other geopolitical regions. In addition to poising unforeseeable risks to the environment, the climate and human health, shale gas could also undermine the development of renewable energies and lock Europe into even deeper fossil fuel dependency. Shale gas, like carbon capture and storage, cannot be a political goal itself separately from the citizen’s needs and should not be promoted as a green alternative for Europe’s energy future. Given its high carbon intensity, the scale of expansion and level of investment, it needs to be made clear how shale gas could be a ‘transition fuel’. The impact of falling gas prices as a result of increased shale gas development in the U.S. could threaten the viability of low carbon alternatives and put pressure on government support schemes;
31.

notes that, in general, Europe is seeing significant migration away from already sparsely populated regions, from rural areas and from small and medium-sized towns towards big cities. The Committee thinks that there is a need to study in more detail how new technologies can particularly support learning, information-gathering, communication and networking in more sparsely populated areas where pupil numbers are declining, schools are at risk of closure and children may therefore have to travel long distances to school. New technologies can hardly replace trained teachers on site, but there is a need to consider and promote ways of using ICT and appropriately equipped teachers to provide a wide range of education and training options that are relevant and of a high standard;
2.

In the era of the new industrial revolution, Europe can use digitisation to drive social and economic growth in line with the Europe 2020 strategy. It is necessary to understand what type of service the client requires and know how to develop the relevant technology, and to realise that the customer does not want to buy just a product but rather productivity, job security and customer satisfaction. All this can be achieved by harnessing digitisation. The circular economy, digitisation and service design can be used to generate new, green jobs and revitalise traditional industry. According to Commission studies, by 2020 Europe could increase its GDP by 4 % by stimulating growth of the digital internal market, and public administration could cut its costs by 15-20 % by digitising public services (1). Even during a period of high unemployment the internet is creating five new jobs for every two that are lost. It has been estimated that joint EU measures under the digitisation strategy could create as many as 3,8 million new jobs over the long term across all economic sectors.
7.

agrees with the General Affairs Council conclusions of October 2013 on the need to review the governance systems of macro-regions, and welcomes the report published by the European Commission on 20 May 2014 and the Commission’s Communication concerning the European Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region of 17 June 2014; furthermore shares the Council’s view concerning the importance of responsibility and ownership by the countries concerned, which requires a strengthening of the relevant regional and local actors as well as clear and long-term commitment by stakeholders (6), and moreover, calls for the regional authorities and the Committee of the Regions to be more involved in the coordination phase, in order to support the European Commission, as well as in the implementation phase; agrees, in this regard, that the action plan should provide a structure based on coordinators coming from the ministries concerned for each pillar, and underlines that they may also come from regional governments;
17.

underlines that a successful green economy will have five key elements: 1) reduction, which means that the consumption of raw materials and energy use need to come down across the board; 2) use of clean energies, in order to avoid external dependence, cut emissions and create jobs; 3) efficiency, which means that raw materials and energy have to be used more effectively across a product's or service's entire value chain; 4) networking and sharing of best practice; comparing notes between Member States and sectors provides an opportunity to boost the supply of green products and services, including to markets outside the EU; and 5) access to finance, which is to say that it is crucial to ensure that finance is available and to cut red tape; applications for funding should be simple, easy to understand and also useful in other areas of business;
29.

expresses the need for further research and innovation in order to move towards replacing fishmeal and fish oil as feed for farmed fish. In relation to this, points out that 60 % of feed used in aquaculture production is of plant origin and 80 % comes from sustainable sources. This enhances the sustainability of a sector which only continues to complement wild fishing more and more as it develops. Whilst it is necessary to carry out research into alternatives to fishmeal and fish oil, at the same time it is important to press ahead with the technological development of these products in order to optimise them and improve yields;
13.

is concerned that the requirement set forth by the European Commission for an ex-ante assessment of newly created promotional banks and the new financial products they offer may significantly hamper their operational capacity and complicate the actual process of creating such banks, both at national and regional level. Furthermore, in connection with the requirements of such an analysis, it is worth noting that it will often be difficult to identify market failures in less developed regions, because the socioeconomic situation of the region as a whole may be indicative of market failures, when compared with the situation in more developed areas;
30.

notes that the soaring cost of healthcare has strengthened interest in the issue of ageing and the creation of cross-sectoral partnerships. eHealth initiatives could thus have a very favourable impact on the development of age-friendly tourism. Older travellers often cite health as the second reason not to take a trip. If older people were given access (online) to high-quality healthcare away from home, this might allay or dispel their fears, and perhaps make them more adventurous in their free time. Travel to gentler climes and exposure to new experiences could also get them out of their routine and be beneficial to their health;
17.

considers it a priority to identify and establish parameters and values that we want to promote and defend, to prevent the new paradigm from turning into something that ‘does not belong to us’ and to make sure it is socially sustainable. This will be necessary in the hospitality sector, for example, where there is a risk of unfair competition between the services of the collaborative economy and traditional activity. It could also have an influence on the property market by increasing prices or changing the use of buildings. The question which is to be locally addressed is to what extent collaborative economy platforms are complementary with the existing housing stock and traditional hotel operator;
7.

emphasises that these three parameters create territorial, economic and social handicaps, as recognised in Article 174 TFEU, which hinder both the fair integration of islands in the single market, as well as the complete territorial integration of island populations; in particular, these conditions can lead to the following scenarios: — a local market that is limited and, in the case of archipelagos, fragmented and remote; — high transport costs for logistics, freight and insurance, on account of distance as well as instances of imperfect competition (oligopolies or even monopolies); — the inability to achieve economies of scale due to the small size of the market, which results in high unit costs for both businesses and public services; — poorly developed inter-industrial relations due to a strong tendency to specialise in exploiting one resource, to produce one type of good or to provide one type of service; — a lack of qualified workers; or a tendency for qualified workers to leave islands in order to find adequate employment elsewhere; — a lack of entrepreneurial expertise, as entrepreneurs tend to leave islands to invest in more profitable markets; — a lack of infrastructure and services for businesses at a comparable level to mainland regions, e.g. in the field of telecommunications, training or risk capital;
40.

Welcomes the fact that the Commission is committed to working with local and regional authorities to improve resilience in rapidly growing urban areas where a lack of planning or investment in measures to mitigate the risks of climate change and geophysical risks means that there is a threat of shocks and stresses causing serious harm to people and economic damage. Removing the principal risk factors by means of public and private investment (on the basis of risk identification) is more cost-effective than relying on post-disaster response. Highlights the role of sectoral dialogue with local and regional authorities on sustainable urban development in enhancing resilience and innovation, in line with the aims of the New Urban Agenda.
3.

This has led to the need to ensure EU-level coordination of the EU policies that have an impact on forestry-related matters and to assess the impact of EU global commitments on the sustainable use of forests. The Forest Strategy should take into account the common objectives of the Member States and the differences between them. When the EU negotiates on issues affecting forests (see point 2 above), in the United Nations and the World Trade Organization for example, it must take into account Member States’ views on forests and those of their regions. The Forest Strategy is an effective tool for harmonising various policy areas and for reconciling the different perspectives of the Member States and their regions. Its role is also to highlight new objectives and measures which should be examined at EU level.
50.

points out that Turkey has been a candidate country since 1999 and that accession negotiations began in 2005; notes that in recent years the process of approximation to the EU has lost headway and serious reverses have occurred concerning respect for the rule of law and fundamental rights and freedoms; considers that it is now up to Turkey to assess whether and how it intends to continue on the course begun in 1987 with its request for accession.
4.

recognises that African swine fever is an international challenge. European regions should show solidarity on the threat posed by ASF to rural areas, the rural economy and agricultural processing. The speed at which the virus has spread to its current level could lead to the collapse of the European pork market and deprive hundreds of thousands of farmers of their source of income. This is a problem that is no longer local or regional, but has become a pan-European threat. The disease is currently present in several European countries: — Poland (1 492 cases and 1 outbreak), — Lithuania (728 cases of the disease in wild boars), — Latvia (286 cases), — Estonia (150 cases), — Ukraine (26 cases, 22 outbreaks in pigs), — Czechia (25 cases), — Italy (24 cases, 2 outbreaks), — Romania (3 outbreaks)
3.

calls on the European Commission to be more vigorous in supporting the 2050 target in the Covenant of Mayors. The Committee also asks the Commission to consider expanding the initiative’s remit to ensure a more effective response to the cross-cutting challenges and opportunities presented to LRAs by climate neutrality, including new optional sectors such as industry, agriculture, forest management, and new environmental issues such as air quality, circular economy, biodiversity, biocultural diversity and natural carbon sinks so as to support the ambition of the most advanced municipalities. The move to include new sectors should focus primarily on the action plan, avoiding imposing further reporting and monitoring requirements on signatories; At the same time, it is important to support other forms of climate-change and environment-related cooperation that local and regional authorities in many Member States are involved in and to promote integration with the Covenant of Mayors. Where these local and regional authorities have the relevant potential to contribute to local efforts, they should be duly recognised and supported;
15.

emphasises that the transition to the circular economy will strongly support the EU’s climate change mitigation efforts and calls on the European Commission to establish further links between all Green Deal plans to provide the much-needed overall perspective and synergise cross-overs through research and indicators and within the policy-making process, for instance in the Climate Law; stresses that it is equally important to couple circular economy policies with those targeting other environmental issues, such as the protection of biodiversity, or air and water quality; Applying the principles of the circular economy will have to become a common starting point in all sectors, such as the agricultural and food sector ranging from agricultural and food sector to construction to high end technical solutions etc.;
37.

points out that many people continue to suffer from physical and mental problems, especially the functional and cognitive decline that older people with cancer can experience as a result of their treatment, for a long time after their cancer diagnosis and initial treatment. It is therefore important to understand how individuals respond to treatment depending on their fragility, and it is thus essential to develop care models for older people with cancer that promote a comprehensive assessment of their situation and the use of tools to appraise their inherent abilities. It is also important to understand how therapy affects mental health, so that healthcare and rehabilitation can be more effective and can be tailored in all areas to this information;
Resolution of the Committee of the Regions on "The arrest of Mr Öcalan and the need to find a political solution to the Kurdish problem"

(1999/C 198/15)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

encourages the Turkish Government to work for a political solution to the Kurdish problem and calls on the PKK and the other Kurdish organizations to show respect for law and order;

trusts that the Turkish Government will draw a distinction between cultural autonomy, to which the representatives of the local and regional authorities of the European Union are particularly attached, and separatism, which jeopardizes the unity of the Turkish State;

calls on Turkey to implement the requisite socio-economic reforms to allow the Kurdish minority to express its cultural identity within the context of the Turkish State;

reminds the Turkish authorities that all applicants for membership of the European Union must fulfil the criteria laid down by the Copenhagen Summit calling for stable institutions which guarantee democracy, the primacy of the law, human rights, respect for and the protection of minorities;

expects the Turkish authorities to provide the requisite guarantees that Mr Öcalan will be treated humanely and will be given a fair trial in open court, in keeping with the international obligations to which Turkey has subscribed, inter alia, by virtue of its membership of the Council of Europe;

in this context, invites the Turkish authorities to make the appropriate arrangements to allow international observers to attend the trial and insists that Mr Öcalan be judged in open court, with the assistance of defence counsel of his own choice;

absolutely condemns all acts of violence, hostage-taking and attacks on the embassies of EU Member States;

endorses the Council Declaration of 22 February 1999 and the European Parliament Resolution of 25 February 1999.

Brussels, 11 March 1999.

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Manfred DAMMEYER