ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
12.

Acknowledges that, despite improvements in the economic and employment situation in recent years in the EU as a whole, the gains produced have not always been distributed evenly, as the number of people in a situation of poverty and social exclusion continues to be too high; is concerned by growing inequalities in the EU and its Member States, and by the increasing share of workers at risk of poverty, not only part-time workers, but also full-time workers; calls on the Commission and the Member States to continue their efforts to improve the conditions for these people, and to give greater recognition to the work and expertise of NGOs, anti-poverty organisations and people experiencing poverty themselves, encouraging their participation in the exchange of good practices; points out that high levels of inequality diminish the output of the economy and the potential for sustainable growth; underlines the fact that the integration of long-term unemployed individuals through individually tailored measures is a key factor for fighting poverty and social exclusion and for contributing to the sustainability of national social security systems; calls for partnerships encompassing all relevant stakeholders to be established and developed in order to provide the tools necessary to respond more effectively to labour market needs, deliver effective solutions and prevent long-term unemployment; stresses the need to implement effective labour market policies in order to reduce long-term unemployment; considers that the Member States should further help those out of work by providing affordable, accessible and quality support services for job search, training and requalification, while protecting those unable to participate;
23.

Recalls the importance of the ESAs in the analysis and monitoring of third-country supervisory and regulatory frameworks, and calls, in this respect, for the relevant ESAs to have the capacity and powers to collect, collate and analyse data; recalls the role of the National Competent Authorities (NCAs) in the authorisation process for financial institutions that wish to delegate part of their portfolio management or risk management to service providers in third countries where the regulatory regime is comparable to that of the EU, as well as the importance of supervisory convergence; notes the ongoing review of the ESAs, in particular the proposals on the supervision of delegation, outsourcing or risk transfer arrangements by financial institutions; considers that the ESAs and the NCAs should cooperate closely in order to share best practices and ensure uniform implementation of regulatory cooperation and activities with third countries;
29.

Believes that useful lessons should be learnt from the recent ban on the use of pesticides in EFAs, even though, in 2016, they accounted for 15 % of Europe’s arable land (eight million hectares) and almost 40 % of these areas are used for nitrogen-fixing or catch crops; takes the view that as part of the process of making use of all usable agricultural areas, provided for under the vegetable protein autonomy plan, EFAs may be used for protein production both within conventional farming – with integrated pest management, taking into account the fact that farmers growing these crops in EFAs in conventional agriculture do not always have the assurance of being able to react to pest invasions – and organic farming, given that in order to replace soya imports into the EU, the equivalent of nearly 17 million hectares would have to be under soya in the EU; considers that ecological focus areas are furthermore essential for boosting biodiversity, which is under threat, and for our food security, since, in particular by improving pollination, biodiversity can increase the yields of neighbouring crops, which may be protein crops, by some 20 %;
5.

Supports the efforts of the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, to restart the political process; takes note of his statement to the UN Security Council of 11 September 2018‘that despite the absence of one of the sides to the Consultations in Geneva last week, and even if it certainly did not go as planned, we still managed to relaunch the political process with solid support clearly from the Yemeni people and the international community’; welcomes Mr Griffiths’ visit to Sana’a on 16 September 2018; calls for the Special Envoy to be given full and unhindered access to all parts of the territory of Yemen; calls on the VP/HR and all EU Member States to provide Mr Griffiths with political backing with a view to reaching a negotiated and inclusive settlement;
15.

Acknowledges that by supporting public investment and deploying EU investments flexibly, through the reprogramming of funds or by raising the cofinancing rate, regional policy mitigated the impact of the financial crisis and of sustained fiscal consolidation in several Member States; stresses, in this context, the importance of ensuring the appropriate funding thereof for the next Multiannual Financial Framework; reiterates nevertheless that cohesion policy should be seen as the main public investment tool and as a catalyst to attract additional public and private funding, and that similar measures resulting in a reduction in the national cofinancing quotas required for receiving funding for operational programmes financed by the Structural Funds, for Greece or another Member State, should be envisaged on an exceptional basis only and, prior to their adoption and implementation, examined from the perspective of their effectiveness, and duly justified;
20.

Stresses that the sustainable growth of aquaculture needs to be based on business investment predictability and legal certainty, which requires, notably: (a) simplification and acceleration of administrative procedures – less red tape – at EU, national and regional level, making the greatest possible use of information and communication technologies, while ensuring that the marine environment is not further degraded; (b) improved transparency and proper planning; (c) better coordination as regards the shared competences of the EU, the Member States and, where appropriate, regional and local authorities; (d) fast, clear and transparent licensing procedures accompanied by limited timelines for agreement, so as not to discourage investors; (e) close monitoring by the Commission of the Member States’ multiannual national strategic plans; (f) Commission guidelines for national strategic plans for a uniform application of the EU legislation (mainly environmental and for protecting health and ensuring that neither ecosystems nor fishing activities are harmed); (g) a coordinated legal framework between different regions and Member States sharing the same waters in order to ensure fair competition and efficient environmental policies; (h) close cooperation between the Commission and the competent authorities (national, but also local and regional) in the implementation of EU legislation (mainly sanitary and environmental) as well as supporting coordination of national or regional legislation where necessary; (i) mechanisms for the exchange of information and best practices between Member States, through an open method of coordination of national measures concerning business security, access to Union waters and space, and the simplification of licensing procedures; (j) adequate public financial support at EU and national level for sustainable and responsible aquaculture production, innovation and development; (k) better incorporation of the aquaculture and fisheries perspective in the Union’s trade agreements;
O.

whereas the Russian Federation, as a full member of the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations, has committed itself to the principles of democracy, the rule of law and respect for fundamental freedoms and human rights; whereas, as a result of numerous serious violations of the rule of law and the adoption of restrictive laws in recent years, there are grave concerns about Russia’s compliance with its international and national obligations; whereas the European Union has repeatedly offered additional assistance and expertise to help Russia to modernise and abide by its constitutional and legal order, in line with Council of Europe standards;
97.

Points out that the lengthy corruption investigations concerning the scandal of the MOSE system concluded on 14 September 2017 with a judgment from the Court of Venice which sentenced two leading figures who were directly involved in the scandal to four years’ imprisonment and the confiscation of EUR 9 575 000; regrets that between 2011 and 2013 the EIB disbursed three loans to the value of EUR 1,2 billion for the implementation of the MOSE project, the last of which was granted after the national authorities had opened investigations for corruption; calls on the EIB to ensure that its zero tolerance policy towards fraud is implemented as strictly as possible and to withdraw the entirety of its funding from the MOSE project and the projects linked to it through the system of companies and beneficiaries involved in the implementation of projects in the Veneto region, with particular reference to the stretch of the A4 motorway known as Passante di Mestre, with regard to which investigations are still under way for tax fraud, corruption and infiltration by organised crime, and to the third lane of the A4 motorway in the section between Venice and Trieste; urges the EIB to conduct appropriate internal investigations concerning the selection of beneficiaries and the disbursement and management of its funds, and to publish the results;
10.

Notes that the Agreement is also in keeping with the spirit and principles expressed in the European Parliament recommendation of 15 November 2017, including as regards making the ratification of a new agreement with Armenia or Azerbaijan conditional on meaningful commitment to and substantial progress towards resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict; urges both sides to increase, in good faith, the pace and output of their negotiations following the 2018 elections in both countries, in order to make history by ending a conflict which cannot be solved militarily yet has claimed too many lives, especially of civilians, and which has not only prevented the establishment of peace and stability, but also hampered socio-economic development in the region for almost three decades; expresses deep concern at the military build-up and the disproportionate defence spending in the region; supports all initiatives conducive to peace and to developing good neighbourly relations, including high-level talks and a ceasefire monitoring mechanism, and calls on the EEAS and the Commission to increase EU support for programmes to enable increased contacts between Armenian and Azerbaijani NGOs and youth organisations, while ensuring that EU Member States avoid indirect exports of dual-use goods and technology to parties to the conflict;
A.

whereas the EU fishing sector is facing ever-more difficult and complex challenges; whereas the status of resources and the increase in outgoings, particularly variations in the price of fuel, may have a decisive impact on fishermen’s incomes; whereas, in this context, downward variations in, and unfair allocation of, fishing quotas mean that local communities face complicated situations owing to the reduction in extractive activities and to the fact that the rules of fair competition are being infringed; whereas, in addition to the increase in transport costs, which result from the double impact of the rise in fuel prices, they face competition from imports of products from third countries; whereas although these and other problems are recognised, the causes of the worsening socio-economic situation in the fisheries sector have, in many cases, still to be tackled, one example being the inadequate first-sale price formation where fish is concerned;
10.

Reiterates its concerns over the concentration of economic and political power in the hands of a narrow group of people, the deterioration of the rule of law, of democratic standards, and of respect for human rights, the excessive politicisation of state institutions, systemic corruption, insufficient investigation of the 2014 banking fraud, and limited media pluralism; expresses its concern at the lack of independence of the judiciary, and particularly the cases of selective justice being used as a tool to exert pressure on political opponents; calls on the Moldovan authorities to reform the judicial system, including nominating new judges, so as to prevent the judiciary from intervening in the electoral and political process or in any other way undermining the democratically expressed will of the people of Moldova;
22.

Regrets that the US did not seize the opportunity of the recent reauthorisation of FISA Section 702 to include the safeguards provided in PPD 28; calls for evidence and legally binding commitments ensuring that data collection under FISA Section 702 is not indiscriminate and access is not conducted on a generalised basis (bulk collection) in contrast with the EU Charter; takes note of the Commission’s explanation in its Staff Working Document that surveillance under Section 702 FISA is always based on selectors and does not therefore allow for bulk collection; adds its voice therefore to the call made by the WP29 for an updated report from the PCLOB on the definition of ‘targets’, on the ‘tasking of selectors’ and on the concrete process of applying the selectors in the context of the UPSTREAM programme to clarify and assess whether bulk access to personal data occurs in that context; deplores that EU individuals are excluded from the additional protection provided by the reauthorisation of FISA Section 702; regrets that the reauthorisation of Section 702 contains several amendments that are merely procedural and do not address the most problematic issues, as also raised by the WP29; calls on the Commission to take the forthcoming WP29 analysis on FISA Section 702 seriously and to act accordingly;
6.

o C o C; calls on all Parties to contribute constructively to the process to be put in place towards 2020 when NDCs need to be updated and to ensure that their NDCs are in line with the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement to keep the global temperature rise to well below 2 o C above pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit the increase even further to 1,5 o C; acknowledges that current pledges, including the one submitted by the Union and its Member States, are insufficient to achieve the goals of the Agreement; stresses, therefore, that global GHG emissions should reach their peak as soon as possible and that all parties, especially the EU and all G20 nations, must step up their efforts and update their NDCs by 2020, following the 2018 Talanoa Dialogue aimed at closing the remaining gap towards that goal; Stresses that current NDCs would only limit global warming to a temperature rise of about 3,2 ( 7 ) and would not even come close to 2C; calls on all Parties to contribute constructively to the process to be put in place towards 2020 when NDCs need to be updated and to ensure that their NDCs are in line with the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement to keep the global temperature rise to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit the increase even further to 1,5C; acknowledges that current pledges, including the one submitted by the Union and its Member States, are insufficient to achieve the goals of the Agreement; stresses, therefore, that global GHG emissions should reach their peak as soon as possible and that all parties, especially the EU and all G20 nations, must step up their efforts and update their NDCs by 2020, following the 2018 Talanoa Dialogue aimed at closing the remaining gap towards that goal;
44.

Welcomes Georgia’s membership of the Energy Community and the progress towards the integration of Georgia’s energy market with that of the EU through regulatory convergence, in accordance with the AA and the Energy Community Treaty; firmly believes this goes further to meeting the conditions for a pan-European energy mix in line with the Paris Agreement on measures to combat climate change and Goal 10 of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development regarding measures to combat energy poverty; urges the Georgian authorities to make all the necessary efforts to step up the adoption of the EU Energy Acquis with the support of the EU, as well as scientific cooperation and innovation development in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energy; notes that plans such as the incorporation of the Ministry of Energy into the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development should be taken in close coordination with the Georgian Parliament;
H.

whereas in its joint opinion No 914/2018 of 16 March 2018 the Venice Commission welcomed the fact that ‘during the meetings in Bucharest, the initiators of the draft law have indicated their readiness to amend the draft law in several aspects’, and called on the Romanian authorities to give consideration to its main recommendations, namely that the ‘new reporting and disclosure requirements foreseen by the draft law, including the sanctions of suspension of activities and dissolution in case of non-compliance, are clearly unnecessary and disproportionate and should be repealed’, and that the detailed publication of financial reports every six months and the indication of the source of income, irrespective of the amount, coupled with the sanction of disbandment, will have ‘a chilling effect on civil society’ and will enter into conflict with ‘the freedom of association and the right to respect for private life’ (3);
14.

Points out that the single market is increasingly coming under pressure from national rules that run counter to the principles underpinning it, especially rules at national level that impact the free movement of goods and services; recognises that unjustified and disproportionate national measures, as well as uncoordinated measures, could put at risk the unity and the effectiveness of the Single Market; recalls, however, that certain measures may be legitimate and necessary to protect public interest objectives as recognised in the treaties;
15.

Suggests that the EU and Japan work together to increase the capacities of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regarding the regional integration and cooperation agenda and the capacity to resolve conflicts in the region collectively and strengthen the present centrality of ASEAN in the South-east Asian multilateral order; supports the decision taken at the 33rd ASEAN-Japan Forum in Tokyo to further strengthen ties and address regional and international issues of common interest and to work together to promote peace and stability; believes that the promotion and protection of human rights contributes effectively to these two objectives; calls for synergies between Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy and EU initiatives, including the EU Investment Plan and the extended EU Trans-European Transport Networks, in order to promote global cooperation in connectivity;
16.

Insists on the effective implementation of the specific commitments related to trade and sustainable development (TSD) provisions, which are an integral part of the Agreement and are essential to the accomplishment of the objectives set; takes note that the Commission will, in 2019, and should in future, conduct an ex post evaluation of the Agreement, including its TSD chapter, involving independent experts; recalls that the TSD chapter provides for the establishment of domestic advisory groups (DAGs) or committees relevant for matters related to labour, the environment and sustainable development; welcomes, in particular, the fact that civil society advisory mechanisms are now established in all Central American countries; notes that serious concerns have been raised with regard to the independence of these advisory groups and their capacity to participate in some Central American countries; regrets, in this context, that the meetings of the Association Committee and Subcommittees and the Civil Society Dialogue Forum did not take place in 2017, and insists that meetings take place at least on an annual basis; calls on the parties to the Agreement to swiftly establish the mechanisms and the necessary financial means to strengthen the DAGs, ensuring independent representative civil society organisations, with balanced representation of stakeholders in order to participate appropriately; calls on the parties to the Agreement furthermore to put in place effective mechanisms for dialogue with the advisory groups as well as members of the different subcommittees, and to include them in the ex post evaluation processes planned for 2019; welcomes the recommendations made during the 3rd Joint Meeting of the EU and Central America's DAGs of 16 June 2016 and calls on the parties to implement them; recalls that the TSD chapter includes legally binding provisions to effectively implement labour, social and environmental protection standards; welcomes the fact that the Agreement has laid the path for a regular dialogue on the implementation of the shared commitments; notes that Parliament has encouraged the Commission to strengthen the monitoring, implementation and enforcement mechanisms of TSD chapters; therefore welcomes the Commission’s 15-point plan to make EU trade and sustainable development chapters more effective and recalls the need to continue its dialogue with the different actors involved, including Parliament, concerning an effective enforcement mechanism for the labour and environmental protection commitments included in trade agreements;
14.

Calls on the Commission to take a holistic and rights-based approach to the rights of intersex people and to better coordinate the work of its Directorates-General for Justice and Consumers, for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, and for Health and Food Safety, so as to ensure consistent policies and programmes supporting intersex people, including training of state officials and the medical profession;
7.

Calls on the Member States to ensure that women’s rights and LGBTI+ rights are protected and recognised as equality principles in the framework of democracy and the rule of law; considers nevertheless that enshrining women’s rights in law is not sufficient to achieve gender equality and that it cannot be achieved unless Member States transpose, adopt and finally implement and enforce the laws concerned in order to fully protect women’s rights; regrets that women’s rights are not dealt with holistically as a driving principle of all national and European public policies, accompanied by the corresponding budget; considers that prevention of backlash through education is key to invest in; calls on the Commission and the Member States to strengthen public awareness of the importance and benefits of safeguarding women’s rights and gender equality and eliminating gender stereotypes for society, and to further support the development and dissemination of evidence-based research and information in the area of women’s rights;