ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
19.

Underlines the role of the Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group (DEG) and its lead MEPs as the operational body for coordinating mediation and dialogue initiatives and welcomes new initiatives such as the Jean Monnet Dialogue for peace and democracy (using the historic Jean Monnet House in Bazoches, France), activities on election-related violence, and inter-party dialogue and consensus-building, as well as the Young Political Leaders’ programme, and recommends that these should be developed further as key instruments of the European Parliament in the area of mediation, facilitation and dialogue; welcomes the decision of the DEG to build on the success of the Jean Monnet Dialogue process with the Macedonian Sobranie by extending the Jean Monnet Dialogue’s methodology throughout the countries of the Western Balkans;
2.

Suggests that the following approaches be considered: — analysing existing tax incentives for personal pension products and assessing their costs, effectiveness and redistributive effects, and, where applicable, addressing inefficiencies and regressive effects; — granting the same tax relief to PEPP as that granted to national personal pension products, even in cases where PEPP features do not fully match all the national criteria; — granting specific tax relief to PEPP, harmonised at Union level, to be laid down in a multilateral tax agreement between Member States;
I.

whereas depriving children of their liberty on the basis of their or their parents’ migration status is never in the best interests of the child, exceeds the requirement of necessity, becomes grossly disproportionate and may constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of migrant children; whereas any deprivation of liberty affecting adult migrants and asylum seekers should be a measure of last resort and, if it must occur, should be for the shortest possible period of time, with the safeguards of due process and in conditions that comply in full with all relevant international human rights standards;
13.

Expresses its concern at the case of Polish citizen Jakub Fabian Skrzypski, who has become a political prisoner in Indonesia; is worried that, in the light of the recent events in Papua, his continued imprisonment in Wamena would not only pose a risk to his human rights, but would also endanger his life; calls on the European External Action Service to raise Skrzypski’s case during the upcoming dialogues with Indonesia and demands that the Indonesian authorities allow for his transfer to Poland;
8.

Urges the Commission, the Council and the Member States to take all the necessary measures to persuade the Chinese Government to close the camps, to end all human rights violations in Xinjiang, and to uphold the linguistic, cultural, religious and other fundamental freedoms of the Uyghurs; Urges the Vice President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (VP/HR), the EEAS and the Member States to more intensively monitor the worrying human rights developments in Xinjiang, including increased government repression and surveillance, and to speak out against violations of human rights in China both privately and publicly and at the highest levels; expresses its disappointment at the fact that the 37th round of the EU-China Human Rights Dialogue brought no substantial results, despite the EU raising the system of political re-education camps as a worrying development; regrets the fact that the approach taken and tools used by the EU so far have not yielded tangible progress in China’s human rights record, which has only deteriorated over the last decade; calls on the VP/HR to insist on an independent investigation into the scale and nature of the internment camp system and the numerous allegations of serious and systematic human rights violations; urges the new Commission to devise and implement a holistic EU strategy with a view to securing genuine progress on human rights in China;
8.

Welcomes the Commission’s announcement that it will review the current secondary legislation covered by the SCMO to allow operators to extend the duration of promotion campaigns in the US and to allow more flexibility in the management of ongoing promotion campaigns in third countries, in order to enable operators to be responsive and strengthen their actions in the US and to counter the impact on consumers, or refocus, when needed, on alternative markets by re-programing activities that have already been approved for the US market; asks the Commission to introduce these modifications as soon as possible and to adopt additional measures to provide more flexibility for the management of promotion campaigns under the Promotion Regulation;
11.

Proposes further that the selection of participating citizens from among all EU citizens be made randomly by independent institutions in Member States in accordance with the above-mentioned criteria, and that criteria be defined to guarantee that elected politicians, senior government representatives and professional interest representatives cannot participate in Citizens’ agoras; calls for the Citizens’ agoras to have different participants in the different locations, whereas each individual thematic Citizens’ agora must be composed of the same participants at each of its meetings in order to ensure coherence and consistency; insists on a minimum of two meetings of each thematic Citizens’ agora in order to provide input for the Conference Plenary and receive global feedback on the deliberations in another meeting in dialogue format; underlines that Citizens’ agoras should seek to find agreement by consensus and, where this is not possible, a minority opinion can be voiced;
2.

The MFF contingency plan should include one or several legislative proposal(s) to lift or extend the time limits laid down in the basic acts of all concerned expenditure programmes and, where legally necessary notably under shared management programmes, update the relevant financial amounts on the basis of a technical prolongation of the 2020 levels. The legislative proposal(s) should also include a temporary refocusing of the objectives of all the relevant expenditure programmes, so that they can best address the immediate consequences of the Covid-19 outbreak. For the same purpose, wherever relevant, the proposal(s) should include a re-adjustment of the rules to allow for maximum flexibility in the implementation notably of shared management programmes, including the extension and follow-up of all legislative measures introduced in 2020 to support Member States and beneficiaries in mitigating the impact of Covid-19 outbreak;
20.

Calls on the Commission to ensure that the post-2020 Strategy will especially promote guaranteed access to employment, and vocational and professional training, inclusive education, affordable quality healthcare services, digital services, and sport activities for persons with disabilities, including by ensuring that reasonable accommodation is provided in the workplace, and that persons with disabilities are paid at the same level as employees without disabilities, and avoiding and preventing that any other ways of discrimination will be possible; calls on the Member States to further develop and/or better implement measures that promote the participation of people with disabilities in the labour market and to recognise persons with disabilities working in sheltered workshops as workers under the law and to ensure that they are entitled to the same social protection as other workers; calls on the Commission to encourage the development of quality frameworks for traineeships and to encourage and develop training opportunities through apprenticeships for people with disabilities; calls on the Commission to include best practices in future reports to enable employers to implement disability legislation effectively; calls on the Commission to recognise, promote and protect inclusive enterprises to create permanentl employment for people with disabilities in the labour market; stresses the potential of social economy enterprises and organisations to facilitate labour market inclusion for persons with disabilities; calls on the Commission to provide targeted support from the European Social Fund for the social economy;
13.

Welcomes the proposal from the VP/HR, with the support of the Commission, for the establishment under the Union’s CFSP of an EPF for the financing of military and defence-related cooperation with third countries and international organisations, including equipment under the EU common military list, which will fill an important gap in EU support and together with the NDICI give the EU the ability to respond more quickly and effectively to security challenges and calls for their swift adoption; recalls that the EPF aims to incorporate the APF and establish a capacity building component which would allow the provision of military equipment to partner countries, including arms and ammunitions, with full respect for the common position, human rights and humanitarian law, and with effective transparency provisions as enumerated in its recommendation of 28 March 2019 on the establishment of the European Peace Facility to ensure that any military equipment is not given to recipients that are committing abuses, atrocities and other harms against civilian populations; notes that since June 2018 the Member States have been working on a Council decision establishing the EPF, to be created in January 2021 at the latest; in this regard, and in view of the current situation in Africa, calls on the Council to approve this proposal adopting the necessary decision without delay, establishing this new instrument to support military capabilities in African armed forces, and: (a) for the EPF budget to be large enough to effectively address the current challenges relating to training, operations, missions, projects and military equipment, including weapons, munitions and transport; (b) to ensure that the EPF overcomes the current limitations under the APF and the Union’s budget on the acquisition of arms and munitions; (c) calls for funding from the EU budget to be provided for the administrative expenditure arising from the Council decision, including for personnel; (d) calls on the Council to charge the Member States for the operational expenditure arising from its implementation, including equipment and training; (e) takes note that the Member States which do not participate in the funding of a specific action or part of it could abstain from the vote in the Council; (f) calls for the establishment in the European External Action Service (EEAS) of a new dedicated division in charge of managing this new instrument, to oversee the supply and use of equipment and training, including proper safeguards and risk mitigation measures; (g) is of the opinion that the supply and use of such equipment and training should be monitored by experts seconded by the Member States to this division to inform the VP/HR, and be subject to scrutiny by Parliament and audited by the European Court of Auditors;
7.

Insists that the agreement contain a clear and precise provision setting out the retention period for personal data that have been transferred to New Zealand and requiring the data to be erased at the end of that period; requests that procedural measures be set out in the agreement to ensure compliance; requests, in this regard, that the agreement specifically provide for periodic reviews of the retention periods and any further need to store personal data, and that it provide for other appropriate measures to ensure that the time limits are observed; insists that, in exceptional cases, where there are duly justified reasons to store data for an extended period, past the end of the data retention period, these reasons and the accompanying documentation be communicated to Europol and the EDPS;
5.

Demands that the Eritrean Government provide proof of life and detailed information on the fate and whereabouts of all those deprived of physical liberty; calls for fair trials for those accused, the immediate and unconditional release of any prisoners not charged with any crimes, and the abolition of torture and other degrading treatment such as restrictions on food, water and medical care; reminds the Eritrean Government of its obligation to address all human rights violations, including by investigating extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances as well as the capital punishment, which should be abolished in line with the recommendations presented in the UN Human Rights Council Annual Report 2020;
B.

whereas the wide use of pharmaceuticals in human and veterinary medicines, including antimicrobial agents, has increased their concentrations in many environmental reservoirs such as soils, sediments and waterbodies in the past 20 years; whereas environmental concentrations are likely to increase further as the population grows and ages; whereas climate change will furthermore affect both the quantity and the quality of water resources, as at times of drought concentrations will be higher, which also has a knock-on effect on water treatment; whereas there is a need for widespread gathering of data to measure this problem around the world; whereas the largest source of pharmaceuticals entering the environment is their use and disposal;
19.

Welcomes the Commission’s second phase consultation of the social partners on an EU framework for minimum wages; notes that decent wages are important for fair working conditions and a thriving social market economy; calls on Member States to ensure decent living wages above the poverty threshold for all workers through collective agreements, or through national law; believes that strengthened collective bargaining is one of the best ways to promote decent wages within the EU; calls on the Commission to identify barriers to social dialogue within the EU, and to present a European framework for minimum wages to eliminate in-work poverty in line with national traditions and with due respect for the autonomy of national social partners and well-functioning collective bargaining models; stresses that any initiative must not harm the autonomy of the social partners or wage-setting in collective-bargaining systems; calls for a coordinated approach at EU level in order to avoid unhealthy labour cost competition, and to increase upward social convergence for all; stresses furthermore that wages should enable workers to meet their needs and those of their families, and that every worker in the Union should receive a living wage; asks the Commission, in this regard, to study how to identify what a living wage could encompass, and how it should be measured, which could serve as a reference tool for the social partners;
31.

Acknowledges the progress in the adoption of the new law on non-commercial organisations by the Moldovan parliament, as part of the conditionality requirements to obtain the EU MFA; expects its swift and effective implementation will foster the full respect of the rights and freedoms of civil society and non-governmental organization as well as the freedom of association will be fully respected and calls for more support from the Moldovan government in the development of civil society; points out the central role NGOs play in any democratic society and expresses hope that the new legislation will improve the transparency of public decision-making and provide a modernized framework for the functioning of civil society in the country; urges the Moldovan authorities to refrain from any pressure on NGOs and other civic actors; regrets the distrust and hostility with which political officials approach civil society in general; urges a more meaningful and active involvement of civil society in the policymaking and implementation processes, particularly as regards human rights and fundamental freedoms, with respect to which NGOs could act as a watchdog and hold the respective State institutions accountable; with that in mind, calls on the Commission and the Member States to provide political, technical and financial support to the civil society and urges EU Institutions to establish clear rules helping to avoid the provision of grants to ‘GONGO’s’(NGOs established and financed by governments through informal channels);
36.

Recognises the need to review the EU’s security and defence strategies to develop strategic autonomy, including in the health sector, to become better prepared and more resilient to the new and hybrid threats and technologies that have made the nature of warfare less conventional and challenge the traditional role of the military, as well as for a future in which Russia and China are becoming more assertive; underlines the need for military mobility to be strengthened in order to help Member States to act faster and more effectively in the context of a future possible conflict; stresses that the future Strategic Compass for security and defence should reflect these developments, take into account the broader geopolitical implications of COVID-19 and address the full spectrum of threats such as a new pandemic, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats and foreign interference, including disinformation or cyber-attacks; believes that, given the new political balance and a potential worsening of the international security environment following COVID-19, the EU defence budgets in general, and the military mobility budget in particular, must not be cut;
R.

whereas the fighting has caused thousands of deaths and injuries on both sides and has resulted in grave human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law; whereas, according to the UNHCR, as of 22 November 2020 over 38 500 refugees had fled the conflict and crossed the border into Sudan; whereas the UN has warned of a ‘large-scale humanitarian crisis’ and its agencies are planning for the possible arrival of 200 000 refugees over a six-month period; whereas the fighting is also causing the internal displacement of the population; whereas the UNHCR has already asked the two parties to the conflict to open corridors to allow people to leave and supplies to arrive at the same time; whereas international humanitarian organisations on the ground are ill-equipped and face shortages of supplies needed to treat newly arriving refugees and victims of violence; whereas the UN agencies are seeking USD 50 million in immediate funding which will go towards providing food and setting up new camps; whereas the European Commission is mobilising an initial EUR 4 million in emergency assistance to help support the displaced people arriving in Sudan;
10.

Stresses Parliament’s scrutiny role in drawing the Commission’s attention to shortcomings in the implementation of EU law in the Member States by means of petitions and questions; encourages the Commission to further enhance its oversight of the way EU law is applied in Member States, in line with the Landscape Review by the European Court of Auditors; stresses that a close and structured dialogue between the Commission and the Member States at an early stage is key to the effective and correct application of EU law, and also to tackling the issues related to ‘gold plating’ during the transposition and application of EU law; recalls the need to establish a common database and website for all parts of the legislative procedure in order to increase transparency in legislative discussions; calls on the Commission to promote compliance more consistently across different policy areas, and, where possible and appropriate, to enhance preventive instruments such as, for example, preparing implementation plans, road maps, explanatory documents, dedicated websites, and the exchange of good practices designed to help Member States identify transposition problems, address them at an early stage of the infringement procedures and help them find joined solutions and thus, enhance the effectiveness of EU legislation;
—

having regard to the declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the EU of 7 January 2021 on the mass arrest of people involved in the July 2020 pro-democracy primary elections in Hong Kong, to the statement by the Spokesperson of 29 December 2020 on the trial of 10 Hong Kongers, to the declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the EU of 12 November 2020 on the disqualification of Members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, to the statement by the Spokesperson of 2 November 2020 on the arrest of several pro-democracy lawmakers and former lawmakers in Hong Kong, to the statement by the Spokesperson of 24 September 2020 on the arrest of Joshua Wong and other pro-democracy activists, to the statement by the Spokesperson of 10 August 2020 on recent arrests and raids under the National Security Law in Hong Kong, to the declaration of the High Representative on behalf of the EU of 3 August 2020 on the postponement of the Legislative Council elections in Hong Kong, and to the declaration of the High Representative on behalf of the European Union of 1 July 2020 on the adoption by China’s National People’s Congress of a National Security Legislation on Hong Kong,
41.

Welcomes the European Ombudsman’s commitment to the right of citizens to be involved in the EU democratic process, as demonstrated by her organising of the annual conference of the European Network of Ombudsmen in April 2019 on the need to strengthen citizens’ participation in the democratic process; endorses her decision to reply to all those seeking assistance in the language of their complaint, and calls on the EU public administration to make every effort to ensure that citizens are able to communicate effectively with her in the 24 official languages of the EU and in national sign languages; welcomes the European Ombudsman’s draft guidelines on the use of languages on the websites of the EU institutions; underlines that such guidelines are of the utmost importance in protecting Europe’s rich linguistic diversity; notes that the websites of the EU institutions should better exemplify the equality of all 24 official EU languages; deplores the fact that many sections of the EU institutions’ websites and the publications uploaded to them continue only to be available in certain popular languages and never get coverage in all 24 official EU languages as required by the principles of the Union;
7.

Highlights that with the agreement it struck on 21 July 2020, the European Council should have been more ambitious in its support for the young generations — the future of Europe — not least by including greater support for young people in the recovery plans by allocating 10 % to education and earmarking a 20 % contribution to the European Digital Strategy and the achievement of a digital single market; underlines, in this context, that sectoral programmes that have a direct focus on youth, such as Erasmus+, the European Solidarity Corps, the Youth Guarantee and the Child Guarantee, or that have the potential to support the transition towards a fairer and more socially and environmentally sustainable Europe, have to be mobilised in such a way as to achieve their full potential, as they risk missing their ambitious targets, which would be bitterly disappointing for young people and future generations;