ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
13.

Deplores the large gap between the levels of domestic and cross-border online retail purchasing; notes that according to the Consumer Scoreboard 44 % of consumers say that uncertainty about their rights discourages them from buying goods from other Member States and that late or non-delivery and fraud are the major factors preventing take-up in cross-border purchasing; calls, therefore, for the EU's consumer policy strategy to support growth and innovation in the retail sector and, in particular, the completion of the digital single market, in order to help EU consumers shop cross-border;
L.

whereas, despite the ban on the use of antibiotics as growth promoters and the will to decrease veterinary consumption of antibiotics for inappropriate ‘prophylactic’ purposes, antimicrobial resistance affects both humans and animals and may potentially be transmitted both ways, making this a truly cross-cutting matter which calls for a coordinated approach at Union level; whereas additional efforts are therefore required to improve agricultural practices so as to help minimise the risk associated with the use of antibiotics for veterinary purposes and the development of resistance in humans;
5.

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Vice-President of the European Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the Brazilian Government, the President of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the President of the Brazilian Congress and the Chair of the Delegation for relations with the Mercosur countries.
4.

Reiterates its call for an independent, thorough and transparent investigation into the Maspero clashes which started with a peaceful demonstration for the rights of Coptic Christians on 9 October 2011 in Cairo, which should be conducted by an independent and impartial civil judiciary, in order to hold all those responsible to account, and again expresses its condolences to the victims and their relatives; urges the Egyptian authorities to guarantee the independence and impartiality of the various investigations by allowing proper oversight;
77.

Takes the view that ESL translates into missed opportunities for young people and a loss of social and economic potential for the EU as a whole; emphasises the fact that, in addition to the impact of current demographic changes, European countries cannot afford this enormous waste of talent, and stresses that this trend should be seen against the background of a labour market and a level of EU competitiveness that will both tend to favour holders of higher education qualifications; points out that improving educational attainment will thus help to reverse this trend in that higher skill levels will make for ‘smart growth’ and that tackling one of the main risk factors involved in unemployment and poverty will pave the way to ‘inclusive growth’;
D.

whereas following the tragic event a broad alliance of the country’s clergy, represented by Jamaate Ahle Sunnat Pakistan, an organisation that speaks on behalf of the moderate Barelvi sect, issued a statement condoning the murder of Governor Taseer and lionising his assassin, saying that ‘no Muslim should attend the funeral or even try to pray for Salmaan Taseer or even express any kind of regret or sympathy over the incident’ and demanding that no Muslim should offer funeral prayers, nor any religious cleric perform the funeral of the assassinated governor,
—

having regard to its earlier resolutions, in particular the resolution of 13 October 2005 on prospects for trade relations between the EU and China (3), the resolution of 1 June 2006 on EU-US transatlantic economic relations (4), the resolution of 28 September 2006 on the EU’s economic and trade relations with India (5), the resolution of 12 October 2006 on economic and trade relations between the EU and Mercosur with a view to the conclusion of an Interregional Association Agreement (6), the resolution of 22 May 2007 on Global Europe – external aspects of competitiveness (7), the resolution of 19 June 2007 on EU economic and trade relations with Russia (8), the resolution of 19 February 2008 on the EU’s Strategy to deliver market access for European companies (9), the resolution of 24 April 2008 on ‘Towards a reform of the World Trade Organisation’ (10), the resolution of 5 February 2009 on Trade and economic relations with China (11), the resolution of 26 March 2009 on an EU-India Free Trade Agreement (12), the resolution of 21 October 2010 on the European Union’s trade relations with Latin America (13), the resolution of 17 February 2011 on the Free Trade Agreement between the EU and the Republic of Korea (14), the resolution of 6 April 2011 on European international investment policy (15), its Position of 10 May 2011 on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing transitional arrangements for bilateral investment agreements between Member States and third countries (16), the resolution of 11 May 2011 on the state of play in the EU-India Free Trade Agreement negotiations (17), the resolution of 11 May 2011 on EU-Japan Trade relations (18), the resolution of 8 June 2011 on EU-Canada trade relations (19), the resolution of 13 September 2011 on an effective raw materials strategy for Europe (20), the resolution of 27 September 2011 on a New Trade Policy for Europe under the Europe 2020 Strategy (21) and the resolution of 25 October 2011 on modernisation of public procurement (22),
33.

Calls on the Commission and the Member States, in the context of the forthcoming revision of Regulation (EC) No 2100/94 on Community plant variety rights, to maintain the possibility for farmers to use farm-produced and farm-processed seed as laid down in Article 14(1) and (2) of this Regulation, given the economic, cultural and environmental benefits and contribution to agro-biodiversity this practice can bring; calls in this context for a fair and balanced examination of both the plant breeding rights and the current restrictions on the use of farm-saved seed with the aim of improving and simplifying the legal framework and to ensure an adequate balance between the need for innovation and the preservation and enhancement of crop diversity as well as the improvement of the livelihoods of small- and medium-scale farmers;
7.

Is concerned at the constant complaints from European industry groups alleging fraud in the entry-price system, and asks for guarantees that the increased tariff quotas under the agreement will be properly regulated by the EU and that there will be no misinterpretation of the rules governing the implementation of the entry-price mechanism; emphasises that European operators have made complaints to OLAF and to Parliament’s Committee on Petitions and that that committee has asked the Commission to change the entry-price system in order to put a stop to fraud; in that connection, notes the proposals to bring the rules governing implementation of the entry-price system into line with the Community Customs Code as part of the latest reform of the common agricultural policy; considers that this must be accompanied by changes to the implementing regulation on the common organisation of agricultural markets to introduce effective control measures;
L.

whereas combating violence against women is not mentioned among the objectives of the Commission’s proposal for the new ‘Rights and Citizenship’ Programme in the 2014-2020 financial period, which merges the Daphne III programme, the gender equality and non-discrimination sections of the Progress Programme, and the Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme; whereas this may undermine the DAPHNE programme’s visibility and consistency and jeopardise its success; whereas the proposed budget of the new programme is smaller than those of the current programmes; whereas the proposal does not guarantee predictability of funding for its objectives;
14.

Expresses its indignation at the incarceration of opposition leaders and journalists since January 2012, and calls on the Kazakh authorities to end the clampdown on the opposition and the independent media in the country and release all persons incarcerated on political grounds, including the leader of the Alga party Vladimir Kozlov and the editor-in-chief of the Vzglyad newspaper Igor Vinyavskiy, as well as all persons mentioned in recent EU statements in the OSCE Permanent Council who are still in detention; calls for Mr Kozlov to be given access to his immediate family, including his wife, and for an independent assessment of his medical condition; welcomes the release of Natalya Sokolova, lawyer for the Karazhanbasmunai oil company’s labour unions, who was previously sentenced to six years in prison, now reduced to a three-year probation; regrets nevertheless that Ms Sokolova is still prohibited from participating in trade union activities during her probation;
25.

Calls on the Member States to further recognise the real added value that older workers represent within their enterprises and create age-friendly working conditions in order to enable older workers who so choose to participate and remain in the labour market; calls on Member States to do so by combating age discrimination, replacing incentives for older workers to leave the labour market with incentives for an inclusive labour market and by adapting working conditions to the needs of older workers, such as putting in place the right to flexible working time and place of work, the right to training and the right to a flexible exit into retirement, ensuring the adequacy of pension provision for all; believes that promotion of occupational health should ensure active ageing during and after work-life;
4.

Demands the unconditional and immediate release of all political prisoners; reiterates that there cannot be any progress in the EU-Belarus dialogue without progress by Belarus in terms of democracy, human rights and rule of law and until all political prisoners, including Ales Bialiatski, Chair of the Human Rights Centre 'Viasna' and Vice-President of the FIDH, two ex-presidential candidates Mikalai Statkevich and Andrei Sannikau, heads of the presidential campaigns of democratic opposition candidates Pavel Seviarynets and Dzmitry Bandarenka, and Syarhey Kavalenka, a political prisoner detained for an alleged breach of house arrest, who has been on a prolonged hunger strike, which has led to a critical deterioration in his health and directly threatens his life, are unconditionally released and their civil rights are fully rehabilitated;
18.

Reiterates its concern regarding the full and effective respect of the right to freedom of religion for all religious minorities in a number of third countries; in this context stresses that freedom of worship is but one aspect of the right to freedom of religion, as the latter includes the freedom to change one’s religion and to also manifest it in teaching, practice and observance at the individual, collective, private, public and institutional level; in this context underlines that the public element is central to religious freedom, and that to prevent Christian believers and others from expressing their faith publicly, while reducing their religion to a private phenomenon, gravely violates their right to religious freedom;
3.

Emphasises that in this respect it is not sufficient to refer to abstract notions or to symbolic effects, but that the necessity of new substantive criminal law provisions must be demonstrated by the necessary factual evidence making it clear that: — the criminal provisions focus on conduct causing significant pecuniary or non-pecuniary damage to society, individuals or a group of individuals; — there are no other, less intrusive measures available for addressing such conduct, — the crime involved is of a particularly serious nature with a cross-border dimension or has a direct negative impact on the effective implementation of a Union policy in an area which has been subject to harmonisation measures, — there is a need to combat the criminal offence concerned on a common basis, i.e. that there is added practical value in a common EU approach, taking into account, inter alia, how widespread and frequent the offence is in the Member States, and — in conformity with Article 49(3) of the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights, the severity of the proposed sanctions is not disproportionate to the criminal offence;
9.

Underlines the importance of coherence and synergies between the internal and external aspects of security, and underscores the importance of ensuring that measures and actions implementing the ISS are in compliance with Union‘s fundamental rights obligations, in particular Articles 2, 6 and 7 TEU, and its external policy objectives as laid down in Article 21 TEU, as well as with international human rights and humanitarian law; takes note of the Joint Paper on strengthening the ties between the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and Freedom, Security and Justice (JHA) actors and the actions outlined in the Road Map; emphasises the importance of appropriate exchange of information, consultation and cooperation with all relevant actors, as also of solutions aimed at anticipating rather than reacting to events; looks forward to the outcome of the work carried out in the framework of the implementation of the Stockholm Programme on complementarity between Member State and EU actions in the external dimension of JHA, as well as undertakings with a view to the possible updating of the EU External Security Strategy;
17.

Stresses that a robust ATT must include provisions and benchmarks committing States Parties to adopt national legislation and to establish a national authority responsible for the control of all transfers of items covered by the treaty and for meeting all reporting and implementation requirements; takes the view that the implementation of the ATT should cover end-user controls and brokering activities, including registration of operators and the licensing of their activities, disclosure by applicants of necessary information and full supporting documentation prior to issuance of an export authorisation, as well as legislative measures to establish as criminal offences all transfers of conventional arms and ammunitions not licensed by the national authority or in accordance with the treaty;
35.

Insists that the future Atlantic strategy must be based on the thematic pillars of the Europe 2020 Strategy, since this will make it possible to link the thematic contents with sectoral policies in an integrated way; takes the view, in this context, that the objectives and thematic concentration proposed for the five funds included in the common strategic framework for European cohesion policy for the next programming period should form the framework of the action plan; underlines the objectives of ‘strengthening research, technological development and innovation’, ‘enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs’, ‘supporting the shift towards a low-carbon economy’ and ‘promoting sustainable transport and removing bottlenecks in key network infrastructures’;
whereas at the 20th EU-Japan Summit held on 28 May 2011 in Brussels, the summit leaders decided that the two sides would start discussions with a view to defining the scope and level of ambition of such negotiations;
C.

whereas, according to the investigation, local officials had asked Ms Feng’s family for a ‘guarantee deposit’ of RMB 40 000, which according to her husband was a fine for having a second child; whereas local authorities had no legal grounds for collecting such a deposit; whereas Ms Feng was forced to sign a consent form to terminate her pregnancy because she would not pay the fine, and was kept in the hospital by guards;
H.

whereas, in obvious contradiction of these very principles, but also of the Commission’s right of initiative, the European Council has asked the latter to come up with a proposal on a single supervisory mechanism with Article 127(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union as its sole legal basis, thereby depriving Parliament of its legislative power in single-market matters which are otherwise dealt with through codecision;
11.

Calls on the Commission to defend as essential elements in these negotiations: — use of European technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures; calls for an agreement between European and Russian standard-setting bodies and for the fast establishment of a unified system of conformity assessment accreditation in Russia; — a substantial and legally binding chapter on energy, building on the goodwill shown in the signature of the Early Warning Mechanism in 2011 and based on clear principles of transparency, fair competition, reciprocity and non-discrimination; asserts that the objective should remain an open and transparent EU-Russia energy market; — elimination by Russia of its dual pricing of goods, and clarification and stabilisation of the terms of establishment of services companies, in order to enhance investment by such EU companies in Russia; — the large untapped market for public procurement; calls on the Commission to secure fair reciprocal rules and procedures for the attribution of public tenders in both markets at national and subnational level; — reform of Russian customs procedures in the light of international conventions; — an SPS chapter, to ensure that each party can apply only justified temporary bans, in particular for agricultural products, livestock and food products, in full respect of the principles of proportionality, transparency, non-discrimination and scientific justification; — a Sustainable Development chapter, based on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the relevant ILO core conventions, to underline the need to fully respect and enforce human rights and labour rights, as well as a commitment to the implementation of the relevant international environmental standards; calls, to this end, for the establishment of dialogue with relevant stakeholders and civil society; — a comprehensive chapter on the protection of all forms of IPRs; calls for this chapter to include principles for the protection of geographical indications (GIs) and a list of protected GIs; — an upgrade of the current dispute settlement regime, to ensure greater transparency and non-discrimination in the investment climate in Russia; — a comprehensive and ambitious chapter on investment, including extensive liberalisation provisions (prohibition of a wide range of performance requirements and pre-establishment of national treatment), as well as robust investment protection measures, on the basis of Parliament’s recommendations for the new EU-wide investment competence (resolution of 6 April 2011 on the future European international investment policy (11);
3.

Stresses that ending the conflict is a fundamental interest of the EU, as well as of the parties themselves and the wider region, and that this can be achieved through a comprehensive peace agreement, based on the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, the Madrid Principles including land for peace, the Roadmap, the agreements previously reached by the parties and the Arab Peace Initiative; insists on the fact that any resulting resolution should not affect the dignity of either side; notes that the EU, as the largest donor to the Palestinian Authority and one of Israel’s major trading partners has instruments at its disposal to more actively encourage both parties to work towards a solution; calls on both parties to work together with the EU, which should pursue all efforts to resolve the conflict; recalls the applicability of international humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian territory, including the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War;
28.

Calls on the Commission to propose a better SEPA governance, covering the organisational setup related to the development of the main features of payment services and of the implementation of the requirements which need to be met, and allowing the development of technical and security standards to be organised separately in support of the implementation of the related legislation; calls for a more balanced representation of all stakeholders in the further development of common technical and security standards for payment schemes; urges the Commission to answer its previous calls for reform of SEPA governance so as to ensure better representation of payment services users in the decision-making and standard-setting process; notes that these stakeholders ay include — but are not necessarily restricted to — the EPC, consumer organisations, merchant organisations and large retail chains, the European Banking Authority (EBA), the Commission, experts in various fields, non-banking payment service providers, and mobile, internet and card commerce and mobile network operators; calls on these stakeholders to arrange their work under a new governance structure where the SEPA Council has a role; considers that the SEPA Council should be assisted by various technical committees, or ‘task forces’ for e-payment, m-payment, cards, cash and other standardisation issues, and by ad hoc working groups; recalls the Commission's commitment, in the declaration on SEPA governance on the adoption of Regulation (EU) No 260/2012, to come up with proposal before the end of 2012; calls on European standardisation bodies such as the European Committee for Standardisation (Comité Européen de Normalisation, CEN) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), in cooperation with the Commission, to play a more active role in standardising card payments;
4.

Considers, in view of the new arrangements for the election of the European Commission introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon and the changing relationship between Parliament and the Commission which will stem from them as from the elections in 2014, that reliable majorities in Parliament will be of paramount importance for the stability of the Union’s legislative procedures and the good functioning of its executive, and therefore calls on the Member States to establish in their electoral law, in accordance with Article 3 of the Act concerning the election of the representatives of the Assembly by direct universal suffrage, appropriate and proportionate minimum thresholds for the allocation of seats so as to duly reflect the citizens’ choices, as expressed in the elections, while also effectively safeguarding the functionality of Parliament;
46.

Considers that the restriction of EU businesses’ access to digital markets and online consumers through, among other things, mass state censorship or restricted market access for European online service providers in third countries constitutes a trade barrier; calls on the Commission and Council to include a safeguard mechanism in all future trade agreements, especially those which contain provisions affecting online services and online communities of users who share information, in order to ensure that EU ICT companies are not required by third parties to restrict website access, remove user-generated content or provide personal information, such as personal IP addresses, in ways that contravene fundamental rights and freedoms; calls, additionally, on the Council and Commission to develop a strategy for challenging measures by third countries which restrict EU companies’ access to global online markets;