ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
24.

Recognises that the ETS is experiencing problems not originally anticipated, and that the accumulating surplus of allowances will depress the incentive to promote low carbon investments for many years to come; notes that this endangers the effectiveness of the ETS as the EU's principal mechanism to reduce emissions in a manner that creates a level playing field for competing technologies, gives companies flexibility to develop their own mitigation strategy, and provides for specific measures to combat carbon leakage. Calls on the Commission to adopt measures to correct the failings of the ETS and to allow it to function as originally envisaged. These measures may include: (a) presenting as soon as possible a report to Parliament and the Council which shall examine, amongst others, the impacts on incentives for investments in low carbon technologies and the risk of carbon leakage. Before the start of the third phase, the Commission shall, if appropriate, amend the regulation referred to in article 10(4) of Directive 2003/87/EC in order to implement appropriate measures which may include withholding the necessary amount of allowances; (b) proposing legislation at the earliest appropriate date to modify the 1.74 % annual linear reduction requirement so as to meet the requirements of the 2050 CO2 reduction target; (c) undertaking and publishing an assessment of the value of establishing a reserve price for the auction of allowances; (d) taking steps to increase the input of relevant information and the transparency of the ETS registry, so as to enable more effective monitoring and evaluation; (e) further improving the use of offset mechanisms, for example by limiting access to offsets that subsidise Europe’s industrial competitors, as in the area of HFCs; (f) ensuring nonetheless that none of these measures have the effect of reducing the level of allowances for sectors that may be prone to carbon leakage according to the Benchmark-Decision (Commission Decision 2011/278/EU);
—

having regard to the questions of 13 January 2012 to the Council and the Commission on Petition 0924/2011 by Dan Pescod (British), on behalf of European Blind Union (EBU)/Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), on access by blind people to books and other printed products (O-000005/2012 – B7-0029/2012 and O-000006/2012 – B7-0030/2012),
8.

Notes the initial approval by the State Duma of the Presidential draft laws aimed at comprehensive changes to the political system, including a simplification of the rules concerning the registration of political parties and their access to elections; urges the State Duma, when adopting the necessary laws, to take into account amendments jointly submitted by the non-registered parties; expects all sides to take the opportunity before the inauguration of the President-elect to decide on a comprehensive reform package including changes to the electoral law; expresses its strong wish to see a successful outcome and full implementation of all the reform proposals under discussion in the Medvedev working group; is convinced that a new electoral law and the registration of opposition political parties should provide a basis for free and fair elections to the State Duma;
A.

whereas Azerbaijan actively participates in the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership and is committed to respecting democracy, human rights and the rule of law, which are core values of those two initiatives; whereas, however, the overall human rights situation in Azerbaijan has steadily deteriorated over the last few years despite the commitments included in the European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plan, with growing pressure on and intimidation of NGOs and independent media resulting in a widespread sense of fear among opposition forces and human rights defenders as well as youth and social network activists and leading to self-censorship among journalists;
62.

Reiterates the importance of a set of coherent, measurable, clear and verifiable sectoral targets, including an overall target, in order to implement the vision and milestones of the Roadmap; recognises the complexity of the subject and the consequent need for a solid scientific basis; calls on the Commission to put forward on that basis a concrete proposal for such targets for the EU and the Member States, at the latest within a year of adoption of the relevant indicators, and to ensure that all EU policies are consistent with the targets set; considers that the milestones included in the Roadmap should be considered as targets until more detailed ones are set; calls on the Member States to include corresponding targets in their own resource efficiency strategies;
16.

Welcomes the Commission’s 2011 ‘Governance Check-Up’, which presents for the first time an integrated view of the various tools used in a ‘Single Market governance cycle’, including the Internal Market Scoreboard, the Solvit Annual Report and the ‘Your Europe’ website; strongly reaffirms its position regarding the importance of one-stop shops; commends the Commission for its work on the Your Europe portal, and encourages completion of the development of this innovative tool which serves as an essential complement to the ‘Points of Single Contact’ network by providing a single gateway to all the information and help services that citizens and businesses need in order to make use of their rights in the Single Market;
23.

Emphasises that there is strong evidence that the impact on health of climate-sensitive conditions, such as malnutrition, and the incidence of infectious diseases, such as malaria, varies according to gender; notes with concern the high female mortality rate in disaster situations; takes the view that more gender-specific research into the impact of climate change on women's health would help to achieve a more targeted response; calls on all governments to make more efforts to ensure better prevention, treatment and access to medicine and drugs – especially for women, as they are a vulnerable group, particularly in their capacity as care providers –, to commit to a series of actions aimed at addressing the health risks associated with climate change, and to provide a framework for gender-based health risk assessments and adaptation/mitigation measures in relation to climate change;
E.

whereas the incident is to be seen in the wider perspective of the huge socioeconomic imbalances the country has been facing; whereas South Africa, since the fall of the apartheid regime, has succeeded in building a democratic state but is still facing crucial economic and social challenges, with the persistence of great inequality as well as a high rate of poverty and unemployment;
7.

Calls on the Iranian authorities to guarantee religious freedom in accordance with the Iranian constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and to put a stop in practice to discrimination against and harassment of religious minorities such as non-Shia Muslims, including Assyrians and other Christian groups, the systematic persecution of the Baha’i minority and the application of the death penalty to converts from Islam;
R.

whereas in Uganda, in February and June 2012, police forces and the Minister for Ethics and Integrity, acting without warrants and in disregard of citizens’ freedom of assembly, stopped private meetings of human rights activists; whereas the Minister plans to outlaw 38 organisations understood to work for the human rights of LGBTI people; whereas the Anti-Homosexuality Bill first proposed in 2009 is still under discussion, and may include unacceptable provisions including the death penalty; whereas lawsuits and enquiries in Uganda and in the United States have revealed the role of, among others, Scott Lively and the Abiding Truth Ministries, a fundamentalist US-based evangelical group, in spreading hate and intolerance on the basis of sexual orientation, and in having the law introduced;
8.

Expresses, however, its concern about the deteriorating climate for the development of civil society in Russia, in particular with regard to the recent adoption of a series of laws governing demonstrations, NGOs, defamation and the internet which contain ambiguous provisions and could lead to arbitrary enforcement; reminds the Russian authorities that a modern and prosperous society needs to recognise and protect the individual and collective rights of all its citizens; calls, in this context, on the Russian competent bodies to amend the new laws on NGOs so as to safeguard citizens’ associations that receive financial support from reputable foreign funds from political persecution;
C.

whereas the security forces continue to use excessive force against protestors; whereas on 26 April 2012 Chut Wutty, a leading environmental campaigner who investigated illegal logging, was shot dead by the police; whereas on 22 May 2012 thirteen women activists from Boeung Kak area were arbitrarily arrested and sentenced to lengthy prison terms for holding a peaceful protest at the development site affecting their community; whereas they have been released upon international pressure though their convictions have been upheld; whereas on 16 May 2012 a 14-year old girl, Heng Chantha, was shot dead by the security forces and no investigation into her death is taking place;
12.

Notes that the Commission makes poverty a central issue in its new policy of ‘differentiation’; observes, however, that 70 % of people whose income is below the poverty threshold live in middle-income countries, many of whom remain fragile and vulnerable, notably the Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and hence deplores the fact that the poor in those countries continue to be deprived of access to education, healthcare and other benefits of internal economic growth, the liability for which lies with these states; calls on the Commission to set, for the implementation of the differentiation concept, vulnerability criteria in the common programming guidelines of the new DCI and the 11th EDF currently under discussion, and to take account of the realities of poverty, human development and inequalities inside a country, and not only of national GNI;
9.

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the EU Special Representative to the Middle East Peace Process, the President of the UN General Assembly, the governments and parliaments of the UN Security Council members, the Middle East Quartet Envoy, the Knesset and the Government of Israel, the President of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Legislative Council.
36.

Supports the introduction and strengthening of hotline systems for reporting crimes and illegal content and conduct, taking into account, inter alia, the experience with the European hotline for missing children, as well as with national rapid alert systems and the European Child Alert Automated System; stresses, however, that any immediate criminal action based on reporting has to strike a balance between, on the one hand, the rights of the potential victims and the positive obligation under Articles 2 and 8 ECHR of the Member State to react, as already emphasised in the jurisprudence of the ECHR, and, on the other hand, the rights of the suspect; calls, in this connection, on the Member States and the Commission to undertake an exchange of best practice as regards the investigation and prosecution of criminal acts against children in the digital world; recalls that Article 8 of the Commission proposal for a general Data Protection Regulation (COM(2012)0011) contains specific safeguards for the processing of personal data of children, such as mandatory parental consent for the processing of data of children under the age of 13;
9.

Takes the view that such an Action Plan should also consider ways of addressing and mitigating the high costs of energy and raw materials, which are a threat to the steel industry’s competitiveness; emphasises, in this connection, that energy efficiency and resource efficiency can generate substantial cost savings, and welcomes in this regard the European public-private partnership SPIRE, but nonetheless urges the Commission and the steel sector itself to continue to examine the opportunities available, to encourage the establishment of business consortia and to promote a closed-loop production system aimed at recovery and re-use of scrap, given the present and future limitation of raw material supply;
18.

Believes that it is in the current economic interest of everyone to ensure the resolution of the legal uncertainty which surrounds property potentially affected by the Ley de Costas; welcomes the Spanish Government’s announcement that it intends to revise the Ley de Costas in order to reconcile the future protection of the Spanish coastline with economic growth, and thus to provide greater legal certainty for property owners; urges the Spanish Government to reassure the interests of those who have acquired property in good faith and of those communities which have always shared a sustainable coexistence with the sea; urges them, in particular, to address the specific question of the application of the law, so that it does not encourage decisions that are arbitrary, retrospective or asymmetric, but instead ensures due process, a right of appeal, proper compensation and access to information;
17.

Acknowledges that following requests from Parliament, the 2012 budget shows payment appropriations of EUR 5 0 0 00 000 on the EGF budget line 04 05 01; notes, however, that for the second consecutive year, these payment appropriations have turned out to be insufficient to cover the funding requests for a whole year and the missing payment appropriations have to be marshalled though an amending budget by means of transfers from other budget lines; believes that both these facts do not denote sound budgeting; recalls that the EGF was created as a specific instrument to give an immediate and adequate response to mass redundancies due to the direct and indirect effects of globalisation; emphasises that without adequate appropriations, and in order to avoid systematic transfers from other budget lines, as has happened in the past, neither the emergency nature of the EGF or its integrity can be guaranteed;
6.

Reiterates its strong support for the two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as capital of both States and with a secure State of Israel and an independent, democratic, contiguous and viable Palestinian State living side by side in peace and security; stresses again that peaceful and non-violent means are the only way to achieve a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and calls in this context for the resumption of direct peace talks between the two parties; calls on all parties to refrain from any unilateral action which could undermine or hinder peace efforts and the prospects for a negotiated peace agreement;
39.

Stresses the importance of cohesion policy, and of the financial resources allocated to it, for the full development of energy storage and transmission infrastructure and networks (with particular reference to smart grids and distribution) between the Member States and all regions of the EU, including the outermost regions, for the completion and functioning of the internal energy market, for the provision of an affordable, secure and sustainable energy supply and for achieving the goal of convergence among EU regions, taking into the account the needs of EU citizens in every Member State; stresses that no region of the Member States should remain isolated from European gas and electricity networks after 2015 or suffer from inadequate connection to energy networks;
79.

Agrees that there cannot be a ‘one size fits all’ approach to CSR but recognises that the profusion of various CSR initiatives, although demonstrating awareness of the importance of CSR policies, can generate additional costs, be a barrier to implementation and undermine trust and fairness; believes that there must be sufficient flexibility when implementing CSR guidelines to cater for the specific requirements of each Member State and region, with particular regard to the capacities of SMEs; welcomes, however, the Commission's active cooperation with the participation of Parliament and the Council together with other international bodies to achieve a fundamental convergence of CSR initiatives in the long term and the exchange and promotion of good corporate practice regarding CSR, as well as to push forward the guidelines found in the International Standard ISO 26000 so as to ensure a single global, coherent and transparent definition of CSR; urges the Commission to contribute effectively to the guidance and coordination of EU Member State policies, thereby minimising the risk of additional costs being incurred by businesses operating in more than one Member State as a result of divergent provisions;
—

having regard to the statements by the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (VP/HR) on Bahrain, in particular her statements of 24 November 2011 on the publication of the report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), of 5 September 2012 on the decisions of the Bahraini Court of Appeal on the cases of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and 19 other individuals, and of 23 November 2012 on the first anniversary of the publication of the BICI’s report, the statements by her spokesperson of 13 February 2012 on the anniversary of the unrest in Bahrain, of 10 April 2012 on the situation of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja in Bahrain, of 16 August 2012 on the sentencing of Nabeel Rajab in Bahrain and of 24 October 2012 and of 7 November 2012 on the recent violence in Bahrain, and the statements made by the VP/HR at the European Parliament on 12 October 2011 on the situation in Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain,
O.

whereas access to formal primary, secondary and third-level education and the content of the curriculum as taught to girls and boys is a major influencing factor on gender differences and, correspondingly, on choices and access to rights; whereas, while both girls’ and boys’ access to education may generally appear to be less problematic in the EU than in other parts of the world, it should nevertheless be pointed out that girls and boys are not equal in accessing and fully availing themselves of education systems and opportunities; whereas, in particular, access for girls from minority groups, such as girls from the Roma community, migrant girls, asylum seekers, refugees and girls with disabilities, remains highly problematic in some countries;
P.

whereas, according to its opinion of 2 February 2002, the Commission’s Scientific Committee on Food did not consider it appropriate to use thujone as a chemically identified flavouring substance and supported the application of the upper limits in foods and beverages which were in place at the time of adoption of the opinion and which remain in place pursuant to Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 1334/2008;
36.

Welcomes the direct political dialogue that the Government of Turkey has recently opened with Abdullah Öcalan; deems that a perspective for negotiations has been opened which could lead to a historic agreement that would settle the Kurdish conflict in a peaceful and democratic way; encourages the conflict parties, therefore, to transform these talks into structured negotiations as soon as possible; underlines the constructive role that all political parties, media and civil society in Turkey must play if the peace process is to succeed, and praises the cross-party and civil-society support for this initiative; notes that Turkey has continued to demonstrate resilience to the terrorist attacks by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK); considers that true and sincere political dialogue is necessary, and calls on Turkey to invest renewed efforts in working towards a political solution to the Kurdish issue; asks all political forces to ensure an appropriate political platform for, and to debate in a constructive way, the Kurdish issue, and to facilitate a real opening to the claims for basic rights in the constitutional process that reflects the pluralism in Turkey and in which all citizens can find themselves and their rights fully recognised; asks all political forces to work in alliance towards the goal of reinforced political dialogue and a process of further political, cultural and socio-economic inclusion and participation of citizens of Kurdish origin, in order to guarantee their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, and to promote the peaceful inclusion of citizens of Kurdish origin in Turkish society; welcomes the new legislation that opens the possibility for people’s native language to be used in trials and the positive discussion on the use of Kurdish in education; recalls that a political solution can be built only on a truly democratic debate on the Kurdish issue, and expresses concern at the large number of cases launched against writers and journalists writing on the Kurdish issue and the arrest of several Kurdish politicians, mayors and members of municipal councils, trade unionists, lawyers, protestors and human rights defenders in connection with the KCK trial; underlines the importance of promoting a discussion of the Kurdish issue within democratic institutions, particularly the TGNA;
2.

Considers that, in order to meet that objective, more needs to be done to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on which the least progress is being made are met, in particular those concerning the most vulnerable groups in society and gender issues, as stipulated by Articles 22, 25 and 31 of the Cotonou Agreement; reiterates its support for the MDG initiative and contracts, and calls on the Commission and Member States, in agreement with the ACP States, to earmark 20 % of the 11th EDF budget for the provision of basic social services, particularly health care and basic education, to ensure that MDGs 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 and other international commitments concerning development are met; calls, therefore, for the performance indicators linked to gender equality proposed in the ‘Programme of Action for the mainstreaming of gender equality in Community Development Co-operation’ to be applied to the 11th EDF and its programming in order to ensure that the specific actions and the measures to promote gender equality in all programmes are implemented in an appropriate and consistent manner;
11.

Considers that women play an essential role in stabilisation and conflict resolution, which is crucial to reconciliation in the region as a whole; underlines the importance of access to justice for women victims of wartime crimes, in particular rape; reiterates the responsibility of all states to put an end to impunity and to prosecute those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, including crimes involving sexual violence against women and girls, and to recognise and condemn these crimes as crimes against humanity and war crimes; stresses the need to exclude these crimes from amnesty provisions; welcomes the efforts of networks such as the Regional Women’s Lobby to support women in peace-building and to promote access to justice for women in post-conflict countries; stresses the ongoing need to deal with the past and to secure systematically justice and rehabilitation for victims of conflict-related sexual violence; urges the adoption and implementation of adequate state programmes for witness protection and the prosecution of these crimes;