ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
41.

Calls on the Commission and the Member States: (a) to promote healthcare by ensuring easy access to services and the provision of adequate information tailored to men’s and women’s specific needs and the exchange of best practice in the field of mental health and clinical research; (b) to take stock of the specific health needs of women and men and to ensure the integration of a gender perspective in their health policies, programmes and research, from their development and design to impact assessment and budgeting; (c) to ensure that prevention strategies specifically target women who are at risk of intersectional discrimination such as Roma women, women with disabilities, lesbians and bisexual women, migrants and women refugees and women living in poverty, as well as transgender and intersex people; (d) to recognise gender-based violence and violence against women as a public health issue, as stated in WHO Resolution WHA49.25 of 25 May 1996, which directly impacts on women’s mental health and wellbeing; (e) to ensure rapid development of the EU-wide survey on the prevalence of gender-based violence for implementation within the European Statistical System, as confirmed in Eurostat’s 2016 work programme, and to collect regular, disaggregated data, in particular on the prevalence of depression, this data being disaggregated at least by sex, age group and socio-economic status; (f) to support civil society and women’s organisations that promote women’s rights, and to work to ensure that women have a voice in European and national health policy issues and that European and national health policies respond to their needs; (g) to incentivise programmes that address the specific needs of women concerning illnesses such as osteoporosis, musculoskeletal problems and central nervous system illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and/or dementia, including those that inform women about prevention methods and offer training to medical staff; (h) to pay extra attention to the special needs of women diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia by providing them with adequate high-quality health care services; (i) to increase funding to foster research on the causes and possible treatment of endometriosis, as well as the drafting of clinical guidelines and the creation of reference centres; to promote information, prevention and awareness-raising campaigns on endometriosis, and to provide means for the training of specialised health professionals and for research initiatives;
5.

Recognises that a certain variety of employment contracts is useful for efficient matching of workers and employers; recalls, however, the risk of labour market dualism and the danger of people being trapped in insecure contracts without a tangible prospect of upward transitions; stresses the importance of open-ended employment contracts for socio-economic security and points to the benefits which such contracts provide to employers across numerous sectors; supports also promotion of social economy business models; calls on the Commission to broaden the Written Statement Directive (91/533/EEC) to cover all forms of employment and employment relationships; calls for the framework directive on decent working conditions also to include relevant existing minimum standards to be ensured in certain specific relationships, in particular: (a) proper learning and training content and decent working conditions for internships, traineeships and apprenticeships in order to ensure that they serve as genuine stepping stones in the transition from education to professional life, as provided for in the Council Recommendation on a Quality Framework for Traineeships, and that they are limited in time and do not replace employment for young people; remuneration should be commensurate with the work provided, the skills and experience of the person and the need to enable interns, trainees and apprentices on the labour market outside educational curricula to make ends meet; (b) for work intermediated by digital platforms and other instances of dependent self-employment, a clear distinction — for the purpose of EU law and without prejudice to national law — between those genuinely self-employed and those in an employment relationship, taking into account ILO Recommendation No 198, according to which the fulfilment of several indicators is sufficient to determine an employment relationship; the status and basic responsibilities of the platform, the client and the person performing the work should thus be clarified; minimum standards of collaboration rules should also be introduced with full and comprehensive information to the service provider on their rights and obligations, entitlements, associated level of social protection and the identity of employer; those employed as well as those genuinely self-employed who are engaged through online platforms should have analogous rights as in the rest of the economy and be protected through participation in social security and health insurance schemes; Member States should ensure proper surveillance of the terms and conditions of the employment relationship or service contract, preventing abuses of dominant positions by the platforms; (c) limits regarding on-demand work: zero-hour contracts should not be allowed, in view of the extreme uncertainty which they involve;
1.

Is concerned at the high level of NPLs, as, according to ECB data, by April 2016 banks in the euro area held EUR 1 014 billion in such loans; considers that reducing this level is crucial; welcomes the efforts already being made to reduce the level of NPLs in some Member States; notes, however, that until now the issue has mainly been addressed at national level; considers that the problem needs to be solved as soon as possible, but acknowledges that a definitive solution will take time; considers that any suggested solution should take into account the source of NPLs, the impact on banks’ lending capacity to the real economy, and the need for the development of a primary and secondary market for NPLs, possibly in the form of safe and transparent securitisation, that involves both Union and national levels; recommends that the Commission assists Member States in, among others, the establishment of dedicated asset management companies (or ‘bad banks’) and enhanced supervision; reiterates in this context the importance of the ability to sell off NPLs in order to free up capital, which is especially important for bank lending to SMEs; welcomes the ECB’s consultation on a draft guidance to banks on NPLs as a first step, but believes that more substantial progress has to be made; welcomes the Commission’s proposal on insolvency and restructuring including early restructuring and second chance, in the framework of the CMU; calls on Member States, pending its adoption and in order to complement it, to improve their relevant legislation, especially with regard to the length of recovery procedures, the functioning of judicial systems, and more generally their legal framework concerning the restructuring of debt, and to implement necessary sustainable structural reforms aimed at economic recovery in order to tackle NPLs; notes that, according to the Bank for International Settlements, some euro area banks weakened their capital bases by paying substantial dividends, sometimes exceeding the level of retained earnings, throughout the crisis years; considers that the capital position of banks can be strengthened by reducing dividend payments and raising fresh equity;
13.

Expresses concern that unemployment — in particular youth and women unemployment, as well as unemployment in rural areas — remains very high in many Member States, despite all efforts, and cohesion policy must provide answers to this too; recommends to the Commission that it pay more attention to the impact of cohesion policy on promoting employment and reducing unemployment; notes in this context that the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) has been integrated into 34 ESF programmes in the 20 eligible Member States, thus allowing unemployed young people to benefit from the YEI with the purpose to find their skills and qualifications; is concerned, however, about the delayed start to the implementation of the YEI and at the way in which the Youth Guarantee is being implemented in certain regions; urges Member States to intensify their efforts in order to achieve substantial and tangible effects rapidly and successfully from the funds invested, particularly with respect to funds made available in the form of advance payments, and that the YEI is implemented correctly and ensure decent working conditions for young workers; calls, in particular, for account to be taken of the real needs of the business community in using ESI Funds to meet training requirements, so as to create real employment opportunities and to achieve long-term employment; considers that the fight against youth unemployment, social inclusion and the future demographic challenges that Europe is facing nowadays and in the mid-term future should be the main areas where cohesion policy should be focused; calls for a continuation of the YEI beyond 2016, so as to sustain efforts to combat youth unemployment, while subjecting it to a thorough operational analysis designed to achieve the corrections necessary to make it more effective;
S.

whereas owners are faced with difficult decisions when they are no longer able to sufficiently care for their equidae, in part due to high veterinary costs, and whereas in some Member States euthanasia is too often the first recourse, and a costly one, for owners who are no longer able to bear the cost of veterinary care and the cost of ensuring the equid’s welfare needs; whereas in other Member States equidae can only be euthanised where there is a clear immediate veterinary need, irrespective of the long-term welfare of the animal concerned;
25.

Reminds all law enforcement actors that use data processing and analytics that Directive (EU) 2016/680: governs the processing of personal data by Member States for law enforcement purposes; requires that the collection and processing of personal data for law enforcement purposes must always be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the specified, explicit and legitimate purposes for which they are processed; states that the purpose of and need for the collection of these data must be clearly proven; states that any decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces an adverse legal effect on the data subject or significantly affects him or her, is prohibited, unless authorised by Union or Member State law to which the controller is subject and which provides appropriate safeguards for the rights and freedoms of the data subject, at least the right to obtain human intervention on the part of the controllers; calls on the Commission, the European Data Protection Board and other independent supervisory authorities to issue guidelines, recommendations and best practices in order to further specify the criteria and conditions for decisions based on profiling and the use of big data for law enforcement purposes;
29.

Points to the importance of the European citizens’ initiative as a means of involving the public in the political life of the EU and their direct participation therein, and therefore calls on the Commission to review the way it operates so that it can realise its full potential, in line with the recommendations made by the European Parliament in its resolution of 28 October 2015; draws attention, therefore, to the importance of simplifying and accelerating the bureaucratic requirements relating to this and of making wider use of ICT, e.g. through digital platforms and other applications compatible with mobile devices, in order to make this important tool more user-friendly and widely publicised; believes that the use of new technology could improve, in particular, the online signature collection system through the use of identification and authentication services (e-IDAS), which would allow members of the public more easily to receive and exchange information on existing or potential ECIs so that they can actively participate in discussions and/or support the initiatives themselves;
2.

Regrets that the developments in Hungary have led to a serious deterioration of the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights over the past few years, inter alia, freedom of expression, academic freedom, the human rights of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, freedom of assembly and association, restrictions and obstructions to the activities of civil society organisations, the right to equal treatment, the rights of people belonging to minorities, including Roma, Jews and LGBTI people, social rights, the functioning of the constitutional system, the independence of the judiciary and of other institutions and many worrying allegations of corruption and conflicts of interest, which, taken together, could represent an emerging systemic threat to the rule of law in this Member State; believes that Hungary is a test for the EU to prove its capacity and willingness to react to threats and breaches of its own founding values by a Member State; notes with concern that developments in some other Member States show worrying signs of similar undermining of the rule of law as in Hungary;
14.

Stresses that RegTech has the potential to improve compliance processes, in particular the quality and timeliness of supervisory information, by making them less complicated and more cost-efficient; calls on the authorities to clarify the legal conditions under which the outsourcing of compliance activities by a supervised entity to third parties is allowed, ensuring that appropriate supervisory arrangements over third parties are in force and that legal liability for compliance remains with the supervised entity; calls on the relevant authorities, in particular the Commission as part of its work related to the European Post-Trade Forum, to take a proactive approach in trying to understand the barriers to using new FinTech and RegTech solutions in areas of pre- and post- trade processes that are covered by the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) and the Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR) and, where no barriers exist, to clarify the right of actors to use such solutions for the purpose of fulfilling their obligations under those pieces of legislation;
14.

Notes that implementation delays to ESI Funds may affect disbursement rates, revolving and leverage, the latter of which should be based on a definition and on methodologies used by international organisations such as the OECD, with a clear distinction being made between public and private contributions and an indication provided of the precise degree of leverage possible under each of the financial instruments, broken down by country and region; recalls the fact that delays in the 2007-2013 period contributed irreversibly to sub-optimal performance of ERDF and ESF financial instruments; emphasises that implementation delays, which can be attributed to the late start of the programming period, may harm the performance of ESI Funds financial instruments, which could lead to inaccurate evaluation conclusions at the end of the period; calls, therefore, for all the necessary steps to be taken by the Member States to mitigate the negative effects of delayed implementation, especially regarding the risk of limited use and impact of financial instruments;
12.

Recalls that the scoreboard is a tool for the Investment Committee (IC) to prioritise the use of the EU guarantee for operations that display higher scores and added value, and that it must be used by the Investment Committee accordingly; intends to assess whether the scoreboard and its indicators are being properly consulted, applied and used; requests that the project selection criteria be properly applied and this process be made more transparent; recalls that, according to the annex to the current regulation, the IC must assign equal importance to each pillar of the scoreboard when prioritising projects, irrespective of whether the individual pillar yields a numerical score, or whether it is composed of unscored qualitative and quantitative indicators; regrets that Pillar 3, relevant to the technical aspects of the projects, is in the current scoreboards given the same importance as Pillars 1 and 2, which relate to the more important desired outcomes; criticises the fact that the EIB itself admits that the IC’s experts only make use of the 4th pillar for information purposes, not for decision-making; requests that scoreboards, with the exclusion of commercially sensitive information, be made public after the final decision on a project has been taken;
8.

Considers it a priority that a more advanced set of rules be laid down for a series of actors and categories of corporate governance, and that those rules be reproduced for future common models on cross-border divisions and registered office or head office transfers; considers it essential to simplify cross-border merger procedures by means of a clearer definition of standards for the legal documentation — starting with the issues of shareholders’ information and the collection of merger documents — and new digitisation practices, provided that the basic procedural standards and requirements set out in Directive 2005/56/EC (including the issuance of a pre-merger certificate and the scrutiny of legality in accordance with Articles 10 and 11 thereof) are maintained and that matters of public interest, such as legal certainty and the reliability of commercial registers are preserved;
41.

Urges the Commission to clarify without delay the core elements of an equitable, effective and enforceable licensing methodology structured around the FRAND principles, taking into account the interests both of rightholders and of implementers of standards that include SEPs, a fair return on investment and the wide availability of technologies developed in a sustainable open standardisation process; invites the Commission to take note of the CJEU judgment C-170/13 ( Huawei v. ZTE ), which strikes a balance between SEP holders and standard implementers with a view to overcoming patent infringements and ensuring the efficient settlement of disputes; invites the Commission, furthermore, to improve the definition relating to information on patent scope and to address the issues related to information asymmetries between SMEs and large companies, increase the transparency of standard essential patent declarations, and improve the quality of information on the relation of SEPs to products; is of the opinion that any compensation to the developers of SEPs needs to be based on fair, proportionate and non-discriminatory terms, as well as transparent, reasonable, predictable and sustainable royalty rates, except where developers decide to provide the standard available without financial compensation; recognises, however, that diverse business models, such as royalty-free licensing and open source software implementation, exist and accordingly legislation and discussion should continue to recognise the use of all models on a basis including the rights of all market sectors and IPR holders;
F.

whereas Gabon is a party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, is in the process of implementing its provisions into national law and has the obligation to share with the United Nations information concerning the progress made since the ratification of the Convention in 2011 and about the post-electoral events in 2016; whereas the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances is currently considering Gabon’s report and reviewing the progress of this implementation;
D.

whereas, reportedly, Kem Sokha was arrested without a warrant, and has not had access to a lawyer; whereas he has been charged on the basis of a video of a speech he gave in 2013 and which has been publicly available ever since; whereas human rights organisation have expressed concern that statements by the Cambodian Government put in jeopardy his right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence;
47.

Points out that women account for almost 60 % of graduates in the EU but, on account of persistent hindering factors, remain under-represented in science, mathematics, IT, engineering and related careers; invites the Member States and the Commission to promote, through information and awareness-raising campaigns, the participation of women in sectors traditionally viewed as ‘male’, notably the sciences and new technologies, among others, by mainstreaming gender equality in the digital agenda for the forthcoming years, as well as promoting the participation of men in sectors traditionally viewed as ‘female’, notably care and education; stresses the importance of extending social protection in sectors where women make up the majority of the workforce, as in the cases of personal care workers, cleaners and helpers, catering staff and health associate professionals, among others; highlights the importance of vocational education and training (VET) in diversifying career choices and introducing women and men to non-traditional career opportunities so as to overcome horizontal and vertical exclusion and to increase the numbers of women in decision-making bodies in political and business spheres;
7.

Notes the memorandum of understanding agreed between Myanmar and Bangladesh on repatriation; urges the parties to fully respect the voluntary, safe and dignified return of the Rohingya to their places of origin without discrimination of any kind, and with full UN oversight; insists that the Myanmar authorities offer credible assurances that returnees will not be persecuted or forced into segregated camps on ethnic or religious grounds and guarantee independent and impartial monitoring by human rights bodies; reaffirms the principle of non-refoulement and echoes the UNHCR assessment of 24 November 2017 that ‘at present, conditions in Myanmar’s Rakhine State are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns’; calls for the EU to lead international efforts by means of an intergovernmental summit together with the UN; proposes that this summit review progress on the Rohingya repatriation process and the restoration of citizenship rights and that the procedure for an independent investigation of crimes against humanity be initiated;
F.

whereas with regard to citizens’ rights, the UK has: — accepted that all EU citizens legally residing in the UK and UK nationals legally residing in an EU-27 Member State, and their respective family members at the time of withdrawal, will enjoy the full set of rights as established in EU law and interpreted by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), based on protections which will be set out in the Withdrawal Agreement, — accepted, in addition, that citizens’ core family members and persons in a durable relationship with them currently residing outside the host state will be protected by the Withdrawal Agreement and that this will also be the case for children born in the future and outside the host state, — accepted that the continuation of citizens’ rights will be guaranteed for a lifetime through a proportionate procedure, which will be subject to proper safeguards, in accordance with EU law concepts. This procedure and these safeguards will be set out in the Withdrawal Agreement, — accepted that administrative procedures will be transparent, smooth and streamlined, that forms will be short, simple and user-friendly, and that applications made by members of a family at the same time will be considered together, — accepted that all relevant rights based on EU law will be safeguarded and will be set out in detail in the Withdrawal Agreement, — accepted that all social security rights under EU law will be maintained. This includes the export of all exportable benefits, — accepted that the citizens’ rights’ provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement will be incorporated into a specific UK legal act so that these rights will have direct effect;