ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
8.

Expresses its concern at the forthcoming entry into force of the new Foreign NGO Management Law on 1 January 2017, given that it would drastically hamper the activities of Chinese civil society and would severely restrict the freedoms of association and expression in the country, including by banning overseas NGOs that are not registered with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and prohibiting provincial public security departments from funding any Chinese individual or organisation, and prohibiting Chinese groups from conducting ‘activities’ on behalf of, or with the authorisation of, non-registered overseas NGOs, including those based in Hong Kong and Macao; calls on the Chinese authorities to provide a safe and fair environment and transparent processes which allow NGOs to operate freely and effectively in China;
3.

Expects the Commission to provide Parliament’s committee responsible with information about its intention to propose negotiations with a view to concluding and amending international air agreements; expects the Commission to reach arrangements with the Council and with negotiating partners in order to provide Members of the European Parliament with access to all relevant documents, including the negotiating directives and consolidated texts, in parallel and on an equal footing with the Council;
94.

Recalling that, according to the Commission’s 2016 Report on the progress made in the fight against trafficking in human beings, at least 15 % of the registered victims were children, urges the Member States to take immediate action in response to Europol’s announcement that at least 10 000 unaccompanied refugee and migrant children went missing in the EU in 2015; calls on the Member States and the EU agencies to step up their cross-border cooperation, information exchanges and joint investigations in order to fight child trafficking and cross-border organised crime, sexual abuse and other forms of exploitation, and to protect children; calls on the Member States and the European agencies to expedite the appointment of qualified guardians to unaccompanied children and ensure that the best interest of the child is always taken into account; calls on the Member States to register and identify children in a child-friendly way, and to prevent their disappearance by ensuring that they enter the national child protection systems; recommends that existing tools for missing children be reinforced, including the European hotlines for missing children; calls on the Commission and the Member States to make full use of the FRA’s expertise when it comes to enhancing child protection and the protection of vulnerable people in the current migration situation, particularly at hotspots; recalls that children’s rights, and the best interest of the child, need to be taken into account and assessed in all EU policies and actions, including migration and asylum;
2.

Reminds the authorities of Burundi of their obligations to guarantee, protect and promote fundamental rights, including the civil and political rights of its citizens such as freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, as provided for in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and in other international and regional human rights instruments; reminds Burundi’s Government of its international obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in particular regarding respect for fundamental freedoms and the rule of law and the handling of court cases, particularly the right to a fair and impartial trial;
4.

Commends the consensual adoption of the constitutional amendments for judicial reform and the adoption of laws on the institutional reorganisation of the judiciary, the prosecution office and the Constitutional Court; calls for the swift adoption and credible implementation of all relevant accompanying laws and bylaws, in particular the law on the re-evaluation (vetting) of judges, prosecutors and legal advisors and the package of draft laws needed for the implementation of the reform of the justice system; notes the ruling by the Constitutional Court on the constitutionality of the vetting law following a positive opinion from the Venice Commission; reiterates that a comprehensive judicial reform is a major demand by Albania’s citizens for re-establishing trust in their political representatives and public institutions, and that the credibility and effectiveness of the overall reform process, including the fight against corruption and organised crime, depend on the success of the vetting process and the implementation of the judicial reform; recalls that adopting and implementing such a reform is instrumental in the fight against corruption, and is essential to the entrenchment of the rule of law and for enhancing the enforcement of fundamental rights in the country, also with a view to increasing trust in the judicial system among all citizens;
5.

Calls, therefore, on the Commission, in close cooperation with Member States and on the basis of an objective analysis of the factors contributing to current delays, to present a ‘Cohesion acceleration plan’ in the first quarter of 2017 in order to facilitate an accelerated implementation of ESI Funds operational programmes; underlines nevertheless in this context the need to ensure low error rates, the fight against fraud, and the strengthening of administrative capacity at national, regional, as well as local level as a pre-condition to achieve timely and successful results; believes that tailor-made measures should follow the analysis of the Summary Report of the programme annual implementation reports covering implementation in 2014-2015, made available by the Commission at the end of 2016, and calls on the Member States to continuously monitor the progress made in the implementation of projects; stresses in this regard the need and added value of concentrating efforts on the thematic objectives priority sectors; moreover, calls on the Commission to continue providing support through the Task Force for Better Implementation and to make available an action plan of its activities to Parliament;
D.

whereas on 1 February 2017 Pastor Evan Mawarire was arrested at Harare airport on his return to Zimbabwe; whereas he was initially charged with ‘subverting a constitutional government’ under Section 22 of the Criminal Procedure Act, an offence which is punishable with imprisonment for up to 20 years; whereas on 2 February 2017 another charge was added, that of insulting the flag under Section 6 of the Flag of Zimbabwe Act; whereas Pastor Mawarire was only released on bail after having spent nine days in custody;
27.

Points out that the polarisation of the country, in combination with the deterioration of the socio-economic situation, especially for young people, increases the danger of spreading radicalism; calls, as a matter of urgency, for the boosting of efforts to combat radicalisation and further measures to identify, prevent and disrupt the flow of foreign fighters as well as channels of untraceable money intended for further radicalisation, including through close cooperation with the relevant services of the Member States and countries in the region, as well as by enforcing the relevant laws; calls for better coordination between security and intelligence services and the police; encourages the decisive resolution and sanctioning of cases of hate speech and transmitting extremist ideologies through the social media; calls for the swift introduction of programmes on deradicalisation and preventing youth radicalisation in cooperation with civil society through comprehensive human rights education in order to help deconstruct narratives on radicalisation and to build social cohesion amongst children and youth; encourages, in this respect, greater youth participation in the democratic political process; urges the competent authorities to combat religious extremism; notes with concern the existence of radicalised communities across the country and highlights the important role of religious leaders, teachers and overall of the education system in this respect; stresses further the need to provide tools for reintegration and rehabilitation into society and the upgrading and enhancement of deradicalisation tools;
I.

whereas on 27 February 2017 the Government of Bangladesh passed the Child Marriage Restraint Act, which — while keeping the minimum age of marriage at 18 for women and 21 for men — introduces exceptions in ‘special cases’ or for the ‘best interests’ of the adolescent with the permission of the courts, while failing to define such criteria or lay down a minimum age for such marriages; whereas the consent of the child is not required; whereas the law came into effect after approval by the President on 11 March 2017;
F.

whereas many critical comments were submitted by Member States during the three-month consultation period; whereas those comments refer to, inter alia: missing data as regards identification and quantification of the herbicide and metabolite residues in the GM plants and seeds used for food/feed, shortcomings in the environmental risk assessment and environmental monitoring plan relating, inter alia, to differing views on whether wild relatives have been reported in Europe, or missing data as regards the germination power of the imported seed, as well as the fact that no unintended effects were taken into consideration; whereas some of the comments further criticised the very poor data base in general and, more specifically, the fact that only a very limited number of studies had been taken into consideration and that, for example, no appropriate toxicity test with plant material from GHB119 cotton, as well as no appropriate studies on the effect of the GM cotton on human and animal health, had been carried out, and that the nutritional study submitted was not considered to be admissible (7);
77.

Welcomes the review of the rules of the Complaints Mechanism Office (CM Office), and the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding between the European Ombudsman and the EIB; requests clarification from the EIB on the delay to the launch of a public consultation on the revision of the policies and procedures of its complaints mechanism; notes that such a revision process offers the opportunity to further improve the independence and efficiency of the complaints mechanism, with a view to also establishing a mechanism for a systematic flow of information directly between the CM Office and the directors; stresses that the EIB management should report annually to the Ombudsman and Parliament on how the recommendations of its complaints mechanisms have been reflected in the policies and practices of the bank; stresses, in addition, that the head of the CM Office should present its activity report and its assessment of how the bank is fulfilling the CM Office recommendations to Parliament once a year;
4.

Strongly regrets the delays in organising the next presidential and legislative elections in the DRC, which constitutes a violation of the Congolese constitution; further regrets the lack of progress in implementing the political agreement of 31 December 2016 for transitional arrangements; recalls the commitment made by the Government of the DRC for transparent, free, and fair elections to be held in a credible manner before the end of 2017, ensuring the protection of political rights and freedoms and in compliance with the political agreement, leading to a peaceful transfer of power; reiterates the importance of the publication of a detailed electoral calendar, while welcoming the process of electoral registration; calls for the early implementation of the commitments contained in the agreement, in particular the amending and adoption of the necessary laws in the Congolese parliament before the end of the parliamentary session; calls for the electoral law to be amended in order to guarantee the representation of women through appropriate measures;
7.

Stresses the achievements of the engagement of the private business sector in cooperation with the Government of Bangladesh and international organisations in the country, through the Accord on Fire and Building Safety; points out, however, that despite marking progress on fire and building safety, the Accord partners still remain concerned with the slow pace of completing remediation on critical safety issues; calls on the parties to the Accord to prolong their engagement by means of it for another period of five years, before the current agreement comes to an end on 12 May 2018; invites the government, as well as the Bangladeshi business sector, to acknowledge the usefulness of the commitment of retailers in Bangladesh through the Accord, and to support the extension of the mandate given to the Accord partners in Bangladesh;
15.

Calls on the Commission, in its review of the rules, to find solutions in order to extend effectively the scope of mediation also to other civil or administrative matters, where possible; stresses, however, that special attention must be paid to the implications that mediation could have on certain social issues, such as family law; recommends in this context that the Commission and the Member States apply and implement appropriate safeguards in mediation processes to limit the risks for weaker parties and to protect them against any possible abuse of process or position by the more powerful parties, and to provide relevant comprehensive statistical data; underlines also the importance of ensuring that fair criteria are complied with in terms of costs, especially in order to protect the interests of disadvantaged groups; notes however that mediation may lose its attractiveness and added value if excessively stringent standards for the parties are introduced;
23.

Regrets that the low success rate of projects launched under some Erasmus+ actions, limited grants and high demand for programme participation may jeopardise the success of Erasmus+ as a flagship EU programme; strongly believes that Erasmus+ should ultimately be targeted towards all young people and that these higher sights for the next Erasmus+ programming period must be matched by significant additional funding which should be reflected in an increased budget so as to unlock the full potential of the programme; calls, therefore, on the Member States, the Commission and relevant stakeholders to generate stronger and more visible support for the Erasmus programme in anticipation of the upcoming multiannual financial framework (MFF) negotiations;
—

having regard to its previous resolutions on Ukraine and on Crimea, on the European Neighbourhood Policy and on the Eastern Partnership, and in particular to its resolution of 21 January 2016 on the Association Agreements and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine (1), its resolution of 4 February 2016 on the human rights situation in Crimea, in particular of the Crimean Tatars (2), its resolution of 12 May 2016 on the Crimean Tatars (3) and its resolution of 16 March 2017 on the Ukrainian prisoners in Russia and the situation in Crimea (4),
2.

Is deeply worried about freedom of expression in Sudan, the ongoing censorship and seizures of newspapers, and the increased restrictions on journalists from freely expressing their opinion in Sudan; notes that holding government policies and politicians to account in the public domain should not result in repression of the free press; further notes with concern the long-term financial restrictions placed on newspapers as a result of routine seizures and suspensions of operations;
47.

Points out the risk that whistle-blowers run of having legal and civil proceedings brought against them; stresses that they are often the weaker party in trials; considers, therefore, that in the case of alleged retaliatory actions taken against the whistle-blower, the employer shall provide evidence that these actions are unrelated to the report made by the whistle-blower; considers that the protection of the whistle-blower should be granted on the basis of the information exposed and not on the intention of the whistle-blower; stresses, however, that the whistle-blower must have reported information that he or she believed to be true; takes the view that confidentiality should be guaranteed throughout the proceedings and that the identity of the whistle-blower shall not be revealed without his or her consent; underlines that a breach of the confidentiality of identity without the whistle-blower’s consent should be subject to criminal penalties and sanctions;
I.

whereas in 1998, El Salvador criminalised abortion under all circumstances, including cases in which pregnancy has life-threatening complications for the woman or girl, and in cases of rape, incest or an unviable foetus; whereas, moreover, in 1999 a constitutional amendment was passed recognising an embryo as a human being from ‘the moment of conception’; whereas any person who performs or self-induces an abortion, even before the foetal stage, is therefore liable to be prosecuted with a sentence of between two and eight years, but in many cases prosecutors have increased the charge to ‘aggravated homicide’, which carries up to 50 years’ imprisonment; whereas legislation that potentially allows abortion under these circumstances has remained frozen in the National Assembly since October 2016, but debates are currently taking place to make further progress;
(aa)

to ensure that strict conditionality is always attached to current and further levels of cooperation and support for the partners, and that it is also observed; to underline that EU financial support to its partners will be conditional on concrete reform steps and their effective implementation, and that the EU’s incentive-based approach will continue to benefit those partners most engaged in ambitious reforms; to envisage paying out grants in smaller instalments to enable the EU to better respond to unexpected crises or a lack of reforms; to emphasise in particular that no comprehensive agreement will be ratified with a country that does not respect EU values, notably through the non-implementation of decisions by the European Court of Human Rights and the harassment, intimidation and persecution of human rights defenders, NGOs and journalists; to also highlight that clear benchmarks need to be met before any new dialogue on visa-free regimes is launched and concluded; to reiterate that backsliding on prior achievements will systematically lead to the suspension of agreements, including in the area of visa-free regimes and EU funding;
27.

Takes note of the changes proposed by some national parliaments to the subsidiarity control mechanism; welcomes the conclusion reached by COSAC that any improvement to the subsidiarity control mechanism should not entail Treaty change; notes that an extension of the eight-week time limit in which national parliaments can issue a reasoned opinion would require an amendment of the Treaties or the Protocols thereto; recalls the context of the letter of 1 December 2009 on the practical arrangements for applying the subsidiarity control mechanism sent by the President and Vice-President of the Commission to the Presidents of the national parliaments, in which the Commission stated that, in order to take account of national parliaments’ summer recesses, the month of August would not be taken into account when determining the deadline referred to in Protocol No 2; recalls the suggestion made by some national parliaments to the effect that the Commission should also consider the possibility of excluding the December recess of national parliaments from the calculation of the eight-week deadline;
10.

Points out that blending could cause a debt bubble, notably in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean countries, leaving such countries with limited revenues to service their debt; calls on donors, accordingly, to give the bulk of their aid to least developed countries (LDCs) in the form of grants; reiterates that any decision to promote the use of PPPs through blending in developing countries should be based on a thorough assessment of these mechanisms, particularly in terms of development and financial additionality, transparency and accountability, and on the lessons learned from past experience; asks that the review of the European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD) include clear criteria on debt sustainability;
12.

Emphasises that 85 % of funding for the PEACE and Interreg programmes comes from the EU; considers, therefore, that it is important that the EU should continue to reach out to the communities in Northern Ireland post-2020 by playing an active role in the administration of the available EU cohesion and inter- and cross-community funding in Northern Ireland, thereby helping them to overcome societal divisions; in this context, believes that funding should be maintained at an adequate level post-2020; stresses that this is important to allow the peace-building work to continue;
104.

Points to the Commission’s recognition that agricultural producers form the least concentrated level in the food supply chain while their input suppliers and customers are often much larger and more concentrated, resulting in an imbalanced relationship and to negative and unfair practices (UTPs) – on the part of some large distribution chains, processors and retail operators – that cannot be resolved by competition policy alone, and so coherence with other policies is necessary; calls, therefore, on the Commission to define more clearly a ‘dominant position’ and the abuse of such a position, taking into consideration the degree of concentration and negotiating strength of the input, processing and retail sectors; notes, furthermore, that Regulation (EU) 2017/2393 establishes certain provisions on the right to written contracts, and to negotiation of contractual terms for improved value-sharing along the supply chain, to help calm relations between stakeholders, combat unfair trading practices, make farmers more responsive to market signals, improve price reporting and transmission, and gear supply more readily to demand; calls, moreover, on the Commission and on the national competition authorities to ensure that commodities are properly classified and priced and that abuses and unfair trading practices affecting farmers are monitored and tackled through binding actions, and are penalised; believes that existing national schemes should be examined to determine the best practice to be applied;
11.

Stresses that the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) contributes significantly to economic and social cohesion, in particular in rural areas, and has an important territorial dimension; recommends, therefore, that EAFRD spending continue to be linked with cohesion policy, also with a view to facilitating integrated and complementary funding and to simplifying procedures for beneficiaries, so that regions can draw from different EU sources in order to optimise funding opportunities and invest in rural areas;
28.

Emphasises the value of broad and timely public debate that leads to increased consumer awareness about products and their characteristics; notes that some manufacturers and owners of private labels have already announced changes to recipes or the use of a single production standard at EU level; stresses the importance of the role of industry in improving transparency and clarity with regard to product composition and quality and any changes thereto; welcomes the Commission’s initiative to develop a code of conduct in this regard; calls, for the sake of their own interests, for both producers and retailers to be granted even greater involvement, in order to help find an effective remedy to the present situation as soon as possible without recourse to enforcement procedures, and to enable European consumers to access products of the same quality throughout the entire single market; invites manufacturers to consider including a logo on the packaging that would indicate that the content and quality of the same brand is the same across Member States;