ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
124.

Notes that Article 194 of the Lisbon Treaty specifies that the EU is entitled to take measures at European level to ensure security of energy supply; stresses, in this regard, that in order to enhance energy security, and at the same time strengthen the credibility and effectiveness of the CFSP, it is of the utmost importance to reduce energy dependency from such third countries that do not share, or that act against, EU values; believes that diversification of supply sources and transit routes, and increasing reliance on renewables and clean energy sources and transit routes, is urgent and essential for the EU, which is highly dependent on external sources of energy; notes that the main directions for diversification are the Arctic, the Mediterranean basin and the Southern Corridor from Iraq to Central Asia and the Middle East, and calls on the Commission to prioritise such projects; is concerned by the delays encountered in the completion of the Southern Corridor; highlights the need to achieve energy security through energy diversity, and emphasises the potential of a complementary LNG corridor in the east Mediterranean as a flexible source of energy, and as an incentive for increased competition within the EU internal market; believes that the EU should ensure that a current main source of imports – Russia – complies with internal market rules, the regulations under the Third Energy package and the Energy Charter Treaty; notes the great potential for development and interdependence that transcontinental smart grids for renewable energy linking Europe and Africa could offer;
40.

Invites the Member States to develop training courses, through EU programmes such as the ERDF and the ESF, designed to facilitate women’s access to new ‘green’ jobs, and emerging technologies with a low environmental impact, in both the private and public sectors; calls on the Member States to ensure that female workers are included more in training projects and programmes on ecological transformation, i.e., in the renewable sector and in science- and technology-intensive jobs, and to focus on giving women, through education and training, the competences and qualifications they need in order to compete with men on an equal basis for employment and individual career development; observes that men have easier access to the advanced agricultural production means and the business technologies needed to gain high-skill positions in the green economy;
54.

Points to the need, for all modes, for a unambiguous definition of the relevant terms and especially of ‘extraordinary circumstances’, as this would enable carriers to apply the rules more consistently, give passengers a valid tool with which to assert their rights, and reduce the variations that now exist as regards national enforcement, as well as the scope for legal challenges to compensation rules; calls on the Commission to draw up the necessary legislative proposals, involving transport stakeholders and taking note of the relevant ECJ rulings; emphasises that such a definition needs to take into consideration the differences between modes of transport; notes that technical failure should not be considered as an extraordinary circumstance and falls within the liability of a carrier; emphasises that carriers should not be made liable for disruption they did not cause if they took all reasonable steps to avoid its occurrence;
1.

Stresses that the prospect of creating DCFTAs with the EU is one of the key incentives for the partner countries to pursue their reform efforts; considers the creation of DCFTAs to be one of the most ambitious tools of EU bilateral trade policy for achieving a stable, transparent and predictable economic environment which respects democracy, fundamental rights and the rule of law, providing not only for greater economic integration by a gradual dismantling of trade barriers but also for regulatory convergence in areas that have an impact on trade in goods and services, in particular by strengthening investment protection, streamlining customs and border procedures, reducing technical and other non-tariff barriers to trade, strengthening sanitary and phytosanitary rules, improving animal welfare, enhancing the legal frameworks for competition and public procurement and ensuring sustainable development; takes the view that concluding DCFTAs is fundamental in fighting tendencies towards protectionism at global level;
31.

Considers that the rules on implementing the future EMFF should make it possible to finance actions, inter alia in the following areas: — improving safety, living conditions and on-board working conditions, improving catch preservation, and making vessels more economically and environmentally sustainable (selection of techniques, energy efficiency, etc) while not increasing their fishing capacity; — investment in more sustainable fishing gear; — promotion of young people’s increased involvement in the sector’s activities and keeping them involved, through a special incentive scheme in response to the employment and sustainability challenges the sector is facing, as well as through start-up packages aimed at securing the entry of a new generation of fishermen into small-scale fisheries; — construction of specialised fishing ports and specific facilities for the landing, storage and sale of fishery products; — support for associations, organisations and cooperatives of the sector’s professionals; — promotion of quality policies; — promotion of the cohesion of the economic and social fabric of the coastal communities most dependant on small-scale fishing, with a particular focus on the outermost regions, in order to stimulate those coastal regions’ development; — support for sustainable shellfishing practices, inter alia by offering assistance to those carrying out this activity, many of them women, who suffer from work-related diseases; — support for the promotion and marketing of artisanal fishery and extensive aquaculture products, through the creation of a European label to distinguish and identify European artisanal fishery and shellfish products, provided they comply with good sustainability practices and the principles of the Common Fisheries Policy; — support for education and marketing campaigns to make consumers and young people aware of the value of consuming fish from small-scale fisheries, including the positive effects on the local economy and the environment; — allocation of financing under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund in such a way as to make the fisheries sector more women-friendly by redesigning the sector and providing suitable facilities (such as changing-rooms on boats or in ports); — support for associations of women such as net-makers, port workers and packers; — vocational training, including training for women working in the fisheries sector, aimed at improving their access to managerial and technical jobs related to fishing; — enhancing women's role in fishing, in particular by granting support for activities carried out on land, for related professionals and for activities associated with fishing, both upstream and downstream;
14.

Calls on the Council and the Commission to take further steps, unilaterally if necessary, towards the facilitation and liberalisation of visa procedures for Belarusian citizens, as such action is crucial to fulfil the main goal of EU policy towards Belarus, namely to facilitate and intensify people-to-people contacts and to democratise the country; urges them, in this context, to consider the scope for lowering the cost of visas for Belarusian citizens entering the Schengen Area, which is the only way to prevent Belarus and its citizens from becoming increasingly isolated;
1.

Addresses the following recommendations to the Council: (a) the Council should proceed immediately with the procedure for the adoption of the aforementioned proposed decisions; (b) to that end, it should consult Parliament on the eight proposed decisions; (c) in the interest of European citizens who would benefit from the adoption of those decisions, it should refrain from impeding the proper functioning of the European Union on spurious legal grounds;
F.

whereas between 1,5 and 2,5 million foreigners worked in Libya during the rule of Colonel Gaddafi; whereas, from the beginning of the liberation on 17 February 2011, many migrants were forced into mercenary groups under Gaddafi’s rule and a large proportion of them are now in detention without trial or have fled the country; whereas, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), some 8 00 000 migrants had already fled the country towards neighbouring countries by the end of November 2011, but many have returned or arrived in the meantime;
12.

Regrets that the payment appropriations of EUR 5 0 0 00 000 on the EGF budget line (line 04 05 01) in the 2012 budget have proved to be insufficient to cover all needed payments; regrets that the Commission has proposed to partially cover this payment through a transfer of EUR 1 1 60 745 in payment appropriations from European Progress Microfinance Facility (line 04 04 15) instead of asking for fresh money through Draft Amending Budget No 6/2012 as it justifiably did for other requests for EGF mobilisation and a part of the current request (EUR 1 4 97 750); recalls that the EGF was created as a separate specific instrument with its own objectives and deadlines and that it therefore deserves a dedicated allocation, which will avoid transfers from other budget lines, as has happened in the past, which is detrimental to the achievement of the policy objectives of the EGF;
A.

whereas the petitioners have forcefully expressed their concerns about the extremely elevated levels of dioxin emissions from the ILVA steel plant in Taranto, which have had, and continue to have, a significant, harmful and enduring impact on the health of the local population, where 20 000 families have members who have worked in, or in association with, the steel industry, and where contamination rates among the local population have led to unacceptable and intolerable levels of sickness and chronic illness;
70.

Calls on the Government of Ethiopia to formally endorse the Boundary Commission’s delimitation decisions between Eritrea and Ethiopia as final and binding, in accordance with UNSC Resolutions 1907 (2009) and 2023 (2011), as well as with the relevant AU and IGAD resolutions; calls, therefore, on the Eritrean Government to agree to engage in dialogue with Ethiopia in order to address the process of disengagement of troops from the border and physical demarcation in accordance with the Boundary Commission’s decisions, bearing in mind the importance of keeping communities together, as well as the normalisation of relations with Ethiopia, including the reopening of the border; calls on the international community to engage with Eritrea and defend the interests and needs of the Eritrean people, while pressing the regime and the military to allow access to international organisations, prepare the long-promised elections and open up political space in the country; emphasises that all EU assistance which does not pursue humanitarian objectives should be made strictly conditional on a commitment by the Eritrean authorities to facilitate a democratic transition and the improvement of the human rights situation in the country, with transparent and tangible benchmarks, as well as of the basic needs of the Eritrean people; calls on Eritrea to desist from providing any support for armed groups which undermine peace and reconciliation in Somalia and, more generally, regional stability; calls for freedom of speech, the press and religion, as well as the introduction of free and fair elections and democracy in the country; calls for the immediate release of political prisoners, including the jailed journalist Dawit Isaac, who has been imprisoned without trial for over 4 000 days;
20.

Notes that the current directive does not contain requirements relating to the objectivity and impartiality of the authorities responsible for authorisation and does not set any such requirements for bodies which carry out an EIA; notes that it does not contain any provisions either about how to proceed when a project has already been implemented or is close to finalisation or about how the concerned public could, by means of a clear and non-bureaucratic procedure, obtain immediate clarification from the EIA authority responsible about the conformity with EU rules of such projects, which are very likely to infringe basic provisions of the EIA Directive; considers therefore that the review of the EIA Directive offers a good opportunity to introduce such requirements and provisions;
25.

Appeals to Croatia and its neighbours to engage actively in the resolution of outstanding bilateral issues in accordance with international commitments and the principles of good neighbourly relations and regional cooperation; welcomes, in this regard, the steps taken by the Government of Croatia and the Government of Serbia to improve relations, and looks forward to an intensification of their cooperation; welcomes the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Slovenia and Croatia on finding a solution to the Ljubljanska Banka case in a constructive manner; welcomes the ratification of the Accession Treaty by the Parliament of Slovenia; recalls that issues of a bilateral nature must not be used to impede the integration processes of current or future applicant countries; in this context, urges all Member States to ratify Croatia’s Accession Treaty on time;
A.

whereas on 18 February 2013 Arafat Jaradat was arrested on suspicion of throwing stones at Israeli targets, and whereas he died on 23 February 2013 in Megiddo prison; whereas the cause of his death is disputed; whereas the Israeli authorities maintain that he died of a heart attack, and whereas the haemorrhages and fractured ribs found during the autopsy are characteristic of the resuscitation attempts that were performed by the prison service; whereas, on the basis of this autopsy, the Palestinian authorities maintain that he died as a result of torture;
11.

Calls for the establishment without delay of an EU mechanism composed of a team of national and international investigators, prosecutors, lawyers and other experts, with the aim of providing legal and technical advice and assistance to Arab Spring countries in the process of asset recovery; requests that this mechanism be duly financed by the relevant financial instrument within the field of the Union’s external relations; underlines, in the context of complex, sensitive and lengthy judicial procedures, the importance of this EU mechanism being sustainable; calls on the EU institutions to draw lessons from, and build on, this experience; notes also the possibility of additional funding for this mechanism, at a later stage, through co-financing agreements with requesting states;
48.

Emphasises that there is a need for further research and analysis on the impact of the financial and economic crisis on various regions, including in the EU and in its relations with third countries, and a need to improve the monitoring of early signals of global and regional crises; stresses that disaggregated data should be more prominent in research and policy planning in order to better capture and address the problems facing the poorest and most vulnerable members of society; calls on the Commission and the Member States to provide financial support for the UN innovation laboratory ‘Global Pulse’, launched by the UN Secretary General in 2009, with the aim of collecting and analysing the data required for a better understanding of the impact of the financial and economic crisis on vulnerable sections of the population and providing appropriate policy responses;
7.

Reaffirms its above mentioned first-reading position as adopted on 15 December 2011 (4) as the starting position for negotiations and insists that an amended text, as an absolute minimum, and in accordance with the Treaty requirements, should: explicitly extend the scope to all EU institutions, offices and agencies; enhance legislative transparency, including access to legislative legal opinions, whereby any use of exceptions in the legislative procedure should constitute an exemption from the general rule of legislative transparency; clarify the relationship between transparency and data protection; include the Aarhus Convention; consider the current broad definition of a document as a minimum basis for further development; ensure appropriate access to documents and transparency in relation to international negotiations and agreements; provide for financial transparency of EU funds; not introduce any block exemptions;
46.

Urges the authorities in BiH to step up their preparations for Croatia’s accession to the EU by aligning the relevant BiH food safety legislation with the EU acquis; is concerned at the lack of action by the BiH authorities and the possibility that this may lead to losses on the BiH export markets; welcomes the progress made so far, and urges the competent authorities to swiftly construct the necessary infrastructure at the future EU Border Inspection Posts (BIPs); welcomes the Commission’s initiative to find solutions in its trilateral meetings with Croatia and BiH regarding the last outstanding border management issues, in the light of Croatia’s accession to the EU, including the Neum/Ploče agreement; calls for further constructive efforts in this regard, allowing for more BIPs if necessary; commends BiH for its contribution to the progress made on the resolution of outstanding issues, including the finalisation of the Local Border Traffic Agreement, which aims to simplify the movements of citizens in border areas; considers it necessary to find a solution that will maintain the existing identity card regime between the two countries after July 2013, so that BiH citizens can continue to travel to Croatia;
5.

Stresses the need for urgent action to deal with the humanitarian risks facing all displaced persons, and in particular the Rohingya people, in Burma/Myanmar; reiterates its call on the Government of Burma/Myanmar to provide UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs, as well as journalists and diplomats, with unhindered access to all areas of the country, including Rakhine state, and to give unrestricted and full access to humanitarian aid for all communities affected by conflict and sectarian violence; calls on the Burmese authorities to improve conditions in the Rohingya displacement camps as a matter of urgency;
1.

Applauds the fact that the EU has a legally binding framework, unique in the world, through which arms export control is being improved, including in crisis regions and countries with questionable human rights records, and welcomes the fact, in this connection, that European and non-European third countries have joined the arms exports control system on the basis of the Common Position; notes, however, that the eight criteria are applied and interpreted with varying degrees of rigour in the EU Member States; calls, therefore, for more uniform interpretation and implementation of the Common Position with all its obligations and regrets that the EU still does not have a common policy on arms transfers to third countries;
1.

Stresses that unleashing the single market through the Services Directive and a digital single market could add EUR 800 billion (15) to the EU economy, which is the equivalent of almost EUR 4 200 per household (16); calls on the Member States and the Commission to commit to the development of the digital single market as an overarching political priority and to come forward with a holistic approach and an ambitious strategy encompassing both legislative and political initiatives in order to take into account new and upcoming developments, making the digital single market a reality on the ground; stresses that this will require political leadership, decisiveness, priority-setting and public funding at EU, national and regional level; emphasises in particular that strong leadership on the part of all Union institutions and clear political ownership on the part of the Member States is required in order fully and effectively to implement and enforce directives and regulations relating to the single market;
45.

Reiterates its full support for European structures and projects in the area of education and training and stresses, in particular, the contribution of the European Security and Defence College (ESDC) to the promotion of a common security culture, as well as its potential in identifying and developing cost-saving collaborative projects between national institutions; welcomes the decision of the Council of 12 April 2013 to strengthen the College by providing it with legal capacity and with funding from the Union budget; considers that this could constitute a model for EU budget support to other CSDP structures such as the EDA and the EU Satellite Centre; encourages further development of the European initiative for the exchange of young officers, inspired by Erasmus, as well as the participation of European military officers’ education and training institutes in the Erasmus programme;
52.

Calls on the Member States to increase the priority given to preventing corruption in sport and stresses the need for increased focus on efficient law enforcement in this regard; calls for the adoption at national level of effective measures to prevent conflicts of interest, notably by avoiding wagers of all stakeholders from the world of sports on betting organised on competitions in which they are involved; calls upon all sports governing bodies to commit to good governance practices in order to reduce the risk of falling victim to match-fixing; calls on the Commission, in this regard, to take into account the work of the Council of Europe on the assessment of the risks of certain types of bets and to assess the possible risks of spot betting, where it is possible to bet on certain bets during a competition and to take appropriate action accordingly;
9.

Recommends introducing alternative dispute settlement procedures; considers that a first ad hoc joint mechanism at undertaking level should be agreed, for instance encouraging the signatory parties on a voluntary basis to agree on dispute resolution clauses in order to bring about solutions to conflicts between the contracting parties; suggests that these clauses may be based on alternative dispute resolution templates agreed and provided by the EU social partners at sectoral level; recognises that many of the transnational company agreements already concluded at European level already contain working procedures for extrajudicial dispute settlement, and encourages the social partners to exchange views more intensively on the matter and identify methods for further developing and/or optimising them;
9.

Stresses the need for the participating institutions and bodies to devote the necessary staff and financial resources to the ESPAS system through each of their respective budgets, in full compliance with the Financial Regulation, and in particular Article 54(e) thereof, and in the context of the annual budgetary procedure, so as to ensure that this capability can be developed in a budgetarily neutral way in future years, underlines the need for the EU institutions to invest in staff with specific expertise to contribute fully to analysing and monitoring global trends as well as the expertise to identify options and make policy recommendations for the specific needs of each EU institution;