kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
turkey is clearly a country whose leadership does not respect women and is only interested in their ability to reproduce or presumably clean up after their husbands.
perhaps mr erdogan and the men who think like him should look at the huge contributions that women have made in the past from jane austen to marie curie the suffragettes the women who kept the country running during two world wars and the women who now serve in our armed forces.
how anyone can call themselves feminist and support this chauvinistic country's attempt to join the eu is unbelievable.
dressing up insecure precarious working conditions as flexibility cannot be tolerated;
equally internships and apprenticeships must offer quality training and remuneration not exploitation.
simply bending education systems to the will of private industry interests is not to the benefit of society.
the best way to help people adapt to changing circumstances is to educate them in a holistic manner.
learning should be a lifelong process but one of self improvement that leads to development of critical thinkers.
this not only benefits the economy but society as a whole.
does that mean that the same educational standards are required in every single eu country and the same form of education?
you want to control what skills people learn and of course where and how they use them all of that at the cost of tens of billions of euros of taxpayers' money.
education and training like most other things work better with less state or less superstate involvement less politicians more educationalists.
but let me add this i am very happy that we agree on the necessity and the importance of a skills agenda.
of course improving skills must go hand in hand with macroeconomic politics to stimulate job creation.
the european fund for strategic investments is one flagship action which is helping us to do just that injecting investment into the real economy to create more and good quality jobs.
education and training must prepare young people to participate fully in society and to be an active citizen and help them to acquire transversal skills but people rightly expect that their education and training will also help them to get a good job.
good basic skills having a good basis to build upon for lifelong learning is therefore in the interest of both the economy and the individual fulfilment of every person.
it is for young and old for people in education in unemployment inactive people and people in work.
the success of the skills agenda will depend on the commitment and the active engagement of many players member states first and foremost as well as businesses and trade unions education and training institutions workers learners and many others.
the european parliament has a key role to play in raising the political profile of this debate both in europe and in your home countries and in supporting the implementation of the skills agenda.
in line with the cycle also ensuring complementarity with the discussion on the greening of the european semester and the relevant post two thousand and twenty strategies.
the economic system depends largely on the availability and sustainable use of limited natural resources.
it is to be expected that the different strands of the implementation process of the environmental implementation review and in particular the dialogue with the member states on the basis of the country reports will allow us to carry out a structured dialogue in council.
bilateral dialogues have already taken place in five countries since march this year.
they welcomed this initiative as a useful tool to help improve implementation of eu environmental policy and legislation at national level and contribute to the greening of the european semester.
hence the effort of engaging colleagues from other policy areas is welcome at all levels in order to achieve a coordinated and informed outcome.
as regards the specific questions that you have raised at this early stage of the environmental implementation review process i would like to limit myself to the following comments.
in addressing the cross cutting issues we should avoid working in silos and ensure that all relevant parties are involved in discussions.
in terms of addressing implementation gaps in eu environmental legislation and policy this initiative has a high potential.
in terms of broadening the scope of the environmental implementation review to other policy areas in the future we find it essential that environmental challenges are tackled in a comprehensive manner and that all relevant policies are taken into account.
it would involve several important elements the preparation of environmental implementation review country reports and bilateral discussions with the member states as well as the identification of common issues and their discussion in the environmental council.
the current environmental implementation review cycle is already very ambitious and covers a large number of complex and very significant areas.
in addition to contributing to the environment ministers' input into the european semester the environmental implementation review process is meant to become a distinct and consistent process.
the real added value of the environmental implementation review will come from indepth impartial analysis.
i trust that these dialogues will be inclusive and that the relevant stakeholders get an opportunity to contribute as appropriate.
ministers also welcomed the opportunity for member states to engage in dialogue and cooperation with the commission and among themselves peer to peer with the aim of reflecting on their respective priorities addressing common challenges and sharing best practices.
we agree with the identified root causes of the implementation gaps and we are willing to address them further.
member states are generally responding positively to the environmental implementation review process.
in doing this they underlined the need for national findings to be based on sound scientific data.
through this question and its resolution in the new environmental implementation review initiative. i can confirm that this interest is fully shared by the council.
keeping this in mind greening the economy and advancing the transition towards a resource efficient circular economy becomes essential to secure future competitiveness and long term sustainable and inclusive growth. in this context ministers also discussed the commission's communication on the eu environmental implementation review.
the same goes for covering additional issues in the coming review cycles such as climate change chemicals regulations industrial emissions and other systemic challenges linked for example to energy transport and regional policies.
the exercise is to be repeated every two years offering the possibility for iterative changes and improvements.
we would like to hear the commission's views on how the eir framework could be used as a means of assessing the implementation of the relevant sustainable development goals and the two thousand and thirty agenda and in general of shifting from the current sectoral approaches to a coherent consistent and holistic solution.
last but not least we would like to better understand the linkage between the eir process and the infringements and in general the exact actions taken by the commission in the event of non compliance.
yet in order to fully realise this potential we believe that the process could be further improved including by broadening the scope of the review as also expressed in the motion for a resolution adopted in october in the committee on the environment public health and food safety. there is also a need for targeted assistance to the member states to overcome the barriers of proper effective implementation such as ineffective governance inappropriate institutional framework lack of capacity and an unclear responsibility of the authorities.
i would like to stress that the eir is a soft tool to shed light on implementation gaps challenges and problems.
in this sense it is a key to providing an early warning for the national and sub national level policymakers which can take corrective actions and address the gaps in time.
in order to demonstrate clear strong political commitment the council could hold regular meetings dedicated to the implementation of eu environmental law which could facilitate monitoring the performance and progress of a member state and ensure structured implementation dialogues as proposed by the commission.
the recently launched peer to peer tool facilitates this kind of exchange of knowledge or best practices.
we put on the table tools including a publicly available scoreboard to monitor the performance and progress of each member state and to improve transparency and raise public awareness and ensure proper public participation in each member state.
the twenty eight country reports are accompanied by a summary document listing the common challenges such as waste management nature and biodiversity protection air quality noise pollution water quality and management to identify the root causes of problems and providing policy proposals and recommendations for improvement.
we members of the european parliament welcome the eir and believe that this new review mechanism as a whole has the potential to improve compliance and policy implementation and thus also contribute to greater transparency and the credibility of the eu.
there are issues to be solved linked to data availability and comparability especially in the context of the next review cycles that would hopefully run with a wider scope.
it is intended to support concretely the member states at all administrative levels to share experience and expertise.
this could at any rate jeopardise the achievement of goals.
the eir encourages cooperation dialogue and the search for solutions involving a wide range of stakeholders at national level.
we firmly believe that discussions will result in tailored solutions and mount some pressure to fill in the implementation gaps that are identified in the eir reports.
the first five countries' dialogues succeeded in doing so and further dialogues are being planned. the commission has also asked member states to involve all relevant stakeholders during their country dialogues.
the environmental targets and deadlines which need to be achieved by the member states are included in the legal obligations set out in the environmental aquis and are being monitored per directive and regulation.
the commission has included in the country reports both good practices and good examples as well as implementation challenges.
the commission's ongoing initiative in streamlining reporting requirements in eu environmental law is expected to improve the quality and completeness of the data significantly.
and the commission is taking steps to ensure that the second review cycle will be even more comprehensive by including chemicals industrial emissions and the implementation of climate change policies. the nexus with climate change and other policies will also be developed as much as possible.
thank you again to all the contributors.
it is in the interest of our citizens that full implementation is actually achieved as quickly as possible.
on many occasions the statement is made at home that the eu made us do it' a similar sort of excuse that bart simpson comes up with when he has obviously done something wrong someone else made them do it'.
the result in implementation tends to be shabby and imposed on people rather than carried out through consultation and dialogue.
a perfect example of this is the birds and habitats directive.
however how it was implemented when it came to turf cutters and farmers has left a bitter taste which will not be removed for a long time.
there are issues on implementation by member states and that is why this review is very important but there are also conflicts in our policy.
the product being used was glyphosate roundup to kill this invasive alien species.
sometimes on environmental policies we need coherence at political level and at commission level so that we can continue to use these products to improve the environment.
the eir affords the commission a more proactive role enabling it to monitor the implementation of eu environmental law in member states.
in my opinion it would be far better to provide a mechanism which would engage with eu citizens directly and which would promote awareness increase involvement and educate the general public about the environment.
i do not think that a new eu legislative instrument monitoring the application of unilaterally imposed legislation is the answer to the improvement of environmental policies in the eu.
i believe that member states should have the freedom to set their own targets rather than being forced to comply with those set by the unelected commission.
we sincerely hope that other wto members will share our ambition.
another deliverable for this year will hopefully be a commission proposal for a comprehensive eu initiative to promote responsible mineral sourcing.
we recognise that trade opportunities constitute a powerful incentive and we would like that potential to be used responsibly.
thank you for your attention and your interest in trade and development.
in some places the hardware is still badly in need of an upgrade to catch up with so many new opportunities in the global marketplace.
while we continue to promote trade for development prospective beneficiaries themselves must identify trade priorities when discussing eu aid programming with
that the ninth wto ministerial conference in december delivers tangible results for the benefit of the poorest members of the wto in particular through a multilateral deal on trade facilitation.
we have worked hard together on the gsp reform and the ratification of a number of new generation trade agreements most of them with developing economies.
but the choice was deliberate. commissioner de gucht wishes to devote a standalone policy proposal just over a year later starting from the premise that the eu has to adapt its trade instruments to contemporary global realities.
this interconnectedness requires a mix of ambition to keep global markets more open and sensitive to inclusiveness and sustainability concerns.
the committee for international trade is in the front line every time the commission makes new trade proposals.
for those who were not in the room for the related presentation by the committee on development commissioner de gucht has said he is very sorry to miss the discussion this evening as this is a communication he attaches particular importance to. those of you who are inta members will recall that at the beginning of the commission's mandate some of you were unhappy with the relatively limited attention paid to trade and development in an earlier communication on trade growth and world affairs.
members of the committee have seen for themselves how sustainability concerns were addressed. in many respects we were able to give deserved prominence to human social and environmental rights thanks to the new powers acquired by parliament under the lisbon treaty with respect to trade policy. more work remains to be done before the european parliament elections. the commission's priority this year with respect to developing countries will be to ensure
simplifying logistics within a country and at international borders is actually an affordable way of securing visible development gains.
us. whether it is trade facilitation support in formulating trade policy building specific technical capacity or new physical infrastructure we cannot help unless requested.
a public consultation was launched just before easter and will run until the end of june.
colleagues working on the initiative are seeking ideas to present a reasonable and effective proposal.
i think we have to move from giving them direct development aid as we do nowadays to doing something that will benefit them in the future.
in itself that consumes resources so cut the red tape reduce the business rate tax burden and big multinationals might become more responsible inclined to pay their tax and not avoid it.
this report speaks among other things of disseminating good practices improving soft regulation processes company disclosure of social and environmental information emphasising the importance of national and subnational policies and more of the same.
that must be partly the reason for the massive budget deficit we heard about this morning.
they could then concentrate on marketing their goods generating income and retaining the workforce.
a great increase in the claims under the globalisation adjustment fund to help redundant workers.
it is ultimately consumer empowerment that will encourage responsible business;
structured self regulation engaging in dialogue with industry taking shared responsibility with tough monitoring and reporting requirements that is the way ahead.
measures that are shared and owned by stakeholders have a better chance.
imposing top down restriction is not necessarily the best way.
this is about sustainability and there will be no sustainable economic recovery without business itself being sustainable. fourthly business cannot afford to stand by as discontent rises at the social costs of the crisis.
first that responsibility is not separate from the economic crisis but inextricably linked to its causes and integral to europe's economic recovery.
second shifting from short term to long term thinking is not just a challenge for the banking sector.
once again mr president whether it is on corporate reporting or on wider csr strategies csr must not be portrayed as an expensive add on.
companies operating abroad have long recognised that csr is part of their social licence to operate. against the backcloth of the anti globalisation and occupy movements and growing support for protectionism across the political spectrum i argue that csr is now central to support for europe's own social licence to pursue open markets and trade led growth.
finally we endorse a new emphasis on corporate transparency building on sustainability reporting by six zero companies championed by the global reporting initiative.
we call on the commission to evaluate and report on implementation of the un's guiding principles on business and human rights to formally adhere to the updated oecd guidelines for multinational enterprises and to champion a new convention on corporate accountability within the un itself building on the powerful argument put by a coalition of investors led by aviva at last year's un rio twenty summit.
so this parliament welcomes the commitments made in the commission's communication and i too welcome the contribution by commissioner tajani and his colleagues.
it has to be integral to business strategy and the true cost lies in ignoring it.
if the eu proposal that is coming up itself builds on this and is based on reporting integrated into financial accounting and not additional to it i am confident that it will play a decisive role in prompting the scaling up of responsible business that business itself says it wants.
in this resolution we make a call to business to act on youth job creation on the sustainability of pensions and in tackling exploitative labour practices in company supply chains.
just as companies undertaking csr recognise that reputation has been missing from the balance sheet confidence is the asset most desperately needed for our economy as a whole and restoring trust in business is essential to achieving it.
for all companies it affects the workforce suppliers and customers as well as shareholders.
unfortunately it is not alone.
the spanish clothing giant inditex for instance states in its csr code of conduct that manufacturers and suppliers shall provide a safe and healthy workplace for their employees including fire prevention.
it does not stop them trying to process and dry raw untreated gas close to peoples' homes in the west of ireland.
two thousand and eleven these multinationals will always put the pursuit of profit ahead of any voluntary csr commitments.
for companies like shell csr is a greenwashing tactic while they continue to rake in the profits at a staggering rate of eur.
therefore as a minimum they should be mandatory legally binding and enforceable but really we need democratic public ownership to ensure major corporations act in a socially responsible way.
it did not stop them engaging in extremely dirty activities in nigeria polluting water for thousands being implicated in the killing of the ogoni nine including ken saro wiwa.
he obviously was not writing about csr which had not been invented in his day but he could have been because when you look at the actual actions of big business as opposed to their lofty corporate social responsibility declarations the gap is very large. let me give two illustrations examples to prove the point.
in a similar way shell produces sustainability statements every year.
inditex used the bangladesh factory as a supplier the factory where seven workers were burnt to death because they were locked in and unable to escape.
in this report however this concept has been transformed into a jumble of slogans and key words seemingly intended to tick all the right boxes without explaining how exactly anything is to be actually achieved.
the report refers to short term thinking in brussels in one breath and with the next it calls on the commission to show leadership.
this report flits from subcontracting to low carbon technology and to gender equality in the blink of an eye.
the concept of self regulation has gone from this report and has seemingly been replaced by vague calls for commission strategies commission guidelines even concrete proposals from the commission for the implementation of corporate socially responsible practices.
more bureaucracy is the last thing that businesses need at this time.
mr president i want to thank mr howitt and mr baldassarre for this important report on the need for a european corporate social responsibility strategy.
good corporate social responsibility policies will be indispensable if there is to be a restoration of trust in business and a sustainable economic recovery and so the commission's shift from a purely voluntary approach to csr to developing an eu wide strategy is i believe seminal.
the new emphasis on strengthening and implementing international standards moving from process to outcome is a sign of eu determination to maintain social standards in the face of the crisis. csr must respect fundamental principles and rights such as those specified in ilo conventions including freedom of association the right to collective bargaining the prohibition of forced labour the abolition of child labour and the elimination of discrimination at work and these must be respected by subcontractors and supply chains including those based in third countries.
these discussions have intensified in recent years following the financial crisis which reduced the trust which many citizens had in business and led to a call for greater transparency to restore that trust.
i welcome the commission definition of csr the responsibility of enterprises for their impact on society.
this new definition is easily understandable and moves csr from being seen as an add on to being a way for organisations to incorporate sustainable and responsible practices into their business strategies.
i believe that corporate social responsibility is and should be a voluntary practice even if in this day and age it has arguably become a business imperative.
csr is not only the responsibility of businesses it is important that european institutions and national governments play a role by promoting and monitoring csr practices.
this can be achieved for example by developing guidelines sharing best practice and raising awareness.
it is also important when considering the impact of enterprises on society that we work with the many multi stakeholder csr platforms that already exist.
we must ensure the consistency and transparency of information on sustainability provided by businesses and therefore strongly encourage the use of international standards for this such as the global reporting initiative.
strong corporate social responsibility can have a key role in improving competitiveness and innovation.