kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
as is only inevitable economic crises are leading to political crisis and with increasing calls now for maduro to go the country appears to be heading in a disastrous direction.
as this all unfolds it is difficult not to look at neighbouring colombia and reflect on the economic and security achievements of that democracy seen there without the high oil price advantages afforded to venezuela.
many of you mentioned the need to encourage dialogue in the framework of the respect of the will of the people which is the source of legitimacy for any of the institutions of the country.
i believe this is and i see this as a common situation a common analysis among us as the best possible way in connection and in coordination with regional and international actors to address the difficult internal situation of the country
both from the political perspective and from an economic and security situation.
let me finish by saying that i will need your help in this because the parliamentary contacts that you have developed over the years can be crucial to pass on this message alongside my own and that of our diplomatic services.
i hope that we can work together in this respect to encourage institutions to come together and face what is a very serious political institutional economic and potentially security situation in the country for the benefit of all.
i would like to thank you very much for the good debate.
if you had any sense of diplomacy or were to act out of respect for the serbian people then you would see the potential not for more competition or potential conflict but for reconciliation and cooperation. instead of making serbia another colony of the commission there is the real potential to let her act as an important mediator between the west and russia at this crucially sensitive time
twenty three the commission is actively involved in the preparation of this action plan and is committed to reviewing the measures undertaken by serbia in this respect and in this framework.
i take this opportunity to underline that effective and impartial handling of war crimes in line with international standards features high in the accession negotiations with serbia.
it is covered by the specific recommendations in the screening report in chapter twenty three about the judiciary and fundamental rights stressing the need for efficient deterrent and impartial treatment of war crimes equal treatment of suspects and proportionality of sentences and
all these recommendations will have to be addressed in the judiciary section of the action plan required for the opening of chapter.
once again thank you for this very interesting debate.
particular attention to monitoring progress on all the specific issues underlined in our conclusions and the eu common positions before the next steps in the negotiation process can be taken.
we believe that serbia now has a clear path for moving ahead in the accession process.
in this process we are guided by the negotiation framework principles in which it is stated that the achievement of the negotiations will be guided by serbia's progress on preparing for accession within a framework of economic and social convergence. progress on the rule of law and on the normalisation of relations with kosovo is of particular importance at this stage of negotiations.
the screening process is on schedule and should be finalised by the end of the month. serbia's negotiation team has shown impressive commitment and professionalism throughout.
the country has committed to difficult reforms and has come a long way on the normalisation of its relations with kosovo.
i am also hopeful that this could contribute to the opening of chapters twenty three and twenty four before the end of the year. the serbian government should also ensure that progress is not put at risk in such a way as being perceived as interfering in the work of the ombudsman's office or stepping back on freedom of expression.
working groups are now meeting to take forward the work on implementation on which both sides are expected to continue delivering results.
this is a welcome development.
the commission remains firmly committed to support and guide serbia on its european path and i appreciate that the european parliament is on the same page.
discussions in the council on screening reports are expected to continue throughout the year.
once sufficient progress is assessed we could move forward on chapter.
at the same time we should be careful not to add requirements not provided for under the eu acquis or the negotiating framework.
i look forward to the adoption of credible comprehensive and sustainable action plans.
they tackle head on the systemic and socioeconomic reforms; this deserves our respect and support. in recent months the serbian parliament has adopted important laws on whistleblowers media labour privatisation and bankruptcy;
the formal beginning of the accession talks took place on the twenty one january.
nevertheless a thorough implementation of legislation and policies remains essential for a successful integration process.
i consider as fundamentals the rule of law economic governance the reform of public administration aligning to our eu foreign policy and the normalisation of relations with kosovo.
the train from belgrade is on its track towards brussels let us encourage serbia to stay on this european track.
how long the accession negotiations will take primarily depends on serbia's ability to make sustained progress on the eu agenda of reforms.
i am convinced this progress can be made.
secondly fundamentals first' is key in the negotiation process.
this is a positive development.
these chapters are rightly at the heart of the accession process as they have a crosscutting effect on all the policy sectors covered by the accession negotiations.
we will continue to emphasise the importance of promoting and protecting an environment that supports free speech and media freedom.
the council will continue to monitor closely serbia's continued engagement in the process including the implementation in good faith of all agreements reached so far so that serbia and kosovo can continue on their respective european
such as the southeast europe cooperation process and the regional cooperation council as well as by strengthening bilateral relations with other countries of western balkans region.
continued strong efforts are needed to ensure an effective independent judiciary and to build a track record in the fight against corruption and organised crime.
serbia actively participated in regional law enforcement cooperation. this led to effective results in the fight against organised crime.
it is especially important at times like these for countries wishing to join the eu to show commitment to the common european values.
the business environment and the investment climate should be further improved. attention should also be paid to implementing public administration reform and to implementing the economic and structural reforms required to restore fiscal sustainability and ultimately to support growth and employment.
advancement on the normalisation of relations with pristina and full implementation of the brussels agreement by means of the high level dialogue are directly linked to forward movement in serbia's eu accession talks.
the council positively noted that these chapters were being addressed early in the negotiations.
particular attention also needs to be paid to tackling discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. there are concerns about deteriorating conditions for the full exercise of freedom of expression.
therefore progress under these chapters needs to be made in parallel with progress in the negotiations overall. we also welcomed the progress made in the past year including in public administration reform judicial reform and the fight against corruption and organised crime.
improvements are very much needed with regard to the rights of minorities the freedom of the media the lack of transparency and funding of political parties the equal representation of men and women corruption.
i believe that in our negotiations with all the candidate countries we must keep our european priorities and values clear in our minds.
it is important that there is a commitment to this process at high political level and i hope that it will be strengthened further in the government's work and positions.
it will be critical for serbia to continue the reform process.
there is a clear divide between the value system of europe which is based on international law and obligations based on democratic values and the other system which is currently ruining the european postwar peace order.
i personally do not believe that it is possible to choose more than one system and to follow more than one road.
the year is a perfect opportunity to put europe's cultural richness in the spotlight.
what is especially important to me is that we use this unique opportunity to reach out to people from all backgrounds way beyond those who are already interested in and familiar with cultural heritage.
for example a project with schools will bring children and young people into contact with cultural heritage encouraging them to appreciate its relevance and fostering a sense of belonging to a common european space and together with unesco we will promote the european sites awarded the unesco label of world heritage.
we will bring this initiative to life through real collaborative work at all levels from the european through national regional and crucially local levels.
at the european level we will for example launch a specific call for proposals under the creative europe programme at the end of this year to fund transnational cooperation projects in the field of cultural heritage dedicated to the year's objectives;
devote resources to organising around ten flagship initiatives at european level;
in particular i want to reach out to young people.
it has a vital role in building the future. young people therefore have to be at the heart of the year.
one single year is of course not enough to achieve this aim but it is a good start to pave the way for a long lasting heritage policy that makes a difference for citizens and helps us build the europe of the future.
tomorrow with the vote on the decision to establish the year we will take a big step towards bringing europe's heritage closer to citizens.
at the national level national coordinators designated by each member state will lead the implementation. they had their first meeting just this week on tuesday. the list of events and activities they are planning is impressive. i am pleased to say that the european parliament sent two observers to this meeting so you are fully on board and will remain so throughout two thousand.
i am confident that this initiative will help us lead an open dialogue on the shared values that connect us and make us stronger.
join forces with other commission departments which also fund cultural heritage so that they support the year on top of its dedicated budget and run a communication campaign to give high visibility to our actions. i am particularly pleased that we will be able to give more attention to our flagship initiatives thanks to the extra resources.
fifty seven as you know this was the view of the committee expressed on tuesday and we think that we can now proceed to have further discussions with the council with a view to achieving a satisfactory outcome.
mr schulz i have given you the floor but i do not want to open what is clearly a political debate on the file that we have just voted on.
we have an enormous number of votes to get through.
the political debate will continue.
it is right that dairy farmers milk cows but it is wrong if supermarkets and customers milk dairy farmers.
one thing that customers can do is ask their supermarket managers if they are ensuring that they are paying a fair price for all of the milk that they have on sale in the supermarket.
richard and dennis have three hundred cows on their farm and as a result of the fall in the price of milk over the last eight months they are now receiving a dip in income of a quarter of a million pounds. they are clearly struggling as are dairy farmers across the uk.
mr president last friday i visited dairy farmers in my constituency in northumberland in the north east of england and i met with farmers chris mcdonald and richard and dennis gibb.
customer power can be used to deliver a fair price for our farmers.
what is to be done?
every other member state has been able to agree its operational programmes with the commission.
we are not getting it because of the tory government.
investigations into historical miscarriages of justice like the battle of orgreave have shown that despite denials from the then government secret closure plans existed and conservative ministers at the time sought to influence police tactics and put pressure on them to escalate industrial disputes.
access to official documents is key to ensuring justice for those on the receiving end.
take it from me because i was unfortunate enough to have been forced to serve in the russian army in the one thousand.
i am fully aware that there are also other crises going on around the european union for instance the palestinian authorities receiving eur five hundred million each year.
well the size of the economy is different.
this is now blocked in council and rightly so by the uk government but as a result no citizen in europe can now benefit from the new single european sky regulations. so i call on fellow members to stand up for eu citizens and ensure that this parliament reverses the discriminatory position.
the commission had originally included explicit language referencing the cordoba agreement and the fact that the proposal would apply in full to gibraltar.
that vote was discriminatory and unacceptable. imagine the outcry if we had excluded eu citizens on the basis of gender or ethnicity!
the activity of russian military planes has increased considerably in european airspace especially in the baltic sea region.
this means that the aviation rules need to be changed in such a way that military planes could not fly without working transponders.
i absolutely agree with that and also that this regulation will go some way towards dealing with the issues around pricing.
we must not trample over the services and workforces that are of key importance for the functioning of the european union and for our social cohesion.
it also fits in very well with the geo blocking regulation.
this regulation is very important because it brings efficiency to the sector transparency of tariffs and terminal rates and affordable prices. it will make markets work more effectively by making regulatory oversight of the parcels market more effective and consistent.
we wanted to make sure that these opportunities are not just for large companies large operators and largescale platforms but also for small retailers and small craft shops that can then rely on reliable and affordable services.
rules on cross border parcel tariffs in articles five and six empower and enable national authorities more specifically to monitor delivery prices and assess cross border prices that they deem unreasonably high.
this in my view will help to expose the activities of some businesses who do not give their parcel workforce proper terms and conditions of employment and instead require them to operate on a self employed or precarious basis.
there is indeed plenty of evidence on problems with parcel deliveries.
i urge everyone to support this text in the form of the new cross border parcels regulation in tomorrow's vote. the initial aims of the regulation were to help secure a more efficient parcel sector increase transparency of tariffs and assess prices where necessary.
as emphasised in recital two of this regulation article fourteen of the treaty on the functioning of the european union highlights the place occupied by services of general economic interest such as postal and parcel services in the shared values of the union as well as their role in promoting social and territorial cohesion.
the regulation started out as a proposal in two thousand and sixteen as part of the european commission's digital single market strategy with the objective of helping to boost cross border ecommerce by improving parcel delivery.
the factors that authorities shall take into account in any assessment also include any relevant costs quality of service standards and volumes as well as tariffs of comparable parcel delivery services providers.
in line with the two thousand and eleven consumer rights directive article seven of this regulation emphasises that consumers are to be provided with proper information on delivery options and charges payable and complaints handling policies where applicable.
this is right especially since universal service providers do not always have a large share of the cross border parcels market.
parcel companies will have to disclose prices and these will be published by the commission on a dedicated website.
regulators can also where justified include smaller companies with between twenty five and forty nine workers.
where parcel delivery is subject to universal service obligations authorities will have a clearer power to investigate further where necessary taking into account the likely impact of prices including on anyone who is disabled or who has reduced mobility and smaller companies and citizens in remote areas.
the regulation also covers multinationals and newer players in the parcel sector including those with alternative business models.
as part of this duty parcel companies will give information each year on the employment status of workers delivering parcels along with details of the sub contractors they use.
the existence of price regulation and abuses of dominant market position may also be taken into account if necessary.
these provisions have been drafted as has the regulation as a whole and i emphasise this point with care to make sure that the principles of the postal services directive are not undermined or contradicted.
the main elements of the regulation are as follows we have agreed to expand the scope of key provisions to a certain extent where necessary to all cross border parcel delivery service providers not just those designated as providing a universal service.
given the concrete evidence on problems with parcel deliveries in quite a few cases i would have preferred this provision to be stronger but it is still a good start.
thanks to the hard work of many mep colleagues and staff the commission and the estonian presidency we have a provisionally agreed text today.
finally i am pleased that the commission is working with the support of parliament on a comprehensive study on parcel delivery and the regulation underlines that standardisation work should include environmental considerations and require a first review two years after entry into force including on affordability consumer protection and standards issues.
together i believe we have secured these aims and also added a stronger focus on consumer needs and the interests of small and medium sized enterprises when ordering goods from other eu countries.
whilst the regulation does not impose a cap on prices it will allow users more easily to compare domestic and cross border tariffs.
it is encouraging that this aspect of the regulation has been particularly welcomed by trade unions.
a month ago i was here for the debates on the regulation against unjustified geo blocking.
in some cases it is much higher up to twenty two times as high.
delivery prices vary a lot across europe often without justification.
today's rules do not support cross border ecommerce.
they are a major concern for consumers and companies especially smes.
sixty eight of internet users in the european union shopped online last year but only thirty three of these eshoppers bought goods or services from sellers based in another eu country.
on average someone who sends a two kilogram parcel to another eu country pays three to five times more than the domestic price.
to your hard work we were able to reach an agreement on this regulation on cross border parcel delivery services last december. it is an important step for ecommerce and the digital single markets.
with this new regulation we are addressing these issues through more price transparency and a stronger role for regulators.
it is essential that we support all these developments by removing obstacles and aligning rules across europe.
the commission is following closely and welcomes steps to improve interoperability between national networks as well as the development of technical standards by the european committee for standardisation.
we are also monitoring progress on the commitments made by european universal service providers to introduce new services such as cross border track and trace and common labels. terminal rates are negotiated in the universal postal union where the european union is an observer.
this is not just an issue of course for your department it is one for many other sectors of the commission but it needs to be brought into the open.
madam president one of my first acts as a member of parliament here some fourteen years ago was to host a meeting about another food crisis between some cumbrian beef farmers from my region and your predecessor who was entirely sympathetic to their cause and wanted to support them in getting member states to take action but pointed out that the commission had no army had no police force. it was as you said dependent upon the member states to enforce the law in the first instance.
now on the one hand i think the public expects european laws to be enforced equally and effectively in every member state.
your director general has said to the committee that we have the best food labelling laws in the world but they do not count for very much unless member states actually put them into practice.
we have procedures for ensuring compliance that differ.
failure to do so brings the law into disrepute and frankly renders the work of all us invalid.
we have penalties in different member states that differ.
now i have reflected upon this many times over the years and i keep thinking of those words which we see in so many pieces of legislation effective proportionate and dissuasive.
otherwise people say why should i comply if they are not? ' on the other hand we have the difficult problem that the european union should not be imposing common criminal penalties upon member states.
there needs to be more discussion and more analysis of the way in which member states are actually putting legislation into effect not simply in terms of the statute but also in the way in which their courts and their prosecuting bodies then interpret that statute.
the report you mentioned should deal with mandatory country as well as region of origin labelling systems for meat products including frozen or processed meats.
we have as you have said a responsibility to make any criminal activity especially in the food supply chain as difficult as possible to do.
although the eu can claim to have one of the most developed traceability systems in the world it is clearly not one hundred fit for purpose in the processing sector as other members have outlined.
doubtless this is true but that does not mean that as regulators we should allow it to continue.
now you are supposed to be bringing out a new food hygiene revision this year commissioner and i want to know from you what is going to be in that revision because in the newspapers in britain they are saying that you are going to propose further self regulation by the food industry that you are going to give them even more responsibility.
this is a crisis of consumer confidence commissioner and we look to you to make sure that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past.
have everyday inspections by meat inspectors.
it seems that there are too many middlemen too many people in the middle and we have lost the farm to fork' controls we thought we had after the bse crisis. so i hope that you will look very seriously at this.