kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
it's the eu's second trade partner in asia and through its economic footprint in east asia japan can play a big role in shaping the development of rules and standards in the eu.
japan is a country committed to sustainable development provisions and it has established an inter ministerial group to work on their implementation.
from a bilateral perspective the eu japan epa removes the vast majority of the eur one billion duties paid annually on eu exports to japan.
this is of strategic importance as is the eu japan strategic partnership agreement.
important longstanding non tariff barriers will be removed in the car sector as the eu and japan have agreed to reinforce international standards and to rely on them in defining the regulatory framework. european companies will be able to bid on equal terms for public procurement contracts including at sub central level for the fifty four largest cities in japan.
japan is an important partner when it comes to development aid and humanitarian assistance.
so the importance of these exchanges is explicitly enshrined in the strategic partnership agreement.
under the regulatory cooperation provisions we will engage with japan on common responses to new technological challenges from electric vehicles to product standards to reducing waste.
the report by mr peterle and i would like to thank him and his team for the excellent work they have done also highlights the direct connection between european prosperity and asian security and the other way around.
we also have a specific chapter on small and medium sized enterprises in which we commit to supporting our smes through dedicated information portals and contact points.
the european parliament has a crucial role here in adopting the agreement.
the epa protects the european model of regulation.
the eu and japan have been able to promote sustainable rules based connectivity in europe asia and the pacific so we are bringing asia and europe closer via this agreement and that reflects the policy direction contained in our global strategy.
at the same time you will also be voting on the strategic partnership agreement here.
it supports free and fair trade and helps the eu to make further inroads in the far east after a free trade agreement with south korea.
we have a lot to gain here by sharing experiences when we address these issues.
as you know the foundations of world trade are being shaken right now and it is therefore important for the eu and its partners to reinforce their ties and to demonstrate the value of free economic exchanges based on fair rules as opposed to whim and transactional strength and japan is clearly one such partner.
it will strengthen our cooperation in tackling the many other challenges that our economies and societies face and mr peterle mentioned them remaining competitive respecting rapidly emerging economies coping with ageing societies and addressing energy and resource concerns.
the epa has a strategic importance and an unquestionable economic and political value.
european origin names for more than two hundred foodstuffs will be protected against misuse.
in this way the benefits of the partnership go well beyond our bilateral relations.
the spa will serve as a charter underpinning our partnership helping us turn our political ambitions into concrete action and joint initiatives.
this is clearly economically beneficial and it is intended to provide a basis for advancing important eu priorities regarding the economic transition towards a socially and environmentally sustainable model of growth and the protection of areas of overriding interest to public policy such as health safety and individual privacy.
this is very important because it will help us to strengthen cooperation on security crisis management and peace keeping and we will do so jointly.
it will help us to make a positive contribution to the shaping of a cooperative regional order and it will help us to promote joint interests in the global arena.
we estimate in the commission that these will lead to additional annual eu exports worth eur thirteen billion.
it sets up mechanisms that both parties can use to accompany the industrial transformation that the world's environment requires.
together we count amongst the world's biggest donors.
we need to work together and to show joint leadership.
we have every interest in the european union in cooperating with japan to secure a free and open environment in the region in asia.
it is important for us in the eu to protect our economic and social model by spurring sustainable growth through free and fair trade and by cooperating with a friend and ally like japan in the defence of these common interests.
as the rapporteur mr silva pereira has explained this is a very important agreement and i would like to thank him and his team for the good cooperation we've had throughout these negotiations.
how can this be that the president of ukraine can potentially closed down independent media just before an election?
two ukraine's citizens must enjoy freedom and be respected.
if there's anyone who doesn't support these values they had no business supporting the eu ukraine association agreement in the first place.
we've seen activists and journalists alike being violently attacked by radicals with little if any reaction or protection from the ukrainian government. yet no one in this chamber would question that freedom of the press is one of our most cherished values.
mr president there should be three things that all of us on all sides of this house can agree on.
i have every sympathy with ukraine when it comes to crimea when it comes to russian aggression and interference.
but as surely as you can't fight fire with fire it is wrong to fight repression with repression.
the ukrainian government is in the process of banning the two biggest tv channels in the country channel one hundred and twelve and newsone and proper democratic procedures are being ignored four months before an election.
and three the freedom of the press must be respected.
but the words of that agreement must match reality rhetoric is not government.
this report rightly criticises the erosion of the freedom of the press in ukraine and it is time for the ukrainian government to take action rather than pay mere lip service to it.
nevertheless i personally strongly support the eu priorities including maintaining the jcpoa after us withdrawal containing russian expansionism understanding chinese global ambitions fighting international terrorism finding a peaceful solution in syria and yemen and making pesco a political reality.
by two thousand and fifty europe will constitute a much smaller part of the world's population economy and military prowess and brexit tragically removes a big player from the eu security equation weakening both parties.
i also welcome some of the innovative thinking in foreign and security policy from president macron and chancellor merkel for the future.
therefore in future the eu needs to act together in projecting its external policies but of course there are real national sovereignty concerns about moving towards qmv in cfsp and csdp.
defence cooperation are not unanimously supported. some in good faith believe we move too fast with what they perceive as the result of militarising the eu.
that would if there were no deal leave the eu short part way through the year.
well that is very much questionable at the moment because theresa may is seeking assurances from eu leaders on a deal that she knows does not have the confidence of the british parliament.
this year's increase will be different because the uk will only be an eu member state for eighty nine of those three hundred and sixty five days.
that's the principle of ever closer union in the treaties and the principle that i think hastened the uk's decision to leave.
the european union budget as well as the uk needs to be prepared.
indeed there are questions as to whether there will be a motion of no confidence either from parliament or from her own backbenchers by the end of the week.
well i would certainly for one love to have a good decent honest free trade deal between the uk and the european union with reasonable cooperation between us both but that sadly at the moment doesn't seem to be on the table. ms may's deal is what is on the table and there are many people who would prefer no deal to may's deal.
every year we show genuine savings that can be made to the eu budget but every year they aren't.
so here's my quote the three certainties in life are death taxes and that the european union budget and power will continue increasing.
so this budget is reliant on one thing that the uk will leave the european union with a deal and that the uk will be paying the so called divorce bill because the attorney general's advice is that the uk legal obligations are something in the region of eur eight billion compared with the divorce bill agreement of eur thirty nine billion.
it is time for our businesses especially smes and our consumers to start enjoying the benefits of this landmark agreement.
well for many reasons.
the eur one billion tariff cuts for our companies and farmers.
why is this agreement of such importance?
first of all the huge economic gains.
responsibility lies heavily on our shoulders to stand up for our values and our social and environmental standards.
madam president the eu japan epa is far from being godzilla as some have called it in the past. after six years of negotiations it's high time we ratified this historical agreement with such a like minded and outstanding partner.
secondly its chapter on sustainable development including our renewed commitment to the paris agreement.
she is living in cloud cuckoo land. that doesn't solve the problems of going from helping to make the rules to just abiding by them.
out of the customs union out of galileo loss of rights to travel freely for work and leisure farmers facing a shortage of seasonal workers.
there is not a single mention of this important agency in the five hundred and eighty five page withdrawal agreement or the accompanying woolly political declaration because theresa may has negotiated a blindfold brexit.
whichever way people voted two years ago nobody voted for this shambles mess and turmoil.
mr president today we voted on eurofound and its work on improving living and working conditions.
i could go on.
yesterday the prime minister pulled the westminster vote on her deal yet bizarrely it seems that she is just planning to renegotiate the backstop as she still thinks that there is broad support for the rest of her deal.
is that proper? i'd like to know what your thoughts might be.
the trump administration has moved the us to post human rights diplomacy and now europe standing alone must bear the torch for global human rights advocacy.
mr president yesterday was human rights day celebrating the dignity and value of every human being.
i saw the new machines whirr into action and found out how students will be able to learn hands on how to design cad files and to three d print them preparing them for a career in industry.
i would like to make it very clear that this proposal will not lead to support for any action regarding capabilities prohibited by international law and the edf will be implemented in accordance with any ethical standards.
the defence fund embraces the whole lifecycle of the development of defence products and technologies and this is indeed something completely new.
our objective is to support the competitiveness of the eu defence industry.
let me remind you also that many of the important and sometimes difficult discussions have been held in the first part of this year during the edidp negotiations.
we have reached a turning point in the support for europe's defence sector and the european defence fund will be a gamechanger.
this is why we have proposed ethical reviews of proposals under the fund as we are already doing it for the preparatory action on defence research.
such new direction is already in motion and getting momentum.
for the commission it is very clear that the european defence fund is an inclusive programme open to beneficiaries from all the member states and open to companies of all sizes.
we welcome the course to continue on decided principles and work with you on any possible improvements.
this is for instance the case for the eligible entities rules.
our proposal allows for the adoption of multi annual work programmes and our intention is that the first work programme covers two to three years in order to provide predictability for project promoters.
so let me conclude with saying that following the vote in plenary this week and the council partial general approach adopted last week the commission will fulfil its role as a facilitator in the legislative process in order to quickly find an overall agreement on this proposal.
and here let me stress again that we are paying special attention to evaluation.
so we want to continue this including the high cofunding rate proposed for the next mff of eighty five to ensure that the entire ten t network is delivered by two thousand and thirty which is our common goal for already very clearly stated reasons.
this will ensure compatibility and compliance with the better regulation agreement.
but let me stress one more time regarding the transfer the experience of the transfer of the cohesion envelope to cef during this financial period is extremely good.
we are already doing it largely and plan to improve it even further.
but i would ask for cautious thinking before we call for a fully fledged evaluation every two years because this might be too costly and disproportionate.
we have been able to develop at most in the world and we will continue to do so.
this proposal is crucial to implement our ambition for europe to complete the ten t network and move towards zerofatality zeroemission zeropaper immobility solutions.
as regards the cohesion envelope we have taken good note of the interesting compromise proposal tabled by the rapporteurs regarding article.
i would like to make sure that everybody hears that the eu will always stand up against such violence and protect democracy which i dare to say that
it is also an essential instrument to deliver the gigabyte infrastructure required for a smarter and more innovative europe.
i'd like to make a very strong statement that dialogue should always be our tool to find solutions for differences no matter how big they are and no matter how painful the process of dialogue and negotiation is. this is what the eu
but let me now focus back on today's debate. i am glad that parliament has clearly confirmed its support for a reinforced cef programme in the next programing period and today's discussion has confirmed that we agree on many of the aspects that will allow us to deliver.
we agree with close monitoring.
let me add additional comments on the multiannual programming.
we proposed a common approach for all programmes to be included in this common evaluation model.
so once all positions are known and the commission will favour a solution that ensures the best possible management of cef cohesion envelopes including through higher co funding rates alongside increased competition amongst projects.
all national envelopes have been allocated in the first three years and projects have started on time and are well followed up.
however requesting a detailed programming for seven years would be too rigid and adds additional steps in the implementation process which we believe might not be necessary.
as a final remark let me express once more my deep appreciation for the work you have done and your proposals.
i would like to underline the need for both sides to open their markets for goods and services based on predictable and enforceable trade rules.
the association agreement aims to boost trade between the eu and ukraine by gradually cutting tariffs and bringing ukraine's rules in line with the eu's in certain industrial sectors and on agricultural products.
this trade liberalisation and regulatory approximation is the optimal instrument for bringing ukraine closer to the eu and contributing to trade facilitation a better business and investment climate and the sustainable economic development of ukraine.
some colleagues may not be fully satisfied.
looking back to what happened in recent years especially in europe i'd like to underline a few of the errors and failures in the european security system to counter terrorism such as the weak security systems in some eu countries intelligence failures lack of intelligence sharing problems with the different judicial systems failures and low results in fighting radicalisation and fundamentalism
online recruitment insufficient resources and in many cases a lack of police intelligence and security institutions' accountability and funding and a lack of properly monitoring and defending eu external borders especially not including countries like romania bulgaria and croatia which defend the external borders mainly of the european union.
our problems in competing with japan have never been about tariffs.
no clear position could have been expressed publicly at that moment and i thank this hemicycle for supporting that position.
what inspires me most is that the transformation of the european ukrainian nation has reached a point of no return.
i am convinced about this;
namely this makes me believe that the remaining internal challenges such as deoligarchisation the fight against corruption and judicial reform will yield the results that we all expect.
let's acknowledge this.
the success of european ukraine is seen by the kremlin as a direct danger and this is completely wrong.
remaining committed to a rules based multilateral order we are as a european union proving that trade is about more than just tariffs it is also about values and principles.
trade is an important part of eu japan relations;
however securing peace and maintaining stability in eastern asia is also in our core interest.
the strategic partnership agreement aims for solutions on common challenges such as climate change energy supply and threats to security.
however a lot of work lies ahead of us in particular the ongoing negotiations of the next multiannual financial framework mff and i believe that with this next mff adequate financial resources should be made available for our union's external action because this is a direct investment in the security of our continent. in these upcoming negotiations we don't only have to ensure adequate financing but also the coherence the effectiveness the responsiveness and the flexibility of our external financing instruments
and most importantly we shouldn't get tired of stressing the need to adequately involve our parliament in the scrutiny and in the strategic steering of these instruments.
madam president once again the european council will meet to respond to the british government's shambolic brexit process and once again the council must remain resolute that the irish backstop cannot be renegotiated.
but the clear lesson learned from this process is one that many of us already knew that british leaders do not give a single damn about any part of ireland including the part over which they hold jurisdiction.
so the commons vote can be postponed but the backstop cannot be altered.
we need the continued support of this house to ensure that that is the case and we will need the support of this house to move towards the inevitable outworking of the lesson that has been learned from the brexit process.
as more and more people across ireland recognise that irish unity is the ultimate response to british political failures we will be seeking the support of the eu in the time ahead to deliver that solution.
the somewhat unrealistic european border and coastguard proposal we delivered.
but when it came to migration where of course as the commission president said we delivered everything we were asked to do dublin the asylum procedures regulation those files which are all interconnected i say to the council and to the commission those interconnected tough files the majority of the files of any committee in this house
they are being split apart and now the commission asks us to adopt five of the seven files.
i understand the expediency but it represents a failure when in this house we want multilateralism and we didn't like the fact that during the presidency we had a failure of multilateralism and of the global compact when the presidency left the global compact.
we in the parliament will deliver our part of the bargain.
it's a pity that we have had some failure in the council and in these council conclusions.
let's try and make it positive before the end of this mandate.
mr president we should recognise that we have a leading defence sector and that we have a leading regulatory framework for this sector.
i am also grateful to the shadow rapporteur for his cooperation on a number of areas on this report.
we have the shared aim of improving the defence sector.
this fund should make sure that we invest in our defence but that we do so in an effective way not by closing down opportunities.
it should not be proof that the transatlantic security relationship is weakening but rather the riposte to that that europe invests in its defence but it does so with its nato allies.
everyone has the right to be protected and to have their health protected and upheld in their place of work so today's vote is very important.
we must do more to protect healthcare workers who are placed at risk in their treatment of others by being exposed to incredibly powerful toxic drugs used to treat people with cancer.
that's why the work we've done this year on the dying to work campaign is so important and will continue into next year as well.
i mean it is delivering results. maybe it's something that we should be better at communicating to the public but it is a success story and i think that what we are aiming at is that we will be spending hopefully as marian jean marinescu has said a higher amount of money that there will be a budgetary increase but that we will spend it more effectively and efficiently than so far and that was the objective which brought us through while working on the report.
let me give you a few examples. i think it has already been referred to that we are looking for multiannual programming. this is something that should provide for greater transparency predictability and planning but also consistency. this is what is needed.
at the same time we should be evaluating constantly its implementation and we have asked the commission to work on qualitative indicators so that we would not just be assessing the kind of money we are spending but what are the real results that we are achieving.
we have one ten t project where we have that experience and we know that a joint venture composed of entities from the countries concerned in a concrete ten t corridor provides for better coordination in terms of planning and projecting but also in securing financing
one let's say that was proposed by the commission and one which was very strong also among some colleagues meps and i think that this is something that could be quite unfortunate in terms of implementation in the future so that would be my plea and my advice.
may i underline that we are talking about dual use.
i know that some colleagues in the hemicycle some members of the european parliament will tend to put too much emphasis on the military and automatically present it as a major shift offset.
that is not true.
but this is not just about military this is dual use but it is also about managing crisis situations.
we take every single policy we establish and every single piece of work we do daily in our services all around the world.
from myanmar to yemen from afghanistan to syria libya to venezuela to the balkans the human rights the promotion of human rights the protection of human rights defenders lies at the core of our foreign policy in every single step we take.
the second point i would like to underline and this was not really underlined during the debate but still i believe this is very important is that our credibility in our work on human rights in the world lies in our capacity to lead by example.