kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
for example the commission's proposals regarding medicated feed could potentially have implications for pig welfare by delaying the use of medication until the disease has spread and developed.
the cost to farmers or ultimately of course to consumers must be recognised.
producers where i come from in the uk as a whole were to the forefront in implementing measures such as the sow stall ban while others dragged their feet.
we cannot allow a situation for example where imports from third countries have a competitive advantage over those produced within a europe under our high animal welfare standards.
those are the ones that the council is accountable to more than to us. finally i heard what the commissioner said but i would like to have a statement from the european council promising given that they have rushed through this whole package that they will withdraw or review the decision as quickly as possible
it could have started the procedure much earlier than the end of july.
and the fact that the council is absent today and has not been interested in talking to the european parliament only demonstrates that they simply do not want to involve the european parliament;
this is about accountability to the citizen because it concerns very important decisions.
it is not even about the national parliaments being sidelined.
we asked for one month's extension but the council was simply unwilling to give us that extension;
we are talking about the transfer of personal data and confidential documents to third parties about the data and confidential information of our citizens the people that we represent.
but if the council were sincerely interested in the views of the european parliament it could have been here.
i will not go into the substance because i think we should have that debate later but i will briefly come back to the procedure because i would like to clarify one thing.
within a maximum of six months and then fully involve the european parliament in a full codecision procedure and be accountable to the citizens.
can i take this opportunity first of all to apologise for my colleague timothy kirkhope who is unable to be here.
he would like to make it clear that he supports the aim of the council decision as we are in favour of better exchange of information and recognise the benefits europol brings to member states regarding law enforcement and crime fighting. we would like to keep europol's remit and scope small and specific and thereby make the agency as efficient and effective as possible.
we also need to recognise that sovereign states have their role to play in that they control their national police forces and security services. however without prejudice to the overall support of the european police office with the entry into force of the treaty of lisbon and its effects on police cooperation
over the last couple of years information exchange in the area of judicial and law enforcement cooperation has become a high priority for the european union and its member states in the crime prevention and crime fighting potential.
the purpose of this draft framework decision is to ensure that the results of laboratory activities in one member state are recognised as being equivalent to the results of laboratory activities in other member states thereby guaranteeing legal certainty to the suspects and improved judicial cooperation where evidence of one member state is used in proceedings in another member state.
this purpose is achieved by ensuring that laboratory activities are accredited by the accreditation body to comply with international standards.
however it will of course always remain the responsibility of each individual judicial authority to assess any evidence forensic or not in accordance with its own national law.
however again there are problems regarding the legal basis of this initiative with the entry into force of the lisbon treaty.
this report will be submitted at a later date under a legal basis that is clear.
significantly they talk about the unauthorised disclosure of such information not disadvantaging harming or prejudicing the essential interests of europol.
there is nothing about protecting the interests of the hapless innocent citizen who might get caught up in the nightmare of a europol investigation.
the most personal information may be collected including sexual preferences and bank account details.
this may even be shared with third party countries including those of such outstanding democratic credentials as albania peru and the russian federation.
europol is totally unnecessary from any objective point of view but the eu's subjective point of view is that it is essential to have another of those attributes of a political state its own police force.
how many of the eu's reluctant citizens know that europol officers have immunity from prosecution for anything that they do or say in the course of their duties?
for those of you here who have only just emerged from police states this may not be very significant but such immunity for law enforcement officers is a concept alien to english law.
as the eu creates its own judicial system with instruments such as the european arrest warrant and trials in absentia and now its own police force we in britain are seeing the destruction of our most basic and cherished liberties that have formerly protected us.
every single rapporteur at least had the decency to say that these proposals should be rejected until the lisbon treaty was legally in force.
if the eu had any decency there would be referenda on the lisbon treaty and none of it would ever come into force.
do you really think that could have happened if there had not been cooperation not just between them but cooperation all the way to the far east?
yes my friends we have to have a strong europol yes we have got to work towards that and yes we must look to cooperate where it is in the best interests of everyone.
the lisbon treaty will be in force if i calculate correctly seven days and five hours from now. i must say that the rush by the council to adopt a whole series of decisions is somewhat embarrassing in the light of this. what i also find embarrassing is that there is an empty seat here where i would have hoped to see the council so that we could actually have
an exchange of views.
i basically endorse the proposals made by the previous speaker.
of course we support the development of europol.
i therefore endorse the proposal made by the previous speaker to ask the council to withdraw the proposals on europol and present a new proposal within a maximum of six months and preferably earlier under the lisbon treaty.
effect that the legal basis chosen for this particular proposal is the wrong one.
sadly in this house there are many examples of anti american sentiment. all of us in the eu should be profoundly grateful for the role that the us plays in the world and particularly the role that it has played in our recent history. i laugh sometimes when i hear the suggestion that it is the eu that is responsible for sixty years of peace in europe.
everybody seems to forget about the contribution of the us and of course nato in contributing towards peace in europe.
our bluebell groves and our chestnut copses and our hop fields are gradually giving way to the spread of concrete.
we are penalised twice over as consumers and as taxpayers by high prices and by high taxes and yet our farmers are penalised too.
when eventually he passes there will be only two marxist systems of agriculture left in the world the collective farms of north korea and europe's common agricultural policy a policy based on price fixing a policy based on the storage and destruction of food stocks for which there is no market a policy which wantonly passes on costs and unnecessary suffering to the third world which is deprived of its natural market.
it has now been fifty years that our consumers and farmers have been crucified to pay for this bureaucracy.
in my south east region in england farming is disappearing as a meaningful part of the economy.
thus i support the call for an investigation into the margin share in the production and distribution chain.
the major supermarkets have been abusing their buying power to suppress prices to suppliers to unsustainable levels and to impose i must say unfair and unilateral demands as the price of retaining the contract.
in the long run as the uk competition commission has pointed out this will equally damage consumers as choice availability and quality are squeezed out of the market.
mr president before i start may i say how pleased i am to find out that your parents are in the chamber not just because it is nice to have an audience but so they can see how your fair chairmanship of these sittings has earned you respect across the chamber including even from british conservatives.
it is so true funny how it seems' that in just a few short days president obama comes to strasbourg.
looking through the barricades being erected he might reflect if he thinks at all about the european parliament that its two seats policy is absolutely mad a complete waste of money.
indeed he will think round and round it goes and oh don't you know this is the game that we came here for.
' but soon he will be gone looking at the hopeless nature of the one size fits all regulation that cripples eu businesses and doubtless he will think that there is no lifeline that he can throw.
yet several constituents of mine who put their life savings into a home in spain now find themselves ambushed and devastated by laws and claims which would deprive them of their property or cost them enormous sums of money in order to retain
it appears that civic authorities in spain in cahoots with grasping unscrupulous developers have been a terror to those who thought they were buying legitimate homes and properties and if this report helps address that then it can only do good.
indeed they were recently the subject of a tv documentary by itv north east where some of these heart rending cases were brought to life and were examined for the public of the north east to see.
i hope even now at this late stage that the spanish government and spanish meps will right some of the wrongs that have been done and will give some restitution to some of these people who have been unlawfully denied their property and recognise that actually what has gone on here is a scandal.
many of the deals involving property developers and spanish local government are frankly the result of corruption.
we serve nobody by failing to recognise that essential point. the spanish government needs to act.
i am frankly appalled at some of the abuses that have gone on in this chamber by spanish meps seeking to cover up these practices.
mr president of course this report about food prices fails to reflect the reality of the situation that food prices in the eu are kept artificially high by a brutal combination on the one hand of excessive eu bureaucracy and on the other hand by the now notorious common agricultural policy.
farm subsidies ensure that inefficient farmers are bankrolled at the expense of the european taxpayer and at the same time of course ensure that the prices that we as consumers pay in shops and supermarkets for agricultural produce remain disproportionately high.
the one thing that the commission could do to address the disproportionately high prices of food is to announce tomorrow that they are going to dismantle the common agricultural policy but of course they will not do that because certain member states particularly france benefit disproportionately from huge sums of taxpayers' money being poured into an inefficient grossly disproportionate farming sector.
that is the one thing the commission should do but of course they will not.
in that letter she made a humanitarian appeal on their behalf as well as regarding mr surinder kohli who has also appealed for mercy to the president after his death warrant was issued in early may.
the eu's view is that capital punishment does not serve as an effective deterrent to criminal behaviour whereas its abolition contributes to the enhancement of human dignity and the progressive development of human rights.
vice president high representative ashton has been in regular correspondence with a number of members of the european parliament regarding the death penalty in india and she is well aware of the circumstances surrounding this case which has been discussed with the indian authorities in the past in the context of the death penalty issue.
at present last minute appeals on health grounds are being considered by the courts in both cases. we hope that the strong domestic and international pressure currently being exerted on the indian authorities will result in the executions not taking place and in the moratorium being preserved. we stand ready to consider further urgent action in case the executions become imminent and
judicial execution which is a cruel inhumane and degrading penalty allows no room for later access to justice should the convicted felons one day be found to be innocent. this house therefore appeals to the people and the president of india in the name of humanity and of our common commitment to human progress to commute those sentences.
in fact it has been used only once in the past fifteen years and that was seven years ago.
in india with whose people europeans share many values the supreme court ruled nearly thirty years ago that the death penalty should be imposed only in the rarest of rare cases;
it is therefore deeply disturbing that decisions have been taken to execute the two convicts davinder pal singh and mahendra nath das especially at a time when moves in the united nations for a moratorium on the death penalty gain more support every year.
madam president when speaking of the death penalty two large countries normally spring to mind china and the united states of america.
that is a statement of fact. we always have a free vote in my group for these matters.
i would like to make the point that parliament is supposed to reflect the views of the population we represent and whether you like it or not a very large number of citizens of the european union still agree with the death penalty for the most heinous capital crimes. i am afraid that is a fact so i think it is perfectly reasonable that some members do believe in the death penalty for murder.
india as a democratic country reserves the right to impose death sentences on those convicted of the most heinous capital crimes.
we in the ecr agree that the eu has a right to request clarification of the controversial circumstances of the arrest police custody and apparent confession made by davinder pal singh bhullar including the issue of his deportation from germany and the fact the conviction was based on a majority decision leaving some doubt as to whether the conviction is totally safe.
the eu's position on the death penalty is of course well known in india.
where it says the president should be elected by secret ballot.
i have no objection to this but why are we going backwards in time by using paper ballot votes that took a whole day to process under enormous cost to the taxpayer?
it's been a long time since enlargement and there is still a huge gap in prosperity between western europe on the one hand and the countries of central and eastern europe on the other.
that's why it is so important as well as i mentioned in my speech earlier that we put forward a realistic pathway to european membership for the western balkans.
on tax which i know is an issue of contention between many people in this chamber and in ireland the view that we take as a government and i think it is shared by a lot of governments is that national taxes should fund national budgets.
institutions. i am not so naive as to think that a country like
was born. she still lives there in london with my niece and nephew who are
so if the united states the most successful economy in the world can have tax competition among member states why can't we have the same?
ours. so if it is a race the bottom it is not one that ireland is going to win and therefore it is not one that we want to participate
that's because we have never really had heavy industry.
rate. i think that needs to be challenged. it's also very much my strong contention that the progress that we make on this should be done at international level through the oecd process.
kingdom. i acknowledge that but it should not be a choice between the seventy
admit that. in so many ways we have a shared culture and a shared history and that's very much the experience of my family
parliament. i am also conscious of british veterans very brave people who fought on the beaches of france not just for britain but also for european democracy and for european values and people like that are always
in england. she's an irish nurse and he's a doctor
per cent? it's possible to have special arrangements for northern ireland if needs be that allow northern ireland to have that because of its unique
people. we're a small
ultimately the european courts and the european court of justice will make a judgment on that and whatever that judgment is our government will accept
but it is our contention and it is our belief that we did not have a special arrangement with that company and we can't say that we did when we know that we didn't.
ireland. i also have no wish to see any new borders or barriers between britain and ireland or between northern ireland and
states. i come from a country that
rate. we have already made a number of big changes to our tax policy.
way. that's not something we can
fell in love. that's where my sister
so if this is a race to the bottom it is not one that ireland is going to win. as was mentioned by other speakers countries like france just to use one example have a high corporation profit tax on paper but have so many exemptions and so many different ways not to pay tax that according to the oecd their effective tax rate is actually lower than
our flag'. that's how close irish people in many ways are to british
with the uk. but fundamentally what we have to move away from is any idea that any country can have a relationship that involves taking all the benefits and none of the responsibilities and
year. we'll continue to make steps in those directions and close loopholes but we want other countries to do that as well quite frankly.
will be lost. young people will lose the right to live work and study anywhere in the european union losing those rights as european
if you look at the model that exists in the united states which is a federation after all there is a lot of tax competition between member states. there are federal income taxes and there are state income taxes. there are different sales taxes in different member states.
from india. they both went to britain to build a new life and that's where they met that's where they married and that's where they
it's already the case that a number of countries have a lower tax rate for corporations than we do hungary and bulgaria just to give two examples.
situation. that is something that i work for and something that i hope that politicians from all sides in northern ireland will
people. we are connected by blood in so many different ways and that's why i really regret the decision that has been made on brexit because so much
obligations. that's the fundamental thing that we need to insist on.
there is a bit of hypocrisy about that when you look at the amount of money that we actually collect in terms of corporate taxes versus other countries who collect so much less but yet on paper have a higher tax
we need to do a lot more and one of the things my government will do in the next few months is to publish our ten year investment plan our capital investment plan for ireland over the next ten years. central to that will be the kind of things that we want to do around climate change to make sure we meet those targets in. two thousand and thirty that includes things such as in transport electrifying our railways. we only have one small part of our railway that is electrified.
citizens. my niece and nephew won't because they are entitled to irish passports but the other kids in their class will and i think that's
now. we haven't increased it we haven't reduced it but we've just kept it exactly as it is
and the money will be held in the escrow account until that decision is made by the european court of justice.
the table. there were no officials there. the only people there were the president of the council the president of the commission and the heads of government of twenty six twenty seven or twenty eight member
we have no interest in fact in a race to the bottom.
country. there are many provinces even cities in other european countries that have more people than mine have a bigger economy than mine and i was sitting around the table as an equal with the president of france the chancellor of germany the prime minister of spain the prime minister of italy these really big countries and that isn't the way europe used to work. before the european union the big countries would
a lot about. irish people are very close to british people in so many ways even though sometimes we don't like to
but ultimately that is going to be a matter for those courts to decide.
ministers. i went into the council of ministers for the first time
say at all. that's why i believe small countries are so much better off in
english kids. they point at the union jack and they say leo that's
as well. we should conclude a new partnership and a new agreement
in. the future of our economy and the future of our prosperity is going to be much more about human capital and attracting talent and people than attracting companies based on corporate tax
we never had those big heavy industries that other countries have decommissioned and shut down and achieved their targets in that
in the world. farmers food producers even the beer makers that you and i are so fond of could lose the subsidies that they currently benefit from which are not guaranteed beyond this
technically it is not a tax case but a state aid case and the contention is that ireland had a special deal with one particular company.
i say that for a very obvious reason europeans should not do something unilaterally that only causes other countries that are not part of the european union to gain an advantage over us whether it is the united states japan or whether it is the united kingdom which of course is going to
it's about electric cars in particular where we have put in some incentives but have not got the results that we would like. there are lots of things that we intend to do so that we can meet those
that's therefore a national competence and a matter of national sovereignty. we do have european taxes at the moment that fund the european budget or at least in.
i mightn't be able to answer everyone but i'll do my best to touch on as many topics as i can.
that's very much recognised and we are very grateful for that. i think ms zimmer spoke about the need to reduce inequality among member states and i think that's something that i can very much sign up to as well.
from a young entrepreneurial prime minister such as you i would expect the first option.
i agree with all of this but surely the alternative cannot be between a onesizefitsall taxation system that would work for the central big and core european countries to the detriment of everyone else and the noholdsbarred tax competition that we have right now.
it is not just our excessive ecological footprint but also ballooning inequalities that threaten the very existence of all civilised societies.
brexit is a challenge we could have avoided but it should not detract us from those challenges that are existential to the future of europe. allow me taoiseach to mention two of them that i find particularly relevant to ireland.
come on taoiseach with its abundant resources for renewable energy ireland has the potential to be a pioneer in green transformation.
we all got familiar with your name on the occasion of the brexit debate and ireland is obviously the member state that will be most affected by it not just for economic reasons but because this is about peace on the island. let me just say this we are at your side on this.