kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
there are performance savings in the other areas very restrained growth of commitment two only at the end of the financial perspective but on the other hand we need a sufficient level of payments to pay out what is legally binding what is financially and legally binding for two thousand and thirteen and this is the end of the financial perspective that cannot come
hundreds of billions have been spent to date that have added up to precisely nothing in terms of growth.
madam president here we go again. in the worst financial crisis in living memory this house comes up with more unrealistic and irresponsible demands.
for goodness sake give the british people a break and cut our contribution to the eu budget.
now this house wants to reward this failure with an increase. if you are listening mr cameron i have a straight talking message for you continue to send money to brussels and you are effectively transferring power to an unelected irresponsible and hugely wasteful bureaucracy.
it simply beggars belief that a majority here can even dare to ask for a.
the idea that genuine growth and employment can be delivered by the eu budget is simply ridiculous.
i think that would be a good thing for this parliament and for the other institutions.
i also want to say a few words on the budgets of other institutions.
i think we need to look at all the institutions individually however.
colleagues will recall the letter from the commissioner urging all institutions to keep their increase next year to below.
i say for the moment' because what we have done as a parliament is to put in place a working group to look at making savings in parliament's budget.
by september of this year i think we will be able to recommend some savings in parliament's budget and by the end of the year we will have a full report available as well.
the commission originally proposed an increase in their budget of.
there will be massive migration from south to north if we do not meet our commitments.
it used to be thirty six zero children per day. look at the progress we have made.
we can make more progress.
congratulations to britain for striving to move ahead and to denmark which is already at one percent.
and the net result the final result is the mountain of unpaid commitments.
however it might be part of the solution of how to enhance in a responsible way growth and jobs opportunities.
but what is the budget?
are performance savings?
that is about the future bills; no real solution. this is not a real
we evaluate very critically and then we make an effort to respect the deals and we cannot be criticised for respecting the bills coming from twenty seven countries.
i also call for improved funding to finance activity that directly contributes to higher growth and employment such as the internationalisation of eu business through improved sme access to high growth countries assistance to trading partners in the southern and eastern neighbourhoods
as well as resources for the existing high level dialogues with usa russia china and emerging countries.
all these activities if well executed will prove very beneficial to all eu citizens.
the budget will be the key to that future and our most pressing priority ought to be improving competitiveness to support economic growth based on a fully functioning single market and greater value for money spent at european level.
that means investing in research and development investing in border infrastructure and investing in broadband connectivity all things which will help people in their daily lives and in the future.
but it also means that in a strictly limited budget we should only be spending where we can see clear value for money and relevance to the challenges of the day.
this is the time when we ought to be looking again at the traditional spending areas. it is a time when we ought to be asking the difficult questions.
will the reform proposals for the common agricultural policy really deliver measurable environmental benefits and at what price to the european taxpayer?
against the backdrop of the current economic challenges this budget is missing the opportunity to seek out those new approaches.
instead the solution is more of the same the same policies but more money spent.
this house would be mistaken if it was to presume that it could go on increasing spending at a time when the people of europe are experiencing cutbacks and austerity.
we should be leading by example and that means freezing the size of the budget.
in order to create long term savings in the union budget'.
mr president so we come to paragraph seventy seven which states stresses that parliament and the council must address the need for a roadmap to a single seat as requested by a large majority in this parliament in several resolutions
the impact of a nuclear ban would be even worse because the alternative to nuclear power is not wind farms and solar panels.
i do not doubt that they mean well but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. the same people meant well when they helped to create the biofuels rush pushing the price of food beyond the reach of the world's poor.
tonight millions of children will go to bed slowly dying of hunger because people on that side of the house meant well that is what the fuzzy ideals of the utopian left do in the real world.
yet while no one is using road traffic accidents to campaign to ban the motor car a small army of leftists is using chernobyl to push for an end to nuclear power.
in our energy scarce post peak oil world the alternative to reactors is mass starvation.
we have to think about nuclear safety not as a protection measure but as a long term and encompassing strategy.
it is also becoming a european challenge for the future of nuclear energy.
we need more research in this field and we need to guarantee the long term safety of storage or disposal of these materials.
it is indeed as he described it very troubling.
on iran yes mr belder you are right to raise the fact that this for me is a big and major issue and a great deal of my time is taken up with working to see how we can move forward on this.
when we talk too about the common neighbourhood as mr vigenin called it we discuss the issues of transnistria and of nagorno karabakh and as i have indicated earlier in this debate it is very important that we see some progress there.
i think the points that have been raised about ensuring that we show that we take democracy seriously and expect russia to as well are very important.
russia could play a part in helping to reduce that and through the minsk group to find a solution to it.
russia is part of the e thirty three and works very collaboratively with us with me in order to try and find ways in which we can persuade iran to turn away from the issue of acquiring nuclear weapons which i think all honourable members are very concerned about.
i also think it is important to let honourable members know that we will be meeting with the eu russia civil society forum on thursday as well and that will give us an opportunity to discuss with them recent events and more generally the relationship between us and we always discuss the international obligations that we have when we meet at the summit. my staff have met with
in all our discussions with russia there are a number of issues that continue to be raised of which of course georgia is clearly one and in our foreign policy discussions the particular points that honourable members have made are indeed part of that.
but does it not really show the limitations?
the elections were a disgrace.
the electoral legislation that exists in russia provides for appeal and rectification and we expect of course that this legislation will be respected.
in contrast the large demonstrations over the weekend in russia were peaceful and the authorities in my view generally handled them very well.
i am grateful for the opportunity to talk about the eu russia summit which as honourable members know will take place in brussels beginning tomorrow evening.
following up on those observations today the prior exclusion of various opposition parties has been confirmed as a key flaw of those elections.
we have close links from the economy to family ties and our common history.
thus the citizens have passed a clear message and it certainly has not gone unnoticed. both president medvedev and prime minister putin have acknowledged receipt. the future development of democratic institutions in russia as i said in july should depend on the russian people and their choices.
at the summit we will re emphasise our conviction that modernisation is not only about technology.
as i mentioned earlier i visited the south caucasus last month and we are concerned about the lack of progress in these talks as tension is very clear throughout the region.
as russia's largest trading partner by far the eu was a crucial partner in the eighteen year long negotiations.
wto accession will be a historic moment which will open a new chapter in our bilateral relations.
for us modernisation means both russia's full integration into the international rules based system and the development of citizens' rights and freedoms and i am pleased to report that this approach of constructive engagement does work.
the summit may actually produce a number of results.
wto accession should also give new momentum to negotiations on the new eu russia agreement.
we have also taken joint commitments to develop democratic institutions and human rights in the un the council of europe and the osce frameworks.
sergey lavrov and i meet regularly and try to build common approaches to the most pressing international issues.
their findings must be addressed by the authorities in order to allow for smooth and fair presidential elections in march.
let me finish with a few words on foreign policy.
let me conclude. as you see we have a broad agenda with russia which reflects the way in which our economies our societies and our strategic concerns are increasingly intertwined. as we remove barriers to trade travel and exchange the outlook and expectations of our citizens can be expected more and more to converge and the fundamental interest of cooperation will increase.
this process implies a significant modernisation in areas like migration policy and border management but also guarantees for the respect of fundamental rights.
when acting together as strategic partners the eu and russia can have a decisive influence on key challenges and conflict situations around the globe.
russia is a major partner for the eu.
our ambition is for eu relations with russia to be the engine for this modernisation process which we have always maintained must be both economic and political.
the evidence needs to be looked at and osce odihr and other organisations will issue their final reports in due course.
rule of law protection of citizens' rights civil society engagement and a level playing field for companies are all crucial elements of successful modernisation.
and we will continue to engage russia over georgia where russia still needs to fully implement the commitments it made in the august and september two thousand and eight agreements.
improved mobility and people to people contacts will bring our people closer together and facilitate the exchange of experience and values cultural cooperation and business.
we will of course be raising our concerns about the elections at the upcoming eu russia summit tomorrow.
let me mention russia's wto accession first which should be officially decided in geneva on friday.
on visas and mobility the presidents will be approving a list of common steps towards visa free travel full implementation of which should lead to the opening of visa waiver negotiations.
as former trade commissioner i had my own personal experience in this process.
we also need to advance on protracted conflicts.
it will bind russia to international trading rules open new opportunities for trade and investment and protect our companies from arbitrary decisions.
generally we succeed but in some cases our positions differ.
we should also recognise that the russian people have made full use of existing possibilities to express their dissatisfaction with some aspects of the political situation. to many commentators' minds voters expressed their views on issues such as corruption the lack of political freedoms and their economic situation by voting for other parties bringing down the registered result for the leading united russia party from sixty four in two thousand and seven to less than fifty now.
last but not least the partnership for modernisation is under full implementation with new projects being prepared.
progress on substance now needs to follow. we will continue to engage in order to support the mediation efforts over nagorno karabakh by the minsk group in which russia is a member.
when we discussed in july in this house the preparations for those elections i expressed then some concerns especially regarding restrictions to political pluralism.
in addition we have seen reports about procedural violations such as a lack of media impartiality and the lack of clear separation between political party and state. i have also expressed concern at the detention of protesters demonstrating for free and fair elections and reports of police violence against activists journalists and mere observers.
i welcome the instructions by president medvedev for all accusations of irregularities to be properly investigated.
taking into account the preliminary conclusions of international and local monitoring organisations the legitimacy of the newly elected state duma is at best questionable.
by extensive ballot stuffing vote rigging and not allowing several opposition parties to register the people of russia were not granted their constitutional right to choose their representatives in free and fair elections and frankly like many russian people i personally do not believe president medvedev's promises to check up the results of the last elections.
although russia is and will remain an important partner to the eu our economic interests may not overshadow the principles of democracy that the european union stands for.
the idealistic approach that we can prevent the kremlin from turning russia into an authoritarian state by working as peers in different organisations has obviously failed.
the harsh truth is that with putin and his cronies in the kremlin it is unlikely that the long term objectives or the values of the eu and russia could be conciliated.
first i would call on the high representative to insist that all the peaceful demonstrators who were arrested by the russian authorities are released.
second the russian authorities must be reminded of their international obligations stemming in particular from russia's membership of the council of europe and the osce.
first of all in the dialogue we have to have with the leadership in russia and the energy dialogue and of course the conclusion of wto entry.
we have the visa liberalisation and we have the partnership and cooperation agreement we should work on.
i think this is the line we should follow.
first of all sometimes we tend to use any opportunity to give general assessments on all aspects of life in russia which is not always helpful because that makes us less focused.
this time it is fully understandable that we use this opportunity to give our assessment of and recommendations concerning the problem with the elections in russia. we hope that the presidential election next year will be better prepared better managed and more fair and free.
along with the criticism we should however recognise that despite the expected win of the ruling party russia is different today and we have to use the momentum not just to blame the authorities but also to encourage them to change their approach next march.
at the same time those who fight for more democracy in russia should feel our backing as well. secondly i would like to call russia to join the eu in its efforts to help the common neighbourhood.
both sides are interested in the stability sustainable economic development and social progress of these countries.
it is somewhat unbelievable that no new political parties including the main opposition party the people's freedom party or parnas were allowed to register for participating in these elections.
russia must also put an end to widespread corruption and massive self enrichment at the highest levels of the state and government as is illustrated by the tragic case of sergei magnitsky who chose to expose the most egregious tax fraud and was as a result tortured to death in prison.
and justice freedom and security.
the focus of the last monitoring report as underlined by the minister is in accordance with the accession treaty on competition;
measures were implemented to increase the efficiency of the judiciary;
the commission is therefore confident that croatia will be ready for membership on one july.
croatia is generally meeting the commitments and requirements arising from the accession negotiations in all chapters.
let me give you just some examples.
croatia arrives at a moment when the european union is experiencing its most serious economic and financial crisis.
european union membership presents many challenges but also creates many opportunities.
the structural funds and participation in the internal market offer important opportunities to get the croatian economy out of its current recession.
it has demonstrated its ability to fulfil all other commitments in good time before accession.
the privatisation contract for the brodosplit shipyard was signed;
this also reflects the conclusions of our recent spring monitoring report which was adopted on twenty six march.
many decisions have been taken to overcome the crisis over the last few years and croatia can now provide its contribution to resolving it.
judiciary and fundamental rights;
and the conflict of interest commission was established and started its work.
i also welcome your support for the commission's work on croatia as confirmed by the report we will be debating here today.
two thousand and thirteen croatia's active observer status will come to an end and the work to turn membership into a success will start.
at the same time we are looking in particular at the priority actions from the october comprehensive monitoring report and i am pleased to note that all of them have been completed.
i look forward to its adoption by the plenary and i also look forward to welcoming croatia to the european union on one july.
the country on the path to economic growth.
as i said i have full confidence that membership of the eu will make croatia and of course the eu as a whole stronger more prosperous and more secure.
rather i think it is the beginning of a new era that will bring new challenges new opportunities and new responsibilities.
croatian democracy is strong the social market economy is viable and i also think the country has the capacity to fulfil membership obligations in many other areas.
in those ten years of negotiations croatia collected a vast amount of know how and experience and we hope that this know how and experience will be given to the neighbours of croatia.
it is another stage in our dream to have europe united from the west to the east and i would like to congratulate our croatian friends.
but as mr rouek's resolution stresses accession is not the end of a process but a milestone within it.
zagreb still has work to do in tackling corruption and organised crime facilitating the work of investigative journalists and liberalising access to information in general.
this is a development that we should fully welcome.
croatia has risen from the rubble of the balkan wars to emerge as a mature liberal democracy in keeping with our values. its improved relations with its balkan neighbours bode well for the future.
having said that the ongoing dispute with slovenia over ljubljanska banka is obviously something that we must resolve as soon as possible. there must also be no going back on serbian rapprochement.
from one july two thousand and thirteen as a member state of the european union croatia will actively participate in shaping the future of europe.
croatia was the first country where we have acquired the track record.
the council has reiterated the importance it attaches to close monitoring of croatia's fulfilment of all the commitments it has undertaken in the accession negotiations including those which must be fulfilled before accession.
the commission has concluded that croatia will be in a position to take on the rights and obligations of eu membership on one july two thousand and thirteen and the general affairs council is due to adopt conclusions on this latest commission monitoring report and its recommendations next week. i would also underline that croatia the council and the commission are currently working on comprehensive technical adaptations to the eu acquis to take account of the croatian accession.
we particularly welcome croatia's and slovenia's decision to sign a memorandum of understanding aimed at finding a solution to the ljubljanska banka issue. further efforts are also needed to tackle impunity for war crimes through the impartial handling of outstanding cases and through continued full cooperation with the international criminal tribunal for the former yugoslavia.
this will allow us very soon to conclude what has been a long journey which started ten years ago.
before concluding i would also like to recall croatia's commitment to ensuring that bilateral issues do not obstruct the accession process of candidate countries.
it demonstrates the positive and stabilising effect of enlargement to the benefit of both the eu and the region as a whole.
cooperation between this parliament and the council has been very good and together i think we have helped ensure that croatia can take its rightful place as the twenty eighth member state of the european union.
the assistance and monitoring undertaken by the commission has been a key part of this process.
substantial results have been achieved in a number of areas where action was required and which the council highlighted in its conclusions last december.
but significant progress has also been achieved in meeting other important commitments and i commend croatia for all that it has achieved over recent months.
we fully support the view as expressed in your resolution due to be adopted tomorrow that croatia's accession process testifies to the credibility of the eu's enlargement policy and its hugely transformative effects.
these relate in particular to the areas of competition policy judiciary and fundamental rights and justice freedom and security.
this strengthens the process of reconciliation in the western balkans region.
i believe that is an achievement that we can all be very proud of and very pleased with.
given the importance of good neighbourly relations and the need to implement legally binding international agreements the council encourages croatia to continue to address all outstanding bilateral and regional issues including succession issues building on the very significant progress that has been achieved so far.
croatia is expected to continue to play an active role in regional cooperation.
the final monitoring report on croatia presented by the commission last month has confirmed that croatia is generally meeting the commitments and requirements arising from the accession negotiations in all chapters.
this is an important but time consuming task vital if the eu is to be completely ready in time.
after accession croatia will fully participate in eu two thousand and twenty and be accountable under the economic governance mechanisms like any other member state. we are worried about the fall of gdp and about the unemployment rate which it is just under. twenty if we take croatia seriously as a new member state we need to express these worries and i hope you will support this.
from my experience i can tell them that they have been chosen for the most wonderful job there is.
in its march monitoring report the commission identified a number of issues that still need work and while we as a parliament may be very positive about progress made we should not shout hallelujah' just yet.
that does not mean however that croatia is a total paradise on earth yet.