kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
it also shows that there needs to be a focus on ensuring prevention of predatory lending and payday loans which have resulted in the exploitation of small businesses and individual consumers particularly the vulnerable across the eu.
it is therefore vital that in order to do so the relevant european financial supervisors are given the appropriate resources to fulfil their full range of duties.
a strong regulatory system will increase consumer confidence and the internal market cannot function properly without strong consumer protection mechanisms.
additionally developing retail financial services should not be to the detriment of more traditional methods of banking and should bear in mind the needs of those who prefer face to face interaction.
the report acknowledges that branch closures destroy community cohesion and are detrimental to the development of good financial services at a local level.
via its climate policies it has taken control over the power and air transport sector and via this directive and the amendment it is taking full control over the major rivers and canals in the european union. the directive insists upon training requirements and certification safety standards environmental controls workers' and women's rights and so on.
taking into account an increase in international retail traffic and challenges related to the digital single market adapting the rules is crucial in order to protect our citizens' rights and their economic interests when doing e commerce online or using other services of the internal market.
for this we need to fight secrecy have adequate consumer protection legislation and its enforcement plans in place and of course ensure a functioning database among member states and swift information exchange.
cultural goods should be made as widely available as possible and we must support the digitalisation of books.
there is no reason why a difference in vat rate should be applied to the same product simply due to the means of its delivery.
this vat rate reduces the incentive to publishers to further develop the area and for consumers to buy e books.
i fully agree with my colleagues.
vat gap the difference between the reduced vat rate applied to books in twenty five of twenty seven member states and the standard vat rate to which e books are subject is stifling the development of the digital single market.
this review was launched with the green paper on the future of vat in december last year.
two years after its adoption.
the commission intends to present before the end of this year a communication setting out the priorities for future work on vat.
the adoption of the directive as regards the place of supply of services was the result of long negotiations in council which started in.
as for cultural goods the current option to apply a reduced rate is limited to the supplies of traditional books printed on paper as well as to books engraved on physical means of support such as diskettes cds dvds etc.
an optional application of reduced rates by the member states to these products such as e books not only is not permitted under the current rules but it should also be excluded in the short and medium term as it would lead to distortions in the internal market if
as far as the place of taxable transactions is concerned until two thousand and fifteen the supply of electronic services to final consumers within the eu is taxed in the country of the supplier.
should be treated in the same way.
only some countries use the option.
on the other hand supplies of e books as well as supplies of online newspapers and online periodicals qualify as electronically supplied services to which the reduced rates do not apply.
however the application of the standard vat rate is the general principle set out in eu vat law whereas the application of reduced vat rates remains an option for member states and is limited to certain categories of goods and services.
i want to keep this dead simple.
i love books and i will have a whole lot of real books on my christmas list this christmas.
both of them are cultural content but there is a huge difference in the vat to which they are subject.
we talk about an internal market we talk about a digital revolution. it seems to me that our member states have something to learn from what has happened in america in these terms. a pile of books or e content. let us be modern let us be equal.
they display a professionalism from which a lot of members of this parliament could learn.
i want to use my remaining time since this is as you say our last legislative day before the election first of all to thank you mr onesta for your forbearance and your good humour throughout this session and to extend my thanks to the staff to the ushers and to the interpreters.
this says that once the debate has concluded every member shall have the right to make an explanation of vote in not more than sixty seconds.
it really alarms me that we have arbitrarily set aside what our rules of procedure plainly state.
methods of slaughtering animals reflect differing cultural national and religious traditions and it shows an extraordinary presumption for us to trample into this sensitive area.
secondly i would ask the presidency to look again at the rules. the reason we are here is because the vote was not followed as is explicitly provided for in rule one hundred and sixty three by explanations of vote.
if this prolongation of the session beyond midnight has indeed led to this extraordinary extra cost first of all i hope that some of it has gone into their overtime.
what worries me is that a similar double standard is beginning to pertain within our institutions.
but when we protested in favour of a referendum fourteen of us were fined.
when we talk about the bad times which they lived under the thing that strikes me most is the way that they say that the really frightening thing living in the comecon states was not the absence of democracy nor the absence of property rights but the absence of a secure rule of law. if you were a troublesome critic of the regime you would not be put on trial.
you might think that it is not my place to say this.
goody goody christian democrats can commit almost open fraud and get away with it but when an austrian eurosceptic photographed people signing in for a meeting which was not there he was fined thousands of euros for effectively filling in a form incorrectly.
your life would just be made difficult your driving licence would mysteriously vanish in the post your children would not get their place in university you would be unable to find any but menial jobs.
i myself before i was elected was self employed and my wife played a vital role in that business.
mr president i will not even try to follow that but will just congratulate mr heaton harris as this evening or last night depending on how you look at it he achieved his one hundredth speech in this place and i know that you for one are grateful for that.
but it is not our choice to be here late it was a ruling by the presidency earlier today which was an unbelievably arbitrary ruling which has never happened before to put back the explanations of vote until after the debate instead of as we have in our rules of procedure after the vote has taken place.
so it is because the president in the chair at the time broke our own rules of procedure that we are here tonight and all of us that are trying to make our explanations of vote are doing what we can legitimately do to raise our voices in a parliament that does not really like to listen to minorities.
with the report the compromise proposal would have meant that it had to contact you and you could dispute this.
i wonder what parliament will do without its rules rapporteur the man who has almost single handedly behind the scenes contrived to eliminate the powers of smaller groups and the voice of minorities in this place. this report is maybe not so bad but because it is not so bad it is worthy of further examination because quite often the changes in the rules at face value are completely fair.
it is what they achieve in practice and how they are implemented by the presidency and by the bureau that really counts.
however in seeking to achieve these goals he is calling for the suppression of minority views and is almost single handedly destroying the principle of freedom of speech.
i know he does not care much for the principle of freedom of speech.
looking at this report any evil dictator from the last century would have been proud to have mr corbett by their side.
why on earth did it get such a huge majority if it was such a negative report?
this parliament is a parliament of minorities unlike some national parliaments that are dominated by a single party majority or by the executive.
this is a parliament where everybody is a minority and long may that diversity continue to apply.
you shouted him down.
he was not even able to make his speech because you did not want him to get his pro european message across.
i think at a time when we are trying to get the right balance between national security and civil liberties i think many of us are fearful that more and more governments are collecting more and more personal data about us.
almost every day in the british press we read stories about our big brother labour government collecting more and more personal data about individuals and even when they are proven innocent refusing to give back that data.
it is interesting that we also spoke about the fact that consumers need to be told if there is a breach of personal data on electronic communications networks.
in season three of the simpsons homer alone' the same issue is addressed. opening on a stressed marge it shows a sped up version of her daily routine.
but i just wonder if you could give us a figure for what those three gentlemen have cost us tonight by their recitations of the antics of mr homer simpson and other things that are totally irrelevant to our debates.
mr president we supported this report because it is the right way to go about tackling economic difficulties. we need to use this situation not to draw in on ourselves and say rescue me' but to develop new practices and technologies that will enable us to emerge stronger than yesterday.
mr president knowing me and knowing you i know that the focus of my group to invest in energy efficiency and support attempts to create smart cities represents a fantastic opportunity for all of us and presents a vision for the future.
combined with provisions on energy security reduction of emissions and job creation this report takes a holistic approach that will represent the best way for an economy to thrive in the future.
some meps and some political parties reject the idea of large scale investment at this time.
their short sightedness of vision takes my breath away and will only do harm in the long run. we can see clearly now what needs to be done so i urge the uk government to do its utmost to make the money available through this package.
i call upon all parties to rapidly come together right now over this and once and for all bridge this unfair digital divide.
fourthly to try and anticipate if that is possible where we need to move in the future.
to maintain the existing jobs that are there.
however thousands have lost their jobs because of global economic conditions and it is unfair that they are disqualified because they do not work for big multinationals but for small and medium sized businesses.
this way we could extend this funding to five hundred workers who have lost their jobs across a sector like farming food processing or it or in a specific area like tipperary waterford limerick cork or kerry.
in my constituencies those who have lost their jobs due to the closure of two companies waterford crystal and dell could qualify.
the very countries whose economies are hardest hit and which have the highest unemployment rates may be the countries that can least afford to pay the necessary contribution to help their workers and yet they are the countries that need it the most.
madam president i welcome the changes to the european globalisation adjustment fund. although reducing the number of redundancies needed to qualify for this fund from one zero to five hundred is an improvement the large number still discriminates against small countries and against workers who lose their jobs in smaller numbers.
a further obstacle for workers trying to access the globalisation fund is that it is only available to workers if their government is willing to apply for it and pay the national contribution.
that is very good and i call on the irish government to immediately apply for funding on their behalf.
i suggest that we could make this scheme fairer by either abandoning the numerical criteria of five hundred jobs or by looking at job loss by category or area not company.
it seems amazing to me that anyone would wish to deny people their basic rights at eu level just because of their age disability religion or belief or sexual orientation.
that is why i am pleased that my amendment welcoming a new comprehensive anti discrimination directive was also accepted by the committee. i regret however that the ppe de group has tabled an alternative resolution.
the other areas i sought to address were the blurring of economic migration with asylum seeking and of economic migration and asylum seeking with illegal immigration all distinct separate issues which must be dealt with differently.
it is important that the remit of this fund is widened to include workers who were made redundant through the economic downturn not just globalisation and that the number of redundancies needed would be five hundred instead
two thousand the problem is that it is not being properly implemented across all member states and we must be even more vigilant in making sure that we are monitoring it properly.
this would take away from their reliance on benefits. we also need to do more to integrate people with mental health problems and those who have alcohol or drug problems.
people are excluded from the labour market for many reasons but it seems to me absolutely incredible that it is still happening on the grounds of disability age religion or belief or sexual orientation despite the employment directive of.
finally a quick word on the european globalisation adjustment fund. i am glad we have had a speedy conclusion on this.
i believe this has been done mainly to remove any reference to a new directive on anti discrimination as i know most of them are opposed to it.
i therefore welcome the work of the rapporteurs to make the criteria for application more flexible in the light of the economic crisis.
the european globalisation adjustment fund is one such example.
five hundred i believe that these reforms will send a strong signal from the heart of europe to those unfortunate enough to be buffeted by the gale force winds of economic crisis that there is help available to them to help themselves retrain and upskill their way to future prosperity.
we therefore need innovative solutions to tackle the enormous economic problems we are faced with.
we need strong active labour market policies to quickly reintegrate workers laid off and we need strong and viable social protection systems to support those who find themselves unemployed through no fault of their own.
madam president we were originally promised a full blown employment summit this week but instead what we have is a half day troika.
we need to invest to create smart green jobs in the knowledge driven low carbon economy.
i very much hope the june summit will devote at least one full day to looking at how we respond to this challenge.
projections show that by two thousand and ten up to twenty seven million could be unemployed in the eu and i fear it could be even worse.
instead of pretending that the answer lies only at national level we need strong coherent european wide responses coordinating actions at the european national and regional levels.
we need to invest to give workers the skills to work in that new economy.
what a dreadful message that sends to european citizens who are joining unemployment queues at an alarming rate!
lay offs should be a last resort intelligent work sharing and reskilling should be used instead.
in the process of being amended at this moment with of course parliament's agreement to extend its scope to cover job losses resulting from the current crisis. this is exactly what we want to achieve and i think that we
in this week's summit.
have reason to believe that the outcome of the meeting in prague in the presence of the commission the presidency the upcoming presidencies and the social partners will be able to produce results in the form of recommendations and suggestions.
but over and above measures taken at national level the union itself has a role to play and it is in this context that full use should be made of the available financial instruments not least the european social fund and the european globalisation fund
the spring european council agreed that an employment summit should be held in order to allow for an exchange of experiences on the extent to which the recovery measures taken have succeeded in supporting employment and creating new jobs and more jobs. the summit will take place
the mandate given to the presidency was clear.
costs. at eu level the possible use of the european social fund for funding active inclusion measures was identified as was the possibility of enabling older workers to stay in employment by reducing their social security contributions.
efforts to maintain current jobs we must also create a favourable environment for investors and businesses to invest and create new
a flexicurity approach should contribute to making transitions pay not least by providing the necessary element of security. during this workshop in stockholm it was also stressed that the short term measures should not be allowed to prejudice the longer
profound changes are going to be needed to face stiff competition in a globalised economy and to safeguard long term employment in
focus with the social partners on the key areas of concern.
policy. the czech presidency supports the long term employment targets of the european union and has repeatedly emphasised the need to better motivate people to seek employment and to improve their employability.
in the short term skills increase both productivity and mobility.
these are all key aspects which will also be taken up as part of our agenda for this week's summit. this wide ranging report is complemented by that of ms lambert on how to include people who are frequently excluded from the labour
the case for upgrading skills which is endorsed by all stakeholders is not just about formal qualifications but also about promoting areas such as communication skills amongst young people.
goal. we cannot and will not seek to push job creation for
jobs. but we must offer the unemployed a chance to improve their skills and employability and to quickly find a new job which has been created somewhere
the participants will include the social troika at the level of the prime ministers and employment ministers of the current czech presidency and of the forthcoming swedish and spanish presidencies. the social partners will be represented by the presidents and general secretaries of business europe and the european trade
states. often people are in the wrong place or lack the right skills or a combination of
jobs. we cannot keep all existing jobs the crisis requires structural change and people will lose
our objective is to ensure that the summit is not just an opportunity to talk but that it produces concrete outcomes and recommendations which will benefit society as a whole.
the newly unemployed should not be allowed to become long term unemployed.
play. despite the impact of the crisis there are still a substantial number of vacancies in europe but there is a lack of coordination both within and between the member
action. as i said at the outset we are looking for a concrete outcome which will benefit society as a whole as well as european
in the longer term they pave the way to recovery increase competitiveness and are crucial for reducing exclusion and promoting greater social equality.
market. this week's summit will certainly need to take into account this important
however we must guard against the trend to protectionism which can only harm the union as a
else. let me also briefly touch upon some other topics which you will discuss here today during your social agenda
the issue of financing the acquisition of higher skills cannot be overlooked especially in a time of crisis.
a few. our objective even more so in the current difficult climate is to adopt an inclusive approach to employment
in order to help prepare for the summit three workshops have been organised in the countries of the three participating delegations in madrid in stockholm and in prague. these workshops have especially addressed the issues of upgrading skills increasing access to employment and how to maintain employment create jobs and promote mobility. these workshops have enabled us to
policy. it also recognises the importance of developing new skills of lifelong learning and of promoting university business cooperation.
at eu level there is a need to explore further the possibilities of using the european social
we all probably agree that it is better if people earn their living themselves and are free instead of being dependent on the social protection
term. early retirement schemes are a poor solution to providing more jobs for the young as they lower overall participation rates and are inevitably accompanied by higher social security
and anticipating labour market needs.
nets. a need for incentives to actively seek employment cannot be overlooked.
who have already lost their jobs as a result or the many more who risk losing their jobs over the months to come.
for the future in order to face the challenges of the global economy.
we need to examine issues such as maintaining employment levels through flexicurity and mobility creating a favourable environment for investments and job creation by businesses especially small and medium sized ones upgrading skills
in prague this thursday.
however in terms of the local authority dimension and the services dimension we talked about as well in connection with the report another area that the committee particularly wanted to stress was the subject of housing because again in times of economic downturn there is more and more pressure on people who maybe find themselves unable to afford the housing they are in. there is therefore
we are very concerned that this does not get brought into a very narrow dimension about what constitutes employment and preparedness for employment as we do not want to lose a lot of the imaginative and very productive and interesting schemes that have been helping people for so long find their way into employment from very difficult starting points.
it is and it needs to be because of the importance of this particular subject.
can i just add a couple of things that ideally we should not do.
we need to avoid two things in particular one is over rigid labour markets which paralyse opportunity promote unemployment and simply encourage the black economy.
we see this particularly at the moment in spain and we have to learn the lessons of the socialist failures there.
secondly we need to avoid exclusive concentration on protecting those still in work at the expense of those who seek it and those employers who seek to provide it. these are the groups who really need our help.
finally can i say that all of us clearly have different views on all sides of this house but one thing we have in common is that we all care about the issues which is why so many of us have been overrunning our speaking time.
one day stephen you will miss me and i shall certainly miss you but even when i am not here i shall be watching you!
join it by encouraging competition within the eu and learn how to compete on world markets. you want to renew the social agenda via the working time directive which has two aims.
how social is that?
secondly it was meant to result in more time with the family but what use is that if the take home wage is then insufficient?