kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
is very good to see that there is broad support across the plenary for the important work that the eed does and that the partnership we have with parliament is very important the work members do on the board and the way they take an active role in debating and spreading the work of the eed. i share the view expressed in the report that the endowment plays a very important role by supporting democracy in our neighbourhood and it has been a useful complement to the existing eu instruments.
this has greatly contributed to ensuring that civil society in our neighbourhood has followed and has been able to feed into that debate.
let me conclude by saying that it is important that the eed focuses on being complementary to the other instruments and tools to fund beneficiaries that are not eligible for other eu funding.
let me give you the good news that the commission has just adopted a decision to grant an additional eur twelve million for the next two years two.
madam president i want first of all to say thank you in three directions thanks to the original polish originators of the concept;
and by no means least thanks to our rapporteur mr grzyb who has cooperated with all of us to put forward a very adequate and positive report.
the flexible instrument that the eed provides to the european union is of particular importance in a situation where an increasing number of countries is making it even more difficult for civil society organisations and non governmental organisations to play the vital role that they should play in a democratic society.
mr president this is just a procedural issue after yesterday's explanation of votes. could the president explain what will happen after this debate with yesterday's explanation of votes and today's explanation of votes?
i think that is a fantasy and that is unrealistic.
the biggest test will be to see if the european union is willing and able to uphold its own values which we have laid down in the treaties when they are under pressure.
i actually think it is totally unrealistic to imagine we can tackle the challenges of the twenty first century with a model that was perfect for the nineteenth century but is totally unsuitable for the world of today.
the biggest threat to the european union is paralysis stagnation and a lack of courage.
i urge the tory government to be earnest about continued collaboration with the eu on defence and not to use security as a bargaining chip. on migration subsequent commission plans have failed due to the lack of political will of member states. i urge the council to ditch the dithering and engage in substantial reform of the common european asylum system.
a real political transition has to be a priority in geneva.
another serious form of repression took place in the weeks leading up to this weekend.
it is the commission and the council's responsibility to uphold these values when they are threatened inside the eu and this is not an internal matter.
the european institutions should immediately offer intermediation to help de escalate the situation and i call upon both sides of the conflict to accept such an offer and refrain from further steps that would escalate the situation.
these measures are counterproductive; they undermine freedom of speech and they set a dangerous precedent for a europe that wants to be a champion of digital rights.
it should be on the top of every agenda including the european council meeting.
this week the front pages show images of charges of spanish police in catalan schools.
mr president in my capacity as rapporteur for the reform of the dublin regulation i am convinced that this house is about to find a common position gathering broad support for backing bold ambitious and realistic reforms.
we need to find a solution based on the fair sharing of responsibilities aiming at taking back european control of migratory flows and.
for too long the council has tried to find unanimity. instead it should try to find solutions to fix the broken collapsed common european asylum system.
to the estonian presidency i would like to say stand firm.
fifteen i ask the president to put the vacant post to the vote tomorrow in order to stop embarrassing this parliament with indecisiveness and to give the epp group enough time to nominate their candidate.
i count on the strong support of the european parliament to convince the leaders of the member states that this should be done now with a sense of urgency so that we can show europeans before the next european elections that europe is capable of answering their call that we should do better at managing migration and that we should do more
we can only be successful in managing the challenge of globalisation and migration in that framework if we are better at protecting our external borders;
if we have agreements with the countries of transit;
i have taken careful note of all the comments and i would like to refer those who put the questions and made the comments to the statement i will make on behalf of the commission later today in this plenary.
now going back to the agenda of the european council it is clear to me that there is a strong convergence of views between the commission and the european parliament on such issues as the digital single market the social pillar and tackling the enormous challenge of migration.
there is not one silver bullet that will solve this challenge to europe and its societies.
but also if we understand that the dublin agreement was made at a time of different challenges and that now it needs to be adapted to the world of today and tomorrow.
it is my firm belief that although there are different emphases in different member states on parts of the package the package as a whole is the only way forward.
if we make agreements with countries of origin to offer prospects to people where they are instead of having people think they need to find a better future elsewhere;
well. you discussed the latest state of play of the brexit negotiations yesterday.
president tusk has put four items on the agenda migration digital europe defence and external relations.
leaders will want to push for a rapid agreement on that basis.
this is why we need to scale up our work with international partners. this is also why a strong partnership with countries of origin and transit is indispensable.
leaders are keeping a close eye on progress to maintain this momentum.
week. the european council under article fifty will be the occasion for the twenty seven leaders to review the state of the negotiations.
second on the agenda leaders will come back to the digital vision for europe following the successful digital summit in tallinn last friday. behind the concept of a digital europe lies more than the digital single market. the leaders will of course also want to take stock of the progress made on the concrete legislative proposals under the digital single market but there is much more.
concerning the future common european asylum system the european council is expected to welcome progress already achieved and to call for further convergence to reach an agreement which strikes the right balance between responsibility and solidarity and ensures resilience to future crises.
let me now turn to the third item on the agenda defence. leaders established a comprehensive work programme in december.
it has an impact on all aspects of our lives be it our citizens our businesses or our governments.
digital was also the focus of the summit last friday in tallinn in which you president tajani also participated.
the first item on the agenda is migration. recent developments are encouraging.
it is a little too early to pin down the other topics which will require leaders' attention.
the determined action of the eu as a whole together with the resolute bilateral efforts from member states is yielding results.
leaders will discuss recent developments on the international stage.
one of the topics for this debate will be relations with turkey.
illegal flows along the central mediterranean route have gone down significantly.
the last item on the agenda of the european council is external relations.
the question today is quite simply whether europe is gearing up to meet the challenges and opportunities of the digital revolution. this is a key challenge for the future of europe.
tackling the root causes is the only way to handle this challenge of irregular immigration in the long term.
two thousand and sixteen they moved the discussion further in june two thousand and seventeen with additional guidance focused on permanent structured cooperation but also on eu battlegroups and the industrial dimension of eu defence. more has been achieved in the last year than in a decade.
i will therefore leave this open. to conclude i would also like to mention that leaders will meet as twenty seven in october as
discussions are moving in the right direction.
leaders will want to consolidate these trends and root them in a long term vision.
in october they will review efforts to launch an inclusive and ambitious permanent structured cooperation.
after all the two main parties scored the worst results for years something that only months ago happened in the french elections too.
the council will take up for the nth time the problem of immigration perhaps the most misrepresented mystified lied about contaminated to the core by political correctness problem of recent decades.
it is dead.
of some kind of pluralism underway in the western part of the european union.
will this idea disappear?
otherwise we will be back in the situation where the big guys do what they want they can get away with anything and they order the others are not so strong to obey. that has to be over.
experience has taught us that in the european union bad ideas die hard.
as for me and on this point i believe i differ from most of you i believe it is a good thing and long overdue considering the stifling atmosphere of european politics the absence of any serious debate and the routine bullying of anyone who dares to voice a different opinion.
do. i do hope against hope.
but from the very beginning this was a bad idea. this was a stillborn idea and whatever progress we have achieved in controlling immigration and we have made some progress this scheme had nothing to do with it whatsoever.
president macron mentioned it in his speech too but president macron's speech was not really the exposition of a strategy as a lot of us expected it to be.
firstly because she won for the fourth time which is remarkable; secondly because she won after having made the worst political decision of her life opening the european borders without bothering to consult anyone.
to national governments as well as to local governments authorities and citizens.
we cannot only talk about it we need to ensure that we can be in the lead phasing out not only roaming charges but also roaming by pan european networks on mobile broadband enabling other facilities and a scale of economy that can make us the.
when are you going to trigger article?
we have a court and a legal system to implement them and that must be respected.
this should be a priority at the european summit otherwise the eu will continue to be bogged down by an ungovernable european monetary union shrinking national and european fiscal resources a fictional single market with competition distorted by tax dumping and the tax jungle prone to be made worse by brexit. the reality however is already alarming.
we will not work for common security and defence by letting corruption and organised crime including human trafficking and terrorism continue and by allowing the proceeds through our taxation and financial systems taking advantage of the digital era.
it is not the end of populism.
it is this house that has to take the lead on this reform and this debate on the european union.
it is a genuine pro european party still anchored in the legacy of hansdietrich genscher in favour of a european defence union in favour of european transnationalism and in favour of european capacities in investigation and intelligence.
my second wish for this european council is to further take up the work on the reform of the european union.
you need a new governance to have a sustainable eurozone and to apply these rules.
so a conclusion by the european council where they push forward the package as it has been introduced by the commission is what we need now because we can continue to complain about dublin which is not a european system of asylum we can continue to complain about the lack of legal migration
well the one is not in contradiction with the other.
eighteen months before the european elections.
that cannot be the case.
it is not the end of nationalism.
ways in europe and we can continue to complain about the bad management of our outside borders but the proposals are there.
but i can tell you one thing.
i know the fdp.
so that is my first wish.
so my plea to you and i know that you are in favour and also to the plenary is let's organise here every session this debate on the future of the european union.
ms bers to show solidarity with vice president wieland i have never found him discourteous but i take note of your comment. i will perhaps bring it to the bureau and we could look at this issue because i also get criticism when i am very strict with time.
my one observation is that yesterday i did not use the gavel during one debate as an experiment and it actually worked very well.
you guys have some nerve! you plan to lecture others on human rights while you sit on your hands while witnessing a vicious assault on peaceful eu citizens in catalonia because they had the audacity to vote.
the truth is that european leaders have disgracefully ignored thuggish human rights abuses that are happening within the eu.
while this inaction on catalonia continues you have lost the right to lecture others.
let's be clear nobody not a non elected king not a non elected commission not even a minority government in madrid has the right to declare illegal the democratic exercise on self determination by a people.
we are told that the eu stands for peace democracy and human rights.
where were those values on sunday?
if you dare to use the council meeting to talk about peace or democracy without standing clearly for those values in catalonia then the people of europe the people of the world will rightly consider you to be nothing more than a shower of utter hypocrites.
there was overwhelming agreement and a common understanding at the tallinn digital summit last week that all these aspects must be tackled by the european leaders.
this means something but let me be clear about the real meaning of delivery.
if we want to deliver on the migration crisis once and for all we need to prepare a much stronger partnership for african development and we need to create a real european asylum agency.
if you want to deliver better social equality in europe in this digital age we need to have a strong pillar to ensure that everybody in employment can count on a decent labour contract and access to social protection.
if you want to close these divergences which we still have in europe you need to have a community budget and a eurozone budget working for convergence.
and finally if you come with the argument that we don't have the money for this i'm sorry.
we need to start delivering and the next european council should be a step for this.
until now the approach has been to wait see and hope that things will improve in the country whilst the situation continues to deteriorate.
but it is also important that we stand in solidarity with the turkish population in these difficult times.
we expect eu leaders at the summit to make the same distinction in their approach.
strict when it comes to our own values and in reaction to clear breaches of fundamental rights while sending a strong message to the citizens of turkey that we are willing to continue supporting democrats and civil society in their country.
that is why the commission cannot accept them.
the commission believes that it is most appropriate to leave the creation of any new forum to the joint decision of the european parliament and national parliaments.
throughout the report parliament calls for a series of principles and introduces criteria and detailed procedure requirements applicable to data processing activities with the aim of safeguarding fundamental rights.
close cooperation between the bodies is enshrined in olaf's recent legal basis therefore we do not support the amendments.
this is currently the prerogative of the edps and therefore we do not support this amendment either.
parliamentary scrutiny is of course of the utmost importance to me as well. it is important to recall that article nine of protocol one to the treaty states that the european parliament and national parliaments together should determine the organisation and promotion of effective and regular interparliamentary cooperation within the union.
eight it is also important that eu legislation takes account of the better regulation principles in order to avoid duplicating provisions set out elsewhere and imposing procedures which would be too cumbersome for practical cooperation.
concerning access to europol information for olaf parliament proposes to remove from europol's tasks the duty to provide jha agencies and olaf with relevant criminal information and to eliminate the possibility for olaf to have access to europol data.
the commission cannot support this part of the amendments because we think that member states should feel responsible for supplying europol in a timely manner with fresh relevant data to allow the agency to build an accurate picture of criminal threats.
some proposed changes here would reduce the number of commission representatives on the management board from two to one.
we have had excellent cooperation and i know how hard he worked to get the shadows and all the other co rapporteurs on board on this very difficult file.
i think we share those objectives.
it is already clear that this report will be further negotiated in a second reading in the next parliamentary mandate but it is important to have this first reading today.
turning to government arrangements it is proposed to delete the executive board from among the agency's management structures.
these are basic features of the consensus reached among us parliament the council and the commission in the common approach to decentralised agencies.
with these two principles in mind the commission can take on board a number of the suggestions parliament has made to strengthen the text in this area.
this again alters the balance of responsibilities agreed under the common approach so we do not support it.
we are also in agreement when it comes to the need to enhance europol's legitimacy in the eyes of european citizens by strengthening parliamentary oversight and incorporating robust data protection safeguards.
finally the procedure for appointing the executive director is altered by reducing the commission's role in a pre selection committee and by involving the council and the joint scrutiny group in the selection.
regarding europol's right to ask member states to initiate a criminal investigation and member states' corresponding obligations there are some proposed amendments here that seek to downgrade this right and obligation.
this amendment deletes the reference to priority crime areas and the obligation to send europol a copy of bilateral or multilateral exchanges between member states.
i know it is a work in progress and it was interesting to hear the commission outline the areas of disagreement but also agreement.
i was quite fascinated by the comments of some colleagues who described this as an effort to create a new police state. nothing could be further from the truth.
what we are trying to do here is get police forces working together so that we protect all the citizens of the european union and i am looking around to try and catch the eye of those who made those comments and yet again they are missing from the chamber.
so let us be very clear this is about a positive approach to policing an attack on organised crime to allow the police forces of individual member states to work more effectively.
so i hope that in the next round of parliament we will complete this work and that those involved now will be back to do that job.
as you know the commission expressed its view on the merger.
we think that would have been a rationalisation an operational improvement.
i am sorry we did not manage to convince either parliament or the council on this.
as a second option we would also favour co location for cepol and europol in the hague because that would mean some savings shared services but still maintaining the two agencies.
i am sure we can come back to this.
mr president on the one hand it is good for once to be able to agree with the report in that it opposes the merging of the european police college and europol. on the other hand uk independence party meps cannot vote for it because it calls for yet more powers to be given to europol.
this report wants to increase europols powers to participate in the investigative and judicial proceedings of member states.
europol is of course the european union's emerging cross border police force the united states of europe's own fbi but there is no need for it or to enlarge its powers.
bilateral agreements between nation states are a far cheaper and more effective way of achieving the desired results and by these means nations can retain democratic control and accountability over their own police forces.
existing mechanisms and interpol already exist to provide cooperation between the police forces of nation states.
few people in britain realise that europol officers have immunity for anything that they do or say in the course of their duties.
such immunity is a concept unknown under english law where it is a centuries old principle that no one is above the law.
we need genuine cooperation between nation states police and judicial authorities.
all the polls indicate that the people of europe want change. next may they will have a chance to make a stand.
we have tried the old interventionist centralising socialist type approach.
people are not allowed to be trusted to decide their own working hours.
the essential flaw of the eu is that it simply does not trust the capacity of people and markets to overcome problems.
to be proudly german or french or polish is not necessarily anti european.
they represent the vested interests of the past the people of the european district in brussels rather than the people of europe.
next year's elections will offer us an opportunity not to advance european political parties and their candidates beloved of many of us although nobody in the real world has heard of them but to give people a true choice not a choice about who you want steering the tanker but actually about whether you want the tanker to go in a different direction.
the real anti europeans are those whose idea of change in the eu only means moving further in the old failed direction.
what is he going to do?
commissioner rehn could be delivering the speech next year although i suspect that if he did we would all have a bit of a late lunch.
next year the commission will have a fresh leader although personally i am not optimistic that he or she will come up with any fresh ideas.
commissioner reding who i think has moved to the front bench now is clearly running as the federalist candidate producing more eye catching babble every day that goes past.
your chance to deliver that new direction has passed.
the problem of course is that none of these potential candidates on show today represents any new ideas.
perhaps we could rediscover the principle of freedom that many in europe fashioned for the world of opening our markets of embracing enterprise of eliminating the many vested interests in the union.
the real nationalists are those who force us to accept a european nation which as reality shows nobody in europe actually wants.
if somebody falls off a ladder somewhere in europe we need a new directive to solve it.