kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
many children elderly people and those suffering or recovering from serious illness require special food products to survive.
i am confident that the legislation as it stands will provide vulnerable consumers with protection by ensuring that the limited range of food products is labelled in a clear and appropriate way.
sometimes we react to developments which have already taken place.
as you know the regulation imposes on the commission the obligation to draft reports one on growing up milks and the other on sports.
i would like to inform this chamber that the commission has already started to draft the first delegated act on gluten free foods so we are not wasting any time on this matter.
vote today will confirm the agreement on this file so that we can start this work and thus respect the deadlines which have been set by the co legislators.
there is a clear need for legislation on foodstuffs intended for specific population groups to be recast while at the same time maintaining a strong and clear legal framework for the very vulnerable groups.
i would also like to make the point that the rapporteur has made significant improvements to the commission approach by proposing for example that food intended for use in energy restricted diets should continue to be subject to specific legislation. i am very happy that we have maintained the definitions of infant formula baby food food for specific medical purposes etc.
this is an essential element of the basic legislation so i would like to say that i am delighted that the european parliament will keep its prerogative for approval of substances which are included in the types of food in this legislation.
on the issue of other special foods lactose will be put under the food information to consumers regulation and sports food will be assessed by efsa if special provisions are needed.
this will guarantee a high quality of protection for our citizens.
madam president commissioner. this food legislation known in the trade as parnuts is fortunately not as dangerous as it sounds.
a year ago ukip voted to repeal the amendment of sports nutrition supplements from the scope of this regulation and for once we were successful.
a bit less power for the european commission and all its unnecessary quangos is the way that we see it.
as we remember from the post election protests in december last year lukashenko is intolerant of dissent and seems to take pleasure in using violence and intimidation against pro democracy activists.
at last week's constitutive session of the euronest parliamentary assembly representatives from belarus were rightly missing. belarus is the missing piece of europe's democratic jigsaw puzzle and i long for the day when it rejoins the european family.
as this resolution today illustrates in graphic detail lukashenko has intensified his campaign for persecution and harassment against those who dare challenge his iron fisted rule.
i would like to stress that the trials were held behind closed doors. detainees were refused the opportunity to call their witnesses and to meet in proper conditions and on a regular basis with their legal representatives.
the lawyers of the accused received several warnings from the ministry of justice and some of them have been disbarred.
violations of human rights.
two thousand and six please summarise it.
we are moving ahead on the issue of visa facilitation.
in addition we are considering options for further possible measures including on the economic side.
we have also expressed our grave concern at reports of torture and other forms of ill treatment intimidation and court irregularities. let me also remind you that in january the council adopted restrictive measures comprising a travel ban and an asset freeze. the list now comprises one hundred and seventy five individuals
in terms of assistance the commission is quadrupling its assistance to the belarusian population and civil society.
we have in clear words condemned the deteriorating situation and have repeatedly called upon belarus to end the ongoing crackdown on the political opposition and civil society release all political prisoners and discontinue the politically motivated trials.
two thousand and ten the crackdown is now further intensifying with a number of ongoing trials against ex presidential candidates and most of the remaining detained activists.
at the same time it is clear that any deepening of our bilateral relations will depend on belarus proving its willingness to respect the principles of democracy the rule of law and human rights.
when i was staying in the hotel that i often stay in the occupancy was five per cent and that was before the events that took place.
i should pay tribute to him as well because he has travelled with me to egypt and keeps in touch with many of the civil society groups on the ground.
parliament and the presidential elections and to do so in a way that rejects violence and terrorism.
i thank him very much for his support. the most important thing about this debate has been the clear support that everyone who has spoken has shown for the people of egypt and the future of this great nation.
for my part i remain absolutely determined to help this great nation in any way that i can and to work with the people who have come to see us on a regular basis since the summer and with those in egypt not to interfere or to intervene but to show that if they build on the political future in an inclusive way with the principles that we hold
we have tried to support and help where we can in the right way because as a number of colleagues have said we have huge experience in this house and beyond from all member states of trying to build democracies however mature we think those democracies really are.
so do the people who have supported the muslim brotherhood and the people who are part of the freedom and justice party.
it did not have the constitution or the parliament working in the way that we would recognise or any of the means to make the changes.
then everyone is included everyone has a stake and the country really can achieve what those first demonstrators went to tahrir square for in january two years ago.
we have not released the money that we talked about through the task force but we want to help and support the growth of the economy in egypt because it is going to be a vital part of future stability.
tourism has completely collapsed and needs to regrow.
they are getting a lot of support from their neighbours to ensure that they do not have such a big hole in the accounts that it becomes impossible but it is the economic recovery the growth of small businesses and all the things that we are busy doing here in the european union that is going to make a big difference.
i talked about what i saw as missed opportunities over the last years when political solutions could have been found and when perhaps the way that the evolution of the fledging democracy happened could have been better handled.
one of the things that struck me in the visits that i made before the summer was that the fledgling democracy did not have the mechanisms for change.
we have many times and will continue to do so talked about the need to have an inclusive team building that constitution making sure that there is the possibility of a country that can go forward in an inclusive way beginning with a constitution for all people that respects the rights of everyone pays attention to the challenges which for example the coptic christians are currently facing and recognises that they too need to feel that this constitution is for them.
we have seen reports in recent days of attempted assassinations which is terrible.
it was pretty obvious too when you saw thirty million people beginning to gather that change was coming in one form or another.
more than anything parliament here has offered its support and i think any messages you can send in support of a democratic future will be well received.
egypt has been in a spiral of violence and human rights breaches since the crackdown on demonstrations followed by the military coup.
we condemn any attack on those who protest peacefully risking their lives to demand more jobs or democracy. we need to break the vicious circle of economic difficulty and political instability.
on the one hand an inclusive constitutional process should be a priority.
the same mistakes should not be repeated.
on the other hand economic recovery is vital.
i am particularly concerned about increased extremists attacks against christian communities.
copts the most ancient part of the population need to be guaranteed their rightful place and role in a future multi religious egypt. this should become our common commitment. national reconciliation is the only way out of the crisis but this should involve all non extremist actors. the new constitution
victories could have been only partial; ups and downs were inevitable. consequently i was asking what if the armed forces could not deliver what the ordinary egyptians wanted when they got into the streets?
the west was again confronted with a hard choice either to protest strongly against the high cost of violence or to tacitly recognise what the majority of egyptians wanted and egypt's importance in maintaining peace in the middle east.
apparently the latter prevailed and thanks to the developments in syria egypt seems placed somehow on the back burner. however given the importance of egypt the eu should continue to help the egyptian people to stabilise their country and finally start anew.
the uk will leave the eu be good neighbours and watch you in your sea of regulations from across the english channel watching the eu die a death by a thousand self inflicted truck directives.
mr president another package of reports to keep eu committees busy more pollution into a sea of unnecessary regulations.
it is clear that this package and in particular the issue of lifting cabotage restrictions has divided opinion along national lines but i think what we have before us now is an agreement that we can support. i had serious concerns about full cabotage delivered in one move without any levelling up of social costs or indeed running costs for individual hauliers.
such a move i believe would have had a detrimental effect on the road haulage business not only in my own country but in other member states as well. therefore the compromise introducing temporary cabotage is not only sensible it is a solution that will be workable allowing three domestic journeys after one international one.
temporary cabotage also allows us to end the environmental nonsense of hgvs travelling hundreds of kilometres empty without distorting domestic markets. finally i am also happy to support the new enforcement measures that have been introduced via the icu report.
i am extremely pleased to see how close we are to a final agreement.
we need to get these authorities established ensure that they have high quality staff and if necessary add to powers later.
madam president i would like to start by thanking the rapporteurs very seriously for their enormously hard work and the commissioner the members of the parliament and the presidency who were still patiently negotiating at nearly midnight last night.
we all agree that the esrb and the isas will allow for a completely new and necessary approach to the management of financial risk across europe;
the package is five different directives which themselves amend or affect eleven more and there are significant changes to the ways national regulators central banks and ministers will interact.
it remains the most comprehensive piece of sectoral financial services legislation voted on in this parliament.
for pensions the question is up in the air.
a large part of solvency ii is devoted to overcoming the challenges facing supervisors and supervisory colleges in managing the risks and complexities associated with large cross border insurers. as such solvency ii is intimately linked with the proposals for eiopa.
they are not necessarily the headline grabbing areas but i believe we can rely upon something which will work and work just as well across the board as if it were any of the other sectors.
the sectoral legislation principally in this respect solvency ii and iorp will define what specific powers eiopa will have.
whilst i accept mr tremosa's point about central banks it is also important that we have this balance in the micro supervisory field as well.
it has also meant that in the econ debate i was unable to support some aspects of the more ambitious plans of some of my fellow supervision rapporteurs in the areas they have described that i could initially support such as day to day supervision of financial institutions or resolution funds up by january. two thousand and eleven this may or may not be appropriate for banks or capital markets but for insurance the debate is really open.
the concerns i have raised are now recognised by many as legitimate and all parties no longer believe that there is a dispute. direct supervision and resolution fund projects are for those for the coming years and the rapporteurs are i believe converged in their belief on this point.
i also believe that having of the three isas one of the revolving chairs as a vice president of the esrb is quite essential also for a plurality of the views which have to be heard from the coalface.
this is a real gain for parliament.
we have to take into account that eiopa will be reflecting two connected but different sectors so we must have the stakeholder groups involved too reflecting both those sectors. as i have stated the isas come from sectoral legislation and for insurance i believe that solvency ii and eiopa are an excellent marriage.
that is why i am so pleased about the joint committee which we have been able to reveal and to push forward where we can see that this balance will be held and that my joint rapporteurs have accepted this point as have i believe also the council and the commission.
eiopa in my opinion provides the oil that will allow solvency ii to operate more effectively.
one of my key objectives was to ensure that there was a counterbalance from the micro cross sectoral level to the one which is operated by central bankers in the esrb.
i knew that it was the context in which we could make solvency ii really work.
insurance is not banking and i am glad that my fellow rapporteurs have accepted that.
thus the rapporteurs have worked on the basis that what goes into one isa at this stage must be read across to the other two and it is because of my concerns at the outset that some of the ambitions behind this were perhaps not as directly appropriate for insurance and pensions that we have if you like the nuances which we can read into the eiopa. they will not be different but they will be balanced.
the objective of the commission is that the three sectoral isas should in fact be the same in terms of composition.
a lot will now depend upon the commission's report on the iorp and i hope to work closely on this but i believe that there is a deal here for us to make a deal which we will make in the forthcoming days perhaps weeks which will benefit greatly eiopa and the role parliament has played in defining its powers which i believe will serve consumers and of course the authorities around europe well.
the cross border crisis management system based on twenty eight regime concepts should be designed in a way that would eliminate the interdependence between banks and national budgets.
after all if we had a single banking market in europe we would not have to talk about cross border crisis management.
last but not least let me emphasise that all the elements of the european financial stability framework as well as the resolution regime for cross border institutions should be adopted urgently to reduce uncertainty and fragilities in the banking sector.
an eu wide system of financial supervision is being established to deal with the prevention of such situations while an integrated european framework for cross border crisis management will hopefully compliment the supervisory architecture as soon as possible. the last two years have proven that relying on national approaches to cope with crises is clearly a sub optimal solution.
it should also contribute to the emergence of a single banking market of the union.
i know that state nationalism is now rising in the eu and i know that there is no consensus for such sweeping reform but this is our choice jumping to a political and economic union or reverting to our insolvent nations.
mr osborne will hand the bank of england full control for monitoring systemic risk in the economy as well as oversight of individual banks.
in my opinion the european central bank has gained credibility and has become an institution of worldwide renown in this financial crisis.
finally i completely agree with mr osborne when he argues that nowadays only independent central banks have the broad macro economic understanding the authority and the knowledge required to make the kind of macro prudential judgments that are required.
three weeks ago it was my pleasure to read in the financial times that mr george osborne the uk conservative finance minister has decided the biggest overhaul of city regulation since.
in my opinion the european central bank is the only european independent institution that will have the moral and material authority to play an important role in future european supervision of both financial markets and financial institutions.
the same goes for the many discussions revolving around the involvement of the council and parliament in the follow up to the recommendations of the esrb.
crisis examples such as fortis bank exposed grounds for such suspicion and the need for a european supervisory architecture and discipline.
now planning is everything and contingency plans living wills and resolution mechanisms will reveal a lot about the present as well as protecting the future.
this is challenging but it is a serious omission from the whole concept of the single market.
the ferreira report covers many of these issues and i thank her for including my ideas on averting moral hazard from crisis funds and a twenty eighth regime for insolvency of cross border banks.
madam president despite good things in solvency ii which we have already heard about we shelved the group support regime due to concerns over its practicality in periods of economic stress its interplay with national insolvency laws and mistrust of other countries' supervisors.
alongside the issues of binding mediation it carries us towards what sharon bowles was referring to in terms of the issue of group support something which was left out of solvency ii.
indeed in terms of supervision on a scale of things i think we can be rightly proud that what we have is still a very ambitious project something that i believe will lead to the right actions at european level in the future.
on an international level we should be proud too.
we have gone through full time we are now in extra time.
they are also concentrating more on substance than on a turf war. the new legislation which is before the us congress envisages a consumer bureau with substantive powers to give rulings including a total ban on specific financial products.
standardised derivatives will be traded on established exchanges and forced through clearing houses.
hedge funds and private equity firms will have to register with the scc over and above a certain very large capital limit. we are discussing how to distribute the powers between european institutions and national institutions. well the solution is quite easy. the macro prudential institutions like the ecsrb should be closely linked with the european central bank a european institution
we cannot simply allow things to carry on in this dysfunctional and incoherent manner.
equally the new european framework must radically improve both the quality and coherence of regulatory supervision.
it needs an independent structure truly independent in a regulatory sense but there is a balance to be struck.
the current proposals would allow the eu to overrule national regulators and the danger is that technical standards may be used to actually make and dictate policy choices at an eu level.
our member states are right to resist such a move.
commissioner rehn commissioner barnier the uk remains committed to delivery but proper recognition of subsidiarity principles is required.
the european central bank has been enormously successful in controlling inflation in the european union other than asset inflation.
the problem is that we ignore asset inflation.
we have to find under these new institutions a way of bringing asset inflation into the calculations and of having an early warning system that deals with assets particularly house price inflation because this is at the centre of the problem in some of our countries and in my country in particular.
i think few would argue that this is something we really need to stamp out of society.
i think when things get lost in translation like that the idea of this one size fits all legislation across twenty eight different legal systems starts to fall apart a little bit.
i think people would say it is perfectly legitimate for that plumber to choose how he goes about doing things.
we have reached common grounds on these issues in that committee.
in this context i would like to mention that at this moment we see no compelling need to review the existing legislation.
for efrag the appointment of the president of the board in the coming weeks will be the last step of the reform.
i believe it might indeed have provided a fig leaf to the trade commissioner if he was so inclined to do a poor deal for agriculture but the fund itself would have been totally inadequate to respond to the needs of agriculture.
it does not under any circumstances fund the responsibilities of member states or companies.
ms cornelissen talked about success stories with older workers and how the fund improved the prospects of workers with low educational attainment.
but it was worth doing because it is a solidarity instrument.
mr clark as well as mr kelly spoke about the dell workers and indeed it is of interest to know that i consulted with the dell workers on a number of occasions to try to improve the effectiveness of the functioning of this fund.
he said we ensured the survival of the fund but only just.
i look forward very much to the new proposal on good anticipation and management of change.
the fund only assists workers.
i agree with ms bauer i would have liked to see differentiated co financing and ms zuber mentioned this point as well.
mr mann spoke of the need to ensure that people have the appropriate skills and we have written into the legislation that the package of services should anticipate future labour market shortages and required skills.
first of all in regard to agriculture farmers as individuals can apply but as a response to trade deals that disadvantage farmers this would be totally inadequate.
last but not least under special conditions young unemployed can also be supported to find their place in the labour market.
convincing some of the reluctant member states has not been easy and i wish to express the commission's deep appreciation for the constant support of the european parliament throughout the negotiation process.
the new design of the egf i believe will serve the purpose of providing relief and support to the affected workers. we now have a fund which has a wider scope it can be called upon in cases of both globalisation and the crisis.
the commission in its report tells us that the reintegration rate of european globalisation fund participants is.
we also know that the personalised tailor made packages that target workers are effective in that they reach the harder to reach workers;
i also want to thank our commissioner commissioner andor and the commission for their ongoing support along with that of the president of the commission mr barroso and mr van rompuy. i want to thank the lithuanian presidency.
i also want to thank the irish presidency for their efforts to unblock the blocking minority in council and they were ultimately successful.
it is now just over a billion.
i sincerely hope the amount we have will be sufficient.