kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
but then i look at the report and it suggests within that report that integration at european level is the solution.
no integration within those communities within those nations is what must be done to deal with this problem.
therefore the report to my mind completely misses the point.
for that reason i abstained.
the uk is a proud sovereign independent nation.
it will always remain that way i hope to god and i shall certainly never play any part in that being changed so i will always vote against measures like this and i hope to goodness that we always maintain our independence our sovereignty and our own individual place at the un.
but it only does so within the context of reducing the need for national measures reducing the ability of national governments to take their own decisions on matters such as this.
so i have a problem with it fundamentally for that reason.
this is something which would be better done at member state level than by the european union.
most people would understand it to mean free trade in services.
if you can sell a product in one member state it should be equally available in other member states.
what is contained here is an idea for a common regulatory structure where instead of simply enabling more free circulation of services we are laying down rules on consumer protection etc.
that must be evenly applied across all member states.
we thereby raise barriers to entry and we create a more regulated more restricted and tighter market than we would otherwise have.
this has been the fundamental flaw in the european market model right from the beginning instead of extending consumer choice we restrict it for the sake of vested interests and established producers.
you may support wealth redistribution and income redistribution;
but to my mind it is fundamentally and morally wrong to misuse the very serious issue of child poverty as a vehicle to push these leftwing policies.
i personally feel that there is far more that we should do as a nation within the united kingdom to tackle child poverty.
my problem with this report however was that it had so much content on issues that are so different to the issue of child poverty.
mr president it is a sign of the times that in a report focusing on the very important issue of inequality and child poverty we are yet again debating an issue for which national governments should have primary responsibility.
member states their authorities and their local representatives are best placed to identify where improvements can and must be made to ensure that each of their citizens has a fair and equal stake in society.
it does not need europe to dictate this.
that said there are a number of conclusions that can be drawn from the text of this report.
i hold a balanced view on how to drum out inequalities and improve quality of life for everyone.
we believe that on the one hand we in the united kingdom as a nation are blessed and well equipped to provide proportionate effective and accessible welfare benefits to those in our society who need them most; incentives for those who want to make the transition to the workplace;
and protection for the most vulnerable.
i will not support any european union proposal that undermines subverts or diminishes the uk's position as a key united nations member.
the european union may well have delusions of grandeur to supplant individual member states on this important decision making body but i will never ever support that european union objective.
the premise is that the best way to bring marginalised communities into the mainstream is through government action and government spending.
i would say the opposite actually where trade unites politics divide.
taking money from one place to give it to another stirs up conflicts and disputes and encourages recipients to start arranging their affairs consciously or subconsciously around receipt of the subsidy instead of through their own efforts.
actually the best way to integrate people is by allowing them to trade freely one with another through contract without intervention.
there is no better system than the market as milton friedman once pointed out for bringing together people who might not otherwise like each other.
the opposite is true that the free market is some kind of atomised individualistic system.
there is no other system ever devised by human intelligence that so encourages empathy that so encourages you to put yourself in the shoes of somebody else as one where you have to rely for your own welfare on the custom of the people around you.
we have this knowledge and we need to act on it in terms of investing in education in particular.
we will need these children in the future and so there is not only a moral obligation to invest in these children right now but it also makes sense from an economic and a societal point of view.
mr president at a time of uncertainty and concern encompassing europe in the aftermath of the callous terrorist attacks in paris it is hugely disappointing that this report on the role of the eu and the un chooses to focus on integration and a single representative mandate for europe rather than promote better national cooperation and coordination to the betterment of all our citizens.
instead of pursuing a seat for the eu on the un or giving sound bites about the importance of europe's apparatus within the un attention should turn to how europe can act as a liaison for national voices rather than purport to be the voice that trumps everything else. the dup has believed and always will believe that governments elected by the people of the united kingdom and the armed forces that bravely defend our nation are best placed to represent our interests on the world stage.
we need no other voice.
what we do need is better coordination common sense cooperation and as in the statement given by mr cameron and president hollande this week a better awareness and knowledge of how we can work together nationally to face down the terrorist threat that faces many countries across europe.
with a bad operating system we have to run it in safe mode and that is actually what the european central bank has been doing for the last few years.
when we speak about operating systems we know for sure that operating systems have bugs and some of the bugs in the european system are actually not due to the european central bank.
with a forthcoming deal between france and germany we will have a time of change in the eu.
one hundred that puts on the agenda a new question we need the redemption fund because without the redemption fund those countries will be dragged down by an unsustainable state debt.
i want the president of the ecb to appear before all parliaments of the nineteen member states of the eurozone;
president draghi has appeared before parliaments in france spain italy and germany. it is time that engagement took place at all levels across eurozone countries.
all member states must be treated fairly.
mr president the fact that today's debate on the ecb is happening on the same day that the governing council of the ecb is meeting does not say a lot for parliament's scheduling ability especially as i understand the ecb was not even invited to today's debate.
that is why we need a strong independent ecb but that independence must also deliver accountability and transparency and it is at that level that the ecb has much to do.
the role of the ecb within the new post crisis supervision and architecture is absolutely crucial crucial to prevent financial shocks in the future;
the crisis came from light touch supervision.
we cannot have an inside or outside track.
appearing before some parliaments and not others sends out the wrong impression. the euro is our currency.
it must treat all member states with respect and that is where the change needs to happen.
but of course with great power comes also great responsibility and democratic accountability.
the european central bank's political institutional and legal independence is fundamental to the fulfilment of its mandate and i think we should be very clear on this.
the ecb is directly accountable to the european parliament.
number one cooperation of the ecb and the european parliament can still be further developed through more far reaching communication between the two institutions and number two trust of the european citizens in the euro and in the ecb is of great concern to us.
the ecb has remained an indispensable actor during and after the euro crisis of the past years. during this time the ecb has acted within and on the verge of its mandate in order to enable price stability and to achieve its monetary policy objectives.
we've learned that mr draghi's predecessor in correspondence to the irish government stated in blackandwhite terms that the ecb threatened to cut emergency assistance to ireland if the government didn't request a bailout and then demanded a series of austerity measures and a fire sale of public assets against the opinion of even the imf.
its socalled independence is pure fiction. in reality we all know that mr draghi is completely reliant on the governing council and the eurogroup an organ that doesn't even exist in the treaties.
they are meaningless unless they are about democratically and dramatically reforming the ecb and a key part of that has to ensure that the ecb is accountable to national parliaments as well as to this house.
so now we hear that new initiatives are being dreamt up by the commission about introducing democratic oversight of the euro.
with the soaring debt crisis these responsibilities have been successfully honoured in full compliance with the task and the powers conferred by the treaties and the protocol in order to achieve the primary objective of maintaining price stability and to support the general economic policies of the union which of course include the integrity of the emu.
in order to achieve its objectives the ecb and national central banks can conduct open market and credit operations.
so it is not surprising that the omt programme has been declared by the court of justice fully compatible with eu law.
in the post crisis phase of low growth and low interest rates and with the additional negative impact of financial fragmentation on proper monetary policy transmission other unconventional policy tools have proven to be necessary to meet the inflation objective.
moreover economic data clearly show that the necessary sustained adjustment in the path of inflation has not yet materialised.
the ecb is and has to be fully independent.
as far as the ssm is concerned a stronger accountability framework is appropriate and we are in line with our interinstitutional agreement to fulfil our democratic role. it is evident that the current emu construction while it is not unsustainable is sub optimal and we need to complete it.
we cannot rely only on common monetary policy and national fiscal and economic policies.
instead of contesting the excellent job of the ecb it would be good if political groups and member states would contribute to providing the instruments and policies that we need in order to face our current challenges.
as we all know the treaty has bestowed independence upon the european central bank to conduct its monetary policy and to pursue its primary objective of maintaining price stability in the euro area as a whole.
international experience has indeed shown that monetary policy tends to be more effective in supporting a stable price level when it is shielded from short term political influence.
the presidency believes that the accountability of the european central bank for its monetary policy is commensurate with its independence and can be inferred from the treaty.
when it comes to the ecb's accountability for its banking supervision tasks this is specified in the regulation on the single supervisory mechanism. in this context the presidency sees no reason to question whether the ecb adheres to
the accountability obligations towards the eu legislators.
similarly the presidency does not have grounds to doubt that the ecb acts within its mandate.
against this background the council has not debated the subject of the powers and control of the european central bank and the issue does not feature on any upcoming council agendas.
however i am grateful for your invitation to attend and i look forward to hearing your views or more views during this debate.
on behalf of the commission i would like to limit myself to a very few remarks on this matter.
the principle of central bank independence is enshrined in the treaty itself.
it is put there to protect the ecb and the national central banks in pursuing their primary mandate of fulfilling their price stability objective and thus creating the foundation for a healthy and stable european economy.
i understand you have regularly made use of this possibility over the past year.
the commission has full trust in the ecb to exercise its mandates under the treaty.
we could see that when mario draghi the chairman of the ecb said that he would do whatever it takes' to save the euro.
well whatever it takes' cost millions of lives in poverty and unemployment in greece.
it was a transfer union from people in the north to try and save the south but asked for austerity programmes even more.
when we saw cyprus depositors lose their money and when we see the pension industry the many young people in this audience today should be concerned that their futures are at risk because pension industries and insurance industries will not be able to pay for them in the future.
he may have saved the union for the moment but he has left a time bomb of destruction under the european nations. it has not gone away and i pray do something now before it explodes and causes all of europe to have a problem once again.
what better example honourable members can we have of the eu's ability to cut off its nose to spite its face.
london clears derivatives and currencies from all over the world without being in political union with third countries.
manfred weber as leader of merkel's christian democrats here in strasbourg should think twice about what the eu might lose if it seeks to punish britain and the city of london.
instead of unleashing economic liberalism looking outwards and trading globally you continue to make the same mistakes.
instead of recognising its mistake that it is the eu state that is the problem not the nation state instead of looking at countries that are succeeding in the global economy like china india australia and brazil the eu persists in its error by issuing reports such as this from the socialist mep madame bers. instead of freeing people it states that the eu must take control of all the countries' economic financial and fiscal affairs.
tragically we see this played out in greece on a daily basis youth unemployment at fifty one and the highest rates of suicide in any western civilised nation.
the common factor of this misery is their membership of the european union its bureaucratic controls over regulation and lack of democratic accountability.
instead of looking to the future you look to the past with a command economy' ideology.
for the epp credible economic governance is first and foremost also implementing what you have agreed to do.
in our view our economic governance framework is not the cause of the economic difficulties that europe finds itself in it is an instrument for addressing imbalances within member states early on and making sure that we do not run up unsustainable debts.
we clearly need a more transparent democratic debate about the key points of our economic policy agenda and we need increased ownership and involvement by national parliaments.
for the longer term everyone can see that our monetary union is not perfect or complete but for steps to be taken to deepen our monetary union we first need to make sure that the current system actually works.
in our view the economic governance framework needs to watch over do i dare say it as a christian democrat?
the holy trinity of responsible public finances structural reforms to improve competitiveness and investments that can create growth and jobs investments that are attracted by stability and competitiveness not by running up debt.
this will help make our economy stronger making the eurozone as a whole stronger and more convergent.
then and only then can we take the next step that we should take in deepening emu.
i am glad that in the end we found some groups taking the responsibility overcoming their differences and actually coming up with a report that gives us the element for the future agenda in the short and in the long term.
if we look around in reality it is very easy to see that where you have allowed the deficits to increase you have undermined employment growth and investment. this is the true reality and still some here believe that you have to finance investments with the money you do not have instead of having budgets applied
using the money you do have.
i say this because the rules we possess have value and credibility if we follow them and if we follow them we will allow for the investments and the growth we need. that is why this report is good it means that we can follow the rules that we have agreed upon.
with this report you have responded to our invitation to the debate for which i thank you in particular as the report is the outcome of thorough and long discussions in this house.
this commission has taken measures to improve the transparency and effectiveness of the framework.
this concerns in particular the streamlining of the european semester and clarification of the flexibility in the stability and growth pact.
we all view the european semester as an important vehicle to coordinate economic policies and deliver reforms and we all agree that national ownership built on wide consultation of national stakeholders and supported by democratic oversight is key for implementation of reforms.
for this reason the new european semester places so much focus on prioritising consultations and debates.
we are going to have a debate on sgp later today so for the sake of brevity let me only emphasise that the flexibility communication was an important step towards better aligning fiscal and economic surveillance towards creating stronger incentives for reforms and towards ensuring consistency
between edp recommendations and the csrs.
the flexibility communication was one of the components of the economic policy strategy this commission presented in the annual growth survey ags. with their strengthened governance framework with the commission's ags priorities we are on the right path to overcome the legacy of the crisis.
i can see there is full agreement on this point among us.
the report you are adopting today will be a valuable contribution to further improvements in the governance framework.
and if you want to overcome this because this is undermining the political support for european integration we need to come up with clear proposals.
first of all yes we need a reform agenda but a reform agenda turned to the future building on a competitive turn to the future and supporting advanced social standards;
and yes we need to have a powerful investment initiative.
we now have efsi but we need to build a fiscal capacity supporting member states in what they can no longer do because they are committed to a common fiscal discipline.
more than that we need a proper economic coordination of our policies based on the fiscal stance and reducing the macroeconomic imbalances we have which are undermining the total growth we can achieve as a continent. finally we need to bring more democracy to all these decisions and to give a stronger role to the european
and guess what?
the first intervention i ever made in this house twenty years on in one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine was to draw attention to the fact that the british flag was flying upside down.
after thirty three years we should by now have learned which way up to hang the british flag.
the british flag was again flying upside down.
this morning i entered the parliament at about seven a. m.
it is necessary to point out that venezuela currently holds one of the forty seven rotating seats on the un human rights council and thus has a particular duty to uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights. the eu has to show a strong and clear opposition towards the regime in venezuela.
solution. fourth and last point the institutional prerogatives of the national assembly should be respected.
of introducing targeted measures as a tool to raise pressure.
to allow the participation of all political parties from the opposition.
i believe strongly that the oas with eu support must maintain the pressure on venezuela to prevent the emergence of another cuban dictatorship in latin america.
it should also be remarked that most of the country's opposition leaders have found themselves banned from politics jailed or under house arrest.
chronic food and medical shortages continue to persist a fact made all the more galling for a country with one of the world's largest proven oil reserves.
as is illustrated by jeremy corbyn the leader of the british labour party in my own member state there are many in this parliament that wish to turn a blind eye to the undermining of democracy in venezuela because of longheld sympathies for the hugo chavez model of socialism in latin america.
neutralising the legitimately elected national assembly by convening a bogus constituent assembly relying on the judgments of a pliant judiciary repressing protests by violent crackdowns that have killed at least one hundred and thirty people are all hallmarks of a wannabe dictator and in his case not a very clever one at that.
mr president we are talking about a country where the regime lost the popular support and turned the political fight into a fight against its people.
a rich country whose citizens are hungry a meal per day being a miracle where basic medicines do not exist and which rejects international assistance.
a country which contributed to the broadening of the meaning of a when its supreme court decided it did not like the legally elected parliament and announced it would legislate instead.
it had to step back due to international pressure but it opened the way for the president maduro to illegally call for the election of the constituent assembly whose task is to change the political landscape of the country.
the time has come for the eu to impose sanctions on those responsible.
the commission is therefore paying particular attention to ensuring that these particular principles specific needs goals efforts and the working style of cooperatives are taken into account and respected.
at the end of this action the commission expects to have a number of innovative solutions to the most urgent problems faced by cooperatives which can be supported by concrete european actions.
the european confederation of worker cooperatives participates in this expert group.
i also agree with the fact that these cooperative businesses are more resilient to the crisis itself.
if i look at it in detail i have to say that this report asks for too much namely for too much regulation although it has to be noted very positively that there are cooperatives which are active in the field of renewable energy. they should be strongly supported especially in view of the two thousand and twenty priorities defined in the renewable energy sources directive of.
i work with small enterprises all the time and i can tell her that small enterprises in the midlands supplying the great companies in the car industry just down the road from where she and i live are working overtime at the moment because of new opportunities that we have created by giving them a framework to go and attack a market numbering five hundred million people that big an area.
i wish other people would be more constructive and do real work for their local citizens instead of merely coming here to complain.
they are also a clear expression of the european parliament's commitment to deepen and strengthen the single market. i strongly believe that the three reports will be a useful complement to the broad public consultation organised by the commission which generated almost seven hundred and fifty responses.