kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
i know you asked this morning commissioner for your package to be given time and for us to give you time but the difficulty is that many of the farmers who we are dealing with on a daily and weekly basis simply do not have the luxury of time.
i am pleased to confirm that just yesterday the commission adopted three draft regulations.
the increase in dairy exports reflected a significant improvement in import demand once again from china.
i have just returned from colombia and mexico and tomorrow i leave for kazakhstan china and japan.
we also made clear that we are ready to examine any concrete proposal that russian may submit to the european union.
i want to reassure the house that the commission has and is continuing to make every effort to lift the protectionist ban that has been imposed by russia on pig products from the european union.
yesterday vice president katainen told the council of the opportunities offered by the european fund for strategic investments in agriculture.
even though so far the russian reaction has not been positive the dialogue remains open.
i would ask for your support for the measures proposed and i believe that we should give them a chance to succeed and like all of you i look forward to a better market in the future. finally regarding the question on the food chain that was put by mr siekierski i expect proposals from the agri task force to be submitted to me in september this year.
in order to provide members with the most up to date information on the implementation of that package i have written to the chair of agri with full details of the follow up to the council and i hope that the information can be made widely available because i know i have limited time here.
an audit is scheduled in may for poland after which i hope to see opportunities for fresh pigmeat products.
this morning i want to focus briefly on a number of the main areas that featured in the march package.
before passing judgement on the effectiveness of either the september package or the proposals i made last month i would urge you to give those measures the opportunity to work.
the implementing regulation allowing for agreements between recognised producer organisations their associations and recognised inter branch organisations to plan milk production for a temporary period of six months and the delegated regulation extending the measure to cooperatives and other forms of milk producer organisations were also both adopted by the commission yesterday.
member states have been encouraged to look into the possibilities of setting up dedicated platforms for efsi financing. it is essential that full use is made of the opportunities on offer.
i also want to reassure you that the commission is committed to running a tender responsibly and in a way that helps the market and does not depress prices. in relation to the introduction of the voluntary supply management in the dairy sector the commission is activating the provisions of article two hundred and twenty two of the cmo regulation.
over recent months and in parallel with the wto procedure the commission has made numerous efforts to convince russia to engage in meaningful technical negotiations for an agreed solution at eu level.
in order to encourage use of this tool as an effective contributor to this crisis i met two weeks ago with copa cogeca and the european dairy association. i also want to draw the attention of the house in respect of what mr siekierski said to the fact that i have doubled state aid ceilings on a temporary basis to allow for greater flexibility for member states in supporting their farmers.
the commission is prioritising its engagement with the eib with a view to developing the appropriate financial instruments to assist farmers and processors in investing in their enterprises in order to improve the competitiveness of those enterprises or in investing in making any necessary structural adjustments.
i have prioritised a number of areas and countries to visit to identify and build on new market opportunities.
it is just a few weeks since the commission proposed another set of measures to provide much needed support for european farmers.
following my visit to mexico we have received some very encouraging news in relation to pigmeat opportunities the market is opening for fresh pigmeat and processed hams from spain we expect the approval for fresh pigmeat from france very shortly and there are good prospects for fresh pigmeat from germany romania and italy.
consumers and we are all consumers in this chamber are benefiting to some extent from the crisis in the agricultural sector with cheaper food but perhaps others along the supply chain are benefiting much more.
i hope it is going to do something concrete and effective.
so on question three could the commissioner say a bit more about what the commission is going to do on unfair trading practices in the food supply chain?
can i also commissioner say that implementing the measures that you have brought forward is important but measuring their impact is even more important?
particularly what is happening in each member state because of our differences. but there is one clear message and i am not sure whether many farmers are listening to the debate here in the chamber hands up if you are but that is that the voice of farmers is i think not being heard loud and clear because there are fewer of them.
my last point relates to costs.
i also have to say that there are no easy solutions to the present problem we have.
many studies have shown that agriculture will be the main loser in this trade agreement despite some of the claims about dairy exports.
where did that money come from? out of the farmers' pockets.
finally while people are paying back bank debts they cannot afford to pay decent money for food.
take on the cartels and the primary processing sector.
reject the mercosur deal. the trade deal with the south american countries will completely undermine the viability of european agriculture.
examine the farmer input sectors and defend our interests in ttip.
we are talking about a crisis in agriculture and how there is no money for farmers but there is still eur thirty eight million for larry goodman to buy himself a new private jet.
they say that sitting in front of a log fire in your home during the winter is probably a carcinogenic activity;
well that includes the consumption of alcohol the ingestion of the female contraceptive pill and the consumption of processed meats.
the reason is that the world health organisation has said that it is probably carcinogenic.
now what is all this really about?
why are we even considering banning this very useful material?
we are voting on this tomorrow and it would be disastrous.
they say that working night shifts is probably a carcinogenic activity;
these are deliberately ingested whereas glyphosate is just something that you may happen to be exposed to. if we do go ahead with this ban what are the alternatives?
mr president the commissioner will be relieved to hear that most of my remarks are not going to be addressed to him directly because he is the wrong commissioner unfortunately for this particular crisis in agriculture that is about to be visited on my industry by the european parliament.
we have eur thirty million being invested in humanitarian assistance and this is from products in the european union as well.
where farmers have undertaken at least to freeze their production during a certain period at a level that has been attained in comparison to a reference period to be determined by the commission the aid could be granted in the form of direct grants.
should it be
i would draw your attention to the flexibility that we are giving in respect of state aids for the first time. measures under state aid rules which have been doubled from eur seven five hundred to fifteen zero per farmer per annum can be used for the purpose of the promotion of agricultural products or the closure of production capacity if they are notified and approved in the agricultural state aid guidelines.
so we are not renationalising agriculture.
supply. so i do not accept it when you say that that i am doing nothing about bringing about a balance in the marketplace.
as i have said already i allocated eur four hundred and twenty million in a targeted aid package last september and only eur one hundred and sixty two million has been drawn down to date so i wonder what the member states are going to do with that money although i know that some of them are considering structural reforms as well.
money. as i said we have already allocated some money which has not been utilised yet so it is very difficult for me to go looking for more money when that money has not been expended.
i have responded on intervention ceilings by increasing the ceilings by one hundred for skimmed milk powder and butter.
we have more money for new market opportunities for new promotion measures;
secondly i would be interested in the views of parliament in relation to the use of the crisis reserve.
i am exhausting all of the tools that have been given to me within the law and the budget. i do not of course need to go into the details about the backdrop to the situation that we have in terms of the market.
but we would ask and i would ask as agriculture commissioner that mercosur should moderate its expectations to what is manageable and acceptable to the eu both politically and economically particularly in these difficult times for some of our sectors.
holdings may be granted rescue and restructuring aid if they fulfil the conditions that are set out in the horizontal state aid guidelines. member states could also be allowed to set up access to finance schemes under which aid in the form of loans or guarantees is granted in order to bridge liquidity gaps.
you are advocating that we should not go to the extreme of opening new markets.
this can be funded through the existing targeted aid measures that have not yet been spent by some member states or by state aids.
we allow flexibility for the modification of the rural development programmes to target sectors that are under financial pressure and of course we have the voluntary coupled support particularly in areas of national constraint.
so i am saying to members who have raised the issue of how we are implementing article two hundred and twenty two and creating some balance between supply and demand in the milk sector that we are giving the maximum flexibility in order to implement that measure.
mr president in the long term the future for agriculture is positive not an easy message for farmers going through the most difficult times in living memory.
i know commissioner hogan understands that well.
i also know that relative to the depths of the farm income crisis those powers are limited.
but what he can and must do is find ways to help the industry become more productive more competitive and more sustainable. agriculture needs r d innovation and simplification and above all agriculture needs regulation based on common sense and proven science not on emotion.
the commissioner and the farmers understand that well.
how have we ended up with a situation where some farmers in the european union are being paid below the cost of production?
twenty years ago i and others worked to tackle unfair trade treatment of farmers in the developing world resulting in the fairtrade mark.
we now have lots of products from the developing world where the farmer has been paid a fair price tea coffee bananas and cocoa.
we now need to do the same for european farmers.
his wife has had an attempt to remove her illegally from the united kingdom by gangsters and what we have to face is the european arrest warrant being used here by a country as a member of the european union for political purposes. i urge you to raise this at the highest level with the president and the committee under these rules.
died in prison.
we have insisted many times that the commission should make enforcement of existing rules a priority and we are doing exactly that.
rather it is the beginning.
relevant stakeholders shall now be involved before member states adopt the new regulation on professional services.
we are not losing sight of existing requirements either.
we will place special emphasis on the transparency that you introduced for the regulation and its rationale via our regulated professions database.
this directive will help member states with devising their regulations. it will mean that we can minimise any negative effects on the single market on competitiveness or on the mobility of professionals.
as i said i'm really grateful for the way that we have worked together on this proposal. the compromise i think strikes the right balance.
we want to improve the quality of the future regulation of professional services.
the outcome of the negotiations maintains the overall objective of the proposed directive.
there were many moments where some doubted that this directive should cover all of the professions but clearly the principle of proportionality applies to all professions so i am grateful that this house you honourable members has managed to find a good compromise.
so we need to ensure that across the eu the new regulation is really proportionate in order to protect public interests and that it does not create needless obstacles.
you also have drawn attention to the obstacles that may hit professionals when they want to provide temporary or occasional services so i welcome the addition that proportionality of requirements related specifically to this temporary or occasional provision of services must be assessed.
we adopted reform recommendations on the existing regulation of professional services as part of the services package.
but of course too often member states demand plenty of information from professionals instead of just using direct cooperation with other member states via our well established internal market information tool imi.
the reason why the regulation was found to be necessary will be available to all after its adoption.
transparency has to be ensured before and after a new regulation is adopted in the member states.
and this is exactly what we are doing tomorrow.
almost forty seven million citizens will be affected by that.
in other countries you have to exercise this continuously.
these are also our values we should stand by.
we do believe in openness we do believe in trade we do believe in mobility.
indeed in most cases there are valid policy reasons to justify the regulation of professions such as the need to ensure good performance or for security or safety reasons.
from the perspective of the internal market mobile workers represent a meagre.
intra european mobility is already made difficult by factors such as language access to information bureaucracy and social security provisions.
however data shows that this is not always the case. according to business europe many activities are regulated in only a few member states and more than twenty five of them are regulated in just one member state.
overregulation of some professions adds another layer of burden for mobile service providers.
i don't share the concerns of some of the colleagues here that this is going to undermine the competences of national states.
this is a good step forward which should be followed by other initiatives but for at least for this one i would like to express my thanks to the commission and of course to our rapporteur andreas schwab.
we are talking about the obligation now imposed on member states before they introduce a new regulation on regulated professions to check to what extent these new proposals are effective and whether they do not go too far in simply imposing restrictive conditions for provision of services.
we should now in the light of the report of violence against the people of western sahara give the un mission there a mandate to monitor the human rights of the sahrawi people.
this is almost unique among all un missions it is the only one without a human rights mandate.
we do have a lot of leverage over morocco here in the eu particularly over fishing rights and aid. hopefully the impending referendum scheduled for south sudan which will create a new sovereign state in the south will provide fresh motivation for all the parties involved to seek a final resolution to this long standing dispute over western sahara a territory and a people which in my mind deserve a peaceful and prosperous future.
morocco's intransigence continues to deny justice to the people of western sahara who have been waiting for a referendum on independence for the past twenty years. while i do accept that morocco is an important ally of the west in the fight against terrorism it is deeply regrettable that morocco will not deliver on its stated commitments to the terms of the un settlement plan.
but efforts to develop this capacity have been sadly and consistently blocked by france.
morocco and the polisario front both need to understand what is expected of them in terms of standards by the international community.
it is a safe bet that the moroccan authorities will be less than impartial if the investigation is left up to them.
the european union continues to be engaged with morocco on reforms in areas such as good governance the rule of law and respect for human rights.
we agree that the initiative was a step in the right direction and commercial issues cannot always be solved by regulation alone.
where member states have identified a major problem they have introduced comprehensive and strong enforcement measures.
so we will work together with all relevant stakeholders to make this happen.
we reported on this in january we found that twenty member states had introduced legislation against unfair trading practices and more were planning to do so.
and that is what we will do.
it is true that member states have taken different approaches on the issue.
your report acknowledges the numerous initiatives that have been taken to address the issue.
of course negotiations can sometimes be tough but what we need to avoid is companies' abusing large differences in bargaining power to apply unfair trading practices. i fully agree with you that this is not acceptable. for the agricultural sector i have asked the agricultural markets task force to further assess the issue of unfair trading practices and i look forward to their conclusions and their recommendations later this year.
your report welcomes this initiative but points to a number of weaknesses. you suggested that because of these farmer representatives have not joined the scheme.
clearly this is on the agenda because it is a problem i recall that since two thousand and nine there have been five resolutions on this issue before the house and it is still before us this evening.
can i just say in relation to the supply chain initiative that the reason it exists at all is because there was political pressure on the powerful in the food supply chain to take action. they would not have done so without consistent pressure from this house. anna maria corazza bildt was involved in this as was i with other colleagues as well. i hope this house will give a strong signal to the commissioner who is with us this evening that there will be eu action and attention to this issue.
it is about producers and consumers because consumer choice is impacted where the powerful have too much power and when we want sustainable food supply chains with an eye to the environment we need those chains to be fair.
now we need to show concrete results on impartial governance confidential claims and sanctions.
eu legislation unfortunately does not solve the problem.
colleagues i call on you to vote against eu legislation on unfair trading practices.
mr president a point of order as well. yesterday we discussed publicly for more than three hours the emission measurements of the automotive industry better known as dieselgate' while at the same time in brussels the so called technical committee for motor vehicles met.
since a total lack of transparency is a crucial element in the current car crisis i believe that this house. the.
this house has the habit of expressing its solidarity and paying respect to victims of human rights violations.
all states have the obligation to prevent violence and incitement to hatred based on individual characteristics including sexual orientation gender identity and gender expression.
we call on those seventy six countries to stop criminalising consensual acts between adults of the same sex and we particularly call on the president of uganda to refrain from signing the anti homosexuality bill into law and on the president of nigeria to refrain from signing the same sex marriage prohibition bill into law. but we also call on the commission and the council to include an explicit mention of non discrimination based on sexual orientation
one example that we have in birmingham from birmingham lbgt is toolkits for schools to prevent prejudice and discrimination in this respect.
mr president i strongly welcome this resolution given the very worrying trend of the criminalisation of lgbti people around the world.
the european commission needs to follow such examples and develop similar projects for the developing world.
however the european commission does need to do much more not only through pressure in diplomatic and trade relations and it should then use agreements such as cotonou to leverage that pressure but also through capacity building and development aid projects.
a number of states even impose the death penalty and recently we have also seen worrisome examples of re criminalising consensual same sex relationships between adults.
as recent examples show issues of gender identity and sexual orientation continue to be used as a pretext for serious human rights violations.
being nigeria.
two thousand and fourteen we are well aware that the promotion of human rights on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity can lead to sensitive discussions and tensions in our relations with third countries.
we want to be clear this is incompatible with international human rights law and we have an obligation to act on it.
these new laws are an unfortunate testimony to cotonou's impotence because there is absolutely no dialogue on the rights of lgbti people.
they are the sons and daughters of ordinary men and women dragged away to face time in prison simply for being gay.
finally let me say this mr president history shows us that if we sacrifice the rights of
we must show that we take these grave systematic human rights abuses seriously.
during the last forty eight hours in nigeria up to twelve people have been arrested in their homes simply for being gay.
it is high time to evoke article ninety six which foresees an exclusion procedure in cases of grave human rights breaches when all other solutions have been adopted.
in uganda where a month ago the anti homosexuality bill was adopted i had the privilege of meeting some of the activists from that country who are among the bravest people that i know.
they pleaded desperately for our help.
in india a supreme court ruling has made homosexuality a crime again.
the eu still has a lot to do itself to further the human rights of lgbti people but we have enshrined equality in our treaties.
we have a duty to do all we can to help those who are oppressed.
our values of equality need to guide us in our relations with countries like uganda nigeria india and definitely russia.
it is all the more disturbing that in this parliament it is still difficult to get a number of members to condemn the threats to lgbti peoples' human rights at all.
i believe that is the shame of europe today.
the fact that an even greater number of members in this house is reluctant to condemn russia and its stance on lgbti people during the olympics is equally disturbing and disappointing especially in the face of so many concerns that our citizens relay to us.
when governments like that of my home country the netherlands show their true colours by sending the most prominent delegation possible to attend the winter olympics let us clearly say mr putin being gay is not a choice and speaking out about it is not propaganda.
the olympic committee already regrets choosing russia for this winter olympics and i can say i too am quite sorry.