kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
there seems to be a perception that european agriculture can be used as an easy bargaining chip.
if this is indeed the case i foresee major problems in many sectors of agriculture and especially in the livestock sector.
surely we have a responsibility to our consumers to ensure that this is the case.
mr president the eu framework directive on waste like so many outpourings of bureaucracy from these institutions uses a one cap fits all approach to the problem of waste disposal despite the ways that different member states have traditionally approached this subject.
mr president in ireland we have a joke that if a stranger asks you for directions and the route is very complicated you might answer by saying if i were you i would not start from here'.
well it is the same with the current crisis a currency still not fit for purpose a europe where trust between countries and citizens is fast eroding and politicians in all member states make promises they cannot keep and or tell their edited version of the truth to their citizens.
yes there were reckless borrowers and some lived beyond their means but equally there were reckless lenders and tons of cash fuelled by low interest rates to suit some member states flowed across european borders in a torrent.
those who were lucky enough to grab a lifeboat should now help the other survivors to clamber aboard or at least throw a lifebuoy.
the solution will not be just between germany and greece;
we need a european solution one that does not promote moral hazard but one that is sustainable for all member states.
yes we would prefer not to start from here but we are here and we must start.
mr president without encryption every e mail one sends and every word one types into a website can easily be intercepted read and even modified.
encryption is essential to protect the integrity of the communications of individuals and businesses in europe.
this is especially important given how ineffective the european union has been at stopping the surveillance of its people politically.
it is unacceptable to call their right to use encryption into question now. we must promote encryption technologies and ensure that they are available to everyone.
we must reject government backdoors in security software.
such backdoors can always be used by criminals as well.
we must reject mass data retention. we know that blanket surveillance only increases the size of the haystack;
the freedom and openness of our society must not be compromised.
he has also announced the introduction of a sovereignty bill which would force a referendum in the event of further treaties.
i took part in a debate recently on the irish public service radio rt with a woman who was very concerned that we were cutting health spending and not doing enough to cut back on development aid spending.
so please keep that at the top of the agenda and make sure when we appoint the new person in charge of external relations that dealing with this issue remains one of our key objectives.
we can do both.
i would urge given that we are concentrating so much on the need for recovery in europe and the need to deal with the crisis we find ourselves in which of course must be at the top of our domestic agenda that we do not lose sight of the fact that eleven million children are dying each year in the developing world five million of them because they do not have medicines we have had for thirty years.
mr president i would like to comment on the informal discussions which we all know dominated the last european council.
i refer of course to the selection of the next president of the council and the role he will take.
i believe that the president should be the servant of the council a chairman rather than a chief executive.
it is therefore important that the president is both collegiate and someone the people trust and with that in mind the worst possible candidate on both scores would be one tony blair.
he is unfit for public office and i urge the council not to appoint him.
we should applaud it. we should be happy about it.
it is for the future top decision makers to clarify things to fine tune the rules to shape the institutions to give the right interpretation to all provisions of the treaty and to detail the job description.
therefore we need the team formed by the first three functions in the european union the president of the council the president of the commission and the high representative to include all political sensitivities all regions and all geopolitical cultural and geographical regions of europe.
i believe that this will be achieved and i believe that if this is achieved it will be good for the viability of the architecture and the effectiveness of the institution but also for the credibility of the union in the eyes of all our citizens.
there is relief and some pleasure but a realisation as there is in this debate that the real work begins now and that it is a tough job to appoint the right people.
it is not about jobs for the boys and girls but about appointing the right people for all of those very important positions that have been created. i am sorry that it is taking extra time to do that because it does delay the final formation of all the institutions and we have a lot of work to do but perhaps it is better that we have that slight delay and get the right people in place. the top jobs as we have described them
are important and they will require people with commitment dedication and a desire to improve the european union not just to be in a job.
you need to hear what we are saying in this parliament.
this is a matter of credibility and it is what we should do this year.
this is again a test of credibility.
they are a former yugoslav republic iceland montenegro and the one that gets the most money turkey.
bizarrely the establishment parties in the uk are all cheerleaders for turkey to join the european union.
these countries get the money because they are candidate countries.
and turkey especially will cost us even more in cohesion funds should it become a member state.
how does your party's support for turkey sit alongside your two principles of limited funding and value for money?
your party the british conservative party is a vociferous supporter of it may even be said to be a cheerleader for the entry of turkey into the european union.
i look forward to your answer.
turkey is getting pre accession funding of about eur nine hundred million a year which is planned to continue for another six years.
the european funds and european money are going to be very important in two thousand and fifteen in order to compensate for that.
it was entirely right that the mff should reflect the difficulties and disciplines being experienced by member state governments therefore it is important that funding be strictly limited throughout this period.
for that reason my second principle is to stress the critical importance of directing spending to where it will most effectively and accurately address the major problems in the eu and at the same time deliver best value for money.
this will be year two of the multiannual financial framework.
madam president it is that time of the year again when we put forward our wishes regarding what the eu budget should be spent on. headlines like investing in research and innovation' strengthening eu industry' or job creation' are repeated year after year.
we are supposed to have been investing in those areas for the last decade.
it has made no difference as the crisis has demonstrated and yet the commission keeps asking for more money.
this is in spite of the fact that the auditors say that the level of irregularities has increased.
as i see it the commission has totally failed to demonstrate any efficiency in controlling taxpayers' money.
so why do we keep asking for more money from taxpayers?
it is important that in these difficult times particularly with the eastern border we take a particularly enlightened and wise view of the way that we invest.
it has a long and difficult transition period and my party is prepared to support it on that road to joining the european union as it would indeed with other nations which are prepared to share the same values and aspirations as the rest of the eu.
i am voting for this report in an attempt to bring about the end of the current debt crisis and lay a foundation that will prevent another crisis from happening in the future.
the european union must have stronger coordination between its member states for the purposes of budgetary and economic policy and certainly in my view we need a single budgetary and economic and fiscal policy.
a more integrated and balanced union with multilateral oversight will ensure that jobs are created and reckless decisions are avoided.
we must continue forward and ensure that member states comply with the european strategy for growth and jobs laid out in the europe two thousand and twenty strategy.
mr president i voted in favour of the resolution on belarus for two reasons to condemn the recent parliamentary elections and to demonstrate my support for the belarusian citizens who do not want to live under the authoritarian rule.
having lived in an occupied country myself i know very well how important it is to know that you have not been forgotten and left in the cruel hands of the regime.
therefore i believe that any threats of mass retribution against former government members or pressure on the parliamentary opposition to switch to georgian dream might lead to their further polarisation.
i am aware that introducing binding pay transparency measures is challenging.
this is why transparency is such an important issue.
women are over represented in work of precarious nature.
president von der leyen has entrusted me with the task to develop a new european gender equality strategy to address areas in which women still face additional barriers.
this is another factor which significantly reinforces gender gaps.
and gender stereotypes and discrimination.
closing this gap requires a comprehensive approach addressing all its root causes a lower participation of women in the labour market; a higher use of part time and career breaks by women when compared to men; vertical and horizontal segregation on the labour market;
this includes the recommendation on access to social protection the directive on part time work the directive on transparent and predictable working conditions and of course the work life balance directive.
it is therefore imperative to consult employers employees and national administrations to find the right balance for such eu intervention.
equal pay will be a key principle of the new strategy and the commission will act as regards measures on pay transparency.
because there is a lack of transparency many women do not even know that they are being underpaid.
while we want to strengthen the rights of employees to get more information about pay levels we also need to recognise that some of the possible measures may add administrative burdens for employers.
we have had a non binding recommendation for five years now which gave member states a toolbox of measures to enforce the equal pay principle.
some member states have introduced the measures but many have not.
another thing.
i am aware that this is an important matter for the european parliament as reflected in its resolutions calling for legal actions that tackle gender based pay discrimination. we are on exactly the same page on this. pay discrimination has gone on for too long.
let's also not forget that increasing pay transparency is only one of the steps towards addressing the gender pay gap.
i intend to work closely with the european parliament throughout this process and i look forward to listening to your views today.
the aim is to have a strong ambitious and overarching approach with specific measures to close the gender pay gap.
it is high time for further action.
they are the vast majority of part time workers and often opt for variable hours and temporary contracts.
i will give equality in the world of work its due attention by putting forward proposals for pay transparency.
in in this regard the commission will work closely with member states to ensure that binding legal acts are properly implemented and to assist member states in taking utmost advantage of other legal provisions.
i will be looking at a broad range of options when working on the scope of the pay transparency proposals from giving employees information on pay levels to requiring companies to report on pay levels and analyse such data in audits.
work typically done by women is systematically and structurally underpaid compared to work typically done by men even when it is work of equal value.
but of course this debate and commissioner you've opened it out to be a much wider debate than just housing first because in my own country after the housing crisis we have now a real crisis still for some families who are living in emergency accommodation and while we have built social housing ten zero last year we still have significant numbers who need housing.
but i would say that outside the parliament in brussels it is quite awful to see the number of homeless people who sleep in all sorts of weather as it is here in strasbourg as was referenced by a colleague.
but it is a particular model and it needs to be modified for every country.
we need people with skills to build housing so commissioner if you can with new energy i suppose bring europe together on this housing crisis i think it would be very helpful.
so i think it's useful to hear there are problems across europe and it would be helpful to know that we would find common solutions.
i've seen it work in the midlands of ireland where for example a derelict building was converted for ten individuals who needed that extra support and they have that and they are secure.
no other government in europe has so clearly pointed out gang members in a neighbouring country as the reason to have border controls.
there's not a single country in the eu that has equal pay.
i'm getting old and we're leaving the eu.
it should be part of a gender equality strategy in the eu.
it's pretty simple really it's discrimination.
cedaw and its principles as well as a revised equal pay directive should be part of the equal pay strategy.
yet still there's not a single country in the world that has equal pay for equal value.
i had hoped that during my lifetime we would see substantive equality and the advancement of women.
over forty years ago we had the united nations convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women passed. fifty years ago in the uk we had the equal pay legislation passed and in the eu after the defrenne legislation and cases we had lots of different directives that were passed.
the cult of climate change marches on with no definitive evidence to support or deny the factual accuracy of their assertions. logic suggests that climate change has little to do with this natural catastrophe.
traditional aboriginal managed burning at the right time of year has been shunned or banned without any understanding of the consequences.
madam president i am sure everybody in this house joins me in sending prayers and best wishes to the australian people as they deal with this national catastrophe.
it's disappointing that climate change has been blamed as the primary cause of these devastating bushfires by both our parliament and other socalled climate experts.
higher human population density resulting in more discarded cigarettes sparks from electric transmission lines campfires and worst of all arson are more likely causes of the problem.
this parliament needs to urgently address its own excessive avoidable carbon footprint by rationalising the waste associated with running three parliament buildings in different geographic locations. we must end the culture of do as i say not as i do' and be judged by what our hands are doing not by what our mouth is saying.
who will be there when the floods come to the uk again to support us?
can we trust boris johnson's government to keep our beaches clean?
today parliament discussed the tragic bushfires that have decimated australia's homes and wildlife. in yorkshire in northern england people's homes have been devastated by floods.
we may be going but leaving will impact far into our future.
weird weather events must be a warning to everybody that climate change does not respect international boundaries. it is up to the elected representatives of every nation to protect our planet from environmental destruction and britain is so much worse off without the european union.
can we trust that our native species of birds will be saved again from extinction?
sadly the war on drugs has failed just the same as the war on the criminalisation of the purchase of sex in ireland has failed.
when it comes to illegal organised crime in ireland it is very much built around the drugs industry.
madam president in ireland the problems of organised crime have nothing to do with the free movement of people it has nothing to do with the migrants who play a very positive role in our society.
is heard by the supreme court.
in two thousand and eighteen cyprus ratified the istanbul convention which states that the rights of victims should be protected at all stages of an investigation and that judicial proceeding should enable victims to be heard to supply evidence and to have their views needs and concerns presented.
the woman in question has also reported that she was denied a lawyer which is against the european convention of human rights.
this young woman's legal team has reported irregularities which may have led to a questionable verdict in this case.
we demand we call on member states to require that all member states strive to uphold commitments made in the istanbul convention that cyprus addresses procedural issues that may have taken place in this case and that the cypriot legal system should ensure any appeal
how is it possible for a court to conclude this woman was lying when the judge has refused even to consider whether or not she had been assaulted?
last week a british teenager was convicted of public mischief in cyprus and handed a four month suspended sentence after being found guilty of falsifying a rape claim.
to conclude i would like to say that the best response we could give to this crisis is to be very focused and very determined in introducing the european green deal and demonstrating to other parts of the world that it's possible to do it.
we are of course going to develop that further and invest in early warning systems such as the european forest fire information system which are critical for managing the crisis as we are discussing today.
to our efforts.
i also remember populist media pundits and right wing politicians including ukip meps denying the existence of global warming.
exposes boris johnson's personal links with rich and wealthy climate science denying individuals and organisations?
whilst fire and floods are indeed natural phenomena the scale of these extreme weather events tells us something we cannot ignore climate change is real and it's affecting populations everywhere.
madam president the sight of the australian bush burning ferociously has horrified all of us. i was equally horrified in december two thousand and fifteen when the subtropical storm desmond caused devastating floods in cumbria in my north west england constituency.
like many of you i remember a shocking documentary showing polar bears marooned on melting ice flows.
with ukip transformed into the brexit party and their members now joining the conservatives we should all worry about the uk government's commitment to the environment. and can i suggest colleagues check out the campaign group desmog whose excellent research about the powerful climate sceptic networks influencing the tory party
therefore i very much welcome the timely organisation of this debate.
a new regulation on the mutual recognition of freezing and confiscation orders that will apply as of december two thousand and twenty complements the legal framework.
interconnection as well as access for law enforcement is a key component for investigations into organised crime and this avenue should be pursued in the future.
the capacity to fight corruption has been identified as one of the key aspects of the new rule of law review cycle to be developed by the commission in. two thousand and twenty the european labour authority mandated to facilitate the free movement of workers across the eu and to support the commission and member states in the application
the commission has already analysed non conviction based confiscation provisions in the member states in a document presented in the libe committee last september. the europol two thousand and seventeen report also highlighted the way corruption enables the crime.
the two thousand and nineteen midterm review showed the considerable increase in top level organised crime activities in the european union.
as policymakers it is our duty to close loopholes in existing legislation. an external study on organised crime and also on this issue will be launched very soon.
as the current eu drug strategy is ending the commission will consider what future action is needed in view of this alarming situation.
empact the eu policy cycle for serious and international organised crime has changed the way the member states cooperate and tackle organised crime together.
the commission will therefore present a report on the implementation of the confiscation directive to help reflect on the need for stronger provision on enhancing asset tracing freezing and confiscation.
it is essential that member states are well equipped to fight against corruption.
and enforcement of european law will also create synergies and work together with other eu agencies such as europol and eurojust in the fight against organised crime and trafficking in human beings. the commission fully supports europol's approach to dismantling toplevel organised crime groups by removing the key players the so called highvalue targets.
it is also important for europol to stress that any high value targets initiative should be complementary to the eu policy cycle on serious and organised crime.
asset recovery offices have been created in all member states and the directive on freezing and confiscation of instrumentalities and proceeds of crime adopted in two thousand and fourteen harmonises these rules across the european union.
the approach of following the money' should be part of any investigation into organised crime. the directive on law enforcement access to financial information entered into force on one august last year. additional measures may be needed to enable law enforcement authorities to carry out effective cross border investigations.
my honourable friend is quite right. in fact i did some research last week which showed that the environmental lobby had prevented exactly what my colleague said away from the local autonomous regions dictating how policy should be mandated and towards the federal level and then being hamstrung by the environmental lobby again which prevents
two what happens then of course is that you get these massive conflagrations with vast amounts of co two as a result.
so it's imperative that we get what in this chamber we used to call subsidiarity' the ability of local authorities to actually run their own regions.
what i would call moderate fires and felling which have actually been eliminated because they believe it causes too much co.
so this is the real fight a fight for decency for justice and for change.
you have to promise us you're not alone we are with you and we will never give up'.
women are also victims of violence and more than thirty have experienced one form of violence in their lives.
we have to fight for a day on which women will be fully equal to men on which they will be fully aware of their value and their potential and on which no more women will have to choose between a child and a job. so please let us close the pay gap as soon as possible within the next three months.
we risk moving backwards and this will continue to harm women and it will cost the eu over eur two hundred billion in the next decade according to parliament's own research.