kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
the uk information commissioner's office which currently handles thirty of all european data protection board cases is doing a thorough job of investigating.
it was already prevalent in our society.
we should focus on addressing this rather than trying to point score by taking dangerous steps to suspend the privacy shield which is proposed in the resolution we will vote on later.
clear legal limits and strict conditions on political profiling have been imposed by the new gdpr rules.
this is probably one of the few issues i actually agree with the parliament on that there should be more transparency and oversight over the use of the eu council budget.
thank goodness brexit will mean we no longer have to give vast contributions to brussels.
it's outrageous that certainly british taxpayers have to pay for such vain and frivolous events while at home we have front line public services cuts.
but because of the tory betrayal we are having at the moment and the never ending transitional period proposed the uk will still be giving billions to brussels for many years to come.
it's no wonder the council doesn't want parliamentary oversight of their budget.
mr president so here we are once again with the council refusing to cooperate with the discharge procedure.
madam president here we are once again discussing another unacceptable tax evasion scandal affecting a large number of countries.
and how is it that every time these scandals are uncovered it is left to investigative journalists to do all the work?
the role of the banking industry in facilitating this large scale tax fraud emphasises the need to hold tax administrations banks and others responsible to account.
in the tax three committee we will pay the utmost attention to these revelations and continue to work to find solutions to ensure effective legislation efficient implementation and robust enforcement of rules across the eu.
the question is why are the authorities not doing more to prevent this form of illegal tax evasion?
the agency's executive director is appointed by the management board and is accountable for his actions to the management board as well as to the european parliament and the council when his actions relate to the use of eu funds.
that is why when the first alleged irregularities were reported to the commission a number of mitigating and precautionary measures were immediately taken to improve oversight of the agency including through reinforced and rigorous monitoring and control of the former executive director.
the easo ensures an important part of the workload on the ground it currently deploys more than two hundred and seventy four people directly to support the greek and italian asylum services. to ensure the convergence of the national
we want to leave this story behind and concentrate on reinforcing the agency and ensuring the efficiency of its work.
asylum systems easo has developed standards for reception conditions to be applied across europe.
i am counting on an open and frank discussion because we share the same concerns and goals in dealing with this issue and making sure it will not be repeated.
the commission has only two members sitting on that board.
scandalously he published a paper whose aim and i quote was to change the political dynamics in the uk by getting the prime minister to agree to an extension of the transition period.
this is manipulation of voters from the outside. this is worse than cambridge analytica.
this is the antidemocratic interference which is the very essence the soul of the european union and it has worked as theresa may is now offering such an extension.
after all right now just a few hundred yards from the brussels parliament herman van rompuy the former president of the european union leads a think tank whose sole aim is undermining the uk's democratic referendum to leave the european union.
the romanian people count on you!
unfortunately some governments seem to be going exactly in that way.
right now when our common values are being trampled upon in many member states every voice that defends civil liberties and every voice that defends freedom and the rule of law counts regardless of political affiliation.
and now the government even wants to replace a strong anti corruption chief prosecutor with somebody who has let us say not such a strong record of working against corruption. this is a slap in the face for romanian citizens.
mr president we need you as a strong voice for democracy and the rule of law in romania and throughout the european union.
since romania will take over the presidency in a couple of months it would be even more important to have a role model at the head of the presidency for good governance to show how it can be done.
they protested against a government that de facto legalises corruption and does not even shy away from weakening a judiciary system to make it easier for some politicians to put public money the money of all romanians into their own pockets.
but instead of listening the romanian government sent tear gas against those people protesting.
two weeks ago the constitutional court of romania declared over sixty articles of the new criminal procedure code unconstitutional. on friday the venice commission warned that the reform would jeopardise the fight against corruption and also against organised crime.
do we want a europe where we fight for our common values where we defend democracy civil liberties and freedom or do we let europe go down a slippery slope of nationalism and governments that hollow out the key foundations of our union and of democracy?
how the situation looks in a member state also defines what the european union as such and as a whole looks like.
the romanian people showed in a referendum two weeks ago that they do not want an authoritarian state that discriminates and that tries to play people off against one another.
whereas i can only welcome the position of some member states as well as economic actors and international organisations to boycott today's future investment initiative in riyadh what is key is to have real measures to target those responsible beyond the number of operatives which were acting in
killing' i don't know whether this is the most appropriate wording to define the crime committed in istanbul and the horrific manner in which it appears the prominent journalist and opponent has been tortured murdered and dismembered by agents close to the saudi regime.
i hope this will finally help us to team up together and start to trim the tax system so that it reflects the reality of the twenty first century.
still the commission wants to hold more information on all of us.
without borders nations dissolve.
schengen is supposed to keep those inside safe and control who comes in from outside.
the commission brags that the schengen information system is the most important information exchange system in europe.
it is further to weaken powers of the nation states. without control borders dissolve.
and many human rights defenders such as manal al sharif have had to flee saudi arabia already.
sakharov prize winner raif badawi continues to suffer in prison and has been flogged for expressing himself.
unfortunately our friends in the epp and the ecr have always been very reluctant to condemn the human rights violations in saudi arabia.
we now need human rights sanctions including a ban on the export of surveillance systems used to track and trace dissidents and i hope this house will support a strongly worded resolution. while the khashoggi case is a game changer it would be a mistake to limit the lessons learned only to this specific case.
the khashoggi case is not only a murder but i fear it turns out to be a suicide.
homosexuality is punishable by the death sentence and so is atheism.
some see the murder of mr khashoggi as a tipping point but i see it as the cumulation of inaction when the human rights of the saudi people were violated over and over again.
the fifty out of one zero lashes administered almost killed him already. women's rights activists are facing life sentences and the kind of intimidation that we see here cannot be masked by the long awaited so called freedom for women to drive cars.
additionally a regime that lies and deceives the international community cannot be trusted to handle war weapons.
the kingdom decapitates people with swords on public squares as a common form of capital punishment around one hundred and fifty people a year.
by the end of two thousand and nineteen the council will conduct a reevaluation of the rule of law dialogue and consider ways to further strengthen it.
each member state must therefore respect protect and promote them. the austrian presidency and indeed all of us agree that protection of the rule of law democracy and fundamental rights in our union cannot be taken for granted.
this challenge requires unwavering attention and effort across all institutions and all policy areas.
the last rule of law dialogue was organised by the estonian presidency in october two thousand and seventeen on media pluralism and the rule of law in a digital age.
we also wish to highlight the role played by the council of europe and the venice commission in these questions and i note that in its working programme two thousand and nineteen the commission indicated that it would come up with a further strengthening of the two thousand and fourteen rule of law framework.
let me conclude by stressing that safeguarding democracy the rule of law and fundamental rights goes to the heart of our commitment to this union.
it will deal with the issue of trust in public institutions and rule of law.
the last evaluation in two thousand and sixteen showed among others that the preparation of dialogues should be more systematic and include the organisation of other accompanying events.
the presidency notes with interest the commitment of this parliament and its legislative initiative report on the establishment of an eu mechanism on democracy rule of law and fundamental rights.
from the beginning we were aware that the council's response to rule of law issues needed to be reviewed at a regular pace and if needed improved or adapted to current challenges.
of course the council is not acting alone in these matters of fundamental importance.
to address this challenge the council and a member state established a meeting within the council the so called annual rule of law dialogue'.
the success of this political project will be measured by its ability and determination to uphold these core values.
democracy freedom equality the rule of law and human rights are the cornerstones of the european union.
this would provide for the possibility to assemble broad input at expert level including the involvement of other eu institutions or other institutional organisations. the estonian presidency and now our presidency have followed these recommendations and included experts in the preparation of the annual ministerial dialogue.
it is the most concrete example of all our work to change the culture on how we cooperate on security in the european union a europe that protects;
this will build on the automated fingerprint identification system we introduced to sis earlier this year which has already led to a twenty five increase in the number of alerts containing fingerprints.
the new sis will make better use of biometric data with the possibilities of using palm prints facial images and dna profiles in specific cases when safeguards are met.
it is no exaggeration to say that it is the centrepiece of our security cooperation in europe and our most important instrument for information exchange in the european union. it was against this background that we proposed
because with the dramatic improvements in information sharing during the past three years a stronger sis can open a new chapter in our cooperation on internal security and can contribute to the coherent application of the rules and principles governing the schengen area.
what i would like to leave you with is that with this debate tonight and tomorrow's vote europe's most widely used secure database will become even stronger. a strengthened sis will provide police and border guards with the information they need to do their
there will also be important improvements for the work of law enforcement authorities and strong links to our work on interoperability which julian will tell you more about in a minute.
this agreement was the result of intense work and i would like to congratulate them for it.
jobs and help keep europeans safe.
interoperability like our security initiatives on electronic evidence explosives and terrorist content online is vital for the security of our citizens and it is essential that they advance rapidly to adoption before the may elections.
in december two thousand and sixteen as you will remember to further strengthen the system. but the question is why change a system that performed so well?
a genuine and effective security union to ensure the security of our citizens.
the trust to rely on the schengen information system when the security of our citizens is at stake. the sis today contains over eighty million alerts on wanted and missing persons and objects.
we should not discharge an agency for actions that were taken in two thousand and sixteen when as a matter of fact the european court of auditors is telling us that the situation got even worse after that in. two thousand and seventeen so how are we going to deal with the two thousand and seventeen discharge if we give them discharge now?
that parliament's role in this one is exceptionally important and that is why we should not make a compromise.
in addition the office took some practical measures to overcome the mistakes made in the field of procurement.
president iohannis thank you very much for coming and now you have the floor.
i know from our dialogue that this parliament shares the commitment to maintain and further step up the momentum.
the priority must now be to turn the remaining proposals into legislation and then to implement it effectively.
honourable members this is the time to deliver;
to consolidate this as part of our collective dna we will present the results of our ongoing stocktaking this spring.
challenges to our values and democratic societies from terrorists cyber attackers and disinformation campaigns.
we will also pay particular attention to ensuring the laws we already have are properly implemented and applied.
whilst continuing the significant efforts to ensure an agreement with the united kingdom we will bring forward the necessary measures to adapt the acquis ahead of brexit.
for europeans going to the polls next may it is not enough that the commission has made proposals to make their lives better they want to see results on the ground concrete decisions.
some of these are policy initiatives which are needed to complete the ten priorities in areas such as further boosting investment addressing the challenges of artificial intelligence or tackling disinformation campaigns which threaten our democracy.
this will be a crucial moment for the eu of twenty seven to shape our collective future.
on the european pillar of social rights and on internal security to name but a few.
we will advocate moving to more efficient decision making in energy and climate tax and social policies.
the commission will be a constructive and energetic partner to you as well as to the council in helping find the agreements needed to deliver what we promised on migration on the reform of our common asylum system on the digital single market on a fairer and deeper economic monetary union
we will also look at how to strengthen the international role of the euro and as we will discuss further in the debate later this evening at strengthening the rule of law framework.
let's get to work.
we will also continue our better regulation work.
together we have a very short window of time in which to find agreement on the many proposals that are on the table and thus show that the european union can deliver solutions to the challenges that cannot be addressed by any of our member states acting alone.
to keep strong focus on delivery on these shared priorities we are only proposing a very limited number of new initiatives in our work programme.
the commission will help prepare this discussion with contributions on delivering a sustainable european future to implement the sustainable development goals and surpass our paris commitments.
challenges such as demographics and migration climate change and the competition for resources which require a shared push towards sustainability.
i think we are all aware that the next six months will be crucial for our union.
today we are announcing evaluation work and fitness checks to ensure our existing laws are fit for purpose and up to date including in areas flagged in the opinions of the refit platform.
in an increasingly volatile world we have to show that europe is able to deliver solutions to these biggest of questions.
in parallel with the work programme we are also presenting a communication which sets out how we propose to strengthen the role of subsidiarity and proportionality principles in our policymaking. finally our work programme takes forward the roadmap to the sibiu summit on europe day next year.
it represents the commission's commitment to work intensively with you and the council to deliver what we promised under the ten priorities on the basis of which this house approved the commission's mandate as well as of course to prepare the union for the future.
so the first priority for our work in the coming year is all about delivery. with the initiatives presented alongside the state of the union address the commission has tabled all of the legislative proposals needed to deliver on our common agenda for jobs growth fairness and democratic change. together with this house and the council we have found agreement on nearly half of these and a further twenty are well advanced in the legislative process.
to build a strong foundation for our european future it is clearly essential that we find agreement before the sibiu summit on a future mff multiannual financial framework which will enable us to deal effectively with the challenges ahead.
for example by providing more public drinking water fountains and improving water infrastructure.
the proposal aims to adjust the directive so we can better address new challenges such as climate change and adapt the rules to the new scientific environment and circular economy. in addition with this proposal we aim at more ambitious water quality standards for human consumption.
i hope that as soon as such standards are set in place the member states including mine lithuania will do their best to achieve them;
having access to high quality drinkable water is essential for people's health and the quality of their daily life.
russia seeks to defend many of these as being necessary for the security of the newly constructed kerch bridge linking mainland russia to crimea the construction of which is in itself a violation of ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
with ever increasing militarisation of the sea of azov we must ensure that this cannot become a flashpoint for further conflict in future.
therefore i welcome the council's decision to extend restrictive measures to entities involved in its construction.
we need a water industry that works for everyone and england's water needs to be in the hands of the public.
yet the privatised water company showered their shareholders with a total of gbp three hundred and twenty million last year. it's another.
it's time for change.
as this report rightly says leakage rates need to fall and that is why i am proud to back the gmb's campaign.
that's how much water anglian water wastes every single day through leaks.
it will be difficult to monitor every member state and to act when there is something wrong there so please bear this in mind.
one is that in reaching this objective we must not dismiss what we are currently doing and not give an excuse to anyone to diminish the work that has been done either by the commission or by members of parliament here on these fundamental rights mechanisms under article.
but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
mr president it could well be a game changer to have the encapsulation of the two thousand and sixteen resolution which is a less crisis driven more systematic rule of law mechanism and we have talked about it endlessly within our committee and it is something that we very much want.
ensure that we preserve the very tough work that we are currently undertaking and then get to this new fundamental rights mechanism.
so to ensure that we complete the work that we are doing currently but then in the future we look at this mechanism and yes hopefully we fulfil the two thousand and sixteen resolution.
seven to do so would be to diminish the key work that has been done and that will also happen when we have this other mechanism that is less crisis driven because what i mean by that is the capacity to act in case of a breach the capacity to uphold the rule of law and indeed human rights will be difficult in this mechanism also.
it is a direct concern of eu security and commercial interests as the financial losses directly concern also eu merchants.
the situation in azov gradually turns into one more open conflict waiting to happen. the eu so far has not been up to this challenge projecting weakness and disinterest rather than strength and determination.
but it is obviously more serious than a commercial and legal issue.
at the very least you madam vice president high representative i thank you for the statement you made today and i expect you to join ukraine in using all diplomatic action and international legal procedures to counter the hostile russian actions in oslo.
we want to change this.
the economic development of romania so the growth rate increased by more than four hundred and ninety on the gdp base four times higher than moldova for example.
there are only europeans.
probably the first step is opening the airports already before the european elections in. two thousand and nineteen we have to move on these questions. i want to show respect also towards the citizens of romania because i think it is clear that there is still a need of modernisation of modernising the country in the direction of a country which fights strongly for fundamental principles and fights against corruption. i want to clarify that this is not only a romanian problem but it is also a romanian problem and people care about this people care about the situation in the
so to be part of this europe to be part of the european union works on the question of the economy but also on the question of developing towards a modern society in romania.
so it's time to act because commissioner i don't agree with you.
we need a pan european mechanism for democracy the rule of law and fundamental rights in the eu that is comprehensive and not fragmented;
so a lot is being done and i have to commend the commissioner for his actions but it is piecemeal and erratic.
we proposed a fullyfledged interinstitutional agreement that we could have agreed on today.
i propose that we start our own annual drf cycle including country reporting and a debate on the state of democracy the rule of law and fundamental rights in europe in tandem with national parliaments and we don't wait until the council and commission are ready.
the council organised hearings on the rule of law in that same member state and parliament created the rule of law monitoring group for two other member states as well as a plenary debate on yet another member state.
in the last two years alone since we adopted the proposal for the drf pact two article seven procedures have been launched one by parliament and one by the commission.
you work on the rule of law but your refusal to agree the comprehensive drf pact means that forces that demolish our way of life are always ahead of us.
exactly two years ago in this house we adopted such a proposal the drf pact.
taxes that people have paid out of their hard work were stolen by people working in the biggest banks in europe lawyers accountants advisors.
to me this shows that we need really to do much more in europe.