kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
kazakhstan under president nazarbayev is a totalitarian dictatorship with the systematic repression of human rights. we met many groups who are fighting for human political and workers' rights.
he is being received of course because of the massive oil and gas deals that eu companies are doing in kazakhstan but i am demanding that those leaders raise this issue of the grotesque degradation of human rights and demand verifiable action from nazarbayev that it ends.
in view of this it is shameful that kazakhstan was awarded the chairmanship of the organisation for security and cooperation in europe for two thousand and ten with a major summit of the heads of state of the osce to be held in december in the capital astana.
russia is already in pre election mode with new party alliances and increasing debate.
of course russia is a partner with whom i work on a large number of foreign policy issues but today i want to just focus with you on the upcoming elections.
may i also thank parliament for the resolutions on russia.
two thousand and sixteen we know that the purpose of democratic elections is to give voters a real choice and a sense that their vote matters for the outcome.
the nine months ahead will be very important for russia's future development.
but even if you exclude those people he would say that the party would still have the required forty five zero members.
we will continue to build our engagement we will continue to build on our common interests and we will continue to stand firmly behind our values.
as far as i am aware the authorities have not yet acted upon this judgment.
the main reason given for the refusal to register this party was that a few minors young people and people who were dead had been found among the party's forty six zero members.
i also welcome the opening of new forms of dialogue with civil society in particular the creation of an eu russia civil society forum.
long term observation is important in particular to be able to evaluate whether there is fair access to television and other media during the campaign.
the court also noted that minimum party membership requirements in russia are the highest in europe.
consultations between russia and osce odihr are ongoing.
it said that frequently changing membership requirements linked with regular checks had imposed a disproportionate burden on political parties in russia.
russia seems keen to cooperate and to avoid a repeat of the situation we saw in two thousand and seven when it did not admit any long term observers.
the court was not persuaded that these requirements are necessary and stressed that small minority groups must also have an opportunity to participate in elections.
at the eu russia summit we again emphasised the need for political pluralism.
i believe our partnership for modernisation opens new opportunities for cooperation in this field and i welcome the joint project with the council of europe on reforming the appeal system for civil and criminal court cases in russia.
we received encouraging signals at the summit and i look forward to a request being sent from moscow to the osce.
parnas seems to have been denied registration on the basis of this very same and unchanged law.
i am also sure that many honourable members would be interested in participating in this observation.
we believe the democratic process must come from within russia.
let me restate that in their cases the second verdict was disappointing.
our main contribution is to offer election observation;
two weeks ago he introduced a bill which would lower the threshold for parties to enter the duma from the current seven to five but of course this only applies to the duma elections in.
i think there is an interesting debate going on within the country about the modernisation of society and economy and changing attitudes and expectations will materialise and shape the new realities.
i think a number of decisions have been taken recently in moscow which give us some ideas as to what we can expect in december for the duma elections and in march two thousand and twelve for the presidential poll.
your resolution of nine june on the opening day of our most recent eu russia summit had real impact.
here is of course fully aware of this case;
there are some encouraging signs president medvedev is calling for economic and political modernisation and finance minister kudrin insists on free and fair elections. at the same time political pluralism still faces obstacles.
i think it is important that we take time to reflect on the upcoming russian elections.
the kremlin is breaching russia's commitments as a member of the council of europe and a signatory of the european convention on human rights and therefore ought to be disciplined if the requirements for political pluralism continue to be disregarded.
the european union must also insist that the kremlin withdraws all decisions and regulations concerning the non registration of political parties in russia that do not comply with the european convention on human rights.
madam president the russian minister of justice has consistently refused to register any new political parties since february;
i think it is very important as we move towards the elections that we continue to send that strong message that we want to see these elections be fair and free;
i found that a very interesting and stimulating debate. as we think about how to address some of the areas of concern that honourable members have quite rightly raised i just want to make three very straightforward points.
i hope that will happen and that this will also help in the light of some of the comments that honourable members have made about the need to look at the long term nature of observation. thirdly we also need and again members made this clear to make sure that at the level of the modernisation partnership we are working closely to help support that process.
first of all we have to continue to articulate our expectations to russia as far as free and fair elections are concerned and we will recall the international commitments that russia has taken in this regard.
that we want to see the international commitments fully followed.
while claiming to be a genuinely democratic post soviet entity. but politically motivated killings kidnappings and jailings sanctioned by a corrupt justice system or ignored by the judicial authorities are a common feature of the russian democracy.
but if russia is not willing to be honest with its own people we should not expect honesty in russia's relations with the eu.
we are also competing with emerging markets in asia south america and the middle east.
i am confident that the jobs created through this project will be both highly skilled and highly paid.
the implementation of the single european sky has suffered from many past constraints and there are clearly still many challenges which lie ahead.
the financial investment in rd for the single european sky has been substantial and it is now time to put in place the measures necessary to reap the benefits of that investment.
one of the key challenges is the defragmentation of european air space. the move to create functional air space blocks is painfully slow and quite frankly unacceptable. a strong message needs to be sent to the member states. they are the same member states that signed up to this project more than ten years ago when we first dealt with this legislation
a study by the sesar joint undertaking has shown that it will create more than three hundred zero jobs save in the region of fifty million tonnes of co two and ultimately make air traffic more efficient reducing the cost to the consumer and competing more effectively with our global competitors in order to maintain our market share.
we in europe are world leaders in developing technology and we need to make sure that it is our companies which benefit.
it is clear for these reasons alone that making european air space as efficient as possible is important for job creation the environment and at a time when many european countries are verging on or are in recession economic benefits.
these positive effects will be seen across all the member states and will extend to the entire supply chain including manufacturers airlines and smes and into sectors such as tourism.
and in addition countries that have joined the eu in the last few years.
it is vitally important that we cooperate closely with neighbouring countries and the military to ensure that the systems we develop are interoperable worldwide.
sesar technologies would allow air traffic controllers to become a more mobile workforce in a modernised automated industry and be able to sell their talents widely contributing to a more flowing robust and innovative sector in short a sector fit for the twenty first century.
european air traffic continues to increase which is good news for growth but there remain serious capacity issues in most member states.
the commission has the support of this parliament to enforce sanctions on member states who do not comply.
either we rise to that challenge or we will suffer the consequences. member states need to stop procrastinating and get on with it.
the main undisputed conclusion of this debate is that progress on the initiative is slow and the expected benefits are yet to fully materialise.
if need be the commission will take legal action against member states that do not comply.
i can inform you that we are already working on new proposals to accelerate implementation of the single sky complement some initiatives which are not yet complete and strengthen the existing legislation.
we do not have to return to the drawing board and should now make some changes in order to gain speed and ensure delivery. we need to simplify and clarify the legislation.
secondly though many positive steps have already been taken we need to move beyond compliance and towards actual delivery of results.
we still lack an integrated approach and the fragmented governance structure based on national borders prevails.
the implementation of the single european sky has been the subject of frequent debates in this house and also more recently at the high level conference in limassol.
one of the reasons for this situation seems to be the lack of political willingness from member states.
the commission will increase its efforts to ensure timely and full implementation.
nineteen there are also large discrepancies between member states and the budget should focus on programmes that target these discrepancies. we also looked at funds for vocational training and professional qualifications to address youth unemployment and reduce the skills gap
secondly i keep my eyes wide open on climate action and we have still not managed to meet the requirements of the european court of auditors report in that we still do not spend enough on climate change deterrence action and the situation is becoming more and more serious.
of the colleagues in this house and that is why i anticipate that we will be able to adopt this with a large majority tomorrow.
in this regard the commission did the right thing by proposing an increase in payments under heading one b to cohesion and structural funds by twenty five because we expect and we want to see money flowing into the programmes next year.
in addition as was said before we should not forget the traditional policies of the union cohesion and agriculture and we should ensure proper financing.
and fifthly of course the waste in administration which is so well known anyway. there is much more that i could say on this but what it all leads to is a budget that is perpetually too high and it leads every year to the eu scrambling around to find ways to increase funding.
if you tried to do less but better you would not find these issues coming up so often.
remember a spending cap is meant to be a cap not a target.
in the uk in two thousand and ten when labour was voted out of office the chief secretary to the treasury famously left his successor a note saying there's no more money left' and this seems to happen here every year.
on growth and jobs we want to use the limited resources which we have in the eu budget to strengthen our economy and to make it more competitive so we want to strengthen innovation infrastructure smes and the erasmus programme because that is also a support for labour mobility in europe it supports young people.
the second priority security the safety of citizens is important because there can be no growth and no jobs without safety.
that is not for you to decide but the commission as a whole needs to provide us with clarity we need to know how much money will be needed for this important programme.
to achieve this objective we wanted to see the agencies of the union which have responsibility for justice and home affairs strengthened you are proposing this.
we have to see whether the amounts allocated for western balkans are sufficient on the ground.
when it comes to neighbourhood policy you increase the eni east programme;
automatic cuts made by the council to all headings of the budget not taking into account the political priorities which the council and parliament have given ourselves jointly is clearly irresponsible.
we need to make sure that the amounts foreseen by you in the cosme programme are also sufficient.
that is good but in parallel we also have to make sure that this money is well spent.
you also propose in the draft budget and we agreed that the youth employment initiative should be continued eur two hundred and thirty three million for next year.
because in this report which i drafted and which i brought in front of you we are providing the first reaction of the parliament the evaluation of the draft budget of the european commission on the basis of the political priorities of the parliament which we have adopted with a large majority in the plenary of the parliament in march.
we think that is very good;
the european union's budget is not made by machines for machines but it is made by politicians for the people on the basis of political priorities and taking into account the expectations of the people.
we have to stop spending money twenty eight times in twenty eight member states at a national level but spend it once at european level and then share the results amongst all of us.
what are the political priorities of the european parliament? we have said since the beginning of the year that we have two main priorities firstly growth and jobs;
if people do not feel safe in europe then there is no labour mobility no investment.
how do we want to achieve these?
we owe it to the citizens of europe to make sure that every single euro spent is well spent and concerns expressed by the court of auditors with regard to the youth employment initiative we will take very seriously.
in addition will the commission introduce a comprehensive eu wide database on accident and injury introducing this in the first instance for children and toy related harm so that unsafe products can be removed from the market as soon as is physically possible?
as in the question tonight people have acknowledged the job of rapex. however it is resource constrained and there is more that can be done to exchange information and withdraw dangerous products from the market as quickly as possible.
can the commission and council investigate whether these cuts will breach commitments made in the general product safety directive regarding effective resourcing and what monitoring is being applied to ensure that member states are protecting children from unsafe toys?
to this end will the commission be bringing forward any legislation on the common european framework for market surveillance?
what support is being given to the sharing of best practice between surveillance officers in the european union?
and that of course includes the need for consistent testing methods.
but i also want to pick up the broader issue because i think as a number of my colleagues have said the issue here is not just about the regulation;
now that is how we ensure safety.
it is about the right regulatory framework which means getting everybody in the supply chain to understand their responsibilities.
it is actually the basic principles of transferring information and knowledge so that we get safety designed into the products from the beginning.
so we put a huge amount of effort into passing the revised toys directive in. two thousand and nine but things do not stop there and that is why i think it is a welcome opportunity to give you the commission the chance to reassure us
mr president i think the importance of the question that we are addressing tonight is the fact that this committee continues to be extremely vigilant about issues related to the safety of toys as indeed it does on the whole gamut of consumer goods.
it is about the whole supply chain for toys much of which come from outside the european union.
and one of the important things that we did there and that the european commission did and i give them credit was to talk to chinese manufacturers about designing safety into the product from the beginning the knowledge of those directives. this is nothing to do with marking it is nothing to do with third party testing;
and then those safe products are sustained in production by proper quality systems not just for the toy itself but for all its suppliers.
that you are keeping a very close eye on developments on test results and ensuring that the provisions of the existing legislation and the future legislation will continue to be updated to reflect the growing amount of scientific evidence about potentially hazardous chemicals.
part of the issue here is that in many cases we find that toy manufacturers are faced with difficulties about getting some consistent standards against which to test and i know that is something that you will address.
there are clear signals that the revised toy safety directive needs to be strengthened in order to assure the highest level of protection for our children.
mr president professional football was born in my constituency one hundred and twenty seven years ago when aston villa and stoke city and the mighty west bromwich albion got together with a handful of other football clubs to form the football league.
with criminality and money laundering at the very top.
ordinary football fans that i represent and that we all represent are outraged and feel tainted by what is going on.
it defies belief and possibility that the autocratic don blatterone' never knew what was going on in any other organisation he would have been gone decades ago.
what is the matter with these people when sixty migrant workers a day are said to die for every game of the qatar world cup? and what is the matter with us that we stand by and do nothing about it?
the beautiful game went on to become the world's dominant sport but now the beautiful game is being dragged through the mud brought into disrepute by sepp blatter's disgraceful chairmanship of fifa which has become a discredited organisation riven as we now know
the men have not been allowed to leave india during the proceedings despite the fact that they were acquitted. some of them have serious health problems and their economic situation is disastrous.
the supreme court considered the case in april this year but once again has delayed a decision until july since the court is on summer vacation.
forty eight even at the lowest tariff level this would kill the competitiveness of the uk agricultural and food sectors stone dead.
mr president as a direct consequence of the conservative party's general election victory the united kingdom is now facing an in out referendum on its european union membership.
the eu is good for the uk's agriculture sector it is good for the uk's food sector and it is good for uk jobs.
this state of affairs is bad news for the uk agriculture sector it is bad news for the uk food sector and it is bad news for jobs in the united kingdom.
if the current free trade arrangement was replaced with the current eu tariff levels then the uk agriculture and food sectors would be looking at tariffs ranging from eleven to.
the time has now come for the uk farming and food sectors to rise up and with a clear loud and distinctive voice make the case for britain staying in the european union.
this is a very important topic.
i am rather unpleasantly surprised by the extreme reluctance both within the european parliament and the european commission to evaluate the eu counter terrorism policies.
if we are convinced that we have got it right in our policies i think we can be confident that they will stand the test.
there is another paragraph referring to proper access to documents that is the official position of this house!
we voted in july but ever since the vote several members and groups have changed their positions in some cases by one hundred and eighty degrees.
i find that surprising.
how can we look the young people in north africa in the eye and say to them with credibility you have to create democracy and the rule of law respect human rights and live by the principles of accountability and transparency if we do not live up to that and are unwilling to do it ourselves?
there is for example a paragraph saying that we should not only address the consequences of terrorism but also the causes;
now let us have a look at the texts that are so incredibly shocking and radical that they have to be taken out.
frankly colleagues i feel that if we are unable to carry out a thorough evaluation of the measures we have taken over the last ten years we lose all credibility and moral authority and that is particularly important at the time of the arab spring.
we do not only have a duty to our own citizens we also have to be a moral compass in the world.
i think that a democracy that is unable and unwilling to take a critical look at its own policies is not worth the term democracy'.
i think this is underlined by the controversy about the report and therefore i think it would have merited the presence of the responsible commissioner the council and many colleagues including the shadows.
if we do not have the best preconditions for five g and the services then we will not have the best opportunities.
i think the answer is quite simple.
not only because of the rapid increase in mobile data traffic which our rapporteur described but also because it is essential as a base for five g regarding connectivity regarding rural areas but also regarding the opportunity to reach through buildings and make the services possible
because if we cannot be in the lead regarding five g we will not be in the lead regarding innovative products companies services and we will not be able to take the lead regarding growth global champions and competitiveness.
of a positive kind for the european economy.
and that also had economic consequences because europe is lagging behind not only regarding four g but also regarding all the services that are coming from four g.
everywhere. and five g will mean huge opportunities for us in healthcare for the car industry for traffic for small cities indeed for everything because it will be not only the internet of things but the internet of everything or anything.
and we must be aware that other parts of the world want to be in the lead china the us and a lot of others.
two thousand and twenty two this means an important opportunity for europe. i think you can say that the third generation of mobile telephony was a digitalisation of telephony and europe was in the lead with very important consequences
that creates problems for our competitiveness innovation unemployment and growth. five g is the normalisation of the digital and that makes the game much more important
this has huge consequences and i think seen from this perspective the decision here tonight is one of the more important in europe in order to make europe strong globally and economically. five g is dependent on the seven hundred mhz band.
but this is global competition.
in at least one major city in every eu member state they have to start to use five g networks on a commercial basis by.
of approaches in the single market; minimising delays for seven hundred mhz availability and resolving cases of cross border interference in a timely manner;
enhancing wireless coverage for high quality connectivity for citizens and innovative services;