kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
i also believe that in the near future we should have the courage to look at the contribution and involvement of some of our member states in the cia renditions in the fight against terrorism. i know it is a very sensitive subject but i think we should have the courage to look at this again.
many very important things were said.
this would be the least i think we can do to make a positive contribution.
there are incredible prison conditions within the european union.
the external action service will lead to a more effective and coordinated european foreign policy and human rights deserve ongoing attention in an integrated comprehensive manner.
many have fled and they could have an opportunity if they could be taken into europe as human rights defenders and dissidents. they could be considered an asset in developing our policies and should not just be seen as a threat or a burden.
this week it has been one year since the presidential elections took place in iran and they mark the beginning of a renewed and brutal crack down by the regime against its own people.
iran's regime serves as an example of all these violations.
as challenging as this is we cannot allow this to be a zero sum game versus human rights.
sanctions will be imposed by the un and the european union but i am not necessarily optimistic about the concrete results that these will render.
i just want to stress that we as members of the european parliament from all political groups have just launched a written declaration on behalf of the european people to support the iranian people and their call for human rights.
empowering the population and standing up for their rights as autonomously legitimate may also render bottom up reforms. domestic opposition thus far seems to move the iranian regime more than international sanctions so this is a clear indicator.
iran is on our political agendas but the international community is mainly preoccupied with the nuclear challenge.
this is just one reminder of the brutal things people do to each other and the practices we really have to stop.
unfortunately we have a sad competition of geographical areas where human rights violations take place as well as horizontal issues such as women's rights and freedom of expression that need attention because they are being violated.
over the past year the regime has cut off the minimal freedoms that the population still had and has virtually silenced the opposition.
i also want to welcome in this debate the annual human rights report and the painstaking work that is carried out at different levels in good faith for this european union to honour our human rights obligations. i welcome the growing number and importance of our human rights dialogues with third countries reflected in the report but the dialogues like the report itself cannot be an end in themselves.
it will be a crucial test of whether we mean what we say.
i want to place on record that we are discussing ideas such as maintaining a horizontal human rights directorate vesting human rights responsibility at assistant secretary general level as well as maintaining human rights desks in each geographic directorate and in every eu delegation worldwide.
mr president history teaches us that usually countries with the highest standards of human rights are also the most prosperous and peaceful.
we should therefore be proud of what the eu has achieved in this respect but those achievements compel us to redouble our efforts to promote human rights around the world.
we are currently faced with many egregious examples of wanton disregard of human rights.
look at north korea where isolation means we can only surmise what horrific abuses are actually taking place there in their concentration camps particularly for those attempting to flee that brutal stalinist nightmare.
and what exactly does their army get up to in the north caucasus? we do not really know.
of course human rights cannot and must not be the sole arbiter of the eu's relations with third countries.
the people's republic of china for example enjoys a growing economic and strategic relationship with the union but continues to brutally suppress fundamental freedoms and even censors the internet.
we have similar links to saudi arabia where alcoholics are beheaded and pakistan which bans the ahmadi muslims.
we need to be realistic about what we can actually achieve but we should never stop trying to convince others of the virtues of our democratic values that have served us so well and are the universal sign of a civilised society.
prohibiting the trade in instruments that can be used exclusively for torture is one very useful action that the eu can take in demonstrating that we do take this issue very seriously indeed.
as the votes in the human rights subcommittee showed in april the report enjoys great support across different groups as the issue of protection of human rights remains of joint interest to us all. we reached good compromises taking into account the different points of view. the eu has already worked out mechanisms and tools of great value
so as i have already emphasised in previous discussions we have to make sure that we achieve better implementation of the existing guidelines with the evaluation of existing policies developing more effective protection. finally i strongly encourage member states
to show stronger political will to support the action of human rights defenders as the report highlights. with the lisbon treaty in place it is important that the protection and security of human rights defenders be made a priority issue in the eu's relationship with third countries
and integrated at all levels of the union's foreign policy in order to increase the coherence effectiveness and credibility of the eu's support for human rights.
sometimes the important parts of our work get overtaken by the urgent and i do believe this parliament has a critical role to play in making sure that we remain true to the founding values that are spelt out in the treaty of lisbon and i quote respect for human dignity freedom democracy equality the rule of law and respect for human rights including the rights of persons belonging to minorities'.
a number of honourable members have talked about human rights defenders and the importance and significance of continuing the dialogue with them.
i have already made it clear that where we can we are working to meet with human rights defenders everywhere that i visit in the world and indeed to invite and see human rights defenders in brussels in my office. recently i met with women from afghanistan to talk about their particular concerns.
we will continue to do this.
it is an integral part of how the external action service should operate. i know that mrs de keyser cannot be here now but i do take her points very much on looking forward on electoral observation. we do need to look again at having a more coherent strategy both in terms of the preparation for electoral missions but also better monitoring in the follow up to that.
her work in monitoring in sudan very much feeds into the way in which i want to take this forward when we have the service operational so that we get better at what we do and we use the information and knowledge more effectively.
these are important values that need to be consistently applied to people everywhere regardless but we need to be sure that we understand what they mean and how we should approach their implementation.
it is not about special rights;
it is about enabling people to be able to access the rights that they are entitled to.
that sometimes means that we have to examine how best to support people.
honourable members who like me have worked in the field of those with disabilities will know that actually accessing human rights for disabled people requires us to make positive changes.
sometimes that is true in other parts of the world and in other communities as well but we also need that level of consistency which a number of honourable members have paid attention to.
in the declaration on political accountability which will be a feature of what we do as we move forward with the external action service i have foreseen the strengthening of exchange of information and access to documents which i hope will help honourable members in some of the comments that have been made on that.
as for structures i am in discussion on structures but i am not going to be bound into having structures that actually prevent us from dealing with human rights as effectively as i would like.
we are ensuring that human rights is a feature of all of the work of all of the delegations but i believe it is a feature of what everybody should be doing.
it is not a silver thread if we simply put it in a box called human rights and put it in a corner.
too often that is what i see organisations doing and i will not do that with the external action service.
it has to be a clear part of everything i do and everything that all those involved do.
unfortunately we have not found favour with all member states.
in terms of the accession to the european convention on human rights it is an important objective very definitely within the lisbon treaty and we are glad that we have the mandate to work to complete that.
but it will be done in parallel with the membership of the individual member states in terms of the obligations that we have.
i have particularly noted the important comments that have been made that will help me be guided for the future and i pay tribute again to the human rights committee for the work that they have done.
fatca breaches the right to data privacy of the european convention on human rights and the big financial barriers to renouncing citizenship breach article fifteen of the universal declaration of human rights.
she didn't even know that she was accidentally an american citizen because she was born there.
born to british parents and having gone to school in britain worked all her life in britain and retired in britain she's now being chased down like a criminal by the usa.
so you think that international relations are more important than the interests of your own citizens.
we are talking about at least one hundred and ten zero citizens in just seven countries of the european union so we are probably talking hundreds of thousands.
americans decide on their own system;
and we are not just talking about basic bank accounts we are talking about getting a mortgage loan to buy a house which i think is a fundamental right or a business loan for an sme which we were just talking about.
maybe it would be a good start even before the summer break to show a little more concern for the interests of european citizens.
why are you saying that it doesn't concern you?
apparently then it was our concern.
it is our prime concern and you know what the funny thing is there are only two countries in the world that have citizen based taxation.
so what is different now?
so i expect the european council to start talks with the united states about the abolition of citizen based taxation or at the very least an exemption for eu citizens because it is your duty.
one is the us the other is eritrea and when eritrea came here to europe and tried to impose taxes on eritrean citizens here everybody reacted.
you have just started your presidency.
but then i made a request for access to documents and i got fourteen zero documents correspondence between the european commission and the us authorities on fatca so.
so if you can tell eritrea off surely you can tell the united states off too.
we hardly have any talks with the americans about this'.
what you are saying is that you consider your relationship with the american authorities more important than the rights of citizens.
that's funny and the other thing that is also funny is that when i started to dig into this six years ago i got the same answer oh you know taxation there is nothing we can do.
the impact on citizens. if the situation of citizens is not your concern then what are you doing here?
therefore in two thousand and sixteen a collective of european citizens from nine different member states submitted a petition to parliament to my committee alerting us via the committee about the impact of fatca and its implementing intergovernmental
results in heavy fines for financial institutions many of them in the eu have responded by avoiding all commercial business with customers presenting any us connection whether actual or not.
they testified to the violation of various fundamental principles of eu law including the right to respect for private life the prohibition of discrimination and data protection rules as well as the eu payment accounts directive. all this was brought to our attention
they are in many cases completely unaware that they are us citizens.
in addition financial institutions have to disclose detailed information on accounts held by presumed socalled us persons to the us internal revenue service via their national governments.
in practice fatca has affected a large number of citizens in europe such as citizens who are nationals of both the usa and an eu member state and in particular the socalled accidental americans' who by accident of birth inherited us citizenship but who maintain no ties at all to the usa never having lived worked or studied there
the lives and livelihoods of thousands of citizens in the eu are at stake here.
however more than eight years after fatca's adoption while unilateralism and protectionism unfortunately appear to be the cornerstones of us foreign policy it is now high time to assess the extraterritorial effects of fatca
their family members are also affected. these issues need to be addressed at eu level all together.
those falling within the definition of us persons have their savings accounts frozen they have no access to banking services including life insurance pensions and mortgages due to the reluctance of financial institutions to follow the fatca reporting.
on thousands and thousands of law abiding eu citizens and their families.
this and i am eager to convey this message to the commission this evening could constitute a breach of eu data protection rules and eu fundamental rights and therefore it requires further investigation.
and do not hold us social security numbers.
and to tell you the truth it was shocking.
fatca requires foreign financial institutions to search for us persons by looking at a variety of indicators including indicators of power of attorney over the account of a us person with a us address against which the individual is required to prove that he or she is not a us person. because noncompliance with the requirement imposed
agreements on european citizens.
we trust that the commission will carefully assess whether it has been correctly implemented by all member states and will take any appropriate measures in the case of any breach.
therefore it is not for the council to interpret the legal provisions concerning taxpayers in specific non eu countries.
two thousand and twelve in july two thousand and fourteen parliament and the council enacted a payment accounts directive which has been in application since september two thousand and sixteen and all member states have notified transposition of the measures contained in the directive.
therefore the same data protection rules apply to all data subjects who are in the european union including eu citizens and residents irrespective of which member state they are staying in.
in light of these considerations the possibility for the negotiation of an eu us agreement on fatca has not been discussed by the council.
the gdpr provides that processing of personal data such as the disclosure of personal data on bank accounts is only lawful if its processing has a legal basis such as an international agreement between an eu member state and the us. moreover the gdpr applies to the processing of personal data regardless of whether the processing of the data takes place within the european union or not.
the double taxation situations which can arise from that principle are solved through bilateral agreements based on international arrangements such as the oecd ones. it is not the role of the council either to interpret intergovernmental agreements concluded by member states and the us or to evaluate the impact that they may have on citizens.
however it is for the commission to assess the implementation of eu legislation by the member states and in particular the correct transposition of the payment accounts directive.
when it comes to the us legislation on fatca and its possible extraterritorial effects let me state the following it is a principle of international law that the sovereignty of each state implies that it can freely define its taxpayers.
tax residents.
which is currently being implemented by over one hundred jurisdictions.
should member states not enforce this directive the commission will decide on appropriate measures including the launching of an infringement procedure.
nevertheless it should be borne in mind that similar reporting obligations are required under the directive on administrative cooperation and at international level through the oecd global standard for automatic exchange of financial information.
they have concluded bilateral agreements with the united states based on the same model.
this has been acknowledged at international level and in the tax treaties signed by the us with all member states.
the commission understands that one of the practical problems that eu financial institutions are confronted with is that they need a us tax identification or social security number to report the financial information required under fatca to the united states tax authorities.
as parliament rightly states in the oral question us tax rules are based on citizenship.
this includes accidental americans' people who were born in the united states or to united states parents and who may not have any other connection to the united states.
national legislation implementing the agreements has to be in line with the requirements of eu data protection law and the eu charter of fundamental rights.
as a result anyone holding us citizenship anyone residing mostly in the united states or entitled to permanent residence in the united states will be subject to us tax obligations.
however customers who are subject to fatca may not have such a number and obtaining it seems to be cumbersome and potentially costly.
concerning the possible discrimination towards consumers and their right to payment accounts all consumers who are legally resident in the eu including real and accidental americans are entitled to open a basic payment account irrespective of their nationality or member state of residence under the payment accounts directive.
at the same time the commission acknowledges that fatca and the related intergovernmental agreements may have the unintended effect of hindering access to financial services in the eu for persons regarded by the us authorities as american citizens or
i would also like to underline that the information exchange requirements under the act as such are similar to those in our eu directive on mandatory automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation and to the oecd global standard for automatic exchange of financial account information
applause secondly i think what my colleague ms wikstrm said an impact assessment needs to be done to establish the extent of this and to find out what actually is happening in the greatest detail.
also you mentioned the general data protection regulation gdpr which has come in in may.
if it is it has to stop because i think we have to ensure that our citizens are protected from fatca being applied by the fat cats of the american revenue commissioners.
madam president i would like to thank you again for raising this issue and making us aware of the difficulties faced by accidental americans'.
i have heard also the input from the commission and from the meps who stayed late this evening to fight for the people affected and i fully appreciate this.
i understand some member states have been in contact bilaterally with the us authorities over concerns linked to the implementation of fatca.
on to take collective action since member states have been dealing with this issue individually in close cooperation with the us.
and i would state that again because what we are talking about here are bilateral agreements.
nevertheless the payment account directive contains a detailed review clause.
the commission has been requested both by the council and by the european parliament to submit a report three years after implementation of the directive accompanied by any appropriate proposals.
the report will deal in particular with infringements to the application of the directive.
the report should also highlight the number of credit institutions offering payment accounts with basic features the associate fees the characteristics of the consumers who have opened payment accounts with basic features as well as best practices for reducing consumers' exclusion from access to payment services.
however the presidency will of course remain available for exchanges on the subject as needed and is ready to be in touch with the commission.
i hope that i was able to clarify the situation and i thank you again for your attention.
finally the marie curie reintegration grants have been restructured and simplified into a single career integration grant action which specifically addresses the issue of the brain drain.
however the commission is aware that such an approach has potential drawbacks for example length of negotiation procedures and it is perceived differently by different stakeholders.
the average time to grant in the seventh framework programme fp seven is in the order of three hundred and forty days about one month shorter than in the sixth framework program fp.
high risk high gain projects are in particular expected in the ideas specific programme which is implemented by the european research council.
one of the options the commission has put forward for further discussion with the other institutions and stakeholders relates to the move towards a results based approach using lump sums for whole projects.
within the endeavour of creating a european research area the administrative harmonisation between national and european research funding systems is a long term objective which is shared by the commission. era nets in fp six and fp seven are contributing to this goal and the joint programming initiatives will bring more progress.
preliminary analyses show that the selection process designed by the european research council is successful in challenging the funding to these high risk high gain projects. the marie curie actions are a key instrument to reverse the persistent trend towards a brain drain of researchers.
in april of this year the commission adopted a communication on simplifying the implementation of the research framework programmes proposing a whole set of measures including gradual improvements but also profound changes requiring a revision of the legal basis of eu research and a rebalancing between trust and control and between risk taking and risk avoidance.
six while the commission acknowledges that there is room for further acceleration of the relevant processes benchmarking with national funders shows that for projects of comparable complexity a time to grant in the order of one year is certainly not unusual.
as a further step a stakeholder's platform for common principles for external funding in the era was established recently.
this approach would remove the obligation to produce detailed cost statements by introducing lump sums for entire projects and linking the payments exclusively to the reporting on scientific technical progress.
four seven billion in fp seven marie curie actions will equip about fifty zero researchers including ten zero phd candidates with innovative skills that will enhance their career prospects in both the public and private sector and will prepare them for the jobs of the future.
the commission therefore suggests studying all implementation details and potential impacts thoroughly before making concrete legislative proposals.