kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
now they are brutally closing down the door down on desperate people who want to contribute to their economy.
undoubtedly highquality accurate and reliable statistical data can only be produced by independent statistical authorities. the professional independence of the eu's national and unionlevel statistical bodies is enshrined in eu law.
the implementation of the code's sixteen principles is monitored by the independent european statistical governance advisory board which informs both parliament and the council.
the commission has repeatedly reiterated since two thousand and sixteen its full confidence in the reliability and accuracy of elstat data from two thousand and ten to two thousand and fifteen and since then.
against this background in june this year on the occasion of concluding greece's third programme the eurogroup mandated the institutions to continue monitoring developments in the legal proceedings against the former president and senior staff of elstat and against the members of the committee of experts of the hellenic republic asset development fund.
the institutions are expected to report back to the eurogroup in the context of the postprogramme surveillance.
these reports in addition to the regular reporting by the european statistical agencies will keep us informed on the situation related to elstat.
it also mandated them to monitor the supporting actions taken by the greek authorities including legislative actions if needed in full respect of the independence of the judiciary.
issues related to statistics are therefore a regular item on the council's agenda. the council regularly once every year reviews the eu's statistical information needs examines reports provided by eu statistical bodies and adopts conclusions which evaluate progress and set priorities for the upcoming year.
the issue has also been addressed by the eurogroup in the context of greece's third economic adjustment programme whose conditionality included requirements to review the provisions related to the autonomy of independent parties including elstat.
the eu's statistical authorities also operate according to the european statistics code of practice.
allegations that the russian federation has begun producing and developing new missiles which could be aimed at eu countries and which are not in compliance with russia's treaty obligations deserve to be treated seriously and need to be resolved.
we mustn't give up on that and must put all our efforts into the rescue of the inf. i also believe that debates like the one today in the european parliament remind people including decision makers in moscow and washington of the value of the inf treaty for european and global security and the stake that we in europe have in this treaty's future.
this should happen through a responsible dialogue including at the highest level.
this concerns the substance decabde. for political reasons which are not clear to me but which i would say just amount to negligence we find ourselves in a position where this substance was not granted a recycling exemption at un level despite the fact that less stable substances from the same chemical group have recycling derogations in place and these were not removed by the stockholm convention.
i am aware that not all members of this house are supportive of echa they don't particularly support it as an organisation but in my former role as parliament's echa liaison person for many years i witnessed at first hand the excellent work that they do.
we are talking about nine hundred zero tons of endoflife vehicle plastic waste each year which will probably end up being exported outside europe for recycling where standards are far less rigorous and there is a real risk of it finding its way illegally into products such as toys which are then imported into europe.
if we deal with it and recycle it within europe to high standards that should not and cannot happen. amendment thirty seven seeks to impose a more ambitious target and while i fully support ambition its adoption would actually be negative rather than positive. what's more my amendment thirty includes a review of the limit in five years' time and this is crucially important.
without this amendment the vast majority of plastics recyclers dealing with weee and endoflife vehicles would have to dramatically reduce their activities or stop altogether.
this was regrettable because it would have been best to have the issue dealt with at committee level.
i cannot emphasise strongly enough the importance of this amendment when it comes to the eu's circular economy objectives.
amendment thirty concerns five substances four of which currently have individual recycling derogations of one zero ppm and it imposes a limit of one zero ppm for all five combined.
so i have re tabled the same amendment that's amendment thirty for plenary.
i also include in my amendment a review of this limit in five years' time.
i sought to address this issue at committee level but the oral amendment that i proposed was rejected by meps from some of the political groups.
this would particularly and disproportionately affect smes.
the latest research on persistent organic pollutants shows a worrying persistence of previously banned substances particularly in the polar regions and it's important that we keep up the momentum on this. the report includes a new role for the european chemicals agency
this is a move that i strongly welcome.
i very much welcome the use of their in house expertise on pops as opposed to using outside consultants. that is a good move forward. we're limited in what we can change here as the stockholm convention supersedes the eu legislation so this report has been relatively straightforward
but there are issues and there is one particular issue the problem of plastics recycling which remains to be resolved in the vote tomorrow.
the commission fully recognises and respects the independence of the judicial authorities in greece.
the situation of mr georgiou is of concern to you as well as to the commission.
for the commission it is essential that the independence of the statistical authorities and of the people who perform their duties in line with their responsibilities is protected.
the commission will therefore continue to monitor the application of fundamental statistical principles in all member states and i thank the house for its support on this.
they should be allowed to perform their tasks without political considerations or pressure.
i am glad that some of you recognised that the independence of elstat has been strengthened.
i commissioned james patrick to analyse scottish twitter and he produced this report.
and the use of technology the abuse of data was very much part of that campaign by a deeply dubious leave campaign which wholesale abused the law.
and we need to learn the lessons of our most recent experience brexit.
i come from scotland where we comprehensively rejected brexit but it remains very much our problem. because the fact is colleagues the uk's a more developed democracy than most but the uk's laws on campaign finance data protection election transparency and the transparency of actors foreign and domestic have been proven to be not fit for purpose
so we should avoid hysteria but we do need to learn the lessons of where our laws are not fit for purpose.
if it's happening in scottish twitter colleagues it's happening in your democracy as well and i fear that our laws are not fit for purpose across our house and our all our democracies are under threat.
under the tran committee's amendments passengers will only have the right to onward travel on the next train in the course of delays and cancellations where a connection is missed in the course of a single transport contract.
so particularly problematic is the commission's proposal for the introduction of a socalled force majeure' clause seeking to allow rail companies to refuse to pay compensation to passengers for delays and cancellations in certain circumstances including severe weather conditions.
so in the vote tomorrow i urge all meps to support the alternative approach tabled by myself and many others in particular do not make rail passengers suffer still further for the consequences of external factors causing problems with their journeys.
that fact is not just anecdotal but is acknowledged independently by the international rail regulators' group and the european court of auditors.
in real life this is often not the case when tickets are bought separately.
whilst the tran committee's amendments do have some good points as our rapporteur has explained they allow exemptions for suburban rail services despite evidence showing that these are the most widely used services by passengers across europe especially younger people.
deterring russia is a tricky task.
it's not a complicated principle is it?
you advertise a service the customer buys the service and if the service fails to deliver then the consumer is entitled to redress.
that is why we've re submitted amendments that is why i've resigned them and that is why i will be voting for them tomorrow.
the point of this recast must be to ensure that public transport is run for the benefit of the travelling public and not solely for the benefit of the people who run the railways.
for my group the s d this is a big priority and i think the previous speaker spoke very eloquently on why that is the case and i should say that very directly to him.
for years we have been warning about the threat posed by the collection of citizens' data online by a handful of social media companies and the power of those who hold this information.
the revelations involving cambridge analytica and facebook highlight the extent of this problem and show that the issue has now reached the point of threatening our core values.
the author said that these were real threats to our democracy and not virtual threats.
the issue today as the commissioners have begun to set out is one of action and my group is interested now in action and not just talking about the issue.
seven months out from the european elections after the presidential elections in the us and after the uk referendum and leaving the european union i think it is about time that we talked about what we do and the commission has begun this process.
so let's be clear in what we have to do and let's not leave this debate without saying it.
recent requirements in the last weeks introduced in the united states but not here in the european union and also by the way in the united kingdom to verify the identity location and sponsor of political advertisements have happened but not here.
this is important and the same standards should be applied throughout the eu.
but this does not just reveal the data involved in targeting users which could help facebook users contextualise political ads understand how their data has been used or potentially misused and be able to respond to attempts to manipulate their opinion.
we should have full algorithmic accountability and transparency for citizens to be able to protect themselves against any manipulation and to protect our electoral processes from possible foreign interference.
we have now proven that this is happening and we should have gdpr as the commissioner said but also the cybersecurity resilience which commissioner king should redouble his efforts to provide.
and we should if possible and i say this to the council be imaginative about e privacy regulation if that is also possible because the facebook model was not just dealt with by the question of gdpr.
but we need further tools and further regulation and not just gdpr to deal with those further issues.
we have to look at how political parties and campaigns are using social platforms for campaign purposes.
we have called for a code of conduct to be developed with the participation of all actors concerned.
that is where the line has been crossed and that is where we need legislative action when necessary.
but we also believe that applying conventional offline electoral safeguards such as rules on transparency and limits to spending respect for silence periods and equal treatment of candidates is essential making it easy to recognise online political paid advertisements and the organisations behind them.
we have spoken about the threats to our democracy to our very core values.
we at the european parliament have had the hearings from journalists from the guardian we've examined cambridge analytica we have interviewed facebook.
let's do something about it and let's have that action now.
whilst we confront the cambridge analytica scandal the british government refused to extend electoral transparency legislation to the north of ireland to expose this rotten saga.
coincidentally the british government is being propped up by whom? the dup the same dup who refused to comment on the origins of this dark money a party with no respect for rights no respect for privacy and absolutely no concern for how the dark money was used for a brexit outcome that damages ireland particularly the constituency that it represents.
we didn't hear the rest of your contribution because i had to cut the microphone.
our compensation measures are already well established and clear the system works well and passengers understand it.
by reducing the scope for when companies must compensate passengers this report will dumb down what we've achieved and undermine our high standards. the report also contains some concerning provisions for passengers with reduced mobility.
the requirement that they must certify service animals such as guide dogs before boarding a train is nonsensical.
differences between large urban and small rural stations must be acknowledged but national transport departments should liaise closely with rail companies and consumer groups to decide on these matters.
finally we all want to see greater use of bicycles but the requirement that all services have eight designated spaces is wholly impractical.
many operators would have to order new rolling stock to meet the demand and it could result in chronic overcrowding in rush hour services and again such issues as this should be determined locally and nationally.
for those reasons the british conservatives will be voting against the report at this time but we do hope that the institutions can improve the text.
mr president a person's right to vote by secret ballot and universal suffrage for his or her own government representation is enshrined in the universal declaration of human rights and this very right is now being challenged by foreign actors and russia has been mentioned but it is not alone.
many are using misinformation as a form of hybrid warfare or even more sophisticated techniques such as deep fakes through ai and machine learning to deceive.
they're meant to erode the trust in the public debate and in liberal democracy itself.
so there's a lot at stake and we must do what we can.
what i missed in the introduction by the commissioner which i generally thought was very comprehensive is a notion of an assessment of the very business models of facebook youtube and others that are designed to sell more advertisements.
whether or not that lists conspiracy theories on the top it doesn't really matter for them they are not developed to advance democracy but i do think they should respect the rule of law.
in that context selfregulation is not enough.
i think every chance has been taken and we've seen that it's not enough so responsibility has to be taken algorithmic accountability is needed a sector inquiry is needed and we need to look at bots.
bots don't have freedom of expression the way individuals do.
we need transparency of politicallyfunded advertisements and in the use of microtargeting.
we need stress tests of our election technology because the weakest link can hurt all of us.
and political parties and candidates needs to be prepared and so should journalists in how they may or may not deal with leaks.
in other words we need accountability.
europe as well as the us has a wideranging reputation for having interfered in the internal political processes democratic or not of others.
when is it not?
retaliation for it can take forms unexpected by us and unacceptable to us.
what retaliation is legitimate when others interfere in our affairs?
replies to such questions cannot be symmetric between countries and specific cases.
after all this parliament regularly holds debates that seek to influence political events in and outside europe.
the common position on arms exports lays down procedure and common criteria by which individual member states should guide their transactions of arms and military technologies.
profits cannot be made at the expense of human security and respect of human rights.
each member state should take the responsibility for its arms exports.
within this report we call on the exporting countries to apply assessment criteria when exporting weaponry and ensure full transparency of such transactions.
for trump it isn't about pressurising russia into compliance it is about strategic competition with china and strengthening us military capabilities in the pacific.
that means the european security architecture is no longer by definition the us's principal security interest.
my questions were going to be for the external action service but unfortunately there's no representative here from them or the commission.
do you think we can still rescue the inf treaty and if not what is the backup plan for keeping nuclear missiles out of europe?
finally how can the eu revive disarmament in the context of deep scepticism about arms control in china and in the us?
i would like the commission to react quickly.
it still shows us that the retail markets for consumers get cheaper prices than the wholesale market caps that we agreed and halved the proposal from the commission. even the council wanted to get it higher.
so it's of the utmost importance that we get this functioning and we need new legislation for that.
we also agree that migrants' human rights should be fully upheld. special attention should be given to the needs of the most vulnerable including children and women and importantly we also agreed that tackling the root causes of migration including poverty citizens' security and governancerelated is essential.
the eu will continue to closely follow the situation and use all the instruments available to support the countries of origin to provide security and a future to their populations.
first of all dealing with the whole roaming situation the big operators didn't want us to work on it they challenged us but we got there and then we came along and we did geo blocking and now we have the cap to calls' costs to the european union. this is a great success for the european parliament and indeed for citizens because we are seen to deliver for them.
lessons learned from interference elsewhere in both the united states and other parts of the world enable cooperation over political divisions in tackling these problems because rightly we say that
i would like to tackle one thing the electoral process is still a dominant role and competence of eu member states.
well this is entirely a great example of how it does.
climate change fanatics come here and tell us that we're going to have plagues and death and species dying out and the world's going to end.
they come here with that message then the people who want to have more control and more power in the eu take this and think oh this is great;
we can say we're going to tax more we can say we're going to spend more control more fine people tell them what they can do how they can produce things and we can say if you don't do it the world's going to end. ' it's perfect it's a lovely symmetry that's going on here.
why not create an environment where companies and industries will make research look into this new greener technology that you want and actually make a profit doing it rather than being forced into it from top down with the threat of all this alarmism and nonsense.
madam president this has been a very useful exchange and i thank the honourable members for their interventions.
from this debate i conclude that we share a common interest in using the diplomatic power and instruments of the eu and its member states to their full potential in support of preserving and implementing the joint comprehensive plan of action which is vital for eu and international security. may i close by signalling once again my appreciation of parliament's role in keeping this important issue on its agenda.
and in decarbonisation of transport. first of all let me stress that the commission very much welcomes parliament's objective to promote more attractive rail services and better passenger protection but allow me to comment on some of your specific amendments.
first on amendments beyond the recast legislative technique we do have some institutional concerns over specific amendments which are not in line with the rules agreed between our institutions for the recast legislative technique. some changes such as the compensation levels in cases of service delay or cancellations are
not part of the commission's legislative proposal.
this said we fully understand and share your good intentions to increase passengers' protection in the sector and we will examine the respective provisions put forward in detail taking account of the commission's prerogative of legislative initiative.
of course for those provisions which have been included in the commission's recast proposal and which have undergone significant amendment following the ep debate for example regulation on through tickets we stand ready to actively participate in the upcoming interinstitutional discussions.
on persons with reduced mobility it really goes without saying that we are very much in favour of increasing to the most feasible and realistic extent the mobility of all european citizens.
we therefore very much value parliament's effort to improve the situation of persons with disabilities and reduced mobility.
we are open to those amendments that can lay solid ground for generally improving the mobility of these citizens in need.
it's a really good example of how we can improve conditions and how we can really enable all european citizens to be able to take advantage of european programmes.
on bicycles it will be of no surprise to you that i also welcome those amendments which may further contribute to increasing the use of ecologically friendly transport modes such as bicycles.
the commission shares your enthusiasm about new mobility opportunities.
further efforts will be needed in order to ensure that there are no loopholes on this path.
for example passengers shall be properly informed about those new opportunities.
we shall also ensure that when train capacity for taking bicycles on board is reached any possible refusal takes place on transparent and justifiable grounds.
on passenger information i would also like to stress that the commission welcomes amendments that increase the level of rail passenger information about their rights the journey opportunities offered to them as well as events and outcomes surrounding the trip.
on derogations we will not be able to truly promote the interests of eu rail passengers and the single market if our legal provisions are accompanied by a widespread practice of granting derogations.
the commission therefore supports increased limitations on such derogation possibilities which should be based on a purely balanced approach taking into account both passengers' and industrial interests.
to conclude i am convinced that all efforts invested in this legislative file will pay off.
improving the current rules would not only increase the mobility of eu citizens and open new opportunities but also open new opportunities to them.
it would also contribute to enhancing competition in the rail sector and also improve rail services.
on the other hand please let me state as a former judge that the independence of the judicial system is also one of the cornerstones of the rule of law and democracy and therefore i can only assure you that we will closely follow the developments. however i hope that we don't have to come back to such a situation again.