kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
we will move either towards a new era of reconciliation and cooperation in this part of europe and the entire region of the eastern mediterranean or towards a situation where it is easy to see that we will be faced with rapidly mounting problems. much of our attention is on the challenges of south eastern europe
i belong to those who are convinced that this would be a mistake of historic proportions the consequences of which would haunt our europe for a very long time to come.
i do believe that we must remain an open europe and that we should remain committed to an enlargement process that brings good governance the rule of law reconciliation peace and prosperity to larger and larger parts of our europe.
that brought in approximately one hundred million new citizens to our union our attention is now focused on the countries of south eastern europe perhaps up to one hundred million citizens as well.
this is an area where our union must also be more present and engaged in the future.
this is important for croatia and for the entire region.
the different challenges we face in the different countries of the western balkans are well known and the magnitude of the transformation of turkey has not escaped us either.
it is by this that nineteen of the countries of our union today have become members and part of the historic undertaking of our union.
in ambition in standing in possibilities in respect across the globe.
along with parliament we share the hope that albania and bosnia will catch up and will be able to join this most important step as soon as possible.
the success of these would bring the country much closer to our european standards in areas of fundamental importance.
now we are instead exporting the idea of peaceful reconciliation of integration across old borders of common rules and regulations as the common way to better governance.
that is why article forty nine remains of such fundamental importance.
the applications of montenegro and albania have been forwarded to the commission and i believe we can expect its opinion within a year or so.
may apply to become a member of the union.
your resolution is surely right to say that enlargement and i quote has proven to be one of the most successful of all european union policies'. this is if anything an understatement.
the accession process of croatia has been unblocked and is now moving forward.
add to this all that has been achieved by article forty nine and it also makes our union stand taller in the world. a europe of six of nine of twelve of fifteen or even of twenty five would have been smaller in every single respect
in bosnia it is our hope that the political leaders will be able to agree on the reforms necessary in order to make it possible for that country as well to contemplate an application for membership.
but the application of iceland is adding to the reasons we have to focus more of our attention on all the issues of the arctic and the wider high north.
the former yugoslav republic of macedonia has been given a very positive report by the commission and it is my hope that the council in december will be able to concretely indicate further steps in its accession process.
we can only urge them to move forward towards a comprehensive solution on the basis of a bi communal bi zonal federation with political equality in accordance with the relevant un security council resolutions.
its importance is coming more and more into the focus of all the significant global actors and the application of iceland should also be seen from that perspective. with a democratic tradition that reaches back a thousand years or so and with its membership in our single market through the european economic area it is obvious that iceland has already travelled quite a bit on the road to membership although we will have to assess the further progress when we get the avis from the commission.
the previous three decades did not even succeed in fully implementing the treaty of rome. article forty nine is as important i would argue to our future as it has been to our past.
we still have some important weeks in which i expect further progress but let me conclude by saying that i do not believe that we have completed the building of our europe.
i remember coming in a different capacity to an earlier european parliament representing a country seeking accession and also meeting those who feared that further enlargement from the then twelve would risk diluting the political ambitions of the union.
that is a major and most important step forward.
moving further to the south east i would like to pay tribute to the fundamental reforms under way in turkey on the kurdish question.
it is by this article that we have managed to promote peace and prosperity and further the rule of law and representative government in ever larger parts of this once so conflict ridden part of the world.
it remains our ambition to move all of the countries of the western balkans forward in the accession process knowing that they are at very different stages of it.
serbia has been making good progress on its unilateral implementation of the interim agreement and we will obviously look very carefully at the upcoming report by the icty chief prosecutor concerning its cooperation with its efforts.
their door to our union might sometimes be a very distant one.
this is obviously of key importance to them but we should recognise that it is of key importance to us as well and let us not forget that it will also make it possible for us to stand taller in the world and for our voice to demand even greater respect in the future.
these only work together in tandem in unison and that is indeed the best recipe for driving reforms and democratic and economic transformation in south eastern europe.
together we have made a difference.
however i am a man of moderation believe it or not and i believe that there are certain limits to how much attraction and fascination a man can take.
in that sense too i am very pleased that the strong commitment is being kept up in this resolution.
i hope that the history of armed conflict of cruelty beyond imagination in that part of europe will be over once and for all and i think the european union plays an essential part in that.
i happen to be the permanent rapporteur for montenegro which is a good news story in terms of progress towards membership and it has just applied fairly recently.
with regard to turkey there remain many concerns over human rights the ongoing blockade of armenia religious freedoms and the refusal to admit cypriot ships to turkish ports. it was also regrettable in my mind that turkey recently invited to the oic summit in istanbul president bashir of sudan a man indicted by the international criminal court for the horrors of darfur.
by extending the benefits of eu membership to those countries that are eligible under article forty nine we hope to see develop the looser more flexible europe in which we believe as a group.
finally although ukraine is a country not directly linked to this debate i hope also that regardless of the results of the impending presidential elections in ukraine the eu will continue to hold out the possibility of eventual eu membership for ukraine if that is indeed the majority view of the people of ukraine.
nevertheless i will also be visiting that country soon to make up my own mind and have an independent assessment.
this. i hope for the sake of the citizens and for the region as a whole that the bosnian leaders will rise to the occasion and reach an
croatia is nearing the finishing line after four years of intense accession negotiations.
rights. respect for human rights is a founding principle of the european union. together with the presidency and the united states we have proposed a package of reforms to achieve
it is here that we have achieved our most remarkable successes over the past twenty years of transforming the european continent by reunifying east and west and thus building a stronger european union.
it is also true that the eu's credibility as a global actor stands or falls by our ability to shape our very own neighbourhood.
these factors enabled the commission to recommend the opening of accession negotiations. i have the impression that the government in skopje has rightly seen our recommendation as an encouragement to finally settle the name issue with greece. there is now a new context
agreement. the eu and the us are engaged at the highest levels because we want bosnia to succeed and i believe it can
we are now if you look at the public opinion polls one of the more euro positive countries in europe.
it applies to each and every one.
i do not like the word.
it requires reconciliation.
i see our union as enriching the countries when we enter and i have yet to see an enlargement that has made our union weaker.
our process of enlargement as everyone has been pointing out is performance based.
much has been achieved.
i also express our appreciation for the very broad support for the policy of enlargement that has been expressed throughout this debate by all of the representatives of all of the major political factions here. i think that is a source of strength.
you are not part of one of the major groups.
i am sorry about that.
i do agree with that but we should also recognise that this requires determined political leadership by each and every one of us.
let me assure you that we are aware of the issues of kosovo and of the need to move forward with them taking some of the issues that we have inside our union into account as well.
every single enlargement although it has been difficult has made our union stronger has made it richer has made it more ambitious and i for one do not belong to those who believe that history has come to an end.
it requires reforms.
it took political leadership to achieve that.
if you read article forty nine of the treaty and that is what we have to base our policies on it does not make any exceptions for big countries it does not make any exceptions for complicated cases and it has no religious criteria.
if you look back on the history of our union it is easy to note that very little in the history of european integration has happened because of some sudden groundswell of public opinion demanding it.
the steps and statements made by prime minister papandreou lately.
and that applies to each and every one.
it did apply to sweden once upon a time and we managed.
i think that would be a mistake.
and i do not know if france wants to be absorbed.
that is what we have been trying to do and to a certain extent are still trying to do.
mr president the enlargement strategy paper and the resolution we are going to adopt tomorrow show our strong commitment to the enlargement policy which has proved to be one of the most successful of all eu policies and has benefited both existing and new member states.
enlargement has contributed to an unprecedented extension of the area of peace security and prosperity in europe and now we prepare the further extension of this area to encompass in the years to come the western balkans iceland and turkey.
the alliance of socialists and democrats remains one of the most pro enlargement forces in this parliament while underlining that no compromises can be made with the fulfilment of the copenhagen criteria and all the important benchmarks on which the preparedness of the candidates is evaluated.
we hope to see the negotiations with croatia concluded as early as possible next year.
we expect that the council will confirm the proposal of the european commission to start negotiations with the former yugoslav republic of macedonia next year so that the process can begin next year.
we hope for new dynamics in the negotiation process with turkey including opening of the energy chapter.
and we believe that the eu can keep up the momentum reinforcing the positive developments in all enlargement countries.
the visa liberalisation is an excellent step to demonstrate to the people in the western balkans that they move in the right direction.
let me also express the hope that the entry into force of the lisbon treaty will further increase the capacity of the eu to integrate new members finalising the institutional reforms within the union.
and the idea that the central values of europe democracy human rights solidarity should encompass all the states of europe has been and will remain at the heart of europe's identity.
the europe that exists was built around the proposition that through integration the states of europe will gradually accept a peaceful resolution of conflicts but this process does not come without effort.
no state is coerced into joining but in order to join the eu certain conditions must be met.
at the same time precisely because meeting the conditions requires a major effort acceding states must also be encouraged to make the effort involved and not only that. the obligations that go with eu membership must be transferred from paper to practice.
without implementation the process remains empty.
the eu is ready to accept the states of the western balkans and turkey as full members but it is up to them to meet the conditions that the eu has set.
when we are discussing turkey we should not forget the amazing progress that has also been made in turkey in areas where a few years ago we thought would not ever have been possible.
we have also to prepare not only the acceding countries but also the existing member states.
management of expectations is also extremely important and i believe that perhaps in the future we should be a little bit more imaginative in trying to allow for some kind of gradual integration of a country for which full integration is not to be envisaged in the short term. my last point is that i believe we have to revisit the problem issue of our identity our cultural and geopolitical identity in order to know exactly what
their european dream to quote the commissioner is that they will receive subsidies.
the fact is that rich countries for example norway and switzerland simply do not want to join the eu.
to make the telling point iceland when it was a rich country had no interest in joining the european union.
now that it is bankrupt and sadly so the icelandic government is of course in the queue to join.
this situation is unstable untenable and unsustainable.
in fact you are driving it towards economic chaos in the future.
madam president today's debate and resolution gives the new european parliament the opportunity to recommit itself to the further enlargement of the european union to note the positive developments that there are in the candidate countries in almost every individual case and to remind ourselves that freeing up trade buttressing stability
the european conservatives repeat today that they say they favour enlargement but at the same time exclude it from the founding document of their new group whose official spokesperson speaking in this debate repeats his opposition to turkey thus putting them in exactly the same camp as the far right as we have all heard this afternoon. however i do express my warm thanks to commission olli rehn whose good humour was reflected by his recent comment that in future the directorate general for enlargement should not be an equal distance from either the council or the commission in the middle of rue de la loi.
i appreciate his good humour and i appreciate his good judgement.
i hope his legacy will be the accession of all current eu candidate countries.
calls on the commission therefore to choose where appropriate and principally where there is no need for further discretion when implementing eu legislation regulations rather than directives as the preferred legal instrument for regulating the single market since they have clear advantages in terms of efficiency and effectiveness and create a level playing field for citizens and business with greater potential for private enforcement'.
i gave ms in't veld a little bit of extra time because she has four hundred followers on twitter. i have only got nine.
this reflection should also include and help global commercial players to better define their roles and their responsibilities in the promotion and strengthening of the fundamental freedom of expression in the global online environment of the internet.
so it is about implementation.
indeed these two objectives can and should be pursued in synergy.
we already have a number of binding international instruments on this subject.
let me assure you that the commission continues to be committed to strengthening citizens' fundamental rights and fundamental freedoms and in particular to ensuring a high level of protection of privacy and personal data both on the internet and in other contexts.
again these two goals are not mutually exclusive.
regarding freedom of speech the commission will continue to promote this fundamental right in international forums.
the commission participates in the yearly international conferences of data protection commissioners and follows the ongoing work on possible future international standards on privacy and personal data protection.
the promotion of fundamental freedoms and security on the internet. whilst the internet has acquired a stronger and stronger weight in modern societies and economies impacting in many areas of our lives the tremendous pace of technological development raises at the same time significant challenges which need to be duly addressed
strategic cooperation with third countries will be developed within the strategy notably in information society dialogues as a vehicle to build global consensus in this area.
i believe we should tackle the serious challenges that this report brings to light and make sure that the concrete exercise of rights and freedoms is not unduly limited on the internet.
this strategy includes an action plan which defines a road map to promote principles and guidelines for the stability and resilience of the internet.
for example an essential element of the commission's strategy for a secure information society since two thousand and six has been to have a holistic approach ensuring coordination amongst stakeholders but also recognising that each of them has specific roles and responsibilities to fulfil.
we are strongly committed to promoting the high standards of protection which eu citizens enjoy at present.
your report further elaborates on the possibility of working on global standards data protection and freedom of speech.
i firmly believe that the pursuit of adequate privacy protection does not stand in opposition to the need to ensure greater security.
new legislation in this area would not be considered as the way forward for the time being.
if we want the full opportunities of the internet and the information society to unravel. we particularly share mr lambrinidis's concerns on the protection of personal data an issue which is of utmost relevance to internet users.
at the same time the commission is convinced that it is necessary to ensure respect for fundamental freedoms such as freedom of expression on the internet.
at this point in time i believe that it would be useful to engage in effective reflection on the proper ways to enforce the existing legislation.
the amendments however are anything but balanced.
it is when we do not and especially to protect the speech that may particularly be angering to people like me or others that we have those laws.
in paragraph one we urge the to council to proceed to the adoption of the directive on criminal measures aimed at the enforcement of intellectual property rights following an assessment in the light of contemporary innovation research of the extent to which it is necessary and proportionate'.
however to the extent that it does refer to intellectual property rights one would think by listening to some of the speeches that it ignores them.
my report is not a single issue report;
secondly amendments that delete or water down a very precise and specific reference in the report that controversial political speech should not be criminalised are amendments that i oppose and i am glad to hear that many others in this room do as well.
therefore i urge everyone to support this particular paragraph in the report and to support the report in general.
let me read in particular how balanced we have attempted to be with this report.
it is a report that talks generally about protecting fundamental rights and security on the internet and indeed that is why it received unanimous support.
i know it is not easy.
if everyone in this room agreed with each other we would not need freedom of speech legislation.
this reference in the report does not talk about criminal' speech.
enforcement of these property rights must be duly balanced with fundamental freedoms or rights which are enumerated in the report including the right to privacy protection of personal data and the right to participate in the information society.
so we maybe cannot imagine the world without the internet but it is important to imagine and create and innovate to make it safer and closer to humanity and human responsibility.
we have a directive on privacy and electronic communications a lot of concrete action or action plans a european programme on protection of critical infrastructures.
i want to conclude by saying that this year was declared the european year of creativity and innovation and the motto is imagine create innovate.
this is important for the overall evolution or development of the information society.
mr president i would like to thank the rapporteur for taking on my suggestion encouraging computer software manufacturers to take additional measures blocking access to pornographic and violent websites.
parents may be vaguely aware of the fact that they can activate filters in internet browsers but this demands a modicum of knowledge of browser software as well as a conscious decision to activate the system.
if by default the filter was pre installed in the on' position it is probable that many more children including the youngest who increasingly use the internet unsupervised would be protected from unwittingly stumbling on sites which have a damaging influence on them.
i appeal to manufacturers to respond to our suggestion.
they should not see this as an imposition or a restriction but rather as a marketing opportunity.
if i had the choice between buying two comparable computers and saw one displaying a child friendly label confirming that filters had been pre installed i as a parent would choose that product.
in time parents making such a choice would ensure that this became the industry standard.
i truly hope that we can achieve this with the cooperation of the industry.
unfortunately very often with the internet just as in any human society we have to face the sad fact that regulations are needed to make sure that those who cannot protect themselves are protected too. the safety of an individual is a fundamental right just as much as the right to free speech and to self expression.
we cannot tolerate internet predators of any kind and while we are discussing this topic of great interest i would like to draw your attention to a much less discussed fact the internet is also full of sites that incite hatred violence and intolerance towards all kinds of minorities among them ethnic minorities.
it is an aspect of the internet that needs our attention.
we have to make sure that minorities also feel protected.
we are talking to our counterparts in pakistan iran saudi arabia and also other countries and we make it clear that the death penalty is not a remedy to terrorism or criminality or a question of justice for the victim's family.
we are also exploring our regional connections.
the abolition of the death penalty worldwide requires all our best energies all our political commitment.
this is why the eu actively supported the recent steps taken by the african union towards the adoption of an additional protocol to the african charter on human and peoples' rights on the abolition of the death penalty.
throughout two thousand and fifteen the eu has used all diplomatic tools to advance the cause of worldwide abolition.
our political or dedicated human rights dialogues constantly feature the issue on their agendas even when we meet with like minded countries such as the united states or japan.