kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
the european union aims for concrete outcomes that make a difference setting a collective agenda with ownership and contributions from all in the priority areas with strong commitments from both sides coupled with concrete joint initiatives.
we go to abidjan with a firm decision to assist them in providing resilience to their societies and states to assist in building peace to bring reconciliation if necessary and to providing postconflict reconstruction.
as commissioner for the environment i was also pleased to note the emphasis of the report as well as the comments during this debate on sustainable development including the sustainable use of natural resources such as minerals timber and wildlife sustainable agriculture and industry and the development of the blue economy and maritime industry.
the commission is committed to working closely with parliament and the eu member states to ensure that we jointly advance our positive partnership with africa.
i was also pleased to see reference to the action plan against wildlife trafficking.
as i said earlier the upcoming aueu summit will be a testimony to our collective engagement and a great opportunity to promote sustainable development for the benefit of all.
it is good to know that the key priorities covered by the report include economic development and job creation natural resources good governance security migration the environment education and youth largely in line with the commission's priorities as well.
i must assure the house that the commission is committed to fostering sustainable development and inclusive growth in africa in line with the priorities identified in the report.
it's estimated that we need fifteen to twenty million jobs created per year in africa if we are to meet demand from the growing population.
commissioner you talked about the need for practical outcomes to the summit;
we need to come away with jobs and investment in africa.
by doing that we move away from the traditional view of africa about donorrecipient aid and we move towards a partnership fit for the twenty first century.
as an active member of the euacp joint parliamentary assembly i view our relationship with africa as one of our foreign affairs priorities.
my colleague's useful report has highlighted some of the most important elements that our relationship with africa should be based on such as the inclusion of women and young people and the importance of the cultural and artistic sector.
most importantly it is crucial that eu development funds should not be tied to cooperation with europe in the field of migration this report is very clear on that.
although this should be on the agenda both africans and europeans must be extremely careful as the use of terrorism laws to fight against human rights defenders and political opponents is more and more widespread on both our continents.
in all sectors our priority should be to always hold ourselves and our partners to achieving the highest human rights standards.
i don't know about you but i will certainly not leave those women and girls alone.
two thousand and seventeen for those in this house who think this should not be our business as it is in fact saving lives i would like to ask you how many more women and girls should suffer and die before you will understand that this is cynical killing human beings and in fact defending murder.
how can you look on this as a criminal action?
we as parliamentarians with our democratic values and respect for human rights take a stand against your violations. states and churches do not have the right to violate our human dignity. my body is my body and it is my decision whether to have an abortion or not.
i call on the salvadorian authorities release the women from prison abolish the laws that require hospitals to report women seeking health care to the police.
every woman across the world is entitled to make her choice for herself. we stand up for women who have been targeted under these laws.
our resolution shows that we are taking action against all forms of violations of women's human rights. as a strong feministic politician i stand in international solidarity with all women and the right to decide over our bodies and lives.
women had been imprisoned their lives stolen simply because of unwanted pregnancies in some cases because they had suffered miscarriage or been raped.
we know that the government in el salvador is working to improve this situation and we acknowledge the work of european diplomats supporting women who have been unjustly jailed.
gender based violence is a major problem in el salvador where a woman is sexually assaulted every three hours and rape and incest often result in unwanted pregnancies.
any woman suspected of having had an abortion including those who went through miscarriage risk up to fifty years of imprisonment. consequently many women have been prosecuted and many others have died due to pregnancy complications.
we also urge the government to introduce a moratorium on the enforcement of the current law.
denying women and girls access to sexual and reproductive rights including safe and legal abortion is a violation of their rights to life and health.
we stand by your side in this battle.
el salvador's anti abortion law is causing nothing but pain and suffering to countless women and their families.
this is undoubtedly a step back for justice and women's rights.
we urge the parliament of el salvador to support the bill introducing the reform of the criminal code in order to decriminalise abortion under certain circumstances.
today's resolution is a message to these women.
under the european instrument for democracy and human rights the eu has also supported the provision of legal assistance to human rights organisations.
the eu raises this issue at the highest level in el salvador and welcomes the efforts deployed by the government to improve in a comprehensive manner the alarming situation of women. among other initiatives the eu has provided support to the flagship and successful programme ciudad mujer' women's city created by the government and which has meaningfully contributed to enhancing women's and girls' access to sexual and reproductive health services
but also to address gender based violence as well as to promote women's economic empowerment.
to the salvadorian authorities release teodora evelyn and all the other women who are in prison for a miscarriage.
it is an outcome of an ideology and a quest for absolute patriarchal power over female bodies.
no matter where a woman is born her body belongs to her and not to the state or to men who believe they know what to do with it.
women have a right to life too.
my body my rights.
it leads to the need for better use of funding for efficient campaigns better training of people working in the field and very welltargeted support of grassroots organisations and ngos which do our work in the member states on the ground and
women. i must say that this is based on the principle that we are trying to campaign and to inform more strongly in the member states where this problem is more serious and where the tolerance of violence is higher but then it is up to member states and up to the relevant organisations to come for the money
on the second question there is no member state package.
also the victims directive which will be in force in all member states on sixteen november.
enforcement of existing legislation.
and fourteen and two thousand and fifteen we want to make clear that although the name of the programme from which the relevant funding is made has changed the objective of fighting violence against women remains high on the agenda.
a filtering mechanism has been set up which allows searching per programme and per priority.
the first of these calls is already under evaluation.
in this respect dg justice publishes the award decision of each of its calls for proposals and the summaries of the projects selected for funding including amounts and partners involved on the website.
under the two thousand and fifteen annual work programme a call for an amount of
the commission also participated in several meetings of stakeholders where we were invited to present the funding opportunities under the new programmes.
the funding will help women and children who are victims of violence to benefit from the rights deriving from the directive such as the right to specialised support services.
two thousand and sixteen it will contain information on the use of funds per specific objective thus also including daphne and gender equality.
about eur three hundred and seventy zero will be spent on procurement activities for example for carrying out a necessary study on migrants' attitudes towards female genital mutilation. the same general approach applies to the specific objective of the promotion of equality between women and men.
in particular in order to raise awareness about the funding possibilities under the new programme reference to daphne is always made when the commission holds information events.
the main part of it will be spent on concrete tangible projects awarded through five different calls for proposals.
the whole amount reserved for the daphne specific objective in the two thousand and fifteen annual work programme is eur fourteen million.
in this case the aim is to support the integration of hotlines into child protection systems rather than have them as stand alone services and to put in place structures and measures to ensure their sustainability after the end of the union funding. the fourth call aims at supporting victims.
i insist that they must make a real difference to the lives of women and children in the eu.
also to be published in november it will tap funds from both the rights equality and citizenship programme under the daphne objective and from the justice programme.
in addition a first monitoring report on the programme's implementation for the budgetary year two thousand and fourteen will be transmitted to parliament and the council at the beginning of.
one one million of the two thousand and fifteen budget will be spent on supporting european organisations and networks that work to combat violence against women and children.
this call will address in a comprehensive way victims of violence and crime and will contribute to the implementation of the victims' directive.
this means it is possible for interested ngos to have an overview on one page of all upcoming open and closed daphne calls. a reference to daphne is also included on the website presenting the rights equality and citizenship programme. we follow the same approach in all communication activities relating to funding opportunities under the rights equality and citizenship programme.
a fifth call for a total amount of eur three million will encourage multi agency and multi disciplinary cooperation to respond to violence against women and or children and encourage victims and witnesses to report incidents of violence.
in their relations with member states and in the relevant conferences the commission representatives will continue to refer to daphne funding and to highlight its essential role in combating violence against women. before going into the details of the specific amounts to be spent and the actions to be funded i would like to stress that clarity and transparency allowing parliament and citizens to scrutinise the use made of public funding are a must.
i want policies with a tangible impact and a focus on implementing existing legislation. the whole amount reserved for this specific objective in the two thousand and fifteen annual work programme is around eur seven million.
the commission has so far organised eight such information events in cooperation with member states.
eur. three four million will be launched in the coming months to finance projects presenting innovative answers to educational and occupational labour market segregation. the aim is to promote good practices on gender roles and to overcome gender stereotypes in education and training and in the workplace. finally for two thousand and sixteen nearly eur one million has been reserved to support the work of the european women's lobby as well as around eur one million funding for gender equality related research.
with an amount of eur three million it targets women and girls and addresses sexual harassment and sexual violence against women and girls.
three four million will specifically target children one on the elimination of corporal punishment to be launched in november and one dedicated to support the already existing european hotlines for missing children under the phone number one hundred and sixteen which is currently open.
this is also the reason why relevant calls for proposals published on the dg justice website always contain a specific reference to the daphne objective both in their title and in their text.
this is why we have kept referring to daphne' activities in the annual work programmes of the rights equality and citizenship programme for two thousand.
my colleague iratxe should be praised for raising this debate even if it is taking place at this hour.
it is through this clarity that we can have accountability accountability on what we are doing to prevent and combat domestic violence.
that is why of all the things i have done today the outcome of this debate goes straight to my heart.
one such organisation which has received support is women's aid a national charity that is dedicated to ending domestic abuse.
it is based in my region but works tirelessly throughout the uk to keep women and children safe and provide support to victims.
we must be accountable to those organisations like women's aid but most of all we must be accountable to those women who as we debate in this chamber are seeking ways to protect their children.
all of those were interesting and important but while i was working on those issues behind closed front doors across europe women and children were living in fear in their own homes.
we must have clarity on how the daphne programme will continue to work.
we would then be able to hold the politicians accountable for their policies every five years.
in the uk we have no doubt that the eu is completely unaccountable and undemocratic and squanders taxpayers' money.
madam president i do not think anyone could argue that providing more help for victims and support services is a bad thing. the question in this debate is asking about the accountability and transparency of the funding of projects under this eu programme.
if we did not pay gbp fifty five million a day to the eu we could do so much more to support and protect the victims of violence.
not so with the eu commission. the final point i would like to make is that because of eu free movement laws we are not even allowed to do a criminal background check on people coming to our countries who have a history of violence.
however clarifications are needed on the amount of funding the allocation for different target groups and the visibility of actions to combat violence against women especially the process of selection of projects and actions.
our only partner should be civil society.
i now think that a lot of those hopes have gone for the time being.
in this context one of the things that the european union can do is to express clear and simple demands for the release of all political prisoners for the authorities to lift any threat of banning or restricting the belarusian helsinki committee and for quick movement towards the organisation of new elections.
but i do say that this is not simply a watershed moment for democracy and human rights in belarus it is a test of europe's own neighbourhood policy. yes we seek clear and closer cooperation and partnership with our neighbours to encourage a process of increasing congruence with those on our borders where there is a genuine mutual commitment to do so but this will not work if there is an absence of actions when that mutual commitment is missing and things are going wrong.
for the future i agree with what has been said today both by catherine ashton and by my own group that we need to keep the multilateral track open and we need to put an emphasis on civil society and support for it.
the pain we should worry about in this debate is not the pain intended of proposed smart sanctions by europe against belarus but the physical pain of the beatings inflicted on people who share europe's commitment to democracy and human rights and who need us to stand together with them in solidarity so that the long years of pain of belarus can come to an end.
i ask the vice president high representative and the eu member states to back the polish proposals for a visa ban and as our resolution makes clear support the principle for further targeted economic sanctions.
mr president i have already condemned the repressive measures taken by the authorities in minsk and i have called for the immediate release of all those detained on political grounds as well as the reopening of the osce office in minsk.
these conversations have left me in no doubt that the events we witnessed were an affront to our vision of respect for human rights fundamental freedoms and democracy.
in my meeting with foreign minister martynov i emphasised that the eu expects an immediate response from the belarusian authorities to the demands of the international community. in determining the next steps we take we need to start from basic principles. the first of these principles is that the security and safety of peaceful activists including presidential candidates
mr president this is the framework within which we are currently working.
on the one hand we have to consider targeted measures against the belarusian authorities and i believe to conduct a review of sanctions.
my colleagues and i have met with many of those affected among the opposition movement civil society the families of those imprisoned and the population at large.
i am looking forward to studying the eu resolution which emerges from your debates.
in the short term reintroducing a travel ban for president lukashenko and extending that ban to further named individuals is certainly an option if detainees are not released.
we will work with those partners as we have done with the united states to maximise the strength of the message sent to belarus by the international community.
the third principle is that respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms is at the core of eu foreign policy and of the eastern partnership and is part of a set of common values which we share with our closest partners.
many of those detained in the last few weeks have been released.
i believe we need to pause in this process.
of course we shall be trying to leverage additional resources from elsewhere including member states.
not only was there unwarranted use of force but the electoral process as a whole was also clearly undermined by the detention of civil society and opposition representatives. the assessment by the osce odihr supports this conclusion.
firstly i said earlier that we need to work with other international partners on this issue and that is one reason why belarus should continue to participate in the multilateral track that we have available and why we need to engage strongly with our eastern partnership countries to build a consensus on this issue.
must be at the forefront of our minds at all times.
i greatly appreciate the fact that members of this parliament have already been able to contribute to our reflections on this issue and that my colleague commissioner fle was able to present our current thinking to the afet committee last week.
we have had the opportunity to express our sympathy and solidarity and to listen.
while we express our concern to the authorities we cannot isolate the people.
it is important for all of us to be as focused as possible in our thinking given the urgency of the situation that we are addressing.
on the other hand we need to have an intensified dialogue with and to support civil society and citizens and in practical terms that means continuing our assistance to ngos the media and students and perhaps an increased effort to enhance mobility for citizens who wish to travel to the european union.
our reaction should be a balanced one.
however a significant group as many as thirty people still face charges that could lead to very substantial prison sentences and as honourable members know that group includes some presidential candidates.
i have reinforced this message in a joint statement with us secretary of state hillary clinton.
that does not mean abandoning the joint interim plan but we need further consultation including with civil society and a review if necessary.
my hope is of course that they will now move in a positive direction in line with the goals that we all share. the detainees should be released and belarus should lay the foundations to embark on an inclusive reform process.
i stress my hope that parliamentary cooperation will continue to have an important role to play in that process.
we will now move forward to make sure that we do this.
if they do not then the international community will and must act.
mr president the election for the presidency in belarus proved to be gravely disappointing for those of us who have been watching that country for a number of years.
his maverick behaviour was not predicted by his own senior officials including his ambassadors.
the deterioration of democracy in russia might also be the very reason why the kremlin has recognised the belarusian presidential elections and described the violent repression as an internal affair' of belarus.
such indifference to the appalling situation in belarus is a significant sign of tendencies in russia.
we must suspend the eastern partnership and other cooperation until the political prisoners are released.
i failed to get any sensible explanation from the commission which could quite simply have admitted the mistake and promised to do better next time.
in fact parliament received the information on the new indicator only days before the publication of the alert mechanism report in november.
can the commission explain why it failed to consult parliament when adding an indicator for the stability of the financial sector ahead of the alert mechanism report in?
so the message seems not to have quite trickled through yet to the relevant commission services that parliament has equal rights with the council here.
now the six pack established the macroeconomic imbalance procedure as an important element supporting the reformed stability and growth pact.
unfortunately the commission has entirely failed to respect the six pack which establishes the understanding that the commission should present suggestions for comment to the competent committees of the european parliament and of the council on plans to establish and adjust the indicators and thresholds.
two thousand and eleven however even though i am not suggesting that the chosen indicator is wrong the simple fact is that there are many options as to the type of indicator to chose.
it seems to be a recurring event that we are unable to hold our debates on questions before the commissioner because they are always on a thursday and he is always on his way somewhere.
in this case clearly the consultation did not take place.
now in order to avoid misunderstandings let me stress that an indicator on the financial sector is very welcome.
it extends monitoring to macroeconomic issues whereas the pack previously focused on debt and deficits. an important element of this new procedure is the scoreboard of indicators that is a diagnostic tool for the commission.
in my capacity as chair of econ i attempted to get clarity on this matter by way of an exchange of letters in december and january following the publication of the new indicator.
against this background we saw no other option than to follow up on this through this oral question.
the oral question is brief and to the point and we would very much appreciate a straightforward answer.
indeed to his credit when similar mistakes have happened with dg mare commissioner barnier has done exactly that and acted diligently.
however if this is not done in a truly democratic way respecting the spirit of the treaty as well as the letter then it really is no better than actually putting dictats into law.