kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
i welcome the european parliament's strong support for the commission proposals and i invite the council and the european parliament to work together for a balanced compromise leading to an improved dublin two regulation.
already in two thousand and eight the commission proposed a revised dublin regulation to address the identified gaps.
the judgment does not affect the underlying principles of the functioning of the dublin system to have a clear system to identify which member state is responsible to examine an asylum application to guarantee effective access to the procedures of determining refugee status and to prevent abuse of asylum procedures in the form of multiple applications.
the commission has always said that in the application of the eu acquis and the dublin regulation is an important element of the current eu acquis on asylum member states are never discharged of the obligation to ensure the protection of fundamental rights.
however the evaluation of the dublin system made by the commission has shown that there is room for improvement.
it aimed to increase both the standards of protection for the asylum applicants concerned as well as the level of efficiency of the dublin system for the benefit of the member states.
s. versus greece and belgium clearly showed that the eu urgently needs to establish a common european asylum system and that we need to support member states in meeting their obligation to provide adequate international protection.
such a compromise must also include an emergency mechanism for suspension of transfers in situations of exceptional and particular pressure on the asylum system as a matter of last resort.
we have already taken steps to review them.
greece itself has committed to reforming its asylum system based on an action plan submitted to the commission in august last year setting out immediate and long term measures.
it would provide a common comprehensive solution to cases which today are treated in a discretionary manner in order to build more trust and a genuine support between the dublin partners.
at the same time the commission is engaged in substantial efforts towards assisting greece together with the member states the unhcr and eu agencies.
we are no longer dealing with a situation where a law is being implemented but rather it is being interpreted in a novel way. i believe that the european union is best equipped to deal with the challenges of immigration through a nuanced system which is not dictatorial not through more harmonised european legislation or the moral rulings of the european courts but instead through solidarity cooperation and good communication among european neighbours. we must be mindful that whatever burden is relieved in one place is not just moved to another.
of course we have a duty to other eu member states and to people seeking a safer and a freer life but the recent court ruling points at larger problems which are the relationship between the european courts european legislators and the member states and their control of their own borders. commissioner i would be interested to know how the commission is attempting to confront these issues in the long term. could you please reassure this house that we will not just turn to the creation of more eu legislation which no doubt at some point in the future will itself be overturned by a european court
but instead tell us how we can effectively support greece and other member states that are currently operating under such burdens?
the regime is right to be afraid.
his detention is part of the most severe police crackdown in china in decades.
mass struggle is needed in particular the creation of independent democratic mass organisations of the working class.
the revolutions there demonstrate that a risen working class and the risen poor are more powerful than even the most brutal repressive methods the most repressive regimes.
the struggle against dictatorship must be linked to the struggle for genuine socialist change in china whereby the vast wealth and resources in china are taken into democratic public ownership and the economy is democratically planned to raise the living standards of ordinary people.
this repression is being stepped up because the regime fears the spread of revolution from the middle east and north africa.
in a variety of unauthorised places of detention and subjected to improper treatment.
i can assure this house that the vice president high representative catherine ashton is following developments very closely and will raise these issues with the chinese authorities at the earliest opportunity and that the eu will also make known its concern to the chinese authorities at the next round of the eu china human rights dialogue for which we have proposed dates in may.
there are moreover reports that in recent weeks a significant number of bloggers and political activists have either been charged with criminal offences such as subverting state power or have been detained without charge.
concerns about their treatment are only intensified by the ongoing disappearance of the lawyer gao zhisheng who with the exception of a brief reappearance in april two thousand and ten has now been missing for over two years. the high representative is worried about reports based on interviews with mr gao in april two thousand and ten that during his initial period of disappearance he was detained incommunicado
we call here today for his return to his wife his friends and assistants.
the best thing we can do is to approve the urgent resolution we have agreed together with all the groups so that we can increase pressure on the chinese authorities.
i have to tell you that i have my doubts that this resolution will change anything in the attitude of the chinese communist party and the chinese authorities.
as we know from our debate last month on the communist regime's vandalism of the ancient city of kashgar china vigorously tries to suppress cultural expression that does not conform to what its communist rulers deem appropriate. ai weiwei is an heir to china's magnificent and ancient artistic traditions.
he has also used his artistic talents to raise awareness of china's dismal human rights record and dearth of political freedom. clearly there is also a lack of freedom of expression in china.
how else can the regime explain mr ai's arrest on economic crimes and because he failed to complete the correct departure procedures for travelling to taiwan.
in fact the real reason was later elucidated by the state run global times newspaper in a menacing editorial which said that mr ai would pay a price for his resistance.
i also hope there will be a significant long term eu observation mission presence to ensure free and fair elections in that beautiful country.
he has presided over two successful terms of office despite the loss of two provinces to russia in. two thousand and eight the president has succeeded in bringing his country closer to the eu via association agreement negotiations and also to nato and he has a strong track record of fighting corruption and encouraging free market economics. he has wisely appointed as prime minister the experienced vano merabishvili who must continue now with the sweeping reforms and westward looking policies of the current administration.
but i do hope there will be a level playing field between billionaire opposition leader bidzina ivanishvili of the georgian dream party and his opponents in the imminent october presidential election.
democracy is a hard won privilege and must be supported in a small caucasian country in our eu eastern partnership.
finally to my epp colleagues i place on record our objection that you blocked our oral amendment to the eastern partnership report this week removing an appeal to georgia to combat child labour when unicef says that there are two five hundred working children on its streets.
our role in this parliament should be to promote functioning democracy and we do not do so best if it appears that we are scrutinising one party in an election in a third country to a different standard from any other.
indeed for cable tv packages to exclude the opposition leaning tv channels certainly appears indefensible. i also express my deep concern at the violent breaking up of the country's first pride march on the international day against homophobia in may earlier this year.
nevertheless georgia is welcoming four hundred osce election observers has established a multi party agency to rule on violations there is a civil society this affects you' campaign which we should support and i understand that the european union has started media monitoring so all involved in the elections must know that we are watching.
it is right that we raise in advance questions about the reports of arrests impounding of assets and restricted access to media in advance of these elections.
so that is very positive and we also acknowledge the reforms that have been made in the past few months and years in georgia.
that georgia is successful in preserving its territorial integrity; and of course that georgia is successful in negotiations as far as the eu georgia association agreement is concerned;
i think that was a very positive thing.
it is for us to define what we think is necessary for a democratic modern country to do.
again we must insist that there is a level playing field for democratic competition and that votes cannot be bought.
this commitment was strongly reflected in the council conclusions of twenty seven february.
public trust in the election process will be crucial.
all this is very positive news but it is essential that georgia makes every effort already to live within the spirit of association.
international democratic standards.
we will provide georgia with every possible support in meeting this objective bearing in mind its great potential to benefit from the more for more' principle enshrined in the european neighbourhood policy.
nobody can deny the fact that georgia was making good progress in many areas.
they show how stable and sustainable the democracy is and they show the maturity of the political system.
i ask my colleagues not to exaggerate but also not to downplay the recent developments in georgia.
if you listen to the explanations from both sides on the situation of georgia you would think that it is about two completely different countries.
this situation has to stop and the political process should be brought back to normal.
i ask the council and the commission to use all their powers to help georgia. there are different means available and possible.
you know them best;
just use them now.
the european union is not accepting instrumentalisation of the democratic process in pursuit of other agendas or in order to falsify popular will anywhere or by anybody.
the european union believes in free and fair elections and that fair competition and genuine participation in the upcoming elections will be fundamental in achieving the legitimacy of election results.
the european union stresses that politically motivated persecution direct or indirect by law enforcement agencies or the use of selective justice against political contenders are not compatible with democratic values.
overall our position on georgia is very clear. we welcome strong european union georgia relations.
we have seen good progress on the eastern partnership agenda and on the association agreement negotiations and we are delighted that steps towards visa liberalisation are now moving ahead.
we have seen a lot of positive changes since the rose revolution but we need to keep up momentum.
however truly free and fair elections are not only about respecting provisions and the spirit of the electoral process and results but also about honest competition and avoiding hate speech.
in a capitalist system bad banks would have been allowed to fail;
that is why we have representative government. there has now been this explosion of anger which has taken the form of the occupying movements.
of course bankers suggested that the banks be bailed out. do you know what if we had asked the bakers whether we should bail out the bakeries i suspect we would have got the same answer and the bakers might have almost believed it saying foodstuffs are an absolutely essential commodity they are not like anything else and so forth.
in their turmoil politicians the world over turned for advice to the one lot of people who could not give them disinterested counsel namely bankers.
we know where the money came from.
i would just say to anyone protesting in those movements the one thing you are not complaining about is capitalism.
why is this not highlighted more by the unhcr?
if these were males they would be alive.
gender based abortion the murder of women because they are females is totally unacceptable and must be addressed by the un and the european parliament.
up to one hundred million girls who would have otherwise been expected to be alive are missing from various populations mostly in asia as a result of sex selective abortions infanticide or neglect.
why is this not highlighted more by this house?
strasbourg and brussels symbolise the eu excesses which my constituents believe should stop and this question is covered by amendment two which was carried today.
eight nine in my own constituency of wales it is only fair that the eu institutions play their part in curbing expenditure. unnecessary and wasteful excesses need to be identified and reduced and where possible eliminated including addressing the politically taboo issue of a two seat parliament.
we do not believe that the report is yet perfect but do believe that it will serve as a good starting point for future negotiations.
we as a group welcome the budget freeze that was proposed to be adopted by the institutions where possible and are waiting now to see whether this will be an inflationary or a real terms freeze.
it really throws into complete disrepute all our claims to be able to manage fishing in any kind of coherent and sensible way if we cannot even get the most simple measure passed through council quickly and efficiently and get on with the work that we are supposed to be doing to restore stocks.
where possible we need to achieve this by.
two thousand and fifteen this definitely needs to be unblocked in council so that this action can begin.
this is with the aim of achieving the goals for depleted stocks on an urgent basis and i stress the word urgent'.
thousand and fourteen to two thousand and twenty we feel that such a move would seriously jeopardise the entire future of the project as well as rendering the investment that has been put into the project so far both pointless and worthless.
we disagree with the commission's proposal that further financing of the project should be done outside the financial framework for two.
i particularly welcome the carrying of amendment two for the ending of this ridiculous travelling circus that results in our monthly flog here to strasbourg something which i would very much like to do without.
the joke is of course that some of the members here think they are. they need to go and have a look at what is happening in places like greece and see exactly what needs to be done.
the single most frequent question i am asked by my constituents is why is the ep not taking seriously the issue of austerity in the way that member states are having to?
we need to take a very big slash to our budgets.
i very much welcome the beginning of a debate on the budget it is about time we started addressing it sensibly.
it is a prelude to the mobilisations that will follow the re election of putin. it is increasingly a movement that is fed up and disgusted with the whole political elite and with the thieves the oligarchs that have enriched themselves at the expense of russian workers russian pensioners and russian youth.
the movement is a demonstration of massive people power in action but the current leadership a combination of failed neoliberal politicians and right wing nationalist demagogues does not offer any way forward in the struggle for democratic rights and freedoms.
today when corrupt politicians dominate the electoral arena my sister party in russia does not recognise the legitimacy of the presidential elections.
i support their call for an active boycott turning the current protests into a new genuine socialist force that can unite all working people regardless of ethnic background religious belief or sexual orientation to challenge the rule of putin the oligarchs and the pro kremlin lackeys.
mr president along with my group the ecr i abstained in the vote on the oral question regarding blind persons' access to books.
i fully believe that easy access to books is a great opportunity that should be shared by everybody.
as noted in the resolution eu negotiators have already opposed the adoption of a binding treaty.
we do not believe that in this instance a binding treaty would be the best way forward.
it should be a voluntary convention of some sort instead.
we have continuing disagreements between scientists and local fishermen as to who is right and who is wrong and we never seem to be able to get to the end or have any control of it.
we need more regional support to the local areas and less interference from the centre. it is time for common sense.
as some of these issues are contentious the four fine gael meps in the epp abstained on both the roll call votes because it is not clear how these contentious matters are to be resolved.
while what the scheme hopes to achieve is clearly desirable for all member states it is my view that the measures which have been proposed to reach these aims are neither suitable nor workable in practice.
we believe that rather than imposing a blanket scheme for all member states it will be preferable for guarantee schemes and pre funding levels to be tailored to the needs of the individual member states according to their own circumstances.
we feel that the one size fits all proposals that the rapporteur puts forward are actually geared much more towards the banking system of his own country germany than they are towards the eu as a whole.
it is this factor coupled with the insistence on a high level of pre funding to be built up over a short period which led us as a group the ecr to oppose this report.
mr president may this year will mark the third anniversary of the end of the bloody civil war in sri lanka. tens of thousands of innocent tamils were slaughtered particularly at the end of the war when they were caged into a tiny area before being massacred by the army.
at the end of last year the lessons learnt and reconciliation commission published its report.
this commission was set up from the very start to be biased.
it is not a serious attempt at all to deal with the very serious allegations of war crimes against the rajapakse regime. it is now time for a genuine independent inquiry into the events.
this inquiry will have to include representatives of all communities within sri lanka and trade unions in the country.
i have been denied a visa to visit sri lanka as part of a delegation of the european united left group in this parliament because on several occasions i have spoken out against the actions of the sri lankan government against the actions of the army and in favour of the rights of the tamil people.
i demand that the sri lankan government revokes this decision and allow meps who are critical of its policy to visit the country and see the situation on the ground for themselves.
and we are now talking about borrowing unbelievable sums literally unimaginable sums hundreds of billions trillions of euros. there is nobody from whom to borrow it so in practice what we are doing is borrowing it from future generations.
in other words the government is going to inflate away this debt through money printing.
it has already happened in the us it has happened in my country and it is coming next to the european central bank.
inflation is the coward's way to close a budget deficit.
unlike a tax rise or a spending cut for which the government is blamed inflation is still seen by a number of voters as some kind of natural force something that governments have to deal with rather than something they create themselves.
but in terms of its overall impact it is far more damaging to the competitiveness and productivity of an economy.
what i find most bewildering is the way in which people who defend our current levels of spending have appropriated the language of fairness.
there is nothing fair about expropriating generations yet to come so that we can sustain our own standard of living.
mr president with the cfp negotiations high on the eu's political agenda this joint motion for a resolution on the contribution of the common fisheries policy to the production of public goods makes some sensible assertions.
we need to have a fisheries policy which keeps conservation and sustainability issues in mind particularly as the current fisheries policy has failed to meet any of its targets.
we also need to look at the contribution the entire sector makes to the local and european economies.
the welsh fishing sector although small has a wider community impact especially through the recreational and tourist sector and the extensive scientific research programmes being carried out around the welsh coastline.
we need however to take care when discussing the inclusion of recreational fishing in the cfp reform process as a symbiotic relationship between fishing and tourism in my constituency should not be damaged by the inappropriate application of fishery policies to recreational boats.
the current political situation in russia following the duma elections held there in december of last year and the subsequent demonstrations at the end of that month remains deeply worrying.
in the ecr group we also feel it is important that the problems witnessed by the international observers of that election be addressed in order to avoid a similar situation next time elections are held.
thus we believe as a group that it is now imperative that all opposition parties are allowed to be registered properly.
once this has happened we believe that future elections in particular the imminent presidential one should be held in a way that is deemed to be democratic free and fair and also consistent with russian membership and obligations as a member of the council of europe and the osce.
we believe that it is important that this internal dispute is sorted out as soon as possible and thus we agree with the oral question asking the commission and the council how they intend to solve the institutional deadlock that has presented itself now.
given that the decision taken by the commission and council will have a knock on effect on other multiannual plans that are under discussion at the moment it is important that it be taken quickly. we as a group agree with the aim of the report itself and we feel that it is important that the marine biomass of western horse mackerel is maintained at a level that will ensure that it can be exploited in a sustainable way and that will also ensure that it provides the highest possible long term yield for our consumers.
mr president i voted in favour of the resolution on the recent political developments in hungary for the reasons that i already outlined in the statement that was submitted after the debate.
when the core values of the european union are at stake in any member state then it cannot be considered as an internal affair of the country.
the european parliament has adopted a strong resolution and i expect mr orbn to take it into account when making efforts to comply with the recommendations objections and demands of the european commission the council of europe and the venice commission.
it is important that we develop a strategy based on the latest scientific evidence which will provide the maximum sustainable yield whilst keeping in line with the goals of the common fisheries policy.
it is therefore sensible that this strategy is based on a rule of harvest control looking at trends on where their eggs are abundant so that the sustainable exploitation of stocks can be achieved.
we have to learn from events over recent years we must offer what support we can.