kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
and third let's make sure that more eu funds become available for housing first programmes.
providing a roof over people's heads gives them space to stop surviving and with assistance to be able to start living.
i would like to express my support for the australian government the firefighters for their extraordinary work and the australian citizens at this difficult time.
therefore let me encourage our institutions and member states to be open to help australia through any financial human or material resources to tackle this dramatic situation. for that reason i welcome the offer made by the president of the european council to provide any assistance and by several member states to send firefighters.
we encourage women to go to work to have a career but do we do enough to make sure that they have equality of choice?
we still see clothes that are telling girls they are delicate flowers and boys that they are heroes. we still see in our society especially in the less developed ones gender roles that are limiting both women and men.
we have to take action.
we have to do something to stop genderbased education and the way we are influencing children to choose a career.
i have a throat infection so i have to speak quietly and slowly.
while there are issues at present between the cities of london and brussels of which we shall not speak here they are both among the richest regions of the european union yet in westminster underground and in place du luxembourg parliamentarians step over homeless human beings.
we should be ashamed of that because this is a massive failure of public policy.
it is about a failure to invest in homes.
i represent one of the richest regions in the european union south east england and i would say to anyone in that region who thinks it could never happen to them it can.
if it happened to you or your son or your daughter or your grandchild or your parent how would you wish them tret?
putting it right starts with the right attitude and here i want to praise brighton and hove council and their adoption of a homelessness bill of rights and it ends with the recognition that social cleansing of our cities is immoral and that when you don't build homes you get homelessness.
so this housing first' initiative has much merit.
but i have some concerns.
i worry there's a danger in a transnational centralised one size fits all approach that can mean ignoring local and national circumstances and solutions.
i'd like to stress that the causes of homelessness are not universal.
so for example the horror and degradation of homelessness has been in some countries directly the consequence of the impoverishing and brutal austerity policies imposed on nation states in eurozone countries by this very european union that has led to unemployment evictions and homelessness.
but in turn those stagnating economies in some countries force people to move around europe looking for better lives understandably and they often too end up homeless.
for those who glamorise freedom of movement to remind you that according to the charity crisis the number of homeless people from continental europe accounts for a third of all rough sleepers in london.
freedom of movement can mean people are far from home exploited in low paid jobs with no support network. as one polish man told the ft homeless for five years brexit or no brexit i'm staying there's nothing for me back there'.
we have to make sure that we solve the problem at home before trying to impose from this central eu holier than thou body.
madam president i think what's happening in australia is certainly a disaster but there is nothing natural about it.
i think we have to acknowledge the fact that the devastating bushfires raging across australia are directly connected with the lack of action and the climate denial of the australian conservative government.
the best advice and the best support we can give australian citizens is to acknowledge that point.
it's one that requires changes and one that should not be taken at the behest of industrial lobbyists.
i can assure you that this is one of the top priorities for this commission and we will see how this will be reflected in the commission work programme which i hope we will be coming to present to you before the end of the month.
i would like to repeat the message to the industry that its's never too late to come up with suitable proposals but in this case after so many years we have to consider the legislative approach.
i think we see every single day how important this issue is becoming.
that the sooner we have higher european standards not only for chargers but also for batteries the better it would be.
we need more women in it but we also need more men as teachers and culture workers such as museum curators or librarians which are mostly less wellpaid occupations.
when discussing the upcoming wave of automation we as policymakers should keep in mind that female dominated professions such as secretaries are as vulnerable to elimination as maledominated industrial jobs.
that said i believe the best short solution is not in fact a common charger itself but to require new phones and chargers to be sold separately and not only as a single bundle.
while all devices would come with a power cable consumers would not be forced to buy the charging block which they may not need or want.
this would allow consumers to get a better deal and to cut waste at the same time.
one size does not fit all.
i also welcome the call for agricultural payments to be targeted at rewarding farmers for delivering public goods. the report also backs the greening of direct payments by targeting thirty of the payments at developing more sustainable agriculture which i think is vital for future food production.
finally i am pleased that parliament voted to reject the call for a european soil directive.
however the commission's current greening measures need to be widened to better reflect the different circumstances in the member states.
as ever i support the sharing of ideas on education between member states and the mobility of students across europe.
diversification between member states is important but institutions can work together to help each other engage with outside bodies such as business. these are the kinds of ideas that help to make students become confident employable adults.
we do not need to increase the budget to modernise our higher education systems.
education is vitally important.
however this report's endorsement of the commission's proposal for increasing the budget is unnecessary.
with such a high level of youth unemployment across our union and with the increased demand for new skills resulting from the rapid technological changes that we have seen over recent years it is clear in some ways at least that modernising the higher education system may help it face these problems.
i would therefore support the idea of introducing life long learning programmes for example and increased european cooperation between educational institutions and businesses.
the fact remains however that education provisions should ultimately be a member state responsibility.
mr president i totally condemn the unilateral declaration of independence made by the tuareg rebels who benefited for years from military and financial support from gaddafi's libya are connected to islamic militants in northern mali and are now taking advantage of the power vacuum left following the military coup that ousted president tour.
these rebels must hand over control of the northern areas to the central political authorities in mali as has been demanded by the international community which does not wish to see further bloodshed and chaos in this fragile country.
we must also enforce sanctions against the leaders of the mnla such as asset freezes and travel bans in order to put across to them a strong message from the eu that their behaviour is unacceptable.
i believe that the proposals put forward in this motion for a resolution will go some way to supporting mali's territorial integrity and to building a democratic mali with the aid of new free and fair elections. for this reason i and my ecr group voted in favour of this resolution.
in this report we call for among other things the creation of a european disability board but without any clear setting out of what such a board should do other than that it should meet regularly.
i very much support the direction of this report but believe that it goes too far in calling for unnecessary initiatives at supranational level.
i would be happy with a statement of general principles but this report is far too detailed and prescriptive and risks creating a tangled bureaucracy where simplicity would be a better remedy.
we are told that the current economic crisis has had a disproportionately negative impact on people from marginalised groups unemployment rates for europe's eighty million people with disabilities are twice as high as those for people without.
the calls on member states to adopt legal and financial measures to support the employment of disabled people and the call for detailed measures on institutional care and provision of housing benefits stray well into member states' territory.
initiatives for increasing the employment opportunities for those with disabilities must come from member states each able to adapt to its own national traditions and social customs.
we should not use the current crisis as a reason for increasing bureaucracy and red tape.
thus the issue needs to be addressed with some urgency but i cannot agree with the commissioner that this can only be achieved at eu level.
madam president i congratulate the rapporteur on an excellent report particularly the paragraphs focusing on the need to ensure equal participation for people with disabilities in public life.
in my experience i believe that real change and real inclusivity will not come until we ensure adequate political participation both as voters and as elected representatives.
when you look around this parliament it is clear that this balance is something that we have yet to achieve here in europe.
as this report rightly points out equal opportunities cannot be seen as treating people with different needs just the same.
uganda and south africa and others have policies of quotas in public posts for those with disabilities.
it is clear to me that the current under representation of people with disabilities across all eu member states means that we need more than wishful thinking.
mr president there are eight million people with some form of disability in the eu and this report covers numerous important issues.
if the european parliament is serious in protecting the rights of people with disabilities it should deal with the issue in the same way it now deals with women's rights.
it is time for the rights of other vulnerable groups to be covered by this committee.
i believe we need a committee on equalities which will help deal with discrimination that is based on gender ethnicity age disability and sexual orientation.
that would be a truly bold move which would offer support to people with disabilities as well as other groups that are often treated unfairly.
i think if we spoke more about how disability can and will affect anybody it is not just an issue at birth but many of us will have a disability throughout our lifetime then we might be dealing with this in a more practical way.
in some areas we have seen that this is used to re establish institutions which we have worked to try to dismantle. the message must be certainly from this parliament that people with disabilities should be able to live independently with the structures that they require and should not be forced into institutional living.
it would be very wrong if european union funding went against the very principles of the un convention.
i think that those countries that have not yet ratified that convention should do so.
the fact that there is not enough information on the particular issue of the care of people with disabilities in institutions which is referred to in the report is something that absolutely needs to be addressed.
i think we need to be aware that we should not allow the most vulnerable to suffer due to economic crisis and in times of austerity we need to make sure that they are the ones that we look after best.
this house is championing the issue of disabilities with our rapporteur.
it really needs its voice to be heard even though we are going through very difficult economic times.
all those who have full enjoyment of their faculties may be forgiven for easily forgetting or not realising the difficulties faced by people with disabilities.
i learnt this lesson myself when i faced the loss of sight in one eye because of a detached retina.
that was relatively easily fixed and i was very fortunate whereas many millions are not so fortunate because they have permanent disabilities.
the syrians need the eu and turkey to cooperate and i urge you to work on this credibility issue which is very important.
we have to act more credibly and forcefully by imposing additional targeted sanctions specifically on the families supporting this murderous regime and keeping it in power and by implementing the council conclusions on syria of one december in which the eu decided to stop the export of technologies used to monitor the internet to breach and track people's communications and information flows and to take them out of their homes based on the signals from their cell phone. the information war that is going on is real.
speaking of credibility i think it is disturbing that cyprus blocked turkey's participation in the foreign affairs council on syria.
al assad orders to shoot and kill and has confirmed in his interview last week that he as head of government and commander in chief takes no responsibility at all for what is happening in his country.
he has lost his dignity and his legitimacy and i believe that the eu must do everything to prevent the massacre from going on any further. the impunity must end.
what will you do to ensure that this does not happen again and that we can work with this vital partner turkey on establishing humanitarian corridors and in collaborating through turkey with nato as well?
now we know what is happening.
tens of thousands are imprisoned and instead of al assad meeting the ultimatums of the international community specifically the arab league he has given his own citizens an ultimatum to give up members of the opposition which remains largely peaceful.
conditions are worsening in the places most badly hit by the violent repression and armed confrontation.
them. finally i call on the syrian authorities to allow this humanitarian access without restriction and across the country so that syrians who are in need can receive immediate assistance. i hope that we will see action in the security council and that all members will take their responsibilities respond to this and respond to what the un commissioner for human rights has said with a great sense of urgency.
some people in syria are taking up arms to defend themselves and the risk of widespread armed confrontation is increasing.
against this complex and difficult background we have ratcheted up our sanctions and we have done whatever we can to build a growing international consensus to isolate the regime.
we are also recognising the vulnerability of syrian refugees hosted by neighbouring countries particularly turkey jordan and lebanon and we are ready to support these refugees if the host countries request our
i have met with other leaders of the syrian national council and welcomed the ongoing efforts by the syrian opposition to try and establish a united platform and to work for a shared vision for the future of syria and the transition to a democratic system. we all agree on the importance of a strong and inclusive opposition political platform taking in all religious and ethnic communities.
now all members of the un security council must assume their responsibilities in relation to the situation in syria.
in the financial sector we have expanded the prohibitions on contacts with syrian banks and we have also established a ban on the export of monitoring software and equipment in the telecommunications sector.
care. we have to assume that the information provided is correct in the absence of free and unimpeded access for aid agencies to independently assess and respond to the most urgent needs.
the coordination with opposition on the ground to set out plans for the transition is of the utmost importance.
the brutal repression of civilians has to stop. assad must listen to his people his neighbours to the arab partners to europe and to the world.
list. at the beginning of this month new measures were adopted to strengthen and complement the existing sanctions.
the role of turkey with which i have been in regular contact and its decision to impose sanctions is also crucial as we seek to weaken the regime.
homs. most recently a systematic denial of access has made it impossible to independently assess the situation.
the arab league has our full support in their demands on the syrian regime including the immediate cessation of violence withdrawal of military from cities and the granting of humanitarian and media access. we have also backed their plan to dispatch an observer mission to protect civilians offering our assistance and have welcomed their decision to impose sanctions.
we think that they need to comply fully with the arab plan of action.
the icrc continues to negotiate access to detainees.
we have worked hard on the international scene stepping up contacts with key international partners to isolate further the regime and its supporters.
we are particularly concerned about the consistent reports of abuse related to the harassment of medical personnel and difficulties for wounded victims to safely access emergency health
regional leadership is key and should continue.
but they want to find excuses and dilute the effectiveness of an observer mission but the arab league i am pleased to say remains strong in their position.
we have made it clear that we are ready to provide emergency assistance should humanitarian needs be confirmed.
dg echo is closely monitoring the situation from damascus and was able to carry out a field mission in october.
the situation is dramatic and particularly worrying in homs.
it is essential that the syrian opposition maintains and develops its clear commitment to a peaceful and non sectarian approach.
the situation is totally unacceptable.
on the sanctions track our strong response to the syrian regime's policy of repression has been further reinforced. further individuals and entities linked to the regime have been added to the assets freeze and travel ban now eighty six individuals and thirty entities are on the
mr president as you indicated this is an extremely serious issue.
the syrian opposition has grown more active and is better organised certainly over the last few months. like honourable members i have met this morning with a syrian human rights activist and i know the role that this parliament has played in engaging with those activists and encouraging them and their work.
the eu and its member states will continue to lead the efforts for a strong and united message.
in the un successful efforts by the eu and member states led to a resolution in the third committee of the general assembly. a special session of the geneva human rights council was called at my initiative and a new resolution was adopted with unprecedented support in early december establishing a special rapporteur for human rights in syria.
thousands remain in detention. the recent report of the un international commission of inquiry indicates that crimes against humanity were committed by the security forces.
i have been in regular contact with the arab league secretary general al araby and hosted him at the latest foreign affairs council.
we have strong economic sanctions we keep them under constant review and we ratchet them up in order to try to put on as much pressure as possible. we hope that the new sanctions that the arab league are going to put on will also have a strong effect in order to make the regime realise what they must do.
we are supporting them in any way we can as they think about how to get monitors to do their deployment on the ground.
keyser we do meet with the opposition.
meet. we talk to them all but we give the same messages about the need to be inclusive and to be supportive of the human rights of everybody who is concerned about what is happening in their country.
this is totally and utterly untrue.
what happened was that we were asked we discussed the matter and i invited the secretary general of the arab league. he wished to come on an institution to institution meeting.
i was supported in that by everyone including cyprus.
so please for the record it really is important that you understand that it was not cyprus blocking.
i did not invite them because in discussion with the arab league they wanted to meet institution to institution.
deal. i am looking forward very much to seeing him when he comes in january.
it is important as everyone has said to involve all groups.
well. we will continue to meet with all of the groups.
i have already met with them. it is not just member states who meet with them though i encourage member states to meet with opposition parties and opposition leaders in order to get the breadth of our experience of what is happening and to look for ways in which we can support people more effectively.
to do. we are very clear that al assad should go. we have made it very clear for some months that frankly if you behave in this way if you kill your people you have lost the rights for leadership.
the important thing is to try to work with all our partners to put the pressure
on. i just want to echo again the importance of getting the un security council to now move
mr president over the past few months i and other colleagues have raised from the floor of this house the whole issue of the way in which the regime was beginning to target those who were getting the message out via the internet and other means.
it is on that basis that i welcome the no disconnect strategy' that has been announced by the commission. i thank the commission and indeed the commissioner for delivering on what she said she would.
therefore we have to ensure that we keep the door open for all groups.
only last week i hosted a conference in parliament to which all opposition groups were invited.
many attended who were not part of the snc.
it is clear that whilst of course it is right that they all maintain and indeed develop and promote their individual ideologies and policies it is vitally essential that unless they unite in the purpose of opposition they will not realise their goals of freedom democracy transparency and above all the right to claim their country for themselves a goal which the vast majority of syrians want to achieve.
massive and direct public investment is needed.
mr president the backdrop to this report is the collapse of investment all across europe. public investment has been slashed as a direct result of the neo liberal and austerity policies pushed by all of the major groups inside this parliament and by the commission.
but the response of the commission is yet more reliance on these profiteers attempting to leverage public money with things like project bonds.
so instead of investing this wealth they are choosing to hoard it or to speculate to gamble with it on the financial markets.
the answer is not so called risk sharing' with the private sector where the private sector gets the profits and the public sector gets the risk it is to reject the logic of the profit system.
that strike of capital is precisely why society must not accept them having the say over investment happening or not happening them holding society hostage.
the point is to take that wealth through the likes of a capital tax and invest it to create jobs and provide infrastructure.
flexibility is needed to adjust to the fluctuations of the market and to the local environment in many countries of the european union.