kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
so i expect initiatives for stronger instruments to promote and protect democracy the rule of law and fundamental rights.
but we also expect better enforcement if these values are under pressure in one of the member states and i am looking in particular to mr timmermans your let us say prime minister who will be in charge of this task.
while there can always be improvements and especially on the question of agenda and that is a matter for member states to improve we should proceed with this vote and do the right thing for the long term viability of the euro project.
so it is our view that we should proceed with the vote because if this house wants to be taken seriously we should jealously guard all of the procedures that we have.
if we do not proceed with this vote and give an opinion on the proposal that has come from the council it means that the council will not be able to make the appointment and a vacancy will continue.
and i don't think any of us support that principle on the basis of the independence and the credibility of monetary policy within the ecb.
i would remind colleagues on all sides that the ecb has already given an opinion on this matter.
a vacuum will establish itself within the ecb.
we have had two hearings one in camera and one public hearing where the candidate has demonstrated an excellent understanding of monetary policy and also demonstrated a commitment to the european union.
we have followed the letter of the law.
before this vote the econ coordinators tried to get additional parliamentary control rights for our house in the nomination of ecb board members.
therefore we should vote to postpone this vote for the nomination.
mr president madam high representative you speak about the realities on the ground and you say we recognise and react accordingly.
if you cannot do that today when you once again address this parliament please make sure that at least your institution starts to back up the true feelings of.
high representative your words were lacking today yet again in this regard.
the realities mean that the actions of others should dictate our thoughts and our thoughts should become our words and our words our actions.
follow the lead of this house you are a sister institution.
i have put my name to this resolution today as chair of the respective committee from this parliament because we as a parliament are absolutely clear this is an occupation.
our sister institutions must recognise that.
the realities on the ground today mean that a body can be returned without the organs inside.
would you agree that those countries were right and now we are wrong speaking about the georgian occupied territories?
i hope that despite ten years of occupation we can help to achieve better relations between those kept apart by the fences of the occupied regions and the rest of georgia.
the sd group strongly supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of georgia while the resolution of this conflict is crucial to enhancing security and stability across europe.
illegal detentions and kidnappings continue to take place undermining international law and violating human rights.
the regime continues to deny access to the vital and constructive eu monitoring mission and human rights monitors from the un the osce and the council of europe in the occupied regions.
crossing points over the so called occupation line have been closed aggravating the humanitarian situation and further isolating the regions.
russia has intensified its military build up in both areas including the stationing of fully operational military bases.
we must demonstrate our solidarity with the citizens of the occupied regions and support our georgian colleagues' peace initiative a step to a better future'.
the much larger invasion of ukraine just a few years later showed the colossal price of such wishful thinking.
today as we express solidarity with georgia i call on this house to support the georgian parliament's decision to sanction russian officials directly responsible for grave human rights abuses in the occupied territories including the recent murders of georgian citizens the otkhozoria and tatunashvili list.
had we woken up in two thousand and eight a lot of trouble could have been avoided.
finally georgia too must stick to its political obligations.
i reaffirm my group's support for the territorial integrity of georgia and truly hope for a peaceful resolution to this conflict.
one with euro atlantic aspirations and an open state and an open society. i especially praise georgia's dedication to modernising its defence capabilities and its close cooperation with international partners in seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
mr president ten years on since the end of the war between georgia and russia which left a frozen conflict over russian occupation of abkhazia and south ossetia it's clear that the two countries have taken a very distinctly different path one a democratic one one an authoritarian one. as a long standing friend of georgia i stand with the eu in commending the country's transition away from its soviet past and towards a free democratic
this however must first begin with russia fully acknowledging and acting on its international law and human rights obligations.
russia by contrast continues to undermine the international rules based system through its actions in georgia and i might also add in crimea and in eastern ukraine. its breach of the two thousand and eight eu mediated ceasefire agreement by engaging in ethnic cleansing placing physical borders between georgia and the occupied territories engaging in borderisation and more is to be condemned in the strongest terms.
in my view three actions by russia are required in order for the conflict to be solved.
this is a frozen conflict but it shouldn't be a forgotten conflict.
as one of the initiators of this resolution let me point out that the european parliament should seize the opportunity to fully support georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders.
firstly moscow should unconditionally fulfil all the provisions of the ceasefire agreement especially the commitment to withdraw its military forces and guarantee the eu monitoring mission access to the occupied territories.
i went to gori.
thus we have to do everything to help georgia to cope with the consequences of the aggression.
i hope we have learned from our mistakes.
aggression in ukraine and the hybrid war against the west are now a reality.
the august two thousand and eight war was a warning for europe which was not heard at the time.
above all the discussions are an opportunity for us to remind participants starting with the russian authorities that the situation is unsustainable and unacceptable.
the conflict has impacted first and foremost on the people of these two regions. they're not free to explore the full economic potential of their lands;
we are also denouncing the steps taken by moscow to consolidate what it calls new realities on the ground.
it is a true partnership i would say friendship a strong one based on political association and development cooperation on economic exchanges as well as on a strong friendship between our people.
of course our engagement with georgia goes well beyond our monitoring mission and also well beyond the geneva discussions.
we are also considering a mobility scheme for academics from the breakaway regions and this could also be facilitated by the peace initiative i just mentioned.
we are also assisting civil society initiatives in the entities.
all our actions within the two regions are fully coordinated i would like to underline this because i think it's a very important point are fully coordinated and approved by the government of georgia and in full line with the georgian engagement policy.
the european union special representative for the south caucasus and the crisis in georgia co chairs these talks with a focus on ensuring security and stability on the ground as well as tackling humanitarian issues that impact on the life of the local population. progress in these discussions is limited as you might know in particular when they address improved modalities for security and stability but also issues related to internally displaced persons and refugees.
all our actions aim at improving the life of all people in the region.
i thank this parliament for having this debate today.
we continue to condemn russia's recognition of georgia's breakaway regions and very recently the syrian arab republic also announced that it would establish diplomatic relations with abkhazia and south ossetia and we immediately condemned this move together with the entire international community.
since then the european union has been a central actor in the process to manage the consequences of the conflict to improve the lives of all people in the region and to find a lasting solution.
to date we are the only international monitoring presence in the field.
we have as the european union a very special role to play particularly because of our european union monitoring mission to georgia.
as we work on the ground with the mission we continue also to have a strong non recognition policy.
the mission has fulfilled an indispensable function of stabilisation to the benefit of all the communities afflicted by the conflict.
together with the osce and with the united nations we continue to steer the geneva international discussions to address the consequences of the conflict.
among other things we do not accept russia's military build up in the breakaway entities and its construction of physical barriers on the dividing lines.
so ten years after the war we do not and will not stop working first of all for achieving a true solution and secondly for all local communities for their development and for their dignity.
we support all initiatives that can help re establish confidence between the sides such as people to people contacts dialogue processes and academic exchanges.
in light of the recent peace initiative of the georgian state ministry of reconciliation we are now looking at the possibility of providing further support. for instance there is a clear interest from the breakaway regions to increase trade with the rest of georgia but also with the rest of the region and this would represent a major improvement for the life of local communities and for all people in the wider region.
our approach is to include the breakaway regions in our programmes in georgia whenever this is possible. this is what we are doing for instance with our programmes on agriculture on rural development and vocational training.
it is not only unacceptable for the violation of international law but first and foremost for the impact it has on all the people in the two entities elsewhere in georgia and in the entire region.
our policy is one of non recognition but also of engagement with abkhazia and south ossetia exactly in line with the approach of the georgian government.
in spite of this the discussions have helped make the security situation on the ground relatively manageable.
jobs and opportunities are lost and beyond abkhazia and south ossetia an entire region suffers from the consequences of the conflict.
it is a violation of international law and it will only make the resolution of the conflict more difficult to achieve.
in these difficult times we have to show our commitment to georgia and its euro atlantic aspirations.
the eu must continue pressure against the russian federation and support even further the association agreement countries of georgia moldova and ukraine on their european path.
two thousand and eight the two thousand and eight invasion was a major russian open attack against the european order and was followed by the annexation of crimea and the war in eastern ukraine.
mr president it is now ten years since the russian military aggression against georgia and the russian federation still continues the illegal occupation of the georgian regions of abkhazia and south ossetia undermining basic international law. today we reaffirm our strong support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of georgia within its internationally recognised borders and we reiterate our solidarity with the people of occupied georgia. the eu has not forgotten what took place in.
it is time for the russian federation to unconditionally fulfil all the provisions of the cease fire agreement and to withdraw all its military forces from the territory of georgia.
so i think we should have understood even better that. eight.
they have no chance to express their will and their wishes freely and they have no right to education in their native language.
what you see is that people living in these breakaway' or occupied' regions are denied their basic human rights.
i think we have to praise the peace initiative that georgia has undertaken which is a step to a better future whereby they invite the people living in these occupied areas to enjoy certain human rights like health education and so on.
mr president it was a military invasion of a free and independent country and it is a military occupation of a free and independent country.
through our diplomatic action through our work on the geneva talks the focus on people and citizens which at the end of the day are the reason for our work and in particular through our work in the monitoring mission that i have heard many of you support and in
i would like to stress here that it is a partnership that is deep.
mr president if you allow me i would like to take the opportunity as i have the floor and before we start the next debate to share with you one positive feeling that today we are lucky enough to have. just a few moments ago respectively in skopje and in athens prime minister zoran zaev and prime minister alexis tsipras announced that they had found a bilateral agreement under un auspices on the name issue.
will be important not only for the two countries but also for the entire region for europe and for the world showing as we have mentioned several times today that through dialogue perseverance leadership courage and diplomacy solutions are possible including to the most difficult issues.
i will be honoured to join them for the signature of this agreement in the coming days.
mr president russia's disregard for international law increases every day as it continues to impose its own unilateral and outdated agenda and to protect its own cynical interests regardless of international condemnation.
georgia and ukraine have been victims of this aggressive foreign policy amongst many others.
and when it comes to domestic policies russia also repeatedly violates international human rights law cracking down on freedom of expression and assembly causing its own citizens to live in fear of state sponsored and extra judicial reprisals.
in a global context where the leading role cannot be played by the us anymore it is crucial that we in the eu continue to push for international relations guided by the rule of law. it is our responsibility to uphold international law and multilateralism is the only way forward.
thanks to the rapid trip of cee leaders led by the late president of poland lech kaczynski further russian gains in georgia were prevented.
twenty seven the european union can facilitate extradition between member states but has no competences regarding member states' relations with third countries on criminal cooperation matters.
as was also explained to the italian government there is no scope for an involvement of the commission in this case.
the eu treaty is very clear on this matter the european union's and commission's legal powers in the field of cooperation in criminal matters are restricted to the legal space of the eu.
cesare battisti is a convicted murderer in italy and the stance taken by the brazilian authorities to protect him from the reach of eu justice is not only unacceptable but also condemnable and deplorable in the strongest possible terms and we and any other authority and any other body in the eu have every right to say so.
i hope that the brazilian government will come to its senses and in re examining this case will do what is expected of it and extradite mr battisti to italy as soon as possible and before this affair begins to have serious consequences for the otherwise good eu brazil relations.
we will continue to push for a protocol on the elimination of the illicit trade in tobacco products under the who convention on tobacco control.
the commission will continue to push member states towards more efficient management of recovery from final beneficiaries.
the situation is improving.
a huge amount of patience and attention is being paid to this issue and rightly so.
i refer in particular to paragraph twenty four which talks about the control systems.
there is a very distinct difference. in relation to agriculture which was mentioned by some colleagues it is important that we have full transparency on payments in the agricultural sector.
but it is important as we move towards reforming the common agricultural policy that we continue to make those improvements.
it is an important one because taxpayers want to know that their money is well spent.
the commission also shares the view that although measures have been taken by the member states to make control systems in the fight against fraud and corruption more efficient there is still room for further improvement.
to add insult to injury the recent revelations about members of this house who agreed to amend or write legislation in exchange for payment further erode the credibility of this parliament particularly in its efforts to fight fraud and corruption.
one mep has even gone so far as to question olaf's power to investigate these cases declaring incredibly that in some countries such action would not be considered illegal and would not even be investigated.
madam president i believe we have to talk about what we need to correct so i will refer to the critical issues.
to define and implement clear conditions for participation in public procurement;
mr president it is said that where labour is cheap life is cheap. that has unfortunately become the living nightmare of four million workers primarily women workers in the garment industry in bangladesh.
massive pressure needs to be placed on them to force them to accede to the bangladesh building and safety agreement developed by ngos and trade unions.
there is an urgent need for adequate compensation to be paid by multinational retailers like primark walmart gap and metro who have made huge profits from cheap labour where the cost of labour is estimated to be between three and five of the final price.
in order to end the gross exploitation of workers trade union rights are crucial in a country that has a bad record on workers' rights.
but there is obviously more at stake here.
because of the public outcry the multinationals have now shed crocodile tears but in reality these horrific events expose the hypocritical nature of voluntary corporate social responsibility schemes.
the recent collapse of the rana plaza factory that left more than one one hundred workers dead exposes everything that is rotten about the globalised capitalist system.
mr president i would like to ask the commission to pass on my thanks to commissioner de gucht for his very clear and firm response to these tragedies.
i fully support the call for a code of conduct and as we have just heard for companies who refuse to comply with it to be named and shamed.
the message that must come out of these tragedies is that multinational chains cannot escape their responsibilities by relocating their businesses to developing countries or by holding their hands up and claiming they are not responsible for their supply chain.
the gsp scheme insists that developing countries must ratify and implement core labour standards.
it is about encouraging them to improve labour conditions and to make sure health and safety standards are high and that workers' rights are protected.
under the aegis of the euiss in paris this interesting exercise drew attention in particular to three major themes. first the evolving empowerment of the individual empowered by technological change;
if successful it will be able to provide incisive and forward looking documents which will help prepare eu decisions in an open manner having access to the best information available.
so in conclusion thanks to the work of many within the institutions who have already been involved in the ongoing work of espace the project is on course to achieve its purpose and its design.
so now in the second stage more attention is being paid to economic social and governance trends in the hope of identifying those trends which could have the greatest significance for the european union over the next five years.
a working paper will be available shortly putting together some of the key ideas drawn from all these sources before culminating in a document to be finalised towards the middle of next year for the incoming leaders of the eu institutions to consider.
effective eu policy making will depend more and more on the timely identification of those long term trends that have a bearing on the challenges and choices facing the union in an increasingly complex and interdependent world.
i will review its purpose where it has got to and what still is to be done to create this interinstitutional system for long term trends.
thus the emphasis must be as the report recommends on developing an effective capacity for the provision of independent high quality interinstitutional analyses and advice on key trends confronting policy makers within the eu system on a regular basis.
and indeed over the past decade events have clearly shown how difficult it is to predict the future such as the collapse of the financial markets in the autumn of two thousand and eight or the extraordinary dynamism of the it industry with the founding of facebook and google.
first its purpose with a rapid transition under way in the global system today the aim of espace is to enable the eu institutions to have the means whereby they can take into account long term trends when taking current decisions.
but we should not have the illusion that the purpose of espace is to predict what is going to happen in the future.
as we turn into two thousand and fourteen let us hope we can have a broad and imaginative debate on some of the emerging ideas.
once in place such a system will be well placed to provide specific input into decision making for example to the budgetary authority in the run up to the negotiation of a first two thousand and twenty multiannual financial framework or together with the futurium which is looking at global trends.
in the first the pilot project produced a reflective document on global trends two thousand and thirty citizens in an interconnected and polycentric world'.
the world is indeed changing at a speed and intensity that leaves many policy makers struggling on occasions to make sense of what it happening and what the policy responses should be.
this policy system is an attempt to define how the institutions of the union can work together in a collaborative manner to identify the key global trends impacting on us what the implications of those may be and to suggest how we might fashion policy responses.
so this is a unique interinstitutional project involving parliament the commission the council of the european union and the external action service and one that is currently engaged in the production of reports analysing the major global trends in the economy society and in international governance and power.
next year this european strategy and policy analysis system is scheduled to deliver a report to the presidents of the institutions that will offer analysis for the next institutional cycle as they seek to chart the way ahead for the european union.
the interinstitutional taskforce is currently considering what shape and form a permanent system might take. work on this is ongoing looking at light formulas for bringing about this foresight capacity without putting additional pressure on financial and human resources. the commission
will continue to contribute positively to these discussions.
it is thanks to these two hundred families that assad is still there.