kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
links are steadily growing with a broad range of other lucrative criminal activities such as drugs or even trafficking in human beings or exploiting technological developments for criminal purposes. huge criminal proceeds are generated
we have to mobilise all our instruments to this end and combine efforts to adopt a comprehensive and coherent approach to crime. europol's serious and organised crime threat assessment estimated in two thousand and thirteen that three
to that end they adopted together with the directive two declarations calling upon the commission to consider the possibility of submitting further proposals on this matter.
such crimes will be closely monitored by europol which is expected to submit to the council an interim serious and organised crime threat assessment at the end of march.
for the coming years in the field of internal security the council considers that serious and organised crime in all its forms constitutes one of these threats.
within this framework the council agreed to a series of operational actions targeting among other things counterfeiting and cybercrime which were agreed as eu crime priorities. emerging crimes like wildlife trafficking illegal waste trafficking or trafficking in cultural goods
the role of asset recovery has been acknowledged as an integral part of the fight against serious and organised cross border crime.
which set out the council's considerations on the general structure and some key principles of the renewed eu internal security strategy.
this instrument is a clear step forward in ensuring that criminals can no longer have access to assets derived from certain types of criminal activity and this contributes to strengthening the response to serious forms of crime.
last year's first anti corruption report shows that the nature and extent of corruption varied from one member state to another and that corruption affects all member states.
four out of ten european companies consider corruption to be an obstacle for doing business in the internal market.
the directive adopted last year on the freezing and confiscation of assets is a significant step forward.
lastly the recent agreement on the fourth anti money laundering directive is promising in terms of enabling financial investigations to identify criminal beneficial owners of companies more easily.
an eu strategy to fight the illicit trafficking of weapons was adopted
the current operational priorities of europol include illegal immigration human trafficking counterfeit goods excise fraud synthetic drugs cocaine and heroin cybercrime
funding is provided through parts of the internal security fund roughly eur one billion over the period. two thousand and fourteen two thousand and twenty i will mention firearms trafficking as it echoes last week's tragic events and was identified by europol
the commission is ready to work with the member states to ensure that the existing legislation on firstly cyber attacks secondly payment fraud and thirdly child sexual abuse online is correctly and swiftly implemented.
with eastern partners the focus is on corruption.
we will consider this request in full dialogue with the other european institutions. the commission as you know has just taken measures to increase its own transparency which is essential for preventing corruption.
the commission has actively engaged with third countries and relevant international organisations for instance we have a full agenda with the united states as regards the fight against cybercrime and child sexual abuse.
firearms and organised property crime.
in our eurobarometer survey in two thousand and thirteen more than half of europeans said corruption in their country had increased over the previous three years.
the commission is committed to enabling closer public private cooperation in fighting cybercrime.
combating the infiltration of organised crime into the legal economy will contribute to economic recovery and growth.
preventing corruption and promoting integrity has rightfully moved up the european agenda in the past decade.
the two thousand and eight framework decision on the fight against organised crime on which the commission will issue an implementation report this year.
the resolution on renewing the internal security strategy which this parliament adopted on three december two thousand and fourteen rightly puts this fight among the few priorities on which we should continue to focus our joint efforts in the years ahead.
in. two thousand and thirteen the commission is now evaluating the possibility of proposing the approximation of some criminal offences related to weapons and to strengthening the checks for some categories of firearms.
the report identified areas in need of further attention.
the european union has responded with the creation of the european cybercrime centre within europol and the cyber attacks directive which member states should implement by september.
prevention should be a strong component of the fight against organised crime.
of the framework decision.
offences relating to participation in a criminal organisation.
the commission also decided to engage third countries and relevant international organisations.
madam president one of the most profitable and despicable organised crimes is the trafficking of human beings the buying selling and abusing of vulnerable people with little more respect than that offered to a sack of potatoes.
victims of trafficking are still being prosecuted for crimes that they have been forced to commit rather than being treated as victims and this adds to their injustice.
we have very welcome developments such as the anti trafficking directive and a most effective and committed anti trafficking coordinator but there is still much to do to protect these vulnerable people.
cross border policing joint investigative teams and the work of europol are all essential but not enough.
i would also like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to intervene on this very important topic.
the eu policy cycle has provided us with a strong methodology to combat crime in a more coordinated way making the best use of our resources.
we firmly believe that the renewed internal security strategy will represent another step forward in developing a union that protects the rights and freedoms of our citizens. we should make continuous efforts to strengthen the framework by providing for more comprehensive responses to the challenges
posed by organised crime and corruption.
we want passengers to be taken home or to where they want to
let me mention in particular delay on short and medium distances.
in practice air passengers are not always afforded the rights to which they are entitled.
second right of information;
this is firstly because the enforcement system which is now in place is not sufficiently effective and is not applied uniformly across the eu. secondly if airlines and passengers have different interpretations of the same text disputes become unavoidable.
first enforcement;
delay there might be a financial incentive for it to cancel delayed flights.
i am speaking now to address potential problems at gibraltar airport.
this has resulted in massive and unacceptable delays.
the context is that the government of spain systematically and as i see it vindictively inflicts petty controls at the land border between gibraltar and spain.
attempts have been made and are being made by members of this parliament by means of legislative devices to suffocate air travel in and out of gibraltar's airport.
this is a disgrace and i urge colleagues to support the amendments today.
these include reducing the trigger points from five to three which may seem to benefit the consumer but perhaps could see many more air cancellations and that would be regrettable. as a consequence this could lead to a reduction in feeder flights from regional airports which in turn could destroy some of the long standing inter line agreements a practice which has
however we fought hard in this parliament to raise the profile of and support our regional airports which benefit local communities generate economic growth and create jobs throughout the supply chain and there are parts of this report which if adopted we have concerns about.
but regrettably we are in a position where some of the areas have been changed from the commission proposal which could lead to some unintended consequences for passengers by i believe possibly reducing choice putting up prices and damaging the competitiveness of our regional carriers.
it was in the original regulation i asked for it to be removed and that was not the case.
it was raised as an issue last year at the transport council;
after the cordoba agreement in two thousand and six spain told the commission that it would no longer seek gibraltar's exclusion from such aviation measures. indeed it recently transposed into national law an open skies agreement with post cordoba language;
but the commission's proposed revision of the regulation left in the gibraltar exclusion clause.
that must come out.
it has been raised here in our transport committee by me and others and in both parliament and the council people have asked why we are debating a sovereignty dispute when we should be debating passengers' rights.
mr president i would firstly like to congratulate our rapporteur and the shadow rapporteurs for an excellent report and also the commission for actually addressing this issue. it would however be useful at this point to ask why this revision of regulation no two hundred and sixty one two thousand and four is necessary. it is necessary because the present regulation is being abused by airlines and they are being assisted in that abuse by national regulators who have completely abdicated their responsibilities and encouraged through non action the airlines to drive a coach and horses through this legislation.
the compensation offered to the passengers on that flight was a big fat zero.
because the airlines claim that every delay or cancellation is due to force majeure or extraordinary circumstances and if you challenge that view you are told we will see you in court'.
this report will severely restrict this loophole by making clear that technical problems are not force majeure.
i say to this parliament today and to the aviation industry out there that this regulation and report is about passenger rights not airline rights and should be supported by the whole house. finally can i thank monarch airlines for showing me in practical terms why this regulation had to be amended and the loopholes closed. after a dreadful experience coming back a mere twenty six hours late from tenerife in august two thousand and twelve
this report will put an end to this type of happy time' that the airlines have enjoyed up to now.
a compromise of three hours was and that also mirrors the european court of justice's position of three hours as the trigger.
so this is considerably better than the starting point of the commission which was five hours. we are also able to support the narrowing of the extraordinary circumstances to stop airlines hiding behind this excuse to avoid
i would like to thank the rapporteur for his very constructive approach and i am very pleased to say that we have been able to change the emphasis in the commission proposal from one which was largely pro industry pro airline to one which is much more pro passenger and that is the version we will vote on today. although my group's view that compensation should be paid after one hour was not carried
this is a good thing especially for an island nation like ireland which depends a lot on aviation.
since the entry into force of the regulation in two thousand and four there have been problems in relation to the variation in interpretations resulting from grey areas and gaps in the current two thousand and four regulation.
this should help smaller airports in particular to continue to grow and develop.
this parliament has already expressed its opinions on several occasions about the above points in the context of its resolutions adopted in.
but it does need regulation and a regulation fit for purpose. we all know of a number of unfair practices and reductions in the quality of services with negative consequences for travellers.
passengers have difficulty first of all in enforcing their rights when air carriers are in breach of the legislation and on many occasions passengers are not even aware of their rights as airlines are not providing the information needed.
the commission stupidly and predictably gave the spanish government about six weeks' notice so for the purpose of that one visit the spanish authorities for want of a better word cleaned up their act'. the reality is that these delays are still going on and you and your colleague should be heartily ashamed of yourselves.
too often airlines fail to offer passengers the assistance that current eu legislation binds them to exploiting the gaps in enforcement by national enforcement bodies and exploiting passengers' lack of knowledge of their rights over issues of legal interpretation.
therefore i welcome this debate on how best to protect them.
to generate economic growth we must encourage business entrepreneurship and increased tourism.
an important part of doing this is by ensuring that our workforce feels confident and indeed that foreign visitors feel confident to travel by air.
this report would give better protection by ensuring that passengers subject to long delays receive the same rights to compensation as those suffering cancellations. it would also extend the right to accommodation in these cases and emphasise support for disabled passengers.
passengers also stand to be better supported in situations where carriers go out of business.
this is positive.
we must however recognise the opportunities that our air industry and new air routes bring for jobs and growth in regional economies.
it is vital that while passengers are protected airlines are not placed under enormous financial pressures with legislation.
for far too long some and i stress some airlines have obfuscated obstructed and obscured the rights of air passengers to proper compensation when they suffer serious delays to their journeys.
with the revision to this regulation and a new comprehensive list of extraordinary circumstances we can close the loopholes which have prevented passengers including many of my constituents from receiving restitution when delayed by airlines for reasons of poor operational management. in future passengers will also have clear and transparent information on hand luggage allowances and reassurance that they will not be penalised
but despite so many enhancements to passenger rights there is one glaring reversal gibraltar.
the current law has not been one of the easiest to implement particularly concerning extraordinary circumstances.
the civil aviation authority in the uk for instance is really struggling with this term. our clarifications really do help in this respect.
i am hopeful for the success of my amendment suggesting a tax free ticket for a carer required to accompany a person with disabilities.
i would not support new amendments that take things one step too far as the unintended consequences would be more cancellations fewer regional flights fewer through tickets and increased prices for passengers.
the problem here is there is simply no justification for excluding gibraltarian citizens citizens of the eu from passenger rights that will apply to everybody else.
it is absolute discrimination and an absolute undermining of their fundamental rights as european citizens.
it seems very odd to me that members of the transport committee did not take the opportunity offered by my colleague mrs foster in her amendments and vote to end this discrimination proposed by the commission.
i want to add my voice to those today who have been objecting to this gross discrimination.
mr president paragraph thirteen is completely covered by part of paragraph nine and to remove the repetition i would like to propose an oral amendment to delete paragraph.
mr president i would just like to take this opportunity to say something about the importance of forestry and the importance of trees the importance of wood. there are three main reasons for this importance first tackling climate change;
and thirdly we can improve people's health by getting them out exercising in forests. so tackling climate change creating jobs and improving health all show why man's best friend is not the dog man's best friend is the tree.
second creating jobs;
on the first of these tackling climate change we already sequestrate absorb ten of our carbon emissions at the eu level through our forest cover.
secondly we can create a large number of new jobs in this area in my own constituency of the north east there is big job potential.
through these policies the eu also makes a very important contribution to the implementation of sustainable forest management and member states' decisions related to forestry and the entire forest based sector as well as forest protection.
therefore the forest strategy aims to ensure that such an important natural resource for our economy and society will continue to deliver its economic benefits in spite of new challenges such as climate change and related threats.
it takes an integrated approach covering internal and external forest policy issues and addresses the whole forest value chain considering the important contribution that the sector can make to growth and jobs in the eu and as i said particularly in rural areas. therefore in accordance with the council conclusions on the forest strategy the commission in cooperation with the member states and stakeholders is developing a multiannual implementation plan of the eu forest strategy which will contain the specific actions to be carried out by the commission and the member states with clearly defined outputs and a timetable for implementation. stakeholders will also be fully involved in this implementation. this will also increase the synergy between the work done by different commission services for the implementation of the strategy and it would facilitate stocktaking. so the timing of the initiative is very good and the commission will carefully consider this parliament report in the preparation of the multiannual implementation plan of the eu forest strategy.
when you look at the strategy itself the basic aim is to establish a framework for forest based actions and support for sustainable forest management based on the coordination of the different forest policies in member states and of eu policies and initiatives relative to forestry and related forest based sector activities.
for example the strategy addresses the issue of growth and jobs not only in forestry but across the forest based sector.
the strategy provides a holistic approach to forest management it covers the economic social and environmental benefits of forests.
but this is not all. the strategy also relates to climate change as it contributes largely to both climate mitigation and climate adaptation.
we have common values objectives and common concerns regarding european forests and their future.
several eu policies have an impact on forests including rural development climate change industry environment bio energy and the broader bio economy.
from a political perspective too i would like to underline that the new forest strategy is very much in line with the political guidelines of the juncker commission.
mr president i would like to thank ms kstinger very much for her report. i believe that much sustainable forest management is currently being constrained by wellmeaning but overly prescriptive and bureaucratic environmental legislation and that includes things like the eu timber regulation.
so i welcome the report's emphasis on the upcoming review of that regulation and a call for a new regulation that reduces unnecessary costs and reporting requirements for europe's foresters.
i do understand the need to apply the regulation to third country imports but a blanket approach in the eu is not necessary.
families and friends are grieving for the victims of this latest disaster and greece really is one of the hotspots of the effect of climate change that we see all over europe.
the commissioner has already outlined some of those issues.
i think we should also engage in the long term to help rebuild. apart from the lives that were lost we also have severe damage to infrastructure and housing.
all those prevention measures will become more and more important as we see climate change progressing.
so we need to get smart.
we need to make sure that people are not harmed that no damage is done by the catastrophe. we need to focus on prevention so that we don't have to be sorry for loss later on.
their attacks do not command political support from the people of northern ireland.
i wish i could say that they will not succeed but sadly in northern ireland it seems that violence does pay so much so that today we have three convicted ira terrorists as government ministers and our joint first minister mcguinness
he is no better than or different to the antrim terrorists who stood over the dying soldiers and pumped more bullets into their bodies.
it is appreciated in northern ireland that you should at this time think of those who mourn in that regard.
mr president thank you for your words of condolence on behalf of our british soldiers who lost their lives on saturday evening.
those who murdered the two soldiers seek political advance through the path of violence.
is someone who peter robinson at a time when he opposed terrorists in government said had personally murdered at least twelve soldiers.
mr president on saturday night in northern ireland we were all i think like everyone very shocked two young soldiers brutally murdered in cold blood.
but i have to say this they can never succeed they cannot win because it is the democratic process in northern ireland that has spoken and that must win.
our thoughts can only go out to them today as they were cut down in the prime of life.
let me first start with the question of whether europe acted quickly.
we were the first to bring financial support and to send our own staff our own doctors are there risking their lives to mobilise attention to this epidemic.
the answer is no and this is why we have to make every effort possible to fight ebola at origin now and do it in the most aggressive way we
at the moment there is very aggressive deployment of all that has been developed in terms of vaccines and treatment so that we can provide help to people who are infected.
i want to praise our member states because in the last weeks we have seen a surge in reaction from them just to give you some examples austria with protective equipment italy with a field hospital
i could not agree more that coordination saves lives.
fight the bigger the risk of this virus mutating.
well it is through the handling of infected chimpanzees gorillas monkeys porcupines but at the moment we are not seeing it as a danger for the rest of the world because we are not seeing that kind of movement of products. also
us. and also a very direct question is the opening up of travel a risk for europe?
but let us be very fair and straight on that quantities are limited.
so can we help everybody who needs help today?
we have to act in a coordinated manner. already in august together with the world health organisation we approached our member states by activating the civil protection mechanism asking for
very often we in the humanitarian community are like the canary in the mine. we feel trouble and we sense danger before the rest of the world understands the magnitude of this danger.
on the epidemic itself it is unprecedented in two ways.
mr president we have heard a very comprehensive presentation from the council.
we are talking about an impact on their economies and their societies that is quite dramatic.
secondly at no time before has an ebola epidemic lasted so long and it is not yet contained. so we are in a very unusual and very dramatic situation.
we are not talking anymore just about a health emergency in the three countries;
of course we are mobilising money.
we are very constrained in terms of personnel equipment and transport.