kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
it can only work in this field if there is a request from parliament from the council or from the commission. i really regret this solution and i will make a formal declaration to that effect when the proposal is formally approved.
so we need the agency to be able to continue its work.
the agency also builds up strong methodologies and insights concerning the exchange of experiences and the identification of best practices.
two thousand and twenty it will provide us with the information we need to assess whether the member states' efforts to integrate the roma population bring about real change in the daily life of the roma in terms of education housing health and employment.
mr president the eu agency on fundamental rights is something whose necessity particularly at a time of economic austerity and value added i remain sceptical about given the overlapping roles of the council of europe the european court of human rights the osce etc.
i nevertheless support the agency's efforts to improve the lives of ordinary citizens by combating discrimination and promoting human rights.
it is clear that a mandate has been provided to tackle amongst other things racism homophobia violence against women and children issues which continue to blight the lives of far too many people within the union.
i also fully sign up to the new proposals to extend the remit to roma integration particularly given the long history on our continent of persecution and marginalisation of that community.
even now the roma are treated as second class citizens by many states and anything that can be done to improve their social and economic position is much to be welcomed.
in addition unlike many speakers i support the council's veto regarding the agency's right to meddle in police and judicial cooperation matters which are far better dealt with elsewhere.
so whilst i maintain considerable reservations about the functionality of the agency particularly against the backdrop of the current financial crisis and the need to economise i welcome its new mandate and look forward to assessing its progress in the coming years. over this period it must meet the challenges of rights and liberties in an increasingly globalised world where the eu is rightly held to its highest standards.
mr president fundamental values and rights are indivisible.
they are the constitutional foundations on which our societies and our europe base themselves.
they should be the compass for all our actions at regional national and european levels.
they should be the compass for respecting the rights of all our citizens in all policy domains social economic and security. the discussions in the council have shown that certain member states oppose the inclusion of the former third pillar areas
which no longer exist in the fra's multiannual framework as a matter of principle. their position would be the same if we had put forward a proposal to modify the fra regulation and that is why i am convinced that it is unnecessary and even counterproductive.
i would like as a principle and as a message to those member states and to some members of this house to underline the following.
we cannot ignore the entry into force of the lisbon treaty and of the binding charter of fundamental rights.
perhaps during the christmas break reading our treaties and fundamental texts would help some ministers and some members of parliament to understand the context and the significance of the basic rules on which our common fate is based.
mr president commissioner i share your frustration on this issue.
as a member from the united kingdom i would like to say to my government that it must make up its mind whether it is in or whether it is out.
when it comes to human rights i believe that it is doing itself enormous damage on the international stage.
i have prepared a speech but i will disregard it.
what do we have to fear from being held accountable for our human rights record?
people in these galleries expect that this union is a union based on fundamental values. it was born out of the ashes of the second world war and a determination that we would never see a repeat of minorities being taken away and scapegoated simply because they were different.
so let me say to you with your excuses about budgets staff costs management administration do you know what? you know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
human rights are priceless and we on this side of the house will vote this through because a negative vote will do the dirty work of those member states that want to obstruct this agency and do not want to be held accountable for their human rights record.
it also has a tendency to push out the boundaries of its areas of work instead of remaining focused on the basic criteria under which it was established. however my group much appreciates the work of the agency particularly in areas such as the rights of the child victims' rights discrimination and intolerance.
what we do not really appreciate is the determination by the agency the commission and sometimes colleagues here in parliament to expand the work into the very sensitive areas of police and judicial cooperation.
we believe the member states should be the main drivers of cooperation and collaboration in those areas and of course they should also have their own fundamental rights watchdogs in place in the member states.
as a uk conservative i can say that my government generally supports the deal that is now on the table but owing to constitutional and legal requirements we are required to go through a parliamentary scrutiny procedure before confirming our support. i have heard other speakers referring to that fact. it is a necessary requirement in the uk. i do however hope that the matter is concluded successfully and in the meantime i would like to thank the commissioner in particular for her work in this general area
our sustainable development chapters are therefore absolutely central and of vital importance.
eu negotiators should heed the message that we have been sending and come forward with clear strong recommendations for coaxing and sanctions.
the eu's approach of coaxing our trading partners to improve standards is inadequate and we are regularly told that the only alternative is the us system of trade sanctions which has its own flaws.
since two thousand and fourteen when i was elected to this house there have been three comprehensive reports from this house outlining an alternative dare i say a third way?
i recognise that we learn by doing but what we are learning from our current sustainable development chapters is that they are inadequate to address labour violations and environmental degradation in our relations with our trading partners.
but there are other alternatives.
mr president there has been a marked change in the commission's language around trade policy with increased recognition that globalisation may have negative as well as positive impacts on european industry workers in some regions. trade deals set the rules of engagement and therefore good standardsetting and civil society participation is crucial to ensure a balanced and fair environment for workers consumers and companies.
the european parliament report on the mandates for australia and new zealand show that there is crossparty consensus on the need for a stronger more assertive and effective model chapter.
there needs to be a balance of interests.
this is indeed a good moment to take stock of those experiences and it is commendable that you madam commissioner have opened a discussion on this topic and that you are open to input on various options.
it could also be incentives when things go well in terms of social protection and environmental norms.
primacy of human rights social rights as well as climate agreements environmental questions should be the norm in eu trade agreements and the sustainable development chapters are definitely a great addition but i believe that without legal enforcement they lack teeth and here i disagree with epp and ecr speakers who
finally when we include binding and enforceable obligations in our trade agreements these obligations obviously go both ways.
the eu must also be accountable for its actions and this is the core idea of the agenda two thousand and thirty the sustainable development goals which are universal.
obviously trade agreements are not done in a vacuum but they should be in line with other may i even dare to say more important policies but please don't take me wrong. the un's agenda two thousand and thirty which mr goerens mentioned is the overall framework that needs to guide our trade policy as well as other eu policies.
it does have the possibility to waive the benefits that we have given to our trade partners if things go the other way and against eu values so i think it is only normal that when we talk about legal enforcement there will be some consequences.
i believe that we can no longer afford to continue putting environmental and social considerations into a second class category. environmental and social obligations need to be on an equal footing with commercial interests.
we have trade and sustainable development chapters in all our trade and investment agreements and they are a key tool in promoting that not the only tool but a very important one that allows us to work with our partners and ensure a level playing field for our workers and enterprises.
we wanted to talk about this and how we could increase the effective implementation of these chapters to make sure that they are even stronger.
that is why we wanted to have this debate and we don't want to limit the discussion in any way so we welcome feedback and proposals.
there are synergies with development policies for instance and that has been acknowledged in the recently updated eu aid for trade strategy.
in dispute settlement; the strengthening of civil society organisations when it comes to monitoring;
the effective implementation of the existing provisions;
and more assertive enforcement and stepping up of pre implementation efforts in order to increase awareness in our partner countries and tackle non compliance issues. these are a few suggestions that are important and that have been given to us.
the discussion has not been concluded yet but there is nothing that indicates a consensus emerging on a policy shift towards introducing trade sanctions.
the key issue here is that sanctions are supposed to counterbalance specific trade costs demonstrating that the trade costs of a country not respecting certain basic social and environmental standards has concrete effects on trade.
this includes the handling of comments and information from civil society.
so discussions are still ongoing.
we welcome the input that has arrived so far and those who have indicated that they would be coming.
but i strongly believe it is incumbent on those of us who are in favour of removing barriers to trade to ensure that this does not undermine human rights labour environmental or animal welfare standards. we have tried the lighttouch approach to trade with sustainable development but it is clear that our existing tsd model is not fit for purpose.
commissioner i welcome the fact that you are open to a review of the tsd chapter and a clear example that our tsd model needs to be reformed is the korean fta. great in terms of economic benefit but has completely failed in terms of reforming or even protecting existing labour standards in korea.
after a labour leader was jailed in korea we were unable to take any action and any pressure we attempted to put on korea was completely futile.
how often have their reports been acted upon? as far as i can work out on zero occasions.
very recently before christmas you voted with a very strong majority in favour of the regulation for equipment that can be used for torture and the death penalty. before that there was a vote on conflict minerals so i think it is totally unfair to say that there is no human rights dimension in eu trade policy. today we are talking about how to enforce the chapter on sustainable development
we are talking about free trade agreements that we have negotiated in partnership with other countries. so we need to find a way where they can also agree to have it included in the agreement and that is a challenge.
but more and more countries actually do sign up to the same notion as we do that trade policy should be value based should be progressive should include elements that are not only about facilitating trade but that are also sustainable and fair. when we meet in different conferences and so on we have a group of progressive minded countries and that group is getting bigger who do want to trade
in this way. there are other countries where this is less obvious and that is what we are talking about.
this has been very useful.
i think we all agree that we need to enforce this in a much better way and we need to make them stronger. the question is how can we do this in a way that that actually works?
i do not have the final answer today. i know that some of you are calling for sanctions.
fair. we need to prove in a trade agreement that violation of human rights in sustainable development is actually trade distorting and that is not
they will send them in in the coming weeks and that is extremely helpful. we have been engaging broadly in conferences my team has been travelling to many countries of the european union you in this house have been active and many ngos and many national parliaments have been active in this debate and that is very welcome because it shows that we need to find
on this. the debate will still
continue. it does not have a formal deadline even if we should wrap up soon but i want to give the chance to those who have signalled to us that they are working on proposals and suggestions to get back
even though it is sometimes challenging for european companies to respect such provisions we continue to improve them and we are proud to set an example in the global world.
at the same time we also expect that our international partners follow the same standards.
i therefore welcome the commission's initiative to improve and ensure more coherent ambitious and effective trade and the sustainable development chapter in the future free trade agreements.
however the question is how to stay competitive whilst promoting such a high level of environmental and social standards.
trade agreements must first and foremost focus on enhancing trade and maintaining the international competitiveness of european companies.
mr president the commission's trade for all strategy calls for a trade agenda consistent with european values of high social and environmental standards and respect for human rights.
how can these standards be guaranteed when there are no enforceable mechanisms to support them?
as businesses seek to underpin corporate privilege through a multilateral investment court civil society organisations must have a real input into both binding but truly enforceable chapters within trade agreements.
this is also the ambition of the un backed binding treaty on business and human rights.
i urge the commission to strengthen the sustainability criteria and civil society participation in existing and future trade agreements and to support the binding treaty initiative.
this will put the eu on the right side of history in terms of human rights social standards and environmental protection in our trade agreements.
citizens are waking up to the real human and environmental implications of trade and we need the eu to uphold the highest standards in global supply chains and value chains.
he was european and irish but very much a man who believed in the power of trade to free people from poverty and destitution.
i think it is important to name him in this house because i think we believe that too.
he also in his latter years did a huge amount of work to help refugees because he believed in humanity and the dignity of every human person.
maybe in that context we should frame this debate about trade and sustainable development.
we should also be quite anxious that europe is perhaps needing to lead on this because the wto is not functioning as you and i would like it to.
maybe the commissioner could allude to that and why this debate is so important.
the issues of human rights workers' rights and environmental standards are something we hold dear here in europe and we fight for better standards all the time.
we want to think that when it comes to trade those who we make arrangements and agreements with also strive to reach those standards. the question is how we translate aspirations into reality how we monitor how we control and how we use that term sanction' not in the way it is framed in this
question but how we actually get countries to react and respond to our concerns.
one of our colleagues here mentioned the protection of producers.
in that context i want to talk about the producers i represent on the committee on agriculture and rural development. there is a real dilemma here for us in the european parliament because agriculture is always an issue when it comes to trade agreements and our concerns for producers and the food supply system that we have here in europe.
so this issue is quite broad and it needs careful reflection.
the trouble i fear is that people will turn away from globalisation and that the values and the merits it brought that peter sutherland believed in with great passion will be lost to future generations if we do not get this right.
instruments'.
we worry that applying sanctions would have a counterproductive effect on how much our partners would be willing to commit in the scope of the tsd chapters. again there are definitely limits to which we can use trade policy for some achievements in the field of human rights or environmental protection.
there is no doubt that tsd chapters must be better implemented but there are other instruments other options that need to be further explored.
first of all an introduction of measurable targets defining clear procedures on how to deal with complaints and how to launch government consultations.
thirdly to recognise that each trade partnership is a different one and that civil society takes different forms in different trade partners.
we have to use our eu soft power through the instrument of tsd chapters and the only way i see that this can be achieved through trade policy is on the basis of cooperation and continuous dialogue.
saying that trade is part of our policy and the values that we have in europe on sustainability human rights labour rights and the environment are fundamental to us.
therefore it is important to link trade with sustainability and i would say with behaviour on how the rules work in globalisation.
would the commission at least guarantee that most of the eur nine billion foreseen for the energy schemes in the connecting europe facility if we get it will be spent on electricity interconnection rather than on gas pipeline investments to the benefit of companies who made a combined profit of usd one hundred and eighty billion
if the third package is about unbundling supply from transmission will there be a fourth package on physical interconnection of the internal energy market?
two thousand and fifty earlier this year the commission sent reasoned opinions to seventeen member states for failure to implement the third energy package.
i should like to welcome once again commissioners oettinger and almunia.
of course interconnection also creates jobs in the european union because we are the major if not the only manufacturers of the high voltage direct current cables which are needed for such interconnection.
however would the commissioner not agree that it is in a sense crazy that we are spending millions of euros on solar power in germany belgium and the united kingdom and very little in southern europe where there is actually rather more sunlight?
while the issue around green jobs was originally to have been published with the circular economy paper with the previous commission i really welcome the opportunity to debate it this evening in particular with a very good report on employment guidelines which i think makes this discussion more strategic rather than a small niche area.
we know that we have growing social exclusion and inequalities challenging our societies. so we really need to maximise the employment potential of new sectors.
and we have seen resilience for example in the environmental services sector during the crisis.
we are also aware how essential workforce engagement is in initiating owning and helping to create the necessary changes.
we need this to be reinforced by an efficient implementation of relevant eu legislation with clear and ambitious targets where those are appropriate.
we were clearly told in the hearing and elsewhere that we need a coherent comprehensive policy framework which will provide a predictable environment for training and investment.
so we need policies that are mutually reinforcing not running off in different directions.
so we need to raise general awareness to promote stem skills and to make sure that women can also participate in the new economy.
so we should be taking full advantage of the existing experience and opportunities within social partnership and sectoral and social dialogue.
there are many companies that want to make changes but are not confident or cannot find people with the right skills.
so what does it take to help maximise this potential?
we need to change working practices and methods to increase resource efficiency minimise environmental impact and take care of those whose existing employment may be adversely affected by change.
whether that is within the semester or within the eu two thousand and twenty strategy and the review of the strategy we need the just transition' roadmaps which will move from the local level onwards to actually help people plan for the changes that we need.
we also need this effort to be supported strategically by european union funds including as well the two thousand and sixteen review of the multiannual financial framework using that as an opportunity to promote the green transition of the economy.
we can identify a number of new sectors where we can find them.
madam president i wanted to start by thanking all the shadows for their very serious input to my report and also the opinions from the two committees.
we also know we need to respond to global trends the inefficient re use of resources the unsustainable pressure on our environment and indeed climate change.
we know that the european union needs jobs.
i really welcome all the additional input that came from those that participated.
the council's general approach includes an explicit recognition that action in line with the employment guidelines is an important contribution for the european union to the europe two thousand and twenty objectives.
as you know there is currently a general approach of the council on the table.
two two jobs were lost in the real economy.
madam president according to the figures quoted in this report the renewable energy economy will create twenty million new jobs in europe.
fourthly fostering social inclusion combating poverty and promoting equal opportunities.
it addresses a number of pertinent issues like a call for creating the conditions for a fair transition to quality and sustainable jobs addressing the skills gaps and mismatches full implementation of environmental legislation and enhancing
firstly further investment in green skills.
the employment guidelines need to be applied on a national regional and even local level and of course in close coordination with the social partners. indeed the employment guidelines provide guidance firstly on boosting demand for labour. this refers directly to the investment plan with the goal to increase investment by eur three hundred and fifteen billion
my efforts as well as those of my fellow commissioners in respect of the circular economy package or the energy union have the potential to enrich the implementation of the green employment initiative.
this means that job creation will continue to be our number one priority because it is also what people men and women care most about having a good and decent job.
secondly enhancing the labour supply skills and competences.