kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
we have given special attention to the safety of all civilians and included preventive alerts for vulnerable third country nationals and victims of human trafficking but also for missing children or children at high risk of parental abduction.
for me it was pivotal not only to address the fight against human trafficking and child abduction but also to ensure that their fundamental rights with regard to their personal data are protected.
information exchange in the field of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters and in the field of border checks is essential particularly since the great majority of individuals involved in perpetrating terrorist attacks in europe within the last decade have been eu citizens.
most were already known to the european authorities.
let me emphasise a final point about sis ii.
sis ii is based on the principle of mutual trust and requires schengen states to enforce each other's sis alerts.
it means that states have a duty to check an alert's lawfulness and proportionality particularly if its enforcement would violate the fundamental rights of the person involved.
based on this principle the relevant authorities should check first whether any action would violate the person's fundamental rights because the improvement of the system should never come at the expense of the protection of the individual's fundamental rights.
we have the tools to guarantee the safety of our citizens;
now we need to make sure that member states implement properly this regulation.
unaware to whom they give away their data or how they can stop sharing it most people until recently found being offered ads to buy things as something uncontroversial.
however the cambridge analytica scandal revealed something more worrying people's data can be improperly collected and shared and they can be microtargeted by various entities who want to influence and manipulate their political view or voting behaviour.
this threatens the very idea of democracy according to which voters can decide for themselves and are not mere subjects of propaganda machines.
users and most importantly regulators need to catch up with this new reality.
mr president let me start by saying that luckily i have seen in the member states and in the council more unity than in this chamber.
we have to start from a point of clarity and truth about this.
i think we need to discuss things as they are.
the european position which i think has been reflected well in the great majority of your positions is first that any solution can only be a political peaceful solution;
this is the difficulty of the simple exercise of looking for democracy.
currently a preliminary examination is being conducted by the office of the icc prosecutor and as you know the european union is a strong supporter probably the strongest supporter of the icc's role in bringing perpetrators to justice.
so we now trust the icc prosecutor's assessment on whether or not the rome statute requirements to initiate an investigation have been met in the case of venezuela.
venezuela is facing an unprecedented political social economic and humanitarian crisis.
the devastating political actions of president maduro have resulted in an increasing number of deaths refugees and arbitrarily arrested people.
if these elections do not take place in the near future we must act swiftly and impose additional targeted restrictive measures and thirdly the european union must enhance its political outreach with the democratic opposition and the civil society.
it is high time for friendly meaningful and result oriented negotiations towards peaceful solutions but most important also in my opinion is that the venezuelan people deserve an end to this communist nightmare.
mr president those of us involved in politics have been horrified by the way facebook has been used to share disinformation that distorts democracy and divides societies.
from the uk brexit campaign to the trump election and now the presidential election in brazil facebook has shown itself to be an anti social network that threatens democracy.
cambridge analytica is morphing into a new form under the auspices of emerdata that reunites the money of the mercer family with the manipulative skills of alexander nix and its disappointing to hear that nick clegg will be joining facebook as global ambassador and spin master.
the resolution notes that we need less pr and more detailed answers from technical experts and changes to facebook governance.
i'm pleased that the resolution notes the excellent work done by the uk's information commissioner elizabeth denham and that it seeks to prohibit political targeted advertising that undermines the public debate through microtargeting.
many of us many colleagues have despaired at facebook's predatory approach and worse its blatant exploitation of the personal data of its users for commercial purposes.
but apparently st nicholas is going to put an end to all of this.
facebook has lost the confidence of millions of people but st nicholas clegg understands this well because he went through exactly the same when he was leader of the liberal democrats.
he will always be beloved as a lobbyist by the eu commission and for sure the commission is going to let facebook off the hook.
can i just say for the commissioner for the commission and for members like mr staes that it is when we have difficulties with such sensitive and important agencies that we see parliament acting at its best when we have such tough situations. for the libe committee we have just had a very experienced delegation very experienced and an experienced rapporteur mr niedermller
coming back.
these are people who are highly independently minded who have investigated thoroughly for our committee and taken their responsibilities seriously.
they believe the improvements mr staes has mentioned have indeed been made sorry mr president i am just over running slightly if you'll allow me they believe these improvements have been made as the commissioner has underlined how important easo is at this very sensitive moment relating not just to its activities italy and greece but to other files and other important developments. so i return to what mr staes has said. he is satisfied that the key improvements have been made. mr sarvamaa is right there were improvements that needed to be made.
for the libe committee we have spent some considerable time on this and indeed with the new executive director and for this reason we believe that discharge should be made.
this is our recommendation.
at this stage it is our understanding that systematic investigations have been initiated and searches are being conducted at national levels in several member states on suspicion of tax evasion.
as the honourable members are aware the fight against tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning both at global and eu levels is a priority for the council and one of the key focuses of its work. the presidency therefore continues to follow closely all relevant information and developments.
so far we have no indications that there would be any direct link to or breach of current eu legislation or rules.
no discussion on this issue has therefore taken place in the council and its preparatory bodies at this stage.
steven woolfe sounds extremely indignant about this debate so i wonder if he's critical about the theft of our citizens' data?
madam president if one was to be getting divorced next march no matter what else was happening in your life whether you were getting a more energy efficient car whether you were insulating your house and no matter how deluded you'd want to be about what was important next year what would be important next year would be the divorce.
and you wouldn't put it number four on the list.
it should be number one on the list otherwise you would be in denial.
we are talking about the second biggest economy in europe leaving the european union.
that has to be the number one priority.
if it isn't there's something wrong here.
in particular for ireland we need the endgame to be no restrictions on trade no restrictions on movement of people and no border.
people talk about the irish border it's not an irish border it's a british border.
the gavel i am using was produced by the men's sheds in ireland they were one of the winners of the european citizen's prize.
i thought it might be a nice touch for me to use this to call order today and i in particular mention the drogheda men's sheds in ireland.
what i'm indignant about is the hypocrisy of this house.
the hypocrisy that on the one hand says we do not like cambridge analytica yet we're quite willing to accept the money of soros as he funds organisations in the uk that have tried to attempt to have a third referendum in the united kingdom. those who attempt to suggest that outside interference in the eu is perfectly acceptable if you want democracy treat it fairly on both sides but don't accept the money from those who are trying to undermine our own parliament.
this afternoon the spanish congress has shamefully chosen the latter.
he said is facebook just too big?
' we had the phrase during the recession from his book about banks being too big to fail but is facebook just too big to operate?
that's one question that has to be looked at. i know facebook does an awful lot of good work in terms of facilitating people to communicate but the dark side has to be addressed especially countries like russia interfering in elections. that's undermining all of society and it needs to be monitored and monitored independently as opposed to what's happening now.
mr president if there is one thing that has been so violently exposed in the last year in europe it is the need for a concrete mechanism that will monitor the state of the rule of law democracy and fundamental rights in every member state.
it is clear that we need to close the gaps between the rights we demand as eu citizens and the tools that are currently available for their protection.
having such a mechanism would be a huge step forward and would go some way in allaying the fears of so many citizens in europe from different states who look to us when their rights are in danger or when their institutions cannot be relied on or when the promise that is europe is under threat.
this is not about going after any single state or government.
it is about making the protection of the rights we have futureproof.
our focus must be on protection about building up systems about helping people and not about punishment.
having this mechanism will mean that every member state will be subjected to the same level of scrutiny.
it will remove the politics from that equation and create equality among states.
it will mean that governments who think that they have carte blanche to do as they please after winning an election will be in for a surprise.
a europe which can really deliver on solutions for their problems or a europe which is paralysed by the forces of the status quo?
when it comes to climate change this means having an ambitious strategy for a low carbon economy. when it comes to the digital revolution we need to frame it to conduct it in such a way that we improve working conditions and we control the effects on our democracy.
and when it comes to migration management and the refugee crisis we need to make sure that europe counts not only on the european border but the real european asylum system and a real partnership with africa.
then we can ask but do we have the means for this?
we need to turn these into a future community framework and also a proper reform of the eurozone overcoming the current differences.
madam president yet again i find myself asking to what problem is this legislative proposal the solution?
clean water and its spread has been one of the miracles of our lifetime not only in europe but world wide.
one of the extraordinary and unreported wonders is the number of people who are no longer subject to water borne diseases.
but it is not a problem in the european union and if it were there are ample national regulations and laws and legal remedies open for an individual who has been injured without needing additional regulation.
the proposal that restaurants should all have to supply free water on demand.
now again i think this is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how the private sector operates and what free contract is. nobody has to eat in a restaurant and if they choose to it's surely up to the restaurateur to offer whatever terms he wanted.
it is a demonstration that russia does not respect the order of the international community.
it is an action against us all.
you also said that we should not have a europe of several paces and that there should not be too big a difference between member states. romania is one of the few countries in the european union where we still don't have any legislation on civil partnership or same sex legislation.
a couple of weeks ago there was even a referendum which sometimes consisted of homophobic rhetoric.
internet literacy and staying safe on the internet must become a standard part of our education systems.
important decisions such as whether to stay part of the eu or not should not be decided based on targeted fake news.
the grave human rights violations in the country must be condemned in the strongest possible terms and the european union must lead efforts to facilitate political dialogue in the country.
the situation in venezuela has been blocked for several years and there seems to be no end in sight.
the eu should as it often has done in the past serve as a facilitator of dialogue in order for the venezuelans to find a viable exit to the economic social and political crisis they're facing.
it's crucial to involve other countries from the region in order to ensure that peaceful talks can take place whilst also joining efforts with them towards independent investigations into allegations of human rights violations and the prosecution of perpetrators.
while we discuss the diplomatic solutions to the crisis sadly people are starving on the ground fleeing to neighbouring countries because they lack public services.
with the current state of affairs our priority should be to deliver urgent humanitarian aid to the country as the short term consequences of the crisis for the population are dire.
as my colleague commissioner jourov underlined the cambridge analytica case has thrust into the spotlight an array of threats to our elections hacks leaks fake news as well as the misuse of personal data classical cyberattacks that target our voting systems and
cyberenabled manipulation of voting behaviour.
to tackle the classic cybersecurity threats the commission brought forward a package of measures in september last year to build greater cyber resilience to protect systems and data and to strengthen deterrence against those who would seek to attack us.
to tackle the challenge of cyber manipulation in april this year the commission proposed a package of measures in our communication on tackling online disinformation based around transparency traceability and accountability.
it sent a clear and strong message to all of the internet platforms facebook twitter youtube and others who we strongly believe have a real responsibility to take action.
we set out clear objectives for this code and called for measurable results in a number of areas not asking the platforms or indeed public authorities to judge whether something is true or false right or wrong but to shine a light on the provenance of the information that we are seeing.
we ask the platforms to restrict targeting options for political advertising to ensure greater transparency around sponsored content to step up their efforts to identify and delete fake accounts and to establish clear rules around bots.
there should also be greater clarity around algorithms and information on how they prioritise the content that is on display.
this should be combined with tools enabling users more easily to discover content and access new sources representing alternative points of view as well as to be able to report disinformation.
we want to see the code implemented effectively.
we've said we'll analyse first results by the end of this year.
we hope we can see sufficient progress by working on a voluntary basis but we've been clear we reserve the right to consider our options again if we do not make the progress that we need to see.
as mentioned by commissioner jourov earlier last month president juncker presented a set of measures specifically on election security asking member states to set up a national election cooperation network of all of the relevant authorities and to appoint a contact point to participate in a european level election cooperation network.
as part of this the commission will work closely with and support data protection authorities to make sure that all data breaches are effectively investigated.
last week we convened a high level meeting which brought together for the first time public and private actors from the member states in order to take stock of progress and to identify and share best practices for countering the threats to our democratic processes and our democratic values.
this event highlighted again the key importance of engagement both by the public authorities but also by the key private sector actors.
with the european elections and numerous national elections on the horizon it is imperative that we see sufficient commitment from the big online platforms.
the commission very much welcomes your strong engagement on this urgent range of issues.
awareness is the first line of defence but as you set out in your resolution we need to go further.
we have a strong shared interest in protecting our democratic institutions our democratic processes and our elections.
the commission is committed to working with you with member states and with the private sector to secure the foundations of our democracy.
as greens we abhor any human rights violations and threats to the rule of law and are seriously concerned about the deepening humanitarian and political crisis in venezuela. i would like to acknowledge and support your efforts ms mogherini to establish a contact group in venezuela that may facilitate political discussions between different parties.
as greens we are always strong supporters of a political process as a means to bring about peaceful resolution.
we recognise that targeted sanctions can bring some progress but they cannot replace peaceful diplomacy and they must not be allowed to harm the venezuelan people further.
we have now had several debates in this house on venezuela.
we have them frequently and it seems that there are some factions in the house who are unfailingly supporting the venezuelan opposition.
we are concerned that this may make the likelihood of civil conflict greater and we see that as an increasing likelihood that we are very concerned about.
the reason why i say it wasn't ambitious enough is because it went below the minimum standard.
the idea that it would be acceptable to people in here that you can go in and cut off the water supply to a house with children in it if that's a minimum for you well i can't go along with that.
his punishment was to be thrown out of irish politics but in the bizarre world of european politics his reward was to get that job here.
but let there be a warning to people here you need to be more ambitious than you were today.
in this respect i am glad parliament in this resolution calls on the international community to convene a new donor conference on south sudan when the necessary conditions are in place.
i strongly support therefore the idea gaining ground of establishing an international contact group in south sudan bringing together a number of actors involved in the peace process.
this is an inquiry launched by the african union itself and as such is an historic step to assume responsibility for the investigation of crimes perpetrated on the african continent.
we are working closely with mrs zerrougui the un special representative for children and armed conflict and unicef to end the use of children in combat.
last week the two principle protagonists in the civil war once again refused to make the mutual compromises required to reach an agreement that could pave the way for a comprehensive settlement of the conflict.
preventing and responding to violations against children affected by armed conflicts is a top priority for the european union.
we look forward to hearing formally what recommendations the inquiry has to make.
accountability for crimes committed in the course of the conflict is essential to ensure sustainable peace. the eu has called repeatedly for the publication of the african union commission of inquiry report.
we believe that the human disaster wrought in south sudan is the responsibility of its political and military leaders.
repression by the government and attacks against the opposition do not serve the strategic goals of cambodia or its people.
steps that have led to the opening of different european missions in cambodia including from the czech republic.
madam president prime minister hun sen has now been in power for thirty years. while these years have moved cambodia away from the nightmare of the killing fields we can say that the road to full democracy is far from complete.
we have seen some positive steps;
there is a quote attributed to the late cambodian king during his exile in china which reads i renounce my throne to show the masses that there is no such thing as a divine right that no one descends from the heavens to rule the people'.
but prime minister hun sen must understand that the greatest proof that cambodia is now a modern nation state would be to accept truly free and fair elections to allow a fully independent press and free speech and to ensure a government that works for all its citizens including those who are not supporters of the current government.
they stressed that this is a condition for the legitimacy of the forthcoming elections.
it is our strong view that the government of cambodia has a duty to create and sustain an environment in which all political parties can go about their work without fear of violence or harassment.
the european union has not been silent during this tense period.
it was a highly alarming and eyeopening exposure to the country's deteriorating political reality.
he and many other political and human rights activists have been convicted for what was a legitimate and peaceful exercise of their freedom of expression.
i urge the cambodian authorities to revoke the arrest warrant and drop all the charges against sam rainsy and other opposition politicians and human rights activists.
i call on them to immediately guarantee the freedom of expression and all democratic freedoms for cambodians.
but when done badly as i fear is the case in cambodia it becomes a cynical exploitation of that country's natural resources.
i would like to lend my support to parliament's call for the imposition of safety rules for factory sites. this is not enough however.
working conditions are poor; half of the people live on less than a dollar a day.
the eu should try to engage the bangladeshi government in a dialogue over a development agenda with a human rights component and with safety regulations.
these circumstances can breed conflicts in a country with an already difficult past.
they are conscious that they need to do something but we also need to help them because bangladesh depends
so the interim epa with madagascar mauritius seychelles and zimbabwe has to be seen as a stepping stone to a wider and more comprehensive deal currently under negotiation between the european union and the whole of eastern and southern africa.
mr president i welcome the promotion of free trade as the cornerstone of eu external commercial policy.
we must encourage the negotiations for a comprehensive epa with all countries of eastern and southern africa including those which did not join the interim one such as ethiopia which is a country i know and have a lot of admiration for.
there are disagreements between president mugabe and the prime minister over the election date and therefore many fear a repetition of the past violence.