kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
securing ethnic peace is perhaps the most important and the most immediate challenge.
i also plan to offer cooperation with the election commission to build on the success of the by elections for which it deserves much credit.
i was delighted that we were able to associate the european parliament with this historic event and that mr ivo belet could join the eu team at the elections.
but here too an effort that brings together all political forces can make a real difference.
we need to enter into active collaboration to assist the reform process and to contribute to economic political and social development.
i will travel to burma next week.
i hope that the honourable members will support me in working with the authorities to turn ceasefires into durable peace. in all these areas we will work with the opposition as well as the government.
there is also progress on less visible fronts legislation for trade unions easing of media censorship including unrestricted access to the internet and progress on the economic front including liberalisation of the currency.
these are important steps and we do not doubt the president's commitment.
i wish all the people a very happy new year.
i know that the european parliament made a successful visit in february.
we want to encourage european companies to look for opportunities in burma and to bring the highest standards of corporate social responsibility with them.
mr president after decades of internal repression we see dramatic and hopeful changes taking place in burma.
first national reconciliation specifically a willingness to recognise the special position of daw aung san suu kyi and to see the national league for democracy take its place in the political life of the nation.
i fully agree with the uk prime minister david cameron who whilst in rangoon recommended that the more restrictive of the current eu sanctions should be lifted.
burma has tremendous potential and should be afforded the assistance of eu investment and political support to achieve all that it is capable of.
however i was also struck by her very cautious attitude to the way ahead. she was absolutely clear that any rush to completely remove sanctions would be premature and reminded us what happened after the last free and fair' elections in her country that is within months the entire cohort of successful candidates were in prison as the military junta cracked down. she has welcomed proposals to suspend rather than lift sanctions and i believe that this is now the appropriate way forward.
suspension will allow reform to continue and be rewarded but serve as a reminder that the world is still watching.
on the other hand i would also like to stress that it is vitally important for the well being of the people of burma that we move quickly towards opening up the economy and encouraging strong and fair governance both politically and financially.
mr belet can i thank you very much for the work that you did in the elections.
i know from robert cooper what an important contribution you have made and i must thank you for that. i agree with the honourable members that what we are seeing is not irreversible but every step that is taken makes it much more difficult for that reversal to take place.
it is less likely and it is less easy for them to go backwards.
i agree too that we have a lot to do.
we want to make sure that the people have the right opportunities and can make their own choices after years of being cut off and apart from us. i will go next week because that was the agreement that i reached with amongst others aung san suu kyi who asked me to go after we had made the decisions about sanctions and in order to open the office.
i respected her request in choosing the timing of my visit.
my envoy robert cooper who has known her for many many years has visited four times in the last few months to ensure that we have been able to remain in good contact.
i agree with everything that has been said about our need to move cautiously but properly and to understand that the possible transformation that we are witnessing is absolutely and truly remarkable. what is interesting is that i have not met anybody who has been there who does not come back
and talk with absolute admiration for what the president has done and the opportunities that are being opened up.
in this case i am sure they have helped.
there is a long way to go.
the burmese transition to democracy has just started.
my group the alde group will accept its responsibility and we too want to arrive at an agreement because we realise that it is very important.
either you have a single permit or you do not but if you have a single permit there are no additional documents.
it is not the first time and i request the presidency of this house to write to the council and complain about this.
but i have to say this is a personal remark that i find this a shameful red line by the member states because if the member states have the intention of transposing the directive and being transparent about it they should of their own free will insert correlation tables.
well how much progress have we made to date?
madam president first of all i would like to start with a little point of order i note that for such an important debate our partner in the negotiations the council is absent. i find that unacceptable.
then i would like to go on and like the others congratulate mrs mathieu for doing a very good job on a very difficult complex and sensitive dossier.
however we do not do so with great joy because as i think has been expressed in different ways by all the groups in this house and by the commission this proposal does not go nearly as far as is necessary. my group will stick to its position on the additional documents because if we allow member states to require additional documents then that defeats the whole purpose of the single permit;
it is very clear that the member states do not want a common immigration policy.
madam president we too have a concern about the variable labour market that we already have across twenty seven member states and within those twenty seven member states but our concern is how we move away from this towards something which is more comprehensive and stronger. we want to be sure that we have an agreed basis of rights for the majority of third country nationals as originally set out by the commission and generally improved in the committee on employment and social affairs. we do not want to see these rights increasingly restrained and constrained
we want to remind the council that we are concerned here with individuals who should be able to develop their skills and education benefit from the social security contributions they make and look forward to claiming their pension entitlements given as is recognised in the proposal that their work supports our economies and indeed our societies.
we are also fooling ourselves if we think that what is on the table here is actually going to meet the needs of each and every migrant worker within the european union.
for our group the commitment to circular migration is also important in article eleven.
the majority of the amendments voted in the respective committees of this house can be supported by the commission to the extent that they reinforce procedural guarantees for both the migrants and the employers.
i am pleased to see that both the presidency and parliament have made important efforts to bring their positions closer.
the compromise we are all trying to achieve will respect certain criteria such as the aim to protect migrant workers and to provide them with a series of work related socio economic rights on the basis as much as possible of equal treatment with eu workers as from day one of employment.
this is in relation to amendments geared towards further simplifying the application procedures and strengthening the equal treatment provisions for example the principle of proportionality of fees as regards procedures and the equal treatment provisions on tax benefits.
we cannot disregard member states' concerns relating to certain equal treatment provisions especially when it comes to budgetary concentration.
on the other side the amendment that makes the export of acquired pensions conditional upon the existence of a bilateral agreement is much more restrictive compared to the approach proposed by the commission.
what i believe important is that those criteria i have just highlighted are respected even though the end result may not be as ideal as we wanted and as ambitious as we had hoped for.
let me therefore express my hope that we can reach an agreement on this proposal as soon as possible.
it is a good compromise and it marks an important step forward in the area of legal migration and will be of high importance to the workers of the european union.
it will also take account of the importance of creating a level playing field throughout the eu for these workers and thirdly the importance of showing our partner countries that we are ready to provide for the fair treatment of third country nationals legally residing and working in our member states.
two thousand and seven our aim was and is still to simplify procedures by introducing one permit for residence and work while guaranteeing employment related rights to legally residing third country workers who are not covered by specific eu legislation or commission proposals.
if it is adopted by parliament and the council this directive will confirm that the european union values the important contribution third country workers make to our economies and our societies.
it is a very complex proposal and it addresses both the immigration side and the social employment side.
there is also the question of the illogicality of where we are today. we have a single permit proposal which comes after the skilled workers proposal the blue card and comes after sanctions on employers.
that means we have a package which has many of the correct intentions such as having a horizontal approach.
however we are not having a horizontal approach because we are in a situation where mrs mathieu is doing a good job with what she has but as she said in her speech we wanted a global approach but we now have a sectoral approach and that sectoral approach is exactly what mrs lambert was concerned about.
e. it does not have a reasonably broad based approach to entry for third country nationals to the european union you will face problems of equal treatment of a two tier work force and other problems that we want to solve with common policies.
we are telling the truth which is that we are doing things in the wrong way and we are doing it because of the people who are not present today to listen to our arguments the representatives of the council.
the council did not want to deal with this in a horizontal way and we are left with this kind of piecemeal approach.
so on the single permit we understand the good intentions and the global approach and the work of the rapporteur in trying to make this work but we will present our amendments tomorrow in good faith in the hope that we can obtain a single permit which says what it is a single permit covering the broad range of people who seek to work in this european union.
they are in our countries and make an important contribution to our economies. we need to protect them.
having said that contrary to some of the views that have been expressed here today let me emphasise that the present directive establishes the principle of equal treatment for migrant workers in all employment related areas including employment conditions and wages.
it does not create discrimination.
nobody wants social dumping.
we want to protect these people.
i share your view that we need to protect them.
let me be even more precise the report will be based on a factfinding study detailed work for which is now underway.
as i said the commission is currently working on a report on investor schemes which includes all member states. let me repeat all member states will be included.
on the topic of legislative initiatives by the commission let me restress the following.
the contractor undertaking the study has been asked to look at the legislative framework the security and due diligence checks the numbers of people involved and the schemes' implementation in practice.
on the topic of guidance for member states the commission will issue some guidance to member states on the question of citizenship for sale together with the two thousand and eighteen report on investor schemes.
the study will look at both investor citizenship and investments residence socalled golden visa' schemes.
it will describe the commission's action in this area.
with my colleagues responsible for this sensitive area.
' in the field of legal migration only the conditions of entry and residence of certain categories of third country nationals have been regulated at eu level.
it is for the commission to see whether there is a need to propose eu level legislation also for other categories of third country nationals.
if we go down that road in the short term it may be all great for us but in the long term it will kill creativity it will kill the opportunity for new musicians new bands and new experiences to come before us all.
in fact all during this process i feel the council presidency has not been too helpful in trying to bring this issue forward.
fourthly and most importantly of all by ensuring that there is clarity with regard to how the law operates within the european union.
but other pressures came to bear upon them and they have taken a disinterested or semi detached attitude with regard to trying to find solutions.
but the second point with regard to what this directive is doing and possibly the most important of all is that for the first time it recognises the contribution of session musicians by establishing a fund to allow them to ensure that they have a return and remuneration for their work which has been exploited by people over a long period of time for which they may only get a one off payment if they are lucky. this will ensure that those who are near the end of their playing careers or those who may have other economic issues with regard to them can get further protection from it.
at the outset let me put on the official record of the house my thanks to all of my colleagues both those who support and those who oppose the proposal i am putting forward for their contributions their input and in particular for their helpful advice and guidance along the road.
the extension of copyright and the term of protection has been a long and arduous journey for all of us in particular because a huge amount of people are not fully aware of all the facts associated with copyright.
firstly the extension of the term of protection from the present fifty years to a further extension of term.
that proposal for compromise is founded on some of the resistance from the council of ministers and it disappoints me that the council presidency is not represented here tonight.
in our audience tonight we have some musicians some producers and indeed some interested parties. i would say to them that this is the first step that we see on the stage towards guaranteeing that artists and musicians can take more control of what their rights are.
thirdly with regard to the whole area of balancing the rights and the powers of those who are in negotiation between the record companies and the musicians it gives extra rights to musicians and to others to ensure this can happen.
at the outset of the czech presidency i advised the prime minister as well as the minister with responsibility and the officials from the czech presidency that this could be a great success for the presidency as well as a success for this parliament.
many of my colleagues particularly those from spain and other mediterranean countries have put forward ideas with regard to the audiovisual sector and we have tried to accommodate them by putting into the draft report this idea of having a separate directive to deal with the audiovisual sector because it has different issues that relate to it and requires different solutions. likewise as has been discovered during the course of our debates and discussions there is a huge area with regard to the management of the collection societies and how they best represent the rights and the collection management of the monies that are due to artists to ensure that they can come towards them.
the idea of copyright today is seen to be thrown away at the wind everybody can get everything for free.
it is something that we should pay for not an exorbitant amount but a small amount.
' end of the intended declaration.
the commission agrees that the issue of managing online rights for the redistribution of tv and radio programmes merits close attention.
july. two thousand and eight we are now in the midst of the worst economic crisis the world has seen in my lifetime.
thirdly a use it or lose it' provision that allows performers to recover the rights after fifty years should the producer fail to market the sound recording;
some might argue that european creators are over protected.
for the first time ever in european copyright laws there will be a scheme whereby artists participate in the labels' sales revenue twenty of gross turnover is set aside for session artists. this is truly innovative.
the declaration would read the commission recognises the pressing need for the collective management of the rights of phonogram performers and phonogram producers when radio or television productions incorporating broadcasts from commercial phonograms as an integral part thereof are made available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the radio or television productions from a place and at a time individually chosen by
essentially this fund is tested on the fact that contrary to all the criticism we have heard in the past year the term extension will on the one hand provide income to performers in their twilight years and on the other hand promote the emergence of new arts. let me stress that this proposal is far from a simple term extension.
and fourthly a so called clean slate' which prevents record producers from making deductions from the royalties they pay to feature performers.
those who rely on copyright for their income would beg to differ.
the commission put forward this proposal in
now these selfsame multinational record companies will get a multi million euro windfall for doing absolutely nothing because in this new digital age there is nothing to do.
the problem is the balance between the multinational record companies and the featured artists.
my problem is who benefits?
on the basis of an industrial structure long made redundant by technological change it is the sheriff of nottingham winning not robin hood.
many of these people signed contracts thirty or forty years ago that gave them eight of the dealer's price with the companies responsible for producing distributing and collecting the money from sales.
models. a seventy year term is open to all new innovative business
we have done our best to get a proposal.
but the writer of the song is entitled to life plus seventy years.
i believe copyright and patents protect people businesses and intellectual property and intellectual property is the bedrock of entrepreneurial free market economies.
people and companies happily invest time and money in the hope of finding a product in this case music that people will like and want to buy.
i come from a point of view where i like copyright.
that is why i am strongly in favour of this report.
i admit that this is a fix for the rock and roll era which is concentrating minds right now and which saw both an explosion in popular music and remarkably poor contracts.
it would also give us time to reflect on and develop more performer and future oriented proposals really fit for a digital age.
i know the proposal was well meant but in the digital era when the way in which recordings are distributed is rapidly changing why should we make an irreversible change by extending a system that at its core still operates with contracts and a structure more relevant to physical distribution and sale?
it would see us through to the end of the current model of recording companies which are when all is said and done the main beneficiaries of and agitators for this extension.
we should be making it clear that assignment for life without renewal clauses is no longer acceptable and one of the prices recording companies must pay for any extension.
a lot of commendable work has been done to impose good conditions in return for the extension but i fear these bolt on additions do not render it fully fit for the purpose in the long term future and they also contain their own inconsistencies and unfairness
the only hope to rescue that situation is to address the matter of contracts that have become unfair over time and this has not been done.
however such an amendment would not put us in an irreversible position for all newer recordings.
i have looked for a compromise that i could live with and i did offer the idea of limiting the term extension to recordings published before one thousand nine hundred and seventy five as appears in alde amendments eighty and eighty one which are compatible with the main package.
if you come back addressing the points that i have raised then it could be a package worth voting for but otherwise i cannot support it.
mr president this report has had a long and at times complex birth within parliament subject to intense lobbying from all sides and with myths and counterclaims being the order of the day.
i recognise that it is not perfect and that there are concerns. in different circumstances i would have liked it to have addressed especially for featured artists the time period allowed for record labels under the use it or lose it' clause which kicks in after a year rather than after a matter of months which would have been preferable. to conclude i would ask the council urgently to come to agreement on this issue.
amendment sixty two on a clean slate for featured artists;
i must say on a very personal level that i can appreciate everybody's viewpoint and understand where they are coming from.
even the financial times which is opposed to copyright protection or extension uses the copyright tool itself!
before recorded music ever came into being when you bought sheet music you had to pay a certain fee that went back to the creator of that music and every time it was performed the performer got a cut from it as well.
given the fact that mr halawa is irish and was seventeen when he was arrested we call for his release by presidential decree under egyptian law.
on sunday last as one of the four hundred and twenty co defendants was not present the trial was postponed.
i worry about the dogma and sectarianism of islamist politics.
do i believe that the muslim brotherhood seeks to advance justice freedom democracy and pluralism?
the eu should not turn a blind eye because cooperation without addressing human rights gives a false sense of stability and will prove unsustainable.
yet those muslim brotherhood supporters who demonstrated in two thousand and thirteen as ibrahim halawa did are innocent until proven guilty or at least they should be. his human rights must be respected. a mass trial cannot be a fair trial.
the circumstances in egyptian prisons are notorious.
mr president ibrahim halawa and myself have a number of things in common. two of them are that we are irish citizens and we are european citizens. in that context and crucially because ibrahim halawa was a minor when he was detained i would ask the egyptian authorities to unconditionally and immediately release ibrahim halawa to the irish authorities.
i use those words immediately and unconditionally' because ibrahim halawa has been declared a prisoner of conscience by amnesty international.
finally i use those words immediately and unconditionally' because the irish government has requested his release under presidential decree law.
i use those words because ibrahim halawa along with four hundred and ninety three individuals awaits a mass trial without any guarantee of a free and fair trial.