kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
also in my own country belgium wage setting hampers regaining competitiveness but socialist members of governments have openly said that they will not address this problem.
this is a perfect example of how countries choose not to show solidarity with other countries within the eurozone.
as long as member states keep looking to other member states to enlarge the competitiveness of the union and are not able or willing to implement or reform in their own country the fundamental economic crisis in europe will not end.
we must ensure that member states finally take ownership of the european semester and implement the structural reforms needed.
we must ensure that instead of blaming the european union for everything that goes wrong member states are made responsible and more accountable for their policies.
the commission will have to ensure that member states put into practice what they preach but how will it make sure that member states within the council show the necessary solidarity with each other and commit to the fiscal consolidation and structural reforms as requested through the european semester or enable the european union to be the frontrunner in attracting private investment to regain competitiveness and growth?
member states should stop hiding behind europe but instead use the full potential that europe has to get out of this crisis.
that is why we believe it is very important to reverse this and act against it.
it is about fine tuning in order to consolidate a reform.
what do we recommend?
the problem is that the people in europe see the commission saying one thing to our member states but then often doing another thing in the european institutions.
firstly on the eu budget stop wasting taxpayers' money on vanity projects and make sure that we really are getting value for money in that budget;
this being said i have an important concern about certain aspects of the latest euturkey deal.
as an overall assessment despite a number of shortcomings we can see clear signals that the accession process is moving forward.
both sides must lay down weapons and return to the negotiating table.
the time has come to recognise turkey's role in receiving three million refugees with dignity.
asylum seekers must be evaluated on a human legally certain and individual basis and turkey should be listed as a safe country of return.
the best way to boost democratic reforms is by opening chapters with a european perspective.
i also welcome the eu action plan with turkey and the disbursement of eur ninety five million. this should benefit the refugees.
at the same time we should continue to raise our concerns on freedom of expression an independent judiciary and the rule of law as well as the humanitarian situation and a disproportionate military reaction in the south east.
we are also preparing for the opening of further chapters including in crucial areas of the judiciary and fundamental rights as well as justice freedom and security.
in this context the commission is encouraged by the progress in the cyprus settlement talks and we look forward to their successful and swift conclusion. we count on turkey's lasting and concrete contribution to such a comprehensive settlement.
we share your hope that the opening of chapters will lead to concrete progress in turkey.
and should continue to encompass a much broader range of issues to enable us to tap the full potential of this relationship.
the commission shares the european parliament's concern about respect for the rule of law and fundamental freedoms in turkey. these concerns have been exacerbated by recent worrying developments including those targeting the freedom of speech of academics trials of prominent journalists and decisions affecting private assets in the media sector. we have repeatedly called on the turkish government to re
fight terrorism with our support but not your own people.
allow innocent civilians to be evacuated and bodies to be buried.
but clearly only if it encompasses full respect for international humanitarian law.
do not prosecute journalists because they publish stories you do not like or protest against the british consul attending their court hearing because surely you should have nothing to hide.
most of all return to a kurdish peace process.
labour lib dems greens and conservatives all support turkey's entry and incidentally the tories are members of the alliance of european conservatives and reformists a pan european party in which one of the members is erdoan's own justice and development party.
we do not even know for certain what the true population is figures range from seventy five to seventy nine million.
it is still too early to assess the concrete effects of this agreement as the concrete measures to implement it only became truly operational as of four april.
it is not going to be a magic solution but it is a step in the right direction and an important instrument. this will be done in accordance with the relevant international standards and by respecting the principle of non refoulement.
as we have agreed in our common statement with turkey visa requirements for turkish citizens can be lifted by the end of june this year provided that all benchmarks have been met.
let me stress once more that we continue to follow these and other developments such as the situation in the south east closely and that we will continue to bring up our concerns in all our meetings and at all levels with turkey.
closer cooperation is good for both turkey and the eu and the eu was and will continue to be an important anchor for turkey's political and economic reforms.
these are separate issues. as we have set out we are aware of existing shortcomings and we share your concerns about negative trends in the areas of rule of law human rights and fundamental freedoms.
to be clear as has been mentioned several times we are not linking migration and accession talks.
we are firm and we are clear about this.
whether that will materialise of course depends on turkey and the progress it makes.
it is not plain sailing we are all aware of this and we are not outsourcing our problems.
as reiterated by the european council in march we expect turkey to respect the highest standards. in our contacts with turkey we also take every opportunity to recall these concerns.
the council has called on turkey to ensure full respect for human rights in particular to take urgent steps to work on reversing the undermining of the independence and the impartiality of the judiciary and the significant backsliding in the area of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.
as you know accession negotiations are ongoing.
but just as we have many shared interests we also face many common challenges.
and let me underline that in this context we continue to work within the framework of our existing rules for the accession process by unanimity sticking to strict but fair conditionality and without creating any shortcuts.
from the commission's report it is clear that turkey has registered progress in many fields of the acquis and that is good news.
turkey needs to urgently remedy and address major shortcomings notably in the areas of the rule of law and fundamental rights.
this has been particularly highlighted by the migration crisis and president tusk reported to you on this earlier today.
we have also repeatedly called for a resumption of peace talks to end the violence in the south east thus pushing for a political solution to the kurdish issue.
one thing that has been made clear through these challenges is that turkey and the eu need each other to find solutions to combat these issues.
many european countries could learn from the hospitality shown in this regard by the turks.
that is genuine cooperation.
turkey must be stable and more democratic if we want it to be a strategic partner we can build on.
accelerating talks should depend on the pace of the reforms not on a political tit for tat.
the situation in the south east of the country is of great concern to this parliament.
it is important that turkey returns to the path of democratic reforms and grasps this opportunity of closer engagement with the eu.
we need a more stable and democratic turkey.
finally turkey has to return to a path where judges do not hesitate to decide and to give a verdict out of fear of being displaced or fired.
we believe that turkey has to return to a path where journalists are not imprisoned for doing their jobs and censorship does not become an instinct for journalists.
the four hundred zero citizens who had to flee their houses because of the violence and the twenty four hour curfews in many kurdish populated cities have put a very heavy toll on the livelihood of ordinary people.
this is not a threat but an encouragement.
turkey has to return to a path where academics are not losing their jobs and put in jail for expressing their views.
the eu urges that the peace process be relaunched as there is no military solution to the kurdish question. the current status quo is unacceptable.
this means that genuine concerns should not be taken as insults.
however and i want to stress this we cannot turn a blind eye to the internal developments in the country.
linking the accession process to migration cooperation is neither wise nor fair.
but turkey is reaching its limits and it is time that the eu really reached out to help by providing large scale resettlement of refugees to eu countries. that is genuine burden sharing;
madam president today the eu and turkey are facing many of the same challenges. think about the refugee crisis the threat of terrorism and a long lasting conflict in syria that creates instability.
a lot has already been said this morning on the eu turkey deal so i will just briefly say the turkish population has been hosting three million refugees.
this appears to be what is happening with turkey and it seems to have taken many colleagues by surprise.
turkey plays a crucial role geopolitically in the region and we need its help to tackle systematic issues which are of enormous concern to everyone from the immigration package to accession talks in general.
this makes some overlap almost inevitable but it is not necessarily something we should be afraid of. whilst we must be careful not to give turkey a free pass enhanced cooperation in critical areas from the fight against terrorism to the migrant crisis should be seen as an opportunity to breathe life into our relationship instead of being seen as a step backwards.
and frankly we are seeing a pattern that has become predictable but no less concerning and it frankly seems like we are the only politicians and the only eu institution that is clearly and vocally speaking out.
it is very problematic that the european commission and the council have halted their agendas that the commission delayed its publication of the annual report and that there has been a deafening silence when it comes to human rights violations in turkey recently.
we saw vice president timmermans rushing to shake hands with president erdoan eight days before critical elections and i would actually like to see him participate in a debate on turkey in this house.
it is key that the council does not outsource its responsibilities on asylum and consider hope a strategy and hope that turkey will solve its problems. the deal on migration has been a toxic one and i am afraid we have paid the highest price the price of our credibility of our principles and of our words.
we are clear in our report on what needs to be done and i hope the commission and the council will change their course.
they need and they want a fundamentally new paradigm in which there must be a shift from globalisation to localisation from completely profit and money centred decision making to human centred and community centred decision making
the majority of europe is completely fed up with the present system in which global multinational corporations and banks rule the world.
i was particularly pleased to hear mrs malmstrm's comments about the g twenty pittsburgh representatives needing to agree to significant coordination in the continued support of stimulus measures in the unwinding of these support measures when appropriate and a determined coordinated effort on future regulation.
if my welsh businesses cannot access funds from the us if the banks they rely on will require so much capital that the taxpayers of the eu need to take even more risk we will not be thanked for moving first on overly burdensome regulation.
therefore i hope that the important issues of how to coordinate financial services particularly now that some countries are showing early signs of coming out of this period of negative growth will be the main topic of discussion and not the distraction of controlling bankers' bonuses.
there will be no first mover advantage in financial regulation.
however the backdrop to this summit is nations spending trillions of dollars on bailouts and stimulus packages and in two of the largest world economies we are seeing some protectionist measures particularly with regard to tyres and poultry as well as two of the most complicated regulatory structures in the world namely the eu and the us looking to completely overhaul their financial systems.
this summit should focus on how we achieve a common regulatory framework in a common timescale so that we do not create an opportunity for competitive advantage by individual nations or regulatory arbitrage opportunity for speculative trading.
a global coordinated approach is the only one which would benefit the businesses looking to raise funds in wales the eu and beyond.
my plea is that a global coordinated approach is adopted at all times and maintained to ensure the future access to capital for all our businesses in wales the eu and beyond.
for this we need a consistent approach.
neither is a wish list for solving the world's problems frankly likely to win the day. the financial services industry is on fire.
i think this is a distraction in many ways although it should be dealt with.
the g twenty is a leading forum but we also need permanent structures in place as well like the transatlantic economic council to deal with issues like ifrs.
we need first to make sure that we have put out that fire and that it stays out.
we suggest introducing automatic information exchange so that information really flows between the different countries.
we also want to know your position on these concrete proposals to get out of the crisis and finance the consequences.
it notes with great concern that the crisis already bears major human costs and has devastating effects for the vulnerable in the poorest countries with an expected increase of twenty three million more unemployed up to ninety million more extreme poor in two thousand and nine alone life saving drug treatment for up to.
a global financial system needs transparency.
the g twenty wants to tackle it on the basis of case by case information exchange.
and nine and two thousand and fifteen' unfortunately this motion was not passed although it was written together by all groups of this house.
the development committee suggested a country by country reporting regime so that transnational corporations have to report back on a country by country basis.
do we want our british or european businesses to be at a competitive disadvantage when they need working capital?
our national politicians are saying one thing but here in the eu we seem to be doing another.
mr president the g twenty came up with many sensible responses the need to rewrite financial regulation and supervision and the need to act in a coordinated fashion.
the detail of the regulation that is already being considered by some of my colleagues shows divergence both in the timetable of implementation and in the detail of the regulation.
we should make sure that it becomes impossible for shareholders and management to engage in speculative growth strategies to the detriment of the long term interest of the companies themselves and of those who work for these companies.
they deserve to get the loans to which they are entitled.
i therefore call upon the g twenty to discuss ways of making the economy more democratic and how to make sure that within the company workers and others who represent the general interest have enough power to control the management.
however i have no respect at all for the management of some of the bigger companies which have no affinity with the products or services they deliver and can only think in terms of expansion and speculation.
within the eu we have to look again at the statute for a european company.
however everyone seems to forget that the real economy also suffers from greed and an obsession with short term profits. i have deep respect for small enterprises which against all odds try to survive.
the main shortcomings leading to this listing were related to firstly the flag of convenience policy pursued by the comorian authorities and lack of control over its foreign based fleet register;
we are fully conscious of the difficult social situation in the comoros.
the decision to include the comoros on the list of non cooperating countries was taken after a thorough analysis of the comoros' stance on the fight against iuu fishing and following its pre identification in october two thousand and fifteen and years of discussions with the comoros.
we share the issues raised by parliament in the draft motion for resolution and welcome your support.
therefore the commission proposed a denunciation of the partnership agreement in the fisheries sector between the european community and the comoros.
the commission remains fully open to working closely with the comorian authorities to guide them towards a better fisheries management framework if they express the wish to do so.
secondly evidence of illegal long distance fishing activities by the comorian fleet;
taking effective measures against illegal fishing is essential to protecting the valuable national resources that can be a significant source of economic and social development in the comoros.
the areas of concern haven't been addressed by the comoros and the comoros haven't fully implemented the measures agreed.
this is a legal obligation and it shows that the commission is looking globally at its external policy.
their involvement in operations breaching the iuu regulation means that we have to act.
we cannot conduct business as usual with countries that do not follow the law or share the same values as we do.
we have to do everything in our power to fight against the depletion of fish stocks and the detriment of maritime habitats.
that being said i fully support the proposal of the commission.
directive on access to goods and services.
and the fight against social exclusion'. the commission is committed to implementing this clause including through strengthening the assessment of social impact as part of its overall impact assessment system.
for this reason the commission has put a strategy in place including the interactive information service the frequently asked questions documents and the training initiative for local public authorities.
however the commission does not consider it necessary at this stage to set up a multi stakeholder taskforce to tackle the difficulties some providers of ssgi are experiencing with the interpretation of the single market rules.
however consultations of public authorities and stakeholders show that the existing rules to a large extent take account of the specificities of social services of general interest. the problems reported are very often due to a lack of awareness of and information about the rules
in july the commission participated in a seminar organised by the belgian presidency with the member states and various stakeholders.
as the commission has stated on numerous occasions the specificities of social services will be duly taken into account in the revision of the package.
the commission therefore does not see the need to establish an extra taskforce.
in summary the commission is committed to implementing the new horizontal social clause including the relation to ssgi.
i also recall that the third forum on social services of general interest to be organised on twenty six and twenty seven october under the auspices of the belgian presidency will provide an opportunity to discuss these suggestions and possibly others as well.
this being so the commission is aware that the belgian presidency has put forward some suggestions with a view to clarifying and adjusting the existing rules.
the commission is carefully considering these suggestions.
lastly the commission is working within the social protection committee on a voluntary quality framework for social services.
as i have explained there are numerous fora for discussion and dialogue with the ssgi stakeholders.
however the commission is committed to tackling the difficulties faced by some providers of ssgi with the interpretation of the single market rules including under the forthcoming single market act to be adopted by the commission before the end of october.
once again these discussions have shown that while there is a strong and legitimate interest in fine tuning there was no real need to change the fundamental structure of existing eu rules in order to adapt them to the specificities of ssgi.
in addition the commission has had a fruitful dialogue with the main stakeholders over the last few years on possible adaptations to the existing eu rules in particular within the social protection committee and parliament's intergroup on public services.
in relation to the specific situation of social services of general interest the commission believes that it is important to ensure legal certainty for public authorities in the member states.
the commission is aware that a significant number of public authorities and stakeholders consider the eu rules applicable to social services as an obstacle to the organisation and financing of such services.
the commission is in the process of updating the frequently asked questions documents.
also in the council the anti discrimination directive is still blocked.
we need to see it implemented. so while the fundamental principles are established and social policy legislation is protected in the lisbon treaty the future direction of social policy is not settled definitively.
when irish citizens asked me why they should vote yes' one of the top five reasons that i gave them was that this treaty would bring about a more social europe.
we have spoken about the new horizontal social clause article nine that obliges the union to consider the social consequences of decisions when making its policies.
just twelve months ago we ratified this treaty and now we as politicians have to deliver on our promises.
this is a cross cutting objective and it gives us greater scope to be more ambitious when writing amending or implementing eu legislation but article nine does not guarantee desired policy outcomes.
for twelve months this was my constant travelling companion when i was trying to persuade irish citizens to vote yes'.
that clearly states the shared responsibility of member states and the eu as regards sgis.
' that is a shift in eu policy and it must be reflected in the commission's communications and proposals.
we the commission the council and parliament can and must use the tools provided by lisbon.
i hope over the next few months to persuade him that he is wrong that we do need a dynamic process that we do need a high level taskforce which includes not only himself and other dgs but members of civil society the trade unions the council and the committee of the regions.
my specific request to the commission today and to the council is to accept that we need a dynamic process for making progress with regard to services of general interest particularly social services of general interest.