kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
you will recall article four of the treaty on european union which states that national security remains the sole responsibility of each member state'.
this is a time for cool heads and calm consideration.
i understand why member states do not want to give up this competence so let us proceed in an ordered and sensible way with cool heads rather than this unnecessary reaction.
we are in very challenging times in europe and we need good working relations with all the institutions.
our first step should be to investigate the legal consequences of the council's actions but i have sympathy with the member states who unanimously agreed on the change of legal base.
we should not be reacting with a childish tantrum and by throwing our toys out of the pram.
in my view the management of a country's borders is directly linked to matters of national security.
in both cases we have seen proposals from the commission to create a brussels based schengen governance and in both cases the member states strongly disagree with solid arguments.
mr president i too was surprised by the council's move to change the legal base of schengen but i am even more surprised by colleagues' reactions here today.
firstly i think we need to go to court.
what we need is for you to recognise the powers of the european parliament.
it is in fact a question of an attempt by the council to renationalise schengen by doing two things first of all changing the legal basis so that this parliament lies outside the decision making process and secondly and more importantly by clearly stating that implementation of the new acquis will be delegated to the council and not to
secondly why is it necessary to pay for all this?
we have two trialogues in the next two weeks.
ukraine has fulfilled all the criteria in record time; even more impressive they made it while under attack by russia which is waging a proxy war.
with visa free travel finally the eu delivers visible results for the people showing them that there is progress.
now a ukrainian entrepreneur can meet his business partner in the eu without tiring paperwork. tourists young people can travel to europe without waiting in line in embassies and parents can spontaneously go and meet their children living on the other side of the border.
it has strengthened our partnership and our economy and the eu should now give the green light and implement the visa free regime without delay.
this exchange is in our common interest.
visa liberalisation is about people to people contacts facilitating mutual understanding respect and friendship.
let us be honest few countries today pay such a high price for its democratic aspiration. more than ten zero ukrainians have died defending our shared values of peace democracy and freedom.
one five million are displaced many of whom are children fleeing for their lives.
ninety days without a visa and i am very pleased that we are nearing this important moment for ukraine and its citizens for its neighbourhood and for the european union.
under the new mechanism the commission will monitor the continuous fulfilment by ukraine and all visa free countries of the visa liberalisation criteria especially in the fight against organised crime and corruption.
following this positive assessment and taking into account the overall eu ukraine relations we proposed in early two thousand and sixteen to lift the visa requirement for ukrainian citizens holding a biometric passport.
it has been a long process but we are reaching the end.
in times of rising nationalism and xenophobia insular and exclusive thinking this will be another signal that the eu remains open and connected to this its neighbourhood.
visa liberalisation for ukraine will be an essential contribution to strengthening cultural and economic ties between ukraine and the eu for the eastern partnership and our neighbourhood in general.
dear members of the european parliament i call on you to demonstrate this openness and support the proposal on the table during the votes.
already in december two thousand and fifteen the commission confirmed that ukraine had implemented all the benchmarks set out in its visa liberalisation action plan.
we are seeing the results of the hard work of the ukrainian authorities over the past three years.
the visa suspension mechanism will be an important tool to further enhance security for the eu but also to strengthen our visa liberalisation policy.
i am very pleased that we can now finally conclude this process.
and engagement in favour of peace stability and european ambition.
given the commitment of ukraine to pursue in the way of the reforms undertaken and the consolidation and sustainability of its compromises the rapporteur calls on us to confirm today the principle that the european parliament so heatedly defends
on the other hand it is a strong message for the citizens that see their country engaged in a european path.
on the one hand citizens benefit from the implementation of reforms that impact their daily lives.
on twenty eight february an agreement was reached between the european parliament and the council on the visa liberalisation process for ukraine.
so this is a really joyful day.
nevertheless i personally do not think that it was a very wise decision not to let the russian singer participate.
it is about the draft law on edeclarations where civil society organisations will be obliged to submit edeclarations on their financial interests and assets. this is something that should go and is going for politicians and public officials.
yes we as elected people also have to very clearly declare our interests salaries and assets.
this has been happening in ukraine but now legislators are going against civil society organisations people who really fight for equal rights more democracy media freedom etc.
so this requirement is seen and has to be seen as a matter of intimidation that needs to stop.
border guards have access to these databases and any people from these lists will not be allowed to cross the border.
now we have a special suspension mechanism when the commission can pause a visa free regime for a concrete country if some migration criminal or some other concerns will appear. what additional options to this list of protection measures give with the regime?
but besides that ukraine was dragged into a difficult situation and it deserves our support.
years ago when berlin was divided and also in a difficult situation a great us president proudly declared himself a berliner. the democratic countries stood by berlin and the principles of the liberal world.
also thanks to that berlin made it;
it is united and germany and europe as well.
i see a similarity with the current situation in ukraine.
the people of ukraine suffer and key principles are also heavily present.
nowadays i would say that people wherever they may live who want a peaceful world and the rule of international law are in a way ukrainians.
ukraine desperately needs and deserves first and foremost our support to end the conflict in eastern ukraine and to preserve its territorial integrity which was not only challenged but destroyed by russia.
i think that it was very fruitful and we are thinking about further cooperation with ukraine.
excellent food for thought for us.
so now finally we are approaching the day when ukrainian citizens can make short term visits without a visa to the european union.
i am speaking on behalf of the committee on legal affairs which has paid close attention to the developments in ukraine visiting the country and also organising a hearing together with the commission with the eu advisory mission ukraine and with the council of europe in brussels where we studied the state of the reforms
and while we are rejoicing with the ukrainians that they finally have this visa free access to the european union we should not give up reminding them that the reform of the judiciary and especially the measures against high level corruption must continue and we have with great concern read news that there would be a total misunderstanding that also those fighting corruption would have to be put on the same line with those who actually are in the position
to conduct corruptive measures that they would have to declare their assets and situation.
this is also the recognition of the sustained and comprehensive reform efforts which have been carried out by the ukrainian authorities particularly in the field of border management the fight against corruption and anti discrimination. we will hereby fulfil a longstanding demand by ukrainian citizens and also
facilitate interpersonal contacts and cooperation.
with the revised suspension mechanism in place there is no need to delay this important file any further.
i would like to congratulate the rapporteur for her continuous efforts to make it happen.
i closely monitor the current state of reforms and i must say that the progress made in the past two or three years is truly unprecedented.
ukraine is on a very ambitious path to create a properly functioning economy in a democratic political system with the ultimately aim to finish the transition from post soviet to european state.
a lot of progress was made regarding the required reforms especially in the field of judiciary the fight against corruption strengthening the democratic institutions and the rule of law.
there is a lot of work ahead for the full implementation of these reforms especially considering a very difficult fight to regain full territorial integrity of the country.
therefore i am very happy that this house is taking an important step to enable ukrainian citizens to travel without visa.
we should be ready to live up to these expectations and not let the ukrainians down.
but the promises we keep.
i can assure this house that we will be judging them and the whole government by their deeds.
once the cameras are gone from the streets of kiev and ukraine is no longer in the evening news we should continue our engagement and not forget our promises and commitments. history will judge us not by the promises we make
we made it clear and let me repeat this on this occasion that we are ready to strengthen that interaction with the crimea and crimean representatives for the benefit of the people living in that region.
we have created expectations.
amidst the wreckage of the regime we now must work closely with our partners in ukraine to help bury this culture once and for all;
it is an unspeakable outrage and the corrupt kleptocratic and utterly disgraced yanukovych who is now a fugitive will have to answer for his serious crimes.
lastly i welcome the release of yulia tymoshenko whom i invited to this house in two thousand and three and i also welcome the abolition of the berkut whose name is now toxic; they were responsible as snipers for the killing of innocent protestors.
madam president few of us could have imagined even a couple of weeks ago that dozens of innocent protestors could have been massacred by police in a modern democratic european capital.
then once a stable government is democratically elected on twenty five may we can turn to the longer term political goals of signing the association agreement and the dcfta and one day to eventual eu membership which i have supported for over a decade by the way. ukraine is anchored in our european history and culture shared from west to east but its destiny must be decided by all of the ukrainian people not just the eu or the us or the russians. really we must remind russia of its obligations to respect ukraine's sovereignty under the one thousand nine hundred and ninety four npt budapest accords which includes crimea being part of ukraine.
i salute their courage and i send my condolences to the victims' families.
in particular the priority would be locating and repatriating the vast quantities of looted money and ensuring that all those responsible for the recent atrocities are brought to justice.
can side with them assist them financially and economically together with the imf help them in making democracy work they will do the work but we can be of assistance. we should not offer things which we are not prepared to give so i would not like to engage in the whole membership issue
and now there is a second wave in ukraine.
they were courageous many of them were killed and what we were able to do was side with them from all political parties in this parliament; to be there at this decisive moment when history was in the making.
but what we can do is to associate with them.
in the end they played an important role.
it is not democratic and it is certainly not a country without corruption.
but ok let us not be too critical.
this is what they have to do and we will have to help them;
they have to fight against corruption;
but do not give them something now which we cannot fulfil.
now there is a discussion about the legitimacy of what happened.
that is not useful.
so it is up to russia to decide if they want to be friends or if they want to destroy the integrity of the country.
that is a provocation which is against the european spirit.
why change the language law concerning not only the russian language but all the minority languages?
yes we should say to ukraine at the end of the road membership must be possible because that is according to the treaties.
let us ask the commission to make an assessment of whether it is possible if and when we can go to the next step to give the citizens of ukraine a clear message concerning their future in the european union.
here you can ring friends.
tell them they have to do their job;
that is our obligation to fully support them in that sense.
let me say again yes we need new elections;
let me turn to the last point about russia.
this would not go unnoticed in kiev.
elections will be i hope fair.
let me concentrate on one of the points i wanted to raise. we should show ukraine the european perspective based on article forty nine teu.
in parallel the remaining foreign ministers were meeting in brussels and maintaining regular contact with our colleagues on the ground.
help. all partners responded positively to that offer.
i want to underline the importance of the verkhovna rada as a legitimate political institution. it is also crucial that the new administration is inclusive politically geographically and in terms of stakeholder participation.
ukraine i congratulate you for organising today's
first a comprehensive constitutional reform to be started immediately and completed by september drawing substantially on relevant expertise of the venice commission; second the formation of a new inclusive government;
we are ready to step in where requested to do so in close cooperation with our international partners.
it is now important that all sides continue engaging in a meaningful dialogue to fulfil the aspirations of the ukrainian people.
i also strongly hope that an international advisory panel will start work
that these changes are put on solid ground and will be sustainable.
we are working on the best inclusive platform for international coordination to provide sustainable economic and financial support including all international partners to help in addressing the challenges the country faces.
meanwhile our three colleagues facilitated talks between the president and the opposition in kiev transmitting the clear and unequivocal messages from the european union. a multi party delegation from this house led by the chair of the committee on foreign
this will require recognition of the sovereign right of the ukrainian people to make their own choices about their future.
those who violated fundamental rights are to be brought to justice.
we have all followed the tragic developments unfolding before our eyes in the intervening period.
it places greater responsibility on the new ukrainian government interim and beyond to deliver the changes the people have asked and fought for. it places greater responsibility too on the european union to extend all our support and expertise to ensure
during the past few weeks. during my last visit to kiev i visited two hospitals to show solidarity with the injured people.
irrespective of which side they were on they were suffering because of the actions or non actions of politicians.
what i retain is a sense of immense sorrow over the high numbers of dead and wounded. i wish to express our sympathy and condolences to the families of all those who have fallen victim to what have been unprecedented levels of violence provocation and indiscriminate use of force in ukraine
justice should be fair and without revenge fully in line with the european convention on human rights and the caselaw of the european court of human rights. this tragedy puts an even greater responsibility on all involved to make things work now in ukraine.
the will of the people must prevail.
russia has a chance to become part of the effort to bring stability and prosperity back to ukraine including being part of the coordinated international effort to help ukraine address its economic challenges.
she underlined the need to restore trust in the institutions and reiterated the european union's offer of
those choices are about domestic politics just as much as they are about foreign policy.
we expect everyone in ukraine to behave responsibly and to protect the unity sovereignty independence and territorial integrity of the country.
elements of that solution are clear and were outlined in the agreement of twenty one february.
last week the foreign ministers of germany france and poland took on the task of representing us at the very moment of the deadliest clashes since the outbreak of the crisis.
we are ready to work promptly with a future ukrainian government committed to economic and political reforms and to step in with assistance.
before concluding allow me to say a few words about russia.
we adopted strongly worded council conclusions introducing targeted sanctions.
fails. we are ready to work very closely with russia the neighbour of our neighbour to ensure it plays a constructive role in ukraine's future the future of a neighbour with whom russia has traditional ties which we support. madam president honourable members in the light of the challenges and the need for a continued coherent european policy on
the european union should be an active participant and a contributor to the project.
i fully support the idea of holding a donors' conference.
if you look at the situation seventy of ukrainians have never ever visited a single country of the european union.
the country needs stability in the first few days and weeks and the financial and economic issues will have to be looked at.
if not there will be a collapse. what is needed in my view is short term credit for the country.
i think that is exactly the way we should go. the problems are huge the sums are big.
a way a concrete way needs to be found; the way that trade relations with russia and the eu are not mutually exclusive.
respect for ethnic identity and minority languages is crucial in restoring the sense of national unity and preserving the territorial integrity of the country.
while trying to find a peaceful solution to the demonstrations in kiev we see now that new demonstrations are taking place in crimea.
today in the square in front of the crimean parliament pro russian demonstrators are clashing with crimean tatars who support the territorial integrity of ukraine.
the tatar people have been struggling for cultural language education and housing rights within ukraine for decades and now they face a situation that is threatening their rights as indigenous people of crimea.
in addition to urgent efforts towards international economic assistance the council having already agreed an asset freeze must now act quickly to help ukraine recover the billions which as colleagues from this house were told have disappeared in the past three weeks alone.
if the new administration recognised as legitimate by the eu agrees to sign the association agreement that we say is on the table i cannot see what justification there could now be for the eu to hesitate.
madam president the brave people of ukraine need our solidarity and committed assistance. i came back from the euromaidan believing it is a genuine popular revolution for human rights democracy and the rule of the law. it was never about making ukraine choose between the eu and russia.
ukraine is part of europe and must live in peace and good relations with all its neighbours but mr nbsp putin cannot export his model and impose an oligarchic corrupt regime in ukraine against the will of the people.
ukraine needs immediately a government which will be in tune with the euromaidan in delivering accountable governance while assuming urgent financial commitments and one which will not promote stupid decisions such as the language law playing into the hands of those who plan the division of the country.
minority rights must be protected and the will of the tatars specifically must be respected.
we cannot afford a conflict in crimea forgetting the lessons of the first world war a hundred years ago.
one lesson we are still learning is that the end of the cold war should not be confused with the appearance of the zero sum games of geopolitics and both the eu and the new leaders in ukraine should be aware of and deal wisely and constructively with the russian concerns
these are crucial times.
one solution being suggested is a finlandisation' of ukraine in terms of security and nato membership i.
in your experience as a finn and as a politician from finland do you think that would give enough assurances to russia if ukraine were to head in a european union direction but say no to nato and no to any security threats to russia as it perceives them?
in doing so they should try to unite not divide the country to keep the minorities in rather than out and to filter justified revenge through judicial procedure aware that a simple political condemnation is not always sufficient in court.
fully aware that ukraine will test it to its limit and that failure would negatively affect the entire continent.
we also need to ensure that in ukraine the message is clear to unite but also to reform.
all other priorities no matter how justified and legitimate should be considered of secondary importance.
a united trustworthy state needs a united stable society able to mobilise all its human resources in support of a truly all nation agenda. therefore now is the time for reconciliation and inclusion and not for revenge and lustration.
justice should be done in the courts and not on the streets.
if it fails the eu security would be in jeopardy.
this house voted on a report in two thousand and seven which called on the uk government to recognise its responsibility and to compensate equitable life policy holders in the uk ireland germany and elsewhere.
today many of you may have received representations from your constituents who are concerned about the extent of this compensation.
twenty this is not what the committee i chaired had in mind.
i think we need to put ourselves in the shoes of petitioners.
we have a responsibility to smooth that path as much as possible and indeed the proposal to convert the eu rights web page into a user friendly one stop shop is i think an excellent one.
we as legislators and the commissioners as initiators of legislation need to listen to this and use it as part of a reinforcing loop that improves our effectiveness rather than a cul de sac.
i have been a substitute member of the committee on petitions for six years and during that time i have worked very closely with some petitioners and listened very carefully to others.
the issue of inadmissible petitions comes up year after year and i think we need to be real about this.
but we also need to be supportive of citizens throughout the process with clear timely explanations as to what is happening throughout the entire procedure.
finally recital e speaks about the direct impact of eu legislation on citizens' lives and how citizens are best placed to assess its effectiveness and shortcomings.