kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
with the euro area now with seventeen member states and i very much welcome estonia as a new member and with a process of decision making that is not always the simplest one in part because we are based on the principle of democracy.
europe is trying to support ireland because it is important to know where the responsibility lies.
since we want to reinforce stability i think it is important that we agree on this limited revision of the treaty.
when europe was financing your farmers after the war to feed your own people?
we have twenty seven democracies.
revision of the treaty you know what was the position of the commission.
in europe all the states have exactly the same dignity and those ideas of discriminating between member states are in fact very dangerous ideas for the european project.
to the distinguished member of this parliament who comes from ireland and asked a question suggesting that the problems of ireland were created by europe let me say the problems of ireland were created by irresponsible financial behaviour by some irish institutions and by the lack of supervision in the irish market.
another point which was made by some of you was what is the level of ambition?
they were a minority but those comments were made trying to deepen divisions between europeans so called rich and so called poor europeans.
that is why i want to appeal to all those who share the european ideal to not let us be distracted by what can be some differences of policy orientation. mr hughes i very much respect your concern with social europe but let us be completely open about this.
we are for the most ambitious position in terms of integrated response. that is why the commission will be ready to support some of the measures that some of you have proposed.
finally i think everybody has to make a contribution.
this is the reality.
this is critically important at this
moment. we are not helping them if we are suggesting that they can escape that
what is the best way to support governments like the greek government the spanish government the portuguese government that are led by very distinguished members of our political family. is it to support the reforms they are taking courageously or to say simply that those reforms are against european values? we
this is why it is important to those of us and this is clearly the majority that believe in european ideals that we are able to have as much as possible a common response.
some of us would like to go further. i personally would like to go further in terms of the structuring and the deepening of the community approach.
so we need stronger governance in the euro area; we need stronger economic policy coordination in the european union as a whole and basically we should all of us commit to the principles of solidarity and responsibility. it is not just a question of responsibility;
once again let me make clear the position of the commission.
that is why i want to state again that some of the proposals which were put forward are indeed themselves interesting ones but they are not able at this moment to generate the necessary consensus and the commission has to be very attentive to the contribution it gives to forging this consensus.
one thing i want to say to you and it is clearly a huge majority that shares european ideals and need to have a european response is that we should not be divided by some differences that are not the most important ones.
so i think it would be a complete mistake now to be divided on this matter;
where were you when europe was financing your infrastructures for the development and competitiveness of your countries?
where were you when europe was the basis for the prosperity and growth of your countries after the war?
so how should we
in the current world of competition with the pressure of some stronger emerging economies now either we adapt or we will be putting at risk our social market economy.
them. at the same time those countries that are now in a better position should show solidarity with those countries as
it is a mechanism to make working class people throughout europe pay for the crisis of a broken financial system and a crisis ridden european capitalism.
mr barroso and mr van rompuy tell me this morning because you have not done so yet about the morality of transferring tens of billions of euro of private bad debts by speculators and bankers gambled wildly on the irish property market and placing those debts on the shoulders of the irish people who carry no responsibility whatsoever for them.
you are destroying our services and the living standards of our people.
you claim to be democrats but you enslave the working people of europe to the markets the financial markets which lead you around by the nose.
your financial stability mechanism is a vicious weapon dictated by the markets masquerading as something benign.
if you go back through history you find that when people are put together in false currency unions when governments think they know better than the markets governments always lose.
greece portugal and ireland do not fit inside the euro.
what we should be doing what mr van rompuy should be doing in order to give real leadership is to be introducing a plan b and to allow these countries to go back to their own currency to have competitive devaluations and to have a chance because what we are doing with this policy is killing them off.
that was last july on the amendments to the tobacco products directive and in particular on electronic cigarettes.
there is something rotten at the heart of coventry city council.
it only came to light when the trial against a man accused of the london hyde park bombing collapsed because he had such a letter preventing him from prosecution.
mr president in my constituency of northern ireland we have an outrageous situation where the previous labour government of tony blair introduced a secret scheme offering so called comfort letters' to ira terrorists known as on the runs.
the truth about a process which circumvented the uk parliament and undermined the justice system must be exposed.
on this european day for victims of terrorism the truth and.
there is no evidence to demonstrate that knowledge of the process went beyond a clique of republicans their confidants and the government.
the first minister in northern ireland has forced a judge led enquiry into this scheme. the coalition government has stated that this scheme is over and will ensure that letters cannot be relied upon to avoid prosecution.
whilst we all follow current events we must not forget the events of the past that are still being played out.
and whilst we talk about humanity let us not forget the fifty two refugees murdered on one september two thousand and thirteen while protecting camp ashraf and the missing seven innocent refugees including six women who were taken hostage.
mr president the tragic developments in ukraine and the horrors of syria are just a few of the more recent events that need to be seen not only in political terms but in terms of human tragedy.
is this the civilised world we live in?
as minister with responsibility for the gaeltacht i was directly involved in the design of the first pilot leader programme in ireland.
i strongly urge the minister and the government to provide this necessary funding.
finally i call on the minister even at this late stage to reconsider.
moreover an interim fund is required to bridge the gap between the current and the next round of leader funds.
mr president the totalitarian policies of the democratic people's republic of korea which have been used to oppress its citizens for over sixty years have led to a great number of north koreans fleeing to the people's republic of china.
the european union must resolutely condemn this atrocious practice and raise it at all eu china high level talks among the other human rights violations that have been repeatedly underlined by the european parliament.
this is an issue on which the eu has for many years spoken out and played an active role both at the united nations and in our bilateral dialogue with the dprk government.
the eu is seriously concerned about the forcible repatriation of north korean asylum seekers and refugees.
therefore the eu has been raising this issue with china in particular in the framework of the eu china human rights dialogue.
the european union as a global political actor will continue to follow all aspects of the situation on the peninsula working in close collaboration with its various strategic partners.
following the death of kim jong il in december and the purported satellite launch in april the focus in recent months has been heavily on the political succession in the dprk and on regional security issues.
this is less than a week from now.
under these texts adhering countries have specifically obliged themselves to refrain from returning people to their country of origin in cases where they might face the death penalty or torture an obligation that already exists in general under customary international law.
we will continue to use every occasion to persuade the chinese authorities to change this assessment.
however we should not lose sight of the appalling human rights situation within the country.
their predicament is double because first of all their vulnerability is immense.
they normally come from indescribable material conditions and when they make it to another country and indeed china is the only option available in most cases they have probably been in unspeakable distress for a long time. and should they return or be returned which is one of the problems that we address in the current resolution
the resolution is specifically about refugees. we are talking about thousands and thousands of people who have had no other choice but to flee their country because they do not even have anything to eat or to drink where they come from and they are often treated by china which is the country that hosts most of them in a way that is not exactly as we would want it to be.
for example in education the minister spoke about education at the meeting of the education ministers.
action; we need action in the sense of growth policy by investment with action for employment including action from the european
because that is where the policy originates ably assisted by some member states.
the commissioner for human rights from the council of europe in his report on safeguarding human rights in times of economic crisis said that most austerity measures have exacerbated the already severe human consequences of the economic crisis and that vulnerable and marginalised groups have been disproportionately hit.
yes deficits have been reduced but debts mount.
and eighty so without significant growth those debt figures that i spoke of become overwhelming and how can we have growth if we do not have targeted investments?
they are not some afterthought to be taken into consideration when the economic issues are dealt with.
if you take the general government gross debt and consolidated private debt that total debt as a percentage of gdp is a staggering four hundred.
last night in this parliament i spoke of eurostat figures from two thousand and twelve and my own country ireland.
that is why in my opinion social indicators are just as valid as economic ones and in my view they should be binding. in our employment report we added additional indicators such as child poverty levels access to health care homelessness and a decent work index.
these are not just words they describe the lives of real people and i would say to mrbarroso who i think is no longer with us that yes some small progress has been made but for many countries it is not a sustainable model.
in my own country an assessment of the last five budgets showed that the hardest hit by those budgetary policies are the very rich and the very poor.
are we saying to those countries tough get used to it the crisis will continue the grinding scraping along the bottom that we call progress will continue?
i only hope that commissioner andor sitting behind him is actually listening because of course his unemployment department is doing more to make employing people and actually creating more jobs in europe as difficult as possible.
the debate is already beginning to shift away from protectionism away from higher spending and an endless stream of red tape and towards open markets better spending and cutting back on regulation.
one three million more jobs and unemployment is falling sharply.
unemployment is at a sixteen year high taxes have sent wealth abroad and social welfare spending is now the highest in the oecd.
the economy is not secure but it is going in the right direction.
that is why the parties certainly in my group will offer an agenda for the eu that mirrors the reforms being taken in many of our member states to deliver investment and infrastructure instead of wasteful spending to deliver deregulation and decentralisation instead of interference and to open up trade and the single market instead of creating more barriers to business.
surely the experience of recent years shows us that when countries do tighten their belts spend to invest and restructure their economies we begin to see the benefits.
my conservative led government in britain has stuck with its long term plan to pay down the deficit to incite the productive parts of the economy and to reform our welfare system.
yet many on the left as mrswoboda exemplified this morning are still arguing for more state spending and more centralisation of power.
you are still perpetuating the falsehood that states can somehow create jobs or that politicians can somehow legislate to create more employment.
much as i enjoyed the minister's speech this morning i have to say that there is something deeply ironic about a minister from greece coming here to argue with us and tell us how to reduce youth unemployment.
as a result the economy is now growing faster than any other major european economy there are.
we are certainly seeing that in my own country.
or as it so often does to actually hinder it.
we are proud to have begun that debate about taking the eu in a new direction away from its socialist and centralising past.
president hollande promised us all an end to austerity but he has actually been mugged by reality because the only way to end austerity is to implement the tough reforms that encourage investment and grow the economy. at eu level those lessons are starting to apply as well.
if we compare that to socialist france public spending there is now equivalent to fifty six of national income the second highest in the euro area.
for those of us who want to see state spending controlled the worst possible thing you could do is to give the eu new powers to raise its own revenue through new own resources.
i understand that this afternoon mrschulz and mrbarroso will join with prime minister samaras and mrmonti to launch the new high level group on own resources.
the european semester has been instrumental in driving the necessary structural reforms in the member states and raising these reform goals to the political agenda.
therefore we cannot be complacent.
i very much appreciate and commend the efforts of greece to restore economic growth and job creation under very difficult circumstances and following decades of economic and policy mismanagement. i have to say that i find
and by investing in sustainable green growth and turning innovations in that field into competitive products and services that is into new businesses and new jobs for europeans;
my report and the report by mrgutirrez prieto start this process and provide a clear path forward a combination of more democratic accountability a combination of solidarity with conditionality and clear responsibilities and also more room for private investment to boost investment and to improve entrepreneurship and create jobs and growth. these reforms are not of course always pleasant but it is also our job as politicians to have the courage to defend the road taken and the benefits it will bring in the long
i think that we as the european parliament should take up our role in this process much more maybe than we do today. we have of course after the very difficult economic situation taken a road ahead also supported by this parliament a road of reducing deficits and balancing budgets; a road of implementing economic reform; a road of modernising social protection; but also a road of investing in education research and development. we cannot go back and restore the mistakes which were made at the start and the onset of the creation of the euro. but i do feel that we must do our utmost and maybe it is the task of our generation to make sure that we correct the mistakes and take a clear path forward.
at the european level we have seen a coalition of civil society organisations working very hard over the last few years to gain a meaningful role and with some success. but we need to see this embedded structurally into this whole process at national level
i would really like to ask their representatives here whether they are going to take action on the issue and start negotiating such an agreement or not?
it is also clear that if we want the eu two thousand and twenty process the semester to have democratic legitimacy we need to involve civil society and social partners much more strongly.
too. in the uk we have seen civil society social partners really squeezed out of the process since the change from the past coordination method.
debt. but we still have great challenges ahead.
but we have to solve the problems of over indebtedness and lack of competitiveness.
the best rules are of no use if there is no strong referee to implement them.
rather we must step up our ambition because we have to continue with determination. this house has negotiated many important proposals in the past years and months.
we are aware of the great challenges that the cypriot government is facing. let us not forget that many of them have only inherited the extremely difficult problems in their countries.
therefore we have to unleash the investment potential but we also have to step up our efforts for structural reforms with great ambitions.
we have not yet left the crisis fully behind us;
current accounts are improving and after eighteen months of stagnation growth has been picking up since early.
however thanks to joint and concerted efforts we have overcome its most critical part.
look at what happens in countries like france and italy.
they have shown courage and accepted the responsibility which voters entrusted in them.
the structural reforms are sometimes painful and we should never forget how many europeans are hit very hard without having the slightest responsibility for the problems of the past.
today's debate is the occasion to look at our member states and pay tribute to the efforts many courageous women and men have made. the reforms for instance carried out by the portuguese the spanish the irish and the greek governments deserve our respect.
it will help to stabilise our economies and stimulate growth and on behalf of the epp i would like to thank president barroso and vice president rehn for the determination the determination of your commission which you have shown.
europe has been in good hands and the epp also fully supports your approach in the two thousand and fourteen semester. our group wants a strong commission an independent commission.
we have to beat the unacceptable unemployment figures.
we have to think of the future of our children their jobs and their future. delaying reforms would cause even more hardship. therefore i am sure we are laying the right foundations to give young europeans a brighter future and offer them jobs instead of
let me remind this house also that in the economic field there are binding tools backed by sanctions. in the social field we still largely rely on the open method of coordination.
we have discussed the issues which are in the forefront of citizens' minds public services wages unemployment poverty and education. these are issues of concern to all of us since they affect all our citizens irrespective of their home country.
there is also the youth guarantee implementation plan.
there is still a lot to do.
how can we make our economy recover again?
we also significantly reformed our financial sector from new capital requirements to more recently the proposal on the structural reform of banks.
past. i think we can say that the need for sound public finances is now entrenched.
we were able to provide financial assistance to member states in distress or in some cases specifically to their banking sector.
two thousand and fifteen consumer confidence and investment confidence is now positive.
by cutting red tape and reducing regulatory burdens;
along with national parliaments you have brought democratic legitimacy accountability and ownership. as we said last year in the blueprint for a deep and genuine economic and monetary union economic governance social commitments and democratic legitimacy must move forward hand in
smes. tax systems should be simplified further and the tax burden redirected away from labour. we should be more resource and energy efficient and invest more in research innovation and development. because we cannot afford to sit back and
instead of expressing concern leaders outside europe congratulate us on our resilience and for our political willingness to act.
today. we should continue to look at ways to be more competitive by making further progress on the single market and adopting the remaining proposals under single market act i and ii in telecoms transport energy and the digital
i think we can say that this was a strong set of achievements which were possible due to the strong involvement of this house.
naturally we know the situation is still difficult.
a reinforced surveillance of employment and social developments is now a reality as part and parcel of the european semester.
but more important than the process is that it has led to concrete and significant fiscal and structural reforms that have helped restore confidence.
our number one priority was to stop the bloodshed and create the conditions for a political process that can deliver what the ukrainian people most wish for democracy respect for fundamental freedoms and a better prospect for the country's future.
i launch from here an appeal to all our international partners and in particular russia to work constructively with us to guarantee a united ukraine that can be effective for stability in the european continent a ukraine that will have good relations both with its western and its eastern partners.
to say a few words about the situation in that european country which we feel is so close to us now.
we are already working together with the international community and international financial institutions to find ways to support the country.
a lasting solution to the political and institutional crisis can only be achieved through an inclusive transitional government that respects the different political and regional sensitivities and through constitutional reform and democratic elections as laid down in the agreement of twenty one february.
the european semester goes to the very heart of what has preoccupied us all especially from the outset of the financial crisis our economy.
area. by putting in place a system of increased coordination i think europe has shown that there was a will and there is in fact a will to learn the lessons from the crisis and to avoid some of the mistakes of the
potential. we must now get down to the business of extracting the biggest added value from every last euro that has been
it has added a strong economic dimension to a range of policies from taxation energy transport research climate and environment to judicial systems.
these renewed foundations were laid down in just a few years and they play a key role in helping europe emerge from the crisis more resilient for the future and stronger.
while some of us would have liked to go further and faster i believe it is fair to recognise progress in this area.
it is true that improvements in macroeconomic conditions are not yet being felt by citizens themselves and by their families in some of our member states.