kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
i particularly welcome the conference that is going to take place and indeed we can be very proud of the standard of our food products in europe i certainly agree with you on that. i want to refer however to the proposed compulsory electronic identification of sheep which commences in january two thousand and ten and which the commission is determined to press ahead with despite the opposition of the agricultural committee members and the farming organisations.
would the commission consider granting a further deferral or removing the compulsory nature of this proposal?
can he also tell me that no further progress can be made regarding croatia's accession unless the icty is satisfied that there is full cooperation over evidence and witnesses regarding the croatian invitees?
can be expected only in cases of danger of a public finance crisis taking into account the financing needs of the whole economy.
as for the second question which was a double question the answer to the first part is no'.
the answer to the second part on countries with low corporate tax the stability and growth pact assesses the global fiscal position of a member state not the specific tax structure of each member state.
is there not a danger that by piecemeal incremental measures it will take even more time to turn the market?
is it not time to be bold with the export refunds?
because commissioner our industry is dying on its feet.
i misunderstood the point you made.
commissioner there is no greater hate crime than murder and this week in my constituency of northern ireland we had three hate murders of members of the security forces by irish republican terrorists.
you talked about the measures you have taken to stop the downward spiral of prices.
as you are well aware milk prices at the moment are below production prices.
many dairy farmers are hanging on by their fingernails.
i am very pleased to hear you say that you will be willing to take all the necessary steps.
by that are you saying that you would be prepared to make greater use of some of the dairy management tools that are at your disposal such as export refunds aid to private storage and intervention?
in recent days we have seen in northern ireland two soldiers and a policeman killed as has been referred to by another member by people who secretly arrogate to themselves the right to do things like this based on bigotry and evil and yes racism and xenophobia.
i ask the commissioner to use all her powers to continue to pursue this issue because it is not acceptable that the internet should be used for racism and xenophobia.
we in scotland are trying to make the technology work but it is very far from perfect and it would just rub an awful lot of salt into an existing wound to see a non proportionate approach taken in the cross compliance of the eid regulations.
there is a world of difference between accident and fraud and presently as things are implied farmers are treated more or less the same way in either case when there is a world of difference in the real world as to how that works.
i think that domestic mischief making aside we do have a difficulty across scotland and across the eu as a whole in how our farmers perceive the transparency of enforcement particularly of cross compliance.
going forward as well we also need to see a greater degree of understanding a greater degree of flexibility.
i think that going forward we need a far greater degree of clarity in terms of what is required and expected of farmers and what the consequences of non compliance are.
much as i appreciate that you have to deal with the regulations as they are written we are here to rewrite the regulations and that is what we are looking forward to doing.
on paragraph sixty six in particular going forward i would be very grateful for an indication from you commissioner of how you view the call from us for a three year moratorium on eid electronic identification of sheep cross compliance penalties.
the report admits that european farmers face global competition while having to respect environmental food safety quality and welfare objectives.
the report talks about enhancing europe's latent productivity potential while respecting eu commitments in international trade.
bilateral agreements with mercosur including agriculture re importation could undermine the capacity for european farmers to trade at a fair market price.
will we be expected to decide the best option for the cap before a refinement of proposals? i fear heavier bureaucratic burdens for farmers despite the report calling for a simpler more specific support scheme including simplification of cross compliance rules.
the report states that the two pillars of the common agricultural policy should focus on efficiency but i fear incentivising small farms while rewarding environmental development could see domestic farmers move away from production focused farming in order to benefit from the cap.
i have concerns about the lack of clarity and the timescale for approval.
the report focuses on small and active farms without defining how size and activity may be measured and monitored.
it observes that the share of agriculture in the food supply chain decreased while the share of the wholesale and distribution sectors increased.
i am concerned that despite the report recognising long term food security and growing global demand our agricultural competitiveness will be squeezed.
we talk about food security in europe;
let the farmers produce the food.
i fear however that what we are getting is not that.
we do not need more. we do not need any more over emphasis on this particular position.
we want one inspection of every farm; that should be enough anywhere to inspect.
i have to say to the commissioner you have enough tools in the box at the moment with cross compliance;
we are going to get more bureaucracy more red tape and when you talk about greening the first pillar what do you mean?
if you want food security we are giving it to you we are giving you food safety.
i am appealing to you on behalf of the people who are trying to produce the food.
i want to repeat my comments of last thursday. we are fooling ourselves in this house. if we go down the route of greening the first pillar of the common agricultural policy we will unfortunately increase cross compliance we will be counting nature we will be sending people out to farms and we will not achieve simplification.
it is just as difficult as red tape but we are going to have both.
one hundred my last point is that there are multiple checks on farmers retailers do it processors do it the european union does it and competent authorities do it.
commissioner you are afraid of the big bad wolf budgetary control and farmers are afraid of inspections and member states are fearful too.
farmers see bankers getting away with blue murder in terms of no checks and balances while they are caught for eur.
i know that you appreciate the point and i think we need to be aware of it.
can you tell us commissioner that those principles will be central to the work we do on the cap post?
some of the headlines tell us that agriculture is to guarantee food security and traceability.
madam president commissioner for me the single most important sentence in the resolution is paragraph seven which says expects that in line with the principles of better regulation all future legislation will be accompanied by a full impact assessment with consideration for regulatory and administrative burdens and ensuring that any new regulation is proportionate to the aims it seeks to achieve'.
it has to ensure effective public policy returns.
it must address issues such as sustainable land management and biodiversity loss promote renewable energies foster animal and plant health and guarantee animal welfare.
it has to compete with food imports from third countries produced under very different conditions.
it has to deal with volatility in the market and survive as the weakest link in the food chain.
all of this perhaps on a decreasing budget.
it is to provide european citizens with quality value and diversity of food to create local employment and deliver multiple economic social environmental and territorial benefits.
at each event i asked farmers to identify the main areas of change that are needed within the sector.
of huge importance was the need to reduce red tape which is seen as both adding unnecessary cost and taking up valuable time.
the level of paperwork and the complexity of the detail needed is creating a huge burden on farmers and increasing fears of penalties.
i also recently met with the chairs of local groups who are implementing the rural development programme in northern ireland.
they firmly blame the heavy and bureaucratic nature of the audit requirements as a reason for the high levels of drop out.
in that report i talked about the challenges confronting agriculture and highlighted the ways in which the common agricultural policy is going to have to change in order to meet those challenges.
in the report i drew attention to the fact that many sectors of farming and the livestock sector in particular are experiencing real financial hardship at this time and there is now an urgent need to lower the burden both in terms of time and cost imposed on farmers by unnecessary and disproportionate regulation from the common agricultural policy.
i gave many examples of cases where regulation and penalties are disproportionate even unfair in many cases.
i talked of the need for impact assessments of the need for more harmonisation of inspection standards and i suggested that there is no reason why self regulation could not be successfully used in agriculture. above all i call for a change in the common agricultural policy culture.
of course i understand the need for financial integrity but the court of auditors made it perfectly clear that over complication has very often been the cause of the problem and likewise i certainly understand that management and interpretation of regulations varies far too much from one nation to another.
since writing the report i have been heartened to notice that a number of national governments as well as leading agricultural organisations have called for simplification of the common agricultural policy.
surely commissioner now that we are negotiating common agricultural policy reform there has never been a better time to prove that we can help the industry and not hinder it with unnecessary red tape and unnecessary costs.
madam president commissioner it is good to see you here with us to tonight.
in scotland farmers are currently being punished for small mistakes with very very large fines in some instances.
at least three hundred and eighty eight people were executed in iran in two thousand and nine alone. these individual deaths are meant to deter a generation in their calls for freedom but in fact they inspire a multitude more.
there cannot be impunity for people who hang children who systematically censor and rape and who stone women.
the iranian government should realise that tough language military technology or resilience in times of sanctions will not end the country's self isolation or move it forward.
rather the legitimacy derived from providing for the well being of citizens earns respect and credibility in the international community.
the iranian government does not recognise the dutch citizenship of dual nationals. therefore dutch diplomats have not been able to speak with this person and neither have her lawyers.
it is a constitutional obligation to provide for the well being of its citizens.
in recent weeks a lively discussion about human rights in iran erupted in the netherlands when a dutch iranian citizen was imprisoned.
the dutch government engages with citizens in prisons all over the world regardless of their cases.
justice and security are actually two sides of the same coin.
when addressing iran let us revive the human rights dialogue so that the eu sends a strong signal besides that of the euro and of sanctions and engages iran on its most sensitive and our most fundamental point human rights and fundamental freedoms and attaches consequences to their abuse.
zahra and sakineh are no exception to the thousands of prisoners in iran who are less known and who may feel as though their voices are not heard.
to add insult to injury she is now also accused of complicity in an alleged murder to which she was forced to confess when the case came under international scrutiny and pressure was applied on the iranian regime.
whereas most countries in the world which still impose the death penalty against adults do so exclusively for aggravated murder iran's islamic interpretation of capital crimes is extremely wide and includes homosexuality and adultery.
that citizens are very much interested in having this initiative in place as soon as possible that they would like to have it as user friendly as possible that they would like to have it simple straightforward understandable and most of all accessible.
as you know the commission when preparing such important pieces of legislation like this one wants to engage the european public in as wide a discussion as possible.
drawing on the results of the consultations and also on the proposals made by the european parliament the commission is currently finalising its proposal.
we got more than three hundred responses coming from a range of contributors individual citizens organisations public authorities and even some national parliaments.
i really do not think so because i consider both elements of representative and participatory democracy as mutually reinforcing and both help to create real european political and public space.
i can also tell you that this probably would not be possible without strong encouragement from the spanish presidency.
in one respect i would like to make a request for more flexibility.
why should we predefine the issues on which citizens can raise an initiative?
if they want to raise an issue let us be held accountable and let us give our view on whatever we think.
if for example it is on the place where parliament should sit we should respond.
they should be transparent about their funding so that you do not get organisations who hijack the process to basically request more funding for initiatives they believe in.
when i think of my own country if you want to get forward a legislative initiative in the uk you have to find a member of parliament they have to be lucky enough to win an annual ballot or lottery and then it is likely to get talked out by the government of the day. so i think we are about to deliver something very important and very exciting into the hands of europe's citizens.
that makes me proud but it has to be user friendly accessible and credible and that means we will have to be reasonably strict about it being within eu competence and adhering to human rights at the outset.
we will have to be able and want to give support to promoters to meet the technical requirements.
most importantly parliamentarians should be prepared to act together with initiators of an initiative.
this does not compromise our rights.
it is something that we can join hands with citizens over but they must direct their message to the commission.
we can help and that way we can establish together a real european democracy.
for the first time citizens on a transnational basis can request that the commission bring forward proposals.
but this needs to be a transparent process.
we must know who is organising these initiatives and we must know who is funding these initiatives.
they must not be captured by corporate interests. the commission which will have to decide on whether or not to act on a proposal must not be the body that decides on its admissibility in my view. i believe we must expand the role of the ombudsman to decide on a central european level what is admissible and what is not
the minimum number of states that is necessary i believe should be seven not nine as proposed or indeed as suggested by the commission and i must argue and insist that the one million threshold set by the treaty should not be breached.
mr president as somebody who has campaigned twice for a yes' vote to lisbon and promoted the citizens' initiative as positive i disagree with my colleague.
yes there are constraints but it has potential and it is a real meaningful step towards facilitating participatory democracy. i have discussed this matter with citizens.
i have facilitated citizens to participate in the commission's consultation and in the hearings in the petitions committee.
however we must not just consult with citizens we must listen to what they say and we must ensure that their views are taken on board in any legislation we produce.
this is an opportunity for the eu institutions to clearly show that the citizens' initiative will reflect the views of european citizens from start to finish.
this legislation must be citizen friendly and it must be highly visible.
there must also be easily accessible assistance and help given to citizens who wish to organise a petition.
it should be made clear where the commission can act and where the commission cannot act.
it would simply lead to further accusations of a democratic deficit and cynicism and anger on behalf of citizens if a million signatures were to be gathered for a petition and then it were deemed to be outside the competence of the eu.
so we need absolute clarity on this and we need to be proactive.
while we need to squeeze every possibility out of this legislation we must not promise more than we can deliver.
the citizens' initiative is like a newborn baby.
it has unlimited potential but it must be handled with care when it takes its first tentative steps.
it is the original form government by the people and not government on behalf of the people.
so perhaps we should be grateful to the eu for introducing this.
we have heard that the power to call such a referendum will be limited by mischievous provisions such as the eu's competence and the eu's own version of human rights which in reality means political repression limitation on freedom of speech and even on freedom of thought.
one final point is that democracy means government by the people an identifiable and cohesive unit and not government by an arbitrary collection of persons.
mass migration has made this difficult to achieve. europe as a whole has become even less of a single people than it might otherwise have been.
however i am very thankful for your views and opinions because they really reflected the nature and the quality of the views and opinions we have been collecting in the preparations of the european citizens' initiative.
the first one is clearly transparency.
i listened very carefully to your calls for having very clear procedures once the initiative is successful and once the signatures are collected.
in the proposal there will be very clear deadlines when how and in what timeframe the commission will have to react when the citizens' initiative is successful. as you have listened to the opinions here you will agree with me that the most difficult issue we have to tackle is the issue of admissibility
at the same time we would like to have a clear view that the proposals for the citizens' initiative have a genuine potential to be successful.
for proposal would be the self promotion of the potential organisers for negative political agenda.
ago. i think that strong and wide public consultations are taking place through the smart legislating proposals. we will widen this and use it even more in the future.
this is a crucial question that can cause serious problems as the relevant legislation is very different in our member states. we must find the optimal solution the appropriate balance between different rules and common requirements.
the second topic is the admissibility of the initiative.
i am glad that the stakeholders had the opportunity in february to discuss the majority of the questions that need to be solved so that the citizens' initiative is operational.
how is the commission going to handle the issue of verification and admissibility of an initiative and at what stage?
as the who. as early as twenty eight january we activated the european union's integrated political crisis response arrangements regarding the covid nineteen pandemic bringing together relevant experts from the member states and the eu institutions in the fields of health consular affairs and civil protection. in this framework disinformation has been one of the topics we addressed. we believe that disinformation campaigns could also be highly disruptive in the respect of easing restrictive measures and of searching for a vaccine and a cure. we have also addressed the issue in other parliaments such as in our horizontal working party on enhancing resilience and countering hybrid threats in the political and security committee and in the eu us justice and home affairs ministerial videoconference. we are conscious that disinformation
against covid. nineteen the democratic debate media freedom and the role of civil society deserves special
rules efforts to enhance pluralistic media professional journalism and media literacy as well as awareness among citizens. eu institutions and member states should continue working with social media platforms to achieve higher standards of responsibility transparency and accountability on addressing disinformation. the whole society approach is also stressed by the recent joint communication tackling covid nineteen disinformation getting the facts
activities. as i said at the beginning when fighting disinformation we must not forget the balance between the right of citizens to be properly informed and safeguarding the freedom of speech
scrutiny. the emergency measures taken to tackle the pandemic must not be used as a pretext to censor news and informal information coverage or to violate fundamental
the citizens. many of these measures had a significant impact on fundamental rights democracy and the
rule of law. it is therefore essential to make sure that they remain proportionate to the objective limited in time and subject to regular
right' which takes stock of the measures taken in response to disinformation around the coronavirus pandemic and proposes further action. the presidency takes covid nineteen disinformation very seriously and we have taken steps to ensure close cooperation with member state authorities with eu institutions bodies and agencies and with international organisations such
is here to stay and we all need to work together to maintain our vigilance strengthen our toolbox and resilience and continue our efforts to address this issue internally and beyond
rights. it is critical that governments support the work of the independent media which are crucial allies in the fight
ppes. we did well when the commission organised a donors' conference for financing vaccine research and we will lead a coalition at the who to require an inquiry into the origin and the spread of the pandemic. but the challenges are many and they are huge. battling for our values and our interests means finding allies and showing our opponents that we mean business. and let me end by making a remark regarding hong kong. i welcome the recent statement by the g. seven through our resolution this ep will say that the eu will not just criticise. we want china to understand that reneging on international obligations doesn't come free
at risk. we must continue to make sure the schengen legal framework is fit for purpose so that it can meet new challenges such as the current health emergency. first through better and more correct implementation.
to see the necessary decision in council to welcome the waiting member states into schengen but in the long run we have to do better than a return to the status quo. and it must go without saying that of course all member states all schengen members and all those that would like to be members of schengen have to fully respect their fundamental rights and the european acquis of course. a well functioning schengen area depends on mutual trust among member states and on a correct and efficient implementation of the schengen acquis. differences