kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
we know that the government is not going to reverse its decision under further international pressure calling into question its decision to expel the ngos in question.
two thousand and nine the commission together with other donors like the united nations and the ngos and other humanitarian partners is currently looking into how best to redesign the humanitarian response in order to avoid dramatic consequences.
these contingency measures will clearly require some cooperation and agreement with the sudanese authorities.
in this respect we must certainly hold the sudanese government fully accountable for its assurances that it takes full responsibility for delivering humanitarian aid.
the stakes are very high and it is our responsibility not to let sudan be engulfed in a nightmare scenario of country wide instability.
if we cut off all relations the hardliners among the government may retaliate against civilians humanitarian workers and unmis personnel.
it is also our duty to take the necessary contingency measures with respect to our assistance.
appropriate measures need to be taken urgently as the approaching rainy season and the yearly hunger gap will soon exacerbate the humanitarian vulnerability of the.
on the political front we will have to maintain maximum diplomatic pressure on the sudanese authorities and the rebel movements alike to reach peace in darfur.
in a statement commissioner michel has already expressed our deepest concern and urged the government of sudan to reconsider the value of their decision and to urgently restore these ngos to their full operational status'.
sudan is the commission's single largest humanitarian operation eur one hundred and ten million in.
if the full impact of the sudanese decision is still being assessed it is clear that the lives of hundreds of thousands of people might be at risk in darfur.
we will also have to press for the full implementation of the north south comprehensive peace agreement.
if we cannot persuade the government to reverse the expulsion orders we have to engage the sudanese authorities in order to put in place the appropriate delivery mechanisms.
four seven million people directly affected by the conflict.
in this respect it is essential to insist on strict separation between the humanitarian activities and the political agenda.
madam president it was entirely predictable that president omar al bashir of sudan would respond to his indictment by the icc with a political gesture but by expelling ngos and aid agencies from his country he has reinforced the popular image of a brutal tyrant without any concern for the plight of the long suffering people he nominally governs. a few people still argue that what has happened in darfur is not genocide.
fewer still support bashir openly although china regrettably has been a lone voice in his defence because of the heavy chinese involvement in sudan's extractive industries. like most members i welcome the indictment of president bashir by the icc and the issue of an international arrest warrant.
it may not succeed but it is an important gesture to show the world's disgust at the horrors he has perpetrated in darfur without any remorse.
i also think that the indictment strengthens the reputation of the icc which hitherto has been shunned by some including the great powers such as the usa for fear of politically motivated prosecutions. indeed it is fascinating that the united states which is not a signatory to the rome statute has nonetheless used its position on the un security council to facilitate the icc indictment of bashir.
one possible way out of the impasse that now exists is for the security council to strike down the indictment as it has a right to do under the rome statute on condition that bashir goes into exile and the killings and repression stop and in partial recognition that sudan was never a signatory to the rome statute.
while this might seem to some like an unjust response to the killings in darfur and effectively grants some form of partial immunity it would remove the main protagonist and spare the long suffering people of darfur more bloodshed and enable sudan as a country to move on.
of course if bashir refuses then he should be prosecuted with the full force of international law.
that is why as a rapporteur i intend to restore the original estimated lines promptly.
indeed it is full of controversy and paradoxes. we all have two hands here and quite frequently we use one of them to vote for more data protection and against american and other possible surveillance of our data.
we will not blame anybody but ourselves and that is taking a whole lot of responsibility perhaps even a bit too much.
please allow me to illustrate it briefly.
data protection is a hotly debated topic.
having done that quite a number of us voluntarily put an activity tracker on the other hand sending via our apps and internet use all sorts of data to the american private companies such as how many steps do we make per day or what we had for lunch or perhaps even what our heartbeat is while having sex.
i am sure we will have a budget in.
so once we have decided to have a small agency to supervise european data protection it is really unwise to cut the financial resources it has to do that. to conclude i would like to thank the partners in the budgetary process.
seven we have done that consciously taking into account the status of our economies and we have looked very carefully into each and every budget line. for that reason we were quite underwhelmed by the
this means fifty two of the cuts that council is proposing falling on an area that i do not think any one of us can disagree is important for europe.
we are grateful to parliament and to the council for your engagement with us to make sure that we constantly improve our capacity to project what is necessary and to correct our course so we can use money in the wisest possible manner.
and we motivate our staff by telling them we are cutting as much as we have promised no less but also no more.
we are very mindful that every day we have to look into what we spent on administration with an eye to economising and we do that.
or cuts in global europe eur sixty two million in cuts when we know that if anything we have to do more to address the root causes of poverty and thus of wars refugees and migration.
finally i want once again to make a clear statement on our commitment to monitor implementation.
therefore we would argue very strongly for the council to revisit this position. we are not proposing a proportionate increase in two thousand and seventeen equal to the underspending in.
some of these cuts are just very bad use of the knife in terms of the consequences of the costs we would then incur.
i would point to some of these cuts for example in research at a time when we need to stimulate innovation and make sure that european researchers are coming close to the real economy.
i would say from the bottom of my heart that i have sympathy for the council in terms of keeping us on the straight and narrow when it comes to administrative cost.
on payment appropriations there is a very important point for the council to take into account namely that in two thousand and sixteen unfortunately some of the new programmes are underperforming and therefore the absorption rate in payments is lower than projected.
there is a commonality of purpose which is to make sure that our budget for two thousand and seventeen is aligned with our two top priorities investment in jobs and growth and dealing with migration refugees and security.
however there are some discrepancies in views and i want to concentrate on the logic behind what the commission has proposed and to defend our proposal.
this is a joint proposal by five political groups.
it reads as follows the commission shall submit by march two thousand and twelve a report to the european parliament and the council on the appropriateness of a mechanism for compensating farmers whose foodstuffs have been contaminated above the maximum permitted levels and that cannot be placed on the market.
mr president it is even more worrying if colleagues from the extreme right are against this one.
i propose that in paragraph twenty one certain modifications be added the european parliament calls on the commission to propose legislation ensuring the full transparency of political funding and financing of political parties in the european union in line with the recommendation of the council of europe with regard in particular to political or economic stakeholders
mr president that is the second time today that you have ignored me when i was expressing good manners standing up and doing the appropriate call for a motion.
you left me without answering my question.
this morning i raised this point before you.
so i am asking that forty members of this chamber stand up and we are entitled to a vote to suspend this sitting under rule.
i wish to call attention to title vii chapter six of the rules of procedure interruptive and procedural motions' rule one hundred and ninety one suspension or closure of the sitting'.
the only aim is that we do not make counter propaganda but just counter russian propaganda.
mr president paragraph twelve should read renews its call for the development of strengthened analytical and monitoring capabilities of russian propaganda especially in the russian language in order to be able to identify and respond swiftly and appropriately to deliberately biased information spread in various eu languages;
mr president i propose to add a new short paragraph after paragraph nineteen as follows stresses in this respect that the recently adopted bill on undesirable foreign organisations that allows authorities to bar international ngos seen as threatening russia's defence capabilities or constitutional foundations is a further worrying sign of the ongoing crackdown on civil society. '
mr president i can guarantee that this is a call for the full transparency of all foreign funding for political parties.
the president just put to the house the schulz motion and did not put my request for a motion to postpone it to give us two or three hours to cool down and find out the facts.
that was not actually put to the house.
the witness testimonies videos and monitoring reports show systematic crimes of humanity in syria in excess of those recorded in libya and that therefore there should be no barrier to european countries seeking full referral of syrian perpetrators to the international criminal court within the un security council.
should there not now be a freeze on all arms sales and security cooperation with all of the countries of north africa and the gulf or is the arab spring really the spring for european machine guns gunning down the democracy protesters that we say we support?
do they really think this is consistent with the ban on selling weapons which could be used for internal repression?
secondly will they accept that there should be full reference to international humanitarian law following the may communication and support for the eu guidelines on ihl in all of the follow up actions in countries within the region?
because this is what it is all about.
international humanitarian law transcends the narrow notion of non interference in the internal affairs of states and the danger to peace and security cannot concern only states but also the security of individuals.
mr president it is unacceptable that there is no reaction by the security council to the developments in syria.
russia and china must be convinced to lift their opposition and allow the security council to condemn in the first instance the use of lethal force perpetrated against civilians who must enjoy freedom of assembly expression and peaceful demonstration.
the national dialogue and the commission of inquiry appointed to investigate the events must also answer the question of why the shia majority is living in conditions of poor housing and in poverty within a rich country.
the erbil agreement which was supposed to create a government of national unity has never been implemented.
time is running out and we must not risk another srebrenica.
assassinations suicide bombings and rocket attacks continue daily. corruption is endemic the citizens have limited access to drinking water and electricity supplies are restricted to about six hours a day while temperatures just now rise to above fifty c.
prime minister nouri al maliki alone controls the army security and intelligence services and such power has been abused repeatedly most clearly in the massacre of unarmed civilians in ashraf on eight april. baroness ashton can i thank you for all the work you have done on ashraf but please support the resettlement plan proposed by this parliament.
now we find that when they are carrying out their duty and trying to attend to the sick and the injured in the protests they themselves have been arrested subjected to military trials and in some cases subjected to torture to get various confessions out of them.
we call today for an end to this practice and for the release of all medical staff who have been impounded since the start of the protests.
coming from ireland we have a particular affinity with the medical staff there because many of them were trained in our country.
this is contrary to all normal standards in war or peace and certainly contrary to the geneva convention.
how can he justify the sabotage by the israeli regime of the irish ship and of the greek and scandinavian ship that put the lives of twenty thirty or forty people in danger actions that in my opinion were carried out by the israeli state?
stefan fle and i and the twenty seven foreign ministers and other commissioners spend a lot of our time in our neighbourhood and our region.
planning for real' was something in which i was engaged for many years and it is about local people having the opportunity to work together to decide what their local communities will
a new country. i met with the foreign minister from the north this week and i made it very clear to him that we expect them to do what they need to do to prevent the fighting that is going on in south kordofan and to make sure that we do not have spillover violence
into israel. i went and saw racks and racks of them and i saw that children had to play underground because of fear of the rocket
i think dignity is exactly the right word. not surprisingly many contributions have focused on syria.
we have a head of delegation.
i have been struck by many of the different elements of those contributions.
of course we have enormous concern about what is happening in terms of the development of their nuclear weapons programme.
we are the people who perform that political function.
best. we have worked very
honourable members have come up with important new ways in which we could support the people of syria and extend our action.
our resources are directed at civil society and the development of the economy and an independent judiciary and of course we fund the special tribunal.
in the case of the special representative for the southern mediterranean i looked for somebody who had strong and long diplomatic experience especially in that neighbourhood to back up what stefan fle and i do not to replace it but to back it up by being able to bring together at a different level the type of people we bring together at a ministerial level.
you will know that many ambassadors to libya have ended up deciding that their future does not lie there.
to be at. i am prepared to fail by being prepared to be as strong as i possibly
and several speakers mentioned the idea of a safe zone.
possible way. i think this is about getting the crossings open and finding a solution for the people of gaza that brings them peace
i agree too about the involvement of local people in our planning.
i hear what people say about asking member states to remove ambassadors and that is a tool we could look at.
possible. more than ever with the changing neighbourhood and the challenges economically and politically the time to do this is absolutely now. i will say that on monday and i will do my best to get us to the point that i know we have
i think we need to try and give this government a chance to succeed.
we agree that mobility is really important as is
and security. however i have also seen the rockets that have been launched
and we know the consequences of not doing
as you know i have worked very hard to try and get the talks moving.
sometimes a special representative who has ministerial experience is incredibly valuable and sometimes we are looking for different skills.
i was particularly struck that the word dignity' one i did not use in my initial contribution was used by so many honourable members as a way of describing what we are seeking to develop as we support the people of the region in their future quest for democracy and human rights.
we keep a delegation on the ground because their job is to continue talking to the people of syria and that is what they do.
i know that bernardino len whose reputation goes before him not just in europe will do a superb job on behalf of us
we are your political eyes and ears.
when we decide to have an eu special representative we look for the person whom we believe can best do the job in hand.
south sudan. when i leave tonight i will head back to brussels and then out to juba to represent the european union at the birth of
really tough. it is really tough to see kids in schools that are running double shifts children who want what our kids want what all kids in europe want the same kind of lives and knowing what the difficulties
there was a concern which i described about the echoes from syria that go across to lebanon and about the question of hezbollah.
all of the indicative programmes are now being reviewed to make sure that they fit and all of the instruments will be revised in order to make sure that they fit with the new strategy and just as importantly that they are tailored to be able to respond to the needs of each country.
we approached the entire effort mainly bureaucratically and we talked only to the people in power avoiding deeper probing into those societies.
two thousand and three that is only eight not fifty years ago.
then how did we react when all was suddenly in flames?
it can only create more tension and deepen hostility.
what a pity that more european nato members have not contributed to the nato operation unified protector.
i am not sure there is a lot to show for the eur four billion being spent since two thousand and seven on democracy and development in the arab world.
by the way i congratulate the governments of turkey greece and the republic of cyprus for their robust action in thwarting the second of the so called peace flotillas' which was of course just a deliberate provocation to violence.
i am sorry the polish presidency is not with us this afternoon.
will the high representative vice president use eu leverage to dissuade the palestine authority from this course of action?
all this is a distraction from the real effort.
in regard to libya the european union has wasted a lot of time and money on its effort to foist an eu military mission on an unwilling international community.
mr president a properly negotiated two state solution to the israel palestine question would be the greatest catalyst to democracy economic progress and confidence in the arab world. instead the proposed unilateral declaration of statehood at the un general assembly by the palestine authority takes us in the opposite direction.
untie that knot and you release the potential of the arab spring. palestinians are entitled to their own democratic state;
gazans need more than humanitarian aid.
and to be secure from attack.
to have their sovereignty respected by israel and by the world;
under the leadership of nato we must remain resolute in our determination to protect and support the libyan people in the pursuit of democracy and bring to justice those responsible for the atrocious crimes being committed against her citizens.
i want to speak for the hundreds if not thousands of women who have suffered this brutalisation and continue to suffer physically and mentally from their assault.
the use of children as human shields snipers that indiscriminately attack civilians and now the use of rape as a weapon of war are tactics of a true despot.
in one refugee camp alone humanitarian workers found over two hundred and fifty women who would cautiously speak out about their ordeal. this is a truly astonishing figure given the stigma attached to rape in libyan society.
not only do these women have to deal with the trauma of abuse but they are then compelled into silence for fear of shaming their families. the accounts of those women in libya confirm our worst suspicions about the nature of the gaddafi regime and the true scale of the atrocities he is willing to subject his people to in order to cling to power.
they are a powerful reminder to the international community that taking action in libya was the right and the proper thing to do.
mr president yemen is not a country that often attracts much attention in this house but its importance in the middle east and for maintaining the stability of that region must not be underestimated.
yemen needs support if it is to avoid becoming a failed state.
al qa'ida already has a strong presence there and there are at least two secessionist movements trying to rip the country apart.
whilst i do not think it is wise for us to lecture other countries on how to run their internal affairs it is abundantly clear that president saleh has lost the confidence of his people.
he has no role in his country's future and the best thing he could do would be to stand down.
baroness ashton we should support and welcome the efforts of the gulf cooperation council to negotiate a peaceful transition of power to a new interim government.
that is exactly what he wanted. these things are politics by confrontation he wanted a violent reaction.
the blockade of gaza by the israeli authorities was perfectly legal under international law.
it is quite wrong to say that humanitarian aid is being denied to the people in gaza.
forty seven doctors and nurses including some trained in ireland now face military trial and are suffering torture.
they are guilty only of treating those injured by the regime.
us and eu made weapons are being used to kill peaceful protestors.
disgracefully bahrain has taken a libel action against robert fisk and the independent newspaper for daring to tell the truth about the brutal repression that has been unleashed.
in my opinion the eu should cancel its cooperation agreement with the gulf cooperation council.
i demand an end to the oppression and the immediate release of all opposition activists and imprisoned doctors and i call for a united movement of workers and the poor to overthrow the dictatorship and create a democratic workers' and poor people's government.
the people expect our genuine support especially after years of european hypocrisy and collaboration with the regimes. i have three points i would like to make.
i think it is good but it comes a bit late.
you have set up a task force for the region which is chaired at director level.
how will they articulate together?
will there be extra staff for example for the special representative?
it is not as if everything is going perfectly well there.
and secondly will you finance civil society monitoring of the project afterwards? the eib cannot finance this.
it needs to be financed by the other instruments that we have.
the yemen is the country to which al qa'ida has allegedly moved its training operations. i hope that we will not be tempted to engage in another bloody conflict there.
we must not see british and other european soldiers lured into so called peacemaking operations in syria or anywhere else in the region.
these online activists are connecting anti government protestors in syria and rallying support for the protest through social media networks and websites. they are using skype to call protestors across the country and social media to stream live images to upload onto youtube. this is particularly important because they are providing news feeds and video uploads to the media in the absence of foreign journalists inside syria.