kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
last but not least full implementation of waste legislation could create over four hundred zero jobs jobs which we need very badly in the current economic environment.
secondly if the material going for disposal today was treated in accordance with the existing legislation we could have avoided between one hundred and forty six and two hundred and forty four million tonnes of co two emissions.
however we face a persistent implementation gap in waste legislation and the resulting wide disparity between member states in terms of performance in waste management not only puts our environment and health at risk but also prevents the eu economy as a whole and its recycling and waste management industry in particular from reaping the benefits of proper implementation.
the commission very much welcomes the report which presents important facts linked to the state of implementation of waste legislation in member states.
let me quote some facts.
as we have already stressed on many occasions full implementation of waste legislation is crucial for securing a safe and healthy environment as well as a resource base for european industry.
two thousand and eight i also wish to thank the members of the committee for their views and contributions to this important debate.
these are important figures and for this reason the commission fully concurs with the conclusion of the report that effort needs to be stepped up to fully implement existing waste legislation.
we are also looking into the possibility of strengthening cooperation with the european environment agency in this respect.
through guidance and best practice but also by scrutinising national management plans to make sure that they are adequate in helping with the problems. for the ten countries with more serious problems
i started because a member of my family got sick irrevocable damage was caused to his health because of groundwater pollution.
may i just add that i spent most of my professional career working on the environment.
of course it is about a subject which very clearly and very closely concerns all of the people that we represent.
there are very few subjects for me as a constituency mep that i get quite so much passion from my voters about as waste management. i feel that it is an area in which we the european parliament stand to be judged. if we do not get it right and if we do not make sure that we enforce then all of the talking that we do here comes to nothing.
all of that is encompassed in this very interesting and useful report.
there are huge differences in the way that member states deal with the problem of rubbish and i actually welcome the fact that we have those differences.
i welcome the fact that this report recognises very strongly the issue of subsidiarity.
it is about a waste framework directive.
many of you will remember my predecessor the lady that i replaced in this parliament caroline jackson who was the rapporteur on the waste framework directive.
one of the principles that she was very keen on espousing was that member states should be allowed as much subsidiarity as possible within the framework of tight and challenging targets.
i know from recent conversations with her that she is extremely disappointed that having been given that freedom member states are not delivering because we are not making those targets.
where we need to really tighten up and this is in the report is not on a whole raft of new regulations but on making those that we currently have work better and more effectively.
a framework is just that.
so in that sense this is a great report for bringing that home.
just on one point i am happy to defend nuclear energy.
if people were obliged to visit landfills that were not working properly they might think twice about dumping waste and putting it into refuse sacks.
i know that in county louth where i come from there is an old landfill dump that now soaks up a great deal of money because of the environmental problems it poses and it also causes difficulties for the people who live in the area.
i would ask the commission to address the issue of recycling tyres perhaps not today commissioner as this certainly is an area where there is a lot of illegal activity.
i'm happy to say that we the fair tax package proposed by the commission we are finally taking action to plug the gaps of europe's leaking coin coffers to deny those who would cheat and swindle their way out of their fair contribution to society and at the same time making life just a little bit easier for the vast majority of companies who pay their fair taxes and their fair vat. finally
the more rules and the more exemptions the easier it becomes to find loopholes. in the eu we still maintain no less than twenty eight different national vat regimes all with different rates and exemptions.
we will set up a system that returns control over individual vat rates to member states' own discretion by doing so in a way that will not distort competition and that will not allow for a race to the bottom.
in particular the commission is proposing to create a single european vat area that caters for the challenges of the twenty first century.
this proposal which is now being discussed in the council aims to build trust between member states by allowing them to exchange more information in a more efficient manner so as to better detect and identify fraudsters.
as implementing a new regime will take time we need to take urgent measures to contain crossborder vat fraud.
this is no longer acceptable and we should put an end to this phenomenon.
the proposals adopted in october two thousand and seventeen represent the cornerstone for a new system based on the principle of taxation in the country of destination which will result in taxing crossborder sales the same way as domestic sales.
this is why the commission proposed in november two thousand and seventeen a proposal to enhance the cooperation between national administrations and close loopholes in information sharing.
i am proud to say that the commission has delivered on all its commitments made in the action plan on vat of april. two thousand and sixteen the first proposal of the action plan which will modernise and simplify vat for crossborder ecommerce was adopted by the council in december last year. this is very good news for businesses.
it would represent a defeat for businesses and for tax cooperation in the eu if member states are not able to trust each other and accept that one country can collect and send vat revenues on behalf of another.
we welcome any simplification of rules related to crossborder transactions that will aid businesses especially smes to operate in the internal market. personally i am also delighted that the commission is inviting all eu member states to follow the uk practice of exempting the smallest businesses from vat altogether something i have been campaigning for for some time.
madam president we welcome the proposal to strengthen the unified vat regime so that vat is paid in the country where the goods or services are consumed and at the rate applicable in that country.
this is essential to tackle the high current levels of vat fraud.
the temporary vat regime has been in place for twenty five years now and it is time we worked together to replace it with something that works better for citizens as well as businesses.
my worry is that the council will try to block these reforms.
madam president vice president colleagues thanks first of all to the commission for this bold approach to vat.
we know about the problems of fraud.
we welcome in particular that you took the concerns of small and medium sized businesses seriously.
but i have to say that we have concerns concerning the increasing number of exemptions which are possible under the new regime.
you have now an umbrella for the exemptions but member states can even add more products which are treated differently from one state to the other and even if you have put limits to that this is not the vision of a common market. in a common market we should have common tax rates when it comes to indirect taxation.
so therefore we call on colleagues the member states and the commission not to forget about the dream of a common market where common rules determine our common sales and business area.
so my first question to you is do you want to use rule?
one hundred and ninety if you want to do that you have to tell us and then you need the support of a group your group or another one or you need thirty eight meps who support it.
we have a group supporting the request for rule one hundred and ninety on adjournment of the vote and referral back to committee.
just a second let me go one step after the other.
do you have the support of your group?
so if you are not asking for rule one hundred and ninety i cannot follow up on a vote or whether you have enough support on a vote about referral back to committee so either you ask for rule one hundred and ninety or i have to continue with the vote.
as far as i understand this has been done on this text. legal linguistic changes are fine and should be done with every text so they fit what it is supposed to mean.
please decide what you want.
i wish to add the following whereas online activist yonatan tesfaye has been convicted under anti terrorism legislation for comments he made on facebook and faces between ten to twenty years in prison';
well mr liberadzki maybe it was because i was talking dutch but i was not criticising the president.
very much welcome the opportunity to provide our views and opinions on the review of the financial regulation.
we need to work together on that and now.
what we need to do is address the root causes of the problems.
third we believe that the european schools have still not addressed the issues raised by the court of auditors and the need to implement a rotation system for sensitive posts and to address other weaknesses in their work.
second there are considerable delays in the final payments by the education culture and audiovisual executive agency. this is unacceptable.
fourth there is a mismatch between the seven year programming of the mff and the ten year programming of the political and strategic priorities of the union.
in other words this should and could be done in a cost efficient way without adding extra layers of control.
four four and thus the fact that most spending is still affected by a material level of error and that important policy areas such as agriculture cohesion and research remain prone to error.
payments should be interrupted and suspended whenever significant deficiencies are identified and until corrective action has been fully implemented.
so i agree with the emphasis that rapporteur dlabajov puts on a performancebased budget.
finally the council welcomes the court's approach in evaluating the results of eu spending and measuring aspects related to performance.
it is evident that we are still far from the overall aim of an unqualified audit opinion from the court.
it also recalls its request to the commission to provide transparent and timely information on the long term cash flow forecast in order to better match payments and available funds with needs.
however sound financial management is not only important from a public opinion perspective;
the council is constructively engaged in discussions on how to improve the performance framework of the eu budget and to ensure that this budget delivers better results in view of the multiannual financial framework midterm review and of the next mff.
including member states. the council urged the commission and member states to strengthen their mutual cooperation and stressed the importance of avoiding errors in the first place. therefore it highlighted the need to increase the quality of controls in order to prevent or detect and correct errors before declaring costs to the commission.
already available on the areas where the level of error identified is persistently high as well as on the root causes. additionally the council also agrees with parliament that the simplification of rules remains paramount in achieving an unqualified audit opinion.
the council invites the court to provide its input for this review in a timely manner.
the council was particularly concerned about the fact that according to the court's findings the commission national authorities and independent auditors had enough information to prevent detect and correct these errors. clearly all financial actors involved in the management of eu funds need to assume their responsibilities in full
unduly paid amounts must be recovered without delay and full transparency regarding the implementation of corrective action must be ensured. the council further calls upon the commission to provide the budgetary authority in the year two thousand and sixteen with a comprehensive report based on systematic data
the council therefore reiterates its wish to see yearon year improvements in the financial management systems and in the estimated level of errors across all policy areas.
despite the fact that the revenue part of the budget was not affected by material error the council underlines the importance of mitigating the impact of revisions of national gni data as well as measures to reduce the length of outstanding reservations.
simplification and improved guidance not only reduces the administrative burden on the beneficiaries and respective authorities but also allows for more efficient and less costly controls.
the council encourages the commission following the court's recommendation to identify the most suitable and effective performance systems for the eu budget in cooperation with the court and member states.
moreover the council recommendation also recalled that recoveries and financial corrections are essential elements in the protection of the union's financial interests.
and of course the court of auditors recognises in its reports that we can also draw on what we do well especially on the policy side and use it to generate more replication of good practice making sure that good practice is the normal practice i would even say best practice should be the normal practice.
we want to be prudent in making sure that we can over a longer period of time achieve the best possible results on the side of errors.
more importantly two we are already working on the follow up to the two thousand and fourteen budget discharge resolutions and we will report back after the summer break this year.
that is very important. this work has to continue. we will continue to work with the court of auditors on how we can best integrate what we have learned from its reports and from our own work.
but at the same time we are very grateful to those who have spoken and recognised there are things that member states and we in the commission do well.
we have a lot of information available but we have to organise it so it guides our allocation of resources that we streamlined reporting better we improved the quality of our indicators.
if we want to prevent conflicts to reduce the catastrophic impact of lack of development we ought to invest in fragile situations.
and last but not least how we strike the right balance between risk management and risk avoidance.
similarly in migration speed of action there is critical and we are going to be working under demanding circumstances where challenges change every day.
it is a question that will take us hopefully to important conclusions for the rest of this financial perspective and also it would help us to see whether we are fully and entirely using the flexibility of the budget that has been granted
the minister talked about simplification very important.
two thousand and seven two thousand and thirteen there are limitations how much we can translate lessons from there but we would do our best to assess on the basis of the latest information what are the systemic risks and how we can best reduce them.
she says the future becomes the past'.
third we have been asked to look into the persistently high level of errors.
another part of the debate would be how these political objectives are translated into operational objectives on the ground and how to ensure adequate reporting back on the results achieved.
working together we can achieve significant improvements.
we know that we measure them on an annual basis but our programmes are multi annual.
we are at a time when europe requires from us to concentrate on making absolutely best use of our people's sacrifice.
we start by defining what is performance so we see eye to eye how we should measure it as well as how we can move most systematically towards performance based budgeting.
we have stabilised the error rate we have to continue to drive it down and very importantly we have to work on extracting the highest possible value from our budget.
i want to recognise the rapporteur madam dlabajov for her determination to make us expand our discussions from what used to be primarily focus on the error rate to a very strong footing in
what and how well it delivers for the eu economy and for our citizens as well as the compliance with the rules i recognise we have work to do in both areas.
we know that in the current financial perspective we have made a very big step forward in respect of priorities and measures to what extent we achieved what we have said we would achieve but we are not perfect;
there are lessons to be learnt and fed into the preparation for the next generation of programmes and i want to stress again the importance of interinstitutional dialogue.
avoiding them in the first place is the best way to deal with them. we also will continue our work on the multi annual nature of errors.
we have a huge opportunity with the changes in the financial regulation to achieve simplification but we can never bring errors to zero and we do not want us to shy away from what may be riskier but very high value
last but not least we want people to be mindful of risk management opportunities.
we want to provide incentives for corrections so they are actually driving down the cost on errors on our citizens.
so let me start with the first point. as we approach the midterm review revision it is time to honestly identify to what degree we are capable of matching political priorities with the dedication of our budget.
take for example development.
i want to stress that it would be drawn mostly on the prior experience from the previous multi year financial framework.
second the debate showed a need for better reporting on performance.
they are riskier and therefore we have to help our teams to manage these risks. but we do not want them to not to do the right thing because they want to be protected by inaction.
in this respect i want to announce that we will take an important step this year when the synthesis report in the article three hundred and eighteen report are combined in one and this would provide a more complete picture on the implementation of the eu budget.
in addition to this i would also ask member states to pursue gender balance when they make appointments to board members for the agencies.
some good progress has been made but i would urge all member states to conclude negotiations with their agencies in order that those headquarters agreements can be put in place as quickly as possible.
so the picture is looking pretty good but of course as with all reports there are some concerns and some areas which need to be improved.
this was due to them all receiving an unqualified opinion from the court of auditors and because of the progress which they demonstrated in recent years.
all these agencies do a huge amount of good work for citizens right across the european union and they should publicise this work more than they have been doing in the past. that would raise awareness of what they do but i also think it would be good for the individual agencies as well.
this means the court found no reason to call into question the reliability of the accounts and the transactions underlying the accounts were also legal and were regular in all material respects.
there were fewer comments from the court and importantly there were no qualified opinions.
lastly i wanted to call on agencies to further strengthen their efforts to improve their communication policies expand their visibility and raise awareness of their activities and achievements.
more than ninety of agencies have policies in place on the publication of the cvs and declarations of interest of the management board members and also senior staff and in house experts.
i am pleased however to note that most of the agencies concerned are putting in place measures to deal with this issue.
we expect a better performance of these structures which are important for implementation of the european union policies.
on the positive side there is an approach towards the introduction of performance based budgeting in most of the agencies increasing the level of implementation of the budget and promotion of their work to the citizens.
while most of the agencies have taken the appropriate steps there is still a need for overall improvement in the public sector and for a holistic approach. concerning communication and visibility there is a need for the agencies to further strengthen their efforts to improve their communication policies.
many of those are based on the work we have performed in our reports so for those working at the court for our members for our staff it is very gratifying to see how seriously our recommendations are being addressed in the different discharge reports.
as we all know it is most unlikely that member states are going to increase their contributions to the european union and the demands are going up all the time.
madam president as the tasks of the european union have expanded parliament's annual scrutiny of the commission and other institutions and bodies in their task of implementing eu budget appropriations has taken on growing importance for the union's taxpayers.
but having said this general remark why actually is the discharge so important?
it is so important because the european parliament is the only european institution that is directly elected by citizens and therefore we have a crucial role in supervising the use of the taxpayers' money.
our role is to enhance the transparency of financial management and improve democratic accountability to eu taxpayers.
our role is to make sure that our common rules are obeyed.
we need to further improve accountability by putting more focus on performance and results but at the same time by being able to admit and correct things if something went wrong.
but most importantly parliament's role in the procedure must be strengthened.
discharge is often overlooked and the only reason for that is in my mind that it is not given the institutional role and importance that it deserves.
as long as the discharge is not binding we are undermining not only this house but more importantly the union itself.
but i agree with your point.
the european identity is much more than that.
regions. mr prime minister i listened very carefully to your speech. an additional aspect is if we talk about subsidiarity it is in order to take over responsibility because when the member states are deciding mainly unanimously in the council in favour of european legislation then they cannot complain at home that europe was deciding on these issues. so both things are
it is about feelings and about community which we can learn in the regions.
so europe shields the regions from a more and more insecure
we want to have competition between regions and we want to invest in human capital and innovation infrastructure and quality of the institutions.
but the relationship between europe and its regions is a two way love affair.
bavarian. my nation is germany and i am a european
it is precisely the combination of regional diversity that makes europe unique in the world.
to keep them still as some sort of history museum as populists probably would
would say that we can only be efficient if we do more centralisation. some business leaders would say we would have much more economic success if we do centralisation.
i want to give you a few examples.
together. europe has no future if it doesn't start from
during a chat at the usual bar;
most regional potentials would go to waste without connections in the european union.