kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
we still await the final results which will be out in the next couple of weeks.
there are other outstanding issues related to the comprehensive peace agreement still to be resolved including north south border demarcation and the holding of popular consultations in blue nile and southern kordofan.
so we appeal to all parties to cease hostilities conclude a ceasefire agreement and move towards a comprehensive and just political settlement and we will step up our efforts to encourage all parties to engage seriously in the doha peace process.
the deployment of a large and experienced observation mission was an important and tangible european contribution and i thank you most sincerely because i know you personally played such a significant role and it has been well recognised.
looking to the future i assure you this will remain high on our agenda.
as we wait for the announcement of the final results i want to reiterate that the eu will respect the outcome of the referendum as an expression of the wishes of the people of southern sudan.
one of the basic principles of the comprehensive peace agreement was the establishment of democratic governance based on respect for diversity and freedoms and we want to see respect for fundamental freedoms and genuinely inclusive democratic governance in both north and south.
we also provided technical expertise and financial support to the sudanese referendum authorities.
in southern sudan the eu has a significant contribution to make to stabilisation development and institutional capacity building.
the timely peaceful and credible conduct of the referendum has been a remarkable success and one of which everyone should be proud.
however there is still a lot of work to be done and we will continue to support president mbeki's mediation efforts. we also face an important humanitarian challenge.
while the referendum on self determination for southern sudan was a major success we cannot afford to be complacent.
we congratulate the southern sudanese people for the determination dignity and patience they showed in turning out to vote in such large numbers.
we are concerned at the violence that occurred in abyei on the eve of the referendum and we urge the parties to prevent any further violence and to find a substantive solution to lay the foundation for long term co existence between local communities on the ground.
we will continue to engage with both khartoum and juba. we are ready to step up our engagement with khartoum and prepared to strengthen our dialogue.
the council has repeatedly drawn attention to the obligation of the government of sudan to cooperate fully with the international criminal court.
we also continue to have concerns about the detention of human rights defenders journalists opposition politicians and peaceful student protesters.
we are encouraged by president al bashir's remarks in juba on four january reaffirmed at the mini summit on sudan in addis ababa on thirty one january that the government of sudan will accept the results of the referendum will be the first to recognise the new state and will extend full cooperation to it.
southern sudan will not be stable if northern sudan is not stable and vice versa.
it will be an indication that they have arrived at statehood.
mr president this is an opportunity for the sudanese people of both north and south to concentrate on growing their economies and using the wealth that their oil resources can bring to feed and educate their people but we must also help and do so without delay. currently eighty of southerners have no access to toilet facilities.
i urge the high representative and the commission to encourage rapid diplomatic negotiations between north and south to resolve the remaining issues in as short a timeframe as possible and most importantly to keep this item high on the european union's agenda.
if north and south can arrive at a diplomatic and peaceful solution and they can then both parties can use their rich natural resources to haul themselves out of their dreadful poverty the poverty that plagues their land with some help from their friends.
of course the future of both governments will depend on issues such as border demarcations the sharing of oil revenues and the status of abyei the disputed oil rich border region between north and south.
one in ten children die before their first birthday. in the poorest parts of the south less than one percent of children finish primary school. every year sudan exports billions of dollars of oil.
at the same time the revision should provide a more level playing field for eu economic operators and reduce unnecessary administrative costs. in particular consistency between the general product safety rules laid down in the general product safety directive
on behalf of the commission allow me to congratulate parliament on its resolution on the revision of the general product safety directive and market surveillance. the commission welcomes that resolution and very much appreciates the high quality of its content.
that system is very important and is already used in our cooperation with china and other countries but we really need to enhance it in order to face all the challenges mentioned here.
and the rules contained in the two thousand and eight goods package' should now be within our grasp.
therefore we will clarify and update existing eu product safety rules to improve the health and safety protection of consumers.
resolution operation.
if something was started as intergovernmental then i think that later on we have to explore all possibilities as to how to get it on to a strong european communitarian platform.
it is i think our common task as it was on many previous occasions;
i am afraid that it looks as though this would again be the preferred approach when it comes to the single resolution fund because after yesterdays discussion it seems that the compromise if agreed next week would imply establishing national compartments in the resolution fund for the transition phase with these accumulated contributions from the national banking sectors being progressively mutualised. at the end of the ten year build up phase the national compartments would disappear and all would contribute equally to any
we call upon the commission to produce a green paper to set out the range of such stabilisers that might be adopted and developed in the framework of multi tiered governance.
we have seen some progress on that front as a result of the social scoreboard produced by commissioner andor at the beginning of october but not enough.
article nine the promotion of a high level of employment guaranteed adequate social protection fight against social exclusion high level of education and human health taking into account the european union policies;
we stress the emergence existence and aggravation of internal and external imbalances in the field of economic and social policy and the need therefore to identify automatic stabilisers that will deepen the existing multi tier governance.
in order to meet the objectives set out in article nine we say that economic policy can no longer be considered in isolation from social policy and we therefore need to improve european social governance in ways directly comparable to the establishment of european economic governance. we call for the establishment of employment and social benchmarks such as incoming inequality employment and poverty in addition to fiscal and macroeconomic benchmarks.
the first option is a genuine federal polity.
so the strength of government of the eu becomes of paramount importance and the convention which will draw up the next treaty will be faced with a stark choice.
the first of the options is to transform the commission from whatever it is now into a proper efficient parliamentary government with a greater
not all states will be able to share the same political objectives.
this effectively makes the default position that all treaties and legislation should apply to all member states unless they negotiate an opt out and only of course for as long as they retain it.
in this way the unity of the union can be preserved.
lastly the commission has set out very concrete ways of developing the social dimensions of the economic and monetary union as an integral part of eu economic governance and has started to put them into practice as well.
contracts and solidarity should go hand in hand and president barroso will be making these points very firmly during the crucial debate at the upcoming european council.
enhanced solidarity and action in support of employment and labour mobility;
national parliaments play a key role in ensuring the legitimacy of the action of the member states in the council and the european council.
but after listening to the debate this morning it is still clear that we need to engage in more profound debate to clarify all the outstanding issues in this area.
it should be possible for those who wish to integrate further and faster to do so.
more generally the commission agrees with parliament that differentiation is the right and realistic way to proceed in order to further integrate emu.
we fully agree with your conclusion that completing the banking union is an immediate priority. an agreement on the single resolution mechanism before the end of this parliament would create significant momentum.
we share a common aim to increase the eu's ability to act and to respond effectively to the many challenges we face.
your report contains a wealth of important ideas in this regard. many of these are well reflected in the commission's blueprint on a deep and genuine emu and in the supplementary communications on ex ante coordination of major economic reforms on a convergence and competitiveness instrument and on the social dimension of the emu. we are already working on putting these ideas into practice.
at european level this means combining measures to boost growth with major efforts to strengthen cooperation and deepen integration in the financial fiscal economic and also the political field.
as you know important steps have already been taken in response to the crisis including through the six pack two pack and the esm. looking forward we must focus on implementing what has already been agreed as well as on the next steps.
however this process must be open to all member states and must be based on full integration into the treaties.
and thirdly strengthening of social dialogue.
the commission will continue to support the strong involvement of this parliament in emu governance building inter alia on the successful economic dialogue newly established in the framework of the european semester.
these include reinforced surveillance of employment and social developments and strengthened policy coordination within the european semester which we have begun this year;
the specific points in your report are an important and timely contribution to this debate.
any new arrangements should be firmly anchored in and be part of the community surveillance framework.
it is also crucial to anchor further integration firmly in the community method so as to avoid the serious pitfalls of intergovernmental approaches.
it sounds like a discussion of genuine constitutional issues when it is no more or no less than a call for yet another power grab by the eu.
the very first paragraph sets out the objective which is enhancing the unions competencies'. let us be clear what this means. it means increasing the power of the european union and draining away further power from the nation states. in the face of the catastrophic failure of the european project the response is always the same. it is like a football chant.
what do we want? more power more money! when do we want
now! but that of course requires a treaty change and that all takes time and the agreement of everyone involved all those countries which in the current climate may be hard to
it is important for all member states to remain associated with the mechanism and decisions taken among eurozone members for the sake of unity and given their implications for the european union as a whole.
mr president this report sets out sweeping new powers for the european union.
it proposes that the eu budget be substantially increased that eu wide taxes be introduced that the eu should be allowed to borrow money and that member states lose almost all of their powers of veto.
it is clear that this report was drawn up in the brussels bubble.
it bears no relationship to what our citizens really want.
it is yet another step towards ever closer political union.
that may be the ambition of many members of this parliament but it is not my goal and it is not the goal of my group.
do our constituents really want us to hand over vast new powers to the commission so that it can tell national governments how much they can tax spend and borrow?
such powers undermine democracy and we have already seen what damage this has done to greece and other countries where the troika has taken over control of their economies.
this house should accept that many member states do not believe that more europe is the answer to their problems.
in the united kingdom there is a strong mood that we would like rather less europe.
the eu already has too much power and interferes too much in the everyday lives of our citizens.
it is too expensive and does not spend wisely the money the taxpayers send it. i want to see europe reformed.
i want to see the relationship between the united kingdom and the eu changed so that powers are repatriated to our parliament in westminster.
i understand that is not a popular view in this chamber and i accept that members of the eurozone need to change the way they govern their economies.
if they need treaty changes to provide for closer economic integration then non eurozone states like britain should not stand in the way.
we should cooperate to agree a new european settlement that allows member states much more flexibility in the areas in which they share sovereignty.
this will mean more integration for some and less integration for others.
we need to lay to rest the concept that the european union is a project in which powers can only ever flow towards the centre.
those days are over.
this has been an extremely interesting debate and there are a number of points that i have taken from it. i think the point regarding the complex relationship between unity and differentiation as raised in the report is a central one. where the boundary between the two should lie is always difficult to establish and i think the report does offer some clear signposts.
the difficulty of course lies in the political implications of where we draw that particular boundary.
the second point i want to make is that a very strong argument has been made by a number of speakers in this afternoon's debate in support of social benchmarks the general social issue to accompany the economic and fiscal ones.
i think it is very hard to disagree with this when unemployment is as high as it is in so many states of europe.
a third point struck me as being of considerable significance i think i made it myself at the outset namely that the democratic legitimacy of whatever we propose is the sine qua non of all development.
we have to confront this issue and i think we have to do it effectively.
finally on the issue of treaty change which has come up several times various speakers have mentioned it there has to be considerable support for a move in this direction.
many of the changes discussed today necessitate treaty change and i would like to add that a properly organised convention could itself contribute to overcoming the legitimacy deficit.
the report is complex and has the objective of assessing the present state of play in the relationship between the different levels of the european union's institutional framework in economic issues and proposing improvements where these are appropriate. as with any institution not least one as highly diverse as the eu in all its manifestations there will be different levels of power and ideally
at the same time given the european union's commitment to democracy it is common sense that there must be clear and transparent procedures in the exercise of power.
the report looks specifically at the effectiveness and credibility of economic governance in the context of the euro and various measures taken to establish sustainable remedies for the crisis.
the thrust of the report is to develop a strategy in consequence of which economic governance will operate optimally and equally with the necessary democratic legitimacy.
similarly the report has sought to ensure that the coherence of the eu is sustainable at the operational level.
now in consequence of the economic crisis of the last few years the different levels of the eu and member state governance already find themselves intertwined in a variety of ways. the argument of the report is to enhance eu competence where appropriate while respecting fully the demands of member state level democracy.
this strategy while essential is bound to raise complex issues involving all the different levels of governance.
one of these levels is the group of states that use the euro and their relationship to the rest of the eu to the institutions and procedures of the union.
that does mean that the member states that do not use the euro are excluded from the argument of the report.
on the contrary the relationship between the two tiers affected is part of the discussion.
the heart of the report is the need to enhance the eu's competences in economic policy in strengthening budgetary capacity and the democratic accountability of the commission in these areas. the governance of the emu has to be placed in an overall eu institutional framework as all member states are stakeholders in its governance. as far as the european parliament is concerned the report stresses that there can be no differentiation been members as far as their country of origin is concerned.
however the internal rules of parliament are flexible enough to establish the most appropriate scrutiny mechanisms. it should be common sense that the area covered by this report is complex and such complexity is bound to generate overlaps and contradictions. to that end the report has sought to offer lucidity and flexibility in the expectation that its argument offers the most dynamic solution to an issue of paramount importance.
therefore could i ask the services to carry out a thorough investigation to reassure ourselves that our voting system is properly recording the votes of the members?
supports a fair and mutually acceptable political solution on western sahara in accordance with the relevant united nations resolutions including those allowing self determination';
including freedom of association freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate to be respected;
these instruments will enable the eu to continue to be a global player and promote its interests and values.
democracy peace solidarity stability and poverty reduction as well as safeguarding global public goods will be at the heart of external action for the next seven years.
the instruments allow us to pursue cooperation with our external partners on four policy priorities enlargement neighbourhood cooperation with strategic partners and development cooperation. on behalf of the commission i would like to thank all the rapporteurs
as well as those who preceded them for their constructive contributions to the negotiations.
needless to say the consequences of this would be catastrophic for its people as well as extremely dangerous and destabilising for the entire region of the horn of africa.
south sudan cannot endure a bloody civil war again.
we must also deploy all available tools to support the refugees both technically and financially in terms of aid.
i welcome the initiative from the african union to set up an inquiry into the terrible human rights abuses last december.
certainly if the talks fail and this develops into an all out ethnic civil war the european union must consider all its options even possible military support to the au and igad alongside full scale humanitarian relief.
therefore the european union many of whose member states have worked hard to support south sudan must do everything now possible to support the urgent ceasefire talks.
lack of institutions it remains unclear how much pressure and bloodshed it can withstand without enduring a full scale collapse and becoming a failed state.
last month i discussed one of south sudan's key commodities hope for the future. that must still hold true now but it depends on the courage and statesmanship of the countries' leaders.
the european union has engaged in a determined diplomatic effort to help bring an end to the fighting.
the protection of civilians must be respected.
in humanitarian assistance in two thousand.
in this respect i would like to commend here the report prepared by ms de keyser adopted in december last year which highlighted the challenges of the development of state building in south sudan.
recent history teaches us that much. high representative vice president ashton has stressed that an immediate ceasefire with effective monitoring must be agreed as quickly as possible in order to spare the people of south sudan any further suffering.
he is in constant contact with key actors in south sudan and the region to support the building of consensus around igad's mediation efforts.
together with the international community the european union is engaged in preventing the crisis from descending into an ethnically based civil war and chaos. we have pledged our firm support to the
the eu special representative for the horn of africa alexander rondos has been in the region since twenty five december working round the clock to get a peace process underway.
many of them women and children may have lost their lives while fleeing the violence in malakal south sudan.
we remain strongly committed to supporting regional and international efforts to end the violence and we continue to call for a politically negotiated solution that will allow south sudan's leaders to resolve their differences peacefully and democratically.
she has also called on both parties to abstain from public statements that might incite their followers to further violence.
we are extremely concerned by reports of human rights abuses. all parties need to be aware that perpetrators of systematic and targeted abuses of human rights will be held accountable for their actions.
we would like to call on the member states to consider contributing armed forces and police to the un mission in south sudan.
we also call for the high representative to support if it is deemed necessary on going intergovernmental authority and development negotiations and to consider mobilising european experts in mediation dialogue and reconciliation in order to help this process.
firstly this crisis will not be solved through more and continued violence.
the european union encourages all regional and international efforts to align with and support igad mediation efforts and strongly discourages external intervention that might exacerbate the political and military tensions.
all violence directed at civilian populations must end and those responsible for perpetrating human rights abuses must be held accountable.
fourthly although fighting started less than one month ago the roots of this conflict are much deeper.
nevertheless on this particular report it is very important that we have reached agreement.
the commission regrets the lack of support for the provision included in the two thousand and seven com proposal amending the long term residence directive which aimed at rendering the establishment of correlation tables obligatory.
however the position followed by the commission in this file shall not be considered as a precedent.
the commission will continue its efforts with a view to finding together with the european parliament and the council an appropriate solution to this horizontal institutional issue'. i think we can agree on this.