kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
the objective of the eu is not only to provide assistance to refugees but also to support the countries and communities in the region affected by the current refugee flow.
the eu and its member states have made an outstanding contribution to this effect and will continue to be among those leading a way to securing further funding.
the presidency is ready to work closely on this issue with the commission which has the main responsibility for this issue.
furthermore i welcome the positive response given by commissioner barnier.
this is key given the urgency of the situation and the severe financial constraints.
the eu must keep russia and other global players involved on the syrian issue.
two thousand and fourteen the best way of preventing the suffering of those people would be to help address the reasons why they are fleeing the country. the best solution of course would be a lasting peace deal.
failing that as the fighting goes on we must use all channels at our disposal and make sure that international humanitarian law is respected and the civilians are protected.
the eu and its member states are doing much in the given circumstances to alleviate the suffering facing the refugees from syria but of course we should not and cannot be complacent because more than.
one four million people are predicted to flee the country by the end of the year and we do not know how many will follow in.
two one million syrians have already gone through the traumatic experience of becoming a refugee.
they should facilitate free passage of medical supplies to all areas and safeguard all health facilities and ambulances.
if we can achieve at least these objectives it is my sincere hope that we will see refugee numbers rise more slowly than predicted and hopefully they might even start to decrease again at some point in the not too distant future.
there must be zero tolerance regarding the killing maiming abduction and recruitment to armed groups of children and zero tolerance regarding sexual and gender based violence whose most frequent and most vulnerable victims are of course women and children.
proposal.
the commissioner said that we are different in different countries.
yes it is absolutely true;
i think this is the task we have to fulfil.
it is an issue for all of us and all the governments and the prime ministers have to do their job.
again yes we have to take the refugees but it is not only about giving them certain things. we should give them the chance to learn here in europe to learn some skills to learn about democracy about freedom about liberties.
we have to stop that cruel war.
we want to be the experts for reconstruction with the help of the european union'.
they should have the chance to build a new syria as i said before.
i quote we don't believe in the international community any more we are dying in camps because we have no food milk or medicine.
if you kept the humanitarian corridor open i would be one of the first people to go back to syria.
it is right that the situation receives the attention of parliament this morning.
i believe that it is important that those displaced by fighting in syria are effectively protected by the international community.
while it is right that we do not intervene militarily it is also right that we have a coordinated and compassionate humanitarian response.
however i am also deeply concerned by those still facing death and suffering within syria.
this house should consider the position of syrian christians the largest minority population within that country.
reports of killings directed specifically at them reports of some jihadist rebel groups forcing conversion to islam should be of grave concern to this house.
mr president i do not believe in a common asylum system but i do believe that this parliament and our member states should do all we can to address the devastating humanitarian crisis sitting just across the waters of this continent through political will and financial and humanitarian assistance.
the number of refugees who have fled syria is beyond comprehension and as these numbers grow so does the probability that more people will risk their lives to reach our shores.
i strongly believe that solidarity cooperation between member states and meaningful assistance do not need to come in the form of legal compulsion but instead in the form of a moral imperative which has been acknowledged since the geneva convention.
the best place to start when solving any problem is to be honest about the challenges that face us and the discussions as a consequence of the tragic events in lampedusa are delivering lessons that we should have learnt before.
our best hope of preventing further tragic loss of life and combating the massive pressures on member states' asylum systems is to be prepared and that does not happen by burying our heads in the sand and hoping the problem will go away.
this humanitarian crisis will not disappear from europe's borders or our consciousness by us ignoring it.
we need to do more to combat human trafficking and to save the lives of the desperate who come here.
we need to do more to make the aid we send to war torn countries more accountable and more effective and above all we need to learn from the mistakes of the past.
madam president what should be the priority for frontex and any other european agencies? saving lives or pushing back people?
most member states' response to syrian refugees has been disgraceful.
refugees will come out more and more as the war rages on.
an effective channelling of aid to idps inside syria requires a more effective eu presence at the borders in turkey and other neighbouring countries to support the right channels and not risk misappropriation by corruption government and jihadist forces.
it is simply not right that small local companies providing very local or regional services should have these burdens put upon them.
however we must have a sense of proportionality and look at what effect this will actually have.
most importantly here the difference lies with the number of small and medium sized businesses in this sector.
this house and the commission often take a one size fits all' approach but we must accept that passenger rights differ across different modes of transport.
we have to compare the real benefits for users with the true costs to businesses in this sector.
given the introduction of that protection and the value of the underlying principle of this legislation i strongly support the compromise.
i believe everyone in this chamber knows the importance of reliable and profitable bus and coach services to our local economies and it is for this reason that i strongly support the introduction of the two hundred and fifty km rule.
if they go out of business jobs are lost and the facility for passengers is also lost.
i live myself over three hundred kilometres from our capital. there is a buoyant small business enterprise in coach travel between rural areas in my constituency and the capital dublin.
this now will be put under severe pressure because of the provisions of this proposal and also particularly increased insurance costs which may drive them out of business.
one size does not fit all. in the european union of twenty seven countries of different sizes there should have been some flexibility within countries so that all could be included in the provisions.
the compromise text contains important achievements it provides a set of basic rights for all passengers travelling by bus and coach.
two questions spring to mind when you look at this particular agreement.
by the very nature of it being a compromise there are things there that parliament has had to give up particularly on the scope where we would have liked to have seen a smaller distance before the regulation kicks in.
but does it move us forward?
well yes it does because we will now have in place a similar set of rights for buses and coaches to those that we currently have for other modes of transport.
it also moves us forward in our commitment to improving access to bus and coach travel for those people with reduced mobility and indeed disabled people throughout the european union.
i would just pick up on one issue which concerns asking for staff to be trained to help people with reduced mobility and disabilities so that they can have the same access to public transport as those of us who are able bodied have.
i know there is a derogation for member states to push this back for five years in this area and i hope they will not use that. finally i think it is important for us to support this final agreement so that the rights for all the modes of transport are now in place.
of course we need to protect the rights of passengers and particularly those with disabilities but the initial proposal as philip bradbourn has said if adopted would have serious consequences for small transport providers.
for that reason the conciliation process was vital and the compromise reached strikes a fair balance between passengers' rights on the one hand and those of service providers on the other.
i fully agree with mr bradbourn that you cannot equate sea passenger rights air passenger rights rail passenger rights and bus passenger rights all in the same package.
for that reason talking about a consolidated package simply is not something that is feasible and realisable.
he will probably be released or put on trial when the elections are over.
at a time when tensions with north korea are at a breaking point the ability to highlight a successful nuclear non proliferation deal is of more value than ever.
even if at times these parameters have been pushed to their limits.
its support for terrorist groups in the middle east is well documented and must be thoroughly condemned.
its continued engagement in a regional sectarian battle for supremacy with saudi arabia creates instability and should be strongly discouraged.
these issues are however irrelevant when it comes to discussing this deal.
i am the first to admit to that and we should not fail to speak out against and i have done on many occasions.
these people not only failed to appreciate that the deal was concerned with one particular aspect i.
i am pleased therefore that the eu member states and the high representative have spoken strongly in favour of the deal following president trump's continued threats to withdraw from it which i regard as unacceptable.
in every future action we should remember that the negotiation process took around twelve years.
nevertheless the international community would not be in a better place to deal with any of these issues without the jcpoa in place.
what will the iranian people think when they see that all the visiting politicians are there only to close business deals while remaining silent on human rights violations including repression of women's rights and ethnic and religious minorities?
according to the united nations this is the highest number of executions in iran in twenty five years.
we cannot afford to undermine the credibility of a multilateral agreement endorsed by the un security council resolution and we cannot afford to dismantle a deal that works and delivers on its promises.
for example we welcome the recent adoption by tehran of the revised antinarcotics law. if properly implemented it could lead to a significant drop in the number of executions of drug offenders in iran.
our civil nuclear cooperation makes the nuclear deal more solid through increased transparency.
then when the message is passed by different players across the eu institutions it becomes louder and clearer.
against this background preserving and implementing the nuclear deal with iran is an absolute must.
after president trump's announcement of a new us strategy towards iran we europeans have made our position very clear.
we europeans share many of our american friends' preoccupations regarding the regional situation and iran's ballistic missile programme which is inconsistent with un security council resolution.
that. i would like to thank you for your contacts with the us congress and i would also mention the visit of the delegation for relations with iran to that country. as always there was excellent cooperation and coordination with me and with all our teams that are working on these
the international atomic energy agency has reported nine times that iran is implementing all its nuclear related commitments.
renegotiating the deal or parts of it is simply not an option.
foreign direct investment is increasing and the iranian government reported growth of fifty five compared to the previous year.
it is in their interest and in our own interest.
but these issues should not be mixed up with the joint comprehensive plan of action with the nuclear deal and must be addressed in the appropriate formats and fora.
solve. this is something we have not forgotten and this is why we believe that a diplomatic but critical engagement with iran can benefit the entire middle east and prevent a regional escalation that would destabilise the whole
this is vital for our collective security in the european union in the region and beyond and it is even more important as we face a nuclear crisis with north korea.
we have also agreed to look into possibilities for cooperation on the fight against drugs and on migration.
in fact this is what we always do in our contacts with iran.
so let me thank you once again for your cooperation over the last weeks and
the deal with iran is ensuring the peaceful nature of iran's nuclear programme.
let me remind us all that iran has played and continues to play an important role in hosting millions of afghan refugees and we are ready to increase our common work and support in this field.
we discuss all the issues we have on the table from cooperation to the difficult ones including regional issues.
dismantling a nuclear agreement that is working would not put us in a better position to discuss all the rest.
with a nuclear deal with iran we have established the strongest monitoring system ever set up.
it took us twelve years of extremely difficult negotiations led by the european union to achieve these results.
i would like us all to remember the images of young iranians girls boys but also not just young people celebrating the deal in the streets of tehran. i believe we have the responsibility to show these people and the iranian leadership that they have an interest in making iran more open and more cooperative and that this brings benefits to the leadership and the people especially to the people.
progress in the financial and banking sector has been slower due to a number of factors but important work is being carried out to improve the situation also including on the iranian side.
the deal with iran prevented a nuclear escalation in the middle east. it showed that diplomacy is the best way to overcome longstanding problems that sometimes seem impossible to
preserving the deal is our shared security interest and the best way for the united states to address their security concerns which are also ours is in close cooperation with we europeans.
world. at this complicated moment for the region and for the world let me say that the european parliament has taken part of the responsibility for our collective security and i am grateful for
we simply cannot afford more tension in the middle east and another nuclear proliferation crisis.
at the last high level dialogue i mentioned a few weeks ago there was also agreement to continue our engagement on women's empowerment and on the treatment of prisoners.
files. i think we showed teamwork and that the european institutions across the board including the european parliament that to me plays an essential role in european foreign policy managed to as we always say speak with one voice or pass the same message.
this approach has also driven our conversations on human rights. we still have substantive disagreements but together with iran we have agreed to focus on tangible results.
so let's stick to the facts.
since it was purely nuclear we have facts certified by an agency that has proven to be crucial and will continue to prove to be crucial in other nuclear proliferation issues like the iaea certifying that nuclear commitments of the nuclear deal have been met constantly.
reasons. we always do that constantly and consistently and sometimes most of the time we are the only
it is exactly because it is a country like iran that you need to have a nuclear deal because you do not want a country like iran in that region to develop a nuclear weapon.
and this is the message we got from him.
that is why i said to our american friends that this is a matter of strategic relevance for european security.
read all the one hundred and four pages of the agreement;
we do it regularly sometimes at ministerial level.
smart to do as europeans and that is why i would like to thank this hemicycle in its vast majority and the parliamentary delegations that travelled both to iran and to washington to support what is a fully united european union position when the entire world is looking
two points i would like to clarify one is related to the agreement.
that sentence here maybe i disclose a secret was introduced at iran's request because the iranian leadership at the time which is the same that has been reconfirmed today intended to use the agreement as a way to ask their own population their own public opinion for a mandate to engage with the rest of the world
cases. we are the ones who have started a human rights dialogue with iran that regularly takes place. we are the ones not
and there is one fundamental argument that some of you have raised if we start saying that with any change of administration agreements and international commitments are put into question we are not doing ourselves a favour because nobody would accept negotiating any agreement any international agreement with any administration of the future or of the present.
it is not a matter of being naive or liking' a system or a country.
has. sorry to be blunt but we have entered into a time where diplomacy has a different language. we are the ones raising individual cases and we do it even
it is the lack of trust that makes the deal indispensable.
we do. that is going to continue to be a very important aspect of our engagement with the
some of you referred to the fact that undermining the full implementation of the nuclear deal also weakens those in iran's political scene who are trying to commit in their own way which is not ours towards an opening and an engagement with the rest of the world.
most of them last forever.
having said that what would happen if the deal was not there?
would we be sure that iran would not develop a nuclear programme that is purely peaceful? definitely not and enrichment would go up again tomorrow.
it was taken fourteen years ago at the beginning of the negotiations and i don't believe i disclose a secret if i say that it was the decision of the gulf countries and the american administration at the time to limit the negotiations to purely nuclear issues.
probably not;
it is about security because we do not want to see a region that is already troubled enough in a nuclear arms race.
it was iran at that time insisting on having a negotiation that would have included other aspects.
most of them last for a long long time.
this is a commitment that is there for ever as an npt part.
we miss just that.
engagement a more constructive engagement in the region.
there is no sunset clause to the agreement.
this was the reason why the us administration engaged in this at that time not having diplomatic relations with iran which is something that on the contrary most of the european union member states have.
so i believe it is a matter of convenience;
and this was the reasoning of all the years of negotiations.
so it is exactly because there is and was no trust that an agreement was needed.
others. and we are the ones raising this issue constantly.
we did it last time in september with all the parties around the table.
country. but again i would say the most important thing for me are the social and the political dynamics inside the country. the iranian population was celebrating the iran deal not because of nuclear issues but because it was representing the opportunity to open up the country to international engagement. that is the investment that is
the last point i would like to mention is on human rights because it hurts me enormously when i hear voices saying that we stay silent on human rights. actually we are the ones that are more vocal on human rights when it comes to
then second does this mean that we are positive about iran that we trust iran that there is an optimism about the atmosphere?
the nuclear deal the nuclear commitment fulfils more safety in the region and for us.
this. we never ever avoid raising issues on human rights because of other
iran never gave up its nuclear ambitions and was launching ballistic missiles instead it supported terrorists like hezbollah and it tried to achieve the status of a regional power penetrating iraq syria and yemen which could shake the very fragile regional balance of power.
it was set to help to improve the situation particularly in the sphere of human rights and to make iran more peaceful.
that is the whole thing.
mr president i give full support for high representative mogherini's efforts in implementing the nuclear agreement with iran which is strategic for the eu and global security.
the eu cannot also be silent about human rights concerns in iran but to be credible and effective it must not turn a blind eye to the provocative activities of sects such as the mek mojahedin e khalq which act within this parliament and last week even physically assaulted an opponent just outside the parliament.
there can be no watering down of what we mean when we talk about human rights.
they are universal even if people pray to a different god or are born in a different culture.
executions torture censorship and gender discrimination without due process are unacceptable.
secondly iran's role in its region is a disaster.
in iraq syria lebanon and yemen it is clear that iran through the revolutionary guards as well as hezbollah seeks to ruthlessly push its interests and influence and i am glad that the high representative mentioned the problematic ballistic missile firings as a key point of concern as well.
we were warned about the potential unrest in the region as a consequence of the nuclear deal but instead of tearing up the deal like president trump suggests let us do what we can to stop iran's toxic influence.
we stand by our words and will honour eu commitments but we must never blindly defend the indefensible.
i think there is a reason why the staff regulations do not allow us to have quotas;
in other words people with disabilities do not feel that they are equally encouraged to engage in the institutions.
we have to be an example for the european union.
europe. it is not just about people with disabilities.
among them were seven people with disabilities. obviously if we want more to apply we have to be more open in terms of how we reach out to people with disabilities to make sure they understand that a career in the european institutions is a good career for them.
so we need to look at what would be the appropriate level of ambition to target as regards people with disabilities.
but what should our level of ambition
know. so we have to improve the data collection and we have to be able to say where we are and where we are
firstly i strongly believe that we have to make recruitment a door through which everybody who wants to enter the institutions can enter.
this is certainly an issue that is not just about people with disabilities but about the europe we want to live in.
that takes me on to how we intend to approach the integration of people with disabilities.
a question that we intend to answer as we put forward the new strategy.
so i want to elaborate.
now i am not saying that we should not think of maybe applying quotas to only one segment but i do not want to go into that before i am convinced that we are not going to resolve one problem and create another.