kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
on directive ninety eight forty one ec on the registration of passengers we are glad to see that the commission's proposal has been preserved and the vision of electronic data reporting confirmed.
the three directives on passenger and ship safety that we are debating today were put in place twenty years ago to provide for a common level of safety and to remove barriers to trade. it was now high time to ensure that these objectives are improved upon in view of the implementation of experience and technological progress.
besides the cost savings it removes the unnecessary duplication and complexity of existing regimes which had developed over time and resulted in overlapping requirements spread across different pieces of legislation.
new protected areas are also often designated.
other cross cutting coastal life projects have also contributed to the improved knowledge and management of posidonia beds.
the emff also provides financial support for the protection and restoration of marine biodiversity and ecosystems which includes a common monitoring and evaluation system.
the commission in cooperation with the member states will undertake a review of the performance of the operational programmes the performance review in each member state in.
the commission is supporting the conservation of posidonia beds through the dissemination of good management practices the co funding of life projects and financial support under the european regional development fund interreg mediterranean and the european maritime and fisheries fund
good news is that investments through life have played a crucial role in ensuring the effective management and restoration of coastal ecosystems.
despite these efforts in two thousand and thirteen the status of posidonia beds was considered unfavourable in four of the seven member states where this habitat type occurs.
the commission expects further information to be provided by member states in two thousand and eighteen when they will report on their efforts to achieve good environmental status in marine waters.
other measures such as national protection measures and environmental targets are set under the marine strategy and water framework directives. in addition the common fisheries policy prohibits the use of certain fishing gear like trawl nets above posidonia seagrass beds and offers member states
special fishing management tools to be used in protected areas or essential habitats.
the decline in the population of neptune grass is usually linked to coastal development mechanical damage from illegal trawling anchoring beach nourishment dredging eutrophication and other forms of pollution.
two thousand and nineteen given its phenomenal ability to absorb inconceivable volumes of carbon from the air the returns on investing in further conservation delivers an extraordinary public good and a real contribution to shifting to the low carbon economy.
to restore posidonia beds member states must establish site level conservation objectives and restoration measures.
it is a first step in the mediterranean because commitment alone is not enough;
that was supposed to happen
effect of all the threats when you have climate change working along with eutrophication working along with acidification working along with overfishing and illegal fishing and so
we talked about funding;
or mutually destructive.
the benefits that we are getting from the oceans are very clear.
if i give you an example of the great barrier reef only twenty years ago scientists were putting the first questions about whether the great barrier reef would take on the effects of climate.
i mentioned as well that life on its own funded twenty projects to specifically protect and restore sea grass meadows.
i mentioned some of the benefits that we are getting from the oceans and in return we are only giving back over fishing pollution eutrophication and all the negative impacts of climate change as well.
we are also working a lot on the detailing and the monitoring of the investments.
this is one example of a species which is giving us a lot of benefit and what are we giving in return?
protecting marine biodiversity is very much part of a number of actions on ocean governance.
twenty three yes i was in bonn last week and i was thoroughly pushing together with my colleagues the concept that you cannot separate the oceans from climate change they are both inseparable and they are either mutually constructive
yes they are protected not just through funding from some of our funding schemes but also through legislation and directives especially through the habitats directive.
the oceans are climate change as i said. this is something that we are pushing you cannot discuss climate change without including the oceans in the discussions or in the negotiations.
well. rosa also mentioned renewable energy and this is also something which i have been pulling and pushing for quite some time because the oceans can be one of our best allies when it comes to renewable energy.
signing and committing is important but the most important thing is when it comes to delivery.
why am i talking about the urgency?
that is why we are working on the output indicators and on the output targets as well.
highly under threat.
unfortunately we keep on repeating and rightly so that they are under threat like all the other species in the ocean like all the other species especially in the mediterranean.
although the seagrass is considered the most important and wellstudied seagrass species of the mediterranean sea to date there has been a limited effort to combine all the spatial information available to protect the meadows across the basin.
its full recovery is usually considered irreversible in a human timescale because it is a slowgrowing species with a low recovery rate.
so what can we do now?
it is crucial to undertake specific actions to mitigate the threats causing the regression and promote good conservation practices before the seagrasses regress thereby allowing these habitats to fulfil their key roles in coastal areas.
the latter has been accused by the government of being responsible for an attack on a prison just a couple of days ago an attack in which eleven people were killed and over nine hundred prisoners escaped.
certainly his justification that the country cannot afford elections is frankly ridiculous.
mr president when discussing the democratic republic of the congo in this chamber six months ago there was some hope that the deal brokered by the catholic bishops' conference would pave the way for elections by the end of this year ending the political stalemate and president kabila's sixteen yearlong rule. today no progress has been made in implementing the terms of that agreement and the general security situation has actually worsened.
as similar security threats manifest themselves across the country the urgency for president kabila to go and to have fresh elections to be called becomes ever more necessary.
reports suggest that in the last five months five hundred people have been killed in the fighting and a further.
in north kivu province meanwhile concerns remain about the activities of rebel groups including the march twenty three rd movement and the islamist militia known as allied democratic forces.
firstly the necessity to implement a political agenda based on the accord of december two thousand and sixteen the strengthening of the monusco performance full implementation of the un security council mandate without national caveats as well as
the important implementation of an independent investigation of violations of humanitarian and human rights law.
we do need to assist in gathering evidence and building cases to bring those responsible for murdering civilians to justice.
mr president i welcome the fact that the eu has imposed sanctions against many of those responsible for violence in the drc but the rest of the world as we have heard is standing by while mass grave after mass grave is being uncovered in kasai.
president kabila as we have heard is part of the problem and we need serious international pressure to kickstart the electoral process.
firstly three million people are displaced in the drc half a million children are at risk of malnutrition where is the global outrage?
the un is struggling to raise sixty million in emergency funds.
i urge you to put this on the agenda of the foreign affairs council on the nineteenth and deliver a strategy to tackle the crisis together with our international partners. failing this destabilisation of the entire central african region will force its way up the agenda in a matter of mere months.
just three questions.
this comes on top of our presence in the rest of the country where we mobilise eur twenty three million this year for a wide range of humanitarian activities.
i want to be very clear about the use and context of these sanctions. they are not intended to replace justice they are a tool intended to encourage a change in policy or in behaviour.
but for that agreement to succeed actors on all sides of the political spectrum have to act in the national interest.
and fourth the importance of support to the united nations.
i express my sincere condolences to their families friends and colleagues.
this is the only way to deliver elections before the end of two thousand and seventeen and it is the only way to restore full constitutional legitimacy to drc.
i would like to end on a positive note.
motivated prosecutions do not contribute to such an environment.
this includes the protection of civilians in the areas most affected by violence.
in responding to the political crisis and the violence and human rights abuses that it has generated on twenty nine may the eu adopted individual restrictive measures against nine individuals.
a peaceful transparent smooth and timely conducting of the next presidential and legislative elections are vital for the security of the great lakes region.
i strongly believe that respect for democracy peace and the peaceful transfer of power must now be a priority for all political forces in the democratic republic of congo.
i can assure you that we will continue to use all tools at our disposal to assist in bringing a durable solution to the current crisis and i engage to keep you fully informed on developments in particular on humanitarian access.
mutilation forced participation of family members in rape gang rape and sexual slavery.
conflictrelated sexual violence contributes to an increase in the levels of genderbased violence in general and this lasts for generations if appropriate action is not taken.
therefore i support the mandate of the un to protect the population from armed groups and women from rape and other sexual violence.
i call on the congolese government to end the impunity of the perpetrators of sexual violence.
the european union is hungry and eager in its acquisition of all of the attributes and trappings of statehood.
it was only a matter of time before it would apply for formal recognition as a state in the united nations which of course is what has now happened with rather disgracefully and to me bafflingly the support of my own government.
this is a legal regularisation of something that has been happening de facto for some time the pushing of the powers that we regard as definitive of statehood from national to brussels level.
but the other member states of the european union should be wary of what they agree.
one of the consequences of giving the eu full recognition of statehood is that they now can be addressed at length by baroness ashton and by mr van rompuy as respectively the foreign minister and the head of state of the new entity.
and as members of this house i am sure will privately be able to let them know that is not an unmixed blessing.
mr president i voted against the motion for a resolution that deals with the negotiations for a free trade agreement with india.
in my opinion the conclusion of any such agreement negotiated by the european commission would only serve big multinational corporations both in india and in europe.
in contrast to the last speaker in my opinion the trade negotiations are not driven by the interests of raising people out of poverty and improving people's living standards;
they are driven by those big business agendas to get more market access and increase profits.
i stand with the poor farmers trade unionists and workers of india who oppose the fta as it will mean a further undermining of living standards and working conditions for large parts of the indian working class in particular those that work in the large informal sector.
furthermore this fta agenda and its drive to enforce intellectual property rights and data exclusivity endangers access to cheap generic medicines that are produced in india.
as a result as you know yourself a working group has been established by the bureau to introduce binding codes of conduct for all meps.
part two of cleaning up the act is what we did today by voting for this report in huge numbers.
i am disappointed however that the council has not signed up to the proposal.
it is worth noting that the three meps who were exposed in terms of the amendments for money' scandal are all former government ministers.
from the outset of this textile report i have been of the opinion that parliament should keep to the scope of the proposal as it was originally designated and that the extension of this scope was not compatible with the aim of simplification for putting a new fibre on the market.
i have concerns about the provision of a review clause which will ask the commission to investigate the possible introduction of a number of labelling requirements which have little added value and would place unacceptable burdens on businesses especially small and medium sized enterprises.
this includes the harmonisation of size labelling social economic labelling and most worryingly a radio frequency identification tag which would increase costs for business and prices for the consumer.
nonetheless from this report i feel that some of the provisions in this regulation will make a difference will improve the application process for business and enhance consumer protection especially on the labelling of animal derived products.
but we need to be mindful that we are legislating for the real world not making a wish list for an ideal world and that parliament should stick to its areas of competence in future.
i am in complete disagreement with the views and ideas it expresses about europe's current and future role in the world.
in a nutshell this report stands for a militarised and imperialist europe. it defends an aggressive raw materials strategy and asks for and i quote a less rigid distinction between military and civilian crisis management operations'.
it welcomes the trade agreement with colombia despite the fact that hundreds of trade unionists have been killed in recent years guilty simply of being trade unionists.
this report hypocritically names social unrest as one element of a new generation of security challenges and risks.
the capitalist system has created poverty and misery across the world and is incapable of dealing with the consequences.
it is the right of people to defend their legitimate interests and struggle for a better future without any interference from the mighty political economic and military powers.
just to put this in perspective our twenty eight member states in two thousand and thirteen had fiscal income from legal cigarette sales of over eur ninety billion.
two thousand and four then and now parliament has been our key ally in the fight against cigarette smuggling a criminal act that siphons away money from our budgets.
will expire in july.
we do recognise however that ratification will take time.
there are some facts that are very clear that the main objective of the pmi agreement to reduce the presence of smuggled pmi products on the eu black market has been achieved.
parliament has strongly supported lifting this fight to a global level. why? because cigarette smuggling is a global phenomenon and therefore it requires a global solution.
they offer an additional financial incentive to compliance.
in addition even if we are to reach the forty ratification requirement we do not yet know whether the key sources and transit countries will actually sign up to the protocol.
the future of this agreement.
there is also a security dimension since cigarette smuggling is one of the main sources of revenue for organised crime and on twenty eight april we adopted a new european agenda for security disrupting the access of organised crime to revenue from various smuggling activities
as i mentioned the first was signed in.
however this directive cannot play an effective role in controlling cigarette smuggling from outside the eu.
we are going to finalise an assessment in a couple of weeks and of course we will make it available to parliament and the public.
the agreement is legally binding and enforceable.
we know that the cheap whites are our biggest threat now not those that come from these big companies and we are also looking at how the development in the regulatory landscape which i have already mentioned would impact our judgement on how to approach
so far out of the minimum requirement of forty ratifications for the protocol to enter into force we only have seven.
between two thousand and six and two thousand and fourteen the volume of illegal pmi products seized by member states under the agreement dropped by eighty five and that substantially exceeds the overall downward trend in seizures. this drop applies equally to both genuine and counterfeit pmi products. we are currently considering the next steps forward in
legislative restrictions in the eu and national level prices are designed to deter smoking and to protect citizens especially youngsters.
we know the data around eur ten billion are lost every year as a result of smuggling which impacts primarily on our member states but also on the eu budget.
these agreements have been introduced with the support of this house as an instrument in our fight against cigarette smuggling with the first one signed in.
but this is also important for the eu and our member states so that we can reduce the amount lost in customs and excise duties and there are also the funds which are provided by the tobacco companies as part of the agreement to the eu and to member states. therefore i would hope that the existing agreements will continue and those which are due to expire will be renewed as soon as possible.
so in view of that i would support us asking the commissioner to produce an assessment of the effectiveness of the current arrangements if not this month then hopefully at the june plenary session and i am pleased that she did indicate in her contribution that that might be possible.
i would also say that we should not forget the health and security dimension of these agreements.
this will allow us to tackle the problem not just inside the european union but also the illicit trade coming to the european union from outside.
as many have said we need a broader approach that is not exhausted by this specific instrument but we also have to decide on its role in the future.
they seem to be interested and we have also indicated on both sides that before we move towards any step for or against negotiations we need to complete our own assessments.
i want to stress
just to give you a sense we have had here a debate that has spread over about an hour and a half.
we obviously have to look at the costs and benefits before we come to any decision.
so there is clearly a benefit but we also have to be mindful that we have an evolving regulatory context.
these guidelines contain an explicit exemption for binding and enforceable agreements such as these tobacco agreements.
our assessment is ongoing.
my second point is that in the differences in opinion there was one issue on which almost everybody was of the same opinion namely the necessity for more transparency so that as we move forward it is done in the form of an open discussion. of course to the extent that we can pursue transparency in that matter we will do so.
this should be the province of the nation state and nothing to do with the eu.
mr president of course we all want to stop counterfeiting and the trade in illicit cigarettes but while we have a complete open door policy across the whole of europe how on earth are we meant to check for quality and control for contraband?
these agreements are nothing more than the eu putting a gun to the head of international tobacco companies to hand over billions of euros to the eu.
through these agreements the tobacco companies have committed to paying the eu collectively usd.
they have been criticised across the house today not least for the toothless provisions such as seizure based payments and for initiating close collaboration between the industry and the eu illustrated by the very difficult adoption of the tobacco products directive and by the delaying tactics that we have seen sometimes at the very highest levels in the eu.
that said the agreements have contributed to addressing the issue of counterfeit cigarettes and the parallel market as part of the eu's wider strategy to step up the fight against the illicit tobacco trade.
in the absence of plans for anything else i believe that we should cautiously welcome their renewal but i note that much more needs to be done. the best way of combating this sort of fraud is to stop demand in the first place.
we should stop as far as we can people taking up this disgusting habit.
so i would urge the commission to make sure that implementation of the tobacco products directive moves ahead swiftly and that swift transposition is encouraged.
it is greatly appreciated that she has come to parliament with a statement on the cooperation agreements between the member states the european union and the major tobacco companies.
however it is our view that the negotiations between the commission and the tobacco companies should be much more open and transparent.
as it stands now we have been allowed to view the documents in a secure reading room for a couple of hours and this took place after a rather frustrating correspondence with her predecessor.
as a matter of fact it would require a specialist lawyer to understand anything that is in those papers.
we are now anxiously waiting for the commission's assessment of the benefits of the current tobacco agreements or agreement with philip morris international within the next couple of weeks as was mentioned. but i think we should go further.
this parliament should at the least be informed of the discussions along the way and not after everything has been said and done.
even better would be to invite us to the table as observers to monitor the reasoning of whether it would be good to prolong the agreements for what reasons and what we as the union could achieve by prolonging these agreements.
it is about taxpayers' money and at the moment there is a feeling among the public that they are being held as mere bystanders in what is potentially of huge importance financially and otherwise to them as citizens of the union. after all how are taxpayers supposed to be represented if parliament is not properly and entirely informed?
mr president last week germany could not sell one third of its bond issue yesterday the italian government paid nearly eight interest and today two million people are striking in britain even though the uk public pension black hole is the biggest in europe.
of course countries should consider how their economic policies affect others but meps are now asking for a new treaty to give the european parliament a vote on economic guidelines.
this will not decrease the resentment of many of our citizens when they see decisions being taken in faraway places and it will not help our businesses to grow.
right now this parliament and every parliament should be looking at how to help growth remove red tape and get businesses moving but instead we have been in back rooms arguing about just when an economic dialogue would fit into parliament's timetable and who should be on the guest list.