kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
upgraded networks will connect european citizens to the best prices and services and large scale infrastructure projects will be better financed through maximised use of financial instruments. as rapporteur on this dossier i very much appreciate the good cooperation we had in concluding the negotiations.
we know all about the intense lobbying and people trying to delay it trying to push it into the long grass and to undermine it.
we know that the tobacco products directive had a very difficult birth.
i hope that all the institutions will learn lessons about what happened and that we will all look at the framework convention on tobacco control and implement in full its recommendations on transparency and lobbying.
it is hugely important to note that at the start of this new year a crucial year for europe we are in a far better place than we were at any time since the start of the financial crisis.
this european semester cycle offered less drama than previous editions but more genuine debate and in the end more gratifying decisions.
as well. the tragic events of lampedusa i had the occasion to witness the dramatic consequences personally on that island and the unforgettable deaths of three hundred and fifty people signalled and symbolised the difficulties of individual member states in dealing with complex migration issues in a globalised world and pushed
with the accession of latvia the eurozone is expanding another unambiguous sign of renewed confidence in the euro. these are encouraging signs for the european union and especially for member states that still face hard times and challenging transitions.
base. from two thousand and one to two thousand and ten in a rapidly changing and often threatening global context eu defence spending declined from eur two hundred and fifty one billion to eur one hundred and ninety four billion meaning that we must do more with less
we want a thriving and responsible european banking sector at the service of the real economy where banks not taxpayers carry the costs of their own mistakes.
regional protection resettlement and reinforced legal migration;
over the past five years we have undertaken a fundamental reform of the way banks are regulated and supervised.
we are now at the beginning of the end of public bank bail outs with the welcome agreements reached by the co legislators in december on the bank resolution directive and deposit guarantee schemes. banking union is a crucial sign of our commitment to a genuine and deep economic and monetary union and to restoring decent lending conditions throughout the euro
as part of the european semester we have proposed a new scoreboard to allow for better and earlier identification of major social and employment problems.
crime; proper management and better surveillance of sea
so it is now imperative to work for agreement on the single resolution mechanism which is the last building block needed for a genuine european banking union.
at the same time we have prepared the ground for debates that may often be less visible but are equally important for the future economic welfare and political relevance of the european
for that we need to fight to the limit to ensure that the intergovernmental dimension is kept to the absolute minimum of what is politically necessary. we should also be very vigilant in making sure the outcome remains fully compatible with and upholds the primacy of eu
with such high levels of unemployment in some of our member states and with many of our companies especially smes still lacking the financial means to invest and create jobs we cannot yet say that we are out of the
through a lot of hard work and commitment the lithuanian team has been able to push forward a number of delicate and decisive initiatives.
d'tre. we share the problems and suffer the threats together so we are increasingly destined to work out the solutions
we can overcome even the most serious kinds of crisis in a eurozone country. spain's exit from its specific banking programme shows that we can effectively address grave concerns about the financial institutions even in a larger economy.
union. and yet now with consumer and investor confidence resuming growth even if it is timid growth is expected. the recession is behind us but we should avoid any kind of complacency.
can we afford to put at risk the emerging signs of returning confidence?
around diplomatic tables we saw europe at its best united in defending ukrainian citizens' dignity and opinions and ready to support their sovereign right to decide on their own destiny and to improve their chances of a better more prosperous and more democratic
together. security issues in the broader sense from energy policy in both its internal and external dimensions which also remains high on the agenda for the months to come to cyber security and data protection are at the heart of the european union's raison
area and it is an essential part of decoupling bank risks from sovereign debt.
the council set out its position in december opening the door for negotiations with parliament.
union. at the december summit the european council for the first time ever discussed concrete defence issues which are so important for our leverage as a political actor and international
today europe's banks are better capitalised better regulated to manage risks and better supervised.
i call on all member states and social partners not to slow down this issue which is so decisive for our credibility and for the future of our young
the fight against human smuggling and organised
we can build on these experiences and the policy results when we further focus on growth and jobs in the months to come.
us all towards a renewed effort in this
the commission has rigorously defended an article one hundred and fourteen legal base for its proposal.
i believe that europe as a whole should take heart that the situation can be and is being turned around.
term. we still have a lot of work to do even if when you think of where we were some time ago and where we are now we have reason to be confident.
but at the same time and we have to face reality there appears to be no other approach which will obtain the necessary support in council.
to do so. two thousand and fourteen i am sure will be a year of positive change for the european
so the question is not whether we are happy with the council position.
i would also like to welcome the progress made with the single supervisory and single resolution mechanisms.
with many different opinions on how to achieve that the success of the lithuanian presidency in proceeding with this proposal has to be acknowledged.
finally i would like to highlight the progress made with the negotiations on the transatlantic trade and investment partnership agreement with the usa.
we all know that completion of this agreement will bring significant financial benefits to both sides.
often the headlines do not really tell the story of a presidency's work and the irish can vouch for that but i compliment you on how you handled the presidency.
it is important that we remember what is good and positive in terms of the evolution of the european union.
we welcome the stability that has come with that.
stability for the next seven years and we delivered.
any of the international norms on ethnic minority protection including the framework convention for the protection of national minorities of the council of europe.
among the lesser achievements the progress on the status of european political parties is especially welcome to me and to other members of this house.
during our debate at the start of the presidency i questioned official attitudes in lithuania to ethnic russians.
i cited the case of viktor uspaskich an ethnic russian who is persecuted for the success of a party he founded and the threat it poses to longer established parties.
we hoped that lithuania would satisfy us that due process in this case is paramount and that lithuania has not only a free economy but also a just society in which the separation of powers is respected that lithuania has become as president grybauskait said of the european union a lighthouse of hope for freedom democracy and human rights'.
evidence of meddling in the judicial and political processes by the state security department and the office of the president are worrying.
it is undeniable
so before the european external action service and the commission propose a new architecture they should think about governance and where needed be reminded that we in parliament play an equal role here.
evaluations independent ones have found that a strategic and overarching vision is lacking while management by different services within both the commission and the european external action service are inefficient and incoherent.
two thousand and twenty five and in the absence of an altogether more flexible budget which is what we should be focusing on with the mff we need at least to build in flexibility while we have multiannual spending plans.
they feel sidelined already as strategic dialogues are often neither strategic nor dialogues.
parliament is keen to ensure it can do its job and steer policies spending and apply the necessary and required parliamentary scrutiny.
we do as europe faces unprecedented challenges at the moment bloodshed continues in yemen and syria and presidents erdoan and el sisi have further consolidated their authoritarian grip on power in turkey and egypt.
you heard it right the goal is to pool all the money together and as we understand commissioner hahn is trying to ensure the funding intended for candidate member states and the european neighbourhood remain separate.
let us not get bogged down in long lists of our favourite instruments to save from the reforms.
in practice the values based goals and objectives of eu foreign policy have too often become subordinate to short term and national interests such as migration management or countering terrorism.
we cannot make opaque trust funds the new model for foreign policy spending and certainly not with the main goal of managing migration and that is exactly what risks happening.
the deal concluded with president erdoan to stop syrian refugees from reaching us in europe is a case in point.
but we should not forget about the future of the eu's foreign policy spending with almost eur one hundred million budgeted for external relations already a lot is at stake and we must use this upcoming budget as an opportunity to reflect and reform in order to make the eu a stronger global player.
at the same time governments in russia china and iran are at odds with the values and interests we hold dear in europe.
the european external action service is rumoured to seek the creation of one single instrument for eu external action with a strong focus on migration'.
the future of the eu's foreign policy budget can benefit from reforms but cannot only be designed to deal with today's crises. who knows what could be at the top of the agenda in?
so how can we in the european parliament be asked to agree with the new vehicle if we do not know how it is going to be steered?
meps also want to build in more flexibility to ensure adequate responses to new crises as well as the preservation of european values.
i therefore encourage colleagues in this house to focus on the principles of parliamentary scrutiny oversight policy steered spending evaluations and accountability.
information sharing with us here in parliament has been anything but forthcoming and similarly legal barriers have prevented the eu from swiftly responding to new and emerging challenges.
but certainly the instrumentalising of all foreign policy funds and managing migration as the key goal is not the right direction.
until today we have not heard beyond the rather empty argument of simplification of any good reason why all these important thematic tools of the union should disappear and be merged.
we acknowledge that the new structure should be more rational and more flexible.
we know and we have just heard once again that ms mogherini and the commission are working on a major overhaul of this architecture merging the existing financing instruments including the development cooperation instrument the human rights and democracy instrument and the instrument contributing to stability and peace into a unified single instrument.
we even acknowledge that there is room for merging some external action and some development cooperation instruments but we stress the importance of maintaining separate instruments for enlargement neighbourhood policy development human rights and democracy civilian conflict prevention and civilian crisis response.
we are looking forward to an intensive exchange and negotiations with parliament thereafter. this would be a true opportunity to fully justify the background to the commission's proposals as well as to address and clarify some of the concerns flagged in the report and in the debates today.
let me conclude by reiterating that simplification is not an end in itself.
and to support candidate member countries to meet the standards of the acquis and join the eu whether their populations want to or not.
how is the eu going to be able to fund if one of its most important contributors the uk is leaving?
i would hate to think that this money will be used in the future to interfere and destabilise an independent britain by subsidising disruptive remainer groups. we do not want the domestic and economic potentially booming uk economy undermined by our own money
madam president it seems strange to me that the european union should have these so called financial instruments' which are designed to support foreign and domestic policy objectives in the neighbourhood north africa the middle east eastern europe the caucasus etc.
madam president let's just go back to some basics please which is that essentially the eu external financing programme is designed to buy friends and buy influence.
the report is concerned that the eu and its instruments face significant challenges including political trade offs between the promotion of values and rights and short term security interests numerous violent global conflicts and a decline in transatlantic consensus. hardly a glowing report.
it is actually a classic display of what is called soft power'.
if the report recognises and cites this sort of shortcomings what level of confidence can meps have in its continuation?
many organisations and individual human rights defenders will simply not be able to access funds without it.
it is the largest human rights and democracy fund in the world and was established by us the european parliament in. one thousand nine hundred and ninety four it is the only current programme that provides independent and impartial funding to civil society and human rights defenders including protection and support for human rights defenders at risk.
madam president i want to speak about the proposed merger of the european instrument for democracy and human rights with other financial instruments because this continues to be of great concern to those of us who care about human rights.
the maintenance of a dedicated separate instrument would also allow for better parliamentary scrutiny of funding with greater accountability and transparency.
it is unique among eu external action instruments.
on the other hand we get a proposal to radically change the instruments.
i think the commission and the external action service really urgently need to explain how and not only to us we are budget and foreign policy geeks not a big group of people although we would have been interested in an actual outline and we have asked for it before but what about our citizens and what about our partner countries?
this cannot wait until the last minute if you really want this to be a success.
i think generally the notion of better communication has been raised by meps throughout many discussions we have had.
so i unfortunately have to conclude that there is still no clarity on governance.
it is a broad ask and frankly i think it is a missed opportunity that this debate was not used to outline how the reform of the instruments will be governed.
on a number of focus areas that you outlined in your introduction such as public diplomacy the western balkans and a digital valuesbased approach i think we generally have common ground but i am concerned when i hear things like we will work according to what the people want'.
of course this is a highly political discussion and i suspect it will be for the entire multiannual period that we are talking about and i urge the external action service and the commission not to lose sight of long term goals and objectives even though short term solutions can be very tempting they
can also be a populist trap.
i really think that we the eu have a bigger promise than only to look at short term goals.
certainly when everything gets framed in the context of migration management i do not think that that is a long term and a sustainable and values based solution.
i know a lot of colleagues are very unhappy if that is the direction we are going in.
to conclude yes our money should be focused on policy goals and should be spent efficiently with the appropriate oversight and parliamentary scrutiny while respecting our values.
we can only really talk about whether we agree with the new architecture if we know how it is going to be governed.
parliament plays a vital role in the effectiveness of european action.
part of that role is holding the commission to account.
the commissioner's statement said much on needing to be flexible and needing to make the funding more flexible in order to fit evolving priorities on the face of it a very reasonable proposition.
but what was not explained was how or who would set those priorities or the means of delivering them.
presuming a mechanism is put in place to determine that prioritising process then that is when we should discuss in detail the best use of the funding.
the commission must come up with a clear proposal that meets that red line.
it is clear that we need to enhance the effectiveness of our external financing instruments.
in the context of the preparation of the commission's proposal for the next mff the commission and the european external action service are discussing the structure of the external financing instruments to simplify the architecture and enhance flexibility.
a simplified architecture of the instruments achieved through their consolidation would have to be accompanied by a new oversight model of governance and parliamentary scrutiny ensuring full accountability.
in addition a consolidation of instruments would have very political implications even more so in the context of brexit and budget pressure.
it is interesting isn't it that in terms of transparency and scrutiny far too many of the financial expenditure reports this chamber looks at are equally as critical and equally lacking on the detail that would give us as meps confidence to sign off.
clear political guidance direction and strategic vision.
reform of the current instruments is required in order to provide more accountability transparency and oversight.
let me first share a few reflections on the mid term review and the instruments covered by the report. i fully concur with the report's findings that our instruments are generally fit for purpose but have been stretched to their limits in the past years. in particular the european neighbourhood instrument has been a pivotal tool to force reforms in our neighbourhood. at the same time as the report notes
the challenges that we have faced in the neighbourhood have shown the need for greater financial resources and more flexibility. the instrument for pre accession assistance is unique in addressing the objective of preparing candidate countries and potential candidates for eu membership.
the next instrument for pre accession should be clearly positioned in the context of the new western balkan strategy.
the mid term review concluded that our instrument contributing to stability and peace was relevant effective and efficient and had a unique added value and we fully agree.
the european instrument for democracy and human rights promotes some of our core values in a challenging global context.
we have witnessed increased pressure on human rights defenders and closing spaces for civil society in many countries.
we intend to enhance our support to human rights defenders even more in the coming years and continue our work on eu election observations.
finally the partnership instrument is a young instrument that has helped us invest in the european union's soft power where and when we needed it the most.
in the next three years we want to focus it on some priorities such as economic diplomacy climate health peace and security and digital issues including cybersecurity.
to deliver on our ambitions we need adequate financial resources.
second too often we have had to adapt our policies to our instruments.
it is time that we adapt our instruments to our political priorities. this is why we have proposed merging our development and foreign policy instruments into one broad instrument covering neighbourhood as well as development and international cooperation.
third one broad instrument does not mean one single policy.
there will be clear funding dedicated to each policy area in order to reflect our political priorities.
fourth we need more flexibility and more responsiveness. our aim is also to set aside a significant share of unallocated
funds. this will allow us to react to changing circumstances without diverting funds from other policies.
that includes as announced yesterday bringing the european development fund inside the budget as this would significantly enhance parliamentary scrutiny.
finally it should be easier to work for the security of our citizens and partners.
let me conclude by saying that our debates on budgets should finally focus on our citizens' priorities instead of focusing simply on instruments.
we would like our conversation to be driven by the great issues of our times from migration to the situation in syria from security to africa's development.
in consequence an eu negotiated trade agreement is likely to be less beneficial for an individual member state and i have to say the uk in particular than if the member state had been able to negotiate for itself.
madam president most people know but many do not that shortly after a country becomes a member of the eu all its trade agreements are negotiated by the commission and specifically the eu trade commissioner.
meanwhile the comparatively small but dynamic economy of switzerland already has a trade treaty with japan and has had since.
under this arrangement the interests of all twenty seven member states need to be satisfied which of course means in practice that they will not be.
two thousand and nine once again here is further proof that the uk and the other contributing member states would be much better off outside the bureaucratic contraption that is the european union.
now the rationale for all this is that the eu is a large trading bloc and because of this clout the eu is able to negotiate a trade treaty that would not be open to a member state to negotiate on its own.
i think that needs a positive step forward.
when we bear in mind the importance of japan as a trading partner with bilateral trade with the eu standing at eur one hundred and twenty billion a year and with the eu being the number three trading partner for japan and the number two investor in japan i think we recognise that any bilateral agreement runs the risk
many people have commented about the non tariff barriers and the work that has yet to be done by the high level group.
us. so we believe that we need a scoping exercise so that we know what we are talking about.
the japanese claim that they have solutions for all the rest too but we cannot see a solution in the proposals that they have been making to
despite low tariffs i think it is quite clear that bilateral trade volumes between the eu and japan lag behind the bulk of the eu's trade partnerships with its other main trading partners.