kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
mr president these proposals requiring mandatory exchange of tax information undermine tax sovereignty of the nation states individual privacy and attorney client privilege and also the directors' duty to arrange the tax affairs of companies in order to pay as little tax as possible. we in britain believe that the taxpayer has the right to do everything possible within the law
you should not have to pay any more tax than is required not one penny piece.
the european union wants to maximise taxation throughout europe to pay for the fat cat salaries and the gilded pensions of eu bureaucrats under increasing bureaucratic tax bunching.
i support the commission proposal to improve and strengthen administrative cooperation between the member states' tax administrations and i consider it important for the member states to strengthen the financial and human resources of the tax administration.
so we welcome this revision to the directive on administrative cooperation whose aim is to ensure that aggressive tax planning schemes are reported to tax authorities so that they can investigate where necessary.
it creates an obligation for intermediaries to disclose potentially aggressive tax planning arrangements and this information will then automatically be exchanged with other member states.
parliament has strengthened the commission's proposal by requiring an obligation for auditors to report suspect schemes when statutory audits of their clients' businesses are being carried out and by proposing that the commission itself should have access to the data exchanged.
so we are glad to support this proposal as part of our ongoing work to counter the tax avoidance industry.
as set out in the strategy for equality between women and men the commission is committed to supporting member states in tackling this problem and parliament's added value assessment brings new momentum to the debate.
in response to parliament's resolution of may two thousand and twelve the report will focus in particular on assessing the application of the provisions in practice addressing different elements of the equal pay principle.
however proper enforcement also depends on the willingness of individuals to take matters to court and so far we have seen that in most member states the number of cases of pay discrimination referred to national courts remains low.
the commission will also continue its awareness raising activities.
gap. the commission will also seek to clarify legal issues in a summary of the jurisprudence on equal pay and give an overview of the court of justice interpretation of the principle and its separate elements including the concept of work of equal value'
gap. our common aim should be to increase transparency and make it easier for employees to claim their rights.
law. some member states by the way have started to work on transparency requirements with the social partners and i think we should look at the best practices in this respect.
basic root causes of the gender pay gap childcare and tax benefit systems being some of the most important
in thirty four european countries to help them understand and detect pay inequalities.
the commission's gender equality website provides information on this topic as well as examples at national level of how to tackle the pay gap. since two thousand and twelve within the framework of the equality pays off project the commission has provided training and tools to companies
we want to provide practical guidance for instance on job classification systems based on national best practices in order to assist member states and relevant stakeholders in bridging the gender pay gap and especially the indirect gender pay
therefore one of the commission's priorities will be to monitor the correct application and enforcement of the directive at national level and to support member states and other stakeholders with the proper enforcement and application of the existing rules.
utilised this argument in the country specific recommendations so this work has been done.
as well as the actual structure of pay and job evaluation and job classification systems.
it is interesting to see for instance that in countries where female employment is very low the gender pay gap is much lower than average.
because there is only a small proportion of low skilled or unskilled women in the workforce.
i will put all this on the table and then we should decide how to proceed because i absolutely agree with some of the speakers who have been very clear here that law alone does not solve the problem.
a specific measure in favour of women is the promotion of gender equality the emff can support networking and exchanges of experience and best practice among stakeholders including among organisations promoting equal opportunities between men and women. this support can also be granted to spouses of self employed fishermen.
last december the telecoms council broadly endorsed seven transformative actions launched by the commission completing the digital single market for content and services;
the growth of the telecoms sector also helps increase productivity competitiveness and employment opportunities in other sectors.
the council would expect any review to be comprehensive and to ensure proper balance between the supply and demand sides of the digital market.
for this investment in broadband networks is needed and sufficient radio spectrum has to be made available particularly with a view to accelerating the transition to fourth generation mobile communications.
there is no doubt that these proposals will make a significant contribution to the expansion of broadband networks and ensure that electronic transactions can be carried out securely.
next month's european council will consider the commission's report on progress in completing the digital single market.
at the june telecoms council ministers expressed broad support for the aim of achieving a single telecoms market where operators could deliver services throughout the eu and where users could access such added value digital services whenever and wherever they wished.
establishing high speed broadband connections;
our aim is to ensure that the digital economy gets the broadband networks it needs whether fixed or mobile.
the honourable member also asks for the council's views on the proposal which is expected to be adopted by the commission tomorrow on the completion of the european single market for electronic communications.
i appreciate however that underlying the question is a concern that despite major efforts and the adoption of important pieces of legislation we may not be on track to achieve the single telecoms market.
and the industrial agenda for key enabling technologies.
the honourable member questions whether the eu's fixed and mobile communications broadband networks have sufficient capacity to deal with the expected growth in global data traffic and whether the level of investment in these networks is sufficient.
digital technologies have the potential to provide europeans with a better quality of life through for example better healthcare safer transport efficient energy distribution consumption new media opportunities and easier cross border access to goods and services.
for the first time we made a resolution that went through the committee on industry research and energy with a single vote and all parties are on board. that means that you have the best support you can ever get for your telecom package being presented tomorrow. we expect you to use this support at
it is a crucial moment for europe because we need a european internal market and we need it urgently. it is impossible to explain to european citizens that we have an internal market in which the noise from lawnmowers is regulated
i also want to thank the commissioner for her cooperation both in the run up to the voting on tomorrow's resolution and the presentation of the telecom package tomorrow.
i am happy to tell you that in the resolution being voted tomorrow the european parliament declares that this situation has to stop.
her proposals will get rid of red tape make it easier to invest in networks foster competition by breaking up the twenty eight telecom markets and will allow telecom operators to offer their services in the whole european union.
over the last two decades we have lost ground.
it will help us build a connected competitive continent with sustainable digital jobs and industries.
it will make life better by enabling consumers to enjoy the digital devices and services that they love. last but not least it will make it easier for businesses and entrepreneurs to create jobs for the future. i call on the council the commission and of course my colleagues here in the european parliament
so we urge the council to be more ambitious and to step over its own shadow and help the commission and in particular commissioner neelie kroes.
we have five hundred million consumers in europe of whom more and more own a smartphone or a tablet which they often have to switch off when they travel abroad to avoid high roaming fees.
we want to put an end to this fragmented market which is not fit for global competition.
the world envied europe as we pioneered the global mobile industry in the early one thousand nine hundred and ninety s but today our industry can barely sell to a continent lacking in four g and consumers miss out on the latest technological and device improvements.
i am glad that we share the same goals and values and that commissioner kroes dares to be ambitious.
that we have rules on what a banana should look like and that we are all so happy to have an internal market on almost everything but that at the same time we are not able to find a solution for creating a genuine european internal market for telecommunications.
it means helping our citizens and getting rid of all those unfair irritants.
i know there are those who dream of a perfect single telecoms market and i understand that.
let us deliver growth for our economy. it means fairness for our citizens and leadership for europe in a key sector in telecoms ict and every sector that depends on them.
and i am conscious that time is not on our side in terms of parliamentary time in terms of the rate of technological change in terms of the urgent need to restore competitiveness and create some jobs.
and helping them to plan the cross european digital networks that underpin cross european services.
but it also means helping operators helping them to smash barriers and think big with a framework applied consistently from dublin to dubrovnik;
but please remember roaming is a particularly irritating single market barrier but it is just one barrier.
and we will do that it will be a big part of our proposals.
it is about every business it is about every business of every size in every sector.
the debate has shown me again just how important the online world is not only to the commission but to all of us and how many facets of our lives it touches and how many approaches there are to it.
it is about the operators who run digital networks.
it is about device and equipment makers.
businesses that need to communicate to stay competitive whether it is mobiles for their staff or the cloud for their data to communicate securely and effectively.
more predictable and consistent access to spectrum able to build a new large scale services based on end to end quality.
and more and more products and services are going online from cars to healthcare.
let us bring down roaming and other barriers besides.
that is why for the time being i am putting forward not the perfect first principles solution but a series of targeted measures identifying the most important barriers to our single market and knocking them down.
that is why it is not just about one sector it is about our whole economic future.
so let us deliver that connected continent.
no more shocking bill rip offs no more switching off your phone for your whole time on holiday no more struggling to find a mobile signal and no more finding out your network is blocking skype. no more slow connections when you were promised a fast one.
give us a better chance of stimulating quality jobs in a digital economy.
are we giving them the ingredients for global success?
i. gathered together some of europe's top entrepreneurs some of the guys and girls who have made it so to speak and i asked them to give me their suggestions on how to make europe a better place for innovators.
there are many reasons why a particular company can prosper or stumble but the fact remains that ict is a key sector increasingly underpinning many others and increasingly indispensable to our citizens.
today i want to set out how we are building a digital europe with networks that are fast reliable and resilient and digital businesses that can grow and prosper in the global marketplace.
are we giving ourselves the tools to compete in a digital era?
and a digital connecting europe facility which could provide the building blocks for further quality online european services.
it is time we brought that boost to this most fundamental part of our economy the digital networks on which our daily lives depend so deeply.
our proposed legislation would put these in place together with risk management and flexible information flows. we rely increasingly on this infrastructure for everything and protecting it should be every politician's top priority.
i agree with you that we should integrate cyber issues into our external action and i also agree that europe needs minimum cybersecurity requirements.
there are proposals on e identification to build trust and stimulate the online marketplace;
we must address the challenge of building a connected continent and we are doing so.
we need to do more to support digital businesses.
i do not propose to change our focus or our goals but i want to use the tools readily to hand and to support every part of the ecosystem.
so look at the big picture and ask yourself this how much space are we giving companies to expand and grow?
but the difficult thing is that we now need to do the reforms that are needed for that.
we need to allocate the frequencies needed to have the mobile data traffic that a leading global economy needs to have.
if we want to regain our leadership we need to secure that the nokias can buy the microsofts and that the new googles the new yahoos and the new apples emerge in europe.
part of the global economy regarding investment.
that means the seven hundred megahertz band which this parliament has already supported but that also means to secure that we in this part of the world can have all the new leading services.
we need to secure that we have the highest and the best capacities for broadband and internet because is the pre condition in order to secure that european citizens can have the best opportunities and we can develop the best services here.
mr president i would like to congratulate the commission and in particular vice president kroes for having the vision and the courage to address this important issue of cybersecurity.
but the strategy will change the mindset create a sensitivity and public knowledge and create an appropriate context for the legislation and the measures to stimulate further it development.
we should be clear that the mere strategy will not guarantee the safety of the internet by itself.
the digital single market needs to be founded on respect for fundamental rights legal certainty trust privacy and resilience.
young people in europe do not trust in the european union and they do not vote in the elections.
i would be very happy to work with the commission to achieve these goals and to hear the commission's comments on how to ensure they are achieved.
parliament should clarify a clearly dangerous legal uncertainty which the commission has itself established.
at the same time one wonders whether overhauling all of the existing telecommunications legislation without proper evaluation would be the right way forward.
one of them is notice and action' how to ensure a due process for protecting freedom of speech online.
in the whole of their interactions with the internet. a number of people made those points today not just in the context of network security which is crucial not just for citizens in terms of developing the market but in delivery of those crucial infrastructure services as well and we had to get all member states to raise their game as my colleague tunne kelam who was a joint signatory
to this resolution with me pointed out so eloquently.
but we need to address the question of trust and confidence in buying those digital services and the issues of net neutrality that so many of you mentioned.
we know commissioner that you are working on that and so the point i would make from my committee is that we will do our very best to reinforce our previous work on users' rights in this area. if i may say it is really good to have the lithuanian presidency here because we need it to move this forward in council as soon as possible.
i think it is a breach of protocol in this house that my committee has been denied this opportunity and i hope that you will take this up with the presidency.
the nsa and internet companies' practice of deliberately degrading encryption is a case in point and we know technologies cannot be contained in a globally connected world.
syria and the united states do not have much in common these days except for their use of surveillance hacking tracking tracing and monitoring technologies.
and far too many of those systems are made in europe.
we cannot talk about cybersecurity in europe while being digital arms traders.
we must end the export and proliferation of digital arms now.
we have to close the regulatory vacuum and that includes curbing the trade in zero day exploits.
we must do so to advance human rights and our own security at home and in the rest of the world.
cybersecurity needs to become an integral part of crisis and risk management at all levels.
dear commissioner i missed a bit the perspective of citizens' and consumers' rights in your words and i would like to ask you to keep that in mind also that it is their view which counts when it is about trust in this market about really building the capacities for making a difference.
we do not need to have a european facebook which is infringing data protection rules like facebook did.
we need our standards on the european market thereby building a competitive advantage especially for example when it comes to net neutrality.
there i really have to say please take into account that it is not only about investors and entrepreneurs but it is about the citizens and consumers out there.
but i am afraid for them je suis charlie' is simply not enough because we need now to have an honest admission that actually our political decisions have led to much of what has happened.
perhaps worst of all we have been guilty of weakness of lack of courage and of a lack of assertion in who we are as people and we have turned a blind eye within many of our minority communities to practices that would not be tolerated in the rest of the population.
it was quite something to see millions of people on the streets of paris and elsewhere sincere worried and in some cases very frightened people.
we have pursued policies of mass immigration at a rate that has made it frankly impossible for many new communities to integrate.
how we deal with that problem is vital for the future. we must embrace the vast majority of muslims who themselves are horrified at the civil war that is going on within islam.
but unless we are prepared to admit our own culpability in much of what has happened we are not going to be able to find solutions.
for that i think we have to hold our hands up.
just think about foreign policy from afghanistan through iraq to libya and even the attempt to seek to arm the rebels in syria.
we were ready when they were ready.
we have pursued a consistent realistic and credible line all the way through supporting the authorities and taking the responsibility for the reform process while respecting the legitimate security concerns of european citizens.
the plea of the people who felt locked in and left behind is really close to my heart and has been at the basis of my commitment since i entered this house in the summer of.
i sincerely regret that false expectations were raised with unrealistic timetables and i am pleased that the other part of this house has finally joined our realistic path accepting that unfortunately there were no possible shortcuts.
the result oriented visa liberalisation dialogues between the two countries and the european commission acted as a very strong initiative and incentive accelerating reforms towards reaching eu standards in the core areas of justice liberty and security.
on the basis of detailed information provided by the two countries expert missions with valuable participation of member states' experts during this summer and later with other information available the commission was able to present on fourteen september our assessment of the fulfilment of the remaining open benchmarks.
it has been a great pleasure working with you and the shadow rapporteurs as well in our joint efforts to grant a visa free regime to the citizens of albania and bosnia and herzegovina. the proposal we discussed today confirms the european union's political will and our commitment on the liberalisation of short term visa requirements for the citizens of all western balkan countries.
consequently the commission considers that all the preconditions listed in the road map are met and on this basis we propose to grant the visa free regime.
the commission has thoroughly monitored the steps taken. in our proposal of may this year the commission identified a limited number of remaining open benchmarks for both albania and bosnia and herzegovina which required further monitoring.
we stand here today as a result of the hard work of the authorities and the people of these two countries and i would like to pay tribute to that work.
in the case of albania the open benchmark related to the development of a policy to support the reintegration of albanian returnees the strengthening of capacities in the fight against organised crime and corruption and finally effective implementation of the confiscation of organised crime assets.
in order to prevent abuse it is essential that albania and bosnia and herzegovina take all necessary measures to limit influxes of persons making unfounded asylum applications. this aspect has been very strongly highlighted through the contacts between the commission and the two countries and i know that efforts have already been made by the two countries in this respect.
this is part of the thessaloniki agenda and a cornerstone of our integration policy for the western balkans.
it is important that you continue the information campaigns with the aim of properly informing and explaining to your citizens the meaning of short term visa travel and what it entails in particular warning against misuse for purposes incompatible with visa travel.
the two countries have made important progress in improving passport security strengthening border control reinforcing the institutional framework to fight organised crime and corruption as well as in external relations and fundamental rights.
i congratulate them for the efforts made and the important results achieved.
regarding bosnia and herzegovina the open requirements were the strengthening of the capacities of the fight against organised crime and corruption steps towards improved electronic police data exchange and harmonisation of the criminal code between state and entity levels.
it showed that both countries had undertaken all necessary measures to fulfil all open benchmarks listed in the proposal of may this year.
hopefully they will tell their new leaders that eu integration should be high on the agenda.
the experience of visa liberalisation showed that leaders in bosnia and herzegovina were willing and able to agree to process the required reforms quickly. the cooperation and effectiveness of these reforms will hopefully serve as an example for further reforms needed for eu integration but it is also of huge importance for people who will finally be able to visit their families