kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
secondly the overall tone of this report seems to be pushing in a direction of more and more harmonisation.
if this prize is to mean anything you need to stand up against these human rights abuses.
this chamber is in plain violation of its own regulations.
it has been reinterpreted to mean an economy that has run out of money.
you cannot carry on forever getting deeper and deeper in debt.
in bailing out these countries we are hurting them because you do not help an indebted friend by pressing more loans on them and of course we are hurting our own taxpayers as well as violating the law.
i hope that the eu is now working on a more long term plan for helping the people of belarus reform their own country and over time enabling them to rejoin the rest of europe in a world of democracy and freedom.
over the past fifteen years we have watched from the eu as the situation for people's personal rights as well as their living standards has gradually deteriorated in that country.
nevertheless i would still maintain that there should be no increase in the budget particularly due to the increased pressure and stress that national budgets are currently facing.
this would make substantial savings as illustrated in a number of publically available reports and would further help to avoid the wasteful duplication of office space and the unnecessary journey to strasbourg every month. it is high time that we demonstrate that we truly understand the necessity of making cost savings especially when member states themselves are having to significantly tighten their belts.
within the report there are however many positive examples of how parliament can reduce its expenditure for next year. in particular i supported the proposal that the european parliament should have a single seat.
i do not support the idea of allowing extra funding for the publicising of the european year of citizens nor do i want to see more money given to euronews from the eu taxpayers' pockets.
whilst of course the fundamental freedom of movement for eu citizens across the whole of the eu is something i support entirely along with the three other fundamental freedoms this report is far too prescriptive on the member states including ridiculous ideas like harmonising tax rules and these are in my view completely unjustified.
euronews is a great news channel i watch it myself but it should be self funding on a commercial basis.
madam president i voted against this report because it shows all so clearly that the british people were lied to about the true intention of the european union project.
what is this to do with the common market?
it is about harmonising arrangements to create a single european state.
i am a loyal subject of her majesty the queen in her sixtieth year of rule and this vlean report is an insult to that loyalty.
the general public are rightly outraged at the staggering figure of over eur four hundred and fifty million per year it takes to maintain the strasbourg seat.
i look forward to upcoming reports detailing avenues for savings in parliament's budget for two thousand and thirteen and i hope that they will find further possibilities for efficiency.
madam president the report on estimates of revenue and expenditure for two thousand and thirteen contains a number of cost saving measures which i am happy to support in order to reflect the struggle of our own member states which they continue to face and have done on a year to year basis in their own budgets since the financial crisis in.
two thousand and eight i welcome efforts to change working methods in parliament which i feel can be done in very many ways. perhaps the most important measure however is that a single seat for the european parliament could lead to very substantial savings.
in recognising the calls for savings and the importance of the paragraph on the strasbourg seat i have decided to vote in favour of this report.
madam president turkey is a modern secular state with a rapidly expanding economy. however as the progress report shows turkey still has a long way to go before it meets the criteria to become an eu member.
turkey needs to show statesmanship if it wishes to join the eu.
firstly turkey is still lagging behind when it comes to equality between men and women.
secondly turkey must do more to protect the rights of minority communities especially the kurds. kurds must be allowed to be educated in their own language.
any country that does not recognise one of the twenty seven eu member states is a questionable candidate.
there are three main areas where i feel turkey needs to make considerable improvements.
i do not agree with everything that is in it but certainly as a member of the committee on petitions and indeed in my own general work as an mep i am very conscious of the problems and obstacles that are faced by citizens when they are trying to exercise their right to free movement and indeed that of their families as well. now in this context i voted for the first part of amendment one on freedom of movement for citizens but the second part of amendment one gave me some problems because i had some concerns about its wording when it asked that we recognise freedom of movement for all eu citizens etc.
i am very happy to support directive two thousand and four thirty eight ec where freedom of movement for family members is guaranteed on the basis of legislation of the host member state but not on any other basis.
i also support that this directive should be strictly applied as that will eliminate some of the obstacles i spoke of when people are trying to exercise their rights to free movement but i am not prepared to go beyond that.
on the basis of mutual recognition.
we have to be fair in how we apply the rules to all of the applicant states.
if you stop and think about it the opposite really should be true a country would have proved its democratic and liberal fitness when such a man could get justice in belgrade or could be fairly extradited to bosnia.
if serbs vote in favour of joining i will of course support them but they should be in no doubt as to what the implications for their democracy are.
when ratko mladi was arrested and handed over president sarkozy made a statement on behalf of the european union saying that serbia had thereby proved its fitness to join.
and where is that money going?
it cannot be morally right and it is surely economically indefensible at a time when all twenty seven member states are struggling to make administrative savings that every euro they spend is sent here to be squandered by the brussels authorities.
or maybe some of the money is going to the house of european history at the cost of gbp one hundred and thirty one million.
if anyone is watching me on europarltv at the moment they may be the single most subsidised square yard in discovered space.
in other words all of our austerity measures have saved only a third of our contributions to the eu budget.
turkey is considered to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world. given that its economy has tripled in size over the past decade with eighty of foreign direct investment in turkey coming from the eu and it being one of the largest trading partners for us we should not underestimate its economic importance and value going forwards.
turkey is likely to be a vital ally to the eu in terms of security and ensuring prosperity in the longer term.
madam president although i welcome the moderate progress that has been made by turkey since accession negotiations opened in two thousand and five further work on reform does still need to be carried out as highlighted by this resolution.
this is particularly pertinent in the reformation of its judiciary ensuring there is a free press freedom of expression for its citizens and importantly the protection of minorities.
since parliament adopted its report last year serbia has made good progress in the reform process and the present report calls on the council to grant candidate status this month which i back and so does my group.
i am still concerned with the tensions that remain in north kosovo particularly following developments last year and i believe it is important that the serbian government looks for ways of alleviating and ultimately solving the problems in that region.
there are also other serious outstanding issues particularly where there will be requirements for further measures to be taken in ensuring the independence of the serbian judiciary and the fight against corruption and organised crime.
the increasingly repressive regime which is basically a dictatorship is really a deplorable one so i welcome the extension of the eu targeted travel sanctions against representatives of the regime who are responsible for the violent repression of its citizens.
repression has also been intensified recently against civil society activists democratic opposition and the freedom of the media.
of course we must all give out a strong signal that such repression today is not going to be tolerated in europe by the european union.
it is time more governments published not only what they take in but also what they pay out so that citizens in the respective countries can hold those governments and politicians to account.
i was very pleased to see such a large majority in this house vote in favour of one seat but we in parliament have already taken some concrete steps in that direction by combining the august and september plenary sittings in strasbourg into one instead of two trips in september.
madam president i voted against the report on the european refugee fund as i strongly believe that both asylum and immigration should be individual member state national responsibilities.
i would therefore oppose any move towards creating a common european asylum system.
madam president kosovo still has many internal issues to face before it can really be seen as on the path to joining the eu.
its troubled history means it has a long way to go in order to meet the many criteria of eu accession.
the continued problems over the return of internally displaced people as well as the treatment of roma and minority groups more generally should be addressed as a matter of priority.
basic freedoms are still not the norm in kosovo and the international community still has a large part to play in helping it establish the basic principles of independent statehood.
it has to be a very tough stance including the introduction of sanctions and the publication of lists of people involved in the belarusian regime who are responsible for human rights violations;
people say one thing when they are speaking on the record and they say a very different thing when chatting in the corridors.
the last thing that committed euro federalists want is the admission of a populous proud and patriotic muslim country but rather than saying that we have played this game where we have enticed turkey with a promise that we have no intention of fulfilling.
in treating them in this way we risk creating the very thing which we purport to fear namely an alienated and anti western state on our doorstep. turks are as entitled to their dignity as any other people.
i think that they deserve better than the way they have been treated.
madam president over the past few years the role of the eib has extended beyond simply providing loans and assistance to countries' businesses and projects within the eu.
as the eib begins to use more risk based instruments and more complex types of leverage we need to be very careful that the scrutiny of the eib keeps pace with this change.
while projects like jeremie in my own constituency in wales have been very effective in adding value to the initial capital provided by the eib thereby making money seem to go further we must remember that more complex financial instruments can bring with them new risks.
as the financial crisis has shown us transparency is crucial to understanding the systemic importance and interconnectedness of financial products and institutions yet i am concerned that there may not be sufficient financial supervision taking place over the operations and the balance sheet of the eib itself.
madam president serbia has made significant progress over the past year. there are a lot of positive items in this report and i am therefore happy to support the continued progress that the country is making and hope that the government of serbia will continue to do the hard work of reforming the judicial system and civil administration as well as ensuring the continued fight against corruption and organised crime.
it is attention to these fundamental issues that will really benefit the lives of serbian citizens whether or not they ultimately decide to join us here in the eu.
madam president an obvious point about immigration is that people do not lightly uproot themselves and cross the world in order to settle in another country without having chosen that country with some care.
the experience of countries which have run proper immigration policies is that new settlers are grateful and patriotic and happy to be there which is why they came in the first place.
the difficulty of a system which forces economic migrants into the category of claiming refugee status bogusly is that they begin the relationship with a new state on the basis of a lie.
the experience of getting in under false pretences is bound to teach them to despise the authorities of the country in which they have arrived.
it seems to me crazy at a time when we are admitting a certain amount of labour that we are doing so through a route which is based on falsehood on both sides rather than having as canada australia and a number of other countries do a points based system where people are chosen on the basis of their skills.
nevertheless i abstained on the vote because while the report calls for more funding for smes this funding comes with too many strings attached.
smes are the life blood of the european economy.
if they are left to flourish they can promote economic growth and create jobs.
however this report places too much emphasis on the greening of the economy.
by deprioritising projects which fail to meet these exact criteria the eib is placing an unnecessary burden on small businesses. loans should be made to companies which are most likely to boost the european economy not just firms that meet idealistic environmental standards.
madam president montenegro has made significant progress in making a number of reforms in particular to its national parliament improving its electoral framework and working towards an independent judiciary which is why i welcome the council decision to begin accession negotiations.
moreover i welcome the adoption of the anti corruption legislation by the country and sincerely hope that these moves will encourage other accession countries to follow its example.
however we are confident that these demands will be met and in light of this we would welcome montenegro's accession to the eu as a positive development to the country should they choose to do so.
madam president this is one small step towards the creation of a pan european policy on financial services.
the direction however is clear when you put them all together.
we are moving invigilatory power from national authorities to the new regulatory institutions which we have set up in brussels and the result of that shift is a move away from the successful model that we have seen which has made london the most successful financial centre in the world to something far more government run and restricted.
i was talking to an italian friend in the epp just before the vote and he said what are you complaining about you british?
you will still have the most free market system in europe ' and i said yes well that is rather like saying that we will have the best cricket team in europe.
' the competition is on other continents and it is a competition that we are losing.
it reads like a hastily compiled shopping list scribbled down on the back of an envelope.
i am pleased that the report deals with the unacceptable spanish coastal law.
i hear regularly from my constituents who have been left homeless and penniless with no compensation.
the uk was not afforded the same courtesy when the report criticised our social security system another area which clearly lies outside eu competence.
i cannot support a report which wants the uk to ban the right to reside test on eu nationals before they take advantage of the generous british welfare system.
we have a right to protect our taxpayers from the burden of benefit tourism.
madam president whilst i fully agree with the eu's principle of free movement of eu citizens across the eu i have voted against this report as it proposes a number of measures to which i am opposed including the harmonisation of national security schemes and the convergence of tax rules.
although i could support some of the other proposals put forward i reject many others.
in particular the report criticises the citizenship test which is currently used in the uk to grant citizenship.
i reject that criticism and would argue that the test utilised is proportionate and fair especially given the subsequent social benefits that are enjoyed by all uk citizens.
however given the very large inward mobility of eu citizens to the uk particularly amongst younger eu citizens this would seem to suggest that existing processes are not a barrier to the free movement of individuals into my country.
a lot of this report today focused on the application of the death penalty.
i am more concerned by the naked autocracy of a system where to give one example at the last presidential election there were nine candidates one of whom was elected one of whom was left alone and the other seven of whom were imprisoned.
it is extraordinary that we have a situation where people are habitually incarcerated for saying inconvenient things.
i am a souverainiste i believe in the national independence of countries but we also are sovereign countries and we have our own right to take a position on the democratisation of neighbouring countries.
belarus is also in our near abroad'. i think we should be proud of the fact that in this parliament and particularly in our group colleagues from the pis in poland colleagues like mr migalski and british conservatives have been in the front line pushing for the democratisation and freedom of that country.
those who believe in a pluralist multi party system there should know that they have friends.
a one size fits all measure as suggested in the report on the european refugee fund is not the answer as it cannot possibly take into account the specificity which each member state faces with asylum and immigration.
the anglo saxon comply or explain' model has been recognised in the report as an important tool and i fully agree that deviation away from the code of conduct within the member states should be explained by the company in question.
better functioning of existing governance rules and recommendations is preferred to a new european strict rules based system and i applaud the efforts of this report to maintain member state jurisdiction in this area while having belief in the sharing of best practice.
the gender imbalance is without doubt a major problem but we should allow member states and companies to address this issue without imposition of quotas from a european level. i voted in favour of this report and congratulate the rapporteur for his efforts but i voted against measures on quotas from a european level.
madam president if we want a picture of the culmination of the post national dream which actuates so many people in this house look at the provinces that the eu runs as colonies bosnia and above all kosovo.
even in its trappings and its symbolism you see the post national nature of the state.
its flag is a version of the eu flag with stars on a blue background;
the whole thing has been put together in order to prevent the national principle.
i favoured the right of the albanians of kosovo to determine their own future however they wanted if they wanted independence good luck to them.
of course the flipside of that is that the serbs in kosovo have their own right of self determination.
in fact we have a de facto border now. but accepting the validity de jure of that border would call into question the intellectual foundation of the european project built as it is on the presumption that national loyalties are transient arbitrary and discreditable.
god help us when like so many past empires the eu applies the lessons learnt in its colonies to its metropolitan core.
i hope that we will manage to achieve a large majority in today's vote in plenary as well in order to ensure fair representation of our citizens.
observance of this principle in combination with the distribution of some of the uk's vacated seats allows us to address the under representation of some member states in the house.
one of the most populous member states is leaving the union and we believe that this should be reflected in the future distribution of seats.
well if we did not have the support in ireland from colleagues across this house on the northern ireland hard border issue we would be in a difficult place.
i want to say on the record that i for one will miss the constructive engagement with many colleagues from the united kingdom who are in the ecr group the sd group the alde group and the greens.
we needed the support of members of this house from all member states not ukip.
but let me say something much more directly to you as you have stayed in the chamber.
you are creating problems for my country.
i welcome that we will get two extra seats for ireland in the redistribution of seats.
on transnational lists i have listened to this debate and my god it is passionate on either side.
we will miss their efforts to do good by the european union and we should acknowledge that today.
mr president i think we should actually acknowledge that today is a sad day for the european parliament.
it is a fatal assumption that the tnl will generate a supranational european consciousness.
it's magical thinking that the transnational list will somehow produce the european demos.
here are my reasons.
first the transnational list is based on an idea that out there somewhere there is a european demos just waiting to be represented and that the tnl will do just this. this is an error.
i shouldn't have to say that power without responsibility is the high road to arbitrariness.
so in real terms what we are looking at is a topdown elitedriven project presumably starting from the belief that if the transnational list comes into being so will the european demos.
have european citizens ever been asked if they want to be represented by a transnational list?
they will have power without an electorate they will have power without accountability and power without responsibility.
why on earth should it?
so where are the checks and balances?
there is no european demos and to claim the contrary is an illusion.
that if you ask me is about as undemocratic as it gets.
if anything those putatively elected on the tnl will be remote from the electorate and that will not do the reputation of this parliament any good.
however if as some believe brexit was driven by a democratic deficit then the inclusion of transnational lists in this report will only entrench that position further.
that people living in northern ireland have a right to irish citizenship and therefore eu citizenship is effectively a statement of fact but to infer that this confers voting rights is a political stunt with no basis in law or reality.
this approach will have the opposite effect.
being asked to vote for people they do not know or care about on party lists that cross country borders will sound like a gimmick.
this distance can probably only be eliminated if members of this house are directly elected and not through their position on party lists whether national or least of all transnational.
forty three given brexit and the openings for eu enlargement the proposal to maintain national entitlements for seats is the right thing but then the proposal also is to create new transnational constituencies in order to bring parliament closer to the voters.