kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
i also want to highlight the role of informal learning including lifelong learning sport volunteering culture and the arts which by providing spaces for intercultural dialogue and exchange not only facilitate the social inclusion of refugees into their new communities but also address stereotypes prejudices and discrimination by the majority.
too often the dominant narrative says that somebody else is always to blame for the world's problems.
this results in a culture of fear.
but when people come together and talk honestly and share in each other's culture they learn that we are all human beings with common aspirations and concerns.
do you realise that some of these others' that you refer to actually include members of this house?
a fellow mep of mine from the northwest of england who has had an esteemed position as the lord mayor of manchester a policeman is a muslim and sits in this house.
there is no place for petty political arrangements or a populist agenda when it comes to refugees and their integration into our society.
not prioritising today would meet not only indifference but also irresponsibility for our society in the future.
we should not spare any efforts to ensure a proper social cultural linguistic and economic integration of refugees and we have many reasons to do so.
the first should be an understanding of the phenomenon keeping in mind that we europeans are what we are today as a result of different waves of mass migration.
no one under any circumstances wants to live in war.
no one wants to leave their homes families and countries and undertake an exhausting and dangerous journey if they can choose otherwise.
it is an act of pure despair and we europeans should stand by our values of humanity and tolerance.
the third one is the fact that the integration of refugees is beneficial not only to them but to our society as well.
in the long run we could compensate demographic the challenges facing our continent and through recognition of existing skills language educational and vocational training we would be able to match supply and demand on our labour market. therefore i hope that the report will be voted tomorrow by a large majority of this house thus sending the right message.
the problem is that terrorists move easily across borders and we are trying to prevent these attacks nationally.
while different measures are certainly necessary experts agree that increased cooperation between intelligence services is essential. today the intelligence services largely operate within their own borders but terrorists do not share information and terrorists work across the borders.
the commission is close to coming forward with a very sensible suggestion which is option three of their proposals.
if we cannot get justice for the kashmiris then there will be no regional peace.
it is a time for us to reflect on the many kashmiris who are being killed raped tortured and injured and their fight for selfdetermination over the past seventy years.
the use of pellet guns on children as young as nine is despicable and has been condemned by amnesty international. their use must be banned and the public safety act needs to be reformed so that indian soldiers are accountable for their actions.
their sacrifices must never be forgotten and we need to support the occupied kashmiris to stop their persecution and suffering as well as finally giving them their right to selfdetermination.
markets and trade can never be more important than lives and human rights.
we need change progress and action not just words on this issue.
so theresa may's hard brexit will have a devastating impact on our creative industries.
it returns more than the automotive oil and gas aerospace and life sciences industries combined.
i recently attended the association of british orchestras' conference in wales where the sector made it clear that freedom of movement is vital.
as billy bragg says music can heal the wounds of brexit'.
our membership of the eu has been key to that success with the majority of the sector voting to remain.
for example music tours are programmed years in advance and the uk government's negative position on key policy areas such as membership of the single market and the customs union is very damaging.
the british government must now explain what the specific solutions to address the unique circumstances of the island of ireland' are.
the report also notes the crucial importance of eu policy adequately addressing dynamic transition processes in third countries and acknowledges the requirement for policy flexibility and it also encourages the development of policy tools which could be applied in different scenarios.
in our ever changing world the eu must continue to develop flexible policy responses and to spread the founding values of the european union.
the report reiterates the appreciation of the eu strategic framework and action plan on human rights and democracy as an important milestone in integrating and mainstreaming human rights across the eu's external policies and it underlines the need for a general consensus and enhanced coordination of the eu's human rights policy between eu institutions and the member states.
he is an exceptional fighter for prisoners' rights engaged in fighting corruption and an outspoken opponent of the nazarbayev regime whom i met personally when i was in kazakhstan. he was awarded the prestigious ludovic trarieux prize in.
many of those concerns such as the crackdown on the media arrests of opposition political activists and human rights offenders as well as serious concerns about the right to a fair trial were addressed by a resolution of this parliament in.
that is despite the fact that since the massacre two years ago in zhanaozen there has been a systematic clampdown on basic democratic rights.
and in this report we have the european instrument for democracy and human rights.
the european court of human rights across the water over here wants the uk to give the vote to prisoners and in the eu we have the fundamental charter of human rights under lisbon and the havoc caused in trade deals as a result of it.
madam president all of us here value and support human rights but people are deeply concerned about excessive rights for criminals murderers and terrorists.
at the same time the eu is supporting edward snowden who is a traitor in the us.
it has a budget of over a billion euros and what is it doing?
in a number of eu countries domestic workers are frequently employed in precarious conditions. they are without a contract their wages are paid late they are required to work extra hours without due payment their rights to leave and rest periods and paid public holidays are ignored and their social security contributions are unpaid.
it is therefore often very difficult for domestic workers to obtain information about their rights or to organise themselves in representative associations or unions which can enable them to move securely and to defend their labour and social rights.
i have to say that i had the pleasure as a member of the irish parliament of overseeing as an observer the first free elections in thailand.
that is the reason why i think that we need we need this particular cog.
it is vital that we participate in terms of increasing transparency and confidence in the electoral process and provide an informed assessment as to whether or not the elections have been conducted according to the norms and in terms of what we believe to be the free open democratic process.
now the austerity hawks are not even happy to leave access to this painkiller untouched. although they failed to scrap the fund completely it has suffered a massive seventy cut lowering the budget from eur five hundred million to one hundred and fifty million.
of course support for self employed workers is welcome but together with the cuts it will mean more workers competing for less money.
this fund has been mainly used as a painkiller for what is a cancer of mass unemployment.
the scope of the fund has been widened so self employed workers can apply as well.
lastly no real steps have been made to raise the co financing rate which means that in a number of crisis countries governments would simply not apply for egf support.
secondly the framework for more cost effective internal management leading to the reduction of administration burden in other words red tape.
it is essential that we have a regulation establishing the common rules and procedures for the implementation of the union's instruments for external action which will serve as a horizontal framework in accordance with the objectives of the simplification agenda for the two thousand and fourteen two thousand and twenty multiannual financial framework and by providing unified and harmonised rules for the following firstly eu geographic instruments secondly; european neighbourhood instruments;
i particularly welcome two aspects first of all the simplified rules and procedures for programming and the delivery of eu assistance;
that is why i think we need to target it for the younger generation.
madam president another international bureaucracy is generating more self justifying regulation. that is what they do dogs bark ducks quack and global technocracies justify their existence with new laws.
what is really interesting about this ilo process though is that we are seeing at an early stage the way in which eu directives often have their genesis in global regulations.
this is significant because we are always being told that our member states need to be in the european union in order to have influence.
but in practical terms what you find is that as in this case with the ilo you have the eu being a single block and then norway switzerland and so on having independent voices around that table.
we would have far more influence in practical terms on the resulting directives and regulations if we had not subcontracted out our negotiation to the european commission.
in the meantime of course the best thing we could do for workers around the world is to give them more jobs.
the way of doing that is for governments to get out of the way;
governments never expedited anything but by the alacrity with which they stepped aside.
thirdly strengthening international security and assisting populations countries and regions confronting natural and man made disasters.
these are among the prime objectives of the union's external action.
madam president i agree with everything that has been said by the previous speaker.
i think the report is very important.
but it is a report and we need action and that is the reason that i believe that our competition commissioner needs to get involved. for example i see in my own country the abuse of the multinational supermarkets of their dominant market position in dealing with farmers.
so competition is the life of trade.
it is consumer orientated it is for the benefit of the consumer and that is why i welcome this report because what we need at the end of the day is action.
in paragraphs nine to eleven the importance of marine transport could also have hugely important economic as well as environmental output.
coming from scotland we have a vast contribution to make towards our climate change and our regional development objectives.
we have a massive renewable energy potential in the atlantic region.
we could play a great role in that.
i think there is a wide agreement that we can achieve more together by creating a forum for encouraging cooperation amongst the regions and states and nations of the atlantic arc but i would counsel gently against priorityitis' which is a disease that afflicts us in this chamber particularly badly. if you try to achieve three hundred million objectives we might end up doing nothing very well so i would pick out two particular priorities where i think the eu could add real genuine eu added value.
our focus will be on trying to create linkages between the different sectors.
let me explain myself.
we need environmental protection;
we can have transport;
we can have energy;
and we can have research. so we need a way to create linkages between all these sectors and to overcome the possibility of there being conflicts of interest there.
so maritime special planning will be a very important instrument for us and maritime surveillance and maritime knowledge will also be very important instruments.
so this is my first point.
we need to have good discussions and to try to fix a level playing field for everybody because this is the only way to be successful.
fish stocks in the north sea part of the atlantic have been ruined by discards which must be abolished.
in my own region the east midlands the fishermen of boston have fished the wash for generations looking after the fish stocks and making sure that their trawl nets do not disturb the sea bed for they know that this is where the immature shellfish develop and that this is where the creatures form the bottom of the food chain.
we are now working on the preparation of a maritime strategy for the atlantic.
i also recognise that this area brings a solid heritage of significant environmental importance and has many committed stakeholders.
i will continue to encourage them to fully engage in its adoption procedure.
and the marine strategy framework directive.
the atlantic strategy will establish concrete policy objectives by providing for cross fertilisation between all the maritime sectors.
a key priority will be to create jobs on the ground.
i therefore believe that the atlantic strategy will help firstly to promote sustainable growth and jobs in the region through eu research programmes and regional development programmes secondly to achieve the objectives of the reformed common fisheries policy and thirdly to achieve progress in protecting the environment
i therefore believe that the eu integrated maritime policy has an important role to play.
cooperation with other states in the atlantic region is also absolutely essential; in order for instance to decrease the amount of microscopic plastic debris to fight illegal fishing or to ensure that fisheries and environmental regulations are effectively controlled and enforced.
we all depend on healthy seas and good environmental status.
that will benefit all sectoral interests not least fisheries and tourism.
in. we need to invest in energy and renewables and we need to be cutting our environmental footprint.
it all went very fast from the time we started discussing it to today so we now have agreement before the election.
i do hope these will encourage people to take part in emas not because i want to play a numbers game and see emas competing with iso but because i think the scheme is a good one and could help us to meet our sustainability criteria.
also cluster registration for organisations involved in the same sector;
but if we are to increase the impact we also have to retain the environmental integrity of the programme.
i think the agreement we reached today does achieve that balance between hopefully making it more attractive to people while at the same time retaining the environmental integrity.
these are very important to improve the programme and help people on the outside look at organisations and see how they are doing.
today the eyes of the world are very much on london where world leaders are gathered to talk about the financial downturn and the global banking crisis. there will be some no doubt who are wondering why we are sitting here talking about environmental auditing at a time when organisations and companies are feeling the financial strain.
from what i hear from the staff it was not an easy thing to do. so that kind of change is important.
i think it is right that we should try and improve the take up of emas because otherwise its impact is going to remain limited.
wrong. for me and my socialist colleagues the green agenda is very much part of the solution to emerging from the financial crisis that we are
emas is a voluntary scheme which provides a framework to assist businesses and organisations to improve their environmental performance.
today we are voting on a voluntary scheme which certifies companies to label their products as environmentally friendly. this enables people to help the environment directly and to reduce emissions in their everyday living and buying.
we sometimes feel helpless as individuals against this massive global challenge but at the end of the day people need to be encouraged to do their bit as little contributions such as the power of one' do add up.
it also provides means to reduce animal testing and child labour.
the scheme categorises products and services that range from tissue paper to footwear to campsites.
with a different hat i have been involved in fair trade and protecting the fair trade label and what we have seen in recent years is alternative labels being developed. some are ok but some are attempting to look as if they are ethical labelling look as if they are fair trade but they are attempting to be fair trade on the cheap without having the independent verification which you need to have a proper labelling system.
so i hope that the commission will make sure that all these systems of labelling and ethical labelling do continue to have some integrity and are not undermined to simply become marketing tools of organisations who want to make the public think they are being green and ethical when in fact they are nothing but fig leaves.
so i hope that can be looked at by the commission and it does need a cross departmental look from the commission.
finally just to thank everybody again for their contributions. i look forward to the vote which i hope will be a very simple straightforward one.
today we are discussing the ecolabel scheme.
the revision offers a good opportunity for this label to move away from the margins of the market to capture a much larger share of the market and to help push demand for eco friendly products.
the new rules represent a significant improvement.
they are more dynamic will apply a life cycle approach and should be able to attract significantly more attention and interest among both companies and consumers. as mr dimas said they will be able to help consolidate eco labelling and do away with a number of voluntary schemes that are very often confusing to consumers.
however we still have a problem namely how to inform consumers and the markets about the label.
marketing support for this label has been very limited in the past.
the resources allocated have been minuscule compared to the resources behind a lot of branding in the market in general.
i hope this will change first of all by businesses seeing the ecolabel as an important instrument in the future.
i think we have done quite a good job in a few weeks.
we managed to clear up some of the confusion around food products in particular fishery products in the final hours.
finally i would like to refer back to ms mcavan who made a reference to the financial crisis and the meeting in london today.
i think that reference is very relevant. we are facing at least three parallel crises today the financial crisis the climate crisis and what i would call the ecosystem crisis or overuse of natural resources.
it is only by tackling the root causes together that is to say unsustainable use of resources through investing in low carbon and eco friendly production and products that we will be able to build a better future.
i remain confident that we can succeed in concluding these files by spring two thousand and fourteen and without undue delay. it is an ambitious but achievable goal if it is supported from all sides. therefore i very much appreciate that the lithuanian presidency is equally committed to starting interinstitutional negotiations by the end of this year.
i reiterate my personal commitment towards bringing these important proposals to a successful conclusion.
your strong mandate which i have every reason to expect and welcome would be a major contribution to paving the way to finally setting up these proposals.
i am convinced however that it is possible to find solutions to all the issues that need to be resolved.
we have a duty to patients and consumers to deliver under the current legislature.
similarly there are a number of specific issues on the proposal concerning in vitro diagnostics which in my view are also valid and acceptable in principle.
you propose for example strengthening the provisions on ethics committees or on minors and incapacitated patients.
my guiding principle will be the aim of ensuring the highest level of patient and consumer safety whilst making sure that innovation continues to flourish.
instead let me address two key elements which have been subject to particularly intensive discussions over the last couple of months including in parliament.
but we need better clarity for innovative and borderline products.
it may not have considered sufficiently for example how to ensure the necessary technical and scientific expertise for the scrutiny but overall i believe that the scrutiny procedure as a form of exceptional safeguard is the best compromise to ensure a high level of patient safety while avoiding two burdensome processes.
as regards the system for the approval of devices the commission's proposal was to maintain a system of self certification by the manufacturer in the case of low risk and of verification by notified bodies in the case of medium risk medical devices.
i have followed attentively the different ideas that have been put forward in parliament on reprocessing and i am of course open to carefully analysing the amendments you will be voting on after this debate in order to see whether they would further improve patient protection. apart from these issues there are many other suggestions from parliament which i am happy to consider favourably.
it would allow the practice of reprocessing to develop further under clear and safe conditions leading to potential savings for healthcare systems.
i am open to these changes as long as they remain in line with the provisions that are currently being negotiated in the context of the proposed regulation on clinical trials on pharmaceuticals.
this concerns for example in house exemption and counselling and informed consent in the field of genetic tests.
genetic testing is not just about diagnosing serious inherited disorders.
we also cannot accept amendments forty two sixty eight and two hundred and five which could have a severe impact on public health primarily sexual health in europe by making all high risk devices including hiv tests prescription only.
unfortunately there remain elements in the ivd text which are of concern for the liberal group.
genetic tests range from those informing you of an increased risk of diabetes through to tests diagnosing an incurable life threatening illness such as huntington's disease.
authorising high risk ivd devices to a scientific committee of the medical device coordination group will lead to safer devices and greater transparency without being overly bureaucratic. i hope parliament will adopt these provisions.
in cancer for example genetic screening can ascertain sensitivity to treatments thus producing test results that are risk based rather than deterministic. for these reasons as well as the fact that the eu has no legal power to regulate national medical practice we oppose those amendments and support instead amendments two hundred and fifty five and two hundred and fifty six which seek solutions to the problem identified by the rapporteur without damaging developments in the field of genetic medicine.
i believe the rapporteur has created a framework that responds to the problems stemming from genetic tests for life threatening conditions but has applied this framework to all genetic tests which risks damaging current routine medical practice.
the alde group would like to support this report but the concerns i have outlined may prevent us from doing so.
this threatens public health policies in france and the uk which seek to make hiv tests easily available to high risk groups.
i think that is an absolute fact if not now then certainly in the future. so it is absolutely crucial that we get it right. i think what is of concern to us is that people did not understand how the system worked.