kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
we had wanted a differentiated co financing rate but we had to agree in the end to a single co financing rate of sixty but that is still ten more than the original co financing rate of fifty because an issue for some member states was that the cofinancing rate was too low so we have moved in the right direction.
first of all we have worked with the commission to improve the timeliness of the fund and we have a defined timeframe for submission and evaluation of projects now in place. we have broadened the category of workers who can apply to the fund.
thirty five these allowances included mobility allowance systems and training allowance etc and some member states were spending up to seventy seventy five of their application on these measures.
those for example who are older or those who have lower educational attainment.
egf support will therefore assist young unemployed as well as redundant workers.
my final question is is it fit for purpose?
we have also strengthened the partnership principle by ensuring that the package of personalised services is drawn up in consultation either with the redundant workers themselves or their representatives or the social partners because we know that the objectives of the fund are much more likely to be achieved when this happens. we have also
significantly broadened the eligible beneficiaries to include an equal number of neets that is those not in education employment or training to that of redundant workers for whom the application is made in the first place provided that the application is in a region which is eligible for the youth employment initiative.
we have a number of other improvements which i will outline in my final two minutes because i believe i am over time.
we did not believe this was a good use of european money and it certainly did not give european added value so i am very pleased now that we have capped those allowances and that the majority of the money will go into training up skilling entrepreneurship etc.
there were a number of criticisms of the current globalisation fund and i believe we have managed to deal with many of those issues.
crucially we have capped the special time limited allowance at.
it now includes self employed temporary agency and fixed term workers.
it is a significant decrease and we have a possible doubling of the number of applicants.
i secondly want to thank parliament itself for its numerous resolutions on maintaining the crisis derogation and i am pleased to see that the crisis derogation is in the current instrument because a very significant number of applications came in under the crisis derogation.
they are not here at the moment but they certainly showed a willingness to do business and to get a fund in place that was fit for purpose.
after all of those thank yous' we have a document here in place this evening and the question is is it fit for purpose?
again i want to congratulate and thank the rapporteur for her hard work in bringing this to a successful conclusion.
madam president i want to compliment the rapporteur on the work that she has done on this file. if we have learnt anything from the crisis it is that europe must stand by its workers particularly our older workers who have been made redundant. we need to help them find their way back into quality employment or set up their own businesses.
i very much welcome the fact that the egf will once again be able to support job losses arising from the crisis not just those caused by globalisation. i also welcome the increase in cofinancing from fifty to; sixty the extension to fixed term part time and self employed workers;
and the reduction in red tape. but particularly important is the possibility that support can now be provided to young people not in employment education or training the so called neets category.
as the rapporteur marian harkin has said significant improvements have been made in the fund.
my own country ireland has implemented seven egf programmes since two thousand and nine including one aimed at supporting eight hundred and fifty former sr technics workers in dublin and a national programme aimed at six zero construction workers.
higher costs reduced sales firms closing and moving abroad leading to rising unemployment.
instead we have draconian measures in place to prevent individual companies establishing their own exchange rates and competing globally promoting prosperity. at the same time report after report comes out of this house all imposing more regulation.
indeed the european commission is determined to make full use of this fund in the future for the benefit of the workers who need its support and to help the recovery of the european economy.
its approval procedures substantially. in reality much faster decision making would only be possible if the egf had its own envelope.
as you know it has been and it will continue to be an extra budgetary fund.
every single project will have to be an individual legal proposal and that requires a codecision by the parliament and the council.
nevertheless we believe it is possible to cut the time demand and this will be appreciated and it will be seen as more useful instrument.
as you know the egf is indeed a demand driven fund.
the finally agreed budget ceiling while still very relevant is nevertheless substantially lower than what the commission proposed.
we also opened it up towards farmers towards young people while emphasising that this is not the main financial instrument for supporting either farmers or young unemployed people.
that means that we have to do more in the future for good anticipation and management of change.
the key indeed is anticipation but also constant investment in human capital that highlights the importance of the competitiveness of the workforce employability investment in skills and improving the performance of the education and training systems and their connection
a colleague of mine talked about confidence.
well the people of the uk have less and less confidence in the eu which is why we need an in or out referendum sooner rather than later.
madam president my constituents will not be too surprised to learn that their hard earned money taken by taxes and passed on to the eu is being negligently handed out by the net recipients of the eu budget.
in fact the fall in the court's estimated error rate for the european budget as a whole under the current framework shows that improving the rules and design of spending schemes from one period to the next does make a difference.
notably regarding the supervision of the financial system and the coordination of fiscal and economic policies.
but the court found many instances of control failure at member state level. for example in the majority of transactions in regional policy where the court found errors sufficient information was available for the member state authorities to have detected and corrected at least some of those errors before claiming reimbursement from the commission.
be. three the court notes in this report that the commission's directors general have also recognised a high risk of error in rural development cohesion and research.
overall the control systems examined by the court were found to be only partially effective and not realising their full potential to prevent or detect and correct errors.
the two thousand and eleven accounts present fairly the financial position of the european union the results of its operations and its cash flows for that year. revenue and commitments for payments were free from material error.
the estimated level for two thousand and ten was similar at.
they increased their estimate of the spending at risk of irregularity from eur four hundred million in two thousand and ten to eur two billion
at the same time as considering the legislative proposals for the next financial framework period european institutions and member states are also engaged in setting up new european systems mechanisms and governance arrangements in other domains related to public financial management
the success of these initiatives will depend also on ensuring that the necessary democratic legitimacy and accountability arrangements are in
and now with legislative proposals for the next framework period under discussion there is a golden opportunity to address their underlying causes. for many years the court has called for single schemes with clearer objectives easier to measure
results and more cost effective control arrangements.
therefore it is all of us together commission european parliament member states who should find a way to spend every euro in a more efficient and effective way to bring maximum results in these times of austerity.
finally please allow me since this is my last speech in plenary to use this opportunity to thank all my colleagues from the european parliament especially the colleagues from the budgetary control committee and our secretariat for the excellent cooperation we have had throughout the years.
secondly direct management.
the report states that the highest error rates were found in policy areas under the shared management arrangements namely in rural development and regional policy.
i believe that it is a step in the right direction.
two thousand and eleven i would like to briefly comment on some aspects of it that i find particularly important. firstly shared management.
the eu budget should shift from a compliance oriented to a performance oriented model of spending a model that looks at the results achieved.
twenty of eu money is spent directly by the commission and the findings of the court state that the error rate for research and other internal policies increased from.
if we want to improve the efficiency of control systems all stakeholders should take their responsibility including the commission but also and especially the member states.
we need clear indicators base lines and target levels in order to assess the achievements of these eu policies.
i am grateful for these years full of dynamic and lively discussions from which i have learned a lot and i hope we will continue this cooperation.
the union faces a very important challenge to do more with less money.
well if a farmer gets money for the welfare of his one hundred and fifty sheep and the auditors find that he does not have any in the real world this would be considered fraud.
madam president this is now shamefully the eighteenth year in a row that the auditors cannot clear the eu budget.
the excuses the commission puts forward are always the same it is the fault of the member states they commit the irregularities.
this house is also to blame by continually rubber stamping the eu budget on the basis that error' does not necessarily mean fraud'.
the new financial regulation introduces considerable reforms focusing strongly on european added value and simplification.
the room for improvement there is very clear indeed.
in. two thousand and eleven thirdly commitments and revenues for the entire budget are free from material errors.
thirdly we still have to get the other proposals adopted by the co legislators including programmes under shared management.
the commission will endeavour to get more reliable data from the member states in order to be able to present next year a more complete picture of the corrective measures implemented at eu and national
fraud. this becomes clearer when taking into consideration the multiannual dimension of the spending programmes and their preventive and corrective mechanisms.
future. from two thousand and fourteen they will hopefully be complemented by the net correction mechanism proposed for all programmes under shared management.
one. in two thousand and eleven the report of the court is a clear signal that more has to be
these measures are likely to address effectively the weaknesses and errors which are currently observed.
but the member states have to step up their efforts as
the commission proposals for the next programming period aim also at strengthening the accountability of all financial actors. finally cost effective control mechanisms were proposed throughout all eu programmes.
at the presentation of the court's annual report in the budgetary control committee earlier this month members of this house asked themselves what they could do to improve further the situation.
two thousand and eleven firstly for the fifth consecutive time the court of auditors has issued an unqualified positive opinion on the annual accounts of the eu. secondly the overall error rate for all payments made in two thousand and eleven remains stable compared with two thousand and ten even though the risk profile of the transactions increased
therefore i call on the current and future presidencies to organise extensive discussions with the member states on these important issues.
the role of the member states is essential in this respect as is their commitment to assuming their responsibility and obligations under shared management.
if you do not solve the causes of the problems we cannot expect huge changes afterwards.
one hundred no systems are there;
i know the court says that this does need to be improved.
i just wondered if in future the court might find it possible to make a distinction between those different types of things.
at the end of the day audits are good but audits should also lead to improvements in our systems.
i think it is a good start because i think part of the court's function should be to look for improvement.
i wonder whether they compare with the excuses being offered by mr nigel farage the leader of the uk independence party for failing to keep his personal accounts in order. he has made a commitment to complete transparency but you take one look at his website and you can see that the accounts are unaudited make believe.
by way of excuse he said that he has lost his receipts but then on another occasion he said i have an awful lot of receipts that aren't there' whatever that means.
he has gone on to say that he has not had the time to sort out his expenses despite employing his wife to do these things and then he said there were some receipts lost but so what!
' can the president of the court of auditors tell me whether any member state has ever come up with an excuse quite so pathetic as we have lost the receipts but so what'?
it is not that we expect to get any kind of reply;
thirdly the intention of the russian authorities to put her on trial in russia is not in keeping with the minsk agreements and the commitment to release all hostages and detained persons related to the conflict in ukraine.
the material evidence pointing to her innocence was never allowed to be produced in court. it is absurd to charge her with illegally crossing the border when she was already captive before being transferred to russia.
on this our message is clear russia should live up to its international obligations in the field of human rights. we will stand behind those who protect human rights in russia. secondly the case of ms savchenko who was initially kidnapped in donbass is a reminder of the situation in eastern ukraine.
let me be very clear from the outset and convey once again in front of this house the message that we have repeatedly delivered to russian interlocutors russia should immediately release ms savchenko.
mr president my group very strongly supports this resolution and i would echo the comments made by a number of previous colleagues and very much share them.
the situation of ms savchenko is outrageous and crucially entirely within the control of the russian authorities.
these are all covered within the minsk agreements and let us be clear russia is in breach of the minsk agreements.
ms savchenko is being illegally held and we must urge our member states' leaders and foreign ministers to play a much more vocal role within these discussions and raise her case and others at the next meeting of the contact group.
in fact prostitution is absolutely against gender equality which is why in my report i am suggesting that we take very seriously the model which is used in sweden the nordic model as we know it whereby the buyer of sexual services is the one who is criminalised. this has been shown to have reduced levels of prostitution in sweden since one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine by
in some countries prostitution is completely legal that is the case in germany and the netherlands so we are dealing with a very varying perspective.
so i am very pleased to have this opportunity to introduce this report.
that is one of the main reasons why prostitution is a cross border issue and why it is something that we should be deeply concerned about in this parliament.
there are also of course health implications which matter as well.
in certain countries like the uk prostitution itself is not illegal but everything concerning it is soliciting procuring running a brothel and associated activities are all criminal offences.
that in itself is appalling enough.
so i therefore call on all of you to support this very important report.
during the course of my work for this i have met many survivors and talked to many people who work in prostitution in various forms and i did not meet any women who had chosen it as a matter of completely free choice. as i said before many have been the victims of trafficking.
half a very significant decrease in prostitution.
those who are not so very well seen are the criminals who control it in the background.
both recognise and address the gender dimension and the need to reduce demand on human trafficking for the first time at the level of eu law.
for a little ten year old girl to be exploited in the prostitution market or for producing pornography there has to be a client and there has to be a user.
there are gruesome consequences of human trafficking and exploitation stories of the deception of young girls and women having to sell their bodies threatened beaten sometimes even sold by their own families.
these links are indisputable and are becoming more and more evident.
there is a link between the prostitution market exploitation and organised crime.
as i have already stressed in the previous discussion the eu has adopted both a very ambitious directive on human trafficking and an eu strategy to complement this directive.
this is where i want to end. prevention is a key pillar of this directive and it is recognised that there is a need to reduce demand for sexual exploitation.
we also understand very well the interconnection between gender and trafficking.
and as a feminist i also have a problem with the fact that in our patriarchal society too many men all too often look at women as objects for sex work or other things and not as dignified human beings in their own right.
we need to differentiate between trafficking for sexual exploitation in prostitution or in households or wherever and sex work resulting from active individual decisions.
i know some women decide to go into sex work because of the economic hardship they encounter but this is their decision and their choice.
so together with members of other political groups we propose an alternative motion for a resolution which focuses on the responsibility of member states and especially also on providing exit strategies for those who want to leave prostitution.
so i also on behalf of the green european free alliance group expect the commission to implement and take seriously the joint declaration that the three institutions agreed when we concluded the negotiations and i also want to hear how the commission is going to follow the situation and implement this.
improved as we would expect from an associated partner country of the european union.
corruption and against money laundering. i must remind the house about the rather recent understanding of the role of moldovan banks and even of moldovan judges in some of the biggest money laundering scandals in our environment.
mr president there has been an agreement between the council the commission and parliament since two thousand and thirteen on a certain model macrofinancial assistance and now with the case of moldova i think that more and more we start to see that this instrument has to be more linked with the conditionalities on reforms of the judiciary and other aspects of rule of law of democracy respect for human rights and as has been said by many speakers already the situation in moldova has not
well that is what free trade does! if only the european union actually focused on breaking down barriers to trade rather than creating them perhaps it would be less of a negative force throughout the world.
the solution here again is not to give moldova more money the solution is for moldova to become more competitive.
the explanatory statement that comes with this report says that the free trade agreement between the european union and moldova has contributed to the process of economic recovery.
the economic freedom index places moldova worse than countries like rwanda and swaziland when it comes to being attractive to trade and investment.
very clear reference to the venice commission recommendations. it is crucial to ensure that these recommendations are fully respected. we must also make sure that we are sending the right message to the moldovan people as there is a high risk of manipulation and political misinterpretation.
it means that you knew in advance what mr murean would say and therefore that would provoke your blue card.
gao's open letters to the regime in two thousand and five set the tone for charter.
hu jia for example who is still in prison and needing medical treatment.
eight his investigation into the persecution of the spiritual buddhist group falun gong led to widespread support across china.
hopes that events like the olympic games would motivate the chinese authorities to show more respect for democratic norms have proven to be in vain.
mr president china has demonstrated impressive economic progress.
i always look to democratic taiwan and vast india with its democratic secular traditions where these flourish in a free society to basically put a lie to the idea that the prc cannot be democratic.
its vast size and global outreach its military muscle and economic power compel the eu to seek a strategic partnership based on mutual respect and security.
indeed the award of the sakharov prize in two thousand and eight to hu jia showed the world how seriously we meps take the issue of human rights in china.
we take it seriously because china really matters.
i believe not only that we have a duty to do so but that we owe it to the victims of human rights abuses in china such as liu xiaobo most of whom have been denied a voice. this is why we are debating this matter again today.
perhaps eventually our relationship with china will also be based on our common values of democracy human rights and the rule of law we can but hope.
mr president the fact that yet again in this house we are debating human rights abuses in china indicates that the communist authoritarian leadership of beijing remains determined to suppress any political dissent.
in april two thousand and nine the chinese government issued a national human rights plan a lengthy document which appears to be nothing but a piece of paper.
the prosecution of mr liu xiaobo based solely on his peaceful initiatives and the judicial harassment he faced are undoubtedly incompatible with internationally acknowledged norms of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
it is particularly disturbing to see how the chinese government ignores its international commitments in the field of human rights.
a few weeks ago the chinese government disregarded an eu appeal not to execute a british citizen.
demanding the most normal things in a democratic society the right to free speech open elections and rule of law.
a few days ago for the first time a police official admitted that the famous human rights lawyer and two thousand and eight nobel peace prize nominee mr gao zhisheng had gone missing after a year in the chinese authorities' custody.
there must be no doubt. this house the european parliament has the obligation to thoroughly evaluate the results of the eu china human rights dialogue.
it deeply regrets the fact that china did not heed repeated calls by the european union and one of its member states for the death sentenced passed against mr shaikh to be commuted.