kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
we have seen deeply disturbing reports of increased violence along confessional and ethnic lines. there were attacks against the alawi population at the hands of extremist rebel groups followed by a harsh response from the regime.
i want to commend the un investigation mission for engaging in their field inquiry into the attack of twenty one august with courage and speed in what was very obviously an extremely difficult security situation.
the secretary general is urging the security council along these lines.
many of which are held by different groups in a very difficult situation.
the conclusion that so many have already reached is that therefore the regime was behind the attack and they have given support to an international response by force given what is happening in terms of the blockage of the security council.
first of all we need to ensure that the syrian regime not only says it will agree to international action but it must do so quickly fully and without conditions follow up with transparency and make sure that it adheres to all the requirements.
we know that tomorrow secretary kerry will meet with minister lavrov in geneva to try to work out exactly what this initiative might mean and to go into the detail of what would have to happen when how and by whom. we put the eu at the disposal of the work that is ongoing in order to see how we can contribute not if but how.
some christian communities have been targeted recently.
i think it is very important to take this momentum and to use it because what we are seeing for the first time in a long time is the international community uniting towards an action on syria.
the latest development therefore that we have is an opportunity to reinvigorate not just trying to sort out the chemical weapons issue but the broader political dimension.
to talk with us about syria and about events in the region. we agreed there and then that a strong international response was needed in the face of this crime and that we have to prevent impunity and prevent creating a horrific precedent for the use of chemical weapons.
i say again that the role of the security council is crucial and irreplaceable but it does rely on the members of the security council assuming their responsibilities.
i have already referred to the meeting in vilnius where we found a common language from all eu twenty eight member states.
but i will come back to that if i may in a moment.
let me say a little more about recent developments which as i say are continuing hour by hour to be developed.
we have had extensive discussions both within the ministers' meeting in vilnius where we were joined by both elmar brok in his capacity as chair of the committee on foreign affairs and i thank him for his attendance and by secretary kerry who came to an extraordinary part of the meeting
it is deeply regrettable that they have not yet shouldered that responsibility with regard to this conflict.
internationally we work with all partners the united states russia the un and many arab nations to achieve a united international response in the light of the developments that we see taking place in syria now.
of course we are now paying great attention to the developments that are following hour by hour with the russian proposal built on the words of secretary kerry and obviously discussions that took place in st petersburg namely to put syria's chemical weapons under international surveillance.
and our commitment to providing aid on a continuing basis now and into the future.
i hope the resolution that you will put forward will be able to help and support the work that is ongoing by the european union to do that and i thank you for it.
we have consistently emphasised the need for the efforts in the security council to come to fruition to try to effectively end this conflict.
it is also important to try to move ahead and get this peace process moving. honourable members will no doubt in the course of your deliberations argue that the threat of strikes has been the most important element in bringing the initiative to the table that can try to tackle chemical weapons.
in the north east intensive fighting involving the syrian kurds lasted for weeks and resulted in increased refugee flows to iraq.
but as honourable members will be the first to say we need to approach this with care and examine the developments in detail.
i hope that we will seize the opportunity to try to urge all to do this.
russia has proposed putting the syrian chemical weapons arsenal under international control and destroying it eventually.
it is really important that we recognise that information as well.
for human rights.
we need to engage with all partners as we are doing to find ways to achieve that.
the regime has stepped up its military campaign against the opposition held areas sometimes taking recourse to indiscriminate shelling of entire neighbourhoods.
it is now of the utmost importance that they complete their report as soon as possible and that the work going on in laboratories in sweden finland and elsewhere gives us the information confirmed through these reports that is already established through other reports that many member states and international partners have been engaged in.
support is coming from many different directions.
we of course continue by the way to send in missions on a regular basis to syria.
some had already signed up to the language of the g twenty and some might argue that our language is not quite the same but i think we formulated a substantial eu position condemnation of the chemical attack;
we need to prepare for the end of this conflict too and the rebuilding of a nation which many figures say is seventy or so destroyed not to mention the lives of people that have been destroyed people who have been killed children who have been orphaned and people who have been badly injured and maimed.
i have also mentioned the ongoing humanitarian disaster.
the necessity for the international community to respond and a strong call to the security council to fulfil its responsibilities;
because i also think that we need to remember the broader picture of what is happening in syria.
i am not taking sides in this civil war.
i have never described the romanians as living like pigs.
now look.
that is unfortunately not the case.
at the end yes syria should place all its chemical weapons under international control and sign the international treaty.
and as far as the refugees are concerned we should engage the international community not only the eu but also our friends in the united states and our friends in the arab countries.
the credibility of the russian offer will now depend on the validity of the decommissioning process.
deal. how do you expect him to make a political deal if there is no pressure behind
syria. the tragedy the ongoing tragedy. that is the second
not the opposition.
so there is no doubt and all this discussion on who did it is in fact something that is clear now. the question is now what do we
we need first of all to end the use of chemical weapons and therefore we have this possibility maybe of putting them under the control of the international community.
us up. the second thing is do not forget the real problem in
i have referred to the challenges of trying to get aid into the country challenges that we have to face but which we have to overcome for their sake.
that is why it is very difficult for anyone to imagine that a government that fails to be able to protect its people and indeed is complicit in murdering its people can continue.
this is also important when you think about the context of refugees. honourable members have spoken about the need for member states to think about their responsibilities.
there is a huge amount of work going on all the time meetings with so many different groups from syria efforts being made to bring together the international community in a common position that can exert the kind of political pressure necessary to be able to bring people together in order to try and resolve this.
frankly the best way we can help them is to help them to be able to go home and that means finding a way to end this war to support the rebuilding of their country and to support the refugees.
this becomes very obvious when you like me have visited the refugee camps and seen people's plight and the importance of getting schools to function for children and the real importance of ensuring that people have the opportunity to do things and to feel that they will have a future where they can engage in their own country in the political process.
i have to tell you that in all the conversations with the military experts that i have spoken to in many countries we know that this is not something which is passive but active or something that could be done easily.
and as honourable members have said that needs to be both in the meeting which will take place tomorrow and in our discussions verified and ensured in order that this is not a delaying tactic or anything other than an opportunity to help protect the people in syria.
but i do not want any misinterpretation that says that not to have military action is somehow to be passive.
i have been talking with many countries including iran on the issues of chemical weapons and of how we can move forward in a diplomatic process to a conference that will bring together all those who are able to stop the fighting and move forward to a resolution that can be peaceful.
their report we believe will be available in the coming days and that will be an opportunity for everyone to see what happened and for greater verification to take place about the event.
it will be an important moment when that report is put before the un security council.
most importantly we do not see that this is going to be on the agenda any time soon as it has not been on the agenda over these past two years.
i am pleased and proud that between us all we are the biggest donor of humanitarian aid.
i do not honestly think anybody here disagrees that this is fundamentally important but we need to do more.
we do play our part and we will play our part.
the reason to do that as so many honourable members have said is for the sake of the millions of syrians who are suffering every single day who see their lives shattered their families destroyed and their homes in ruins.
it is important because day after day we get messages from so many countries organisations and people to ask us to help to do the things that we do well and that we will commit to do.
this does not suggest that there are not challenges for the future about building a peace process that will allow all communities to be part of the future of syria and to ensure that the values that originally brought the people out in demonstrations against the government two years ago
secondly and just as importantly the responsibility of the government to protect the people and the seven people who are missing and who are being tracked down as we speak.
it also means that we think about the misplaced people whose lives are miserable within the country and again who need to be helped and supported as much as possible.
any process is going to have to be led and developed through the united nations but it is going to have to have within it the people who can bring this war to an end.
we are against it because we think there is some pretty poor thinking going on.
standing up and saying something.
we think that firing a thousand cruise missiles is likely to make an unstable situation even worse than it is now.
i do not know how this will play out but at least mr verhofstadt there is a chance of peace and i know that you represent the kind of political class who believe that global influence can be achieved only through bombing. well luckily unlike extreme eu nationalists like yourself british democracy has proved that nation state parliaments
in a sense baroness ashton you are sitting pretty because as the highest paid female politician in the world luckily you have a non job because the eu thank goodness has not yet got a foreign policy and as a result of that what we saw two weeks ago in the uk house of commons was a nation state democracy
as a direct result of that vote in the house of commons we have not gone to war in syria we have entered a period of negotiations and assad has a chance to prove to all of us whether he is a good man or a bad man.
tell prime minister maliki that if there is another murder or the seven hostages are not freed this will have severe consequences at a diplomatic financial and political level for him and we will take him to
the russian proposal clearly has some merit and some attraction but we should be under no illusions it was cooked up in moscow between the russian and syrian foreign ministers.
may i just say that the key issue is that agreements and international conventions have to be enforced and therefore we need to give full support to the united states in her endeavours.
it has been effective in delaying military action by the us and her allies and the danger is that assad will merely continue to use a full range of weapons short of wmd to press home his military advantage.
the harsh fact is that dictators such as bashir al assad only understand force and as many colleagues have pointed out it is only the threat of the use of force that has forced action and broken the political deadlock.
mr president we must welcome the opportunity to explore a un supported deal to end the use of chemical weapons by assad yet many major problems remain a humanitarian disaster the growth of terrorist and extremist militia regional fragility and the risk of spillover and the malfunctioning of the un security council to uphold agreed principles.
we cannot allow assad to see meeting demands on chemical weapons as a licence to kill by other means.
that has been the status quo for the past two and a half years.
the war is not over and syria has become the bloody theatre of major geopolitical power play.
the eu ought to play a more prominent and strategic role a leading role by acting as a global player.
we can do more to end death and to defend the universal values the eu stands for.
we cannot allow russia and the united states to act over our heads while the eu is fragmented weak risks losing relevance and is incapable because we lack our own military capacity.
high representative ashton i would like to ask you what role for the eu in going forward?
are you intending to talk about syria with iran?
what can we do to avoid regional spillovers specifically in lebanon for example by adding more troops to the un mandate there?
how can we uphold the responsibility to protect and reform the un security council?
i cannot imagine that this could have happened without the knowledge of assad.
that is the great problem.
mr president having spoken in damascus with many relatives of victims of the islamist war on syria i hope that we all welcome the russian proposal to put chemical weapons beyond use without an escalation of the conflict.
we should do everything possible to help this diplomacy to succeed because if it falters obama hollande cameron and the other neo con puppets will drag us into a conflict that is certain to spiral out of control.
that is a lie because if the us bombs syria into the clutches of al qa'ida then syria's chemical weapon stockpile will end up in the hands not of the united nations decommissioning teams but of the heirs of osama bin laden.
american british and european troops will then have to be sent in to try and secure those weapons and our soldiers will die in syria in order to stop children dying in islamist poison gas attacks not just in damascus but in paris london and new york.
if any development shows how weak our member states are on their own and how much we now need a common policy to regain influence in the world it is our impotence in the face of assad's almost certain use of chemical weapons.
almost one hundred years after the use of poison gas on our continent we have rightly un conventions to prohibit their use.
would you not accept that a red line has been crossed by the assad regime in using gas against its own people?
and if so what should be done to stop other dictators and despots using it elsewhere;
i want to be able to stand here in two thousand and twelve and congratulate you or whichever colleague that takes on this task and say very well done'.
the one in one out' principle that i have advocated in my report has been the subject of much debate in committee and here today also but as the commissioner has quite rightly said when we get this right we do not just have one going out we have twenty seven going out.
however that raises a further issue in terms of harmony and uniformity of approach. we do not always get that and that is why i argue that the gold plating' issue in national parliaments is something which needs to be addressed whilst underlining the subsidiarity principles and issues that the presidency has
mr president may i thank the commission the presidency and the council for attending and participating in this debate and may i thank colleagues for the very well informed detailed and constructive debate that we have had here today.
i had doubts and i told you today that i had those doubts but you did it and i congratulate you for it.
that currently sits on the books.
i find it thoroughly irresponsible when europe faces the immense challenges that we are facing today that rather than advocate that we come together for the betterment of all our nations and all our constituents and citizens their approach is simply to say we should do nothing.
that is why i am pleased to say that the hautala sargentini report is one that i can so easily pick up and replicate in the revision of the regulation on public access to documents.
what is better regulation?
two thousand and eight it is realistic.
it should produce a third based on the work that parliament has already done.
let us be clear on the definition of a document.
so let us work together.
we need precise definitions as mrs sommer said earlier on for instance the space to think.
indeed in our amendments of two thousand and eight we lisbonised ' the revision of the regulation.
we need common rules on classification;
it should now produce a third and not just maintain the two.
if we are to protect the way the institutions function effectively let us be clear on what the definition is.
i have to say we do not the parliament in its entirety does not accept the new concept of a document as proposed in the commission's previous recasting of regulation no.
the main point is that transparency is a fundamental right.
it is much more balanced than the report on.
it is legislation that is clear precise and that is understood by all participants. equally it is legislation that anyone can influence and not just those who have special access and special knowledge.
it is difficult enough to have the amendments twenty four hours before the vote.
i believe that this difficulty is knowingly if not deliberately created and perpetuated.
that would be a necessary though not of course a sufficient condition for better legislation to emerge.
however a procedural problem is that individual legislators sometimes have difficulty in taking rational informed decisions.
what we need is an improvement in the procedure of passing legislation.
we with our assistants must take all of our decisions ourselves.
for example information and documents on comitology committees and on expert groups are available through dedicated websites.
well. we are confident that this contributes to putting further pressure on member states to improve their performance in this field.
finally the commission welcomes an open discussion on the responsibility of the three institutions in delivering smart regulation.
it does not replace the infringement procedure but helps to resolve a lot of cases. those that cannot be resolved are of course put into the infringement procedure.
the eu pilot gives full and quick effect to union law for the benefit of citizens and businesses.
it allows the rapid treatment of incoming complaints and gives swift information to the complainants about any major step decided by the commission.
the annual report analyses in detail the nature of petitions and gives concrete examples where they have also triggered infringement procedures.
our proposal merely aims at clarifying a number of provisions and at facilitating the application of the regulation.
in particular the commission agrees that the information should be made available to the public in a proactive manner whenever possible.
as for better legislation subsidiarity and proportionality and smart regulation i am very happy to learn that mr karim's report supports our agenda and underlines the shared responsibility of the eu institutions in this area. smart regulation is a key priority for the commission and we have an ambitious smart regulation agenda with clearly defined priorities.
the commission remains committed to further improving the quality of its initiatives and to evaluating existing legislation as well as continuing to reduce administrative burdens and simplifying wherever possible. for example the commission is on track to exceed its target of twenty five of administrative burden reductions by. two thousand and twelve we now need to ensure that this translates into concrete benefits for businesses through the adoption of relevant legislation by the council and parliament and by effective implementation in the member states.
the commission agrees with the rapporteur that some changes to the regulation are made necessary by the entry into force of the lisbon treaty most importantly the extension of the citizen's right to access the documents of all eu institutions and bodies. this would include for example the european council and the
however this debate cannot replace the ongoing legislative process.
in order to improve the follow up to complaints we have set up an effective complaint registration system. i am confident that the system meets the concerns previously spelled out by parliament and the ombudsman.
our estimation is that the same number of requests for access would be granted.
this was communicated to the other institutions as
the commission has therefore merged its efforts to reduce administrative burdens with those to simplify and to evaluate legislation.
our objective with the second proposal is to give citizens the rights the treaty has created for them and to do so as quickly as possible without waiting for the conclusion of the discussions on the wider recast proposal.
in two thousand and seven we announced that we would improve and intensify our collaboration with the member states.
the commission also provides information on beneficiaries of eu funds both under central and shared management and for the latter information on beneficiaries of funds is accessible through a portal providing links with national websites.
i would like to assure you that the commission invests a great deal in the examination of requests for information and in granting access when appropriate. we are promoting transparency in all our activities and each commission department has a dedicated member of staff in charge of coordinating the application of access to documents.
this is a very sensitive and very important legal question because under the treaties it is the commission that oversees the application of eu law under the sole control of the court of justice.
thus it is for the commission alone subject to the authority of the court of justice to organise the way in which it manages infringement proceedings and related work to ensure the correct application of eu
we can make the proposals but the work must be done where the law is applied in the member states.
i would like to assure you that all these goals are fully shared by the commission.
we do all we can to support innovation and growth in our economies.
the current economic circumstances are dramatically affecting our businesses and as i speak with them i find that alongside all the traditional difficulties and challenges that they have had they face specific and particular ones today such as raising capital in the current financial situation and recruiting a talented work force from within the eu.
the loss is clearly ours.