kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
to my mind it should be a europe that is not merely acceptable to the citizens but responds to their concerns and in this connection let me ask as parliament's rapporteur what exactly is happening to the european citizens' initiative?
a europe based on mutual respect on parity of esteem is the europe that works.
we should be clear.
they depend on each other.
it follows that the european political system has three components brussels the citizens and the member states.
the leaders will also touch upon trade.
there was also another outcome of the malta summit.
the leaders will look at efforts to deepen the single market in all its dimensions.
the emphasis will be first and foremost on economic issues with a number of important subjects featuring under the title jobs growth and competitiveness.
but a lot remains to be done and if we are to meet the deadline we have set for ourselves of completing the single market by two thousand and eighteen there is no time to lose.
this topic was already discussed last december as leaders are determined that europe needs to do more for its own security.
a new momentum has developed in march they will want to reinforce that message and ensure that the whole agenda moves forward as quickly as possible.
it is therefore a good time for europe to send a clear signal and reaffirm its belief in free and fair trade and the greater good that comes from sharing its benefits.
the second item on the agenda will be external security and defence.
together parliament and council have made good headway most recently concerning the digital single market with breakthrough agreements on roaming and portability.
lastly the european council is expected to note the absence of consensus on the european public prosecutor's office proposal paving the way for reinforced cooperation on the issue.
the leaders decided to have a political discussion in march on the western balkans.
and the more effectively we work with third country partners on tackling the root causes of migration the greater our capacity to ensure a fair and effective system of asylum and migration management here in the european union. march two thousand and seventeen will be a month when many people look to europe's past and many people look to europe's
so let me remind you of his words on this issue we must choose to lead the international economy not simply be subject to its whims'. you know by now that this commission does not believe naively in trade.
the first priority for the commission next week will be to see the meeting of the leaders in the european council take concrete steps forward to deliver on jobs growth and competitiveness.
we hope that the european council will acknowledge the important vote in parliament on the approval of our progressive trade agreement with canada and i take this opportunity to praise you for this important decision.
we are also young enough energetic enough and enthusiastic enough to make sure we deliver what we promise.
that means that we are old enough and wise enough not to get distracted from the task at hand today.
then if this is the case all these outcomes of the european council should pave the way for a good declaration at the rome summit.
this is the second source of growth in europe which should be strengthened.
how strong and heavyweight a player have we been?
i must say that it is not too optimistic and it is a matter of fact that you can hardly be a heavyweight diplomatic force without having defence and military capacity.
it is a question of our credibility and i believe that a european defence is necessary to assert true security with goals means and a strategy. it is crucial that together we pool our political will and capabilities.
but what i believe even more is that we as a heavyweight in economic terms well beyond our demography should use that.
why do we not have our own agenda that we impose on the americans?
this is reflected in its conclusions in the form of objectives and deadlines.
it is then our responsibility the responsibility of both the council and the parliament to work together to deliver on this guidance.
with your help with your ideas and with your energy the presidency has already been able to deliver on important tasks set by the european council. i hope there will be many many more.
such as the roma.
and fifteen and two thousand and sixteen with these funds we can reach twelve million children across twenty five member states.
good quality childcare services have been shown to support the cognitive and social development of children especially those from low income backgrounds and improve their academic and labour market opportunities later on in life.
all; in particular for working parents and other caregivers who seek a better balance to their work and life commitments but also for women to support their participation in the labour
in this respect we take note of your suggestion to have a three pillar approach access to resources services and children's participation.
i call on parliament and the commission to seize the historic opportunity to support the upcoming initiatives that are going to seek to build upon that peace process.
i believe we're going to see advances in that process very soon.
welcome to the new world order a world order based on empires and no longer on nation states on the one hundred and ninety six nation states we count. it is clear that in such a world older we have to look to one thing if we want to talk about a reform of europe.
in such a new world order the key question is are we ready now with the european union? my answer to this is no! we are not ready for the moment and i give always the example of how the americans reacted to the financial crisis prime minister and how we reacted to the financial crisis in.
and that's not the only example;
i think it's time that we did this reform
and we after nine years are still discussing the banking union inside the european union.
let's be honest also in matters of foreign policy.
the real problem we have is that we are still not a real union as our founding fathers wanted.
we have still no opinion of the european union.
it is not only with the stability and growth pact that we can do the business.
we are still a confederation of nation states that is based on the unanimity rule.
we are alone in the world of tomorrow so we need to do that homework.
the example is also valuable for other fields.
ms mogherini is completely silent about
two thousand and eight they in nine months democrats and republicans decided a three stage rocket cleaning up the banks four hundred billion tarp;
i give the example now of what is happening in britain this attack on european on british soil.
and that's your responsibility and that's our responsibility and that's in fact our common responsibility.
bring it back to a real european government of twelve or fifteen people.
and we have still not cleaned up all our banks in europe.
why? because she needs for example twenty eight agreements before she can take a position on such a crucial issue.
but it's not
so there is a field where we need absolutely to create that community as fast as possible.
it is completely ridiculous to have a single currency and not behind that single currency a fiscal capacity and a full authority.
because in the future we will only count on ourselves in this new world order.
but first europe will be torn apart by religious and ideological wars and that is the warning we get from almost every exmuslim who dares to speak out who dares to speak out. because exmuslims are murdered everywhere.
that is the future of europe unless european countries start a programme of de islamising now.
the eu itself is the threat to the future of europe.
it opened its borders and spent billions to invite millions of uneducated people from a backward culture that will launch europe straight back into the middle ages.
islam means gender inequality polygamy child marriage slavery and honour killings.
it means death for unbelievers.
it means absolute power to a political and religious elite.
it must be a future for our cultural heritage for our national identity for our national sovereignty or there will be no future at all. therefore i welcome the victory of the eurosceptic parties in italy.
but of course lack of reciprocity should still be possible as an issue to be taken into consideration in awarding a public contract.
mr president on public procurement i am favourable to certain aspects beyond just the price being taken into consideration such as environmental issues issues to do with the quality of the services and also perhaps the need for mandatory e government or e procurement. but it is difficult to balance the founding principles of open markets with a proposal which would allow the european union and the member states to block companies from third countries such as the united states and japan from bidding for public procurement contracts.
the ecj and some of those eco loons may think it is an ingredient but beekeepers bee producers and the majority of common sense meps will tell you that it is not and we voted for that.
what the lawmakers fail to understand is that the hassle lies not in imposing the law but in proving to the inspector that you have complied with the regulation the days off work you have to take;
' here discussing this proposal we have a classic example of it.
as the great chinese sage lao tzu said six hundred years before the birth of christ do nothing and the people will of themselves prosper.
i therefore welcome these much needed reforms to improve cross border operations and combat smuggling and fiscal fraud.
to add to this the majority of non uk duty paid cigarettes in london are directly sourced from other eu member states representing an average revenue loss to the united kingdom of gbp two billion a year.
this should be part of our overarching aim of protecting the uk government's revenues at a time of fiscal austerity.
if we want to make our countries more competitive how about the following modest proposal why not exempt the companies that do not engage in cross border activity from the full mass of regulatory compliance with the single market?
if you go to your newsagent and buy a newspaper you are adding to the gdp of your country; you are not adding to its export figures.
however only fourteen of our total gdp depends on the european union because in common with every other country the majority of our economic activity is domestic.
when you look at it you will see that there were one five hundred and ninety three amendments as well as seven opinions adopted by different committees so everybody involved deserves to be congratulated on getting the final product before us today.
it makes the existing rules more flexible and easier to apply.
one of the best ways to reduce their taxes is to reduce the cost of the state.
one of the best ways to reduce the cost of the state is to open up public procurement markets as widely as possible.
however i understand the concerns here that we also need to ensure that markets overseas are also open for companies from many eu countries.
this proposal to allow the eu to make that decision is nothing short of protectionism.
those of us in favour of open markets and those of us in favour of free trade and investment should oppose it.
we have to make sure that the conditions are right.
if you are going to insist on those other criteria then rather than just accepting the most competitive bid you have to be as transparent as possible.
otherwise what you may well end up doing is actually reinforcing those cosy relationships. so let us make sure that we have as much transparency as possible when it comes to public procurement contracts thereby allowing small competitors small companies and new competitors to compete for those contracts and not be
excluded even if they offer the most competitive bid.
whether or not the pollen comes from gm crops is irrelevant as the percentage will always be below the threshold at which a gm declaration would be necessary.
opposition to gm organisms is a legitimate political stance but it is not acceptable to sacrifice our beekeepers already struggling with the collapse of bee colonies throughout the european union by potentially forcing them to label the gm status of their honey on entirely spurious grounds just for the sake of driving through a particular anti gmo political agenda.
i want to make an unpopular point which is against the spirit of the age.
the most moral way for a businessman to behave is honestly to maximise his profit and then give whatever he can out of his earnings to charity. i say that it is against the spirit of the age because our emphasis now is on corporate social responsibility encouraging people to do things other than maximise their profit encourage them to have different criteria charitable environmental or whatever.
but if you think about it what is happening there is that the proprietor of the firm is shuffling off his social obligations to his suppliers his customers or his shareholders.
he gets to feel good with somebody else's money.
better by far to drop any pretence about anything except efficiency and then behave as a moral individual.
as charles wesley the founder of methodism put it get all you can save all you can give all you can.
i have observed before that our national poet has apt words for every situation including this directive.
it is extraordinary to have a coalition of eco loons and anti market fanatics now denying not only the laws of the market but the laws of nature in their attempt to define pollen as an additive to honey.
no one wants to see unsafer roads as it were but at the same time we have to balance that against the cost of businesses.
i welcome the principle of free administration by the member states and public authorities according to which they are free to decide how best to manage the execution of works and the provision of services.
if we can do that and at the same time make sure that these large utilities do not take advantage of their size vis vis small suppliers such as when they deliberately delay bill payment sometimes pushing small businesses out of business then hopefully once again we will have a more competitive public procurement market and we will give more opportunities to small businesses right across the eu.
once agreed consistent monitoring and verification of the de nuclearisation by respective international bodies such as the international atomic energy agency will be needed to ensure that dprk is be strictly and fully implementing its commitments.
this is why we have welcomed these new high level initiatives which will give diplomacy a chance.
the european union has a huge expertise on nuclear non proliferation particularly thanks to the talks with iran.
all un security council resolutions.
this has to be a meaningful process towards peace.
we firmly hope that they will foster trust and become building blocks for a process of negotiations leading to stability and development in both countries.
this meeting provided an opportunity to pledge the eu's continuous support to the work of the republic of korea.
we are looking forward to the outcomes of this summit and we are following the preparations closely.
we also believe that the multilateral process will be necessary to address the dprk nuclear issue in its entire complexity and achieve lasting peace and security on the korean peninsula.
this time we will also include an offer of concrete support for capacity building on sanctions enforcements where needed. it is of the utmost importance that the international community remains united and determined in its approach and calls on the dprk to completely abandon its nuclear and missile programmes.
at the same time pressure and sanctions are not an end in themselves.
additionally the european union has adopted autonomous measures against dprk.
indeed north korea must take concrete action to address international concerns with regard to its nuclear and missile programmes.
we can safely confirm that the eu sanctions regime vis vis dprk is currently our most restrictive towards any country. we approached a significant number of countries in africa in asia last autumn and will do so shortly again to encourage them to fully and strictly implement
would have been impossible without the leadership and courage shown by president moon and his government in reaching out towards the north.
the european union will be ready to support these processes in close consultations with the key partners.
the european union is strongly convinced that lasting peace and denuclearisation of the korean peninsula must be achieved through peaceful means.
clearly through our policy of critical engagement we have been maximising pressure on the dprk.
we are now willing to support the korean peace process in any possible way.
once trust is broken it takes a long time and serious efforts to rebuild.
young koreans on both sides of the border have different perspectives from their elders and they should be given a voice in the peace talks.
total elimination of nuclear weapons should be our objective and we should put all our efforts towards achieving that goal.
in the current global context it is hugely important for us to support disarmament campaigns.
in our support for the talks we must focus therefore on young people who are essential to any lasting peace building process.
it is particularly important that the european parliament supports all efforts at the united nations level to make the use of nuclear weapons illegal for all states under any circumstances.
in that respect i am very proud of the work of my office working closely through parliamentarians for global action to achieve our historic resolution in october two thousand and sixteen which gives the high representative a strong mandate in her dealings with all nuclear armed states.
women also have a crucial role to play when it comes to peace building so involving them in the process is a way to ensure that peace is more sustainable and more inclusive.
however i believe that any step forward is good even a baby step as it is one step closer to peace and to nuclear deescalation.
during our political talks in seoul our delegation underlined that the eu and the european parliament have been longstanding supporters of respect for international law universal values and in particular of nuclear nonproliferation. we conveyed three main messages. firstly in the light of the latest promising developments on the korean peninsula we supported the opening of a new high level dialogue with north korea.
secondly we recalled that this dialogue should aim at a peaceful resolution and at the denuclearisation of the korean peninsula.
thirdly we emphasised that pressure on north korea must be maintained until the regime in pyongyang delivers in a concrete manner. a final remark regarding the prospects of the ultimate goal of reunification of the two koreas the case of my home country germany has taught us that such a process can take a very long time
but it has also shown that all of a sudden things can move very quickly once the process has begun. therefore i sincerely wish the korean people all the best.
seeing with one's own eye the most militarised frontier in the world brings home the intensity of tensions and the threat felt by the south korean people so i welcome the clear signs of a willingness to engage from both sides although the main onus is obviously on dprk
a helpful step that could be taken by south korea would be not to overly insist i believe on reunification especially given that we sense that the younger generation sees this as less important than peaceful coexistence.
at the same time i think it's really important that we are not overly naive.
it wouldn't be the first time that countries open up to dprk following positive signs but that funding is quickly diverted to further development of nuclear weapons as has happened to japan in the past.
the difficulty of monitoring underground networks equally makes it extremely difficult to ensure compliance with any future deal.
i would urge that the us strategy is first and foremost informed by the concerns and interests of these countries rather than the hawkish views held by some of the people who advise the president on the hill.
please remember that when we last discussed the situation in north korea a few months ago not many of us would have imagined that today we could discuss such developments or even the wording prospects of peace'.
let's be cautiously optimistic the winter olympics have contributed to the softening of tensions but there is no doubt that we have to be thankful to the international community for being united in condemning north korea's ballistic missiles and nuclear programme and exercising strong pressure and to president moon jae in of south korea for showing incredible leadership and commitment to peace.
this is indeed a crucial moment.
we have to be optimistic but realistic at the same time. it is an opportunity that should not be missed but it is not all in our hands and we need to keep our guard up.
peace security and stability in the korean peninsula are key not only for the region but for the entire world.
we will continue to support all diplomatic efforts to this end.
the size of the north korean armed forces is ranked fourth in the world and now the threat of nuclear weapons has been added.
the meeting planned between the us president mr trump and the north korean leader has been met with slight but careful optimism in north korea's neighbouring countries.
however it seems unlikely that as a result of just one meeting both sides will be able to agree on something substantial. it is a fact that north korea has only caught the attention of president trump because it now has nuclear capabilities and it will be very hard for north korea to give up this privilege so easily.
the united states the european union and other nations cannot withdraw sanctions before north korea has significantly changed its behaviour so we are probably going to continue in this limbo.
what that the eu can do is make sure that the sanctions are kept in place and that they are followed by the member states.
this is the one thing that influences the behaviour of north korea.
it is not only the nuclear weapons that is the problem.
it is also the grave violations of human rights in north korea that needs to stop and the aggressive policy of north korea towards its neighbours especially south korea and japan.
this goal was to improve the investment climate in europe in general.
we would like to have a clear explanation on that and perhaps suggestions as to what can be done in order to make this distribution more balanced.
basically efsi was supposed to work as a confidence building measure.
thank you for your understanding.
i know mr jakovi that the alde group have not spoken in catchtheeye but you did get a blue card and you were the only colleague looking.
so with apologies to those who have not spoken i hope you will respect my attempts to be fair.
i do accept and take your points on board.
so do not accuse me of not having done my work.
i have proposed since september last year an energy efficiency hub for south east europe to allow technical assistance from the structural funds to come into the scheme.
the second issue is that you have promised us eur three hundred and fifty million of technical assistance and we have eur sixty million because your services gave us the wrong information when we negotiated.
no answer from the commission.
is the problem in brussels?
another point is that we have commission representations in all the member states which are ready to serve both public authorities and regional authorities but also the private sector to explain what efsi can do. in most member states too we have eib offices which are there for technical
i understand all the difficulties that the greek banks have but another idea which i raised there was to build an investment platform for instance in the tourism sector which means basically that the platform could collect together a large amount of smallsized investment for instance hotel renovation projects or things like that
some of our colleagues said that there were no projects in energy efficiency.
i want to underline the importance of the single market project.