kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
the only appropriate response to the challenges that have been presented here this evening is to invest more and better in the people of europe and this means starting early on and continuing right throughout their lives.
combating inequalities is a shared priority. rising inequalities undermine social cohesion economic growth and the very stability of our political institutions as many of you said.
so along with the undeniable opportunities that are offered for social participation and for innovation and job creation they also carry with them the risk of widening inequalities.
as the report rightly points out automation and digitalisation add to the existing challenges as they rapidly transform the world of work.
this is the essence of what is contained in the european pillar of social rights.
we are counting on the european parliament's continued support in order to ensure that the pillar's principles and rights are translated into deeds on the ground.
there is an obvious need as we all acknowledge to tackle extreme poverty.
i think many of us are still affronted by the fact that the european union has so many food banks because people cannot afford to feed themselves and their families.
we need to look at how we use the european semester as a way of moving forward on this social inequalities agenda.
many members have spoken about tax justice and it is true that the tax justice agenda is a crucial part of closing the gap.
it provides additional monies for essential social investment along with better targeting of the eu money we have available. we should be looking at the creation of decent work.
health and care the green economy education and lifelong learning are areas ripe for increased investment as is the social inclusion agenda.
part of that of course is making sure everybody has an equal opportunity in society and that is where the anti discrimination agenda becomes really important.
madam president it is heartbreaking to hear constituents come to me it seems week in week out who are suffering under zerohours contracts.
for people who don't know what zerohours contracts are it is where you go to work one day and you wait for a phone call to tell you whether you are needed in work the next day.
if any government wants actually to reduce the inequalities and give people back dignity and pride in the workplace they need to clamp down and stop zerohours contracts because we have so many problems in the united kingdom.
universal credit has been a disaster people have to wait six weeks for their benefit payments to come through.
worryingly inequality has been on the rise recently. this is why it is so important that we deal with all factors determining it such as the changes in the global economy regional variations in competitiveness or the lack of structural reforms. devising a cure to such problems also demands that we correctly
identify where responsibilities lie what are the measures member states are responsible for and best placed to take which are the areas where the eu can give effective support how we avoid moral hazard and how we avoid discouraging individual self reliance.
even though it does not always succeed in this task the report has the merit of listing a great number of sectors where it is imperative to act in order to reduce inequality.
key among these in my opinion is education.
open and to avoid any kind of protectionism.
more ambitious regulation for credit rating agencies;
for europe it is a matter of returning to the basic values of the european model which requires combining entrepreneurial initiatives respect for productive work and striving for solidarity.
thirdly it was agreed to reform the international financial institutions to ensure strong institutions for the global economy and provide appropriate representation for emerging and developing countries.
we welcome in particular the reference to the end of banking secrecy.
effective coordination will be necessary to allow europe to continue to steer the g twenty process which should be our continuous objective.
green energy for example is far more jobs rich than investment in business as usual yet the package agreed by the g twenty will actually lock the world into a high carbon economy at exactly the time that we should be shifting to a very different low carbon sustainable economy.
the communiqu's words about climate change and the low carbon economy were relegated to just two paragraphs at the end of the communiqu with no specific commitments.
mr president the g twenty was a massively missed opportunity for tackling both the environmental crisis and the economic crisis at the same time in other words for introducing what we are calling a green new deal'.
that meeting should have been the moment for a massive investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency for example not just because we have to urgently address the challenge of climate change but because investment in green technologies is one of the best ways of getting people back to work.
billions of euros were found for the imf and the world bank but for making that vital transition to a green economy there was no serious money on the table just vague aspirations just talks about talks.
for the commission this is positive and encouraging.
indeed fundamental changes to all major aspects of the vat system are advocated by business stakeholders as well as the general public.
this is quoted as a major obstacle to maximising the benefits of our internal market in particular for smaller businesses.
i am pleased that the references to the financial transaction tax and other eu own resources were removed.
the report also recognises that any new vat proposals must be fraud proof and help in particular to end carousel fraud.
this is not a proposal with which my group can agree because of our belief that the right to levy taxes and to decide how they are levied should remain with the nation states.
coordination between sovereign states is one thing harmonisation by the eu is another.
and why we conservatives do not.
it is another important step towards the efficient functioning of the single market.
madam president may i start by thanking our rapporteur mr casa for his diligent work on this report. any report on taxation is likely to be controversial because the right to levy tax is one of the fundamental powers of a sovereign state. that is why so many in this chamber including the commissioner want the eu to have the power to levy taxes on our citizens
i am happy to see our governments in the council adopting a more coordinated approach towards vat.
where i disagree with this report is over the call made in paragraph forty six for member states to increase the level of tax harmonisation.
this report deals with vat and there are many aspects of it that i welcome.
i like mr casa's focus on reducing administrative burdens and costs for our businesses.
we can no longer support this and this is not a tax that should be on an eu scale. it should be for a national government to decide what sales tax it should have and all revenue should stay within the member state.
in fairness to most of the businesses they passed the vat reduction on to the customer and as a result they have increased their customers and the number of people visiting.
taxes are not levied to look pretty or harmonious.
each country has its own spending agenda and perceived economic and social needs and it is they who should determine tax rates.
i would not reform vat i would replace it with a simple but variable sales tax. flat rate vat is a regressive tax because it is paid disproportionately by the less affluent with their high marginal propensity to consume.
the zero rated and exempt items make vat less regressive than it would otherwise be.
however i suspect that those items would become victims of harmonisation.
an empty chair policy would be counter productive with the eu but we need to increase support to the opposition in belarus and tighten eu smart sanctions on lukashenko and his kgb cronies.
mr president the fact that in belarus president lukashenko's secret police is still called the kgb tells us all that we need to know about his mentality and methods. twenty years after the collapse of the soviet union he remains the archetypal a strong man whose addiction to power is as strong as his instincts for crushing dissent. lukashenko used the kgb or uses the kgb as a political tool to silence the popular protest including the cases of ales mikhalevich and natalia radina that followed yet another disappointingly rigged presidential election in december last year.
if the eu is to have any moral force in the world with regard to promoting democracy human rights and the rule of law it must surely start in europe itself our own continent.
stories abound of opposition activists being abducted detained extrajudicially and then tortured mentally and psychologically by the kgb.
i do not dispute the need to engage with the lukashenko regime.
belarus matters to us so much because it is a european country and has become a cuba on our own doorstep.
more than seven hundred people were arrested.
it is now time to reflect on whether an additional response is needed.
this assistance is being delivered with the initial focus on providing legal assistance and counselling to victims of repression and on support to civil society organisations and civic campaigns.
the widespread detention and prosecution of civil society activists including presidential candidates in the post election period led us to expect harsh sentences to follow. as of today we already know of four cases where individuals have been sentenced to several years in prison.
the situation today is as follows as you know the eu reacted to the fraudulent elections of nineteen december and to the subsequent repression by putting nearly one hundred and sixty people on a sanction list. this was a very clear and strong message of condemnation to the authorities.
finally the european union will discuss whether the latest events call for a further expansion of our existing sanction list to add new names such as those responsible for issuing the latest sentences and leading the recent crackdown.
all these despicable events may call for an update of our eu response.
at the same time the commission and the european external action service have swiftly designed new dedicated assistance tools to provide urgent support to the victims of repression their families and civil society up to an amount of eur. one seven million.
the high representative issued an immediate condemnation following the first sentence on eighteen february and she recalled that political motives had no place in a legal process.
we would welcome it if more countries in the international community were to join the call for such actions because the status quo is unacceptable.
we urgently call upon the belarusian authorities to allow political opposition civil society free expression and media pluralism.
the credibility of the belarusian authorities would be won if investigations carried out in line with international standards with international experts were to start right away.
these developments fit into a larger pattern of repression and politically motivated trials against opposition activists civil society the media and human rights defenders that continues to this day.
we should consider restrictive measures including economic sanctions on belarusian government owned companies but we hope this will not be necessary.
i hope that president lukashenko will take good note of the events in the southern neighbourhood and understand that the only responsible behaviour is democratisation and the social and economic reforms in the country.
we call for the immediate and unconditional release of all detained protestors and for the dropping of all politically motivated charges.
the decisions of the council have had no effect so far on the situation in belarus.
i hope it does not take ten years to get a fairer retail sector because at the moment both consumers and producers are losing out.
mr president i want to welcome today's paper from the commission on the retail market monitoring report towards more efficient and fairer retail services in the internal market for.
i think it significant that in this paper we are looking at not just the economic aspects of retailing but also the social environmental and consumer impacts in this sector.
there is certainly a market malfunction as the commission rightly points out.
in november two thousand and nine cumbria which is in the northern part of my constituency was hit by serious flooding.
mr president i would like to bring to this house's attention a riddle which seems to be confusing meps from my own region in the north west of england.
the european union programme horizon two thousand and twenty does not focus on wealth creation from innovation it is all about support for researchers and that is a serious flaw in the programme.
mr president international partners should be and can be reassured that research development and innovation in the united kingdom will continue at the same pace if not faster post brexit.
i am proud that the flag of europe is on projects.
it is time that europe started speaking out about its successes. we are damned by those who will point to our problems but there are enough successes to far outweigh the difficulties that europe faces.
many students who are on erasmus now do not realise that it is a european union programme.
i welcome this report and i think it is the start of a fight back for the european union.
so i say well done to the rapporteurs on this report.
i am also proud when there is an irish flag on those same projects and i see no conflict.
in other words if you put enough twelve star flags on things maybe people will support the project and thus more and more people get drawn into a nexus in which they believe that they are financially dependent on the european union.
if it worked then greece would now be bailing out germany as the biggest recipient versus the biggest donor.
if you encourage people to look for every rise in life to brussels then they are not out making things and selling things and contributing to the robustness of the private economy and therein lies our problem.
we are not pretending really that the purpose of these structural and cohesion funds is really to improve the economies of the recipients.
but we need to follow up with constant attention and vigilance to the issue and we need to put pressure on regions and governments to do something about it.
mr president i want to put on the record my support for this report because there are citizens in the gallery here who i hope do not understand because they have not experienced what it means to be in this category of statelessness.
as a shadow rapporteur i am very pleased to see that the emphasis in the report is on the identification and elimination of statelessness via empowerment of regional human rights bodies coordination between states and the encouragement of quantitative and qualitative research.
the commission broadly welcomes the outcome of these negotiations.
fascinatingly and i really do not know how they manage to keep a straight face when they are talking about tax evasion the whole commission and the commission bureaucracy avoid their taxes. they do not pay taxes like citizens pay taxes.
they have all sorts of special deals composite tax rates high tax thresholds non contributory pension schemes.
the bible also refers to tax collectors and they were no more popular then than they are now but nevertheless taxation is something that is necessary for member states to exist and provide services.
second despite some occasional delays in transposition the eu has always ensured compliance with the international obligations it assumes and the adoption of the iccat transposition regulation will in the future permit faster and more efficient implementation of new iccat recommendations thanks to the delegation of certain well framed powers to the commission.
that is clearly not the case.
these obligations need to be transposed into eu law to ensure legal certainty and a level playing field for operators across the eu.
first following the adoption of the treaty of the functioning of the eu any measures adopted by an international organisation to which the eu is party is binding on the member states even without transposition.
the transposition of measures adopted under iccat is necessary because they not only impose obligations on member states but also create obligations for individuals such as the vessel master and owner.
considering the scope and complexity of this matter the commission is very pleased that the co legislators were able to reach a political agreement smoothly and in a spirit of good cooperation and compromise.
however while i agree that we should transpose such measures faster i would like to clear up immediately a potential misperception that the eu has not been complying with its international obligations.
the commission is currently finalising a draft regulation for a recovery plan for mediterranean swordfish which is in internal consultation and we aim to adopt the proposal before the end of the year.
the iccat transposition regulation embraces the series of iccat recommendations with the exception of measures concerning the recovery plan for bluefin tuna and mediterranean swordfish which are included in separate regulations.
that seemed to be a better way of solving these matters than the way the spanish government is doing it now.
even though they are binding the decisions adopted by the international commission for the conservation of atlantic tunas must be transposed as soon as possible into eu law.
i want to assure everyone that all fishing opportunities are evaluated by scientists on the latest data given by all contracting parties.
it has shown a very broad criticism of the delay but broad support for the approval of this proposal and i am very happy that the negotiations have concluded.
i have already commented on the delay in my introductory remarks.
the issue of quota distribution which was raised by some meps is not part of this regulation.
i stress again that the european union has been complying with its international obligations all along in spite of the delay in transposition.
many have stressed the issue of the delayed transposition which i fully understand.
it was led by the principle of fair and strict transpositions and it allows for quick implementation of new iccat recommendations. as i said the proposal transposing the management plan for swordfish is expected to reach you during the next months.
this has been discussed extensively with members states both before the iccat meeting and also after.
the adoption of this proposal will also contribute to reducing such delays in the future.
we want the largest possible breeding stock to deliver the greatest numbers.
whether this agreement will achieve that is debatable at the very best.
what is clear is that international conventions are for nations i repeat nations to sign.
over the weekend we witnessed bloody scenes as spanish police terrorised the people of catalonia to stop them expressing their views the very negation of everything my group stands for.
madrid justifies its behaviour on the grounds that spanish law is being broken. putting aside the question as to whether a government should beat up its people in that way even if they are breaking the law we are entitled to expect the government that does this to be a stickler for the letter of the law.
an international convention is a convention between nations.
the eu is not a nation or a state and should therefore not be a party to international agreements international may i say.
if the spanish government are sticklers for the legal protocol they should share our view.
they do not of course because their view of the law is entirely contentious and self interested.
if they were consistent and decent they would not try to deny the long standing international agreement of the treaty of utrecht some hundreds of years old.
we staged a referendum on scottish independence at taxpayers' expense may i add and the vote was won for the union.
the spanish might have done much better to behave as the british did.
for instance the us not for profit organisation bookshare securely serves blind people in the uk who register with proof of their disability and who enter a pass code before downloading an accessible digital book they wish to read.
to date the council and commission negotiators have consistently opposed the clause in article d which would allow the sending of accessible books to individuals.
mr president the world blind union and the european blind union have made it very clear that for the treaty to work in practice for blind and print disabled people it needs to permit the sending of accessible books across international borders directly to individuals as well as to organisations serving blind people.
there are indeed already organisations which send accessible format books directly to disabled people in other countries in a limited way limited that is by outdated copyright law that this treaty if concluded next month would modernise.
i thank you for your attention and i look forward to hearing the views of members this evening.
i am sure the commission as negotiator will keep parliament fully and immediately informed as the negotiations progress.
as you know discussions within the world intellectual property organization on how to provide better access to information culture and communication for the visually impaired and persons with print disabilities have been underway since.
the commission will represent the eu at the marrakesh conference and will negotiate on its behalf in line with the negotiating directives which it has received from the council.
in june last year the commission submitted to the council a recommendation requesting authorisation to open and conduct negotiations on behalf of the european union on an international agreement in the context of wipo.
two thousand and nine the focus of these discussions has been to expand the number of copyrighted works in accessible formats and improve access to them.
two thousand and thirteen a draft text of an international instrument was recently circulated by the wipo secretariat as a basis for discussions at that conference.
it would clearly not be appropriate for me here to enter into a public discussion on the content of the mandate which has been given to the commission and which is internal to the eu.
you are absolutely committed to achieving this change on behalf of people who unimaginably are shut out of the great worlds of shakespeare dostoevsky and hugo. all we need is a real commitment from the council and the commission.
therefore commissioner will you and the member states now accept the call of blind people's organisations to remove i repeat remove from articles d and e of the draft treaty wording which requires checks on the commercial availability of books in accessible formats to be made as a prerequisite for the cross border sending of accessible books?
as i said in my initial statement it would not be appropriate for me to respond at this point to some of the substantive points that have been made here.
the commission as the commissioner has set out very well is negotiating on behalf of the union and therefore will keep parliament fully informed of progress.
the treaty must not place undue burdens on organisations representing visually impaired persons when it comes to the cross border transfer of accessible format works that is clear.
so as i stated earlier the presidency will continue to support the commission in its work as it seeks to secure a positive outcome to the negotiations and one that corresponds to the mandate which it has been given.
we will of course come back to you once we have a successful outcome to the negotiations and we will at that stage be seeking your consent to the agreement which of course is the prerogative of parliament.
i reiterated my serious concerns over these developments as well as the overall worsening situation for civil society in russia.
we saw some signs of cautious but real dialogue between government and citizens emerging.
many face serious criminal charges.