lmms-lab-audio/europal-asr huggingface dataset:
Date: 2009-04-21
− Mr President, first of all I would like to thank Mrs Davis for her kind words just expressed. I would like to say that with regard to this regulation, as I said in my opening statement, the issue of comitology is aimed at simplifying the currently over-complex system of decision-making on very technical issues. However, I agree that we have to have a procedure in place that will nevertheless allow an issue to be raised at Council level should any matter appear to be of a significant or political nature. On the question of discards, we have already started to take measures to reduce discards, in particular within the parameters of the North Sea and of the cod recovery plan. We will continue and we will be coming up with further proposals, for example on the banning of high grading, in a general manner which we will be proposing for 2010, and we hope that we will be dealing with this issue holistically in the discussions on the reform of the common fisheries policy with a view, I hope, to the final result being the total elimination of discards. I would like myself to thank the Members of Parliament, in particular the members of the Fisheries Committee, for the constant support they have given the Commission in dealing with the sometimes intricate and politically sensitive issue of fisheries.
Date: 2009-04-21
− Mr President, first of all I would like to express my appreciation for the work of Mrs McGuinness on this report, which I know she did in difficult circumstances. She has succeeded in illustrating the great variety of the work of the Committee on Petitions and I would like to reconfirm, as I have no doubt she expects, the Commission's willingness to cooperate in all ways we can with the work of the committee. I would just like to pick up on two of the points she makes in the brief presentation of the report. Mrs McGuinness, first of all you underline the importance of direct contact between Parliament and the everyday, very real concerns of citizens who petition you. I agree, and I should know. You have dealt with nearly a hundred petitions coming from Malta since 2004, which is a rather high rate when taken pro rata to the population. Some of these petitions are common to many other Member States as well, but many were quite specific to Malta. This demonstrates the useful direct contact with the citizen that the committee provides. In addition it is also true to say that a good collaboration with the national authorities and the organisation of fact-finding missions are definitely useful ingredients for your work. Besides agreeing on the importance of working directly with citizens, the second thing I would like to pick up on is the general issue of fundamental rights. They crop up in many places in your report, whether about nationality and related rights, individual and family rights or the right of property, and as you know it very often happens that people who petition Parliament about their fundamental rights end up being disappointed. This is because such rights, more often than not, turn out to be outside the scope of Community law, as you have just rightly pointed out. To use your own words, there is a lot to be done to separate the wheat from the chaff, those concerns which we can work on and those on which we cannot. My wish, my very sincere wish, is that your report will help people to see this clearly and realistically. With these two comments, which I am sure will be taken in the spirit in which they are intended, I would just like to say that I wish the rapporteur every success and thank her again for this report.
Date: 2013-01-15
Can I just say on the last point that the Commission has a policy in relation to quotas of women on state boards which is fully supported by every single member of the College of Commissioners, including every single one of the women. That is the first point I want to make. My second point is that, in relation to women, we are very conscious that in the whole research area we have a high percentage of women coming out of college and getting involved in the research area, and then a period of time during which that high number falls away and in which it is very difficult them for them and sometimes impossible when they decide to come back into the workforce to get back into research. So we are very conscious that we need to do something to stimulate that and make it easier. We have various proposals in place for doing that. But one of the crucial elements is that in the whole area of STEM education, which is a problem and a challenge for all the Member States, it is an even bigger problem to get girls involved in this whole area. So we proposed a policy, 'Science: It's a girl thing', which we launched last year. In the autumn we rolled out in a number of Member States a very successful communication drive in relation to this whole programme. We have a Facebook page with 28 000 'likes', of which 70% are girls between the ages of 13 and 18. That is the exact target age group that we have for 'Science: It's a girl thing' because that is when students make decisions about their future and where they would like to study. That means in effect that we are reaching our target. The roll-out in a number of Member States of 'Science: It's a girl thing' and the proposals that we have is very important. From a gender point of view generally, if you look at different areas of the programme, there is a higher percentage of women involved in certain aspects of the framework programme health, for example, is an area where a lot of women are involved and continue to be involved. However, I think that we need to focus on getting more women involved in science at a very early age. I had a great privilege over the weekend in the Member State that I know best of visiting the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition, where again and again the number of young women who are enthusiastic, involved, have their projects, are confident and can describe in great detail what their project is about is amazing. But we lose them somewhere along the way when they leave education. I think that is an area that we need to concentrate on and certainly we are putting the proposals in place, together with the support of the Commissioner responsible for education, Commissioner Vassiliou, who has been particularly interested in the whole area of gender and how girls get involved in this whole area of research and innovation. I think we have done a lot. There is a lot to be done, but I think it is also a national responsibility and that governments and in particular education departments of governments have a crucial role to play. They need to take their responsibility and we will support them in whatever responsibility they take.
Date: 2013-01-15
You can be assured that we are very conscious of the fact that we need to communicate what our policies are. In this area I think the 'Science: It's a girl thing!' policy is particularly important. As I said, it got a lot of publicity at the beginning, when it was launched. It is now being rolled out over a number of Member States last autumn, for example very successfully. We are using social media because we think that social media is a really important aspect, and an area in which young women, as well as all young people, get a lot of their information. It is also important to say that the web is available in all of the languages, so there is no excuse at the moment for people to say they could not understand what was on the webpage. It is available in all of the languages and we are, you can be assured, very conscious of the fact that we need to communicate what we are doing because it is, we believe, a very positive policy area.
Date: 2013-01-15
I think first of all you need to be reassured that the Commission is fully behind the proposal that it presented, which included a proposal of an EUR 80 billion investment in research, innovation and science. I also think it is important to state here that one of the most avid supporters of investments in research and innovation has been President Barroso himself. From day one when I got this job, he made a very clear statement in which he stated that we do wonderful research in Europe, but we have failed to translate that research into innovations. He told me that my job would be about clearing the obstacles which are in the way of making that happen. In all of the public pronouncements that he has made, he has been very clear that the investment and the economy of the future is investment in research, science and innovation. In relation to prioritising, I agree with you entirely, it is very important that, rather than putting out a proposal which scatters small amounts of funding over a very large area, it was important for us to decide which priority areas we needed to focus on. What are the challenges which are facing not just Europe but the world? What are the areas that are in Europe's strategic interest? This is indeed what we have said: strategic programming for us means the whole research family within the Commission working together strategically to programme for the future. I think that is a huge development. It is an area in which you have not just all of the Commissioners working together, but you have all of the services also working together to ensure that what we do is done in a strategic way.
Date: 2013-01-15
In fact that was one of the reasons why, when we defined what innovation meant, we were very particular that we did not confine ourselves to manufacturing or ICT for example, but that in fact we had the broadest possible definition of innovation, which included services, design, the public sector and all aspects of our policy area. We have worked on that basis, and in the flagship Innovation Union initiative we have set out very clearly that all of these aspects of policy are included in the definition of innovation. So I agree entirely with what you say. It is not just about manufacturing, important as that is as an industrial area in Europe, but it is also about services and all the other aspects where we need innovations to get ahead.
Date: 2013-01-15
I agree. When I talk about the fact that we do not have excellence everywhere but we can have it anywhere, the Basque region is obviously a beam of hope in the context of all of the regions in Europe. They have very much applied themselves to the kind of smart specialisation that the Commission talks about now. I think that this has worked very well for the Basque region. The WIRE Conference will be coming up during the next six months, giving the innovative regions of Europe an opportunity to come together, to have discussions, to look at their policies, to see how those policies can be worked together, where they can cooperate, and what elements of the European policy are preventing the kind of smart specialisation that they would like to see developing. If one looks from a manufacturing point of view at the key enabling technologies for example, they have, as you know, the largest budget line within the Horizon 2020 policy. There is a real opportunity for those innovative regions to first of all further develop themselves, but also share their knowledge and the aspects of their policy with other regions in Europe that are not doing as well and have not focused and are not looking at specialisation in the way that the Basque region has. Certainly I would support very strongly what you have said. I think that in the policy that we have put forward we are rewarding those that have done well but we are encouraging those that have not done as well to come into the programme.
Date: 2013-01-15
When I responded I referred to key enabling technologies which, from a manufacturing point of view, are the future of Europe. We very strongly support key enabling technologies. We have done this in the high-level group, which was chaired by Vice-President Tajani and had Vice-President Kroes and myself as members, where European industry and industry which is not European but is working in the European space were very much involved. There are crucial proposals laid out in that final report which will be worked on as we move forward. For us, manufacturing is very important. I think that what is happening in an area as innovative as the Basque region is something that needs to be supported strongly.
Date: 2013-07-01
Mr President, honourable Members, on behalf of Commissioner De Gucht I wish to thank you, and in particular the rapporteur, Mr Yannick Jadot, represented by Ms Keller, for this report and the highly interesting views on export credits which are reflected in it. The global financial crisis has demonstrated in an impressive manner how essential the availability of adequate financing is for global trade flows. Export Credit Agencies play a vital role in this process. They are therefore instruments of strategic importance in our wider efforts to support the interests of European exporters. It is, however, also vital to ensure that there is appropriate transparency at European level on how Export Credit Agencies operate and what they achieve. This has been one of the objectives of Regulation No 1233/2011 and in particular of the reporting mechanisms which it has established. Looking at the outcome of the first reporting exercise under this regulation, let me make the following observations. The European Commission shares the view expressed in the present report that Member States in their annual activity reports have made available the financial and operational information on export credits requested in Regulation 1233/2011. The European Commission confirms its commitment to conduct external policies in accordance with Article 21 of the Treaty on European Union. We take particular note of the observations on the policies applied to export credit transactions contained in the present report. We will further analyse them and see how in due consideration of the wording of the regulation and in agreement with all parties involved appropriate follow-up can be given to them. The Commission would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for the support expressed in the present report for our ongoing efforts to engage the major emerging economies in the establishment of the new International Working Group on Export Credits. Countries like China, India and Brazil have become major new players in export credits in recent years. Engaging them in a constructive dialogue will be an important challenge. Commission De Gucht will duly keep Parliament informed on further developments in this field.
Date: 2013-10-08
Madam President, I would like to thank you for giving the Commission the opportunity to answer questions on the European Research Area. The European Research Area matters because it represents a structural reform and strengthening of a crucial sector of the economy R&D that underpins the entire knowledge economy in Europe. We have set the goal of 3% R&D investment in the EU by 2020, but we cannot have increased investment without reform to ensure that our science systems spend the money usefully and efficiently. ERA has been around as a concept as Mrs Sartori and the President said since 2000, but when the European Council set the deadline of 2014 for the completion of ERA, this concentrated our minds and acted as an impulse and impetus for the Commission's communication on ERA published in July 2012. We redoubled our efforts, identified the reforms and shortcomings that must be tackled and established the broader reinforced partnerships so that we could give ERA our best shot. The first ERA progress report, as you heard, was adopted on 20 September in time for the European Council meeting this month where innovation is on the agenda. That report comes to some very interesting findings. For example, national research programmes still operate according to different rules, for example on reporting, which makes transnational research cooperation difficult. There are a host of barriers to research and mobility, including very limited accessibility to grants by non-nationals or portability of grants across borders. Open, transparent and merit-based recruitment practices are still not broadly implemented for all research positions. For example, only 10% of vacancies are advertised at European level via the EURAXESS jobs portal. On gender, very disappointingly, only 34% of research performing organisations responding to our survey offer flexible careers and only 18% have recruitment and promotion practices specifically designed to combat the waste of female talent. This report is the first comprehensive analysis of ERA but it is very much a work in progress. We are pushing the Member States to provide the data and information that we lack to carry out a more robust exercise next year. On the basis of this, we will take a long, hard look at what progress has been made and, on that basis, I will make recommendations to my successor on what needs to be done. The bottom line is that ERA is at a crossroads. We will need to take some very tough decisions next year. As I have said before, all options are on the table and nothing is ruled out. I am obviously very happy that the debate is taking place and will be delighted to answer questions that are raised by the Members.
Date: 2013-12-10
Madam President, I would like to thank Mr Cutaş for his active work on the Commission proposal of June 2013. As you know, since then, with the backing of the G8 and G20, the automatic exchange of information has emerged as a new global standard. But the work is not yet done. I would therefore like to request you to fully support the main aim of the proposal, which is to bring a broader range of financial information within the scope of the automatic exchange of information. Certain amendments in the report adopted by the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs depart slightly from this objective. I believe that, in order to ensure a coherent approach at EU level, it is crucial that Member States should not be able to differ in terms of the amount of information that they provide automatically to each other. The European Parliament has always been very supportive towards the mandatory exchange of information and it cannot afford to give half-hearted support to the work on a global standard for automatic exchange of information. Most Member States have confirmed their support for such a global standard. We are actively participating in the OECD work on the global standard and, as a result, the standard now takes on board most of the EU concerns. The OECD's aim is to present the global standard to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors at the meeting scheduled for next February. The Commission's proposal that we are discussing today would provide a suitable legal basis to implement the global standard within the EU. Work on this proposal must therefore continue in parallel with the work at the OECD so that the EU can lead the way by adopting the global standard via the directive, once it has been approved by the G20. The proposal for a directive will also have to take account of the concerns recently expressed by the European Data Protection Supervisor. Although the Commission shares the concerns of Parliament on the need to ensure adequate protection of personal data, we do not consider it necessary to overload the legal text with references to EU data protection rules. The question of data protection is already tackled by relevant prohibitions in the existing directive which are also applicable to the current proposal. Having said this, we are currently considering how best to take account of the European Data Protection Supervisor's comments, and have also brought them to the attention of the Council, as Member States would also have to take them on board in their individual arrangements on automatic information exchange with third countries.
Date: 2013-12-10
Madam President, my thanks to all the Members who have intervened in this debate, thank you for your views. I think we should be very proud of the role played by the EU in securing the very remarkable commitments made by world leaders to improve global tax governance. I think that now we need to demonstrate that we can continue to use the EU dimension to act as the EU with a single voice to pursue the consequences of these agreements that were reached, thanks to our support and to our initiatives. I therefore ask the Members of this Parliament and all the groups to give their strong support to our proposal which is based on mandatory automatic exchange of information without the condition of availability. I think we need to trust these mechanisms to improve the efficiency of our tax administrations for the exchange of information, and of course I think the interpretation should be based on the common framework and not on the different national laws. I hope Parliament will support these views and we can have these new measures adopted as soon as possible.
Date: 2014-04-17
Mr President, on behalf of the Commission, I wish to recall the reasons for strengthening our trade relations with Vietnam, a country of 90[nbsp ]million people and the third largest country of ASEAN. Sixty per cent of its dynamic population are under 50 years old and Vietnam is a development success story. Political and economic reforms launched in 1986 have transformed Vietnam from one of the poorest countries in the world to a lower-middle income country within a quarter of a century. Vietnam's openness has led to growth at an average rate of just below 6% between 2008 and 2012. Last year, for the first time, Vietnam surpassed Indonesia in terms of total trade value exchanges with the EU and has thus become the EU's fourth most important trading partner in the ASEAN nations behind Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. For the EU, by 2015, 90% of future economic growth will be generated outside Europe a very large part of it in the Asia-Pacific region. Asia contains some of the fastest growing economies in the world. So for us, the EU, it is only logical that we increase our engagement with Asian economies such as Vietnam. It is part of our own drive to use international trade and investment to boost growth at home. It is part of our recovery strategy. They are a stepping stone for our ultimate goal of achieving an agreement with the whole region. Beyond tariffs, the agreement with Vietnam will cover services and investment disciplines on state-owned enterprises, public procurement, sustainable development and the regulatory framework. As in previous negotiations, which have already been finalised, there will be a clear link between the trade provisions and the political provisions of the Association Agreement. The Agreement will allow Vietnam to build on the reforms it made when it joined the WTO on issues such as transparency and public consultation, all of which will make the system more effective and in tune with real economic needs. Vietnam is also moving ahead with a wide range of new agreements, through broader ASEAN negotiations and through their trans-Pacific partnerships. Commissioner De Gucht went to Hanoi on 17 March, where he met with the Trade Minister of Vietnam. They took stock of negotiations and agreed on a way forward. The Commission hopes to swiftly advance and conclude these negotiations, ideally before the end of this tenure by the end of October this year so that business in Europe and Vietnam can reap the benefits as soon as possible and stimulate growth in both economies. I want to thank the European Parliament for this resolution, which is sending a clear and consistent message to our counterparts regarding these negotiations.