misclassified/meps_speeches_with_translation.csv huggingface dataset:
Speaker: Gwendoline DELBOS-CORFIELD (France — Europe Écologie)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2023-06-14
Debate: Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware - Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (draft recommendation) (debate)

  Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Verts/ALE).   – Monsieur le Président, de cette commission d’enquête PEGA nous pouvons tirer trois leçons importantes. La première: nous avons urgemment besoin d’un moratoire et de régulation pour ces nouvelles technologies, comme nous en avons pour les armes. Ce sont des outils intrusifs, répressifs, aux mains de ceux qui ont le pouvoir, et n’importe quelle citoyenne ou n’importe quel citoyen peut un jour être considéré comme suspect et devenir l’objet d’une surveillance constante, secrète et terrifiante. 
Deuxième conclusion alarmante: dans l’Union européenne, des États aux finances fragiles et aux tendances autoritaires ont massivement surveillé leurs opposants, des journalistes, des militants pour les réduire au silence. Aucune transparence, aucun recours ni aucune réparation pour les victimes – Hongrie, Pologne, Grèce, Chypre et même Espagne.
Enfin, dernière alerte: les États les plus riches comme la France ou l’Allemagne, n’ont pas besoin d’acheter des logiciels à des sociétés israéliennes. Ils ont la capacité de créer leurs propres systèmes de surveillance, et sur ceux-là, nous ne savons rien.
Speaker: Gwendoline DELBOS-CORFIELD (France — Europe Écologie)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2023-06-01
Debate: Foreign interference in all democratic processes in the European Union, including disinformation - Election integrity and resilience build-up towards European elections 2024 (debate)

  Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, foreign interference is not something that we can take lightly, especially when EU values and our democracies are called into question. In order to safeguard our democracies we all know that the most important is to improve transparency. This is crucial. This means not only for us as Members of this Parliament, but also for think tanks, foundations and the private companies that we work with.
However, we need to get the balance right. At times, this narrative of monitoring and legislating against foreign interference veers dangerously close to calling for the censorship and criminalisation of NGOs. But without defending a free and functioning civil society, we cannot claim to defend EU values. Civil society organisations are precisely the actors that have defended EU values, worked to prevent foreign Russian interference in the EU and in its neighbourhood countries, and put pressure on us to act to prevent further authoritarian backsliding. If we criminalise civil society, we run the risk of undermining the very values upon which this Union is built.
Speaker: Gwendoline DELBOS-CORFIELD (France — Europe Écologie)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2023-05-31
Debate: Breaches of the Rule of law and fundamental rights in Hungary and frozen EU funds (debate)

  Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Mr President, the Hungarian Government has pushed through new legislation asking citizens to report activities that go against the Hungarian way of life – in other words, anything that does not conform with the official Hungarian Government’s narrative on the rule of marriage, the traditional family or the illiberal democracy. The wording in this legislation was withdrawn this Friday after two months of pressure, coming notably from this Parliament. 
But let us reflect on what was at stake. A society based on generalised surveillance, where you are encouraged to spy on your neighbours, your colleagues, your friends, and then to denounce them for their personal thoughts or their love life. A new step on the path towards authoritarianism. A society of constant fear, the end of freedom of expression, the end of privacy. 
This is the world the Hungarian Government wants us all to live in – a parallel world inspired by Vladimir Putin, where minority rights are not protected, where rainbow families are unlawful, where the Russian war in Ukraine is not recognised, where European values and the definition of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights are denied, and where disinformation about what the European Union does is on billboards and in official speeches nearly every day. 
Should we let the Hungarian Government set the agenda of the EU for six months when they themselves say they do not respect what we are and what we stand for? What the European Parliament is asking for is only to start the conversation about this crucial issue.
Speaker: Gwendoline DELBOS-CORFIELD (France — Europe Écologie)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2023-05-10
Debate: Update of the anti-corruption legislative framework (debate)

  Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, there is no healthy democracy with corruption. Not only does corruption destroy public services and hurt deeply the finances of a country, but it also creates imbalance in powers, and it fosters a climate of threats and fear because those wanting to uncover corruption need to be silenced by those corrupted. And this is why we have, in the EU, journalists getting killed because they are investigating corruption cases.
And the EU is sick because of so much corruption involving high-level politicians, public servants and public funds in so many heavy sectors of the economy – healthcare, transportation, construction, waste management, aerospace and defence, agriculture, food, labour, social protection, a number of European economic sectors. And we know the documented and the most grave situations: Hungary, Malta, Czech Republic, Greece, Croatia, Bulgaria. But in fact, all EU Member States are concerned and we have, for the moment, not been good at all at enforcing our rules. We are very good at saying rules but not at enforcing them.
Speaker: Gwendoline DELBOS-CORFIELD (France — Europe Écologie)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2023-05-10
Debate: Adequacy of the protection afforded by the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (debate)

  Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Mr President, again the Commission is trying to allow unconditional flows of personal data across the Atlantic. Once again, the Commission is using our fundamental rights as collateral in the quest for a closer transatlantic relationship – and, once again, we find ourselves here in this Parliament urging the Commission to do the right thing and not to grant, to the US, an inadequate level of data protection. 
In the EU, our right to data protection is enshrined in law. Citizens know that the collection of the data is only done when necessary and in a proportional way, and in case of a breach they are able to challenge this in a court of law and to know the outcome. In the US, the executive order that was issued in October 2022 does not take the place of a federal data protection law, nor does it pave the way for the end of the ongoing mass surveillance or bulk collection of data by the US National Security Agency. 
It also does not change the fact that European victims of US surveillance are unable to seek effective judicial redress. The latest agreement may be called the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, but this new name does not reflect the reality. No sufficient changes have been made in the US to safeguard personal data without significant reforms. 
It is quite clear that the US does not have an essentially equivalent level of data protection. There is also, of course, a significant risk that all of this will anyway be struck down by the CJEU again. This means more legal uncertainty and disruption for citizens and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic. 
This debate is about protecting our personal data, but it is also about protecting our EU values, fundamental rights and civil liberties.
Speaker: Gwendoline DELBOS-CORFIELD (France — Europe Écologie)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2023-03-29
Debate: Order of business

  Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, indeed, the Democracy, Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights Monitoring Group (DRFMG) went on a mission to Greece recently, and we made assessments of a number of issues concerning rule of law and fundamental rights. We therefore now need an open debate in this House.
It has been, in fact, a longstanding demand from a number of Members of this Parliament, coming from different groups already for a long time, because our concerns are serious. In fact, it’s been nearly one year that we’ve been waiting, because on 9 April 2021, Giorgos Karaivaz was assassinated – a sinister remembrance of the deaths of Daphne Caruana Galizia and Ján Kuciak, journalists all murdered in relation to corruption. 
That is why we need on this debate, like on others today, a debate in this House. We make this request with a Commission statement, please, because the Council will not be there tomorrow. We will also need a resolution to be voted in April, and we propose to be in the joint debate tomorrow with the 2022 Rule of Law report – and we ask for RCV, of course.
Speaker: Gwendoline DELBOS-CORFIELD (France — Europe Écologie)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2023-03-14
Debate: Implementation report on the Agreement on the withdrawal of the UK from the EU - The Windsor Framework (debate)

  Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, 20 years ago, the Good Friday Agreement was signed. This major step will be commemorated with the importance it deserves.
Sadly, for more than a year now, the Assembly in Northern Ireland has not been sitting. In its absence, citizens in Northern Ireland have struggled to access health care and financial support for energy bills. Polling shows that those in favour of restoring the Assembly in Northern Ireland and those who support the Windsor framework are young people and women. But because of the institutions not fully functioning, young people and women are also among those seriously affected by the lack of access to basic care and by inflated energy prices.
What matters most to people in Northern Ireland, as everywhere else in Europe, is everyday issues. As often is the case, when identity politics are instrumentalized and take up all the political space, it comes at the cost of people's needs. This is not only about the relationship between the EU and the UK. We also must consider the rights of citizens in Northern Ireland. The EU has a responsibility to protect the Good Friday Agreement, to prioritize the rights of citizens and to contribute to maintaining peace and democracy on the island of Ireland.
Speaker: Gwendoline DELBOS-CORFIELD (France — Europe Écologie)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2023-02-15
Debate: The erosion of the rule of law in Greece: the wiretapping scandal and media freedom (topical debate)

  Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, Greece, State of Play, 2023. Eleni Touloupaki, former head of the corruption prosecutor's office, has been attacked by her own government after an investigation about the scandal involving the Novartis Pharma company. And now she suspects that she was spied on as many others were in the Greek political context. Meanwhile, the wiretapping scandal, we know, is ongoing. 
Giorgos Karaivaz, a long-time crime reporter was assassinated in April 2021, and since then there's been no real follow-up to find out who killed him and what the motivation was. Journalists are terrified, activists too. NGOs working on migration issues are harassed. And even in this Parliament, it took us months to have this small debate on the agenda, not one on the wiretapping, but one on the systemic degradation of the rule of law, corruption, democracy, judiciary, media pluralism. And it doesn't seem that the Commission is sufficiently also challenging this. So I'm really wondering, have we not learned any lesson? Will Greece be the next sick man after Hungary of this Europe? And will we act once again when it's too late?
Speaker: Gwendoline DELBOS-CORFIELD (France — Europe Écologie)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2023-02-14
Debate: Establishment of an independent EU Ethics Body (debate)

  Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, transparency and accountability are easy and simple requirements to put in place and so it remains a mystery why it is taking us so much time to make it happen. We have been cowardly and weak, because at the same time we were very eager to ask for transparency and accountability from others – from businesses, corporations, lobbyists, democracies, countries, institutions and now NGOs. 
Of course, when you don’t want to take action and when you don’t want to be scrutinised, the best thing to do is to find a scapegoat. Some now are using a narrative which criminalised NGOs in the same way that liberal democracies do in order to avoid dealing with our own lack of rules and implementation. 
There is another argument preventing us from concrete measures – the famous ‘additional burden’. But it is not that complicated to give straightforward information about assets; how wealthy we were at the start of the political term, and how wealthy we are at the end – because no enrichment should be considered normal in our Parliament duty. Maybe, it is time to discuss what a public mandate is and what the general interest is. 
We have very good conditions of work. They make us efficient parliamentarians. We can commission studies, we can travel using our own expenses, we can meet different stakeholders, we can organise hearings. We should be informed members, but independent in the way we take our legislative decision.
And such an independence, in such good conditions, demands high integrity. This level of integrity is possible if we have an ethics body, which monitors the three European institutions in a serious way. When such an authority was created in France, it dramatically increased awareness and morality in political life. It is an indispensable tool to fight corruption. 
Let’s stop finding excuses, looking for the guilty party elsewhere. Let’s stop these stories and scandals around Commissioners and MEPs. Let’s be a 21st century democracy, healthy and secure, one in which policies are made for the common good and not in the interest of a few people.
Speaker: Gwendoline DELBOS-CORFIELD (France — Europe Écologie)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-12-14
Debate: Defending the European Union against the abuse of national vetoes (debate)

  Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, dear smaller Member States, by size or by population, I know you have always fought fiercely for national vetoes and I simply do not understand it. We have all witnessed recently how national vetoes have dramatically been to the advantage of the few bad guys in the room. National vetoes have been used in bad faith against European interests. 
They have been an instrument to pressure you against your own will when you were deciding on essential European policies together. They have made your efforts to find common ground more fragile and all of this has threatened our security. It has also allowed the misuse of the money of European citizens. And some important files became simple pawns in a cynical gambling game. 
And why? Smaller Member States should not fear the end of unanimity, Europe has grown and changed. You can protect your interests through qualified majority, and you have proven that you are good at finding these majorities when needed. 
Throughout this term, I have had the most respect for the Czech Presidency, the Finnish Presidency, the Portuguese Presidency. You were the ones that brought everyone around the table to talk about difficult topics and try to make progress. And you were the ones that engaged sincerely with Parliament. Do not fear the end of unanimity.
(The speaker agreed to respond to a blue-card speech)
Speaker: Gwendoline DELBOS-CORFIELD (France — Europe Écologie)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-12-14
Debate: Defending the European Union against the abuse of national vetoes (debate)

  Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Verts/ALE),  blue-card reply. – No they’re not because they did it with good faith. I’m serious! I’m serious! When vetoes are used when the country is not interested in the real content of the policies and it’s just using it to have deals on another topic, that is very problematic. That’s why I think that those that are using it in good faith are weakening their own work, and that’s why I’m saying that they are good enough now to find majorities and they would not need it. They could do without it because they can find majorities.
Speaker: Gwendoline DELBOS-CORFIELD (France — Europe Écologie)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-12-14
Debate: Defending democracy from foreign interference (debate)

  Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, we already knew about the terrible influence of China in our universities. A Senate report in France has clearly documented it. Chinese student spies or some officials are monitoring research to impose their narrative on the issues of the Uyghurs or Taiwan. Some researchers were even pressured by the heads of the universities to delete criticism towards the Chinese Government and to use alternative wording in certain publications or conferences. 
But now we know that even worse is happening. There is proof that there is a far—reaching network of overseas Chinese police stations established in many of our Member States – in France, in Spain, in Greece. Chinese citizens who found refuge in these countries are tracked by the Chinese police and forced into returning back to China.
This is also happening in the Netherlands and Ireland, which have launched investigations, and this is happening in Hungary and Serbia. But both of these countries are denying these allegations and are not preventing this from happening. 
That is how bad the level of foreign interference has become in the European Union and in neighbour countries.
Speaker: Gwendoline DELBOS-CORFIELD (France — Europe Écologie)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-12-14
Debate: The Commission’s reports on the situation of journalists and the implications of the rule of law (debate)

  Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Verts/ALE).   – Madame la Présidente, la liberté de la presse et le pluralisme des médias, sans lesquels il n’existe tout simplement pas de démocratie, ne sont plus protégés dans beaucoup d’États membres. Il faut donc des dispositions européennes. Faisons un tour d’horizon.
Hongrie, 85ᵉ sur 180 dans le classement Reporters sans frontières de 2022. La Fondation KESMA regroupe 500 médias nationaux et locaux au service aveugle du gouvernement, dans une totale opacité sur les fonds publics. La Commission européenne dit ne rien pouvoir faire. Peut-être pourra-t-on empêcher que cela se reproduise ailleurs: des oligarques qui achètent des médias et en font donation à un gouvernement.
Grèce, 108e au classement. Un journaliste abattu devant son domicile, une enquête qui patine et des violences policières connues à l’égard des journalistes qui travaillent sur le sujet des réfugiés, de ceux qui couvrent les manifestations et de ceux qui révèlent la corruption.
Malte, 78ᵉ. Peu de progrès dans l’enquête sur l’assassinat de Daphne Caruana Galizia, alors que, en Slovaquie, la justice a été efficace dans le cas de Ján Kuciak et n’a plus connu d’entraves par le politique au bout d’un moment. Spécificité de la loi maltaise: les proches héritent des procès intentés aux journalistes.
France, 26ᵉ. Là, c’est le privé qui pose problème: concentration extrême des médias, dix actionnaires détiennent 81 % de la diffusion des quotidiens nationaux et 95 % des hebdomadaires. Le groupe Bolloré censure, interdit les publications, accumule les poursuites-bâillons et insulte certains politiques.
Speaker: Gwendoline DELBOS-CORFIELD (France — Europe Écologie)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-11-21
Debate: Assessment of Hungary's compliance with the rule of law conditions under the Conditionality Regulation and state of play of the Hungarian RRP (debate)

  Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, there cannot be – in no place in the world because it’s just not possible – a true, efficient, anti—corruption system where there is not independence of the judiciary. And it feels bizarre to have to say it out loud, but because we have to state the obvious, let’s imagine.
Let’s imagine a Member State where the son—in—law of the leader of the country has just been awarded a tender in the context of public procurement concerning European funds. All very fictional, of course. And all of this was done in mysterious ways. There are a number of important problematic failures in the procedures, and there’s this new tool that has been created and implemented in this country. We could name it the ‘Integrity Authority’. And it’s just been created and it’s a really independent monitoring body. It has serious expertise and good staff, and it will bring the case to court. Plenty of fact, plenty of evidence.
And then the president of the highest level of justice in this country, let’s call it the Supreme Court, decides to allocate himself the case to a judge because, you know, he is a friend of the leader of the country, he has been nominated at this job by friends of the leaders and he has the power to overrule on political cases. Still, very theoretical. And so he gives the case to a specific judge, another friend of all of these people, all friends, all sharing the same interests, the same money. And then, of course, the case drags on and drags on and justice is never made. End of story.
How we can be studying, on one side, the- 17 measures to fight anti—corruption in Hungary and, on the other side, not requesting a true plan of reforms for judiciary bewilders me.
Speaker: Gwendoline DELBOS-CORFIELD (France — Europe Écologie)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-10-19
Debate: Whitewashing of the anti-European extreme right in the EU (topical debate)

  Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, far right is seeking normalisation and we are giving it to them. First, they had to disguise their fascist legacy, their most frightening symbols and their worst racist, violent rhetoric. Second, they asked right—wing and liberal centrists to open the door, to let them in a bit, accessing little places of power in Parliament, even in government, and spreading this false narrative that sometimes the left would be more extremist than far—right. It happened in Austria, now Italy, Sweden, France.
And now third, we should be all reassured because they are not claiming they want to leave the European Union anymore. But why should they? They can do scary far—right politics, take the money, use the single market and influence the decisions. Viktor Orbán paved the way. Eating up the EU from the inside is the new respectable path of power for the far right.