misclassified/meps_speeches_with_translation.csv huggingface dataset:
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany — Volt)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-05-03
Debate: The follow up of the Conference on the Future of Europe (debate)

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, fellow Europeans, earlier today, Vladimir Klitschko, who is the mayor of Kiev, wrote that, for Putin, Ukraine is a provocation because it is a democracy. Democracy is a provocation for some people. And we can also see this, sadly, in this Chamber. So what do we have to do? We have to dare more democracy. That’s exactly what they fear. Let us dare more democracy. I said this also on Saturday at the conclusion and I say it now after we voted positively on the transnational list, we need to dare more democracy. 
If you look at the conclusions that all these citizens that actually dared more democracy came up with, you see that there’s a lot of very positive stuff in there: abolishing the veto, making the Council more transparent, calling it a Senate to make it a real second chamber, and giving more rights and powers to Parliament, including the right of initiative, budgetary powers and so on. 
So we need to seriously follow up on this. I am very happy that from the Constitution Committee we already requested to trigger Article 48, to trigger Treaty change, and I hope that the countries will follow up, but I also hope that we can follow up on all the other ideas that don’t need Treaty change.
(The speaker agreed to take a blue-card speech)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany — Volt)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-05-03
Debate: The follow up of the Conference on the Future of Europe (debate)

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE),  blue-card reply. – So I think it’s very good that you made the effort to go out there. And I think it’s also okay to have a different vision of how Europe should go, which is a vision of where prime ministers and chancellors sit in backroom deals and battle all the deals out on how Europe should work. I just believe that we should fight and I’m fighting for a Europe, where you have a parliamentary democracy, where we can have these debates and where we can fill the government that can then be dis—elected if people don’t like it. I think this gives more voice to citizens also if they’re critical about different policies. But I’m having these conversations and I’m happy to see your study results as well.
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany — Volt)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-05-03
Debate: The follow up of the Conference on the Future of Europe (debate)

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE),  blue-card speech. – Apparently it’s my democratic right to ask questions, so I will make use of that. 
I wanted to ask you, if you, as an Italian running on a French list, believe there is something like a European identity?
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany — Volt)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-05-02
Debate: Election of the Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage (debate)

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE),  blue-card speech. – Paolo, there’s no animal like the EU, so you won’t find any comparisons in other systems. The second point, on bringing European citizens closer; you change nothing by just giving them a second vote. How can that bring citizens further away from the European Union the first time they can actually vote for a European party that you’re part of? And third, on the Spitzenkandidat, there is no system on this earth where the Spitzenkandidat is actually registered in the law. So this is in Germany – I don’t think in any other system – this is by practice, so why do you think that this is worse than, for example, the German system?
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany — Volt)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-05-02
Debate: Election of the Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage (debate)

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE),  blue-card speech. – My question is in regard to the European parties. I mean, how many of your voters really know the EPP? That’s my first question. And the second question is: if you don’t like the transnational list system, what is your idea of improving the European Union? Because we have already lost one Member State, the United Kingdom. We need to get more democratic. What’s your idea of improving the European Union?
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany — Volt)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-04-06
Debate: Data Governance Act (debate)

  Damian Boeselager,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, I wanted to start by thanking Angelika Niebler for the very constructive cooperation that we had on this file. It was very nice working with you and very fact-based. That was exemplary. 
I think today’s vote shows that we have actually advanced quite far in our digital policy. You will hear that my voice is still a bit deep because I have jetlag from coming back from the US and talking about data policy to the different stakeholders over there. I realised how close we are to the sweet spot of personal data protection and still enabling innovation at the same time. This is built on the fact that we had a European success with saying that there is a philosophical right of your own data being your own, in a sense, of having that right.
Now, we need to transfer that to the industrial data space. We also need to get to a situation where the usage rights for industrial data are equally clear. The Data Governance Act is really helpful because it basically makes it possible to have neutral platforms and data intermediaries if you want data stock exchanges that you can trust and actually share and trade your data. And then, when we get to the data act, I think we have the obligation to ensure that basically we are now applying what we learned from GDPR to the industrial data space in clarifying who is able to trade co-generated data sets.
The whole idea behind this is that we can really unlock the innovation potential that we have in our start—ups and that we have in our industries with a lot of very innovative and new concepts and new business models that, as the Commissioner said, will create a lot of jobs.
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany — Volt)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-04-06
Debate: Violations of right to seek asylum and non-refoulement in the EU Member States (debate)

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, I travelled to Greece recently and I saw – and have heard this before – that a systematic violation of the right to seek asylum in Greece is happening. I will try to outline it to you. Basically, since March 2020, no-one has been returned from Greece to Turkey, and that is Turkey’s fault. But just a year later, the Greek Government still imposed a law, which is the inadmissibility procedure or joint ministerial decree, which basically says that everyone who comes through Turkey, and who comes from Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Pakistan or Bangladesh, has to be returned to Turkey. But as I just explained, no one is being returned to Turkey. So this was, from the beginning, absolutely trying to stop the right to seek asylum. 
And so we have a Kafkaesque situation, where people are being told to go to police stations to be returned, to then ask Turkey whether they would take them, and Turkey doesn’t even answer this. Then the people are being told: okay, you have to wait for a year. They don’t have access to food; they don’t have access to accommodation. We really have to stop this. I ask the Commission to do something about this to guarantee the right of asylum in Europe.
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany — Volt)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-03-08
Debate: The deterioration of the situation of refugees as a consequence of the Russian aggression against Ukraine (debate)

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, every morning when we wake to the live documentary of this terrifying war on social media, I feel helpless when I see the images of bombed streets, burning nuclear plants and lines of people fleeing. I feel helpless. But while our options within Ukraine are limited, our options for helping those who are fleeing the war are not. That’s why I wanted to thank you very much, Commissioner, for your swift action and for bringing all the countries together to grant legal protection so fast. And that’s why I want to thank everyone who’s opening their doors currently in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, but also all across the continent. 
But much more needs to be done and we have to adapt to the situation and every moment. So, I would ask you, Commissioner, to also ensure that everyone who’s fleeing is protected, no matter their skin colour or nationality – also the Russians and Belarussians fleeing their crazy tyrants. 
Even if we decide that some can’t stay, please make sure that they’re all covered by health protection so that they can go to the hospitals to tend to their mental and physical wounds after fleeing. And please ensure that we have a new approach to the European asylum system, so that we can learn from this humane reaction to the fleeing refugees, in our new asylum system.
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany — Volt)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-03-07
Debate: Shrinking space for civil society in Europe (debate)

  Damian Boeselager,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Mr President, thank you to Anna, and on behalf of Erik, I would like to thank everyone – the rapporteur, shadows and technical staff, for the great collaboration on this report. 
It’s a very timely report indeed. The recent intensified crackdown on civil society in Belarus and Russia shows one important truth: an organised civil society is a horror for any form of autocratic leadership because it shows if and how they fail their societies. But we don’t need to look that far. Sadly, we see civil society organisations also being targeted and limited in our own Member States. Some leaders don’t want to allow societies to correct their mistakes. 
I’ve witnessed systematic persecution and criminalisation in the field of migration, an area where all our governments are currently failing. And the recent events in Ukraine show another and more humane face for Europe in that matter. So let us build on this humane Europe and show that every human being is worth saving, no matter how far they’ve travelled and no matter what their skin colour. 
Let us build a humane Europe, Commissioner, by supporting civil society organisations, ensuring sufficient funding for CSOs and developing a green strategy for safeguarding civic spaces in the EU.
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany — Volt)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2021-12-15
Debate: State of play of the RRF (Recovery and Resilience Facility) (debate)

  Damian Boeselager,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, I also want to start on a positive note because I think we have achieved a lot when we look at this year. I think there was a lot of work done, both at Member State level and by the Commission, but also obviously within this Parliament, trying to hold you all accountable in this work. If we think about the adoption of the RRF Regulation, the preparation and also approval of some of the plans, at least the payment requests, the scrutiny that has been done, a lot of work was done. So congratulations on that. 
But, obviously, now we are entering the next year and so the question is what kind of ambition and what kind of control is necessary for the next phase of the RRF? And here I want to ask us to really try to stay on top of this ambition because we still need to stay strong when it comes to Hungary and Poland and some of the other elements in the plans – we need to ensure that they are corrected. We need to ensure that the operational arrangements are of high quality and fair to all Member States and ensure especially that we have agreed on spending and where it is supposed to go. 
I would also say that some of the Member States, like Germany, can be ambitious in re-routing some of the money. I mean, there are still EUR four billion, under the new German government, going to hybrid cars, so I think if we have a change of government, this can also be reflected. And this is true for Bulgaria as well. 
And then we come to control, and here I think we have a couple of elements, which really mean that we need to step-up our game. The first one is we promised to green bond holders that the money will really be spent on green spending. So we need to keep this promise by actually sample-sizing, by testing, by scrutinising in detail the projects that are supposed to be green. And we need to keep the promise to EU citizens that we will use this money to really build solidarity and a strong Union when it comes to economic governance. 
So I wish us all a restful and great break to be able to do that well.
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany — Volt)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2021-11-10
Debate: The escalating humanitarian crisis on the EU-Belarusian border, in particular in Poland (debate)

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, one day after the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I hear today: walls, walls, walls, fences, barriers, border guards, police, hybrid threat and weapons. It feels like no one cares about the people, the individual stories on the ground anymore. Compassion, colleagues, is not something that we should lose once we become politicians. 
Let us make sure, first and foremost, that we care for the lives of those in need, and then we can care, secondly, about everything else. But first, we need to care about the lives of the people in need. Once people are safe, we should stop being naive. The weakness that Lukashenko is trying to exploit is not compassion. The weakness he is trying to exploit is that we do not have a European asylum system. None of this would happen if we had a good and decent procedure for people to go through, across Europe, while we find ways to stop Lukashenko from engaging in human trafficking. 
High Representative, I have two questions. First, will you ensure that there is access for the UNHCR to the European side of the border with Belarus? Second, do you believe that the right to seek asylum in Europe is still intact for the people at the border?
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany — Volt)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2021-10-20
Debate: Pushbacks at the EU's external border (debate)

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, after two years of absence, I will be going back to the Greek islands in a couple of weeks, and I’m a bit afraid to go because I’ve just promised myself two years ago that I would improve the situation. But Fortress Europe is still a reality. We build wires and walls and a few of our guards hunt and beat people up, take away their phones and throw them back over the borders. 
Over the last year, 300 illegal explosions have been recorded in Greece. Two weeks ago, we learned how Croatia is using shadow armies to push people back. And just today, as Sophia has also said, lawyers are suing Frontex – an EU agency – for its role in human rights violations. 
Commissioner Johansson do not waiver in your defence of asylum law. Help Europe to live up to its values of compassion, law and human rights and let us turn Fortress Europe again into a shelter. For that, let’s set up independent mechanisms to monitor our border guards, make EU funds for migration conditional on safeguarding human rights and trigger infringement procedures against all countries that don’t follow European laws.
And please, by all means, never, never, ever legalise pushbacks.
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany — Volt)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2021-10-19
Debate: The Rule of law crisis in Poland and the primacy of EU law (debate)

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, I say to the Prime Minister: thanks for coming, but I really wonder, why did you come? Did you come here to shift the narrative with the help of the claps from the far-right? Is this really what you’re trying to do?
First, your puppet chord attacks the basis of this House, the Treaties. Second, you write a letter saying that the EU is turning into an autocracy. And third, you come and talk here about legal order, while you’ve been trying to curtail the freedom of your judges for years. I really don’t understand why you came here today, and I think soon you will see that your advisers are wrong and that you have gone far too far with what you have been doing.
The Polish people do not want to leave the European Union. We cannot, Commission President, have money flow to a government that does not respect the treaties and therefore we cannot control where it is going. So I ask you to under no circumstance accept the Polish recovery plan and make sure that this tribunal and the judgment are repealed.
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany — Volt)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2021-10-19
Debate: General budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022 - all sections (debate)

  Damian Boeselager,  rapporteur. – Madam President, I would like to thank colleagues, the Minister and the Commissioner for these exchanges. I think we can see this as a start of our formal negotiation to really try to come to the best outcome for our institutions. 
I just wanted to quickly react to some of the comments that have been made, so I didn’t really fully get the translation of what you were saying, but I’m very thankful for the cooperation we have had so far, and also for you mentioning the potential differences or implications that the Polish situation might have on the budget, because I think that’s actually also relevant if you think about it. How can we transfer money to a country that does not accept the treaties? How can we actually believe that the judges will follow up with due diligence if they’re not bound by our common order? And I think that’s a question that we had discussed this morning, and that the Commission also is currently looking into. 
Mr Kuhs asked what he should tell his grandchildren and I actually quite enjoyed this question because I think the first answer would be to tell them that, you know, a Europe of segregated nations with closed borders to each other is not a Europe that they want to live in. 
The second thing, though, which has more to do with the budget, is the question of how we should invest in the future. My colleagues have mentioned many of the points that we believe are relevant for future investment: climate youth programmes, digitisation, ensuring the future competitiveness. I think to get out of this crisis well, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) is a good tool, but the whole budget is very important to actually build back better.
In terms of institutional changes that we can also consider to have in the future better working mode, I think it’s important that when we talk about the budget, we also see the context of the overall architecture of our financial and fiscal framework. And here I’m very happy that we are starting this process of understanding that the RRF was a one time tool, but we have an ongoing understanding or issue with the fact that we have a currency union, but not yet a fiscal union, and that is something that we also need to get to.
To end, let me close with what I started with. I think it’s important that we come to a good conclusion for our institutions, for our European Union, to strengthen them, to strengthen the Ombudsman, the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, all these institutions that make up our European Union, and I also very much look forward to then, at some point, coming to a conclusion on this budget.
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany — Volt)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2021-10-07
Debate: European Union Agency for Asylum (debate)

  Damian Boeselager,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Mr President, today I woke up to the sad news in the media which we had all more or less been expecting: Greece, Croatia, and Romania are pushing people back over European borders to stop them from applying for asylum. At the same time, today, we have the Afghanistan resettlement forum, where we more or less expect that national ministers will agree not to resettle a single soul in Europe. What a day this is already.
Why is all this happening? There’s a very simple truth. In the absence of an actual European asylum system, a system that could easily cope with the numbers that we are currently seeing and propose the stability of their asylum claims, we have reverted to a system of violence and terror. Violence and terror as deterrence so that people don’t come. We try to match their suffering that they experienced at home with the suffering that they will experience here. 
Pushing people back is just the most obvious symbol of the system. Tents at the seaside where, yet again, families freeze with their children this winter is a second, and another 100 people dying in the Mediterranean over the last two weeks is a third. In the absence of a system, we use suffering to keep control. What a shame for this continent and our enlightened society, but then, enlightenment hasn’t stopped us from committing the worst atrocities in history.
Now the weird thing is that there is a solution. Building a functioning European asylum system does not mean that everyone who comes can stay. It just means that we adhere to our European values while we are processing the asylum claims. I’m happy that, with the European Asylum Agency, we are an ever—so—little step closer to such a system. While the agency cannot process claims itself yet, it can start organising solidarity between Member States. While some changes would be linked to a Dublin reform, it can already start to set minimum standards and ensure that the rights of asylum seekers are safeguarded in the different European systems. The agency, obviously, with the Fundamental Rights Officer, will have a much stronger role in this as well.
In November, I will go visit Samos again. I am quite afraid to go there because I know that I will look people in the eye and have to say that, over the last two years since I last visited, I didn’t really achieve much. However, I am happy that, at least with the European Asylum Agency, we can go in the direction of trying to build a better system. Let’s see this as a start to actually work with those who want to work constructively on a better European asylum system, so that we can give back decency to the people who are arriving and, by extension, to ourselves.