misclassified/meps_speeches_with_translation.csv huggingface dataset:
Speaker: Daniel FREUND (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-04-06
Debate: Cooperation and similarities between the Putin regime and extreme right and separatist movements in Europe (topical debate)

  Daniel Freund (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, the biggest friend of Vladimir Putin in the European Council is Viktor Orbán. If you just look at who sent the first congratulations after the election, those came from Putin, they came from Salvini and they came from Le Pen – all Putin’s friends, all supported by Vladimir Putin, because Putin hates democracy and he hates that we work together in Europe. So, of course, he supports everyone that works against the European Union, that works against us Europeans being strong together towards Putin ...
Zwei Sätze an die Kolleginnen und Kollegen, die die Debatte so geframet haben, darüber, die Unabhängigkeitsbewegung mit da reinzuschmeißen. Nun können wir alle mit dem Finger darauf zeigen, dass es auch bei den Sozialdemokraten, auch bei den Konservativen Putin-Versteher gibt und Leute, die das lange unterstützt haben.
Aber ich glaube, wir sollten darüber nicht aus dem Auge verlieren, wo die stärksten Alliierten von Wladimir Putin sitzen. Und das ist die extreme Rechte. Dank Orbán sitzt Putin im Europäischen Rat ja quasi mit am Tisch. Dank der Fidesz-Regierung hat Putin direkten Zugriff auf vertrauliche Dokumente aus NATO und EU. Das kann doch einfach nicht wahr sein, und das muss unterbunden werden.
Speaker: Daniel FREUND (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-03-23
Debate: MFF 2021-2027: fight against oligarch structures, protection of EU funds from fraud and conflict of interest (debate)

  Daniel Freund,  im Namen der Verts/ALE-Fraktion. – Frau Präsidentin! Oligarchen besitzen einen Fußballverein, Oligarchen haben eine Superjacht, Oligarchen bauen sich Paläste. Bei Oligarchen denkt man atürlich direkt an Putin, an Abramowitsch, an die Feinde der Demokratie. Aber Oligarchen gibt es eben nicht nur mit russischem Öl, sondern Oligarchen gibt es auch mit EU-Agrarfonds. Die EU hat sich eine eigene Kaste von superreichen Oligarchen gezüchtet. Viktor Orbán baut sich ein Fußballstadion vor sein Haus. Sein Außenminister fährt mit der Superjacht durch die Adria. Orbáns Vater baut einen ehemaligen Königspalast zum Golfplatz um. Und wir finanzieren den Feinden der EU ein Luxusleben mit unseren Steuergeldern.
Herr Hahn, Sie sind der Haushaltskommissar. Sie überweisen jeden Monat 527 Millionen Euro an die Orbán-Regierung. Das Geld ist eigentlich für die Ungarinnen und Ungarn gedacht. Aber viel zu oft bekommen sie es nicht. Stattdessen finanziert das Geld vielleicht den nächsten Privatjet. Oder im schlimmsten Fall kaufen die Orbán-Oligarchen damit die letzte unabhängige Tageszeitung im Land. Den russischen Oligarchen werden gerade die Gelder eingefroren und die Superjachten weggenommen. Es wäre wirklich an der Zeit, dass wir auch im Kampf gegen die EU-Oligarchen endlich ernst machen und auch da die EU-Gelder einfrieren, wo sie eklatant in der Korruption enden. Lassen Sie uns endlich den Rechtsstaatsmechanismus auslösen.
Speaker: Daniel FREUND (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-03-10
Debate: Transparency and administrative standards - the treatment of public access requests based on Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 (debate)

  Daniel Freund,  im Namen der Verts/ALE-Fraktion. – Herr Präsident, liebe Kolleginnen und Kollegen! Sehr geehrte Frau Kommissarin Jourová, ich sehe, Sie haben Ihr Handy griffbereit und wahrscheinlich heute schon Dutzende Nachrichten geschrieben. Wie bei uns allen ist das Handy 24 Stunden mit dabei. Ich hoffe, es ist auch bei der Kommissionspräsidentin 24 Stunden am Tag griffbereit, denn schließlich muss sie ja erreichbar sein.
Wie wir alle hier im Haus, jeder Einzelne von uns, nutzt die Kommissionspräsidentin ihr Handy, um ihr Team zu kontaktieren, wichtige Gedanken auszutauschen, um Politik zu machen. Und wir wissen ja schon, dass sie es auch benutzt hat, um den Kauf von Impfstoffen für 450 Millionen Europäerinnen und Europäer zu organisieren und damit deren Leben zu verbessern.
Das, was auf dem Telefon von Frau von der Leyen passiert, ist Politik, und gleichzeitig behauptet jetzt der Juristische Dienst der Kommission, dass Kurznachrichten „prinzipiell keine wichtigen Informationen über die Politik, die Aktivitäten oder Entscheidungen der Kommission“ enthalten. Dann kann ich also nur davon ausgehen, dass das Handy ausschließlich für Candy Crush benutzt wird.
Ich glaube das nicht. Der Zugang zu Dokumenten ist eines der zentralen Grundrechte jedes demokratischen Systems. Es kann nicht sein, dass Journalistinnen und Journalisten fadenscheinige Begründungen bekommen und abgewimmelt werden. Es kann nicht sein, dass die Kommission selbst die Empfehlung der Bürgerbeauftragten ignoriert. Und es kann nicht sein, dass der Zugang zu zentralen Dokumenten schon wieder dadurch verhindert wird, dass Ursula von der Leyen SMS löscht.
Lassen Sie uns endlich Transparenz schaffen darüber, was auf den Telefonen der Kommissare passiert.
Speaker: Daniel FREUND (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-03-08
Debate: Foreign interference in all democratic processes in the EU (debate)

  Daniel Freund (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, Putin’s invasion of democratic Ukraine shows that democracy is under siege. The shelling with bombs and missiles was preceded and is now flanked by a bombardment of propaganda, fake news and dirty money.
There’s a widespread and coordinated attack by the world’s autocrats on democracy, on open societies, on our way of life. We all know this didn’t just start two weeks ago, but it’s been going on for years and is well documented by this committee. Autocrats in Russia and China, Azerbaijan and elsewhere are spending billions to determine the news we read, the social media posts we see, and they’re paying massive amounts to buy politicians, like the German former chancellor Gerhard Schröder, or entire political parties, some of which sit here in this House.
These actors do not seek to enrich our debates. They want to divide our societies. They want to destroy our democracies, because they fear nothing more than the truth and open societies that openly speak it out.
The EU has been too naive. We have ignored the threats for far too long. We’ve done too little to make the money flows transparent. We have not done enough to fight corruption and bribery. And most of all, we have been far too divided, because if we seek to combat this with 27 different national approaches, this is not going to work.
So we have to have a resolute democratic defence. We need to make the money flows transparent and we need to stand together as Europeans and have a joint approach to this threat from the outside.
Speaker: Daniel FREUND (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-03-07
Debate: Citizenship and residence by investment schemes (debate)

  Daniel Freund (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, dear colleagues, a passport of an EU Member State is valuable, provides freedom, provides protection and rights. It’s not because of any one Member State, but it is because of Schengen and the European Union that all our passports are valuable. You might ask how valuable? Well, Member States Malta, Cyprus, Portugal will charge you up to two million euros to get one. And let’s not fool ourselves: such a price tag does not attract the brightest scientists or entrepreneurs. It opens the door for corrupt oligarchs and criminals. Golden passports support corruption inside the European Union. 
We have pointed to the freeloader countries for years, but the real issue is that it shouldn’t even be possible for any one Member State to sell something that belongs to the 27 Member States collectively. The rules on how European passports are handed out should be European rules. Indeed, there should be one European passport, one that is not for sale, but one that represents our shared values: democracy, self-determination, freedom and the protection from the enemies of democracy.
Speaker: Daniel FREUND (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-02-16
Debate: The Rule of Law and the consequences of the ECJ ruling (debate)

  Daniel Freund (Verts/ALE).   – Frau Präsidentin, sehr geehrter Herr Hahn! Der Mechanismus ist jetzt schon seit 14 Monaten in Kraft. Seitdem war die Kommission zu dem Thema neun Mal hier bei uns im Plenum. Neun Mal hat man uns gesagt: Es ist jetzt ganz bald so weit, noch kurz die guidelines im Herbst, in ein paar Wochen. Immer wieder hat man gesagt: Kein Fall geht verloren.
Jetzt sind wir heute wieder hier, und wir haben es wieder gehört: Man muss jetzt sorgfältig analysieren, man muss die guidelines fertigstellen. Herr Kommissar, seit der Mechanismus in Kraft ist, haben Sie als Haushaltskommissar 6 Milliarden Euro nach Ungarn überwiesen – 6 Milliarden, von denen Sie wissen, die kommen nicht da an, wo Sie eigentlich hinsollen. Sie haben ja in dem Brief an die Orbán-Regierung minutiös aufgeschrieben, dass das Vergabesystem nicht funktioniert. Es gibt keine unabhängige Justiz mehr, es gibt keinen wirklichen Kampf gegen Korruption, schon gar nicht gegen die Korruption im direkten Umfeld von Viktor Orbán. Und trotzdem überweisen Sie weiter Geld: jeden Tag 16,8 Millionen Euro.
Sie wissen, dass Orbán das Geld für seinen Machterhalt nutzt. Sie wissen, dass er alles tut, um mit diesem Geld seinen Wahlsieg in ein paar Wochen zu kaufen. Und doch tun Sie nichts. Jetzt wirft Frau von der Leyen Sie heute hier im Grunde vor den Bus. Jetzt müssen Sie hier eine Politik verteidigen, die Sie gar nicht wollen. Sie wollen ja den Mechanismus auslösen, aber die Kommissionspräsidentin lässt Sie nicht. Gibt es einen Punkt, an dem Sie sagen: Das Versagen der Europäischen Kommission beim Schutz des Rechtsstaats in der Europäischen Union, das trage ich nicht mehr mit?
Speaker: Daniel FREUND (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-02-15
Debate: Corruption and human rights (continuation of debate)

  Daniel Freund (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, too many Europeans think that corruption is something that happens far away, that leaders stealing from their citizens is something that doesn’t happen in the European Union. Too few Europeans, unfortunately, know that we make it possible. European banks launder the money. European accountants develop the shell companies structures to hide the money. European real estate companies help to create safe havens for the stolen assets, and European countries provide the golden visas or sell the passports that allow people to enjoy the stolen proceeds. 
But this does not only create devastation in the rest of the world. It actually has a real impact on our citizens because, for example, it inflates real estate prices in pretty much every city on this continent. So this is one of the direct effects that global corruption has on the life of our citizens, and this has to stop. The EU must not be a safe haven for stolen assets. Dirty money should not be allowed and should not be welcome on our continent, and the EU should lead the fight against kleptocracies, wherever they exist. 
I think Katalin Cseh has made an excellent list of things that we can do to be better in that fight against kleptocracy, and we should get going right away on putting this into place.
Speaker: Daniel FREUND (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
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)

  Daniel Freund (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, the Recovery Fund has so much potential. We’re jointly fighting climate change and investing in our digital future, investing all across the European Union. Well, almost, because Viktor Orbán’s government, for example, has prevented the European Union from paying out any money in Hungary. He’s keeping over EUR 6 billion from Hungarian citizens and businesses. And what’s even more upsetting is that Orbán is lying about the reason why the money isn’t coming. He says, and I quote: “The subsidies are being held up because of Hungary’s anti-LGBTIQ legislation”. What utter nonsense – that we have heard here in the Chamber today as well. The money is being held back – and rightfully so – because Orbán is corrupt and because the funds are meant for European citizens and businesses and not to add another wing to one of the Orbán family palaces.
Commissioners, we must stand firm. No money for the corrupt. No money for those that undermine the rule of law. Only then can the Recovery Fund be a real success story.
Speaker: Daniel FREUND (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2021-11-24
Debate: Fundamental rights and the rule of law in Slovenia, in particular the delayed nomination of EPPO prosecutors (debate)

  Daniel Freund (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, Minister Logar, you stood here earlier and said that EPPO membership and respect for the rule of law is of utmost importance for your government. Yet the Slovenian Government used a personal vendetta of the Prime Minister against the EPPO candidates to block their nomination for six months, preventing the fight against corruption, money laundering and VAT fraud in Slovenia. I find it irritating that Prime Minister Janša has to face basically zero consequences for this action. No punishment whatsoever. The Commissioner hasn’t used the rule of law conditionality. The other governments in the Council have not even dared to criticise their colleague. The EPP remains silent, says maybe it’s a bit unfortunate, but everything is great; nothing to see here. 
We have to be honest about these things. We have to speak up, regardless of whether people sit in our own party family, and those that attack the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary have to be sanctioned for that. We have to remember that Ireland, Denmark and Sweden are still not members of EPPO. They serve as a fig leaf for the corrupt and rule of law-attacking governments in Poland and Hungary. I can only say to all those that are serious about the rule of law in the European Union: join EPPO and speak out when you see something that’s going wrong.
Speaker: Daniel FREUND (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2021-11-24
Debate: Presentation of the Court of Auditors' annual report 2020 (debate)

  Daniel Freund (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, I like it very much when the numbers add up, and I’m grateful that the European Court of Auditors checks that EU money is going where it’s supposed to go and if this money is well spent. 
The number that stands out from the annual report is obviously the error rate. 2.7% of the money is not going where it’s supposed to go. It is mismanaged, stolen or somehow lost along the way. That is an awful lot of money for the taxpayer. 2.7% might sound low, but we’re speaking about more than EUR 4 billion every year that is lost. And that doesn’t even cover the real effect for the taxpayer, because what often happens is that the EU recoups the money so the damage to the EU taxpayer may be limited, but then it is, in a way, offloaded on the national taxpayer because too often Member States don’t claim that money back from the companies and from the fraudsters. We have to stop this. We need better oversight, better management and more digital tools. This has all been managed here. 
Ideally, all this should be overseen by EPPO. As I said in the earlier debate, Denmark, Ireland and Sweden urgently need to join the EPPO. Worryingly, though – and I think what EPPO is showing us at the moment – is that the 2.7% error rate is probably in reality even higher because, if I look at the investigations that EPPO has already opened, the amount of money that is concerned, well, that’s larger than the error rate that ECA is giving us so we also need to look into that method and really find all the errors.
Speaker: Daniel FREUND (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2021-11-22
Debate: The revision of the Financial Regulation in view of the entry into force of the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework (debate)

  Daniel Freund (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, Orbán’s son-in-law has committed fraud against the EU budget at least 35 times, worth over EUR 40 million. After all this, he can still apply for EU funds. He can continue to commit fraud on even more projects because the blacklisting that currently applies is a joke as long as it doesn’t apply to 90% of the EU budget. Orbán’s father also gets millions from the EU budget through construction projects. We actually do not really know how much money he is getting because the final real beneficiaries are still unknown. 
Those are just two examples that show corruption, fraud and the rule of law crisis in the European Union have gotten out of control. We must be faster than the criminals. We need better rules, better oversight and much quicker closing of the loopholes. The EU must not be the foundation of criminal empires. So Mr Hahn, we expect a proposal that stops oligarchs from stealing our money.
Speaker: Daniel FREUND (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
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)

  Daniel Freund (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, I would like to say to the Prime Minister that I think the defining line of his speech today was please do not disturb me. I think you, Prime Minister, have made it very clear how much your government, how much your party, has radicalised. You see it from the allies that you have here in the house, basically, the enemies of the European Union, but you see it also by the refusal to engage in a real debate with what is the large majority of this House and the political families in the European Union. Democracy is not just that the majority can do whatever it wants, basically calling everyone that disagrees with you a communist. None of that is democracy.
Sehr geehrte Frau Kommissionspräsidentin, Sie haben ja heute deutlich gesehen, wohin uns sechs Jahre Dialog mit dieser Regierung, wohin uns Dutzende Vertragsverletzungsverfahren, wohin uns ein verschlepptes Artikel-7-Verfahren gebracht haben.
Sie sagen, Sie sind sehr besorgt, und Sie nennen Optionen. Aber ich bin besorgt, dass es, wenn wir nicht handeln, bald an Rechtsstaat und an Demokratie in der Europäischen Union nichts mehr zu verteidigen gibt.
Speaker: Daniel FREUND (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2021-10-06
Debate: Pandora Papers: implications on the efforts to combat money laundering, tax evasion and avoidance (debate)

  Daniel Freund (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, from 2014 to 2017 Andrej Babiš was the finance minister of the Czech Republic and as such was sitting on the Council, negotiating anti-money laundering, tax evasion, the fight against tax havens. 
But while he was sitting on the Council, Andrej Babiš had a secret because he himself, while saying that he was fighting tax evasion, used a letterbox company to buy a EUR 15 million château in the south of France, hiding his identity and shielding the source of the funding. It would not be the last time, of course, that Andrej Babiš was hiding a conflict of interest from his colleagues on the Council. 
We know from the Commission now, it is certified, his ongoing conflicts of interest, but nothing happens. He isn’t stepping down. He isn’t selling his companies. And he clearly hasn’t stopped taking EU money. He is actually making the Czech Republic fight for it. 
The rules are clear. Conflicts of interest should not persist, particularly not at the heart of decision-making in the European Council. And if Andrej Babiš doesn’t resolve that conflict of interest, well, then the others need to force him. The Council should stop sitting down and negotiating with him, while the conflict of interest persists.
Speaker: Daniel FREUND (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2021-10-06
Debate: The state of play on the submitted RRF recovery plans awaiting approval (debate)

  Daniel Freund (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, we’re discussing a simple question today: is it a good idea right now to pay out many billions of euros to Poland and Hungary, countries that have no independent judiciary, that are defiant of decisions of the European Court of Justice, and where, in the case of Hungary, Orbán and his family and friends are stealing EU money on an industrial scale? So I would ask: how are we even discussing this right now?
The Commission says that the use of the rule of law conditionality is imminent or it will be shortly used, and we’re still discussing giving away the main leverage, the biggest lever that we have to protect the rule of law, democracy, freedom of the press and the integrity of the EU budget, in Poland and Hungary. This is just a ridiculous idea. Don’t fund corruption. Don’t fund attacks on the rule of law. Don’t fund the attack on our freedoms and don’t give EU money if it’s being misused in those countries.
Speaker: Daniel FREUND (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2021-09-16
Debate: Announcement of voting results

  Daniel Freund,  rapporteur. – Madam President, two years ago this House defended the integrity of the EU institutions when we were examining the Commissioner candidates. Three of those candidates were rejected because of conflicts of interest. Those conflicts, of course could have reduced the ability to do politics in the best interest of European citizens, so two years ago we made European politics cleaner, more trustworthy and more upright. Today, again, we have the chance to make European politics more transparent, because we’re voting today on this report to establish an independent EU ethics body.
This should clearly send the message: EU politics is not for sale. Good rules need independent control to be clearly enforced.
Some might argue that the rules that we have on lobbying, on conflicts of interest, on revolving doors are already really good, and I would agree. Brussels is leading by example on this. But in the past we have also witnessed that these good rules are not properly enforced. Our rules did not stop Adam Farkas, for example, from switching right from Banking Supervisor to chief lobbyist for the banking industry. Our rules have also not stopped former Commissioner Oettinger from accepting 17 new jobs during his cooling-off period, seven of which are for organisations on the EU lobby register, including his own lobby consultancy.
Our rules failed because the current system of self-policing does not work. If former top officials start their own lobby business, it automatically creates the impression that politics are for sale. And that has really bad consequences – we all know that, we hear it in our constituencies – and the few black sheep should not ruin all the good and hard work that all of us do here every day. So I hope that a large majority of this House will today accept this report and that we can then start the negotiations with the other institutions on this.