unimelb-nlp/MultiEup-v2 huggingface dataset:
Debate: Greening transport package
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg
Political group: Verts/ALE
Country: Germany
Language: DE

Frau Präsidentin! Mehr Güter auf die Schiene, liebe Freundinnen und Freunde, meine Damen und Herren, das wollen wir ewig schon! Dieses Paket enthält mehrere Gesetze mit genau diesem Potenzial. Ein Gesetz z. B. regelt, wie man Fahrpläne international abstimmt. Es macht außerdem für Logistikunternehmer flexibler, Trassen zu buchen. Auch die Richtlinie zum kombinierten Verkehr, also Schiene und Lkw gemischt, hat enormes Potenzial fürs Klima. Richtig aufregend finde ich den Vorschlag zu CountEmissions EU. Da heißt es eben: Logistikunternehmen müssen offenlegen, wie viel Emissionen sie jeweils beim Transport von Gütern verursachen. Die Bahn wird da natürlich die große Gewinnerin sein. Auch die nächsten Schritte sind für uns damit klar. Wir brauchen ein Siegel für umweltfreundlichen Gütertransport, und wir wollen auch mehr Transparenz für den Personenverkehr. Als Reisende weiß ich dann schon beim Buchen, mit welchem Verkehrsmittel ich persönlich welchen Einfluss auf das Klima nehme, und da fahre ich persönlich öfter Bahn oder schicke als Unternehmen eben meine Ware über die Schiene. Packen wir es an! Ich freue mich auf diese Arbeit.
Debate: Greening transport package
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: Seán Kelly
Political group: PPE
Country: Greece
Language: EN

However, the sector causes negative impacts on the environment. Heavy-duty transport is responsible for nearly one third of the EU’s road transport CO2 emissions, primarily driven by growth in economic activity. The sheer volume of transport activity has impacted our greenhouse gas emissions, and demands on all types of transport are expected to increase. This is a natural progression as economies develop. The greening transport package proposes measures to rethink the allocation of rail track capacity and the methodology for counting the emissions of a transport job. In recent years, cleaner road vehicles and fuels have become more and more available, and I’m aware of big efforts being made by many heavy-duty transport manufacturers to use technology to reduce emissions. I think we should work with the industry and establish a fundamental shift towards sustainability in the way goods and people move around.
Debate: Greening transport package
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: Achille Variati
Political group: S-D
Language: IT

Signora Presidente, signora Commissaria, onorevoli colleghi, ho ascoltato con piacere la presentazione da parte della Commissione di questo nuovo pacchetto che, con diversi interventi legislativi, punta a rendere il settore dei trasporti più sostenibile. Accolgo con favore l'intenzione di proporre misure per gestire, coordinare e aumentare le capacità delle ferrovie. Il trasporto ferroviario, infatti, è una modalità di trasporto efficiente dal punto di vista energetico e rispettosa dell'ambiente. Tuttavia i servizi transfrontalieri di trasporto merci e passeggeri continuano a incontrare ostacoli che ne limitano la competitività e l'attrattività. Allo stesso modo, sono favorevole a una introduzione di metodologie specifiche per l'assegnazione del biglietto di viaggio da parte degli operatori del quantitativo di CO2 emesso dal mezzo di trasporto per le tratte acquistate. Ritengo che questa possa essere una valida misura per sensibilizzare i viaggiatori. Infine, per quanto riguarda l'armonizzazione delle dimensioni dei camion elettrici, sono d'accordo sul fatto di tener conto dell'evoluzione delle batterie per l'elettrico, ma ritengo che la sicurezza stradale debba sempre essere messa al primo posto e pertanto saranno necessarie, secondo me, maggiori valutazioni su questo aspetto per un'armonizzazione per la circolazione sulle strade europee di mega camion di peso maggiorato fino a quattro tonnellate.
Debate: Greening transport package
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: Andreas Schieder
Political group: S-D
Country: Germany
Language: DE

Frau Präsidentin, Frau Kommissarin, liebe Kolleginnen und Kollegen! Es gibt viele gute Punkte in diesem Paket, aber auch einige Kritikpunkte. Einer ist: Wieder einmal plant die Kommission Riesen-Lkw, sogenannte Gigaliner, zuzulassen. Geht es nach den Vorschlägen, die wir heute gehört haben, werden auf Europas Straßen nun auch grenzüberschreitend Monstertrucks rollen. Ich halte das, ehrlich gesagt, für einen verkehrspolitischen Irrweg. Warum? Weil es eine Verkehrsverlagerung in die falsche Richtung ist, nämlich von der Schiene wieder zurück auf die Straße. Und das wollen wir nicht. Zusätzlich gibt es noch enorme Kosten für die Umrüstung, z. B. der Infrastruktur. Dieses ganze Geld, das man da investieren muss, wäre wohl besser in den Ausbau der Schiene und der Eisenbahn und den Umstieg von der Straße auf die Schiene investiert. Denn dann erreichen wir die Klimaziele besser, setzen den Grünen Deal besser um, bringen mehr Sicherheit auf unsere Straßen und auch mehr faire Arbeitsbedingungen für die Lkw-Fahrer. Daher ein ganz klares Nein zu den Gigalinern, ein Nein zu Riesen-Lkws auf unseren Straßen.
Debate: Greening transport package
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: Vera Tax
Political group: S-D
Country: Sweden
Language: EN

Madam President, dear Commissioner, I welcome the freight greening package that will address the problems in long-distance and cross-border rail transport, but also on the issue of the weight and size of trucks. The latter will have positive implications for zero-emission heavy vehicles and aligns the weight limit with the introduction of electric heavy vehicles to offset batteries.  I welcome the increased rail capacity. European rail freight is the most efficient way to transport goods over longer distances and avoid heavy congestion on roads and pollution. But at the moment there is no efficiency because of fragmented national rail systems that cause high costs and waiting times at border crossings. This European Commission proposal improves coordination between national capacity managers and align rules to increase the share of European rail traffic. Corridors and corridor management should not be limited to rail, but also include ports, terminals and unloading and uploading stations connecting to maritime and road transport.
Debate: Greening transport package
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: Clare Daly
Political group: The Left
Country: France
Language: EN

Madam President, so we have a new package published by the Commission less than a year before the end of the mandate and we’re expected to believe that it’s finally going to be possible to transfer road traffic to rail with the resulting reduction in emissions. I mean, come on. We have to look at the 10 years up to 2021 where we’ve actually seen rail’s share of total freight transport decreasing in 16 of the Member States that have railways, while road freight transport has increased by 1.7%. Now we know that freight transport is continuing to grow, expected to increase by about 40% by 2030 and 80% by 2050. And we know the constraints that are on our roads with the shortage of drivers and so on. But rail transport has deep developmental constraints, partly as a result of European and national policies that have underinvested for decades. Not least, we have to reverse the approach and see rail as a public asset requiring public investment, while rail freight should be recognised as a service of public interest, which is completely against the neoliberal privatised model that so many of our Member States have adopted.
Debate: Greening transport package
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: Mick Wallace
Political group: The Left
Country: Germany
Language: EN

Madam President, if we were serious about addressing the transport problems from a congestion point of view, from a resource point to view, from an environmental point of view, how in God’s name have we not done more to advance the rail project? You go around any country in Europe and you’ll see a rail track that’s not even being used, that’s actually been closed down. I see it in Ireland. I see it in Italy. I see rail in France that’s not being used. OK, we made improvements between some of the big cities with some fast track, but very little of it. China has built 30 000 km of fast—track rail. Now Europe has only a fraction of that because we don’t seem to have had the appetite for it. It’s a no—brainer from the environmental point of view. But yet we’re not going there: if we’re serious about it, we seem to be able to do what we really want to do when we set up a task of doing it. But we haven’t done it with rail and it’s madness.
Debate: Greening transport package
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: Marian-Jean Marinescu
Political group: PPE
Country: Spain
Language: RO

În această ecuație foarte complicată, transportul feroviar este o soluție al cărei potențial nu este nici bine înțeles și nici bine exploatat de către cei care propun politicile Green Deal, cel puțin până acum. De mult timp am atras atenția că relansarea transportului feroviar este genul de soluție care reduce din presiunea obligațiilor impuse celorlalte moduri de transport. În același timp, am spus și că fără finanțare și măsuri concrete, obiectivul  Încă din 2019 am depus un proiect pilot care viza eliminarea blocajelor, îmbunătățirea interoperabilității feroviare, eliminarea legăturilor lipsă și îmbunătățirea tronsoanelor transfrontaliere, adică în mare parte ceea ce ne propune acum Comisia. Deși venit cu mare întârziere, sper ca regulamentul privind utilizarea capacității de infrastructură feroviară să rezolve măcar o parte dintre probleme și în viitor să avem o cale ferată europeană integral conectată, operabilă și cu standarde comune.
Debate: Question Time  – EU-Africa Strategy
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: Roberts Zīle
Language: LV

Nākamais darba kārtības punkts ir jautājumu laiks (Komisija) (Reglamenta 137. pants). Šajā jautājumu laikā laipni lūdzu piedalīties komisāri Jutta Urpilainen. Jautājumu laika temats: “ES un Āfrikas stratēģija”. Šis jautājumu laiks ilgs aptuveni 60 minūtes.  Kā ierasts, jautājuma uzdošanai būs viena minūte, savukārt atbildes sniegšanai — divas minūtes.  Runātājiem pirmajā kārtā būs iespēja uzdot 30 sekunžu garu papildjautājumu ar divām minūtēm atbildes sniegšanai. Atgādinu, ka iespējamo papildjautājumu var uzdot tikai tad, ja tas ir cieši saistīts ar galveno jautājumu un nav jauns jautājums. Ja vēlaties uzdot jautājumu, aicinu jūs to reģistrēt jau tagad, izmantojot brīvā mikrofona funkciju jūsu balsošanas iekārtā pēc tam, kad būsiet tajā ievietojuši savu balsošanas karti.  Jautājumu laikā uzstāšanās notiks no vietas, un aicinu visus runātājus ievērot piešķirto uzstāšanās laiku. Kolēģiem, iespējams, vajadzēs dažus brīžus, lai reģistrētu savu pieprasījumu uzdot jautājumu, izmantojot balsošanas iekārtu. Tāpēc vēlreiz aicinu jūs savu pieprasījumu iesniegt tagad, un mēs sāksim ar pirmo jautājumu.
Debate: Question Time  – EU-Africa Strategy
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: György Hölvényi
Political group: PPE
Country: Latvia
Language: HU

Elnök Úr! Több mint három év telt el azóta, hogy a Bizottság nyilvánosságra hozta az Unió Afrika-stratégiáját. Ebben partnerséget ígért az afrikai zöld átálláshoz, a digitalizációhoz, a munkahelyteremtéshez, a békéhez, valamint a migráció kezeléséhez. Jogosan merül fel a kérdés: teljesítettük-e az ígéreteinket? Biztonságosabb hely lett általunk Afrika? Sikerült e hatékonyan tennünk a migráció kiváltó okainak felszámolásáért? A világ húsz leginstabilabb országa közül sajnos ma 15 Afrikában található. 2020 óta olyan stratégiai partnereink sodródtak polgárháborúba, vagy annak szélére, mint Etiópia, Szudán vagy Nigéria. Tisztelt Biztos Asszony, mit tehetünk azért, hogy jövőre az elmúlt öt év munkáját valóban kézzelfogható eredményekkel zárhassuk? Mit tehetünk azért, hogy az afrikai fiatalok elvándorlása helyett, helyben járulhassanak hozzá közösségei fejlődéséhez?
Debate: Question Time  – EU-Africa Strategy
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: Jutta Urpilainen
Language: EN

The first one is our MAV+ plus initiative, through which we are able to work with four different African countries – Ghana, Senegal, South Africa and Rwanda – in order to start vaccine and medicine manufacturing production in those countries. Because what we learned in the middle of the COVID was that Africa still imports 99% of the vaccines and 94% of its medicines. So we need to strengthen the resilience and strategic autonomy of Africa. It means that we have to help them to produce, for instance, more vaccines and medicines in their continent, in Africa for Africa. Another very concrete example is, for instance, the energy sector. Just recently, a couple of weeks ago in Paris, we were able to approve a new JETP with Senegal, which means that we are able, together with our international partners and international banks, to accelerate the deployment of renewable energies in Senegal. We also have several energy projects in Nigeria, as well as the Ruzizi III hydropower plant in DRC, Burundi and Rwanda. So they are very tangible projects which are ongoing, but of course we still have a lot of work to do, taking into account the fact that our financial tool NDICI – Global Europe is also existing until the year 2027.
Debate: Question Time  – EU-Africa Strategy
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: György Hölvényi
Political group: PPE
Country: Latvia
Language: HU

Köszönöm a válaszát, Biztos Asszony, és abszolút egyetértek vele, és ezekben a törekvéseiben azt hiszem, a Bizottságot a frakcióm részéről mindig is támogattuk. Hangsúlyozni szeretném, hogy Afrika rendelkezik minden olyan lehetőséggel - és itt nekünk ezt alá kell húzni -, ami a kontinenst a 21. Század vezető régiójává, Európa első számú stratégiai szövetségesévé teheti. De egyet muszáj kihangsúlyozni, a rendkívül fiatal és gyors, növekvő lakosság lehetőség, amivel élni kell. Ennek feltétele pedig, hogy az afrikai fiatalok megfelelő oktatást, szakképzést kapjanak. A most az iskolapadokban ülő generáció feladata lesz ugyanis, hogy meghozza azokat a stratégiai döntéseket, amelyek Afrikát a 21. század valóban győztesévé tehetik.
Debate: Question Time  – EU-Africa Strategy
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: Jutta Urpilainen
Language: EN

We have three main areas we are mainly focusing on. The first one is access to primary education for girls, because we know that girls are still lagging behind. The second priority area is vocational education and training. We know that many young people are entering the labour market in Africa but unfortunately, they are lacking in the skills which are required in the labour market. The third priority areas is teacher training, because it is not enough to access education. We also have to have quality education and that’s why we need to improve the quality of education through teacher training. For instance, in January in South Africa, I was able to launch a regional teacher training initiative for sub-Saharan Africa worth EUR 100 million, precisely to train more teachers in Africa but also to improve the quality of teacher training in sub-Saharan African countries.  So I fully agree with you. We have to prioritise education and we have to pay more attention to the young people and young citizens of Africa.
Debate: Question Time  – EU-Africa Strategy
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: Maria Arena
Political group: S-D
Country: Belgium
Language: FR

Monsieur le Président, Madame la Commissaire, vous le savez et vous en êtes porteuse, nous avons, au niveau de l’Union européenne, une grande tradition de partenariat entre l’Union européenne et les pays africains, et je dirais même les pays d’Afrique, des Caraïbes et du Pacifique dans le cadre des accords de Lomé et de Cotonou – et j’espère post-Cotonou le plus rapidement possible, parce que le Conseil nous fait des caprices sur cette question. Mais j’aurais plusieurs questions. La première concerne la stratégie, et on a quelques priorités en la matière, notamment la paix et la sécurité. Je prends un exemple: dans le Sahel aujourd’hui, on a deux situations différentes entre le Tchad et le Burkina Faso. Pour le Burkina Faso, l’aide budgétaire n’est plus possible aujourd’hui. Est-ce qu’il est possible de revenir à une cohérence et donc à une aide budgétaire au Burkina Faso pour aider effectivement la transition démocratique? La deuxième question concerne la migration, qui est une autre priorité. On a vu dans les discussions sur le SPG que le Conseil et la Commission présentaient systématiquement une condition à la migration. Est-ce que vous pensez, vous qui êtes la commissaire du partenariat, que cette conditionnalité à la réadmission est une bonne chose?  Une dernière question concerne le développement durable. Nous allons travailler sur les matières premières critiques. À ce sujet, est-il dans vos intentions de conditionner l’accès à ces matières au consentement des populations?
Debate: Question Time  – EU-Africa Strategy
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: Jutta Urpilainen
Language: EN

I start with Sahel. Indeed, this is a very strategic region for Europe, and we have also invested a lot in that region. But if I look at the results, I have to admit that the results are quite poor, taking into account how many military coups we have seen in that region recently and during the past years, we have to remember that development and stability and peace are two sides of the one coin. And that’s why we have to, of course, support the security forces in that region. And this is precisely what we are doing, for instance, with Burkina Faso. We support the security forces of Burkina Faso, but at the same time we have to pay more and more attention to the development side. So we have to invest in education, we have to invest in basic services, because we know that, for instance, in Burkina Faso, where I have visited as Commissioner twice, the state is lacking in a big part of the country. And that’s why people don’t really feel that they benefit from the services of the state. And that’s why we have to invest in the security side, but we also have to invest in development services. When it comes to critical raw materials, indeed, we are now creating new partnerships with several partner countries in Africa, but also in Latin America and in Caribbean regions in order to have critical minerals and raw materials for us to be used for our green transition. But we want to use that in a sustainable and mutually beneficial way. It means that we are looking at the 360—degree approach so we don’t only extract and export minerals to Europe, but we also want to support our partner countries’ societies to develop their business environment as well as support them to train their labour force and workforce, as well as support them to industrialise their countries. So the idea is really to support them also to develop their value chain. I’m happy to continue in my next answer.
Debate: Question Time  – EU-Africa Strategy
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: Maria Arena
Political group: S-D
Country: Belgium
Language: FR

Monsieur le Président, revenons à la question du Sahel. La situation aujourd’hui au Burkina Faso est compliquée parce que ce pays n’a pas beaucoup de revenus budgétaires et qu’il dépend pour plus de 20 % de l’aide extérieure. Et donc la situation telle qu’on la connaît aujourd’hui, si – et comme vous le disiez – nous n’intervenons pas, risque de s’empirer encore. Alors, que peut-on faire pour à la fois favoriser le processus démocratique et soutenir par exemple les deux millions de personnes déplacées, sachant que le gouvernement a perdu le contrôle de 40 % de son territoire? Il y a donc sans doute là quelque chose à ajuster.
Debate: Question Time  – EU-Africa Strategy
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: Jutta Urpilainen
Language: EN

But a very good example of it is Niger. I just recently, a couple of weeks ago, adopted EUR 66 million of additional budget support funding to Niger, precisely because we want to support Niger to educate their population and their young people and their children.  In terms of Mali, the approach is completely different because of the recent development in Mali, but also because of their choices that they have made recently. In the case of Burkina Faso, unfortunately, we have not been able to use our budget support modality because of the coup, but also because of the transition. We haven’t seen enough concrete results and our conditions are not met – because we always have conditions in our budget support modality. So those conditions are not met and that is why we have not been able to use that modality. But it doesn’t mean that we have not supported financially Burkina Faso. On the contrary, we have provided a lot of assistance, humanitarian assistance, but also development assistance through our special measures in terms of health, in terms of education, in terms of food security.  And the new element, as I said in the beginning, is also now our support to the security forces, because we know that the country is really, I would say, struggling against jihadists and terrorist groups. So we want to support also the security forces.  But, I would say that in the case of Burkina Faso, we have to have this kind of gradual approach, you know, go step-by-step forward and see whether in the future there is also a stage where we can resume the budget support with Burkina Faso.
Debate: Question Time  – EU-Africa Strategy
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: Karen Melchior
Political group: Renew
Country: Estonia
Language: EN

Thank you, Commissioner and Vice-President. Looking at the EU Africa Strategy, I wish to focus on a specific country, Tunisia, which I find is symptomatic for our approach to Africa as a whole. We need strategic and equal partnerships with the countries in Africa. And so that is not just focused on migration, but, as your portfolio says, to promote democracy, rule of law, human rights and good governance. Looking at Tunisia, we need a strategic partnership between the EU and a democratic Tunisia. It was important that we invested in our partnership with Tunisia leading up to our current strategic priorities adopted in 2018, when Tunisia was implementing the democratic reforms following the Arab revolution that had brought Ben Ali down. But why is the EU intensifying a comprehensive partnership with Tunisia and completing a memorandum of understanding with an unelected president which has been undermining parliamentary democracy and rule of law? Furthermore, why has the EU stopped engaging with Tunisia’s civil society in a time when the human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists of Tunisia need our support? How do we stand strong with democratic forces and human-rights defenders when we seem to prefer to form partnership with strongman rulers in the Sahel, in Rwanda, in Uganda, and now in Tunisia?
Debate: Question Time  – EU-Africa Strategy
Date: TUESDAY, 11 JULY 2023
Speaker: Jutta Urpilainen
Language: EN

Since 2011, the European Union has been supporting Tunisia’s journey of democracy. It is a long, sometimes difficult road, but these difficulties can be overcome against the backdrop of global uncertainties. It is in our common interest to strengthen our relationship and to invest in stability and prosperity. So in this context, the EU and Tunisia are working together on a memorandum of understanding on a strategic and comprehensive partnership covering the strengthening economic development, but also investment and trade, a sustainable and competitive renewable energy partnership, migration and people—to—people connections and contacts, as presented by President von der Leyen in June during a joint mission to Tunisia, together with the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, as well as Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.