unimelb-nlp/MultiEup-v2 huggingface dataset:
Debate: The future of the European book sector
Date: WEDNESDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Sandra Pereira
Political group: The Left
Country: Germany
Language: PT

Senhor Presidente, a promoção do livro e da leitura é um eixo fundamental de qualquer política que vise a construção de uma democracia cultural. Defendemos uma verdadeira política para o livro e para a leitura que abranja os domínios da edição, distribuição e comercialização do livro, incluindo o apoio aos pequenos editores e às livrarias independentes – que sobrevivem com extrema dificuldade e muitas delas têm até encerrado –, aos alfarrabistas e pequenos livreiros que resistem, apesar das dificuldades, algumas delas relacionadas com preços impeditivos das rendas urbanas. Uma política que contemple a remuneração justa de autores, tradutores e revisores; a valorização das bibliotecas públicas, das bibliotecas escolares, das bibliotecas municipais; a criação de eventos literários; a defesa das línguas. Promover o livro e a leitura requer, por parte dos Estados-Membros, políticas concretas que fomentem, desde tenra idade, o gosto pela leitura, também pela leitura ativa e pela leitura em voz alta.  O acesso aos livros, a leitura e a literacia não podem ser um privilégio de alguns. Têm de ser um direito de todos.
Debate: The future of the European book sector
Date: WEDNESDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Věra Jourová
Language: EN

On our side, the Commission will continually seek to optimise the potential of the EU’s funding programmes to tackle the issues faced by all actors from Europe’s publishing houses, booksellers and book fairs, to authors and translators in the books and publishing sector.  In this respect, let me underline that in the context of the ongoing budgetary discussions for 2024, the Commission will do our utmost to maintain the current budgets for Creative Europe, Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe. Here we rely on your close support and cooperation.  What’s more, we stand ready to collaborate with Member States and stakeholders to find remedial measures addressing complex issues – among which sustainability, diversity and inclusion – faced by the books and publishing sector, to empower it to reach its full potential in our societies.  In the remaining time, I will have personal comment. It’s late, and maybe I will not destroy the seriousness of the moment, but I’ve been asked very often about my post-mandate activities. Hereby I declare that one of the first things I will do is to go to the public library in Prague 10, get access and then happily read and read and read!
Debate: The future of the European book sector
Date: WEDNESDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Tomasz Frankowski
Country: Germany
Language: PL

Zniechęcenie ludzi do czytania to najszybszy sposób na utratę więzi społecznych. Jedną z pierwszych rzeczy, którą agresorzy zawsze robią w czasie wojny, tak jak teraz w Ukrainie, jest spalenie wszystkich książek sprzecznych z ich ideologią. Tylko wykształcone społeczeństwo może użyć swojego głosu do ochrony swojej kultury. Jeżeli ludzie przestaną czytać książki, przestaną zdobywać wiedzę. To przestroga przed cenzurą i niebezpieczeństwami związanymi z życiem w społeczeństwie pozbawionym wiedzy i niezależnej myśli.  Nakłonienie ludzi do rezygnacji z czytania to najszybszy sposób, by utracili zdolność do rozwoju jako społeczeństwo. W tym kontekście książki są bezcenne, ponieważ stanowią fundament nauki i wiedzy. Kiedy dzieci uczą się czytać, nie tylko odcyfrowują słowa. Rozwijają również zdolność krytycznego myślenia, dzięki czemu mogą stać się aktywnymi i świadomymi obywatelami, w pełni uczestniczącymi w procesie demokratycznym.  Książki są również wspaniałym źródłem rozrywki i dają możliwość podróżowania bez wychodzenia z domu. Pobudzają naszą wyobraźnię i kreatywność oraz umożliwiają nam lepsze zrozumienie świata, w którym żyjemy.  Dlatego mam nadzieję, że te zalecenia przedstawione w moim sprawozdaniu zapewnią istotne wsparcie europejskiemu sektorowi książki, które jest potrzebne, aby sprostać wielu nowym wyzwaniom i zapewnić naszemu społeczeństwu dalsze korzystanie z różnorodnej literatury europejskiej.  Liczę na Państwa wsparcie w jutrzejszym głosowaniu na sesji plenarnej, by wysłać ważny sygnał dla branży księgarskiej ze strony Parlamentu Europejskiego.
Debate: Composition of the European Parliament
Date: WEDNESDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Stanislav Polčák
Political group: PPE
Country: Czechia
Language: CS

Pane předsedající, já jsem tento návrh podpořil, a to z řady důvodů. Domnívám se, že byla nalezena správná rovnováha mezi požadavkem na transparentnost našich předpisů, ale také na ochranu soukromí. Změny v jednacím řádu považuji za reakci na kauzu, které Evropský parlament čelí, a také za odpovídající reakci na ten 14bodový plán. Z těchto důvodů jsem podpořil návrh zprávy kolegyně Bischoffové. Jsem rád, že došlo k lepší definici střetu zájmů, že jsme upřesnili pravomoci poradního výboru, který slouží právě k projednávání závažného porušení pravidel chování poslanců, finančních porušení, ke kterým občas dochází. A také jsem rád, že jsme zvýšili sankce za porušení našeho jednacího řádu, včetně zveřejnění takové sankce ve viditelných oddílech naší webové stránky. Takže ze všech těchto důvodů jsem tento návrh s radostí podpořil.
Debate: Amendments to Parliament’s Rules of Procedure with a view to strengthening integrity, independence and accountability
Date: WEDNESDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Manon Aubry
Political group: The Left
Country: France
Language: FR

Monsieur le Président, chers collègues, neuf mois après le pire scandale de corruption de son histoire, notre Parlement vote enfin pour changer ses règles éthiques. C’est l’heure du bilan et franchement, il n’y a vraiment pas de quoi se vanter. Je me souviens, quand le scandale a éclaté, il y a quelques mois, tous les députés venaient ici dans l’hémicycle pour dire, la main sur le cœur, que plus rien ne serait jamais comme avant. Et depuis le «Qatargate», une grande partie des engagements qui ont été pris, notamment grâce à notre groupe, votés dans des résolutions, ont été largement enterrés. Sur près de 40 promesses, plus ou moins, au final, moins de dix ont été tenues, parce que la droite, l’extrême droite, mais aussi les macronistes, ont enterré toutes les autres. Alors la moindre des choses quand on veut sauver la démocratie, c’est de commencer par la respecter. Je vais vous prendre qu’un seul exemple: l’interdiction des rémunérations annexes pour les élus. Ça doit être une évidence, mais combien de députés, ici dans cet hémicycle, sont grassement payés par des entreprises ou des lobbies, en plus de leur mandat. À qui rendent-ils des comptes? Aux députés, ces députés-là? Aux élus? Ou aux citoyens qui les ont élus ou aux entreprises qui les paient? Le rejet de mon amendement ce midi pour mettre fin à ces pratiques de députés-lobbies montre à quel point le fric prime encore trop souvent sur l’éthique dans ce Parlement européen. Mais vous pouvez compter sur nous pour mener la bataille.
Debate: Ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe
Date: WEDNESDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Clare Daly
Political group: The Left
Country: France
Language: EN

Mr President, I think it is ironic that on the day that Ursula von der Leyen delivered probably the limpest State of the Union address yet, while attempting to feign concern for the health of EU citizens and the environment, her political group exposed the con when it came to the votes.  There’s a pattern now that every time we go to plenary with an important piece of environmental legislation, there’s a coordinated attack on us led by the EPP. This one, the directive on air quality, was a revision to introduce stricter limits for pollutants to reduce the shocking number of premature deaths from air pollution – 238 000 people in 2020. How in God’s name could anybody object to this? It is a scandal. We, of course, should have air quality limits in line with the World Health Organization’s guidelines. It’s beyond shocking that many people in this Parliament didn’t support that. I’m very glad that I did and I think if citizens wanted a lesson in how big business and sections of this Parliament pander to it, this vote was it.
Debate: Ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe
Date: WEDNESDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Stanislav Polčák
Political group: PPE
Country: Czechia
Language: CS

Pane předsedající, jsem rovněž člen PPE a také jsem tento návrh směrnice podpořil, protože ochrana ovzduší skutečně představuje stále závažný problém. Z těch environmentálních vlivů na předčasná úmrtí představuje největší vliv právě ochrana ovzduší. Z jednoho milionu předčasných úmrtí v roce 1990 jsme se dostali na 300 000 v těchto letech, což je ale pořád skutečně příliš. A ta cesta směrem k nulovému znečištění do roku 2050 je určitě chvályhodná a zaslouží si podporu. Proto jsem tuto zprávu podpořil také kvůli tomu, že stanovuje lepší monitoring, transparentní přístup k datům. Do jedné hodiny by měla veřejnost vědět o znečištění, o stavu znečištění ve své lokalitě. Velká debata byla o limitech, o posunech v termínech, v letech. Myslím si, že ten komisní návrh byl lepší než ten, který jsme ve výsledku schválili. Ale i tak jsem nakonec se rozhodl podpořit tuto zprávu i s těmi upravenými limity.
Debate: Sustainable aviation fuels
Date: WEDNESDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Mick Wallace
Political group: The Left
Country: Germany
Language: EN

Mr President, this regulation should be an important step in decarbonising the aviation sector, but the agreed targets will not be enough. It’s also disappointing to see that nuclear power can contribute to the production of some of these sustainable fuels. Recital 15 of the regulation states that it should not apply to military aircraft. Emissions from the military industrial complex are greater than aviation and shipping combined. But we rarely talk about it. Emissions from military flights performed by military aircraft and from warships are exempt from national emissions inventories under the IPCC guidelines. Conflict emissions are completely excluded. Why a free pass for the merchants of death? The EU needs to put military emissions on the table at COP28. And instead of promoting the so-called ‘Climate Security Nexus’ in conjunction with NATO, as we saw in June when the Commission cosied up to General Stoltenberg, the EU should promote peace and demilitarisation. The best way to reduce military emissions is to end wars, not promote them like we’re doing in Ukraine.
Debate: Sustainable aviation fuels
Date: WEDNESDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Stanislav Polčák
Political group: PPE
Country: Czechia
Language: CS

Pane předsedající, i tuto zprávu jsem podpořil, protože udržitelná letecká paliva považuji za jednu z klíčových výzev naší budoucnosti. I letecká doprava se významným způsobem podílí na krizi, které čelíme v ochraně klimatu a ochraně životního prostředí, tudíž nesmí stát stranou a já jsem přesvědčen, že jsme nalezli vyváženou podobu, která je i ambiciózní. Je důležité podporovat inovace v tomto smyslu. Já bych byl rád, kdyby se samozřejmě krátké lety přesunuly na železnici, aby ji více využívali spotřebitelé. Zároveň se ale rovněž domnívám, že výjimky, které jdou ve prospěch třeba obranného průmyslu, tak jsou opodstatněné a domnívám se, že bylo namístě pro ně stanovit toto vynětí z pravidel, které návrh přináší. Takže já jsem jej podpořil a jsem rád, že také byl schválen.
Debate: Report on Türkiye
Date: WEDNESDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Mick Wallace
Political group: The Left
Country: Germany
Language: EN

Mr President, the Commissioner told us yesterday that the EU was going to give more bags of money to Türkiye to cage refugees so that they don’t get to Europe and they don’t get back to where they came from.  I’d love to know, what is the EU plan for the caged refugees – and there are a few million of them – in Türkiye? We don’t want them to go back to Syria, and even if we did, we would have to lift the illegal sanctions that we have imposed on them for a few years now – sanctions that are hurting women and children and the elderly the most. What’s wrong with us? Do you think they’re hurting Assad? This is madness!  So now we have a couple of million Syrian refugees in Türkiye. Can you tell me what the future is for them if we don’t want them to come to Europe and we don’t want them to go back to Syria? Are they going to stay in the cages forever? What’s the plan? Or is there any plan? It’s absolutely disgraceful what we’re doing!
Debate: Composition of political groups
Date: THURSDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Dimitrios Papadimoulis
Country: France
Language: EL

Πριν περάσουμε στην ημερήσια διάταξη έχω μία ανακοίνωση: η Anja Haga είναι μέλος της πολιτικής ομάδας του Ευρωπαϊκού Λαϊκού Κόμματος από τις 14 Σεπτεμβρίου 2023.
Debate: Parliamentarism, European citizenship and democracy
Date: THURSDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Dimitrios Papadimoulis
Country: France
Language: EL

Το πρώτο σημείο στην ημερήσια διάταξη είναι η συζήτηση επί της έκθεσης του κ. Mituța και του κ. Nienass, εξ ονόματος της Επιτροπής Συνταγματικών Υποθέσεων, με θέμα:  Κοινοβουλευτισμός, ευρωπαϊκή ιθαγένεια και δημοκρατία (
Debate: Parliamentarism, European citizenship and democracy
Date: THURSDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Alin Mituța
Country: Germany
Language: EN

In order to transform the State of the Union we need to bring closer to the Union the citizens. And this is precisely the core objective of this report: to find ways of upgrading our European democracy and bringing the EU closer to its people. Indeed, our European democracy has been described by scholars in many ways, but actually few are positive. When people talk about the EU and its processes, they often think about ‘deficit’, ‘bureaucracy’, ‘impersonal’, ‘elitist’ or ‘something far away’. We even invented nice words to cover, I would say, our weaknesses, such as ‘failing forward’ or ‘sui generis model’. While I’m the first to defend the EU, I’m also the first to point out to its weaknesses, because, yes, the EU is not perfect. The EU’s institutional architecture is not fit for the 21st century, and we must admit that. We still think in terms of unanimity and we allow singular governments to take over the EU agenda for selfish national interests. The system in place is one in which one Member State can decide for 26. Unanimity does not strengthen our weakest members, but it weakens us all. Every day you come to work in this House and we vote on laws, but we cannot initiate them. This is not how a real democracy works. So what we say in this report is that we should make the necessary changes so that the EU becomes a fully fledged democracy on its own account: not a sui generis democracy, not something that falls forward just as a matter of gravity or inertia. To achieve this, we need to put Parliament at the centre of our democracy system. We need to become an authentic, bicameral parliamentary system in which the Council becomes a genuine upper chamber. And very importantly, we must put an end to the practice of the European Council tasking the Commission or even the Parliament to do this or that. The Commission and the Parliament are not the Secretariat of the European Council. On top of that, we must bring freshness in our European democracy. And I would say we need freshness in democracy in general. Because we not we have not refreshed and upgraded our democracy model for more than 150 years. We are no longer in the 1800s. Citizens are not engaged in our democratic life because they feel that their voice is not heard. It’s not me who says that, but it’s almost every Eurobarometer. This is why what we propose is to empower the citizens to actively contribute to the democratic life of the Union. And not only every five years when we have elections, but every year. And for that reason, we propose to create the European Agora, which would empower the citizens to be more active in our democratic life.
Debate: Parliamentarism, European citizenship and democracy
Date: THURSDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Othmar Karas
Political group: PPE
Country: Germany
Language: DE

Daher rufe ich uns allen zu: Stehen wir auf, wachen wir auf. Treten wir den Fehlentwicklungen entgegen, statt feige zur Tagesordnung überzugehen. Es geht um uns. Es geht um die europäische liberale Demokratie. Wir brauchen ein gemeinsames Verständnis, was wir unter dieser verstehen. Und wir brauchen den politischen Willen, dieses Bekenntnis auch täglich in unserer Arbeit umzusetzen. Wir stellen daher ganz bewusst das Wort liberale Demokratie in den Mittelpunkt, weil ihre Gegner genau jene unterlaufen wollen. Wir bekräftigen die Parlamente als Herzstück der liberalen Demokratie, als direkt gewählte Kammern der Bürgerinnen und Bürger. Wir unterstreichen das Grundprinzip Gewalten- und Aufgabenteilung, repräsentative Demokratie, Präsenzparlament, freies Mandat und Eigenverantwortung. Wir wollen mehr Tempo bei der Umsetzung der Ergebnisse der Konferenz zur Zukunft Europas machen. Wir fordern das Ende des Einstimmigkeitsprinzips und damit der Erpressbarkeit und der Blockaden. Und wir leisten einen Beitrag zur Charta, zur Rolle der Parlamente in einer funktionierenden liberalen Demokratie, die wir noch vor den EU-Wahlen europaweit vorstellen werden. Gehen wir es an. Es ist nie zu spät.
Debate: Parliamentarism, European citizenship and democracy
Date: THURSDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Maite Pagazaurtundúa
Political group: Renew
Country: Germany
Language: ES

Destaca el informe que en una democracia, «los parlamentos deben formar parte de todos los procesos de toma de decisiones», por lo que los procedimientos legislativos por la vía rápida de urgencia deberían ser una minoría. Lamentablemente, los Ejecutivos están descollando últimamente con ese tipo de fórmulas. Así está ocurriendo de forma muy extraordinaria en mi país. Hacemos este informe en un momento en que, paradójicamente despuntan los populismos y no solo los de derechas. La democracia liberal está en riesgo en este momento en que estamos intentando dar muchísimos más derechos y dar calidad a la actividad de los ciudadanos en el sistema político liberal. Así lo hemos visto, por ejemplo, en Israel. Así lo vemos en Hungría.  Se invocan mayorías parlamentarias para saltarse la igualdad ante la ley y para erosionar la libertad de conciencia. Porque los populistas identitarios creen estar por encima de la ley y de los derechos de los demás. Por eso, la clave es saber si les vamos a dar la razón, si un gobierno puede hacer que los responsables de delitos graves tengan impunidad y si pueden convertir, por tanto, todo lo que estamos intentando hacer en papel mojado. Es muy importante que defendamos también lo obvio.
Debate: Parliamentarism, European citizenship and democracy
Date: THURSDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Damian Boeselager
Political group: Verts/ALE
Country: Slovenia
Language: EN

And what is a parliamentary democracy? It’s not so complicated. If we were just 100 people in a room, we could potentially still decide together. But since we are many more millions of people, we delegate our power to a couple of people to take decisions. To be able to take decisions, meaning I can bring in new ideas. That’s the right of initiative. I can decide on the government that is actually governing these decisions that proposes new ideas. And I can decide about how the money is allocated, the cash, and that’s budget authority. You bring these three points in your report, and I think they’re very, very crucial. In addition, I really like that you also look into what happens in between elections and there are good ideas of citizen participation that we can learn from. And it should also be clear that if I move to another EU country, I have the right to also participate in the democracy that is there – national elections, regional elections, and of course, the European elections.
Debate: Parliamentarism, European citizenship and democracy
Date: THURSDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Dominik Tarczyński
Political group: ECR
Country: Poland
Language: EN

Polish nation rejected you, dear leftists, eight times. Eight times in a row you have lost elections in Poland. So get used to it, because you’re going to lose again. That’s number one. Let me give you some data about Poland and Polish democracy. The lowest unemployment in European Union is: Poland. The highest GDP after COVID in European Union is: Poland. One of the lowest debts in European Union is: Poland. So don’t give us this rubbish about the need of educated immigration, as we heard yesterday. We don’t need your doctors. We don’t need your engineers. Take them all and pay for them. We don’t need them. You know why? Because there are zero terrorist attacks in Poland. Why? Because there is no illegal migration in Poland. So don’t give me this look. Don’t give me these arguments about the populism, because this is a fact. This is your data, from Eurostat! So we don’t need your engineers. We don’t need your doctors. Take them. Do not teach us. Do not teach us about democracy, because we know what the democracy is. So learn from Poland. Be like Poland.
Debate: Parliamentarism, European citizenship and democracy
Date: THURSDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Dimitrios Papadimoulis
Country: France
Language: EL

Επόμενος ομιλητής για την Ομάδα ID, ο κ. Lebreton.  Όλοι ακούγονται, όλοι κρίνονται. Ευτυχώς λόγω της κοινοβουλευτικής δημοκρατίας οι συνεδριάσεις μας είναι δημόσιες και όλες οι απόψεις αξιολογούνται. Δεν χρειάζονται αντιδράσεις από τους συναδέλφους.
Debate: Parliamentarism, European citizenship and democracy
Date: THURSDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Gilles Lebreton
Political group: ID
Country: Germany
Language: FR

Le Parlement européen serait le grand bénéficiaire de cette réforme. Le rapport ne s’en cache pas, puisqu’il lui attribue des pouvoirs équivalents à ceux d’une assemblée nationale, comme par exemple un droit d’enquête et un droit d’initiative législative. Mais là encore, je ne suis pas d’accord, car c’est oublier un peu vite qu’une assemblée nationale n’a de sens que s’il existe une nation. Or, la nation européenne n’existe pas. Je veux donc rappeler solennellement à ce Parlement qu’il n’est pas une assemblée nationale, mais un simple organe délibérant d’une organisation internationale.
Debate: Parliamentarism, European citizenship and democracy
Date: THURSDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Tatjana Ždanoka
Political group: NI
Country: Italy
Language: EN

Mr President, colleagues, Commissioner, I’ll speak about European citizenship, which, to my regret, is still a simple derivative from Member States citizenship.  I'll start with a citation: ‘We do consider that EU citizenship based on residence should be the ultimate goal to make the European Union a genuine political community. The crucial reality of the enlarged EU is that among those covered by the term ‘third country nationals’ are half a million people who are not nationals of any state, being former citizens of a state which doesn’t exist anymore, the USSR. These people make 20 % of the population of Latvia, my country, and 9 % of Estonia.’  This is a fragment of the speech I made when considering the report on European citizenship in January 2006. If you think the situation of mass statelessness in the two EU Member States has been resolved since then, you are wrong. Moreover, the essential part of those people who changed their ‘alien’ status to the status of ‘citizens of Russia’, as the legal successor of the USSR, will receive in the nearest future the orders to leave Latvia.  So the EU has not succeeded in solving the problem of European citizenship in general either, and Brexit did not reach us, regrettably.