15/05/2017 European Parliament

TRANSLATION: Handing over to Mr Lundgren, go ahead. Mr President, I

would like to make a point of order, concerning article 11 about a

manifestation that took place in 27th April in Brussels. A

demonstration of one of our Swedish colleague, who showed solidarity to

a Palestinian terrorist, a man who is convicted of three terror attacks

in which five persons were murdered, including a mother of two children.

Also, attempted murder, membership in a terror organisation and

conspiring to commit a crime. He was acquitted of 33 other murders, which

he was charged for because of a lack of evidence. In this house, we

cannot accept a manifestation of showing solidarity with convicted

terrorists. I demand that you, as the president of the European

Parliament, will take a responsibility seriously and look

into this matter. Thank you. APPLAUSE

TRANSLATION: Thank you very much president. I'm turning towards you

and to colleagues in the chamber to say that the council and seven

member states have been blocking aid to the areas in central Italy struck

by the earthquake. I'd like to denounce this fact and so I'd like

to call on all colleagues, seven months after the disaster, still

most of the people affected still live in tents and there's no hope

for a normal life to resume at the moment. So please, if we really do

want to change things, we've got to show our solidarity. Let's do

something as quickly as possible, we need to be building houses for these

people as soon as possible. TRANSLATION: Of course, the Speaker

will be representing the position of the Parliament during the trial log.

Our position as a Parliament has been extremely clear on this, so I

would refer you to the representative of that particular

issue. We know our issues and our views on this. So I would refer you

to that. We hold that as a very important issue in our hearts. Thank

you Mr President. On 14th February in this very chamber one of the

members of this Parliament referred to Israel as a terrorist state. I

objected to that at the time during the foreign affairs debate. I

understand it was referred to the bureau. I will be writing to you

personally Mr President asking why no action has been taken, thank you.

TRANSLATION: I'd like to be very clear on this and on other issues, I

do not intend to suffocate any kind of political debate within this

chamber, but if everybody starts to ask for sanctions to be put in place

everybody time they disagree with something somebody has said, I mean

we have to look at whether our values as a European Parliament are

being trampled on or not. I do not want to sensor any debate. I will

not be doing that otherwise we will never get to the end of this kind of

thing. If somebody is criticising somebody else or attacking a state,

if these are just political attacks, verbal attacks, I don't think

intervention is required. By way of sanctions. This applies to what

you've just said, Sir, but on other issues as well, whether people

pronounce vulgar accusations or statements, things that will flout

the values of the European Union, that is different, otherwise coming

in with sanctions every time somebody disagrees with what

somebody else has said, I think that would be going too far. Go ahead.

TRANSLATION: Thank you very much indeed president. I have

unfortunately to say that Greece and Cyprus, two member states of the

European Union have been victims of expansionist threats by Turkey and

there have been violations of airspace and maritime spaces and

there's been a blockade placed on a member of the European Union. There

have also been questions raised regarding damages incurred by

European companies who are trying to prospect for gas resources. Our

sovereign rights are being violated but also the rights of the European

Union. And we believe that it is necessary for action to be taken and

the European Parliament and European Union have to react, just as is the

case whenever there are other cases in the member states of the European

Union, where threats have been experienced. You cannot just have a

country like Turkey using this rhetoric and not do anything,

because there are now real dangers in this part of the world. We're

asking for your solidarity and we're asking for a real reaction. We're

asking for measures to be taken against a country that is

jeopardising the stability of the region and which is violating the

principles and values of the European Union.

TRANSLATION: Thank you very much. The Minutes and texts of the

sittings adopted are available. Any comments? They've been distributed.

No. In that case The Minutes are approved.

With regard to the composition of political groups, Renato Soro will

officially be a member of the SND group as of tomorrow. I have

received a request from the non-attached for a change in the

modification of a commission. That modification within in The Minutes

of this meetings. If there's nobody to objects to that it will be

considered adopted. In relation to the decision by several committees

to enter into institutional negotiations pursuit to rule 69 C

paragraph one announce the opening of the sitting 26th April 2017 I

have received no request in Parliament. The committees were able

to start negotiations after the expiry of the deadline laid down in

rule 69 C paragraph two. Various committees have decided to enter

into institutional negotiations pursuant to rule 69 C. The reports

which constitution the mandates for those negotiations are available on

the web page. And their titles will be published in the minutes of the

sitting. Pursuant to rule 69 C paragraph two members or political

groups reaching a medium threshold may request in writing by tomorrow

Tuesday 26th May at midnight that decision to enter into negotiations

be put to the vote. If no request for a vote in Parliament on the

decision toner into negotiations is made within the aforementioned

deadline the committees may start the negotiations. I would like to

inform you that on Wednesday, together with the president of the

Council, I shall sign 12 acts adopted under the ordinary

legislationive procedure in accordance with rule 78. The titles

of the acts will be published in The Minutes of this sitting. We now come

to the order of business, the final draft agenda as adopted by the

conference of presidents on May 11, pursuant to rule 149 has been

distributed. I have received no request for changes to the final

agenda. So the agenda is deemed adopted. So the first item on the

agenda is a report, the annual report 2015 on the protection of the

EU's financial interests, fight against fraud.

TRANSLATION: Thank you, president. Financial fraud and all ports of

illegal activities that is detrimental to the European budget

must be efficiently eliminated. That is only possible if we have the

proper tool kit and the choice of tools at hand is only possible if

you know what's actually happening. The EU budget. We started the debate

for the reports. Please those who would like to leave should do so in

silence. OK.

TRANSLATION: My request is that you restart the clock, president, please

reset the clock, president, because I have been unable to say anything.

TRANSLATION: You can go from the beginning please, take it from the

top. TRANSLATION: Financial fraud and all

kinds of illegal activities that is detrimental to the yew budget should

be efficiently eliminated, that's only possible if you use the proper

tools. And the selection of tools at hand is possible if you know what

actually happening. The EU budget is aimed at improving circumstances in

all areas of life. And any damage to the EU budget are detrimental to

achieving that objective. According to the report for 2015, on

the protection of EU financial interests, the volume of fraud

amounts to 640 million euros per aNam. One can assume that the actual

volume of fraud is even higher. Because, not all cases are detected

or reported. We must efficiently defend our taxpayers' money. But

there are different hindrances on that road. Among those is

insufficient co-operation at different levels and another problem

is such that no member states implement regulations on time. We

are lacking a common system of collecting comparable data from

member states. The report we are talking about today points to a

number of issues. Let me point out those that are most relevant. Such

as, income lost because of gap in regulations on VAT and

intracommunity fraud on VAT. Also only two member states have been

gathering and providing information on losses incurred in income,

because of transborder VAT fraud. It is worrying that the number of cases

has been on the increase in three farming funds for example there has

been an increase over the last five years. Also there is a sharp

increase in the number of irregularities in fisheries. What is

also worrying is high irregularities in cohesion funds. If you look at

the analysis of member states and of the commission, you could consued we

should put a stop to these worrying tendencies. Also investigation is

needed on a large number of problems with respect to research and

development and innovation in entrepreneurship. Among the problems

found, the most important are lack of common rules for reporting for

all member states. It is the reason why we can't see the picture

properly and another problem is that we are a lacking information

interchange system for relevant institutions to fight transnational

crime. We also should supervise any exemptions from procedures while

using funds to assist people who come to Europe. Of course, export

controls are use chl, because we can discover many new Ig regularities.

One should point out that prevention is important. Prevention is easier

than recovering the money after wards. We should welcome the fact

that directive has come into force where is it now a crime to put into

circulation counter fit money. One should point out the role of whistle

blowers and protection of whistle blowers. We should point out that

relevant regulations have been put in put in EU institutions. It is

important to protect investigative journalists. The report includes a

lot of information on o' its reports so far. The time of court actions

that are being conducted. Thank you for your attention. And I wait to

hear your replies. Thank you. Thank you, I would now like to ask the

commissioner to take the floor, please. Mr President, members, I'm

grateful for this opportunity to participate in this debate on the

Parliament's yearly resolution on the protection of the EU's finance

ideal interests. The fight against fraud is of utmost importance for

the commission, as it is for the Parliament. Protection of the

European budget is all the more important at a time when the trust

of citizens in the European project and in its capability to bring

security and prosperity is at risk. I would like to take this

opportunity to thank the members of the committee on budgetary control

and in particular the reporter for the excellent work on this motion

for a resolution. The result is a comprehensive and we structured

report. It is thanks to the political pressure exercised by the

European Parliament that several issues highlighted in the commission

reports have been addressed and progress has been made at European

and at member states level. Over the last five years, together, we have

significantly reinforced the framework for the protection of the

union's financial interest. Let me recall the most important measures.

We have adopted several important acts, modernising the legal

framework for the protection of the financial interests of the EU like

the public procurement directives and the four delegated and for

implementing acts on irregularity reporting. The legal framework for

the programming period 14-20 for the first time refers explicitly to the

obligation from member states to put in place proportionate and effective

antifraud measures. On the revenue side, the revised regulation on

assistance in the customs area and into force creating new databases to

fight better customs fraud. The last and not the least of these legal

achievements is the the directive on the protection of the union's

financial interests by means of criminal law for which a political

agreement was finally reached, also thanks to persistence of the

Parliament. But there are also important ongoing legal initiatives.

The negotiations of the European public prosecutors office have moved

forward very fast and we have seen 17 member states willing to

establish the EPPO and enhanced co-operation and a few more making

preparations to join it. Like the Parliament, the commission supports

establishing a strong and efficient EPPO with as many member stapts as

possible and with the necessary means to effectively fight crimes.

We are convinced that the EPPO has significant potential to improve the

current situation as regards the low level of prosecutions for crimes

affecting the union's financial interests. Olaf will continue to

play a key role as regard none fraudulent and fraudulent

irregularities. It will complement and support the work of the EPPO.

Beyond the protection of financial interests it will continue

investigations effects by members of institution and staff likely to lead

to disciplinary or criminal proshe'dings. The commission is

determined to maintain a strong Olaf to play a crucial role to make sure

an adequate protection of the budget. Members of Parliament over

the five last years, we have also made progress on concrete actions

and measures. I will mention three examples for which the Parliament's

support reiterated in the report is once more important and particularly

welcome. The first is the embedding of antifraud measures in national

antifraud strategies. The second is to extend the use of IT tools by all

member states to strengthen the fight against fraud. And the third

is the accomplishment of harmonised and qualityive reporting of the

detected Ig regularities and frauds -- Ig regularities and frauds. The

commission acknowledges that data is not fully comparable and takes notes

of the requests of the Parliament to improve the situation. New

guidelines are being prepared in co-operation with national experts

to address the most important issues to reduce the disparities and

standardise the process. The document is expected to be finalised

this year. It is by analysing such data that we can understand whether

the measures we have adopted really make a difference. However, still

is, there is still much to do. The commission will keep on fulfilling

its role of supporting and assisting member state when needed and of

facilitating the exchange of best practices and know how. President,

members of Parliament, I would like to close my intervention, stressing

once more the importance of the Parliament's resolution. It is by

acting together to wards the same target that we have achieved all

these improvements. But we are aware that we cannot rest on our laurels.

We can count on you to keep -- we count on you to keep encouraging and

also cite criticising when necessary the commission and the member states

in their fulfilment of treaty obligation to protect the union's

financial interests from irregularities and from fraud. I

thank you for your attention. TRANSLATION: Thank you very much

indeed. I would now like to ask somebody else to take the floor. You

have three minutes. TRANSLATION: Thank you very much. I would like to

thank the commissioner for her words and also to thank the reporter for

this excellent piece of work. In the report on the protection of the EU's

financial interests, it shois again that there has been an increase in

fraudulent Ig regularities. That will have a negative impact on the

EU's budget. The directive is an extremely important tool, as the

prosecutor's office n terms of fighting fraud. That goes against

the interest of the EU's financial interests. And also to fight

terrorism and organised crime, because a lot of times these kinds

of illegal activity are funding exactly that crime. So these things

are interlinked. We need to ensure that the national control

authorities is enhanced and there needs to be better co-operation and

good co-operation with Olaf as well, because today, a third of the alerts

have not actually been followed up. By the national authorities. And

also co-ordination in various sectors needs to be stepped up.

There is a lack of mutual assistance sometimes, because this could

improve exchange of information when it xoms to structural -- comes to

structural funds. I have flagged up the need to do this. But in fact two

years later my suggestions have not been followed up. I think today more

than ever they are necessary. And Olaf has reiterated and corroborated

this view. Another point is the #1r5ib89 of having -- availability

of having common actions that. That is important. The EU has experience

when it comes to judicial co-operation in penal matters. I

think we could copy that kind of co-operation and transfer it to this

area as well, because that will lead to a great deal of value added. Also

the reinforced co-operation procedures can be looked at. We need

co-ordinated action between the different authorities and

investigative bodies. So we have got to fight cross border fraud as well.

That is important. And what about whistle blowers? They're crucial in

this. And so we need to ensure that there is a European and national

legal framework to protect these people. I think the commission

should... Ensure that there is a stepping up of legislative

initiatives on that front. We need this. We have got to protect the

international, the EU's interests. Thank you. TRANSLATION: Thank you.

The reporter raises many programmes, questions, we are dealing with how

good the control and notification systems for fraud are. If you look

at the report, it is shocking. The number of regulations has doubled.

80% more. The number of fraud cases has gone

down by 26%. I don't believe that. It's a question of where we're

looking. Commissioner, you said the commission seems this is strange and

is concerned because of the low number of notifications. How can we

get over the conflict of interest of the member states, if fraud is still

defined by member states, they have to pay back the money. The figures

that we have that leaves me no other conclusion than we're closing our

eyes. Different interpretations of notification practice leads to

different interpretations of what is fraud and irregularities. The

commission must be much further ahead and they must be deerling with

the harm onnisation of notification systems more urgently. I'm struck

that every year we look at figures and nobody's interested in what

happens to these figures. This year it will be different and we'll make

sure there's follow-up. How efficient is OLEF? If you look at

the situations, the cases with recommendations haven't changed over

many years as long as the supervisionory authority can deal

with the efficienciy nothing will come of it. There's a lot of work to

be done. It would be good if the commission were to do something. I'm

concerned about something else. 75% of all fraud cases are revealed by

administrative controls. That's not a success. 25% not by administrative

controls, but chance. So here again, here too action is urge lently

needed thank you. TRANSLATION: Thank you very much.

TRANSLATION: Thank you very much, president. As regards the report, I

think it's a very interesting report but I have to say that we believe

that part of the solution has to come from a European tax body and

when we have enhanced cooperation between a certain number of member

states in place, then we hope that quickly we'll be able to create a

legal framework and provide resources and means for there could

be a proper European public prosecutor in place, so that we can

properly fight against this problem with all of the guarantees and

resources in place. Then we also have to recall that the current

situation means that we're dealing with the multiannual budgetary

framework, which means there are cycles for all of the funds and so

on. We have to bear in mind that the crisis brought a lot of these

programmes to a halt. As a result, as was said, in many member states,

the reporting of irregularities, errors or fraud has been quite

chaotic as a result of all of this. I think we have to make an effort to

make sure that the time tables of all the different member states are

properly harm Nilesed so you can -- harmonised so you can compare then.

Then you have a situation whereby we have a contradictory application of

the name and shame principle, because whilst the figures seem very

high and this has been commented on, you have to then look to the member

states, where they came from, but then also, we're criticising certain

member states because of the low rate of the figures, so I think

somewhere we have to draw the line and say you know, what these figures

mean, what harmonisation will give us and what we can do to improve

things. And also, think about how we can move away from these disasters,

even though as you said, you know, progress has been made. It has to be

made clearer. Now we are talking about this 80% figure for the

irregularities for the shared EU budget. But we also need other

assessments of the budget whether increasing funds, earmarked, I'm

thinking here of the horizon 2020 programme and the FC programme.

There too there are worrying results. Recently, for example,

we've seen a lot of talk about the programme in Spain in the context of

the FC programme. Thank you very much, one-and-a-half minutes,

please. TRANSLATION: Thank you very much.

Fight against fraud of the European Union's budget that needs to be, of

course, stepped up. Illegal activities, I mean, 75% of fraud

affects trade in goods, for example, tobacco, electronic goods, steel,

iron, and particularly products from the United Arab Emirates and the

Ukraine as well. Falsification of products, counterfeiting products

come a great deal from China. Actually Turkey as wasle. -- as

well. We feed to ensure that illicit trade in these products is fought as

much as illicit trait in tobacco products. There are activities that

actually follow on and a knock off on effect further down-the-line.

It's very important to tackle these things at source. What about all the

funds used for immigration matters? Some of these funds go missing. They

don't actually reach the refugees that need them. There are problems

in the Aegean areas who can't receive any more migrants.

TRANSLATION: Two minutes. Thank you Mr Chair, dear colleagues, first of

all I would like to congratulate you for the comprehensive report and the

commissioner for her statement. We are struggling overcome the effect

of the recent financial and economy crisis in of the associates of the

degree. This increasingly, increases dramatically the role of protection

of union's financial interests one of the most relevant to us to

restore its attractiveness. In the relevant annual report 2015 there

are aspects that are utmost importance for the main goal of the

protection of the EU financial interests. Firstly, the total number

of irregularities detected both by the commission and member states is

increasing for a second consecutive year. There could be difference

reasons for this fact, including better control, increased level of

spending or simply a rise of fraudulent activities. We need a

better preventive work of the institutions. Secondly, the

antifraud measures undertaken by the EU institutions and member states

should tackle the expenditure sides of the budget. The final goal is to

secure better revenuer mitting implementation of policies and that

increases the credibility of the institutions. Thirdly, from

managerial point of view, we need a full implementation of budget

focussed results strategy in. The process of designing and

implementing management and control system should be pursued cost

effectiveness. This means that the control strategies should target

predominantly the areas with high risk and error rates. Does the

control not impose a burden on beneficiaries. I would like to

underline again the importance of efforts of European Commission and

member states in the protection of EU's financial interest. All of the

fraudulent cases damages the reputation of the union. Adequate

action taken by the commission services to protect the EU budget

are indispensable in achieving major results against fraud. Thank you.

TRANSLATION: Two-and-a-half minutes please. Thank you, chair. Dear

colleagues, first of all, I would like to say thank you. We had really

an excellent cooperation during the whole discussion period. I think

that finally the outcome of this discussion is really an excellent

report which I commented to the Parliament to support. It's also

important that in the committee there was a consensus on the report

and it's a good sign that the different political groups coming

with different political backgrounds could agree on the most important

issues regarding the protection of the financial interests of the

European Union. There are several points in the report and I would

like to point out only four important issues from my

perspective. First and it was already mentioned, the question of

the EPP, the European public prosecutors office. I agree it's an

important progress and development that finally we could agree and

enhance cooperation. It could start its work within two or three years.

On the other hand, we have to keep in mind that this enhanced

cooperation, at the moment, consists of 17 member states and some of

those member states who are the most critical from the point of view of

the expanding of the EU funds are not part of the EPPO and this raises

the issue - how can we put pressure on those member states, where we can

experience a high level of corruption. If they are not part of

the EPPO. And from this perspective I believe that the strengthening of

competencies is something we have to do to have the rights and the

competences to better control the expanding of the EU funds in the

member states. The second issue is the anticorruption report of the

European Union. This was published three years ago and it was promised

in every two years we will see anticorruption report. Now the

commission Sheffield this report. I think this is exactly the wrong

message we can certained to the member states and those who are in

the corruption business, if the European Commission is not doing its

best to mop up corruption in the European Union. Third issue is the

whistle-blower protection. It was already mentioned that

whistle-blowers can contribute a lot to protect the financial interests

of the European Union and we have to help them and to protect them on the

European level, not only the member state level to do so. This is my

last word, if the investigative journalism in parallel with

whistle-blowers can do a lot. Thank you to support this idea. I think we

need to support and protect investigative journalism in the EU.

TRANSLATION: Thank you, president. I too would like to thank the

representative for this report. As far as our point of view is

concerned, we want transparency when it comes to, when comes to... Public

tenders. That's extremely important, when it comes to public procurement.

And also cross-border fraud. We can see how easy it is to get round

controls, when they use certain measures, which are easy to

implement. So this is all interlinked and also, the

legislation we have on organised crime. Italy plays a very important

role here. It's very easy to get hold of the data that you need. It's

important to see that there is illicit trade in cigarettes from

areas where the rules are more stringent and also where the ones

that aren't so stringent. TRANSLATION: Thank you president.

Madam commissioner, the report about the protection of the EU's financial

interests raises very interesting questions and challenges when it

comes to tax fraud. It was said already, tax fraud and fighting

fraud can only be done if the problem is clearly identified and

the problem is tackled efficiently. The route of travel is to make sure

that we can re-establish the confidence of citizens. A big

problem in tax fraud is the problem of VAT fraud. It's been pointed out.

VAT is the biggest source of income of the member states.

50 billion euros has to do with carousel fraud. And also organised

crime. A the cap means VAT avoidance strategies at the tax avoidance are

something we know from other areas. Aggressive tax planning and tax

avoidance strategies cause 60 billion euros of losses in budgets.

There are two member states and the EU which have statistics for all of

income because of cross-border VAT fraud. We have the special report

which shows the EU system is not as efficient and the lack of data leads

to losses for the EU. Member states have instruments to fight VAT fraud

available to them. The lack of account controls between tax and

customs, exchange of data between member states and lack of

cooperation between prosecution and law enforcement authorities and the

notifications of irregularities have gone up by one third from 2014 and

15. The notifications of fraud cases have gone down by 11% over the same

period and I agree with the previous speaker that we have to make added

efforts, and we should also be concerned that 52% of these

fraudulent cases are in the agricultural area and we need to pay

attention to that. We need more transparency, more cooperation is so

that the EU can get its funds back. One minute and a half, please. Thank

you very much indeed, President. Fighting against fraud is vital if

we want to defend the interests of the European Union said this is

incumbent upon all member states. One of the areas we need to fight

against fraud concerns the smuggling of tobacco -based products. This is

a very important smuggling activity globally, countless cigarette

smuggling operations are ongoing, and this accounts for a considerable

loss of revenue for the member states. There is also a health risk

concerning our consumers. It seems we're not making quick pros Gress

regarding this. In June 2016, a law was adopted to implement a technical

instrument which would allow for better monitoring of tobacco

smuggling, but this was not properly followed up, and now in our country,

we are forcing the vendors to refuse bank card payments, and the banks

are actually making 1% commission on this. This means that people are

being forced into buying illicit products, counterfeit cigarettes,

and there is a risk for public health and we have to do something.

Thank you, President. Ladies and gentlemen, the European Union today

is facing a huge amount of mistrust on the side of our European

citizens, and that is why it is so important today that we really care

about transparency and our voters and the European citizens and to

renew trust, not only in the European institutions but also an

member states of the European Union. In many member states, the European

Union has lost this trust. Commissioner, at the beginning, we

were applauding courage to change something of the status quo but,

based on the report, the European Commission has not done or has not

changed that much in the past few months or the past few years. That

is why we have to concentrate on these real and very necessary

changes because this report clearly identifies what is wrong and what is

not functioning well in the European Union. It is our task as politicians

to renew trust. To protect the financial interests of the European

Union should be our utmost priority. The European citizens should not

consider benefits of the European Union as an opportunity to fraud.

Some high representatives of the member states are reporting that and

the Czech Republic is also one of them. Unfortunately, based on that,

that is the cause of this mistrust, and this is basically costing us a

hundred of thousands of millions per year. That is why I am disappointed

that the steps of the European Commission and I hope, based on our

arguments, you will change your steps. Two minutes. Thank you,

President. The report we talking about now and the discussion we are

having here reflects the fact that we have criminals in the European

Union on the one hand and on the other hand authorities and

governments at member state level that are fighting against those

fraudsters. Hopefully, we will find a solution to hold sway against

those fraudsters. But what I'm missing here is, what happens of the

government of the member state or authority of the member state is

hampered here? If a system is being built up the taxes that ultimately

leads to a situation whereby this government actually is involved in

criminal activities itself, there is a lot of legislation that implicates

the family and the circle of friends of Mr Orban, and nobody gets access

to those funds often, apart from him. There are governments that are

against the EP PO because they will probably... They want to solve legal

problems from this philosophical point of view, but it is very

important to actually achieve that. On the other hand, some states will

be against that because there will be negatively impacted on. The other

once themselves involved in criminal activities. So we need to sometimes

unravel all these different relationships. Thank you. One

minute. Thank you very much, President. In this report, there are

many shocking figures and facts, but that should not be cause for us to

say we need more and stricter controls but should reflect, how can

come about? On very good approach to avoid errors and to prevent fraud is

to consider what the EU is responsible for. Should it be

responsible for everything? Do the rules make sense? Rules we do not

need cannot be exceeded so we shall have to think, cannot we have more

subsidiarity is more rules would be unnecessary? It makes no sense, we

think, in the EC group, I do not think that would lead to more

transparency. It also would not mean that more procedures would be

opened. What we would see is a prosecutor would have great problems

of limitations. Thank you very much indeed. One and a half minutes,

please. Thank you very much indeed, President. I would like to thank the

raptor for the work done on this I would like to focus my intervention

on three issues. The first issue concerns the need that has been

expressed by this Parliament for establishing an anti-corruption code

which allows us to create a system of transparent indicators, publish

the progress made to eradicate corruption and also presenting an

annual report on dealing with this problem at the European level. Far

from dealing with this, the report announced the actions to stop

publishing comparative data, and this has not been communicated to

this House and is a cruel disregard of the European Parliament agreement

set out in article 148 on the report of the human rights and the union in

September 20 15. The second issue concerns channelling the

simplification of cutting red tape. When projects have been completed,

such as the European employment portal, the coordinator of the

project is asked to repay sums were erroneously pledged to members of

the consortium, which for reasons outside the project's control, has

gone bust. The commission cannot resolve these problems acting

against another user and in this case that is the coordinator.

Finally, we have to improve procedures for interchange of data

between member states and homogenise the criteria for following up

possible infringement and we have to communicate is better because there

are too many differences in terms of reporting of corruption between the

member states and that is all the more reasons for us to do something

very concrete to improve the situation. Thank you very much

indeed. There are eye watering levels of fraudulent activity

costing member state of the European Union 637 million euros in 2015.

When you add irregularities that are not fraudulent, the total amount of

money involved goes to over 3 billion euros. That of course is

known fraud at irregularities but, by definition, there must be more

that is not detected. And that is before even asking the fundamental

question as to whether taxpayers got value for money from the cash that

was spent. But this report beautifully illustrates the European

project as a whole because whenever you have no European error areas, it

will result in areas implementing across 28 countries. And the

European Union will inevitably have the have more harmonisation as that

answer. You get responses like a prosecutor's office because the

system will fail to function without it and responses including imposing

rules across all 28 member states. This is the very essence. Once power

moves from a nation state of the European Union in one area, it

follows that powers must continue to flow in that same direction. That is

how the European Union is set up. So really, there can only be too honest

position Taia. You either support a European superstate with all that

entails with the loss of sovereignty and identity, and that view is

logically consistent, however much I disagree with it, I respect those

who hold that view. The other position is to recognise that the

alternative is to leave the European Union and to get off the train

before it reassures destination superstate. That is what we in the

UK are doing. If only the European Union had remained as a trading

organisation rather than a political monolith, I am sure we would not be

in this position today. The minutes, please. Thank you for the floor, Mr

President. I would like to congratulate her on that report. We

live in times when the trust of citizens in the EU and institutions

is eroding. It falls on us to restore that confidence. Transparent

use of EU funds and effective fighting fraud form an important

aspect of our work. In 2014, due to the VAT cut, we lost almost 160

billion euros of revenue and 50 billion euros were lost due to VAT

fraud within the community. This is a tremendous loss. We could've

channelled these funds into fostering economic growth and jobs.

Instead of seizing the numerous opportunities for quick action in

the fight against fraud, we still see unreliable data being reported

by member states. This is the consequence of an efficient

cooperation with the European Commission. There are also numerous

other gaps in cooperation between member states. They should exchange

information better and they should exchange best practice as well. We

need a strong and independent EP PO and it needs to have enough power is

said that can act quickly and efficiently in order to protect the

financial interests of the EU. If it is not given enough responsibilities

and powers, if they are not independent and therefore not

legitimate, then this will be a great opportunity lost in terms of

being able to fight fraud effectively at a supranational

level. Only if we act in a coordinated manner at an EU level

can we protect the financial interests of the EU.

TRANSLATION: President, Madam commissioner, dear colleagues, if we

look at the data today then the number of financial irregularities

has increased to an alarming degree, about 30% increase between 2015 and

2016. We need to look at this carefully and come up with concrete

measures. I support this report and I hope after we adopt the report

we'll improve cooperation between the commission and the member

states. At the same time, we also have to improve cooperation between

the relevant bodies at the member state level and we have seen a

massive loss of revenues in VAT for the member states. If you look at

cross-border transactions, commissioner, that's a real weak

point. I think we have to focus our efforts on where the biggest

vulnerabilities lie. Here we have to cooperate closely and loyally

between the member states to eliminate the kind of carousel fraud

that we have to deal with. Customs problems are also very important

when it comes to detecting fraud and we haven't done enough to resolve

these issues. I think we need to improve the control procedures that

exist for those goods which are often subject to counterfeiting.

About 75% of these goods, we're talking about tobacco, alcohol and

electronic goods, these are subject to counterfeiting, we have to check

them more closely. We need to detect any irregularities so we can avoid

them in the future. We have to strengthen these measures too. I

would like to ask the commission to look into the possibility of using

mandatory risk assessment tools that we should impose on the member

states. We also have to look at efficiency here. It's not just about

the that titical number of checks carried out but the effectiveness

and efficienciy of these checks. Here I have a proposal. We should

increase the sanctions at play here, because then we can really correct

the errors, but use sanctions to help that happen. We also have to

make sure that we haven't forgotten about citizens here. This is

taxpayers money we're talking about. TRANSLATION: Thank you very much.

One minute-and-a-half. TRANSLATION: Thank you president.

Commissioner, colleagues, an effective fight against fraught

needs to take a two pronged approach. We need to ensure that the

legal systems are were ereformed, particularly in the countries that

had dictatorship in their past. Their legal system needs to be

adapted to modern forms of crime. The legal systems there need to be

made more democratic. And we also need to be courageous, tone sure

that deep seated reforms at European level are also undertaken. We need

to ensure that we have crimes that can be looked at at EU level and

courts will be able to look at that at EU level. If there's fraud

against the EU's financial interests, it can't be left up to

the member states' courts to look at those, 27 different ones. We need an

EU court to look at that, an EU prosecution office to look at that.

We need to ensure that we fight corruption in an efficient way. We

also need political, a political fight against corruption. Because

it's detrimental to the European Union's image as a whole, of course.

It undermines the faith of the citizens in us. Of course, it's

extremely important to use the taxpayers' monies. The leadership of

the European Union needs to ensure that investment is done very well.

TRANSLATION: Commissioner talking today about fraud with EU resources,

we're talking about 22 thousand irregularities and 3 billion euros.

Irregularities have increased by about 6,000 cases, more tan a third.

The commission says that the number of irregularities has gone up

because the EU's budget has also increased. Now the commission, the

Parliament, and some member states, including Germany, want to have a

European public prosecutors office to fight fraud. Public prosecutor

for a state that doesn't exist and we one we don't want. My solution is

better and simpler. Less redistribution, less irregularities,

less fraud and we should cut the EU's budget and cut it down to what

things that can be done by EU. For example, the mutual assistance with

national, with natural disasters, no distribution and no subsidies.

TRANSLATION: Thank you very much indeed. Now we move onto the catch

the eye procedure. And I have two colleagues on my Speaker's list. You

have the floor first, please. TRANSLATION: Thank you very much.

Protection of the EU's financial interest should be one of the main

pillars for the European Union, because that will help to enhance

faith of the, of European citizens in us. We need to ensure that there

is a reduction in fraud. That 11% decrease, for example, is very

important. However, there's also been an increase by 12% so we've got

decreases on the one hand, increases on the other hand. It's up to the -

we have to ensure that we, ensure that there is a reduction across the

board. And of course, national authorities are responsible for 80%

of the funds and checking those funds. Here we need to tighten up

procedures. We need to ensure that proof is obtained why it is needed

to prove or refute fraud, so the measures need to be tightened, legal

measures need to be tightened up to make sure they are more efficient.

We also need to ensure that cooperation is enhanced.

TRANSLATION: President, fighting against corruption that is the duty

of states, but Brussels is going further. They're cooperating with

international elites at the moment. We have a group which maintains the

situation with a lack of law. Macron is in power in France, but he worked

in a bank. And a lot of political leaders are in the same boat,

including in Greece. But people will say no to Macron.

TRANSLATION: Thank you very much indeed. Commissioner, you have the

floor. Thank you, Mr President, thank you honourable members. This

debate shows once more how the need for an adequate protection of the

union's financial interests is. It also indicates that continuous

improvements and enhancements are necessary to bring the fight against

fraud and irregularities in line with the expectations of the

European citizens. Please rest assured that the commission is fully

committed to continue to strengthen the protection of the European

Union's financial interests and to reinforce our efforts in this area.

To ensure the European budget is delivering its optimal impact and

value for money, the commission and the member states have the duty to

make every effort to prevent that public money is defrauded. On your

question or on your consultation also that the total number of

irregularities detected by the commission and the member states is

rising again and what reason is for this, I can only tell you that there

is no straight answer to this question. Identifying the main

reasons behind increases and decreases in the number of

irregularities is always, as you know, a complex exercise. Several

factors may contribute to this in relation to 2015, increased spending

changes in control strategies, and the delayed reporting have played a

role. I may kindly refer you to certain paragraphs in the report

about this. On fraudulent irregularities, there we see that

the number of fraudulent irregularities have been decreasing.

I want to tell you here that interpreting the true meaning of the

fluctuations in the number of this kind of irregularities reported and

in their related financial value, it is always difficult and could easily

be misleading. As observers, we tend to associate a positive judgment to

decreases and a negative one to increases of detected fraudulent

activities. However we should never forget that we are looking at the

member states' capacity to prevent and detect fraud. It is the

detection efficiency of member states that counts. Of course, as

you told many of you told money lost due to fraud is money we could use

better. We could invest it in useful proinjects. -- projects. We should

know that reporting of irregularities does not always mean

that the budget lost the amounts member states and the commission

recover. Often the amounts, let's not forget about that. Of course, we

recognise that there is a conflict of interest, but let me tell you

that we also address this conflict of interest among others in the

public procurement directive of 2014, where definition of conflict

of interest is introduced and also, I can also tell you that the

commission prepared guidelines with member states experts on conflict of

interests. And then a member asked me why the commission decided to

discontinue the anticorruption report. Well, an effective fight

against corruption within the European Union remains essential

delivered through the right vehicle. Fighting corruption has become a key

element of the European semester process. I want to underline that.

The commission will take up anticorruption measures in the

context of its main economic policy dialogue between the member states

and the European institutions. This is in line with the general approach

of this commission to stream line processes and focus on key issues in

the relevant forum. There was also a question, Mr President, on the

whistle-blowers and about the state of play on initiatives of the

commission on protection of whistle-blowers. There I can tell

you that the commission is assessing the feasability and scope for

European action to strengthen the protection of whistle-blowers. We

are carrying out an impact assessment, has launched a public

consultation in March and is about to launch a targeted consultation.

The commission should decide in July of this year what action to propose

before the end of the year, before December. Dear members of

Parliament, I can, yes, despite my efforts, I have probably not

addressed completely certain specific or certain technical issues

in my introduction or in my reply to your questions. But can I tell you

that the commissioner will meet representative in the beginning of

June in order to continue the discussion on how further improved

the protection of the European Union financial interests. Thank you for

your attention. And I can tell you that the commission Council and

European Parliament's continuous support, thank you.

TRANSLATION: Thank you very much indeed. I'd like to ask you to take

the floor. Thank you very much, President. I

want to thank the commissioner and all the colleagues who participated

in this debate. I have to say that, taking into account the complexity

of the issue and the fact that it raises a lot of concerns, I am full

of hope because, independently from our political differences, this

concern for the Budget, for the efficiency in fighting all the

negative elements, is something we share, and it always gives us hope

that we will be able to fight efficiently everything that is

detrimental to the correct functioning. And I agree, when it

comes to the importance of the issues here, the accounting systems,

the issue of European... European persecution services, as well as

cooperation, we will be able to fight fraud and irregularities, and

this is crucial for the European institutions and politicians. At the

very end, I wanted to thank all the Shadow raconteurs who really made it

possible for our work on this report to be fruitful, interesting. Thank

you very much indeed. That concludes this item on our agenda and there

will be a vote on the site tomorrow. We're now moving on to our next item

on the agenda. Namely, a European qualifications framework for

lifelong learning. This is an oral question addressed to the

commission. So I would like to begin by giving the floor to the author,

please. Thank you, chair, and thank you for being here. The European

qualifications framework is a European wide qualification

framework which joins the qualifications of different EU

members together. In a way, it is a translation of different

qualifications which make qualifications in different EU

countries easier to understand. As such, it is of key importance for a

well functioning European integration ability. According to

the commission, the upcoming review of the EQ F or make it even easier

to compare qualifications across countries, it will help learners,

workers and employers to better understand what a job applicant

knows and is capable of doing. The revised EQ F is also supposed to

facilitate the comparison and understanding of qualifications of

the third country nationals. These are important goals. Nonetheless,

the Parliament has adopted a question, or questions, which read

as follows, qualifications differ across the European Union and that

makes it difficult to assess the knowledge and capabilities of

workers and learners. In 2008, Parliament and the Council adopted a

recommendation on the establishment of a European qualifications

framework for lifelong learning with the aim of improving the

transparency, compatibility and transferability of qualifications in

Europe. The EQ F's objectives have not yet been fully achieved. As part

of its new skills agenda therefore the commission is proposing to

revise the system so that a new Council recommendation. Question

one, how will the proposed recommendation facilitate equal

opportunities in the knowledge-based society and a better permeability

between the education and training system? How will it help to match

the supply and demand of skills in the labour market? Question two, why

would they revised EQ F work better? Despite the current framework being

only partially implemented and member states' calls to focus on

this? Question three, how was the framework contributing to informal

and non-formal learning? How is the new relationship between ECT S

expected to work? Question for, how will be commission support a

consistent implementation of EQ F across member states, its use and

involvement by all relevant stakeholders as well as its better

visibility? Question five, by using the EQ F as the meta framework, how

would the commission ensure that the specific features of national

training and education systems can be recognised and understood in the

other member states? Question six, the growing migration flows to and

from the EU highlight the need for better understanding of

qualifications awarded outside the EU and of the recognition in order

to help migrants and refugees integrate into EU labour markets.

How does the commission intend to support the development and

application of mechanisms to enable the comparison and recognition of

third country qualifications? In the resolution that will be voted by

Parliament on Wednesday, it is also highlighted that relevant

stakeholders, such as public employment services, social

partners, education and training providers, should be further

involved in close corporation in the creation, implementation, promotion

and monitoring of the EQ F at an EU and national level in order to

ensure its broader support. We have also highlighted the importance of

member state commitment and involvement so far only the

Netherlands and Sweden have specific procedures put in place within the

plans for the inclusion of non-formal qualifications. No member

state has specific procedures for informal learning within the

National qualifications frames. This is an unnecessary barrier to the

labour market. We should always respected national competence and

guarantee that the distinctive crates of the education system of

member states are safeguarded. But at the same time, many member states

are still in the early stages of implementing the National

qualification systems. This is too slow if qualifications are the

Beacon parable across Europe, we have to see improvement here. If the

fully functional EQ F is to be achieved, we need to make sure that

employers know how to use the system so that it can truly be the tool

that we all want it to be. Improving the EQ F is key in achieving our own

goals and our common goal. That is to say that people are in jobs, not

jobless, and that people do not end up in desperate situations with high

and employment rates. So please, Commissioner, we look forward to

hear your answers to all these questions. Thank you. Thank you, Mr

President. Honourable members let me start by welcoming your engagement

and contribution to working on the new skills agenda for Europe. I know

you are currently working on a reboot on the skills agenda, and I

look forward to reading this. Your question today on the EQ F comes at

the right moment as, in one week's time, the council will adopt the new

recommendation. Let me now address the issues raised in your question.

Firstly, I want to stress that the EQ F is a success story. In almost

ten years since it was established, it has helped make qualifications

more transparent and therefore more can parable across Europe. 24 of our

member states have National qualification frameworks in place

and have completed the referencing process of the EQ F. Others will

follow this year. Citizens across Europe are already benefiting from

the level on the diplomas and certificates. This makes it easier

for the qualifications to be understood in other member states.

This is why phase two represents an evolution and not a revolution.

Compared to the 2008 text, the key principle remains, this is a

transparency tool, not a recognition tool, EQ F levels will feature an

individual diplomas and certificates, and member states

participating countries and social partners, indeed also social

partners, will continue to meet at a European level to agreed the correct

referencing of each qualification framework. But the world of

qualifications does not stay still. People are increasingly learning in

different settings and are rightly demanding that this learning and

experience is better recognise. This will happen even more on the future.

Qualifications and National qualifications framework at

adapting. This is why the new EQ F recommendation proposes a continuous

updating of the referencing process. In order to ensure that this keeps

pace and the referencing remains valid. A Member of Parliament is

highlighted in your question in motion for resolution of the EQ F

equal opportunities and permeability should be stringent. This is valid

both within systems, for example to make progress from the location of

the higher education easier, as well as between different systems and

countries. I am sure that Parliament will welcome therefore that our

proposed revision puts a greater emphasis on credit systems to

support flexible learning countries including setting our principles for

credit systems in a dedicated annex. And, of course, linked to this, a

goal for the recognition and validation of non-formal and

informal learning in line with the dedicated Council recommendation of

2012. Member states are invited by the EQ F to incorporate this

validation in the National qualification frameworks. Indeed,

for the EQ F, what counts are the outcomes of learning and not the

duration or the institution where the La Quinta place. Ensuring the

consistency of EQ F implementation is a task of the EQ advisory group,

this group was created in 2009 and has proven its value in building

trust between member states, and its work will continue. We will continue

our work together with the advisory group to better communicate about

the EQ F and to improve its outreach to citizens and employers. We will

also report closely on the ground through peer learning activities,

studies. All this should also help to make it

more visible. Dear Members of Parliament, you know that the EQ F

serves as a translation grid between different training systems. It helps

to better understand and compare qualifications that are part of the

systems. The EQ F therefore fully respects and protects each national

educational training system. The goal is transparency in

understanding, not harmonisation. Regarding better understanding of

qualifications, it includes a recommendation on exploring such

comparisons. We should not have illusions. The reference includes

the EQF to have mature qualification systems. They have been done by New

Zealand, by Australia and Hong Kong but this is not done in isolation,

migrants and refugees need our help now. Other actions of the new skills

agenda for Europe focus on practical actions for a better understanding

of the skills of third country nationals. Next month I were

launched a skills profile tool for this purpose. It will be done on the

20th of June and this will coincide with the world refugee Day. The new

EQF brings new clarity on international qualifications such as

industry qualifications. This will be achieved by expert and peer

support to member states for the levelling. Honourable members of

Parliament, the EQF has been a successful tool to improve the

transparency of qualifications. Across Europe it has stimulated

member states to introduce national qualifications frameworks and if

there is a tool which is used for individuals and employers and they

are beginning to refer to EQF levels in their CV 's. I hope soon to

include adverts. The new EQF will build a bond. It looks to the future

to keep pace with changes in qualifications and continue to be at

the forefront of skilled transparency. Together with the nine

other actions of the skills agenda for Europe, we aim for a joined up

approach which promotes better skills in Europe. Thank you very

much. TRANSLATION: We would like to to give the floor to another for two

minutes play -- two minutes, please. I want to welcome the outcome of the

use of the European qualifications process. This has become a source of

reference and inspiration. Enabling the development of a qualification

framework within Europe and globally despite this progress. Studies have

shown that there are shortcomings that are hampering the main aim of

the EQF. That is transparency and comparability within the EU. This

initiative should accompany the policies that are underlined in the

skills agenda for advanced mobility. This promotes skills that are

relevant to a modern economy and a functional economy. It also

complements a lifelong learning initiative together with

transparency and a recognition of qualifications around the EU. Whilst

we recognise that action on a level is necessary, this has to fall

within the treaty parameters. We would stand to gain a lot more if we

had broader cooperation and information mechanisms,

transparency, comparability and cooperation. This will help support

worker's mobility and that of Apprentices, enabling them to work

to attain their lifelong learning objective and in-turn improving

their employability. I have contribution towards the better use

of skills and qualifications would make it easier for companies to

employ them and to fill job vacancies available that are often

difficult to fill because of the death in skilled candidates. We have

to build upon what we have achieved so far and remove obstacles to

mobility take to trust and recognition of qualifications

irrespective of where they were obtained. We should do this to the

benefit of the individual and enable the market and the economy. The next

speaker for the European Parliament. It is a good opportunity to talk

about qualifications and the revision that the council is going

to be adopting in the next few days in the context of the EQF. In the

context of the objections that were set out over the last few years by

the European Commission, it is an important issue. Apprenticeships and

a recognition of those were whether they are informal or informal

throughout a career. This is important because of the changes

occurring in the labour market where workers are more and more

vulnerable. They have more short-term contracts and high levels

of unemployment existing in many member states. Secondly, this is

important because of the changes in the labour market forcing us to move

towards these transitions because of digitalisation. We have new groups

of vulnerability. People who have come here as refugees to Europe and

they want to be able to access the labour market. It is a good thing we

are talking about this and working on this but there are issues on the

table. If we are going to be able to ensure this revision is properly

adhered to, that is one issue. In the past, a number of member states

have gone very far with this but not all of them. Some of them have been

performing very differently. We have to guarantee access for all groups,

particularly those risk groups. They have to access the labour market

freely and easily. Thirdly, we have to be able to listen to the

parliament because people haven't been listening to Parliament's views

on this subject area will stop we have to make sure that we are aware

of the fact that when it comes to supply and demand and the quality of

the work, those are separate issues because demand is very important. We

have massive issues to deal with an employment. Thank you. For the

European Conservatives and reforms group now. TRANSLATION: Thank you

very much. The possibility to acquire new knowledge or skills is

no longer limited only to classical schools at the place of your

residence. We have the Internet, distance learning, travelling per

studies and working as a volunteer. All these are ways of how

individuals can enhance their qualifications either at a young age

or later in life. This is a way of acquiring skills and brings about

the need to understand, evaluate and recognise these skills in order to

improve the job prospects for the individual and to communicate to the

potential employer what skills the potential employee has available.

The EQF is a tool for the member states to better understand and

recognise skills acquired in the education system is in other

countries. Even though the relevant recommendation was adopted in 2008,

we still have not implemented its goals, transparency and

transferability of qualifications. It is therefore necessary to make

this instrument more efficient in order to facilitate the situation

for employers, workers and lawyers to understand a national and

international qualification from third countries. Member states need

to increase their effort to acknowledge and recognise

qualifications and diplomas more quickly and more efficiently and

also to reference the levels in the EQF. The result of referencing

should be available at national and European level. We have to emphasise

that it is an incompetence of member states to take care of the quality

of education and the European qualification frame and that it

doesn't interfere in any way. Thank you. TRANSLATION: For the group of

the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, two minutes

and 30 seconds. We are living in a world that changes everywhere. Our

face changes. There is the development of knowledge, skills and

competence. Both the private and public sector requires skills that

are almost inconceivable 30 years ago and adapting to these changes,

we should no longer follow the old school ways when it comes to

education. Our education and training systems lag behind these

dynamic limiting the recognition of non-formal and informal learning

including the skills are a volunteer activity.

There is the challenges that we face ahead and we have to look at them

with open mind and confidence. Greater flexibility in skill's

recognition is beneficial to the European citizens but can also lead

to a better economic and social integration for migrant and refugee

's and responding to another challenge of the EU. At the same

time, to structure dialogues with EU neighbourhood countries, especially

the ones that have an association agreement with the EU, we should aim

at referencing their national qualification frameworks to the EQF.

If sooner or later this these -- these countries will become EU

members, their citizens will be ready from day one to cope with the

demands of the European market and labour. EU support through Dover --

development aid should be directed to the third countries in order to

offer assistance in the national qualifications frameworks. The

revision of EQF should result in a framework that responds to all these

existing challenges but also things ahead and anticipate potential

problems. Thank you. For the convertible group of the European

left the. We are focused on migrants from other member states and from

the countries. This has the fundamental tool to facilitate

recognition of skills that workers have when they are regularly

discriminating against. This can contribute to national creations of

public policies put --. It only looks at

the economic potential of candidates will stop as such we are asking the

commission to strengthen its cooperation with member states and

with social stakeholders and with public employment services. Thank

you. Have a group of freedom and I met democracy. I think that I can

share a lot of the things that people have talked about and a lot

of the good initiatives but there are two main things. I think the

problem is we need to ensure that we are keeping pace with globalisation

and the whole system of the education system. We need to make

sure we are not levelling it out because there is a point in time

where young people need to have personal development and training

but what we are doing is creating a system that will destroy all of

this. It will mean we have a one size fits all approach. Instead of

keeping pace with the developments, we are going to be excluding a lot

of people. Not everyone can adapt to that kind of thing. Sometimes were

using the wrong approach. Instead of tackling the real problem of a lack

of qualifications in the EU, the problem is because of an employment.

Unemployment is the real problem. Putting a sticking plaster on this

is not the way to go. We need to tackle the roots of the problem of

unemployment. There are better ways of achieving this. Anything else we

do will not be efficient if we don't do that. We don't create jobs. If we

don't come measures to boost employment, then we are not going to

get anywhere. We can talk about all kinds of wonderful qualification

frameworks but there will be no point of this. We need to talk about

mobility. Last year, 110,000 young people in

Italy left my country, they left their own country because they did

not see any prospect for them staying in Italy. And those people

who left actually had qualifications, they had

capabilities, but they didn't find the country, their own country, but

was able to value their achievements, and they left. So, we

need to ensure that we are not building a house by starting with

the roof and not looking at the foundations. TRANSLATION: Madam

President, dear colleagues, the EU wants to put in place in the

European framework for qualifications for lifelong

learning. The project is to ensure a better match between the available

qualifications and those needed in the labour market. We have to take

account of what the three levels of knowledge are, knowledge and skills,

which can be acquired formally and informally. Unfortunately, the

proposal, it has a full paragraph on the inclusion of migrants, and we

are very much against this policy, taking into account the 25 million

unemployed in Europe. This will devalue our education and

qualifications systems. It puts the larger question of mobility, better

equivalence of codification is, as a pretext to develop mobility of

workers, fostering the source of greater security. The EU has tried

in the past to have education without success. This new provision

is not destined for any greater success. For all these reasons, we

will vote against this text, and will be putting down amendments so

that this framework is not mandatory. Member states should be

able to remain free, of igniting formal and informal convocation is,

given their own conditions and needs. We have got the wrong target,

we should have a new regulation to preserve fair competition and not

fostering unfair competition between east and west. That is to say,

competition between migrants and European persons. Thank you very

much for your attention. Next Speaker.

TRANSLATION: This has been in place for about ten years now, and the aim

was to provide staffing levels, with the requisite qualifications. For

people who have the right level of qualifications, to enable them to be

able to change jobs throughout their working lives. This is something

that was supposed to give the best available profiles to the capitalist

system. And now they are seeking to completely exploit the migrants as

well. The line of the Greek government, when it comes to

imposing massive sacrifices on people, in the context of the fourth

memorandum, the line of the Greek woman is fine in this direction now.

The people have to rise up and fight back, this is the only solution. We

are launching an appeal so that everybody can participate in a

general strike against the line of the government in the big capitals.

The European qualifications framework is the main tool for

sophistication of mobility of employees and greater comparability

of the verification systems. Qualifications differ across the

European Union, which makes it difficult to assess skills by

employers. The European qualifications framework should

Felicity opportunities in a knowledge-based society and ensure a

better comparability between the systems and education programmes.

The commission proposes to revise the system, as Mrs commissioner has

just presented. I would like to emphasise that the commission should

focus more on implementation of the current framework, because the

current framework has not been fully introduced yet by member states. So,

we have new proposals on the table, but implementing them should create

an effective system implemented by all stakeholders. It is also very

important that the commission supports a mechanism to enable

comparison of qualifications and the validation of informal learning. We

have asked relevant questions to the commission in our oral question. I

am looking forward to fruitful debate and co-operation on the loo

legislation. Thank you very much. -- on the new legislation. Thank you,

President. Of course, in our current gender, achieving employment for our

citizens is something that has got to be a priority. And what we've got

to do is ensure that skills and knowledge that the people have, and

capabilities that the people have, is given its true worth, because it

is extremely viable. This is extremely important in an economy

which is changing all the time, to explore new avenues. It's very

important to ensure that supplies and demand of work tellies. Look at

the labour market today. It requires flexibility. -- tallies. Constant

updating and constant training is required. And I think training and

vocational training needs to ensure that there is mobility guaranteed

for workers. Migratory flows are such now that there is a challenge

to integrate people, newcomers. And it is important to realise that.

People coming from third countries, too. So, we've got to try and

integrate all these problems. Transference of skills is extremely

important, from one state to the other, to sustain the demand and

also to boost employment. The best response I think to the challenges

facing us today, demographic and technological, is to ensure that we

make sure that we have equal opportunities and that we emphasise

new skills. TRANSLATION: Thank you, Madam President. This is an

ambitious instrument which promotes efficient mobility among member

states and facilitates lifelong learning. The stress is put on the

results, knowledge, capacity and competence. The new priorities

within the framework, by 2020, enable those learning and working to

better present their abilities and skills toddle regardless of where

they were acquired. But the devil is in the details as always. What about

qualifications from third countries? How should this interact with points

system and Deacon elation of points from other systems, where

competencies are required. How to best describe the term on patents.

This is very difficult, we cannot interfere with competence in the

mistakes with respect to education. TRANSLATION: The European framework

of vocational qualifications for lifelong learning took seven words

that shows that this has a link to reality. And this is being praised.

Full employment has been pretty much forgotten, even though we are in

favour of this. There are experienced workers and young

people, with qualifications, have been unemployed for years and have

the feeling that they are not needed. We should change our

priorities. First of all, we should have new arrangements for

employment, otherwise things like this qualifications framework will

actually increase the number of unemployed people. Thank you. Thank

you, commissioner. Thank you for this important tool that is

available to us, telling us about the kind of Europe that we would

like to see in the area of education. The role of the European

Union is to build, which is between different actors and different

policies are social, economic, youth policy or education policy, to show

that there is a pathway which we can embark upon, and ways to create

syndication which fit into the European framework, ensuring

portability of skills in order to meet with realities and trends in

society. The framework is crucial to improve employability and mobility.

There are many different educational pathways, as many as there are

individuals, and we need to make training accessible to all. Mobility

is important, particularly for young people, and young people living near

the border is at stake when it comes to this recognition of diplomas and

skills. This will make the connection throughout the EU between

those qualifications in different member states. It will ensure that

there is no mismatch between the skills which are out there and the

skills which are needed on the labour market.

Are you TRANSLATION: A lifelong learning is necessary if you want to

be successful in the labour market when it comes to new technologies,

or to my reservation, new IT and so on. Since the crisis, we have

introduced a number of support programmes for education and the new

posts of work. It turns out that the unemployment rate continues to be

very high. Even though in many countries we have many positions not

covered because we don't have the people with the right qualifications

and skills for them. When the framework was created, lifelong

learning was an important pillar of this. We know the systems of

education are... Big qualifications framework was supposed to enable an

exchange between the member states so that we do not have these

obstacles in the area. The targets of the original EQF were not totally

fulfilled so I agree with the commission that the revised

framework should work better because it was only implemented partially. I

agree with the member states and with the questions that were asked

and I expect and says to those questions from the commission. Thank

you. Thank you. TRANSLATION: Thank you very much.

The main thing is that this can be exercised and that entails

recognition is of qualifications, professional, formal or informal.

That is something that benefits the workers or potential workers

themselves but employers also have to help with this. On the other

hand, there are disadvantages for the employers because they can

employ people on lower wages. The report focuses on recognising the

qualifications of refugees and migrants. Surely this is another way

of generating another flood of workers which will only keep wages

in the European lower. The new commission's proposals are business

as usual. They lead to no good results. We need to review the

framework. This does not bring growth or reduction of unemployment.

Policies need to cover both education and training of workers

and create new jobs. Our states pay for apprenticeships but this is not

a strategic choice. This is just help to increase the profits of

businesses. We cannot port all burden on the shoulders of workers.

Migration, expanding skills, mobility not a solution. On the

contrary, they pressure for more social dumping. Thank you.

Lifelong learning and this framework is an important instrument to ensure

mobility of students and employees. In 2006, I was able to ensure that

equal quality between vocational training and academical training was

recognised. We want Copenhagen to have the same value as the loan --

Bologna. We need to improve the recognition of such skills. There

are different educational levels covering the entire range of

education. Unfortunately we don't have all of the pathways in the

member states. We quite rightly asks the European Commission to what

extent we can make this qualification framework more of a

reality. In many cases, improved cooperation can result between those

offering education and national authorities. It is important to --

that the unique characteristics of national systems can be maintained.

We have a system that is ready for the future and the real value in the

internal market can be achieved over decades. In the reform that we are

working towards, the instrument of the EQF can be simplified, unified

and improved. Reducing the red tape and increasing the flexibility. We

are working in education to see a real added value in Europe and

inspiration. TRANSLATION: Madam President, I support the European

connotation -- qualification framework because I believe this

would lead to transparency and a level of comparability between

qualifications in different member states. Technology is evolving

rapidly and as is the labour market. The EU needs a whole range of skills

which will help us to make more progress. However, skills and

confidence that has been acquired outside of official systems are

still underestimated. This is a hindrance to European citizens

because sometimes it means they can't get jobs or promotions. The

review of the framework should lead to better visibility the skills that

people have gained outside of classrooms. Only Sweden and the

Netherlands have introduced systems to recognise the formal

qualifications and I would call upon member states to give more

visibility to informal studies as well as volunteering and voluntary

work in the national frameworks. It will improve chances for young

people. Thank you. TRANSLATION: Thank you very much. First of all I

would like to thank the commission for taking the initiative to revise

the European framework which hasn't been fully implemented although they

were adopted six years ago. Why? The European framework was formed in

response to the need to equalise and make comparable the diplomas and

qualifications. If such an important goal is not implemented, there must

be a cause and it has to do with the instrument. We have seen what

difficulties this European framework was implemented international

systems. It seems the framework is insufficient and there are new

challenges. There is education outside the formal system. We have

high-class IT experts who obtain skills outside the formal

frameworks. We need to understand what diplomas and certificates of

persons coming to the EU from third countries are worth. Some kind of

system is required. There is a need to determine what is the level of

the European qualifications framework to make it more popular

and more recognised by both citizens and employers. It is also important

to take into the account, this proposition of the agenda for

qualifications to assure comparable to those skills. To compare national

systems and to exchange good practices. Thank you.

The diversity of educational pathways represents an opportunity

for sustainable economic development as well as personal development of

learners and citizens. I know from personal experience that lifelong

learning develops creative and critical thinking, helping us to

gain in soft confidence to become a problem solvers, entrepreneurs and

responsible citizens and to acquire the intercultural, social and

transversal skills needed to achieve more inclusive, open and tolerant

communities. We are often asked to equip learners with skills and

competences for a world that does not yet exist. Therefore, probably

including lifelong learning in our education policy is key and

promoting EU collaboration and harmonisation across member states

is important. In the context of democratic changes, flexible

economies and uncertain job Martin is characterised by increasing

digitisation, Robitaille 's Asian and automation of production, we

must embrace the concept of occupational literacy, promoting

active engagement in arts, citizenship and sport. Furthermore,

we must include refugees as they have much to offer and they arrive

with skills and desire to contribute. Furthermore, we must

include refugees as they have much to offer and they arrive with skills

and a desire to contribute. Sun-macro the other day about the

framework is a very fine idea. It is linked to the labour market. I

support all the efforts to recognise informal and non-formal learning and

skills. If we want to shape the uniform of the market and the single

market, then we also need to recognise this skills obtained

elsewhere. The free flow of learning and it is one of the key actions.

This is not fully implemented will stop only a few people use the

possibility to migrate and should the European qualifications

framework be amended, then this would encourage the workforce

mobility which will have long-standing effects on the

economy. People looking for jobs abroad face difficulties,

particularly when their qualifications need to be

recognised. It is not only them who are facing challenges. The employers

had to recognise the skills that these people are bringing with them.

Therefore I believe that it would be necessary to introduce a type of

certificated and so that we would apply uniformed criteria so as to

know who is offering what in the market. This will be good for all.

Thank you. TRANSLATION: Thank you. Free circulation of people is one of

the rights of our citizens. It is a pillar on which the internal market

is founded. However, despite this lack of comparability and mutual

recognition of diplomas is a major obstacle which prevents a lot of

Europeans from finding jobs outside their borders. Achieving some kind

of convergence between such diverse systems will be a very positive step

towards achieving our objective. We have got to continue down this track

and we have got to fully commend the European qualifications framework

and do so in a way that fits in with the other systems. This will mean

that supply and demand could be matched better in the labour market

and companies would be an easier position to interpret qualifications

and the abilities of candidates. This would lead to greater mobility

between countries and at the end of the day, it will help generate jobs.

Mobistine are adapting their national frameworks to the European

framework. -- member states. A lot of them are still in the initial

stages of this. I'm asking, why are you planning to renew this framework

which has not yet been fully implemented and which we haven't yet

been able to assess? TRANSLATION: Colleagues, with regards to the

questions to the commission, I have to point to the fact that we have to

measure how our environment reflects the knowledge ability of our

qualifications. Let us know that there are quite a few problems and

faults but still the European Union is developing fast. Why is this

important? Why is this important? People who

come from outside the borders of the European Union, the migrants, are

quite often having very low skills, quite often catching up needs as

long as the decade. To us just think about the lack of knowledge of

languages come if a technician living in the north of Africa learns

his skills on machines that are very obsolete now, his skills now cannot

be equal, cannot be acknowledged, cannot be equal to those of a

technician here in Europe. Technology develops fast, therefore,

these questions are quite pertinent. Let us not turn this into a

political problem, a political question, that's why I support all

the motions that protect the high-quality skills. This is a basic

value. We need to strengthen the European Union.

Thank you, Madam President. First of all, let me say that any sensible

citizen, or indeed employer, in Europe, is in favour of supporting

and improving qualifications and realises that this is a necessity,

as is the need to have comparability between formal and informal

training. Some objectives have been set, but they are still to be

achieved. Now, that problem is up to the memo states, because they simply

have not implemented the objectives properly. That is a big problem,

particularly in terms of the rules, and if the EU isn't really working

on these issues, such as basic rules which underpins the single market,

then I think we are in serious difficulty. It is a serious problem.

And I think that means we've got to get rid of any administrative

hurdles, for instance in the acknowledgement and recognition of

qualifications. And I think that's what the EU needs to do. Make this

easier, get rid of the hurdles, and in a few years, when we come back to

looking at this framework, we hope that our successors won't be saying

that objectives and hopes have not been delivered on. So, I sincerely

hope that this will be implemented properly. Thank you. We move now to

the Catch The Eye procedure. This framework has been a significant

driver of reforms. Not all of the objectives of the recommendation

from 2008 well recognised. This is why, if we take European

cross-border mobility of learners and lifelong learning seriously, it

is important that we make qualifications more transparent and

understandable across front countries and different educational

systems. One of the greatest challenges is posed by the changes

over time in revocation systems. This makes it necessary to keep

referencing things and up-to-date, especially considering the