(Return tabled) Question No. 144 Ms. Hélène Laverdière: With regard to the government’s policy on fully autonomous weapons and autonomous robotics systems: (a) has the Department of National Defense (DND) provided financing, logistical assistance, or any other means of support for the research and development of fully autonomous weapons; (b) has DND provided financing, logistical assistance, or any other means of support for the research and development of autonomous robotic systems; (c) has DND awarded any contracts to develop or contribute to the development of autonomous robotic systems, and, if so, (i) what is the value of each contract, (ii) what entity was awarded each contract, (iii) what were the objective, terms, and conditions o ...[+++]f each contract, (iv) what controls were put in place to prevent the future weaponization of this research; (d) has the government entered into any agreements with universities or research institutes in Canada to study or develop autonomous robotic systems, and, if so, for each respective agreement, (i) what is the value of the government’s contribution, (ii) with which entity was the agreement signed, (iii) what were the objective, terms, and conditions of the agreement, (iv) what controls were put in place to prevent the future weaponization of this research; (e) do DND or the Canadian Forces (CF) have written policies, regulations, rules, or guidelines on the use of robotics by DND or CF, and, if so, what are those policies, regulations, rules, or guidelines; (f) do DND or CF have written policies, regulations, rules, or guidelines on the use of fully autonomous weapons by DND or CFs, and, if so, what are those policies, regulations, rules, or guidelines; and (g) what steps has the government taken in applying Article 36 of Additional Protocol 1 of the Geneva Conventions (new weapons), in regard to funding, research, developing and testing of new weapons systems?

The integrated guidelines are as follows (guidelines 1 to 6 form the broad guidelines for the economic policies of the member states and of the Union, guidelines 7 to 10 constitute the guidelines for the employment policies of the member states):

The Council also stresses the need for close coordination (at national and Community level) and consistency between micro-economic and macro-economic policies and the employment guidelines.

demands that the new three-year perspective of Employment Guidelines should provide a stable basis for a simplified and more effective Strategy, and that they and the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines should operate in a consistent way; guidelines should be limited in number, results-oriented and allow Member States to design the appropriate mix of action, taking into account national traditions and practices.

20. Regrets that there is no horizontal approach to equal opportunities policy in all European employment directives; regrets also that most Member States in their employment plans have paid little attention to equal opportunities policy for men and women; considers that the situation of women on the employment market can be advanced efficiently only if the mainstreaming principle is integrated in all employment directives and calls on the Commission, the Council and the Member States to take action in this area in the evaluation an ...[+++]d adjustment of the employment directives; expresses concern that no quantified targets or timetables are included in the National Action Plans for increasing women's participation in the labour market;

–the existence of a consensus that these guidelines – which should be concrete, voluntarist instruments promoting improved employment policy performance – must not be confused with the result their successful implementation was intended to produce (expressed by the Commission in terms of employment rate, the creation within a given period of a certain number of new jobs and hence a significant drop in the unemployment level within the Community);