What Andrey spoke about.

Madam President, there is one thing I never want to hear in the House of the European Parliament, and that is that a threat is too far away to be a common problem. Because the distance from Strasbourg to Varna may be large, but the distance from the security of a Bulgarian citizen to that of any other European must be exactly zero. My generation grew up with Europe, took it for granted, but the ge

(Start of speech off mic) ... for this, and I think European citizens have waited enough. I believe this is one of the longest lasting legislative procedures that this Parliament has ever seen, and we have no right to prolong it even more. We achieved the maximum possible amount of rights that we can grant European citizens, while at the same time preserving companies' interest to fly, to get prof

Madam President, dear colleagues, Commissioner, friends, today it's about something that everyone understands, mainly due to the fact that it happens almost to everyone. You arrive at the airport, full of excitement – family reunion, vacation, important business meeting, job interview. Then suddenly the screen goes black or changed – delay or cancellation. In that moment you don't need an apology.

Mr President, looking at fuel prices, it will very soon be cheaper to charge our cars with French champagne than with diesel. And then the only mobility we will see is of voters from the normal pro-European parties to the radical ones, because they will quite normally use the fair anger of the people. They will offer simple solutions to complex issues. Pretty dangerous exercise. I ha

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, I think this debate shows one thing very clearly – that we are prepared to face a stress factor from outside. Inside the Parliament, including the Commission, something that I cherish quite a lot is that we stick together and we are going to make things at least better than they are. But that shows one thing, to me at least – the European Parliament, just

Mr President, Commissioner Tzitzikostas, dear colleagues, there is no other way to put this, other than to say that the European Council is trying to take away 60 % of the compensation of all passengers. Sixty. By the way, the Council looks to be absent at the moment in that crucial debate, and I am happy that we can rely on politicians like Commissioner Tzitzikostas in order to get the day rollin

Mr President, Commissioner, I was born in the People's Republic of Bulgaria – back then part of Soviet-dominated communist world. I don't remember much of those times, but I know one thing for sure: the system was lying about everything. It was lying that there will be milk in the grocery stores and lied that nothing had happened in Chernobyl. The same system that lied that nothing had happened in

What I am saying is that we have to protect ourselves. The drones were flying over Poland, over Germany – your own country – they were flying over Denmark. That has nothing to do with the pipelines on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

Madam President, dear Commissioner, colleagues, I think the fairy tale is over. The world we built and lived in after 1989 is over. It's not the same and it won't be the same again. We tore down the Berlin Wall in order to escape from the Iron Curtain. Today, we have to build a new wall – a drone wall – to keep the Iron Curtain away. Those of us who are born and raised east of Eden can sense this

Madam President, dear Commissioner, I'm sure that presenting the MFF proposal on the last working day of the Parliament is a coincidence, because it goes against the spirit of good cooperation and friendship between the European Parliament and the Commission. I do not know what is inside this draft report, but I just guess that if there is a single pot of money inside instead of a dedicated cohesi

Madam President, Mr Tzitzikostas, I think that the new proposal for passenger rights has a fundamental task from which we must start. And she is, if she can, not to make things worse than they are now. I think that's good for the start of the conversation. I have been involved in many legislative procedures, but this is the first one that makes me gasp. First, because we had to find a balance betw

Madam President, Mr Vice-President, Mr Nesci, I would like to start with grazie mille to you for your work and dedicating so much of your focus to rural areas. I don't need a written speech to talk about rural areas, because I am proud to come from this kind of society. In rural areas, your neighbour is more than your family, and this is something that we should cherish and enjoy in Europe. And th

Mr President, Commissioner, honourable Members, I am making this statement as a Member of the European Parliament, but also as part of the reserve of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Bulgaria. Today in Bulgaria we celebrate the day of bravery and I believe that more than anything our budget needs bravery, because the dice of fate have assigned us to deal with problems that we did not think woul

Mr President, Mr Vice-President, dear colleagues, we are having this debate at a very crucial moment. I would like to start by thanking Mr Protas for his work, because he dedicated a lot of his time, and he is a decent man who is doing a good job. In times when such crucial decisions are taken, I think those who contribute have to be mentioned. I would like to congratulate Mr Fitto for his efforts

Madam President, Onorevole Fitto, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, European cohesion policy has been responsible for billions of investments in kindergartens, in schools, in water supply systems and in energy efficiency projects. However, today it looks like a sleeping beauty. We have EUR 370 billion allocated for this policy, and we have only 10% spent to the final beneficiaries five years

Mr President, Madam Vice-President, dear colleagues, I think those 100 days are among the toughest and hardest in the post-war history of Europe. I think it's time for leadership and for tough decisions, and only the strongest one will remain in history. I think the lessons have been learned from COVID, from the war in Ukraine, from the energy crisis and inflation. I think this time the European C

Colleagues, I have a task for you. There are 285 million cars in Europe. Let's assume that tomorrow morning they all become electric and live in unison with Mother Nature. Question: What will happen at eight o'clock in the evening when each of these electric vehicles is plugged into the power grid? Answer: There will be no light bulbs in Europe. Conclusion: We don't need any bans, we need a free m

Madam President, the Bulgarian state was established in 681, making it the oldest in the European Union. For nearly 14 centuries, we've learned that dealing with empires isn't easy. We started with the Byzantine, then the Ottoman and finally the Soviet. And we learned the hard way that when an empire tells you, "We're taking a little more and there's no more," you can't usually believe that. That

Madam President, dear Commissioner, I think one of the key characteristics of a family is that when some of the family suffers, the rest of the family members are getting together to support him or her and to help overcome the crisis. All the Member States, all the way from Finland down south to Bulgaria, representing more than one third of the European Union and 100 million in population, are the

Madam President, how good it is to have a speech when there is someone in the room, thank you for that. Dear colleagues, the European Parliament is not a political machine that wakes up only before elections. It's our duty to protect citizens every single day – every single day. It doesn't matter if we talk about travellers, consumers or workers. It's our duty to protect them. If you board a plane

To form a government these days has proved to be a political luxury. It turned out to be difficult not to beat in the elections, but to form a regular cabinet. It's hard not to be first, but to rule. Alas, this also happened in Bulgaria. After several years of darkness, experiments, a point was put with the election of a regular government at the end of last week. The formation of this government

Madam President, dear colleagues, we owe humility to the victims of the floods, and we owe a rapid response to those who survived. Why do we owe this? Because last week was Spain, but before that we had plenty of other countries. It's obviously a European problem; we need a European solution. I think our next big European target should be zero deaths from natural disasters. In order to achieve tha