What Gilles spoke about.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the European Union is already struggling to function with 27 Member States, it will have even more if it enlarges to new members. Balkan states are mostly unstable, when they are not gangrene by the mafia, like Albania. One of them, Kosovo, is not even recognised by some of the 27 EU Member States. In its Communication, the Commission recognises that some of

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Article 226 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union gives the European Parliament the power to set up temporary committees of inquiry. The European Parliament would like a regulation to strengthen this right of inquiry. I am in favour of it, if it is a question of forcing the Commission to answer those questions, because I note that the Commission

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the European plant seed sector is flourishing. It accounts for 20% of the global seed market, with an estimated value of almost €10 billion and the involvement of 7,000 companies, mostly SMEs. It must therefore be modernised without weakening it. This is the purpose of the proposal for a regulation we are debating today. Its objective is to give farmers access t

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the five years of von der Leyen's term of office have been a period of unprecedented acceleration of European integration. The COVID-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine will have provided the EU with the pretexts it had been waiting for to interfere in two areas hitherto reserved for its Member States: public health and defence. In two other areas, the von der Leye

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the report on the European Public Prosecutor’s Office’s 2022 budget discharge reveals a number of worrying reports. First, the budget implementation rate is down compared to the previous year, with 76% for payment appropriations, compared to 78 in 2021. Then, the average payment time increased to almost 24 days, compared to 21 days in 2021. And thirdly, mission

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the regulation and directive that protect designs in Europe have been effective, but they are more than 20 years old. It was therefore necessary to modernize them. This is the task of the Drawings and Models Package presented to you today. The satisfactory architecture of the current system is maintained. Two systems of design protection therefore continue to co

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the compulsory licensing system allows public authorities, in the event of a health crisis, to take control of the production of vaccines or medicines without having obtained the consent of the patent holders. Until now, only the Member States had this power, which is normal, because public health is, according to the European Treaties, an area that falls within

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, should a statute be created for European cross-border associations? The Commission thinks so, as this is the subject of its proposal for a directive, which we are debating today. Its objective is to facilitate the free movement within the Union of non-profit associations. But some of its provisions are worrisome. Article 7 thereof, for example, sins by default,

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, one would have thought that, following the war in Ukraine, the European Union would have blocked, as a sanction, all imports of Russian wheat. Well, no! It is surprising to discover that, two years after the start of the war, Russia still manages to export its cereals to the EU. For example, Latvia imported almost 424 000 tonnes of Russian cereals in 2023, an

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Tunisia has been in a situation of political crisis since President Saïed assumed full powers on 25 July 2021. I very much hope that the presidential election scheduled for the end of the year will allow him to regain more serenity. However, I do not underestimate the danger of Islamism against which President Saïed stood as a bulwark. In any case, the Europe

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, farmers across the EU are revolting. But locked up in its ivory tower, the European Parliament has no cure for it. The evidence, he just betrayed them three times in four days. On Monday, its Committee on Agriculture violently attacked French farmers, allegedly for violating the sacrosanct freedom of movement of goods by destroying Spanish products. On Tuesday,

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the European system of geographical indications is a great success. It protects 3,500 denominations of wines, spirits and agricultural products. The aim of this reform is to further improve it, in particular by clarifying the rules for registering geographical indications and ensuring their protection on the internet. Two concerns surrounding this reform have be

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, standard-essential patents, called SEPs, are intellectual property rights that protect a technology, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 4G or 5G, which is considered essential to manufacture or operate a standard-compliant product. Their holders are therefore in a strong position to grant operating licences to users of the standard on the financial terms they impose. Abu

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, on 13 February, the French Council of State amended the rules for assessing information pluralism for television channels. Until now, it only took into account the balance of speaking time granted to political figures. From now on, he also orders to take into account the interventions of columnists, animators and guests. This is extremely worrying for freedom of

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, a water policy is needed more than ever in response to the drought in several regions of France and Europe. As regards agriculture, it must make it possible to build water reservoirs wherever drought threatens. When reasonably designed, reservoirs make it possible to draw on groundwater in winter, at a time when it can be reconstituted, in order to water crops i

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in the midst of a farmers' revolt, the European Commission has unveiled its target of reducing the EU's greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2040. However, this new project is worrying for agriculture as it focuses on the supposed lack of progress on the part of farmers. It therefore seems to announce an additional turn of screws for certain sectors particularly p

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the European Parliament has adopted a report on European historical awareness, whose aim and ideological inspiration I strongly denounce. Its aim is to ‘change the teaching of history into perspective’ – I quote –, to put European history ahead of national history and to foster a supranational understanding of history. In this perspective, learning about Europea

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, in a statement of 31 January, the Commission approved a new derogation on set-aside for 2024. This was one of the demands of farmers who have expressed their dissatisfaction in recent weeks, and with whom the ID Group spoke in Brussels. However, the Commission's response leaves them unsatisfied. The derogation from the requirement to maintain a minimum of 4%

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the Commission and the majority of the European Parliament are proposing to include hate speech in the list of European crimes under Article 83 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the Union. I strongly oppose it for two reasons. First, because the notion of hate speech is so vague and subjective that it would open the door to censorship and political persecut

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the Angel report has the merit of reflecting on ways of strengthening the influence of the national parliaments of the Member States of the Union on the European political process. But I am not fooled by his attempt to turn them into substitutes for the European Parliament to help it overthrow the pre-eminence of the Council. And I tell you clearly, this instrum

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, on 8 January, in Germany, farmers expressed their revolt by blocking their country. They intend to protest against the government's decision to abolish the diesel subsidy they had previously received. But their discomfort is much deeper. What they question, beyond this suppression, is the European Union's free trade policy that puts their activity in jeopardy. T

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today's debate is one of the most technical in which I have participated for almost a decade, and it does not fascinate the crowds. It concerns Article 218 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the Union. This Article relates to international agreements negotiated and concluded by the Union. The Union is a party to agreements which provide for the accession of thi

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the family is one of the foundations of Western civilisation. It is the first link in our social organisation and guarantees the vitality and necessary protection of children. That is why I have long defended the preservation and strengthening of a family support policy. But this can only be done at national level, as each state has its own conception of the fam

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the European Union must prioritise cooperation over integration wherever possible. In any case, this is a point of view that I have been advocating for a long time. Cooperation respects the sovereignty of the Member States better than integration. For example, civil, criminal and commercial justice are sovereign areas that must continue to fall within the compet

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in its recommendation of 15 June 2023, the European Parliament established that certain European states have committed abuses in the use of spyware such as Pegasus or Predator. On European soil, journalists and politicians have been spied on using their mobile phones, and outside Europe, mass spying has taken place through the export of spyware by or with the ag