What Isabel spoke about.

Madam President, Prime Minister Burnham has made it clear that the status quo is not enough. And he had the courage to clearly name Moscow as the author of a campaign of hybrid attacks. Naming the threat is the first condition for informing our citizens and defending democracy. Europeans and Britons need to cooperate more in this area: in conventional defence or in the face of hybrid threats and d

Madam President, China is not naive. We can't afford it either. Everyone knows what the other has to offer and what neither is willing to give up, which implies that some cooperations will be possible, others not. China does not share our core values. For us, fundamental freedoms are inalienable, they are part of human dignity and human rights define who we are. Our trade is deeply unbalanced: 1 b

Madam President, Commissioner, Turkey is an important partner of the Allied Union in neighbouring NATO, with which we cooperate on trade, security and migration. A relationship of shared interest in mutual respect. I sincerely welcome the European aspiration of our Turkish interlocutors. She's real. We know, however, that for some of them, Europe is first and foremost seen from an economic perspec

Madam President, Commissioner, organised crime is now recruiting at the speed of digital technology. A 14-year-old boy receives a message on Instagram: a promise of easy money, some safe deliveries. This is how the criminal recruitment of minors begins today. No longer on the street, but on our screens. The methods have changed profoundly: faster, more diffuse, more invisible. Social networks, enc

Madam President, cyberspace has become a permanent battleground. Cyberattacks hit our hospitals, our energy networks, our democratic institutions. They affect every day the concrete life of our citizens, their data, their economies, their essential services. And since artificial intelligence entered the equation, their sophistication has crossed a new threshold. In the field of defence, this is pa

Madam President, we are deeply indignant at the criminal acts committed by Russia against Ukrainian civilians, most recently in Kiev, Dnipro, Cherkassy, Sloviansk, Chernihiv and Kharkiv. Systematic targeting of the civilian population and infrastructure covering the primary needs of Ukrainians is inhumane. It is inconceivable that Russia has sought to destroy the Petchenihy dam. We must continue o

Mr President, fundamental rights are under increasing pressure today. There is a real risk that these rights will be relegated to the background of the political agenda. However, it is precisely during the turbulent periods of history that we most need these lighthouses to guide us. The values on which the European Union is founded – democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights – are not a

Mr President, we are in a new era. This is a reality that we observe day after day. International law is being challenged, democracy is retreating, the rule of law and human rights are being attacked openly, without any embarrassment. All over the world, violations are multiplying. Authoritarian regimes and authoritarianism are gaining ground. Elections are stolen. In the face of this, the Europea

Mr President, the people of Iran – I wanted to begin with those words, 'the people of Iran'. They are giving a message to the world. They are admirable, fighting for their freedom, knowing the risks, knowing many will die. They are fighting, putting freedom above their security, above their own lives. We should hear this message. Here, where so many of us take for granted the freedom brave Iranian

Madam President, the Rohingya crisis remains one of the most dramatic humanitarian emergencies of recent years. And yet, it gradually tends to disappear from the media and political radars. Today, we are talking about a population that has been subjected for years to a repression of unprecedented brutality. The military junta in Myanmar continues to use terror as a method of government: torture, e

Mr President, the Ukrainian people have now been fighting against the Russian aggressor for three and a half years. Ukraine is fighting this fight for its survival, its sovereignty, its independence, but also by its fight it protects us, our democracies. We owe them not only recognition, but also all the help we are capable of. Thousands of Ukrainian men, women and children have lost their lives a

Mr President, the criminal attack on Sigfrido Ranucci, an Italian investigative journalist, is deeply unworthy of us. It is unacceptable that unveiling the truth exposes such dangers. This attack must also raise a collective awareness of the harsh reality faced by so many investigative journalists today. And this even in our democracies. They are under real threat and the rule of law does not alwa

Mr President, Daphne Caruana Galizia: Every year, the same starting point, every year, we must see that a journalist in the European Union has been murdered and that co-leaders at the highest level continue to enjoy impunity. Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered eight years ago. Eight years! His family is fighting an admirable battle. In the European Parliament, we are multiplying calls for the Mal

Madam President, Prime Minister, thank you for insisting on the values that define our European Union. Today, they are particularly at risk, as authoritarian ideologies continue to gain ground. We must not be mistaken: Where illiberalism takes hold, democracy retreats. Once in power, the illiberals destroy the rule of law. They pass laws designed to prevent political alternation and weaken the ind

Madam President, three and a half years. Three and a half years that the Ukrainians are awakened, night after night, by the sirens. Three and a half years that they bury their dead, fallen under the blows of the Russian army. A war waged against Ukraine in a completely unjustified manner, without any provocation. We will never forget the horrors of Bucha. We continue to call for the release of civ

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, our union is based on fundamental values. It is based on human rights, on the rule of law. What characterizes us with the rule of law is that we have this absence of arbitrariness. The rule of law is the foundation of our democracy. Today we have problems in our Union. We must not hide it. We must confront it and do our best to remedy it. The importance of th

Madam President, thousands and millions of images of child pornography videos are available online, in real time or on a delayed basis. Raw or synthetic images. All are based on the very real abuse of children. Artificial intelligence creations are developed from hundreds of thousands of very real images. We cannot trivialize, accept or remain silent. And then justice must punish. There can be no

Madam President, the Ukrainians have shown, with their bombing of Russian military airports, that they are perfectly capable of breaking deep into Russian territory and causing significant damage, by choice of military damage. In response to the reported reaction of the Kremlin leader that he would have to retaliate against these attacks, my first thought was: How to retaliate? By killing civilian