What Stéphane spoke about.

Mr President, Commissioner, a bit like a compressor roller, crises and conflicts have, for several years, violently impacted the balance of the world. By ambush or completely assumed, Russia and China are jostling Europe and systematically attacking our democracies. It is therefore imperative today that Europe regains its place on the global political scene and defends it. With this in mind, the G

Mr President, Commissioner, sense of responsibility, solidarity: In Dubai, we had a hard time imposing these two fundamental elements to win our battle for the climate. Yet, absolutely everywhere, absolutely everyone knows today that the compressor roller of climate change requires us to immediately change our lifestyles. Disaster after disaster, the devastating alarm signal requires much more tha

Mr President, Commissioner, Mr Secretary-General, ladies and gentlemen, of course humans cannot live without water. For a thousand reasons – biological, health, economic and humanitarian – we absolutely need water. This water crisis is hitting the world and has become an emergency. It is even a vital emergency for Europeans in Mayotte. Right now, nearly 300,000 people, 300,000 Europeans, are runni

Madam President, Mr High Representative, many of us are regularly alerting to the Chinese compressor roller that is devastating our relations with the rest of the world, and in particular with Latin America and the Caribbean. In the face of this Chinese offensive, our collective responsibility is to retaliate. A lot of money has been committed. What will we do with this money? Once again, I want t

Madam President, Commissioner, the immense danger that threatens us prevents us from being naive. It must be understood that when Vladimir Putin blows up a hydraulic dam in Ukraine, it is the water he uses as a weapon of war. Because Putin, like all of us, knows very well that we cannot live without water. Moreover, the UN is warning that in a few years' time, one in two humans will run out of wat

Madam President, Commissioner, the last seven years have been the warmest on record on the planet, and this climate emergency is severely reducing our ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, especially as the climate compressor roller is sweeping through everything. Much faster action is needed; Above all, we must act differently. This is the spirit of the major international summit

Mr President, Commissioner, by the end of my speech, someone will have starved to death somewhere in East Africa – a man, a woman or a child. This is an absolute tragedy. This is an emergency that requires us collectively to act. Globally, food insecurity is exacerbated by the climate crisis. It also causes terrible conflicts, and in reality no one is safe. We have a collective responsibility to w

Madam President, Madam Vice-President, a few words first of all to thank and congratulate Mr Amaro and also to tell you that the report we are going to vote on tomorrow reaffirms the importance of a strong European commitment to our overseas regions. At home on the island of Réunion, which is a European territory in the Indian Ocean, our breeders, farmers, fishermen, small businesses and young peo

Madam President, Commissioner, it is now more important than ever to simplify European procedures. To illustrate this urgency, I will once again tell you about the men and women from overseas, our fishermen, who put their lives at risk every time they go out on boats that are far too old, our business leaders, who continue to create jobs while they crumble under the bills, our farmers, our breeder

Madam President, Commissioner, obviously no border can stop a pandemic. Similarly, no wall can stop a natural disaster. The threat is global, so global solutions are needed. Human health is directly connected to environmental health, and this is where Europe has a role to play with development aid. We need to strengthen our cooperation: cooperation for health infrastructure, cooperation for medica

Mr President, Commissioner, in the southern hemisphere, more than 3 billion people live under the constant threat of climate change. Right now, in East Africa, the terrible tropical cyclone Freddy is wreaking havoc and the death toll is already over 200 for small island developing states. The issue of resilience, resistance to climate change is not only a matter of survival, but also a matter of m

Mr President, Commissioner, we are talking to each other. In its strategy for international cooperation, today Europe is at a fundamental crossroads. What must we do to ensure that Europe has a real place on the world stage, a real place, not a strapontin? The new Chinese Silk Roads, which are a poison for the global balance, must be fought firmly. All the billions that Beijing gives with one hand

Madam President, Commissioner, once again I will denounce the appalling working conditions of fishermen in the overseas territories. We cannot talk about fishing in Europe without repeating that our ultramarine fishermen are Europeans. They are not large manufacturers with large boats, they are craftsmen with small boats, with end-of-life equipment. They have nothing to do with the pirates that de

Mr High Representative, as we speak, the shockwave of the war in Ukraine is hitting the whole world hard. And when Vladimir Putin uses food security as a weapon of war, of course, we must protect all Europeans, but also our international partners and especially the remote islands. I come from a small European island in the Indian Ocean, Réunion, and as Chair of the CARIFORUM parliamentary delegati

Mr President, Commissioner, with each passing day Haiti sinks a little further into chaos. In July, more than 230 people in Port-au-Prince were killed by ultraviolent gangs. Even NGOs are attacked and humanitarian aid stocks are looted by terror-ridden bandits. As chairman of the Cariforum parliamentary delegation, I have always worked to ensure that Europe remains a strong and supportive partner

Madam President, Commissioner, following the violence of this summer’s drought and the devastating effects of climate change, one of the fundamental questions we are asked today is how Europe will cope with the next water shortages, and, above all, how we can protect our citizens from the – high – risk of a water war. Indeed, what we feared is already there; The water war is here. While we are tal

Mr President, Commissioner, it is dinner time here in Strasbourg. But even today on the same planet, in the southern hemisphere, in Madagascar, millions of children will have eaten only a small piece of cassava cake and a small glass of cactus juice: This is the reality of food insecurity. So our collective responsibility requires Europe to engage – and it is already engaging with a lot of solidar

Mr President, Commissioner, absolutely no one can say that they have not understood that climate change is a deadly compressor roller for absolutely everyone, absolutely everywhere. It is not just a race against time, it is a race against death. The reality is there, more than 40 ° C in France, a few days ago, a terrible fire in Spain, drought, heatwave, on absolutely all continents. Faced with th

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, as we speak here, more than 20 million Europeans live on islands. And when we look at the list of challenges of the island territories: adaptation to climate change, the challenges of energy, transport, youth, employment, well we realize that these are the great challenges of the European Union and we immediately see that we are bound by a common d

Madam President, Commissioner, I want to say at the outset that when Vladimir Putin savagely attacks Ukraine, he also puts in his crosshairs the unity of Europe and the cohesion of European territories. In the face of our great challenges, including the great challenge of peace, we need to strengthen the cohesion and solidarity that are in the DNA of the European Union. Territory by territory, reg

Mr President, Commissioner, right now in eastern Africa, in the Indian Ocean, in southern Madagascar, almost one million men, women and children are devastated by a terrible famine: there is no more water, drought burns the soil, nothing grows and there is nothing to eat. More than 70,000 children are hungry and given a mixture of cactus and ash to try to keep them alive. Europe is already interve

Madam President, Commissioner, I would like to repeat here at once that, despite the geographical distance, Haiti is our neighbour. Indeed, the great suffering of the Haitian people resonates strongly in the European overseas territories close to Haiti. Once again, the Haitian tragedy is at the heart of this Chamber and I want to thank the European Commissioner, Janez Lenarčič, for his commitment

Madam President, Commissioner, for the three million tourists who used to come to spend their holidays in the French Overseas Territories, our territories look like paradise; But the violence of this crisis has been hell for our tourism professionals and for our island economies. The emergencies are there and Europe must absolutely support the relaunch of tourism in the Overseas Territories. Why?

Mr President, Mr President, Commissioner, dear Elisa Ferreira, ladies and gentlemen, at the same time yesterday, I was at home on Reunion Island, in the Indian Ocean, with the French Minister for Europe. We kicked off the Regional Conference on the Future of Europe. We met a lot of citizens and they gave us a question. It looks like geometry, but it is a fundamental political question: how to be b

Madam President, Minister, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, can a plea be enough for the South Pole? Of course, no. Do we need much more than a plea? Absolutely, yes. Yes, because saving Antarctica today is an absolute emergency that requires much more than words. We must act and we must act quickly. And it is the whole requirement of this resolution that Europe must carry as a fight for future