What Heidi spoke about.

Madam President, we really have to thank Daniel Freund for his persistent efforts to get this interinstitutional agreement in place. I believe that the fact that the independent experts will judge the standards and the cases is really important. Can I remind you that when we revised the Advisory Committee in the Code of Conduct for Members of the European Parliament, there was a proposal to add th

The next item is the statement by the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (VP/HR) on efforts to reintroduce the Foreign Agents Act in Georgia and its restrictions on civil society (2024/2703(RSP)).

And then another announcement. In accordance with Rule 241(4) of the Rules of Procedure, with regard to the IMCO, LIBE and ECON corrigenda announced yesterday at the opening of the sitting, it is hereby noted that no vote has been requested. Therefore, the corrections are deemed to have been accepted.

I have some announcements for the plenary. Firstly, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs has tabled a recommendation for a decision not to raise objections to a delegated act. The recommendation was announced at the beginning of yesterday's sitting and has not been objected to within the 24-hour period, so that, in accordance with Rule 111(6) of the Rules of Procedure, the re

Thank you very much, High Representative. Written statements (Rule 171)

I am aware that the High Representative needs to leave soon. We of course want to hear him, so one minute each.

I also noticed that some colleagues go and talk to High Representatives when other colleagues are speaking, so it is both ways.

I have to make a confession: normally we do not give a blue-card question to a Member from the same Group – but I did it.

– The next item is the statement by the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (VP/HR) on the use of frozen Russian funds to support the victory and reconstruction of Ukraine (2024/2702(RSP)).

Thank you very much, High Representative.

– The next item is the report by René Repas, on behalf of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on common rules promoting the repair of goods and amending Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 and Directives (EU) 2019/771 and (EU) 2020/1828 (COM(2023)0155 – C9-0117/2023 – 2023/0083(COD)) (A9-0316/2023).

– The debate is closed. The vote will take place tomorrow, Tuesday 23 April 2024. Written statements (Rule 171)

– The next item is the report by João Albuquerque, on behalf of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on preventing plastic pellet losses to reduce microplastic pollution (COM(2023)0645 – C9‐0378/2023 – 2023/0373(COD)) (A9-0148/2024)

Mr President, Commissioner, I speak as rapporteur for the Legal Affairs Committee opinion on the EP discharge, and I want to focus on just one thing: the additional voluntary pension fund. The voluntary pension scheme had a genuine purpose when it was established, but let’s be honest, it was only necessary for mainly French and Italian colleagues who didn’t have a national pension, at that time, f

Mr President, dear colleagues, this proposal in particular is the most political piece of the patent package. We welcome the Commission’s initiative, learning from the COVID-19 crisis and now introducing a new EU-wide compulsory licensing scheme to make the EU more resilient to crisis and emergency situations in the future. We welcome the introduction of more flexibility in the evaluation clause,

Thank you, Mr Štefanec, you said that you would like to have one piece of legislation in and two out. But don’t you think that with this legislation, actually, you could do one in and at least five or even more out, because we have the national laws, in France, in Germany, there’s one in Norway and many more in the making. So would you not see the benefit of this legislation in your attempt to sim

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, in my nearly 30 years as a Member of the European Parliament, I have never seen such alarm from businesses and other stakeholders as I’m seeing now with the possible downfall of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). An exceedingly wide range of stakeholders have expressed their support for this legislation, including the historical s

The next item is the Commission statement on EU climate risk assessment and taking urgent action to enhance security and resilience in Europe (2024/2628(RSP)). I am delighted to see Commissioner Hoekstra just stepping onto the block, and so we can start this debate.

Thank you. I think perhaps in the future we can have a Question Time where the Commissioners can ask the MEPs – to have a real interaction. That concludes Question Time.

That concludes the vote. (The sitting was suspended at 13.43)

First I asked him to stop. Then I asked for him to be removed from the room. It is up to the President herself, Ms Metsola, to consider sanctions, and I’m sure that she will consider this question. So let’s proceed to the vote.

Excuse me, colleague, this is not proper behaviour, so please stop. We have to proceed to the next vote. Mr Ciocca, you will be taken out of the room. (Mr Ciocca continues to blow the whistle) Let us return to order. Excuse me, this was totally unacceptable and now he has to be taken out of the room. It is very unfortunate, Mr Ciocca, that you had to disrupt this voting session the way you did. It

The next item is the vote. (For the results and other details concerning the vote: see minutes)

Thank you, Mr Agius Saliba. Point taken.

Mr President, colleagues, how deep the persecution of human rights defenders and political opposition in Russia is, is revealed by the situation of lawyers who defend them. Yesterday, Alexei Navalny’s lawyer was arrested briefly in Moscow. Three of them have already been detained earlier for accusations of extremism, and one of them is under arrest warrant. Yesterday, our 2009 Sakharov laureate, O