What Rihards spoke about.

While Ursula von der Leyen achieved much during her term, today’s challenges demand a forward-thinking strategy, not a repeat of what was. I cannot support Ursula von der Leyen for a second term primarily because she has not addressed the issues that are critical to our defence and resilience, such as financing the Baltic border (the EU’s external border), enhancing the EU’s international competit

Mr President, Brussels has been busy debating what 'associate membership' for Canada means. Europe does not need a 28th quasi‑Member State. Europe needs hard industrial depth to break our dependencies on Beijing and Moscow. Canada holds 34 critical raw materials that European industry desperately lacks, yet our mineral imports from Canada stand at just EUR 3.3 billion. The delivery gap is real. We

Madam President, dear colleagues, from 18 to 20 September, the Kremlin staged what it called elections to State Duma. It imprisoned opponents, crushed independent media and forced voting on temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory. Among the newly manufactured deputies, 46 served in the invasion forces or ran occupation administrations. One, Nursultan Mussagaleyev, is accused of torturing and exec

Mr President, dear colleagues: 2 attacks in 2022, 34 in 2024. By this September, the tally in Europe has passed 189 attacks: it’s growing exponentially. This year we have seen rockets fired at the power substation outside Berlin, a weapons factory in Bulgaria set ablaze, an ammunition plant near Rome blown up, a drone factory in Tallinn torched, explosives on the runway at Leipzig. Then there's th

Madam President, my dear colleagues, a single market and 27 company law systems. That fragmentation costs European businesses the equivalent of 44 % tariff on goods and 110 % on services inside our single market. We tax ourselves out of our own market then act surprised when our start-ups found themselves in Texas instead of Riga. That is the broken infrastructure we need to fix not qualified majo

Madam President, colleagues, reports of MoU between the US and Iran are an encouraging sign. Even a rough framework is better than nothing, and we should welcome any step that reduces the risk of wider war. The devil, however, is in the details, and the arrangement with Iran alone will not automatically deliver regional stability. Israel's security cannot be treated as an afterthought in any final

Mr President, the EU attracted just 6 % of global investment in AI start-ups in early 2024. Six per cent. While our competitors build the infrastructure of the next trade era, we are still drafting frameworks. If deployed right, AI is a structural equaliser. A family manufacturer can gain the same edge as a massive multinational, using AI to navigate red tape and complex supply chains. But if we c

Madam President, Cuba has announced a pardon of 2 010 prisoners. Not one was a political prisoner. Not a single one. The regime explicitly excluded those convicted of 'crimes against authority' – the exact charges used against dissidents. Four independent human rights organisations have confirmed this. This was an attempt at a diplomatic performance, staged for international consumption. So, over

Madam President, dear colleagues, four years of full-scale war has left Ukraine facing a reconstruction bill of nearly EUR 500 billion. This month marked Russia's most intense aerial campaign since the invasion began, with 75 civilians killed in one month. Every strike is a data point in a debt that Russia will pay – not as generosity or conscience, but as a legal obligation under international la

Mr President, dear colleagues, Moscow likes to present itself as the great anti‑colonial champion of the Global South. Yet today, it sends recruiters to Nairobi, Havana and Kathmandu with fake job offers and visa promises, dragging the Global South's most vulnerable into a colonial war of conquest against Ukraine. This war is a war of aggression – the most serious crime in international law – wage

Madam President, dear colleagues, the World Trade Organization turns 31 this year. It was built for a different world, one that no longer exists. Nearly every major multilateral institution today faces the same crisis. The WTO is no exception, but unlike many others, it is still relatively young and shows willingness to adapt. That makes it a valuable instrument worth reforming. Trade is about job

Madam President, dear colleagues, two days ago, the UN General Assembly President urged this House to stand firm behind the UN nations and international rules‑based order. Yet the regime in Iran responsible for mass killings and crimes against humanity, on the same day, was elected Vice‑Chair of the UN Commission for Social Development, and the UN Secretary-General yesterday reportedly congratulat

Mr President, dear colleagues, 8 and 9 January this year. Two days. Leaked IRGC intelligence reports put the death toll at over 36 000. Medical staff reports security forces entering hospitals to execute wounded protesters in their beds. Bodies returned to families only after payment of 'bullet fees'. Over 27 000 detained, whereabouts unknown. Access to lawyers systematically denied. Children amon

Mr President, dear colleagues, first, congratulations to the rapporteur, Reinis Pozņaks, on a strong report. It matters that this is led by a Latvian. On the EU's eastern frontier, capability matters more than intent. My years in the national guard and in politics have taught me this: drones matter because they change tempo. Whoever sees first, decides first and can act first. Ukraine shows that,

Mr President, dear colleagues, the protests in Iran have been bloodily suppressed. Security forces cleared the streets with live fire, mass arrests and internet blackouts, and no one knows how many thousands have been killed. Families are forced to pay the regime to recover the bodies of their massacred children. This is how the Islamic Republic maintains control. Over the years, the EU has engage

Madam President, thank you colleagues for the debate. So overall, it has shown a broad recognition that this regulation is a significant milestone. Let me conclude by underlining what this finally represents and how we arrive there. From our outset, Parliament approached this work with a clear understanding: Europe cannot afford slow, fragmented responses to its security challenges. Our objective

Mr President, colleagues, Commission, today we discuss a regulation that is also sometimes labelled 'mini omnibus', only because it runs to the end of this MFF. In substance it is not 'mini' at all. It delivers targeted but significant changes to how the Union uses existing programmes for defence‑related and dual‑use priorities. It reflects a simple fact: Europe is operating in a security environm

Madam President, dear colleagues, as the rapporteur stated, the EU still operates under its 2021 Arctic Strategy – a document built around climate, sustainable development and cooperation. All important. But the world that strategy was written for no longer exists. The Arctic has become a frontline of hard power, hybrid threats and strategic competition. Russia has turned the region into a militar

Madam President, dear colleagues, yes, EDIP is needed, and many colleagues have previously already elaborated on the details. But EUR 1.5 billion for nearly three years, divided among 27 Member States, is not a serious response to the reality we are facing. That is roughly EUR 18 million per country per year. It does not get you very far in defence terms. It barely gets you started. At the same ti

Mr President, dear colleagues, Europe has come a long way in cutting its dependence on Russia's energy. Gas, oil, coal – we’ve reduced it all. But partial progress is not victory. Every tanker of Russian LNG that still arrives in Europe, every barrel relabelled through India, every Rosatom contract operating quietly here in Europe – they all keep feeding Kremlin’s war machine. Dependence on aggres

Dear Chair, Colleagues, Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has carried out at least 37 000 airstrikes against Ukraine and dropped more than 33 000 bombs on Ukrainian cities and its people, even beyond what is being dropped on the front lines. Against the backdrop of various peace summits and negotiations, the ghost of ‘peace in exchange for territory’, which has historically bee

Mr President, dear colleagues, imagine being Moldovan: reforming, resisting Russian pressure and watching the door to the EU stay shut. Or being Ukrainian: bleeding on the battlefield for European values while the Union debates 'absorption capacity'. Many in this Chamber do not remember what EU accession actually means. I do. I remember Latvia's path clearly – it was demanding. We reformed, we ada

Madam Bischoff, some of your words were really deeply insulting. You referred to the ECR as fundamentally destroying the foundations of the EU. Could you please elaborate on this loud statement and give concrete examples of where the ECR is shattering the fundamental principles of the EU? Concrete – not just some Polish sentences – concrete cases!