What Tatjana spoke about.

Mr President, they say Tatjana Ždanoka is an agent. Yes, I am an agent – an agent for peace, an agent for Europe without fascism, an agent for minority rights, an agent for a united Europe from Lisbon to the Urals. I want to apologise here and now, before the people, for not being a successful agent. In 2004, the European Union regarded Russia as a strategic partner. People responsible for the eas

Madam President, I have to say that I was ready to vote against this report on EU citizenship since, during the last at least ten years, the only approach is that citizenship of the European Union is a direct derivative from Member State citizenship, and it gives no additional value to European citizenship. Even Brexit did not teach us – when losing British citizenship after leaving the European U

Madam President, I fully agree with the rapporteur that I am citing that, in recent years there was some decline of the respect of fundamental rights across the European Union, and that the consensus on the common European values is at risk of crumbling. However, the report itself, to my regret, does not contribute to improve the situation, although it should have. It uses selectivity and double s

Mr President, we are discussing the resurgence of neo—fascism in Europe today, but it is not the first time it was discussed in this Chamber. Our Parliament was elected in 2019, but there was a resolution in October 2018 on the rise of neo—fascist violence in Europe, mentioning Norway, Italy, London, different countries, also my country Latvia. It was mentioned that every year on 16 March, thousan

Madam President, colleagues, Ombudsman, Commissioner, being a longstanding member of the Petitions Committee, I of course have to say that these last two years we have had an excellent work and watched the excellent work of the Ombudsman. I am speaking is the last of the round of all political groups, and it is very rare in our house that all are united in very, very high appreciation of your work

Madam President, colleagues, Commissioner, as a member of the EPP delegation, which recently had a very successful mission to Delhi and Mumbai, I would like to underline the need for mutually respectful, equal dialogue with India. To my regret, the report – and especially its chapter on human rights and democracy – violates this principle. The report calls for shared action and leadership in the g

Mr President, I didn’t vote on the draft legislative resolution, although I was present in the vote. Why? I am convinced that the legislation concerning cross-border situations deemed to fill legal gaps and create legal certainty for EU residents must resolve, first of all, the notion of EU citizenship. How can we speak about a European certificate of parenthood if we are not able to issue the Eur

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, as a Member who has dedicated many years to the Petitions Committee I am aware of a significant issue eroding the foundations of the European Union from within. When a petitioner alleges a breach of EU law, the Commission often declines to act. According to the recent study requested by the Petitions Committee, in 96 % of petitions, further action was declin

Madam President, in September and November, the European Court of Human Rights issued decisions on Latvia concerning Russian schools. The Court found that the measures taken by the Latvian government to increase the use of the national language in schools had been proportionate and necessary to, in particular, unity in the education system. But as we know, the EU slogan is not just ‘unity’ but ‘un

Madam President, honourable Prime Minister Denkov and Ms Gabriel, yes, I want to start with also acknowledging what Philippe told. I was a little bit surprised when you spoke about conservatism and liberal values, not mentioning social values while President Metsola spoke about. But nevertheless, I have to remind that the Bulgarian Presidency, when it took place in the beginning of 2018, supported

Madam President, the Government of Latvia has decided to use a historic window of opportunities in order to eliminate Russian language and culture in my country. A country where the first Russian secondary school was created more than 200 years ago. The latest school reform is uprooting the mother tongue from the lessons in national minority primary schools. The native language can only be studied

Madam Chair, Madam Commissioner, I would like to congratulate the rapporteur for this AFET report for creating very nice formulas of good behaviour. I just want to ask Mr Sánchez Amor: are you ready to offer your know-how to Mr López Aguilar for the similar LIBE report? The formulas you proposed to non-EU countries do not need to be changed and are more than relevant for a number of EU Member Stat

Mr President, where exactly is the border between freedom of speech and disinformation? Unfortunately, the DSA doesn’t give a clear answer to this question. Therefore, its implementation might lead to total control, instead of protecting users from harmful content or hate speech. I give an example from my country: just yesterday, it was publicly announced that the Latvian Ministry of Education wil

Mr President, a lot could have already been done since the adoption in June of European Parliament recommendations based on the proposals of the Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (PEGA), but this was not the case. For example, there is a call on national parliaments to set up meaningful oversight bodies of intelligence services and foster be

Mr President, I have supported via roll-call vote some statements of this resolution, in particular the following one: ‘The Parliament calls on the Commission to quickly reconsider the strategic partnership with Azerbaijan in the field of energy in the light of Azerbaijan’s aggression against Armenia in September 2022 and its unjustified use of force against and forced displacement of the populati

Mr President, when discussing the new asylum and migration package, people by default are going to regulate the issue of immigration, the case where someone is coming from a third country to the EU. But take your time. My country is very fond of turning coats inside out. Latvian lawmakers have figured out a way to force large groups of permanent residents to leave the country. First group are loca

Madam President, Algirdas Paleckis, Lithuanian, suffering a six-year sentence in prison in Kaunas, and Vladimir Linderman, in Latvia, whose trial will start in one hour in Riga. Both are being prosecuted just for doing their job as journalists. I pose the question of whether the new Media Freedom Act will help to avoid such situations and stop the prosecution of journalists. Will the new board be

Mr President, colleagues, Commissioner, I’ll speak about European citizenship, which, to my regret, is still a simple derivative from Member States citizenship. I'll start with a citation: ‘We do consider that EU citizenship based on residence should be the ultimate goal to make the European Union a genuine political community. The crucial reality of the enlarged EU is that among those covered by

Madam President, President, in your speech, you told that it is a moment for the EU to answer the call of history. One of the calls of history now is the unprecedented crisis taking place, it’s the crisis of falling capital efficiency, the element of which is the structural recession of the economy. The world is breaking up into currency zones, and we have to pose the question: ‘What is the place

Mr President, 1 September was marked in my country Latvia’s calendar by two major events. First, children who started their studies in three grades of national minority primary schools will no longer hear their mother tongue. All lessons of the compulsory programme will be in Latvian. Second, thousands of locals who were not recognised as Latvian citizens 30 years ago – and who later only acquired

Mr President, I think the title of our discussion should be modified. Putting the European economy at the service of the middle class? No, just putting new priorities on the service of all people. Middle class is disappearing. At present, the market, like sultanas from a bun, chooses a few in-demand specialists who are generously rewarded, while the rest of the bun is finally crumbled. Serious ref

Madam President, the parliament of my country has three weeks ago adopted the law banning the use of languages other than the state language, Latvian, in election campaigning. This ignores the fact that a third of the country’s inhabitants speak minority languages – mostly Russian – at home. This law runs counter to the reasoned judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the Mestan v. Bulga

Mr President, colleagues, the amendments as approved by JURI radically increases the demands to the court proceedings proposed by the Commission. It is very important to enlarge by publishers, media organisations, whistleblowers, as well as civil society organisations, NGOs, trade unions, artists, researchers and academics the scope of those to be protected. In the remaining seconds, I will not ev

Madam President, Vice President Dombrovskis, President Christodoulides, you mentioned in your speech, the EU slogan ‘United in Diversity’. I would like to ask you, how do you understand it? I posed this question already during previous debates on the future of Europe. Does the word diversity only apply to the borders and differences between Member States? Versus these states remains themselves as

Madam President, Commissioner, honourable Chancellor, I just wrote my own points, you mentioned when speaking about geopolitical Europe. It is integrated European defence. It is new free trade agreements, a larger Europe, institutional changes, management of migration flows, and on the last place, ‘United in diversity’, our slogan. I just want to stay on this and to ask you, how do you understand