Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would say that today is a black day. We lost today. We lost because our text on the reduction of pesticides, which was supposed to include a 50% reduction in pesticides and a ban on the most toxic pesticides in 2030, was a failure. So this resolution on pollinators is a bit of a last chance text. Pollinating insects, indeed, are in jeopardy, i
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Sustainable use of plant protection products (debate)
Madam President, Commissioner, I would like to focus on the scientific and political arguments. I consider these rules to be one of the most important in this mandate. I would like to congratulate our rapporteur, Sarah Wiener, on the considerable work she has done with her co-rapporteurs. This regulation is based on two very important pillars, which are the safeguarding of biodiversity (because th
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The proposed extension of glyphosate in the EU (debate)
Madam President, Commissioner, after all I have heard, I would like to ask you: How many deaths do you need to ban glyphosate? Because when we listen to EFSA, EFSA tells us that there are no critical concerns. And then we go across the Atlantic and we have the WHO, we have the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which say that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans. There are more
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Medicine shortages and strategic healthcare autonomy in the EU (debate)
Mr President, Commissioner, we find ourselves on the problem of the shortage of medicines and strategic autonomy in healthcare in the European Union. So it's been more than ten years since the problem became chronic. Earlier, my colleague was talking about three thousand medicines in short supply in Belgium, and there are more than three thousand also in Italy. And what is Europe doing? It is true
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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance
Madam President, I would like to come back to a scandal that shocked me very much at the level of the European Commission. This is the SMS Gate scandal. Because, in fact, it has been two and a half years since this scandal took place, in the midst of the COVID pandemic. It all started when the New York Times revealed in April 2021 that the President of the European Commission had overstepped her p
Madam President, Commissioner, it is true that we are very disappointed by your proposal. First, it was expected for a very long time, it took the "Qatargate" and it had to be seen that Commissioners were involved and that Commission officials were not nickel on their statements. You offer us something that is not independent, where only one third of the experts are independent, with no powers of
Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we can only agree with having an EU strategy on global health. This will be seen as solidarity, fairness and respect for human rights. However, the European Union has not set an example, in particular with regard to the temporary lifting of patents on vaccines, treatments and diagnostics, which had nevertheless been requested by more than 150 St
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to make an item on the agenda on the resolution on the establishment of an ethics body of the European Union. As you know, ladies and gentlemen, we have a serious problem with the lack of transparency within our institutions. The American newspaper New York Times decided to refer the European Commission to the Court of Justice of the European Uni
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Establishment of an independent EU Ethics Body (debate)
Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, ladies and gentlemen, we must always wait for scandals to make us wonder whether our institutions are working. And here, we can take stock of the situation: They don't work. So why don't they work? We have ethics committees. But at the level of the Parliament the Ethics Committee is made up of five Members, who are judges and parties, at the Commission the Eth
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Surge of respiratory infections and the shortage of medication in Europe (debate)
Mr President, Commissioner, we are currently facing a shortage of medicines in Europe. The situation is very worrying and, again, it shows a bit of the limitations of a just-in-time, profit-based production system. In France, seasonal infections have increased again, with Doliprane, Efferalgan, paracetamol and the antibiotic amoxicillin added to the list of 277 medicines out of stock. In Ireland,
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Violations of human rights in Uganda and Tanzania linked to the investments in fossil fuels projects
Madam President, Commissioner, I really think we are in the middle of a paradox. This very morning, our President of the Commission said that it is essential to fight global warming. Fossil fuels must be combated. And what are we seeing in Africa, especially Uganda and Tanzania? We see that Total Energy is involved in unacceptable climate damage. It is a veritable climate bomb, in fact. Whether in
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Objection pursuant to Rule 111(3): Amending the Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act and the Taxonomy Disclosures Delegated Act (debate)
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, the first axiom: As you said, gas and nuclear are not green. There, everyone agrees. Except that we strongly invite you to vote in favour of this objection rejecting the inclusion of gas and nuclear in the green taxonomy. First, just for our credibility. We put scientists to work, we developed objective principles to put certain types
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to speak on an agency called ‘Fusion for Energy’ and on ITER. I will give you three arguments for not voting for this discharge. The first argument is financial. We have not been given a clear timetable for spending. You know that initially it was 5 billion, we know that we committed 17 billion and the US Directorate-General for Energy tells us a
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Avoiding corruption, irregular spending and misuse of EU and national funds in case of emergency funds and crisis related spending areas (short presentation)
Madam President, Commissioner, I am pleased to present this own-initiative report. I will use the example of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. In this report, I examine the main risks of corruption and misuse of public funds in the context of relaxed rules and limited transparency, both at national and European level, and I suggest various recommendations for control and transparency mechanisms, which
Madam President, finally, we have come to the end of a battle that lasted almost five years to find satisfactory compromises for the evaluation of health technologies. Until now, it is true that this assessment was carried out at national level, which disadvantaged small countries that do not always have the resources to assess the comparative effectiveness of treatments and therefore to fix the r
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The EU's role in combating the COVID-19 pandemic: how to vaccinate the world (topical debate)
Madam President, Commissioner for Health, I am very happy that you are here, because I would like you to answer the questions. Everyone says that there is inequality in the distribution of vaccines. We rich countries have had a lot of vaccines. But the situation is problematic for poor countries, especially in Africa. There's a solution. I am not saying that this is the silver bullet, but there is
Madam President, Commissioner, I really want to extend my full support to this Ethiopian people. There has been talk of famine and - I heard your speech, Commissioner - there has been talk of rape. This is a dramatic situation and in addition, it is in this country that there may be the highest number of deaths in the world, due to this crisis. In fact, what are we asking for? We call for the Ethi
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EU Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority: ensuring a coordinated EU approach for future health crises and the role of the European Parliament in this (debate)
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, I listened well to you, but you do not hear. I am in my third term. We have fought constantly at the level of the European Parliament to always be involved in the functioning of Europe. We are defending the European Union and in the context of this pandemic, where we have all been affected, we were aware that everything was urgent and we have al
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The role of development policy in the response to biodiversity loss in developing countries, in the context of the achievement of the 2030 Agenda (debate)
Mr President, thank you all, because I find that there is an awareness, as the Commissioner said, that the Green Deal is above all about defending the climate, but that the second pillar is biodiversity: we can fight over CO2, if there are no more ecosystems, life is impossible, life is destroyed. So I see that there is an awareness that the European Union – and if we can double the budget, it wil
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The role of development policy in the response to biodiversity loss in developing countries, in the context of the achievement of the 2030 Agenda (debate)
Madam President, this is an important and very topical report, since you know that in a few days, from 11 to 15 October, there is COP 15 in Kunming, China. This meeting, which will initially be virtual, will be the Conference of the Parties, COP 15, to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. This is very important, because this report gives guidance on how to increase biodiversity i
Mr President, Commissioner, thank you for being here, because indeed the problem in Tigray is still dramatic. I hope that this debate in the European Parliament will bring a balanced perspective going beyond disinformation, as there is a lot of disinformation about this conflict, and beyond a simplistic criticism of the current government, but taking into account a broader historical perspective o