What Paulo spoke about.

Madam President, President of the European Council, President of the Commission, all my solidarity to our Dutch people, to our Dutch colleagues and to all the journalists today. Gostaria de começar por dizer que, para o PPE e para o PSD, a lei húngara que discrimina as pessoas LGBTI é intolerável e, por isso mesmo, pedi hoje palavra no debate que se segue para tomar uma posição que seja diferente

Madam President, Commissioner, enlargement to include Ukraine, the Western Balkans, Moldova and now Georgia is more than a geostrategic and geopolitical plan for the European Union, it is also a right, I would say, for the peoples of these countries. That is why I must say that, as a Portuguese and a European, I saw with some sadness that the Portuguese government was one of the last to accept the

Madam President, Minister, Vice-President, Firstly, I would like to welcome Sweden's accession to NATO, which is a key strategic fact for the Atlantic Alliance and for Europe. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine by Russia is an existential challenge to the European Union, democracy, freedom in the world and, therefore, it is crucial that we aim for a European Defence Union. In the defence industry, in mil

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, the new Prüm tool will contribute to the Union’s internal security by simplifying and speeding up the exchange of criminal information between law enforcement authorities and expanding the data categories that can be exchanged. The existence of common rules harmonising these exchanges will provide predictability to all users, as everyone knows what data they

–Madam President, Commissioner, tomorrow we will vote on the agreement reached in November with the Council on the regulation on automated data exchange for police cooperation, namely Prüm II. First of all, I would like to thank all my colleagues who have been part of Parliament's negotiating team, the Commission and, in particular, Commissioner Johansson, the Swedish and Spanish Presidencies for

– Madam President, President Iohannis, Madam Commissioner, Herta Müller once wrote: ‘In this country, we had to walk, eat, sleep and love in fear’. When we read about life in Communist times, we can only appreciate Romania’s success in the European project. Romanian culture and heritage is indispensable for Europe because it merges the Roman—Latin culture with Orthodox heritage and with Germanic,

Mr President, Council, Vice-President, two years ago, Russian troops invaded Kiev, invaded Ukraine and Vladimir Putin was clear: He wanted a Europe that would go from Kiev to Lisbon, controlled by Moscow. This desire of Putin has not changed and it is therefore crucial, two years on, that the European Union is at the forefront of solidarity with the Ukrainian state and people. Financial support is

Madam President, dear Commissioner, the Commission’s report on rule of law shows in a very clear way that there is no systemic violation of the rule of law in Greece, and that the Greek Government has made significant progress, and it will continue to make progress on the judiciary, on the media, and also in the protection of journalists. Dear colleagues, we have to distinguish clearly a systemic

Mr President, Mr Vice-President, I would, of course, like to thank all my fellow Members for their contributions and I would essentially like to draw your attention to three points, which were actually present in the debate. The first point is that: the main function of national parliaments is to scrutinise national governments and this is a European function. And that is why I say that it is esse

Mr President, Mr Vice-President, national parliaments are key players in European and national democracy, and therefore their capacity to act can always be improved, especially at European level. And here we know that, in matters of subsidiarity, they can exercise greater control over the European policy of their national governments. These were the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of E

Madam President, Mr President Sánchez, you told Mr Kaczyński in December 2020 that the courts in Poland are politically dependent on the opposition. Just over a week ago, he said that public institutions have definitely been instrumentalized to persecute political adversaries in court cases. Mr. Sanchez, what's the difference? Do you or does anyone know of a rule of law in which parliamentary comm

Mr President, Mr High Representative, the Venezuelan people deserve more and deserve better. And it cannot be used as cannon fodder for Nicolás Maduro's delusions. Maduro knows—o. Faced with the assertion of the opposition and Maria Corina Machado — and like Putin — he is looking for the oldest trick of all tyrants: The mirage of conquering territory to hide the total failure of its governance. Of

Madam President, President von der Leyen announced in her State of the Union address in September 2022 a new package of legislation and measures for the defence of democracy. It is crucial to protect and strengthen European democracies. We therefore welcome the Commission's proposals in this regard. It must be clear to all European citizens that we are deeply committed to defending our democracy.

Mr President, first I have to welcome this report because it’s really a quite consistent effort to reinforce the principle of lead candidate. And this is a good principle if we want the European Union to be a parliamentary system of government. Of course, we have to be very aware that this has nothing to do with a single constituency across the European Union, because we have a lead candidate in a

Mr President, it is only a very, very short remark to say that I was expecting that – when you are conducting our session and someone exaggerates a bit in the way it refers to a colleague – you should intervene. And you did not do it. It’s no hard and no personal feelings with Pedro Marques, not at all, even if what he said, that is intellectually dishonest. And now I do not expect any correction

Mr President, ‘intellectually dishonest’ – I was accused of being intellectually dishonest. And I would ask you, President, to also verify the behaviour of this speaker, Mr Marques, because he accused me of being intellectually dishonest. So he asked for fair treatment and he is the first to have now fair treatment. And I am not going to answer, but he has to study my books, because he doesn’t kno

Mr President, Madam Secretary of State, Commissioner, on whether this is an internal matter or not, I read the words of Iratxe García: During these weeks I have insisted on many occasions that the European Parliament does not have to judge anyone, but it has to ensure respect for the rule of law, the separation of powers and justice. That's what we're doing here today: We are fulfilling the words

Madam President, dear Prime Minister, dear Commissioner Ivanova, I would like to say that Bulgaria is a country whose history is intertwined with Europe, and it is really in the origin of the DNA of Europe, from its ancient times to modern times. Your country gave us the alphabet of Saints Cyril and Methodius, and you are speaking, in a very clear way, the language of freedom after 1990. So it’s a

Mr President, Presidency, Vice-President, first, I have to say that I would have liked that this process of drafting this report and annex would have been a bit more inclusive, because there are a lot of people that have different opinions on this issue. We were so careful taking into account the Conference of the Future of Europe and then when we look at the Members of this House, probably this w

Sophia in ‘t Veld, I have to tell you that the Renew Group also was against that debate, not only the EPP. Yes, indeed, otherwise, the debate would be here today. So, it’s your own group; there’s a different assessment from you. By the way, that is a quite common thing that sometimes we are isolated in our own groups. And that happened with you in the Greek case. That’s why your assessment is the

I see that you don’t want to speak about Malta. This is the subject today. But I don’t have any problem. I don’t condemn Greece because there is not a systematic problem of rule of law. Probably there are some problems here or there, of course, as in every Member State. Look at Spain now. But there is not a systematic problem. In Malta, there is a systematic problem – six years without any prosecu

Any attack on the freedom of press and the freedom of journalism, I will condemn, in any case. And I have very good precedents. I voted in 2012 for the report by Rui Tavares about Hungary and about Orbán, and I always defended the expulsion of Fidesz from the EPP Group. Not like the S&D, where our Socialists never defended the expulsion of SMER. Even now, it was only a suspension. And I would like

Madam President, Daphne Caruana Galizia was a martyr for freedom in Malta and martyr for freedom in Europe. Six years after this brutal crime, we are still waiting for justice to be made – justice to Daphne, to her family, to the Maltese people, to the European citizens. How can the Commission be so shy on the rule of law situation in Malta? How can Member States remain silently complicit? How can

Mr President, first I would like to pay my respects and offer my prayers to all the victims of the terrible attacks of Hamas in Israel, of the terrorist attacks in France and Belgium, and naturally also to all the civilians that have died in the last days in the Gaza Strip. É evidente que a agenda do Conselho vai ter de ser marcada, também outra vez, pela solidariedade com Israel, pela condenação

Mr President, Mr Vice-President, once again we have a Schengen reform that aims, with digitalisation and modernisation, to make our visa system safer and less vulnerable. As previous rapporteur for the visa information system, I can only welcome this and, essentially, see that there are already steps here to try to avoid what recently happened in Poland. This new regime allows for a more efficient