Speeches

The next item is the debate on the Council and Commission statements on the presentation of the programme of activities of the Swedish Presidency (2022/3008(RSP)). Dear Prime Minister Kristersson, dear colleagues, on 1 January we welcomed Sweden at the helm of the Council of the European Union. Today, it is a pleasure to have with us Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to present the programme of activities of the Swedish Presidency. Prime Minister, dear Ulf, welcome to the European Parliament. Questions on the economy will dominate the Swedish Presidency. I believe that a return to growth can be one of your major achievements. In order to boost the economy, you stand for an open, modern and competitive Europe. This is what the European Parliament stands for too. Growth will also come from reforming our energy market. To make it future-proof, efforts must be made to reconcile energy security with the green transition. Sweden is already a front-runner in this area, which will prove essential when it comes to us wrapping-up the ‘Fit for 55’ package. Last year, the European Parliament and the five rotating presidencies committed to working in partnership to find agreement on the migration and asylum package before the next European elections. Your presidency falls squarely in the middle of this legislature. The urgency to make progress on all the migration files is becoming very real here too. And yet, despite all these challenges, the biggest threat to Europe and our democracies is still and will continue to be Russia’s illegal invasion and relentless bombardment of Ukraine. Sweden has been a great friend to Ukraine and you have always been true promoters of human rights and democratic values. We must continue to stand by Ukraine. Prime Minister, dear Ulf, a month and a half ago, you welcomed me and my colleagues, the group leaders, in the beautiful capital of Stockholm. It is in this constructive spirit that the European Parliament will continue working with the Swedish Presidency on the many important initiatives on the table. On behalf of this House, I look forward to working together with you and your colleagues and I wish you every success for the upcoming six months.

Thank you, Stéphane. Does anyone want to speak against this request? I see that is not the case, so I put the request to the vote. (Parliament approved the request) The Commission statement is therefore added as the fourth point in the afternoon tomorrow. For Wednesday, the Greens/EFA Group has requested that a Commission statement on ‘Criminalisation of humanitarian assistance, including search and rescue’ be added as the sixth point in the afternoon. I give the floor to Tineke Strik to move the request on behalf of her group.

So would you agree that I put Mr Séjourné’s proposal to a vote? I see that the House agrees. The title would therefore be as follows: ‘New developments in allegations of corruption and foreign interference, including those related to Morocco, and the need to increase transparency, integrity and accountability in the European institutions’. We put that request to a vote. (Parliament approved the request) So this will mean that Tuesday’s sitting will be extended until 23:00. I have a request from the Renew Group, that has asked that a Commission statement on ‘The EU’s response to the appalling attack against civilians in Dnipro: strengthening sanctions against the Putin regime and military support to Ukraine’ be added as the fourth point in the afternoon. I give the floor to Mr Séjourné to move the request on behalf of his group.

We now come to the order of business. The final draft agenda as adopted by the Conference of Presidents on 12 January pursuant to Rule 157 has been distributed. Now, I have received five requests for debates on the same topic taken from different angles. I will read all the requests out now and then we could potentially agree on a debate that could garner the majority with the broadest possible overview. This would be my proposal. The timing of this would be on Tuesday afternoon, and the vote on the title would take place by a recorded vote. I will read them out. The Left Group has asked that a Commission statement on ‘The suspicions of corruption linked to Morocco and other third countries in European institutions’ be added as the second point in the afternoon. The ID Group has asked that a Commission statement on ‘Immediate establishment of an inquiry committee into the political responsibility for ‘Qatargate’ in light of Article 226 TFEU’ be added. The Greens/EFA Group has asked that the Commission statement on ‘Ensuring transparency, integrity and accountability of EU institutions’ be added to the agenda. The S&D Group has asked that the Commission statement on ‘New developments related to malign political interference from third countries within the EU institutions’ be added to the agenda. The ECR Group has requested that a Commission statement on ‘New developments in the corruption cases in the EU institutions’ be added to the agenda. So we need to find a title that would bring all these together. I would think that unless the groups have come to an agreement, we will hear from Mr Séjourné, Ms Reintke and Ms Aubry.

I would like to inform you that we will proceed, on Wednesday 18 January, with the election of the new Vice-President of the European Parliament, replacing Eva Kaili. Regarding this election, I remind you that the deadline for submitting nominations is tomorrow, Tuesday 17 January 2023 at 19:00. The nominations should be handed in to the Office of the Deputy Secretary-General in the open-plan area of the plenary services, and include the candidate’s acceptance. The vote will be held on Wednesday at noon.

I would like to inform you that, together with the President of the Council, I shall, on Wednesday, sign three acts adopted under the ordinary legislative procedure in accordance with Rule 79 of Parliament’s Rules of Procedure. The titles of the acts will be published in the minutes of this sitting.

The EPP, S&D, Renew Europe and ID groups have notified me of decisions relating to changes to appointments within committees and delegations. These decisions will be set out in the minutes of today’s sitting and take effect on the date of this announcement.

I have received requests from the competent authorities in Belgium for the parliamentary immunities of Andrea Cozzolino and Marc Tarabella to be waived. These requests have been referred to the Committee on Legal Affairs.

Dear colleagues, last week marked one year since our friend and President, David Sassoli, passed away. I have lost count of the number of times this year that I wanted to pick up the phone to ask his opinion. His clarity of thought, his vision for a Europe of equality and justice, his championing of the most vulnerable in our societies are things that define our common European mission and this European Parliament. David left his mark on our project and on all of us. In his last public address, he referred to Europe as a ‘project of hope – a project to unite us all, a project that embodies our Union, our values and our civilisation’. I promised a year ago that this Parliament would continue to honour his legacy, and I know that we will keep that promise. Today, we also mourn our colleague Miroslav Číž, who died on 29 December. I ask you all to stand for a minute of silence to remember. (The House rose and observed a minute’s silence.) On Iran, it has been a long 120 days since women, men, students, academics and so many more in Iran took to the streets chanting ‘Women. Life. Liberty’, demanding respect for their right to live freely. Those standing up in Iran have inspired the world and I want to tell them that we will not leave them alone. I’ve just come from a rally outside where I repeated our call for the international community to respond forcefully to the terror that has been unleashed by the regime on the people on the streets of Iran. We must crack down on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. We need those responsible for the killings, those responsible for the executions, those who prefer to see free people held forever in chains and those who provide drones used to kill Ukrainians to be held accountable. The people on the streets are on the right side of history; they will make history, and we will stand with them as they do. On Ukraine, colleagues, these last days saw again a series of indiscriminate strikes by Russia against people in Ukraine. We saw how residential buildings were targeted. Women, children massacred. The images of Dnipro will haunt forever all those who saw them – all those who were forced to live through them. The bravery and resilience of the Ukrainian people should be an example to all. They have shown the world that might does not equal right. That terror will not break Ukrainian spirits. Europe will continue to support Ukraine – politically, humanitarianly, militarily and financially. The EUR 18 billion financial package that this House voted for will begin to be disbursed this week. Our ‘Generators of Hope’ campaign is in full swing, with towns, villages, cities all doing their part to help power Ukraine. I am so proud of our response and I know that we will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. I also wanted to speak about the decisions needed on measures in the House to increase integrity, independence and accountability. The European Parliament prides itself on its openness, its accessibility and its defence of legislating in the public eye. We are not in some imaginary ivory tower. The principle of ‘openness builds trust’ is one we hold dear and that we defend. Any abuse or misuse of the tools that we created for this purpose must be addressed strongly, systematically and with any potential weaknesses addressed. The events of the past month have led to a need to re-build trust with the European citizens we represent. We must acknowledge this. Citizens, rightly, demand accountability and integrity. We will respond. I promised you last month that we would come back with a series of reforms. With group leaders, we have agreed on a first-step approach on a number of points that can go a long way. This is the beginning, not the end. We will start with measures that we can implement quickly while starting the process for a longer-term reform. Consultations will continue across the board. As a starting point, we will look at how we can implement a revolving door policy, at how we can ensure more transparency, of how we can improve accountability and checks of interest representatives, of how we can better control who has access to our premises. We will ask for more transparency also when it comes to those representing third countries and their interests and from former Members. We will shine a brighter light on what we do as Members, with more and clearer information being made available to the public. We will enforce rules that disallow any activities that could create confusion with official European Parliament activities – particularly when it comes to interaction with third countries. We will do more to ensure that the public has clear information on our financial declarations and we will ensure more training on whistle-blowing and compliance. We will propose measures to boost the fight against corruption and on how we can push back against foreign interference. We will strengthen our systems, address any shortcomings, and be honest and open throughout this process. And we will do all of this while protecting the freedom of our mandate as elected representatives. We will not hinder that – we will do the opposite and do so while highlighting the important, crucial role played by MEPs in European decision—making and our role in making the lives of Europeans a little bit safer, a little bit fairer, a little bit more equal. Our House is the embodiment of European parliamentary democracy and I need your help to ensure that the pillars holding it up are strengthened. We owe this to our citizens, to all those who came before and to all those who come after.

Thank you very much Ms Langensiepen, you are absolutely right, and we will do our best to make sure this doesn’t happen again with different measures that we can take. I will speak to the relevant services. (The sitting was suspended briefly.)

President. – On Thursday, the PPE Group has requested that the Commission statement on ‘the 30th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities’ be wound up by a resolution to be voted on Thursday.

President. – The PPE Group has asked that a Commission statement on the ‘Impact on the rule of law of recent developments in Spain’ be added as the fifth item in the afternoon.

President. – For Wednesday, the Renew Group has requested that Council and Commission statements on ‘defending the European Union against the abuse of national vetoes’ be added as the second item in the afternoon. As a consequence, the sitting would be extended until 23:00.

I would like to inform you that, since the adjournment of Parliament’s session on 24 November, I have signed, together with the President of the Council, one act adopted under the ordinary legislative procedure in accordance with Rule 79 of Parliament’s Rules of Procedure. I would also like to inform you that on Wednesday I shall sign, together with the President of the Council, 11 acts adopted under the ordinary legislative procedure. The titles of the acts will be published in the minutes of this sitting.

I have received from the Council its position at first reading, as well as the reasons which led to its adoption and the positions and opinions of the Commission. The full title will be listed in the minutes of this sitting. The three—month period available to Parliament to adopt its positions will therefore begin as from tomorrow, 13 December 2022.

The competent authorities of Italy have notified me of the election of Beatrice Covassi to the European Parliament replacing Simona Bonafè with effect from 6 December 2022. I wish to welcome our new colleague and recall that she takes her seat in Parliament and its bodies in full enjoyment of her rights pending the verification of her credentials.

The S&D Group has communicated to me that Eva Kaili is no longer a member of the Group as of 9 December 2022 and that she sits with the non-attached Members. Pascal Durand is no longer a member of the Renew Europe Group and has joined the S&D Group as of 30 November 2022.

The LIBE Committee has adopted two mandates to enter into interinstitutional negotiations pursuant to Rule 71(1) of the Rules of Procedure, on third countries whose nationals are subject to or exempt from a visa requirement – Kuwait and Qatar, and on the European Union Drugs Agency. For the first file on third countries whose nationals are subject to or exempt from a visa requirement – Kuwait and Qatar, I have decided with the agreement of the political groups to propose a referral back to committee of this file pursuant to Rule 198. I understand that the rapporteur would like to take the floor.