Speeches

Mr. President, on January 10, the regime of Nicolás Maduro prevented the investiture of the winner of the presidential elections, Edmundo González Urrutia. Maduro today rules, but he is not the legitimate president of Venezuela, but the ruler de facto who has usurped the presidency, a dictator recognized only by other dictatorships. Who went to Caracas on January 10? Daniel Ortega, the dictator of Nicaragua, Miguel Díaz-Canel, of Cuba, while from the European continent only Russia, Belarus and Serbia sent delegations. The democracies of Europe and the American continent did not back Maduro's farce on January 10, but that is not enough. It is necessary for the Council today to take the same position that this Parliament has already taken, recognising González Urrutia as legitimate President. It is necessary that our democracies work together so that the will of the Venezuelan people is finally recognized and respected.

The second Trump administration wants to complete the deglobalization process that began in the first Trump administration, which continued under Biden. This creates new geopolitical realities and Europe needs to adapt to this, which means, first, we will maintain our alliance with America within NATO, but we need to build our own European defence capabilities. Second, we need to adapt our energy and industrial policies to new geopolitical realities, because without America, Europe cannot save the goals of the Paris climate agreement, but Europe can and must save Europe's industry and economy. And thirdly, Europe must not miss the chances of bilateral and regional trade deals, such as with Mexico or Mercosur, which we must ratify as soon as possible. So, colleagues, instead of blaming Trump for all our problems, let's do what's in our hands and what's needed and good for Europe.

The Russian Federation has consistently violated international law by encroaching on the territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of Ukraine by occupying the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol since 2014. Unfortunately, the people of Crimea face serious human rights violations on a daily basis, illegal recruitment into the Russian army, forced passports, unjustified arrests, disappearances of associations, prohibition of religious events and a forced change in the demographic composition of the entire peninsula. The Russian Federation has systematically implemented a policy aimed at violently changing the demographic composition of Crimea, primarily along ethnic lines, which constitutes a war crime under international law. Of course, we should mention the worrying fact that Russia has more than 218 Crimean political prisoners, 67 of whom have serious health problems, and it is crucial that they receive adequate medical assistance as a matter of urgency. Only some of the worrying examples are the case of Irina Danilovič, a Crimean journalist and human rights defender, who was kidnapped in 2022. Then journalist Amet Suleimanov and Tofik Abdulgaziev, an NGO activist, were also convicted and detained by the regime. The European Parliament must demand the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and hold accountable those responsible for the inhumane conditions of the detainees. The international community must still not recognise the attempt to annex Crimea and must demand an investigation into all human rights violations in the occupied territories of Ukraine since 2014. I am glad that Zagreb hosted the First Parliamentary Summit of the International Crimean Platform in October '22. And so we must support this resolution so that we do not forget that Crimea is occupied and we must not admit that.

Madam President, dear colleagues, as we have responded to the Russian aggression by making bold strategic decisions, including the opening of accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, the same level of strategic thinking should guide us in our approach to the Western Balkans. All the six countries from this region have been promised a European perspective at the Thessaloniki summit already two decades ago. It was true then, but it is even more today. The enlargement of the EU to the Western Balkans has a prime geopolitical importance. The accession negotiations will certainly remain merit based, but we should not neglect the wider strategic implications of the integration of this region into the European Union. Being fully aware of the new geopolitical circumstances and the challenges posed to us by strategic competitors and adversaries, it is also crucial that the candidate countries seize the opportunity of a reinvigorated enlargement process that speed up reforms, recognise and reconcile with each other, respect the rule of law, and particularly important, that they align with the EU's foreign and security policy in this defining moment. At a time when Ukraine is showing its geopolitical alignment and commitment to Europe every day on the battlefield, a clear alignment is also expected from all the countries in the Western Balkans. We commend those countries in the region that have already sided with us in confronting the autocracies that challenge our democratic values. Their geopolitical alignment was backed by domestic reforms, regional cooperation and good neighbourly relations, thus paving the way for significant progress in the accession negotiations during this year. In the cases where the ruling political structures did not achieve such a progress, their citizens, however, remain committed to the EU values and we will not turn our back to these future EU citizens. We will, through the Growth Plan, intend to bring to them some of the benefits of the EU's freedoms even before membership. But we also need to move faster in some areas, like the integration of the Western Balkans to the European roaming-free area. This is important that we make even better progress there. The Commission can count on our support to accomplish the strategic task of integrating the Western Balkans into the European Union.

Yesterday, two important things happened for the enlargement process, which is on the agenda of the European Council. One good news is from Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the Council of Ministers adopted two laws that are crucial for the country's European perspective. We must also welcome this and be ready to support the opening of accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina as soon as possible. Another news item was the meeting of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs in the Parliament of Montenegro, where another fragmentation and polarization of not only the political scene but also society there, now around the Constitutional Court, was shown, but in fact it was a conflict over geopolitical orientation and political identity. And that is why we must say that people in Montenegro have the right to a sovereign Montenegro where Montenegrins will be their own and be able to decide their own destiny because they too have the right to a European Montenegro. Our common goal must be the Europeanisation of the whole area and the integration of the Western Balkans into the European Union.

Dear President, colleagues, Shaun Walker, journalist of the left-wing The Guardian, wrote a book back in 2018 in which he claims that Putin manipulated the memories of the great victory of '45 so that Russia would actually forget about '89, that is, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the crimes of communist dictatorships and the disintegration of the Soviet Empire. Manipulation with historical themes is characteristic of autocratic regimes and often precedes military aggression, and the tactic is clear – forget the crimes of communism, homogenize the nation on the memory of the fight against Nazism and fascism, but then portray Ukraine as a fascist creation and initiate the occupation of Ukraine. Nothing new. Slobodan Milošević did the same in the 1990s. And that is why people are so sensitive today in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina or in Kosovo when such dangerous narratives are repeated. In contrast to this falsification of history, in contrast to the war narrative promoted by Moscow, Europe must do more to promote a true culture of remembrance. It must condemn all totalitarianisms and, of course, Europe must always remain faithful to the politics of peace, reconciliation and democracy.

The fall of the Assad regime is a geopolitical blow to Iran. Russia is also strategically weakened. Will she be present in Syria? This depends primarily on talks with the new authorities, but also on talks between Putin and Erdoğan. Turkey is obviously the biggest winner in this situation and we see, as it was in the South Caucasus, now and in Syria, the withdrawal of Russia leaves one vacuum which is then filled by Erdoğan's Turkey. Trump has said that America will not be more engaged. In this context, Israel shall do whatever it deems necessary to protect its security. The European Union must also take into account and I welcome the new approach of the European Union led by the High Representative, which is pragmatic but takes into account our values and interests. This must of course also be the protection of Christians, but above all the protection of the security of European citizens and of the European Union.

Dear President, colleagues, in the week when we celebrate the Day against Violence against Women, it is especially important to look at the situation in Iran. And despite hopes for policy change with President Pezeskian's new government, Iran continues to systematically repress women, especially through the so-called moral police. The authorities are increasingly restricting women's rights, including through new laws and regulations. Women who break hijab laws by appearing in public without a hijab are often abused, imprisoned, tortured, and even killed. At the same time, we see that Saudi Arabia is going in a different direction. Gradually, but still in the direction of greater freedoms and rights for women. And we have to take this into account in a broader regional aspect. Therefore, by supporting women's rights in Iran, we support greater freedom, stability and prosperity throughout the wider Middle East region.

Madam President, let me start by praising Brazil for the leadership it has shown by launching the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty. It addresses the SDG one and SDG two, the most urgent ones, and that should be acknowledged and supported. Having said that, I regret that the G20 failed to address all the causes of poverty. They did address some of them, like inequalities, like the Commissioner has mentioned, but they did not address, for example, the lack of good governance. As a former rapporteur of this House for the 2030 agenda, we worked hard to include that SDG 16. They missed to address the lack of good governance as a cause of poverty. And they had a good example, unfortunately, of that situation in the vicinity, in the neighbourhood, in Venezuela, a country very rich in oil but unfortunately poor due to the mismanagement of the regime of Nicolás Maduro. Why that was not mentioned? Well, because Russia and China are supporting Nicolás Maduro. They did not want to have this mentioned at the G20 in Rio. But I believe that that was necessary because here we saw all the hypocrisy of these countries that say that they are caring about the interests of the citizens of the Global South, but what they are really doing is to support a dictator to stay in power against the will of his own people. So I believe that the leaders in Rio should have addressed the situation in Venezuela. I regret that they did not.

Dear Speaker, colleagues, irregularities in this election in Georgia, the interference of the Russian Federation is something that we have to put into a broader context, and that is the goal of the hybrid action of the Russian Federation to thwart the free will of the people to decide their own destiny. This is done in Georgia, it is tried by Moldova, it is also tried in the Western Balkans that people cannot decide their own fate, and not on the basis of disinformation, on the basis of fear, fear of war, fear of the Russian Federation itself. That's why we need to increase our policy with anticipation, not run behind events. In Moldova, where the Russian Federation has failed, we need to support democratic forces more strongly. Recognise in the Western Balkans that we have such cases as the "Georgian Dream" where parties talk about the European path but behave according to the Russian matrix. There we must also support true European forces and then do the same in Georgia so that the people of Georgia can decide their own fate.

Madam President, allow me at the outset to express my condolences to Spain, to the Spanish people and, in particular, to Valencian society. A solidarity that Europe demonstrates by making available the civil protection system and solidarity funds, as it did also for floods in Central Europe or in candidate countries, such as in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Now, the tragedy is such that, obviously, the political system must assume its responsibility. And when I say this, I think that the scale of the tragedy is such that neither can the national government shirk its role and its responsibility. Our role in Parliament is obviously to question the management of those who are candidates for Commissioners and then to make an assessment of their answers or of the lack of answers. Our role is to demonstrate solidarity with the Spanish people and provide the means for reconstruction and to avoid new tragedies.

Dear Chairman, colleague and colleague, Tunisia is our old partner. Relations start as early as 76, but a very important moment in these relations was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding and a Strategic Partnership between the European Union and Tunisia last year. The MoU provides one comprehensive framework, tools for the Commission to support Tunisia in addressing a number of current challenges, including macroeconomic stability, migration management, but also seizing opportunities for cooperation in sectors of common interest. It is true that Tunisia has not come close lately but has moved away from the concept of liberal democracy, but we must also say Tunisia is and must remain our partner because we have a large space for cooperation and dialogue, we have common interests and we simply must not leave this space to our geopolitical rivals.

Dear chairperson, colleague and colleague, the European Union adheres to the policy of one China and it is a policy based on the General Assembly resolution 2758. But China misinterprets the resolution to exclude Taiwan and marginalize it in the international community. Taiwan should actually be able to participate in the work of agencies where useful, for example the World Health Organization or the International Civil Aviation Organization. Today, we are sending another important message, which is that disputes must not be resolved by force. China is showing its muscles with military exercises around Taiwan and it is very dangerous, dangerous for democracy in Taiwan, for regional security, for international trade and the world economy, for the international order. And that is why we are sending a clear message that resolution 2758 does not give China the right to threats or the use of force against Taiwan.

Dear Chairman, colleagues, changes in the international order have led to a change in relations also in the South Caucasus and it is clear that Azerbaijan's position has been strengthened, but this does not give Azerbaijan the right to violate human rights. Azerbaijan has the right to its territorial integrity, but not to human rights violations. He must respect the right of Armenians to return to their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh. The European Union has developed relations with Azerbaijan, has energy cooperation, but also has a political dialogue and must use this to stress that human rights must be respected. We must also support our colleagues from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe much more strongly. And I'm in that number that's on Azerbaijan's blacklist because we just raised our voices against human rights violations. Finally, I would like to invite Baku to take advantage of this situation and to make peace with Armenia for the stability of the entire South Caucasus region.

On the eve of the Paris International Conference, we must once again underline the importance and need for the full implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701, as this is the key not only to a ceasefire but also to a sustainable peace. If we want to do this, then we must support the implementation of this resolution for the building of political institutions in Lebanon, for the territorial integrity of Lebanon, but also for the disarmament of Hezbollah, which is a terrorist organization and as such we must treat it. If we really want to protect civilians, if we want to protect civilians in both Israel and Lebanon, and Muslims and Christian maronites, let us not forget them, then we really need to seek support from UNIFIL, but also support that will also be in the full implementation of resolution 1701, and this requires the disarmament of Hezbollah, because it is a threat to both Israel and the internal stability of Lebanon.

The Council of Europe and the Parliamentary Assembly have established that these are legitimate countermeasures because the Russian Federation has breached international law. Something similar has been done in the case of Kuwait; also, it has been a breach of international law. So what was the problem to respect the international law? I think that is the key question. Why is it so difficult also to respect the will of the Ukrainian people? You say you are sovereigntist. So why not respect the will of the Ukrainian people to be part of the West?

Dear Chair, Mr Letta speaks correctly about what the acceleration of the integration of the internal market has a geopolitical importance in today's conditions. I would complement this by linking the internal market to the enlargement process. Let's look at, for example, the situation in the Western Balkans, there are a lot of political problems. We must not wait for them to be resolved, for these countries to become full members, but we could, perhaps in a gradual way, integrate them into our single market sooner rather than later. Like, for example, we do when it comes to roaming. I think it's a good example, but we have to extend it to other freedoms. In this way, people in the region will also have their right to stay, and the European Union will have more influence and will contribute more to the stability of this part of the European continent.

Dear Chair, I think that my colleague Isabel Benjumea explained very well that the attack on Christianity is in fact an attack on tolerance, an attack on faith that teaches that we must love not only our friends, but also our enemies, that we must respect the dignity of every human person. And that is why, uh, I congratulate the Commissioner not only for his speech, but for everything he has done in the Commission. He was in charge of combating anti-Semitism, against hatred against Muslims, but unfortunately, as we have seen in this debate, the number of attacks against Christians has also exploded, and therefore I really think that we must also have a coordinator in the new Commission to fight hatred against Christians. If we don't want this topic to be abused by the extremes to encourage, in fact, intolerance, then we, the center parties, the parties that we are pro-European, have to deal with this topic much more.

Dear President, in this Parliament we often express our solidarity with the different peoples of different countries because they need us to stand by them in difficult times. We did this, for example, also in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina because of these terrible floods that were truly devastating and we asked for the activation of the Solidarity Fund. But there are times when we have to ask the same thing, when there are political attacks on a country, for this Parliament to raise its voice. And we did so in the case of Moldova because Moldova is today a victim of hybrid action of an aggressive policy of the Russian Federation and therefore this resolution should have had our support to stand with Moldova, to support the perspective of a free, sovereign and European Moldova.

Dear Chair, Dear colleagues, this bill, which allows forced child marriages, is of great concern. It allows even 9-year-old girls to marry. We must raise our voice because by respecting the dignity of women we can measure the degree of development, we can measure the degree of freedom of a society. I think it's wrong for an AfD agent to accuse the West of all this. If we look at a broader geopolitical picture, then we see that while on the one hand Saudi Arabia is gradually but still introducing some positive measures in society, Iran is cracking down on women. Unfortunately, Iran's increasing influence in Iraq is also leading to these negative proposals, and that is why we must raise our voice and support the rights of women in Iraq.

Dear Chair, colleagues, is this resolution necessary? This is a question very legitimately asked by colleague Sánchez Amor, and I think she is needed. Why? Because we have to send a clear message before the election that you can't sit on two chairs? Of course the citizens of Georgia will decide, but we have a government that came to power with a pro-European rhetoric, which still says today that it wants to go towards the European Union, but actually follows the direction that Moscow wants. And therefore we must say that one cannot sit on two chairs, as we say to Belgrade, as we say to parts of the government and in Montenegro, so in this case of Georgia we must be clear. We also need to be clear when passing laws according to the Russian model, which are actually laws against civil society. And please, also about the so-called promotion of family values. There is nothing wrong with promoting family values, and what is wrong when it is done is actually to abolish pluralism in society, tolerance in society, when the dignity of every human person is not respected. And that is why it is our task to pass such a resolution because we do not impose anything on Georgia, as they wrongly accuse the far right, but we respect what Georgia itself says in Article 78 of its own constitution, which is that they want to be part of the European Union.

Dear Chair, colleagues, with this resolution we are sending a very clear message of support to Moldova. We are not promoting a single figure or political option, but we are supporting the whole of Moldova so that the citizens of Moldova can decide their own destiny. We support that Moldova can strengthen its resilience at a time when it is a victim of a hostile action by the Russian Federation, which acts in intelligence, hybrid, disinformation, corrupts politicians, tries to buy votes and does so not only in Moldova but also in Georgia, it also does so in Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other Western Balkan countries. This is also done by the Russian Federation in Moldova. And that's why our message with this resolution is very clear. We want Moldova to be sovereign, so that the people of Moldova can decide their own destiny. Our message, therefore, from this Parliament is that if you, the citizens of Moldova, want to decide to go further towards the European Union, you will be welcomed. If you want to continue implementing reforms, you will have our support. If you want to be a member of the European Union, you will certainly be more sovereign if you want to be part of Europe. For this you do not need to ask permission from anyone, and least of all from Moscow. Therefore, this support for this resolution is in support of Moldova’s vision. This is the support of one Moldova that will be free, sovereign and European.

In 2016, I resigned as a Member of the European Parliament to take up my new duties in the Croatian government. I have now returned to the European Parliament after eight years and I remember the entry into force in 2016 of this Political Dialogue and Cooperation Treaty with Cuba. We were very skeptical about the European People's Party. On the left side of this parliament, we were assured that there would be an improvement in the human rights situation. Eight years later, unfortunately, we see that we were right, that the situation has not improved. Unfortunately, she got worse. And this is shown by the case of José Daniel Ferrero Garcia. A man who has been detained since the age of 21 has now cut off communication with his family. Therefore, there is nothing else but to activate and put on the table everything we have at our disposal, including that clause suspending the contract with Cuba.