Speeches

The next item is the debate on the Commission statement on the building of a wall on the Polish – Belarus border in the Białowieża primeval forest (2022/2652(RSP)). I remind you that free seating applies, with the exception of the first two rows, which are allocated to the Group leaders. You will be able to request catch—the—eye and blue—cards via your voting machine, after having inserted your voting card. I would also like to remind you that interventions in the Chamber will continue to be made from the central rostrum except for catch—the—eye, blue—cards and points of order.

Madam President, Ukrainian women are the biggest victims of Putin’s war. Women and their children are the easiest targets for Russian soldiers’ cruelty. Horrible stories are emerging: a woman forced into sexual slavery, trapped in a basement in Bucha. After being tortured, Russian soldiers, shot her dead. A mother raped repeatedly in front of her son; a three—year—old girl found dead with her whole family, her body bearing marks of rape; a mother forced to watch her 11—year—old son being gang-raped. Ukrainian women are fleeing and they need our help. They need immediate medical care, access to emergency contraception, psychological support, and legal abortion in Europe. The border countries must provide urgently needed healthcare to victims of Russian violence. Thanks to investigators and press underground collecting evidence on war crimes, we already know some of the faces and names of the perpetrators. It is our duty to ensure that the monsters responsible for these crimes are brought to justice and punished. It’s good that Russian soldiers will be sanctioned, but I want to see them at the International Criminal Court.

Madam President, we have all faced the frustration of a cracked phone screen, only to go to the manufacturer and be told that fixing it will cost almost as much as a new phone and, if we do it ourselves, it will be out of warranty for everything else. We need to listen to our citizens and we must change this. Fixing items must be easier and local businesses and individuals should be able to do it. At the same time, we must do this in a proportionate way. Just because something is fixable doesn’t always mean it’s a better product. If something is fixable but breaks every week, is that product better than something that just keeps working for years, but that, once it’s done, it’s done? Sustainability doesn’t always equal reparability. We all support a future with better repair options. The days of throwaway culture must be over. However, this should not lead to higher prices for businesses and in turn for consumers. Instead, we must incentivise manufacturers over time to adopt new business models, which are a win—win for consumers and for the environment.

The next item is the debate on the statement by the Vice—President of the Commission and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on the situation in Afghanistan, in particular the situation of women’s rights (2022/2571(RSP)). I remind you that free seating is applied, with the exception of the first two rows that are allocated to the political group leaders. You will be able to request catch—the—eye and blue cards via your voting machine after having inserted your voting card. I would also like to remind you that interventions in the Chamber will continue to be made from the central rostrum except for catch—the—eye, blue cards and points of order.

The S&D and ECR Groups have notified the President of decisions relating to changes to appointments within committees. Those decisions will be set out in the Minutes of today’s sitting and shall take effect on the day of this announcement.

Mr President, a crying and exhausted little boy is walking by himself with just one plastic bag in his hands, towards the border with Poland. Tired mothers carrying their children in one arm and just a couple of belongings in the other, only what they had time to pack, crossing the border with Slovakia There are now already 4 million of them. Four million Ukrainians have crossed the borders because their country is being brutally attacked by Russia. Russian soldiers kill innocent people in the streets, rape girls and women and torture children. But unfortunately, danger still awaits across the border, especially for women and children. They arrive to camps cramped with thousands of people. Suddenly, a car or a bus appears and somebody offers to take them to a safer place. Or so they say. We have a lot of disturbing information that women have been taken away, drugged and forced into prostitution, and that there are Ukrainian children being trafficked and exploited. We need to do everything we can to protect them. Effective registration, border management, are vital, to secure the safety of young and vulnerable Ukrainians. All this could be facilitated by having Frontex on the ground to help local officials deal with the immigration wave and provide safe transport of refugees further to other European countries. The European Union can and should do more to provide help in this area, to give support to the countries dealing with huge numbers of refugees.

Madam President, consumers today may take it for granted, but I remember the huge bills consumers faced for using their phone while roaming. It was outrageous. For me, it is clear: extending the ban on roaming charges is the right step. The end of roaming is a concrete example of the European Union solving a practical problem. We did the same with limiting the costs of long-distance calls – so-called intra-EU calls. During the last mandate, I fought hard for our citizens to get a deal on lower prices on long-distance calls. However, the price limits that protect the most vulnerable among us will expire in May 2024. So the Commission should now extend the price limits on intra-EU calls, or even go further and abolish long-distance surcharges altogether. The message today is clear: ‘no’ to roaming charges and ‘no’ to long distance.

I will now move to the results of the first voting session of today, 10 March 2022. (The President read out the results of the vote)* _______________ * See Minutes. (The sitting was suspended at 13.06)

At its meeting of Wednesday, 9 March 2022, the Conference of Presidents adopted a proposal for the calendar of part—sessions for the parliamentary year 2023. The dates are available on the plenary webpage. The deadline for tabling amendments is Monday, 21 March at 12.00. The vote will take place on Thursday, 24 March at 11.30.

The next item is the debate on six motions for resolutions on destruction of cultural heritage in Nagorno—Karabakh (2022/2582(RSP))*. _______________ * See Minutes.

The next item is the debate on six motions for resolutions on Myanmar, one year after the coup (2022/2581(RSP))*. _______________ * See Minutes.

Madam President, the impact of the war in Ukraine is everywhere, even in relation to batteries. The war has already shut down the production of electric cars in a number of Member States, including the Czech Republic, due to the electric parts that go into connecting batteries to the vehicles being blocked. As vehicle manufacturers struggle to find new sources of supplies, we must prevent a similar problem in the future with the batteries themselves. That is why this legislation should help support better production and recycling in Europe, so that, in the future, we have a safe supply of raw and recycled materials. At the same time, this legislation must not be used as a tool against a global supply chain. When we are not faced with a crisis, the best source of many batteries and battery materials will continue to be outside the European Union. I firmly believe that we must work with other international players, including in the UN Economic Commission of Africa (ECA) Forum, as we implement this legislation towards making these rules universal and not for Europe alone. As we move towards a future of electric vehicles, the question of batteries will not be a question of AA or AAA batteries. We need a plan for what to do with these huge car and truck batteries. The car industry must be a partner in this and our laws must be able to be implemented. As we go into trilogues, I ask all sides to make sure this law will work in practice. Only if we work with the industry will we get this right.

Mr President, Kyrill, 18 months – old killed from shelling. Sofia, six years old – shot to death with her baby brother, mother and grandparents trying to escape by car. Arseniy, 14 – bled to death from a fragment of projectile. Child cancer patients treated in basements of hospitals. Mothers with children targeted by gunfire while fleeing war. These are just some examples of how Putin fights in Ukraine – attacking women, children and civilians from the very beginning, and bombing schools, orphanages, apartment buildings, shooting unarmed civilians in the streets. As Ukrainians cross the border to safety, Europe has been united in showing immense solidarity. For instance, my country, Czech Republic, has collected the highest amount of money ever in our history, all going to humanitarian aid for Ukraine. Colleagues, we are witnessing war crimes by Putin, and he must be held accountable.