Speeches

Mr President, just now NATO is discussing how and when to welcome Ukraine as a new member. We all highly appreciate this effort, but at the same time we need to focus on the current realities of the war, like the stealing of Ukrainian children, Ukrainian children being brutally kidnapped, illegally held in camps like prisoners. Released children speak about the horrors they experienced. As a mother, I can only imagine how terrified these kids must be on losing their parents and being taken away by armed men. We must do much more to get these children back to their country. President von der Leyen announced an initiative to help. We also heard about a planned conference regarding this topic, but that was months ago and nothing has happened so far. The EU must present a concrete plan on how we will help stop the genocide of the Ukrainian nation. The plan must come now.

The next item is the joint debate on: – the report by Stefan Berger, on behalf of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, on the financial activities of the European Investment Bank – annual report 2022 (2022/2062(INI)) (A9-0210/2023); and – the report by Viola von Cramon-Taubadel, on behalf of the Committee on Budgetary Control, on the control of the financial activities of the European Investment Bank – annual report 2022 (2023/2046(INI)) (A9-0212/2023).

The next item is the debate on the report by Isabel Santos, on behalf of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, on the 2022 Commission Report on Albania (2022/2199(INI)) (A9-0204/2023).

Pursuant to Rule 241(4) of the Rules of Procedure, I would like to inform you that there was no request to put to the vote the corrigendum from the AGRI Committee announced in plenary yesterday at the opening of the sitting. The corrigendum is therefore deemed to have been approved.

Madam President, Mr Commissioner, the best way to make Europe the place to invest is to complete the four freedoms and the single market. Today, the best places to invest are the United States and Canada. This is because they have regulatory predictability, skilled workers, fully functioning internal markets, and especially single capital markets. We must do the same in Europe. We must think before we regulate. More rules is not always the best way. We must reform our education and workforce to make sure we have qualified workers. We must build digital and physical infrastructure to support investments. This is how we should use European funds and this is how we should use also NextGenerationEU. We must make sure a company in one Member State can truly work in all Member States, from funding and development to the finished product. A Czech company should be able to easily get funding from France, to buy a factory in Bulgaria and know that the infrastructure will be there to support them. This is not the case today and we need to fix it.

Madam President, out of more than 1800 detainees, 760 are still in prison and 740 have been convicted. Maximum immigration history. Human rights defender José Daniel Ferrer, forced disappearance. Cuba, an ally of Russia and a war criminal: Vladimir Putin. Its civilians enter the Russian troops that are killing Ukrainians. That is Cuba today and that is the context of your visit, Mr. High Representative, so I ask you: Is now the time to develop our relations with this country, with a country that does not share our values, that does not respect human rights and that supports Russia in this war? Of course not, on the contrary. It is time to suspend our agreement with Cuba and say that we will support civil society, Cubans, on their path to democracy.

Mr President, Mr High Representative, we are seeing the repression of Daniel Ortega's regime intensify. It doesn't stop or stop at anything. Journalists, students, political opponents, NGOs, judges, lawyers, anyone who dares to criticize or demonstrate is a traitor and a conspirator. He risks being imprisoned, not having a fair trial, having his property confiscated or losing his nationality. The last straw was the expulsion of the EU ambassador to Nicaragua last year and, again, the rejection of the new ambassador in April of this year for condemning the repression. It is not acceptable for Europe to overlook all this. Activating the democratic clause in our agreement with Nicaragua should not be a debate. How many resolutions on human rights violations in Nicaragua are needed for us to suspend the Agreement?

Madam President, Madam Commissioner, AI is a tool that will help millions of Europeans live better lives. It will help us cure cancer. It will help us solve problems quicker. And yes, it can help us fight crime like terrorism. I do not think AI is a risk, but a chance: a chance for a better future. It is true that AI is a tool that can be used for good or misused, but it is just a tool. Just because I can hit my finger with a hammer does not mean we should ban all of them and stop building houses. Just because I can hit my finger with a hammer doesn’t mean that we should stop developing better and safer tools in the future. I agree: we need guidelines to make sure we use this tool wisely. But banning innovation goes far too far. No technology is without risk. We never would have developed electricity, cars or aeroplanes if we didn’t take a risk. I believe AI, like other technologies, will make the future better, and I want it to develop in Europe.

Mr President, thank you very much Madam Commissioner, for the IMCO Committee the vital point is to make sure that competition policy continues to serve and protect consumers and the Single Market. A strong and robust competition policy is a fundamental part of the Single Market and is crucial for the development of a fair and level playing field for all market players, especially SMEs. Due to Covid and the Russian war against Ukraine, we have loosened State aid rules and you mention it. But we must ensure that this is truly limited – limited, as this can distort the Single Market, as not all Member States have the same abilities. We continue to call on the Commission to use competition policy to break up national markets within the Single Market. Companies and citizens should be freely able to buy products from anyone and anywhere in Europe. For IMCO, we want to see full competition in the digital single market as well. So it is now the task of the Commission to ensure that the DSA and the DMA are fully implemented. Digital or physical, competition policy must apply to all companies. Lastly, Mr President, we also believe that net neutrality must be maintained and protected and that competition policy must support it. This does not include any new streaming taxes or sharing levies, but does mean the extension of the geo-blocking regulation to more digital goods and services online. We count on you, Madam Commissioner.

The debate is closed. I have received one motion for a resolution to wind up the debate. The vote will be held today. (The sitting was suspended at 10.57)

The next item is the debate on the oral question to the Commission on coordinated action to address antimicrobial resistance by Pernille Weiss and Tiemo Wölken on behalf of the PPE and S&D groups (O-000027/2023 – B9-0022/2023).

The minutes of this sitting will be submitted to Parliament for its approval at the beginning of its next sitting. If there are no objections I shall forward forthwith the resolutions adopted at today’s sitting to the persons and bodies named therein.

The next item is the debate on the oral question to the Commission on prohibiting chick and duckling killing in EU law tabled by Sirpa Pietikäinen, Günther Sidl, Thomas Waitz, Andreas Schieder, Pascal Arimont, Emil Radev, Ivan Vilibor Sinčić, Michaela Šojdrová, Markéta Gregorová, Margrete Auken, Marcel Kolaja, Niels Fuglsang, Kira Marie Peter-Hansen, Henna Virkkunen, Heidi Hautala, Raphaël Glucksmann, Benoît Biteau, Mounir Satouri, Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, Manon Aubry, Aurélia Beigneux, Sylvie Guillaume, Pierre Larrouturou, Pascal Durand, Nora Mebarek, Marina Mesure, Marie Toussaint, Eric Andrieu, Damien Carême, Anne-Sophie Pelletier, Tiemo Wölken, Martin Buschmann, Marion Walsmann, Maria Noichl, Manuela Ripa, Stelios Kouloglou, Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou, Mick Wallace, Grace O'Sullivan, Frances Fitzgerald, Clare Daly, Ciarán Cuffe, Mario Furore, Laura Ferrara, Anna Bonfrisco, Petras Auštrevičius, Tilly Metz, Robert Biedroń, Sylwia Spurek, Elżbieta Katarzyna Łukacijewska, Andrzej Halicki, Francisco Guerreiro, Isabel Carvalhais, Dacian Cioloş , Martin Hojsík, Michal Wiezik, Malin Björk, Helmut Geuking, Alviina Alametsä, Anja Hazekamp, Matjaž Nemec (O-000014/2023 – B9-0017/23) (2023/2692(RSP)).

The minutes of yesterday’s sitting and the texts adopted are available. Are there any comments? As that is not the case, the minutes are approved.

The EPP and ID Groups have notified the President 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.

Mr President, in English there is the children’s saying “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”. Sadly, this is no longer true. The internet seems to remove adults’ limits, but for children who have not learned yet the power of their words, this is even worse. Group chats, discord Chats, sites like Instagram and TikTok have transformed bullying, especially among girls. Cyber bullying has not replaced it offline in schools, but has added to it, making it no longer end at the school’s gates. So what do we do? First, we, as parents, must seek to try to understand and help our children to understand the harm of their actions. But equally important is to praise and support those young people who stand up to their so-called friends, both online and offline, and say, ‘no’, what is happening here is not acceptable. Bullying is not new with time, hopefully the cyberbullying of today will end. But we must do everything we can to make it end sooner rather than later.