What Michaela spoke about.

24

Apr

2024

EN Speech

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Azerbaijan, notably the repression of civil society and the cases of Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu and Ilhamiz Guliyev

Mr President, first, I want to thank all of my colleagues for their great cooperation on this important resolution. This urgent resolution proves that the European Parliament’s voice is strong and sound in defending human rights. Just one hour after the adoption of our plenary agenda on Monday, we received information that Dr Ibadoghlu had been released into house arrest. Great. However, this alon…

23

Apr

2024

CS Speech

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Production and marketing of plant reproductive material - Production and marketing of forest reproductive material (joint debate - Plant and forest reproductive material)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the proposals put forward by the Commission for the production of plant reproductive material and forest reproductive material are important, but they are far from meeting the expectations of the professional public. I would like to thank my colleagues, Mr Dorfmann and others who worked on the European Parliament's report and tried to respond to the shortcomings…

22

Apr

2024

CS Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I cannot dedicate my last one-minute speech in this mandate to anyone other than the severely tried Ukraine. This week we finally got the good news from the US Congress, which decided to support Ukraine in the amount of $61 billion. To je jasný signál celému světu, ale také nám, Evropské unii, protože právě nás Ukrajina v posledních týdnech naléhavě prosí, abych…

14

Mar

2024

CS Speech

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Promised revision of the EU animal welfare legislation and the animal welfare-related European citizens’ initiatives (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the welfare of farm animals is important for animals, but also for us, for people, for consumers. There is only one health, healthy nature, healthy animals and healthy people, so living in good conditions will be good for farm animals and it will be good for us, for people. It is also about a level playing field in the internal market. Member States, such as …

14

Mar

2024

CS Speech

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Inclusion of the right to abortion in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I voted against the inclusion of this debate and I am against the so-called right to abortion because I am in favour of the right to life. Abortion is death. It is the killing or killing of a life that develops in the mother's body. And it doesn't matter, dear colleague, if the life is one day or nine months. There is no biological difference. Neve…

13

Mar

2024

EN Speech

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The repressive environment in Afghanistan, including public executions and violence against women

Mr President, dear colleagues, Commissioner, after returning to power, the Taliban took over all aspects of everyday life through the immediate implementation of Sharia. It means the withdrawal of the country and human rights back to the barbaric age: flogging, stoning and public executions. On 23 March, Afghanistan’s schools will reopen for the new academic year. This will mark the third year tha…

13

Mar

2024

EN Speech

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The immediate risk of mass starvation in Gaza and the attacks on humanitarian aid deliveries

Mr President, let me reiterate our strongest condemnation of the barbaric attacks by Hamas on Israel. Israel has the right to defend itself against this terrorist organisation. Hamas is still holding a number of hostages, including women, elderly and the wounded. It is Hamas which refuses to release them and rejects the six-week ceasefire that is on the table, and instead favours continuing the wa…

13

Mar

2024

EN Speech

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Need to address the urgent concerns surrounding Ukrainian children forcibly deported to Russia (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, this discussion is because we want to stop the spread of this misinformation. So, this is the reason for this discussion: to stop to spread disinformation, propaganda – Putin’s propaganda – as previous colleagues said. Paní předsedající, dámy a pánové, já neumím odpovědět na to, proč je zde Putin. Proč je zde zase někdo, kdo unáší děti stejně jako kdysi Hitler? Va…

12

Mar

2024

CS Speech

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Need to impose sanctions on the import of Russian and Belarusian food and agricultural products to the EU and to ensure stability of EU agricultural production (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, I will admit that what you have said here has not been comprehensible to me, because the situation is very serious in view of the situation where farmers are protesting against imports of Ukrainian grain and grain from third countries. We know that the European Union is self-sufficient in grain production. We do not need to import grain from Russia…

28

Feb

2024

CS Speech

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Geographical Indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products (A9-0173/2023 - Paolo De Castro)

Madam President, I would like to explain my support for the vote on geographical indications for wines, spirits and agricultural products. I welcome the agreement on this regulation, which introduces uniform provisions for all commodities, and I believe that the regulation will contribute to better protection of quality agricultural products, namely to preventing the illegal use of geographical in…

27

Feb

2024

CS Answer

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War in the Gaza Strip and the need to reach a ceasefire, including recent developments in the region (debate)

You did not ask me a question, but you invited me to visit Gaza. You've named a lot of problems, but I've named it. These problems are because they have built Gaza into a fortress, a terrorist fortress for Hamas, and unfortunately it is very sad. But then the women, the children who live in this fortress, are being shelled by those who want to end this terrorist violence. I've been to Israel, I kn…

27

Feb

2024

CS Speech

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War in the Gaza Strip and the need to reach a ceasefire, including recent developments in the region (debate)

Mr President, it has been almost five months since Hamas attacked Israel. Five months of violence and thousands of lives lost. We all know that Israel has the right to self-defense against terrorist attacks by Hamas. The call for peace is certainly appropriate, but I ask, how does Hamas respond to it? When will Hamas release the hostages? Unconditionally, because it was he who took these hostages,…

27

Feb

2024

CS Question

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War in the Gaza Strip and the need to reach a ceasefire, including recent developments in the region (debate)

Thank you for answering the blue card question. Zdá se mi, že ve svém vystoupení často zaměňujete příčiny a důsledky. Vy říkáte, že my, Evropská unie, jsme neudělali nic pro to, abychom pomohli obětem tohoto násilí. And I want to ask you, what did Hamas do? Co udělal Hamás pro to, aby zastavil násilí? Why didn't Hamas release the hostages? That would solve everything.…

8

Feb

2024

CS Speech

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Working conditions of teachers in the EU (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, teachers are key actors in education. They decide whether children get a good relationship to school, to learning, but also to life. Jan Amos Comenius, a teacher of nations, said that ‘school should be the workshop of humanity’. This is true today, as it was more than three hundred years ago, but teachers are now given a much greater claim as socie…

7

Feb

2024

CS Speech

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Rule of Law and media freedom in Greece (B9-0098/2024)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today we voted on the rule of law and media freedom in Greece, and I did not support this resolution. I intended to vote in favour of the resolution tabled by my colleague Elissaveta Vozemberg, but that was no longer the case in the vote. The resolution adopted, which was therefore approved by some colleagues, especially from left-wing parties, is just another p…

7

Feb

2024

CS Speech

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Norway's recent decision to advance seabed mining in the Arctic (B9-0095/2024)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we adopted today a resolution on Norway's recent decision to move forward with seabed mining in the Arctic. I, along with many of my colleagues, supported this resolution. In the resolution, we call on the Commission and the Member States to promote an international moratorium on deep seabed mining until its impacts on the marine environment, biodiversity and hu…

7

Feb

2024

CS Speech

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Plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their food and feed (A9-0014/2024 - Jessica Polfjärd)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today was a very important day for the European Union, because we have taken the first step towards enabling European scientists, farmers, to use new genomic techniques to obtain new crop varieties. We have the position of the European Parliament, voted for by 307 Members, and we have a large majority of those who support this proposal. This means that we will b…

7

Feb

2024

CS Speech

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Recent attacks on Christmas Eve in Plateau State in Nigeria

Mr President, fellow Members, while most of the world celebrated Christmas, 200 Christians were massacred in Nigeria. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. In 2023, around 5,000 Christians were killed worldwide because of their faith, 90% of them in Nigeria. Over the past 15 years, more than 52,000 Christians have lost their lives in Nigeria, thousands of churches and hundreds of schools ha…

7

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Increased number of executions in Iran, in particular the case of Mohammad Ghobadlou

Mr President, colleagues, on 16 September 2023, protests throughout multiple cities in Iran erupted to commemorate one year after Mahsa Amini’s death. One of the protesters was also Mohammad Ghobadlou. This was enough for the Iranian regime to execute him over the death of a local official during mass demonstrations. The death sentence was preceded by unfair trials marked by torture and abuse of h…

7

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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New wave of mass arrests in Belarus of opposition activists and their family members

Mr President, dear colleagues, the last debate we had on the worsening situation of political prisoners in Belarus was in December. Again, persecutions escalate. Now Lukashenka’s regime is systematically targeting family members of political prisoners, mostly wives and mothers. We again urge Lukashenka to release all political prisoners, their families and the detained persons. Moreover, Lukashenk…

7

Feb

2024

CS Speech

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The fight against hate speech and disinformation: responsibility of social platforms within the Digital Services Act (topical debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, according to the World Economic Forum report on global risks for 2024, the biggest global risk to be expected is the spread of disinformation. And it's the social platforms where people live, where they get information. Most major digital platforms do not implement the measures they have voluntarily committed to in the Code of Practice on Disinf…

6

Feb

2024

CS Speech

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Water crisis and droughts in the EU as a consequence of the global climate crisis and the need for a sustainable, resilient water strategy for Europe (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, water is life and it is a strategic raw material, so we must address its availability. Although water on Earth is not diminishing, its quality and availability are changing. The European Commission notes that it expects the availability of water resources to deteriorate even further. It is right for the European Commission to carry out monitoring, …

6

Feb

2024

CS Question

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Plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their food and feed (debate)

Thank you for letting me ask you this question. You have publicly stated here that this is a deception of consumers who will not know by what breeding practices specific crops have been achieved. But that's not true. You know very well that the seeds will be registered. It will be possible to find out how the crop was bred, and this registration will be absolutely obvious. I would like to ask you …

6

Feb

2024

CS Speech

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Plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their food and feed (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we are faced with an important decision on a regulation regulating the use of new breeding practices in agriculture. We need to stop the train that's missing us. Europe is the cradle of genetic research. Thanks to this, we have cancer drugs today, we have insulin, we have vaccines, we can fight off insidious diseases. Thanks to conventional breeding, our farmers…

6

Feb

2024

CS Speech

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The need for unwavering EU support for Ukraine, after two years of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Ukraine has shown us enormous resilience in the fight for the freedom of its country. Thousands of young men have fallen, but they will not be forgotten. Likewise, hundreds of athletes who defended their homeland and died or were injured and were unable to participate in the Olympic Games will not be forgotten. We know their faces. Perhaps at least their photogr…