Speeches

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the floor under Rule 195. I would like to draw your attention to Rule 144 of the Rules of Procedure, which, from my point of view, has been violated. According to this rule, I would like to say that after hours of negotiations between all our factions, there was an agreement and that we found a compromise text on Tanzania and Uganda, and this text unequivocally says and describes the situation according to the facts. I would like to say that, at the end, only two factions are signed under this resolution, which in my view is a great surprise. I would like to say that I myself will vote in favour of this resolution and I would like to call on all of you to do the same.

Madam President, Commissioner, the European Parliament is absolutely united in this resolution and expresses its support for the people of Uganda and Tanzania, who have been under great pressure. At the same time, he also honours the trial and trusts the government in the French judiciary. Negotiations have been tough, but I would like to thank my socialist colleague Larrouturou for the prepared resolution and very good and objective cooperation. Across the pages without exception, including the Greens/EFA party, we can say that we will find our footprint there. We agreed on the human rights violations that may occur in connection with fossil fuel investment projects, which we consider unacceptable. At the same time, however, development projects are undoubtedly important for the economic growth of the region, and we do not question this growth. It is therefore important that we evaluate all projects and their consequences in terms of both impacts on people and the environment, and I therefore believe that this resolution will contribute to this goal.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to ask you the first question. Are we crazy? Should this be about Boyko Borissov or about the rule of law? Are we a Parliament or are we a "babble shop" that shows people that it is too expensive to pay for? We have the right to respect anyone's rights, and I don't care if they're from ALDE, if they're from the Greens/EFA, or if they're from the STAN movement, or if they're from the European Commission. Everyone should be guaranteed a democratic investigation in accordance with the rule of law. I can't decide, once I'm prime minister, to detain someone from the opposition because I don't like them. I can't say that based on the fact that I found information on the Internet, I'm going to go to the prosecutor and decide that the person will spend 48 hours in prison. And that's what we need to discuss. It doesn't matter if it's Peter or Paul, but we're not in Russia. It is not, therefore, that the police or the public prosecutor’s office are subject to any presumptions. It has to work with evidence and facts. Please, let's go back to the ground, and please, let's really have this discussion without personal invective, rationally, and let's say the facts. I led the mission of the Committee on Budgetary Control to Bulgaria and all of you who were there can say that it was neutral. Everyone has had the opportunity to express themselves as much as possible. As head of the delegation, I was the only one who could speak at the press conference, but you all spoke from all groups. And whoever says today that I or someone decides the elections in Bulgaria is lying. I was absolutely neutral, colleagues, and they guarantee you that I will always be neutral.

Madam President, respect for human rights is the alpha and omega of all the functioning of the European Union and of all democratic societies. I believe in respect for human rights and this should be a pillar of our relations with our partners. The case of the hitherto unexplained killing of journalist Dom Phillips and secluded community expert Bruno Pereira is clear evidence that there are still places where human life is of little value. Both Phillips and Pereira have been longtime critics of Brazil's policies of deforestation and the treatment of secluded indigenous communities. In Brazil, this profession is becoming increasingly dangerous, and it is clear that respect for human rights, and in particular the rights of activists and defenders of indigenous communities and the environment, is not improving. On the contrary. That is why we supported this resolution. This is a wake-up call for us and the world. The Amazon rainforest is not only a source of clean air and water, but also home to thousands of animal species and hundreds of hitherto little-contacted human communities. The deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, the lungs of our planet, whose pace reached an all-time high last year, is imminently threatening the entire future of our humanity. It must be remembered that we need courageous people who stand on the side of the weaker and clearly oppose deforestation and the suppression of the rights of indigenous peoples. The killing of two such courageous people is therefore unacceptable, and we ask that the entire event be investigated as quickly as possible to ensure the safety of investigative journalists, activists and all those who stand up for the rights and freedoms of those who cannot defend themselves. The Brazilian government must improve the situation of human rights and environmental defenders so that the killing of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira is the last such event. Ladies and gentlemen, it is not very often that I want to thank colleagues from all political parties who have participated in this constructive debate and in this resolution. Thank you very much.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, as Vice-President of the Committee on Budgetary Control, I would like to begin by thanking everyone for the efforts they have made in the fight against financial fraud, including the rapporteur, because financial fraud directly affects all citizens. The stolen funds could be invested in education, health or improving the living standards of European Union citizens. Every fraud detected is a success, but the fight for the European Union's financial interests needs to be stepped up. Financial fraud is more attractive to organised crime groups as it is particularly difficult to investigate in the agricultural sector. It's like an octopus that has tentacles everywhere, puts them in every possible taxpayer's pocket and sucks them out. I therefore take the report from the Committee on Budgetary Control as the envisaged recommendations and measures and call on the Commission to put strong pressure on the detection of financial fraud. And Madam President, I've been dragging ten minutes, you've been dragging around for half an hour, look at how long you've been running out of time, how much time you've been running out here, and that's ten seconds of clicking on me, that's a little too much, I would say.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I too wish for healthy nature and clean air for my children and overall I believe that the Fit for 55 package will be approved. However, let me take a moment to reflect on the regulation on internal combustion engines. We're saying a specific term for 2035 here, and it's been said several times. Why not 2036? Why not 2042? I think we should set real goals. We should actually discuss this, because if we set this ambitious goal, we will actually stop all development and innovation of alternative fuels. This would be particularly detrimental to the truck industry. I think that innovation also takes time and cannot be determined from the table here in Strasbourg or Brussels.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I always enjoy this debate. It always looks like we're going to move the rule of law debate somewhere, and as the classic says: ‘It will end when the pain is blown from one side to the other.’ In the rule of law, it does not matter who is from the left, from the centre or from the right. Dear colleagues, the rule of law is a value that we all agreed on when we joined the European Union, and because we agreed on it, we must respect it. After all, one who is corrupt, who steals money, can not ask for the fact that he will still receive a raise. In short, if someone does not comply with the Treaties, he must be punished. This report is a good tool, it's great. It describes everything from Belgium to Russia, everything is mentioned there. But you know what I'm missing? And that's just the point. How are we going to deal with this? If something is wrong, we need to say within what timeframe and what specific measures or recommendations we will take. And since you have all spoken for a long time, and there are still a large number of speakers, I will finish exactly at my designated time and wish you a beautiful evening and a pleasant meeting.

Madam President, Commissioner, great speech. I applaud you! It's really great! You talked about the digitalisation of European audit and control. And I'm asking: When will it be? We're still talking about it here. For two years, we've been saying we need to know who the money's going to! And where is the result? How much longer do we have to wait? Another two years? Five years, ten? The oligarchs are laughing at us. Now we have European Union sanctions against Russia, and every oligarch from Russia is laughing, because through Cyprus he is simply receiving money from the European Union! We don't know who we're paying! This report is a slap in the face for the European Commission to wake up and say when it will address the problem of oligarchic structures in the European Union. I don't want to wait another five, ten, fifteen years to solve this problem. We have this problem now, now in the European Union, and we need to address it. This is a clear message to the European Commission.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the world has changed significantly. We live much faster, much faster and often work, sometimes on the edge of our possibilities. Protecting against health and safety risks and ensuring decent working conditions for the Union’s 170 million workers are therefore essential. Politics must also reflect the realities of the new digital age. There are new conditions. For example, the use of home office has now become more widespread in the COVID-19 era, and we should also reflect that workers in services or certain professions where they work on computers in their homes should have the right to disconnect. Stress, anxiety, depression or burnout often become our involuntary colleagues, and we see this here in the staff of the European Parliament or in you, Commissioner, in the European Commission. Whether it is office or manual work, it is absolutely crucial to ensure standard and compliant conditions. I am therefore pleased that the report calls for a revision of the European list of occupational diseases and also takes into account mental health disorders. We must also take into account, for example, innovative ways of treating them. Finally, let me do one thing. Proper enforcement and application is key to success, so I call on the European Commission not to turn a blind eye to violations of staff conditions and to actively seek to change these conditions.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, this regulation on batteries, waste and how they are to be treated is actually a key report in the area of the circular economy. Europe needs to develop dynamically. We still have a lot of catching up to do on environmental issues and safety. And if in 2019 only 51% of portable batteries sold in the European Union were recycled, then something is wrong. Much higher collection and recycling rates for batteries are needed, and much higher support for such recycling is also needed. It is absolutely unthinkable that we currently have only 4 devices in Europe that can recycle lithium batteries. It is a matter of time before they run out of capacity, because they are already on their verge. There is a need for a fundamental shift in the search for new facilities and ways of recycling. For example, there are no processors for different types of batteries in Europe, I am talking about lithium iron phosphate batteries that are thrown away in mixed waste. This approach, although the Commission has been called for several times to change, is not environmentally friendly and specific changes need to be made that are sustainable and that will lead to further recycling of batteries. At the moment, it should also be mentioned that recycling is unfortunately more expensive than imports from some countries, especially China, and this also needs to be changed. That is why I call for a systematic approach by the European Commission and for continuing to fight for more battery recycling.

Madam President, happy International Women’s Day to everyone and especially to Ukrainian women. We are thinking of you and I think that we are praying every day for you. Paní předsedající, vážení kolegové, to, co říkal tady kolega Uhrík, je prostě jeden velikánský nesmysl. Necháme tady nacisty, aby říkali svoje lži o tom, kdo jsou Židé? Necháme tady Rusy vypravovat lži o tom, jak jdou se samopaly, kulomety a jinými zbraněmi budovat mír na Ukrajině a zabíjet nevinné lidi? Necháme Rusy tady šířit dezinformace? Dezinformace jsou jako virus. Všichni jsme to viděli v době COVID-19. Virus se šíří, šíří se nekontrolovaně a zabíjí jednoho člověka po druhém. Já jsem několik měsíců pracoval na covidovém oddělení, četl jsem ty nesmysly o tom, jak COVID-19 je výmysl. Ano, těmito rukama jsem každý den zavíral minimálně čtyřem lidem jejich oči. Dezinformace jsou něco, proti čemu musíme bojovat. Nesmíme v tom ustat a nesmíme říkat, že je to omezení svobody projevu. Ano, svoboda projevu má své hranice, a pokud nebudeme za tyto hranice bojovat, pak se brzo stane, že tady žádnou svobodu mít nebudeme.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, one who sleeps in a democracy wakes up one day in a dictatorship, and civil society belongs to democracy. We may not like it many times, many times we may not have the same goals, the same views, but we should respect this plurality and this much-needed activity of civil society. And it shows right now in this difficult time, when thousands of people from Ukraine, now perhaps two million, have left their homes. And it is civil society that has reacted much faster to the situation and is helping in different states. This debate is about shrinking space for civil society in Europe. It is crucial, it is important, because Ukraine belongs to Europe. Russia also belongs partly to Europe, and if we really do not want it to look like it does in Europe, as it does today in Russia, where civil society is suffocated and trampled into the country, we must give space to civil society and non-profit organisations, we must fund them transparently and we must be able to set clear rules for their functioning. I firmly believe that the European Union can and will continue to support this work in the future.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the principle of golden passports brings not only financial but also security risks, and we are repeating this here all the time. It's unethical. It's problematic. It is absolutely against the principles on which the European Union has grown up. After all, being a citizen is something unique that cannot be equipped in two hours in Malta on the way from the jet to the ministerial palace. It's something that can't be given away while some oligarchs or people are laundering money in Cyprus. It's something we can't give in Portugal and exchange for money that has been earned on the most vulnerable, on people who have suffered for it. It's the money of the arms trade, it's the money of the oligarchs who traffic in prostitutes. It is money that is black, and it has to be said throughout the European Union: Enough of that! We live in the 21st century. There is no authorisation for a European Union country to sell European Gold Passports. It's a disgrace to those who do. They should be ashamed and should immediately abolish this practice.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, if you want to fight, fight outside, but I think that this debate is a debate about the democratic nature of the institutions of the European Union. We have basic values. My family experienced both communism and Nazism, and all these regimes, which resulted in millions of lives in the 20th century, were governed by some right. But rightly perverse, rightly vile, rightly where human and democratic value had no value. And the European Parliament clearly does not want these times to return anywhere in the 27 countries. Therefore, in fact, this debate should be about general principles, since democracy and respect for law is something that is a universal value. This debate is not meant to be left-wing or right-wing. This debate is meant to make us realize why we're here and what we want to fight for. Separating the executive, the legislature and the judiciary is a principle that every child in high school understands. And I think that simply asking the Commission to comply with that is simply a principle inherent in us. Finally, let me express one regret that the President of the Commission is not here. Yes, Johannes, we are happy to see you here and we are happy to discuss you, but for this debate, which is crucial for the European Union, perhaps the most crucial at this time, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, should be. Oh, thank you.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, what is more important in life than human life? The life of our children. That is why this directive, which was created in 2009, at a time when I was still working as an assistant to MEP Zuzana Roithová, which appealed to certain standards and quality toys, was terribly important. She was groundbreaking. She was setting the standards that we wanted the Chinese to follow, and that sellers would quickly download low-quality toys. And I think it's time or time to review it. Because if I said at the beginning that the health of our children is the most important thing, that's why we can't really let anyone sell low-quality crap here and make money from parents who don't have enough money to buy high-quality gifts for their children. I am therefore pleased that this revision has taken place and will be implemented as soon as possible. Oh, thank you.

Madam President, Commissioner, Mr President, I would like to focus on one topic that is being raised here, and that is cooperation. In the Committee on Budgetary Control, we are constantly confronted with one thing: insufficient and tepid cooperation between the institutions of the European Union and the Member States. With its solidarity, the European Union will offer funds, programmes, platforms to support and strengthen our policies. Member States agree to those conditions and then suddenly fail to comply with them. It is totally unacceptable that this report describes in a number of cases, in the context of the European Development Fund and the Global Europe Programme, that some international organisations are calling into question the mandate of the European Court of Auditors itself and are thus trying to make cooperation impossible. It is unacceptable that some non-profit organisations provide documents with restricted access only and in such a way that it is not possible to make copies of the documents, or extend and extend the deadlines for providing such documents. This is sabotage of this cooperation. At the same time, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union gives the European Court of Auditors the right of access to those documents and the information it needs to carry out its checks. I therefore call on the European Commission to properly articulate this condition, namely the Directorate-General responsible for the implementation of the budget in the areas of Global Europe and the European Development Fund. Otherwise, the European Commission should consider what further steps it will take towards itself.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, democracy is sometimes like instant coffee. It looks like coffee, smells like coffee, tastes like coffee to some, but it's by no means coffee. Democracy is a fragile thing and I do not want to use the land of the European Parliament to settle political accounts. When the Nazis came to the Czech Republic, then Czechoslovakia, my family was first in line. When the communists came to power in Czechoslovakia at the time, my family was first in line. Each extreme from the left or the right brings one thing, and they have one thing in common. No lie is sacred to them. We don't want extremists to rule here. We do not want to put Europe back on track, which should have just ended here. We don't want anyone ostracizing another person for their opinion. We want pluralism, but it is impossible to accept when someone comes up with extreme opinions and tries to present these extreme opinions, which are based on lies, publicly. Democracy has its limits, and let's talk about them today.

Mr President, grazie mille, asbestos is one of the leading causes of cancer that is caused by work. Although all use of asbestos has been banned since 2005, this substance is most dangerous by inhalation. And this is still a problem in dismantling, demolition, servicing or maintenance. By setting minimum levels of asbestos in buildings, we protect up to 90,000 workers a year, and that's not a small number. We protect workers who work in the construction, demolition, renovation of buildings, but also firefighters and landlords and owners of buildings. There is no such legislation in any country in the world. In the European Union, we want to systematically protect the health of the people who live here. We want to make sure they have better working conditions. That is why setting limits on asbestos is a logical step and we want to set up this legislation as the European Parliament and as a challenge to the Member States and to the Commission. We think we are living in the 21st century, and if, dear friends, there is something as harmful as asbestos in the 21st century, if a substance takes tens of thousands of fathers and mothers out of families every year, something needs to be done about it.

Madam President, Commissioner, yes, what we want to say in this debate is that when friends are going through a crisis, they need help. It is not in vain that they say: ‘You will meet a friend in need.’ It is very good that the European Union has special trust funds through which we can help those who are in crisis today and those who are most in need. These are not symbolic amounts. In the case of Turkey, we sent around six billion euros to help refugees, and it was the European Union that was one of the largest contributors to the Syrian refugee crisis. But what needs to be said is that we need to have oversight and control over money. And that is what we have always advocated in the Committee on Budgetary Control. It's impossible to put money on someone's plate and not ask what they got for it. We need to talk to our partners and ask our Turkish partners where the money ended up and what the benefits are, what its purpose is and how it will continue to be worked with, and who the recipients of the money are. Yes, many things have gone well, but we need to keep going, and we need to keep this money going to those who really need our help. Finally, let me thank those who used this money and helped to get it to the most vulnerable, namely women, children and elderly people.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Aristotle has already said that man is a social being. So let's get into these people, let's get a little empathy for us people. Let us not talk here about what Europe has done for people, but let us talk about what those people have experienced. This debate should also be about a certain approach and a change in our thinking. She should show us something. It's not just about talking about how good the European Union is. Some things just didn't work, and we have to learn from them. How does society exist when we can't meet? What was it when we couldn't exchange our opinions and were separated in social isolation? What was it like for families, families with children, mothers who had to do their job next to their job, or even fathers, to manage their work, which they did for a hundred percent or more? And we must also say that the pandemic has affected the most vulnerable, i.e. the elderly. It is very important to remember the stories of generosity from all the countries of the European Union. In the Czech Republic, people sewed masks, young people went shopping for old people, there were a lot of digitization projects. When I was helping in the hospital, I used mobile phones to contact seniors with their children. And I can tell you that these stories are very moving, and they still give me a chill. People who hadn't seen their relatives for months could just finally meet them. And I would like to say that we should learn from the negative. In the end, the whole pandemic has somehow managed and it is up to us how we will learn from it in the future.

Mr President, Commissioner, a healthy and prosperous democracy goes hand in hand with the responsible management of European Union money. We all know that democracy in the Member States of the European Union does not have the same level. That is why the budget of the European Union must be under stricter scrutiny, and we must clearly define what happens if the rules that we, as the European Union, require of other Member States are not complied with. So what happens to this money? Who will they go to and under what conditions? I think we are forgetting the most important thing, and that is the condition of the rule of law. Respect for the rule of law is the alpha and omega of the whole system. And then his enforcement. I think that today's debate is an appeal to the Commission to start addressing this issue. What else are we waiting for?

Mr President, Mr Vice-President of the European Commission, Mr Hoyer, yes, we care about making money from the European Investment Bank work efficiently, which is why it is called the Investment Bank. We have to invest in projects that will go into the future and that will be effective. It does not matter if the project is green, blue or purple, but it is important that the project really works as such in the European Union, which will trigger more and more projects. We should not create further barriers between Member States by supporting a sector in one and not in another. And I think we should focus all our efforts on efficiency. Some may not like it, but not everything that seems green at first glance can end up being effective and can lead to the goals we've set ourselves.