What Dominique spoke about.

11

Jul

2023

FR Speech

Watch

2022 Report on Albania (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, this report on Albania is clearly inconsistent. The country is therefore knocking on the door of the European Union against ringing and stumbling species, with EUR 758 million allocated to it between 2014 and 2020 under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance alone. Yet between 2010 and 2019, more than 193,000 Albanians applied for asylum in the EU on grounds tha…

14

Jun

2023

FR Speech

Watch

Implementation and delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (debate)

Madam President, the Sustainable Development Goals are likely to be as relative a success as those of the millennium, and that is deplorable. At least, the first version was limited to primary challenges, such as the fight against infant mortality or maternal health. The SDGs cover 17 broad areas and no fewer than 169 targets, including migration. To this end, the inventory at the Prévert of our t…

13

Jun

2023

FR Speech

Watch

Quality traineeships in the EU (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, for several years, the leaders of VSEs and SMEs have been alerting us to the difficulties they have in finding the necessary qualifications. These severe labour shortages threaten many French companies, in particular, undermining their development and competitiveness. As usual, the European Commission, in addition to imposing increasingly abusive administrative burde…

31

May

2023

FR Speech

Watch

10 year anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh (statement by the President)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, ten years after the Rana Plaza tragedy in 2013, which killed more than 1 100 people, mainly from the clothing sector, nothing has changed in Bangladesh, or too little. While improvements have substantially increased security within companies, according to the International Labour Organisation, the typical garment worker is a 23-year-old woman from a rural area w…

10

May

2023

FR Speech

Watch

Roadmap on a Social Europe: two years after Porto (debate)

Mr President, in 2021, eleven countries signed a letter, a few days before the Porto Social Summit. Their objective: It is imperative that nations retain control over their social policies. It was simple, it was clear, it was common sense itself. However, the Commission has done the opposite since then, imposing on us directives on the European SMIC, on guaranteed minimum incomes and now on traine…

17

Apr

2023

FR Speech

Watch

Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System - Monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions from maritime transport - Carbon border adjustment mechanism - Social Climate Fund - Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System for aviation (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, the end of the combustion engine. Liquidation of our nuclear industry. Abusive taxation and punitive ecology. The European Union is sinking the French economy. Worse still, the European Commission is aware of the disaster for which it is responsible. This is the raison d’être of the smoky Social Climate Fund, which is a file I have now been on for almost a year. This ne…

16

Mar

2023

FR Speech

Watch

Advancing the 2022 Bridgetown Agenda (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, the Bridgetown Agenda is based on an undeniable observation: 60% of low-income countries were at risk of over-indebtedness in 2022, up from 30% in 2015. And small island developing States are at the forefront of this crisis. A situation to which some loans made with China are not foreign. The latter would also be drawn to the ears to participate equitably in a possible …

15

Mar

2023

FR Speech

Watch

More Europe, more jobs: we are building the competitive economy of tomorrow for the benefit of all (topical debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, our companies can no longer do so. Relocations, opening up markets to unfair competition, destructive free trade and steering our economy by technocrats who know nothing about the business world. In short, France has been suffering for decades from the European Union’s bad choices. The Commission continues to call on France to sell everything. But for what result? The c…

14

Feb

2023

FR Speech

Watch

Question Time (Commission) - Strengthened EU enlargement policy to the Western Balkans

Mr President, Commissioner, the recent visit of the EU Special Envoy for the Serb-Kosovar Dialogue recalled Pristina’s relentless refusal to implement a provision of the 2013 Brussels Agreement, namely the establishment of the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities. This obstinacy, which has persisted for almost a decade, is symptomatic of the ostracism suffered by Kosovo Serbs. What solution…

19

Jan

2023

FR Speech

Watch

The Global Gateway Initiative (debate)

Mr President, with an expected investment of EUR 300 billion, the new European Global Gateway programme is competing strongly with China, Africa’s largest trading partner since 2009. But such an ambition implies a departure from a certain naivety. Naivety, first of all, because it is not enough to do, it is necessary to make known: 59% of Africans had a positive view of China’s influence in 2019-2…

19

Jan

2023

FR Speech

Watch

Revision of the European Works Councils Directive (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the European infernal machine is running at full speed. By ignoring the social urgency and despite common sense, the European Union is asking us to revise the European Works Councils Directive. That's the good deal! All this to add to this technocratic bric-à-brac gender quotas, some unnecessary clarifications and penalties for the most recalcitrant. In short, w…

18

Jan

2023

FR Speech

Watch

Revelations of Uber lobbying practices in the EU (debate)

Mr President, ‘Uber Files is a ton of foam with a gram of soap’. This was what the French government spokesman dared to say when he published the documents showing the extent of hyper-aggressive lobbying by platforms several months ago. A ton of moss... This scandal, which affects all European countries, is being swept aside as delivery workers die, labour law anarchy reigns and our courts fall un…

18

Jan

2023

FR Speech

Watch

An EU strategy to boost industrial competitiveness, trade and quality jobs (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we were wrong about everything. This is, in essence, Charles Michel’s admission of Europe’s record, an admission which he ended up having to admit in his op-ed published in the newspaper on 15 January. After three decades of deindustrialisation, the President of the European Council can no longer deny the total economic failure and the stalemate in which the …

17

Jan

2023

FR Speech

Watch

EU response to the protests and executions in Iran (debate)

Madam President, more than 4 000 kilometres away, terror and fear want to bury the hope born of a surge of freedom. Despite the extreme harshness of the regime, many women circulate without the prison that is the veil all over the country. Taking all risks, the protesters decided to show that Iran is not only the result of the 1979 Islamic revolution, but also a civilization that once celebrated a…

13

Dec

2022

FR Speech

Watch

A need for a dedicated budget to turn the Child Guarantee into reality - an urgency in times of energy and food crisis (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, the New Year's Eve is an opportunity to make good resolutions. It is an evening where targets are set for the coming year. However, contrary to tradition, the European Union has no problem making us the same number throughout the year, from 1 January to 31 December. The problem is that everyone knows that the right resolutions are made not to be held. That is exactly wh…

23

Nov

2022

FR Speech

Watch

The future European Financial Architecture for Development (debate)

Mr President, I cannot associate myself with a text that makes yet another call for increased international aid that is still disproportionately provided by Europe and the United States. Similarly, any discussion of debt should, first and foremost, involve China, which holds about 21% of the debt of the African continent, often through loans backed by draconian terms. Development policies cannot b…

22

Nov

2022

FR Speech

Watch

New EU strategy for enlargement (debate)

Madam President, neither will the French be consulted on a possible enlargement to the Balkans, nor on the previous waves of accession – 59% of them are rightly opposed to this. Let’s talk about economy first, since the Albanian minimum wage of EUR 250 is the lowest in Europe, leading to unacceptable dumping, for example for the textile sector, which is starting a timid renaissance in the lands of…

17

Oct

2022

FR Speech

Watch

Guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, the European Union never lacks imagination when it comes to wasting time and money on useless texts. And what better example than these guidelines? Almost every year, the Brussels institutions waste their time drawing up these non-binding guidelines, just there to orientate on subjects that do not, in general, even fall within their competences. Do you therefore think t…

17

Oct

2022

FR Speech

Watch

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, with the health crisis, the EU has taken care to prevent the French from leaving their homes. With the energy crisis, you are now making us live hell inside our home. The fight against energy poverty is actually summed up by wearing sweaters and rolled collars in our homes. I'm ashamed of you. On this World Day for the Eradication of Poverty, we…

4

Oct

2022

FR Speech

Watch

Situation of Roma people living in settlements in the EU (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the integration – sorry, the – of the Roma is one of the sea snakes of the European programmes. However, the assumptions on which they are based do not stand up to scrutiny. It must be said that dealing with this issue implies a good deal of lucidity, particularly with regard to the real desire to assimilate so many Roma into the majority population. In this …

15

Sep

2022

FR Speech

Watch

State of the SME Union (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, I can only be delighted to hear you finally talk about our SMEs. More than 60% of them had already reported their difficulties following the health crisis. And now that they are trying to get back on track, they have to deal with the crisis caused by the rising cost of living. It is more than urgent to take an interest in their fate. In her speech yesterday on the EU…

5

Jul

2022

FR Speech

Watch

EU action plan for the social economy (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, austerity, social breakdown, cuts in public services: A few years ago, the EU did not go there with a dead hand to snatch the Euro-Titanic that was fleeing everywhere. While the small music of the return to budgetary rigour is being heard, the European Union is drowning out the fish with texts like this one. When you – and I quote – call on the Commission to promote the…

5

Jul

2022

FR Speech

Watch

Common European action on care (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, the pandemic has demonstrated the state of devastation in our health care system, plagued by the lack of resources and the precariousness in which professionals in the sector are plunged. Neither one nor two, the European Commission, visibly very proud of its handling of the latest crisis, feels pushed to the point of volunteering to become director of Hospital Europe i…

8

Jun

2022

FR Speech

Watch

The human rights situation in Xinjiang, including the Xinjiang police files

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the ordeal of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang province throws a stark light on a China where civil liberties, particularly religious liberties, remain limited to the congruent portion. Indeed, in addition to the fact that only official religions have the right to be cited, their worship is restricted to a so-called "normal" practice, without that concept being define…

19

May

2022

FR Speech

Watch

Establishing the European Education Area by 2025 – micro credentials, individual learning accounts and learning for a sustainable environment (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, do you hear this little music coming up? Like the proposals of the Conference on the Future of Europe, which clearly call for a European education policy, there is growing pressure on states to renounce their sovereignty. This resolution on the European Education Area goes totally in this direction by crossing several red lines. First, the recognition of micro-c…