Speeches

Colleagues, the Ohrid Summit will have been another blow to the water in the endless negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo. Meanwhile, the situation of Kosovo Serbs continues to deteriorate, and the question of their political representation is acutely raised, while Pristina still refuses to implement one of the fundamental conditions of the 2013 Brussels Agreement, namely the creation of a community of Serb municipalities. In turn, the boycott of local elections illustrates the depth of the chasm between the two communities. The European Union is no more skilful when it insists, loud and clear, on Serbian alignment with its foreign policy – that is to say, in this case, with Russia – or when it attempts, more or less explicitly, to impose on Serbia the recognition of its former province as a condition for possible accession. Is it about putting the Balkan powder magazine back on fire? In any case, the European strategy in the region is devoid of common sense and results and vividly illustrates Brussels’ diplomatic imperative.

Mr President, ladies, I will begin my last speech in this Chamber by quoting the great French writer Georges Bernanos, who is also partly from my region, Lorraine, who said: “True humility is first and foremost decency.” It is precisely this decency that the European Union lacks when it strikes us with empty words to mask the reality of the poverty that is spreading in France and elsewhere in Europe. The pompous title of today's debate speaks volumes about the impotence to which you condemn the peoples. You want to build a sustainable Europe by deconstructing millennial nations, imposing massive immigration, which threatens our culture, and suffocating our farmers, who are forced to abandon their fields. The European Union is pursuing a policy whose effects are increasingly irreversible. You claim to stand up for competitiveness, as you chain our economy to the ball of punitive ecology. Taxes and innumerable constraints accelerate industrial decommissioning at an insane speed. The word competitiveness is a cache-misère when we know that you deliver our markets to unfair competition and open our borders to the four winds of globalization. You keep talking about an inclusive Europe, when people are excluded from the Commission's big decisions. In fact, Europe was built without you. It has erected monuments that survive the passage of time, gone through a history marked by victories, achieved scientific prowess that have improved our daily lives and invented ideas that have shaped the world. One of them is called freedom, and we will never stop claiming it for our nations. This is the only guarantee of true diversity on our continent, never forget it.

Mr President, Commissioner, thank you for your statements. After ten years in office, nothing has changed. I arrived in 2014 in feverish institutions, which austerity policies had made unpopular. I have seen you debate this eternal question: Why don't they love us anymore? You have reinvented yourself in social Europe, with your European Pillar of Social Rights, your Porto Social Summit and your European funds supposed to finance everything. You believed that in order for citizens to love your Union again, you had to do more. You did not understand. Instead of listening to Europeans, you have imposed your vision on them. You have encroached on their daily lives and ruined their lives with your wobbly and disconnected policies, it must be said. Your La Hulpe targets and your social Europe for 2030 are doomed to fail, because from your ivory tower you are not listening. Do you want to help the Member States? Let us defend the interests of our peoples. This is what they expect, so we have to do it.

Madam President, first of all, let us pay tribute to the victims of the atrocities of 7 October and let us think about the 130 people who, according to reports from April, are still being held hostage by Hamas. That figure, moreover, is an estimate. They must be released without delay. On the dire humanitarian situation, in March, the World Health Organisation warned of an imminent famine in the northern Gaza Strip. Humanitarian aid must be delivered under the best possible conditions in the circumstances. As of 9 April, Financial Times noted that Israel had announced that 322 trucks had entered the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the highest daily number since the start of the war. It also recalled that the road remains the safest, most efficient and most cost-effective way to deliver aid. These developments must continue to ensure that convoys can be conducted with an optimal level of safety for staff and that sufficient assistance, in both quantity and quality, can be effectively distributed. Similarly, I have often spoken in this Chamber about the protection of journalists. They may not carry out their task in the public interest at the risk of their life or physical integrity.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, as we approach the annual ritual of the discharge procedure with no less than 55 files to vote on, there is an urgent need to tackle the major problem, that of the EU bureaucracy growing steadily and becoming increasingly expensive every day. The operating costs of this device are skyrocketing, increasing the burden on our citizens without bringing clear benefits. We are faced with a labyrinth and with a Commission and multiple agencies duplicating the national level. As for the Commission, I note in particular its lack of transparency and accountability in the purchase of COVID vaccines, as well as its inability to deal with migratory flooding. We do not accept a Commission that does not value or respect the sovereignty of states. We do not accept that it is not accountable to citizens and that it targets only its own interests. It is high time that we reassess this excessive spending and centralisation of power that deviates from the original vision of cooperation and mutual respect among sovereign nations.

Mr President, the reintroduction of public executions in Afghanistan will no doubt have surprised only a few ingenuities, who called for a moderate Taliban government. The dramatic deterioration of the status of women had already shown that the country’s masters had not renounced their fundamentals. Indeed, nothing has been spared the interested parties, from their exclusion from higher education or – at the height of pettiness – from Kabul’s public parks to the ban on working in NGOs – which places international donors at the foot of the wall, I will come back to this. This is not to mention the silent tragedies, the massive domestic violence, or the wave of suicides affecting Afghan women, on which the authorities are obviously unfamiliar. While we cannot prevent these abuses, we must at least ensure that the ‘For women, by women’ principle is strictly applied in humanitarian aid. Let us not accept any compromise with regard to their fundamental rights, nor with regard to transparency, with regard to certain allegations of possible misappropriation. Now that's enough!

Mr President, Commissioner, given that France is a net contributor to the EU budget, we are denying the Commission the right to lay down regulations to deprive us of our money. However, that is exactly what is at stake at the moment. Non-compliance with fiscal rules, economic choices contrary to European will or even violation of the sacrosanct rule of law: the EU believes that it is allowed to do so by blocking and releasing our money according to the customer’s head. The latest tool for submitting nations is called social conditionality. In short, if a state's policy does not meet the standards set by Europe, it will be able to cut aid in order to put pressure on national governments. Social security policies that are not inclusive enough or a national priority policy on social housing can attract the wrath of Brussels. For us, this is a unconditional step forward. We will not accept any compromise when it comes to defending the freedom of our nations.

Mr Vice-President, Commissioner, the EU is about to throw months of work in the trash. This is the sad fate that should be left to the famous Platform Workers Directive. What surprises me is that no one learns from their mistakes. After opening our borders, pushing to deregulate our markets and letting multinationals bypass our national laws, the EU is agitating as it can to put a few bandages on the wounds it has itself opened. The chaos generated by platforms must teach us one thing: Those who cause the problems cannot solve them at any time. In this case, it is those who claim to defend Europe who sabotage everything, like Emmanuel Macron who protects Uber. Faced with this, we have taken our responsibilities and we have supported this text which makes it possible to defend our labour code. We must act to protect delivery workers and drivers whose platforms use and abuse at will. We must also be intractable in the face of platforms that turn a blind eye to the work of illegals: Let's not let this happen.

Mr President, Commissioner, as my colleague Jean-Lin Lacapelle pointed out in the text that is the subject of this debate, a real parliamentary right of scrutiny over the association agreements, particularly for the Horizon Europe programme, is essential. As regards, in general, the involvement of third-country entities, I have been warning for a long time, through a series of parliamentary initiatives, about the risks to intellectual property. In this respect, the restrictions imposed on China for its participation in Horizon Europe seem to be struck by common sense. This should be maintained in the joint roadmap for cooperation on security and reciprocity. The European Union must divest itself of its naivety in a context of heightened global competition. Finally, the presence of the Western Balkans under Horizon Europe is not new. However, the process of accession of the countries of the region to a series of European programmes or funding could be interpreted as part of a gradual integration into the European Union, while the majority of my compatriots reject any enlargement of the European Union to the Balkans.

Mr President, Commissioner, the EU has been trying to interfere in our national rules on traineeships for almost ten years, fortunately without success. As usual, this obsession with harmonisation is a slap in the face for the Member States. Our labour markets are diverse and all unique. They are the result of our national policies, our concern for our young people, how we integrate people into their work. Once things are transparent between the two parties, both the trainee and the employer enter into an informed relationship. Who can claim to judge? My country, France, has been supervising internships for a very long time and this framework is very clear. A trainee is there to learn and be made aware of a quality world of work in order to ensure a taste for the trades and not to replace an employee or a regular worker. You want to help us? Stop trying to impose your ways on us, let us apply all our laws and track down abusive companies when necessary. There, we will be completely in agreement.

Madam President, Commissioner, France, a country of churches, basilicas and cathedrals, has the largest surface area of stained glass windows in the world, from the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris to those that shine beautiful colours, as can be seen in the Basilica of Saint-Epvre in Nancy, in my region of Lorraine. We want this know-how because their beauty makes the reputation of our country. Unfortunately, like this beautiful industry, many sectors use lead, which poses serious health problems for workers exposed to it. These problems exist in Europe, but our country has already been acting for a long time to protect the health of workers. On the other hand, we refuse to let the European Union dictate new constraints without taking reality into account. First of all, we believe that guarantees for companies are not sufficient. As is the case with farmers, standards are set, and those who impose them are never the ones who suffer them. For ‘zero lead’, it is the same. SMEs are sounding the alarm in the face of the surge of regulations that fall on them every year. Then, what guarantees for our know-how? None. While exemptions were initially foreseen, this is not the case in the final version of this text. I have met many actors and I can testify to the goodwill and efforts that are being made to find solutions. However, we must remain serious. In addition, craftsmen need time to adapt. To refuse to accept it is to sink them. To act politically is to weigh things up and understand that, by offering no help, the European Union is blaming people for i-nap-pli-ca-bles standards. Protecting our own is a priority. It's about health, but it's also about our jobs. Is this not a common sense conclusion?

Mr President, as usual, the EU opens files, organises debates but does nothing useful, especially for the French. The promotion of quality jobs is a striking example of this. 95 million people, or one in five Europeans, are currently at risk of extreme poverty. The desperation of the population is such that shoplifting is constantly on the rise, to the point that anti-theft devices are now found on pieces of meat in stores. This debate shows your total disconnection from reality. 10% of European workers are working poor. Yet they have a stable job, are often paid more than the SMIC and have received training. In spite of this, they can neither stay, nor feed properly, or even stay at all. A quality label according to European criteria will not change anything. The resilience of our jobs and societies can only be envisaged at national level, with our own legislation, and certainly not in this Chamber.

Mr President, it is gratifying that this text makes a strong point of putting some order in the mask of the obscure operations of NGOs funded by the European Commission, and that it rightly denounces any support given to organisations linked to religious fundamentalism. These NGOs, which are supposed to be the torchbearers of European values, operate with billions of our budget. But where is transparency? Where is the responsibility? It's time to lift the veil. These NGOs, which thrive on the Commission's lax oversight, are not just financial black holes, but potential threats to our way of life. They claim to represent civil society, but what are they really for? The Commission has failed to effectively monitor these groups, which has allowed funds to be channelled to causes that do not correspond to the interests of the citizens of the Member States. And the situation of our Member States, their competences are overshadowed by the shady activities of these NGOs. We must defend the sovereignty of our nations, including their ability to impose stricter rules in the name, for example, of the fight against corruption. I tabled an alternative resolution with the ID Group. We demand immediate action by the European Commission for more scrutiny, strict guidelines and a clear and unambiguous policy on the funding of NGOs, as well as an immediate halt to the funding of those NGOs that contribute to illegal immigration or promote values contrary to those of freedom and democracy. There is still a lot of work to be done.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, being a Member of the European Parliament means attending every meeting with scenes of such surrealism that it would almost make you smile if the subjects were not so dramatic. For 30 minutes we have been discussing an EU strategy to help young people face the housing and cost of living crises. What if the EU stopped doing it a little? Every time you pretend to help, you make things worse: housing is expensive, but you have imposed unmanageable punitive environmental standards that now deter landlords from renting or force people to stay in homes they can no longer renovate due to lack of resources. Energy is expensive, but you are the one who set up this energy market, made decisions about our sources of supply and killed our nuclear industry. Life is expensive, but you bring products from the other side of the world, impose your globalist vision on the Member States and take care of citizens only when you need to care for your image. It is you, Members and Commissioners, who, in the name of a supposed Europe that protects, validate ever more deadly texts. You want to help young people? Give them reasons to believe in the future. It is no longer acceptable for one in five young people to live below the poverty line. When 80% of young people have to live with their parents for lack of means, how do you want them to have faith in the future? It is time for the EU to switch software. Stop wanting to meddle in everything. Accept that Member States freely take the measures that young people need to regain a taste for work and success and a desire to project themselves into a serene future. Young people are our future, let them shine.

Mr President, Commissioner, throughout my life, I have put the idea of work well done and professional conscience at the heart of everything. A case can only work if everyone feels good and is involved in securing employment. We cannot deny the new challenges related to digital and teleworking, which became widespread and amplified during the health crisis. This observation led my country, France, to take the bull by the horns in 2016. At that time, the word "COVID" was still confined to laboratories, and yet the "right to disconnect" already appeared in our labor code. It should also be noted that more than half of the Member States already have laws or initiatives on this subject, and most of the others are seriously discussing them. In short, we do not need the Commission to act. As usual, Brussels takes this opportunity to interfere in the life of the states. This is all the more true as the consequences of non-compliance with the right to disconnect (such as overwork, sick leave, or deteriorating mental health) will be borne by national health systems, and thus financed by the States themselves. Let us deal with these issues that concern us in the first place, since it is the States that pay. Make no mistake, the European Union is not the answer to everything. It is high time she understood this.

Madam President, Commissioner, the current situation in the European Union should encourage you to show humility, because the successive crises, inflation, uncertainty and insecurity suffered by our fellow citizens are also, and above all, the result of the European Union’s political choices. Today, we are saddened that children’s rights are no longer respected and that they are affected by poverty. But who has imposed drastic austerity measures on Member States for years? Who blamed the Member States for their spending on health or social services for years? Who, today, still wants to dictate its priorities to the Member States, if not the European Union? Your statements and texts are a series of punctures on the verge of indecency. We did not wait for the EU to wake up and suddenly dream of being a great protector of the social good to be aware of the dramatic situation our fellow citizens, and in particular our children, are going through. What does the European Union propose, if not endless lists of wishful thinking? Of course our children deserve the best. Of course, everyone must have the right to security, education, a healthy environment in which to grow and flourish. But what does the European Union propose, if not contradictory messages, between calls to finance everything and anything, and finally giving priority to all the other subjects? By depriving Member States of their freedom to act serenely according to their needs, by preventing them from returning value to work or strengthening their service through national policies they deem necessary, you are condemning our children to grow up in a world that no longer protects them. The least thing now would be to stop giving lessons and finally take action.

Madam President, Commissioner, no, the people are not doing well. Governments locked up the people of Europe during the health crisis and abandoned them as purchasing power melted like snow in the sun. They have thrown them into precariousness by fiercely competing with workers around the world. Results of the races: our national jewels, our family businesses, which were part of the landscape, shut the door, and the hearts of the villages around them suddenly stopped beating. On top of that, French people live in the anguish of an imminent terrorist attack – in a school, in a train station or on the terrace of a café. The sad thing is that many people no longer believe it is possible to find their country, the one we loved so much, the one in which everyone believed, the one of happy French people, which can only be seen in archive images from the INA. Among young people, suicide attempts are on the rise, taking by surprise an often helpless entourage in the face of these dramatic acts – which tell a lot about young people’s inability to imagine their future. The context of widespread gloom has a very strong impact on the mental health of our compatriots. Our priority must be to act to make sense again. Work well done, pride in know-how, useful employment and, above all, the happiness of starting a family safely are basic elements that many have thought superfluous. However, that is the main point. That is what we must stand for.

Madam President, Commissioner, first of all, I would like to thank the political groups for accepting the proposal from our group, Identity and Democracy, to hold this debate today. I wanted to mention Abbé Pierre, who was a Member of Parliament from my region, France, and who was one of the first to tackle this problem. But the leitmotif of October 17 is that of Father Joseph: “Where men are condemned to live in misery, human rights are violated. Uniting to enforce them is a sacred duty.” There is no room for complacency in the face of the pressure of precariousness, which was once believed. Inflation now affects even household food, which is forced to reduce this vital expenditure. Even among workers, misery is progressing at an insane rate. How could it be otherwise, when Brussels is working hard to unravel our social models and impose unfair competition on us from poorer countries? This week, a summit will again address the enlargement project to the Balkans, a region where low wages and the €300 SMIC push skilled workers onto the roads of exile. Beyond this observation, let us therefore be lucid about the responsibility of European policies in the dramatic impoverishment of our societies.

Madam President, Commissioner, hundreds of thousands of French people sleep outside. Nearly 600 people lose their lives every year. For those who still have a roof over their head, the situation is deteriorating more and more as the housing crisis is in full swing. In addition to the costs of energy, inflation, the explosion of charges and the spike in property taxes, it is now the binding energy renovation standards imposed by the European Commission, which has also failed to manage the energy transition, which, consequently, accelerates the disaster. Out of the market of thousands of apartments because of too low an EPB, the EU is creating conditions for a cataclysm. For homeowners, this expensive work is not feasible. Aid is not enough and it is unacceptable to ask French people who give up heating, treating themselves, and sometimes even eating, to change their doors and windows. I am thinking of the elderly who have sacrificed a lifetime to buy a good that they will have to sell for lack of means to renovate it. To save decent housing. Above all, it is urgent to stop the totally indecent requests made to Europeans who will soon find themselves on the streets if nothing is done to say stop. (The Chair withdrew the floor from the speaker)

Mr President, Commissioner, at a time when the invasion of Lampedusa has taken place before our eyes, the European Union is asking the French to welcome all the misery of the world into their homes. Yet the Brussels commissioners, the technocrats disconnected from reality, are pretending to see the misery that our peoples have been suffering head on for some time now. Our social systems are out of breath. Money is missing for everything. We offer hotel nights to migrants while the French no longer have the means to turn on the heating at home, we treat foreigners, we take care of them, while a majority of our people give up going to the doctor for lack of means, we want to regularise illegals to offer them a job when we should train the French and allow them to live in their own country. For us, it is very simple: Let's defend ours before others. The people of Europe are the majority in favour of this common-sense policy. So let's finally do it.

Madam President, Commissioner, firefighters are increasingly subject to aggression and incivility in their interventions. There is no question of this. In France, we saw a very worrying upsurge in this phenomenon last year. In 2022 alone, 1,505 attacks against firefighters were recorded, including 173 with weapons. It is very simple, far from the smoky explanations of each other, it is actually a refusal of the authority of the State manifested in this explosion of violence against men and women in uniform. Another size problem: More generally, there are also fewer professional firefighters in the European Union, despite a greater risk of fire. There are currently 360,000 across the EU, 5,000 fewer than in 2022. This is all the more worrying as fire starts multiply across the continent and our forests, which are more vulnerable due to severe droughts, burn at the slightest spark – sometimes a criminal spark. Our firefighters are therefore increasingly at risk during their interventions. In short, whether in the face of wildfires or in our cities or villages, governments are endangering those who sacrifice their lives to save the lives of others. It should be noted that this resolution on firefighters is still somewhat part of the initiative of the Identity and Democracy Group in the European Parliament. I am therefore very proud to speak for those who die in the flames or under the attacks of the scum. Let's not let this happen again.

Mr President, Commissioner, the number of business failures is skyrocketing. Since the beginning of the year, more than 50 000 legal proceedings have been opened, figures that are dangerously close to those of 2009, in the midst of the financial crisis. Above all, millions of workers are gradually falling into poverty because of fuel prices and inflation caused by the European Union’s delusional energy policy. Working poor, soon poorer and without work. There are, for example, bakers, forced to put their apron back on the place where electricity bills accumulate, leading them to economic death, or farmers, whom the EU persecutes to the point of pushing them to death at all. There is also all the know-how of our French glassmakers and crystal manufacturers, which is condemned by banning them from using lead. At home in Lorraine, our craftsmen are sounding the alarm. But the Commission hears nothing, hidden behind the soulless windows of the Brussels offices. All these situations lift our hearts. The European Union talks to us about SMEs without understanding that it is suffocating them. Economic decommissioning is underway and the EU is playing pyromaniac firefighters by funding high-cost policies to mitigate the catastrophic consequences of its own choices. It is time to put an end to this circus. Rather than promising us plans with our money, the Identity and Democracy Group is calling for an immediate end to your suicidal policy, because the people of Europe do not want to die and they will prove it to you.

On development aid, France announced on Sunday that it was suspending all aid to Burkina Faso until further notice. What about Europe, please?

Mr High Representative, the chaos in Niger is all the more regrettable because Mohamed Bazoum, who had been Minister of the Interior before being elected to the presidency, had shown a willingness to stem the flow of migrants to Europe. I would remind you that this country is an important link in the migratory routes. In a context of a sharp increase in crossings from the Mediterranean to Italy – 87,000 over seven months in 2023, more than twice as high as last year – Frontex is reported to have suspended all activity in Niger. My question is simple: how do you plan to cope with a possible wave of arrivals? Secondly, it is not a question of doing so. It must also be made known. In response to one of my written questions, you mentioned a "task force" against the flood of fake news that feeds, especially on social networks, an unbridled anti-French hatred in Africa. We see that the situation is only getting worse. What is your analysis of this phenomenon, and what response are you preparing? Thank you for your answers.

Mr President, Commissioner, our SMEs and craftsmen are in danger. While the European Union pretends to be concerned about the plight of entrepreneurs suffering from the explosion of costs, inflation and energy prices, the constraints it imposes on the economic sector are delusional. In my region, in addition to all the problems faced by those who get up early to run the economy, our Lorraine know-how and heritage are directly threatened by the new EU lead regulations. Result: Dozens of workshops producing sublime stained-glass windows are in danger of disappearing altogether. This is the dramatic consequence of a dogmatic policy decided by people who do nothing with their hands. That does not stop there. The Brussels firefighter signs free trade agreements with the whole world, the one with New Zealand is the latest. In Brussels, we prefer containers from elsewhere than the fruit of the work of our entrepreneurs. The time for stocktaking is approaching. With us, it is the people responsible for this policy and not our SMEs who will put the key under the door.