Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Nairobi's desire to close the Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps permanently can have disastrous consequences for more than 400 000 men, women and children who are hosted there. This eventuality rightly terrifies us, but we cannot wake up only when the situation risks exploding. The fields have been there for almost thirty years: Thirty years in which hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to live in hellish conditions, and hell, dear colleagues, "is the state of those who have ceased to hope", as the Scottish writer Archibald Cronin said already in the middle of the last century. For too long, the international community has been silent about the plight of refugees and their far from balanced geographical distribution, with 80% of them in developing countries. The time has come to reverse this trend by stepping up our commitment so that millions of people around the world can return to hope for a dignified future away from the refugee camps. Being champions of human rights means working to alleviate the suffering of the world's last. As long as we remain silent in the face of thirty years of Kakuma and Dadaab we will certainly not be able to truly boast of this title.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, four years in a four-square-metre prison, without human contact, with the exception of a few very brief visits. Four years without radio, without television, without even a book to escape, at least with thought, from that isolation cell; Not a bed, not a mattress, but just a blanket thrown to sleep. These are the medieval and unacceptable detention conditions of human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor, described in a report by Human Rights Watch. The UAE often boasts tolerance and modernity, but in the history of Ahmed and the other 60 people, including activists, lawyers, students and teachers, arbitrarily detained as a result of the unfair collective process of the UAE94 case, one can read the gradual transformation of the Emirates into an ultra-repressive police state, in which the persecution of anyone exposed on political and human rights issues is systematic. It is urgent for the European Union to show a strong and decisive reaction against the conspicuous silence that unfortunately these abuses have seen, to sanction the material perpetrators of these violations, but also to initiate a serious and timely dialogue, which hopefully also involves the United States and the United Kingdom, with the United Arab Emirates on the subject of human rights, making it clear that the continuation of our commercial relations is conditioned on the unconditional release of Ahmed and all other activists and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, why not, for us human rights are not an essential part of human rights. business as usual.

The next item is the report by Javier Moreno Sánchez, on behalf of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of highly specialised employment (COM(2016)0378 - C8-0213/2016 - 2016/0176(COD)) (A8-0240/2017).

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, there is a growing tension between what is today's Putin's Russia, a Russia obliged to increasingly authoritarian policies to maintain control, and the real country that instead seems increasingly ready to turn the page. Young Russians today observe their peers in the rest of Europe and fail to grasp the limitations they face, the crackdowns on civil society, the lack of freedom of speech and the media, Internet censorship and, again, the growing and rampant corruption. It is to them that we must speak, because today's present is not the future of Russia and, even if someone would like to think differently, it will never be. Ladies and gentlemen, even the most imposing rock is consumed by the incessant waves of the sea. Time and history are on our side, our values of freedom, democracy and respect for human rights speak for us. We must continue to put in place all the tools available to interface with and support civil society in Russia, with young people, women and men who dream of a different future, showing them that there is an alternative and there must be an alternative. By alienating its own population, by taking away the freedom that every human being yearns for, the Putin regime has already lost, only it has not yet realized it.

Madam President, Mr High Representative, ladies and gentlemen, life in Beirut and throughout Lebanon has been reduced, for a population on its knees physically, mentally and emotionally, to a mere logic of survival. The damage to the city and the economy of the country caused by the explosion at the port of Beirut remains incalculable today; The health, economic and social situation continues to deteriorate, while the political and ruling class of the country remains all too engaged in an endemic struggle for the division of power. No, the Lebanese people, who have always been a great example of solidarity and we have also seen it in the Syrian crisis, really do not deserve it. And if the Union wants to play an important role in the construction of the future, we must make ourselves the voice of the legitimate demands of the population, find a system to control the flow of aid and make sure that the commitments made by this new government are fully implemented and also, if the responsible actors continue to obstruct reforms and the fight against corruption, adopt sanctions in the recently approved framework, starting with those responsible for the explosion of the port. It will be essential to avoid the protagonisms of individual Member States, to follow a common line, to play a constructive role in achieving the stability and unity of the country to support that legitimate desire for social and economic justice that drives thousands of people to take to the streets today to guarantee a future for themselves and their children.

Madam President, dear High Representative, ladies and gentlemen, the Taliban are looking for people house to house, aiming for targeted executions, people in Kabul are terrified, everyone is trying to escape. This is the alarm cry of the Afghan Ambassador to the UN Ghulam Isaczai, in the aftermath of the takeover of the capital by the Taliban militias. Only a month has passed since then, but the spotlight already seems to be beginning to fade on a humanitarian catastrophe with few precedents. Dear High Representative, together with 76 colleagues sitting here today, we have sent you a letter requesting that the Union open humanitarian corridors with Afghanistan, applying Directive 2001/55/EC on temporary protection in the event of a mass influx of displaced persons. If we do not want our ambitions to become a credible international actor, which bases its work on respect for human rights, to remain only an abstract concept, if we do not want the highest price to be paid by those who have collaborated with our Western staff, women, children, every fragile subject, we need coherence, we need courage and we need it now because time flows fast and flows against us. Humanitarian corridors now!

The sitting was closed and will resume tomorrow, Tuesday 14 September 2021, at 9 a.m. with the announcement of the results of today’s voting session. The agenda has been published and is available on the European Parliament's website.

The next item is the brief presentation of the report by Mr Younous Omarjee, on behalf of the Committee on Regional Development, on A new approach to the Atlantic maritime strategy (2020/2276(INI)) (A9-0243/2021).

The next item is the brief presentation of the report by Mr Stéphane Bijoux, on behalf of the Committee on Regional Development, Towards a stronger partnership with the Union’s outermost regions (2020/2120(INI)) (A9-0241/2021).

The next item is the brief presentation of the report by Caroline Nagtegaal, on behalf of the Committee on Transport and Tourism, Towards future-proof inland waterway transport in Europe [2021/2015(INI)] (A9-0231/2021).

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, on 15 June, after six years of unjust imprisonment, Mustafa al-Darwish was killed without his family being informed. I can't imagine anything more cruel. Mustafa died alone and all my solidarity goes to him and his family. The main evidence, if we can call it so, in a farce trial marked by serious deficiencies and a confession extracted under torture, was a photograph on the mobile phone considered offensive to the security forces, related to events that occurred when Mustafa was still a minor and therefore not punishable by death according to Saudi legislation. Colleagues, the death penalty is the very negation of all those values for which we strive every day. Killing a human being is just another crime and will never be an act of justice. I call for an immediate moratorium on executions of the Saudi regime. I ask that we immediately adopt individual sanctions against those responsible for this crime, as well as full transparency on the funding of European political parties or leaders who receive money from countries, authorities or entities attributable to countries that violate human rights. No to a strong Europe with the weak and weak with the strong. We have not forgotten Raif Badawi or Jamal Khashoggi. We don't forget that we can only be truly free if everyone is.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, dear Commissioner, anyone who wants to take away the freedom of a nation must begin to prohibit freedom of speech. This quote would be enough to make us understand the meaning of the actions taken by the Hong Kong authorities, now increasingly identifiable as a proxy of Beijing. The design is very clear: bring back a democratic, free, multicultural and open region to the world like Hong Kong in the channel of the unique thought advocated by the People's Republic of China, lock it up in a prison where there can be no room for dissident voices and where human rights will be dismantled every day. There is very little left of the "one China, two systems" principle. It is painfully clear that the system is now only one and that is that of Beijing. With Apple Daily not only closes one of the media, one of the last that tries to break the spread of unique thinking, to be brought to its knees is also the popular sentiment in favor of democracy, strongly rooted in individual citizens, who will end up resigning themselves and bending in the face of this abuse. If we do not want this to happen, realpolitik in Europe cannot and must not prevail. We must not hesitate to respond decisively to these violations, even with the targeted sanctions of the global regime against those responsible who are perpetrating them. We cannot remain silent because we too are citizens of Hong Kong today.

The next item is the debate on the question for oral answer to the Commission on a new European Research and Innovation Area, by Cristian-Silviu Buşoi, on behalf of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (O-000031/2021 - B9-0026/21) (2021/2524(RSP)).

The debate is closed. The vote on the amendments will take place today, Wednesday 7 July 2021, and the final vote will take place tomorrow, Thursday 8 July 2021.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I am very pleased with the adoption and swift implementation of the new global sanctions regime, a tool that allows us to be even stronger in prosecuting human rights violations wherever they occur. However, it is still possible to further improve this system, for example by recognising the interconnected nature of corruption, conflicts and human rights violations and thus including this as a criterion for imposing sanctions. This lack creates a significant gap between the sanctioning programmes of the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada and that of the European Union, increasing the risk that our financial systems may be exploited by individuals sanctioned by our partners, as has unfortunately already happened in the past. The European Union has a duty to be a global example in defending human rights and dismantling systems that perpetuate cycles of violence and impunity. That is why I consider it important to ask you also today that in the next revision the scope of this instrument be extended to cover also corruption-related crimes. Fighting corruption is not only a matter of good governance, it is a necessary act of self-defence of our values and institutions and also of our economy.

Madam President, dear High Representative, ladies and gentlemen, the aggression in foreign policy, the moral slap in the face of Sofagate, the plight of women and minorities, the continuing repression of the Kurdish people in Turkey and neighbouring countries: These are just some of the issues on which our Parliament has recently condemned the Ankara regime and the list will only get longer. With the banning of the HDP, one of the very few parties still able to offer alternative positions to those of the regime, Erdoğan's design will be fulfilled, a design designed to transform Turkey into a real sultanate with revisionist ambitions that obviously look to the Ottoman Empire. Yet we are discussing today the refinancing of the Facility for Refugees, putting on the table the proposal to increase its resources to a level never touched before. If it is true that we cannot help but maintain bilateral relations with Ankara, it is equally necessary to include certain criteria of strict conditionality so that the pursuit of our interests does not totally conflict with our principles and values, otherwise those principles and values will remain only dust and a Turkish carpet will not be enough to hide it.