Speeches

Madam President, colleagues, social networks are a battleground and disinformation is a weapon in this war. It is good that you finally understood this fact and again, again, like everything here, it is half-hearted and does not say everything that needs to be said. A whole government, that of North Macedonia, is waging a war of disinformation against its citizens, against the people in this country who have Bulgarian roots and Bulgarian origins. Falsifies history, replaces, replaces monuments, tombstones, fights a full-scale war. Here, however, this is neither heard nor seen, and some of you pretend to have heard us, seen us, or smelled onions, as the wise Bulgarian people have said, and then someone complains that there is disinformation. There are, yes, and it is state-sponsored and state-organised by such states, with the help of their aides – Belgrade, the Kremlin you still want. This is the real misinformation that is not seen or heard here. On the other hand, I hear you want regulations. It is wonderful, but by regulation you mean to silence every voice that is in defense of national values, national self-determination, national self-awareness, traditional family. This is what you call the fight against disinformation. As long as it is so, as long as there is this double standard, you will lose this war waged by much stronger forces hostile to us.

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, Erdoğan's funding of so-called money for sheltering illegal migrants is one example of the very blatant political incompetence, irresponsibility, reluctance and, I would say, political impotence of both the European Commission and the European Parliament and the European Union in general. Millions of euros from the pockets of European taxpayers are pouring into Erdogan's pockets so that he can finance his little illegal dirty wars in Syria, in Libya, in Nagorno-Karabakh and wherever you think of it. Both the people here and in the Commission succumb to blackmail and fear, because dictator Erdoğan can do whatever he wants at any moment and he does it. What does paragraph 8 of the opinion of the Budget Committee say? – Is extremely concerned that when trying to monitor humanitarian projects, the Commission is hindered by the refusal of the Turkish authorities to provide any data. Commissioner, you give millions to Erdoğan, he puts them in his pocket and he says, 'Look at your job!' and you say, 'Well, okay.' Great, good, but it's European taxpayers' money, it's not someone's own money, and it's a stark sign of failure, a vivid proof that there should be zero migration and no concessions to dictators like Erdogan.

Member of the Commission. - Mr President, colleagues, there is no doubt that any violence must be persecuted, punished and reprimanded. It's all violence, no matter which gender it's committed by. But if a man listens to you, he will get the impression that men are only violent, only they commit violence and all men commit violence. It's your right to believe it, even though it can't be true. However, I have heard several times that the most important thing was the interest of the child. The interest of the child is best known to his parents, because they are the ones who created him, they gave him birth, they educate him and raise him. It is their responsibility and therefore they should do their best to keep the child in the family with their mother and father. It is very presumptuous for someone who does not have children to say what the interest of parents is, even more than presumptuously I would say. Finally, two words regarding the propaganda that is being exposed here, because in fact this debate is political, not legal. In addition to interfering with the competences of the Member States, which is completely unacceptable, the Istanbul Convention is constantly mentioned. Our country, our Constitutional Court, has accepted that the Istanbul Convention is contrary to our Constitution and cannot be ratified. No matter how much you call, no matter what you call, colleagues, it is not your job to change the Bulgarian Constitution. I'm sorry if you don't like it, but it's a fact – it's ours and we decide how to run our country!

Mr President, colleagues, I also join in thanking my fellow rapporteur Vitanov for his work on this subject - congratulations, fellow Member! I agree with you that the principles set out in his report on the need to protect fundamental rights in the use of artificial intelligence in criminal matters and the use of the police and judicial authorities in criminal matters are useful. As I already stressed in the opinion of the Committee on Legal Affairs, artificial intelligence and related technologies would have multiple benefits in reducing the level of crime, combating trafficking in human beings and sexual exploitation of children, analysing data, etc. But even when we have to praise them, colleagues, we come to paragraph number 9. It highlights that many of the currently used algorithm-based identification technologies make disproportionate errors in identification and classification and thus cause harm to people who are disadvantaged due to racism, persons belonging to certain ethnic communities, LGBTI people and so on and so on. Colleagues, do any of you suppose that artificial intelligence is a racist, misogynist and a person who hates LGBTI people? I have often heard in this room that some people outside spoke out against this Union and tried to destroy it. No, folks, you don't have to! Such paragraphs and such statements do much more than all the enemies of this Union. Think about it!

Mr President, Commissioner, it is very funny that you are engaged in needlework and knitting. Honourable Members, there have undoubtedly been many mistakes in the management of the health crisis, but as regards vaccines, the process of developing, purchasing and distributing these vaccines, I believe that the European Commission has a great responsibility and the way in which it has tried to reach people. Each of our countries has its own specifics, and in each of our countries there is a different way of speaking, a way of persuading people. However, this did not happen. This should show us that the approach of common solutions, so invented somewhere in a cabinet, without taking into account the nation states and their capabilities and peculiarities is wrong. You will say that the statement is speculative, but I will refute you. At the beginning of the campaign, the Commission published its contract with one of the companies that developed the vaccine. Britain did the same. The difference in volume and detail between the two contracts is impressive. Astra Zeneca with the European Union – 18 articles and 34 pages, while the British – 31 articles and 46 pages. The two texts also diverge in their key moments. We all remember the Brexit debate. We all know what the mood was against those who announced their departure, but it became clear anyway that those who were against the bureaucracy in the Union were rather right. Once again, in a crisis, the Union acts cumbersomely, incompetently, and this affects people's health. In the UK, they have vaccinated and turned stadiums into vaccination centres. With us, this was just beginning to happen. And that's a problem. Imagine the delay we are talking about when Macron himself, who is the leader of this federalist group, admitted his mistake. I will give you another example of Hungary, which, as they say, is also very vilified in this room. Hungary refused to follow Europe-wide lines and did its job much faster. Strong nation-states were able to cope more quickly and more organizedly. In a few months it will be one year from the start of the mass vaccination and it will be seen very clearly what is the difference between the two countries. What we need to know is that quick solutions need to be found, not to run away from any other such issue. I heard you, Chairman.

Madam President, it is commendable that you have made the effort and desire to bring to the fore issues related to the waste of European funds and corruption in European countries. It is a little more inexplicable to me, however, that lately you have been constantly discovering this corruption only in countries, or mostly in countries, whose governments you do not like or the policies of these governments we do not like. These are the eternally accused Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia. They're the bad guys, they're the corrupt ones, everyone else isn't, they're as clean as tears, and they've never smelled anything of corruption. Is that so? Of course not. Dear, is there anyone in this room who thinks that there can be corruption with European funds at the local level? That here those who are appointed and elected by you, commissioners of various kinds, inspectors, have no idea what is going on in the Member States and there are just bad people stealing the money without knowing it here? Is that so? It is not because either you have appointed the most incompetent, the most incompetent, the most incapable people in the world, or these people turn a blind eye when it comes to the corruption of governments that are friendly to you, that implement federalist policies, policies to protect the communities that are invented there every day, and so on, and so on, and so on. Suddenly it turns out that corruption exists only in bad countries, there are no good ones. Mrs. In't Veld, you said you were coming to Bulgaria. You're always welcome. We will be happy to see you there, but to learn about corruption in Bulgaria, you do not need to come to Bulgaria. What you need to do is ask in your own group a few things. Ask, for example, what the expression ‘I distribute portions, I distribute portions’ means and find out who said it, Mrs In't Veld. This will help you a lot to understand these processes. As far as the American state is concerned, yes, Americans have reason to let or not let whomever they want into their territory, but I would remind you all, however, that even the European Convention on Human Rights in its Article 6(2), if I am not mistaken, says the following: ‘Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall be innocent until proved guilty by a final judgment’. So be careful with the lists, because today makes them one, tomorrow can make them another, and then things can get bad. Corruption is proven in court by a judgment that has the force of res judicata.

Madam President, the state of the Union today can be defined by one sentence: ‘It would be comical if it were not tragic’. The European Union is facing several crises – migrant, economic and health. Instead of deciding them, the Union engages in an economic lobbying called the ‘Green Deal’, and therefore every time, every day, in every report, there is a call that goes against the traditional family and promotes something new and something different. In this regard, Mr. Timmermans, this mask very much opens you, bravo, congratulations. It shows that you are concerned about the really important issues and as the European Union deals with these things, our competitors are developing and advancing. While here we are calling for deindustrialization, in China factories are working and selling to us and seizing our jobs, this is happening, dear ones. This happens because when there are weak people, they are creating difficult times, and the policy you are leading, honourable Madam President, is weak, and this is visible to everyone, both inside and outside. You cannot choose what the rule of law is, you cannot pretend that you do not see human rights violations. This Union will return and become a geopolitical factor, and will only be strong when it returns to its foundations, its Christian beginnings, the protection of national identity, zero migration and the protection of national self-determination.

Member of the Commission. - Mr President, colleagues, in the next period, more than 14 billion will be distributed under this instrument. True, it's not as big a sum as we found out lightly in Afghanistan, so that everyone can then escape from there shamefully, but close, from the European taxpayers. This money will go to Turkey, to the Western Balkans. This Turkey, which violates human rights, which keeps families, journalists, children in prisons, which invades the territory of foreign countries, this neo-Ottomanist and illiberal Turkey, which supposedly everyone, in a fairy tale, rebukes, but will again pour money there. Staggering hypocrisy and inexplicable duplicity. When we talk about the Western Balkans, nothing different. Macedonia, North Macedonia, a state that brutally, openly violates human rights and during this census currently violates the right to self-determination, violates the right of the people there, of the Bulgarians there, to self-identify as Bulgarians, and otherwise everyone talks about the rule of law. Honourable, it is also the rule of law to define yourself as Bulgarians, I mean. Last but not least, I would like to express my disagreement with the fact that you have replaced illegal immigration with unregulated immigration. A game of words, which again says nothing, cannot be unregulated, it is illegal.

Madam President, honourable Members, we are discussing the situation in Afghanistan, which is without any doubt a failure, a grave political failure and a disgraceful escape. A war that was fought without knowledge, without any idea of what was going on in Afghanistan, without any idea of what the situation was like there, and a war that ended in a disgraceful escape. I heard someone here just now say from my colleagues that they couldn't abandon the people and the women of Afghanistan. Well, dear ones, you abandoned them. You lied to them, fought some war there, then fled with the planes and they fell off them when they were trying to save themselves. And this was a disgraceful escape that you should probably be ashamed of, but I doubt anyone would think about it. Now I hear that illegal immigrants have to come to Europe. Well, whoever wants to take them, it's okay, take them, I don't have any problems with that. Whoever wants, instead of negotiating with Saudi Arabia, which trades billions of weapons for oil, to accept them, there is nothing wrong. However, I know what my fellow citizens and compatriots want and I know their concerns. That is why we will fight and push for zero immigration in Bulgaria and for the protection of our state border. Whoever has ordered this music, let him be so good as to pay the bill.

Madam President, one of the priorities of the Slovenian Presidency will undoubtedly be the enlargement of the European Union to the Western Balkans. We, of course, wholeheartedly support such integration. Personally, I even believe that both the Republic of Albania and Montenegro can be full members of the European Union, as they say – immediately. What worries me, however, is the situation in the Republic of North Macedonia. You know perfectly well, and if you do not know, I will remind you that human rights continue to be violated in this country: local Macedonian citizens who identify themselves as Bulgarians are persecuted by the police, harassed, fined for their beliefs. The language of hatred against Bulgarians and everything Bulgarian in North Macedonia continues, the violation of rights continues. When we talk about pressure and when I see here that colleagues are trying to put pressure on Bulgaria, is it not hypocritical to keep silent about the violation of human rights, the abuse of the position of the government of North Macedonia, the attempt to denigrate Bulgaria in any way, including through paid publications in your media? Yes, of course there must be enlargement, but the Republic of North Macedonia must condemn its communist past, it must end the violence against Bulgarian citizens and the violation of the human rights of Bulgarians in Macedonia.