Speeches

Mr President, Commissioner, I usually criticise you and believe that this is correct, but in this case I cannot but support your words at the beginning of your presentation. Yes, the Russian aggression has finally led even our sluggish colleagues to reflect on the need for a more organised, more unified common foreign policy of the Member States of the European Union. This, of course, cannot happen with federalization. This, of course, cannot happen with the introduction of majority voting, as this will jeopardise the interests of smaller countries in key sectors and in territories where they are under pressure. Just as most of the Western countries did not listen to us when we warned about the activation of Russian aggression on the eastern flank of the European Union and NATO, similar processes are currently taking place, for example, in the Balkans, where the same threat conducts its hybrid operations on the territories of candidate and candidate countries and directs and pits them against European Union Member States. There should be a single European response to this, not a split action.

Madam President, Members, the proposed legislative package is and can only be qualified as the deliberate and ritualistic economic suicide of Europe. The green transition in this form is a kind of mirage. The transport sector will be particularly affected. Personal mobility will be further constrained, while the transport industry will collapse due to rising fuel prices and impossible environmental standards. Private cars, cheap and affordable air tickets remain in history and can be afforded only or very wealthy people or those who are paid by the European Commission. This is the utopian, wonderful new world that the European Commission and part of this extreme group is offering us here in the European Parliament. You and I live in different worlds. Obviously, you don't care how your ordinary fellow citizens live, who just want a car to be able to move somewhere. And you obviously did not understand that the land is round, and if what is happening is giving business to China and giving jobs to China, and the land is round, and if China is polluting, it is polluting the whole land. And you're losing jobs here. I can't explain it logically. No logic, no explanation. There are two words that come to mind. One is lobbying, the other is the deliberate economic deindustrialisation of Europe. Choose which one.

Thank you, it was my mistake. Г-н Председател, гласувах в подкрепа за резолюцията относно разработване на стратегия на Европейския съюз в областта на велосипедния транспорт. Безспорно колоезденето не трябва да се разглежда само като спорт и развлекателна дейност, но и като истинско транспортно средство с индивидуална политика и специално финансиране. Велосипедът е средство за транспорт, което представлява множество предимства по отношение на здравето, намаляването на задръстванията по пътищата и следователно на замърсяването, има икономически предимства, когато говорим за покупателна способност на европейските граждани. Нужна е велосипедна стратегия, включваща повече велосипедна инфрастуктура, подобряване на градското планиране, изграждане на нови пътища, насърчаване на мултимодалността, признаване и стимулиране на европейската велосипедна индустрия, осигуряване на достъп за уязвимите групи и информационни кампании за повишаване на пътната безопасност – тъй като в една част от нашите държави на велосипедистите все още не се гледа като на участници в движението, което застрашава техния живот и здраве – а това трябва да бъде по някакъв начин предизвикано.

Mr President, I voted against the resolution on minimum income because, like any document on the good ... of the European Parliament, it is about the otherwise good idea and cause of combating poverty [....] (The President interrupted the speaker due to the inconsistency of his speech with the topic under discussion)

Mr President, it has been one year since the illegal Russian military aggression against Ukraine. A year of terror, violence and murder of innocent civilians, occupation of territories that the Russian Federation itself recognised in 1990 as part of Ukraine, has passed. What we, the countries that remember the Soviet occupation, should do is to assist Ukraine in every way and insist that it be restored within its political and historical borders, recognised and guaranteed by the Budapest Conference, even by the Russian Federation itself. Russia's aggression must be condemned once again, but it will not happen with words, it will not happen with declarations. Ukraine must be supported and assisted in all possible ways, including with all the material and technical complex that can be provided to repel the aggressor and restore the territorial integrity of the state of Ukraine. Only then can there be peace, and then there will be peace in Europe, which is something we should strive for.

Mr President, fellow Members, Commissioner, at last a meaningful and useful initiative. Unfortunately, there are not many people in the room at the moment – our colleagues. But yes, Commissioner, the initiative is useful and commendable and needs to be supported. We live in a time when more and more different types of disasters, earthquakes, fires, floods are happening on our continent and the citizens' initiative and volunteering need to be supported. And this must and can be done through the introduction of some form of common standards for the training of volunteers, for the disclosure of volunteers, for the same type of equipment of volunteers, this would be useful and this would lead to the saving of lives and property and to the minimization of the damage from natural disasters. I personally have participated several times as a citizen as a volunteer in extinguishing the effects of forest fires in various large Bulgarian mountains, I would be happy to discuss this with you, but what needs to be done is to continue to offer a uniform standard in training and qualification, in collecting equipment for volunteers and voluntary formations. And this thing could help, I say again, and benefit all European citizens and the economy and save lives. So keep going in that direction. Congratulations!

Mr President, the Istanbul Convention does not solve the problems of violence against women. Violence against women is a crime and must be prosecuted under national laws. However, the Istanbul Convention, which you are pushing very hard here, actually has other goals. It conceals propaganda and politics that are contrary to women's interests. For example, it supports an ideology that would allow biological men to compete in women's sports, would allow biological men to enter women's changing rooms. This is violence against women and against women. The Istanbul Convention is a propaganda tool for LGBT and gender politics. For this reason, Bulgaria has not accepted it. For this reason, we with our Constitution believe that this document contradicts our family values, contradicts the grounds of our society, contradicts the way we have arranged the way we live. And yes, violence against women is a serious problem and a crime that needs to be punished, but it continues and is strong even in countries that have ratified it, which shows how meaningless this document is.

Mr President, this dossier is, to put it mildly, outrageous. Totally at that. As shadow rapporteur for the opinion of the Committee on Transport and Tourism, I would like to point out that there is hardly a better metaphor than this legislative report for the war against ordinary people that green lobbyists in this House organise and lead. Hardly any of you can say what is the carbon footprint, what is the environmental damage that it costs to produce an electric car? How many hours of child labor, how many hours of slave labor go into making the batteries for electric cars? Of course, none of you will say these things because they do not go, they do not fit into your idea of green lobbying. The adoption of this law will lead to the end of personal mobility. This is a report directed against the ordinary citizen, against the person who wants to own a car, to be able to afford it, to travel, to ride his family. And my question to the Socialists is: How come you're socialists, and you're so oppressive and you're waging a war against the common people, against the poor people?

on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. - Mr President, I voted strongly in favour of this resolution because I believe that the Ukrainian people need support and that all of us here should make this support clear. It is an absolute shame, an absolute disgrace to say that the attacker must surrender and not defend himself. It is clear who is the aggressor of all who think and are not paid by Kremlin propaganda. The aggressor in this case is Russia and the Russian state leadership. If anyone wants peace, then he must convince the aggressor to stop this attack and to withdraw and look for some conversations from now on, but to say that you should not help the attacked, the weaker, the one who is attacked at home, the one who is bombed, the one who is under the bombs 24/7, because it should end the war in this way, is shameful, disgraceful and is a manifestation of Kremlin propaganda. This propaganda, unfortunately, continues to make its way even in this room and to justify the unjustified, namely the killing of innocent people. So I supported the resolution and it is clear to me who is being attacked and who needs to be protected.

Mr President, I voted firmly against this report because of its aspirational and populist nature. I understand the Left's desire to present itself as a defender of the rights of the people to wage labor, but firstly, this report will not achieve this thing, and secondly, it fulfills the wishes of the best times in which the people of Central and Eastern Europe lived for many years under communist propaganda and Bolshevik occupation. This report will not solve any issue of the collective rights of the people to wage labour, it will be used, like the previous one, for some form of propaganda and so that the parties on the left in this European Parliament can present themselves as defenders of rights, raising slogans from socialism, not knowing socialism and not knowing the effect of this system on the lives of millions of people in Central and Eastern Europe.

on behalf of the ALDE Group. - Mr President, I abstained on this report because it does not answer the really important questions relating to political advertising and the influence of social networks, namely the question of the organisation of the moderation of social networks that use political advertising. It is good to talk about transparency, it is good to talk about the organization of this process, but as long as there are no clear rules for moderation, as long as social networks continue to be the field, and the biggest field for propaganda, and it is hostile propaganda, especially in the eastern part of Europe, especially in the Balkans, where the largest troll factories are located for creating and disseminating fake news and creating whole suggestions, whole moods through these social networks, until whatever reports are voted here, they will not answer the really important question. The really important issue is a moderation that makes it possible to prevent, expose and isolate fake news in social networks and political life.

Mr President, on 19 January this year, a young man, Kristian Pendikov, was attacked by a group of gunmen in Ohrid and beaten for his Bulgarian national consciousness. A classic hate crime, recorded and established by the prosecutor in Ohrid, who describes and says that the young man was attacked because of his self-determination as a Bulgarian. This hate crime was preceded by several attacks on Bulgarian cultural clubs in Macedonia, including Bitola, including Ohrid, by the adoption of a xenophobic and essentially Nazi legislation prohibiting the formation of non-governmental organizations of people with Bulgarian national consciousness and forgetting their names. All these crimes are hate crimes and are directed against an ethnic group in the Republic of North Macedonia that defines itself as Bulgarian. All these crimes are promoted in another way, openly or secretly, or more visibly or more invisiblely by various persons in power in the Republic of North Macedonia, including the Presidency and the Council of Ministers. This thing must be strongly condemned by this House and by the European Commission, and the Republic of North Macedonia must be forced to respect absolutely all norms of protection of human rights and the right to self-determination.

Madam President, I voted firmly against this report because, as usual, it has nothing to do with reason and common sense and is aimed at utopias, greenisms, climatisms and other topics that doom Europeans to more energy poverty, more spending and a non-competitive economy. What we have just talked about, namely critical infrastructure and so on, is related to the damage done by the policy made by the European Union and the European Parliament, which is aimed solely at sponsoring things that have nothing to do with common sense. But that is the motive. Now in conclusion, allow me, I see that time does not move, but I attribute it to the computer. Now allow me to thank you for your patience, personally, Madam President, to apologise for the slight violation of the rules (I believe that a snowball will not so much shake your healthy psyche) and to wish you personal, family happiness, cheerful Christian, Christmas, Christmas and New Year holidays, and personal and family happiness!

Madam President, starvation is a crime against humanity. In fact, there are several gladomors, against the Ukrainian state and people, there are at least two, and they are accompanied by more crimes of the Stalinist regime, such as forced deportations, the relocation of many peoples, of many nations. The Taurian, Zaporizhzhian, Crimean Bulgarians were repatriated, as were many other peoples within the Soviet-occupied territories. For many years this truth hushed up, hushed up and covered up this monstrous crime of the Soviet genocidal, anti-human, anti-human regime against humanity. It was their, I would say, perverse criminal idea of crushing nations, imposing a multicultural Soviet society, a Soviet man, and doing so at the cost of crimes against humanity. So I am glad that at last this room, which is quite sluggish on these issues, has finally moved on and acknowledged this real crime against humanity. Henceforth, an apology and, of course, compensation must be sought.

Madam President, I voted for this resolution because exposing this corruption ring, this coalition, Cathar corruption in the socialist, democrat and other left-wing circles is a real scandal in the European Parliament. For years, we've been hearing accusations about how some very right-wing, far-right people were taking money somewhere outside the EU to work against it. What did it turn out to be? It turned out that among the most vocal anti-corruption fighters, ‘the thief shouted, hold the thief’. It turned out that the real corruption is in this party, in this group, which supposedly has to protect the rights of workers and workers. This is a huge hypocrisy, a huge scandal and a huge damage to the European Parliament and to those who claimed to be very uncorrupted, very clean, very white, many untouched by harmful influences. But we don't have to stop there. This group and the like should be checked for how and why it voted suspiciously regarding, for example, the Mobility Package or the influence of other, third parties, such as, say, the Republic of North Macedonia. This is also very important and should be checked, because I think that very dangerous things will come out there too.

It is snow. Well, it’s because of global warming. And my question here was: where is your global warming, ladies and gentlemen? Outside is like Siberia and snow is falling down. And that’s why we need to know who is behind the sabotage of this critical infrastructure. So your question is absolutely right and full on time, because we are not stupid people. We need to ask two questions. The first question is: who benefits from this sabotage? And the second question is: who is capable of this sabotage? When we have these answers, we’ll understand why all this is happening. And now, about global warming: please let us know with data, and why are we forcing and forced to accept all this propaganda, all this idea that we are capable and we have to build our energy only by all these sources like wind, like sun, etc.? No, we need to explore our own resources. We need to export our own natural gas. We need to explore our own nuclear energy and to have our sovereign European energy. Because we need not to be dependent on outside suppliers. Thank you. Where is my ball?

Member of the Commission. - Madam President, my fellow Member, Güner, this is a very timely question. We can answer this question in this way. What you see is a snowball. I gathered this snowball outside, in front of Parliament. I didn't bring it to throw the Chairman, this snowball is here to show that... (President interrupts speaker)

Mr President, thank you for giving me the floor so quickly. The Russian aggression against Ukraine has entered a new phase. Something familiar from the history of Russian and Soviet occupation and autocratic regimes. Attacks on civilian infrastructure aimed at forcing the Ukrainian government to end its resistance. But the purpose of this attack and the destruction of infrastructure will be the destruction and suffering of millions of people and the forcing of an additional migration wave. This is of course unacceptable, unacceptable and must be answered with an increasingly serious and clear response from the EU. Sanctions and non-purchase of useful and any other fossils from Russia must also be extended so as not to finance this latest Russian aggression against the Ukrainian people and civilians.

Mr President, the revelations and suspicions of corruption in the ranks of the Socialists and Democrats are a huge disgrace and stain on the European Parliament. It turned out, as always, that the saying of the wise Bulgarian people, "The thief cries, hold the thief", is true. Of course, this corruption must be investigated to the end. These trade unions, non-governmental organisations that probably influenced the European Parliament, need to be investigated in order for the Mobility lobby package, which was stealing business from eastern countries, to be adopted. You all know well that the Kremlin and Belgrade influence the Balkans through their own NGOs and from there follow in Skopje, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania and Kosovo anti-European, anti-Bulgarian propaganda. It should be investigated whether these NGOs have invited European representatives, i.e. MEPs, as some colleagues like to call themselves, who are these MEPs, have their participations been paid as institutes, such as IFIMES, for example? These are important issues, because if Qatar can give money here, both the Kremlin and Belgrade are destroying European unity through Belgrade, in Skopje, and therefore it should be very nice to see if there are colleagues who have been tempted to reach into the medic there as well. And they should be shown, followed and investigated, because corruption is a bad thing, do not forget on the left side of the hall, on the left.

– OK, he’s from Belgium. If you want to discuss geography, we can of course. But still, Mr Verhofstadt is very patient to defend Brussels, not the national states. That’s why we are political opponents. But geography is geography, yes.

Thank you, but there was no question here. This is some kind of violation of rules here in this room. But still, there is no question. Can I answer something or just think something? I don’t know. But yes, Mr Verhofstadt, the national states need their rights to defend the interests of their citizens against the bureaucratic system in Brussels.

Mr President, I am glad that you have started to follow the rules, that is good. When we talk about the veto of nation states, to see (by the way, Mr Verhofstadt, and here he is) citizens of the Netherlands talking against a veto is hypocrisy. Why hypocrisy? For 11 years, without any reason, the Netherlands and Austria have stopped Bulgaria and Romania from joining the Schengen area because of their economic interests, and now they have sat down to talk to me about the right of veto. We know what you want, my friends. To talk about the rule of law is like representatives of socialists and democrats speaking out against corruption, bad things and untrue, because, dear ones, for you, the rule of law is a dictate to your majority, which you now have here in this House. And yes, Mr President, the Conference on the Future of Europe is nothing different from a gathering of like-minded friends. And yes, they are indeed 0.000001% of the population of the European Union. The rule of law means compliance with national laws, it means protecting the interests of nation states so that no one, unelected by anyone, can dictate to others how to govern their states and how to govern their families and societies.

So you said ‘bad guys’ use the veto. Well recently two countries – Austria and Netherlands – stopped, vetoed Bulgaria and Romania, for 11 years now, for their own reasons: because of the economy, because of transportation, because of their economical reasons. So please tell me, are these countries bad guys, Netherlands and Austria? Please, I want to hear you.

Mr President, I voted in favour of this report because the growing wolf populations in the European Union and the problem that these populations allegedly pose in terms of biodiversity and traditional livestock farming in Europe, as well as the need for a joint assessment of the conservation status and transboundary measures for the conservation and management of the population of large carnivores in a scientifically sound manner, comply with the ecological requirements for wolf species that inhabit large areas and carry out large migrations. Hunting should therefore be permitted, within the framework of good practice, to the rules and the way in which these hunting groups operate, so that they can carry out the useful activity of protecting the farm and protecting human lives and the farm of people. Bulgaria gives a positive example of how, in a country with the least investment in Europe in terms of wolf hunting, the range and numbers of this predator are increasing, despite the measures. On the other hand, the bear as a strictly protected species in Bulgaria over the last 10 years has decreased by more than 30% according to official data.

Mr President, I voted against this report categorically because measures under the Conditionality Regulation must be implemented by the Commission, which violates the principles of the rule of law and directly affects or seriously risks affecting the sound financial management of the Union. In no way does this policy, pursued by the European Union and the European Parliament with regard to Hungary, of suspending 65% of commitment appropriations under cohesion policy correspond to the reality and to any logic of the European Union, to the idea of the rule of law. The topic of the rule of law is used to impose policies in a number of Member States, including Hungary. This is absolutely unacceptable and unacceptable, contrary to the nature of the Treaties and contrary to the idea of a European Union. For this reason, such an approach of blackmail, of arm-wringing cannot be supported in any way, because it is precisely in these approaches that the growing role of skepticism of many citizens of Member States of the European Union lies.