What Maria spoke about.

23 Apr

2024

FR Speech

EU’s response to the repeated killing of humanitarian aid workers, journalists and civilians by the Israel Defence Forces in the Gaza Strip (debate)

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Madam President, Mr High Representative, this will undoubtedly be my last speech and I could not have avoided talking about the situation in Gaza today – with great sadness, and I know that you share this sadness. We are now witnessing genocide. It is not us who say it: this genocide has been qualified by the International Court of Justice and by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human…

10 Apr

2024

FR Speech

Screening of third country nationals at the external borders - European Criminal Records Information System - Third Country Nationals - Common procedure for international protection in the Union - Establishing a return border procedure, and amending Regulation (EU) 2021/1148 - Asylum and migration management - Addressing situations of crisis and force majeure - Establishment of 'Eurodac' for the comparison of fingerprints for the effective application of Regulation (EU) No 604/2013, for identifying an illegally staying third-country national or stateless person and on requests for the comparison with Eurodac data by Member States' law enforcement authorities and Europol for law enforcement purposes (recast) - Union Resettlement Framework - Standards for the qualification of third-country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection - Standards for the reception of applicants for international protection (recast) (joint debate - Migration and Asylum package)

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Madam President, I will not vote for this Pact for Asylum and Migration. Simply because there are certain risks of erosion of the fundamental rights of asylum seekers, but also because it will not respond to the challenges and pressures faced by countries of entry, because there is no real organised European solidarity. This pact will provide less access to protection for asylum seekers. There wil…

12 Mar

2024

FR Speech

The adoption of the Special Measure in favour of Tunisia for 2023 (debate)

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Madam President, like my colleague, I am frankly disappointed that I do not see Mr Várhelyi – not that I do not want to see Ms Johansson with us, but I am particularly disappointed that I do not have the Commissioner responsible for the matter, in relation to the neighbourhood policy in particular. I am also disappointed, somewhere, to have made this negotiation of the Neighbourhood, Development a…

12 Mar

2024

FR Speech

State of play of the corporate sustainability due diligence directive (debate)

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Madam President, Minister, Commissioner, the duty of care is simply to apply the values of human rights and environmental rights to our businesses, not only when they are in Europe, but also when they are outside the EU. Indeed, it undermines competitiveness. Maybe, but what competitiveness are we talking about? Do we want to introduce a virtuous circle in relation to our companies that defend the…

29 Feb

2024

FR Speech

EU/Chile Advanced Framework Agreement - EU/Chile Advanced Framework Agreement (Resolution) - Interim Agreement on Trade between the European Union and the Republic of Chile (joint debate - EU-Chile agreements)

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Mr President, may this EU-Chile trade agreement be better than the previous one, no doubt. That this agreement is progressive, I have doubts, as it was negotiated and signed with the ultra-liberal government of Piñera. That this agreement responds to a new agricultural model, there too I have no doubt, it is not at all the case, it is a productivist model agreement. That this agreement guarantees …

29 Feb

2024

FR Question

EU/Chile Advanced Framework Agreement - EU/Chile Advanced Framework Agreement (Resolution) - Interim Agreement on Trade between the European Union and the Republic of Chile (joint debate - EU-Chile agreements)

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I am particularly shocked by your words, when you say that it was the diasporas who built Chile. In Chile, there were indigenous populations, there were local populations. And to say that everything was built by the diasporas who colonised Chile, I find it particularly shocking today in our assembly, for the respect of the Chilean populations, which are the indigenous populations.…

28 Feb

2024

FR Speech

The extradition and prosecution of Julian Assange and implications on freedom of the press (debate)

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Madam President, first of all, I would like to greet Julian Assange’s father, who is with us today, John Shipton. Thank you for being with us. If the United States succeeds and obtains Mr Assange’s extradition, the courts will effectively rule in favour of the White House being able to arrest all journalists, not just Julian Assange, and whistleblowers who would reveal the crimes of the US state a…

27 Feb

2024

FR Speech

The current situation in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (debate)

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Madam President, to explain the crisis that unfortunately persists in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and particularly in the east, we have to talk about two important elements. The first, as has been said, is the fact that this region is full of so-called ‘strategic’ metals, which are necessary for the manufacture of all our connected devices. A second element that has not been much mention…

27 Feb

2024

FR Speech

War in the Gaza Strip and the need to reach a ceasefire, including recent developments in the region (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, as the International Court of Justice decides on interim measures imposed on Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza, Israel does not care. Israel continues. He continued indiscriminate military operations. It continues to prevent the arrival of humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza. Israel is in breach of international rules in the eyes of all, even when it comes to the r…

26 Feb

2024

FR Speech

Detergents and surfactants (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, the Commission proposal on the revision of the detergents regulation has unfortunately proved to be a missed opportunity in the context of the Green Deal, limited to a simple adaptation of market development, with little ambition in terms of sustainability, the circular economy or better protection of the health of citizens and the environment. We have therefore, in the…

16 Jan

2024

FR Speech

Humanitarian situation in Gaza, the need to reach a ceasefire and the risks of regional escalation (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the tragic situation that has been unfolding before our eyes today in Gaza for more than 100 days is a situation that can be described at best as collective punishment of the population, at worst as a risk of genocide. As I said, of course, we must condemn Hamas for the acts it committed on 7 October, and we did so in this Parliament. But Israel's disproporti…

21 Nov

2023

FR Speech

Sustainable use of plant protection products (debate)

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Madam President, the Eurobarometer shows us that European citizens are ready and asking for a more sustainable and pesticide-free food system. But beyond these cold statistics, I could also tell you about the devastating impact of pesticides on biodiversity, on soil, on bees. But I will rather tell you about those citizens whom all of you here in this Chamber represent and who will quickly hold yo…

12 Jul

2023

FR Speech

Delivering on the Green Deal: risk of compromising the EU path to the green transition and its international commitments (debate)

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Mr President, the Green Deal is undoubtedly the positive signal that the Commission has become aware of the scale of the challenge posed by the climate crisis, but also by the biodiversity and multiple pollution crisis. It was crucial to show citizens that Europe is able to protect them and ensure a sustainable future for them. And I welcome today's vote on the Nature Restoration Act. We have made…

11 Jul

2023

FR Speech

Relations with the Palestinian Authority (debate)

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Madam President, it is difficult to talk about the EU’s relationship with the Palestinian Authority, let alone Israel. This is impossible. The two-state solution that talks about the Israeli state and the Palestinian state seems to be moving further and further away. Probably because we have a weak state on the Palestinian side. But why this weak state? Because there is a deprivation of the Palest…

11 Jul

2023

FR Speech

Question Time (Commission) – EU-Africa Strategy

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Mr President, let us return to the question of the Sahel. The situation in Burkina Faso today is complicated by the fact that it does not have a lot of budget revenue and depends for more than 20% on external aid. And so the situation as we know it today, if - and as you said - we do not intervene, is likely to get even worse. So what can be done to both promote the democratic process and support,…

11 Jul

2023

FR Speech

Question Time (Commission) – EU-Africa Strategy

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Mr President, Commissioner, as you know and bear, we have a great tradition of partnership at European Union level between the European Union and African countries, and I would even say the countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific under the Lomé and Cotonou agreements – and I hope post-Cotonou as soon as possible, because the Council is whining at us about this issue. But I would have se…

13 Jun

2023

FR Speech

Ensuring food security and the long-term resilience of EU agriculture (debate)

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Madam President, this report aims to establish our position here in the European Parliament on food security and the long-term, I mean long-term, resilience of European agriculture. All right, but this report worries me in a number of ways, and I will only talk about pesticides. It is suggested that the use of pesticides would be the solution and not the problem. This is wrong and everyone knows i…

13 Jun

2023

FR Speech

Situation in Lebanon (debate)

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Mr President, as has been said, the endemic corruption in Lebanon only aggravates a chaotic situation that the Lebanese have been experiencing for years. Today, 80% of Lebanese live below the poverty line. There is also a completely bought justice in Lebanon, which dismisses honest judges in favour of corrupt judges, a justice that covers the President of the Lebanese Central Bank, Mr Riad Salamé,…

31 May

2023

FR Speech

Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, so far we know that the business community has opposed any law imposing due diligence. Today is a big step forward if we actually vote for this law, because what are we talking about? We talk about TotalEnergies with the EACOP project which is a climaticidal project. We are talking about TÜV SÜD, which did not properly guarantee the dams in Brazil. We are talking about …

10 May

2023

FR Speech

The role of farmers as enablers of the green transition and a resilient agricultural sector (continuation of debate)

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Mr President, some Members of this House seem to question the commitments that this Parliament has made in the Green Deal and would like to reject texts that are essential to the implementation of this strategy, such as the restoration of nature and the reduction of the use of pesticides. Yet, as you know, there will be no agriculture, no pollination, no income for our farmers without healthy soil…

9 May

2023

FR Speech

Situation in Sudan (debate)

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Madam President, today’s civil war between the two armed camps, that of leader al-Burhane of the Sudanese armed forces, and that of Dagolo, leader of the RSF, former friends, is causing a terrible humanitarian crisis – more than 500 dead, 4 600 injured, internally and externally displaced people, an economy that is completely stalled, a shortage of food and drinking water, most of the hospital inf…

19 Apr

2023

FR Speech

Keeping people healthy, water drinkable and soil liveable: getting rid of forever pollutants and strengthening EU chemical legislation now (topical debate)

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Madam President, it has been said that scientific studies on the effects of PFAS on our health and the environment are accumulating, and all are more worrying than the others. I will mention a few of them: a recent study links PFAS exposure to fertility problems in women, another shows that PFAS in our food containers actually migrates into our food, and many more surveys show that most European c…

16 Mar

2023

FR Speech

European Citizens’ Initiative "Save bees and farmers! Towards a bee-friendly agriculture for a healthy environment" (debate)

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Madam President, the link between the destruction of pollinators and the use of synthetic pesticides is clear and thousands of scientists say so. There is a consensus today among scientists, who have been alerting us for decades to the dangers, the dangers to our ecosystem, the dangers to agriculture, the dangers to food security. So, those who say that not using pesticides would lead us to a food…

14 Mar

2023

FR Speech

Deterioration of democracy in Israel and consequences on the occupied territories (debate)

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Mr President, Mr High Representative, you asked whether it was interference on the part of Parliament to talk about the situation in Israel. We are not talking here about the situation in Israel. We are talking about a partnership agreement between the European Union and Israel and it is our duty as a Parliament to know what is in this partnership agreement and how this partnership agreement is be…

23 Nov

2022

FR Speech

Forced displacement of people as a result of escalating conflict in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Watch

Mr President, Commissioner, in October, the M23, supported by Rwanda, launched an offensive against the regular army of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is plunging the country back into extreme violence. This violence and instability in the region, as you know, is not from today and its source is mainly the question of the subsoil resources of this region, resources that are plundered by n…