What Kostas spoke about.

17

Sep

2024

Answers EL

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Continued financial and military support to Ukraine by EU Member States (debate)

Putin was just your ally, and you got along and did business together, and together you overthrew the Soviet Union. But now you have your own competition and the people will not pay for it, with their own blood and with their money that is for their own needs.

17

Sep

2024

Speeches EL

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Continued financial and military support to Ukraine by EU Member States (debate)

Mr President, the peoples are facing the escalation of the imperialist war in Ukraine. The continuation of the Russian invasion, the entry of Ukrainian military forces into Kursk, the direct involvement of the US, NATO and the European Union in the war and the supply of long-range missiles to Ukraine for attacks on the Russian mainland create conditions for a generalisation of the war – even with the use of nuclear weapons. At the same time, Israel is leveling Gaza and now the West Bank with genocide against the Palestinian people. The transformation of the European Union economy into a polemic with a dowry of €500 billion from the Draghi report – but also the strengthening of engagement with bases, weapons and ammunition by the New Democracy government in Greece, and with the support of other parties – is adding new fuel to the fire. In the conditions of imperialist antagonisms and wars for the division of markets and resources, the great importance of the common struggle of the peoples for their own independent interests, against any involvement of their countries, is highlighted.

23

Apr

2024

Speeches EL

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Effective coordination of economic policies and multilateral budgetary surveillance - Speeding up and clarifying the implementation of the excessive deficit procedure – amending Regulation - Requirements for budgetary frameworks of the Member States – amending Directive (joint debate – Economic governance)

Mr President, the so-called enhanced economic governance framework introduces, in the midst of a deepening recession and high deficits, new, even more reactionary rules of the European Union's Stability Pact. On the backs of the peoples are loaded the burdens of war armaments for NATO and the involvement supported by the government and all other parties, and are among the main causes of Greece's state debt. The exclusion of war expenses from the calculation of the deficit favors the escalation, the support of the imperialist NATO-Russia war in Ukraine, and the genocide of the Palestinians by the state-occupier Israel. The consolidation of bloody surpluses and the cut of social spending, with the prerequisite of accelerating the reactionary reforms of commercialization in education and health, is complemented by the direct new bilateral memoranda between the Commission and the Member States, with strict surveillance for up to 7 years. People's struggle now against the imperialist war and the mechanisms of bloodshed of the peoples for the profits of the groups, with a much more powerful KKE in the European elections.

10

Apr

2024

Speeches EL

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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)

Mr President, we condemn the inhumane pact. You call crisis response pre-trial detentions, the file, the taking of biometrics by six-year-old children, with new fences, pushbacks, Frontex and the mockery of voluntary relocations. So you feed circuits and new tragic shipwrecks, as today in Chios with three dead girls. You're sorting out terrorists who aren't destined for on-demand cheap, flexible labor in the groups. You are burying the Geneva Convention by abolishing the individual asylum examination. You are sending the uprooted back to the hell of imperialist wars or to third countries "warehouses of souls" of the European Union. You are calling it an internal protection alternative, for example, for Palestinian refugees, victims of genocide by your ally Israel, to move from Gaza to the West Bank. All governments, including New Democracy in Greece, embrace Orbán and Meloni and officially end the fairy tale of the European Union, supposedly the rule of law. The people should punish the parties that beautify the barbarity of the European Union of capital with a stronger Communist Party of Greece in the European elections.

13

Mar

2024

Speeches EL

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Rising anti-LGBTIQ rhetoric and violence: recent attacks in Thessaloniki (debate)

Mr President, we also condemn from this step the attack on two young transgender people by a group of thugs in Thessaloniki. Such unacceptable actions must be dealt with decisively, condemned en masse and isolated. Discrimination, racist attacks and attitudes based on sexual orientation are treated with solidarity, which was demonstrated by popular forces that helped the victims of the attack. The reality itself shows that the government of New Democracy and the European Union neither want nor can tackle racism and homophobia, all kinds of discrimination and bullying groups, nor also the gangs of rapists and pimps that with the outrageous prosecutorial proposal are acquitted and fostered. All these are integral elements of the decay of a barbaric system and are fueled by their own politics. We demand that there be no cover-up. The culprits of the attack in Thessaloniki and the child violence ring in Sepolia should be punished.

12

Mar

2024

Speeches EL

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Council and Commission statements - Preparation of the European Council meeting of 21 and 22 March 2024 (debate)

Mr President, the forthcoming European Council is an invitation to escalate the involvement of the European Union and the governments in the imperialist war in Ukraine, even by sending troops, but also in the inconceivable genocide of the Palestinian people by the Israeli state-occupier. The basic direction is the premium of the EU war industry paid by the peoples, while stifling their needs. The European Union and the US are the largest arms exporters to the Middle East and Israel's first customers. Energy and trade corridors, critical geopolitical interests and antagonisms between the USA, the European Union, NATO and capitalist Russia and China are passing through the war fields that are watered with the blood of the peoples. The EU imperialist operation "Shields" with the Greek government as coordinator, enjoying the support of all bourgeois parties in Greece, sends to the fire of the war in the Red Sea and a Greek frigate for the interests of the shipowners. To strengthen the independent struggle of the peoples for no military mission outside the borders, no involvement in the wars, for freedom in Palestine!

28

Feb

2024

Speeches EL

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Report on the Commission’s 2023 Rule of Law report (A9-0025/2024 - Sophia in 't Veld)

Madam President, while you are talking about the rule of law in the European Union, there are 57 dead, living in memory of an entire people. One year since the predetermined crime in Tempi, guilty of the policy of the European Union served by those who ruled and still govern this country. In the "stool" the four directives of the European Union liberalization of railways, segmentation and commercialization of OSE. Non-profit groups do not have security systems in place. They see it as a cost at the expense of their profits. At 202 000 km of full rail network across the European Union, only 15 000 km have been equipped with the required modern ERTMS telecommand and light-signalling technology and the European Union's goal is to establish this by 2050. In a word: or their profits or our lives. No cover-up of political and criminal responsibilities. To shine the truth, as the relatives of the victims demand, against the zeal of the government to seize the space, to hide evidence from the fire. Here and now not to close the parliamentary committee of inquiry, which was established with the insistence of the KKE.

28

Feb

2024

Speeches EL

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Strengthening European Defence in a volatile geopolitical landscape - Implementation of the common foreign and security policy – annual report 2023 - Implementation of the common security and defence policy – annual report 2023 (joint debate - European security and defence)

Madam President, the European Union, together with NATO and the United States, is protagonist at the expense of the peoples in the two-year imperialist war in Ukraine against capitalist Russia, in the genocide of the Palestinian people by the state-occupier Israel, is pouring oil on the fire in the war in Yemen. The CFSP provides billions for equipment, artificial intelligence and ammunition. Also, the processes of a new escalation for the sending of NATO and Euro-army troops are intensified, with Macron's statement as a "rabbit". The Commissioner for Defence is also appointed. Risky are the EU Operation Shields, the assumption of its coordination through the Headquarters of Larissa by the Government of New Democracy, as well as the mission of the Greek frigate Hydra; all for the interests of shipowners and transit groups, including SYRIZA and PASOK. Now cancel Operation Shields and return the Greek frigate. No involvement. The people's uncompromising struggle against the European Union and the governments that suppress the people's needs on the altar of imperialist wars and exploitation.

26

Feb

2024

Speeches EL

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Tackling the inflation in food prices and its social consequences and root causes (debate)

Mr President, the broad popular forces understand that the policy of the European Union is spurring inflation and accuracy. See in the courtyard of the Council building, in Brussels, farmers protesting against the CAP. With this strategy, the green transition, the energy exchange, the Recovery Fund, which all of you voted for, agribusiness and supermarkets are hoarding, wiping out struggling farmers. Your budgetary limits are “rubber” when you give EUR 50 billion to Ukraine. The renegotiation of the CAP invoked by the New Democracy government in Greece and the European Union is also a mockery, because with some postponements of individual measures and controls, struggling farmers cannot emerge from poverty and deadlocks. Your unpopular goal is to save and perpetuate the CAP from the wrath of struggling farmers. But they continue in Greece, demonstrating with the workers in the strike on Wednesday, demanding substantial relief with tax-free oil, electricity at 7 minutes, compensation for floods and disasters, guaranteed prices against the CAP and the accuracy of the European Union and governments.

8

Feb

2024

Speeches EL

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Working conditions of teachers in the EU (debate)

Mr President, in Greece the mass demonstrations of teachers together with their pupils and students, all the people, send a clear message to the New Democracy government that the bill on private universities should not be tabled, it has already been rejected. Teachers teach the lesson of the struggle so that it is not a criterion whether their students will study with their parents' wallet. Teachers have lost almost 6 salaries in 12 years in Greece. They are demanding increases so that their income does not disappear in the middle of the month due to the outrageous accuracy of their income and they are demanding an organized distribution of housing. To make permanent the more than 50,000 substitutes this year, 1/3 of all teachers, instead of replacing themselves. Teachers demand a reduction in the number of students per class, adequate state funding, health coverage, cleanliness, because the thick of the recovery fund goes to the groups. At the same time, once again, the New Democracy government is dragging teachers to court, attempting to illegally take the strike-abstention from individual evaluation. The criminalization of their just struggle will not pass.

7

Feb

2024

Speeches EL

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Empowering farmers and rural communities - a dialogue towards sustainable and fairly rewarded EU agriculture (debate)

Madam President, across Europe and in Greece, the grand rural mobilizations incriminate the European Union's CAP and the grey-green transition strategy. These were presented by the European Union as a solution and proved, on the basis of a plan, to be mechanisms for the extermination of struggling farmers. The farmers came outside the European Parliament to the scene of the crime, because here in plenary, all together and from Greece, New Democracy, SYRIZA, PASOK, Velopoulos' party, all except the KKE, voted for the CAP that wipes them out. Because the cuts in aid and their green standards are the ones that throw them out of the field and from their place. They demand tax-free supplies and oil, as Greek shipowners have, a ceiling on electricity, against the EU energy exchange and compensation at 100% from the floods. Minimum guaranteed prices in conflict with the Farm to Fork Strategy of the European Union. Because, while they sell their products at humiliating prices, the agro-industrialists and the big merchants treasure by selling multiples, taking off accuracy for the people. Solidarity with the just struggle and the demands for survival of the struggling farmers.

17

Jan

2024

Speeches EL

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Rule of Law and media freedom in Greece (debate)

Madam President, the responsibilities of the New Democracy government and the Prime Minister for the surveillance of parties such as the KKE, politicians, journalists, everything, with the systematic use of spyware, are enormous. But all this is the tip of the EU iceberg, which is the dark legislative framework that all governments have shaped over time. In the media, the fact that in Greece and everywhere they are owned by business groups results in preventive censorship, such as the silencing of the genocide of the Palestinians by Israel and the serving of Israeli fake news. It also leads to unequal promotion of the KKE, with crushing labour rights and journalists targets of pressure, business interests and blackmail, which life has shown some of them pay with their lives, such as Karaivaz. Investigate all cases politically and criminally. We defend workers' rights and the information of the people as a social good and not as a commodity that is incompatible with capitalist ownership in the media.

16

Jan

2024

Speeches EL

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

Mr President, if it is not genocide by the Israeli state or over 100 days of massacre and deportation of the Palestinian people from its territory, then what is it? The elements are irrefutable: 24,000 dead, 70% children, 60,000 wounded, thousands missing and a people facing the threat of famine without food, water, hospitals, medicine, electricity and fuel. This is why we support South Africa’s appeal to the UN International Court of Justice to condemn the State of Israel for genocide against Palestinians. We denounce the U.S. and British missile strikes on Yemen that are making the situation in the Red Sea even more explosive. This is the responsibility of the Israeli occupation and the imperialist interventions of its Euro-Atlantic allies. We demand no involvement of the Greek government in this crime. Stop the massacre in Gaza! End the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. An independent Palestinian state on the border before June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

13

Dec

2023

Speeches EL

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EU strategy to assist young people facing the housing and cost of living crisis (topical debate)

Mr President, the European Union and governments are guilty: expensive popular housing, unapproachable rents, soaring accuracy and energy poverty, successive interest rate increases of the European Central Bank, auctions of popular households. New couples who run out by the 15th of the month are unable to open, let alone own a home of their own. They live with their parents. Government housing programs are loading young couples with debts, raising housing prices and securing profits and customers in banks and construction groups. EU, green and digital standards make popular housing even more inaccessible for young people. This strategy of the European Union is also supported by the government of New Democracy in Greece, like the previous ones. We demand real wage increases, the abolition of indirect and special taxes, the taxation of big capital. No auctions of public housing. We are against green anti-people strategy and housing-commodity. The people with their own power can ensure the right of young couples, the people as a whole, to housing based on modern needs and technological achievements.

11

Dec

2023

Speeches EL

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The European Elections 2024 (debate)

Madam President, the European Union is escalating its reactionary strategy for the more effective shielding of its imperialist plans against international competition with the United States and China, but also for the acceleration of anti-people policy in favour of the monopolies. It promotes in this direction reactionary adjustments to the electoral law in view of the European elections, to deepen the European Union, as well as to strengthen the role of the Commission, the European Parliament, European political parties. At the same time, it proposes reforming the Treaties even by abolishing unanimity in the Council, opening dangerous roads. The government of New Democracy in Greece promotes the alteration of the electorate by participating in the vote and those expatriates who have no economic and social link with the country, as well as the postal vote that exposes workers to blackmail, facilitating fraud. The European Union and governments are becoming increasingly reactionary and dangerous to the peoples. It is therefore necessary to strengthen the workers' popular struggles, against the anti-people policy of the European Union and the bourgeois governments, with a much stronger Communist Party of Greece in the European elections.

22

Nov

2023

Speeches EL

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Humanitarian situation in Gaza, the need for the release of hostages and for an immediate humanitarian truce leading to a ceasefire and the prospects for peace and security in the Middle East (debate)

Mr President, Mr Borrell, you do not need a lawyer's degree to condemn the atrocities of occupying Israel in Gaza. You don't have to. Because they sow death in newborns, children, civilians, women, bombing hospitals, schools, with thousands of dead. One by one, the fake news of the Israeli army that murdered even Israeli civilians collapses, always under the well-known pretexts of self-defense to perpetuate the occupation. The goal is not Hamas, but the cancellation of the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, the purge of Gaza by Palestinians to make it profitable for the Israeli bourgeoisie, a trade and energy crossing. We condemn these plans supported by the European Union and the governments, such as that of New Democracy in Greece. We demand an end to military aggression and occupation. No involvement and facilitation of the massacre of the Palestinian people. Millions of protesters around the world are dispossessing dirty propaganda, defending the law of the Palestinian people and demanding an independent Palestinian state on the border of 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital, with the release of political prisoners and the return of refugees to their homes.

18

Oct

2023

Speeches EL

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Mental health at work (debate)

Madam President, the European Union's strategy on mental health at work is only concerned with reducing the cost of workers' psychosocial illnesses, having even estimated it at 400 billion. There is no talk, however, about addressing the source of psychosocial diseases, to which the capitalist exploitative system and the conditions of life and work it creates lead to a significant degree. Inhuman hours and intensification, teleworking, employer terrorism, uncertainty, auctions, daily anxiety to meet basic needs dispel the mental health of workers; and when they fall ill, the strategy of the European Union and its governments sends them into the clutches of private groups, NGOs and all kinds of private individuals. We call for a struggle for exclusively public mental health structures, with full permanent staff of all specialties, free services with a main focus on prevention, in accordance with the modern conquests of science, for modern labour rights, collective agreements, human hours, within the framework of an exclusively public social security. We ask all this in order to save people from mental suffering, with the prospect of another society without exploitation and profit, which is more than ever necessary and necessary.

16

Oct

2023

Speeches EL

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, the Gaza Strip is being ruthlessly bombed in the Middle East. Thousands are dead and wounded. The occupying State of Israel invades Gaza for the umpteenth time in the years of the criminal occupation of the Palestinian territories and the atrocities against the Palestinian people, civilians, young children, with settler atrocities, with its wall of shame, with over 5 000 political prisoners. With audacity, the perpetrators of Israel, along with their allies, the European Union, the US and NATO, are "shaking the finger" on terrorism. They invoke Israel's right to slaughter "humanitarianly." The European Union is arranging to cut even insufficient funds from people without water and electricity. The truth is one: The Palestinian people have the inalienable right to have a homeland, as well as to resist to shake off the barbaric conquerors of their lands. With the peoples of the world, we express our solidarity with the struggle for a single independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the 1967 borders, for the return of refugees to their homes and the release of all prisoners.

4

Oct

2023

Speeches EL

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Decent Housing for All (topical debate)

Madam President, over 15,000 auctions are planned by the end of the year and thousands of evictions of popular households in Greece for the interests of crows, banks and funds. They intensify pressures, blackmails, provocative demands by means of the laws of governments and the directives of the European Union. Finding a home is impossible with very expensive rents, unapproachable market prices, successive interest rate increases by the European Central Bank, government housing programs - coroyal with EU subsidies that the construction groups are deafening. Trade unions, the KKE and the people's rally, which fights in the regions and municipalities on the front line, prevent daily auctions. We demand: no auctioning and universal protection of the people's housing, favorable arrangements without advances, write-off of interest and interest rates, haircut of capital, reopening of OEK for cheap, safe people's housing and infrastructure without the participation of contractors, entrepreneurs, banks and other rodents, but under the responsibility of the state. The homes of the people are saved by the people, and we at their side will defend the rights of the people's households.

4

Oct

2023

Speeches EL

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Need for a speedy adoption of the asylum and migration package (debate)

Mr. President, we can't let the deadly crime shipwreck in Pylos be forgotten. We are asking for answers that the Greek government, the European Union and Frontex are not giving. The ministerial meetings of the European Union, as well as MED9, confirmed their common understanding of strengthening the repression and sorting of refugees according to the needs of capital. In this direction, the governments of Greece and Turkey, under the auspices of the European Union, are working on the new, even more reactionary version of the joint EU-Turkey statement, with the reactivation of deportations, the reinforcement of persecutions and repression against the uprooted of your imperialist wars that add to the current miserable situation, with entrapment-choking in the Aegean, with pushbacks and with the action of the slave trade circuits. The bargain for this agreement, as well as for the new pact, is part of a wider bargain with geopolitical dimensions, which also concerns sovereign rights issues in the context of imperialist competitions. That is why Greek and foreign workers must fight united for full rights, against the European Union, governments, capital and their agreements.

14

Sep

2023

Speeches EL

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Improving firefighters’ working conditions (debate)

Madam President, we have seen great fires and great disasters with deaths in Greece, in Evros, the largest fire in the European Union, in Rhodes, in Attica and elsewhere. Flood in Thessaly that is experiencing a great tragedy with dead and missing. Firefighters are sleepless for days, exhausted, breathing cancer, underpaid and many of them seasonal, due to staff shortages and therefore firebreaks that are crucial are not opened. The responsibilities of the EU strategy that treats civil protection as a cost and criterion of fire, flood and earthquake protection measures are high. That is the criterion. The profitability of the groups, the European Union and the governments cutting off the number of firefighters, infrastructure, aircraft. At European Union level, 40,000 firefighters are missing, while in Greece 4,500 are missing. RescEU perpetuates nudity and criminal shortages in every state, recycling from country to country, usually after a tragedy, just 24 planes and 450 firefighters. Faced with all this, the Greek people, those affected, demand 100% compensation, universal fire protection measures, flood protection and the filling of all vacant posts.

12

Sep

2023

Speeches EL

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2022 Report on Türkiye (debate)

Mr President, the resolution is tailored to the needs of planning in order to strengthen NATO's south-east wing and anchor Turkey in the Euro-Atlantic camp. This is in the midst of the escalation of the imperialist NATO-Russia conflict in Ukraine for the re-sharing of markets. The resolution serves to speed up the dangerous bazaars in Greek-Turkish, which have been set up under the supervision of the United States, NATO and the European Union. The individual critical formulations of the text are limited to the suppression of democratic rights in Turkey, while the dangerous declarations of the Turkish bourgeoisie on the "blue homeland" are silenced. The references to its unacceptable claims for the greying of zones in the Aegean and Cypriot EEZs, the questioning of the Greekness of islands, islets and rocky islets, the right of islands to a continental shelf and EEZ are exhausted in terms of routine admonitions. There is also no talk of the 49-year occupation of Cyprus. We call on the people to be vigilant against the dangerous arrangements in Greek-Turkish. We demand no change of borders and the conditions that provide for them.

11

Sep

2023

Speeches EL

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European Defence Industry Reinforcement through common Procurement Act (EDIRPA) (debate)

Madam President, following the partnerships promoted by the European Union for missiles and ammunition, the regulation attempts to shield European war industry groups from their competition with US and Chinese monopolies, which is exacerbated by the prospect of an escalation of the NATO-Russia imperialist war. At the same time that the Greek people are counting dead, missing and homeless due to the recent floods and fires, the government, with the support of the other bourgeois parties, provocatively claims that it has no resources and no endless possibilities to deal with them. However, it is involved in the abattoir, supporting the reactionary Zelensky regime with bases, facilities, armor, ammunition, manipulating the delivery of tanks, anti-aircraft and multiple rocket launchers, while they are located on the Aegean islands and Thrace, and as the Turkish bourgeoisie constantly raises the issue of demilitarization of the eastern Aegean islands, as well as issues in Western Thrace. No involvement, no participation, no bullet in the imperialist war in Ukraine. A common struggle of the peoples for their own interests, against the forces that drag them to the abattoir of war.

12

Jul

2023

Speeches EL

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State of the SME Union (debate)

Mr President, for the European Union, small and medium-sized enterprises are considered a minority of enterprises, leaving out the vast majority of micro-enterprises in Greece. This large majority for the European Union is considered a structural problem and is generally excluded from financing by the Recovery Fund and the NSRF. The European Union and the Greek government are expanding the tax base, targeting the self-employed who are taxed from the first euro. Using digitalisation as a tool, they present them as supposed tax evaders, while large groups are provocatively exempt from taxes and contributions. They claim a reduction in rates, but impose more green and digital taxes-fines with standards that only the big ones can meet and which are supported by all the parties of capital. Against the myth of a unified business world, here and now write off debts to banks and the tax office for the self-employed, reduce tax burdens, stop auctions! Struggle, joint action and alliance with the workers and the struggling peasants against their monopolies and power!

12

Jul

2023

Speeches EL

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The need for EU action on search and rescue in the Mediterranean (debate)

(EL) Madam President, the Greek Government and Frontex have not yet provided answers to the shipwreck-crime off Pylos with hundreds of victims in a debris that has been under surveillance for at least 16 hours, without raising a state of alarm, in a search and rescue area of Greece. It is a continuing crime, signed by the European Union and Greek governments, of political repression, entrapment, deportations, pushbacks, which giganticize the traffickers' networks. In the Council there is unanimity in the further repression, the inhuman deportations to third countries uprooted by the imperialist wars, the unacceptable bargains with compensations of 20,000 euros per head. The only disagreement on the mandatory sharing, repression and competition for when to open and close the cannula for cheap labor according to the needs of the groups. Research and truth here and now about the shipwreck-crime in Pylos! To strengthen the common struggle of the peoples and refugees against the unacceptable decisions of the European Union and the government, which bury the Geneva Convention. Asylum committees in Turkey under the responsibility of the UN and the European Union, to take asylum seekers to their countries of final destination.