What Jiří spoke about.

3

Oct

2023

CS Speech

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Taking stock of Moldova's path to the EU (debate)

Mr President, I have listened very carefully to the whole debate and I am very pleased that across all factions, in principle, all the speakers supported Moldova's swift accession to the European Union. I very much welcome it. I think it is extremely important that it is not possible to let this country down and thus create space for Russia to strengthen its influence there. And if it is possible …

13

Jul

2023

CS Speech

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Recommendations of the Commission on public country by country reporting transposition (debate)

Mr President, I would like to speak with the Commission. It seems to me that the case that is being brought up here is a bit contrary to the principle that we are talking about. First of all, it must be said that the letter that has been sent is of a recommendatory nature. After all, each country is sovereignly free to decide how to transpose and whether to adopt tougher regulation than the one in…

13

Jul

2023

CS Speech

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Global Convergence on Generative AI (debate)

Mr President, I personally consider the regulation of artificial intelligence to be one of the key, perhaps even one of the main, tasks that the European Union institutions have at the legislative level at the moment. I am very pleased that this debate is taking place today. It summarises the various initiatives taken by the Commission in this area. We are debating here a regulation which is now i…

13

Jul

2023

CS Speech

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Public access to documents – annual report for the years 2019-2021 (debate)

Mr President, I am honoured to be able to speak in this debate, because I consider this to be an extremely important topic. The principle of the public is the basic principle of the functioning of any democratic body exercising public power, and we should really set an example in this case. Citizens control the activities of public authorities, including ours, precisely through the available infor…

12

Jul

2023

CS Speech

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2022 Report on Albania (A9-0204/2023 - Isabel Santos)

Mr President, I supported this annual report on Albania. I think we need to pay much more attention to the Balkan countries, which are candidate countries for the European Union. The geopolitical situation is changing. Russia clearly shows its interests not only in its neighbourhood of the former Soviet Union countries, but also in the Balkans. And we, especially for geopolitical reasons, aside fr…

12

Jul

2023

CS Speech

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Relations with the Palestinian Authority (A9-0226/2023 - Evin Incir)

Mr President, I want to justify this resolution because, in the end, I did not support the resolution on the Palestinian Authority. The reason for this is that I believe that this report is too positive for the Palestinian Authority and does not take much account of the fact that the State of Israel is the main partner, or so I see it, for democracy in Europe. The democracy that works here in the …

12

Jul

2023

CS Speech

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Situation in Lebanon (RC-B9-0323/2023, B9-0323/2023, B9-0324/2023, B9-0325/2023, B9-0326/2023, B9-0327/2023, B9-0328/2023)

Mr President, I supported this resolution, for the simple reason that I think it is precisely the policy that the European Union is supposed to pursue towards countries that can potentially be sources of migration. Lebanon, a country formerly perceived as the Switzerland of the Middle East, is now in a severe economic and political crisis. And we have to deal with it, we have to communicate with t…

12

Jul

2023

CS Speech

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Crackdown on the media and freedom of expression in Kyrgyzstan

Mr President, thank you very much and I will build on my predecessors. I also agree that the situation in Kyrgyzstan needs to be addressed. It's not easy, things are getting worse. Pressure on the independent media is being exerted by the government and the president, and we must deal with that. The most blatant case was the pressure against Radio Free Europe's branch. This radio was blocked accou…

12

Jul

2023

CS Speech

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India, the situation in Manipur

Mr President, I, like my colleagues, want to support a motion for a resolution which, in my opinion, is extremely topical and serious. India, the largest democracy in the world, a key partner of the European Union also in trade matters, in short, a country where democracy has worked in recent years, but democracy is also about the protection of human rights. And we see cases that are described in …

12

Jul

2023

CS Speech

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The political disqualifications in Venezuela

Madam President, I would like to thank my colleagues for preparing this resolution. We here in plenary have very often debated the crimes of the Maduro regime in recent years. Unfortunately, the situation is not improving, and it must be said that if Maduro prevents free presidential elections in 2024, and unfortunately all this suggests, then it will be another of his crimes, and it is necessary …

12

Jul

2023

CS Speech

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Recommendations for reform of the European Parliament’s rules on transparency, integrity, accountability and anti-corruption (debate)

Madam President, let me return to my speech on the subject. Maybe a little boring, but I am very glad that today we are responding to the consequences of Qatargate, that we are aware that this case has had unprecedented negative consequences for citizens' perceptions of the European Parliament and the European institutions. Personally, I see two planes of correction. Firstly, the one that we do no…

12

Jul

2023

CS Speech

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Need to adopt the “Unshell” Directive on rules to prevent the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes (debate)

Mr President, thank you for the opportunity to address this very important point as well. I have listened attentively to the whole debate and am very pleased that the fight against tax evasion is an important topic for the Spanish Presidency and also for the Commission, and that it is therefore envisaged that intensive work will be carried out on the recast of the Directive. Everyone in the debate…

11

Jul

2023

CS Speech

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2022 Report on Bosnia and Herzegovina (debate)

Madam President, I am very grateful for this interesting debate and I also wanted to add my voice to support Bosnia and Herzegovina's membership of the European Union, but the more we have to describe the problems associated with President Dodik's political activities. The crisis around the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the separatist tendencies, the tendency towards Russia, has …

15

Jun

2023

CS Speech

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Ukraine’s accession to the Convention of 2 July 2019 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters (debate)

Madam President, let me also speak to the position of our faction. We strongly support Ukraine in its fight for freedom and we believe that every gesture, even symbolic gesture, is important to support Ukraine. And here I want to build on what was said by the chairman of the committee. In my view, it is right that, in the event of Ukraine's accession to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforc…

14

Jun

2023

CS Speech

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Quality traineeships in the EU (A9-0186/2023 - Monica Semedo)

Mr President, in the end, I supported this material, mainly because I am convinced of the importance of traineeships both in the European Union with our institutions and, more generally, with any other employer. Of course, I see the European level, I see the growing interest of young people in getting to know the work of the European Parliament, the European Commission. I see the interest of young…

14

Jun

2023

CS Speech

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Batteries and waste batteries (A9-0031/2022 - Achille Variati)

Mr President, I am not very much in favour of new European regulations, but in the end, after some hesitation, I supported this proposal, because it is a fact that if we are moving to full electromobility from 2035 and in general strengthens the importance of batteries within the Green Deal, then perhaps some legal regulation is needed. That is why, after some hesitation, I finally supported this …

14

Jun

2023

CS Speech

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Artificial Intelligence Act (A9-0188/2023 - Brando Benifei, Dragoş Tudorache)

Mr President, I have also supported the regulation of artificial intelligence, but I have taken the opportunity to explain my vote in order to put forward the very objection that my precious colleague, MEP Šojdrová, has expressed. I want to say that I am very sorry that the amendments of our EPP faction, which allowed for a much more efficient use of artificial intelligence in biometric identifica…

14

Jun

2023

CS Speech

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Deterioration of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, notably the case of Jimmy Lai

Mr President, I want to join my previous speakers in supporting political prisoner Jimmy Lai, who is essentially a victim of Communist China's pressure on Hong Kong. We must not forget that this particular case of unfair prosecution, political prosecution, is the result of China's violation of its international obligations, its violation of what it claimed when taking over Hong Kong, its preservat…

14

Jun

2023

CS Speech

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Humanitarian situation in Sudan, in particular the death of children trapped by fighting

Madam President, I have always listened very carefully to our debates on current human rights issues. It is always a great human tragedy, but when the tragedy of a country becomes the tragedy of children, I am particularly moved. And I would like to ask – and I am taking advantage of the chance of being here – the Commission representative to do our utmost to support Sudan humanitarianally as soon…

14

Jun

2023

CS Speech

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Extension of the mandate of the EPPO with regard to the criminal offence of violation of Union restrictive measures (debate)

Madam President, I have been addressing the issue of the European Public Prosecutor for years. I consider this an important topic. At the moment when we set up this office without having competence for the whole of the 27, I think that we should primarily push for this office to work not only for the 22 states of the European Union, but for the entire European Union. This would greatly enhance eff…

14

Jun

2023

CS Speech

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Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware - Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (draft recommendation) (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I have listened very carefully to the debate and I have also been familiar with the work of the committee before. I want to thank my colleagues for the very good work they have done. I want to thank the rapporteur, the President, because it is not always customary for an investigative collective body to draw such clear conclusions and really try to find a soluti…

12

Jun

2023

CS Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, I therefore very much support my colleagues in their struggle for motherhood for Members, but I would like to return to another topic. I defend animal rights here and I therefore wanted to take the opportunity to address the Commission directly and ask the Commissioner to finally take this issue seriously, because young Europeans in particular consider the issue of animal protecti…

12

Jun

2023

CS Speech

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Electronic evidence in criminal proceedings: legal representatives directive - Electronic evidence regulation: European production and preservation orders for electronic evidence in criminal matters (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to support this proposal. I remember when, as Minister of Justice for the Czech Republic, I went to the Council of Ministers ten years ago to discuss these matters academically. It has taken many years and we have legislation here that, in my opinion, deserves attention and support, because in the fight against organised crime, in the fight against …

1

Jun

2023

CS Speech

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Foreign interference in all democratic processes in the European Union, including disinformation (A9-0187/2023 - Sandra Kalniete)

Madam President, I supported this report. I am really afraid of foreign influences from Russia, that is, from this area. I see it differently from my previous speaker, and I personally think that we need to be vigilant on this matter and we need to constantly debate what kind of cyber warfare the Putin regime is waging against us. And we see in practice just a small step from these hybrid threats …

1

Jun

2023

CS Speech

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Geographical Indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products (A9-0173/2023 - Paolo De Castro)

Madam President, I was happy to support this report. I consider this to be a clearly positive thing, on which there is probably a general consensus both between the right and the left in this room, because with this legislation, if fully adopted, we will strengthen the protection of specific agricultural products, wines and spirits produced within the EU, which are characteristic and typical of a …