Speeches

The overwhelming majority of the Council members were outraged by the anti-LGBTIQ law Orbán introduced in Hungary. Rightfully so. Orbán has crossed redlines before but that was a new low. I welcome the response by most heads of state and government but it should not stop here. The Council needs to trigger Article 7 against this Hungarian Government. All legal means should be applied in order to show Orbán that he has gone too far. We are a Union of values whether Orbán likes it or not. He does not want to listen to reason, he therefore must face the consequences. The Hungarian anti-LGBTIQ law goes against everything the European Union stands for. When you are a member of the EU, you sign up to our values. It is not an ‘a la carte’ menu. We need to stand up against the deteriorating situation of LGBTIQ-rights in Hungary. We have to take action and hold the Hungarian Government accountable. This is about protecting what is most precious, the freedom of our people.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, every new crisis, whether in Russia or in the Middle East, raises energy prices again. Again and again we say: We are too dependent on foreign countries and unstable regimes. Time and again it is our families and our companies who pay the price in cash at the pump or at home. Every geopolitical shock today translates directly into a higher bill for citizens and businesses. That has to stop. If it depends on us, liberals, then Europe must draw up a concrete roadmap for the Energy Union. This means: fully commit to renewable energy, including the fourth generation of nuclear power plants; provide a stable energy grid for massive investments in battery storage; strengthen joint purchasing rather than competing as European countries on the global market; And above all, act faster. We're way too slow. Make sure that the necessary permits are in place, that investments are made in Europe and that we are no longer dependent on autocrats!

Madam President, dear colleagues, I would like to make a point of order based on Rule 150. Saturday, 25 April marked 10 years since Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali was sentenced and arrested in Iran. Ten years! He is currently the longest‑standing EU citizen held hostage by the Iranian authorities. And like Hannah asked, we have to continue to demand his release. On this heartbreaking anniversary, I call on you, President, colleagues, to keep on taking action to secure the immediate and unconditional release of Ahmadreza Djalali, just like we did on our last resolution on his case. Colleagues, we must never give up. Two weeks ago, the Belgian‑Portuguese citizen Joseph Figueira Martin was released thanks to our resolutions. So President, please continue the pressure: we need to save our European citizens now.

Mr President, Commissioner, the completion of the internal market is no longer a technocratic project. It is an economic and geopolitical necessity. The debate over the last hour has shown that there is a very broad area of support. It's very clear to me. The completion of the internal market must be the number one priority. If it depends on me, we're going to have a one-stop-shop debate over the next few days on how we're going to do that. We know how to do it. These are internal trade barriers. Mr João has quite rightly said that trade outside the Union is growing faster than trade within the Union. Why? Because we impose trade tariffs on ourselves. Commissioner, you have our support. Renew is behind you. Parliament is behind you. Make it work now: you have to stop gold-plating, reduce the rules and finally tackle unfair competition from abroad. I think that's the question of our companies. And finally – my minute is up again – Commissioner … (Member continues in French) I invite you to come to Limburg because, there, citizens and industries will inform you.

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, how many more times will we stand here and say we are concerned about Sudan? While people are being slaughtered every day, the reality becomes worse – intensified fighting in Kordofan, new horrors in Darfur, no ceasefire in sight before Ramadan, and growing foreign interference pushing Sudan towards regional collapse. Humanitarian aid matters, sanctions matter, but let us be clear: these are not enough. We demand an immediate ceasefire, more humanitarian aid, stronger and expanded sanctions. We demand real accountability for war crimes and human rights violations, and a credible civilian-led peace process. Finally, I repeat my call, as Chair of the delegation to the Africa-EU Parliamentary Assembly, for a joint visit to Port Sudan and Khartoum, to witness the horrors ourselves, to talk to the victims and to show that Europe will not look away. Sudan is burning. Our response must be powerful.

Mr President, colleagues have already said it here: Europe needs to accelerate. Now. Drones are the soldiers of the future. I think that's very clear. Look at Ukraine, how they are deployed there. How these small machines can do enormous damage. Look closer to home, how they're shutting down our airports, shutting down Zaventem, spying on civilians. I think we really need to look at that. How these hybrid threats are getting closer and closer. And what's even more dangerous: we depend on the US and China for 60% of the components. Those who are so dependent are vulnerable. If Europe is to be ready for the future, it must be faster, more ambitious and more united. There are three important points in this report. First, Europe needs to build its own drone industry. We have the knowledge, we have the industry. 80% of our drone companies are SMEs, but they get caught up in too many rules. Accelerate those investments. Speed up those permits. Get rid of the paperwork. Secondly, we need to work with Ukraine. 5 million drones a year, they said here. They have the knowledge and know-how. And we have a connection with them. Do that. Thirdly, we must recognise the dual role of drones, because they are also crucial for civil applications. I invite you to visit Drone Port in my city, Sint-Truiden. There you can see how drones can be used for organ transport. That's really the future. Finally: We need a European drone shield very soon. Time is running out. Make this a priority work.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, good evening! This debate is one of the most important. It is a debate about the life or death of a man. Joseph Figueira Martin, Belgo-Portuguese, a respected humanitarian worker, has been detained for more than six hundred days in the Central African Republic. He was arbitrarily arrested, detained by the Wagner Group, tortured and sentenced on 4 November to 10 years of hard labour following a fundamentally unfair trial. Today, we strongly demand, and I hope unanimously, his immediate and unconditional release now! And we say it clearly: If he is not released, we will continue to mobilise, every day, every week, until Joseph is reunited with his family. I promise I'll do it! And we call for concrete actions, targeted sanctions against those responsible, the questioning of the authorities involved and the inclusion of the Wagner Group on the list of terrorist organisations. We also ask colleagues to send a parliamentary delegation to visit him and to exert direct political pressure. To remain silent today would be to accept the unacceptable. Colleagues, I would like to conclude with the words of Olivier Vandecasteele delivered here in Parliament last week: “History will not ask us what we knew, but what we did.” Today we know; Then let's act!

Mr President, High Representative, almost all afternoon was devoted to foreign policy. How did the year 2026 begin? My children ask me what kind of world we live in. Every day we see tweets from a world leader threatening us and trampling on the international world order. People wonder where Europe is and what it does. Today we are voting on two important reports on a common foreign policy. It is not your fault, Mrs. Kallas, but I must say: At the moment, not much common foreign policy is possible anymore, as Member States are constantly blocking everything. We do not have a united position on Israel and Palestine, the way we should respond to President Trump, Greenland or other matters. As long as we do not abolish unanimity, Europe cannot become a global player. The same applies to the report on the common defence policy. Steps have been taken in the right direction in the field of defence. Nevertheless, we still have 27 national armies investing in different ways, which in fact leads to duplication. We must create a European pillar within NATO and commit to a European army. Let us turn our High Representative into a true EU Foreign Minister. I have every confidence in Mrs Kallas. Now more than ever, we must work to strengthen the Union and its defence.

Mr President, High Representative, the European Parliament has already awarded the Sakharov Prize twice to the Venezuelan opposition, in 2017 and 2024, to Edmundo González Urrutia and María Corina Machado. Since then we have hesitated, hesitated and waited. As a result, Machado is now seeking rapprochement with Trump. She does this not out of conviction, but out of necessity. She desperately uses her Nobel Prize as a coin. This is the result of the absence of the EU. While we hesitate, others rewrite the world order. Donald Trump openly shows that power is once again above law, that international rules are negotiable and that democracy can be exchanged for geopolitical gain. Nicolás Maduro had indeed to leave and elections are certainly essential. But let's be honest: Maduro's regime simply continues under a different label and this is tolerated for economic and strategic reasons. This is not a democratic breakthrough. Let this be a wake-up call: Europe needs to wake up and play its part.

Mr President, High Representative, colleagues, let us stop pretending we do not see what is coming. The United States will bomb Iran; it's only a matter of time. So the real question is, why is there still no real united European strategy towards Iran? For three years, we have clung to an appeasement strategy that has achieved nothing. How many more Iranians must be beaten, tortured, executed before we stop acting like passive spectators? The actions we need to take are very clear. List the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation. No? Everybody asks for it. Expand sanctions massively against those who keep the regime alive. Close Iranian embassies across Europe. Recognise the democratic opposition as the only legitimate vote of the Iranian people. Ask for the release of all hostages, including our Professor Jalali. Colleagues, I don't want us to continue to count the dead. I want Europe to lead by example.

Mr President, thank you very much, colleagues, and especially thank you, Commissioner, for your very strong words and for your very strong actions. As a Belgian Member of this European Parliament, I am very proud that we have you as a Commissioner on this post, so thank you very much. Sudan is living through one of the darkest chapters of this century. Millions have been displaced, communities are starved and cities turned into killing fields. Colleagues – we cannot stay silent. Europe cannot stay silent, the world cannot stay silent. We have to call for an immediate cessation of all violence and the opening of humanitarian corridors. We have to call for a true fact-finding mission with this Parliament, maybe together with you, Commissioner. On this International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we must condemn with full force the use of rape and gender-based violence as a weapon of war. We must act – we must punish those criminals who do this because a survivor cannot survive if those who do it are not sanctioned. For me, justice needs to be done. The recent peace agreement is a small but important step forward. All parties inside and outside must work together, and in this regard we demand an expansion of the arms embargo. Colleagues – just beforehand, we ask also for a full investigation into foreign complicity, because, you will hear it here in the House; some will name countries or will not name countries. Some will name the United Arab Emirates or will have a veto on that. Honestly, let's do an investigation into this. Silence is not an option.

Madam President, Commissioner, for me, on defence it's really clear: come together, buy together or become irrelevant. And for the moment, we must admit that we are irrelevant. Look at what happened in the last days: Putin and Trump around the table, and Europe was nowhere. We had no common reaction ready. The new European Defence Industry Programme is that investment in European defence backbone, in close cooperation with Ukraine, that we need. So, Commissioner, let me be very clear: I think, for me, this is the first step. It is the first step of building a European defence, and you must go further: build that European army. How many wake-up calls do we need to get? Political citizens, colleagues, are more advanced than our political leaders – look at what the citizens ask us. So step up the vision, Commissioner. Step up our vision. We need a strategy. We need a strategy for a European pillar in NATO. We need a vision for that European army. We need to step up for the security of our citizens.

Madam President, dear colleagues, I would like to raise a point of order under Rule 150. This House adopted a very strong resolution on the arbitrary arrest and torture of the Belgian‑Portuguese researcher, Joseph Figueira Martin, in the Central African Republic. Last week, our colleague was sentenced to 10 years of forced labour. So, colleagues, I really would like to reiterate our demand for the immediate release of the Belgian‑Portuguese researcher. His health situation requires an immediate release. Please, President, ask for the release of this European citizen immediately.

Mr President, Africa is a crucial continent for Europe. If you look at Africa today, you will see a continent of growth, of youth, of innovation. This is the first pillar on which this cooperation must be based: enhanced cooperation on Erasmus+. The second pillar is that of peace and security, and we reiterate here our previous resolutions that Europe must play a role in ending that war between Rwanda and Congo. At the same time, Africa is also an important partner in the fight against irregular migration. Together, we can address these root causes beyond symptom control. And the third pillar, as the Commissioner has said, is that of prosperity: the Global Gateway, working together around energy, around our ports, around rare earths. We must realise that Africa is as important to Europe today as China or America. That we are going to need Africa very badly to get our energy prices down, to get rid of our dependence on Russian and Chinese earth metals. Europe has had several phases in its cooperation with Africa. The first was that colonial phase in which Europe enslaved and the second was the era of development cooperation in which we always waved that finger. Today we must move towards that third era in which Europe and Africa become partners with mutual respect, mutual interests and mutual strengths. Time for a renewed partnership.

Mr President, yes, we must do more to help Ukraine win, both militarily and financially. Ukraine needs an additional EUR 140 billion over the next two years to stand up to Russia’s beating. But let us do that without burdening Belgium with a financial risk of, you hold, one-third of its GDP. That's pure madness. So yes, let's mobilize Russian assets to support Ukraine, but do it wisely: not by storing the funds themselves, but by using them as collateral for a massive joint loan. And secondly, as Mr Van Overtveldt also said: Everyone needs to take a bath. This means that we are also looking at the funds on French, German and other European banks, and that there are firm guarantees from all Member States that, if it ever comes to a lawsuit, the costs will be shared and not only borne by Belgium. Mr Gahler, you nod. This is European solidarity. That is the European unity we had towards Ukraine. That is the European unity that we must have now.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, yes, we must welcome the peace agreement, the release of the hostages and the ceasefire. But be very careful, because let's be honest: It is only a very small step, very fragile and it has actually already been violated by both parties. People continue to die of violence, of famine. That is why I repeat our call loud and clear: open all border crossings, allow such aid and suspend the EU-Israel trade agreement. Sanction all those responsible: Hamas leaders, extremist settlers, Israeli ministers, anyone who incites or commits crimes. Stop arms exports that enable war crimes, acknowledge the Palestinian state with a concrete timeline and clear conditions, and invest in rebuilding Gaza. As we all look at Gaza, the West Bank is also on fire. Between 2008 and 2023, at least a thousand European-funded projects were destroyed, including Belgian schools and shelters. This was recently revealed in a very nice report by the Belgian VRT. All without sanctions. There is a Flemish saying: ‘break potty, pay potty’. Let's stop writing letters. The days of friendly diplomacy are over. Let's increase the pressure. I'm counting on Europe to finish Trump's work and ensure that two-state solution.

Madam President, colleagues, I want to thank all of you for the very hard work and the willingness to compromise on this important text, because it is an important, balanced text. Without a European position, Europe cannot act. Gaza is running out of time. Vote with your conscience, but above all, vote with your political weight and make sure we have a statement.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today we have two very special guests here and I would very much like you to give them a big round of applause: Rémy and Raïssa, the children of Victoire Ingabire. There they are. They're fighting her battle. A fight for freedom, for justice, for a democratic Rwanda. And while Victoire is innocently imprisoned, they're standing here. Young people, but strong, marked by pain, but filled with courage. Their presence reminds us: behind every political prisoner there is a family, behind every political decision there are real lives. They are living proof that hope can never be locked up. Today, we demand the immediate and unconditional release of Victoire Ingabire and all her colleagues, activists, journalists detained for peacefully pursuing that dream. Rémy, Raïssa, you can count on us, on this house. We will continue to fight for your mother's release.

Mr President, we have already heard a number of parties here. I hold my heart for the negotiations this afternoon when I hear my predecessor speak. If we only focus on October 7, if we only focus on what the terrorist organization Hamas has done, without looking at the actions of Israel, then we will not get there this afternoon. I'm really making a call: I will soon lead the negotiations between all parties. It is the first time that the United Nations has officially declared a famine on Gaza, and not just a famine, but a man-made famine. More than 132 000 children are at risk of death, while the food trucks, and we see the images, are being stopped by people. Citizens are shot because they sit down for a piece of bread. That's not a tragedy, but it's a crime. I want Europe to be no longer complicit in watching. Mrs Kallas has already done many things, has done more than all your predecessors. However, here is what I think needs to be done urgently: 1) Open all border crossings now and let the help in unhindered. Hamas must release all hostages. 3) Apply sanctions to the Israelis who violate the law and to the terrorist organization Hamas and to the Israeli ministers who violate the laws. 4) Stop all arms exports that fuel war crimes. 5) Recognize the Palestinian state. This is the only way to achieve a two-state solution. I'm counting on this goodwill...