Speeches

Mr President, dear colleagues, dear Commissioner, I think we could dedicate this historic act to our colleagues that are not here, to the journalist colleagues that are not here, that have been assassinated, like Daphne Caruana Galizia, like the Slovenian journalist and the Greek journalist Giorgos Karaivaz, the murder of whom is not yet clarified. We haven’t found the perpetrators. This act tries to tackle all the problems Greeks journalists are facing. And that is why I would like to shift to Greek to say a few words about that. Κύριε Πρόεδρε, είμαι υπερήφανος που συνέβαλα σε αυτόν τον κανονισμό. Συμβάλλει στη διαφάνεια ενάντια στη συγκέντρωση των μέσων ενημέρωσης, κατοχυρώνει τη συντακτική ανεξαρτησία και την προστασία των δημοσιογράφων, βάζει τέλος στην ασυδοσία για τις μεγάλες πλατφόρμες και επίσης καταπολεμά τη λογοκρισία, που είναι ένα πολύ σημαντικό πρόβλημα. Dear Commissioner, you have said that you are a travelling the European capitals. Please try to reinforce – as Sophia just has said – this act. Because in Greece we are still facing a lot of problems. And, you know, the perpetrators of the wiretapping, of spying on journalists are still suing journalists and independent media.

Well, you are a member of the EPP, and I guess you know Mr Kyrtsos, who was a member of the EPP while he was being spied on by the Greek secret service. So every member of your group who was talking with Mr Kyrtsos was also spied on – probably you or somebody else. So is this a problem, a moral and political problem for you, or just ‘stuff happens’ – something normal, you know?

Madam President, Mr Commissioner, unfortunately, the rule of law is declining in Greece, and Greece is becoming a kind of banana republic. The perpetrators, the rapists of the rule of law and of democracy, are taking now revenge. I’ll give you an example. You know, Mr Demetriades is the nephew of the Prime Minister and was the centre of the spying scandal. You know what he’s doing now? First of all, he has public dinners with Mr Mitsotakis just to say that nothing happened. And then he is suing, he is bringing to justice independent media, the media that were reporting on the scandal of wiretapping. The last victim is an independent non-profit electronic newspaper, tvxs.gr, from which Mr Demetriades is asking more than half a million euros for 11 articles reporting on the scandal: 50 000 euros an article. This is a SLAPP case. It is a typical SLAPP case. But it says a lot about the audacity of the perpetrators.

Madam President, I am surprised that some people are only crying about the Israeli victims – correctly, they are crying – but they are saying nothing about the massacres of thousands of Palestinians. But this is not my point right now. The point is that the European Union is losing another opportunity to play a role in international affairs by not following the United States, by not supporting or tolerating this war criminal, Netanyahu – who is staying in power as long as the war is continuing, because if the war stops he will be judged for corruption. So let’s support South Africa, which brought the case of genocide to the International Court of Justice, and let’s ask for an immediate ceasefire.

Dear colleague, you mentioned correctly the atrocities of 7 October as well as the hostages question. I am very much surprised you said nothing about the thousands of Palestinians assassinated in Gaza, including thousands and thousands of children. Why not? Are you thinking those victims and the killings are justified? And another question: you know the South Africans know something about apartheid. Why do you think they are putting the case of genocide in the international court? Is it a kind of a communist conspiracy or what?

Mr President, you know, sometimes there are very ironic historical coincidences. One hour ago, a Greek journalist, Stavros Malichudis, was awarded, among other journalists, the Daphne Caruana award we give in Parliament. The same person – Stavros Malichudis – was a victim of the spyware scandal in Greece one year ago. And you know, the pretext was that he was spied on because of national security protection. Now the Council wants to introduce the exemption for states to spy on journalists for national security. The Council must answer: how can you prevent ruthless governments – like the Orbán government or the Greek Government – from using the exception to spy on honest journalists like the one who just received the Caruana Prize. How can you exclude that? Can you prevent that? What about the recommendations of the PEGA Committee? One of the recommendations was to reinforce the independent authorities. And now in Greece, we have exactly the opposite: the violation of the independent authority concerning spyware.

Madam President, you said, Mr Commissioner, that when we started working on this act, it looked like mission impossible. What we managed was exactly what is happening in the cinema. We succeeded in a mission impossible. And, well, you know, in in my country, Greece, we have all the bad symptoms we were having all over Europe. We have control by the state, by the strong financial interests, we have censorship, self-censorship, we have assassinations of journalists, and also we have spying on journalists. So this act is very encouraging, is coming like fresh air for us. And that’s why including the control of the of the big platforms is very, very important with what we are doing now? You said before that there have been a lot of pressure, but really that’s the role of the good Parliament to fight against the political outside pressure, to fight against the financial interests, to do the good job and to promote democracy and justice. And I wanted to thank you and all the other colleagues for the work that has been done.

Mr President, Commissioner, we are very happy to see you here, for once, because for a year and a half, when there were repeated scandals, the Commission was completely absent, without any statement. Meanwhile, we were under attack. The Chair of the Committee was driven like a spy of Russia, as an enemy of the people. The Catalans, we have heard now, are the enemy of the people. Ms Sophie in 't Veld, the rapporteur, was daily taken in Greece by the Greek pro-government media as ‘Madam Sophie’ – attack after attack, and we had done nothing. Now, it’s time for the Commission to do its job and take the recommendations seriously and follow whether the Member States implement the recommendations.

Mr Weber, why have you left the poor colleague, Mr Lenaers, to argue, exactly again, as you said two minutes ago? One last thing, the rule of law in Greece is not a national issue. You know, two of our colleagues have been spied on here. All of us who were talking with them, including Mr Kyrtsos, who was in your party before you, and the Greek secret services were listening to you, Mr Weber. Are you going to talk about that? (The President cut off the speaker)

Mr President, these days is the 20th anniversary of the criminal and unlawful invasion in Iraq. So some days ago we voted and we did well to bring in justice the Russian leader, Mr Putin, for each invasion. Don't you think now, dear colleagues, it would be a good idea to bring in justice the Mr Bush and Mr Blair for their criminal actions? (Noises off) I know you like him, I know you like him, don't worry! One million people died. Somebody must pay for this.

Mr President, I say to the Commissioner that we have to stop this theatre of pretending the Commission collaborates with the Parliament. There is no collaboration at all. It's an operation to cover up the scandals. I am surprised you are talking about individual cases. Well, they were spying on two Members of the European Parliament. This is not an individual case. This has to do with democracy. In Greece, they were spying on 100 people, the ministers, the chief of the military. You know, the prime minister was spying on his sister, his nephew, the sister of your nephew, everybody. This is not an individual case. And Ms Ursula von der Leyen said nothing about that. Mute! There is nothing she did not understand. No, she understood very well. We went to Greece. It was a theater of public relations, but we had no answers. You have to tell Ms von der Leyen to stop covering up the scandal in Greece and in other Member States. And it must stop covering up the scandal of Mr Mitsotákis just because they belong to the same political family. This is the same, and it must be stopped.

Madam President, it is very positive that we have managed to reach an agreement on this draft regulation, despite the reservations and objections of the more conservative wing of this House. It is very important that this agreement was reached despite the reactions of the big platforms, which want to monopolize information and advertising on the internet and want to treat citizens not as real citizens who can decide for themselves but simply as numbers or money. That's not enough. We must also promote positive measures, help small media outlets, independent media in each country to withstand competition from the big platforms and to transparently and democratically promote the political platforms of the parties, so that citizens can vote freely.

Mr President, Madam Commissioner, I’m not challenging your good intentions, but, you know, sometimes good intentions cannot prevent hell. And what’s happening in different countries of the European Union is hell. We just heard the spokesmen of Italian hell just now. And I know what’s happening in my country, Greece, where it is hell that the people that will express solidarity with the refugees are charged as a criminal organisation. It is hell that if refugees are just touching the wheel, they are condemned to 142 years in prison. We just managed last month to get out of prison refugees from Afghanistan, they got 50 years. And when the trial occurred, finally, the prosecutor said, ‘Why is this guy here? There’s not a single piece of evidence against him. He has spent two and a half years in prison.’ And he tried to commit suicide. This is hell. And so yes, I fully agree with you as to your intentions, but do something concrete, you know, against hell.

Madam President, it is very positive that almost all parties are in favour of enlargement, as the rapporteur proposes. There is an exception for the imperialists of the extreme right – they are not here, they are gone now – but the rest of us agree that we must move ahead with the Copenhagen criteria firmly and with a renewed desire to enlarge. And we must, in this effort, overcome nationalism and national selfishness and move forward together. By the way, Commissioner, I would like to say that a landmark agreement was the Prespa agreement between Greece and North Macedonia, and three memoranda of further cooperation remain to be approved from that agreement, but the Greek government is not bringing them to the Greek Parliament for adoption. Please ask to go ahead and bring them to the vote.

Mr President, Mr Commissioner, let’s say you are taking as your personal responsibility the secret services of the Commission. And you say, ‘No, no, no, it does not belong to the Commission, it belongs to myself’. That happened with Mr Mitsotakis. And then it appears that the secret services of the Commission are tapping Mr Androulakis. It also appears that the results of the Predator system that is shared, at the same time, it follows Mr Androulakis. And then you say, ‘No, no, no, I didn’t know anything, I have no personal responsibility and Predator, what is that all about?’ You think if you would say that, we would believe you? That is my question.

Dear colleague, I would like to ask you, because the government says that it was following Mr Androulakis because of a national security issue, whether you could also agree to launch an appeal to the Greek Government to disclose to us what kind of security national security issue it was. I talked with Mr Androulakis as a deputy, and a lot of people here were talking with him. So they were also being followed, indirectly, by Greek national security. So we have to ask: is he a spy, or what? Is he a criminal or what?

Mr President, colleagues, thanks a lot for your patience. I wanted to ask for the presidium to make an inquiry, because yesterday we had a very sad event in the European Parliament, on the site of the European Parliament, the official site. There was a report published by Reporters Without Borders – the annual report – and then yesterday it was removed. This is one of the first times there is censorship within the official site of the European Parliament – I guess because of repression of a foreign government. So please inquire into that.

Mr President, we have in the European continent a barbaric invasion nowadays, because of nationalism and history, and the question with North Macedonia is what happens if we leave it again to nationalism and history to prevent the future, to destroy the future. North Macedonia and the government have done everything we have asked, but still the case is not going on. We have to fight the nationalism and the history that prevents that, coming this time from Bulgaria. Also, we have to prevent the nationalism and the history that is coming also from the Greek Government, because after the historic agreement of Prespa, there are three memorandums to be implemented between Greece and North Macedonia to finalise the agreement. And you know what’s happening, Mr Commissioner? The Greek Government is not implementing the memorandum, and is not bringing the memorandum to the Parliament to be voted. You know why? Because they are afraid of nationalism and history. So are you going to do something on that as the Commission? Are you going to ask Mr Mitsotakis to bring the memorandum, as the agreement of Prespa stipulates, or do we leave again history and nationalism to prevent the future?

Mr President, Commissioner, there is also a Commissioner for the European way of life, and I would like him to be here today and ask him what this European way of life is. Because in Europe, one is watching the other. Is this the European way of life? Is this the Europe we want? And it's not just Pegasus, there's another system, Predator. A Greek journalist, Mr. Koukakis, was monitored by this system. He was followed by the government, which admitted it. What was this reporter investigating? He was investigating legislative changes by the government that facilitated financial crime and corruption. Therefore, ladies and gentlemen of Poland and Hungary, you are not alone; Now there are others. Everyone is watching everyone and there must be a legislative system that radically or with very severe penalties prohibits the use of such instruments in the European Union. Perfect and dash.