What Ramona spoke about.

15

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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The erosion of the rule of law in Greece: the wiretapping scandal and media freedom (topical debate)

Madam President, the use of wiretapping technologies against independent journalists goes against the most basic principles of democracy and is a key feature of a police state regime. Journalists must be able to work without fearing for their own safety, and their sources must remain protected under all circumstances. This is something that the Greek Government should hear and understand if it cla…

14

Feb

2023

RO Speech

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Establishment of an independent EU Ethics Body (debate)

Mr President, at the beginning of this legislative term, the Commission promised to put on the table a proposal for the establishment of an independent European ethics body. However, it took a corruption scandal that shattered citizens' trust to put this topic back on the table. Why would we be afraid to clearly assume integrity? Why should anti-European populists have where to point their finger?…

14

Feb

2023

RO Speech

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Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence: EU accession (continuation of debate)

Madam President, over the past eight years, 426 women have been killed in Romania by partners or family members. In 2022, almost 40 000 women were victims of domestic violence. The 2022 Gender-Based Violence Barometer published by the FILIA Centre shows that biases that encourage violence against women persist. 19% of Romanians believe that a woman is raped after agreeing to go home to a man. 12% …

1

Feb

2023

RO Speech

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Need for urgent update of the EU list of high-risk third countries for anti-money laundering and terrorist financing purposes (debate)

Mr President, in July 2022, following the revision of the FATF list, which included the United Arab Emirates in the list of jurisdictions subject to closer monitoring in the area of money laundering, we sent the Commission a written question on the inclusion of the United Arab Emirates in the European list of high-risk third countries on anti-money laundering. In December, the Commission proposed …

18

Jan

2023

EN Speech

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Protection of the EU’s financial interests - combating fraud - annual report 2021 (debate)

Madam President, the 2021 PIF report revealed that the number of cases of fraud and irregularities reported by the competent EU and national authorities remained stable in 2021 compared to 2020. But the value involved rose significantly – from EUR 1.46 billion in 2020 to EUR 3.24 billion in 2021 – and this is really worrying. Detection of fraud and irregularities simply takes too long, averaging f…

14

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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The Commission’s reports on the situation of journalists and the implications of the rule of law (debate)

Madam President, press freedom is a key condition for a functioning democracy under the rule of law. The findings of the 2022 Commission’s rule of law report demonstrate once again that this vital pillar needs immediate reinforcing not only in some, but in all, Member States. To be very clear, there is no rule of law without a free press, and the reality on the ground is that too often journalists…

14

Dec

2022

RO Speech

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Defending democracy from foreign interference (debate)

European democracy is fragile and suffering. Extremism is growing, we have foreign interference in elections, disinformation, unprecedented threats against journalists. The wounds of our democracy have increased exponentially with the Russian aggression against Ukraine and are deepening. The Kremlin is sowing propaganda against European values in our home and neighborhood. In Chisinau, paid protes…

13

Dec

2022

RO Speech

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The recent JHA Council decision on Schengen accession (debate)

Mr President, my child's godparents are Romanian citizens who live in Austria and teach at a university in Vienna. From their hands emerge generations of young Austrians and Europeans whom they raise in the spirit of European values, European unity and solidarity in which we believe. And the Austrian chancellor, declaratively, believes in them. In other words, Chancellor Nehammer, my Romanians are…

21

Nov

2022

EN Speech

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Assessment of Hungary's compliance with the rule of law conditions under the Conditionality Regulation and state of play of the Hungarian RRP (debate)

Madam President, nobody’s trying to punish Hungary, as the Hungarian Government is saying publicly when discussing the application of the Conditionality Regulation. But we in this House have a responsibility towards the European citizens to protect EU values, to make sure EU funds are used correctly and that there is no risk affecting the EU budget. I know the European Commission is also aware of …

9

Nov

2022

RO Speech

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REPowerEU chapters in recovery and resilience plans (debate)

Madam President, I have heard the word 'reforms' very often in this Chamber today. It is good that these reforms continue to happen. Tomorrow's most important vote is the vote on recital 22, splitting the vote that allows us to keep the Commission text referring to the continuation of these reforms, while integrating REPowerEU into the national recovery and resilience plans. Romania is directly in…

19

Oct

2022

RO Speech

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Whitewashing of the anti-European extreme right in the EU (topical debate)

Mr President, reports from the US and European intelligence services published by the press tell us that Russia has invested at least $300 million in countries on three continents in recent years to influence our politics and public policies. They're tiny numbers, just the tip of the iceberg. There are Russian agents, and there are so-called useful Kremlin idiots, who make the Russian propaganda a…

17

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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The Rule of Law in Malta, five years after the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia (debate)

Mr President, one can fight with a gun or one can fight with a pen. History proves that most of the times a pen was a lot more powerful than a gun. For soldiers of the truth like Daphne, the fight for a world with less corruption, for the freedom of speech and for the rule of law cost her life. They killed her, with impunity until today, but they could not kill her story. The Daphne Project - Forb…

5

Oct

2022

RO Speech

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The accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area (debate)

Madam President, Romania deserves to be in Schengen! Every truck driver who goes through this hell all the time, every man who stands in line for hours! We really deserve this! The colleagues from the ruling coalition are here, I heard them speak, they had very strong messages from PNL, PSD and UDMR had post-accession all the Romanian governments, with one exception. I believe that none of these g…

14

Sep

2022

EN Speech

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Illegal detention of the opposition leader in Bulgaria (topical debate)

Mr President, there must be a misunderstanding with the title of this debate. It sounds like some hero leader of the opposition was illegally arrested in some third country while fighting for democracy and human rights. We are talking about Mr Boyko Borisov, former Prime Minister of Bulgaria. This House adopted the resolution on 8 October 2020 on the rule of law and fundamental rights in Bulgaria …

14

Sep

2022

EN Speech

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Existence of a clear risk of a serious breach by Hungary of the values on which the Union is founded (debate)

Madam President, I would like to thank again the rapporteur for her excellent work, as well as other shadow rapporteurs and colleagues. Together we worked very well in achieving this comprehensive, balanced and solidly documented report. Across the main political groups we are united in our condemnation of the deliberate and systemic efforts of the Hungarian Government to undermine the founding va…

6

Jul

2022

RO Speech

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Protection of the EU’s financial interests – combating fraud – annual report 2020 (debate)

Madam President, the protection of the Union's financial interests means a complex framework that includes mechanisms for detection, investigation, punishment, recovery, but also prevention. Whistleblowers play an extremely important role in detection and prevention, in particular, but not only, in the context of purchases made during the pandemic. They are those vertical people who, when they det…

18

May

2022

RO Speech

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EU Association Agreement with the Republic of Moldova (debate)

Mr President, I would first of all like to thank my colleague Dragoș Tudorache for this excellent report. It wasn't easy at all. The context of this report has been constantly evolving both for the better, with the submission of Moldova's application for membership, and for the worse, with the invasion of Ukraine. It is precisely because of this context that our message today is essential: we stan…

5

May

2022

RO Speech

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State of play of the EU-Moldova cooperation (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, the Republic of Moldova deserves trust, it deserves the European perspective and the status of candidate country, not because it is an important political moment to be capitalized on, but because it has proved to us in this crisis with great courage, but also beyond it, that it deserves this trust. Today's Europe is the result of people's vision for a f…

4

May

2022

EN Speech

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Discharge 2020 (debate)

Madam President, 2002 was not an easy year for any of the Justice and Home Affairs agencies, nor for the Court of Justice of the EU, as they all had to adapt to the new reality of the COVID-19 pandemic. I would like to congratulate the Court of Justice in particular for being once again among the top performers in terms of efficiency, budgetary performance, staff policy, cooperation initiatives, t…

3

May

2022

EN Speech

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Threats to the safety of journalists and media freedom, on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day (debate)

Madam President, an attack on a journalist is an attack on us all. I started my day by reading these words from OCCRP. Emilia Șercan is a Romanian investigative journalist whose private life and reputation are tarnished as we speak only because she had the courage to reveal a rotten system. When Diana Oncioiu, Vlad Stoicescu and Ovidiu Vanghele shed light on corruption and abuse within the church,…

6

Apr

2022

EN Speech

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Ongoing hearings under Article 7(1) TEU regarding Poland and Hungary (debate)

Madam President, I would like to start by thanking the French Presidency for resuming the Article 7 hearings. It is indeed important that the process continues. I would also like to acknowledge the announcement made yesterday by President von der Leyen regarding the conditionality regulation, and the fact that it will be finally applied to Hungary. I do believe, unfortunately, that it comes a bit …

23

Mar

2022

EN Speech

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MFF 2021-2027: fight against oligarch structures, protection of EU funds from fraud and conflict of interest (debate)

Madam President, in 2020 alone, over EUR 253 million of detected fraud were lost, and this is only in EU funds under shared management. This is the tip of the iceberg, as national data reporting is not accurate and reliable enough. But we’re not only talking about stolen money. We are speaking about a connection to oligarchic networks seeking to gain control over independent judiciaries and free m…

23

Mar

2022

EN Speech

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Suisse Secrets - How to implement anti-money laundering standards in third countries (debate)

Mr President, over 100 billion at their peak. Among account holders reported and identified, dozens of corrupt government officials, alleged human rights abusers and criminals. This is not the only Swiss scandal, but the biggest one, involving the second-largest bank in the country, fully ignoring Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations and all anti-money laundering (AML) rules because …

7

Mar

2022

EN Speech

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Citizenship and residence by investment schemes (debate)

Mr President, according to a Parliament study, between 2011 and 2019 more than 132 000 persons, including family members of applicants from third countries, obtained residence or citizenship in Member States via citizenship or residence schemes, with a total investment estimated at EUR 21.4 billion. Last week, this House called for an end to golden visas for Russian oligarchs. An urgent review of …

16

Feb

2022

EN Speech

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The Rule of Law and the consequences of the ECJ ruling (debate)

Madam President, today is the day when it was ruled that compliance with EU values cannot be only reduced to an obligation for candidate states before accession, and then disregarded after joining the Union. It is an ongoing obligation. It should be clear to everyone that we have a strong legal instrument that has to be used. The Commission has absolutely no excuse to refrain from using the condit…