Speeches

Madam President, The fact that Russia does not enjoy the fact that Europe is switching to renewable energies, that Russia does not enjoy our Green Deal, may come as no surprise here. The fact that supply bottlenecks are driving up gas prices and thus energy prices is a direct attack on the Green Deal of the European Commission and the European Parliament. I am not surprised that our colleagues here on the right take over Russia's propaganda. I am rather surprised that some Conservative colleagues are doing so. Anyone who hasn't understood at the latest that we need to reduce our energy dependence hasn't learned the lesson. We need a quick transition to renewable energies, we need a quick entry into the insulation and renovation offensive in Europe. Citizens can be supported by the additional tax revenues that our states have from increased energy prices. These increased tax revenues are to be made available to those people who actually have a problem with these geopolitical disputes. And we can cushion it like that.

Mr President, Commissioner Johansson! I would like to thank you for mentioning the more than 700 political prisoners in Belarus. Let me give you an example: Ksenija Syramalot – sentenced to two and a half years for co-organising a peaceful demonstration for free elections, democracy and human rights. I took over a sponsorship for her. And I call on all of you to join me in sponsoring those people who have defended Western values, democracy, free elections in Belarus. And a second one, to the Commission: We now have sanctions regimes. Yes, we still have to ensure that circumvention of this sanctions regime cannot take place in this way. And I ask you to consider extending the sanctions to include the raw material wood. The forest is almost 100 percent state-owned in Belarus. The wood is sold internationally and brings foreign currency directly into the treasury of Lukashenka. And so we continue to directly finance the oppression of the population. Please consider adding wood to the sanctions list.

Mr President, dear Commissioner, dear rapporteurs, we Greens very much welcome that after two years of lengthy negotiations, we finally have an IPA III. And we also welcome that the Green Deal of the Commission has left its footprint in this IPA III, literally amounting to up to 27% of all the funds going to climate and biodiversity and environmental topics. And if you know the region, if you know how many people suffer from air pollution in the region, if you know how the wild waste deposits look like, the lack of wastewater treatment that is still pouring the wastewater into the rivers, you see an urgent need for these kind of investments. We also have big infrastructure projects and basically a lot of concrete projects that will be put in place. And the more concrete, the more possibilities to also side-line some of the funds and the more possibilities you find for corruption. So we explicitly welcome the conditionality on the rule of law, on basic fundamental rights, on basic democratic principles that have to be held up in the countries to receive these funds, and if not, we can stop these fundings going to the countries, which is an impactful measure. We very much welcome that also civil society is included into the possible beneficiaries of that money, as they play a key role in the region. But we need stable institutions and we need rule of law, otherwise private investors will not follow our investments into the Balkan region, and I think this would be urgent for the region as well. And last but not least, through the European Parliament having an impact on Annexes 2 to 4, we in the delegations will have more leverage in our negotiations from parliament to parliament.