Speeches

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, we need a Europe with more strength to the outside and more freedom to the inside. And at the moment, we are experiencing an era when the European Commission contributes a lot to a Europe with more freedom to the inside: deregulation, simplification, competitiveness – that's what we were thriving for for a long time and what's happening now. But we also need a Europe with more strength to the outside for the sake of European values, for the sake of the interests of the Europeans of this generation and of generations to come, and that means fostering the enlargement process. We have to be aware of the fact that the so-called 'methodologies' of accession to the European Union just haven't worked. They haven't worked for many years. I remember at the beginning of the last mandate, here, we were more or less obliged to define a new methodology for the enlargement process. Did it help? No, not at all. While many European countries, nearly all of them, want to be part of the integrated Europe, of the European Union, the best shape our continent ever had in history, while this is the case on one side, on the other side, we are reluctant and stuck in bureaucracy, in so-called 'methodologies', when it comes to enlargement. We need a more holistic and a more visionary approach here.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Today we are discussing the return of those Ukrainian children who were abducted from Ukraine in the course of the Putin-Russia war of aggression. You have to keep that in mind, and you have to tell that to the whole world – and you have to tell that to those who keep trying to relativise. They're the smallest, they're the most vulnerable. It is those who would be most reliant on the help of other people on whom Putin-Russia commits its war crimes. I have no doubt that Russian parents love their children as much as all parents love their children. But I can't imagine anyone approving what's going on with these kids. The children must be brought back. This must be part of any future peace agreement for a free Ukraine, and without retraumatization and without new traumatization, these children must be brought back. They deserve a future in freedom and a future in the knowledge of their Ukrainian identity.

Madam President, dear colleagues, dear honourable High Representative/Vice-President Kallas, first, I want to again emphasise, as I do time and again, the difference between Islam and Islamism, between the religion of Islam and the harmful ideology of political Islam, between the religion that deserves and enjoys all the rights of religious freedom, on the one side, and Islamism – a violent, harmful ideology causing bloodshed all over the world. It's important to emphasise that because we Europeans, we the European Union, defend religious freedom and we also defend ourselves against attacks of Islamism, and we defend those who would be attacked by jihadists, by Islamists all over the world. This is exactly what we do with today's resolution, because Christians were killed and tortured because they were Christians, because they are Christians. That's the reason why I want to praise and appreciate, High Representative, your clear stance when it comes to our adversary in Moscow and everything related to that. I want to draw attention to the fact that Moscow is aligned with Tehran, Pyongyang and Islamism, and our adversaries to the east are more or less on the same table against Europe. We have to see the connection. This is also what we address to the outside and to the inside to fight this kind of attacks against our civilisation.

Madam President, My Italian is just enough to agree with what you have just said, Madam President, and I thank you very much for that. Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! It is important that we invest in civil protection in Europe in these times. It is important that the new European Commission sets clear priorities for security and for the economy, for the economy and for security and for the interconnections between them. Of course, civil protection is also part of security. Responsibility is always the responsibility of others. We do not only provide civil protection for ourselves – to a certain extent selfishly – but also for all people in our society and also for future generations. That's why it's so important to invest now. We have prepared – in my penultimate period here in the European Parliament, I was allowed to negotiate this, the Civil Protection Mechanism. It has also had a positive impact on forest fires, when European Member States worked together to combat these natural disasters. What was important back then, and what is important now, and what I would like to recommend to you, Commissioner, is that we think in a subsidiary way. In Austria, it is the Civil Protection Association and the fire brigades, of course always together with the Federal Army and professionals in all areas and volunteers in all areas, who cooperate on a subsidiary basis so that civil protection can really succeed and civil protection can succeed, and to develop this European civil protection not centrally, but also with those affected on the ground, that seems to me to be so important. Then we are on the right track.

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, humanitarian organisations call Sudan and the situation there literally one of the worst humanitarian nightmares of recent history. So, rightly, late at night now in the European Parliament, we use the time to reflect on this worst humanitarian nightmare of recent history. We all know the Russian attack against Ukraine is close geographically and is also close to our way of life. But there are also other crises on earth. In terms of quantity, Sudan is one of the major crises, and also in terms of cruelty – even sexual violence is used as a weapon of war in this crisis. Many among the most evil powers on our planet are present in Sudan, among others: Islamist terror, Islamist ideology and violence, as well as Putin's Russian forces who try to exploit the soil and to torture the population there as well. I thank Hilde Vautmans and the other co-negotiators on this file and I'm happy that we explicitly mention the World Food Programme in this file, which has rightly received the Nobel Peace Prize a few years ago. Three World Food Programme workers were killed some time ago in Sudan. And we can see that the funding of the World Food Programme today is the same as ten years ago, while the number of starving people is four times as much as that time. And my proposal today is that maybe it can be, even in these times, a cooperation project between EU and US to provide more funding to the World Food Programme, because fighting starvation must be something that's common ground for the EU and US.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! I did not make it easy for me to give Ursula von der Leyen a boost of confidence for a second term of office as President of the Commission. I have also received many critical e-mails from citizens for this voting behaviour, which I have made transparent. However, after 100 days of this new European Commission, I can say that I would do it again because there is no ‘continue as before’ with regard to the old period. We discussed intensively with Ursula von der Leyen before her election here in the European Parliament that there must be a way out of this over-regulation, that Europe must take the path that Montesquieu described with the truly liberal principle: If there is no need to make a law, then there is no need to make a law. And now with the excellent proposal on migration, with the excellent proposal on the so-called Omnibus package on deregulation, with the Global Gateway that will increase our competitiveness, and with security policy, there are many good reasons to see Europe's stability secured in a high-wave world.

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, I visited Syria three years ago. In the main place, I met with international organisations present there. Already then their recommendation was to make exceptions in humanitarian cases from the sanctions, which would have been important and which remain important, while sanctions also remain important, as long as we don't know whether jihadists have turned. Have we learned our lessons from the other so-called 'Arab Spring', which was nothing but the change from winter to winter in many Arab countries? We don't yet know. The outrage and violence last weekend show a different picture. We should align with international organisations, Commissioner. We should align with organisations important for us in Europe, especially in the field of border management, such as the UNODC. We should also align with our strong partner in the region, Israel, which has taken care to ensure that the military threat from whatever regime will not increase but decrease, and which takes care of stability in the region, in the buffer zone there.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Very often, like many colleagues who criticise over-regulation, I have criticised the inability of the European Union to cope with illegal migration from this lectern. And now the new European Commission is coming into action at a considerable pace. Yesterday we discussed the fight against overregulation here because the European Commission made a good proposal, and now, so early in the mandate, there is the proposal for deportations – if only one in five who are not allowed to stay is deported – so far this is bad. This proposal from the European Commission, if it is implemented, if it survives the parliamentary process well here in the House or perhaps even gets better, will lead to those who deserve and need asylum because they have a right to it, which is also obtained in the EU. But the vast majority of those who come illegally and have no right to asylum can be deported faster and more effectively. Full support for the Commission and for Commissioner Magnus Brunner on this path!

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! An open word: My heart is bleeding that every day I get complaints from citizens of my home country Austria, from entrepreneurs about how overregulation makes business more difficult, how overregulation destroys jobs, how overregulation prevents growth because orders cannot come at all or can not be perceived, how overregulation leads to the fact that we cannot survive on the world market with our companies that provide the highest quality services, because overregulation drives prices. My heart is bleeding because the European Union, we need it for our security, we need it for our economy when we think of the single market and everything that this single market has made possible for decades. However, if the reputation of the European Union among its own citizens is damaged by this over-regulation, then it is the highest railway that acts. The European Commission must understand that the path of the past period was the wooden path. It was wrong what was done. The supply chain law was wrong, it did not get my approval here in the European Parliament. Now, with the word omnibus, it should come to the fact that it is deregulated, that companies can work freely, that the European economic market can recover and that there is a future for Austria and Europe's companies and Europe's workers.

Mr President! Mr Executive Vice-President! Dear colleagues! Cooperation between conservatives and right-wing extremists as a threat to competitiveness in the EU – in other words, this is already a title that seems to be on the agenda and is to be made with the election campaign in Germany. The speeches of colleagues Repasi, López, Freund and Schirdewan from the far left made it quite clear that this is not a European political debate at all, but an election campaign in Germany. This is an abuse of this Parliament; But we can discuss everything. Secondly, we are the Christian Democratic Group here – the European People's Party; The Conservatives are another group. This is something that needs to be kept in check, because every now and then we try to throw everything in one pot. My distance from extremes to both sides is rock-solid, whether it's left-wing extremists or right-wing extremists. I keep this distance, the European People's Party keeps this distance, and that is self-evident. In the second largest city of my home country Austria – Graz – a communist governs. In Austria, the Social Democrats pulled out of the affair when it came to forming a government. Therefore, the Federal President had to instruct the head of the Freedom Party to form a government. And who does not withdraw from the affair, but tries to do the best for the state? Once again, the People's Party. What makes the extremes great? Those who keep putting them at the centre, as well as those from the left who have requested this debate today. Let's strengthen the middle! I like to work with Conservatives and Liberals, with Social Democrats and Greens, and if Extremes approve good motions, the motions will not be bad. This is real parliamentarism. This is the way we should deal with each other – by strengthening the political centre.

Mr President! Commissioner! Dear colleagues! It is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions that is taking place in the Congo, and I will say right at the beginning: If one or the other in Europe asks ‘What is our concern?’, then I say, for many reasons, it is our concern! Firstly, one of the values that Europe represents is human dignity and freedoms. That is, it affects us when people experience such suffering as in the Congo right now. Secondly, we also need the partnership with the states in the region to push back negative influences, such as Putin's Russia, that are being attempted there. Thirdly, of course, we are also concerned by any movement of illegal migration through organised smuggling, through the machinations that are attempted in this way. Therefore, it is not a gift if we want to help, but it is in our own interest. Fourthly, We need to look closely at who is doing what. If the negative developments emanate from Rwanda, ultimately the terror to which the civilian population in the Congo is exposed, then this cannot leave us to sleep quietly, because Rwanda is considered a partner state, has long been embedded in a project of the European Union's Global Gateway initiative and much more. If we see that even the World Food Programme - which always helps when it is somehow possible - had to withdraw because infrastructure and communication are destroyed, then that must alarm us; then we must look and contribute to the solution and urge Rwanda to end the negative, violent activities.

Mr President, when a person goes missing and remains missing, not only is this person affected in one way or another, but many people around; friends and family, parents and children would be affected by that. It is a pity that we have to say today the absolute rule to avoid persons going missing also in armed conflict is not respected anymore. There are more and more missing persons. Particularly Ukraine is suffering; Ukrainian children, men and women are suffering. Especially, as we all know, children from Ukraine in a large number would be brought to Russia and maybe other places. We don't know about their whereabouts. They go missing. The International Red Cross documents that more and more persons go missing. This is why, in the European Parliament, we time and again have to underline and emphasise the importance of human rights, of humanitarian law, and among humanitarian law rules, avoiding persons going missing is a major rule. Of course, also the migration routes which are caused by human trafficking, by smugglers, by organised crime, are places where persons go missing: 60 000 and more in Ukraine, 40 000 were documented by the Red Cross, nearly 30 000 only in the last years in the Mediterranean when it's about illegal migration routes. There are also regimes on this planet who purposely use persons going missing against their own population. This is something that happens in North Korea. This is something that happens in the Iranian mullah regime. And this is something that's also used against Europe when it comes to illegal migration, many times purposely. This is why it is so important to emphasise this issue and to bring it to the table of this very European Parliament.

Madam President, Dear colleagues! In Sweden, there is an explosion of gang crime of unimaginable proportions. I would like to express my thanks to Tomas Tobé and the other Swedish colleagues for putting this on the European Parliament's agenda. Sweden is exactly as long a member state of the European Union as my home country Austria is. In these 30 years we know: We can only solve cross-border challenges together at European level. That is why this Parliament is the right place to discuss this. This is the European family table where this is discussed, worked on and, of course, solved. I would like to strike three notches for the solution. First, look the problems in the eye. In this parliamentary debate, too, we have heard those who attribute gang crime exclusively to migration. And we have heard the others who have explicitly said that this has nothing to do with migration. Of course, both are wrong. Illegal migration has to do with gang crime, and the sanction is important. Cross-border police and law enforcement cooperation is important. But not only the sanction is important, prevention is also important. This is about values, about civilizational values, about human dignity and freedom rights. That every person is equally valuable and that there is not only freedom from coercion, but also freedom to do and do something in life. Freedom also includes responsibility. And that is what both migrants and residents need to be taught.

Mr President, thank you, thank you Commissioner for your clear words on this urgent and important issue, dear colleagues. This is one of the examples where we need a Europe stronger to the outside, meaning a Europe that can help when help is needed, and the Europe that pays attention where attention is needed. I am in strong contact with the World Food Programme experts and officials. World Food Programme was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize a few years ago, as many of you might know, and these experts have a very clear view on things. And they warn all of us, especially the European Union and the whole world, that this could become a so-called forgotten crisis while children are suffering. 14 million children are suffering from malnutrition. Just to imagine of what dimension this crisis would be, and the World Food Programme is dealing with it properly, but can't do it alone. Also, the European Union will not be able to do it alone. But if we mean it when we talk about European values, we really have to act. And this is also an example for what global gateway, a very important project undertaken by the new European Commission, can be about. It's not only about this or the other sector of business. Of course it is connected to business because we can help when our economy is strong. But global gateway also means that we will help. We will reach out our hand, we will connect, and we will interact all over the world with those who help. And there's also one other reason why it is important. Because if we allow to happen what's happening there, then other evil powers in other parts of the world who don't care for human lives, who don't care for children, would also seek for achieving their goals and objectives via violence and even worse, not caring for other people. That's why we have to act. That's why we talk in the European Parliament's plenary, which is an important step forward. And this is why we are together in this and will act after talking.

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, in 2019, at the beginning of the last mandate, I was meant to visit Tbilisi and to speak in the Georgian Parliament, on the premises of the parliament at a different event. But this speech never happened, because during this event a Russian visitor at that time took over the chair of the event, and the people went on the streets and demonstrated against it and the event had to be cancelled. This is one of the occasions when I visited Georgia – and I have visited Georgia several times – when I clearly understood that the vast majority of people is very much against the influence of this Putin Russian regime we face everywhere. They want the European perspective. They wanted a Georgian dream within Europe, but the party that's called 'Georgian Dream' became a Georgian 'nightmare'. I feel disappointed myself visiting often – and meeting here in the European Parliament even more often – Georgian representatives. And I feel disappointed for Europe, as the EU can do a lot for Georgia and others to be faster with European integration processes.

Mr President! Dear colleagues, High Representative and Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas, welcome to the European Parliament! I look forward to working together, and this is urgent and important. The internal political dimension of Europe, with the large number of refugees in European cities and in all Member States, and the geopolitical situation with Syria are linked. I was in Syria two years ago; I have visited several parts of the country. It was already clear at that time: The vast majority of refugees around the world want to return home, but are afraid because so many different armed groups are fighting each other, because you can't be sure whether one neighbor or the other neighbor might become aggressive. Even less is known about the neighboring settlement, and so on and so forth. But a reassessment of the refugee situation is of course important. The Austrian Prime Minister and the Austrian Minister of the Interior have suggested this. Other Member States followed suit. As far as Syria is concerned, Islamism is now in power, replacing a dictator, a brutal dictator. But whether this Islamism passes into a democracy remains open, and we must do our utmost to support this in order to prepare the ground for the return of refugees. Just last week, a representative of the Kofi Annan Institute in the European Parliament said: It is also a responsibility to return those who could contribute to the reconstruction of Syria democratically and in accordance with the rule of law.

Mr President! Ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, welcome to the European Parliament. It is good that we have the first debate with each other on the important topic of innovation. I am pleased that your very first appointment immediately after your nomination by Ursula von der Leyen as Commissioner for Innovation took you to my office. At that time we already explained the importance of innovation, and I would like to emphasise that today, here in the plenary of the European Parliament. Innovation is not just any luxury, extra, but innovation is the driving force of human progress par excellence, economic progress and the basis of our social security systems. Many people are concerned about the economy. Many people are worried that Europe will become something like the consumer continent, because we are still consuming on the basis of what generations before us have built, but what may be invented elsewhere and perhaps also produced elsewhere. Now we need a trend reversal. Ursula von der Leyen has been given a second chance by this Parliament. You are responsible for innovation there. If you make good proposals to this Parliament, we can move the economy forward. Strengthening innovation, research and development in Europe: The future generations deserve this on the basis of what generations have done before us.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! As a rule, a Russian agent will not say: I'm a Russian agent. He will hide behind civil society actors, behind pseudo-media actors, behind pseudo-scientific actors, will appear in public – and what are they talking about? The Russian agent will not speak of war as Putin-Russia is waging war, but of peace. And this is what we are witnessing in our societies as part of Putin-Russia war of aggression and of the hybrid means used against us to weaken us, to divide us, to make us tired and to blame Ukraine itself for being the victim of this war of aggression Putin-Russia. And that is why it is so important to make it clear that facts, that international law, that freedom and in this way the work for peace must be in the foreground and that we must not let ourselves be misled by those who want to fool us an X for a U and who do not directly say on whose behalf they are active, but who claim the opposite, but in truth get their script written by Putin.

Madam President, thank you very much, dear colleagues, the mullah regime in Iran was founded in 1979, quite as the European Parliament, which was founded the very same year. Parliament will exist much longer than the mullah regime in Iran: that is what I am convinced of and what I strive for. Not to mention that I was born the very same year and also intend to live longer than this mullah regime, which is cruel against women in the first place, against everybody who is standing up for freedom, liberty, democracy, human dignity, rule of law, who is just a part of freedom movements such as 'Women, Life, Freedom' which are clearly mentioned in our resolution. I thank the co-negotiators, I thank Hannah Neumann and Michael Gahler for putting the issue on the agenda, and I thank all the political groups for a nearly unanimous decision on nearly each and every point in this resolution. The biggest threat for Islam is Islamism. Of course, Islamism part of the problem, but Islam is part of the religious world, and we protect freedom of religion while we fight Islamism, political Islam and the terrorism that results from it.

Mr President, dear colleagues, (inaudible) defend democracy and the rule of law, separation of powers, independent justice, freedom of speech and opinion, freedom of press. These are pillars our civilisation is about. And who is fighting at the utmost frontier for this civilisation and for these values? It's the Israeli Defence Forces, it's the Israeli government and it's the Israeli people in the first place. So, I very much listen also to courts, but I also very much use my right to say my opinion in the framework of freedom of speech, freedom of expression. I think Churchill won the Second World War, not alone, but he was the leader. Netanyahu will win the war for this very civilisation, not alone, but he is the leader. He will be politically defined by the people of Israel in the first place because this is a democratic country – and this is one other of the pillars of our civilisation. This is also what people in The Hague, decision takers there should understand.

Madam President, dear colleagues, I want, in particular, to thank Mr Niinistö for the report. After the Draghi report and the Letta report on our competitiveness, we now have an excellent report on our preparedness militarily and in civilian matters against future crises. This is timely, this is important, this is crucial, and it's even essential for nothing less than our civilisation, which has been attacked for many years with military means from outside, with means of hybrid warfare from outside, and also from inside via disinformation, hate speech, ideologies of various kinds and populism. So we need this kind of resilience in order to preserve what we have inherited from generations before us in terms of human dignity, freedom, rule of law, democracy, separation of powers, parliamentarism. As we conduct the parliamentary exercise, also today, here, this is what we have to defend, and this is what is outlined in this excellent report we are discussing today. Our future threats come from outside, from Tehran and Moscow, from North Korea, from terrorism, antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and they come from inside, from the alignment with such powers from outside and also from populist developments within the Member States. To confront these threats means to hand over to the next generation a good Europe, as we have inherited a good Europe ourselves.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen! I want to draw your attention to what is happening now, and it has happened again and again in history, and we have a responsibility to put a stop to it. When Jewish people are persecuted, beaten and killed, there will always be someone who says: It's your own fault. And if they are not themselves to blame, then someone will find themselves saying: If they are persecuted, beaten and killed, then somewhere else there are Jewish people who are to blame for these Jewish people being persecuted, beaten and killed. And this is what is currently looming in our Europe in 2024, and I say half Dutch: This is not an Amsterdam thing, it is a European thing – it can happen in any European city today. And we must put a stop to this, because it is shocking and unbearable that Jewish people in Europe do not feel safe. But that those who persecute Jewish people can feel safe in Europe – also through the statements of some politicians – is not tolerable, that is not something we can allow – in our own interest. It is our dignity and our liberties that are being persecuted, beaten and obliterated.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The subject of the Russian shadow fleets shows that Putin-Russia simply does not adhere to any rules at all. I want to say that today, 28 days before it will unfortunately be 1 000 days – 1 000 days on which Putin-Russia is waging this bestial war. Many people are tired of hearing about it. I do not know how many hours of debate we have already invested in the European Parliament to uphold our civilization against this Putin-Russia war of aggression – but it continues. Putin-Russia does not abide by international law, by international law, by martial law, has committed the war crime of war of aggression and has continued to commit war crimes in war of aggression, and it continues. We must not tire of upholding our civilization, upholding freedom and demanding compliance with rules, especially during the week when Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa meet. We need to see where our partners are, and they are also present in these states; We have to work with them.