Speeches

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.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I will never tire of stressing that Islam and Islamism are different things. Islam as a religion is threatened by nothing more than Islamism, political Islam and its inclination to hatred, violence and terror. Who is funding this on this planet? The Iranian mullahs regime. Today, a group of students from the Higher Technical College Krems in Austria visited the European Parliament and the students asked me why I was sanctioned by the Iranian regime. Well, why they did this with their justification, you can read it in the press agencies. I think because I am not silent, and of course I am still not silent, even if I am under sanctions, because it is important to protect the citizens of Europe from one and the same Islamist terror that emanates from the Islamic mullah regime with the various proxy organisations: political arms, terror arms, violence around the planet. That's what we have to do together as a civilization.

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, time and again, for more than a year already, in each plenary week of the European Parliament, we have to focus on the Middle East, and that's a tragedy, but it's also necessary that we keep attention up for the ongoing attacks, terrorism, war. And suffering are in the first place citizens, in the case we are discussing today, citizens of Lebanon. Lebanon is not attacking anybody. Lebanon is a battlefield. Lebanon is a battlefield misused by the Iranian mullah regime, just as the Iranian mullah regime misuses its own population for their negative and destructive harmful purposes. And the Iranian mullah regime is not only using Lebanon as a battlefield, but also Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation, as well as Hamas as a terrorist organisation, not only against our ally Israel, but against all of us. So let's keep things to be in order and let's seek for peace.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! We are discussing the rise of religious intolerance in Europe, and it must be stressed that freedom is always the freedom of others, as Rosa Luxemburg put it. This is particularly true of a characteristic of today's Europe that must be defended, namely tolerance towards others. What we also have to keep in mind in Europe is that for the vast majority of people in the world, religion and faith are much more important in everyday life than is currently the case for most people in Europe. It is therefore all the more important that we approach other cultures and religions with this respect and also with the knowledge that the identity of Europe is firmly based on the Jewish, on the Christian roots, that the Enlightenment is based only on human dignity and the freedoms that come from these religions, and that we can best help the world in this way – also in terms of tolerance – if we exemplify it ourselves. I recently recommended a young Jewish student to attend a course, and she wrote back to me, she can't, but she recommends that Muslim student for this course. This is the next generation, because even in these times we live in, a Jewish young woman can propose a Muslim young woman for such a thing.

Madam President, Dear Commissioner Johannes Hahn, who faces up to this debate late at night, but is not solely responsible for what happened in the old Commission – which is not to be expected from the new Commission; We are sending him a leap of faith – namely that development aid money is being misused. The European Union is the largest aid worker in the world. This means that we help where people are in need, because this corresponds to European values, and that through this help we also transport European values as an example. But if people are not in need or if people in need do not benefit from the money from the European Union and if this money is traded exactly against European values, then this must be stopped, especially if bloody, bloodthirsty, brutally against these values is traded, and this is so in the case of terrorism. Today, I asked colleagues a parliamentary question on the case of a so-called university in Türkiye, where the professor spreads Islamist, anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli propaganda and, in addition, calls the assassins, the terrorists of 7 October 2023, whose atrocities we recalled this week, martyrs. This university was supported with Erasmus money, EU money, and students were even invited to join the European Union Voluntary Corps. There must be no more.

Mr President, Mr Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen! For three and a half years, during the previous period, we negotiated the Asylum and Migration Pact in the European Parliament's Committee on Internal Affairs. The most important part was then adopted by 16 votes here in the plenary of the European Parliament, at that time with a total of 705 Members. If these 16 votes had been voted differently, these three and a half years of negotiations would have been in vain. But they will also have been in vain if implementation does not come now. This means that returns work, that fast asylum procedures must work, that those who come irregularly to Europe quickly gain clarity and that as few people as possible set out because no one should be uprooted, that no one should feel compelled by food insecurity and the like to leave their region and possibly risk their lives – which is the worst – to lose a large fortune. Our task is to ensure integration and security in Europe. If today the Hungarian head of government was applauded, it is laughable by those who did not co-negotiate, who voted against the asylum and migration pact, just as leftists voted against it and torpedoed it for a long time, which is why it took three and a half years; The same, by the way, who criticized Margaritis Schinas at the beginning of the past period for the portfolio of the European Way of Life, our European way of life. The five years have shown how important it was to defend the European way of life.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The fact that the European Parliament is discussing the crisis in Sudan in order to contribute to solutions shows the geopolitical nature of this Parliament and indeed the geopolitical aspirations of the European Union. When we talk about a Europe with more strength externally and more freedom internally, it ultimately means that we are a reliable partner in this world for all those who want to contribute to solving crises, for all those who put human dignity and freedoms at the forefront. And the emphasis here is on the reliability of the European Union. You should be able to count on us to contribute. The European Union is by far the largest aid worker in the world, as the technical terminology often says. We are strong in the soft power, in development aid. We are still weak in the hard powerBut we've been working on it for a few years, and we're getting better here. In Sudan, however, it is not about development aid in the strict sense. It is about humanitarian aid, from now on, in the second where people suffer, where people suffer from hunger, where there is a food crisis – but man-made by conflict and war, man-made – where women and children in particular suffer and where we have to look in particular. And that is the second reason why it has a strong message that the European Parliament is dealing with this crisis: because it threatens to be forgotten in the media and in public perception, because attention is focused on the immediate crisis in Europe, in Ukraine, because the media attention is daily in the Middle East. But in Sudan, people are suffering, and that is bad for these people, but it is relevant for Europe when it comes to irregular migration, when it comes to destabilisation. It is in everyone's interest to end the conflict and help people.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Hand on heart – many call political Brussels a Bubble, a bubble, and active parliamentarians from this House from all directions and Member States are trying every day to pierce this bubble and to advance this Europe together with the citizens. This is also the task of a parliament. Perhaps even more than that, of course, the United Nations – especially at its headquarters – is a bubble, and that is why it was so important for parliamentarians to participate there that we could be present there as a delegation on behalf of the citizens, under the leadership of the head of the delegation Barry Andrews, who also chairs our Committee on Development, and with the presence of the President of the European Parliament herself, Roberta Metsola, who, as one of the highest-ranking representatives of the world, even attended this summit. I would like to address two special events, namely our exchange with the experts from the World Food Programme. They do not form BubbleThey are where humanitarian aid is needed and they have clearly and repeatedly pointed out that the link between food security, food security on the one hand and irregular migration on the other is very, very close and that we cannot work on one without leaving the other. That's what we have to work on. Another date that seemed particularly important to me was the one with UN Women, especially when it comes to the HeForShe initiative, which has the content that equality is not a topic for women alone, but for everyone. I am pleased that our President, Roberta Metsola, has immediately taken up the fact that there can be ongoing cooperation between HeForShe and the European Parliament and that Chairman Barry Andrews and also Udo Bullmann from the Socialists and Democrats have agreed to this right away on the spot. So there are concrete results and we need to continue parliamentary cooperation on behalf of the citizens.

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, yesterday, the plenary of this European Parliament in its entirety was standing and applauding the relatives of hostages. Even more, I'm surprised today that so many speakers here criticise the State of Israel, the only rule-of-law-based democratic state in the Middle East, a partner state of the European Union. Don't they see the connection between the cruelty on the one side and the defence of Israel on the other side? I planned for my speaking time today to commend Mr Borrell for being at least present in the European Parliament's plenary, which he often missed during the mandate, and now he left again. He's again not present here in the plenary. He dared to criticise the Commission President, who, of course, immediately after the attack on 7 October last year visited Israel, as well as our President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, which was true leadership, women leadership also, and which clearly shows what to do. It will be the Abraham Accords after the war which will be developed and which will provide a positive future for the Middle East and a connection with the European Union.

Madam President, High Representative Borrell, dear colleagues, this very day, 7 October, is a day to drop clear policy points and political remarks, but it is even more a day of issues far beyond politics. First, it's about dignity, and it's about our civilisation. We commemorate the largest massacre against Jewish people since the Shoah, the Holocaust. Secondly, it's about individuals who were killed, whose lives were taken from one second to the other by terrorists. It's also about individuals who are still taken hostage today, and it is a day where we have to commit to the very values we represent here in the European Parliament. That's why I want to emphasise what President Roberta Metsola already said today. We ask for the immediate release of the hostages, we contribute to de-escalation and we stand on the side of Israel because, as it was said during other terrorist attacks in Paris, we are all Israel. Je suis Israel. As my colleague in the Austrian Parliament, Martin Engelberg, stated it, I state it today time and again.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! First of all, allow me to thank my Austrian compatriot Johannes Hahn for his long-standing achievements in terms of Europe, the European Union, European integration, the cooperation of the Member States of the European Union and beyond in terms of strengthening Europe externally, as this may be the last debate here in the plenary of the European Parliament in which we are present together. Johannes Hahn, you are ex aequo with Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, whom I also value, the longest-serving Commissioner in the European Commission and the longest-serving Austrian in this role. You're leaving big footprints, but I have no doubt that Magnus Brunner will fill those footprints, especially on the issue we're discussing today, which is organized crime when it comes to internal security. We must not forget that this is not just a collection of crimes, this is the lowering of the groundwater level, of trust in a society that happens through organized crime. This opens up opportunities for forces in the world who want to harm Europe, for example when the North Korean regime uses organised crime to finance itself, when human trafficking is being sought, for example by the Belarus regime or by the Putin-Russia regime to bring irregular migration to Europe's borders, or when our financial markets are to be damaged by cyberattacks, by cryptoassets; They are not currencies, because a currency cannot be privatized. A currency is something that needs a trustworthy, democratic, rule-of-law state, and cryptoassets are a gateway. Let us fight organised crime mainly through cooperation between Member States, European cooperation with partners around the world and maximum support for law enforcement and police forces!

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! I speak in my native language today because so many people in my home state of Lower Austria, throughout Austria and in many parts of Central Europe are massively affected by this flood disaster, partly facing the ruins of their existence. I just spoke on the phone with the fire brigade commander of my hometown of Seyring, Gerald Schmid. He says he has only slept a few hours since Thursday; It's been six days now. The same applies to his deputy Manfred Jiras. The same applies to the volunteer fire brigade of my hometown Gerasdorf with commander Alfred Kiesling, his command, his crew. Why am I saying this? Firstly, because we have to thank, on behalf of the citizens, all operational organisations, but especially the volunteer fire brigades, because they work voluntarily, because they do so on a voluntary basis. This is an example of how to act in a crisis: Keeping together – also an example for us in politics – and tackling when it comes to alleviating hardship.

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, it's good that we keep the attention up for the situation in the Middle East. And I just want to clarify time and again what's really ongoing. The Iranian Mullah regime has been attacking via its proxies Hamas, Hizbollah, Islamic Revolutionary Guards and others. Many parts of the world, especially the state of Israel, a democratic rule-of-law based state, a partner state of the European Union, of the Member States of the European Union. The massacre on 7 October was an extreme, outrageous event of these attacks by the Iranian Mullah regime. The Israeli Defence Forces consists of people who have trained all their lives to defend their country, who have thought all their lives of how to do it, to defend their people against terrorism. And they do it with military tactics and military strategies, as a regular army of this very partner state of the European Union and many Member States. I want peace, I want stability, I want democracy and rule of law. I want a situation of human dignity and freedom for each and everybody. That means for the future, the deweaponisation and demilitarisation of the Palestinian territories, a path forward to self-capable economic structures, education, fight against antisemitism and anti-Zionism in these regions, and then a security guarantee of Israel and, then, maybe one day, a two-state-solution. And it means that the EU has to support the Abraham Accords and the EU has to reconvene the EU-Israel Association Council and create a new EU-Israel Association Agreement to strengthen the positive powers which fight for rule of law, for democracy and against terrorism. The very same terrorism that's also threatening us, the citizens of the European Union.