Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Serbia is a wonderful country with a strong culture, with hardworking people. As I keep saying: Serbia could be the Germany of the Western Balkans, the economic engine. It is the largest state with the strongest economy. What happens instead? aggression inwards and outwards. Commissioner Reynders, you are here again for almost the entire plenary week for the European Commission. Tell Mr Borrell, tell Mr Várhelyi what you hear here in Parliament. As a Commission, read the reports of the election observation missions. And don’t be surprised – no one can be surprised at how the alleged elections went in Serbia: If something acts like an authoritarian, undemocratic regime, if something reacts like an authoritarian regime, if something behaves like an authoritarian regime, then it may be an authoritarian regime. And it's over with appeasement. This is my request to the European Commission. Let's help the people of Serbia who want freedom. You deserve it, you deserve a European future. Let us be with these people, and let us do our best to ensure that Serbia has a good future after this regime.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, For me, parliamentarism is one of humanity's great innovations. Why? Because this is a political form of cooperation that also defends fundamental rights. And fundamental rights are part of what the European Union is all about. Nowhere in the world is human dignity and civil liberties so upheld, nowhere is democracy and the rule of law so clearly derived from it. But it is every day to defend what generations have built here before us. Parliamentarism erases what violence in the world was before, where decisions were made by force – that was the violence of an authority, the violence of the street. Parliamentarism is at least trying to overcome this, and fundamental rights are trying to enshrine it. Each generation had to defend fundamental rights in its own way. And we have to see: What do we have to do today? What needs to be done in our generation to defend fundamental rights? I believe that a new prohibition policy is a threat to fundamental rights. Appeasement – appeasement – towards aggressors in this world is a threat to fundamental rights for us, because they are also threatened from the outside, but also a kind of Biedermeier mentality or a cocooning, as former German President Christian Wulff recently said – the withdrawal of the probably large majority of people who want to live together in peace and respect, who understand that freedom is above all the freedom of others, who must be respected, respected and also defended. All of this is linked to corruption and other forms of crime that go so deep that they endanger trust within our society: These are all phenomena which threaten fundamental rights today and which must be defended and upheld through the defence of fundamental rights in every policy area and at every level, and ultimately also through the assistance of every citizen.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The legal philosopher Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde has said that the modern state lives on conditions that it cannot create itself. And what citizens create is free speech, fearless speech. But when hate speech enters our societies, there is a fear of freely saying what one thinks. And defending this freedom of expression also means taking action against hate speech. It is poison that is brought into our societies, from the political side, but also from people who do not perceive themselves as political, but bring this poison into our societies on social media and other channels. This week I had Daniel Landau from Austria as a guest here in the European Parliament. He took the initiative with others. Yes we care! Launched where the vast majority of citizens who want to interact well with each other are represented – respectful. And we defend them when we take action against hate speech, against this poison in our society.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, The world is moving more and more into a phase of confrontation. More and more actors are looking for confrontation. It is the cooperation that has made Europe strong, internally. And it is also the cooperation that Europe is supposed to make as a contribution to this world. That is why I am grateful to my colleague Željana Zovko and all the co-negotiators in this report for focusing on how EU world policy, EU geopolitics, EU foreign policy could be, namely much better coordinated. For years, if not decades, it has been talked about that the European Union should speak with one voice. But now it's really high time that she did too. The new period will ultimately offer the opportunity to reposition this. More members of the European Commission must be outward-looking. This will also lift the pressure of regulation and over-regulation and ban policy internally as more Commissioners promote Europe's strength externally. This will help Europe's internal freedom. And then to work more closely with the elected parliamentarians will be important so that the strength of parliamentary diplomacy – namely not having to speak as diplomatically as diplomats in the truest sense of the word, but often being able to go further, to be able to speak more clearly – can also be used. At the same time, Europe must not remain naive, make no appeasement, appease aggressors seeking cooperation, but on the basis of clear values.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! You have to keep in mind what is really happening: A state is attacked, an entire society is attacked by a terrorist act with more than 1 200 deaths – children, women and men. And then this state defends itself. He defends himself with an army that is the most watched army in the world. No army pays so much attention to how it operates, when it does what, what military means it uses. So in the full light, in the full attention of the world public, Israel, our partner state, defends itself, the only democracy in the Middle East, the only rule of law in the Middle East, which for years has made contact with the Arab world through the Abraham Accords, which almost 20 years ago withdrew from the Gaza Strip to give space to the Palestinians. What was the space used for? For the construction of terror. That means, what do you need? It takes demilitarization in the West Bank, in the Gaza Strip, to eventually move towards a two-state solution. It needs tribunals, but not against Israel, but against those who make terror, who also make terror in Europe. Israel defends not only itself, but also us against this terror. And I want to see that after months and years, when the terror will be pushed back a bit, there is also gratitude in Europe for meeting this Islamist terror. And Islamism is always to be distinguished from Islam, as I emphasize again and again.

Mr President, Vice-President of the European Commission, ladies and gentlemen! An important choice for the world was the primary election of the Republican Party in the U.S. state of Iowa, because it highlights what can be expected in a negative case for 2024, namely a re-election or re-election of the former U.S. president. An important choice was the one in Taiwan, which is sharply criticized by the People's Republic of China, although it was a free choice that clearly expressed what the citizens of Taiwan want. Why am I mentioning this? Because we are facing huge challenges in 2024: Europe is still not at peace, it is still war on the European continent by the attack of Putin-Russia on an important European country, a great European country that defends itself with great bravery and that is supported in this defense by the European Union, by its Member States. We must be able to assert ourselves confidently as the EU in these times, because the help from other parts of the world is rather no longer to be expected.

Madam President Regner, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The European Labour Authority is important if it is doing the right thing. We see that there is a lot to do on the continent of Europe, in our Member States, and that it takes a lot of hands to get the job done, especially in times of economic crisis, even a recession in some parts of Europe. At the same time, we are experiencing labour shortages. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but many solutions are needed to address labour shortages. This certainly includes improving working conditions for workers, in all respects – financially, but also structurally, including in terms of childcare, including care, and the environment as a whole. Of course, this also includes reducing irregular migration and the opportunity for legal labour migration for people who want to and can integrate into our societies and who can tackle it in our labour markets. The international situation shows that competition with other parts of the world, where there is undoubtedly hard work, is growing, growing. Demographic and demographic developments require that what is possible in Europe – to maintain our prosperity, to maintain prosperity also for future generations, thereby also being able to maintain social systems that are typical of Europe in a global comparison – that these opportunities are also exploited. If the Employment Agency contributes to this, it not only has a firm place in the European Union, but it is also an important pillar for now and for the future. If it becomes a bureaucratic apparatus, through overregulation and perhaps a policy of prohibition, then it is dangerous. And then we, especially as a parliament, have to put a stop to it.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! An important preface to today's debate on the Defence Investment Programme, which is so important: What has made Europe strong is the cooperation of the states of Europe. What has brought us prosperity, made peace possible and defended freedom is cooperation. Today we live in a world where other forces on this planet are increasingly seeking confrontation. We must arm ourselves in the interests of our values, our civilization and the safety of future generations. And at the same time, we must not forget what we have learned from history, from the generations before us, about the value of cooperation. We must seek cooperation, but from a position of strength. And if states like Russia or China have increased their defense budgets by 300 or even 600 percent in recent years, and these defense budgets are actually not for defense, but for attack, then it's important that we invest in defense. And for another reason, it is important that we use tax money sparingly because European states will cooperate in the defence investment programme – currently only 18% of defence investments are made together. And it is also important because it enables innovation, including for the civilian sector, also for jobs and opportunities for the next generations, for the entire economy, thus increasing Europe's independence and competitiveness.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Current developments show that elections have meaning and that every vote counts. In Slovakia, we can see that the rule of law is under serious threat shortly after elections. We have seen in Hungary for years that booksellers are no longer allowed to sell books, for example, in a very specific case where companies – including those from my home country Austria – are also subjected to harassment, as is not likely to be the case in the EU. There are problems with free journalism and other problems in our single market in Malta. But positively, elections can have an impact in Poland, where a government that did not take the separation of powers and the rule of law seriously could be voted out in democratic elections – this is a positive development. And it shows for 2024, when not only we vote in the EU, but also the US and many parts of the world have important ballots, how important it is for citizens to defend their rights here. Unfortunately, the extreme example of our weeks is Spain, where a coalition government was formed that tramples the rule of law by simply making an amnesty for thousands of people, for over a thousand people, and suddenly the right can no longer be considered valid by the ordinary citizen, by the ordinary citizen. And then the Spanish representative here in Parliament today also has the insolence, instead of concluding the Presidency of the Council of the EU here at the end of the year, to do domestic politics, namely domestic party politics in Spain. We have to put a stop to this. That is why we have the conditionality principle.

Mr President, Mr High Representative, ladies and gentlemen! China does not follow the human image that makes up our civilization, which is based on human dignity, which is based on freedoms, democracy and the rule of law – this is not new. A few years ago, China mediated that it was about modest prosperity, as it was called there, and recorded considerable growth rates. But there is not much to be seen of modesty, either inwardly or outwardly. We must reject attempts to influence Europe and other parts of the world. I note and find remarkable what the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has now managed to do, namely to withdraw from 16+1. It used to be 17+1, now it is only 15+1 – after the departure of the important European industrialised country Italy from this attempt by China to divide us. We need reciprocity, reciprocity – Chinese companies must no longer be allowed in Europe than European companies in China. We need a Level playing fieldA reciprocity, and then you will be able to talk to China, but not on the current basis.

Mr President, Mr High Representative, ladies and gentlemen! The United States is and will remain our most important partner on the planet. At the same time, we need to have an open eye to the fact that 2024 will not only see elections in Europe, but also in the US, and that the world as a whole is at many crossroads, that only 25 per cent of people still live in democracies – with a declining trend – and that democracies, civilisations of freedom and the rule of law must stick together. This also means cohesiveness with the United States. But it also means independence for Europe. We were in the storm on the Capitol Hill seen on 6 January 2021 how quickly the great, consolidated democracy, the shining sign of democracy in this world, can also be jeopardised. How deep the shock still sits today, we see every day. It is important to point this out – in our own interest, to defend our democracies and to be on an equal footing with the challenges in this world.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Democracy never sleeps, and that is also the message from the European Parliament today, where we are discussing an important issue late in the evening in a context of an even more important issue. More importantly, we must not lose sight of the fact that Putin-Russia has been conducting a military raid, combined with hybrid warfare, against all of us since February 2022 – against our civilization, not only against Ukraine and Ukrainians, but against all of us. The subtopic is that this also means that the soil is polluted, that the landscape is polluted by huge amounts of Russian metal waste on Ukrainian soil. This does not only mean pollution, this means the long-term non-useability of the soil for agricultural purposes. It poses great dangers to humans and animals. It's about mines, but it's also about metal waste. And it's about very large quantities. We need to get this under control together with Ukraine in partnership.

Dear Mrs. Colleague! I would strongly warn against abusing this Chamber, this Parliament, this representation of citizens, which stands alongside the people of Israel and all people of good will who respect liberties and human dignity, for something that is obviously not part of the legislation or foreign policy or parliamentary diplomacy of this House. If you have a relevant complaint about something about which I do not know anything and which is not of interest to this House, then you should address the right authorities and not distract from the fact that we have to fight anti-Semitism, terrorism and Islamism together here. I invite you to follow this path.

Mr President, Mr High Representative, ladies and gentlemen! Firstly: Israel defends itself by military means, by regular forces, against an irregular terrorist organization that does not respect the lives of children, that does not respect the lives of women, that does not respect the lives of men, but that seeks the lives of all Jewish people, and that, in addition, develops its Islamist activities far beyond the Middle East. This is the second point: Israel is not just defending itself. Israel defends all of us – Western civilization, the world of values, human dignity, freedoms. This is what Israel defends against Islamism, which is always distinguishable from Islam as a religion, but which is very damaging to Islam because of its terrorist, inhumane attitude. Thirdly: Anti-Semitism has become visible in our capitals, in Europe, in the entire Western world, as a result of this brutal attack, against which we must also all defend ourselves, which we must all fight if we want to maintain our civilization. Then the topic today is on the one hand the hostage liberation and on the other hand the two-state solution. Yes, it is ultimately the Israeli military professionals who know how to operate to protect the hostages – children, women and men held captive by Hamas – on the one hand, and to eliminate Hamas in order to create peace, on the other. And then it is the world community that must ensure that there is demilitarization, and that is a step into a long future to enable coexistence at all in peace one day. (The speaker agreed to answer a question on the blue card procedure.)

Mr. Colleague, you are insisting very, very clearly here. I would like to point out to you that for me, health is not an issue that we should sacrifice for partisan political conflicts. It's about health, it's about citizens' trust in the health system, it's about achieving the goals I've mentioned: Documentation for the individual and for the individual, documentation for research, and this within a framework of trust that we, as the European Union, must ultimately ensure. I can assure you once again that I am firmly convinced that the majority of this House will adopt this act in such a way as to ensure this confidence and that we can achieve the goals for people's health now and in the future.

Dear colleague, thank you very much for the question and for the good debate on it. The wording is not important, the word is not important, the possibility is important. And here we represent the citizens of Europe, who have the right to unsubscribe. That is why I have also used the term "unsubscribe" as a general term. And that will be possible, especially with the European Health Data Space in the form we are going to adopt here.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Documentation is so incredibly important for the health of individuals and individuals that, if possible, nothing that has developed in a person’s health is forgotten. Of course, only for prevention and treatment and quite discreetly and not for third parties or even the public. That is why data protection is so important in the context of the European Health Data Space. At the same time, however, it is so important that we secure this data cross-border and sustainably. For something else, this data is so important, namely for the future, for research, research, research. Therefore, it is valuable that we make it possible to store data anonymously across borders, because this generation and next generations will benefit from the fact that this kind of research is possible. Especially from the Austrian point of view, the opt-out option – the possibility to unsubscribe – is so incredibly important to us. Just as the electronic health record is at home in Austria, so is the European Health Data Space. (The speaker agreed to answer a question on the blue card procedure.)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Socially, prohibition has never worked, and geopolitically, appeasement has never worked. The latest major example of this is the so-called nuclear deal – the JCPOA agreement. Such an agreement cannot be made with the Iranian regime because the Iranian regime does not abide by agreements. The Iranian regime is thus a threat to peace and security in the world. The Iranian regime is particularly a threat to us Europeans, because this regime supports Putin-Russia in the war of aggression against Europe with hybrid means against Ukraine with military means and is thus one of the few remaining supporters of Putin-Russia in this protracted war ultimately against our civilization. The Iranian regime is a security threat to the region and promotes anti-Semitism and Islamist terrorism worldwide. And the Iranian regime is a threat to its own citizens and there again especially to the women who are oppressed, who are persecuted, who do not have a free life, who are far from any form of equality. And this is not only approved by the regime, but also presented to the whole world with all repressive violence. We won't let that happen. We are making sanctions, we are debating this in the middle of the night in the European Parliament, because Europe does not sleep when human rights are violated in this way.

Dear Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, We are talking about the 30th anniversary of the Copenhagen criteria. The criteria are good, but their application has been in trouble and they are certainly not sufficient to give Europe more external strength as Europe would need. The Copenhagen criteria have a value dimension, an economic and competitiveness dimension and a structural dimension, the so-called acquiswhere compliance with rules is at stake. De facto, when it comes to enlargement, it is always bureaucratic-administrative, especially on the part of the European Commission, with the exception of Commissioner Dubravka Šuica, who is here today; she has come from Parliament, knows parliamentarism and knows what leadership means – reference is made to these bureaucratic issues, not to values. Otherwise, we could not easily negotiate with the current Serbian leadership or treat Turkey as a candidate under the current leadership. And as far as competitiveness is concerned, Europe today often takes itself out of the game altogether, but we demand it from enlargement candidates. We need leadership, we need a clear will – as in the case of German reunification and other moments in the history of Europe.

Mr President, Commissioner and Commissioner for Foreign Affairs! Yes, the weapons must remain silent, the weapons of all terrorist groups organized and financed by Iran: Hezbollah, Hamas, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards and all Islamist terrorist groups around the world, including in Europe, the EU, our capitals. If these weapons remain silent, then there will be no more Islamist terrorism. And yes, the hostages must be freed, and in those hours there seems to be an opportunity to do so. But it is not here in the European Parliament, in comfortable armchairs, that we can decide when is the right time to take a break to free the hostages, but only the professionals of the Israeli army can decide. The Israeli government decides this politically as our partner government, and apparently it succeeds. But some will never return home: These are the more than 1,000 children, women and men murdered by this Islamist attack. I am one who always distinguishes between Islam and Islamism. That is why I call on Muslims to distance themselves from anti-Semitism, which is now taking place all over Europe; It must be fought with all the force of the law, just as the rule of law will hold the terrorists responsible for October 7 to account.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, The times are over when so-called hybrid warfare against Europe could be waged by leading people to the borders of the European Union, to the borders of our continent, who thought they might have a ground for asylum, but had or did not have a ground for asylum at all. The first victims of this irregular migration on the basis of organised smuggling crime, on the basis of state-organised smuggling crime in this case, are the people who make their way, although more than 80% do not have the right to asylum, cannot provide a ground for asylum. The path is arduous, the path is expensive, and the path is life-threatening for these people. Others around the world have tried to pressure Europe in this way, as Putin-Russia is doing now – on the border with Finland, among others. And it is to be welcomed that the Finnish government is putting a stop to Frontex's support for the Finnish government. And for all those who still need it in the European Union, it must be the wake-up call that we finally come to an appropriate, appropriate and humane migration and asylum policy in this European Union. We are one of the most attractive parts of the world, but we have no clear rules. And when people from Somalia, from Syria, from Yemen are carted through all of Russia and then brought to the border, it is with full intent and to the chagrin of these people and of Europe as a whole.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Only a democracy is a democracy. And that means much more than having an election day. An election day that culminates in democracy, all citizens are invited and invited to vote. It is the strong sign of democracy that there is this summit, but the conditions that are rooted much, much deeper. It needs not only the right to vote, it needs the right to stand as a candidate, for anyone and everyone without pressure from a false judicial system that does not deserve this name, by restricting freedom of expression, for example, or by trying to favour some and thereby inevitably disadvantage others. This is all that the European Union should show as a shining example to the outside world and in which it should support other parts of the world. And this is not self-evident, because democracies are coming under pressure – everywhere. Democracies are put under pressure by systemic rivalry, but every human being is worth the same, and according to the philosophy of European civilization, every human being deserves such a democratic system. I would also like to say to those citizens in the EU who are often critical of democracy: It is better to argue than to have the calm of an authoritarian system – the quality of the dispute is crucial.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! We are discussing the latest cases of Islamist terror in France today on the basis of the agenda. But tragically, reality has overtaken the agenda. This week, when the agenda for the plenary of the European Parliament was already ready, there was an Islamist terrorist attack in the capital of Europe, Brussels. Almost exactly three years ago there was an Islamist terrorist attack in the capital of my home country Austria. In 2018 in winter here in Strasbourg, while the European Parliament was meeting – I remember it as if it had been yesterday – there was an Islamist terrorist attack here at the Christmas market in the beautiful city of Strasbourg. We must not move on to the agenda. We have said in each of these cases that we will never forget the victims, and we will never forget the victims. We will continue to fight Islamism. This is different from Islam as a religion that deserves religious freedom. That, too, should be said. Islamism, political Islam, is one of the sick ideologies of our time that endangers human lives, kills human lives at the state level and is represented in particular by the Iranian regime. The same Iranian regime that currently supports the aggressor Putin-Russia, the same Iranian regime that supports terror against our partner state Israel these days and hours. We see that those to whom our civilization does not fit in the knot work together, and against whom we assert ourselves with democracy and the rule of law.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Mental health has always been important, and even before the pandemic, it was important to break the taboo, talk about mental health and take care of mental health – one’s own and that of others. And it is even more important after the pandemic, because the pandemic has changed so much in our working lives – throughout life, but also in working life – that now reveals so many problems with mental health, with the psyche of people. That's why it's so important that we talk about mental health in the workplace today, because today we know how important it is to how people interact with each other. We could have known it before, but through so much work from home, from the home office, as is said in Germanic English, much has changed in the human network of relationships. And that's why we need to get out of this taboo. I am very grateful to my Irish colleague Maria Walsh for consistently and tirelessly putting this issue on the agenda here in the European Parliament. I am grateful to our State Secretary Claudia Plakolm in Austria for her own referendum, which she initiated, for the mental health of young people in particular. And on this path, we must continue to provide mental health. This is especially important for each individual, but also for society as a whole.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The European Commission has to deal with a lot of criticism these days. Criticism from citizens channelled through their European Parliament – and much of the criticism is justified. But the Ukraine Facility, the reconstruction plan for Ukraine: Here, the European Commission deserves great recognition for the pace and content of what is being done. It is so important that we now prepare in time what will have to be done for the reconstruction of Ukraine. EUR 50 billion will initially be taken into account for this purpose, and they will be good for the whole of Europe: for today's EU Member States and for Ukraine. It will be important, on the one hand, to provide loans and financial assistance and, on the other hand, to implement the investment programmes, including with the private sector, and, on the other hand, to make the so-called technical assistance, as the texts very soberly say, that is also to do the psychological reconstruction, to overcome war traumas, something that has unfortunately been missed in other crisis regions in the past, as in the Balkans, that must succeed in Ukraine. There will be a traumatized society, there will be widows and orphans, there will be veterans. It will be important to make mental reconstruction possible in addition to infrastructure. And I hope that many European, yes, many Austrian companies will be there in good European commonality here with Ukraine and for Ukraine. And I am pleased that all this will be possible under the leadership of an Austrian Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn in the European Commission.