Speeches

Madam President, thank you very much. Madam Commissioner, Minister, I would like to thank you very much. Energy prices are rising in Sweden and throughout Europe. We must act here and now. The proposals that the Commission is now putting on the table must be put in place quickly. However, I would also like to address all the Member States and colleagues in this House and say the following: Less nuclear power or the abandonment of nuclear power is not the way forward. Of course, we must rapidly expand renewables, but now put an end to your opposition to nuclear power. Nuclear power will be needed to achieve our climate goals, to move away from our dependence on gas and to ensure a stable energy supply in Europe. Many people are looking at this debate and now want to see that we are also opening up to nuclear power.

Mr President, as Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Development, let me be clear. The recent decision by the Council to extend the Cotonou Agreement until next year and the repeated failure to sign the modernised partnership agreement with the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States is very disappointing. Parliament’s view is that this modernised agreement has the potential to enhance our political partnership since it covers crucial issues such as climate change, migration, and peace and security. It is clear that we do need to tackle these major challenges together. Today’s increasingly unstable and unpredictable geopolitical landscape makes it even more important for us to enhance cooperation with our partner countries. Therefore, I once again call on the Council to overcome any remaining divisions internally. I do know that there is one country that is the problem. I don’t have to mention them but they have had elections now, so hopefully, hopefully, we can now come to that we can have this agreement signed and then Parliament will be ready to give its consent.

Mr President, thank you very much. Commissioner, thank you very much. Colleagues! Europe is in the midst of an energy crisis. People and businesses are hit hard. We need to change energy policy in order to have reasonable costs, but also, of course, in order to achieve our climate goals and get away from Europe's dependence on Putin. Investment must then be directed not only to renewables and energy efficiency, but also to nuclear power and, in a transitional phase, also to gas under strict criteria. Anything else would be irresponsible right now. To all of you who say that nuclear power is too expensive or that it takes too long, I would like to say that you also have nothing to worry about. Do not veto investments in nuclear energy. That is why I hope that the European Parliament will now make sense and vote against this objection.

It is well known that Emma Wiesner and the Centre Party have for a long time been working for the closure of nuclear power in Sweden. But you, too, have now opened up and see that we need more nuclear power in order to achieve our climate goals. At least that's how your party expresses itself now at home in Sweden. I understand your commitment to the need to get away from gas, but my serious question is as follows: Even if we are now investing in renewables, do you not see the need for more nuclear power and gas in the transition that is now to take place?

Madam President, Commissioner Timmermans and Minister Zacharopoulou – congratulations Minister, and welcome back to the European Parliament. Europa måste göra mer för att sänka utsläppen och för att nå våra klimatmål. Europa måste också göra mer för att öka tillväxten och stärka vår konkurrenskraft. Det är utifrån den utgångspunkten som vi måste landa i en lagstiftning som gör att Europa ställer om och inte stänger ned. Jag har i industriutskottet arbetat med CBAM, ett verktyg som i grunden är en bra idé. Det ska inte vara möjligt att med smutsigare alternativ konkurrera ut europeiska klimatsmarta varor. Men vi måste veta att lagstiftningen fungerar och att vi gör detta på rätt sätt. Moderaterna, PPE-gruppen och industriutskottet har därför lagt fram förslag som innebär att vi ger industrin möjlighet att göra investeringar och ställa om, och för att säkerställa att CBAM fungerar innan vi avskaffar den fria tilldelningen. Jag ber er kollegor i denna kammare att stödja detta. Detta beskrivs av vissa som att ha lägre ambitioner, men det är helt fel. En europeisk industri som får rätt förutsättningar för att ställa om och som kan bli en föregångare globalt, det är vad klimatet och Europa behöver.

Madam President, it has been eight months since the Taliban captured Kabul in a critical and dramatic moment. Thereafter, we have witnessed an accelerating humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan with a complete reversal of the progress made over the past two decades in the field of women’s rights. There are severe restrictions on women’s and girls’ access to health, education and work. The Taliban dictate what women must wear, how they should travel, and enforce workplace segregation by sex. This is totally unacceptable. And yes, we need to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. I welcome the clear position of the Commission that any future development assistance to Afghanistan will depend on the respect of women’s and girls’ rights. Nevertheless, even today, we, together with our international partners, are funding schools. We are funding hospitals. I think we have come to a crossroads where we will have to make a decision. Can we go on the path to becoming more conditional that this will actually lead to progress for women and girls? Or do we need to stop funding that? And that is the decision that I expect the Commission to make soon.

Madam President, the past months have shown the importance of a strong, resilient and crisis—resistant energy market. The TEN-E Regulation, I would say, is actually the foundation for that. Enhanced European connectivity will make Europe less dependent on third countries, and most importantly, on Russian gas and oil. This agreement shows that Europe has strong cooperation among Member States for more renewables. Europe will, with this agreement, promote and invest in clean energy that will be crucial for Europe to reach our climate goals. However, in the next revision, I would wish for Europe to also value the need for low—carbon nuclear and include financing for small modular reactors in TEN-E. This will be needed for our energy, for our climate, and for our European security.

Madam President, in these dark times in Europe the only light that we see is the bravery from our Ukrainian friends but, I would like to say also, the resolute European response, the unity, the responsibility and also the solidarity. Still, we know that this will not be enough. Firstly, Ukraine needs more support to protect itself. We need, for example, to stop funding Russian gas and oil, to stop funding Putin’s war. Secondly, Ukrainians need more solidarity from all European countries to welcome and integrate refugees. There I would like to echo the message from other colleagues in the European Parliament. I would like also to invite the Council to take this opportunity to have a swift adoption of the migration pact. Thirdly, Ukraine needs more humanitarian assistance. Yes, we have mobilised a lot, but it is far from enough and we need to establish safe humanitarian corridors that actually lead to Europe and not to Russia or Belarus. Slava Ukraini!

Madam President, Africa is our neighbour, Africa is our partner, and both our continents face exceptional challenges posed by the health crisis, economic recession and climate change, as well as population growth and demographic trends. The summit will be decisive if it goes beyond ringing declarations of intent and secures concrete commitments based on mutual strategic priorities – a win—win partnership. To be successful, the PPE Group sees three main points as key. Firstly, Europe and Africa have to work together to facilitate significant investment opportunities for business on the African continent that can support the creation of millions of jobs. This is necessary to keep up with Africa’s rapidly growing young population. We also need to boost trade. Moreover, with our experience in developing the single market, the EU must strongly support Africa in the same endeavour. Secondly, even more importantly, we need to have access to vaccines and to healthcare in Africa. This must include setting up capacities for local vaccine manufacturing and more funding to healthcare. Thirdly, we must tackle the root causes of migration jointly and build up cooperation on migration management. To sum up, it is time for a fresh start.

Madam President, like the Commissioner and Minister I would of course also highlight the low vaccination rate we see in Africa. It is extremely worrying. This is threatening lives and livelihoods across the continent, but I would also say that it is preventing us from achieving the vital goal, and that is to vaccinate the world. Now, more than ever, Europe must embrace global solidarity, multilateralism and partnership. We must continue to employ the Team Europe approach, double—down on our efforts to support the COVAX Facility, share more doses, resolve supply chain bottlenecks, ensure that global supply chains remain open and continue to support the expansion of Africa’s vaccine manufacturing. These concrete actions set out a truly effective global strategy that directly translates into more shots in the arm, as well as building resilience for future pandemics. This approach strongly contrasts with the empty symbolism of the TRIPS waiver, which would not only be ineffective but even harmful, with a negative impact on our readiness for future health crises. As Chair of Parliament’s Committee on Development, I strongly support the ambitious vaccine pledges made by the Commission and the Member States. However, my support comes with one crucial condition, and that is that these pledges will be honoured. I think we should be proud that Europe is doing more than others, but let’s make sure that we keep leading the work and end this pandemic together.

Mr President, let us be clear what this is about. This is about a dictator that uses all means possible to cling to power – the power that he has stolen from the Belarusian people. This is about Lukashenko trying to destabilise the European Union, and this is a goal that he shares with the regime in Moscow. This is not about migration policy. This is now a question of whether Europe can stand strong or whether Europe is weak. So, High Representative, I must say that now is the time for Europe to show that we will support Poland, that we will support Latvia, Lithuania. We have to protect the European borders. And yes, we should always protect European values too. But this is not the time to give in and be weak. So please, High Representative, be strong and defend Europe.

Mr President, yes, Europe is united in diversity, and yes, sometimes we have different views, but we have common ground rules, and not least we have the rule of law. The verdict of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, but also, I must say, Prime Minister, of your speech today, is not only worrying, it is, frankly speaking, unacceptable, and it is traumatic for Poland and for Europe. I must sincerely ask you, Prime Minister: why are you pushing for this short—term adverse political strategy of the PiS Party? Why is the small majority that your current government has more important than the Polish people? Don’t you take any responsibility for opening the door to take your country out of the European Union? Be honest with what you are doing. This is a political strategy, and you need to take some responsibility for what we are seeing right now. We need to keep Europe together, and we need to keep a strong Poland in the European Union. Please respect the rule of law and come back to Europe.

Madam President, thank you very much. Colleagues, it's time to start speaking plainly to each other. It is clear that we need to lead the climate transition. It is clear that we need to take steps to make ourselves more competitive. Of course, this is about making us less dependent on coal when it comes to energy policy. We need to make ourselves less dependent on Russian gas. And yes, then we need to invest a lot in renewables, make sure to transform a lot of Europe's economies. But should we be able to ensure that we have reasonable costs, that we maintain Europe's competitiveness? Then this house must drop its ideological opposition to nuclear power. For nuclear energy, it will be crucial for us to be able to both reduce our emissions and keep Europe competitive. We can't afford our own ideas of what kind of energy we like best. That time is over. We need to have both renewable and nuclear power in order to reduce our emissions, keep jobs in Europe and meet the common challenge. Nuclear power is climate-smart.

Mr President, we have witnessed a historic, brave democratic movement in Belarus. Even if we are not there yet, the efforts from the opposition hopefully mark the beginning of the end for Lukashenko’s regime, and the European Union must continue to stand up for the Belarusian people. But also, as we have seen, Lukashenko is now also using migrants as human tiles in a game with one clear purpose: to destabilise the European Union. This must stop! We must show full support for our Baltic states. We have to control and protect our own borders. There is no room for uncertainties. We must be crystal clear in acting against Lukashenko, and I urge and trust that the Commission will hold that line with no flexibility. The European Union has an obligation to support the Belarusian people.

Madam President, let me introduce this oral question on behalf of the Committee on Development (DEVE) and the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI), which is shared by my colleague Norbert Lins, who could not be present this evening. The fact that our two committees joined forces shows that fighting hunger and malnutrition in the world is not only on the development agenda, but basically it is also our internal homework that we need to do in Europe, linked to the Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy. Food systems are complex and include the production, distribution and consumption of food. Without eradicating hunger and malnutrition, we cannot make any progress on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Transforming the way we produce, distribute and consume our food is highly topical, also thanks to the Food Systems Summit that will take place next week at the UN General Assembly. The attention is absolutely needed because we are far from reaching zero hunger by 2030. In fact, hunger has kept increasing since 2014 and malnutrition rates are very worrying. Both have, of course, been made worse by the COVID pandemic. In 2020, hunger went up. The report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World provides a very worrying global assessment. One in every ten people on our planet is currently undernourished. In Africa, it is even double that, with one in five Africans undernourished. The same appalling number is estimated globally for children under the age of five, with 22% of them suffering chronic malnutrition. We are talking about 150 million children. As we know, achieving SDG 2: ‘zero hunger’ is about ending hunger, but also about fighting malnutrition. That is why we look ahead to the Nutrition for Growth Summit in Tokyo in December. This Parliament already adopted a resolution in November 2014, calling on the Commission and the Member States to mobilise investments for nutrition and especially to fight child malnutrition. I am proud to say that the European Union was a nutrition champion at the first Nutrition for Growth Summit in 2013, which pledged EUR 3.5 billion until 2020. Ahead of the next summit, the financing gap is significant so of course we need to continue the European leadership on this issue. However, our ambition should not stop there. It is not only a question on how to feed a growing population, reaching 10 billion by 2050, but also how to protect the livelihoods of nearly 500 million farmers worldwide and preserve the natural resources to secure food production. Let me now read the question that we expect the Commission to answer today. Firstly, how will the Commission ensure that the EU can take a leadership role in reaching SDG 2, including by making financial commitments for nutrition under the 2021—2027 budget, given the current huge global funding gap? Secondly, how does the Commission intend to use EU trade policy to support the global transition to a sustainable agri—food system in accordance with the Farm to Fork Strategy? Thirdly, what measures does the Commission intend to propose to support partner countries, and their local farmers, fishers, foresters and food producers in moving towards more sustainable practices in key areas such as animal welfare, the use of pesticides and the fight against agricultural resistance? We know that financial programming for the new Global Europe Instrument is under way. Resources will be limited and some hard choices will have to be made. I want to be clear and also to remind you that food security, peace and stability go hand in hand. The right to food is a human right, but it is not guaranteed for all today. I welcome that the European Union aims to lead by example in taking forward the transformation of the food system. We will follow the action launched at the Food Systems Summit and would like to see strong accountability from the governments and a clear role for the UN agencies. In addition to this, let me just mention that the Committee on Development will very soon start working on a report on food security in developing countries and the Commission’s answers today will of course already feed into that. Let me conclude by saying that a substantial transformation of the agri—food system is required at global level. The European Union must actively promote this global transition to a sustainable food system in multilateral fora and international events such as the UN Food Systems Summit next week. I am confident that, by working together with stakeholders across all domains, we can move towards the transformation of the EU food system and be more resilient and more sustainable. I look forward to hearing from the Commission now about how Europe will actually deliver this transformation. On behalf of the Committee on Development and the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, I am pleased to open up this debate now and I look forward to having the input from the Members and the Commissioner.

Madam President, the current migration policies do not work, neither for the migrants, the Member States, nor our citizens. As Chair of the Committee on Development and the rapporteur on the Regulation on Asylum and Migration Management, I do share the view of the Council conclusion that mutually beneficial partnership and cooperation with our countries are important to prevent the loss of life, reduce the pressure on the European borders, and to address the root causes of migration. The external dimension of migration needs to be an integrated part of the migration policies, but also in the development aid policies. The European Union is the world’s largest donor of development aid. It gives us financial and political means for a global responsibility to address injustices and inequalities in the world directly with third countries. We can and should do more to help people in the countries of origin and transit, which also gives the necessary assistance to the developing countries. In turn, this will reduce irregular migration to the Union. Debate on the external dimension of migration and asylum, including effective ways to address the root causes, should not be taboo in the European Union. We have to face this and we have to find pragmatic ways to go forward. The Council’s conclusion, I would say, is a first good step and I now welcome that we will have a focus on the external dimension of migration. I really think that Europe can step up our game and try to deliver better.

Madam President, it is evident that the current migration policies do not work for anyone, not the people in right of asylum, not for our Member States and not for our citizens. We are now at a crossroads. Either we continue causing further division between Member States with internal borders within our Union, or we move towards a more responsible and harmonised common European approach to migration. The decision should be easy. The political deadlock cannot continue. We need to move forward. Prime Minister Janša, I urge you to find a pragmatic way forward, try to unite the Member States on a common position that will stop irregular migration, prevent secondary movement, stop the deaths at the Mediterranean Sea and rebuild trust that the European Union can deliver on migration.