Speeches

Mr President, with this resolution, the European Parliament unequivocally and in the clearest terms condemns the law recently adopted by the Hungarian Parliament restricting the rights and freedoms of LGBTQI+ people and, in so doing, also the freedom of expression and the freedom of the media. This law is a clear breach of the values, principles and laws of the European Union. I am convinced that a very large majority of people in the European Union are aware that this is about protecting the inherent dignity of every human being, that it is about everyone’s freedom to express themselves as they are, that it is about the respect due to every human being. It is one of the values, if not the fundamental value on which our Union is founded: This intimate belief that we are all equal, regardless of our sexual orientation, religion, skin color, eye color, whether we are red or blond, black or white, young or old, young or old, whether we wear glasses or not, whether we have an apparent disability or not, whether we consider ourselves normal or different. None, no discrimination is justifiable. It is as simple as that. I am therefore proud that we have a President at the head of the Commission who has not hesitated to call this law a disgrace and that our President of the EPP Group, Manfred Weber, has taken it up again today from this very rostrum. The European Union has repeatedly affirmed the rights of LGBTQI people and proclaimed its fight against discrimination against them. Our words, intentions, decisions and actions must now have concrete consequences. We need to enforce EU law within the EU.

Madam President, one of the peculiarities of the global human rights sanctions regime, our Magnitsky law, is that it directly targets individuals and entities responsible for human rights abuses. Unlike other sanctions, e.g. economic sanctions, individual sanctions against those responsible have no impact on the population and can therefore be applied without hesitation. Now, if the EU really wants to be effective, it must firstly broaden the scope of the sanctions regime by adding corruption; secondly, move to qualified majority voting for the application of the scheme; and thirdly, the European Union must act in concert with other democracies around the world when applying its sanctions. Indeed, with regard to corruption, it is a scourge that undermines the rule of law and democracy, allows human rights abuses and ensures that they are done with impunity. We must fight corruption that puts the powerful above the law. Qualified majority voting must become a matter of course for the application of the European global sanctions regime. It is inconceivable that one or two countries could prevent the European Union from taking decisions on this issue. Finally, it is by acting together with other democracies that we will be fully effective. These powerful people, guilty of human rights abuses, often enjoy property and bank accounts in the area of freedom of so-called Western democracies. However, if together we close our borders to them and freeze their assets, I am convinced that our overall sanctions mechanisms will not only be tools to combat impunity, but will also have a real deterrent effect.