What Isabel spoke about.

Mr President, Commissioner, in Belarus, more than a year after the elections that do not deserve its name, the authorities of Alexander Lukashenko continue to crack down on the population, organisations and journalists who dare to signal their peaceful opposition. Imprisonments, unjust judgments, ill-treatment, torture, disappearances, deaths: this cannot be covered by the veil of passing time, nor by habit. We promised the Belarusian people that the European Parliament would not forget their unjust situation. We must continue to denounce the repression in Belarus, just as we must denounce the instrumentalisation of migrants by Lukashenko, an instrumentalisation whose sole purpose is to destabilise the European Union. Using human beings, destroying human destinies for the purpose of political coercion is simply despicable. It is imperative that the European Union remains united in saying that this is unacceptable and in condemning this hybrid attack. In this context, the EU must also determine the role played by Russia in all Belarusian hybrid attacks against the EU and the EU must react to them together.

Mr President, Poland has been closely linked since my youth to the aspirations for justice, and also for freedom and democracy, which the Polish people expressed through the movement around Solidarność. To have Poland in the European Union, like other countries, was, and for me, to repair an injustice of history. Sad, therefore, today, given the actions of the authorities in power, that Parliament has on its agenda the situation of the press and the rule of law in Poland. Impaired independence and justice, disciplinary regime in breach of EU law against judges, denial of the primacy of EU law: All this is unacceptable. The seizure of power over the media, with laws seeking to silence independent journalism that is critical of power, is unacceptable. Unacceptable, because it erodes the very foundations of our democracies. Without equal and independent justice for all, justice is not sustainable; Without genuine freedom of the press and access to credible information, a democracy is not sustainable. The scale of breaches of the rule of law and our fundamental values – because I must also mention intolerable violations of LGBQTI people’s rights – means that threats to the rule of law in Poland are systemic. I therefore welcome the fact that the President of the Commission has today made clear announcements in defence of our values: a media law will be introduced next year, the EU budget will be protected in relation to respect for the rule of law. These are requests from Parliament and also the objective of this resolution: fight to provide all European citizens with a society where democratic foundations are guaranteed.

Madam President, Afghanistan has made tremendous progress in the last 20 years on women’s and girls’ rights: education, health, civic and political participation. I will never accept the claim of some that these efforts have been in vain. Development aid must now depend, among other things, on the rights of women and girls. The actions of the Taliban say something other than their official speech. However, only actions count. Afghanistan was and remains a country dependent on humanitarian aid. That must be a concern. This is why a link with the regime in place is indispensable. Similarly, this link is necessary to enable the evacuation of those whom we wanted to evacuate and who are still stranded in Afghanistan. The European Union has not been able to do what it would have liked, to do what was its duty, for lack of means. Faced with this impotence, it is high time that the European Union wakes up and gives itself the means to defend its ambitions. When you are dependent, you are not sovereign. No single European nation has the means to play a truly decisive role on this global stage. Only a common foreign policy and a common defence force ready to intervene will enable us to decide and act and restore our credibility.

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.