Speeches

The next item on the agenda is the debate on the Commission statement on the situation of prisoners in Hungarian prisons, in particular the case of Ilaria Salis (2024/2559(RSP)). I would like to draw Members' attention to the fact that there is only one round of speakers from the political groups. Therefore, neither spontaneous speeches nor blue cards are accepted.

The next item on the agenda is the debate on the Council and Commission statements on the situation in Serbia after the elections (2024/2521(RSP)).

– Madam President, dear colleagues, thank you very much for the appreciation of many of you, and thanks again to the rapporteurs who did such a great job. There was also some criticism, and I will not shy away from addressing it. Mr Hidvéghi wanted us to include criticism of a government that came into power on 28 December in a report on 22 and 23. OK. You could have put it in the amendments. You didn’t. Alright, there were some speakers from the right side of the Chamber who wanted this and that included in the report, saying whatever is not in. Well, you could have tried to get it in. The shadow rapporteur from the ID was not present one single time and also from the ECR, I think once. So I mean, you can’t stand here and say this and that and that is missing if you don’t work on it. And if they had been there, they might have heard me saying, which caused some criticism from the left side of the Chamber, that I only included in this report concrete mentioning of countries if we have an objective basis for it. Because I did not want this report to become a party-political thing. So we only have in this report mentioning of countries if we have a judgment of the European Court of Justice, something of the European Court of Human Rights or the Venice Commission or something comparable to that. So we really made an effort in this to make it as objective as it can be. But if you don’t contribute, then please don’t stand here and say what is missing.

– Madam President, dear Commissioner! The European Union is a haven of democracy, a unique area of justice and freedom and therefore a place of longing for many millions of people worldwide. We have fundamental values, all of which we have signed as Member States in Article 2: respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. However, the report on the situation of fundamental rights in the Union in 2022 and 2023 clearly shows that the protection of fundamental rights is under pressure in many EU Member States. At times, the common values of our European Union seem to be crumbling. Let me highlight just a few aspects of this extensive report. It was precisely these years 2022 and '23 that were marked by great challenges. On the one hand, there was the corona pandemic, but of course also Russia's attack on Ukraine in violation of international law with all its consequences. This presented the population and decision-makers with new challenges and tasks. In times of crisis, it may be justified to restrict certain fundamental rights for a limited period of time, for example, in times of pandemic, freedom of assembly to protect life. However, such restrictions must always be necessary and proportionate. And all too often crises are and have been used here as a pretext to hinder the work of civil society organisations and activists, for example, to justify disproportionate intervention in demonstrations or to establish emergency laws, some of which are indefinite in time. We cannot and must not accept all of this. The area that worries me the most about the deterioration of rights and protection is the area of media freedom. Journalists have been particularly affected in recent years by disabilities in their work, by intimidation, by spyware tapping, we had our own investigative committee on it, up to the use of physical violence. The increasing concentration of media in some countries, accompanied by lower plurality, is also a concern. In this context, I welcome the agreement on the Anti-SLAPP Directive and the Media Freedom Act, which, even if Parliament had wished more, constitute important building blocks for the protection of free media. However, it is a testament to poverty that several murders of journalists have been investigated only slowly to this day. Unfortunately, discrimination, including hate speech and hate crimes, is also widespread, and we have just talked about it. Poverty is also a form of discrimination, which applies especially to affected children. In particular, adequate housing is a prerequisite for participation in society, as is the opportunity for education. Only in this way do children have a chance to build a successful life for themselves later on. Finally, one aspect that is particularly important to me: women's rights. They are not sufficiently protected from violence in many countries, according to the Istanbul Convention. Their rights to sexual and reproductive self-determination are called into question. A democratic society is always recognized by how it treats its women. And there is a great deal of concern in some countries. As I said at the beginning, the common values of our Union seem to be crumbling in places. Fundamental rights, democracy and the rule of law are increasingly being deliberately eroded and authoritarian structures are being built up. This report is therefore also a reminder to all of us that the protection of fundamental rights must never be taken for granted. The guarantee of fundamental rights for all people is non-negotiable. It is the foundation of our free and democratic societies. They do not fall into our lap, but must be fought for and then defended again and again. We must therefore firmly oppose autocratic developments. This includes attempts to use vetoes in important decisions to try to blackmail other Member States. We must finally put a stop to this. This report therefore also calls on the Member States to submit Hungary to a procedure under Article 7(2) of the Treaties, which may lead to the withdrawal of votes. The text was also taken over in the resolution on Hungary debated this morning. You will find much, much more in this report in a total of five chapters. I don't want to go into that any further. I would like to thank all those involved, all the shadow rapporteurs, all the staff for the very constructive cooperation on this report. And I hope that he will find a broad majority in tomorrow's vote.

Madam President, Commissioner! Personal hatred, hate crime is terrible for the victims, but it is also a threat to any peaceful society. In Germany, we are witnessing neo-Nazis in the AfD fabulating about deportation, about people who have a non-German background and about people who want to support them. From Italy we get terrible pictures of neo-fascists who want to flush up the ideology of the thirties again. Margot Friedländer, Holocaust survivor, said two months ago: That's how it started back then. The enemies of democracy want to achieve one thing first: Their critics, all those who think differently, all those who are different than they would like to be, all those they are afraid of. We can't let this happen! We must protect all the people who stand up, who take to the streets everywhere in Germany for democracy, for humanity, for human rights. We need to protect women from being targeted online and offline. We must protect Jews from the unfortunately increasing anti-Semitism, Muslims from Islamophobia. We must prevent homophobic and transphobic crimes from continuing to increase. We need to protect people with disabilities and people of different skin colours, who unfortunately face violence and discrimination far too often. Everyone must be protected from hate crime, hate speech and hate crimes. And we need to create an environment where victims dare to report actions and perpetrators have to fear prosecution. This is true for all Member States, but it is particularly true in some. Unfortunately, some governments feel less committed to protecting some groups of people than others. This is contrary to our fundamental values. This is contrary to Article 2 of our treaties. That is why we need strong European protection against hate speech and hate crimes. We need a Council decision. Now is the time to act.

Dear Mr President, dear Commissioner! Today, for once, I did not want to speak to Viktor Orbán. But, Madam Hohlmeier, if the Group, the EPP, which for ten years held the protective hand over Viktor Orbán and made him the autocrat he is today, if the party, the CSU, which invited him to its party events as a guest of honour every single year during this time, if this party now points to others who have always campaigned for the rule of law and democracy and continue to do so today, then – yes, you know very well that not everyone in the Commission is of that opinion, you know very well – that is factually wrong and it is also indecent. What I actually wanted to talk about is that this European Union must use the next few years to make itself resilient by abolishing the unanimity principle and by no longer allowing people like Viktor Orbán - here we are again with him - to blackmail the EU by making it fairer, by including the European Pillar of Social Rights in the Treaties, by making it more democratic, by giving this House – the only house directly elected by citizens – the right of initiative, by strengthening it as a whole. In the Conference on the Future of Europe, citizens have given us a lot on the way. Let it be implemented.

Following the establishment of four ACP delegations, the political groups and the non-attached Members notified the President of the appointments to these new delegations as of 1 January 2024. The lists of members of delegations shall be published online and in the minutes.

Following the appointment of Mr Radosław Sikorski as a member of the Polish Government, Parliament shall, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure, make his seat vacant with effect from 13. December 2023.

Madam President, dear colleagues. Señora presidenta, bienvenido al Parlamento Europeo, querido Pedro. Thank you very much, dear Prime Minister, for a Presidency that began under challenging circumstances but that has achieved so many results. Let me just name two. One is that we have really come a long way on discussing new rules on migration. We’re not there yet, but we’re progressing. And the other is the AI Act that we managed to conclude, and with which the European Union is the first area to regulate this important topic. And also, congratulations on how you managed to get Spain through these difficult times: excellent economic data, very low unemployment rates. That is really something. Now I only have a minute of speaking time, so I can’t really reply very much to all that has been said about the amnesty. But as far as I can see, in these very difficult times when you have a divided society – and that has happened more than once in Spanish history – amnesty has been a matter to solve this. And if you manage that the Catalan separatist parties renounce to pursue their goal unilaterally, I think this is a great achievement also for the rule of law.

The next item on the agenda is the debate on the statement by the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on the need to release all hostages and implement a humanitarian ceasefire and the prospects for a two-state solution (2023/3020(RSP)).

It was a member of your own parliamentary group, so we are not accepting that. We are not having conversations between colleagues of your own group.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. If you listen to some discussion here, you might think that this is just another spiral in the Middle East conflict – but it is not. This day, 7 October 2023, is a turning point. It was the deadliest attack on Jewish life since the Holocaust. And it wasn't collateral damage, it wasn't an attack on the Israeli state. It was an attack on babies, children, old men, women and young people at a music festival – the only place where Jews could feel safe from anti-Semitism: in Israel. Hamas alone is responsible for this. After apparently years of planning, she slaughtered, tortured and kidnapped 1,400 people and more. At the same time, Hamas, as always, uses its own civilian population as human shields. It uses water pipes, which are actually intended to supply the population with bombs to build rockets – they say in their own propaganda videos. This is not a freedom struggle. Hamas is a terrorist organization that scrupulously kills Israeli and Arab civilians. And frankly, I would always be a little careful – if we are already talking about disinformation – to believe all the pictures of Hamas and the comments it has made. Israel has the right to defend itself, and it must respect international humanitarian law. Palestinian civilians are victims themselves. We need to provide them with relief supplies and we need to ensure that Egypt opens the Rafah border crossing, where there are 150 trucks carrying relief supplies. Egypt, open this border crossing!

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! It is still less than eight months before the European elections, an election in which European citizens have the chance to assert their democratic say. All of this will take place at a time of disinformation campaigns by autocratic governments and dictators who are trying by all means to attack our rule of law. We know that this has already happened in previous elections and votes, such as Brexit. Democrats do not fight with the same means: Disinformation, fraud, breaches of law, threats. This is forbidden for us. And that's good and right. But in precisely these times, we must not offer the attack on our democracy a gateway through inadequate regulation in the field of spyware. It's been four months since we called for clear rules for these opaque networks. Proper judicial control, effective parliamentary oversight, successful enforcement of export control are all part of this. The Commission has so far remained idle. The recent revelations under the name Predator files Once again, the urgent need for action. We have heard it again here today in this debate. They are the ones who contribute the most to our democratic community. It is NGOs, civil society, critical journalists, politicians who are the target of these attacks by autocrats. It is all the more important that we defend ourselves against such monsters as this spyware. Most people don't even realize it. It's not about turning on the camera or microphone somewhere. If you own this spyware, you almost have your mobile phone in your hand. That's all your privacy that falls into these people's hands. A request to the Commission: Give us, the democrats, the democracies, the means to defend ourselves against the anti-democrats.

Mr. Colleague, I am not sure if I understood this correctly in the translation, but if you have referred to colleagues here as traitors, I believe that this is something that the Bureau should at least deal with. But like I said, we'll listen and check again.

The minutes of yesterday's meeting and the texts adopted are now available. Are there any objections? That is not the case. The minutes are thus approved.

The next item on the agenda is the debate on the statements by the Council and the Commission on the dissemination of draft laws ‘against LGBTIQ propaganda’ by populist parties and governments in Europe (2023/2892(RSP)).