Speeches

The next meeting will take place tomorrow, 5 October 2022, at 9 a.m. The agenda has been published and is available on the European Parliament's website.

The next item on the agenda is explanations of vote. I have three requests for explanations of vote on three different agenda items, but all from the same person. Dear colleague Seán Kelly, we are going to do this for a while now.

The next item on the agenda is the debate on the report by Miguel Urbán Crespo, on behalf of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, on Access to water as a human right – the external dimension (2021/2187(INI)) (A9-0231/2022).

, – Once again, I have the opportunity to correct this. I said I wanted to starve the corrupt Orbán system. And that's exactly what's right. If you can explain to me how Viktor Orbán's best school friend, Mr Mészáros, comes up with 1.3 billion euros in private assets, then I believe you want to do something about corruption. You're not even willing, the To join the Anti-Corruption Authority, namely the EPPO, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. If you're not afraid of independent investigations, join them. That would be independent! Not any puppets that you put afterwards in beautiful looking authorities, in beautiful buildings. If that's all Orbán's puppets again, we know that! In all the authorities sit Orbán's puppets, the whole state apparatus is pervaded by them. Join the EPPO and we will believe you!

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, This is the first time that the rule of law mechanism has been applied. I am addressing the Commission and the Council in particular today. 'Cause I think you've messed it up pretty much so far: Two years waited to apply the mechanism at all, to finally start the procedure the day after the election. Honestly, the arguments we are hearing now are served on the silver platter, which is a half-hearted application only to a very, very small part of the problems we see in Hungary, and then to be satisfied – obviously, we all suspect that – without really being able to check for effectiveness. My husband is a coach, a professional sports coach, and I learn a lot about how to reach a goal and how to keep a group together. And I know one thing: It's all about leadership. If the ‘leaders’ do not realise that they are upholding the values, the team will no longer follow and then it will fall apart. I see this danger here and now. If you screw this up, you will lose many, many committed Europeans here in the house. (The speaker agreed to reply to an intervention under the blue card procedure under Rule 172(8) of the Rules of Procedure.)

Madam President, Commissioner, there’s a lot to say about the situation in Hungary, so I will focus only on one point this time. Hungary has become a kleptocracy. When it comes to EU funds, 4% irregularities have been have been stated by OLAF. Four per cent is by far the highest number in the whole of Europe, the average is by 0.36%, so it’s ten times higher than anywhere else. Forty per cent of the public contracts are awarded to single bidders, which are usually attached to Orbán’s family and friends. We all know Mr Mészáros by now was a plumber and now is one of the richest people in Hungary. He has a personal fortune of EUR 1.4 billion. This is public money. It belongs to the Hungarians. It’s money of the Hungarian taxpayers and of European taxpayers, and it’s only used to foster Orbán’s grip on the country. Now we see a new authority being set up. If this authority is going to be set up with Orbán’s family and friends again, it will be worth nothing. It’s high time to act. The Commission and the Council need to stay firm, because by nature, the only thing that is really a weapon against kleptocracies is to prevent them from getting taxpayers’ money. So we need the Commission and the Council to stay firm on the conditionality mechanism and on the recovery funds. We owe this to the Hungarian people and we owe this to Europe.

Dear colleague, you said you are a proud Hungarian, and I believe that. But you are also a true European. So I would like to know how you see the position of Hungary with the current government in Europe and maybe what you would do differently?

The next item on the agenda is the debate on the report by Antonio López-Istúriz White, on behalf of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, on the European Parliament recommendation to the Commission and the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on the renewed partnership with the Southern Neighbourhood – a new agenda for the Mediterranean (2022/2007(INI)) (A9-0220/2022).

The next item on the agenda is the debate on the presentation by the Council of the Council's position on the draft general budget for the financial year 2023 (2022/2755(RSP)).

In accordance with Rule 241(4) of the Rules of Procedure, I would like to inform you that no request for a vote has been made on the REGI correction, which was announced to the plenary yesterday at the opening of the meeting. The correction is therefore deemed to have been accepted.

The next item on the agenda is the statements by the Council and the Commission on the relations of the Russian government and diplomatic networks with extremist, populist, anti-European and certain other European parties in the context of the war (2022/2743(RSP)).

Mr President, Vice-President, so Boris Johnson decided to withdraw from the Northern Ireland Protocol unilaterally, the Northern Ireland Protocol that he signed himself. He says it’s not working. Well, the Northern Ireland economy is doing better than the one of Great Britain. What is not working is Brexit, but everybody knew that from the start. What is not working is obviously also the democratic understanding of the DUP, who now are blocking the formation of a government once they’ve lost the elections. Boris Johnson and the DUP, they’re only acting in their own interests. They don’t care about Northern Ireland or the UK. They only think about themselves and they need a scapegoat, so they use the one they have put up before – the European Union. They keep up this conflict, which is dangerous, especially regarding the specific history of the Good Friday Agreement. I would like to thank Vice-President Šefčovič for his patience and firmness, facing a counterpart who is not even looking for solutions. And I want to say to all the people in the UK and especially Northern Ireland, we will keep a light on.

The next item on the agenda is the joint debate on the Digital Single Market: – the report by Christel Schaldemose, on behalf of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, on the Digital Services Act (COM 2020/0825 – C9-0418/2020 – 2020/0361(COD)) – (A9-0356/2021) and – the report by Andreas Schwab, on behalf of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, on the Digital Markets Act (COM 2020/0842 – C9-0419/2020 – 2020/0374(COD)) – (A9-0332/2021). I welcome Commissioners Vestager and Breton very warmly.

The next item on the agenda is the debate on the Commission statement on ‘Deaths, violence and inhuman treatment of applicants for international protection at the Spanish-Moroccan border’ (2022/2748(RSP)).