Speeches

Mr President, 'Bring out the dead dogs'. That's how prison guards ordered inmates to carry out the bodies of those who died overnight in Sednaya Prison in Syria. What happened to those bodies? Nobody knows. For decades, the Assad regime has used forced disappearances as a tool of repression. More than 100 000 people have disappeared under his rule. Over 100 000 remain missing today. Now, for the first time in decades, there is a real chance to uncover the truth. Syrian experts are already on the ground, documenting crimes, exhuming mass graves, protecting evidence. But they need our support, financially and politically, to fund Syrian civil society working for truth, justice and reconciliation, to press Syria's new rulers to make transitional justice a priority, to strengthen the UN mechanism on missing people, to ensure independent investigations. Because this is the only way to hold perpetrators accountable, to help families find out what happened to their loved ones, and to support Syrians rebuilding a country that heals its wounds and will be a free country for everyone.

Madam President, Pakhshan Azizi cared for the wounded and displaced in Rojava, helping those fleeing from the brutality of ISIS. Wrisha Moradi fought against ISIS herself on the frontlines in Kobane, defending not only lives but also human dignity. In a normal country, these two would be heroes. In Iran, they face death row. For the first time in years, the regime threatens to execute women political prisoners, and these death sentences are nothing but acts of revenge by the Islamic regime against women, against Kurds and against the ideals of women: life, freedom, self-determination and bravery. Revenge because so many still dare to speak out, and the only response this regime knows is to crush dissent by brutal force. Yes, the henchmen of this regime can imprison people, but this will only amplify the unstoppable call for freedom. Pakhshan Azizi and Wrisha Moradi embody everything this regime fears. (The speaker concluded in a non-official language)

Madam President, dear colleagues, a 155 mm shell of a German manufacturer can't be used in a French howitzer, making it even more difficult for Ukrainians to defend their country against Russian aggression. That is where we stand, 25 years into the Common Security and Defence Policy. For five years, I have been a Member of this House. We have written strategies, handed out subsidies, backed Member States to cooperate. And their response? Thanks for the money, but leave the rest to us. All of them putting national egoism above the security of European citizens and that of our friends in Ukraine, failing to come together to fix the problems we have. Nowhere is this failure more apparent than in cybersecurity. We are building our digital societies on technology controlled by a man in the White House threatening to annex Canada along with his Nazi‑saluting sidekick. Attribution of cyber attacks? We need to ask the Americans storing our data. Our companies do it in the US. Secure processors? We buy them from the US IT experts. We are lacking 1 million. This, my dear colleagues, is beyond naive. What use are another 4 000 battle tanks if Russians can hack our command and control structure? What use are another 4 000 battle tanks if our elections are manipulated by algorithms of TikTok and X? There is only one response to Russian aggression and to Make America Great Again – it's Europe united, including in defence. When we speak of defence, let's not forget cyber.

Madam President, you put security and defence at the heart of the Polish Presidency, Prime Minister. Quite timely, I would say. I have been working on these issues for more than ten years. You even longer. And all this time, we have heard countless heads of state showing up here, speaking of European autonomy, strengthening European defence, a true European defence Union... Well, let me tell you, this House is ready. And we both know that the problem is political will in the Member States. So I'm asking you what I have been asking all these previous heads of state. What competences are you willing to transfer from the national to the European level, so that we will finally walk tangible steps towards this end? And a little spoiler: so far the answer has always been silence. So maybe today is a good moment to change that. It's cheaper and it will make us safer.

Mr President, dear colleagues, for too long have we treated the Baltic Sea as a tourist destination, a quiet periphery of Europe. Well, it turns out it's not. Hundreds of vessels of Russia's shadow fleet pass through the Baltic, lacking proper insurance and sailing under ever‑changing flags. These worn‑down, uninsured tankers are creating the conditions for an environmental disaster of unimaginable scale. The recent breakdown of two such ships just in front of the island of Rügen offered us a glimpse of the potential magnitude. These ships are severing energy and communication lines, deliberately attacking the very arteries that connect the European Union. Last week, Europe stepped up. NATO's Baltic Sentry initiative uses advanced drone fleets to patrol and protect critical undersea infrastructure. It is the first NATO mission led solely by European troops and capabilities and it proves that Europe can lead in securing its regions. But we must go further than monitoring: sanction shadow fleet vessels and their owners; ban tanker sales to states undermining the oil price cap; and automatically stop sanctions and uninsured ships entering EU waters. We shouldn't wait for a blackout or an oil spill before we act decisively to protect our waters and our citizens.

(The speaker starts her speech in a non-UE language) 'Get out, Bashar!' That's what Syrians shouted in 2014 and now he is a refugee in Moscow. No one knows exactly what this new time will bring for Syria, but for the first time in decades, my Syrian friends have hope – hope to rebuild their country – and I want the European Union to support them with humanitarian aid, with their fight against impunity and with crystal clear political signals that Europe will support all those committed to a Syrian aid process in the spirit of Resolution 2254. And when we talk to HTS, the message needs to be crystal clear. It's not about protecting women and minorities. It's about building a government where they sit at the table like everyone else. And to get there, dear colleagues, we also need to revisit our debates on asylum, Mr Bardella. While Syrians celebrated the end of Assad's reign, while families were searching in Syria's ruins for their loved ones, some in here had no other thought than how fast can we get rid of Syrians? But, colleagues, can we please remember that Syrians are human beings like you and me? Would you uproot your family right now to bring them to an unstable, violent country? Or would you want to go first and just assess the situation? That's exactly what Syrians want to do and it's in our interest to let them. To build a democratic Syria, we need those that fled Assad on the ground. To rebuild Syria, we need entrepreneurs to invest and travel to the countries and forced returns, dear colleagues, will not happen for another year or two at least. So why don't we let Syrians travel to Syria to sort things out and upon return, decide with their families on the best way to go ahead? Our current asylum rules prevent them to do exactly this. This is why we need temporary exceptions in our interests and in theirs. Dear colleagues, I refuse to give up the hope for a democratic Syria just because some in here fuel toxic asylum debates. Let's stand with Syrians to rebuild the country that heals its wounds and is a free country for everyone.

Madam President, Ahoo Daryaei, like so many women in Iran, was harassed by agents of the regime. They tore her clothes, claiming she was dressed too loosely, and to expose the absurdity of these actions Ahoo stood her ground in public in her underwear. The regime's response? They declared her mentally ill. Now they even plan to open clinics to treat women – to 'treat' women – who refuse to comply with hijab laws. This is not care, dear colleagues, this is repression disguised as medicine. These tactics are not new. In 16th century Europe, women were called 'crazy' and burned as witches. Not because they were dangerous, but because they challenged misogynist power structures. The Inquisition was a tool of defamation and control, and so are the clinics of this regime. But the only one who is sick here is the Islamic regime. Sick with paranoia, terrified of women who dare to show their hair or sing a song. And the only thing that Iranian women are suffering from is being sick of this regime – a regime that crushes their freedom and denies their future. Ahoo Daryaei is not a patient. She is the remedy, a symbol of courage and resistance against repression, like so many others, whose names we don't even know.

Madam President, two critical data cables destroyed in the Baltic for the second time, with the Chinese vessel nearby navigating incognito – what we are witnessing here is a textbook example of grey‑zone tactics, attacks too small to trigger a full military response, yet too significant and frequent to ignore. And this is a tactic our friends in the South China Sea know all too well. Now, China is testing our limits, and they would advise us to send a strong and united response. Let's not forget China turned the simple transit of a German ship through the Taiwan Strait into a major diplomatic incident. Imagine the outrage if a German vessel had destroyed Chinese infrastructure in the South China Sea. So, dear colleagues, we need to better protect our critical infrastructure, energy, military internet in the Baltic. The NATO Task Force Baltic in Rostock is a first step: robust actions and clear diplomatic consequences need to follow. Far too long, certain political groups in this House have exaggerated perceived threats in the Mediterranean, downplaying the real ones in the Baltic.

Madam President, 12 000 North Korean soldiers are fighting for Russia, sent in exchange for advanced military technology, gaining battlefield experience they might use against South Korea. Russia is buying Shahed drones and missiles from Iran, providing Su-35 fighter jets and support to Iran's nuclear program in return, directly threatening Israel and global security. Russia is recruiting soldiers in Yemen in exchange for weapons the Houthis will use to intensify their attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea. We have seen bombs smuggled in planes, internet cables destroyed in the Baltic, cyberattacks on government systems across Europe, and a dissident assassinated in the middle of Berlin. Putin has trampled every red line of international law, and we are witnessing a growing alliance among regimes thriving on repression, destruction and death. If we, dear colleagues, want diplomacy, demilitarisation and trust-building to prevail, we must ensure this alliance does not win: does not win this war against Ukraine, nor this war against freedom also fought on European soil. Slava Ukraini! (The speaker concluded in a non-official language.)

Madam President, dear colleagues, floods, droughts, pandemics, cyberattacks, a war at our borders: crises are the new normal. And we can keep fixing problem after problem after problem – leading to collective exhaustion – or finally strengthen our preparedness and resilience. President Niinistö, you wrote an excellent report on how to get there, with 80 proposals all boiling down to: let's do it together or we will fail. And with every day we wait, it will just get more expensive. Keeping household water supplies, building central storage houses: these are the more obvious suggestions. But what has far too long been overlooked is the aspect of cyber, and I am glad that you address it. Just last year, hackers breached the community IT systems in south Westphalia in Germany. That meant no ambulances, no birth certificates, no weddings, no passports, no marriages. Some of these services were blocked for months. Supply chain attacks, ransomware attacks, disinformation: if these things were physical, battle tanks would be in our offices and our bedrooms. State-sponsored cyberattacks, dear colleagues, quadrupled in the last 10 years, and our EU response has not. We have the Cyber Solidarity Act, the Cyber Resilience Act, some directives, but the EU still lacks 1 million cyber experts. And cyber threats know no borders: if one Member State gets attacked, it affects us all. So it's good that we have this report, but the actual work is only about to start. And we need to make it happen here, dear colleagues, because Member States individually will fail.

Madam President, if I ever hear again that we have to be careful that mediocre women don't rise too high, I will only say 'Donald Trump'. This man is not merely mediocre: he is a misogynist, a racist, and a convicted criminal. His behaviour and his policies are nothing short of a declaration of war on women, and he seeks alliances with right-wing men around the world, even here in Europe, in this Parliament, even in my home country, in Germany. And what I expect from a President of the Commission in such a moment is not congratulations. We should take note and then commit to strengthening women's rights in Europe, and to standing with our sisters in the US. We might have to cooperate with Trump, yes, but it's not our job to stroke his ego. We are here to ensure that Europe becomes more independent day by day, and that, in four years, at least Europe is still the land of the free.

Madam President, dear colleagues, forcing a girl into marriage at the age of nine. This is not tradition. This is not religion. This is a crime. Iraq has a proud history of women fighting for equal rights. The Personal Status Law of 1959 was once among the most progressive in the region. Iraq's constitution guarantees that a quarter of parliamentary seats are reserved for women, and women played, indeed, a leading role in the recent protests for social justice and against corruption. But apparently this progress has terrified some men so deeply that they are now trying to bypass those constitutional rights, dragging women back into submission. The proposed amendments to Iraq's Personal Status Law would allow religious leaders to override constitutional guarantees, imposing their own interpretation of sharia law on women, which means legalising child marriage and stripping women of their rights to divorce and inheritance. Civil society has been excluded from consultations, and behind the scenes shady deals are indeed being made along sectarian lines. So let me be very clear: this Parliament and this Union stand with those who assault women's rights in Iraq and everywhere else.

Madam President, dear colleagues, as we speak here, we represent nations with deep historic ties to both Israel and Palestine. I'm German. I feel a profound responsibility for the security of those whose parents and grandparents were exiled or murdered by my ancestors. And sitting beside me are colleagues who share close cultural ties to the Palestinian people, burdened by the feeling that for the past decades they have not done enough to protect them. And we all have a choice to make. Will we continue to play into the hands of terrorists and warmongers, accusing each other of antisemitism or double standards, using symbols and rhetoric to provoke, merely echoing the deep divisions and escalating violence in the Middle East? Or will we rise above it? Will we use the different perspectives we inherited and the deep ties we hold to one side or the other as a shared resource to help build the bridges so badly needed. I don't want us to remain stuck, Council after Council, unable to even agree on a statement. I want us to support those who seek an end to terror and violence – and they exist on all sides – and sanction those who fuel the dangerous violence. Because beyond the zero-sum game of brutality and retaliation, there are so many people in Israel, Palestine, Iran, Lebanon, yearning for peace – for peace for their families and for their brothers and sisters in the region. And if we, free from repression and secure, can't even bridge our divides, how can we expect them to do so?

Mr President, imagine having just given birth to a child in Afghanistan. If this child is a boy, you will have to send him to madrasa, where he will be taught to look down on women, wage war against infidels and be moulded into yet another soldier of the Taliban. If this child is a girl, she'll be forced under a veil by the time she turns six or nine, banned from going to school, disappearing into invisibility – a ghost, an unexisting species unable to speak outside the house, unable to leave the house on her own. And if that's not enough of a prison, she'll be forced into marriage with someone she didn't choose. But if you want to give your child a chance at a different future, one that isn't bleak and brutal, well then you will have to risk everything and illegally find your way to Europe, because doors to legal escape have been slammed shut. You will have to walk across mountains hoping not to be raped. You will have to swim the Mediterranean hoping not to drown, make it through an exhausting asylum process only to face so-called 'Christian' political groups threatening to send you back to Afghanistan because, for domestic reasons, they prefer to declare the hell of Afghanistan a safe place. Dear colleagues, all those who supported the intervention in Afghanistan should feel at least a minimum amount of responsibility for the disaster Afghans are facing today. We tried, we failed. We turned our back. This is no option. I know no one has a master plan on what to do. But there are always steps we can take: strengthen mechanisms that hold perpetrators of human rights violations accountable; increase humanitarian aid and make sure it reaches men and women; work towards the qualification of gender apartheid as a crime against humanity; restart visa and resettlement programmes for those most at risk in Afghanistan and the neighbouring countries. And we should never, ever, make ourselves complicit in the Taliban strategy to silence women. Every day, we have to make an extra effort to hear the voices of Afghan women, to seek their advice, to give them a platform to ensure their meaningful participation and representation in international fora and negotiations – so that boys and girls born in Afghanistan tomorrow may have a brighter future. One word to those on my right who don't care about human rights. Let me remind you of the main lesson the Taliban have taught us in the past years: radicalisation happening in Afghanistan won't stay in Afghanistan, no matter how high you build your walls.

Madam President, dear colleagues, we need to support Ukraine as long as it takes, but also as much as it takes so that this war doesn't drag on forever. I was in Kyiv last week, and it was the words of a Ukrainian woman soldier that impressed me most. 'Time is different for us,' she said. 'Every hour that you debate sending weapons more of our friends die. Every day your sanctions are not fully implemented, Russia can build more missiles to kill us.' I feel with every family losing a loved one, Ukrainian as well as Russians, yet the brutal truth is: if Putin stops fighting, this war is over. If Ukrainians stop fighting, Ukraine ends, and Putin won't stop there. And it is Putin who refuses negotiations as of now. Russia's allies, such as Iran, do not put restrictions on how to use their missiles, and the only restrictions we should put on Ukraine on using missiles are those of international law, finally allowing them to attack missiles in Russia aiming at Ukrainians. Weapons, humanitarian aid, preparation for negotiations, supporting Ukrainian refugees. All of this needs to go hand in hand. As much as it takes.

Mr President, Mr Borrell, last week, the Iranian regime celebrated its first direct strike on Israel, and it continuously violates vital provisions of the nuclear agreement. ‘Sit and wait’ is no option and more diplomacy alone will not be enough. We urgently need to work on a plan B: a regional security architecture which addresses the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and preparedness for new attacks by the Iranian regime. Frankly said, what more does this regime have to do until you finally wake up to the harsh realities? The IRGC is a terror organisation and it should be designated as such. The drones and missiles attacking Israel and our ships in the Red Sea are manufactured in Iran, and we should have sanctioned all those involved in that months ago. Last but not least, the regime is not legitimately representing the people of Iran, and you should stop pretending it would. All these demands are included in our joint resolutions and we expect you to finally implement them. Dear colleagues, the Middle East today is just a dangerous miscalculation away from an all-out war. It is on everyone – everyone – to stop repression and work towards de-escalation. And there are so many in the region who want nothing more than peace and an end to the suffering: babies being born orphans after airstrikes; families living in horror whilst seeking refuge from bombs night after night; tormented hostages unable to hear the voices of their loved ones; and so much more. There are strongmen on all sides – Hamas, Houthis, Hezbollah – in Israel as well as in Iran that benefit from the recent escalation. It is our collective responsibility, together with the US and regional actors, to move from this deadly balance of deterrence towards a peace-seeking balance of humanity, dear colleagues.

Thank you for your answer, Commissioner. Would you mind to clearly name some of these domestic perpetrators, so that our citizens are very aware, when they hear them speak, what their message is, and who stands behind those messages?

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. If you want to know what foreign information manipulation and disinformation look like, take a look at the EUvsDisinfo database. There are now 16,000 narratives, mainly sprinkled by Putin's trolls, that have only one goal: Dividing and weakening our society. What you can see very easily when scrolling through this database is, some of it sounds pretty much like the slogans of those who sit here on the far right: Ukrainian agricultural imports would ruin Polish agriculture. Sometimes even conservative politicians become Trojan horses of Russian disinformation, according to Friedrich Merz, when he brags about the social tourism of Ukrainian refugees. My question to you, Commissioner: What insights do you have on the role of far-right and right-wing politicians in spreading Russian disinformation, and how do you plan to combat this form of disinformation?

Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, dear colleagues, yes, defence is national responsibility. ‘Responsibility’, the Treaties say, not ‘narcissism’. So why do Member States still compete with each other on the defence market instead of procuring together? Why do they still develop and produce duplicating structures, rather than streamlining the scarce resources? And why the hell is the defence industry in some Member States still exporting ammunition to those first in line and not to those who most need it, namely Ukraine? All of this, dear colleagues, puts the security of European citizens and that of Ukrainians at stake, and we simply can’t afford such national egoism any longer. Last week, the Commission put forward a surprisingly good, I’d say, proposal to fix this mess. It is the European defence industry strategy. There, it invites Member States to produce and procure together and to put the needs of Ukrainians up first. I expect Member States to wholeheartedly accept this invitation next week. This is the only responsible thing to do.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, At every turn we are aware of the attacks on freedom and democracy. Sometimes brutal and visible to all, as in Ukraine, where Putin is waging his barbaric war, sometimes secretly, silently and quietly, as in disinformation campaigns by the Iranian regime designed to sow fear and discord. The enemies of democracy and freedom unite across all ideological boundaries, and we too often remain in small-scale conflict and do not oppose it enough. This is also because human rights violations are still something that happens elsewhere for us. But that is long gone – if our supply chains continue to rely on child labour, if Iranian women’s rights activists are persecuted here, if the hate messages of Putin’s trolls flood our phones, if Afghan refugees cannot register NGOs here to continue their online schools because our rules are so bad. It is time, ladies and gentlemen, for us to overcome this artificial separation and finally address human rights holistically in the Commission and in this Parliament. This is our mission for the next five years.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. What is happening in Israel and Palestine right now is incomprehensible man-made suffering – every loss of life, every family torn apart. Therefore, the call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire is right to allow the unconditional release of all hostages and the provision of humanitarian aid. I expect that everyone in the European Union will continue to put pressure on those who oppose it. But what is our role here, where this conflict also takes place in our cities, in our schools? Instead of building such bitterly necessary bridges, we too too too often encounter each other without empathy, using stages like these to incite rather than to promote understanding for the other side. Only: That won't save a single life. To put it in the words of Margot Friedländer, who is now 102 years old and survived the Holocaust: There is no Christian blood, there is no Muslim blood, there is no Jewish blood. There is only human blood and human blood, colleagues, is flowing far too much right now. (The speaker rejected a question on the ‘blue card’ procedure by Özlem Demirel.)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. In Germany, hundreds of thousands of people remind us of our responsibilities as parliamentarians. On the weekend, at one of the demonstrations against the deportation plans of the right-wing extremists, an elderly woman with a looking look stood next to me and asked me: “How do you do that now? Just run away? I've never been to anything like this before.” That gives me courage. And I am even more encouraged by the people who demonstrate in the strongholds of the right – in Anklam, in Torgau, away from the spotlight – who stand together against hatred and hate speech, where discs have been smashed and people threatened for years. Ladies and gentlemen, if "Never again is now" is to be more than a phrase, let us support these associations and organisations. Let's do something about hatred and disinformation and Putin's bots on the net, and let's keep reminding each other: Yes, we are competitors, but the political enemy is fascism. It is the responsibility of all of us to win together over hatred in this year's elections.

Mr President, dear colleagues, the beginning of this year mirrors the tragic end of the last one, with people in Gaza suffering and Israelis fearing for their loved ones. What are we doing? Wearing flags or scarves, accusing each other of being loyal to the wrong side. But, colleagues, let’s not lose sight of what is at stake. Hopes for lasting peace in the region are shattered again. Palestinians are dying on an unprecedented scale – survivors facing hunger, disease and cold. Israel has the right to self-defence and to bring its hostages home. At the same time, civilians in Gaza have the right to protection and humanitarian aid. The crucial question is: how can both be achieved? This is the debate we need to have with Israelis, with Palestinians, with our Arab partners – but before all, it seems, among us. Many in the region count on the European Union to play a responsible role. Let’s start to live up to this.

Madam President, dear colleagues, it is crucial that we have a joint European response to the Houthi attacks in the Red sea, but at the same time, it is our duty to safeguard the progress that peace efforts have made in Yemen recently. The European Union indeed needs to play its part to secure a safe passage for commercial ships, to prevent a further increase in commodity prices in the region, and to ensure that the merchant vessel is freed, including its crew, among them EU citizens. To be honest, I'm a little surprised that it took the Council so long to come up with the proposal for an EU mission and hopefully a positive decision will be taken soon. But Commissioner, I was also surprised that you were not sharing any information on this with us here today. So do we really need to rely on political leaks to get the information? What is planned, what the process is, when the mission will be happening. So, maybe in your concluding remarks you could share some more information. At the same time, we have to make sure that the Yemeni people, who have been suffering from war, massive violence, escalation and a humanitarian crisis for 10 years will also be seen and will also be important in our response. I was in Yemen in December as the head of a delegation of this Parliament, and I can tell you, Yemenis want nothing more than this catastrophe to end. And we need to make sure that their voices are also heard in the ongoing debate, that their needs are taken into account when setting up our joint EU response, because otherwise the long-term effects of our policy in the region would be detrimental. Colleagues, allow me to make one more additional remark. All the drones and missiles that are being fired at merchant ships, or in the direction of Saudi Arabia, or even trying to target Israel, they were manufactured in Iran, they were transferred to the Houthis by the Revolutionary Guards, and no one will be able to bring peace to this region unless we finally dare to revise our Iran policy, to take a stance, to revise our relations with this brutal regime and to take a clear stance against the Revolutionary Guards. We must call them and treat them as what they are: a terrorist organisation terrorising its own citizens and the whole region.

Madam President, with EDF, EDIRPA, ASAP, EDIP, EDIS frankly said I’m a bit tired of these acronyms trying to disguise the main problem: Member States are simply not willing to move towards a truly European defence industry and market. The communication on EDIP in February surely won’t change that. But I haven’t given up on EDIS, the strategy, yet. Here is what needs to be done. One, let’s pool national defence budgets to buy what we need to guarantee the security of European citizens and that of our closest allies, Ukraine before all. We have to stop competing against each other on the market, because this only increases the profits of the defence industry and decreases the security of Europeans. Two, let’s work on common technical standards to ensure interoperability and economies of scale, and then subsidies and pooled funds should only go to those who produce and procure along these EU standards. Finally, we need to talk about arms exports. Currently, we have common rules but very diverging national export policies. This is a constant source of conflict between EU Member States, and it hampers cooperation – and Mr Breton, don’t tell me it’s complicated. I have the solution in the drawer, I have it on my website, please just reach out. Dear colleagues in the Commission and in the Council, if you want to really move from a national piecemeal to a truly European approach – pooling resources, increasing interoperability, prioritising the security of European citizens over the benefits of those of the arms industry – we are here to support.