What Hannah spoke about.

20 Nov

2023

DE Speech

UN Climate Change Conference 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (COP28) (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, If we want to stop the climate crisis, fossils must remain in the ground. So now we have to talk about the massive expansion of renewables and about climate damage and fair compensation. That is why we need civil society at the table. Thousands of people are already losing their homes. Every other day, a person is murdered who is committed to more climate pro…

17 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Urgent need for a coordinated European response and legislative framework on intrusive spyware, based on the PEGA inquiry committee recommendations (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, we heard it right now. You know it and we all know it: how widespread the abuse of spyware is. This Parliament has worked hard to develop recommendations on how to fix it that have been carried by a broad majority. Yet, so far nothing happened, although the Commission had promised to pick them up. In the meantime, we keep learning about new revelations. Members of Parli…

4 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Egypt, in particular the sentencing of Hisham Kassem

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Mr President, it’s ten years since the massacre at Rabaa Square in Cairo, where the Egyptian military under al-Sisi’s command killed about a thousand protesters. It has been ten years of brutal repression since, with so many critical voices locked behind bars. Journalists, political activists, human rights defenders, one of them, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the prominent face of the Arab Spring, who has s…

4 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Human rights situation in Afghanistan, in particular the persecution of former government officials

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Mr President, it has been more than two years since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, and they kept none of their promises. Employees of the old regime are under constant threat. Women are not even allowed to go to parks anymore and schools are turned into jihadi madrassas. The situation seems devastating. The media spotlight has shifted, but our attention should not because there are things …

12 Sep

2023

EN Speech

Iran: one year after the murder of Jina Mahsa Amini (debate)

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Mr President, High Representative, so, finally, you are here to explain why your Iran policy over the last 12 months has been so different from what this Parliament asked you to do. Yet all I heard was we are trying our best, but it’s complicated. But in the end, Mr Borrell, it’s not the intention that counts, it’s the results. And where are we as of today? The Iranian regime exchanges hostages wi…

11 Sep

2023

EN Speech

European Defence Industry Reinforcement through common Procurement Act (EDIRPA) (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, we Greens will vote in favour of EDIRPA tomorrow. We will vote in favour of EDIRPA because we hope that it is a small step ahead to supply Ukraine with the equipment it urgently needs and because it may lead to a little more cooperation in the defence sector. But, frankly said, it’s just a small patch on a big oozing wound for a fragmented and inefficient defence …

10 Jul

2023

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Madam President, today Tomaj Salehi was sentenced to six years and three months in an Iranian prison for his rap songs about freedom. Tens of thousands of political prisoners are held on trumped-up charges in Iran because they advocate for freedom. At least eight protesters are at imminent threat of execution for demanding freedom: Ebrahim Narouie, Kambiz Kharout, Shoeib Mir Baluchzehi Rigi, Manou…

10 Jul

2023

EN Speech

Protection of journalists and human rights defenders from manifestly unfounded or abusive court proceedings (debate)

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Mr President, dear colleagues, Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia had more than 40 SLAPP cases against her when she was killed; some were continued against her family. Nobel Peace Prize awardee Maria Ressa is, until today, blocked from leaving the Philippines without prior court permission because of pending SLAPP cases against her. And the only goal of such strategic yet baseless lawsuits …

14 Jun

2023

EN Speech

Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware - Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (draft recommendation) (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner Reynders, dear colleagues, and too bad the Council isn’t here once more because my speech actually primarily addresses Member States, but I am sure they will receive the message. If one of your best journalists is spied upon while investigating a major story, if one of your state prosecutors is spied upon while preparing court cases, if your defence minister is spied upo…

12 Jun

2023

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Madam President, dear colleagues, more than 300 people were executed in Iran this year, and these are only the official numbers. This regime is harassing, beating, torturing, raping, killing its own citizens, and, so far, it gets away with it. It gets away with it because a culture of impunity persists in Iran and a culture of silence is developing again in the international community. I mean, how…

8 May

2023

DE Question

Establishing the Act in support of ammunition production (debate)

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I am glad that we have this debate today, and I think it is important that we conduct it on a fact-based basis. I myself – you know, Özlem – argue that if we do production together, if we do research and development together, then we also need common rules for arms exports. To my knowledge, however, the common position of the European Union says that arms exports may also be authorised in war zone…

8 May

2023

EN Speech

Establishing the Act in support of ammunition production (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, a core element of our solidarity with Ukraine is the delivery of weapons, including heavy weapons, and these weapons need ammunition to have an impact. So it’s good that the Commission finally comes forward with the plan to ramp up the production of ammunition – a bit late maybe, but at least it is there now and it has indeed a considerable number of go…

19 Apr

2023

EN Speech

The crackdown on the right to education and education rights activists in Afghanistan, including the case of Matiullah Wesa

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Mr President, the Taliban has started a new attack against women and against education. Only one and a half years after the Taliban took power, women are banned from public life – no education, no parks, no work. In their latest cynical decree, women are no longer allowed to work for the UN. Today’s Taliban are willing to sacrifice the lives of more than one million Afghans threatened by starvatio…

18 Apr

2023

EN Speech

EU Rapid Deployment Capacity, EU Battlegroups and Article 44 TEU: the way forward (debate)

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Madam President, rapporteur, dear colleagues, we as Greens support the creation of an EU rapid deployment capacity and I would like to thank the rapporteur for his very good report. It is crucial that Member States now move forward with urgency and with ambition to make the capacity operational by 2025 – although 2024 would even be better – to establish it as a permanent multinational unit to fina…

18 Apr

2023

EN Speech

EU relations with Iraq (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, here we are 20 years after the end of the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein, who used mustard gas against its Kurdish citizens and violently oppressed political dissent. Here we are 20 years after the start of a US-led invasion that paved the way for war crimes, the torture and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners, and a brutal civil war. Here we are 10 years after the wi…

16 Mar

2023

DE Speech

Lack of actions taken by the Commission in the context of the duty of sincere and loyal cooperation (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. For years, spyware has violated citizens' rights, the fundamental freedoms of hundreds and thousands of citizens in the European Union. Journalists, lawyers, politicians, even us MEPs in our work here, as well as state employees of state institutions in the Member States and, yes, colleagues of yours in the Commission were intercepted. These are all serious inte…

15 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Iran: in particular the poisoning of hundreds of school girls

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Mr President, dear colleagues, women and girls are the heart of the protests in Iran. They are out in the streets waving their hijab. They are singing Baraye Azadi in the classrooms, they chase away militias and they even record videos dancing in the streets. But while those dancing in the streets on Women’s Day have been put in prison for two days, forced into confessions and forced into wearing …

15 Mar

2023

EN Speech

The EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, that is more than a year of work that’s coming to an end right now and it’s the first ever implementation report the Human Rights Committee has done, so it’s also time for me just to say thank you because I wouldn’t have been able to get there alone. Thank you to the EEAS and the Commission, which supported with a lot of insights, to the delegations in Colombia an…

15 Mar

2023

EN Speech

The EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders (debate)

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Madam President, ‘all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.’ This is the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and if we are serious about this article, human rights defenders are our closest allies. They do not fight with weapons. They use the power of words, of compassion, of persistence. They are not the enemy of the state but a force of good. This is…

14 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Question Time (VPC/HR) - Strengthening the Trans-Atlantic ties in an ever challenging multilateral world

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I’ll take the chance of a follow-up question specifically on the JCPOA and the fact that we see nuclear enrichment now in Iran. Are there any consultations between the EU and the US on how either the JCPOA or an alternative plan to deal with this is being pursued?…

14 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Question Time (VPC/HR) - Strengthening the Trans-Atlantic ties in an ever challenging multilateral world

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Thank you, High Representative, for being with us here today. The topic of the debate is indeed a transatlantic approach in a multilateral world. And one area where we can witness at least a multitude of actors at the moment is the Middle East. Over the weekend, China brokered a deal with Saudi and Iran, while we still have no special envoys, the EU. The US President declared the JCPOA as dead whi…

13 Feb

2023

EN Speech

EU funding allocated to NGOs incriminated in the recent corruption revelations and the protection of EU financial interests (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, what we are looking at at the moment, is a criminal network that misused the organisational shell of an NGO for its corruption activities. So let’s be very clear: this is a corruption scandal and it’s not an NGO scandal. So rather than attacking NGOs, not just in this debate today, and some of these NGOs are actually our biggest allies when it comes to fighting co…

18 Jan

2023

EN Speech

Extension of the term of office of special committees and committees of inquiry

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Madam President, dear colleagues, I would just like to make a point of order. The European Union is a key player when it comes to Iran, and our High Representative is the coordinator for the nuclear negotiations with Iran. So what we do here matters for the future of Iran and the Middle East, and the European Parliament has a role in that. Yet for three times now, the High Representative did not s…

17 Jan

2023

EN Speech

EU response to the protests and executions in Iran (debate)

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Madam President, yesterday, 12 000 people came to Strasbourg to demonstrate for a free Iran and against its brutal regime. And this regime is under pressure because people in Iran are even willing to die for a brighter future. And we, the European Union, should not be the one stabilising a regime while its own people fight for its downfall. So how can our High Representative on the one side denoun…

14 Dec

2022

EN Speech

The case of human rights defender Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja in Bahrain

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Madam President, dear colleagues, in Europe we take the right to freedom of expression for granted, but people in the Gulf region risk their life for it. In Bahrain, human rights defender Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja was sentenced to life in prison because he led pro-democracy protests and is still in prison today and our urgency resolution is about his case. But his case is by far not the only one in the…