Speeches

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Qatar was not the first country to use illegal methods to influence European politics, and it will not be the last. Today, more and more decisions are being taken at European level that are of particular interest to third countries – financial and investment policy, trade policy, visa policy. And just as our responsibilities here are increasing, attempts to influence us legally – but also illegally – are on the rise. That's why, in addition to the rules we've adopted this year, we need to do two more things. Firstly: Keep the store clean here. And I expect everyone here to abide by the rules that we have given ourselves, and that there will finally be painful sanctions if someone does not abide by them. And secondly: equipping the authorities in Belgium and the Member States so that they can finally deal with the whole thing – Mr Körner described the problems. So that third countries do not try at all at some point – not with us, not in the Commission, not in the Council or anywhere else.

Mr President, as we debate, families in Israel are mourning children, parents, spouses barbarically killed by Hamas terrorists on 7 October. They fear for the lives of hostages, and they are seeking shelter from ongoing Hamas shelling. In Gaza, people are mourning their children, parents, spouses who have become victims of Israel’s shelling of civilian infrastructure. They fear for those who remain exposed to ongoing airstrikes and suffer under the siege of Gaza. All human beings have the right to live in safety and freedom. Demanding this for one group does not question this right in relation to another group. Empathy is not a zero-sum game. The announced release of hostages linked to a temporary truce offers a new glimpse of hope to end the spiral of violence. The European Union, together with the UN, Arab states and the US, must facilitate a process where both Israelis and Palestinians can work on solutions to live side by side in peace. Hopefully for good this time.

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 protection. And in the United Arab Emirates, dozens of human rights activists are still in detention, even after serving their sentences. All of us who are going to COP should remind the UAE of its promises to civil society actors. And also to grant them all political freedoms. And at the same time: Without the Gulf states in the climate protection team, we will not be able to save this world, no matter how much we travel by train. Therefore: Let's use this COP to make the Gulf States pioneers in real climate protection.

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 Parliament targeted again, including President Metsola, European companies illegally circumventing export regulations and European stakeholders making money by sending spyware to dictators, who use them to target human rights defenders. Frankly said, it is only a matter of time before military-grade spyware ends up in the hands of terrorists. So what more do you need to finally act? Commissioner, the European Union has one superpower. The superpower is to set standards and regulations that then become global ones. We have managed to regulate the use of ‘ABC’ – atomic, biological and chemical weapons – globally. The EU must now take the lead to also regulate the use of these digital weapons and ban its most intrusive forms. Frankly said, exploring options for a non-legislative proposal is not going to be good enough. So, I have only one question: when is the Commission putting forward a legislative proposal to fix this highly dangerous mess?

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 served about ten years in prison combined and has not seen his son for over two years now. Another one is publisher Hisham Kassem, who was imprisoned on charges of defamation shortly after he had helped to form a coalition of opposition parties. It is brutal violence and tens of thousands of political prisoners, this is how al-Sisi secures his power. Yet EU Member States continue lucrative arms deals with this regime. So far, no human rights sanctions have been imposed on high-ranking Egyptian officials. And even worse, right now, the European Commission is preparing a dirty deal with al-Sisi to prevent migration, while human rights defenders in Egypt remain blocked from leaving the country. This hypocrisy must end.

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 we can do. We can advocate for gender apartheid to be recognised as a crime under international law. We can make sure that human rights defenders under threat are given flexible visas so they can continue their important work in Afghanistan, yet leave the country when needed. We can ensure that all organisations running programmes for women by women receive adequate and unbureaucratic funding. There is something very concrete all of you can do next week nominate Parasto Hakim, Marzia Amiri and Matiullah Wesa, three education rights activists, for the Sakharov Prize to ensure again that the spotlight is on Afghanistan and to ensure recognition and protection for the many resisting the Taliban. Dear colleagues, however bleak the situation, there are ... (The President cut off the speaker)

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 with convicted terrorists and kidnaps new ones. It becomes more repressive by the day. It is only weeks away from the nuclear bomb. It destabilises a whole region by proxy wars. And Iranian drones are attacking our allies in Ukraine. Mr Borrell, it’s time to clearly spell it out. The EU’s Iran policy of the last 44 years has failed, and it is your job to think about new policies. Stop meeting regime representatives and start meeting the many different people that advocate for a free Iran, stop financial flows of the regime and start exploring avenues for the diaspora to send home remittances for the strike front. Encourage Member States to give more humanitarian visas to those badly injured by regime violence and spell out the truth. This regime terrorises its own citizens and the whole region. It systematically uses rape to force political prisoners into confessions, and it is already preparing to crack down the protests planned for 16 September. Mr Borrell, you have to stop stabilising a brutal regime while the people in Iran are prepared to die for its downfall. (The speaker used a slogan in a non-EU language)

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 sector. To keep our citizens safe and to support our allies such as Ukraine, we need Member States to finally move from the current protectionism to a truly European defence with cooperation starting from raw materials over joint procurement to joint export control. We also need to move from the current secretive deals in the Council to open debates on defence in the European Parliament. European defence needs European debate and it needs European scrutiny and this has to happen in this House. So, for four times now we have given away our rights of scrutiny with EDF, with EDIDP, with ASAP and with EDIRPA. The ECR, EPP and Renew gave away easily the delegated acts and I hope this will finally change next time in the interest of the security of our European citizens and that of our allies.

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, Manouchehr Mehman Navaz, Mohammad Ghobadlou, Mojahed Kourkour, Milad Zohrevand and Mansour Dahmardeh. And at least two EU citizens are being held hostage by the regime, and they are on death row because this regime fears freedom: Jamshid Sharmahd and Ahmad Reza Jalali. And I request everyone who engages with this regime to start talks by saying these names, by demanding their release again and again. I will not be silenced. (The speaker concluded in a non-official language)

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 is to intimidate, harass and silence critical voices. Because once you are faced with a SLAPP case, you need to read that file. You need to hire a lawyer, you need to appear in court, you need to fight related smear campaigns, sometimes even your bank accounts are being frozen. In addition, such SLAPP cases overburden already strained judicial systems and undermine trust in legal proceedings. Dear colleagues, this is simply a perversion of rule of law. It is about time that we stand up and stop it in the EU and all around the world. So thank you, Tiemo, for your report. It is a good first step and let’s join forces to walk down that road even further.

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 upon while attending NATO meetings, if one of your companies is exporting spyware to a war zone, if any of this happens and you are only a halfway-decent government with some responsibility, you would investigate. You would turn everything upside down, find the loopholes that make this possible, bring perpetrators to justice, apologise to victims, right? I don’t get why none of this happens. So basically, we, the PEGA Inquiry Committee, did your job in the last 12 months. Yet rather than working with us, Member States’ governments ignored or obstructed our work, the approach was omertà, not cooperation. Looking at this mess, I am quite amazed by what we have achieved here. And I want to thank the rapporteur, the shadows, all Members for that, because we managed to come forward with an accurate description of the abuse that is happening and with very solid and reasonable recommendations on how to fix it, supported across party lines by Members, by colleagues from 27 EU Member States. And if you ever wondered what the European Parliament is good for, for this. Europe has been a pioneer in protecting the privacy of its citizens and has set standards that have become global ones by now. We bent the entire Internet ecosystem towards better protection and respect of individuals’ data rights. Yet on something as horribly destructive as spyware, it looks as if we are lagging behind. But dear colleagues, if we want to see European – and yes, universal – values reflected in the regulation of these invasive technologies, it is time to stand up to the shady practices of secret services and to companies and their CEOs gone wrong. Because otherwise the next chapter of surveillance and manipulation, then involving AI and other powerful technologies, will be very, very dark. We have done our job, Commissioner. Now it’s time that you do yours, the Commission and the Council. And believe me, we will follow up, and follow up, and follow up until our recommendations are put in place.

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 can Ebrahim Raisi, who was instrumental in killing thousands of protesters in 1988, get away with it and now be, 30 years later, the president of Iran? How can we, as the international community, allow a regime that brutally terrorises its own citizens to chair the UN Human Rights Council Social Forum, when it would actually be our job to watch carefully what is happening in Iran, to condemn every single killing, to sanction the perpetrators, and to do our part to break the cycle of impunity? Because if we don’t, 300 executions may soon turn into 3000. This regime kills when it thinks it can get away with it, and we have to make sure it no longer does. Silence will only lead to more violence.

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 zones if they serve the right of self-defence. This is exactly what we have in Ukraine, where Russia is invading and Ukraine is defending itself against this aggression. Or do you have a different version of the common position?

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 good components. We as Greens will support the urgency procedure, given that it is secure that the competent committees will be fully involved, including SEDE, and the proposal will be reduced to the most urgent measures that we need to debate with urgency. But what I don’t understand, Commissioner, is why you intend to throw millions of EU taxpayers’ money at the already very profitable defence sector; money that is desperately needed elsewhere for the green transformation of our own economy. Rheinmetall had a net income of EUR 535 million in 2022, the Tardis Group EUR 1.5 billion, Airbus EUR 4.2 billion – these companies really do not need taxpayers’ money and we shouldn’t throw it at them for nothing. So, frankly said, either the arms industry uses its own money to scale up ammunition production, given that it is now quite a solid business opportunity, or, if we decide to support them with EUR 500 million from EU funds and many more billions from the RRF and Cohesion Funds, we should at least make sure that EU taxpayers get their own share of the return on investment. And how can we secure that? Well, by coupling the regulation at hand with an excess profits tax for the defence industry. We give them money to ramp up ammunition production and they give us whatever in addition they earn with it. Dear colleagues, the war in Ukraine brings sorrow and death to so many Ukrainian families. We must stand by their side and we will. Yet what happens in Ukraine should not be misused as a money-making machine for an already highly profitable arms industry at the expense of EU taxpayers and the necessary economic transformation that we dearly need in other sectors.

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 starvation only for their gender apartheid ideology. They attack the future of their country, the education of its youngest. The Taliban’s self—proclaimed Minister of Education announced the preparation of a new jihadi – yes, that’s the word he used – curriculum. Private schools are being forced to close by now in at least two districts, and madrassas are being built across the country, providing the only means of education for many boys. At the same time, those advocating for education in line with Afghan tradition in line with Islamic teaching, are put behind bars like Matiullah Wesa from Pen Path. He spent more than 14 years of his life travelling throughout Afghanistan, finding local solutions for local problems, working with tribal leaders to open schools in rural areas. This guy is an Afghan national hero. Let’s face the terrible truth. The Taliban are holding women captive in their homes and they want to raise a new generation of jihadi fighters. I know there is no easy answer, no easy solution for this, but this is precisely why we can’t turn our backs. This is precisely why we have to watch carefully what is happening in the country, why we shouldn’t even think about recognising the Taliban, and why we should all jointly demand the release of Matiullah Wesa and all those unjustly held in Taliban prisons.

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 finally provide enough funding and staff to the MPCC as promised many years ago, and adequate resources to the European Peace Facility to imburse all operative costs. Those are important technical details, but let us take a step back. Why are we discussing the rapid deployment capacity today? The first reason: because its predecessor, the EU Battlegroups, have never been deployed since their creation 20 years ago. ‘Why?’ you may ask. Well, mainly because EU Member States never had the political will to deploy forces jointly under one European umbrella and an initiative report clearly will not change that. So I call on Member States to finally back up their words with actions. And the second reason being the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, how it exposed the EU as an onlooker in a crisis, and how we had to leave our Afghan partners behind in catastrophic circumstances. So I call on this Parliament and the Council to show now equal determination to develop further tools to better protect our local partners and ever create them when needed. Those currently in hiding and living in constant fear of being killed in Afghanistan, as well as those worrying about their future in Mali today. This, dear colleagues, is the other crucial part of our responsibility. And without the support of local partners, no EU action, no matter how rapidly deployed, will ever have a positive political impact on the ground.

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 withdrawal of the US troops, which led to the rise of the Islamic State and unbelievable brutality. And more than 3 years after young Iraqis took to the streets with slogans like ‘We are all Iraqis’, while hundreds of them have been killed by Iraqi security forces and Iran-backed militias. And once more, impunity prevails. Yet, how is the country supposed to heal if such crimes go unpunished, when all these stories of suffering are never told or heard? So, since the protest movements emerged in autumn 2019, I have visited Iraq several times, listening to women activists in Baghdad, Yazidis families in Dohuk, musicians in Mosul, or human rights activists in Erbil, and many are indeed disappointed and angry that such a peaceful movement calling for reform was brutally crushed by the authorities. But the spirit of the movement lives on with young people striving for a new Iraq that overcomes religious and ethnic divisions and fights the notorious corruption, depriving a whole generation of its resources and future. And the EU should put a much stronger emphasis on supporting these civil society actors, especially the young generation in Iraq, by supporting their training, giving them new opportunities to build a better homeland and to address the challenges the climate crisis poses on their country. Last year, I was involved in the organisation of the Mosul Music Festival that was partly funded by the EU and UNESCO in the city. Mosul is the former capital of ISIS, and there we saw women and men playing traditional Iraqi music together with bands from Europe. And there is maybe no better way to chase away the ghosts of terrorism, war and destruction than music, dance and exchange.

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 interventions, and one would think that we are all working together to stop these interventions, these attacks on our fundamental rights and on our democratic institutions. Instead, we've been running against a wall of silence here for six months. It is like a silent cartel between the Commission and the Member States – Omertà said Sophie in’t Veld, and yes, that is true. So let me say one thing very clearly: Where democracy is decomposed – and this happens with the use of spyware – no democratically legitimated institution can win, not the Parliament, not the governments of the Member States, nor the Commission. That's why we ask you again: Cooperate with us. If the Member States continue to block, we expect that there will be very clear sanctions. National security can never be above the fundamental rights of European citizens.

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 a hijab, those poisoning schoolgirls with gas are still running free. And while the regime puts all its resources behind harassing and jailing girls, they only issue lukewarm calls for investigations after months of poisoning. But believe me, no one is falling for this regime propaganda anymore, which is why we call for an international investigation into the poisoning and for more sanctions against all those terrorising the people of Iran. Dear colleagues, no one will be able to silence the women of Iran and I want us to stand with the girls, the women, the people of Iran until they are all free. (The speaker used a slogan in a non-EU language)

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 and Afghanistan that facilitated fieldwork, to the special representative Eamon Gilmore, but also to Mary Lawlor and Michel Forst, who supported in the project, to the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, which protect defenders, to the many NGOs working on that, and to my shadow rapporteurs. This file is really a good example of what we can achieve if we work together across party lines. Thank you, Janina Ochojska, Raphaël Glucksmann, Katalin Cseh, Miguel Urbán Crespo and Assita Kanko. It was a very good experience and I think 25 years after the adoption of the UN resolution on the protection of human rights defenders is a good moment to review where we are, to improve our implementation, to bring a lot of political will behind it. And I count on all of you to make sure that the recommendations we make in this report will actually make it into a change of policy on the ground. Then there is one last group of people I want to thank. I know no one more dedicated and courageous in fighting for justice and peaceful societies than human rights defenders. You all are crucial to making your communities, your countries, our world a better place. None of this is easy, so just from all of us, thank you for the work you do.

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 why 25 years ago, the United Nations adopted a groundbreaking declaration on human rights defenders recognising their important contribution to peace, to sustainable development and human rights, and requesting states to protect them and support them. The EU guidelines on the protection of human rights defenders are based on this declaration, and today we assess how EU institutions and Member States implement these guidelines. Why is it important? Well, all around the world, human rights defenders are more and more under attack. They are threatened. They are persecuted. They are sometimes even murdered for doing things that we in here have the privilege to take for granted: to fight corruption, to protect local forests, or sometimes even to just dance in the streets. In 2020 alone, 358 human rights defenders were killed. Each and every one of them is a voice that has been silenced, a person that dared to stand up, that dared to believe that change is possible so much that they were willing to give their life for it. ‘You are the only ones who still care.’ That is what a woman’s rights defender told me about a year ago in Kabul, and by ‘you’, she meant the EU, and yes, she’s right. We still make human rights a priority. And at the same time, I was ashamed to hear this from her after we had failed so miserably in Afghanistan. So how can we, the EU, better live up to our ambitions? And that here, my report, our report, has many concrete suggestions. Maybe the main one: if we, EU and Member States, act together, we can save lives and change structures. Yet often enough we just don’t do that. So more consistency from country strategy to regular coordination of actions would be a big step forward. There is more, just a few short examples. We have to work on prevention and become more flexible in our funding. We need to extend our focus to the networks and family of defenders because often suppressive regimes often deliberately target the families to silence defenders. Visas could be a key tool of support, yet rarely we make use of it, so defenders need easier access to visas. We have to speak more about the many different kinds in which you can defend human rights, about those who support women’s rights, about LGBTI activists, about environmental defenders, as well as those who protect the rights of migrants and asylum seekers. They all deserve our protection. Finally, we should be more proud about the support we offer, about the great work our delegations do in the field, because often those who need our support are not aware of the guidelines or of tools such as ProtectDefenders, and this needs to change. Dear colleagues, too often we shrug our shoulders when we hear about the challenges human rights defenders face, as if the risks they take simply come with the job. But that’s not true. People being harassed, imprisoned, even killed only for defending human rights is something we should never accept. This is the line we need to hold. I’m confident that this report can guide us, the European Union and Member States, to become better allies to our allies on the ground.

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?

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 while you are still trying to negotiate it, some EU Member States and the US export arms to Saudi Arabia or the UAE, while others have embargoes in place, and many Gulf countries are trying to be friends with the EU, with the US and Russia at the same time. So I am wondering if there is still such a thing as a transatlantic alliance, or at least a transatlantic approach to the region, and if yes, what it looks like along these very concrete examples.

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 corruption, we should fix our own problems. As so often, if you point with one finger to the others, there are at least the pointing back to you. We need this ethics body that President von der Leyen promised three years ago. We need a culture in which whistleblowers feel safe enough to finally speak up. We need more resources for OLAF, and we need to apply the same rules for everybody, regardless of big names, regardless of good connection when it comes to access, for example, to this Parliament and this Parliament’s resources, because frankly said that was the biggest problem with Fight Impunity. The voters want us to clean up this corruption mess. They don’t want us to engage in cheap party politics nor in scapegoating, and this debate feels a bit like this.

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 show up for the debate with this Parliament on the issue of Iran – despite the fact that he was in town. On 9 November he couldn’t be there so we rescheduled the debate for 22 November, when right when we started the debate he walked out of the plenary. So we had a unanimous message from the Conference of Presidents to him that he had better be here for the debate yesterday. Yet again yesterday, Mr Borrell was in Strasbourg, but he wasn’t here in the evening. Colleagues, we are talking about one afternoon a month where we ask him to adjust his schedule to our plenary debates. I have to say that I find it difficult not to interpret this behaviour as a sign of disrespect to Parliament, and also to the 12 000 people who were here on Monday. (Loud applause) I understand very much that we cannot drag him here by physical force. So maybe this public statement will help. I encourage the Conference of Presidents to also define what else they can do to make him appear here next time. Otherwise, I promise you, I will make this point of order again!