Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. I can hear the message, Mrs. Kyriakides, but I lack the belief that there is indeed the intention to find out: Who committed these attacks, who destroyed these lines, and what can be done to eliminate or at least mitigate the damage. According to my information, one strand of the Nord Stream 2 line should still be intact. If this is true, then I do not understand why every effort is not made to put these lines into operation, to grant the permits for them, so that a blatant shortage in our gas supply is really closed here. It doesn't matter if the gas comes from Russia or not. It's that we need gas and that we lack it. Then we must do everything we can to put an end to the suffering of our people, and in the end we will cut off the branch on which we are sitting. Questions were also asked in the German Bundestag about these investigations and no useful, meaningful results came out. It's like blocking it. There's a suspicion that you don't want to. This is a symbol for me. The destruction of this infrastructure, which is really essential for us, is for me a symbol that is also visible here in our building. I had a group of visitors today, and when they came in, they said: What happened to the Louise Weiss building? Half of it is missing! It's not finished yet! I told them that the architect was inspired by Bruegel's Babylonian tower construction. Of course, the symbolism is wide open – just as this led to a failure at the time: This tower was never finished. Do we really want to show here with this story that what we are building here is only piecemeal, that it is only for a short time and that we ultimately do not want anything meaningful and reasonable to be done here? That would be a disgrace to Europe.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. I have only recently predicted here that the 2023 budget is not sustainable and will soon burst. Today I can repeat this, because today you want to re-adjust the seven-year plan by continuing to inflate this huge ball with money that you do not yet have and probably will never take in the necessary amount with the planned own resources. And then the exact same thing happens again next year. Dear colleagues, today we should look forward to Christmas and celebrate the coming of the Savior into the darkness of this world. I therefore wish you – despite all these criminal events at present – a merry and merciful Christmas. And don't forget: The treasures of the wise men of the East are completely harmless. They were not used for bribery as in the case of the kings of Qatar, but to pay tribute to the newborn king. May you also be able to look forward to all the gifts you receive at Christmas time with heart and without remorse.

Madam President, Minister, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! I should like to ask three questions on this point. The first question concerns the European Court of Auditors. The European Court of Auditors delivered its opinion, but it writes that it had only 12 days to deliver it. What happened there? And why were we only able to get them yesterday and can no longer debate them now, about the good and meaningful proposals he made? I don't understand. A second question concerns this direct financing of Ukraine’s budget. When we in the CONT committee, wherever I am, see that money flows directly into the budget of a state, then we are always very noisy and very vigilant and try to get out: What's happening here, what's going on here? And I am very concerned that this money, if it goes here to Ukraine, will go to the most corrupt state on our continent, which is a fact; If this money now flows into this war economy, is that really well invested, is that really right? Will the people of Ukraine really be helped? That is the question. And the third question is: Do you know how much money we send to these people? I have 50 euro notes here, together it's half a centimetre high. And this money, if you add it up to a tower, then the 18 billion is a tower of 40 kilometers of money. Do we really want that?

Mr President, Commissioner Hahn, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Minister! Congratulations on this budget! They managed to say goodbye at the last second, so to speak, to this household sewn on edge. They were, of course, doomed to success, so to speak. They could not help but reach an agreement. If you had not done so, we could have started all over again and the budget would not have entered into force in time. Therefore: They were doomed to success. Nevertheless, the following conclusion remains to be drawn: This budget is so tightly knit, so edge-stitched that it will burst at the next crisis – and the next crisis will come. Proposals are already being made today on how to thoroughly revise this budget, how to change it, how to try to expand it somehow. He is still among the last headroom full. How do you want to do that? I don't have to be a prophet to tell you that in the next meetings next year we will have to tackle this budget over and over again and rectify it. Changes have to take place because he was knitted this way. I have tabled 300 amendments with a 55% reduction. If you had done that, you wouldn't have to knit it all over again next year.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. My eldest grandson asked me this weekend: ‘Grandpa, where does all the money come from?’ I replied to the 13-year-old: “I will explain this to you through the Corona Reconstruction Fund: So, first of all, it is determined that the fund should be worth €750 billion – that much would be needed to pay for the damage caused by the government-imposed lockdowns. In a second step, you then borrow the money from the banks through bonds. So they are making debts, even though an EU treaty states that the EU must not make debts. You reassure me that this would be a one-off exception, but it is not. And in the third step, they explain to the bank that they will repay the debt by 36 years at the latest, with revenues that will only flow in full in four years, but not enough to repay all the debt. This is how the Reconstruction Fund works, my dear Joel.” Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would not like to deprive you of the question that my grandson then asked: ‘Grandpa, are they crazy?’

Madam President, Commissioner, dear Tony Murphy! Congratulations on your new post! Unfortunately, I haven't been able to talk to you yet, but maybe we can catch up. Today I just want to say thank you. First of all, thank you for mastering the – in my view – completely unjustified attacks by a French newspaper, which unfortunately have also been picked up by parts of this House, and for being stronger today than ever before. Then, of course, I would like to thank you today for the annual report on which we are debating. For the third consecutive year, the Court of Auditors has to give a negative opinion on parts of the Union budget. This is not trivial, and Commissioner Hahn, you should really take this seriously and not try to explain it away. I urge you to implement the proposed recommendations and to really eliminate the system errors. Finally, Mr President, I would like to thank you once again for the special report on COVID, in particular on the dubious open issues of President von der Leyen's gigantic vaccine procurement. This report really fell into a wasp's nest. Many Members have already spoken. In the meantime, even the European Public Prosecutor's Office is taking up the matter. Mr President, I wish you every success and success in your office. Continue to be so snappy and so zealous in uncovering irregularities. Citizens will thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, let's just let the Court of Auditors do its job. We make ours. That's a good thing.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. Let's be honest: The 2023 budget is basically already a waste before it was adopted. The draft resolution lists dozens or many problems in paragraph 2, but the solutions do not correspond to these problems at all. Instead of giving discharge to the EU – EU citizens – the draft acts as a continuation of the current backward-looking EU policy. Almost all countries in the EU are facing exploding inflation, which is destroying our industries and plunging so many people into poverty, misery and, in some cases, even suicide. We are confronted with energy costs that many citizens really can no longer afford. The day before yesterday, one of my sons told me that he now has to pay more than half of his teacher's salary for housing costs. That's absurd! In addition, many food prices have doubled. But what happens to salaries? If you do not happen to work in an EU authority, the salaries will remain the same for the time being. So how does the EU help our desperate citizens? Will it end the energy crisis? Will it end the war? Does it stop the climate change madness? No, unfortunately not. The present draft budget provides Ukraine with: Green deal-Politics and much nonsense wave an endless flow of money. Apparently, we find it more important to sanction Russia and finance a deadly war in Ukraine to our detriment than to ensure that our hard-working citizens and our families can pay their electricity bills and their food. For statistics only: The word gender is mentioned 98 times, Ukraine 92 times, the climate 74 times. The word family, the backbone of the Union, does not occur once. To make matters worse, the draft promotes militarism and russophobia. Once pacifist left-wing parties, including here in the House, reject diplomacy, peace and neutrality and degrade our Union into a military union. Ladies and gentlemen, not that we misunderstand each other, there are many good approaches in the draft that I can support, and I have also tabled 300 amendments. But we are setting the wrong priorities. We do not act for people, but we take on more and more foreign interests. It can't be. This must finally be over!

Madam President, Minister, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! We are truly living in turbulent times, and there is a danger that we will lose sight of really important problems, especially the fate of the people persecuted for their faith, because of the fear of a world war or of a new pandemic or of the ideologues and priests of the new climate religion. The number and severity of cases have increased alarmingly in recent years in all parts of the world, especially in the Islamic world. Our ID faction will therefore visit the Bishop of Nigeria next week as a representative of a strongly persecuted Christian group. We must not ignore these problems. We must not forget these persecuted people and not let them down. Otherwise the tyrants of this world, as they encounter no resistance, will do their diabolical work unhindered. Dear Commission, Mrs Dalli, do not remain idle in this matter any longer and finally appoint the Commissioner for Freedom of Belief and Religious Freedom. None of you have said anything about it so far. That can't be true! Please do something now! Many will thank you.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. The proposals presented in the report to strengthen the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) sound good at first. No one is against us being better prepared and prepared for upcoming pandemics and cross-border health threats. But why do I not get rid of the dull feeling that these useful reasons for strengthening the ECDC are only further steps to introduce a kind of borderless surveillance system à la China on the way to the complete collection of all health data of all citizens? Two weeks ago, when the Director-General, Ms Gallina, joyfully announces in the Committee on Budgets that she has issued almost one billion COVID certificates, my laughter dies in my throat. This is an attack on the freedom of our citizens. We should not continue to support this. Commissioner, return this task to the hands of the Member States!

Mr President! . Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. The nice thing about this topic of cycling strategy is that almost everyone has experience with cycling and can have a say. I got my first bike for my sixth birthday 60 years ago. I still know exactly where and how I made my first driving attempts. Compared to the naturalness with which my grandchildren learn to cycle today at the age of three or four, my first attempts at riding were downright embarrassing. Back then, there weren't many bikes, and as a teenager, I was proud, like Oskar, to own my own bike. However, since my bicycle was stolen from the commuter parking lot at the station about 20 years ago, I haven't bought any more. I have therefore no longer participated in the new wave of e-bike enthusiasm. But I can understand the fascination of this new bike. And I also see the need for us to keep an eye on the further development and use of e-bike mobility and to look for solutions in case of possible conflicts with other road users and also in case of possible misdevelopments. However, cycling still takes place almost exclusively in the vicinity of home and also on rather shorter routes. While I respect the great zeal and acknowledge the many good ideas contained in this new approach to an EU-wide cycling strategy, I give two points to consider. Firstly: If we now develop an EU strategy, we are in breach of the principle of subsidiarity, which is so important. The solution to the problems of cycling is to be sought at the lowest administrative level, not at the highest. And the rights and sovereignty of the Member States must not be disregarded on this issue either. And secondly: Do we really want to regulate cycling across the EU, from the production of the wheels to their disposal? I can only warn you. With this, we would create another bureaucratic monster that takes away the natural, the beautiful, the normal, the joyful while cycling and creates no additional benefit. Let's just stick to the status quo. If people no longer like to cycle because of the rules, then their regulation does exactly the opposite. Then, by the way, no gram of CO2 is saved. And then only the cycling lobby groups and the manufacturers of the wheels are happy because they can sell them more and more expensive due to the many specifications. I don't want that kind of strategy for my grandchildren.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. Everyone complains about the bad laws, but all attempts to make better laws have failed so far. Previously, laws were created from a single source. Then, by the way, they were pleasantly short and easy to understand. The Ten Commandments, for example, in the Bible had less than 300 words, the Constitution of the United States less than 10,000 words. Today, the EU's pacifier chain regulation, which is certainly very important, alone comprises 52 closely described pages. In the past, every citizen could Code of Napoléon or read the German Civil Code from 1900 and understand it to some extent. Today, we need five lawyers to resolve a legal issue. Today, gender language and woke Agendas to be incorporated into laws, then I know one thing: You, dear colleagues, and you, dear Commission, will not achieve your desirable goal of making laws better in the future. Dear visitors in the grandstand, welcome to the Tower of Babel, welcome to the world of Leviathan.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, We probably all condemn the actions of China with regard to Cardinal Zen and the four confidants. And that's a good thing! But I miss the determination of Parliament and the Commission to oppose clearly and unequivocally the persecution of dissenters, especially Christians. We find strong words for the decision of the Supreme Court On the subject of abortion. But we remain silent when Christians or Rohingya, Bahai and Sikh or others are persecuted in China and India, in Burma and North Korea, and especially in Muslim countries. We prefer to do business with these countries. We all need to be aware of this: Our silence is an encouragement for those in power in these countries to continue on their oppressive path. And we do not notice that the bans on speaking are also increasing worryingly in the West. Let's raise our voices to stop it. In doing so, we are helping not only Cardinal Zen, but millions of people who are being persecuted for their faith's sake. The Old Word from Schillers Don Carlos‘Sire, give religious freedom!’ is again very topical.

Madam President, Madam Vice-President, Mr Hoyer, ladies and gentlemen. Unfortunately, I have to pour some water into the wine, because not everything that shines in the EIB is gold. I would like to make two points: Firstly, the sharp decline in transparency, which has already been mentioned. In 2010, 96% of all projects were published three weeks before approval by the Management Board. In 2020, it will be only 60%. This is a very worrying development, which does not reflect the clear demands of our Parliament for improvements. Secondly: The agreement of 11 November 2021 between the EIB, the Commission and the Court of Auditors does not provide satisfactory solutions. The status quo is simply maintained without significant improvements. In particular, there is no extension of the Court's audit powers in relation to the EIB's activities, which, incidentally, I have been calling for for years. In this context, however, I would like to point out a questionable investment, which has also been mentioned: The EIB invested in BioNTech/Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine by signing a EUR 100 million loan facility in June 2020. I cannot imagine, Mr President Hoyer, that you were authorised by your directives to take a decision and invest in an experimental vaccine which, moreover, did not yet have a marketing authorisation. And if you made this decision because of political pressure, you are questioning the independence of the EIB. However, if the EIB is no longer independent, it would have to be fully subject to scrutiny by the Committee on Budgetary Control and the Court of Auditors. I ask you to bear this in mind.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. This resolution on illegal logging is another attempt by the EU to seize competences in the fields of nature conservation, environmental protection and forestry. Under the pretext of large-scale logging, which takes place mainly in countries such as Romania, Greece and Slovakia, tracking and tracing systems as well as certification systems for wood are to be implemented in order to be able to better control the extraction and export of wood. How farmers and small private forest owners are supposed to stem this bureaucratic madness is hard to imagine. In addition: There is no clear distinction between logging and deforestation; The terms are spongy. By the way: Forest fires are likely to be the main cause of deforestation, not illegal logging. The EU Forest Strategy for 2030 addresses other fundamental concerns. It is not only a monster of bureaucracy, it is above all a serious interference with national competences, and it is contrary to the principle of subsidiarity. Or do you really think that Finland's forests can be managed in the same way as the few trees in Malta or Cyprus? And so it goes on: The manslaughter terms climate or biodiversity are intended to protect even more forest areas and thus deprive them of the sustainable management that has been successful for generations. The logging must be reduced, it is said, in order to climate protection goals and the Green Deal to be fulfilled. It is completely ignored that the replacement of fossil fuels with onshore wind power leads to significant forest consumption. In Germany, for example, there is a danger that a centuries-old forest such as Reinhardswald will be sacrificed for the installation of wind turbines. That can't work like that. But what can we do? We need to re-understand what sustainability is. The concept of sustainability was invented over 200 years ago in forestry. At that time they did not go with the harvester into the forest to harvest. This was done in small parts and with regard to the trees. In this way, we have achieved a truly diversified and sustainable forestry in Central Europe. We must not let them destroy us with this new bureaucracy monster and with new conditions. The following also applies: Nature conservation, environmental protection and forestry must remain the responsibility of the Member States. We should do everything we can to revert to the principle of subsidiarity.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. I was shocked to learn of the massacre in the Catholic Church of St. Francis Xavier in Owo, Nigeria, in which more than 50 people were killed in a terrorist attack. It's hard for me to put my disbelief and grief into words. While we cheerfully celebrated Pentecost here, the service ended in a bloodbath in Owo. Persecution and terror on religious grounds is widespread worldwide, including, unfortunately, members of all religions, but especially Christians, over 350 million of whom face discrimination and persecution. This must reach the public's awareness much more than before. This is where the European states and the European Commission are called for. The European Union urgently needs to re-fill the vacant position of the Special Representative for Religious Freedom, which has been vacant for months. Dear Commissioner, I should like to address you once again: Must such a massacre happen as in Owo before the Commission realises that Nigeria is also a religious war and that you are doing something about it?

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. When we talk about freedom of the press in Georgia, I wonder what freedom there is when Georgia is only 89th out of 180 on the list of freedom of the press; and if recently, as already mentioned, the cameraman Alexander Lashkarawa was found dead in his apartment after filming a counter-demonstration; and when Nika Gwaramia, former Minister of Justice and prominent TV presenter, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for owning an opposition broadcaster. We hear such cases, and my intern, who is from Georgia, tells me about many others. But we continue to negotiate with Georgia as if nothing had happened, and we are anxious to give this country the status of EU candidate. This is a slap in the face for all the candidate states of the Western Balkans, which have made significantly more progress than Georgia, which has fallen very behind here. Yes, let's help this country – it needs it. But let's not push it into a procrustal bed. It would do them and us more harm than good.

Madam President, Mr Hahn, Mr Lehne, Madam Minister, ladies and gentlemen! Today we are talking about the budgetary discharge for 2020 for the EU institutions and agencies. But we are not talking about issues of geopolitics and the pros and cons of pushbacks, and abusing the debate on discharge even for personal petty wars, that should be condemned by all of us. In the Committee on Budgetary Control, we believe that in the discharge procedures we are abstaining from politically charged discussions about personal hobbies and that we are limiting ourselves to retrospective budgetary control. And we have enough discussion in 53 reports. Unfortunately, some colleagues repeatedly shoot themselves into few facilities. This year it seems to be the European Court of Auditors alongside Frontex. Aren't we really ashamed that we are harming such an important institution, which is essential for the discharge procedures in particular, without any need? Aren't we ashamed that we don't counter the false impression that President Lehne and his colleagues have committed violations of the rules? That is precisely not the case. If rules are not good or create a false impression, then they can be changed. And the Court of Auditors is ready for that. But then constantly shooting people and undermining their authority, I just find that shabby. Dear colleagues, let us return to our very own job, the budget relief. In the future, we will have even more to do with EPPO and other agencies. Thank you, Mr Lehne, for your important contribution. I apologise for the many misrepresentations, and I personally wish you all the best.

Mr President! Hello, Mrs Jourová, dear colleagues! We all agree, I believe, that this is a central, important issue, which can not only be considered superficially, as if the COVID crisis or also the Ukraine crisis were to blame for the fact that it has gone so high. We have been laying the foundations for years for our children, for our society to have lost its roots. We cut our own roots, we destroy our foundations, for example by trying to destroy our children’s identity, which they clearly know in 99.99 per cent of all cases – that they know one is a boy and the other is a girl. We leave them helpless and stranded and without any plan for their lives, and then wonder that they no longer know whether they are normal or not. This is the real cause of our loss, which we actually have here. We have in a certain way ignored our compass, we have lost sight of our goal. I would like to remind you that, for example, in the American Declaration of Independence the pursuit of happiness – the pursuit of happiness has been enshrined as an inalienable right. The pursuit of happiness – we do everything we can to avoid and prevent this pursuit of happiness and to throw beatings between our children’s legs so that they are not able to really see clearly who they are and what they want to achieve in their lives. We basically rob them of their life goals. I think we need to get back to the foundations. We must return to what, for example, an Augustine said 1700 years ago: We do not rest, our heart does not rest, unless it rests in you, O God. If we have lost our compass and our anchoring with the Divine, then we must not be surprised that we no longer know how to proceed. We have to teach this to our children. We have to go back to that normal, to what is normal for each of us. With God's help and my wife's help, we raised four girls and six boys. They all went through puberty. They also had their problems and their difficulties, but none of them got huge problems somewhere. Thank goodness! Thank goodness we were resilient enough to survive this COVID crisis. Nevertheless, we must not just push the challenges aside. I am also grateful for any help that the people who have problems get. But let's be clear: These medical aids alone mental healthThey're not enough. We need a return to normal.

Madam President, Commissioner Hahn, ladies and gentlemen. When we look at the general guidelines for the Commission's 2023 budget today, it is striking that the report seems to have fallen out of time. I would like to point out this in four points and this time I do not want to go into the war in Ukraine. Firstly: The report comes without the now rapidly rising inflation. I'm afraid this inflation will wipe out all of our beautiful budgets. What are our responses to this threat to ordinary citizens? Secondly: The report is still reveling in ambitious Green Deal projects. In doing so, it should focus more on the basic needs of the population in need. Thirdly: The report mentions gender-related terms 89 times, but it does not even mention the nucleus, the foundation of our society: The family. Fourthly: The report strengthens the transformation of the EU into a huge centralised health authority, thus promoting the division of society into the willing and the unwilling – the one who submits to the orders and the other who appreciates their freedom more. Colleagues, do we really want that? Should we not rather ensure that the predominantly Christian principles that have made Europe large and resilient, such as freedom, subsidiarity and ownership, should also determine the guidelines of our budgetary policy? That would be my pious wish – also to the Commission – for Easter to come.

Madam President, Commissioner Hahn! Thank you, Mrs Hohlmeier, for this great report. I think we all agree that oligarchic structures, corruption and fraud, no matter who they are, must be fought relentlessly. We certainly also agree that the main obstacle to an effective fight against fraud is the lack of or often prevented cooperation of our anti-fraud authorities with the national stakeholders concerned – and often it is precisely these oligarchs. Unfortunately, we cannot exclude a single member state. It happens everywhere. If the political will is lacking, then we can make so many rules here, then we can carry out so many checks, then we can strengthen OLAF and EPPO so much, financially or in terms of staff - then we will fail in the fight against these oligarchs. We have experienced this over and over again. Maybe we should take a completely different approach. I'm making a suggestion, I've made it before: If funds that are proven to be misused or used, if this is available and proven, then they must be fully reimbursed, including one – let's call it a 20% processing fee. Only after repayment can new funds be approved and disbursed. If fraud is not worthwhile – indeed, if it costs more than it brings in – then, dear colleagues, this evil activity is quickly over.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. Today we are talking about a central and important topic: transparency of all administrative actions within the EU institutions. I find it really embarrassing that your boss, Mrs. von der Leyen, is not present. Because the elephant in the room is not the transparency rules that we could certainly agree on. The elephant in the room is Mrs. von der Leyen's behavior as part of her vaccine procurement duties, and I would like to ask you to tell her that it really can't be that way. We need absolute transparency about this behaviour and what actually happened. It's not just about getting vaccines. It is about what she knew about the dangerous vaccines, about the dangerousness, about the vaccine side effects, which have already been detected in the experiments in the testing of Pfizer itself. There are tens of thousands of vaccine damage there, and that's why it has to be on the table. Here we need absolute transparency, and it is my request that you give Mrs von der Leyen a letter that I wanted to hand over to her earlier, and then tell her that I am sorry that she was not here today.

Madam President, Well, for the sixth time today, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. As the son of a farmer, I know very well how difficult it is if not only the droughts from which we had it this morning at the beginning, but also the price increases make the life of a farmer almost impossible. And yet: If now answers are sought in the direction of making interventions in the market, then I can only warn against it. That would not eliminate the problem, it would magnify it. What can we do? I would like to remind you of two things: We have an ECB that is responsible for fighting inflation. What does she do about it? Ms Lagarde appeased and said: It's just a dent. But farmers say: This is not a dent, this is a mountain, this is a Himalaya. And we urgently need solutions. Please, Mrs Lagarde, fight inflation. And the second is: I received a letter from my gas supplier yesterday. The price of the gas I get will increase by 70%. What do we do about gas prices? And I ask you to take the following into account: Please open Nord Stream 2 so that more gas can finally flow to Europe and the price can fall.

Madam President, Commissioner, Madam Bizzotto, ladies and gentlemen! It is important and necessary for the EU to protect designations of origin and geographical indications. They represent a kind of copyright, and we do well to protect this intellectual property right in the future. Therefore, we support our friends from Italy in this case. These indications are not protectionist measures, as some claim, but a kind of quality seal. Incidentally, this also serves the protection of workers and also the protection of consumers so that they know what they are getting. However, Commissioner, you should make sure that you do not introduce new bureaucratic hurdles through the design of these industrial property rights, which make internal trade more difficult and which ultimately even damage the protected manufacturer's business. If you pay attention to all this, then you can't really do anything wrong. Choose Prosecco. That's my wish, because I've never heard of Prosek in my whole life. I'm sorry to say that, but I've been drinking Prosecco a lot. In order simply to put an end to this confusion, which is connected with this, I call on the Commission to provide clarity here. It cannot be that these two terms stand side by side. It just leads to confusion.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. I am experiencing a déjà vu again today. We talk about situations in states that have abysmal problems, and we wonder why we can't offer solutions. We are obviously a powerless organization, because we can do almost nothing. Today, these talks with the African Union are starting – wonderfully. But will it lead to a solution for Burkina Faso? I don't think so. Why? Because we simply don't have a lever to start with. And I think we need to think about it: How can we help these people, these 1.5 million displaced people? That's almost 10 percent of the total population. That's awful. Ultimately, we have no solution. It's no use sending money. We all know that. It ends up in the pockets of the military. We also know that we just can't get through a lot of things. It is good to demand democracy. Just, I said it before today: We don't even make it in the Western Balkans, how do we want to achieve it in Africa? And therefore: We need to ask the question: What role do the Islamists play in this whole story? Why doesn't the Sahel come to rest? What are the necessary solutions? And I think it's more that the African states have to help themselves. They must be released into self-employment by us. We have such a paternalistic approach, such a kind of moral imperialism and colonialism. This must finally stop. And we must not make them somehow dependent on the vaccination status, that we demand vaccination from these states. This must stop, otherwise we will never be able to help these countries and they will never come to rest.

Mr President, Commissioner! I am grateful for the ECR resolution and also for this debate here that we are talking about the death penalty in Iran. And I hope and pray that it will serve to save the lives of the political prisoners and that we will also be made aware of the unspeakable suffering of the persecuted Christians and the Baha'is. However, I cannot resist the impression that some of us, ladies and gentlemen, do not support these resolutions so much or only half-heartedly. And I don't understand that. They are also against the death penalty. What could be the reason for voting against the resolution? Don't you want to upset the mullahs and keep making lucrative deals with them? Please be honest. Finally, show the red card to this regime that supports and finances terrorist activities worldwide. Make it clear that there can be no further cooperation, let alone funding from EU funds, as long as Iran does not abandon its inhumane policies and also reverse its hatred of Israel. Let us take a clear course here and help the persecuted Christians in Iran, especially the converts, to live again without fear of death. And let's also help the Baha'is, who are not able to practice their religion in the first place despite guaranteed religious freedom. Incidentally, I was particularly shocked by the honour killing of 13-year-old Romina Ashrafi, who was executed by her own father in her sleep. How broken must a system be that allows or unspokenly tolerates such a thing? Ladies and gentlemen, please accept this resolution and let us put an end to the killings in Iran. I'm sure God will reward you.