What Nathalie spoke about.

14

Dec

2022

FR Speech

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Defending democracy from foreign interference (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, this house is caught in the bad wind of Qatargate, but it is not just that. For years, we have been dismayed by the pro-Russian rhetoric on the far right and far left in this Chamber. Since 24 February, these speeches have been akin to pseudo-pacifism, which only helps the aggressor and demands the capitulation of the aggressor. However, Russian interference is not the …

22

Nov

2022

FR Speech

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New EU strategy for enlargement (debate)

Madam President, let us ask ourselves the question: How many political spaces do sovereign countries want to join without being forced to do so? The answer is simple: only one, the European Union. Ukrainians are literally fighting to join her and we did well to welcome their candidacy. Moldova is shaking in the face of Russian pressure and hopes that we will take it under our wing. Let's do it. At…

20

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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Cultural solidarity with Ukraine and a joint emergency response mechanism for cultural recovery in Europe (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, in Mariupol, the Russian Army destroyed the Holodomor memorial, the extermination by hunger organised by Stalin between 1932 and 1933, which left millions dead. This is just one example among many of the attacks on Ukrainian heritage since 2014 and the annexation of Crimea. In addition to the destruction, looting is also taking place: as of February 2022, more than 2…

19

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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Outcome of the first meeting of the European Political Community (debate)

Madam President, what had not been heard? "It will never work", "still a great idea that will remain in the drawers", "the British will not come", "the European political community, we don't even know what it is". Then 44 Heads of State and Government decided to meet and create this European Political Community. The 27 were there but also, remotely, Volodymyr Zelensky, and also, in the room, Liz T…

18

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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Recognising the Russian Federation as a state sponsor of terrorism (debate)

Madam President, who but a terrorist would have the idea of attacking a civilian nuclear power plant, endangering it and storing weapons there? Who but a terrorist would bomb a maternity ward, a theatre, a kindergarten, or murder a conductor? Who but a terrorist would plunge into the dark a country with no clear military objective, with the sole purpose of imposing suffering, intimidating, and the…

5

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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Countering the anti-European and anti-Ukrainian propaganda of Putin’s European cronies (topical debate)

Mr President, there has already been a lot of talk about the collaborators who, in Europe and even in this Parliament – as we have seen earlier – are spreading the propaganda of a Russian president who is openly hostile to us. Today I would like to make proposals, not repeat myself. Let us start with those of the Europeans, because there are some, who served as a guarantor for the sham referendum …

5

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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Russia’s escalation of its war of aggression against Ukraine (debate)

Madam President, no one can ignore what the Russian President wants anymore: He chose to make the Ukrainian people suffer, to make the Russian people suffer and to be hostile to us. From now on, it is clear that the world has nothing to lose and everything to gain from a defeat of Russia in Ukraine. A Ukrainian told me yesterday: If Russia loses, there is no more war. If it were to win, there woul…

4

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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The situation in Burkina Faso following the coup d'état (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, as the Russian army retreats to Ukraine, Moscow is inventing a new colonial adventure, this time in Africa, with the complicity of the Wagner Group. The last country to fall victim to Russia's insatiable predatory appetite is Burkina Faso. The country of men of integrity is now caught between the violence of jihadist groups and the looters of the Wagner group. The situa…

4

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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Question Time (VPC/HR) Heightening tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan following the recent military escalation

Mr President, Azerbaijan’s aggression against Armenia is similar to and follows from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Because Moscow is disrupting the international order, Baku no longer sees any reason to respect it, and because Russia is weakened in Ukraine, it is unable to protect Armenia – which it was already doing well. We cannot stand idly by and see Armenia attacked by its neighbour an…

4

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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Question Time (VPC/HR) Heightening tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan following the recent military escalation

Mr President, ‘to misname things is to add to the misfortune of this world’, wrote Albert Camus. In this regard, the High Representative, the European Union has demonstrated its inability to say clearly what is happening in the South Caucasus. What is happening is that since 13 September Azerbaijan has forcibly entered the internationally recognised territory of Armenia. This military aggression t…

13

Sep

2022

FR Speech

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Renewed partnership with the Southern Neighbourhood – a new agenda for the Mediterranean (debate)

Madam President, with the countries of the southern Mediterranean, we do not have just one sea and one history in common. We have a future to build together, because we have everything to gain from the successes of our neighbors and everything to fear from their failures. This is what the Agenda for the Mediterranean, presented by the Commission and the High Representative last year, meant. And th…

6

Jul

2022

FR Speech

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The relations of the Russian government and diplomatic network with parties of extremist, populist, anti-European and certain other European political parties in the context of the war (debate)

Madam President, it is hard to believe, and it is painful to say, but there are parties in our Union and in our Parliament that dishonor and dishonor Europe. It is hard to believe, but there are Members here who did not want to condemn the atrocities committed by the Wagner Group, who did not want to punish Russia, who did not want to help Ukraine or give it EU candidate status and who did not wan…

6

Jul

2022

EN Speech

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The UK government’s unilateral introduction of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill and respect for international law (debate)

Mr President, I say to our dear British friends, we live in a time of anxiety: war has come back to Europe, inflation is growing and climate change has come into our lives. At such a time, we need to unite, not to be divided. We need to join forces, not to act unilaterally. We need to honour our commitments, not to breach them. And as always, we need to listen to the people. What do people in Nort…

7

Jun

2022

FR Speech

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The EU’s Foreign, Security and Defence Policy after the Russian invasion of Ukraine (debate)

Mr President, the war is back in Europe. This terrible sentence, we did not know, a few months ago, that we would have to pronounce it. We are not at war with Russia, but we are facing war because of Russia. What does this mean? Let us help Ukraine. That we need to help him more. Provide him with even more military, financial, humanitarian, political, moral support. Yes, moral. Let us measure each…

6

Jun

2022

FR Speech

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2021 Report on Turkey (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, it seems that President Erdogan is asking the Swedish Prime Minister to dismiss her defence minister, as we learned this weekend. So since the Turkish president has demands, we might as well tell him what we expect from him. Mr Erdogan, stop taking Finland's and Sweden's application for NATO membership hostage. This request is legitimate. Your blackmail is not. Mr Pr…

4

May

2022

FR Speech

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Threats to stability, security and democracy in Western and Sahelian Africa (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, what happened in Mali on 20 April is extremely serious. On that day, a fake social media account accused French soldiers in Barkhane of committing a mass massacre before leaving their base in Gossi and based its accusation on the alleged discovery of a mass grave. On the contrary, a French drone filmed a group of men burying bodies in Gossi. Among them were mercenaries …

3

May

2022

FR Speech

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EU preparedness against cyber-attacks following Russia invasion on Ukraine (debate)

Mr President, the war in Ukraine has opened our eyes. In our relations with Russia, there is one before and one after 24 February, the date of the Russian military aggression. Until Vladimir Putin withdraws his troops from Ukraine and renounces the threat to Europe’s security, we will no longer be able to do as before, to pretend as if nothing had happened. When I say ‘we’, I think first of all of…

2

May

2022

FR Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, the group to which I belong is unambiguously and unreservedly in favour of military support for Ukraine. We even want more and faster arms deliveries and more countries to be able to participate in the European Union. That being said, to see a proposal to add a specific technical item to our agenda that deserves careful consideration arrive without prior notice, without prior exam…

6

Apr

2022

FR Speech

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Cooperation and similarities between the Putin regime and extreme right and separatist movements in Europe (topical debate)

Madam President, the European far right calls itself nationalist and patriotic. The trouble is that the nation it defends is Vladimir Putin’s Russia. June 2013: Marine Le Pen travels to Russia, the first of a series of trips to Moscow that she will make with zeal. One of his companions summarizes the trip. He envy the Russians who have a real leader. She returned in April 2014, just after the anne…

6

Apr

2022

FR Speech

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Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 24-25 March 2022: including the latest developments of the war against Ukraine and the EU sanctions against Russia and their implementation (debate)

Madam President, thank you for reminding us earlier that freedom of opinion and expression cannot be confused with the right to deny facts, with denialism. In Europe, there are many who thought that Vladimir Putin would never attack Ukraine, as if 140,000 men massed at a border could be bluffing. The problem we had was not the quality of the intelligence we had, as it was public. The problem we ha…

5

Apr

2022

FR Speech

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Question Time with the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy - Security and the EU's strategic compass

Thank you, High Representative. I have another question. At the Versailles Summit, I was surprised that the Commission was asked to assess the EU’s capability gaps, even though – as you said earlier – this analysis exists. It has been run for years by the European Defence Agency. This is available to all Member States. So what we are waiting for is not an additional state of play: what will be don…

5

Apr

2022

FR Speech

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Question Time with the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy - Security and the EU's strategic compass

Mr High Representative, when you came to our Parliament for a hearing in 2019, before being confirmed, I asked you to prepare a first White Paper on European defence. The Strategic Compass has just been adopted and I would like to warmly congratulate you. But, as you said yourself, we are only at the beginning of the story. History is accelerating and so must our defence. So, I'd like to ask you: …

5

Apr

2022

FR Speech

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EU Protection of children and young people fleeing the war against Ukraine (debate)

Mr President, there are those who have died under the bombs and will never grow up. There are those who were born in the shelters and have not yet seen the light of day. There are those whose schools were bombed, those who were separated from their parents, those who were forcibly taken to Russia, and there are those who fled. They are the children of Ukraine. Europe has opened its arms to them, b…

10

Mar

2022

FR Speech

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Destruction of cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh

Madam President, culture is the memory of the people, the collective awareness of historical continuity, the way of thinking and living. This sentence from Milan Kundera reminds us that every time we attack the culture of a people, we seek to destroy it. We saw this when the Taliban blew up the Buddhas of Bamiyan. We saw it again when Daesh destroyed the temple of Nimroud, the sanctuaries of Mosul…

9

Mar

2022

FR Speech

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Debate with the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas - The EU's role in a changing world and the security situation of Europe following the Russian aggression and invasion of Ukraine (debate)

Madam President, Prime Minister, High Representative, the war has come back to haunt Europe. Death is knocking on our doors and we need to be clear: despite our efforts and the heroism of the Ukrainian people, we have not been able to prevent the war and we are not yet able to stop it. Of course, we have done a lot in a short period of time, from sanctions against the Russian regime, to closing Mo…