Speeches

Mr President, Madam President, Mr High Representative, a week ago, President Zelensky came to us for help. One year after the start of the Russian aggression, Europe must face the facts: We have an interest in a victory for Ukraine and we must do everything in our power to make it win. Doing everything we can means doing more and faster: more deliveries of weapons and ammunition, of those that will give a decisive advantage to Ukraine. No more procrastination, delay, hesitation when human lives are at stake. Doing more means more sanctions against Russia and a more determined fight against their circumvention. Those in Europe who violate sanctions must be prosecuted. Those outside Europe who help Russia bypass them must fear secondary sanctions. Some, even in this Chamber – they have been heard – call for immediate negotiation, but yet the failure of the Minsk agreements should have vaccinated us against ill-chosen odds and the temptation of frozen conflicts. Those who preach appeasement in the face of Russia should remember Churchill’s phrase: "He who practices the policy of appeasement feeds a crocodile hoping to be devoured the last".

Mr President, Europe advances only in crises. As this little phrase has a bitter taste, when it comes to describe what we are experiencing. It took a corruption scandal within our Parliament to finally think about setting ethical rules of common sense. I welcome the proposals made by the President of our Assembly and call for them to be implemented without delay. But I am surprised – to say the least – that they do not go any further. When will we finally start building an independent ethics authority for all European institutions, as we have been proposing since 2019? It seems that the largest group – at least in number – in this Parliament is not in favour, on the pretext of preserving the freedom of mandate. But finally, what freedom are we talking about when it comes to fighting corruption? As a French elected official, I feel no less free in the exercise of my mandate on the ground that I declare my assets and income to an independent French authority, which verifies them. For years, this Parliament has lived in the shadow of the co-management imposed by two political groups, EPP and S&D, on all their colleagues. Appointments, regulations, good and bad practices: Everything was going through them! Given the sinking of the ‘Qatargate’, it is time for our Parliament to have a non-politicised professional administration and for its functioning to be independently audited. This is how we will regain the trust of our voters, which years of neglect have begun.

Madam President, when Qatargate broke out, we were all shocked and we all said that we were going to clean the Augias stables. But very quickly, the natural regained the upper hand. On the far right and far left of this Chamber, only the words ‘Qatar’ and ‘Morocco’ are left in the mouth. No more, no more a word on those Members who travel to Crimea, annexed by Russia, on those Members of our Parliament who find all the charms in Bashar al-Assad or who travel to Iraq with Iranian militias. How do they travel? How do they finance themselves? We don’t hear about it. Nor is there anything about those MEPs who refuse to designate Holodomor as a genocide committed against Ukraine by Russia or who refuse to support aid to Ukraine. At the EPP, we were first told that the best way to combat foreign interference was to stop denouncing human rights violations in foreign countries. That's a good idea! We almost saw our emergency resolutions disappear. In the EPP again, we were happy to say that this story is basically a problem of corruption among socialists. Oh, hey? Is it absolutely certain that nowhere else in this Chamber has anyone ever been wrong? I don’t know. But what I urge us to do is sweep everyone in front of our doors, clean our gardens, finally be worthy of the trust that the voters have given us, of the mandate that we carry, before those same voters finally say to themselves that with our little quarrels, in the end, we would all be rotten.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we are all still shocked to learn that corruption has found its way to some of our colleagues. All of us here are determined that this is no longer possible. All right! But then, ladies and gentlemen, I urge us to be consistent. We know that countries in the Near and Middle East, Qatar in the lead, are willing to pay large sums to influence us. So let's not let them do it, whatever their method. It is time to ask ourselves about some Islamist associations that are not only on the street in Brussels, but that our institutions welcome with open arms, legitimize and sometimes even finance. Not a week goes by without Femyso sending us an email, not a year without the European Commission subsidising it. Why? Why choose a federation whose ties to the Muslim Brotherhood make no one doubt? Why fund a religious association to reach out to young people when you are a secular European institution? Another example: Why does Erasmus+ let a brotherly association – Al Sharq – coordinate four, four of its projects? All of these associations have ties to the Middle East or Turkey, or both. All of them are challenging our European way of life. How much longer will the European Union roll out the red carpet for them? Qatargate must also open our eyes to this.

Madam President, when an earthquake causes the deaths of more than 30 000 people, there should no longer be Turks, Syrians, Shiites, Sunnis, Alawites, Christians or Kurds, but only men, women and children to be rescued. When an earthquake causes the deaths of more than 30 000 people, we are moved by gestures of solidarity that transcend conflict: Turkey thus received the support of Armenia and Greece, despite the weight of history and the tensions of the present. Unfortunately, in Syria, the earthquake is just another misfortune. Only one crossing point is open to the north-west for emergency assistance, on the grounds that the area is not under Damascus’ control. Fighting continues, including in areas affected by the earthquake. Bashar al-Assad’s regime blames international sanctions for the slow pace of aid, even though they have never included humanitarian assistance. Given the scale of the damage and the number of civilians at risk, it is time for the Security Council to demand a full ceasefire and unhindered movement of emergency assistance, and for the UN to set up an air bridge to Syria. The life of one child is worth as much as that of another, in Syria or Turkey. It would be time to remember that.

Madam President, more than ever Ukraine needs our help. Here and there, I hear strange noises in Europe. Have we not already done enough in terms of military aid? Those who say we are co-belligerents are brazenly lying and are only those who are linked to Russia. No European has troops in Ukraine. We are simply giving Ukraine the means to defend itself and we need to stop procrastinating: Every day of delay in our military aid is a loss of life in Ukraine. I also hear that Ukraine would be in a hurry to join the European Union, that its ardour should be eased. But finally, in the midst of the war, Ukraine is continuing its reforms. In the midst of the war, President Zelensky is fighting corruption on an unprecedented scale and, let us say, unparalleled in some of our Member States. Finally, I hear that we would struggle to adopt new sanctions against Russia. Yet our economies are resisting better than expected. Yet Russia has not yet given up its military aggression, it is testing our resolve. We would be wrong to give him the right answer.

Mr President, 38. For 38 days, 120,000 Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh have been cut off from the world, food and medicine have run out, and families have been separated. 38 days, but in truth, much more, to the point that words no longer make sense. Russia claims to maintain peace in the Lachin corridor. In reality, its soldiers are inert and for years the only thing Russia has maintained is a poisoned conflict. Azerbaijan assures that there is no blockade, just the spontaneous presence of environmental activists. Is that why the army came to support them? President Aliev claims to treat the people of Nagorno-Karabakh as he treats all the people of Azerbaijan. But on what part of his territory does he impose a blockade on his people? He just said: Those who do not want to live in Nagorno-Karabakh as citizens of Azerbaijan can leave. It is therefore more than a blockade that it imposes, more than a blackmail to which it engages, it is an ethnic cleansing to which it aspires. What are we Europeans doing? Nothing. Worse than nothing, actually. A pitiful statement by the EU Special Envoy reassuring Baku: our observers have nothing to do with what is happening in the Lachin corridor. I am ashamed. I am ashamed that the President of the Commission has called a country that knowingly organises a humanitarian disaster a reliable partner. I watch the leaders of the European Union imitate the three Chinese monkeys in a hurry to see nothing, hear nothing and say nothing. Let us not be mistaken, ladies and gentlemen, these are not the symbols of our wisdom, only those of our cowardice.

Madam President, Dnipro, at least 40 dead, all civilians, including at least five children. A war crime. One more? One too many. This is not the first time that Russia has knowingly targeted civilians in Ukraine. Irpin, Bucha, Kramatorsk and so many other horrors that have been going on for almost a year leave no doubt: Russia wants to terrorize the population, push them to flee or become discouraged. This is no surprise to those who saw Vladimir Putin’s Russia razing Grozny or slaughtering civilians in Aleppo. And let’s face it, if Russia is fully guilty, we have not reacted sufficiently, year after year, to Russia’s war crimes. This time, this war crime must be one too many. There must be a before and after Dnipro. We must urgently step up our military assistance to Ukraine, provide it with more air defence, more tanks, without delay, without absurd arguments. We must also increase the pressure on Russia. Take new sanctions, certainly, but also relentlessly ensure the proper application of existing sanctions and the fight against their circumvention. Is it true that Russian gas is renamed Azeri gas and imported into Europe? How is it that RT France has started broadcasting again from the suburbs of Paris and that elected representatives of this assembly give interviews? And those responsible for these atrocities will have to be judged, from the bottom up to the top of the Russian chain of command. We owe it to the memory of the victims of Dnipro.

Madam President, Ukraine has entered winter and winter is harsh. Russian strikes against civilians, the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian army on the front line come at a price and it is heavy. For Kiev to win, we need to do more. Produce more military equipment and deliver more to Ukraine. Today, we must welcome what the European Union is doing. Welcome the €3 billion committed under the European Peace Facility and the commitment to do more. Welcome the fact that in a few weeks 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been trained and commit to training even more. Tomorrow, Europe will have a financial incentive for Europeans to buy military equipment together, so that they can rebuild their stockpiles and continue to help Ukraine. All this is positive, but in spite of everything, the account is not there. In too many Member States, defence spending has not yet reached the NATO target of 2% of GDP. As for arms deliveries, we are still acting too little and often too late. Providing tanks has been paramount since the start of the Battle of Bakhmut, which did not start yesterday. France has led the way. The eyes are on the German Leopard 2 and we hope that strong decisions will be taken in Berlin. I only talked about Ukraine because the future of our partner will depend on the security of our continent and our Union for years to come. We say a lot that we will help Kiev for as long as it takes. Let us help her as much and as quickly as necessary.

Madam President, Commissioner, my anger has not subsided. The fact that corruption may have affected members of our assembly, that foreign powers may have believed that European democracy was being bought, is a good thing. But today, we need to act fast and hard, not forgetting what we already know and avoiding mixing everything together. Corruption must be tackled wherever it comes from. For this, we will look at the proposals that are on the table. One is missing and it is essential: the European Union needs an independent ethical body based on good practice, such as the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life in France. I campaigned in 2019 proposing it, it is time to decide. Malicious foreign interference must also be tracked. All of them. The work we are doing on interference in the Special Committee sheds light on: The first country that tries to manipulate us and finds complacent ears at the extremes of this House is Russia. Some would like to do everything to forget it, we will not forget it and we will continue the work, in particular to find out whether some are defending Russia out of conviction or only because they are filling their bank accounts. It can't last. And I regret that The Left wants the end of our work. I regret it and wonder why.

Madam President, Commissioner, in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is waging a war of cowards. While he was unable to take either Kiev or Kharkiv and had to withdraw from Kherson, he is trying to terrorise the population by depriving them of electricity, water and heating. On the other hand, he knows nothing about Ukraine. Ukraine, I come back and I will go back again. I can testify to this: In the face of Russian relentlessness, the Ukrainian people are not discouraged – on the contrary, they are enraged. The more Ukraine is hit, the more welded it is; The more Vladimir Putin tries to destroy this country, the more he consolidates his people's determination to resist and repel it. Nevertheless, it is easy for me to say these words here, in the warmth, in the comfort of a country at peace. We must not just pity Ukraine or admire its people. We must all, and everyone, help him to triumph over winter before he triumphs over war. Even the most pacifist Europeans will not be able to deny Ukraine the generators it lacks and the help it needs to limit the effects of Russian strikes. The most realistic among us are well aware that the most effective is still to provide Kiev with the defence systems that will repel the strikes. Those of us who truly want peace, a just and lasting peace, know that it will pass through a military victory for Ukraine and a defeat for Russia. Ukraine does not need courage – it has to sell. She does not need advice – she is the one who fights and endures. She needs friends from the bad days, who help her repair her injured country and make sure that she will never be attacked again in the future.

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 only one to which our house is exposed. Since the beginning of my mandate, I have discovered with amazement the entrism of Islamist associations close to the Gulf and Turkey, but also of American evangelists, both hostile to women’s rights, who are nevertheless received with great pomp in this building. There is no question of this finding: foreign interests are trying to manipulate us and for a few days we have known that they are sometimes willing to put the price on it. It is therefore to sweep in front of our door that I invite us, as well as to shed all the light on all the manipulators and all the manipulated. Let's ask ourselves: those who describe Qatar as a beacon of human rights, those who refuse to see that Russia supports terrorism, do they only have convictions, or above all bank accounts? We must act to find the answer to this question, act and no longer suffer, investigate and no longer just denounce. It is a war being waged against our democracies to influence and weaken them. In this war, we must learn to turn the tide, regardless of the perpetrator or the instrument of the manipulations aimed at us. In the face of disinformation, it is more than time to act and more than just deplore the harm done to us. It is time for the European Union to adopt a strategic communication worthy of the name. Faced with the exorbitant power of social networks – if Twitter, for example, becomes the open sewer of hate and fake news – let’s not shake and enforce our rules. Let's learn to be respected. We have been rentiers of democracy and the rule of law. It's time we became warriors.

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 the heart of our continent, the Balkan countries are already European by geography, history and culture. They are meant to join us, but not at any time or in any way. This makes it very difficult for me to understand that the Commission wants to accept Bosnia and Herzegovina’s candidacy at a time when, far from progressing, the political situation in the country is worsening. I find it very difficult to see that there is no greater concern about Serbia at a time when the crisis between Belgrade and Pristina is taking a very worrying turn, when the Serbian authorities are multiplying the signs of friendship with the Kremlin and when Russia Today is opening an office in Serbia. We must believe in Europe, support enlargement and do it seriously, with our eyes open, not our heads in the sand.

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 200 works of art were stolen from Melitopol. In addition to looting, there are murders: Conductor Yuri Kerpatenko was shot dead in his own house in Kherson. Russia does not respect classified sites, international conventions, or human lives. In the face of the Russian destroying machine, UNESCO is totally powerless. Unfortunately, since 2020, UNESCO has also failed to intervene to protect Armenian heritage threatened with destruction by Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh. We would like to see more determination, more courage and more sense of mission on the part of the UN organisation, but we are still waiting. So if we can't save what has been destroyed, let's help Ukrainian artists at home and in Europe. We're doing it and we're right. Let us also help Russian artists and intellectuals who fled their country because they did not support the war. They need us and we need them so that one day, as close as possible, they bring Russia back to the light.

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 Truss or the leaders of the Balkans. It took a vision, that of Emmanuel Macron, and it took a moment, when our continent understands better than ever that it is facing the same challenges, the same crises and the same war, that Russia is waging against Ukraine. It is not time for sterile quarrels, it is time for efforts to unite and come closer together. What will be the future of the European Political Community? This one will be what everyone will do with it. It will not be a substitute for the accession of the candidate countries to the European Union, but rather a complement. It will not erase Brexit, but it will prevent the trajectory of the UK and the rest of Europe from drifting away. Above all, we collectively have a chance to demonstrate that Europe is much more than an old continent, much more than a small peninsula to the west of huge Asia. We have the opportunity to regain pride in who we are: A civilization, a promise and a hope.

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 therefore terrorising? No one can doubt that. Not only has Russia been acting as an aggressor state since February 24, but it is also using terrorist methods. Before questioning the legal consequences of such a qualification, I urge our media to ask themselves the right questions. They never imagined inviting an Al Qaeda spokesperson after 9/11. So I don't see what the spokespersons of the Russian embassies do, almost every day, on our television channels. Out of respect for the victims of Russian terror, out of pity, no longer invite them.

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 by improvising themselves as observers of a masquerade. I propose that they should be subject to European sanctions, as should the organisers of these electoral parodies. Secondly, we welcomed the suspension of RT and Sputnik in Europe, but many fake experts are flooding our trays without saying their links with Russia. Information is far too valuable to ignore. I would like to encourage the media to systematically display for those who work those they invite, former military personnel, former diplomats, pseudo-journalists but real businessmen of influence. Finally, I am surprised that Eutelsat continues to disseminate Russian propaganda by broadcasting, via four satellites, more than 300 Russian television channels and some 50 radio stations to 15 million Russian households. There's no time to... (The Chairman withdrew the floor to the speaker)

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 would be no Ukraine. So I tell the Russian people and army: If you stop attacking Ukraine, you will be better off. Ukraine does not want to attack Russia. Volodymyr Zelensky never talked about denazifying the Kremlin. You have nothing to gain and everything to lose from this useless and deadly war, no reason to die for sham referendums. I say to the people of Europe: this is not the time to flinch, neither in our support for Ukraine – because it is delivering results – nor in our sanctions against Russia, because Vladimir Putin is just waiting for that. Nuclear threats, sabotage of gas pipelines only serve to intimidate us. We need to deliver more weapons to Ukraine, and faster, because now is the game. If we want to shorten this war, we have to hold on. With our support, with our determination, Ukraine must win, it can win and it will win. Slava Ukraini!

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 situation of the people of Burkina Faso is tragic and it is understandable that they no longer know who to trust. More than a third of the territory is in the hands of jihadists. One in ten Burkinabe is a displaced person. In Djibo, at least 200,000 people are under jihadist pressure, deprived of water, energy, food and health care. One might hope that the Burkinabe army would rush to the north to help them. Well, no! Instead, a military coup took place in Ouagadougou. The new authorities, in fact, believe they can do better than their predecessors and we wish them to do so. Unfortunately, the first days of their seizure of power resulted in unacceptable violence against the French embassy. The French Institute was vandalized without the de facto authorities reacting. They are expected to do something other than the senseless search for scapegoats. It is expected that they will protect European nationals and tackle the ills that afflict the country. Let us not be told that Russia will help defeat armed groups and fight poverty. Wherever it is present, from the Central African Republic to Mali, the Wagner Group only adds violence to violence and plunders resources. Russia does not solve African crises because they live by them, it does not serve Africa, it uses Africa. But what is happening in Ouagadougou is also our failure. We have allowed misinformation to flourish without a reaction to the height. We are helping Burkina Faso in a considerable way, without its inhabitants seeing the result of our efforts. We offer Russia an easy victory that will not solve any of the challenges facing the Sahel. It is time, more than time, to rethink our action in depth.

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 and abandoned to its fate by Russia. We need to support the sending of observers to the scene, work on a final border route, get all prisoners returned immediately and independently document war crimes. The principles and values we defend are the same from Kiev to Yerevan. Will you mobilise, Mr High Representative?

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 took place just days after a meeting between President Aliyev and Prime Minister Pashinyan under the auspices of the President of the Council, Charles Michel, and when both reaffirmed their commitment to a negotiated peace. Ilham Aliyev not only attacked Armenia, he also humiliated the European Union, disregarding his commitments to the President of the Council. Europe does not grow when it lets itself be despised. Ms von der Leyen did not grow up when she called Azerbaijan a ‘reliable partner’. Your own special envoy, Toivo Klaar, is no more credible when, faced with the point-to-point execution of Armenian prisoners, he hesitates to characterise the crime and is silent on the names of the aggressors – the Azerbaijani soldiers. When will we finally clarify our speech, High Representative?

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 that is also what the recommendation we are proposing to adopt says. But beyond good intentions, there is a reality that must concern us. This reality is that both shores of the Mediterranean have started to move away. In the south, the war in Ukraine is often mistakenly perceived as our problem and our sanctions as harmful. In the south, we are happy to listen to China, Russia, Turkey or the Gulf monarchies, and a little less to Europe. The wrongs are shared, but let us take our part, let us be a little less satisfied, a lot more present, and let us address much more to our partners in the southern Mediterranean with respect, friendship and frankness to build our common future.

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 want to denounce either the poisoning of Alexei Navalny or the closure of Memorial. Some of these elected representatives are now members of the National Assembly in France, while others still sit on our benches. We would like Jean-Luc Mélenchon never to have said that Vladimir Putin was going to solve the problem in Syria, that he never spoke – I quote – of the ‘neo-Nazi government of Kiev’, that he never called – I quote – for ‘patience, the collapse of the Ukrainian economy, the disintegration of this country which is so hard to be one of them: everything comes to a point who knows how to wait’, as he wrote when he was a Member of the European Parliament in 2015. We would like Thierry Mariani never to have questioned the crimes of the Russian army in Mariupol or Bucha. We would like no MPs to have traveled to Crimea at the expense of the Russian state for bogus election observation operations. We would like the National Rally not to be the debtor of a Russian arms company that trades with Bashar al-Assad. It is hard to believe that all this is possible. And yet they are facts and it is a disgrace.

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 Northern Ireland have to say? They elected a majority of MLAs who support the Northern Ireland Protocol, provided minor adjustments are made. This is precisely what the EU has offered. We all know there is a landing zone within the protocol. Today, the protocol is not the problem. Look at the numbers. Northern Ireland is faring better than the rest of the UK. There is no shortage, except for two essential goods: predictability and trust. The problem that Northern Ireland is facing, that the UK is facing, has a name. It is not the protocol. The name of the problem is Brexit and the type of Brexit which was chosen by the current British Government.

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 of our words, each of our actions by asking ourselves what is morally acceptable. Moral because when Ukraine asks to join the European Union, we have to say a strong and solemn thank you. Ukraine is already an honorary member of our Union by the blood shed to defend its territory and to defend our freedoms. She is an honour to be a candidate. His place is among us. But one thing we cannot do is tell Ukraine what it should or should not accept. Because we did not send troops alongside the Ukrainian army, we simply do not have the right to dictate Ukraine’s conduct; Let’s not forget that. On the other hand, we have a duty: that of drawing the consequences of the return of the war on our continent to know how to better protect our fellow citizens. And first we need to learn from our failures. Because yes, the invasion of Ukraine is a sign that we have failed. Had we admitted Ukraine to NATO, it would not have been attacked. Those who opposed it were wrong. If we had reacted more strongly to the Russian aggression against Georgia, the annexation of Crimea and the Donbass war, if we had not looked away when 21,000 civilians died in Aleppo under Russian bombs, Russia would not have believed that we would let it attack Ukraine. We reacted: so much the better. We deliver weapons to Ukraine: This is our duty. What we did earlier! The European Peace Facility proves its usefulness every day: what did we trigger before the start of hostilities, when Kiev was already under threat, but we were still pinching for a few million euros of non-lethal equipment! Are Member States doing the right thing today? Do they do it fast enough? I am afraid that the answer will vary, to put it politely. For some, the issue is the replenishment of their stocks: Let's treat her. Let us seek to jointly purchase the armaments we or our partners need. What we have done for vaccines – buy together and produce in Europe – let us do for the equipment that will protect Europeans. The Commission has made some initial proposals, they go in the right direction – even if it is just the beginning. Personally, I propose to go further and move towards aBuy European Actas regards military equipment. Our sovereignty also passes through, our sovereignty and our credibility. On credibility, what can be said three months after the start of the war in Ukraine? The EU has adopted six packages of sanctions against Russia: an unprecedented firmness in the face of an aggression without precedent. It will be necessary to continue over time and remain united. Yes, but precisely? Confusing unity and unanimity costs us. We are moving at the pace of the most reluctant of the 27 Member States. How long has the oil embargo been demanded by an overwhelming majority of us? How long did it take for the Council to adopt it unanimously? This unanimity rule must be abandoned. That is what this Parliament thinks. This is what the citizens who spoke during the Conference on the Future of Europe expect. That is logically what the recommendation that David McAllister and I drafted together calls for. One more word, the last. Denmark has just joined Defence Europe, and I would like to express my warm thanks to the Danish people for this choice. Finland and Sweden want to join NATO. I fully support this move and solemnly call on the Turkish President to stop obstructing it. Until then, Stockholm and Helsinki will be able to count on the full solidarity of the other members of the European Union under Article 42(7) of our Treaty. If it were necessary to prove that European defence and NATO are not contradictory but complementary, here it is.