Speeches

Today there is a debate in which, unfortunately, we are not talking about how to prevent a possible increase in energy prices, because this increase has already taken place. We have a situation that we have warned about many times in recent months and years. This crisis is a fact faced by EU citizens and businesses. This is an increasingly difficult and dramatic reality. For example, prices per m3 of gas have risen by 200 percent since January 2021 alone, and electricity prices by more than 150 percent in a country that aspired to be an example of renewable energy. This country is the Netherlands, home of the author of the Fit for 55 package. Unfortunately, the detached climate policy, which, without taking into account the social costs, is being pushed forward by the Commission, brings about an unimaginable increase in energy prices. When will there be reflection and will to counteract such a situation? When will this House accept the fact that it is not possible to rely solely on renewable energy sources if we disregard the need to build up reserve resources? When we start making sensible and sustainable use of the natural resources and resources we actually have, to ensure energy stability and security, to fight energy poverty, the spectrum of which threatens us more than ever. It is high time to change the course of energy policy of the European Commission and many politicians in this institution.

Madam President, I'm sorry. In June 2024, the tragic death of Polish soldier Mateusz Sitek occurred, who was stabbed by an illegal migrant during an attempt to forcefully cross the border illegally. In one year alone, more than 50 Polish officers were injured and injured. Violence, rape, theft and murder by illegal migrants occur on the streets of European cities every day. Meanwhile, today in the European Parliament, the left is attacking the United States and trying to rally political capital to an obvious tragedy. Leave the United States alone, deal with the tragedies in your countries. Democracy in the United States, the American justice system, is certainly doing much better than the politically-correct dictatorship of the left-wing agenda in many European Union countries. Today, the rule of law is being vulgarly violated in Poland, and the prosecutor's office, illegally taken over by the Tusk government in the name of this dictatorship of political correctness, is charging officers who, risking their lives every day, also defend the European external border.

Well, thank you, I can't disagree with you. In fact, double standards. Ladies and Gentlemen, a small example: today, an unlawfully seized public prosecutor’s office in Poland, assisted by the police, entered an independent court, a national court. Ladies and gentlemen, you, as I said, are like these Buddhist monkeys. Whenever parties outside your political bubble are in power, you see nothing, hear nothing and say nothing. On the other hand, whenever changes are undertaken in accordance with the applicable law, as in Poland, in accordance with the Constitution, then you talk about the broken rule of law, you talk about fascism.

Mr President, thank you very much. The 2024 report approved in July this year again highlights significant problems in the form of errors in the management and spending of EU funds. Persistently high error rates, European Union debt, specificities of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). We recognise that for RRF expenditure, our audit is limited as payments are made on the basis of the fulfilment of milestones and targets and not directly on the basis of the compliance of spending with EU and national rules. This means that it is not possible to fully confirm the regularity of the final beneficiaries’ expenditure. The best confirmation of the validity of the Court's observations may be the POLITICAL unblocking of funds from the RRP for Poland together with recent reports on the allocation of these funds to dubiously selected beneficiaries. Example: The Swinger Club. It's not a joke. Club for swingers, yachts intended for investments with a non-promising purpose and economic unprofitability. Problems with monitoring expenditure on the climate transition, irregularities in the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines create the risk of further abuses, inefficient spending of public funds and confirm the double standards of the European Commission, which does not adhere to the principle of transparency of public finances, which is elementary in the states of law, which it wants to control itself. The European Court of Auditors’ 2024 report shows that serious challenges remain in relation to the financial management of the European Union.

Mr President, thank you very much. Mr. Commissioner, I'm sorry. The strategy we are discussing here focuses on EU level and cooperation between countries, but less attention is paid to the integration and support of local and national police services, which are often on the frontline. Particular attention should be paid to the role of the police in countering the unrest and dangers exacerbated by mass illegal immigration, which has already been mentioned, caused by people who do not respect public order and social standards in our countries. It should be noted that Member States should have full autonomy in how their services operate. As a former Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Poland, I am proud to have been able to cooperate with fully professional police officers. But I am appalled by the idea of this argument, which is also being made here in this House, that the police in my country should behave as we have seen in the UK, that they should kneel before criminals, that they should tangle in pink skirts on equality marches, that maybe they should start to deal not with catching bandits and criminals, but with putting people in prison who pray under abortion clinics. More common sense and more trust for the Polish police...

Madam President, I'm sorry. On 12 August 2008, on the fifth day of the Russian-Georgian war, the then President of Poland, the late Professor Lech Kaczyński, stood at a rally in Tbilisi to support and show the fighting Georgians that they were not alone. He spoke prophetic words, stressing that it is the duty of the international community to stand in solidarity against Russia's imperial aspirations. He said: "We know very well that today Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after tomorrow the Baltic States, and then maybe it's time for my country", Poland. Putin never forgot those words. Two years later, the Smolensk massacre took place, in which the President of the Republic of Poland and the 95 most prominent representatives of the Polish nation accompanying him were killed. Today, these words come back to us in a situation where Russian drones appeared over the Polish sky. It is up to the international community, including the European Parliament, to decide whether our response to the Moscow criminal will be the one Lech Kaczyński spoke about, whether we will follow the path of round words, dirty words, such as Ursula von der Leyen's yesterday's words on the green deal, Merkosur or climate madness. We can't stop Putin. It is only a matter of time before Russian drones appear over Berlin, Paris, perhaps Strasbourg. And the fact that Putin's useful idiots are not lacking in this chamber, we have witnessed over the past decades. These empty benches on the left are also proof of this during this debate. Putin's useful idiots are not lacking in this chamber.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Commissioner, I'm sorry. In the shadow of this immense drama of Israel's war against Hamas, in the shadow of the unimaginable suffering of millions of civilians suffering, death, displacement, famine, the lack of access to basic livelihoods for the people of Gaza, the announcements by the Israeli authorities of the opening of the gates of hell show what hatred and unwillingness for reconciliation on the part of those who appeal to the same father, biblical Abraham, leads to. In this tragedy, which is the war between the followers of Judaism and Islam, there continues the immense suffering of Christians who have lived in Israel and Palestine for centuries. Today, their number is rapidly decreasing. The barbaric bombing of the Holy Family Catholic Church in central Gaza by the Israeli army in July this year, as well as attacks by Islamic extremists against Christians, are not only part of the long history of suffering of Christians in the Holy Land, but show that Israel's multi-faith heritage inevitably goes down in history. It is worth recalling here the words of the Christian Patriarchs of Jerusalem, who point out that there will be no peace without a true reference to the sources of Judeo-Christian civilization.

Mr President, thank you very much. Syria has one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, dating back to the first century AD. It is described as the cradle of Christianity. Before the start of the civil war in 2011, Christians made up about 10% of the population. For centuries, they have been a bridge in the Middle East between fighting Muslims and Shia and Sunni factions. They now account for less than 2% and have fallen from one and a half million in 2011 to just 300,000 in 2020, mainly due to war, ongoing persecution, displacement and emigration. Today we are talking about the next installment of Islamic madness, Islamic terrorism. A suicide bomber opened fire at a church mass that housed 350 Christians. I consider it an unimaginable scandal that once again, here in the European Parliament, we are talking about this issue at an hour. 22.00. When we talked about persecuted Christians in Nigeria, the European Parliament also designated the debate as the last one at night, as if we were ashamed to claim Christian brothers here. If it were an imaginary persecution of the LGBT community, it would be a priority debate at nine o'clock in the morning.

Mr President, thank you very much. Perhaps, at the beginning, I can answer my enthusiastic previous speaker from Poland with a Polish proverb: ‘The devil in the chasuble is dressed and the tail rings for the mass.’ The accusations against Poland were a political creation from the very beginning. The actions that were taken by the Polish services were always taken under the supervision of the courts and were directed against people who actually posed a threat to the security of the state, or against people who were suspected of criminal activities. The best example is the Russian GRU spy Pavel Rubtsov, who acted under the cover of a Spanish journalist, and his arrest even caused hysteria, also in this House, and was presented by the left-wing establishment as an example of the PiS government's repression of journalists. This journalist turned out to be a very dangerous spy, and those who defended him once again proved to be useful idiots of Putin. But, ladies and gentlemen, hypocrisy and double standards are evidenced by the fact that the European Union institutions are not responding today to the violation of fundamental rights in Poland by the current Tusk government for violating fundamental elements of democracy, for example for the illegal seizure of public media and the financing of the election campaign in Poland by political centres outside the European Union, the criminal suspension of funding for the largest opposition party. You are hypocrites.

Madam President, I'm sorry. At the end of this debate, I would like to thank you very much for all your comments on my reports in particular. I would also like to thank you very much for the extremely fruitful and substantive cooperation in our committee, CONT, but I would also like to highlight some of the concerns that have arisen here after our debate. Firstly, I would like to note the worrying but growing tendency of the European Commission to encroach on the competences of the Member States. The responsibility for managing national budgets and economic policies lies with individual countries, not with the central EU institutions. The Commission should have an advisory and control role and not a decision-making role on matters that require taking into account the specificities of national interests. Secondly, I would also like to note these worrying situations with regard to the Council of the European Union, which shows a lack of commitment to the budgetary discharge procedure. Finally, I would like to draw attention to the functioning of the European Public Prosecutor's Office, which often raises doubts as to its effectiveness and compliance with the principle of subsidiarity. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office enters into areas that fall within the remit of national legal systems, which can lead to conflicts of competence and unnecessary bureaucracy. Ladies and Gentlemen, at the very end, I would like to thank in a special way my closest collaborators, who are extremely involved in the work preparing my reports. I mean here invaluable Mrs. Kamilla Wrzesiński and Mr. Piotr Zielinski.

Mr President, thank you very much. Mr. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Ladies and Gentlemen, In my discharge reports for the financial year 2023 for institutions such as the European Ombudsman, the Committee of the Regions, the European Data Protection Supervisor, the Economic and Social Committee and the European External Action Service, I highlight some shortcomings related to transparency, employment policy, internal procedures and cybersecurity. However, the most important issue is still the issue of the Council. The topic that I am addressing today is the lack of cooperation, and this has been for many years, on the part of the European Council and the Council in the discharge procedure for the implementation of the budget of the European Union. Here we are confronted with an important issue of transparency, democratic accountability and sound management of public finances. In accordance with Article 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the European Parliament has full power to grant discharge in respect of the implementation of the Union budget, which is an essential element of democratic scrutiny of the European Union's finances. No matter how different political interests may be, the principle of transparency and accountability should be at the core of every EU institution. Unfortunately, for more than a decade, I have been underlining for more than a decade that we have witnessed a situation in which the European Council and the Council have systematically refused to cooperate with Parliament in this procedure. This is not only a serious procedural problem, but also a lack of respect for the principles of democratic accountability. In order to systematically scrutinise the use of appropriations, Parliament has the right to ask questions, request answers and participate in the discharge procedure. Unfortunately, despite numerous attempts on our part, the Council does not fulfil its transparency obligations, which somehow forces Parliament to postpone and then reject discharge in October. When the Council refused to cooperate in the discharge process for the first time in 2009, this caused serious controversy. Since then, the situation has not improved and the Council has avoided answering fundamental questions related to budget expenditure. In 2024, despite Parliament providing a questionnaire with as many as 90 questions on the implementation of the Council’s budget, the Council again refused to answer. Moreover, it refuses to participate in the hearing, which is a key element of the discharge procedure. We have also not received any responses until now. It is worth noting that for more than 20 years, the European Parliament has consistently granted discharge to all Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies. Today, after many years of cooperation, we are able to see clear differences in the approach to the procedure, especially in the context of the Council's lack of cooperation. This cooperation, which aims to ensure financial accountability, is essential for the effective management of the Union budget. Unfortunately, the Council's unwillingness to cooperate leads to a situation where Parliament does not have full knowledge of budgetary expenditure. I therefore call on the European Council and the Council of the European Union to resume their cooperation with Parliament immediately. This stalemate should be resolved and Parliament should be able to exercise its supervisory role effectively. In this context, I call on the Council to publish a full statement of its expenditure, in particular on travel and representation, in a format accessible to the public, so that every citizen of the Union can have full and transparent access to information on expenditure financed by his or her taxes.

Madam President, I'm sorry. On February 12, at about four o'clock in the morning, the terrorists arrived in the village of Maika, lying on Lake Edward in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. First, they pulled 20 people out of the house. When the villagers, awakened by the noise, began to gather in the square, they kidnapped another 50 men, women and children. They tied their hands and took them out of the village. After two days in the nearby Evangelical Baptist Church in Kasanga, 70 restrained bodies were found devoid of heads. These were people who died simply because they believed in Jesus Christ. They did not die, as we have heard from the torn representatives of the left, because the shepherds fought with the farmers for pastures or as a result of the fight for minerals. These people died because they were Christians. And we in Christian France today are debating this subject again under the cover of the night. It's as if we're ashamed to call a thing by its name, and your political correctness doesn't matter. These people died because they were Christians. If we remain silent, the stones will cry out.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, The internal security of the Member States should mean first and foremost the security of the citizens of our countries. What does it look like in practice? I will use the example of my country - Poland. Well, Donald Tusk, delegated by Ursula von der Leyen to the Prime Minister of the Polish Government in order to supposedly restore the rule of law threatened by the governments of Law and Justice, introduced it in a truly spectacular way, for example, today a collaborator of the previous Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is being held in a mining detention facility, who is being held in handcuffs for interrogations like a very dangerous criminal. The mother of a seriously ill child is being blackmailed - you testify against the previous prime minister, you will be fired. Another example is women, whose crime was that they cooperated with previous ministers or the prime minister, are held in detention without basic hygiene measures. Their physiological needs must be met in the presence of men. They also try to force compromising testimonies on their predecessors. And most interestingly, in recent days, an exceptionally bestial murderer is released from prison, who, trying to kill Jarosław Kaczyński, when he failed to do so, murdered God the spirit of a guilty employee of the parliamentary office, slit the throat of the other and is released three days after the long-time director of Jarosław Kaczyński's office, who was denied a lawyer during interrogations, is apprehended. This is Donald Tusk's rule of law.