Speeches

Madam President, I'm sorry. Once again, we come back to the discussion of an idea that has been voted on here in this House, but which is clearly in breach of the European Treaties. In this case, reference is made to Article 14 of the Treaty on European Union, which states that it is the Member States that receive the seats. There is no such thing as a swarm of heads, especially on the left side of the room, like a European demos. As more Europeans in the electoral process. It is the nation-states that, in accordance with the EU treaties, the Member States elect their representatives. And these arrogant voices directed at the Presidency are nothing more than your detachment from reality. Ask in your countries who is interested in a single constituency. After all, this will obviously eliminate and distance voters even more from their representatives. These are your ideas, your sick ideas, which in fact, in my opinion, weaken this great project, which is the project of the European Union. Because your ideas have nothing to do with what was at the heart of the Founding Fathers when the nation-states agreed on the European Union project. And these sick ideas will sooner or later end up with citizens turning their backs on such a parliament as you propose.

Madam President, I'm sorry. At the outset, I would like to make it very clear that Poland, my country, absolutely stands, is a strong supporter of all candidates from both the Western Balkans and the Eastern Neighbourhood in the enlargement process of the European Union. On the other hand, when it comes to Serbia, the strategic directions of Belgrade's foreign policy unfortunately remain unchanged, while the Russian aggression against Ukraine has clearly shown that it is increasingly difficult for Serbia to maintain the policy of many vectors. Balancing between East and West, hiding behind the protection of their own economic interests and pro-Russian social sentiments, the Serbian authorities have so far decided not to join the sanctions against Russia. Over the past months, there has been a marked decrease in the harmonisation of Serbia’s foreign policy with the EU’s common foreign and security policy. The main reason for the decreasing degree of Serbian foreign policy alignment to around 40% is primarily Belgrade's stance on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The lack of harmonisation of Serbia's and the European Union's positions was also noticeable in relation to China and, among others, China. Iran and Belarus. With Serbia’s foreign policy becoming increasingly incompatible with that of the European Union, the chances of progress in the accession negotiation process, including the opening of the next negotiating cluster in the first half of 2023, are slim, if not nil. The lack of progress on the path of European integration is reflected in public sentiment. Only 43% of respondents do not believe that Serbia will ever become a member of the European Union. If a referendum on Serbia's accession to the EU were held today, 44% of those surveyed would support Belgrade's accession, while 42% would be against such a move. It should be said that Serbia with Putin will obviously not enter the European Union.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Ladies and Gentlemen, It was a very interesting debate and I hope to draw constructive conclusions from it. The most constructive conclusion – I will refer to my previous speaker here – would be to consider that such political contributions to substantive, financial debates do not make much sense. Turning to the details, in the discharge report for the European Commission the allegations of the alleged use of EU funds for anti-democratic activities and for strengthening authoritarianism and the application of the conditionality mechanism, the rule of law, to these alleged allegations are, in my view, reprehensible. Also in the discharge for the Commission there are provisions with which we cannot agree. This includes a proposal to extend the areas where EDES (Early Detection and Exclusion System) is used beyond direct management and a call on the Commission to apply it to all EU funds, including shared management funds. The issue of participation, or rather non-participation, by the European Council in the annual discharge procedure, which has been going on for years. The European Council and the Council do not participate in the annual discharge procedure and do not answer questions put by Parliament. Its representatives do not attend CONT meetings. In accordance with Article 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the European Parliament alone shall decide on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the Union and the budget of the European Council and of the Council shall be a section of the budget of the Union.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Ladies and Gentlemen, On 15 November 2022, the Court of Auditors published its Special Annual Report on the Joint Undertakings in the form of a single consolidated report for all Joint Undertakings. We approved the 2021 accounts of all EU JUs and confirmed the positive results reported in previous years. I repeat the opinion of the European Court of Auditors on positive results and internal control weaknesses: during our work on the reports, we encountered, inter alia, problems related to the lack of clear rules on contributions to the EU pension system, high staff turnover and the lack of robust procedures for certifying and validating in-kind contributions to certain Joint Undertakings. The reports are based on the following set of documents: the 2021 annual report on the European Union Joint Undertakings for the financial year 2021, the European Court of Auditors, the Joint Undertakings’ individual reports on budgetary and financial management, the Joint Undertakings’ individual annual activity reports and the Joint Undertakings’ individual annual accounts. I would like to discuss now the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (until 30 November 2021 the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking) for the financial year 2021. Under Horizon 2020, the payment execution rate was 71 %, due to delays in the implementation of projects due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Operational commitment appropriations were lacking in 2021, as the call for proposals was already closed in 2020. Simplifications introduced in Horizon 2020 and the experience of beneficiaries have contributed positively to the reduction of errors. Nevertheless, the 2020 discharge procedure highlighted persistent systemic errors in the personnel costs claimed by beneficiaries. Therefore, the Joint Undertaking continues to improve its expenditure control strategies and participates in joint actions to improve the use of European Union funds, in particular for specific categories of beneficiaries under the management of Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. At the end of 2021, a total of 11 risks with varying degrees of materiality, convergence and interdependence were identified and described in the risk register. The analysis carried out in 2021 confirmed trends from previous years and, thanks to the effectiveness of internal controls and the experience of key activities such as grant planning and Horizon 2020 procedures and systems, some additional risks were removed or mitigated. Following the observations on the 2020 discharge procedure, the Joint Undertaking reports to the discharge authority on the management of the risk of fraud in its 2021 annual activity report. It also confirms that it continued to implement the recommendations and informed OLAF about the effective implementation of the recommendations from previous years. I will now present the Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking (by 30 November 2021 the Clean Sky Joint Undertaking) for the financial year 2021. First of all, a systemic error was detected and calculated, which consisted in incorrect calculation of hourly rates for personnel costs. In addition, in 2021, important documents such as procurement evaluation reports, recruitment procedures and award decisions and employment contracts were validated by pasting the signature image of the competent official into a document in Word and then converting the file into PDF. Such a practice entails a legal risk, as a person who has been rejected in the recruitment process may question the correctness of the documents with the results of the assessment. The Joint Undertaking carried out a risk analysis and established a specific audit sample ex post, to cover part of the projects included in the grant agreement for the Joint Undertaking’s partners, indicating some exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic-related constraint described by the Court of Auditors, such as financial weaknesses, operational delay and high staff costs compared to the average.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Mr. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Regions facing severe and permanent difficulties incur additional costs, making them less competitive for businesses and less attractive for new, large or medium-sized enterprises. The following crisis: economic, COVID-19-related, energy, inflationary, climate-related have exacerbated the backwardness of the least developed regions, transition regions, outermost regions, mountainous, island, sparsely populated and rural regions. Many regions of the European Union are also at risk of falling into the trap of limited development. Therefore, in order to maintain cohesion, promote convergence and reduce regional disparities, while ensuring that territorial divisions are not exacerbated and that the single market is not distorted by favouring the Member States and regions in the best financial situation, I would like to ask: How will the Commission ensure that the consistency principles enshrined in Articles 174 and 175 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the Union are taken into account when revising the General Block Exemption Regulation? And does the Commission support the idea of including in the de minimis rules additional provisions for outermost regions, transition regions and least favoured regions, recognised in Articles 349 and 174 of the same Treaty or laid down in the Common Provisions Regulation?

Madam President, I'm sorry. Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to a draconian sentence of 25 years for calling Putin a criminal responsible for the war in the middle of Europe. In his speech before Putin's court, he said: “I was sure after two decades in Russian politics, after everything I had seen and experienced, that nothing could surprise me anymore. I must admit that I was wrong.’ And he goes on to say that the contempt for legal norms during his trial exceeded the standards of the trials of Soviet dissidents of the 1960s and 1970s, and even the Stalinist purges of the 1930s. It is good that today in the European Parliament we are debating a resolution condemning Putin's Russia. But it is impossible not to notice that until recently, in this House and in many European countries, Putin was seen as a statesman, a democrat with whom one can do business and make the energy security of the European Union dependent on Russian hydrocarbons. When late President Lech Kaczynski warned Europe and the world in Tbilisi against a Russian tyrant, his voice in Europe was disavowed. Today, we see that Putin is not backing away from murdering his own citizens. And for many of you, Putin’s assassination of the Polish president – as we can see today – was unbelievable. 'Putin is a Democrat'. Putin is a criminal!

Madam President, I'm sorry. Mr. Commissioner, I'm sorry. The Rapid Deployment Group, the implementation, or RDC for short, should build on the existing concept of the European Union Battlegroups and on the forces themselves, on the contributions of the Member States to the Union Battlegroups. This also applies to planning scenarios. Action in a non-acceptable environment should be duly taken into account and we should remain realistic. The RDCs should be complementary to NATO forces, which will allow us to avoid duplication. And here it is worth emphasizing that NATO is and will remain the main subject of all military responses for a long time. More specifically, the following considerations should be taken into account: firstly, most Member States must prioritise NATO deterrence and defence due to the Russian military threat. Secondly, scenarios that Member States are neither physically nor politically ready to implement should be avoided. Thirdly, the proposal to create a European RDC lacks an overarching strategy combining important aspects such as governance, development cooperation, rule of law, security, defence and economic development, among others. Fourthly, the European Rapid Deployment Capacity should be an instrument at the service of policy-makers based on unanimity. Fifthly, the European rapid deployment potential should not imply an increase in funding. And sixthly, and finally, one of the priorities should be the compatibility of operations, systems and other capabilities with NATO.

Mr President, thank you very much. Ladies and Gentlemen, The matter is simple: either Europe will go the way of Australia and no one who crosses the border illegally will be able to apply for asylum, or Europe will cease to exist, Ladies and Gentlemen, if we put a sign of equality between a refugee, one who really needs help, and an illegal migrant. If we put a mark of equality between NGOs, smugglers and attack governments, as Italy is being attacked today in this chamber, and Poland was once attacked, then Europe will cease to exist. Once, as Minister of the Interior, I attended a meeting with the Minister of the Interior of Morocco. He said plainly: This is an invasion. And here you can tell uncreated stories, very sloppy, but there is no other alternative. We have to decide whether we protect the external borders or whether we open the door wide and become useful idiots of Putin. Putin, wanting to destabilize Europe on the eve of the war in Ukraine, tried to push hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants into Poland, whom he brought together with Lukashenko to Belarus. You attacked Poland then. What if Poland collapsed? What would happen if Italy collapsed today? Either we protect the external borders or the European Union will cease to exist.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Mr. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Both the hybrid warfare in Ukraine, Putin's criminals, Lukashenko's criminals, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic have shown the world the necessity and need to increase security in the digital world. Societies use the network much more than they used to, mainly to maintain professional and personal contacts. This situation is exploited by cybercriminals, both at the level of terrorist states and criminals dealing on a daily basis with the exploitation and posing a serious threat to the internal security of individual states and their citizens, as well as internal security within the European Union itself. Cybercriminals have focused in particular on e-commerce services and e-payments, as well as on health systems. On the other hand, criminals from countries such as Russia focus their attention mainly on threats in the area of critical infrastructure. It is therefore appropriate to strengthen cyber resilience, improve the EU framework for responding to large-scale incidents, but it is also important not to duplicate structures, but to streamline those that already exist. Strengthening cybecompetence is very important, but, let me repeat, it is crucial not to duplicate the activities that are already underway, and it is therefore important to have a very good understanding of how to make the civil and defence sectors more coherent and interoperable. Here, the European Competence Centre in Bucharest should play a key role, especially in the distribution of the Cybersecurity Fund. And finally, in my opinion, the most important thing: Member States’ competences should be respected and taken into account in cybersecurity crisis management.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Ladies and Gentlemen, Organised crime is a serious threat to all citizens of the European Union. In one year alone, revenues from organised crime reached €139 billion. That's about 1% of the EU's GDP. Additional threats arose as a result of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. This assault represents a unique opportunity for organised crime. The war is conducive to human trafficking, online fraud, cyber-attacks, arms trafficking and theft of money intended to help refugees. Trafficking in human beings, exploitation of children and smuggling of migrants are particularly serious crimes against life and freedom. In more than half of cases, trafficking in human beings is linked to sexual exploitation, in 20% to labour exploitation and in 10% to forced crime. Some of these crimes were particularly prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Migrant smuggling – we literally talked about this in this House a few dozen minutes ago. And as a lucrative business for criminal groups, it suffices to say that more than 90% of migrants pay smugglers. Only on the maritime routes to the European Union in the aforementioned 2019, smugglers earned more than 200 million euros. That's why I'll say it again: Let us not support those who actually go hand in hand with criminals who organise illegal immigration to Europe.

Mr President, thank you very much. Ladies and Gentlemen, Let's be honest and not wrapped in cotton. If we want to continue to see such devastating scenes as we were talking about here, these deaths of children, three-year-olds, two-year-olds on beaches from Greece to Spain, then let's keep going. Let us continue to encourage these unfortunate people to come to Europe. Let us create such illusions that if there is a tragedy, an NGO will always help them, that there will always be resources to provide such help. Ladies and Gentlemen, today, one more Satan has joined the causes that have pushed people for centuries in their search for a better life, such as war, hunger, misfortunes, accidents. Satan's name is Putin. It was mentioned here that the Wagners in Libya are today organizing the transfer of people to Europe. We know what happened on the eastern border of the European Union, on the Polish-Belarusian border. And today you are attacking governments that protect your citizens, and you are glorifying those who are de facto driving this illegal smuggling into Europe. If you want more of the tragedies you just talked about here, keep going.

Mr President, thank you very much. Perhaps at the beginning, you were right to point out to one of my previous speakers that the Rules of Procedure of this House do not allow photographs to be shown during speeches. Unfortunately, the Regulations also do not provide for prohibitions of unwise speech, not to say harsher, people who are affected by a kind of ojkophobia, i.e. disgust towards their own people or their own government. No one needed this law. It came out of nowhere, it could only be built at Moscow's request. This law must be revoked. These are the words of President Zourabichvili, which she addressed to her fellow citizens on March 7 via telelinks, because she was in New York at the time. Indeed, the law was withdrawn, but Moscow's influence ceased to apply in Georgia. It is a kind of chuckle of history that the country, which in 2008 was afflicted by the attack from Putin's hacks, today is actually implementing the policy of Moscow through the lips of its politicians. You can't be in Moscow with one foot, and you can't be in Europe with the other. Today we are a wall behind the people of Georgia, but we must say clearly: The country that allows de facto The murder of his former president will never take place in Europe.

Mr President, thank you very much. According to the assessment of the European Union Delegation in Tel Aviv, the threat of escalation of violence in the West Bank is growing. The sensitive period of the coming Ramadan and the overlapping Jewish holidays, together with the harsh rhetoric of the radical politicians forming the government coalition in Israel, including those responsible for various aspects of security, combined with the sense of impunity of the settlers, further increase the risk of further acts of violence. In addition, there is a very weak control of the situation in the West Bank by the Palestinian Authority authorities and a large number of ready-to-action units of small groups dispersed and beyond anyone's control, such as Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Recently, there have been many abuses by settlers, but also Israeli services in the West Bank, among the most shocking are the events in Huwar. In the opinion of many commentators, the events in Huwar show the growing audacity of settlers, whose sense of impunity may be fueled by the awareness of the presence of their supporters in the Israeli government. I would like to remind you, Ladies and Gentlemen, of the Palestinian Christians. Easter holidays are coming. We are talking about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and we forget about Christians who have been persecuted by both extremists for centuries.

Mr President, thank you very much. Mr. Commissioner, I'm sorry. The European Union has a vibrant, diversified, innovative fertilizer sector. We also have great opportunities to produce organic and organo-mineral fertilizers. Self-sufficiency should therefore be at the heart of the Union’s fertilising policy. Not import dependency, but security of supply guaranteed by robust production in the European Union. This self-sufficiency is threatened on the one hand by increasing imports of nitrogen fertilizers, including from Russia, and on the other hand by restrictive regulations that make it very difficult for European producers to decarbonise existing installations. This cannot be underestimated. Our producers already produce more than 16 million tons of ammonia. Restrictive rules on the RED III Directive, the definition of renewable hydrogen, restrictive geographical correlation additionally threaten to lead the production of ammonia and fertilisers outside the European Union. The European Commission should urgently prepare a viable plan to facilitate the decarbonisation of ammonia production within the Union. Aware of the experiences of the pandemic and war, let us build our own, consistent, long-term strategy to ensure the food sovereignty of Europeans based on fertilizers produced in Europe, including Poland.

Thank you very much, Commissioner, for this reply, but I would nevertheless like to draw attention to a certain disproportion. Well, there is full agreement that Europe is two lungs, the eastern lung and the western lung. But does the Commission not see, by chance, that under the pretext of the criteria that we are setting today for the countries of the Western Balkans, in fact some of the countries of the old European Union, taking care of their particular national interests, are multiplying these various types of requirements only so that these two lungs do not breathe evenly, that is, at the expense of the eastern lung, we are expanding the capacities of the western lung.

Mr President, thank you very much. Mr. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Today, the civilized world celebrates the feast of Saint Valentine, but we forget that for Christian Europe, February 14 is primarily the feast of Cyril and Methodius. Those who carried Christianity to the Western Balkans, carried Christianity to the Slavs. It was these saints who for the first time translated the Holy Scriptures into Old Church Slavonic language, established Cyrillic. Why am I mentioning this? Because today, modern Europe is wondering whether to join the European Community of the countries of the Western Balkans. And what's the alternative? If we do not join these countries, it will be like in the ninth century, when Cyril and Methodius were moving precisely towards the Slavs, that is, we will give the Western Balkans to the influence of Russia, the influence of Putin, but also the Islamic Wahhabis. Why is it so important? Because today the question arises whether the application for rapid accession to the European Union of Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia will not slow down the accession to the European Union of the Western Balkan countries. I would therefore like to ask whether the Commission recognises this problem.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to thank you very much for all the votes and for the interesting debate. We can all agree that democracy is one of the values on which the Union is founded and that all citizens have the right to participate in the democratic life of the Union on an equal and transparent basis. Here I would like to point out that the legal basis of the Treaty is clear. The Treaty requires equal access to voting under the same conditions as nationals of the Member State concerned. The aim is to remove barriers and inequalities faced by mobile citizens. I believe that updating, clarifying and strengthening the existing rules, including by imposing an obligation to proactively inform migrant citizens about their electoral rights and obligations, is fully justified. Such arrangements allow for a broad and inclusive participation in municipal elections and will support mobile Union citizens, including persons with disabilities, in exercising their right to participate in the democratic life of the European Union. I am confident that my report, despite some of the doubts mentioned at the outset, will be carefully studied and will be an important voice in the discussion that the Council needs to have. All the more so as the Council must reach a consensus and vote unanimously in favour of amending the Directive. Once again, I would like to thank all my colleagues for the opportunity to work together on the report and for the debate, and I would also like to express my special thanks to my colleagues, in particular I would like to thank Mr Marcin Drwiecki for all his help.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Treaty provides any citizen of the Union who has made use of the possibility, for example, to reside, work, study or conduct research in a Member State of which he is not a national, with the right to participate in municipal elections in a Member State. A directive detailing this right needs to be updated, which is why the Commission has proposed amendments. I have assessed and appraised positively the changes proposed by the Commission. For this reason, in my proposal for a report, I have focused only on certain modifications. At this point, I would like to thank all the collaborating shadow rapporteurs for their many important amendments and for their constructive work on the report. First of all, I would like to mention the facilitations for persons with disabilities. I am referring to the implementation and use of assistive technologies, such as Braille, large print, sound information or sign language communication. A particularly important issue is also the obligation for Member States to designate competent authorities that will proactively inform Union citizens about the conditions and details, the rules for registration as a voter or candidate. It is also important, in my view, to provide clear, concrete and comparable data. By obliging the Commission to establish common indicators, further evaluations of the application of the Directive will be able to better answer the question of the efficiency and quality of the functioning of its provisions. During the preparation of the report, it was crucial for me to ensure that the new rules ensure, to the maximum extent possible, the equality of all Union citizens in accordance with the Treaty legal basis. At the same time, I ensured that these changes did not require additional expenditure from Member States’ budgets. I also hoped to remain within the scope of the recast of the Directive as proposed by the Commission. However, several changes have been made in the opposite direction, which do not allow me to support the final text of the report. One of them is the obligation to translate most of the information related to the elections. Reports prepared by the Commission on the application of the Directive did not show that this was an element causing obstacles to the exercise of their rights by citizens. These changes will represent a significant administrative and financial burden for municipalities. Nor can I be satisfied with the desire to remove the derogation currently in force under the Directive, which has been used by several Member States for years. I am referring to the possibility for Member States to stipulate that only their nationals may be elected to certain posts. Countries such as Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia would have to make substantial changes to the rules to allow everyone to hold certain traditional offices on their territory, such as the mayor. On the one hand, the final report contains many important elements that clearly improve the conditions for the exercise of citizens' rights, but on the other hand, they have been burdened with several elements that are unacceptable from my point of view. Therefore, I will not be able to support him.

Mr President, thank you very much. Poland welcomes the efforts of the Commission and the European External Action Service to develop a comprehensive European Union connectivity strategy, resulting in the Global Gateway. The Global Gateway is not just a strategy for the provision of development aid by the European Union. It is a comprehensive offer for the implementation of strategic infrastructure investments in five key areas: digitalisation, transport, energy and climate, health and education. This is a new approach, requiring a wide range of competences beyond development aid. The implementation of this strategy requires a different range of knowledge, mainly related to the planning, preparation, financing and implementation of infrastructure investments and constant, close cooperation with the private sector. And here it should be emphasized how important and important it is to cooperate with small and medium-sized entrepreneurs. At the same time, the Global Gateway can be the key to the global promotion of the Union’s strategic interests. Therefore, it is a basic tool of foreign policy and building the position of the European Union and influencing the directions of socio-economic development in the world. With regard to the key elements of the Global Gateway strategy, Poland draws attention in particular to the need to prioritise, within the framework of the implementation of the Global Gateway, the European Union's immediate neighbourhood, i.e. the Eastern Partnership, the Western Balkans, Central Asia and the Southern Neighbourhood, as areas of particular importance from the point of view of the Union's strategic interests. The Economic and Investment Plans for these regions should be the flagship initiatives of the Global Gateway. The Three Seas Initiative together with the Investment Fund can play an important role in achieving the objectives in this area, in particular the Eastern Partnership and the Western Balkans.

the response to the speech signalled by the blue card. Every death is a tragedy, every death, even in this case. Every death should be treated with respect. But it should also be made clear that there are a lot of fake news, lies. The public could hear such a stinking story about poor Yusuf, who supposedly sailed Bug for six days, leaving only at night to warm himself. Bug is such a river, very cold at this time of year. And he sailed this river for 6 days, and then went to the shore to warm himself, because he was terrorized by the Polish Border Guard. This is a good opportunity to bow down on my behalf to the Polish guards who defend the security not only of Poland, but of the entire European Union against the unfortunate people brought by Putin and Lukashenka with Putin's money and Lukashenka's money.

Mr President, thank you very much. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Ladies and Gentlemen, Strengthening the protection of the external borders of the European Union should be a priority. In view of the situation in which illegal migration is treated as an instrument of political pressure and constitutes one of the threats to the security of the European Union (see, for example, the situation that took place at the Polish-Belarusian border), greater emphasis should be placed on preventing illegal crossing of the Union's borders, and not only on checks and registration of persons crossing those borders. It is important to avoid any solutions that incentivise migrant smuggling and irregular migration. The concepts of mandatory relocation, return sponsorship or SAR mechanisms are counterproductive and can result in attracting irregular migrants and their smugglers to the European Union instead of discharging migratory pressure. Favoring people arriving in the European Union following search and rescue operations and creating permanent solidarity mechanisms related to this subcategory of irregular migrants is an action expressis verbis with the result that we encourage unfortunate people from third countries to come here. And in fact, we're making money for illegal criminal groups that prey on these unfortunate ones. (The speaker agreed to hear a blue card speech)

Madam President, I'm sorry. Commissioner, I'm sorry. I think there is no one in this room who can say that we should not fight both right-wing and left-wing extremism. Any extremism is a bad thing. However, I would like to draw your attention to another danger. Well, under the guise of this alleged fight against right-wing extremism, one tries to attribute this term, so vague, to right-wing extremism to conservative parties. I have before me a report from the LIBE Committee. We discussed it in July. It attempts to attribute this right-wing extremism to my party, Law and Justice. The Radio Maryja radio station is indicated here, as well as a note! – Solidarity, the solidarity that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, as a manifestation of right-wing extremism. Such a political commentary: Both Nazism and Fascism have leftist roots and connotations, so this is your problem, dear Left, not the Conservatives' problem. I was Minister of the Interior, I fought together with the police, with the secret services, every manifestation of extremism. And I was astonished to hear, when we celebrated the 100th anniversary of Polish independence, how more than 300,000 Polish citizens under the white-red flags were also referred to as fascists in this chamber. Come to your senses! Conservatism has nothing to do with the madness of left-wing extremism. That was fascism or Nazism.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Ladies and Gentlemen, Also in this debate there are some bizarre allegations against my country, Poland. And I would like to point out that this report, which we are discussing, does not point at any point to irregularities in the spending of EU funds by Poland. On the contrary, Poland is at the forefront of countries - as my honourable previous speaker, Mr Czarnecki, rightly pointed out - in the forefront of countries that spend EU funds transparently, as well as in the forefront of countries that fight and point out possible irregularities in their spending. That is why I would like to ask: Why did Poland still not receive funds from the NRRP? Why are you trying to scare Poland and Poles with the suspension of funding under the next budget perspective? We still hear some nonsense about the alleged violation of the rule of law in Poland. And what does the rule of law look like at the heart of European democracies, here in the European Parliament? Each day brings devastating information. Those on the left side of the room who are so eager to attack Poland have the most behind the collar. I would like to ask: Who funded the reports against my country? Is it Morocco? Is it Kuwait? I don't think so. Perhaps, the open question is Russia, Russia, which consistently tries to destroy the image of Poland in the eyes of European citizens. Poland is a state governed by the rule of law, and EU funds that belong to Poland are spent in a transparent manner.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Ladies and Gentlemen, Please allow such a historical retrospective: Lenin once used the term ‘poleznyje idioti’. In the 1970s, the term ‘useful idiots’ was often used to refer to those who pursued policies in the West that were in favour of the Russian Communists, Brezhnev. Excuse me, but sometimes when I listen to some representatives of the European Parliament, of course, please do not treat this as a direct personal attack, but sometimes I get the impression that there is really no shortage of these "polesque idiots". Saying that maybe it's Poland, Ukraine, maybe the United States. Referring here to the entry of a man who already wrote on Twitter that his hands are falling. Building a theory around such an entry that it was not Russia that was behind this attack, but perhaps someone else, asking such questions – for me, this is my opinion, I get the impression that, as I have already said, these ‘useful idiots’ are really not lacking. What are the facts? According to cyber security experts, the attacks did not start when the war in Ukraine began. Cyberspace, as well as critical infrastructure, has been the target of Russian attacks for many years. Security analysts have shown that since the formation of the international coalition supporting Ukraine, Russia has intensified its attacks against countries supporting Ukrainians. Attempts to break into 128 organizations in 42 countries have been shown, in 29 cases effective. Those are the facts.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Ladies and Gentlemen, I too, like my colleague, Mr Adam Bielan, would like to express my support, my support for President Saakashvili's close relatives present here. Poland and Georgia are countries that have a long-standing, very close cooperation, which is why Georgia is Poland’s priority partner in the South Caucasus region. We are unwavering in our support for Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders, as we also underline during our chairmanship of the OSCE. We also reaffirm our unwavering support for Georgia's Euro-Atlantic aspirations. Poland remains committed to its open-door policy with regard to Georgia's future full membership of the European Union and NATO. Nie ma alternatywy, zwłaszcza że naród gruziński zdecydowanie popiera ten kierunek. But it is necessary to say clearly: Georgia will never join the European Union if it treats politicians so inhumanely and brutally. And here today there should be words of special support and support for the seriously ill President Saakashvili, who today is denied humanitarian human rights by the Georgian authorities to be treated. Heavy metals were found in the President's body. This is more like Putin's standards than a democratic rule of law.