Speeches

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we transport more than 1.5 billion animals a year. Millions of them cross the borders of the European Union after days and days piled up at sea or on the road, suffering from heat or cold, lack of rest, water or food. All this to happen in countries where the EU cannot even control how they will be treated. Others are transported from one Member State to another, sometimes just after being torn from their mother, because of this absurd specialisation of territories that gives birth to an animal in one country to be reared in a second and slaughtered in a third. They too suffer from stress, temperatures, or even abuse. This has been widely demonstrated by the work of our Committee of Inquiry. Ladies and gentlemen, if we are not able to export animals without suffering, then we must stop. If we are not able to transport the unweaned animals while respecting their needs, then we must stop. We can do otherwise: developing cold chains, limiting transport times and, above all, rethinking our farming system by reducing our consumption of animal products. Associations and European citizens have been alerting us for years and calling for action on animals. Colleagues, I urge you not to miss this unique opportunity to make a great act of civilization and progress in moving towards the end of animal abuse. Make no mistake, the constant violence we exert against the rest of life is the corollary of the incredible violence that prevails in our societies. Let's say it loud and clear: the progress of the human condition is inseparable from the progress of the animal condition. We must move resolutely towards a society of harmony between human beings and with the whole of life.

Madam Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. candidate, earlier you criticized some for using this debate for electoral purposes. What bad faith! It is you who, by keeping the calendar of the French presidency as it is, sacrificed it on the altar of your electoral ambitions. Too bad for this debate. Too bad for France's influence in Europe. You presented yourself this morning as the candidate for industrial sovereignty. Pipeau! Fonderie du Poitou, Fonderie MDF, Fonderie SAM, you are actually the president of the industrial dismantling of France. You presented yourself this morning as the candidate for climate and biodiversity. Pipeau! You are actually the president condemned by the French and European courts for climate and environmental inaction. You presented yourself this morning as the candidate for the rule of law and the defence of freedoms. Pipeau! You are the President pointed out by our Parliament for his calamitous and violent handling of the yellow vest movement. No one is fooled here about the reality of your beautiful promises. In three months, the French can rid Europe of it, let's count on them to allow you in turn... (The President withdrew the floor to the speaker)

Mr President, Victor Hugo said: “It is a sad thing to think that nature speaks and that mankind does not listen”. For nature speaks indeed: floods, droughts, mega-fires, pandemics, species threatened with extinction by hundreds of thousands... But the human race persists, year after year, in the same errors. Our agricultural model is the first factor in the collapse of biodiversity. It contributes significantly to climate change. It is the root of the misery and disappearance of millions of farmers and trivialises unbearable animal suffering. But today you are proposing to spend 270 billion – one third of the EU budget – to continue this deadlock, in contradiction with all your fine speeches on the European Green Deal. This vote would commit us until 2027, when we only have a few months to act. It would be another betrayal of all European citizens worried about their future. Let's not make that mistake. Let us reject this reform to finally achieve the necessary bifurcation of our agricultural model.

Mr President, the Trade and Technology Council has been sold to us with the usual praise for the transatlantic relationship that the EU forms with the United States. So it seems that the unfair practices and humiliations of recent years have not been a lesson to you. Here are two from a long list. In 2014, after an unacceptable blackmail by the US judiciary, General Electric seized Alstom’s energy arm. He plunders patents, denies his commitments and leaves thousands of employees behind. What a wonderful partnership! Just a few weeks ago, a military alliance with Australia was forged behind the back of the European Union at the cost of breaking a very large contract with France. What a great cooperation! Let's be serious! How long do we have to accept being the stuffing turkeys? It is time to understand that the United States is not our friends, but a power with its own interests. Let’s stop being naive and protect our jobs, industries and know-how. Let us have the courage of independence.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, asbestos is a poison that kills up to 250 000 people every year around the world. By 2030, it could cost the lives of nearly 300 000 European citizens. It is not only a human tragedy, it is an unbearable scandal, despite the fact that this material has been known to be dangerous since the beginning of the 20th century. Years of mobilisation of asbestos victims, associations, workers and trade unions led to its ban in 2005. But the danger and threat persist. We therefore need a European strategy for the complete elimination of asbestos. That is what this excellent report calls for. I would therefore like to thank the rapporteurs, in particular my colleagues Nikolaj Villumsen and Anne-Sophie Pelletier. As ENVI rapporteur, I welcome the inclusion of exhibitions of para-professional, domestic or environmental origin. The risk of ingestion of asbestos fibres in drinking water is also addressed with the proposal for a comprehensive asbestos removal plan for the European distribution network. That is a very good thing. This report is therefore a decisive step forward in the fight against the scourge of asbestos. I very much hope that... (The President withdrew the floor to the speaker.)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, our food systems are responsible for one third of our greenhouse gas emissions. They endanger ecosystems, destroy peasant agriculture, animal health and welfare. For what result? One third of food production is wasted; 8 million French people need food aid to live; almost three billion people are starving or malnourished. So there is an absolute urgency. It is a question of returning to planetary boundaries by not taking on nature more than it can reconstruct. It is about making the agro-ecological revolution and reshaping international trade through ecological and solidarity-based protectionism. It is about greening and democratising our food to feed the entire world population and fight animal suffering. This report is an important step in that direction. And I would like to thank the rapporteurs, in particular my colleague Anja Hazekamp. But this report will be useless if European policies are not brought into line with the objectives it contains. I therefore call for this report to be supported as it stands, but also for the common agricultural policy to be rewritten in the decisive vote next month.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the price of energy is skyrocketing all over Europe. In Spain, electricity bills increased by 35% in one year. In France, the price of gas has jumped by 70% since the beginning of the year. The working classes are hit hard when they are already struggling to make ends meet. One third of those interviewed in France by the Secours populaire have difficulty paying energy bills: 550 000 households had their electricity or gas cut off in 2020. You sold us the liberalization of the sector as the miracle that would bring down prices. Lie! Since liberalisation, prices in France have increased by 80% for gas and 60% for electricity, as part of the bill is now used to pay dividends to shareholders. Shareholders, what are you waiting for to put them to work? By requisitioning only 10% of suppliers’ profits, we can immediately lower the bills by EUR 500 and spend the winter. For suppliers it is nothing, but for some of our citizens it is a matter of life and death. Finally, in the longer term, it is the exit of energy from the market that is on the agenda. It is necessary to put an end for good to private enrichment on the common goods essential to life, because our lives are worth more than their profits.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the last few years have ushered in a new era of permanent uncertainty as a result of the consequences of the ecological disaster: COVID-19 pandemic, fires, droughts, floods, cold waves. Our way of production, consumption and trade leads us to disaster. And our agricultural model is at the heart of these deadly dynamics. With its pesticides, it poisons the air, sterilises the soil and suffocates the water. Through his intensive breeding, he concocted the pandemics of tomorrow. By its predation on ecosystems, it eradicates biodiversity. By its concentration in a few hands, it ruins peasants all over the world. How can we fail to respond to the famine that has struck Madagascar as a result of the climate disaster? The UN Food Systems Summit, to be held in a few days' time in New York, should have been an opportunity to embark on an indispensable bifurcation. But instead, the lobbies made a hold-up on that summit. The big industrialists are jubilant. Farmers and biodiversity suffer. Europe could act through agroecology, the end of free trade, respect for the rights of farmers and the rest of the world. But the common agricultural policy that is about to be adopted is taking us to the wall. It must be urgently reviewed to finally face the climate and food challenges.