What Marcel spoke about.

24

Apr

2024

EN Speech

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Formal sitting - 20th Anniversary of the 2004 EU Enlargement

Madam President, President of the Commission, Commissioners, honourable guests, colleagues, today we celebrate a historic milestone, a day in which millions of us – me included – were reunited with European society after decades of forced isolation. It is a day we longed for since regaining our freedom in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I remember feeling immense pride at our countries that, after…

6

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Russiagate: allegations of Russian interference in the democratic processes of the European Union (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, 24 February will mark the second tragic anniversary of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In the wake of this aggression, we stopped taking our security for granted and recognised the urgent need to address also hybrid threats posed by Russia within our borders and our institutions. We must investigate how far the FSB reaches in Europe and stop them from …

17

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Extending the list of EU crimes to hate speech and hate crime (debate)

Madam President, dear Commissioner, absent Council, dear colleagues, roughly two years ago, the Commission proposed the inclusion of hate speech and hate crime in the list of EU crimes, a necessary move to establish ground rules for criminal offences and sanctions that would apply across Europe. You think that’s an easy one, right? But no, the Member States decided to impede on this matter and be …

13

Dec

2023

EN Speech

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Jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition of decisions and acceptance of authentic instruments in matters of parenthood and creation of a European Certificate of Parenthood (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, absent Council, freedom of movement and the right to reside in any state in the Union is one of the main fundaments that the European Union has been built on. But there are limits threatening the most vulnerable ones in our society, the children. The recognition of parenthood, sadly, still varies among different Member States. That means that children of same-sex couple…

22

Nov

2023

EN Speech

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The lack of legislative follow-up by the Commission to the PEGA resolution (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, absent Council, colleagues, this is at least the third time in a very short period of time we are addressing this topic in the plenary, sadly. And the reason is illegal wiretapping and spying on journalists, opposition politicians and activists in a number of Member States, as you know. We repeatedly asked the Commission to act to propose a legislation that will protect…

21

Nov

2023

EN Speech

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Proposals of the European Parliament for the amendment of the Treaties (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, we are standing at the doorstep of another historic landmark: the Union of more than 30 Member States. We want to welcome Ukraine, Moldova, North Macedonia, Montenegro and other candidate countries soon. We want to welcome them to a strong, sovereign and a more democratic Union. To the Union that cannot be blackmailed by Viktor Orbán or some other Putin ally. To the …

17

Oct

2023

EN Speech

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Urgent need for a coordinated European response and legislative framework on intrusive spyware, based on the PEGA inquiry committee recommendations (debate)

Mr President, spying on journalists, opposition politicians or activists has become, thanks to conservative governments in Hungary, Spain, Poland and Greece, a sad reality in Europe. Everyone’s privacy is under attack by governments who want to break into people’s phones, but also by legislative proposals aiming to drill holes in encrypted communication. This must stop. The Commission needs to pro…

3

Oct

2023

EN Speech

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Corrupt large-scale sale of Schengen visas (debate)

Mr President, Vice-President, well, it’s interesting to see how the extreme right and the extreme left unite here, because everybody else agrees that free movement of people across the Schengen space is one of the biggest benefits of the European Union for the citizens. This visa scandal is putting under threat the trust into the whole area and the Polish Government as a whole. It makes it more di…

3

Oct

2023

EN Speech

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European Media Freedom Act (debate)

Madam President, Vice-President, colleagues, we have been waiting for this legislation for years, and finally we got here today. The attempts to paralyse free media, to destroy critical voices, to attack journalists, have multiple names in Europe: Orbán, Babiš, Kaczyński, Janša. They hate free media. To silence, to take control, to make them starve: that is their recipe to destroy the voices that …

14

Jun

2023

EN Speech

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Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware - Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (draft recommendation) (debate)

Mr President, dear Commissioner, absent Council, abuses of spyware to break into mobile phones of opposition politicians, journalists, activists, but also ordinary citizens, recording everything the victims do, what they say, who they meet, gaining access to their videos and photos, email, anything stored on their devices. Dear colleagues, were speaking about the European Union. We know for sure t…

13

Jun

2023

EN Speech

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Artificial Intelligence Act (debate)

Mr President, Madam Executive Vice-President, Commissioner, colleagues, today we are writing history. The next era will be the era of artificial intelligence. And what we are about to do in this House is to give guarantees. Guarantees that European citizens will benefit from the development of AI, that they will not be discriminated, that AI will not be abused to spy on them. We need to ensure tha…

9

May

2023

EN Speech

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Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence – EU accession: institutions and public administration of the Union - Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence - EU accession: judicial cooperation in criminal matters, asylum and non-refoulement (debate)

Madam President, Madam Commissioner, absent Council, every third woman in Czechia has experience with violence, often committed by their partners, and the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence is a commitment to concrete actions to prevent violence and to improve the situation of victims. But it is also a symbol, a symbol proving that Member States, Eu…

15

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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The further repressions against the people of Belarus, in particular the cases of Andrzej Poczobut and Ales Bialiatski (B9-0163/2023, RC-B9-0164/2023, B9-0164/2023, B9-0165/2023, B9-0166/2023, B9-0167/2023, B9-0168/2023) (vote)

Mr President, I apologise, but we have not seen the result of the previous vote. If you could please say what the result was.

14

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence: EU accession (continuation of debate)

Madam President, Madam Commissioner, dear colleagues, today is Valentine’s Day, the day of love. Too many women have been forced to learn that love is control, that love is jealousy, that love is to having to text your whereabouts, that love is an imminent threat. Unfortunately, there are political parties and politicians – including in my country, Czechia – that on the one hand claim that they ar…

17

Jan

2023

EN Speech

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Consumer protection in online video games: a European Single Market approach (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, as many mentioned, video games are a highly innovative digital sector in Europe, and therefore we need to realise that building a trustworthy online environment and increasing consumer trust can boost the economic growth. Therefore we need to evaluate where the current consumer protection legislation already covers unfair practices and dark patterns, and whe…

16

Jan

2023

EN Speech

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30th Anniversary of the Single Market (debate)

Mr President, Madam Executive Vice-President, Madam Minister, the single market seeks to guarantee the four freedoms and thanks to that, European citizens can study, live, shop, work, run their own business, retire, you name it, in any EU country they wish to. In order to secure all this, we need to regularly adjust rules on the single market to adapt to new situations. One such adjustment is the …

18

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Growing hate crimes against LGBTIQ people across Europe in light of the recent homophobic murder in Slovakia (debate)

Mr President, Madam Commissioner, Mr Vice Prime Minister, Juraj and Matus, two young Slovak boys whose lives were violently ended just for being who they were. So first I have a message for everyone who spreads hatred – be it politicians, media or organisations fighting against equal rights – your words do not just hurt LGBT people, their families and their friends, hatred leads to violence and vi…

4

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Radio Equipment Directive: common charger for electronic devices (debate)

Madam President, Madam Executive Vice-President, please first allow me a reaction to Mr Ciocca. This is a debate about the common charger. I don’t think that anybody underestimates the impact of the energy crisis, but this is a debate on a different topic. On that topic, the incomplete harmonisation of charging solutions for electronic devices has been causing inconvenience for consumers and exces…

6

Jul

2022

EN Speech

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Presentation of the programme of activities of the Czech Presidency (continuation of debate)

Madam President, dear Commissioner, dear Prime Minister, dear Minister, dear colleagues, the Czech Government and the Czech permanent representation to the Union worked tirelessly to get ready for the Presidency of the Council. And I would like to thank them for that. It is only natural that the Presidency’s priorities react to the Russian aggression in Ukraine and its implications. Therefore, I b…

4

Jul

2022

EN Speech

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Digital Services Act - Digital Markets Act (debate)

Mr President, the big tech created a strongly centralised digital environment because they want to exercise full control over our digital lives. But my political group has always been fighting to give power back to people over the technology they use. This means challenging the centralised digital ecosystem. This means ensuring that messaging services can interoperate, so that people are able to m…

8

Jun

2022

EN Speech

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Parliament’s right of initiative (debate)

Mr President, dear Vice—President Šefčovič, absent Council, dear colleagues, the European Parliament is the only directly elected European institution, yet it is not allowed to initiate legislation. Representatives directly elected by the European citizens have only partial tools at their disposal to suggest proposals, and these are often disregarded, thrown away or heavily postponed by the Commis…

4

May

2022

EN Speech

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Use of the Pegasus Software by EU Member States against individuals including MEPs and the violation of fundamental rights (topical debate)

Mr President, dear Commissioner, dear State Secretary, dear colleagues, we’ve been observing new revelations of wiretapping of journalists, NGO representatives and politicians practically every week. Spying on our colleagues in this House, on the Commissioner, on the head of the Spanish Government, political opponents of European governments – you name it. But this is not a movie from the period o…

14

Dec

2021

EN Speech

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Outcome of Global Summit Nutrition for Growth (Japan, 7-8 December) and increased food insecurity in developing countries (debate)

The next item is the debate on the Commission statement on the outcome of the Global Summit Nutrition for Growth (Japan, 7-8 December) and increased food insecurity in developing countries (2021/2997(RSP)). I should like to remind Members that for all debates of this part-session, there will be no catch-the-eye procedure and no blue cards will be accepted. Furthermore, remote interventions from Pa…

14

Dec

2021

EN Speech

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Implementation of the Kimberley Process Certification scheme (debate)

The debate is closed. The vote will take place on Thursday, 16 December 2021.

14

Dec

2021

EN Speech

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Implementation of the Kimberley Process Certification scheme (debate)

The next item is the debate on the oral question to the Commission by Bernd Lange, on behalf of the Committee on International Trade, on implementation of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (O-000073/2021 – B9-0044/21). I should like to remind Members that for all debates of this part-session, there will be no catch-the-eye procedure and no blue cards will be accepted. Furthermore, remote …