What Markéta spoke about.

24 Apr

2024

EN Speech

Azerbaijan, notably the repression of civil society and the cases of Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu and Ilhamiz Guliyev

Watch

Mr President, it is a sad honour that I dedicate my last speech in this room, under this mandate, to human rights and to civil society in Azerbaijan. I have met today with Zhala Bayramova, the daughter of Dr Ibadoghlu, listening to her father’s hardship. After negotiations with other Members of Parliament, I have no doubt we realise how catastrophic the situation has become since last autumn for j…

23 Apr

2024

EN Speech

Attempts to reintroduce a foreign agent law in Georgia and its restrictions on civil society (debate)

Watch

Madam President, a year ago, many of us expressed that the passing of foreign agents law would hinder Georgia’s EU prospects. Yet, after getting the candidate status, the government broke its promises and is forcing the law through. In addition, there are plans to restrict LGBT+ rights in Georgia and peaceful protesters are facing repression once again, this time from Zviad Kharazishvili, head of …

10 Apr

2024

EN Speech

New allegations of Russian interference in the European Parliament, in the upcoming EU elections and the impact on the Union (debate)

Watch

Mr President, dear colleagues, although knowing that security services across Europe are monitoring and mapping disinformation networks is making me calmer, their job is to monitor and map them for us, for policymakers, so that we can decide what is a security threat to our democracies and protect them based on this. That politicians are paid by foreign states to undermine our system, or that ther…

12 Mar

2024

EN Speech

Need to impose sanctions on the import of Russian and Belarusian food and agricultural products to the EU and to ensure stability of EU agricultural production (debate)

Watch

Mr President, dear colleagues, Commissioner, I fully support imposing sanctions on Russian and Belarusian agricultural imports to the EU. It is incomprehensible that this has not been done yet, since the agricultural sector is very vocal about Ukrainian exports. This raises questions about the actual political intentions and reasons some Member States have for the Ukrainian export blockade. I find…

28 Feb

2024

EN Speech

The extradition and prosecution of Julian Assange and implications on freedom of the press (debate)

Watch

Madam President, dear colleagues, Commissioner, Mr Shipton, Julian Assange – a candidate for the 2022 Sakharov Prize – brought to light documents revealing cases of war crimes and human rights violations. For these efforts, Julian has received recognition from numerous organisations advocating for freedom of speech. A couple of hours ago in this plenary, we mourned the unjust treatment and death o…

28 Feb

2024

CS Speech

Deepening EU integration in view of future enlargement (debate)

Watch

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, but also a shift in Bosnia and Herzegovina and other countries. We are working on a common future and making sure that we want to strengthen our relationships. Obviously, we all want the same result. But do we choose a viable path to it? Like the citizens of the European Union, the European Parliament has repeatedly asked for the op…

27 Feb

2024

EN Speech

Closer ties between the EU and Armenia and the need for a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia (debate)

Watch

Mr President, colleagues, in 2022, the Azerbaijani gas imports to Europe rose to barely 3 %. The contract, on the other hand, earned Baku EUR 15.6 billion last year. Azerbaijan also imports 65 % of its oil to European countries. But within our energetic mix, they are just under the category of ‘others’. Do you see it? We are not, by any stretch, dependent on Aliyev imports. The only one who benefi…

7 Feb

2024

EN Speech

New wave of mass arrests in Belarus of opposition activists and their family members

Watch

Mr President, dear colleagues, the fraud elections in Belarus are coming. One would think Lukashenka gives up this charade after 30 years, but no, he has to pretend he still has power over the country. And thus the authorities got inspired in Russia and North Korea, I guess, and intensified their oppression of journalists, lawyers, activists and even families of those who ran away. As if people in…

7 Feb

2024

EN Speech

The fight against hate speech and disinformation: responsibility of social platforms within the Digital Services Act (topical debate)

Watch

Mr President, dear colleagues, Commissioner, self-regulation is a concept that has proven a spectacular failure in many industries in the last decades. Only if all market actors are equally forced or motivated by the state to improve their product, at the cost of their profits, only then they will do it. It is therefore no surprise that companies with billions of users are cutting their disinforma…

17 Jan

2024

EN Speech

The ongoing persecution of Falun Gong in China, notably the case of Mr Ding Yuande

Watch

– Madam President, dear colleagues, China has a long history of suppression, persecution and torture of its many minorities. The Falun Gong are no exception and had to endure decades of treatment designed to eradicate them. We must impose economic sanctions on the officials in charge of these crimes, freeze their assets and refuse visas. Our huge trade relationship must not become the reason to lo…

12 Dec

2023

CS Speech

Defence of democracy package (debate)

Watch

Madam President, there are six months before the elections. In recent years, we have appealed countless times to representatives of national governments to secure elections. In vain. We now have 6 months to try to implement at least a few of the measures that the Commission is coming up with to protect them. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the democracy protection package is finally on the table. The…

22 Nov

2023

EN Speech

The killing of Tamaz Ginturi, a Georgian citizen, by Russia’s occupying forces in Georgia

Watch

Madam President, dear colleagues, dear Georgian friends, first, allow me to express my condolences to Tamaz Ginturi’s beloved – my thoughts are with you. I do not make differences between one forcefully taken innocent life or thousands. It should be met with an equally strong reaction. When Russian troops started to shoot our Ukrainian neighbours, we were quick to react and sanction. There is anot…

22 Nov

2023

EN Speech

30 years of Copenhagen criteria - giving further impetus to EU enlargement policy (debate)

Watch

Mr President, dear colleagues, this is an important anniversary, particularly with the new enlargement impetus. Because of that, we should assess the state of the Union. For too long, the EU has neglected the internal attacks on its main values. We should demand the same governance and rule of law standards from existing members as we set for the candidates. Especially now, when the enlargement pr…

18 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Fighting disinformation and dissemination of illegal content in the context of the Digital Services Act and in times of conflict (debate)

Watch

Mr President, dear colleagues, this House worked on the DSA for the past years, and I experienced personally how well-coordinated, well-funded and well-connected lobbyists from the digital monopolies have watered down every single aspect of it. Where we wanted hard rules and obligations, we got self-regulation and empty promises. The latest floods of uncontrolled disinformation in connection to Is…

17 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Effectiveness of the EU sanctions on Russia (debate)

Watch

Mr President, dear colleagues, when we discuss Russia’s sanctions circumvention – brushing off the obvious, tax havens and post-Soviet Mafia states – there is a massive elephant in the room: China. Putin and Xi will meet in Beijing today to celebrate many things. Besides the Belt and Road anniversary, they will undoubtedly toast the successful negation of our anti-war sanctions. Total trade betwee…

3 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Taking stock of Moldova's path to the EU (debate)

Watch

Mr President, dear colleagues, I am very pleased to see that the relationship between the EU and Moldova is strengthening and that the EU provides support through means such as the Council's support package, direct budget support and the temporary trade liberalisation for Moldovan agricultural products, which we helped to negotiate. Additionally, I welcome Moldova's efforts towards judicial reform…

3 Oct

2023

CS Speech

Situation in Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan’s attack and the continuing threats against Armenia (debate)

Watch

Madam President, we have spoken many times on this ground about Nagorno-Karabakh and the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Now the situation has dramatically escalated due to the attack and the insolence of Azerbaijan. The result is over 100,000 ethnic Armenians fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh and the forced surrender of local defenses. We all know that the peace negotiations went in the Azerbaija…

2 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Economic coercion by third countries (debate)

Watch

Madam President, dear colleagues, dear Commissioner, ever since the Commission has decided that Member States shall not be attacked through economic coercion by adversaries, we in the European Parliament have been trying to do everything to make our deterrence credible. It has also been a direct response to Chinese threats and coercion to Lithuania, a Member State, when they dared to call their Ta…

13 Sep

2023

EN Speech

The case of Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu, imprisoned in Azerbaijan

Watch

Madam President, dear colleagues, Commissioner, Azerbaijan’s human rights situation is continuously declining. Today we have the case of Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu, an economist, professor, researcher and known critic of the Azerbaijani Government, who, like many others, was forcefully taken, beaten, detained and refused any medical help, causing his already poor health to deteriorate to dangerous levels.…

12 Jul

2023

EN Speech

Recommendations for reform of the European Parliament’s rules on transparency, integrity, accountability and anti-corruption (debate)

Watch

Madam President, dear colleagues, this third and final report will conclude the existence of our Committee on foreign interference. Over three years and three comprehensive reports, we have identified our own vulnerabilities and how our enemies are using them against us. Corruption scandals, political interference, and spying by third countries is not going to stop. By all indications, it will onl…

13 Jun

2023

EN Speech

Question Time (VPC/HR) - Relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and at the Lachin Corridor

Watch

I originally did not want to actually ask a follow-up question, but you answered something I did not ask. I did not ask the mission to end the blockade. Of course, that’s very logical. No one here is asking that. I asked what the mission is then doing and you can share that with us. So can you share something with us? What is the mission doing?…

13 Jun

2023

EN Speech

Question Time (VPC/HR) - Relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and at the Lachin Corridor

Watch

Mr President, I welcome, Mr Borrell. Well, there are some ongoing peace treaty negotiations, or should be. And, given the current situation where actually the agreement from 2020 was broken by the set-up of the checkpoint from Azerbaijani side in the Lachin corridor, I would like to ask you whether you have any assessment of how the peace treaty negotiations can go on right now, given this hinderi…

1 Jun

2023

CS Question

Foreign interference in all democratic processes in the European Union, including disinformation - Election integrity and resilience build-up towards European elections 2024 (debate)

Watch

Madam President, firstly, I would like to correct the disinformation that Mr Radačovský has said here about Chinese police stations. Of course, Article 105 is written on the basis that, yes, indeed, those Chinese police stations were here and they were taking the citizens away. However, it is not a question. The question is: So why do you think that two Slovak citizens, young people, died recently…

1 Jun

2023

EN Speech

Foreign interference in all democratic processes in the European Union, including disinformation - Election integrity and resilience build-up towards European elections 2024 (debate)

Watch

Madam President, dear colleagues, Commissioner, six days ago, Twitter left the voluntary code of practice on disinformation; the voluntary code, by the way, which even Chinese spyware TikTok promised to follow. Commissioner Breton promised Elon Musk that the Digital Services Act is coming anyway. I cannot emphasise enough how glad I am that there is at least one regulation. But will the DSA really…

10 May

2023

EN Speech

Fighting cyberbullying of young people across the EU (debate)

Watch

Mr President, Mrs Fox, let’s be honest, bullying is not, unfortunately, a new problem. But what is new is the scale and reach of cyber bullying. There is a growing tendency for more and more young people to become victims of its devastating real-life consequences, which can affect their social life and may cause them to experience anxiety, depression and even suicidal ideation. This issue is not j…