What Veronika spoke about.

2 Apr

2025

CS Speech

Execution spree in Iran and the confirmation of the death sentences of activists Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, the statistics on the rising number of executions in Iran sound really frightening. Even more frighteningly, the reality of the Iranian regime touches us as we watch the personal stories of specific prisoners on death row. This is also the case of Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, whose trials bear all the hallmarks of rigged political processes in totalitarianism – tor…

2 Apr

2025

CS Speech

European oceans pact (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the world's oceans are a unique ecosystem without which there would be no life, no people and no civilization on our planet. However, protecting the oceans and their ecosystems from damage caused by industrial production, overfishing or other human activities is very complex. Most oceans do not belong to any particular country. Their protection is thus based on …

13 Mar

2025

CS Speech

A Vision for Agriculture and Food (debate)

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Mr President, Europe is facing major challenges today. War, looming tariff disputes, and an uncertain economy are changing the rules of the game. All this is reflected in agriculture. It is time to be clear: Europe’s security and competitiveness, including food security and agricultural competitiveness, must be our priorities. In agriculture, we need to maximise the efficiency of the use of existi…

13 Feb

2025

CS Speech

EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, I understand farmers' concerns about the tariff reductions brought about by the trade agreement with Mercosur, and that is why we need to engage intensively with them and find acceptable solutions for them. But I am deeply convinced that free trade brings healthy competition, lowers prices for consumers, leads to innovation and investment. The agreement offers Europe…

21 Jan

2025

CS Speech

Further deterioration of the political situation in Georgia (debate)

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Mr President, colleagues, the Georgian Dream party has succeeded in the elections thanks to a policy of war and Western scare or the use of various conspiracy theories. Their dubious outcome was also based on the control of the media by the oligarch who owns this party. No wonder the Georgians took to the streets. Power's response to long-standing protests is totally inadequate. We are watching th…

20 Jan

2025

CS Speech

Ceasefire in Gaza - the urgent need to release the hostages, to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and to pave the way for a two-state solution (debate)

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Mr President, thank you for the floor. The pictures of the release of the first three hostages must have filled everyone with joy or even emotion. It is good that there has been an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of the prisoners. Thanks to both the outgoing US administration and incoming President Trump. This agreement is not black and white either. The need to release hundreds of Palest…

18 Dec

2024

CS Speech

Challenges facing EU farmers and agricultural workers: improving working conditions, including their mental well-being (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, European agriculture is facing several different challenges that require our full attention. Our farmers and other agricultural workers provide us with enough food every day and also take care of the countryside. However, it faces uncertainty, bureaucracy and undervaluation. It is necessary to simplify administrative processes, which often disgust …

17 Dec

2024

CS Speech

Russia’s disinformation and historical falsification to justify its war of aggression against Ukraine (debate)

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Madam President, there is a lot of misinformation associated with Russia's aggression against Ukraine that is not based on historical reality. In the Czech Republic, we are currently encountering one incredible misinformation. Supporters of Russia are spreading the story that we must be grateful to Russia and understand its policy in Ukraine, because Russia liberated us from the Nazi occupation in…

27 Nov

2024

CS Speech

Topical debate (Rule 169) - Budapest Declaration on the New European Competitiveness Deal - A future for the farming and manufacturing sectors in the EU (topical debate)

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Mr President, our competitiveness is being killed by bureaucracy and regulation. Our farmers are supposed to provide quality food and be properly rewarded for it. They're not supposed to sit at stacks of papers or spend time with hundreds of checks. I'm glad we're finally talking about the need for change, but most importantly, we need to take action. No further reports and strategies for competit…

26 Nov

2024

CS Speech

Reinforcing EU’s unwavering support to Ukraine against Russia’s war of aggression and the increasing military cooperation between North Korea and Russia (debate)

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23 Oct

2024

CS Speech

EU actions against the Russian shadow fleets and ensuring a full enforcement of sanctions against Russia (debate)

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Madam President, sanctions against Russia are similar to the fight against crime. Just as criminals are always one step ahead of the police when inventing various criminal tricks, so Russia is always inventing new ways to circumvent sanctions. Let us keep this in mind, but above all let us not succumb to the propaganda that sanctions do not work. One of Russia's other scams is the Russian shadow f…

7 Oct

2024

CS Speech

One year after the 7 October terrorist attacks by Hamas (debate)

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Madam President, exactly one year ago, Palestinian Hamas terrorists infiltrated the south of Israel and murdered, raped and kidnapped Israelis. Even after a year, some of those who were kidnapped in Gaza are not back home, and to this day we do not know what their fate is. We must not allow these crimes to be relativised, as unfortunately happens today and every day in the streets of many Western …

19 Sep

2024

CS Speech

Droughts and extreme weather events as a threat to local communities and EU agriculture in times of climate change (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I know very well what droughts are, but also what floods are. We are dealing with them right now, not only in the Czech Republic. However, it sometimes seems to me that the debate in this plenary is guided by the slogan ‘We command the wind, the rain!’. A slogan I know from the past from the communists in the Eastern Bloc. We just don't command nature. What we c…

18 Sep

2024

CS Speech

The deteriorating situation of women in Afghanistan due to the recent adoption of the law on the “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice”

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the situation of women in Afghanistan is critical. Under the rule of Taliban Islamic fundamentalists, the situation of women is deteriorating on a daily basis and their universal human rights are being blatantly violated. If the European Union is serious about its values, it must be able to find a decisive and hard answer. The entire Taliban movement and its sen…

16 Sep

2024

CS Speech

Outcome of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture (debate)

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Mr President, I expected the strategic dialogue to provide constructive impetus for change in the common agricultural policy, to bring concrete proposals to reduce bureaucracy in agriculture, to come up with proposals to prepare for the future enlargement of the European Union. It didn't happen. On the contrary, more and more regulations, bureaucracy, protectionism and calls for more money are eme…

23 Apr

2024

CS Speech

Production and marketing of plant reproductive material - Production and marketing of forest reproductive material (joint debate - Plant and forest reproductive material)

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Mr President, quality seeds and seedlings are the basis of any agri-food system. Quality seed is important for all farmers, regardless of whether they are small or large, organic or conventional, whether they grow cereals or vegetables. Unfortunately, the Committee on Agriculture adopted a proposal for a regulation on plant reproductive material, which allows uncontrolled seeds, seedlings and cutt…

10 Apr

2024

CS Speech

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

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we all know about the accusations against several former and current politicians from different countries. We know that they were systematically bribed with Russian money. Our government in the Czech Republic has already imposed national sanctions against the organisation behind the pro-Russian propaganda campaign and the two persons responsible for it. Russia c…

14 Mar

2024

CS Speech

Promised revision of the EU animal welfare legislation and the animal welfare-related European citizens’ initiatives (debate)

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Mr President, I am sure we all agree that animal cruelty does not belong in a civilised society, and unfortunately we are constantly seeing and keeping silent about such cases. Two concrete examples for everything. Firstly, cage farming – we have already approved a ban on cage farming in the Czech Republic since 2027. I therefore call on the European Commission to include in the 2025 work programm…

13 Mar

2024

CS Speech

Need to address the urgent concerns surrounding Ukrainian children forcibly deported to Russia (debate)

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Madam President, it must be clear to everyone that Putin did not attack Ukraine because of some perceived threat from NATO enlargement or because of the alleged protection of Russian-speaking minorities. Putin looked up in the history and tradition of Russian colonialism and imperialism, and perhaps the most disgusting face of this Russian vision of the world are the crimes he commits against chil…

12 Mar

2024

CS 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)

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Mr President, in recent weeks and months, there has been widespread misinformation that the European market has been flooded with cheap Ukrainian grain and that European farmers are suffering because of this. Imports of agricultural commodities from Ukraine have returned to the same level as before the war. And there are even commodities where it has fallen significantly, for example, in oats. On …

28 Feb

2024

CS Speech

The murder of Alexei Navalny and the need for EU action in support of political prisoners and oppressed civil society in Russia (debate)

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Mr President, political trials, prisons amid the desolate Siberian plains, and the mysterious deaths of dissidents and political rivals are like Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago. But it is the sad and cruel reality of today's Russia under the tyrannical and mafia regime of Vladimir Putin, a return to the times of the deepest Stalinism. Today we are talking about the fate of Alexei Navalny, but on …

6 Feb

2024

CS Speech

Plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their food and feed (debate)

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Mr President, there are many opponents of precise breeding methods in the European Parliament, and some even deliberately confuse new breeding methods with GMOs, thereby manipulating public opinion. It's unfair. Precise breeding methods will give our farmers new plant varieties that will, for example, better withstand drought, be less susceptible to mold and other pests, make better use of nutrien…

6 Feb

2024

CS Speech

The need for unwavering EU support for Ukraine, after two years of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine (debate)

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Mr President, two years. Two years after Putin's horde attacked Ukraine. Yes, part of our society, and perhaps also part of our politicians, is becoming ‘tired’ of still dealing with what is happening in Ukraine and the effects on Europe. But being tired is not the answer. If we do not stop Russia now, next time one of us will be next, and the consequences will be much worse for all of us. Therefo…

17 Jan

2024

CS Speech

Improving the socio-economic situation of farmers and rural areas, ensuring fair incomes, food security as well as a just transition (debate)

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Mr President, there is much we can do to improve the conditions of farmers. But we have to listen to them. Unfortunately, this did not happen during this mandate on the part of the European Commission. The Commission has come up with a number of green legislative proposals with an immediate impact on farmers, both in increasing bureaucratic burdens and in new requirements aimed at combating climat…

16 Jan

2024

CS Speech

Humanitarian situation in Gaza, the need to reach a ceasefire and the risks of regional escalation (debate)

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Mr President, we must clearly reject the constant calls to Israel to limit its military action in Gaza. The actors escalating tensions are Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and Yemeni rebels. Israel must eliminate Hamas as soon as possible. A ceasefire would only mean time for terrorists to prepare another attack on Israel and put Israeli civilians at risk. The constant repetition of the call for the immedia…