Speeches

Mr President, first of all, let me express my condolences to the family of the late Mahsa Amini and to many other families whose relatives were murdered during the protests. The Iranian people are once again demonstrating the need for change in the country. The current political course is completely unsustainable. In particular, I would like to pay tribute to the Iranian women who have taken to the streets all over the country. They deserve our support and respect. We must do everything we can to support the opposition and the demonstrators who are courageously fighting against the regime's brutal repression. They fight for fundamental rights and freedoms. Without our help, Iran will continue to export terrorism, seek to acquire nuclear weapons, and threaten neighboring countries. A firm message must be sent to the current regime that their violent acts of repression will not escape justice.

Mr President, let me first of all thank all the firefighters, soldiers and volunteers who participated in the firefighting during the summer, including the great fire that also affected the Czech Republic. A large part of Europe has experienced droughts and fires this year. It is true that even today, in early autumn, there are still parts of Europe where it is very dry. But that does not mean, as the title of today's debate suggests, that we should further step up our efforts to combat climate change. We must first of all adapt to climate change, work with those measures that we have already taken, but certainly not raise the already high ambitions, the result of which is completely unclear even in view of the current events, when energy and food prices are rising. Our ambitions must match our capabilities to meet the basic needs of citizens and, above all, not to incite negative sentiments in society that could lead to a move away from democracy. A few specific measures. We need to support the Civil Protection Mechanism in order to have sufficient capacities, e.g. to fight forest fires. We need to return water to the landscape, restore ponds and be efficient in land use. But we must not tie farmers' hands with unreasonable regulations, and we must give them room to adapt to changing conditions, for example by allowing them to grow new varieties with a higher tolerance to drought or moisture, or by allowing crops to be bred using new breeding methods. Thanks to these measures, we will be able to cope with weather fluctuations while ensuring food security and environmental measures.

Dear President of the European Parliament, Madam President of the Commission, Prime Minister Fiala, I would like to thank you very much for the presentation of the Czech Presidency's plans. I think they are perfectly in line with the problems that Europe now has to face. It is clear that two themes will be key and both are related to Ukraine. The first will be the reconstruction of Ukraine, because a functioning and prosperous country on the eastern border of the European Union is important not only for the Ukrainians themselves, but also for us, the members of the European Union. Approving Ukraine's candidate status is a good first step, but concrete recovery plans are needed. The promises of aid that we hear from many states must materialise in the bank accounts from which we will pay for the restoration. Ukraine is also linked to the current energy crisis that Europe is facing. This is what this Parliament has been warning about for many years. How many times have we warned about the risk of building Nord Stream 2? We now need to work urgently to ensure that we have enough affordable energy for our citizens. We need to stop deluding ourselves that we will still be able to choose which resources we like and which we consider to be poorly green. Our main task must be to mobilise all available resources, at least in the short to medium term. This is already the case, for example, in Germany, which is expanding electricity generation from ‘dirty’ coal-fired power plants. In doing so, it has the possibility to use carbon-free nuclear energy. We have to use the core. We need to invest in its development, in new types of modular reactors. Today at noon we will vote on the objection to the taxonomy. This vote will show who is interested in the citizens it represents. Who cares if citizens will have something to heat, shine or how to recharge their electric car. Because without the nucleus and the gas, we can't provide enough energy.

Madam President, Commissioner, it has become clear lately that organic production will play an increasing role in the years to come. This is demanded by consumers, this need is also seen by politicians and officials who set the rules of farming on agricultural land. However, the increase in organic farming must be natural. Both the supply of and demand for such production must be consistent. At the same time, we must bear in mind the need to produce enough food for our population, which is even more important now at the time of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. As the ECR shadow rapporteur on this report, I must say that the rapporteur has managed to draw up a balanced document that takes into account all aspects of organic farming, including any risks that we need to eliminate. In particular, I consider it essential to carry out an impact assessment of the new legislation, to ensure that the introduction of organic farming is in line with market principles, to call for the use of innovative techniques, such as breeding, and to provide flexibility for individual Member States and their different starting conditions. We have managed to incorporate these conditions into the report, which is why the ECR faction will support it in the vote.

Madam President, I am glad that we are all in agreement here, naming the Russian invasion in the right words and calling Putin the culprit of the war. It is also good that we all perceive threats both in the form of a large migration wave and the threat of food insecurity. We agree on the name of the problem, less on the way to solve it. The Czech Republic now hosts more than 300 000 refugees on its territory. It provides arms and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, and our prime minister, together with Polish and Slovenian leaders, has personally supported President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kiev. We support the toughest possible sanctions in order to put an end to the war as quickly as possible. This is the key solution. We support an end to Russian oil and gas imports so that we do not have to deal with the influx of millions more refugees and the imminent famine not only in Ukraine, but also in North Africa and the Middle East. Here is the difference between the Member States. While many are helping, like the Czech Republic or Poland, others, like Germany or Hungary, are unwilling to sacrifice even the euro and fear slower economic growth, sending millions of euros to Russia every day to buy more tanks. If we want to stop this war and end the rise in food prices, we must act quickly. We must act hard and we must act together. The resolution we will adopt tomorrow will not help us much. Only real actions will help.

Mr President, Commissioner, today, almost at the end of 2021, we are standing here to approve a new form of the common agricultural policy, which should have been in force since January this year. It should have been approved two years ago to allow Member States to set rules based on it. So we're two years late. There is no longer room to argue whether it could be more green, or vice versa, whether it should be more helpful to farmers. Unfortunately, we have come to a situation where the only way out is to approve the resulting compromise. Not only because our farmers need to know the rules they need to manage, but they also need to have time to prepare for them. Agriculture does not work in such a way that the European Parliament approves something in the morning and in the afternoon others will work according to these rules. In agriculture, there are still laws of nature that some of you sometimes try to fight. Please support this compromise, helping both nature and allowing our farmers to farm and provide enough affordable food for our citizens.

Madam President, many Members here must feel a bit like the firefighter who started the fire by his own behaviour. There are certainly more reasons for the rise in energy prices, but many of them are due to the erroneous decisions of this very Parliament. We are talking about a bad system of emission allowances, which raises the prices of electricity production. We are talking about a climate law and an abrupt retreat from the use of fossil fuels. We are talking about an irrational departure from nuclear power. All these steps are making energy production more expensive and limited, and we are now debating how to compensate citizens for this growth. This reminds me of Margaret Thatcher's famous statement: “When it moves, we tax it. If it's still moving, we'll regulate it. And when it stops moving, we will subsidise it.” Please think about it when putting forward further proposals that will have an equally devastating impact on our citizens.