Speeches

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in a package of economic recovery measures, the European Commission has financed two Dutch companies with two million euros for the development of meat production in laboratories. It is money that is allocated to the business of test-tube meat, that is, to understand: We finance synthetic meat. It is unacceptable to support companies that sell products obtained from cell multiplication in the laboratory as meat. Your offensive against the flesh, the real one, is sincerely reaching incredible paradoxes. With choices of this type our farms are penalized, our productions with a consolidated tradition of food excellence. You do this to support synthetic and ultra-processed products, the impact of which on human health and the environment, among other things, is not even known. This wasted money is a slap in the face to the meat supply chain, brought to its knees by the crisis. We are tired of a Europe that tramples on products that are part of our history and our food culture.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the European Union's migration policy is a failure. Twelve European countries with right-wing and left-wing governments are calling for an end to illegal immigration by any means necessary, and what does Europe say? He raises his shoulders and continues to do nothing, succumbing to his goodness. There are those who have fought human traffickers, such as the leader of the Salvini League, and incredibly risk jail for enforcing laws and those who, like Europe, do nothing to limit departures and landings, fueling the business of reception. Let us also not forget the danger of Islamic extremism, since so many terrorists have arrived by sea or via the Balkan route. The European Union is a continuing disaster on immigration: no automatic relocation, no rotation of ports, no attempt to stem landings, no action to curb land immigration routes. Just empty words and a pathetic attitude. You get the line dictated by Captain Carola who wants all illegal immigrants in Europe.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, this debate on the objectives of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change risks being very similar to the bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla Your actions on the environment are ineffective and costly, and I do not say so, we do not say so, but the European Court of Auditors says so, criticising you for spending a mountain of money badly. In fact, 135 billion have already been spent and would not have had any effect in the fight against climate change. Despite mistakes and out-of-the-way goals, you want to throw away more money from European taxpayers, another $320 billion for the next seven years and $1 trillion for the Green Deal until 2030. The Utopia green it is already causing damage in a crisis context: severe difficulties in finding energy, lost jobs, relocations, bills and rising costs for households. Meanwhile, China continues to quietly pollute and has even ordered the production of more than 120 coal mines at maximum capacity. Europe is experimenting against citizens, getting the line dictated by those who do not then give up flights low cost, air conditioning and state-of-the-art mobile phones. The truth is that your proposal green It feeds on catastrophism, but does not offer viable solutions in such a short time, with the risk of condemning us all to self-inflicted economic regression. In short, we call for more pragmatism, a global approach, more time and more attention to citizens, rather than fashions. green.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the Farm to Fork programme is dangerous, ideological and inadequate. It is dangerous because it supports tools such as Nutri-score that, without adequate scientific basis, penalizes healthy foods, such as the excellence of "Made in Italy", instead promoting junk foods, damaging the Mediterranean diet, which is a cultural heritage of humanity, favoring only multinationals. Moreover, it is frankly inconceivable that Europe, instead of supporting our food history, carries on food such as insects. It is ideological because, without an adequate analysis of the economic and social impact, it provides for the reduction of the farmer as climate guardian and imposes controls and objectives that make so much "big green brother", with the risk of favoring extra-European imports, going to weigh on the producer and, above all, consumers. It is inadequate because there is a claim that food is cheap; in this way you will only favor junk, poor quality and industrial foods penalizing quality excellence. Moreover, the prejudices against foods of animal origin, such as meat, are frankly ridiculous. The recent 2021 UN Nutrition Report also shows that for a significant proportion of poorly fed people, meat, milk and eggs are sources of essential nutrients that plant foods will not be able to offer today or ever. We are tired of a European Union that, instead of supporting and enhancing our food culture, targets our products to benefit multinationals.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the civil rights situation in Myanmar continues to be very bad: More than 1,000 dead, more than 7,000 arbitrary arrests, nearly 6,000 convictions for political crimes, more than 2,000 arrest warrants for fleeing opponents. Unfortunately, in recent attacks there have also been children killed. The rights to freedom of expression and association are not allowed; the outcome of democratic elections is not respected; different ethnicities and religious groups in the country are persecuted; the former democratic leaders of this nation have been arrested on unfounded charges; the number of political prisoners is increasing; political demonstrations are prohibited; There are even attacks on schools and health facilities. I also point out that here, as in many other countries of the world, the Christian community suffers very serious violence: We are witnessing periodic killings and arrests of Christians and bombings and raids in churches. Europe must be proactive and stronger in demanding respect for human rights and must somehow prod China into condemning what is happening, instead of indirectly supporting the new regime. It is unacceptable to witness such a violent repression, limiting ourselves only to expressing concern. The European Union must take strong action against those who deny freedom in Myanmar. The former Burma was building a democratic future before the military coup and we must support those who, even risking their lives, demonstrated to defend human rights. Europe must defend freedom and democracy, otherwise it makes no sense to exist.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, as always, Europe is more interested in bringing in immigrants than in defending our borders. You have thought of an Agency to facilitate operational assistance in the management of reception and in the evaluation of applications for international protection, but in this way you risk increasing the bureaucracy and also the costs for the countries of first arrival. In short, you have created yet another bandwagon. Italy has for years been forced to bear alone, in the silence of Europe, the burden of an increasingly unacceptable irregular immigration. Instead of working to limit departures, you continue to pursue policies that push more and more immigrants to enter Europe illegally. Illegal immigration is detrimental to the whole of Europe. We propose strict management of external borders, both land and sea, and call for migrant identification centres in North African transit countries. How do you respond? Respond with such hypocrisy and ridiculous goodness, favoring only human traffickers. When will you finally be able to open your eyes?

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the ideological environmentalism of the European Union produces only disasters. Rising energy prices are, in fact, the result of Europe's foolish policies. It is increasingly evident that Greta's supporters are good ecologists, but with the wallets of others. It is the citizens and consumers who pay the increases in bills and also the increases in product prices in general, as well as the hundreds of thousands of workers, who are evidently considered expendable on the altar of the ecological transition. Let it be clear that it is good that young people are more responsible for the future of the planet, but the European Union should, as it were, be more focused on reality. European companies pay much more for energy than competitor Instead, do absolutely nothing with the countries that pollute the most, such as China and India, with which you continue to sign trade agreements. At the same time, of course, allowing China to get its hands on solar power allows it to have a monopoly on that kind of production. In short, in practice the future is gray. We ask you to be more consistent and not to discriminate against European companies and citizens.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, how long will we endure the repeated violations of human rights by the Islamic Republic of Iran? Iran severely represses the rights of freedom of expression, freedom of association and assembly. Security forces have made illegal use of force to crack down on the protests. The authorities continue to detain hundreds of dissident protesters and simply human rights defenders and have sentenced many to imprisonment, flogging and other torture, including amputations. Women experience entrenched and violent discrimination, enforced disappearances, torture and other ill-treatment are systemic. The right to a fair trial does not exist. The death penalty is used as a weapon of political repression. Executions were carried out on boys who were not even eighteen years old at the time of the crime. Djalali's story is dramatic. The Iranian-Swedish researcher was sentenced to death on an absurd charge of espionage. Unjustly detained, tortured, placed in solitary confinement and forced to have no medical care, subjected to a trial defined by gravely unfair international observers. The death sentence and its imminent execution are inconceivable acts that should be condemned in the strongest possible terms by the international community. Yet nothing is done here. Iran's Islamic regime continues to commit crimes against humanity often by justifying them on religious grounds. How long will Europe be silent? How long are we going to be silent? Assuming someone really thinks that with a resolution you can solve something.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, this proposal is an acknowledgement of failure. You have failed in the coordination of European countries, despite the promises of President von der Layen, you have failed in solidarity between states with countries such as Italy, which was denied the availability of ventilators and masks at the beginning of the pandemic; you have failed on contracts with pharmaceutical companies, where you have not provided for penalties with conditions that have seen us add up delays on delays compared to other countries in the world; You have failed through EMA on vaccines. Do we want to talk about the tragicomic affair with AstraZeneca? First planned only for young people, then no no, it is for the elderly, then let's make it for everyone, then pay attention only to an age group and while EMA reassured about the goodness of the vaccine, European countries blocked it. The European Union has consistently acted late, in a disorderly manner and without adequate transparency. Despite the many mistakes made, however, no one takes responsibility and no one thinks about resigning. On the contrary, relaunch, asking for more structures and more skills and obviously also more money. You are now proposing to strengthen prevention structures so that they can better organise themselves through databases for the supply of medicines and medical devices. In this regard, we consider it strategic to support European production because today more than ever we should have understood, at the very least, that there is a need to reduce dependence on third countries for raw materials, medicines and medical devices and much more. Synergy between bodies and the exchange of information are certainly useful because it is absolutely a priority to finally be able to respond quickly, efficiently and in a coordinated manner to emergencies, but we cannot forget that between 2011 and 2018 the European Commission asked the Member States 63 times to cut their expenditure on health. In short, the critical issues of healthcare arise from problems that you have created and that we are now facing. We are therefore puzzled to give further responsibility to the European Medicines Agency, which, quite frankly, did not shine, indeed. You want more competences in the Union, more task forces, in our opinion it is not necessary to have more structures, but a more adequate organisation and more capacity and quality. And I conclude, perhaps, if I may give a suggestion, let us also avoid giving European money to finance absurd investments such as the one at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Perhaps we can help the Member States and indeed the citizens of Europe.