Speeches

Mr President, there are three billion people in the world whose protein intake depends on fishing, depends on the oceans. And yet, when you read the conclusions of this G20 summit, there is nothing. Nothing about fisheries, nothing about aquaculture. (The President interrupted the speaker) And for good reason, many of the countries around the table at the G20 are happily and industrially engaged in illegal fishing. This illegal fishing that plunders resources, constantly endangers the lives of these three billion people. What about us, then, in all this? We run behind our fishermen to check the size of each fish, the mesh of each net, but above all, we import 70% of the seafood we consume. At best, we delude ourselves that they have been legally fished by others, over whom we have no control. But we need to be clear: Every time we eat a fish that comes from outside, we fish on the plate of those three billion people. It is high time, dear friends, that here in the European Union we put on the table the question of the contribution of fisheries and aquaculture to global food security.

Mr President, 'dirty fag', 'old gouine', 'travelo': By accumulating, words and insults eventually become deeds, eventually become bullets and kill. Matúš and Juraj, Malta, last month in Germany, Samuel in Galicia last year, David in a park in Belgium in 2021. So I turn to the benches of the far right, which are completely empty. No speaker from the ID group came, probably out of shame, out of shame that this youngster was influenced by your far-right ideas, that he was the son of a Slovak far-right leader. Perhaps it is out of shame that you are not here. But I also want to look to the Council and the Czech Presidency of the Council. Because, I say, by accepting the accumulation of hate speech and hate crime, even though the Commission is making a proposal to make it a European crime and you are blocking debates, well, you are complicit in what is happening. Wake up! It is time to act, to move forward. I hope that the awareness is brutal; for all of us, it is.

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, in recent years fisheries have suffered several crises that the whole of Europe has suffered, but perhaps more acutely for fisheries. I am thinking first of all of Brexit, which has called into question a certain number of accesses to waters, but also to quotas. I am obviously thinking of the COVID crisis and then, now, of this war in Ukraine which has direct impacts on the price of oil and therefore on the ability to restore economic balance. Yet the fishing sector has been there. The fishermen were valiant. They even went to sea at times that were particularly difficult. So, after the management that I would describe as calamitous of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund 2014-2020, the worst-consumed fund of all the European funds in this programming period, well, it is time, perhaps, to move a little bit on the management of its successor, the EMFAF, because fisheries no longer need to put small bandages on a hemorrhage. Fisheries need deep reforms and investments. This investment fund must indeed be structuring for a sector that is in deep need of renewal, because we are not talking here about a sector that needs economic vitality and that needs to be re-established. We are simply talking about a sector that contributes to our food sovereignty, to our food. This is not substitutable. That is why, Commissioner, we are counting on the Commission for effective implementation and, Minister, we are counting on the Member States to finally adopt the operational programmes and to manage this fund effectively and rigorously.

Mr President, Commissioner, it is free of charge. It's really renewable. It's actually decarbonized. It does not cause oil spills. There is no risk of explosion at the time of loading. It has been used for 8 000 years to transport goods and people. This highly innovative alternative fuel is – as you have understood – wind. If I tell you about the wind, you will perhaps imagine these caravels of the fifteenth century, these flutes of the sixteenth century or these junks that have been used and are still used. And yet, as my colleague Catherine Chabaud said earlier, you can go and see this exhibition just outside the hemicycle presenting projects. Projects that already offer freight transport in the same time frame, at the same speed, for the same transport and with greenhouse gas emissions and consumption gains of 45% – 45%, it is less fuel and less emissions, it is more profit, it is more investment and it is more investment also for other alternative fuels.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, 2022 is truly a year dedicated to the oceans and so this resolution is timely. It started in Brest with the One Ocean Summit, it continued in Lisbon with the United Nations conference, we can talk about Sharm el-Sheikh too, and then the COP-15 that will take place in Canada on biodiversity, all these elements that are gathered to make 2022 a great year of the ocean. And then 2022 for Europe is the European Year of Youth. I would like to take a few examples. 120 ocean ambassadors met in La Rochelle for the French presidency. They talked about the future of training, a maritime Erasmus+. I also want to talk about this excellent initiative from the European Commission, which dates back to 2020. Youth for Ocean, in the context of the EU for Ocean Coalition. Well, this initiative flourished and they were in Lisbon, these young ambassadors of this initiative, to talk to the leaders of the world. And so, as we can see, Europe is giving these young people the opportunity to take up the issue of the oceans. As 2022 is therefore a great year for the ocean, 2022 is the European Year of Youth, and I would like this resolution to be dedicated to these young people. Let us give them the key to our oceans because the oceans, like young people, are our future, the future of Europe.

Mr President, Commissioner, I was about ten years old when, in the early 1990s, I saw collapse, we saw collapse one of the last totalitarian systems of the 20th century. It is 2022 and your report reads: backsliding on the rule of law, backsliding on LGBT rights and attitudes, backsliding on women’s rights. Basically, I think that I grew up from the age of ten with the idea that it could only go towards the best. Well, that was an illusion. It was an illusion and today, when I hear some in this Chamber talk about ideology because we are on the side of those who defend respect for the rule of law, respect for differences, respect for women’s rights, I invite them to simply go to see these Polish women who have to have an abortion clandestinely or go somewhere other than Poland to do so, to go to see these young homosexuals in Poland who are growing up in villages where they are told they are not even in their place. Or I invite them to visit these European journalists who are wiretapped thanks to the Pegasus software by some governments. So, Commissioner, with you, with the European Commission, let us not give up because if we are fighting for it, I unfortunately believe that others here are fighting hard against it.

Mr President, Commissioner, we do not have the opportunity to talk so often about regional fisheries organisations in our Chamber. And so, today, of course, we are going to talk about how the decisions taken by these organisations are implemented in EU law. But what I would also like to emphasise is that we are involved in shaping these decisions. And in doing so, the European Union has a voice on what is happening in almost every sea basin in the world. Thus, our vision on sustainability and conservation can be used, applied in everyone. Precisely, RFMOs, these regional fisheries management organizations, and well their development, their support is absolutely crucial. I would like to reiterate my support for the establishment of an Arctic RFMO to sustainably implement conservation measures following the moratorium on fisheries suspension. But I would also like to say that the fight against illegal fishing requires more than these RFMOs; above all, it requires the implementation and therefore the strengthening of international coalitions against illegal fishing.

Madam President, Commissioner, this report says what we see, what I saw when I was in Poland with President Séjourné. We have seen these activists harassed by the police. We were in Hungary, in Budapest, with my colleagues Terry Reintke and Fabienne Keller, where we said no to attacks on LGBT people. This report explicitly states that these countries clearly disobey European rules. Respecting the rule of law means first and foremost respecting European rules. That is what is written in the resolution and that is what we are going to vote on. So, in my country, some people want to disobey. We used to have this message coming from the far right. But unfortunately, I see that some parties that come from groups that have always been allies here of the rule of law and European principles want to sacrifice on the altar of an electoral agreement, for a few constituencies, this beautiful principle of the rule of law and thus bring us, next year, into this report of shame.

Madam President, Commissioner, Mr President, Minister, I am going to talk to you about fishing. In a nutshell, I would simply say that the European Fisheries Control Agency has a key role to play in achieving the objectives we set ourselves here, namely the objectives of the common fisheries policy. The aim is to ensure sustainable fishing activities in the long term in economic, social and environmental terms. There was Brexit, there was the pandemic. And despite all this and the operational conditions made difficult, the Agency has been able to adapt. He's to be congratulated. It has been able to ensure the continuity of its tasks – coordination, fisheries control, surveillance of inspection missions of suspicious vessels in European waters – in order, as I said, to implement our policy. I would also like to commend the work that has been carried out by this agency, as in 2020 it chaired the tripartite cooperation with Frontex and the European Maritime Safety Agency. This is a good example of synergy between our agencies to remember, and perhaps tomorrow we could consider a single European maritime agency.

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister – you will notice that microphones work better in Strasbourg than in Brussels and that we are better off in the Strasbourg Chamber –, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, you mentioned fishing in your opening remarks, Mr Minister too. When we talk about food sovereignty, we must not forget that 70% of the seafood we consume in the European Union is imported. In other words, food sovereignty over these products is a conquest for the European Union. Why help fishermen? Why help farmers? Well, it’s very simple: every time a fisherman gives up going fishing – and this is the case at the moment: fishing vessels remain at berth because they can no longer be paid properly – every time we increase imports. When we increase imports, we will eventually target fish, seafood that could feed people elsewhere in the world. At a time when we fear rising hunger in the world, we Europeans cannot allow our fishermen to remain at berth. Fishing is at the heart of our food, and that is why we need to engage behind it.

Madam President, Commissioner, ‘everywhere in the world ... where dictatorship and disregard for human rights triumph, everywhere you will find the death penalty written in bloody characters’. I borrow these words from Robert Badinter, who had the death penalty abolished in France forty years ago. That is the real meaning of the death penalty. It stems from the purely totalitarian idea that a government disposes of its citizens to such an extent that it can take their lives. Last year, Iran took the lives of 200 of its citizens. This debate will make no sense if it is limited to a mere criticism of the Iranian regime. It must also help us to understand who we Europeans are. In the face of barbarism, we belong to a territory of humanity, where the dignity of each individual is respected; in the face of arbitrariness, a territory of justice, which has turned its bloody pages and ended with its stealthy, vengeful and shameful executions; against totalitarianism, against a continent of freedom, where one does not fear being killed for who one is, for what one thinks, for whom one loves and for what one believes in. This is what we are and this debate must remind us, and this is why we have to fight: so that one day, in turn, the Iranian people can proudly free themselves from the totalitarian yoke and live in a country of humanity, freedom and justice.

Madam President, Commissioner, when I came this afternoon, I saw on Twitter that I had been questioned by someone who said to me: "But you're going to talk about marine renewables when we've been waiting ten years for the first wind turbine that could come out of the sea in France?" That's right, whereas in Denmark, with rapporteur Morten Petersen, it's probably been 20 years since there are wind turbines that run and supply energy. Well, perhaps that is the point of this debate, the point of the excellent report that our colleague has made. The interest is to debate, to exchange, to see what works well, what has worked less well, how these fields are best achieved, how this ambition is best developed, and this, of course, with those who live by the sea. We owe it to them to take this time to make sure that the choices we make do not conflict with the way they exist, the way they live and the way they work. However, we also need to be aware that we owe it to the climate and humanity to be able to source these renewable energy sources. Here on our coasts we have tremendous potential, one of the world’s first potentials for marine renewable energy. We also owe it to the oceans, because nothing would be worse than a warming ocean.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, EUR 1 billion, at least almost EUR 1 billion for the European fisheries, aquaculture and maritime affairs sectors in 2022, is ambitious, but it is necessary. A fisheries and aquaculture sector that has been hit hard by an unprecedented health crisis and has profoundly destabilised the seafood market. A sector that has to face on a daily basis the serious consequences of a Brexit that prevents it from moving calmly towards the future. And a sector that, despite all the uncertainties, must meet the immense challenges of the European Green Deal, the necessary decarbonisation and the protection of biodiversity. And finally, a sector that will have to meet the ever-increasing expectations of European consumers regarding traceability, quality and labelling, for example. This 2022 budget marks the rise of the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund. An EMFAF that has been designed to meet all these challenges. Therefore, fisheries and aquaculture still face many challenges. Ambitious and necessary, the billion will not be too much.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it is as Chair of the Committee on Fisheries that I am surprisingly pleased with the entry into force, just over three months ago, of the agreement to ban unregulated high seas fishing in the central Arctic Ocean. In concrete terms, ten parties, including Norway, Russia and China, have agreed to ban commercial fishing and, above all, to carry out joint research projects. There is a need for international coordination because it is complex, it is slow, but it is possible and it already exists to a large extent, especially at the instigation of the countries of the European Union and the European Union itself. It is necessary to recall, for example, the ARICE project, which pools icebreakers, or Interact, which sets up research stations. We must make this observation, ladies and gentlemen: Science diplomacy is probably one of our great strengths. We can propose a model of sustainable development, obviously, so now, let's take note, let's act!

Madam President, Commissioner, I would like to thank and congratulate the rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs, particularly my colleague Catherine Chabaud and my colleague Grace O’Sullivan, for this work on Antarctica. The preservation of Antarctica is really a subject that we are dealing with here with a rather maritime – Commissioner, you are here – and environmental aspect, but it is clearly a strategic subject for us. Strategic, because in fact, as we can see, there are a number of states in the world that have a predatory attitude towards resources, a predatory attitude towards the environment, a predatory attitude towards ecosystems. All this must lead us to put ourselves in perspective with our place in the world. We have an extraordinary tool in the European Union, it is our ability to deploy this scientific research that allows us to be present and to develop, quite simply, a scientific diplomacy – a diplomacy that allows us Europeans to say: This is the future we can chart together. I believe this is what this report proposes: adaptation to the effects of climate change. This is something that is going to happen in an extremely important way. Let's use our leadership to move forward on all of this. I will simply conclude by saying that a network of marine protected areas would be both a useful tool for the European Union’s presence on this global stage, and obviously useful for the development of a respect for the environment that is so dear to our hearts.

Mr President, Commissioner, dear fellow rapporteur Grace, we know the urgency of acting for the climate, acting for our oceans – I reassure you, I am not going to talk about fishing today – for our ecosystems. Now we need concrete actions, tangible actions. I have just one minute to tell you that in the opinion of the Committee on Transport and Tourism, in which I had the pleasure of working, we raised a lever for action that was not included in the final report. I'll tell you again here: we are talking about transport, we are talking about fuel modification, we are talking about new engines, but we also need to talk about optimisation. It may seem quite innocuous like this, but finally, a truck that does not drive because it does not need to drive pollutes less. A boat that chooses a better route, a car that chooses a better route... I want to call him back here. I also know, Commissioner, how fascinated and interested you are in innovation and I think we are in the middle of it. We're going to have an ocean of data. We need to use it to optimise transport. It is also a lever that we must not neglect and forget.

Mr President, I have just heard some colleagues from the German and Italian extreme right: They left for lunch in the meantime, but I also heard a Hungarian colleague tell us the same thing. But, ladies and gentlemen, do you really want European money from the Structural Funds to come and finance schools, training centres and universities, even though you refuse to allow us to talk about topics such as homosexuality or gender? You want European money, but you don't want European values. Ladies and gentlemen, yes, we are meddling in our affairs! On this subject, since the Council is in a state of cerebral death, I address the European Commission: Madam Vice-President, will you validate partnership agreements and operational programs for regions that do not want LGBT people? For one country, Hungary, who refuses to talk about homosexuality in schools? Will you accept that European funds go to finance these projects? Well, I'll tell you: If you do, our European Parliament will take its responsibilities and go to the Court.

Mr President, 'Bleiben Sie standhaft, Herr Kommissar'. I just heard that from someone in the ID group. When someone from the ID group tells you that, there may be a small problem. It took you six months to give us the 28 pages of guidelines. Six months to ensure that, for the fourth time, we debate this subject here. Fourth time we will repeat the same thing to you. Well, we have to enforce the law. However, this regulation has been in force since 1 January 2021. He had to change everything, you just told us again. You presented it to us as a historic step proposed by the Commission – underline it –, a historic step by the European Union for the protection of the rule of law in all states. And suddenly Poland and Hungary decide to blackmail. It becomes urgent to take your time, to write guidelines, to interpret the text, to launch an exegesis of the Council’s words. The Member States have become cautious (here is the Council). The Conservatives here are playing the clock and you're temporizing. In the meantime, judges are replaced; universities are closed; LGBT people are stigmatised; the media are censored; the checks and balances are muzzled. European money is being hijacked by some – who even boast about it by paying for advertising pages throughout the European press. Enough wasted time! Enough debates! Enough resolutions! Now we're applying the law. Show European citizens that Europe is here to protect them.