What Katalin spoke about.

15

Feb

2022

EN Speech

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Corruption and human rights (continuation of debate)

Mr President, colleagues, this is my first text as a rapporteur in human rights, and I have to say I’m very proud of it. Together with my great shadow rapporteur colleagues, we managed to put together an extensive, but also ambitious, set of recommendations that draws up a clear strategy for the Council and for the external services to follow. I believe the two main strengths we have in this repor…

15

Feb

2022

EN Speech

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Corruption and human rights (debate)

Mr President, with this report an overwhelming majority of Parliament makes it clear that the European Union needs to stand up against authoritarians and the way to do this is to go after their money. This demand has never been as important as today when Vladimir Putin’s Russia is on the brink of invading Ukraine and we have to face it. Putin has spent 20 years freely stashing his money in the Wes…

14

Feb

2022

EN Speech

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Challenges for urban areas in the post-COVID-19 era (short presentation)

Madam President, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, our cities have been fighting for survival. They had no other choice but to face high rates of infection, dwindling economic activity and very rapidly exacerbating social inequalities. We have also seen them showing leadership in managing the crisis on the front lines, helping to limit the spread of the coronavirus and mitigating its impac…

19

Jan

2022

EN Speech

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Presentation of the programme of activities of the French Presidency (debate)

Madam President, the Pegasus spying scandal is the European Watergate and, Mr President, you understand this more than anyone else in this Chamber because you yourself were also targeted with the Pegasus software. So I call for your solidarity with the journalists, lawyers and politicians in Poland and Hungary who are being spied on by their own governments. Most targets in Hungary have one thing …

16

Dec

2021

EN Speech

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Forced labour in the Linglong factory and environmental protests in Serbia

Mr President, Serbia is a country that wants to join the EU, and that’s great – as long as they fulfil the accession criteria. And the last time I checked, letting China export their harrowing labour standards to Europe was not among them. What’s happening at the Linglong tyre factory in Serbia is basically institutionalised human trafficking and organised slavery, with a front seat view for us to…

16

Dec

2021

EN Speech

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An EU ban on the use of wild animals in circuses (debate)

Madam President, suffering on tour, this is what wild animals in circuses experience. Is it a life worth living? Scientists, vets and NGOs don’t think so. And, colleagues, I’m on their side. There is overwhelming evidence that wild animals in circuses are destined to a life of physical abuse and mental torture. Undercover investigations reveal cruel practices, with training often relying on fear, …

15

Dec

2021

EN Speech

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The proposed Council decision on provisional emergency measures for the external border with Belarus based on article 78(3) TFEU (continuation of debate)

Mr President, two weeks ago we travelled to the Polish-Belarus border with a group of MEP colleagues. We spent a day there talking to local communities to get first-hand information about the effects of this hybrid war, where innocent people are being used as weapons. The Belarusian dictator, Lukashenko, manufactured this crisis for his own sinister goals and, as a result, people are freezing to d…

25

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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Human rights violations by private military and security companies, particularly the Wagner Group

Madam President, dear colleagues, let me be very clear, organisations such as the Wagner Group simply should not exist and not because the Kremlin does not acknowledge their existence, I mean they should not be able to operate at all, full stop. Because a paramilitary group profiting off chaos and violence is not only immoral, it is profoundly dangerous. Acting as an extended arm of Putin, the Wag…

25

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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The International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women and the State of play on the ratification of the Istanbul Convention (continuation of debate)

Mr President, Bernadett Orosz, a mother of six from Hungary, was brutally and repeatedly beaten by her partner. Her nose got fractured, her eardrum exploded and her face was disfigured. When she asked for a restraining order, she couldn’t get one. Out of desperation, she took pictures of her injuries and posted them on social media, and then she was sued for invasion of privacy. Colleagues, Bernad…

10

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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The escalating humanitarian crisis on the EU-Belarusian border, in particular in Poland (debate)

Mr President, the Lukashenko regime is a shame to Europe. On the EU’s doorstep, civilians are brutally tortured and terrorised. Courageous democrats like Maria Kolesnikova, Siarhei Tsikhanouski and so many others are serving decades-long prison sentences. And what we see right now on the EU-Belarus border makes it crystal clear that terror and aggression never stays within a country’s borders. Luk…

19

Oct

2021

EN Speech

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EU-Taiwan political relations and cooperation (debate)

Mr President, I said this before and I will say it again: China is a bully state. Millions of brutally oppressed people in Xinjiang and Tibet stand as clear proof of this. And yet more and more in Hong Kong and Taiwan live in constant fear of China, a country with zero regard for the concept of democratic self—determination. They’re all looking at us for solutions. We must deliver and we must deli…

6

Oct

2021

EN Speech

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The state of play on the submitted RRF recovery plans awaiting approval (debate)

Mr President, in July the Commission decided to demand extra guarantees from Hungary and Poland in the fields of judicial independence and anti-corruption, and the tools and the leverage were given to us finally by the recovery fund’s clear regulation. But then several months passed, and frankly, we should be seeing results by now, particularly because both sides are very happily reporting that a …

5

Oct

2021

EN Speech

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Implementation report on the EU Trust Funds and the Facility for Refugees in Turkey (continuation of debate)

Madam President, thank you, Commissioner, dear colleagues, one of the most widespread stereotypes about our beloved Union, unfortunately, concerns our inability to be an efficient foreign policy actor on the global stage. But this should not be a given. And yes it’s true that our foreign policy toolbox is imperfect. We should not delude ourselves but, colleagues, it’s there. It exists, and it is u…

16

Sep

2021

EN Speech

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The case of human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor in UAE

Madam President, Nelson Mandela once famously said that courage is not the absence of fear but the triumph over it, and Ahmed Mansoor and the handful of human rights defenders in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) found a way, every single day, to conquer fear, knowing full well that retaliation could be imminent. Every day they devoted their lives to ensuring that fundamental rights and democratic fr…

8

Jul

2021

EN Speech

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Plans and actions to accelerate a transition to innovation without the use of animals in research, regulatory testing and education (debate)

Mr President, animals are not disposable equipment. Inflicting pain and suffering on them has no place in 21st century science. For many of us, this is an ethical and moral imperative. And we see that despite minimum standards, cruel practices still take place within the Union. Just a couple of months ago, we witnessed video footage revealing shocking levels of cruelty and animal suffering that br…

8

Jul

2021

EN Speech

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The death penalty in Saudi Arabia, notably the cases of Mustafa Hashem al-Darwish and Abdullah al-Howaiti

Mr President, imagine that your child disappears on the way back from school and all your calls for help are ignored by authorities, and then you open the newspaper to see that your child was executed, and you will never see him again. And this is not some poorly written movie plot. This is the unfathomable reality families still face across Saudi Arabia. Kids are routinely arrested, held incommun…

7

Jul

2021

EN Speech

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Breaches of EU law and of the rights of LGBTIQ citizens in Hungary as a result of the adopted legal changes in the Hungarian Parliament - The outcome of 22 June hearings under Article 7(1) of the TEU regarding Poland and Hungary (debate)

Mr President, in 2014, Hungarian gay rights activist, Milan Rozsa, climbed into the fortified Russian embassy in Budapest. He held up a rainbow flag and called out Putin’s anti-gay law and the violence unleashed by it. Milan was a friend of mine, one of the most passionate and brave people I ever knew, and a few months later, he took his own life. His tragedy sheds light on all the mental pain tha…

6

Jul

2021

EN Speech

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EU global human rights sanctions regime (EU Magnitsky Act) (debate)

Madam President, the EU Magnitsky Act was a major step, but it’s a job half—done ‒ until corruption is included as a punishable offence. All major democracies sanction corruption ‒ the US, Canada, recently the UK ‒ and only the EU is missing. This is not just a minor policy detail. We risk becoming a safe haven for dirty money. The corrupt autocrats who are fretting over the recent sanctions in th…