What Ivars spoke about.

8 Mar

2022

EN Speech

Foreign interference in all democratic processes in the EU (debate)

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Madam President, Madam Commissioner, what we are seeing right now in Ukraine makes some things crystal clear. We in Europe have always protected freedom of speech, freedom of information as our fundamental values, and at the same time we have allowed aggressive, authoritarian dictatorships to use information as a weapon against us. It is now urgent to change this approach. Europe has to engage muc…

15 Feb

2022

LV Speech

Strengthening Europe in the fight against cancer(debate)

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Dear President, Commissioner, dear Veronica, Europe must first be effective in solving problems that are important to its citizens, so I am really pleased that the European Parliament can contribute with its report to a common European cancer initiative. And this is a diagnosis that brings more than a million Europeans to the grave every year, and this figure can be significantly reduced through p…

16 Dec

2021

LV Speech

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

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Dear Madam President, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, That is, it seems to me symbolically, that we are now talking about the use of wild animals in circuses during Advent, because it is indeed first and foremost a humanity issue that we do not have the moral right to use the suffering of other living beings for our pleasures, because even after several generations in captivity, wild animals a…

13 Dec

2021

LV Speech

Combating gender-based violence: cyberviolence (continuation of debate)

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Dear Madam President, Dear Commissioner, Colleagues, Women have been the first victims of attacks on social media during the COVID pandemic. In my country, it is women – doctors and nurses, general practitioners – who tirelessly explain the importance of vaccination, and it is they who are the target of the troll attacks of various antivaxers, not only because of their scientific convictions, but …

23 Nov

2021

LV Speech

Situation in Belarus and at its border with the EU and the security and humanitarian consequences (debate)

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Dear President, Dear Commissioner, Today, there is one artificially induced migration crisis at the Belarusian border: the use of de facto new weapons against the European Union. And it is clear that Lukashenko wants to divide Europe first, but this fails to work for him, thank God. European unity is crucial here, and I am talking first of all about three things: the security of our borders is a c…

5 Oct

2021

LV Speech

State of EU cyber defence capabilities (debate)

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Dear President, Dear Commissioner, Firstly, thank you to the rapporteur for his excellent work on this document, because now cyber defence is also an opportunity for small Member States to make their solidarity-based contribution to European common defence. In contrast to classical defence, comparatively lower investment in cyber defence makes it possible to achieve significant results, and this i…

5 Oct

2021

LV Speech

The situation in Belarus after one year of protests and their violent repression (debate)

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Dear Mr President, dear Mrs Johansson, One year after the suppression of the Belarusian people's freedom and democratic aspirations, Belarus is closer to Russia's military-political patchwork and further away from its partnership with Europe than ever before. And this regime is in a state of war with its citizens. However, Lukashenka's dictatorship has made asylum seekers at the external border of…

7 Jul

2021

LV Speech

A new ERA for Research and Innovation (debate)

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Dear Mr President, Our real work must not fall behind our plans and strategies, and if we take the challenges of the European Green Deal and digitalisation seriously, research and innovation must become truly European. The European Research Area is now a framework that we all have to fill together with one real content and without waiting another 20 years for results, as has unfortunately often ha…

7 Jul

2021

EN Speech

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 (continuation of debate)

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Mr President, there is a tendency in the right-wing populist regimes to exploit the fears, the stereotypes, the insecurities of their citizens for their own short-term goals. These Kremlin-inspired anti—LGBT propaganda laws in several countries are the clearest example here, and it is spreading also during the COVID crisis in many European countries, so we have to act quickly. However, here in thi…