Speeches

Madam President, Madam Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, there are times in history when indolence becomes guilty, and criminal lightness. We are living through one of these moments, and after almost three years of working as the head of the Special Committee on Foreign Interference, today I want to share with you the dizzying conclusions we have reached. For 20 years, European leaders have shown naivety and complacency. For 20 years, they have allowed tyrants to wipe their feet on our sovereignty, and our European democracies to be the target of coordinated and sophisticated external attacks. For 20 years, they opened wide the doors of our cities to their enemies. Dear colleagues: financing of anti-EU political parties, cyber-attacks, disinformation campaigns, corruption of elites. The hybrid war that hostile regimes have launched against our democracies and that our leaders have so long refused to see, takes different forms. She has different faces. It sometimes takes on our phones, on our social networks, the face of a troll or a bot, raised in the farms of Evgeny Prigozhin in St Petersburg. Our committee's observation is relentless. Information manipulation campaigns are a weapon of mass democratic destruction. Private actors driven by the lure of gain, such as the Israeli company Team Jorge, and dictatorships driven by the visceral hatred of our democracies, such as China or Russia, aim to affect voter choice, amplify polemics, divide, exploit the vulnerabilities of our open societies and encourage hate speech in our countries. Everything that polarizes our debate, maintains an atmosphere of confusion and civil war on our networks, everything that undermines trust in our institutions responds to their strategy. The information chaos in which we now operate is a boon to tyrants, and a deadly poison to Democrats, as is corruption. Colleagues, the corruption of the elites always precipitates the downfall of cities, and we have consented to the poison of corruption being distilled to the top of our states. How have we been able to accept for so long that so many heads of government, ministers, senior officials go to work for Russian or Chinese interests? How, for example, has German democracy been able to tolerate Gerhard Schröder leaving to work for Gazprom in this way, only a few weeks after the end of a chancellery marked by strategic choices, of which his future employer would be the main beneficiary? How have the democracies of France, Austria, Belgium and so many other European countries that pride themselves on having a democratic system, been able to accept ministers working for Gazprom or for other companies that are part of the Putin system? And how do they accept today that so many ministers are going to work for Chinese interests? Our ruling classes must no longer be the supermarkets in which autocratic regimes quietly come to shop. This is not about morality, but about safeguarding our vital interests. Colleagues, the betrayal of our nations and democracies also takes on the face of far-right demagogues willing to sell themselves to the enemy. And funding is transformed into enslavement when it comes to European political parties responding to an externally imposed strategy. This is particularly the case for Marine Le Pen, who, until recently in the National Assembly, espoused the strategic vision of a regime to which her party still owes millions of euros. Colleagues, the elections will be held in 2024 in a context of war in Europe and we must defend their integrity. We are counting on the Commission to organise this defence now. I would therefore like to address you, Madam Vice-President: What are your concrete plans to effectively combat information manipulation during the campaign? How will the Commission ensure that new initiatives, such as the Defence of Democracy Package, are effective in the coming months and ensure the integrity of the electoral campaign? How will the Commission ensure that digital players, especially very large platforms, finally comply with our requirements and rules? How will the Commission ensure a high level of cybersecurity for all institutions involved in the elections? How will the Commission consider coordinating with Member State governments to ensure that these elections are protected? These elections will follow our mandate shaken by external interference, whether related to the COVID-19 pandemic or the brutal return of war to our continent, or even Qatargate. The challenge is crucial. We must show that democracy no longer rhymes with weakness and that Europe no longer rhymes with impotence. This is the whole meaning of the work we have done together in a cross-party manner, with the Special Committee on Foreign Interference since its establishment in September 2020. We are counting on you, we are counting on the Commission, we are counting on the Member States, but we are also counting on ourselves to protect our democracies. This is the most sacred mission of a parliamentarian: protect this house that allows us to express our differences, protect it from regimes that suppress their freedoms and intend to abuse them at home. Colleagues, we are strong and we will be powerful if we decide to be. The time has come to decide to do so.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, this letter was found in the box of this pregnancy test: The appeal for help from a Chinese prisoner forced to manufacture products that are then sold in a pharmacy in Paris. This is where the pyramid of irresponsibility, globalisation, leads. This is where a rules-free world leads in which those who have the most power also have the least responsibility. The world of Zara, Shein or Nike. Now is the time to turn the page on impunity for the most powerful. The time has come to hold multinationals accountable for environmental destruction and human rights violations in their value chains. The time has come to prevent them from hiding behind their suppliers, subcontractors or subsidiaries. This due diligence legislation is a major legal revolution. Attempting to weaken it, or even rejecting it, is contrary to our principles, but also to our interests. All of us, ladies and gentlemen, will have to answer for our vote.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, yesterday was a dark day for the French Republic and for all European humanists. Yesterday, the mayor of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins, Yannick Morez, was forced to resign after months of death threats against him and his family. Months of harassment by the far right. After seeing his car and house burn in the middle of the night while he slept with his wife. What is the crime committed by Yannick Morez in the eyes of the agents of hatred and chaos? His only crime was accepting the establishment of a reception centre in his commune for asylum seekers. To have respected our right and our principles. Yesterday, yesterday, hatred gained in France and Europe. So it is time today to recall that we are committed to the humanist law and principles that underpin the construction of Europe. It is time to stand up, stand up in honor of Yannick Morez, stand up for the right and show that hatred will not win in Europe!

Mr President, Mr High Representative, the Chinese Communist Party keeps the Uyghurs in concentration camps. The French National Assembly denounces a genocide and so does this parliament, but apparently that does not count. Xi Jinping's regime is cracking down on the people of Hong Kong and Tibet, attacking and threatening Taiwanese democracy, deploying secret police offices in our own cities, and launching cyberattacks against our institutions and infrastructure. But apparently that doesn't matter. This does not count in the eyes of a French president who reproduces in Beijing the same mistakes we made in Moscow in the past. Why? Because we would need China. So let me remind you that for twenty years we have been told exactly the same thing about Putin's Russia. We sacrificed Chechens, Georgians, Syrians, Ukrainians, their rights and our principles, because we needed Russia. And today, what do we have? We have war in Europe. So let's not repeat the same mistake. This is not moral but realism. The indolence of our policies and the greed of our capitalists led to the relocation of our production to China. We sold an ideological adversary the rope to hang us. It is time to become self-sufficient producers again and have the courage to assume who we are and aspire to be.

Well actually that’s not the name I would have picked, because in France, if I’m quoting my country – sometimes it does things right – it’s called the high authority on the transparency of public life, which I think is better because we should not put it on the moral ground. It’s a question of the survival of democracy. It’s a political issue, and it’s a legal issue. It’s not a moral issue. I don’t care if you are not moral. What I care is that you respect the rules and you respect the trust of the people who voted for you and sent you in these institutions. So if I were to write it, I would call it the high authority on the transparency of public life.

Mr President, Madam Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, it will therefore have taken bags of cash and bundles of banknotes hidden under diapers for things to finally move. Why did you wait so long? The creation of this independent body to monitor European public life was voted on here in 2021. Now is the time to act, and it will be even more time to act when media attention has shifted to something else. Let us immediately create this ethical authority capable of tackling conflicts of interest, revolving doors and the colonisation of public space by private interests. Let us extend the authority of this body to Commissioners, MEPs, all staff working for the institutions, before, after and during – of course – their mandate or service. Let us give it supervisory functions and a right of investigation, the decisions of which will be binding. And let’s not be afraid: Let us also entrust him with a power of sanction. The credibility of our institutions is at stake. The fight against corruption is not about morality: it is a question of survival for our democracies, a question of sovereignty for the European Union. Today, how are we seen in Doha, Moscow, Beijing? We are seen as people to buy, to corrupt. It is therefore not simply because we want to moralise public life that we want this body. This is because we want to defend the sovereignty of European citizens and affirm that Europe, by defending its principles, is also faithful to its vital interests. (The speaker agreed to reply to a blue card intervention)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Maria Lebed was fifteen years old and had a life ahead of her. She lived in a peaceful area of Dnipro with no military objective nearby. She died on Saturday in the infamous bombing of Dnipro. Why? Because Putin and his minions are terrorists and make their war a war of terror. Civilians, for them, are targets, in Ukraine as yesterday in Chechnya or Syria. Colleagues, for almost a year now, Ukrainians have been resisting fascism and we support them in this struggle, which is also ours. Because yes, the European Union is indeed the target of the Russian regime. But is our support commensurate with the peril and the stakes? Why these procrastinations at each stage? Why have you hesitated for so long to provide the necessary air defense requested by Kiev since February 24, 2022? Why is there so much hesitation today about sending tanks? There are hundreds of Leopard 2 tanks in Europe that could change the situation on the ground: 376 in Germany, 353 in Greece, 327 in Spain, 247 in Poland, 200 in Finland. You know as well as I do that we will eventually deliver some. Then why wait? Every day of loss counts in human lives in Ukraine. We said that Putin’s defeat was our strategic goal, that it was our vital interest. Then it is finally time to act accordingly.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, this is a nausea story. This is the story of so-called left-wing men and women who betrayed all our principles for cash bags. But it is not just an individual story. This is the story of states like Qatar or Morocco, but also Russia or China that see our political class as a market in which they can come and shop. This is the story of democratic institutions like ours that did not know, did not want to defend themselves against the corrosive power of money. Colleagues, we have been sounding the alarm with the Commission about foreign interference for two years now. The time has come to act, to make the Transparency Register mandatory for Members and their teams, to create a European ethics body with significant oversight and sanctions, to ensure that every person who detects illegal or inappropriate activity has the status of whistleblower, to prevent conflicts of interest and revolving doors that turn elected officials into lobbyists and vice versa. The time has come to show that our democracies are not for sale. To fight widespread suspicion and the "all rotten", stigmatizing populism will not be enough. Corruption must be tackled. We want to defend democracy against its enemies. So let's start by cleaning the stables.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, you have all seen these unbearable images of a terrorist claiming the acts of terror of his army with a glass of champagne in his hand. Vladimir Putin is a terrorist, and he pushes the cynicism of Daesh's communication style to an unparalleled degree. Unable to militarily defeat the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people, he decided to destroy the country's civilian infrastructure, terrorize its population and freeze it. Faced with this, we must stop our procrastination. We knew from the beginning that Ukrainians would need efficient air defense systems. We knew from the beginning that we would end up giving away these defense systems. So, let's not waste any more time. The time we waste here is paid for in human lives in Ukraine. Our objective must be clear: defeating the Russian terrorist machine and giving Ukraine the victory it deserves, which is also Europe’s victory. Slava Ukraini, Slava Evropi!

The fact is that today we are – if we want it or if we don’t want it – connected to this crackdown. How? Through the value chain of our companies. Through the export of the goods produced by forced labour. For instance, if you take things that we need most of all now for the Green Deal, which are solar panels, yes? How are they produced? They are produced by Uyghur slaves. And why? Because we don’t produce them ourselves. So that’s why it’s so important to change, to change the rules of the game so that we can have a market that is free from these goods. If we don’t do it, it means we are collaborating with the repression and the crackdown. That is also why we need these resolutions to point the finger when it hurts, where it hurts, and when we want them to be hurt.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, freedom has no nationality or continent. At the very heart of the world's greatest dictatorship, thousands of citizens have had the courage to defend their fundamental and universal rights. In this first great wave of solidarity of the Han Chinese towards the Uighurs, martyred by the regime, we can read what the Czech philosopher Patočka called "solidarity of the shaken". That is courage. This is the love of freedom. What are we doing? We accept Chinese regime police stations on our territory. We accept that the products of slavery are pouring into our markets. We accept that our multinationals are making an insane amount of money with the Chinese communist regime. We bow our heads when we talk to Xi Jinping. So we must learn from the courage of those who took to the streets of Shanghai. And now I will continue in English to conclude, to say that it is not because corrupt regimes, autocratic regimes, are corrupting some Members and are trying to destabilise our institutions that we should stop having condemning corrupting and authoritarian regimes. On the contrary, the more Qatar, Russia and China will start corrupting us, the more we will criticise them. And that is our response to them. (The speaker agreed to respond to a blue-card speech)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, will we be able to preserve the jewels we have inherited? Will we be able to draw from ourselves the strength to defend democracy and European integration? Or are we going to let corruption and indolence lead our cities to ruin? Corruption is not just suitcases of banknotes. It is more broadly the erasure of the general interest before particular interests, the triumph of comfort over virtue, the victory of habits over courage. Cradled by the myth of the end of history, convinced of no longer having an enemy, some of the inescapability of liberal democracy, our elites have for too long let their guard down. However, when the guards of the city dozed off, the corrupt sold the keys to the house and the enemies seized them. With the Special Committee on Foreign Interference, we have been sounding the alarm for more than two years. Now is the time to take our collective sweep and clean the Augias stables. Colleagues, in one month and two plenary sessions, you have seen the materialisation of everything we denounce and analyse since the beginning of our work. At the end of November, our Parliament was the target of Russian hackers. Now it's Qatar's ticket suitcases. We must show that our political scene is not a market in which Doha, Baku, Moscow or Beijing can shop. These men and women who have been in power in the EU and put themselves at the service of foreign tyrannies are traitors. How could this be tolerated? How could it be tolerated, for example, that those who have decided on the German energy policy, so favorable to Russia, then sell themselves to Gazprom? How could it be accepted that so many of our heads of state or government, ministers and deputies, from all countries and parties, have their pensions paid for by the Putin regime? What about all those former European politicians who are now serving Chinese interests? What about all these high-paying conferences in Doha, or these consulting activities in Baku? This is not about morality, it is about politics. I'm not talking about big principles, I'm talking about flouted sovereignty. Commissioner, our oral question was written before the scandal that shook us, but it resonates terribly with current events. On 14 September, in this forum, the President of the Commission announced the adoption of a Pact for the Defence of Democracy. The aim, she said, is to shed light on foreign influence and obscure funding. I continue to quote Mrs von der Leyen: “We will not let the Trojans of autocracies attack our democracies from within.” This is the heart of the matter. European Trojans from autocracies must be put out of harm's way. So we want to know more about the content of this initiative and its timeline. In the hybrid war against the EU, how will this pact provide us with effective weapons to protect our democracies from all forms of foreign interference, from funding political activities to information manipulation campaigns or hostile investments in our strategic sectors? In her speech, the President of the Commission solemnly promised to eradicate corruption within the EU. How will the announced strengthening of the anti-corruption rules be linked to this pact for the defence of democracy? Will the promised new rules take into account the case of all these European leaders who have gone to serve the interests of foreign powers? As you know, on 16 September 2021, this Parliament adopted a resolution calling for the creation of an independent European ethics body. What about this request? Time is running out. We all know: in the fight against corruption and foreign interference, we have no right to weakness or procrastination. Every bold step will therefore find determined support here. Every break with past or present indolence will find fervent support. Together, we must show that democracy, when it wakes up and stops sleeping, is beautiful and powerful.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, hugged by shame, filled with anger, aware that citizens demand that we be firm and intransigent, we must act quickly. "Today is the time to get rid of old burdens that have become cumbersome": These words of Altiero Spinelli should serve as a compass. The old burdens of carelessness, indolence, the culture of impunity and the ethos of compromise must now be removed. It is now time to make a quick decision. We need a committee of inquiry. There is a need to establish a high authority for the transparency of public life at European level and a European rule on the capture of elites by foreign regimes. However, imposing new rules will not be enough. What we need today is the courage, the courage to face the lobbies that penetrate our institutions, the courage to counter these foreign regimes – Qatari, Russian or even Chinese – that make their market at home. For two years now, together with the members of the INGE special committee, which I chair, we have been trying to warn about interference and corruption. Well, now is the time to send a message to the world: European democracies are not for sale.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, one leader is fighting for diamonds, the other is fighting for luxury, the third is fighting for uranium. There are enough of these negotiations of carpet dealers, of heads of government who act in VRP of private sectors. It weakens our democracies, it weakens our sanctions. When war rages, it is vital for the city that the public interest again takes precedence over private interests. So how can we accept that large European groups continue to make money with the Russian regime? How can we tolerate, for example, that Total derives astronomical profits from its shares in Novatek, a supplier of kerosene to the planes of Vladimir Putin’s terrorist army? Winter is coming and the necessary sacrifices will only be made if they are just. So the message to European leaders in the Council is clear: cap gas prices. Tax the super-profits. Attack the war profiteers. Fill the holes in the sanctions. Show that politics has taken over. Only then will the European Union have honoured its rendezvous with history.

Mr President, very good question. Thank you for your response. I like it very much. It has been fun, by the way. My second question is: of course the era of naivety is over, but how do you react when you learn that the German head of cybersecurity is actually working with Russian interests? When will we have a total clean—up of our institutions that are supposed to protect and guarantee our security?

Thank you. And hello, Vice-President. I have a question on the attacks, but you already responded. My question will be, therefore, on money. I mean, how can you tell us that what happened with Germany and the strategic gas storage owned by Gazprom cannot happen anymore? And what do we do about Huawei investments, for instance, in critical infrastructure? Is there any plan to actually address the fact that such kind of companies cannot have any say in our infrastructure? And second point, what’s inside this defence of democracy package that President of the Commission came and announced in front of the Parliament? We were all very happy about it. But what will you put in it that would make sure that infrastructure that is critical for democracies – like, for instance, the Belgian Parliament which could not actually have a debate on Uyghurs – will not be attacked anymore? What kind of sanctions, what kind of protection?

Mr President, Mr Vice-President, finally, finally, we are starting to put things right and stop confusing the end with the means. Because yes, trade is a means and not an end. It must serve a greater purpose than it, starting with sustainable development. The Commission seems to have partially heard the message we are trying to convey and we will therefore be able to sanction tomorrow the violation of the Paris Agreement or of social rights by our trading partners. You're not meeting your emissions reduction commitments, you're violating trade union freedoms, we're reintroducing tariffs. Putting our market power at the service of our principles and strategic interests is the way forward. This approach must now prevail in all ongoing negotiations and in all agreements already negotiated. But we must go further, for example by inserting mirror clauses in all our agreements to promote the adoption of our agricultural standards, to put an end to unfair competition and to anchor our professions of ecological faith in practice. A break with 40 years of laissez-faire, laissez-passer is sketched. It is only the beginning, ladies and gentlemen, for us to transform the Union and its market into a global normative power.

Mr President, Mr Vice-President, Mr Minister, ladies and gentlemen, they call themselves patriots and serve a foreign tyrant. They call themselves truth seekers and relay the crudest fake news. They claim Orwell and empty the words of their substance, abolish the principle of non-contradiction. They are Putin's digital, political, and media proxies. They're not in Kherson or Donetsk. No, they're in their living room or on our TV sets. But they too are participating in the Russian war effort by denying his crimes and relaying his lies. They are often far-right, like Matteo Salvini or Marine Le Pen, but not always. They sometimes also come from the left, like Ségolène Royal, or from the right like Silvio Berlusconi. In peacetime, they are useful liars or idiots. In times of war, they are accomplices of the enemy. Colleagues, let us finally make it clear that this war did not start on 24 February 2022 and is not limited to the borders of Ukraine. This war is not just about Kiev, Kharkiv or Kherson. This so-called hybrid war targets our democracies. For many years, the Russian regime has been waging a hybrid war against our democracies by playing on their vulnerability, seeking on the one hand to weaken their immune defenses through the corruption of their elites and on the other to plunge them into chaos by supporting populists and plotters. In the Special Committee on Foreign Interference, which I have the honour to chair, we have analysed and dissected this war, which our leaders have long refused to see. This war abolishes the differences between the virtual and the real, inside and outside, foreign policy and domestic policy. It is time to rise to the level of peril facing us. While the EU estimated, before the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian funding of disinformation at EUR 1 billion and the human resources mobilised at more than a thousand full-time, the Union currently has only a budget of EUR 11 million and 41 agents to respond to this threat. We need to invest massively in the day before, the detection, the response to the attacks coming from Russia. Let us take the President of the Commission at her word before Parliament. We will not let any Trojan horse launched by an autocracy attack our democracies from within. We need to act now. We have no choice. We have no right to offer Putin the victory at home that the Ukrainians deny him at home. The issue is not just Ukraine's freedom, it's ours.

Madam President, Madam Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced yesterday here a great pact for the defence of democracy. This is what we have been calling for in the Special Committee on Foreign Interference for a long time now. It is urgent to take the measure of peril and strengthen our democracies. This text participates in it. European political parties and foundations are key players in our democratic life and as such, I am pleased that the revision of their statute and funding aims to ensure their better visibility, simplify administrative procedures and facilitate their participation in certain national campaigns. Nevertheless, I would like to alert you to a specific point: the possibility of funding through contributions from Council of Europe member countries is problematic. It puts the European Union in a position of dependence on other institutions and sends a dangerous signal to the Member States to which we call for a revision of their electoral law in order to ban foreign funding of political life. So be careful and alert.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, remember the Mariupol theatre in front of which the locals had written the word ‘’ (‘Children’), hoping for a hint of humanity on the part of their tormentors. Remember that the Russian army bombed anyway. Keep in mind that Ukrainian children are therefore targets of the Russian war, as were Syrian children yesterday and Chechen children the day before yesterday. Keep in mind that tens and tens of thousands of Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia and many of them have been forcibly adopted to be russified. And then you will understand that Putin is not just a dangerous and tough autocrat, he is a criminal against humanity. That his war is not merely a war, but an attempt to annihilate a nation. May all European politicians or commentators who relay his propaganda here be complicit in his crimes. And that there is a place for him before an international criminal court, in a cell, and a place for them, his European servants, in the trash cans of history.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, dare to keep your head up when everything pushes you to bow your back: that is courage. Cardinal Zen, 90, is now the face and name of human dignity, and with him Jimmy Lai, Joshua Wong and hundreds more. In Hong Kong, the list of political prisoners is growing every day, cells are full and puppet trials follow one another. Collusion with a foreign power, incitement to subversion, apology for terrorism, conspiracy to distribute a seditious publication: Beijing criminalizes any desire for freedom. The Chinese Communist Party intends to build the world's first hub for banking and financial services in Hong Kong. It does so on the cemetery of the democratic hopes of a people. Our own financial markets, our banks, our multinationals act as accomplices. It is time to put an end to these complicities, to support the Hong Kong Democrats, including by sending observers to each of their trials, and to echo in this forum their slogan: Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times.

Madam President, Madam Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, in the Special Committee on Interference, which I have the honour to chair, we have been working for two years on the ‘how’. Now is the time to ask the question of ‘why’. Why is Vladimir Putin sponsoring far-right movements across Europe? Why do its networks support both anti-Western pan-Africanists and Western white supremacists, the most radical Catalan separatists and the most virulent Spanish nationalists? Why are Kadyrov’s militias, which exalt jihad against Europe, supported in the same way as the most anti-Muslim movements in the very heart of our cities? Why these apparent contradictions? Why do Russian propaganda channels film any incident in our countries as if it were the beginning of a civil war? Why is the Kremlin using the wheat weapon to raise the spectre of famine in Africa? Why are Russian hackers attacking our hospitals in the midst of a pandemic? Answering these questions is vital. We are engaged in spite of ourselves in a confrontation that will be long and brutal. And to understand the opponent’s ambition and strategy, we need to get out of ourselves, give up the clichés about the chess player and stop believing that our enemies reason in the same way as we do. We would have been less surprised by the return of the war to European soil if we had read, listened to, analyzed the texts and speeches of the Russian leaders for 20 years. We would have understood then that they feel they are engaged in a fight to the death against our democracies. We would have been less surprised if we had carefully read the stories of Mr. Sourkov, for example, Putin's polytechnologist, long in charge of his Ukrainian policy, and in particular his new "No Sky": it is the story of a people whose sky has literally fallen, who live in the forest and who dream of taking revenge on the inhabitants of the neighbouring city – a clear metaphor for the European Union – not to enjoy its wealth, but to plunge it into chaos. Yes, the strategy put in place by Putin, Surkov and the Russian leaders has a name: this is the strategy of chaos. Regardless of losses and contradictions, what matters is spreading the disorder. Putin's bet is simple: We will not be able to live in chaos and we will give in. So let’s stop dreaming of a return to reason and get ready for the coming winter. There will be no peace, ladies and gentlemen, until the engineers of chaos are defeated.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, a crime against humanity has haunted our cabinets and our shops for too many years. The deportation and enslavement of the Uyghur people. When you buy a Zara shirt or a pair of Nikes, you may find yourself unknowingly, unwittingly, bound to the Chinese concentration system. Why? Because there is no law in Europe, no instrument to prevent the import of the products of forced labour. Because our market is open to the four winds and nothing comes to frustrate the greed of multinationals willing to do anything to free up their huge margins and pay their delusional dividends. The time has come to turn the page on irresponsibility and impunity for good. On this day, we, the representatives of the citizens of Europe, send a clear message to the most greedy exploiters. You will now have to follow rules. This vote is the result of several years of mobilization. It was made possible by the courage of hundreds of thousands of European citizens. The requirement that these young people from France and elsewhere have formulated for us is simple, basic: Let us dress, move, call without being complicit in crimes. Dare, dare to face lobbies and tyrants. Finally, be worthy of the mission we have entrusted to you. Our resolution, so widely supported, draws a simple and effective instrument to banish the products of slavery from the European market. Next day, the customs officers of Le Havre or Rotterdam will seize cargo ships from China or elsewhere and block the products of forced labour before they arrive in our stores and in our cabinets. To this day, we will not let go. We will be worthy of our mission. And finally, finally, we will dare to face the greed of these multinationals who think they can enjoy an endless world without rules.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, one day we all wondered what we would have done in the Europe of camps in 1942 or in the USSR of the gulag in 1947. These questions, bequeathed by history, cannot be answered. But there are other questions that we can and must answer. What are we doing today in the face of the camps of our time? What are we doing in the face of the deportation of the Uyghur people? What do we do with the "Xinjiang Police Files" and the thousands of faces of victims emerging from the concentrated darkness? What are we doing in the eyes of Rahile Omer, a young girl as young as 15 years old who was locked up and tortured in a Chinese camp? The time has come for us to respond, to break the silence that allows crime, and to finally name evil, as this resolution does: slavery, crimes against humanity, serious risk of genocide. To say, therefore, and to act, by punishing those most responsible for the crime, by banishing from our markets the products of the enslavement of a people. History looks at us and judges us. Finally, let us live up to the principles we claim to uphold.

Mr President, Commissioner. Systematic rapes, civilians tied up and shot dead in the street, torture, hospitals and schools razed... The strategy of terror of Russian soldiers in Ukraine is limitless. Why would he get in the way? Impunity has existed for 20 years: impunity for crimes committed in Chechnya, impunity for crimes committed in Syria, impunity for crimes committed in Russia itself, impunity for crimes committed in Georgia. Impunity has turned the massacres of the Russian army into a norm. It is time to break this impunity, to end this impunity. Justice is not just what we owe to victims: It’s about preventing the crimes of tomorrow. And so it also means preventing the temptation – which is emerging in some capitals – to consider a return to business as usual after the war. We do not talk, we do not pretend, we do not ally ourselves with war criminals and criminals against humanity. Vladimir Putin's place is in court, not in Brégançon.