Speeches

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, you are too ugly. We'll let you live so you can tell everyone. That's what Putin's welders told a 17-year-old girl, after raping her mother and 15-year-old sister in front of her for days and nights and beating them to death. Why did her tormentors let her live to speak? Because systematic rape of Ukrainian women is not just barbaric, it is a strategy of terror. It does not just satisfy the abject impulse of the warrior, it is the war itself in the eyes of these fascists. Rape of women has been at the heart of Putin's terror since Chechnya for 20 years. Humiliate, desecrate, defile the bodies of women to break the resistance of a people, break Ukraine by raping Ukrainian women. When we went to Bucha, we saw, we heard and we made a promise: make every effort to ensure that justice is done. The tormentors must pay and the mechanisms for documenting and collecting testimonies must be systematized. We also call for clinical and psychological support programmes to be set up by the EU, as rape continues in the infinite suffering of the victim. Finally, while a very large number of Ukrainian refugees are being welcomed by Poland, the Commission must ensure that victims have access to all their fundamental rights, including abortion. Colleagues, Ukrainian women are now targets, they are also at the heart of the resistance. And I want to conclude by echoing the words of Ludmila, whom I met in Irpin and who commands a battalion of volunteers, today on the Eastern Front: “We need doctors, judges, refugees, listening, solidarity, but above all we need weapons to defend ourselves.” So that the executioners do not win, the first thing to do is to help those who resist them.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Halal bodies. The first time I heard this expression in the mouth of a Uighur doctor forced to participate in forced organ harvesting from shotguns, I did not understand. He told me: Wealthy clients in the Gulf are asking for halal organs. They are then taken from Muslim deportees. This is the law of supply and demand”. That was in 2020. I asked him to repeat this sentence ten times, as the horror seems inconceivable. Yet testimonies and investigations call into question a system of organ trafficking. The forced harvests first targeted Falun Gong, then prisoners of conscience, and it is now the Uighurs who are the victims. Everything is bought and sold in the country of the Communist Party of China. The buyers would come from North America, the Middle East and Europe. We need to highlight this crime against humanity. We therefore demand full transparency from the Chinese authorities. We demand an end to transplant tourism, to reassess any hospital cooperation with Chinese institutions and to punish those responsible for this trafficking. In the face of such crimes, everyone must choose his side. Mine will always be that of prisoners of conscience and Uighur deportees.

Madam President, Madam Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, Bucha's lying bodies, Mariupol's martyrdom, women raped, children tortured, civilians executed: This is the true face of Putinism. The face of an evil that, for 20 years, our leaders have not wanted to see, name and fight at our borders and at the very heart of our cities. Today, the war in Ukraine forces us to open our eyes. The moment is so serious and so decisive that it would be suicidal to hide the truth. And the truth is that European political forces have for years chosen the camp of a regime that has set itself the task of weakening, destabilising and undermining our democracies. The truth is that a far-right international has found in Putin his boss, his financier and his model. The truth is that French, Austrian and German political leaders, who spend their time teaching patriotic lessons, have chosen to serve a foreign tyrant, hostile to the principles and interests of our nations and of Europe as a whole. The truth is that we have all too often bowed our heads in the face of these cheap patriots and now we have to look them in the eye and face them relentlessly. The truth, ladies and gentlemen, is that in France, a presidential candidate owes millions of euros to oligarchs close to the Kremlin and that she is obligated by the enemies of European democracy. Yes, the truth is that Marine Le Pen sold herself to Vladimir Putin a long time ago and she can, perhaps tomorrow, become President of France. This truth, no sleight of hand should make her forget. In the aftermath of the invasion, the National Rally attempted to remove 1.2 million leaflets. Why? Because they contained a photo showing her, all smiling, shaking hands with Vladimir Putin. But there are other photos. There are hugs with Rogozine, there are hugs with Narychkin. Yes, you know, Naryshkin, the head of the SVR - the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service - who was humiliated by the Tsar in this surreal scene shortly before the war. This is the man who has been directly managing the Le Pen family, aunt or niece, for the Kremlin for over a decade. And we no longer count, around the Le Pen, the servants of Russian interests, those who have passed in this chamber, those who are still there, Messrs Schaffhauser, Chauprade, Mariani, Lebreton. These close ties with Moscow are by no means a French specificity. They are found in all European far-right parties – AfD, Lega, FPÖ, Vox –: No wonder these so-called sovereignists never had a word to condemn the Russian attacks on our sovereignty. Not a word to denounce the cyberattacks against our hospitals in the midst of the pandemic. Not a word to condemn the murders of opponents on our soil by the Russian services. Not a word to stigmatize Wagner's mercenary attacks on France on the European continent. The foreign party, as they say, is them. The collabos, as they say, are them. Do not be surprised, it is a tradition. Joseph de Maistre once published his counter-revolutionary burners from St. Petersburg, and the accursed of the French collaboration would dissert on Jewish France at Sigmaringen. Whether in Russian or German, our extreme right always speaks the same foreign language to democracy, that of the autocrats. Colleagues, sometimes the truth is painful, but we have no choice but to say it to the end. To be credible in our fight against Putin and his European affiliates, we must also clean up our own ranks, left and right. The Social Democrats have Gerhard Schröder, the Conservatives, François Fillon, the Liberals Esko Aho. But nowhere but on the far right has this corruption become a political and ideological project. Then we can't let go anymore. Our states and institutions must urgently ban foreign funding and anonymous donations to political parties and foundations; to impose full transparency on the funding of NGOs and associations that feed the public debate; to highlight and break the ties between the Russian oligarchs sanctioned by the European Union and European politicians. Our democracies have too long sinned out of weakness, laziness, indolence, corruption. Barring Putin’s path in Ukraine and that of his valets in our own countries is one and the same fight. The fight for freedom and democracy in Europe, I do not see today any more sacred or urgent. Let's take it together to the end.

Mr President, Mr High Representative, ladies and gentlemen, we have not received the slightest support from Beijing against the invasion of Ukraine. But how could it have been otherwise? Why, then, would a regime that parches Uyghurs in camps, intends to vassalize its neighbors and sees us as strategic adversaries help us stop a regime that massacres Ukrainians, intends to vassalize its neighbors and sees us as strategic adversaries? Ideas matter, and so does the nature of political systems. So, it is time to assume the balance of power imposed on us: to no longer depend on Russian energy, therefore, but also to no longer depend as much on the Chinese productive apparatus; time to stop being destabilized, attacked or bought without reacting; time to remind our elites of the minimum duty of loyalty they owe to our countries and institutions; time to alert our former leaders who have gone to serve Huawei that they will sooner or later experience the opprobrium of those who have gone to serve Gazprom. In the face of Putin or Xi Jinping, our principles and strategic interests come together, they do not oppose each other. And the best way to deter China from one day invading Taiwan, well, is to lose Putin in Ukraine.

Madam President, Mr High Representative, the future of Europe is decided in the ruins of Mariupol and Kharkiv, in the streets of Kiev and Odessa. If we do not arrest Putin in Ukraine, we will no longer have peace on our continent. Then we will not intervene militarily, but we can do much more than we do today. Every day, we fund the war machine razing towns and villages with more than €600 million. Every day, our gas and oil imports destroy schools and hospitals. Then it is time to put an end to it. Yes, this decision will cost our nations, but our states have the means to cope, to help households, to put the energy giants to work. The ‘whatever it costs’ of the pandemic is for peace and freedom in Europe. If the price of inaction is high, the price of action, well, we can raise it. Ladies and gentlemen, politics, at the end of the day, is this question: know what price a city is willing to pay for its freedom and sovereignty. The future of Ukraine, but also the future of Europe, depends on our collective response to this issue.

Madam Vice-President, Madam Minister, Mr High Representative, allow me first of all to welcome and thank the work of the rapporteur Kalniete and all the members of the committee whom I have had the honour of chairing for 18 months. We have shown that the defence of democracy is not left-wing or right-wing and transcends all political divides. Colleagues, for 20 years, bottled up in the myth of the end of history, convinced that they no longer have enemies, the European elites have shown a confounding naivety. They did not see, they did not want to see what Putin was doing on our doorstep, in Chechnya, Georgia, Ukraine. Even more incredible, these same intellectual, political and cultural elites did not see, did not want to see these attacks even within our nations, at the heart of the European Union. There are times in history when indolence confines itself to treason. That is why, on the first day of this mandate, we called for the creation of this special committee on foreign interference in our democracies. Democracy is our common treasure and it is under attack today. For 18 months, from hearing to hearing, from study to study, we have analysed all the forms of these attacks: financing of political parties hostile to the European Union and present here, cyber-attacks, disinformation campaigns, investment in strategic infrastructure, capture of elites and espionage, etc. These attacks are not episodic. They are systematic and plunge us into an in-between. We are not at war, but we are no longer at peace either. They blur all the boundaries that have hitherto shaped our thinking. There is no longer a separation between foreign policy and domestic policy, between inside and outside. The conflict that we wanted to flee so much is everywhere and we have no choice but to take it on board. Our responsibility is immense and the mental revolution that is needed is enormous. I therefore call on the Commission to immediately address the recommendations made in this report: Let’s harmonise electoral laws and ban foreign funding for political parties and parties, track down nominee citizens and shell companies, invest heavily in our cybersecurity and punish much harder the states that coordinate attacks against our institutions, impose responsibilities on digital platforms, build a sustainable system to protect the European information space. Let's do it fast. And above all, let's track down this corruption that has undermined our cities. How could we tolerate our ministers, our heads of government, going to work for Russian and Chinese interests? How could it be tolerated, for example, that, from Gerhard Schroeder to Marion Scheller, those who have decided on German energy policy for years become employees of Gazprom? It is time to restore to our democracies the strength and virtue without which we will perish.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Elina was 20 at the end of 2013. A philosophy student, she was one of the first to take to the streets, with a European flag in her hands, to launch the revolution. Andrei was 25, and he was a DJ. I saw him, at the beginning of 2014, with an iron shield attached to his arm, facing the bullets of the snipers. Want to be free, aspire to join the family of European democracies: this is the only crime of Elina and Andrei, this is the only crime of the Ukrainian people, this is why Crimea was annexed and Donbass occupied, this is why 130 000 Russian soldiers are currently being massed at the borders and threatening to turn our continent into war; because a European nation wants to live free in Europe. We often doubt ourselves and our democracies; But let us listen, let us look at the Ukrainian youth, and we will grasp the deep meaning of our cities, the value of this Union that we are trying step by step to build. It is now in Kiev that we have the best understanding of what it means to be European.

Mr President, Mr Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, how long are we going to tolerate tyrants spending on us the money they steal from their people? How long are we going to let the brigands of Vladimir Putin enjoy their villas on our coasts, their chalets in our mountains, their yachts in our ports? Alexander Babakov, Vice-President of the Duma, is one of the poorest members of the Russian Parliament, according to official asset declarations. It has a luxurious apartment in Paris and a castle in the Yvelines. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov collects apartments in the most chic districts of the French capital. Denis Popov, prosecutor general of Moscow, multiplies the residences on the Costa Brava like rolls. The list is long. Alps, French Riviera, Sardinia, Marbella, Paris, Berlin... All these great scammers of European decadence love our beaches and ski slopes. So it’s up to us to show them that we can’t go to war at our gates and get your yacht wet in our ports. Colleagues, the fight against corruption is a high priority in our foreign policy. But it will not work as long as we welcome here the money stolen there, as long as our banks offer asylum to looters’ loot, as long as the Member States sell a European nationality to the first oligarch to come, as long as our leaders negotiate their golden retirement with Gazprom or Huawei. Ladies and gentlemen, we demand the most basic consistency in this report. We call for European legislation on the confiscation and return of ill-gotten property. We call for a mechanism of targeted sanctions against those guilty of high corruption. We call for common rules to put an end to the betrayal of those leaders who, from Schröder to Fillon, sell themselves to hostile foreign interests. In a word, we ask for courage. This is what will make us powerful.

Mr President, Mr High Representative, ladies and gentlemen, 'Words, words, words...', Hamlet repeated. "Words, words, words..." We talk a lot about human rights, but the question before us is simple: What powerful interests are we willing to offend to give our words the weight they lack? We condemn forced labour, but our multinationals have their products manufactured by Chinese suppliers who exploit Uyghur slaves. We donate hundreds of millions of euros to child protection projects, but our industrial champions use subcontractors who send children to mines in Niger. We will be taken seriously when we are serious, and we will be serious when we step up to these multinationals who trample on the principles we claim to defend. Ladies and gentlemen, in the coming weeks, the European legislation on corporate due diligence offers us a unique opportunity to turn our words into action, to show that impunity for the powerful is not inevitable and to prove that defending rights is not just a posture. We have the opportunity to be true to what we claim to be. Let's not miss it.

Madam President, Mr President, there are apparently crimes too great and criminals too powerful to find any place in your long speeches. You have sung about human rights in general, but you have again ignored the worst crime against humanity of our time: deportation and eradication of the Uyghur people. But what are human rights worth without the courage to defend them? Courage is not to be silent when millions of human beings are parked in camps. Courage is about being strong with the strong and not just the weak. Courage is about confronting the private interests that drive us to cowardice. These multinationals such as Zara, Nike or Volkswagen benefit from the enslavement of a people. The courage is to finally ban the products of slavery from our markets. Courage is about standing up to the hundreds of thousands of young people who are urging you to take action. The only time in four years that you mentioned the plight of the Uyghur torturers was to say that France alone could not do anything and that the European scale alone made an impact. You are now the head of the Union and... And still nothing. That's the problem. We know the principles. We defend human rights. What is missing is the courage to wear them.

– Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Vladimir Putin is afraid. Admittedly, its power is not immediately threatened. Admittedly, it controls weapons, money, the media, civil servants. But he will be afraid as long as there are free consciences in Russia. And there he is afraid of Memorial, afraid of law and truth, afraid of every light that illuminates the dirty night of thieves and killers. And when tyrants are afraid, that is to say, deep down, every day of their lives, they repress and murder. Natalia Estemirova, a heroine of our time, was investigating for Memorial the countless crimes committed in Chechnya. She was shot in 2009. Oyub Titiev and Yuri Dmitriev were embalmed, and now Oleg Orlov and Svetlana Gannouchkina face prison or exile. They are my role models, as was my friend Anna Politkovskaya, who was killed in her building hall on Putin’s birthday. Colleagues, the primary meaning of this resolution in support of Memorial is to remind Europe and the world what courage is. Defending in Grozny teenagers tortured in Kadyrov jails or filing a complaint in Moscow against mercenaries of Wagner Group, Putin’s secret army, for crimes committed in Syria: that is courage. Memorial is the name of the Russia we love, we admire, a name that reminds us that we are not fighting a nation, but a regime. So let us offer our help to Russian society, let us offer our support to the exiles and let us strike this regime of looters where its heart beats, i.e. at the wallet. Those who throw heroes into prison, plunder their people, persecute minorities, trample on our principles and our interests must no longer be able to enjoy their villa on the French Riviera or their chalet in Courchevel. It is as simple as that, sometimes, politics. Solidarity with the victims requires the seizure of the yachts and the bank accounts of the executioners. Colleagues, the time has come for us to have even one hundredth of the courage of the members of Memorial.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I had planned a speech, but it is no longer useful because after hearing Mr Mariani and Mr Krah, the French far right and the German far right, it is time to come here and say how tired we are. We're tired of seeing these useful Kremlin idiots come to squeeze out Russia's propaganda elements every time. Putin invades Georgia, it is the fault of the Georgians. Putin is annexing Crimea, it is the fault of the Ukrainians. Putin is again threatening Ukraine, it is still the fault of the Ukrainians. It is never Vladimir Putin’s fault. In fact, the European far right has absolutely nothing to do with the rights of nations. It claims to be sovereignist and nationalist, but this extreme right, it is in fact only at the service of the international financed and sponsored by Vladimir Putin. You no longer have the right to define yourself as patriots: even when Putin interferes in our affairs, threatens our democracies, attacks our hospitals, you defend him. In the end, you prefer the interests of Russia to those of Europe. One day, voters will understand and make you pay for it.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, let us be clear, the Americans, by privatising the war, have opened Pandora's box. The Russian government has engulfed itself in this flaw in its own way – opaque, secret, outside of any legal framework. The Wagner Group, which has no formal existence in Russia, is waging wars that Moscow does not declare. Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Central African Republic, etc., these mercenaries are found absolutely everywhere, with their long procession of abuse, torture, rape, executions and looting. The shadow that allows these crimes is systematically organised. Let us pay tribute here to the three Russian journalists from Dossier Center who were murdered in the Central African Republic while investigating the Wagner Group. Let us pay tribute to the NGO Memorial, which had the courage to file a complaint in Moscow against a torturer of the group for his crimes in Syria and is now threatened with a ban by the Russian authorities. So let's highlight Wagner's actions, sanction all executives, agents, financiers of the group. Let us abolish public aid to governments that use their services. Wagner is a mafia group at war with the interests and principles of the European Union, and it is time to treat it as such.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, on 22 February, you came to exchange views with the members of the Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation (INGE), to discuss the progress of work on the legislative proposal on digital services. Shortly before that, Mrs Jourová had presented the European Democracy Action Plan to us. During these exchanges, we shared the same observation: A hybrid war has been unleashed against our democracy. Authoritarian regimes use legal and illegal means to subvert our public debate and institutions. We just don't have the right to be naive. For more than a year, the INGE Special Committee has been analysing attacks on the EU. Cyberattacks, financing of political actors by foreign powers, information manipulation campaigns, penetration of the academic and cultural sectors, capture of elites and former European politicians: In the face of such threats, we must do more and better. Commissioner, online platforms have become essential places for the European democratic debate. Under attention-seeking economic models, and despite the phenomenal openness they have allowed, they are an extraordinary playground for foreign powers seeking to destabilize us. Today, without adequate regulation at European level, issues relating to the fight against information manipulation or any other form of online interference fall within the competence of the platforms themselves. However, the principle of self-regulation has clearly shown its limits. By raising the level of requirements vis-à-vis platforms, the proposed DSA should at least address a large part of the problem. Together, Commissioner, let us ensure that future legislation strengthens our arsenal in the fight against interference. Let's limit the collection of personal data, which facilitates political targeting. Let's ban the use of microtargeting for political advertising. Let's regulate the use of fake accounts and bots, which artificially amplify the spread of disinformation. Let's get platforms to increase diversity in content recommendation algorithms and act quickly to respect fundamental rights. Demonetize disinformation on all websites. We demand transparency and guarantee the pluralism of information received by users. Let's regulate the online content of foreign media. Clearly, let us not allow Russia Today and the other propaganda outlets of authoritarian regimes to relay false information that aims to manipulate our opinion, under the pretext that they are supposedly media. Commissioner, all the experts interviewed and the studies commissioned say the same thing: the tools currently deployed are not effective enough to respond to attacks, protect our citizens and deter our adversaries. We can better map these attacks, their patterns, their methods. We can better share our work and coordinate our efforts. We also recommend moving quickly on the issue of sanctions: If a platform fails to meet its commitments and becomes complicit in a disinformation campaign, it should bear the cost, i.e. be sanctioned. In the face of the major dangers facing our democracies and on behalf of this special INGE committee, I am therefore addressing these specific questions to you, Commissioner. What cross-cutting coordination does the Commission propose to fill the existing gaps? How will it better coordinate collective countermeasures? Does the Commission intend to encourage Member States to prohibit or drastically limit foreign funding for political activities? What types of instruments does the Commission intend to propose to sanction sponsors of hybrid attacks? How does the Commission assess existing legislation on disinformation and hate speech? Does it intend to put forward new proposals to ensure that these arrangements are available in all EU languages? What is the Commission's assessment of the rules on transparency and the use of algorithms and political advertising on the Internet? Finally, what concrete programmes does the Commission intend to promote media literacy and ensure a diverse and independent media landscape? Commissioner, this is not a partisan debate, but the preservation of the common framework in which we can all express our differences. The defence of democracy, which we have inherited, is our most fundamental mission here. I would like to end by quoting a German poet, Hölderlin, who writes, "Where peril grows, so does what saves." I think that, in the threats to our democracies, we also have the opportunity to make them stronger, stronger and more alive.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in 2020, more than 700 cyberattacks targeted strategic sectors in Europe, 75% more than in 2019, and this is just the beginning. We must learn to defend ourselves collectively and impose a cost on those who attack us. Less than two weeks ago, I visited the European Cybersecurity Agency in Athens with a delegation from the Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation. The Agency does a remarkable job, but it lacks resources in the face of the immensity of the task. More resources, more expert training, more coordination between Member States, more awareness of private and public actors in Europe: we know what needs to be done to bring about genuine European cybersecurity. But protections will not be enough; We need a deterrent. We need to identify and then publicly name the attackers, and first the Russian and Chinese regimes, and show them that we are not being attacked with impunity: It's time to dissuade those who want to shake us.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, you have talked a lot about marriage, but what is the secret of a happy marriage, if not equality between spouses? However, this is not the case. From the unilateral and chaotic withdrawal from Kabul to the removal of the contract of the century at the expense of France, the US administration does not consult us, it does not consider us. Donald Trump was not just an accident and America First It was not just a passing slogan: this is the heart of US policy. The United States is pursuing its strategic interests and it is time for us Europeans to do the same, to become adults, to dare autonomy and power. Let's invest in our own defense capabilities. Let us pursue a commercial policy that serves our principles and interests. Let us show the Americans that they need allies, not vassals. Let us cooperate where our interests converge. Let’s fight together against climate change, international terrorism or the growing aggressiveness of the Chinese regime. Let us ban together the products of slavery of the Uyghurs. Let’s fight together against global tax evasion. But let us give ourselves, as Europeans, the means to defend our strategic interests on our own if necessary. Colleagues, let us finally be respectable and we will be respected.

Madam President, Minister, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, a foreign power, Morocco, is spying on the French Head of State without anything happening. Israeli company NSO’s Pegasus software is used by dozens of states against European citizens without anything happening. This cannot continue. And the Pegasus scandal, revealed this summer by Forbidden Stories journalists, is still in its infancy. Commissioner, I have simple questions to ask. In addition to Hungary, which European countries bought and used the Pegasus software? We have a right to know. Why does NSO exclude US numbers and not European numbers from its software? We have a right to know. What do you intend to do with NSO’s European investors, who have therefore helped finance the illegal spying of European citizens? We have a right to know. These and many other questions we will ask until we get answers. This is about Europe’s sovereignty and our freedoms. We have all been elected to defend the rights and interests of European citizens. That is what we need to do now.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it is 14 September 2021 and millions of Uyghurs are still parked in concentration camps in China; Not for what they do, but for what they are. I will no doubt tire you of constantly reverting to this crime against humanity, but these camps have existed for five years. Five years of greedy multinationals benefiting from the slavery of a people. Five years of our leaders refusing to act to stop the horror. But we know what we need to do: banishing the products of slavery from our markets. This is still not done. So let's do it. Sanctions of top law enforcement officials, such as Chen Quanguo, the architect of the deportation of the Uyghurs after having been the architect of the repression of the Tibetans. This is still not done. So let's do it. Colleagues, hundreds of thousands of young people across Europe are mobilising to break the silence surrounding the disappearance of a people. I am now only echoing them in this chamber. Listen to them. They are the honour of Europe. They urge us to act. Then let's act!

Madam President, Mr High Representative, what is common between the financing of the Brexit campaign, anti-abortion associations, cyberattacks against the European banking authority or against health structures, mass disinformation campaigns on social networks, the purchase of strategic European infrastructure such as the port of Piraeus, Gerhard Schröder working for Gazprom, Yves Leterme working for the ToJoy investment fund, or François Fillon for Zaroubejneft? All these and many other actions, legal or illegal, are carried out by foreign powers hostile to our principles and interests, with the aim of destabilising our democracies. They respond to a clear political-military strategy: Hybrid War. We live in a strange state that is neither a real peace nor a classic war. An in-between difficult to define, where the enemy aims to corrupt you, to divide you, to weaken you more than to destroy you directly. Cradled by the myth of the end of history, believing that it no longer has enemies, the European Union has long shown naivety and blindness. It is in order to put an end to this naivety and blindness that we have set up this special committee. For nine months now, I have had the honour of chairing this committee and we have devoted the first part of our work to making an accurate diagnosis of the situation. After 30 meetings and 90 hearings, the finding is clear – and it is also alarming. Vulnerable to these attacks, permeable to these interferences, our democracies run a major risk. The prevention of such threats and the response to such attacks are of paramount importance. Mr High Representative, during your hearing last March, you said that you shared our analysis of the vulnerability of the European Union and the need to step up our actions against interference. As a matter of sincerity, you also confessed to being powerless. The mandate you have is not extensive enough. The budgets of your services are not sufficiently equipped. The resources available, for example, to deal with misinformation from China are, I quote, "very, very, very weak." Today's exchange should allow us to assess the policies implemented and define an ambitious strategy. We are addressing you today with specific requests. How do you intend to address the loopholes, loopholes and loopholes that make the EU so vulnerable to attacks? Silo mentalities allow these attacks to go undetected. To remedy this, are horizontal structures necessary? How do you coordinate the action of all Commissioners? Do you plan additional structures? How do you plan to expand the mandate of your services? Given the severe lack of resources, why has no request been made for a budget increase? In order to act as a deterrent, our strategy must include an effective sanctions mechanism. The perpetrators of the attacks must pay the price for their actions. Sanctions cannot be limited to hackers themselves. They must target political sponsors, states. What measures should be taken to amend the procedures for the adoption of sanctions by the Council? What is the impact of the unanimity rule on the EU’s ability to act forcefully against foreign interference? These questions are crucial and require answers. We can be right or left, progressive or conservative. Our common responsibility is to protect our democracies, our institutions, our citizens. Colleagues, what is the main threat to our democracies today? No, it is not the exiles who die in the Mediterranean or the rainbow flags that are hunted in Poland and Hungary. These imaginary enemies designated by the far right are not the threat. The real threat, I will tell you, is first and foremost those who, within these institutions, our institutions lend themselves to the destabilisation of European democracies. It is you, the pseudo-patriots subservient to Vladimir Putin, who agree to be the instruments of a project to destabilise the European Union. It is then corruption that undermines our cities, starting with the corruption of our leaders, whether right-wing or left-wing, of leaders who are ready to sell themselves to foreign powers such as Russia, China or Qatar. It is also the infeodation of the major European brands with the Chinese productive apparatus, these multinationals who believe that everything is bought and sold, including the sovereignty of peoples and the dignity of people. Colleagues, if we are to continue to breathe the air of democracy, we must learn to defend it firmly and resolutely. So let us defend it together, Mr High Representative. We look forward to you and stand by your side to make Europe more powerful and safer.