What Nacho spoke about.

12

Mar

2024

ES Speech

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European cross-border associations (debate)

Mr President, I would like to thank Sergey Lagodinsky for something that has been more than coordination. It has been, in my opinion, a leadership shown by the constancy with which it has maintained this agenda and that it has managed to unlock an issue that had been stuck for many years. Last year, this Parliament took the initiative to call for a directive and in the end the Commission understoo…

11

Mar

2024

ES Speech

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Statements by the President

Madam President, you mentioned it: We commemorate the European Day of the Victims of Terrorism every 11 March because 11 March 2004 was the deadliest jihadist attack on European soil in Madrid. One hundred and ninety-one people died directly from the attack, plus two policemen died later, as a result of the assault on the floor where the terrorists were hiding. One hundred and ninety-three fatalit…

27

Feb

2024

ES Speech

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Closer ties between the EU and Armenia and the need for a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia (debate)

Mr. President, Azerbaijan recovered what it had lost by force. The problem is that the war didn't end there, that this is a postwar one that looks like anything but a postwar one. With what has happened in Nagorno-Karabakh, with the non-fulfilment of many of the clauses of that declaration, which is not a peace treaty, with that completely extraordinary request to create a kind of extraterritorial…

27

Feb

2024

ES Speech

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Human rights and democracy in the world and the European Union’s policy on the matter – annual report 2023 (debate)

Mr President, a methodological warning about the report: traditionally, we have always done so without geographical or personal references. That has always been the scope of the report. We included Ukraine two years ago and this year we are going to include Gaza. There is widespread agreement that it is a worthwhile matter but there is no reference to Navalny, no reference to Assange, no reference…

27

Feb

2024

ES Speech

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Human rights and democracy in the world and the European Union’s policy on the matter – annual report 2023 (debate)

Madam President, as was foreseeable – unfortunately – the report on human rights and democracy in the world and the European Union’s policy on this matter this year reflects the disastrous reality of the human rights situation in the world, and – perhaps for that reason – it is useful to make a political reflection on what the framework is, what are the underlying currents that feed this situation…

27

Feb

2024

ES Speech

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War in the Gaza Strip and the need to reach a ceasefire, including recent developments in the region (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, the disproportion of the Israeli military response destroys any hint of the right to self-defence. It is now pure impunity. For those who justify that answer, think about whether or not it is proportionate. Israel has killed 30,000 people, 70% of them women and children, to neutralise – that is the word used – 6,000 terrorists: a ratio of five to one, five civilians …

16

Jan

2024

ES Speech

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Role of preventive diplomacy in tackling frozen conflicts around the world – missed opportunity or change for the future? (debate)

Madam President Hautala, Commissioner Schmit, I would first like to congratulate Željana Zovko on her leadership and the shadow rapporteurs on their flexibility, and to connect this dossier with another one that is voted on tomorrow without debate, which is that of Jordi Solé's parliamentary diplomacy and which has just been mentioned by Lukas Mandl. Overall, I believe that they complete a politic…

22

Nov

2023

ES Speech

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30 years of Copenhagen criteria - giving further impetus to EU enlargement policy (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, Madam Secretary of State, in matters of enlargement there always seems to be a traditional tension that sometimes becomes a kind of false dilemma between geopolitical considerations and those of the examination of values and principles. Unfortunately, the geopolitical situation always plays to lower the demands on the coincidence of values. It is true that, historically…

22

Nov

2023

ES Speech

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Humanitarian situation in Gaza, the need for the release of hostages and for an immediate humanitarian truce leading to a ceasefire and the prospects for peace and security in the Middle East (debate)

Mr President, Mr Borrell, I would like to thank you for your impeccable political position, but also for your moral position in the not-too-easy management of such a poisoned conflict. I regret that the Commission (which started fatally), after the damage that Commissioner Várhelyi's initial position did to the European Union, today has dedicated itself only to describing the situation without est…

8

Nov

2023

ES Speech

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Strengthening the right to participate: legitimacy and resilience of electoral processes in illiberal political systems and authoritarian regimes (debate)

Madam President, thank you, Commissioner, for remembering that naivety of the end of history and that we were heading for a world of democracies. Thank you, Mrs Hautala, for remembering that we met a few years ago on an electoral mission in Armenia. I also agreed with Mr Mariani on some other election mission and I wanted to address precisely some of the issues to which he referred, and in a diffe…

8

Nov

2023

ES Speech

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Strengthening the right to participate: legitimacy and resilience of electoral processes in illiberal political systems and authoritarian regimes (debate)

Madam President, in this intimate last-minute atmosphere I am grateful for the attention of Members, with some of whom I have negotiated as shadow rapporteurs and with whom it has been a real pleasure to draft this document, which I would like to frame in what has been the legislative policy of some committees in this legislative period. Because, in foreign policy, we sometimes jump from crisis to…

8

Nov

2023

ES Speech

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EU enlargement policy 2023 (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, congratulations on your work. You know that I tend to be very critical of your management, but I think that making ten reports from this entity is a great job for you and your team. I believe that, in Georgia, we are correcting the mistake that was made a few months ago. I believe that putting Georgia in a more proactive position will surely take away reasons from th…

8

Nov

2023

ES Speech

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Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 26-27 October 2023 - Humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the need for a humanitarian pause (joint debate - Conclusions of the European Council and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the need for a humanitarian pause)

Madam President, Mrs Montserrat, in Spain a customary constitutional procedure is being developed in which the king has commissioned a second investiture from Mr Sánchez because that of his leader has failed. And while the negotiators of the parliamentary forces are negotiating - I repeat, the parliamentary forces are negotiating - you have joined the Nazis, the Francoists and the fascists in orga…

18

Oct

2023

ES Speech

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A true geopolitical Europe now (topical debate)

Madam President, being a global actor requires far more than mere political will. A thorough review of the actors and instruments of that foreign policy is required, because we jump from crisis to crisis and there is not much time to reflect on it. Who represents the European Union's foreign policy? The EPP colleague said that the solution to the question was Mrs von der Leyen. No, Mrs von der Ley…

12

Sep

2023

ES Speech

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2022 Report on Türkiye (debate)

Madam President, thank you to the speakers for their input and for suggesting matters that could have been included in the report. But I want to explain to you why we didn't think we should do it this year. The rapporteurs agreed on a short text without many particular mentions. More churches can be mentioned, more journalists can be mentioned, more cases can be mentioned, but the political messag…

12

Sep

2023

ES Speech

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2022 Report on Türkiye (debate)

Mr President, the first thing I want to do is thank you for the work and the atmosphere that we have developed in drafting the report with my fellow shadow rapporteurs. I believe that we are putting together a common position, a position increasingly with a greater consensus and, therefore, a stronger and more robust position of this Parliament. This report, for the first time in many years, has h…

12

Jul

2023

ES Speech

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Recommendations for reform of the European Parliament’s rules on transparency, integrity, accountability and anti-corruption (debate)

Madam President, thanks to the excellent work of Natalie and Bilčík and the work in general of the Commission, represented by Raphaël. In addition to internal issues, the report says a lot of interesting things about protecting Parliament's image and good repute. For example, in matters such as electoral observation, it shows how electoral observation has to adapt to the interference that occurs l…

1

Jun

2023

ES Speech

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Foreign interference in all democratic processes in the European Union, including disinformation - Election integrity and resilience build-up towards European elections 2024 (debate)

Madam President, I would like to thank Mrs Kalniete and the negotiators who have again included a specific section on elections in the second report of the Special Committee on Foreign Interference. Elections are a goal because they are politically transcendent, but also because they are vulnerable. There are many people who only get hooked on political information when elections come. There is mo…

19

Apr

2023

ES Speech

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Children forcibly deported from Ukraine and the ICC arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin (debate)

Mr President, as regards accountability for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, a considerable effort has already been made as regards the legal bases for criminal prosecution. The collection and custody of evidence is already underway at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for this case of deported children and for other parallel cases. But this criminal prosecution has to be ac…

18

Apr

2023

ES Speech

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Situation in Peru (debate)

Mr President, Mr Borrell, I will not insist on the obvious, which has already been said: the condemnation of the self-coup, the disproportion in the treatment of the protests or the possibility of turning the page with an election. There are other aspects that I want to discuss. The citizens who protest are no less citizens or have fewer rights to come from the rural world, to come from areas with…

15

Mar

2023

ES Speech

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The EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders (debate)

Madam President, in the travaux préparatoires for this report, which has been carried out effectively and flexibly by Mrs Neumann, some harmful trends have been identified which should be emphasised. One is the topic of so-called silent diplomacy: a practice which, in the field of human rights, cannot be a general attitude, but a tool to use very exceptionally – as in the case of the negotiation o…

14

Mar

2023

ES Speech

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Situation in Georgia (debate)

Mr President, look, ladies and gentlemen, I refuse this false dichotomy of having to choose between the former president in prison, whom many of those sitting here recommended not to return to the country, and did so illegally in the middle of a campaign, Mr Saakashvili, and a government whose authoritarian drift is increasingly obvious. But we seem to agree to support civil society, and at least …

14

Mar

2023

ES Speech

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Deterioration of democracy in Israel and consequences on the occupied territories (debate)

Mr. President, Mr. Borrell, if the famous urban legend of the frog in boiling water were true, this would be a good time to use it. We have let Israel go a long way in terms of freedoms and international law without proper wording. And now we find a judicial reform that its own president, so quoted here today, considers unacceptable, predatory and that dismantles the democratic foundations. I wond…

13

Mar

2023

ES Speech

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The functioning of the EEAS and a stronger EU in the world (debate)

Mr President, Mr Paet, I thank you for your flexibility in negotiating this document and for having resisted the federalist turn of the PPE, which has defended in this report to disempower the Council of its competences in foreign policy and communitize this policy, thus skipping the treaties, by the way. I believe that this is a necessary report because in foreign policy we jump from one crisis t…

13

Feb

2023

ES Speech

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EU response to the humanitarian situation following the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria (debate)

Madam President, in this House we have had, in recent years, many opportunities to exercise the most justified criticism of the Turkish governorate; with its authorities, not with the country or with its admirable civil society. I've said it many times: Erdoğan is not Turkey and Turkey is not Erdoğan. It is to Turkey, to the nation, to society, to its people, that we must address today with empath…