What Clare spoke about.

16 Feb

2023

EN Speech

One year of Russia’s invasion and war of aggression against Ukraine (RC-B9-0123/2023, B9-0123/2023, B9-0126/2023, B9-0131/2023, B9-0132/2023, B9-0134/2023, B9-0139/2023)

Watch

Mr President, one year on as the war in Ukraine continues, when voices everywhere should be calling for a ceasefire and peace, this resolution is driving us in the opposite direction. So I proudly voted against it. It peddles the latest lie that this is not now about defending Ukraine. It's about Ukraine must win. What does that even mean? Last April, there was a deal on the table which would have…

16 Feb

2023

EN Speech

European initiative to promote civic engagement to protect and better support European volunteers (debate)

Watch

Mr President, loads of volunteer fire firefighters in Europe only get paid for their time in the place of work, but at the same time it's compulsory for them to be available as home and to move as soon as they get the call. But obviously if they're doing that, it means their home life is severely restricted and they don't get paid for their standby time. And we know that the courts in Belgium have…

14 Feb

2023

EN Speech

Tensions between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (debate)

Watch

Mr President, the situation in the DRC is horror without end for the civilian population. In November, we talked about displacement and violence but now, if anything, the situation is even worse. We know that the UN have reported the active engagement of Rwandan armed forces on Congolese territory and the M23 zone of influence expanding. And vicious and all as the violence is being perpetrated in …

14 Feb

2023

EN Speech

Response to the situation in Tunisia (debate)

Watch

Mr President, 12 years ago, Tunisians overthrew Ben Ali and many Europeans thought that this was all about democracy and Tunisians wanting to be more like us. But the truth is that, yes, it was a reaction to brutal repression, but also to the wider regime of global inequality, shocking unemployment, food inflation and intolerable living conditions because the country was being run for foreign inte…

14 Feb

2023

EN Speech

Establishment of an independent EU Ethics Body (debate)

Watch

Mr President, the idea of an independent EU ethics body is, of course, something to be welcomed. But I have to say we run the very real risk of fiddling while Rome burns if the ethics body focuses only on individual behaviour and doesn’t address systemic issues such as the wholesale institutionalisation of lobbying in EU bodies. We have to address in a really serious way the stranglehold of econom…

13 Feb

2023

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Watch

Madam President, since September, the lack of interest in finding answers to who was behind the Nord Stream gas explosion has been, frankly, astounding. This was an act of sabotage, an act of unrivalled vandalism, economically and environmentally. And not a word. No discussion, no questions. Then along comes Seymour Hersh, the world’s most acclaimed, distinguished living investigative journalist. …

13 Feb

2023

EN Speech

EU funding allocated to NGOs incriminated in the recent corruption revelations and the protection of EU financial interests (debate)

Watch

Madam President, many NGOs are weaponised, but what’s going on here is that groups who for years have wanted to choke off funding are seizing the opportunity of Qatargate to revive their campaign. Yes, we do need to learn the lessons, and transparency around NGO funding is one thing. But what about broader transparency around all the lobbying in EU institutions? Surely that should be a bigger prio…

13 Feb

2023

EN Speech

Electoral rights of mobile Union citizens in European Parliament elections - Electoral rights of mobile Union citizens in municipal elections (debate)

Watch

Madam President, these two files are obviously part of the Commission's priority for a new push for European democracy, and I mean ensuring a right to vote and stand for election throughout the EU is grand, but it's hardly the biggest problem with European democracy. In fact, it's the technical fix for what is deep-seated problems of a disconnect between the citizens and the institutions, where in…

13 Feb

2023

EN Speech

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

Watch

(starts off-microphone) ... and the horror of tens of thousands dead, the freezing conditions, the cries unanswered because the equipment wasn’t there to get them out of the rubble. And as bad as all of this is, we know that the deaths that have already occurred are going to be met by many, many more. So, rather than clapping ourselves on the back about how great we’ve been to respond, we should a…

2 Feb

2023

EN Speech

Preparation of the EU-Ukraine Summit (RC-B9-0092/2023, B9-0092/2023, B9-0093/2023, B9-0094/2023, B9-0095/2023, B9-0096/2023)

Watch

Mr President, I voted against the resolution because for all the shrill jingoism and belligerent moral outrage about Ukraine winning and Russia being defeated, the truth is that nobody wins in war except the military industrial complex feasting off the billions of taxpayers’ money or vultures like Blackstone, swooping in to feed off the carcass of the devastation and destruction of Ukraine and ben…

2 Feb

2023

EN Speech

Revision of the European Works Councils Directive (A9-0295/2022 - Dennis Radtke)

Watch

Mr President, I really welcome the fact that Parliament is taking this initiative, and I voted it for it. European Works Councils are a good idea in principle, but they have fallen down in practice, particularly in Ireland, where the implementation of the old directive was so bad that the Commission had to initiate infringement proceedings. So a revision is really badly needed, and I hope that the…

1 Feb

2023

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Watch

Mr President, the definition of a gentleman, my colleague says, is someone who treats others the way they would like to be treated themselves. And I very much appreciate your intervention and understanding.…

1 Feb

2023

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Watch

Mr President, I had my name on the list. I was told that there wasn’t enough time and there were too many speakers, but we’ve only had 27. We still have time and some people didn’t turn up. So I’m just wondering what the story is. I can go on? Thank you so much, I really appreciate it, you are a gentleman. Italian anarchist Alfredo Cospito is on his 105th day of hunger strike against the ‘41—bis’ …

1 Feb

2023

EN Speech

Situation in Afghanistan (debate)

Watch

Madam President, I find it a bit hard to take some of the hand—wringing in here about the terrible plight of women and girls in Afghanistan when, outside of these doors, hundreds of young Afghans are on the streets of Brussels without a bed, without enough food, and we say nothing, when the claims of Hazara genocide are met with silence and our borders locked to them, when six times as many Afghan…

1 Feb

2023

EN Speech

Need for urgent update of the EU list of high-risk third countries for anti-money laundering and terrorist financing purposes (debate)

Watch

Madam President, if you read down the EU’s anti-money laundering blacklist, one of the things that immediately strikes you is that not one of the countries on the list is majority white and not one of them is what we would call the West. Because this blacklist is biased and inconsistent and has a lot more to do about lobbying power than a genuine assessment of risk. Vanuatu, one of the world’s poo…

1 Feb

2023

EN Speech

Transparency and targeting of political advertising (debate)

Watch

Madam President, I was the shadow for the LIBE opinion on this file and I’d really like to be getting behind it for the things that it’s trying to achieve – but it doesn’t achieve them, so I can’t. In fact, it’s a major intervention by the EU into the political culture of its Member States, which will have far—reaching implications for freedom of political expression, for civil society, for the me…

1 Feb

2023

EN Speech

Preparation of the Special European Council meeting of February, in particular the need to develop sustainable solutions in the area of asylum and migration (debate)

Watch

Mr President, Europe’s population is aging. Over the next 30 years, our active workforce will decrease by 50 million. Without migration, we face enormous problems to keep our societies going. Yet we have the senseless spectacle of governments all over Europe freaking out about the pensions time bomb, while at the same time standing over migration and asylum policies designed to violently keep out …

19 Jan

2023

EN Speech

Small-scale fisheries situation in the EU and future perspectives (A9-0291/2022 - João Pimenta Lopes)

Watch

Madam President, 50 years ago, Ireland joined the European Union. Norway did not. Fifty years on, Norway’s fish exports are worth 14 billion, where Ireland’s are worth half a billion. There is a direct link between the two. Ireland has had to suffer its third decommissioning scheme, slashing the size of its fleet while Norway’s keeps growing and growing. And the shafting of our fisheries as price …

19 Jan

2023

EN Speech

EU response to the protests and executions in Iran (RC-B9-0066/2023, B9-0062/2023, B9-0066/2023, B9-0067/2023, B9-0070/2023, B9-0079/2023, B9-0080/2023)

Watch

Madam President, I oppose the death penalty categorically in any country it is used, and I abhor its use in Iran as part of a crackdown against people exercising their rights to shape their own country and its laws. Iran has a valid desire to keep its sovereignty, but the approach it is now taking risks losing it. Meeting public anger and legitimate demands for reform with vicious state repression…

19 Jan

2023

EN Speech

The establishment of a tribunal on the crime of aggression against Ukraine (RC-B9-0063/2023, B9-0063/2023, B9-0064/2023, B9-0068/2023, B9-0069/2023, B9-0072/2023)

Watch

Madam President, I voted against this resolution. Of course Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a crime of aggression, and in a just world that crime would never go unpunished. But we find ourselves in a world of our own making. This March marks the 20th anniversary of the horrific crime of aggression against Iraq perpetuated by the coalition of the willing, including our very own Poland, Estonia, La…

19 Jan

2023

EN Speech

Investment practices of sustainable investment funds (debate)

Watch

Madam President, I think there is an irony here that we’re talking about sustainable investment funds against the backdrop of yet another scandal in terms of the EU institutions. Fresh on the heels of the Qatargate buying of influence, we’ve had the revelations of monthly allowances given to MEPs to pay for office supplies being used to purchase shares in arms, tobacco, mining and fossil fuel indu…

19 Jan

2023

EN Speech

The Global Gateway Initiative (debate)

Watch

Mr President, the Global Gateway is, we’re told, Europe’s new flagship strategy to support infrastructures around the world and improve connectivity. But, of course, as colleagues have so eloquently revealed, it is actually to woo away African and global South countries from so—called Chinese and Russian influence, not because we’re the good guys and they need us, but because the Chinese are getti…

18 Jan

2023

EN Speech

Criminalisation of humanitarian assistance, including search and rescue (debate)

Watch

Mr President, the fact that some of the charges against Irish activist Seán Binder were dropped last week is incredibly welcome. But my God, how did we ever get to this place where 24 volunteers and activists were on trial in Lesbos in a case spanning more than four years? Not to mention the fact that a far, far larger number of innocent migrants are currently squandering their time in prisons in …

18 Jan

2023

EN Speech

An EU strategy to boost industrial competitiveness, trade and quality jobs (debate)

Watch

Madam President, so Europe is all aflutter now with a new industrial strategy. The Swedish Presidency has put competitiveness at the top of its agenda, and we hear Charles Michel telling Politico it’s all about new ways of thinking and a can-do attitude. Well, God knows, somebody needs to do something, because right now Europeans wake up every single day a little poorer than they were the day befo…

17 Jan

2023

EN Speech

Human rights and democracy in the world and the European Union’s policy on the matter - annual report 2022 (debate)

Watch

Madam President, once upon a time, human rights were about political and social rights: housing, healthcare, food, jobs. But, of course, that challenged the economic order, and so social rights were edited out and human rights became weaponised – a stick to beat our so-called geopolitical enemies. And every plenary we hunt for useful victims to demonise our rivals, while the victims that we create…