Speeches

Madam President, this policy is selling militarism as something to keep us safe, when in reality it’s the opposite. It’s militarism that’s driving a dramatic rise in geopolitical tensions, drastically undermining our security. And you’d think that the Ukraine war would have shocked us out of this approach. But no, this report wants more of the same – increases in heavy weapons to Ukraine, massive hikes in defence expenditure to a minimum of 2% of GDP, budget increases for arms through the Orwellian European Peace Facility and a European Defence Union with no vetoes on defence decisions, overruling small states, not to mention an active mutual defence obligation transforming the EU into a military alliance. And if that wasn’t bad enough, we have more sanctions, more EU-NATO relations, more failed and destructive EU missions in Africa – on and on it goes. It’s the policy of lunacy trumpeted by a parliament bedazzled by the military—industrial complex. And we reject this vision. Militarism and war are not and will never be a solution. We demand a Europe built on conflict resolution, on collective security, free from the old and the new divisions, where all states and countries are involved. A future of diplomacy, arms control, disarmament as the only real way to guarantee our security.

Mr President, last week, Ireland lost a true revolutionary and one of her best poets, Kevin Higgins. We lost our friend and his last poem was called I Always Thought I’d Live, and I’d like to read a piece from that: ‘I always thought I’d live to tidy the books off the study floor and see fascists give up stabbing black boys at bus stops because peaceful protests have eloquently made them see the error of their ways. But the books that made me still decorate the study floor and I don’t have the oxygen to shift them. My consultants are unanimous. My days marching to places like Welling and Trafalgar Square are over. The risk of getting tossed into the back of a police van by overenthusiastic members of the constabulary is a luxury my lungs can no longer afford. Even holding a placard in my wheelchair would soon have me gasping for breath. And I thought I’d always live.’ Kevin’s funeral was yesterday. He will always live in his words. Slán abhaile, a chairde.

Mr President, in 2020, the EU exported more than 33 million tonnes of waste to non—EU countries. Among these wastes, as colleagues have pointed out, one of the biggest contributors is plastic pollution. The hundreds of millions of tonnes of waste produced every year, which degrade into microplastics end up in all the world’s oceans in the bodies of humans and animals. And if nothing is done, this will almost triple by about 2060. Half will end up in landfill. Less than a fifth will be recycled. And the truth is that the solution to plastic is not about recycling, it’s about reduction. So our job really is to combat this narrative. And while waiting on the so—called reform of European rules aimed at banning waste to Africa or East Asia, it is more than urgent that we intensify our efforts to fight against illegal exports, which are a violation of the sovereignty of states and populations outside the EU. Partnership means equal treatment, not treating the others as a wasteland for our interests. A modern type of colonialism.

Madam President, he must be looking for a big Christmas present or a load of speaking time next year. But in any case, I voted for this file. I think it’s a great committee. Often people are disappointed that their petitions aren’t selected and one of the things that I think we need to look at is the idea that the non-aligned members of the committee, and there are five of them, don’t have the right to nominate any petition. And I think this excludes a whole number of our citizens who would like their petitions heard. The issue was brought home very clearly to me this week when I was contacted by a Ukrainian student who was very grateful to the European Union for allowing him to travel and study at reduced rates in Latvia and in other European countries. But since the Ukrainian Government changed the rules, preventing male university students from leaving the country, tens of thousands of them have been prevented from pursuing their education. And they have gone online with a really important petition – where they’ve got tens of thousands of signatures – asking for their right to education to be seen through. They’ve got the support of the European students’ unions and, indeed, the Ukrainian student union. So I think this is something that we should use our offices here to help as it is a really important issue.

Madam President, I voted against the Multiannual Financial Framework. Two years have passed since the adoption of it. Obviously, our budget is again under strain, faced with multiple crises that are piling up, the responsibility for which largely, in many instances, is a result of our own policies or, indeed, the policies of our so-called friends. We had the US Inflation Reduction Act. Maybe this would make us realise that the misnamed free trade rules are being flouted by the world’s biggest economy and that these rules are stifling most of the world. And we can continue by almost obsessively borrowing until the crash, or we can change direction. It is time to learn the lesson from the phenomenal rise in energy crisis that has put so many European citizens in critical situations motivated by geopolitical games. We need to tackle the big companies that are profiteering off the lives of people and the biggest ones who have made Europe the most unsafe is the military industrial complex. Yet they’re the ones who got a huge boost out of this file, which is why I voted against it.

Madam President, I voted for the resolution. Qatar’s human rights record, whitewashed in exchange for bags of cash, is pretty scandalous. But it was also scandalous to see the LIBE Committee vote to give Qatar visas for Qatari oil, whitewashing their human rights record – two sides of the same coin. The resolution isn’t bad, but it could be a lot better. It feels to me that we had the opportunity to really look corruption and undue influence squarely in the eye and do something about it. But we didn’t. There are actually some 48 000 lobbyists in Brussels seeking to influence EU institutions. The nearly 12 000 organisations on the EU lobby register have a combined annual lobbying budget of EUR 1.8 billion. European defence policy has literally been written by these individuals. But instead of confronting that, the resolution dodges the question and talks solely about foreign interference. Interference is interference. Corruption is corruption. It’s all rotten. It doesn’t matter where it comes from. The influence of European money is also corrupting, and it’s about time we tackled all of it.

Madam President, the explosion of the Nord Stream pipelines was one of the biggest acts of economic sabotage ever carried out on the European Union, not to mention the devastating environmental consequences. So it is very, very strange that there’s so little discussion about it. No appetite for an investigation, no appetite for accountability, for restitution, nothing, because already having voluntarily severed our links with Russian gas, as a result of the ridiculous sanctions which are costing Europeans more than Russians, the explosion now ensures that we won’t be restarting that any time in the next few years. Instead, we’re going to be relying on filthy, environmentally devastating US LNG. And not only is it filthy, but it’s four times the price that US citizens are paying for it. So a lot of people are joining the dots. Who has the most to gain? Who has the most to lose? Without an independent investigation, those questions will continue to be asked. And we also need to draw the conclusion that the biggest threat on our energy infrastructure is militarism. War is not ended by war, but peace.

Madam President, I’m just constantly amazed by the discussions that go on in here because in the main, what we’ve been subjected to is a diatribe of anti—Chinese rhetoric, which is of no benefit to anybody living in China. Of course the people in China are fed up! Lockdowns can’t go on forever without serious social and psychological effects, and the extraordinary conditions experienced by factory workers in the Foxconn complex in Zhengzhou, where they produce iPhones, would drive anybody around the bend. They have a right to strike, lockdowns can’t be used as an excuse to railroad workers into intolerable exploitation. But we have to avoid being simplistic. Lockdowns and their effects are not unique to China, we’ve had them here. It’s been clear for a while that China would have to transition, the government has begun that process. They face huge problems with a large unvaccinated elderly population and the risk of a spike in excess mortality in a country of 1.4 billion people. With our own COVID blunders, it’s a bit facile of us leaping to judgement. If we want to be useful, let us internationally cooperate, support and help China’s ease from zero COVID.

Madam President, I really wish I could be standing up here joining in the eulogies to a free media and its crucial role as a pillar in our democracies. But I look at the media that we have, and I don’t see much freedom. Our media is strangled by money. It’s hobbled by fear. For most media organisations, access to power is far more important than holding power to account. Careers depend on toeing the line. Balance sheets demand a constant churn of stories – stories which are recycled from official statements, press releases, social media, anywhere but out in the world; anything but upset the status quo. Nick Davies described this in 2008 as ‘the mass production of ignorance’. 14 years later, it’s way worse now. So if we want to hold ourselves as the defenders of media freedom, we have to recognise that our mainstream media is anything but free. It’s a water carrier for political and corporate power dedicated to enforcing the demands of global capital, and people like Julian Assange are the exceptions, the ones who pay the price. If we don’t accept that, we’re on a hiding to nothing.

Mr  President, we tried to include in this question an explanation on how fundamental rights would be safeguarded in the Commission’s disinformation package, particularly in light of the zeal for using sanctions against organisations and individuals accused of disinformation. Sanctions are tools of international law, not domestic law. Fundamental rights protections in our legal system don’t apply in international law. Sanctions are imposed by governments, not courts. So the burden of proof and the standard of evidence are lower. Sanctioned individuals don’t have the right to hear or challenge the accusations against them. Surely to any democrat the proposal to use sanctions to tackle disinformation has to be seen as an end run around due process and undermining the rights of the accused. It threatens to do serious harm to the rule of law and freedom of expression, the very cores of democracy. It will inevitably lead to a deprivation of rights, as the UN counter-terrorism sanctions regime has done also. So I would ask the Commission: what steps is it taking to safeguard fundamental rights?

Mr President, we’re here today talking about defending the European Union against abuse of national vetoes. But to be honest, I’m much more interested in talking about defending national vetoes from the European Union. There is a sustained and deliberate campaign in this Parliament to undermine the right enshrined in the treaties to veto Council decisions, the very basis of the EU. Let me be clear: when it comes to foreign and defence policy, we should never, ever give those who dream of an imperial Europe what they want and abolish the veto. You can’t talk about a union of equals with the one breath and steamroll over small states with the next. Every Member State has its own interests, its own priorities, its own concerns. Of course, it might be difficult at times to find a solution that suits everyone. Sometimes states might use the veto as leverage, that’s politics. Talking about aid to Ukraine being blocked by the veto is nonsense. If Member States wanted to give macro-assistance they could give it, just not in the name of the Union. It’s time to stop this moral outrage, we’re not the United States of Europe.

Madam President, the worst is yet to come, so said the IMF in October. Europe’s economies are being decimated by sanctions. Millions of Europeans are going to have to decide between heating and eating this winter. People in Poland are burning rubbish to keep warm and the lights are winking out in German industry. The Russians are laughing at us. The Americans are laughing at us. And I wouldn’t blame them, because when Europe decided to go to war, it ended up cutting its own throat. And then we have the Inflation Reduction Act – a coup de grâce from the US to a Europe that it knows is bleeding. So much for our like-minded partners. They’re doing what they always do: putting America first. That’s the business they’re in. But what is the response of the EU? Nothing. We’re too busy shooting ourselves in both feet, failing to try and secure an end to the war while the US charges us four times the price for energy, having made us dependent. In a modern war, the only winner is global capital; ordinary people always lose. We should remember that the next time we talk about peace being treason.

Mr President, we hear a lot these days about the rules-based international order. Well, Turkey’s action in northern Syria and Iraq is a very good example of that in practice. It’s one rule for NATO members and one for everyone else. Turkey has invaded northern Syria, slaughtered the Kurds there, annexed and occupied Syrian land. Turkey has rolled over them in NATO tanks, bombed them with NATO aircraft. Its NATO troops wielding NATO weapons have driven them from their homes. Yet the West calls the Kurds allies even as it arms and supports Turkish savagery against them. And when Turkey goes in again, what can we expect from the EU and the US? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Why would we when already they stand by and starve and murder Syrian men, women and children with their illegal sanctions? Western Imperium has no friends, only interests. But you’re playing a very dangerous game.

Mr President, the Palestinian leadership showed great willingness to compromise when principally agreeing to a two-State solution. But for as long as it has been the main approach, settlement expansion and annexation has continued. Palestinians live under a militarised apartheid regime that systematically oppresses, brutalises and discriminates against them, enforcing settler violence, evictions, demolitions, colonisation of their neighbourhoods. Israel embarks on sprees of spectacular military violence against a civilian population in Gaza, feebly justified on the basis of a security threat. And of course, in theory, the EU regrets all this. But it never has consequences. Instead, we excuse it. We reward Israel with deepening bilateral cooperation and the Zionist ultra-right advances. These are facts. With every year, a two-State solution is less viable. We have to call a spade a spade. There is no peace process. It’s a process of annexation under false pretences and we all know it.

Mr President, Last week, as a result of the work of the Lighthouse Reports, we saw Bulgarian border guards shooting a Syrian teenager. We heard shocking reports of EU funds being used to lock migrants in an open cage while Frontex stands idly by. Pushbacks are routine; violence is systemic. Then we hear that Bulgaria and Romania’s accession to Schengen is being blocked by Austria and the Netherlands as a result of the situation on the border – not because of the persecution and brutalisation of migrants, but because that brutality is not enough. You couldn’t make it up. This is Frontex Europe, fortress Europe – a core of greedy racists farming out its dirty work to the poor of Europe’s periphery, a violent continent selfishly guarding its stolen wealth. The people of Bulgaria and Romania have waited 10 years to join Schengen. Let them in. Stop demanding more violence as a condition of entry. Schengen membership should not be paid in migrants blood.

Madam President, last Thursday, we attended the appeal hearing in Lesvos of two Afghan refugees, Amir Zahiri and Akif Razuli, against a 50-year sentence given to them for smuggling when they were simply passengers on a boat from Turkey seeking refuge in Greece. A boat which the Greek coastguard attempted to push back and damaged; a journey which ended with them spending almost three years in jail for a crime which the court admitted there was no evidence against Razuli and barely a clear against Zahiri. An appeal which took four visits to the court, including a delay of eight months at one stage to get a coast guard present, and in the end he didn’t show up at all. So while I welcome the fact that they are now free, it is an outrage that migrants continue to be criminalised and tortured in Greece. It’s against the UN protocol against smuggling. Thousands upon thousands remain in Greek jails for the so-called crime of ‘boat driving’. This is an abomination. When is the EU going to call Greece to account and respect and observe fundamental rights? This is your Europe. This is your values.

Madam President, there are persistent challenges in the aviation sector, particularly for workers, and the Commission has to take its responsibility for its part in that. For the past 15 years, the Parliament has been calling for action to address the situation, but for all the words, there is very little to show for it. Earlier this year, 13 members of the TRAN Committee sent a letter to the Commissioner’s cabinet reaffirming our strong support for Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 dealing with the social conditions for air crew. We were demanding legislative proposals by the end of this year to allow us to complete this revision in this mandate. What did we get? Nothing. Postponed; another impact assessment; it is not even on the Commission’s work programme for 2023. So pilots and crew can look forward to the continuation of bogus self—employment, pay—to—fly, undeclared work, non-compliance with the posting legislation, and on and on. Yes, COVID had a huge impact, but there was precious little interest in workers’ rights before this. So you want to get your act together, or like the railway workers, aviation workers are going to have to take action.

Madam President, as we’ve had a lot of talk about lobbying today, let us register that the COP delegations were able to benefit from the advice of 636 representatives from the oil and gas industry. Of course, surprise, surprise, the end deal had no mention of any phase—out of fossil fuels in the final decision. Fossil fuels at the very heart of our global CO2 emissions. But of course, the COP wasn’t a disaster for everyone. Fourteen international gas agreements were sealed or announced. Germany even signed a partnership with Egypt for gas supplies on the eve of the World Climate Summit. And yes, we have had talk about the historic loss and damage fund. But seriously, USD 360 million? Pakistan alone has suffered losses of USD 30 billion. Globally, there has been USD 200 billion in costs of extreme weather this year alone. What happened to the promise in 2009 that there was going to be a fund of USD 100 billion a year by 2020? It’s very clear, capitalism is not going to solve the climate problem. We can’t rely on events sponsored by Coca Cola, the world’s biggest plastic producer. We need to take action ourselves.

Mr President, I voted against this report. Its timing is pretty appropriate coming, as it does, a few short weeks after the 11th anniversary of the day Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed during the NATO assault on Libya: sodomised with a bayonet and shot in the head. The NATO intervention in Libya, carried out in the name of protecting freedom, democracy and human rights, is one we’d do well to remember as NATO plays out its proxy war in Ukraine in the name of, you’ve guessed it, freedom, democracy and human rights. Because what happens after NATO intervenes in your country on this basis? Terror, death, lawlessness, rape, poverty, starvation. Libya is a country riven by conflict, its economy shattered, its population – formerly the wealthiest in Africa – ridden and mired in poverty. Migrants are bought and sold in slave markets. A million people rely on humanitarian aid. It’s a country of mass graves, of crimes against humanity. This is NATO’s legacy. This is NATO’s right strategy and democracy.

Mr President, I abstained on this report. To the spotless minds in Europe, EU enlargement is about growing our happy family of democratic nations, prospering together in a brotherly paradise of enterprise and free trade. But the truth is, it’s a rich boys’ club, in which membership hinges upon sweeping neoliberal reforms –the last batch about boosting NATO and a pool of cheap labour for the West. And for the last 20 years, we’ve left candidate countries in the Balkans in accession purgatory, while we’ve lorded it over them through one thing or another. And now we’re going in the opposite direction for all the wrong reasons. The report is infected with megalomania. Enlargement is now explicitly described as part of an EU geographic strategy against Russia. Wow! What a proposition to put to the working people in our neighbourhood. We want your country as a chess piece. You, too, can be like Ukraine. The world isn’t our chessboard and the EU shouldn’t have an enlargement strategy. We should welcome those who want to join, respect those who don’t and stop ending this meddling.

Mr President, I voted in favour of this report. The plan to raise EUR 17 billion a year for the EU budget from a new system of taxation on corporations and levies on emissions has been around for a while and is okay as far as it goes. But I do have some sympathy for people who are concerned about EU overreach. But a much bigger concern I have is that the EU hasn’t exactly been the most reliable guardian of the money that it already collects. We’ve had EUR 8 billion kicked into a slush fund for the arms industry through the European Defence Fund, EUR 5.7 billion through the sick joke of a European Peace Facility and EUR 1.9 billion to the Internal Security Fund. If that wasn’t bad enough, the EU budget now has a bonanza for weapons manufacturing with a staggering EUR 43.9 billion in public money going to security and defence. That’s EUR 43.9 billion earmarked for arms surveillance, border control, military R&D, and so on. You have to ask, will this EUR 17 billion end up being spent on the same stuff? Will it help people heat their homes, house the homeless, or will it pour into the pockets of the arms industry?

Mr President, Eastern Congo is one of the wealthiest regions in the world, home to a variety of natural resources – gold, diamonds, oil – and the largest producer of cobalt, at 70%. And because of this, it’s been plagued by fighting with massively over 120 rebel groups in that area for over 25 years, with Rwanda accused of stirring it up in a proxy war to gain access to those resources. And the consequences for the people of that region have already been tragically articulated in this Chamber. The systemic and deliberate use of mass rapes, designed terror in order to force people to flee from their homes, leading to massive trauma, which will be felt for generations. This absolutely has to be dealt with. Now, last week, the DRC’s National Assembly voted to exclude the option of dialogue with M23. The Supreme Defence Council decided to increase the strike force of defence and security forces against M23. This is lunacy. There cannot be a military solution. There will be no justice without peace. Absolutely everything has to be done to get that, so those responsible can be held to account.

Mr President, in recent months, we’ve seen the arrest and imprisonment of trade union representatives in Belarus. Most recently, the Vice—President of the Belarusian Independent Labour Union was sentenced to 30 months in prison. And protests and strikes led by working—class people have highlighted the level of discontent with the Lukashenko government. As a former trade unionist, I absolutely support the struggles of workers everywhere. But I think it’s interesting we have a second plenary in a row where we’re discussing the repression of the opposition in Belarus, and we’ve never once mentioned the repression of the opposition in Ukraine, the banning of opposition parties, the kill—lists of dissidents, the banning of trade unions, the decimation of workers’ rights in that state. And the European Union has to stop looking at protests in countries we don’t like as an opportunity to have a go at them. The Belarus protests are not guided by neoliberal—inspired policies of the West. They have a right to have their protests without Western interference. If you’re interested in workers’ rights and democratic rights, stand by the workers who are being persecuted inside the European Union.

Mr President, more than a year after the international community adopted a policy of not dealing with the Taliban. More than a year after the US froze USD 7 billion of Afghan financial resources and continued vicious sanctions against that country, and more than a year after the EU spent a mere EUR 400 million on humanitarian aid for Afghanistan, despite the US spending USD 300 million a day for 20 years during the war, we have got to a place where now women are even banned from public parks. What an absolute unmitigated disaster. Ignoring Afghanistan is not a solution. Yes, we should open our borders and take in refugees. Daily, I have met with desperate pleas of people, but how many are we going to take? One million, two million? Then what are we going to do with the millions who are left behind? I’m assuming that nobody here is mad enough to think of invading again. If that’s the case, we have to deal with reality. The most basic human right is the right to life. We have to start allowing the economy to function, linking improvements to that. Anything else is condemning Afghan women not just to exclusion, but to death. We have to stop standing idly by.

Mr President, I’d just like to really add my comments to the strong words of colleagues that we do ourselves no favours by being geopolitical in which human rights that we condemn. And the testimony of activists in Egypt is really quite frightening. At least 520 websites blocked, 129 of them news sites. The government actively tracking down and targeting those who publish content on social media which is critical of government policies, even as people experience very difficult living conditions. And we’ve even had a number of women who had used TikTok to present dancing content being imprisoned on the grounds of protecting morals. So we have to be very clear in calling out that there has to be an end to the internet censorship, including blocking news websites, particularly Mada Masr, Al-Manassa and Darb. We must encourage the government to adopt amendments to the NGO law, which effectively means that the security services decide which NGOs can operate. And we must call and add our call to the call of this Parliament for Alaa Abd El-Fattah to be released and freed from his illegal detention.