What Clare spoke about.

17 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Sustainable maritime fuels (FuelEU Maritime Initiative) - Deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure (debate)

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Mr President, these are the first main files of the ‘Fit for 55’ package that we’ve had to deal with in the TRAN Committee and I have to say, looking on them, I’m not that hopeful that we will meet our environmental goals. I mean, shipping emits 3% of global CO2 emissions, yet the International Maritime Organisation has so far failed to adopt global reduction measures in this field. We, of course,…

17 Oct

2022

EN Speech

FRONTEX's responsibility for fundamental rights violations at EU's external borders in light of the OLAF report (debate)

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Mr President, I have to agree with colleagues that the saddest part of this discussion is that, as shocking as it is, it contains nothing new. The report is very clear, and I thank OLAF for it, but we know that Frontex has carried out pushbacks. We know that Frontex has funded the Greek Government in carrying out pushbacks; we know that Frontex has deliberately withdrawn surveillance to a allow fo…

17 Oct

2022

EN Speech

The Rule of Law in Malta, five years after the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia (debate)

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Mr President, the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia was a tragic loss for European journalism. She was a genuinely fearless investigative reporter who worked throughout her career to bring important truths to light, and God knows there are very few who do that kind of work in the European media. Fearless reporting is a rarity. What dominates the European media instead is client journalism, and it f…

17 Oct

2022

EN Speech

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (debate)

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Madam President, I think it is ironic that the theme of this year’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is ‘dignity for all in practice’ when it comes, as we heard earlier, in the same week that High Representative Borrell tells the globe that Europe is a garden and the rest of the world is a jungle. And apart from the sycophantic racism and arrogance, which is a million miles from di…

6 Oct

2022

EN Speech

The death of Mahsa Amini and the repression of women's rights protesters in Iran (B9-0425/2022, RC-B9-0434/2022, B9-0434/2022, B9-0435/2022, B9-0436/2022, B9-0439/2022, B9-0442/2022, B9-0455/2022)

Watch

Mr President, Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody is very concerning. There should be a full and transparent inquiry, and the people of Iran have every right to protest and push their government for women’s rights and civil and social reforms. They should be able to do that without shocking violence and repression from the authorities. But they should equally be able to do it without the EU tryi…

6 Oct

2022

EN Speech

COVID-19 – Sustaining EU preparedness and response: looking ahead (debate)

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Mr President, I think we definitely should look at preparedness in terms of a new pandemic. I certainly never want to see the horrific images of Italy being abandoned as it was at the start of the outbreak. But one of the major lessons that we have learned is that infectious disease surveillance and research has declined. Another lesson is, of course, the commodification of health care, which actu…

5 Oct

2022

EN Speech

The recent humanitarian and human rights situation in Tigray, Ethiopia, notably that of children

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Mr President, this is undoubtedly a human catastrophe of proportions that we don’t actually really know. Thirteen million people, at least, in need of humanitarian assistance in northern Ethiopia, according to the World Food Programme. Estimates of maybe 100 000 through direct killings; deaths from hunger – maybe 200 000; maybe half a million from lack of healthcare. But what we do know is that th…

5 Oct

2022

EN Speech

The Media freedom crackdown in Myanmar, notably the cases of Htet Htet Khine, Sithu Aung Myint and Nyein Nyein Aye

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Mr President, the situation in Myanmar is appalling. Mass arrests, detention of critics, beatings and deaths in custody, the use of the death penalty – all indefensible – and, in particular, attacks on freedom of expression, with journalists and activists charged with incitement and sedition for criticising the military; with the crime of causing fear and spreading fake news. This is an abominatio…

5 Oct

2022

EN Speech

The situation of human rights in Haiti in particular related to gang violence

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Mr President, Haiti is the site of the first and only successful slave revolution in history. Haitians won their independence from France in 1804 and immediately abolished slavery, becoming the first place in the world to do so. It was also the first state to outlaw racism in its constitution. Haiti was a beacon of light for the world, and it was punished for it. It was punished over and over agai…

5 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Humanitarian situation after the devastating floods in Pakistan and the climate crisis (debate)

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Mr President, what happened in Pakistan is devastation beyond belief and there is no question but that it is climate induced. 53 degrees, glacial melts, a monsoon going into October, one third of the country under water, 33 million affected. We’ve even heard about schools being shut down because they’re needed for shelters, so all of the young people are being denied an education. Pakistan’s Clima…

5 Oct

2022

EN Speech

The accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area (debate)

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Madam President, I want to welcome and support the accession of new countries to Schengen. I firmly believe in the free movement of absolutely everybody, but I find it very hard to separate Schengen expansion from the violence that is going on at the edges of Europe. The grotesque and spectacular violence and abuse against refugees trying to enter Croatia and, to a lesser extent, Bulgaria and Roma…

5 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Countering the anti-European and anti-Ukrainian propaganda of Putin’s European cronies (topical debate)

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Mr President, the war in Ukraine is quickly escalating into a wider horror. And from what I can see, practically nobody in this Chamber is doing anything to prevent it. In fact most people seem to get off on the fact that it’s escalating. And at this precise moment, of course, as usual, the voices challenging the rush to war are attacked and silenced, smeared as traitors, cronies, Putin puppets, K…

4 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Access to water as a human right – the external dimension (debate)

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Madam President, Credit Suisse, the private investment bank, has the following extract on its website: ‘Water is a focus for those in the know about global strategic commodities. As with oil, the supply is finite, but demand is going up by leaps and unlike oil there is no alternative.’ Water is scarce, but the profits aren’t. Of course, this is the root of the problem – the commodification of wate…

4 Oct

2022

EN Speech

The EU’s strategic relationship and partnership with the Horn of Africa (debate)

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Madam President, I don’t think you’d have to be a genius to know that the last thing the Horn of Africa needs is more foreign military bases, more weapons, and more European meddling. What we call our ‘strategic relationship’ isn’t about human flourishing; it’s about the EU’s ambitions as a superpower. There’s now a new great game in the Horn of Africa. Greater and lesser powers are pockmarking th…

4 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Commission proposal for measures under the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation in the case of Hungary (debate)

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Madam President, so we finally have some proposals now for action on the rule of law conditionality mechanism, though whether it’ll actually come to anything or not is very much an open question. Because, to be honest, there is plenty of wriggle room for Hungary to escape sanctions. So I really will believe this when I see it. But of course, the escape valves in the proposal aren’t the only notabl…

4 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Situation of Roma people living in settlements in the EU (debate)

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Madam President, I welcome this debate and the resolution that goes with it – of course I do. Anything that gets the massive discrimination, repression and systemic exclusion faced by Roma onto the agenda has to be welcomed – and it’s not nonsense, and it’s not political correctness. I know many Irish travellers. They’ve been educated with my daughter. They live in my community. They’re in our par…

3 Oct

2022

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Madam President, month after month we gather here, and month after month, the people of Afghanistan suffer and die. They die from hunger, from lack of access to medicine, from earthquakes. They die because they want to send their girls to school! Fifty-three mainly young women slaughtered in Kabul last week and our President couldn’t even mention them earlier. Increasingly, they die because they a…

3 Oct

2022

EN Speech

The EU's actions in the field of freedom of religion or belief worldwide (debate)

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Madam President, for me, I’ve been a lifelong campaigner for the separation of church and state. Religion, for me, is very much a private matter and I myself am an atheist. But I absolutely defend the right of every person to practice their religious beliefs, whatever that may be. I noticed that colleagues are very vocal about the discrimination against Christianity and absolutely there is discrim…

3 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Momentum for the Ocean: strengthening Ocean Governance and Biodiversity (debate)

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Madam President, I think it is a good motion on ocean governance and I too am glad to see the reference to military waste and activity, because military activity treating our ocean as a firing range is massively damaging to biodiversity. And just mentioning it isn’t enough: we’re going to have to do a lot more to tackle it. And of course we cannot ignore the methane explosion in the Baltic Sea as …

3 Oct

2022

EN Speech

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control - Serious cross-border threats to health (debate)

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Madam President, and I think while there is certainly a need to improve and deepen European collaboration in order to prevent, monitor and respond to cross-border health threats, I think COVID, more than anything, has highlighted actually the harmful consequences of neoliberal policy adjusted to the health sector and promoted in the EU. The commodification of health care is assaulting the principl…

15 Sep

2022

EN Speech

Consequences of drought, fire, and other extreme weather phenomena: increasing EU's efforts to fight climate change (RC-B9-0384/2022, B9-0384/2022, B9-0391/2022, B9-0393/2022, B9-0403/2022, B9-0404/2022, B9-0405/2022)

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Madam President, I voted for this motion. I would like to compliment the work of our very own Damien Thomson from Firhouse in Dublin, who was the main negotiator on the text, and we are very proud and happy to see it. But we have to be honest as well that a lot of the good stuff in this is contradicted by our actions. The motion acknowledges that we’re not doing enough, that the Green Deal and Fit…

15 Sep

2022

EN Speech

Existence of a clear risk of a serious breach by Hungary of the values on which the Union is founded (A9-0217/2022 - Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield)

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Madam President, I’m really annoyed that I had to abstain on this motion because of an outrageous recital giving out about Hungary blocking sanctions against Russia. If Hungary wants to block sanctions because their economy is dependent on Russia, that’s their business. If they want to block sanctions because they love Putin, we might not agree with it, but that’s the law of the European Union. Eu…

15 Sep

2022

EN Speech

Ecological Disaster in the Oder River (debate)

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Madam President, I have to say I’m glad that we’re having this discussion but obviously sorry that we have had to because, as colleagues have said, since the end of July we’ve had unquantifiable tonnes of dead fish floating on the Oder river between Germany and Poland. And it is an environmental disaster of enormous proportions, the cause of which has not been clarified, the full of extent of whic…

14 Sep

2022

EN Speech

Renewed partnership with the Southern Neighbourhood – a new agenda for the Mediterranean (A9-0220/2022 - Antonio López-Istúriz White)

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Mr President, my problem with this report is that Libya seems to have been forgotten in it, getting only the vaguest of mentions. But then Libya always seems to be forgotten. I can’t remember any urgency or resolution in here since I started, dealing directly with the fact that Libya is now hell on earth for the people who live there or who are stuck there. And given the direct responsibility of a…

14 Sep

2022

EN Speech

Nicaragua, in particular the arrest of the bishop Rolando Álvarez

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Madam President. What you have to explain and what you never explain in motions like this is why your so—called authoritarian regimes also have massive support. Instead, what we’re presented with is effectively a cartoon. You reduce diverse and complicated histories to a single cliché. You pretend that a section of the population – the comprador middle class – is the people, and you ignore the lar…