Speeches

Madam President, I think in some ways this regulation is a little bit like trying to close the stable door after the horse has bolted. In 2007, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive introduced competition in the market of equity trading in line with the objectives of the European Union, which made free movement of capital a fundamental freedom protected by the Treaties. Now this is neoliberalism unleashed. What did you actually expect would happen? It was inevitable that speculators were going to gamble on the markets in food and commodities, enabling them to make massive profits while pauperising and starving people in the process. We see the global food price crisis that we’ve witnessed, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, really exposing the real nature of our society, which puts financial interests before the economic well-being of citizens. And while we may try to curb that power here and introduce transparency, the truth is that casino capitalism is uncontrollable. You can’t keep a tiger as a pet. Financial speculation is parasitic; it’s non-productive. It should be outlawed in totality. Full stop!

Mr President, I think these files are really necessary and very important. Reducing gas emissions has to be a key priority if we're going to save the planet. But I have to be honest and say it's very hard to take the EU's commitment seriously in this regard when it's 16 months since the Nord Stream 2 gas explosions. Sixteen months since the biggest act of economic sabotage on EU infrastructure, releasing 15 million tonnes of CO2 in six days, one third of the Danish annual total, causing a massive toxicological disaster for the Baltic area. And no one wants to know what happened. No urgency, no enthusiasm to follow up the leads about US or Ukrainian involvement, filibustering and disruption of the investigation from the Polish authorities. Everybody knows these things are going on, so you can talk about your environmental commitments all you like, but the truth will out and your credibility is on the line by failing to investigate this.

Mr President, I would have really liked to have voted in favour of this text, because for the first time that I can remember, the European Parliament is rightfully condemning a right-wing coup attempt against a democratically elected leader in a Latin American country. The Guatemalan people made their choice earlier this year. They decided on change, and instead of accepting that, entrenched interests in the Guatemalan state have fought the will of the people at every turn, using every means available to overturn a democratic election and cling to power. It’s an absolute disgrace. It has to stop, and it is very right that we recognise that. Unfortunately, however, in an otherwise good resolution, there is, yet again, a call for EU sanctions. And for me, there has to be a conversation about the increasingly reflexive calls for sanctions in this body. It’s not possible to solve every problem in the world with coercion. We need to stop sanctioning at the drop of a hat. If it hadn’t been for this, I would have supported the motion. I had to abstain, but I really hope for an orderly, democratic transition in Guatemala and for the rights of its wonderful people to be upheld.

Mr President, I abstained on this resolution because, while I appreciate that it certainly does have good points, it doesn’t go far enough on Frontex. At this point, Frontex is less of a border agency, much more like a mafia gang, a mafia gang working hand in glove with all the Member States’ mafiosos, policing Europe’s external borders. Frontex is ignoring Court of Justice rulings, still working with the Lithuanians, who are also ignoring those judgements, where complicity in violent attacks on migrants runs from top to bottom, where crimes are covered up, evidence is destroyed ,where its own fundamental rights officer is sidelined and stonewalled, where OLAF found serious misconduct, failure of leadership and essentially corruption, and where the management board proposes a new executive director and covers up for the fact that he’s been investigated for misconduct. Every step of the way, it’s shielded by the Commission. That is why it does what it does. Europe’s treatment of refugees is a crime against humanity. This lip service is fooling nobody.

Mr President, I voted in favour of this report because I think it’s a really important text that allows for the mutual recognition of judgements relating to parenthood. It simply states that if you are the parent in one Member State, then you’re a parent in all Member States. It puts the rights of the child first, which is as it should be, and it doesn’t change the substantive family law of Member States. This is absolutely critical. It’s not acceptable that children could lose their parents, legally speaking, when they enter another Member State in the European Union. I’m reminded today of Mandy Kelly, an Irish mother who today is before the Petitions Committee in the Irish Parliament because her Egyptian husband abducted her two children in April 2022. She is seeking all during that time to have her parental rights vindicated, to have the rights of those children upheld and the court rulings in Ireland upheld. We need a bilateral arrangement also with countries like Egypt outside of the European Union, but for now, parental rights within the EU must be protected.

Mr President, I think there is an urgent need to improve the enforcement of EU law, particularly in cases which involve a large amount of European citizens. Since I started in this mandate, I’ve been working with a group of Irish citizens who bought apartments in a complex in Bulgaria, in Sunset Resort in Pomorie, and have had an incredibly difficult time in getting their rights under European law vindicated. They’ve had illegal practices by the management company using its monopoly power to overcharge and disconnect them in terms of energy supplies, without any consumer protection – protection which is guaranteed to them in EU law that they would have a direct connection to the electricity and energy supply. These people have gone everywhere to have their rights under EU law vindicated. They’ve contacted the Bulgarian authorities, the European authorities, initiated numerous legal proceedings in Bulgaria against annual general meetings and so on – there’s even 20 cases now. There’s an urgent need. They were before the PETI Committee this year. The Commission needs to take note and act to protect citizens.

Madam President, well, it’s a wrap: COP 28 has finally concluded with a fanfare and a celebration, and the news reports of an historic moment of a COP agreement that, for the first time, mentions fossil fuels. Hooray. I mean, can we really celebrate this when, even with the newly submitted revised climate targets, we’re still on our way to a world of over three degrees? It is an utterly terrifying prospect. When you look at it, the COP is an exercise in international relations, and the EU’s influence depends on sincere dialogue and the pursuit of good relations with all states. To be effective, we have to be more diplomatic and less polarising. And it might be surprising for people outside of here to know that the EU’s relations with China in the field of climate change have been absolutely excellent cooperation, far better than the yo-yo approach of the US. Throughout the year, and at COP, the EU and China work together even when they have divergent positions. We need to become a bridge-builder, not just in the area of climate change, but also in the area of peace and anti-war because you can’t protect the environment if you support war.

Madam President, well surprise, surprise, more money for militarism! We already have a European Defence Fund – EUR 8 billion in free money doled out to arms companies to research and develop new ways of killing people. We are already topping that up by EUR 10 billion with the STEP programme, we already have ASAP, where we hand out EUR 500 million to arms companies to make shells and missiles, and we already have EDIRPA – EUR 300 million more in pocket money for Member States to shop for weapons. Now the move is on to take them all, to ramp them up, pile in more cash and make them permanent, with the European Defence Industry package. Citizens need to understand that the war hawks are taking over. They’re hoovering up astronomical sums of public money that could make life better and investing it instead in war. They’re transforming the EU into a massive machine for churning out bullets and bombs – a Europe in the shadow of war where people go hungry, go homeless, go without heating while the merchants of death swallow our future. Enough already. Another Europe is not only possible, but absolutely necessary!

Mr President, nearly two years into the Ukraine war and the slogans are sounding hollow: Europe’s cheerleaders have moved on to pastures new, and the predictions of the anti-war voices, viciously demonised, are now coming to pass. We’ve gone from ‘as long as it takes’ to ‘long enough’: the Western betrayal that was always coming is now in progress, and Ukraine is being pushed to consider peace terms much worse than what was possible in April 2022, when it was forced to fight on by its friends in NATO. Tens of thousands of dead who did not have to die. Tracts of land that could have been saved that are now occupied. Devastating environmental consequences: a 12-month interim assessment calculated emissions equivalent to the total annual greenhouse gas output of Belgium, and that is before you look at fracked gas imports, energy costs by the fossil fuel companies and Nord Stream 2 – a calamity from start to finish. Another clue of how bad European leaders are, happy to let things carry on as long as someone else’s pain and other people’s children are dying.

Mr President, the economic security strategy, presented last June by the High Representative aims, in its own words, to protect the EU’s interests against the militarisation of economic ties and to find the right balance between the openness that the EU wishes to maintain and the protection of our values and interests. Let’s be clear about it: the only values we are interested in protecting are exactly our interests. And even though the text makes no mention of China, the strategy is a deliberate choice to align the EU even more closely to the United States’ all out technological conflict in order to hinder China’s fast growing technology sector. The strategy presents four technologies and the risks to be assessed and does not exclude protective measures. The weaponisation of knowledge, scientific research and technological advances is a real threat to the major challenges facing us – climate change, new health crisis and digitalisation require a different type of cooperative approach. The approach in this document appears that Europe is more of a playground than a player.

Mr President, I think it would be really prudent for everybody here to read the UN Genocide Convention of 1948 and to reflect on words and actions of recent weeks. All of the essential elements of the crime of genocide, as legally defined there, are present in what Israel is doing in Gaza. It is normally difficult to show intent, but not this time. Open declarations of genocidal intent every day from the top of Israel’s Government, open because they know they’re protected by the US and Europe. So again, to those who say Israel has a right to defend itself, I urge you, read the Genocide Convention and maybe have a chat with your lawyer because you could be complicit in international war crimes. It’s not complicated, for peace in the region, the Zionist apartheid state of Israel must be dismantled. That is now understood by a majority of the world’s population, including substantial sections of Jews. No justice, no peace.

Madam President, time and again we’re asked to believe that the EU is a bastion of democracy in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Rather, it holds democracy in contempt. When citizens elect the wrong government, like in Greece, the gloves come off in Brussels, and that government is crushed. When citizens vote the wrong way in a referendum in Ireland, they’re made to vote again. And after denouncing foreign agents laws abroad, now the Commission wants one here at home. We have a defence of democracy package that has 200 NGOs ringing alarm bells because of the threat it poses to civil society. And the crowning irony of this is that this package is from the Commission of Ursula von der Leyen – a person elevated to power without a single vote from the citizens, who has spent the last two months swooping in and overriding the foreign policies of elected governments, all to cheerlead a brutal apartheid regime that she calls a vibrant democracy as it pulverises a city of children. Well my God, with defenders of democracy like that, I think I speak for many, many citizens of Europe when I say nein Danke – no thanks, Frau Genocide.

Madam President, information about your health is obviously some of the most sensitive information that there is. It should be yours to guard and share as you choose. It’s your family history. It’s your weaknesses. It’s your strengths. And it needs to be treated with care and respect. If you agree to share that data, then that’s grand. But the Commission’s proposal is to forcibly enrol all of us into a digital system that will collect, share and manage our health information, whether we agree to it or not. Dress it up the way you like; that’s the Commission’s proposal. Big tech, big pharma, health insurance companies, they’ll all be given free rein to the most painfully sensitive information about our lives for their own profit, with or without our consent. It’s offered on a plate. As colleagues have said, doctors can’t opt out. For me, this is lunacy. It’s a laser-focused strategy to make the rich richer while making public health poorer. A lot of European citizens don’t want it; a lot of doctors don’t want it. If you want clarity, it’s very obvious from listening to this debate that you’ve got to vote for the amendments that have been tabled.

Mr President, Seven weeks of disaster suffered by the people of Gaza. For seven weeks, the world looked at how long Israel destroyed a city full of children, and it was not only once that the European Union mentioned the word ‘ceasefire’. Seven weeks, and then, a psychic humanitarian pause. A week for those who were still alive to escape the debris, to put their children in the ground. And again with Israel to the slaughter. At least 18 000 dead and every day European leaders say they stand with Israel. The European Union stands by genocide. The people of Ireland do not stand with Israel. We did not fight for the releases to bring others under control. We will stand by Palestine forever. Palestine will be free from the rivers to the sea. Your day will come. Palestinian Day will come.

Madam President, it’s not a coincidence that three of the four speakers are from Ireland, because we have a huge problem in Ireland in terms of mental health, but we’re not the only ones. Mental health in Europe is taking a nosedive, and our chronically underfunded and overworked healthcare professionals can’t cope. The pandemic and its aftermath have exacerbated clear deficits in our care system, leaving thousands of vulnerable people without the support they need. But really, is it any wonder that Europeans face record levels of stress, as more and more people struggle to feed their families, heat their homes? Pay is dwindling, prices are soaring, and it’s ordinary people who get caught in the crossfire. Thirty-seven per cent of workers under 30 are on temporary contracts. Most young Europeans live paycheque to paycheque without ever having the prospect of a decent roof over their heads. We’re witnessing failing safety nets, exploitative business practices, money-driven politics and severe inequality. Neoliberal capitalism has done untold damage to the well-being and mental health of Europeans. It breeds disempowerment, isolation and uncertainty. We can’t talk about mental health without talking about the conditions that trigger it.

Madam President, I think the report – initially ambitious – was largely gutted by the EPP in what is becoming quite a trend in here with reports. And so we have taxation, instead of being the great leveller, being used as a sort of a Robin Hood in reverse, robbing from the poor and those on middle incomes to enrich those at the very top – whether it’s the military industrial complex, Big Pharma, Big Agri, there it is. An EU wealth tax on the top richest 0.5% in each company would bring in EUR 213 billion in additional revenue every year, according to a recent report. This top 0.5% alone holds almost 20% of Europe’s wealth, which has increased over 35% in the last 10 years and ultimately is getting off very, very lightly. For too long, governments are relying on austerity, cutting costs, making ordinary people pay. Well, this inequality can’t go on much longer. Capitalism has created its own gravediggers. The game is up.

Madam President, I voted for this report. Parliament’s position on spyware should be clear: no sale of it, no use of it. Full stop. The end. It’s not abuse that’s the problem as the resolution said – it’s use. There is no way to use spyware that isn’t abusive. It’s a weapon, it’s targeting our civilians, and no European government should be using weapons against its citizens, against civilians. Of course, it is no surprise at all that this was developed in Israel, Israel being infamous for being at the cutting edge of technologies of vicious repression. It is the nerve centre of global development of technologies of violence, subjugation and control, weapons and surveillance technology tested on Palestinians and marketed and sold to Western governments, with boasts of its effectiveness in grinding people’s rights into the dust. There is even a name for it: the Palestine Laboratory. Well, as long as this laboratory exists, the world is a more dangerous, violent place, and the cause of Palestine is the cause of the world. If anyone in here cares about human rights, you’ll wake up and recognise that.

Madam President, I voted for this report because I believe that an improved approach to humanitarian aid is, in fact, badly needed. We see this, in particular, as the reports emerge of the Commission blocking necessary aid to Palestinian organisations, killing them with paperwork even as the humanitarian disaster gets worse there. Talk of monitoring their social media posts, insinuating that legitimate criticisms of Zionist Israel is the same as anti-Semitism, which of course it isn’t. I also believe that forgotten crises need to be remembered. I particularly want to put on record the appalling devastation being experienced by the people of Afghanistan two years after the US withdrawal. The country is as unstable as it was. Their bank assets are still frozen and taken by the West. We had a recent earthquake where 3 000 people died and it didn’t even get a mention in the newspaper. Over a million Afghans are being expelled from Pakistan with nowhere to go. How is this people supposed to expect to face a deadly winter? USD 400 million needed by the World Food Bank, and not a fraction of that money coming before them.

Madam President, I voted against this report. For decades, European space efforts have been civilian, and this report attempts to move us away from that. The generals and the arms lobbyists are knocking at the door with pockets full of threat multipliers and defence research proposals. Privatisation and militarisation of the final frontier: one great stride for war and one giant leap for profit. And the MEPs are going along with it. The first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, wrote, ‘Let us preserve our planet, not destroy it’. Two years ago William Shatner, at 90, became the oldest ever astronaut. Looking down, he saw life in the face of climate devastation and described it as ‘the strongest feelings of grief I have ever had’. The clock is running out. We do not have time to waste colonising our solar system. Militarising space will not solve world conflicts, it will only make them worse. We call on the EU to change course, to embrace peaceful cooperation and scientific discovery on our planet’s surface and above it.

Madam President, quality research obviously requires very good working conditions and I think in the report the authors describe the considerable difficulties faced by young researchers in obtaining permanent academic posts. The quest, I suppose, for permanent contracts is complex, and it does have an impact on academic freedom as well. We hear, talk and see evidence of the pressure on young researchers to publish in much-sought-after journals, which often encourage focus on sort of hot topic areas, rather than on the whole approach to consolidating knowledge through a careful process of corroboration and documenting research. All of this is a consequence of neoliberals’ attack on academia. Knowledge and research has become commodified for profit and business interests, rather than for societies and the public’s general knowledge and benefits. We see arts and classics particularly debased, and researchers left in precarious positions. We need public funding for an increase in public polls to support high-quality research.

Mr President, I think it would be utterly hypocritical of us to mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women without calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, because what greater violence is there than murder? And in the last 47 days, at least 3800 Palestinian women have been murdered in Gaza by the apartheid state of Israel. 800,000 of them have been displaced. 50,000 of those are pregnant – against a shattered health service, they’re undergoing caesarean sections on hospital floors without anaesthetic. Register and recognise the violence of that. Now the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women has said that since 7 October, the assault on Palestinian women’s rights has reached new and terrifying dimensions. But this has not only started in October; Palestinian women have endured years of ruthless violence under Israeli occupation. Ahed Tamimi was a symbol of Palestinian resistance in 2017, when she was imprisoned at the age of 16. She is now back in prison again. We have to stand by all women. Release Ahed Tamimi.

Mr President, the reason businessmen using a secrecy jurisdiction to hide and move money has got into the news is, let’s face it, because they’re Russian businessmen. Now, I’m very glad to look at the ways in which the ultra-rich hide and protect their money and the people who help them do it. But I do have a worry, because feverish hatred of all things Russian in Europe, spurred on by geopolitical manoeuvring, has consistently now for years been weaponised to ram through measures in Europe which would otherwise be strenuously resisted by those who call themselves progressive. It’s everywhere from crackdowns on NGO financing to efforts to criminalise sanctions-evasion that’s going to make humanitarian work even more difficult than it is already. So it’s the war on terror all over again. Anything back then was justified if you were combating terrorism; now you can do what you like as long as you’re fighting Russia. So I really plead with colleagues, be outraged by all means, but don’t let it be used as another excuse for policies that will end up being used against civil society, while the oligarchs – Russian, Ukrainian and European – will find ways, and they will find ways, to carry on as before.

Mr President, when I heard that there was a debate on the rule of law in Spain, I thought, ‘Great! Is this about state surveillance on journalists and politicians with Pegasus? Is it undercover police tactics involving intimate sexual relationships with activists to infiltrate social movements? Is it people having their eyes mutilated by Spanish police rubber bullets, or singers being sent to jail or exiled for their lyrics?’ But no, of course not. The debate, as usual, is about Catalonia and an amnesty for people who should never have faced persecution in the first place. Have you any idea how pathetic this looks to people outside of here? This is a political issue. Political dialogue is something that Spain has lacked for years, resorting instead to abusing a judicial system known for its dubious independence. Self-determination and an end to political persecution are nothing but basic democratic demands guaranteed by the charter, and I support them. (The speaker concluded in a non-official language) (The President cut off the speaker)

Madam President, Prime Minister, thanks for being here and for the meetings you had with us and your cabinet and your President on the recent rule of law monitoring visit to Bulgaria. Bulgaria, of course, is the oldest independent country in Europe – a magnificent place and people. But for all the hope that EU membership would help transform it, the truth is that it remains the poorest country in the EU, experiencing an 11% drop in population as young people left to find opportunities elsewhere. While scandal after scandal dogged previous administrations – ‘Barcelonagate’, ‘The Eight Dwarves’, the golden bars, massive corruption facilitated by the absolute power of the Prosecutor General and the close collaboration with former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov – your party came out of the movement of the people to change all that. And that movement has made changes. But many issues remain, and I think it’s really important that it’s put on record here that all of those cases of those in power accused of robbing the Bulgarian people will be investigated, those responsible held to account and that there will be no impunity. Lastly, I agree with you totally: Bulgaria should be in Schengen, but I do have a concern that the European Commission is demanding a price for that – that you act as Europe’s brutal military border guards, in violation of human rights. There have been multiple accounts of pushbacks. We have a black book on pushbacks here, which I’m going to give you as a present, which I hope you read to investigate the evidence in it and ensure the upholding of human rights.

Mr President, Israel expects us to believe that there is no genocide in Gaza – they are only protecting themselves from terrorists, they are trying to limit casualties, and even that the Palestinians are responsible for killing themselves, when Israel controls every entry and exit point in that tiny occupied territory where half of the population are children. Absolute lies, of course, and not for the first time. Cynical distortion, wild accusations, farcical claims: these are the motives operandi of Israeli propaganda. Before the current military conflict, there were six others in Gaza since 2006. And after they are done, the lies are exposed but there is never any reckoning. There is never any outrage from the media. It is just buried and forgotten until the next time the lies are platformed again. Well, this is unacceptable. The media is failing the citizens of Europe and the people of Gaza because propaganda in the service of genocide should be treated with the contempt that it deserves. Instead, the media defers to it. Well, we have a message for you: it is not working. Our consent for Israel’s atrocities cannot be manufactured. The truth about Israeli lies is emerging. The ugly truth about Zionism has revealed itself for all to see, and a new world order will be built.