Speeches

The minutes of yesterday's sitting and the texts adopted are available. Does anyone have any comments? There are no comments. The minutes are approved.

Mr President, scientists have warned us for years that we are heading for a climate catastrophe, that dozens, hundreds of bee species, other pollinators are disappearing before our eyes. They warn us that babies are born with toxic substances in the blood. And we're not listening, we're talking about it being an ideology, we're saying it's hoaxes, just like we experienced with the corona. We see enormous damage to property and human lives. But if we're not going to do it to protect life, if we're not going to do it to protect property, let's talk about other reasons why we need to do the Green Deal. Because it is an opportunity for people in Europe to be better off, for us to be more independent from fossil fuel imports, and it may be from Putin or the Arab Sheikhs, choose, so that we have more jobs, so that our land does not die before our eyes. What worries me is how we pretend nothing is happening, how we actually say we don't have to do anything anymore. But what I am most at risk of is my colleagues who voted in favour of these measures and now say that they actually voted against.

The next sitting will be held on Wednesday 24 April 2024 at 9.00. The agenda has been published and is available on the European Parliament’s website.

The next item is the debate on the report by Tonino Picula, on behalf of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Karlo Ressler, on behalf of the Committee on Budgets, on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans (COM(2023)0692 – C9-0408/2023 – 2023/0397(COD)) (A9-0085/2024).

The next item is the joint debate on: – the report by Herbert Dorfmann, on behalf of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, on the production and marketing of plant reproductive material in the Union, amending Regulations (EU) 2016/2031, 2017/625 and 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and repealing Council Directives 66/401/EEC, 66/402/EEC, 68/193/EEC, 2002/53/EC, 2002/54/EC, 2002/55/EC, 2002/56/EC, 2002/57/EC, 2008/72/EC and 2008/90/EC (Regulation on plant reproductive material) (COM(2023)0414 – C9-0236/2023 –2023/0227(COD)) (A9-0149/2024), and – the report by Herbert Dorfmann, on behalf of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, on the production and marketing of forest reproductive material, amending Regulations (EU) 2016/2031 and (EU) 2017/625 of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Directive 1999/105/EC (Forest reproductive material Regulation) (COM(2023)0415 – C9-0237/2023 –2023/0228(COD)) (A9-0142/2024). Of course, I would like to start by asking the rapporteur, Herbert Dorfmann, to present this report.

Thank you, Vice-President, in the name of this House, for the really great cooperation over the duration of this parliamentary term, and we look forward to the future.

The next item is the Council and Commission statement on the EU-Egypt strategic and comprehensive partnership and agreements with key third countries (2024/2706(RSP)).

Mr President, dear colleagues, one in three women have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Women make up the overwhelming majority of the victims of the crime of intimate partner abuse and of serious threats, rape and sexual violence. Every week, we read about horrific stories of women being abused or murdered by someone close to them, but some politicians still refuse to accept the term ‘gender-based violence’. We have to stop excusing these crimes, we have to stop pretending they don’t exist. We have to not only condemn them, but we have to address them, prevent them, and punish those who perpetrate them. This legislation is not ideal, but it is a significant step forward for countries that have not ratified, sadly, the Istanbul Convention, like my own Slovakia. We will need to properly collect data – which is currently lacking – to create effective policies. We need trained police officers, prosecutors, judges and we need to increase victims’ trust in law enforcement and authorities because experts estimate that only one tenth of the victims report sexual violence. Dear women, please accept my apology that this law is so belated. But I promise that many men and I are with you in this fight. We will do our utmost to strengthen the fight against the gender-based violence, because we owe it to all the victims of violence across the European Union. We are with you.

Madam President, Prime Minister Fico is dismantling the rule of law in Slovakia. And it is so intense that the question arises as to when the leadership of Slovakia from the EU will declare itself in the hands of Putin and Russia. Within a few months, he was able to dismantle the 20-year-old special prosecutor's office that his government had set up. And the recovery plan included a special prosecutor's office as a guarantee to protect European money, and Fico's government pledged to adhere to the recovery plan. Today, therefore, Slovakia risks losing billions of euros to Fico's breaches of the recovery plan. The prime minister also wants to abolish public television and radio and replace them with state propaganda. The government is attacking the largest commercial TV channel, Markíza. Just yesterday, there were attacks on her journalist. We see efforts to introduce the Putin labeling of NGOs as foreign agents. Fico's amendment to the Criminal Code is blocked by the Constitutional Court, but without this happening, the rule of law in Slovakia is slowly in ruins. And the icing on the cake is the chief adviser to Prime Minister Erik Kaliňák, who goes to Russian pseudo-media, including Voice of Europe, which Czech counterintelligence has described as Putin's tool for influencing the European elections, and the candidate for this parliament. The Commissioner, colleagues, comes to a clear conclusion. Fico is destroying the rule of law in synergy with undermining Ukraine for the sole reason of spreading the red carpet to Putin in Europe. If we do not stop it together, it may be too late after the European elections.

The next item is the joint debate on: – the report by Jerzy Buzek, on behalf of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the internal markets for renewable and natural gases and for hydrogen (recast) (COM(2021)0804 - C9-0470/2021 - 2021/0424(COD)) ((A9-0032/2023), – the report by Jens Geier, on behalf of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning common rules for the internal markets in renewable and natural gases and in hydrogen (COM(2021)0803 – C9‐0468/2021 – 2021/0425(COD)) (A9-0035/2023), – the report by Nicolás González Casares, on behalf of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) 2019/943, Directive (EU) 2019/942, Directive (EU) 2018/2001 and Regulation (EU) 2019/944 to improve the EU’s electricity market design (COM(2023)0148 – C9-0049/2023 – 2023/0077A(COD)) (A9-0255/2023), and – the report by Nicolás González Casares, on behalf of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directives (EU) 2018/2001 and (EU) 2019/944 as regards improving the Union’s electricity market design (COM(2023)0148 - C9-0038/2024 - 2023/0077B(COD)) (A9-0151/2024).

Madam President, colleagues, three years ago, this House, overwhelmingly – with 86 % of you – called for this, called for legislative framework for soil, because indeed, European soil is in peril. Normally, in a handful of live soil, you find more living creatures than there are people on this planet. Yet our souls are dying, and today we can do the first important step; we can actually find out properly what’s going on. We can take this information and give it to farmers and foresters around Europe so they actually can act. No, we’re not putting new obligations on them. No, we’re not asking for new bureaucracy. We are giving them tools and help in this hour of need. So I hope that you will be able to support this report. And I would really like to thank all the shadow rapporteurs both in ENVI and AGRI, also the rapporteur AGRI and all the staff that worked on it hard because I think it’s now finally time that Europe shall protect its precious soil.

Madam President, this House called for a soil health law with respect of subsidiarity and this is what we have on the table now. It was a very broad majority that asked for it and I hope that a very broad majority will support it. This is indeed law that doesn’t impose additional duty. It actually helps farmers by providing them more information on the state of their soils. It is a really important tool that’s making sure that we have a fair market, that we have fair conditions for our farmers, and actually they get the help that we need – and it’s important that this House votes on it.