Speeches

The next sitting will take place tomorrow, Tuesday 17 June, starting at 9 a.m. The agenda has been published and is available on the European Parliament's website.

The next sitting will take place tomorrow, Tuesday 17 June, starting at 9 a.m. The agenda has been published and is available on the European Parliament's website.

Mr President, eighty years ago, the horrors of war ended in Europe. However, if we want to protect peace, we must not only remember the end, but also think about why this war began. The war my grandfather endured in Mauthausen, where my grandmother had to listen to the sounds coming from Gestapo interrogations. It started in 39. If Hitler did, with the clerical fascist Slovak state, and yes, with the Soviet Union, he invaded Poland. She started because the West was looking away when, so to speak, he retreated from the dictators because he sacrificed the smaller and weaker ones. Today we are at a crossroads again. At a crossroads that will mean whether Europe will be divided again, whether Putin will regain the Soviet sphere of influence, or whether he will be strong and united. In order not to happen what happened after the Second World War, for example, Mr. Skupi from Moravian Lieskova, when the NKVD took him to the gulag just because he was helping the American aviator.

And the next item is the Council and Commission statement "EU support for a just, sustainable and comprehensive peace in Ukraine" (2025/2685(RSP)). I recall that in this debate we are continuing to test the new format and the list of speakers will not be available. After the first round of speakers on behalf of the groups, Members who have received speaking time from their political groups or the Secretariat of the non-attached Members will be invited to speak. They shall be reminded of the speaking time allotted to them. Please watch the screens in the Chamber showing the name of the speaker who has the floor and the names of the other three speakers. As soon as your name appears as the next speaker in the order, get ready and go to the main lectern. During the debate, the normal rules on blue cards and the catch-the-eye procedure will apply. And at the beginning of this debate, I would like to ask Minister Szłapka for the Council.

In relation to the decision by the LIBE and PECH committees, and the joint decision by the SEDE and ITRE committees to enter into interinstitutional negotiations pursuant to Rule 72(1) announced at the opening of the session on Monday 5 May, the President has received no requests for a vote in Parliament by Members or political groups reaching at least the medium threshold. The committees may therefore start the negotiations.

And since we have finished the first round of political groups and we are opening a blue card. I would also like to inform you that I will have to be more strict as regards the usual courtesy of giving a bit more speaking time, with more tolerance towards the speakers of the political groups. But now, due to the time, we will have to be a bit more strict.

The next item is the statement by the Council and the Commission: A united European Union response to unjustified US trade measures and global trade opportunities for the European Union (2025/2657(RSP)).

I would like to inform you that the President has received two requests for urgent procedure pursuant to Rule 170(5): - from the REGI Committee, on amending the ERDF, Cohesion Fund and Just Transition Fund as regards specific measures to address strategic challenges in the context of the mid-term review; - from the EMPL Committee, on the European Social Fund (ESF+): specific measures to address strategic challenges. The vote on these requests will be taken tomorrow.