Speeches

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, dear representatives of the Council and the Commission, the vast network of Chinese police stations in Europe has been reported by this Parliament since at least 2022. It is therefore alarming that you are only now reporting on a threat that is of serious concern to European citizens. Italy has done its part to dismantle the agreements of the left and still struggles to combat the harmful consequences of those agreements, for example the connections between Chinese associations, organized crime and public officials of the Communist Party. In fact, it is the Chinese Communist Party that uses Europe as a terrain for espionage, interference and the violation of human rights, because by its nature it intends to dispose of every aspect of the lives of individuals and the freedom to think, the freedom to act and decide, which China tries to eliminate. Act now, then, and sanction Chinese officials who have a connection to police stations. Suspend any extradition treaty with Hong Kong and China. Put the European states in a position to defend themselves. Oppose liberal values and freedom to Chinese corrupting interference.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today's debate on the Congo comes just days before the third anniversary of the deadly ambush of the Italian ambassador, Luca Attanasio, of the chosen carabiniere, Vittorio Iacovacci, and of the driver of the World Food Programme, Mustafa Milambo, who were killed in an ambush in Congo on 22 February 2021. In those lands rich in biodiversity and raw materials like few in the world, even tens of millions of Congolese, displaced and starved, were carrying out a simple and difficult task at the same time: alleviate the suffering and bring help, hope to survive the war, the violence for a better tomorrow. Hence our duty to pursue truth and justice for Attanasio, Iacovacci and Milambo and all those who fought in that country for their human rights. All the more so, we must demand and guarantee greater security for international organizations and for the servants of the State who have fallen in the fulfilment of their mission. Signing an agreement with Rwanda that fuels those tensions and fuels those violence is as if Ambassador Attanasio died twice: The European Union is on the side of human rights.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, a new partnership agenda between the European Union and Armenia, which sets out more ambitious common priorities for cooperation that encompasses all dimensions, is the recognition of Yerevan's effort to embark on the path of a complete democracy, the affirmation of the rule of law and the move away from the influence of Putin's Russia. However, this only partially alleviates the Armenian suffering of these years. In addition, the military threats of Azerbaijan, on the border with Armenia, and the tremendous imbalance of power between the two countries keep the risk of a possible invasion high. In the name of independence and territorial integrity, we must provide every help through the European Peace Facility: military equipment and support for that country's security process. Only in this way will we guarantee peace and not make the same mistake as in Nagorno-Karabakh. We must start the enlargement process with seriousness, transparency and speed. We defend a bulwark of democracy among the multitude of autocracies. We defend our roots, where someone would like to sever them. Let us defend Armenia and affirm Europe.

Mr President, Commissioner Lenarčič, ladies and gentlemen, the involvement of employees of the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October is a horrific truth. A truth that emerges more and more in the rubble of the conflict, such as the operational base installed under UNRWA headquarters in Gaza. More than European values! While the Jewish State of Israel's commitment to the rule of law and human life is indisputable: Proof of this is that in urban guerrilla warfare, the Israeli Defense Forces have the most advanced forms of civilian protection in the world, in full compliance with all international conventions, from humanitarian law to the Geneva Convention. Commissioner, are you concerned about Ramadan? Instead, he wondered why in Gaza there is not that structural separation between civilian and military that civilized nations all apply? Maybe I'll give you the answer: to create the dead and martyrs of a cause. And if the two states are never reached, it is certainly not because of the inability of Israel but because of the inability of Hamas and the other Arab-Palestinian terrorist factions to use other tools beyond terrorism. But those who help them today fall into the trap of anti-Semitism.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Mr President Iohannis, in March you will lead Romania into the Schengen area. This is a historic moment and it will make the European Union and its country stronger. With pride I welcome you, also as a representative of Italy, as Romania and Italy will add a new card to their friendship, founded on deep and ancient historical, social, human, economic, commercial and cultural ties based on Judeo-Christian values. Over 1 000 000 Romanian citizens live in Italy and at the same time 19 000 Italian companies are based in Romania. Our states grow and can grow together. We are also linked by the NATO alliance, Romania is part of the mission Sea Guardian for the defence of the Mediterranean and, a fortiori, within the Schengen area, we will strengthen our alliance in the field of police and judicial cooperation, in the fight against criminal organisations, to guarantee security for the European Union and its allies, just as Romania, with great generosity, has welcomed the refugees from the attacked Ukraine. However, I also take the opportunity that I have today to speak with you to ask for attention also to a perhaps minor issue, but linked to the illicit trafficking of animals and the mistreatment of animals, one of the largest sources of illegal funding for criminal organizations in the world. We must act together, united in history, in values, in economies, in challenges, in the friendship we give, demonstrating the most authentic meaning of Europe. Good work, Mr. President.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, María Corina Machado has been declared an outlaw because she is liberal and anti-communist. We know that this means that she is a free and fair woman, fighting in the name of a better future for Venezuela, with the support of her citizens. These principles also underpin European values and must underpin our demands for the unconditional release of all political prisoners, support for freedom of expression, independence of the electoral process and judicial institutions, and respect for human rights. The exclusion of María Corina Machado from the elections and the blatant violation of the October 2023 agreement in Barbados must have consequences from the outset, as it is unimaginable that President-Dictator Maduro will abandon his lust for power and dirty business with drug traffickers. The European Union's restrictive measures are to be extended immediately and harsh new sanctions imposed on the regime. The European Union cannot and must not recognise that regime. The Member States of the European Union must fight with all their might against this regime that steals elections in your country. From the outset, María Corina Machado will be invited to speak in this Chamber and will also tell the European left what Chavismo and communism are. Thank you, María Corina Machado, we are with you.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we all know what steps the European Union must take to be on the right side of history, on the side of women and girls, in Iran, murdered, tortured, abused, imprisoned and oppressed. To include the Islamic guards of the Iranian revolution in the European list of terrorist organizations, as already done by the United States. Isolate the regime from the international community. It is precisely on this point that Europe has failed, as it has not acted to prevent Iran from assuming the presidency of the UN Human Rights Forum. It almost sounds like a joke. The European Parliament must therefore return to being the megaphone of women and girls in Iran. That is why I ask you to support a symbolic action and to ask that on 25 November, such an important date for all women in the world, the photos of Members of the European Parliament on our institution's website be replaced by the face of Mahsa Amini. We are Mahsa Amini. We are Armita Garawand, we are Nasrin Sotoudeh. We are the voice of Iranian women and girls who have decided to take off the veil to show the world their face, that is, the face of truth, dignity and justice. Women. Life. Freedom.

Madam President, representative of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, what is happening on the borders between Russia and Finland is a blatant violation of the sovereignty of a Member State and therefore a violation of the entire sovereignty of Europe. We are talking about that legal territorial sovereignty on which we base the defence of our values, our identities, our cultures and on the basis of which we guarantee security for European citizens. Uncontrolled migration is a hybrid threat from which Member States have legitimacy to defend themselves. On the one hand, the use of the human lives of migrants, especially the most fragile ones, is the result of a table-top plan that exploits, by some governments or by digital means or through criminal organizations, every means to implement the great blackmail to Europe. But, on the other hand, uncontrolled immigration is also the result of the inability to govern a phenomenon now, in fact, codified as a hybrid threat used against us. Therefore, the first step to freeing ourselves from blackmail is to answer this question: Are all migration crises a hybrid threat at Europe's borders? Does this also apply, for example, to the Mediterranean? Because on this we base a common principle. It is therefore time to choose and look to the future without turning our backs on the challenges of the present, today in Finland, tomorrow elsewhere, in Europe.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, history unfortunately repeats itself: still hatred against Jews, still hatred against the Jewish State of Israel and the will to eliminate it from the face of the earth. This is the truth highlighted by Hamas' military and terrorist use of Gaza's underground, which, in order to kill the Jew, is willing to sacrifice the lives of so many Palestinian civilians by occupying hospitals. Because Hamas has only one cult, the cult of hatred of the Jew, and in fact the bombing of Israel continues unceasingly. And among the many attacks that are taking place in Europe, anti-Semitic attacks registered in all European countries, also the outrage at the stumbling blocks of Rome, where the oldest Jewish community in the world lives. Those stumbling blocks are reminiscent of Italian Jews being rounded up, kidnapped from their homes and deported to concentration camps. Kidnapped from their homes, as we saw on October 7 in Israel, and all this is unacceptable. This Parliament, on our proposal, of the League, has defined antisemitism as a threat to our democracies and commits the European Union to a future free of antisemitism worldwide. Today we hosted the Israeli Foreign Minister, Élie Cohen; We must remain united to guarantee to him too, to all the Jews, that the words of Simone Veil will materialize, "as long as we do not forget". We are here to stand united alongside freedom and peace, against hatred and violence, for the religious freedom of all.

Mr President, High Representative Borrell, ladies and gentlemen, we do not remember enough that there are many victims and hostages among European citizens caused by the despicable Hamas attack on Israel, including Italians, French, Germans and Spaniards. And I hope that everything will be done to free those hostages, and all the hostages, by the European Union, High Representative. Because the Europeans and the Jewish people share the weight of history and these days, together, they take on the pain inflicted by Islamic terrorism, but, in addition to the suffering, we share the millennial contribution to humanity and civilization, and we fight the political Islam that would take us back to the Middle Ages, where the Palestinian people are the first victim taken from the Palestinian National Authority. Can the left ignore, then, that those Hamas roundups in the land of Israel are, after the Holocaust, the worst act experienced by Jews under Nazism? He can look into the eyes of those children raked and kidnapped by Nazislamic Are you ashamed of your political inconsistency?

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in Afghanistan, since we allowed the Taliban to reoccupy the country, women and girls have been living in segregation from the regime. It means living in conditions that many of us in this room would consider inhumane, said Kofi Annan, it is the most serious in history. 5,000 of these women were security and military officials, fighting for a better future and in some cases trained in European states. UNAMA has documented 800 incidents of extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests, torture and enforced disappearances. However, we can respond to all this with the justice of the International Criminal Court, since the accession to the Rome Statute deposited by Afghanistan in 2003 is valid. The European Union, therefore, strongly supports an international investigation and returns the lives of Afghan women and girls. And live their resistance!

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, in 2019 the President of the European Commission announced that it would be a more geopolitical European Union. For example, is abandoning more than 130 000 Armenians to their fate a geopolitical European action, or, as High Commissioner Borrell would call it, is it the victory of the jungle law over rules-based international law? And how could the Commission, just a year ago, conclude with Azerbaijan the Memorandum of Understanding on the Strategic Energy Partnership and not create conditions to protect the Armenian communities of Nagorno-Karabakh? You had to choose the logic of the cultural, historical and Christian roots that bind us and the Armenian people, but you did not, still accepting the logic of the borders decided by Stalin. You had to defend the political heritage of this century, namely human rights, democracy, the rule of law, instead you chose the Azerbaijani army, which with the use of force and war crimes dismantles the thousand-year-old Armenian artistic and cultural capital and the religious effigies of Nagorno Karabakh, which are part of the roots of Europe. This is also why history will judge you.

Mr President, High Representative, ladies and gentlemen, one year after the tragic death of Mahsa Amini and the beginning of the protests of the brave Iranian women and girls, we have acted to isolate the regime from the international community: Iran will chair the UN Human Rights Council Social Forum. We have imposed sanctions but the Islamic Revolutionary Guard is still off the list of terrorist organisations in the European Union. We called for international investigations into the poisoning of thousands of children in Iran: But nothing has been done yet. So, on the one hand, there are Iranian women, the Iranian people, the Iranian resistance. On the other hand, there is the Ayatollah regime that imposes death and repression. It is only on the basis of the results, Mr. High Representative, that we will stand on the right side of history. Let's be careful.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, after Qatargate, the biggest political scandal in the history of the European institutions, we were hoping for a serious reflection on the democratic future of the European Parliament, and I would like to thank Mr Glucksmann for his action and for his balance. We all worked hard to ensure that Parliament, the House of European Peoples, could be an even brighter beacon of democracy and the rule of law. But, Madame Loiseau, we have seen the Council of Mice working above all to hide the fact that this scandal was widespread within the Socialist Group. Yet, instead of closing the loopholes, the text that had to deal with how to defend the institutions after Qatargate has become for many of you the tool to open old and new instrumental controversies. I am referring to the fact that you have again accused Italy, the League, Matteo Salvini, of facts declared non-existent by the judiciary of a Member State, a rule of law and sovereign as Italy is. A non-existent fact that, starting from a journalistic investigation, is artfully mounted by the same left that has disappeared from the Qatargate report. Instead of understanding the errors, starting with excluding what Simone Weil called "the pluralist nature of our Assembly", the Committee on Interference turned to the other side. You have even been silent on what has been reported by authoritative journalists on Qatar's system of financing mosques in Europe during the committee debate. No one asked you to make amends for the mistakes you made, you were only asked to give European citizens a reason to leave together in the democratic history of the European institutions, but you did not succeed. But do not believe that the peoples of Europe and history will never blame you.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the European Union and Albania have a common destiny and today we reaffirm the will to integrate a friendly and allied state, but I want to take this opportunity to highlight Albania's contribution to international peace and stability, to safeguarding the rule of law among nations, to safeguarding multilateralism. Through his skilled ambassador to the United Nations, in these two years of presence in the Security Council he has faced increasingly accentuated and unstable geopolitical rivalries in the world's highest forum of multilateralism. Albania has shown how a small country can influence far above its weight and be at the forefront of the issues that matter, effectively helping to maintain the moral compass that Russia has long since lost. His contribution to NATO is increasingly valuable to us. The importance of this more modern face of Albania is useful first of all to Albanian friends to build stronger partnerships and new cooperation mechanisms in the Balkan region, in Europe and in the world. Europe needs the Balkans and the Balkans need Europe. Italy has in its historical brotherhood with Albania the task of increasingly supporting the virtuous process of two countries that share a sea. Thank you, Commissioner Várhelyi, and thank you to the rapporteur, Mrs Santos, for the work you do and will do.

As recognised by Europol, human trafficking is a dynamic that exploits every crisis as an opportunity. Traffickers are more digitized than ever, abusing social media platforms, mobile applications and encrypted communication tools. Are there, I ask you, tools in the EU Strategy for Africa to tackle digital trafficking linked to immigration?

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I thank the Vice-President and Commissioner for mentioning the recent trip of our Prime Minister Meloni together with Prime Minister Rutte, accompanied by President von der Leyen, demonstrating that Italy is at the forefront of policies to help this vast strategic Euro-Mediterranean-African area. And what about Sicily, crucial to face these challenges and that Minister Salvini has decided to better connect to Europe through the bridge over the Strait? But there is the challenge of migration, an issue that divides Member States and continues to bring down governments. If it has finally been recognised that migration requires a European response, do you think that the basic assumption, that migration can be managed, can be validated in the light of the challenge to the rules-based international order?

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Lebanon is experiencing one of the worst economic crises in the world, with a high rate of inflation and a continuous devaluation of the currency. This has worsened the living conditions of Lebanese citizens and the one and a half million Syrian refugees that Lebanon hosts. In short, the political consensus needed for the country to function does not materialise. Political sectarianism prevents this. The political and military terrorist group Hezbollah, which operates in the state and is supported by Iran, prevents this. Elites intercept state revenues and use subsidies to cement alliances. We Europeans contribute, but we do not replace ourselves. If Lebanon's policy proves to be helping the Lebanese, the European Union and its Member States will continue to help to ensure security in the Mediterranean.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Minister, Commissioner, this is an unprecedented moment for Euro-Atlantic security, a security that cannot be achieved without a safe Arctic, a safe Baltic Sea, a safe Black Sea, the whole safe enlarged Mediterranean and a safe Africa. But Russia has invaded a sovereign Euro-Atlantic state, upsetting many aspects of our security. In inflicting this devastation, Russia has a complacent and very powerful accomplice: China. In this geopolitical environment, we remain committed to supporting Ukraine's urgent needs and increasing its long-term combat capabilities. Dear Ukrainian friends, not being able to win on the battlefield, the Russians have tried to make the civilian population die of cold in the winter, to bring death and destruction everywhere with rains of missiles and now they try to drown us economically, immensely damaging agricultural production capacities. But your resilience, courage and determination to defend us all, once again impresses us, moves us and gives us the courage and conviction to stand by your side until the end, to put an end to all forms of violence and crimes against humanity. And that dam pours not only water, but all the tears of the civilized world.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, thank you to the rapporteur, Sandra Kalniete. The spirit of unity on my colleague's text shows that it is in everyone's interest to defend the free voices of the peoples of Europe from all forms of foreign interference, including disinformation. It is a commitment that begins with the fight against antisemitism, for example, the mother of all challenges in the global battle of narratives harmful to our democracy. It is thus, in fact, that the authoritarianisms of this world will be more isolated. This is how Member States will be able to cultivate stronger Judeo-Christian cultural roots. This is how citizens will be able to attest to strong constitutional, liberal, democratic and Western values. Hence the European Union's duty to engage more, Commissioner, with the rest of the world, starting, for example, with the enlarged Mediterranean. In fact, the serious wounding of soldiers in Kosovo, including 14 Italians, is also the result of foreign interference in that area. And it is with the same spirit that we are committed to making the world a place of peace and dialogue and where we face all hybrid threats to our borders and those that enter within us, provided that we do so, however, in the search for truth and not political instrumentalization.

Mr President, thank you, Commissioner, for your words. From the collective moral conscience of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which recalls the shared heritage that flows from the cultures of the peoples of the earth, the two arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova for the alleged crimes of deportation of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation are obtained. It is prohibited under international law for the occupying powers to transfer civilians from the territory in which they live to other territories, and children enjoy special protection under the Geneva Convention, but their arrest will depend on international cooperation. If President Putin goes to South Africa for the BRICS summit next August, that country will face the challenge of choosing whether to be with the international community, respecting the common rules of coexistence between peoples, or to protect a man wanted for very serious crimes. South Africa's accession to the Rome Statute encourages us to strengthen all the instruments necessary for compliance with the rules-based international order. The European Union helps save those children who are part of Europe's future.

Madam President, thank you to the rapporteur, Mr López, for the work we are dealing with today in this debate. We discuss the Union's Rapid Deployment Capacity, the Union Battlegroups and Article 44 of the Treaty on European Union. This is a defence capability that Member States have decided to plan, as enshrined in the new European Defence Doctrine, the Strategic Compass, and sustainability, continued availability of forces and adequate levels of readiness are required. Completion of the EU Battlegroups is also required through the so-called "strategic enablers", that the level of ambition of the compass is reflected in a strengthening of the command and control architecture and in European industry and to seek synergies with NATO, because strengthening the strategic autonomy of the Union remains a shared objective with NATO. In addition, States know that they can and must take advantage of the opportunities for cooperation provided for in Article 44 of the Treaty. Moreover, the European and Atlantic objective is one: do more and better together to stop the continuous mass atrocities that create instability in the international community and that prevent the planning of a better development for all, as the recent events teach us, which we always treat with great respect towards the Ukrainian people, and as the bitter lesson of Afghanistan has taught us.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to draw your attention to the Strait Bridge, which is central and in many respects. In permanently uniting Calabria and Sicily, it will unite Italy even more and will unite Europe even more, connecting, through the Brenner, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. As Minister Salvini declares, the Bridge over the Strait will be much more than a technologically advanced bridge, it will be a human artifact that more than any other infrastructure will symbolize the connectivity of the 21st century. The Bridge over the Strait is the expression of an exemplary will of the cohesion policy of Italy, of the European and the Euro-Mediterranean ones, all aimed at improving the internal market, up to the realization of the Union of defence and military mobility. Europe knows that it has in Sicily the largest and most important strategic base of the Mediterranean in its sea, under its sea and above its sky.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, a NATO member Georgia will make the European Union's allies stronger and safer. This is because the two international institutions are complementary through an indissoluble strategic partnership. Participation in the Alliance will always be based on Georgia's commitment to the founding values of NATO and those of the European Union: rule of law, democracy, human rights, pluralism, civil society, openness, transparency and respect for international law. Since regaining independence, the Georgian people have clearly and consistently chosen to be part of the Euro-Atlantic democratic community. Starting precisely from the violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia as well as Ukraine, how can we achieve a stronger system of collective security for ourselves and our neighbours, dear Commissioner? Today we see European brothers in the citizens of Georgia and we must help them in every way.

Mr President, High Representative Borrell, ladies and gentlemen, the citizens of Israel today are proud of their country, which this year celebrates 75 years of independence, and believe in the justice of its cause, but at the same time they are exhausted by infighting and its consequences on political and social life. These are the words of President Herzog and we thank him for this warning valid for all liberal democracies and also for celebrating Remembrance Day with us. Israel knows the dangers of the virus of political polarization, a virus that can erode citizens' trust in institutions and paralyze the nation. But it is important to reiterate that Israel is a beacon of democracy. It is a special state for how it is built and how it operates. It is an innovative state by nature and eager to contribute to the development of mankind, despite being located in the most difficult area of the world. Around him he has enemies, intolerance, contempt, terrorism and states characterized by a lesser desire for development and democracy. But Israel knows how to defend itself from all this. I will now switch to English and, given the importance of our debate today, I would like to conclude with a quotation from Chaim Weizmann, the first President of Israel: ‘The future of the State of Israel rests on three foundations: fraternal love, an effort to build and peace to all, near and far.’