What Mick spoke about.

8

May

2023

EN Speech

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Co-management of fisheries in the EU (short presentation)

Mr President, I, too, welcome the report. Fishermen and women and coastal communities absolutely need to be more involved in decision-making about their lives and their industry. God knows, they’ve been sold out by the EU and successive governments in my own country, Ireland. I do think, however, that co-management schemes or systems need to be designed with the specific needs of small-scale fishe…

8

May

2023

EN Speech

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Schools scheme for fruit, vegetables, milk and dairy products (short presentation)

Mr President, the school scheme for fruit, vegetables, milk and dairy products is vital to promoting healthy nutritional habits for future generations. Yet there are disparities with the implementation of the scheme, as only 16 of the 76 million students in the EU were targeted by the scheme from 2017 to 2023, mostly due to budget issues. This scheme should be in line with the objectives of the fa…

8

May

2023

EN Speech

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Implementation of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (short presentation)

Mr President, I welcome many aspects of this report, but there is a lack of clarity as to why this directive is not included in the list of legislative acts that will be affected by the Media Freedom Act. Now, the report falls short in its provisions to guarantee media pluralism in the safeguards under the Media Freedom Act. Diversity of opinion is something that is sorely lacking from mainstream …

8

May

2023

EN Speech

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Impact on the 2024 EU budget of increasing European Union Recovery Instrument borrowing costs - Own resources: a new start for EU finances, a new start for Europe (debate)

Mr President, as the Deputy Head of Oxfam’s EU office said: ‘[The] EU … ditched the opportunity to boost the EU’s budget by taxing the rich. Not only are European multinationals making profits to levels they never dreamt of, but Europe’s richest 1% pocketed nearly 45% of new wealth since 2020.’ It is obvious where the money is, but we choose to leave it in the pockets of the rich. Sadly, neolibera…

8

May

2023

EN Speech

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Establishing the Act in support of ammunition production (debate)

Mr President, we’re prepared to pull out all the stops to increase our production capacity to produce more ammunition. We’ve the Commission now talking about a war-time economy. Imagine if we were prepared to pull out all the stops to deal with poverty across Europe? Imagine if we were prepared to pull out all the stops to deal with our housing crisis, our health crisis, to deal with the concerns …

8

May

2023

EN Speech

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Methane emissions reduction in the energy sector (debate)

Mr President, firstly, we’d like to thank Jutta and her staff, and in particular Michelle, for all their work on the file. The text we will vote on this week following the vote in the ENVI Committee is a very good one. It’s far more ambitious than the Commission’s proposal. Our main priority was to expand the scope to include imports, and we’re very pleased that the text now extends to imports of …

20

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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EU Action Plan against Trafficking in Cultural Goods (debate)

Mr President, the protection of culture and heritage has been cited as the key reason for the EU action plan against the trafficking of cultural goods. Obviously it would be very difficult for us to address the countries outside of Europe who have stolen stuff from one country or another, but surely a good place to start would be if we insisted on all the European states actually returning the stu…

20

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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IPCC report on Climate Change: a call for urgent additional action (debate)

Madam President, another final warning from the IPCC. We’re running out of time. The scientists are hoarse from screaming. But who’s taking them serious? The Green Deal was a good idea, Commissioner, a far cry from what was needed, but it was certainly a step in the right direction. But it seems many of its initiatives won’t see the light of day. Where is REACH? Where is the soil health law? Where…

19

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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EU Rapid Deployment Capacity, EU Battlegroups and Article 44 TEU: the way forward (A9-0077/2023 - Javi López)

Madam President, I voted against this terrible report. We have EU missions where we misunderstand the local dynamics so badly, we end up exasperating the situation, while the local populations come to see the EU as the enemy. We have a habit of applying one-size-fits-all to entire regions because the aims are, above all, European ones: protecting Europe from terrorism, combating illegalised migrat…

19

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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Challenges facing the Republic of Moldova (B9-0197/2023, RC-B9-0198/2023, B9-0198/2023, B9-0199/2023, B9-0200/2023, B9-0203/2023, B9-0204/2023)

Madam President, we are totally opposed to this resolution. The EU is playing a destructive role by pushing third countries into camps of ‘us’ and ‘them’. This simplistic interpretation of the world never maps neatly onto entire populations, especially where there are religious and ethnic tensions. The resolution is condescending to Moldovans, full of praise for the current pro-EU government, but …

19

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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Deforestation Regulation (A9-0219/2022 - Christophe Hansen)

Madam President, this law on deforestation is long overdue, but it is, of course, very welcome. Fair play to the rapporteur, Christophe, he did a good job defending the Parliament’s position, which is a lot more ambitious than the Council’s. The scope of the initial Commission proposal had been widened to include rubber, charcoal printed paper products and certain palm oil derivatives. The definit…

19

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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Repression in Russia, in particular the cases of Vladimir Kara-Murza and Alexei Navalny

Madam President, prison does not work. Nobody should be in prison unless they’re a danger to society when they’re out free. Navalny and Kara-Murza should be released. The prosecution and attempted extradition of Julian Assange by the US government – who is in prison solely because he exposed US/NATO war crimes – is also horrific. It also provides Russia with illegitimate rhetorical justifications …

19

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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The crackdown on the right to education and education rights activists in Afghanistan, including the case of Matiullah Wesa

Madam President, the US and NATO destroyed Afghanistan for 20 years, the end result being the return of the brutal Taliban and, according to the UN, almost 23 million facing life—threatening food insecurity and 9 million close to famine. While the US was ending its destructive war in Afghanistan, politicians and the media were overflowing with concern for the Afghan people. Now that the US sanctio…

19

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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EU Global Health Strategy (debate)

Mr President, the EU has repeatedly, again and again, promoted the interests of Big Pharma and trade at the expense of people’s health. Predictably, then, the new EU global health strategy proposes no overhaul of the existing monopoly—based, market driven principles of healthcare provision and vaccine development. The EU should help and empower countries to set up publicly funded and publicly deli…

19

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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Children forcibly deported from Ukraine and the ICC arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin (debate)

Mr President, war is horrific. The idea of the mistreatment of thousands of children is horrific and unthinkable. Any war crimes that Putin is responsible for, it is absolutely vital that he is held to account for them. Just as those over 45 countries were part of the coalition of the willing in the illegal war in Iraq, which led to the death of over a million citizens and the displacement of over…

18

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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Situation in Peru (debate)

Mr President, since the detention of Pedro Castillo, the unelected Peruvian Government of Dina Boluarte, has unleashed a wave of terror. 70 people demanding political change have been killed and thousands have been injured. The government deployed troops across the country and suspended democratic rights, such as freedom of assembly and speech. Amnesty have documented repeated incidents of unlawfu…

18

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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The need for a coherent strategy for EU-China Relations (debate)

Mr President, Mr Borrell, if the EU should have a coherent strategy for the EU-China relations, it should not originate in Brussels. We just had the embarrassing spectacle of the Commission President speaking ahead of a major diplomatic visit to China and slinging accusations at a Chinese Government that have scant connection to reality. The remarks were so bizarre and contradictory, it was diffic…

17

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, after weeks of nationwide strikes and protests, Macron signed his deeply unpopular pension reform legislation into law last Saturday. Constitutional scholars are debating the pitfalls of a constitution that could be used legally in such an anti-democratic manner. Since the start of his mandate, Macron has hammered through crushing labour laws, tax cuts and neoliberal reforms – packag…

17

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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The implementation of civilian CSDP and other EU civilian security assistance (short presentation)

Mr President, the idea of civilian CSDP should be a positive endeavour. Conflict resolution, disarmament and crisis management are deeply important today, yet the report before us is committed to a militaristic framing of these practices that undermines the pretence that there is very much strictly civilian about civilian CSDP at all. The report stresses that the increased presence of strategic co…

17

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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Sustainable carbon cycles (short presentation)

Mr President, we need to be very careful with how we set up carbon farming. In Ireland, we have a target of 25% emissions reductions for the agricultural sector by 2030. It would be a total disaster if we had farmers selling off carbon credits, absorbing their decarbonisation efforts and handing them over to big businesses to greenwash their activities. Farmers wouldn’t be able to count these effo…

17

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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Institutional relations between the EU and the Council of Europe (short presentation)

Mr President, in here we like to use human rights as a stick to beat other countries with. But the European Convention on Human Rights represents a joint commitment by signatories to respect and protect human rights at home. That’s why it was so disappointing to see Ireland argue last week against the case taken by the Swiss Climate Seniors and claim that the Convention does not guarantee a right …

17

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System - Monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions from maritime transport - Carbon border adjustment mechanism - Social Climate Fund - Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System for aviation (debate)

Mr President, these legislative files are supposed to contribute to the EU’s goal of reducing its overall emissions by at least 55% by 2030. Firstly, that 55% reduction target is far too low, given the EU’s historical contribution to global rising temperatures and the EU’s capacity to reduce its emissions. But secondly, the individual legislative files that are part of the Fit for 55 package are –…

30

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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2022 Rule of Law Report - The rule of law situation in the European Union (B9-0189/2023, B9-0190/2023, B9-0191/2023)

Madam President, when arbitrary political decision-making has undue influence or interferes in established law, we have a rule of law problem. This is often precisely what happens when the EU makes use of its unilateral sanctions mechanism. We are applying crushing extraterritorial unilateral sanctions and secondary sanctions on governments and individuals that have a blanket effect on entire popu…

30

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Fluorinated Gases Regulation (A9-0048/2023 - Bas Eickhout)

Madam President, these gases have a huge global warming impact and need to be phased out as soon as possible. I want to address some concerns raised by the heat pump associations that the quota available in the regulation will hamper the rollout of heat pumps. Now, the heat pump industry will be central to the decarbonisation of the EU. But their concerns have already been addressed by the Commiss…

30

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Strengthening the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women (A9-0056/2022 - Kira Marie Peter-Hansen, Samira Rafaela)

Madam President, despite the principle of equal pay being enshrined in the Treaty of Rome, the EU continues to struggle with pay disparity. European women are, on average, paid almost 14% less than their male counterparts. It’ encouraging that this text allows workers to detect and prove discrimination based on sex, as well as shifting the burden of proof of non-discrimination from the employee to…