What Mick spoke about.

17

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (debate)

Madam President, in 1987, over 100 000 people gathered in Paris to declare poverty a violation of human rights. But we seem to have forgotten it. In the EU now, human rights generally refers to civic and political rights. Taking social and economic rights off the table in the human rights debate is a huge con job on the part of neoliberalism. In her excellent book, The Morals of the Market, Jessic…

6

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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The death of Mahsa Amini and the repression of women's rights protesters in Iran (B9-0425/2022, RC-B9-0434/2022, B9-0434/2022, B9-0435/2022, B9-0436/2022, B9-0439/2022, B9-0442/2022, B9-0455/2022)

Mr President, if the political class of the EU cared about human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, they wouldn’t be clamouring to impose new unilateral sanctions. If we cared about the protection of human rights in a consistent, principled manner, we would condemn the relentless murder of Palestinian men, women and children by Israeli forces – every single plenary. We would address the tens …

6

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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COVID-19 – Sustaining EU preparedness and response: looking ahead (debate)

Mr President, neoliberal reforms have weakened public healthcare systems all over Europe. These reforms have disastrous impacts on the ability of healthcare systems to handle the pandemic. Democratisation of health and long—term care, the push for public—private partnerships and the public spending cuts encouraged by EU economic governance processes like the European Semester have all contributed …

6

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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The urgent need for an EU strategy on fertilisers to ensure food security in Europe (debate)

Mr President, decades of policies designed to promote the use of artificial fertilizers, instead of more resilient farming methods, have exacerbated farmers’ vulnerability to this crisis. A chronic over—dependence on livestock farming has compounded the problem. Grassland makes up more than 80% of the utilised agricultural area on farms in Ireland. We don’t use fertilizer to grow food for humans; …

5

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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The recent humanitarian and human rights situation in Tigray, Ethiopia, notably that of children

Mr President, in Tigray, as in every war, it would appear that all sides have reasons to distort the truth as to what’s happening on the ground. We’ve had conflicting narratives about the break-out of the war, denials of Eritrean involvement. We’ve had the Ethiopian ambassador come before our committee and tell us that the European government were doing everything in their power to facilitate aid …

5

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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The situation of human rights in Haiti in particular related to gang violence

Mr President, Western imperialism has never stopped punishing Haiti for the crime of being the first black majority nation to successfully carry out an anti-colonial revolution, when they kicked out the French in 1804. Since then, the US and France have colluded to kill at least five sitting presidents and engineered countless coups. The reversal of the Aristide coup by the Haitian people was met …

5

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Humanitarian situation after the devastating floods in Pakistan and the climate crisis (debate)

Mr President, the scale of this disaster is incredible. One million homes have disappeared, and 33 million Pakistanis have been displaced. More than ever, this is a time for climate justice. Real climate justice means loss and damage payments. It means climate reparations from those who are most responsible for climate change – the developed West – to those who are the least responsible and the mo…

5

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Humanitarian situation after the devastating floods in Pakistan and the climate crisis (debate)

I’d like to ask the MEP a question about climate justice. You say that Pakistan should ask India and China, the big polluters, for compensation for climate change. We know for a fact that climate change has been predominantly caused by the developed world – ours. The West has been predominantly responsible for the impact of climate change, but they’re not the ones that feel the impact of it. Pakis…

4

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Access to water as a human right – the external dimension (debate)

Madam President, I welcome many aspects of this report, especially the strong emphasis on environmentalism. But we need to focus more on the problem of privatisation, which is prolific – with over 10% of global freshwater reserves being under private control. In Ireland, as my colleague pointed out, we fought against water charges for years. It is a neoliberal measure firmly promoted by the Commis…

4

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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The EU’s strategic relationship and partnership with the Horn of Africa (debate)

Madam President, the Horn of Africa report refuses to acknowledge that the EU was even partially responsible for the problems in the region. It condescendingly assumes that African nations’ lack of support for the NATO proxy war with Russia is down to Russian propaganda and not governments making a rational choice not to pick sides in a new Cold War. The report talks about aid to alleviate potenti…

4

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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The situation in Burkina Faso following the coup d'état (debate)

Mr President, instability, coups and French embassies being set on fire in former French colonies are becoming a bit more regular. Existing contradictions are being exacerbated by the sanctions on Russia, by the continuation of the war and by the inflationary spiral; by the climate crisis, by neo-colonial structures of exploitation, such as the French colonial franc system where France still recei…

4

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Commission proposal for measures under the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation in the case of Hungary (debate)

Madam President, I’m not a fan of Orbán, but then I’m not a fan of any other leader either. In fact, I’ve never seen a government that I like. I think the idea of respecting freedom of expression and respecting human rights is very important. If there’s things not being done, if behaviour is poor anywhere, we should criticise it, but I think it’s very important that we do so evenly and consistentl…

4

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Situation of Roma people living in settlements in the EU (debate)

Madam President, in March this year, the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) determined that Ireland was in breach of Article 16 of the revised European Social Charter, a binding human rights treaty, for a chronic failure to provide sufficient accommodation for travellers and maintain adequate conditions of existing sites. The ECSR also ruled that Ireland was in breach of the charter as a s…

4

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Radio Equipment Directive: common charger for electronic devices (debate)

Madam President, this is a very positive development and it has caught people’s attention. People understand it will save them money and reduce clutter in their homes. They also appreciate that electronic waste is a massive problem and it does urgently need to be tackled. People have also welcomed the common charger proposal because they are tired of consumerism. They are tired of consumerism in g…

3

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

The UN Charter is the foundational treaty of the United Nations, since 1945. When Russia invaded Ukraine, they breached the rules of the UN Charter. It was illegal. Sadly, it has been breached far too often. I’ve just read this excellent book by Vijay Prashad and Noam Chomsky: The Withdrawal. It highlights how the UN Charter has been abused. Here are a few quotes from the book: ‘The war in Afghani…

3

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Momentum for the Ocean: strengthening Ocean Governance and Biodiversity (debate)

Madam President, it's good that in this resolution we're calling for international measures to end nuclear and military waste in the oceans. Anywhere you find a foreign military base, you will find high levels of contamination and a marine environment struggling to cope. Look at Guam, look at Hawaii, French Polynesia, the Marshall Islands. The people and the marine ecosystems suffer catastrophical…

15

Sep

2022

EN Speech

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Consequences of drought, fire, and other extreme weather phenomena: increasing EU's efforts to fight climate change (RC-B9-0384/2022, B9-0384/2022, B9-0391/2022, B9-0393/2022, B9-0403/2022, B9-0404/2022, B9-0405/2022)

Madam President, over 1 300 people killed, 1 million homes gone, 33 million Pakistanis displaced, but does the EU care? The UN Secretary-General has appealed for massive global support and tougher action on climate change. We’ve allocated EUR 1.8 million in humanitarian assistance for flood victims. How much are we going to allocate for loss and damage to help survivors build back their homes? Ric…

15

Sep

2022

EN Speech

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Ecological Disaster in the Oder River (debate)

Madam President, for a river that is home to over 40 local species of fish, the 100 tonnes of dead fish pulled from the River Oder is nothing short of an ecological disaster. But it shouldn’t take an unmitigated ecological disaster to wake us up to the crisis state that the rivers and water sources are in across Europe. It’s not just in Poland. Every Member State should be in crisis mode. Accordin…

14

Sep

2022

EN Speech

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Renewed partnership with the Southern Neighbourhood – a new agenda for the Mediterranean (A9-0220/2022 - Antonio López-Istúriz White)

Mr President, the investment plans and aspirational language are a far cry from the reality for many of the southern neighbourhood countries. Barely two years ago, France and Italy were fighting each other in a proxy war over control of Libyan resources, and the report is talking about the EU promoting peace and stability in the region? Let’s not forget, France led the charge when NATO bombed Afri…

14

Sep

2022

EN Speech

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Adequate minimum wages in the European Union (A9-0325/2021 - Dennis Radtke, Agnes Jongerius)

Mr President, real wages are collapsing around Europe. In Spain in the last year, real wages are down 8.1%; in Italy, 7.5%. Real wages are down 5% on average in Ireland. But Europe’s lowest paid workers are facing the biggest fall in their purchasing power this century. The real statutory minimum wage in many Member States has been decimated. In the last year the change to the real statutory minim…

14

Sep

2022

EN Speech

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Nicaragua, in particular the arrest of the bishop Rolando Álvarez

Madam President, Bishop Alvarez, like anyone, should have a right to voice opposition to the government. The violent US-backed coup in 2018 resulted in approximately 200 deaths on both sides. The National Endowment for Democracy and the CIA funded some far-right criminals who plotted death and destruction. Bishop Alvarez, with his own TV station and several radio stations, was also heavily involve…

14

Sep

2022

EN Speech

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Violations of human rights in Uganda and Tanzania linked to the investments in fossil fuels projects

Madam President, climate systems’ break down is barrelling ahead at full speed and we’re recommending that TotalEnergies undertake a feasibility study on an environmentally friendly road for the 1 400-kilometre-long pipeline. The question should be what we do with the likes of TotalEnergies. We make all kinds of agreements on climate action, and these companies behave like there is no climate disa…

14

Sep

2022

EN Speech

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Human rights violations in the context of forced deportation of Ukrainian civilians to and forced adoption of Ukrainian children in Russia

Madam President, there is a huge leap from what the Assistant UN Secretary-General for Human Rights told the Security Council a week ago and what this resolution is claiming. The Secretary-General spoke about human rights violations at the site of security checks of Ukrainians. She also raised concerns that the Russian authorities have adopted a simplified procedure to grant Russian citizenship to…

14

Sep

2022

EN Speech

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Situation of fundamental rights in the EU in 2020 and 2021 (debate)

Mr President, this is a good report, but will the Commission act on it? Last week, over 60 Syrian and Lebanese migrants were left stranded in a sinking fishing boat in the middle of the Mediterranean. We left them there for four days without help and four children on board died as a result of our inaction. This is barbaric, but it’s just fortress Europe doing what it’s set up to do. In fact, it’s …

13

Sep

2022

EN Speech

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EU response to the increase in energy prices in Europe (debate)

Madam President, why has it taken the EU so long to intervene in the markets? The energy market started spiking almost a year ago. The energy prices haven’t come from nowhere. For many Europeans, the struggle to pay their energy bills is not a new phenomenon. One in four European households already struggled to adequately heat, cool or light their homes before what is now called a crisis. Market f…