Speeches

Madam President, most claims around organ harvesting in China originate from front groups run by the far—right anti—China cult, Falun Gong. A cult, let me remind you, that believes science was passed down by aliens to control humans and that Donald Trump was sent to destroy Communism. The recent unscientific paper claiming to expose deaths by organ extraction in China between 1980 and 2015, was funded by Google, the Australian Government and a Washington DC—based right—wing lobby group, The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation – a group founded by Ukrainian nationalists and Nazi German collaborators. The same fanatics were also behind the Uyghur genocide claims that we have yet to see any evidence of. Even the W.H.O. asserts that China is engaging in best practices in this area. Surely urgencies like this don’t bring any credit on this institution. It’s plain racism and is feeding into the new Cold War.

Mr President, the social and economic consequences for the EU of the Russian war in Ukraine are immense. Ukraine, the EU and the Global South are the biggest losers in this war. The impact on fuel, oil, energy and agriculture prices, the tightening supplies of food mean that many countries will be unable to pay their foreign debts. The euro has been undermined and we’re risking an EU-wide recession. But the US sees big opportunities. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was crystal clear on this in her 13 April speech. She detailed how the US will use the IMF to provide conditional assistance to struggling states friendly to US geostrategic interests, while threatening sanctions against any countries thinking of continuing to do any business with Russia. Pope Francis has come out and apportioned blame on NATO for the war and questioned the wisdom of supplying arms to Ukraine. NATO says they are ready to fuel the war for years. The US needs the war to reinforce their unipolar power, while Ukraine, the people of Europe and hundreds of millions in the Global South will pay the price.

Mr President, in April, SIPRI reported that total global military expenditure increased in 2021 to reach USD 2.1 trillion – the highest global annual spend on record. A clear year—on—year drop in global arms sales in the post—Cold War years has been reversed, principally by the US following September 9/11. It’s been a bonanza for the global arms industry ever since. We know that global warming and climate systems breakdown are resulting in mass displacement, food shortages, starvation and instability. In response, our leaders have ignored mitigating global warming and instead spend resources primarily on militarism, stoking conflicts, further threatening life on earth. It’s never been so obvious that there is no genuine democracy under monopoly capitalism. Only the consolidation of power by the oligarchs, the barbarians. And these people are prepared to sacrifice the whole world in their wars to maintain Western dominance. Anti—war voices have rarely been so systematically attacked and yet have never been so more needed. The militarisation of Europe is not serving the interests of its citizens and support for the data war machine in Europe must end before it causes more destruction.

Mr President, I’d like to thank the rapporteur for her report. She talks about the impact of the loss of marine biodiversity, protected marine areas and the need for balanced development, the role of international governance and she talks about coastal communities. We’re in a strange place in Ireland because, as my colleague has already pointed out, fishermen in Ireland have been shafted for years. We sold out our fishing rights in return for subsidies for dairy and beef a long time ago. And the fishermen have never got a fair deal ever since. When we’re introducing rules and regulations for fishermen across Europe, we need to take on board the unique position of Irish fishing, which has not been given a fair deal. And, going forward, whatever way we’re going to tackle this, the fishermen have to be part of the solution and you can’t just regard them as part of the problem.

Madam President, the transition to high-quality and toxic—free material cycles cannot be achieved while allowing persistent organic pollutants to be recycled in materials. The weak limits on the presence of persistent organic pollutants proposed by the Commission would undermine the Stockholm Convention and the European Green Deal. Weak limits would do more harm than good. Weak limits would undermine the credibility of recycling. I’m fairly happy with the text of the regulation before us, as amended by the Environment Committee. The limits and the presence of persistent organic pollutants that are agreed are all stricter than the current limits and most of them go beyond the Commission’s proposal. This should lead to an enhanced protection of the environment and human health. The elimination of toxic legacy substances from waste is vital to ensure a safe and clean circular economy and this amending regulation can certainly help to achieve that.

Mr President, the people advocating for this initiative claim they want more engagement from the citizens across Europe with the EU. But, I mean, how in God’s name is this going to fix us? Many people are asking, what is democracy? Democracy is where the people have a say in how their society is organised. There isn’t much of it around. In Member States, it’s been watered down dramatically by the weakening of local government – one of the best vehicles that the people had for connecting with those that were ruling them. Everything has been centralised and it’s even worse at EU level. Who runs this place? We have three institutions – we’ve the European Parliament, we’ve the Council and we’ve the Commission. We are the only ones directly elected but we can’t initiate legislation. If it’s really a question of democracy, why aren’t we the ones that are initiating legislation? The Council is more powerful and so is the Commission than us. The Council meetings are held in secret and the Commission are not elected by the people. How can you talk about this place having democracy? That’s a myth.

Mr President, this war is empowering all the worst elements everywhere – in Russia, in Ukraine and in NATO countries. The voices of barbarism are drowning out the voices for peace. The arms industry, the fossil fuel industry, the warmongers and war lending polluters are presented by the media as the same people, the reasonable ones. We have just had the publication of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report. It’s telling us that we’re looking at the last chance to act to save human life on earth. The window of opportunity is closing for good. And what are the reasonable people, the grown—ups, doing? They are funnelling weapons into a hot war like there’s no tomorrow, implementing sanctions that are cleaving the world into new shapes that will set back the possibility to achieve meaningful climate action by for decades, while basic supply chain disruptions are going to cause prolonged suffering and destabilisation all over Eurasia and probably in Europe. We are being led by people who are prepared to see the world destroyed. It is insufferable.

Mr President, War is always brutal, particularly brutal for children. Many Ukrainian children fleeing the war will be very vulnerable. Dealing with their needs will be a massive challenge for Member States that have not prioritised the most vulnerable in their own countries to date. A new approach is required to prioritise the interests of the most vulnerable. Speaking of vulnerable, I went to Lesbos last month for the trial of Amir Zahiri and Akif Razuli, who fled Afghanistan, which was destroyed by US and NATO for 20 years. They travelled from Turkey to Greece in 2020 to claim asylum, but the Greek coastguard punctured their boat, arrested them and sent them to pre-trial detention. We went for their court case. After two days, it was postponed to today. At today’s court case, the prosecution witness, a Greek coastguard, didn’t turn up. So the prosecution asked for a postponement. A postponement. The last day he didn’t turn up either, but his written statement was accepted. This is absolutely shocking. These people have spent over two years in prison, and it is criminal what we’re doing to them. This is a war crime.

Mr President, the Commission’s right to repair legislative proposal this year should include unrestricted access to spare parts and software, comprehensive information and affordable repair services. The Commission should support local, grassroots and community repair initiatives, cooperatives and social enterprises. This is all important to avoid monopolies in relation to repairs. However, the Commission’s circular economy action plan fixates on GDP growth and consumer empowerment, repeating the problems of the Commission’s formulation of the European Green Deal as a new growth strategy. I believe we need to radically alter our economic system in order to move away from GDP growth, which depends on perpetual extraction of finite resources to fuel infinite expansion. The aim of economies should be to satisfy the basic needs and well-being of all people within planetary boundaries, regardless if the economy grows or not. The circular economy should not be used to rebrand acts of consumption as climate action.

Mr President, Ireland spends just 6% of its total health budget on mental health; Germany spends 12%; Norway 13.5% and France 15%. More than 3300 children are waiting for a consultant appointment with the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service in Ireland. Acute adult psychiatric units are operating at almost 90% occupancy, yet the safe occupancy level is at 85%. We have a medicalised mental health model that all stakeholders appear to agree is a massive problem. Yet, still we have little or no public health talk therapy. In her statement last October, Commissioner Kyriakides said EUR 7 million will be invested in projects to prevent depression and suicide and to support more person-centred, community-based mental health services. In 2019, the HSC in Ireland admitted that it needed EUR 189 million to fully implement the staffing requirements alone that were set out in a vision for change that was going to deal with our failure to supply mental health services. The Commission’s EUR 7 million is a drop in the ocean.

Mr President, just last week, the European Committee of Social Rights determined that Ireland was in breach of Article 16 of the revised European Social Charter, a binding human rights treaty, for chronic failure to provide sufficient accommodation for travellers and maintain adequate conditions of existing sites. The Committee found there were inadequate safeguards governing travellers’ evictions within the Criminal Justice Act and the Housing Act. They further ruled that Ireland was in breach of the Charter, as a significant number of local authority tenants reside in inadequate and substandard housing conditions. The EU’s Roma strategic framework is weak and ineffective. The targets in the framework are a joke. It aims just to halve anti—Roma and traveller discrimination by 2030. Why aren’t we getting rid of it? Why aren’t we going for 100%? It’s just nuts that we’re aiming by 2030 to halve the discrimination. Surely, this isn’t good enough. We need to be ambitious: legally binding objectives to promote Roma and traveller inclusion and adequate targeted funding are absolutely vital.

Madam President, as Europe rightly welcomes Ukrainian refugees, the EU border agency Frontex is engaged in a brutal and illegal push-back campaign in the Aegean Sea against asylum seekers from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and much of Africa. Amir Zahiri and Akif Razuli fled Afghanistan – which was destroyed by the US and NATO for 20 years. They travelled from Turkey to Greece in 2020 to claim asylum. But the Greek Coastguard punctured their boat, arrested them and sent them to pre-trial detention. Both now face a 50-year jail sentence. The treatment of Zahiri and Razuli demonstrates a complete transgression of the rule of law in Europe. They are denied the fundamental right to a fair trial, liberty and security and the prohibition of inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment. There is a systematic criminalisation of asylum seekers at play. When is the Commission going to do something about it? And I call for the acquittal of Amir Zahiri and Akif Razuli, who are on trial tomorrow morning in Lesbos.

Mr President, the Chinese President made four proposals on the Ukraine crisis during the summit. He insists on promoting peace talks, on measures to prevent a wider humanitarian crisis, that we must build lasting peace in Europe and Eurasia, and we must prevent regional conflicts from spreading. Before the meeting, China’s Foreign Minister’s spokesperson said ‘China disapproves of solving problems through sanctions and we are even more opposed to unilateral sanctions and long-arms jurisdiction that have no basis in international law. Beijing would not be forced to choose a side or adopt a simplistic friend or foe approach. We should in particular,’ he says, ‘resist Cold War thinking and block confrontation.’ Now, China hasn’t given arms to either side and is well placed to be a peace broker. I would appeal to them to be a peace broker. I appeal to France and Germany to step up efforts to stop this terrible war and work for peace. And for the life of me, I don’t understand why the UN Secretary-General isn’t shuttling between Minsk and Moscow to bring about mediation. Please, he should start.

Madam President, the war in Afghanistan never stopped. It just changed its nature. Economic sanctions are a weapon of war. They are not visible like aerial bombardment is, but they have the same murderous consequences. What is more, they kill women and children, the sick and the elderly, first and foremost. Anyone who has ever voted to implement economic sanctions, that have blanket effects on a population, has the blood of the innocent and the vulnerable on their hands. This is not controversial. UN agencies and multiple UN special rapporteurs on human rights have been shouting from the hilltops for years now about the hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths that are a direct result of Western unilateral sanctions. Venezuela, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Yemen, and Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, US sanctions currently imposed on the country, and the theft of the US of more than USD 7 billion of the country’s assets, are on track to take the lives of more civilians in the coming year than the illegal NATO war took in 20 years. Over 25 million people, 55% of the Afghan population, are facing high levels of acute food insecurity. 1 million children may starve. This is the choice made by the US Government, and we talk about EU values while we are blind to all the innocent people that we are sanctioning to death, and we do nothing to stop Biden killing millions of Afghan civilians. It is criminal.

Madam President, the revision of the trans-European Network Energy Regulation could have a huge impact on the EU’s chances of achieving its climate goals. The revision of the regulation appears to have got to grips with the conflict of interest in the current TEN-E process, where gas demand has been consistently overestimated by the European network of transmission system operators for gas. This remarkable conflict of interest means that the gas companies that build the gas infrastructure are the same companies that propose the projects. However, the revision fails to exclude financial support in the form of subsidies for fossil fuel gas infrastructure and political support in the form of planning permissions. Europe’s still providing over EUR 112 billion a year towards the fossil fuel industry. We need a fossil fuel gas phase—out in Europe by 2035 at the latest. And we need an immediate end to fossil fuel gas subsidies. We are in breach of the Paris Agreement at the moment because we’re supposed to make finances work for the climate. We also need to make sure that public funding is available to support people and companies to move away from fossil gas.

Mr President, in his excellent book The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War, Nicholas Mulder explains how economic sanctions, though meant to function as an alternative to war, are modelled on devastating techniques of warfare. Sanctions are a form of war, and often the consequences are shocking. Some 500 000 children died in Iraq because of sanctions; 40 000 people died in Venezuela in recent years because of illegal US sanctions; tens of thousands have died in Syria because of US and European sanctions. What are the sanctions that the EU has imposed on Russia going to do? Most sanctions are illegal unless mandated by the UN. Are our sanctions on Russia going to stop the war? We don’t think so. Are they designed to undermine the Russian economy? Sure, but will those in the Kremlin suffer? I doubt it. Will the ordinary Russian people suffer? Absolutely. Have we any idea of the devastation that we may cause to women, children, the elderly and the less well-off in Russia with sanctions that are not stopping the war? What are we doing?

Madam President, thanks to the rapporteur. I think it’s a very worthwhile piece of work on your part. And I’m just kind of wondering what kind of a role the EU can play. I’m just conscious of the challenges at home in Ireland at the moment. I mean, you mentioned taking into account the age and needs of the children, the free legal representation and psychological support, and training of judges. I mean, my God, what challenges have we got there? And the mediation offices that need to be put into the structures. These are massive challenges. To be honest, I’m totally innocent as to how much of a role the EU can play. I know some things are the competency of Member States, so I’m curious as to how much of a strong role the European Union can actually play in pressuring the Member States to do things so much better, because it’s a huge area where things leave so much to be desired.

Madam President, this report completely omits the fact that Ireland, which lost 15% of its quota under the agreement, was proportionately substantially more impacted by the Trade and Cooperation Agreement than any other Member State. It is absolutely essential that the review of the common fisheries policy scheduled for this year addresses the hugely disproportionate impact of Brexit on the Irish fishing industry, including the imbalances in the quota transfers under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. The common fisheries policy, including its utterly outdated relative stability principle, has slowly strangled Irish fishing and coastal communities for almost 40 years. No more than 50% of the gross tonnage and kilowatt power of the total boats fishing between Ireland’s 12—mile limit and the 200—mile limit should come from outside of Ireland. The common fisheries policy needs to be radically changed to reflect the realities of climate change and the political realities of Brexit. This is a once—in—a—generation opportunity to save fishing communities all around Ireland.

Madam President, without this standalone revision of the Market Stability Reserve, the intake rate will revert to 12% after 2023. So I support the fast tracking of this standalone revision. However, the current 24% must be the floor and not the ceiling for the intake rate. The Market Stability Reserve has been effective in supporting the ETS carbon price signal in recent years, but it was designed to only handle oversupply accumulated in the past. It is not fit to deal with current or future surplus. Such surpluses might be the result of, for example, economic downturns, COVID or planned coal plant closures. The Market Stability Reserve will therefore need to be strengthened. To effectively handle the market surplus, we need to increase the intake rate to something closer to 35% from 2024 onwards. We need to adopt the planning thresholds and we need an automatic cancellation of allowances held in the reserve for more than three years.

Madam President, thanks to globalisation, economic restructuring and pro—business legislation over recent decades, the rise in the share of national income going to the owners of capital in most countries has increased astronomically. And this legislation doesn’t put enough of a dent in it. The proposed minimum, which has been watered down to 15%, is only barely above the abysmal 12.5% that we have in Ireland at the moment. And there’s a fear that it could actually add to the race to the bottom with a 15% global standard, and it’s well below the UN call for somewhere between 20 and 30%. More than ever, we need a fair and effective corporate tax system. Today, there’s no doubt big business has too much influence over politics, it has too much influence over the decision makers. And it would be wonderful if the EU were to tackle that.

Madam President, ‘global warming reaching 1.5 ° centigrade in the near term would cause unavoidable increases in multiple climate hazards and present multiple risks to ecosystems and humans’. This is a quote from the report. It’s a remarkable statement. Are we happy that the 1.5 ° target is actually going to be okay? And Commissioner, tell me, are you concerned about the over-reliance on negative-emission technologies that are used in the reports, given that a lot of it has still to be invented? And my last question to you, Commissioner: there is definitely a pushback against the new Green Deal because of the war. Don’t you think that it is so, so important that we don’t allow that to happen?

–. Mr President, there was a piece on the fertiliser crisis on the Jerry O’Sullivan Show on Radio Kerry in Ireland lately. After the show, a farmer contacted Jerry. He said, ‘In Ireland, we’ve had four fertilizer or fodder crises in the last 12 years’. The farmer said that the intensification of farming, particularly of the dairy sector, was coming back to bite us. ‘Farmers have been pushed’, he said, ‘to take four cuts of silage a year. It used to be two.’ He said, ‘We have doubled the amount of stock that the land in Ireland can safely take. Even if the war stops tomorrow,’ he said, ‘it doesn’t matter. There will be another fodder crisis in a year or two because of the intensity of farming we are now engaged in. We no longer have dairy farms; we have dairy factories.’ Now more than ever is the time to accelerate the transition to environmentally and socially sustainable farming practices.

Mr President, there are few case studies like Eastern Europe that give lie to the myth that capitalism creates a general prosperity. The former Soviet republics have been carved up through IMF shock therapy, neoliberal economic reforms and an endless series of privatisation scandals ever since 1990, robbing state coffers of the funds needed to address the plight of their people and giving rise to instability and wars. But the wars have been a gift for Western centres of financial capitalism. From the Bosnian war, to Kosovo, to Ukraine, reconstruction loans lock these countries into impossible debt traps and further crushing reforms see state assets end up in fire sales to Western vultures. Moldova and Ukraine are two of the poorest countries on the continent, but to paraphrase Michael Parenti, they are rich, they are not underdeveloped – they are overexploited. The historical record shows that we care about these countries insofar as the IMF, the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development can carve them up, profit off them and leave them for dead. I voted against.

Mr President, the Energy Charter Treaty is a relic of a fossil-fuel past and beyond reform. The EU is probably wasting its time by engaging in a reform process that isn’t going anywhere. The reforms will not be coherent with the Paris Agreement targets and the European Green Deal, for three main reasons: it won’t immediately end protection for all fossil fuel investments. At best, existing coal, gas and oil investments would continue to be protected well into the mid-2030s. Secondly, it won’t end the old investor-state dispute—settlement system. This is not even part of the negotiations. And thirdly, it won’t guarantee states’ rights to regulate by introducing effective limits to investors’ rights. Also, the proposals to include hydrogen and biomass in the list of energy technologies that are protected under the Treaty will only increase the risk of investor-state dispute—settlement challenges. The Energy Charter Treaty cannot be modernised or fixed, and the EU should withdraw from the Treaty.

Madam President, under the cover of UN Resolution 2216, the US and Saudi gave themselves permission to use violence in Yemen in an effort to reinstate the corrupt and incompetent President Hadi, who had been rejected by the people of Yemen. For the last seven years, US- and British—made planes have been dropping bombs on the poorest country in the Middle East, while well—paid public relations firms justify what’s called a war crime elsewhere. The Western—backed Saudi—UAE coalition targets everything from transport infrastructure, bridges, roads, ports to food processing plants, farmlands, food stores, markets and water wells. The resulting famine has almost been kept out of the media. Isa Blumi, one of the few journalists who has reported on the famine, argues that starvation is strategic rather than collateral. According to the UN, almost 400 000 are dead, 16 million have been pushed into severe poverty. Why is the European Union silent about the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet? Are these people not worthy of our compassion?