What Mick spoke about.

13

Mar

2024

EN Speech

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Guidelines for the 2025 Budget - Section III (debate)

Mr President, this report takes time to condemn Hamas and Russia, but not a bad word about Israel. In fact, it says we should continue to build peace and stability in the region. What peace and stability? We can’t even call for an unconditional ceasefire while EU Member States funnel endless weapons and financial aid to a regime openly perpetrating a genocide. During Israel’s genocidal campaign in…

12

Mar

2024

EN Speech

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Need to impose sanctions on the import of Russian and Belarusian food and agricultural products to the EU and to ensure stability of EU agricultural production (debate)

Madam President, we have a regulation to extend the trade liberalisation measures for Ukraine’s agricultural products in the same session as we have a call to impose sanctions on Russian and Belarusian food and agri-products to the EU. The EU’s grain prices have been primarily depressed by the influx of cheap Ukrainian grain. The EU wants to support Ukraine during the war effort, but the reality i…

12

Mar

2024

EN Speech

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State of play of the corporate sustainability due diligence directive (debate)

Madam President, we already have a corporate sustainability reporting directive that creates a legal obligation for corporations and big business to report on how their activities impact the environment and human rights. The idea that we wouldn’t actually match that directive with a corporate sustainability due diligence directive – which would actually require these businesses and corporations to…

12

Mar

2024

EN Speech

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European Media Freedom Act (debate)

Mr President, the Commissioner would be very disappointed if I didn’t get to talk. The final draft of the European Media Freedom Act is disappointing, but no surprise given how the EU is hell bent on promoting the defence industry at every opportunity. This legislation could have made a strong statement: that the use of spyware by Member States against journalists would be illegal. Instead, it fud…

11

Mar

2024

EN Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, Ursula von der Leyen says she is planning on a commissioner for defence if she is in power next term. A commissioner for defence means a commissioner for war. Why don’t we have a commissioner for peace? What started as an economic union is fast developing into a military union. Great news for the elites that profit from war, but not good news for the citizens of Europe who see mor…

11

Mar

2024

EN Speech

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European Maritime Safety Agency and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002 (short presentation)

Mr President, when it was founded in 2002, the European Maritime Safety Agency had a narrow focus on the monitoring of ship movements, but its role has expanded into areas such as coastguard operations and the surveillance of migration flows. The agency is increasingly complicit in the militarisation and externalisation of the EU’s border policies. From 2018 to 2020, the Maritime Agency leased dro…

11

Mar

2024

EN Speech

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Liability for defective products (short presentation)

Mr President, this revision of the 40-year-old Product Liability Directive means consumers should be better protected and should find it easier to claim compensation for damages caused by a faulty product. But it is not enough simply to have legislation in place; it must be enforced. In Ireland, the defective block scandal has devastated families in Limerick, Clare, Donegal and Mayo. At the heart …

11

Mar

2024

EN Speech

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Substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (Green Claims Directive) (debate)

Mr President, the text of the Green Claims Directive builds on the empowering consumers for the Green Transition Directive, which essentially bans climate neutrality claims for products based on offsets. The Green Claims Directive text we passed at ENVI adds a significant restriction on claims based on offsetting at the level of a trader, not just at the product level. The text now states traders …

29

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Deepening EU integration in view of future enlargement (A9-0015/2024 - Petras Auštrevičius, Pedro Silva Pereira)

Mr President, I voted against this. I think it’s madness! We are in a rush towards enlargement. We are prepared to overlook rule of law. We are prepared to overlook corruption, as we’ve seen with Ukraine’s bid to get into the EU. We’re looking to fast-track things. We’re pressuring countries to behave in a certain manner so that they will get into the European Union quickly: countries like Georgia…

29

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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The need for unwavering EU support for Ukraine, after two years of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine (RC-B9-0143/2024)

Mr President, I voted against this. What does unwavering EU support for Ukraine really mean? If we were really prepared to support Ukraine, we would help to end the war. We have done nothing to bring about peace. We have opposed dialogue and diplomacy. We have supported the US-NATO proxy war from the start. We have wasted billions of EU taxpayers’ money on this stupid war. And where’s it going? It…

29

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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The murder of Alexei Navalny and the need for EU action in support of political prisoners and oppressed civil society in Russia (RC-B9-0147/2024)

Mr President, Navalny should not have been in prison. The only people that should be in prison are those who are a danger to society when they’re free. His death in prison was a tragedy. He was brave and committed, but committed too many of the things that we wouldn’t agree with. He was very much at odds with purported EU values. He was a right-wing nationalist, much like Putin. He was Islamophobi…

29

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Major interpellations (debate)

Mr President, one of the root causes of migration is the trading of arms and their subsequent use in conflict. European arms exports have been directly linked to the forced displacement of millions. The arms trade is a lucrative industry that profits both from conflict and from militarising the migration routes it helps to create. And the EU is helping the business boom. The Commission has given a…

29

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Commission recommendation on secure and resilient submarine cables (debate)

Mr President, there’s been much talk about the threat to undersea cables in the Red Sea, but Ansar Allah have made it clear that they have no intention of targeting internet cables destined for regional countries. They are solely targeting ships that are facilitating the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Now, how are we supposed to take the Commission’s concern for undersea cables seriously when the Nord …

28

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Financial activities of the European Investment Bank - annual report 2023 (debate)

Mr President, it’s often forgotten that the European Union was founded primarily as a means to prevent future wars. The European Investment Bank was established in the 1958 Treaty of Rome with a mission to facilitate equitable development in the EU through lending to regions that are less developed and to support the EU’s internal market. The EIB’s current mission statement is to boost Europe’s po…

28

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Strengthening European Defence in a volatile geopolitical landscape - Implementation of the common foreign and security policy – annual report 2023 - Implementation of the common security and defence policy – annual report 2023 (joint debate - European security and defence)

Madam President, there are 18 condemnations in the common security and defence policy annual report. Not one of them is directed at Israel. Yet, unlike Israel, none of the 11 countries condemned are carrying out a genocide right now. The report emphasises full support for Israel and for Israel’s right to defend itself in accordance with international law. I would like the rapporteur of the report …

27

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Rising inequalities in the world (debate)

Mr President, we are living in a world of rampant inequality between North and South, between rich and poor, between the classes that labour and those that profit. This inequality is produced by various forces of global capitalism that divide, exclude and polarise the world. The emergence of neoliberalism has certainly exasperated the problem. Neoliberalism is a project of the ruling class to incr…

27

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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The current situation in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (debate)

Mr President, resources are a source of wealth and trouble. Amnesty International has published a damning report denouncing shocking human rights abuses in Congo arising from the industrial mining of cobalt and copper for rechargeable batteries. These include the forced eviction of entire communities, as well as sexual assault, arson and beatings. Decarbonising the global economy should not come a…

27

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Critical situation in Cuba (debate)

Madam President, the US and their allies imposed unilateral sanctions to punish the people for supporting their government, to strangle the country until the people see no other option but to abandon their belief that independence is possible, so that they come to the realisation that, in a world dominated by financial capital, democracy means one thing: the exposure of your country, its people an…

27

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Recommendation to the Council, the Commission and the EEAS on the situation in Syria (debate)

Madam President, Syria has been strangled by Western unilateral sanctions. Malnutrition is at critical levels. Electricity, water, irrigation and sanitation infrastructure is crippled. Hyperinflation is rampant. The US occupation steals oil, burns wheat crops, and, along with the Israelis, continuously bombs Syria. Syria doesn’t bomb Israel. Turkey occupies the northwest and Israel illegally occup…

27

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Human rights and democracy in the world and the European Union’s policy on the matter – annual report 2023 (debate)

Mr President, are we really going to pretend that the EU is concerned about human rights after four months of complicity with the murderous Israeli regime? Citizens across Europe are sick and tired of the empty words and the expressions of concern for the terrible things happening in Gaza. We say the EU must uphold international human rights and humanitarian law. We say that we’re concerned about …

27

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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War in the Gaza Strip and the need to reach a ceasefire, including recent developments in the region (debate)

– Madam President, over 12 000 Gazan children murdered in a few months. UNICEF warns that the Gaza Strip is about to see an explosion in preventable child deaths that will compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza. We have been warning for weeks that the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a nutrition crisis. Food deliveries are drastically inadequate. UN experts said last week that …

27

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Multiannual financial framework for the years 2021 to 2027 - Establishing the Ukraine Facility - Establishing the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (‘STEP’) (joint debate - multiannual financial framework revision)

Mr President, in October, I said the 50 million Ukraine Facility is a rushed, inadequate mechanism tailor-made for corruption and embezzlement of EU funds on a massive scale. This is still the case. Many findings and recommendations put forward in the June 2023 European Court of Auditors opinion have been ignored. They found that persistent grand corruption and state capture posed a systemic risk …

26

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, international law is in trouble these days. The US and its allies, they seldom actually talk about the UN Charter anymore. They prefer to refer to the international rules-based order, which they make up as they go along, which makes it easier for them to actually facilitate the genocide that is taken place in Gaza. Likewise, if we look at organisations like the ICC, we had a woman fr…

26

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Protection of the environment through criminal law (short presentation)

Mr President, it’s welcome that the revision of the directive will now include a provision to directly address specific, severe cases of ecosystem destruction, including habitat destruction and illegal logging. I would hope that it will make the worst polluters sit up and pay attention that they might actually be held to account for the destruction of the environment. Now, the text doesn’t actuall…

26

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Amending Decision (EU) 2017/1324: continuation of the Union’s participation in PRIMA under Horizon Europe (short presentation)

Mr President, PRIMA’s goals to develop knowledge and common innovative solutions for sustainable agri-food systems and integrated water provisions in the Mediterranean area are admirable and, in the light of our current climate crisis, required now more than ever. However, the initial phase of PRIMA, started in 2017, has not been without its deficiencies. There has been a particular delay in relea…