What Mick spoke about.

23

Mar

2022

EN Speech

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MFF 2021-2027: fight against oligarch structures, protection of EU funds from fraud and conflict of interest (debate)

Madam President, oligarchs and corruption are a feature of [inaudible] capitalism. You become a billionaire by stealing, by collusion with politicians, the media and government officials and then you have influence over those who help you to the top. A billionaire is an oligarch. Europe has more billionaires than any other continent. Germany has more billionaires than anyone else in Europe. German…

23

Mar

2022

EN Speech

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Suisse Secrets - How to implement anti-money laundering standards in third countries (debate)

(start of speech off mike) … revelations about the practices of Credit Suisse and their secretive clientele. I support the recommendations of Transparency International, which calls for extra supervision of mechanisms by national supervisory authorities, centralised and verified beneficial ownership registers and strong punitive action against misbehaving banks. However, does it really come as any…

10

Mar

2022

EN Speech

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Destruction of cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh

Madam President, I welcome the call to allow UNESCO access to cultural heritage sites in Nagorno-Karabakh to assess the damage and take steps towards preservation. The EU also has a role to play in the wider region that has seen conflict in recent times. I travelled to Iraq last year and met a lot of religious and political public officials. We heard that there used to be EU delegations going to I…

8

Mar

2022

EN Speech

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Rising energy prices and market manipulation on the gas market (debate)

We have an energy system that doesn’t serve the people or the planet. The energy price crisis hasn’t come out of nowhere. One in four European households already struggled to adequately heat, cool or light their homes. You have fossil fuel companies continuing to reap massive profits. We need a windfall tax on their inflated prices, and we need immediate financial support for those who most need i…

7

Mar

2022

EN Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, the current crisis in Ukraine has been used by the Irish media, at last – and a handful of politicians, to make the case that Ireland should relinquish the neutrality enshrined in our Constitution and even commit to joining NATO. Naturally, these jingoistic sentiments are from those too old to enlist their children and grandchildren, too aloft to endure the bad pay and conditions …

17

Feb

2022

EN Speech

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Political crisis in Burkina Faso

Madam President, the new coup leader in Burkina Faso was trained by the Americans, so was the 2015 one, and so was the one the year before. Eight successful coups in the region since 2008 were by US- and EU-trained soldiers: EU capacity-building in action. Billions have been wasted militarising these societies, while the boot of neocolonialism stays pressed hard, like the CFA franc and crushing Wo…

16

Feb

2022

EN Speech

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EU-Russia relations, European security and Russia’s military threat against Ukraine (debate)

Mr President, we’ve had three months of this farce now, and the line between the real and the imaginary is blurred. The US and UK have used the media to flood pages, screens and airwaves with a load of unsubstantiated fear-mongering and lies gleaned from unaccountable, anonymous sources in the intelligence community. This has reached such a pitch that when Ukraine begs to the US and NATO to stop c…

15

Feb

2022

EN Speech

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EU-Africa relations (debate)

Madam President, much of EU economic activity in Africa is mediated through the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Funding comes with a range of conditionalities and often when the loans come due for payment these bodies are more than happy to insist on disastrous cuts to health and education programmes and neoliberal reforms that promote capital flight as the price of refinancing. The Fr…

14

Feb

2022

EN Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, the EU did well to negotiate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) into existence but, sadly, the abrupt end of it represents a decline of multilateralism and a blow to the EU. Since then, the EU has reacted poorly to the bullying by the Americans, who seem determined to show that the EU is just a puppet of theirs. The Americans didn’t just withdraw: they pressured other …

19

Jan

2022

EN Speech

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Violations of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong

Mr President, how many times do we have to talk about the situation in Hong Kong? Yet the Saudi UAE genocidal war on Yemen hardly registers in here. Why? Because the US and the EU are facilitating it? You want to talk about violations of fundamental freedoms, yet the concentration camps on the US-Mexican border don’t seem to exist. The US has illegally placed sanctions against about 40 countries, …

16

Dec

2021

EN Speech

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Barriers to the free movement of goods (debate)

Mr President, since January last year, Austria has progressively introduced restrictions on heavy goods vehicles transiting through the Brenner Pass. Italian businesses have been particularly hard hit by these restrictions. Austria’s argument that it has introduced a ban to reduce emissions does not really stack up. These restrictions are simply forcing trucks on longer diversions with a higher ca…

14

Dec

2021

EN Speech

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Situation at the Ukrainian border and in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine (debate)

Mr President, Zelensky came to power on a landslide with a mandate to end the war against the secessionists in the east, which has claimed thousands of lives and has had dire economic repercussions for millions of Ukrainians. There is, in the form of the 2015 Minsk II agreement, a framework, a pathway to achieve a lasting peace. This solution has been endorsed by the US and the UN and was negotiat…

14

Dec

2021

EN Speech

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The situation in Nicaragua (debate)

Mr President, the debate amounts to foreign interference in the affairs of a sovereign nation. I think I was the only MEP to travel to Nicaragua and witness the general election process. The atmosphere was festive, turnout was 65%, above the European average, and it was clear that the majority of the people were pretty happy with the result. The popularity of the FSLN is the result of the gains ma…

13

Dec

2021

EN Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, last week, the UK’s High Court ruled that the US request to extradite Assange to the US to stand trial on espionage charges is legally valid. They overturned a lower court ruling from back in January, when the judge deemed that he would be a suicide risk because conditions in US prisons were so bad. But the US Department of Justice convinced the High Court that he’d be grand in th…

24

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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The EU's role in combating the COVID-19 pandemic: how to vaccinate the world (topical debate)

Madam President, the Commission continues to refuse to support India and South Africa’s TRIPS waiver proposal at the WTO. President von der Leyen repeatedly pushes the COVAX programme as a solution instead. But the recent Oxfam ‘A Dose of Reality’ report shows that COVAX has been a complete failure. Big Pharma promised a lot but delivered very little. The same Oxfam report says that only 1.3% of p…

23

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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Common agricultural policy - support for strategic plans to be drawn up by Member States and financed by the EAGF and by the EAFRD - Common agricultural policy: financing, management and monitoring - Common agricultural policy – amendment of the CMO and other regulations (debate)

Mr President, we are in the middle of the sixth mass extinction. Vast parts of the Earth will be uninhabitable for humans if we don’t make radical changes fast. Scientists tell us, it is essential that the new CAP specifies a minimum 10% of agricultural land to be left uncultivated and managed in a way that encourages biodiversity. Yet, this deal specifies just a miserable minimum 4% space for nat…

22

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, in June 2018, an attempt was made to secretly alter, and then publish, a doctored version of the original interim report of the Douma OPCW fact—finding mission in Syria. We had the leaked reports through WikiLeaks and we can compare them side by side. In March 2019, the OPCW published a final report, which concluded there were reasonable grounds to conclude the alleged chemical we…

11

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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Strengthening democracy, media freedom and pluralism in the EU (A9-0292/2021 - Tiemo Wölken, Roberta Metsola)

Mr President, last November, my Independents 4 Change colleague, Clare Daly, tabled an amendment to the Annual report on the situation on fundamental rights in the EU. It stated: ‘whereas journalists and other media actors in the EU face multiple attacks, threats and pressures from state and non-state actors; whereas the detention and criminal prosecution of Julian Assange sets a dangerous precede…

11

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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Serious cross-border threats to health (A9-0247/2021 - Véronique Trillet-Lenoir)

Mr President, early in the pandemic there was a serious lack of solidarity shown by the EU with certain Member States, particularly Italy, who were hammered by COVID and abandoned by the EU. The vote today concerns the addition by Parliament of certain elements in relation to the European Health Emergency and Response Authority into the Serious Cross—border Threats Regulation. The amendment to ens…

11

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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Disclosure of income tax information by certain undertakings and branches (A9-0305/2021 - Evelyn Regner, Ibán García Del Blanco)

Mr President, this deal is yet another example of the EU putting the interests of big business before ordinary people. Real, transparent country-by-country reporting would force companies to report their profits on tax paid in every country they operate in, not just EU countries and those countries on the EU blacklist and greylist. The fact that information on other non-EU countries will only be a…

11

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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Statute and funding of European political parties and foundations (debate)

Madam President, I find this a strange way to address the disconnect between the European institutions and the citizenry of Europe. I really think that you don’t seem to understand why the citizens of Europe feel that distance with this place. We don’t actually represent them very well and since the Nice Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty, this is a neoliberal club, and neoliberalism puts the interests …

10

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, I was in Nicaragua for the elections at the weekend. I witnessed the voting process. I witnessed the celebrations of the people. The majority of the people of Nicaragua were happy. But no surprise that the US empire and the neo-liberal EU were not. They used the excuse that some political opponents of the Sandinistas were in prison. But as far as I remember, people in Germany and Fra…

10

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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An intellectual property action plan to support the EU’s recovery and resilience (short presentation)

Mr President, I was struck by a piece in the report which says that Parliament ‘stresses that a more equitable distribution of vaccines around the globe is essential for effectively combating the spread of COVID—19 and its mutations, and the need to support global access to COVID—19 vaccines; notes that the lack of access to affordable vaccines is still a major challenge in developing countries; s…

10

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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The European Education Area: a shared holistic approach (debate)

Mr President, I find it interesting listening to this debate on education. All my life, I have found education to be a driver of inequality. And people are talking in here tonight as if education drives equality. Well, I haven’t seen it in my lifetime. And right now, the EU can pay all the lip service it likes to education, but you’re spending more and more on military than you are on education. Y…

21

Oct

2021

EN Speech

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The proposal to build a ‘single market for philanthropy’ (debate)

Mr President, the structure of philanthropy around the world is increasingly a manifestation of plutocracy. It is government by the wealthy, at a time when actual government is shrinking and when, in many cases, philanthropic funds replace public spending and government functions. It is increasingly an exercise of private power, which often exacerbates rather than redresses inequality. We need glo…