What Mick spoke about.

12

Jul

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Delivering on the Green Deal: risk of compromising the EU path to the green transition and its international commitments (debate)

Madam President, I would like to commend the Commissioner for the good work on the Nature Restoration Law. God knows it’s not easy making progress on climate and environmental ambition in this place. To start, the 55% reduction target in the EU climate law that Parliament passed two years ago is too low given the EU’s historical contribution to global rising temperatures and the EU’s capacity to r…

12

Jul

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Need to adopt the “Unshell” Directive on rules to prevent the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes (continuation of debate)

Mr President, it’s well established that shell companies are used by corporations to shift and hide billions in wealth and profits every year within the EU, costing EU taxpayers over EUR 60 billion every year. Parliament has already voted overwhelmingly in favour of implementing the Unshell Directive, and despite the Swedish Presidency watering down the text to near non—recognition, it is still bl…

12

Jul

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 29-30 June 2023, in particular the recent developments in the war against Ukraine and in Russia (debate)

Mr President, you have always said that you respect the fact that people sit through the debate. I’ve been here since before you started and you’ve let in a speaker that came in ten minutes before he spoke. As far as we’re concerned, you are censoring us! You are not allowing us to speak. I’ve been here before you were here. I was here before the debate started. Why won’t you let me in, please?…

11

Jul

2023

EN Speech

Watch

European Chips Act (A9-0014/2023 - Dan Nica)

Mr President, the EU Chips Act will involve a massive transfer of public subsidies to private corporations without a guaranteed fair return on investment for society or conditionalities on public funding. Industrial policy can work to improve livelihoods and benefit the population, but this Act won’t do that. Additionally, there is a threat that this will lead to a further move away from trade wit…

11

Jul

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Financial activities of the European Investment Bank – annual report 2022 - Control of the financial activities of the European Investment Bank - annual report 2022 (joint debate - European Investment Bank)

Mr President, Commissioner, this report supports the EIB’s financial support for European security and defence. It specifically welcomes the EIB Strategic European Security Initiative. That initiative commits up to EUR 6 billion to dual use projects seeking to develop security and defence systems. The report even calls on the EIB to expand the initiative and to increase its investments in European…

11

Jul

2023

EN Speech

Watch

2022 Report on Albania (debate)

Madam President, there is a paternalistic logic underpinning accession to the EU: supposedly ‘primitive’ countries must catch up to the more advanced’ Western European countries and incorporate EU values. These Commission reports talk about a fantasy world where Western interference is erased. Corruption, abysmal social safety nets, crumbling infrastructure and inequality of outcome must be addres…

11

Jul

2023

EN Speech

Watch

2022 Report on Bosnia and Herzegovina (debate)

Madam President, Bosnia and Herzegovina is severely hampered by the deep structural issues stemming from the fundamental principles of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the neocolonial institution of the High Representative, who can dismiss the complete lack of positive or economic and social development and the dramatically high levels of immigration from both sub-entities. The report has very little i…

11

Jul

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Relations with the Palestinian Authority (debate)

Madam President, for more than two days last week, the Israeli Defence Forces attacked the Jenin refugee camp in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank. Benjamin Netanyahu labelled the attack on one of the world’s most defenceless and impoverished areas a special operation. It reminds one of Russia’s special military operations in Ukraine, which we rightly condemned. But where’s the condemnatio…

11

Jul

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Greening transport package (debate)

Madam President, if we were serious about addressing the transport problems from a congestion point of view, from a resource point to view, from an environmental point of view, how in God’s name have we not done more to advance the rail project? You go around any country in Europe and you’ll see a rail track that’s not even being used, that’s actually been closed down. I see it in Ireland. I see i…

11

Jul

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Nature restoration (debate)

Mr President, firstly, thanks to César and his staff for their great work on the legislation. The threat of global biodiversity collapse is real. The scientific consensus is that if we do not take dramatic action within the next decade, we may face irreversible damage to the natural world and the collapse of our societies. The science is absolutely clear: the biggest threat to our food security, t…

10

Jul

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Management, conservation and control measures in the area covered under the Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement (SIOFA) (debate)

Madam President, the Irish fishing industry is predicted to lose EUR 43 million worth of quota share by 2026 under the EU-UK free trade agreement. This will amount to a 15% reduction in the overall value of Irish fish quotas compared to 2020. Ireland was proportionally massively more impacted by the Brexit agreement than any other Member State. The upcoming review of the common fisheries policy mu…

10

Jul

2023

EN Speech

Watch

European Citizens’ Initiative ‘Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics – Commit to a Europe without animal testing’ (debate)

Madam President, firstly, to debunk one of the key myths about this European Citizens’ Initiative, there have been claims that this proposal will be harmful and limiting to medical research with an outright ban on animal testing, which is untrue. Despite the ban on animal testing on cosmetic products it is an ongoing practice with certain ingredients that require testing by the European Chemicals …

10

Jul

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Protection of journalists and human rights defenders from manifestly unfounded or abusive court proceedings (debate)

Mr President, freedom of the press, of association and freedom of expression are the cornerstones of any healthy political system. Some MEPs in here have said that journalists are afraid to report the truth and they’re right. Pablo Gonzalez, a Basque journalist, is in prison for the last 16 months in Poland because the authorities didn’t like what he was saying. Algirdas Paleckis is in prison in L…

10

Jul

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Industrial Emissions Directive - Industrial Emissions Portal - Deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure - Sustainable maritime fuels (FuelEU Maritime Initiative) - Energy efficiency (recast) (joint debate - Fit for 55 and Industrial Emissions)

Madam President, in order to respond to the current climate, health and biodiversity crises, it is crucial that the EU tackles the pollution coming from Europe’s most industrialised livestock farms. These farms represent a tiny minority of animal farms in Europe. Contrary to the false claims made by the big-agri lobby, the Industrial Emissions Directive does not target small and medium family farm…

15

Jun

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Situation in Nicaragua (RC-B9-0272/2023, B9-0272/2023, B9-0273/2023, B9-0279/2023, B9-0280/2023, B9-0283/2023)

Mr President, the recent report on human rights in Nicaragua makes a series of allegations and grave ones against the Nicaraguan Government, and these should be taken very seriously. But if you actually care about the people of Nicaragua, we wouldn’t be sanctioning them because sanctions hurt the ordinary people the most. I would like to commend Mr Borrell for going to Cuba, but I don’t understand…

15

Jun

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Call for a European strategy to counter hostage diplomacy (debate)

Mr President, brutal regimes who torture, murder, execute and bomb people on a daily basis. The Israelis, the US, the Saudis, for example. They are our business partners, so we don’t care what they do. Countries that resist Western imperialism, who fight back against regime-change operations or even overthrow Western puppet regimes, countries like Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Yemen, Syria, Pale…

14

Jun

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Ensuring food security and the long-term resilience of EU agriculture (A9-0185/2023 - Marlene Mortler)

Mr President, the biggest risk to food security and to the long-term resilience of EU agriculture are climate change and the biodiversity crisis. Never has our food system be so industrialised, so chemically intensive, and so global. This is the primary driver of the biodiversity crisis and a massive contributor to the climate crisis. We are approaching the sixth mass extinction. Global greenhouse…

14

Jun

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Artificial Intelligence Act (A9-0188/2023 - Brando Benifei, Dragoş Tudorache)

Mr President, without proper regulation, AI systems will further increase mass surveillance, structural discrimination, the centralised power of Big Tech and unaccountable public decision-making. The regulation should be governed by a precautionary principle, but the text we voted on today did not include this. It does not ban the use of AI in migration management. The understanding of what is con…

14

Jun

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Deterioration of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, notably the case of Jimmy Lai

Mr President, I’ve lost count of the number of times that we’ve discussed Hong Kong and here. I’m surprised that you’re still not giving out about the protests in the place and the treatment of the protesters. Maybe it’s because only one protester was killed in two years and he wasn’t killed by the Chinese police. China got Hong Kong back from the Brits in 1997. Hong Kong had never known anything …

14

Jun

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Extension of the mandate of the EPPO with regard to the criminal offence of violation of Union restrictive measures (debate)

Madam President, (start of speech off mic) ... EU Council when they decide to inflict sanctions on an entity does not adhere to basic standards of due process. No evidence is presented. The accused body does not get a defence and it all happens in secret. At least Ireland had its show trials in public. There’s nothing in customary international law that allows for a legal basis for the way our EU …

14

Jun

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Implementation and delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (debate)

Madam President, there is a lot that is positive in this report – fair play to Petros and Udo. Paragraph 77 demands reforms in the methodology of measuring economic performance so that progress is based on the well-being of people and of the planet. Paragraph 78 calls on the Commission to develop beyond-GDP indicators that incorporate societal and environmental factors. It is heartening to see a g…

14

Jun

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Lessons learnt from the Pandora Papers and other revelations (debate)

Madam President, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists should be commended for their work on the Pandora Papers. On their website on the Papers, the ICIJ lists who they consider the power players of the Pandora Papers. They include, unsurprisingly, President Putin and his inner circle, but they also include the current Ukrainian President, Zelenskyy. The ICIJ describes Zelensky…

14

Jun

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Make Europe the place to invest (debate)

Madam President, thank you. Commissioner, you spoke of the need to invest well to strengthen our economies. In Ireland, a lot of companies can’t find enough workers because the workers can’t get accommodation because we have a housing crisis, because successive governments have refused to invest in public housing. Now, to fix the housing crisis in Ireland, we do need direct provision of public hou…

14

Jun

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware - Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (draft recommendation) (debate)

Mr President, we welcome the report on the use of Pegasus. It makes for shocking, but not surprising, reading on the actions of the apartheid state of Israel and the use of Pegasus software as a matter of diplomacy, with the report highlighting how the sale of Pegasus software is used as a diplomatic bargaining chip, with countries turning a blind eye to Israel’s actions domestically. The report a…

13

Jun

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Situation in Nicaragua (debate)

Mr President, in Nicaragua in 2018, there was a violent coup attempt carried out by the anti-Sandinista protestors. The government responded violently. Many church leaders encouraged the protests and called on Ortega to resign. Of the 253 people killed, 48 were confirmed as Sandinistas, 22 were police officers, 31 protesters, and the political affiliation of the remaining 152 was unknown. It’s est…