Speeches

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today we are going to vote on Dr Manfredi Selvaggi, an Italian candidate for the European Court of Auditors and a professional with considerable expertise and experience in the field of public finance and accounting management. In addition to having a strong curriculum at national level, with two degrees obtained with flying colors, and having become the youngest magistrate of the Italian Court of Auditors to have passed the competition, Dr. Manfredi Selvaggi can boast considerable experience at international level. In fact, he was the contact person for the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) and a member of the Committee that acts as a contact point between Italy and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). In 2020 and 2021, it also participated in the CATONE project, created by OLAF and aimed at exchanging information between national anti-fraud coordination offices and Court of Auditors magistrates from several European countries. During his CONT hearing, he answered the many questions impeccably, setting out his priorities to ensure adequate financial supervision at European level and receiving a clear and cross-cutting majority of votes in favour. For these reasons, I believe that a highly qualified figure such as Dr Manfredi Selvaggi can play a decisive role in promoting the trust and soundness of the European institutions.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, today, while European farmers are rightly protesting outside this building in order to defend their rights, save farms and guarantee genuine products to us consumers, we are here debating plants obtained through some new genomic techniques and the food and feed derived from them. At a time when food safety, environmental sustainability and technological innovation are at the heart of our concerns, we need to make some reflections. The new techniques offer the promise of improving agricultural productivity, making crops more resistant to disease and adverse climatic conditions and reducing the need to use pesticides. We must be vigilant in ensuring that these agricultural advances are safe for human health, environmentally friendly and ethically acceptable. We must not overlook the impact that our choices will have on European consumers and especially on representatives of the agricultural sector, who have been harassed for too long by Community agricultural policies.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the aim of this text is to reduce dependence on China in the extraction and processing of critical raw materials, which are essential for the energy transition, for digital technologies and for electronic and medical devices. The EU strategy aims, on the one hand, to increase extraction and processing capacity in Europe and, on the other hand, to diversify trading partners. The European way to critical raw materials is also characterised by the desire to make more investments in research and innovation, ensuring the protection of the environment through the promotion of circularity, recycling and greater sustainability. The agreement finally reached represents a starting point towards the self-sufficiency of the Union and a more circular economy, which can boost European industry and ensure an increase in new jobs over the next five years.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, at a time when the economic landscape is characterised by unprecedented challenges, it is essential to take concrete measures to facilitate and support the growth of the business sector, especially the youth sector. In a context such as the current one, regulatory simplification must be an essential step to foster the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and ensure a less passive and more collaborative relationship with public bodies. Reducing the regulatory burden does not only mean lightening the bureaucratic burden, but is an investment in the European economic fabric, because the promotion of entrepreneurship is crucial if job creation and long-term prosperity are to be guaranteed. Europe's competitiveness depends on our ability to provide businesses with the tools they need to compete internationally. And one of these tools is that radical process of deburring, which would allow Italian and European companies to relaunch and adapt to the changes imposed by the global market.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the issue of urban waste water is of fundamental importance, but it must be analysed with a critical and realistic eye. The proposal put forward by Mr Torvalds seems to ignore the principle of subsidiarity, leaving much decision-making authority to the European Union at the expense of sovereign nations. We should ask ourselves whether this is really the way forward or whether we should give Member States the flexibility to address this challenge in a way that suits their specific needs and resources. Technological innovation, unfortunately, is not the panacea for all problems related to urban wastewater. We must be aware of the limitations of current technologies and the potential side effects, such as the increase in costs that are often difficult to sustain or the environmental impact of the new solutions proposed. Therefore, while acknowledging the importance of urban wastewater treatment, I believe that this issue should be addressed with a more critical approach, balancing environmental with economic needs and carefully considering the role of the European Union and individual Member States in this process.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the purpose of this regulation is manifold: moving towards a circular economy, protecting nature and raising environmental standards in the European Union and worldwide. The new rules require that the import into Europe of a range of raw materials and products, including soybeans, beef, coffee, cocoa and palm oil, be accompanied by certification that they have not contributed to the destruction of forests. All this is based on an enhanced traceability system and controls entrusted to the Member States, which will be able to suspend the placing on the EU market of products deemed to cause deforestation. These initiatives will have to be followed by other measures capable of affecting imports into the European Union, in order to better guarantee food and environmental security and social guarantees. In this way, with the principle of reciprocity, we will be able to protect both the planet and Italian and European consumers.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the obsessive quest for climate neutrality risks creating a real social tragedy. A few years from now, the ban on combustion engines will affect families, territories, workers and the automotive industry, requiring large public and private investments. I want to express in this House all my concern that, in the face of early political assessments, the economic, industrial, social and environmental costs of the transition have been underestimated. In addition to having prohibitive costs for most European citizens, battery-powered vehicles are not entirely zero-emission. In addition, serious questions should be asked about our electricity grids and the scarce charging infrastructure that currently exists. Once again, if we do not reverse course and tackle the issue of climate neutrality with a bit of healthy realism, families and businesses will pay the bill for the short-sightedness of European bureaucrats.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the current multiannual financial framework is under severe strain due to the multiple crises that the European Union is facing, in particular the war in Ukraine and the effects it has unleashed. With the funds and flexibility measures already widely used and high inflation, an urgent revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework is desirable. It is also necessary for the Commission to continue its work with Member States, including through technical assistance, to increase their capacity to use funds without compromising the quality of projects and avoiding their misuse and related fraud. The Commission should also ensure that the European Anti-Fraud Office, the Court of Auditors and the European Public Prosecutor's Office have the necessary means and staff to investigate potential cases of fraud against the Community budget. In the light of the scandal that has emerged in recent days, in order to protect the image of this institution and above all the work carried out daily by us Members, it is necessary to ensure maximum transparency and accountability on Community funding instruments. We owe it to the people of Europe.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the pandemic has highlighted the need for greater digitalisation of our economy and society. The digital transformation offers us a great opportunity to create new opportunities for young Europeans and to improve the accessibility of digital skills and make them more accessible to all citizens. Increasing the digital skills of European citizens, who are lagging substantially behind other industrialised countries, is of paramount importance. This involves upgrading the digital infrastructure, which must be brought to the highest standards to ensure competitiveness and security. With this in mind, European production of state-of-the-art and sustainable semiconductors should account for at least 20% of the value of global production by 2030. In fact, European industry is suffering from the shortage of microchips and semiconductors due to the post-COVID-19 financial crisis and only an increase in native production will allow our continent to keep up with the competitor like the United States, India and China. The last aspect to consider is the digitalisation of public services, with the aim of making public services online fully accessible to all citizens by 2030. Everyone in the European Union should benefit from a quality digital environment, offering user-friendly, efficient and personalised services and tools, with high standards of security and privacy. Only by ensuring that all key public services are available online for businesses and citizens will Europe be able to strengthen its digital leadership and address the challenges that globalisation has imposed on it.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the particular historical moment in which we live, with strong economic and social repercussions, obliges us to pay even greater attention to issues relating to the management of the Community budget. The sensitivity of citizens, burdened first by COVID and now by high bills, would require that reference to an ethical conduct already reiterated by the Court of Auditors in its Special Report No 13 of 2019. Unfortunately, this does not correspond to the reality of the facts. In recent days, in particular, the story of the European Union Agency for Asylum has returned to the news. The current Director, Nina Gregori, charged only three years ago with restoring the credibility of the Agency following the abrupt resignation of her predecessor, accused of maladministration and harassment of staff, in turn ended up at the center of a new investigation with accusations of nepotism, irregularities in financial management and cover-up of internal complaints. Last January, the Agency received a new name and a new strengthened mandate to help unify the way Member States handle asylum applications, but only three years after the previous scandal, history seems to repeat itself with a new OLAF investigation against Director Gregori. Cases like this, with an EU agency of more than 2 000 employees, which regularly ends up in magazines and newspapers because of scandals involving it rather than its own work, undermine citizens' trust in the European institutions and, frankly, Madam President, I find this mismanagement of our taxpayers' funds irreconcilable during the toughest economic crisis since the Second World War.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we must certainly acknowledge that the European Investment Bank has been at the forefront of tackling the COVID crisis. The EIB, with a support programme focusing on the sectors most affected by the pandemic, has provided key support to companies that have been particularly burdened by the effects of the crisis. The call for the development of measures to introduce new financial instruments that promote accessibility for the agricultural sector and for younger farmers is also to be welcomed. On the other hand, I believe that some critical issues need to be highlighted. The report calls on the EIB to prioritise social, green and sustainable projects through its lending activities. The text also calls on the EIB to support the achievement of climate neutrality by 2050 to align its actions with the European Green Deal. The emphasis on the EIB's role as the EU's climate bank at a time when we have to deal with the exorbitant cost of energy and high energy bills seems almost out of place, considering that one of the EIB's objectives should be to combat youth unemployment, poverty and social exclusion, which paradoxically seem to be left behind for the benefit of the energy transition.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, without prejudice to the need to decarbonise road transport and the importance of steering the market in this direction, it should be stressed that zero-emission mobility requires significant investment by manufacturers and the components sector, which includes many small and medium-sized enterprises. It also presupposes the rapid development in Europe of a sustainable battery supply chain and a market for new and second-hand electrified vehicles at affordable prices. It should be considered that an all-electric strategy would increase dependence on totalitarian states such as Russia and China, as evidenced by the first bottlenecks in the supply of raw materials for batteries. We therefore support low-emission mobility, provided that it is economically sustainable, and that includes a credible commitment to reduce pollution, without, however, proposing the definitive stop of vehicles with a thermal engine from 2035. Environmental sustainability and economic sustainability must go hand in hand, otherwise we will find ourselves in a world green full of bankrupt businesses and unemployed workers.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, by examining the discharges of the European institutions, we are watching over the proper spending of public money. Since the beginning of the parliamentary term, I have been supporting a battle over Parliament's and the Commission's buildings policy, which frankly seems to be outdated and out of step with the times. But I would like to emphasize one thing: between Covid and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, European citizens are experiencing the biggest economic and social crisis since the post-war period, with energy skyrocketing and the cost of living doubled. In this regard, the European Commission has given us advice urging us to lower heating and to travel at reduced speed on motorways and to prefer public transport to our cars. All legitimate, we would miss it. But this collides with a reality that sees us all again here in Strasbourg, Members and staff arrived here by plane, by car from all over Europe. The usual caravan that moves en masse to Strasbourg every month, while European citizens are asked to make efforts to reduce dependence on Russian gas. Moving plenary sessions to Brussels during COVID has shown that the single seat can reduce pollution and costs.