What Rasa spoke about.

9

Jul

2025

EN Speech

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2023 and 2024 reports on Georgia (A10-0110/2025 - Rasa Juknevičienė) (vote)

Madam President, dear colleagues: in agreement with the S&D, ECR, Renew and Greens groups, I would like to move an oral amendment to EPP amendment 9 on paragraph 4, changing the last sentence of the paragraph to read as follows: 'Calls, in the light of the blatant breach of the principles under Article 2, for the application of Article 422 of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement related to non-ful…

8

Jul

2025

EN Speech

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2023 and 2024 reports on Georgia (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, I am glad that, apart from a few MEPs who are always pro-Russian, all the other groups who have spoken today are on the side of a European Georgia. Thank you for that. Madam Commissioner, I know that you are also with the people of Georgia. I very much hope that the European Council will soon adopt the necessary position and that the Member States will take action…

8

Jul

2025

EN Speech

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2023 and 2024 reports on Georgia (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, it is a very sad, but probably fitting coincidence that we are discussing the situation in Georgia on the same evening as the debate on Belarus. Who would have thought that Georgia – once the flag bearer of democracy, not only in the region, but among all Eastern Partnership countries – would turn into a Lukashenka-style autocracy? That today we would be speaking …

8

Jul

2025

EN Speech

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Situation in Belarus, in particular the release of political prisoners (debate)

Madam President, colleagues, I have decided to address you using the words of the Belarusians who continue to fight. The essence of this debate is captured in two quotes from Siarhei Tsikhanouski, who was just released from Lukashenka's prison. First, about Putin, I quote: 'Because of Putin, this illegal government is still in Belarus.' Second, about the situation of political prisoners, I quote: …

8

Jul

2025

EN Speech

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Preparation for the 2025 EU–China Summit - Tackling China's critical raw materials export restrictions

Madam President, dear colleagues, my first message: engagement policies and economic dependence on autocratic regimes are dangerous. This is exactly what happened to us with Putin's Russia. Let's not make the same mistakes. Secondly, the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment cannot be ratified until China stops its economic coercion against EU Member States. China's economic coercive acti…

19

Jun

2025

EN Answer

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Institutional and political implications of the EU enlargement process and global challenges (debate)

Yes, I think that we have to change our rules, especially on veto rights, at least in some decisions, like for example, sanctions or other issues. But now I think that we have to start negotiations with Ukraine as well as Moldova as soon as possible. Ukraine is ready to start negotiations, to open negotiation chapters now.…

19

Jun

2025

EN Speech

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Institutional and political implications of the EU enlargement process and global challenges (debate)

Mr President, I'll start with a Ursula von der Leyen quote: 'EU enlargement is an investment in our collective security'. I completely agree. A bit late, but very true words. One of the reasons why Putin started this war is the grey areas of insecurity in Europe. If we had had such an understanding and decisions, at least immediately after the annexation of Crimea, there is a high probability that…

18

Jun

2025

EN Speech

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Media freedom in Georgia, particularly the case of Mzia Amaglobeli

Mr President, dear colleagues, journalist Mzia Amaglobeli has become a symbol of all Georgians imprisoned by the Bidzina Ivanishvili regime. A week ago, representatives of brave Georgians, who have been fighting for a European Georgia for over 200 days, attended the DROI Subcommittee hearings in the European Parliament. But yesterday, the Russian oligarch Ivanishvili's regime launched a full-scale…

18

Jun

2025

EN Speech

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Upcoming NATO summit on 24-26 June 2025 (debate)

Madam President, I appeal to the leaders of the Member States. We cannot make any more mistakes and let dictators think that we are weak, that democracies are unable to defend themselves. We could have been on safer ground if we had mobilised all possible military assistance to Ukraine when their brave soldiers pushed the Russians out of Kharkiv and Kherson two years ago. But then there were frigh…

7

May

2025

EN Speech

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EU support for a just, sustainable and comprehensive peace in Ukraine (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, German Nazism was defeated 80 years ago, but imperial communism, left undefeated, has evolved into Russian fascism. Let's not repeat the mistakes of history. Russian fascism will not stop after gaining Ukrainian territories, just as Hitler did not stop after annexing Czechoslovakia. On the contrary, achieving just and sustainable peace is impossible without the defea…

1

Apr

2025

EN Speech

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Safeguarding the access to democratic media, such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (debate)

Mr President, when entering the Lithuanian city where I grew up, two towers still stand, built by the Soviets. Their purpose was clear: to block the signals of Radio Free Europe, Voice of America and Vatican Radio, silencing the voices of freedom. I even remember the hour when my grandma would try to catch free speech through the crackling. Personally, I am grateful to the United States for suppor…

1

Apr

2025

EN Speech

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CFSP and CSDP (Article 36 TUE) (joint debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, populists are manipulating peace and saying that the EU should not take on defence issues. On the contrary, precisely to bring lasting peace to the European continent, we need a strong European defence while maintaining the transatlantic bond. The democratic world is much stronger than Putin's Russia. We could have already won if the aid to Ukraine had been suffic…

11

Mar

2025

EN Speech

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White paper on the future of European defence (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, if we want to avoid even greater war in Europe, we must be prepared for war with Russia in the shortest possible time. War with today's Russia, whose ideology – Russkiy Mir – means destroying or enslaving everything that is not Russian. A challenge for Europe in the short term is on Ukraine's battlefield. The future of Europe will be decided there. Member States s…

11

Mar

2025

LT Speech

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European Council meetings and European security (joint debate)

Mr President, exactly 35 years ago, in the first freely elected parliament after the occupation, I voted in favour of Lithuania's independence, and today this debate is for me a continuation of the same path together with Europe. My message is that Europe will be strong if we help Ukraine win. And we can, we just have to believe that we can. ReArm Europe must be implemented in solidarity between t…

11

Feb

2025

EN Speech

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Continuing the unwavering EU support for Ukraine, after three years of Russia’s war of aggression (debate)

Mr President, this debate on Ukraine is fundamentally about us, about Europe and its future. Our future has two opposing scenarios: one in the event of a Ukrainian victory, the other, very dark, if we fail to help Ukraine to win. In Davos, President Zelenskyy said, 'Let's not forget, there is no ocean separating European countries from Russia. And European leaders should remember this.' He called …

21

Jan

2025

EN Speech

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Further deterioration of the political situation in Georgia (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, the brave Georgians have been protesting against their stolen European future for more than 50 days, despite the brutality and violence of the Georgian Dream authorities. By the way, people in the streets call them the 'Kremlin Dream' or 'Russian Dream' party. As Georgians fight for their European path, it is our duty to be clear in our support. First, the only true …

21

Jan

2025

EN Speech

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Need for actions to address the continued oppression and fake elections in Belarus (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, the Belarusian nation has deep European roots. Russia enslaved this nation back in the Tsarist era, when it annexed most of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. We Poles, Lithuanians and Belarusians commemorate the heroes of the uprisings against Tsarist Russia together. They are the pride of our common history. Let's make no mistake: Belarus is not Russia. The Kremli…

21

Jan

2025

LT Speech

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Need to detect and to counter sabotage by the Russian shadow fleet, damaging critical undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, the Russian shadow fleet, which is helping the Kremlin to make money to continue killing Ukrainians, is part of a major war between Russia and its supporters against democracy. What action must the European Union take to fight the Russian shadow fleet, Parliament said in a comprehensive resolution last November. Now we see that these ships are also used as a tool for…

17

Dec

2024

EN Question

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Russia’s disinformation and historical falsification to justify its war of aggression against Ukraine (debate)

Dear Mr Bystron, I know that you visited Lithuania 20-22 November or something like that, and then disappeared for one week to Belarus. Could you tell us what kind of instructions did you get from there to speak here about Russia, like Govorit Moskva?…

17

Dec

2024

EN Speech

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Russia’s disinformation and historical falsification to justify its war of aggression against Ukraine (debate)

Madam President, thank you very much, Madam Vice‑President, for being with us on this very important debate. I would like to thank my colleagues in the informal Remembrance Group for their support in getting this debate with resolution in January on the agenda. I was born in a Lithuania occupied by the Soviet Union. It was a period of brutal lies, when the freedom fighters were called bandits, and…

17

Dec

2024

EN Speech

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Crackdown on peaceful pro-European demonstrators in Georgia (debate)

Mr President, Sakartvelo's President Salome Zurabishvili, the leader of European Georgia, is now on her way to Strasbourg to address us at the heart of the EU democracy. 'Is there any hope?' is the most frequent question about Georgia for me in Lithuania. Yes, there is. When I was in Tbilisi last week, I saw hopeful people with European Union flags. They are raising those flags not just in the cap…

27

Nov

2024

LT Speech

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Critical infrastructure vulnerabilities and hybrid threats in the Baltic Sea (debate)

Dear colleagues, this man has just been stripped of his immunity for his troubles in Lithuania. That's what he said when he was in the most pro-Russian group in the European Parliament. I am ashamed of the fact that Lithuania is in such a group. But now about this question. The best way to stop Putin's hybrid war, not only in the Baltic region, to protect critical infrastructure is to help Ukraine…

13

Nov

2024

EN Speech

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Georgia's worsening democratic crisis following the recent parliamentary elections and alleged electoral fraud (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, corrupt oligarchic forces, with the help of the Kremlin, are trying to take power almost everywhere in post-Soviet space. This had happened some years ago in Ukraine, Moldova and many other places. Georgia is not an exception. Here in the EU, we must be clear: the elections in Georgia were not democratic, we cannot recognise them. Georgian Dream has not won. We need …

23

Oct

2024

LT Speech

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Managing migration in an effective and holistic way through fostering returns (debate)

Dear President! Ladies and gentlemen, there are two competing values in international law - and both are very important - the individual rights of migrants and the security and territorial integrity of the state. The second is not sufficiently enshrined in our law. Border security is an essential prerequisite for national security. We must fundamentally change our policy for protecting our externa…

22

Oct

2024

EN Speech

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Situation in Azerbaijan, violation of human rights and international law and relations with Armenia (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, this year's Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to scientists who demonstrated that societies with poor rule of law and institutions that exploit their population do not generate prosperity or positive change. The South Caucasus region is now exactly the place where this theory can be tested. While today it may appear that regimes – like the Aliyev regime – tramplin…