What Andrius spoke about.

21

Jan

2025

EN Speech

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Situation in Venezuela following the usurpation of the presidency on 10 January 2025 (debate)

Mr President, dear Members of Parliament, first of all let me assure that the EU will stand up for the restoration of democracy in Venezuela. I have taken good note of our exchange and will convey to High Representative Kallas the different positions expressed today. The debate today proves that we collectively remain committed to the democratic aspirations of the Venezuelan people. It is high tim…

21

Jan

2025

EN Speech

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Situation in Venezuela following the usurpation of the presidency on 10 January 2025 (debate)

Mr President, Minister. honourable Members of the European Parliament, the European Union firmly stands in solidarity with the people of Venezuela in their brave strive to restore democracy and reclaim their human rights. Last year, on 28 July, millions of Venezuelans peacefully used their votes to express their will for democratic change in their country. According to publicly‑available copies of…

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, let me say a few words in conclusion. First of all, we need to remember that Belarus is in the geographical centre of Europe and in the close neighbourhood of several members of the European Union, including Lithuania, Poland and other countries. That is why we want Belarusian people to have the possibility to enjoy the same freedoms as we are enjoying now. And we wo…

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, dear honourable Members of the European Parliament, for me, it's the first time to come back here to this position in a new capacity, so it's emotional, but of course, it's also very close to my heart to speak about the situation in Belarus. The ongoing repression, arbitrary detentions and widespread human rights violations, as well as restrictions on any genuine pol…

17

Sep

2024

EN Speech

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Continued financial and military support to Ukraine by EU Member States (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has stressed not once that one of the most important priorities for new Commission will be defence and security of Europe, which is directly related to security of Ukraine. I quote Commission President: 'The best investment in European security is investing in the security of Ukraine.' The first question is: are we investing …

17

Jul

2024

EN Speech

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The need for the EU's continuous support for Ukraine (debate)

Madam President, it is very important that we are starting this term with a very strong resolution on Ukraine declaring that our policies towards Ukraine will be continued. But continuation is not enough. We need to see that during those two years, our support to Ukraine was really enough for Ukraine to defend itself, but not enough for the victory. Let’s look into the numbers. Last year, the Russ…

25

Apr

2024

EN Speech

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Pre-enlargement reforms and policy reviews (debate)

Madam President, today we have two major issues with enlargement: how to make the enlargement process a success and how to keep the European Union alive after enlargement. The first priority now is the question of how to bring the whole negotiations and enlargement process back on a ‘Central European track’ with negotiations for 3 or 4 years, and to move away from the experience of the Western Bal…

23

Apr

2024

EN Speech

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Attempts to reintroduce a foreign agent law in Georgia and its restrictions on civil society (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues. First of all, it is absolutely clear that the government of Georgia introduced a Russian-style ‘Agents of Foreign Influence’ Act in order to deliberately derail Georgia from the path towards the European Union. Second, it is absolutely clear that such a step is done by the Georgian Government because they deliberately want to show the Kremlin that they are impleme…

23

Apr

2024

EN Speech

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The use of Russian frozen assets to support Ukraine’s victory and reconstruction (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, every day brings new damages to Ukraine, the amount of which goes far beyond the EUR 400 billion. Russia needs to pay fully for those damages. The victory of Ukraine demands a Western annual military support up to EUR 100 billion. According to Vice-President Borrell, the measures on Russian assets currently on the EU table allow to generate only around EUR 3 billi…

23

Apr

2024

EN Speech

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EU’s response to the repeated killing of humanitarian aid workers, journalists and civilians by the Israel Defence Forces in the Gaza Strip (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, despite all the tragic pictures from the region, we need not to forget that the main problem in the region is terrorism: Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, Iran. The fight against terrorism, which is occupying cities and regions, always was bloody. Let’s compare liberation of Mosul in 2017 and situation in Gaza today. Mosul city had up to 12 000 ISIS terrorists, which were f…

10

Apr

2024

EN Speech

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New allegations of Russian interference in the European Parliament, in the upcoming EU elections and the impact on the Union (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, Russia is threatening to occupy our territories by military means, and Russia is trying to occupy the hearts and minds of our people by hybrid means. They are attacking the hearts and minds of people in Germany and in Spain, in Lithuania and in Poland, in Georgia and in Moldova. We need to empower our people to defend themselves and to make conscious political decisi…

28

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Deepening EU integration in view of future enlargement (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, we answered the Russian aggression against Ukraine with a strong geopolitical move, with an ambitious enlargement agenda, but the whole enlargement process can be very slow. The Western Balkans are an example, and we do not want to repeat it. The process will depend on both sides, on the political will of candidate countries to make reforms, and on the political will…

28

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 (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, Alexei Navalny believed in the dream of beautiful Russia of the future, in the future of a normal, democratic Russia. Because of that, he was killed. Do we believe in the future of democratic Russia, in the possibility of democracy in Russia? If not, then let’s be at least honest. Let’s not speak how much we support Russian civil society and Navalny’s cause because, …

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, colleagues, planning the future of our defence and security, we need to get rid of the illusion that our security can be built only on our fears. Now, with Russian war against Ukraine, we are lost in the crossroads of our fears. We rightly fear what will happen with our security if Russia will win in Ukraine. But at the same time, we fear that chaos will happen in Russia, if Russi…

27

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Closer ties between the EU and Armenia and the need for a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, we can see that under the leadership of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia is showing a clear political will to diminish its security dependency on the Russian Federation. Also, we remember that on 17 October last year, in his address to this House, Mr Pashinyan underlined that the Republic of Armenia is ready to be closer to the European Union as much the Europ…

6

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Russiagate: allegations of Russian interference in the democratic processes of the European Union (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, we need to stress that Russia’s interference in the democratic processes of the Member States and EU institutions is exceptional and unique in terms of the threats and dangers it poses to the fundamental principles of democracy in Europe. Russia gate is much more dangerous than Qatargate. Such an exceptional character of Russian foreign interference requires speci…

6

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 (debate)

– Mr President, Ukrainians for two years and with a lot of sacrifice have been defending not only their country, but also all of us, including Mr Wallace. The victory of Ukraine depends on our political will to deliver what is needed for victory. Ukrainians are not failing with their bravery and sacrifice. We are failing with our assistance. Our assistance during those two years allowed Ukraine no…

17

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 14-15 December 2023 and preparation of the Special European Council meeting of 1 February 2024 - Situation in Hungary and frozen EU funds (joint debate - European Council meetings)

Mr President, Viktor Orbán is misbehaving domestically with violation of democracy, rule of law, human rights, European values, and is misbehaving externally with blackmailing of all the EU with misuse of veto right. What Orbán is doing domestically, we can discuss for a long time, but now we are concerned with the veto blackmail, which is external action. But still we are speaking only about Arti…

16

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Keeping commitments and delivering military assistance to Ukraine (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, the united West is 25 times stronger than Russia, and has the economic power to support Ukraine to win the war. But still, it is not the case. Last year, Russia spent more than EUR 100 billion for its war in Ukraine. Ukraine, with all the assistance from the West, spent for its defence only EUR 80 billion. Last year, Russia spent 6 % of its GDP for the war, Ukraine 2…

14

Dec

2023

EN Speech

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Ensuring proper functioning of EU-Ukraine Solidarity Lanes (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, let me first of all say that any kind of blockade of border-crossing roads and of Solidarity Lanes to Ukraine is totally unacceptable and unjustifiable. Such a blockade, what we see now, is heavily detrimental to Ukraine’s economy, to its capabilities to defend itself, to its possibilities to have an efficient delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid. A 60-km-long…

13

Dec

2023

EN Speech

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Preparation of the European Council meeting of 14-15 December 2023 (debate)

Madam President, tomorrow positive decision on enlargement and on Ukraine will change the future of the whole European continent. But if Viktor Orban will decide to veto the Council decision on enlargement and on beginning of negotiations with Ukraine, that will be a betrayal. Betrayal vulgaris. It will be a betrayal of Ukraine, of the people who are killed while defending their country and the wh…

22

Nov

2023

EN Speech

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30 years of Copenhagen criteria - giving further impetus to EU enlargement policy (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, today we are celebrating 30th anniversary of the EU decision on Copenhagen criteria, which was also a strategic signal that Central Europe and Baltic states are invited to join the European Union. What is the difference in between of then and now? At that time we in the Central Europe and Baltics were quite chaotic, not very stable, post-totalitarian democracies. EU …

21

Nov

2023

EN Speech

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Question Time with Commissioners - The state of implementation of the EU’s commitment to provide 1 million rounds of artillery ammunition to Ukraine until March 2024

Commissioner, things are moving, but Ukraine is not able to achieve the victory immediately and it depends on our deliveries. That’s very clear. Second, really, you know, of course, this is not only your responsibility. It’s good that, you know, production capacities are increasing, but can we look into possibilities really that, you know, the EU will start to invest, for example, into drones prod…

21

Nov

2023

EN Speech

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Question Time with Commissioners - The state of implementation of the EU’s commitment to provide 1 million rounds of artillery ammunition to Ukraine until March 2024

Commissioner, really, it is good to see you, but the problems we know very well. The EU is not delivering what it promised, 1 million shells are not here. My question will be very simple. You know, the EU economy is ten times stronger or bigger than the Russian economy – maybe more. So why are we not able to produce enough weapons for Ukraine? What is missing? Do you agree that political will is t…

8

Nov

2023

EN Speech

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EU enlargement policy 2023 (debate)

Madam President, well, dear colleagues, everybody today repeats that this is a historical day. But I will add, this is a historical day which will change Europe. At the end of the road, there will be different not only Ukraine and other applicant countries, but also different European Union, and a difference in the whole European continent since Ukraine’s membership in the EU will also change Russ…