What Ivo spoke about.

26

Feb

2024

BG Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, the tragic death of Alexei Navalny in a prison beyond the Arctic Circle has caused justified outrage in Europe. Meanwhile, in the Belmarsh prison in London, two hours away from Brussels, another prisoner, Julian Assange, was deprived of his freedom for the fifth year and was persecuted for 14 years in the total indifference of the European institutions. The ‘sin’ of the late Navalny …

5

Feb

2024

BG Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, farmers are rebelling in Germany, France and in my native Bulgaria. The demands are different, but there is one common reason for the decline of the village - these are the free trade agreements. It benefits the big agribusiness and kills the good farmers of the land. To open up distant markets to our industry, it sacrifices our villages, which are depopulating. Over 6 million farms …

22

Nov

2023

BG Speech

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This is Europe - Debate with the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Nikolay Denkov (debate)

Madam President, Prime Minister, in the recent Bulgarian political debate, the concept of Europe has been replaced by Euro-Atlanticism. In the name of Euro-Atlanticism, Bulgaria has abandoned a long-term gas supply contract while Europe continues to import Russian gas. In the name of Euro-Atlanticism and against the Copenhagen criteria, Bulgaria launched Skopje's ambitions to join the Union. Meanw…

20

Nov

2023

BG Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, in 1989, the mass migration of GDR citizens to West Germany accelerated the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Today, the European Union is experiencing a migration crisis that is undermining its foundations. Unfortunately, the reading of the problem is wrong and increases the risks. The Commission insists on solidarity solutions to the refugee problem, while its actions are the reason for…

11

Sep

2023

BG Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, the war in Ukraine has led to the increasing militarisation of the European Union. This is not the dream European defense, but quite the opposite. Submitting the European project to Euro-Atlantic imperatives, making the Union Ukraine's arms supplier, financier and political protector. This role also carries great risks for the European project, because decisions on the development of…

14

Jun

2023

BG Speech

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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, the Pegasus affair has shown how technology corrupts morality, opening up opportunities for abuse that human nature cannot resist. Spyware makes the difference between democracies and dictatorships increasingly conditional, because the psychology of the powerful is the same regardless of the political system. Pegasus breaks into the privacy of each of us and erases the rights and fre…

17

Apr

2023

BG Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, many joked until recently that Russia is a gas station with nuclear missiles. It sounded witty. Today, China is charging at the Russian gas station, and for us remains the fear of missiles. This is the result of our strategic short-sightedness and lack of will for Europe to play its part in global politics. Europe is a culture, a social model and equality. Днес тя е разпъната между п…

13

Feb

2023

BG Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, on 19 January in Ohrid, the Macedonian Bulgarian Christian Pendikov was severely beaten by his fellow citizens. This is a tragic reminder that in a candidate country for membership of the European Union, being Bulgarian is dangerous. This is not the first case of violence. The lack of any reaction from Brussels is surprising. The European Commission and some European leaders have …

13

Feb

2023

BG Speech

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Union Secure Connectivity Programme 2023-2027 (debate)

Dear Madam President, dear Commissioner, I welcome the institutional will to roll out the first-ever European Satellite Coverage Programme 2023-2027. Ensuring our independence from third countries in terms of critical infrastructure is of strategic importance for the future of the Union. Wars, disasters and climate change require Europe to urgently acquire its own capacity to acquire and transfer …

14

Dec

2022

BG Speech

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The Commission’s reports on the situation of journalists and the implications of the rule of law (debate)

Madam President, the crisis is reducing advertising revenue and the war is inflating propaganda budgets. The former mainstream media today survive or profit from disinformation. Regulation often degenerates into censorship, it already stifles even social networks. The Editor-in-Chief of Euractiv Greece, Spiros Sideris, has been the subject of a spyware development. At a conference in Sofia, he sha…

13

Dec

2022

BG Speech

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The recent JHA Council decision on Schengen accession (debate)

Mr. Chairman, Petar Bachvarov, Yordan Iliev, Atanas Gradev, these are the names of three Bulgarian policemen killed in recent months. Three Europeans, who together with their colleagues guarded the tranquility of Bulgarians, Austrians, Dutch, citizens of the whole Union. They do so effectively, as all inspections have found. The European Parliament has recognised it and the Commission has also rec…

21

Nov

2022

BG Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, on 15 November, a Ukrainian missile killed two European citizens of Poland, for which Russia has been accused. We lived 24 hours in which the war could have set the whole continent on fire. The European Parliament has for years condemned Russia’s conduct on legitimate grounds. However, our voluntary blindness towards the authorities in Kiev is a source of concern. Our Union uncrit…

17

Oct

2022

BG Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, critical thinking and freedom of speech are two pillars of Europe. Russian disinformation is constantly discussed here. Alas, the propaganda war, in which our media and institutions are instrumentalized from the outside, is also alarming. In our positions and media we read that Russia simultaneously occupied the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and shelled it itself, that Putin first…

5

Oct

2022

BG Speech

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The accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area (debate)

Mr President, in June, Bulgaria vetoed Skopje's ambitions to join the Union. We did so despite the open questions, so as not to hinder enlargement. In recent months, more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees have found a roof and livelihood in Bulgaria, with which we have borne our burden from the war. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Bulgarians who work in the Schengen countries and contribute with…

14

Sep

2022

BG Speech

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Illegal detention of the opposition leader in Bulgaria (topical debate)

Mr President, 18 days before the parliamentary elections in Bulgaria, the European Parliament has helpfully organised a debate on a case that has long been closed by the Bulgarian court. The rights of the arrested leader of the political party GERB were recognized and protected. Not so, however, is the issue of the rights of the millions of Bulgarian citizens, harmed by corruption and lawlessness,…

12

Sep

2022

BG Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, Europe is increasingly behaving like that herbivorous one that has feared wolves all its life, but which the shepherd eventually ate. We have taken a hard line on Moscow. Once the enemy was identified, we left behind other very immediate dangers, such as our energy suicide and its social consequences. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is under artillery fire with the risk of a ser…

6

Jun

2022

BG Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, the Union is about to decide on the start of negotiations on enlargement to the Western Balkans. The argument for them to start with the Republic of North Macedonia is the need for a fast track for Ukraine, which is the last at the time, but its question was not postponed. In the logic of many European leaders, one mistake is an occasion to accelerate another mistake, because we a…

19

May

2022

BG Speech

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The REPowerEU Plan: European solidarity and energy security in face of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including the recent cuts of gas supply to Poland and Bulgaria (debate)

Mr President, war should not be the cause of Europe's energy suicide. We have announced the withdrawal of Russian gas, and now we are looking for mechanisms to bypass our own declarations in order to fit into the new payment schemes. Bulgaria is among the most dependent countries on Russian gas, which gave up Russian supplies at its own expense. At the moment, we are suffering losses from sticking…

4

May

2022

BG Speech

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Use of the Pegasus Software by EU Member States against individuals including MEPs and the violation of fundamental rights (topical debate)

Mr President, the Pegasus software is the product of the compromises we have built up over the last 20 years. We have accepted that security requires sacrifices. The fight against terrorism has become a pretext for infiltrating the private lives of inconvenient journalists, human rights defenders and politicians. We have accepted that what we condemn others for does not apply to us. We vote dozens…

2

May

2022

BG Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, in 2020, Bulgaria vetoed the opening of the negotiation process with Skopje. The arguments are known: hate speech in official sources and attacks on Bulgarian history in the curricula of the Republic of North Macedonia. In recent months, the pressure of the European Commission and some of our partners has created the paradoxical feeling that Bulgaria is the candidate country, while S…

7

Mar

2022

BG Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, for eight years we and the Russians have been living in the world of our propaganda. We waved our principles, and Moscow frightened us with its military might. Russia has done the unforgivable, and we are already seeing ourselves through the guns. What happened to our principles? If the principle of NATO's open doors were applied, we would all be at war with Russia today. We have …

19

Jan

2022

BG Speech

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Situation in Kazakhstan

Mr President, over the past 30 years, Kazakhstan has experienced a transition from a socialist to a neoliberal economy, leading to a huge concentration of wealth in the hands of a handful of people. The victims have taken to the streets and today we are mourning innocent victims. The protests, which broke out earlier this year, are the result of this injustice - a fact that the authorities in Nurs…

10

Nov

2021

BG Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, on Sunday Bulgarians will vote for President and Parliament. Seven million European citizens hope to close the page on corruption, lawlessness and authoritarianism. The sad finding is that Borisov's regime, which marked the last 12 years, became possible with the uncritical patronage of the European People's Party and the Commission's lenient attitude towards his sins. Bulgarian medi…

6

Oct

2021

BG Speech

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European solutions to the rise of energy prices for businesses and consumers: the role of energy efficiency and renewable energy and the need to tackle energy poverty (debate)

Madam President, Bulgaria has shut down four nuclear reactors under pressure from Brussels – this was the condition for accession to the Union. Today, the Commission is asking us to close our coal plants, to do so at the height of the energy market price crisis, which is just beginning: a demand that we cannot meet without condemning people to poverty and business to bankruptcies. Today's electric…

13

Sep

2021

BG Speech

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European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control - Serious cross-border threats to health (continuation of debate)

Mr President, the pandemic has dramatically undermined trust between citizens and countries in the area of health. Millions of Europeans are worried about whether health is a reason to permanently limit rights. We all wonder where health care ends and fear abuse begins, because illness is a cost to social systems, but also a lucrative business for corporations. The European Health Union is called …