Speeches

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, there are a lot of companies that do a few things wrong, and there are a few companies that do a lot wrong, but there are very few companies that do as much wrong as Shein and similar online platforms. We are all very familiar with the environmental damage done by ultra-fast fashion. Just 1 % of textiles is recycled around the world. Fashion itself contributes 10 % of our global emissions. We all know about the labour law infringements that are happening. We all know about the data infringements, we know about the copyright infringements. We realise that this company is way beyond control at this stage. So what we need to do is to recognise that we need a much stronger reaction from the European Commission. A two-euro levy is going to make no difference whatsoever. That has to be increased to at least five euro. I would also call on the Irish authorities to wake up to this reality. Shein has its European headquarters in Ireland – it therefore falls to the Irish regulators to take seriously the questions of data regulation under the Digital Services Act, under environmental issues and under labour.

Mr President, Commissioner and colleagues, it is striking to me that nobody so far in this debate has mentioned Global Europe. I am Chair of the Development Committee. Naturally it is a serious concern to me – it is a EUR 200 billion budget. So my main message to you, Commissioner, is to defend this budget. It is really important that we do this. I very much support our decision to invest heavily in hard power for our security and defence, but we also have to recognise there is a collapse in the exercise of soft power by the European Union. This is creating risks for us. It's creating risks in health, in security, in in extremism, in irregular population movement. So what we have to recognise is yes, it is right to invest in hard power, but we have to reconcile that with soft power. Hard power is stored in a warehouse and hopefully never used. Soft power never stops working. Defend the budget. Thank you, Commissioner.

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, as we all know, there is a massive change in our relationship with Africa evolving over the last decade, and it is embodied in the Global Gateway initiative, which is all about leveraging private sector investment, using European capital to try and create investment in energy, digital, transport, and, of course, also in health and education. That's all good and it's all positive, and I think it's really scaled up in the last few years under Commissioner Síkela. But I have two worries – first of all: debt. Debt is one of the most serious problems that Africa faces. Average bond yields in Africa are almost 10 %, compared to just 3 % in the European Union. And last year, developing nations paid USD 487 billion in external public debt – that's USD 25 billion more than they received in new debt. So net debt flows are going from poor countries to rich countries, and this is really a crisis that we have to address. We have to recognise that when we move from overseas development assistance to loans, this is exactly what happens, so we have to be very careful about it.

Madam President, Commissioner and colleagues, peace is not just the absence of war. A true peace delivers justice, freedom and accountability. A true peace – as we know in Ireland – takes decades of patience, of careful nurturing, of reconciliation and investment. It's notable that the decommissioning of arms by terrorists in Ireland took more than a decade after the 1998 peace agreement. Last month, European leaders finally found their moral voice and began to see that they could influence global affairs. No one was more surprised than me to hear President von der Leyen talk about sanctions, or Chancellor Merz bringing an end to armed supplies in certain circumstances, and President Macron and others recognising the Palestinian State. So now the European Union must do three things. Firstly, it must lead the humanitarian response, ensuring urgent access for all life-saving supplies to Gaza. Secondly, it must invest heavily in the political economy of reconciliation, including a major donor conference for reconstruction. And thirdly, we need to use all diplomatic and political channels to make it clear that it is inevitable and unavoidable that sanctions and a full trade embargo will follow if Israel doesn't follow through with an end to the illegal occupation and a pathway to Palestinian self-determination.

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, the reality is that we have seen the cost of aid cuts in real time in Afghanistan at the beginning of this month and the country that has done most to impoverish Afghanistan – the United States – is responsible for the massive reduction in aid support. Back in 2022, EUR 3.5 billion were distributed in aid in Afghanistan. This year, it is just EUR 750 million, so it is an extraordinary reduction. The good thing is that the European Union, by contrast, has increased its contributions, has provided medical teams, has provided flights full of relief and aid. And we're not there because we want to extract resources; we're not there because we want to win procurement contracts. We're doing it because of fellow feeling, because of that sense of global solidarity for our fellow humans. It is the best of us and something that we should absolutely try to save. I am really pleased that we are having this debate and that we are keeping the women and girls of Afghanistan at the top of our agenda here at the European Parliament.

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, 7 October must be repeatedly and unambiguously condemned. I wish to share my sympathy with the bereaved families, with the injured and those taken hostage. The response that followed, aimed at wiping out Hamas, soon warped into a policy of regional vandalism, bombing and occupying neighbours, thrilling in the awesome power of it all, seemingly possessed of a drunken self‑confidence. The sickening policy that sees children being killed by AI drones, by IDF snipers and been starved to death, as acknowledged by President von der Leyen, is not his strategy. Rather, it is an aimless display of military prowess. So much of the current Israeli leadership are so in awe of this that statesmanship, vision and a genuine desire for peace are not valued. So let us genuinely hope that this peace process can lead to an end to the violence for peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis alike, and that the EU can play its role in ensuring that there is a pathway to self‑determination for the people of Palestine.

Madam President, High Representative and colleagues, last month, Major General Haliva of the IDF said that for every one person killed on 7 October, 50 Palestinians must die. A leak from the IDF last month also revealed a civilian death rate of 83%. International humanitarian law is clear: civilians must never be a target of war. This is something that used to bother Israel. Back in 2002, the head of the legal unit of the IDF said, and I quote, 'I was present when we diverted a missile because we saw that a target standing on a roof had picked up a child. We had one clear rule. We were all parents. We could never approve of killing children.' And now we have more than 50 000 children killed or injured in Gaza. This is something that Israel used to agonise about – the legal and moral implications of civilian deaths. So I implore those who consider themselves true friends of Israel to recognise that this is no longer in any way defensible.

Mr President, colleagues, Cognyte Technologies is a spyware company that has been used to target journalists, politicians and minority groups across the world. The Norwegian Government Pension Fund recommended back in 2022 not to invest in Cognyte for ethical reasons associated with human rights violations. However, last week, we learned in The Irish Times that the Irish police force, the Gardai, paid at least EUR 250 000 at the end of 2024 in spyware purchased from this Israeli company, Cognyte Technologies. Ireland has currently no policy on spyware that is publicly available, despite the controversies associated with the industry. Some spyware companies are established in Ireland, including Intellexa. This laissez-faire attitude has to stop. Given the risks that spyware brings, I would urge the Irish Government to issue clear policy guidelines on all aspects of spyware, including its use and the hosting of spyware companies in Ireland.

Mr President, Commissioner and colleagues, like other speakers, I came to this issue through the work of Sir Bill Browder. His endorsement of the cause of Ryan Cornelius was very persuasive by itself, given Mr Browder's track record with the Magnitsky legislation, but when I looked at the detail of the case, I was astonished at the injustice of it. The EU and this Parliament should be clear that cases like this, involving EU citizens and their families, must be resolved before serious progress can be made on improving trade relations with the United Arab Emirates. As has previously been mentioned, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that the detention of Ryan Cornelius violates the UN Declaration of Human Rights and called for his immediate release seven years ago. The national law of the UAE also makes it clear that when you are over 70, you should be automatically released. What is hard to understand is why the United Kingdom Government turned its back on its own citizen. I am therefore happy to see this case receive the prominence it deserves this evening. Ryan Cornelius and his family can be assured that the European Parliament will remain vigilant.

Mr President, Commissioner, Minister and colleagues, last week, The Lancet, one of the world's most credible medical journals, published the results of a study into the consequences, as they see it, of US disengagement from overseas development assistance. Their report concluded that US aid disengagement is going to result in an additional 14 million deaths by 2030. We can conclude, even if we believe this is even partly credible, that ODA works. But we know that there is now zero political cost to reducing ODA, whereas there is an enormous human cost, very demonstrably. And this study doesn't even include the impact of EU Member State reductions in overseas development assistance, but we can extrapolate safely that it will probably lead to more than 20 million deaths by 2030. I'm sure you're also aware of the ODI study that concluded that ODA investment delivers equivalent benefits to the EU economy by, for example, reducing trade barriers. So it works, and it can be part of a principled economic foreign policy. But much of what was agreed at Seville is aspirational. So we have something that works, we have something that demonstrably works and saves lives. So I would implore you, Commissioner, to remain a champion for overseas development assistance. And I warmly welcome your commitment to that in your speech earlier.

Madam President, Minister, Commissioner and colleagues, yesterday we bore witness to the very grotesque image of Benjamin Netanyahu presenting Donald Trump with his nomination papers for the Nobel Peace Prize. The words that come to mind are 'beyond parody', 'beyond ridicule', 'perversity', 'incomprehensible' – because on the same day, Israel Katz, the Minister for Defence, proposes to move Gazans to an enclosed area in Rafah, perhaps satirically referred to as 'humanitarian city'. George Orwell could not have invented this kind of language, described as well by Israeli academics and lawyers as, I quote, 'a blueprint for crimes against humanity'. Eventually, all Gazans will have to go there. Even the Professor of Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Amos Goldberg, said the plan was for, and I quote, 'the creation of a concentration camp or a transit camp for Palestinians before they expel them'. I think the one thing that we can agree on in this divided House is that the Nobel Committee in Oslo will not dwell too long on those nomination papers.

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, I've been to South Sudan a couple of times and it's really striking: the inaccessibility and remoteness of the country, areas with no paved roads about the size of Belgium. It's really quite an extraordinary place. And it's great that we're having this debate, but we have to be realistic, and we're having this debate in the context of US withdrawal – this has impacted NGOs that are delivering humanitarian aid on the ground – and the withdrawal of EU Member States cumulatively and individually. That has had a massive impact. And there's very little that the Commission can do, the European Commission has really stayed the course here. But there are two things that I would call on the Commission to do. First of all, South Sudan is very much a fragile state affected by conflict, disease outbreak, etc., and it really underlines how urgently we need a fragility framework. Secondly, I would call on the Commission to push back hard on the proposal to downsize the EU delegation in South Sudan. As violence and famine spread across the country, I am sure you will agree, Commissioner, that it sends out a very bad signal that the EU will withdraw after the US withdrawal.

Mr President, Commissioner and colleagues, wind now supplies a third of Ireland's electricity, and by 2030 we might be able to exceed domestic demand and be able to provide up to 2.5 % of Europe's electricity needs by 2050. But all of this depends on significant investment in our grids and robust adherence to planning timeframes. According to the Draghi report, it can take three years for the most efficient Member States to deliver grid permitting and nine years in the least efficient ones. And, of course, sadly, Ireland ranks in the latter category. For Ireland, it's like having a huge free supply of water, but only a few small buckets in which to carry it away – an abundant renewable resource held back by a grid that cannot handle it. I would like to commend the book Supergrid – Super Solution by the late Eddie O'Connor and Kevin O'Sullivan, which sets out plans for efficiently transmitting vast amounts of cost‑competitive, regionally produced energy to where it's most urgently needed. And I'm delighted to see many of those ideas contained in the excellent report of my colleague Anna Stürgkh.

Madam President, High Representative, colleagues, the highest court in the world, by an overwhelming majority ordered Israel to refrain from acts that could fall under certain articles of the Genocide Convention. Israel were further ordered to take measures to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Instead, in the week that followed, a thousand people were killed in Gaza. From March to May of this year, a complete humanitarian blockade was imposed. Yesterday, the shooting gallery that is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation resulted in more than fifty Palestinian deaths. This is a policy of well-fed corpses. We must move beyond empty statements. As I have previously argued, that means sanctions on those responsible for atrocities, and at least restrictions on trade and arms transfers. The EU cannot continue funding aid for Palestinians with one hand, while maintaining privileged ties with their occupier with the other.

Mr President, High Representative, colleagues, we really live in a strange world. The EU isn't sure whether Israel's murderous attacks on Gaza meet the threshold for a review of the human rights article of the Association Agreement. But many leaders in the EU are sure that Iran's behaviour meets the threshold for a pre‑emptive strike, even while negotiations on non‑proliferation are going on. Unfortunately, what has happened is that Israel's security needs have created a parallel set of international humanitarian law rules. These rules are considered superior to and separate from existing international humanitarian law. We know that Iran and its mullahs have very little regard for human rights, but Israel doesn't get to decide unilaterally when standards of governance have fallen below a threshold, justifying a strike. So, I encourage ministers on 23 June to take a leaf out of the book of the UK, of Norway, of Canada, of Australia and New Zealand and to take action finally.

Madam President, Commissioner and colleagues, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that he is engaged in a war of civilisation over barbarism. But the civilised world has concluded that it is the IDF that are conducting a campaign of barbarism. A majority of European countries have finally concluded that it is barbaric to use starvation as a weapon of war. That it is barbaric that Minister Smotrich is determined to 'cleanse Gaza'. That Gideon's Chariots is a barbaric and brazen rejection of international humanitarian law. But we cannot just focus on access for aid. We also have to make sure that violence has to come to an end. What hostage has ever been released as a result of a military action? And today we read that the IDF fired warning shots at French and other diplomats visiting the West Bank. If this is the way European diplomats are treated, imagine how Palestinians are treated in the West Bank! And it is unavoidable to conclude that it is the IDF that are conducting a barbaric campaign.

Madam President, Commissioner and colleagues, I speak on behalf of the Development Committee and share my view that a balanced foreign policy requires investment not just in defence, but also in diplomacy and in development, because without human development and sustainable development, we risk instability in our neighbourhood, we risk extremism, we risk insecurity, and of course, we risk irregular population movement. So even if our warehouses are full with tanks and aircraft and ammunition and every type of military hardware, how does that stop the next pandemic when we have a disastrous collapse in global health funding? Commissioner, I support your wish for simplification and flexibility. On external action, the NDICI instrument is already an exercise in simplification, and it has had a very positive evaluation. And I'll leave you with one final request: the humanitarian funding instrument must be kept separate – it is the way in which humanitarian workers are protected – so that we can rely on its impartiality, independence and neutrality.

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, I made my very first speech in the hemicycle in February 2020, and I called on the Commission to treat the UK not as a rival but as a partner. Given that we had two more years of Boris Johnson to deal with, that was probably a tall order. But, I believe, together with the voices of so many Members today in this debate, that we need to go even beyond partnership and talk about a like-minded strategic ally. I believe the time has long passed to continue to punish the UK for Brexit, or to make an example of the UK, to discourage them. I believe that way of thinking is long over, and I believe it's a very much a minority view among in the European Commission. So, we need to approach the TCA review from a position of maximum ambition, including, obviously, SPS, the emissions trading scheme and youth mobility. We need to widen the scope to include finance, given the questions raised about the role of the US. I believe it is in our towering mutual interest to work together to make our respective economies as strong as possible.

Madam President, High Representative, just when you think it couldn't get any worse, you see the scenes coming out of Rafah this week. I think it's fair to say that most of us were absolutely stunned at the images. We know how hostile the IDF is towards UNWRA. We know how dangerous it is to deliver aid in Gaza, and we know how little respect there is for international humanitarian law. Targeting the Palestinian Red Crescent and the Palestinian Civil Defence is bad enough. And I use the word targeting advisedly, given the sophistication of the IDF military, but then seeking to bury the evidence, evidence that bizarrely included an ambulance and a UN vehicle. And victims still wearing medical gloves. This has to count as one of the darkest episodes in the war. And if the darkest hour is the one before the dawn, then let us hope that the Israelis will wake up to the fact that there is no military solution that will resolve the question of Palestinians right to self-determination. As you say yourself, High Representative, both sides lose. Violence feeds only more violence.

Madam President, High Representative Kallas, 193 member states have signed the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And yet, as the rapporteur pointed out in her opening remarks, human rights is in retreat. Everywhere, human rights defenders are under siege, and this report seeks to position the European Union at the centre of the defence of human rights, not just because it's the right thing to do, there is extensive evidence which asserts that while rights are protected, poverty and inequalities decrease, where women are afforded economic opportunities, poverty rates decline. These are the principles that define this European Union. But we must also get our own House in order. And I am concerned about the extent to which our external action, in particular our bilateral agreements, do not contain adequate human rights assessments. For example, the MoU with Tunisia. For example, the Critical Raw Materials Agreement with Rwanda. I thank the rapporteur and all of the fellow shadows for their good work and cooperation and I strongly recommend this report to the House.

Mr President, Commissioner Jørgensen, colleagues, we're having this debate about the tragedy in Sudan at a time when we're dismantling the tools that we would otherwise use to address this issue. We're having it at a time when USAID has been decapitated by the US Government, when the UK has reduced its overseas aid from 0.7 % of GNI a few years ago down to 0.5 % and now to 0.3 %. But the reality is it's about 0.15 %, when you take account of funding that is applied for domestic migration management. The same is happening in the Netherlands, where they've halved their overseas aid, and they don't want to talk about gender equality anymore in the Netherlands. In Belgium, they reduced it by a quarter; in Sweden, in Switzerland, and now the German Government will probably do the same thing. So we can say a lot of fine words in this Chamber, in this Hemicycle – as we've done before – but what we've done is surrender soft power on an industrial scale, surrender influence, and power hates a vacuum. So we have made this decision to retreat from an order of global solidarity and replace it with nothing. And now we're surprised that you find fragile states like Sudan, which is on the brink of starvation, which is so desperately impacted that the US Government in January declared a genocide. I often think, 'pity the soul that has forgotten how to shudder'; you might call it compassion fatigue. But somehow or other, this is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. We have no policy that has addressed this. There has been no statement from the Commission about this collapse in overseas aid. So it's all very well to say fine words here, but until we get a clear statement and establish a floor on European policy on these issues, those fine words will just disappear in dust.

Mr President, Commissioner Hansen, I want to add my voice of support to the argument for the use of immobilised Russian assets for Ukraine. At the very least, we should assert the legal right to seize those assets and apply them to the reconstruction of Ukraine. I have to say, I find it very hard to take seriously the sovereign right argument made by Russia and its sympathisers, in circumstances where Russia has demonstrated a complete and consistent disregard for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbours. It would be a proportional response by the EU to apply these assets to Ukraine, given the estimated EUR 500 billion in damage done to Ukraine's economy. I have to say that I am informed that the Irish Government will bring forward legislation in the next two weeks called the Criminal Justice Violation of EU Restrictive Measures Bill. The legal basis for the use of these assets is sound and made out by other speakers. All that remains is for us to send a strong political signal reinforcing the international norm against aggression.

Madam President, Commissioner, first of all, I welcome your endorsement of UNRWA. When I visited Rafah a year ago, Israel was blockading humanitarian access. The excuse given at that time was that UN agencies were disorganised, could not be relied upon, or that humanitarian items could be used for military purposes. Israel has shut off electricity and aid again, but on this occasion, it is so emboldened by US support and EU inaction that it doesn't even offer excuses for the blockade of humanitarian access anymore. And in any case, what type of ceasefire is this? 100 people have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire. We have seen the outlawing of passive collaboration with the ICC. We've seen the 'Gazafication' of the West Bank. We've seen vicious settler violence and Ben-Gvir rescinding the Oslo agreement, and we're told it's Palestinians that are breaching the ceasefire. As we know, there can be no lasting peace and durable solution without full respect for Palestinian people's right to self-determination.

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, the path to a sustainable peace in Syria will, of course, not be a straight one. We all know that. But there are positive signs. We saw yesterday's announcement in relation to the SDF and the government, and that is very, very welcome. However, the horrific violence in the coastal area must not go unpunished, and making sure that there is transitional justice is essential for that sustainable peace. The EU needs to invest in the political economy of reconciliation as a matter of urgency. The Syria conference that takes place next Monday is the ninth one, but different from every other – for some very obvious reasons and some less obvious reasons. The most obvious is the change in regime. The less obvious is the fact that international aid has collapsed in the last 12 months. My plea to you, Commissioner, is to concentrate on the agricultural industry, to concentrate on replanting, on irrigation, on bakeries, on the core of the regrowth of the Syrian economy and the pathway to that sustainable peace.

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, the decision to suspend USAID is consistent with the public policy vandalism that has characterised the beginning of the Trump administration and applauded by autocrats around the world. And it is Afghan women. It is Ukrainian soldiers. It is hungry people in DRC, in Sudan and Yemen that will suffer. But before we get on our high horse, let us not forget that EU development policy is going in the same direction, albeit without the scorched-earth approach of the United States. So what we need now, in the short term, we need agencies to be provided with information about the waivers that are available from the State Department. We need to use every part of our diplomatic capacity to do that. In the medium term, we also have to bring forward contractual payments in order to assist with the cash flow and liquidity problems that agencies are experiencing during this 90 day suspension. And finally, we need a clear statement from the President of the Commission, Madame von der Leyen, a restatement of the EU's commitment and solidarity to our developing world partners. And we also need to make a clear statement that we will not surrender the soft power that we have built up over decades and not surrender that to autocrats. So far, the silence is deafening.