What Barry spoke about.

19

May

2026

Speeches EN

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Opportunities and challenges presented by a comprehensive artificial intelligence strategy for EU trade (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner and colleagues, every day we see headlines referring to the AI race. And one thing is clear to me: European AI companies are not the frontrunners. US companies have developed 40 advanced AI systems. China comes in second with 15. In Europe we have only developed three. This is despite a combined EU GDP of EUR 18 trillion alongside brilliant universities and research institutions. We need to look at our strengths to realise our AI ambitions. The EU is a trading powerhouse standing as the top trading partner for 80 countries. To put this into perspective, the United States is the top trading partner for just over 20 countries. We have an immense footprint in global trade, but we are not using it strategically. This is why I welcome the Parliament report on an AI trade strategy. If we are to compete in the AI race, we need to start with the foundations. Currently, those foundations are at risk. Europe has the trading power, partners and the rules and now we need the will.

19

May

2026

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Recommendation on the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (debate)

Mr President, High Representative and colleagues, the UN Security Council was supposed to be a guarantor of global peace. Instead, its ineffectiveness has emboldened lawlessness and accelerated impunity. On my way here this morning on the tram, one of the stops was named after Aristide Briand, who in 1926, a hundred years ago, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on international peace. And I wondered what he would make of the state of the world a hundred years later in 2026. Would he agree that the UN Security Council is as weak now as its predecessor, the League of Nations? My own country attached itself for decades to the UN, including through the triple lock, requiring a resolution from the Security Council to trigger a deployment of troops overseas. Now it is clear that instead of a safeguard, this attachment is a formula for inertia and instead of neutrality, we have dependency and sadly, we are now forced to break that link with legislation later this year. Next week, Commissioner Lahbib will publish her Humanitarian Communication, and it gives the European Union the opportunity to recommit unambiguously to international humanitarian law.

19

May

2026

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Question Time with the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy - EU’s strategy to address the current crises in the Middle East

I understand all the points you have made about trade and the Member States, and I think everybody will continue to campaign for a suspension of the association. But in the meantime, we can actually implement the existing law. As you know, settlement goods are treated differently to goods that are made in Israel. They are subject of a tariff. I asked the EU delegation in Palestine to estimate the value of trade between the settlements and the European Union, and he told me it was EUR 50 million. However, we are all very aware of a widespread practice of mislabelling, so that what is presented as settlement goods is in fact made in Israel. The extent of this mislabelling is estimated to be up to 90 % in certain goods. Therefore, what I am asking you to do, HR/VP, is to look at this whole question, find out what the real volume of trade is, look at the rules of origin, and explore the question of whether or not we can properly stand over the labelling of goods that are said to be from Israel, but are most likely to be from the settlements.

18

May

2026

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, according to a recent UN report, sexual assault is 'a major element' and 'standard operating procedure' in the ill-treatment of Palestinians in Israeli prisons by settlers and the IDF. This is borne out in separate reports on sexual violence by B'Tselem, by Breaking the Silence, by the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor and by the Norwegian Refugee Council. Last Monday, The New York Times bravely set out an incredibly detailed and harrowing account of increasing sexual violence on Palestinians by the Israeli Government. It is used to pressure communities and shape decisions about remaining or leaving in housing and villages. Europe has leverage – the least we can do is pressure Israel to at least allow the Red Cross to visit Palestinian detainees. This has been specifically forbidden since 7 October. I would also ask the EU delegation in Palestine: have they visited Palestinian detainees and heard their testimonies? In the words of the brave journalist, whatever our views of the Middle East conflict, we should be able to unite in condemning rape.

29

Apr

2026

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Situation in Lebanon: implementation of the ceasefire, support peace efforts and humanitarian access (debate)

Mr President, last month I visited Beirut and spoke to people who had left south Lebanon for their own safety. They showed me photos of their homes, of their fields and their villages, concluding in many cases that they would not be returning. Since then, the demolition of buildings has continued with relentless ferocity. And then came 8 April 2026, when the US and Iran agreed a ceasefire that offered hope. But did it apply to Lebanon? In the confusion, Israel gave us Operation Eternal Darkness. As others discussed peace, starting at 2 p.m. that afternoon Israel hit, with no warning, 100 targets in 10 minutes across Lebanon: 300 were killed, of whom 100 were women, children and the elderly. The European Foreign Affairs Council sat down to contemplate this – one of the deadliest single bombing campaigns in the region – and once again concluded that this massacre was fine; that it was, laughably, somehow consistent with the EU's expectations of its trading partners. I give the last word to Yair Lapid, who is the leader of the Israeli opposition. He said, 'For the thousandth time, it has been proven: military force without a diplomatic plan does not lead to victory'. Lebanon deserves better.

26

Mar

2026

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Global Gateway – past impacts and future orientation (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner and colleagues, the Lobito railway corridor is perhaps the best known Global Gateway flagship project. However, a press release from one of the operators of the railway last month disclosed some of the shortcomings of the Global Gateway project that this opinion seeks to address. The press release announced the transport by railway of low-carbon copper anodes to the EU from a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Firstly, the press release praised the involvement of the US and the African Development Bank, but there was no mention of the role of the European Union. Secondly, it represents almost no added value and is barely distinguishable from extractive practices of the past. And, finally, the mine is 40 % owned by a Chinese company, 40 % owned by a Canadian company, and the press release came from a Swiss company. This underlines how we have to be careful about matching the rhetoric around Global Gateway with the complexity of global supply chains. Equally, this is information that we inadvertently have come across and is not readily available from the Commission. We can do better – let's hope this opinion marks a new departure in transparency around the Global Gateway.

11

Mar

2026

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Building Europe's clean, independent and secure energy following the 2026 North Sea Summit (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner and colleagues, I very much welcome the plan arrived at at the North Sea Summit to dramatically ramp up renewable energy in the North Sea with joint European projects and the plans around increased generation in the time frame. I think this can provide a pathway to cost-sharing for the rest of Europe and, indeed, for the highlighted energy pathways, and I think the political point I would make is that it gives us an opportunity to remind the EIB that we need to put pressure on them to provide more risk around frontier technologies, to provide more balance sheet innovation in order to fund these developments. We obviously need cheaper and more reliable energy, and I think we are able to give more certainty for turbine makers, for example. We should remind WindEurope that they have committed to deliver a 30 % decrease in production costs on the basis of the political commitments made at the summit. So, let's keep the pressure on. Let's make sure that we can deliver renewable, cheap energy and make sure that we can inoculate this continent from future fossil fuel price shocks.

11

Mar

2026

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EUCO and situation in the Middle East (joint debate)

Mr President, colleagues, here are 10 ways in which the United States has undermined international law in the last 12 months: rolling out the red carpet for war criminal Putin in Alaska; endless support for Netanyahu's war crimes; withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement; withdrawal from the WHO and UNHRC; the closure of USAID; the illegal global tariffs; sanctions on the International Criminal Court; illegal attacks on Venezuela, Nigeria, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Somalia; threats to the sovereignty of Greenland and this illegal attack on Iran. So we have three more years of this. And what are we going to do? If we try to beat this by being this, they win and we lose. So I call on President von der Leyen to choose the EU, to choose the rule of law, to choose the EU with all of its weaknesses. The United States is taking a break from political seriousness. We have to have the confidence in our values as reflected in international law.

10

Mar

2026

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EU enlargement strategy (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner and colleagues, we keep hearing about existential threats to the European Union, that the European Union is on the verge of collapse. This is a narrative that we regularly hear from the far right, who would love nothing better than for the European Union to come to an end. So someone needs to explain to me, and indeed to the far right, why so many countries are striving to join the European Union. Why is the waiting room bursting with candidates for EU membership? We all know that the UK is undoubtedly worse-off after Brexit. By contrast, Iceland's parliament today debated moving forwards towards a referendum on EU membership, acknowledging the global turbulence. While Russia in Ukraine and the US in Greenland seek to expand their territorial range by invasion, the EU expands by invitation. I was in Ukraine in November, before this terrible winter, and one of the most important motivations for them is knowing that there is a credible and indeed merit‑based pathway to the European family. I therefore commend this report for illuminating that pathway.

10

Mar

2026

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Presentation of the Energy Package (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, when you presented this package, already the situation was urgent. The events of the last 10 days supercharged the urgency of what we are debating here in this Chamber today. We need to really face up to the unavoidable nature of that urgency right now. In my own country, in Ireland, we have extraordinary vulnerabilities. We rely 80 % on fossil fuels for energy consumption; 80 % of our gas comes through just two pipelines from the United Kingdom. So we have an extraordinary vulnerability. Yet just this morning we received a report which shows that we're falling very, very far behind in our residential heat figures, both in terms of heat pumps and in terms of retrofitting and district heating. All of these figures are falling dramatically behind where they should be. So, shockingly, we also have BER A and BER D ratings, which are almost exactly the same in terms of consumption. So there's lots of behavioural issues. I would conclude by saying that we need the incentives, the investment to achieve much greater electrification. These costs, of course, are much less than the uncertainty and price risks inherent in a fossil fuel system.

10

Mar

2026

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Single Market: how to move from an incomplete single market to one market for one Europe (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner and colleagues, Chancellor Merz and Prime Minister Meloni were happy to point out the recent IMF report conclusion that we, in fact, impose a 110 % tariff equivalent on ourselves by not completing the single market for services. We are, in effect, sanctioning ourselves. But what Merz and Meloni failed to quote was the same IMF report which concludes that the particular problem is the substantial domestic barriers to entry in services in several countries, so this is substantially a Member State issue. Italy has one of the most highly protected services sectors in Europe. Germany is also a fortress of services. As the Financial Times recently pointed out, in over 30 years of the single market, only one French baker has ever had his credentials recognised in Germany. So the foot dragging by Member States has to stop. We have to lift the sanctions that we impose on ourselves.

10

Feb

2026

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Situation in Northeast Syria, the violence against civilians and the need to maintain a sustainable ceasefire (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, the agreement of March 2025 between the Kurds, the SDF and the government promised some hope for the future. However, that is looking increasingly fragile. The blundering attempts by President Trump are no match for the staying power of the European Union, and I believe that the Union has a really critical role now, providing its credibility and its long-term staying power and institutional approach to broker a longer-term peace. This must be matched by long-term support for good governance and support for the political economy of reconciliation. There is no room in complex post-conflict environments for a winner-takes-all approach. It is possible to reconcile the sovereignty of Damascus with the Kurdish aspirations, which should be guaranteed. The lessons of Libya, Sudan and other fragile states are clear: when basic needs are ignored and civilian protection is sidelined, violence inevitably returns. In Sudan, we missed the window to support democratic transition. We cannot do the same in Syria.

22

Jan

2026

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Drones and new systems of warfare – the EU’s need to adapt to be fit for today’s security challenges (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, I very much agree with the sentiments of this report and the statements of other MEPs on the effect the extraordinary changes in drone technology have had on security and defence policy, but also on wider industry. Our own capacity here in the European Union is being constantly tested: at least 10 countries have detected drones near airports and military units. The suspect, of course, is an imperialist Kremlin that believes that Europe is unprepared. In my own country, as we prepare for the assumption of the presidency later this year, the ability to counter drone incursion takes on urgency. Ireland has already seen suspected Russian drone activity in the vicinity of Dublin Airport during President Zelenskyy's visit to Ireland in December of last year. It is entirely reasonable to expect this to increase as Ireland hosts world leaders during the presidency in the second half of the year. I very much welcome EU support for dual-use technology through EU financial instruments, and urge the Irish Government to make the necessary legislative changes that would allow a whole-of-government approach to invest in and support such technology.

20

Jan

2026

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Territorial integrity and sovereignty of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark: the need for a united EU response to US blackmail attempts (debate)

Mr President, High Representative and colleagues, I want to also express my solidarity with the people of Greenland for the stress that they are experiencing. I want to acknowledge the calm resolution of our Danish MEPs, with one notable exception, standing in the face of the extraordinary intimidation and threats that they are receiving from the United States with their barely believable and totally contrived national security considerations. The National Security Strategy, published just two months ago, doesn't even mention the Arctic whatsoever. They have completely and voluntarily downgraded all of their military presence in the Arctic. I will be representing the European Parliament in our discussions on the MFF relationship with Greenland from 2028 to 2034, and this is our opportunity as a Parliament to make a very clear statement of our intention to invest in the sustainable development of Greenland, but also in our connections with the Greenland economy and with the European economy.

19

Jan

2026

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, I want to raise the case of Seán Binder. Seán Binder was acquitted in a Greek court last week, together with 23 other defendants. He had been prosecuted as far back as 2017, and his crime was espionage and felony. The facts of his case are that he was trying to save lives at sea. He was one of those volunteers who were embarked on search-and-rescue missions in Greece in 2017 – a year in which 3 000 people lost their lives at sea. That was his 'crime'. He was dragged through the courts for the last seven years. There was no basis whatsoever. This was the maladministration of justice, pure and simple. All it was meant to do was to have a chilling effect on anybody who had the temerity to save lives at sea. I just want to congratulate Seán Binder. I also want to recognise my former colleague Grace O'Sullivan, who did tremendous advocacy for Seán and all of the other defendants.

19

Jan

2026

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Humanitarian aid in a time of polycrisis – reaffirming our principles for a more effective and ambitious response to humanitarian crises (short presentation)

Madam President, Commissioner, obviously I want to add my condolences to the expression of condolences of MEP Pajín to the tragic events in Spain earlier today. I want to raise two issues. I'm very much looking forward to the humanitarian communication. But, first of all, I want to thank MEP Pajín for all the work that she and her shadows have done to prepare this report. What we really need to do is to somehow or another, rebuild the credibility of Europe's position on international humanitarian law. Because I don't have to tell the Commissioner how differentiated our approach has been for the past 18 months ‑ two years, and it has really undermined not only Europe's credibility, but obviously international humanitarian law itself. So we have to start the process in this communication, as we have said in this report, to rebuild that sense in which we are adherents to the rule of law, that it is applied evenly, regardless of geography, regardless of politics, regardless of religion. That is the nature of independent, impartial, the application of humanitarian law.

26

Nov

2025

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Implementation of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner and colleagues, I was at the PPA last week, about 10 days ago, and it was probably the best one so far, reflecting the overall good relations. However, I was quite critical of progress on a number of EU‑UK files. I described them as glacial, and I said that we have to stop treating the UK as a third country. Last Friday, a few days after the PPA, two stories appeared in the media that, in my view, vindicated my position. As regards SAFE, we have not made progress in bringing the UK into SAFE, which is absolutely appalling considering it was announced in May and the summit made its conclusions in May. The report in Politico said that these talks are now going 'to move to a higher political level'. That should have happened a long time ago. Secondly, in the Financial Times, it is reported that some 'carve‑out' might be done for CBAM, but it will apply to the export of electricity from the UK to the EU from 1 January. We are told in the Financial Times that this is also now the first time that the talks have begun in earnest, bearing in mind that CBAM is starting in January. That simply is not good enough. We have to move beyond treating the UK as a third country and we have to increase the political priority.

25

Nov

2025

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Escalation of the war and the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan (continuation of debate)

Madam President, Commissioner and colleagues, I very much welcome your statement and your statement of the fact that Sudan remains a priority and the financial commitments that you have outlined here today. But I wish to make the point that we need to use all of our leverage and all of the institutions available to us to exercise pressure to bring around a sustainable peace. Some of you will be aware that the President of the European Council, António Costa, met with his counterparts from the United Arab Emirates very recently in the context of ongoing negotiations on a free trade agreement. And now, no mention whatsoever was made of the conflict in Sudan in the conclusions of those negotiations or in the press statement that came after it. That is completely unacceptable. We cannot have one arm of the EU institutions making a very clear priority of Sudan, while on the other hand, we ignore the reality of what is happening in the United Arab Emirates. So, I think what we need to do is also be clear that we have to have an investigation on how it is that European arms are finding their way into Darfur. This is not acceptable. There's widespread evidence of it and it needs to be tackled.

24

Nov

2025

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, Black Friday gets bigger every year – it's not just one day anymore – and it is the opposite of responsible consumption. The damage to the environment is well documented: almost 100 % more CO2 emissions compared to a normal week, because of deliveries, packaging and returns; 80 % of items bought only survive a couple of uses; and 50 % of consumers regret their purchases, given the impulsive nature of Black Friday. But it doesn't have to be this way. There are lots of things we can do. We have to follow through with the ecodesign for products framework. We also have the waste framework and due diligence. There are lots of things that ordinary people can do, including shopping local; buying from Back Market, which does refurbishing of tech; buying from Vinted, which does pre-loved fashion; supporting brands like Patagonia; supporting outlets like Freitag, who actually close their outlets on Black Friday. So there's no reason why Black Friday can't become Green Friday.

24

Nov

2025

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30th anniversary of the Barcelona Process and the new pact for the Mediterranean (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner Šuica and colleagues, when the pact on the Mediterranean was debated in committee, I appealed for a clear alignment between the pact and two other important and related initiatives: firstly, the Global Gateway and secondly, the fragility framework. The pact is described as complementary to the Global Gateway. It should in fact be more than that. It should be aligned with the Global Gateway from methodology, from the theory of change and from the communications – how we deal with our partner countries. Even the Treaties called for policy coherence for development. However, on closer inspection, it is my view that the Global Gateway is out of position and should be more like the pact, focusing, as the pact does, on human development as a primary priority rather than an add‑on. Just 10 % of Global Gateway projects aim at human development. Also, the focus on agriculture in the pact is absent from Global Gateway. I have shared my views with you before, Commissioner, on my view that it is not appropriate to use ODA for private sector investment where there is no clear poverty eradication or human development purpose. I must say a word on the Palestine Donor Group, which you referred to in your opening comments. The US no‑show and the absence of actual donations is a terrible look. While we fail to deliver and we fail to develop a strategy, tens of thousands of Palestinians face starvation in this so‑called ceasefire, which has been violated 500 times since its inception. So I say, once again, Gaza does not need our speeches, Gaza needs our actions.

12

Nov

2025

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Protecting EU consumers against the practices of certain e-commerce platforms: the case of child-like sex dolls, weapons and other illegal products and material (debate)

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.

12

Nov

2025

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The new 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework: architecture and governance (debate)

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.

21

Oct

2025

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Renewing the EU-Africa Partnership: building common priorities ahead of the Angola Summit (debate)

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.

21

Oct

2025

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Recent peace agreement in the Middle East and the role of the EU (debate)

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.

7

Oct

2025

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Situation in Afghanistan: supporting women and communities affected by the recent earthquakes (debate)

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.