Speeches

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union is not being reformed every day. This reform concerns one of its essential tasks, that of interpreting the texts that we are voting on in this Chamber, when it is referred to it by judges in the Member States, the so-called reference for a preliminary ruling. The time taken by the Court to rule on these issues is increasing from year to year and we are now at an average of 15 months, which suspends national judicial proceedings accordingly. Speeding up justice is a necessity and an emergency in each of our countries. You therefore understand that this was a subject to which our fellow citizens, who are also litigants, are particularly sensitive. By transferring this interpretative power from the Court of Justice to the Court of Justice of the European Union in certain areas deemed to be technical, the objective is twofold: significantly shorten the time taken to reply to the questions referred for a preliminary ruling and enable the Court to focus on what requires further work. But speed must not make us give up the quality of decisions. This is all the more so since the unity of interpretation of our European law is at stake. We have therefore secured that all issues that raise systemic challenges for the EU remain within the jurisdiction of the Court, as well as three major advances: the enshrinement of the possibility for our Parliament to intervene in any preliminary ruling case, the publication by the Court, on its website, of all the pleadings lodged in the context of a preliminary ruling case. This is a significant step forward in terms of transparency and understanding of European law. Finally, the establishment of an annual dialogue between our Parliament and the Court, which will start shortly in Luxembourg. This innovation symbolizes the institutional relationship of a new type that arose from the demanding work that I conducted with the shadow rapporteurs of your groups, whose involvement in this report I would like to welcome. It is now part of this new relationship over a long period of time. Thank you for your support.

Mr President, Commissioner Breton, ladies and gentlemen, forest fires, oil spills, illegal deforestation: environmental crime is one of the most lucrative criminal activities in the world. This ever-growing crime is led by very inventive actors, who have so far managed to distance our legislation. The scale of the damage it causes, which often goes beyond borders, required a European response. This has been done. With this directive, we are expanding the list of criminally punished environmental offences and calling for this list to be continuously updated so that Europe is no longer overwhelmed by criminal practices. For the first time, we foresee harmonised sanctions with fines of up to 5% of global turnover for multinationals. For the most serious infringements, those associated with ecocide, because they produce effects of exceptional magnitude, lasting or even irreversible, the Member States undertake to penalise them even more severely. Europe is leading the way. It is now up to the international community to take responsibility by finally defining ecocide at global level.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, is it necessary to strengthen control over the funds distributed by the Commission? Should respect for our core values be a criterion for the allocation of EU funds? Yes, it is self-evident and yet it is not always a reality. Our citizens, and they are right, are asking for more transparency and traceability of funds. Recently, in July 2023, the Commission decided to suspend funds allocated under Erasmus+ to the Turkish association, Yavuz Sultan Selim, which has proven to promote terrorism and in particular the Bataclan attack in Paris. This is to be welcomed, but this withdrawal shows that control needs to be strengthened upstream as well as downstream, in the monitoring of funds up to the last beneficiary. This requires investigative means and this is what we are asking for in this report. Can this essential fight be left in the hands of conservatives who do not hesitate to use it to stigmatise NGOs and limit civil liberties? This is what we opposed by refusing a regulation that would specifically target NGOs. These new requirements must apply to all beneficiaries of EU funds. Non-governmental organisations, this text does not limit your freedom of action. On the contrary, in this text we provide for safeguard clauses to protect NGOs operating in states violating the rule of law and freedoms. What is given to NGOs that do not respect our values of emancipation is mechanically denied to those that would have deserved our support. How could conservative parties, flouting the values of the rule of law on a daily basis, be the guarantors of this fidelity to the European ideal? It is the role of progressive, democratic and republican forces to ensure that funds are used in accordance with our values of emancipation.

Thank you, madam, for that question. The same work that has been done on Palestinian textbooks has also been done by independent bodies on Israeli textbooks. The result was not the same. But, of course, we must work on both sides. Of course there is room for improvement, but the examples I have given you, which are some of many examples, are not isolated textbooks. This is the Palestinian national curriculum that I have described to you. It is taught in both the West Bank and Gaza. We need to get out of here. We must help the Palestinians to be free, to free themselves from Hamas.

Mr President, as Europeans, we have a promise. We were able to build peace between enemy nations after using the violence necessary to defeat Nazism. Tomorrow, this goal of coexistence must become the horizon of Israelis and Palestinians. But this will only be possible if the atrocities that Hamas is preparing, filled with destructive and obsessive hatred, are brought to an end. Beyond diplomacy, how can we work to bring about this peace? We, the largest donor in the Palestinian territories, can act in particular on education. Peace is not prepared when, in Palestinian textbooks, Jews are referred to as inherently liars, crooks and corrupts, when a martyred woman who killed thirteen children is glorified by calling on students to draw inspiration from them, when a math exercise at the end of primary school invites students to count the coffins of martyrs, or when Newton’s law is illustrated by a child throwing a stone at an Israeli soldier. Commissioner, we must ask for and accompany the redesign of the Palestinian national curriculum. It is about ensuring the security of Israelis and providing a future for young Palestinians. (The speaker agreed to answer a blue card question)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, shortly before being assassinated by an Islamist terrorist, Dominique Bernard, a French teacher, confided to one of his colleagues, whom he found increasingly difficult to convey. Transmitting was his raison d’être, his passion: to convey the taste of the beautiful, of the great texts, to transmit the ability to think for oneself. To remain faithful to his memory, as well as to that of Samuel Paty, who had been beheaded three years earlier to the day, is to become aware that teachers, precisely because they are the guarantors of the transmission of our values, of what we are deep down, have become the explicit target of Islamists. Staying true to their memory means supporting our teachers and strengthening their protection in all schools across Europe. C’est être à leurs côtés pour qu’ils n’aient plus à s’autocensurer sur des sujets aussi essentiels que l’égalité entre femmes et hommes ou l’enseignement de pans entiers de l’histoire, comme un professeur sur deux le fait aujourd’hui dans le pays de Voltaire et de Victor Hugo. Staying true to their memory means making Europe an educational power, placing transmission at the heart of our European identity and sovereignty. Staying true to their memory means associating all the educational supports we carry outside Europe with the demand that schools should never breed hatred or violence and that they should always be an instrument of emancipation and peace. This resonates in a particularly painful way, as Hamas' barbaric terrorism has just committed the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. I would like the evidence of our commitment, together, to a proactive transformation of school curricula in Palestine to bring us all together, to end hate and violence education and to protect both the neighbouring Israeli population and the Palestinian youth, who have a right to another future.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, what if we finally talked about more education in this Chamber? How can we fail to see that the educational divides that our societies suffer are at the heart of the political crises that many of our countries are going through? We voted collectively and overwhelmingly to call for the establishment of a European Education Area to make Europe an educational powerhouse. Today, the report on the system of the European Schools, which we are submitting to you together with my shadow rapporteur colleagues and which was adopted almost unanimously in the Committee on Culture, brings a new ambition for this unique school network. Created in 1953, it combines study in the mother tongue, according to national traditions, and European curriculum, born from a synthesis of the different education systems of the European Union. The ambition of our report is therefore twofold. Firstly, to call for a reform of the system of the European Schools, which, as a victim of their success, is going through a growth crisis, and secondly – and this is its most innovative contribution – to make this school network a driving force for the development of the European Education Area: improving the system for the benefit of its pupils in terms of decision-making, school autonomy, teacher recruitment, inclusion, strengthening education for Europe, putting teachers at the heart of the system, asking for more exchanges and pedagogical supervision, calling for a revision of the budget line and greater scrutiny of the European Parliament. By broadening the scope of the beneficiaries of the European School system, which are no longer just the pupils who are in school there, but all the pupils in Europe, we are changing our paradigm and investing very concretely in a Europe that is an educational power, rich in our pedagogical diversity, which offers each Member State the opportunity to take advantage of and be inspired by European best pedagogical practices. I hope I can count on your support.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to start by quoting a brilliant political scientist who left us prematurely just over a year ago, Laurent Bouvet. In religious matters, he wrote, the neutrality of the state serves to protect us as citizens of the state itself, of course, but it also serves and inseparably serves to protect each of us from our co-religionists, where appropriate, or more broadly, from any belief or practice that one would like to impose on us in society. The guidelines we have to comment on today, which were written ten years ago, invite us to this dual vigilance and to be wary of the questioning of religious freedom by the State. The dramatic example of Iran illustrates, of course, how the state can challenge this freedom of conscience, that of believing or not believing, of no longer believing, of changing religion. And this example before our eyes, so dramatic, has awakened, I believe, in this house, the European Parliament, the awareness that we must be vigilant also within our European borders. I am proud, in September 2022, to have brought with some of my colleagues from the Renew Group an amendment that specifically called for an end to funding for fundamentalist organisations, including those close to the Muslim Brotherhood. We called on the Commission to ensure that EU funds only fund associations, I quote, that scrupulously respect all European values, including freedom of thought, freedom of speech and gender equality. There is a beginning of execution and I welcome the suspension of funds for the Turkish association Yavuz Sultan Selim, which congratulated the Bataclan terrorists. She was ordered to repay the sums paid. This vigilance must continue, and it must be a new culture within our European institutions. And I would like to end with a request. There are European funds that come to feed research. It is essential that research on Islamism is further nurtured. Why? Because not allowing serious academics to do serious research on Islamism, i.e. to establish what Islamism is but also what it is not, is feeding two extremisms: Islamism, which does not want to be documented, and especially the extreme right, which wants to confuse Islamism with Islam. I call on the Commission to take responsibility. We need to fund serious and intellectually honest research on Islamism.

Madam President, making the professional path a path of excellence is a fight that I carry in my country, France, as well as in this Parliament. The career path must cease to be a default path and become a chosen path because it leads to employment and personal fulfilment. I would like to stress one of the components of valuing the professional route: European mobility. Commissioner, you have announced the launch of a new framework for European mobility in this European Year of Skills. We call for the short and long mobility of apprentices and alternators to be the priority. Because the promotion of a sector always goes hand in hand with its internationalisation. Because mobility makes it possible to acquire new knowledge. Because it enables our young people to develop so-called 21st century skills: self-confidence because they have been trusted, ability to adapt to a new context, to work in a team, to have a spirit of initiative, to get out of their comfort zone, to discover the unsuspected resources they have in them and that mobility reveals. It is a gift that Europe gives to them and to itself, because tomorrow they will become excellent professionals who will contribute to the influence of our Union.

Mr President, SLAPP! This sounds like a slap in the face and is what we call the ‘strategic lawsuit against public participation’, these SLAPPs, these practices of judicial harassment against journalists, whistleblowers and academics who are fiercely pursued by those who want to silence any criticism of them. This phenomenon is massive enough in Europe that a directive is about to be voted on, inspired by the remarkable work of the CASE coalition. This text is a major step forward, but an overly restrictive interpretation of its scope could jeopardise its effectiveness. As Members of the European Parliament, we make three demands. The civil trial directive should apply to the civil part of criminal proceedings. If it applies only to cross-border disputes, this concept must include matters of European public interest or words accessible from at least two European countries. Finally, and crucially, the Directive must provide the SLAPP victim with a provision to be paid by the ‘slapper’ to finance his defence.

Madam President, Commissioner, dear Nicolas Schmit, ladies and gentlemen, as we speak, a proposal for a law on the mobility of alternators for an Erasmus apprenticeship is being discussed in the National Assembly in Paris. This date was of course not chosen at random. Today, on Europe Day, we celebrate the launch of the European Year of Skills and that is what brings us together in this Chamber. Erasmus is one of the great successes of our Europe, but it is still too often perceived by our fellow citizens as reserved for students only. What we are achieving together is the democratisation of European mobility. Every young person, whether a student, apprentice or vocational high school student, must be able to take advantage of this opportunity offered to them by Europe. The European Commission is preparing to launch a proposal for a framework for the mobility of apprentices. The recognition of the skills acquired during mobility must be fully recognised. Let us launch a Bologna process of the professional path. In the end, what will enable us to convince the young people and families most reluctant to European mobility is that it is recognised throughout Europe in terms of employability. Recognition of technical skills of course, but also of these skills so difficult to transmit and so essential in the professional world and that we call the skills of the 21st century, the ability to communicate, to adapt, to work in a team, to innovate, to get out of your comfort zone. And why not start with the sectors in tension and strategic for our industrial sovereignty? This Year of Skills gives us the opportunity to make the strength of European mobility known to all our young people and to all employers in Europe. The stakes are social and political.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, a good Europe Day for everyone. First of all, I wanted to reiterate the deep commitment of my group, Renew Europe, to the Commission's funding of non-governmental organisations. If we are so committed to this funding, it is because, as you know, we are very committed to the Conference on the Future of Europe, which must become a new way of writing European policies. Hand in hand with the citizens, hand in hand with the non-governmental organizations that are the voices. But it is precisely because we are so committed to this funding of non-governmental organisations working to uphold the values that bring us together that we are today asking the Commission for greater transparency and vigilance in examining applications ahead of the allocation of funds. Because we want to make sure precisely that these funds are not captured by non-governmental organizations that, under the guise of defending our values, would actually weaken them. I am thinking of gender equality. I am also thinking of freedom of conscience, which is the foundation of our European Pact, which is recognised by Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and which allows every European citizen to believe or not to believe, to no longer believe, to change his or her religion, to practice religion as he or she sees fit. And so we have to make sure that every man, every woman who joins European soil, to sometimes flee precisely from pressures in his country of origin that did not allow him to practice his religion freely, can enjoy this freedom of expression. However, some non-governmental organisations do not adhere to this respect for freedom of expression, and we must have the courage to recognise that any non-governmental organisation that is part of a form of religious fundamentalism would not have the legitimacy to receive European funds. We really owe it to all those women and men who come to European soil as a land of freedom. I am thinking in particular, of course, of our sisters in Iran who are now under the yoke of a regime that imposes the wearing of the veil. How could it be imagined that young women or older women who join European soil could in one way or another be subjected to this kind of pressure? This pressure, of course, will not come from the state, but it would come from organisations, from components of civil society, which are part of Islamism, for example, and which do not respect this freedom of conscience which is fundamental for us. And when I say that, I am driven by my desire to protect first and foremost our citizens who are of Muslim culture or religion, and who can suffer here and there in our territories, these pressures that are unbearable for me because they are contrary to our fundamental values. So this is what I wanted to tell you here, reaffirming, as I did at the outset, our commitment to all non-governmental organisations working to promote the values we hold dear. And it is important and moving for me to say this today in front of you on this Europe Day.

Madam President, I would like to recall the memory of Deborah Yakubu, a 21-year-old Nigerian Christian student who was beaten to death last year after sharing on the networks a message deemed offensive to the Prophet Muhammad. As I speak, the fate of Yahaya Aminu Sharif has not yet been sealed. The 25-year-old artist, currently detained in a Nigerian prison, was sentenced to death by an Islamic court for a song deemed blasphemous. We can act, we must act. We, the Members of the European Parliament, call for his immediate release as well as that of all those detained for blasphemy. The Nigerian Constitution prohibits any state religion. Its authority must be reaffirmed in the twelve States which, since 2000, have established Sharia law. By abolishing blasphemy, Nigeria, with its influence in the region, could lead the way in Africa and the Muslim world. Blasphemy kills. All over the world, it must be stopped.

Commissioner, for this Year of Youth to be a success, its effects must be lasting. I would like to stress the need for a ‘youth test’ that would apply to all European policies. This is a strong expectation of our youth, who are very strongly represented in this Chamber and whom I welcome. It would probably be the best of legacies. Then let me share some good news with you. Mentoring has just been declared a national cause in France. You know my attachment to this practice which has shown its powerful effectiveness in reducing educational, social and territorial inequalities. You honoured us with your presence at the event we dedicated to him here at the European Parliament. Can we count on your support to significantly develop mentoring at European level and recognise the skills acquired by mentees but also by mentors? The upcoming Year of Skills would be the ideal framework to finally build a European framework of psychosocial skills acquired through solidarity-based engagement or European mobility that translate into employability.

Mr President, I have often recalled in this Chamber the need to preserve the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, fought the iniquitous idea of talking about apartheid in a country where many Arab citizens are doctors, professors, police officers, deputies, judges, including at the Supreme Court. Today, in the face of the attempt to bring the judicial system into line, I want to address the Prime Minister of Israel, as an MEP representing friendly powers, Europe and France, and as a politician viscerally committed to democracy and Israel's destiny. Don't turn a blind eye to the most massive mobilization in Israel's history. Do not lose your greatest allies by being deaf to their calls to reason. Do not betray the founding principles of the State of Israel and the biblical message which it conveys and which contributed to the European idea of democracy by laying down in the Torah itself the principle of separation of powers and the obligation to erect courts to limit the excesses of political power. There is still time to renounce this dangerous project for Israeli democracy, which has always been able, and it is remarkable, to maintain the rule of law despite the state of war. President Herzog is leading the way.

Mr President, in order to be a credible mediator in the Middle East, our Union must acknowledge the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and be a guarantor of a far-sighted vision, far from Manichaeism. Our determination must be guided by our determination to be useful in resolving this tragic conflict and faithful to defending our democratic values. At a time when we are collectively facing the danger of foreign interference and the need to preserve our independence in order to have a useful and constructive voice, let us open our eyes. To be useful for peace in the Middle East, we need to denounce countries that finance terrorism, such as Qatar and Iran. To be useful for peace in the Middle East, we need to be more vigilant towards media-financed countries that demonise Israel, such as AJ+, the youth media of the Al Jazeera group, funded by Qatar, which presents itself as a progressive media, but supports the most rigorous Islam. This media outlet pushes hypocrisy to the point of accusing Israel of supporting LGBT rights only to obscure the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while Israel is the only country in the region where LGBT people can live in safety. Do not look, you will not find anything that denounces one of the most homophobic policies on the planet, that of Qatar, which provides for seven years of imprisonment for foreigners and the death penalty for natives.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in the wake of this pandemic and the potentially devastating effects of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine on our economies, we have never been more aware of the urgent need to invest in human capital, i.e. skills. I therefore welcome the Commission's proposals for the introduction of individual training accounts, inspired by the French system, and the introduction of micro-credentials. These accessible and flexible arrangements are essential to enable us to make a game-changer in lifelong learning. I would like to emphasise the use of micro-credits, micro-credentials, the recognition of psychosocial skills acquired during a European mobility experience or a solidarity commitment. I can testify that our young people come back absolutely transformed from these experiences in terms of self-confidence, listening and communication skills, leaving their zone of confidence, adaptability and innovation, and teamwork. There is a need to create a European-wide framework for psychosocial skills, which will lead to better employability for businesses and administrations alike. This will have the dual advantage of responding to a strong expectation from our youth and serving as a major lever to embark on Erasmus, the European Solidarity Corps, or ALMA, the young people furthest from Europe. We need a big bang of soft skills. With willpower, this is now possible thanks to micro-credentials. Are you ready to start this project? How soon?

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, and in particular dear Domènec Ruiz Devesa, with whom I had great pleasure working – congratulations on your excellent work – and I also welcome the entire team of shadow rapporteurs. Kamran is Professor of History and Geography in Moscow. He's 28. Last week, he had to resign because he refused to relay to his students the official speech of the Putin regime. In the face of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, making Europe a military and energy power is a matter of course. The report we have to vote on tomorrow stresses a no less essential dimension: making Europe an educational power. We cannot claim to maintain peace between peoples – our peoples – if we do not build a common pedagogical culture in which civic education has a crucial role to play in upholding the values that bring us together: critical thinking, commitment to democracy, pluralism, the rule of law, human rights, respect for facts and history. The new ambition we defend in this report focuses as much on our school curricula, which require more coordination and coherence, as on the experiences of engagement experienced by our young people. As such, let me welcome the consensus on a priority of the French Presidency of the Council: the creation of a genuine European civic service, which will amplify the momentum of the European Solidarity Corps. That is why I ask you to be there tomorrow so that this European civic mobility, which carries our values in action, will eventually become, like Erasmus today, a powerful way of rooting our youth in the values that hold us together.

Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, ladies and gentlemen, I have come to tell you about the most ethical and profitable investment: This is education. I am not saying this, it was the Nobel Prize in Economics, Joseph Stiglitz, who honoured us with his presence at the interministerial conference held yesterday by the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Yes, education is a strategic issue, and let me reiterate two imperatives here. This investment must be well targeted and evaluated. Thank you to Commissioner Mariya Gabriel for announcing yesterday the creation of a European laboratory to guide and evaluate investment in education. We have collectively requested this at the initiative of Renew in the framework of the European Education Area; you did. Second imperative: this investment must reach the young people furthest from Europe. The ambition of a European civic service is nothing else and will only achieve its objective if we create a framework for the recognition of psychosocial skills acquired through mobility or solidarity-based engagement. This is also the whole idea of the single platform for youth, which Renew Europe is carrying. In this case, make no mistake: Communication is a political issue.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, a year ago in this Chamber, President Sassoli paid tribute to French Professor Samuel Paty, who was beheaded by an Islamist terrorist for teaching his students freedom of expression. It was the mourning of all European citizens gathered around the figure of a teacher embodying what we have most precious: the transmission of knowledge and the ability to think for oneself. What we are developing across the European Education Area is an act of resistance to those who would undermine what underpins our civilisation. And like any act of resilience, it will strengthen us and lead us to put the teacher back in the center of the village. Our report insists that education should no longer be seen as an expense, but as an investment for the future. Both the financial and symbolic upgrading of the professor's status must be a shared priority. Building a common pedagogical culture based on best practices is the key to becoming a true educational power. The increased mobility of teachers and future teachers and the European Teacher Academies are opening up radically new opportunities, in addition to the accelerator effect of teachers’ digital ownership during the pandemic. Everything converges to make this European Education Area an area of values and educational excellence. And I have a dream that I share with you to finish: In all teacher training courses, however diverse they may be, let us join forces to integrate in the 27 Member States a module opening up to European best educational practices. This Europe module will empower all teachers to arm our children to resist and capture the best of our changing world.