What Clara spoke about.

24

Apr

2024

EN Speech

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Forging a sustainable future together: economic, social and territorial challenges for a competitive, cohesive and inclusive Europe (debate)

Mr President, the historical mission of the EU is to accomplish the unity and peace of European peoples without one ruling over others, because we had unity and even some peace before in the form of empires, and we had some self-government in the form of this unity and war. It is our responsibility to make sure that both unity and diversity, both peace and liberty, prevail (the speaker used an uno…

12

Mar

2024

EN Speech

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Artificial Intelligence Act (debate)

Mr President, this Union has yet to prove that our commitment to the rule of law and separation of powers is robust enough to allow Member States to use AI-powered biometric surveillance. Maybe not society will ever be advanced enough to be trusted with such power. All the exceptions introduced by the Council open the door to hard-core authoritarianism. Maybe it takes a Catalan to realise, but you…

8

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Working conditions of teachers in the EU (debate)

Mr President, the teaching profession is in crisis because we are failing to attain and retain enough talented and motivated professionals. In my country, in the 80s, we set up a language immersion model to normalise Scotland after the years of persecution under Franco’s dictatorship. This very ambitious project attracted thousands of bright young graduates, especially women, that were the bedrock…

6

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Conclusions of the European Council meetings, in particular the special European Council meeting of 1 February 2024 (debate)

Madam President, the problem with Orbán’s routine blackmail of the EU institutions for his political agenda is not only that he delays and waters down much-needed policies, such as the Ukraine Facility, and it’s not only that the citizens of Hungary see their rights violated. The main problem with the cowardice of the Council when it comes to applying Article 7 once and for all in the face of blat…

17

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Extending the list of EU crimes to hate speech and hate crime (debate)

Madam President, any hate speech legislation risks criminalising those minorities or dissidents that it seeks to protect, and so it risks becoming a tool to protect the dominant groups of society. The elaboration of this report, I’m afraid, is a prime example of this. Renew has entrusted Ciudadanos to prepare this report. It’s the party that was born to suppress Catalan identity and language, a xe…

13

Dec

2023

EN Speech

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

Madam President, I have many things to say about today’s debate, and in fact I had prepared a very nice one-minute speech in Catalan. But again, I cannot speak in Catalan in this Chamber. (The speaker spoke in a non-official language) It turns out that Spain had promised that the official status of Catalan was going to be bolstered at the General Affairs Council of yesterday. But hey, Spain broke …

22

Nov

2023

EN Speech

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The lack of legislative follow-up by the Commission to the PEGA resolution (debate)

Mr President, the mass surveillance of a democratic movement should make the government behind it fall. But not in Spain, where the government refused to clarify its role in the Pegasus, and they targeted 65 Catalan elected officials, activists, lawyers, journalists and their families, that we know of. But not only has Pedro Sánchez not shown any willingness to hold those responsible accountable, …

21

Nov

2023

EN Speech

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Proposals of the European Parliament for the amendment of the Treaties (debate)

Mr President, our Treaties proclaim that this Union is founded on the respect for human rights. But what do these grand statements mean at the end of the day, if citizens cannot uphold their rights as European citizens before the states that breach them? They are – as we say in Catalan, the language that is still forbidden in this Parliament – (Phrase in Catalan), that is they mean nothing. Collea…

17

Oct

2023

EN Speech

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Urgent need for a coordinated European response and legislative framework on intrusive spyware, based on the PEGA inquiry committee recommendations (debate)

Mr President, this Parliament’s recommendations to Spain were crystal clear: conduct a full, fair and effective investigation into all spyware cases. These include spying on Catalan MEPs and our teams and many other Catalan politicians and activists. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recently urged similar demands to Spain. To date, no one, no one in the Spanish Government has be…

17

Oct

2023

EN Speech

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Effectiveness of the EU sanctions on Russia (debate)

Mr President, loopholes in Russian sanctions are yet another by-product of the EU’s double standards and lack of spine. Just three examples: the illegal issuance of golden visas to Russian investors continues in Spain. Exemptions to Hungary are granted as a response to Orbán’s blackmail, and sanctions with close ties to Russia have given Azerbaijan the resources for an ethnic cleansing of the Arme…

14

Sep

2023

EN Speech

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Parliamentarism, European citizenship and democracy (debate)

Mr President, representation is the core virtue of parliamentary democracy. But how can anyone take this Parliament’s duty to represent all European citizens seriously when so many European languages, so many millions of citizens, have their language still banned? Well, now it seems that for contingent political necessities in Spain, the EU institutions will at last start discussing making Catalan…

14

Jun

2023

EN Speech

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Preparation of the European Council meeting of 29-30 June 2023, in particular in the light of recent steps towards concluding the Migration Pact (debate)

Mr President, if you’re worried about our borders, you need to pay more attention to Morocco and Spain. Last week, two Spanish lawyers from the International Commission of Jurists were prevented by Moroccan authorities to enter Western Sahara to assess the human rights situation in that occupied territory. The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs had no problem with it. No wonder – this is only one…

13

Jun

2023

EN Speech

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Negotiations on the European Electoral Law (debate)

Madam President, it would be good to make progress towards European election rules that are cleaner, more equal and promote a more continent-wide political debate. But beware of attempts to use this reform to take the power of representation even further away from the peoples of Europe, especially from us, the peoples forced to live as minorities in our Member States. We are not represented in the…

31

May

2023

EN Speech

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Breaches of the Rule of law and fundamental rights in Hungary and frozen EU funds (debate)

Mr President, it is certainly a problem that the EU Presidency is occupied by a government that is democratic only in name – a country that puts dissidents in jail, spies and represses political opponents, prosecutes its minorities and savagely violates immigrants’ human rights. Such a country should never preside the Council. Beyond Hungary, this applies to Spain. It would be a shame to have Pedr…

10

May

2023

EN Speech

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Update of the anti-corruption legislative framework (debate)

Madam President, efforts to improve our anti-corruption framework are welcome, of course, but when will we tackle the political misuse of anti-corruption laws turned into lawfare to repress dissidents? Spain has a widespread problem of corruption that starts right at the top at the head of the state. And yet, instead of actually combating it, they use the pretence of fight against corruption to pr…

10

May

2023

EN Speech

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Externalising asylum applications and making funding to third countries conditional on the implementation of return agreements (topical debate)

Madam President, we’ll hear a lot of fearmongering today, but the EU should take responsibility for the violations of human rights that take place on its borders day after day, and for its partnerships with third countries. The Melilla massacre resulted in disappearances and deaths. You want to talk about pushbacks? Well, Moroccan police entered Spanish land, dragged lifeless bodies out of the Spa…

18

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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The need for a coherent strategy for EU-China Relations (debate)

Mr President, when we talk about China and human rights, we talk about individual and collective freedoms. We talk about repression of minorities, as in the case of the Uyghurs, and the right to self-determination, as in Taiwan. But Europe will not get respect until we first do our own homework. Europe has a choice. It can act like a big Switzerland or be a bad copy of China. We can be a Union gro…

29

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 23-24 March 2023 (debate)

Madam President, when we say that the European Union is a club of states instead of a true union and that it has democratic deficiencies because of that, we refer to the use of the European Council – that is absent right now – as the shield to protect Member States’ shameful actions from the scrutiny that they merit. Despite the EU institutions’ grandstanding on fundamental rights and democratic v…

29

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, I would like to raise a point of order on the basis of Rules 7 and 8. Specifically, I would like to draw your attention to President Metsola’s failure to comply with the President’s obligations to assert my immunity and protect the independence of this Chamber. Yesterday, I was illegally arrested in Barcelona, and I requested President Metsola to defend my immunities. I have recei…

15

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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European Central Bank - annual report 2022 (debate)

Madam President, Madam Commissioner, whether the interest—rate hikes are helping to control inflation is open to discussion. What is certain is that the ECB is giving a huge subsidy to banks. As Spanish banks reach historical profits, I think it is timely to remember the bailout of 2012. Your Vice-President, Luis de Guindos, was then the Spanish Economy Minister. He promised that the bailout would…

15

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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The erosion of the rule of law in Greece: the wiretapping scandal and media freedom (topical debate)

Madam President, the spyware scandal has shown of how little importance our fundamental rights are for some governments – in Hungary, Poland, Cyprus, Greece and Spain. They have not only violated the right to privacy, but also the right to freedom of thought. Pegasus, Predator and whatever spyware comes next are used by democratic governments to treat political dissidents like dangerous terrorists…

18

Jan

2023

EN Speech

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Protecting the Rule of Law against impunity in Spain (topical debate)

Madam President, nobody really cares about the rule of law in Spain. No matter how much you fuss about it, the Partido Popular certainly don’t care. They have forced this debate to score political points at home, even though they themselves shamelessly instrumentalise Spain’s institutions over and over again. Under their watch there have been illegal police operations, friendly judges that look th…

15

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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The 30th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (debate)

Madam President, I just want to reply to lies that we have heard a few minutes ago. They referred to my status and they referred to the supposed persecution of Spanish in Catalan schools. Both are lies. I participated in a government that organised a referendum and that doesn’t please the Spanish authorities. I have always defended myself in the courts of law that have asked me to defend myself. A…

15

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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The 30th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (debate)

Yes, my words cannot be translated because they were in Catalan. Millions of European citizens are being treated, even in this Parliament, as second-class European citizens – we’re second class, yes. And in the meantime, Spanish MEPs come to this microphone and speak about diversity and how languages unite. No, this is cynicism and it’s intolerable. The truth is that the European Union underpins t…

15

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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The 30th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (debate)

(The speaker spoke in a non-official language)