What Clara spoke about.

25

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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The International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women and the State of play on the ratification of the Istanbul Convention (continuation of debate)

Mr President, last week, Mr Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, the Prime Minister of Spain, went to Istanbul to visit his friend, President Erdoğan. They appeared before the press and Erdoğan took the occasion to speak strongly against the Istanbul Convention, with very offensive remarks about women. Mr Sánchez listened impassively, he smiled and uttered no words beyond friendship, investment or econom…

20

Oct

2021

EN Speech

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Global Tax Agreements to be endorsed at the G20 Summit in Rome, 30th/31st of October (continuation of debate)

Mr President, the global pandemic has led to a consensus on something as simple as large corporations having to contribute to the welfare state in the same way as small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Better late than never. The international agreement is good news. As the agreement was reached, the Spanish Government announced the minimum corporate rate of 15%, as recommended, but they are ch…

19

Oct

2021

EN Speech

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The Rule of law crisis in Poland and the primacy of EU law (debate)

Mr President, Prime Minister, how the EU responds to the crisis will shape the future of the EU; the authority and credibility of our own institutions are at stake. And it is not just about Poland. What we see in Poland arises from the laxity of the European institutions with powerful Member States like Spain that have a good grip on the machinery in Brussels. We have denounced this indulgence wit…

7

Oct

2021

EN Speech

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European Union Agency for Asylum (continuation of debate)

Mr President, the creation of a fully-fledged agency for asylum will be a step in the right direction, provided that it focuses on the role of controlling Member States abuses of human rights against asylum seekers and immigrants. The new tools to improve asylum procedures will do very little to protect fundamental rights as long as the focus of the immigration policy of the Union is on securing e…

6

Oct

2021

EN Speech

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

Madam President, this rampant escalation of energy prices is a direct threat to EU stability. Winter is coming and energy poverty will soon be widespread. The problem is especially acute in Spain, where the dependency on gas is now combined with the huge political power of the energy monopoly. With Aznar, González and their buddies sitting on the boards of energy companies, the Spanish energy mark…

15

Sep

2021

EN Speech

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The Pegasus spyware scandal (debate)

(inaudible) ... a few weeks ago, revealing that the intrusion affected many victims from many countries, mentioning explicitly the case of Catalonia. This very same week, Apple urged to update its operating system to protect users from intrusion by Pegasus. Among the victims of these spy programs, there is the Catalan independence movement. The clients of Pegasus are governments – the government o…

15

Sep

2021

EN Speech

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State of the Union (continuation of debate)

Mr President, I say to President von der Leyen: the recommendations of the Council of Europe regarding Spain had a very long list of homework that has not been followed, and you are silent about it. The Spanish Government has taken no action to stop repression and to end judicial abuse. Just a few days ago, a spokesman for the Spanish Popular Party was boasting in a newspaper interview that his pa…

15

Sep

2021

EN Speech

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State of the Union (debate)

Mr President, I would like to thank President von der Leyen for speaking so eloquently of the Union’s challenges. President von der Leyen, it is too bad that you were not very precise, but I presume you were referring to Spain. Yes, Mr Sánchez is not talking of dialogue; yes, nine political prisoners are finally home after years in jail – but the prosecution of Catalan dissidents, including state …

6

Jul

2021

EN Speech

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The creation of guidelines for the application of the general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union budget (continuation of debate)

Mr President, I would say to the Commissioner that while we procrastinate on budget conditionality, in Spain day by day the rule of law becomes the rule of laughter. Just two examples: Andreu Mas—Colell, 77, distinguished economist, Harvard professor, former administrator of the Catalan Government. His assets are about to be seized by the Spanish Court of Auditors without due process; Marcel Vivet…