Speeches

Thank you for the answer. Well, let’s look at what’s going on with Chinese investments on European soil, literally on soil. How much are you observing and watching, for instance, Chinese investments in, say, battery factories in Hungary or now we have one in Finland? There is Chinese investment in battery production on the south coast of the Gulf of Finland in our country, which raises a lot of questions, not least because we are not sure that the investment is done in a socially and environmentally sound manner and it might add to the dependencies that we want to reduce. So, what is your take on this type of investments in Europe?

Dear Executive Vice-President, we have seen that there are massive Chinese investments in Indonesia in steel production, precisely on the first stages of steel production based on the Indonesian massive nickel resources. At the same time, Indonesia has enforced an export ban for nickel and this is now at stake when the EU, the Commission, is introducing the Enforcement Regulation to counteract this. So what I would like to know is this: could the Global Gateway be an answer to counteract these kinds of investments by China in other countries using its belt and road framework? Could our Global Gateway be a more fair way to bring added value to countries like Indonesia?

Mr President, we have been informed an hour ago that Odhikar’s leaders have been sentenced to a two years’ prison sentence after a decade of legal harassment. That is why the authors and shadow rapporteurs have proposed an oral amendment to come to terms with this sad reality that we deplore. So, on paragraph two, I have an oral amendment. We wrote the following in the joint motion for resolution: ‘Urges the GoB (government of Bangladesh) to immediately and unconditionally drop all charges against Odhikar’s representatives and reinstate its registration, ...’ That was the first part. We would like to replace this with the following: ‘Deplores the prison sentence handed down on 14 September by the Cyber Tribunal of Dhaka against Odhikar’s secretary, Adilur Rahman Khan, and director, ASM Nasiruddin Elan; urges the government of Bangladesh to immediately and unconditionally quash this sentence.’ Then the last part stays as it follows. So, President, this is the proposal by the six political groups that have authored this resolution.

Mr President, Commissioner, we are voting tomorrow, on 14 September, on a resolution on the human rights situation in Bangladesh, notably on the case of an important human rights organisation, Odhikar. And this coincides with the knowledge that we have that tomorrow its leaders may be sentenced to long prison sentences and we, of course, need to defend them because these charges are completely trumped up. So the case of Odhikar is very emblematic in our relations. We do have evolution and progress on our labour law cooperation since many years, but we can only regret that the political rights and the rights of the opposition have deteriorated a lot, and this is something that we cannot ignore. So we expect that Odhikar will be acquitted, the leaders will be acquitted of these prison sentences, because there is no grounds for those and this legal harassment that has been going on over a decade already. And we want to remind the government of Bangladesh that we have an enhanced engagement process in the framework of the ‘Everything but Arms’ benefit programme, which is important for us – it’s important for Bangladesh – and we cannot guarantee that there would be no consequences of the sentencing of Odhikar to our trade relationship with Bangladesh. So we need to give all our support to the civil society and expect that the government will respect their rights.

The next sitting will take place tomorrow, Wednesday 13 September 2023, at 9 a.m. The agenda has been published and is available on the European Parliament’s website.

The next item is the Commission statement on combating the normalisation of far-right and far-left discourses, including antisemitism (2023/2844(RSP)). Already at this stage, I would like to inform you that, for scheduling reasons - it is already very late - the blue card is not in use and no speakers will be given on request.

The next item is the report by José Ramón Bauzá Díaz, on behalf of the Committee on Transport and Tourism, on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on ensuring a level playing field for sustainable air transport (COM(2021)0561 - C9-0332/2021 - 2021/0205(COD)) (A9-0199/2022)

The next item is the report by Petras Auštrevičius, on behalf of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, on relations with Belarus (2023/2041(INI)) (A9-0258/2023)

Excuse me colleague. I am very sorry but we do not allow tables or banners. This is in the Rules. It’s my duty to remind you. You have to describe your information in words now.

The next item is the report by Javi López, on behalf of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe (recast) (COM(2022)0542 - C9-0364/2022 - 2022/0347(COD)) (A9-0233/2023)

What Mr Kolakušić has said about the Commission President is not in line with our Rules of Procedure and the behaviour we can expect from colleagues. Maybe the President will have to look into this.

The next item is the report by Andreas Schwab, on behalf of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a Single Market Emergency Instrument and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 2679/98 (COM(2022)0459 - C9-0315/2022 - 2022/0278(COD)) (A9-0246/2023)