Speeches

Mr President, thank you very much. If one is to believe the Chinese self-image and propaganda, it is a country where minorities are respected and where areas such as Xinjiang Province, Tibet and Inner Mongolia have autonomy. In practice, however, things are going in the opposite direction. In Tibet, the ability of Tibetans to express their culture and their freedom of religion is restricted. In Inner Mongolia, widespread popular protests erupted as schooling went from Mongolian to Mandarin. But the hardest is the repression in Xinjiang province. There is a great deal of monitoring of the minority population. whereas up to one million Uyghurs have been in forced labour camps and Uyghur women have been subjected to forced sterilisation; This, my friends, is an oppression and an assimilation policy whose purpose is to stifle any independent expression of minority culture. China must live up to its international obligations and its own constitution.

Madam President, thank you very much. After four years of full-scale war, Ukraine is fighting back against the aggressor with increasing force. The war is going badly for Russia, but let us give Ukraine our full support financially, politically and militarily. Let us tighten sanctions and finally put an end to Russian oil exports via the shadow fleet that is financing the war. This is the path to a just peace. Trump's attempt to make a deal in which parts of Ukraine will be occupied and Russia normalized must be rejected. Russia cannot have normal relations with Europe as long as a single part of Ukraine is occupied. On the contrary, Russia must pay war reparations. The Russian frozen assets must be used. The ICC and other international organisations must also be used to put Lavrov and Putin where they belong, in prison in The Hague. Slava Ukraini!

Mr President, thank you very much. On two points, there is reason to express strong criticism of how the European Commission has handled the budget. This applies to the very rapidly increasing indebtedness and cost of debt, and to the management of the recovery fund, the RRF. I understand that we need to borrow money to support Ukraine. There is no doubt about it, but it is only a minor part of the overall debt burden. It appears that the European Commission believes that Member States will be able to pay higher membership fees or receive new forms of revenue. But in practice, future generations are being borrowed. It's not sustainable. With regard to the RRF, the criticism is serious. We don't really know where the money is going. There are huge sums of money that have been paid out and we cannot follow the money. It is a system based on national authorities examining where the money goes. We know that often it doesn't happen. Just look at the scandal we are now examining with agricultural subsidies in Greece, where the Greek government is actively defending the misuse of EU funds. We must be able to intervene directly and centrally when EU funds are misused. It is a pleasure that Vladimir Putin lost the elections in Hungary, and hopefully Hungary can get better at using EU funds. But Slovakia must not become a new Hungary, and that requires the European Commission to step in. I appreciated the fact that the Council spoke about the importance of the discharge process. But perhaps you will be a little better at cooperating with Parliament in the future, and we can scrutinise you as well. As far as the European Parliament is concerned, there is room for improvement in terms of generous office allowances, old, rotten pension schemes and employment conditions. But the big scandal is up there: It is the so-called patriots, the ID group, who seem to have embezzled at least 4.3 million euros. This must not only be scrutinised, it must also lead to legal proceedings and the patriots being made repayable of every euro they have embezzled of taxpayers' money.

Mr President, thank you very much. Democrats like to talk about anti-corruption. What if you swept in front of your own door? In Sweden, you have an aid foundation that year after year fails on its financial reports. You don't know where the money went. It's about millions of Swedish kronor. Last time you managed to get another 25 million SEK. Not because you have reported where the money has gone, but because you have used political pressure. Isn't it time to sweep in front of your own door?

Madam President, thank you very much. Developments in Slovakia are extremely worrying. There are major attacks on the rule of law. We see clear signs of corruption, and we see a number of examples of misuse of EU funds. This is nothing new. In 2023, the special prosecutor’s office in the country was abolished. Then, the following year, this Parliament chose to speak out very clearly against the attacks on the rule of law in Slovakia. I think it's time to do it again. We see more data on the misuse of EU funds with links to the government and those in power. We see how an important societal function for whistleblowers is dismantled. It's time to use the tools we have. If you use EU funds incorrectly, you should not have any EU funds. In the case of Hungary, we reacted too slowly, too weakly. Now is the time to act faster and more forcefully.

Madam President, thank you very much. Of course, Hungary should not have a single euro from the Safe Fund. Hungary simply does not meet the fundamental requirements of the rule of law and democracy enshrined in the EU Treaties. They should not have money from the Safe Fund and from any other funds either. It's that simple. Hungary is the most corrupt country in the EU. We know, from a variety of examples, how to systematically misuse EU funds and make money available to Mr Orbán's friends and acquaintances. Recently, OLAF has again ended systematic misuse of EU money in Hungary. This time it is about funds from the Agricultural Fund. In addition, where does the Orban government have its loyalty? In practice, they are failing Ukraine, they are failing international law and they are failing a country that is fighting for democracy in Europe. When our neighbor Denmark is threatened by Trump, it stands on Trump's side instead of defending a European country and its territory. whereas recent revelations have revealed how the Hungarian embassy in Brussels has attempted to organise espionage via its security service against the EU institutions; This is a fifth column. This is a Trojan horse. Hungary does not need a single euro from this fund. Hungary needs to be deprived, suspended, of the right to vote in the Council of Ministers.

Madam President, thank you very much. We welcome this report on the conditionality mechanism. The report's proposal means that its application would be more effective, more legally certain and more powerful. We know that where the independence of the rule of law is compromised, where the media and free debate are curtailed, the next step is the misuse of EU funds and the protection of corruption. Hungary is a very clear example of all this, and as the report points out, it affects the whole of Europe and the credibility of the European Union. Hungary is one of the countries that has received the most EU support per person. My country, Sweden, is one of the countries that pays the most per person. But trust one thing: Swedish taxpayers do not want to pay for a country that systematically dismantles democracy. You don't want their tax money to end up in the pockets of Viktor Orban's friends and acquaintances. It is not enough to withhold the money to Hungary. We should do that and we should do that. But there is a country in the Council of Ministers which is not a fully-fledged democracy, which legislates for all of us. It is also time to take the next step, to suspend Hungary's right to vote in the Council of Ministers until democracy is fully restored in the country.

Madam President, thank you very much. The European Commission and the right-wing in this House seem to want our automotive industry to step back into the future. It's not gonna work. The European automotive industry has already made several major mistakes. Many manufacturers have focused on expensive, large models that ordinary income earners can't afford. Investment in electric power, which is the future of cars, has been too insufficient. This cannot be remedied by backing down. Instead, the transition must be accelerated and the phase-out of combustion engines by 2035 fixed. But instead, the European Commission casts doubt on the future. Doubts about climate change. It is bad for the climate and it is bad for the European automotive industry.

Mr President, thank you very much. We should be grateful that there was no summit for Trump and Putin in Budapest, because no negotiation on Ukraine's future will take place without Ukraine itself sitting at the negotiating table. Putin has no right to any part of Ukraine's territory, and Trump has no right whatsoever to sell Ukraine out. In Viktor Orban, Putin has an admirer who had welcomed Putin as a statesman and world leader. He doesn't deserve that. Putin doesn't have to visit Budapest. He needs to be sent to The Hague as the war criminal he actually is. The best help we can give to bring peace, to bring about the ceasefire that Russia is denying Ukraine, is to continue the support: politically, economically and militarily to the struggling Ukraine.

Mr President, thank you very much. And thank you to the Court of Auditors for a thorough work as usual. There are two things that really stand out in this year's report and that worry. One is the rapidly increasing indebtedness of the European Union. The second is the continued lack of control and traceability of the large spending under the Recovery Fund. The cost of debt is increasing rapidly. In practice, we are mortgaging future budgetary space for the European Union. It is essentially an irresponsible policy, which makes the EU more sensitive both to interest rate fluctuations and to its rating. The next generation of Europe has become that the next generation pays. As for the recovery fund, it is reminiscent of the morning after a hefty tavern run when you have visited a little too many bars, when you look at the credit card and do not really know what you used the money for the night before. But you realize: ‘Oh, there is not much left to live on in the future’. We cannot handle taxpayers' money that way. We need to know where they've gone. We need to know what good they're doing. And as President Murphy rightly pointed out: We must learn from our mistakes and not repeat them in the next multiannual budget.

Madam President, thank you very much. On October 17, it will be ten years since the Swedish citizen and publisher Gui Minhai was kidnapped and taken to China. Since then, he has been a political prisoner. He is not allowed to meet with Swedish diplomats. He is denied contact with his own child and his own family. We don't even know where Gui Minhai is imprisoned in China. Tomorrow, we in this Parliament will have a great deal of unity in calling for his immediate release. China now wants to have better contacts with the European Union and closer cooperation with the European Parliament. Then release Gui Minhai. Show them you're serious. Show that you want better relations with the European Union and with Sweden. Ten years in captivity. It's time for Gui Minhai to go home – home to Sweden, home to his daughter Angela.

Mr President, thank you very much. Decarbonisation is an absolute necessity to meet our climate targets. We will not meet the climate targets in the transport sector if we do not phase out fuels on the car side. Part of the House does not seem to believe that climate change really exists. But climate change continues no matter what you think because it's a scientific fact, and we have to do our part of the job. Now that doubts are being raised as to whether or not we should really make this transition, it will hit our automotive industry. For the automotive industry is good at changing, they are changing all the time, but if you do not know if you will have to change, we will fall even further behind China and the others who are today world leaders in producing electric cars. That is the real threat to jobs and to the European automotive industry: We don't change when we have to change.

Madam President, thank you very much. We don't know for sure where all the drones over our airports are coming from, but we have good reason to look at Russia. For a few things we know: We know that Russia is systematically disrupting the GPS system over the Baltic Sea, endangering shipping and aviation. We know that ships from Russian ports have destroyed cables with crucial infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. We know that cyberattacks against our authorities come from Russia. We know that they violate Finnish and Estonian airspace. We know their drones are being shot down over Poland. These are acts of aggression and they must be rejected with determination. Maybe they think they can scare us. They may think that we should reduce support for Ukraine. They're wrong. I'd like to end by quoting Tom Petty and Heartbreakers: "We won't back down..

Mr President, thank you very much. This deal is a betrayal. It is a betrayal of the workers of Europe. This is a betrayal of European companies. The United States has all the advantages. Europe has all the disadvantages. It's a surrender. But it is also a betrayal of global climate action. The EU will buy $750 billion worth of fuel from the US. It will be about oil and gas. Much of it comes with fracking. It is one of the most environmentally hazardous methods available for extracting fossil fuels with large local pollutants but also extra emissions of greenhouse gases such as methane. This is a huge increase in imports of dirty fossil energy, a kind of reward to Donald Trump who has left the Paris Agreement. We're not gonna do that. We are going to strengthen global environmental cooperation, and we are going to say no to this kind of dirty agreement.

When we were kids, we sometimes met the schoolyard bullies, those who threaten us with violence. Those who asked to have our money. They might even steal your phone. You can take two approaches to the bullies. You can give them what they want and humiliate yourself. And they will most likely be back the day after asking for your money again. Or you can take a stand together with others and say, 'No, this is not fair.' What makes you think that the bully Donald Trump won't come back asking for more?

Mr President, thank you very much. In just over two weeks Moldova will go to the polls. It's not just a choice, it's a choice about the future of the country. Moldova deserves to be a truly independent country and a living democracy. But it requires rejecting Russia's attempts to remotely control both the economy and politics of the country. Russia wants to rule, with disinformation, with economic pressure, with oligarchs financing lies and disinformation on social media. Ahead of the last election, we saw a number of examples of pure vote buying. It is our task to support Moldova's democracy and independence, to safeguard their ability to withstand Russian influence operations, to help them build their economy. Because at the bottom there are also major economic and social challenges. Moldova needs hope for the future. They need jobs for their young people. They need a higher standard of living and that goes hand in hand with choosing the democratic path, and choosing freedom instead of authoritarian remote control from Russia.

Madam President, thank you very much. When the European Commission speaks of simplification, one should be careful. Then you should read the proposal carefully. Too often, simplification means weakening good legislation. But that's not the case this time. Simplification is simplification this time. That is why we support this proposal to simplify climate tariffs, the CBAM. They will be easier to implement. They will be easier to handle, but over 99 percent of the effect will remain. That's a good suggestion. But climate tariffs will meet resistance in the outside world. I think they will face resistance from the United States. Conflict must be taken to put the climate before commercial interests, and the Commission must stand by that. But at the same time as we talk climate tariffs, Ursula von der Leyen goes to golfing President Trump in Scotland and concludes a deal to buy US fossil gas and fossil oil for $750 billion. Fossil fuels produced with fracking, the worst method imaginable from both a climate and environmental point of view. We need a little more coherence in the Commission's climate policy. I propose that Commissioner Hoekstra take a serious conversation with Ursula von der Leyen about this fossil fuel issue.