Speeches

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.

Mr President, thank you very much. It is often said that the only friend of the Kurds is the mountains. Throughout history, the Kurds have been betrayed repeatedly. Now it can't happen again. The Kurds paid a huge price to defeat the Islamic State. Thousands of Kurdish men and women gave their lives not only for their freedom, but also for our freedom. In northeastern Syria, women have had rights that many women lack in other parts of the region. They have tried to build a future where different religions, different languages and different ethnicities can live together. Now this is under threat and we, the outside world, have a responsibility to ensure that Kurdish self-government can live on. The blockade of Kobane must be broken. Pressure must be put on the government in Damascus, and not a single euro should be paid to the Syrian government, but that they live up to our demands for respect for the rights of minorities.

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.

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.

Thank you, Mr President. There is a very good part of this report, and that is the protection of those who work with old cars of cultural value: those who renovate them, those who care for them and those who drive them. Unfortunately, however, the good news is over there, because in almost every area of importance, the rapporteurs' proposals are a deterioration in the environmental ambitions of this report. It is a lower level of ambition and there will be a worse result. This applies to the type of vehicles covered, to recycling targets for plastics and metals, and also to the timeframe for introducing these provisions. They have listened to the industry, and they have listened to those parts of the industry that have really low environmental ambitions. I'm sorry about that. This follows a pattern where the new majority in Parliament, instead of improving proposals coming from the European Commission, from an environmental point of view actually lowers the environmental ambitions and worsens the proposals. I must say that it is particularly disappointing that the Social Democrats have agreed to a deal that places environmental ambitions too low.

Mr President, thank you very much. On the right, there are usually members who talk about how the environmental movement is using EU money incorrectly. They do so without any objective justification. Here on the right, the same MEPs usually talk about corruption in the EU and how people who have immigrated here use tax money incorrectly. But today they are not here. Today it is empty in the Chamber of the far right, because today it has once again been revealed how they have systematically usurped and cheated with EU funds. EU funds that have fallen into their own pockets. EU funds that have ended up with their friends and acquaintances. Now it is important to get to the bottom of this with prosecutors, with the police and with a thorough investigation. After that, I would like to propose a name change for "Patriots for Europe" so that instead they call themselves "Hypocrites and cheaters for Europe".

Mr President, thank you very much. On the right, there are usually members who talk about how the environmental movement is using EU money incorrectly. They do so without any objective justification. Here on the right, the same MEPs usually talk about corruption in the EU and how people who have immigrated here use tax money incorrectly. But today they are not here. Today it is empty in the Chamber of the far right, because today it has once again been revealed how they have systematically usurped and cheated with EU funds. EU funds that have fallen into their own pockets. EU funds that have ended up with their friends and acquaintances. Now it is important to get to the bottom of this with prosecutors, with the police and with a thorough investigation. After that, I would like to propose a name change for "Patriots for Europe" so that instead they call themselves "Hypocrites and cheaters for Europe".

Mr President, thank you very much. The Swedish citizen Ahmadreza Djalali, his life is in great danger. He is imprisoned in Iran. He's sentenced to death. Israel's violent, illegal bombing of Iran increases the risk that repression will now intensify and that more death sentences will be carried out. Djalali has been subjected to very harsh treatment, to torture. He has not received a fair trial and he is denied access to urgently needed medical treatment. There is no rule of law in Iran. There are no fair trials. Djalali is one of many political prisoners. He must be released, be allowed to go home to Sweden and be reunited with his family.