Speeches

Seven motions for resolutions were tabled at the end of the debate. The debate is closed. The vote will take place on Thursday 25 April 2024. (The meeting adjourned at 10.26)

Colleagues, it’s quite normal to have interventions with short words. Commissioner Borrell, you have been a parliamentarian. You have been the President of the House, so you should be resilient enough to stand that. But at the end of the day, if you continue and if you do it repeatedly, colleague Neumann and colleague Verhofstadt, then it’s a sort of impoliteness, and I for sure will call you to order if you continue with that.

Mr Verhofstadt, an occasional interlocutory call is quite fine, but this should not go into the useless attempt to enter into a dialogue with the speaker.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is an important debate. This importance was expressed by decisions of the Conference of Presidents on the time frame. I would ask everyone to stick to the speaking time allocated to you by the Group.

The next item on the agenda is the debate on the statement by the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on Iran's unprecedented attack on Israel and the need for de-escalation and an EU response (2024/2704(RSP)).

I would like to inform you that, pursuant to Rule 47(2) of the Rules of Procedure, the President has declared two proposals for a legal act of the Union admissible. One (B9-0196/2024) on the need to suspend the current ban on trawl fishing in European waters, submitted by Jorge Buxadé Villalba and three other members. This proposal shall be referred to the Committee on Fisheries as the committee responsible and to the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety as the advisory committee. The other (B9-0204/2024), tabled by the same members, on the suspension of the EU-Morocco Agreement on reciprocal liberalisation measures for agricultural and fishery products. This proposal shall be referred to the Committee on International Trade as the committee responsible and the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and the Committee on Fisheries as co-consulting committees.

The next item on the agenda is the joint debate on – the report by Ms Ďuriš Nicholsonová, on behalf of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the European Disability Card and the European Parking Card for persons with disabilities (COM(2023)0512 – C9-0328/2023 – 2023/0311(COD)) (A9-0003/2024) and – the report by Mr Manders, on behalf of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, and Ms Kuhnke, on behalf of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council extending Directive [XXXX] to third-country nationals legally staying in a Member State (COM(2023)0698 – C9-0398/2023 – 2023/0393(COD)) (A9–0059/2024).

The next meeting will take place tomorrow, Tuesday 23 April 2024 at 9 a.m. The agenda has been published and is available on the European Parliament's website.

The next item on the agenda was one minute (Rule 172). I would like to draw your attention to the fact that you can take the floor for the one-minute speech from your seat.

The minutes of today's and yesterday's sittings will be submitted to Parliament for approval at the beginning of the next sitting. If there are no objections, I will forward the resolutions adopted at today's sitting to the persons and bodies referred to in those resolutions.

We now come to the report by Mr Flanagan on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section II – European Council and Council. Here we voted earlier on the fact that we have reached the necessary quorum for the request for postponement under Rule 200(4) of the Rules of Procedure. I shall now put this motion to the vote. The motion has been accepted, and we all know how many colleagues have supported it, namely 515.

First of all, can I ask who supports this proposal? I think that's more than the number required. I would then further suggest that the request can be decided and we will then decide on it immediately before the relevant file. The application has now been accepted. The application is formally admissible, which was precisely the sign of admissibility. Incidentally, you've come up with proof that you're still very young at least in your heart, and that's a good day to show that. Today is your birthday - congratulations!