Speeches

Mr President, it really does not stop me from wondering what stupid things we are talking about here with taxpayers' money. Important trade routes are closing. Oil and gas prices are going up, we are in danger of a shortage of fertilizers, and here it is being resolved that Russia should not accidentally be allowed into sports matches or Eurovision, so that there is no threat of normalization of relations with Russia. I don't even want to comment on the fact that none of you who have been yelling for Russia are yelling for the exclusion of the US or Israel from these events. But what do you want? You do not want to normalize relations with Russia so that we continue to be dependent on Washington's resources and mercy. Is the 10th in a row not enough for you? Are you still going to tell the Americans to kick your ass after 11:00? Instead of the danger of Russian athletes and singers and the servility towards Washington, we should say that the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is a threat to us and the solution lies in the suspension of the association agreement with Israel. An arms embargo on the country and an end to U.S. arms purchases for Ukraine, at least until they abandon their murderous adventures in the Middle East.

Mr President, under normal circumstances, citizens elect the government of their states, which then proposes the President of the Commission. Unfortunately, the Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen clearly does not comply with this normal situation and, on the contrary, is now trying to impose certain political candidates on the citizens of the Member States. Instead of respecting the will expressed in democratic elections, the Commission shows outright hostility towards governments, but also towards some MEPs who dare to defend their national interests. You know, if only words remained, I probably wouldn't have to perform here today, even if that's rude to the citizens. But when some media outlets and non-profits are receiving streams of money to create and promote narratives that suit the Commission, that's a damned bad thing. And then, of course, the threats that if citizens make the wrong choice, the Commission can block them with money from EU funds, as it blocked them in Hungary. I therefore ask that the Commission stop putting the Union on its head and kindly stop interfering in the elections in the Member States, because only the will of the people can give rise to power in a democracy.

Mr President, I am very sorry, thank you for the opportunity to speak additionally. Let me thank all my colleagues in the Committee on Public Health for the discussion, which I found quite interesting in that many of us see the mistakes in exactly the same way. However, we also need to thank the agencies for their work. In any case, what we have left and what we should find an answer to – and the Commission does not seem to be trying in any way to find an answer to that – is certainly the unresolved lease of the old EMA building in London, which simply puts an unnecessary burden on EMA’s work and takes money from the budget that we could use in a completely different way. It is clear that this is a long-term issue, and I think that we could also contribute to resolving it through our pressure on the Commission within the European Parliament. We never expected EMA’s mandate to have such a large lease. At the same time, of course, there is the unresolved issue of COVID-19. I think we have a lot to do until next time, but anyway, thank you very much for the discussion and thank you to the agencies for the way they are trying.

Madam President, Commissioner, the extended producer responsibility scheme shifts the costs of wastewater treatment to the producers of medicines, on the basis that patients exclude medicines. This is a tax on disease, because since we live under fair capitalism, the costs will be passed on to patients. If neither producers nor patients pay for it, municipalities, as owners and founders of wastewater treatment plants, will have to pay for it. Yet the scientific basis of the whole measure is very dubious. The Commission's claim of a 66% share of pharmaceuticals in the toxic load of wastewater is not supported by laboratory data. The European Medicines Agency shall not accept such computer modelling for the evaluation of ecotoxicity. The result? Threat of tsunami of drug outages. Outages of medicines on which lives depend. I therefore ask the Commission: "Stop, put it off. Subsequently, please conduct a proper transparent impact study and ensure that health policy, industrial policy sit at the same table as environmental policy”. Neither patients nor municipalities can pay for systemic failures.

Mr President, the enlargement of the European Union has been a very popular topic in recent years, but honestly, does anyone really want a major enlargement? However, let us look at the relations between the countries of the Union and the candidate countries. With Serbia, as we heard here a moment ago, here some have the problem of not joining all the anti-Russian sanctions. North Macedonia is a problem for some because of its reluctance to dishonor its language. Georgia is being pushed away by the Commission itself because of their ‘brazenness’ to be transparent, and the President of Ukraine is threatening the prime minister of a Member State of the European Union with the military, and the entry of Ukraine would be devastating not only for our farmers. Turkey occupies part of the territory of a member state. We all know that the EU has enough problems of its own, and we have to deal with them first before we think about enlargement. On the other hand, for the Commission and some colleagues, enlargement is a useful battering ram, attacking the right of veto and asking for it to be abolished. Rather, I am asking for respect for the sovereignty of the Member States and for the resolution of our internal crises. There aren't really very few of them.

Mr President, Commissioner, the wording on affordable and clean energy for all Europeans sounds strong, but in itself it simply does not guarantee anything at all. How many times have we heard such slogans? Packages, strategies, action plans. And what's going on? Where is the reduction in energy prices for industry and people living in the European Union? Nowhere. Where did you go with the fact that this energy crisis is hitting the low-income strata the most? Because otherwise, energy prices fall on people who are low-income, and otherwise on people who don't really care how much they pay for it. The specific details of the funding are not known. You didn't tell us or imply that today. And this will be very important for whether the poorest in Europe will again pay for it instead of those who are neither tax-free nor additionally tax-free here and just take advantage of what energy prices we have here. And the competitiveness? Commissioner, without cancelling Green Deal or at least reduce it very much and try to cut red tape, so no competitiveness of European industry can ever begin.

Do you agree that every country is different? We simply will not make a living in the Czech Republic, even if we have thousands of windmills and thousands of photovoltaic panels. We are an industrial country, we need a stable supply of electricity for our industry, otherwise we will have to close the last steelworks. We have already closed many engineering plants because the energy prices are disproportionate. I would just like to ask: do you, as Germans, also acknowledge, after you send us surpluses and cause blackouts, that just every country is different, and will you let those countries do that, too, so that they have enough energy for their people and for their industry?

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I was really looking forward to the debate today because I thought I would learn something. Once again, I have only heard conjectures and I am ashamed of all the colleagues who used the words ‘violation of the rights of national minorities, confiscation of land on the basis of ethnicity, confiscation of property’ here today. Or did you just succumb to propaganda? Or do you just need one fabricated purpose-built lie that you repeat here? This is not the case in Slovakia. I may surprise you, but there is a Constitutional Court in Slovakia. The president returns the laws to their legislature. The police even work there because they're investigating exactly the cases you're talking about. Like, what do you want more of? You just chose Slovakia because Robert Fico allows himself to travel the world, act without having to give him recommendations, and say his opinions because it's good for Slovakia and not for you. And that's why we're dealing with Slovakia again. You are hypocrites. Nothing more, nothing less.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am really glad that the issue of migration, the improvement of return policy and cooperation with third countries in this area are being addressed here in plenary. I understand that the migration pact also focuses on some of these areas, but I must stress that the migration quotas are clearly aggravating the situation and I consider it necessary for the European Parliament to call for the pact to be abolished and to retain only those parts that really strengthen our control over our borders. At the same time, the European Union needs to focus on finding partners where illegal migrants can be deported if the security situation in the country of origin does not allow them to be returned there. Just as Italy did with Albania and the UK did with Rwanda, so the EU as a whole should find partners for deportation needs. At the same time, let me deny that more opportunities for legal migration would be a solution to the situation. It is impossible to address the reluctance to pay decent wages to domestic workers by importing cheap labour. This is not really a solution to migration. We need strong borders and decent wages at home, not allowing borders to be circumvented to keep undignified wages at home.

Madam President, I am very sorry that I was late, and let me explain, ladies and gentlemen, why I could not vote today in favour of the binding 2040 climate target and why I think the whole vote is wrong. We are talking about competitiveness, we are talking about competitiveness, which we all know Europe is losing every year. It loses not only because it makes commitments that go against physics itself, but also because of huge bureaucracy. And instead of looking at it rationally, giving ourselves the opportunity, for example, in two or three years' time, to re-evaluate whether what we are here, or you have voted here, is really effective, you want to commit yourself here to goals that will only be another problem for Europe's industry, for agriculture and for making people's lives more expensive. I really thought we had learned our lesson, but what was voted on today means that we have not learned our lesson and that, unfortunately, Europe will only get worse.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, for 50 years the territory of a Member State of the European Union, Cyprus, has been occupied by a NATO member, Turkey. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes due to the Turkish occupation and entire cities had to be abandoned. And despite the European Union's condemnation, the situation in Cyprus is not improving and the end of the occupation and reunification of the country is still not approaching. Instead, the Cypriots have to listen to the talk that Turkey is a member of NATO, and that's why we have to sell it weapons, that we have to coordinate our defense with NATO and therefore with the occupying Turkey. Instead of European politicians dedicating themselves to ending the occupation of their own territory, there is more space for Ukraine. I hereby ask the Commission and the leadership of the Member States to put the issue of ending the occupation of Cyprus at the forefront of diplomatic communication with Turkey, so that people displaced from their homes can return, without the supervision of foreign soldiers, in a free united Cyprus. We don't have answers for the Cypriots. How can we forget them? So let's get up and start dealing with it. This is a state of the European Union and they have the right not to be occupied.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like us to fundamentally reconsider our approach and for the European Parliament delegation to go to Brazil, saying that it will prevent further deepening of poverty and the decline of Europe at the expense of other continents. What is the result of 30 years of international climate action, 10 years of a global treaty and trillions of euros of damage? Greenhouse gas emissions just reached new record highs in 2024. I'm asking here: What else can we do? I say: Nothing, we've done too much. Now it's the rest of the world's turn. We no longer need to adopt other nonsensical binding targets for reducing CO2 emissions.2 for 2040, as some here are trying to tell us. Brazil's idea of creating a new UN body to speed up the implementation of the COP decision is a complete mockery. It will only cost more money to create another unnecessary body, through which, in the end, only the money of our citizens, which is needed at home, will flow. Let's stop this while there's still time.

Mr President, I must say that, unlike my colleagues, I am very happy that the planned summit between the Presidents of the United States and Russia is to take place in Budapest, on the territory of a Member State of the European Union. Throughout the brutal war in Ukraine, this is the first really big signal coming from a Member State of the European Union that we also want to stop the bloodshed and the ceasefire. Until now, the EU has acted as if war suited it. I understand why it suits the armourers. People who die have money. But I would expect politicians, whether national or European, to stand on the side of their citizens, rather than trying to maximise the profits of the armourers, despite the risk of escalation of the conflict. I thank Hungary for at least seeking peace in this conflict, and I strongly condemn the attempts of some other politicians to sabotage the summit and the ceasefire negotiations in Ukraine. Enough people have fallen for the interests of armaments companies, now it is often to end it. I hope that both the US and Russian presidents will act with a sincere interest in ending the conflict without ulterior interests, and I hope that, despite the massive arms lobby, the summit will be a success.

Madam President, the last steps of the two Commissions led by Ursula von der Leyen have led to an increase in the prices of energy, fuel, heating, food, in short, everything one can remember. The quality of life of ordinary citizens is stagnating and in some cases even deteriorating. President von der Leyen and her Commission have put the European Union and its citizens right in front of the gap and now intend to take a big step forward. ETS 2 is designed to make everything more expensive for citizens. And why? So that the already full wallets of speculators become a little more full. I think the recent elections in my country clearly show that citizens do not want ETS 2. The overwhelming majority of votes went to those who explicitly reject ETS 2, and I hope that the new government will not bow its back to the Commission. Other countries, such as Slovakia and Poland, also refuse allowances. Please listen to them too. Let us not introduce ETS 2, but let us radically reconsider the old ETS 1. These measures are not about protecting nature, but about redistributing property from ordinary people to speculators. That's what we call it – enough!

Colleague, I have two questions. One is whether you will support our FARA law if you know that someone else is funding it. Will you support him here in the European Parliament, so that it is finally clear who is funding whom? And secondly, when you say who's funded by whom: How many criminal complaints have you filed and how many times have you reported that someone is actually being funded? Because otherwise, you were just talking to your media again, instead of telling the facts. And I do not think a Member of the European Parliament is really worthy of that.

Madam President, if we are to talk about the protection of democratic electoral processes within the European Union, let us finally talk about the transposition of the directive on transparency of interest representation from abroad, that is to say, on the registration of foreign agents. Transparency is the best weapon against foreign interference, not censorship and misinformation, which the European Democracy Shield and the newly planned European Centre for Democracy Resilience, announced today by Ursula von der Leyen, will serve and serve. Democracy is not the abolition of elections if a candidate of the opposition wins one round and his victory is tempted by interference from abroad, as was the case in Romania. Let's finally show who's behind whose money, and let's leave the decision to the citizens. Our democratic electoral processes have long been threatened by money from oligarchs, corporations, NGOs and interest groups in Europe and beyond, not by TikTok videos. I ask that we really protect democracy, not suffocate it.