Speeches

Mr President, Commissioner, of course I support these agreements. This is one of the last ways to add something to the European Union's package of agreements with the rest of the world. But let me take this opportunity to take stock of the general state of the European Union's trade policy, because the truth is that our outcome for the period 2019 to 2024 is somewhat lean compared to previous legislatures. Why is that? COVID-19 has put a brake on us, that's true, but there are other factors as well. In international trade in particular, protectionism is growing and, unfortunately, it is growing in our Euro-Atlantic circle. Consider, for example, the United States of America, which is starting to behave more and more protectionistically. The reform of the World Trade Organization, which is currently under discussion, is failing. And unfortunately, once again, there will be no results in reforming the WTO's Appellate Bodies. Finally, and this must be acknowledged, the European Union is increasingly inserting non-trade elements, non-trade aspects, into trade agreements as conditions, which our partners either do not want or cannot meet. I think we need to think seriously about how we are going to design our trade policy in the future, because if we continue the trend, we are going to get ourselves out of the global market, where we are going to lose the comparative advantages that we have in the global market, and where one of the engines of economic growth, and that is trade – and I, as a representative of a small export-dependent country, know something about it – is going to cease to be one of the engines of our economic growth. We shouldn't be in this situation.

Madam President, Commissioner, the time is up because that deal has been already concluded in June 2022. And of course, it deepens our relations with the Indo-Pacific, it strengthens ties with a like-minded ally, bilateral trade is expected to increase by up to 30% and the estimated EU investment increase could be over 80%, and so on and so on. So all this is good news, but unfortunately also rare news because we didn’t finish too many trade deals during this legislature. In less than six months this European Parliament comes to an end. Therefore, this is one of the last chances for us to show up. The EU is lagging behind in international trade. We must improve our performance in the future. But, for now, please let’s vote for this deal.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, let’s be very frank to ourselves: EU-China relations are not good. They could be better and they should be better. Let me make three points on that. First, I think that we need to find a new equilibrium with China because, like it or not, China is here as a global player and it will remain so. We have to adjust ourselves to that new multipolar situation. Secondly, I believe that we need cohabitation rather than confrontation. Therefore, I was glad to hear, particularly from the Commission President, that we are starting to talk about ‘de—risking’ instead of ‘decoupling’, because that, in my feeling, is a rational policy. Thirdly, last but not least, I believe that we need to de-escalate tensions over Taiwan, not to escalate further. I think there are ways to do that. Perhaps we could also listen a little bit more to what the KMT opposition has to say about cross—strait relations, and not just the ruling DPP. I can hear Mr Macron’s call for strategic autonomy – and yes, if there is a case, there is no better case than China for EU strategic autonomy. But it deserves to be realistic, to be pragmatic and to be reasonable on our side.

Madam President, let me use this point to briefly evaluate the Czech Presidency of the Council, because this was the last Council under the Czech Presidency. Let me say that the Czech Presidency, and I hope we all agree on this, was a successful Presidency. That the Czech Republic proved to be a patient negotiator of compromises, a seeker of consensus, a facilitator, not a country that would promote its own interests at all costs. And, of course, that's how it should be. The Czech Presidency addressed specific issues. It avoided the traps of various ideological solutions, such as Treaty change or the functioning of the institutions that emerged from the Conference on the Future of Europe. Finally, let me also remind you that this was the first time that a prime minister from my political group, the European Conservatives and Reformists group, was at the head of the government of the country holding the presidency. I hope that, given the good results of this Presidency, various embarrassing remarks about anti-Europeans or the far right will no longer be made here in the European Parliament, especially on the left-hand side of the spectrum.

Madam President, I, too, found myself on the latest sanctions list of Iran as the only citizen of the Czech Republic with some of my colleagues. This is, of course, more of a curiosity, because nothing is happening to us, but to tens of thousands of people in Iran it is happening. We have more than 600 protesters who have already been killed by security forces, 30,000 detainees. And it's not just about that, it's also about the risk that Iran poses to global security. Thus, we should harden the situation in the surrounding countries, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, both because of human rights and because Iran is destabilising the situation. We should not only continue with sanctions, we should make it clear that we will not even negotiate a so-called nuclear agreement with Iran. And we should really start to behave in a very principled way.

Madam President, Commissioner, Tunisia is the country which started the Arab Spring, a very promising movement at the beginning, which later on, in most cases, ended up in vain. I still believe, however, that Tunisia is one exception, a country which started to build genuine parliamentary democracy with a full-blooded spectrum of well-defined political parties. Of course, it is a country which faces extremely difficult economic circumstances and it is surrounded by complicated neighbours like, for instance, unstable Libya and also hit by an unstable security situation and also a country literally next door to us and therefore important. In two months, Tunisia is facing parliamentary elections, hopefully stabilising the situation, and we in the EU should therefore just now carefully calibrate what we say and what we do. I believe that we should avoid any interference, reminding about some bad old habits of patronising the others, because that definitely would not be helpful for mutual trust. I visited Tunisia several times. I was networking their political parties. I have full trust in their human potential and ability. So please, let’s not spoil the game. Let’s be sensitive and patient and let’s continue to build an equal and fair partnership with Tunisia.

Madam President, Mr Vice-President, Minister, this is like a small Czechoslovakia. But I think the Czech Presidency is doing well that we are doing good advertising here. Of course, the agenda is dominated by Ukraine and the energy crisis. I have two points about the upcoming Council: on the one hand, Iran – I think we need to talk about Iran, either as a formal item on the agenda or informally. Not only because this country is rocked by the biggest public protests in recent years about women's equality and human equality, but also because Iran has begun to supply arms to Russia against Ukraine. And that's something we can't keep quiet about, which we have to respond to. If we were able to be firm and principled in the case of Russia, we must be equally firm and principled in the case of Iran. The second thing I would like to plead for – let us please put aside matters relating to the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe. I don't think it's time to go through the rules and change them. We've got a lot of other jobs, we've got a lot of other problems. Let's put it somewhere in the future.

Madam President, Commissioner, it’s my great pleasure indeed to introduce this report to the Czech MEP only few days after the Czech Republic took over the Presidency in the EU Council and also as a Vice-Chairman of the International Trade Committee, only a few days after you successfully concluded trade negotiations with New Zealand, and indeed we have had a number of national strategies vis-à-vis Indo-Pacific, also communications from European institutions. We already have recognised that the Indo-Pacific region has become a geopolitical and geo-economic reality, and together Europe and the Indo-Pacific represent over 70% of global trade in goods and services and over 60% of foreign direct investments. We have four bilateral trade agreements in place. We have five strategic partnerships and two connectivity partnerships. We have also several countries in the Indo-Pacific with tariff preferences under the GSP and GSP+ schemes. We have also witnessed a growing geopolitical competition between US-China, changing a geopolitical shift and global order. And we have also seen new legal frameworks in the region like comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership (CPTPP) while by the way, US withdrew while China, Taiwan and the UK formally submitted a request to accede and also regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP) which entered into force in January 2022 and created the world’s largest trading bloc. So the time is up to define and summarise our relations to that region, particularly in the situation where geopolitical reality has dramatically changed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We are therefore calling on the Commission to strengthen partnership with all relevant actors in the Indo-Pacific, taking into consideration subregional dynamics and specificities. We should use better and more strategically our economic leverage while respecting the political and economic specificities of our partners and their interests. We also coordinate our Indo-Pacific strategy with recently adopted EU global gateway strategy, and we should better use already existing treaties like that one between EU and South Korea, Singapore, Japan and Vietnam. And we also should raise awareness among businesses, stakeholders, civil society, social partners and citizens of these existing FTAs in the region and the opportunities they provide. We are calling for substantive progress in negotiations on the EU-Australia after New Zealand has been already concluded. India, I will leave to my dear colleague Mr Bourgeois. And when it comes to China, we know that China is a cooperation partner, but also a competitor and also a systemic rival, and it’s necessary to continue engaging with China to promote solutions to common challenges. When it comes to Taiwan, we should cooperate in green technology and digital economy while respecting One China policy. We are on a good track with Indonesia, not on a very good track with the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand and almost everything is frozen with Myanmar and Cambodia. So we have to continue and to make some progress. And last but not least, we also further engage with ASEAN. We should use the momentum of the planned EU-ASEAN Summit in 2022, and we also should have a new strategic approach towards CPTPP and also thoroughly monitor the direct economic effects of the RCEP. I very much believe that this report will set a positive and encouraging atmosphere for the Commission, for the Council and for strategy of individual Member States.

Madam President, I would like to return once again to the Conference on the Future of Europe, the results of which were presented with great pomp by European Union leaders on Europe Day on 9 May. On the contrary, I would like to say that the Conference has completely failed in its intentions and missions. Like the Convention, the Conference became a pre-prepared Eurofederalist exercise, where carefully selected representatives created the perfect Potemkin Village with the sole aim of further transferring competences to the European level and centralising them in Brussels. Our ECR Parliamentary Group left the Conference before its conclusion and we will be fundamental opponents of the Conference's conclusions, be it on the creation of pan-European lists, the extension of majority voting in the Council or legislative initiatives for the European Parliament.

Madam President, rapporteur, we may not have realised, even in some European countries, how important the Arctic has become in recent years, both from an environmental, geopolitical and energy point of view. I am glad that the report prepared by my colleague Anna Fotyg describes this with great precision, with a great sense of detail, and I would therefore like to support this report. Various important details are mentioned, such as how the melting of permafrost in the Arctic is a risk factor from both an environmental and a health point of view. It also mentions the growing interest of Russia and China in the region and, finally, the importance of energy, i.e. deposits of oil, natural gas and minerals. It is therefore important that the legal framework and international obligations towards the region are maintained and that the European Union is also more involved in the region.