What Emmanuel spoke about.

25 Apr

2024

FR Speech

Pre-enlargement reforms and policy reviews (debate)

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Madam President, in order to manage a future enlargement to eight new countries, i.e. 60 million inhabitants, which colleagues seem to consider as already agreed, their conclusion is obviously that the Treaties must be reformed. The treaties on free and undistorted competition or on the dogma of free trade are not reformed. No, what is proposed by colleagues, but also by eminent leaders – I was re…

24 Apr

2024

FR Speech

Azerbaijan, notably the repression of civil society and the cases of Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu and Ilhamiz Guliyev

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Mr President, my turn is to greet the daughter of Goubad Ibadoghlou, this renowned economist, this peace activist who has just spent a year in the jails of the Azeri regime on the basis of accusations that have been fabricated. The inhuman and degrading treatment he suffered in prison has so deteriorated his health that the government finally agreed on Monday to commute his sentence to home detent…

22 Apr

2024

FR Speech

Common rules promoting the repair of goods (debate)

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Madam President, today’s capitalism, that of hyper-consumption, is a huge accumulation of goods that generates phenomenal amounts of waste. This waste, as has been said, is neither sustainable nor tolerable, both from an ecological point of view and from a moral point of view. On a continental and global scale, the numbers are dizzying. Billions of mobile phones, washing machines, dishwashers, ref…

14 Mar

2024

FR Speech

Healthy lifestyle and active ageing in the EU (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, after reinstating budgetary austerity in February, the Commission invites us to debate 'aging well' in March. I do not know whether it is blindness or hypocrisy, but I find it rather astonishing that it cannot be imagined that there is no connection between the two. I will still recall some facts: the gap in life expectancy between the poorest and the wealthiest in E…

12 Mar

2024

FR Speech

The adoption of the Special Measure in favour of Tunisia for 2023 (debate)

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Madam President, the Commission cannot arrogate to itself all the powers. The sending of EUR 150 million in donations to Tunis, as part of a memorandum of understanding signed between the European Union and the Tunisian authorities, would have merited a serious debate in this Chamber. This debate did not take place, because there was this incomprehensible choice of urgency procedure. This is a lac…

29 Feb

2024

FR Speech

EU/Chile Advanced Framework Agreement - EU/Chile Advanced Framework Agreement (Resolution) - Interim Agreement on Trade between the European Union and the Republic of Chile (joint debate - EU-Chile agreements)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the agreement with Chile is really a digest of European hypocrisy. It is a dual-speech model, and when I hear you, I think that you have really become the world champions in this area! That is to say, we were told that the old-fashioned treaties were a thing of the past and that we had to share the benefits with the countries of the South, particularly on the ex…

28 Feb

2024

FR Speech

Deepening EU integration in view of future enlargement (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I think we are moving a little quickly. I do not, of course, dispute the usefulness of an in-depth debate on the institutional consequences of a hypothetical enlargement, but I ask the question: What will public opinion think of this eagerness to adapt Europe to the accession of eight new countries with a population of 60 million? This haste gives the impression…

28 Feb

2024

FR Speech

Regaining our competitive edge - a prosperous EU in a fragmented global economy (topical debate)

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Mr President, I think there is a tendency here in Europe to talk too much about economic issues from the point of view of competitiveness alone. We should also be concerned about weak growth, particularly in the euro area. Excluding the post-Covid period, it has exceeded 2% only twice in 15 years. This performance is among the poorest in the world, and especially when you look at the United States…

27 Feb

2024

FR Speech

Geographical Indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products (debate)

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Mr President, the anger of European farmers is not diminishing. This is obviously legitimate anger, but what is at stake in this movement goes beyond the mere economic aspect, because it is also, in a way, about our way of life. And this is where I connect with our topic. Without food sovereignty, there is no gastronomic and culinary heritage. We have to keep the two together. And that is why we n…

27 Feb

2024

FR Speech

Unitary supplementary protection certificate for plant protection products - Unitary supplementary certificate for medicinal products - Supplementary protection certificate for plant protection products (recast) - Supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products (recast) - Standard essential patents (joint debate - Patents)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, this debate on standard essential patents is still one of the many indicators of European stalling. I would remind you that in 2000, Europe paraded in Lisbon to announce in the next ten years ‘the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world’. Almost 25 years after this thunderous promise, the observation is cruel: Our ambitions have broken …

7 Feb

2024

FR Speech

Need to fight the increase of antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred (debate)

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Madam President, many of us in this Chamber have awakened to politics by fighting racism and anti-Semitism. It is a struggle that is consubstantial to my commitment, to my deep convictions, and that is why the return of the anti-Semitic monstrosity in Europe amazes and upsets us. Theses, statements and slogans that were believed to have definitively disappeared from the rubbish bins of history are…

5 Feb

2024

FR Speech

State of EU solar industry in light of unfair competition (debate)

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Mr President, I find that some colleagues here have a goldfish memory. I am not even talking about the Commission, which is shedding crocodile tears about a situation for which it is largely responsible, because this is the second time in ten years that Europe has experienced a surge of Chinese solar panels. Already in 2013 our photovoltaic industry had been massacred, it had collapsed. Why? Becau…

12 Dec

2023

FR Speech

EU-US relations (debate)

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Mr President, if there is one area in which the strategic autonomy of the European Union remains to be demonstrated, it is that of the transatlantic relationship, because Europeans and Americans are far from always having the same interests, and the fall of Trump has not resolved any of our differences. Take the US Inflation Reduction Act or the Chips Act: you have Americans who give hundreds of b…

22 Nov

2023

FR Speech

Latest attacks against women and women's rights defenders in Iran, and Iran's arbitrary detention of EU nationals

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Madam President, let us tirelessly repeat their name: Mahsa Amini, 22, and Armita Geravand, 16. The Iranian government’s morality police killed them because they no longer wanted to wear the veil. As for Narges Mohammadi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and Nasrin Sotoudeh, Sakharov Prize laureate, they still languish in prison in unworthy living conditions. After the failure of the Vienna agreement o…

22 Nov

2023

FR Speech

30 years of Copenhagen criteria - giving further impetus to EU enlargement policy (debate)

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Mr President, I understand the people who want to join the European Union, starting with the Ukrainian people who are being attacked and with whom we stand in solidarity. I understand the sincere colleagues in this Chamber who consider that it is our moral duty to welcome them and that it is also necessary from a geopolitical point of view. But contrary to the obvious, I ask the question: Are we r…

21 Nov

2023

FR Answer

EU/New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (debate)

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But, Ms Melchior, you know that for a very long time Europe had sheep farming, that is to say, lambs of very high quality. But it is precisely because of unfair competition that we now have an entire sector of European agriculture that is not doing well. But still, find out how sheep meat is brought from New Zealand to Europe to be sold completely hypocritically as fresh meat in European supermark…

21 Nov

2023

FR Speech

EU/New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (debate)

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Madam President, this free trade agreement with New Zealand is a bit like the epitome of hypocrisy and dual European language. That is to say, we have been talking about the Green Deal for years, we absolutely want to reconcile the climate and economic development, and we are gargling at the fact that we have finally signed an agreement with a country almost 20 000 kilometres away. So intensify tr…

18 Oct

2023

FR Speech

A true geopolitical Europe now (topical debate)

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Madam President, geopolitical Europe starts with the coherence of the message and the cohesion of the leaders. Excuse me for telling you, but it's a mess! On the one hand, you have a Commissioner who unilaterally announces that he is suspending aid to the Palestinians, on the other, a Commissioner who denies him during the day, and we wait two days to get the Commission's position, which ultimatel…

4 Oct

2023

FR Speech

Need to complete new trade agreements for sustainable growth, competitiveness and the EU’s strategic autonomy (debate)

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Madam President, let me say this straight away: I do not share the unbridled enthusiasm of the majority of colleagues here for globalised trade. And I think that there is nothing lasting about wanting to multiply free trade agreements, nor is it in the interest of our supposed strategic autonomy to open Europe to goods from all over the world, often manufactured in deplorable conditions. I would p…

3 Oct

2023

FR Speech

Taking stock of Moldova's path to the EU (debate)

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Mr President, the situation in Moldova, which is still the poorest country in Europe, neighbouring Ukraine, remains extremely precarious. It has not yet managed to overcome the crisis that struck it in 2020 and which, of course, has increased in intensity because of Vladimir Putin's war. We have an inflation rate that is very worrying, but it is also the case of the public debt, the public deficit…

3 Oct

2023

FR Speech

Situation in Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan’s attack and the continuing threats against Armenia (debate)

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Madam President, for the past year and a half we have been relentlessly and unambiguously supporting the Ukrainian people who have been attacked by Mr Putin's regime. We do not let the Ukrainians down. So, I am addressing the Commission, why are you letting the Armenian people down? The truth is that you are doing worse than dropping them since you signed a gas agreement with Azerbaijan in July 20…

13 Jul

2023

FR Speech

Global Convergence on Generative AI (debate)

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Mr President, when faced with a technology as revolutionary as generative artificial intelligence, there are two pitfalls to avoid. First, catastrophism inspired by science fiction films, let's say anxiety-provoking, but also technophilic naivety, which consists in worshipping everything new as a matter of principle. We are trying here in this Parliament to have a rather average position, a ration…

12 Jul

2023

FR Speech

Tax the rich (topical debate)

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Madam President, it is always moving to hear our colleagues on the right, whether they are conservatives, liberals, macronists in France, defend with great consistency the privileges of those who get rich by sleeping, as President François Mitterrand said. Because that is exactly what it is all about. We went back almost a century, when the privileged enjoyed considerable tax advantages. The truth…

9 May

2023

FR Speech

2022 Report on Serbia (debate)

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Madam President, I too, on behalf of the Left Group, wanted to express our compassion and solidarity with the Serbian people, who have just been affected by two horrific shootings on 3 and 5 May, which killed 17 people, including eight children. And we are on the side of the tens of thousands of Serbs who have stood up against this murderous madness, against the laissez-faire in the possession of …

15 Mar

2023

FR Speech

Tunisia: Recent attacks against freedom of expression and association and trade unions, in particular the case of journalist Noureddine Boutar

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Mr President, for us Europeans and for me French, Tunisia is more than an economic or political partner, it is a friend. And friendship means support, respect. It also implies sincerity. And in friendship and sincerity, it must be recognized that the situation is seriously deteriorating in Tunisia. It is deteriorating economically and socially and this is what concerns Tunisians the most. It is al…