Speeches

Mr President, our French cheeses are loved all over the world. But who can imagine a Camembert or a Mont d’Or without its wooden strapping? Packing them in plastic would be a taste and environmental aberration. The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation should allow for a better functioning of the internal market and a better transition to sustainable packaging. However, it is imperative to exclude wooden packaging from its scope in order to protect a unique know-how that guarantees the quality of the products concerned. I am talking about cheese today, but other products from other countries face the same pitfalls. Europe must know how to protect the environment, but never to the detriment of the specificities of its Member States, and therefore to the detriment of their prosperity. Colleagues, let us not legislate indiscriminately.

Mr President, in 2008, when Nicolas Sarkozy wanted the Union for the Mediterranean, he said that it is in the perspective of this Mediterranean Union that we must conceive of the immigration chosen, that is to say decide together, organise together, master together. His vision was so right, but unfortunately the goal is not achieved. Yes, at strictly controlled borders, yes to improving living conditions in the source countries of immigration, but without a sincere and demanding dialogue between the two shores of the Mediterranean on the subject of migration, solutions will not be sustainable. The Union for the Mediterranean is the space where this dialogue is possible, the Union for the Mediterranean is the space where we can build. It is built on an identity around a political dimension. So let's do politics. Let's talk about politics, and immigration should never be a taboo.