Speeches

Madam President, we have this debate on tomorrow's European Council and Mrs von der Leyen has already left. Where were you these two years? Tomorrow, the European Council can sanction Israel for the genocide in Gaza and suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement. If you don't, we will maintain impunity. Do you prefer to maintain impunity? The ceasefire is welcome, but not enough; In fact, Israel continued to murder more than a hundred people after the truce. Trump's plan maintains the occupation, does not contemplate the end of the apartheid Nor does it guarantee respect for the Palestinian people. There is no peace without justice and no peace without dignity. Trump's plan violates international law and contradicts the advisory position of the International Criminal Court, which orders Israel to end the occupation in the West Bank. This plan maintains structures of oppression, and therefore – let us not forget – impunity for genocide cannot be allowed.

Mr President, the Committee on Petitions is responsible for ensuring that citizens' concerns reach the European Parliament here, considering that it is a fundamental element of participatory democracy as the Commissioner said. It is the Commission where citizens can be heard by all of us so that we can decide how best to solve their problems. However, this is not always the case. 2024 has been a black year for the Committee on Petitions. A year in which it has been used by putting the agreements between right-wing and far-right groups before a good democratic functioning of this committee that would guarantee the plurality of all political groups and, above all, what is most important and should prevail, which is the right of citizens to petition. Unrealistic issues have been brought in, such as the absolutely manipulated issues in Catalonia, and the manipulated issues have not been brought in because citizens have had their right to petition boycotted. That is why I defend the right to appear of groups that always submit a petition that is accepted because it refers directly to European regulations, which must always be above the decisions of the political groups when those petitions have been initially accepted. This is what has happened in the last year with two requests from my country, from Galiza, such as Altri or CRTVG. That is why, Mr Beleris, I am writing to you: if you want to have the positive support of the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance in this report, I would ask you to support our amendment 13, which calls for every democratic group to have at least one petition proposed per session in the Committee on Petitions. If it happens, we'll vote in favour. This is the only way to be constructive and to ensure the proper democratic functioning of a committee that has had a horrible year. Hopefully 2025 will be less horrible and we can have democratic dialogue.

Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion of order on the T-shirt. I don't care what I wear, but others are not allowed to wear T-shirts, even if they wear Galiza or Palestine or whatever, nor are we allowed to wear the kufiya. And so I want to call it into question because, if no one is left to us, neither can the rapporteur who has just spoken be left.

Madam President, Latin America and the Caribbean are natural partners of Europe, but we must ensure relations between equals, with respect, relations not between subjects, but relations – I stress – between equals. Latin America is not a colony, but a series of sovereign countries that must have diplomatic, cultural and economic relations also among equals, not with criteria of extractivism or threats to sovereignty. The truth is that, seeing this empty Parliament, with deputies sponsoring coups d'état, someone would already like to be like President Lula, like President Claudia Sheinbaum or like President Gustavo Petro, who is crying out against the genocide in Gaza. As President Lula recently said, advocating multilateralism and calling for eradicating world hunger and generating well-being and equality, it is necessary to redefine Latin America's place in the new global order. Sovereignty and democracy are non-negotiable, as are the right of self-determination of the peoples of Latin America and the indigenous peoples. From our Group, we will always support Latin American civil society in the denunciations against repression, against inequalities, against discrimination and against the violation of human rights.

Madam President, does the European Union hear the outcry and dignity of the streets from Santiago de Compostela to Amsterdam calling for an end to the genocide of Israel in Gaza? No. What did the European Union do to defend the courage of the people who were in the humanitarian flotilla risking their lives to denounce the genocide? Nothing. The issue that is moving the world is genocide in Gaza, because what happens in Palestine will condition international relations and the future of human rights. The passivity of President von der Leyen, her hypocrisy and inaction in these two years demonstrate the complicity with the genocide committed by Netanyahu. What we are saying on the streets across Europe is that we are ashamed of the position of the European Union. Sixty thousand people killed, babies without food, hospitals destroyed, buildings bombed. Really, don't they have humanity or sensitivity? We can't wait any longer: rupture of diplomatic and trade relations, arms embargo, suspension of the Association Agreement, sanctions on the State of Israel and not on Trump's plan. We cannot continue to allow this violation of human rights, occupation and apartheid. Faced with the hatred, lies and mockery of the right and the far right: our solidarity. Stop...

Honourable Member, do you think that the Sumud flotilla in Gaza was defended by the European Union, diplomatically and also humanitarianally?

Madam President, as a Galician MEP, I am here to defend Galician interests. For months we have encountered a serious lack of transparency and multiple difficulties in accessing procedures on various Galician topics. In Galicia, my country, we are particularly concerned about the refusal we received to access the documents on the procedure opened four years ago for the illegal extension of the Atlantic motorway, the AP-9. In 2001, the People's Party government committed a robbery for thousands of Galicians and Galicians, keeping the tolls until 2048. It ignored that justice will already dictate the incompatibility of this extension with EU public procurement rules. I submitted several parliamentary questions and requested access to the documents for non-compliance with European regulations in the extension of the AP-9 concession. That is why I conveyed this lack of transparency to the European Ombudsman, Teresa Anjinho, at the meeting we had in July. Today, in Galicia, we are paying tolls collected illegally and we believe that Galician society deserves to know the transparency of this procedure.

Mr. Millán Mon, you live in Madrid, don't you? Do you live in Madrid? I don't know, it looks like he lives in Madrid. It should be noted that you are not aware of the day-to-day policies of the Junta de Galicia. It is very, very noticeable, because it is totally alien to the reality of the country. Have you read the report of the European Court of Auditors which states that precisely the preventive policy of the Galician Government chaired by Mr Rueda has been reduced? Tell me if you've read it, because I think you're indicating totally incorrect data.

Mr President, as a Galician MEP, I have promoted this debate because I have a responsibility to denounce the loneliness that Galicia, my country, has suffered in these terrible fires of devastating fire. Burnt houses, dead animals, trees and agrarian lands, lost crops converted to ashes, destroyed lives, apocalyptic images and devastated landscapes. The Galician people were left alone. Only thanks to the inexhaustible work of firefighters, neighborhood and solidarity people extinguished the fires. That is my recognition within the European Parliament. Look at the impactful data: 145,000 hectares were burned, according to Copernicus, Commissioner, such as the city of London. Ourense has 10% of the burnt area. Commissioner, the Galician people knew the real magnitude of the fires by Copernicus, because the Galician government hid data in public media. My country has been burned by incompetence in preventing fires, by misusing European funds which, instead of being earmarked for preventive policy, are not spent. All of Europe should know that there is one responsible: Alfonso Rueda Valenzuela, President of the Galician Government. A People's Party government that once again shows its incompetence. They hid reality and lied, they lacked transparency. The PP government minimized the tragedy of my burning country by saying that only stones and bushes burned. With the fires, the rural way of life, people's livelihoods, agricultural holdings and biodiversity were lost. We need urgent measures, such as using RESTORE, which could finance the affected infrastructure. How do we want in the Bloc to move from ashes to life with a future plan for the rural?

Madam President, Mrs Kallas, you recently made statements in which you said that you were frustrated by the genocide in Gaza. You don't use the word "genocide," but it's used by a lot of people, fed up with watching children get killed. From here I want to convey all the solidarity with the people who demonstrate throughout Europe, including in my country, in Galiza, where recently, for demonstrating, they have been attacked by the police. And I want to say it, moreover, loud and public. It's the world upside down, denouncing a genocide and it turns out they beat you! What world do we live in, Mrs. Kallas? I'm frustrated, too. I think Europe is making a very big mistake, but I will not stop fighting until this genocide is over. The Vuelta is passing today through the concello of Mos, a concello of Galiza, of my land, which for every kilometer represents 6 000 dead children. Every kilometre of the 18,000 children killed, of the 6,000 kilometres of the Vuelta. Such acts cannot be covered. Why? Because the Israel team is participating. And from here, all that solidarity, with all the Palestinian solidarity...

Madam President, Commissioner, if there is anything we can say about the CAP of recent years, it is that it has continued to benefit large landowners and has left out small farmers. It is enough to see the data of my country, Galicia. Since 2009, 12 000 farms have closed. And it's not strange: increased bureaucracy, lack of flexibility and lack of policies for generational renewal. What future can this sector have when governments, like Galician, want to set up cellulose factories, like Altri, factories of the last century that can wipe out the most productive agrarian lands in my country? What future can it have when this Commission wants to sign, at any price, an agreement with the Mercosur countries, which will be an even more unfavourable situation for our farmers? What future can it have when it seems that there is a possibility that the agricultural fund will be reduced to finance armaments? Less weapons and more food, Commissioner.

Your Honor, I'd like to ask you if you've ever seen a cow in your life. I ask because sometimes it seems to me that you talk by talking. I am granddaughter of farmers, granddaughter of farmers; Thanks to my grandmother's cow I was able to have some studies. Sometimes you speak from a deep ignorance. I just ask him: Have you ever seen a cow?

Madam President, there are countries that prohibit harmful industries, such as Portugal, which imposes a moratorium on the planting of eucalyptus. There are countries that allow us to destroy nature, soil, agriculture, with interested moratoria on eucalyptus, as is the government of the People's Party in my country, Galicia. They want to end the wastelands. (the speaker spoke in an unofficial EU language), instead of fighting the cause of the fires, to leave the soil and land at the service of the cellulose industry, such as the companies Ence and Altri, which want to buy in Galicia what they do not let them do in Portugal. Eucalyptus facilitates the increase of fires, favors the speculative increase, promoted by incompetent governments that favor companies of macrocellulose. The Altri project would require planting between 90 000 and 160 000 hectares, in addition to the 409 000 existing to meet the needs of this industry. Europe demands to plant more trees to increase the forest mass and the Galician government, on the contrary, attacks biodiversity, does not favour the planting of native species and makes Galicia the largest eucalyptus plant in Europe to give more weight to the cellulose industry. See Oliver Laxe's film, What Burns.

Madam President, it smells of blood, it really smells of death, but, above all, it smells of hypocrisy. Building a city in the ruins of Rafah to enclose 600,000 Gazans is Netanyahu's latest invention, yet another element that shapes the definition of genocide. What more evidence of genocide do we want, what more evidence does the European Union want, why isn't Mrs Kallas here today, why can't this UN humanitarian aid system, which Netanyahu and Trump want to trade for a business, be changed? Commissioner, the business of Trump and Netanyahu with humanitarian aid and relocation is precisely to destroy the United Nations system and the UNRWA system. This is not said by the BNG MEP, it is said by Mrs Albanese, who is the special rapporteur on Palestine. Thirty-three months of genocide, hunger and devastation... We only need one thing: comply with international law, comply with what the International Criminal Court says, sanctions and the end of that Agreement. And I tell the new Council, sitting here today, to take action on 15 July: the Council of the European Union and the Commission cannot continue to be complicit.

Mr President, Commissioner, manipulating, imposing, silencing and violating rights happens not only in Hungary, but also in my country: Galicia. I'm talking about TVG, public television and radio. It's manipulated. And who manipulates it? The government of the People's Party, which violates the European Media Law. The government of the Galician People's Party interferes in the public media, which it uses for its own political purposes. It is the ‘tele-PP’. He has television and radio at the service of his government. Today, it imposed the appointment, on its own, of the new Director-General, contrary to what the Media Freedom Act. The lack of editorial independence of the Galician public media, the absence of independent control bodies of the internal and external public power, the lack of plurality, the appointment of control and management bodies provoked more than 400 denunciations, strikes or strikes. Defend the Galician, with ‘Black Veins’, which is 376 weeks old. For a public and plural television, also in Galicia.

Madam President, democracy is the power of the people, of the peoples, of peoples like mine, Galicia. Nine years ago, I filed a complaint with the Commission to request the opening of infringement proceedings against the Spanish State for failing to comply with rail safety requirements, to bring justice to the victims of one of Europe's biggest railway accidents, the Angrois accident in Santiago de Compostela. Twelve years after the grave accident, for these victims, my remembrance and respect. We also did this with the A-P9 motorway. We also did so with the Ence cellulose plant in Pontevedra in relation to the Ley de Costas procedure. And it has always been the same response from the Commission: denied access to documents. What is this lack of transparency, this lack of access to official documents, as is happening now with the Doade lithium mine, one of the 47 strategic projects on critical raw materials? My party, the Bloque, is on the side of the people, of the Galician people, also demanding (...)

Madam President, we have no more words. 20 months without action in Gaza. 20 months of complicity. The European Union has been silent in the face of genocide and is complicit. Because to be complicit is to do nothing in the face of the annihilation of the Palestinian people. Can Mrs. von der Leyen pick up a phone to talk to Netanyahu and can't take sanctions? Why this double standard? It's called racism. The truth is that the European Union cares little about lives in Gaza. He does not care that there is no food for the children, many of them orphans, because their parents were killed by Israel's bombs. I think he doesn't care what the clamor of the European streets thinks, from Galicia to Brussels. Or don't you listen to them? On Monday 23 the Council has the opportunity to amend this shameful position of the European Union. Demand ceasefire and humanitarian aid access, adopt sanctions, ban arms exports, ban imports of goods and services, close embassies, cut off scientific, cultural and sports cooperation, reject assistance that perpetuates occupation and apartheid. Stop being complicit in Israel's genocide in Gaza.

Mr. President, Mrs. Kallas, look us in the eye. Look into the eyes of the people moving in the European streets, who have denounced this genocide. I look it in the eye, because I trust that the European Union will, in the end, change its position, because otherwise it will be an embarrassment. If they don't, they will go down in history, they will go down in history through hypocrisy, they will go down in history through lies, they will go down in history through silence and they will go down in history through complicity. On June 23 there is an opportunity. It is the opportunity to take an honorable step, a decent step, a step for peace. We have a chance, because you've been late. They prefer to pick up the phone of a war criminal than to be with the streets that demand peace, with the streets that demand sanctions, that demand a ceasefire, that demand an end to suffering. Look them in the eyes of the children of Gaza, Mrs. Kallas.

Do you know that the European Union is one of the signatories to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and should therefore comply with it? You know that because you've been an ambassador. I am surprised by the absence of the Spanish People's Party here today: It's just you. Look the other way: We're from a lot of parties. I'm surprised by the absence of the right. I am surprised that you, who are always saying that you comply with the laws, do not appeal to the Genocide Convention. What is your opinion on that subject?

Madam President, how many times have the Committee on Petitions in this Parliament received complaints from passengers about delays, baggage charges and delayed compensation? As my colleague Vicent Marzà says, now that we have the opportunity to speed up improvements in rights, the Council is putting the brakes on the European Parliament. Four hours, wait four hours for compensation for delay and to collect it... for many months to pass. And what about carry-on luggage? Ten years ago, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that charging for a carry-on suitcase is illegal. These issues touch thousands of people in Europe, passenger rights and passengers every day. And it is that the airlines act with impunity. Not only do they deceive people, but they take flights away from us and, as happens for example in Galicia, people will pay, buy tickets and then have to pay more when they arrive at the airport. It cannot be that European decisions are dominated by lobbyists, big airlines and their boards of directors, and that the voice of so many passengers is not taken into account. Land and listen to people.

Mr President, Galician is a historical language with deep roots, the language of my country, Galicia. Galician is the intangible heritage of the Galician people. Its maximum expression. Europe must recognise the linguistic rights of our people, and I defend this as a Galician MEP. We therefore need Galician to be an official language in Europe for the representativeness, visibility and respect of our people. Because Galician has a right, legal status and recognized. Languages represent peoples. It is not democratic to create first and second languages. For the Galician Government, our language is a third language. What an inferiority complex! It devalues our language and even makes lobby, here in Europe, to prevent the official status from being recognised at European level. What a pity there were rulers who discredited the possibilities of the language of their country, the usefulness and prestige that this would give Galician, the possibilities of work, the open world through our linguistic brotherhood. I love Alfonso Castelão, and, as he said, "if we are still Galicians it is by the work and grace of the language".

Mr President, Commissioner, cohesion policy is fundamental to ensuring living rural areas with basic services. Therefore, we do not agree that the European government incorrectly redirects funds for military purposes. In Galicia, my country, a decision is still awaited on what to finance with 60% of the funds. 62% of Galician municipalities are designated as less-favoured areas. The rural exodus is progressing unstoppably in Galicia. In just one year, 32 villages were deserted. We have a shortage of basic services in rural areas and a lot of emigration. People stay if there is work and services. Commissioner, we need specific support for municipalities affected by depopulation, towns and functional areas. Functional areas and an employment policy with services that attract people and do not expel them are needed. We need initiatives for young farmers so that they can also have less Altri and more projects, with the right to stay.

Mr President, Commissioner, with this report, the right-wing and far-right groups in this Parliament have succeeded in silencing and undermining the important work carried out by the Committee on Petitions in 2023 on environmental and climate issues and on people's rights. The Committee on Petitions is for me, as a Member of the European Parliament, one of the most important in this European Parliament. But they have not only done so, they have also used this committee to deal with matters that are the sole responsibility of the Member States – in particular the Spanish State – with unfounded accusations, generating an atmosphere of little consensus and leading to the majority of our group’s amendments always being rejected on ideological grounds – as they always do and continue to do. One of the most objectionable aspects is the attitude of the Spanish People's Party since parliamentary majorities changed. Before, it was able to agree with the progressive groups in this Parliament, and now it prefers to align itself with the far right in order to block any interesting and constructive initiative proposed by the other parliamentary groups, thereby ignoring European citizenship. Like last year’s petitions against the macro-cellulose company Altri – a project that brought more than 100 000 people to the streets – they do not care. So take this into account, Mr Rapporteur, because we have to change things in the Committee on Petitions and we have to do work that belongs to all groups, together, and not sectarian and manipulated work, as the Spanish People's Party has done, also manipulating this Committee on Petitions.

Madam President, they can't do it anymore, that's why we can't give up. 15 000 children killed so far in Gaza, 60 000 people killed by Israel, and there has been no condemnation by this Parliament, not even a minute of silence. Pepe Mujica said that if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. We will never be there, we will be on the side of the 14,000 children who will die if humanitarian aid no longer enters; They'll starve to death. We will stand alongside the Palestinian people and international law and peace. Where is the President of the Commission today? Are you on the side of silence and the fascist government of Israel? I am ashamed, because the European Union, with its inaction, has been complicit in this genocide, and it is late; Genocide in all its lyrics. We must stop Israel, we must stop trade, arms and diplomatic relations as well. No time: They already have blood on their hands.

Mr Oliveira, you, who are from Portugal, and I, who am from Galicia, know very well what it means for producers, especially for small farms and also for sailors, also for people who cannot access to eat four or five times a day – not three. What is this? Distribution industries that are leonine, that are making prices so that food products are more expensive, and public intervention is necessary and would be the only way in the European Union (and I say to the Commissioner for Fisheries because fish also has a big problem) that we can have guarantees of fair prices for people.