Speeches

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Qatargate, SMSgate, Piepergate, Russiagate and probably Chinagate very soon. For many citizens, Europe is a ‘-gate’. When we talk about the European Union, even at home in the Loir-et-Cher, even in my village of Valencisse, we necessarily talk about bureaucratic opacity and cases of influence trafficking, which benefit a very small number, but which greatly tarnish the image of our institutions. Today, thanks in particular to the tireless commitment of environmental MEPs such as the late Michèle Rivasi or like you, Daniel, we have the opportunity to create a first monitoring and standard-setting tool for our institutions, an ethical body. I heard Ms Joron claim the legacy of Michèle Rivasi, but that is not the legacy of Michèle Rivasi, it is not to denounce and, when we have to vote on standards that allow us to move forward, to refuse to vote on them. The word "gate" means door. The business of closed doors and revolving doors significantly harms what is today one of the largest democratic spaces on our planet. You have to push the walls, you have to open the doors. This morning, I heard José Bové talking about his film. A matter of principle, where he fights against the tobacco lobby. He said: We have to keep pushing. This is what makes Parliament strong. This morning too, it is the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, so I will finish my last speech by singing "Grândola, Vila Morena, terra da fraternidade, o povo é quem but ordena". It is the people who are in charge. (o deputado canta) Grândola, vila morena, terra da fraternidade, o povo é quem but ordena...

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, three years in prison for homosexuality, ten years for any act of promotion. The anti-LGBTQIA+ law passed by the Ghanaian parliament is now one of the most repressive in Africa. It follows that adopted in Uganda, and other countries are unfortunately embarking on the same disastrous path, such as Tanzania or Kenya. These laws are a blank cheque given to all perpetrators of violence against the LGBTQIA+ community. Homophobic attacks have also increased in Ghana even before the adoption of this law, encouraged by hateful political or religious discourse. Under the pretext of values, be they national or religious, these laws flout a universal value: the right of everyone to non-discrimination. This decline in rights is not Africa’s only concern. Within the European Union itself, homophobia is regularly denounced in most European countries. The rights are even threatened by some governments, starting with that of Hungary. Even within our assembly, when defending LGBTQIA+ rights, far-right groups are distinguished by their silence, even their homophobic or transphobic excesses, in particular the ID group and its Vice-President Jordan Bardella, as highlighted in the Forbidden Colours report published the day before yesterday. This rollback of rights is alarming for Ghana, for Africa, for Europe and for the planet. Freedom of conscience, sexual orientation and gender identity and non-discrimination are universal rights.

Madam President, Commissioner, every night is psychosis. We don't know if we're going to wake up in the hands of the M23. The rebels are 27 kilometers from Goma, the bombs explode ten kilometers away. This is the testimony I received yesterday live from a resident of Goma, the capital of North Kivu, who fears for her safety and that of her own in eastern DRC. More than 135,000 refugees have fled the massacres and rapes perpetrated by armed groups in the villages of Kivu, and are crowding on the outskirts of the city. The M23 movement is supported by Rwanda. Rwanda is financially supported by the European Union, which disbursed €20 million through the European Peace Facility mechanism in 2022. This conflict over resources has lasted for 30 years. It has left nearly 6 million dead and at least as many displaced. Yet, in full knowledge of the catastrophic situation, you sign on behalf of the EU a Memorandum of Understanding with Rwanda on raw materials, including coltan, which Rwanda exports beyond its production capacity, coltan from Kivu. Mr Borrell said last week that the EU was not taking sides. That is not true! The Union takes the side of its interests. The EU takes the side of blindness. We call for the MoU with Rwanda to be suspended immediately. We call on the EU to take the side of peace.

Mr President, the harmonisation of certificates is, after the unitary patent, a step towards health policy coherence in Europe, and we need it. As we saw during the Covid-19 pandemic, access to vaccines – and Mrs von der Leyen, if you can send us your text messages, we are still waiting for them – a European Health Union is essential. We need a medicines alliance that allows everyone, regardless of their country, whatever their situation, to have free and free access to the medicines they need. Today, more than 15 million people face an unmet medical need due to price or lack of availability. However, rather than defending the most fragile, some groups in this assembly are instead defending the interests of the most powerful, pharmaceutical groups, by proposing to extend the term of the patent from nine to thirteen years, whereas it should rather be reduced to allow everyone easy access to medicines. Depending on whether you are friends of the powerful, or rather less friends of the wretched, your judgments will be more or less influenced by the lobbies you frequent. We need a system that is fairer, more transparent, where the priority is the health of all rather than the benefit of a few.

–. Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, tobacco consumption accounts for almost 700 000 premature deaths per year in Europe. It is the leading preventable cause of cancer. The European Union is a signatory to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Article 5(3) of which requires it to protect public health policies from interference by the tobacco industry and its commercial interests, as you recalled earlier, Commissioner. However, the EU Ombudsman described repeated shortcomings in more than eight separate Commission Directorates-General, including the lack of minutes of certain meetings with the tobacco industry, as ‘misadministration’. The Dentsu Tracking case, revealed by Michèle Rivasi, is part of the smog, the opaque smoke of the relationship between the tobacco giants and the Commission. Dentsu Tracking is the company to which the Commission has entrusted, without a call for tenders, the traceability solution for the tobacco trade in Europe. Only a few weeks after obtaining this European contract, Dentsu Tracking announced the recruitment of Mr Hoffmann, a former employee of the Directorate-General for Health, who was working on tobacco traceability. Transparency is a founding principle of our European democracy. We ask the Commission to give access to all documents concerning the links between its directorates, Dentsu Tracking and the tobacco industry. Rather than wasting time on procedures, the Commission would benefit from recognising the ineffectiveness and non-compliance of the traceability system for tobacco control, as denounced by NGOs. Finally, it must without further delay publish its proposals for the revision of the Directives on taxation and tobacco products. Corruption and conflicts of interest are a cancer for all democracies. But, like tobacco, it is preventable cancer.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for this initiative, which gives us the opportunity to talk about the difficult situation of teachers across Europe. I myself, a teacher, see in France, year after year, the difficulties and the deterioration of our working conditions. If, as the French government wishes for our students, we did level groups with the European states, France would unfortunately be in the group of students in difficulty and it would therefore have a sufficiently blocked horizon to progress. The solution, for our children as well as for our states, is not segregation, it is not competition: The solution is cooperation. The solution is, in diversity, union. The Commission is committed to making the European Education Area a reality by 2025. Chiche! We have two years left. France is one of the European countries with the lowest level of cooperation between colleagues and a very large number of classes. Despite all the rhetoric on republican equality, France remains one of the states with the largest gaps in achievement between students according to their social background. So, rather than trying to make European teachers wear the uniform of liberal-nationalism, let us provide the means for a strong common ambition on educational issues. The countries that have made the most progress in recent years are those that, like Portugal, have made the choice of massive investments in education. These efforts need to be supported by the EU. Let's empower teaching teams across Europe to meet, share and cooperate. Let’s build a Europe of emancipation for our students! Let’s build a Europe where our teachers thrive! Let’s build a Europe of education!

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the Norwegian Parliament's decision to approve the mining of these seabeds, concluded between conservatives, centrists and socialists, is a disgrace. Nests of biodiversity, the seabed are also gigantic carbon sinks. Exploiting the seabed means opening a Pandora's box of which we already know an appalling consequence: The destruction of our planet's second lung. Indeed, the ocean sequesters 38% of the greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere each year and absorbs 93% of the excess heat induced by human activities. Exploitation of these funds would result in the release of CO2 that has been sequestered for millions of years, turning the ocean into a veritable climate bomb. Like Antarctica, the bottoms of the oceans are among the last little-known spaces and thus preserved from humanity's appetites for predation. Let's protect this stranger. We are already seeing the devastating consequences of over-mining on land. Let us not repeat the same mistakes in the abyss of our oceans.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Madam Ombudsman, thank you for your impressive work. Your conclusions concerning the SMS-gate are of concern to us since you conclude that there has been maladministration on the part of the Commission. For the record, the Commission President exchanged text messages with Pfizer's CEO to negotiate the purchase of nearly 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Despite the many interpellations, including that of my colleague Michèle Rivasi, we still do not know what these exchanges contained. Yet, as you point out, EU citizens should be able to access this information. This contract costs 35 billion euros that the Europeans will have to pay until 2027 for millions of doses, much of which is now perishing in the stocks of the Member States. You are right, Madam Ombudsman, that this case is a real wake-up call for all the European institutions. Whatever their function, the elected representatives and leaders of the Union must be accountable to the citizens. Mrs von der Leyen, I hope that you will hear today the requests of Parliament, the requests of citizens and the requests of the Ombudsman. And if necessary, we can also send them to you by SMS.

Madam President, in the name of nature conservation, tens of thousands of Maasai are being evicted from their land in Tanzania today. Access to water, access to care, access to education are no longer guaranteed. The Tanzanian government is cutting off essential services one by one to force the Maasai to leave their soil, causing a real humanitarian crisis. Conservation of nature cannot be done at the expense of indigenous peoples. Protecting the environment also means protecting indigenous peoples in their environment, as they are the greatest protectors of our biodiversity. And in Ngorongoro, it is the Maasai who protect it, not the Saudi princes to whom the Tanzanian government wishes to offer large hunting reserves on its ancestral lands. The European Union and the international community must urgently respond to these unacceptable human rights violations. After multiple postponements by the Tanzanian government, we call for an independent monitoring mission to be held as soon as possible. The free, prior and informed consent of the Maasai must be applied. The EU must call on the Tanzanian government to immediately stop the evictions of the Maasai communities and ensure their safe return to their lands. On behalf of Michèle Rivasi, who carried this urgent resolution and who, in her heart, carried this fight for the rights of indigenous peoples, I thank you and hope that this urgent resolution will be voted on.

Madam President, Commissioner, ‘small modular reactors are an illusion, a dangerous distraction in the name of the climate emergency’. These are the words of Michèle Rivasi, written for this assembly just two years ago. These words have still not been heard, and the European Union, with the text before us, is heading straight for this dangerous and costly illusion. What this text induces is the diversion of investments that should be made as a priority towards sobriety and renewable energy. The EU’s target is to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030. How to defend for this a technology whose first reactors will not be in service before 2035? What this text induces is the multiplication of reactors, and therefore the downward pressure of standards and the increased risk of accidents. There may be small reactors; there are no small nuclear accidents. More reactors, for a production of a few decades, also means more radioactive waste for hundreds of years, of which we still do not know what to do. What this text brings about is also the perpetuation of neo-colonial relations in uranium-producing countries – starting with Niger. The control of uranium in that country was one of the reasons for France’s continued economic, political and military domination, with the disastrous results we are experiencing today. But nuclear is soon to be over, nuclear is already very small: 2% of final energy consumption and decreasing production, which has reached its lowest level in 30 years. Nuclear power will not save the climate. Those who say so are lying to you. Small is not always beautiful. Small reactors, like big reactors, are always dangerous. We will vote against this report and we will continue Michèle Rivasi's fair fight against large and small nuclear reactors.