What François spoke about.

25 Apr

2024

FR Speech

Interinstitutional Body for Ethical Standards (debate)

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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 t…

24 Apr

2024

FR Speech

The anti-LGBTIQ bill passed by the Ghanaian parliament with implications for human rights, freedom of expression and democratic principles (debate)

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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 perp…

27 Feb

2024

FR Speech

The current situation in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (debate)

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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 t…

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, 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 o…

8 Feb

2024

FR Speech

The case of Dentsu tracking and the lack of transparency of the European Commission with regard to the tobacco industry (debate)

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–. 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 …

8 Feb

2024

FR Speech

Working conditions of teachers in the EU (debate)

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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 w…

17 Jan

2024

FR Speech

Norway's recent decision to advance seabed mining in the Arctic (debate)

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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. …

16 Jan

2024

FR Speech

Activities of the European Ombudsman – annual report 2022 (debate)

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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. D…

13 Dec

2023

FR Speech

The Maasai Communities in Tanzania

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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…

11 Dec

2023

FR Speech

Small modular reactors (debate)

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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 di…