What Lena spoke about.

22

Jan

2025

EN Speech

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EU financing through the LIFE programme of entities lobbying EU institutions and the need for transparency (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, what just happened here? We have seen NGOs being attacked, such ones that work for women's health and abortion rights as an example, just a few minutes ago. We are seeing multinational corporations with very strong interests spending hundreds of millions of euros lobbying, and the voices of civil society and NGOs are being questioned in this debate. And this is ha…

18

Dec

2024

EN Speech

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Continued repression of civil society and independent media in Azerbaijan and the cases of Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu, Anar Mammadli, Kamran Mammadli, Rufat Safarov and Meydan TV

Mr President, yesterday we celebrated the European prize for human rights. And today, dear colleagues, we must continue to fight for them. The brave voices in Azerbaijan are being silenced – 13 people have been arrested just since the climate conference. Activists, journalists and anyone who dares to speak out; they get intimidated, imprisoned or have to move into exile. We as the EU need to take …

18

Dec

2024

DE Speech

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Restoring the EU’s competitive edge – the need for an impact assessment on the Green Deal policies (topical debate)

Mr President! Dear colleagues! It took almost four minutes in this debate – I stopped it – for someone to deny the climate crisis. We are not having this debate today because you are actually talking about people, dear ECR. They are not talking about what this means for people today, nor how we can make the Green Deal better. It's all about mood-mongering and battle slogans. And you know what? It'…

26

Nov

2024

EN Speech

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Outcome of COP 29 and challenges for international climate policy (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, I would love to start with talking about climate finance, but I need to start with a message I received a lot in the last few days from Azerbaijan: 'Shame on you and glory to Azerbaijan! COP29 turned out to be a fantastic success story, and you have failed'. This is one of dozens of messages I have received from Azerbaijani numbers since COP. Fossil fuel regimes try …

25

Nov

2024

DE Speech

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The outcome of the G20 Leaders' Summit (debate)

Madam President, First of all: You, Mr Sell, are a good example of why we keep failing. They are right-wing populists, nationalists and those who cause lasting damage to international agreements, solidarity and community. We must already state: 2024 – and we are in the midst of crises of injustice between the few who benefit and the many who have to pay for it. And the climate crisis, which you ar…

13

Nov

2024

EN Speech

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UN Climate Change Conference 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan (COP29) (debate)

Mr President, another year, another climate conference, and still the same discussions. The floods, the droughts and wildfires have become our new reality. Right now, people are losing their lives, their homes and everything they've worked for. So, what do we tell those most affected after yet another climate conference? 'Sorry, we tried, see you next year'? While people are suffering worldwide, t…

24

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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Abuse of new technologies to manipulate and radicalise young people through hate speech and antidemocratic discourse (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! Actually, I wanted to start differently, but we just saw a teaching example from colleague Mazurek, who explained how to make a speech that you then put on social media, where you can spread right-wing extremist ideas, manipulate and radicalize our society. Yes, it is autocrats and right-wing extremists around the world who use social media to influence elect…

22

Oct

2024

EN Speech

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Situation in Azerbaijan, violation of human rights and international law and relations with Armenia (debate)

Mr President, 'My father is suffering. He's in pain. His heart aneurism is getting worse. If his arteries rupture, he will die and I will lose my father forever. He's being held hostage by the Azerbaijani Government for investigating the corrupt oil and gas sector before the COP. I'm begging the world to save my father.' This message comes from Zhala, a daughter who's fighting for her father, Dr G…

9

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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Ensuring sustainable, decent and affordable housing in Europe - encouraging investment, private property and public housing programmes (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner! Sometimes, when we're having these debates, we might wonder if it's pointless. But it is not pointless to talk about the question of housing and the question of the future. For many people in Europe, this is not the case. This next winter is just around the corner, and many people are already afraid of how to afford the heating costs. Many people in Europe will freeze a…

18

Sep

2024

EN Speech

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The deteriorating situation of women in Afghanistan due to the recent adoption of the law on the “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice”

Mr President, colleagues, yesterday we welcomed very brave Afghan women to the European Parliament – women who stand up for their rights and for all women and girls in Afghanistan every day, risking their lives and facing terrible repercussions. The situation for women and girls in Afghanistan has dramatically worsened over the past months and years once more: not allowed to speak or show their fa…

18

Sep

2024

DE Speech

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The devastating floods in Central and Eastern Europe, the loss of lives and the EU’s preparedness to act on such disasters exacerbated by climate change (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The pictures from Austria and many other EU countries that have accompanied us in recent days are overwhelming. They are communities that are underwater, they are existences that are destroyed, and they are people who have lost their lives or homes. My deepest sympathy is now with those affected and my deepest thanks to the emergency services. W…