Speeches

Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, Dayton was a historical achievement. That is without doubt. Anything that ends wars and brings peace is an achievement that should be praised. However, it also delivered a provisional agreement which we have been living with for the past 30 years. Unfortunately, the country is still divided. There are still tensions in society. The constituent peoples still haven't seemed to have found one language that they could speak. The system provides politicians and officials with an alibi: when they fail to deliver something or when they make mistakes, they blame Dayton or the High Representative. The system, as I said, conserved tensions in society and in the country as such. The presence of our military, and the fact that the High Representative has powers that should belong only to Bosnian politicians and officials, unfortunately gives us the right to think and speak of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a quasi-protectorate, rather than a free and united and functional country. I think that it is our duty to help Bosnia and Herzegovina to make the necessary shift from Dayton to Brussels.

Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, I am very glad that a majority of us no longer reject the mere existence of hybrid threats. I am, though, a bit saddened that it took us quite a long time to realise that these things exist, and that a number of Member States had to be subject to serious hybrid attacks from Russia and Belarus. Today it is Lithuania, a country which hosts a big Belarusian diaspora, including a great number of its exiled political leaders, and this country faces continuous hybrid pressure orchestrated by the Belarusian regime. These attacks are deliberated, coordinated and as such aimed at the whole Union. The instrumentalism of migrants, systematic disinformation campaigns, cyber attacks, sabotage, drone incidents and many more are being used as weapons to destabilise our society and test Europe's unity and resilience. These attacks are part of a broader pattern of hostile behaviour that exploits our democratic values, our legal framework and our commitment to the rule of law and human rights. Lithuania has responded quite responsibly – by strengthening border protection, countering disinformation and enhancing cyber resilience. Together with other Baltic and Nordic states, honestly, it can be an example to many of us. The EU must now find ways to proactively and boldly answer to these threats. We must understand that hybrid warfare is not an isolated problem of the so-called eastern flank; it is a problem of the whole Union, and therefore a firm and united European response is absolutely essential.

Madam President, when we speak about hybrid warfare, hybrid actions, many people say that they don't exist, that it's some kind of surreal thing. But during the past 20 years, Europe has experienced a series of covert attacks on infrastructure and strategic targets, with a marked increase after 2022. Western authorities have attributed incidents such as arson, assassinations, explosions, acts of vandalism and electronic and cyber interference to Russian military and intelligence services, describing them as part of a broader hybrid campaign against countries supporting Ukraine. Moscow has consistently denied responsibility, attributing the incidents to other actors. By 2025, NATO assessed the scale of sabotage threats in Europe as at a record high, characterising Russia's subversive activities as a significant security challenge for the continent. Lately, these attacks have escalated. We have witnessed violations of EU airspace by Russian warplanes and balloons from Belarus, airports in many EU states threatened by drones, the sabotage of the Polish railway, attack drones falling on Romanian ground, and many, many more. All that because we still support Ukraine and because we play a part in the peace negotiations. We must take action. Shoot first – ask later.

I'm convinced it is our duty to stand up against those who deprive people of their rights, and that is what Alexander Lukashenka is doing. He is stealing the lives of Belarusians from them, and we, as a Union, who believe in human rights, who share certain values, must speak up for such people who are being suppressed by an autocratic regime.

Madam President, dear colleagues, later today we will be joined by the legitimate president of Belarus, together with her husband, a political prisoner, five years of whose life were stolen because he dared to oppose an autocrat. I was thinking of speaking about the necessity to protect democracy and human rights, freedom in all its forms, about the necessity to help those who do not enjoy living in a free country where the people decide on who will govern, not the governors. But let me offer you a different view. We will not only be joined by the legitimate Belarusian president, but also by a wife and a mother, whose family was torn apart by a brutal and cynical thief of human lives. She was deprived of living her life with her beloved husband, their children were deprived of enjoying happy moments with their father. She was forced to leave her homeland, yet it did not break her. She chose to stand up strong and speak for thousands of people whose lives have been stolen. A brave woman who hasn't bowed to a tyrant, but chose to fight for her family and her country. And for that, she and her companions deserve our absolute support. To conclude, let me ask all of us a question: are we doing enough? Do we have the courage to do even more to help a nation that is being suppressed? I hope we do. We have two great examples: a husband and wife, parents, two freedom fighters, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Siarhei Tsikhanouski.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I think that without exaggeration it can be said that the fate of Ukraine's defence capabilities and reconstruction possibilities now lies in Belgian hands. We are running out of cash, and the only way to effectively continue helping Ukraine is to use frozen Russian assets – not just the interest, but the assets themselves. Speaking of military aid, 60 % of all costs are now covered by five members of the so-called 'coalition of the willing': Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Norway. With the withdrawal of US financial participation, Europe must look for new funds if we do not want the aid to collapse next year. Using this Russian money would mean securing funding for this purpose not only for 2026, but also for 2027. And honestly, I don't see a single reason why the European taxpayer should carry this load rather than the one who is responsible for the war. After years of endless reports of attacks on civilians and atrocities committed by the Russian army, we can no longer protect the assets of a criminal regime. So, dear Belgian colleagues, I urge you: do not protect Russia's attack assets. Protect Ukraine!

Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, I am very well aware of the fact that we are discussing our approach toward the whole region, but I would like to focus on, or point out, one particular country and one overlooked fact. The country is Venezuela and the fact is that there are 41 EU citizens from 12 EU Member States who have now, for more than a year, been imprisoned by Maduro's regime. One of them is a Czech citizen, Jan Darmovzal. I am in contact with his parents, who are asking me every week what the EU has done to help get their son back home. Unfortunately, all I can answer to them is that I don't know. I've read letters that they have received from the Commission and from the EEAS – letters full of comforting words and, unfortunately, empty phrases. They don't need that. They need action. I am very grateful for how the EU denounces totalitarian regimes and dictators, but that is not enough. I also want to see serious action which will result in these prisoners being brought back home, and not allowing the gangster Maduro to further blackmail us.

Mr President, dear colleagues, I would like to draw your attention to a sad fact that there are a number of EU citizens being jailed in Venezuela. Some of them have been held captive for more than a year now, and their families have turned to the EU institutions for help. But – honestly, to my shock – they have received letters full of empty phrases. These people do not need indefinite phrases. They need action. They need serious action. The action that has been seen from the side of the United States, who have managed to bring all the hostages back home. I would like to turn to all of you. Please, let's put some pressure on the Commission. Let's put some pressure on the external action of the EU to maximise our efforts to bring EU citizens back home. Because being held in inhumane prisons for a year is not something that we would like to see for ourselves.

Madam President, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, I will be a little bit critical now. During the debate about Bosnia and Herzegovina, I said that we need to do everything to make sure that we oppose Russia when it tells countries aiming for EU accession that the EU is not an option. I said that we must show that the EU is the best option. I am afraid we failed to do this in Georgia. Look at the outcomes of the elections. When Georgian Dream won, the only high‑ranking representative of the EU who visited Georgia was, unfortunately, Viktor Orbán, a Trojan horse of Russia inside the EU who opposes our efforts to enlarge the EU. There were no high‑ranking EU officials who would travel to Tbilisi to stand beside President Salomé Zourabichvili to support her and the demonstrations that were taking part in the streets. Rasa Juknevičienė, who I am very grateful for her honesty in this report, was the only one to represent the European Parliament, or with a small group of MEPs. I think we need to change this approach. If we really want to do what we mean and what we say in our resolutions, we need to take action.

Madam President, dear Commissioner, you mentioned the commemoration of Srebrenica on Friday. Honestly, I will be there too, but I would be much happier to visit the country on a more cheerful occasion than this one. Thank you all for your remarks. I think that I won't hurt anyone's feelings when I say that we share a productive approach and that is very, very good. I see also that we share the understanding for the need of judicial and legal reforms for the rule of law. Again, I praise this. Milorad Dodik was mentioned here and that the report doesn't reflect the needs of the Republika Srpska entity. My answer to this is: I do not intend to negotiate with individuals who have troubles with the law. I'm sorry about that. But it does not mean that I will not talk to anyone from Republika Srpska. I've had meetings with representatives of this entity, simply because I understand the necessity to listen to all the arguments that are on the table. I just have some red lines. Honestly, one opinion that I heard when I was there in Bosnia is that the majority of those who want to live in the EU have already left the country to live in the EU. That is quite sad. Another opinion that I heard there was that, due to the inability to make an effective move from Dayton to Brussels, as we say, due to which we still keep military contingents in the country, Bosnia and Herzegovina is simply a protectorate. Sorry to say that. I think that we finally need to get over this. If we don't get over the past, we won't be able to move towards the future. That's true. I've spent half of my life outside of the EU and half of my life inside the EU, and I can tell you that being inside is much better, and I would love to share this experience with other countries, with new countries that will join the EU as well. I think it is in our best interest, when Russia was mentioned, to share our future with newcomers. But it won't happen by itself. Russia does everything possible to demonstrate that the EU is not the only option, but we must strive to ensure that everyone understand that EU is the best option.

Madam President, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, the report on the 2023 and 2024 Commission reports on Bosnia and Herzegovina is the first report since the election of this House. Now, the main aim of the report was to show strong support for Bosnia and Herzegovina's accession path. The country is not just some country we don't know much about, but pretend to care about. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a battleground where another struggle for increased Russian influence is currently taking place, so we must be interested. This was in my mind while working on the report. Now it is symbolic that we are discussing this report during the 30th anniversary of the events in Srebrenica and the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which still today very much affects the functioning of the country. Against the backdrop of commemorative events, we now focus here on the future of the Balkans, which I believe is in Europe and not under Russian domination. The report calls for the implementation of necessary reforms, as well as the fulfilment of 14 key priorities set by the Commission on Bosnia and Herzegovina's membership application. We welcome the opening of accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and also welcome the reform agenda recently presented by the country. Bosnia and Herzegovina fully aligns with the EU's foreign and security policy, but needs better enforcement. We stress the need to integrate the Balkans into the European family in full awareness of the Russian war in Ukraine and its growing desire to weaken Europe by all means, using not only military but also other hybrid tool,s such as disinformation campaigns supporting proxies of Mr Putin in the region, Russian intelligence operations and hybrid attacks on EU Member States. In the report, we focus on the growing willingness to divide the country and openly call on the EU and Member States to take actions, including targeted sanctions against all destabilising actors, notably Milorad Dodik, as well as other high ranking Republika Srpska entities and Serbian officials providing political and material support for secessionist policies. We need to understand that there is a risk of rising anti-EU nationalism within and beyond the region. We call for the EU to stay alert and to avoid what I call a Georgia scenario for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Even though 75% of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina back EU membership, reflecting strong public support, the EU needs to be present there and show its interest in welcoming Bosnia and Herzegovina to its family. But this is not only about the EU – Bosnia and Herzegovina also needs to fulfil its obligations. We stressed the need to focus on electoral law, which is still discriminatory, constitutional reform and the lack of judiciary independence. Additionally, high-level corruption remains widespread. There is a need to end violence against women, minorities and vulnerable groups. On the EU side, we pledge to continue our support. We need to focus on helping civil society and making Bosnia and Herzegovina a place where young people want to stay and build a better future for the country. Unfortunately, a EUFOR and NATO presence is still crucial for peacekeeping and reform support. All actions that tend to weaken or question the Dayton Agreement jeopardise the existence of the country and can lead to chaos. Finally, I would like to mention once again that despite many areas requiring further improvement, the European Parliament strongly supports Bosnia and Herzegovina's path to the EU. Bosnia and Herzegovina plays a crucial role in the European Union's enlargement strategy and will become a part of the European family. Bosnia and Herzegovina is in a very difficult situation, and we must find a way to help it achieve full integration into Western structures. Developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina demonstrate every day that we must strive for peace, stability and development, because if we give up, we may – in the worst case scenario – once again face war and destruction. I would like to thank everyone who has participated in the debate over the report and in its preparation. I would also like to thank my two colleagues, Tineke Strik and António Tânger Corrêa, who joined me on a fact-finding mission in April. During the negotiations, we reached 23 compromise amendments, and I think we've managed to submit an unbiased report. I would like to ask all of you for its support.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, this week we commemorate the horrors that happened 30 years ago in Srebrenica and those who have lost their lives – only because they believed in something else than their murderers. We have spent these 30 years convincing ourselves that nothing like that should happen again, only to watch new atrocities happening around the world. The innocent lives that were lost in Srebrenica should remind us every day that hatred and lack of pardon only make ground for new conflicts, for new grief and for new sorrow. They should remind us that it is not enough to condemn these things once they happen, but that we should find all the courage that we once had to prevent them from happening. Not only the innocent victims deserve that, but also the generations that will come after us. They should see that there is no space for intolerance, hatred and savagery. They should see that we have the strength to strike upon those who are committed to destroying human lives, rather than working for a secure and safe future for everyone. Bosnia and Herzegovina has suffered a lot in the past. Now, it is up to us to help the country and its people to live in peace and prosperity. It is our duty to help them secure their European future.

I don't agree with you that Israel would be feeding Hamas and Israel is not Benjamin Netanyahu. I never said that. I think that it's up to the Israelis to choose between a prime minister who has gone a bit wild, I would say, and someone who would have the approach of his predecessors, who were much more successful in the solving or the solution of this very complex and difficult question.

Madam President, dear High Commissioner, dear colleagues, I think that we tend to have this debate or take it from the bad end. And, you know, we sometimes tend to discuss who is the one to be blamed, who is the one behind this conflict. And many people say it's Israel. Israel who is stealing land from the Palestinians, who is preventing them from enjoying their freedoms and all that. I think the one who is to blame is Hamas, not Israel. Hamas started the war. Hamas was the one. Or they were the ones who attacked on 7 October. They are the ones who are hiding behind civilians. They are the ones who are using schools and hospitals as shelters for their fighters. They are the ones who are stealing humanitarian aid from the people who need it. They are the ones who are still keeping Israeli hostages in Palestinian, in Gazan tunnels. There is nothing to discuss.

Mr President, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, I can see that the debate about freedom of speech and all the freedoms that we value and cherish can be pretty tough. I would say that the Radio Free Europe is a matter of the heart for people from Central and Eastern Europe and from the Balkans as well, because it served as a window into the free world for the people of countries that were under communist regimes and under communist and totalitarian suppression. And it serves as such a tool for us even today, not into the countries which are in Europe, but which are outside of Europe. Some of them are geographically in Europe, some of them are more distant. For me, actually, this debate is not only about Radio Free Europe and how it's going to be financed. It's about our approach and relationship with the United States as such. The world is changing. We have a president of the United States who denies what the United States have been building for the last 80 years. He's stepping out from many, many things that we have achieved together, and the US is actually becoming an unreliable and unpredictable partner, and we must be ready for that. I think that it's time for Europe now to stand up and be the one who has the duty and knows that he has the duty to defend all the freedoms that we are talking about, and for that we must be proactive, determined and courageous.

Mr President, dear colleagues from Bosnia and Herzegovina, I admit to you that I am amazed that there are still people among us who claim and are convinced that Russia is not our enemy, that it does us no harm, that we are not at war with it. Unfortunately, we are at war with him, we are at war with him in a hybrid war that is being fought, among other things, in the Balkans. And I wonder if the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina reminds us of anything. A political representative of one entity in a European country, a country that aspires to become a member of the European Union, openly asks Russia for help. He asks Russia to vote against the Dayton Agreement and what is actually keeping the peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As far as Ukraine is concerned, we all know. We experience it every day now. We are now in a situation where we have to send troops to Bosnia and Herzegovina so that what I watched as a little boy on TV news in the mid-1990s does not happen again. And if anyone doesn't realize that Russia is trying to weaken us with this, they are, I apologize, either completely out of line, or they are taking sides with Russia and its subordinate Milorad Dodik. I don't want to have to send troops to Bosnia. I want us to be able to send funds there for the construction of schools, kindergartens, hospitals, infrastructure, and that is why, among other things, my colleagues from the European Parliament and I are going to travel to Bosnia at the beginning of April to see for ourselves what the state of affairs is and to continue working on Bosnia and Herzegovina successfully becoming a member of the European Union accordingly.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, four years ago, Aliaksandr Lukashenka stole the election from the Belarusian people and proclaimed himself a president for the sixth time. Since then, the repressions against his own people have hardened. The regime brutally suppressed all protests. Freedoms which we enjoy and are used to in our society simply ceased to exist in Belarus. Many of Lukashenka's opponents had to leave the country. Those who didn't ended up behind bars, tortured and deprived of their basic rights. Some have even disappeared. Lukashenka has made Belarus a puppet state completely in the hands of Russia's barbaric regime, which abuses Belarus in many ways, including its brutal war against Ukraine and hybrid pressure on the European Union. And I am more than sure that Lukashenka will steal the election – if we may call it so – again this week. We all know that, yet we have been unable to find ways how to counter this. We've been unable to find ways how to help those Belarusians who want to live in freedom. And we need to change that. We must impose effective sanctions on the Belarusian regime and companies, and prevent their circumvention, we must find effective visa policies that would help those who are unsafe in Belarus, and much more. Please let the tabled resolution be a guidebook on what needs to be done.

Madam President, dear colleagues, I think we are very good in producing various resolutions and condemning everything that we can. But I remember or recall that there were times in the past, not too long ago, when these resolutions and proclamations of outrage and condemnation were somehow backed up by concrete, real action. And what about now? As I said, we have numerous proclamations, we have various resolutions, we condemn, we are outraged, we stand by someone, we change pictures on our social networks. Yet we let the aggressor push us back. We see Russia siding with Iran, siding with North Korea, and all we do is produce another resolution condemning whatever they do. I think that we must stop shouting, you know? We must find the lost courage and finally back up the resolutions by serious action.

Madam President, dear colleagues, I have to be honest that I hate listening to lamentations about things being too complicated or impossible. We cannot on one hand assert electromobility and on the other overlook floating ecological time bombs which Putin sails across the seas. We repeatedly put ourselves one step behind those who endanger us and our friends by being unable to adopt solutions that may seem harsh or even radical at the moment, but which are in fact very much needed. While we hesitate to effectively prevent or even stop Russia from smuggling oil and whatever else around the world, the UK has imposed sanctions on another 22 Russian shadow tankers last week. Let me quote a first‑ranked Ukrainian Navy captain, Andryi Ryzhenko, who said that it is necessary to identify the shipping companies and vessels, impose sanctions on them that will prohibit them from insuring these tankers, accepting them in ports and paying them. Wouldn't it be nice to come up with one bold solution instead of fabricating hundreds of resolutions? It would not only help us, but also Ukraine, where Putin is continuing his killing spree, financed, among others, with the money he earns on smuggled oil.

Mr President, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, I would firstly like to remind my colleague that it's actually Russia that is interfering with Georgian affairs, because Russia is occupying one fifth of Georgian territory. Anyway, two years ago, when I was in Georgia with our national parliamentary delegation, during the meetings that we had with officials, members of the opposition and the civic society, I unfortunately gained an impression that the ruling party is actually playing games with us and that the opposition is helping that by being unable to unite and to really oppose the ruling party's actions. Despite their assurances, the ruling politicians had set up on a path which leads away from Europe and towards Russia. Much has been said about the legislation, which is more or less a copy-paste version of Russian anti-freedom and anti-democracy laws. During my aforementioned visit, I always referred to the EU as a space of freedom, democracy and prosperity and I feel that it is our duty to stabilise this space and to enlarge it: the bigger we are, the stronger we are. That is the truth. Sometimes I hear that we are not at war with Russia. Unfortunately, we are fighting a hybrid war with Russia – a war for, among other things, influence. And if we lose Georgia, we lose one of the battles for our space of freedom and shared values, and we will be left with another state at our doorstep which is hostile to us and mainly to its citizens. Georgia cannot afford that and we cannot afford that.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, I am very grateful that we are speaking about this topic, because these types of declarations and resolutions are very necessary and most needed because they show that we care. The only thing I'm asking myself from time to time is if they are enough, if we are doing enough, and if everything that we do works. Because whenever I talk to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya or her colleagues, they are very grateful for everything that we do, for all the support that they are getting from us, but they always say that we should be more specific – for example, in naming those whom we want to impose our sanctions on, like the Belarusian KGB – that we should rethink our visa policies towards the families of Belarusian political prisoners, and that we should stop believing that such campaigns as, for example, sending letters to Lukashenka's opponents in prison, to some effect, work. In fact, the letters never get delivered. That's what I'm getting from my Belarusian friends. Please let us bear this in mind when we negotiate with the exiled representatives of Free Belarus.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, I'm sure you've all heard or read about Ulysses, a Greek king who took part in the siege of the city of Troy, which lasted for years and was very exhausting. Now, Ulysses is the one who found a solution to this never-ending war. His master plan was to build a big wooden horse which was hollow on the inside and presented to the Trojans as a token of Greek appreciation and surrender. The Greek armies have falsely left the shores of Troy. Yet the big horse which was left behind was too big to fit through the gates of the city, and the Trojans had to dismantle parts of the fortification in order to get the horse through and inside the city walls. After the celebrations of Troy and victory, when the Trojans fell asleep, the hollow horse opened and Greek soldiers climbed out to signal the hidden armies, which then burned Troy to the ground. Now, thousands of years later, we have one of our own who is opening our door to our enemy. Yet it's happening at the same time, when the Czech Foreign Minister, Jan Lipavský, has come up with an initiative to actually ban Russian diplomats from moving freely around the EU. And I regret to say that Viktor Orbán's government is currently letting Vladimir Putin's Trojan horse inside EU walls.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, I'm very grateful for all the help we've been delivering to Ukraine since February 2022. I've been to Ukraine three times myself since that time, to Khmelnytskyi, to Kyiv, to Kharkiv. I've seen the amount of destruction. I've seen the fates of the people. And it's horrible, in one word. However, although we are sending large amounts of help, we tend to draw red lines to ourselves, and we tend to play by Vladimir Putin's rules, and that is something we need to stop. We need to stop drawing these red lines to ourselves and stop pretending that talking about peace is something forbidden. We must lift absurd restrictions that we've imposed on ourselves and the Ukrainians as well. We must let the Ukrainians shoot with whatever they need, whenever they need and wherever they need. They need our weapons for defence, not for parades.