Speeches

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, last Friday marked the 111th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. First of all, I would like to pay tribute to the memory of the 1,500,000 victims. This memory compels us. It obliges us not to look away when new crimes against humanity are committed. The events of 2023, which saw the displacement of more than 120,000 Armenians, echo these dark pages of history. I therefore call, and many of us do, for the European Council to immediately take targeted sanctions against those responsible, to demand the release of the 19 prisoners still detained in Baku and to defend the right of return of the displaced. Finally, as this Parliament resolution proposes, we must help Armenia, already weakened by the Nagorno-Karabakh war, to combat the foreign interference to which it is now subjected, threatening the integrity of the forthcoming elections. In this regard, I welcome the new civilian mission of the European Union to Armenia. It will provide much-needed support to ensure that our Armenian brothers live in security, peace and democracy.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, as we examine the rule of law in Europe with this report, how can we not be pleased with the defeat of the man who has trampled on it so much? Yes, the departure of Viktor Orbán brings a wind of hope to our continent. His successor, Péter Magyar, promised to fight corruption, restore the independence of the judiciary and universities, and restore pluralism in the media. One can only hope that word is kept. We will then be able to demand the thawing of the 18 billion European funds blocked to sanction Orbán's failures. The fall of Fidesz in Hungary, after that of PiS in Poland, shows that these sanctions are effective. They protect the European budget. They shed light on corrupt regimes and, when corrective measures are not taken, the people's sanction falls through the ballot box. Ladies and gentlemen, let us not stop there. Let's learn from this 2025 report. Let us extend the sanctions regime. This is a high priority for my group in the negotiations that are opening with the Council on the next multiannual budget. Democracy and human rights are the DNA of our Union. Let's protect them.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today will be a landmark in European integration. Our Parliament is about to bury the absurd principle of a European budget blocked at 1% of GNP. By increasing loans by 50% and new European loans, we are creating a capacity to act of 1.8% of GNP, which breaks the glass ceiling limiting any ambition. These additional resources are deployed in five areas which I defy anyone, Mr Bardella, to claim are not vital: housing, while rents now take up half of the family budget; green technologies, without which ecology will leave the most modest behind; digital, at a time when algorithms are taking control of our lives; Space, when you have to rely on Starlink for military intelligence in Ukraine; or defense, when Trump lets go of NATO. I say it: Failure to act in these areas would be a political and moral mistake. I would add that it is unthinkable to build the Europe of tomorrow by sacrificing its social soul. That is why we are cancelling the austerity that Ursula von der Leyen wanted to impose on the European Social Fund, cohesion policies and the CAP. We do not deny the constraints of national budgets. We therefore propose that the increase in appropriations should not be financed by the budgets of the Member States, but by new own resources, such as a tax on cryptocurrencies, online betting or digital. I finish, Mr President, by saying congratulations to Carla and Siegfried on this remarkable compromise, by saying that the ball is in the court of the Heads of State and Government, and by saying to them: Europe and Europeans look at you, history looks at you, live up to it.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, no longer one, but two wars are now threatening Europe. At this perilous moment, our responsibility is immense. So how can we understand the torpedo that has just been unleashed by the European People's Party against the budgetary guidelines of Parliament, yet the object of a compromise patiently built by my friend Nils Ušakovs, by tabling, at the last moment, anti-migrant amendments and an amendment against the European financing of universal access to abortion, obtained by the citizen collective "My Voice, My Choice", and this when we have just marked together, just a few hours ago, the International Day of Women's Rights? Ladies and gentlemen of the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats, you know very well that these amendments are unacceptable to us as Socialists and Democrats, that we will oppose them and that, if you vote for them, you will bring down the text. So, I tell you again, the alliance with the far right does not lead to a more right-wing Europe, as you dream, but to the collapse of Europe. We've got a few hours left. I'm calling you to reason. Withdraw these scoundrelly amendments. The situation is too bad for you to play with fire.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Vladimir Putin has never accepted the Ukrainian people's aspiration for freedom and Europe. He responded to Maidan with tanks and bombs. But, to paraphrase Victor Hugo, one does not resist the invasion of ideas by that of armies. As Ukraine prepares to enter its fifth year of ruthless Russian aggression, Maidan's spirit is more alive than ever in Koupiansk, Kherson, Kharkiv and Kiev. I felt it deep inside me, at the foot of the Memorial of the 108 Martyrs, in front of the portraits of all these soldiers, inferior in number but superior in bravery, who have died since 2022 during four years of heroic struggle. So today, these freedom fighters, theirs and ours, need us. We will be at the rendezvous, despite the pitiful attempts of Orbán and his allies here to block European solidarity. I am confident, because a force rose in our Parliament on 11 February, by massively voting on this historic loan to Ukraine, and nothing and nobody, Mr Bardella, will stand in the way. Slava Ukraini!

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in Europe tens of millions of our fellow citizens and their children cannot heat their homes properly, must give up care, skip meals and suffer social isolation. This brutal reality is unbearable in a continent as rich as ours. Nelson Mandela said: Poverty is not an inevitability. It is created by man and defeated by the action of men. That is why I welcome this report proposing a strategy to eradicate poverty in Europe by 2035. That is also why, together with my colleagues in the S&D Group, we will be fighting with the utmost energy for an autonomous European social fund, which will rise by 30% in the next multiannual financial framework. And within these funds, we guarantee specific means to the tune of 20 billion euros for a child guarantee, means for the homeless, for the most deprived and for social assistance. And because the exit from exclusion begins with having a roof for oneself, we will ask for the creation of a specific fund for housing of 100 billion euros. A clear objective, substantial means: Here's the way.

Madam President, Commissioner, the situation of fundamental rights in Slovakia is alarming: sex binarity enshrined in the Constitution, adoption reserved for heterosexual couples, restrictions on the teaching of gender identity. These attacks on citizens who simply want to live and love freely are iniquitous. But even more worryingly, they serve as a cover for the systematic weakening of the rule of law. Under the false pretext of a gender cultural war, the government passed a law on foreign agents that weakens NGOs and their role of democratic control. Let's be clear, because the opposite is sometimes said. Fico and SMER have been excluded from my group because they are attacking the rule of law: dissolution of the anti-corruption prosecutor's office, reduced sentence, shortened limitation period and, now, this bill abolishing the whistleblowers' office, in open breach of European law. This week, his own attorney general, allied with his government, called the fight against corruption, I quote, catastrophic. Then that's enough. The Commission must act to stop this.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we are about to take a historic decision. Finally, a decision commensurate with the sacrifices endured by our Ukrainian brothers. A decision that is much more than a zero-interest loan of 90 billion financed by the European budget. For the first time, we are providing Ukraine with the financial, civilian and military support it needs to defend itself, with an extensive eligibility criterion for arms purchases, which owes a great deal to our colleague Thijs Reuten. Of course, this decision is not easy, as the general European interest is shaken by the mirage of national withdrawal. It is all the less so since the use of frozen Russian assets was obvious. But in the face of the call of history, we Social Democrats will respond with this surge of solidarity that has always prevailed in great trials. Colleagues, our future as a free people is now being decided on the Ukrainian front. So let us show that Europe lives up to the ideal that gave birth to it.

Madam President, Madam Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, it is high time for Europe to raise its head. This applies to Greenland, this applies to Trump's tariff war and this also applies to Hungary. This is a state that violates all the most fundamental principles of our Europe, repressed minorities, muzzled judges, enslaved media and chased NGOs and widespread corruption. Faced with these breaches of the rule of law, the institutions of the European Union have taken this courageous decision to freeze the European funds from which Hungary benefited. Now, the Commission is eager to sign a €16 billion cheque to Hungary under the SAFE defence programme. For us, it's clear, it's no. Let's move on to the absurd side of pretending to strengthen Europe's security by funding the armament of a politically allied Hungary with Russia. On the other hand, it is well understood that Orbán is blocking support for Ukraine to obtain the release of European money and that SAFE is the way for him to obtain with one hand what he had to concede with the other. So coupons run to this unhealthy instrumentalization. And if Hungary continues its threats, let us suspend Hungary's veto over decisions vital to Europe, because the rule of law is not negotiated.

Mr President, Commissioner Serafin, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank the speakers for the richness and intensity of this debate, which is fundamental to our European Union. I would particularly like to thank my co-rapporteur, Monika Hohlmeier. That we sign this report together is a reminder to the right in this Chamber, to all those and their supporters who are attacking the most fundamental rights of Europeans. We won't let you do it! This Parliament will not let you do it, and I hope the European citizens will not let you do it, especially after hearing you here today! I would also like to thank Commissioner Serafin for announcing the withdrawal of the billion. I want to see it as a sign that, under your authority, the Commission will be able to show more severity. In this regard, I can also only relay the misunderstanding pointed out by many speakers on the granting of funds in the context of SAFE. Ladies and gentlemen, I would also like to respond here to those who justify calling into question the rule of law in the name of defending an alleged European civilisation. In fact, you are freeing yourself from one of the fundamental principles of our civilisation in order to continue the darkest hours of our history. The rule of law is as old a principle as Europe. It has been mentioned since Aristotle, at the very dawn of European philosophy. It was developed by some of our greatest thinkers. Locke and Montesquieu have made it the most essential protection against authoritarian and despotic power. Among the regimes that abolished it were Italian fascism and Nazi Germany. Shame on those, too, who, at this stage, have used the principle of democracy to defend a regime that bans journalists, calls into question the independence of universities, and discriminates against citizens on the grounds of gender identity. Democracy is not the tyranny of the majority. Winning an election never legitimises the oppression of a people! I conclude, Mr President, by saying that democracy is a regime that ensures the free and equal participation of all citizens in political decision-making. Only the rule of law guarantees such participation and ensures its sustainability. That is why the European Union must never falter in the face of such abuses. It must be inflexible, because to call into question the rule of law – that is my last word – is to attack the very foundations of democracy.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today's debate is not a debate like any other. It is perhaps the most essential that we can have: the one on the values of our Union. These values, enshrined at the summit of the Treaty of the European Union in Article 2, which essentially sum up its history and singular aspiration, are the legacy of the Enlightenment, of the fight against arbitrariness and irrationality, and are the fruit of the social struggles waged by the peoples of Europe in the name of justice and equality. Because without the rule of law, the tyranny of the majority can repress individuals and discriminate against minorities. Without the rule of law, power can act in its sole interest. Without the rule of law, democracy is just a façade, hiding a kleptocratic and authoritarian regime. This is the situation in Hungary today. Viktor Orbán governs by decree, under prolonged states of emergency; it attacks the independence of the judiciary; it represses the rights of citizens, especially LGBTQI+ people. To silence criticism, it weakens the independence of the media, hampers the work of NGOs and puts pressure on universities. The result is systemic corruption in the service of power, through absurd projects financed by huge sums of money, foundations linked to Fidesz and distorted public procurement. A small circle of allies of Viktor Orbán confiscates money from Europeans. Meanwhile, essential public services – hospitals, schools, railways – are deteriorating. That is why, ladies and gentlemen, it was legitimate for the European Commission to activate, in 2022, the mechanism for suspending European funds linked to the rule of law: €6.3 billion of cohesion funds were frozen out of 55% of the programmes concerned. This is in addition to the blocking of post-Covid recovery programme funds and other measures that have protected the EU budget from corruption and the capture of public funds. This is the unequivocal conclusion of our report. But this report also makes another observation: the Commission has been too slow, too intransparent and too timid in its action. The European Parliament had to refer the matter to the Court of Justice for the mechanism to be activated. It was then necessary to resist the blackmail of Hungary using its right of veto in the Council. This mechanism should also no longer be applied as a last resort. European public money must be protected without waiting for the rule of law to be dismantled. In this regard, alerts from Slovakia must be considered with the utmost seriousness. Safeguards such as the EPPO need to be better funded. Whistleblowers need to be better protected. To this end, we propose the creation of a secure reporting platform. Without weakening the mechanism, solutions must also be considered to ensure that the final beneficiaries are not deprived of EU funds. As for conditionality, it must extend to other EU values, such as those of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. In systemic cases such as Hungary, the report proposes that the freezing of cohesion funds should exceed 50% and, if necessary, Commissioner, reach 100%. Finally, we welcome the extension of the funds that could be frozen under the next multiannual budget, but we call for a unified framework of sanctions for breaches of the rule of law. Because, ladies and gentlemen, the rule of law protects all the values that make up the strength of our Union, and Europe must never fund those who seek to weaken it.

Mr. Member, you need to know one thing: Putin will go as far as we let him go, and what is at stake in Ukraine is not to wage a war against Russia, it is to prevent Russia from winning the war in Ukraine. We must therefore give Ukrainians the means to defend themselves and the means to defend their territory. That does not prevent – and here you are right – diplomacy from being at work, and indeed it is. We can congratulate the Europeans and the European Union on their efforts to try to find a peace agreement with Ukraine, while respecting its territorial integrity. But, without European defence, Putin will cross Ukraine’s borders and go further, as we should not doubt.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, drones violating our airspace, sabotage and cyberattacks targeting our critical infrastructure, disinformation boosted by artificial intelligence to destabilise our democracies: Let us have no illusions. It is not only Ukraine that is under attack: Russia is already delivering its hybrid war to us Europeans. In this context, European defence is no longer a simple option, but an imperative necessity. Therefore, after the European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP), the flexibilities introduced by this Regulation to increase investment in defence are welcome, as is Ukraine’s access to the European Defence Fund. But we owe the truth to Europeans: the financial resources thus made available are a thousand leagues from the minimum necessary to deal with the threats. Given the scale of the problem, there is no alternative to a new large-scale European loan, a NextGenerationEU 2.0 for European defence. There is no other way. So, may the Council give its green light – I finish, Madam President – as early as Thursday to the EUR 160 billion of the European loan pledged on Russian assets to finance the war effort in Ukraine! Because Ukraine – let us never forget – is now the first line of European defence.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, this budget, with its own constraints, is a good budget. Member States wanted to cut €1.3 billion from the 2026 budget. On the contrary, we obtained reinforcements of 270 million in total on research, energy and transport, education and youth, culture and values, social and health, ecological transition and humanitarian aid. I would like to thank my colleague Matjaž Nemec, but also Andrzej Halicki. Dear Andrzej, thank you for defending the priorities of the S&D Group – mine –, the Greens, Renew, as strongly as those of your own group. In doing so, you have honoured your role as rapporteur. You have also allowed the compromise to be made within pro-European groups – a relief in the aftermath of this rogue alliance between the right and the far right to remove multinationals' duty of care towards their subcontractors. Together, Greens, Renew, S&D and EPP, we have achieved the best Parliament can do on this budget: find a path between pro-European groups where everyone remains faithful to their principles, but where together we defend the general European interest. It is a method that honours you, dear rapporteurs, that honours us. I hope that our success will invite others not to fall back into the errors on the CSRD or on the CS3D. I conclude by saying that the alliance of the right and the extreme right is not inevitable, as we have just demonstrated. So, ladies and gentlemen of the EPP Group, stay on the right side of the force.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the negotiations between Americans and Russians in recent days show how weak and lonely Europe is. Only in full support of Ukraine. Alone, perhaps tomorrow, in the face of renewed Russian aggression. Only above all in a position to decide his destiny. We can no longer accept that our arsenals are emptying, nor that Ukraine is eternally waiting for weapons that are forbidden to be manufactured. It is time to build a powerful defence industry, autonomous and fully integrated with Ukraine, capable of producing quickly, en masse and over time. In this context, this programme for a European defence industry is welcome and I am pleased to have been rapporteur on the financial aspect. But let us not hide the fact that the EUR 1.5 billion that feeds into the programme is not a sufficient response. The starting point that we parliamentarians, Commissioner, had proposed was ten times higher. So, this text must be seen as it is; a foundation is laid, but a wall remains to be erected. It is up to the Member States to do their part, and for that we have opened all avenues. Let's be clear: If we want to build a Europe of defence without social cuts, there is no other way than to raise a new large-scale common loan. We'll get there sooner or later, and it's better sooner than ever.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I want here in this Parliament today to honour the memory of the 132 victims of the deadly attacks of 13 November 2015 in Paris. As the commemorative candles return to the streets of the French capital, ten years after the tragedy, tens of thousands of candles adorn Maidan Square in Kiev in tribute to the victims of Putin’s war against Ukraine. The horror of the war... I was in Ukraine with three other Members of my group on the night of last week's unprecedented bombing. Five hundred missiles and drones fired by Russian aviation in the middle of the night, the endless minutes of watching for the sound of sirens and dreading the sound of the explosion... And all this is nothing compared to the horror of the front, the fighting that cost so many Ukrainian lives in Pokrovsk, about to fall, as elsewhere. So let us live up to their sacrifice! Let us mobilise Russian assets, without which Kiev risks bankruptcy, and open accession negotiations without delay. And if Hungary continues to block these vital decisions, then let us suspend its right to vote in the Council, as allowed by Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen: counterfeits, human exploitation, ecological disaster, tax evasion, category A weapons and now child pornography: The list of horrors and endless. Shein is the monster born from the intersection of globalised capitalism and unbridled e-commerce. This case of child sexual abuse dolls is not a mere accident, it is the mark of a system. A system that tramples on our values, workers and our planet. Europe has the tools to address this: the Digital Services Act, the Directive on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children, and due diligence. These tools only need to be applied. We have passed laws, we now demand that the Commission enforce them immediately, strongly and completely. If the platform is to be banned, Commissioner, ban it. Close the store at the BHV in Paris. The impunity of these platforms must end. If Shein does not respect the rules of the European market, then Shein has nothing to do on the European market. Stop at Shein. It is time for Europe to show that it is not a lawless and faithless market.

Madam President, Commissioner, finally! Finally, Parliament is beginning to be listened to. This is the meaning we give to the unprecedented summit meeting on Monday. Listened to, but not really heard, because your meager Sunday concessions don't solve the root of the problem. The European social contract is "competitiveness that stimulates, cooperation that strengthens and solidarity that unites", as Jacques Delors summed it up so well. That is why we do not accept that competitiveness is built on the reduction of resources from the European Social Fund, the Regional Development Fund and the CAP. That is why we will also refuse to allow these policies to be suspended in the name of the ‘no reforms, no money’ mechanism that you have planned. This would transform the Commission into a machine of interference with sovereign national interests. This would fuel the anger of Europeans against Europe. The debate is not between those who look at the past or the future, it is about building our future together without sawing the branch on which Europe was built.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would first like to congratulate the rapporteurs for this draft budget 2026, Andrzej Halicki for the EPP, Matjaž Nemec for the S&D Group, and all the shadow rapporteurs who have been there and who have worked on this text. What a contrast with the long procession of retreats on the Green Deal that still enamel the week! Whether it is the fight against deforestation, corporate social and environmental responsibility or due diligence, Europe is dissolved in compromise and strengthened in compromise. It is thanks to this dialogue between the Greens, Renew, S&D and the EPP, no offense to the extreme right, that we were able to reach a draft budget for 2026 win-win. It is a good balance that must be preserved. But let us be clear-headed, we are doing what we can, but we are not doing what we should be doing, because we are hitting the glass ceiling of 1% of GNP which imposes itself on us as a ceiling on annual expenditure. Because of this ceiling, just last week, we had to resolve, in trilogue, to endow the European Defence Industries Fund with a paltry amount of EUR 1.5 billion. That's not how we're going to convince Putin to give up his murderous business. The coming years will be one of immense investment need for the energy transition, for economic sovereignty and for European defence. That is why we cannot start again, Commissioner, with a new MFF that would be subject to the same straitjacket as the previous one. Breaking the glass ceiling, we knew how to do it: it was NextGeneration EU, this great common loan to cross without collapse the COVID pandemic. We have to do it again. It is no longer time to deal with the shortage with this proposal for a Commission MFF, which we reject, with a budget once again limited to 1% of GNP or just over. No, now is the time to give us the means - and I conclude, Mr President - with new own resources and common borrowing to make us the architects of a fairer, safer and more sustainable world.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, both the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty last Friday follow one another, and yet this reality remains. Our rich continent still allows 80 million of its citizens to live in poverty. So, at the beginning of the debate on the budgets for 2034, could we not at least agree to guarantee the 20 million poor children of our continent the conditions for a decent life? How can it be that in this 21st century, in Europe, children are still returning from school with empty stomachs? That they find themselves deprived of school activities for lack of means? Let them huddle in icy kitchens lacking notebooks, pens, books and textbooks? €20 billion out of the €2 trillion of the next MFF: This is what it would take for our continent to guarantee all children effective access to early childhood, healthy school meals, school activities, free care and decent housing. The greatness of a society is measured by the way it takes care of the most fragile. So, ladies and gentlemen, it is time, it is high time for the European institutions to make the 2019 promise of a child guarantee, a children's guarantee, a continental reality.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, how can we not be revolted that one in two Europeans is a victim of sexual harassment and one in three is a victim of physical and sexual violence? How many Gisèle Pelicot will it take to turn your back on this infamy? How can we tolerate the addition of lower pay to more difficult access to the highest paid positions for European women? How can we accept that in national parliaments in Europe there are twice as many men as women, and even six times as many in Hungary? That one half of humanity is still not born equal in law with the other half is humanity's greatest injustice. In a few weeks we will start our work on the Multiannual Financial Framework. Together with my group, we will fight to impose strict equality between women and men on the beneficiaries of European programmes, starting with the Member States. No equality, no money: This will be the brass law of the new generation of European funds. Our Europe is honoured to have as its core values the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which guarantees equality between women and men. It is high time to make this right a fundamental reality for European women.