Speeches

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.

Madam President, Minister, Commissioner, Belgium, Poland, Denmark, Romania: drone incursions into EU airspace are increasing. They show those who doubted that the Russian threat does not stop in Ukraine. Europe, the whole of Europe is under threat. Europe must respond, and yesterday's failure of the third trilogue on the European Defence Industries Programme is pathetic. The truth is that the Commission is not responsible. Those responsible are the Member States, which refuse to put the financial means on the table. We're under attack. And what is the proposed answer? €1.5 billion. Suffice to say nothing or almost nothing. Our enemies rub their hands when they see that defence Europe is just a paper tiger. It is high time to change gears. Together with my fellow rapporteurs, we have opened up all avenues, such as tapping into the 150 billion SAFE instrument or the means of the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Grab them. Organize a financial round without delay and come back before us with a collective ambition worthy of the name.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, you know how much the S&D Group is committed to the European Social Fund. This is the social soul of Europe and we will fight to ensure that it does not disappear in the next multiannual budget. We support the possibility of redeployment to respond to new challenges. But allowing Hungary to take advantage of this to recover the funds blocked for non-compliance with the rule of law is incomprehensible and, I tell you, even shocking. Hungary is the central government's suppression of the press, trade unions and NGOs, under the pretext of protecting itself against foreign interference. It is the questioning of the independence of the judiciary, to leave the field free to corruption. It's the ban on protesting, as we've seen with Gay Pride. In trilogue, you made a commitment to ensure the maintenance of the rule of law in the evaluation of any request to amend the programmes. That is not enough. You must make a commitment here that not one euro of frozen funds will be redirected to Hungary as long as the violation of our most fundamental principles persists. Europe's hand must not shake when it comes to upholding the rule of law by one of its members.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, it is always useful to discuss, but now is the time for decisions. The Commission’s silence lasted too long. What does Trump want? He says it himself: first, money. With the 10% already in place, U.S. tariff revenue has risen from $5 billion a month to $25 billion a month. And this money, he is not ready to give it up. Trump's second goal is clear: to force our companies selling in the US to move to the US. And this is the biggest risk for Europe: not only to lose export jobs, but also to see the products of its companies destined for the European market now manufactured in the United States and then re-imported into Europe. And we can't let that happen in any way. What the European Union needs to do is simple: Ensure neutrality, regardless of Trump's decisions. If it is 10 %, then let us impose 10 %; If it is 25%, then we impose 25%. Neither weakness nor overbidding, but simply commercial justice, and let it serve as a lesson to us. Let’s stop being Bisounours. A business partner can always turn into a business adversary, and that is what happens.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, it is always useful to discuss, but now is the time for decisions. The Commission’s silence lasted too long. What does Trump want? He says it himself: first, money. With the 10% already in place, U.S. tariff revenue has risen from $5 billion a month to $25 billion a month. And this money, he is not ready to give it up. Trump's second goal is clear: to force our companies selling in the US to move to the US. And this is the biggest risk for Europe: not only to lose export jobs, but also to see the products of its companies destined for the European market now manufactured in the United States and then re-imported into Europe. And we can't let that happen in any way. What the European Union needs to do is simple: Ensure neutrality, regardless of Trump's decisions. If it is 10 %, then let us impose 10 %; If it is 25%, then we impose 25%. Neither weakness nor overbidding, but simply commercial justice, and let it serve as a lesson to us. Let’s stop being Bisounours. A business partner can always turn into a business adversary, and that is what happens.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Europe grows when it responds ‘present’ when its citizens need it. It has been doing so since 2006 with the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund. This fund is a strong symbol of European solidarity. It gives concrete support to our fellow citizens faced with the harsh redundancies caused by globalisation. To these workers who lose everything overnight, he offers the hope of a rebound through support, to learn another job, to find a job. Since its creation almost two decades ago, the EGF has supported 172,000 employees in 20 Member States. This is a key policy. That is why I call on you to vote in favour of the implementing provisions submitted to you today. But it is precisely because it is essential, because it is one of the milestones of a social Europe that is still in its infancy, that we must defend this fund well beyond today's vote. Because, I tell you, it is threatened with extinction in the next multiannual financial framework, as is the European Social Fund, the Just Transition Fund and the Social Climate Fund. As Jacques Delors said, Europe is not only the creation of an area without borders, it is also a community of cohesion and solidarity that opens up opportunities for the men and women who make it up. And he added: "You can't fall in love with a big market" to mean that people would turn away from Europe if it wasn't able to be much more than a big market. With this vote, ladies and gentlemen, and the fight we will fight together to preserve the social soul of Europe, we will reaffirm the values of solidarity, justice and progress, which have always inspired the construction of Europe.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Europe grows when it responds ‘present’ when its citizens need it. It has been doing so since 2006 with the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund. This fund is a strong symbol of European solidarity. It gives concrete support to our fellow citizens faced with the harsh redundancies caused by globalisation. To these workers who lose everything overnight, he offers the hope of a rebound through support, to learn another job, to find a job. Since its creation almost two decades ago, the EGF has supported 172,000 employees in 20 Member States. This is a key policy. That is why I call on you to vote in favour of the implementing provisions submitted to you today. But it is precisely because it is essential, because it is one of the milestones of a social Europe that is still in its infancy, that we must defend this fund well beyond today's vote. Because, I tell you, it is threatened with extinction in the next multiannual financial framework, as is the European Social Fund, the Just Transition Fund and the Social Climate Fund. As Jacques Delors said, Europe is not only the creation of an area without borders, it is also a community of cohesion and solidarity that opens up opportunities for the men and women who make it up. And he added: "You can't fall in love with a big market" to mean that people would turn away from Europe if it wasn't able to be much more than a big market. With this vote, ladies and gentlemen, and the fight we will fight together to preserve the social soul of Europe, we will reaffirm the values of solidarity, justice and progress, which have always inspired the construction of Europe.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, this is an important moment. With this multi-annual budget, it is basically a question of which Europe we want to build in the next ten years. We expected a visionary project, marking decisive progress on defence Europe, shaping with justice a society respectful of the planet and ensuring digital sovereignty. And what are we about to deliver? A budget as empty of meaning as it is of means, abandoning essential parts of the Europe we love. Let's be clear: we will never accept the abolition of the European Social Fund. I'm telling you: If Ursula von der Leyen's Europe is to defeat Jacques Delors' Europe, then it will be without us. We will never accept that the necessary effort in defence and competitiveness comes at the expense of the social and ecological. We will never accept the absurd rule of money against reforms. This budget goes right into the wall. As it stands, it does not have a majority because we Socialists and Democrats will not vote for it.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, this is an important moment. With this multi-annual budget, it is basically a question of which Europe we want to build in the next ten years. We expected a visionary project, marking decisive progress on defence Europe, shaping with justice a society respectful of the planet and ensuring digital sovereignty. And what are we about to deliver? A budget as empty of meaning as it is of means, abandoning essential parts of the Europe we love. Let's be clear: we will never accept the abolition of the European Social Fund. I'm telling you: If Ursula von der Leyen's Europe is to defeat Jacques Delors' Europe, then it will be without us. We will never accept that the necessary effort in defence and competitiveness comes at the expense of the social and ecological. We will never accept the absurd rule of money against reforms. This budget goes right into the wall. As it stands, it does not have a majority because we Socialists and Democrats will not vote for it.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the ceasefire between Iran and Israel is a relief, but it must not distract us from the Middle East, starting with Gaza, where civilian deaths must stop, where destruction must stop, where Netanyahu’s war must stop, where lasting peace must arrive. Above all, Commissioner, the silence of the European Union and the European institutions must stop. Europe must also be heard on the bloody repression in Iran. As a result of the conflict, three political opponents were hanged, and hundreds of arrests took place, including eight Europeans. An 18-year-old Frenchman is missing: He may have been taken hostage. For the 20 or so European hostages in detention, the situation has further worsened. I was yesterday and the day before yesterday with the families of two hostages, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, imprisoned in inhumane conditions. They're on their way! Since the war, their place of detention is unknown and the regime has added to psychological torture the threat of the death penalty on unfounded charges. Amnesty International also warns of the imminent execution of their Swedish co-detainee, Ahmadreza Djalali. So, Commissioner, I call on the European executive to mobilise all possible levers to secure the immediate release of the European hostages in Iran.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in the depths of the unprecedented crisis, we Europeans have been able to come together to find the way forward. The major investment plan, financed for the first time by the European loan, which we are talking about today, was one of its major instruments. This momentum has enabled us to overcome the pandemic, make the ideal of European solidarity a reality, protect our economies and jobs, and accelerate the green and digital transition. So let's not learn bad lessons from this experience. Yes to new European loans to finance the public investment wall needed for a just economic and digital transition. But no, no, a thousand times no to this disastrous idea of making the payment of European funds conditional on the prior completion of reforms – ‘money for value, payments against reforms’. But finally, Europe is not here to make money, but to do good for people! Europe is not there to coerce nations, but to transcend them. This blackmail of reforms was a mistake for the Recovery Facility. It would be a mistake to replicate and generalise this approach in the next multiannual European budget. And you must know, Commissioner, that is a red line for us European Socialists and Democrats. That's what it says.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, bequeathing a livable planet to our children and grandchildren is the honour of politics, it is the moral duty of our generation. The European Global Warming Plan is arguably one of Europe's greatest and most beautiful achievements. To succeed, we must be pragmatic, as we do here with the carbon border tax. Taxing carbon at borders is a great idea, protecting our economies and jobs by avoiding unfair competition from countries that do not have the same environmental standards as us. Today, we are smartly adapting this tax by reducing the administrative burden for 90% of companies, VSEs, while maintaining 99% of the emissions covered. To succeed, this European plan to combat global warming must also find the way to justice. To tax carbon or impose constraints without social accompaniment is to create injustices and fuel eco-anxiety. In future budgets, everyone will have to be given the financial means to isolate their home, to replace their car with an electric car or their boiler with a heat pump. This, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the most important decisions we will have to take in the coming months.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, this will be a landmark moment: between pro-European groups in this House, we have agreed on powerful budgetary choices for the future of European integration. I would like to pay tribute to the work of our two co-rapporteurs, Carla Tavares and Siegfried Mureşan, as well as to that of the team of shadow rapporteurs. Together, socialists, environmentalists, Renew and the EPP, we call for breaking the 1% of GDP ceiling that muzzles European ambitions for lack of financial means. Together, we are calling for new own resources to be allocated to the European budget. Together, we see European borrowing as a viable option for dealing with crises with a European dimension. Together, we reject this disastrous project, which makes European funds conditional on national reforms imposed by Brussels: they would do nothing but damage the very idea of Europe. Commissioner, at your hearing you stated this obvious fact: we cannot simultaneously respond to emergencies, repay COVID debt and not increase the resources of the European budget. You now have a clear answer from the European Parliament to this dilemma: the need for a change in the scale of the European budget. I would add this, on behalf of the S&D Group: At a time when you, in turn, are going to draw up the European fiscal trajectory, be sure of our determination. We will not give our consent to a budget that would not allow the constitution of a European defence powerful enough to no longer depend on that of the United States. We will not give our consent to a budget that does not finance the investments needed to decarbonise the economies, which are the key to the success of the Green Deal without social breakdown. We will not give our consent to a budget that sacrifices social and cohesion or does not sufficiently protect European agriculture and jobs because of a lack of resources for research, innovation and business. Politics requires dialogue – we will be there – but it also requires clarity. Here it is stated.