Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, for the past three years the Member States have been announcing historic increases in defence budgets. But one question remains: Do these investments really strengthen Europe? The reality is there. Too much of this investment is still leaving Europe to finance equipment produced elsewhere. However, let us be clear-sighted, if European taxpayers' money is mainly used to support non-European industries, then we are missing the goal of a Europe of defence. That is why we must assume a European preference in defence procurement to support our industrial base, to reduce our technological dependence. Only an autonomous Europe can sustainably defend peace. Europe must stop financing its dependence, because it is through its autonomy that it will build its true power.

Madam President, more than a year and a half ago, the Draghi report sounded the alarm. Without massive and coordinated investment, Europe is failing. However, today, let us be lucid, we are still far from the account. No new common fiscal capacity, no overall economic strategy. The only truly structured dynamic concerns European defence. And it's indispensable, of course. But where is the global project for energy, innovation, housing and to reduce concretely the cost of living of Europeans? Meanwhile, the right and the far right caricature the Draghi report in one word: deregulation. No, simplifying is not deregulating. For Europe, the time is no longer for diagnosis but for decisions. Let's invest together or we'll land alone.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, floods in Valencia, fires in Aude, climate change is hitting harder, longer and closer every year. The European Union plans to triple the means of civil protection, and this is essential, but it is absolutely not enough. Because, at the same time, the Commission is proposing to reduce the resources of the CAP, and that is unacceptable. We cannot pretend to protect citizens while cutting off funding to those on the ground who prevent disasters. Because it is thanks in particular to the CAP that the elected representatives of the forest communities of Occitanie fight every day; maintain the forests, trace the tracks and therefore limit the risks. So yes, Europe must choose: prevention or abandonment. I refuse the abandonment, the abandonment imposed by the right and the extreme right, always quick to cut in solidarity. To prevent is to protect. To give up is to betray. It's up to us to choose.

Mr President, Commissioner, more than EUR 90 billion: These are Google's profits in 2024. In just sixteen seconds, Google takes what the average European household takes a year to earn. The profits of the digital giants are soaring while the incomes of citizens are stagnating. It is not a simple imbalance, it is a fiscal injustice to be corrected absolutely. So let's go and let's go now. US withdraws from OECD tax deal? Well, Europe must lead by example. It must make multinationals pay what they owe where they make their profits. Yes to a European digital services tax. It's about justice. Because every euro that Google, Amazon or Meta do not pay, it is our SMEs, our farmers, our citizens, our public services that bear the cost. Tax justice means choosing a sovereign Europe against a Europe of impotence.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in less than 24 hours, one death, more than 50 houses destroyed, 16 000 hectares of crops, and in particular vineyards, ravaged, is part of the heavy toll that the Aude department in Occitanie has suffered. But this drama is not isolated. Southern Europe, and in particular the Mediterranean, from Spain to Greece, faces the same devastation, the same anxieties of the populations and the same economic consequences. It is therefore crucial that our European policies absolutely incorporate this Mediterranean specificity, both in terms of civil security, in order to deal with fires, and in terms of agricultural policy. Clearly, to recognize the Mediterranean specificity is to admit that our agriculture is also a real shield against the flames. It's time to give her the place she deserves. When the flames move forward, it is our political choices that determine whether the earth burns or resists.

Mr President, Commissioner, Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to give you a testimony that illustrates the essential support provided by the European Investment Bank in our territories and for our territories. First, a first example: be aware that the EIB is the leading debt partner of the Occitanie region in France, with an outstanding amount of more than EUR 900 million, representing 25% of the total regional outstanding amount. This is to finance transport infrastructure, but also the construction or rehabilitation of high schools. Another example, here also very concrete, and which is close to my heart: in my department, the Tarn, the EIB granted a decisive loan of EUR 40 million for an exemplary and innovative project for the treatment of household waste, a project carried out by a departmental public service, Trifyl. Let's be clear: without the EIB, this project would never have been possible. This is the useful Europe that our citizens expect.

Mr President, Madam Vice-President, Minister, ladies and gentlemen, first of all I wanted to thank the rapporteur for his work. The text proposed in this European Semester allows us to affirm our ambitions and values. Europe is at a time of change in a changing world. In this context, a common loan is needed more than ever to build a Europe of defence. To step up support to Ukraine, we need a European Investment Instrument. However, Europe must not only react; it must also address its internal challenges: cohesion, sovereignty and investments in innovation, education and the green and digital transition. We must do so in accordance with ourselves and our European values: social rights, the Green Deal and, above all, democracy, because it is in it that the dignity of peoples and the greatness of Europe reside.