What Emma spoke about.

Madam President, Commissioner, I imagine that your garden is a protected area. So, what would you say if I came to your garden tomorrow to dig up your carrots and pick up your tomatoes, before leaving by trampling the whole vegetable garden to make sure that your vegetables do not grow back next year? No doubt it would displease you greatly. And I would tell you that I was in your garden like a bottom trawler in marine protected areas, which are protected only by name. For while 12% of EU waters fall within the definition of marine protected areas, only 0.2% fall strictly within the definition. So what is protected in the others? Nothing or almost nothing: 86% of Europe’s so-called protected areas are intensively exploited, using destructive fishing methods, such as bottom trawling, or other extractive industrial activities. Industrial fishing has deleterious consequences: for biodiversity, but also for small-scale fishermen. In addition to bottom trawling, the latter also face the full brunt of competition from pelagic mega-trawlers, who do not hesitate to cross marine protected areas. Excluding industrial fishing from marine protected areas, as recommended by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, is to give oxygen to small-scale fishing, which has less environmental impact, and which promotes the renewal of species. The Commission is committed to moving away from bottom trawling in marine protected areas by 2030. Live up to the commitment by adopting a just transition plan, which accompanies fishermen, gives them visibility, incentives and alternatives, and includes a real plan to unravel the European fleet. Without concrete action by both the Commission and the Member States, your promises will be in vain.

Madam President, I am fortunate to have been born in France, the first country to include abortion in its constitution. But many other women in Europe do not have my chance. If I had been born in Poland, for example, like Agnieszka, I could have died of an infection following a refusal of an abortion, despite the death of my baby. If, like Fanny, I had been born in Hungary, I would have been forced to listen to the fetal heartbeat before I had the right to terminate my pregnancy. The European Citizens’ Initiative ‘My Voice, My Choice’ shows that across Europe there are voices calling for legal and safe access to abortion. Let the reactionaries put this in their heads: women will never be prevented from having an abortion. Prohibiting abortion in law is simply making it illegal and therefore more dangerous to women’s lives and health. Out of respect for human dignity and women’s right to control their bodies, access to abortion must be protected and sanctuarised throughout Europe. We must therefore enshrine it in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

Mr President, this is the first time since 1976. Last week, a fin whale was captured, hunted, skinned and then frozen in small pieces before being displayed as a trophy on the stalls of a Tokyo market. A terrifying step backwards for a species of whale that IUCN deems vulnerable. The culprit? The Kangei Maru. Does that name remind you of anything? On July 21, Paul Watson was arrested in Greenland precisely because he and his crew were preparing to stop the route of this Japanese factory ship destined to commit the massacre that we now contemplate powerless. These are the consequences of the arrest of Paul Watson, wanted by Japan and executed by Denmark. Yes, Denmark played an active role in this ambush. According to his Minister of Justice, it was the Faroese police who alerted Greenland to the stopover of Paul Watson. The Faroe Islands and Denmark obviously can't stand Sea Shepherd opposing the dolphin killings that take place there every year. And here they are united by a blood bond with Japan to carry out an operation of political revenge and to silence forever a tireless defender of life. Let the Danish Government hear it well: Environmentalists around the world are watching you, and they will never forgive you for throwing one of their own to a country that does not respect human rights. We defend not only Paul Watson, but also, through him, all environmental activists threatened, repressed, criminalized in Europe and around the world. The sea uprisings have begun and they are not about to stop. Against the ravages of industrial fishing and cruel hunting practices, for marine biodiversity, for the ocean, free Paul Watson!