Speeches

Madam President, Mr Vice-President of the Commission, in this context of ongoing tension and threats, you already know that we welcome the Clean Industry Pact. In addition, in Euskadi we have already started working on it, we have had meetings with the industrial sector to take advantage of it. So today, taking into account the latest news and the context, we want to focus on these possible 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium, which could come into force on Wednesday, and the Steel Action Plan that you mentioned and will present next week. I understand that at the moment you will be contemplating different scenarios depending on what may happen in the next few hours. We have just learned that Trump has also announced tariffs for Canada, scheduled for this Wednesday, of 50%: He's doubled them in the last few hours. Therefore, the questions are whether there is room for surprises for European tariffs within the next few hours and how we will respond also in your case. That is our concern at the moment, Commissioner, because the competitiveness of our industry and the speed at which it will be able to decarbonise will depend on it as well.

Mr President, Commissioner, Europe has been negotiating this agreement for more than 20 years and that shows the complexity and extra effort it needs in terms of transparency and working with sectors. It seems that we will have benefits for automotive, machinery, tools, aeronautics, advanced services to the industry, wine producers, dairy, cheeses. But we also have part of a society that is concerned and a primary sector that also has problems arising from the last reform of the CAP. Let's be clear: hormone use, phytosanitary and compliance with the Paris Agreement, to ensure a fair market, have to be on the table. And we need clarity around protected products, products whose opening is going to be gradual in terms of the market and monitoring that will be done of the impact and breaches that would mean the end of the Agreement, as well as compensatory measures and safeguards. We must work all these months ahead, with mixed working tables and with the sector, so that, when that agreement reaches this Parliament and we vote on it, we can do so accordingly and this is not a war between sectors, but a space for balanced collective and social opportunities.

Mr. President, we publicly condemn the repression in Nicaragua and express our concern about the constitutional reform that the National Assembly of Nicaragua approved on January 30. The Ortega regime thus takes control of all branches of government, independent institutions and the media and ignores Nicaragua's adherence to international human rights conventions and treaties, including the one prohibiting torture. Since 2018, more than 450 people have been deprived of Nicaraguan nationality, many have become stateless and have been expelled from the country. The government has closed more than 5,600 NGOs, including 1,500 closed in a single day in August 2024. And the government has also shut down at least 58 media outlets. There is no room for widespread repression by the Nicaraguan regime. We call from this rostrum for the release of all arbitrarily detained persons, the restoration of the rule of law and freedoms, the cessation of repression and the restoration of the rights of exiles and exiles and their safe return.

Mr President, Mr Council representative, Commissioner, we received with some optimism what the Competitiveness Compass is and also the accelerated commitment they made yesterday to this European artificial intelligence model, but we must demand more of them: We need answers that are concrete and time-bound for all those sectors and people who are currently telling us that they cannot compete on an equal footing – in what is our single market and our treasure – and who are seeing jobs endangered. We also need immediate responses and actions, which give tranquility and stability to the markets, so that the investments that are necessary to be competitive materialize. And we also need a firm, courageous and ambitious response to Donald Trump's threats and China's fierce competition. You know that I represent Euskadi: an industrial region with a government, with an economic and business sector, and with people who are willing to give their all. But that everything in this globalized world is not enough and we need a Europe that bets on us and us now and that does it immediately, with leadership and with unity.

Mr President, I come from the Basque Country, a region that has a public health service that, in a very few years and due, among other things, to the impact of COVID-19, the ageing of the population and the change in needs, and above all due to the lack of professionals, has become one of the greatest citizen concerns along with housing. Despite having privatization rates of the lowest in Europe, having improved waiting list times after the COVID-19 tragedy and betting on strong investments and changes in the distribution of professionals in this new reality, this is not being enough. The lack of professionals is a global reality and states have much to say and do in all this. But Europe can and must also support mobility and skills matching. Only by attending to this reality will we be able to respond to a growing demand and citizen concern.

Mr President, Commissioner, I will be very brief today. Nicolás Maduro lacks democratic legitimacy and we will repeat it from this Parliament as many times as necessary. On January 10, he took office without publishing the minutes, without respecting the will of Venezuelans who were demonstrating that day in different parts of the world. And today María Corina Machado is still living in hiding and the winner of the elections, Edmundo González, is out of his country. We will continue to support the eight million people who have had to leave Venezuela, those who see their rights violated on a daily basis and, therefore, we urge the International Criminal Court to accelerate all necessary investigations to put an end to these abuses.

Mr President, Commissioner, welcome. You are in your first hundred days and we believe it is time to share challenges, priorities and concerns. Ours this week is specifically in news related to the closure of BSH in the Autonomous Community of Navarra and the proposed ERTE of Siemens. These events always they are accompanied in the shadow of a lack of competitiveness, the need for more investment and the risks of relocation. And, therefore, we see it as imperative that industrial policy and the Green Deal are coordinated. We are playing a lot in many ways, both for current and future generations. Have no doubt about our firm commitment to sustainability. We believe that it will give us strategic autonomy and that it will create quality jobs in sectors that are strategic. But we are also seeing how the decarbonisation and electrification processes are crying out for simplification of regulations and financing tools, more single market, adequate electricity, energy and digital infrastructure, and demand-side action. So we hope, like water in May, that this Clean Industrial Pact and the European Competitiveness Fund will rise to the challenges. I do not know if you could confirm any date, which seems to be expected to be the month of February.

Mr President, Commissioner, you are in your first hundred days and we are left with those plans on European innovation law to reduce gaps with the United States, to promote key sectors such as biotechnologies or disruptive technologies, to promote simplification, access to risk capital, promote the growth and birth of start-ups and scale-ups ... I come from the Basque Country, a region where in the European Innovation Scoreboard we are above the European average and at the level of the group of strong innovative countries, such as Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany or Estonia, and, therefore, we firmly believe in the Horizon Europe programme and through it, in addition, we present projects and have obtained funding for important R&D projects in public-private collaboration. So, in the face of certain rumours, we simply want to take the opportunity today to convey our concern to you and to ask that funds not be centralised and that the regions be respected; that the second pillar, which is where we have access to these types of projects and with this model, is not reduced, and that a clear definition of an innovative ecosystem and of an innovative ecosystem is incorporated. hub innovative including industry, scientific and research community, public sector and strategic actors. Thank you so much. We want to collaborate together for innovation in Europe and the Basque Country.

Madam President, now that we have a new College of Commissioners (and Commissioners), we are going to speed up and focus on those issues that are worrying people. And we know that one of them is the high price of energy, because it is weighing on the competitiveness of our industry and drowning vulnerable families, increasing concern for housing in general. It is, without a doubt, one of the factors that makes it inaccessible. We call on the new Commissioner for Energy and Housing to start work today on drawing up the action plan for affordable energy prices, and we expect results that will lower energy prices in households and help businesses make the energy transition. An ambitious clean energy investment strategy is needed, to improve our grid infrastructure and to develop a resilient, interconnected and secure energy system. We have too many people and jobs at stake and affected by this issue, and it is time to act immediately to leave no one behind.

Mr President, today, 25 November, I want to denounce that the extreme right and the denialists fill digital platforms, institutional spaces and the streets with intolerable messages and actions that permeate some strata of society and that put collective achievements in this area at risk. A few minutes ago we saw how women's well-being compared to animal welfare. Con todos mis respetos al bienestar animal, le voy a recordar que este Parlamento aprobaba este año la primera Directiva europea que establece unos mínimos y tipifica como delito cuestiones como la mutilación genital femenina, el matrimonio forzado o el acoso. And everyone in our regions has been working for years with feminist movements and society to advance something as strategic and differential as gender equality and the fight against any type of violence against women. Let's not let those messages creep into our sons and daughters. Let's not let them doubt. We combat these hate speeches with quality policy, with institutional and social collaboration, with a presence on digital platforms, with an emphasis on the Charter of Fundamental Rights and across borders. Let us continue to be that society that does not tolerate any kind of violence against women. There is no excuse for abuse.

Madam President, I offer all our support and solidarity to the Valencian people and to other regions that, to this day, are still being affected and are suffering the consequences of DANA. I am proud to belong to a society that, from minute one, has turned to the drama of a town that in a few hours lost several hundred neighbors and that was destroyed physically, socially, economically and emotionally. I am ashamed of the interested partisan behaviour that certain political forces are making of this issue in the Spanish State and in this Parliament. We ask that, from the moment of serenity and when all the necessary information is available, we act with total transparency and materialize an exemplary exercise of accountability on what happened and on its management. From Renew Europe we will support everything that is necessary to make European aid for reconstruction and, above all, the strong relaunch of these areas as agile as possible. Every day we are more exposed to unexpected effects that are consequences of climate change and we need to strengthen our infrastructure and contingency plans.

Mr President, Commissioner, at the beginning of September we put a question to the European Commission, conveying our concern with regard to certain rumours that, in the new multiannual financial framework, we had to group together programmes which, today, are managed jointly with the regions, with a view to making a single programme at national level: the answer was not at all clear. Today I was happy to hear you talk about the important role that cities and regions have for the development of a Europe that is competitive, green and social, but I was also concerned to hear you talk about the need to stimulate convergence and explore links between investments and reforms. So, from today, from this rostrum, I make two very clear requests: one of them, that you are clear in your answers; secondly, that the new European Commission maintains and strengthens multilevel governance with the regions and that it does not align itself by buying the discourse with a recentralising extreme right that forgets the effectiveness of proximity policies and the daily reality faced by the cities and regions that make up Europe.

Mr President, Commissioner, today is World Mental Health Day and we have the opportunity to make visible a reality that is very present in our society. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, already one in six people, some 84 million people in total in Europe, suffered from mental health problems and since then this has only worsened and especially among young people. I want to remember today the Basque project "Resilience and socio-emotional curriculum for adolescent students", which was recognized by the European Commission itself as good practice. Stress, anxiety, depression and eating, personality or digital dependency disorders. It is good that we give them names and it is good that we talk about them without stigmatizing them. It is good and necessary that we continue to invest in policies that promote prevention, care and, above all, social and labour reintegration. And it's good that we give people tools. Without mental health there is no well-being and we want a very, very healthy Europe and Euskadi.

Mr President, Commissioner, we are pleased that this issue is being discussed in the European Parliament. We are talking about access to affordable housing, especially for young people. We know that it is a real global problem that affects at European level and, knowing that competences are limited, we welcome the fact that we are going to have a European Commissioner on housing and, also, that we are going to have a first European plan for affordable housing to respond to individuals and families who have difficulties in tackling both energy poverty and social housing problems. What would we like to find in this new plan? Elements that what they do is: strengthening our political priorities and lines of action; therefore take into account realities that are diverse in Europe and its regions; to incentivise smallholders to rent out their homes and to strengthen their guarantee and legal certainty, avoiding speculation; the creation of funding lines and guarantees through the European Investment Bank; and to allow for an increase in the public housing stock, especially for young people. We know that access to housing is a reality, a difficulty and a basic need and must be solved at local, regional and European level.

Mr President, Commissioner, thank you for presenting the vision of the strategic and tractor sector for the Basque and European economy. Specifically, in the Basque Country it has an approximate weight of 25% of GDP and employs 40,000 people. Mario Draghi was already aiming to maintain ambitious decarbonisation targets, driving supply chain transformation. Therefore, Europe must rely on research and advanced manufacturing centers, such as the Basque Automotive Manufacturing Center, which will be operational in the summer of 2025 and is a benchmark for public-private collaboration. We understand that, based on the strengths and good basis of this sector, we must work to develop advanced knowledge in technologies for the electric vehicle and develop digital technologies, integrating them into manufacturing processes. Therefore, we must bet on innovation and investment to improve competitiveness, and we must always do so hand in hand with the sector, in collaboration with companies, start-ups, technology centers and universities, strengthening Basque and European industry.

Mr President, we had no hesitation in proposing the debate on an urgent case for the degradation of women's freedoms in Afghanistan. On August 21, the Taliban government, a few days after completing three years in power, ratified a law that tightens social repression. What this law does is include measures such as prohibiting women's voices from being heard in public spaces and their faces from being seen on the street. A document with thirty-five articles that includes a series of draconian laws, which considers that our voices, the voices of women, are potential instruments of vice and that women should not sing or read aloud in public; Nor should we let our voices be heard beyond the walls of our homes. The situation is critical. Women who went to college in the 1970s today can't talk on the street. That is why we want, and I ask you to, this Parliament, as it has done before in other situations, to speak out clearly about the alarming situation that women's rights and freedoms are experiencing in Afghanistan.

(start of intervention in an unofficial language) ...and my first words to send a strong hug to the entire Venezuelan community and people. Fifty days have passed since the National Electoral Council gave good results that do not have any disaggregated data and do not have any voting minutes to support them. The only acts that are known and that have also been endorsed by independent international organizations have been those that have been published by the opposition and that have also been collected by different social groups: almost or more than 80% of the total, and almost 70% of those that indicate that the winner would be Edmundo González. These minutes, according to the international verifications of the United Nations and the Carter Center, were printed at public events, at the closing of the tables and with strict adherence to compliance and electoral regulations. We therefore want this Parliament to value and take into account those minutes, which clearly point to a winner, and therefore to respect the will of the people. We in the Committee on Foreign Affairs have already issued an invitation to the Carter Centre and the United Nations and we hope that it will be an input This is the key to continue advancing, promoting democratic values and denouncing violations of human, political and social rights so that all guarantees are fulfilled in the electoral processes, the will of Venezuelans is respected and that, next January, Edmundo González is appointed president. Today we met many Members with Isadora Zubillaga and Antonio Ledezma, Sakharov Prize winner. We know how important this is. The Venezuelan people deserve a democratic government that respects their will and guarantees their rights.

(start of intervention in an unofficial language) Mr President, I was simply saying good afternoon in Basque, in my language, in this my first speech in Strasbourg, hoping to be able to do so officially in the not too distant future. Thank you very much, Commissioner, for your intervention and for coming to Parliament to let us know the state of play on something as strategic as the Energy Union. We all share the view that this energy transition is necessary, but today, as we have also been listening to Mr Draghi and as we have been hearing about Europe's necessary competitiveness, let me talk about industrialising the energy transition. We need a single energy market that protects us from price volatility, that protects vulnerable groups and that protects and responds to the needs of industrial regions. We want and need an efficient and increasingly electrified industry and we cannot afford 27 different energy models. We know that we will not be able to be self-sufficient and, therefore, we want to work on improving the efficiency of industrial processes and increasing production through renewables with storage and fair distribution so that our producers and our products compete on equal terms and are reinforced in this process when we talk about industrializing the transition. In short, an industrial energy transition made in Europe.