Speeches

Mr President, the current situation in Georgia is the result of an unfair policy by the EU, the US and many Western states to punish Georgia for not joining the sanctions against Russia. In doing so, the European Union cooperates smoothly, even considering as its allies countries that are helping Russia to circumvent the sanctions. The European Union's attitude towards Georgia ignores reality. Georgia has been an occupied country for almost 20 years, and the European Union has never responded to this Russian occupation with sanctions. On the contrary, it has developed political and economic cooperation with Russia. Georgia is not a NATO member and the EU offers no security guarantees against further possible military aggression. The EU is also unable to compensate for the widespread negative effects of possible anti-Russian sanctions on the Georgian economy. Therefore, punishing the Georgian Government for a balanced, not friendly or even allied relationship with Russia, thanks to which Georgian citizens do not face a social catastrophe, I find it crazy. Instead, I call on both the Commission and Parliament to immediately start a rational partnership dialogue with the Georgian Government.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, when investing so that workers' knowledge and skills match technology or new work practices, we must emphasise that it is not only companies that benefit. In our country, we are strengthening the minimum wage so that others grow too, because employers are still little aware that better earnings and better working conditions are a key motivation for lifelong learning. If people are not to earn more, why should they acquire new knowledge and skills just because the companies they work for will be competitive? But the competitiveness of companies, ladies and gentlemen, only makes sense if it is reflected in better working conditions and higher wages for employees, not just in corporate profits. In Slovakia, we are creating a system of individual accounts that will provide people with funding for training courses. I want to push for employees to be educated exclusively during working hours, so that companies pay them for the time they spend on the course. Since we pay the courses out of people's taxes, I think it's fair for companies to contribute at least that way.

You mentioned that profit and social benefits come from companies. But I want to stress that these are not just companies, but much more their employees. And therefore let's speak not just about what we need to do for companies, but what we should do for their employees, for workers. Because in fact, companies, firms, are nothing without their workers and without their employees. So stress please, not just working for companies, but working for workers and employees as well.

Mr President, excessive bureaucracy not only imposes an unreasonable burden on businesses, municipalities, self-governing regions or voluntary organisations, but also leads to an increase in the cost of taxes paid by our workers and their families. Indeed, any new administrative requirement is linked to the creation of new office posts, the purchase of new IT systems, the renting of new offices, the simple expansion of existing or even the creation of new offices, which have no added value, and their task is only to collect data, report, process databases and check where and, in particular, to look for ever new arguments to defend their existence and the increasing costs of their operation. I therefore propose that our parliamentary committees carry out, within the next six months, their own assessment of the bureaucratic burden in the areas for which they are responsible - and we must not leave this to the Commission - and we will then use this assessment as a basis for setting up a new seven-year budget for the European Union. I will personally push for less money for bureaucracy and more money to develop our regions and improve the lives of the people who live there.

Madam President, I have been approached by steel trade unionists from the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, who are demanding immediate measures from the European institutions to preserve their jobs. They call for the application of ecological standards that meet green objectives not only on paper. If only European producers of energy, steel and other products have to comply with strict emissions rules, this leads to unfair competition and not to an improvement in the environment, because the climate knows no borders. This is why trade unionists are calling for a tightening of the mechanism that determines tariffs according to the amount of harmful emissions emitted, so that our producers are not disadvantaged. They also call for the export of scrap, which is the basis for organic iron and steel production, to be restricted. In the US, presidential candidates announced that they would prevent the sale of U.S. Steel to Japanese hands. There is therefore no reason to avoid political interference in a sector in which 303 thousand people work today and 80 thousand jobs have been lost in the last fifteen years. We are obliged to be the voice of the workers and to act for them, not against them.

Mr President, jobs must provide fair working conditions and decent remuneration. We will therefore call on the Member States, together with this Parliament, to support a change in public procurement legislation so that only firms with a collective agreement can participate in public tenders. Let us set high standards of working conditions for suppliers of public authorities and institutions, and this will force others to reward their workers better. This is the effect of the minimum wage. And the reality confirms that the increase in the minimum wage triggers an increase in other wages as well. If we are already spending taxpayers' money, let us spend it in such a way that our workers benefit from it as much as possible. Let us not allow public money to support the profits of corporations at the expense of the people who work for them and their families. In addition, let us strengthen the advantages of social enterprises, remove barriers to their access to investment capital, grant them tax relief, give them priority in public procurement, because it is social enterprises that provide jobs for the most vulnerable people, people whom no one else wants to hire.

Madam President, I condemn the imprisonment of people because of political views, but I also condemn the genocide of a nation that has chosen a different political direction than the United States of America likes. This is the case with Cuba, which the US has been systematically terrorising for decades. According to publicly available sources, the US has invested more than $250 million in subversive activities against Cuba. In violation of UN resolutions, they apply sanctions against her in violation of international law and to the detriment of ordinary people. For example, during the Covid 19 pandemic, Cuba could not buy testing technologies or vaccines because shipping companies were afraid of being punished by the US. Today's debate is sponsored by the U.S.-Cuban Foundation, which is not an impartial arbiter but an aggressive initiator of biased and deceptive attacks against Cuba. The European Parliament, on the other hand, should call on the United States to immediately remove Cuba from the list of states supporting terrorism, which is the EU's long-standing position. Parliament should be an actor in strengthening relations with Cuba and not an instrument of aggressive American propaganda.

I would like to draw your attention, fellow Member, to the fact that you are right that there are major shortcomings in Cuba. For example, lack of access to medicines or even some food. But all this, my colleague, is the result of a decades-long embargo and sanctions by the United States of America, which are illegal and contrary to international law, which has also been repeatedly condemned by the United Nations. It has repeatedly been condemned by the UN General Assembly. Because this is how they punish Cuba for choosing a different political path than the United States of America imagines. So I warn you that this huge shortcoming, look at what sanctions Cuba has been facing for decades, especially on the part of the US.

Mr President, I would like to draw your attention to Slovakia as a country whose government, by preparing and mobilising its own forces in a timely manner, was able to minimise the damage caused by the floods. The Ministry of the Interior mobilized rescuers immediately after the horrific weather forecast was published, and the Ministry of the Environment took measures to extraordinary regulate the endangered flows. I want to thank all rescuers, volunteer and professional firefighters, police officers, water managers and soldiers who took part in the rescue work. Thanks to this and the number of volunteers and capable mayors, no one died in our country. The Minister of Labour and Social Affairs immediately launched humanitarian aid. However, I consider it necessary for the European Commission to show flexibility in the use of EU funds and to allow them to be used without hindrance for renovation, which will also be an investment in the modernisation of the affected areas. We need to invest effectively in infrastructure that will slow down climate change, mitigate its destructive effects and help protect ordinary citizens from possible damage in the future.