Speeches

Mr President, thank you very much. Today's debate is unheard of, because once again, we are discussing the same thing here countless times. The European Union is indeed in a very serious economic and competitiveness crisis, as the Draghi report has shown. But you come here, you deliberate, and you use the same round terms all the time, from which nothing comes. Competitiveness does not come from bureaucracy, competitiveness does not come from overregulation, it does not come from the inflation of the law. Competitiveness is built by entrepreneurs. Competitiveness is built by economic freedom, which has been crushed since the adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon by directives and regulations of the European Union. You do not guarantee and do not give any guarantee that you are able to carry out any complicated, ambitious programme that will lead to increased competitiveness in the European Union. You should step away from this path and carry out a profound reform of European legislation. Otherwise, we run towards the wall and we will be an open-air museum compared to China and the United States.

Madam President, thank you very much. What is happening in this House today is the height of hypocrisy and hypocrisy. MEPs from the left and centre organised today's debate on the Hungarian Presidency as a tribunal on Hungary. You have no right to pass judgment on Hungary. From the assessment of Prime Minister Orbán there is the Hungarian people and that is what democracy is all about. Democracy is not about a bunch of bureaucrats and detached left-wing MPs shouting slogans about fascism when they don't understand what fascism is all about. Fascism is about shouting freedom. And that's what you're doing right now. Our tradition in Europe is that free nations in democratic procedures express their will at the ballot box. And if they elect a prime minister, a president, a parliament, other nations respect that. You don't know how to respect diversity. You don't know how to respect conservatives and you don't know how to respect freedom.

Madam President, thank you very much. Ladies and Gentlemen, Georgia is a geopolitical issue. We must reject the Russian reasoning, in which the Russian Federation assumes that it has some spheres of influence, where it can decide how nations are to live in particular parts of this space. Georgia is perceived by Putin and his agency as a place where they, as Russia, have the right to decide what the local system looks like, what the economy looks like and what the future of this country looks like. Georgians are one of the oldest European nations. A culture of great depth and importance. As representatives of the free peoples of Europe, we are obliged to cultivate relations with Georgia and to ensure that it is outside the sphere of interference of the Russian Federation and that it can continue on its path towards freedom, towards European ties and transatlantic ties.

OK, so I will speak in English. You said a lot about interference of the American Government in Georgia. Do you have any proof? Because we have proof of interference of Russia, of Russia's special forces, of Russia's military aggression during 2006 etc. So do you have any proof of this interference you speak about?

Mr President, thank you very much. The Honourable Member deigned to speak about alleged American influence in Georgia. Do you have any evidence of this? Because when it comes to influence...

Dear President, Dear Commissioner, Dear Members of the European Parliament, We, as representatives of the free peoples of Europe, are well aware that every society has the right to decide its future through free, democratic and equal elections. Unfortunately, not everyone on the Old Continent shares this belief. There are still those who think imperially, wanting to interfere in democratic processes in other countries. And such a state is the Russian Federation. Although the Kremlin is a thousand kilometers away from Chisinau in a straight line, various treatments influencing Moldovan politics continue. At the same time, the Moldovan people themselves and the people of Moldova want to freely and freely decide their own future in the name of freedom, equality and democracy. The elections, which are approaching us with great steps, will decide about the future of Moldova and will decide not only about the election of the head of state, but also about the geopolitical direction. Will Moldova continue to move towards the European Union, towards freedom, the rule of law and equality, or will we allow the Kremlin to stretch out its long paws in order to destabilise the situation in Central Europe? We cannot, as those attached to a world of values, agree that Moldova should be left alone in this great dispute.

Mr President, thank you very much. Ladies and Gentlemen, We are dealing with an incredible hypocrisy in this room, because the MEPs of the centre and the left have led to a situation where the car industry in the European Union is unprofitable and uncompetitive. State overregulation, inflation of laws, new burdens imposed on industry cause that we automatically cease to be competitive. And today you have the audacity to tear the garments around the politics that you yourselves have built. We're losing to China, we're losing to the United States. Innovation is not born by pressing new regulations and directives. Innovation arises at the moment of the entrepreneur's creative thinking. If it is pressed with taxes, burdens, regulations, there is no chance of competing with economies such as the US or China. This is self-evident. If we want electromobility, it must be modern, not pressed with the knee by subsequent bureaucrats. This is absurd.

Mr President, thank you very much. Ladies and Gentlemen, The whole agenda of the next European Council shows what a serious crisis the European Union is in. Europe's rulers are unaware of what their policies have led to and of the situation we are in. We have a Schengen crisis, we are losing economically to China, we are losing economically to the United States, and there is a war going on at the borders of Europe. There is no serious reflection at this point on the reform of the European Union in the direction in which it should be heading. The Draghi report is devastating in terms of diagnosing the economic situation of the European Union. But what are the recipes proposed by its author? The recipe is to hit the accelerator pedal and hit the wall, because you want to continue the policy that led us to the crisis. There is a close correlation between the Treaty of Lisbon, legal inflation, the number of regulations and directives that have led to a situation in which our economy is inefficient. The Union needs reform and the Commission and the Council should finally realise this.

Mr President, I am not in favour of the new Hungarian policy. We have to point out the main contradiction in our debate. If Schengen is an area of freedom, security and justice, why are Germans closing right now their borders? It's very convenient for the European mainstream to debate, to discuss the situation in Hungary, because Viktor Orbán is your political opponent. If you believe in principles of equality in the European Union, you have to initiate debate concerning the latest German actions. Be bold and honest. Ask them why they perceive Schengen as an area of lack of security!

Mr President, freedom of speech is a cornerstone of Western civilisation. Our ancestors fought for it against oligarchs, tyrants and other enemies of freedom. Today we see that this freedom is again under siege. But enemies have new names: political correctness, hate speech and government control. There is no freedom where bureaucrats can decide how debate looks like. We have to prepare legislation to protect our freedom because it's now endangered by the European Commission's arbitrary power. We don't want to live in the world depicted by George Orwell in his famous book 1984. Unfortunately, there are no legal restraints to European Commission's arbitrary power. One of the greatest means of protection against arbitrary power is freedom of speech. To fight for it our moral and political obligation. The enemies of freedom are always the same.