Speeches

Madam President, thank you very much. I welcome any initiative that strengthens entrepreneurship, not least in rural areas, because it is only through freer entrepreneurship and stronger property rights – in all parts of our societies – that we create the prosperity that all other political priorities require. It is entrepreneurship, and only entrepreneurship, that creates the resources that we need – not least for our weak defences and our preparedness. I therefore regret that the groups on the left, faithful to their habits, have filled the report we are voting on today with demands that go in exactly the opposite direction. The urgent need for regulatory simplifications is mentioned, it is true, but mostly as a secondary clause. Instead, the text is dominated by demands for quotas, more and greater contributions and greater political control over details. This, of course, does not hold. If we are serious about strengthening entrepreneurship in Europe – among women and men, in rural areas and cities – we cannot continue to demand more sticks and more bureaucracy. What our competitiveness needs, and it needs immediately, is drastic regulatory simplification and a sharp reduction in bureaucracy.

Mr President, thank you very much. We are in a paradigm shift that is fundamentally changing the battlefield. The automation of warfare, in particular through drones, represents a historical shift on par with the development of machine guns and warfare aircraft. In Ukraine, millions of drones are used annually, and in order to match Russian capabilities in the future, the EU would need access to hundreds of millions of devices. The ongoing war in Ukraine has shown that military and technological development takes place in real time and in ultrarapid. We cannot accurately predict tomorrow's innovations. But we can already ensure good access to the basic components, so that production can be quickly scaled up if necessary, and maximise orders to the Ukrainian defence industry for the benefit of all of us. We need to build the capability before the war, produce before the shortage and invest before the threat is acute. On tomorrow's battlefield, the outcome is determined not by will, but by industrial perseverance and the ability to accelerate faster than the opponent. The foundation of that ability needs to be laid now.

Mr President, thank you very much. There is a historic revolution in Iran against the Islamist regime. It has the potential to reshape the entire Middle East and become as life-changing as the fall of the Berlin Wall became for Europeans. It is openly pro-Western and pro-Israel, secular and hostile to political Islam. Hence the silence of the mid-term humanists of the anti-Semitic left in the West, who support Hamas and thus support the regime that the Iranians are now sacrificing life to fight. The EU must act beyond the solemnities and use all the tools to assist the Iranians in the fight. This is done by breaking diplomatic ties with the regime, expelling diplomats, imposing strong sanctions, terrorizing the IRGC and helping to secure internet access. Now is not the time to hold your breath. Now is the time for action. Down with the mullahs!

Mr President, thank you very much. Europe is not for sale, and we will never be blackmailed by Trump. We need to get rid of the fact that we have been reduced to a continent that is consulted when it suits, rounds when it is needed and threatens when it is effective. The latest tours must be a reminder that peace and freedom always depend on the ability to wage and win war. As decision-makers, we have a responsibility to think the unpleasant thoughts and prepare our citizens for the unpleasant scenarios. From now on, every European country must be equipped so that together we reach American capacity. It covers everything from nuclear weapons to munitions and materials. All this needs to be produced by and for Europe. Europe can become a great power again, but then we must stop behaving like a cultural heritage, take the initiative and act as an actor with military muscles.

Madam President, thank you very much. The Arctic is facing dramatic change. In October, a merchant ship crossed the Arctic Sea between China and Britain for the first time. China now describes itself as an Arctic-near country and seeks a role in the region's development. Russia claims control over parts of the Northeast Passage in violation of international law, which challenges the global legal order but also Europe's security. President Trump's interest in Greenland should also be taken into account, as all this together draws a clear picture: The Arctic is no longer a remote periphery. It is one of the most dynamic and controversial arenas of our time. Once again, Europe finds itself overwhelmed by these abrupt security policy moves. The strategic location of the Arctic is central to our security, but also to our future economic resilience. This is because there are enormous natural resources, including critical earth elements, which are crucial, not least in the fight to reduce Europe's dependence on China. Strengthening the partnership with actors in the region is not only desirable, it is necessary for us to be stronger and for us to be safer.

Madam President, thank you very much. whereas the paramilitary Sudanese group RSF has declared a three-month ceasefire following the raids of systematic rapes, maimings and killings of civilians in al-Fashir; Millions have been forced to flee. Many tens of thousands have been killed and over 24 million suffer from acute food insecurity. The silence of all half-time humanists, who have been plaguing public discourse since October 7, is deafening. The degree of indignation is determined not by the number of dead or starving, but by the presumed perpetrators and victims. The tragic conclusion is that unless Israel is directly involved, and Muslims and Africans have each other killed, if the conflict does not fit within the framework of an anti-Western Woke Narrative, well, then the goodness-signalling commitment ceases. When solidarity becomes selective and compassion conditional, words lose their meaning. It is in the silence over Sudan that the moral bankruptcy of our time is most evident.

Madam President, thank you very much. Commissioner. Hamas broke the ceasefire by killing two Israeli soldiers. The remaining hostage has not been released. The disarmament of Hamas has not begun. Instead, the terrorists take the opportunity to regroup and cold-bloodedly murder competing Palestinians. It's time to draw a line. No more taxpayer-funded aid billions fueling terror through UNRWA. The reconstruction of Gaza is just as much about deradicalisation. This time, we cannot be content to welcome the staggering steps away from war on peace, and then return to doing everything we have always done in the past. The EU's Middle East policy, based on condemnation of the region's only democracy, has come to an end. Our rhetoric has not created peace, only fueled extremism. It hasn't saved, just cost, lives. According to the peace plan, Hamas will have no influence over future Palestinian self-government. But Hamas will not voluntarily give up power in exchange for peace. The question is therefore not what Hamas intends to do, but what the EU is prepared to do about Hamas. (The speaker declined to take blue-card questions from Catarina Vieira and Özlem Demirel)

Madam President, thank you very much. Iran is a diabolical force in the Middle East, a regime that funds terrorist organisations such as Hamas, while working with Russia and China to undermine the rules-based international order. Iran has repeatedly violated the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and several reports have confirmed that Iran was close to developing full nuclear capabilities, which Israel appears to have temporarily prevented. I therefore welcome the EU's decision to reintroduce previous sanctions against Iran. But we must draw lessons from the measures taken against Russia, which, after 18 packages of sanctions, has still not subdued Putin. Our naivety about Iran's ambitions must stop. EU sanctions must at least match those of the US and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps must be stamped with terror. If we do not act now, we will have to act later at a much higher price. Iran is preparing for confrontation, not dialogue. The question is whether the EU has the courage to prevent rather than react.

Madam President, thank you very much. Do we want to live in a society that needs police supervision of Jewish schools and synagogues, where Jews are forced to live behind walls in order for terror-ridden anti-democrats to move freely, where students are met with squabbles, posters on hostages are torn down and shops selling food produced by Jews are subjected to sabotage, where Jews are now selling their houses, resigning from their jobs and fleeing Europe? I accuse politicians of repeating that Israel is allowed to defend itself, but not if civilians die, which inevitably happens when Hamas hides among civilians and denies them protection in the tunnels under Gaza, funded by Western aid. I accuse the media of relaying Hamas's war propaganda and statistics and making the victim the perpetrator and the perpetrator the victim, the consequences of the war the main thing and the main thing - the massacre two years ago - a peripheral incident. I accuse everyone who celebrates October 7 on a daily basis, who shouts anti-Jewish slogans in the hate marches in our cities, who shares anti-Jewish images and bloodshed in social media, who calls for global intifada, who divides Jews into good and evil based on whether they distance themselves from the only state that will always protect them, all who portray Jews as bloodthirsty child-slaying colonists, who equate them with the Nazis and thus water down the memory of the Holocaust to legitimize hatred and violence. Europe bears a special responsibility to never accept the hatred that once again forces the Jews into the shadows. So ask yourself what you can do to counter Jewish hatred. Let us declare war on anti-Semitism.

Madam President, thank you very much. October 7th never ended. Not for those who were murdered, those who were taken hostage, or those who hold their breath waiting for a body bag or a rubble of a loved one who may soon return. The peace plan presented by President Trump and immediately endorsed by Israel – as well as the Arab states and Turkey – is the only opportunity for peace of our time. The hostages are allowed to return, Hamas is disarmed, no occupation and a new security force for Gaza, backed by the Arab world. The EU should stand behind any solution that upholds the right of both peoples to exist, while eliminating once and for all the ideological breeding ground for terrorism, martyrdom and the annihilation of Israel. Gaza needs to go through the same process as Germany after the Nazis. Otherwise, it is only a matter of time before other radical forces regain power. Those who oppose this agreement because they refuse to direct their demands against Hamas never defended the children of Gaza. Their hypocrisy is a confirmation that peace is only possible when Palestinians love their children more than they hate.

Madam President, thank you very much. Called the Commissioner! Two Palestinian terrorists carried out another cold-blooded attack yesterday when they murdered innocent people on a bus in Jerusalem. At least six people lost their lives and many more, including a pregnant woman on her way to work, are seriously injured. Hamas and Palestinian Islamist jihad celebrate the terror and instruct in a fresh clip tomorrow's terrorists in killing more innocent bus passengers. All the evil that the West wrongly accuses Israel of, carries out and celebrates the Islamists. Yet it is Israel that is to be pressured into submission according to naïve Westerners, who do not understand that we are next. The EU must make it clear that there is no peace to be built with a cult of death as counterpart. No peace can grow where schoolchildren are indoctrinated into dreaming of martyrdom, where the Palestinian administration rewards the families of terrorists financially. Hamas must be defeated once and for all. If Israel fails, more terrorist acts remain until there is no Israel left, until all Jews are destroyed.

Madam President, thank you very much. There are talks about a possible ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The release of hostages held by Hamas for over 600 days must be a top priority. If we want to avoid a new October 7, Hamas, whose goal is not peace but the destruction of Israel, must be defeated militarily and ideologically. The Palestinian people deserve better than a life under brutal terror rule. Despite the risk to their own lives, many courageous Gazans have begun to protest against Hamas' oppression. These are the voices we need to support. A lasting peace requires two states, but only if both states recognize each other's right to exist. The conditions for peace do not begin with the ceasefire. It begins with the desire for coexistence.

Mr President, thank you very much. For almost a decade, the Swedish-Iranian doctor Ahmadreza Djalali has been imprisoned and tortured by the executioners of the theocratic dictatorship of Iran. He is one of many who have paid the highest price for the Islamist tyranny of the mullahs, in the country that executes the most people in the world per capita and where people are hanged from cranes at sunrise. whereas the regime’s systematic repression of women, opposition figures and homosexuals has curtailed the freedom of generations of Iranians and forced millions into exile; Meanwhile, Iranian hydra has for decades destabilized the region with its proxy armies in Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen, and was now in the process of producing nuclear weapons. Among the mullahs' allies are Syria's overthrown Bashar al-Assad, North Korea's Kim Jong Un and Russia's Vladimir Putin. An axis of evil that threatens global peace and security. Thanks to Israel's brave precision attacks, we may see a historic breakpoint, a possible end to 46 years of Islamist oppression and worldwide terror. But the fight is not over. Djalali is still imprisoned, suffering from severe health problems. He must be released immediately.

Madam President, thank you very much. Russia's war in Ukraine is not just about imperialist ambitions of great power, about claims to a world order in which military force trumps international law. It is equally about destroying the identity, culture and language of Ukrainians, depriving them not only of the future but also of history. By kidnapping tens of thousands of children in order to russify them, Russia is committing the most vile of crimes against the most vulnerable individuals in Ukrainian society. This deliberately diabolical strategy bears witness to the borderlessness of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine. We should not imagine that they would have treated our children differently. We should also not imagine that Putin will be satisfied with Ukraine. Europe has a duty to act; for the kidnapped children, for all the mothers and fathers who fall asleep without their children one more night and to guarantee the peace that we are reminded on a daily basis that we must never take for granted.

Mr President, thank you very much. Citizenship is a privilege that binds. This is the opposite of a commodity. Citizenship cannot be bought by anyone who wants us badly or refuses to support our fundamental common values. It is to be issued to the one who has earned it, to the one who wants to live among us according to the obligations and rights arising from our laws and norms. The European Court of Justice's ruling that Malta's so-called gold passport system is contrary to EU law therefore did not come a day too early. Not least Russian citizens, in many cases with clear links to the assassins in the Kremlin, have used this opportunity to circumvent sanctions, undermine our common security and weaken the integrity of the entire Schengen area. The fact that European rights have been sold to our enemies is a disgrace to our Union. A strong and cohesive Europe presupposes that we value citizenship.

Mr President, thank you very much. There was a time when many hoped that Turkey would come closer to Europe – our values, our respect for the rule of law and our respect for human rights. But that trend has gone in the opposite direction. Under President Erdoğan's rule, we have witnessed the systematic dismantling of democracy. whereas independent courts have been weakened, journalists and opposition figures have been imprisoned and freedom of expression has been silenced; A particularly worrying example is the arrest of Swedish journalist Joakim Medin – a case of arbitrariness and legal uncertainty illustrating repressive developments in Turkey. Several years ago, the European Parliament voted to suspend Turkey's accession process, but that is no longer enough. Erdoğan shows no willingness to change course, quite the opposite. There is currently no credible way forward in the negotiations. That is why we Christian Democrats believe that Europe needs to continue to put its foot down. Turkey's accession process must not only be paused, it should be terminated and it is time to stand up for our fundamental principles and make it clear that repression is not accepted.

Madam President, thank you very much. The humanitarian situation in communist-controlled Cuba is appalling and deteriorating. Through the cooperation agreement between the EU and the Cuban regime, we are giving de facto legitimacy to a brutal dictatorship that cracks down on freedom of expression, imprisons dissidents and denies fundamental freedoms to its people. Even when the agreement was concluded, we Christian Democrats warned against the naive belief that increased cooperation would in itself lead to democratisation. Today we see the result: continued repression and, in addition, a Cuba that actively enables Russian recruitment of troops to the front in Ukraine – Cuban men lured with false promises of citizenship in exchange for fighting Putin’s illegal war. Just reviewing the partnership agreement is insufficient. It is high time that the EU showed solidarity with the Cuban people and suspended the agreement.

Madam President, thank you very much. "Down with Hamas," recently chanted brave Palestinians with their lives at stake, while spoiled Westerners would never take equivalent words in their mouths. On European streets and squares, terrorists continue to be portrayed as freedom fighters. Odai al-Rabei was only 22 years old when he was tortured and murdered as a punishment for his participation in the protests in Gaza. The same fate has met yet others who have expressed their anger at Hamas, which continues to hold 59 Israelis hostage, while at the same time making impossible the ceasefire that would free the Palestinians from the suffering of the war. The popular uprising may be small in scale, but its symbolic value is extraordinary. A two-state solution presupposes a Gaza free from Jew-hating terrorists, free from those who see only the Palestinian population as grateful civilian shields in the propaganda war against Israel. Unfortunately, the silence of the alleged pro-Palestinian group indicates that it was never about solidarity with the Palestinians, but hatred of the Jews. With such friends, the Palestinians need no enemies.