Speeches

Mr President, in a geopolitical environment increasingly defined by a great power rivalry and rising protectionism, the European Parliament highlights a critical truth: strengthening our bond with Canada is no longer just a choice, it is a strategic necessity. As we face an unstable transatlantic relationship with the US, marked by shifting priorities and economic friction, Canada remains our most reliable, like‑minded ally on the North American continent. We share more than values. We share a commitment to a rule‑based order and economic resilience. A vital pillar of this renewed partnership is our energy security. This report emphasises the urgency of deep cooperation in the nuclear energy sector, specifically with a modernised Canada-Euratom agreement. By collaborating on nuclear reactors and securing stable supply chains for nuclear fuel and critical minerals, we can break our dependencies on hostile actors and power our green transition together. In an era of fragmentation, let us choose the partner that stands with us. For a secure, sovereign Europe, we must look to Canada. Thank you, and I want to thank Tobias and the other fellow shadow rapporteurs for the very constructive approach in this debate. Thank you, Tobias.

Mr President, enlargement is no longer just a European policy today - it is our most powerful geopolitical tool for peace and security. For the Republic of Moldova, whose future is inextricably linked to the European Union, the path of accession is a historical necessity that we must support with utmost urgency. But we have to be honest: Enlargement can no longer be a one-way street. It is a moral necessity for the European Union to reform in parallel with the candidate countries we want to receive. We cannot simply demand transformations from others, while our own institutions remain in the romantic 90s. This adaptation means removing the ‘unanimity trap’, which has paralysed our ability to move and adapt. By removing the unanimity requirement and introducing qualified majority voting in enlargement matters, we are thus ensuring that no Member State can take our collective security hostage any longer, as is the case today. We must respond to the courage and aspirations of the Moldovan people - and of the other candidate states - with an agile, efficient and truly ready to lead Union. Our future depends on a European Union as bold as those who aspire to be part of it.

Madam President, this 28th regime is finally Europe's response to one of the most important crises we have faced in recent years. The fact that those successful European companies that were becoming profitable, that needed growth, had to leave the European market, going to America or to other European markets, to the UK, precisely for the difficulty of doing business in Europe. This regulation comes as a response to this challenge by setting up a new legal vehicle, a new European company, the possibility to set up for an entrepreneur, for an innovator, the possibility to set up a company in 48 hours, digitally, a company to be recognized in all European states. A company that can grow, adapt, stop running into bureaucracy and those bureaucratic bottlenecks that existed in one state or another. It is a necessary answer, it is a response through which the economy, European entrepreneurs receive an oxygen bubble and have the chance to develop their companies here in Europe. A response we've all been waiting for, a very good decision.

Madam President, I voted for this report because it is a tool through which patients across Europe will henceforth have access to basic medicines. Basically, states will now be obliged, European states, to provide stocks for those fundamental medicines that, in one country or another, over time, have been lacking, creating tremendous pressure on people and patients dependent on these medicines. Another important news is that the Republic of Moldova has been introduced into the European mechanism for the purchase of medicines and has reduced the number of community purchases from the standard of 9 states to 5, which makes the whole mechanism much more, more efficient, so that the risk of a patient running out of a medicine on which his life depends is very small. A necessary report, a report to be welcomed. The quality of life of European patients is getting better now.

Madam President, the 2025 report reveals a stark 'deterioration of the global human rights landscape', nowhere more visible than in our Eastern Neighbourhood. We witness 'territories under military occupation' and Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, where sexual violence is brutally deployed as a 'weapon of war'. Simultaneously, we see a proliferation of 'foreign agents laws', including in 'countries with EU candidate status', designed to silence the very civil society we aim to support. We must honour the courage of persecuted journalists like the 2025 Sakharov laureates from Belarus and Georgia. How must the EU act? First, we must aggressively counter the 'disinformation campaigns' targeting our candidate countries. Second, our financial support requires strict adherence to values; we must implement a 'human rights and democracy conditionality rule' in the Global Europe instrument. Finally, we must end impunity. This means full support for the International Criminal Court and the expansion of the 'EU global human rights sanctions regime' to target those who destroy democracy on our borders.

Mr President, the reports are clear: an arc of instability has formed around us, from the Zapad military exercises on our borders to airspace violations in Poland, the Baltics and Romania. Regarding Ukraine, we must establish a defensive European-led Integrated Air Protection Zone, employing combat air patrols to intercept Russian projectiles over uncontested areas. We must also use frozen Russian assets to fund the direct integration of the Ukrainian defence industry into our own Single Market. We must physically secure the neighbourhood. This requires extending military mobility corridors, such as Rail Baltica and the Black Sea Highway, directly to the eastern flank, and fully operationalising the Eastern Flank Watch to secure our borders. On democracy, we must be decisive. We should impose targeted sanctions on the Georgian Dream leaders responsible for democratic backsliding, while reinforcing the EUPM mission in Moldova to counter the hybrid war being waged by Russia there. As Europeans, we must provide security, not only consume it.