What Sophia spoke about.

31 May

2023

EN Speech

Breaches of the Rule of law and fundamental rights in Hungary and frozen EU funds (debate)

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Mr President, colleagues, Commissioner, the reason for today’s debate was concerning and irritating signals that the Commission, Commissioner Hahn, was close to a deal with the Orbán government. However, I think we should make it very clear that there is no deal, because there are no negotiations. There is an assessment of the compliance with the criteria, which incidentally concern the rule of la…

10 May

2023

EN Speech

Adequacy of the protection afforded by the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (debate)

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Mr President, well, Commissioner, of course you deserve 10/10 for trying. The problem is that I was here when Safe Harbor was defended by the European Commission with the same vigour. It was shot down by Schrems 1. Then came Privacy Shield, and the European Parliament said, “we don’t believe it’s watertight”. “No, no, no”, said the commission, this is watertight, it’s fantastic. And then came Schr…

10 May

2023

EN Question

Update of the anti-corruption legislative framework (debate)

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It’s a very simple question. Wouldn’t you think it would be a great idea if all EU Member States, including your own, were members of EPPO?

10 May

2023

EN Speech

Update of the anti-corruption legislative framework (debate)

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Madam President, colleagues, Commissioner, corruption is a poison that sometimes kills quite literally. Like in one country, hospitals sold in a crooked deal. In another country, dozens of young people killed in a train crash despite the hundreds of millions of EU funds that were supposed to be spent on railroad security. Journalists that are exposing corruption are murdered. And, yes, also Qatarg…

30 Mar

2023

EN Speech

2022 Rule of Law Report - The rule of law situation in the European Union - Rule of law in Greece - Rule of law in Spain - Rule of law in Malta (debate)

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Mr President, colleagues, the rule of law has sadly been reduced to tribal mud—slinging between the political parties, political party interests over principles. But the rule of law has no party affiliation, dear friends: if the rule of law is undermined, all citizens pay the price. The EPP has drawn absolutely no lessons from 12 years of Orbán in your midst, and you are still passionately defendi…

16 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Lack of actions taken by the Commission in the context of the duty of sincere and loyal cooperation (debate)

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Mr President, Madam Commissioner, Madam or Mr Absent Council, I can see the Member States are very interested in this debate. Not. Today, we are talking about lack of sincere cooperation, which is essentially euro-speak for stonewalling or even omertà, as I would call it. Don’t be fooled by all the nice words that the Council and the Commission speak about European values, because they are all com…

15 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Combating discrimination in the EU - the long-awaited horizontal anti-discrimination directive (debate)

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Mr President, Madam Commissioner, Madam Minister, we’ve been waiting for almost 15 years. I fear Godot is going to get here before the directive does. I hear the Council strongly supports the principle of equal treatment. Well, apparently not. I know that Sweden does, so I’m not looking at you. But clearly the Council does not, because it’s all a matter of priorities. It says, ‘Oh, difficult, diff…

15 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Deaths at sea: a common EU response to save lives and action to ensure safe and legal pathways (debate)

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Mr President, first of all, I would like to thank the Commissioner for her words. I think that, as a Parliament, we should endorse your line of action. You said, Commissioner, ‘imagine you are one of those people’. I think this is where the problem begins: we have dehumanised those people. We cannot imagine anymore what it feels like because we have dehumanised them. It always strikes me how we ar…

15 Feb

2023

EN Speech

EUCO conclusions: the need for the speedy finalisation of the Road Map (debate)

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Madam President, colleagues, I think before we are going into the substance of the matter, let’s just remind ourselves briefly of the official role of the European Council as defined by the Treaties. It is neither a legislator nor a budget authority, and giving instructions to the European Commission constitutes nothing less than a grave violation of the Treaties. Just saying. Meanwhile, all the p…

15 Feb

2023

EN Speech

The erosion of the rule of law in Greece: the wiretapping scandal and media freedom (topical debate)

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Mr President, a mushrooming political spying scandal touching even some of the colleagues present here. Systematic, illegal pushbacks of migrants. The murder of journalist Karaivaz still unresolved after two years. The Novartis scandal. Allegations of Mafia infiltration in the police. And today, the fresh, very alarming revelations on Team Jorge, a hack—for—hire firm in Israel, making money out of…

13 Feb

2023

EN Speech

Order of business

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Madam President, it’s always a joy to hear the EPP reproaching the rest of us for being hypocrites. Just to frame the issue a little bit, I think we should have a debate and remind the European Council of the fact that their conclusions are actually a political statement; the European Council is neither a legislator nor the budgetary authority, contrary to the European Parliament. The migration is…

1 Feb

2023

EN Speech

Preparation of the Special European Council meeting of February, in particular the need to develop sustainable solutions in the area of asylum and migration (debate)

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Mr President, the debate on migration at the next Council summit is most necessary and not a day too soon, because after seven years of complete stagnation on the asylum and migration package in the Council, it’s time for action. Seven years sur place, no summit on massive illegal pushbacks, on thousands of deaths as a result. No summit on dramatic reception conditions in Moria, Calais, Ter Apel, …

14 Dec

2022

EN Speech

Preparation of the European Council meeting of 15 December 2022 (debate)

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Mr President, dear colleagues, I think the importance of the decision to finally apply the rule—of—law conditionality cannot be overestimated, and I’ll be a bit out of character, but I’ll pay compliments to the European Commission here for doing the right thing and sticking to its guns. I also welcome the decision of the Council, and compliments to the Czech Presidency to largely endorse that deci…

13 Dec

2022

EN Speech

Suspicions of corruption from Qatar and the broader need for transparency and accountability in the European institutions (debate) (debate)

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Mr President, colleagues – shock, disbelief, anger: I believe we all went through the roller coaster last weekend as, bit by bit, we learned about the corruption scandal that took place in our midst. And we are still reeling – or at least that’s the way I feel. We are all devastated to see how the criminal acts of Members, former Members and staff of the European Parliament have deeply damaged the…

23 Nov

2022

EN Speech

Legal protection for rainbow families exercising free movement, in particular the Baby Sara case (debate)

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Mr President, just very briefly, in this Hemicycle we do not tolerate racist statements, anti-Semitic statements, sexist statements. And I would just like to say for the record that we should not tolerate homophobic statements either. The remark made just now by our French EPP colleague is profoundly homophobic. I find it regrettable to hear that kind of language in this Hemicycle. And I would rea…

23 Nov

2022

EN Speech

Legal protection for rainbow families exercising free movement, in particular the Baby Sara case (debate)

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Mr President, Madam Commissioner, I don’t think that we are here today to try and convince you of the rights of LGBTI people and rainbow families, because we know that you are convinced. However, we are talking here about applying the law. And I have to say, I find that the Commission is too timid in enforcing case—law. The von der Leyen Commission generally, but certainly in these kinds of cases,…

23 Nov

2022

EN Speech

The need for a European solution on asylum and migration including search and rescue (debate)

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Mr President, colleagues, the joint Parliament and Council roadmap gives reason for cautious optimism. It gives us a chance to move forward together. And this Parliament, as always, will do everything within its power to deliver before the end of term. But it can only fly if the Council takes its responsibility and agrees on an instrument for a truly common European policy. But colleagues it’s not…

21 Nov

2022

EN Speech

Assessment of Hungary's compliance with the rule of law conditions under the Conditionality Regulation and state of play of the Hungarian RRP (debate)

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Madam President, dear Commissioner, dear absent Council, the Commission is assessing Hungary’s compliance with the 17 very weak conditions for the release of funds. A child can see that they have not remotely been met. So the conclusion can be fairly simple: no compliance, no money. Now, this is the view of the vast majority of this House. But Orbán wields massive power because the European Counci…

17 Oct

2022

EN Speech

The Rule of Law in Malta, five years after the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia (debate)

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Madam President, colleagues, today we honour Daphne Caruana Galizia. First and foremost, our thoughts are with the family. They have lost a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister. Yesterday, many people in Malta gathered to commemorate Daphne. That is heart—warming because it is a moment for national unity. At such moments, there is no place for partisan divisions, and it is for political leadership…

5 Oct

2022

EN Speech

The accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues. As we have heard, the assessment that Bulgaria and Romania are ready for accession to Schengen has been made a long time ago by the experts and by the Commission already back in 2011. It is now 2022, 11 years later and, colleagues, I feel ashamed. I feel ashamed towards the Bulgarian and the Romanian citizens who rightly feel that they are not treated equally and …

4 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Commission proposal for measures under the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation in the case of Hungary (debate)

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You just asked, dear colleague, whoever decided on these European values. Well, my question to you is: do you know which country was the first country to ratify the Lisbon Treaty? It was Hungary. And I think all the values were laid down in the Treaties. So don’t you think that Hungary was one of those who decided on the values?…

4 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Commission proposal for measures under the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation in the case of Hungary (debate)

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Mr President, first of all, I note that we are having this debate with the Budget Commissioner, Commissioner Hahn, instead of President von der Leyen, despite the fact that in my view the rule of law is . It is not a budget matter. I’m sorry, Commissioner, I disagree with you. This is not about protecting the budget of the European Union: it is about protecting our common values. That’s what the r…

12 Sep

2022

EN Speech

Surveillance and predator spyware systems in Greece (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, now imagine that you’re a Greek journalist or indeed an opposition leader, or you’re a Hungarian NGO, or you’re a Polish lawyer or a Catalan politician, and you’re listening to this debate and you say, ‘I’m so reassured, Europe is going to protect me.’ I do not think so. Because I believe you when you’re personally saying that you’re committed to privacy and d…

6 Jul

2022

EN Speech

Presentation of the programme of activities of the Czech Presidency (continuation of debate)

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Madam President, I have three points for the Prime Minister. First of all, on migration, the Council for years now has aimed for a minimal and incomplete package that is best summarised as ‘Fortress Europe’, whereas the European Parliament wants a coherent package that will allow us to actually manage migration. We have asked the Council to commit, together with the European Parliament, to take th…

4 Jul

2022

EN Speech

Loss of life, violence and inhumane treatment against people seeking international protection at the Spanish-Moroccan border (debate)

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Madam President, Madam Commissioner, I note that, as usual, the Council is absent, apparently it doesn’t care. Twenty-three people dead or 37 people dead, we don’t know, but, as so often before, we are all horrified. And then I ask myself, how many more times are we going to have this debate? Because we’ve had it many times before, and then we say the policy is failing and oh, it’s people smuggler…