What Tatjana spoke about.

8 May

2023

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Watch

Mr President, dear colleagues, today is the anniversary of the victory over Nazism in World War Two. In the calendar of the European Parliament for this year, on page 18, we see that only three Member States – France, the Czech Republic and Slovakia – celebrate the day that Nazi Germany signed its surrender act. And this is very surprising. If it was not for 8 May 1945, there would not be Europe D…

19 Apr

2023

EN Speech

This is Europe - Debate with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel (debate)

Watch

Madam President, dear Mr Bettel, you told in your speech about the rule of law in the European Union. But do you agree that the rule of law toolbox, recently introduced, is not working? By my opinion, just the disappearance of the resolutions of rule of law in Spain, Malta and Greece in this plenary is approval of this fact. We commemorate today the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. My grandparents w…

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)

Watch

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, our Parliament was fighting long and hard to launch the rule of law toolbox in the EU in sight. When reading the country report on 2022, I am posing myself the question, ‘Was all this fight for nothing?’. It is evident that the method of desk research used by the Commission for country reports is completely ineffective. When we discussed in February the wire…

14 Mar

2023

EN Speech

European Semester for economic policy coordination 2023 - European Semester for economic policy coordination: Employment and social priorities for 2023 (debate)

Watch

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, in this crisis situation, people and only people may be at the forefront. The employment report calls on the Member States to rapidly implement the provisions established in the minimum wage Directive, saying that decent wages are an essential tool in helping households keep up with rising energy prices. Let's take some examples of how these ideas are imp…

13 Mar

2023

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Watch

Mr President, to my regret, I have continued to speak about political prisoners in my country, Latvia, since the wheel of repressions is not stopping. Now, one month ago, it has captured the young student girl, Tatjana Andreyevs. Her guilt is just activities to defend minority schools and to oppose the destruction of the monuments for the liberators of Latvia from Nazi occupiers. Our state securit…

15 Feb

2023

EN Speech

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

Watch

Madam President, I am from Latvia, our president, when addressing this Chamber yesterday, said that our values, our legal system, make the European way of life attractive for us and for others. Today’s debate shows that these words are very far from reality, not only in Greece, Spain and Poland but in my country, Latvia, as well. Life in Latvian prison, where student Tatiana Andriets was thrown so…

16 Jan

2023

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Watch

Mr President, it seems that the right to freedom of expression and prohibition of discrimination on grounds of political opinion is not more protected in the EU. My country, Latvia, is often formally praised for including citizens’ initiatives in the legislative process. But what if initiators are proposing to deprive a large number of citizens of the rights guaranteed in the EU Charter of Fundame…

21 Nov

2022

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Watch

Madam President, during this summer and autumn, more than 70 monuments to the liberators of Latvia from German Nazi occupiers were dismantled, despite the decision of the UN Human Rights Committee urging Latvia to refrain from demolition. I was among those who addressed the committee. It appeared that the land on which one of the monuments was staying belonged to my ancestors, victims of the Holoc…

17 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States (debate)

Watch

Mr President, dear colleagues, the Commission is putting forward the document like only the existing challenges are to be solved: gender pay gap, tackling undeclared work, youth employment, etc. But being previously the Rapporteur on guidelines, I agree that these are certainly important issues, but these are not the main challenges the employment market will face in the upcoming period. In—work p…

14 Sep

2022

EN Speech

Situation of fundamental rights in the EU in 2020 and 2021 (debate)

Watch

Mr President, as usual, when speaking about the situation on fundamental rights in the EU, we avoid to name concrete Member States – it’s the difference with a similar report on non-EU. I’ll try to fill in a bit the gap but not with the example of Hungary. When we are concerned about the schooling of children from minority backgrounds, we have to mention three Baltic States, especially my country,…

13 Sep

2022

LV Speech

Adequate minimum wages in the European Union (debate)

Watch

President. Commissioner, Colleagues, I welcome the adoption of the directive on minimum wages, but we must recognise that this is only a small first step towards social justice in all Member States. This directive in itself will not help to bridge the huge gap between rich and poor, and in all respects to unbalance wage levels in rich and poor European countries. For example, in my country, Latvia…

4 Jul

2022

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Watch

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, political prosecutions in the Baltic States are going on. Six years for investigative journalism – this was the verdict of the Lithuanian Appeal Court against Algirdas Paleckis at the beginning of May. In my country, Latvia, a number of politically motivated arrests of political activists and even people being far from politics, took place during the last…

22 Jun

2022

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Watch

Madam President, colleagues, we are today 22 June, the day Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union 91 years ago. In one week they were already in Riga. I sounded, one month ago, the alarm about the decision of Riga City Council to demolish the monument to the liberators of Riga and Latvia from Nazi occupation. But last Thursday, the Parliament of Latvia passed the law that provides for the dismantl…

18 May

2022

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Watch

Madam President, sadly, a great propaganda campaign was launched in my country, Latvia, to advocate for the demolition of memorial sites and beautiful places of soldiers of the World War II, accompanied by numerous acts of vandalism. Last Friday, the Riga City Council decided to demolish the biggest memorial monument to the liberators of Riga and Latvia from Nazi occupation. The protest action aga…

2 May

2022

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Watch

Mr President, six years in a Lithuanian prison for investigative journalism. Yes, that is sentence of the first instance court sentence to Algirdas Paleckis, an outstanding journalist and politician. His guilt was to make his investigation into the events of 1991 in Vilnius when Soviet troops clashed with civilians since he doubted the official version of them. The Court of Appeal verdict had to b…

9 Mar

2022

EN Speech

EU Citizenship Report 2020 (debate)

Watch

Mr President, today we are discussing the EU citizenship report. Let’s ask the following question: which notion describes the situation that is the opposite to the possession of citizenship? Your answer would be ‘statelessness’. But this is not a complete answer because some stateless people are not actually stateless, while at the same time they are not citizens of any state. This interesting spe…

9 Mar

2022

EN Speech

European Semester for economic policy coordination: annual sustainable growth survey 2022 – European Semester for economic policy coordination: employment and social aspects in the annual sustainable growth strategy survey 2022 (debate)

Watch

Madam President, we have to admit that the European Union is in a deep global crisis, or even recession. It’s not just COVID-19 shock, as written in the Commission paper on the annual sustainable growth survey 2022. In such a crisis situation, people and only people can be at the forefront as the saviour and engine of development. The Commission paper refers to the four mutually reinforcing dimens…

16 Feb

2022

EN Speech

EU-Russia relations, European security and Russia’s military threat against Ukraine (debate)

Watch

Madam President, I could not imagine until today that the Nazi slogan, the slogan of Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, would be pronounced from this tribune so many times and echoed in the Hemicycle. We are living in the time of information wars, and one of the instruments is, of course, the slogan. One of the instruments is disinformation, and we are giving an example of it now by having the titl…

19 Jan

2022

EN Speech

Situation in Kazakhstan

Watch

Mr President, it will take a lot of time to investigate deeply the events of January 2022 in Kazakhstan but, nevertheless, our Parliament has once more assumed the role of judge. I have several questions in connection with the proposed resolution. When urging the Kazakhstan authorities to refrain from applying charges of terrorism too broadly, is our Parliament not applying too broadly such defini…

15 Dec

2021

EN Speech

Deliberations of the Committee on Petitions in 2020 (debate)

Watch

Mr President, I quote from this deliberations report, ‘Calls on the Commission to play a more active role in the Committee on Petitions to ensure the citizens receive a detailed and understandable response’. But has this call has appeared in the deliberations report for the first time? Not at all. It is becoming a bad tradition just to mention in the annual report of the Committee on Petitions (PE…

18 Oct

2021

EN Speech

Employment and social policies of the euro area 2021 (debate)

Watch

Madam President, I would like to congratulate Lina Gálvez Muñoz for this very balanced report, highlighting the new challenges in the employment and social area. The new reality we faced during the last year and a half brought a number of new employment arrangements. Home offices became part of everyday life for millions of people. It caused not only technical issues and very important income prob…

14 Sep

2021

EN Speech

EU Blue Card Directive (debate)

Watch

Mr President, yes, to be honest, we were hoping for a more ambitious text of this Blue Card Directive, especially in what concerns social protection of card-holders and their families. Nevertheless, the compromise is a compromise, and we have to mention now positive changes in what concerns equal treatment. Cardholders have equal treatment with nationals as regards working conditions, education, s…