Speeches

Mr President, Commissioner, in Europe today, 35% of citizens are struggling to make ends meet. More than one in ten Europeans lives below the poverty line. The numbers of precariousness in Europe are constantly increasing. The economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and inflation are causing a frightening price spike. Too many European households now have to choose between feeding, caring, housing or providing for their children, and this is unacceptable. The weakening of a large part of the population among the working classes – and even some members of the middle classes now – combined with the often suicidal selfishness of the wealthiest seriously threatens European social cohesion. We cannot remain blind and deaf to the precariousness of all these people, victims of successive crises. The only acceptable European response, ladies and gentlemen, is solidarity.

Madam President, 11 September 1973 marked the end of the hope of the Chilean people, the end of a more just society embodied by Salvador Allende and his democratically elected government. Thousands of his supporters were tortured, maimed, murdered or disappeared under the ensuing bloody dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Tens of thousands of Chileans had to go into exile in order to have the right to live and to allow their children not to grow up under the regime of terror and to have a future for themselves. The Chilean path of socialism has aroused, and still arouses, enthusiasm and deep respect for Salvador Allende, as he succeeded in a genuine democratic revolution based on popular unity. On the strength of his victory, he had embarked on ambitious reforms, notably by redistributing agricultural land to the benefit of small farmers, but also by nationalizing the resources of the subsoil. Today, 50 years later, it is regrettable that Pinochet has never been tried for his crimes. And it is important not to forget what happened. Primordial to salute the memory of the victims of the dictatorship and all these broken destinies. 11 September is an important date for the conscience of humanity. It is up to us to do everything we can to ensure that this never happens again and that democracy removes the spectre of bloody dictatorship.

Mr President, as the leading cause of death in the world, air pollution caused at least 300 000 premature deaths in Europe alone in 2020. This air pollution also causes or aggravates many medical problems and represents a significant increase in healthcare costs. It is to stop this downward spiral that we will be voting on Wednesday on a whole series of measures to improve air quality in the European Union. Recreating a cleaner and healthier environment must be a priority. It is not because we do not see it that pollution does not exist and does not slowly distil, like a poison, in our organisms, in our environment, to the point of seriously endangering human health and the survival of biodiversity. This is therefore a priority, an emergency of general interest, for which we must propose ambitious responses. That is why I ask you, ladies and gentlemen, to fully support this text.

Madam President, the proposed law on nature restoration is an essential step to avoid ecosystem collapse and prevent the most serious effects of climate change and biodiversity loss. Once we said that, we said it all. For little, of course, that the general interest is our compass. And yet, two weeks ago, in the parliamentary committee, 50% of the Members present thought it smart to refuse the text. They found it more sympathetic or profitable to please the lobbies of multinationals in industry or petrochemicals and to reject the text. Once again, right-wingers, whether extremists, conservatives or even partly liberals, as they have been doing since the beginning of this legislature, continue to sabotage the environmentalist policies of this European Parliament and bury the Green Deal. So, ladies and gentlemen, if you care a little about future generations, I invite you to vote for this text.

Mr President, we must take steps to improve the protection of journalists and human rights defenders from abusive legal proceedings. These intimidation techniques, which often emanate from powerful organisations or individuals, are only intended to prevent these whistleblowers from speaking out and gagging them, in order to eliminate any alternative views. It is important that those who monitor matters of general interest, who are guarantors of the proper functioning of the rule of law, can enjoy their fundamental right to freedom of expression without fear of reprisals. Every time a journalist, a human rights defender, a trade union or any whistleblower is attacked for his or her ideas or work, the very foundations of democracy are attacked.

Madam President, it is high time to realise that water is a vital resource. Its scarcity in many European countries is one of the many consequences of global warming that even the most climate-sceptical can no longer deny without pretending to be crazy. The situation is serious, but not yet hopeless. Solutions exist. They require a real awareness of the value of water and better water management through the search for new resources. Also be careful to make the right choices. When I see that the States, to fill this lack of anticipation, are blindly embarking on the desalination of water, but with extremely energy-intensive processes – moreover, with fossil fuels – I wonder. I also wonder about the low interest in waste water recycling: Only 1% in France, 2% in the EU. Here too, it is time to move on to the twenty-first century. Finally, we must not be afraid, as I have been defending for a long time, to dare to change agricultural methods, to dare to select better-adapted plants and to dare to dare agroecology. It is not with dripping measures that we will emerge from this major crisis.

Madam President, this report on food security, given the context, is of even greater importance. But I'm puzzled: We find everything and its opposite. Good proposals, it is true, but also much less good ones. In any case, the negotiations on this report were able to remind those who doubted two clear findings: 1) It is obvious that the EPP has declared war on the Green Deal, in particular by defending dangerous positions on new pesticides; 2) the logic of the European conservatives, on a line of excessive productivism: They want to produce and produce more. I would remind those colleagues who are fanatical about productivism and the lobbies who gravitate around it that, every year in Europe, a quarter of the population is in a situation of food insecurity, but at the same time, a quarter of European food production is thrown away. The problem is therefore not so much to produce more, but to produce better and, above all, to distribute better. I also regret that almost nothing is said about food inflation, which has risen by more than 10% in the last 12 months and is bringing our citizens to their knees. Finally, I think that farmers, on the one hand, and consumers, on the other, suffering from precariousness, would have deserved a more progressive report than the one on the table.

Madam President, today is an important day. Today is the day when Europe takes a decisive decision on workers’ rights, ethics and morals, strengthening environmental protection. As we commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Rana Plaza tragedy and pay tribute to the more than 3 600 victims of this tragedy, we must remember that this tragedy is also the responsibility of European companies who preferred to turn a blind eye to a form of slavery of which they were ultimately complicit. My vote in favour of the text was therefore self-evident, having in particular been the draftsman of the opinion of the Committee on the Internal Market on this dossier.

Madam President, illegal practices relating to agricultural geographical indications account for 9% of the entire sector. It was therefore high time to revise the system so that it could fully benefit the rural economy, and achieve a higher level of protection, especially for e-commerce. I welcome the rapporteur, Paolo De Castro. I would stress three points: notorious advances in the field, such as banning the use of a GI in the name of a product where only one ingredient is a GI. Then, the automatic closure of fraudulent online domain names using GIs. Or the introduction of sustainability in product quality criteria. This is a real step forward for European producers, craftsmen and all consumers. Finally, as suggested by Eric Andrieu, my friend and winemaker, whose last plenary today, I will vote against Amendments 264, 266 and 267 that would weaken the PGI regulation for the wine sector.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, just nine years ago we voted on a resolution on the deplorable situation of workers in Qatar. For nine years, there has been nothing more like a resolution for the simple reason – and you explained it, Commissioner, in your very measured speech – that there has been progress on workers’ rights. So, of course, the situation is not perfect in Qatar today, far from it. Much progress remains to be made, but it is still the country that has embarked on the path of reforms. And the organisation of the World Cup, beyond all the events it organised, was probably the trigger that accelerated these reforms. It has to be recognised today that the abandonment of kafala, this system of worker dependency, is still the only country on the Arabian Peninsula that has done so. Minimum wage, payment to a bank account, organisation of consultations within companies, even if trade unions are still not allowed today. So today, the unilaterally negative discourse seems to me detrimental to the future development of rights in Qatar. Because what is important is that, once the lights of the World Cup have gone out, the positive development continues not only in Qatar, but that it can stain oil in all the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. And I would remind you that if there are two million migrant workers in Qatar, there are 40 million in the whole area and they all deserve a much better fate tomorrow than today.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it took about ten years, but finally we got there, finally a universal charger! So let's not sulk our pleasure in the ambient grayness. I feel the same way as I did five years ago, when we removed roaming – phone roaming charges – and therefore lowered phone bills. Our role in both cases has been to defend the interests of European consumer rights. But this is also an environmental victory. Indeed, there are 54 mobile phones sold per second worldwide, i.e. 1.7 billion per year, and thus just as many chargers. It is easy to imagine the thousands of tonnes of waste generated by these devices. We all have a drawer at home full of chargers we don’t know what to do with. Warm congratulations to the negotiators, and in particular to our colleague Alex Agius Saliba, for this great victory.

Madam President, I was making a few gestures to express exactly the same thing as the previous colleague: Interpreters are heard in chunks, in a hatched manner. So it is not a problem of connecting where we are because many of us have the same problem, and apparently in several languages. In any case, the French cabin is inaudible because the communication is chopped; It comes to us intermittently. I imagine that this is a technical problem that comes from there rather than from the receivers in our offices.

Madam President, in its 2018 resolution, the European Parliament had already referred to the case of Ahmed Mansoor. Three years later, nothing has changed and the situation has even deteriorated. Indeed, on 20 March 2021, Ahmed Mansoor began his fourth year in solitary confinement. He is serving a 10-year prison sentence for the crime of offending the status and prestige of the United Arab Emirates and its symbols, including its leaders, as part of his human rights activism. Prior to his arrest, Ahmed Mansoor was the only independent voice who dared to address human rights violations in the country, through his blog and Twitter account. He has been subjected to repeated death threats, intimidation and harassment by the authorities. He is now detained in Abu Dhabi Prison in critical condition. He is in solitary confinement and has only been allowed to leave his cell on very, very rare occasions. I deeply regret the timid and unsuccessful diplomatic approach taken so far by the European Union and its Member States, as it stands in stark contrast to human rights guidelines and commitments. Our patience has limits. It is time to act. First of all, we urge the High Representative of the European Union and the Member States to demand the release of Ahmed Mansour. Secondly, we call on the delegations of the European Union and the Member States in Abu Dhabi to provide all appropriate support to Ahmed Mansoor pending his release. And finally, we urge the European External Action Service to reconsider and suspend its informal human rights dialogue with the United Arab Emirates until significant progress has been demonstrated.

Mr President, Commissioner, the Saudi authorities had announced an ambitious programme of human rights reforms linked to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's plans to modernise the country. One of the key commitments was to abolish the use of the death penalty for minors. However, it is clear that the Saudi authorities have once again renounced their promises. On 15 June, Mustafa Hashem al-Darwish, a young Saudi from the Shia minority, was executed after being subjected to torture and a manifestly unfair trial. The next on the list could be Abdullah al-Howaiti. Some 40 other detainees are awaiting the same fate on death row in Saudi Arabia, including peaceful dissidents and people who have dared to criticize the Saudi regime. I am therefore surprised that the conservative right in this House, through the ECR Group, is saying that the use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia is decreasing. This goes completely against the facts, and the only reason why the number of executions was lower in 2020 than in previous years is due not to government reforms, but to COVID, as many trials have been postponed. This increase in executions is part of a broader pattern of deterioration of the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia, despite promises of reform. Indeed, many women activists are still imprisoned and those who have been released, such as Loujain al-Hathloul, face arbitrary restrictions on their rights, including the right to travel. These violations, and many others for that matter, continue to occur because there have never been established responsibilities for previous crimes, such as the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Both UN Special Rapporteur Callamard and US intelligence had established Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's personal responsibility for the murder. It is precisely this impunity that inspires further abuses. It is therefore imperative that the EU implements its global human rights sanctions regime against Saudi officials. And the leaders of the European institutions should no doubt interact with King Salman as head of state, not confer legitimacy on Mohammed bin Salman, treating him as such in the same way as the behaviour of the US administration and its President Joe Biden.