What Younous spoke about.

2

Oct

2023

FR Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, Commissioner, if the world is an island, the world is also a world of islands. From the great Australia to the smallest atolls, there are 300 000 islands and each of them is a world of possibilities still too ignored in the light of the challenges of this century. In terms of climate, biodiversity, control of shipping and trade routes, energy and also the promises of the great oce…

11

Sep

2023

FR Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, in this civilised world, one in ten earthlings suffer from chronic hunger. In our rich Europe, 90 million people are at risk of poverty. Today, with inflation, food banks, as in France, are out of breath and one in three French people no longer eat enough. Call it what you want: I say that these are crimes, crimes that we are accommodating ourselves to. And let’s be honest, the daily…

31

May

2023

FR Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, it is always a pain to point your own country at our European Parliament. But duty obliges me to tell you about the authoritarian drift of power in France, the weakening of the separation of powers between the legislature and the executive. And this afternoon, very seriously, in the French National Assembly, the questioning of the constitutional rights of the parliamentary opposition…

20

Apr

2023

FR Speech

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Cohesion dimension of EU state aid and de minimis rules (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, last month the European Commission amended the General Block Exemption Regulation to facilitate support for the green, digital and industrial transitions. The Commission also carried out a consultation for the revision of the Regulation. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, in the face of the consequences of the war in Ukraine and the US Inflation R…

17

Apr

2023

FR Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, if there is any intellectual terror today, it is the terror that is beating down on the possibility of defending the Palestinian people. Where are the big voices? But it is true that there are no longer large voices to denounce the violence committed by the Israeli army in the middle of Ramadan in the compound of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Where are the great and beautiful Euro…

29

Mar

2023

FR Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, there are national issues which are European issues and which we need to talk about here. Our duty today is to talk about the brutal repression, like nowhere else in Europe, that is currently taking place in France. As I speak to you, Commissioner, a protester remains between life and death. Ladies and gentlemen, France, a country that was a beacon for freedoms in the world, is now t…

13

Mar

2023

FR Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, I have a question for the Commission. Will it, as announced, oppose sustainable fishing and the maintenance of the great marine ecological balances in the Indian Ocean, oppose the artisanal fishermen of Reunion Island, veto the courageous and responsible decision of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission to ban floating FADs 72 days a year? Will the Commission thereby confirm its submissio…

16

Feb

2023

FR Speech

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Availability of fertilisers in the EU (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, first of all, I would like to thank the Chair of the Committee, Mr Lins, for this very important debate, which talks about the difficulties faced by farmers across Europe since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the explosion in fertiliser prices. Commissioner, on the island of Réunion, since the beginning of the war, the price of fertilisers has doubled from EUR…

15

Dec

2022

FR Speech

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The humanitarian situation in Ukraine due to Russia’s attacks against critical infrastructure and civilian areas (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, to those who accompany their condemnation of Russia with nuances, in the face of what is the most serious act of decivilisation in Europe since the Second World War, I say: “Aren’t you afraid, in times of war, to strengthen the enemy? Have you not perceived that Vladimir Putin has been leading an authoritarian, nationalist, identity-based, religious and reactionary f…

15

Dec

2022

FR Speech

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The 30th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, I come from a people, the people of Reunion, who suffered a lot, who were born of a crime against humanity, slavery, and who experienced colonisation, repression and denial of their language and identity. We have, through our struggles, survived this, but through our experience, we know what it means not to be able to speak one's language, not to be able to practice …

14

Dec

2022

FR Speech

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Upscaling the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (debate)

Madam President, two years ago, when the Member States agreed on the budget, it was before the war in Ukraine. This was before the ensuing humanitarian, social, economic, migration and energy crises. That was before the terrible inflation. Today, the crises are here. They combine and are sustainable. They are a real challenge to give themselves the fiscal capacity to better cope with the accidents…

21

Nov

2022

FR Speech

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

Madam President, Commissioner, this is not the time to compromise on principles, nor to give in to the heinous blackmail of Mr Orbán, who is using the war in Ukraine to bend us. Let us remember, in Hungary, the seers are always red, because for years, all principles have been one by one trampled underfoot: freedom of the press, independence of the judiciary, undermining the principle of fair elect…

20

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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Commission implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1614 of 15 September 2022 determining the existing deep-sea fishing areas and establishing a list of areas where vulnerable marine ecosystems are known to occur or are likely to occur (debate)

Dear colleague, I hear your comment, but we are here in the European Parliament and we are used to embracing the general European interest. And when it comes to challenging Member States’ attitudes and positions in the European Council, we do and there is nothing to be moved about. I want to tell you that you claim to defend fishermen, but if we continue at the current rate of predation, there wil…

20

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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Commission implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1614 of 15 September 2022 determining the existing deep-sea fishing areas and establishing a list of areas where vulnerable marine ecosystems are known to occur or are likely to occur (debate)

Madam President, we are not fooled by the game of France, which, behind the scenes, continues to act as the best arm of the industrial fishing lobbies to prevent the closure, from 400 metres deep, of all ecosystems vulnerable to all fishing methods affecting the seabed, which has become absolutely necessary. Nor are we fooled by Spain, which intends to take the Commission to the Court of Justice t…

19

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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Fighting sexualised violence - The importance of the Istanbul Convention and a comprehensive proposal for a directive against gender-based violence (debate)

Madam President, my dear colleague, thank you for your speech. In this debate, as Karima Delli pointed out, only two men spoke on the podium and we are only two or three men here. The question I am asking you is this: Does that worry you? What lessons do you learn for our Assembly? Clearly, this extremely important debate on the Istanbul Convention against Sexual Violence against Women is a fight …

5

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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Humanitarian situation after the devastating floods in Pakistan and the climate crisis (debate)

Mr President, this summer the monsoon season has turned into an absolute disaster in Pakistan. Pakistan, it has been said, emits only 0.3% of greenhouse gases. And yet, today it is paying a heavy price for climate change which, combined with the unequal order of the world, is a real double penalty for poor countries and will be even more destabilizing on a global scale tomorrow. Here and there, I …

4

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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

– Mr Rzońca, I thought I had to answer a serious question, but I believe that you are forcing me to lower myself to a level to which I do not wish to lower myself. And I also want to tell you that we are Members of the European Parliament here, that we are trying to embrace the general European interest, and that in my words I did not attack anyone. I have made general remarks on the rule of law m…

4

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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

Madam President, Minister, Commissioner, I remember a time not so far away when, in the Council, there was no opposition when it came to deploying the troika to force Greece, Portugal and Spain to clean up their national budgets and subject them to the authoritarian doxa of the ‘austerity’ policies of the European Semester. But when it comes to corruption, the independence of the judiciary, our va…

4

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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Key objectives for the CITES CoP19 meeting in Panama (debate)

Madam President, EUR 100 000 for an obscene rhino hunt, EUR 15 000 for a buffalo head, a few thousand euros for an elephant horn, a few euros for a rosewood board, and how much for the alleged aphrodisiac virtues of pangolin scales? It is at this price – EUR 195 billion a year, almost the equivalent of drug trafficking – that the brutal exploitation of nature by man and, let us say, the crimes of …

4

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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Situation of Roma people living in settlements in the EU (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, in the heart of the European Union are Roma ghettos made up of slums on mountains of waste, with no access to drinking water, no roads, no equitable access to healthcare, education, the labour market and social assistance. It is this medieval reality that we were confronted with during our REGI mission to eastern Slovakia, and this reality is the same acros…

14

Sep

2022

FR Speech

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Economic, social and territorial cohesion in the EU: the 8th Cohesion Report - EU border regions: living labs of European integration (debate)

Mr President, perhaps we should have reversed the order of the speeches in order for Constanze Krehl to have the final say in this debate. And for the third time, I obviously want to pay tribute to the very extraordinary work that has been done by Constanze Krehl in the REGI Committee. And I believe that there are few Members who can say that, by their action, the concrete life of European citizen…

14

Sep

2022

FR Speech

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Economic, social and territorial cohesion in the EU: the 8th Cohesion Report - EU border regions: living labs of European integration (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, allow me to warmly congratulate Constanze Krehl on his excellent 8th report on cohesion in Europe, which I am sure will be overwhelmingly adopted tomorrow in plenary. With regard to border regions, I am convinced that these regions, which cover 40% of European territory – one in four Europeans, almost 120 million Europeans living o…

13

Sep

2022

FR Speech

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Consequences of drought, fire, and other extreme weather phenomena: increasing EU's efforts to fight climate change (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, we have entered an era of unforeseeable global disorder and major upheavals at EU level. Energy poverty, food insecurity, loss of the living world, geopolitical risks, pandemics, demographic upheavals and natural disasters make the future uncertain. And what we are sure of is that whatever climate path we take, the climate will continue to get bogged down with the multi…

6

Jul

2022

FR Speech

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The situation of indigenous and environmental defenders in Brazil, including the killing of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

Madam President, in Brazil, reality is cold in the back. Each year, 13,000 square kilometres of forests are burned. This is 120 times the city of Paris. Yet it is the defenders of indigenous peoples and the forest who are being hunted down by a criminal government with only one policy: plundering, looting and destroying a 55 million-year-old biological heritage, a common good of humanity. I say it…

5

Jul

2022

FR Speech

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EU initiatives to address the rising cost of living, including the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, while we are talking, a minority of speculators shamelessly continue to profit from crises and war, when European citizens suffer. They are suffering from soaring prices in all sectors, including food and energy, and, it must be said, after the years of the COVID-19 crisis, our European peoples are exhausted. They are exhausted from seeing their living conditions contin…