What Frédérique spoke about.

24 Apr

2024

FR Speech

Packaging and packaging waste (A9-0319/2023 - Frédérique Ries) (vote)

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Madam President, with this legislation on packaging and packaging waste, we are finally putting this huge European sector on the road to circularity, focusing on recycling and re-use. I am particularly proud, among all the elements that we managed to put on board this regulation, that Parliament, together, we managed to impose the ban on PFAS in food packaging. It is a world first that we are maki…

24 Apr

2024

FR Speech

Iran’s unprecedented attack against Israel, the need for de-escalation and an EU response (debate)

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Mr President, there is therefore this rhetoric that abstains and percolates, which is well understood here. On the night of April 13, for the first time, Tehran attacked Israel directly on its soil, without going through intermediaries, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis. Six months after the fundamental trauma of 7 October, this night of horror would be a justified response and would somehow settle th…

10 Apr

2024

FR Speech

Union code relating to medicinal products for human use - Union procedures for the authorisation and supervision of medicinal products for human use and rules governing the European Medicines Agency (joint debate - Pharmaceutical package)

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Madam President, Commissioner, eight months now of negotiations, some 100 meetings, burden-free procedures, to revisit this important pharmaceutical legislation. This is a veritable legislative marathon that needs to be summarised in one minute here. In the impossible, no one is bound, and our rapporteurs have already said the essentials. It is basically a matter of confronting the silent threat o…

18 Oct

2023

FR Speech

The despicable terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel, Israel’s right to defend itself in line with humanitarian and international law and the humanitarian situation in Gaza (debate)

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Mr President, ‘Never again’, the promise made to the survivors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, the ‘Never again’, also, of our founding fathers, who rebuilt hope on a field of ruins, that ‘Never again’ which shattered on Saturday 7 October at dawn, in a pogrom no doubt worse than the worst of the Holocaust, even if comparing the unspeakable to the unspeakable is meaningless – except, after all, that …

3 Oct

2023

FR Speech

Medicine shortages and strategic healthcare autonomy in the EU (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, a total of 3 000 medicines missed the call in Belgium last year, from the most mundane molecules, paracetamol, to those that save lives. We're approaching the health emergency here. Shortages are endemic and the trend is alarming in three out of four Member States. The communication you have just announced, Commissioner, on measures against shortages is obviously going …

12 Sep

2023

FR Speech

Iran: one year after the murder of Jina Mahsa Amini (debate)

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Mr President, Mr High Representative, it was on 16 September last year that Mahsa Amini was killed by the morality police. It was just a year ago. One year also that the Iranian women do not disarm; a year that, joined by young people, by students, by intellectuals, by traders, they challenge every day the regime of the mullahs of Tehran. A regime that imprisons, tortures, executes; a regime that …

19 Apr

2023

FR Speech

Universal decriminalization of homosexuality, in light of recent developments in Uganda (debate)

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Mr President, Minister, Commissioner, ‘there is no place for homosexuals in this country’. These words shock us deeply. They are, however, from Ugandan Minister Musa Ecweru, who pronounced them last month in the Kampala Parliament, after the almost unanimous adoption of an anti-LGBT+ law. Fourteen years minimum prison, even the death penalty outright, for same-sex relationships. A duty of denuncia…

19 Apr

2023

FR Speech

Children forcibly deported from Ukraine and the ICC arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ‘I am so happy, so happy to be back home’. These are the first words to his mother from Bogdan, back in Kiev after six months of deportation. Because the scenario is almost always the same: On the eve of the holiday, young Ukrainians are sent "to settlement" in Crimea, and often they never return. The holiday camp has simply become a rehabilitation camp. Sixteen thousan…

16 Mar

2023

FR Speech

European Citizens’ Initiative "Save bees and farmers! Towards a bee-friendly agriculture for a healthy environment" (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, when more than one million Europeans, citizens of Europe, ask us to save bees and farmers, we have to hear them. They actually ask us three things to change the model. The end of synthetic pesticides by 2035. In all honesty, I don't know if we'll make it. On the other hand, reducing our dependence on pesticides is a matter of course. And our previous resolutions, tha…

15 Mar

2023

FR Speech

Cambodia: the case of opposition leader Kem Sokha

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Mr President, releasing Kem Sokha, the leader of the Cambodian opposition, is the message that our Parliament is hammering out this evening. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison on March 3 in a parody of justice, and he is the latest political prisoner in a regime that is unable, more than ever, to tolerate any dissenting voice. Whether it is political, like that of Kem Sokha, dozens of opponent…

17 Jan

2023

FR Speech

EU response to the protests and executions in Iran (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, in fact, and also in French: women, life, freedom. And it was here in Strasbourg yesterday that the cry of the women of Sanandaj, Zahedan and Tehran resonated. About 15,000 people gathered from all over Europe for women, for Iran and against the Pasdaran, the guardians of the revolution who are nothing but the armed arm of repression. Mohammad Karami, Seyed Hosseini …

16 Jan

2023

FR Speech

Shipments of waste (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, I would like to start by thanking our rapporteur, Mrs Weiss, for this spirit of openness, this spirit of compromise, which has made it possible to achieve a collective result of which we can be proud. With this far-reaching reform of the European waste shipment rules, we have set our sights on the ambition: better protect the environment and health, avoid that some coun…

13 Dec

2022

FR Speech

Prospects for the two-State solution for Israel and Palestine (debate)

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Mr President, I therefore have a minute to tell you why I consider this text unsatisfactory. Thirteen recitals and twenty-six paragraphs, often unbalanced, which basically list grievances but offer nothing. We have to wait five pages to finally talk about the future and solutions – this is the title of our resolution. Two essential paragraphs, however, on peace from below, on the importance of civ…

22 Nov

2022

FR Speech

EU response to the increasing crackdown on protests in Iran (debate)

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Madam President, I would like to talk to you about Kian Pirfalak tonight. Kian was nine years old, a little boy who built pile cars, wooden boats, who dreamed of becoming an engineer when he grew up one day. But here it is, Kian will never be big. He was shot dead last week by police on his way back from school with his parents by car. And his father is still seriously injured. Kian is the younges…

21 Nov

2022

FR Speech

Prevention, management and better care of diabetes in the EU on the occasion of World Diabetes Day (debate)

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Madam President, diabetes is one of the greatest health challenges of our time. These were the words you said when you opened your remarks, Commissioner. And I would add to that: one of the most minimised challenges. One in ten Europeans – as has been said – live with diabetes and almost half of them are unable to control it. Diabetes is a multiplier of a range of other diseases, including but not…

19 Oct

2022

FR Speech

Political situation in Tunisia (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, thousands of Tunisians were on the streets again this weekend to denounce poverty, to denounce unemployment, to denounce the incessant shortages they are experiencing on a daily basis, which, admittedly, were called upon and united by the opposition, by Ennahdha, of course, the Islamist party in power after the spring of Tunis. However, Tunisians have been facing a d…

19 Oct

2022

FR Speech

Preparation of the European Council meeting of 20-21 October 2022 (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, this is a crucial European Council starting tomorrow in Brussels. There is, of course, this escalation of Vladimir Putin's war of terror in Ukraine. But here I want to talk about this war on energy that it is waging at home, the prices of gas and electricity that are soaring, these families in Europe, these craftsmen, these butchers, these SMEs, these communities tha…

4 Oct

2022

FR Speech

The death of Mahsa Amini and the repression of women's rights protesters in Iran (debate)

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Mr President, (speaker uses slogan in non-official language) – Women, life, freedom’: These words have been echoing across Iran for 18 days now, since Mahsa ‘Zina’ Amini was beaten to death by Tehran’s morality police. She was young, she was Kurdish and, according to the law of the mullahs, she did not wear her headscarf quite correctly. It was not the first, nor will it be the last. Nearly 100 de…

13 Sep

2022

FR Speech

EU response to the increase in energy prices in Europe (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, ladies and gentlemen, Europeans, our businesses and our citizens are being hit hard by an unprecedented spike in energy prices. You said urgency, you hammered urgency, Minister. And of course, it is imperative to react. The suggestions made by the Commission last week go in the right direction, of course. It will be a question of seeing tomorrow the ambitio…

7 Jul

2022

FR Speech

Sustainable aviation fuels (ReFuelEU Aviation Initiative) (debate)

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Mr President, the aviation sector accounts for 4% of global carbon emissions. Above all, it is rapid growth by 2050 – which clearly means that it must also be part of our goal of carbon neutrality. And that means lighter planes, that means better calculated amounts of onboard fuel, and that means mostly new energies. The excellent report by my colleague Søren Gade goes in that direction. Electrici…

7 Jun

2022

FR Speech

Binding annual greenhouse gas emission reductions by Member States (Effort Sharing Regulation) - Land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) - CO2 emission standards for cars and vans (joint debate – Fit for 55 (part 2))

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Mr President, Madam President-in-Office of the Council – dear Chrysoula, what a pleasure! Commissioner, dear Frans, Europe therefore has this chance, this unique opportunity to become the first global player to take concrete action for a decarbonised economy in 2050. And this requires a clear vote tomorrow, an unambiguous vote for the end of combustion engines for new vehicles as early as 2035. Te…

23 Mar

2022

FR Speech

Debriefing of the European Council meeting in Paris on 10 March 2022 - Preparation of the European Council meeting 24-25 March 2022 (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, we owe immense respect to the Ukrainian people, to those men and women who, for 27 days, in the face of Russia's brutal aggression, have been fighting to defend their land, fighting to defend their homeland and also fighting to defend our fundamental values. So our message to the European Council is simple, finally: dignified welcome to the millions of refugees who a…

17 Feb

2022

FR Speech

The death penalty in Iran

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Mr President, Iran executed 275 people last year, and here I quote a UN report. Don’t displease the left, it is therefore the highest execution rate in the world: an open death row. Among the victims, women, minors, ethnic and religious minorities, scapegoats, journalists and lawyers, guilty of doing their job, men, too, whose love makes the Islamic Republic tremble. The years follow one another a…

16 Feb

2022

FR Speech

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

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Madam President, Vladimir Putin is definitely blowing hot and cold. There was fear of an invasion for this morning, for today; the opposite seems to be the case: The Kremlin is now announcing the withdrawal of part of its troops. Caution. The future will tell us if there is really de-escalation. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin has been master of clocks, agendas and tempo for weeks, while the Ukrainian e…

15 Feb

2022

FR Speech

Strengthening Europe in the fight against cancer(debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, I agree with Peter Liese: For all of us, our words resonate this morning in memory of those who left too early, someone who is no longer here or someone who is fighting cancer on foot, and there are more and more of them. At issue, of course, is our ever-expanding life expectancy and the cocktail of external factors to which we are exposed: tobacco, alcohol, sedentar…