Speeches

Mr President, Commissioner, rapporteur, first of all, I want you to do one thing for us, for the European Union, to tell Mr Kuhs, who has right now lied to us ‘that European money finances terrorism’, so to speak, and has not given a single example. I want you to defend the pride of the European Union and not let the lie travel twice around the planet until the truth puts on its shoes. Secondly, I want to send a message from here, from the lectern of the European Parliament, to the Romanian Government and I say this: Do not play with the destiny of the Russians. They deserve a better life. They deserve modern hospitals, equipped schools, roads without pits, green spaces. That is why the EU budget, the money that the EU gives, which are many, is EUR 80 billion from NRRPs, from European funds, agricultural subsidies, not to be wasted. I do not want this financial year to end and to see hospitals, regional hospitals, still in the model stage, as it is at my home in Sibiu. I want this European money not to go to political firms, to go to projects, to go to people. We're already in 2023 and we can't see anything. Start building hospitals, politicians! There is money. Now, let's all get to work!

Madam President, please allow me a point of order before I begin. Because Mr Hahn cannot speak at this session, I want to correct Mr Terheș, who is no longer here, because he always leaves. The EU does not pay for the book he showed. I know this very well as the responsible person for the budget of this year. Now please allow me to continue on the topic I prepared. It is important that we do not let fake news go unpunished in this House. Obții o bursă Erasmus. Tu, dintre sute de colegi. Te bucuri, apoi vin condițiile acelea scrise mic. Ești prea sărac pentru bursa obținută. Să mai mergi în Erasmus? Ca să ți se repete că nu ai cum să trăiești, că e imposibil să trăiești cu 500 de euro pe lună? Că ai nevoie de bani de la părinți sau de un extra job ca să mănânci? Așa arată astăzi proiectul de succes al Europei, cu milioane de studenți care mor de foame prin străinătate. Se descurcă cum pot sau stau 8-10 împreună în aceeași gazdă, doar ca să învețe ceva, să vadă cum e să studieze afară, să crească, să fie mai buni. Și asta e recompensa noastră, 500 de euro. Da, e minunat că avem Erasmus în Europa! Iubim cu toții Erasmus, dar hai să fie pentru toți tinerii, nu doar pentru cei de bani gata. Nu mă las, nu mă las până când bursele nu vor fi, nu 500 ca acum, ci măcar 1 000. Vreau egalitate pentru Erasmus acum!

Mr President, Commissioner, I would first like to send a message to the Romanian Government from 782 independent pharmacies asking for their outstanding bills to be paid. Brussels, we have a big problem: Not all patients are treated the same. A doctor in Romania waits on average two years longer than a doctor in Germany to be able to prescribe the newest and best medicine on the market. I think of my friends, Ion and Carmen, who are retired in Bucharest, and I don't want to know that they need something and we don't give them that medicine in time. Saving a life in Europe should not be a lottery based on where you were born in Europe. Mrs Kyriakides, in April you said that patients in Western countries have 90% access to the latest and best medicines, whereas in the East only 10%. Well, you have competences, you are Commissioner for Health, you also have competences for the Single Market. What did you guys do? What will you do so that everyone has access to the same medicines at the same time? Let's make Europe equal again. Let's make her healthy again.

Madam President, how did the academic year start? How? The government has already taxed students. Students in Iasi cannot travel for free by public transport, although they have this right by law. Even those in Bucharest could not, and those in Constanta are judging for this. Night of the mind. All sorts of administrative hens. They pay the children for transportation and the state returns the money to Saint Wait. The state borrows practically from the children of Romania. College started, but not the same for everyone. There are not enough places for dorms, rents are rudely high and do not offer conditions. Graduates struggle for years to find a decent job and that should not be black. Maybe, maybe one day they can afford a loan, a rate. This light at the end of the tunnel isn't even a rescue. For them, it's like a train hitting them head-on from the other direction. And you say you care about the future? So why don't we respect young people?

Madam President, Ion Buneci, Oprea Marian, Niţeanu Gheorghe - Romanian firefighters are heroes who are often neglected, but all this summer they put out fires in Greece, in Italy. The past few years have been in Sweden. During the pandemic, they intervened by bringing in sick people and were promised a premium that many of them still did not receive today. They are exposed to unimaginable risks, but not even a decent health insurance. Not to mention burn hospitals or the treatment of diseases they develop in their missions. We have strengthened European civil protection, now on the budget. But this European civil protection can no longer serve only as an emergency hospital that we enter when we can no longer. I propose today that firefighters participating in European climate or health actions should constantly benefit from European health insurance and, in addition, European bonuses for their missions. Thank you to all these heroes. I think it's worth our while.

Madam President, as we explain to Ana's grandfather the lung cancer she suffers from, although the man has never smoked, he does not have a medical history of this kind, but he lives in the most polluted city in Romania, in Bucharest. For days the inhabitants of Cluj-Napoca complained about the bad smells in the city. They come from a landfill that is non-compliant with European rules and in which more than EUR 40 million have been buried. Clean air is a right. It's not like the jukebox. It is not ‘pay to breathe’. With the European law we are voting on tomorrow, we want to force states to protect their citizens, to measure air quality in the world and, if there are exceedances, to take measures to punish those responsible. We have created the right for citizens to go to court for the first time in the history of the European Union. It's phenomenal. More importantly, we created the element of creating compensation for citizens, because they suffer from those microparticles that are in the air. You live healthy, but the air of your city is killing you right now because the authorities don't care, and some are stuffing their pockets on your lungs. I regret to say, but here too, in Parliament, there are colleagues who say one thing and do another and tomorrow they will vote to weaken this text, because for them, the citizen and his health are optional, they are not mandatory, and the right to breathe fresh air is a trifle. How much money and how much life do people have to pay? How much health should they give to breathe fresh air? I'm asking you. It's simple: You'll see tomorrow here in the hall, at this vote. We all deserve a clean European air.

Mr. President, I also want to thank the associations, the Association for Clean Energy, Now, the Students' League, who saved Romania's image this time. I would have liked there to be more of us in the room who are not Romanians and Bulgarians. We counted, we are 15 Romanians and Bulgarians. Thank you, Seán! Thank you, Anna! Thank you, Marc, for being with us. But this shows a problem, that we still do not know how to dialogue very well. I also want to reduce the level of expectations a bit, not because I don't want to enter Schengen with all my heart, but I also don't want to lie to the Romanians who are waiting for this decision every day. I do not want them to believe that immediately we will have a decision from the Court of Justice, because their destiny, the destiny of the Romanians, depends on the quality of the politicians who represent them, but also on the quality of the politicians who defend us here, in this European house. Because it's not fair for politicians like Nehammer or Rutte, who are now leaving politics, to decide that way about the destiny of millions of people. So, I really want Mr. Nehammer to hear us in this room tonight and do something, because Romanians deserve to be in Schengen.

In a few days, from Volunteers, hell descended to Earth, but old age is not a disease. Most of us get there and the state parks us on the edge of society, forgetting, stealing and hitting, as if rushing to the pit. But I'm afraid this situation is not isolated. I'm afraid it's the same for children in orphanages, for the sick in hospitals, for the elderly in other nursing homes. We can have the best programs, but if the poor are left behind and on the sidelines, Europe has the role to intervene where states fail. Today, I ask the European Commission to conduct an extended audit of all social projects financed with European money in Romania to check how elderly people, orphans and children are treated. We cannot allow the European money to end up exactly in the pockets of the aggressors. Shame on the administrator of Goda, the official Ţicu and the mayors Pandele and Negoiță, under whose noses the people were treated by some beasts.

Madam President, the droughts of 2022 have substantially reduced our crops. Winter was no better in Europe. Results: soil drought, low river flows and reduced water storage in reservoirs. Climate projections indicate that summers in southern and central Europe will become even drier and warmer over the course of our century, and the consequences will be devastating for the agricultural sector. It is already calculated that the economic losses are 9 billion now, on a growth scenario of 1.5 o, on a scenario of 2 we reach 31 billion, and on 3 we reach 45 billion. And there I wonder even about the future of the human species and the future of the European continent. But today's vote in the Environment Committee shows that politicians are still irresponsible and do not care about these scenarios. What they care about is these populist rhetoric that doesn't keep us warm and hungry. Let us be clear, without nature, we will have no future, we will have no clean water, responsible air and fertile soils, and we will have no people.

Madam President, I want it to be noted that I am completely with my colleagues and their unprecedented protest. I think there is a need for maternity and paternity leave in this institution. But tonight I wanted to talk to you about the situation of teachers in Romania, which is serious, and Ciuca and Ciolacu consider the teachers in Romania as those cells that they put in the state apparatus. We, the people, feel a cumbersome state, which considers us subjects and tells us ironically how we dare. They wanted to divide us, but the students stood by their teachers. The parents were with the teachers, only the government was against it. The political promises are not related to hunger and the truth is that many Romanians are doing it very hard now, parents are doing it hard with expenses, young people who do not have salaries and move away from home only after the age of 30, and teachers are at the bottom of society, so they arrived, as if to educate is almost the same as to clean shoes. We have strikes all over Europe, Madam President, and that reminds me of one thing: Democracy is important, but it is important to have water, food, energy, to have something to pay for it. I remember, in 1989, it was shouting: ‘We want milk for children!’ and then they shouted ‘Freedom!’. And Europe must give us that European dream back. Europe must help young people and teachers in Romania.

Mr President, "Boy, you're a jerk! You're a piece of garbage! Put the noose around your neck. You deserve to be beaten! You idiot! You fool! Traitor!” This is what online bullying looks like, to which we politicians are probably immune, but our children are not. An 18-year-old teenager was found hanged, and colleagues say he was no longer coping with so much humiliation. A girl was subjected to indescribable shaming, with a picture taken illegally from the toilet and posted virally on social networks. Today, the Golden Party brought young people to the Romanian Parliament with bullets, as if mocking the massacre in Serbia. These are not isolated cases. This is a European epidemic of bullying. Romania is third in terms of bullying. The public system has so far failed, unfortunately, and I can even say that it has encouraged it. I want to tell the kids something. Don't be ashamed! Talk about it! If they don't listen to you at home, talk to a psychologist, a teacher, talk to us here in the European Union, because we understand and listen to you. But you're not alone. Bullies are always defeated. That's what you need to remember.

Mr President, right now, 12 hectares of green space are in danger of turning into concrete in the capital of Romania, in Bucharest. With a much lower level of green space and the most polluted air in Europe, Bucharest cannot afford to lose an inch of green. Already, social and health losses in Bucharest are estimated at over 6 billion euros. The citizens of the area are outraged by what is happening. Since the beginning of the year, more than a few hundred trees have been illegally cut down in the IOR Park. There were also hundreds of fines, but in vain, because the fines are small. Until institutional solutions are found to recover the land, we must stop the theft, keep what we have. The Environmental Guard must defend green spaces and not be on the same side as those who cut them. We have here, in the European Parliament, the legislation for nature restoration, which says this: “We shall halt any net loss of green space by 2030. We are increasing green spaces from 26 square meters per man and more until 2040.’ Or Bucharest is doing exactly the opposite. People want to park, they don't want concrete.

Mr President, I want to say to the people who are watching us: Green Europe is not a fad, it is a necessity for life, but also for the economy. I have to say that although we have the Paris Agreement of 2015 and it has been eight years since then, implementation is far too slow, money is scarce and the Member States are doing their work, but they are not implementing. We promised our citizens that we would leave no one behind. The green transition without social fairness will not happen. One month after the last IPCC report was published, the first ever climate process started in Romania by the Declic Association in Cluj and is supported by several environmental organisations. We have seen similar cases in the Netherlands, in France, and now the case of Damien Karem versus France is pending at the ECHR. These processes will only multiply because people demand their rights: rights to life, to health, to climate rights, to a future. Then we should hurry with implementation, because otherwise it will cost us money, otherwise the citizens will not understand us, otherwise we will lose the global competition. This is the way for Europe. That's what we have to do in the future.

Madam President, the COVID—19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of our healthcare systems. There is no One Health – there is not a European health if we don’t have a universal health. We have shown that borders are useless when we are facing a pandemic. Solidarity should be our answer. Antimicrobial Resistance, AMR, is a cross-border health threat that affects countries in pandemic proportions. As a response, we urge the EU to expand access to affordable antibiotics and ensure that they are balanced against misuse and overuse. We also advocate for specific operation funds to operationalise the One Health priorities in low- and middle-income countries. Lastly, we must strengthen health systems and increase universal health coverage to combat AMR more holistically. It is crucial that EU investments in third countries go where they are needed and that they are sustainable in the long term, because by working together with global solidarity, we can transform healthcare systems, not only for ourselves, but also for countries that badly need it.

Mr President, Commissioner, a little goes a long way, but it doesn’t make us a leader. So let me say what I said one year ago. As main rapporteur, I said without the MFF revision, we cannot really move Europe forward. Now, a few specific points: In the field of transport, I think we can achieve a good deal of our Green Deal objectives by increasing the funding for the European railway agencies, because it is important, especially given the various train crashes recently and other problems that we’ve encountered in the sector. We also think dedicated funding for active mobility within the Union regional funds and for active mobility industry within EU transport must be increased. And thirdly, we support funding into research of non-CO2 effects of aviation with a view to reducing aromatic and sulphur content. Now, on another type of mobility, which is very dear to my heart this year. Erasmus has been rather unfair to our young people. And when I say that it is because of our efforts for last year, we have increased scholarships, for instance, in France from EUR 600 to EUR 674, But who can live with EUR 674 when the value of money is eroded in such a way? Well, I’ll tell you the answer. Only those kids who have money from home can live with that kind of money. And therefore, Erasmus right now differentiates between the haves and the have nots, between kids who have and kids who have not. And this we need to change, Commissioner, especially if we want the young people to keep participating in the European project next year.

Mr. President, victory has many fathers, but defeat is an orphan. Today, when we vote on this big climate package, we all say, how much we've done for the environment, how much we've done for the planet. But I would like to say the same thing when we go to our capitals, to our countries where we come from. And not to run away from responsibility, not to blame the EU. I want to tell the truth. If we already had this package, if we already had renewable energy, we would have been much better this winter, the bills would have been much lower for people. I was responsible for CBAM, for the price we put on those outside the Union who do not respect the environment. Romanians rightly say: it is not ok for us to meet certain environmental standards and for outsiders not to meet them. It's no good for businesses to move from us to China, so they don't have to respect the environment, because that's where it really doesn't matter. Colleagues, it is important to act together as leaders. Leaders do not run away from responsibility, leaders do not hide, and if we speak with the same voice, then we will give business a predictability and young people a planet.

I think you are Irish, if my memory serves me well, but you might have been Chamberlain in the 1930s proclaiming peace, a peace that is so elusive that it led to the biggest catastrophe of the Second World War because actions were not taken when the time was right. How did the extreme left in this house become equal to the extreme right of other days?

Mrs. Yoncheva, what an irony to mention Nichts neues im Westen, and not to say that there were soldiers, three soldiers in a rifle, in World War I. Mr. Wallace, what an irony to care about the poor of the world, the poor of the South, and to support Putin in this house and to say that Ukrainians don't need help. Member States with stockpiles of weapons, what do you hold them for? What day do you keep them for? Now that others are dying for your interests, what good are you keeping them at home? We must help Europe, Ukraine with Peace FacilityThe European Peace Facility, and the Member States must deliver what they can. And President Zelensky made it very clear what his needs were: artillery is number 1 – systems as well as ammunition, such as shells in large quantities, to stop Russia. Not to shoot at their territory, but to kick them out of ours. That's what this is all about. (The speaker agreed to respond to a blue card intervention)

Mr President, I had a speech prepared on a completely different subject, but I witnessed tonight what we see in this house happening far too often: the far right shaking hands with the far left and witnessing the help given to Putin's Russia. Mr Terhesh, Europe is not a prison, where Navalny lives is a prison. Mr. Wallace said that it is not Putin who is the aggressor, but Ukraine. How is it possible to hear such a thing? Mrs Ždanoka, who has just left, said that, see God, the Russian minority is going to prison in Estonia. It is not possible to tolerate these lies. It is not possible to help the aggressor. We have to help the aggressors. I was in Romania and a citizen told me: Why don't we help the Russians more? Why do we care so much about Ukrainians? And I turned the question around: If it was a Moldovan, would we have fought more for them? But for Mick Wallace, if it was Global South, would we be fighting for Global South? We all have the nation we love. In the same way, we can all imagine that he will be our assaulted brother. Let there be more Churchill and fewer Chamberlain in this house.

Madam President, Mr Timmermans, this is the first time that a Romanian Member of Parliament has spoken as a European Green, but it is not the first time that a Romanian Member of Parliament has spoken about the climate change that he believes in and that we need to have an answer to. The climate crisis is here, but any crisis can also be an opportunity, an opportunity for progress. We only need to give clarity to people and we need to speak humanly, in Romanian, as we say at home. Let me give you an example: the Green House Program in Romania. We're told on TV that people don't want the green transition. But the reality is that tens of thousands of families have already applied to the Green House and want to put photovoltaic panels on their house and save on the bill. But the government and companies do not let people become producers, those prosumers, as they say in this Brussels language, that is, in the year in which energy companies made profit records, they do not let others produce for them. They're the problem. Here's the problem. It is not Europe that is the problem, it is not climate change that is the problem, it is the problem that resists a reality and a very clear direction of the world we live in.

Madam President, dear colleagues, Moldova and Ukraine are two organs attacked by the same disease. Of Putin's cancer. But Moldova and Ukraine are also the last shields that separate us from the Putin maniac. Today, Moldovan President Maia Sandu spoke about Russia's foiled plan. In a coup d'état, the Kremlin would change the political order in the country. The Russians planned to blackmail Moldova through energy prices, so that people could no longer, they had to go out on the streets, then kidnap political people through mercenaries, establish a puppet regime in Chisinau. Do you realize that Putin doesn't care about Brussels, Washington, the whole civilized world? Can you imagine that they wanted to put Maia Sandu in a trunk, just like the Red Brigades did with Aldo Moro? Can you imagine how manic this man is? The fight for Moldova and Ukraine is vital, it is the very battle for our Europe.

Mr. President, who's lying: The Chancellor of Austria or the European Commission? Romania is walked from gate to gate, with a file with a rail, for the entry into Schengen. I can't stand by and hear all the political statements, I can't hear Nehammer campaigning politically in Austria for something that is rightfully ours. We are in the European Parliament. We cannot pretend that we do not see an injustice against 20 million people in Romania, a European state that is part of the European Union. Commissioner Johansson, Chancellor Nehammer says Romania is a migration route. I know that's not the case. We have all this data. Frontex says this is not the case at all. We have to make this clear, or else we lose our credibility. Who is lying: Nehammer or Frontex?

Mr President, Mrs Kyriakides, it is 2023 and it is as if we are going back to where we started. Influenza and respiratory virus cases have exploded all over Europe. Basic medicines are missing from pharmacies and hospitals. Haven't we learned anything from the tough months of the pandemic? In Romania, in the middle of the cold season, drugs such as antibiotics, antivirals, anti-inflammatory drugs are missing. This is while increasing the number of cases, not only of influenza, but also of influenza along with COVID. Hospitals are almost at their limits, complete. In Constanta, the Pediatrics Department of the Infectious Diseases Hospital no longer has any free bed at this time. How do we always manage to be unprepared when it's respiratory infection season? We can no longer joke about people's health. It is about the integrity and good name of the European Union. In my country, the situation is clear. People demand decent medicine and hospitals. We want reserves. We want Europe to stand together. Europe must help us now.

(the beginning of the intervention was not done on the microphone) ... crises of European citizens. We can come up with all kinds of legislation, proposals, but if we don't put the money to make them, it's useless. People expect results, not words. And we know what the structural problems are, said Mr. Siegfried Muresan. These are microscopic reserves. We have interest costs in the European Union budget. We have the replacement of the Community method with the intergovernmental method, which is a danger for us, for the European Union. We have seen that the budget has been in crisis since the beginning of this year. When I started working as rapporteur for 2023, I was the first to say that the seven-year budget must be reopened and renegotiated. Because we noticed from the beginning that we don't have the money for energy, we don't have for Moldova, we don't have for Ukraine as much as we need. The financial framework needs to be reopened as soon as possible in the first quarter of 2023, so that we raise the ceilings of this budget so that we respond to citizens’ expectations. Before giving a sermon to the people, Jesus Christ told His disciples to feed the hungry crowds. So we can't talk to people's minds and souls about values until we respond to their priorities. Merry Christmas and I'll be waiting for you next year with answers.