What Róża spoke about.

23

Apr

2024

EN Speech

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Combating late payment in commercial transactions (A9-0156/2024 - Róża Thun und Hohenstein) (vote)

Mr President, dear colleagues, this vote is our answer to the request of over 24 million SMEs on our European market. When you ask them about their main problems, they name, in first place, bureaucracy, and then second, late payments. With this vote, we can solve the problem of late payments without creating any additional bureaucratic hurdles. For the first time, we introduce the long-expected ma…

14

Mar

2024

PL Speech

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Promised revision of the EU animal welfare legislation and the animal welfare-related European citizens’ initiatives (debate)

Mr President, thank you very much. It so happens, dear colleagues, that I have been sitting in the European Parliament for a long time and I remember very well with what great commitment we have worked on the European Citizens' Initiative. I believe, and I am absolutely convinced, that this is a great instrument for strengthening participatory democracy, but it only works when those who have been …

7

Feb

2024

PL Speech

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The fight against hate speech and disinformation: responsibility of social platforms within the Digital Services Act (topical debate)

Colleagues, I'd like to focus on hey. And very concretely. Here we are talking mainly about the political consequences of this hate. Of course, let us not forget what particularly affects young people as a result of hate: Suicide, depression, self-harm, and a host of other dramas. Specifically, I quote: “I hope that Germans like you, Thun, will be able to kill German traitors with impunity.” And s…

22

Nov

2023

PL Speech

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The lack of legislative follow-up by the Commission to the PEGA resolution (debate)

Mr President, thank you very much. Mr. Commissioner, I'm sorry. I understand that the European Commission has limited possibilities and, for example, does not have committees of inquiry. But that is why we have set up a committee of inquiry here in the European Parliament, which, although it did not have all the powers of committees of inquiry, as we know from the Member States, yet we have gather…

3

Oct

2023

PL Speech

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Corrupt large-scale sale of Schengen visas (debate)

We have all been deceived by the government, which has called itself "Law and Justice" and, ironically, with this slogan on its lips, trades our visas at the stalls of different countries. Yes, ours – these are Schengen visas, and Schengen works by trusting that all rulers abide by common rules. This trust has been severely violated by the government, which, pretending to defend our borders, is br…

13

Sep

2023

PL Speech

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SME Relief Package (debate)

Madam President, I'm sorry. We have two super-important legislative proposals on the table for small and medium-sized enterprises. Commissioner, on behalf of millions of small businesses, I thank you for the one on combating late payment. For example, in Poland, more than 80% of companies declare problems related to overdue payments. It stifles growth, innovation, investment, it stifles employment…

13

Sep

2023

EN Speech

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Reviewing the protection status of wolves and other large carnivores in the EU (topical debate)

Mr President, when we start talking about wolves, there are always mixed feelings – a lot of emotions – and this, in fact, blocks all our serious, honest discussion on this issue. The political propaganda pushes away the real serious information, of which there is plenty; we just need to try to find it. Large carnivore conservation must be based on scientific data and not on our fears that derive …

12

Sep

2023

PL Speech

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Ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe (debate)

Mr President, thank you very much. We hear this argument for the x-ny time that 300,000 citizens die as a result of environmental poisoning regularly every year. Here we have no room in this debate for party-populist games, for arguments such as Mrs Zalewska has just made. Of course, she's already out of the room. It is literally about the life and health of our citizens, for which we are responsi…

11

Sep

2023

EN Speech

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Surface water and groundwater pollutants (debate)

Madam President, of course, we cannot be blind in front of the effects of the human activity in our ecosystem. We hear it very well from our Commissioner Sinkevičius. Thank you very much for this report on which we worked with pleasure because it was already very good and, with the ambition of our colleague Milan Brglez, who coordinated our work so well, we managed to add to this legislative propo…

11

Jul

2023

PL Speech

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Ecodesign Regulation (debate)

Mr President, thank you very much. I agree with all those who have said here that this ecodesign is an extremely ambitious and crucial legislation for climate protection. And thanks to it, we can help to permanently change the attitude of consumers and producers to the Earth's resources. Earth's resources are limited. We must approach them with the next generations in mind, those generations that …

11

Jul

2023

PL Speech

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2023 Annual Rule of law report (debate)

Madam President, I'm sorry. This is the European Commission's communication on the rule of law. He has 34 pages and contains the topics he deals with. Poland has been mentioned more than 100 times in this communication. And in addition, not as a country shining an example, but as a country violating the law, limiting the rights of citizens, freedom of the press, the separation of powers, not guara…

14

Jun

2023

PL Speech

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Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware - Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (draft recommendation) (debate)

Mr President, thank you very much. This report and the recommendations of the Committee of Inquiry have more than 200 pages. It was established on the initiative of Renew Europe and this is a summary of several months of hard work, during which we held over 30 official committee meetings, observation missions to six countries, we listened to nearly 250 people. Sophia in 't Veld has done an incredi…

14

Jun

2023

PL Speech

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The electoral law, the investigative committee and the rule of law in Poland (debate)

Mr President, thank you very much. In October we will have parliamentary elections in Poland and we very much all want them to be fair, but it will be difficult because we have an electoral law tailored to the ruling party. The members of the National Electoral Commission are nominated by the ruling party. We have a fully political special committee in the Sejm, which can remove anyone who does no…

31

May

2023

PL Speech

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Threat to democracy and the rule of law in Poland, in particular through the creation of an investigative committee (debate)

Mr President, thank you very much. This committee, which you are hearing about and which claims powers such as those normally enjoyed by the special services, the public prosecutor's office and the court, this committee, which is strictly political, intends to exclude public figures from the possibility of participating in public life. It's not a problem for one party, it's not a problem for one m…

10

May

2023

PL Speech

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Ukrainian cereals on the European market (debate)

Madam President, I'm sorry. Of course, we must help Ukraine and we want to do so. It's pretty obvious. But I have a question for the Commissioner: What have you done, Commissioner, to ensure that the countries bordering Ukraine are a transit, a help, not a chaos in the grain market and the ruin of their farmers? Last year, the opposition in Poland clearly warned that oversupply would cause a sharp…

9

May

2023

PL Speech

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Empowering consumers for the green transition (debate)

Madam President, I'm sorry. We have talked a lot about reliable consumer information here, so I will come back to the amendment that the Commissioner mentioned in his speech, which is about dual quality of products, because I think there is some misunderstanding here. Well, this solution, which has been adopted by the European Parliament and which will now be assessed, does not meet our expectatio…

19

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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Dieselgate: suspected widespread use of defeat devices in cars to reduce effectiveness of pollution control systems (debate)

Madam President, we all remember the Dieselgate scandal, and that was not only about companies cheating on emission limits and misleading consumers, but also about governmental bodies from different Member States not working together or turning a blind eye to the dishonest practices. Now, thanks to the real driving emission tests, which we introduced, the extent of the damage done is very clearly …

19

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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Keeping people healthy, water drinkable and soil liveable: getting rid of forever pollutants and strengthening EU chemical legislation now (topical debate)

Madam President, 24 % of teenagers in France, in Sweden 23 % of teenagers, in Germany 18 %, in Belgium 17 % of teenagers, in Greece 14 % of teenagers are found to have excessive levels of PFAS in their blood. PFAs – most persistent human-made chemicals called forever chemicals for one reason: they remain in the environment forever. In Poland, studies published by the Science Direct Journal found P…

30

Mar

2023

PL Speech

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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)

Mr President, thank you very much. Our debate is coming to an end, and before the President concludes, I would like to say that the money and EU funds that we use or that we can use are a very good thing. But I, who grew up in a dictatorship behind the Iron Curtain, joined the European Union because I wanted to work, live, expand this area of freedom, democracy, compliance with the law. I know tha…

16

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Lack of actions taken by the Commission in the context of the duty of sincere and loyal cooperation (debate)

Mr President, dear Commissioner, you have heard our colleagues and it seems completely clear: what we need is to protect our EU citizens from the illegal use of spyware, and the action of the European Commission is badly needed. Firstly, the Commission must start an infringement procedure against governments which illegally surveilled on their citizens. Thanks to the work of the PEGA committee, we…

15

Feb

2023

PL Speech

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The recent deterioration of the inhuman imprisonment conditions of Alexey Navalny and other political prisoners in Russia

Madam President, I'm sorry. I agree with all those who emphasized here that the abuse of Navalny, that the abuse of opposition representatives, journalists, the weaker ones, is proof of this disgusting cowardice of Putin. It is his cowardice and the cowardice of his regime that is expressed in his cruelty, in the abuse of every weaker person, of everyone who opposes him. This is also reflected in …

15

Feb

2023

PL Speech

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

Madam President, I'm sorry. When democracy in any member state of the European Union is being destroyed, we have to shout, so I am glad there is this debate. This is where we have to react. The European Commission must indeed react quickly, decisively and sharply. Today, in addition, we are talking about the degradation of democracy in the cradle of this democracy. Isn't this a tragic conversation…

15

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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

Madam President, when there are baseless accusations of a most serious nature against the most serious politicians of the European Union, I think you should react to it. Please listen to what the speakers, what the Members, say, and we expect the Presidium, yourself, to react.…

14

Feb

2023

PL Speech

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Establishment of an independent EU Ethics Body (debate)

Commissioner, I'm sorry. Madam President, I'm sorry. Dear colleagues, For more than an hour now, we have all been declaring how shocked we are by corruption and that we absolutely need to establish an independent Ethics Body. Well, almost everyone, because I don't count the right side of the room here. They're all out anyway. Corruption has different faces and not only are these famous bags full o…

1

Feb

2023

PL Speech

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Transparency and targeting of political advertising (debate)

Madam President, I'm sorry. First of all, I would like to thank the Members from Renew Europe, Sandro Gozi and Anna Donáth, who is not here, who had to stay in Budapest because she has a young child, as well as the shadow rapporteurs from other political groups for their great commitment to this regulation. I am pleased that, as the European Union, we are finally responding adequately to the Cambr…