What Juan Fernando spoke about.

17 Oct

2023

ES Speech

Effectiveness of the EU sanctions on Russia (debate)

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Mr President Karas, Commissioner Reynders, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, I hope that in the face of other common challenges such as migration and asylum, the European Union will be as united as it has been in the face of Putin's brutal war of aggression against Ukraine. This Parliament has adopted all the packages of measures that have been happening over time: humanitarian measures, with…

4 Oct

2023

ES Speech

Need for a speedy adoption of the asylum and migration package (debate)

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Mr President, Mr Vice-President Schinas, Mr representative of the Spanish Presidency of the Council, yesterday we celebrated with excitement the 10th anniversary of a tragic shipwreck in Lampedusa and, since then, there have been many tragedies and, on every occasion, we have heard the desperate cry of 'where is Europe?' in some corner of the European Union's external borders. Well, Europe is repr…

3 Oct

2023

ES Speech

Situation in Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan’s attack and the continuing threats against Armenia (debate)

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Mr President, representative of the Spanish Presidency of the Council, not far from where we are talking is the seat of the Council of Europe, whose most important product is the European Convention on Human Rights, guaranteed by the European Court of Human Rights, also based in Strasbourg. The enormous prestige enjoyed for a time by the Council of Europe was to promote the rule of law, human righ…

3 Oct

2023

ES Speech

Corrupt large-scale sale of Schengen visas (debate)

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Mr President, Mr Vice-President Schinas, Schengen is the most precious asset, surely the best achievement of the European experience and the fundamental right that Europeans enjoy the most. Therefore, based on mutual trust, any violation of the rules of that area without internal borders – which needs governance – must be taken very seriously by the Commission, which is the guardian of the Treatie…

3 Oct

2023

ES Speech

European Media Freedom Act (debate)

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Madam President, without free access to information and information pluralism, there is no democracy worthy of the name. It has been known since the constitutional debate in the United States 250 years ago, and it is known by the European Union because of the binding nature of this freedom of information and this freedom of the press for which, at last, this European Parliament is making a legisla…

14 Sep

2023

ES Speech

Parliamentarism, European citizenship and democracy (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner Ferreira, citizenship and democracy. We heard about it in a debate with President von der Leyen, unfortunately undermined by interventions in Spanish that, despising the European agenda, only had as an obsession to denigrate the Government of Spain and the Spanish Presidency. But the truth is that none of the major objectives of democratic deepening, including the recogn…

13 Sep

2023

ES Speech

Regulation of prostitution in the EU: its cross-border implications and impact on gender equality and women’s rights (debate)

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Mr President, Vice-President Jourová, I am speaking in this debate on a European initiative to regulate prostitution, which is being promoted by our colleague, Mrs Noichl, to support it. Because it connects with a reality that describes a landscape of exploitation of women in a phenomenon of transnational dimension and connected with cross-border criminal networks. Therefore, it does deserve crimi…

13 Sep

2023

ES Speech

Framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials (debate)

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Mr President Angel, Commissioner Hahn, challenges as enormous as the pandemic and Russia's illegal war against Ukraine have accelerated the European Union's proclaimed will to achieve its strategic autonomy as soon as possible. And here we have it. A recently unthinkable initiative, a European law to secure the supply of critical raw materials, which aims to reduce our dependence on a small number…

12 Sep

2023

ES Speech

EU-Tunisia Agreement - aspects related to external migration policy (debate)

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Mr President, in this European Parliament, in all languages, there are protests against this agreement with Tunisia, which is inconsistent with European legislation and with the strategy we have given ourselves - a pact on migration and asylum that is consistent with our values, the only opportunity for it to be effective. 700 million for an authoritarian involution in Tunisia that tries to allevi…

13 Jul

2023

ES Speech

Public access to documents – annual report for the years 2019-2021 (debate)

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Mr President, Vice-President Jourová, in 2009 the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Articles 40 and 41 of which enshrine state-of-the-art fundamental rights: the right to transparency, access to documents and good governance. There is a whole history of resolutions by this European Parliament ordering that the directive currently in f…

12 Jul

2023

ES Speech

The need for EU action on search and rescue in the Mediterranean (continuation of debate)

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Madam President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner Johansson, in 2019 I had the honour of being rapporteur for a resolution of this European Parliament calling for a European rescue and rescue framework. Four years later, thousands of people died – people killed in shipwrecks and tragedies – not only on the Mediterranean route, but also on the Atlantic route, via the Canary Islan…

12 Jul

2023

ES Speech

Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 29-30 June 2023, in particular the recent developments in the war against Ukraine and in Russia (debate)

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Mr President, Vice-President Šefčovič, from the Council conclusions I shall focus on the point where you say you regret the succession of deaths, tragedies and shipwrecks in the Mediterranean. He wants to seek a European solution that tackles its root causes – irregular migration – and notes that Hungary and Poland invoke consensus, a euphemism with which they intend to demand unanimity that allow…

11 Jul

2023

ES Speech

Accession to the Schengen area (short presentation)

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Mr President, Commissioner, once again this European Parliament insists, with a choral polyphony, that Romania and Bulgaria finally join Schengen and fully enjoy that fundamental right so precious to European citizenship, which is free movement on an equal basis with all others. They have fulfilled all the criteria, they have done their homework, their task to enjoy Schengen, and they still do not…

11 Jul

2023

ES Speech

2023 Annual Rule of law report (debate)

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Madam President, Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Commissioner Reynders, for the fourth time in the European Parliament we are discussing the Rule of Law Report, which seeks to put a European framework in place for the weaknesses shown by the activation of Article 7, for serious risk of breach of the rule of law, against Hungary and against Poland. Precisely it is a permane…

10 Jul

2023

ES Speech

Implementation of ‘passerelle’ clauses in the EU Treaties (short presentation)

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Madam President, Commissioner Schmit, it has not only been the Conference on the Future of Europe, when citizens have been heard, but also this European Parliament has rebelled, time and again, against the unanimity that results in blocking not only crucial decisions, but also European legislation, as is the painful case of the anti-discrimination directive, the so-called horizontal directive agai…

10 Jul

2023

ES Speech

Protection of journalists and human rights defenders from manifestly unfounded or abusive court proceedings (debate)

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Mr President, why have we been debating for two years the need to protect non-governmental organisations, journalists, press editors, human rights or environmental activists against manifestly unfounded or abusive processes? Because throughout Europe, freedom of expression and communication is receding. And this European Parliament, with the report by our colleague Tiemo Wölken, is doing the right…

14 Jun

2023

EN Speech

Extension of the mandate of the EPPO with regard to the criminal offence of violation of Union restrictive measures (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner Reynders, yet again it is my honour to submit on behalf of the Committee for Justice and Home Affairs this oral question to the Council and the Commission as to the extension of the mandate of the European Public Prosecutor regarding the criminal offence of the violation of EU restrictive measures. You know how it’s like: ever since Putin’s regime – Russian President …

14 Jun

2023

ES Speech

Lessons learnt from the Pandora Papers and other revelations (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner Reynders, you are spending many hours in this plenary session of the European Parliament. More hours were spent by those of us who were members of the Commission of Inquiry into the Pandora Papers, which gave some concluding lessons, some of which I will stress. The first is the need for transparency and, therefore, to avoid conflicts of interest and that, under the h…

14 Jun

2023

ES Speech

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

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Mr President, Commissioner Reynders, for a long year the Committee of Inquiry to examine the use of the Pegasus Surveillance Spy and Other Equivalent Programmes has worked hard and drawn conclusions. What is the meaning of the conclusions? That the Commission take the initiative and put European law into force so that some facts investigated cannot happen again. First, it is necessary to condemn a…

14 Jun

2023

ES Speech

Surrogacy in the EU - risks of exploitation and commercialisation (topical debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner for Justice Reynders, in the exercise of your right, an ultra-conservative group of this European Parliament co-chaired by Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy, brings to this debate its proposal to criminalise surrogacy and the recognition of parenthood. We have heard the Commissioner for Justice say that the European Union has no competence in this regard, that i…

14 Jun

2023

ES Speech

Preparation of the European Council meeting of 29-30 June 2023, in particular in the light of recent steps towards concluding the Migration Pact (debate)

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Mr President, Council, Commission, we are in 2023 and it will soon be 14 years since the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force, which ordered us to put in place not only a common migration and asylum policy, but common legislation. And this Parliament has worked very hard to deliver on that promise with five regulations binding on Member States on the basis, at last, of the principles of shared resp…

13 Jun

2023

ES Speech

Negotiations on the European Electoral Law (debate)

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Madam President, in a legislature illuminated by the Conference on the Future of Europe, in which there has not been a single plenary session in which we have not discussed the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights in the Member States, and in a plenary session in which we have debated the regulation on the European citizens' initiative, it makes perfect sense for us to ask the Council and…

13 Jun

2023

ES Speech

Artificial Intelligence Act (debate)

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Madam President, Madam Vice-President Vestager, we are passing nothing less than a European artificial intelligence law, one of the great objectives of the legislature. Artificial intelligence that will haunt us for the rest of our lives and the effort of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs in its report has aimed to make it compatible with the Charter of Fundamental Rights …

12 Jun

2023

ES Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Madam President, Vice-President Vestager, no less than five years ago, in 2018, the European Commission adopted a novel initiative that was welcomed by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. The aim was to put in place nothing less than a directly enforceable court order to obtain electronic evidence in the investigation and prosecution of transnational crime, particularly cyb…

12 Jun

2023

ES Speech

Implementation of the Regulations on the European citizens' initiative (short presentation)

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Madam President, this debate in plenary on the implementation of the European Citizens’ Initiative – what we know in the law of the Member States as a ‘popular legislative initiative’ – is connected to the concern expressed by the Conference on the Future of Europe about the quality of democracy in the European Union, understood as a union of states and citizens in which there is room for reform o…