Speeches

Mr President, it is clear from this debate that this European Parliament recommendation on enhanced cooperation with Canada is loaded with meaning with a perfectly reliable like-minded partner: for starters, in security in the Arctic, when the European Union has attracted so much unity in supporting Greenland, in Danish constitutional law and in international law. Secondly, in upholding the rules of the international community and, therefore, multilateralism – in addition to the World Trade Organization – which therefore prevents the use of tariffs as a tool of trade war that can lead to a war that is no longer just trade. And of course, also, of course, in the reinforcement of that cooperation, which is not only trade, but also political and preferential that CETA expresses, on which many prejudices were also poured, much false news that it was going to mean the apocalypse of the affected sectors. And yet it has been good for citizens, for consumers and also for productive sectors in a relationship of mutual trust.

Mr President, Commissioner, talking about enlargement in earnest means talking about its institutional implications. To begin with, we are talking about eight candidates on the waiting list - nine if we add Turkey, which has never been formally excluded or discontinued - and that has implications: to begin with in this Parliament, with a seismic impact, but also in the Council, questioning the unanimity rule as regards foreign and defence policy, fiscal policy and the defence of national identity. The same in the Commission. It therefore means assuming that the only possible strategy to fulfil the enlargement plan is to plan not only individualised incorporation based on merit, but also long phases of phased transition with strict compliance, subject to conditionality rules to monitor compliance with the democratic values of the European Union. Because this is what must be affirmed, that the European Union is above all a Union that corrects imbalances and inequalities, founded and governed by law, but also committed to values including the rule of law, the democratic values of Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union, whose fulfilment is inexorable in order to belong to the Union.

Madam President, Commissioner, in this debate it is clear that there is a division between those who believe that housing is a right of social content and those who see it exclusively as a market good subject to speculation. The contribution of the S&D Group to the conclusions of the housing committee has an impact on the law, tenants' rights, the right of the homeless and the right of vulnerable people to short-term rentals. But there is one thing that the European Union can do - and only the European Union can do it - and that is to intervene in the free movement of capital to prevent the concentration of housing in the hands of investment funds and vulture funds because that is the real problem of the exponential increase in prices that makes access to housing for the younger generations and the working class prohibitive. Intervening the capital market and preventing vulture funds and investment funds from hoarding housing is therefore an essential part of the solution that only people who need access to housing as a right can expect from the European Union.

Mr President, Commissioner, once again a debate on the massive violation of human rights in Iran and a resolution in which the majority of this European Parliament clearly reaffirms its commitment and solidarity with the opposition and with the resistance, which manifested itself in Berlin this weekend: those young people fed up with repression and those brave women who stand up after so many years of discrimination and brutal oppression. But this Parliament also sends a message that the blocking of online and telephone communications is intolerable, but that it is, of course, absolutely incompatible with European diplomacy – which is for something – the death penalty that is being carried out massively in Iran. That is therefore the strongest message, even beyond the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' declaration as a terrorist organization, which is a welcome step forward. It is a very powerful message that the European Union will be ready when the time comes for a regime of freedoms and pluralism in Iran.

Mr President, Commissioner, more than 10 years ago, in my first mandate in this European Parliament, I was a member of an EU electoral commission mission to Uganda – a country long tormented by oppressive, brutal regimes. Museveni was elected. So many years after, Museveni is still in place, but democracy has been eroded; human rights continue to be violated. I had the opportunity to check the importance and the weight of EU diplomacy on the spot in Uganda. It summed up with the embassies of the Member States, and we're still powerless in order to make the right point to bring about fair, credible elections in Uganda. Insofar as there is something we can do, it's to make the case for the human rights that are violated of the leaders of the opposition, so that the European message is still heard – in Kampala, in Uganda, all over the place – that we do care about those leaders of the opposition who are so unfairly prosecuted. So please, Commissioner, take the message: action is needed in Uganda, in Kampala.

Mr President, Commissioner, we are discussing here the accession of Albania and Montenegro to an international convention on the recognition and enforcement of judgments, a convention to which the European Union is a party. And, as has been heard here, the majority of this Parliament welcomes that willingness on the part of Albania and Montenegro to fulfil the conditions for accession, in due course, to the area of freedom, justice and security, which is based on mutual trust and mutual recognition of judicial decisions. Therefore, they are doing the right thing. But this Parliament cannot fail to do the task entrusted to it by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which reserves the last word to the European Parliament (final say, decisive) decisive for the entry into force of any agreement negotiated by the European Commission as mandated by the Council. This is the case: The European Parliament therefore reserves the final say in the final adoption of this agreement for the free movement of judicial decisions in the area of freedom, justice and security.

Madam President, Commissioner Mînzatu, we have again a debate on social Europe, on the fight against poverty: an EU anti-poverty strategy. And those of us who are lawyers know that rights are worth what their guarantees are worth, including social rights, which means that the European Child Guarantee must have a budget allocation - as this European Parliament calls for - of at least EUR 20 billion per year in the budget. And there is a gender factor, but also generational, in the translation of poverty, and, therefore, a huge challenge is to combat homelessness and the difficulty of access to housing, which has become the largest factor of inequality in the European Union. And there is something the European Union can do to facilitate access to housing: not only to mobilise EUR 700 billion in the European Affordable Housing Plan, but also to combat speculative investment by investment funds and vulture housing funds, which makes it prohibitive, not only for young people, but also for the working class in the European Union.

Madam President, Commissioner, when we talk about education in this Parliament, we see that many of us have come to politics from teaching and some and some from a lifelong passion for equal rights and opportunities, because that is education: a capital pillar of social Europe, redressing inequalities. This is recognised not only in the Sustainable Development Goals (Goal 4), but above all in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Article 14). I bring to your attention two dimensions that have been discussed in this Strasbourg plenary session: firstly, the necessary budgetary allocation in the multiannual financial framework for the European Social Fund and for the Erasmus+ programme, which has to be sufficient to act as a tool, as a lever for equalisation of opportunities and as a social lift in a fundamental right such as education. But, secondly, it is the one that refers to the protection of minors against those digital tools that have to be incorporated into their educational curriculum through digital literacy, to protect minors and make them less vulnerable to the manipulation of the platform's business model.

Madam President, Commissioner, of the concerns I have already heard regarding the rule of law and the management of European funds in Slovakia, I would add and underline one that sums them all up: the removal by law of 2025 of the Whistleblower Protection Office and the withdrawal of the protection enjoyed by those who had already reported. And this affects European legislation, the Directive on the protection of whistleblowers that we launched after the conclusions of the Commission of Inquiry on large-scale electronic surveillance by the National Security Agency of the United States. It therefore affects compliance with European law and the fight against corruption, the management of European funds and the principle of non-regression – not going backwards – which is a fundamental criterion in the rule of law according to the reports of the Venice Commission. Add to this the 2024 reform – for which this European Parliament has already expressed its concern – of the Criminal Code to abolish the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, and you have the full picture, Commissioner McGrath, to know that the Commission’s mission is to monitor compliance with European law. This does not mean any prejudice against Slovakia, of course, nor any leftist conspiracy, which does not exist. No, it means judgment on the facts in Slovakia.