Speeches

Mr President, High Representative Kaja Kallas, the national security strategy of the United States does not consider the European Union a friendly partner, but, on the contrary, an organisation that it considers weak to harass. What else does it take for the European Union to decide to mature? You don’t just have to wake up –wake up call— but to step out of their comfort zone and, in addition, make the right decisions while being aware that the quantitative increase in the investments of the 27 Member States in defence is not enough, but above all the qualitative factor of the integration of capabilities by specialties is necessary, so that this current stage of the coalition of the willing can be overcome towards permanent structured cooperation. Because the first thing that is needed for the rearmament of Europe is the rearmament of the will to be, of the European confidence that it is able to take charge of its own security and its own defence.

Mr President, High Representative Kaja Kallas, many of us here reject foreign intervention in Venezuela as illegal and contrary to international law and, for the same reason, we cannot contemplate or support the same intervention in Iran. But that doesn't mean silence or helplessness. First, all sanctions within reach and those that are still lacking are necessary; Stand up to remove obstacles. Second, strong support must be given to the demonstrators – brave women and young rebels – in the face of the tyranny of the Ayatollahs. But, thirdly, all European diplomacy – that of its Member States and that of its European External Action Service – must be put at the service of democratic change in Iran that is not focused on oil, but on human rights and that, therefore, avoids double standards, which is where the legitimacy of the European Union is broken before the citizens who observe us and who demand from us a commitment to the citizenship that is manifested in Iran, brutally repressed by the regime of the Ayatollahs.

Madam President, Vice-President Virkkunen, this is a step in the right direction, because our security does not depend on the linear increase of 27 Member States’ budgets, much less on the arbitrarily imposed 5% percentage by those who do not even respect us, no. It depends on this pooling of capabilities, on the commitment to cybersecurity at European level to protect the integrity of our electoral processes and to protect the integrity of our education, health systems – health data are extremely sensitive – and also on the financial system, which is exposed at any time to a cyber attack, which makes more and more European citizens tempted to have cash at home just in case. But no strategy will be properly sustained if we are not able to give content to that mantra that we repeat so much of our digital sovereignty - so we call it - which requires a common commitment to innovation and research, with incentives such as those we discussed yesterday, with a common European strategy and legislation.

Mr President, High Representative Kaja Kallas, the leak by the President of the United States of messages sent by European leaders and the Secretary-General of NATO reveals something more serious than their content, that is, how he perceives us: weak, divided and, above all, dispensable for their language of force. It depends on their responsibility that, in the first place, this perception changes in what remains of the European Union's credibility and respectability vis-à-vis the global actors who are watching us, but fundamentally in what the European Union has confidence in and, therefore, legitimation of citizens, who want a united and strong response and, above all, a response that does not practice the double standards that they so detest. Because they have censored double standards in our response in Ukraine and Gaza, but we cannot afford that double standard any less than in Greenland, which affects the Kingdom of Denmark and therefore affects the entire European Union.

Madam President, Vice-President Virkkunen, you see, in this debate there are two approaches to sexual violence against children and women and the pornography of the ultra-false on the net, which are the business model of the digital oligarchy: the far right thinks it is freedom of expression, but we Europeans remember that we have passed laws in this European Parliament on digital services and artificial intelligence that say that what is crime outside the network must also be crime in the network. But there's more: we need a Commission that commits to demanding the rigorous application of European legislation to these oligarchs of the business model of digital platforms and that commits not to give in to the blackmail of these oligarchs protected by the White House and that, therefore, there is nothing like a digital bus that degrades the standard. Because it is about representing citizens, who have fundamental rights, and especially vulnerable people, women and children who are exposed to that infamous pornography and exploitation that causes sexual violence against their rights.

Mr President, I join the expression of condolence for the victims of the railway tragedy that has taken place today in Spain, of infinite solidarity with the families who mourn them and of recognition for the forces that have mobilized to help them. But I also join this initiative by my colleague Leire Pajín, which shows that humanitarian aid is a priority and must be reflected in the financial framework with sufficient resources. In addition, it reminds us that if all the Member States combined their efforts with that of the European Union itself in humanitarian aid and development cooperation, the European Union would undoubtedly be the undisputed world champion; not only in the face of the withdrawal by the United States of all humanitarian aid, but also in the fulfillment of its own promise to honor its principle, to be meaningful globally where it knows best how to do things: humanitarian aid and development cooperation with special attention to vulnerable groups, of course, and equality between men and women victims of trafficking and victims of humanitarian conflicts.

Madam President, Commissioner McGrath, what a bad thing it is to have hostile neighbours, the enemy at the gates! Putin's Russia, immediate border with the European Union, with its Kaliningrad enclave in Poland and its proxy, Lukashenko's Belarus, which threatens us with drones, balloons and attacks on the critical infrastructure of the European Union, but also with espionage and bribery. There we have seen national parliaments of the Member States bought by the interests of Russian military intelligence and a European parliamentarian, in the last legislature, also affected by that complicity with Russian espionage. Therefore, our response cannot be only reactive: 19 packages of sanctions against Russia, of course, but it has to be constructive and purposeful. If the Russians have an intelligence that acts against our interests, we must have a counterintelligence and a shared intelligence: a service that develops that effective intelligence embryo that we have in the European External Action Service to prevent and respond to when needed. In addition, it is imperative that we draw the consequences of the experience of the Special Committee on the European Shield of Democracy, not only to protect electoral systems, but also to be able to respond to that hybrid threat that disrupts the opinion-forming process in the Member States of the European Union and in the Union as a whole. It is the way to put an end to this constant interference of Russian espionage in the integrity of the democratic processes of the Member States and of the Union itself.

Mr President, Commissioner, explaining the European legislative procedure in a 700-seat Parliament and then approving 27 governments is not easy. But not only is it incomprehensible that this horizontal anti-discrimination directive has been blocked for no less than 13 years, but it is also unacceptable. We call it horizontal precisely because it is transversal and cross-sectoral and reinforces the possibility of protecting oneself against any discrimination prohibited by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the beauty of which is that it protects not only Europeans, but anyone – therefore also foreigners – and has a state-of-the-art anti-discrimination clause: not only does it prohibit discrimination based on race, sex, religion or belief, but it also prohibits discrimination based on age, disability, sexual orientation, property and the protection of minorities. Therefore, this Directive would strengthen the ability to protect against discrimination established by Member States in their legislation, as is the well-known case of Hungary, with its anti-LGTBI laws even criminalising Pride. Therefore, Presidency, it is high time to unblock this anti-discrimination directive and overcome the resistance of that minority of Member States that still refuse to accept it.

Mr President, Commissioner Šefčovič, we agree that Trump’s national security strategy – an insult to the European Union – accelerates our strategic autonomy and our declaration of independence. But the question is: how? With a multi-annual financial framework that does not have enough resources, that renationalises its policies in national envelopes and that does not provide funding for a European problem such as affordable public housing, the intervention of rental markets and the regulation of the intervention of vulture funds? How? Giving in to the green ambition policy to prolong combustion automotive? Or giving in to the blackmail of the great technological oligarchs who control polarizing algorithms? Isn't that what Trump wants by supporting far-right nationalisms and populisms? A weak and divided Europe? It is clear that the answer is the opposite: a united Europe, with a will to be, finally awake and faithful to its values.