What Juan Fernando spoke about.

16 Jun

2025

ES Speech

Strengthening rural areas in the EU through cohesion policy (debate)

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Mr President, Vice-President Fitto, you are certainly not surprised that we in the Socialist Party always stress that cohesion policy is Europe's raison d'être: regional solidarity, but also social solidarity. Nor will he be surprised if he emphasizes the dimension of regional policy in rural regions, including in the outermost regions, because simplifying means reducing bureaucratic and administr…

16 Jun

2025

ES Speech

The human cost of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the urgent need to end Russian aggression: the situation of illegally detained civilians and prisoners of war, and the continued bombing of civilians (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, surely among the best of the European response after three years of war of aggression in Ukraine is the activation at the origin of the Temporary Protection Directive, thanks to which eleven million displaced persons from the conflict in Ukraine have been able to enter the European Union with free movement, residence and access to the labour market. But, still, three…

16 Jun

2025

ES Speech

State of play and follow-up two years after the PEGA recommendations and the illegal use of spyware (debate)

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Mr President, Vice-President Virkkunen, the only point of a committee of inquiry in this European Parliament, whether on Pegasus in the last parliamentary term - two years ago - or, at the moment, on the European Shield of Democracy, is to deduce lessons from bad experiences, to translate them into a document of conclusions and that that document of conclusions is a mandate of initiative for the E…

22 May

2025

ES Speech

Deliberations of the Committee on Petitions in 2023 (debate)

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Mr President, Article 44 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union recognises as a fundamental right of European citizenship the right to petition, provided that it concerns the legislative powers of the European Union and particularly of this European Parliament. Nothing shows more - and worse - the distortion suffered by the committee that this European Parliament establishes to…

21 May

2025

ES Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Mr President, a mission by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs to the island of El Hierro (Canary Islands) will take place from 26 to 28 May, which has been, for years, the point of greatest influx of migrants from the African neighbourhood and is on the deadliest route, with an unbearable balance of loss of life at sea despite the enormous and continuous effort of the marit…

21 May

2025

ES Speech

The Hungarian government's drift to Russia-style repression: legislative threats to freedom of expression and democratic participation (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner McGrath, there are countless debates and monographic resolutions by this European Parliament on the flagrant violations by the Viktor Orbán government of European law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, starting with the principle of non-discrimination. Whether we look at its repression of information pluralism and LGTBI demonstrations or at the …

8 May

2025

ES Speech

80 years after the end of World War II - freedom, democracy and security as the heritage of Europe (debate)

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Mr. President, it is eighty years since the defeat of the Nazi horror, but not the end of the Second World War, whose devastation was planetary, because it only ended after two atomic bombs in Japan in August 1945. Nie wieder. Never again. Never again. This cannot be a mantra for this European Union, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012, exactly to stoke our awareness that we have to be pe…

7 May

2025

ES Speech

The fine against TikTok and the need to strengthen the protection of citizens’ rights on social media platforms (debate)

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Mr President, Mr McGrath, the Commission must be supported by the European Parliament when it does the right thing. And it has done so by imposing a fine of €530 million on TikTok for failing to comply with European law, which is made up not only of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), but also of the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act and the Artificial Intelligence Act, whic…

7 May

2025

ES Speech

Malta's Golden Passport scheme circumventing EU sanctions against Russia (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner McGrath, the judgment delivered by the Court of Justice in April states that golden passports, i.e. the acquisition of European citizenship by investments, usually real estate, are incompatible with European law, which recognises the fundamental right to free movement from the principle of mutual trust and mutual recognition of national decisions. But, in addition, it ag…

7 May

2025

ES Speech

EU support for a just, sustainable and comprehensive peace in Ukraine (debate)

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Madam President, President von der Leyen has explained before this plenary session of the European Parliament an agenda with three points: the first step is to step up defensive support to Ukraine and humanitarian assistance to its displaced persons; The second is to accelerate the disconnection of Europe's dependence on fossil fuels from Russia... But the third is to accelerate Ukraine's integrat…

6 May

2025

ES Speech

Protecting Greenland's right to decide its own future and maintain the rule-based world order (debate)

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Madam President, High Representative Kallas, the debate shows that the interest in Greenland is due to the fact that your case is certainly unique, not because the melting of the Arctic and the opening of new sea routes, in addition to its extraordinary resources, have put it on the radar of the ambitions of only China or Russia – both nuclear powers – but also that of the United States, with offe…

6 May

2025

ES Speech

Discharge 2023 (joint debate)

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Mr President, in the debate on the 2023 discharge of the European Parliament, we in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs have an outstanding account, because this is the committee responsible for the reform of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament. This outstanding account is the one that affects the fulfilment of a mandate adopted in an Interinstitutional Agreement that is the sour…

6 May

2025

ES Speech

A revamped long-term budget for the Union in a changing world (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, when the current multiannual financial framework was adopted, we had not overcome the COVID-19 crisis nor had we had to face the war in Ukraine and the increase in energy prices, nor the migratory peaks that we have seen in Lampedusa and the Canary Islands. Therefore, the lesson is clear: the next Multiannual Financial Framework, if it is to respond to all these new pri…

6 May

2025

ES Speech

A unified EU response to unjustified US trade measures and global trade opportunities for the EU (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner Šefčovič, it is clear that Trump's return to the White House has meant a kick to the board of global disorder and that the dilemma is clear in this debate. It is not possible to get ahead or break down, there is only a unitary reaction to defend a world based on rules and multilateralism, including in global trade. But there's one message that hasn't emerged yet that we …

5 May

2025

ES Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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5 May

2025

ES Speech

Ninth report on economic and social cohesion (debate)

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5 May

2025

ES Speech

Protection of the European Union’s financial interests – combating fraud – annual report 2023 (debate)

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3 Apr

2025

ES Speech

Establishment of a European Day of the Righteous (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, I signed, in March 2012, the Declaration that the European Parliament made to establish 6 March as the European Day in memory of the Righteous, in memory of all those who sacrificed themselves in the tortured 20th century in Europe to save lives in the face of Nazi-fascist and Stalinist totalitarianisms, but, above all, of those who sacrificed themselves to save lives f…

2 Apr

2025

ES Speech

Delivering on the EU Roma Strategy and the fight against discrimination in the EU (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union absolutely prohibits any discrimination based on race, ethnic origin or membership of a minority. However, all these discriminations occur too much against the Roma community. That is why, within the framework of the EU Anti-Racism Action Plan 2020-2025, a European strategy against anti-Gypsyism was developed. Howe…

2 Apr

2025

ES Speech

Recent legislative changes in Hungary and their impact on fundamental rights (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner McGrath, yes, we already know that there are countless debates and resolutions that this European Parliament joins against the government in Hungary of Viktor Orbán. Fifteen years of crushing minorities in their despotic and corrupt drift and violation of European law and all the rights of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Starting with the proh…

1 Apr

2025

ES Speech

Safeguarding the access to democratic media, such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, this debate on the executive decision of the Trump presidency to withdraw through the United States Agency for Global Media all funding and support for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which have great symbolic value, is, in my view, one of the many debates in which we can entertain ourselves in detail without losing sight of the category, the underlying problem. The…

1 Apr

2025

ES Speech

Improving the implementation of cohesion policy through the mid-term review to achieve a robust cohesion policy post 2027 (debate)

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Mr President, Mr Vice-President Fitto, do you know that cohesion policy is surely, together with the fundamental right to free movement, the most precious asset of European integration? If it needs reform, it is in no case to end its shared management, its territorial approach and its multilevel governance. Surely it needs reform, to begin with, to increase its resources in the next multiannual fi…

1 Apr

2025

ES Speech

EU Preparedness Union Strategy (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner Lahbib, a European preparedness strategy to improve its capacity to respond to threats and risks certainly requires pointing out what those threats are, be they natural disasters and increasingly frequent extreme weather events, man-made disasters, cybersecurity attacks, hybrid threats or even geopolitical crises with imminent aggressions. But above all, it requires a…

1 Apr

2025

ES Speech

Presentation of the New European Internal Security Strategy (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner Brunner, European security has an external dimension that we have been discussing a lot for some time, but it was high time that we discussed internal security with that strategy that should succeed the one currently in place from 2025. And you will understand that none of your tools can surprise those of us who have been advocating for them for a long time. Firstly, the…

1 Apr

2025

ES Speech

Human rights and democracy in the world and the European Union’s policy on the matter – annual report 2024 (debate)

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Madam President, Mrs Kallas, in a turbulent world of global disorder in which authoritarianisms and autocracies clash with national-populisms to the detriment of human rights, the European Parliament’s 2024 human rights report analyses not only trends and challenges, but also the tools at its disposal. I underline some important ones. The first is to target visa policy in favour of human rights ac…