Speeches

The next item is the debate on the report by Lídia Pereira, on behalf of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, on the proposal for rules to prevent the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes (COM(2021)0565 – C9-0041/2022 – 2021/0434(CNS)) (A9-0293/2022).

The next item is the statement by the Commission and the Council - Recent JHA Council decision on accession to the Schengen area (2022/3011(RSP))

Ďalším bodom programu je rozprava o otázke na ústne zodpovedanie pre Komisiu o Právnej ochrane dúhových rodín uplatňujúcich právo na voľný pohyb, najmä prípad malej Sáry, ktorú predkladajú Marc Angel, Terry Reintke, Pierre Karleskind, Malin Björk, Maria Walsh, Fabio Massimo Castaldo, Matjaž Nemec, Olivier Chastel, Diana Riba i Giner, Gabriele Bischoff, Tilly Metz, Irène Tolleret, Dietmar Köster, Frances Fitzgerald, Karen Melchior, Sophia in ʼt Veld, Marianne Vind, Karima Delli, Hilde Vautmans, Magdalena Adamowicz, Sylwia Spurek, Francisco Guerreiro, Karin Karlsbro, Vera Tax, Sandro Gozi, Malte Gallée, René Repasi, Robert Biedroń, Radka Maxová, Giuliano Pisapia, Aurore Lalucq, Marisa Matias, José Gusmão, Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg, Rosa DʼAmato, Andreas Schieder, Catharina Rinzema, Chris MacManus, Alice Kuhnke, Saskia Bricmont, Silvia Modig, Sirpa Pietikäinen, Michal Šimečka a Grace OʼSullivan (O-000045/2022 – B9-0031/22) (2022/2954(RSP)).

The next item is the statement by the Council and the Commission on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity COP15 (2022/2959(RSP)).

Mr President, Madam Commissioner, dear colleagues, thank you so much for the discussion and thank you for the support. It is quite rare that there is such a broad consensus in this Parliament from the left to the right. And not just a consensus and an agreement on this text that is going to be voted on later on, but also consensus and an agreement on the kind of threats that we face and on the kind of actions that we need to take. I note that a lot of you, colleagues, have approved of the expansion of the sectors that will be covered in this directive to 11. I am also happy that there’s strong agreement on that. I should also mention, highlight, that the philosophy of this directive is somewhat different from the last one, and I appreciate that. I think this is also where there is a consensus: that we’re moving from just protecting particular pieces of critical infrastructure – assets and buildings and whatnot – to a philosophy where we’re focusing on the resilience of those essential services. And I think this reflects this new and dangerous world that we’re entering where the risks can't all be eliminated. There will be threats, there will be incidents. And we need to be clear with our citizens that not with this directive, not with anything we can do, can we eliminate all the risks falling from natural catastrophes to war to hybrid sabotage attacks. What we can do, though, is to minimise those risks and to make sure that when incidents happen, we are prepared and our entities, be they public or private, are able to bounce back and carry on with the services that are essential for our societies and for our single market. And this is what this directive does. This is what it’s for. And with its approval and with its implementation, the European Union, its citizens, its single market will be all the more secure. So let me again say thanks so much to the Commission, to the French Presidency, to all my colleagues from the political groups. And I would just reiterate the call of the Commissioner for Member States to implement this as swiftly as possible.

Mr President, colleagues, Madam Commissioner, it is quite an honour for me to stand here and present to you the result of almost two years of legislative work, which was grounded in extensive debates and consultations with stakeholders, the Member States and the European institutions. The initial promise was to deliver on a Europe that protects, which in practice also means strengthening the resilience of the critical systems underpinning our way of life in our internal market. And today, with the CER Directive, the EU is in a position to deliver on that promise. Before we vote, let me just give a brief overview of what has transpired in Europe while we have been working on this file, which also provides the strongest arguments for why the European Union needs a new piece of legislation to better protect its critical entities. Right before the Commission rolled out its draft, the COVID pandemic broke out, infecting and killing millions of Europeans and disrupting our healthcare, our economy and our societies. Later, while we were negotiating this law, or this directive, Russia launched its brutal attack, its brutal aggression against Ukraine. And since then, the European Union has been facing an unprecedented increase in sabotage operations on its critical infrastructure – from the energy sector to transport services – and experiencing an increasing number of hybrid attacks on its public institutions. And in the meantime, the climate crisis has been burning and flooding our continent from Greece to Portugal, Sweden to Italy. And all of these crises, all of these events have also served as a sort of compass for the co-legislators as they were finetuning this directive. Now more than ever, we must prove to our citizens that the European Union protects their lives, protects their jobs, their companies, the essential services that affect the daily lives of our citizens and, eventually, the entire European Union. Therefore, our ambition with this directive is to strengthen the ability of critical entities to cope with these risks to their operations, while improving the functioning of the internal market in these essential services. There are 11 crucial sectors covered, and this directive addresses the various measures and requirements so that its implementation will adequately respond to both natural catastrophes and man-made attacks. I trust that our joint compass throughout this process has brought solid rules and established the cooperation, coordination and information flows among the Member States, the entities and the European Commission that will strengthen preparedness for these incidents, the response to these incidents and, eventually, their evaluations. Because resilience is not just about preventing a risk – a disaster can always occur; the crucial thing is how we cope with it and how we, as the European Union, bounce back from it. Moreover, this is reflected in the legislation. There are entities which have a pan-European dimension because they operate simultaneously in several Member States, and a risk to their operations is therefore a risk for the single market as a whole. And this directive puts a special focus on these entities and on the cross-border cooperation of these entities, which are of particular European significance. Finally, I would like to say that I’m delighted – and this is thanks to you, Madam Commissioner, and thanks to my colleagues, our shadow rapporteurs, our advisers in the European Parliament and our counterparts in the Council – that our mutual work has resulted in what I believe is the best possible legislation. It is a big step for the European Union, and I really hope that this Parliament will broadly support it by adopting our interinstitutional agreement later today.

The next item is the report by Paulo Rangel on the Full application of the provisions of the Schengen acquis in Croatia (10624/2022 – C9-0222/2022 – 2022/0806(NLE)) (A9-0264/2022).

Mr President, we should never have had this debate. Matthew and Juraj were supposed to return home to their loved ones even today after work or after school. They should have the inviolable right to live, to live fully, to live freely and without fear. I would therefore also like to express my sincere condolences here to the closest victims of this terrorist attack in Bratislava, the first ever attack on the LGBTIQ community in the European Union. If we can find any glimpse of hope in this horrific act, we have seen it in the streets of Slovak cities in the last days, where tens of thousands of people have subscribed to respect, equality and acceptance. And we see hope here, also here, this week in the European Parliament, where my colleagues across the continent, across the ideological spectrum, express solidarity with the LGBTIQ community in Slovakia and call for an end to the language of hatred, but also to the reality of discrimination. Yes, this abominable act has united Europe and its message is clear. We will never, ever accept that in today's European Union there are people who, simply because of their different sexual orientation, must live in constant fear without full rights, who must be an eternal target and victim of political games and ideologies, and that Europe and this Parliament will always stand by them.