Debate contributions by Maria GRAPINI

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it is strange to me that there are colleagues in this House who criticise the existence of a mechanism for controlling European money. We were chosen by the citizens to defend their financial interests. How do I criticize a mechanism by which I want to control? However, we should think critically if this mechanism is applied correctly and, Commissioner, you will also see critical points in the report, because the lack of transparency, which the Commission often practices, is not a good example. I was the discharge rapporteur in the Commission's past mandate and I tell you frankly that I did not vote for it. Why? Because the Commission did not answer the questions that the Committee on Budgetary Control and other parliamentarians asked. So, if we want this mechanism to work and it has to work, you have to show a lot of transparency, fairness, equality, treatment between states and, why not, maybe we, Parliament, think about how we protect citizens and end consumers if a government does not apply the rule of law correctly, because citizens must not (...)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it is strange to me that there are colleagues in this House who criticise the existence of a mechanism for controlling European money. We were chosen by the citizens to defend their financial interests. How do I criticize a mechanism by which I want to control? However, we should think critically if this mechanism is applied correctly and, Commissioner, you will also see critical points in the report, because the lack of transparency, which the Commission often practices, is not a good example. I was the discharge rapporteur in the Commission's past mandate and I tell you frankly that I did not vote for it. Why? Because the Commission did not answer the questions that the Committee on Budgetary Control and other parliamentarians asked. So, if we want this mechanism to work and it has to work, you have to show a lot of transparency, fairness, equality, treatment between states and, why not, maybe we, Parliament, think about how we protect citizens and end consumers if a government does not apply the rule of law correctly, because citizens must not (...)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we are at the last plenary, a stocktaking plenary, and once again, President von der Leyen has left the room, she has no patience to listen to us. About what balance? He made a self-praising report, as he usually does, he started telling us how we would finance the fight and not how we would negotiate peace. We have lost a million jobs this year. We were unable, Commissioner, and we stayed together until midnight with the Danish Presidency, to conclude the trilogue on the Customs Regulation, which is very important for the protection of the internal market. Farmers are on the street, as you know, tomorrow. We don't have energy independence and we pay three times as much energy. Let's see. Maybe this holiday break brings us all together to have a real project to support European citizens. This is important, people to be put in the center. I was talking about the housing crisis yesterday. We won't be able to solve it until incomes grow, until we have a stable and strong economy, and until we have independence. We depend on imports. Merry Christmas to everyone!

Thank you for your reply. The point is that you spoke about the cohesion and development policy of the regions. The concrete question now is: in future policy, do you think it is good to have the budget for the common agricultural policy combined with cohesion policy?

Dear colleague, you said in your speech that you want an equal development of Europe. Do you think the report by President von der Leyen, now on the year-to-year balance sheet, shows anything? Does it show any basis for what you said? I have been in Parliament since 2014. Farmers in my country, in Romania, still have different subsidies. There are still disparities, there is a fragmented market. Do you think that the President of the Commission, at the end of the year, made a fair, realistic report or just slogans and political statements that citizens do not need?

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, for me it was a surprising debate. I've seen passion, anger, insults. Dear colleagues, we are chosen by the citizens. It is a citizens' initiative. Maybe we forgot why we're here. We are obliged to discuss a citizens' initiative and there were not 100 000 people, one million, over one million signatures. Therefore, those who are passionate, now, around Christmas, are Orthodox Christians, offended and forgotten that women, in fact in the European Union, still do not have access to medical care and very often end up having a pregnancy, being sick, discover that they have a disease. The doctor forbids them from carrying the pregnancy. So we have to understand and thank you, Commissioner, I do not often congratulate the European Commission, but you have said very clearly: it is a national competence and we need to see how we support, in the Member States, where women still do not have access to health care. I wish you all good health and don't forget why you came here. You are elected by the people!

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, for me it was a surprising debate. I've seen passion, anger, insults. Dear colleagues, we are chosen by the citizens. It is a citizens' initiative. Maybe we forgot why we're here. We are obliged to discuss a citizens' initiative and there were not 100 000 people, one million, over one million signatures. Therefore, those who are passionate, now, around Christmas, are Orthodox Christians, offended and forgotten that women, in fact in the European Union, still do not have access to medical care and very often end up having a pregnancy, being sick, discover that they have a disease. The doctor forbids them from carrying the pregnancy. So we have to understand and thank you, Commissioner, I do not often congratulate the European Commission, but you have said very clearly: it is a national competence and we need to see how we support, in the Member States, where women still do not have access to health care. I wish you all good health and don't forget why you came here. You are elected by the people!

I want to ask you a question, dear colleague. I agree with what you said. My question is: Do you think that the suffering in which the automotive industry is now is due to our mistake, the European Parliament, the European Union, the European Commission, which regulated before we had solutions? Because there are tens of thousands of jobs, there is an industry behind it that ultimately ensures the well-being of citizens. And if you think we need to correct what we did years ago, which is to impose deadlines and solutions before we have technology, before we have enough money, before we have innovation.

I want to ask you a question, dear colleague. I agree with what you said. My question is: Do you think that the suffering in which the automotive industry is now is due to our mistake, the European Parliament, the European Union, the European Commission, which regulated before we had solutions? Because there are tens of thousands of jobs, there is an industry behind it that ultimately ensures the well-being of citizens. And if you think we need to correct what we did years ago, which is to impose deadlines and solutions before we have technology, before we have enough money, before we have innovation.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would first like to congratulate those who initiated the letter, because the signatories of the letter, in fact, have responded to the citizens' request and, since I have been in the European Parliament, I have always argued, Commissioner, that we have to listen to all stakeholders, we have to listen to citizens and we have to respond to them, but we have to respond to them to understand why, for example, livestock farming alone could be prohibited by a decision at European Union level - and this must be seen in the context of the Treaty. Again, this must be well understood: not all animals, animals exclusively bred for fur. Of course, here we have to listen to the specialists, because in the letter written by my colleagues there is also a paragraph, I am convinced that you have read it, in which it is said that there is also the probability, the risk of transmitting diseases to people, to those who use these furs. That is why I believe that, on the one hand, we need to be careful how we reach a decision and, of course, based on the citizens' demand, but we also need to be careful. I have worked for 35 years in the textile sector, the textile industry, where the fur industry also enters and it is extremely important how we make the exit of these companies from the market. Many companies have retrofitted, have cars, have people employed, so we need to have a transition period in which to offer an alternative to those who have built a business on this topic for years. Then, a very important thing: I am also Vice-President for the Committee on the Internal Market; I still see an imbalance in many trade agreements. If we ban - and we come to a conclusion that yes, we will ban these things (breeding animals exclusively for fur), what do we do with imports? Because if products come - fur from animals bred exclusively for fur - then we did nothing. We have again created discomfort and, let's say, even unfair competition with producers in the European Union. At the same time, I am also in the Committee on Agriculture and the Intergroup on Animal Welfare, and I am sure that I am looking at this issue with balance, and I very much believe that we must not take quick decisions, but we must also analyse it from a scientific point of view: whether or not the disease is transmitted to humans by wearing these furs, what we replace with. If we replace it with synthetic, we also need to see - and I'm telling you now, as a textile specialist - whether the synthetic is somehow more harmful to humans. All these things cannot be taken, but it is salutary and it must be stressed that we have reacted - Parliament, the colleagues who made the letter - at the request of the citizens. That is our duty, as elected people, I mean Parliament, and you, as an executive government of the European Union, to take into account what we come from taking over the problems of citizens, and I hope that a solution will be found that is fair - that is very important - also for animal welfare, but also fair for workers who for years have built businesses in this area. I look forward to a response to the letter made by colleagues and I am convinced that you will have the power to find fair solutions and, ultimately, on the basis of the Treaty for which we operate. Good luck to you, Commissioner!

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, the result you have presented here does not seem to have satisfied you either. Does it please the citizens? The objectives of climate change must be very clear and coupled with measures that can be applied. No one is challenging climate change, I think. People are dying in the heat, people are dying in the floods, but people are also dying in the cold, Commissioner, because they cannot pay for their energy. Europe pays three to four times more for energy than America. What's the solution? Did you talk about just transition? What do you mean by just transition? The European Union has the objective of cohesion. Do we touch him or not? I believe that the objectives for climate change must be harmonized with the competitiveness that we can have, with reindustrialization. We have a reindustrialization program and yes, you have to take partners, citizens and companies. Only then will there be compliance. If citizens and companies feel that they are not partners in these goals, they will not comply. I therefore expect you, Commissioner, to convey to us the objectives coupled with the measures.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, of course we need decarbonisation, we need a clean environment, but we also need industry, we need jobs. Commissioner, you said that 100 billion investments would be needed, and you said yourself, most of them from the private sector. I come from the private sector. Do you think that a company invests when it knows that it increases its costs 3, 4, 5 times and can no longer sell its service or product? No, no, no. I believe that the pace at which we are doing this decarbonisation - now we are talking about aviation and maritime transport, but also in other areas - must be the pace at which we can ensure that European industry exists, that it is refurbished, that there is money for refurbishment. What else do we do? The responsibility for the clean environment is the responsibility of the entire globe, it is not only of the continent of Europe and we know well that the USA, China, India are much, much bigger polluters than Europe. If you, we, put pressure on European industry here, we will certainly disappear and import products that actually pollute in countries that do not have the same conditions. That is why, Commissioner, I believe that this programme for the transition to sustainable fuel must be carried out at the rate at which industry can bear it, and budgets must be granted for the transition to sustainable fuel. We can't replace something if we don't have something to put in place.