Speeches

Madam President, in a world of increasingly frightening disinformation, defending journalists and protecting their ability to carry out investigative work has become more than ever an act of defence of democracy, which cannot survive the absence of reliable information for citizens. It is therefore crucial, as we call for in this report, to prevent the powerful from using our own laws for abusive lawsuits against journalists. These abusive lawsuits usually take a long time, involve high costs for the defendant and often result in reputational damage. The complainant usually uses this process to try to actually bankrupt the defendant. This inevitably results in a deterrent effect on freedom of expression and access to information as many journalists end up self-censoring. The inequality of resources between the complainant and the defendant is immeasurable. This must be remedied. The purpose of this Parliament report is to provide the Commission with ideas for a legislative proposal to put an end to an unacceptable practice, to punish abuses and to genuinely protect victims.

Mr President, Mr High Representative, the reality at the EU’s border with Belarus is an untenable human situation. Human beings are being instrumentalised to serve political agendas against the EU. This is a European affair! We in Poland must demand respect for our values and laws: No pushbacks. But neither can we accept that our borders are being stormed. Make no mistake, Russia is behind Belarus. This spill of migrants at the EU’s borders is a weapon of destabilisation for the EU, which is known to be divided on the migration issue. Discord between Member States is ultimately what is being sought. Just as it is clear that the current Polish government is a weakening factor for the EU. However, the situation at the Polish border is a factor that, in the run-up to the elections, brings votes to the PIS, which has a populist, anti-immigration discourse. We must be aware of these realities, just as we must be aware that the far right in this Chamber is playing Russia's game. Lukashenko and his supporters commit a crime by trafficking in human beings. We must put an end to this and, above all, we must find a way to act together if we do not want them to succeed.

Mr President, Commissioner, if the European Union takes seriously its objective of being a real player on the geopolitical scene, it must give priority to democracy everywhere and give its support to those who defend it. Taiwan is a democratic state that is under threat. Chinese military maneuvers to intimidate and pressure Taiwan must be considered unacceptable, as must disinformation campaigns against Taiwan. We need to maintain and develop our partnership with Taiwan. And, without procrastination, not only have bilateral relations with Taiwan, including by intensifying our economic relations, but also defend Taiwan on the international scene. It is inconceivable that even as the COVID pandemic unfolded without the possibility of vaccine protection, Taiwan did not have the opportunity to participate in WHO meetings. We must weigh all our weight in order for Taiwan to have a real status at the international level. We must be aware of the difficulties that the present situation entails. Today, due to its status, Taiwan has huge concerns about ordering vaccines. At the start of the pandemic, Taiwan sent eight million masks to the EU. It is up to us today to show solidarity by ensuring that Taiwanese people have access to the vaccine.

Mr President, on entering the European Union, the Member States have accepted the supremacy of European law over national laws, over their constitutions. Countries had to change their constitutions in order to join the European Union. European law is supranational. This has been explicitly accepted by the EU Member States. Paragraph. Therefore, we must not drag on to useless quarrels that take us away from the essential. By leading us to debate a judgment of the Polish Constitutional Court, the Polish authorities are taking us away from the essentials. They claim to give legitimacy to a court whose independence itself is called into question. They distract our attention from the essentials: problems with the independence of the Polish judicial system. The Polish judicial system is no longer independent and the rule of law is no longer guaranteed. The Polish people deserve better. The European Parliament therefore calls for the triggering of Article 7 to finally lead to concrete consequences and also for EU funds to be disbursed only if the rule of law is guaranteed.

Mr President, Commissioner, in Belarus, more than a year after the elections that do not deserve its name, the authorities of Alexander Lukashenko continue to crack down on the population, organisations and journalists who dare to signal their peaceful opposition. Imprisonments, unjust judgments, ill-treatment, torture, disappearances, deaths: this cannot be covered by the veil of passing time, nor by habit. We promised the Belarusian people that the European Parliament would not forget their unjust situation. We must continue to denounce the repression in Belarus, just as we must denounce the instrumentalisation of migrants by Lukashenko, an instrumentalisation whose sole purpose is to destabilise the European Union. Using human beings, destroying human destinies for the purpose of political coercion is simply despicable. It is imperative that the European Union remains united in saying that this is unacceptable and in condemning this hybrid attack. In this context, the EU must also determine the role played by Russia in all Belarusian hybrid attacks against the EU and the EU must react to them together.

Mr President, Poland has been closely linked since my youth to the aspirations for justice, and also for freedom and democracy, which the Polish people expressed through the movement around Solidarność. To have Poland in the European Union, like other countries, was, and for me, to repair an injustice of history. Sad, therefore, today, given the actions of the authorities in power, that Parliament has on its agenda the situation of the press and the rule of law in Poland. Impaired independence and justice, disciplinary regime in breach of EU law against judges, denial of the primacy of EU law: All this is unacceptable. The seizure of power over the media, with laws seeking to silence independent journalism that is critical of power, is unacceptable. Unacceptable, because it erodes the very foundations of our democracies. Without equal and independent justice for all, justice is not sustainable; Without genuine freedom of the press and access to credible information, a democracy is not sustainable. The scale of breaches of the rule of law and our fundamental values – because I must also mention intolerable violations of LGBQTI people’s rights – means that threats to the rule of law in Poland are systemic. I therefore welcome the fact that the President of the Commission has today made clear announcements in defence of our values: a media law will be introduced next year, the EU budget will be protected in relation to respect for the rule of law. These are requests from Parliament and also the objective of this resolution: fight to provide all European citizens with a society where democratic foundations are guaranteed.

Madam President, Afghanistan has made tremendous progress in the last 20 years on women’s and girls’ rights: education, health, civic and political participation. I will never accept the claim of some that these efforts have been in vain. Development aid must now depend, among other things, on the rights of women and girls. The actions of the Taliban say something other than their official speech. However, only actions count. Afghanistan was and remains a country dependent on humanitarian aid. That must be a concern. This is why a link with the regime in place is indispensable. Similarly, this link is necessary to enable the evacuation of those whom we wanted to evacuate and who are still stranded in Afghanistan. The European Union has not been able to do what it would have liked, to do what was its duty, for lack of means. Faced with this impotence, it is high time that the European Union wakes up and gives itself the means to defend its ambitions. When you are dependent, you are not sovereign. No single European nation has the means to play a truly decisive role on this global stage. Only a common foreign policy and a common defence force ready to intervene will enable us to decide and act and restore our credibility.

Mr President, with this resolution, the European Parliament unequivocally and in the clearest terms condemns the law recently adopted by the Hungarian Parliament restricting the rights and freedoms of LGBTQI+ people and, in so doing, also the freedom of expression and the freedom of the media. This law is a clear breach of the values, principles and laws of the European Union. I am convinced that a very large majority of people in the European Union are aware that this is about protecting the inherent dignity of every human being, that it is about everyone’s freedom to express themselves as they are, that it is about the respect due to every human being. It is one of the values, if not the fundamental value on which our Union is founded: This intimate belief that we are all equal, regardless of our sexual orientation, religion, skin color, eye color, whether we are red or blond, black or white, young or old, young or old, whether we wear glasses or not, whether we have an apparent disability or not, whether we consider ourselves normal or different. None, no discrimination is justifiable. It is as simple as that. I am therefore proud that we have a President at the head of the Commission who has not hesitated to call this law a disgrace and that our President of the EPP Group, Manfred Weber, has taken it up again today from this very rostrum. The European Union has repeatedly affirmed the rights of LGBTQI people and proclaimed its fight against discrimination against them. Our words, intentions, decisions and actions must now have concrete consequences. We need to enforce EU law within the EU.

Madam President, one of the peculiarities of the global human rights sanctions regime, our Magnitsky law, is that it directly targets individuals and entities responsible for human rights abuses. Unlike other sanctions, e.g. economic sanctions, individual sanctions against those responsible have no impact on the population and can therefore be applied without hesitation. Now, if the EU really wants to be effective, it must firstly broaden the scope of the sanctions regime by adding corruption; secondly, move to qualified majority voting for the application of the scheme; and thirdly, the European Union must act in concert with other democracies around the world when applying its sanctions. Indeed, with regard to corruption, it is a scourge that undermines the rule of law and democracy, allows human rights abuses and ensures that they are done with impunity. We must fight corruption that puts the powerful above the law. Qualified majority voting must become a matter of course for the application of the European global sanctions regime. It is inconceivable that one or two countries could prevent the European Union from taking decisions on this issue. Finally, it is by acting together with other democracies that we will be fully effective. These powerful people, guilty of human rights abuses, often enjoy property and bank accounts in the area of freedom of so-called Western democracies. However, if together we close our borders to them and freeze their assets, I am convinced that our overall sanctions mechanisms will not only be tools to combat impunity, but will also have a real deterrent effect.