Speeches

Mr President, I say to the Prime Minister: thanks for coming, but I really wonder, why did you come? Did you come here to shift the narrative with the help of the claps from the far-right? Is this really what you’re trying to do? First, your puppet chord attacks the basis of this House, the Treaties. Second, you write a letter saying that the EU is turning into an autocracy. And third, you come and talk here about legal order, while you’ve been trying to curtail the freedom of your judges for years. I really don’t understand why you came here today, and I think soon you will see that your advisers are wrong and that you have gone far too far with what you have been doing. The Polish people do not want to leave the European Union. We cannot, Commission President, have money flow to a government that does not respect the treaties and therefore we cannot control where it is going. So I ask you to under no circumstance accept the Polish recovery plan and make sure that this tribunal and the judgment are repealed.

Mr President, today I woke up to the sad news in the media which we had all more or less been expecting: Greece, Croatia, and Romania are pushing people back over European borders to stop them from applying for asylum. At the same time, today, we have the Afghanistan resettlement forum, where we more or less expect that national ministers will agree not to resettle a single soul in Europe. What a day this is already. Why is all this happening? There’s a very simple truth. In the absence of an actual European asylum system, a system that could easily cope with the numbers that we are currently seeing and propose the stability of their asylum claims, we have reverted to a system of violence and terror. Violence and terror as deterrence so that people don’t come. We try to match their suffering that they experienced at home with the suffering that they will experience here. Pushing people back is just the most obvious symbol of the system. Tents at the seaside where, yet again, families freeze with their children this winter is a second, and another 100 people dying in the Mediterranean over the last two weeks is a third. In the absence of a system, we use suffering to keep control. What a shame for this continent and our enlightened society, but then, enlightenment hasn’t stopped us from committing the worst atrocities in history. Now the weird thing is that there is a solution. Building a functioning European asylum system does not mean that everyone who comes can stay. It just means that we adhere to our European values while we are processing the asylum claims. I’m happy that, with the European Asylum Agency, we are an ever—so—little step closer to such a system. While the agency cannot process claims itself yet, it can start organising solidarity between Member States. While some changes would be linked to a Dublin reform, it can already start to set minimum standards and ensure that the rights of asylum seekers are safeguarded in the different European systems. The agency, obviously, with the Fundamental Rights Officer, will have a much stronger role in this as well. In November, I will go visit Samos again. I am quite afraid to go there because I know that I will look people in the eye and have to say that, over the last two years since I last visited, I didn’t really achieve much. However, I am happy that, at least with the European Asylum Agency, we can go in the direction of trying to build a better system. Let’s see this as a start to actually work with those who want to work constructively on a better European asylum system, so that we can give back decency to the people who are arriving and, by extension, to ourselves.

Mr President, I say to the Commissioner: stand firm. EU taxpayers’ money should not reward governments that violate the most fundamental principles of the European Union. This is especially true for governments that do not accept the primacy of EU law or have a history of corruption, embezzlement and fraud. I therefore urge you not to approve the current Polish or Hungarian plans until we know that this money actually benefits the citizens and safeguards their rights. Stand firm. In addition, Commissioner, let’s prepare well for the future. If you act smartly now, you will be able to stop the flow of recovery money every six months for the next five years. For that to work, I ask you to ensure that the plans have strict six-month targets in improving the rule of law and fighting corruption, and second, to let Parliament help you. Make backroom deals public and give us access to all operational agreements between you and the national governments. Commissioner, we are fighting a good fight. Let’s make sure the tide turns, we improve the rule of law, we fight corruption, and benefit the citizens of this Union. I ask you to stand firm.

Mr President, just yesterday I talked to a young entrepreneur from Berlin, who told me it took him one and a half years to get a visa for the programmer to come to Berlin. One and a half years during which this IT professional could have gone anywhere in the world. In a global competition for talent, that’s just not good enough. If you want to attract talent to Europe, you need to be attractive, and that’s why I’m super happy that today we can celebrate the agreement on the new Blue Card with you from the Commission as well, because finally, people can move from one Member State to the next within one month. Finally, people can take with them the years they agglomerated on long-term residence from one country to the next, making it much more attractive to come to Europe in the first place. And finally, IT professionals can apply for the Blue Card even without a university degree, making this Blue Card the ultimate European tech visa. So today is a day of celebration, and tomorrow we should put our heads together again to ensure that it comes into effect as fast as possible and to tackle, one by one, all pathways for labour migration so that people don’t have to wait one and a half years if they have a job offer in Europe.

Madam President, to anyone who feels empathy, these images from Afghanistan are heartbreaking and shocking to witness. For years, European countries tried to work together towards a more resilient Afghanistan and in this endeavour relied heavily on locals to support this. Amongst these locals are journalists, activists, human rights defenders, women and young people. They knew they took a risk but they still did it, and they were brave enough to support with us and to work with us for a better future for their country. Now they ask for our help, they ask to be saved, but we hear European leaders fostering this narrative of defence and trying to score political gains by playing into nationalistic fears. This is disgraceful. With our resolution today we ask all European leaders to be courageous and compassionate. We ask them ambitiously to step up resettlement pledges at the September Resettlement Forum. We are talking about tens of thousands of pledges that we would need. Second, we ask for safe and legal pathways to be established. We heard about humanitarian visas and we ask for deportations to Afghanistan to be halted, and lastly, to cooperate with all involved actors to ensure that no lives are lost.

Mr President, our European institutions are in a delicate situation. On the one hand, the economic consequences of the COVID crisis necessitate prudence in spending and planning. On the other, the crisis itself and our responses to it force us to do things differently, to invest and to recover. Minister, let me tell you that I have sympathy for your prudent approach and I myself and the shadows have applied that prudence in developing our position on the budget. We have spoken extensively to all institutions, we have looked at each budgetary line and we have tried to understand clearly where the needs lie. We made clear that this is not a time for unreasonable budgetary increases. But it seems to me that the Council and Parliament still fundamentally diverge in their approach to the budget. Whereas the Council is applying horizontal cuts, the Parliament’s reading is based on a detailed analysis of the needs of each European institution, which supervise, execute and implement EU law and policy. It is one of those needs that I want to especially highlight in this context. As you know, the recovery fund leads to an unprecedented flow of EU money to our economies. I have negotiated this law and I am immensely proud of what we have achieved. However, the Council completely ignores that additional money also requires additional supervision. In this context, it seems bizarre to me that the Council cuts posts and budget for the Court of Auditors and, by the way, also for the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). We should be increasing these budgets because European citizens demand that funds are not being wasted or defrauded. I also cannot understand why you would like to cut many other institutions like the Court of Justice or the European External Action Service (EEAS). All of those posts are, in our view, fully justified and based on the reality on the ground. Finally, I want to remind you of the incredibly important need to reform and update our European institutions at all times to meet the challenges of our time. We owe it to citizens to constantly rejuvenate and reform from within. That’s why I’m incredibly proud that, with COVID, our Parliament has risen to this task and has started a process of internal rejuvenation and reform, which is actually ongoing as we speak. In open process, we have looked at ways in which to be better at scrutiny, we want to improve the committee culture and the hearings in the way they work and we want to strengthen the plenary debates to be more engaging and representative of our issues. I invite all institutions to undergo a similar process of rejuvenation and internal reform. In the same spirit, I invite you, Minister, to push the Council to actually actively engage in the Conference on the Future of Europe, where these debates are taking place on a grander scale. It’s our shared responsibility to ensure that our institutions are ready for the 21st century and that we can actually work for the well-being and interests of our citizens. I can only hope that the Council and Commission join us in the spirit of responsibility, reform and rejuvenation.

Mr President, Commissioner Jourová, today, despite all odds, is a day of hope. It has been three years since we initiated Article 7 against Hungary. Three years of big words and empty threats. Three years over which the deconstruction of the Hungarian democracy has accelerated. Every day Orbán's government violates the rules that our freedom as a European community are built on. Rules to safeguard the free press and show fair elections, to ensure the independence of judges, rules to protect the diversity of our societies. The new law is another terrible example of how Orbán violates these rules. But today still is a day of hope, because today the European Commission has the power to change this course; because today Parliament and Council stand behind you asking for a strong response; because today the rule of law mechanism is in place; and finally, because today you have the power to make the payment of seven billion euros, equalling 5% of Hungary’s annual GDP, conditional on the change of course. So I urge you to use these powers, then today can be a day of hope.