Speeches

Mr President, thank you very much. Thank you, Senor Borrell. I will return to the debate we had in AFET and SEDE. Then I asked you what you did with a document called the Global Strategy of the European Union, which, as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2017, together with Mrs Mogherini, we adopted as a European strategy. The new document you are presenting to us was published before Russia's war with Ukraine broke out. Then why was the other rejected and the other accepted? You confuse me once again when you say that the Commission does not deal with defence. So what is this document and why is it? Why these five thousand soldiers, if you say that the Commission does not deal with defence? What is the nature of this document? Is this a military document to equip the European Union with a military instrument? Is this just another paper that your successor will throw away next year, as you threw away Mrs. Mogherini's paper?

Mr President, thank you very much. Commissioner, thank you very much. We have been expecting problems from Russia for years, we have warned against them. We called for security for our part of Europe. We were told a few days before the war, like Commissioner Borrell, that the Union did not deal with security issues, or we were told: If you want more security, involve Russia even more. Are we going to answer the same question to the children of Mariupol today? Poland has taken in more than two and a half million refugees, including about one million children. What do they need? First and foremost, they need peace. More efforts by the European Union, perhaps the French Presidency, as President Metsola has shown. We need a register of these children in cooperation with Ukrainians and the authorities – a register of those who have crossed the border, but also those who have remained in Ukraine and are at risk of deportation. As a teacher, I will focus on education. European funds are needed for the transport and safe evacuation of these children, for learning the basics of languages, for the creation of new hybrid textbooks combining Ukrainian programs and host countries, ideologically neutral. Psychologists' positions on cultural integration and adaptation, the creation of libraries, centers for the protection of cultural goods, scholarship programs, but also care programs for the youngest are needed so that their mothers can take care of them and work.

Madam President, Ukraine is fighting for its freedom, is fighting for the security of Europe also – a security which we built for the last 30 years. In this sense it is also our role to protect our security. Some European Union countries are more responsible for Putin’s aggressive military posture. In this sense, they are more responsible for this role and we expect more contribution from them. The are a lot of instruments and sanctions to stop Russian aggression: penalties, weapons for Ukraine and for the security of our eastern front. Sometimes it is not possible to immediately implement this instrument, but the hot issue right now is humanitarian assistance. Delivering it to Ukraine is extremely difficult, but we have to spare no effort to deliver. However, there are millions of refugees in our countries. In Poland alone, as Ms Johansson rightly mentioned, there are 1.2 million refugees added to one million migrants who have emigrated to Poland. We need, for such a large number of people, comprehensive plans and money, not only visits and bureaucrats on board, but money for the state. It is the states which create jobs, education and health programmes for these people. We have to avoid the creation of camps, ghettos and the Palestinianisation of this refugee wave. We have to study the experience of Turkey and Lebanon. But let’s remember that we have provided Turkey with more than 6 EUR billion. Are we prepared to provide the same assistance, the same plan, the same money to other countries which are coping with many more waves of refugees in the last few days than Turkey?

Mr President, thank you very much. For a long time, unfortunately, many of us have been fruitlessly calling for penalties for Russia for blackmailing Ukraine and parts of Europe. Unfortunately, after Chancellor Scholz's visit to Moscow, I no longer believed that such sanctions would occur. I also stopped believing in significant support for Ukraine. We are sending only expressions of political solidarity to Ukraine. However, I am pleased that we are starting to talk about more financial assistance. However, it is time to start the next stage of cooperation after the Eastern Partnership, which seems to have exhausted its possibilities. Let us open the path to European Union membership for Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. Firstly, it could be a connection to the Three Seas Initiative – sectoral cooperation in the field of energy and transport infrastructure. Secondly, let us open up further sectors and EU agencies. The third step should be the integration of these countries into the common market, for example following the example of Switzerland. Finally, the fourth element is membership after meeting the Copenhagen criteria. Ukraine's economic success in the Union, i.e. the positive alternative development of post-Soviet society in the Union, is a great example for the Russians and a nightmare for Putin. Let us give this fate to Putin.

Mr President, thank you very much. I thank the authors for an interesting report, good for describing Yeti, something that does not exist and does not have a bad security and defence policy. Thank you, however, for addressing the issue of hybrid and cyber threats in an interesting way, for addressing the issue of energy blackmail as a hybrid tactic. The report includes ambitious provisions on civilian capability development. However, the old threats are not lost, they are visible to the naked eye and the report is verified by life in the context of a new version of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. We have a problem with preserving European solidarity, a lack of solidarity and solidarity in assessing threats. Russia is a security threat, it questions the entire security structure. Instead of a realistic assessment, there are myths and illusions about dialogue, economic cooperation. If we don't have a common threat, we don't have a solidarity answer either. We must therefore seek not autonomy, not self-reliance – this is a mistake, not the QMV, which leads to hegemony, but the strengthening of transatlantic ties with the UK and, unfortunately, also with Turkey. At the moment, we are not helped by any compass, but by thousands of American and British soldiers on Polish soil.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Russia is a constant anti-hero of our deliberations. Russian imperialism is manifested not only by aggression against other states, but also by aggression against one's own society, intimidation, repression against all those who doubt Putin's rule. We talked about Ukraine. We talked about Navalny. Today we will talk about actions towards non-governmental organizations, especially those that observe the observance of human rights. Against them a law was created stigmatizing them as foreign agents. The repression of Memorial, which investigated and exposed criminal activities, e.g. in Chechnya or Syria by the Wagner Group, is particularly severe. The memorial also revealed Stalinist crimes, e.g. crimes against Polish officers in Katyn and Polish guerrillas in 1945. Let's defend Memorial activists and defend the achievements of this organization, a huge database, a collection of documents, evidence of crime. This collection must become the heritage of the whole of Europe. Let us create an opportunity for Memorial activists in our countries to act safely, to open a collection of important documents and preserve them for historical truth.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Señor Borrell and all the useful idiots! We are once again debating Russian imperialism, and the conflict lasts eight years. We respond to every Russian escalation with an appeal for dialogue, while forgetting that it is Russia that creates problems, not solutions. Russia is creating these problems and is looking forward to dialogue in order to obtain further concessions from us and not to reach a compromise situation between us. It is blocking all of Ukraine's peace initiatives. When will we start holding Russia accountable, not remunerating it? I would like to address our German colleagues and the new government in Berlin: Will only Russian interests continue to be taken into account, as Mr Heugen, adviser to Mrs Merkel, once mentioned? Will there still be an embargo on the supply of weapons, even defensive ones, to Ukraine? Will the process of rapid rapprochement of the Union's relations with Ukraine continue to be blocked until the Union's membership? Will Germany take a tough stance in the Normandy and Minsk formats and when? Will France, which is about to take over the presidency, also use the presidency to make the Normandy and Minsk formats work? Will this continue to be a reset policy? There is no definition of penalties and sanctions. The whole list of these penalties and sanctions has been listed here in this room today. We have a deficit of will to apply these penalties and sanctions, so let's act, I appeal that we don't meet in a month or two for another helpless debate. I would like to wish above all the Ukrainians living in the occupied and annexed territories: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!.

Madam President, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm late because of my disability. We have been warning against Russian imperialism for years. Russia wants to change the security architecture of the Cold War. He does this by using, among others, the military, as in Chechnya, Georgia and Ukraine, by the cyber interference of various trolls, by the disinformation campaign, for example in Russia Today, but also by proxy forces, as in Belarus, or the Wagner group currently under discussion. These are hybrid campaigns. The Wagner Group is a private military institution that has already intervened in Ukraine, Libya and Africa. Is it only the threat of intervention by this group in Mali, in the Sahel, that causes some sobering that we are wondering how to stop it? We must appeal, put pressure on Russia, to stop logistical, financial and political support. We must also support Ukraine in its efforts to bring the Wagner Group to justice.

Mr President, I would like to thank Mr Weimers for his report, a good job, Charlie. The European Union needs to search for friends worldwide. A prime candidate for our friendship is democratic Taiwan. Let me repeat Taiwan, not Texas. Taiwan, which is already an important economic partner, manufacturer of leading technology, Taiwan is a reliable partner in a time of pandemic. It is not China. Taiwan is our guide in how to deal with China. First, as a country warning about COVID, we should continue this cooperation. It is giving direction on how to deal with China policy and the Far East. It is helping us to fight China’s disinformation. What can we do for our friends in Taiwan? We have to recognise them by giving them more and more access to international institutions, first and foremost to European institutions.

Mr President, I would like to thank Madam Commissioner for her efforts to solve the problem and for her support for the Polish achievements. Please disregard the lies of the Polish opposition about the problem. Lukashenko started the hybrid action against the European Union states. It’s hostile activity, which needs a serious united response. We need to implement a non—recognition policy. No—fly zone for officials or limited sanctions are not enough. We have to implement, not the recognition policy of Lukashenko, and recognise instead Ms Tsikhanouskaya, grant her special status and maybe a special office here. We need tougher sanctions which affect potash and fertiliser transit transport to Russia. We have to expel Belarus from SWIFT transactions and expel and suspend activities in different institutions, in culture and in sports. We need a serious debate in the Security Council of the United Nations and finally, we need investigation conducted by the International Criminal Court.

Mr President, once again today, I would like to appeal for realism in our policy, not to be naive. Russia is not part of the solution, it’s in most cases part of the problem. The Russian Federation creates problems and plays the role of honest mediator, honest broker. It’s also an illusion to think that we can change and democratise Russian society. This nation was built in the last three centuries, towards imperialistic direction and goals. One generation is not enough to reverse the process. We have to try, and I thank Mr Kubilius for trying. However, the more pending question is to slow down and stop Russian imperialists, to press Russia to cease its illegal action against Georgia and Ukraine, influence Russia to stop supporting Lukashenko’s hybrid action against our part of Europe. It is not an appeal to solve the abovementioned problems together with Russia, it is to force Russia to stop harming these countries.

Madam President, I'm sorry. The High Representative! I would like to call for realism and realistic goals of our policy. For twenty years we were there so that they wouldn't be here, so that 9/11 wouldn't happen again on such a scale in our part of the world. That's why we fought the Taliban and we fought ISIS. Security should be a priority. This requires an alliance with the US and NATO, not strategic autonomy, at least in this area of action. This requires cooperation with a coalition of willing and able, willing, interested states, it requires a policy of containment of the Taliban. We should also defend the achievements of civilisation, social and civil human rights. We have limited instruments. We're not there. Humanitarian aid should be highly conditional. We should try to hold states that support the Taliban accountable for their behaviour. Migration is not the solution. We should encourage the return of those who can also stand up to the Taliban.

Madam President, Turkey is a candidate for European Union membership. It’s a strategic ally which, together with us, defends us from the challenges from east and south. For this reason, we have a right to monitor the domestic situation and how it influences Turkey’s international commitments. Turkey is a candidate, but still not a member of the European Union so let’s monitor its behaviour as a candidate country. Do not use the domestic problems – who doesn’t have a problem? – as an excuse to freeze our cooperation. This is not a black and white cliché, and let’s remember the extremely hostile geopolitical situation in the neighbourhood of Turkey. So let’s talk with Ankara in a friendly manner and give them advice, not threats. In this way, we, the ECR Group, have created our own resolution. We point to some domestic issues, inter alia of opposition parties and minorities. However, we limit our suggestion to a friendly piece of advice to solve the problems with the opposition in a cooperative manner and in a spirit of tolerance and pluralism. Turkey is important to our security in many aspects. So let’s keep Ankara as close as possible to us, and treat it in a friendly manner to overcome its domestic problems in a sovereign way.