Speeches

Madam President, with the Green Deal we are committed to a world with zero pollution, a world less toxic and dangerous to humans. Today we are talking about measures to reduce plastic pollution in a world full of plastics, microplastics and nanoplastics that are now everywhere: At sea, in the food chain and in our bodies, each and every one of us eats about 5 grams of plastic per week. One deck a year. This final agreement therefore improved the Commission's proposal by introducing mandatory measures for all hauliers, tougher penalties for large hauliers, the inclusion of all maritime transport and the inclusion of all pre-plastic forms in the scope. It is very important that fines for non-compliance will be directed to projects aimed at cleaning up areas affected by pellet losses. By adopting an integrated approach that combines technological, regulatory, educational and collaborative efforts, it is possible to minimise plastic pellet losses and reduce the impact of plastic pollution on the environment, the sea and the human body.

Mr President, following the recent attack in Thessaloniki, we had yesterday an attack on a cinema by para-religious groups and a 32-year-old man has also been arrested in a new attack on one of the two LGBTIQ people who were at risk of being lynched by a black mob in the city's main square. A city that has experienced an unprecedented degradation, economic collapse over the last thirty years and risks becoming a prey to extreme nationalist and racist circles, which exploit the absence of a strong rival official discourse and often operate with the logic of a para-state. From the ethno-religious frenzy at the rallies against the Prespes agreement and the ruthless physical attack against Mayor Yiannis Boutaris to the divisive, abusive and racist speech heard by members of five parties in the Greek Parliament in the debate on marriage equality, he is downhill himself. The transphobic pogrom we saw Saturday in Thessaloniki is the result, and the Greek government must finally understand that when you prune the rule of law, you reap storms, and when you weaken democratic institutions, you help the snake give birth. We have seen this before in Thessaloniki and in Europe and we should not see it again in these European elections, because this is the dilemma of June 9th. Europe that turns the mob against the weak and the different, Alkis Kampanos and Jacques Kostopoulos, the 12-year-old Kolonos and the teenage dead Roma, the headhunters in Evros and the two LGBTIQ people. This is not our Europe. This Europe of violence and intolerance is the Europe of the far right, it is the Europe of Mr Weber, Mr Le Pen, Mr Orban and Mrs Meloni, and we must put a bulwark back in it. Keep an eye on Democrats!

Mr President, Southern European countries are already facing a critical risk of crop failure and significant threats to their energy supply. Coastal floods and storm waves will become more frequent and more severe, with potentially devastating effects on Europe's population, infrastructure and economic activities. Crop production is already facing significant climate risks with potential shortages and rising food prices. Ecosystem degradation is rapidly becoming a threat to human health, water supply and food security. This is what yesterday's first climate risk assessment report in Europe says. I would therefore like to congratulate the competent scientific body of our Union, the European Environment Agency, because, as Rosa Luxemburg said, 'there is nothing more revolutionary than loudly proclaiming what is happening'. But there is nothing more immoral than the indifference to the future of our children, the political adventurism of the alliance of the right, the extreme right and the radical right, with policies directly reversed by the dictates of science. And there is nothing more democratic than courageously confronting reality and immediately implementing progressive solutions so that we and our children can live in safety and dignity within planetary boundaries. To return to Rosa, ecosocialism or barbarism, before it is too late!

Mr Terheş, thank you for accepting the blue card. I understand you have studied theology. I would be very much interested in hearing your views on the Pope’s encyclical.

–Mr President, Commissioner, just a few weeks ago at COP28, the European Union and, through it, the 27 Member States made a commitment to the world and the younger generation to phase out fossil fuels. At Union level, we have done our job with the climate law that wisely provided for the independent scientific committee that is today calling on us to set the 2040 emissions reduction target of at least 90% compared to 1990. Some Member States, including Greece, have not appointed independent scientific committees. But without a commitment to science, we can neither achieve climate goals, nor have just social transition policies, nor seize the economic opportunity. A few Member States, including unfortunately Greece, are even proceeding to new hydrocarbon extractions, which apart from being immoral is also, at least in terms of investment, stupid, especially in view of the 2040 targets. We must therefore ensure that the Member States follow suit, and let us not shy away from our duty. Let us courageously embrace the challenge before us to open up a sustainable future for future generations.

Mr President, dear colleagues, yesterday here we debated about the decision of Norway to drill the deep sea in the Arctic, and we asked for a moratorium. If that doesn’t happen, they drill. Do you know what they will find? They will find plastic. There’s so much plastic. Ska calculated there is 100 billion tonnes every year. There is a great plastic garbage patch – Plastic Island –in the Pacific Ocean, which is three times the size of France. And there are five of these islands, and we produce more and more plastic. So dear Commissioner Sinkevičius, when this mandate began, we talked about a blue deal. And you’ve done a great job. You pushed forward the ocean agreement at the Biodiversity COP15 Kunming-Montreal. You reached an agreement on the Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement (High Seas Treaty). I think it is time to be serious about our zero pollution commitment on the Green Deal, talk about the next mandate and realise that we must stop the plastic addiction. Plastics are fossil fuels, and the people of Galicia are suffering from another oil spill, like Grace said, 20 years later. We must deal with that and realise that transitioning away from fossil fuels, as we discussed in COP 28, includes getting away from plastics.

Madam President, as a Greek I am deeply ashamed and saddened that once again Greece is the subject of a negative debate in the European Parliament. Unfortunately, however, the New Democracy government continues to override the limits of the rule of law and from surveillance to interference with independent authorities, violations of human rights, if all this happened in a candidate country, we would have frozen the accession process. The surveillance scandal, which has been under judicial investigation for 17 months without criminal prosecutions yet, reveals the problematic operation of Justice, but also the uncontrolled operation of the EYP under the executive state. The most important counterweights to any government majority in a democracy, justice, independent authorities and parliamentary control are systematically weakened by government interventions. The combination of these three elements constitutes a dystopian institutional reality in terms of the decline of the rule of law and the quality of democracy in the country where it was born. So let our resolution in February be an opportunity for Greece to rise to the level of the European acquis and reverse its path towards a southern Banania. My colleagues told you about the press.

Mr President, I would like to thank Members of Parliament very much for supporting the Left's proposal to discuss Norway's decision to allow deep-sea mining. This is a very wrong decision, at a time when the whole world has agreed to a moratorium until the scientific community recognises what is in the deep waters, when we have reached the historic agreement on the protection of biodiversity in international waters, in waters beyond jurisdiction, this is a wrong decision that colleagues in Norway should reconsider. Right now we don't even know what's under the ground, we don't know what life is, and that will pave the way for the destruction of the last free space that exists on our planet.

Mr President, Madam Commissioner, dear colleagues, in 2015, at the apex of multilateralism, all countries of the world signed on the SDGs – the political twin programme of the Paris Agreement, a universal language of evidence-based policy to protect the safe space of humanity from climate collapse and extreme inequality by 2030. Today, at half time, we are losing miserably. More poverty and more hunger, escalating inequalities, widespread armed conflict and instability, debt affliction in developing countries, and a climate that is destroying our habitat before our very eyes as we continue to increase emissions. It does not have to be this way. Today, in 2023, to ensure that all people on the planet live in peace and make a decent living is not utopian thinking. It’s an absolutely possible political alternative. And therefore it is our collective, colossal political failure. The SDG summit in New York, and the political declaration that the world leaders adopted, was a wake-up call for the urgent, transformative actions, which we need to make now to ensure the well-being of all within the planetary boundaries and keep the promise of leaving no one behind. The SDGs remain our sole political roadmap to bring everyone forward in a world with dignity and prosperity, with solidarity and safety. Today, to do this, we need to have a more realistic approach to measuring progress by going beyond GDP. We need to change the system. We already do it by incorporating the SDGs in the European Semester, and we are developing tools for monitoring the progress in the regions and should be part of our next cohesion policy financing instruments. However, we must, at the very start of the next mandate, make a firm political vow to go beyond monitoring and commit to deliver binding, specific, evidence-based results on each and every one of the 169 targets of the SDGs. We have, colleagues, a rapidly closing window of opportunity to deliver a cosmos of peace and justice and climate security. We still have a half time to win this, but we must fight together as if our lives depend on it. Because they do.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, only a coordinated withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty will remove the obstacles to the implementation of our legally binding climate targets. How much longer will we allow oil and gas companies to challenge governments' climate policies and file lawsuits seeking billions in damages from European taxpayers? When will we follow the path opened by California Governor Gavin Newsom in suing the same company for fraud and causing billions of dollars in loss and damage to citizens? Just transition policy and bold climate action have never been more urgent than today. Acting yes is costly, but not acting is a disaster. Our political task is to choose these costs. With its proposal for a coordinated withdrawal, the European Commission is showing the way out of a dirty treaty that contains outdated, neoliberal provisions and mechanisms that are incompatible with the values of the European Union. It is time to adopt the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Fossil Fuels, and I would like to call on the Spanish Presidency to demonstrate once again its political courage and put the matter on the Council's agenda as soon as possible.

Madam President, air pollution, mainly from the use of fossil fuels, is a public health bomb, affecting billions of people around the world. In the European Union, more than 300 000 people die prematurely each year due to poor air quality. In my country alone, in Greece, the exposure of citizens to air pollutants is responsible for about 15,000 premature deaths each year, mainly due to a contribution to chronic respiratory and heart disease. It is the invisible permanent pandemic. As deaths from extreme and uncontrolled weather events brought about by the climate crisis increase dramatically, with the revision of the European Union's air quality directives we have a unique opportunity and at the same time a responsibility to further reduce the impact on human health and ecosystems. We must not let the right-wing agenda of inaction be imposed. We must follow the dictates of science. The air quality standards of the European Union must be fully and as quickly as possible aligned with the guidelines of the World Health Organization. We can't make discounts on human health. We don't represent company shareholders here. We are elected representatives of citizens. We must therefore strengthen the implementation and compliance framework so that Member States take the necessary measures to keep pollutants below the limit values, but also act rapidly to keep exceedance periods to a minimum, limiting the impact on health. We must put an end to the provisions that allow Member States to postpone the application of the rules. And finally, proper implementation means accountability. In Volos, Patras, Kavala, Piraeus, citizens should be given the right to go to court for omissions or administrative acts of the competent authorities regarding the implementation of health provisions. I call on colleagues to vote in favour of human health and to adopt the position adopted by the Committee on the Environment.

Mr President, two days ago we passed for the first time in the world of one and a half degrees above. A world that we have been warned will be unlivable. And disasters across the globe, in Europe, in my country, are horrific, but emissions continue to rise and fossil fuel subsidies have reached a record high of 7 trillion this year worldwide, and in Europe over one billion. Our policies are destroying people's lives and threatening the resilience of democracy, as citizens see that they increasingly remain unprotected by the state. The Solidarity Fund is proving to be minimal in the face of the scale of the problem. Its total is less than a quarter of the damage and loss of a single small country in Europe, Greece, my homeland. It is time to create a new and capable European Loss and Damage Fund by mutualising burdens, along the lines of the Recovery and Resilience Fund. It is time to decide that all public funding should be directed towards climate change adaptation. It is inconceivable that the revision of the Stability Pact will not start from the exclusion of costs for losses and losses and resilience investments. We call for the immediate repeal of Article 107(2b) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which subjects state aid to market imperatives. Right now thousands of our fellow human beings are struggling in contaminated mud to stand on their feet. We are grateful for your help and ask for your solidarity today.

Mr President, Mr Timmermans, we have created the European Green Deal to protect future generations and establish the right to public goods for all. This is a profoundly humanitarian political ambition. The climate law binds us to a depth of twenty-five years, as does the law on nature restoration, which today proved that the struggle for a just transition to a human- and social-friendly world is the common component of the progressive majority. The green transition cannot be put on hold. Our scientists and our eyes tell us clearly that man is part of biological systems, which he cannot fully control but can and already puts out of the field of survival of human civilization. Whether we accept it or not, this vision requires not only market reform and mobilisation of new technologies, but also effective planning, public investment, redistribution of resources and broad popular participation. If we don't have a just transition, we won't have a transition. And if it doesn't end today, tomorrow we won't have a choice. We will have either climate neutrality or the end of politics. Democratic socialism or barbarism. There is no alternative.

Madam President, Mr Commissioner, colleagues, thank you very much for this lively conversation and this great participation in today’s debate. It really goes to show that the Sustainable Development Goals are a holistic system to address the general problems in our societies, in our economy, and there is a platform of unity where colleagues from all the political parties, except those from the extreme right, can discuss, can find common space, can look for measurable and evidence-based progress criteria, progress proof or non-progress proof, or lack thereof. I think that we are united in our respect for fundamental human rights, not only in Europe, across the world, for all the billions of people that are alive today and I’m sorry to say that quite a few have again died and drowned – an unknown number drowned just outside the borders or just inside the borders of Greece today. In these coming years of crisis, we really have to pull together and make sure that we have no one to spare, that all the people on this planet have the same, equal fundamental rights, and it is our job to make sure that we can make this work, within the planetary boundaries and with proper social cohesion and humanity from one to the other. I’m sure we will do a good job supporting the Commission and representing this House in New York in the high-level political forum in the next week, in the next month, in July, and we have an opportunity, using the European Union voluntary review, to express our leadership and bring the world forward with us in this great endeavour and difficult years ahead. I would like to thank you and close by recognising the work of Anastasia Panayiotou in bringing the Sustainable Development Goals to the Greek language five years ago.

Madam President, Commissioner, President—in—Office, dear colleagues, it is very pleasing to see what started as a dialogue among a small group of MEPs – the SDG Alliance led by Barry Andrews – to have grown into a collective cross—party effort to place the SDGs at the heart of our institution and policy—making, debating today in plenary the Annual Report on the state of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in the European Union. This debate could not have been more timely. The shattered geopolitical landscape following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the twin climate and biodiversity crisis, the Corona pandemic, the ever—growing levels of debt and cost of living and the resulting widely widening inequalities demonstrate that business—as—usual delivers fragility and insecurity instead of resilience and progress. It is in this context, in this era of perma and poly crisis that the Global Goals become an invaluable universal language of global solidarity. The Global Goals are the only universally agreed and universally applicable, transparent and evidence—based policy framework for a world that ensures the safety and well—being of everyone within the planetary boundaries. We are now less than seven years away from the goal. This September, the UN Global Goal Summit will be a major opportunity to build momentum and deliver the urgent, transformative action required to put our societies firmly on the path of social, environmental and economic sustainability. If we fail, it will be the most vulnerable that will bear the heaviest burden first, but make no mistake, in our common home, no one will be safe until we are all safe. With multilateralism under threat, EU leadership is critical and must be credibly demonstrated; that is, we must lead by example. We must mainstream the SDGs in all policy areas, ensure policy coherence and strengthen the relevant governance structures. To this end, we reiterate our demand for a new overarching implementation strategy with measurable and time—bound commitments, with a chain of accountability and a roadmap of concrete actions. The integration of the SDGs into the European Semester must be further developed towards a thorough review of the EU fiscal rules that would afford Member States the flexibility and the tools to deliver the necessary investment for the green transition and social cohesion – ideally, a Resilience Pact to replace the Stability Pact that would go beyond GDP and guarantee both the European Climate Law and the European Pillar of Social Rights. The Global Goals can only be reached if we bring them closer to people. This is the very essence of the pledge to leave no one behind that lies at the heart of the Goals and, of course, our own European Green Deal. We must re—establish permanent structured dialogue with all stakeholders, including via the European Economic and Social Committee, and encourage local governments to use the work done by the Joint Research Centre on Local and Regional Voluntary Reviews. To make significant strides towards the SDGs, it is imperative that we address the increasing financing gap both within the EU and globally. This is crucial to fulfil our commitments regarding climate action and official development assistance. But we also need a dedicated EU financing plan and methodology to track and make the most out of the EU budget spending contributing to the goals. Finally, the EU must proactively push for a comprehensive overhaul of the global financial architecture towards full alignment with the Global Goals and the Paris Agreement and, more specifically, the proposed UN SDG Fiscal Stimulus. Dear colleagues, dear Commissioner, the deadline for 2030 is rapidly approaching. We need to step up our efforts. We need a paradigm shift from the current economic model that we are implementing and that perpetuates inequalities, unequal distribution of wealth and the unsustainable exploitation of Earth’s natural but finite resources. I am convinced that the SDGs show the way. I would really like to extend my gratitude to my dear colleague and co—rapporteur Udo Bullmann, as well as all the shadow rapporteurs and colleagues who over the years have contributed constructively in advancing the SDGs’ implementation in the European Union.

Mr President, no nature means no food. This simple truth must be acknowledged and embraced. Our food systems are intricately tied to the health of our natural environment, and the loss of biodiversity poses a grave threat to our ability to sustainably produce food. It is essential to prioritise the protection and restoration of nature as a fundamental pillar of our food security strategy. Preserving and restoring natural ecosystem is crucial not only for the environment, but above all, for the well-being and livelihoods of farmers. By safeguarding biodiversity, improving soil health and implementing sustainable land and water management practices, we create a supportive environment for farmers to thrive. Farmers are the lifeline of our food production. We must ensure their prosperity by protecting the ecosystems they rely upon. To achieve this, we need to invest in conservation efforts to promote sustainable land and water management practices and preserve vital habitats. We can maintain resilient and abundant food supplies for present and future generations. Our relationship with nature and our relationship with food are deeply intertwined. We cannot have one without the other. That is why we need the Nature Restoration law. Let us embrace the urgency of protecting nature as a critical component of our food security agenda, to act now to preserve biodiversity, historical systems and prioritise sustainable farming practices and secure a sustainable food future where future actions thrive in harmony with the natural world. Let us ensure that ‘no nature means no food’ remains a rallying cry for action to restore nature and safeguard our planet and farmers.

Mr President, Madam Commissioner, the global climate crises take and shorten millions of lives, cause immeasurable damage to private property and public infrastructure, deliver enormous economic losses, devastate communities, obliterate ecosystems, and bring untold misery to millions of people. We do well to honour the victims, but we cannot escape the fact that the climate crisis is the result of our own actions and omissions. It is not a meteorological phenomenon, much less an act of God: victims are the result of our inadequate mitigation and adaptation policy. Therefore, the European Day for the victims of the climate change crisis must not be a green Pool of Siloam, but an annual appraisal of our own policies, of our tools to deliver a just, science-based, Paris-aligned transition across mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage. We should not add insult to the injuries of the victims, but resolve to brave and bold climate action. Right now, to fully support the loss and damage fund to which we agreed at COP28 and provide adequate know—how and finance to those victims in the Global South who are least responsible, most affected and least able to adapt to the climate crisis. Right now, to plan ahead to the next mandate for a European loss and damage mechanism to provide for our own citizens in similar predicaments. We are the last generation that has this capability and thus the duty to make sure that in the future there will be people around to celebrate this day and pay tribute to today’s victims.

Madam President, dear colleagues, , as summer returns to the Northern Hemisphere we to start again to talk about extreme weather events, these extreme weather disasters, as we do every year – floods in Germany, floods in Italy, droughts in Spain, droughts in Italy, fires from Greece to Siberia to Canada and China. Today it is Emilia Romagna. Tomorrow it’s going to be your community. The World Meteorological Organisation tells us already that, due to El Nino, we are heading towards the fourth warmest years since the glaciers retreated and humans moved out of caves. We know that as we cross 1.5 degrees, weather events will be more and more extreme. Even as we intensify our efforts for mitigation, we must enhance adaptation and build social, economic and physical resilience. Neither our material or non-material infrastructure is built for this, including rescue and the European Solidarity Fund. Dear Commissioner, it is time to design a European loss and damage facility. Like the global one, agreed in Cop25, it will require a radical restructuring of our fiscal rules. It is time we moved from a Stability Pact to a Resilience Pact. It is time we make sure people are safe in Europe. This is our job.

Mr President, dear colleagues, I have one minute, one more time to talk about the implications of the sixth and final IPCC synthesis report of our collective scientific knowledge on the effects of our actions on our only habitat, Planet Earth. To summarize, instead of more words, I should ask us all to stand for a minute of silence for the world of cars and fires that we will deliver to our own children, as the report shows, and as the graph shows by my colleague, Michael Bloss, before us. I will not. Because we colleagues are democratically elected representatives of people we have a duty to protect. This is happening on our watch, the last watch still able to divert barbarism. Make no mistake: the social tipping points will crash as well before the rapidly approaching climate tipping points. There was a slogan in 1968 in Paris, in a revolt then as it is now: socialisme ou barbarie. To me, it means that climate justice across generations, classes and nations is the only path to adequate climate action. It means that it is time to put people, our people, before profits. I am really proud of the change of direction in climate action this mandate has achieved, but we need to do more, faster and better. We need systemic change now, as science shows, as markets expect, as humanity needs and as our moral duty demands of us.

. – I would like to ask you to explain a little bit. What do you mean? What is the relationship of Greta Thunberg to the IPCC? Do you think that she is a scientist… that she is part of the scientific process of the IPCC? I would not comment on your characterisation of her as a hysterical person. I also think that she has grown beyond school age by now.

Mr President, a just transition is at the heart of the European Green Deal and must be carried out in such a way that no one is left behind, especially the most vulnerable. Those who are least responsible for emissions are exposed to greater damage and losses and have the least capacity to invest to free themselves from carbon sequestration, energy and transport poverty. Social climate plans must be the fruit and bearer of genuine consultation, tools for public engagement and the cultivation of energy democracy and climate justice. So let the Member States be very careful to get this money to those who need it most, with structural investments in self-production, energy upgrading of homes and low-carbon public transport. I am sure that in the hands of the next Greek government, aiming at justice everywhere, this Fund will be another important tool.

Mr President, we welcome the Bridgetown Agenda proposed by Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, as the first step towards an international financial system fit for the 21st century. A few months ago, at COP27, we arrived at the historic, brave and just recognition of the liability of the Global North for loss and damage in the Global South. The idea is that those most affected by climate change are those least responsible for it and least able to adapt and should not be forced deeper into our debt to pay for the damage we inflicted upon them. As tropical storms increase in frequency and catastrophic intensity due to climate change, Caribbean islands endure billions in damages and are obliged to take on unsustainable debt for humanitarian aid and reconstruction. Hurricane Maria, in 2017, brought USD 1.3 billion of damage, and that is two and a half times the annual GDP of Dominica. Clearly, the UNFCCC’s means to address loss and damage are exhausted. This is why we must push for a new climate Bretton Woods, a radical transformation of the global financial architecture with climate justice at the forefront and debt relief to provide the fiscal space to invest in just transition adaptation and civic protection for those that need it most. We must also heed the calls of Mia Mottley to place a loss and damage levy on fossil fuel companies, bearing in mind that, in 2022, total Global North to South climate finance was USD 90 billion, which is a quarter of the profits of just six fossil fuel companies, which were USD 360 billion. Clearly, it is time to end the current neoliberal global economic order, which has prioritised corporate profits over democratic development and is endangering human health, planetary integrity and global peace. This new financial architecture must be based on principles of equity, solidarity and sustained common progress within our common planetary boundaries. By prioritising climate justice, debt cancellation and systemic transformation of the financial system, we cannot build a sustainable and just world for all. So, dear Commissioner, 2023 is critical, and as a major donor to the World Bank, we urge you to lead an ambitious reform with people, democracy and planet at its heart.

Mr President, Commissioner, the pandemic has shown that the invisible hand of the market, the small state and chronic disinvestment from society and public health are – if not the cause of the public health crisis – insufficient to address it. It demonstrated that democratic governments can and should take radical measures to protect public health and highlighted the need for a common European public health policy. Three years later, on the contrary, we see even greater shortages in raw materials and therefore in formulations, phenomena of deregulation in the pharmaceutical market and serious blows to public health systems with massive staff resignations and lack of resources. Today, therefore, we need a truly European health planning based on the ‘One Health’ approach in the spirit of the European Green Deal, with the first concern being the obligation to protect citizens from obscene profiteering in times of crisis, wars, but above all of climate collapse and the coming spread of pandemics. Greece is a reference country for the price of the medicine. The phenomenon of export of preparations before covering the domestic market is an anti-social practice and should be prohibited. The economic deprivation of the European South cannot lead to the deprivation of medicines by the citizens of the South – and especially by children – in a united Europe of solidarity.

Mr President, as we see photographs of piles of cash found in the hands of members of our European Parliament community, how can citizens not wonder how much money is there that we don’t see? It is really existential, too, for the integrity of our House to immediately and radically reform our governance structure and provide the transparency and accountability that the citizens we represent demand and deserve. And we must start this week – tomorrow, I think – with a resolution that will demonstrate credibly our commitment to take concrete measures, many proposed by previous speakers, to bring our House in order and give us the opportunity to rebuild the trust that is necessary to perform our real duty: to exercise parliamentary scrutiny over the Commission and the Council, and to resist not only foreign interference, but also domestic interference.

Mr President, dear colleagues, COPs are always about emissions. However, this one is really about justice. As António Guterres explained, today it is Pakistan. Tomorrow it could be any country. In fact, already today we experience a climate disaster every day on the planet, and this is only going to get worse as global emissions keep actually rising. These disasters of our own making fall on those least responsible and those least able to shelter and recover. Yet the Council has so far failed to heed our call for the creation of a new loss and damage finance facility. Tens of countries in the Global South are bonded into unsustainable debt to us and are thus unable to tackle these climate disasters, leading to extreme poverty and lethal instability. These, colleagues, cannot be good, neither for our garden nor for our souls. We call for the EU to lead the world in pushing for a new global financial architecture beyond the Washington Consensus, mobilising trillions in new and additional public finance to provide adequate action on mitigation, adaptation and loss endowments. From new special drawing rights and debt relief for climate action to the Bridgetown Agenda and a broader reform of the Bretton Woods Institutions, including the World Bank and the IMF, multiple ideas are already being discussed and costed. This is the time to reckon with the white man’s burden and the crimes of our colonial past and save the world and ourselves while doing it. Anything less would only damage the EU’s global diplomatic standing and also would delegitimise the core process itself.