Speeches

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, every sane person who looks at his energy bill understands the importance of, for example, home insulation. We don't need any set goals from behind an agency. In the debate on energy saving, however, I miss something very essential, namely the call for austerity. Because with our Western lifestyle, we have become huge energy suckers. The hunger for an even bigger house, an even bigger car and an even more luxurious holiday can hardly be satisfied. By Thomas a Kempis, an important medieval theologian, I read: ‘A proud and greedy person will never find peace, but he who is simple and humble will find peace within.’ Mr President, we must therefore look more broadly, not only at technical measures, but also at our way of life. Not only to save energy, but also for inner peace and peace with God. You understand: This is especially a call to the wealthy and certainly not to those queuing up at the food bank.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the arrest of the 90-year-old cardinal is a new low. What is left of freedom of religion and democracy in Hong Kong? Almost nothing. Worse still, the appointment of new leader John Lee promises little improvement. You will be a resident of this city. The inhabitants are, as it were, on a sinking ship. The European Union and its Member States must cast a lifebuoy. This means that we can also be expected to contribute to the reception of political refugees from Hong Kong. And let us certainly also work on imposing sanctions against John Lee and other responsible parties in China and Hong Kong. This is the fifth resolution in two years on the deteriorating situation in Hong Kong. I hope that there is no need for a sixth, but I am afraid that we will still have to talk about it very often.

Mr President, Commissioner, the Russian invasion of Ukraine shows how fragile our food supply really is. Despite the solidarity corridors, there are still major obstacles in the transport of grain from Ukraine. With all this, not least for Africa and for countries such as Lebanon, where food scarcity is beginning to take on worrying proportions. What are we supposed to do? First of all, all hands on deck to get the grain out of Ukraine anyway. If it is not via the ports, then also by road, where the flow capacity really needs to increase further. Secondly, we need to conserve our agricultural land. In my country alone, 25 000 hectares of agricultural land have been lost in recent years to industry, housing and nature. And thirdly, let us also become less dependent on the import of raw materials, including through the reuse of nutrients. Our farmers are indispensable for our food security, our countryside and the management of our landscape. Food production deserves the highest priority.

Mr President, the way in which the High Representative speaks about Israel's settlements is incorrect and careless. He is constantly talking about illegal occupation activities. From an international judicial point of view, however, this is only the case if the occupied territory belongs to another recognised State. In Crimea, this is clear: That's from Ukraine. But to which country did the West Bank belong before 1967? Not to Jordan, not to the Ottoman Empire, nor to the British Empire. As long as there is no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there is no recognized Palestinian state that would be occupied. The curious thing is that even for situations where the legal status is crystal clear, such as Northern Cyprus, the High Representative does not use the term ‘illegal occupation activities’. My call is: do not do so in the case of settlements, for which such characterisation should not be used at all under international law. No one was helped with that.

Mr President, the abolition of the national right to abortion in the United States has also caused a great deal of movement in Europe. Prolife organizations can count on increasing interest. Young people are more critical of abortion than their parents. I find all this hopeful. The trick now is to conduct the necessary debate with each other in a dignified manner here in Europe as well. We are not doing this by excluding organisations from Parliament, as some of us here are advocating. These are tactics they use in dictatorships like China and North Korea. We have to stay away from that. Let's focus on providing the necessary help. Help for mother and child. Abortion is not a solution and certainly not a human right. What would it be nice if, in ten years' time, we could say: The Supreme Court's ruling has brought a turning point in Europe's thinking about abortion. We have come to see again that every life is worthy of protection, including the unborn life.

Mr President, the brutal attack on a church in South-West Nigeria has shocked the world. Unfortunately, this attack is not on its own. Christians in Nigeria have been subjected to attacks, kidnappings and terror by radical Islamist groups for decades. And in the meantime, the Nigerian government is just letting it happen. There is little or no criminal prosecution. Meanwhile, the international community is watching patiently. And meanwhile, the European Commission is also coming up with vague, covert statements on an evening like this. The Commission has been working for two and a half years on the question of whether a special envoy for religious freedom should actually be appointed. Mrs von der Leyen promised me in writing at the end of last year that this special envoy would be appointed, but that has still not happened. My question to the Commissioner is: Will you be silent again tonight? You have heard the calls from many colleagues, and where is the EU Envoy for Freedom of Religion? I want an answer from you tonight. Thank you very much.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, let us say: You don't drink alcohol or you study religious writings, or you turn off your phone regularly. As a Uyghur in Xinjiang, you quickly get the label unreliably affixed, with all the consequences that entails. You will be taken to a "reliable place" - read: concentration camp - sent to be re-educated under the surveillance of heavily armed police. The leaked police documents showcase the chilling reality of systematic repression that millions of Uyghurs live in. And they also show that this is happening under the watchful and consenting eye of the highest political leadership in Beijing. President Xi called for the issue not to be politicized, in his conversation with UN Commissioner Bachelet during her recent disappointing visit to the region. However, the mounting evidence of China's misdeeds in Xinjiang requires a strong response from the European side, including individual and economic sanctions against all individuals and institutions complicit in these gross crimes. Thank you very much.

I think it's our expensive duty to protect all children. Especially children we are worried about. I think we should also invest a lot more in actually offering help to women and girls who are unwanted pregnant. Because I realize very well that women and girls end up in difficult situations, but we do not help them by offering them an abortion. We help them by standing shoulder to shoulder and helping them. Even in the most difficult phase of their lives. Thank you very much.

Mr President, your predecessor in the chair called this a lively debate. I must honestly say that I experience this as a sad debate. I hear a lot about women's rights, but I hear almost nothing about the vulnerable unborn life. Even a spokesperson for the EPP called abortion a human right. The Commission also called abortion a human right. The Council did that too. How can we say that? Because no matter how you turn it around, abortion is about ending life. A little man with a beating heart. That life is ending. Isn't it upside down to call it a human right? Mr President, I have one specific question for the Commission. We all know that in countries where there is prenatal screening, hardly any children are born with Down syndrome. My question is: How do you look at that? Thank you very much. (The speaker accepted a "blue card" response)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the proposal on a right of initiative for the European Parliament is yet another attempt to make the EU a superstate, arguing that this Parliament is the only directly elected EU institution. And the latter may be the case, but the ministers in the Council are all subject to democratic control, namely that of their own national parliament. So the question is not: “Are you for or against strengthening democracy?” The question is: “How do we divide power in Europe?” If you are in favour of a superstate, you are centralising as much power as possible and therefore also the right of initiative here in the European Parliament. However, if you are in favour of a Europe of cooperating Member States, you are investing in democratic governance through the Council and national parliaments. And I choose the latter with conviction. It's not about power, it's about the question: “How can we best serve society?”

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in order for the CO2 reduction plans to succeed, three points are needed: - fair distribution among Member States; - flexibility in the implementation so that countries can opt for the most cost-effective approach; and - realistic objectives. Unfortunately, the plans for the ESR and LULUCF do not meet any of these preconditions: - The Netherlands has to reduce 48%, while a country like Latvia only has to do 17%. Such differences, Commissioner, cannot be explained to the public. The flexibility mechanisms proposed were not unkind, but are now being severely curtailed by the Committee on the Environment. And the goals are and remain overambitious. That Parliament is going so far in this regard for the carbon farming I think it would be very unwise to introduce an additional 50 megaton reduction obligation. To carbon farming To give a good chance, you have to stay away from additional obligations, but you have to bet on a good reward. Agriculture deserves better, especially in these times of global concerns about food shortages.

Mr President, Commissioner, the fact that we have agreed within the OECD on a global minimum rate of taxation for multinationals is a good thing. After all, this is an important point for us to make in order to combat tax avoidance. What concerns me, however, is the generous conferral of delegated powers on the Commission in the report as it stands. In this way, we give the Commission a lot of leeway in the field of taxation and a very broad mandate, and we undermine the position of the Member States, while taxation is and must remain a real competence of the Member States. I also regret that no impact assessment has been carried out. In this way, it is not clear how the proposal will work out in practice. It is important that we stay as close as possible to the global agreements in order to truly create a level playing field. Only then can we really combat tax avoidance.

Mr President, Commissioner, at the time of the death of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, first of all our thoughts go to the relatives. What a shock. What a sadness to lose such a loved one. The biggest mistake we can make today is to draw premature conclusions. Yes, we saw images and explanations, but the actual facts must be clear from further investigation. The same goes for the funeral confrontations. The obvious outcome would be a joint investigation by Israeli and Palestinian authorities, possibly involving foreign experts. How strange that Palestinian authorities reject such an investigation and have already drawn their conclusions. Israel has recently been hit by a wave of attacks. The fact that Israel is looking for suspects is understandable. Images of the confrontation show a switch of shots between the Israeli army and armed Palestinians in an unclear urban area. The risks for innocent bystanders are high in this area. This is without prejudice to the fact that the killing of journalists in the course of their work should be strongly condemned by anyone. But leave the answer to the question of guilt to an independent investigation and not to emotions or bias.

Mr President, the obscure Chinese trade in organs is of serious concern to us. There are reports of systematic organ harvesting, which mainly affects Falun Gong supporters and prisoners. The lack of openness in organ transplants does not improve the situation. However, this issue is not an isolated one: Concerns about the human rights situation in the People’s Republic of China are accumulating. How many times have we spoken out about the Uyghurs and Hong Kong, and about the increasing pressure on Christians and other religious minorities? What is the EU going to do about this in concrete terms? Do we only mention this to the Chinese government in the margins at summits or do we dare to expand the European sanctions package against China? As far as I'm concerned, we'll do the latter. This is not only in the interest of our credibility, but above all in that of our oppressed Chinese fellow man.

Mr President, I would like to draw attention to the Palestinian textbooks in the European Commission's discharge report. Once again, European taxpayers' money has been spent on textbooks full of anti-Semitism, full of calls for hatred and violence. This problem has been going on for years. Parliament has been criticising this expenditure for years. However, the problem is not getting any less. A recent study shows that the content even worsens. The EU can and should no longer tolerate this. My call is therefore: Freeze funds until Palestinian textbooks meet international standards of peace and tolerance. I would ask you to support the paragraph on this in the discharge report. We cannot fight antisemitism within the EU and at the same time subsidise antisemitism outside the European Union. That is unacceptable.

Mr President, this report on religious minorities and the persecution they face is a good thing. However, I agree with the concerns raised by Peter van Dalen about the fact that Christians are not or hardly mentioned in the report and that a lot of information has been amended. I think this is a very bad thing. What I find particularly inexplicable and indigestible, however, is that the report criticises believers for their stance on abortion. This subject is not only outside the scope of the report, but also outside the competences of the European Union. Every life is worthy of protection, especially the unborn life. We should not criticize believers, but praise them for caring for life.

Mr President, Simone Schmiedtbauer's report has become an excellent and very balanced report. What particularly appeals to me in this report is the question-orientation. I am strongly convinced that percentages and targets imposed from above are counterproductive and lead to market distortions and price falls, which do not serve anyone, and certainly not the organic farmer. That is why we do well not to embrace the 25% rate proposed by the Commission. In addition, let us not forget that conventional agriculture can also be particularly sustainable if we provide good tools, a good regulatory framework and good new varieties and make sufficient plant protection products available to farmers so that they can intervene. A top-down approach to organic farming does not work. Our approach must be demand-oriented.

Mr President, public health must of course take precedence in setting limit values for pollution in recycled products. However, we must consider whether this is possible from the point of view of sorting. Mr Vondra's amendments therefore deserve our full support. I welcome the inclusion of PFAS in the annex, but I nevertheless believe that more action is needed in this area. This is because discharges into surface water cannot be prevented. I would like to draw particular attention to the Scheldt and the Western Scheldt. The permits would have been tightened in Flanders, but who guarantees that everything is in order now? I would therefore like to ask the Commission to work towards a total ban on PFAS, as advocated by several countries, and to ensure that supervision and enforcement in the Member States are carried out properly. We must leave the time of toxic discharges behind us definitively.

Mr President, Commissioner, the people of North Korea have been suffering from a brutal dictatorship for decades. They are supposed to worship the Kims as gods. Don't they? If they entrust themselves to the God of the Bible, as Christians do, they disappear behind bars, or worse, they are killed, as happened recently with dozens of Christians gathered in the deepest secret. Today, with our resolution, we in the European Parliament are showing: Brothers and sisters in North Korea, we have not forgotten you, even though your country is blocking any serious human rights diplomacy. We call on North Korea to respect the freedom of religion enshrined in its constitution. We say to the Council: impose additional sanctions against the perpetrators. We call on China and other neighbouring countries to: Please don't send people back to North Korea until the situation improves. That is, after all, life-threatening. People who are persecuted because of their faith should be able to count on us. Also in North Korea.

President, High Representative, last week’s EU-China summit reminded me of the previous summit in 2020. Then Merkel and Macron thought they could conclude an investment agreement just as quickly. The summit symbolised the EU’s ambivalent attitude towards China: Beautiful words about human rights, but in the end the wallet is more important. The tone last week was emphatically different, but I still saw ambivalence again. Yes, you talked about Ukraine, and rightly so. But you also decided to set up a working group on the strengthening of trade relations and on the recognition of each other's protected geographical indications. I really do not understand that, because there is no prospect of restoring democracy in Hong Kong, restoring religious freedom for Christians in China, restoring the freedom of the million Uyghurs in concentration camps, while China still has sanctions against MEPs. If China continues to trample on human rights, there should be no strengthened economic relations. That has to be clear.

Mr President, Commissioner, Brexit has not made life easy for the EU fishermen concerned. Quotas have been reduced. Trading them has become more difficult. Additional requirements for fishing gear and unilateral closure of areas were encountered. What will happen after 2026? That is also very uncertain. Of course, we should try to resolve bottlenecks as much as possible in the spirit of good neighbourly relations. But if the British continue to stack obstacles on obstacles, we should not shy away from taking countermeasures either. Meanwhile, it is very frustrating to see that several Member States have not even started disbursing the funds from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve. Especially given the high fuel prices, this is a very uncomfortable situation. I therefore call on the Member States concerned and the Commission to speed up the disbursement of these funds. We will not reverse Brexit, but let us do everything in our power to keep the situation workable for our fishermen and to compensate for the damage as much as possible and as soon as possible.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Armenia has a very rich history. It was the first country in the world to proclaim Christianity as a national religion in the fourth century AD. Many thousands of locations, including in Nagorno-Karabakh, remind us of this. Due to the long-running conflict with Azerbaijan, this cultural and religious heritage is now under enormous threat. Many monuments have been damaged or destroyed. Armenian traces are obliterated by ‘albanisation’ of cultural heritage. It is an outright attempt at forgery of history! With our joint resolution, we make a clear statement today: 1) the EU should strongly address Azerbaijan on the systematic destruction of cultural heritage; 2) an independent fact-finding mission is needed to assess the damage on the spot; 3) in our neighbourhood relations with Azerbaijan, the topic should be given a very prominent place. The destruction of the cultural and religious heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh must stop!

Mr President, Commissioner, the war in Ukraine is attracting almost all attention, and we would almost forget that terrible things are happening elsewhere in the world. Like in Myanmar, where a coup d'état took place more than a year ago that violently crushed the still fragile democracy. The sad balance after one year: more than 7 000 targeted attacks on civilians by the military; nearly 1 500 people died, including women and children; hundreds of thousands of people fleeing in their own country; Dozens of documented reports of attacks on churches and other religious institutions; religious leaders have been murdered or arrested; the military is blocking access to humanitarian aid; There is a shortage of everything... Fortunately, the Council launched a new round of sanctions earlier this year. I encourage the Council to continue with this and, together with the international community, to increase pressure on the military junta to stop the violence and stop blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid. The Government of National Unity, as a legitimate representative of the democratic aspirations of the people of Myanmar, must also be involved in an inclusive political dialogue and in seeking a peaceful solution to the crisis. The people of Myanmar must also be able to count on us!

Mr President, Prime Minister, Mr High Representative, the war in Ukraine has hit us hard. War in Europe? That was a thing of the past. Investing in defense? All this was no longer necessary, found many parties. Now we know better. We have to change course, that much is clear. No, not by creating a new European chain of command, let alone forming a European army, but by cooperating and coordinating militarily between Member States. We already have an excellent partnership for our defence. This is NATO. Let us cherish that and, above all, invest in it. It is above all up to the Member States to assume their responsibilities. There's got to be money. It even needs a lot of money! Germany has finally woken up with its €100 billion recovery operation. But us? Where's the rest? We do not have the NATO standard of 2% of GDP for nothing. Russia is a major threat to world peace. We have to arm ourselves against that.

Mr President, High Representative Borrell, on 28 October I received the following letter: “In particular, do not worry, Mr Ruissen. The reappointment of the Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion has my full attention. Yours sincerely, Ursula von der Leyen’ We are now four months away and the post is still vacant after almost two and a half years. Mr. Borrell, when will this promise finally be fulfilled? The Commission does not have to do it for me. I can go to church every Sunday. No one gets in my way. Do it for the Christian Mayflower congregation that has fled China, but is now in danger of being sent back by South Korea. Do it for Christians in India, who are constantly facing attacks by Hindu extremists. Do it for Christians in Pakistan, who are imprisoned in death cells under blasphemy laws. I am not asking the Commission to make new promises. After all, the promise is black and white. I'm sure I'll leave you a copy of this letter, Mr. Borrell. All I ask is that previous promises be kept and that the timetable be clarified.