All Contributions (102)
Children forcibly deported from Ukraine and the ICC arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin (debate)
Date:
19.04.2023 08:12
| Language: EN
Mr President, dear colleagues, it is so important that the ICC issued an arrest warrant to President Putin with suspicions in this terrible war crime of children deportations. Not only the ICC, but also a special tribunal for crime of war aggression should do its job of justice. For that reason, a special tribunal should be established without delay, and the EU needs to play a leading role in implementing what this Parliament is demanding. Putin and Lukashenko also are perpetrating crimes against humanity when they are persecuting – in the most brutal ways – their domestic opponents. This is a conclusion of a recent report of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The crimes against humanity which Russian and Belarussian people are facing should be also investigated by the ICC or a special tribunal. The consequences of the ICC arrest warrant are clear. Nobody in the West should go for the dialogue with a war criminal and nobody from business or political elite around the war criminal in the Kremlin should expect an end of international isolation. Justice is coming, Mr Putin.
Order of business
Date:
29.03.2023 13:49
| Language: EN
Madam President, dear colleagues, I would like to use this opportunity to remind us that on 17 March, two weeks ago, the International Criminal Court issued the arrest warrant to President Putin for the war crime of the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children. Let us congratulate the ICC with this very important decision. Ukraine really deserves international justice against the inhuman and criminal behaviour of Putin’s regime. From another side, Madam President, I would like to remind you that some time ago this House overwhelmingly supported the establishment of a special tribunal for the crime of war aggression, which is the mother of all the war crimes, and asked EU institutions to lead the international process for establishment of such a tribunal. We are still awaiting for the implementation of our political will on the creation of special tribunal and, Madam President, we need your leadership for it to happen. Madam President, there is one more related and urgent issue. In two days’ time, Russia for the month of April will take a rotating Presidency in the Security Council of the United Nations. The question is very clear: can the war criminal head the United Nations Security Council? Democracies should boycott Security Council procedures while Russia will be in the Presidency and I would like to suggest that you should issue a special statement on behalf of all of us to support such an international boycott initiative.
The challenges facing the Republic of Moldova (debate)
Date:
14.03.2023 19:17
| Language: EN
Well, first of all I know that the Government of Moldova is doing great reforms in order to become not only a candidate country but to start negotiations and to become a member of EU. That is not only in the interests of Moldova, but also of us. And that is why we need to give all the support which is needed. And since Moldova really is facing different challenges, including energy and budgetary ones. And as we have heard from the Commissioner, the Commission is supporting in such a way which is really very much needed for Moldova. So I see all the possibilities to have success of Moldova, both for Moldovan people and for us.
The challenges facing the Republic of Moldova (debate)
Date:
14.03.2023 19:14
| Language: EN
Mr President, it is very clear that Kremlin is afraid of success of democracies in Ukraine and Moldova, because those successes can inspire Russian people to seek the same democratic development in Russia itself. That is why autocracy of Kremlin started military aggression against Ukraine and continuous hybrid aggression against Moldova. Kremlin is using oligarch Prigozhin, who is spending dirty money to hire mercenaries of Wagner group to attack Bakhmut in Ukraine. Kremlin also is using pro-Kremlin oligarch Ilan Shor in Moldova, who is openly spending dirty money to hire protesters against Maia Sandu’s government in Chișinău in order to destroy that government. We know how to help Ukraine, which is facing Kremlin military aggression: weapons, weapons and weapons. In order to help Moldova against Kremlin hybrid aggression, we need to use our most powerful geopolitical weapons: to start membership negotiations this year and implement ambitious integration, integration, integration. Kremlin needs to know that they will be defeated in both cases: in Ukraine and in Moldova. (The speaker agreed to respond to a blue-card speech)
Situation in Georgia (debate)
Date:
14.03.2023 18:21
| Language: EN
Mr President, dear colleagues, we know very well how strongly the Georgian people want to join the EU. But today, Georgia as a State has a problem on the way to achieve such a strategic goal. And that problem has the name of Bidzina Ivanishvili. Unfortunately, formal and informal authorities in Georgia are united in their tactics to deliberately create new and new problems on that path of integration. That is why Mikheil Saakashvili and Nika Gvaramia are kept in prison. And that is why we recently witnessed a story with ‘foreign agents’ law. The initiative of foreign agents law was a deliberate political provocation of the Georgian authorities against the people of Georgia. Such a behaviour of authorities is absolutely opposite to what the EU is demanding from Georgia – to depolarise political life. It is good that Georgian people in the streets managed to defend their road towards integration, but we should not be naive. This is not the last political anti-European provocation of the authorities. The Prime Minister of Georgia, Mr Garibashvili, yesterday made an important statement. Quote: ‘The European Parliament would better take care of itself. 100 MEPs are involved in a corruption scandal. Their desire was and is to involve Georgia in the war and to destroy it together with Ukraine.’ The Kremlin should envy for such type of propaganda. But it does not lead to the candidate status. Despite that, we shall continue to stand together with Georgian people!
This is Europe - Debate with the President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda (debate)
Date:
14.03.2023 10:08
| Language: EN
Madam President, Your Excellency Mr President, dear colleagues, I would like to welcome the President of my country in this House, which in the European Union has the strongest institutional adherence to European values of democracy, human rights, liberty, solidarity and respect to dignity of each human being, despite what is his or her colour of the skin, and what is his or her sexual or political orientation. The European Union will be strong if it will be based on those values without compromises, if it will be based on those values not only here in the European Parliament or in some other EU institutions, but also on a national, regional and local level. This is the only way how those values can be established also on the whole European continent. Why is it so important to talk about those basic principles and values? Because this is the only way how sustainable peace can be established on the European continent, since there is a very well—known law of geopolitics: only democracies are not fighting with each other. That is why defence of those values everywhere in our Union and the spread of democracy and basic human values into the eastern side of European continent is the most important strategic geopolitical goal for all of us, and especially during this war. We need to recognise, all of us in the European Union: we are not perfect back home in this area. There are things which we need to improve and to strengthen, also in Lithuania. But today I want to elaborate on what our President was speaking about. What should our common strategic agenda be in order to assist the nations in the eastern part of the European continent to enjoy the same European values of democracy and human rights? I want to repeat: sustainable peace on European continent will be established only when Belarusian and Russian people will have a possibility to enjoy those values and to live in normal European conditions. Such a strategic agenda will be implemented only if we shall proceed with a very clear strategic action plan. First, Ukraine needs to decisively defeat Putin’s Russia during this year, and that will create possibilities for big political changes in Russia and Belarus. Our most important obligation: weapons, weapons, weapons… and sanctions. Second, the absolute geopolitical priority for you during this year: to start membership negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. That would be the most powerful European geopolitical answer to Kremlin hybrid offensive activities in the region, especially in Moldova and perhaps also in Georgia. Third, the integration of Ukraine, Moldova and possibly Georgia towards the EU should be concluded till the end of this decade, since that is the only way how successful and prosperous democracies can be created in those countries. The success of those countries would be an inspiration for Belarusian and Russian societies to follow. Fourth, Ukraine needs to get membership in NATO, if not during the Vilnius summit this year, then during the Washington summit next year. It would help Russian people to abandon their dream to restore empire because Ukraine will be gone. Fifth, the EU needs to show clear perspective. Democratic Belarus will have possibility to integrate into the EU. Democratic Russia will have a special and very practical relationship with the EU. We Lithuanians want to be part of a European Union which is able to implement such a democracy action plan because this is an action plan for sustainable peace on the European continent.
The recent deterioration of the inhuman imprisonment conditions of Alexey Navalny and other political prisoners in Russia
Date:
15.02.2023 21:23
| Language: EN
Madam President, I hope that everybody knows that since his arrest, Navalny has been subject to ill treatment, including torture, arbitrary punishment and psychologic pressure, including sleep deprivation and lack of medical care. Recently, as all of us have been informed, Navalny was moved to a ‘penal confinement cell’. His lawyers report his deteriorating health. Alexei Navalny was not allowed to have visits for the last eight months. New trial with new charges against Navalny is set for March or April, with risk of new prison sentence of up to 35 years. The behaviour of the Kremlin regime with political opponent and political prisoner Alexei Navalny is simply inhuman. It reveals the nature of the Kremlin regime, which is a clear brutal tyranny. Today Kremlin has the two major enemies: a democratic and free Ukraine and a freedom-loving, but freedom-denied Russian people. There is no hope that the Kremlin regime will come back to an endorsement of the principles of human rights and the rule of law. But it is clear that Putin very soon will be on trial, not only by special International Tribunal for the crime of war aggression, but also by the justice system of democratic Russia for the crimes against the Russian nation. We stand together in solidarity with Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Ilya Yashin, Aleksey Gorinov and all other brave Russian people and their families, with their personal sacrifice and in solidarity with their fight for democracy in Russia. We urge the EU institutions and the EU Member States to give all the support to those who are struggling for the freedom of the Russian nation. For us it is clear that very soon, both Ukraine and democracy in Russia will win, and both victories will be a victory for Alexey Navalny. Therefore, we call upon the EU and the whole democratic community of the West to have a clear strategy how to assist both victories: one of Ukraine and the other of democratic Russia. We are convinced that such a victory is the best action of our solidarity with Alexei Navalny and all the others who are fighting for the democratic future of Russia.
One year of Russia’s invasion and war of aggression against Ukraine (debate)
Date:
15.02.2023 09:27
| Language: EN
Mr President, this war can be stopped tomorrow if Mr Putin will decide to withdraw his troops from Ukraine. However, since it is not realistic, the only way to end this international crime is to defeat Russia in the battlefield. The first year of a brutal war has shown that the combination of highly motivated Ukrainian defenders and the Western weapons are much stronger than the Russian military capacity. That is why the delivery of the Western weapons is the most crucial factor which can bring the end of this war. I repeat, it depends only on the West how long this bloody war will continue. I am convinced that all the possibilities to help Ukraine to achieve its victory during this year. For that to happen, the West has to stop being afraid of Russian defeat impact on the future of Russia. On the contrary, in order to have a sustainable peace on European continent, Russians need to be convinced to abandon their nostalgia of an empire. That will happen if Russia will be defeated in Ukraine, if Putin will be brought before the International Criminal Court, and if Ukraine will be invited to join NATO. Slava Ukraini!
Preparation of the EU-Ukraine Summit (debate)
Date:
02.02.2023 08:34
| Language: EN
Madam President, dear colleagues, the keys to a sustainable peace on the European continent are in the hands of Ukraine. Sustainable peace in Europe is possible only if Russian people will transform their country back to democracy, because democracies are not fighting each other. The West needs to have a strategy of how to assist such a transformation. First of all, Russia needs to be ‘deputinised’. This means the total military defeat of Russia, an international tribunal for Putin and an invitation for Ukraine to become a member of NATO. Such an invitation would send the most powerful signal to Russians that their dream to restore their empire is gone. From another side, the EU needs to assist Russians with the inspirational example of the success of Ukraine. Such a success of Ukraine can be created only through Ukraine’s integration into EU, just like the success story of the Central Europe was created. Ukraine’s geopolitical integration into the West is no less important than Leopards or Abrams for Ukraine’s defence because this is the only way to sustainable peace on the European continent. And that is why the summit should establish the ‘Integration Ramstein’ in order also to deliver integration.
The establishment of a tribunal on the crime of aggression against Ukraine (debate)
Date:
17.01.2023 20:01
| Language: EN
Madam President, dear colleagues, if we want peace, those who are destroying peace should be punished, in a heavy way. Justice is needed not only for Ukrainians. Justice is needed for all of us. Justice is needed for peace. Such justice cannot be delayed, since justice delayed is justice denied. There are three types of crimes during the war: war aggression as such; war crimes as in Bucha; and crimes against humanity as a genocide. The crime of war aggression is called the ‘mother of all the war crimes’. It is a crime against peace and it is a leadership crime, since only the leadership of the state is deciding to start war aggression. War crimes and crimes against humanity are investigated by the ICC. But the ICC has no direct mandate to investigate the crime of war aggression. That is why we need a special tribunal, not only for Putin but also for Lukashenko, since he allowed territorial Belarus to be used for criminal Russian aggression. The way back to peace starts from the establishment of a special tribunal. At least let us not be late with the tribunal when still we are late with Leopards.
The EU’s response to the appalling attack against civilians in Dnipro : strengthening sanctions against the Putin regime and military support to Ukraine (debate)
Date:
17.01.2023 19:29
| Language: EN
Madam President, dear colleagues, what we witnessed in Dnipro is pure and simple state terrorism. This terrorist attack reminded me of another terrorist attack on 11 September 2001, when Al-Qaeda attacked and destroyed the Twin Towers. I do not see any difference between those terrorist attacks and the aims of terrorists. I see only a big difference in how the West was and is reacting. In my view, the difference comes from the simple fact that al-Qaeda attacked big cities of the West while, for the time being, Putin – as a terrorist – is attacking only Ukrainian cities. Let’s not make a strategic mistake. It’s only a question of time until Kremlin terrorism will come to our cities. You cannot stop such terrorism just with statements of condemnation or statements of solidarity with the victims. I do not expect that NATO will be involved in the fight against this sort of terrorism like it was after the al-Qaeda attack. But I hope and expect that the EU in the end will manage at least to put the Wagner Group and other Russian military groups on the EU terrorist list, as was done with al-Qaeda. The Dnipro tragedy brings an additional argument that this cannot be delayed anymore.
Presentation of the programme of activities of the Swedish Presidency (debate)
Date:
17.01.2023 10:35
| Language: EN
Madam President, I say to the Prime Minister and my dear Swedish colleagues: first of all I would like to congratulate the Swedish Prime Minister for such a clear statement on Ukraine, on Ukraine being a major strategic priority for the Swedish Presidency. And I would like to stress the importance of just a few points of this broad Ukraine agenda. It would be very important that during Swedish Presidency decisions should be made in order to start EU membership negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova during this year. We need to win not only military battles, but also political and geopolitical battles against Kremlin. Second, as it was mentioned by my colleagues during this week, the European Parliament, I hope, will pass a resolution on the establishment of a special tribunal for the crime of war aggression. I hope that Swedish Presidency, together with the Ukrainian authorities, will do everything for this tribunal to be established during this year. And the last point: after the Kremlin has made one more terrorist attack, this time against apartment buildings in Dnipro, I hope the Swedish Presidency will put Wagner and other Russian military groups on the EU list of terrorist organisations, as the European Parliament recently demanded. Good luck – lycka till.
The humanitarian situation in Ukraine due to Russia’s attacks against critical infrastructure and civilian areas (debate)
Date:
15.12.2022 09:27
| Language: EN
Madam President, colleagues, Commissioner, of course, the best humanitarian assistance to Ukraine would be more arms deliveries – guns, guns, guns – because this is the only way this war can be ended in the near future. And the war brings humanitarian catastrophe to all the people of Ukraine. I would like to make just two comments on the humanitarian assistance issue, and what we need to do as the EU. Really, the EU is doing a lot, but I would say we need to stop talking about how much we did and how much we delivered – for example, 1 000 or whatever generators. We need to ask what the needs of Ukraine are – and for generators, 25 000 are needed – and how we are going to cover the difference between what is needed and what is delivered. That’s, I think, one of the most important issues for us. I would also like to see the EU coordinating the efforts of all the citizens of the EU who want to assist Ukraine. And in each village or city of the EU, everybody should know the phone number of the EU coordinator. Secondly, I would like to suggest the same idea as President Zelenskyy proposed at the very beginning of the war: that each EU Member State should take patronage of an individual region of Ukraine – for example, Estonia for Zhytomyr, Lithuania for Lutsk, and so on – and take care of the humanitarian assistance to that region especially. In order to achieve that, the EU needs to take the role of effective coordination between the EU Member States and the regions of Ukraine. We can do more!
Upscaling the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (debate)
Date:
14.12.2022 19:10
| Language: EN
Madam President, colleagues. I would like to say a few words about the major message of the report. And that message is very simple: we are living in a time of war, but not with our finances, since the MFF was planned and approved for permanent peace. We need to understand that this war is also our war, and it demands from us mobilisation of all of our resources. In order to win the war, you need to have in order your army and also your finances. You need to have sufficient war finances. We need to finance arms deliveries to Ukraine, the budgetary needs of Ukraine, the reconstruction of Ukraine, the accession of Ukraine and other new candidate countries towards the EU. The report’s main message is clear: the MFF’s structure and size is not able to meet the needs of the war and also the needs of other big crises, urgencies. Why is this so? The report speaks very clearly, I quote, ‘Parliament regrets the gradual decrease of the EU budget as a percentage of EU gross national income and the excessive focus on capping overall spending at roughly 1% of EU GNI’. This is a most important message. We cannot stay with 1% because at the end it will bring the whole EU into very painful crisis of its own finances. We need to avoid it. This crisis of the war is a good occasion for us to strengthen ourselves from a geo-political point of view and also radically strengthen our finances. This is the only way we can make the EU strong again.
Mr President, dear colleagues, we in the European Union need to understand we also are at the war, that is why we need to move from ad hoc decisions to systemic decisions. You cannot win the war without weapons and without war finances, properly and systemically established. We are still not able to deliver finances what we promised at the beginning of this year and that is shameful for the European Union. In the EU we cannot finance war finance from the regular normal multiannual budget. We need special arrangements, including on EUR 18 billion for 2023. Today it is important for to push for, first of all, a significant first disbursement in January. Second, to fix EUR 18 billion as our clear promise, not just ‘up to EUR 18 billion’. Third, we need to ask the Commission to coordinate with international partners to cover the rest, as fiscal deficit of Ukraine for 2023 is 38 billion. And the last point, on reconstruction, the EU has to establish its own resource similar to Next Generation 2.0 for Ukraine and to push for Russian assets confiscation to cover the increasing needs for Ukraine’s recovery, which are approaching one trillion euros.
New EU strategy for enlargement (debate)
Date:
22.11.2022 19:43
| Language: EN
Madam President, dear colleagues, we have a good report on the significance of enlargement. The report is very clear in its most important message. Enlargement is the most effective EU foreign policy instrument, and enlargement should be brought back to an ambitious and dynamic track like it was with enlargement towards Central Europe. The later so-called enlargement fatigue, especially to Eastern Partnership region, was a big mistake, and one of the reasons why Putin decided that he can start a war against Ukraine. It’s good that the EU leadership started to learn the lessons from the mistakes of the past. Josep Borrell recently in this House openly recognised that until the war the EU had no proper policy towards Ukraine because that policy was subordinated to the policy towards Russia, and policy towards Russia was absent because the EU was very heavily dependent on Russian gas. Now this dependency is gone. It’s good that recently we have heard ambitious statements about enlargement towards Ukraine, Moldova and Western Balkans, made by Ursula von der Leyen and Josep Borrell and Olaf Scholz. It would be even better if such ambition would be demonstrated also by EU institutions and by Member States. I do not understand the reasons why the EU could not start negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova in the middle of next year. Let us bring back the hope to our neighbours that the EU was able to wake up from its geopolitical laziness and I am absolutely sure that those neighbours will deliver major reforms of their countries. That is how enlargement can bring peace and prosperity for the whole European continent.
Preparation of the European Council meeting of 20-21 October 2022 (debate)
Date:
19.10.2022 08:59
| Language: EN
Madam President, dear colleagues, I hope that the Council and Commission will find proper solutions for this energy crisis and also will understand what kind of our mistakes and dependencies in the past led to it. I will speak about geopolitical crisis of war, which Europe is also facing. Two weeks ago Josep Borrell in our plenary openly and bravely admitted, that till now the EU had no Russia strategy, because EU was too dependent on Russian gas. And it had no foreign policy towards Ukraine, because it was a subsidiary to our policy on Russia. Because of that, there was no EU enlargement policy towards Ukraine, and that was the EU’s strategic mistake which led to a geopolitical crisis. Now we are less dependent on Russian gas, and Ukraine and Moldova got candidate status. But do we have an ambitious enlargement strategy? I have doubts. Because I do not see, that the EU would be ready to start membership negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova in 2023, which again means that our strategy towards Ukraine can be captured by prevailing bureaucratic attitude towards enlargement. There is still time for the Council and Commission to stop continuation of such a strategic mistake.
Impact of Russian invasion of Ukraine on migration flows to the EU (debate)
Date:
18.10.2022 18:32
| Language: EN
Mr President, dear colleagues, Russia as a terrorist country was and is weaponising immigration. Since last year, Russia started to weaponise on illegal immigration through Belarus of people from Africa and Middle East into Lithuania, Poland, Latvia. With the beginning of the brutal and criminal war against Ukraine, Russia was hoping that millions of war refugees from Ukraine will not be accepted in EU countries and chaos will prevail. Putin failed. Europeans showed their solidarity. With the recent mass bombings of civilian infrastructure in Ukraine before the winter, Putin expects that new millions of Ukrainians will be forced to leave their country. With the recent mass military mobilisation in Russia, the Kremlin created a new mass flow of migrants from Russia itself. In hundreds of thousands, they are going to Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia. Russians do not want to live in their terrorist country. That is an essence of today’s Russia, and that is the tragedy of Russia. What should be our policy response? We need to keep our eastern borders under strict control vis-à-vis Putin’s or Lukashenko’s manipulated migrants from Africa and the Middle East. Second, we need to declare that we shall accept all the Ukrainians who will be forced to leave the country because of the Putin’s war. Third, we need to financially help Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, which accept massive flows of Russian refugees. With proper security precautions and according to our legislation on asylum, we need to be ready to accept those Russians who will become deserters from the real Russian armed forces. Terrorist states will fail, whatever weapons, including weaponisation of migration, they will try to use against us.
Russia’s escalation of its war of aggression against Ukraine (debate)
Date:
05.10.2022 09:28
| Language: EN
Mr President, first of all, of course, congratulations to the victorious Ukrainians. It is clear that the end of the war depends only on how much weapons the West delivers to Ukraine. In some way it’s a shame for the EU that the United States delivered EUR 25 billion value of weapons and the whole European Union support, together with all the Member States, is only less than EUR 6 billion. The same is true with financial aid. The European Union is heavily behind the United States’ assistance. It’s not enough, our solidarity statements. Real EU money is needed. Sanctions are working. But the most special next sanction on Putin would be the immediate creation of a special tribunal on crimes of aggression, which would target directly Putin. Ukrainian military performance is above all the NATO standards. Not Ukraine should ask for NATO membership, but NATO should ask Ukraine to join, because Ukraine is implementing NATO mission to stop Russia’s imperial expansion to the West. We can help Russians to bury their imperial dreams with immediate Ukraine NATO membership and negotiations on EU membership starting early next year. We shall show to Russia that Ukraine is gone from an imperial grey zone.
Human rights violations in the context of forced deportation of Ukrainian civilians to and forced adoption of Ukrainian children in Russia
Date:
14.09.2022 16:13
| Language: EN
Madam President, dear colleagues, there is no need to repeat that forced deportations of Ukrainians and their children to Russia, to faraway Siberian regions – that this is a huge crime against humanity, and this is a war crime of genocide. There is no difference in between of crimes of deportations to Gulag camps during Stalin’s time and deportations done now during Putin’s time. We need to speak in a very clear way: Putin’s crimes of deportations, also other war crimes, were born out of the first and major crime of Putin – crime of war aggression. And that is why we need to immediately address the major issue: the creation of Special International Tribunal on Crime of War Aggression. It is the only instrument to target directly the crimes personally of Mr Putin; it’s also to show both to Putin and to his elite that there will be no way to come back to business as usual in between of the West and criminal Putin regime, even after the war. It’s good that the resolution speaks about such a special tribunal. It would be good if big capitals would also support the creation of such a tribunal. It would be a clear evidence that nobody wants to go to business as usual with a criminal.
EU response to the increase in energy prices in Europe (debate)
Date:
13.09.2022 16:48
| Language: EN
Madam President, dear colleagues, it is very clear that we are facing both short-term and longer-term challenges. There is a need of quick strategic decisions for this winter, showing to Putin that he will not win with his strategy against the European Union. We did not allow the pandemic to kill our economies, and we shall not allow Putin’s energy crisis to kill our economies again. But with short-term measures, we should also need to avoid killing energy market of European Union because there are a lot of examples. For example, when electricity is generated in one country and consumers are another in another country. There is also a need for longer-term solutions which we need to declare now. First, we need to declare that we shall not come back to ‘business as usual’ and we shall not buy any more Putin’s gas, even one after Ukrainians will win the war. And second, we should declare that we are ready to speed up implementation of Green Deal and get rid not only of Russian gas, but in general to get rid of gas and oil consumption.
The situation in the Strait of Taiwan (debate)
Date:
13.09.2022 14:49
| Language: EN
Madam President, dear colleagues. We are witnessing how China is becoming more authoritarian and more aggressive. And that is the same development which we saw in Russia during the last 20 years. It started from violations of human rights and it ended with an invasion of Ukraine. Stability and status quo are very important, but we cannot keep status quo in our position when China is dramatically changing its policy. China abandoned its one—China two—systems policy towards Hong Kong. China is implementing genocide against Uyghurs. They are increasing military threats against Iran. Now China thinks that they have the right to decide who can visit Taiwan. And they think that China has a right to punish, because of that, other countries. Or to punish Taiwan If your Speaker of Congress is visiting Taiwan. It’s time to say to China that they have no such right. And the best answer would be the visit of the European Parliament Speaker to Taiwan. Even better would be a visit together with Mr Vice—President.
Question Time (VPC/HR) The state of play of the war in Ukraine
Date:
13.09.2022 13:10
| Language: EN
A very short comment or additional question. We congratulate that the Commission really found a way to allocate 9 billion. The question is about next year. Up to 70 billion to finance the daily business of the Ukrainian Government, paying salaries to teachers, paying salaries to medical doctors – that will be needed. So my question is, and suggestion really, to the Commission to come out with a much more clear long-term plan of how to finance the Ukrainian State during this very difficult times and how really to win this war not only with weapons, but also with clear financial assistance for Ukraine.
Question Time (VPC/HR) The state of play of the war in Ukraine
Date:
13.09.2022 13:08
| Language: EN
Mr President, really, first of all, we can be quite happy with the recent developments on the military front in Ukraine. We can congratulate the Ukrainian soldiers on leadership and, of course, they’re doing such a great job because the West is providing weapons. But my questions would be about the future and not about the military future. Really things in Ukraine are very much damaged by Russian occupants and so on. The economy is now in a bad shape. We know from IMF evaluations that each month Ukraine needs around 5 to 7 billion in external financial assistance. And my question would be for next year, what the Commission is planning, because it means that for next year we need to have around 70 billion in our external assistance for Ukraine.
Preparation of the European Council meeting of 23-24 June 2022, including the meeting with Western Balkan leaders on 23 June - Candidate status of Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia (debate)
Date:
22.06.2022 16:15
| Language: EN
Mr President, dear colleagues, first of all, I would like to congratulate the courage of the Ukrainian people. Their heroism opens the doors for the historical decisions of European Union to give candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova. But today, after authoritarian Russia started criminal war against democratic Ukraine, we need to say even more. First, enlargement policy is the most important geopolitical policy of the EU, because this is the only way to expand the area of democracy, stability and prosperity. And this is the only way that long-term peace can be established on the whole continent. Second, we need to understand that EU enlargement is needed not only for Ukraine, Moldova or Western Balkans; it’s very much needed also for the whole EU, because enlargement makes the EU stronger, not weaker. That is why we, on the European side, not only Ukrainians, need to be ambitious and courageous. For the last decades, we in the EU, we were living with the philosophy of ‘geopolitical laziness’. Now the war demands from us to come back to the philosophy of ‘geopolitical courage and enlargement’. Let’s do it.