Debate contributions by Nora MEBAREK

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Mehdi was 20 years old; He dreamed of becoming a police officer: he was shot to silence his brother Amine, whose commitment to the ravages of drug trafficking is well known in France and Europe. On behalf of the Socialists and Democrats Group, I reiterate our support for his family, for those close to him, and the fight obliges us. In France, drug trafficking generates €5.5 billion per year, supports 200 000 people and feeds more than 1 million cocaine users. Since 2021, assassinations and attempted assassinations have increased by 33%. These are not abstract statistics: These are crushed lives, destroyed families. Criminal networks target our children. They promise them recognition, money and quick success. In reality they use them as – interchangeable – fuses, faceless soldiers doomed to prison or death. Where the rule of law is receding, drug trafficking imposes its law, its rules, its violence. These children we hear about by various facts could be ours. A bad encounter, a moment of fragility, and all life changes, and a whole family changes. Repression is necessary, but it cannot be the only answer. Prison has become a place of learning and structuring: We sometimes go back in criminal to get out criminal. That is why we need a real anti-drugs strategy – legible, coordinated, resourced, combining security, prevention, health, education and the fight against corruption –, an action plan that is sustainable and not reactionary, which sends a message of hope to our citizens by ensuring that they are protected. their European Union. "Restore peace and justice" is the meaning of the first name Mehdi, in Arabic. A resolution on drug trafficking will be adopted in this Chamber next January. We will have to wake up and awaken our consciences. We no longer have the right to look away. Let's live up to the trials and struggle of the Kessaci family!

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Vice-President, our ecological transformation will be fair or it will fail, and the Just Transition Fund was, as you have heard, hard-fought in the previous legislature, to prevent carbon neutrality from being experienced as a punishment. This fund is vital to support workers, families and the most exposed territories. In my department of Bouches-du-Rhône, where the petrochemical industry is a pillar of the economy, decarbonizing is an imperative. But without support, it means job losses and social despair. Thanks to a strong contribution from the European Union, this change can become an opportunity, with funding for short-time work, retraining for vocational training and, above all, maintaining the right to live in dignity in one's region. However, this is not at all what the Commission is proposing when it simply removes the Just Transition Fund from the next budgetary framework 2028-2034. Instead, it prefers a clean transition, focused on large industrial projects at the expense of social and territorial needs. This is an unacceptable step backwards, as you have heard on all the benches of this Parliament. Our Parliament is also charting another course, a new fund, a directive on the just transition and the full involvement of the regions and the social partners. Our message is clear: without European solidarity, no just and sustainable transition on our continent.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, 137 million Europeans live in rural areas. Much of our collective success in the green, digital and demographic transitions depends on these territories, which cover more than 80% of our continent. That is what the rapporteur - and I congratulate him - has brought us with this report, this vision on rural areas. Therefore, guaranteeing every European citizen the freedom to live and stay where they want becomes a strategic issue for the future of the Union. This right to stay where we want must now be translated into better access to health, education, transport, housing and a dignified life. Because where public services disappear, where socio-economic dropout takes root, the feeling of downgrading thrives and, with it, despair. That is why cohesion policy and its method, based on partnership with local authorities, must remain a strong pillar of the next European budgetary framework. This policy is our best ally in combating territorial inequalities and supporting rural innovation. To preserve everyone's right to stay where they want and live in dignity is to protect the unity of our Europe.

Mr President, Commissioner, climate change is hitting harder and harder. Reunion has just experienced this bitterly after the devastating passage of Cyclone Garance. Five dead, hundreds of victims, tens of thousands of households without electricity, drinking water supply affected, infrastructure devastated and agriculture brought to its knees. The island is disfigured, the population hard-pressed: This is why it is important for our Parliament to be able to express its full solidarity with the people of Réunion. Europe must be at the forefront of the distress caused by these repeated disasters. As in the case of Mayotte after Chido, the French State must request the mobilisation of the European Union Solidarity Fund to help Réunion rebuild. We also need to activate Restore measures to repair today, but most importantly to prepare for tomorrow: compensate agricultural losses and support sectors in their resumption of activity, rebuild better to further protect populations, and enable the island to accelerate its adaptation to the new climate realities. Beyond the immediate urgency, this disaster reminds us once again that it is imperative to put in place a more ambitious European policy for our outermost regions, which are on the front line in the face of climate change. We need to strengthen our preparedness, adaptation and reconstruction capacities by investing sustainably in resilient infrastructure, better warnings and more responsive support mechanisms. In the face of this tragedy, European solidarity must not be a wishful thinking, but a concrete response. To Reunionese we must not offer our only compassion, but the assurance that the EU will not let go of its outermost regions, starting with the island of Reunion.

Madam President, the news from Mayotte since Saturday is appalling. Local authorities announce that there could be thousands of victims and warn of the risk of epidemics and famine. Before the passage of Cyclone Chido, the Mahorais already lacked everything. The population is now in a situation of total deprivation. Many are without a roof, without electricity, without running water. Bottled water is rationed, food stocks will not last long, and the only hospital in the archipelago is severely damaged. Mayotte is, however, France, the 10th richest country in the world. What happened on Saturday was one more tragedy, one too many. But what happened before Sunday was a failure of French politics. France has done little or nothing to share its prosperity with the Mahorais. The indecency of the statements of the Minister of the Interior, who wants an immigration law before declaring Mayotte as a national cause and asking for help from Europe, is unbearable. The European Parliament has just voted for a mechanism called Restore to help Mayotte through this ordeal. To the grief, suffering and anguish of the Mahorais, let us not only offer our compassion, let us offer the promise that the European Union will not let them down.

Mr President, Commissioner, the regions are now threatened with becoming the adjustment variables for the fiscal policies of France and Europe. Through them, however, concrete projects, essential for the ecological transition, transport or economic development come to life. And yet, in France as in Brussels, there is a great temptation to sacrifice these territories on the altar of austerity. From one government to another, Emmanuel Macron imposes every day on the regions to find new economies to fill a deficit inflated by tax gifts to the richest. In addition, the European Commission, under the leadership of Ursula von der Leyen, would prepare a reform that would centralise or recentralise funds and marginalise regions in their management. This reform is a threat to the future of Europe, as it removes the role of regions and cities in managing cohesion funds. It is the very essence of the European project that is being jeopardised. By linking the distribution of funds to the implementation of the economic reforms decided in Brussels, the Commission gives even more power to central governments at the expense of territories, victims of a double penalty. Behind these reforms are dark cuts, which would endanger essential projects. This reform project is a disguised coup de force. Centralising more and more while excluding local actors betrays the spirit of European integration and the principle of subsidiarity, weakens local democracy and devitalises our territories. Those who support this technocratic vision are only promoting outdated liberalisation, far and away from the concerns of our fellow citizens.

Mr President, Mr Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, the housing crisis is a European phenomenon which calls for European responses. Almost everywhere in Europe, prices are skyrocketing: increase of 30% in ten years in France, more than 50% in Germany, more than 200% in Hungary. Unworthy housing is proliferating and the number of poorly housed or homeless Europeans is skyrocketing. This situation can no longer last. It endangers the very cohesion of our societies. When a market does not work, it must be regulated, and that is precisely what we expect from the new Commission. The exorbitant privileges enjoyed by private developers must be abolished, the touristization of the housing market combated and the privatization of social parks prohibited. Europe needs public management of housing, from construction to market rules. We have allowed speculators to act for too long. It is time for the public authorities to take back their hands firmly.