Debate contributions by Christophe CLERGEAU

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to make two remarks on the European health budget. This EU4Health programme suffered a 20% decrease during the mid-term review of the Multiannual Financial Framework. One billion has soared, including 620 million in the health component of crisis preparedness. For 2026, the Council proposes a new cut of 95 million, or 15%, which is huge and again undermines the ability to prepare for crises and protect the population. It is now necessary to stop the double speeches. Either health and crisis preparedness are important or they are not. I hope that Parliament's commitment to restore these appropriations will convince the Council. My second point concerns support for NGOs in the field of health. In 2025, the Commission changed its approach by adopting operating grants to replace them with calls for projects, without any justification. This permanently weakens NGOs that no longer have visibility, some of which have had to lay off 40% of their staff. Yet we need NGOs, their free voices, their skills and their contribution to build European health policies. NGOs have referred the matter to the European Ombudsman. Thank you to the Commission for reviewing its copy.

Mr President, health, health, that is the great absence of this work programme for the year 2026. However, this is one of the main priorities of Europeans. It is a fundamental right, the foundation of their quality of life. But it is also the bedrock of European competitiveness, because without a healthy population there is no competitiveness. So yes, it is urgent to act, to act in the face of the danger that threatens health. We were waiting for new tobacco legislation, a legislative package on consumer information in food and the very important revision of REACH. Unfortunately, at the moment, none of this. We also expected Europe to turn the corner on prevention, to launch a major European prevention plan in the field of health and, within this framework, to have a plan for mental health, especially for young people, a plan for cardiovascular health, a plan for women's health. Our question today is: Why is all this absent? This clarification is still possible. Improvements are still possible. We expect strong action from the European Commission on health.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we need to do more to protect health and the environment from the impact of chemicals. Where we live, the way we live, the pollution and hazardous products we are exposed to impact ourselves, impact our human health and explain much of the incredible development of noncommunicable diseases: cancers, degenerative diseases, diseases of pain. So yes, we needed this common database for chemicals and it will be a point of support to better evaluate these products. I would really like to thank the rapporteur, Dimitris Tsiodras, for leading our work, but also for bringing Parliament's positions to the Council. Parliament has succeeded in improving this text on key points, from my point of view: a better consideration of the concept of emerging risks to look at the risks that are coming, which are not yet fully known; better consideration of the possibility for citizens, NGOs, independent experts and scientists to contribute to this database so that they are available throughout Europe; and also the possibility for the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to order studies from independent science to complete the dossiers that are brought by manufacturers. So yes, it is very good, yes, we will have to go further – and I thus conclude –, further to revise the framework for chemicals – it is the revision of the REACH Regulation that we are waiting for – further to coordinate the agencies involved in the field of health, and further to strengthen ECHA. I will be Parliament's rapporteur for the ECHA legislation and I will continue the collective work with Mr Tsiodras.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the common agricultural policy is in danger. I thank my colleague André Rodrigues for defending useful simplifications, for fighting to keep social conditionality and for always fighting to avoid non-alignment of the CAP with EU environmental legislation. I also thank him for fighting against the deregulation and ultra-liberal fury of the EPP in this House. With 50 billion euros spent per year, we can wonder what is left of ecological conditionality. We now hear the Commissioner – EPP, right – worry about the amendments – EPP, right – and hope that the Council – EPP, right – will, with our help, make it possible to correct these mistakes. Yes, we will help you, but we are worried about the future of the CAP. When we see the proposals for the future multiannual financial framework, we cannot help but think that the common agricultural policy is in danger of death: the absolute renationalisation of the CAP, the reduction of the budget from 20 to 30%, the competition of farmers with the rest of society, the absence of new tools to accompany agro-ecological transformation, the financing of crisis management to face climate crises on the same budget as direct payments. What does this mean? In the coming years, this means no transformation of agriculture and less and less money for farmers. This is not the right direction for Europe and I hope that together we will reject this multiannual financial framework in a few weeks' time.

Thank you, hon. member, for accepting my question. I'd like to understand something. Your Spanish colleague from VOX, from the same group as you, said that in Spain there had not been a larger heat wave than a decade ago and that the data were false. And you, you just said that Portugal has experienced unparalleled heat waves, with the dramatic consequences that you have recalled. So, is there a difference between Portugal and Spain or are there differences in vision within the Patriots group itself?

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, heat waves are first and foremost social crises. The most vulnerable people are the first to be hit, and this issue needs to be taken much better into account. Obviously, when you live in a thermal kettle, you cannot cool your body and cope with these crises. Therefore, the quality of housing, the quality of life, the quality of social support are absolutely essential. Then, Mr Sokol just said, these are health crises: there is a direct effect on human health, but also an indirect effect. As part of the work on the exposome – how everyone is exposed to all kinds of hazards, chemicals, living conditions – we know that increasing temperature is an amplifier of the effects of other products and a trigger for chronic diseases. We must therefore have a real awareness in terms of public health and collective organization. Last point, we will have to stop distinguishing the battle for the fight against climate change and the battle for the fight for adaptation to climate change. It is a single fight for the ecological transformation of our societies: have a consistent attitude in the city, in health, in housing, to both limit greenhouse gas emissions and allow people to live better.

Mr President, I say congratulations to the Commissioner, congratulations to the teams from HERA and ECHO, the two DGs working with you, congratulations because you are implementing quickly and concretely the preparation strategy that was published three months ago. And things are changing. Three years ago, I was a member of the European Committee of the Regions and when I was defending food stocks, a director from DG AGRI told me: “But, Mr Clergeau, what do you want to do with your food stocks? They will rot in warehouses before they have been used for anything." Well, you are now proposing a real strategy for water, for food and also, of course, for medicines, so that it is available to the population. So I just have a question – or a regret. Why do we have a law for critical drugs, but no strategy or accelerator for other countermeasures? Will we have masks on the day of the outbreak? I think – and this will be my last word – that the Commission should take advantage of the text on critical medicines to broaden its scope and have a real law for all countermeasures, to lift all the locks and to really have masks produced in Europe on the day of the next epidemic.

Madam President, Commissioner, Executive Vice-President of the Commission, you are here because you are committed, together with the whole College, to respecting the achievements of the Green Deal. You are here members of a Guardian Commission of the Treaties, and in particular of Article 168, which states that ‘a high level of protection of human health shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Union policies and activities’. So with the chemicals package – at least as far as we know, since nothing is officially published – nothing is going well. I say to you solemnly: the Socialist and Democratic Group in this Parliament strongly condemns this proposal, which orchestrates an extraordinary setback and endangers human health and the environment. This package has nothing to do with simplification unless, for you, simplification means abandoning the use of dangerous products and exonerating companies from their responsibilities. The proposed measures will increase exposure to hazardous products. You do not want to make packaging and labelling more legible and understandable. You waive a reasonable period of time to change the labelling when the classification of a product has changed. You relax the use of carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic products in cosmetics and remove the obligation to present an analysis of alternative solutions. You authorise the marketing of a cosmetic product containing prohibited products for up to 36 months. I'll tell you again: Nothing's right. By doing so, and I conclude by doing so, the Commission is not doing the industry any good. Rather than perpetuating the authorisation of the use of dangerous products, it would be better to support industrialists who have committed themselves to the development of a sustainable and respectful economy.

Mr. member, you are talking about the risk of looting resources. You are talking about areas that fall under the jurisdiction of France, but you are not talking about the international deep seabed. And the main threat today is the decision taken by the United States to exploit the seabed, to launch deep-sea mining at the expense of all international rules. I would like to hear from you on this issue as to whether you condemn this American decision and whether you want compliance with international agreements and legislation in this area to protect the oceans.

Madam President, Commissioner, a few days ago we were together at the United Nations Ocean Conference and we were able to appreciate all the tremendous mobilization, the citizen momentum, supported in particular by the blue NGOs that I would like to welcome. The presentation of the Ocean Pact by President von der Leyen and by you was also a highlight, and I would like to thank you for that, because it sets an ambitious framework for the future. Now, there is an urgent need to act and I would like here to relay the request of NGOs, which is also ours, to have an action plan 2025-2030 to concretely translate your ambition. Then, there is an urgent need to change ocean governance to succeed where we have failed, especially for the return to good ecological status of the oceans. We have three demands for the Pact for the Ocean, which must be its tool: the first, that the Pact for the Ocean arrives as early as 2026 and not as early as 2027, otherwise we risk not adopting it during this legislature; secondly, that the revision of the Marine Framework Directive be integrated into the Ocean Pact, otherwise there is no coherence; and the third, that the Commission should be able to study all the legislative subjects that would deserve to be included in the Ocean Pact in order to achieve the objectives set out in that Pact. This legislative project, Commissioner, we are committed to bringing it to your side right now.

Madam President, Commissioner, the revolution I want to see is the prevention revolution. Because care is essential and it must be done better, but it is not an end in itself. The goal is to live well and age well, healthy. This involves prevention, which is the best investment, while non-action, on the contrary, results in millions of deaths and billions of euros of unnecessary spending. So yes, we need the major existing public health programmes – such as the one against cancer – or those announced by the Commission. For us, the priority is a great program for mental health and a great program for women's health. However, we must first and foremost prevent diseases by acting on the determinants of health. Act against poverty, precariousness, poor housing, energy and food poverty, rationing of care. Acting against tobacco and junk food: These are health disasters that result from decades of lobbying and manipulation by major economic interests. It is imperative that we revise the tobacco directive to combat false alternatives to cigarettes, which are major dangers to public health. We also need a legislative agenda on food, to combat dangerous practices and products, better inform consumers and ban – yes, ban! – advertising of junk food. Finally, we must act against the cumulative effects of our environment on our organisms, this emerging cause of the explosion of chronic diseases, cancers, but also degenerative diseases or diseases of pain. So yes, pollution, pesticides, chemicals, PFAS are a terrible cocktail that ruins our health. In this area, it is health that must be the guideline of our action. We are on the eve of drastic political choices: Preventing, preventing and preventing is the only possible choice for the well-being of Europeans.

Madam President, Commissioner, the European Parliament is today proposing to the European Commission a strong ambition to ensure access to water for all, while respecting the environment and health. Congratulations and thank you to Thomas Bajada for this beautiful result! I want to stress two points: oceans and the quality of drinking water. We must all support the "from source to sea" approach. We need healthy oceans and, for that, to reduce the pollution that affects the coastlines via the waters that come from the continent. It is crucial to protect biodiversity, but also the economic activities of fishing, marine crops and the well-being of local populations. I also welcome the awareness of the issue of water quality, which is recognized as being as important as the issue of water availability. There is an urgent need for action. Ten French municipalities in the south of Alsace, close to here, have just banned the consumption, by fragile people, of so-called drinking water polluted by PFAS. How many municipalities are in this case in Europe today? How many will be in six months or three years? Yes, there is an urgent need to act to drastically reduce the presence of pesticides and PFAS in water.

Mr President, Commissioner, we have come out of six months of fake news and senseless and unfounded attacks on NGOs. This afternoon, with its votes, Parliament did them justice. NGOs are key players in democracy, supported by citizens and committed to them. On the ground, the role of NGOs is to defend and assert their positions. No one can challenge them for this role and especially not silence them when they are financed. The facts have now been re-established. The charges fall because they were not based on anything. The European Court of Auditors has shown that the areas of improvement examined are not new and are linked to the rules laid down by the European Commission, and not to the action of NGOs that have complied with these rules. In reply to Mr Gerbrandy's question, on 14 April, Commissioner Serafin also recalled that the Commission has neither given instructions nor demanded that NGOs put pressure on Members of the European Parliament and that civil society organisations remain fully autonomous and free to have their own views on all political issues. The final point, I hope, is this sad soap opera and long life for NGOs and a free and independent civil society!

Madam Member, to express your concerns about the pact, you have used the conditional. Your colleague, Mrme Jamet, meanwhile, said that the commissioner and the pact wanted to rule everything, homogenize everything. Can you give me, since you have to discuss it in your group, examples of the Commissioner's statements aimed at regenting and homogenising everything at European level in the maritime field?

Mr President, Commissioner, does Europe want to fight climate change? Half of the oxygen breathed comes from the oceans, which is the main carbon sink. Does Europe want to secure its sovereignty? 90% of imports come from the sea. What about energy sovereignty? In 2050, 20% of Europe’s electricity will come from the sea. Does Europe want its food sovereignty? As such, fishing is essential. It is time to put the ocean at the top of the political agenda, of all European policies. The oceans are in danger. We need to restore the oceans, because healthy oceans are the bedrock of the blue economy and the daily lives of people living on islands and coastlines. This ocean pact must also be a pact for the inhabitants of islands and coastal areas and for their jobs. Of course, there are laws, but they are not enforced. Large statements have been made in the past, but they have not been acted upon. We no longer want big statements. We want action, effective implementation of existing laws and objectives, a credible action plan, with adequate funding. We also want a new legislative framework, including a revision of the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, and a principle of adapting European laws to the specificities of the maritime sector. We want an ocean pact that goes beyond the borders of states, that is based on cities and regions, on citizens. We want a "Ocean Act“, a big blue law for the oceans, a big European law, without which the European Ocean Pact will be just a piece of paper. So, Commissioner, we have no doubt about your commitment and we support you. However, we have doubts about the support you have in the Commission and the Council. This Parliament would also like to hear President von der Leyen speak about the oceans. In this Parliament, there is a debate today. No resolution, because our EPP friends did not want it, and I regret that. However, with the elected representatives of the SEArica intergroup, we would now like to enter into a concrete discussion with you on the content of the Pact. Europe must be exemplary. So, head to Nice in June for UNOC, the world's largest ocean conference, and we'll see whether or not the EU has risen to the challenge.

Madam President, Commissioner, I fully share your political priorities of preparing for all risks, mobilising all levels of government, mobilising society as a whole and creating a new common risk culture based on solidarity and cohesion. Many of us here have a strong demand for you: fostering citizen engagement and securing the status of volunteers, including firefighters, by addressing the issue of the application of the Working Time Directive. I note that our far-right colleagues do not have a word for firefighters, not a word for volunteers, for citizens who are committed to civil protection. So, in the coming weeks, you can count on us to make proposals, to ensure that civil protection is taken into account in all EU policies – what you call preparedness-by-design ("preparation by design"). These will be proposals to prepare society as a whole for crises, but also to help you have a budget: a budget for the Emergency Response Coordination Centre, a budget for rescEU, a budget for all these strategies, so that they are effective and fully at the service of citizens.

Madam President, Commissioner, this text, in addition to the two previous ones, is also a first step. It is clear that we are faced with a broader problem of strengthening cooperation between health security agencies at European level – and the legislative framework that was proposed did not go very far in this area; We've done everything we can. It is also a question of finding the right match between the objectives that Europe sets for these agencies, the means at their disposal, the way in which they cooperate with the Member States and the degree of their cooperation. I am convinced that, in the coming months, we will need to come back to these issues much more thoroughly, with a view to redesigning the system of European agencies and projecting it into the future, in order to really give these agencies the means to take up their tasks head-on, if we really want to tackle the issues of people’s health and environmental protection. Mr Url regularly comes to explain to the Committee on the Environment that, at the European Food Safety Authority, he does not have the means to deal with the issue of pesticides. We now see the limits of ECHA when it comes to the issue of chemicals. We will have to do much more than these three texts have proposed, even though they are very positive and we have tried to improve them.

Madam President, Commissioner, I believe that with this report – and I thank Mr Tsiodras for the very good work that has been done collectively – we have taken two important steps: one that will allow us to have a complete database to carry out chemical risk assessment, and the other towards opening this database to data not only from industry, but also from national authorities, the world of research and civil society. This will be very important for both risk assessment and health protection. But these are only the first two steps. We still have a lot more to do. One of the top priorities, Commissioner, must be to strengthen the capacity of the European Chemicals Agency, not only with private funding, but also with the European Commission's own budget, so that the Agency can do its job in the best possible conditions. Further steps will be needed to ensure that we have even more comprehensive data and that we can finally cross-reference data on chemicals with data on human health. In this way, we will be able to understand the explosion of chronic diseases that we are currently seeing and better protect the health of Europeans.

Dear colleague, I have a very simple question for you. You have rightly said that there is a need for a large budget for the common agricultural policy. I therefore wanted to ask you whether you and your group wanted a larger budget for the European Union and own resources for this budget, which would both continue and strengthen the common agricultural policy, maintain cohesion policy and finance the other priorities. More money for the CAP, okay; I too am in favour of a larger budget and own resources; But how do you keep a large part of the budget for the CAP?

Mr President, Commissioner, today I want to call on the European right wing of the EPP. Of course, I welcome the work done by the Commission over the past 100 days, particularly on defence and on industry, but we did not vote to retain from the Draghi report only simplification, forgetting investment in common or in human skills. We did not vote to see ultra-liberal texts drafted without consultation fall from the sky. We did not vote to allow large companies to sell in Europe products made by children, destroying the environment, and without accountability. So, ladies and gentlemen of the EPP, will you understand that you have nothing to expect from this extreme right that has dragged you in the mud for an hour and plays here Putin's lackeys? Will you understand that simplification does not make competitiveness? That requires innovation, investment, human skills? That there is also a need to help SMEs, not just large groups? Will you understand that for Europe to be strong, action is needed for citizens, housing, health, energy and food prices, and women’s rights? So yes, I hope that the next hundred days will be different from the last hundred.

Mr President, Commissioner, it is five years after the COVID-19 crisis and, unfortunately, we would probably face the same situation if a new health crisis were to occur today, and the same shortcomings in access to medicines. We therefore need this text to protect Europeans and ensure access to medicines, both in times of crisis and in normal times: This is a matter of European sovereignty. We need an incentive policy to encourage the production of medicines in Europe; however, we do not need a text for the pharmaceutical industry, but a text for citizens. To this end, we need to have a rigorous framework, clarify the definitions of critical medicines and shortages, ensure the transparency of the value chain, have conditionalities in public procurement and foster European-wide procurement or collective purchasing – in other words, European solidarity. Perhaps the most important thing for socialists is to guarantee everyone in Europe access to medicines – their availability at an accessible price, and available stocks – everywhere, as close as possible to the people. Through this text, it is a public health policy as well as an industrial policy.

Very simple question, hon. member: Do you think the goals of climate policy... it doesn't work?... Do you think that the objectives of EU climate policy were based on lobbying by environmental associations or on scientific data produced, in particular, in France, by the IPCC and many other organisations of scientists from universities? Thank you for answering this question.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, there is no scandal in Europe over the management of European funds by environmental NGOs. The only scandal would be to stifle civil society and the diversity of its voices. Yes, the same rules must apply everywhere. But if you think that these associations and NGOs should not be financed by the funds of sectoral policies, then make direct funding to allow them to play their role of counter-power and independent expertise! We need diversity, we need checks and balances, we need to face the power of money and industry with the power of citizens engaged in society. And you need it, as the Commission, if you want to bring European democracy to life and feed your work with this expertise. Last element: When all of us walk the streets of Brussels, do we feel overwhelmed by the lobbying of environmental NGOs and citizens? No. You see on all the street signs the financial lobbies, the industrial lobbies, en masse, who spend billions. So, if you want transparency, make a law to moralise public spending on lobbying at European level!