Speeches

Mr President, the Commissioner has said that Ghana is a stable democracy. It has indeed made a lot of progress in the last decades. As a student, I worked in a Ghana under military dictatorship, and I would never have thought that freedom of expression would be suppressed again in this country. It is not a stable democracy, if freedom of expression is facing imprisonment. It is not a stable democracy, if democratic debate on LGBT rights is suppressed. This goes beyond LGBT rights; this is about the Ghanaian democracy. So I would like to see a clear response and not only monitoring by the Commission and the Member States. There have to be consequences in the cooperation with Ghana if this law is finally enforced.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! When talking to young Georgians in Berlin, the motivation to come to Germany and Western Europe is not that they want more prosperity. It is above all that they want freedom, that they say: Russia is gaining more and more influence in our country; We don't want that. This policy, which is being driven there, leads to a brain drain in this country, and that is a great pity for Georgia on its way to Europe. I would like to point out that it is not only the law on foreign agents, but also the law that is now in preparation against lesbians, gays and transgender people. This is about refusing gender-equalisation measures to transgender people, about banning gender-equalisation against the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights. That one wants to ban homopropaganda, whatever one calls it, as in Russia. And this is exactly the path Georgia has to choose: Europe or Russia. Both will not go together.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the Ghanaian Parliament has passed a law which is really draconian not only on homosexual behaviour, but also about freedom of speech, about political debates on LGBT rights. All this faces up to ten years of imprisonment. It still requires the signature of the Ghanaian President, so there’s still hope that it is not finally passing. It is not only a question of LGBT rights: it is a matter of Ghanaian democracy; it is a matter of freedom of speech and human rights in the world. The Member States are still very quiet, so we would like to hear from the Commission and from the Council about their response to this Ghanaian law, so we ask you for your support for a debate.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! We have heard from many speakers how dramatic the situation is for many LGBTI people in Europe. I think we need to talk about it: What can we do? First of all, Member States are called upon to increase the punishment of hate crimes in their legal systems. The German Federal Government has submitted and implemented a corresponding measure; Hate crime in Germany is now also being punished more severely for LGBTI people. This was urgently needed, because in Frankfurt we had a case where someone broke your jaw and he came out with a suspended sentence – ‘it wasn't all that bad’. The second is prevention. In order to be able to do prevention, we also need to be aware of this: What are our main problem groups at this point? They are mainly young men, men partly under the age of 18, partly with a right-wing background, partly with a migrant background. We also saw in Thessaloniki that out of 21 arrested, twelve did not have Greek citizenship, but that of third countries. We must take note of this and include it accordingly in our action planning. Germany launched the action plan ‘Living Queens’. I would like to see prevention programmes implemented in all Member States.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! Because I stand with Israel, I call on the Israeli government to immediately improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, to leave aid convoys in the region and to do everything possible to end hunger in Gaza, the dramatic undersupply of health. But what I have heard in this debate, especially from the political left, I find scandalous. This is a perpetrator-victim reversal, where I wonder if the outflow of left-wing anti-Semitism is. Because it was Hamas that attacked in October, not just with a terrorist attack, but with regular, month-long rocket attacks on the Israeli civilian population. And now to pretend that only Israel is to blame for the situation, misunderstands the connections. Therefore, the only way to end this conflict is to find a two-state solution; Hamas must lose its rule in Gaza.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! At the end of February, the Ghanaian parliament passed an anti-LGBT law that provides for higher penalties for homosexual acts, but above all criminalizes LGBT supporters and punishes them even higher than the homosexual act itself. Therefore, the importance of this law goes well beyond the human rights of gays, lesbians and transgender people. These are already badly hit, but this law is also a blow against Ghanaian democracy, because freedom of expression is suppressed and political discourse is prohibited: These are the cornerstones of a democratic order. I ask the President of Ghana, whose signature has yet to be decided, to reflect on the impact of his signature on democracy in Ghana and possibly on relations with the European Union. I hope that Parliament will have a debate on this issue in April.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, LGBT rights are under increasing pressure in large parts of Africa, the Arab world, Iran and Russia. They are facing imprisonment, suppression of free speech and even the death penalty. What is the answer of the European Parliament in this human rights report? We are concerned, we deplore, we call for improvement, but we do not call for consequences. The ‘more for more’ principle in the common foreign policy should fully apply to LGBTI rights. We should intensify our relations with countries who share our values, and we should reconsider our development cooperation with countries increasing criminalisation of LGBTI. Let me also criticise the paternalistic idea in this report that surrogacy as such is a human rights violation. This is an attack on reproductive rights and on the self-determination of women – their body, their choice. Let women choose and provide a protective framework for their choice.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! Today we are talking about standard essential patents on products without which certain innovations, especially in the field of 5G, cannot be produced. As liberals, we stand for the protection of intellectual property. At the same time, however, it is also important to limit unreasonable market power in key technologies that are central to innovation across the economy. It is therefore necessary to strike a fair and non-discriminatory balance between the interests of the different sectors – ‘Yes’ to protect patent holders and ‘Yes’ to increase market transparency for essential patents. We therefore expressly welcome the Commission's proposal, which has been drawn up at the explicit request of this House. Now it is important to make this proposal even more legally secure in the trilogue. There needs to be some flexibility in register entries for rightholders and clarification that a user willing to license is entitled to a licence. In the end, we need practical solutions with as little bureaucracy as possible.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, A queer political departure – that is what the whole of Europe needs. The German government has put an end to its standstill – increased criminalisation of hate violence, more protection for queer refugees and a self-determination law for trans people. Now also an ancestry right should follow with a better legal framework for rainbow families. In this context, it is clear to me: All marriages concluded in the EU, all parenthoods recognised in the EU must also be respected throughout the EU – in all Member States, with all rights. Particularly critical here is the conduct of the Italian government, which criminalizes Italians who use surrogacy abroad, even though they are legal in the respective countries. This is a violation of the legal order of the other Member States. Signori e signore, come padre gay ho un messaggio per Giorgia Meloni. Se anche il Papa benedice coppie omosessuali, perché avete paura delle famiglie che sono piene di amore? Perché volete impedire la nascita di bambini? Come può farlo, come donna, come madre e come cristiana?

Mr Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen! Let me begin with an unspeakable quote that reads: “I personally think that when we see such people in Burundi, we should put them in a stadium and stone them.” This hate speech about lesbians and gays was held by Burundi’s president in a public event broadcast on television. And he added: Homosexuality is like choosing between Satan and God – whoever chooses Satan should go to the countries of the West. Dear colleagues, the human rights situation for lesbians, gays and transgender people is rapidly deteriorating in many parts of Africa, as Amnesty International recently reported. Burundi is another extreme example of popular incitement, and the European Union must not remain silent on this. Unlike the United States, I have not heard anything about this from the European institutions. Only two years ago, the EU resumed development cooperation with Burundi. This needs to be reconsidered. Whoever demonizes the donors as places of Satan, whoever tramples human rights underfoot, has forfeited his right to support with our taxpayers' money. The EU must act now!