Debate contributions by Pierre JOUVET

Madam President, twelve minutes: That's how long it takes a teenager on TikTok to see videos about depression, self-harm or suicide. Our children are facing the worst and some would like to let it happen. Based on an uninterrupted stream of extreme content, with addictive design, aggressive marketing, this sordid business allowed TikTok to generate $39 billion in profits in 2024, but mostly resulted in the suicide of Marie, Charlize, Penelope, Clément and so many others. They were all minors. We must protect our children from this predation, protect them, yes, by doing prevention, by raising awareness among parents, but by being intractable with these platforms. What can all the common sense of a father or mother, alone in the face of a global giant and its crazy algorithm? Our market is not for sale, our children are not for sale and should not serve as an economic model for the digital far-west that we have before us.

Mr President, 11 million parcels from Chinese platforms overwhelm Europe every day, without control, transparency or compliance with our rules. The dismal result is the discovery in France that child pornography dolls and weapons are sold over the counter on Shein. These abuses are not simply errors or unfair commercial practices, but a systematic and organized violation of our rules. These platforms are the Trojan horse that circumvents our social, health and environmental standards to kill our industries and poison our children. Today, you know – everyone knows! – So what are you waiting for? To continue to close your eyes is to become complicit. Shein must be suspended immediately from the European market. We ask you to apply Article 51 DSA. Shein no longer has a place with us. I would also like to see a committee of inquiry set up in Parliament to understand why our laws are not being applied and why the Commission is not triggering the sanctions provided for. I call on all of you to support this initiative. Europe must no longer suffer, it must act and protect. The time of impunity is over.

Mr President, Vice-President Séjourné, this own-initiative report by my colleague David Cormand is so daunting that the issues before us are so daunting. A year ago, right here, I denounced the surge of Chinese e-commerce platforms Temu and Shein, leading figures in ultra-fast fashion. These small parcels flood and engorge our postal services and our customs, today pose a major problem for our consumers, our businesses and our economy. In a year, almost nothing has changed. Investigations are slow. Customs reform is not yet in force. Yet these Chinese companies, now deprived of access to the US market, are increasingly aggressively targeting our domestic market: the prestigious partnership with the BHV in Paris or La Poste in France, attempts that are ultimately only there for communication. By rejecting the French "fast fashion" bill, the Commission unfortunately condemns us to immobility. But today, with this own-initiative report, the Commission can reinforce its objectives of sustainable resilience for the internal market and finally provide effective answers so that we are no longer simply passive consumers, with a flooded market and shops that are closing a little more every day.

Mr President, Vice-President Séjourné, public procurement accounts for almost 15% of the European Union's GDP, or EUR 2 trillion per year. Better framed, better framed, they are a huge asset to revive the European economy and especially our sovereignty. In the face of the trade war waged by Donald Trump, we must seize it and make it a weapon in our political response. Today, the criteria for awarding our contracts are obsolete and price is often the sole arbiter of these procedures. This unfair competition weakens our businesses, our jobs and our European social model. We must go beyond the simple price criterion to introduce social criteria, environmental criteria, and finally assume European preference. We have here all the assets, all the talents and all the know-how on our continent. So what? So why buy buses in Vietnam? Software in the United States? Bridges in China? I say it clearly: European preference or Chinese preference, you will have to choose. That is the whole point of the forthcoming reform. Every euro spent must and can be used to create quality jobs in Europe. Every euro spent must and can support the development of our SMEs and industries. Every euro spent must and can improve our sovereignty and the ecological transition of our continent. The proposed own-initiative report does not allow us to achieve these objectives at this stage. That is why, together with my group, we have tabled many amendments to introduce these criteria. In their absence, the S&D Group will not be able to support a compromise that will not live up to the challenges facing us. It is time, ladies and gentlemen, to act. It is time to wake up and make public procurement an instrument of our sovereignty, our ecological transition and our freedom in the face of the new threats of the world. I tell you, Commissioner, that the forthcoming reform will make a simple choice in front of us: Should European money primarily finance the prosperity of Europe and Europeans or of those who are slowly destroying our continent?

Mr President, Commissioner, sending a package from Beijing to Strasbourg is cheaper than franking a postcard to write in one's own country. In 2024, 4.6 billion packages shipped by Temu, Shein or AliExpress entered Europe: That's a 300% increase in four years. These products are produced at a loss and then shipped through government subsidies. Their producers are destroying the planet and also practicing modern slavery. Filled with absurdity and hypocrisy, and also a sign of our complicity, these parcels worth less than 150 euros are exempt from customs duties. These packages are a slow poison that kills our planet, our economy and our jobs. Camaïeu, ChaussExpo, Casa, Jennifer: How many more SMEs are we going to let go? These small packages are a big poison and we in Europe have to get out of this naivety, change our customs rules and assume the responsibility of protecting our consumers, our businesses and our jobs.

You talk about freedom of expression and censorship, but are you relaying conspiracy theories, as Mr Musk did in October on his X account, sharing fake press articles permanently, claiming without evidence that the media is carrying out propaganda operations, wanting to mix artificial intelligence videos to disqualify candidates (as Mr Musk did during the period of the US presidential elections), accusing the British Prime Minister of having covered up child rape when it is false, is it, Sir, your freedom of expression, or rather your freedom to lie?

Mr President, Commissioner, our democracies are under attack. They're under attack, and we're not fighting back. For hours, we have heard in this Chamber the extreme right taking turns at this desk to say that freedom of expression is under attack. Well, I'm alerting us: when the far right denounces an attack on freedom of expression, the reality is that the far right prefers to defend foreign interests that come directly to attack our democracies. The far right prefers to defend here in this Chamber the dictatorial regimes that are undermining our European continent. The far right prefers to get into the hands of TikTok, X and all these platforms that have only one interest: to come and misinform our fellow citizens, to come and destabilize our nations. They are no longer patriots, they are representatives of the interests of these social media platforms who misinform. It is time, Commissioner, for our rules to apply, otherwise we will have to – at last! – put an end to these disinformation platforms.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in order to avoid a birthday or a Christmas without gifts, parents buy toys at low prices on Chinese websites. How can you blame them when the end of the month has become so difficult? Yet it is a poisoned gift, because these toys are certainly cheap, but most likely toxic. According to laboratory tests, almost 80% of them are dangerous. In addition to these toxic toys, how many irritating perfumes, ineffective sunglasses, counterfeit jeans will be sold by these Chinese platforms that flood the market? Temu, Shein, AliExpress will import nearly 4 billion items into Europe this year. This figure has tripled in three years. These platforms take advantage of the customs threshold of 150 euros on international parcels to escape any control. These companies violate consumer rights and harm European manufacturers, who comply with social and environmental standards. Europe must wake up and uphold a simple principle: Our market, our rules.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, one in two young Europeans is threatened by depression. While it is imperative to strengthen the resources allocated to social support structures and psychiatric medicine, this is not just a mess to correct. We must face up to what this evil says about the state of our modern societies. Far from mere clichés or miracle recipes of stereotyped well-being, we must take a global approach, talking about social health and providing answers in all our political decisions. Young Europeans, in addition to anxiety, the growing weight of precariousness, violence, wars, hatred, racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and sexism, have been captured by social networks and the codes of a society that constantly refer to a materialist and uniform vision. There will be no flourishing youth in an individualistic society that thinks only of profit, no flourishing youth in a violent society in permanent war, no happy youth on a feverish planet.

Mr President, Commissioner, I was hoping to have an exchange of views on the role of platforms, disinformation and their impact on our democracies. The challenges posed by artificial intelligence, the deregulation of platforms and the opacity of algorithms must lead us to act faster. But since yesterday, I've been worried. Yeah, I'm worried. Where is Mr. Breton? Ursula von der Leyen, helped by Emmanuel Macron's historical weakness, has decided that the next EU Digital Commissioner will be Elon Musk. I am almost disappointed that Mr Musk is not directly present at our debates, because we have just witnessed yet another submission to private interests at a time when we need to further tighten regulations. Mrs von der Leyen took advantage of Emmanuel Macron's political weakness to impose a servile commissioner on the big bosses of the digital industry. So, rather than submitting to Google and Meta, we must fight to keep citizens in control of their future.