Debate contributions by Jan-Peter WARNKE

Mr President! More than 20,000 people – children, women and men – with devastated limbs are waiting for operational care in Gaza. As a doctor and surgeon, I thought we had to evacuate them to Europe, for example. But we don't have to, because despite the destruction, there is enough medical capacity to start in Gaza. This is confirmed by local doctors and international doctors working there. However, there is a lack of medicines, especially antibiotics, implants and X-ray technology. These goods are located on Gaza's external borders. Because of the Dual-useThe character of the materials is blocked there. The release of these goods would prevent a wave of medically justified migration to Europe with all the difficulties it offers. Let us use our political strength vis-à-vis those responsible to lift this blockade, because we would do everything to save the limbs of our children. If we don't do anything, there are thousands of amputations in children and adults. I beg the Commission on behalf of the patients in Gaza: Try to act!

Mr President, Commissioner! First of all, I would like to thank Mr Gozi for his report. The report analyses the constitutional status of the EU and then draws conclusions for the structure in case of enlargement to more than 30 members. While sharing this analysis, I have concerns about the course of the EU and the proposed constitutional changes. The report reveals the serious constitutional crisis that the EU is already in. A constitution never really came into being. We are now acting on painstakingly negotiated Lisbon treaties. We have to ask our citizens how much nation-state we want to keep and surrender. And citizens up to the age of 35 must decide whether they are capable of peace or war, because they will bleed to death on the future battlefields and are usually not represented in this Parliament. I agree with a European arms industry that is owned and controlled by society. I think that in the current state of affairs the EU is not capable of enlargement.

Mr President, Commissioner! Research makes a significant contribution to the further development of human life on this planet. Therefore, research is in the interest of our citizens and all people in the world. I found a lot of criticism in reports and resolutions in this Parliament last year – not so in this report. I would like to thank Mrs Farreng warmly for her report and her work; However, I would have saved myself the teaching in the direction of Hungary. The report shows that research only needs a framework, similar to a plant in a greenhouse. There is no need to be influenced by politics, not even by excessive application bureaucracy. Nor could it be explained otherwise that after a short period of time, instead of 20 university alliances, 65 such networks are working successfully across the continent. We see: Research networks are just right in our European Union and are developing splendidly, if only we let them, for the benefit of people. Broad EU co-financing is the best investment in the future of our continent and humanity. Keep it up!

Madam President, It will be very short: With reference to Rule 178 of the Rules of Procedure, which governs speaking time, I would like to take a critical note that there is no opportunity for non-attached Members of the European Parliament to take the floor for the debate on the ESF+ on 9 September of the year. As far as my understanding of parliamentary democracy goes, Parliament is made up of parliamentarians and not just political groups. I feel impeded by the above-mentioned practice in the exercise of my parliamentary rights.

Madam President, Commissioner! First of all, I would like to thank Mr Kolář for his work. I support the report in part because it describes in a very realistic way the profound problems and structural challenges associated with the EU accession process of Bosnia and Herzegovina. If we want to debate honestly and not just make symbolic gestures, we have to draw conclusions from the report. At the same time, we should look closely and also take the voices of the Republika Srpska seriously, even if they do not agree with the current russophobic foreign policy line of the EU. We should continue to be open, especially to the youth, because it represents a possible common European future. But let's leave the country the space to stabilize its state structure and establish political functioning before we talk about concrete accession prospects. Symbolic facades do not help, they only create disappointments in Brussels and Sarajevo. Because in Potyomkin's villages you can't live and certainly not be happy.

Mr President! I have a more fundamental point to make. We live in 2025 and debate as if we were in the Cold War. I've been a doctor all my life and have never understood why politics can't think peacefully. More tanks don't make Europe safer. The number of heavy weapons no longer determines war and peace, but the political will to resolve conflicts diplomatically. Let us stand together here in Parliament for a European peace order based on cooperation and not on confrontation. By the way: For around €600 billion, which is the amount of global defence spending, we would probably have achieved a breakthrough in the treatment of cancer long ago. Instead of fighting wars, we can save lives. Europe must be an example, not in the arms race, but in peace-making. We are a peace project. What health is to the individual is peace to society. Without both, everything is nothing.

Mr President! Unfortunately, nothing specific from the Commission – that would be insufficient at school. People in the EU will only continue to believe in our good project if they live adequately in the EU, are cushioned by the welfare state if necessary and embedded in the best possible health care. The current dysfunctionality in the EU is now being fuelled by mass war hysteria. Members of this House are insanely calling for a European war economy. But war economies are destroying economies and social standards. We can only hope that, in a pseudo-patriotic mood, workers' rights, working time laws and the power of trade unions will not be undermined. Regressions in the medical care of the 27 different health systems are pre-programmed. Unless someone thinks bomb-proof intensive care hospitals in the basements of parking garages are a step forward. I ask you to honestly reconsider the consequences of your current policies in terms of their impact on the social pillars invoked by the EU.

Mr President, Commissioner! The EU-Bosnia and Herzegovina Association Agreement has not yet been successful. The causes are manifold and lie, among other things, in the fragile intergovernmental structure. EUFOR troops, a military force, are intended to promote stability – so far, this has prevented a flare-up of armed violence at best. A country can only grow together from within; I don't believe in the power of weapons. Under NATO dominance, with the people's support for EU accession dwindling, we should not be surprised that the government and the population of Republika Srpska in Banja Luka are relying less and less on the EU, as the link between NATO and the EU no longer perceives it as a peace project. How would she? There is nothing in this Parliament other than blaming foreign powers for this alienation, according to the motto: Anyone who does not comply with the current state of the EU must be influenced by others. How insane to think that the Serbian people there will join the Russophobic foreign policy doctrine of the EU. Let us please stop tinkering with a Potyomkin village and put our politics on realistic and credible foundations! Let us accept that we do not necessarily accept the EU as it currently is.

Mr President, Madam Vice-President! Actually, it is a good idea, but the implementation will depend on the framework conditions and the working climate in the EU. As long as conditions are better for entrepreneurs, scientists and specialists outside the EU, they will not return. On the other hand, our talents lie dormant in Europe. Germany has 2.48 million young people without education or training; in Europe, on average, 14% of young people have no qualifications. 3 million people in Germany, primarily mothers, cannot work at home or not fully because of care responsibilities and a lack of care infrastructure. With good intentions, it remains to be feared that we will in turn create a bureaucratic act that will ultimately become a new Potemkin village. Let us first lift the treasures in the minds of young Europeans! Let's finally give women the same professional opportunities and let's end the eye-wiping that our EU takes over the homework of the nation states, which we can only do insufficiently.

Mr President! Madam Executive Vice-President! Ladies and Gentlemen! 1.2 million doctors and nurses are missing in the European Union. Each nation deals with it differently. The practice in practice from a German point of view, at least, is quite unsolidaristic. Nurses and doctors follow the money and start their activities after completing their studies in Germany. Its neighbours, however, train nurses and doctors with their national budgets. These 100,000 euros per training will be lost to the nation-states if the doctors do not return home. This is a real brain drain. I propose that the Commission create a framework that is in line with the UN Code on the Recruitment of Skilled Persons. Or the EU finances studies and apprenticeships for use throughout Europe, a real EU study programme. This crisis can only be overcome by rules of protection against a brain drain be dealt with. Because the lack of skilled workers in all regions of the EU weighs equally heavily. And we would have a good chance of showing our citizens what genuine European solidarity means.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The targeted destruction of underwater infrastructure is a crime and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Like everyone in this House, we support any measure to prevent this from happening and to punish it if it happens. On 26 September 2022, three out of four tubes of the Nord Stream pipeline were destroyed in a criminal act. 25 percent of Germany’s annual methane emissions were released – a huge environmental catastrophe. Where was the condemnation by this Parliament? Is there good and bad infrastructure under sea level? If so, what's the difference? However, as we know, the perpetrators immediately identified at the time – the Russian Federation – were not at all responsible for this. It was most likely Ukrainian forces with the approval of our NATO partner USA. I wish for less hypocrisy, less double standards and more ideology-free assessment of contemporary events by this Parliament.

Mr President! Commissioner! Ladies and Gentlemen! I perceive the following reality: Today's EU is a Europe of banks and the big business. A Europe where social inequality is growing and social rights are falling under the wheel. Precisely in times of crisis, social fundamental rights and collective bargaining autonomy are subordinated to the economic freedoms of the internal market with the right to strike. I recall the judgments of the Court of Justice in Viking, Laval and Rüffert. Only in the case of strikes in the critical infrastructure must special rules apply. The operation of emergency rooms and intensive care units, as well as the functioning of the rescue chains, must be ensured without, in principle, restricting the right to strike in the health sector. We at the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance in Germany want social progress instead of social cuts – even in times of crisis. A social progress clause in the EU Treaties is needed. The BSW stands with the employees, their trade unions, the works and personnel councils in their commitment to workers' rights. I wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Mr President! My topic: Europe as a peace project. The public atmosphere in Germany in 1914 and now, but also the spirit in this house are the same: We are preparing for war – we know the end. Mr. Rutte recommends 450 million Europeans over the weekend to prepare for a war mentality because we are preparing for war with China and Russia. I agree with you that all wars, including those of Russia in Ukraine, are terrible and to be condemned; But a military conflict against a nuclear power cannot be won. Let us not be so forgetful of history and let us rather analyze the causes. Militarization will not help us, we leave the spiral of escalation, global Russophobia will not help us. Calculate peace as a means of conflict resolution: The Pope calls it 'courage for peace'.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen. We are critical of reallocating unused funds from Cohesion Funds and using them for covert objectives. We hope that this will not make roads fit for the military. The aid payments to those affected from EU funds must not be a substitute for national efforts in order not to have to expect the same effects for people in the event of the expected weather disasters. Brussels money does not take the responsibility of nation states to adapt their countries to people-accelerated climate change with targeted and long-term measures.

Madam President, tease Minszterelnök úr! It is not necessary to agree with everything that has happened in Hungarian civil society in recent years. But that is not up for debate today, nor can I judge that. In addition, we have seen enough Hungarian election campaigns in the last hour. However, I find it quite outrageous to derive from this a blockade attitude towards the Hungarian Presidency. And, Mr Weber, not talking to each other because you think you're right anyway and the other isn't, that's not democratic behavior. What should the people of Europe think of us and this House? They think we don't have all the slats on the fence. Let us not also become a cause of political disenchantment in Europe. No one has to teach Hungary in this House when it comes to dealing with dictatorships. I recall the courageous uprising of 1956 – sometimes a look back in history helps. The last time Hungary did something unusual – cutting a hole in the Iron Curtain in 1989 – it ended with the collapse of the Iron Curtain. I regard the initiative to discuss the conflict over Ukraine by the Hungarian Presidency as a renewed attempt to tear down a curtain, the curtain in the minds of politicians, which prevents realism and reason from winning over hypocritical double standards and ideology.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The first thing I want to say: Asylum is an important human right. Tells you an East German who fled to the West under communist rule. However, the recent murders of an Islamist who was an asylum seeker in Germany are an expression of a failed migration and integration policy. Violent crime and uncontrolled migration are not only statistically related, but apparently also causally related. Those who allow uncontrolled migration are subjected to uncontrolled violence. We are therefore in favour of a strict implementation of the national right to deport rejected asylum seekers and migrants, which has so far clearly been a kind of lawless area in Germany. We stand for a right to asylum that takes into account the reality of the 21st century, and we stand for a Europe that does not increase the causes of refugees' flight. For example, let's end the sanctions against Syria and stand up for peace in the Middle East! We stand in solidarity with our neighbours and EU countries at Europe's external borders. Let's better protect Europe together!