Speeches

Madam President, Madam Vice-President, after listening to Donald Trump in Davos, it is really difficult to focus the debate. But perhaps today, more than ever, we welcome the Digital Networks Act. We are ready to take the lead that is needed to drive real change in the way the European Union regulates the digital ecosystem. We believe in comprehensive reform that strengthens our ability to achieve global competitiveness and sovereignty. Europe needs high-performance connectivity to realise its digital ambitions. We need a modern and simplified legal framework that accelerates the transition from copper to fibre, from 4G to 5G and 6G, and from legacy systems and infrastructures to more modern and more capable ones. Furthermore, we understand that their proposed scaling up of cross-border networks and services is key for investment, innovation and for that digital single market; They propose to reduce administrative burden, facilitate investment in areas such as satellite and protect the consumer. Therefore, perhaps today, more than ever, it is time to support initiatives like this that make us more independent and freer from the United States.

Madam President, we very much welcome this cybersecurity package. We do this because we have been talking about the importance of security in a holistic way for a long time. Undoubtedly cybersecurity is an element that is strategic. We can't just remember it when the power goes out, when an airport, a hospital needs to be closed, or when a supply chain fails. It is an area that is strategic for our sovereignty and for our autonomy in the technological and digital field. We want to protect our infrastructure and our people, our people, from our European values. In this regard I would like to make just one request: that this reinforcement of the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity will be used to work hand in hand with other existing agencies, such as the Basque Cybersecurity Centre, to add capacities and for Euskadi and Europe to be truly strategic and sovereign in the technological field and in cybersecurity.

Mr President, the regulation is approved, we know that, and the challenge we have at the moment is that we achieve those objectives with the real European industrial policy that has to be behind them, that we are realistic and that we are pragmatic. European industry does not compete only on climate targets. It does so also in cost of capital and speed to deploy clean fuel plants, including, of course, biofuels as well. Welcome are all the support for investments that add up to accelerate and to give stability and security to the investments we need, because it is really urgent to develop European value chains: If not, we will continue to buy this green transition to clean fuels outside. And that impoverishes us. As Europeans, we need sustainable and European fuels.

Mr President, European technological sovereignty is as important as energy sovereignty. We depend on technology for virtually everything we do today. And we already know that the made in Europe in this case it shines by its absence. I also want to be possible because in Euskadi and in Europe we have capabilities in cybersecurity, in artificial intelligence, in clean technology, in technological infrastructures and in European clouds. But there we have the continuing threats from the United States, which today still tell us that we have to relax our rules if we want to work on steel tariffs. A few minutes ago we talked about protecting our children online. Now we talk about competitiveness and digital independence. After all, everything is united. We need infrastructures, products, own developments that drive us in strategic sectors, but we have to do it from our values. And all this help must go to our companies, which have to compete on equal terms with American and Chinese companies, but with a red line, because people must be sovereign of their data.

Mr. President, I was saying that today, from here, we want to send a very clear message that our children are not a business. We are totally in favour of digitalisation, seizing all the opportunities of digital transformation, adapting and growing with digital platforms, learning to combine the physical and the digital, as well as using the potential of artificial intelligence. But look! We are concerned about the increase in mental illness and violent, extremist, fascist and illegal attitudes that are sometimes being promoted unfiltered and unchecked. So we need some order in those algorithms, which we neither know nor control. We know they're working on it. We know that it is not easy either because it affects many strategic areas, but there must be red lines and the manipulation of our minors is undoubtedly one of them, because they are our future.

Madam President, this week there have been many calls for an end to the violence in Sudan, which is experiencing a civil war that has caused one of the worst humanitarian crises on the planet, even if it does not have the visibility or importance that others do. And this week too, those who have sown terror in all these last years and months have shown themselves willing to collaborate with the United States to achieve peace. And they do so after Donald Trump announced his intention to start working to stop the conflict and activate a mediation mechanism with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. And here my question is very clear: What is the European Union going to do in this scenario and what will be the role that we are going to have at the moment?

Mr Vice-President, we have been talking for some time about ensuring security in a holistic way and being autonomous and sovereign, and we are only aware of this when we have a situation that leaves us in check, such as the one we lived with Amazon Web Services yesterday. We can only live in peace and quiet if we are able to guarantee minimal physical, digital, air, maritime and energy security. This is a matter of strategic sovereignty. Without security there is no freedom. In Euskadi – in my country – we were clear about this and that is why we opted for a comprehensive police force as a principle of autonomy. They can and should count on the Ertzaintza to develop the European security model. (She spoke in an unofficial language).

Mr President, very briefly: We are seeing the fragility of this peace process. We believe that it is time to do a lot of work, and to do it very discreetly, to prevent all those people, agents, States that want to destabilize the process from not succeeding. Because – let us not deceive ourselves – there are also many competing interests that we have in this peace process. Therefore, they make it really difficult. So let's not get lost. All our efforts must be aimed at complying with the agreement and stabilizing the area, ensuring that humanitarian aid enters and that all the basic needs of the civilian population are met. And all our efforts must be directed towards ensuring that nothing, and no one, prevents us from moving towards a peace that is just, true and lasting.

Mr President, let us be very clear and clear. We do not agree to renounce the sustainability and environmental goals we have achieved. And we are not going to give wings to climate change denialism. If what we are talking about is advancing hand in hand with the sector, protecting jobs, using all existing technological advances and strengthening European supply chains and the circular economy, then welcome this debate. It is the way forward that we already proposed when these objectives were approved and we understand that Europe has to take firm steps towards climate neutrality and zero emissions taking into account its strategic industries, among which is the automotive sector, which is also strategic for Euskadi. And we have to analyze how autonomous and autonomous we are in production, if we have the capacity to manufacture at a reasonable and competitive price, if we have the necessary infrastructure for deployment. And we have to ensure a market that is fair to the made in Europe and for the made in Basque Country. We have the Action Plan launched in March and, in September, the third strategic dialogue with the sector. The mid-term evaluation of the regulations will be advanced and we have a range of technological solutions with which we must work so that we meet the objectives of decarbonization and electrification, with resilience in supply chains and with a clear shared industrial agenda.

Madam President, we are here today and some focus on the heinous act of Hamas two years ago and others on Netanyahu's utterly disproportionate response. Deaths are deaths and nothing justifies the use of violence, the violation of human rights, let alone genocide. The Palestinian people deserve a just and lasting peace process. And we speak of the end of the bombings, of the delivery of humanitarian aid, of the release of hostages, of the delivery of weapons, of the recognition of two States and of the reconstruction and necessary coexistence. Today Hamas and Israel have in their hands the power to move forward because the avenues of dialogue are open. We call on this House to do everything in its power and without excuses to ensure a lasting peace process that guarantees the voice and rights of peoples. Let us be able to launch a hope to all these people who are in the world saying: Stop it now!

Madam President, at this point no one questions that our elders are a social good to care for and protect. There are many years of different policies and programs, ranging from the universal accessibility of infrastructures and services to harnessing their full potential or involving them in social construction. All this, too, adapted to our new elders, who have nothing to do with those of a few decades ago and probably nothing to do with those we have within others. But from here I do want to make an appeal to intergenerational coexistence, because we do see every day a greater gap between generations and we also feel a growing fight of interests between that binomial that wants to differentiate sometimes: youth and the elderly. We talk about wages, pensions, we talk about leisure, rest. In addition, conflict is often fuelled by numerous interests that have nothing to do with the common good. So today we ask to take advantage of all the know-how of our elders to bring to light the full potential of our young people and thus ensure a dignified and exciting future in this new European strategy of intergenerational fairness that we have on the table and in which we play a lot in our future.

Mr President, we see repeated debates and attacks in this Parliament that we had when the damage happened. Natural disasters and dramas are again used to lie about climate change, to attack the opposite or to entangle in areas of competence. Do you know that as temperatures rise, the mountains burn and some argue, the far right rises? Each of them, from its own sphere of competence: prevention all year round, choice of species with risk criteria, stable professionals, intelligent restorations after fires, agile protocols, not climate denialism... "This heat is not normal" is one of the phrases we have heard the most this summer. Let us take care of our mountains, but let us also take care of our public services, which are necessary to watch over them throughout the year, because then it is not worth throwing your hands at your head. Proud of Euskadi, a country that had the ability to help neighboring communities that were having a hard time.

Madam President, look, I am sick of going back to the Basque Country, to my house, week after week and hearing how we are seeing children and civilians killed and starved to death, and that we are not doing anything from the European Union. We cannot continue to hear that there is no agreement, because this is no longer valid for us. We must exercise our responsibility and we must find ways to be able to act. Do they mean that we can sign a trade agreement that nobody likes with the United States and that we cannot advance sanctions or some kind of political and economic pressure on the Government of Israel? So we refuse to believe this, and we also wonder if the leaders of the European institutions and European political formations have eyes on their faces and do not see the growing complaints, demands, demonstrations that we have in different parts of Europe. It is not difficult to find articles that talk about how human rights should be respected and comply with European international law in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights. The street does not understand treaties, it does not understand that we are not forceful on this issue, and the patience of many MEPs is running out, including mine. Let's act now.

Mr President, on Wednesday we will have the debate on the taxation of digital platforms and today what we are talking about here is Internet governance. And in this context we have to take into account the recent fine that has been imposed on Google of 2.4 billion euros, with a Donald Trump threatening from behind. We have a great open debate about the control of chats and surveillance and about the respect or not of the privacy of certain messages. We have received over 1 500 e-mails to date. We have fake news, disinformation that is growing in the digital sphere and that is why we believe that management, that order, that guaranteeing rights and freedoms in the digital world is also the responsibility of this Parliament. And that is why we call on the United Nations General Assembly to renew the Internet Governance Forum, and to do so on a permanent basis, as a collaborative space so that human rights and fundamental freedoms are protected also in the online space and so that connectivity is guaranteed that is affordable and without digital gaps, leaving no one behind. Internet accessible, open, free, global and according to the challenges of the moment.

Madam President, we are very happy that this initiative has arrived here today, in the European Parliament, because it has had many difficulties along the way and the Basque Nationalist Party already supported it in 2014. There are many and many of us who believe in the European national regions and we will defend, always and everywhere, Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union, which speaks of respecting their rich cultural and linguistic diversity. National regions, diverse European national identities, cultures and minority languages must be recognised as part of Europe's own potential in this new reinforced Europe that we need. They are cross-border regions, they are macro-regions, they are national regions: reality goes far beyond feelings and the European Union must address them. It has the opportunity to lead this change and strengthen the European project from the recognition of diverse national identities and diverse regional realities.

Mr. President, these are the tariffs that Donald Trump threatens us with: the widespread 10%, 25% to automotive, 50% to steel and aluminium, 17% threats to agri-food products, 50% announcements to copper, 20% to pharmaceuticals... Today I overcame that threat. Now the next date is August 1 and we are waiting for some letters that have already received some countries such as South Korea or Japan. Donald Trump says receiving a letter means a deal. I think we have to say clearly that a letter with a decision on a tariff is a unilateral action with a dictatorial touch. And, of course, Donald Trump should not condition with whom we relate or not, as is the case with the BRICS, of which countries are part with which I, of course, have no interest in having strong relations; But none of those who make up half the population and 40% of the world's GDP is yet another evidence of their despotism. Hopefully we will reach an agreement that is beneficial, but if it is not, we ask that it is the European Union that sets a deadline and activates plan B.

Mr President, Commissioner, we are among those who believe that there is little talk in this Parliament of technological sovereignty, and the dependence we have today on this matter - both China and the United States - is undoubtedly one of the great risks that we also have on the table. In some of the areas we are weak, but specifically in clean energy, which is what we are talking about today, we have a differential, we have a potential and, therefore, we believe that we have an added value that we have to take advantage of. This scenario is complex, we have fierce competition, but we need to strengthen our industry and we need to help it decarbonise on the basis of clean energy. We talk about battery production, carbon capture, hydrogen, use and integration in circular economy... I believe that the objectives are shared by all; The question is how we do it. And here's a very clear request: we need to make it easy for them, cutting red tape, and we need to make it easier to invest. We therefore ask you to do so in the new multiannual financial framework.

Mr President, I will try to keep to the essence of the issue and the defence of democracy, because we sincerely do not feel anything identified and identified with the interventions we are seeing these days and let me doubt the interests of the existence of this debate in itself. When the credibility of politics and the trust of citizens is at stake, we should all try to do our best, which is no small feat, with prudence and humility. And on this issue of the Prosecutor General and the Prosecutor's Office we have a report from the European Commission on the rule of law, with recommendations in relation to the Statute of the Prosecutor General and I refer, for example, to the recommendation to temporarily decouple the mandates of the Prosecutor General of the State and of the Government to ensure compliance with European standards on independence and autonomy. Soon - as the Commissioner said - we will have the new report and there will be new recommendations. Please apply to remove any doubt about partisan interests in the fight against crime and corruption.

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, we have been waiting for the revision of this regulation for more than ten years, and today we have to say that we do not like what we have received. The agreement that has been closed directly attacks the rights of passengers: it does so with regard to compensation for short-haul flight delays; it does so, too, because it reduces compensation and claim periods; And it does so, too, because it facilitates the collection of hand luggage and the avoidance of compensation. And, in case this is not enough, people with disabilities – who are forced to take an accompanying person – have to pay the full ticket of that person when this is already resolved, in addition, in other means of transport. We know and recognize that the management of the activity has become complicated. We all travel more, but, of course, the balances of economic activity cannot be at the expense of the rights of passengers, so we do not accept this proposal or a setback in the rights of people.