Debate contributions by Oihane AGIRREGOITIA MARTÍNEZ

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.

Mr President, Commissioner, the far right is growing all over Europe and is doing so especially in rural areas. If we really want to act against the extreme right and against populisms, we must act, and cohesion funds are key to reducing inequalities and to sending a clear message to all those people who want to make their lives in environments beyond large urban centers. We want and need a cohesion policy that is modern and clearly targeted and cohesion funds that are regionalised and that allow us to ensure territorial cohesion and tackle inequalities. These are the two conditions that we will monitor for the new design of the multiannual financial framework: regionalisation of cohesion policy and autonomy in the management of funds to attack the growth of the far right.

Madam President, we are at a time when presidents of different states are invited to the White House with the intention of being ridiculed, diplomats and civilians on all sides are shot when they want to pressure human rights violations and inhumane actions and plutocracy and extremism gain ground, limiting fundamental freedoms and critical thoughts. Let's make Euskadi and Europe a space of opportunity for those who want to improve their living conditions with respect for European values and a place of professional development for those who want to add their research capacities to ours and help us reduce dependencies based on innovation and development. That's what the Choose Europe for Science programme is all about. On this new geopolitical board, scientific and innovative leadership provides an ever-increasing competitive advantage. And that, in the medium and long term, translates into new and better jobs, more strategic autonomy and fewer inequalities. Therefore, in a Basque Country that has always opted for research and development, scientific freedom and the promotion of talent, we hope that those more than 1.25 billion euros will serve to grow our space of opportunity and our country.

Madam President, our commitment to renewables has always been clear and not everyone can say the same. That said, transition and greater sovereignty require robust infrastructure, an energy mix and a mix of models also at European level. That is why we have questions to ask today. What about the 10% interconnection targets that were for 2020 and that between France and Spain only reach 3%? What about the eleven energy corridors approved by this Parliament that include the connections of the Bay of Biscay and Navarre? Why does France have exchange capacities with Belgium and Germany four times higher than it has with Spain? We ask you, the Spanish Government and the French Government for political courage so that, when they make their budgets, they will bet on infrastructures that give us security and capacity and that lower energy prices, and so that they will develop a true European single energy market that passes yes or yes through interconnection under the conditions of the Member States and through the coexistence of models. Please listen to my colleague Anna Stürgkh and the proposals we have as a group to improve and strengthen interconnections and the single market and to become more autonomous.

Madam President, Madam Vice-President and High Representative, I share with you that the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement with Cuba is currently the best way to guarantee and work for the Cuban Government to make the necessary transition to democratic standards enshrined in international law in its broadest sense as soon as possible. And that includes, of course, the cases of Félix Navarro and José Daniel Ferrer. We need to be firm in our talks and exercise all diplomatic channels to guarantee the human, social and political rights of Cuban people. And, in addition, we must do it from Europe, because I doubt very much that from Russia, for example, with those who maintain close relations, they will worry about it. It is also clear that the United States will not do so either. That said, I trust the Agreement and we want to continue to give it a margin of confidence as a tool for economic, social and political development; with imperfections – there are many things to improve – but with positive opportunities also through political dialogue and international development cooperation projects.

Mr President, Commissioner, the Atlantic Rail Corridor has an unacceptable delay that means that the Basque Country and the New Aquitaine Euroregion are disconnected from Europe through the means of transport that is more sustainable at the moment. Last week I was able to do Paris and Brussels in an hour and a half. Good thing I didn't fall asleep because in another hour and a half I would have shown up in Amsterdam. There is no right for Basque capitals to remain disconnected from each other and from the rest of Europe. What about the Hendaye-Dax connection? As with other things, we call on this Commission to use the tools at its disposal to put pressure on States to materialise investments. We also have the multiannual financial framework. Connectivity through high speed is a key strategic tool for maintaining and generating economic activity and for the mobility of people. We ask you once again to demand that Spain and France comply with the commitments that this same House approved too many years ago, because it is important for that European competitiveness of which we are talking so much.

Mr President, Commissioner, these are the first steps we are taking for the European Ocean Pact and it is a good time to set priorities: maritime security, blue economy and environmentally healthy seas. Our ports are critical and strategic infrastructures from the point of view of security, from the point of view of international trade and logistics and as hubs energy. 99% of international communications are carried out by submarine cables. 75% of imports and exports of goods are carried out by sea. In Euskadi we look to the sea to grow and we will be very attentive to the industrial maritime strategy and the ports strategy. We cannot allow sea routes to be diverted to North African ports to avoid emissions trading and we must be very vigilant and attentive to investments that third countries such as China are making in Latin America. We ask that you closely monitor and take this into account in the future plans and strategies that you will present in the coming months. Because this is already happening.

Madam President, Mr Vice-President, Mr Minister, the European Action Plan for Steel and Metals has been welcomed by the steel industry. And it's not going to be us who say otherwise. But yes, today, from here, we want to make three specific requests on which we must insist. The first of these is related to the price of energy and to improving networks and infrastructure. A while ago we had the opportunity to be with the Commissioner for Energy, Mr Jørgensen, and we asked him to do the same. You must work together and we also ask you to echo the conclusions of the European Court of Auditors' report on this subject. They published, yesterday, different measures. We need them to push Member States to make the necessary investments to decarbonise industries. The second is to protect our products. Today new tariffs enter into force. They're going to affect us again. You mentioned the CBAM and we need to work on it and do it quickly. And the third of them are immediate incentives for those companies that are doing well. We have industries that are investing in producing low-emission steel. In the Basque Country we are already betting on this type of investment, but we are also seeing how instability is putting at risk and slowing down investments that are necessary to advance low-carbon production. And so what we need is for the Commission to support them now. Therefore, insist on reducing energy prices and infrastructure, protecting our products from unfair competition and supporting those industries and companies that are doing well with technology for decarbonisation.

Madam President, Commissioner, you know from conversations we have had that this sector is also strategic for Euskadi, with more than 38 000 jobs, and that it is also suffering, as in the rest of Europe. Firm steps and stability are key to realising the investments needed to innovate, decarbonise and strengthen the value chains and ecosystems surrounding this sector. In that sense, we appreciate the commitment that has been made to maintain objectives of decarbonization and electrification and, in turn, to have the necessary waist to protect those 38,000 jobs at a time when it is difficult. But we also want to ask you to make positive progress from now on, with that assessment that you have to make, without ruling out any option that helps us decarbonise - I insist, none - including also any type of sustainable fuel and, therefore, supporting those industries and consumers who are willing to row with us and with us along the way.

Madam President, Mr Vice-President of the Commission, in this context of ongoing tension and threats, you already know that we welcome the Clean Industry Pact. In addition, in Euskadi we have already started working on it, we have had meetings with the industrial sector to take advantage of it. So today, taking into account the latest news and the context, we want to focus on these possible 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium, which could come into force on Wednesday, and the Steel Action Plan that you mentioned and will present next week. I understand that at the moment you will be contemplating different scenarios depending on what may happen in the next few hours. We have just learned that Trump has also announced tariffs for Canada, scheduled for this Wednesday, of 50%: He's doubled them in the last few hours. Therefore, the questions are whether there is room for surprises for European tariffs within the next few hours and how we will respond also in your case. That is our concern at the moment, Commissioner, because the competitiveness of our industry and the speed at which it will be able to decarbonise will depend on it as well.

Mr President, Commissioner, Europe has been negotiating this agreement for more than 20 years and that shows the complexity and extra effort it needs in terms of transparency and working with sectors. It seems that we will have benefits for automotive, machinery, tools, aeronautics, advanced services to the industry, wine producers, dairy, cheeses. But we also have part of a society that is concerned and a primary sector that also has problems arising from the last reform of the CAP. Let's be clear: hormone use, phytosanitary and compliance with the Paris Agreement, to ensure a fair market, have to be on the table. And we need clarity around protected products, products whose opening is going to be gradual in terms of the market and monitoring that will be done of the impact and breaches that would mean the end of the Agreement, as well as compensatory measures and safeguards. We must work all these months ahead, with mixed working tables and with the sector, so that, when that agreement reaches this Parliament and we vote on it, we can do so accordingly and this is not a war between sectors, but a space for balanced collective and social opportunities.

Mr. President, we publicly condemn the repression in Nicaragua and express our concern about the constitutional reform that the National Assembly of Nicaragua approved on January 30. The Ortega regime thus takes control of all branches of government, independent institutions and the media and ignores Nicaragua's adherence to international human rights conventions and treaties, including the one prohibiting torture. Since 2018, more than 450 people have been deprived of Nicaraguan nationality, many have become stateless and have been expelled from the country. The government has closed more than 5,600 NGOs, including 1,500 closed in a single day in August 2024. And the government has also shut down at least 58 media outlets. There is no room for widespread repression by the Nicaraguan regime. We call from this rostrum for the release of all arbitrarily detained persons, the restoration of the rule of law and freedoms, the cessation of repression and the restoration of the rights of exiles and exiles and their safe return.

Mr President, Mr Council representative, Commissioner, we received with some optimism what the Competitiveness Compass is and also the accelerated commitment they made yesterday to this European artificial intelligence model, but we must demand more of them: We need answers that are concrete and time-bound for all those sectors and people who are currently telling us that they cannot compete on an equal footing – in what is our single market and our treasure – and who are seeing jobs endangered. We also need immediate responses and actions, which give tranquility and stability to the markets, so that the investments that are necessary to be competitive materialize. And we also need a firm, courageous and ambitious response to Donald Trump's threats and China's fierce competition. You know that I represent Euskadi: an industrial region with a government, with an economic and business sector, and with people who are willing to give their all. But that everything in this globalized world is not enough and we need a Europe that bets on us and us now and that does it immediately, with leadership and with unity.

Mr President, I come from the Basque Country, a region that has a public health service that, in a very few years and due, among other things, to the impact of COVID-19, the ageing of the population and the change in needs, and above all due to the lack of professionals, has become one of the greatest citizen concerns along with housing. Despite having privatization rates of the lowest in Europe, having improved waiting list times after the COVID-19 tragedy and betting on strong investments and changes in the distribution of professionals in this new reality, this is not being enough. The lack of professionals is a global reality and states have much to say and do in all this. But Europe can and must also support mobility and skills matching. Only by attending to this reality will we be able to respond to a growing demand and citizen concern.

Mr President, Commissioner, I will be very brief today. Nicolás Maduro lacks democratic legitimacy and we will repeat it from this Parliament as many times as necessary. On January 10, he took office without publishing the minutes, without respecting the will of Venezuelans who were demonstrating that day in different parts of the world. And today María Corina Machado is still living in hiding and the winner of the elections, Edmundo González, is out of his country. We will continue to support the eight million people who have had to leave Venezuela, those who see their rights violated on a daily basis and, therefore, we urge the International Criminal Court to accelerate all necessary investigations to put an end to these abuses.

Mr President, Commissioner, welcome. You are in your first hundred days and we believe it is time to share challenges, priorities and concerns. Ours this week is specifically in news related to the closure of BSH in the Autonomous Community of Navarra and the proposed ERTE of Siemens. These events always they are accompanied in the shadow of a lack of competitiveness, the need for more investment and the risks of relocation. And, therefore, we see it as imperative that industrial policy and the Green Deal are coordinated. We are playing a lot in many ways, both for current and future generations. Have no doubt about our firm commitment to sustainability. We believe that it will give us strategic autonomy and that it will create quality jobs in sectors that are strategic. But we are also seeing how the decarbonisation and electrification processes are crying out for simplification of regulations and financing tools, more single market, adequate electricity, energy and digital infrastructure, and demand-side action. So we hope, like water in May, that this Clean Industrial Pact and the European Competitiveness Fund will rise to the challenges. I do not know if you could confirm any date, which seems to be expected to be the month of February.

Mr President, Commissioner, you are in your first hundred days and we are left with those plans on European innovation law to reduce gaps with the United States, to promote key sectors such as biotechnologies or disruptive technologies, to promote simplification, access to risk capital, promote the growth and birth of start-ups and scale-ups ... I come from the Basque Country, a region where in the European Innovation Scoreboard we are above the European average and at the level of the group of strong innovative countries, such as Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany or Estonia, and, therefore, we firmly believe in the Horizon Europe programme and through it, in addition, we present projects and have obtained funding for important R&D projects in public-private collaboration. So, in the face of certain rumours, we simply want to take the opportunity today to convey our concern to you and to ask that funds not be centralised and that the regions be respected; that the second pillar, which is where we have access to these types of projects and with this model, is not reduced, and that a clear definition of an innovative ecosystem and of an innovative ecosystem is incorporated. hub innovative including industry, scientific and research community, public sector and strategic actors. Thank you so much. We want to collaborate together for innovation in Europe and the Basque Country.

Madam President, now that we have a new College of Commissioners (and Commissioners), we are going to speed up and focus on those issues that are worrying people. And we know that one of them is the high price of energy, because it is weighing on the competitiveness of our industry and drowning vulnerable families, increasing concern for housing in general. It is, without a doubt, one of the factors that makes it inaccessible. We call on the new Commissioner for Energy and Housing to start work today on drawing up the action plan for affordable energy prices, and we expect results that will lower energy prices in households and help businesses make the energy transition. An ambitious clean energy investment strategy is needed, to improve our grid infrastructure and to develop a resilient, interconnected and secure energy system. We have too many people and jobs at stake and affected by this issue, and it is time to act immediately to leave no one behind.

Mr President, today, 25 November, I want to denounce that the extreme right and the denialists fill digital platforms, institutional spaces and the streets with intolerable messages and actions that permeate some strata of society and that put collective achievements in this area at risk. A few minutes ago we saw how women's well-being compared to animal welfare. Con todos mis respetos al bienestar animal, le voy a recordar que este Parlamento aprobaba este año la primera Directiva europea que establece unos mínimos y tipifica como delito cuestiones como la mutilación genital femenina, el matrimonio forzado o el acoso. And everyone in our regions has been working for years with feminist movements and society to advance something as strategic and differential as gender equality and the fight against any type of violence against women. Let's not let those messages creep into our sons and daughters. Let's not let them doubt. We combat these hate speeches with quality policy, with institutional and social collaboration, with a presence on digital platforms, with an emphasis on the Charter of Fundamental Rights and across borders. Let us continue to be that society that does not tolerate any kind of violence against women. There is no excuse for abuse.

Madam President, I offer all our support and solidarity to the Valencian people and to other regions that, to this day, are still being affected and are suffering the consequences of DANA. I am proud to belong to a society that, from minute one, has turned to the drama of a town that in a few hours lost several hundred neighbors and that was destroyed physically, socially, economically and emotionally. I am ashamed of the interested partisan behaviour that certain political forces are making of this issue in the Spanish State and in this Parliament. We ask that, from the moment of serenity and when all the necessary information is available, we act with total transparency and materialize an exemplary exercise of accountability on what happened and on its management. From Renew Europe we will support everything that is necessary to make European aid for reconstruction and, above all, the strong relaunch of these areas as agile as possible. Every day we are more exposed to unexpected effects that are consequences of climate change and we need to strengthen our infrastructure and contingency plans.

Mr President, Commissioner, at the beginning of September we put a question to the European Commission, conveying our concern with regard to certain rumours that, in the new multiannual financial framework, we had to group together programmes which, today, are managed jointly with the regions, with a view to making a single programme at national level: the answer was not at all clear. Today I was happy to hear you talk about the important role that cities and regions have for the development of a Europe that is competitive, green and social, but I was also concerned to hear you talk about the need to stimulate convergence and explore links between investments and reforms. So, from today, from this rostrum, I make two very clear requests: one of them, that you are clear in your answers; secondly, that the new European Commission maintains and strengthens multilevel governance with the regions and that it does not align itself by buying the discourse with a recentralising extreme right that forgets the effectiveness of proximity policies and the daily reality faced by the cities and regions that make up Europe.

Mr President, Commissioner, today is World Mental Health Day and we have the opportunity to make visible a reality that is very present in our society. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, already one in six people, some 84 million people in total in Europe, suffered from mental health problems and since then this has only worsened and especially among young people. I want to remember today the Basque project "Resilience and socio-emotional curriculum for adolescent students", which was recognized by the European Commission itself as good practice. Stress, anxiety, depression and eating, personality or digital dependency disorders. It is good that we give them names and it is good that we talk about them without stigmatizing them. It is good and necessary that we continue to invest in policies that promote prevention, care and, above all, social and labour reintegration. And it's good that we give people tools. Without mental health there is no well-being and we want a very, very healthy Europe and Euskadi.

Mr President, Commissioner, we are pleased that this issue is being discussed in the European Parliament. We are talking about access to affordable housing, especially for young people. We know that it is a real global problem that affects at European level and, knowing that competences are limited, we welcome the fact that we are going to have a European Commissioner on housing and, also, that we are going to have a first European plan for affordable housing to respond to individuals and families who have difficulties in tackling both energy poverty and social housing problems. What would we like to find in this new plan? Elements that what they do is: strengthening our political priorities and lines of action; therefore take into account realities that are diverse in Europe and its regions; to incentivise smallholders to rent out their homes and to strengthen their guarantee and legal certainty, avoiding speculation; the creation of funding lines and guarantees through the European Investment Bank; and to allow for an increase in the public housing stock, especially for young people. We know that access to housing is a reality, a difficulty and a basic need and must be solved at local, regional and European level.

Mr President, Commissioner, thank you for presenting the vision of the strategic and tractor sector for the Basque and European economy. Specifically, in the Basque Country it has an approximate weight of 25% of GDP and employs 40,000 people. Mario Draghi was already aiming to maintain ambitious decarbonisation targets, driving supply chain transformation. Therefore, Europe must rely on research and advanced manufacturing centers, such as the Basque Automotive Manufacturing Center, which will be operational in the summer of 2025 and is a benchmark for public-private collaboration. We understand that, based on the strengths and good basis of this sector, we must work to develop advanced knowledge in technologies for the electric vehicle and develop digital technologies, integrating them into manufacturing processes. Therefore, we must bet on innovation and investment to improve competitiveness, and we must always do so hand in hand with the sector, in collaboration with companies, start-ups, technology centers and universities, strengthening Basque and European industry.

Mr President, we had no hesitation in proposing the debate on an urgent case for the degradation of women's freedoms in Afghanistan. On August 21, the Taliban government, a few days after completing three years in power, ratified a law that tightens social repression. What this law does is include measures such as prohibiting women's voices from being heard in public spaces and their faces from being seen on the street. A document with thirty-five articles that includes a series of draconian laws, which considers that our voices, the voices of women, are potential instruments of vice and that women should not sing or read aloud in public; Nor should we let our voices be heard beyond the walls of our homes. The situation is critical. Women who went to college in the 1970s today can't talk on the street. That is why we want, and I ask you to, this Parliament, as it has done before in other situations, to speak out clearly about the alarming situation that women's rights and freedoms are experiencing in Afghanistan.