Debate contributions by Younous OMARJEE

The next item is the Commission statement entitled ‘Union of competences: increasing and improving opportunities for study, training or work in the EU and bringing our brains back” (2025/2563(RSP)). We are waiting for Commissioner Roxana Mînzatu to arrive. We have it for a few seconds, and I will ask him to go immediately to the gallery for his statement. Madam Vice-President, welcome, and I give you the floor immediately.

Mr President, first of all, as a Reunionese, I would like to thank all the political groups for this debate, which expresses the European Parliament’s solidarity with the people of Reunion, who have been affected by the immense damage caused by Hurricane Garance. My thoughts go above all, tonight, to the victims, to the bereaved families as well as to those who have lost everything. From this rostrum, I want to tell them that we stand with them and that all the European Union's means of solidarity are immediately available, as you said, Commissioner. I would like to welcome the decision of the President of the Regional Council of Reunion, Huguette Bello, to activate the Restore fund, which I had the honour of defending here, before this Parliament, as rapporteur, and which will make it possible to mobilise immediately EUR 100 million: €100 million to help families who have lost their homes, repair destroyed roads and repair damaged infrastructure. I also want to welcome the changes we have made to the EAFRD, which will make it possible to help farmers immediately by allocating EUR 40 000 per farm affected. To conclude, Mr President, I want to say that these natural disasters remind us of our duty to continue to act against global warming, and that we must place particularly fragile islands at the heart of the policy of adapting to global warming. I would like to conclude by saying to the people of Réunion that I salute their courage and resilience. They are standing up, and that is how they will be able to get up.

The next item is the report by Mrs Van Brug on the European Central Bank Annual Report 2024 (A10-0003/2025) (2024/2054(INI)). I am pleased to welcome Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank. Madam President, welcome. To open this discussion, I will give the floor to Mrme rapporteur Anouk Van Brug.

I thank all colleagues for the great dignity of this discussion and the very strong emotional burden that says how much we stand in solidarity with all the Swedish people.

The next item is Parliament's statement on the situation in Sweden following the recent mass killings in Örebro (2025/2561(RSP)). I would draw your attention, ladies and gentlemen, to the fact that there will be only one round of speakers from the political groups for this debate. There is therefore no on-demand intervention procedure and no blue card will be accepted.

The next item is the Commission statement on combating desertification: 16e 34th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Convention (2025/3018(RSP)). I am pleased to welcome Commissioner Jessika Roswall, to whom I give the floor immediately.

The next item is the debate on the Commission statement "Promoting social dialogue, collective bargaining and the right to strike in the Union" (2024/2983(RSP)).

Madam President, Mr Vice-President, I stand here before you, but my heart and my thoughts are in Mayotte, in solidarity with all the people affected by Cyclone Chido, which we sense will be among the most serious natural disasters in all of history – in all of French history, certainly, if not in all of European history – with hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths. It is a Mahoran tragedy, and it is a national tragedy. At this time, it is important to show solidarity, and I know that you will agree with me that our words from Strasbourg are heard in Mayotte, as well as our compassion for these European citizens of this outermost region, the poorest in France and in all European regions – one in three inhabitants lives below the poverty line and 100,000 people in precarious housing – and our commitment to support all the requests for help from Europe, which Mayotte so badly needs. At any point in history, Europe is never as big, strong and united as when it shows solidarity with the people affected by the tragedies, with the territories. It is to this duty that we are now called upon for Mayotte, concretely, very concretely, to save lives and avoid the humanitarian crisis. I say to the French government: Europe can help, because in Mayotte tonight there are people who are thirsty and hungry. That is why the French government must request the activation of the rescEU mechanism, just as it is possible, for repair, to use the Restore Regulation, which we adopted this afternoon. I therefore call on the French authorities to make a request to the European Union.

Our next meeting will take place tomorrow, Tuesday 17 December, at 9 a.m. The agenda has been published. It is available on the European Parliament’s website.

The next item is the brief presentation of the report by Anna Cavazzini on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the United Nations Convention on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration (A10-0021/2024).

The next item is the debate on the Commission statement entitled ‘European legislation for innovation: Reducing the cost of innovation in Europe’ (2024/2996(RSP)).

Madam President, I would like to make a few remarks at the end of this debate. First, I have heard that there is some contradiction between cohesion objectives and emergency responses. I have always said, and I repeat: we had this same debate during the COVID-19 pandemic, and this is a rather absurd dichotomy, because it is impossible, Commissioner, to pursue long-term objectives if we do not immediately respond to the devastation and impacts of crises, whether we are talking about health crises or natural disasters. Secondly, let us not forget that the very purpose of political action is to respond to people’s concrete problems and to respond to situations of absolute distress in the event of a climate disaster. And I believe that our cohesion policy rises and rises to a very virtuous level when we provide very concrete answers to regions, territories, citizens who are hit by a natural disaster. Finally, I would point out that some time ago, when we were talking about natural disasters in this European Parliament, we were talking about the ACP countries. But as we go along, we see that natural disasters also affect European regions, because we are all facing the consequences of climate change. These disorders are manifesting themselves on a global scale, and today we have to face them. And it is not the theoretical debates that will solve the problems. Problems must be solved by our ability to prevent and anticipate, otherwise all European policies, not just cohesion policy, will lose their effectiveness, their power and their ability to achieve their objectives. That is why we will have to go further by creating a climate change adaptation fund, and regions, I know, are the relevant level for that.

Madam President, Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto, this weekend a cyclone hit Mayotte on a scale not seen in ninety years, and, as you have heard, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, has expressed on behalf of our entire institution the solidarity of the European Parliament. The package we are going to adopt tomorrow will also help Mayotte in an unprecedented way, as it will help the reconstruction of the Valencia region and all the regions of Central and Eastern Europe that were devastated by recent floods in 2024, as well as allow us to cover the natural disasters that would occur in 2025. The European Social Fund will finance the distribution of emergency food aid, but also direct aid to SMEs and short-time work measures. The European Regional Development Fund will finance the construction of the affected infrastructure. Never in the European Union have we developed such a comprehensive and rapid system. I have been calling for us to go beyond the EUSF for many years – especially when I was chair of the REGI committee – and I am very happy to bring this Restore regulation to the European Parliament, which will be a game-changer on the ground and will allow the European Union to be present immediately and concretely on the ground, with citizens, in the regions. Often, I say, there can be no economic, social or territorial cohesion where territories and citizens are abandoned without the means to rebuild. The names of the devastating storms follow one another – DANA, Boris, Kirk, Daniel, Ciarán, Bernd – and this is a new deal ahead of us, a new deal to which we must adapt. Mayotte, Spain, Austria, Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, France, Belgium, Germany, the Baltic countries, Italy, Greece, Finland and so many others... In the last three years alone, we have had a succession of natural disasters, which are shaking up all our policies, and in particular regional policy and development policies inscribed in the territories. Climate change is a new deal. It has entered a race that all our efforts will not change in a few years, and we must now adapt our response to these disasters. EU regional policy cannot remain the weapon at its feet, without moving, doing nothing, helping, and continuing as before. This is not possible. We have to completely change the prism. We said here in the plenary of the European Parliament that the EUSF had become totally inadequate and that it needed to be reformed because it was ill-adapted, insufficiently endowed, too slow to deploy. We have said this and repeated it many times. This is why the Restore Regulation is welcome, as it now gives the ability to act immediately and concretely after the occurrence of a natural disaster. Tomorrow, I have no doubt, the European Parliament will be at the rendezvous of urgency and solidarity.