Speeches

Rising food price inflation has negative social consequences across the EU. Food security has been declining since 2016, affecting the least well-off. Low-income households face even more difficulties due to high prices. This is why we need to protect society from uncontrolled food price increases. According to Eurostat, food prices in the Union were 19% higher in 2023 than in the previous year. Unfortunately, this negative trend continues at the beginning of 2024, with a growth rate of 6.1%. This is despite the fact that the Union is a world leader in agricultural and food production. We need to change this for the benefit of our citizens. In order to do so, it is necessary to identify the cause of such a sharp rise in food price inflation. There are other factors that have led to this situation in Europe. These include high energy and fuel prices, traders, unfair supermarket practices, high margins, and significant increases in product and commodity prices. All this is the result of an unjustly organised climate policy of the European Union, which leads to price increases and inflation due to bureaucratic restrictions on agricultural production and draconian restrictions on CO2 emissions. This can be changed by revising the climate directives to serve people, not ideology. In its decisions, the European Commission must take into account the low-income and vulnerable groups most affected by price increases, control unfairly inflated margins and the activities of intermediaries.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Dear Mr. President, Today's war in Ukraine poses a threat to international security and is the cause of the economic crisis. Lasting peace is paramount. Lasting peace is also essential, and solidarity is also essential in order to survive this difficult time. With European solidarity there is a big problem today, because some big countries have their own selfish policies. The Union is also experiencing a crisis of values, those values that once built the Community and from which, unfortunately, we are leaving. I say this above all to the EU institutions, where there is no development of democracy and free political thought. Unfortunately, the artificial arrangement of forces blocks the development of freedom, blocks against democracy, because the will of a large part of voters is rejected, up to 50%. Today's agreement combines the goal of power at all costs and the division of ‘stools’. This is a kind of appropriation of democracy. The two main forces in this Parliament, the EPP and the socialists, although theoretically having different programmes, have been coming together for years immediately after the elections to prevent a third force and thus not having to live up to their programmes. Socialists promise social programs, but they don't implement them. They promise to care for the poorest, but they support trade in CO2 emissions, which increases prices and impoverishes people. The EPP declares that it cares about Christian values, but does not defend life from conception to natural death, does not protect marriage understood as a relationship between a woman and a man, and often supports gender ideology, which has nothing to do with real Christian Democrats. In addition, both forces impose the creation of an EU federation, which destroys the Europe of the homelands, which was intended by its creators, Schuman and others. Unfortunately, this artificial political system blocks free thought and idea. The PPE agreement with the socialists does not allow any alternative, the so-called third force. Such a system is conducive to the political corruption we are witnessing in Parliament. This harmful and undemocratic practice is also transferred to the level of the Member States. Even our president Gitanas Nausėda is under attack and his election undermined, although he received 67% of the votes. This is not conducive to democracy. Europe is becoming an ideological emptiness thanks to the EPP and the socialists. He's in disarray. Therefore, in the name of true European solidarity, a third or fourth force is needed that will be able to heal Europe in order to restore its true face based on its roots. The ECR is the force that sees this and wants to change it, as we discussed recently at the summits in Warsaw and Madrid. We also talked about the need to strengthen Europe's energy independence and develop its own industry, including heavy industry and defence. According to this idea, today we would have no problems with the defensive condition in the age of aggression in Europe. Ladies and Gentlemen, Europe and the Union need more democracy and freedom based on Christian values, a traditional family and free thought, because that is the true soul of Europe.