Speeches

Mr President, dear colleagues, this vote is our answer to the request of over 24 million SMEs on our European market. When you ask them about their main problems, they name, in first place, bureaucracy, and then second, late payments. With this vote, we can solve the problem of late payments without creating any additional bureaucratic hurdles. For the first time, we introduce the long-expected maximum payment period, and I want to underline that those limits of 30, 60 or even 120 days are adapted to the specificities of the market, and they do not harm the principle of the freedom of contract. I want just to remind you that 98 % of companies on our common market are the SMEs, and they call for the introduction of the maximum payment period. Therefore, I urge you, dear colleagues, to support the amendments adopted by the IMCO Committee, and not others, and thus give a clear support to the million of those who need this support most. Let us send in the end of this term a good signal to our citizens, small and medium enterprises, and support them very clearly with this vote.

Mr President, thank you very much. It so happens, dear colleagues, that I have been sitting in the European Parliament for a long time and I remember very well with what great commitment we have worked on the European Citizens' Initiative. I believe, and I am absolutely convinced, that this is a great instrument for strengthening participatory democracy, but it only works when those who have been elected to legislate listen to citizens and respond to citizens' voices with concrete solutions. The citizens’ initiative, which is called the ‘end of the cage age’, has collected 1.4 million signatures. The Commission has promised to address this issue, but, Commissioner, four years have passed. I am not saying that the Commission did nothing at the time. She did a lot, but the condition is as we hear it in this room: 300 million farm animals spend their lives in cages, often in unimaginably horrific conditions. So my question to the European Commission through the Commissioner is this: Can you give a clear and binding answer when we have a concrete legislative proposal that will finally change this shameful state of affairs?

Colleagues, I'd like to focus on hey. And very concretely. Here we are talking mainly about the political consequences of this hate. Of course, let us not forget what particularly affects young people as a result of hate: Suicide, depression, self-harm, and a host of other dramas. Specifically, I quote: “I hope that Germans like you, Thun, will be able to kill German traitors with impunity.” And such a post hangs with impunity on the network. It is disinformation because I am neither German nor a traitor. Hatred strikes not only at me, but it strikes at the whole nation and stains it in relation not only to individuals, but to the whole nation. And nothing can be done about it, because it is very difficult, or impossible, to find the author. We are all talking about the upcoming elections. Elections are a time of heightened emotions and heightened, often emotional, discussions. And unfortunately, during election campaigns, a wave of hate and often populist, lying arguments increases. Yes, hate in itself is mean, but the lack of action on the part of responsible platforms, the lack of action on the part of the prosecutor's office is, as you mentioned, a threat to the healthy functioning of society and to democracy. We need to be much more active here.

Mr President, thank you very much. Mr. Commissioner, I'm sorry. I understand that the European Commission has limited possibilities and, for example, does not have committees of inquiry. But that is why we have set up a committee of inquiry here in the European Parliament, which, although it did not have all the powers of committees of inquiry, as we know from the Member States, yet we have gathered a huge amount of evidence that the law in the European Union is being broken, that citizens are not safe, because the terrible practice of putting shoes into the private lives of people who are uncomfortable for governments, for dictatorships or for authoritarian governments is flourishing. And from this came an accurate and abundant report. It was possible not only because of the enormous work of Members, because of the teams of those Members, but also because of the victims of the wiretaps, who, at the risk of being harassed and of the various unpleasantness of those who eavesdropped on them, testified and told us about what had affected them and helped us in this work. So, Commissioner, I wanted to say one thing, and that concludes, Mr President, the Member States must work together. At the moment, democratic forces have won in Poland, a commission is being formed... (The President took the floor)

We have all been deceived by the government, which has called itself "Law and Justice" and, ironically, with this slogan on its lips, trades our visas at the stalls of different countries. Yes, ours – these are Schengen visas, and Schengen works by trusting that all rulers abide by common rules. This trust has been severely violated by the government, which, pretending to defend our borders, is breaking the law. By failing to accept applications for legal protection from refugees at the border, violently , it leads to the death of people seeking help. However, the same guards of our security are letting those who paid them generous bribes into our common Schengen area without any control. Yes, I realise how much this government, which brazenly calls itself ‘Law and Justice’, has undermined your trust. Our trust, the trust of Polish citizens, has long been undermined. We shouted loudly the day before yesterday with a million throats on the streets of Warsaw and thousands of throats at a thousand meetings in smaller towns throughout Poland. Kaczynski claims that nothing happened and that there is no scandal. How is this not the case when several persons responsible for visa trade have landed in custody and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs has been deprived of his position overnight? Today, please, 75% of Polish exports go to other EU countries, of which a third goes to Germany. We know we're in danger of closing our borders. I appeal to you, therefore, not to penalize Polish citizens and entrepreneurs by introducing controls, because it was the government that put us at risk of enormous costs and perhaps the loss of many jobs. This case needs to be thoroughly clarified. I therefore call on the Polish authorities to provide comprehensive answers to the European Commission's questions and to draw consequences for all those involved in this gruesome scandal. And to you, my colleagues, I promise that we will change this government on October 15th! This will be a very difficult task, because the election campaign is neither equal nor fair. But we will win! We will return to build together a Union that respects human rights, a Union that is green and solidarity-based, strong and secure.

Madam President, I'm sorry. We have two super-important legislative proposals on the table for small and medium-sized enterprises. Commissioner, on behalf of millions of small businesses, I thank you for the one on combating late payment. For example, in Poland, more than 80% of companies declare problems related to overdue payments. It stifles growth, innovation, investment, it stifles employment. And exactly as you say, Commissioner, this is one of the two biggest problems reported by small and medium-sized enterprises. The 2011 Directive needs to be improved and it is very good that it will finally be replaced by a Regulation. I will be its rapporteur and I will do everything to make it easier for small businesses to operate in the European Union as soon as possible. We will take a close look at the Commission's proposal, discuss it with all stakeholders, especially small businesses, and work out the best possible solution. Next Tuesday, together with our coordinator, we are starting work on changes in the law in the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. I look forward to working very well with all the political groups and I invite you all to follow this work.

Mr President, when we start talking about wolves, there are always mixed feelings – a lot of emotions – and this, in fact, blocks all our serious, honest discussion on this issue. The political propaganda pushes away the real serious information, of which there is plenty; we just need to try to find it. Large carnivore conservation must be based on scientific data and not on our fears that derive from horrible white teeth, which we all remember from the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Let us liberate ourselves from that and listen to science. Science shows that large carnivores have not yet achieved a favourable conservation status in most Member States, which also says that shooting wolves will neither help us nor farmers. Damage to farm animals is often linked to mismanagement by humans, by proprietors, and inadequate measures taken against those predators. Instead, what we really need is a better prevention system and prompt compensation for farmers. We must change our habits. For decades, we didn’t have any wolves in our surroundings, now they are there, but intelligence is ability to adapt to change. For many centuries in Europe, and even today, in many parts of Europe, we see that it is possible to coexist between shepherds, dogs, livestock in areas highly populated by carnivores. So let us profit from those good examples and coexist instead of shoot.

Mr President, thank you very much. We hear this argument for the x-ny time that 300,000 citizens die as a result of environmental poisoning regularly every year. Here we have no room in this debate for party-populist games, for arguments such as Mrs Zalewska has just made. Of course, she's already out of the room. It is literally about the life and health of our citizens, for which we are responsible. Air quality is a matter for all of us. And we all got these desperate lists of parents of children who get sick from high concentrations of toxic substances in our air. Have you read Mama Maciek's letter? If not, look at him. It's in your mailboxes. They all got it. Colleagues on the right side of the room, we have received a good proposal from the European Commission and it must not be diluted and weakened by amendments that delay the bans on the emission of poisons, including arsenic, into our lungs. Tomorrow, let's vote responsibly for life and for health.

Madam President, of course, we cannot be blind in front of the effects of the human activity in our ecosystem. We hear it very well from our Commissioner Sinkevičius. Thank you very much for this report on which we worked with pleasure because it was already very good and, with the ambition of our colleague Milan Brglez, who coordinated our work so well, we managed to add to this legislative proposal. We realise the seriousness of that when we think of the summer last year, one of the worst disasters in the history of European rivers happened in the Oder River, which crosses the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany: over 360 tonnes of dead fish were found. And such disasters happen regularly over and over again. Like in 2021, in Mar Menor – Europe’s largest saltwater lagoon – we also had those hundreds of tonnes of dead fish. So, I fully agree with you, Commissioner, we must act fast. But when I hear that the EPP added in the last moment two amendments that again weaken this revision, I ask you from my whole heart, act responsibly and vote for the text that left the committee.

Mr President, thank you very much. I agree with all those who have said here that this ecodesign is an extremely ambitious and crucial legislation for climate protection. And thanks to it, we can help to permanently change the attitude of consumers and producers to the Earth's resources. Earth's resources are limited. We must approach them with the next generations in mind, those generations that will come after us. We talked a lot about this today - 12 hours ago - with the Commissioner on the occasion of the discussion on nature restoration law. This is a day when we talk a lot about environmental protection. I also approached this piece of legislation with this attitude. I worked on this ecodesign as shadow rapporteur in the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. And I am pleased that we have managed to improve this good proposal of the Commission in several respects, to make it even better. And I'll only mention two points. Firstly, as many have been waiting for, we make it clear that ecodesign requirements should apply to the introduction of a common charger for similar products, e.g. garden tools, electric drills or products that need to be protected from moisture or water, such as toothbrushes, shavers, etc. And we like specifics. Second, no more paper books, instructions that have always been attached in ten languages to all kinds of products. The instructions will be easily accessible in digital format and printed only at the request of the consumer. In this way, we will save millions of trees and I hope that tomorrow we will vote in favour of these changes and that the Commission and the Council will support these proposals.

Madam President, I'm sorry. This is the European Commission's communication on the rule of law. He has 34 pages and contains the topics he deals with. Poland has been mentioned more than 100 times in this communication. And in addition, not as a country shining an example, but as a country violating the law, limiting the rights of citizens, freedom of the press, the separation of powers, not guaranteeing the transparency of the legislative process. In fact, in every chapter there is a mention: Poland, no progress. There are also 27 annexes dealing with the problem in individual Member States. The most extensive of these – 50 pages – again concerns my homeland, Poland. Again, the propaganda of the government media, supported by MEPs from the ruling party in Poland, will shout about the reporters, about the traitors, about the Germans, about the bad Commissioner Reynders. But it is the government, it is you who break the law in Poland, which weakens not only Poland, but the entire European Union. There's no agreement to that. In October, we will change this government and improve the situation.

Mr President, thank you very much. This report and the recommendations of the Committee of Inquiry have more than 200 pages. It was established on the initiative of Renew Europe and this is a summary of several months of hard work, during which we held over 30 official committee meetings, observation missions to six countries, we listened to nearly 250 people. Sophia in 't Veld has done an incredible job with the whole committee. It is an analysis, an action plan, but also an accusation against the governments of several countries, including unfortunately Poland, that they violated the law, using de facto cyber weapons against their own citizens. They did it to gain power, to maintain that power. They have created mechanisms to make them impunity, but they will not be impunity. I thank journalists, activists and everyone else who contributed to the revelation of this gigantic scandal. In the recommendations, we propose a set of actions so that a similar scandal in the future is excluded, not possible. Commissioner, this year there will be parliamentary elections in Poland, and I urge you to implement in particular one of the recommendations - the European Technology Laboratory to check whether there are no surveillance programs in the electronic devices of politicians, journalists, lawyers, whistleblowers, because we must be sure that during the next election campaign in Poland Pegasus or similar programs will not be used against political opponents.

Mr President, thank you very much. In October we will have parliamentary elections in Poland and we very much all want them to be fair, but it will be difficult because we have an electoral law tailored to the ruling party. The members of the National Electoral Commission are nominated by the ruling party. We have a fully political special committee in the Sejm, which can remove anyone who does not like it from public functions and from electoral lists. We have unequal access to the media, which are called public, but long ago the Kaczyński government turned them into its propaganda tube, and the Orlen state-owned fuel company bought most of the regional and local newspapers and also cultivates pro-government propaganda in them. We have experience from previous elections where the Pegasus surveillance system was used to discredit opposition members involved in the election campaign. Freedom, equality and democracy, ladies and gentlemen, this is our common concern. And so, Commissioner, a full OSCE monitoring mission should be in place in Poland during these upcoming elections. We all need to keep an eye on whether these elections are free, fair and equal. A European Tech Lab should be set up, as we recommended in the conclusions of the Pegasus Commission, so that anyone involved in the election campaign can check their phone and other device for illegal government surveillance. Thank you, Commissioner, for everything you do. Thank you all, Colleagues, for your solidarity, because free and fair elections in the Member States are a condition for the functioning of the European Union.

Mr President, thank you very much. This committee, which you are hearing about and which claims powers such as those normally enjoyed by the special services, the public prosecutor's office and the court, this committee, which is strictly political, intends to exclude public figures from the possibility of participating in public life. It's not a problem for one party, it's not a problem for one man, it's a big problem for all of us. And in this situation, the eyes of all those for whom fair and free elections are important, for whom democracy is important, for whom membership in the European Union is important, are on the common institutions, on the EU institutions, on us, colleagues! I am glad that you reacted so quickly that we have this debate today. The eyes of all of us are on the European Commission, on you, Commissioner, and I thank you very much for your presence during this debate. I wonder if the government in Poland and the President of Poland wants to expose us to further lost trials, to further expensive penalties? After all, we know that the European Commission has a duty to react where the law is violated, and here we are dealing with a violation of Article 2 of the Treaty, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, a violation of Articles 47 and 49 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and so on. At the same time, and perhaps most importantly, there is a violation of at least eight articles of the Polish Constitution. It is no longer a matter of one party or one man. This is a very dangerous topic that affects us all. Indeed, as Andrzej Halicki said, we have only one instrument left: street protests. I am convinced that on June 4 in Warsaw crowds will gather on the streets. Thank you very much.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Of course, we must help Ukraine and we want to do so. It's pretty obvious. But I have a question for the Commissioner: What have you done, Commissioner, to ensure that the countries bordering Ukraine are a transit, a help, not a chaos in the grain market and the ruin of their farmers? Last year, the opposition in Poland clearly warned that oversupply would cause a sharp drop in prices. But neither you nor the Polish government, which has sent you here for this position, which you hold, has prepared anything. Unfortunately, I hear from the media that several companies close to the government have become significantly richer in this situation. Polish farmers have been deceived by your political environment, so do not be surprised that they expect and express it very loudly that you will resign and we will change the government in the elections in October.

Madam President, I'm sorry. We have talked a lot about reliable consumer information here, so I will come back to the amendment that the Commissioner mentioned in his speech, which is about dual quality of products, because I think there is some misunderstanding here. Well, this solution, which has been adopted by the European Parliament and which will now be assessed, does not meet our expectations, my expectations, and still needs to be improved. My point is that products packaged in the same or confusingly similar composition have the same, and not that products packaged in the same way have a similar composition. I know it sounds like a trifle, but it's essential. These products packed the same or similarly must be identical everywhere, in all Member States of the European Union. Otherwise, the consumer will continue to be misled, lose confidence in the market and feel exploited by producers.

Madam President, we all remember the Dieselgate scandal, and that was not only about companies cheating on emission limits and misleading consumers, but also about governmental bodies from different Member States not working together or turning a blind eye to the dishonest practices. Now, thanks to the real driving emission tests, which we introduced, the extent of the damage done is very clearly visible. New rules and improved market surveillance of the automotive industry mean that such scandalous practices will not be possible in the future. However, we have to admit that the problem is not yet solved. There are still many cars on our roads with very high NOx emissions, and most European consumers have not been compensated. The cheating was already eight years ago, and evidently the existing consumer redress does not function properly. This also needs a very serious overhaul.

Madam President, 24 % of teenagers in France, in Sweden 23 % of teenagers, in Germany 18 %, in Belgium 17 % of teenagers, in Greece 14 % of teenagers are found to have excessive levels of PFAS in their blood. PFAs – most persistent human-made chemicals called forever chemicals for one reason: they remain in the environment forever. In Poland, studies published by the Science Direct Journal found PFAs even in our milk, in our cottage cheese, in yogurt, in butter, and many others. So in the REACH regulation revision, yes, Commissioner, it is essential to remediate the existing contamination through the full banning of the use of all PFA production and use as soon as possible. Thank you for your very concrete presentation and very concrete proposals and surely you have our full support in those endeavours.

Mr President, thank you very much. Our debate is coming to an end, and before the President concludes, I would like to say that the money and EU funds that we use or that we can use are a very good thing. But I, who grew up in a dictatorship behind the Iron Curtain, joined the European Union because I wanted to work, live, expand this area of freedom, democracy, compliance with the law. I know that without this, we will not maintain peace, nor will we fight climate change, nor will we be useful to Ukraine, and in general this space without compliance with the law has no value. So all I have to do is express my gratitude to all those colleagues who are relentlessly fighting for what is most important to all of us. I would also like to express my gratitude to the President of the European Commission, but with an appeal that we do not succumb to national, party or any other tribal struggles. The rule of law is the most important thing for all of us and concessions in this matter... (The speaker took the floor.)

Mr President, dear Commissioner, you have heard our colleagues and it seems completely clear: what we need is to protect our EU citizens from the illegal use of spyware, and the action of the European Commission is badly needed. Firstly, the Commission must start an infringement procedure against governments which illegally surveilled on their citizens. Thanks to the work of the PEGA committee, we see several examples of Member States’ governments, or of the bodies of those governments, which used spyware illegally against their own citizens. Spying on political opponents during election campaigns or on independent prosecutors cannot be justified by any national security matters. Secondly, there exists an urgent need to establish a European tech lab to protect upcoming elections this year, 2023, because in several Member States, the opposition leaders, journalists, lawyers were surveilled by Pegasus or by Predator or by other systems. And this is not only a scandal, and it is not only a serious harm to their private and professional life, but it might have influenced the result of the elections. It is a serious threat to democracy if this year the same thing repeats in the Member States that are concerned. So I really know what I am talking about and we rely on the European Commission that it will act and it will not look the other way, as Sophia in 't Veld said, that it will see to it that the next elections are honest, transparent and not surveilled illegally.

Madam President, I'm sorry. I agree with all those who emphasized here that the abuse of Navalny, that the abuse of opposition representatives, journalists, the weaker ones, is proof of this disgusting cowardice of Putin. It is his cowardice and the cowardice of his regime that is expressed in his cruelty, in the abuse of every weaker person, of everyone who opposes him. This is also reflected in the attack, the aggression against Ukraine – a much smaller, much weaker, much poorer country, but a country that truly strives for democracy and is on its way to joining the European Union. That is why Putin and his regime murder, persecute, abuse every journalist, social activist, politician, every citizen who has failed to break his back through this inhuman system. Take a look at the picture of Navalny, which I just posted on social media, before the incarceration and today. His body, which is suffering – and it is possible that Putin wants to end it in prison – and is being destroyed, but his spirit will not be broken, and we will support him to the end.

Madam President, I'm sorry. When democracy in any member state of the European Union is being destroyed, we have to shout, so I am glad there is this debate. This is where we have to react. The European Commission must indeed react quickly, decisively and sharply. Today, in addition, we are talking about the degradation of democracy in the cradle of this democracy. Isn't this a tragic conversation? We're talking about destroying free media, intimidating journalists. We were with the Pegasus Commission in Greece and we heard such tragic, horrible stories. It is a pity that we do not have enough time to share them here with you. The use of such spy programs against journalists and political opponents is an absolute scandal. I very much hope that the special committee, the committee of inquiry that we have set up here in the European Parliament, will indeed help Greek citizens, journalists to strengthen democracy, to preserve civil rights, human rights, also in other countries, not only in Greece, and that it will free them from the threat of these terrible practices.

Madam President, when there are baseless accusations of a most serious nature against the most serious politicians of the European Union, I think you should react to it. Please listen to what the speakers, what the Members, say, and we expect the Presidium, yourself, to react.

Commissioner, I'm sorry. Madam President, I'm sorry. Dear colleagues, For more than an hour now, we have all been declaring how shocked we are by corruption and that we absolutely need to establish an independent Ethics Body. Well, almost everyone, because I don't count the right side of the room here. They're all out anyway. Corruption has different faces and not only are these famous bags full of money taken from somewhere, also from a hotel in Brussels. Any kind of corruption is a worm that destroys democracy. Yeah, we know that. In different countries we have different Ethics Bodies. And many of us fill out tons of paper and reports every year to these bodies That's right. Will there be another such body at the European level and more papers? Or maybe we should harmonize better. Develop a European standard. European cooperation in this area. Standards and practices applicable not only to the European institutions, but also to all institutions in the Member States. And in this I wish all of us good luck.

Madam President, I'm sorry. First of all, I would like to thank the Members from Renew Europe, Sandro Gozi and Anna Donáth, who is not here, who had to stay in Budapest because she has a young child, as well as the shadow rapporteurs from other political groups for their great commitment to this regulation. I am pleased that, as the European Union, we are finally responding adequately to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Thanks to the proposed rules, citizens will be better protected against unwanted advertising. Our data, including very personal data, will be much better protected. They will be safer in the face of disinformation activities, which, after all, are swarming with social media. I also hope and wish that this regulation will also shorten the hate and manipulation of voters that is destroying our societies so much today. This regulation is absolutely necessary to ensure that democratic competition is finally fully fair, and that what happened in the United States with the election of Trump or with the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom never happens again in the European Union.