Speeches

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, in Libya we Europeans are paying for serious mistakes and our deep divisions. Others in the meantime have occupied an empty space: Turkey, Russia, Egypt, Gulf countries. The risk that we run as European institutions, Commission, Member States, Parliament, is our fundamental irrelevance. Recovering our role requires the credibility, unity and determination of the European Union, as the Pisapia report, submitted to our debate and debate, shows us. It is necessary to work politically for a new Berlin, to ensure a free and united future for Libya, unitary, that holds Libya together, to guarantee a democratic process to elect a new Parliament and a new executive, to free the territory from the presence of too many foreign weapons and private armies, to call for the closure of unworthy detention centers and to free immigrants, deprived of any right of citizenship, to ensure, together with all this, an economic, social and infrastructural program for the reconstruction of Libya. That is what we have to do now.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, just yesterday, Commissioner, a little girl arrived on the island of Lampedusa. She is only four years old, has no parents and is Tunisian. It is only the last episode that shows how great is the malaise that runs through Tunisian society and, even more, how great and open is the double challenge that is facing Tunisia at this moment in its history. First of all, the dramatic one on the social and economic level and the crucial one on the political and democratic level. The results are still very uncertain, the signals are contradictory. Thanks to the UGTT, an important agreement has been signed on civil servants, paving the way for the granting of a loan of 1.9 billion, which will avoid the default of the State by the International Monetary Fund, facts that we greet, I believe, all positively and encourage. Much more uncertain and risky is the political and democratic challenge. Saïed has chosen the path of concentrating on himself the main powers and has moved forward on constitutional reform and the new electoral law, with which, on 17 December, the next new Parliament will be elected. We are following this phase with growing concern, more than one European Parliament delegation went to Tunis and met with the different actors, we called for an inclusive and constructive dialogue between all political forces. We are not lenient with a corrupt political system, which has caused damage to Tunisia or an often divided policy, as is still the case today, but we feel the need to return to being vigilant and attentive, as a Commission and as a Parliament, in the interest of the Tunisian people and of our solid friendship with them.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, this debate of ours is not a whim to fuel a foolish controversy in the European Parliament, here we are discussing, I believe, a crucial point that comes before everything else: the solidity of the political and democratic pact that has united us for over seventy years, the foundation of the construction of this common home, which is Europe and its various institutions, starting with Parliament. If we don't see it we are blind and will pay a heavy price in the coming months and years. I say this above all to the friends of the People's Party, who I do not see present in mass in our discussion, indeed, but also in the moderate center, to the widespread left, always attentive to these issues. We are faced with a new thought that comes forward: Fascism is no longer evoked, it is no longer asked to bring down Europe, but to undermine it within itself, in the constitutive and fundamental principles that have inspired its action for over seventy years. It is necessary to react, perhaps the time has come for a new constituent pact between the European democratic forces.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Haiti is in the grip of a spiral of violence that has continued to worsen since the assassination of President Moïse. Political instability and economic and social conditions, severely worsened by the pandemic and the violent earthquake of August 2021, make Haiti one of the most serious crisis scenarios for human and social rights in the world at this time. The country is in the throes of a spiral of violence, as many colleagues have pointed out, in which we can see worrying links between crime, violent groups and corrupt politics, engaged in a relentless struggle for power. More than 1 000 murders took place last year. Most of the population lives in absolute poverty. The international community has adopted fluctuating behaviour towards Haiti, with sometimes disastrous outcomes, starting with the ambiguous behaviour of the United States itself. That is why we call on the High Representative and the Commission to take all initiatives at international level to strengthen Haiti's institutions, in order to stop the spiral of violence and offer a less suffering perspective to the people of Haiti.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the Nicaraguan Government has made a real quantum leap in the repression of domestic political dissent. Now all this is documented by the United Nations, by non-governmental organizations, by the EU itself. It all started in 2018 but in recent months it has experienced a real resurgence and the new target has become the Nicaraguan Catholic Church. Especially since the Church moved to play a mediating role between opposition political forces and the government itself: A function of dialogue. First many radio stations were closed, then the expulsion of the apostolic nuncio and finally the arrest of numerous priests, until the culmination with the arrest and arbitrary detention of Bishop Álvarez. From here comes a clear and strong voice, a united voice, without ifs and buts, because this is what we represent today, in the European Parliament, and that is why we wanted this debate. The voice is loud and the condemnation is firm to demand the immediate release of the bishop but also of all the other forces that have been detained in these weeks and in these months, as we recalled in the motion, without any conditions.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, let us not waste this opportunity to have an election campaign debate, this is not the time for an election campaign. In Brazil, the situation of the indigenous population has dramatically worsened in recent years. We have seen serious violations of fundamental rights and all this in a climate of total impunity, indeed. We can clearly recognize, ready to make a comparison in every forum, that the political choices adopted by the Bolsonaro government have favored the emergence of this climate of violence and have aggravated the conditions of exploitation of the Amazon rainforest. Human rights and environmental protection in this case are intertwined in an indissoluble binomial, whose defense assumes the scope of a universal, global, worldwide interest. And this interest requires us to take clear positions, not the next election campaign. It is above all to clarify, full light on the murder and killing of an intelligent and curious journalist like Dom Phillips and the indigenous expert Bruno Pereira. In addition, we call on the Commission and the Council to take all necessary steps to ensure respect for the rights of Amazonian indigenous peoples and environmental defenders, to ensure the protection of a common good that is fundamental to all humanity, the Amazon rainforest.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, perhaps this was not the time to discuss and even have a resolution on Georgia in the current geopolitical context. However, we had confidence in the strength of the dialogue between us, focusing our attention on the violation of media freedoms and the safety of journalists and also identifying the responsibilities of the government authorities. Together, in the resolution, we encouraged the Georgian authorities, the European authorities, the many different actors, the many institutions, and above all by addressing the Georgian people, with the procedures under Article 49 for the recognition of candidate status for entry into the European Union. It is right, it is necessary to encourage this process. The aspirations of the Georgian people must be met in the European Parliament. But let us not waste this attempt, this tiring work that we have been doing for years. With this resolution we risk putting an obstacle in the way. We must be demanding, but we cannot play a political game here with the pretense of deciding which ruling class the Georgian people should give themselves. That is why we must encourage progress in this process.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, it is painful that Osman Kavala has been sentenced to life imprisonment for him and his family, for democracy in Turkey, for relations between Turkey and the European Union, because they are false accusations. The political interference of the government, public statements, promotions in the government of personalities involved in the case, the initiation of disciplinary investigations against the same Turkish judges who had previously acquitted Kavala weigh like a boulder. All of this fits into a worrying picture. In fact, we are now witnessing a widespread political use of criminal justice against opponents of the government. It is even more worrying to note the Turkish government's total indifference to the rulings of the European Convention on Human Rights, which not only highlights the unfoundedness of the accusations against Kavala, but which requires the government to immediately put an end to the violation of his human, civil and political rights. These rights are enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Turkey itself is a party, but above all they are rights embodied in the political and legal conscience of the international community. Precisely for this reason we must keep mobilization and attention high. We have done well to debate this motion in Parliament and to vote by a large majority and to urge the Commission to take all the necessary action, including by making yet another appeal to the Turkish Government to stop this injustice immediately.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we know that NSO is a private Israeli company and that it owns the most sophisticated surveillance technologies. This private company sells this technology to states thanks also to the approval of the Israeli Ministry of Defense and it does so to democratic states, where it is possible to control the use of this technology, and it also does so to illiberal countries, without constitutional charters, without fundamental rights, without freedoms. Obviously, all this is done to protect and guarantee the security of citizens and the fight against terrorism. It is clear that something monstrous has been created and we need the work that we are going to start in the next twelve months. We have a duty to give answers to the citizens of Europe, but also to speak to the whole world and we must do so also thanks to the cooperation that must come from the Commission and the Council, because we must clarify, without ifs and buts, what has happened and what will happen in the coming weeks and months and we must do so in the interest of the citizens of Europe.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, a year has passed since the coup d'état in Myanmar. Since then, the already precarious humanitarian conditions have worsened enormously: more than 1 500 citizens have been killed, more than 8 600 people are in prison, 80 are sentenced to death, more than 400 000 are newly displaced. All this since the military coup a year ago and after the disputed democratic elections. Today, power is in the hands of the military junta. We are on the ground, as Europe, as Parliament, in defence of the civilian population and human rights defenders and, in particular, in defence of ethnic and religious minorities, who were already suffering from heavy persecution before the coup d'état. We call on the military junta to release all political detainees and restore the democratically elected government. Only politics, a democratic process can restore a condition of peace and stability in the country. At the same time, to our Borrell, to Commissioner Jourová, to the Commission in its entirety, the invitation to support all diplomatic initiatives, such as those underway at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, but above all to put pressure, pressure, on the military junta to make possible the entry of humanitarian aid for all the civilian population in the country, in particular for the displaced. We must be resolute, determined and vigilant, especially at this time. If there are no positive developments, be ready to strengthen and introduce new sanctions. To strike at the bottom of the economic interests that are gathered around the military junta: This is the job of Europe and this is the job of the European Parliament.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we are at a crucial juncture in Tunisia's democratic life. Faced with the health, social, economic and financial damage of the long pandemic, the risks of a halt to the democratic process have increased considerably. This is why it is not time to leave her alone and leave her young and fragile democratic institutions defenseless, it is time to act politically and diplomatically, as Vice-President and High Representative Borrell did, going to Tunis in recent days, to support healthily, economically and financially the effort that is underway in Tunisian society. We know the risks that President Saïed is taking. Concentrating all powers in one's own hands, suspending the activities of parliament must necessarily be temporary measures, capable of opening a democratic perspective to the country. A first sign is certainly the novelty of the birth of the new female-led government, as happened in recent weeks. We believe that we must be fully on the ground as the European Union. Of course, the government's final signal is not enough, but it is necessary to open a second phase. This is what we need to work on: a second phase of the Tunisian Democratic Republic, after the 2011 revolution and the 2014 constitution. The evils and defects of democracy are not cured by its annulment: This seems to me to be the signal that we must send to the Tunisian people and citizens.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, who would call a man who saved some 1 200 people during a genocide a terrorist? Yet it is so, it is what the Court and the Government of Rwanda have done, where democracy has been gagged for years and critical voices are turned into cries of torture inside prisons. We are facing a political prisoner, a death sentence for a 67-year-old cancer survivor. That is why today we strongly condemn the arrest and detention of Mr Rusesabagina. We call for his immediate release and repatriation to Belgium, a country of which he is a national and therefore a European citizen. We denounce the actions taken by the Rwandan authorities that undermine human rights and individual freedoms. We call on and urge the High Representative and Vice-President to prepare a list of individuals and entities responsible for human rights violations in Rwanda, in line with the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime. A clear and powerful signal must be given: The President of Rwanda cannot and must not continue to repress his opponents through detention and torture.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, 'not all that glitters is gold'. This is the phrase that best describes the United Arab Emirates. In fact, behind the image of an enlightened, progressive, tolerant and rights-respecting ruling class lies an illiberal regime. Ahmed Mansoor, engineer, poet, father of four, is only the most prominent victim of the Emirati repressive regime, which sees so many other activists and dissidents imprisoned in inhumane conditions, to the bitter end and without due process. Abu Dhabi and Dubai not only trample on human rights: As the Pegasus scandal shows, interference and attempts to weaken democracies in Arab Muslim countries and especially in Europe are well known. We have seen this in Egypt, Syria, Sudan and not least Tunisia, not to mention their direct involvement in the war in Libya and Yemen, where they are jointly responsible with Saudi Arabia for war crimes. How do we respond to all this? The human rights situation in the Emirates is yet another proof that the EU's high-level human rights dialogue system has enormous problems, as it is caught between the need to enforce rights and the political realism of business. And of course the countries with which the EU engages take advantage of this contradiction, using it as a fig leaf. If the European Union wants to be credible in promoting human rights in the world, it must, on the one hand, implement the principle of greater conditionality and, on the other, activate the mechanism of targeted sanctions that it has recently adopted. In the specific case of the Emirates, it should result in the arms sales embargo, the suspension of the facilitated Schengen visa regime, sanctions against the criminals involved in the arrest of Mansoor and the crimes committed in Yemen, starting with General Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi, a candidate inter alia for the presidency of Interpol, of which the EU is the main financier. This would be a way to react, a way to represent an EU that is able to respond on the issue of human rights without looking the interlocutors in the face, without ifs and buts. Here, this is the choice that I think we should all make together, to affirm a principle: that human rights are an inviolable value in every part of the world, in every place of the world.