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Madam President, I hope this morning's debate, Commissioner, is a wake-up call to the Commission and to this House that farmers are angry, frustrated, worried and under attack. They are one group of society that do not take well to this. The truth is that, in this issue of Farm to Fork, we do need farmers to be front and centre of it, not to be dragged kicking and screaming. Commissioner, I hope you'll deliver that message to your colleagues around the table. I hope you'll include in this Farm to Fork Strategy competition law, unfair trading practices, and how trade policy can impact negatively on European agriculture. I would just say that some of the language used, indeed by yourself and others in the Chamber, can be very emotive: organic is wonderful, factory intensive is evil. I'd like you to be a little bit more careful about the language, because many of our family farms can be medium-sized or they can be large, but it doesn't suggest, whether small, medium or large, that one is better than the other. What we should be trying to do is make sure that farmers have access to the best research, the best innovation, and the best technologies to allow them to deliver on the things we need them to do. And let's not forget that farmers are already doing it. They've been up before we have. They're out in their farms and in their fields doing things for nature. We need to help them do that, not restrict them in their efforts. My greatest fear of CAP reform and this strategy is that we will bind them with more rules and give them less flexibility. Commissioner, you have a huge responsibility on your shoulders to make sure that doesn't happen. I hope your voice is loud.
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Madam President, the European Union is a long-standing partner of Guinea, a country that has made major progress since the first democratic elections in 2010 that brought to power the current President Alpha Condé. The country's stability and prosperity is important for the region, as it is for the European Union. Since the 2018 local elections, the sociopolitical situation has become increasingly tense. The prospect of a new constitution, raising the possibility for President Condé to remain in power beyond the end of his second and last mandate, united opposition forces and the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution and led to frequent demonstrations against a third mandate. These demonstrations have often been severely dispersed by security forces. Opponents have been detained, and fundamental freedoms, in particular freedom of expression, were not respected. Since mid-October 2019, around 30 demonstrators have lost their lives, allegedly killed by firearms by the security forces. The EU has repeatedly called for appropriate investigations to clarify the circumstances of these incidents and to hold those responsible accountable. In such a context, preparations for legislative elections, due on 1 March, only increased the tension. Referring to strong doubts about the credibility of the voter list, two main opposition parties declared a boycott on the scrutiny. Although EU electoral missions in 2015 and 2018 recommended a thorough review of the electoral rolls, which did not accurately reflect the electorate, such a review was only very partially conducted. The recent announcement that legislative elections will be coupled to a referendum on a new draft constitution presented in December, giving ground to President Condé's intentions, has further divided the country. There is now a clear risk of widespread instability and polarisation, including, dangerously, along ethnic lines. The EU has consistently, together with local partners the UN, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States , the US and France called for calm and has facilitated dialogue among the parties. The confidence of all in a credible and transparent electoral process is the best way to achieve participation and acceptance of the result. While every country has the right to amend or modernise its constitution, changing the fundamental law should build on an inclusive consultation leading to a large consensus, which is absent to date. Holding a referendum months before Presidential elections is not in line with the good practices recommended by the African Union and ECOWAS. In particular, the West African region has gained its democratic credentials upon these principles. It is in this context that the spokesperson of High Representative Borrell last Friday called for an inclusive dialogue to avoid further escalation of violence and to ensure conditions for transparent elections in which all parties can participate. Only a climate where political and civic space is respected and human rights violations come to an end can create conditions conducive for such a dialogue. In order to reach this, all actors should put the unity and the peace of Guinea first. We remain ready to contribute to such a process, working with our partners: the UN, the African Union and ECOWAS. The European Union remains strongly engaged in Guinea, also working with civil society and human rights defenders and with support for the resilience of the population. The Guinea crisis should remain high on our agenda.
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this resolution Parliament strongly condemns the unacceptable use of child labour in all its forms. We remind the Malagasy authorities of their responsibility to uphold the rights of children and guarantee their safety and integrity. A significant number of children are active in mica mines. The rise in exports of this resource, combined with a significant decrease in the price per tonne, has aggravated the risk of labour exploitation. Working conditions in the mines are usually deplorable and threaten the life, health and safety of children. They are constantly exposed to chronic respiratory infections, severe injuries and dehydration and face psychological and physical abuse. Elimination of poverty is the only way to create the conditions necessary for the eradication of child labour. This requires a comprehensive approach and targeted measures in the areas of education, employment and social protection. Madagascar has made some progress by adopting a new decree reinforcing legislation against child labour and raising the legal age for employment from 15 to 16 years. In addition, Madagascar is revising its mining code, and we call on the government to prioritise the compliance with its international commitments, including in terms of social and environmental standards, decent work and respect of human and children's rights. However, so far, the authorities have failed to apply sanctions due to a lack of resources for effective monitoring and poor law enforcement capacity. We as the European Union can also do our part. With this resolution, the Parliament calls on the EU to step up its support for projects and initiatives aimed at combating child labour in Madagascar. The EU has been actively committed to the fight against child labour through its development and trade policies, and this approach would be fully in line with the European Commission President's pledge to have zero tolerance for child labour in EU trade policy. Nobody and certainly no child deserves to work in inhumane and life-threatening environments. The fight against child labour and exploitation remains an essential element of our political approach, and with this resolution we send a strong message to the world.
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Madam President, in recent months we have seen some serious and disturbing revelations about the exploitation of children involved in mica extraction in Madagascar. We cannot tolerate a situation where children are forced... Thank you. We cannot tolerate a situation where children are forced to work in horrendous conditions and are deprived of an education. Prompt action is needed, but we also need to address root causes. On the nearly 46 000 tonnes of mica which Madagascar exported in 2018, more than 91% was shipped to China, according to the International Trade Centre. The principal question to address is therefore one of due diligence in the supply chain. However, boosting the capacity and accountability of State institutions in Madagascar, including through our development cooperation will also be key. As many Members will be aware, the EU has already taken positive action to address supply chain risks in relation to the so-called conflict minerals, such as tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold, and the EU regulation covering due diligence for these will come into force next year. We cannot stand by while child labour - an oxymoron as Robert Biedroń rightly put it - child labour in the extractive industries continues. There is an urgent need for international companies sourcing mica and mica-based products, as well as the Malagasy government to take responsibility for addressing the problematic conditions, and for contributing to improving the fulfilment of children's rights. The European Union has a long-standing and clear position on due diligence. Not only governments but also private actors have a role to play. The European Parliament hosted an important event in November 2019 in which the urgency of addressing child labour in mica mining was prominently raised. Commission President von der Leyen made it clear that the EU has zero tolerance for child labour. The EU led the tabling of a resolution on the Rights of the Child, adopted in the United Nations General Assembly 3rd Committee last year, where 2021 was declared the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour. The Commission will shortly publish a study on due diligence requirements through the supply chain. It examines existing regulation and proposals, as well as options for regulating due diligence in companies own operations, and through the supply chain for adverse human rights and environmental impacts, including relating to climate change. In a single market, it is not practical to have different national treatments, and the benefits of an EU-wide framework are obvious in terms of levelling the playing field and creating legal certainty for companies, as well as reaping opportunities stemming from the sustainability transition. The EU is of course also fully behind a multi-stakeholder initiative to address supply chains risk, and in particular child labour. We will continue to work spanning trade agreements, development projects and other international cooperation, in Madagascar and elsewhere, to tackle root causes such as the social and economic vulnerability of individuals, workers and their families that put children to work.
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Madam President, thank you for putting on the agenda such an important topic for you and for myself as a Commissioner for Transport, especially because you are giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts with you before I travel to Stockholm on 19 February for the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety. It is our duty to do everything needed to protect the lives and well-being of European citizens. 25 000 people who lose their lives on European roads and 135 000 suffering severe injuries, are numbers which are unacceptable for us and of course we need to do more in terms of action and support. Road safety will therefore be a priority in my mandate and, with your help we can make it a priority for the whole Union. Let's not forget though that Europe has made enormous progress in road safety over the last decade. We are the safest region in the world and we have a lot of experience and good practice to share. This is an opportunity for true European leadership. Globally 1.35 million people are dying on the roads every year. In fact, road crashes are the biggest killer of young people worldwide. The global target to reduce road fatalities by 50% - part of the Sustainable Development Goals - is expiring this year, and this target was not and will not be reached. This must not mean that we are ready to reduce our ambition. Europe needs to be at the forefront of supporting a new ambitious global fatality reduction target and I intend to say this very clearly in Stockholm. The Swedish Minister for Infrastructure intends to present in Stockholm a so-called 'Stockholm Declaration', which calls for renewed efforts and a new global target. I very much support this declaration and I hope that it will be adopted as it is planned. The next step will be a resolution at the UN General Assembly. The Commission will also very much support the process leading up to such a resolution, including through our offices in Geneva and in New York. Ultimately, what counts is results. In Europe, we are implementing the safe system approach, which is a holistic system building cooperation, good governance and shared responsibility. It addresses all areas infrastructure, vehicles, behaviour and post-crash care. The Safe System accepts that human error will happen and compensates for it. Drivers and other road users will continue to make mistakes on the road as they do elsewhere, because to err is human and distractions, alcohol and drugs increase the risk of error, but no road user deserves to die because of a mistake. As you know, the EU transport ministers have unanimously supported our new EU-wide targets to halve the number of fatalities and for the first time serious injuries by 2030, and the Commission has followed up with an ambitious action plan. The first concrete actions have already been taken. Last year, thanks to strong support from the European Parliament, we strengthened the EU rules on both safe infrastructure management and vehicle safety. We'll continue to promote ambitious legislation in this mandate and I look forward to discuss with you details in the future. But in the meantime, let us work in partnership which is indeed the essence of the safe system approach to road safety. As legislators you are well equipped to push us all, the Commission, the Member States, industry, NGOs, to deliver on more ambitious targets and of course, to promote ambition in action in our constituencies. Looking ahead, it is clear that mobility is going through profound change. Climate change demands that we reduce emissions, while digitalisation is opening up new opportunities for easier cleaner and safer mobility. As society shifts, so will the focus of road safety. We need to look at new transport trends in towns and cities and what they mean for vulnerable road users, and we need to consider the implications of autonomous vehicles. We need to drive the change and make sure change does not hamper our zero-victims vision. I look forward to a good exchange with you this afternoon and I really appreciate the fact that you put this point on the agenda.
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Madam President, I opened a newspaper today and this is what I read in bold: 'In the first 40 days of this year, 100 pedestrians were killed by cars on Polish roads. Sixty percent of those mortal traffic accidents took place at pedestrian crossings'. I'm also happy that we put this point during today's session, because road safety is a matter of life and death in the most literal sense of the word, and the situation on our European roads is dramatic. So last year the European Union adopted the world's most advanced mandatory vehicle-safety requirements, the General Safety Regulation. You will remember that it will become applicable in July 2022 and will reduce the number of deaths on the roads significantly. But many say that even the best technical solutions will not improve the situation on the roads if the road users behave in an irresponsible way. I hear very often that the European Union must educate. But, unfortunately, the European institutions do not have competences in education, TV and radio programmes, the organisation of driving licence courses etc. We must cooperate with our Member States much more closely in order to achieve a significant reduction in fatalities on the roads. Yes, Commissioner, it is our aim to achieve the vision zero goal and we should prepare a detailed roadmap of how to achieve this as soon as possible. We have positive examples from cities like London, Helsinki and Oslo. They have managed to reduce, or even eradicate, the number of fatalities in road accidents. Let us profit from those examples, and much success to all of us.
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Madam President, I appreciate very much your comments and your interest for this subject. As I said from the beginning, only working together and putting enough pressure on all the stakeholders on which depends the safety on the roads, will we achieve results. You were mentioning, for example the targets. We have the targets which are expiring as I said, this year, and maybe one would ask why we would have targets if we cannot achieve them? But I do believe that having a target is an important instrument, an important tool, to design policies and enter into dialogue with the stakeholders in order to have a concrete vision for the future from various areas. So I myself I'm favouring keeping a clear target which can guide our action, and we can remember and recall all the time. We don't need .... all of you mentioned the numbers, and I mentioned the numbers at the beginning, and I said and I want to repeat that actually any number is not acceptable. And that it was said it is also not acceptable that we get used to hearing about this and numbers of deaths on the roads. So that's why clear action is absolutely needed, and we need to be committed to that. Several have mentioned the vulnerability of pedestrians or other categories involved in traffic. So when we talk about the safety of course the citizens have to be at the core of our action, and we have several categories of vulnerable road users. So we have also the pedestrians as were mentioned, but the cyclists, the motorcyclists are most at risk, especially in urban areas, and we are also looking into the urban mobility package to see ways in which we can improve the safety inside the city. The problem is, and we all know that where all the categories are meeting together, and now the evolution of the technology we see and the introduction of new ways of mobility in cities, I think these kind of risks are higher. So we have to work very early on devising a policy to accommodate all these categories which would meet in the same space. But since we are talking about that, let me refer also to a topic many of you raised. That technology and digitalisation can help us to improve road safety. Many mentioned the fact that we are looking at autonomous vehicles in the future, artificial intelligence - but this comes also with lots of challenges because we have to admit that at the beginning, all these vehicles, well slowly with the introduction of the infrastructure, will need to co-habit with the traditional ones. And this is also something we have to imagine from the very beginning as being a new risk for the safety on the roads. So this is another angle we are looking at. I'm very much favouring the Safe System as a system approach because it looks at all the elements which are making road safety challenging. Many of you mentioned driving licensing. We are looking into this and I think in 2022 we will come up with a proposal, somewhere mentioning the speed. Of course, speed is one of the most important elements, and we have also, let me give you another figure, an estimation from the EDFC, that only one kilometre per year reduction in average speed in the EU would already reduce the deaths by 2000 a year. So this shows that speed is a very important factor. We are also looking and analysing to see how we can convince and cooperate with the Member States in order to act in this respect. We know that in 2017 there was the Valetta Declaration on Road Safety and the transport ministers committed to engage on the possibility of reducing speed limits. So let's see where we are after this with each Member State. Personalised analysis for Member States is done, and I encourage you to follow, and I'm sure you're not already, but maybe we will have another chance to discuss the subject after the annual report and statistics, which is going to be published in April. And also I would like to commit with you that after the Stockholm Conference, I would have probably the next day I am in the TRAN Committee, and I can already report back to you on what was committed to in Stockholm and which are the next steps to be taken together with you in the future to increase road safety in Europe - and why not to the leadership for other continents, because we know and we have instruments and programmes for Asia and for Africa and would like to lead there, so that globally we can contribute to the reduction of deaths and serious injuries on the roads. Thank you very much for this debate and I'm as always at your disposal for this topic or others for discussion in the future.
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Before we move to our debate, I want to make two announcements. We celebrate International Women's Rights Day in very difficult times. So please allow me to send our support and to thank all women that are facing the sanitary emergency of the Coronavirus in the European Union and throughout the world. They are researchers, doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, journalists, political leaders at all levels, mothers and sisters. These are difficult times and the emergency shows clearly the great importance of this work. We are proud of their engagement and we want them to be considered equal, not just in these emergency times but at all times. 40% of the Members that of this Parliament are women, and since Parliamentarians are decision-makers at the heart of change for people, there is no just and fair society without gender equality and women's participation in all walks of life, and of course in politics. On the occasion of the International Women's Rights Day, we must remember that only one quarter of all parliamentarians worldwide are women and that millions of women and girls are still discriminated against and prevented from fully developing their skills and playing their role in society, and this is also the case within our European Union. Realising women's rights is not an option it is a duty, and it is possible where there is political will. It's important that the Commission has presented an ambitious EU Gender Equality Strategy to achieve significant concrete progress by 2025, and Parliament stands ready to work on the legislative proposals, in particular on binding measures for pay transparency measures to be introduced by the end of 2020. We will give our full support and contribution, since equal pay is essential to strengthen our social model. Let me continue on the same subject. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action, a comprehensive global policy framework with measurable outcomes in several areas. 25 years after these commitments and objectives, we see that progress is still lagging behind in many areas. Gender pay and pension gap and the unequal distribution of unpaid work remain big challenges. Investing in girls' education is essential and this is much more than just access to schooling. It is about support and freedom. Also, gender-based violence continues to have devastating consequences and it is urgent that all Member States and the European Union ratify the Istanbul Convention. The European Union must remain a model in enhancing women's rights. Recently, the European Parliament called on the six Member States that have not yet ratified the Convention do so without delay, and we repeat that call today. But women's rights face new challenges as well, related to digitalisation, migration and climate change. It is our common responsibility to act, for us all and for future generations. To mark this day, we fully support the No Woman No Panel campaign, and indeed I try not to participate in any European Parliament panels or public events where women are not adequately represented. Our European Parliament will maintain a clear and firm political commitment to strengthening gender equality and women's rights in the European Union and around the world. I sincerely hope that, in forthcoming International Women's Rights Days, we will be together celebrating new achievements for gender equality for the sake of our entire society.
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Madam President, I want to thank the Presidency for putting this item on the agenda at what is a trying and difficult time for all of our citizens. My thoughts this morning are of course with Italy and all Italian citizens, particularly the patients, the families and the healthcare workers, and those across Europe facing the Corona virus. These are indeed difficult times for families. On Sunday, we marked a very special International Women's Day 25 years since the Beijing Platform for Action. We in Europe and around the world have made considerable progress in advancing women's rights and it is important to celebrate the progress, but of course we also have to say it is not enough. We have to accelerate action. We have to harness the power and the potential of women across this continent and around the world. On Thursday, I was glad to welcome the European Gender Equality Strategy through which we can reach further and go higher, but without action a strategy is just words. We need implementation across all of the institutions. We need strong political leadership in order to implement that Gender Equality Strategy and we do have much work to do. I only have a moment to mention some of the issues: women in Europe, 84 cents pay for every euro a man earns, and an extraordinary pension gap of 40%. Think of the implications of that for families, for children, for women, for old age. We do not have a critical mass in our parliaments, in our businesses, in our boards. That is important. Critical mass matters, as does, of course, the very serious statistic in relation to violence. One in three women in the EU has been a victim of physical or sexual violence since the age of 15. It is as simple as that. We need all Member States and the EU to ratify the Istanbul Convention. Just think about the level of violence we are seeing around the world against women, think about FGM, think about what's happening in Europe, and the recent UN report that says gender equality is on the slide. We must do more. We must not just aim to break the glass ceiling. We must shatter it now.
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Madam President, unfortunately, on this Women's Day as on every other women's day, and as indeed on every day of all of our lives as women, we realise that equality is far, far away from being realised. Women's Day is not so much a day of celebration; it is a day to remind us of the struggle that has been done in the past, and on the struggle that still lies ahead of us. So much still needs to be done. Since we're in a Parliament, I indeed want to remind us of the big lack of women in decision-making. Just because we might see one woman somewhere in a leading position, that just reminds us of the stark contrast of everyone else in the room usually being a man. That needs to change, but we can also all do something about that. All of our parties, all of our list elections, everyone can do something about it. It is not a natural phenomenon that women are under-represented. Everyone can, but also everyone has to contribute to this struggle. While it takes forever, as we have seen, to break old problems, to break all old inequalities, new ones are rising by the day. For example, if we look at the online hate that people women are facing; the hate that we have received is an old problem but to see it so much multiplied in the online space is a new phenomenon. Also the bias of algorithms now coming up and soon having a very big influence already having a very big, bad influence on our lives is something that is a new phenomenon. So let's never ever for one day even think the fight is over. It is not over. It needs to be continued with women of all the regions, of all religions, no matter how they look, no matter whom they love, and let's not forget, either, the struggle of trans women, who are often overlooked.
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Madam President, Covid-19 has developed into a fast-moving and increasingly severe public health emergency that is affecting our citizens, our societies, and our economies. We have since yesterday confirmed cases in all Member States. Whilst the numbers vary from a few cases only to over 9 000, we know that the picture is changing exponentially and by the hour. Needless to say, the days and weeks ahead are critical. I want here to take the opportunity to praise the European Parliament's decision to take effective measures. I know it was not an easy decision, but it was necessary. They are critical, the next few days and months will be critical for our response. Member States must still focus on efforts to aggressively contain the virus, particularly where there are few cases. Slowing down the virus must be our greatest priority in order to gain time for our health systems to function effectively, and for research and development to advance. The measures we are seeing are impacting on our citizens, on their everyday lives, on the economy, on businesses. It is not an easy situation to live in, and the decisions taken by government are not taken lightly. But when necessary and justified, although tough these decisions need to be followed to the letter. It is a time of critical communication with our citizens and here Parliament can be of great help in two ways. You need to be the voices that speak to citizens for them to take responsibility for their personal protection measures: washing hands, avoiding physical contact; but you also need to be the voices against false news and misinformation, because this is equally damaging to the efforts made and the impact of the virus itself. This is a critical time for cooperation and solidarity. Without solidarity and Europe-wide solutions, we are not going to be able to deal with this public health emergency. We need solidarity between citizens, between countries, and within countries, and this was ensured in the outcome of the extraordinary Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council last week. We need to see solidarity in action. We need to share resources, share information, share expertise, share equipment. We need to share equipment protocols and testing protocols. Let me be absolutely clear, this cannot be business as usual. We are facing an exceptional situation, and under such circumstances everybody needs to stand up to their responsibilities. Whilst the realities on the ground between Member States vary considerably, and whilst they are not all at the same scenarios, I have called on all of them to activate their preparedness plans and to share them with us. I have called on all of them to plan ahead, to be ready for the possible next scenario. From our side, we will continue to do our utmost to ensure that medical workers and those on the front line have the best means possible in order to face the outbreak. Complacency is not an option. We have launched a joint procurement for personal protective equipment, and this morning we will know what response to this offer we have received. We are already looking at joint procurements for medical equipment, such as respirators and testing kits, which have been requested by Member States. With Commissioner Breton we are discussing how industry can scale up production to meet increased demands. Yesterday I spoke with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Medicines Agency. We have established a video conference three times a week with myself, as Health Commissioner, and the Agencies, to be updated and coordinated in every way possible so that we can be proactive if possible. We are strengthening the operational support and advice of ECDC on the ground. An expert mission has already taken place in Italy and a second one is underway in Greece. We have increased funding for research and vaccine development, and we are also coordinating our border, visa and security measures. In ending, I want to say that from day one, our priority has been to protect citizens from this virus and to support Member States in stopping the spread. We need to show a Europe that cares, a Europe of solidarity, and a Europe that protects, a Europe that offers added value to its Member States in their response to that challenge. I know that when under this kind of pressure everyone reacts in different ways, but this is not a time for fragmentation; this is a time for all of us wherever we are positioned to join our voices, because this is the only way we're going to be able to come out of this crisis and that we will. And I'm sure we will have you with us in this effort.
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Madam President, on 28 January, President von der Leyen activated the Commission's crisis management system, and she tasked me, as the European Emergency Response Coordinator, to chair the coordinated effort for our response. Last week, this was bolstered by the setting-up of a specific coronavirus response team of five Commissioners, including Commissioner Kyriakides and myself. But also other Commissioners all Commissioners are heavily involved in this effort. For the past six weeks, we have been coordinating the work of all Commission services to identify what needs to be done, by whom and when, and get it done. Let me give you a quick overview of this effort. Through the Union Civil Protection Mechanism, we have coordinated the repatriation of hundreds of European Union citizens from China and Japan. We have coordinated the provision of assistance to China during the initial stage of the outbreak there. Since then, we have been working with the EU Member States to coordinate assistance between them via this mechanism. We have mobilised funding to the tune of almost EUR 270 million to boost global preparedness, prevention and containment of the virus with a combination of development, humanitarian and research funding. In the area of border controls, we have issued guidance to Member States and organised weekly meetings of the Covid-19 information group on borders, which brings together the Member States, Schengen associated countries, the Council Secretariat and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, so as to exchange information and best practices on measures taken by the Member States in view of the coordinated approach. For transport-related measures, we have requested the development of specific advice for ship and aircraft operators, as well as the land transport sector, regarding preparedness and the response to the Covid-19 outbreak. This advice was recently published by the expert group. In addition, we are working every day on contingency planning and preparedness measures for the EU on all aspects of this emergency, from health and research to civil protection and consular assistance, from transport and home affairs to the economy. We are assessing the impact on supply chains and working with Member States to ensure that they use the benefits offered by the single market rather than close it off to each other. Commissioner Breton is speaking directly to European manufacturers of personal protective equipment. Our aim is to make sure that the public health needs of all Member States are met and that adequate supplies get to where they are needed most. There is no way around the fact that the economic cost of the coronavirus will be significant. We are working closely with Member States to assess the situation and coordinate the necessary economic measures. By coordinating them, we will maximise their impact. It is important that affected workers and businesses get the necessary support to weather this storm. On the fiscal front, European countries have powerful automatic stabilisers, which can cushion a good part of the shock. They can also intervene in terms of providing liquidity to small and medium enterprises, which are the most affected by this impact. In addition, our Stability and Growth Pact provides for flexibility to cater for unusual events such as this. Our letter to Italy is very clear on that. We are well aware that exceptional times require exceptional measures, and this is such a time. We are committed to coordinating with Member States and using all appropriate policy tools to safeguard against the downside risks that are now materialising. Finally, we have ramped up our public communication efforts with the launch of a dedicated Covid-19 webpage with daily updates. There should be no doubt that this situation calls for a coherent response, and solidarity and cooperation are essential. Member States recognise this and the Commission has already been supporting them for weeks. In particular, the Emergency Response Coordination Centre, which is working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, remains available to them.
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Madam President, I very much want to thank all the health workers, all over the world, who are doing a tremendous job and will most likely have to continue doing a tremendous job and who we all rely on in times of emergency I really want to thank them for all that they are doing. And while we're following very closely what's happening with the Covid-19 spread and impact, I think what we also should be looking at is the wider impact and the wider effect it has on health systems. There are also other health problems around that might get worse when hospitals are very busy dealing with the coronavirus infections and health systems are often already at their limit. And I think that should also encourage us to learn some lessons I mean, there will be many more lessons to be learned in the future, but already at this point I think we can take and draw some lessons. One of them is to really strengthen the health systems, and not rely on there always being good and sunny days. We also need to have our health systems in shape for emergency situations. I think another important thing is that we need to have social systems that enable people to indeed take sick leave, to stay at home when they're not feeling well, or even to stay in quarantine, and that's not possible if you're only paid by the hour. That's not possible when you're paid badly, if you don't get sick leave support, for example. Another lesson, as has also been mentioned by colleagues, is that maybe it's not so smart to leave the production of vital goods to one country, one region alone that we should spread production more widely and more economically in that sense and not just be reliant on very specific areas or very specific economies. And while we need to listen to the medical experts and take note of the measures and emergency measures that Parliament should take that everyone should take it is also up to politics to draw those conclusions, to draw lessons and deal with them. And, most importantly, I think I want to reiterate what the Commissioner said. We need to work together. A crisis can only be overcome if we all show solidarity. Exclusion and discrimination does not help anyone. It's the wrong way forward. We need to stand together in solidarity, especially when the going gets tough.
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Madam President, dear colleagues, first I say to you all: let's believe in Europe! Together we will act stronger and more effectively for the European citizens. This is our pledge. This is our mission. This is our purpose. We need an ambitious and coordinated response that's clear for everyone to limit the outbreak especially in terms of economic and social impact. All Member States should act together focusing on citizens' well-being. As part of Renew Europe, I would highlight the implementation of free actions to alleviate economic shocks. First, the Member States should use fiscal flexibility to ease the fiscal pressure on firms and self-employed workers affected by the crisis and postpone the deadlines for VAT payments and social security contributions. This should be the first oxygen given to them. Second, we will, and we should, call for the European Investment Bank to become an essential partner that can make emergency liquidity available for SMEs to retail banks. Thirdly, I sincerely hope that right now it's clear for everyone, in the light of the current crisis, the necessity for the EU to have a facility that would support the creation of employment schemes to help regions hit particularly hard by the crisis, to allow for the reduction of working hours, preserving jobs and avoiding business disruptions similar to the Kurzarbeit scheme in Germany, and this is very important. Time is upon us. Let's act together for the European citizens. Let's not leave anyone behind, especially because vulnerable people are the first hit in the crisis.
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Madam President, I first want to start by expressing my empathy for the communities and the families affected by the virus, and also for the healthcare providers that have been helping them. Indeed, we should not panic. This virus may not be as deadly as we think or as other viruses, but it will have indirect effects on health systems if we do not take the measures that are needed and that is something that I want to explain in my intervention today. I think you have all seen the curves of how an epidemic usually takes place. Well, we have to take all the measures possible to flatten that curve so that people do not infect other people. Usually people infected with this virus infect two to three other people, as we have learned already from the epidemiology of the virus. We have to bring these numbers down so that, in total, people in the population do not get infected because, and let's not forget this, there is no immunity in the population. So let's not compare this with influenza. This has nothing to do with influenza where there is a high background immunity. This is a really different virus and the real danger is that the health systems, the healthcare systems are being overloaded. I think we've all read the newspapers. Today we've seen what is happening in the northern part of Italy. Hospitals where people do not get beds, where intensive care beds are lacking because they can't put the patients where they need to be. Indeed, we really have to do everything possible to contain that virus. I want to reinforce the call of the Commissioner that maybe we have to step up our measures to make sure that this virus is contained. I'm not going to talk about the social and economic consequences. We all know these, but if we don't do what is necessary to contain the virus and to look at the health aspects also the indirect effects of this epidemic the social and economic consequences will be much worse than they would be otherwise. So this should be our first priority also in this House.
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Madam President, there have been quite a number of interventions. I will try to summarise and answer as many as I can and pick up as many points as I can. Several of you mentioned the need to strengthen the European Centre of Disease Prevention and Control. We are, at the moment, already working with them on this and they are maximising their outreach in terms of being able to respond to Member States with a specific response team. When called, they go on the ground to Member States to offer advice. This has already happened in at least two Member States and I trust that they will be able to respond to more as more requests come in. The second point I want to pick up is that it was mentioned that the Commission should not be reading about measures in the newspapers or be waiting to hear what they need to do. Well I can assure you we do not read about daily events in the newspapers. We are briefed by the Health Security Committee and there is an early response warning and response system which is precisely there to exchange information and coordinate. We are in very close coordination with all the European health ministers. There was an emergency Health Council last Friday and I speak with health ministers at least on a weekly basis, trying to address here their needs and different problems. I want to be absolutely clear this is not a situation where any of us have the luxury of saying we're going to be reading about it in the press or as it comes along. This is an evolving situation and we are literally holding meetings at least two or three times a day to see how the situation is changing, and this is the only way we're going to be able to address the many challenges. But, there is no one-size-fits-all for this situation. Not all Member States are facing the same challenges so we need to be constantly on board with ministers and readdress the way that we are advising and helping them move along. Today there is a European Council with the Heads of State and it'll be held via teleconference. Several of you mentioned the need and the problems that we have with possible medicine shortages. I want to assure you that what we have heard so far and yesterday I had a video call with the European Medicines Agency is that we have had no reports of medicine shortages, but it is something that is of concern to us and we are monitoring the situation very closely. We will be re-examining it several times a week with the European Medicines Agency. It is true that dependency on third countries is an issue and it's an issue that has been highlighted. This was already in my mission letter to come forward with a pharma strategy by the end of 2020 and we will be looking at that, but in terms of the day-to-day situation we're working very closely with the EMA on this. Research. Significant funding has been put towards research for vaccine development, with a potential to reach almost EUR 140 million through Horizon 2020 and the Innovative Medicines Initiative. Last week funding of 47.5 million was awarded to 17 projects with 136 research teams working across Europe. Since there was also mention of the international dimension, 232 million has been allocated to different sectors to boost global preparedness, with EUR 114 million going to the WHO, EUR 15 million to Africa, EUR 100 million to urgently needed research and diagnostics, and over EUR 3 million to the Union's Civil Protection Mechanism. Fake news. huge area. I think that we can all agree in this plenary, in this Chamber, that fake news and disinformation is extremely dangerous. Last week the Commission convened a meeting with all the big social media outlets they were all there and Commissioner Jourová to address this problem. We're taking it extremely seriously and everyone everyone has a part to play in this, so we can all be sure that what is out there for citizens is scientifically-based responsible information. Finally, containment. I agree with you, I agree with what many of you said that containment is key at this point. There are very many unpleasant measures that have had to be taken, but these measures are important in order to be able to slow down the spread and to save lives. And as I said before, we need to make sure that and this is the coordination that we are doing, almost on a daily basis Member States are taking these measures, but, again, I repeat there is no one-size-fits-all approach for Member States. And finally, I want to reiterate what has been said many times here today already. This is not a time for panic and we need to stress that. It is also not a time for complacency. It is a time for solidarity. It is a difficult situation for us all and the Commission is not meeting once a week we are meeting almost on a daily basis, working in parallel and with Commissioner Lenarčič, we speak several times a day on a number of common issues, and this needs to continue. But we need to stay calm. We need to stay solid. We need to stay focused. And we need Members of the European Parliament to spread these messages to their governments as well. We are all in this effort together, we are going to get through this, but we need to get through this responsibly and effectively.
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Madam President, I am really grateful for this debate because it will help us steer the next step in facing this difficult challenge ahead. Obviously, as the virus continues to spread, what is needed is that we collectively Member States and EU institutions step up our actions and the Commission intends to do so. Not everybody is affected in the same way at the moment. There are some who are hit harder and that's why we stress the need for solidarity among EU Member States in particular because, without solidarity, the mechanisms that we have simply do not work. The Civil Protection Mechanism is a wonderful mechanism, but it is based on the contribution by Member States. If those contributions are not there, the mechanism doesn't work. Solidarity also has an impact on joint procurement, and so on. So, without solidarity, we are not going to get far. Why? Simply because the Commission doesn't possess its own stocks of protective equipment masks and that kind of stuff. If we did have those things, Italy would be the first to get them from us, but we don't. We rely on Member States and their solidarity. So it's not an empty word: solidarity really matters. Without solidarity things aren't going to work. The next point I want to make is that obviously we need to continue to work on preparedness and contingency. Obviously the capacities, in particular in the health sector but also elsewhere, are not sufficient in case of further propagation of the virus. We keep saying this, we have kept saying this for weeks and we will continue to say this. Certain other aspects were highlighted. Let me say that we are working not only on vaccines, but also on diagnostics, tests, treatment and so on, and we added an additional EUR 37 million to this research area just last Friday. We are also looking into aviation, because aviation is obviously one of the sectors that are hardest hit. We are looking into that, and my colleague Commissioner Vălean is looking into that very closely, including with regard to the rules governing the usage of slots. I will not go into further details, but I would like to assure you all that the Commission will not hesitate to propose additional measures as we face this challenge in the coming days and weeks. We will also not hesitate to find any additional funding that is available. But on this issue I would like to underline what was also said by some of the honourable Members. We are in the last year of the Multiannual Financial Framework. Reserves in the Commission's budget are meagre. This is one more reason, if ever one was needed, to have an early agreement on the next Multiannual Financial Framework. It's long overdue. Let me close by thanking you as Members of this House for your interest and engagement. It is important that the message goes out to our citizens that the EU cares, that the EU is doing its part to address the situation, and that we will continue to do so until we win this battle. This is a time for EU solidarity. We need to stick together and support each other in fighting this outbreak at all levels at local level, national level, European level and global level. I can assure you that the Commission will continue to play its role. We will continue to work on all fronts: on health aspects, civil protection aspects, economic aspects, transport aspects and all others. We'll do our best and we do count on your continued support.
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Madam President, it's my honour to deliver these remarks on behalf of the President of the Commission, Ms Ursula von der Leyen, who is in urgent contact with the Heads of State and Government to coordinate their response to the current coronavirus crisis. As President Michel has just mentioned, I would also like to assure you that the Commission is working flat out to find the best solution to tackle not only the health aspects, but also the economic and financial aspects of the current crisis. It would of course be excellent, and in the interest of European citizens, if today we could discuss the achievement of the European Council in reaching agreement on the long-term budget, to allow you to scrutinise the results and move forward. We all know that this was not to be, and this is of course disappointing. The failure to agree will now, in any event, mean that many programmes can at best only be implemented very partially next year. However, looking at the history of the Multiannual Financial Framework , it has always needed at least two European summits to find an agreement. It will therefore be crucial to make the second summit a success and to do it quickly. We, the European Commission, call on leaders to draw lessons, not just from their deliberations but also from your contribution and, most of all, from the challenges in the real world that have been intensifying in recent days and have been on stark display on the borders of the European Union. It is time for realism, reason and responsibility. Realism first. I have seen how difficult the discussions are. It is therefore now high time that all deepen their sense of some of the realities that should govern our work. That requires recognising the following things. First, we are facing a financial gap caused by Brexit of EUR 75 billion euros. This means that we all need to face up to this reality. Member States' contributions to the budget will have to rise, while expenditure will have to be constrained. Secondly, like the European Parliament, the Commission is also convinced that we need a budget tailored to achieving our common goals with a sufficient overall size. Follow this logic and we will fail to deliver on what citizens expect, while national budgets will simply end up having to pay these costs. We know that this is the road that leads nowhere. Crucially, we cannot close our eyes to the challenges in the real world that we need to address together. The challenges for migration and borders, for treating people in wretched circumstances with a minimum of human dignity, need no further illustrations after last week's events. Leaders from right across the Union have pleaded for the European approach. Yet, in the negotiations on the MFF, these very same leaders are limiting funds available for borders, migration and external action. This is simply not acceptable. The MFF is not an accounting exercise or a simple numbers game. This is about equipping the Union with the resources needed to solve real-life problems and, may I add, save real lives. That reality will need to sink in much deeper as we approach the next round, and we in the Commission will not accept an outcome that does not reflect this. Having our common priorities in mind, we have no time to lose. It is truly time for reason and cool-headedness. At this moment we have three options: the better, the suboptimal and the worst. The better option is reaching a balanced agreement very soon. This is still possible, but we are already very late. Last time we achieved a deal in the Council in early February and the final agreement only in December. Therefore, 2014 meant a lost year for some programmes, something we need to avoid this time. But that also implies that, even in our best case scenario, we are already under massive time pressure. Many of our policies will at best restart at the end of 2021. The better scenario therefore is already one that will come with serious challenges. The suboptimal option would be a contingency plan, rolling forward existing budget programmes for another year. I know that many of you have been asking for this since it would buy more time. But let me be very clear about the consequences. It would mean additional 'mini' MFF negotiations running in parallel with all the contentious issues on the table, the very same things that are blocking progress on the MFF. Attempting to find a solution along these lines would therefore absorb everyone's time, energy and focus, while we need all efforts to find a good agreement on the actual long-term budget soon. It might well fail, in which case we end up with no result. Even if it didn't fail, what type of answer to structural challenges such as climate change, digitisation and external policies could we give with a one-year budget? What would this do for the credibility of the European Union? Worst of all, it would result in a budget without response to the new challenges: no Just Transition Fund, no InvestEU, no defence and digital agenda, and a lower climate ambition. The third option is the worst-case scenario. No agreement would have severe consequences for all Europeans since it would leave us with a budget on life support, only allowing a limited number of policies to be funded. How could we explain to students that there is no Erasmus? How could we tell the regions that there is no cohesion money? How would we explain to the citizens that Europe is unable to act when it comes to climate and digital challenges, or that it lacks the means to protect our common borders effectively? No agreement in time would damage us all. Now is therefore the time for responsibility, to do everything to reach a good agreement as soon as possible. To achieve this we need to work together. As the Commission, we engaged with you from the beginning and we encouraged the Member States to listen to the European Parliament. We also agree with you that we need new resources to fund our ambitions. They are the win-win solution which might help to find a compromise. When President von der Leyen presented the agenda for a Europe that strives for more, you, as well as the Member States, promised the necessary support. Now is the time to give Europe the means to strive for more and to equip ourselves with sufficient shared resources. It is the time for everybody to recognise this and to stand up for realism, reason and responsibility. We need an agreement on the next long-term EU budget to secure the necessary funds to be able to act together, and we need this agreement fast. We in the European Commission know that we can count on you. Let us work together with the European Council to make this long-term budget a success for Europe and all Europeans.
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Madam President, I would like to reassure Ms Grapini that I will definitely inform the President and the College of Commissioners about the debate, which I think was marked by two very important elements, underlined in almost all interventions in this House. The first was a sense of urgency, and here I could not agree with you more. We need to get the budget as soon as possible; in my introductory remarks I already described to you the dire consequences of acting late. Therefore, we have also called on the President of the European Council to work closely with the Parliament and the Commission to hold the summit as soon as possible this time hopefully with a positive outcome. Second, I think a very important element, which I felt in all interventions, was the sense of ambition, that we simply want a Europe that strives for more, despite the fact that our British friends are leaving us. It was underlined in the interventions by Madame García Pérez that we need a budget of a sufficient overall size, and that as Mr Fernandes and Mr Lins underlined we need a budget which would enable us to respond to the challenges ahead because, as Ms McGuinness has said, if we don't have proper funding, how are we going to convince our farmers that we need to invest more in a Farm-to-Fork Strategy? How are we going to create that huge investment fund which we want to use to modernise Europe, to invest in the Green Deal project and to prepare the industry for this important twin transition digital and green that we are going through? We also need to be much better prepared for contingencies. I think it was underlined in the interventions by Ms Marques and Mr Cioloş that we need to have some flexibility in the budget to respond adequately to all the challenges and unexpected emergencies we have to face. Almost all of you referred to the situation at the Turkish-Greek borders and to the coronavirus. These are exactly the situations where European citizens expect us to act and act fast. I think that on both occasions we did our utmost and my dear colleague Ylva Johansson is here to debrief you on the details of the visit of the three Presidents to the Greek borders and on all the contingency planning we are doing in the Commission. I think that what is very important right now is to focus on the deal to focus on the agreement because I believe none of us want to disappoint our young generation and tell them that next year there is simply no Erasmus. Nobody wants to disappoint the citizens who came out to vote in such large numbers and who sent us a clear message to prepare Europe for the important Green Deal transition because, put simply, we need to lead by example and we are in the best position to do so. So all these are tasks which we have to deal with. We therefore hope that, together with you, in the spirit of the close cooperation we have had, we will be able to push for an ambitious budget a budget which responds to the expectations of our citizens. We agree with you that there is no time to lose. So thank you very much for your support. Let's cooperate very closely on this until we get the ambitious budget that Europe needs.
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Mr President, we are faced with an urgent and serious situation at our external borders. I am worried about the situation and I know that I share these concerns with you. It is absolutely necessary that we, the European Union, protect our external borders, but it's also absolutely necessary that we defend our fundamental rights and values, including the right to asylum. It's our legal and moral duty to do both and I can hear sometimes in the debate that there should be a contradiction between the these two, and that's not true. It's absolutely possible both to defend our external borders of course it's not Turkey that decides about the EU's external borders but it is also possible to combine this with the right to asylum and to stand up for fundamental human rights and for our values. I think that our most urgent concern is people, human beings. We need to support and protect people who are, right now, living under unacceptable conditions. In this situation, there are three things that we need to deliver at a European level. First, as I mentioned, support for people. We have a lot of people who are already in a difficult situation, who have been brought to the border under false pretences and are now in a very difficult situation. Even worse, I should say, is the situation for people on the islands, on the Greek islands, people in [inaudible] hotspots, living in unacceptable conditions and who have been doing so for quite a long time, vulnerable people. Also families with children; unaccompanied minors; people with sickness and disabilities. But let me also mention the islanders themselves, Greek citizens that are also under high pressure living on the islands. Second, support for Greece of course. Greece manages entry at our common EU border, and we are now facing politically-motivated pressure at the European external border. It's necessary that we support Greece, and we are supporting Greece, and we are now taking urgent measures in all these areas. And third, of course we must share responsibilities for supporting Syrian refugees, also in Turkey. As you all know, last week the Presidents of the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council and the Commission visited the Greek-Turkish and Bulgarian-Turkish borders, stressing our unity, commitment and solidarity. Last week also, the Commission presented an action plan on measures to be taken by the Union and the Member States together to provide critical support to Greece. As a result, together with the Member States and our agencies, we agreed on a number of concrete steps. First, we agreed to support Greece and other countries to handle this situation, to protect our external borders and support people. Greece is obliged to protect its borders and the EU external borders, but it also has to do this with proportionate measures. With the launch of two rapid border intervention operations by the European Border and Coast Guard at the land and sea borders between Greece and Turkey, an additional 100 border guards will be deployed as well as assets like helicopters and boats. Frontex stands ready to coordinate a new programme for the quick return of irregular migrants from Greece to countries of origin. The European Asylum Support Office is also ready to accelerate the deployment of experts to support in Greece. At the request of Greece, the Civil Protection Mechanism has been activated; 16 Member States have so far pledged support to Greece. That, I think, is European solidarity in action and in action quite quickly. Member States are assisting Greece by sending medical equipment, medical teams, shelters, tents, blankets, and a lot of other items that are needed. We also need to give financial support. The Commission will immediately make available EUR 350 million with a possibility to increase this by another 350 million through an amending budget, and this will be used to increase the reception capacity and the living conditions for the migrants on the islands and on the mainland. It will be used to support the provision of services such as healthcare, food provision and transportation, to support the Greek asylum service, and to strengthen the ongoing voluntary return programme. Tomorrow evening I will go to Greece and on Thursday I will meet with the Greek Minister and the authorities to discuss how we should implement this action plan, and of course I will also ask the Greek Government how they will act now to make sure that they comply with EU law and the right to asylum, and also with the principle of non-refoulement. Second, our relationship with Turkey. The EU-Turkish statement remains valid. We must continue our dialogue, we must de-escalate the rhetoric and decrease the tension. That involves finding a path forward with Turkey. The lines of communication with Turkey remain open and active. With Turkey, we share a joint responsibility for refugees and a joint commitment to the statement. That is why we're continuing a constructive engagement. As you all know, yesterday evening President von der Leyen and President Michel had a constructive dialogue with President Erdoğan. The two Presidents expressed very clearly to President Erdoğan their commitment to move forward with a perspective for migrants and stability in the region. On our side we are delivering on our commitments in the EU-Turkey statement by having provided safe and legal pathways to Europe for over 26 500 Syrian refugees, and by supporting schools, healthcare and basic services for Syrian refugees in Turkey. We must relieve the pressure that has been brought on the border, and the main way to do that is, of course, a dialogue together with Turkey, but we also must ensure that the right to asylum is respected. To conclude, let me say that the situation at the European external border towards Turkey is worrying, but I also must say that this is not 2015. We are much better prepared now to manage the situation because we know better what to expect. We have reinforced our agencies, we have strengthened, we now have Frontex, we have the European Asylum Support Office. We have more willingness to cooperate between Member States and we have stronger structures between the Member States. That's why it is possible for the European Union to react so quickly in support to Greece and to the external borders of the European Union. But let me also say that, even if we are much better prepared in 2015, we are not well prepared enough, and what we are lacking is a common European migration and asylum system. This is really a problem for us and this has been my task since I took office. I have had constructive dialogues with all the 27 Member States and a lot of dialogues here in this Parliament on this topic to find a compromise forward for a common approach so that we together will be better prepared to face migration and asylum together in the European Union. And I must say that these dialogues have been constructive. We all know it's a difficult task, of course, but at least I'm more optimistic now than before I started the dialogues and I'm preparing now the proposals and you can expect them to be presented after Easter. Let me conclude with one aspect; I think I share it with many of you. It is the situation for children and maybe especially those that are without their parents unaccompanied children, minors, teenagers. One third of all children arrive in Greece without parents or family, around 5 500 children and teenagers in total according to Europol; 10% are younger than 14 years old. They face violence, abuse and exploitation. Many of them just disappear from their asylum reception centres and we don't know where they are. I'm afraid that many of them fall into the hands of criminals. Sometimes the same criminals who traffic migrants also traffic people for sexual exploitation. Just imagine being a 15-year-old, fleeing, searching for a better life. Imagine how afraid you would be alone under these circumstances and at risk of being a victim for abuse and trafficking. My mission, together with the Greek Government, is to put in place a process to protect and care for these vulnerable children and teenagers. I want to find solutions that will help unaccompanied migrant minors, in particular on the Greek islands, with relocation to other Member States, with medical aid, with housing, with safety, protecting them from being victims of trafficking. On Thursday, I will be in Greece together with President von der Leyen. This is the aim of our purpose: to continue or to develop new ways to protect these unaccompanied minors. I call on all Member States to help these children and these youngsters and to welcome them. That's the spirit of solidarity we need that will see us through these difficult times.
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Mr President, I would like to thank the Council and Madam Commissioner for her very heartening speech. Today we are facing the consequences of four years of inertia: the government leaders who've been sitting on their hands since 2015 are now crying big crocodile tears because they've been cornered by Mr Erdoğan, which cannot come as a surprise. Europe has abandoned its citizens and Europe has betrayed its values. So now let's try and use this crisis to do better. I think that our adjusted work schedules should not be a reason for not doing our parliamentary job as a co-legislator and a budget authority. Firstly, we urgently need to relocate people from the islands, with priority for unaccompanied minors and families with children. I find the refusal of most Member States fortunately not all to relocate people from the islands an absolute disgrace. I would like to praise the local authorities. who have been a lot more generous and welcoming and very often wiser than their own national governments. Yes, Europe also has to renegotiate with Mr Erdoğan. Not a statement, which is basically no more than a press release, but a proper international, enforceable agreement under EU law and under the scrutiny of this House. But, more importantly, Europe needs its own asylum and migration policy and we're very interested to see what the European Commission will propose. But let's be clear: we're not in the business of rubber-stamping here. We will play our full role as a co-legislator and not sign on the dotted line. As for the EUR 700 million which have been so generously promised by the Commission and Council, we would like to know, again as the budget authority, what the money is for before we sign up for the EUR 350 million. Finally, all allegations of violence by the authorities and that includes Frontex will have to be investigated by an independent authority. Colleagues, let's use this crisis to end the paralysis and let's show the citizens that we can deliver.
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Mr President, what we're witnessing here is a humanitarian catastrophe in many dimensions. We have one catastrophe of a humanitarian dimension at the Greek-Turkish border, but we also have one on the Greek islands, and we have one let's not forget about that in northern Syria around Idlib. It's the fate of those women, of men and children that is the crisis, and that is what we need to care about. It is shocking that Europe will only care about refugees when they pose a problem at our own borders. It is shocking how Europe answers people in need with tear gas, with breaking the law and with suspending human rights. Is that what we really want to be? Those who are fleeing from a war, those who need protection, and those who are living in unbearable conditions on Greek islands or anywhere else, they need our solidarity. The EU needs to support the Member States on the borders, but it completely fails if this support is understood as just more policing and keeping people out. Rather, the EU should support Greece with applying international law by a rapid redistribution of the people trapped on the islands or at the border. The EU should focus on safely distributing the refugees. Hundreds of municipalities all across Europe have volunteered to accommodate refugees. They are real heroes, and those communities deserve our praise and they deserve our support. Europe cannot just turn a blind eye if it wants to be worth anything. It needs to help because we are all human beings and we are all equal.
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Mr President, I would like to thank the honourable Members for this debate. We are, for sure, in a difficult and worrying situation and I'm sorry to say there are no simple solutions. But there are concrete and possible ways forward, and the EU and the Member States have acted quite quickly in solidarity with Greece and in support of those people in need in Greece, and I'm quite proud that we have been able to do that. I will not repeat what I said in my introductory speech because many of you have asked the same questions that are actually addressed there, but let me just say these things. We need secure external borders. They must be staffed well and managed well. Therefore, Frontex has an important role to play, and it's important that the standing corps become a reality. With Member States supporting Greece, the European Union can stand strong because we stand together, but the reason that we can stand strong is because of our values. We must show that the EU holds fast the fundamental rights even in difficult times. The circumstances that the Greek border is under are serious and exceptional, but the right to asylum is a fundamental right and enshrined in the EU Treaty and international law. I expect Greece to comply with fundamental rights and with the right to access the asylum process. As already mentioned, I'm going to Greece to hold discussions with the Greek Government on Thursday, and the following day the Justice and Home Affairs Council will meet to discuss further initiatives to be taken together. I was asked here about the extra money that we would like to allocate if needed to the Greece Action Plan, and this is of course something that we need to discuss together with Parliament. If necessary, it would be aimed at providing even more money than the first EUR 350 million. Hopefully we can achieve a more stable situation, but we have to be prepared, because what we need is de-escalation, dialogue and concrete actions. I hear many of you argue for a new deal on migration and asylum to be presented soon arguing for the importance of getting out of the impasse that we have been in for many years in Council and for agreement to be reached on a sustainable common European migration and asylum policy with the right balance between solidarity and responsibility. I fully agree with this. Since the von der Leyen Commission took office on 1 December, I have worked very, very hard to find a fresh start for this new agreement that I hope to present after Easter. I have been in dialogue with all 27 Member States this has involved a lot of travelling but was before the coronavirus, so it was easier and I have lots of dialogues with Parliament, and I hope for more good dialogue to find a solution that is sustainable for a common European approach, because this is what we really need. To conclude, I would like to say this. Many of you have stressed the importance of relocation of vulnerable , especially from the overcrowded camps on the Greek islands. I do share this view. It's of fundamental importance. Member States have shown strong solidarity and support for Greece that is now under pressure to protect its external borders with Turkey, which are also EU external borders and therefore very important. I now call on the Member States on all Member States to show the same solidarity and support towards the vulnerable, the minors, in refugee camps that need to be relocated and welcomed in other Member States.
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Monsieur le Président, Mesdames et Messieurs les députés, je tiens tout d'abord à remercier tous ceux qui ont rendu possible cette séance extraordinaire, dans ces conditions tout aussi extraordinaires. Il est difficile de réaliser à quel point et de quelle façon le monde a changé depuis notre dernier rendez-vous. En un clin d'oeil, un virus qui apparaît à l'autre bout du monde devient une pandémie tueuse aux conséquences tragiques ici aussi en Europe. D'un jour à l'autre, nos modes de vie ont changé. Nos rues se sont vidées. Nos portes se sont fermées. Et nous sommes passés de la routine quotidienne au combat de notre vie. Pendant ce temps, nous avons vu la fragilité de la vie mise à nu sous nos yeux. Et nous avons vu une tragédie au cœur de l'Europe, d'une ampleur inimaginable il y a quelques semaines encore. Je suis de tout coeur avec toutes les victimes et tous leurs proches et nos pensées, nos meilleurs vœux vont à ceux qui luttent pour leur vie en ce moment ou qui sont malades chez eux. Mais si le virus frappe fort, les citoyens européens sont aussi puissants. Je tiens à rendre hommage aux hommes et aux femmes qui mènent ce combat. Je pense aux infirmières, aux médecins et aux aides-soignants en Italie, en Espagne, dans toute l'Europe, qui ont couru vers le danger sans se poser la moindre question. Ces héros qui mettent tout en jeu jour après jour pour sauver nos parents, pour sauver nos grands-parents, les amis et les collègues, les voisins et les étrangers. L'Europe vous doit à tous une dette de gratitude. Aux remplisseurs de rayons et aux ramasseurs de poubelles, aux assistants funéraires et aux assistants d'éducation, aux camionneurs et aux nettoyeurs, aux ouvriers et aux boulangers, à tous ceux qui aident notre monde à tourner, l'Europe vous doit à tous une dette de gratitude. But what is unique about this fight is that every single one of us has a role to play. Every single one of us can help repay that debt by keeping our distance, we can slow down the spread of the virus. The numbers in the last few days have shown that we can bend the trend, but only if we all do our share. Yes, it is painful to stay away from our family, especially when we are worried about their physical and their mental health. And, yes, it is painful for those for whom home is not a happy or a safe place to be. It is painful for those who have plans put on hold, or things they worked so hard for, cast into doubt. But this is why I am convinced that while we may be sitting further apart than usual, we must work closer together than ever before. We must look out for each other. We must pull each other through this because if there's one thing that is more contagious than this virus, it is love and compassion. And, in the face of adversity, the people of Europe are showing how strong that can be. Small acts of kindness, compassion, solidarity are helping to spread hope through all Europe. From volunteering, to balcony singing; from sending postcards, to the lonely to shopping for the elderly; from hotels offering their beds for free, to restaurants donating their food; from luxury perfumes and vodka producers making sanitising gel; to car makers and fashion houses producing masks. This is the example that the European Union must follow. By each doing our little bit, we can truly help each other a lot. And our role as Europe's institutions, policy-makers and leaders is to show that same trust, that same unity and that same leadership. We all share this responsibility. None of us can do it alone. And, certainly, no Member State can handle this crisis on their own. Because in this crisis, and in our Union more generally, it is only by helping each other, that we can help ourselves. But the story from the last few weeks is partly a painful one to tell. When Europe really needed to be there for each other, too many initially looked out for themselves. When Europe really needed an 'all-for-one' spirit, too many initially gave an 'only-for-me' response. And when Europe really needed to prove that this is not only a fair-weather union, too many initially refused to share their umbrella. But it was not long before some felt the consequences of their own uncoordinated action and this is why over the last few weeks, we took exceptional and extraordinary measures to coordinate and enable the action that is needed. Since then, things are improving, and Member States are starting to help each other to help themselves. Europe is now really stepping up, but the people of Europe are watching what happens next. And we all know what is at stake. What we do now matters for today, as well as for the future. The outbreak of the Corona virus is first and foremost a public-health emergency and we will stop at nothing to save lives. To do that, we are lucky to have, and to be able to rely on, the best health-care professionals in the world from Milan to Madrid and beyond. They are producing miracles every single day. But as we have seen, both there and elsewhere, the scale of the outbreak is stretching them to breaking point. They urgently need equipment, the right equipment, they need the right amount of it and they need it right now. But instead of that, what we saw was crucial equipment stuck in bottlenecks or at borders for days, and this is why we had to take matters into our own hands, as far as we could, to relieve these blockades. This is why we are creating the first ever European stockpile of medical equipment, such as ventilators, masks and lab supplies. The Commission will finance 90% of this stockpile through rescEU. This is why we launched several joint procurement with Member States for testing kits, ventilators and protective equipment. Twenty-five Member States joined the latter and there: good news. Since Tuesday, we know that their demands for masks, gloves, goggles and face shields can be matched by the producers. The first deliveries should start in the coming weeks. And because knowledge saves lives in a pandemic, we set up a European team of scientists experts to help us come up with coordinated measures that we all can follow. I personally chair these discussions twice a week. Doing so has only deepened my conviction that we will need to draw on all that makes us strong to get through this together and then to get back on our feet again. We have no stronger asset for this than our unique single market. A successful European response can only be coordinated if our internal market and our Schengen Area work the way they should. A crisis without borders cannot be resolved by putting barriers between us. And yet, this is exactly the first reflex that many European countries have. This simply makes no sense, because there is not one single Member State that can meet its own needs when it comes to vital medical supplies and equipment. Not one. The free movement of goods and services is therefore our strongest and, frankly, our only asset to ensure supplies can go where they are needed most. It makes no sense that some countries unilaterally decided to stop exports to others in the internal market. And this is why the Commission intervened when a number of countries blocked exports of protective equipment to Italy. It is why we issued guidelines for border measures to protect health and keep goods and essential services available. It is why we are calling for priority green lanes for transport of goods. These will ensure that crossing the border takes no more than 15 minutes, and they will help ensure that goods and supplies can go where they are needed, and we all can avoid shortages. It pains me that we had to do this, but our coordinated approach is now bearing fruit. The internal market is already functioning better, and we all welcome the news that hospitals in Saxony and took patients from Lombardy while others from the Grand-Est in France are now being treated in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. This only goes to prove that it is only by helping each other that we can help ourselves. The whole set of measures that we have taken reflects the unprecedented situation we're all in. But as I said earlier, the people of Europe are watching what happens next. And they, of course, want us to do everything we can to save as many lives as we can, but they are also thinking about the day after. They are thinking about what job will they have to go back to, what will happen to their business and to their employers? What will happen to their savings and their mortgage? They will worry about their parents, their neighbour, their local community. They will know that their governments had to make difficult decisions to save lives, yes. But they will also remember who was there for them and who was not. And they will remember those that acted and those who did not. And they will remember the decisions that we take today, or those we will not. The point is that sometime soon there will be a day after. And our job is to make sure, that on that day, and on all that follow it, the European Union is there for those who need it. What do we do now really matters and this is why we launched the Corona virus response investment initiative to help direct EUR 37 billion to mitigate the impact of the crisis, to save lives, jobs and businesses. This is why we adopted the most flexible ever temporary rules on state aid: to enable Member States to give a lifeline to their businesses. The first cases were approved in record time within a matter of hours. This is why, for the first time in our history, we have activated the general escape clause in the Stability and Growth Pact. That means that Member States can use all the firepower they have to support those in work, or those out of work, to support businesses, small and big, and to support people through these tough times. Meine Damen und Herren Abgeordneten! Das ist das Europa, an das sich die Menschen am Tag danach erinnern sollen: ein Europa, das im Schnelldurchlauf arbeitet, wenn es sich so anfühlt, als hätte die ganze Welt auf Pause gedrückt. Ein Europa, das für seine Menschen und Mitgliedstaaten da ist, wenn sie es dringend brauchen. Ein Europa, das Einfühlungsvermögen hat und Mitgefühl über alles andere stellt. Ein Europa, das in Zeiten der Not widerstandsfähig und selbstlos zugleich ist. Das ist das Europa, das ich mir wünsche. Es ist exakt jenes Europa, von dem unsere Gründungsväter und Gründungsmütter in der Asche des Zweiten Weltkriegs träumten. Als sie diese Union aus Menschen und Nationen schufen, stand ihnen schmerzlich vor Augen, wohin Selbstsucht und übertrieben nationales Denken führen können. Es ging ihnen darum, ein Bündnis zu schmieden, in dem aus gegenseitigem Vertrauen gemeinsame Stärke wächst das war ihr großer Gedanke, aus dem binnen Jahrzehnten eine einzige Gemeinschaft in Freiheit und Frieden entstand: unsere Europäische Union. Und heute, angesichts eines unsichtbaren Feindes, werden diese Grundwerte unserer Union auf die Probe gestellt. Wir müssen uns alle aufeinander verlassen können! Wir müssen uns wieder alle gegenseitig durch die harten Zeiten helfen. Im Augenblick ist es unsere allererste Pflicht und Priorität, das Leben und die Existenzgrundlagen der Europäerinnen und Europäer zu retten. Aber der Tag wird kommen und ich hoffe, in nicht allzu ferner Zukunft , an dem wir nach vorne blicken und gemeinsam den Aufschwung gestalten müssen. Und dann werden wir Lehren ziehen und entscheiden müssen, was für eine Europäische Union wir künftig wollen. Und wenn wir das tun, dann sollten wir uns nicht auf die falsche Debatte einlassen, ob wir mehr oder ob wir weniger Europa brauchen. Wir sollten uns lieber darauf konzentrieren, wie wir diesen Sturm nutzen können, um sicherzustellen, dass wir dem nächsten besser standhalten können. Denn der Wunsch nach einer widerstandsfähigen und einer lebenswerten Heimat Europa eint uns doch alle ob Nord oder Süd oder Ost oder West. Und seien wir uns bewusst: Die Entscheidungen, die wir heute treffen, die werden lange in Erinnerung bleiben, und sie werden das Fundament unserer Europäischen Union von morgen prägen. Wir stehen an einer Weggabelung: Wird uns dieses Virus endgültig in Arm und Reich spalten, in die Wohlhabenden und die Habenichtse, oder werden wir ein starker Kontinent bleiben, ein ernst zu nehmender Akteur auf dieser Welt? Können wir aus dieser Lage vielleicht sogar stärker und besser herauskommen? Können wir unsere Gemeinschaften angesichts der Krise näher zusammenrücken lassen? Können unsere Demokratien an Ansehen gewinnen? Und wenn man sich die vielen Akte der Zuwendung, der Freundlichkeit und des menschlichen Anstands in ganz Europa anschaut, dann sieht man, dass wir allen Grund haben, optimistisch in die Zukunft zu schauen. Unser Europa hat alles in der Hand, was nötig ist. Und wir sind bereit, alles zu tun, was nötig ist, um diese Krise zu meistern! Verehrte Abgeordnete, in den letzten Tagen haben viele von Ihnen das Zitat von Jean Monnet über das Schmieden Europas in den Zeiten der Krise verwendet, und das gilt auch heute! Aber es gibt ein weiteres Zitat von einem anderen Gründungsvater, das meiner Meinung nach ebenfalls zusammenfasst, wo wir heute stehen. Konrad Adenauer sagte: „Geschichte ist auch die Summe der Dinge, die man hätte vermeiden können.“ Liebe Freundinnen und Freunde, die Geschichte schaut auf uns. Lassen Sie uns gemeinsam das Richtige tun, mit einem großen Herzen und nicht mit siebenundzwanzig kleinen! Lang lebe Europa! Vive l´Europe! Long live Europe!
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Mr President, in these dire times, my sympathy and that of all my Group and I'm sure all this House goes to the victims of COVID-19 and to their families. Our thanks and gratitude go to all the workers on the front lines for tackling this crisis and for ensuring the basic functioning of our society, even in times of a lockdown. Thanks and gratitude are, however, not enough. This crisis makes clear how much we all depend on the tremendous work of often underpaid and overworked people, be it in hospitals, shops or care facilities. We must reflect our gratitude by ensuring the improvement of their pay and of their working conditions. In times of crisis, we need solidarity among neighbours, among citizens and also among EU Member States and it took a long time before solidarity started to appear. First, there were acts that were the opposite export bans for medical equipment, and border closures that left people desperately trying to get home, stranded at borders for hours and days in very unsafe sanitary conditions. Luckily, this has finally changed. Now countries are starting to learn from each other sending medical supplies and treating patients from different countries. This is what European solidarity looks like, and we urge all Member States with available capacities to support such actions and relieve those hardest hit. What is more, European solidarity must not stop at EU borders. In particular, support, including financial, technical and medical, should be extended to the countries that are working to join the EU in the future. In these dark times, the EU must stand in solidarity with the Western Balkans. While many of the measures necessary right now fall under national competence, there's quite a lot of things that the EU can and should do at this moment, including coordinating the response actions of Member States, as well as pooling best practices in supporting those groups most impacted by the corona crisis. The single market must reinforce the efforts to tackle the crisis. Intense cooperation must exist between the EU institutions and Member States to ensure that medical supplies, food and other essential goods can move freely across borders to meet needs across the EU. The economic consequences will be very serious. The EU and the Member States have to think outside of their self-imposed limits and be courageous and be creative in finding and delivering the medical, social and economic means to overcome COVID-19. This includes using every financial instrument at our disposal to support the millions of people who lost their job or lost their income because of this crisis. To help the hardest-hit countries, we need common bonds like the corona bonds, so that Italy, but also other countries, can get back on their feet and further economic turmoil in the eurozone can be prevented. Extraordinary times need extraordinary measures and, to fight the spread of the virus, restrictions have been put into place. However, restrictions on fundamental rights to fight this outbreak must be as limited as possible. They must be effective, necessary and proportionate. We must not allow this crisis to be used as a pretext for undermining democratic checks and balances. Governments need to remain accountable to democratically elected parliaments and to the people that they serve, especially in times of crisis. Solidarity means that we have a responsibility not to forget the most vulnerable groups in our societies, such as women and children who are not safe at home, homeless people, people living in extreme poverty, but also refugees, who often live in overcrowded facilities. It is especially worrying to see the situation in many Greek islands, where refugees live in unbearable conditions without any or much access to sanitary facilities or to medical support. Those islands need to be evacuated immediately before a big humanitarian catastrophe happens as a result of COVID-19 spreading to camps, where sanitation and isolation is impossible. Many towns and many communities all over Europe are very ready to accommodate refugees. Member States should finally allow them to help. Together, with solidarity, we will overcome this crisis one day, but when the immediate threat is lowered, there will still be things to do. We will have to help the economy to recover from the severe shock with an investment plan that is also geared towards a social and ecological transition. We will have to draw the lessons from the crisis. While today is not the day for us to see all the consequences and all the lessons that we should draw from this, there are some lessons that are very obvious already, for example, that people who do work that is of absolute importance to all of us like health workers, cleaners, supermarket workers, etc. need to be valued according to their importance, not just by applauding them, but also by paying them fairly, i.e. much, much better. Our health system should not be subject to austerity and should not have to aim to gain profits. Hospitals, doctors and nurses are what we ultimately all depend on, and they need to be able to perform their tasks and have capacities and reserves. As I myself come from a medical family, both the daily struggles of the health system as well as the risks doctors and nurses are taking in these extraordinary times, strike close to home. The deep appreciation of medical care these days needs to continue post-crisis and to enable a better resourced medical system. This crisis is testing us all as citizens, as Member States, as Europe and while we have to physically stand apart, we can see a growing common spirit among people in Europe. All of Europe is mourning the victims of the virus. All of Europe is applauding the front-line workers. This crisis has brought Europeans together in their hearts. Now let's also make sure we are uniting Europe in our answers to this crisis, and we will prevail.
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Mr President, on behalf of the ECR Group, I want to express my sympathy with all citizens and companies affected by this pandemic. Firstly, I would like to welcome the emergency package of nearly EUR 40 billion from current funds in the EU budget. Let us, ladies and gentlemen, put pragmatism first. The Commission should radically restructure the Multiannual Financial Framework still under negotiation. Money assigned to climate policy has to be mobilised to address the Corona pandemic. We need more money for Corona and less for the climate law which Mr Timmermans presented here some time ago. To those pushing for the creation of eurobonds now called 'Corona bonds' through the European Stability Mechanism, I would like to say it is not an effective way to revitalise the European economy. Setting up mutualised bonds for monetary financing of national debt would require significant hurdles to overcome, not least in Germany, where these transfers would require the consent of the German Parliament. Again, pragmatism first: companies and people urgently need cash. The best way to proceed is to urge national central banks to provide credit at a zero interest rate. Bonds go to banks, but we need credit going straight to citizens and companies. Ms von der Leyen, perhaps I can ask you a question: because you invoked Konrad Adenauer, a Chancellor I very much respect, about what could we have done better what went wrong? And perhaps we have to ask the question and come to the conclusion that the EU was too late to take this crisis seriously. The United States took action. You criticised the United States for cutting the aviation connections with Europe. Later on the EU did the same. So were we too much focused on climate change and too little on the Corona crisis and therefore we were too late to take action? These are lessons we have to study, we have to discuss also in this Parliament, because this is the question that Konrad Adenauer would have asked right now.
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Mr President, I am watching with great concern what happens to Italy and what happens to Spain, because my country, Romania, has almost one million Romanian citizens living in Spain, and more than one million Romanian citizens living in Italy. I am watching with concern what happens to them, but I am watching with equal concern what happens to the people of Spain and to the people of Italy. And I'm watching with the same concern what happens in every single European country. We should all be concerned with what happens in every single corner of Europe, and the answer to this crisis is solidarity. The important question is: how can we achieve solidarity in this crisis? And my answer is: we can achieve solidarity through concrete measures. If the people of Europe, if the countries of Europe, see that we have concrete ideas at European level, ideas which help them, then they will follow us, then the countries of Europe and the people of Europe will stick together. The good news is that the European Commission proposed concrete actions less than two weeks ago, and we will adopt these. Two out of the three proposals which we will adopt today are linked to the budget of the European Union. And as Vice-President of the EPP Group responsible for budget, I say: our group will approve these proposals today. We will not make any amendments and we will reject any other amendments made which would delay the entry into force of these proposals. We will approve them today, and we want them to enter into force immediately. More can be done, there are still EUR 4.1 billion unused in the budget of the European Union of this year. And I call upon the European Commission to mobilise these resources, new resources, fresh resources, in the fight against coronavirus. We can allocate it to finance research to find a vaccine against coronavirus. We can allocate it to buy medical equipment. The President of the Commission has described that she has now the mechanism in place to do this. We can allocate it to help those in need, to help small and medium-sized enterprises. We should also prepare for the future. When we will be voting on the budget of the European Union for the next seven years, it should contain a reserve, a consistent reserve for a similar crisis in the future. Because in the next several years we will again face crises, which we cannot anticipate today, like we also could not anticipate the virus. So we need for the next several years a sufficient buffer to react to crises. To conclude: Europe means travelling, Europe means meeting people, Europe means visiting new countries, Europe means learning, Europe means listening to people, Europe means shaking hands, embracing each other. In order to be able to return to this as soon as possible, we need now to stop doing this for a limited period of time also, out of respect for the medical personnel, who are overcoming this crisis. We as a Parliament transmit a clear message, whenever needed in the future, we are ready to be back to work, to take concrete measures which help the people of Europe overcome this crisis.
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Mr President, medical staff all across Europe have been the heroes of this crisis, but a report published last month found that the European Commission made at least 63 demands on Member States to cut spending on health-care provision from 2011 to 2018 to meet the arbitrary debt and deficit targets of the Stability and Growth Pact. These rules have hollowed out public services across Europe, including health services. The President said that the Stability and Growth Pact and state aid rules will be relaxed but they should be abolished for good. The Commission proposes to use EUR 37 billion, drawn from various funds, but these funds and projects will be needed more than ever when the crisis ends. The crisis will cost Ireland at least EUR 15 billion. Will the citizens of Ireland will be paying for years to come? You printed money for the banks, will you print it for the people? President von der Leyen said the Commission will mobilise all existing budget resources, so will you reallocate military spending to fight COVID-19? The President says we must help each other. She said history is looking at us. Well, history will damn our lack of solidarity. Italy got more solidarity from China and Cuba than it got from Europe. It will damn us for failing to do enough to challenge US sanctions against countries like Iran and Venezuela. We have condemned them to die. Capitalism has failed the people. We cannot go back to where we were.
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Mr President, I am very pleased that Parliament is in session today, showing that democracy functions even in times of crisis. Of course, we will all keep a safe distance today so that together we can beat this monster. To those who say that the EU has done nothing, that's not true: the EU has acted. Today, we're voting on a package for financial assistance on relief for airlines. The Commission has been creating green lanes at borders and giving money to researchers to develop a vaccine, and the European Central Bank has taken out its extra big EUR 750 billion bazooka. But at the same time, people are understandably disappointed to see 27 different lockdown regimes, long queues at closed borders and governments bickering over masks and test kits. They see how Europe turns to China and the Russian army for medical supplies and to American tech giants for teleworking and social media. And even at a time like this, unfortunately, nationalist reflexes get the upper hand. No solidarity, no unity. A divided intergovernmental Europe is a weak Europe, and a minimal, technocratic Europe is unable to give the political responses needed to fight the virus. Of course, our first priority is to fight this crisis now and ensure health and safety for all Europeans. But we also have to draw the lessons: the choices we make today will determine the readiness of the European Union for the new post-corona world order, and if we don't care to think about that now, I can tell you that the United States, Russia and China will. Once normal life resumes, Parliament should take the lead. As we did after the financial crisis, we should invite the government leaders to come to this plenary and debate with us how to fundamentally not reform, but transform the European Union and make it ready for the new post-corona world order.
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Mr President, let me start also by expressing clear solidarity with all families, all Europeans, who are going through this terrible ordeal. I would also like to express my gratitude to the heroes of the day: the doctors, medical personnel first and foremost but also the police, soldiers, shopkeepers and people working in critical areas so that we can actually telework from home. I would like to thank the European Parliament, all of you who are here, and also those who are looking at us through their teleworking stations and are participating in our work by this new way of remote voting. I think it's extremely important to send the signal to European citizens that the institutions are working, that we have found a way to operate under these difficult conditions and that we can, and know how to, adopt the decisions which are so crucial for our citizens. I really would like also to thank Mr Gonzáles Pons, Mr Moreno Sánchez, Ms De Lange and Mr Benifei who realise that we are in a completely new set-up and that we in the European Commission are really doing our utmost, in close cooperation with you, to find the best responses to this unprecedented situation. To Mr Bay and Mr Dzhambazki, I would say that the whole world was not prepared just look at how we are all struggling. But I think that we really mobilised very quickly and we found a way how best to share our responsibilities, because you know what the Treaty says about responsibility for the health sector. I mean this is not a blame-game. This is not about shifting responsibilities. We simply have to work together. I'm very pleased also that the predominant tone in the discussion today was how we can do this better. I'm very glad that we are hearing the same echoes coming from our Member States. I would like to reassure Mr Botenga that our model for acting under these difficult circumstances is 'let's do whatever it takes' to tackle the crisis and to emerge from this traumatic situation stronger. We are working on the very concrete measures that Madame Ries, Madame Aubry, and Mr Mureșan were asking for, because we are fully realising that through concrete measures we can show that we are operational, we can deliver, and that cooperation at European level brings much better results than individual actions by Member States. The President of the Commission has highlighted a few of the measures, but to give you more concrete figures from yesterday's college discussions: First, what we needed to do is actually to map out how much of this medical equipment we need. How many masks? How many respirators do we need for our operations? To give you the preliminary conclusions of these analyses: we need 200 million masks, we need 30 million respirators, weekly, for at least 3 months. The good news is that this joint procurement has worked and we will be able to have them for a reasonable price and we will be able to distribute them to the Member States very soon. The same goes for the ventilators. We need at least 15 000 for the next three months. Unfortunately, we have something like half of that. But again, yesterday, we had very thorough discussions with the producers, exporters and importers of this equipment and we are pretty sure that very soon we will be able to help our Member States also with this crucial technology. The first lesson we learned from this crisis was that our civic mechanism is not working if none of our Member States is in a position to help because of limited stockpiles. I think that we need to learn from that and therefore we are establishing the strategic reserve for this medical equipment, which will be open within days we already have medical supplies worth EUR 10 million and which would be under our jurisdiction, so it would not mean a request to the Member State that supplies the equipment, but it will be our decision to supply those Member States, those sectors, which would need it the most. I think that this idea, as Ms in 't Veld was suggesting, should be developed further as we need these strategic reserves for all sensitive equipment for the future, for when we need it. On top of this current situation, we are working on two strands. The first is of course all the measures which we need to tackle the health aspects of the crisis, but at the same time we are also working on the economic aspect, which I think will be with us for quite a few months to come. First and foremost, we want to make sure that all this sensitive medical equipment will be manufactured predominantly here in Europe so we will not be so dependent on imports from third countries. We talked to the industry and we have been encouraged by the positive response. We believe that within three to four months we should be able to produce this sensitive equipment here in Europe so we can be much more autonomous in our decision taking. Then, of course, we need to take care of the macroeconomic situation. Here our focus is on making sure that it would provide enough liquidity for our financial systems. To respond to Mr Wallace, this is not for banks, but for businesses, for SMEs, so they can keep their operations open, and to protect jobs because we are fully aware that once a job is lost it is very difficult to recreate it. So we are working on making sure that as few people as possible will lose their jobs because of the coronavirus crisis. Several of you mentioned the bazooka from the European Central Bank. I would just add that in addition to the EUR 750 million there are another EUR 2 billion euros and some other programmes offered by the ECB, so all together the response just from the ECB is in the area of EUR 1 trillion. We are working very closely with the EIB, and thanks to our financial contribution the EIB is developing a programme worth EUR 200 billion in loans especially aimed at SMEs because we know that they are the main employer in the European Union. We are also, of course, looking into ways to help big industries as well. If I may, I will use this opportunity to call on the governments in central and eastern Europe to talk to the European Commission, to develop their crisis schemes, just as other countries in western and southern Europe already have done, which we in an express manner, thanks to the great work of Vice-President Vestager approved as legal State aid. We discussed yesterday how we can help them to develop these programmes, these schemes. We are ready to do that in the European Commission. I hope that also the governments from these countries will come to us so that we can together develop recovery plans, which are needed for every single Member State. Concerning vaccines and concerning coronavirus response systems, we have already allocated some quite substantial sums of money and we are working very closely in a very special advisory group working with our President to see where the leading epidemiologists and virologists are to develop the vaccine. We are also ready to make sure that we protect our critical industries in these times of a stock exchange rollercoaster, were they to be faced with hostile takeovers. We simply won't let this happen, and I believe that the European Parliament will help us in that effort. When I was here a few weeks ago, my last intervention in this Chamber was on the multiannual financial perspective. I agree totally with Mr Eppink that now is the time to decide. We need the budget. We need seven years' financial perspective so we can plan the recovery of Europe and we can tackle better the emergencies of today. I would just remind the general public in the European Union that we are in the last year of the seven-year budget and we are very much limited by financial constraints as to how much we can do. So I hope that the video conference of the leaders this afternoon, which should be very much focused, naturally, on tackling the coronavirus, will also be tackling the issue of how we are going to tackle this virus from the economic and financial point of view. For that we need the MFF, and I hope that this crisis will make it crystal clear to our leaders that we need good progress at that level. To conclude, Mr President, I would finish on the point made by Ms in 't Veld. I think that history teaches us that the best responses to post-crisis development have been prepared during crises. Of course, now we have to focus on the daily management, on how to tackle this crisis and how to make this nightmare go away as quickly and with as few victims as possible. But at the same time we need to start reflecting on what will be next how the world will change, how Europe will change, what our position will be on this new global map and how we will make sure that Europe emerges stronger via a strong recovery plan, by more technological autonomy, by greater strategic sovereignty. As you know, I'm responsible for foresight in the European Commission, and I would like to assure you that these are exactly the ideas we are working on. Once we have something more concrete it will be my pleasure to share it with this House as well. Thank you very much, Mr President, and thank you all for coming here or for supporting us from your teleworking stations. Thanks to the interpreters and to all the staff from Protocol and to the technical operators who have made our session today possible.
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Commission Monsieur le Président du Parlement, Monsieur le Président du Conseil, Mesdames et Messieurs les députés, nous n'avons pas assez de mots pour parler de la douleur de l'Europe et de la souffrance du monde. Nous pensons à toutes les victimes et nous prions pour toutes les familles en deuil. Nous nous promettons de raconter leur histoire, d'honorer leurs vies et leur mémoire. Nous nous souviendrons toujours de chacune d'entre elles. Nous nous souviendrons de Julie, la jeune Française, avec toute sa vie devant elle, et de Yann, l'historien tchèque qui s'est toujours battu pour ses valeurs, ou encore de Gino, le médecin italien retraité qui est revenu sur le terrain pour sauver la vie des autres. Nous nous souviendrons du geste incroyable de Suzanne, en Belgique, qui a laissé son respirateur aux plus jeunes et de l'image de Francis, faisant ses adieux à son frère à travers une fenêtre d'hôpital, en Irlande. Nous nous souviendrons de la jeune maman polonaise qui ne verra pas son bébé grandir et du jeune entraîneur de football espagnol qui ne verra pas son rêve se réaliser. Nous ne les oublierons jamais, les mères, les pères, les sœurs et les frères, les jeunes et les aînés du nord ou du sud, de l'est ou de l'ouest, les amis et les collègues, les voisins d'à côté et les étrangers de plus loin, ceux qui ont des choses à dire et des choses à voir, ceux sur l'épaule de qui on pleure et de l'amour desquels on dépend. Chacune de ces dizaines de milliers d'histoires brise un petit morceau de notre cœur mais elle renforce aussi notre détermination pour que l'Europe fasse tout son possible pour sauver toutes les vies possibles. You cannot overcome a pandemic of this speed and this scale without the truth. The truth about everything: the numbers, the science, the outlook but also about our own actions. Yes, it is true that no one was really ready for this. It is also true that too many were not there on time when Italy a needed a helping hand at the very beginning. And yes, for that, it is right that Europe as a whole offers a heartfelt apology. But saying sorry only counts for something if it changes behaviour, and the truth is, too, that it did not take long before everyone realised that we must protect each other to protect ourselves. And the truth is that Europe has now become the world's beating heart of solidarity. The true Europe is standing up: the one that is there for each other when it is needed the most. The one where paramedics from Poland and doctors from Romania save lives in Italy. Where ventilators from Germany provide a lifeline in Spain. Where hospitals in Czechia treat the sick from France. And where patients from Bergamo are flown to clinics in Bonn. We have seen medical supplies go from Lithuania to Spain and respirators go from Denmark to Italy. In fact, we have seen every piece of equipment go in every direction across Europe, from whoever can spare it to whoever needs it. This makes me proud to be European. Of course, there are still some who want to point fingers and deflect blame. And there are others who would rather talk like populists than tell unpopular truths. To this I say: 'Stop it stop and have the courage to tell the truth. Have the courage to stand up for Europe'. Because this Union of ours will get us through. But it will only be as strong tomorrow as we make it today. And if you need inspiration, just look at the way the people of Europe are standing together with empathy, humility and humanity. And I pay tribute to all of them. To the delivery drivers and the food suppliers. The shopkeepers, the factory packers and the balcony clappers. The companies changing their production lines to make the supplies we urgently need. I pay tribute to the Portuguese volunteers sewing masks for their neighbours, or the seven-year-old Greek pianist who composed an 'isolation waltz' to keep people going. Above all else I thank and I pay tribute to our heroes: the medics, the nurses, the careworkers. They are the ones with bruises on their faces and tragic images in their minds. The ones holding the hands of the sick as softly and as lovingly as the families that cannot be there. They are the ones saving our lives and saving our honour. The ones we must protect so that they can protect us all. Und genau darauf konzentrieren wir uns. Deswegen legen wir jetzt einen gemeinsamen Vorrat an medizinischer Ausrüstung an. Deswegen investieren wir gemeinsam in Forschung nach Impfstoffen. Deshalb kümmern wir uns zentral um die Beschaffung der am dringendsten benötigten Güter am Weltmarkt. Und deswegen haben wir ein Team der besten Expertinnen und Experten aus ganz Europa zusammengestellt, die regelmäßig ihr Wissen teilen, das Leben retten kann. Aus diesem Grund verzichten wir auf Zölle und Mehrwertsteuer bei der Einfuhr von medizinischem Gerät aus Drittstaaten. Und das ist auch der Grund, warum wir Anfang dieses Monats ein einfaches, aber großes Versprechen abgegeben haben: Wir werden jeden verfügbaren Euro, den wir haben, auf jede erdenkliche Weise nutzen, um Leben zu retten und die Lebensgrundlagen der Europäerinnen und Europäer zu schützen. Deswegen haben wir vorgeschlagen, sämtliche noch verfügbaren Mittel des aktuellen Haushalts in ein Notprogramm zu lenken. Dadurch können fast 3 Milliarden Euro direkt dorthin fließen, wo sie gebraucht werden: in neue Beatmungsgeräte und Schutzausrüstung, in mehr Tests und mehr medizinische Hilfe für die Schwächsten, einschließlich derer, die in den Flüchtlingslagern warten. Deswegen schlagen wir vor, jeden verfügbaren Euro aus den europäischen Struktur- und Investitionsfonds zur Bewältigung der Corona-Krise einzusetzen. Das bedeutet, dass wir volle Flexibilität ermöglichen: Die Mittel können in anderen Regionen eingesetzt werden. Sie können überall eingesetzt werden, wo sie am dringendsten gebraucht werden, unabhängig von den sonst üblichen Schranken wie Kofinanzierung, Zweckbindung oder Obergrenzen. Mit diesem Paket, über das dieses Haus heute abstimmen wird, geht Europa an die Grenzen seiner Möglichkeiten. And the same principle applies to protecting people's livelihoods. Europe has had economic crises before. But we have never had an economic shutdown like this. Nobody is to blame and everybody will need support. We need unprecedented measures to do this and to make sure our economy is ready to bounce forward as soon as possible. And here again, the truth matters. Europe has done more in the last four weeks than it did in the first four years of the last crisis. We have made our state aid rules more flexible than ever. In the last few days alone, we have approved schemes that will provide EUR 1 billion to Croatian businesses, EUR 1.2 billion for Greek SMEs or EUR 20 million to Portuguese fishermen. There are many more examples I could pick, from Latvia and Estonia to Belgium or Sweden. For the first time in our history, we triggered the full flexibility in the Stability and Growth Pact. Along with bold measures taken by the European Central Bank, this provides unprecedented fiscal and financial power. And last week's decision by EU finance means a further EUR 500 billion will be available to all of those who need it. As part of this, I urge all Member States to make the most of SURE the new scheme proposed by the Commission to protect Europeans against the risk of unemployment. It will provide EUR 100 billion to help governments make up the difference if your employer has reduced your hours or if you are self-employed and need support. The beauty of SURE is two-fold. First, it will help those in need to pay their rents, bills or food, and keep other businesses alive in the process. And second, it is the definition of European solidarity. The Member States that can, will put up guarantees so others can support the hardest hit in their countries. As a result of all of this action, Europe's collective response is well above EUR 3 trillion. This is the most impressive response anywhere in the world. But we know we will need more. A lot more. Because this will be a long haul, and the world of tomorrow will look very different from that of yesterday. I am convinced that Europe can shape this new world if it works together and rediscovers its pioneering spirit. And for this, I want to cite a sentence from the Ventotene Manifesto, written by two of Italy and Europe's greatest visionaries: Ernesto Rossi and Altiero Spinelli, one of our founding fathers. Writing from their prison on a remote island, at the height of the war, when all hope of a united Europe seemed lost, they gave us these words of confidence: 'the moment has arrived in which we must know how to discard old burdens, how to be ready for the new world that is coming, that will be so different from what we have imagined'. Dear friends, this moment has arrived once again. The moment to put behind us the old divisions, disputes and recriminations. To come out of our entrenched positions. The moment to be ready for that new world. To use all the power of our common spirit and the strength of our shared purposes. The starting point for this must be making our economies, societies and way of life more sustainable and resilient. Finding the answers in this new world will require courage, trust and solidarity. And it will need massive investment to jump-start our economies. We need a Marshall Plan for Europe's recovery, and it needs to be put in place immediately. There's only one instrument we have that is trusted by all Member States, which is already in place and can deliver quickly. It is transparent and it is time-tested as an instrument for cohesion, convergence and investment. And that is the European budget. The European budget will be the mothership of our recovery. And for that reason, the next seven-year budget must be different to what we have imagined, just as Spinelli said. We will use the power of the whole European budget to leverage the huge amount of investment we need to rebuild the Single Market after corona. We will frontload it so we can power that investment in those crucial first years of recovery. Because this crisis is different from any other one we have known. It is severely hitting completely healthy companies because public life has shutdown. And this is why we will need innovative solutions and more headroom in the MFF so it can unlock massive public and private investment. This will kick-start our economies and drive our recovery towards a more resilient, green and digital Europe. By that, we not only support but reshape our industries and services towards a new reality. It will mean investing in our digital technologies, infrastructure and in innovation, such as 3D printing, to help us to be more independent and make the most of new opportunities. And it also means doubling down on our growth strategy by investing in the European Green Deal. As the global recovery picks up, global warming will not slow down. First-mover advantage will count double and finding the right projects to invest in will be key. A more modern and circular economy will make us less dependent and boost our resilience. And this is the lesson we need to learn from this crisis. Investing in large-scale renovation, renewables, clean transport, sustainable food and nature restoration will be even more important than before. This is not only good for our economies, it is not only good for our environment, but it will reduce dependencies by shortening and diversifying supply chains. And we also need to keep another reality in mind. While the crisis is symmetric, recovery is not. Because not only the virus hits but also the economic shock. Some regions will bounce back and others will have a harder time. And therefore, cohesion and convergence will be more important than ever before. The single market and cohesion policy are the two sides of the same coin. You need both to ensure prosperity across the whole European Union. This is the Europe that I believe can emerge from this crisis. One that does everything it can to protect lives and livelihoods. One that is open to the world but can take care of itself. One that is more resilient, green and digital and that invests in its future together. This is the path to recovery. It will be a long road and the whole world will be trying to find its way. This crisis will likely redefine our politics, our geopolitics and possibly globalisation itself. And in this new world, Europe will need to stick together through thick and thin. And as I look around in our Union and I see all that humanity and that ingenuity, I know that we can and we will do just that. They say a strong soul shines bright after every storm. If we all stand up for Europe today with courage, trust and solidarity I know that tomorrow Europe's soul will shine brighter than ever before. Long live Europe. Vive l'Europe. Lang Leben Europa.
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Mr President, firstly, I would like to thank Ms von der Leyen and Mr Michel for their presence and thank them for their service and leadership in tackling this extraordinary challenge that we are facing. It is in times of crises that we are realising how limited and narrow the scope of our institutions actually is. Both of you have addressed the issue of the future of the European Union and the future depends on how we manage this crisis. Unfortunately, the EU does not have a great track record in crisis management. Unfortunately, the 2008 financial crisis continues to have long-lasting effects and the EU has made a mess of that. The repercussions are unbelievable and devastating, especially in the periphery of the eurozone. The migration issue was also mismanaged. Crisis management at the time of migration was a disaster, with lasting effects even today. We can only hope that the management of the coronavirus will be different. Mr Michel, you referred to pressure from the citizens to reform our institutions, and you are quite right. In the wake of the crisis, reform of the institutions is necessary, because if no reforms are going to be made, European citizens will write the European Union off and they will turn to solutions that appear simpler, clearer and more efficient. So, if the EU can't learn to adapt, its adversaries will be very quick to point out the problems and to capitalise on them. The post-COVID era must be built on cooperation, on the principle of solidarity as we have heard so many times today but also on subsidiarity, which entails dealing with issues at local level as much as possible. Certainly there are issues where the nation states are better positioned to act efficiently and effectively, but more and more of our challenges require broader cooperation, which require action at regional, continental and global level. Full institutional reform is inevitable, and whatever we do now, it has to prepare us for the future.
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Mr President, the last time I spoke in this room, I talked about the real heroes of this crisis, like my sister, who is an orthopaedic operation assistant and she would normally fix your knee or your hip, but she volunteered to assist in a corona ward in a hospital in Maastricht. And she has seen with her own eyes what this horrible virus does people who die alone, relatives who don't have access to their loved ones, and nurses and doctors trained to heal, losing their patients sometimes all of them on their watch. With all due respect to the Council who has actually left this debate now what she needs now is no theoretical, bureaucratic debate about the Single Market. Don't get me wrong: the Single Market needs to be at the core of our economic relaunch after this crisis, as do huge investments, the SURE initiative of the European Commission, the use of our budget as a true instrument of solidarity. Don't get me wrong. But what she needs right now are face masks, what she needs is protective equipment, and she needs a Europe with a heart that shows her that they can deliver and that we will never, ever, become as dependent as we are now on other parts of the world when it comes to the production of our core medicines and our protective equipment. What she needs is solidarity in action, and I'm thinking about the ICU patients who have been taken from the Netherlands to Germany, for example. She doesn't need to see the images of the Russia huggers of this continent pretending that Italy gets more support from Russia than they get from the EU. That is not true and we need to speak out about that. And, lastly, what she needs is a Europe that learns from its mistakes. There were mistakes made in the introduction of the measures against the coronavirus. One Member State doing one thing, a neighbouring country doing another thing. And the Council is going to repeat the same mistake. The Commission wanted to propose unity in an exit strategy and Member States tried to stop her. I say to the Commission: good for you that these guidelines are there. Stay strong and show my sister and all these others that Europe can learn from its mistakes. Be better and deliver.
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Mr President, the experience of the past two months has shown that no nation alone can win against this virus. Our response, the European response, has already made a difference on the ground. We have proven that solidarity can win over selfishness and we can help European people in need. Three weeks ago we stood in this Chamber and we granted EUR 37 billion to the fight against corona. And then, in this Chamber, I asked the President of the European Commission to do more. I said that more is needed and I asked her to allocate every single euro of the EUR 4 billion in reserve unused in the budget of the Union for 2020 to the fight against the coronavirus. And now the Commission is proposing exactly that. It proposes allocating more than EUR 3 billion to people in need and I think we should approve this. And we should approve it quickly. It will become law and it will reach those in need patients, doctors, hospitals. But I say more is needed. This is just the beginning and we should plan for the future. Europe should help where there is the biggest need and this is in hospitals. We see countries, we see regions, we see cities not capable of saving the lives of their citizens. People are looking at us. They are looking for solutions and I say I have a plan, I have a proposal. Let us create a European healthcare solidarity fund to invest in hospitals in need in every corner of Europe. I propose the creation of a EUR 50 billion fund which should improve the situation in hospitals in every corner of Europe and make sure that wherever people live in the European Union, they receive good healthcare. The question is, do we have the money? And my answer is of course we do. We should put the money where it is most needed saving the lives of the citizens of Europe. My Group proposes this as an amendment today to the resolution and I am asking all groups to unite behind this objective. Let's make this project a project of the European Parliament. Let us have the European Parliament of 2020 be remembered for creating a European healthcare fund which brings hope to the people of Europe and which saves lives.
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Mr President, I wanted to give a message to the President of the Commission, Ms von der Leyen, but she's no longer here. Why? Because I think that, rightly, she has spoken about the duties that our nurses, our medical people are fulfilling. But are we politicians fulfilling our duty? I'm not so sure about that because we have already been discussing this European master plan for many weeks in a row. My question is, what is the European Commission waiting for? Why can she not come forward with this trillion-sized European reconstruction and recovery plan? What is she waiting for? Is she waiting for the European Council? Then we may be waiting eight years, as is the case of the Banking Union, because there is still no banking union after the financial crisis. The European Council is playing ping pong. In February, the Eurogroup could not agree on that plan. They sent it to the European Council. Then in March, the European Council sent it back to the Eurogroup. Then the Eurogroup, in April, a few days ago, was not in agreement with that part of the plan and sent it back to the European Council. My message to the European Commission is that this has to stop. You have the right of initiative. Take your responsibility and come forward with what is asked by the whole Plenary here, that is a trillion-sized European recovery and reconstruction plan, not based on mutualisation of that, not guaranteed by the Member States they have no money anymore, they will all be in deficit but based on new own resources. It's an historical moment for the European Commission. We need a large type of initiative. You remember Delors. There was a big crisis, an economic stagflation crisis, and he launched the single market and it lifted us out of the crisis. The same is needed now. The European Commission has to act and not wait for the outcome of a Council that will not decide next week.
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Mr President, I would like to thank Mr Šefčovič for being here with us. In the beginning, let me express my strong respect for everyone who contributes to tackling this difficult situation. In the first part of my contribution, I would like to support the second coronavirus response package prepared by the Commission. It was prepared quickly and in line with the rigid Parliament committee recommendations, and as a result, it brings measures addressing the real needs of the citizens. Thank you for this excellent cooperation. In the second part, I would like to draw your attention to two great occasions related to COVID. Parts of the industry and energy sector have gone into serious existential risk. Facing the need to decrease the carbon footprint and at the same time to absorb the negative effects of the COVID crisis is a deadly mixture. Imagine, for example, regions whose economy is dependent on coal and tourism. The industrial and energy sector needs to survive and recover first, in order to be robust enough to succeed in the climate transition. Therefore, I most strongly welcome you, and encourage you to put forward a short-term suspension of the emissions trading system, for example between the years 2020-2022. With this step you would save employment and prevent an increase of energy poverty inside the EU; you would stabilise businesses and the regions most challenged with the climate transition; you would get the situation under control and you would deserve respect for it. Also, let me draw your attention to the European spas a unique sector combining medicine and tourism. This sector has enormous potential to improve public health, not only in general, but also specifically after the COVID disease. The spa sector has also been in serious difficulties and deserves strong and fast support. Any Commission initiative here will be most welcome.
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Mr President, we are right now at a time where we are talking a lot about solidarity, but unfortunately for the principle of solidarity, we need to prove that it is more than just a rhetorical exercise. That is in this period of Easter, about really taking care of one another. We have solidarity in our small communities back home. We need solidarity between different parts of our countries, we need solidarity between the states of the European Union. And this exercise related to solidarity is part of the fibre of the European Union. It's about the values that define us now. The crisis affects all of us, but not all of us have equal chances and tools to respond to the social and economic challenges generated by it. I'm saying this because 22% of the population of the European Union is at risk of poverty and social exclusion, including 25% one in four of children in the European Union. This current crisis may affect people throughout Europe, but it is actually affecting people that are often invisible in our society. Social distancing is not an option in overcrowded housing and poor neighbourhoods, and the loss of jobs can only further exacerbate poverty. Discrimination in terms of access to information and to basic services exposes these people to even greater risk of social exclusion and disease. Renew Europe militates for solidarity and also for the use of existing resources and mechanisms at European level to tackle this outbreak. We will vote in Parliament the amendments proposed by the European Commissioner to regulation 223 on the fund for European aid to the most deprived. The proposed changes would bring flexibility to the instrument, additional funding applying the 100% co-financing rate and will cut red tape all these measures are part of the timely response, and we need to communicate that to the European citizens.
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Mr President, this virus knows no borders, but it does know heroes: our doctors, nurses, paramedics, pharmacists, scientists, cleaners, delivery drivers, shelf stackers. These are the global face of resilience in the toughest of circumstances. Now, in the words of President Steinmeier, 'this is not a war, this is a test of our humanity and of our spirit'. This pandemic should not expose Europe's weaknesses, but it should shine a light on our strengths. Member States were slower than they should have been, but the face of Europe did show in the patients from Bergamo being hospitalised in Bavaria, Romanian doctors heading to Italy, equipment from Lithuania to Spain, Maltese and Italian designers now sewing surgical masks. Joint procurement meant even the smallest Member States could still get needed equipment. We must now extend that to the joint procurement of the vaccine, when this becomes available. European economic packages mean millions of jobs will be saved, but there are still far too many people who slip through the cracks and who find nowhere to turn. We must address them too, be flexible and continue to adapt. And finally, tied to the Covid-19 pandemic is a looming humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean. We are seeing an increased number of boats fleeing Libya only to remain stuck at sea, unable to disembark. A coherent European approach is urgent. Meaningful solidarity is crucial. Lives must be saved, and we cannot leave front-line Member States like Italy, Greece and Malta alone. These are the crises in which Europe must show its true nature, and we cannot come up short, because we are all in this together and the only way out of it is together.
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Mr President, when I was here the last time we paid tribute to the heroes of today, to all of them, from doctors, nurses, to shop assistants, police and volunteers helping the elderly and the most vulnerable. Today, as Ms Düpont has rightly pointed out, we have to express our appreciation to our citizens, who are demonstrating enormous resolve and responsibility in respecting the rules for staying at home, respecting social distancing, which is sometimes very difficult, studying with their children or working from home. And I think that today, also, this debate has clearly demonstrated that Europe is rising to the challenge. We heard many examples of how the people and the Member States are helping each other, how we learn how to deal with this crisis and how we are preparing for the economic aftershocks, which for sure will come. And for that I really would like to thank all of you: you honourable Members of this Parliament, for your energy, for your patience and also for expressing what the citizens that you represent feel in your Member States. The COVID-19 crisis is described by some as a dramatic accelerator an accelerator for the good in us, and we have seen that in the civic responsibility and the heroism of many people who just make our society function despite this dramatic crisis. We have seen how our decision-making became faster, and I agree with Mr Mureșan, who said that really, in four or five weeks we did more to tackle the economic aftershocks of this crisis than we did in four years in the previous financial crisis. But to be honest, COVID-19 has also accelerated this negativism of fake news: dangerous populism, which is testing our democracy, our rule of law. And to all of you who are concerned with this as it was expressed by honourable Member Lamberts, I would just like to assure you that we in the European Commission remain very vigilant as to what is happening in all our Member States, and we are in intensive contact with Hungary, with Poland, and we are analysing all the fake news and all the negativism which is spread on social media and we are telling them to stop it, to minimise it, and they are cooperating with us. Therefore, all of you and I think it was very well expressed by Mr González Pons and Ms García Pérez and Mr Cioloș, that the future of Europe is decided now, and that what we need is a Europe which would be different, which would be more patriotic, more democratic, and stronger. And therefore, I would say to all of you who expressed very clear opinions on how much we need the development of massive economic investment, today I hope that you would support the package, which is aimed at immediate aid measures. But we all know that we need to invest massively in recovery, in saving our jobs, in protecting our economy from very often hostile and unfair actions. We need a Marshall Plan for the future of Europe, which will be more solid, which will be sustainable, clean, digital and, as many of you said, more resilient. Only in that way can we develop our future European destiny. We just simply have to bounce forward and we have to use the potential, the Single Market. We have to take maximum benefit and advantage from the twin green and digital revolutions, and we also have to learn the lessons of this crisis in building a more resilient and stronger Europe. In the past, as you would remember, we had to deal with different dependencies as well. The lessons learned from these dependencies was that we have to be strategic and decide which supplies we have to have simply here at home. Therefore, we are opening special storage facilities where we are stockpiling the most important medical equipment and medicines. But we also have to look at how to diversify globally and not be simply dependent on one single country or company. And we also have to decide, after good reflection and good analyses, what we need to produce here in Europe, just to be sure that when we would need it most, we will simply have it. Therefore, I think that all of you who said that we need a more ambitious, more strategic, and more united approach should be applauded. And we need also to have the means to finance this effort. We need a strong MFF, but we need it also in a different shape simply this time if we need the multi-annual budget, which we can front-load, which we can use almost immediately. So we can focus on the areas where the help is needed immediately where we can make sure that we would prevent future crises and that we would be bouncing forward into the new economy, that we would fight for high quality jobs, as was mentioned by many of you, by Mr Botenga and Mr de Lange. And here I will be very open, honourable Members of the European Parliament: we would very much rely on your support to get an ambitious, modern, front-loaded Multiannual Financial Perspective, which would help us to overcome the crisis, modernise Europe, and really deal with the economic aftershocks, which we are all expecting from this crisis. Several of you raised the issue of protective equipment, masks. I want to reassure you that we are working 24/7 my colleagues Janez Lenarčič, Stella Kyriakides and Thierry Breton are working very hard to make sure that we would very soon see the good results of the joint procurement, which would make sure that our doctors, our nurses and our citizens have all they need for their work. I also would like to applaud European industries, where more and more companies are converting their usual production to produce masks, disinfectant gels, or simply started the production of ventilators, which are so much in need in our hospitals. I believe that in a couple of months, with the strong power of the European industry, we will show what I believe will be very impressive results. Ms Ries raised the issue of the elderly and the most vulnerable. My mother and my mother-in-law in Slovakia are in a similar situation. Therefore, we adapted the funds for European aid for the most deprived and most vulnerable. Let's have a look together and see if the adaptation is far-reaching enough what can we do more to make sure that we would help also those who need it most? To conclude, I would just quickly react to two very important remarks. One by Mr Caspary, who was raising the issue of the virus-tracing app. Here I would like to reassure all of you that what we are talking about will be a European app on which the best expertise that Europe can offer is used; that it will be tracing the virus and not tracking people; that it will fully respect protection of personal data. It would be voluntary for the people who would like to use it. It will be anonymous, and in practice it should work in a way that it would inform you by text message that you might have been exposed to the virus and you should take the necessary precautions. Mr Verhofstadt, Ms Spyraki, Mr Larrouturou, Mr Silva Perreira, raised, very forcefully, the issue of the MFF recovery plan, and I would add also what we are working on: adapting the Commission work programme, which we want to present to you before the end of the month. I think that all the measures altogether, as our President, Ursula von der Leyen, highlighted, made it possible that within a short period of time we mobilised more than EUR 3 trillion coming from the Member States and from the European budget. I agree with you, we need more, and I believe that with your support we can get a good multiannual financial perspective. But we also know that to get there, a lot of diplomacy is required, because the decision on MFF is unanimous, and therefore we are working extensively, especially our President, talking to the leaders, making sure that the proposal we put on the table would be ambitious enough but at the same time will be supported by all EU Member States, because this is what we need at this point in time. We want to learn from the past. We want to use leverage. We want to use the best of our policies, which deliver good services and progress to our Member States. And I believe that all these would be properly reflected in our next proposals. To conclude, I just really would like to thank all of you for your ideas, for your suggestions and the support you demonstrated today, during all these very difficult weeks, and I believe that with your support we will build the new Europe, which will emerge from this dramatic crisis.
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Monsieur le Président, cher Charles Michel, Mesdames et Messieurs les députés, dans les soixante-dix ans qui ont suivi la déclaration Schuman, les crises et les défis ne sont pas inconnus à l'Europe. Comme vous l'avez tout justement dit, à bien des égards, la devise de l'Europe a toujours été non seulement «Unie dans la diversité», mais aussi «Unie dans l'adversité». Et aujourd'hui, dans cette période d'adversité et en réponse à cette crise, l'Europe a plus que jamais besoin d'unité, de détermination et d'ambition. Et c'est dans cet esprit que la Commission travaille sur un plan de relance ambitieux pour l'Europe, comme vous le demandez dans votre résolution aujourd'hui. Mesdames et Messieurs les députés, nous savons tous pour quoi il est nécessaire d'agir et, au cours de ces dernières semaines, vous m'avez souvent entendue parler de ce que l'Europe doit faire. Aujourd'hui, je veux vous parler du comment. Je veux vous présenter l'architecture et les principales caractéristiques du plan de relance ambitieux pour l'Europe sur lequel nous travaillons. Mais, pour faire cela, nous devons d'abord bien comprendre l'anatomie de cette crise très particulière. Allow me three remarks ahead of the analysis. We have had economic slowdowns before, but we've never had an economic shutdown like the last three months. Our economies have been on hold. Supply chains have been disrupted severely. Demand has collapsed. The truth is that we will not just go back to 'business as usual' soon. Our economies and societies will open slowly, cautiously, gradually. While schools stay shut we all know that most parents will have to continue with 'home-office', and while social distancing measures rightly stay in place, businesses will have to rethink their workplaces and the way they work. In other words, we will recover but it will take time. My second remark. The virus is the same in every Member State, yes, but the capacity to respond and absorb the shock is very different. For instance, we all know countries and regions with economies that are built on client-facing services like, for example, tourism or culture, have suffered way more. We should not forget that those who were hit first by the virus were often hit the hardest, because it was the painful experience and the full transparency of Italy and Spain in dealing with a pandemic that helped others to brace themselves for the impact. My third point. Every Member State has supported workers and companies as best as possible. Also, thanks to the European level being fast and forceful, we triggered the general escape clause, we gave full flexibility on all the structural funds and full flexibility on state aid. But it is also true that each Member State has a different fiscal space, so the use of state aid is also very different from Member State to Member State. What we are starting to observe now is an unlevelling of the playing field in the Single Market. To all that, we need a European response, and because it is a real European recovery focusing on European priorities, it is essential that the European Parliament plays its full role. For me, it goes without saying that this Parliament must provide democratic accountability and have its say on the entire recovery package, just as it does on the European budget. That is what we're going to discuss today. So let me plunge into the recovery package, which consists of two parts. First of all there will be the European budget, the so-called MFF, that is very well known to you. Secondly, and on top of the budget, will be a recovery instrument funded through a larger headroom. This headroom fixes the maximum amount of money that the Commission can borrow on the capital markets with the guarantees of the Member States, so backed by the Member States. Just as important, the entirety of the money of the recovery instrument will be channelled through the European budget, that is, through European programmes. This is why and I repeat it the European Parliament will have the same say on how the recovery money is spent as it does on how the MFF is spent. Now, where does the recovery money go to? It will be spent across three pillars. The first pillar will focus on supporting Member States to recover, to repair, and to come out stronger from this crisis. The bulk of the money will be spent within this first pillar on the new recovery and resilience instrument that is created to fund, in the Member States, key public investment and reforms, but they have to be aligned with our European policy. In other words, thus we are paving the way to a climate-neutral, digitalised and resilient Europe. This will be done through the European Semester. It will be available to all Member States, whether they are in the euro area or not. And it will be focused on those parts of the Union that have been most affected and where resilience needs are the greatest. This is one part of the first pillar, and the bulk of the money goes there. Within this first pillar there is also a second part, and that is the proposal by the Commission to top up the cohesion funds. This will be above the usual cohesion envelope within the MFF. This top up will be allocated based on the severity of the economic and social impact of the crisis. The second pillar. The second pillar is about kick-starting the economy and helping private investment to get moving again. We already knew before the crisis that we also need major private investment in key sectors and key technologies 5G, artificial intelligence, clean hydrogen, off-shore renewable energies, you name it. The only thing this crisis changed is that it has made this need greater than it was before. This is why we will strengthen InvestEU. We will also create for the first time a new Strategic Investment Facility. This facility will help invest in the key value chains that are crucial for our future resilience and strategic autonomy. We've seen during the crisis how dependent we were on global supply chains, for example in the pharmaceutical sector, so Europe must be able to produce critical medicine itself. But for all this, we also need healthy companies in Europe to invest in. This is why we'll also propose, in this second pillar, a new Solvency Instrument. This will help match the recapitalisation needs of healthy companies which have been put at risk as a result of the lockdown, wherever they are located in the European Union. Now the third and last pillar. The third pillar is about learning the most immediate lessons of the crisis. Over the last month we've seen what is important, what has worked well and what needs to be improved. So we will strengthen programmes that have proven their value in the crisis, such as RescEU or such as Horizon Europe. We will also create a new dedicated health programme, and we will make sure that we can support our partners by strengthening our instruments for neighbourhood development and international cooperation and for pre-accession assistance. Honourable Members, in a nutshell, this is what the recovery instrument looks like. It will be focused on where there is the greatest needs and the greatest potential. The recovery instrument is short-term and concentrated on the first years of recovery. It will include grants. It will include the possibility to frontload part of the investment, still this year, using proven financing models based on national guarantees. We should not forget that we're not starting from scratch. The recovery instrument will complement the three important safety nets that were mentioned and agreed by the leaders in April the SURE programme, the finance availability from the European Investment Bank and the European Stability Mechanism. Together with our MFF, this will be the ambitious answer Europe needs: an answer that includes the new own resources that we need in our budget, just as the Commission proposed in 2018; an answer that reflects our common values with a mechanism to protect the rule of law; an answer that is built on necessity but is designed for the future. Das heißt: eine Antwort, die aus der Krise geboren ist, die aber in die Zukunft investieren und dienen muss. Das stärkt nicht nur die Solidarität zwischen den Ländern und den Menschen, sondern das stärkt auch die Solidarität zwischen den Generationen. Denn, meine Damen und Herren, früher oder später werden Wissenschaftler und Forscherinnen einen Impfstoff gegen das Coronavirus finden. Aber gegen den Klimawandel gibt es keinen Impfstoff, und deswegen muss Europa jetzt in eine saubere Zukunft investieren. Unsere Investitionen in den Wiederaufbau haben ihren Preis, und dieser Preis ist eine steigende Schuldenlast. Wenn wir aber die Schulden erhöhen müssen, für die unsere Kinder in Zukunft aufkommen müssen, dann ist es das Mindeste, dass wir mit dem Geld in ihre Zukunft investieren, dass wir den Klimawandel angehen und dass wir die Klimabelastung senken und eben nicht noch etwas draufpacken. Deshalb: Im Ausgang der Krise dürfen wir nicht in die alten Muster zurückfallen. Wir dürfen nicht den Wiederaufbau in eine Wirtschaft von gestern stecken, sondern wir sollten jetzt mutig die Chance nutzen, um eine moderne, eine saubere, eine gesunde Wirtschaft aufzubauen, die die Lebensgrundlage unserer nächsten Generation, unserer Kinder sichert. Meine Damen und Herren, die europäische Ebene allein kann nicht alle Wunden heilen, die diese Krise hinterlässt. Aber wir nehmen unseren Teil der Verantwortung wahr, indem wir heute die Lasten zwischen den Mitgliedstaaten ausgleichen und gleichzeitig sicherstellen, dass diese gewaltige Anstrengung auch auf das Konto der jüngeren Generation einzahlt. Das ist unsere Aufgabe heute. Und ich bin fest davon überzeugt, dass ein einiges Europa der Aufgabe gewachsen ist. Lang lebe Europa! Long live Europe! Vive l'Europe!
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Mr President, since the beginning of this crisis, the European Union helped where it was needed. We enabled medical personnel, doctors, to help where their support was most needed medical equipment, treatments to be allocated to those countries and those regions where they were most needed and for EU funds to be allocated in the most flexible of ways to tackle this crisis wherever they are needed. The European Commission proposed good measures and Parliament agreed. Now we need to prepare for the future. And in order to make the best decisions, all institutions of the European Union have to be involved. Members of the European Parliament come from all regions of Europe. They are close to the citizens and they know best the situation on the ground. This is why today we say we want the European Parliament to be involved in the creation of the recovery fund. We want the European Parliament to be involved in the planning, in the adoption and the implementation of this fund, because we believe this will make the recovery fund a better fund. Everywhere in the world, the government proposes budgets and the parliament adopts those budgets. We are presenting today a resolution on behalf of five political groups, which represents a large majority in Parliament, where we say we demand an ambitious recovery fund, which is composed of loans and grants, which help on the ground, which make a real difference on the ground. And we want this, not to increase the burden on Member States, on countries, we want a serious repayment plan. And in order not to increase the burden, this should be based on own resources. We are ready to work on this basis and we are ready to work also for a future-oriented Multiannual Financial Framework that does not forget the priorities which we had before the crisis.
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Mr President, as we fight to eradicate this pandemic, we are facing the largest economic crisis, probably, in 100 years. Coming out of this crisis requires us to mobilise large amounts of public investment. Sadly, our Member States coming out of a large euro crisis are too burdened with debt to undertake this investment. That's why the solution is that Europe rises to the challenge and Europe puts together this plan, this Schuman plan, if you allow me to call it this way. This Parliament proposes that the European Commission raises a two trillion recovery package that is financed by recovery bonds, which allows us to invest in medical, in Green Deal, in digitalisation, in all the priorities of our European citizens. Now, the big question is: how do we finance such a plan? Five groups in this parliament are offering a grand bargain to our Member States. We are offering them a deal. We are saying: 'we understand you're really constrained, we understand it's hard for you to raise your contributions'. That's why we think these interests and this principle from these long-term loans that we need to pay for the plan have to be paid with new own resources that make those who cheat on their taxes, the digital companies that are not contributing as much as they should, the big polluters, pay what they should be paying. This plan, Madam President of the Commission, is economically sound because we need this investment, is politically feasible, as you will see tomorrow when you count the votes. It's feasible to be ambitious, it's feasible to have an ambitious plan, and it's financially possible because our citizens are looking for good investment vehicles into the future. There is demand for such an investment vehicle. Seventy years ago, Mr Robert Schuman said 'we need to make Europe in the concrete'. This is the moment to give the concrete steps, but ambitious steps, to build Europe forward.
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Mr President, we heard again that unprecedented action is needed, that we are in a deep crisis that we've never seen before. But now we need the solutions. And too often, Europe has been over-promising and underperforming when it is about solidarity and help to each other. And this time, we can't do that again. Certainly not because action is postponed the plans are postponed week after week. Well, only the expectations are rising with that. So we expect a plan, and we as a Parliament are guiding the way. We are showing, that with five political groups from the different sectors of the political spectrum that we are offering solutions. And this is already co-signed by Members from Romania to Germany, from Italy to the Netherlands, from Spain to Belgium. This shows that we can overcome our differences and that we can find solutions that make sense, that make political sense, that make economic sense. What we are proposing are bonds. And with these bonds, you can finance a recovery and transformation fund. And that is very important. We don't want to go back to business as usual. We want that these are being covered by own resources and these own resources are not only covering the interest, but are also covering the entire repayment. That is what we call real mutualisation, and that is what we are looking for. And the investment should go into digital, in the Green New Deal. And if you look at all the programmes that need to be democratically checked, we make very clear that it should go to alignment with the Paris Agreement. It should deliver on our biodiversity targets. It should deliver on gender equality. And it should go to those people that are being hit hard by the crisis, being people in poverty, being women and being also workers, consumers and families. And last part: we also say that the state aid rules need to be in the same line. And there already, I say to the Commission: last Friday, you prolonged state aid without any conditionalities until the end of the year. That's a bad signal. Let's make sure that we put all the money together and work in the same direction and really recover and strengthen a new economy.
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Mr President, I have to tell you that after the intervention of Ms von der Leyen, I see only business as usual, and I hope that I'm wrong. But I have also seen the first documents circulating in the Commission and it's business as usual: it's old tricks, it's repackaging, massive frontloading, and then a multiplier I have seen that the Commission will use a multiplier of 45! Even Jesus in the New Testament was not capable of doing that: a multiplier of 45 when he multiplied the fishes and the bread. But the Commission is on that track, and that's not, I think, even the opinion just of the Commissioners. That's typical, in bureaucracy, of how it works. Ms von der Leyen explained today how they are going to do it: they are going to increase the headroom a little bit and ask more guarantees of the Member States. Well they should not think about doing that. All our Member States will be in deficit. All our Member States will be in debt. You cannot increase the national contributions of the Member States by asking for more guarantees in the future. What we need to do is create a new headroom, and a new headroom that is new own resources. That is not an invention. The financing of the European Union was always based on own resources, on VAT, on customs duties, and what we propose now is a digital tax and other taxes against pollution. It is because of the rebate we gave to Margaret Thatcher that in the 1980s we started to stop with these normal democratic finances and that we started to ask for contributions from Member States. Well it's a good moment to stop that, definitely, and to create real financing for this Union. So the problem is not so much, Mr President, where we are going to spend this in politics that's easy. The most important problem is how we are going to fund it. I ask the Commission Mr Šefčovič, tomorrow in your meeting to ask for new solutions as we have described here in this resolution.
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Mr President, first I would like to thank everyone for this debate. There was a lot of passion. There was a lot of ambition in your statements. What I think I saw most across all the interventions today is that there is a clear push for making sure that the EU, our Union, our Europe, will emerge from this crisis stronger, more modern, more sustainable and more resilient. I think these have been the calls presented by the leaders Ms García Pérez, Mr Cioloş and Mr Lamberts. I cannot tell you how much we in the Commission appreciate the close cooperation with this House, especially over the last few weeks, where your quick decision-making helped us to be able to deliver to our citizens what was needed the most. We all had to focus on how to save as many lives as possible at the beginning, then on how to preserve as many jobs as possible, and now we are discussing together how we are going to relaunch the European economy and how we are going to recover from this dramatic crisis. I would really like to thank you for that because, with that cooperation, we have already been able to deliver, over the last few weeks, more than 200 measures, some of the very important legislative proposals adopted by you, which really went in the direction of how to help people on the ground concretely to overcome this unprecedented crisis. Thanks to the heroic efforts of our health professionals and thanks to the discipline of our citizens, we are finally seeing that the terrible numbers of corona crisis victims are slowly going down. We all know that this was a very difficult period, but the biggest test is still ahead of us: how to recover from this crisis, how to relaunch and restart our economy, and how to get back to normal. This could indeed be, as Mr Weber described, the Schuman moment of our generation. Therefore, I very much appreciate this debate because, as Mr Silva Pereira said, we need to be ambitious and bold to meet this challenge, this test, of European solidarity and credibility. How do we want to achieve that? Just let me quickly recap some of the major features of the proposals we are currently working on. We want to base our response on a powerful future long-term budget, a multiannual framework with a strong recovery instrument which would dramatically boost the financial firepower of the EU. I would definitely call this an unprecedented ambition. So here I would beg to differ with Mr Verhofstadt that this is 'business as usual'. I was personally involved in the negotiations on the last three financial perspectives and what we are proposing right now has never been done before. It's very bold and very ambitious. I believe that, with your support, we can deliver on this challenge which is ahead of all of us. I would like to reassure you that we want to reinforce all the policies which work and which are, I would say, battle-tested. We would like to make sure that we will top up the cohesion funds and focus the top-up especially on those who have suffered the most during the crisis. We want to use and improve the work of InvestEU and of Horizon, which is so important for supporting our scientists. And we would never forget the very important social aspect of our work for the European Union. We need to tackle poverty, we need to make sure that the Just Transition Fund works efficiently, and of course we cannot forget about women, parents and all the issues related to gender balance, which will be so important for our recovery. On top of that, we are bringing to the table a new solvency instrument to prevent bankruptcies caused by this crisis, and we also want to develop a new health programme that would prepare us better for the future. So, once again, I repeat, this is definitely not 'business as usual'. This is a very ambitious response to the current crisis. I would like also to respond to the calls of Mr Lamberts, Mr Eickhout and Mr Ertug by saying we definitely want to use this new financial firepower to bounce our economy forward. We want to make it greener and more sustainable. I think that this crisis has taught us the lesson that we have to be more resilient through strategic autonomy and technological sovereignty. These are the areas where we need to be much more active than before, and this is our goal. To all those colleagues who have been highlighting the importance of own resources, I would like to reassure you that we are very actively working with all options. Most of these have already been mentioned here in this debate. We are going to present proposals which we believe will be acceptable to all and which could be approved by your votes and by the Member States. It's very clear that, if we have to deliver on this challenge, we can deliver only with your full involvement and with clear oversight and scrutiny from the European Parliament. If you allow me, Mr President, before concluding, I will make just two quick remarks on issues which are not related to the main theme, but have been raised in this House. As they are so important, I just want briefly to react to them, these being the questions from Mr Olivier and Mr Omarjee concerning the German Constitutional Court's recent ruling. Here I would like to say that, despite the fact that we are studying the ruling of the German Constitutional Court in great detail, I think our President has made it very clear. She clearly said that, when it comes to the primacy in Europe of EU law and the independence of the European Central Bank, these are basic principles which we are ready to safeguard and defend if necessary, even using the option of infringement proceedings. So we are clearly working on it. To Ms Yoncheva, I would like to reassure her that we are working on the report on the rule of law, where we will study all the known issues, but also on how our governments have been using special powers during this difficult period and how to make sure that we will, as quickly as possible, bounce back to normally-functioning democratic systems. All this will be brought to your attention and to your table at the latest in September. Once again, Mr President, thank you very much to everyone for this debate, for the ideas, for the encouragement and for the ambition I have felt in this House.
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Mr President, in these challenging times, the Commission stands in solidarity with all the citizens of Europe and fully supports all the Member States in their fight against the pandemic. As President von der Leyen said, we need to ensure that Europe does everything it can to save every life it can. At the same time, the Commission has made clear from the outset that the response to this crisis must fully respect our fundamental principles and values as set out in our treaties. The commitment of all EU institutions and Member States to upholding the rule of law and fundamental rights is essential. Emergency measures adopted and implemented by Member States must be limited to what is necessary and strictly proportionate. They must not last indefinitely. Moreover, governments must make sure that such measures are subject to regular scrutiny, fully respecting democratic checks and balances. The emergency measures cannot mean switching off constitutions or EU law. This is why the Commission is proactively monitoring the emergency measures for all Member States, including Hungary. We are looking in particular at how the emergency measures are being used in practice and what their impact is, in particular on the rule of law, on fundamental rights and on EU law. Firstly, as regards the impact on the rule of law, situations which require close attention are those where the state of emergency does not have a predefined duration, where its duration is considerably long, where parliaments do not have the possibility to terminate such state of emergency, where the powers granted to the government are open-ended or where judicial review or other national checks and balances are restricted. Secondly, the impact on fundamental rights. The angle here is to closely scrutinise the impact of limitations in practice, whether the standards imposed by international obligations and relevant guidance are being maintained, and what limitations might go beyond what is strictly proportionate. And thirdly, the impact on EU law. We are checking whether the measures adopted under the emergency arrangements comply with EU law or whether they lead to possible disapplication of national laws implementing EU law. As stressed by Commission President von der Leyen in her letter of 7 April to President Sassoli in this context, the case of Hungary raises particular concerns. In the case of Hungary, the emergency powers granted appear more extensive than in other Member States, considering the combined effect of broadly defined powers and the absence of a clear time limit. The criminalisation of stating or spreading false information related to the crisis is not clearly defined and is accompanied by strict sanctions. This raises potential concerns as regards legal certainty and may have a chilling effect on freedom of expression. These particular concerns come in a well-known context in Hungary as regards rule of law and respect for EU values. The Commission is, therefore, monitoring very closely the use of emergency powers in Hungary. Allow me to be more specific as regards the situation of media. Now it is more important than ever to pursue measures that are effective in curbing the spread of disinformation but do not limit free speech. The fight against disinformation should not and may not reduce our democratic values, including the possibility to have a fair democratic debate where different voices can be heard. In Hungary, the environment in which media and journalists operate has been deteriorating for a number of years. Organisations and associations representing civil society and journalists have been sounding warnings about the situation. These warnings grew louder following the adoption by Hungary of the provision criminalising the spreading of disinformation relating to COVID-19. Especially in moments like this, we need reliable journalism, employing professional standards to provide accurate information and to scrutinise the measures taken in response to the global health threat. Journalists should be able to work freely, have access to information, ask questions. Their job is to hold us politicians to account for our actions. In the EU, we are now entering a new phase where certain measures taken to protect public health will be gradually relaxed. This new phase means that the general states of emergency, with exceptional powers granted to governments, should gradually be removed or replaced by more targeted and less intrusive measures. For that reason, the Commission will be very vigilant on how emergency measures, which affect the rule of law, fundamental rights and democratic values, are phased out in the Member States. This is even more important for Hungary, given the lack of a clear time limit for the state of danger. I expect, first of all, that the Hungarian people will be the ones who will want to return to enjoying their rights in full. I also expect the Hungarian national parliament to exercise its scrutiny role. Civil society, free and independent media, regular scrutiny and national checks and balances are essential for overseeing the government's exercise of power. We can only face up to the challenges stemming from this crisis by bringing our societies and democracies together in a spirit of understanding and good cooperation. The Commission is considering how to reflect as relevant the situation of the emergency measures in Member States in upcoming policy documents such as the rule of law report, the European democracy action plan and the renewed fundamental rights strategy, all due for adoption by the end of this year. Honourable Members, I look forward to hearing your views on this matter.
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Mr President, what is happening right now in Hungary and what Orbán is doing is not only grounds, dear Commissioner, for concern; it is a reason for starting infringement procedures. It is literally about Hungary's exit, in law, from the European Union and from European values. It is happening right now. This is not only my opinion, it is the opinion of 57% of Hungarian citizens, who in a recent poll said that what Orbán is doing is finishing off basically what he started. Mr Orbán should have been here in the room to answer some questions today, but he said he was busy fighting the pandemic. Well, may I ask him, what is the connection between pandemics and rejection of the Istanbul Convention? Does violence against women help him fight pandemics? Are there any special fighting tactics that we have to learn? What is the connection between this and the indefinite state of emergency and fully silencing civil society and the independent media and criminalising independent journalists. And how about arresting people? How is he fighting the pandemic by arresting people who criticise the Hungarian Government? I'm really sorry, Commissioner and dear colleagues, but this government should not receive one single cent, not one penny, from the EU, any longer not today, not in the future MFF, not ever until they follow rules and values. Yes, the Hungarian people should receive this money civil society, businesses, communities but directly from the Commission and directly managed by the Commission, not this government and not Orbán, until they leave and until they let Hungary breathe.
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Ms Jourová, the Commission, the Parliament has been scrutinising the different exceptional rules put in place by many Member States during this crisis, and they all have in common that they have frozen, for a short period, some of our fundamental rights and liberties one of them being the essence of this European Union, freedom of movement. But one government, and only one, in Hungary, has framed its state of urgency with no 'sunset' clause. Today, in Hungary, the government has extensive powers with no clear definition and for an indefinite time. Let us not be mistaken. This has no necessity efficiency-wise. This has no sanitary basis. And this is turning its back on democracy. We all know what has happened in Hungary for 10 years. Even more this last year and even more these last weeks. We are fully documented. Files are piling up on your desk, on my desk, as a rapporteur, on the desks of many people in this Parliament, of civil servants, in each of our institutions, in permanent representations. They are all aware; time of awareness has gone. We have our eyes wide open. We know about the attacks against freedom of the media. We know about the continuous judicial reform. We know about the discriminatory measures. We know that today in Hungary you can have five years of imprisonment because the government considers you have spread fake news. We all know that yesterday one man was taken into custody for an opinion he posted on Facebook. Freedom of thinking is under threat now in Hungary. We know that it is easier to live in Hungary if you are male, if you're white and if you don't question the government. Why, then, do your legal services in the Commission feel, guess, that there is no legal ground for infringement? Why then do Member States make a very clear statement without spelling out loudly the name we are talking about. There are gradual, very clear rules that can help us for a resolution under Article 7. These tools exist. Why are we not using them enough? We want Hungarian citizens to stay European citizens, but we do not want them to be second-rate citizens with not exactly the same rights as the other European citizens.
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Mr President, this is not the first time we are debating the situation in Hungary, but the thing is that the Fidesz regime, they happen to go all the time a little bit further. When you think that now it will stop, they manage to trample on democracy and rule of law and fundamental rights just a little bit more. And I think they also deliberately do this to get other countries and other governments to follow suit. And that's why we have to react in this House. And we have, this time, using the COVID-19 crisis as an excuse, ruling by decree without a sunset clause, threatening journalists and whistle-blowers, passing laws and policies that have nothing to do with the public health crisis, such as rejecting the Istanbul Convention or attacking trans people's rights. So, some say it's not our business, let them dismantle democracy in Hungary if that's what they want to do. Well, no, because we stand in solidarity, as was said here before, with all those Hungarians that fight for democracy, for rights every day. They are not alone. And secondly, we make laws together here. And the authoritarian regime in Hungary will make laws that all of us will have to respect. And that's not acceptable. So standing up for law and democracy and fundamental rights in Hungary is standing up for rule of law and democracy for all of us. Luckily in this House, there are many of us that will not let Hungary dismantle democracy. And it's all about our business. So the question is then, what is the Commission doing? What is the Council doing? When will the EPP expel and actually break up with Fidesz? It's a shame on you to have them there. The Commission, the infringement procedures, we are waiting for them and the Council, you are so weak in your statement, it is not enough. We need you to come up with a conditionality clause in the new MFF, you have to be extremely strict on that. And no recovery funds to Member States that don't respect the rule of law and democracy. It is time for the Commission and the Council to get into the game. This House will stand up for democracy and human rights.
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Mr President, I would like to thank you for this very important discussion. We are speaking here about the emergency regime in Hungary and I think that it's very important that the Commission is monitoring the emergency measures taken in Hungary, but also in all the other Member States. We live in very challenging times, we live in an extraordinary situation which requires extraordinary and special measures to be taken. When we look at the extraordinary measures and the emergency regimes, we have to and I've also repeated what I said at the beginning look into how the regime is applied, and here there are very clear requirements that measures must be only to the extent necessary relevant for the solution or tackling the Corona crisis, proportionate measures and also time a limit. And the time limit is something where we have the biggest concerns regarding the Hungarian regime. The Commission is monitoring the situation in all states, but in the case of Hungary I can reveal to you today that I have daily reports. I have weekly reports from our permanent representations, but I am following very closely the Hungarian situation daily reports. I am very well informed about the cases now of two people who were detained in relation to the spread of so-called fake news. I am informed about the actions taken by the government in relation to self-government and so on. On a daily basis we are assessing whether we can take legal action. And I said before, and I will repeat it here: we are not opening infringement proceedings on Hungary yet. We are closely monitoring all the measures, and we also have to take into consideration that in our toolbox is also Article 7 and that the debate in the Council is ongoing and I am sure we will come back to it when the Council holds the General Affairs Council session. But on concrete measures, because we said that we are monitoring all the concrete measures taken under the emergency regime, I would like to be more concrete here to give you some examples. The Commission's attention has been drawn to certain degrees which allow employers and employees to agree bilaterally to derogate from almost all provisions of the Hungarian labour code. As the labour code transposes several EU directives the Commission is currently analysing these measures as regards their compatibility with EU labour and social law. Also, the Commission is examining several decrees as regards their compatibility with the General Data Protection Regulation. Just these two examples of the concrete focus of the Commission in these days. And indeed, many of you mentioned here that there should be EU money should be provisional on the distribution conditioned by the basic principles of the rule of law in the countries. Well, when I came with this idea in 2017, it created a lot of noise, people said 'we cannot go that far'. I think now, with the situation developing in a wrong direction in a couple of states, we see that making money conditional on compliance with the basic principles set out in Article 2 of the Treaty is the proper thing to do. Today, the Commission will have the debate about the Multiannual Financial Framework, about the budget for the next seven years. I will emphasise again and again in every fora at which I have a chance to speak about the new budget, that the conditionality has to be maintained and that the system of voting about the concrete cases must not be voted down. And I am happy that this is still in the negotiating box of the budget and it has to remain there and it has to keep its teeth because the Commission proposed something which might really create or bring about some real difference. We have now the joint European roadmap towards lifting COVID-19 containment measures after 15 April and we underlined that the general state of emergency is exceptional emergency powers for governments should be progressively replaced by more targeted interventions in line with constitutional arrangements of each country. So this is what we expect Hungary to do, to go along with the rest of the other Member States and to release the confinement measures and to come back to what I already called before 'old normal', or at least the old normal. And again, the context relating to Hungary is that this is the country which is under the Article 7 procedure. So we must build our new steps and next steps on the basis of common values. We must come back to normal checks and balances and the citizens must benefit fully from their rights. If I can have a little bit longer I would like to add something a little bit personal and I will speak Czech. I remember very well the time I said I would speak Czech ... you see, after six years of being here it's deformation... Velmi dobře si pamatuju dobu, kdy bylo Československo okupovanou zemí od roku devatenáct set šedesát osm. Okupace a totalitní režim nás všechny velice ovlivnil. Žili jsme ve strachu a snili jsme o tom, že jednoho dne budeme žít ve svobodné společnosti, že jednoho dne přijde ke slovu a bude uskutečněna naše touha po svobodě, touha po aktivním občanství, že budeme mít možnost svobody slova, že budeme mít fungující samosprávy, které budou dostatečně finančně vybaveny, aby dělaly kvalitní veřejnou službu, že budeme mít svobodné volby, které zajistí střídání lidí u moci, že budeme mít mocné, ale ne všemocné, že nikdo nebude v té naší krásné zemi nad zákonem, že budeme mít otevřené hranice, že si budeme užívat otevřenosti, svobody a občanského sebevědomí. Dámy a pánové, dnes jsme okupováni koronavirem a mnoho státníků Evropské unie řeklo, že v této době je nezbytné omezení některých svobod a že se budeme muset smířit s tím, že po velice krátkou limitovanou dobu, po dobu nezbytnou, budeme muset tato omezení snést. Zároveň státníci řekli jasně lidem, že mohou očekávat návrat ke všem těm úžasným věcem, které jsem tady před chvílí vyjmenovala, těm věcem, o kterých jsme snili v totalitním Československu. Já tomu věřím, že se to stane. Věřím tomu, že v zemích, kde jsou pochybnosti a dnes se bavíme o Maďarsku , že i občané Maďarska budou toužit po tom, aby se Maďarsko vrátilo k demokratickým principům a že se toho dočkáme minimálně teď, po skončení té koronavirové okupace, ale že budeme muset dál s Maďarskem vést dialog, že bude muset Komise dělat svou práci a reagovat právním způsobem podle pravidel, pokud k tomu budou všechny právní podmínky, že bude muset i mezinárodní společenství vyvíjet tlak na Maďarsko, aby se vrátilo do klubu bezpochybně demokratických zemí. Přála bych si to, protože tady není v sázce jenom situace v Maďarsku, ale je to vlastně velká výzva pro celou Evropskou unii. Děkuji Vám i za tu možnost, že jsem mohla tady říct trošku ze svých osobních vzpomínek. Mám dlouhý životopis a teď bych řekla, že je dobře, že si toto pamatuju, protože mi to taky dává sílu pracovat na této agendě.
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Mr President, 75 years ago, the guns of the Second World War in Europe fell silent. The Nazi regime was defeated, but Europe lay in ruins. Just five years later, on 9 May 1950, Robert Schuman made a declaration that would profoundly change this continent and would put it on a path that no one could have anticipated. For me, this is a very special moment. Seventy years ago, Robert Schuman started a journey, step by step. He showed us the way and the direction. And today, here we are. Just seven days ago, at the EU-Western Balkans Summit, we laid the ground for reuniting the Western Balkans with our union, reuniting Europe's history with its geography. Yes, today, our union faces its greatest challenge yet: a pandemic that knows no borders, a pandemic that threatens our lives and our way of life, a pandemic that has tested our union to its core. But, as so often in history, this crisis has also shown Europe's greatest strengths: our commitment to unity, born of common values and shared history, and our solidarity with those in need. Schuman's words resonate today more strongly than ever before: 'it is no longer a time for vain words, but for a bold, constructive act'. The Schuman Declaration embodied the perfect balance, the delicate dance between idealism and pragmatism, without which there would be no European Union and no European solidarity as we know it today. He famously said, 'Europe will not be made all at once according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity.' This crisis has put that solidarity to the hardest of tests. In March, some even said that we would not pass these tests. But, if you look around the world today, Europe has become the beating heart of solidarity: French patients treated in German hospitals, Polish doctors and Romanian nurses working in Italy, and a huge recovery plan is in the making. The world is watching. Our European model will only mean something to the world if we show solidarity within our union's borders, to each other, and beyond, with our partners globally. Since the pandemic began, the European Union has been working on all fronts to contain the spread of the coronavirus, support health systems, protect and save lives, and counter the socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic, with historically unprecedented measures at both national and EU level. The Commission will directly support the healthcare systems of EU countries with EUR 3 billion from the EU budget, matched with EUR 3 billion from the Member States to fund the Emergency Support Instrument and the rescEU common stockpile of equipment. The rescEU initiative helps secure vital equipment, from ventilators to personal protective equipment, and to mobilise medical teams for assistance to the most vulnerable, including in refugee camps. The first hosting state of this stockpile is Romania. The production of the first ventilators has started, and some 330 000 protective masks were delivered to Spain, Italy and Croatia in the past weeks. Since the beginning of the outbreak, thanks to the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and consular protection coordination, the European Union has brought home over half a million citizens stranded all over the world. Thanks to the Emergency Support Instrument, the European Union has procured another 10 million masks, the first 1.5 million of which have already been delivered to 17 Member States. I want to thank this House for having launched the 'Europeans Against COVID-19' campaign. This Europe Day, the Commission and the Council joined forces with you, and we all pay tribute to those who are making history today, the everyday heroes fighting the coronavirus in our hospitals, in research labs, or by delivering personal protective equipment to those in need, because we know that coronavirus knows no borders. Tackling this pandemic is a global challenge and the EU is leading the global effort to develop and deploy effective diagnostics, treatments and a vaccine. Without this tool, every country in the world remains vulnerable. Countries and international organisations are joining forces to develop these tools and put the structures in place that ensure they are universally available and affordable. How wealthy a country is should not determine whether its people get to live without this virus. That is why President von der Leyen launched an international pledging marathon on 4 May. So far, we have raised EUR 7.4 billion, and this includes a pledge of EUR 1.4 billion from the Commission. But we know that more is needed and I am confident it will come. The crisis gives us an opportunity to lead by example and to reach for our highest aspirations, even when, in the short term, it might be easier to give in to our lowest instincts. We will be remembered tomorrow for how we act today. Therefore, this crisis forces us to reflect. The pandemic will have a lasting effect, not just on the global system, but also on our daily lives. It is vital that on our path to recovery, we reach out, engage and listen to citizens, at European, national, regional and local level. The Conference on the Future of Europe is an ideal forum for that and should commence as soon as conditions allow it. The Conference, as a pan-European democratic exercise, can reinforce the link between European citizens and the institutions. It can help rebuild trust and solidarity, even in the new coronavirus reality. The context might have changed, but our determination has not. We want the Conference on the Future of Europe to give citizens a greater say in shaping future EU policies, and we want this to be a joint exercise, involving the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on an equal footing. That is also why any decision on when to launch the Conference must be a joint one taken by all three institutions. Given the circumstances, my colleague and friend, Vice-President Šuica, who is leading the Commission's efforts on the Conference, is following this debate remotely from Croatia. She is very much looking forward to joining the debates in this House in a physical mode as soon as possible. In order to be ready for the launch of the Conference under the containment measures scenario, the Commission is exploring digital solutions to enable us to host virtual debates and dialogues. We are working on a multilingual digital platform, allowing citizens to share their results and promote interactive ways for public engagement as part of the Conference. Such a digital platform would be open to all EU institutions. But a digital solution alone cannot reach everyone and cannot compensate for the real deal: face-to-face town hall discussions and workshops across the continent, reaching people from all walks of life. To protect the health of our citizens, we need to be patient and plan accordingly, step by step. Once the Council has adopted its mandate, we will get there. I am confident that the next step, the joint declaration by the Parliament, the Commission and the Council, which is necessary to launch the Conference, is within reach. A little more than 30 years ago, I was looking through the barbed wire of the infamous Iron Curtain to Austria. This fence was just two kilometres from our apartment and I passed it every single day. I could see the people, the houses and the lights on the other side of the Danube, but I was told by my father that I would never be able to cross the border. Therefore, for me, the Schuman Declaration celebration is also a celebration of the European dream and freedom. I am sure that Robert Schuman would be proud today of how much we have accomplished. But I am also convinced that he would push us higher and further. Therefore, let's respond to his inspiration by building an even fairer, greener, freer and stronger Europe.
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Mr President, the success of the Schuman Declaration is certainly undoubtable. Lasting peace on a warring continent is a paramount achievement. But still, our Union has come even further, has been even more successful by working together. We expanded to overcome big parts of the Iron Curtain division and integrated in an ever closer Union to the benefit of the people living within. Crises, like the one we are crossing today, prove how much we have come to take for granted all the achievements of our Union. Just think about the freedom of movement. However, it is hardly the time to pat ourselves on the back. The world today is very different from that of Schuman. We have digitalisation, globalisation, a growing nationalism, climate change. All those have fundamentally affected our realities, and the COVID-19 crisis today leaves millions without jobs, a stable income or future perspectives. Today, our Union needs an immense leap forward. Europe needs again a Schuman-type future-proof solution oriented action. So what can this leap forward be? First of all, it should be a people and planet centred recovery from the multiple crises that Europe is currently facing the social inequalities, the climate and biodiversity crises, the public health crisis. It is high time we used all the instruments at our disposal to create the most ambitious social, economic and environmental transformation the world has ever seen, and this must ensure that no one is left behind. Secondly, this leap forward must re-anchor our European Union in the respect of citizens' rights, democracy and fundamental rights, because these have too often been sidelined in recent years. Thirdly, a strong and future-proofed Union must also look beyond its immediate borders. Our Union must always offer shelter to those seeking protection. It must be open to countries that want to join and meet our rules. We are living through challenging times for our Union. We must now prove that we can live up to those challenges. Seventy years from now, history will judge whether we have passed the test.
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Mr President, I would like to thank you for this very important debate. Your statements have been very clear. On one side, most of us acknowledge that we have accomplished a lot together since the Schuman Declaration and there is a lot of which we are rightly so proud of. But, at the same time, you called for more solidarity, more action and, what I would call, result-oriented policies from our Union, which, as Ms Keller has said, must be more planet- and people-centred. All of you called for the big debate with our European citizens under the Conference on the Future of Europe to take place as soon as possible. Because at a time like this we all feel that we need to listen more to the people I would say even more than before to include them in our decision-making and then, of course, to draw lessons about how we can fulfil their proposals, wishes and dreams in the best possible way. I think we have to remind ourselves that, when Robert Schuman made his declaration for this bold and constructive action in 1950, his words did not fall on deaf ears. There was immediate follow-up. Less than one year later, the founding six countries would go on to sign the Treaty of Paris, establishing what would later become the European Union. This is how they materialised his call for peace in Europe and for legal protection against the different views of those who were more powerful at that moment, as Ms Beer has just reminded us. It was done in a big rush and what is often overlooked is the fact that, with the negotiations being done so quickly, the piece of paper that ministers signed was, in fact, left blank. I like this because it is both a symbol of Europe's unwritten potential and that of integration being quite difficult and uncertain, but also the trust among those who were signing this blank sheet of paper that what they were doing together would be good for the future. They trusted each other because they wanted the best for our people and for our countries. Many of you referred to Robert Schuman's famous statement that we would not build a common Europe, this important common project, all at once and in one go, but through consecutive victories on a long and hard path, and that this would be the moment when we would forge European solidarity. I think that, if the founding fathers were with us today, on one side they would be very much impressed at how we have filled that piece of paper with successes. But I am confident that they would also have a lot of inspiration about how to proceed further. I think that very soon they would realise, as Mr González Pons has pointed out, that it should be absolutely normal and natural to be a strong patriot and a strong European at the same time. We just want the best for our people, the best for our country and the best for our Europe. Sometimes I'm puzzled by how much proof we need to realise that, even in such a crisis as this, we do not have a single European country that can do a better job than if we do it all together as Europeans. Ms García Pérez, Mr Durand and Mr Benifei have underlined the importance of making the debate on the Conference on the Future of Europe as relevant as possible. I would like to thank you very much for the proposals which I heard that we should include the topics of recovery and the renewed need for solidarity, and that we should debate honestly about all subjects which matter to our citizens, even such pertinent questions as fair taxation and how we can improve our common fight against tax fraud and tax evasion, which was put Mr Durand and Ms Aubry. I agree with Ms García Pérez that the holidays look very different from what we are going through this spring. I think that we should thank all those who are working very hard, including you, honourable Members of the European Parliament, because, without your quick action, we wouldn't have been able to adopt so many measures, which I believe saved many lives and will save millions of jobs. So now I think that the major lessons learned from the Schuman Declaration in our debate today are that we need to focus on immediate steps. We have to have an ambitious multiannual financial perspective. We have to have a recovery fund with strong firepower. We need to tackle the crisis, relaunch the economy and give a new boost to our European project through this intimate and in-depth debate with our citizens. I believe that this would be something that Robert Schuman would suggest to us and I think that this will be the best way to respect his legacy.
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Monsieur le Président, Mesdames et Messieurs les membres du Parlement européen, je voudrais vous remercier également d'avoir inclus ce débat dans la plénière d'aujourd'hui. La pandémie qui sévit actuellement ne connaît pas de frontières. Les données et la technologie peuvent nous aider dans la lutte contre le coronavirus et dans la levée progressive des restrictions et le rétablissement de la libre circulation des personnes. Les applications de traçage des contacts peuvent jouer un rôle dans cette entreprise. The Commission adopted the recommendation on 8 April setting out the principles and showing the respect of fundamental rights and, in particular, the right to privacy and personal data protection and the prevention of mass surveillance and stigmatisation. It was followed by a common EU toolbox developed by the Member States with the support of the Commission and complemented by Commission guidance on the respect of privacy and data protection. Our guidance sets key principles. National health authorities or authorities responsible for the crisis management should be the controller. The installation of an app on a user's device should be voluntary. If proximity data is used, it should be stored on an individual's device and only shared at the initiative of the user. For contact tracing there is no use of geo-localisation data, only proximity data based on Bluetooth. Only the personal data that is necessary to meet the purpose of the app can be processed. The identity of the user of the app will not be disclosed to other users. The personal data should not be kept for longer than necessary. Timelines should be based on medical relevance. In addition, the app should be only used during the crisis and be deactivated, at the latest, when the pandemic is over. The deactivation should not depend on de-installation by the user. The data and the entire application should be protected through state-of-the-art security techniques, including encryption. And finally, data protection authorities should be fully involved and consulted in the development of an app and should keep its deployment under review. Le but des applications de traçage des contacts est d'aider à briser les chaînes d'infection et à sauver des vies. Cependant, cela ne fonctionnera que si les citoyens savent qu'ils sont en sécurité et que leurs données et leur vie privée sont entièrement protégées. Les citoyens doivent avoir la certitude que les applications seront utilisées exclusivement pour lutter contre la pandémie. Ce sont là les conditions préalables au développement, à la reconnaissance et à l'utilisation de telles applications. J'insiste sur ce point: il ne doit pas y avoir de doute. Ces applications ne peuvent pas être utilisées pour une surveillance de masse. Les individus garderont et devront garder le contrôle de leurs données. C'est le fondement de la précision et de l'efficacité de ces applications pour contenir la propagation du virus. Il est donc essentiel d'identifier les solutions les moins intrusives et qui respectent pleinement les exigences de protection des données personnelles et de confidentialité telles que définies dans le droit de l'Union européenne. It is also essential that we have a coordinated European approach. This European approach is clear. These apps must be voluntary, transparent, temporary, cyber-secure, using temporary and arbitrary identifiers, rely on proximity data, Bluetooth technology and not on geo-localisation. That means no tracking. And they must be interoperable across borders, but also across operating systems. As regards the two different approaches referred to as centralised and decentralised, both can be compatible with privacy and data-protection rules, and both need to follow high standards of data security. From a data-minimisation perspective, the decentralised approach is preferable since less data would be stored on the back-end server than under the centralised one. Regardless of the approach chosen, we should strive to have a common approach to ensure interoperability of the apps. The Commission is working with Member States on this issue as a top priority, and I am glad that guidelines on interoperability for approved contact tracing mobile applications in the EU were adopted yesterday by the e-Health networks of Member States and published on the Commission website. I cannot emphasise enough how important interoperability will be for the cross-border circulation of people in the Union and for many sectors, including tourism. We should also make sure that national health authorities are able to adjust the epidemiologic barometers of the apps and to obtain the necessary aggregated information to monitor the efficiency of the measures taken. The Commission also firmly believes that the process regarding the selection of the apps as well as their functioning, should be transparent. The technical specifications and the source code of the apps should therefore be published. Some Member States are using manual tracing together or instead of tracing apps. Their tracing modalities need to be in line with personal data protection rules as well. We will also be attentive to this. Mesdames et Messieurs les députés, comme nous le savons tous, les États membres ont commencé à introduire les premières étapes des mesures de déconfinement. C'est pourquoi nous avons besoin d'une approche européenne coordonnée. Nous devons agir ensemble avec responsabilité et solidarité pour arrêter ce virus. Monsieur le Président, je vous remercie de cette occasion de préciser les lignes de force annoncées par la Commission en collaboration avec les États membres. Je suis évidemment à l'écoute des remarques, des observations des membres de votre Assemblée.
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Mr President, are contact tracing apps a silver bullet against the virus? Today, there is no evidence that apps can contain a disease, but there are serious fundamental rights concerns, and therefore the app must be truly voluntary, with no incentives to use them and no discrimination against people not willing to use them or who cannot use them. Entry into a country should not depend on using the app. Freedom of movement is a fundamental right, not a prize for downloading an app. Apps must only be used for contact tracing with no access for commercial players or law enforcement, and data should be stored in a decentralised way. This is important because, especially in exceptional times, interference with fundamental rights must remain proportionate, necessary and limited in time. Governments now have a chance to show that Europe can lead the way in countering this pandemic without compromising on fundamental rights. So why is it that only a few Member States fully involved their data protection authorities? What are they afraid of? We can't accept any ideas to install systems of surveillance via contact tracing apps or by using location data, drones, or by openly debating to discriminate on the basis of so-called immunity passes? Let's be honest: there is nothing like a silver bullet. Even a fundamental rights-friendly app can only be an addition to physical distancing, masks and more tests. Technologies and the crisis should never be used to destroy our common values and democratic principles, but let us explore how technology can help to better protect people.
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Mr President, I say to the House: without knowing, you could be infected right now. I, too, could be infected. Without showing a single sign of infection, I could be infecting the people I stand next to. Digital technology is a tool in the fight against the spread of COVID-19, and it can be both beneficial and effective to trace contacts in order to notify people at risk. The use of the applications must be strictly and exclusively limited to the purpose of COVID-19 tracing. Tracing applications should assist manual tracing used for centuries to combat epidemics. Applications are not a panacea to combat the virus, but a complementary tool. We have to trace the virus, not the European citizens. We unite against the coronavirus while we safeguard our fundamental rights. We must insist on mandatory standards and strong guarantees for their preservation, especially the right to privacy and data protection. We do not have to choose between our rights and our health. We must ensure ethical, transparent and secure use of these applications. Therefore, we need a European coordinated approach also ensuring European-wide interoperability. Firstly, we must agree at a European level on privacy by design and data minimisation. Secondly, using such applications must be based on the explicit, freely given and informed consent. It should never be mandatory. We do not want immunity passports. We want to stop the virus from travelling. Thirdly, technology will not be effective without the trust of people. Citizens need to receive adequate and objective information on tracing contact policies, their content, their purpose and expected outcomes. Finally, the use and deployment of contact tracing applications must be subject to continuous and strict monitoring, technical evaluation and scientific scrutiny. We must ensure that these applications are safe for our citizens and have their trust, and that the applications serve the purpose of tracing COVID-19.
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Mr President, I've heard some people refer to this app as a so-called 'deconfinement app', as if the app is going to reopen the borders. Well, let me tell you something. It will not. We need a range of other measures. What will open the borders is a common European approach and interoperability. That is what will open the borders. What we are seeing is Member States going in all directions again, with not just 27 national apps, but even a range of regional apps. Now that is a barrier to free movement. National governments are presenting the app as a silver bullet against the pandemic, but not only is it not a silver bullet, it's also not going to solve the problem of politicians that they have to reconcile health concerns and economic concerns and are just hoping for this app to be the answer to that dilemma when it's not. But we do need full transparency on the decision-making and not just on the technical aspects, but also on why governments choose a particular model, why they choose particular providers. Where are the political and commercial interests? Finally, I agree with everyone who said it must be strictly voluntary. Not only does that mean that it should not be mandatory, but there has to be a legal ban on making downloading the app a precondition for entering public spaces like public transport or schools or gyms, or indeed crossing the borders, because freedom of movement in Europe is a fundamental right.
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Madam President, from the very first day of this crisis for us in the Commission, one consideration was evident: no country in the European Union or worldwide can battle this pandemic alone. We need to take bold steps and we need to take them together. Containment measures have proved efficient so far and have allowed us to diminish the spread of the virus. But they will not eradicate it. For this, we need further action on three areas: first, early diagnosis; second, targeted treatments for the ill; and, third, a vaccine that will ensure immunisation. We will also need all three to be widely accessible and affordable because, as long as the virus exists in the world, no one can be safe. This is why the European Union is taking the lead in organising a coronavirus global response pledging initiative, which took place on 4 May. The aim was precisely to lead the world effort to develop diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics against the virus as soon as possible, not only to make it possible to get to these objectives, but also to ensure that they are accessible on a fair and equitable basis once they are discovered. I am delighted to have this opportunity, on behalf of the Commission, to discuss these issues with you in a bit more detail this afternoon. First, vaccines. On vaccines, there is no doubt that this is the best way to truly exit the pandemic and avoid a resurgence of the disease. However, developing a vaccine is a complicated process that depends on close coordination, financial support and unity. Each of these considerations was evident during the pledging event of 4 May that the European Union led at global level. First, we managed to attain our overall objective with an ambitious level of funding raised. We mobilised EUR 7.4 billion in pledges, of which EUR 5 billion came from Team Europe. The second and equally important aspect of this pledging conference was that we sent, as the European Union, a resounding message of unity and solidarity across the world, and we also proved that, in today's turbulent times, the European Union remains a force for good for the planet. This was only the beginning. The pledging marathon remains open until 23 May, so I take this opportunity to encourage all of you to engage in helping to find new donors, public or private, and to join forces in this unique worldwide effort. Here comes the big question: where are we on the vaccines? As the Croatian Presidency has just indicated, the WHO has identified 8 vaccine candidates in clinical evaluation and 94 candidates in pre-clinical evaluation. Three candidates are receiving support from the Commission through our Horizon 2020 programme, and Member States are also investing in several candidates. We need to focus efforts on finding the most promising solutions. That's why the Commission has proposed that an EU-wide network for clinical trials be set up. Such a network will ensure a critical mass of data from patients, help to identify the most promising vaccine candidates or therapeutics, and swiftly move them into the most appropriate clinical trials. Once developed, of course, a vaccine would need to pass a rigorous approval process, and we in the Commission will work very closely with the European Medicines Agency to ensure that this process moves as swiftly and as quickly as possible without, however, compromising on safety and efficacy. Producing the vaccine is only half of the battle ahead of us. We should also ensure fair, widespread and equitable access to the vaccine as early as possible, not only to all Europeans, but also to the rest of the world. There are many tools that we could use to achieve this from public-private partnerships to increased manufacturing capacity, to advance purchase agreements to ensure production. The Commission is currently in intensive discussions with both our Member States and vaccine producers to identify clearly how we can best support Member States in the purchase and deployment of vaccines. All options are on the table and we are not excluding any of them. Last week, health ministers discussed the possibility of a uniform COVID-19 immunisation strategy throughout the European Union. This would also help us to maximise access to the vaccine when it becomes available and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on these approaches this afternoon. Let me now turn to therapeutics. The Commission has reacted efficiently to support Member States in this regard. I don't want to beautify the situation. We all know that the early stage of the crisis was not an example of optimal coordination. Many measures were taken rapidly under pressure at national level without the necessary coordination. But, once this first stage went through and our Member States saw the added value of cooperation and the interdependence that binds them together as the European Union, with the help of the Commission, we reacted efficiently to support them. Let me recall some of these actions. Since day one, we have coordinated closely with all important actors the European Medicines Agency, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control , the national agencies, industry to avoid or tackle bottlenecks, to better anticipate future shortages and to assist in the adaptation of production. In parallel, we have issued concrete guidance on the rational supply of medicines, regulatory flexibility and clinical trials to avoid unavailability of treatments. We have activated the rescEU stockpile of medical equipment, including therapeutics and vaccines, and we have established a COVID clearing house mechanism that facilitates the matching of the needs for medical equipment with available supplies. Thankfully, the situation is now beginning to stabilise in the EU, but we must also continue working on the supply side. With this in mind, we are supporting a dedicated industry cooperation project to increase the supply of critical intensive care unit medicines. Parallel to that, the European Medicines Agency and the Commission have put in place a mechanism to support the rapid development and authorisation of new COVID-19 medicines and vaccines and, as we speak, we are currently preparing a joint procurement for such intensive care unit medicines. Let me conclude by saying that today we are, of course, discussing the short term, which is saving lives and winning the battle with the virus on the medical side, but I would like to finish with a few words about the medium and long term. The pandemic has revealed and amplified important issues with our supply chain for medicinal products. I'm very aware of how dependent we are on important pharmaceutical products or ingredients. So we need to come together quickly and identify solutions to the three emerging weaknesses from the crisis: how to strengthen our coordination mechanisms and supply chains, how to boost our preparedness, and how to improve our society's overall strategic resilience. The Commission is preparing a new pharmaceutical strategy that will take account of the lessons learned during the pandemic and make the EU's pharmaceutical system future proof and crisis resistant. Yesterday, President von der Leyen had the opportunity to give you a bit more detail about our very intensive work on the recovery initiative, which is to be expected in the next few days. I would say that part of building this resilience for cohesive and resistant European societies passed from a very rigorous health programme that would bridge this asymmetry between what Europeans expect from Europe in the area of public health and what Europe has in terms of legal competence to face up to this challenge. Commissioner Kyriakides and I will look forward to working very closely with this House on this endeavour. But first, I am keen to hear your thoughts on the challenges and solutions and I am very willing to take them on board and report back to you at my earliest convenience.
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Madam President, I first want to congratulate the Commission on the successful pledging conference of last week. A lot of public money indeed has been pledged now to secure funding for the development of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics. This money, however, should not come as a blank cheque to the pharmaceutical industry. Policymakers should take the necessary measures to make sure that vaccines and therapeutics will be accessible to all. First, I believe that the EU should support the W8 in setting up a transparent and inclusive governance structure that will decide on the development, production and equitable distribution of future vaccines and therapeutics globally. All relevant stakeholders, including civil society and the global south, should be represented in this governance structure. Second, the health of our citizens should not only depend on the goodwill, as we understood it, of the pharmaceutical sector we cannot rely on voluntary measures only. If needed, EU Member States should be able to make use of compulsory licensing. While we Greens have always been supporting this, I was happy to hear that colleagues of other political groups like Mr Liese just now are also aboard for this idea. But to facilitate the use of compulsory licensing, it's also crucial that the EU urgently makes its legislation on data and market exclusivity more flexible. I invite us all to collaborate on this. Colleagues, let us use this health crisis to fundamentally improve our pharmaceutical system in safeguarding public health over profit maximisation. If not now, then when?
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Madam President, I've got a question that I don't want you to answer. That question is, how much are you willing to pay to save your life? And yet, unfortunately, that question is still very much used by many pharmaceutical companies to decide on the price of a treatment or a vaccine. That is what explains why a Belgian family had to pay EUR 1.9 million euros for a life-saving treatment to Novartis. That also explains why the CEO of Sanofi dares to threaten to give the vaccine first to the United States. And that explains why today, Belgian health authorities fear that the vaccine will not be available to all. So that is why it is so, so important for us to make sure that no pharmaceutical company gets an exclusive right on the coming treatment or vaccine. And granted, the European Union has, by and large, talked the talk, and that is important. We've spoken about a common public good that will not belong to anybody. However, when we talk the talk, you should also walk the walk, because otherwise it's just hypocrisy. And that is why I was so surprised and, indeed, disappointed to read on the website of the Commission that you were not going to touch the intellectual property rights. Now for me, it's very, very clear. We raised 7.4 billion. That 7.4 billion should not serve the private profits of pharmaceutical companies. Let me be clear: in a pandemic, patents have no place. We have a right to a cure and we have a right to a people's vaccine.
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Madam President, thank you for this very useful debate. I identified two families of issues from your statements. One let's call it the quest for resilience and the other one is what happens once we have the vaccine? How do we make sure that we avoid the problems that we saw in the early stage about access to the distribution of personal protective equipment? Let me start on the quest for resilience. There is no doubt whatsoever that Europe has to draw the lessons of this pandemic. It's evident, it's written on the wall. This is something that society will impose on all policy-making at all levels. As far as the quest for resilience at the EU level is concerned, let me repeat what I said earlier. We have to bridge this asymmetry of expectations between what Europeans want from Europe in areas where Europe has nothing in terms of legal competence. This is a major issue. This contaminates public opinion and projects Europe in a negative light. I really hope that this will be, together with my colleagues, one of our main lines of action in the months and years to come. Also on the quest for resilience, we have to make sure that the recovery initiative sheds light and reinforces a self-standing health problem that is able to perform not only under regular, normal circumstances, but is also designed to face up to major sanitary crises and pandemics. This is also a major challenge in front of us. Finally, many of you also raised the issues of production, back to the EU, pricing, strategical autonomy, the place of Europe in the world and geopolitics. When it comes to pharmaceuticals and all these questions, I want to assure that they will be addressed in our pharmaceutical strategy communication, which I will be presenting to you, together with Commissioner Kyriakides, later this year. Let me now come to and finish the other cluster of issues of concern to you, which is what happens once we have the vaccine, how we make sure that access is fair, equitable and widespread distribution is available to all Europeans and the rest of the world. I think there are three options for us, a three-point strategy that will allow us to act effectively in this respect. First, we need to ensure immediate access to vaccine supplies. For this, we do have instruments to be deployed, namely we can create an EU stockpile of vaccines, serving as an immediate response through the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism, we can organise an EU joint procurement scheme, which will be secure purchase commitments in a stable framework, and the Commission could also procure directly, on behalf of Member States, vaccines making use of the Emergency Support Instrument. This was about immediate actions. Second, regarding secure production, we are already in close contact with industry and we are exploring together with them concrete measures such as public-private partnerships to increase manufacturing capacity or to advance purchase agreements to ensure production. Thirdly, delivery. In the beginning we might need some prioritisation. This is precisely the objective of the European immunisation strategy that I was referring to in my opening statement. Such an immunisation strategy could set priority strands for certain segments of the population, but we will also need to ensure access worldwide because, as long as the virus exists, no one is safe. This is again precisely the purpose of our global leadership in the framework of the pledging conference that should not end on 23 May, when we have this critical mass of financing to speed up the production of vaccines. But we will also have a role, after 23 May, to make sure that the rest of the world and especially those parts of the world that have more vulnerable health systems, like Africa or Latin America, will not be left out of this development.
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Monsieur le Président, Mesdames et Messieurs les députés, l'Europe est une histoire de générations et chaque génération européenne a sa propre histoire. Pour la génération fondatrice de notre Union, l'histoire parlait de la construction d'une paix durable là où il n'y avait rien que de la peine, de la douleur et de la destruction. Pour la génération d'après, il s'agissait de poursuivre la prospérité et la liberté, en choisissant l'unité de notre marché intérieur et notre monnaie unique. Ensuite, nous nous sommes attachés à rassembler notre famille européenne en sortant nos frères et nos sœurs du grand froid et en accueillant nos frères et nos sœurs ici, chez eux, en plein cœur de notre Union. Toutes ces générations et tous ces succès historiques ont été bâtis sur ceux d'avant et ont inspiré ceux d'après. Et le choix a toujours été, soit de prendre la voie de la moindre résistance tout seul, soit d'aller de l'avant, ensemble, avec une vision, une ambition et dans la même direction. Dans ces moments décisifs, nous avons toujours choisi de faire le saut en avant ensemble car, pour l'Europe, les mesures les plus audacieuses seront toujours les plus sûres. C'est cela qui nous a permis de construire une Union de paix et de prospérité sans égale, sans précédent dans le monde. Honourable Members, today we face our very own defining moment. What started with a virus so small your eyes couldn't see it has become an economic crisis so big that you simply cannot miss it. Our unique model, built over 70 years, is being challenged like never before in our lifetime or our Union's history. The common European goods we have built together are being damaged. Things we take for granted are being questioned. There's the single market that needs to recover. There's the playing field that needs to be made even again. There are four freedoms that need to be fully restored. The crisis has huge externalities and spill-overs across all countries and cannot be fixed by any single country alone. A bankrupt company in one Member State is a reliable supplier gone for business in another. A struggling economy in one part of Europe weakens a strong economy in another part. This is about all of us, and it is way bigger than any of us. This is Europe's moment. We see the economic, fiscal and social fallout across all Member States. Divergences and disparities widen. Complex questions of sovereignty and burden-sharing have to be balanced. And so, in front of us once again is that same binary choice: we either all go it alone, leaving countries, regions and people behind and accepting a Union of haves and have-nots, or we walk that road together. We take that leap forward. We pave a strong path for our people and for the next generation. And for me the choice is simple. I want us to take a new, bold step together. Europe is in a unique position to be able to invest in a collective recovery and a common future. In our Union, people, business and companies depend and rely on each other. In our Union, cohesion, convergence and investment are good for all. And in our Union, we know that the boldest measures truly are the safest for the future. This is why the Commission is today proposing a new recovery instrument called NextGenerationEU, worth EUR 750 billion. It will sit on top of a revamped long-term EU budget of EUR 1.1 trillion. NextGenerationEU, together with a core Multiannual Financial Framework , amounts to EUR 1.85 trillion in today's proposal. It goes alongside the three safety nets of EUR 540 billion already agreed by Parliament and Council. In sum, this would bring our recovery effort to a total of EUR 2.4 trillion. Honourable Members, allow me to explain how Next Generation EU will work. The money will be raised by temporarily lifting the own resources ceiling to allow the Commission to use its very strong credit rating to borrow money on the financial markets. This is an urgent and exceptional necessity for an urgent and exceptional crisis. NextGenerationEU will invest in repairing our social fabric, protect our single market and help rebalance balance sheets across Europe. And while we are doing this, we need to press fast forward towards a green, digital and resilient future, because this is the future of Europe's next generation this generation that is globally connected and feels responsible for our world, our planet, with a clear vision to promote human dignity and the rule of law, determined to hold governments more accountable for fighting climate change and saving our nature, driven by the idealism for Europe and the belief that our Union must strive for better. So beyond showing solidarity to overcome the crisis of today, I want to propose a new generational pact for tomorrow. Yes, the effects of this crisis mean that we need to make investments on an unprecedented scale today, but we will do it in a way that Europe's next generation will reap the benefits tomorrow investments that will not only preserve the outstanding achievements of the last 70 years but will ensure that our Union is climate neutral, is digital, is social and a strong global player also in the future. To make this happen, NextGenerationEU will direct its massive financial power to invest in our common priorities through European programmes. Honourable Members, I am always keen to ensure that this House has its full say on crucial decisions of our Union. My proposal to invest these funds via programmes in our European budget achieves exactly that. NextGenerationEU will restore and rebuild our single market, that great generator of innovation, prosperity and opportunity. All Member States need to invest in technologies that will spark the recovery through new innovation and clean industries. NextGenerationEU strengthens the European Green Deal and Horizon Europe and will invest in key infrastructure, from 5G to housing renovation. At the same time, we must ensure that the transition to a climate-neutral economy leaves nobody behind. NextGenerationEU will therefore multiply the funding for the Just Transition Fund. In the same vein, no Member State should have to choose between responding to the crisis or investing in our people. Therefore, NextGenerationEU increases Erasmus and youth employment support. It makes sure that people get the skills and the training and the education they need to adapt to this rapidly-changing world. NextGenerationEU will help those perfectly healthy companies that have made the right decisions and investment over decades but that find themselves at risk now because competitors in other Member States have better access to public or private money to get fresh capital. It will invest in key European industries and technologies to make crucial supply chains more resilient. It will ensure Europe remains cutting-edge in key areas like artificial intelligence, precision farming or green engineering. And NextGenerationEU will help make our health systems more resilient for future crises. This investment will be a new European common good. It will show the true and tangible value of being part of the Union. And it will be owned by us all. In total, the Commission will raise EUR 750 billion for NextGenerationEU. Of that total, EUR 500 billion will be distributed in grants and EUR 250 billion in loans passed onto Member States. Meine Damen und Herren Abgeordnete! Lassen Sie mich ganz klarstellen: Diese Zuschüsse, diese grants, sind eine gemeinsame Investition in unsere Zukunft. Sie haben mit den Schulden der Mitgliedstaaten aus der Vergangenheit nichts zu tun. Die Zuschüsse gehen durch den europäischen Haushalt, und dieser begrenzt die Zahlung eines jeden Landes nach einem festen Schlüssel. Die Zuschüsse gehen klar als Investitionen in unsere europäischen Prioritäten: die Stärkung unseres Binnenmarktes, die Digitalisierung, den europäischen Grünen Deal, die Resilienz. Und mehr noch: Der europäische Haushalt hat immer aus Zuschüssen bestanden. Das ist nichts Neues. Zuschüsse für gezielte Investitionen und Reformen, Zuschüsse für mehr Zusammenhalt, Zuschüsse für eine Annäherung der Lebensverhältnisse in Europa. Unsere Europäische Union ist der lebende Beweis dafür, dass es funktioniert. Durch die Europäische Union sind die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit, der Wohlstand und der Lebensstandard eines jeden Mitgliedslandes gestiegen. Diese Investitionen über das europäische Budget haben sich für alle um ein Vielfaches ausgezahlt. Und so ist auch NextGenerationEU für uns alle. Wir investieren gemeinsam in Europas Zukunft und zahlen die Gesamtsumme nach einem bekannten und erprobten Schlüssel über zukünftige Haushalte zurück. Und zusätzlich wird die Kommission dazu eine Reihe neuer, eigener Einnahmequellen vorschlagen. Diese könnten zum Beispiel auf dem geplanten Ausbau des Emissionshandels basieren oder auf einer CO2-Grenzsteuer, die als Ausgleichsmechanismus gegen den Import billiger klimaschädlicher Produkte aus dem Ausland fungiert, und/oder auf einer neuen Digitalsteuer, damit dort, wo Milliardengewinne gemacht werden, auch ein Beitrag zum Gemeinwohl erfolgt. Hier müssen wir ambitioniert sein, und hier zähle ich auf Ihre volle Unterstützung. Meine Damen und Herren Abgeordnete! Jetzt ist die Zeit, die richtige Entscheidung zu treffen. Denjenigen, die heute die mutige Investition scheuen, sage ich, dass uns morgen die Kosten des Nichthandelns in dieser Krise viel teurer zu stehen kommen. Hier geht es darum, gemeinsam Grundlagen für unsere Zukunft zu legen, und zugleich darum, auf eine klar umrissene, unverschuldete, außergewöhnliche Krisensituation angemessen zu reagieren. Deshalb lasst uns diese alten Vorurteile beiseitelegen! Lasst uns stattdessen die Kraft wiederentdecken, die von dieser großen Idee eines gemeinsamen Europas ausgeht! Die Krise, mit der wir jetzt umgehen müssen, ist gewaltig. Aber ebenso gewaltig ist die Chance für Europa und unsere Verantwortung, in dieser Situation das Richtige zu tun. Wir können jetzt die Grundlagen legen für eine Union, die klimaneutral ist, die digital ist, die robuster ist und die sozial ist, die besser aufgestellt ist als je zuvor. Vor siebzig Jahren unternahmen unsere Gründungsväter und -mütter den ersten mutigen Schritt, um eine Union des Friedens und eine Union des Wohlstands zu schaffen. Heute ist der Moment, das Kapitel unserer Generation hinzuzufügen und einen weiteren mutigen Schritt in eine Union der Nachhaltigkeit zu tun. Wir sind das der nächsten Generation schuldig. Lang lebe Europa!
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Mr President, this health and economic crisis we face is a game-changer unprecedented in the history of European Union. The magnitude of this crisis and its extraordinary challenges require a sizable and rapid response. There is no alternative. Either we find a solution to invest massively in our economy or we accept that we will be hit even harder. Let me be clear, this is a package for all Member States, and all Member States need this package, irrespective of how badly they were affected by the health and economic crisis because the internal market is at stake. If the internal market fails, every citizen and business in the European Union will suffer. The solution by President von der Leyen for the Commission to borrow money from the market is a remarkable one, we have to recognise this. Our opinion may differ in some details, but I really welcome the approach a European solution for a European problem. It also avoids the major difficulty we had during the last crisis: creating more debt for some Member States when in fact they need money to inject immediately in their economies. Decisions that we take now will define Europe's road for the next 20-30 years, because we are investing massively now not only to recover but to relaunch and to modernise our economy, so we are creating debts for the generations to come. And that is why the Multiannual Framework and the recovery package should focus on the future, not stay fixed on ideas from the past. First, we need to restore economic perspective. We need to safeguard and create new jobs. We need to focus on investment with real economic and European added value. The Green Deal and digital agenda should be the building blocks of a resilient and sovereign European economy. Second, solidarity is key. The fight against territorial divides and inequalities across Europe will be the breeding ground for our Union or the seeds of our future division, so that's why we must stand united. Third, the European Union is not a cash machine. It's a common project where solidarity comes with values and the shared vision for our future. And that's why Renew Europe Group will only support MFF where the rule of law and respect of European values are a condition to receiving European funds: not to penalise people but the politicians who do not play by the rules. Fourth, certainly there are many lessons to be learned from this crisis, reasons to reform and improve areas where the European Union needs to be more present. And that is why the Conference on the Future of Europe: our common future, should get underway. The road to recovery will be long and hard. The decision we take these days will affect the future of millions of people, the future of the internal market and the future of our European Union. And that is why the European Union must stay united and fight as one.
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Mr President, we have indeed a very deep crisis in Europe, and we need to react to that. It's a big moment of responsibility, of thinking together, that were joining hands and we're thinking of how to get together out of this crisis. This Parliament, with a broad majority, has shown a way forward with a substantial recovery fund, a strong MFF a strong budget and a Green Deal that helps the economy while addressing the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis which have gone nowhere. I'm very glad to say that Greens all over Europe are actually supporting that, so I'm afraid Mr Weber, dear Manfred, that it is a bit cheap to hide behind the Greens when we actually have a strong support, also public support from the Austrian Greens who are supporting our position and the position of this Parliament. Maybe it is rather your best friend in Vienna who is causing the problem. But I'm glad to see that you're also ready and willing to convince them, and try to convince them, and I am glad we can join forces there and try indeed our common job to convince governments all over parties, all over. Because that is what we need to do now, because I do believe that the Commission proposal is a very big step forward and we welcome the focus that you've put on grants to make sure that no Member State is left behind in this crisis. The overall volume might not prove sufficient in time, but in any case, what we need to make sure is that we don't lessen the ambitions on the MFF because we also need to think further ahead. You have mentioned colleagues have mentioned conditions attached to the fund, and I would urge us all to not repeat the big mistakes of the past and force countries into austerity and blind market ideologies that have never worked, and will not work. Instead, we need to make sure that the money is well invested into projects that will help in the long term, that create jobs and that save the one planet that we have. To be meaningful in the long term, both the Recovery Fund and the MFF need to incentivise the social and ecological transformation of our economy and promote gender equality a big problem we've seen in this crisis. They also need to follow our minimum common rules such as the rule of law and democracy. Some governments think that they can do it all alone, but I think they should think again. They have all benefited as much as and even more than other Member States from the single market, from freedom of movement and some, unfortunately, also from a bit too lax tax rules. Europe needs a strong step ahead. It needs courageous action like that of Schuman 70 years ago, and this Parliament has shown it is ready to do its part. I hope the Member States will follow.
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Mr President, I welcome President von der Leyen to the European Parliament, and thank you for your proposal. Dear colleagues, today is an important day, because the citizens of Europe expect help and support from the European Union, and today we can tell them help is coming. We are creating a package. The European Union is delivering. This is a new instrument. The support which it grants will be concrete. It will make a difference for people, for companies, for regions and for countries. What are the next steps? Today is only the beginning. We need to create the best recovery package possible, and for this, the European Parliament needs to be fully involved in this recovery package. The colleagues here in the room, they are coming from all regions of Europe. They are in direct contact with the citizens. They know exactly what the needs on the ground are, what hospitals need, what companies need, what people need. This is why we say the European Parliament has to be fully involved in how the money of the recovery package is being spent, but also in how the money of the recovery package is being paid back. The involvement of the European Parliament will ensure that the recovery package is the best recovery package that we can jointly and together create. This recovery package will have an impact upon the future of the citizens, and this is why this House, which represents the citizens of the European Union, needs to be involved in all aspects. We also need to see the whole picture. President von der Leyen was speaking about the budget as a whole. We need to create a recovery package which supports the people and the economy to come out of the Corona crisis, but we should also not forget about the old priorities of the EU budget. We should not forget about farmers, about students. We should not forget our new priorities: the Green Deal, the security of citizens, digitalisation, and we should have enough reserves to respond to still unpredictable crises that will, for sure, occur in the next seven years. These are the principles of our work. We are ready to work with the European Commission on this basis, and we expect the Commission to work with the Parliament on this basis.
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Mr President, first of all I would like to thank the Commission for its proposal, because this is creating room for an investment plan, and an investment plan that Europe badly needs and which should also come from Europe, not only from the Member States, because we do know if we leave it to the Member States, we will get an imbalance that is bigger and bigger in this internal market. What we see already: half of the state aid is coming from Germany at the moment, just showing the imbalance, and that is why we need a European investment programme. And that is why this is so important, and I would like to thank you for that. It's really also being thanked by all the different political Greens, and we do hope that from the other political families, including my government in the Netherlands, that they are seeing how badly needed such a new modern investment programme is. But this for the Commission also means that we need to be sure that the investments are going to the Green Deal and digitalisation. And that is there in words, but really it now boils down also to how to put it into action. And there I have one question to the Commission. We are talking about EUR 750 billion now. But in state aid, we are talking about more than EUR 2 000 billion, and there still the support is without conditions. European Commission, Madam Vestager, make the rules to also condition the state aid, because conditions are needed here but also for the national investments, and then we can prosper and get to the new economy that Europe so badly needs.
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Voorzitter, laat mij in het Nederlands beginnen want ik denk dat dat belangrijk is. Ik wil het voorstel van de Europese Commissie verwelkomen. In de vorige crisis heeft Europa te lang gewacht met reageren, dus het feit dat er nu een voorstel ligt, lijkt me zeer belangrijk. En natuurlijk, er zal gesproken worden over de verhouding tussen en loans, de hoogte daarvan, de manier waarop het geld besteed moet worden, maar het feit dat het voorstel er is, dat verwelkom ik. En ook omdat het de sfeer ademt van “we zitten allemaal in hetzelfde schuitje, laten we er samen de schouders onder zetten en laten we er samen uitkomen”. En natuurlijk, veel van dit voorstel staat of valt met eigen middelen. Over digitale belasting is al veel gezegd, dat kan ik verwelkomen. Een deel van het ETS. Maar het kernpunt voor mij is dat uiteindelijk het geld goed besteed wordt. En ik heb wel één punt van zorg. My main concern is the fact that we're now entering into debt that is unavoidable in this crisis, but it's unclear how and when it is going to be repaid. And my concern is that, if we don't get own resources because if one Member State opposes, we won't get them in the end we will have to use our European budget to actually repay this debt, having less money at our disposal to do actual politics and policies. Therefore, I would like to see a real commitment from the Council that we will get own resources in time or that we start a repayment plan within this MFF already. We need clarity for this programme to work. And then let me say one thing to Madame García Pérez. I've just said in Dutch, my mother tongue, because I think it's important, that we need to shoulder this proposal all together, that we're all in the same boat, and that we need to work together. But if you propose making this a matter of 23 against four, we won't succeed. You will push those four countries into the arms of the extreme right if you say: let's do this without unanimity. Count on the pro-European forces in those countries, among which I include myself, to get this done, but we will have to do it together.
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Thank you very much Madam President, honourable Members of the European Parliament, my dear colleagues from the European Commission. First, I really would like to thank you for what I felt was very strong, overwhelming support in most of the interventions for the ambitious proposal the Commission has tabled today. And I really would like to thank you for the inspiration, which on many occasions we have drawn from this House, from your resolutions, from the debates that we had with you, when we've been looking for ways to best respond to your calls for demonstrating more solidarity, for using this crisis as an opportunity to modernise the European economy and for consolidating the position of Europe as a global actor and global player. We put forward proposals, which was never done before. It's really without precedent, because what we wanted to do was to adapt the initial multiannual financial perspective proposal to the current needs and because we fully realised that the economic crisis is so sharp and so deep, we knew that we need to come up with a new instrument, which we named Next Generation EU. Altogether, we are talking about EUR 1.1 trillion of the proposal for MFF, an additional EUR 750 billion for the Next Generation instrument, which would be divided between grants and loans, as you suggested in your resolution. I very much appreciate that Mr Weber, Ms García Pérez and Mr Cioloș supported this approach and I would like to reassure you that we know that the success of the results if we invest the money in the right areas, and we definitely want to do that we fully realise that if we want to modernise the European economy, we have to invest in green, sustainable technologies. We have to be much more digital than we are right now, and we have to learn our lessons for improving the resilience of the European economy, because we learned how difficult it is to be dependent on some global value chains or single supplier of such sensitive health materials as we have seen over the last few months. So what we have put on the table is that the proposal has to not only overcome the crisis, but has to modernise, has to respect the important social aspects of our policy and has to make Europe really ready for the post-COVID 21st-century world. A lot of questions and some of them presented with a great vigour have been linked to debts and also to own resources Mr Meuthen, Ms Aubry, Mr Van Overtveldt. Here again, I would like to tell you that we did our homework. We studied the issue very carefully and we have come up with different options for own resources, which you want to, of course, explore with you and with the Member States. We want to use the new ETS revenues, which will be coming eventually from the aviation and maritime sector, to use them for financing parts of the MFF in the future. We are considering the so-called 'single market tax', especially from those companies which are benefiting from the fact that the single market is so big and functions that well. We will be following carefully how other countries and powers on this planet are respecting the Paris goals and if they are really reducing the carbon footprint of their products and their economy, and we will be ready to proceed if necessary with a carbon adjustment tax which, again, could be revenue for the European budget. And we are, of course, not forgetting about the possibility of digital taxation where, of course, we want to have a global agreement, preferably within the OECD or G20, but if this did not work, we are ready to consider to go alone. And Ms Szydło and Mr Azmani have highlighted the importance of tax evasion and unfair tax practices. This is, of course, one of the priorities upon which we are going to focus, and for us, the proper execution of the European budget and proper tax collection is, of course, one of the key priorities. To be quite honest, I didn't quite get the comment of the honourable Member, Mr Gyöngyösi, who was criticising us for lack of transparency. At 12 o'clock, we in the College adopted these very important proposals, and at one o'clock the whole College was here. The European Parliament was the first audience where we presented our proposals, where our President went into great detail about what we want to do and how we want to accomplish it. And therefore, I think that that tradition where we fully respect the democratic scrutiny of the European Parliament would be, of course, maintained in the future, and we will be debating with you all of the legislative proposals, which are very complex and where we need close cooperation and very close consultation. There've been several questions linked with state aid. I have to say that my colleague, Executive Vice-President Vestager, is known for her vigour in reviewing and assessing every single application, and we also have to agree that these last three months have been totally exceptional. At first, we had to fight for the lives of our citizens, then for the livelihoods and for jobs, and this is what we've been, with your help, doing since the beginning of this year. If you allow me, Madam President, to conclude with a plea, with a request. Because I think that we are at a truly historic European moment where we need all of us to show clear political leadership. We would very much appreciate the strong support of the European Parliament, as Mr González Pons has highlighted. But we also need your help to convince your compatriots back home. Therefore, I'm also addressing this request towards the Council and towards the Member States, because we need a good decision. We need a quick decision, and of course we need to work very closely with all national parliaments as well, because in the end, when we are talking about the head-rooms, ceilings and own resources, we need also the positive ratification of the national parliaments. Therefore, what we need is true political leadership, which would help Europe to overcome the crisis and really to prepare it for the next phase. So my last sentence would be directed to all of us: let's do this effort for the European Union. Let's do it for the next generation, and let's do it to demonstrate to our citizens that we know how to overcome the crisis and how we can prepare Europe for the 21st century.
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