President. – I would like to inform the House that I have received requests for points of order, so I will ask you to indicate the Rule of Procedure that you will quote when presenting your point of order.
Manon Aubry (The Left). – Madame la Présidente, merci pour ce rappel au règlement, sur la base de l’article117 sur l’association de notre Parlement à la signature d’accords internationaux.
Comme vous le savez, la semaine dernière, Ursula von der Leyen a annoncé la conclusion de l’accord de libre-échange entre l’Union européenne et le Mercosur. Vous le savez, cet accord va avoir des conséquences désastreuses sur notre agriculture, notre santé et la planète.
Mais il est d’autant plus inacceptable que cet accord soit imposé dans l’opacité la plus totale, au mépris des règles de fonctionnement des institutions européennes. Comment expliquer qu’aucun député de la commission compétente n’ait été informé? Que l’on nous ait refusé l’accès aux documents de négociation? Que la Commission européenne prépare en catimini un changement de base juridique pour contourner la validation des parlements nationaux?
Alors, chers collègues, nous ne pouvons accepter un tel passage en force. Nous ne pouvons accepter que notre Parlement européen soit piétiné de la sorte. Il en va de la démocratie.
Je vous invite en conséquence à signer notre motion de censure de la Commission européenne pour lui rappeler que, en démocratie, c’est le peuple qui fait la loi.
Assita Kanko (ECR). – Madam President, advocating for female genital mutilation is nothing more than calling for violence. The fact that this can happen in mosques in Europe without consequences says so much. It happened in the Netherlands. It is the women and girls who are being abandoned and that makes me incredibly angry and sad.
How is it that we still have to make so much effort today to achieve results against female genital mutilation, to convince people that the call for such a thing by an imam or by anyone else is not possible. Have we become such a cowardly, cruel society?
If you want to defend the basic rights of these young girls, you have to dare to confront the behaviour and statements of the imam. We must support the many girls who are still subjected to this horrible practice, and suffer the terrible consequences for the rest of their lives.
As a survivor of female genital mutilation myself, I find the ruling of the Dutch Council of State after the statements of the imam a slap in the face. The call can incite families to mutilate girls, for example, during the holy days and the imam has a lot of authority within the community to encourage that.
The branch of Islam that he is representing does not have a place in Europe.
Rasmus Nordqvist (Verts/ALE). – Madam President, I would like to raise a point of order under Rule 10(4) in the Rules of Procedure, which clearly states that Members shall not resort to offensive language. More specifically, it concerns a debate we had last time we met here in Strasbourg on recent legislation targeting LGBTQI people, where certain Members of this House from the extreme right used both foul and defamatory language. I will always defend the right of my opponent to disagree with me, but expect at the same time everybody in this House to do so respectfully and without the need to defame others in words or actions.
As an LGBTQI person myself, I'm used to hate speech, I'm used to brushing it off and moving on. But this debate stayed with me and I find it sad, worrying and unacceptable, in a debate concerning often young and vulnerable LGBTQI people and the protection of rule of law and a discrimination-free Union, that people in this House have used the language they did.
So I do hope, Madam President, that you will look into the matter and take action.
(Applause)
President. – Thank you, Mr Nordqvist, we indeed take this very seriously, and we are looking into the matter as we speak.
Vladimir Prebilič (Verts/ALE). – Madam President, I will speak in Serbian language.
(The speaker spoke a non-official language)
(The President interrupted the speaker)
President. – You are not being interpreted, dear colleague. You need to speak an EU official language.
Vladimir Prebilič (Verts/ALE). – OK, I will say it in English. It was an accident that happened in Serbia on 1November this year, at 11:52. Fifteen people died. Two more were heavily injured. In the meantime, there were mass protests running over the country. Instead of listening to what is happening in the streets, the authorities employed Pegasus and other software to hear what are the protesters talking about. So this is clear interference of the authorities in the freedom of speech. So this is important to tackle.
Željana Zovko (PPE). – Madam President, I consider this as a real provocation because Serbia is not a member of the European Union, and there is no Serbian language here.
Fabio De Masi (NI). – Madam President, I'm referring to paragraph 206 on the standing committees. We were informed that there shall be installed two standing committees: one on public health and one on defence. These two have been lumped together. We support, indeed, a Committee on Public Health, but we firmly reject further armament and escalation in Europe. That's why we want to ask for a separate decision on those two standing committees.
President. – The minutes and the texts adopted of the sitting of 28 November are available. Are there any comments? I see that is not the case. Thereby they are approved.