Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR) and Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), Group Leaders holds a press conference ahead of the plenary session in Strasbourg (04-07 July 2022) and explains the priorities of their group.

Press conference by Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR) and Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), Group Leaders

SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), Co-president of the Left group, Starting one of the most important points of this plenary session, which is also the most uncertain I'd say, in taxonomy. Including amongst the so-called "green energy sources". And I do say that in inverted commas, because our group is against including gas energy and nuclear energy amongst the so-called green energies, which is why we are against that inclusion.

SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), Co-president of the Left group, We feel this is a form of greenwashing, whether you're talking about gas, which is the major source of greenhouse gases in Europe, and then saying that nuclear is safe. This is what we're being told. Because, considering we don't know what to do with nuclear waste, trying to give the impression that gas and nuclear energy are the future of our planet, including them as part of the taxonomy, I think is completely wrong.

SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), Co-president of the Left group, We're seeing France allied to right wing states like Hungary and Poland on this point. All countries should agree that gas and nuclear are dangerous, but even Commission experts said that, in fact, they should be included in taxonomy. This is a result of an intensive lobbying exercise by energy companies, starting with the Russian energy companies who will be the first to benefit from this taxonomy and is also actually a form of gift to Putin, who will get billions of euro if we use gas, Russian gas in particular, to the tune of 4 billion a year.

SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), Co-president of the Left group, That's why our European Parliament needs to stand up, as we did in the voting committee. You know it was a close vote. You know there's pressure being exerted within the political groups. I know this was debated in a press conference earlier, and I can say on behalf of our group, of the Left in the European Parliament, that we have done everything in our power to get this objection through and to block the inclusion of gas and nuclear in the taxonomy.

SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), Co-president of the Left group, We've been working with activists this morning who've mobilised civil society activists. Emmanuel Macron obviously wants to isolate us and there was local legislation passed last night hastily to avoid any mobilisation in front of the European Parliament, which is unfortunately acting against climate activists, trying to defend their future.

SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), Co-president of the Left group, And that's why all of our group will be voting in favour of our objection to the taxonomy and the inclusion of gas and energy amongst so-called green energy resources. In conclusion, very briefly, on the French presidency of the European Union, I would say in terms of consistency and climate, let me just flag up the free trade agreement that was signed between the European Commission and New Zealand. New sign of giving up on the climate and that all of the promises made during COVID were just swept away.

SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), Co-president of the Left group, And an interesting subject on the right to abortion, because the European Parliament is going to be voting a new resolution defending the rights of abortion that we need to defend, which is being threatened within the Union itself. If we actually want to have that happen, we need to finance family planning. We also need to defend the industries that manufacture the pill for abortion, and an American company have a monopoly on that at the moment, which considering the backdrop is not only a question of sovereignty, but also a question of access to abortion and facilitating access to abortion within the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHIRDEWAN, Co-president of the Left group, Let me follow on with a number. Another important issue that affects Europeans, and that is the development of purchasing power in Europe. Inflation is eating up pensions and salaries, and Europeans are faced with a situation in which they don't know how they're going to pay their food bills at the end of the month, how they're going to pay their energy bills, whether they can turn off the electricity or watch TV. They don't know whether they can pay their rent.

SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHIRDEWAN, Co-president of the Left group, So it was foreseeable, but it's not been stopped and now things are going to get worse. And we need political answers because citizens have to be protected from the cold and from hunger, because after the summer, this is going to be a very big issue. So I'm very happy to see the Parliament debating this this afternoon. I think it's 1 p.m. Our proposals are as follows on foodstuffs.

SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHIRDEWAN, Co-president of the Left group, The price of butter has risen by 40% in the last year, extraordinary. Milk has increased several fold over the last couple of years. Because of the crisis in Ukraine, wheat export restrictions have seen bread prices going up and a kilo of bread is now €3.50 in Germany, and the prices have increased in other countries as well.

SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHIRDEWAN, Co-president of the Left group, So we are calling for a price cap for staple foods. We are calling for free food in schools and kindergartens so that the kids don't go hungry. We also want to put an end to foodstuff speculation. We think it's terrible that people are filling their pockets by exploiting the rising prices and speculating on them because that's affecting particularly the global south. We need a clear political signal against that. So these are our demands on food.

SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHIRDEWAN, Co-president of the Left group, Turning to energy now. We want an excess profits tax. So the big oil multinationals and energy companies have to have that excess profits taxed. We've seen in Greece or in Italy, something like that happening. And that funding then has to go back towards end users in low income households to protect them. We need an energy camp like we're seeing in Spain and Portugal, which has been done for gas.

SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHIRDEWAN, Co-president of the Left group, That's a real priority, so that when the cold weather kicks in, people can afford to heat their houses. They have to be able to heat have hot water. They need electricity. Cutting off the electricity has to be banned across Europe. If people can't pay their electricity bills, we can't allow them to be sitting in the dark. That's unacceptable. So an energy price cap and an excess profit tax, that's what we're calling for. There's a lot more I've got on my piece of paper, but time is flying by. I'm happy to have the debate today in the Parliament and to be able to give some  stress to these issues, because a lot of people are being affected by the drop in purchasing power.

Q&A Question regarding whether they support any specific candidate for the Secretary General of the EP vacancy.

Q&A Question regarding their view on reinforcing EU defence capability and implementing the key themes of the strategic compass. Second question regarding posible solutions to curve foodstuff speculation. Third question about the deterioration of media freedom in Greece since the elections in 2019.

Q&A Question regarding whether they agree to the Italian proposal to introduce a cap on inflation and price rises in Russian oil and gas.

Dato for begivenhed	5.7.2022
Reference:	I228160V

Press conference by Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR) and Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), Group Leaders

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