During the plenary session (14-17 September 2020) in the European Parliament in Brussels, Ursula VON DER LEYEN delivers the State of the European Union (SOTEU 2020) before the MEPs. Statement by Manon AUBRY (GUE/NGL, FR), GUE/NGL Group Leader. This transcription speech is the result of an automatic process. Check against delivery.

Brussels

statement

debate

plenary session

state of the Union

GUE/NGL

AUBRY, Manon (The Left, FR)

state of the Union 2020 (T)

State of the European Union debate: Statement by Manon AUBRY (GUE/NGL, FR), GUE/NGL Group Leader

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/17833675/I193940Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (Original), Manon AUBRY (GUE/NGL, FR), Thank you very much President. President Von Der Leyen, dear colleagues,.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Manon AUBRY (GUE/NGL, FR), In order to accurately describe the State of the Union and to chart the right political course, we need to be clear about the very serious situation which we're in. We need to be very frank when we look at this crisis. The covered crisis.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Manon AUBRY (GUE/NGL, FR), The major companies that are making massive redundancies haven't got rich off the back of the pandemic. We need to be very clear about the huge inequalities that increasingly see the 25 richest people, numerous amongst them Europeans have seen their fortunes increased by billions between March and May.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Manon AUBRY (GUE/NGL, FR), We also need to be very clear about the crisis in solidarity in the EU. We have a small number of tax havens that are pillaging from their neighbours by organising industrial scale tax evasion. We also need to be very frank about the ecological crisis.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Manon AUBRY (GUE/NGL, FR), There are more, more warning signs. We see increasing wildfires, heatwaves occurring more or more just this week. In fact, we see biodiversity plummeting. We need to be very clear when it comes to the moral crisis that faces us.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Manon AUBRY (GUE/NGL, FR), The EU needs to take a cold, hard look at the situation. It faces the flames in Maria. We need to be frank about the rule of law. Something that is fracturing. The EU, Poland and Poland and Hungary continue to tread the path of authoritarianism where minorities are in danger. This lack of clarity is something that is terribly missing from the commission's perspective,.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Manon AUBRY (GUE/NGL, FR), This crisis you appear not to see affecting millions of men, women and children. These people were not able to elect you, but they do expect clear responses from you. There is uncertainty. It is a privilege of leaders. It is, unfortunately, the daily life of our citizens.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Manon AUBRY (GUE/NGL, FR), They dont just want to hear empty slogans. They cannot put up with any more of these contradictions. You have announced a new objective for reducing climate emissions 55 percent. You announce with a lot of pomp and circumstance, but we are well under the 65 percent that have been scientifically identified to respect the Paris agreement.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Manon AUBRY (GUE/NGL, FR), So how do we can this objective further by then taking out the emissions from carbon that are absorbed by carbon sinks such as forests, in order to save humanity from the threat of climate change? We have to properly reduce our emissions, not just fiddle the numbers.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Manon AUBRY (GUE/NGL, FR), You've talked about industrial sovereignty and independence, but you are still negotiating free trade agreements in Mexico, China and Mercosur, amongst others. You say that you will review the budgetary control mechanism, but at the same time, those countries that benefit from the recovery plan will have to put in place many reforms based on austerity that nobody wants to see.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Manon AUBRY (GUE/NGL, FR), You talk about resilience, new indicators for progress. But you are still focussing on growth at all costs. No one is fooled by this. It's the same thing time and time again. Free trade, competition, austerity. These policies that have led us to the border of the abyss aspects. We need proper public planning, huge investment in transport infrastructure.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Manon AUBRY (GUE/NGL, FR), Putting in place insulation in buildings, for example. We need fiscal justice. We need to tax those people that have benefited from the crisis. Those with the largest fortunes and the end of tax havens in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Manon AUBRY (GUE/NGL, FR), President Von Der Leyen you talked for around 1hour 20 and minutes, at no point did you mention tax justice. Those who are richest in the EU, the tax havens that are wearing away social justice in the EU, we will not be able to change direction without a proper contribution from the European Central Bank.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Manon AUBRY (GUE/NGL, FR), It needs to act now in the frame of an ambitious recovery plan where each year of public money is conditioned with a social and environmental contribution. We can't simply give carte blanche to these large companies who are polluting, who are laying off massive numbers of people just to satisfy their shareholders.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Manon AUBRY (GUE/NGL, FR), We need to be clear. We need to be frank. This huge transition isn't going to just happen by magic, by us just hoping for the best, hoping that the market will magically sort out what it has destroyed. President von der Leyen, if you really want to move out of this period of uncertainty, you have to accept to change the old paradigms.