Preparation of the European Council meeting of 21-22 October 2021 (debate)
Speaker: Ska KELLER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Date: 2021-10-20

  Ska Keller,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, before looking ahead to the Council meeting, I need to look back and refer Minister Logar to some remarks that his Prime Minister, Prime Minister Janša, has made lately via Twitter. He has degraded MEPs. He has promoted ridiculous conspiracy theories and he has used anti-Semitic stereotypes. 
I’m not willing to get used to this kind of political rhetoric. It undermines our democracies and we must call it out for what it is – dangerous populism. I’m happy to hear, Minister, that you’re going to discuss disinformation at the Council, so I’m sure you can bring it up, or your Prime Minister obviously can bring it up here. 
We have seen that democratic values can never be taken for granted, must always be defended, and I am proud to know that my Group, but also the majority of this House will agree with me when I say that.
Yesterday we debated the situation in Poland, a country that is turning its back on the EU, even though one should always keep in mind that it’s not the country, which has a huge support for the European Union, it is the government that is turning the country’s back on the EU and its values. And we called on the Commission yesterday to take strong actions in defence of our Treaties. But the truth is that the Council also has a role to play. 
In the Council there are some around the table who blatantly violate the most fundamental of our common rules. So I wonder, will the prime ministers and presidents finally, and in all clarity, speak up to them? Will the Council start finally the hearings on Article 7? Because the real crisis for our Union is when there is no strong response when some deviate from our common values. 
I would also like to hear some clear words from Council members on the human rights crisis at the European borders. People are dying at our borders because of our lack of action. They are being pushed back at the borders, beaten, humiliated, left helpless, and yet no one seems to care. And this needs to stop. 
Europe’s borders and what happens there are our common responsibility. That the human rights of people in need are systematically violated cannot be an acceptable state of play. Human beings are not weapons. They are not threats. Right now, every dictator in the world has understood that the one thing that the Europeans are very much afraid of is to send children, women and men. If they want to put pressure on us, that’s what they will do. But rather than being frightened, we should finally establish a fair asylum system based on human rights and solidarity. And this Parliament has again and again proven to be ready. 
And Europe also needs to reduce its dependency on autocrats when it comes to energy. Instead of building infrastructure that will tie us forever to the goodwill of not necessarily well-meaning governments, we need to invest in renewable energy at home to help the climate, but also to tackle energy poverty. It is a big problem all over Europe. We have the means to solve it. We have done, unfortunately, all over Europe, too little for too long and this must change.