Quote of the week by S&D president, Iratxe García Pérez, on the State of the Union:
“We must help those in the EU who are suffering the economic and social consequences of the war. As always, crises reveal our weaknesses, but they also show us what needs to be done: reinforce social policies, reform the energy market, reform taxation and economic governance – we have seen that reforming the Stability Pact is a necessity today – and fight the climate emergency”
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This week, the European Parliament conclusively declared that Hungary can no longer be considered a democracy. This Sunday, the European Commission will propose a cut to Hungary’s EU funds. We are clear that the Commission needs to be firm and make it obvious that EU countries must respect the rule of law.
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Next week some of our MEPs are going on important missions abroad.
Concerns over intrusive surveillance against political opponents and lawyers in Poland have motivated a fact-finding mission from the European Parliament’s committee of inquiry investigating Pegasus and other spyware. MEPs will visit Warsaw for a fact-finding mission. Our MEPs Katarina Barley and Łukasz Kohut will take part in the mission. We are disappointed by the Polish PiS government’s disrespect, as they have refused to meet the EP delegation. MEPs want to get to the bottom of the scandal, and will hear from Polish victims of spyware, and experts, judges, journalists, representatives of civil society and members of the Polish Senate Inquiry committee.
From Monday, a delegation from the Parliament’s committee on industry, research and energy (ITRE) will travel to South Korea to meet with interlocutors in the Korean government and parliament as well as with the private sector. Our MEPs Tsvetelina Penkova and Lina Galvez will attend. Discussions will centre around industry policy, including on semiconductors and batteries, energy policy, telecoms and ICT topics (including 5G, big data, cybersecurity) and innovation policy.
Another delegation from the ITRE committee will visit Spain, led by our MEP Jens Geier. Also joining are Niels Fuglsang and Nicolás González. The agenda will follow meetings in the context of ITRE’s work on the Fit for 55 package with representatives of the energy sector and local authorities. The delegation will go to site visits in energy-intensive industries, power plants and renewable energy companies.
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