The growing distance between EU institutions and citizens’ needs , President ID Group

The lack of trust in EU institutions among There are still too many unresolved citizens is at this point a consolidated important issues in Brussels. reality. From plans for the economic recovery in By centralizing all kinds of decisions and response to the Covid-19 crisis to often arrogating non-existent powers, immigration, about which the stalemate supporters of a federalist European on issues such as radicalization and the Union have instead deliberately decided exoduses in the Mediterranean persists, to ignore Member States' political, and let's not forget the ongoing cultural and economic differences, and negotiations to reach a post-Brexit to marginalize common sense motions, agreement. which went in the opposite direction of the unique thought established by The EU is continuously failing to achieve Brussels. all the goals that - at least in words - it had set itself. Thus, the focus on priorities has This is not the Europe we want, and shifted from certainly not the one its founding fathers finding had in mind. solutions to meet the needs of citizens to bureaucratic issues and inter-institutional squabbles. From the respect of national legitimate prerogatives to the diktats imposed by few bureaucrats.

We will therefore discuss again the results achieved at the European Council on the Recovery Fund, whose delay was largely caused by the itself, which was well aware that forcing the hand on a political mechanism would have most likely led to Polish and Hungarian vetoes. 1 What you will NOT find in the next Plenary

Last week the BUDGET committee European Parliament offices in approved several building projects by Brussels different EU institutions. No plenary vote is needed for these procedures. The European Parliament has decided to purchase the WIERTZ building, for Europa Experience in Paris, Place de which the European Parliament la Madeleine currently has a usufruct contract.

The 1 452 m2 building will feature a Its gross surface area covers 18 073 m2 360° panoramic cinema, a modular of which about 10 000 m2 consists of meeting room, an interactive exhibition net office space and the price space and a role-play game. requested is EUR 74,9 million.

The proposed contract duration is for a EEAS Buenos Aires Office, Argentina period of 18 years, and the European Parliament will pay EUR 1 750 000 in The 1 237 m2 office building is priced annual rent, EUR 159 069 annually for at EUR 7,53 million. offsetting basic fit-out costs, EUR EUR 175 175 000 000 annually in charges and The net cost for the European External EUR 2 200 000 once-off for specific fit- Action Service would be EUR 11 out works. million over 20 years, covering the purchase price (EUR 7,53 million), the Europa Experience in Rome, Piazza cost of fit-out works, removal and start- Venezia up costs to the amount of EUR 1,97 million operating cost for 20 years of The 922 m2 building will feature a EUR 3,86 million, estimated revenues reception area, an interactive space, a from co-location of EUR 1,25 million, flat-screen cinema, a role-play game and revenues from the sale of the and a meeting room. current office premises at EUR 1,07 million. The proposed lease contract runs for a fixed period of 12 years, with a tacit The ID Group deplores the lack of renewal for another 6 years. The transparency concerning the building European Parliament will pay policy of EU institutions and considers EUREUR 903 000 03 000 annual rent and all these projects as an outrageous EUR EUR 3737 000000 annually for charges. waste of taxpayers’ money. 2 Heading towards a "no-deal"? , 1st Vice-President ID Group

There are only a few days left to try and It is indeed this original anti-democratic reach an agreement with the United and counter-productive position that is Kingdom in order to avoid the "no-deal". the cause of the current impasse.

Angela Merkel said: "We don't need a Let's hope that French fishermen are not deal at any price". A few days later, victims of all these mistakes. Clément Beaune repeated these words in an interview with the JDD and threatened an agreement that did not respect the French interests with a veto.

But the Commission seems ready to abandon them for fear of "no-deal". If the RN has welcomed the democratic choice of the British people, it is now up to each of them to defend their interests.

Those of France include an agreement on fishing, which should have been the precondition for the opening of negotiations on the rest. It is out of the question to make a gift to the United Kingdom on this subject.

This is why we must point the finger at the Brussels Commission and the European Parliament, which never accepted Brexit and always wanted to punish the British, treated as vassals rather than partners.

3 The EU is depriving Europe of its economic livelihood Jörg MEUTHEN, 2nd Vice-President ID Group

The results of last week’s summit look It looks like the EU and the current like pure mockery. While the EU leaders European governments have no talk about “recovery” cockily, they agreed intention to recover our countries, but to in fact on nothing else than Europe’s promote their final economic and social final deindustrialisation. decline.

The decision to reduce the continent’s

CO 2 emission forcibly to only 55 percent of the level of 1990 will not allow any recovery, but deal a death blow to the already damaged economy.

On a green ideological whim, they are depriving Europe of its livelihood systematically.

Instead of promoting new, cleaner and more efficient technologies, instead of using this crisis to modernize our industries, the EU forces itself to absurd “climate objectives” which will ruin not only, but especially the automotive industry and a secure and affordable energy supply as fundaments of our prosperity and guarantee for millions of jobs.

Not even the monstrous redistribution by the MFF and the so-called “recovery plan” will stop this.

4 The EU is paying the consequences of its own mistakes , Italian Delegation

Critical political and economic issues we would welcome an advance payment were covered at the European Council’s of 20% to be allocated by 2021. Summit that took place in Brussels at the end of last week. Finally, the concrete possibility of a “no deal scenario” by the 31st of December Other political parties and groups have has been triggered by the EU’s punitive often exploited the position of the Lega approach towards the UK. delegation about the above-mentioned affairs, because they are aware that our As we have continuously stated, the EU critics are always profound, founded and should have been more conciliatory. concrete.

We regret that the new MFF has reduced the allocation of resources of structural programs that are essential to boost economic development, such as the Connecting Europe Facility for infrastructures.

As regards to RRF, mechanism inevitably linked to the EU long-term budget, we still have perplexity about the wide range of obligations that condition the disbursement of such funds on criteria that leave many doubts about the political discretion of each Member State.

Among our concerns, there is also the possibility of an advance disbursement of funds: although the Commission seems to be resisting it, 5 Importance of SMEs in the national industrial networks Jérôme RIVIERE, French Delegation

Our small and medium-sized enterprises With no protection at its borders, it has are at the heart of the economies of our left its member countries to face unfair European nations, for employment, competition. Two measures could help know-how and innovation. French SMEs SMEs in France in concrete terms. in particular are an extraordinary example of this; this heritage must be The first is the end of double taxation for preserved, protected and promoted. all those who work from home, with the abolition of the “property tax on But these treasures of experience and companies”, which amounts to double creativity have a common enemy, that of taxation for entrepreneurs working from the European Union, which is subject to home and already paying property or the interests of large groups, unfair housing taxes. competition, and the Union's increasingly restrictive administrative The second is the introduction of a and technical standards, while financial French-style "Small Business Act", to capitalism can live its good life in a totally favour our companies over those from deregulated manner. abroad.

Difficulties of access to financing, We urgently need to regain our absurd legal constraints, sovereignty in this area as well. and the prohibition of states from having a voluntarist policy: these are the obstacles facing the European driving forces.

The results of this policy are catastrophic. The crisis caused by the - sometimes incomprehensible - restrictions of our governments is severely affecting these SMEs.

Europe is being emptied of its living forces, preferring constant mobility to ingrained solidity, a world above ground to national expertise. 6 On the barricades for free speech

Tom VANDENDRIESSCHE, Flemish Delegation

Once again the European Parliament So-called hate speech laws aren’t attempts to determine limits to our free designed to tackle hate speech, but to speech. The EU Security Union Strategy silence all legitimate opposition to the put to vote on Wednesday is a security multicultural transformation of our resilience and cooperation plan in which society. the EU aims to better reflect the changing threats landscape. They must be curbed at all cost. Freedom of speech and democracy are However, what sounds like a promising at stake in the European Union! plan consists of a few tremendous caveats. The Strategy consists of four pillars: a future-proof security environment, tackling evolving threats, protection from terrorism and a strong European security eco-system. The EU identifies hate speech as “illegal content online,” a threat which must be tackled.

We draw the line in the dust and put a clear stop to this unceasing onslaught on our individual rights and freedoms.

Freedom of speech and expression are fundamental rights, offline as well as online.

The growing trend where governments and big tech are collaborating to restrict free speech online and impose censorship under the cloak of safety is an enormous menace to our democracy.

7 New climate targets completely unrealistic , Austrian Delegation

Not a day goes by without the EU and Moreover, half of the savings in the Parliament coming up with more greenhouse gas emissions are due to climate madness. savings in Germany and the UK. But such savings cannot be extrapolated into Therefore, the new climate targets the future at will. announced by the Commission President come just in time. The FPÖ stands for sustainable protection that is in line with the The now proposed further tightening of economy and does not leave the people climate targets seems like an absurd of Austria and Europe to a utopian ship competition in green morality: who will of fools where the journey leads to offer even higher savings? - no matter unemployment, economic collapse and how unrealistic. poverty.

Since 1990, the EU has reduced just over 20 percent in just under three decades. Now, in ten years, the emissions should be more than halved, at least 55 percent. That is completely unrealistic.

The European Parliament's resolution on climate change only confirms these planned economic agendas, and in the midst of the deepest economic slump of the past decades, completely counterproductive measures are to be taken that will devour billions of euros.

The EU's pet project of financing the Green Deal is against the intention of reviving economic growth, because first of all, stricter climate targets cause burdens and higher costs for businesses and consumers. 8 Euroglobalist elite panicking over Brexit

Laura HUHTASAARI, Finnish Delegation

The negotiations on UK-EU relations The EU needs to learn that its have taken almost a year, but nobody megalomaniac plans do have limits. can tell whether an agreement will be reached.

It is interesting to see how the UK has been able to conclude almost 60 agreements with different countries.

This tells something about the EU: It is like Hotel California, you can check out, but you can never leave.

The EU thinks it can dictate rules and obligations and is trying to harm the UK as much as it can.

This is ridiculous. If the EU was intelligent, it would make a compromise and quickly guarantee a deal with the United Kingdom.

But there are so many ideological problems: The Brussels elite can't accept cooperation between sovereign national states.

They want to follow the footsteps of the many failed and brutal attempts during the history to "unite" Europe.

I sincerely hope that the UK remains strong and does not accept any bad deals from the EU. 9 Hypocritical resolution against Chancellor Merkel , Czech Delegation

I consider the letter from 53 Members of Compared with the letter to the the European Parliament of 9 December Chancellor, a resolution by the European to German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Parliament as a whole calling for be hypocritical. sanctions would carry much more weight. They demand that the German government immediately cancels the The subsequent meeting of the exportation of German submarines and European Council on the 11th of spare parts to Turkey. December clearly showed a reluctance to address Turkey's behaviour, which is The signatories were Greeks (16 out of becoming increasingly aggressive. 21) and Germans (37 out of 96). It is clear that such a letter has no hope of The EU, led by Germany, has not success, because German industry is not adopted any effective sanctions, showing subject to the Chancellor, but the that it values Turkey's trade interests Chancellor is serving German industry. more than the security of countries that are threatened by Turkey. These MEPs had the opportunity to support the ID group’s resolution on "growing tensions in Varos", which called for the ending of EU accession talks with Turkey, and a suspension of duty-free trade with Turkey.

Instead, all other groups agreed on resolution B9-0355 / 2020, which was limited to a statement of "concern" and a vain challenge to Turkey.

The signatories of the letter did not turn at all to the ID group, whose members repeatedly called for sanctions against Turkey. 10 Report on a strong social Europe for Just Transitions Peter KOFOD, Danish Delegation

There can no longer be any doubt that the social policies and social protection the European Union is moving towards a systems of the Member States. social union. Social protection, social policy and A movement, which is a clear threat to employment policy is an exclusive the well-functioning national labour- competence of the Member States and it market models in several Member should remain so. States. Otherwise we will have a United States One example is the EU´s plan to of Europe. establish a minimum wage. A proposal that in Denmark will undermine a century-old model of collective bargaining that is popular with both unions and employers and that is a cornerstone of a society with one of the world’s highest levels of income equality.

Bearing that in mind, it is terrifying to read the report on a strong social Europe for Just Transitions.

The report calls on several federalist proposals such as an EU Unemployment Benefit Reinsurance Scheme and the integration of the EPSR (European Pillar of Social Rights) and a social progress protocol in the Treaties.

Once again, several terrifying endeavours from the EU-Parliament to standardise

11 European Parliament has to accept the sovereignty of Member States , Estonian Delegation

In this plenary one of the most The majority of the Parliament are important topics will be discussed on federalists, who are dreaming about a Wednesday: conclusions of the United States of Europe, and we have to European Council, where I am going to protect our national interests and take the floor. sovereignty in this topic.

We already know very well that the European Parliament is trying to federalize the European Union as much as possible and so they have tried to do it also with Hungary and Poland.

This week we have to protect some Member States, like Hungary and Poland, because we never know, when our own country is under attack by the European Parliament, because they don't like some of our decisions in our country.

12 This year, the Sakharov Prize will be awarded to the democratic opposition in Belarus. The award ceremony will take place during the plenary sitting of Wednesday, 16 December 2020. The 2020 Sakharov laureates have also been invited to a virtual exchange of views with Members of the European Parliament in an extraordinary joint AFET/DEVE/DROI committee meeting this week.

The ID Group nominated Mgr Najeeb Michaeel, the Archbishop of Mosul, for the 2020 Sakharov Prize. When the Islamic State (IS) arrived in Mosul in August 2014, he ensured the evacuation of Christians, Syriacs and Chaldeans to Iraqi Kurdistan and safeguarded more than 800 historic manuscripts dating from the 13th to the 19th century. Since 1990 he has contributed to safeguarding 8 000 manuscripts and 35 000 documents from the Eastern Church. Archbishop Najib Mikhael Moussa’s work is of crucial importance to the Christian minority in Iraq.

We must preserve the historical presence of Christians in that country, which has markedly decreased over the last decades. The ID Group, therefore, welcomes Pope Francis’ decision to make his first visit to Iraq in March 2021.

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