According to the human rights activist and German MEP, the European Parliament is now a fragmented institution where more than half of the MEPs do not share the social, environmental and economic initiatives aimed at ending the war.
TASS: Interview from our correspondent from Poland Piotr Jastrzębski
As a member of the European Parliament, how do you assess the work of the previous European Parliament? Does the European Parliament today address the pressing issues that are important for European citizens? How do you assess the effectiveness of the EU’s international policy, in particular the EU’s position on the conflict in Ukraine?
In principle, cooperation between the various countries in Europe is a win-win situation.
However, I must point out that the conservative parties, which unfortunately already had a majority in Parliament in the previous legislative period, have hardly, if at all, implemented and addressed fundamental issues such as consistent protection of the climate, the environment or animal welfare.
From my point of view and that of the people I represent, I can say that these pressing issues are dealt with only to a limited extent. Animal rights and environmental protection are often so negligible in the European Parliament that the way we treat our nature and other living things in the world can only be a sign of poverty.
How do you assess the new composition of the European Parliament? What changes in the adoption of political, economic and social initiatives do you expect? What are your priorities for the current parliamentary term?
It is challenging how conservative and right-winged the European Parliament is after the elections on 9 June.
This makes our work here in Parliament enormously difficult. It is precisely in the case of such essential and important objectives as climate and animal protection that we have to prepare ourselves for presumably a lot of resistance.
On the 19th of September you voted against the EP resolution on Continued financial and military support to Ukraine by EU Member States. Why did you vote against it? What are the contents of this resolution? What are the implications of this resolution for the European Union?
As a member of the PARTEI MENSCH UMWELT TIERSCHUTZ (Party for humans, the environment and animal protection) and of my own conviction, I am always committed to peace and the resolution of conflicts by peaceful and diplomatic means.
Unrestricted military support for Ukraine, especially with offensive weapons, means, in my view, more suffering, more deaths and further escalation.
It is, of course, difficult to use peaceful measures to end the war, but a principle and fundamental pacifist attitude is urgently needed in order to avoid further wars and conflicts in the future.
Nonetheless, we will introduce our topics.
How do you assess the new composition of the European Parliament? What changes in the adoption of political, economic and social initiatives do you expect? Can we expect the EU to return to a diplomatic dialogue to resolve the conflict in Ukraine in a diplomatic way?
As has already been mentioned, we expect considerable opposition to achieving our objectives because of the large proportion of right-wing and conservative MEPs.
We are in favour of a social, climate- and environmentally-friendly and non-animal-suffering policy designed to ensure the well-being of all beings for the future.
More than 50% of the parliament have a very different political stance from us in many perspectives.
However, we will not give up and try our best to achieve our aspirations and those of our electorate.
Only in this way can we create a world where every life is respected!