24. 11. 2022
Polský sejm a zasedání OBSE ve Varšavě. Shrnuji zde závěry pražské konference v rámci českého EU předsednictví a také usnesení poslanecké sněmovny o ruském teroristickém režimu. Na Výboru pro migraci si porovnáváme čísla a příklady dobré praxe s Polskem, Slovenskem, Rumunskem a Moldavskem. Ukrajinci konkrétně popisují situaci a prosí o pomoc s generátory, plynovými ohřívači. Winter is not coming, winter is here. Ruské útoky na strategickou infrastrukturu jsou vysoce účinné a brutální. No a kdo by si chtěl masochisticky přečíst můj příspěvek v angličtině, tak je zde:
Thank you mr. chair,
As you may know within its EU presidency, the Czech Republic organized Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs. In Prague we hosted not only EU committees but also candidate countries and guests. One of our main priorities was obviously Ukraine and its post war reconstruction.
Those of you who visited this conference will hear my words for the second time, but we also say that repetition is a mother of wisdom.
We must not forget that the Russian aggression did not begin on 24 February this year, but already at the turn of 2013 and 2014, when Russia occupied Crimea in complete violation of international law. At that time, the international community did not stand up for the integrity of Ukraine forcefully enough. There is not a single person in Europe who would not feel the consequences of this ‚turning a blind eye‘ approach, but the people of Ukraine feel it in the most cruel and painful way.
Here I would very much like to quote the words of our former President Václav Havel, which he once said: ‚For many centuries, there has been a slight Russian problem that Russia does not know exactly where it begins and where it ends. Even though it is the biggest country in the world, they still feel that they are a little bit small and that they are threatened by the tiny neighbors around them.“
I would now add to that statement by saying that it is now more than ever absolutely vital that we, the smaller and the larger neighbors, stick together to form a democratic dam, a bulwark against the aggressive, expansionist character of Putin’s sick terrorist regime and that in the future we should be similarly vigilant, alert, but also united and consistent in the event of any outbreaks of further conflict that might start to smoulder in Europe at any time.
The conclusions that we adopted at the conference are very strong. By the vast majority of votes we condemned the organization of the Russian illegal sham referenda in regions within the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine,
we called for the establishment of the Special International Criminal Tribunal to secure accountability for the crime of aggression and calls for prosecution and punishment of war crimes,
and we also called on national Parliaments to recognize current Russian regime as a terrorist one which is exactly what we did in the lower chamber of the Czech parliament last week on November 15.
We should also support in every possible way dissidents and the cells of inner resistance in Russia and Belarus. That is how our friends in old democracies helped us at the time of communist regime in the Czech republic. It is not an intervention, it is a true help and we still remember it really well.
Dear colleagues and friends, we should stop beating about the bush and name things properly and how they really are because we are not diplomats, we are members of parliaments we can – and are expected – to express our opinions openly and frankly.
Thank you for your attention
