Der Präsident. – Als nächster Punkt der Tagesordnung folgt die Aussprache über die Erklärung der Kommission zur Reaktion der EU auf die zunehmende Unterdrückung von Protesten im Iran (2022/2936(RSP)).
Ich weise die Mitglieder darauf hin, dass im Zuge dieser Aussprache eine Rednerrunde der Fraktionen vorgesehen ist und dass es deshalb keine spontanen Wortmeldungen gibt und keine blauen Karten akzeptiert werden.
Valdis Dombrovskis,Executive Vice-President of the Commission. – Mr President, honourable Members, first of all I would like to thank you all for your proactive stance in response to the killing of 22—year—old Mahsa Amini and the brutal repression of the ensuing peaceful demonstrations in Iran.
The death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the Iranian morality police remains the most deplorable thing there is for anyone who generally believes in the duty of institutions to protect their citizens. The outrageous episode caused has resulted in a national protest movement that is putting in question the political, religious and cultural foundations of the Shiite clerical regime.
There is a strong political unity in Europe in condemning the way the Iranian security forces are handling the current protests. Many have been injured and detained and there is still no clarity on the number of people who lost their lives in the protests. The decision to severely restrict internet access by the relevant Iranian authorities is a further cause of concern as it blatantly violates freedom of expression.
Concern is growing over recent statements by Iranian lawmakers calling for the death penalty against protesters. This is unacceptable, and I would like to thank all of you honourable Members who have already publicly expressed their dissent.
The EU has a strong unequivocal and long—standing opposition to the death penalty in all times and in all circumstances, and aims at its universal abolition. The death penalty is a cruel and inhuman punishment which fails to act as a deterrent to crime and represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity.
As the HR/VP said during his intervention at the European Parliament plenary on 4 October, showing a strong and united reaction by the EU is of the utmost importance. People in Iran and everywhere else have the right to peaceful protest. Fundamental rights must be respected in all circumstances.
On 17 October, in a clear and strong message to Iran, the EU added 11 individuals and four entities to the list of those subject to restrictive measures in a context of existing Iran human rights sanctions regime for their role in the death of Mahsa Amini and in the violent response to peaceful demonstrations.
At the same time as EU representatives, we continue to use every opportunity in our direction exchanges with the Iranian authorities to urge them to ensure the respect of fundamental rights of Iranian citizens, including the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, irrespective of religion, belief or any other status, and in full consistency with the principles enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party.
Let us assure you, honourable Members, that the EU and its Member States will continue to closely monitor the situation of protests in Iran and will continue to consider all options at its disposal, including further restrictive measures to address the killing of Mahsa Amini and the violent response of the Iranian security forces to peaceful protests.
David Lega, on behalf of the PPE Group. – Mr President, we have come to the point of no return in our relationship with the Iranian regime. The Islamic regime in Iran is barbaric and brutal. It despises everything that we defend. The Iranian people ask for freedom. They ask for respect and dignity. The Iranian people ask for their fundamental human rights to be recognised, but the Islamic regime would go to any length to crush the people’s strive for freedom – detention, violence, torture and now mass executions. The Iranian Parliament has moved to execute all the tens of thousands of protesters arrested over the last two months. More than 14 000 people – 14 000 people! We must do everything in our power to support the Iranian people. The Iranian people deserve to live in a free, stable, inclusive and democratic country and we must ensure that they trust in our support.
Therefore, we must put all the Iranian parliamentarians who voted for mass executions on our sanction list. We must suspend all political negotiations with Iran, including the JCPOA, because we cannot negotiate with murderers.
I ask the Commission to stop legitimising the repression of mandatory veiling in Iran. Please stop all campaigns saying things like ‘Freedom is in hijab’.
Please, everyone in this House and the Commission and the Council, now we have to stand united and stand with the people of Iran.
Pedro Marques, on behalf of the S&D Group. – Thank you, Mr President. Woman, life, freedom: that is the slogan under which the extraordinarily brave Iranian women and men filled the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities to demand respect for the basic human rights and dignity. These protests, sparked by outrage over the killing by the so-called morality police of the young Iranian Mahsa Amini for alleged improper veiling, were focused on women’s rights, but they transformed into a broader movement against the oppressive rules and the authoritarian government, stifling the lives and freedom of the Iranian people.
As the EU, we support strongly and unambiguously the aspirations of the Iranian people to live in a peaceful, democratic, free country, respectful of its international and domestic human rights obligations. We condemn in the strongest possible ways the brutal repression unleashed by the authorities of the Islamic Republic on its own citizens who only seek to live their lives in freedom and dignity.
We are in particular outraged by the call of a majority of the Iranian Parliament to execute the protesters. This is absolutely unacceptable and we strongly condemn such incitement and mass state violence. We hope that more moderate voices will prevail and hear the voice of the Iranian people demanding respect for the human rights, rule of law and dignity. But we praise the leadership of our HR / VP on ensuring an unambiguous and consensual EU response to this situation, to the crackdown. And we call for new sanctions towards particularly those that are responsible by these recent acts.
Bart Groothuis, on behalf of the Renew Group. – Mr President, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, I’m a Member of the European Parliament coming from The Hague, the Netherlands. The Hague welcomes many people from around the world. But unlike any other city in the world, it actively welcomes war criminals by keeping them incarcerated behind bars. And I can tell you, there’s plenty of room in The Hague, I can assure you. In my experience, their countries extradite their war criminals to The Hague when they want to come clean with the past, when they envisage a new, brighter future. The Iranian people are currently in a similar process, imagining a brighter future for their country.
So the importance of today’s debate here is not just about supporting the brave Iranian people, standing up to repression, to torture, and to the lack of freedom. It’s that, but it’s also about helping them imagine that bright future. Europe can do and should do exactly that by putting out new sanctions – sanctions to human rights offenders, to the IRGC – but also by actively hampering Iranian cyber operations. Let’s also make a plan for that, for new sanctions on dual—use goods.
Let’s help the people in Iran by making the people in The Hague excited, by welcoming their new citizens behind bars.
Hannah Neumann, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Mr President, what would a world without the so-called Islamic regime look like? This is exactly the question I asked Iranians on Twitter after 227 members of the Iranian Parliament asked for their execution. I got thousands of replies. I could use my real name on Twitter. I could walk in the streets without fear of being beaten up. I could finally go back home to my homeland, hug my old mother. Ukrainians wouldn’t be killed by our drones. A peaceful Middle East.
14 000 Iranians who took to the streets for these demands are at the moment at imminent threat of execution. And the President of Iran is no stranger to that. He has killed in 1988. He has slaughtered thousands of political prisoners in Iran already.
It is not on us to change the regime. But, colleagues, it is on us to be very clear that those who fight for political freedoms in the streets of Iran have our full solidarity and support. We need to sanction all 227 members of the parliament who made this outrageous call to execute political prisoners. And we need to designate the Revolutionary Guards as what they are – a terror organisation.
We need to convene a special session of the UN Human Rights Council to set up a reporting and accountability mechanism. And dear colleagues, each and every one of us has to do everything possible to make sure that those dying at the moment in Iran every single day, for a different future, do not die for nothing.
Hermann Tertsch, en nombre del Grupo ECR. – Señor presidente, no nos vamos a poner ahora a hablar de lo malo que es el régimen criminal de los ayatolás de Irán. Llevan cuarenta años asesinando a la oposición. Por cierto, llegaron con ayuda occidental, recordémoslo todos.
Treinta mil muertos asesinados solo en 1988. Y después hemos tenido regularmente —cada año, cada dos años, cada meses— matanzas, matanzas y matanzas todo el tiempo, y han sido siempre perdonadas por una Europa que está deseosa de hacer acuerdos con Irán, permanentemente; que tiene conexiones con Irán; que ha visto cómo Irán ha entrado en Iberoamérica de la forma que ha entrado, de la mano de Maduro, con el Partido Socialista Obrero Español, con los contactos con el partido comunista Podemos de España. Todas las infiltraciones que ha habido exteriores, las amenazas... ahora son la venta de los drones y de las armas a Ucrania. Agreden fuera, asesinan dentro; ahora nos amenazan a los parlamentarios y a las asociaciones de protección de derechos humanos.
Nos están amenazando y hay silencio absoluto de Gobiernos como el español. ¿Por qué pasa eso? Esas complicidades nos han llevado aquí. Hay que cerrar las embajadas, poner sanciones de verdad a Irán y bloquear, llamar terroristas a los terroristas de la Guardia Revolucionaria y acabar con esta complicidad que ha existido todos estos años.
Özlem Demirel, im Namen der Fraktion The Left. – Herr Präsident! Im Iran ereignet sich Historisches: ein Volksaufstand, eine revolutionäre Bewegung, die sich auf den Weg gemacht hat, das Alte, Unterdrückende und Reaktionäre abzulegen, um es mit etwas Neuem zu ersetzen. Wie weit das Neue gehen wird, ist noch unklar.
Dennoch ist schon viel gewonnen. Es geht um Selbstbestimmung: Frauen und Männer in Stadt und Land gehen auf die Straße, trotz martialischer Gewalt – Jung und Alt. Auch in den Betrieben organisieren sich Arbeiterinnen und Arbeiter.
Unsere uneingeschränkte Solidarität gilt dem iranischen Volk, das in der Vergangenheit auch seine brutalen Erfahrungen gemacht hat – mit dem Regime im Inneren, aber auch mit Interventionen von außen, wie zum Beispiel die der CIA, die überhaupt das heutige rückschrittliche Regime mit begünstigt hat.
Allen ist klar, dass das Regime noch blutiger vorgehen wird, wenn sich die Volksbewegung zurückzieht. Deshalb ist internationale Solidarität von unten nun entscheidend – die hiesige geopolitische Eingriffe ebenso ablehnen wie auch wirklich effektive Maßnahmen gegen das Regime fordern. Die Menschen im Iran zeigen uns: Widerstand ist Leben; sie sagen: Jin – Jiyan –Azadi!
Valdis Dombrovskis,Executive Vice-President of the Commission. – Mr President, honourable Members, this debate testifies to our shared interest in promoting tangible improvements in respect to the human rights situation in Iran, but also to our strong determination to react promptly to any attempt to crack down on fundamental rights and freedoms.
The EU and its Member States continue to be united in their response. The HR/VP and the foreign ministers of the 27 will take stock at the next Foreign Affairs Council and will consider all options at their disposal, including further restrictive measures in reaction to the killing of Mahsa Amini and the current and violent response of Iranian security forces to peaceful protests.
Der Präsident. – Die Aussprache ist damit geschlossen.