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I fully support the Commission's proposal to provide Ukraine with a EUR 5 billion disbursement to support Ukraine's macro-financial stabilisation and resilience building. This is the second tranche of the EUR 9 billion package of loans to Ukraine. The first tranche of EUR 1 billion was approved in July 2022. Ukraine is resisting an illegal and unprovoked war of aggression by Russia, which has brought human suffering and enormous losses. It is our duty to support the Ukrainian people in every possible way, as they are defending our European values and ideals.

I share the deep concern expressed in this report about the continuing deterioration of the situation in Hungary, in particular the rule of law, corruption, violations of fundamental rights, violations of media freedom and pluralism, and the shrinking space for civil society. I join in calling on the Commission to make full use of the tools at its disposal to address this situation.

I agree with the need to review and increase the transparency of the funding of European political parties and European political foundations. Many important changes have been proposed in this report, such as the introduction of a due diligence mechanism for donations of more than EUR 3 000. However, I was unable to support this report in the final vote because it created a loophole that allows funding from third countries that do not share democratic principles. I do not agree with the proposal that members from third countries belonging to the Council of Europe should be able to fund our European political parties and European political foundations. We must prevent any malicious interference in our democracy and its processes.