Speech in EP | Irena Joveva

“As you cannot throw all of us in the same bin, so you cannot these people! Come to the field. Among them. Bring it on.”

This is a (non-edited) part of one of my Facebook posts. It was October 2015. A time of severe humanitarian, refugee, migrant crisis.

In my previous life, as I usually say, field work was my love. Among many, exactly this one was most emotional, by far the most exhausting but also the most valuable. The field work taught me by far the most.

Four years and four months after my announcement, we discussed the humanitarian situation at the EU’s external borders at a plenary session in the European Parliament.

The video below is my part of the discussion where I ‘earned’ my first card. Not yellow, but blue. Intended to ask a question that you can then answer – if you do not reject the card. I accepted it. I probably don’t need to explain in particular that a Croatian colleague gave it to me. Because I have talked about how some people persistently reiterate that there is no evidence of any human rights violation on the border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. That those of us who are loud in this regard are not telling the truth. Obviously I will need to be back in the field again. I went as a journalist, I will go as a politician if need with greater motivation. Because, next time they tell me again that there is no evidence, I’ll just be able to show them my own.

P.S.: In response, I invited the MP who had given me a card to take a look at the pictures, recordings and reports of events on the border that already exist. We’re probably going next week.

Dear President, for years, we have witnessed reports of human rights violations of refugees and migrants at the Union’s external borders. Among other things, as we have heard, also at the Croatian border.

Representatives of the EU Council Presidency, sitting in front, are representatives of Croatia, as well as colleagues from that country. I know what you would like to say again. That nothing is true, that there is no evidence …

A month ago, a group of NGOs released a report what happened there last year. The document shows that the Croatian authorities send these people back to Bosnia and Herzegovina with batons, with the result of air gun shots, barefoot, sometimes naked. Croatian Ombudsmen, United Nations agencies, and even some Croatian police officers in their anonymous statements, point to the occurrences.

The European Commission, in the previous composition, did what? Commission said Croatia was eligible for Schengen. So much for that. If necessary, I will personally go out into the field, but overnight and unannounced. Next time they tell me that there is no evidence, I will show you my recordings.

At the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the Croatian Minister of the Environment and Energy, Mr. Tomislav Ćorić presented the program of the Croatian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the field of environmental policy.

“I will speak in my native language, in Slovenian. Thank you very much for presenting your priorities, Mr. Ćorić. I’m here. The Commission has put Green Deal and tackling climate impacts among its top priorities in the current mandate. Croatia also included the Western Balkans as a priority during the Council Presidency. I wonder how the two seemingly different priorities would be combined? Because just these days, various organizations have published a survey that cities in the Western Balkans are among the most polluted in the world. There are several reasons for this, including poverty. Unfortunately. But to be specific. An important polluter in the Western Balkans is the 16 outdated thermal power plants that are polluting more than all 250 EU thermal power plants. As these countries still have a lot of coal in stock, they are announcing the construction of new thermal power plants with Chinese investment. I think that the EU should urgently, as much as possible, include countries in its immediate neighborhood in EU’s climate policy. Without clean air in the Balkans we will not have clean air in the EU. It also concerns your country Croatia, which is bordering these countries, and my country Slovenia, bordering on your country. I hope that the Croatian Presidency will also be able to address this aspect of EU policy in the Western Balkans. Thank you.”