What Ondřej spoke about.

Today, it is clear that Ukraine is part of the European family of values. The granting of candidate status is an important symbol in the wake of Russia’s invasion. Moldova has taken in more Ukrainian refugees per capita than any other country. I am therefore very pleased that the European Parliament has unequivocally supported candidate status for these two countries. The European Commission suppo

Mr President, Commissioner, the Euro 7 standard is another monument to the green ambitions of this Commission and a sad memory of its former Vice-President Timmermans. From today's perspective, the Euro 7 standard for car emissions is a regulation we don't need. The Commission's original proposal was wrong, unrealistic and impracticable, and after all possible adjustments, it is now a text that es

Mr President, Commissioner, the agreement on the new directive on the energy efficiency of buildings is unfortunately another example of us getting carried away by the green plans and completely giving up on the practical side of the matter. Of course, we all want the buildings we use to have lower energy consumption. On the other hand, any further adjustment costs something, and we need to know e

Madam President, Commissioner, two years ago we literally experienced a shock. The price of electricity jumped to record values many times higher than we were used to, and this shock affected absolutely everyone: Households, businesses, but for example cities and towns. And we are still dealing with the consequences in the form of inflation to this day and we will be for some time to come. It is t

Madam President, Commissioner, indeed, more and more apartments and houses in Europe are being offered for short-term accommodation for tourists, especially in the most visited places. While tourists benefit from these services, they also cause a lot of inconvenience to the people who live in the places concerned. For example, in the very center of Prague, almost half of the apartments are used fo

Mr President, Commissioner, European industry has been getting a lot of work in recent years. The European Union has increased bureaucracy for European companies, has not helped them much with high energy prices and in the fight against unfair competition from third countries. So let's try to fix this at least a little bit by encouraging innovation. Today we are discussing a proposal to improve th

Mr President, Commissioner, following the ban on internal combustion engines for Euro 7 passenger cars, another critical regulation is coming, and this time for trucks and buses. This is another blow to the automotive industry in Europe and to consumers' wallets. The same mistakes are repeated here. The proposal does not respect technology neutrality at all, it limits or ignores some of the availa

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, the draft emission standard for Euro 7 cars should never have seen the light of day in the first place. What the Commission presented a year ago was a very bad, unrealistic and difficult to implement regulation. Its environmental impacts would be questionable and clearly negative for car manufacturers and users: slowing down innovation, stopping the producti

Madam President, Commissioner, digital technologies are changing the world, including transport, and if we make the right use of them, we can help ourselves in many ways. I therefore hope that the new version of the rules for the development of intelligent transport systems in Europe will actually bring such improvements. I'd put safety first. A well-functioning transport infrastructure can signif

Mr President, I am glad that today we can discuss concrete proposals on how to help small and medium-sized enterprises and improve the business environment in Europe. So far, we have rather ordered and now we want to relieve them as well. And I would be even happier if we talked about these proposals a year ago, or perhaps even earlier. At the moment, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to di

Mr President, Commissioner, as we sit here, we all agree that small and medium-sized companies, entrepreneurs and sole traders deserve our full attention. They have an irreplaceable place in the European economy. It has been said here that, despite the fact that it has partially managed to cope with the effects of the crises, which have had a negative impact on all EU countries, companies remain i

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, one of the achievements of the European Union is a strong economy, which is built on the foundations of the single internal market. It is a source of prosperity inside the European Union and economic power outside. But in today's fast-changing world, is Europe still an attractive place to invest? Recent years have shown that this is not the case. While fo

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, we witness a clear trend towards the digitalisation of finance, and that includes the central bank money. This trend will provide a number of opportunities for citizens and businesses, but does not come without risk. I expect all these aspects should be considered when discussing the digital euro. In order for this digital euro to be a helpful and successful

Madam President, I welcome the final agreement on the MiCa and Transfer of Funds Regulation. These texts will guide the sector as we move towards full implementation. What we need now is strong cooperation between the stakeholders, the industry, and the competent authorities, the regulators, the supervisors to ensure that the MiCa is properly enforced and there is a clear understanding of the new

Madam President, the critical situation on the energy market leads us to consider how to improve the energy performance of buildings and thus save energy. However, we must also take into account how costly such a change can be and to what extent it is realistic, taking into account the specific situation of each Member State. The current proposal for a directive offers some solutions, but not all

Mr President, Madam Commissioner. First of all, I would like to thank the Rapporteur, my colleagues and the Czech Presidency for their constructive work on this ELTIF Regulation. The updated Regulation takes us one step closer to having genuine capital markets in Europe, and it actually removes a number of hurdles that, until now, had made it quite difficult for existing funds to grow and to be of

Mr President, Commissioner, rapporteur, colleagues, developments in recent years have clearly shown us that the protection of critical infrastructure is no longer merely a security domain or a strictly military domain. Hybrid operations, cyber-attacks, the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine show the breadth of potential threats we are currently facing. It is clear that cyberspace

Mr President, I welcome the outcome of the negotiations on this digital package. The concentration of market power by one or a handful of companies is never a positive thing for competition. The Digital Markets Act brings solutions to this problem. It will provide a clear and more predictable framework for the market, but also for enforcement authorities. It will prevent big platforms – the gateke

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we are facing an unprecedented situation. Energy and fuel prices are at record highs. After the autumn wave of the energy crisis, together with the war in Ukraine, this is now putting additional pressure on households and firms, especially small and medium-sized ones. The time has come, therefore, when we must use all the options available to slow or ideally hal

Madam President, high concentration of market power by a handful of companies is never good for competition. Such business structure deforms the market and creates barriers to the entry of new companies. Ultimately, that leads to slower innovation, increased costs and harm to consumers. That’s the theory but, in practice, this is what is happening right now in the global market in digital services

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, the situation on the energy market is very serious. Prices are rising sharply, putting consumers under great pressure, both households and companies, especially small and medium-sized ones. It is therefore up to us, the EU institutions, to take measures to significantly mitigate the negative effects on citizens and businesses. Energy must be affordable and

Madam President, summer 2020 will forever be marked by lockdowns, travel bans, ever-changing rules, a lot of uncertainty and health risks. But it is mainly due to the vaccination campaign and introduction of the COVID certificate that this year’s summer season has been so much better. The certificate, supported by both Parliament and the Council, was adopted and put in place within a very short ti

Madam President, the idea of being free of internal borders is at the very core of our Union and it became a reality through the Schengen Agreement. Free movement of people, goods and services is the basis of the European single market. We all adapted to open borders easily, and the young people now don’t even remember the times of visas and border checks. Free movement comes as second nature. Whe