What Johan spoke about.

Mr President, President Costa, Commissioner, in the current geopolitically turbulent circumstances, it is more important than ever that the European Union puts competitiveness at its heart. Our delegation therefore welcomes the joint call from the German, Italian and Belgian heads of government. The European Union must increase or strengthen its competitiveness not only by stimulating new investme

Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, what was lacking in the State of the Union, I hope that the Council will fully refocus on productivity and competitiveness. That is to say: deregulation that effectively removes rules; a Capital Markets Union leading to genuine market integration; structurally lower energy prices and more room for investment, innovation and growth. But all these efforts are a

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the words of this State of the Union are always carefully considered and weighed here, but more important are the actions taken on the basis of priorities. There is one key that opens the door to all those priorities, and that is economic growth. This growth is an absolute sine qua non for a vigorous policy that strengthens our security, defence and geopolitical

Mr President, the MFF is finally, I would say, also on the Council's agenda. We are at the beginning of this process around this new multiannual budget and the classic contradictions and red lines are already emerging within the Council, in the Commission and also in this Parliament. However, we should go beyond the traditional debate and not limit the exercise to a dry discussion about more or le

Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, colleagues, the West fundamentally misunderstood China. China pursues a simple but effective strategy – dictatorship at home and coercion, deception and protectionism abroad. We were blind, believing that economic liberalisation would lead to political freedom. Instead, China used its WTO accession to perfect a pattern of dominance, dependency and blackmail de

Mr President, when drawing up this MFF, we must not be blind to the essential challenge, namely that the structure of the European budget is outdated. It relies too heavily on choices from the past and leaves too little room for the future. This hypothesizes the efforts we need to make to meet the challenges of our time. This is precisely why the next MFF will be a turning point. Or at least it sh

Madam President, colleagues, Commissioner, Madam President Lagarde, first of all, I would like to thank the shadow rapporteurs, the Chair of the ECON Committee and Parliament's services for the work that led to this report. A few brief comments to conclude. First, price stability must remain the undisputed anchor of our monetary policy. It has been repeated several times, and although Mr Eickhout

Madam President, President Lagarde, dear colleagues, in times of uncertainty, it is essential to return to the fundamental goals of monetary policy. In prosperous times, a central bank must ensure that money and credit grow at a pace consistent with the broad stability of the value of money. In challenging times, it must also ensure that liquidity is sufficient to absorb shocks and sustain confide

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, most of our attention is, of course, focused on Greenland, Iran, Ukraine, Venezuela and a lot of trade troubles. And so we tend to overlook issues related to financial stability. The report I present today, which is the result of excellent cooperation with the shadow rapporteurs, highlights the current threats to financial stability, which have become eve

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, just ten days ago we reached an agreement with the Council and the Commission on the EU budget for 2026. This budget, amounting to around €190 billion in commitments per year, aims to focus resources on today's biggest challenges. We are investing in our defensive preparedness, in the security of our external borders and in strengthening our compet

Mr President, Commissioner, President, ladies and gentlemen, reports such as those of the European Court of Auditors, like those of, for example, the European Public Prosecutor's Office, are not non-committal piles of paper. The work of these independent control bodies is, in my opinion, too often under-exposed and, unfortunately, too often unanswered. In its report, the Court of Auditors again cl

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it goes without saying that the brutal attacks on Ukraine, and indeed on our Western freedoms and values, must not go unpunished. We must continue to target the Russian regime through targeted sanctions where it hurts and fully and resolutely support Ukraine and its society. As far as the use of frozen funds for a repair loan is concerned, I would

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we are facing a major exercise, as it is clear that the current MFF framework does not address contemporary needs and challenges. We are therefore looking forward to the proposals that the Commission will put forward next week. As Mario Draghi has clearly explained: Common debt is not the first priority. What Europe urgently needs are structural re

Mr President, Commissioner, in the midst of an increasingly chaotic and threatening world, we are at a tipping point. The European Union and its Member States have a choice: either we strengthen our defence, our security and our resilience, or our democracy and freedoms will be undermined. He who minimizes this does absolutely no service to European values and gives wind in the sails to the anti-d

Mr President, we are well ahead of the new MFF and, of course, this should not be yet another purely technical exercise. It is a fundamental choice about the direction that Europe wants to take, where the status quo is really not an option. In terms of budget, the European Union is still too tied to policy choices from the past, to outdated budget lines that lay a mortgage on the future. At the sa

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the discussions at the European Council focused on defence and competitiveness. As separate themes, although they are actually inextricably linked. Without security, there is no healthy economy. However, the reverse also applies: Without a healthy economy, a real development of defence worthy of that name is impossible. A strong economy is not an e

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Russia's brutal attack on Ukraine cannot, of course, go unpunished. It is our duty to frozen assets to use it thoughtfully and strategically to maximise the pressure on Putin. What we cannot and should not do, however, is direct confiscation. And this for at least two reasons. First, if we do that, we will lose a crucial bargaining lever to force P

Mr President, the first 100 days of the Commission must of course be a moment of reflection, but more of urgency. The next 100 days are even more important. A war at our borders, disruptions in international trade and a new technology race. More than enough reasons to make ourselves less dependent on external powers. But that requires a fundamental change of direction. In recent years, we have bee

Mr President, Europe is at a crossroads. The philosophy behind the Green Deal was defensible, but its implementation has put us in trouble. Our productivity is stagnating and our competitiveness is eroding. The Commission is finally acknowledging this. But good intentions will not suffice. Europe is indeed investing in research and development, but it is too fragmented and inefficient. Our compani

And most finally, in English I address myself to the Commissioner with whom we were able to work for five years. We often had discussions, heated discussions, but always in good spirit, and therefore I thank him a lot. And I would like to end with some of the words of my late father, who used to say, trees don't run into each other, but people do. So I hope I have the chance to run into you more f

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the Russian invasion threatens not only the sovereignty of Ukraine, but also the foundations of our European values. Let's not worry about it: Consider the recent revelations about cooperation between Russia and North Korea. North Korean forces would de facto mean China's entry into this conflict. Our continued support is absolutely necessary. We m