What Luis spoke about.

Mr President, Commissioner McGuinness, dear colleagues, I'm afraid, Commissioner McGuinness, that many of my colleagues in this Chamber believe in what in my primary school, in your primary school would have been called the Immaculate Energy Transition. They think that burying it all in renewables will be enough and we will just stop climate change. And so did Germany believe until a few months ag

Mr President, history teaches us that when inflation reaches these high levels, it takes discipline and patience to bring it under control. But the ECB is entering this battle against inflation with one hand tied behind its back. A decade after the euro crisis, our economic and monetary union is still deeply incomplete. First, we have not created the safe asset for the euro area. And as a result,

Madam President, it’s good to see Mr Gentiloni. Two years ago, we had to shut down all our social and economic activity to fight this awful disease, and our workers and entrepreneurs wondered if they could make it through the shock. But this time, Europe rose to the task. It had long been considered unthinkable for the European Union to issue common joint debt. But it did this time. And many worke

Mr President, I say to Madam President von der Leyen and Mr President Michel that we are very happy that the Council has agreed on an oil embargo. Congratulations. However, this agreement still has three shortcomings. As you said, Madame von der Leyen, there’s still no mention of gas. The agreement excludes oil coming through pipelines. If you allow me, the ‘Orbán-Putin’ pipeline is still open, an

Mr President, Europe leads humanity in its existential fight against climate change. However, we have left a loophole. By moving manufacturing out of Europe, firms can avoid paying the cost of polluting. This allows them to outcompete European firms who play by the rules, while at the same time damaging the environment. As a result, although we have reduced our domestic emissions by 21%, the emiss

Madam President, just a quick few reactions to your proposals, Ms von der Leyen. I was very happy to hear about the RRF2, this Recovery Reconstruction Fund using the lessons from what we learned for Ukraine. That’s good news. There was no news on how to finance it, so I hope that’s coming. Also, I think that spending on reconstruction is very good, but as you very well said, there are very urgent

Madam President, as an economist, you know I usually speak of numbers. Not today. Today the fall of Bucha compels us to speak of something else: of our guilt, of our obligations. In life, the brave Ukrainians remind us what it means to be European. In death, they demand that they are the last victims of our appeasement. Citizens of Europe, our energy addiction, our money, allowed the killing of Uk

Madam President, the purpose of the financial sanctions that we placed on Russia was to crush the financial system. This was our key contribution to the war effort. Sadly, we have failed in this mission. In the first ten days of the war, the rouble crashed 17%. Since then, it has basically recovered most of that fall. Is the financial system in meltdown? No, by no means. Why did it fail? Why did w

Madam President, Madam Prime Minister, Mr Borrell, thanks very much, both of you, for your leadership. But let me ask the question, dear colleagues, are we doing enough to help Ukrainians? The sad answer is no. True, we are arming the Ukrainians, Madam Prime Minister, you talked about the half a billion euros peace facility. But the truth is that we’re spending many more resources arming Putin. To

Madam President, alarm bells are ringing as we speak in the markets. The markets, I think, believe that Putin’s war might mark the start of the third European recession in a row. How should we react to that? Monetary policy has its hands full. We cannot rely, like before, on the European Central Bank. We need to have a serious fiscal response. We need to welcome several million refugees. We need t

Mr President, let me congratulate you, Executive Vice-President Vestager, Commissioner Breton, on the great effort and hard work you have done to end abuses in digital markets. When we passed the Digital Markets Act recently, we ensured competition in these markets and today, with the Digital Services Act, we are creating a safe space for consumers, also guaranteeing the fundamental rights of our

Madam President, I would like to say the following to President Macron. Mr President, as you said, Europe needs new fiscal rules. You argued this very persuasively with Mr Draghi in the Financial Times. The existing rules are neither credible nor counter—cyclical. Moreover, as you have just argued, the new rules must allow for increased investment in climate, so we need to invest an additional 1%

Madam President, Commission data show that different countries combine money from European cooperation funds with national money in very different ways; Countries such as France and Italy complement European money with a very important national investment: in the case of Italy, four points of national GDP for each point of European money GDP. In other countries, as in the case of Spain, they do th

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, after almost two years of the pandemic, I would like to do two things: firstly, to thank our citizens who have had so much to endure and endure and, secondly, to promise them that we will do what is necessary to put an end to this nightmare. Thank you to all of you who have complied with the endless restrictions; thanks to those who have stayed at home to take c

Madam President, Mrs Vestager, you know better than anyone that the European Union has been trying for two decades to stop the abuses of technology companies and we really do not have the tools to do so. Think, for example, ladies and gentlemen, about the situation of the merger of WhatsApp and Facebook: At the time Europe did not have those tools, it had to let it go, and now Facebook decides to

Madam President, it is great that with the Commissioner and Minister we are able to have this occasion to think about how to vaccinate the world, which must be a big priority for all of us. Today, the European Parliament can celebrate that we managed to get Europe to spend EUR 1.4 billion extra to vaccinate the world. That’s a good conquest, but almost two years after the pandemic, we still cannot

Mr President, Commissioner, the Glasgow Climate Summit has resulted in a set of declarations, of good intentions on the importance of keeping global warming below one and a half degrees. All right, but the nice words are no longer worth it to keep the planet sustainable and habitable. We need to move forward - Europe needs to move forward - without waiting for others. How? The European Union must

Madam President, Mr Comín is indeed seriously insulting my country and I must respond. These days the whole Parliament has condemned the lack of respect for the rule of law and democracy that is happening in a European country. Minority rights are being violated and the separation of powers is being violated. That's exactly what happened in Catalonia in 2017. The Catalan Government and a Parliamen

Madam President, what an unfortunate speech by Mr Comín i Oliveres. You have not yet realized that what is at stake in Poland is the rule of law, and that is what you broke in Catalonia when you ruled. That, the rule of law, the ability of a society to live together, is fundamental, and that is what is at stake in Poland. Yesterday, President von der Leyen arranged the debate on the rule of law wi

Mr President, the European Union has chosen to lead the world’s fight against global warming, and events such as the recent floods in Germany or the wildfires in Greece remind us of the urgency of this challenge, but our Union has decided that the effort in this fight falls mainly on the shoulders of the Member States, and not those of the European Union. This creates an important challenge: how t

Mr President, it’s not usual to say this, but I agree very much with everything that my two colleagues from the People’s Party and from S&D said before, Mr Mureşan and Ms Gardiazabal. Turning now to the Commissioner; Mr Gentiloni, in July you delayed Viktor Orbán’s recovery plans, citing concerns over the risk of corruption, and two months later the plans are still not approved. And we would like

Madam President, dear Commissioner, what do Tony Blair, the Camorra boss Rafael Amato and Pep Guardiola have in common? That, according to the recent leak of Pandora's papers, they have all used opaque corporations to avoid paying taxes. Unfortunately this is not the first time this has happened. Today, as my colleagues have commented, they are the Pandora papers, yesterday they were the Panama pa

Madam President, for more than a decade now, honourable Member, the electricity bill in Spain has been among the highest in Europe. Why? The Spaniards know well problem: The People's Party and the Socialist Party allow a few electricity companies to carve up the market and abuse consumers. Then, the electricians return the favor with positions on the boards of directors. This week, former socialis

Mr President, Madam President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioners, the state of our Union today is robust, and it is astonishing to be able to say so when we are still in the midst of a brutal pandemic that has cost us so many lives and so many jobs. Citizens have done their part: They have been confined to save the lives of others, they have continued to work so that our societ

Mr President, Mr Dombrovskis, Mr Hoyer, the European Investment Bank that you run is essential for the European economy, and it has demonstrated this once again during the pandemic. And it is essential because it is credible and effective. And that credibility, Mr Hoyer, must be protected like gold in cloth. It is therefore inexplicable that a vice-president of the Bank went directly through a rev