Urgent need for a tax on super-profits of polluters: protecting people’s health and lowering energy bills in times of the climate crisis (topical debate)
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, six countries, as you know, are calling for the taxation of superprofits. They are countries of different colors, politically. There is a country that opposes, and this country is called France. And so I have a question: Does France really have the budgetary means today – look at the spreads still today – to do without tax revenue? I don't believe
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Empowering Europeans to address the cost-of-living crisis (debate)
Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I am not recovering from this title. In fact, I am not recovering from the fact that in one of the world's strongest economic powers, a continent whose objective was the social market economy, was prosperity, we are now discussing the cost of living. It's a shame and it's an alert. And why are we discussing the cost of living? Have we become poo
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Achieving digital sovereignty and resilience for Europe, in light of recent developments affecting access to advanced AI technologies (debate)
Mr President, Commissioner, this wake-up call is late, let us make it massive. 1.5 points of GDP is what goes every year from the private and public to US digital services. More than 250 billion. In this context, of course, the Americans are one step ahead. It is often said that European products are not up to the task. This is completely false and insulting for our digital players. Most of the ti
Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, I think we have forgotten the main message of the Draghi report. What does the Draghi report say? It says very clearly that we do not have a supply problem, we have a demand problem; that this continent does not live above its means, but below its means. And since Mme Ursula von der Leyen used facts and figures, I will also use them. The Draghi report menti
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European Central Bank – annual report 2025 (debate)
Mr President, Mrs Kallas, Mr Costa, Mrs Kallas, I have a very specific question for you. I must confess my concern when I hear President Ursula von der Leyen's speech, since there is not a word about European weapons. There is not a word about digital. There is not a word about payment systems. But our fragility today is there. All, almost all of our payment systems, today, are American. Donald Tr
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Protecting citizens' right to make cash payments and ensuring financial inclusion (debate)
Madam President, Mr Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, the single market must be finalised, because its standards are our best lever for establishing a balance of power, particularly vis-à-vis the United States. So yes, absolutely. But sorry, we are not even able to complete the banking union or the capital markets union. And this is not the fault of the bureaucracy, the European Parliament or
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Taxation of large digital platforms in the light of international developments (debate)
Mr President, Commissioner, today's debate is not so much about taxation as about our courage, our sovereignty and our ability to accept reality. What is it today? We have accepted that Trump withdraws from the agreement on global taxation, on multinationals, thus thinking to calm him down to get a good deal with the United States. Is our trade deal good? Did he calm down? The answer is no. But we
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Investments and reforms for European competitiveness and the creation of a Capital Markets Union (debate)
Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to thank you, particularly the pro-European groups, for the quality of the debates and for their constructive nature. I believe that if we have differences, perhaps in the details, we all want to send a very clear message to the Council. The European Commission has given its roadmap. I hope that the European Parliament
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Investments and reforms for European competitiveness and the creation of a Capital Markets Union (debate)
Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, a year ago the Draghi report was published. It alerted us to the collapse of the European economy, to the very survival of the Union as an economic power. The causes? Too little overall demand, a lack of investment, too many barriers in the single market, a guilty preference for directives rather than regulations, too complex legislation, a lack
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Digital Markets, Digital Euro, Digital Identities: economical stimuli or trends toward dystopia (topical debate)
Mr President, Commission, ladies and gentlemen, who can want to deprive Europeans of a free digital payment method? Because I remind you that your credit cards are not free. Who would rather have our data stored in the US – because that is the reality – than in Europe? Who can refuse that we are independent of American means of payment? Because I remind you that almost all of our payment methods a
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, our savings are now financing the United States. €300 billion per year: this is our participation in financing the economy of a government that is unfortunately no longer our ally, which seeks to stifle our agriculture, our viticulture or our industry through tariffs that are as arbitrary as they are unfair. How long are we going to be stupid enoug
Mr President, Mr Vice-President, where the Draghi and Letta reports speak of investment, innovation and reindustrialisation, through this compass you are responding far too much by simplification, deregulation and even securitisation. But on the ground, companies don't tell us that. They tell us, firstly, about the price of energy, secondly, about unfair competition, particularly from China, and,
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European Central Bank – annual report 2024 (debate)
Mr President, Madam President, Commissioner, moments of crisis are telling: revealing the quality of people, their courage, their integrity, their reliability or not, revealing the political lines and deep values that animate us, moments when masks fall. And we're in exactly one of those moments. If Democrats criticize, sometimes debate, struggle, populists always attack. They attack both democrac
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Cryptocurrencies - need for global standards (debate)
Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, because without regulation, the market for crypto-assets is not a currency, it is not a technology, it is a financial asset. It would be made of scams, financing, illicit practices of all kinds, including the financing of terrorist groups such as Daesh. We chose to regulate them in a hostile, violent, toxic climate, made of threats and cyber-har
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Geopolitical and economic implications for the transatlantic relations under the new Trump administration (debate)
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the Trump system is much more 'extortionist' than transactional. Basically, it is: You will do what I want, when I want; You will even pay for it, and all this without any guarantee for your security or defense." We, in the face of this, in Europe, cannot be the system of contempt or scorn. That would be a double mistake. We will have to do two thi
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Taxing the super-rich to end poverty and reduce inequalities: EU support to the G20 Presidency’s proposal (topical debate)
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I have actually prepared a speech, but I am going to change it, because I am listening to you and I am quite surprised. Who would have thought, a few months or a few years ago, that there could have been even a debate on the taxation of the super-rich in this Chamber? No one, I think. Hearing each other come to a consensus on supporting the G20 pos
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Outcome of G20 ministerial meeting in Rio-de-Janeiro and fighting inequality (debate)
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the Draghi report is very clear: EUR 800 billion of investment per year is the amount needed to ensure that the European Union does not lag behind economically and politically. The question now is how we're going to fund this. And there, there is a kind of primary reflex that falls on us and tells us: we will not talk about public money, it is taboo, on the o
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Transparency and integrity of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) rating activities (A9-0417/2023 - Aurore Lalucq) (vote)
Madam President, I quite agree. I think that Commissioner Schmidt would make an excellent President of the European Commission. Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the primary mission of the ESG criteria is to provide investors with information on a company’s non-financial ecological, social and governance performance, with the aim of promoting sustainable and responsible investment. To do this
Mr President, Madam Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, here is BEFIT, the latest piece of legislation, perhaps, on tax matters by the European Commission, and it cannot be said that Europe has been idle in recent years in order to be able to deliver more tax justice for Europeans. The taxation of super-profits: Europe; minimum taxation of multinationals: Europe; the fight against tax havens: Eu
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Need to adopt the “Unshell” Directive on rules to prevent the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes (continuation of debate)
Mr President, Commissioner, Secretary of State, last January Parliament adopted, by an overwhelming majority of more than 99%, the Unshell Directive to combat shell companies. It was recalled that this was a major step forward against tax evasion, as these structures make it possible to conceal financial transactions for the purposes of fraud and money laundering. It should be recalled that, in ad