What Mohammed spoke about.

Mr President, recently, I have been in contact with families in the Netherlands who lost their loved ones in the devastating wildfires in Bédar. One of them wrote to me about losing his father. He is in contact with the families of other victims. They know that they cannot bring their loved ones back, but they are asking for their stories to be heard publicly, because they want us to understand th

Mr President, thank you for, I think, the very clear support for this file. Looking forward to continuing the work with a great Parliament team, I have to say. We, in a very short period, made a very complicated matter and passed it through Parliament. So, President, following Parliament's adoption of the legislative proposal and in accordance with Rule 60(4) of our Rules of Procedure, I would lik

Mr President, I don't want to redo the whole debate. I think it was a very good debate with a very clear signal from Parliament and I think we have a very good report. I've been working with many of you for years on critical raw materials, and we've always been a team. I think this team, this report, is really dedicated to all the people in the Parliament that wrote the amendments, that listen to

Mr President, honourable colleagues, Commissioner, critical raw materials have become the currency of geopolitical power. Those who control them control our own future – the future of our industry, our energy transition and our security. Look at what happened in 2025. The United States and China escalated their trade dispute. China responded by introducing export licensing requirements for seven r

Mr President, Commissioner, we are just having a hard time. As Europe, we must realise that we are importing most of our energy. Then we have to understand that the alternative means that we need to generate more European energy for our independence and for our wallet. That is, whether you like it or not, wind energy, that is sun, that is hydropower, that is geothermal energy. That must be the bas

Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, there are ministers who believe that we can do more with less. But just look around us. Today's geopolitical reality doesn't ask for less Europe, but demands a stronger, more resilient Europe. Over the past decades, our dependency and strategic gaps have widened dangerously. Today, Europe faces an investment shortage of roughly EUR 800 billion for ev

Mr President, based on Rule 60(4), I would like to refer this file back to start the interinstitutional negotiations.

Madam President, a lot has been said today. So, there are a couple of things that I would like to reiterate. It's very easy to yell and shout and claim that you are a hard-working politician. But at the end of the day, we discuss at the table. If you have any ideas on any of the legislation that we work on, join the table and come with your ideas. I noticed that many people that were not present d

Madam President, let me be frank: a vote tomorrow against CBAM is a vote against European industry and European workers. I could almost not believe my eyes when I saw that some so-called nationalist groups on the right have tabled an amendment to reject CBAM altogether. Because rejecting CBAM means rejecting a level playing field, it means putting the limited interests of large global multinationa

Madam President, as rapporteur on this file, I want us to start the mandate we put forward in as a complete, legally sound and politically strong way possible. In view of the latest developments, I believe that it is important that the committee has the opportunity to address these changes that should be reflected in the mandate. Therefore, in accordance with Rule 204(2), as rapporteur of the file

Maybe he should try to answer that question himself. I mean, it's very clear we are trying our best from day one to show more ambition, to take also our historical responsibility. And this is a consequence of that. You know, scientists are very clear: whatever we can do to lower global warming, the more lives we can save. This is something that we have been telling you for quite a while. So what c

Mr President, during the last heat wave, my son's football tournament was cancelled. A huge disappointment for my son, but it was simply too hot to play safely. And with a hug you come a long way to take away that disappointment. But that is, of course, small suffering, because in other places in Europe during the same heatwave, human lives were lost and forest fires destroyed entire areas. And ye

Mr President, I am afraid that every six months – I hope not – we are going to debate the future of the car industry, that another factory will close down and that the manufacturer of that automotive technology will probably set up a factory somewhere outside Europe. We've been laughing about electric driving for too long. In Brabant we have a car dealer who proudly has a very large sign in front

Mr President, it's very simple. If we want energy security, if we want to lower our dependencies on foreign autocrats and if we want to keep industry in Europe, then the only one serious way forward is electrification. We can continue spending billions of euros in fossil fuels and keep the dependencies – crisis, now crisis, now crisis – and I don't see any learning effect. Hundreds of billions tha

Mr President, I should like to say a few words about the MFF and the attitude of our miserable four. When Minister Heinen saw the budget last week, he immediately shouted: ‘Unacceptable and unaffordable!’. The well-known economical reflex. But with the finger on the cut, you are depriving yourself of the opportunity to invest in the future. Heinen and the other miserable countries do not want to s

Mr President, when we have a debate about biofuels or hydrogen, they are presented as a kind of holy grail. Yes, they are useful, but we must be careful not to overwhelm the limited supply. We need to understand how these products can be used in the best possible way. Biofuels and hydrogen are useful, but we need to think about which sectors have priority in the energy transition. Because without

Madam President, Commissioner, what worries me in this debate is that some people tend to forget why we created ETS in the first place. Europe cannot be competitive if we depend on fossil fuels and continue to be exposed on gas and price shocks. Today, the reality is even clearer than ever. We are running around the world asking for autocrats to continue to deliver us with oil and gas. That's not

Madam President, honourable Members, Commissioner, global crises and energy shocks yet again showed how vulnerable our system really is, because fertiliser production depends heavily on natural gas. Rising energy prices quickly lead to rising fertiliser prices, putting pressure on farmers, food production and consumers. And that is, I think, why this fertiliser plan matters. The plan aims to bring

Mr President, our addiction to fossil fuels fuels instability and war. As long as we are stuck with fossil energy, we will not only remain vulnerable to price shocks, but also co-responsible for a system that fuels conflicts and causes inflation, inflation, inflation. We are increasing our reliance on fossil fuels, rather than phasing them out. We continue to transfer hundreds of billio

Mr President, if you now see which energy-poor Europe has ended up in, you can only draw one conclusion: that we must get rid of fossil energy imports as soon as possible. That's our mission. Anyone who is now concerned about affordability, about the economy, about our security should support that. You can not only call for fewer rules and not give it at home when it comes to European clean energy

Mr President, let us be honest: energy price shocks are not new. We saw them in the 1980s and we will see them again and again. Because as long as our energy system remains vulnerable, these shocks will return. And when they do, it's always at the expense of our citizens. They pay the price, especially the most vulnerable households – those living in poorly insulated homes. Our responsibility is v

Madam President, in a world where energy supply chain and access to raw materials can be weaponised, economic dependencies are no longer harmless. Strategic autonomy powered by a clean, sustainable economy has become a condition for our sovereignty, security and competitiveness. That is why, for us, decarbonisation policies stay a cornerstone for our independence – the cornerstone for a genuine Eu

Madam President, dear President Costa, dear colleagues, recent developments, including tensions over Greenland, remind us that Europe's freedom – to choose its values, to produce and to trade – is not guaranteed. Our dependent dependencies can be weaponised and our sovereignty challenged. That is why I'm calling for a European Freedom Deal. Building on the Clean Industrial Deal, this agenda is not

Madam President, you have to allow me to say something about the process because until now, we still didn't receive a text. I have to say that the communications also from the Commission were very unclear, with many contradicting messages. And it's, of course, strange to have a debate without having a full overview of the package. But, let me quote one of the Commissioners who stated that this was