What Nils spoke about.

Madam President, I would first of all like to thank colleagues for inspiring and refreshing debates. Especially after these debates, I would like to thank our shadow rapporteurs, coordinators' teams, the secretariat, the rapporteurs for the other sections and Michalis Hadjipantela. Together, we managed to do a good job, despite all possible difficulties and differences. What Europe actually needs

Mr President, Minister, Commissioner, dear colleagues, historically, in the good old days, after adopting the EU annual budget, rapporteurs and shadows had the luxury of presenting, as the fruits of their efforts, tens or hundreds of millions of euros added to various programmes. This year, simply having a budget is an achievement in itself. We are drafting the 2027 EU budget in an exceptionally d

Madam President, Minister Harris, Commissioner Serafin, colleagues, Europe faces several crises at once, and public finances are among them. No one in this Chamber would dispute that prudent budgeting is essential, and especially so for the EU budget. Minister, thank you for the Council's position on the EU's draft general budget for 2027. We value it. It does, however, raise questions of method a

Mr President, last week, in Latvia, for the first time, a NATO fighter jet shot down a drone crossing in from Russia. This is exactly what we need: our Union's borders are being defended militarily. Just as much, we must protect the people who live on those borders socially and economically. For example, in Latgale, on the EU's eastern border, tourism businesses now report mass cancellations. Hund

Madam President, based on Rule 206(4), I request that the vote on the 2027 budget guidelines be adjourned in order to provide more time for the political groups to agree on the final text.

Mr President, Commissioner Serafin, Presidency, colleagues, it is a privilege to present today the guidelines for the 2027 European Union budget – a document that both marks an end and a beginning. An end because 2027 will be the final year of the current multiannual financial framework, and a beginning because the way we manage this final budget will determine the credibility with which the Union

Madam President, Commissioner, Colleagues, the impact of this file is very concrete. InvestEU is the EU's main tool to help turn good ideas into real projects: a school that wants to renovate its building, a small company that needs a loan to expand, a town that wants to invest in new buses. I support strengthening the EU guarantee and adding EUR 200 million on top of the EUR 1 billion proposed by

Mr President, colleagues, first let me sincerely thank our rapporteurs, Andrzej Halicki and Matjaž Nemec, as well as our fellow shadow rapporteurs and their teams for the hard work that led to this agreement on the 2026 budget, which wasn't finalised until 2 a.m. I would also like to thank Commissioner Piotr Serafin and the Danish Presidency for the result. After tough negotiations, we secured a b

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, colleagues, the 2026 EU budget marks key changes. It finally recognises the eastern flank for what it is: a strategic necessity. This is not just a win for eastern border Member States like my home country, Latvia; it is the only viable path for the stability and development of the entire Union. Let us be clear: a secure and prosperous eastern flank is a se

Madam President, dear colleagues, when the COVID crisis struck Europe, the response was often shaky, leading to decisions that proved controversial or simply wrong. But out of that chaos emerged something truly new that seemed to be even revolutionary: that was the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Europe abandoned its playbook on austerity; it chose to borrow money together to help its Members to

Mr President, Dear colleagues, These days, people across Europe celebrate the victory over Nazism, commemorate the soldiers of the anti-Hitler coalition, the participants of the resistance, the guerrillas, everyone who fought and fell, fighting against this absolute evil. The European Union was created precisely as a result of this victory, and everything that is good in Europe is thanks to the so

Madam President, access to European Union funding for large-scale transport projects usually boosts mobility and economic development, but not in the case of my home country, Latvia. I will give you some illustration. Currently, electric trains form the backbone of domestic passenger rail transport. However, the state of the electrified rail infrastructure is so poor that probably in the next 5 to

Mr President, after the United Kingdom left the European Union, a special support tool, the Brexit Adjustment Reserve, was created under the current MFF. It has provided assistance to municipalities along the western border of the Union, with total funding of EUR 5 billion. Recently, members of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets visited the city of Balvi in Latvia, Latgale region, a re

Mr President, distinguished Commissioner, dear colleagues, apart from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, there are thousands of independent media outlets operating across the European Union in the Russian language. This means they are owned by EU citizens, they employ EU citizens and they produce content for Europeans, but they do so in Russian and they have no connection to Kremlin. The best way to

Madam President, the previous mandate of the European Parliament and the Commission began with Brexit, and municipalities located at the western border of the European Union were particularly affected by the departure of the United Kingdom As a result, a special financial instrument was established, providing up to EUR 5 billion in support for these municipalities. This mandate starts with the con

Madam President, for the first time the European Union has a budget of EUR 200 billion, and it is an important increase in the Union's financial capacity. However, the European Union budget remains relatively small. A budget of EUR €200 billion is less than the budget of Denmark, and that means that we need to be clear with the priorities when we vote for the budget. Despite the pressure of repayi

Mr President, dear colleagues, I will use this opportunity to talk about European administration. The recent incident at Strasbourg train station after the last plenary – which left thousands of employees stranded – has once again highlighted the inefficiency and, at the same time, the financial burden of the so-called 'travelling circus' that the European institutions endure every month. The annu

Mr President, dear colleagues, in Latvia, especially in the border region of Latgale, there are hundreds of apartment buildings that have had no central heating for the last three decades. This was cut off during the energy crisis of the 1990s after Latvia regained its independence. As a result, each room has a separate coal‑burning stove, with numerous pipes sticking out of every single apartment

Madam President, we have made significant efforts towards the revision of the Financial Regulation and achieved decent results in our fight to make the spending of European money more transparent, honest and effective. Still, we will be facing a number of challenges ahead. The Financial Regulation needs further improvement, as well as the way European money is spent. A main concern in the future w

Mr President, dear Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, since the beginning of this parliamentary mandate, we have been preparing the work on this file and eagerly awaited this moment to finally adopt a revised Financial Regulation. Let me be clear: this revision was long overdue. It is remarkable that it took so much time. Parliament was united and ready from the very beginning. The multiannual fi

Mr President, a couple of words about the walls at the borders and the European Union budget. In Latvia, the second largest city of Daugavpils is located roughly less than 30km away from the Belarussian border. Likewise, major cities like Ludza, Krāslava or Dagda are located within the same proximity to the Russian border. Building walls or any other military or border control infrastructure will

Mr President, Commissioner Hahn, Secretary of State Madam Samblás, colleagues, we have got a budget 2024, which is good news. We could reach a reasonable agreement. We could protect and reinforce key programmes that are vital for the Union and for the European citizens: science, youth, health programs, transport, military, mobility, the fight against fraud with EU funds, international humanitarian

Mr President, Commissioner Hahn, Secretary of State Samblás, we all do understand in this House perfectly the magnitude of the pressure on Heading 7. The fact that we will have to use special flexibility instruments, like SMI for instance, is definitely the bad news for all of us. We can only deal with the pressure in the medium term if we revise the MFF, considering pressure created by the COVID

Mr President, Commissioner Hahn, Secretary of State Samblás, dear colleagues, there was a clear purpose why the European institutions were established: to help and protect the common interests of the European people. All of these establishments have specific roles, from developing EU laws and policy-making, to implementing policies and working in areas like health, medicine, transport or environme

Madam President, dear colleagues, in this House I represent Latvian voters who live at the border region of Latgale, bordering both Russia and Belarus. European money is crucial for the people of Latgale because – and I know it very well – they face more social and economic hardships these days than an absolute majority of other European regions. The stability, prosperity and security of Europe is