What Sara spoke about.

Mr President, colleagues, when a climate disaster hits, it's always the people that are close by that are risking their lives for each other. When the glacier collapsed in Nepal and killed over 1 400 people, rescuers pulled more than 13 000 people out of the mud. And last month in Antalya, where we are actually going for the COP, a farmer died after helping the firefighters, just like our farmers

Sorry, the translation was not great, but if I understand you correctly, it's about maybe limiting the export of scrap, right? That was your question? Well I think it's important to know all the numbers before we make this kind of decision. And I think if you look at, for instance, what we're doing in the revamp of CBAM right now, this is going to be a good way to actually make sure that we put on

Mr President, dear colleagues, last week, Elon Musk showed off a flying car, while people worldwide fear that AI will replace them. For us Europeans, the answer to that is closer to the ground: creating new jobs and making sure that the jobs we already have stay in Europe. I recently met the CEO of Galloo, a Belgian recycler, and he told me that when he started his company his family was asking hi

Mr President, colleagues, we can't allow China to blackmail Europe any longer. Just remember what happened last year when Trump launched his self-defeating trade war against Europe and against China. While some of our leaders decided to bend the knee to Trump, the Chinese actually showed some backbone and they stopped the export of minerals essential for cars and for defence products. And you know

Mr President, colleagues, this summer, Belgium had its biggest wildfire ever. Farmers drove tractors full of water to the firefighters and volunteers brought them food and water. This same summer, the five biggest oil companies made 6 000 dollars in profit every second. We need to tax them, and we need to use that money to protect people against extreme weather. We've done it before. When Russia i

Madam President, 'I'm not trying to make a good harvest anymore. I'm just trying to make my plants survive'. That's what Reinier, a farmer, told me a couple of days ago, and he really saw first‑hand what heat can do. He witnessed Belgium's biggest wildfire ever. He drove up there with his tractor for hours with water and he fought against the fire. And when I asked him what still gave him hope aft

Madam President, colleagues, why should a washing machine made in Europe cost more simply because our European producers pay for their carbon emissions, and a Chinese producer doesn't? That's why we built CBAM, and tomorrow we take the next step by extending it from the raw steel and aluminium to the finished products. And thanks to the Greens, we've extended this to essential green tech products

Madam President, last week I read about a woman in Paris. She was 80 years old. She lived on the top floor of an apartment. There was no cooling. There was just some fans. It was 47 degrees out there in her apartment, and she died there – alone. And many others did this June. In France, deaths at home rose by 91 %. In Belgium, we lost 1 222 people in only 12 days during the heatwave. And in the sa

Colleagues, can you look the people of Volkswagen right in the eye today and claim that the future of their job lies in diesel and gasoline engines? What is happening at Volkswagen today is terrible. Hundreds of thousands of workers fear for their jobs. These are people who have often worked for the company all their lives; It has become their family. They became friends. This reminds me of the re

Madam President, colleagues, everyone is fighting over raw materials: the Chinese create monopolies; Trump tries to blackmail us over them; and we, as Europe, we're just giving them away for free. Every year, 3.5 million cars are shipped out of Europe. Those are cars full of steel, full of copper – the exact materials that our factories need. So we dig them out of the ground in some parts of the w

Madam President, colleagues, once again, people are worried about their energy bills and why it costs so much to cool or to heat their homes. But the thing is, it doesn't actually have to cost that much, because right now the clean option is actually the cheapest option. Think about solar panels. Think about heat pumps. Think about new electrical car models that are entering the market. Their sale

Madam President, Trump turned 80, right? And I think it's already clear what his birthday gift is going to be – this so‑called 'trade deal'. The argument that is given is that submitting to Trump is going to give us stability. Well, because of course, with this guy, you already always know what to expect, right? Remember the 15 % tariffs. Remember the threats that he posed against Greenland. The o

Madam President, so a girl posts a beach photo of herself on Insta, and weeks later she's receiving naked pictures of herself – AI generated. This happened to 20 girls in Spain and it happened to Steffi Mercie in Belgium multiple times. Dear colleagues, it happened to 1 million children in 2025 alone. That is one child in every classroom. So, across Europe, people are waking up to find their voice

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we are voting on something that will help hundreds of thousands of steel workers in Europe. And also many thousands in Belgium. China is flooding our market with cheap subsidized steel. And Trump is waging a trade war that will see even more of that steel coming our way. Our steel factories, such as in Ghent and elsewhere in Europe, are struggling to survive tod

Mr President, colleagues, let me ask you a very simple question: is there a solar energy crisis? No. Is there a wind energy crisis? No. But we do again have a fossil fuel crisis. Trump's illegal war in Iran is costing our citizens and our industries a hell of a lot of money. And who next to Trump is also responsible for this? It is his right‑wing puppets like Orbán, like Meloni, that want to prote

Madam President, colleagues, this year, the European leaders will talk competitiveness – and the pressure on our industry is real, because for too long Europe has depended on cheap fossil fuels for our energy supply. Yet De Wever and Meloni, they want to go back there. They want to cut our climate standards, dismantle our laws, go back to fossil. And they claim to speak for the entire European ind

Mr President, colleagues, workers ask me what future there is for industry in Europe. I understand that question very well. Just think of the 3 000 people who lost their jobs as a result of the closure of Audi Brussels. Had Audi listened to its employees asking for affordable electric vehicles instead of expensive SUVs, they would still be making cars in our capital today. Everyone is talking abou

Madam President, colleagues, some already suspected it was dangerous in 1906, but it took us a hundred years to ban it. I'm talking about asbestos. 80 000 deaths every year in Europe alone. And right now, we're making the same mistake with PFAS, with forever chemicals: they're in your blood, they're in your children's bodies. So, what is the Council's only priority for the chemicals industry? Weak

Mr. President, which one of you has an oil sheik in the family? No one. But who has someone in the family who has solar panels on the roof? Almost everyone. Ordinary people opt for their own green energy, reducing their energy bills by EUR 450 per year and becoming independent of oil and gas. Tens of millions of Europeans are already doing this, not because politicians prescribe it, but because th

Mr President, colleagues, this Commission made us a bold promise: to secure both economic prosperity and the climate and environment. So the clean industrial deal is what we need to protect us against bullies like Trump, unfair competition and climate change. But what I have seen lately is predominantly the dismantling of climate and environmental policies. Do we really think that Europe is going

Mr President, dear colleagues, by 2027 there will be 19 electrical models under EUR 25 000 on our market – those are affordable cars, European cars. I am talking about Volkswagen ID.2, Renault 5; not some distant dream, but on our road, in your driveway. So here's the choice, and I think it's a pretty simple one. Option A – you spend EUR 25 000 on a car produced in Europe that actually strengthens

Madam President, well, I'm not sure where all the colleagues are, but I'm glad to be here. Commissioner, Parliament. Mr President, the carbon border tax ensures that large polluters pay, and promotes fair competition, because it also applies to non-European companies. The step-by-step reduction of free emission allowances generates billions of much-needed revenues. Indeed, Europe currently has an

Mr President, I have a question: why are the conservatives trying to sabotage Europe's fight for more economic and strategic independence? This law saves precious materials from old cars, and it's a good and well‑needed initiative. European industry, Member States, big names like Letta, like Draghi – they all agree: keeping the resources in Europe breaks dependence on bullies like China, like the