What Jessika spoke about.

Mr President, Minister, Commissioner, in every Member State, village shops, local tradespeople and family businesses provide jobs and services close to home. They keep our towns, villages and regions running. The Commission has promised to remove two rules for every new rule it introduces to bring relief to small and medium‑sized businesses. So when will you start? The Farmer‑Citizen Movement want

Madam President, Vice-President Kallas, I hope you paid close attention to this debate. I will speak about our food security now. Last week, a cyber-incident disrupted supermarket supplies in the Netherlands and Belgium. In France, hackers manipulated refrigeration systems, destroying food supplies. Millions of Europeans faced empty supermarket shelves. This is a very serious threat to our food se

Mr President, as we mark the World Day Against the Death Penalty this Saturday, we are still faced with the devastating reality of executions in Iran. In this mandate alone, we have adopted seven resolutions on Iran. But what changes? The repression only gets worse. In 2025, Iran carried out at least 2 159 executions, the highest number since 1981. But we're not just talking numbers, we're talking

Madam President, Commissioner, the ECR welcomes a pragmatic, mature trading relationship with Africa based on equal partnership and mutual interests. However, the current resolution does not reflect a mature trading relationship. We do not want to increase Africa's dependency on EU aid. What both continents need is an equal partnership based upon mutual interests. This means securing critical raw

Yes or no? So, my answer is no. I don't agree with you.

Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, nearly 660 000 hectares of land have burned across the EU this year, and I pay my respects to all those affected. Fires and drought threaten our harvest and food security, so we need to be extra protective of our farmland. Yet, just before summer, the Dutch minority Government presented plans to reduce nitrogen deposition, decreasing livestock number

Madam President, Commissioner Šefčovič, finally, we have a trade deal in front of us that does not jeopardise the position of European farmers or our European food security. The trade deal with Mexico offers ample opportunities for farmers and the EU industry: lower tariffs on agricultural products to Mexico, protection of geographical indications and easier access to Mexican products. Nevertheles

Mr President, Commissioner Várhelyi, colleagues, who wants firefighters that require you to fill out ten different forms before they save your burning house? The COVID-19 pandemic showed us that Brussels is not the place for a quick response to an urgent crisis. On the contrary, the interventions from the Commission during COVID-19 led to more complexity and less transparency according to the Euro

Mr President, dear colleagues, Commissioner Hansen, today we will be voting on our livestock report, a report I have worked on as a shadow rapporteur. So I would like to thank Mr Fidanza for the great report, and the fellow shadows for the collaboration. Our report is an important signal to our farmers. The key message is that we should start to trust in the innovative power of the livestock indus

Madam President, Commissioner, thank you for being here with us tonight on a Monday evening – it shows your engagement. But the recent outbreaks of lumpy skin disease in Europe caused enormous distress among European farmers, especially in France, Italy and Spain, not to mention the discomfort in all the animals affected by the disease. In France alone, over 3 000 animals were lost. But it also po

Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, this Thursday, farmers associations have announced a massive protest in the streets of Brussels. Thousands of farmers will protest against the new plans for CAP after 2027. And they have all the reasons to be concerned. But today we discussed the outcome of the negotiations on the simplification of the current CAP, and I think it is important to brin

Madam President, Commissioner, today I stand here before you to speak neither against nor in favour of fur farming. I stand here in response to the petition signed by 1.7 million European citizens, who deserve our attention. It is a fact that most Member States have already banned fur farming in their national laws, leading to a decline in fur production in the EU. However, we also see a decline i

Madam President, Commissioner, cooperation with Latin America is of great strategic importance for the European Union, especially in these times of geopolitical uncertainty. But strong collaboration starts with protecting our own interests. The Green Deal, and as a consequence deindustrialisation in Europe, demonstrates precisely what should not be done: neglect competitiveness and the power to pr

Mr President, dear Commissioner, last week I was milking dairy cows together with a young girl named Jonne. She told me: 'I just have one dream, and that is to take over my parents' farm.' We, the young farmers, are the food producers of tomorrow, and young farmers need to know that they can take over a farm, that they can start a family and raise a new generation of farmers. They need security an

Dear colleague, I just have one short question for you. You are questioning this 'waste of time' of a debate because apparently we are discussing burgers, but you are the first one mentioning this topic. It is only one amendment of two very important reports. So actually, I believe – and I mean this respectfully – this part was not a very useful contribution to this debate.

Mr President, Commissioner, I called for this debate, as I am shocked by the unjust and outrageous decision of China to impose extra import duties on EU pork. It is a clear retaliation for our anti-dumping claim on electrical vehicles. And I remember clearly that when we decided to go ahead with this claim, I warned the Commission that retaliation on EU pork was a risk, and now we are faced with e

Madam President, last Friday, China announced extra import duties on pork as of this Wednesday, 10 September. These import duties are different for each supplying company and vary between 15.6 and 62.4 %. Many EU countries will be hit heavily, and these duties will also lead to consequences for the internal market. Evidently, these extra tariffs will hurt our swine producers very badly. It is ther

Madam President, Commissioner, the current form of the common agricultural policy was started by Sicco Mansholt, a Dutch visionary that reformed agriculture in Europe. And now we are at a crossroad for agriculture in Europe again. On Monday evening, with the vote in the AGRI Committee, we sent a very strong signal to you, Commissioner. A clear signal for an independent, separate agricultural polic

Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, a deal can only be reached when the counterpart accepts your term. So we need conversation, not confrontation. And behind the deal there are companies, there are workers, there are families depending on it. Those are our priorities, so we support you very much, Commissioner, in finding a very balanced deal. But we do have a red line and that is an equal playin

The Vaidere report, on the tariff increases.

Madam President, excuse me but where are we now? Because I got lost in the translation.

Madam President, one minute is way too short to mention the names of all these children – 20 000, and likely many more, who were kidnapped from Ukraine. But I will mention three names: Karina, 4 years old, Vladislava, 3 years old, and Margarita, 1 year old, who were all three taken from Kherson by Russia. This is not an incident, but part of a systematic Russian campaign to erase Ukrainian identit

Madam President, while consumers are paying more than ever for their food, our Dutch and European farmers are being squeezed out of business. Let's be clear: the root cause is not a lack of regulation, but too much of it, combined with sky-high energy prices, and quality and compliance standards that exceed what is actually necessary for safe and sustainable food production. Lower energy costs – n

Mr President, Commissioner, this is a more tailor-made and realistic approach to European agriculture. But it's much more than that. In these geopolitically uncertain times, food security is the most important stable factor in ensuring European unity. After all, food shortages are regularly at the cradle of high tensions. I welcome the farewell to the One size fits all approach and therefore expec