What Philippe spoke about.

Madam President, this is not a point of order. This is a point of thank you. It’s a bit emotional. It was 14 July 2009. Shortly after 8.00, I entered this hemicycle for the very first time and went to my assigned seat, 566. There I sat, almost alone, wondering at the fact that I had become a Member of the only – only – transnational parliament in the world, one of the 732 people in charge of legis

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, this is our very last session of the legislature. I see that spirits are already elsewhere – indeed, bodies too. Until the elections on 9 June, we will see a very particular inflationary surge, which only occurs during campaign periods, namely the explosion of electoral promises. On the right, my liberal and conservative colleagues, self-proclaimed protectors of

Mr President, you have a reputation to defend. Yesterday, the President of the Parliament ran the voting session with a speed that defied imagination. So I think that the bar now is very high for you to emulate that performance!

Madam President, dear Prime Minister, welcome to the European Parliament. It is pleasure to have you here. As a leader of the Greens, you can imagine that I was expecting what you would say on the climate. I had to wait for a while in your speech to get to that point, and the first thing that struck me is that there was a lot in your speech about competitiveness, at the beginning, and then some st

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, once again, I am going to talk to you about something that did not appear either in Mrs Lahbib’s speech or in the speech of the President of the Commission. Imagine that next week's summit will also be a Euro Summit. You will tell me that it is a bit of a nonsense, this kind of summit, but I was interested in the conclusions of the Eurogroup, namely those of

Mr President, according to you, the extreme right, the conservatives, the Christian Democrats, the liberals, the farmers’ revolt would have only one culprit: the European Green Deal and, behind it, its environmentalists. But when you don’t just harangue farmers, when you really listen to them, they point to a completely different culprit: an economic system that imprisons and crushes them. Farmers

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in this Chamber a large majority recognises the climate emergency and voted for the obligation of carbon neutrality in 2050. At the same time, the Russian aggression confronts us with the need for a major effort to support Ukraine and, ultimately, for our own defence. Not so long ago, the pandemic reminded us of the urgency of reinvesting our essential public se

Madam President, Prime Minister, welcome here to this House. I have absolutely no doubt, and I believe that no one here has any, that Belgium is capable, for the third time, of successfully assuming the presidency of the Union. Instead, I would like to start with a word of tribute to you and your way of being in politics. Often, even in our country, the political debate comes down to a form of coc

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the choices that the 27 Heads of State or Government of the European Union will make together tomorrow will be decisive for our common future. Without a collective start, I invite you to imagine what is on the horizon. Imagine that they fail to grant Ukraine the opening of accession negotiations at a time when Ukraine is paying with its blood to defend the va

Madam President, Mr Prime Minister, we were born actually – Mr Prime Minister, I know that Mariya Gabriel is more attractive to you than me, because she’s your partner in government! – we were born actually six months apart. And when we were born, we were separated, you and I, by an iron curtain. And it remains to me a deep joy to see that our two countries are now part of the same Union. And it’s

Madam President, nothing, absolutely nothing, can justify the barbaric acts committed by Hamas – deliberately killing civilians, taking children, women and men hostage. What this terrorist organisation committed are crimes against humanity, in line with its chief goal: the obliteration of Israel. We condemn them in the strongest possible terms, and I stand here, in the name of the Greens/EFA, in f

Mr President, illegal, clandestine, migratory flows, calls for air, border protection, refoulement, order to leave the territory. So many cold and sanitised words that still delineate the contours of the asylum and immigration debate today. Words that classify, sort, exclude and end up obscuring the unprecedented violence inflicted on people who seek our protection. The reality is that children, w

Madam President, I think we share your idea that indeed, we need to deepen and to widen the European Union, but we cannot use that as an excuse to keep people waiting longer than needed. It has to be merit-based, but only merit-based. Now, the thing is, if Ukraine would join today, all 27 Member States except one would be net contributors to the EU budget. I hope that this will make Member States

Madam President, President von der Leyen, dear colleagues, it is not without emotion, having been in this Parliament for 14 years, that I am taking part today in my last State of the Union debate. For ten years, I witnessed the European Union blinded by economic orthodoxy, deaf to the social and climate emergencies. But 2019 marked the turning point. For the first time in its history, the European

Mr Torvalds, you know I respect you a lot. You mentioned Finland. The nature of Finland is not being destroyed. The entire climate strategy [] Okay. What you mean is that, basically, Finland does not have the same problem as the Netherlands, I agree, it’s a different country, but the entire climate strategy of your country is predicated on your forests absorbing 20 million tons of carbon every yea

Madam President, I’d like to welcome President Christodoulides to the European Parliament. I really appreciate these opportunities that we have to debate on the future of Europe with members of the European Council, because I’m one who believes that Parliament and Council have to work closely together. That’s the only way to achieve success here. Cyprus enjoys a privilege that actually no other Me

Madam President, dear colleagues, I think it’s a very good thing that this Parliament has tackled the issue of foreign interference and disinformation seriously. We already adopted one report on it, there is a second one coming, and as we could see a few minutes ago, these issues are sensitive issues, not easy ones to deal with because, of course, they put in tension different aspects of democracy

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, for 25 years, under the guise of economic rationality, austerity has become a dogma in Europe. A dogma with its apostles who pose as guardians of good management, these fetishes that take the form of deficit and debt ratios that have no scientific basis, and of course its morality that exalts the sense of effort and collective sacrifice. Effort and collective sa

Madam President, and welcome! I am a little moved because I have always had a little tenderness and even an assertive tenderness for the Grand Duchy. It should be noted that for ten years, in my previous life, I was a sales representative for a large firm, and my main client was in Colmar-Berg, in the Grand Duchy. Guess who I'm talking about? And for them, I was, you know. [...] Excuse me? [] No,

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, naivety: This is the word that best characterises the European Union’s attitude – I would not dare to speak of a strategy – towards China over the past 40 years. Mercantilist naiveté, who wanted to believe that opening our market to all winds would give us unlimited access to the gigantic Chinese market. Democratic naivety, who wanted to believe that this sweet

Madam President, Mr President, first of all, thank you for being here, since you were there not long ago before the Council, see you later. I think that is a good formula. Last time, I spoke to you about a subject on which the Greens’ voice may sometimes appear incongruous – it was competitiveness. Today, another topic of the Council: international trade. You're going to say: What fly stung him, h

Madam President, I might talk to you about a subject that will surprise you from a Green, but that is the subject that Manfred Weber talked to us about and that Stéphane Séjourné has just talked to us about. Competitiveness. A Green who talks about competitiveness. What is going on? Is it because he is 60 that he starts talking about this kind of topic? No, absolutely not. But I would like to go b

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the establishment of an independent ethical authority at the level of the European institutions predates, by many, the scandal we have been dealing with since December, as it was part of the work programme of the President of the European Commission. As this Parliament does not have the right of legislative initiative, the Commission should take some action.

Madam President, good morning, ladies and gentlemen, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Madam President of the Commission, I would obviously like to wish you the best of luck from the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance for 2023. You said, Mr Michel, that 2023 would be a key year, but 2020 was a key year, 2021 was a key year, 2022 was a key year and I am delighted to see that, in the fa

Madame President, welcome to the European Parliament, Prime Minister. We, the Greens, European Free Alliance, have absolutely no doubt that Sweden, has the logistical and administrative capabilities to successfully conduct the work of the EU Council of Ministers for the coming six months. However, I need to be very frank with you. We have grave concerns regarding the direction which your governmen