What Niels spoke about.

10 Jul

2023

EN Speech

Industrial Emissions Directive - Industrial Emissions Portal - Deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure - Sustainable maritime fuels (FuelEU Maritime Initiative) - Energy efficiency (recast) (joint debate - Fit for 55 and Industrial Emissions)

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Mr President, dear colleagues, dear Commissioner, I think this debate has been fruitful and it shows that we are in this House very much aware that we need to act and we need to act now. These legislative proposals that are on the table – I hope they will get a majority, all of them, because we need certainly stronger rules to deliver on our climate ambitions and our energy independence ambitions.…

10 Jul

2023

EN Speech

Industrial Emissions Directive - Industrial Emissions Portal - Deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure - Sustainable maritime fuels (FuelEU Maritime Initiative) - Energy efficiency (recast) (joint debate - Fit for 55 and Industrial Emissions)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, over the last couple of years, remarkable changes in Europe’s energy system have taken place. Our dependency on Russian natural gas has fallen significantly. In just four months, from August to November 2020, natural gas consumption fell by 20 % compared to the same period the year before. Three Member States even managed to reduce natural gas consumption by more …

14 Jun

2023

EN Speech

Lessons learnt from the Pandora Papers and other revelations (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, thank you. I think we had a fruitful debate today. I think it shows that, of course, we have ideological differences in this House. We are from the left to the right, and we might disagree on how the tax levels should be. Should the tax be higher or lower? We disagree, probably. But I think it also shows the debate today that we agree that no matter what …

14 Jun

2023

EN Speech

Lessons learnt from the Pandora Papers and other revelations (debate)

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Madam President, colleagues, dear Commissioner, thank you for being here today, and I look forward to this hopefully fruitful debate on a very important issue, namely the Pandora Papers and the lessons learned from the Pandora Papers. So the obvious question is what have we learned from the Pandora Papers? Well, the way I see it, we have learned that some people simply refuse to play by the rules,…

11 May

2023

EN Question

Prohibiting chick and duckling killing in EU law (debate)

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I would like to ask the speaker whether he is familiar with the methods that exist in order to determine whether the sex of a chick is male or female. They already exist and can be used and will not cost more, neither for the producer nor for the consumer. Thus, is the speaker aware of these methods?…

11 May

2023

DA Speech

Prohibiting chick and duckling killing in EU law (debate)

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Madam President! Commissioner! Honourable colleagues! I wrote two speeches today. They're similar. On one, there are a few spelling mistakes and maybe a few passages that are not suitable for this room, so I curl it up and throw it out. We wouldn't do the same with animals, would we? What if we did it? It would be barbaric for us, curling animals together, to kill them because we think they had a …

11 May

2023

DA Speech

European Citizens' Initiative "Stop Finning – Stop the trade" (debate)

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Mr President! Today we are discussing a ban on trade in shark fins. We are doing this on the basis of a citizens' proposal in which more than 1.1 million people have signed up. ‘Finning’, as it is called, is a brutal practice where sharks are caught and their fins are cut off and then dumped at the bottom of the sea because you only need – you only want – you are only interested in their fins, whi…

10 May

2023

DA Speech

New Oil Drilling in Alaska – impact on the global climate crisis and the rights of indigenous peoples (debate)

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Mr President! Imagine this: As we fight to shut down coal-fired power plants and replace our gasoline cars with electric ones – yes, with a fingertip, the US President is putting two million polluting gasoline cars on the streets and opening 76 new coal-fired power plants. Will we accept it? Will we not approach our American friends and protest against such a policy that would so obscure the Paris…

18 Apr

2023

DA Speech

The need for a coherent strategy for EU-China Relations (debate)

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Mr President! While China has become increasingly autocratic in recent years, we in Europe have become increasingly dependent on China. We've seen how crucial raw materials for our industry come from China, and we've seen how critical infrastructure lands in Chinese hands. I am thinking, for example, of China's acquisition of Greece's largest port, Piraeus, and China's current plans to buy into th…

16 Mar

2023

DA Speech

Long term commitment to animal welfare (debate)

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Mr President! Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Animals are sentient beings, as we write in our treaty, and that is absolutely true. We should also act on this when we legislate in the EU and in relation to the way we run agriculture in the EU. We have problems in agriculture with animal welfare, that is clear, and it should be clear to us when we make the new legislation that will come in the c…

15 Feb

2023

DA Speech

Access to strategic critical raw materials (debate)

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Madam President! Ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, Minister. When I listen to the debate this evening, I actually get optimistic, because it sounds like most of the colleagues here have become aware that we have slept an hour. We have relied blindly on globalisation, and we have ended up becoming dependent on foreign powers that do not share our values. We gave Russia control over much of our na…

13 Dec

2022

DA Speech

Renewable Energy, Energy Performance of Buildings and Energy Efficiency Directives: amendments (REPowerEU) (continuation of debate)

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Madam President! On 29 November – just two weeks ago – Germany reached an agreement with Qatar for 15 years to supply two million tonnes of liquefied gas per year. Earlier this year, the EU signed an agreement with Azerbaijan. By 2027, they will deliver 20 million cubic metres of gas to the EU. A doubling compared to today. I recognise that right now, when the cold hits Europe, we have no choice. …

12 Dec

2022

EN Speech

Outcome of COP27 (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, this climate summit in Egypt was indeed a disappointment, taking into consideration that we did not manage to agree on the reduction targets that we need, we did not manage to increase the speed of the climate action sufficiently. We did manage one positive thing, which was the compensation fund that the rich countries have to pay to the less rich countri…

21 Nov

2022

EN Speech

Situation of human rights in the context of the FIFA world cup in Qatar (debate)

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Madam President, today, I feel embarrassed. Today, I feel ashamed. Today, I feel sad. I feel embarrassed, ashamed and sad because what might very well be the darkest moment in the history of sports is taking place right now as we speak – the World Cup in Qatar. And we should not be silent about that for the next 3 000 years as somebody wants us to be. Because since Qatar was handed the World Cup, …

18 Oct

2022

DA Speech

UN Climate Change Conference 2022 in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt (COP27) (debate)

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Mr President! For decades, we have known that we are moving towards a climate catastrophe. We know the consequences, but we have refused to face them. We can see that climate change is not just about the future, it is about the present. It's a reality. Forest fires, floods and droughts clearly show a planet that has begun to speak out. But what we are experiencing these years is only a foretaste o…

14 Sep

2022

EN Speech

Energy efficiency (recast) (A9-0221/2022 - Niels Fuglsang) (vote)

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Madam President, I thank you, colleagues, for backing this deal with a broad majority. Thank you to the shadows. We have made an agreement, which is good for the climate and bad for Putin. And I would like to request the referral back to the committee for interinstitutional negotiations according to Rule 59(4).…

12 Sep

2022

EN Speech

Energy efficiency (recast) (debate)

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Mr President, thank you very much for this debate. I think it has been extremely positive, really. I think the debate shows that there’s a great consensus amongst the political groups that we need more ambition on energy efficiency. And I hope and I also think that it will result in support for the text which is on the table, which has some broad appeal, I think. I want to thank, in particular, Pe…

12 Sep

2022

EN Speech

Energy efficiency (recast) (debate)

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Mr President, Europe’s energy system is under severe pressure. We have to go back to the 1970s to find a comparison to what is happening right now. The combination of Putin’s chokehold on gas supplies, the most severe drought on record, and the failing of the conventional power fleet are creating the conditions for a perfect storm. Businesses, households, governments – they are all being hit. What…

18 May

2022

DA Speech

Minimum level of taxation for multinational groups (debate)

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Madam President! Today, in the European Parliament, we say 'yes' to the introduction of a minimum pan-European corporate tax rate of 15%. We say yes to stopping the race to the bottom and the extreme tax speculation that takes place under the guise of just being free competition. We have discussed this before, but now it is serious thanks to Aurore Lalucq's report, for which we will vote 'yes'. Th…

4 Apr

2022

EN Speech

Urgent need to adopt the minimum tax directive (debate)

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Madam President, the EU is the world’s biggest loser when it comes to losing money to tax havens. Actually, we lose around EUR 380 billion a year, according to international studies, because multinationals and wealthy individuals are shifting their wealth to tax havens around the globe. But these tax havens are not just distant palm islands as you see in the movies. Actually, three out of four eur…

8 Mar

2022

DA Speech

Rising energy prices and market manipulation on the gas market (debate)

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Mr President! Commissioner, please! Honourable colleagues! We have been discussing the gas market for a long time in this Chamber, and whether Russia is playing by the rules that the rest of us are playing by, or whether they are manipulating gas prices. An important discussion, but it seems completely superfluous and obsolete now, because it has become clear to all of us that Russia does not play…

14 Feb

2022

DA Speech

A European strategy for offshore renewable energy (debate)

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Madam President! I fear that we will not be able to start producing green electricity fast enough. I am simply afraid that if we do not really speed up, then over the next many years it will be black, expensive power from coal power plants that reach our sockets. Fortunately, we have the options and solutions. I myself come from Denmark, from Northwest Jutland, a place called Thy. We call it Cold …

20 Jan

2022

DA Speech

Protection of animals during transport - Protection of animals during transport (Recommendation) (debate)

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Madam President! Extremely high temperatures, no room to move, no access to food and drink, broken legs, constipation, illness and stress. These are the conditions today for a large proportion of the over one billion animals transported on long animal journeys every year in the EU, often in densely packed lorries. Honestly, is there anyone in here who can look in the mirror and have a good conscie…

16 Dec

2021

DA Speech

An EU ban on the use of wild animals in circuses (debate)

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Mr President! Commissioner, please! Did you see Disney cartoons, Dumbo, when you were a kid? The story of the little elephant cub with the big ears makes a big impression on many children, and especially the scene where Dumbo is separated from his mother. Unfortunately, it's not just in cartoons that little baby elephants are separated from their mother. This is also the reality in many of Europe'…

24 Nov

2021

EN Speech

State of the Energy Union (debate)

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Mr President, I would like to congratulate the Commissioner on a great speech. Madam Commissioner. You were right on the money with your priorities. Becoming energy-independent, increasing renewable energy and increasing energy efficiency are the main priorities, and you were spot on. Then we can discuss if the glass is half-empty or half-full, reading your report. We have increased the renewable …