What Daniel spoke about.

23 Oct

2024

EN Speech

Seven years from the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia: lack of progress in restoring the rule of law in Malta (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, when Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed with a car bomb seven years ago, it was a shock. A journalist murdered for her work and her investigations into corruption and organised crime right in the European Union. And while I'm still deeply disturbed by that, there was always a little bit of hope that at least the international outcry, the attention, would bring abou…

23 Oct

2024

EN Speech

Presentation of the Court of Auditors' annual report 2023 (debate)

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Mr President, colleagues, I'm a numbers guy and I love the annual report of the European Court of Auditors because it's full of numbers and in these numbers there are really quite interesting stories about fraud and corruption in the European Union. Bear with me, I think it will be interesting indeed. So on page 375 of the report, and I quote, 2023, the European prosecutor had 206 active investiga…

10 Oct

2024

EN Speech

Composition of committees and delegations

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Madam President, I have obviously never received a cent from anyone for anything that I have done in this Parliament other than my MEP's salary. I understand that for Mr Orbán, little happens without a bribe, but in this House, everything we do on corruption in Hungary is motivated solely by conviction. (Loud applause)…

10 Oct

2024

EN Speech

Composition of committees and delegations

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Madam President, I wanted to reply to the false accusations that were made against me in this Chamber yesterday. Viktor Orbán said that I was corrupt and was paid for my reports by George Soros. I have obviously… (Loud heckling)…

9 Oct

2024

EN Speech

2024 Annual Rule of law report (debate)

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Mr President, thanks Madam Commissioner for the work of you and your colleagues on the rule of law. You have spoken about all the progress that has been made and that's all good. Unfortunately, we see that in a number of Member States there's also regress. Two things that I would like to point out: one is I think we clearly need to link the recommendations in the Rule of law report to actual conse…

9 Oct

2024

DE Answer

Presentation of the programme of activities of the Hungarian Presidency (debate)

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I do not know if you have noticed, my colleague, that we are here in the European Parliament and one of our main tasks here in this Parliament is to ensure that EU funds are spent properly. I myself sit on the Committee on Budgetary Control, and the country where EU funds have been spent the worst in years is your home country. If you want to see a few examples, I can recommend you: In front of th…

9 Oct

2024

EN Speech

Presentation of the programme of activities of the Hungarian Presidency (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, dictator, the European Parliament is the beating heart of European democracy. And this Parliament is the arch enemy of autocrats like you. Mr Orbán, you're the most corrupt politician in the European Union. You and your cronies, you stole money on an insane scale. At least EUR 14 billion that went to your country during your premiership have been lost. Who has eve…

18 Sep

2024

DE Answer

The Hungarian “National Card” scheme and its consequences for Schengen and the area of freedom, security and justice (debate)

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I don't think there's any damage. The German Federal Government is implementing the judgments of the European Court of Justice and, perhaps you have seen this, has not even been sentenced to a penalty. This means that there is no financial damage to the EU budget. However, the Hungarian Government has been condemned: There are 200 million euros on the cover, and they have to be paid now.…

18 Sep

2024

DE Answer

The Hungarian “National Card” scheme and its consequences for Schengen and the area of freedom, security and justice (debate)

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I propose that the Hungarian Government abide by EU law, that it abide by the EU Treaties, that it implement the judgments of the European Court of Justice as they were delivered. If the Hungarian government is sentenced to a penalty, then it should pay that penalty. In the European Union, we have a rule of law. It also works pretty well in most places, with the exception of Hungary, where we have…

18 Sep

2024

DE Speech

The Hungarian “National Card” scheme and its consequences for Schengen and the area of freedom, security and justice (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! Many of you may not have noticed it yet, but Viktor Orbán has still not paid; Last night at midnight, the payment deadline expired. The Hungarian government owes the European Union 200 million euros, and every day it is now 1 million more, because the Hungarian government breaks the law, because it disregards EU law and the judgment of the ECJ, because it sys…

25 Apr

2024

EN Speech

Interinstitutional Body for Ethical Standards (A9-0181/2024 - Daniel Freund) (vote)

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Madam President, you guys decide whether you want to postpone this, but this is one of the main replies of this House to the scandals that we have seen, including in this House and in this mandate. What Sven Simon from the EPP has just said is just not true. There is no such thing. Yes, maybe you listen or you read the Agreement and then you understand what we are actually voting on. This is not g…

25 Apr

2024

DE Speech

Interinstitutional Body for Ethical Standards (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, First of all, thank you to my co-rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs who have followed this work in this way, to Gilles Boyer, Gaby Bischoff, others who have worked very constructively to make this a success. It is a pity to see how the EPP, especially the CDU/CSU, positions itself in this matter. Because you don't really have arguments against this body, you …

25 Apr

2024

DE Speech

Interinstitutional Body for Ethical Standards (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Politics should not be for sale. It must not be possible to buy political decisions in this Parliament with a lot of money. Whether Qatar, whether Russia, whether China – especially with the extreme right, which shines through absence this morning, with the AfD, there are now almost daily revelations and arrests. Even below the threshold of criminal law, belo…

10 Apr

2024

DE Speech

Discharge 2022 (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. There were officially three selection criteria for the position of SME representative of the EU Commission: Qualification, origin and gender. Today, however, we know that there was a fourth criterion that outstripped all the others, and that seems to have been party affiliation. There is no other explanation for the fact that the second highest endowed item in t…

13 Mar

2024

DE Speech

Financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union (recast) (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, In fact, one might think here for the first time that a revision of the Financial Regulation is a rather dry matter. But it's just about the canned. It is a question of what rules actually apply to how we spend more than 180 billion euros a year in the European Union. And I just have to say: The debate we have had here and, above all, the position of the Memb…

12 Mar

2024

DE Speech

European Media Freedom Act (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. We are now voting tomorrow on the European Media Freedom Act, and it is, of course, right and important that we do so – a step forward. But I also fear that this law alone is not enough to really protect journalists in the EU. It is once again Viktor Orbán who presents the proof that we have so far done too little to protect journalism in order to fend off attac…

28 Feb

2024

DE Speech

Report on the Commission’s 2023 Rule of Law report (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. The EU Commission is using the rule of law conditionality too cautiously. It is guided by political considerations, not facts, and the EU Commission does not properly assess whether the reforms in Hungary were actually implemented before €10 billion was released to Orbán. The Commission is making insufficient use of staff to protect the rule of law. Dear Mr Reyn…

26 Feb

2024

DE Speech

Transparency and targeting of political advertising (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. The best time in a politician's life will soon start again: The election campaign. And while most of us will try to convince citizens and get them to vote in the next three months with our ideas, our visions for the European Union, there are of course also increasingly black sheep in these elections – those who, with a lot of money, are trying in dubious ways to…

17 Jan

2024

DE Speech

Situation of fundamental rights in the EU in 2022 and 2023 (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, If you want to get an idea of the current situation in the European Union with regard to fundamental rights, democracy and the rule of law, I think you can well imagine when Viktor Orbán sits in front of this chair here in six months for the Presidency of the Council of the European Union and manages the affairs of the Council. I believe that says everything …

17 Jan

2024

DE Answer

Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 14-15 December 2023 and preparation of the Special European Council meeting of 1 February 2024 - Situation in Hungary and frozen EU funds (joint debate - European Council meetings)

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I don't understand the question. But your political friends in Poland have just lost the election. I believe that many of you are flourishing in Europe. You make false promises, you tell lies and above all you steal billions of euros from European citizens. And they will notice that, and they will also democratically remove you from your office. And then we can once again enjoy the rule of law, de…

17 Jan

2024

DE Speech

Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 14-15 December 2023 and preparation of the Special European Council meeting of 1 February 2024 - Situation in Hungary and frozen EU funds (joint debate - European Council meetings)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Ursula von der Leyen has always repeated: One could not help but release the billions to Viktor Orbán, because he would have fulfilled all the demands of the European Commission. Mrs. von der Leyen, that's not true! They released 10 billion euros in an urgent procedure a few hours before the summit because it vetoed Ukraine's accession to the EU. So you've been …

16 Jan

2024

DE Speech

Transparency and accountability of non-governmental organisations funded from the EU budget (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. A member of the CDU presents a report for more transparency. We don't see it here every day. But you, Mr. Pieper, want to have identified who were now the real culprits behind Qatargate: It was the NGOs. I think transparency is great and have looked at how many meetings with NGOs you have published last year: one. And how many NGOs have you talked to about this …

13 Dec

2023

DE Speech

Planned dissolution of key anti-corruption structures in Slovakia and its implications on the Rule of Law (continuation of debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. I have a little déjà-vu. Populist and Putin friend comes to power, and first he dismantles the independent judiciary and eliminates the fight against corruption. And no, we are not talking about Viktor Orbán here, but about his neighbor Robert Fico. But he is using this to dismantle the rule of law in Slovakia in exactly the same manner as Viktor Orbán – and thi…

13 Dec

2023

DE Speech

One year after Morocco and QatarGate – stocktaking of measures to strengthen transparency and accountability in the European institutions (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. The parliament was probably as rare in the spotlight in the days after Eva Kaili and others were arrested. Everyone in Europe has seen the pockets full of cash. In the days that followed, we adopted a strong resolution here in Parliament, with a long list of proposals on how to prevent this from happening again in the future. Now, a year later, we see that relat…

11 Dec

2023

DE Speech

The European Elections 2024 (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. In a few months, we will all go to the election campaign, spend a lot of time on podiums, at election stands and in conversation with the citizens. I can tell you that we will probably hear one question very often – especially colleagues from the Conservatives: Why isn't the name of Ursula von der Leyen, the woman who is running for the most powerful office in t…