What Vytenis Povilas spoke about.

18

Dec

2024

LT Speech

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Challenges facing EU farmers and agricultural workers: improving working conditions, including their mental well-being (debate)

Mr President, honourable Commissioner. Before you in the Commission was Nicolas Schmit, another Luxembourgish, who was responsible for labour and social issues and, of course, the problems of the work of the agricultural sector, the problems of low wages, are very well known. However, I also want to point out that when it comes to health, one major problem is the remoteness of the health system fr…

18

Dec

2024

LT Speech

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Tackling abusive subcontracting and labour market intermediaries (debate)

Mr President, honourable Commissioner, the subcontracting chain is, in fact, infinitely troublesome, as the exploitation of workers is by far the largest here. And, of course, it would be good for us to enshrine in the legislation the principle that the very first subcontractor in the subcontracting chain is responsible. He must be in charge of the whole chain until the end, no matter how many the…

18

Dec

2024

LT Speech

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Promoting social dialogue and collective bargaining and the right to strike in the EU (debate)

Mr President, Mrs Roxana Mînzatu, you are from Romania and I am from Lithuania. And we are well aware that in the central and central part of the European Union, the right to strike, collective agreements and collective agreements are unfortunately very weakly implemented. And thus, we are well aware that the Pillar of Social Rights cannot be implemented without collective agreements, collective a…

17

Dec

2024

LT Speech

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Russia’s disinformation and historical falsification to justify its war of aggression against Ukraine (debate)

Dear Speaker, Dear Commissioner, I am probably the only one born in this room in Stalin's Gulag in 1951. My parents were arrested and deported to Stalin's gulags in 1941 for seventeen years. As a professional historian, I can certainly say that Putin's doctrine of falsifying history corresponds to the origin and meaning of authoritarian regimes. And here it is correct to consider it as the same co…

17

Dec

2024

LT Speech

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Misinformation and disinformation on social media platforms, such as TikTok, and related risks to the integrity of elections in Europe (debate)

Commissioner McGrath, I welcome the fact that the Commission has launched a procedure against TikTok and now the Commission must truly show its full strength as guardian of the Lisbon Treaties, guardian of our values and guardian of our democracy. It is quite clear that the functioning of the digital service platform must now be thoroughly analysed and you should present as soon as possible the st…

16

Dec

2024

LT Speech

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A European Innovation Act: lowering the cost of innovating in Europe (debate)

Commissioner, congratulations on the good initiative that has been launched. Let me recall not only Draghi's report, but Enrico Letta's report, in which he made it clear that the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the European Parliament need to add the fifth freedom, the freedom of research and innovation, to the four fundamental freedoms. When it comes to the ecosystem that should be…

16

Dec

2024

LT Speech

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Right to clean drinking water in the EU (debate)

I would like to point out, Commissioner, that when it comes to the issue of clean drinking water, it is indeed up to the Commission to implement a common strategy among the Commissioners. This is a matter of common strategy not only for you, but also for the Commissioner for Health, it is a matter of common strategy for the Commissioner for the Environment, for many others. It is clear that we nee…

27

Nov

2024

EN Answer

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Recommendation on smoke- and aerosol-free environments (debate)

I would like to be very clear to say that aerosol smoking evidence is that it is harmful. It is harmful! Doesn't matter you are using it in public space or indoor and outdoor. It's science. It's evidence in our hands. Of course, you can tell me, 'Please look into details, for example, how the metres in the room,' and so on. You can find that it is helpful to those who are staying in the room. But …

27

Nov

2024

EN Speech

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Recommendation on smoke- and aerosol-free environments (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, welcome. I am very happy to listen to you. Of course, tobacco remains one of the greatest public health threats and greatest killers in the modern world. We are losing every year a lot of numbers of premature deaths, colleagues. When we are speaking about tobacco, we are speaking about every citizen. Doesn't matter where he is living. And of course, the science is clear…

26

Nov

2024

EN Speech

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Reinforcing EU’s unwavering support to Ukraine against Russia’s war of aggression and the increasing military cooperation between North Korea and Russia (debate)

Madam President, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has turned, ironically, from a three-day Putin victory parade into a gruelling war that has been going on for almost three years. I admire all brave Ukrainians who are not afraid of the ruling Putin monster. Putin and Russia's constant request for help from almost all world rogue regimes, Iran and No…

25

Nov

2024

LT Speech

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The outcome of the G20 Leaders' Summit (debate)

Mr President, honourable colleague, Commissioner, today I think we can really assess that the G20 is a compromise, there is no doubt, because multilateralism unfortunately has to accept compromises. It is clear that the accents on war, on wars, on the Russian aggression against Ukraine are weak. The focus on the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is also weak. However, it must be said that the empha…

14

Nov

2024

LT Speech

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Enhancing Europe’s civilian and defence preparedness and readiness (debate)

Dear colleagues in this Chamber, nationalists. You don't understand that the Finns have set a good example. Thinking Globally and Acting Locally. In this room, nationalists think differently: Thinking Locally and acting locally. This is the biggest mistake that has cost these nationalisms dearly. It must therefore be made clear once again that both Mr Draghi's report, Mr Letta's report and Mr Niin…

13

Nov

2024

LT Speech

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Fight against money laundering and terrorist financing: listing Russia as a high-risk third country in the EU (debate)

Mr President, honourable Commissioner Mairead McGuinness, first of all, I sincerely pay tribute to you for your excellent work, for the wonderful and great energy you have put into the achievements of this mandate. Undoubtedly, no one, not even the vast majority of speakers, all supported the proposal to add Russia to the list of high-risk third countries. But the question is obvious: why are we l…

13

Nov

2024

LT Speech

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Deplorable escalation of violence around the football match in the Netherlands and the unacceptable attacks against Israeli football fans (debate)

Mr President, Honourable Commissioner. In fact, in your five-year term, you can now be sure of the essential fundamentals. Anti-Semitism has not disappeared in Europe, it is a long time ago. It is present in all countries, and it is clear that we are going through a major crisis in the Member States of Europe because we are not able to educate our children in the younger generation and in the educ…

23

Oct

2024

LT Speech

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Need to strengthen rail travel and the railway sector in Europe (debate)

Mr President, I would like to draw attention to the unspeakable slowness of the European Union's railway projects. I will mention Rail Baltica, which was supposed to connect Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. The project was created in 2004. Today we have 2024. As Commissioner, I travelled from Shanghai to Beijing with high-speed trains developed by Zeemens and others from EU Member S…

23

Oct

2024

LT Speech

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EU actions against the Russian shadow fleets and ensuring a full enforcement of sanctions against Russia (debate)

Mr President, honourable Commissioner, it is indeed here that everyone has emphasised the very clear need for a plan of measures to combat quickly and effectively. Here, of course, we must give ourselves a clear answer to the question of how to strengthen the European Union Maritime Agency, how to encourage the Member States to work, because this is also a matter for the Member States, for the man…

23

Oct

2024

EN Speech

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Foreign interference and hybrid attacks: the need to strengthen EU resilience and internal security (debate)

Madam President, the interpretation was a little bit late. I will continue in the Lithuanian language. Honourable Commissioner, I really welcome your positions on the need for a very comprehensive plan to support the consistent implementation over the next five years of the instruments already adopted under the Digital Tools Act and other legislation. And this is right, but it is very important to…

23

Oct

2024

LT Speech

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Managing migration in an effective and holistic way through fostering returns (debate)

Mr President, the deputies sitting on the right here pointed to the left, which I will admit, I was born in Stalin's gulag and spent a lot of time deporting. That is why I say to those who say that the European Union needs fences, walls and barbed wire: The European Union is a fortress of human rights, international law and the rule of law and democracy, not fences and all others. There are no rep…

22

Oct

2024

LT Speech

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General budget of the European Union for the financial year 2025 – all sections (debate)

Mr President, honourable Commissioner, honourable Minister, the draft tabled by the Council of Europe is unfortunately not in line with the priorities and those cuts for health, for Horizon, for Youth4Health are not in line with investment policy in principle, as it is part of investment policy, and for this reason I thank Victor Negrescu and all those working in the European Parliament who propos…

22

Oct

2024

LT Question

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Establishing the Ukraine Loan Cooperation Mechanism and providing exceptional macro-financial assistance to Ukraine (debate)

Mr President, I will ask you in Lithuanian. You said you were in Moscow and saw a blossoming Russia. So the question is, were you in Putin's villa and there you saw that blooming Russia? Do you really know where you were?…

10

Oct

2024

EN Speech

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World Mental Health Day - need for a comprehensive EU strategy on mental health (debate)

Mr President, dear Vice-President of the Commission Margaritis, back in 2023 the Commission presented a comprehensive approach on mental health, aiming to address mental health holistically. It falls short of providing solutions to adequately address structural issues on the ground, and mental health strategy should also carry a very important point: mental health problems of health professionals.…

10

Oct

2024

LT Speech

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The rise of religious intolerance in Europe (continuation of debate)

Mr President, Mr Vice-President of the Commission, my colleague Margariti. Excellent, excellent presentation, well-discussed topics and great suggestions. A fortiori, this Chamber must respect the Treaty of Lisbon, which makes it very clear that the European Union is founded on all values: Humanism, democracy and the values of all religious cultures, from Christianity to Judaism, from Islam to pag…

9

Oct

2024

EN Speech

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Urgent need to revise the Medical Devices Regulation (debate)

Mr President, dear Vera, colleagues, as a former Commissioner, in the time of my mandate, I was fully involved in the creation of new laws: the Medical Device Regulation and the In-Vitro Medical Device Regulation. These regulations aim to create a robust, transparent and sustainable regulatory framework that is recognised internationally and that improves clinical safety for patients and creates f…

9

Oct

2024

LT Speech

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Prevention of drug-related crimes, their effect on European citizens and the need for an effective European response (debate)

Dear Chair of the meeting. Thank you, dear colleague, Commissioner Margarita. Thank you very much for presenting a truly comprehensive and comprehensive programme. And those who believe that there is only one cure in this difficult struggle are grossly mistaken. Similarly, those who often use the word fight. The drug strategy from 1946 to 2014 was a fiasco, recognised by the United Nations' comple…

8

Oct

2024

LT Speech

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Outcome of the Summit of the Future: transforming global governance for building peace, promoting human rights and achieving the sustainable development goals (debate)

Dear President! I really want to welcome this United Nations agreement and congratulate both the Commission, the President of the European Parliament and the European Parliament delegation. I am fully aware of the unspeakably difficult, tense work that has been done between many delegations to get the document signed. There are times when goals are not achieved. And now we have a document that pro…