What Henna spoke about.

11

Mar

2024

EN Speech

Watch

Horizontal cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements and amending Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, as the first legislation of its kind, the Cyber Resilience Act is much called for and necessary for the security of digital products in the EU internal market. Currently, many digital products that originate from third countries are sold in the internal market, but the level of the cybersecurity and possible software updates is unknown. The trilogue out…

28

Feb

2024

FI Speech

Watch

Regaining our competitive edge - a prosperous EU in a fragmented global economy (topical debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, strengthening competitiveness is the most important theme of the European Union's next term. The rise of international tensions, the war, has increased the importance of the geo-economy and a new kind of blockade of the global economy is underway. Europe needs to strengthen its own capacity to act, both in economic and security terms, and to reduce its high-risk depende…

27

Feb

2024

EN Speech

Watch

Unitary supplementary protection certificate for plant protection products - Unitary supplementary certificate for medicinal products - Supplementary protection certificate for plant protection products (recast) - Supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products (recast) - Standard essential patents (joint debate - Patents)

Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, for Europe to stay competitive we need to do more to encourage innovation. This requires continued investment in research, development and innovation. When talking about innovation, the importance of patents needs to be recognised. Therefore, it is important to maintain a balance between the interests of patent holders and the users of standards. Reduci…

7

Feb

2024

FI Speech

Watch

The EU priorities for the 68th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, the promotion of women's rights and gender equality is a core part of the EU's fundamental values, and it is important for us to promote this not only within the European Union but also globally. However, there is still a lot of work to be done. Equality is far from being achieved. An estimate was made here that at this rate, gender equality would be achieved in Europe …

16

Jan

2024

FI Speech

Watch

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

Mr President, Prime Minister, two withdrawals from the programme of the Belgian Presidency. Firstly, respect for the EU's fundamental values, the rule of law and democracy. You have promised to continue discussions with Hungary. I encourage you to move forward in this process and to find among the member states that Hungary is seriously and permanently violating the fundamental values of the EU an…

12

Dec

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Minimum requirements on minimum breaks and daily and weekly rest periods in the occasional passenger transport sector (A9-0370/2023 - Henna Virkkunen) (vote)

Madam President, dear colleagues, as the rapporteur, I would like to ask the report to be referred back to the Transport Committee for the start of interinstitutional negotiations.

12

Dec

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials (debate)

Mr President, thank you to all the negotiators for the excellent result and the speedy handling of this legislation. I regard this initiative to secure critical raw materials as one of the most important initiatives of this parliamentary term. In any critical sector, the European Union must not be overly dependent on an individual supplier, a third country. It is important that we increase the pro…

11

Dec

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Minimum requirements on minimum breaks and daily and weekly rest periods in the occasional passenger transport sector (short presentation)

Madam President, I want to thank my shadow rapporteurs for the collaboration on this file. We have now a broad majority, which I hope will support the Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN Committee) result in the vote tomorrow. Why do we need this regulation? I think we all know that transporting people is very different from transporting goods. And this is the reason why the Parliament has as…

11

Dec

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Small modular reactors (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, I am very pleased that, in recent years, the attitude towards nuclear power has also become much more positive at European level. However, despite the fact that more than a third of zero-emission electricity in Europe is generated by nuclear power, the use of nuclear power has very strongly divided the positions of the Member States and the Commission has also been rath…

22

Nov

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Reducing regulatory burden to unleash entrepreneurship and competitiveness (topical debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, Council, over the past period, almost 600 initiatives were included in the work programme of the European Commission. That's a huge amount. While we have rightly promoted Europe's green and digital transitions, the Commission has produced a huge number of new directives, regulations and delegated acts, and I am not saying at all that the European Parliament would have b…

21

Nov

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Recent developments at the EU’s external border between Finland and Russia and the need to uphold EU law (debate)

Madam President, Madam Commissioner, during November, more than 500 asylum seekers arrived in Finland from Russia. They are mainly young men from Syria, Somalia and Yemen. This is an organised activity where the Russians transport the persons in question by car near the Finnish border, and they cycle to the border. The situation is difficult because it is -20 degrees below zero in northern Finland…

21

Nov

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Strengthening the CO2 emission performance targets for new heavy-duty vehicles (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, it is very important that we reduce emissions in the transport sector. We know that it is the only sector where emissions have only increased and trucks, heavy transport, are responsible for 25% of EU road transport emissions. It is therefore justified to pay attention to this. However, it is important that when we set these targets, we take into account the different c…

8

Nov

2023

FI Speech

Watch

State of the Energy Union (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, when we look at the progress of the European Energy Union, we can welcome the many positive steps that have been taken in this regard. In particular, the fact that emissions have fallen by more than 32% since 1990, while at the same time the European Union's gross domestic product has grown by 67%, shows that sustainable growth is possible and that we are able to cut em…

18

Oct

2023

EN Speech

Watch

New European innovation agenda (debate)

Mr President, Madam Commissioner, thank you for your speech. I can hear that even that you are very new in your position, you are taking this topic very seriously and you are trying to find answers and solutions for these important challenges. The New European Innovation Agenda is a very important idea, because it is supposed to position Europe at the forefront of the new wave of deep tech innovat…

18

Oct

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Fighting disinformation and dissemination of illegal content in the context of the Digital Services Act and in times of conflict (debate)

Mr President, digital platforms have a very great social and economic responsibility today. Digital platforms with their own algorithms largely decide what kind of content we see every day. We have found that fake news, propaganda, hate speech and disinformation are spreading through digital platforms at an ever-increasing rate, causing and inciting violence. This has been exploited by Russia, Ham…

3

Oct

2023

EN Speech

Watch

European Media Freedom Act (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, free independent media is a cornerstone of our democracy and we as politicians have to protect media freedom also in the cases when maybe they are criticising us in the news. Freedom of expression and rule of law are core values of the European Union. It’s a shame that we have Member States where journalists are oppressed or spied on or even murdered because of their…

2

Oct

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Intelligent Road Transport Systems (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, it is good that we now have the ITS directive here to confirm. After all, the current directive dates back to 2010 and during these years, digitalisation has gone a long way and we have also created a lot of new digital services for transport. It is therefore good that we are now able to combine, under the framework of this directive, various information relating to tra…

13

Sep

2023

EN Speech

Watch

SME Relief Package (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, small and medium—sized enterprises represent 99% of Europe’s businesses. They employ over 100 million people across Europe and produce nearly half of Europe’s GDP. The last few years have not been easy, and SMEs have faced many crises. They need our support. I would like to thank the Commission for preparing this SME relief package. It contains many importan…

13

Sep

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, this Critical Raw Materials Act is one of the most important initiatives of the term. The aim is to increase the mining, processing and recycling of critical raw materials in Europe, and this is a very worthwhile goal. We really need investments in this field, and these projects in Europe need to be boosted, otherwise we will not be able to achieve our …

12

Jul

2023

EN Speech

Watch

State of the SME Union (debate)

Mr President, Mr Commissioner, SMEs are the backbone of our economy as they make up 99% of all businesses in Europe. Europe must be a place that encourages entrepreneurship, innovating and growing businesses. To make this possible, we need an SME-friendly regulatory framework. The double transition in the field of digitalisation and green transition creates opportunities for our SMEs, but also red…

11

Jul

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Greening transport package (debate)

Madam President, dear Commissioner Urpilainen, I would like to thank the Commission for presenting the greening transport package. Of course, it needs to be closely analysed now, but it’s a very important topic, as we know, because we have great challenges in reducing emissions in road transport. But much is already being done and many methods are being developed. There are three points that I wou…

10

Jul

2023

FI Speech

Watch

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)

Mr President, Commissioner, with regard to the climate package that is now being adopted, I would like to highlight two pieces of legislation. Firstly, low-emission fuels in maritime transport – I think the outcome is quite successful. The legislation now takes into account different technologies and incentivises the gradual increase of low-emission fuels in maritime transport on market terms. Reg…

15

Jun

2023

FI Speech

Watch

The water crisis in Europe (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, drought is also an increasingly serious problem in Europe. According to Copernicus, the EU's climate change service, last summer was the hottest in Europe, and the summer that has begun is predicting the same. European heatwaves will become longer and more severe in the future. It means more and more heat records, worsening droughts, wildfires and also floods. It is cle…

14

Jun

2023

EN Speech

Watch

Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware - Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (draft recommendation) (debate)

Mr President, Mr Commissioner, it’s an extremely worrying development that illegal surveillance has taken place in the EU Member States. Certain Member States have used Pegasus and equivalent spyware against journalists, politicians, diplomats, lawyers, civil society actors. That is totally unacceptable. That Pegasus Committee has been investigating during last year. Unfortunately, it has been oft…

13

Jun

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Artificial Intelligence Act (debate)

Mr President, artificial intelligence has a great deal of potential, and it is important that we create a legislative framework that inspires and encourages investment and innovation in artificial intelligence in Europe. At the same time, it is also important to identify potential risks. It is good that Europe is now the first in the world to put in place rules on where and how AI can be used. In …