What Maria spoke about.

5 Feb

2024

RO Speech

Union-wide effect of certain driving disqualifications (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the directive that we are debating today, relating to driving disqualifications, has only one purpose: to save lives, to reduce road accidents. Of course, we have road accidents not only because of drivers who may be drunk, use drugs, have excessive speed, but also because of infrastructure, which is another subject, as in all Member States, to man…

5 Feb

2024

RO Speech

State of EU solar industry in light of unfair competition (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I think that we have strayed very far from the title of the debate because we had to talk, in fact, about the situation of solar energy in the context of unfair competition. There was more talk about the energy mix, about what contributions solar energy made. The problem is, Commissioner, if you can tell us, how we are fighting unfair competition. …

5 Feb

2024

RO Speech

Instant payments in euro (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, this regulation has long been awaited. We all have to understand. I'm surprised at the position of some of my colleagues. This regulation actually helps everyone: it helps the consumer, the citizen, it helps SMEs, it helps safety, of course. It also helps the time, the cost. Let's be serious, very often it happens to us that we pay for a commodi…

18 Jan

2024

RO Speech

Situation of fundamental rights in the EU in 2022 and 2023 (A9-0376/2023 - Katarina Barley)

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Madam President, it is good that we are looking at the situation of respect for human rights in the European Union. The problem is not only to analyze, the problem is to implement, to function, not to be just a slogan, because if we look now and take a photo of how respect for human rights works in the European Union, we can see ... and I have countless petitions, and at the Committee on Petitions…

18 Jan

2024

RO Speech

Gender aspects of the rising cost of living and the impact of the energy crisis (A9-0430/2023 - Alice Kuhnke)

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Madam President, this report is expected in many Member States because, as many colleagues in the European Parliament would say, there is - and statistical data show - a gender difference. Women, of course, are, at least in my country, the majority population, but if we look at the percentage of women in well-paid positions, in leadership positions, even here in the European Parliament, we see tha…

18 Jan

2024

RO Speech

Extending the list of EU crimes to hate speech and hate crime (A9-0377/2023 - Maite Pagazaurtundúa)

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Madam President, incitement to hatred, we are seeing it increasingly in the global space, but also in the space of the European Union. And although the Commission presented almost two years ago to the Council a communication entitled ‘A more inclusive Europe’, the Council did not take any decision. I believe that we are all confronted in our countries with incitement to hatred and it is extremely …

18 Jan

2024

RO Speech

Recent EU-Audits identifying that Uruguayan and Argentinian meat from horses with unreliable sworn declarations and unknown drug history is entering the EU (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, today's topic is extremely important and I am sorry that it comes at the end of the plenary session in Strasbourg. People's health is extremely important, at the same time, fair competition on the domestic market, because now we are talking about importing horse meat from Argentina, from Uruguay, but we also had situations of importing beef from Great Britain, which …

18 Jan

2024

RO Speech

Protection of the European Union’s financial interests - combating fraud - annual report 2022 (A9-0434/2023 - Maria Grapini) (vote)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the report on the protection of the European Union's financial interests, as you know, is voted on every year. I want to thank CONT from the outset, which in a large majority voted our position, and also thank the shadow rapporteurs. That doesn't mean we haven't found things to write in this report. Here is the increase in fraudulent and non-fraudulent irregu…

18 Jan

2024

RO Speech

EU Action Plan: protecting and restoring marine ecosystems for sustainable and resilient fisheries (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, of course we must have a common policy, as we do for industrial policy, for agrarian policy, but I hope it is not as bad as agricultural policy, because protecting the oceans should not lead to a ban on fishing. There are areas where people live only by fishing and then we, the consumers, must benefit from the products of the internal market of the…

17 Jan

2024

RO Speech

Improving the socio-economic situation of farmers and rural areas, ensuring fair incomes, food security as well as a just transition (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, if we look at the title of the debate, we see, in fact, that it is a great hypocrisy. The Council is not present, but why did we choose this topic? Because Europe is boiling, because farmers are on the street. The Commissioner has not presented us with any solution, although the title is the Commission's statement on improving the economic and s…

17 Jan

2024

RO 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, Commissioner, Minister, if the citizens had listened to this debate, which is also called a priority, they would not only be disappointed, they would also be outraged. Nothing was said. What will the Council actually do on 1 February? What is the balance sheet? To the disgrace of Mrs. President, she left and around the end of her mandate, she did not stay for the joint debate, the pr…

16 Jan

2024

RO Speech

Keeping commitments and delivering military assistance to Ukraine (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the fact that we are now discussing the help that we continue to give to Ukraine, with the war going on for so long, means that American diplomacy and European diplomacy have been a failure, because people are dying every day, both in Ukraine and in Russia. The most important thing is people's lives. Of course we have to help Ukraine, but we have t…

14 Dec

2023

RO Speech

Improving the strategic approach to the enforcement of EU Law (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, respect for European Union law I believe that we must no longer invent it, it is clearly laid down in the Treaty. The important thing is to look at the application and it is surprising, Commissioner, to say that when there are individual petitions, we do not take them into account, because I believe that no one should – this is how we have the slog…

14 Dec

2023

RO Speech

Ensuring proper functioning of EU-Ukraine Solidarity Lanes (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it is good that we are analysing, because if we are honest, we can now make it clear that the Solidarity Lanes did not work properly, and so is the title of the debate, we need to make sure that it does. Commissioner, I would invite colleagues who say it worked to come to Romania to talk to farmers. I met with thousands of farmers in Romania, in my…

13 Dec

2023

RO Speech

Review of the Spanish Presidency of the Council (debate)

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Madam President, Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to congratulate the Spanish Presidency. We negotiated a trilogue on a very important directive, the gas and hydrogen market, and I congratulate you on all the work that, Prime Minister, you had as Spanish Presidency. I've been back from your country for two days, I've been to Madrid, I've visited a city hall in the Madrid area. Th…

12 Dec

2023

RO Speech

Defence of democracy package (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we are discussing a very important package on protecting democracy. Nothing is more important. On 10 December we celebrated human rights and without democracy we cannot protect human rights. But do we have something to protect? We must not first correct the things that do not work now, because we have, as has been said here, cyber attacks, citiz…

12 Dec

2023

RO Speech

Parliament’s call for the right to disconnect - three years on (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we must say that teleworking arose in a context of crisis, but not all activities could be done from home and not all activities can be done from home even now. That is why I believe that the first thing we need to take into account is to have the same working conditions for those who work physically, and for those who still can or want to work, bu…

12 Dec

2023

RO Speech

European Health Data Space (debate)

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Dear colleague, in fact, you did not answer my question. Of course I'm not skeptical. Of course, the specific question I asked you didn't answer me. You told me I didn't read the report. I read the report very well. I ask you once again, how can we ensure through this document that no data is transmitted if the patient does not request it?…

12 Dec

2023

RO Question

European Health Data Space (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleague, I agree with what you said. You gave an example, and I want to relate to the example you gave. If a patient goes and, of course, if what we want now (data transmission) would work, shouldn't data transmission always be done only at the patient's request? How do we ensure that no personal data is transmitted about us, about the diseases we have and, for example, at …

12 Dec

2023

RO Speech

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

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I do not think that anyone can dispute the need to have critical raw materials in the European Union, to produce, to no longer depend on third countries, to have raw materials for important sectors: agriculture, health, construction and even defence. Commissioner, in addition to increasing demand for raw materials, there is a problem with specialis…

11 Dec

2023

RO Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I have chosen to speak today about the functioning of the internal market. Why? We celebrated 30 years. We still have four months, this Parliament and the Commission, and I think we need to think about what we are leaving, what we are handing over to the next Parliament. Does the internal market work or not? The answer, even today, in the debate…

11 Dec

2023

RO Speech

Role of tax policy in times of crisis (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we are discussing a very important subject: successive crises. Where has the impact, until the end, on the citizen, certainly, of small and medium-sized enterprises, micro-enterprises? We know that every state has the right to determine its fiscal mix, to adapt it to local, national needs, but we also need to have a harmonisation. There is now a…

22 Nov

2023

RO Speech

Threat to rule of law as a consequence of the governmental agreement in Spain (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would first like to thank the Spanish Presidency, with whom I work very well as rapporteur, and I believe that we must respect that. Secondly, Commissioner, I want to tell you that we have warned since we introduced this mechanism for the functioning of the rule of law that it can be used with a double measure. I would like to remind you that the…

21 Nov

2023

RO Speech

Packaging and packaging waste (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I have always advocated that the ambitious objectives be brought into line, of course, with the reality and the situation on the ground. It is good that we all want to fight to reduce packaging waste, but let's not forget that packaging or the amount of packaging is directly proportional to the amount of fruit, food that the population consumes. Ye…

21 Nov

2023

RO Speech

Sustainable use of plant protection products (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, if farmers listen to us now - this debate - they will say this: Everyone knows everything. I am very curious if those who are extremely supportive of banning pesticides have been to see a cornfield felled to the ground by pests. I believe that we must protect the environment, but I also believe that we cannot do twofold, Commissioner, because yo…