Speeches

Mr President, Commissioner, today's debate is of particular importance for the citizens of the European Union, because, after all, it has a great deal to do with citizens' lives. Of course, it has been a long way, it has been said here, to debate the amendment of Directive 2009/103 on its efficiency and coherence. The European Commission itself has identified four points that we, in the work done and in the outcome of the trialogue, have covered. These are the minimum amounts insured, the compensation of the injured parties following an accident in case of insolvency. There are many cases, I have even recently a case, in my country, of an insolvent insurance company and citizens cannot recover their money. It is also about consumer protection. Obviously, the use of claims history statements - it is very important that when a company becomes insolvent, with the help of this data history, it can be taken over by another company and not suffer, in the end, the injured party or the citizen who was involved in an accident. Of course, I want, in addition to these four areas, liability in the event of an accident involving a trailer towed by a vehicle to be included in the future directive by way of amendment. There are many accidents in such cases. It is obvious that for the functioning of the insurance system it is necessary to have a transmission of data, an integrated system in the European Union, in order for the Member States to be able to transmit their information. The same checks should be carried out on all vehicles, without discrimination, because, after all, they must have the same driving conditions. Of course, it is important to ensure that people involved, injured or involved in an accident get their money back quickly. Insurance undertakings should treat an attestation from another Member State in the same way as they treat a domestic attestation, foreigners should not be treated differently. That is why, Commissioner, I hope that, nevertheless, the directive will build on the work done here in Parliament and on the outcome of the trilogue, and we will have a directive that serves ... (The Chair withdrew the floor of the speaker)

Madam President, Commissioner, we are in a real energy crisis on the brink of winter. You cannot take measures to close, as happened in my country, the Hunedoara Energy Complex without having alternative measures. Utilities are not a luxury for citizens, they are natural necessities, we learned this from Maslow. We cannot have millions of citizens who, now, in my country and in other states, cannot pay their bills, cannot pay their energy and heating, and entire families will be in the cold this winter. That is why, Commissioner, you must recognise that urgent action must be taken because the energy strategy has failed, and we must have action now, not in a month, not in two. We need to understand that the transition to green energy must be made at the rate at which alternative energy can be provided. Otherwise, we are mocking citizens and it is impossible not to think about the health and life of citizens, but also about the economy, because, of course, SMEs are suffering and will not be able to pay their bills. I am waiting for your answer to give us the concrete measures you want to take.

Commissioner, Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, let me first express my sympathy to the victims in Cuba and say that yes, solidarity must not be within the national borders of a state or of the European Union, solidarity must not have a political colour. But we need to look at what we, the European Union, could do about what is happening in Latin America, in Cuba - here is this resolution, coming after another resolution of 10 June 2021. I agree with what was said in the resolution. The problem is that it does not end with some means and measures that we could take, which we have, after all, based on the status of the European Union, as possibilities for intervention. I will never agree to make this embargo against a particular state and the citizens suffer - in addition to the bad things done by the dictatorial governments of that state - to suffer also through this trade embargo. That is why we need to think about how to make a political negotiation, as far as our status allows, and help the citizens of Cuba. I would no longer like the double standard and I think this resolution is unprepared, I think we had to discuss the situation in all the states of Latin America and have solutions already, and then make resolutions, because it does not help us to come up with resolutions after resolutions without having concrete measures. I believe that the same must be done within the European Union, because, unfortunately, we also have breaches of the rule of law in the Member States of the European Union.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, as Vice-President of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, I am very pleased that today we are debating an extremely important subject, namely building materials, the lack of building materials, and I congratulate the Commission, and I congratulate you, Commissioner, on the fact that you mentioned in your speech that we have this plan for reindustrialisation, for the industrialisation of the European Union since May, and we also have the plan for scarce raw materials. This includes raw materials and building materials. After all, it is important for us to take into account, and when I say we think of the Commission, obviously Parliament and the Council, the fact that these scarce raw materials, which we now import from third countries, must be produced in the internal market, we must think that we also have a regulation related to the conditions for harmonising quality standards, because we cannot help but think of consumer protection, even of the final consumer, the citizen. We know that we have a backlog here, we also had a resolution – I was rapporteur on this year’s resolution of 10 March 2021 – where, I think we can integrate it, Commissioner, into the programmes you mentioned. I believe very much that we need raw materials and innovative materials also in this area, but let's not forget that these innovative materials must also be subject to quality standards. Obviously, here the national authorities have their responsibility to control the materials and I recall, on this occasion, that since March this year, the customs regulation has come into operation and I would like to see a verification of the materials coming on the value chain from third countries, because we have non-harmonisation problems and I think that for SMEs in the European Union it is really a problem if we do not supervise the internal market. I hope that the implementation of the industrialisation programme of the European Union together with that plan for scarce raw materials will succeed in creating this value chain and quality control of construction materials.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, protecting the budget of the European Union is an essential obligation of all European and national institutions. After all, the European Union budget means citizens' money and that is why it must be protected, but let us not forget that the European Commission has the lever, Commissioner, and that is why I believe that the Commission must monitor breaches of the principles of the rule of law in all Member States according to the same indicators and make a qualitative, objective, impartial, fair assessment that takes into account relevant information from that state. And of course we have to protect the final beneficiaries. If officials in a state violate the principles of the rule of law, the final beneficiaries must not suffer and citizens must not suffer. In cases of corruption, nepotism, systematic fraud, conflicts of interest, the Commission needs to analyse case by case in a transparent manner and see if payments can be continued. I support the establishment of an effective online one-stop shop where citizens can report cases of fraud and the Commission comes before Parliament at least twice a year to report to us.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today we are analysing a very important report. The European Investment Bank, as we know, is of particular importance in financing, especially now, after the pandemic crisis. However, I must express my dissatisfaction and I am surprised that the President of the EIB, in his speech, has shown that he is satisfied with how much he has financed SMEs, or in the report it is very clear that out of the total financing fund only 40% has been allocated to SMEs, and we have 98% SMEs in the European Union. So, Mr President, I support increasing capital so that we have adequate capital at the EIB, but, please, focus more on SMEs, on those that have the least resistance to the crisis, and we also need to see how we can increase the pace with the guarantee fund because the pace is very slow. We have more than a year in which SMEs, HoReCa, tourism are suffering and only the first funds were approved at the end of 2020. I would also like to stress that I believe that the EIB needs to review its lending policy in the field of transport. We all know how important transport is as a component in the cost of products, as important for tourism, as important in the Green Deal. That is why I hope that in 2021 we will have adequate funds for this area of transport. I cannot help but say that we have not achieved what we are all hoping for through investment, namely the elimination of major imbalances. We still have regions and states where social cohesion has not been achieved, and I hope, Commissioner, that you will explain to us how you think the response has been coordinated, when we know well that each country, in this year of pandemic, has acted differently in terms of access to the internal market.