What Luke Ming spoke about.

16

Sep

2024

EN Speech

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Outcome of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture (debate)

Mr President, Dia duit, Mairead. One of the highlights in this report is the commitment to deal with the issue of below-cost selling. It's something that should never have happened in the first place. However, I'm old enough to remember when we had a chance to do something about this, but we didn't. On 10 October 2018, this Parliament voted on its position on the UTP Directive. The position adopte…

10

Apr

2024

EN Speech

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Discharge 2022 (debate)

Mr President, it was good to hear all of the speakers and all the contributions. I think it’s very important that we come in here and we account for how money is spent. But I think it’s also important that we be factual, and I’m looking at the amendment in the EEAS section, and it says ‘is extremely concerned about reports that EU taxpayers’ money could be used by Hamas’. Now, I have to ask the qu…

10

Apr

2024

EN Speech

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Discharge 2022 (debate)

Mr President, it’s good to see such a big crowd. With regard to the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions, the Court of Auditors, the Court of Justice, the European Ombudsman, the European Data Protection Agency and the EPPO, as rapporteur, I will be supporting the discharge of all these institutions. I would, however, in particular, like to see more cooperation betw…

26

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, for years, I’ve supported the idea of farmers being paid to produce a basket of public goods: clean water, carbon sequestration, biodiversity regeneration. The nature restoration law was the prime opportunity to make this happen. But sadly, this law doesn’t do that. In the supermarket of public goods, under this regulation, the farmer will be met at the cash desk with a customer that…

26

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Tackling the inflation in food prices and its social consequences and root causes (debate)

Mr President, for me, the most important part of this title of this debate is the root causes. What are the root causes of price inflation? For me, it is globalised food supply chains. In a globalised world, depending on goods from faraway producers, it does not give stability of supply and therefore it does not give price stability. We in the European Union promote this policy – you do – with you…

26

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, I keep hearing how this is probably the most important vote of this mandate – probably one of the most important votes that we will have as MEPs. And it certainly is, because nature restoration is vitally important. We are facing a biodiversity crisis and we are facing a climate crisis. So for me, it would be amazing if we didn’t debate this text, because as of yet, we have not de…

7

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Empowering farmers and rural communities - a dialogue towards sustainable and fairly rewarded EU agriculture (debate)

Mr President, farmers are protesting because, from their perspective, the just transition is just empty words. They are being required to meet ever-higher standards, as they should, and more needs to be done. However, their livelihoods are being undermined by imports from third countries that do not meet the same standards. In Ireland, the most sustainable producers of beef, the suckler farmers, a…

18

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Humanitarian situation in Gaza, the need to reach a ceasefire and the risks of regional escalation (RC-B9-0068/2024, B9-0068/2024, B9-0069/2024, B9-0071/2024, B9-0073/2024, B9-0075/2024, B9-0077/2024)

Madam President, what does it take to wake the EU up? What does it take to get ye to listen? You didn’t listen in October. Your watery words, along with the thumbs up from von der Leyen, were then taken as permission to commit genocide. Since then, over 24 000 Palestinians have been killed, hundreds upon hundreds of thousands displaced, all in danger of famine. So you think you’d have learned. But…

17

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Implementation of the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) (A9-0400/2023 - Javier Moreno Sánchez)

Madam President, this report is designed to push for the ratification of the CETA agreement among the 10 Member States that have not already done so, one of which is my own country, Ireland. It is nothing but a celebratory exercise which inflates the benefits without any recognition of the flaws of the agreement. It presents inflated numbers about the increase in trade in goods and trade in servic…

17

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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

Mr President, this is a massively important topic. I used to get hope when I’d see the phrase ‘just transition’. But I have to say, every time I see the phrase ‘just transition’ at the moment, I feel like puking, because I’m not seeing any justice in this. I’m seeing elderly people going in, paying EUR 5 for little bags of wood, paying massive money for stuff with carbon tax on it – which is a goo…

16

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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

Mr President, the original report was simply a constant attack on all NGOs, blamed for everything, including Qatargate, and asked to provide more info than any other private company applying for EU funds. The original report also requested a certification body only for NGOs – an NGO regulation – but none for other beneficiaries, and even proposed to establish a blacklist against NGOs, and – guess …

21

Nov

2023

EN Speech

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Reducing inequalities and promoting social inclusion in times of crisis for children and their families (A9-0360/2023 - Sandra Pereira)

Madam President, I voted in favour of this report because, I suppose, how could you not? It calls for universal, high-quality public service provision such as education, healthcare, transportation, school activities and healthy nutrition at school. It calls to protect children and their families in the EU at risk of poverty, particularly in times of crisis. It calls for an increase in the public a…

21

Nov

2023

EN Speech

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Strengthening the CO2 emission performance targets for new heavy-duty vehicles (A9-0313/2023 - Bas Eickhout)

Madam President, despite an overall downward trend in EU greenhouse gas emissions, the greenhouse gas emissions from the road sector have been on the rise in the EU and it is now responsible for a fifth of the emissions. Heavy-duty vehicles are responsible for 28% of all emissions from the road sector, despite accounting for 2% of the fleet. While this proposal regulates performance of HDVs, a goo…

19

Oct

2023

EN Speech

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The despicable terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel, Israel’s right to defend itself in line with humanitarian and international law and the humanitarian situation in Gaza (RC-B9-0436/2023, B9-0436/2023, B9-0438/2023, B9-0442/2023, B9-0444/2023, B9-0445/2023, B9-0447/2023, B9-0448/2023)

Mr President, I couldn’t vote for a resolution that was too terrified to use the word ceasefire. In October of last year. President von der Leyen clearly stated that – and she was right – Russia’s attacks against civilian infrastructure, especially electricity, are war crimes. Cutting off men, women, children of water, electricity and heating with winter coming, these are acts of pure terror and w…

18

Oct

2023

EN Speech

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Presentation of the Court of Auditors' annual report 2022 (debate)

Mr President, I wish to thank the ECA President for all the work that his organisation does. It’s essential in providing a vital insight into how EU citizens’ money is spent. Some MEPs might not like what you do or say at times, particularly on the CAP, the RRF or on Ukraine. The truth hurts at times. Some may try to limit your work, but I salute it. In relation to the Commission, the negative tre…

5

Oct

2023

EN Speech

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The new European strategy for a better internet for kids (BIK+) (B9-0386/2023)

Mr President, I supported this resolution, because we do need a better internet for kids and we do need what it says in the resolution. We need to educate children as to what’s safe on the internet. But educating children in itself and doing it in schools, while it is important, children aren’t in schools all the time. Sometimes, a lot of the time, they’re outside school, and they’re with their pa…

3

Oct

2023

EN Speech

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Protection of workers from asbestos (A9-0160/2023 - Véronique Trillet-Lenoir)

Mr President, people where I live often ask what relevance does the European Parliament have to their lives? And unfortunately, this has a bit too much of relevance to my life because a week ago, a year ago and a week ago, my father died from asbestosis. So, next time someone asked me what relevance does the European Parliament have, I’ll be able to tell them that we’ve got some good news. We now …

11

Jul

2023

EN Speech

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Nature restoration (debate)

Mr President, we need this to work for all our futures. For that to happen, we need to be honest with farmers on what they will have to do. If it is going to cause a problem, then we have to admit it. In the case of re-establishing habitats, Article 4(2), depending on how a Member State interprets it, farmers could be prevented from farming their land. That’s not scaremongering; that’s my honest i…

11

May

2023

EN Speech

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Empowering consumers for the green transition (A9-0099/2023 - Biljana Borzan)

Madam President, I voted in favor of this report, which is about empowering consumers for the green transition through better protection against unfair practices and better information. This, for me, is essential. We can’t transition and people can transition if they’re not given proper information. The amending of these two directives leads to great opportunities. It can be a powerful tool to tac…

10

May

2023

EN Speech

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The role of farmers as enablers of the green transition and a resilient agricultural sector (continuation of debate)

Mr President, if you ignore the climate crisis, if you ignore the biodiversity crisis, then you are not defending farmers. You are destroying them, destroying them for short-term political gain. Five million farmers have disappeared in the last 15 years, 37%. They didn’t leave because they were making too much money, they left because policy had failed them. All the negatives that are in agricultu…

9

May

2023

EN Speech

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Discharge 2021 (continuation of debate)

Madam President, first off, I want to thank the Secretariat and The Left staff for all the work they’ve done on these files. I know it’s not easy, so thank you very much. I won’t be supporting discharge on the following institutions and agencies. In relation to the Commission, the ECA issued again an adverse opinion to the Commission, which is parallel to the long-term negative evaluation of The L…

19

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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Keeping people healthy, water drinkable and soil liveable: getting rid of forever pollutants and strengthening EU chemical legislation now (topical debate)

Madam President, I agree 100 % with strengthening legislation in this area, but we also need to make sure that what is already there is actually enforced. In Ireland, the law governing sustainable use of pesticides, which enacts the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive, makes it clear that pesticides should not be used in areas used by the general public or vulnerable groups, or environmentally…

18

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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Social Climate Fund (A9-0157/2022 - David Casa, Esther de Lange)

Madam President, there will be no transition unless we have a just transition and a fair transition that people can afford. I don’t think there’s anyone out there that doesn’t want to see a transition, but many people just can’t see how it’s possible because they can’t afford it. I think this is really good news that we now have a Social Climate Fund. For the first time, we have a creation of a fu…

18

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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Carbon border adjustment mechanism (A9-0160/2022 - Mohammed Chahim)

Madam President, Ireland very well represented there with the Kelly/Flanagans, I have to say. I am disappointed with the development of many aspects of the file in the trilogue process compared to the EP position. In the negotiations, the only sectorial extension that was accepted by the Council in the end was hydrogens. This, to me, was very disappointing. The biggest loss in the negotiations, th…

30

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Strengthening the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women (A9-0056/2022 - Kira Marie Peter-Hansen, Samira Rafaela)

Madam President, when I had my first of my three daughters in 2002, I’d never have thought that over 20 years later would be standing in this place still talking about the fact that we have to fight for equal pay for equal work. It’s extraordinary. But this is good news, what we’re doing here. It could be done quicker, it could be done for smaller companies. But, look, it’s an improvement. This di…