What Luke Ming spoke about.

14

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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Deliberations of the Committee on Petitions in 2021 (debate)

Madam President, one of the issues discussed at the committee last year was the defective block scandal in Ireland. We got great support from MEPs present. Having heard their case though, the Commission’s first instinct was to run away from the issue, which begs the question: what’s the point in having a Construction Products Regulation if it’s not in force? We ended up at the PETI Committee becau…

23

Nov

2022

EN Speech

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A post-2020 Global biodiversity framework and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity COP15 (debate)

Mr President, in the new CAP Strategic Plan Regulation, the production of public goods is now recognised as an agricultural activity. Now you can get paid for producing not just meat, dairy, grains and greens, but also butterflies, bees, bugs, clean water and carbon sequestration. When it comes to funding for biodiversity, CAP offers many opportunities. But are they being taken? I don’t think they…

19

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Global food security as follow-up to the G20 Agriculture Ministers meeting (debate)

Mr President, good news. I come from Ireland. We are number one in the world when it comes to the global food security index. Fantastic news. Brilliant news. Especially when you come from a country where we were scattered all around the planet because of a famine. But I have to question what does food security mean? In Ireland we eat lots of potatoes, but we don’t produce enough for ourselves, we …

19

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Presentation of the Court of Auditors' annual report 2021 (debate)

Madam President, the first thing I want to do is to congratulate Tony on his appointment to this very, very important role. And I think it is brilliant that we have an actual auditor at the head of this organisation. I think it is also very important that we have someone who comes from a working class background as our head auditor and the head of this organisation. Because when you come from a wo…

18

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Mental health (debate)

Mr President, up until recently, we didn’t talk about mental health and we didn’t do anything for people with mental health. That’s changed now. Now we talk an awful lot about mental health, but we don’t do anything for people with mental health. We just talk about it. And now politicians have copped on that this is a popular thing to talk about and to pretend to do something about. What I’m heari…

6

Jul

2022

EN Speech

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Protection of the EU’s financial interests – combating fraud – annual report 2020 (debate)

Madam President, I think the draft report was a good basis with a good focus on the fight against corruption and the need for an enhanced approach at EU level to cope with the new challenges which emerged in 2020 with COVID-19 – the COVID-19 outbreak – and the new way of managing EU funds. Nevertheless, the report seems to me to lack some kind of substance in terms of recommendations and criticism…

6

Jul

2022

EN Speech

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Financial activities of the European Investment Bank – annual report 2021 - Control of the financial activities of the European Investment Bank – annual report 2020 (debate)

Madam President, there are many positive elements here, but one in particular is the focus on human rights due diligence in the new EIB Environmental and Social Sustainability Framework, calling for the development of a specific human rights strategy; a commitment that a gender perspective be at the centre of EIB activities; a strong focus on anti-money laundering and combating financing terrorism…

5

Jul

2022

EN Speech

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Addressing food security in developing countries (debate)

Mr President, the report calls on the EU to implement policies that guarantee the right to food security and sovereignty in developing countries. This, as you know, is an objective of the Sustainable Development Goals, which are, let’s face it, tragically far from being achieved. In fact, the situation has worsened due to the ongoing war and its consequences on the food supply chain. It has also b…

22

Jun

2022

EN Speech

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Future of EU-Africa trade relations (debate)

Madam President, I very much welcome this draft report on the future of EU—Africa trade relations. The relationships of the past, unfortunately, have been based on brutality and exploitation, and we need to do so, so much better. And I want to say to Helmut for a draft report that I think is excellent. I am pleased to see so much of the AGRI opinion included. The report comes at a crucial time wit…

4

May

2022

EN Speech

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Discharge 2020 (debate)

Madam President, one of the biggest causes of scepticism within the European Union is the fear among the European Union’s citizens that our money isn’t being spent well, or their money isn’t being spent well – the money that they work really hard to get in the first place and pay tax on it. It comes out here and we spend it and various agencies spend it. So, what I would say is, overall I would be…

23

Mar

2022

EN Speech

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MFF 2021-2027: fight against oligarch structures, protection of EU funds from fraud and conflict of interest (debate)

Madam President, it’s hard to wonder is there anyone listening at this time of night? Hopefully there is. Oligarchs aren’t something that many people said an awful lot about up until the last while but now all the cool kids in class hate them, despise them and they want to do something about them. Well, here’s your chance. Try and do something about them. Take them on. This report, it’s not perfec…

23

Mar

2022

EN Speech

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Need for an urgent EU action plan to ensure food security inside and outside the EU in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (debate)

Madam President, short-sightedness put us in this position and it certainly won’t get us out of it. The sustainable path was always to produce our food with inputs that are also produced within EU boundaries we control and regulate. We haven’t done that. We became massively dependent on imports of basic inputs such as feed, fertiliser and energy – dependent in many cases on despots. You knew this …

17

Feb

2022

EN Speech

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The surge in commodity and input prices in the agricultural sector (G-001004/2021 - B9-0005/2022)

Madam President, just reading the text on this, and it says every day the EU’s food supply chain provides 450 million people in the EU with high quality food. But as with everything, the devil is in the detail. In Europe, we import more calories than we export to the world. And still we claim we are feeding the world. This policy leaves us unnecessarily exposed at times of crisis and bobbing aroun…

23

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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Common agricultural policy - support for strategic plans to be drawn up by Member States and financed by the EAGF and by the EAFRD - Common agricultural policy: financing, management and monitoring - Common agricultural policy – amendment of the CMO and other regulations (debate)

Madam President, sadly, whether you’re in the Commission or whether you’re a Member of this Parliament or if you’re a Member of the Council, we’ve let everyone down, sadly. We have let people down because we could have done so, so much better. Will I vote against this common agricultural policy (CAP)? No, I won’t, because I think I'd be letting people down again if I did that, because reverting to…

15

Sep

2021

EN Speech

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EU contribution to transforming global food systems to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (debate)

Madam President, we’ve got to look at what the EU’s contribution to global food systems will be in the future and what’s planned if we’re to be serious about this. Mercosur: I’m hearing about Mercosur for a couple of years now – quite a few years. No one seems to agree with it in the Agriculture Committee, but it still seems to drive on. Importing beef when we already produce enough beef here in E…