What Franc spoke about.

25 Apr

2024

SL Speech

Framework of measures for strengthening Europe’s net-zero technology products manufacturing ecosystem (Net Zero Industry Act) (debate)

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Mr. President! Dear Vice-President, Honourable Commissioner, Honourable colleague Ehler. Thank you for the excellent report. The report is more than necessary, and it makes it very clear that Europe is aware of the importance of fighting the causes of climate change, but also of the importance of maintaining the competitiveness of the economy in the European Union, so that we can withstand the big…

24 Apr

2024

SL Speech

Forging a sustainable future together: economic, social and territorial challenges for a competitive, cohesive and inclusive Europe (debate)

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Mr President. I come from Slovenia, a country that joined the European Union twenty years ago. Six years before that, I became mayor in the city of Krško, I was mayor for thirteen years and I know very well first-hand what cohesion policy means, how we developed the city with cohesion policy funds, and how people also felt what the European Union is. That is why I always say that cohesion policy i…

23 Apr

2024

SL Speech

Establishing the Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans (debate)

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Dear President! Good evening, Honourable Commissioner, Honourable Rapporteurs. Tomorrow marks the 20th anniversary of the great enlargement of the European Union, of which my Slovenia was a part. A colleague of the rapporteurs comes from Croatia, which celebrated its 10th anniversary of accession to the EU last year. And in both countries, very significant progress has been made over the years, wh…

23 Apr

2024

SL Speech

Production and marketing of plant reproductive material - Production and marketing of forest reproductive material (joint debate - Plant and forest reproductive material)

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Dear President! We are talking about a very important report. That is, we are discussing plant and forest reproductive material. We all know that seeds, seedlings are crucial for, on the one hand, ensuring food security, for innovation, for development, for raising crops, and, on the other hand, also very important for adaptation to climate change. Today we see that the weather is changing, so it …

13 Mar

2024

SL Speech

Cohesion policy 2014-2020 – implementation and outcomes in the Member States (debate)

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Madam President. In 1998, Slovenia started pre-accession negotiations with the European Union. That year I became mayor of the municipality of Krško, where I was mayor for thirteen years, so I know very well what it means, how you can use cohesion funds to build basic infrastructure, build environmental infrastructure, flood protection. In our municipality, we also built broadband connections in v…

12 Mar

2024

SL Speech

Need to impose sanctions on the import of Russian and Belarusian food and agricultural products to the EU and to ensure stability of EU agricultural production (debate)

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Mr President. I, too, miss Commissioner Wojciechowski in the debate on agriculture, on a much-needed topic that, in a way, also upsets the entire European market. We all know that Putin has used all possible means to weaken the European Union in some way in this war. By shutting down Ukrainian grain exports across the Black Sea, he first took literally Ukraine's markets in Asia, the Middle East, a…

12 Mar

2024

SL Speech

EU climate risk assessment, taking urgent action to improve security and resilience in Europe (debate)

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Mr President. I come from Slovenia, which was mentioned by the Commissioner and which suffered last year's flooding in August, a year earlier in July, heavy fires. I am a fruit grower and the vegetation in the plantation is now 14 days to 3 weeks ahead of the average, so I have no problem recognizing and realizing that these changes are present in our country. In Slovenia, we have an active measur…

11 Mar

2024

SL Speech

Energy performance of buildings (recast) (debate)

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Honourable Commissioner, Mr President, as we know, buildings consume 40 percent of energy and eliminate as much as 35 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, so it is expected that in this package, where we want to reduce greenhouse gases, we also deal very intensively with buildings. The climatic conditions in Europe are very different. I myself come from Slovenia, where we have severe winters, hot …

27 Feb

2024

SL Speech

Geographical Indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products (debate)

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Mr. President! Dear colleague Paolo de Castro, thank you for your report. For many years you have been fighting for geographical origins, which are very important for agriculture. I am pleased that Mairead McGuinness is with us today, who, also as a member of the Committee on Agriculture, has spoken a lot about this and knows very well what we are talking about. We are talking about using geograph…

26 Feb

2024

SL Speech

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

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Mr. President! As we know, the increase in food prices is very high, 29%, and in addition to the increase in energy prices, this puts great pressure on people's condition. On the other hand, it is also a fact that the share that farmers get for agricultural produce is smaller and smaller. Nowadays, a farmer gets only one quarter of what consumers pay for. That is why farmers are rightly protesting…

7 Feb

2024

SL Speech

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

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Madam President! Last spring, last spring, I joined Slovenian farmers who started protests and were directed against such stupid measures from the European Union. At that time, we saw what the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Regulation means, what the Nature Restoration Regulation means, and we protested together against these measures. For the first time, I protested against the measures of the Eur…

6 Feb

2024

SL Speech

Plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their food and feed (debate)

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Madam President! Agriculture is a major challenge because more and more people need to be fed. Climate change is the cause of new diseases, new pests. There are more and more dry periods. Agriculture has been searching for an answer for centuries in breeding, and with new genomic techniques we want to give scientists the opportunity to speed up processes that otherwise take place in nature. What w…

6 Feb

2024

SL Speech

Conclusions of the European Council meetings, in particular the special European Council meeting of 1 February 2024 (debate)

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Madam President! The world around the European Union is at war – Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, the Middle East. Evropska komisija, pa tudi velik del politične levice v Evropskem parlamentu zagovarja ideološke predloge Green Deala, ki so velikokrat brez posledic, učinkov na prehransko varnost, kot je bila uredba o trajnostni rabi pesticidov v okviru strategije „od vil do vilic“. I very much welcome what t…

17 Jan

2024

SL Speech

Geothermal energy (debate)

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Madam President! Dear Commissioner, Colleagues, Colleagues! First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr Krasnodębski for his report, which I think is very much in the right place, because geothermal energy certainly has a great future. I come from Slovenia, which is also known for its rich hot water springs and there are quite a few good examples of geothermal exploitation in Slo…

17 Jan

2024

SL Speech

Situation in Serbia following elections (debate)

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Madam President! Honourable Commissioner, Honourable Vice-President! I come from Slovenia and I can safely say that I know Serbia quite well. And I firmly believe that it is very important for the well-being of the people living in Serbia, as well as for lasting peace in this part of Europe, that Serbia joins the European Union. Accession to the European Union is, in any case, conditional on respe…

17 Jan

2024

SL Answer

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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Thank you for this question, and I can safely tell you that, as a Member of the European Parliament, I also talked a lot about farmers, about the common agricultural policy, which was proposed by Commissioner Wojciechowski and Commissioner Hogan earlier. However, when Commissioner Timmermans put the ‘Farm to Fork’ proposals on the agenda and defended them here, we all came to the conclusion that t…

17 Jan

2024

SL 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! Dear Commissioner, Honourable Members! Last spring, as a fruit farmer, I joined Slovenian farmers in protest. Do you know who they were protesting against? Against the nonsense of Slovenian agricultural policy and against the nonsense coming from Brussels. Farmers are frustrated, feel guilty, and are accused of being guilty of destroying nature, poisoning people. They will soon be…

12 Dec

2023

SL Speech

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

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Mr President, honourable Commissioner, honourable President-in-Office, colleagues! We in the Committee on Regional Development were also pleased to support the basic report and also added our opinion, in which we support the basic objectives of increased extraction of these raw materials in Europe, as well as processing, recycling, collection of these raw materials, as well as strategic diversific…

11 Dec

2023

SL Speech

Small modular reactors (debate)

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Madam President, honourable colleagues, honourable Commissioner, thank you very much for today's debate, for your support and also for the critical comments made during the debate. Let me also thank my colleague Edita from my office, Florian, Alex and all the others who helped me prepare the report. Thank you also to the shadow rapporteurs for the cooperative cooperation and also for the support o…

11 Dec

2023

SL Speech

Small modular reactors (debate)

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Madam President, honourable Commissioner Kadri Simson, honourable colleagues! The current composition of the European Parliament has been confronted with events and crises of unprecedented proportions. From the COVID-pandemic to the Russian aggression in Ukraine, the severe natural disasters and now the appalling situation in the Middle East, Israel and Gaza. All these events require an appropriat…

21 Nov

2023

SL Speech

Sustainable use of plant protection products (debate)

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Madam President. Dear Sir/Madam, In the European People's Party, and myself, I am very much in favour of reducing pesticide consumption, and I am pleased that European farmers have reduced their pesticide consumption by one third over the last five years. I therefore support the proposals of the Committee on Agriculture to achieve the target of a 50% reduction by 2035, thus enabling a normal trans…

20 Nov

2023

SL Speech

Framework of measures for strengthening Europe’s net-zero technology products manufacturing ecosystem (Net Zero Industry Act) (debate)

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Madam President. Thanks for the word. Thank you also for the Net Zero Act, both to the Commission and to the rapporteur, Mr Ehler. The act is urgently needed. Unfortunately, we only woke up when the Americans issued their IRA act to respond to the key challenges of this time. In Europe, too, we have realised that we need industry and that we need decarbonisation. And that we need the industry to b…

8 Nov

2023

SL Speech

State of the Energy Union (debate)

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Mr. President! Dear Vice-President, Commissioner. I agree with the Communication's findings that short-term measures to mitigate the energy crisis have been successful. We have reduced dependence on Russia, diversification of supplies is greater, stocks are increased, and the production of renewable energy sources is also increasing. On the other hand, we have a reduction in energy consumption, wh…

19 Oct

2023

SL Speech

European protein strategy (debate)

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Mr. President! Greetings and thanks, Mrs Eva, for the excellent report on protein, a strategy that we urgently need in the European Union, because we are all aware of how essential protein is in both human and animal nutrition. In any case, I advocate this approach that both plant and animal proteins are needed. And we will probably eat less animal protein in the future. In any case, we have a dut…

17 Oct

2023

SL Speech

Water scarcity and structural investments in access to water in the EU (debate)

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Mr. President! Today we are talking about water scarcity in remote French regions. We could talk about the lack of access to drinking water in the water supply network in Romania or also about Roma settlements in my Slovenia that do not yet have access to drinking water. That is why I think we really need to do everything we can to continue with cohesion funds and supply where there is not yet acc…