Speeches

I repeat that we will suspend the sitting for a few minutes until our High Representative is back, because he would like to follow the debate but he had an emergency. (The sitting was suspended for a few minutes)

Thank you, Ms Gregorová. You were right, our High Representative had an emergency and had to leave the room for a few minutes. So I suggest we should suspend our discussion for a few minutes until he’s back. Would you prefer that?

The next item is the debate on the Council and Commission statements on the outcome of the EU—China Summit (1April 2022) (2022/2590(RSP)). I have to remind you that free seating is applied, with the exception of the first two rows, that are allocated to group leaders. You will also be able to request catch—the—eye and blue cards for statements or questions to the previous speakers via your voting machine – you have the instructions in front of you – after having inserted your voting card. I would also like to remind you that interventions in the Chamber will continue to be made from the central rostrum except for catch—the—eye, blue cards and points of order.

I have received six motions for resolutions* tabled in accordance with Rule 132(2)/136(5) of the Rules of Procedure. The debate is closed. The vote will take place on Thursday. _______________ * See Minutes. Written statements (Rule 171)

Madame President, let me start by thanking our rapporteur, Mr Van Overveldt, a lot for successfully steering the Commission’s proposal, in the spirit of cooperation and compromise, to achieve the best result. Asset organisation is a major application of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in finance, and we need to test how it could be deployed, as well as financial market infrastructures on the issuance, registering, trading, settling and safekeeping of tokenised financial instruments. It is of great importance to acknowledge the benefits of the use of blockchain that allows, basically, the transactions to be recorded on a distributed ledger, and for trading and settlement to happen without delays – virtually in real time – enabling the merger of trading and post-trading activities. I think it’s very important that we manage to test this technology in a structured manner across the EU, in accordance, as our reporter rightly said, with the technology neutrality principle and innovation-friendly principle, building upon the spirit of the first blockchain resolution in 2015. Hopefully the related markets in cryptoassets (MiCA) file will also follow the same spirit. The DLT pilot regime regulation has been adopted by a large majority. I hope that this will enable a trustworthy framework and a protected result to follow, in a safe way, the implementation of a more permanent legislation. So thank you so much, rapporteur, and thank you Commissioner.

The debate is closed. The vote on the amendments will take place today, Tuesday, 8 March 2022, and the final vote on Wednesday, 9 March 2022. Written statements (Rule 171)

We now come to today’s first voting session. We will vote on the files as indicated on the agenda and the voting session will be open from 12.30 until 13.45. The same voting method will be used as during the previous voting sessions. All votes will be held by roll call vote. I declare the voting session open. You have until 13.45 to vote. The results of the vote will be announced at 19.00. (The sitting was suspended at 12.38)

The next item is the debate on the report by Morten Petersen, on behalf of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, on a European strategy for offshore renewable energy (2021/2012(INI)) (A9-0339/2021).

The next item is the debate on the report by Eleonora Evi, on behalf of the Committee on Petitions, on the annual report on the activities of the European Ombudsman in 2020 (2021/2167(INI)) (A9-0342/2021). I should like to remind Members that, for all debates of this part—session, there will be no catch—the—eye procedure and no blue cards will be accepted. Furthermore, as during recent part-sessions, remote interventions from Parliament’s Liaison Offices in the Member States are foreseen.