What Gunnar spoke about.

17

Apr

2023

DE Speech

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Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System - Monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions from maritime transport - Carbon border adjustment mechanism - Social Climate Fund - Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System for aviation (debate)

Mr President! Since we have been human beings, we have been trying to make ourselves independent of nature. Independence from nature is the foundation of our civilization. But the Greens want us to develop back in civilization and have electricity only when the wind blows and the sun shines. Greens oppose the production and consumption of energy, the basis of our civilization. Greens are turning a…

29

Mar

2023

DE Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President! Germany pays more than 40% of the EU budget net. But there are many poor people living in Germany, especially poor pensioners. Germany has one of the highest legal and actual retirement ages in the EU. But for Germans to work longer and more than many others, they pay the highest wage-related taxes in the world. In old age, they receive less pensions than pensioners elsewhere in term…

29

Mar

2023

DE Speech

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Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 23-24 March 2023 (debate)

Madam President, In Brussels, Chancellor Scholz has devised a lazy compromise for e-fuels in the EU ban on internal combustion engines. This is no longer helping the German auto industry. It is losing its export hit combustion engine and is now competing with electric cars from China and the USA. Both are massively subsidized, while the Commission blocks EU subsidies. It also doesn't help most dri…

16

Mar

2023

DE Speech

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Resumption of the sitting

Mr President! First of all, quick recovery, because I just saw you go to the desk on crutches. I refer to Rule 32(2) of the Rules of Procedure on the Bureau's obligation to provide information. Is there a Bureau decision to abolish German as a working language in Parliament’s internal and external communication? My concern relates specifically to the work of the Directorate-General for Communicati…

15

Mar

2023

DE Speech

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Combating organised crime in the EU (debate)

Madam President, In some countries, mainly in Southern and Eastern Europe, EU subsidies, including coronavirus funds, account for up to 20% of gross domestic product. The €800 billion coronavirus recovery fund has invited organised fraud in the supply and settlement of defective protective masks, self-tests, vaccine doses and medical equipment, green investments, illegal waste disposal and migrant…

15

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Failure of the Silicon Valley Bank and the implications for financial stability in Europe (debate)

Madam President, Madam Commissioner, the failure of Silicon Valley Bank is the largest bank failure since the financial crisis. The contagion risk remains non-trivial. Two points. First, SVB was a leading tech start-ups financier. If its failure were to crush the tech bubble, we should also have to worry about dozens of billions of NGU money which was funnelled into digitalization. NGU money was c…

14

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Implementation report on the Agreement on the withdrawal of the UK from the EU - The Windsor Framework (debate)

Mr President, Brexit proved that Article 50 is more than a dead letter and that, whatever the difficulties, it is possible to leave the EU. The Windsor Agreement too is good news to Eurosceptics. It shows that playing hardball with the EU may yield dividends. The Windsor Framework limits the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, it creates the unique situation where Northern Ireland is pa…

14

Mar

2023

DE Speech

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European Semester for economic policy coordination 2023 - European Semester for economic policy coordination: Employment and social priorities for 2023 (debate)

Madam President, The European Commission's latest economic forecast should shake us all up. Four Member States are now officially in recession. The four are the largest per capita net contributors to the EU budget: Germany, Austria, Sweden and Denmark. Unlike the US, the EU has not recovered from the coronavirus crisis, partly because it is more affected by rising energy and food prices than anyon…

15

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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European Central Bank - annual report 2022 (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, Madam President! The ECB blames the Ukraine war and global causes such as rising energy, fertilizer and transport costs for record food price inflation. In 2022, food price inflation was 15.5% in the euro area and 19.2% in Germany. By comparison, it was 12.4% in the US, 6.4% in Japan and only 4% in Switzerland and Israel respectively. Strangely, if higher energy, fer…

15

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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The erosion of the rule of law in Greece: the wiretapping scandal and media freedom (topical debate)

Madam President, Madam Commissioner, the Greek Prime Minister enacted a law which grants him direct supervision over the Greek Secret Service, which has since spied on its own ministers, a former prime minister who is now an opposition leader, a Member of the European Parliament, journalists and the head of the Greek military. The Greek Government refuses to give any reasons for the surveillance. …

14

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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REPowerEU chapters in recovery and resilience plans (A9-0260/2022 - Eider Gardiazabal Rubial, Siegfried Mureşan, Dragoş Pîslaru)

Mr President! REPowerEU is providing 20 billion EU funds to help EU countries become more independent from Russian energy imports. However, the European Court of Auditors criticises the misuse of funds to green the economy. Emergency aid for citizens and energy-intensive companies was envisaged. Instead, countries with high fossil fuel consumption will be favoured. The biggest victim of misuse is …

14

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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Amendments to the European Long-Term Investment Funds (ELTIFs) Regulation (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner! Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of green terror? The new EU rules for long-term investment funds could be interpreted in this way. The position of the European Parliament was clear and was adopted by a large majority against the votes of my group, the ID Group. Parliament wanted to channel long-term investment into the green economy as much as possible. This …

13

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, There is a specter in Europe, the specter of political reason. 13 EU governments are resisting mass immigration and calling for a fortified EU external border – so far dismissed as an ideé fixe so-called right-wing extremist. 13 Member States – this is half the EU that now agrees to a core demand of our ID Group. Firstly, this means: The debate is shifting – not only European citi…

1

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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Need for urgent update of the EU list of high-risk third countries for anti-money laundering and terrorist financing purposes (debate)

Madam President, The Qatar affair proves that the EU must step up its fight against money laundering. An important step in this direction would be the ambitious expansion of the EU list of high-risk third countries that do little to combat money laundering or terrorist financing. The list currently includes 25 countries, including common suspects such as Afghanistan, North Korea, Iran, Panama and …

18

Jan

2023

DE Speech

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Protection of the EU’s financial interests - combating fraud - annual report 2021 (debate)

. – Madam President! The EU must finally tackle corruption and fraud. At the heart of the Qatargate scandal are two well-funded Brussels NGOs: and . In 2018, the European Court of Auditors published a shocking report on the lack of financial transparency of NGOs. Although NGOs receive tens of billions of EU funds, they remain exempt from EU money laundering rules as so-called non-mandatory entitie…

16

Jan

2023

DE Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President! Commissioner Ylva Johansson promises to deport more rejected asylum seekers. Currently, it is only 23 percent. In fact, it is less than half and in Germany a few thousand or at most 1 or 2 percent annually. At the same time, the Commission and the sham democratic Conference on the Future of Europe want to abolish the notion of illegal migration. According to studies by Jan van de Bee…

16

Jan

2023

DE Speech

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Rules to prevent the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes (debate)

Mr President! The Commission estimates that €35-70 billion per year is lost in the EU due to corporate tax avoidance, in part due to abuse of shell companies. Letterbox companies are often used by multinational corporations and individuals to shift profits and assets to low-tax zones, thereby bypassing or evading taxes. The EU-wide introduction of minimum substance requirements creates a filter of…

15

Dec

2022

DE Speech

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Major interpellations (debate)

Madam President, More than two months after the sabotage attack against the Nord Stream pipelines, the authors are still being veiled. German media say it's Russia. But why would Russia damage the assets of its most important energy company and deprive itself of the profits from the remaining European energy business? Was it Poland that was always against Nord Stream, or the Ukrainians because the…

15

Dec

2022

DE Speech

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The humanitarian situation in Ukraine due to Russia’s attacks against critical infrastructure and civilian areas (debate)

Mr President! The Russian army has destroyed critical civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, i.e. power plants, energy and transport infrastructure. The result: Substantial damage to over 40% of energy installations in Ukraine and power outages, partly planned to facilitate repairs and avoid overloading of the remaining electricity grid. Well, targeted attacks on energy supply and critical infrastruc…

14

Dec

2022

DE Speech

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Tackle the cost of living crisis: increase pay, tax profits, stop speculation (topical debate)

Madam President, Commissioner! The EU is in stagflation: zero growth with around 10% inflation across the EU and over 20% inflation in some regions. That is why wages should be increased, profits taxed more heavily and speculation – you say – put an end to. However: You can't stop speculation! We certainly need higher wages, but they are also known to spur inflation, and profits should at most be …

14

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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EU response to the US Inflation Reduction Act (debate)

Madam President, the US Inflation Reduction Act is a misnomer. The Federal Reserve is taking care of inflation and, unlike the ECB, appears to be succeeding. The act itself is promoting new energies, including nuclear energy. But, above all, it is a protectionist measure to promote US industry and to attract foreign and especially EU investment because soaring inflation and energy costs weaken EU-…

12

Dec

2022

DE Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, Last week, the German Constitutional Court declared the NextGenerationEU package and the incurrence of fabulous more than €800 billion of debt in line with the EU Treaty, despite the fact that three Treaty articles prohibit the EU from taking on joint debt: Articles 310, 311 and 125. After all, the judges complained that almost 300 billion euros had been misused by the Commission …

24

Nov

2022

DE Speech

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The European Year of Youth 2022 Legacy (debate)

Madam President, Earlier this year, Ursula von der Leyen asked: What does the EU really mean for our youth? She would have asked better: What has the EU done for our youth? Because there are clear answers to that. In Germany, more than a quarter of all children are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, more than the EU average. In Germany, almost 6% of 25-29-year-olds suffer severe deprivation t…

22

Nov

2022

EN Speech

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Question Time (Commission) - Future legislative reform of the Economic Governance Framework in times of social and economic crisis

So, if I understand you correctly, you’re saying that more debt hasn’t exactly given rise to higher growth levels, but it’s kind of helped us to avoid the very worst. So could I infer from this that there’s something fundamentally wrong with the European Union now, that we can’t grow any longer and we’ve got to incur more debt just in order to defer, shall I say, the worst of all possible worlds?…

22

Nov

2022

DE Speech

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Question Time (Commission) - Future legislative reform of the Economic Governance Framework in times of social and economic crisis

Dear Commissioners, With Britain, the eurozone has the highest inflation rate and the worst growth data and forecasts in the developed world. According to the Commission and the ECB, this is not due to EU economic and monetary policy, but to unfortunate circumstances: Covid, the war in Ukraine, the climate, etc. etc. Therefore, the debt reduction guidelines for Member States should now be made mor…