What Gunnar spoke about.

21 Nov

2022

DE Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Madam President, Laws against money laundering, against offshore tax evasion and for crypto-asset regulation are the few still sensible EU projects. But how seriously do you take your own plans? Ukrainian President Zelensky, as we know from the Pandora Papers, has received 40 million euros from oligarchs and secured tax-free on offshore accounts in the British Virgin Islands and Belize. In additio…

10 Nov

2022

DE Speech

Digital finance: Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) (A9-0341/2021 - Billy Kelleher) (vote)

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Madam President, DORA is a commendable initiative to make our digital market more resistant to terror and hybrid attacks. But it is important not only to protect our critical infrastructure from such threats. To close this gap, I would like to ask you to vote on the ID Group amendments to the Digital Corporate Resilience Act. The European digital market should also be protected for ICT service pro…

9 Nov

2022

DE Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Mr President! Italy and Greece bear pro rata the highest debt burden of the OECD. The other highly indebted OECD countries are also mostly euro-area countries. Thanks to the coronavirus outbreak, the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and the loose monetary policy of the ECB, debt in the euro area will continue to rise. The ECB is trying to reduce debt through inflation. The result: Mass impoverish…

9 Nov

2022

DE Speech

REPowerEU chapters in recovery and resilience plans (debate)

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Mr President! Since Angela Merkel, Germany has pursued a truly fantastic energy policy: away from domestic coal and nuclear energy, towards solar and wind energy. The result: dependence on Russian natural gas. Now the EU Commission is setting up a grant fund, the so-called REPowerEU, of EUR 20 billion initially, in order to reduce dependence on Russian gas. The foreseeable costs in the long run: M…

19 Oct

2022

DE Speech

Outcome of the first meeting of the European Political Community (debate)

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Madam President, At the beginning of October, the heads of government of all European and Caucasian countries, as well as Turkey, but not Russia and Belarus, met in Prague for the first meeting of the European Political Community (EPG), a new body – new but unclear in its purpose and exactly what distinguishes it from the Council of Europe. The only issue: The war in Ukraine. Was the purpose to co…

19 Oct

2022

DE Speech

Whitewashing of the anti-European extreme right in the EU (topical debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner! In every plenary session, this Parliament deplores the existence of the so-called extreme right. Paradoxically, any party that respects the interests of Europeans or freedom of expression, laments mass immigration into the European social system or does not approve of impoverishment and civilisational regression in Europe through green phantasmata is considered anti-Eur…

18 Oct

2022

DE Speech

Keep the bills down: social and economic consequences of the war in Ukraine and the introduction of a windfall tax (debate)

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Mr President! Oil prices have doubled since the beginning of 2021, coal prices have tripled and gas prices more than fivefold. According to the International Monetary Fund, prices will continue to rise sharply until at least 2026. One main reason: doubling the price of CO2 certificates and, more generally, the EU's climate rescue policy. It benefits from price increases for energy companies and th…

17 Oct

2022

DE Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Mr President! The German government has provided the Germans with record energy prices and now wants to compensate them with 200 billion euros. It's absurd, but not unjust. Immediately, however, Italy's Prime Minister and Goldman Sachs banker Mario Draghi complains that Germany violates competition law and the internal market. That's nonsense. Draghi only likes to leave the Germans – and I would l…

6 Oct

2022

DE Speech

The urgent need for an EU strategy on fertilisers to ensure food security in Europe (debate)

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Mr President! You don't play with food, children say. However, the EU Fertilizer Regulation makes sufficient harvests a gamble. Because without fertilizer, our agriculture cannot produce food in sufficient quantity or in the desired quality. Green politics is the attack on our livelihoods. Greens oppose the production and consumption of energy, the basis of our civilization. Greens are turning aga…

5 Oct

2022

DE Speech

The accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area (debate)

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I don't know what's going on here, because the question wasn't entirely clear to me. There was talk of insult. As far as I remember and look at my notes here, I basically said two things: First, that the accession of Romania and Bulgaria could favour mass immigration. That seems out of the question to me. Secondly, I have said that Romania and Bulgaria continue to be susceptible to corruption. I a…

5 Oct

2022

DE Speech

The accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area (debate)

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Madam President, When Bulgaria and Romania applied for membership of the Schengen area in 2011, the EU Council of Ministers refused. Germany and France, among others, expressed concern about shortcomings in the fight against corruption and the rule of law. Suddenly, Macron and Scholz support the accession of both countries and Croatia, even though, according to the Corruption Index of Transparency…

5 Oct

2022

DE Speech

Countering the anti-European and anti-Ukrainian propaganda of Putin’s European cronies (topical debate)

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Mr President! This parliament wants to fight the supposedly Russian, so-called anti-European and anti-Ukrainian propaganda. This raises, inter alia, the following question: When is criticism of the EU and the Ukrainian government anti-European and anti-Ukrainian propaganda? Here are three facts and three questions for you. Firstly: Radek Sikorski, former Polish Foreign and Defence Minister and cur…

3 Oct

2022

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Madam President, in Princeton, Ursula von der Leyen blatantly interfered in the Italian elections. She said, ‘if things go in a difficult direction – and I’ve spoken about Hungary and Poland – we have tools’. Put bluntly, she threatened Italy with Article 7 legal proceedings and the withholding of EU funds. It’s not normally my style to use coarse metaphors, but there’s a time for figures and anot…

15 Sep

2022

DE Speech

Ecological Disaster in the Oder River (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner! In the summer, major damage to the ecosystem occurred in the Oder region on the German-Polish border. Tons of dead fish and shellfish as well as countless birds and beavers. Probable causes include man-made water pollution and heat, which led to low water levels, increased water temperatures and excessive salinity. Polish officials already attribute negligence or eve…

14 Sep

2022

EN Speech

Human rights violations in the context of forced deportation of Ukrainian civilians to and forced adoption of Ukrainian children in Russia

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Madam President, I would like to raise a point of order based on Rule 144, which provides that matters concerning breaches of human rights, democracy and the rule of law be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of Annex IV. Now, Annex IV, paragraph 2, states that ‘motions for resolutions shall not exceed 500 words’. The wording in the annex is clear and prescriptive: shall means shall. Yet …

14 Sep

2022

DE Speech

Illegal detention of the opposition leader in Bulgaria (topical debate)

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Mr President! In March of this year, Bulgarian ex-Prime Minister Boyko Borisov was arrested on suspicion of corruption. 24 hours later, he was a free man again. The prosecutor's office and the courts confirmed that the evidence was insufficient. So far, so good. Then Manfred Weber and his EPP would indeed be right for the first and perhaps last time. It is also true that according to the Corruptio…

14 Sep

2022

EN Speech

State of the Union (debate)

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Madam President, Commission President, we expected a speech on the State of the Union and got one on Ukraine, the blessings of public debt, the green religion and the fantasy economy. Tatsächlich herrscht in der EU Stagflation mit über 9 % Inflation und dem niedrigsten Wachstum der entwickelten Welt. Für Deutschland erwartet das IFO—Institut nun Rezession und eine Inflationsrate von zeitweise über…

12 Sep

2022

DE Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Mr President! Last year, the ECB expected inflation to be below 2% in 2022. Now we have over 9% in the euro area and over 20% in the Baltics. Switzerland has 3.5%. ECB President Christine Lagarde publicly rejected such comparisons as disreputable. But it is not the comparison that is objectionable, but the ECB's monetary policy. Switzerland has shown: Inflation of almost 10% was avoidable. However…

5 Jul

2022

EN Speech

This is Europe - Debate with the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis (debate)

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Madam President, I wish to welcome Prime Minister Mitsotakis to the European Parliament. I would like to congratulate you, Mr Mitsotakis, more than once. First, on paying off your debt to the IMF two years ahead of schedule. However, the euro is quite another matter. It has not served Greece well. Greek inflation stands at 12%. Rents in Athens are up about 17% and petrol prices are approaching EUR…

4 Jul

2022

DE Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Madam President, The ECB expects inflation to reach 6.8% this year, 3.5% next year and 2% in 2024. That is 12.8% over three years or 4.3% per year on average – well above the ECB’s 2% target and a whopping 4.3% above the EU Treaty price stability requirement. The ECB thus devalues savings by just over 4% per annum and net income by around 3%. At the same time, property prices in the euro area are …

23 Jun

2022

DE Speech

National vetoes to undermine the global tax deal (debate)

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Mr President! Poland has paid very well for its veto against the introduction of a global minimum corporate tax rate of 5%. For this reason, the EU Commission has now released Poland's multi-billion-dollar national recovery plan. As a result, Hungary, the last country still waiting for its money from Brussels, is blocking the tax deal until the hypocritical EU objections are abandoned and Hungary'…

22 Jun

2022

DE Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Madam President, Inflation in the eurozone is 9%, in Switzerland it is below 3%. Nevertheless, the Swiss National Bank raised the key interest rate by half a percent, the ECB is only a quarter of a percent in prospect. So why does the ECB do half or even quarter things? There are three reasons for rampant inflation in the eurozone: firstly, the Green Deal, secondly, the energy price explosion caus…

22 Jun

2022

EN Speech

This is Europe - Debate with the Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenković (debate)

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Madam President, I am not going to speak for two, or two and a half, additional minutes, but maybe a few seconds more. I’m counting on your indulgence. Frau Präsidentin! Premierminister Plenković, meinen Glückwunsch zum Euro-Beitritt! Aber die Eurozone hat seit Jahren kaum Null- oder Negativwachstum. In der Hochtechnologie und den Wachstumsindustrien sind wir hoffnungslos abgeschlagen hinter China…

9 Jun

2022

EN Speech

The call for a Convention for the revision of the Treaties (debate)

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Mr President, at the launch of the Conference on the Future of Europe, I offered Guy Verhofstadt a wager for any sum that the Conference conclusions were prearranged and would call for more EU integration, less unanimity, more migration, more fanciful green humbug and more EU debt. In short, they would call for a federal EU state. Mr Verhofstadt declined the offer, for he well knew that all I pred…

6 Jun

2022

DE Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Madam President, According to a study by the Zurich University of Technology, reforestation of the earth's surface is the most effective measure for climate rescue. A third more forest area worldwide would absorb two-thirds of the industrially produced carbon. Germany ranks 21st in the EU with 32% of forest land. With 10 percentage points of afforestation, Germany and the EU could make their contr…