What Marc spoke about.

14

Jun

2023

FR Speech

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Lessons learnt from the Pandora Papers and other revelations (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, hiding your money on a paradise island, let us be clear: It’s theft, it’s theft from the community, what these billionaires and millionaires do. They avoid that this money is used to finally invest in nurseries. They are responsible if there are not enough crèches; it is they who are responsible, if in the morning you wait for the bus, but you do not see it arrive, w…

12

Jun

2023

FR Speech

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Marking the World Day against Child Labour (debate)

Commissioner, Mr President, I hear the Greens talking about Madagascar, the Liberals talking about Congo, but it is obviously easy to talk about other countries. We should start with Europe first. You know that in Italy today 340 000 children between the ages of 7 and 15 already have experience in the labour market? In Belgium, children were found working in the sheds of PostNL and its subcontract…

9

May

2023

NL Question

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Discharge 2021 (continuation of debate)

Colleague De Man of the ID/Flemish Interest faction, you will cycle past the issue. So for years you have been saying that Europe is too expensive, spending too much money and that you are going to ensure that savings are made. And then a list of people who have benefited from grazing pensions at taxpayers' expense leaks out, and your former president is on that list. How do you explain that? Is t…

9

May

2023

NL Speech

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Discharge 2021 (continuation of debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, a pension of EUR 13 700 per month, EUR 13 700 per month in the pocket. After only 20 years of career. That is what a special pension fund here guarantees to around 900 European parliamentarians. About ten times more than what an ordinary European worker gets after about forty years of career, pure grazing pensions and, of course, paid by the taxpayer. And with t…

9

May

2023

FR Speech

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Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, you are therefore coming back with austerity, with the Stability Pact. It is austerity 2.0, more power for the European Commission, easier sanctions and permanent bargaining between neoliberal reforms and budget cuts. I am also surprised that there are Socialist colleagues who applaud you, because you come back with your ridiculous criteria of 3% and 60% – that the budg…

8

May

2023

FR Speech

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Impact on the 2024 EU budget of increasing European Union Recovery Instrument borrowing costs - Own resources: a new start for EU finances, a new start for Europe (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, carbon tax for households, heating, petrol, taxing people, that seems to be the new speciality of the European Union. But there is one category that, strangely, always escapes your taxes, and these are the big multinationals, billionaires like Bernard Arnault and LVMH – what does it weigh now, €239 billion? They have a wealth greater than the GDP of a whole series of Eu…

19

Apr

2023

FR Speech

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This is Europe - Debate with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel (debate)

Madam President, Prime Minister, good morning, welcome. We belong to different political camps. We defend the camp of the working class. You are more on the side of bankers’ tax evasion, but I think you have given an important lesson to the European Commission and some of my colleagues, and I thank you for that. Because you know that the European Commission talked about banning TikTok, which they …

18

Apr

2023

FR Speech

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Guidelines for the 2024 budget - Section III (debate)

Mr President, almost 20 million children are growing up in poverty in the European Union. That's more or less one in four who risk an empty toast box every day. This is what the European budget should be for. But many of us come here to tell: “Ah, sorry, there is no money.” Yet there is money. Since 2020, 1% of the rich have pocketed around 45% of all wealth produced in Europe - 45%! In Belgium, m…

15

Mar

2023

FR Speech

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More Europe, more jobs: we are building the competitive economy of tomorrow for the benefit of all (topical debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, Madam President-in-Office of the Council: "I worked at Delhaize for 41 years and today we are sold as sold products", is the testimony of a worker from Delhaize, supermarket in my country in Belgium. Delhaize, which makes 2 billion profits, wants to put all its stores in franchise. Why: make workers work longer for up to minus 30% pay. 30% less salary! The objective: sa…

14

Mar

2023

FR Speech

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Deterioration of democracy in Israel and consequences on the occupied territories (debate)

Mr President, Mr Minister for Foreign Affairs of Europe, yes, indeed, the European Union is being criticised all over the world for its double standards. On the one hand, because we never criticise, for example, American war crimes, but actually also Israel and the European Union's association with Israel. So I find it difficult to understand and I find it difficult to understand because indeed we…

14

Mar

2023

FR Speech

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Question Time (VPC/HR) - Strengthening the Trans-Atlantic ties in an ever challenging multilateral world

Mr President, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the European Union, here is a question. You know that the credibility of the European Union in the world depends not only on how we treat other countries, but above all on what interactions we have with our allies. You have been a great defender, precisely, of not allowing Russian war crimes in Ukraine to go unpunished. But today we are 20 years after …

15

Feb

2023

FR Speech

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A Green Deal Industrial Plan for the Net-Zero Age (debate)

Madam President, I think that when we talk about industry, we have to go and see the workers. And the workers, when you go to talk to them, Commissioner, you will see that they will tell you that belly dancing, in front of multinationals, does not work. The belly dance means: try to seduce them with state aid, tax advantages, anything you want. Because everywhere in Europe – you can go to Belgium,…

14

Feb

2023

FR Speech

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Tensions between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Kitchanga, Bambo, Rutshuru, Kishishe, Nyiragongo: How many territories in the Democratic Republic of Congo still need to be hit, occupied or suffocated – such as Goma, currently – before the EU reacts? When Russia invaded Ukraine, the European Union and the United States mobilised. Ukraine is receiving weapons, tanks, probably soon fighter jets, and Russia is be…

18

Jan

2023

NL Speech

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An EU strategy to boost industrial competitiveness, trade and quality jobs (debate)

Mr President, we are risking a new de-industrialisation in Europe. That risk is aggravated today by the policy of the United States, which, through all kinds of subsidies, tries to delocalise European industry and also adds phone calls to say: “Please come and invest with us and not in Europe anymore.” So we are in crisis and the United States is trying to push us even further. Les États-Unis n’on…

14

Dec

2022

FR Speech

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

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, The Economist – your magazine, the liberal and capitalist magazine of the European Union and Europe, which you are all reading – calculated that, this winter, up to 185 000 more people could die of cold, not only because of the cold, but also because of your inaction. Your inaction on blocking energy prices: You've been asked to freeze the price of gas for a …

13

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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Prospects for the two-State solution for Israel and Palestine (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, this weekend, a 16—year—old girl was sitting at home in Jenin, Palestine. When she heard people scream outside, she went to the roof to see what was going on. And on the rooftop of her own house an Israeli soldier shot and killed her; two bullets to the face, one to the neck, one to the shoulder. Jana Zakarneh, an innocent child, another one killed. This year, Israel…

13

Dec

2022

FR Speech

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Suspicions of corruption from Qatar and the broader need for transparency and accountability in the European institutions (debate) (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, a million and a half euros recovered and many offices searched, under seal, in this Parliament – probably the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, the problem is structural. I remember that every time we proposed to reduce Members’ incomes, you would tell us: “No, Members, you have to pay them, because otherwise they will get corrupted.” You have been singing it to me for years,…

13

Dec

2022

FR Speech

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This is Europe - Debate with the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Robert Golob (debate)

Madam President, Prime Minister, welcome to a CEO, to a business owner who becomes Prime Minister directly. This is obviously something! As a result, I will discuss with you one element that was absent from your intervention, namely the issue of social dumping. Mijnheer de eerste minister, kent u het concept van social dumping? Dat gaat over werknemers, vakmensen, die – vaak via Ellenlange onderaa…

23

Nov

2022

FR Speech

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Forced displacement of people as a result of escalating conflict in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Mr President, it has been proven for years now, even by the United Nations, that the Rwandan government supports the M23 rebels in Rwanda. Rebels sow terror and death in the Democratic Republic of Congo, particularly in the east, where this conflict has already claimed millions of lives. So we know the entire responsibility of the Rwandan government. So what is the European Union doing? What are E…

19

Oct

2022

NL Speech

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Preparation of the European Council meeting of 20-21 October 2022 (debate)

Mr President, in Antwerp a mother and daughter died from CO poisoning because they heated their house with a barbecue. Also in Brussels, capital of the European Union, a mother and two children with CO poisoning were taken to the hospital because they used a barbecue for heating because of the high prices indoors. What do I hear from the European institutions, from representatives of the Council, …

17

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, just quickly, dear colleagues, what’s the difference between a garden and a jungle? A garden is a nice place where civilised human beings walk around. A jungle is the heart of darkness where wild animals live. Now, many people in Africa, Asia, Latin America remember very well how in the name of civilisation, European colonialism treated them like wild animals, enslaving them, tort…

4

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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The situation in Burkina Faso following the coup d'état (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, 2021: two coups in Mali; 2022: Two coups in Burkina Faso. The military government is obviously never a solution, but these coups in the Sahel region do not fall from the sky either. And it is really, I think, too easy to say that it is all the fault of the Russians. It would then be necessary to explain why this Russian propaganda, very real, is so successful an…

3

Oct

2022

NL Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, last week I was in Antwerp and I met workers there who built a new factory at Borealis. They were recruited by an Italian company, IREM. They are proud people, skilled people with experience and people who help build our country and our continent. They came from Bangladesh, Turkey, Ukraine. Before they came here, they were seduced with all kinds of false promises and sometimes even w…

15

Sep

2022

FR Speech

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Implementation of the Updated New Industrial Strategy for Europe: aligning spending to policy (debate)

Madam President, what I notice, ladies and gentlemen, is that you have succeeded this morning in talking about industry, not to mention workers. Yet it is workers who create wealth and without workers there is simply no industry. But besides, it is your lucky day because across Europe, workers and trade unions offer alternatives to the current European industrial policy. Because what does this cur…

13

Sep

2022

FR Speech

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EU response to the increase in energy prices in Europe (debate)

Madam President, a year in which prices are skyrocketing! One year that people are afraid to see their bills arrive at home and one year that it blables to the European Union without it changing absolutely nothing to people’s bills. And even today, you are not ready to propose a gas price freeze, you are not ready to block people’s bills and you are proposing a cap on electricity prices that is so…