What Lukas spoke about.

26

Nov

2024

DE Speech

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Reinforcing EU’s unwavering support to Ukraine against Russia’s war of aggression and the increasing military cooperation between North Korea and Russia (debate)

14

Nov

2024

EN Speech

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Enhancing Europe’s civilian and defence preparedness and readiness (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, I want, in particular, to thank Mr Niinistö for the report. After the Draghi report and the Letta report on our competitiveness, we now have an excellent report on our preparedness militarily and in civilian matters against future crises. This is timely, this is important, this is crucial, and it's even essential for nothing less than our civilisation, which has b…

13

Nov

2024

DE Speech

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Deplorable escalation of violence around the football match in the Netherlands and the unacceptable attacks against Israeli football fans (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen! I want to draw your attention to what is happening now, and it has happened again and again in history, and we have a responsibility to put a stop to it. When Jewish people are persecuted, beaten and killed, there will always be someone who says: It's your own fault. And if they are not themselves to blame, then someone will f…

23

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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EU actions against the Russian shadow fleets and ensuring a full enforcement of sanctions against Russia (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The subject of the Russian shadow fleets shows that Putin-Russia simply does not adhere to any rules at all. I want to say that today, 28 days before it will unfortunately be 1 000 days – 1 000 days on which Putin-Russia is waging this bestial war. Many people are tired of hearing about it. I do not know how many hours of debate we have already …

22

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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State sponsored terrorism by the Islamic Republic of Iran in light of the recent attacks in Europe (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I will never tire of stressing that Islam and Islamism are different things. Islam as a religion is threatened by nothing more than Islamism, political Islam and its inclination to hatred, violence and terror. Who is funding this on this planet? The Iranian mullahs regime. Today, a group of students from the Higher Technical College Krems in Austria visited t…

22

Oct

2024

EN Speech

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Urgent need for a ceasefire in Lebanon and for safeguarding the UNIFIL mission in light of the recent attacks (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, time and again, for more than a year already, in each plenary week of the European Parliament, we have to focus on the Middle East, and that's a tragedy, but it's also necessary that we keep attention up for the ongoing attacks, terrorism, war. And suffering are in the first place citizens, in the case we are discussing today, citizens of Lebanon. Lebanon…

10

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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The rise of religious intolerance in Europe (continuation of debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! We are discussing the rise of religious intolerance in Europe, and it must be stressed that freedom is always the freedom of others, as Rosa Luxemburg put it. This is particularly true of a characteristic of today's Europe that must be defended, namely tolerance towards others. What we also have to keep in mind in Europe is that for the vast majority of peopl…

9

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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Protecting the EU budget and ensuring that EU funds do not benefit entities or individuals linked to terrorist or Islamist movement (debate)

Madam President, Dear Commissioner Johannes Hahn, who faces up to this debate late at night, but is not solely responsible for what happened in the old Commission – which is not to be expected from the new Commission; We are sending him a leap of faith – namely that development aid money is being misused. The European Union is the largest aid worker in the world. This means that we help where peop…

9

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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Strengthening the security of Europe’s external borders: need for a comprehensive approach and enhanced Frontex support (debate)

Mr President, Mr Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen! For three and a half years, during the previous period, we negotiated the Asylum and Migration Pact in the European Parliament's Committee on Internal Affairs. The most important part was then adopted by 16 votes here in the plenary of the European Parliament, at that time with a total of 705 Members. If these 16 votes had been voted different…

8

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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Situation in Sudan (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The fact that the European Parliament is discussing the crisis in Sudan in order to contribute to solutions shows the geopolitical nature of this Parliament and indeed the geopolitical aspirations of the European Union. When we talk about a Europe with more strength externally and more freedom internally, it ultimately means that we are a reliable …

8

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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Outcome of the Summit of the Future: transforming global governance for building peace, promoting human rights and achieving the sustainable development goals (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Hand on heart – many call political Brussels a Bubble, a bubble, and active parliamentarians from this House from all directions and Member States are trying every day to pierce this bubble and to advance this Europe together with the citizens. This is also the task of a parliament. Perhaps even more than that, of course, the United Nations – es…

8

Oct

2024

EN Speech

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Escalation of violence in the Middle East and the situation in Lebanon (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, yesterday, the plenary of this European Parliament in its entirety was standing and applauding the relatives of hostages. Even more, I'm surprised today that so many speakers here criticise the State of Israel, the only rule-of-law-based democratic state in the Middle East, a partner state of the European Union. Don't they see the connection between the c…

7

Oct

2024

EN Speech

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One year after the 7 October terrorist attacks by Hamas (debate)

Madam President, High Representative Borrell, dear colleagues, this very day, 7 October, is a day to drop clear policy points and political remarks, but it is even more a day of issues far beyond politics. First, it's about dignity, and it's about our civilisation. We commemorate the largest massacre against Jewish people since the Shoah, the Holocaust. Secondly, it's about individuals who were ki…

18

Sep

2024

DE Speech

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Organised crime, a major threat to the internal security of the European Union and European citizens (topical debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! First of all, allow me to thank my Austrian compatriot Johannes Hahn for his long-standing achievements in terms of Europe, the European Union, European integration, the cooperation of the Member States of the European Union and beyond in terms of strengthening Europe externally, as this may be the last debate here in the plenary of the European…

18

Sep

2024

DE Speech

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The devastating floods in Central and Eastern Europe, the loss of lives and the EU’s preparedness to act on such disasters exacerbated by climate change (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! I speak in my native language today because so many people in my home state of Lower Austria, throughout Austria and in many parts of Central Europe are massively affected by this flood disaster, partly facing the ruins of their existence. I just spoke on the phone with the fire brigade commander of my hometown of Seyring, Gerald Schmid. He says he…

17

Sep

2024

EN Speech

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War in the Gaza Strip and the situation in the Middle-East (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, it's good that we keep the attention up for the situation in the Middle East. And I just want to clarify time and again what's really ongoing. The Iranian Mullah regime has been attacking via its proxies Hamas, Hizbollah, Islamic Revolutionary Guards and others. Many parts of the world, especially the state of Israel, a democratic rule-of-law based state,…

16

Sep

2024

EN Speech

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Persistent problems of anti-Semitism in Europe and of other forms of hate speech and hate crimes (debate)

Mr President, you might remember we have named the building of the European Parliament in Brussels after Stefan Zweig, Jewish-Austrian novelist of the last century, and one of his famous novels would be The World of Yesterday. A recent contemporary Austrian novelist named Robert Menasse has just presented and released his new novel named The World of Tomorrow. And what Robert Menasse mentions in a…

17

Jul

2024

EN Speech

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The need for the EU's continuous support for Ukraine (debate)

Madam President, we must not be distracted from various powers in the world who try to distract us from what is really important: to defend our very civilisation against this Russian attack. That means to stand by Ukraine more than ever, even due to the developments in the United States; that means for Europe to become more self-responsible. This is what we need. And this is most important when we…

25

Apr

2024

DE Speech

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Pre-enlargement reforms and policy reviews (debate)

Madam President, dear representatives of the European Commission, dear colleagues! This very last speech of the current mandate and possibly the very last speech for me in this plenary of the European Parliament, I allow myself to speak in my native language, in Austrian. The topic today is the future European Union in its territory. After all, that's what it's all about, and hand on heart: Genera…

24

Apr

2024

EN Speech

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Iran’s unprecedented attack against Israel, the need for de-escalation and an EU response (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, High Representative, colleagues, now it’s revealed to the world that the Iranian regime is threatening Israel, the only Jewish State on earth, directly, not only via its proxies, like in the past, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthi in Yemen and other parts of the world. The Iranian regime is also threatening us via financing terrorism and Islamism on our continent, in our cities,…

23

Apr

2024

DE Speech

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

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! When we talk about the Western Balkans Facility today, we should recall that in all six countries of the Western Balkans, the European Union is the largest donor, the largest donor. This is especially true for the citizens of Serbia, who sometimes get a different picture from their own government. No, it's not China, it's certainly not Russia, it's…

23

Apr

2024

DE Speech

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The use of Russian frozen assets to support Ukraine’s victory and reconstruction (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, High Representative and Commissioner for Foreign Affairs! I am glad that you are there so much in this final plenary week and that you hear the position of the citizens, who are represented in Parliament with democratic legitimacy. We are talking about frozen Russian assets today, and it is important to stress that this continent, this European Union, in part…

23

Apr

2024

EN Speech

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EU’s response to the repeated killing of humanitarian aid workers, journalists and civilians by the Israel Defence Forces in the Gaza Strip (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, dear Commissioner, High Representative Josep Borrell, first of all, let me say, while I disagree nearly in each policy area with you and your policies, no matter whether it was Russia in the past, the Middle East, the Western Balkans, whatever, and since this is the final plenary setting of this mandate, I thank you for your contribution to this European project, …

10

Apr

2024

DE Speech

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Screening of third country nationals at the external borders - European Criminal Records Information System - Third Country Nationals - Common procedure for international protection in the Union - Establishing a return border procedure, and amending Regulation (EU) 2021/1148 - Asylum and migration management - Addressing situations of crisis and force majeure - Establishment of 'Eurodac' for the comparison of fingerprints for the effective application of Regulation (EU) No 604/2013, for identifying an illegally staying third-country national or stateless person and on requests for the comparison with Eurodac data by Member States' law enforcement authorities and Europol for law enforcement purposes (recast) - Union Resettlement Framework - Standards for the qualification of third-country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection - Standards for the reception of applicants for international protection (recast) (joint debate - Migration and Asylum package)

Madam President, Dear Members of the European Commission - there are several here, which marks a special day; Dear colleagues! It can be a special day for the European Union. Under the motto ‘And yet it moves’, citizens of the European Union can be said today: Yes, we manage to deal with asylum and irregular migration in the European Union – something that people have been waiting for years. In au…

13

Mar

2024

EN Speech

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The immediate risk of mass starvation in Gaza and the attacks on humanitarian aid deliveries

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, I can hardly stand the pictures of starvation and humanitarian crisis of suffering children, women, men in the Gaza Strip. And it’s important that this European Parliament addresses this crisis. And it’s also important to tell the truth about the reasons for this crisis, because there’s an old saying that claims: it’s always the truth, the first victim in…