What Markus spoke about.

9

May

2023

DE Speech

Watch

Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Having a single currency inevitably means that all members of this monetary union must take responsibility for the stability of the single currency. This includes, first and foremost, a responsible fiscal policy. This is the idea behind the Stability and Growth Pact: One bears responsibility not only for one's own budget, but for the common currency. If we take …

19

Apr

2023

DE Speech

Watch

Digital euro (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen! The European Central Bank has been carrying out extensive preparatory work and feasibility studies on the digital euro for several years now. Although the Governing Council's decision on principle is still officially pending, we should already assume that the central bank wants to push this project further. The E…

19

Apr

2023

DE Speech

Watch

Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCa) - Information accompanying transfers of funds and certain crypto-assets (recast) (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, The markets for crypto assets are not for the faint of heart. In recent years, we have seen not only extreme volatility, but also market manipulation, scams and – let me be clear – catastrophic risk management. The bankruptcy of the crypto exchange FTX is just one of the many examples of this. Regardless of what you get from c…

15

Mar

2023

DE Speech

Watch

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

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner! First of all, a heartfelt thank you for your clear words and the description of what is currently taking place in the banks in America. The background is complex. They are due to individual factors, but we also have to deal with the question. It is also relevant to us in Europe. One of the main triggers for the bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank …

14

Mar

2023

DE Speech

Watch

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

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Europe is facing enormous challenges in the coming months. The European economy is on the verge of recession. Many Member States are heavily indebted. Inflation is reaching record levels, financing costs are rising, and at the same time enormous efforts are needed to transform our economy. Effective coordination of European economic policy is th…

13

Mar

2023

DE Speech

Watch

Order of business

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, Last weekend, two U.S. banks, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, were placed under the management of the U.S. deposit protection fund FDIC. This is the biggest bank failure since the financial crisis 15 years ago. Although there were very specific and individual backgrounds in both cases, the trigger is also relevant for European ba…

15

Feb

2023

DE Speech

Watch

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

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen! The European Commission believes that its new industrial strategy has found a response to the Inflation Reduction Act. If the European Commission's communication is indeed the answer, then I must say: Not very creative. In principle, the new strategy is based only on two ideas: On the one hand, the Commission is shifting th…

1

Feb

2023

DE Speech

Watch

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

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, The European Union has had a money laundering problem for years. There are estimates that the volume of suspicious transactions within Europe amounts to a three-digit billion. This is partly an imported problem. Indeed, it is clear: Our defense against money laundering and terrorist financing is only as strong as the weakest link in the …

14

Dec

2022

DE Speech

Watch

EU response to the US Inflation Reduction Act (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, The European economy is facing enormous challenges. In the short term, of course, it is the high energy costs and the interrupted supply chains, in the long term, the transformation to a carbon-free economic model. We would have had enough to do in Europe without the US anti-inflation law. That is why we cannot accept it if, by means of …

18

Oct

2022

DE Speech

Watch

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

Mr President, Mr Council representative, dear Mr Executive Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen! It is not the first time since the outbreak of the terrible war in Ukraine that we are dealing with the question: What are the consequences we draw from this? And we hear a lot about what we want to do. But so far little has been done. When we analyze soberly what to do, the first thing to do is to: Ho…

15

Sep

2022

DE Speech

Watch

State of the SME Union (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen! The European Union is home to 25 million small and medium-sized enterprises, representing 99% of all businesses, creating 100 million jobs, decentralised value chains and apprenticeships for the young generation. In short: Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of our European economy. Whether as a start-up, as…

13

Sep

2022

DE Speech

Watch

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

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The situation is described by many colleagues: We are facing horrendous prices that are putting a massive strain on private households and driving companies to ruin. What does the answer look like? I am telling you quite frankly, Commissioner, that we do not need to manage shortages, we need to rectify them. And I'm surprised: For more than 20 y…

6

Jul

2022

DE Speech

Watch

Taxing windfall profits of energy companies (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, First of all, it sounds very charming: Someone makes exuberant profits, and you should actually be able to tax them away. And then I wonder: Who actually defines what an exuberant profit is? Is there an exuberant winner of the year? If I take the last company in Germany that has made exuberant profits, then BioNTech, a company…

5

Jul

2022

DE Speech

Watch

Objection pursuant to Rule 111(3): Amending the Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act and the Taxonomy Disclosures Delegated Act (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, Today's discussion is about the correct classification of gas and nuclear energy. And I believe that we would do well, as our rapporteur has already said, to recall the very aim of the taxonomy. On the basis of scientific facts, we wanted to create a transparency standard that would make it easier for market participants to ma…

4

Jul

2022

DE Speech

Watch

Adoption by Croatia of the euro on 1 January 2023 (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. We are setting high standards for joining the eurozone for good reasons, because we have unfortunately seen in the past what difficulties the eurozone can face if a Member State gets into economic difficulties. Croatia has taken this high hurdle with flying colours. The government of Andrej Plenković has made considerable progress towards the eurozone in a very …

4

Jul

2022

DE Speech

Watch

Digital Services Act - Digital Markets Act (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. The agreement reached on the Digital Markets Act sets new standards for how our digital economy of the future should work. It is about clear rules of the game, legal certainty and fairness. It cannot be that a handful of companies determine what is offered, at what price and who has access to these platforms. This not only discriminates against many market parti…

7

Jun

2022

DE Speech

Watch

The rule of law and the potential approval of the Polish national Recovery Plan (RRF) (debate)

Madam President, Madam President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen! The dispute over the recovery and resilience plans of Hungary and Poland has been dragging on for more than a year now. And unlike Hungary, we have to acknowledge that Poland has taken some big steps towards us in recent weeks. This should also be recognised and exemplary for Hungary. Nevertheless, I must say clearly that th…

4

Apr

2022

DE Speech

Watch

Urgent need to adopt the minimum tax directive (debate)

Madam President, Mr Timmermans, ladies and gentlemen! I must honestly admit: For the EPP Group, I was somewhat surprised when this item was requested by the left side of the House. Why? Because we in Parliament are not yet ready to say: It's just the Council. The Council may also take a decision only after the European Parliament has delivered its opinion. If I look at the draft report, sorry if I…

9

Mar

2022

DE Speech

Watch

European Semester for economic policy coordination: annual sustainable growth survey 2022 – European Semester for economic policy coordination: employment and social aspects in the annual sustainable growth strategy survey 2022 (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, First of all, I am pleased that we in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs have succeeded in agreeing on a common text – although unfortunately it was not allowed to be presented here, which I find somewhat surprising. This has not always been possible in the past. That being said, I would like to talk about a cen…

15

Dec

2021

DE Speech

Watch

State of play of the RRF (Recovery and Resilience Facility) (debate)

Madam President, Mr Vice-President, Mr Commissioner, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen! The idea of the Recovery and Resilience Facility was to give Member States a way out of the COVID-19 crisis. This should both pave the way for long-term growth for the next generation and create real European added value. The President of the Commission has assured us that the European…

14

Dec

2021

DE Speech

Watch

Digital Markets Act (debate)

Madam President, Madam Vice-President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Today, online platforms determine who is seen and who is not. You determine the prices. They decide who gets access to what information and dictate the rules of digital ecosystems. The Digital Markets Act has the potential to ensure fair competition online if it is not limited to the giants. Those who only care about GAFAM …

20

Oct

2021

DE Speech

Watch

Global Tax Agreements to be endorsed at the G20 Summit in Rome, 30th/31st of October (debate)

Mr Vice-President, Commissioner, Minister for Foreign Affairs! In recent weeks, there has been both good and bad news in the fight against unfair tax practices. The bad news was that we Pandora papers once again recalled that there is still much to be done in the fight against aggressive tax planning and tax evasion. The good news was that 136 states agreed on a new common framework for corporate …

20

Oct

2021

DE Speech

Watch

Increased efforts to fight money laundering (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, The European Union has had a money laundering problem for years. There are estimates that the volume of suspicious transactions within Europe amounts to a three-digit billion. At the urging of the European Parliament this summer, the European Commission has finally taken up our long-standing demands and put forward proposals f…

19

Oct

2021

DE Speech

Watch

Climate, Energy and Environmental State aid guidelines (“CEEAG”) (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, Mr Foreign Minister, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen! The ambitious environmental and climate goals we have set ourselves as the European Union require significant transformations of our economic model. This transformation will pose considerable challenges to many European companies, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises and t…

18

Oct

2021

DE Speech

Watch

Employment and social policies of the euro area 2021 (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, In fact, today's debate should have been a joint debate that would have addressed both the labour and social aspects of the European Semester and the economic aspects. Unfortunately, the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Left have prevented the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs from issuing an opinion on this im…