What Damian spoke about.

12 Nov

2025

EN Speech

The new 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework: architecture and governance (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, I might not look it – or I might look it – but I spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours on the corona funds, the first performance-based instrument that we had. And so, when the title 'architecture and governance' came up, of course, this is when a budget nerd gets super excited and that's why I definitely wanted to talk to you. I think the one thing I learned – and …

12 Nov

2025

EN Question

The new 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework: architecture and governance (debate)

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I'm very, very happy to hear that you really want to put a focus on European interests in the European budget, and my question is, we have currently one third of the funds that goes to cohesion, one third that goes to agriculture and one third to what I call the useful rest. So where would you put the emphasis? How would the percentages go if you could decide?…

12 Nov

2025

EN Speech

The first European Annual Asylum and Migration report and the setting up of the Annual Solidarity Pool (debate)

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Madam President, colleagues, we could see it today again: the one sole issue that makes the far right big is migration, and I, therefore, applaud the idea of building a European migration system and to bring order to our situation. The problem is, and I said this already one and two years ago, that the European system needs to be built on relocation. We have a geographic situation where some count…

21 Oct

2025

EN Speech

General budget of the European Union for the financial year 2026 – all sections (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, colleagues, I'm very happy that the Chair of the Defence Committee actually reminded us of the fact that Trump is currently using public funds to extend the White House with a ballroom. I think it shows us that we have to maybe use this Defence Committee that we have to also defend ourselves against extravagance. I've been asked by the ECON Committee to ste…

21 Oct

2025

EN Question

Commission Work Programme 2026 (debate)

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I didn't expect such a formal 'yes'. Dear Mr Chahim, you talked about battery infrastructure and, I was just wondering, it seems that we are ten years behind in our technology when it comes to batteries and previous industrial policy cases, for example with Northvolt, didn't seem to work so well. So what is your idea of how to make Europe competitive when it comes to batteries? Thank you.…

21 Oct

2025

EN Speech

Commission Work Programme 2026 (debate)

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Mr President, colleagues, imagine a little boy, Omar, who was born to Palestinian parents in Jordan. When Omar turned 15, he emigrated to the US, where he arrived with a very basic level of English. Now, for some in this room, this triggers an almost instinctive negative reaction. In your minds, Omar doesn't just arrive as Omar, but is a dangerous threat to our primarily white, Christian culture. …

8 Oct

2025

DE Question

Promoting EU digital rules: protecting European sovereignty (debate)

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I have a very, very simple question: Can you explain why the same people who said today that Veggieburger is fake news – that they should be banned as fake news – why exactly the same people say that we cannot control content online?…

8 Oct

2025

EN Question

Promoting EU digital rules: protecting European sovereignty (debate)

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There seems to be unhappiness about the debate. I just wanted to ask you the same question that I asked Mr Benifei. What do you think about these new AI tools that are basically a mix of image-generating AI and social media, like Vibes – and there are others – where basically your whole feed is generated by AI? There's no more, let's say, actual video content. Do you see that there are increased r…

8 Oct

2025

EN Question

Promoting EU digital rules: protecting European sovereignty (debate)

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Mr Benifei, you are an expert in AI, and so I wanted to ask you, what do you think about the recent developments of social media that is fully powered by AI, by allowing customers to completely generate, if you want ,fake content? What do you think about it? And second, as a trans-Atlanticist – that you are also, I think, a big fan of, how can we react to the current situation that there's anti‑de…

8 Oct

2025

EN Answer

Promoting EU digital rules: protecting European sovereignty (debate)

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So the access to reach is always a position of power. And it's true, in the past we had the situation where journalistic boards had some power about what goes out there, and there was a separation, at least in Germany, between these boards and their ownership. At least we want to have that separation. In the digital world, the owner of a platform, like Elon Musk, also holds the power key to the bo…

8 Oct

2025

EN Speech

Promoting EU digital rules: protecting European sovereignty (debate)

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Mr President, colleagues, if I wanted to go viral today, it would be very easy. I would just fabricate a little fake scandal with the people here in the first row. I would throw in some Soros, some Trump, some Elon Musk children, and suddenly, maybe, I'd make it very aggressive or make it very vengeful, hateful. Suddenly, we would go viral. Then you would say, 'Yeah, but people don't believe it. Y…

8 Oct

2025

EN Question

Promoting EU digital rules: protecting European sovereignty (debate)

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Ms Maydell, it sounded very nice that you said we need to build strategic autonomy, but I didn't really understand what you meant. Do you think that if Trump forces us to potentially open some of our regulation that we should go ahead and do it because we are dependent when it comes to security? Or how would you go about it? Because it seems that we are currently in a situation where we are not re…

7 Oct

2025

DE Speech

Rising antisemitism in Europe (debate)

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Madam President, It is interesting when a colleague of the AfD stands here and says that under an AfD government everything would be better if she had colleagues in the party at the same time who say that the Holocaust was a fly-shot, or call herself the friendly face of National Socialism. These are all quotes from your party. So please, think about it again. Madam President, antisemitism is into…

7 Oct

2025

EN Speech

This is Europe - Debate with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Luc Frieden (debate)

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Madam President, Prime Minister, let me ask you quite plainly, will you support the United States of Europe? You said it yourself, this table here, this House only exists because before us people thought about a better future. They understood that they don't want to stay in the horrors of the Second World War and build something that brings Europe together. But now you were there last week in Cope…

10 Sep

2025

EN Speech

Taxation of large digital platforms in the light of international developments (debate)

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Dear Commissioner, you should not have caved to Trump's bullying. You should not have stripped the digital tax just because of the looming US-UK trade deal. Let's be clear: a fair tax on big tech should not be a negotiation chip in any trade negotiation. Nobody likes to pay taxes, but employees pay them and small business owners pay their fair share as well. Why? Because they understand that we ne…

8 Sep

2025

EN Answer

Investments and reforms for European competitiveness and the creation of a Capital Markets Union (debate)

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So, I think in Poland your party was governing for some time. It doesn't happen often, but for Germany, I do agree with you. We even had a liberal finance minister, a liberal party, which is supposedly helping the economy, who did not really advance on the savings and investment union and the capital markets union. So, I think it's really high time that the new German Government stands up for a be…

8 Sep

2025

EN Speech

Investments and reforms for European competitiveness and the creation of a Capital Markets Union (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, let me put this report in a bit of a broader perspective: Russia's war of aggression has driven up the energy prices for European producers, a bully in the White House has cut US demand for European products, and China is outpacing us in many sectors and becoming more of a serious competitor. Our economy is at risk and the funny side effect of this is that the more w…

18 Jun

2025

EN Speech

Digital Markets, Digital Euro, Digital Identities: economical stimuli or trends toward dystopia (topical debate)

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Mr President, dear colleagues, let me humour you on the far right with a little dystopia of my own. Let's imagine you wake up tomorrow morning and you try to go to the bakery and buy a croissant, and suddenly it doesn't work; Visa and Mastercard are down – and with them, two thirds of all payments in the EU. Then you are slightly annoyed and hungry, and you go to your office and boot up your compu…

17 Jun

2025

EN Speech

Implementation report on the Recovery and Resilience Facility (debate)

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Madam President, thank you for the flexibility, and thank you to the rapporteurs Mr Mureşan and Mr Negrescu for the continued good cooperation. I want to start with addressing a misunderstanding. When the Recovery and Resilience Fund was set up, we saw a situation where within the euro area, interest rates for treasuries were increasing. The financial markets were not sure if the euro area would, …

7 May

2025

EN Speech

EU support for a just, sustainable and comprehensive peace in Ukraine (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, for 1 169 days now, Ukraine has been subject to a full‑scale invasion: 1 169 days of sirens, of sleepless nights, of death, abduction and rape; 1 169 days of crimes committed by North Korean and Russian soldiers, and of strong Ukrainian fighters fighting for their independence, for democracy and for European Union membership. And still some Members of this House h…

6 May

2025

EN Speech

A revamped long-term budget for the Union in a changing world (debate)

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Mr President, colleagues, Commissioner, after Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs, we saw a really unusual market response. We saw that both US treasuries and the dollar fell in the face of the erratic behaviour of Donald Trump. So if there was ever a time for a Hamiltonian moment, it is definitely today, when we can issue common debt. The MFF is not only about the future budget, but it is also a onc…

31 Mar

2025

EN Speech

Savings and Investments Union (debate)

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Mr President, thank you, Commissioner, for the presentation of the report. I have to say, these are not normal times. In normal times, maybe it would have been fine to propose a patchwork of ideas on how we can become a bit more unified in our financial markets. But we have seen a situation where European competitiveness is at risk with the tariffs that come from the US. We have also seen a situat…

12 Feb

2025

EN Speech

Commission Work Programme 2025 (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, over the last 50 years, the US listed 200 companies with a market value of more than EUR 10 billion. And Europe – we listed 14. These companies are not just any companies. They're the companies that shape the way we live, how we communicate, how we shop, and how we entertain ourselves. And I see in this work programme that we again differentiate between competitivene…

11 Feb

2025

EN Question

Preparedness for a new trade era: multilateral cooperation or tariffs (debate)

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Thank you, Ms Hahn, for your intervention. I was just wanting to share a question that I have. If we see trade as a bit of a broader collaboration, if we look at, for example, how we use the digital infrastructure when it comes to cloud infrastructure, if we look at the raw materials that we need from the US, it seems that our whole economy is really built on collaboration with the US. I'm quite a…

23 Jan

2025

EN Speech

Cryptocurrencies - need for global standards (debate)

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Madam President, cryptocurrencies themselves are just a technology, but I always have to get a bit careful when I see how excited the far right gets about a certain technology. It reminds me of a saying that I've heard recently, which is that 'not all crypto traders are gangsters, but all gangsters are in crypto'. And now with Trump also launching his meme coin – which I think had a value of USD 4…