What Damian spoke about.

4

Oct

2023

EN Speech

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Need for a speedy adoption of the asylum and migration package (debate)

Mr President, we do need a deal and we do need a system very fast, because otherwise we will hear this kind of fear mongering from the right that we heard earlier, not even shying away from Nazi terminology. This is something we have to get over. There is no far right party that didn’t rise on the topic of migration and asylum. I think that’s very clear. But it does matter what kind of deal we get…

3

Oct

2023

EN Speech

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Interim report on the proposal for a mid-term revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, colleagues, we have said that there are many challenges that the European Union is facing – amongst them, a crazy dictator putting tanks into Ukraine and neighbouring countries that hopefully soon will be a candidate, and obviously the global competitiveness challenge due to the overdependence of supply and demand on China and the need to create, massively,…

14

Sep

2023

EN Speech

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Parliamentarism, European citizenship and democracy (debate)

Mr President, colleagues, I want to thank the rapporteurs for a strong draft and I want to agree with Mr Karas, the thing that the populists fear the most is a functioning parliamentary democracy. And what is a parliamentary democracy? It’s not so complicated. If we were just 100 people in a room, we could potentially still decide together. But since we are many more millions of people, we delegat…

13

Sep

2023

EN Speech

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SME Relief Package (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, Volt – the political movement that I represent – is technically a start-up, maybe by now a scale-up. And we are very much aware what it means to deal with compliance requirements, trying to find affordable lawyers and fight artificial market barriers. Colleagues, we all talk and we love to talk about the backbone that SMEs are for our economy. But we really need to l…

12

Sep

2023

EN Speech

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Composition of the European Parliament (debate)

Mr President, so we rubber-stamp this proposal by the Council with the 15 extra seats, the deletion of the transnational lists and the invalid budget effect. Okay, we can do that. But I think we have to see that we have learned two things: first, that the Council can be extremely fast if it wants something; and second, that we in Parliament can be extremely weak even if we have negotiating power. …

11

Sep

2023

EN Speech

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Amendments to Parliament’s Rules of Procedure with a view to strengthening integrity, independence and accountability (debate)

Madam President, colleagues, it’s really high time that we come forward with this report. It has been months since Qatargate happened and we haven’t done much. So I’m very happy that now with the majority of the groups, we actually come – thank you, Gabi – forward with this report. I just want to say it very clearly – transparency does not conflict with the freedom of the mandate. We have nothing …

11

Sep

2023

EN Question

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Amendments to Parliament’s Rules of Procedure with a view to strengthening integrity, independence and accountability (debate)

–Mr Benifei, I just have a very short question, which is in regards to the freedom of the mandate. People who criticise the new rules often say it would somehow infringe on the freedom of the mandate. Can you understand that argument?…

13

Jul

2023

EN Speech

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Global Convergence on Generative AI (debate)

Mr President, it is true that, when we started using ChatGPT, I think we all realised it is a bit like this book On Bullshit, by Harry Frankfurt, the great philosopher, who showed us that, you know, the bullshitter doesn’t really know what the difference between truth and lie is, and he’s much more dangerous actually, than the liar because of that. But to be honest, the more I used it, the more I …

12

Jul

2023

EN Speech

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Recommendations for reform of the European Parliament’s rules on transparency, integrity, accountability and anti-corruption (debate)

Madam President, I just want to remind us of what happened exactly six months ago. Six months ago, in a small household in Portugal or in Bulgaria, every child on their phone, on Instagram and so on heard about the European Parliament. That’s really cool. We bridged the communication gap really to everyone! Sadly, what they heard is that we have bags of cash in our pockets, and we have not been ab…

12

Jul

2023

EN Speech

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Tax the rich (topical debate)

Madam President, I have to say, when I listen to this debate, I’m always amazed by how much tax as a debate is ideologised – how populist it can become – because if I listen to the right, it’s often about safeguarding the wealth that is there, not destroying the wealth. And on the left side, I often feel that, you know, the rich are the evil people. I have to say that, from my perspective, tax is …

12

Jul

2023

EN Speech

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The need for EU action on search and rescue in the Mediterranean (debate)

Madam President, colleagues, I just want to go back to what actually happened, which is that almost 600 people died. I think we hear a lot of talk about asylum, about smuggling and so on, but we should really picture what that means. I mean, here there are around 700 people if the room is full, and what that would mean if almost 600 of them would die. I think it’s important to picture, for a coupl…

10

May

2023

EN Speech

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Externalising asylum applications and making funding to third countries conditional on the implementation of return agreements (topical debate)

Madam President, this is now the second plenary in a row where we hear this far-right kind of fearmongering about migration. And it’s clear because, in the end, this is the only topic that actually drives your voter base. You take a highly complex issue and you trying to propose inhumane, complex and unpractical solutions. I have seen it with the AfD: it was a dying party but then they took the is…

8

May

2023

DE Question

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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 Körner, these are exciting statements that you have made. What I'm wondering is: If you really look at the recovery fund now and we have seen that there was actually no bank run, that none of the European countries actually ran into any debt trap and we managed to get out with a higher economic level if possible, wasn't it really worth making this recovery fund and taking on the debt here?…

8

May

2023

EN 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, colleagues, I have to say I’m extremely happy that 78 years after the end of the Second World War, I came across the French border and I’m discussing now a common European debt instrument. That is a huge, let’s say, satisfaction for me as a federalist and as a speaker of the pan-European party. The instrument has been a huge success if we look at the fact that we were a…

20

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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Decision to enter into interinstitutional negotiations: Long-Term Residents (A9-0145/2023 - Damian Boeselager) (vote)

Madam President, I think we can see that the colleagues from the far-right managed to get a lot of speaking time to spread their poisonous agenda, nativist agenda on migration. But what I have to say, what surprises me is that they didn’t open actually all the laws, because my law is not part of the asylum pact. This law is part of the talent and skills package. It’s about attracting international…

18

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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The need for European solidarity in saving lives in the Mediterranean, in particular in Italy (debate)

Mr President, I have to say, I’m still amazed by this debate because it should be about saving lives, but instead we repeat our points about the asylum system. I think what’s clear is that we currently let people die in the Mediterranean. We let them die by ordering container ships and fisher boats to stand by and wait, we let them die by criminalising and jailing those who want to pull them out o…

18

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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The need for European solidarity in saving lives in the Mediterranean, in particular in Italy (debate)

Mr Benifei, I was just wondering how you see the reactions and the effects of the state of emergency that was declared in Italy and on the overall debate on migration within the country.

18

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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Question Time (Commission) - Legacy of the European Year of Youth

Mr President, thank you very much for giving me the speaking time. I have a very quick question regarding the fact that, obviously, the closer you get to death, the more you decide about the future, which is just a fact due to the demographics that we are currently facing. So I was wondering, in regards to more hard power for youth, would you support a voting age of 16, as we’ve also asked for in …

14

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Data Act (debate)

Madam President, dear Commissioner Breton, dear Pilar, dear colleagues, more and more devices – windmills, ships, aeroplanes, paper-cutting machines – are connected to the internet. It’s the internet of things, after all. But who can have access to the non-personal data that these devices produce and who is allowed to share it with others? That is what the Data Act is about: deciding who should ha…

13

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, so I asked an artificial intelligence to tell me how to regulate artificial intelligence in Shakespearean English and here is what it said, ‘Good people all, lend me thine ears. A tale of import I bringeth here, of something great that cometh nigh, an age of AI that dost defy. It hath the power, and speed as well, but also doth bring a weighty tale to tell. We cannot stand idle an…

13

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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Union Secure Connectivity Programme 2023-2027 (debate)

Madam President, colleagues, Commissioner, I just wanted to also chime in here one second, because as a former negotiator of the European Space Programme, it obviously makes me happy to see that we are taking the successive steps to actually make this European moonshot a reality. We all know that we can try to save old industries, curb state aid and really try to preserve what’s already there, but…

13

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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Following up on measures requested by Parliament to strengthen the integrity of European institutions (debate)

Mr Engerer, I very much agree with your idea of having transparency in all meetings that all MEPs have. I was wondering what you think about the transparency on staff meetings. So for assistants, but also for the administration.…

13

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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Following up on measures requested by Parliament to strengthen the integrity of European institutions (debate)

Madam President, it has been two months, two months since bags of cash were confiscated. Since then, multiple of our colleagues, people who we work with, people who make laws or who have made laws for all Europeans have been jailed. Every household across the European Union knows about this. But there is a second scandal. And the second scandal is that we haven't done anything since then. Nothing …

13

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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Electoral rights of mobile Union citizens in European Parliament elections - Electoral rights of mobile Union citizens in municipal elections (debate)

Madam President, thank you, colleagues, thank you also, Commissioner, for the positive words. Just one quick word upfront to our colleagues from the far right. I think you’ve still not really understood history because nations were created to overcome smaller units called kingdoms and dukedoms, and back then being a nationalist was being for progress. And I think you really misunderstood the conce…

13

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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Electoral rights of mobile Union citizens in European Parliament elections - Electoral rights of mobile Union citizens in municipal elections (debate)

Madam President, President Zelenskyy reminded us last week of what it means to be European. Europe is the ideal of diversity, the rule of law, social justice and, above all, peace and democracy. A democracy that, for example, just in the previous debate, we can see where we are fighting for our political ideals rather than just for national interests, at least in principle. But our democracy has l…