What Andreas spoke about.

16 Sep

2026

DE Speech

The impact of the implementation of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) on SMEs, its administrative burden and challenges for the European Single Market (debate)

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Mr President! Dear Commissioner, dear disciples! Since August, the heart of the European Union − the internal market − dies a little bit more every day. This is because the Packaging Regulation – PPWR – has entered into force and it introduces a new obligation for small mail order companies, including all mail order companies, regardless of size, that if parcels are to be sent abroad to the EU ‑, …

7 Jul

2026

DE Speech

Urgent measures to strengthen the competitiveness and safeguard quality jobs in the EU’s automotive sector (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, If you take the wrong exit over and over again, you will not reach your destination. More than 100 000 jobs have already been lost in the automotive industry; And that was just the beginning. By the way, this is a huge challenge not only in Germany, but throughout Europe. This is a direct consequence of the ban on combustion, which was adopted by a majority h…

20 May

2026

DE Speech

Reviewing the ETS system to support European competitiveness (topical debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, When energy becomes priceless, wealth deviates – not loudly, but with very quiet location decisions to our detriment. The problem is not climate protection, but double regulation. On the one hand, we have prohibitions, high standards, a technology infatuation of individuals, and on the other hand, we have the technology-open instrument. ETS. My criticism of E…

16 Dec

2025

DE Speech

Presentation of the automotive package (debate)

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18 Dec

2024

DE Speech

Restoring the EU’s competitive edge – the need for an impact assessment on the Green Deal policies (topical debate)

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Dear Mr President, Dear colleagues! The European Union's economy is under pressure: It's about jobs, it's about the existence of hundreds of thousands of citizens. One reason for these existential fears is wrong decisions at European level in recent years, and by that I do not mean climate protection, which is not the problem, but the way in which climate protection is operated. We have too much p…

9 Oct

2024

DE Speech

Urgent need to revise the Medical Devices Regulation (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! Imagine a dangerous curve. 50 km/h speed limit. One drives through at 150 km/h and builds an accident. It makes no sense at all to lower and tighten the speed limit from 50 km/h to 30 km/h, but if someone breaks a law, then the law does not have to be made stricter, but the law must be better controlled. But that's exactly what happened with medical devices. All…

17 Sep

2024

DE Speech

State of the Energy union (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! The European Union is humanity’s largest peace project, the world’s largest single market and – through common standards and shared management of emergencies – a real added value for people. But in some areas, Commissioner, we are lagging behind, for example in creating a genuine internal energy market. Yes, we are making progress on renewable energy and indepen…

13 Mar

2024

DE Answer

Type-approval of motor vehicles and engines with respect to their emissions and battery durability (Euro 7) (debate)

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This is exactly what we have been fighting for for a long time. If there are possibilities that we can achieve balance sheet carbon neutrality – that is, if synthetic fuels are used, the compilation of which requires CO2 from the air; After that, when it comes to combustion, CO2 is released again, but that is zero on the balance sheet – then I am convinced, and my party is also convinced, that we …

13 Mar

2024

DE Speech

Type-approval of motor vehicles and engines with respect to their emissions and battery durability (Euro 7) (debate)

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Dear Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, The automotive industry is changing and on its way to carbon neutrality, and that's expensive. The Von der Leyen Commission's proposal was therefore completely out of place; It would have meant that there was no money for the transformation. Especially nonsensical, because cars would have become more expensive and the fleet renewal would have come to a stan…

29 Feb

2024

DE Speech

Next steps towards greater patient safety by swiftly ensuring the availability of medical devices through a targeted transitional period (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner. After solid comes off. This is a wisdom that not only has craftsmen or, as in my case, a surgeon, but that is something that is also true in politics. If you screw on a screw and make it tighter and tighter, it will hold more and more until it stops holding anything. The same goes for legislation. If someone breaks the law, it all too often does no…

6 Feb

2024

DE Speech

Plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their food and feed (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Classical genetic engineering and the new, highly selective breeding methods are not the same. You can achieve exactly the same with these new breeding methods as with classical breeding, only that it is much faster. This is the great advantage of creating resistance to drought, waterlogging or mould, and it is very timely. However, we cannot exploit the pote…

12 Dec

2023

DE Speech

European Health Data Space (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! I still work four hours a week in a small hospital in the Albklinik on the Swabian Alb as a doctor. I always have the challenge that patients come to me who have fallen, for example, in Italy while skiing, now show up with me with some injury and I do not know exactly what they have. Therefore, it is sometimes necessary to carry out double exami…

21 Nov

2023

DE Answer

Sustainable use of plant protection products (debate)

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Dear Sarah Wiener, I believe that we really need to act in a uniform European way at this point. It is of no use if we then again have different situations in the Member States. I even believe that we have to go the other way from a principled approach. We need a reversal of the burden of proof. Where plant protection products endanger something, where the purpose of protection is compromised, I a…

21 Nov

2023

DE Speech

Sustainable use of plant protection products (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, A real reduction strategy – yes, blanket bans – no. In view of the multiple crises in the world, secure food production in the EU is more important than ever. And no, it is not an alternative for us to impose more and more obligations on our farmers and to reduce our yield; We need to buy more on the global market. With all the sincere love for biodiversity, …

8 Nov

2023

DE Speech

Type-approval of motor vehicles and engines with respect to their emissions and battery durability (Euro 7) (debate)

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Dear Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Do you need Euro 7? Of course, making cars better and cleaner is important. The only problem is that the automotive sector is already on its way to decarbonisation – and the costs are incredibly high. Well, if Euro 7 becomes too strict and too expensive, then first of all the resources of the industry are missing in this transformation process. Second, Euro…

17 Jan

2023

DE Speech

Surge of respiratory infections and the shortage of medication in Europe (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. You'll be surprised if I say this: We don't need a bit of Europe everywhere, but we need a strong Europe in the right places. And the right places are exactly where it comes to the supply of vital things, for example with medication, or where it comes to the strategic orientation of things. And we need not be surprised, because in the past we have …

13 Sep

2022

DE Speech

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

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Madam President, Commissioner! Rising energy prices are putting many citizens in existential need. Jobs are threatened. The European Union cannot and must not remain silent here, but must act. At last Friday's Energy Ministers' Conference, there were some proposals, some better, some worse. For example, the revenue ceilings on inframarginal power generation are okay, but it is important that it is…

7 Jun

2022

DE Speech

Binding annual greenhouse gas emission reductions by Member States (Effort Sharing Regulation) - Land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) - CO2 emission standards for cars and vans (joint debate – Fit for 55 (part 2))

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, A clear yes to climate neutrality by 2050. But prescribing certain technologies or banning others is the wrong way to go. We need technology openness. Let's take advantage of the innovation potential that exists in Europe. And measuring only CO2 in an exhaust is too little, that's jumped too short. We need a life cycle assessment; we need one well-to-wheelapproa…

15 Dec

2021

DE Speech

Preparation of the European Council meeting of 16-17 December 2021 - The EU's response to the global resurgence of Covid-19 and the new emerging Covid variants (debate)

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Mr President! Ladies and Gentlemen! Not everything the EU did in relation to the COVID-19 crisis was perfect. I also know this through my profession as a doctor, where I was last on the road as a vaccination doctor the day before yesterday or Monday. I am not criticising the EU here because I do not want joint procurement, but on the contrary: We need to get better here. We need more joint procure…

6 Oct

2021

DE Speech

European solutions to the rise of energy prices for businesses and consumers: the role of energy efficiency and renewable energy and the need to tackle energy poverty (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, The rise in energy prices in Europe means the loss of jobs. And certainly, the pricing of CO2 is important for climate protection, emissions trading (ETS) is important. And yet there are things we can do. Here are five suggestions: First, more grid expansion, more smart grids, more intelligent control, Power on Demand, so that the consumption can be adapted t…

14 Sep

2021

DE Speech

Natural disasters during the summer 2021 - Impacts of natural disasters in Europe due to climate change (debate)

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Dear Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Germany, too, has repeatedly benefited from the European Solidarity Fund in recent years – I would like to say this clearly in the direction of the critics of Europe here in this area. This summer, Europe not only experienced several fire disasters, but also a severe flood disaster. In one of the most severely affected areas of the flood disaster, in the Ah…