What Erik spoke about.

17

Jan

2024

DE Speech

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Rule of Law and media freedom in Greece (debate)

Madam President, I think dealing with the weakest shows how strong a rule of law really is. And so that you do not misunderstand me in my criticism of the Greek government, I do not expect the Greek government to make green policies. The Greeks have elected, they have elected a conservative party. But I expect all governments in Europe, including conservatives, to abide by the law, the rule of law…

16

Jan

2024

DE Speech

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Fight against the resurgence of neo-fascism in Europe, also based on the parade that took place in Rome on 7 January (debate)

Mr President! It is often written in newspapers in recent days that AfD politicians have met with right-wing extremists in Potsdam. And I would like to say that right-wing extremists have simply met there. This is an important difference for me, because I think we have to make it clear that right-wing extremists themselves are now sitting in parliaments and that their ideology is spreading. And if…

13

Dec

2023

DE Speech

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Frontex, building on the fact-finding investigation of the LIBE Working Group for Frontex Scrutiny (debate)

Mr President! Let me start with a positive: I believe that it was important for us here in the European Parliament to have set up these, that we have worked on making concrete recommendations as well. I think it is also good that Frontex has already started to implement a number of these recommendations. Of course, we also call for the other recommendations to be implemented. It's also that I beli…

17

Oct

2023

DE Speech

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Schengen area: digitalisation of the visa procedure - Schengen area: amending the Visa Sticker Regulation (Joint debate – Schengen area)

Mr President, Commissioner! Recently, the end of Schengen has been painted on the wall again and again. People are talking about the fact that Schengen actually has no future at all. But if we look at the reality, then we actually see that with the reform of the Schengen Borders Code we are now making Schengen fit for the future, that with the introduction of the entry/exit system we have a better…

4

Oct

2023

DE Speech

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

Mr President! What worries me is that I get the impression that in the debate on the Pact many Member States believe that we simply have to treat refugees a little worse than today, always treat them a little worse every day than yesterday, and then they would stop coming at some point. It is now so cynical that we are already discussing whether we should save people from distress at sea. I think …

3

Oct

2023

DE Speech

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Corrupt large-scale sale of Schengen visas (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner Schinas! You said that the Schengen system is not only one of the greatest achievements we have made as a European Union, as Europe, but it is also something very fragile when confidence in this Schengen system is shaken. What I find important to note is that the Polish government is not working to regain confidence in these allegations. I don't think we will know anythi…

3

Oct

2023

DE Speech

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The 10-year commemoration since the tragedy in Lampedusa(statement by the President)

Madam President, This is the tenth anniversary of Lampedusa's disaster. Within a few days, 600 people were killed - men, women and children - who were later found to have been tortured and raped to a large extent in Libya. The question is, where are we now, ten years after this terrible misfortune? Since then, 28,000 people have drowned, and instead of rescue at sea in the Mediterranean, we are fi…

12

Sep

2023

DE Speech

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EU-Tunisia Agreement - aspects related to external migration policy (debate)

Mr President! In the public debate it is always so black and white, so you are for or against agreements with third countries. But I believe that the debate today also shows that it is precisely how such agreements are designed that matters. I believe that agreements can be good if they want to achieve certain goals, namely to improve the humanitarian situation on the ground, namely to better orga…

11

Sep

2023

DE Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President! I wanted to speak tonight to draw attention to the situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban took power two years ago, and tell the people there that they are not forgotten – not even by us here. I remember two years ago when the whole world looked at Afghanistan. And now, unfortunately, one has the feeling that the whole world has forgotten the situation in Afghanistan. Last week,…

12

Jul

2023

DE Speech

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

Madam President, I don't know how the others are doing, but I personally find it difficult to have these debates over and over again. Then you write down speeches and actually notice: Probably we will meet again soon and only have worse things to talk about, and the situation is not improving. I find it difficult when we keep saying: Yes, of course, so people in distress at sea must be rescued, NG…

18

Apr

2023

DE Speech

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

Mr President! So without a doubt it would be good if we improved the laws we have, but no law in the world will free us from the fact that in the end we not only decide solidarity between the Member States, solidarity with refugees, but that we simply have to live them. At the moment, we don't really need new laws to make things better. In 2014, there were 315 kilometers of fences at the external …

15

Mar

2023

DE Speech

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Deaths at sea: a common EU response to save lives and action to ensure safe and legal pathways (debate)

Mr President! I think some of you are right, I think so too. The smugglers are evil people who, for false reasons, use criminal energy to send people on a dangerous path, and as a result, people die. But the reason why we are meeting here today is not because the smugglers are sending people off – this has been happening for decades – but because rescue cases at sea are no longer saved, even thoug…

16

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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European initiative to promote civic engagement to protect and better support European volunteers (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner! Thank you also to the others who are there. I now have two and a half minutes, so much time you rarely have. So if you talk here on Thursday afternoon, then you can talk really long, then you can almost think about what you start with all the time. But back to the subject. I would like to start by saying that volunteering has many facets. I think the reason we're talkin…

15

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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EUCO conclusions: the need for the speedy finalisation of the Road Map (debate)

Madam President, I have read the Council document, and in fact it immediately occurred to me that deterrence and foreclosure have been creating the chaos they claim to be fighting for years. I believe that we should simply stop - and I noticed this in the document - hiding the responsibility for the future of our asylum system behind walls. In the end, people will not be able to deport everyone. E…

13

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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Union Secure Connectivity Programme 2023-2027 (debate)

Madam President, I have read the draft legislative report. And sometimes you lose sight of the big picture when you look at the articles and the details – and I think it's great that there has been such an intensive negotiation and apparently a large majority in the European Parliament will be in favour of it – sometimes you lose sight of the big picture. And I believe that on these space issues –…

13

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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

Madam President, Thank you also for leading the debate. I am very much in favour of us looking at which rules are effective and how we can then tighten those rules. But I am also in favour of making it clear to ourselves that always new rules alone do not help if we do not enforce these rules. I would like to add something: We may need to take a closer look at some of the rules. We are not concern…

13

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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EU funding allocated to NGOs incriminated in the recent corruption revelations and the protection of EU financial interests (debate)

Madam President, Thank you for allowing us to have this debate today. First of all, I would like to thank the NGOs. We already had a discussion today about the terrible situation in northern Syria, in Turkey. Yes, where would we actually be if we just decided on the money here and then there were no people doing this hard work, who are also so flexible, who sometimes go into these cruel situations…

13

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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EU response to the humanitarian situation following the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria (debate)

Madam President, Children who will never see their parents again, women who mourn their sons, and a man who just won't let go of his deceased daughter's hand. The images you see these days, and especially the fates behind them, are disturbing, tragic, and actually render them speechless. And even though we know that not everything went well with the help, I believe that we have already noticed tha…

1

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President! I wanted to point out that it has now become so normal – especially on the right-hand side of Parliament – that one simply claims: The fact that people are fleeing across the Mediterranean is actually due to the aid organizations that rescue people from distress at sea. It's become so normal that you can't even justify it. There are also no arguments for this, but it is simply claime…

1

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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Situation in Afghanistan (debate)

Mr President! In Afghanistan there is now 65 percent unemployment, 90 percent of the people are starving and 20 million women – as was well described in the speeches before – 20 million women in Afghanistan are being disenfranchised and, you can say, deprived of their future. This is really cruel how the Taliban deal with this country, how they make society the plaything of their ideology. And I c…

1

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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Preparation of the Special European Council meeting of February, in particular the need to develop sustainable solutions in the area of asylum and migration (debate)

Mr President! Honestly, I am a bit perplexed when I hear the contributions from the right-wing side of Parliament on this subject, and I have actually been doing so for years. It is not new that they are now proposing to build fences, that they are saying that we must increase deportations, that they are saying that we must take the people of the Mediterranean to where they came from. These are no…

19

Jan

2023

DE Speech

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The Global Gateway Initiative (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner! I think we can already see from the debate that we are all relatively united in Parliament. We do not really feel taken with us, but we actually want to contribute to the success of the project, and I believe that when you look at the Commission's homepage, you can see a little bit where the problem might lie. So on the homepage it says: ‘Global Gateway’. This is adorne…

18

Jan

2023

DE Speech

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Criminalisation of humanitarian assistance, including search and rescue (debate)

Mr President! We are in politics to make reality beautiful, not to make it beautiful. And when we look at reality at the external borders, it is not only not beautiful, it is simply cruel. It would have to make us angry enough that so many people at our external borders suffer in search of security and thousands die. But the reality is much worse: Several EU countries at the external borders not o…

15

Dec

2022

DE Speech

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The humanitarian situation in Ukraine due to Russia’s attacks against critical infrastructure and civilian areas (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner! What we are doing for Ukraine is not nothing – I think we all know that. 18 billion euros, which were released on Monday, that's a high amount. But what the Ukrainians have been paying since February 24 is such an infinitely greater price for our freedom that I think we have every reason to look: What can we as the European Commission, what can we as the European Par…

14

Dec

2022

DE Speech

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The Commission’s reports on the situation of journalists and the implications of the rule of law (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner! I am honestly a little frightened about some speeches – not all of them, of course. I therefore wanted to say that attacks on freedom of the press do not only begin when journalists are murdered or threatened, but, in my view, that begins when we begin to use Parliament here to say about some reports: This is not a free press at all, it has nothing to do with freedom…