What Catherine spoke about.

24 Apr

2024

FR Speech

Resumption of the sitting

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, in a few moments we will be voting for the consent of the European Parliament on the Treaty for the Conservation of Biodiversity on the High Seas. This moment is historic. The world’s states have understood that their future depends on the ocean, the oxygen it provides, the carbon it stores and the resources it supports. It is a common good, threatened, that …

22 Apr

2024

FR Speech

Preventing plastic pellet losses to reduce microplastic pollution (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased that Parliament’s first reading can be concluded before the end of the term of office and that this essential dossier has withstood the anti-Green Deal headwinds that have been blowing over our house for a few months. Thank you to the rapporteur and shadow rapporteurs for their good cooperation. We need to understand one thing: indu…

12 Mar

2024

FR Speech

EU climate risk assessment, taking urgent action to improve security and resilience in Europe (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, a year ago, our French Minister for the Ecological Transition took a decision that I found courageous, and I said to myself: "Finally, let's measure the consequences of climate change for France." He decided to strengthen the adaptation plan, taking the very likely assumption of a France at 4 °C. "We must get out of denial," he said. We are alre…

29 Feb

2024

FR Speech

Commission recommendation on secure and resilient submarine cables (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank the Commission for this communication on submarine cables, a subject which would fit perfectly into a comprehensive European Union strategy on the sea. I am talking about a strategy that would integrate all the challenges of preserving the blue economy, but also geostrategic. It is this Blue Deal that I have been calling for s…

18 Jan

2024

FR Speech

EU Action Plan: protecting and restoring marine ecosystems for sustainable and resilient fisheries (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the reason why the committee has proposed this action plan is that it is urgent and that our legislative framework is inadequate. Urgency to restore marine ecosystems that are constantly deteriorating due to pollution, due to climate change, but also to human activities at sea and in particular fishing. To preserve resilient fisheries and aquacultu…

18 Jan

2024

FR Speech

Implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy and future perspectives (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to place this debate within the broader framework of the Integrated Maritime Policy, and to stop dealing with maritime issues in silos is one of the main objectives of my mandate as a Member of the European Parliament. I do not question the common fisheries policy – the necessary legislative framework for our European fishermen – but f…

18 Jan

2024

FR Speech

Recent ecological catastrophe involving plastic pellet losses and its impact on micro plastic pollution in the maritime and coastal habitats (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in this Chamber, all the plastic objects that you have around you have gone through the granular stage, because it is the raw material of plastic. For years, our coasts have been marked by oil spills, and today they are marked by white tides, which are also harmful because these granules are processed oil and merge with sand grains. The disaster th…

17 Jan

2024

FR Speech

Norway's recent decision to advance seabed mining in the Arctic (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in the coming years debates on the exploitation of the deep seabed will be recurrent. After being ignored for a long time, the ocean is looked upon as a new Eldorado. His exploration reveals his wealth, especially mineral, but also genetic, while on land, resources are diminishing. So let us not reproduce at sea the mistakes we may have made ashore…

14 Dec

2023

FR Speech

Outcome of the UN Climate Change Conference 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (COP28) (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I believe that we can really thank those who have found the phrase 'transition out of fossil fuels', which saves this COP, and I would like to welcome the firmness with which the European negotiating team has worked to find this agreement. The text thus sends information to the countries of the South that we recognize their right to access energy t…

18 Oct

2023

FR Speech

Outcome of the SDGs Summit (18-19 September 2023, New York) – transformative and accelerated actions leading up to 2030 and beyond (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the dramatic geopolitical context we are experiencing must not hamper our efforts on the Sustainable Development Goals, quite the contrary. Last month's UN stocktaking is an urgent call for action, as the implementation of the 2030 Agenda is at risk. Only 15% of the targets are on track to be met. We need to step up our efforts to transform our world sustaina…

16 Oct

2023

FR Speech

Implications of Chinese fishing operations for EU fisheries and the way forward (short presentation)

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Madam President, first of all, I would like to thank my colleague Pierre Karleskind for bringing this report. As we strengthen our demands on our fishermen through the Fisheries Control Regulation, there is an urgent need to warn about the drifts of Chinese industrial fishing: no traceability, no transparency in agreements, fishmeal factories, etc. – Pierre, you have already mentioned everything a…

16 Oct

2023

FR Speech

Fisheries control (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, rapporteur, ladies and gentlemen, while large trawlers overflowing with fish tend to refer to an image of abundance, the fisheries resource should in fact be regarded as a rare and valuable asset. This is all the more true as global warming threatens ocean balances, including resource availability. In view of this, scientists are calling on us to adopt a precautionar…

11 Sep

2023

FR Speech

Surface water and groundwater pollutants (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, numerous studies have shown that pollutants in surface water or groundwater have a strong impact on the health of life and of terrestrial, but also marine, ecosystems. They spread and affect organisms sometimes very far from sources of pollution. However, lakes and rivers represent only 0.01% of the water on Earth, groundwater 0.63%, where the o…

11 May

2023

FR Speech

Protecting and restoring marine ecosystems for sustainable and resilient fisheries - Agreement of the IGC on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (High Seas Treaty) (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, if the world’s states have managed to agree after 20 years of negotiations on a treaty to preserve biodiversity on the high seas, despite a very tense geopolitical context, it is for a simple reason: State representatives are aware that our collective future also depends on safeguarding the ocean and that it is in danger. Wherev…

20 Apr

2023

FR Speech

IPCC report on Climate Change: a call for urgent additional action (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, this week brings warmth and cold, hope and questions, and even anger. What gives hope are the texts we voted on this week, which should put the European Union on a path to climate neutrality. It is the strength of the European project to work together to build this response to the climate challenge. What also gives hope are the solutions within our…

13 Mar

2023

FR Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Mr President, I would like to welcome, Commissioner, the adoption on 4 March of the Treaty on the preservation of biodiversity beyond exclusive economic zones, and to welcome the commitment of the European Commission and several Member States, including my country, France. This historic treaty would have deserved a little more than a minute, but a debate of at least an hour. It creates a legal fra…

13 Mar

2023

FR Speech

Policy Coherence for Development (short presentation)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, thank you to the rapporteur for this own-initiative report on the coherence of development policies essential to the European Union's foreign policy. This tool deserves new political impetus and more effective implementation. In a geopolitical context marked by climate change, its acceleration, the consequences of Covid and the war in Ukraine and a…

12 Dec

2022

FR Speech

Outcome of COP27 (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, while you were in Sharm el-Sheikh, I decided to go back to sea and crossed the Atlantic in a solo race, with the ambition to raise the stakes of the oceans and give them light. By the way, I could see the effects of climate change on weather disruption – we can talk about it. I co-founded the Ocean and Climate Platform and I see that the place of the ocean is growing…

20 Oct

2022

FR Speech

Commission implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1614 of 15 September 2022 determining the existing deep-sea fishing areas and establishing a list of areas where vulnerable marine ecosystems are known to occur or are likely to occur (debate)

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Madam President, Mr Kelly, my question is addressed to you, but it could have been addressed to all your colleagues who denounce this measure of the European Commission, because there is one thing I do not understand: all your interventions give the impression that this measure is being taken against fishermen. As you have pointed out, these ecosystems are sensitive. The idea is to move the fishin…

20 Oct

2022

FR Speech

Commission implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1614 of 15 September 2022 determining the existing deep-sea fishing areas and establishing a list of areas where vulnerable marine ecosystems are known to occur or are likely to occur (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank the Commission for this implementing act, which has been awaited and requested by the European Parliament for six years, and I would like to say why I support this regulation. To understand what we are talking about, I think it is better to look at a three-dimensional bathymetric map rather than the two-dimensional map that…

17 Oct

2022

FR Speech

Sustainable maritime fuels (FuelEU Maritime Initiative) - Deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, two weeks ago we voted on a resolution calling on Europe to turn to the sea. And tonight, I remind you that we can make it the champion of green ships and allow their construction in Europe. Indeed, the text we are going to vote on alternative fuels for maritime transport is an opportunity to accelerate all emerging decarbonisation solutions, which…

3 Oct

2022

FR Speech

Momentum for the Ocean: strengthening Ocean Governance and Biodiversity (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, finally a debate and a resolution on the ocean! The European Union must build on its maritime dimension, commit to a Blue Deal within the Green Deal, and make it a force to carry its values around the world. There is an urgent need to: All the extreme weather events we know draw their energy from deep ocean warming – a direct consequence of glob…

5 Jul

2022

FR Speech

Question Time (Commission) Increasing EU ambitions on biodiversity ahead of COP 15

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Mr President, Commissioner, two other issues concerning the climate agenda. The first: Will the EU join the Blue Carbon Coalition and put blue carbon ecosystems on the climate agenda, in the Member States' determined contributions? And second question: In Lisbon, France spoke out in favour of exploration, but against deep seabed exploitation. Will you support this expected position to move other M…

5 Jul

2022

FR Speech

Question Time (Commission) Increasing EU ambitions on biodiversity ahead of COP 15

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Mr President, Commissioner, as was widely mentioned last week in Lisbon at the United Nations Ocean Summit, the ocean is in an absolute emergency due to global warming, pollution and our activities. As the Starfish mission you launched reminds us, it is imperative that we not only protect, but also regenerate our seas, rivers and the ocean if we are to continue to balance the climate, reduce coast…

14 Feb

2022

FR Speech

A European strategy for offshore renewable energy (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I would first like to pay tribute to the work of our colleague Morten Petersen: Really, thank you. I have always compared coastal and island territories to ships that must seek their energy autonomy with what nature offers them. I am therefore in favour of all forms of offshore energy: those that use wind energy, as discussed here, but also those that use the…