Speeches

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow’s vote on taxonomy is crucial. Firstly, it is vitally important for the Green Deal. Some Member States cannot meet Paris targets without nuclear energy because their geographical conditions do not allow full—scale use of renewables. Secondly, taxonomy is vital for the future investment to deliver stable electricity for reasonable prices to our citizens. And thirdly, it is a test of to what degree our decisions are guided by solidarity and respect for the others. We do not press us the others who oppose the nuclear energy to use it, but please do not press us to stop using it if we are convinced that this is the only way how we can move forward. There was something on France, so I will talk about Germany. Germany led us into this mess with 100% dependence on the Russian bastards. And now with disseminating this anti-nuclear hysteria, you are leading us to another mess. So please vote ‘no’ to the objections tomorrow.

Madam President, two weeks ago in Strasbourg, we failed, but decided to mandate a solution to the ENVI Committee. The ENVI Committee, by vote, decided that every political group would have the right to table their amendments. And then in the meantime, some kind of a back room deal of the three major parties here changed this, without the committee. So we, the ECR Group, were ready to look for common ground and common solutions, but not under those undemocratic circumstances, not in supporting this package deal, which will bring more harm to businesses, which will bring more harm to poor people, and which will not solve the climate problem. So we, the ECR Group, under protest against this undemocratic procedure, but also in disagreement with the substance of this so-called compromise proposal, will be voting against.

Madam President, (start of speech off mic) and democracy sometimes is longer, it’s not the speediest, but it’s the best way to live together. So we are protesting against, and it’s in the controversy to what has been agreed at ENVI.

Mr President, Jan Huitema's report on cars is wrong, and unless it changes in at least two respects, we must oppose it. First, tightening the 2025-2027 targets even further is absurd. It will force people to buy electric cars that will be expensive and have an exhaust in a neighboring coal-fired power plant. Less emissions? No way. Second, the total ban on internal combustion engines in 2035 is a gross error. It is contrary to technological neutrality, it will subvert competition in the market, it will create a monopoly, it will bring a price. Tens of thousands of jobs will be lost without compensation. And we're going to give a bonus to China and Asia in general, which has a lead in software and batteries that this continent can't catch up with.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I think that tomorrow we will have perhaps the most important vote in five years, a vote that will affect the lives of every inhabitant in the European Union, a vote that will further increase the cost of energy for housing, heating, lighting and the cost of transport and food. All this in the name of saving the planet in a situation where the share of CO2 emissions in the European Union in the global is less than 10% and where those other countries that emit much more have not committed themselves to such a radical programme as we want to commit here. In short, we want people to make sacrifices, but we don't offer redemption. When the Vice-President of the Commission presented the Climate Law a year ago, he spoke of the Bible as our Bible. And now we have seven legislative proposals to vote on, and suddenly the Bible is changing. Parliament proposes to further increase our ambitions. The Bible is something that lasts. The Gospels are not rewritten every year. These proposals, of course, have been difficult to negotiate and bring some good things. Finally, there is a brake on the dramatic rise in the price of allowances. Emissions in aviation, solving the CORSIA problem, it all makes sense. But many things are still on the move and I am very curious how we are going to vote tomorrow, because there are hundreds of amendments and then we are going to vote on the whole, which I think is deeply undemocratic, because for the devil to know about it. The key votes are still ahead of us. Will free allowances be available, or will we decide to liquidate our industry just because of some CBAM chimera, when we don't even know if it will work and if partners like Xi Jinping and others, when they fill out those carbon certificates, if we can trust them at all? The European Social Fund as a solution to the expansion of housing and transport – I think the Union is playing tricks here. He takes responsibility for something that, when people revolt, will turn against him, so let's be careful.

Mr President, when I was young and growing up in communist Czechoslovakia, everything had to be explained by a class fight. Now it looks like everything has to be explained with the fight against climate change. But, frankly, I think the conviction of some of our colleagues here – that the most important mission of our armed forces is to fight climate change and the most important goal of them is to produce tanks, artillery or even jets without any carbon emission – is just ridiculous. We do have the war behind our backyard, and we should do our best to project authority, power and deterrence. And I guess that if Sir Putin or Emperor Xi Jinping is reading this kind of text, he's just laughing. So, therefore, I'm going to vote against.

You know, now it’s just 80% are the little kids and the rest are their mothers, you know – that’s a bit different. But the question on gas. You were talking about the common purchases on behalf of the EU. So what we see now in Qatar is just a run by Germany, Italy, the Member States to buy the last remaining gas. So is the Commission going to Qatar?

Madam President, let me raise a question on behalf of the ECR. I think that this Putin aggressive war against Ukraine has changed everything. And the countries which are hit most by that are the countries of central and eastern Europe. They are hit by security dimension – they must arm, so NATO is very helpful here. They are hit by humanitarian crisis, you know, 3.5 million refugees were accommodated in the families, not in the camps of our countries. And in the matter of 4 weeks, not in the matter of 1 million in a year like 2015. We are hit by the energy crisis. We will be hit by food crises. For the time being, we just hear that, you know, we are going to punish for the Poland, Hungary, which it don’t bring any results. You know, we can see this in the election just over the weekend. So do you have something positive also for the central and eastern European countries in the time of when they are in real need of some solidarity?

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Russian gas and oil are stained with Ukrainian blood, and we must put an end to this. Right now! And to correct the error of RePower EU, when, unfortunately, we sent Putin the following message: “We'll depend on you for seven more years like cocaine, and then, blush!” He started playing with us again. He said: “I don’t want euros, I want rubles”. So now we have a chance to finally say to him: “We do not know the rubles, it is not a currency. And if you don't want euros, we'll send them to a special account, escrow accounts, you'll get nothing. It will be a means of reparation for Ukraine when the damages for your war crimes are added up.” Let's not waste this chance!

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Putin is a criminal and a blackmailer. And we need to reduce our dependence on it. And the document issued today by the Commission: like fine, but to say so transparently in German that we need someone for another 3 to 5 years or 7 years and then no more, so it's a mistake, we're just recording for him. It's just like when we say to a girl: ‘I sleep with you four more times and then I don’t care about you anymore’. Otherwise, I appreciate that there is gas as a strategic commodity, that we have to have reserves. But otherwise it's weak tea, nothing about the core, nothing about coal and the crown, so everything that we want to replace Russian gas with biogas for the next 3 years. So we will plant twice as many corn fields at a time when there will be huge shortages of grain imported from Ukraine and Russia. Well, congratulations, Timmermans-Einstein had to come up with that.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I will start with the numbers, 2 million in 10 days, not 1 million per year. Of the 2 million in 10 days, 1 200 000 to Poland, 191 000 to Hungary, 140 000 to Slovakia, 87 000 to Romania and 105 000 to the Czech Republic, which is not even bordering Ukraine. Do you remember how you moralized us here five to six years ago, the states of Central and Eastern Europe, when we asked who was in that wave of that million a year? Whether it's those fleeing the war or those going for the better, young people with stones. Now these young people, Ukrainians, are coming back from our labor market, tens of thousands, back to fight for freedom. And of those 2 million, 55% are small children, the rest of adults are 80% women, and the rest are seniors. So we do what we can. We do this with love and respect. We're not moralizing. Of course, we welcome any logistical, financial or other assistance, but we do not ask for any quotas.

Mr President, I would say that the report we are discussing here is not bad at all - by the standards of this Parliament. Thanks for that, but it's still just words. And what we need in this tense situation – probably the worst security situation I have ever remembered – we need to be able to act, we need to be able to spend 2% on defence, every country in Europe, almost nobody does it. We must be able to send troops to protect the eastern part of NATO. We must be able to stand up for Ukraine as a free and sovereign country, and we must also be able to agree that if Russia crosses the red lines, we will disconnect it from that SWIFT. We can't even agree on that. So we must not be in a situation where bastards make fun of us, but have respect for us, and we can only do that by actions, not by talking about European architecture. Oh, thank you.

Madam President, Theodore Roosevelt once famously said you speak softly but keep a hammer in your hand, and our problem is that occasionally we are behaving otherwise. We have nice speeches, yes, we should support Ukraine independence, we should support their right to decide about their future. We also rightly criticise Putin and his aggressive behaviour, but we do nothing to deter him from action. This is our problem. We should be able to deploy strategic weapons in the Eastern theatre. We should be able to declare sanctions that would hurt him, not sanctions which produce just his laugh. But our problem is that occasionally we are rather putting our heads right into Putin’s throat, with our increasing dependence on Russian gas, with our inability to support nuclear energy. This is our problem and until we change that, nothing will happen.

Mr President, the House of Representatives, one thank you and one warning. Thank you – we have finally made a commitment to end deforestation soon. We have remedied what this House ruined 15 years ago, when, in the name of biofuels, we encouraged all countries to start cutting down forests. Now we've finally made it right. And one warning – we came to Glasgow as the European Union with Fit for 55, but where is China, where is India, where is Australia, where is Russia? Where is the United States of America? Where are the billions of dollars to develop infrastructure, highways, railways? And we come with belt tightening. But I think of those who are fifty-five years old or older and do not live in a rich country like Holland, but in the poorer ones and are about to make the biggest energy price increase in history and do not know how to deal with it. Let's think about them, please.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we have a consensus on the cause. Lukashenko is behind this, the villain with his cynical hybrid warfare playing into Putin's head. But that's talk, it's hard to find a match for actions. Unfortunately, the solution is not naive humanism, albeit well-meaning, which some here recommend. We're just sticking our heads in the noose of those bastards. Ladies and gentlemen, Lithuanians, Poles, Latvians are fighting for us here too, and we have a duty to help them in this struggle for border control. The European Union is supposed to help them with money to improve border protection. If we can help Turkey, why can't we help Poland? We as Member States are also supposed to offer assistance by sending police officers, by sending soldiers so that Poles, Latvians, Lithuanians are not alone in protecting the borders.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we have two options for what will happen in Glasgow in relation to the EU. Either we show that our EU policy is relevant, it can serve as a model, or we laugh at others. I am afraid that the adoption of this resolution, which we are discussing here, will lead to the second option: We'll be laughing. Once again, my colleagues have broken loose and included in the text a number of issues that go far beyond the Council's position. Do you really mean to remove support for all fossil fuels, including natural gas, as soon as possible? Where is your assessment of the impact on the inclusion of climate neutrality among the constitutional obligations of the Member States? If we are serious about decarbonisation, we must define a credible timetable and not draw up a wish list without any basis in reality, especially if we are to get developing countries on our side, which will find it more difficult to implement the Paris Agreement than we do. Vote against.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I would like to thank our colleague Charlie Weimers, because he has prepared a report for which we do not have to be ashamed this time. Taiwan has shown us the way many times. The last time during the coronavirus crisis and I think it can again. We all know the challenges we've been facing in the semiconductor market lately. The automotive industry is practically in ruins. I am deeply convinced that it is far more profitable for us to establish and deepen industrial, economic and scientific-technical cooperation with a democratically minded partner than to be dependent on resources from authoritarian countries. Let us show that we are proud partners of the people of Taiwan, and let us not let continental China destroy it, as it did with Hong Kong. China's aggression undermines stability and peace not only in the Southeast Asian region, but throughout the world, and we have to do something about it. Taiwan is the correct answer.