What Mikuláš spoke about.

8

Mar

2022

CS Speech

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The deterioration of the situation of refugees as a consequence of the Russian aggression against Ukraine (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we need to talk about refugees. First of all, I would like to thank all those who actively help, all those who drive people, provide food, help refugees with orientation in a new environment, or make their apartments available according to their capabilities. And here I see a huge upsurge in civil society and interpersonal solidarity. But I am standing here as a…

16

Feb

2022

EN Speech

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The Rule of Law and the consequences of the ECJ ruling (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, I would like to ask you: no more excuses. Today, the European Court of Justice ruling finally gives a green light to the Commission to use the conditionality mechanism and enforce the rule of law in Europe. European funds should never be used to undermine the independence and impartiality of the judicial system or the prevention of conflicts of interest, or to sup…

15

Feb

2022

CS Speech

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Strengthening Europe in the fight against cancer(debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I will try to be brief. I think we're going to do quite a stupid thing because we want to spoil the great proposal we have with such petty nonsense. It is great that we are tackling common action against cancer at European level. It's an insidious disease, it attacks everyone indiscriminately, and that research solution is very expensive, and it's hard to do …

19

Jan

2022

EN Speech

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Digital Services Act (debate)

Mr President, we stand at the height of what could have been one of the greatest European achievements. After intense work, we have managed to create a set of rules that gives us the interoperability, a more open digital market, better choices for users and less power for the tech giants. I’m also proud of the critical changes regarding transparency, as platforms are now obliged to provide explana…

15

Dec

2021

CS Speech

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State of play of the RRF (Recovery and Resilience Facility) (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, it is time to change course. I fully understand that the RRF was intended as such a hotfix for the COVID-19 situation. Just a quick cure to ensure confidence in our European future. But now we should also think about how the money is going to be used. Because some of those national plans submitted by Member States that are still under review are being reviewe…

24

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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Fundamental rights and the rule of law in Slovenia, in particular the delayed nomination of EPPO prosecutors (debate)

Mr President, the rule of law in Slovenia is unfortunately deteriorating quite rapidly. But as the only Member representing the Budgetary Control Committee during our mission to Slovenia, I have to admit that I observed something I would call grassroots-level corruption. There is a big lack of competition in the country due to its size, and more than 90% of public procurements are won by local com…

10

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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European Partnership on Metrology (debate)

Mr President, this is not a proposal that would fill the headlines of newspapers, but this is a proposal that clearly shows the potential for European cooperation. This is also a bit more personal file for me because before coming into politics, I also worked in a metrology institution, and I would like to use this opportunity to say thanks to all that work in this essential, although little-discu…

20

Oct

2021

CS Speech

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Increased efforts to fight money laundering (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, as we have seen in the case , people with money and influence still manage to circumvent European anti-money laundering rules and, with various dubious maneuvers, buy secret castles in France and so on. It is not acceptable for government officials to deceive citizens with hidden dirty money deposited in the Caribbean and at the same time, perhaps because of the…

19

Oct

2021

CS Speech

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The Rule of law crisis in Poland and the primacy of EU law (debate)

Prime Minister, you are pretending that European law is incompatible with the Polish Constitution. However, European law protects Polish citizens in the same way as all other European citizens. I recall this because both our nations have decided to return to Europe because we share a common history and democratic values. What can you tell me about the 88% of Polish citizens who are in favour of Po…

6

Oct

2021

CS Speech

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Pandora Papers: implications on the efforts to combat money laundering, tax evasion and avoidance (debate)

Madam President, I would first of all like to thank the journalists for their courageous work, because thanks to the Pandora Papers we now see that it was precisely those people who were supposed to oversee tax rules who exploited loopholes in the system, both dictators and top European politicians here. So here we see why some politicians cared so little about making these things transparent and …

16

Sep

2021

EN Speech

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EU transparency in the development, purchase and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines (debate)

Mr President, even if it may not seem so at first glance, the common procurement of vaccines was definitely one of the historical moments of the European Union. As was mentioned in the State of the Union speech yesterday, we have managed to vaccinate most European citizens. This is certainly a big success, but it is a success that stands on a series of scandals, failures and a general lack of tran…

7

Jul

2021

EN Speech

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European Medicines Agency (continuation of debate)

Madam President, I am glad that at least partially, we have learned from the COVID-19 crisis and strengthened the critical European Medicines Agency (EMA). And what I would especially like to underline as a very positive development is a better protection of sensitive personal health data. A European medicines supply database and transparency obligations requiring the publication of clinical tests…