Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner, dear shadow rapporteurs, ladies and gentlemen, in parallel with the reindustrialisation work we are carrying out in Europe, we must also carry out work on the digitisation of our industries, in particular by making better use of our industrial data. Today, more and more objects and products are connected, of course, including heavy industrial products, such as a train locomotive. All this produces data that is not always exploited to its fullest. This text we are voting on today will make it easier to share data. For example, a railway company, following the example of the train, will be able to access more easily the data of the trains it buys and thus reduce the number of breakdowns thanks to the information collected. And fewer breakdowns, it also means fewer delays for travelers. This is one example, I was going to say, among thousands of others. Easier access to data also means better access for consumers. When a product is connected, it is important that the consumer can freely use their own data. Finally, the Data Act will remove barriers to moving from one cloud service to another – the famous clouds. It is not acceptable for a customer of cloud is blocked from a provider due to excessively high transfer costs. These are anti-competitive practices and we must be able to put an end to them. These costs must be eliminated, regardless of the situation. Colleagues, our data, especially industrial data, have value, it must be remembered. It is therefore also important that data produced in Europe are also processed more easily in Europe. The Data Act is a step in that direction and I welcome it.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, let us talk about figures. Through its Climate Law, Europe has set itself a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. In 2020, Europe has already managed to reduce its emissions by 31% compared to 1990. Now we still need 24% in less than seven years. The current building stock of the European Union is 36% of greenhouse gas emissions: more than one third. Knowing these figures, ladies and gentlemen, do we really have a choice? Clearly, no. We urgently need to reduce CO2 emissions from our buildings – obviously, taking into account the reality of each country. And that is what this text proposes. It is therefore time to be serious about this energy renovation of buildings. I call on you to support this text very broadly, which is essential for reducing our CO2 emissions.

Madam President, I thank my colleagues for their thanks, for their excellent work and for their constructive proposals. So, to answer some of the catch-the-eye questions and interventions, I am also in favour of affordable prices for this internet access that we will have tomorrow, not forgetting, however, that we are in a free market and that imposing fixed prices is not possible. On the other hand, I am pleased to see that the IRIS system will make it possible to provide universal service in the most remote and hard-to-reach places, thus contributing to the democratisation of the system for as many people as possible. Finally, at the end of these debates, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to make a wish: the IRIS programme be a turning point for a more ambitious, united and coherent European space policy. So a more ambitious space policy, for me, includes more European space budget. Europe is a budget five times smaller for space than our American friends. The next revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework must therefore be an opportunity to put more resources into our European space policy. Secondly, a more united European space policy means less sterile competition between European countries and more collaboration, because together we will succeed. Finally, a more coherent European space policy means having a more identified European strategy and perhaps less fragmented competences between the different actors: EUSPA, ESA, Commission, National Agencies. Space is a strategic area that we are probably not talking about enough in this Chamber. It's time for that to change. Finally, I wanted to reply to the colleague who made a 'catch-the-eye' speech. on the affirmed will. I will quote a French author who said: “I will try” has never done anything, “I would” has done great things, and “I want” has done miracles! Well, we want IRIS to be a great European success.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, this is a historic moment. We will vote for new European satellites, which will make the European Union more autonomous in space. Satellites that will be used to communicate in an ultra-secure way, that will be designed to be sustainable and that will be owned by the European Union, to communicate both everywhere in Europe, but also around the world. Satellites that can also help Europe's allies and friends. Indeed, imagine that you are a Ukrainian soldier right now, on the ground, in the cold of winter, and there, suddenly, your internet connection disappears. More ways to communicate with your comrades or command to share the information you've gathered: someone has cut your connection. Today, this is Elon Musk, because the internet connection was provided by the satellites of his private company Starlink. This scenario is happening right now in Ukraine, and it is totally unacceptable. We do not have to depend on the moods of a single man. This is why it is essential for the European Union to equip itself with these new European IRIS satellites. So, what are they going to consist of? In a few hundred satellites, which will serve to better communicate. First of all for government purposes, be it for our embassies, our firefighters, our rescue services, our military: All of them need secure communications to carry out their task, including quantum and post-quantum cryptography, all over the world, from the Baltic Sea to the West Indies. Secondly, these satellites will directly serve European citizens. Indeed, commercial services will be offered, allowing to connect by Internet our fellow citizens who live in isolated or remote areas. As rapporteur for the European Parliament, I am proud of the progress we have made. I would like to warmly thank my fellow MEPs for this intelligent trans-partisan work. Under our leadership, these European IRIS satellites will be a global example of space and environmental sustainability. Concretely, these satellites will have to be designed to emit as little CO2 as possible during their manufacture and launch. They will have to provide systems to avoid the production of debris and thus avoid transforming the space into a giant waste dump. Finally, the fact that these satellites are spread over several orbits, at different altitudes, will reduce their number. Here, IRIS satellites will be a counter-model to mega-constellations, consisting of thousands of satellites. It is possible to do differently without cluttering up space, and Europe will prove it. Now it is time to quickly implement this program. For this, I expect a healthy and reasoned competition between European industrial players. It is their responsibility to work intelligently to propose a fast and innovative implementation of these satellites. In conclusion, I am pleased that these new European IRIS satellites significantly strengthen the strategic autonomy of the European Union, with a real boost for our European space industrial base and strict eligibility criteria to ensure the safety of this programme. After Galileo, the European GPS, Copernicus, our eyes on Earth, we need IRIS satellites to enable Europe to communicate securely from anywhere in the world.

Madam President, 70 years ago, the first assembly of the ECSC was held here in Strasbourg, around a common desire for peace, to join forces around steel and coal. For yes, without energy and industry, a modern democratic society cannot prosper. It is historic that, in the face of the crisis, we need to rethink our energy system, which must be interconnected, integrated and decarbonised. To do this, use our European public money wisely. Let’s finance renewable and non-fossil energy, produced at local and regional level, with infrastructure that will allow us to transport it across Europe. I call on the Commission to reconsider its idea of using the new hydrogen bank to finance the import of hydrogen. Let’s not sponsor hydrogen production on the other side of the world, let’s focus on our own potential first.

Madam President, Europe is facing a crisis whose economic, social, geopolitical and climate consequences we do not yet understand. But we already understand the urgency of having a stable and decarbonised energy system. With this financial support plan, I am delighted that the Commission is supporting not only renewables, but also – finally! – other decarbonised and non-fossil energy, such as decarbonised hydrogen, and thus nuclear energy. However, I would like to point out that these support mechanisms, which we are creating to reduce energy dependence outside Europe, must above all help to produce in Europe, a European production to be preferred, of course, before any import. Count on us to be vigilant in this regard.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, our skies are filled with space debris, and we are doing nothing. Every year, new satellites are launched into space, while others, too old, come to the end of their lives and become space debris. Moreover, traffic management does not really exist due to the lack of identification of all satellites, whereas this should be as natural as air traffic control. With this text, we demand that the European Commission proposes a law on space traffic before 2024, both at regulatory and capability level. The European Union must also take global leadership on this issue at UN level, because without international cooperation, our efforts to avoid, among other things, space debris will be in vain. The solutions are there to make space more sustainable. It is time to implement them now, under the leadership of Europe.

Madam President, for too long we have neglected our European industry and we have watched the migration of our businesses to distant countries without doing anything. Many of our fellow citizens blame Europe for letting this happen and worse, for encouraging it. Commissioner, it was time to tackle this problem of loss of European industrial sovereignty, which severely handicapped our continent during the coronavirus crisis. It is time to go further in reducing our strategic dependencies. Some of the Commission's actions are moving in the right direction, particularly as regards semiconductors or energy, especially at a time when our industry is starting to slow down production to save energy. But we must go faster and stronger and above all release more funds, with specific appropriations, in the future revision of the multiannual financial framework. Finally, we could check, for any new law, that it does not strengthen our dependencies and that it does strengthen our industry, which is so essential for the future of our citizens.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, more renewable energy across Europe: This is simply what we want. Solar, photovoltaic or thermal energy, wind, marine or hydroelectric energy, biomass as long as it is regulated to preserve our forests, but also new innovative technologies such as osmotic energy. We need all these renewable energy sources and that is why, together with my Renew Europe Group, we wanted to raise our targets. In particular, we want to increase the share of renewables in Europe’s energy mix to 45% by 2030 – we are currently at 22%. Why? Because the more we deploy these renewable energies, the less we will be dependent on Russian fossil fuels and the closer it will be to our European climate goals. The work has been intense, but the result is there. Finally, I would like to recall that it is crucial to continue to focus on innovation, but also to guarantee the origin of renewable energy while offering affordable prices to consumers and industries. This text will be the guarantor.

Mr President, Mr Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, Russia's war in Ukraine has revealed that we are too dependent on Russian energy products. This episode shows us how important it is to limit all our dependencies on energy imports. Our strategic autonomy depends on it. I welcome these first steps forward in the negotiations on the revision of the gas market, which is an opportunity to invest in forward-looking energy such as renewables, but also low-carbon hydrogen of electrolytic origin, which I would have liked to see pushed, Mr Vice-President, in the REPowerEU communication, rather than seeing pushed imports of renewable hydrogen, for example. Reactivating our coal-fired power plants is also not an acceptable solution to save gas. But for gas storage, we speak with one voice. In just two months, we have managed to put in place European solidarity and an effective resilience plan. Let us therefore continue our efforts towards European energy autonomy.

Mr President, with the environmental crises intensifying, our European armed forces, but also our Union missions and operations, have to face the increasingly difficult conditions to act. These same armed forces are major consumers of fossil fuels and their emissions are not included in the Paris climate agreement, as the rapporteur has pointed out. Through this resolution, we therefore call for military activities to take their full place in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while obviously maintaining their operational effectiveness. For this, we must have a common methodology to quantify these emissions and that is what we are asking High Representative Borrell to do. Secondly, we must reduce the environmental impact of our military activities, whether for aircraft, tanks or military buildings. We need to invest in energy efficiency and new energy. I would like to stress one last point: Reducing the use of fossil fuels in our armed forces must reduce our dependencies. Indeed, we are very dependent on third countries for these fossil fuels. This, in turn, makes it possible to strengthen our European strategic autonomy, which is more necessary than ever.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the TEN-E Regulation is of paramount importance for achieving Europe’s ambition to build a more integrated and resilient energy market. The discussions resulted in an ambitious agreement, for example on smart grids and hydrogen production infrastructure. However, gaps remain regarding the preponderance of fossil gas in our energy system. So let’s try to minimise the use of public funds for fossil fuels, as this is the opposite of our climate and geopolitical ambitions. This revision of the TEN-E is necessary, but it is late. It should have been done two years ago. This delays the speed of our responses. In the future, our legal tools need to be more responsive so that they become operational more quickly. Let’s try to be one step ahead and not one step behind.

Madam President, Commissioner, turbines, wind turbines, tidal and osmotic plants: the potential of offshore energy is immense and multiple. This is a fact: For the EU to meet its climate targets, it must massively deploy renewable energy, especially offshore. One of the great advantages is that at sea the wind, tides and currents are almost continuous. That is why I welcome the report we are adopting here this week, which proposes a framed acceleration of the deployment of offshore renewable energy. We call for a target of at least 60 GW of offshore capacity in Europe by 2030. We only have 12 today. To achieve this, we will need to simplify the processes. Waiting 15 years to build a wind turbine is not tenable. The climate crisis is not waiting. In addition, these offshore energies will represent a large number of quality jobs that cannot be relocated along our European coasts. Finally, the development of these offshore renewable energies will fully contribute to our European strategic energy autonomy, because all the energy we produce on our coasts will be as much energy as we do not have to import elsewhere.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am very concerned about the situation in Kazakhstan. Which head of state can justify shooting his nationals without warning? It is not a question of questioning the sovereignty of President Tokayev. Kazakhstan is a free and sovereign state. But whatever the reasons for the state's anger, I cannot accept the method employed. I cannot stand the fact that the Kazakh people are targeted with live ammunition by their own leader. Who can accept it? I also ask that light be shed on the numerous disappearances and arrests carried out by the Kazakh government. I imagine the suffering that must be felt by the families of the missing. President Tokayev must provide answers, and if the answers are not clear and acceptable, I call for exemplary sanctions against Kazakhstan and for any trade or diplomatic exchanges to be broken with that country until further notice. A country that does not respect human rights does not have the right to trade with the European Union and its member states.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, if I were to draw a conclusion from the latest report on the State of the Energy Union, it would be this: In 2020, renewable energy surpassed fossil fuels as the EU’s main energy source. This is a very encouraging signal that yes, the European Union is making significant progress in the energy transition. But, alas, that is not enough. Our greenhouse gas emissions are not falling fast enough and we are far from the climate targets we have set ourselves in this Chamber. As you pointed out, Commissioner, our energy dependency is at its highest in 30 years, with more than 60% of the energy consumed in the European Union being imported from third countries, including oil and fossil gas. This is an undeniable problem for our European energy sovereignty. We therefore need to accelerate our efforts on decarbonised energy and energy efficiency to both reduce our emissions and reduce European energy dependency. I would like to stress here that all decarbonised energy is useful and necessary. Indeed, opposing renewables and nuclear energy, as is often the case, does not advance our fight against global warming, while both are decarbonised energies and, above all, both are cost-competitive, even if some claim the opposite. Finally, it is important to focus on local energy production here in Europe. Producing, for example, hydrogen thousands of kilometres from the European Union and then transporting it for consumption in Europe is not a sustainable solution. So let's produce and consume locally as much as we can, also in the field of energy.

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, our Renew Europe Group does not accept that the explosion in energy prices, particularly gas, is hitting our citizens so hard and weakening our industries. Resolving the energy crisis requires strong short-, medium- and long-term measures. There are three tracks to explore together. First, to strengthen our gas storages, which are very insufficient in many EU countries. It is on this condition that we will be able to spend the winter without power cuts. Current stocks are not enough, as several countries have already taken from their low stocks for several weeks, to compensate for the increase in prices. A European initiative is possible by involving suppliers, carriers and regulators. It is also possible to launch a joint purchase of gas, similar to what we have done together to buy COVID-19 vaccines. Secondly, we need to promote ‘made in Europe’ energy by minimising our dependence on fossil fuels from other countries. This means rapidly developing here our renewable and low-carbon energies, including nuclear, which are now the cheapest energies. Hydrogen must also be produced in Europe and not on other continents. It is our strategic energy autonomy that needs to be promoted. Finally, there is a need for a swift reform of the European energy market and an end to the indexation of the price of electricity to the price of natural gas. If I were a Swedish citizen, I would not understand why I would have to pay an electricity bill that depends on the price of natural gas when my electricity comes from decarbonised sources that I have already paid for elsewhere. Why should I pay twice? We therefore need to reform our European energy market in line with the Green Deal.

Madam President, "I am still here. I will continue to challenge you. I will defend my cause to the end. I am not afraid. They did not win.” Thus spoke Lebanese journalist May Chidiac for the release of her book, two years after a car bomb attack that almost cost her life in 2005, for criticizing the Syrian regime in its TV shows. She lost an arm and a leg. And 15 years later, what about it? Lebanon is on the brink of implosion. Its people face chain shortages: electricity, petrol, cereals. The corruption of his political class is no longer even concealed. I have never seen a people as resilient as that of Lebanon, but the commitment of the Lebanese is running out of steam in the face of suffering, poverty and hunger. I welcome the formation of the new Lebanese government and, in front of my peers, I call on its representatives to listen and respect their people. I also welcome the resolution that we are preparing together to improve the living conditions of the Lebanese people, to put an end to acts of corruption, foreign interference, to relaunch the country or to help it find a lasting solution for the million refugees present on its territory. I am sure that Europe will be able to send the right message to the Lebanese authorities with the indispensable support of all national and European bodies.