What Irene spoke about.

9

Nov

2022

EN Speech

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REPowerEU chapters in recovery and resilience plans (debate)

Mr President, tomorrow’s vote marks an important step ahead towards addressing some structural problems which are emerging in the current energy crisis by means of investments for new infrastructure, for example, for renewable energy production and for overcoming energy supply distortion. The resources at stake are important: EUR 20 billion in grants and more than EUR 200 billion in loans that are…

18

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Keep the bills down: social and economic consequences of the war in Ukraine and the introduction of a windfall tax (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, dear Commissioner, for months, we’ve been saying to people that the rising cost of energy was something limited and temporary. But it’s not been like that. And, let’s face it, it will not be like this in the future. Governments had to intervene massively to support families and businesses and will have to do that again in the future. But it’s not going to be sustaina…

22

Jun

2022

EN Speech

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Implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (debate)

Madam President, the reality around us, from the Russian aggression to the turbulence on the energy market, confirmed the genuine need for the Recovery Fund. Many of the decisions that we took during the negotiations, from the inception of the European instrument to avoid internal market fragmentation to fostering the renewables in the energy mix, were forward-looking, and the Parliament largely c…

9

Mar

2022

EN Speech

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European Semester for economic policy coordination: annual sustainable growth survey 2022 – European Semester for economic policy coordination: employment and social aspects in the annual sustainable growth strategy survey 2022 (debate)

Madam President, when the Commission opened the 2022 Semester cycle last autumn, war in Europe was not even in our worst nightmares. On the contrary, there were many hopes that the Union could leave behind the difficult months of the COVID pandemic and start to face more decisively the digital, environmental and social challenges. When we started to draft this report, we thought – and we still bel…

14

Feb

2022

EN Speech

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Formal sitting – 20th anniversary of the euro

Madam President, 20 years is an important anniversary for anyone, but I think that if we look back at all that the euro has been through, well, then we realise how special this anniversary is. At first, the introduction of the single currency in Europe seemed like a risky bet. Many feared it was too early. Others thought that there were other priorities. There was some fear about it. And later, af…

15

Dec

2021

EN Speech

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

Madam President, we are really at a crucial stage in the Recovery and Resilience Facility as we are moving from the planning to the implementation. And this is an unprecedented challenge, which will have important consequences for the future. First, a successful implementation will mark another leap forward in the integration process of the European Union, and will show even to the most sceptical …

10

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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Disclosure of income tax information by certain undertakings and branches (debate)

Madam President, after five years of deadlock in the Council, we finally managed to seal a deal on the public country-by-country reporting, which is a crucial transparency tool. Thanks to the work of this Parliament, big multinationals will be obliged to publicly disclose where they make profits and where they pay their taxes. The agreement also includes the obligation for companies to publish how…

20

Oct

2021

EN Speech

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Global Tax Agreements to be endorsed at the G20 Summit in Rome, 30th/31st of October (continuation of debate)

Mr President, the first thing I want to express today is a great sense of achievement. One hundred and thirty-six countries have finally reached an agreement to end the deleterious race to the bottom caused by deregulated international fiscal competition. This agreement will help us fight fiscal elusion, fiscal dumping and will provide new resources to many countries that can be used to address so…