Speeches

Mr President! The withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty finally marks the beginning of the end of fossil Europe. Freedom instead of dependence. I think it is also a nice end point for our work on the energy transition. We have made renewables the foundation of a future Energy Union, reorganized infrastructures, modernized the electricity market, decarbonized gas and opened all barriers to offshore. The fossil age is finally over. The future instead of the past and a future also for Europeans, which means that they will get cheap, reliable electricity from renewables in the future. This is my last speech here, and I would like to thank all my colleagues, the Commissioner, my team, for making me part of the energy transition and part of the energy transition. Green Deal was allowed to be. It was a great honor for me.

Mr President, this law is a major step towards decarbonising the gas supply and moving away from gas altogether wherever possible. It will be a key instrument for us to free ourselves from Russian ‘blood gas’. Decarbonisation starts locally and this law supports this transition bottom-up by allowing for local planning. This will be a major step in recognising that decarbonisation strategies will differ from town to town, from village to village, and they have to work locally. I’m also really happy that we allow to decommission infrastructure where it is no longer needed, to make clear that the future will look entirely different. We also make it clear that where there is no alternative, where we need renewable hydrogen, industries should get priority instead of wasting it elsewhere where there are better alternatives. I would like to thank Jens Geier for the wonderful job that he’s done, and wish all of my colleagues great success in their future endeavours.

Mr President! Reporting in Austria on this directive was really adventurous. Opponents have pretended that energy-efficient construction is a total Gaga eco-madness. But energy-efficient construction is local added value. The innovation power for this lies on the ground – in Europe, in Austria, even in my region, in Vorarlberg. Building with wood, building with recycled material, renovating stock: The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive is a discharge directive and it is an exemption directive. It is a relief from costs, and it is an exemption from dependence on dictator gas. Energy-efficient building and living in energy-efficient buildings means that citizens have less costs. Because those who have high costs are vulnerable if the energy supplier says again: "The price has to go up" because he is a crazy dictator. That is why we are adopting this directive and making it easier for governments that are still refusing to finally get out of Russian gas, like the Austrian ones.

Madam President, The Member States have watched for years as various parties in Europe have been gradually drawn into Vladimir Putin's sphere of influence, and we now see the consequences here in the House. Austria has also made its contribution to this. In 2016, two years after the invasion of Crimea, the FPÖ signed a treaty of friendship with Putin’s ‘United Russia’ party, a treaty that they do not even want to disclose now. Meanwhile, Vienna plays the role of a Russian espionage hub. Christo Grosev has said that he suspects more Russian agents, spies and henchmen in the city than there are police officers. That's great if an expert says so. If we want to drive Putin's spirit out of this house, we have to start with the responsibility of the Member States, otherwise we will be sitting there again after the next election and will have all the more Russian Trojan horses sitting here in the house. It should be in everyone's interest that we can prevent this.

Mr President, the biggest group in this House, the European People’s Party, has decided to launch an all—out assault on our common fight against climate change and – at least in today’s fight for nature restoration – it’s good to say that they lost. It was really a high—risk bet on our common future actually, and the EPP has shown that, if anything, they are not fit to lead this House. To quote one great political mind, Cersei Lannister: ‘When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.’ And today they lost. The political play, I believe, was very cynical, and a completely irresponsible way of handling the power given to them by European voters. Some initiatives do need intense deliberation in order to make them better, but what I could not understand was the EPP leaving the negotiating table, refusing to do the job they were elected to do. To stand against the Green Deal is to stand against a liveable future on our European continent. To stand against the Green Deal is to stand against the sustainable industrial future of the European Union, because that is the way that we are going. At least today reason prevailed and the institutions can finally do their job, which is to finish working on nature restoration and to continue working on the European Green Deal for the future of Europeans.

Madam President, colleagues, I am seven months pregnant now and I will have to miss a couple of plenary sessions in the fall because I simply will not be able to travel, and I do want to spend a little bit of time with a new-born baby at home. But I am the leader of my own one-woman delegation, and the consequences of missing a session are clear – I will not be able to vote because there is no remote voting anymore. And the misogynists might say, ‘Well, maybe don’t get pregnant’, but is this really the place that we want to have here? Is that the kind of parliament that we want to work in? The European Parliament is the house of the people. It should be as diverse as the people of Europe are: old and young; men and women; child-free, older children, young kids. But the simple fact that there are no rules for parental leave, that there is no remote voting system, makes this House less diverse and it infringes upon our rights as elected parliamentarians to represent our constituencies and to fulfil our mandate. It is undemocratic and it is sexist. Dear Madam President of this House, dear colleagues, it is true, as with everything else in gender equality politics, there are many things in the life of women that we cannot change, but we can change policy.

Mr President! Dear Kadri Simson, thank you very much for this debate and for bringing this issue of energy storage together to the top of our common priority list. The European Parliament had already pointed out in its 2020 report that we urgently need an energy storage strategy. Without sufficient storage, there will be no energy transition. This is very important to stress over and over again. I am therefore all the more pleased that the Commission has now made some concrete proposals with a working document and recommendations on energy storage. This is a clear political signal to the energy sector, to the Member States. But that can and must only be the beginning. Of course, we Alpine residents also have a strong view of the potential that still lies in hydropower. And I very much welcome the fact that the Commission is also highlighting the existing potential of pumped storage. I believe that we must all work to ensure that this assessment is also reflected in other laws concerning this. And we also need to talk about what is preventing the use of existing capacities at the moment. In Vorarlberg, there is a great, innovative project that can become one of the largest storage facilities in Central Europe almost entirely without additional environmental intervention: the Lünerseewerk II. And yet, there are almost endless approval procedures to look forward to. This needs to change if we really want to move forward. National governments in the Member States are particularly in demand here. The expansion of storage must finally have the same urgency as the expansion of renewables. Otherwise, we will not achieve the energy transition as a whole. And we also want Europe to become the place where the storage technologies of the future will be developed. Let's go there together. And now I would like to thank the Commission once again for the work that has taken us a long way here.

Mr President! With this vote, we are now laying the foundations for making flying in Europe more climate-friendly, or let's call it more climate-friendly. Finally, a truly effective allowance trading system is also being introduced in aviation, a de facto carbon pricing system. Clearly, it can only be a beginning. You could have been more courageous in the details, but especially in the application. We are all constantly asked: What does all this mean if much less happens in the rest of the world and they don't go along with it? Well, this law also only applies to flights within Europe with the hope that the world would eventually follow suit with the long-haul route. But if we want the change we are initiating here to also cross the borders of the European Union, then we must finally stop hoping and really create facts so that we can also create climate neutrality for the whole world.

Madam President, The topic of cars moves a lot of young people, especially climate-conscious people. A well-informed student asked me the question yesterday in the house: The issue of e-fuels – does this come from lobbying from the car industry? Many are surprised to hear that the industry is actually much wider than many in politics. The European car industry wanted clarity. They already have final data for their last combustion engine models, which are well before 2035. What we now have instead – also thanks to the Council – is uncertainty, and still uncertainty also for the European car industry. And this is in fierce global competition for the electromobility that we now threaten to lose because of felt truths, anecdotal knowledge, misinformation and completely misguided nostalgia for yesterday's life. On the way to this misery solution, European democracy has also been damaged in the long term. One can only thank the German government and also the Austrian government for absolutely nothing.

Mr President! Transport is one of the major emissions problems facing the European Union. We need a proper transport transition in the European Union. This also means, of course, that we have to put goods and people on the rails; Today we are talking about private transport. People are, as is often the case, farther away from politics. While new registrations for electric cars in Germany have already grown by 32% last year, those for diesel and petrol cars have fallen sharply. And Vice-President Timmermans said it rightly at the outset: The Industrial Revolution is happening if we like it or not. What is crucial for Europe is: Do we want to be there? Do we want to design this? Do we also want to create prosperity for our continent, or will we not be there again? We miss it; Europe is becoming a large open-air museum for tourists from all over the world. This law is an essential step in the right direction, a clarification for our citizens and for our industry towards a sustainable transport transition.

Madam President, The energy crisis shows the destructive power of fossil fuels. They are destroying our climate and they are destroying European security. Renewable energies are our future, not only in the fight against the climate catastrophe, but for European independence and affordable energy. These legislative changes finally give us the tools we need to really get into the approval procedures, into the bureaucracy properly. Any unnecessary extension in the procedures for PV, wind energy or pumped storage stands in the way of the freedom of European women. In Vorarlberg, in my home region, for example, bureaucracy threatens to unnecessarily extend one of the most important infrastructure projects of the next 15 years: Lünersee II – a truly promising pumped storage project that will generate 1000 megawatts of power for the entire cross-border region, is looking forward to a process of six to eight years. That's too much. We can't afford that anymore. And such a thing must finally come to an end – for our freedom.

Madam President, dear Commissioner, tomorrow we will be able to observe a jubilee, because I counted and our Energy Ministers will meet for the 10th time since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In February, views were exchanged, and there was a discussion in June at some point – the energy crisis wasn’t even on the agenda. At another meeting REPowerEU was welcomed, and at some point there was at least a commitment to reduce gas demand. In September and October, at multiple meetings, we again had lots of discussions and proposals. I’m sorry, but it is bloody November and some people might even be wondering: ‘what are they actually doing for a living?’ Our citizens and our businesses demand more. They want solutions. They want actions. So obviously, I guess we all wonder what will happen tomorrow – proposing to propose another proposal by the proposing entity? At this point, I don’t think we can even afford any more to have a debate about pros and cons in certain models, but the best model would probably be the one that we can agree on to finally move on, for actions that our citizens and businesses desperately need.

Mr President! Why does the European Union need more own resources, more own budgetary sources? Because they create more freedom, because they make us crisis-proof. The fact that the European Union was in fact almost entirely dependent on the will of the Member States for major budgetary decisions in the past was a design flaw. And anyone who now claims that possible sources, such as emissions trading, would burden companies can finally start doing their homework at home, sifting through their own tax systems and reducing unnecessary burdens for entrepreneurs and citizens. We take responsibility for the climate. We take responsibility for a sustainable economy of the future in Europe. And we are finally working to give the Union more freedom to make essential investment decisions for the future of its citizens in a more independent and self-determined way.

Mr President! A Russian newspaper today published a column by the former Austrian Foreign Minister of the FPÖ, Karin Kneissl. Europe needs Russian gas, she assured her Russian readers. The Putin understanders in Austria and the European Union stand not only for the literal kneel, as in the case of Karin Kneissl, but for the complete moral decay. A Styrian member of the Communist Party described Ukraine as a crippled state and repeated known lies, for example in the sense that the sanctions were contrary to international law. What does official Australia do? Chancellor Nehammer meets some of Putin's most influential minds: Viktor Orbán and Aleksandar Vučić. Russia has perfected the war of lies, but the truth remains: Russia is the aggressor, Vladimir Putin is a war criminal, and Ukraine must win this war.

Madam President, We really don't have time to act anymore. The citizens of the Union, our entrepreneurs, no longer have time to wait for real action. We are looking forward to a harsh winter here – for many people who also write to me that they are already looking at their energy bills with desperation, entrepreneurs who are afraid that they will not be able to continue their operations in winter. Nevertheless, there are some Member States, such as Austria, where I feel that the motto is rather: "It won't be that bad". But this is not a serious policy – against inflation, against exploding electricity prices. Europe can no longer wait for a drastic and truly tangible discharge, and Europe can no longer wait for clear energy-saving targets. Nor can Europe wait any longer for us to finally radically prioritise the expansion of renewables. Better done than perfect. We really don't have time to lose, and it's up to us to deliver here.

Mr President! Yes, it's about needing more gas in the gas storages. But I must say that Professor Krasnodębski has already made a good point. What are the gas storage tanks filled with? With Russian gas. The gas that is currently being used to finance the bloody war in Ukraine. Of course, we cannot ignore that. After all, the conclusion he happily drew from the fact that we should not have scolded about the coal is, of course, completely wrong. This is not the path we need to take now. We must now – and this is the next task for this Parliament – talk about how we can finally massively expand renewables and renewable energy storage. What we have achieved in the pandemic – that all of a sudden many companies have produced ventilators, have produced masks, that all of a sudden many people have worked in an area where they did not work before – is what we need now. We need companies that produce solar panels that produce heat pumps, and many people who have the opportunity to install them in European homes. We must do this massively now, not resort to coal, that would be absolutely the wrong way. And when it is said in Austria: "No reason to panic", then you really wonder what people do professionally. Because that is a task that we have to solve now.

Madam President, It is an absolute fact that aviation is a rapidly growing source of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. If we are to be honest about becoming climate neutral by 2050 – and I hope that a large majority of our colleagues still support this goal – then all sectors must make a contribution, including air transport. Yes, we are talking about a global industry, a global industry, a global problem. But unfortunately, far too little is happening at the international level, and we cannot wait for someone else to organise it for us. The EU must be more courageous in this regard. The international ICAO system covers only a tiny fraction of emissions. This is completely ridiculous what is currently being presented as a solution. Above all, it does not incentivise the use of more climate-friendly alternative technologies. The EU ETS is the better system and we should apply it to air transport with full force. The revenues can be used specifically for the use of new alternative fuels and thus really support finding solutions for the future. In recent years, far too little has happened and some EU Member States are far too little active on this issue. It's time to change that, and we're doing that now with this law as part of the ‘Fit-for-55’package. It is time to finally show international aviation where the journey will go in the future.

Mr President, Europe’s energy crisis is not the lack of natural gas that we have, but it is our dependence on natural gas. Fossil fuels are not only the drivers of climate change, they are now also instruments of war. And I want to thank the Commission for the REPowerEU plan, because our future, the basis of our liberty and our democracy, depend on its success. We have to become the continent where the energy future of tomorrow actually happens today and where we leap into that development. We need to have a decentralised, renewables-based system with a strong European grid supported by sustainable storage solutions. We need to have affordable, clean heat in insulated homes all across the European Union. We need a solar carpet covering all unused spaces and a green economy powering the growth of the future. It is the only future that we have, and I know that we have been working on these developments for many years, but we will need to speed it up. We will have to leap into the energy future of tomorrow today, otherwise our freedom also depends on that.

Madam President, The conference is now coming to an end, and this should be the start of real reforms in the European Union. I hope to speak for everyone when I say thank you: to all the citizens who have taken part here, who have taken the time to do so and have been really passionate about it and, as I have noticed, who have also made a difference to many colleagues, who have triggered something after they have really felt – which has long been my presumption – that the citizens of the Union are often much further ahead than some politicians would trust them to be. I think you have heard and felt that a lot of the extreme right in this House are always saying: "We are the people" are now a bit shocked when the people come here and suddenly say something different than what they actually meant. It must be really frustrating, disappointing. Okay, but that's the way it is. Citizens want a Europe that works for them. Europe must be strong for this. And for this, the European Union must also be strengthened. And for that we will need new contracts.

Madam President, Who doesn't know? A cell phone battery somehow magically gets weaker and weaker. Repairing and replacing the battery would be disproportionately expensive, since you could buy a newer model right away, and the old one somehow ends up in the trash – unfortunately. I think we all agree that this is not sustainable, of course. And we are now working here in the European Union to put an end to this. Get out of the disposable culture and into repair. The solutions that are now on the table that are being discussed include, for example, that devices must be more durable and easier to repair. However, this also requires interchangeable parts and easier access to these spare parts. We also require a longer warranty, and it also requires guaranteed software updates so that the products can be used longer. And it needs clearly understandable information, whether and how devices can actually be repaired, so that you can immediately consider when buying whether or not what is clever is. Such measures must, of course, be practical. This means that we do not want to have a planned economy, but we need specifically coordinated rules for the respective industries.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. I would, of course, like to thank the rapporteur and the shadow rapporteurs for their cooperation, starting with the positive. However, the reform of trans-European energy infrastructure includes some fundamental improvements. There is a stronger focus on renewables and offshore, there is a climate check, and the gas grid operators finally have less power in terms of control. But there would have been so much more in this TEN-E reform. The fact that there is an exception to finance the EastMed and Melita pipelines is simply scandalous – not only because the latter project is also involved in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. What is being cynically sold to us as diversification at the moment brings us even deeper into dependence on natural gas. It basically excites me so excessively that we always do only the minimum, instead of thinking forward visionarily that the rule is that we always do only the most necessary, instead of doing what would be possible. The reform is okay anyway, because what was there before can at best be described as a medium catastrophe. But ‘eh okay’ is not what we need to free ourselves from the shackles of dictatorial gas. We will finally have to do our best because everything else is simply not good enough anymore.

Madam President, EU emissions trading is the European Union's flagship instrument for the efficient reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by setting a clear reduction path that enables us to meet the reduction targets. That is why a strong, well-functioning emissions trading system is essential to achieving our targets. In order for this emissions trading scheme to remain such an efficient, reliable and shock-resistant instrument, the Market Stability Reserve has been in place since 2019. The ITRE Committee adopted my proposal to extend the MSF until the end of the trading period by a large majority. This will prevent the phasing out of the MSR 2023. If necessary, any changes to the functioning of the MSF will be discussed in the context of the revision of the emissions trading system. Maybe we'll hear a few more points about that now. I would like to thank the colleagues who have supported me in my work on the MSF and have ensured that European emissions trading continues to be such a strong tool for combating climate change.

Madam President, Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine shows us very clearly that dependence on fossil fuels is a dependence on unpredictable dictatorships and dictators. It is also this dependence that leads everywhere to the fact that the bills for electricity and heat go through the ceiling. But are we really doing enough to relieve people on the one hand, but also to prepare for the next winters? To make sure that we can finally put an end to this dependence? And I am a little surprised at how Mr Krasnodębski almost shows a little satisfaction here, of course, that the energy transition is somehow to blame for this happening now and that we are in this situation. That's not true. Nor do I feel that we here in the House have really recognised the situation in which we find ourselves. We're still pretending it's acceptable to see gas as a temporary solution for the next few years, decades. What do we do with it if we now seem to want to import more LNG in the future? Do we think it will be cheaper? That's completely insane. It is insane that we will continue to keep our citizens trapped in a dependency that will cost them more and more. The only thing we can really do is get the energy transition in line at the speed of light. We need a general mobilization for the exchange of heating, for the expansion of public transport, so that people really have an alternative, which is also cheaper for them, which is affordable for them. That is the only thing that will get us out of dependence and that will also allow the European Union to be truly honest with its values.

Mr President, Commissioner! Our common internal market is one of the Union's great achievements, and it is freedom and boundlessness in the market that creates prosperity. But the European single market still cannot reach its full potential, but, on the contrary, is constantly under fire from short-term, short-sighted policies. Regulatory loneliness and national foreclosure plans are jeopardising our European prosperity. Funnily enough, this is also a story where left and right-wing forces meet in Europe from time to time when it comes to invoking wage dumping by our fellow EU citizens, or that they say: Well, we'll make the better rules ourselves at home. We Liberals are stubbornly fighting against all barriers to trade: excessive bureaucracy, for example, but also overregulation and Gold plating Or simply ignoring common standards. All this is always at the expense of consumers and jobs. The strategy we have developed here creates a freer market for free citizens. I would like to thank the rapporteur and the co-negotiators. Now, of course, the Commission is on the move, but above all the Member States, which are really in demand here, are finally stopping, for the good of all, undermining the internal market with individual rules that speak against what we all make up here.

Madam President, We in the European Parliament today call for a coordinated and comprehensive strategy in the fight against cancer. What is beyond question for me is that, of course, all Europeans deserve equal access to innovative therapies. But what we must not forget is the importance of basic research, of investing in research and development in the fight against cancer. And that's exactly what we've seen over the last two years in the development of COVID vaccines, which can mean that. We have benefited from the fact that some countries have invested more in basic research over the last two years. And we will benefit for a long time in the future from what has been achieved over the last two years through this immensely intensified cooperation. It must finally come to an end in Europe that we save the basic research sector. We always manage to raise money for our little things. But when it comes to investing in the future, in basic research, we always hold back and are far from the goals we set ourselves. This must finally come to an end if we really want to win the fight against cancer.