Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner! Today we are debating the regulation on the restoration of nature. This will be voted on tomorrow. Only when I look at the title does it not agree with the specific points in it. Actually, the text would have deserved a different title, and I have considered a few suggestions for it. For example, it would fit: Forest and Meadow Decommissioning Act, Farmer's Expropriation Act or Stop-Renewable-Expansion Act. Because when it comes to real nature conservation, they just need to see how our farmers do it. I am a farmer in Austria myself, and I know how to manage my fields and meadows sustainably and how we implement nature conservation here. We have seen before Parliament today how hundreds of farmers have demonstrated here, stood here with many tractors. You have worries, and those worries are not heard. But this is not exactly what we achieve with large-scale arable land set-aside or de-exploitation of our forests. Even if we take a look at how they deal with the development of renewable energies, there is a clear contradiction here: On the one hand, we want more renewable energies, on the other hand, it is almost impossible for us to build a hydroelectric power plant, for us to renovate a hydroelectric power plant just because it is in a protected area. It just doesn't go together. Commissioner, please take the concerns seriously. Please see what happens here. Everything we want to decide here is already regulated by 23 regulations and directives. It needs an additional policy, please, not. We are not against nature conservation, we want clear, good legislation. But please don't come up with this proposal. We need a new one here.

Mr President, Commissioner, esteemed rapporteur! Thank you very much for the points raised on a common security policy. The points you raised show, in the light of the daily news we hear, how important it is that we discuss this issue and that we really do discuss it intensively. Environmental conditions have changed. With the war in Ukraine, we see how important it is to really expand these steps of data exchange, etc., that we really work together on this in a sustainable way. There are a lot of resources that are already available here, and I think it is also very important that we, the institutions, the Member States - and, of course, the assistance to third countries - really work together here so that we can discuss these important issues together.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Dear Mr. Colleague, thank you very much for your report. E-Government is indeed a real topic for the future, because it really opens up a variety of topics and opens up opportunities – on the one hand for companies, which can make a contribution here or can handle simple government channels, and on the other hand, of course, for private individuals. I'm from Austria, and with us e-government is really an issue for the next few years. For example, we have implemented that you can take your driver's license on your mobile phone and no longer have to carry it with you. And this is just a small example of what is possible here and what can still be possible when it comes to really simplifying administrative procedures, no longer sending documents by post, but you can simply upload it to the PC and you immediately get an answer whether the document is okay, whether it is stored in databases. But nevertheless, and you mentioned it, you also have to pay attention to data security, how the documents are handled, how they are stored and who has access to them. That counts the same here.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, First of all, I would like to thank my colleagues with whom we have been able to write and negotiate this very important report together over the last few months. With our report, we have really succeeded in sending an essential signal when it comes to how we want to and can store CO2 in the future. There are two fundamentally different approaches that we have discussed. The first approach is to store CO2 naturally in soil as humus, in wood as biomass or in the sea as biomass. This is an opportunity to make agriculture even more sustainable and at the same time open up new income opportunities for agriculture and forestry. The aim is now to create a level playing field in the EU for: carbon farming to ensure that actual CO2 storage is rewarded and that there is no greenwashing of CO2 certificates in agriculture and forestry. These certificates are intended to be a new alternative for certificates that are often financed under dubious and incomprehensible criteria in third countries. Of course, such an instrument also needs the necessary financial support to roll it out across the EU. Here, however, we must clearly refrain from using the resources of the common agricultural policy again, but we should make special use of resources from other budget areas, which also make it possible to promote this area. Now to the second essential point, which we have taken a closer look at in the report: This is about future CO2 storage with the new technologies CCS and CCU, i.e. carbon capture and storage and carbon capture and utilisation – two industrial ways of filtering out CO2 from the air or from processes of processing, storing it and either storing it underground in the ground or reusing it, for example in the field of synthetic fuels, or binding it in the form of building materials. It is precisely with this possibility that we can succeed in reducing production processes that were previously very CO2-intensive to almost zero emissions and really achieve an immediate profit. This report, which we adopt, is an important cornerstone. However, it is equally important that already established projects, which already exist in many Member States – private initiatives, projects of Member States – that we continue to use them in the future, continue to support them and that we are really involved in this in a sensible way in the new framework that we as the European Parliament will define in the future. Finally, I would like to emphasize that we are talking a lot about the possibilities of how we can store CO2 sustainably in the future. But I think it is very important to emphasize that we should not only talk about storage, but it should also be about: Every tonne of CO2 we don't emit is the best tonne. We don't need to save them with the possibilities we have.

Mr President, Commissioner, thank you very much to my colleague for presenting the report here. Relations between the EU and the Council of Europe are very important and we have heard it now, and I have heard it myself: At first, we don't quite know what the Council of Europe is. Not only did this happen to me at the beginning of my period, but many of the population, I believe, are unaware of the central role played by the Council of Europe. When it comes to issues such as human rights, the Council of Europe plays an essential role here, because more Member States are included. Therefore, I can only fully support my colleague's approach that we should build up the relations here, further expand that a good dialogue should also take place here in the future.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, First of all, a big thank you to our rapporteur, Mr Christophe Hansen, who has really put forward a great draft law here on how we can see in the future that products such as beef, such as cocoa, no longer come from areas where deforestation threatens. And this is really an important and correct approach that exists here, but which, as I said, must now also be implemented – where it is now a question of how the Member States will implement it, how the Commission will roll it out. And it is very important that this not only pays lip service, but that it is also really about the fact that there are strict controls, that there must also be strict sanctions if countries or regions or individual companies do not comply with these requirements. However, this law must also serve to continue to operate sustainable trade. But it must not serve to create with this bill a kind of license for further trade agreements as with Mercosur. Here you have to be clear: Here is a first important step. How can we produce sustainably? But when we refer to trade agreements, this is about reducing tariffs on sensitive products such as beef, and that cannot be determined by such a law alone.

Dear Mr President, dear Commissioner! In Austria, 680 animals were torn by the wolf last year; By November of this year, there were already 730 detected wolf tears. Yes, we can see that as a success that a species threatened with extinction has finally spread again, but we must also see the problems. And if my colleagues come here now with great ideas – we need herd protection dogs, two-meter-high fences or shepherds – then I invite them all next year in the summer to come to an alpine pasture at 1 500, 2 000 meters above sea level in the high alpine area and then set up a fence or shepherd a flock of sheep. Have fun, it just won't work. And, Commissioner, you simply cannot take responsibility here. We have been waiting for concrete proposals since 2019 and nothing has come. We need a sensible European wolf management based on science and facts, and we finally need a reassessment of the protection status, so that our Member States finally have the necessary leeway to carry out meaningful wolf management.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, European agriculture is facing major challenges. This year, the scarcity of fertilisers in the European Union has been particularly evident, posing a serious threat to food production. There is a gas shortage and 60% of fertilisers are imported from Russia and Belarus. But we also need to take a look at the fertiliser suppliers in the EU. At present, a merger between the Czech Babiš Group Agrofert and the Austrian fertilizer manufacturer Borealis threatens to become the second largest nitrogen producer within the EU. We must not look the other way if a large industrialist attracts even more market power here, if there are already almost no fertilizer producers in the European Union in their own hands. This is an additional price driver and brings additional unrest to the European market. Commissioner, I would ask you to consider these circumstances as well. The European Commission has the opportunity to intervene here, and I would ask you to pay close attention when this happens. Help us to prevent the sale of European fertiliser production together.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Something is finally happening! Simply put, the EU deforestation law no longer allows products such as maize, beef or soy to be imported into the EU from deforestation. A great success that we are celebrating here and a big thank you to all who have worked on it. In recent years, we have increasingly tightened the production conditions for our farmers in the EU. And now we finally follow up, and here we are working intensively on it. Because it is more than fair that only products come to us in the EU that are produced on the same or at least approximately the same conditions with us. But this law can only be a beginning for the future. Because if our European agriculture imposes ever stricter rules, then it should be more than understandable that the same applies to imported products. And there is still a lot to do here in the future. This is fair for our farmers, it is fair for our consumers, and it is a great contribution to protecting the world.

Mr President, first of all, I want to mention the sound of the Commission is very low, so maybe the technicians can increase the sound a bit. My further question would be, do you think that with regard to the COP15 resolution, can there be really part of food security, and also with the context of the war in Ukraine and with the changes of delivery of wheat to North Africa – what is your expectation on this topic?

Commissioner! Thank you very much for allowing us to speak so quickly. Biodiversity is an all-encompassing crisis. I think it is good that we are consulting here, and I think it is very good that we are implementing very ambitious goals at European level. But my question is: How can we help to make the biodiversity crisis visible in other parts of the world? As Commissioner, what concrete steps are you taking in this area to really attract attention and promote biodiversity not only in Europe, but also in other parts of the world? Because I strongly believe that if we all have our goals of Green Deals Nevertheless, they still want to provide security of supply with food. How do you assume that parts of production in other parts of the world do not take place under worse conditions and destroy the environment in other parts of the world more? This is a very specific question.

Dear Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, We will decide on a variety of ambitious climate targets tomorrow, and we really have the opportunity to make Europe more climate-friendly and take the rest of the world with our technologies. However, what we are threatened with in the LULUCF Regulation is unfortunately far from reality. We want to increase the current targets of 310 million tonnes by another 50 million tonnes. And, Commissioner, do you know how many hectares of forest are storing CO2 here? That's another 4 million hectares of forest. This is half the size of Austria, my home country, which we should now conjure up here from one day to the next and thus store CO2. How's that supposed to work? How is this really supposed to work? Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, let us really stick to the facts, let us stick to the numbers and let us trust science and let us not play a game here in this plenary – who has the highest ambitions and who wins with the game with the highest numbers? Let's really take a look at the numbers and ask our farmers what these numbers mean and how they can be implemented. Let's not play numbers in here!

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, We, our continent and our world, have been in a health crisis for a year and a half, and unfortunately we still face a lot of question marks in many areas. From the European side, we were really good at the beginning. We made really big and the right cuts. We have invested in vaccine research. Vaccines were produced in Europe. We were truly world leaders here. We can remember something else: In the beginning, every single vaccine dose was disputed. Which country had more? Who was the first to get vaccinated? The first clashes have already taken place here. Where are we now? It is now the case that some Member States no longer know where to go with the vaccine doses that are about to expire. Then there are still countries in the world that are still desperately looking for vaccine doses. Here we have to see that there is really a fair balance, that there is a solution, that we tackle here and not wait for it and not let the still lacking vaccine doses expire. That's our job. We can do that, we can do it together. It takes really good next steps. For me, that's three steps. I have already said: We need to distribute the vaccine well. We need to continue, booster vaccinations, third vaccinations. We need to stop spreading these lies – if you listen to some colleagues here – and really count them professionally, scientifically and really stop making these false statements, then we can get more people vaccinated in Europe and everyone in the rest of the world has access to vaccines.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, I was really pleased when I heard a long time ago that with the Farm to Fork Strategy we were thinking about what the entire value chain from farm to food retail to consumer could look like. What came out in the end, however, is disappointing for me in many areas. This is where the red pen was smeared around. Goals were set that were little thought through and are really very, very difficult for the farmers to implement. It cannot be the aim of this strategy to produce less grain, less milk, less meat and to import the quantities that we can no longer produce in Europe from third countries such as Brazil, Argentina or the USA. Madam Commissioner, what we really need and what I would have expected would have been a clear strengthening of European production, clear labelling of origin and equal standards for imported products, innovation and training of our future farmers. I hope that before we talk about blanket bans here and make them binding, we will also listen here to scientific impact assessment, to real experts, in order to be really clear and clear here and to create a good strategy for our farmers.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, The security of energy supply must be affordable and guaranteed for all citizens in the future. Because we cannot bear the current enormous increases in energy prices in the long term. In my opinion, two approaches are needed to solve this problem: Firstly, a rapid halt to the current price increases. It cannot be that due to the artificial scarcity of a few countries that are driving this forward, prices across Europe are rising. This requires Member States and the European Commission to achieve success through diplomatic channels. Secondly, it is an even more important punk for me that we have to be able to become more independent in the energy supply in Europe in the coming years. In this House, we agree on one thing: Our system is steered away from a fossil-based system towards a renewable energy system. This cannot happen overnight. This really requires an energy policy with common sense. Here we need not only empty ideas, but diverse approaches: whether it is the production of green biogas, fuel from renewable raw materials or energy production, electricity generation from water or wind energy. Another possibility for me is to generate energy in my own household, on my own roof and store it in order to become truly independent. Dear Commissioner, I see that you are already cold. We will soon be at the end of this debate. Really take these points with you, to pursue sustainable climate policy here for Europe, for our world, in order to solve these problems, including the future problems.