Speeches

Madam President, Mr Kristersson, ladies and gentlemen, in order to cope with the cost-of-living crisis caused by the increase in the cost of energy and to tackle the climate emergency, we have an easy solution that also isolates Putin. Isolate the houses. As rapporteur for the revision of the Energy Performance and Buildings Directives, I want the European Union and the Member States to address these crises at the same time. Buildings are responsible for more than one third of greenhouse emissions in the EU. A restructuring plan at European level would create hundreds of thousands of jobs at local level and help to cope with these two crises. With ambitious minimum energy performance standards, I want to lift millions of Europeans out of energy poverty and, above all, I want to put social safeguards in place to protect those most at risk. I look forward to fruitful negotiations with the Swedish Presidency.

Madam President, Executive Vice-President Timmermans, our shadow rapporteur, Ville Niinistö, could not be here today as he is heading to the biodiversity COP in Montreal. But he asked me to say a few words on his behalf. This limited revision of the Renewable Energy Directive stemming from the REPowerEU package of May aims at simplifying and shortening the administrative permit-granting processes applicable to renewable energy projects, related storage and grid connections. This is necessary to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy, especially in the face of the current energy crisis and the need to stop using fossil fuels as soon as possible. We are happy to see stricter timelines for permit-granting and obliging Member States to ensure sufficient staff resources to make the shorter permit times doable. For our group, fighting the climate and biodiversity crises are crucial. We cannot just do one at the cost of the other. They should be solved together. And the compromises are a delicate balance in this aspect and close to the Commission’s proposal. But we must also ensure that the rights of the public enshrined in the Aarhus Convention on access to information, public involvement in decision-making and access to justice are upheld in these revisions. We also welcomed the introduction of some of the measures from the Council’s emergency regulation on permitting into the Renewable Energy Directive, especially the even quicker permit-granting for heat pumps and solar installations in the built environment. These are low-hanging fruit in the energy transition that also bring direct benefits to people, reducing their expensive fossil fuel bills while transitioning to renewable energy sources. And I’ve incorporated some of this into the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. So we need to knit all of this together. In conclusion, MEP Ville Niinistö would like to thank the rapporteur and shadows for their cooperation, and hopes to close this file quickly in the new year based on a strong EPP mandate.

Madam President, Commissioner Vălean, the aviation sector has already recovered from the impact of COVID-19, but two challenges remain – environmental and social. The ongoing race to the bottom on labour standards in the aviation sector is failing workers and passengers alike. This process started with accelerated liberalisation in the 1990s, making flying affordable and pervasive, but at a great cost. It has made working in the sector unattractive for many, and it causes capacity problems and serious disruption for passengers. And this is particularly true for ground handling. The race to the bottom brings safety risks as well, and this has been highlighted by EASA. The Commission, therefore, must urgently revise the Air Services Regulation and the Ground—handling Directive in time for finalisation during the current mandate. We have to prioritise higher social standards.

Madam President, Executive Vice—President Timmermans, I compliment you on the role you played at COP, along with my colleague Eamon Ryan from Ireland, to create the loss and damage fund. But we have created a vessel; we now have to fill it. The challenge in the years ahead is to find the funding and deliver it to the people that need it most. Above all of this, we have these headline commitments; we’ve had them for 10, 20 years. We now have to dig down at a granular level, and those of us in public life must give the commitment to the decisions that are made in this Parliament every day of the week on the files that we hold. And it’s all very well to be in favour of climate action in theory at a high level but to resist it in practice. That is the real challenge that we have: to communicate climate action not just in the rhetoric at these annual meetings – whether it be at COP15 in Montreal, COP27 in Sharm el—Sheikh – but in the legislative files. And I fear that a lot of the commitment to climate action is skin deep. It goes as far as signing on the dotted line at a high level, but not delivering us in reality. And that, friends, is what we have to deliver in these rooms in the months and years ahead.

Madam President, the energy crisis is pushing millions into energy poverty around Europe. And instead of writing blank checks to energy companies that are making billions out of this crisis, we need to help the most vulnerable. More targeted social support is needed for those who are suffering in this crisis. And on top of this, there’s so much we can do to smooth out the price volatility and protect people from price shocks. Our first response during this crisis should be to increase the connectivity between the energy markets. I know it’s not rocket science. You know, Commissioner, it is very challenging, though, to do this. And we need a truly interconnected energy market in Europe. And this can deliver cheaper electricity prices. It can help increase the amount of renewables on the grid. And it can increase and support better welfare for all. And that’s what the experts at ACER are telling us. So in practice, this means building huge interconnectors between our national energy grids and increasing cross-border energy trade. And in 2021, this trade delivered EUR 34 billion in benefits. So with more interconnectors, we could see solar energy from Spain powering the energy grid in Ireland. We could see wind energy from Ireland powering homes in France. We can see geothermal energy from Central Europe helping everyone in the entire European Union. So an integrated union increases competition between providers. It lowers energy bills and allow us and allows us to transition to a renewables based economy. It smoothens out the price volatility and leaves us less vulnerable to price shocks. So we need a truly integrated energy union to protect consumers and the vulnerable.

Mr President, in an age of private yachts and super-jets, as the super—rich get richer, it is time for windfall taxes. Five months ago this week, on 19 May, this House adopted a resolution calling for a windfall tax on energy companies. But two weeks ago, we rejected a call for a tax on the excessive profits of corporations benefiting from the crisis. While we’ve been debating this tax for five months, households across Europe have seen their energy costs soar, small businesses shut down, and millions are falling below the energy poverty line. We have solutions: introduce a windfall tax, differentiate between fossil fuels and renewables and share the revenues with households. We also need to ban evictions and disconnections and we need to increase the minimum wage to a living wage. The crisis is here right now. Households and small businesses are experiencing it and it’s not far off in the future. So now is the time for action.

More than seven million people have been displaced. One thousand six hundred people were killed, including five hundred children. Millions of children in Pakistan have lost their homes, families, and schools. And now, they are at risk of many diseases that are destroying the country. The United Nations is calling for more humanitarian assistance and we should help them. The European Union needs to increase its assistance. This is a climate disaster that is happening in front of our eyes. It is clear that we need to speed up decarbonisation in all sectors. The tragedy in Pakistan reflects the price of softness.

Mr President, a cold winter lies ahead for Putin and his cronies. Russia’s attempts this week to illegally annex four regions in Ukraine have been rightfully condemned. This is an age of hybrid warfare, and the Nord Stream attacks reminds us that we are vulnerable. I am encouraged by the plan presented by the Commission President this morning to protect our critical infrastructure. But I am concerned about the security of our infrastructure, our underground cables, particularly off the coast of my own country, Ireland. These cables are crucial to the functioning of Europe’s digital services. And a recent report found that the Irish Defence Forces cannot adequately protect them. So we need to urgently invest in our defence capacity, in cybersecurity and in defending our crucial infrastructure at this perilous time.

Mr President, we rarely discuss beauty and design within these walls, but the New European Bauhaus brings these values and the heart into the European Green Deal. It can give communities a real say in their common future. It helps us design the new and support the past as we renovate and regenerate our homes and neighbourhoods. It helps us design the circular economy in public spaces, in buildings and in the everyday objects that we use in our daily lives. So, we now need a greater reach into all kinds of regions across Europe and beyond; a clearer funding stream with fresh resources; a focus on inclusivity and accessibility for marginalised communities; and, crucially, an explicit role in tackling energy poverty and delivering a just transition for all.

Mr President, I would like to thank the Commissioner, for being with us today. It was the author H.G. Wells who said, ‘when I see an adult on a bicycle, I have hope for the human race’. I think the same could apply to a child on a bicycle. I do believe, when it comes to the European Green Deal, that cycling can deliver. It lowers emissions, it cleans the air, it improves road safety and it allows us to live longer, healthier lives. So it must be placed at the heart of the EU’s transport strategy. If we want improved quality of life, if we want liveable communities where our children can stay safe, if we want to live our lives at peace with the planet, then we must place the bicycle at the heart of our transport policies and plans. No other means of transport allows us to travel with a smile on our face and comfortably socialise with friends and neighbours as we travel significant distances in a leisurely manner. So, Commissioner, we need a dedicated cycling policy. We need an EU cycling strategy – and I’m glad to hear you say that this is on the way – but we do need dedicated governance structures and we need the funding, because the more we build safe cycling infrastructure, the more people will cycle. The EU can help us achieve this. If we build it, they will come. I think we have to include cycling in the TEN-T network and I think, particularly when we look at the EuroVelo network, we need to have one person, a coordinator, to ensure that it is delivered and to oversee this task. We also need a recommendation on safe speed limits from the Commission. We know that 30 kilometre/hour speed limits save lives and we need the Commission to take the lead on road safety and protecting vulnerable road users. It’s a strong disincentive to many, and 30 kilometre/hour speed limits would help encourage more people to cycle. One final thing: we need dedicated bike parking spaces and e—bike parking spaces. With the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive we can incorporate this. So I look forward to working with you on this. Look, the message is very simple on cycling: if we build it, people will come, and we as an institution need to do more to encourage this.

Mr President, we just heard of record temperatures and droughts affecting the European Union, so it’s a fitting time to discuss the decarbonisation of aviation. This ReFuelEU proposal is a positive step forward. Unfortunately, while the Commission proposal lacks the ambition needed to decarbonise aviation’s fuel mix as rapidly as the climate emergency demands, this Parliament has opted to weaken the proposal and the ambition further, specifically, when it comes to how we define a sustainable fuel. If we get this wrong, the decision will come back to haunt us in the years to come. It is crucial that we get it right, because with the first—generation biofuels, we failed to anticipate the problems that arose. Regrettably, the TRAN Committee agreed on a weakened definition of sustainable aviation fuel, and ITRE and ENVI, who share competence, approved the Commission’s definition. This expanded definition allows unsustainable fuels to be burnt in planes: palm oil by-products, food crops and recycled carbon fuels. The use of biofuels will have severe land-use change impacts, and that means more and more amounts of land will be needed to grow food and feed and power planes. That is why the additional biofuel feedstocks added by TRAN are so problematic. They include palm fatty acid distillates, a palm oil by-product, which means forests will be cleared to meet demand. They also include intermediate crops, which in Europe are often grown for environmental reasons related to soil health, but outside the EU, they’re grown as cash crops. For this reason, I urge colleagues to return to the Commission’s definition of biofuels, and I am glad that the major European airlines agree with our view. Amendments 112, 118 and 136 can address these issues. Let’s send a signal to the markets today that Europe wants to ramp up production of e-fuels, not unsustainable biofuels. We can make Europe a market leader in e-fuel production, which will help reduce their costs. Parliament’s vote today can decide if aviation plays its part in addressing the climate emergency. Industry and technology are ready. Today is a crucial day for ensuring that aviation plays its part in addressing the climate emergency, and I hope we can meet this challenge.

President, the events from London show that the British people have lost confidence in their government, including two ministers in that government. The people of Northern Ireland deserve better than this. The protocol bill violates international law, the Belfast Agreement, and threatens peace in Northern Ireland. In this uncertain time, we need to listen and work with people in Northern Ireland. The people of Northern Ireland must decide their own future and Parliament must support this.

Mr President, the journey of a thousand miles begins with that first step. And today we take that step in moving towards a greener future for travel, with cleaner air, improved mobility and quality jobs. To do so, we must back a full phase-out of the internal combustion engine by 2035, with intermediate targets for 2027 and 2030. It is shameful that we didn’t secure a 2030 phase-out date. The influence of the car lobby on this law is obvious. A full and faster phase-out by 2035 is needed to keep the dream of 1.5 degrees alive. And of course, greener cars are no silver bullet for the climate challenges. We must invest in walking, in safe cycling, in micro-mobility and in quality and affordable buses and trains. And as Commissioner Timmermans said, electric cars are already cheaper to run and soon they will be cheaper to buy. So the time is now. We must seize this opportunity.

Mr President, the REPowerEU initiative announced yesterday contained some good elements, but these must be followed up by concrete actions. I welcome the raising of the binding renewable target to 45% and the mandatory national energy savings target from 9% to 13%. And these moves will inject some ambition into the Renewable Energy Directive, contribute to greater energy security, as well as lowering our carbon emissions and our energy bills. And this will be a crucial tool to reduce our dependence on Russian energy imports. More insulated homes means less funding for Putin and his murderous war. However, on the day when the Commission could have solidified our break from dirty fossil fuels, they regrettably chose to provide further funding for LNG and oil infrastructure, and diverting these funds towards renewables would have offered more protection against the kind of volatility we’re seeing in oil and gas prices. So let’s make sure that the REPowerEU brings about real changes and makes the break with fossil fuels. More wind and more solar means more peace in Europe and the world.

Mr President, colleagues, Commissioner, the war in Ukraine is a stark reminder that peace is a fragile thing. In the 1990s, the Western Balkans provided us with this grim reminder. We must never forget that only through cooperation and dialogue do we overcome hatred, competition and violence between nations. The European Union is a forum for Member States to reach compromise through words, not arms. By invading Ukraine, Russia challenges these core values. The Western Balkans aspire to join the EU because they share these values, but the spectre of war still hangs over the region. By continuing to stall on the aspiration of EU membership of Balkan states, the EU and Member States are threatening a fragile peace, breaking promises and presenting themselves as unreliable partners. I recently visited Albania, as you can see, and saw first—hand the growing disillusionment with the EU integration process. Albania has made great strides. So we need an immediate start to accession negotiations. If we stall further, not only do we fail to live up to our responsibility, but we risk strengthening the hands of those who undermine the values at the heart of the European Union.

Mr President, I want to pay tribute to the transport workers who risk their lives to keep transport in Ukraine running, without which millions of refugees would not have been able to flee Putin’s aggression, without which goods and supplies would not be able to go to where they are needed most, without which countless more lives would have been lost. Putin’s armed forces have cruelly targeted transport vehicles and infrastructure, with tragic loss of human life. Almost one third of Ukraine’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, at a cost of EUR 100 billion. Bridges, highways, railways, airports and ports have been devastated. And that is why the European Union must provide a new Marshall plan to rebuild Ukraine and boost renewables. We can help keep the Ukrainian transport sector intact and operating, but we need to help it rebuild from the damage caused and maintain open links with the European Union. These vital arteries are needed to help keep people alive. So I repeat: the European Commission and Member States need to come forward with a new Marshall plan to rebuild Ukraine, to boost renewables, to wean us off oil and gas, and specifically Putin’s oil and gas, now and forever to protect Ukraine and the planet. Glory to Ukraine.

Madam President, I am pleased to see this proposal become legislation because allowing the greater use of hired vehicles across borders can mean more opportunities for businesses to use vehicles that they may not have the power to buy or have access to in their own country. It can also mean less emissions if these vehicles are cleaner. And that’s something that tends to be the case with hired vehicle fleets. However, there is some uncertainty regarding the impact on Member State tax revenues or the overall environmental cost at the European Union level. So I’m glad that the Member States have the option to limit the use of hired vehicles on their territories should they so wish, as some safeguards are needed. More Europe can be good and I think it will be in this instance, but let’s see how it works out. That the Commission must report on the impact of the legislation, I think will be hugely informative in this regard. So, I welcome the proposal and I look forward to seeing how it works out in practice.

Madam Chair, we can half emissions by 2030. That is the conclusion of today's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. And yes, again, it feels like déja vu; another terrifying scientific report on the climate crisis. But it is unequivocal in calling for the end of fossil fuels. Europe must be resolute in its response to this existential climate crisis, just as it has responded to Ukraine, just as it responded to COVID-19. We need to accelerate the shift to clean energy across the entire economy. And one immediate way to do this would be to reject the taxonomy delegated act, which labels gas and nuclear as sustainable. We can't label fossil gas as sustainable. That would add fuel to the fire and diverse hundreds of billions to making the climate crisis worse. It goes completely against what the IPCC and the International Energy Agency is calling for. Colleagues, this must be a call for action to end our addiction to fossil fuels.

Madam President, this proposal on batteries is welcome and timely. In the last two weeks, the rulebook on energy has been rewritten. The goals of geopolitics and the climate movement now converge on the need to phase out fossil fuels. As we move towards electrification in all spheres, batteries will play a crucial role in weaning ourselves off fossil fuels, including Russian sources, and this will result in healthier communities with cleaner air. And with transport, we shouldn’t just promote a private electric vehicle for everyone. The resources required would be enormous, and it wouldn’t solve issues like congestion and road safety. So instead, let’s allocate the required rare earths and minerals smartly, for example, by electrifying public transport as part of our modal shift efforts. And I strongly welcome the Parliament’s position on the batteries in waste batteries regulation. I welcome the expansionist scope to cover all batteries. The strengthening of the right to repair and removability requirements and provisions on due diligence and supply chains. A cleaner mobility transition must not come at the expense of decent working conditions elsewhere, however. But Europe can lead the battery revolution, and it has a chance to do so fairly.

First of all, the Eurovignette proposal was full of promise. But now, the Eurovignette Directive has failed to promote two policies that are crucial for the health of our environment and our citizens. Firstly, we should ensure that the cost of road transport is reflected equally in road prices, in terms of air and noise pollution and climate change. Secondly, we need to move away from road transport and move towards sustainable modes. And friends, there is still a chance to improve the text. And that is, to vote in favour of the amendments under mark-up. These amendments would allow Member States to address pricing problems. I urge you to support these amendments tomorrow.

Madam President, offshore energy is key to our climate plans. We’re fortunate that wind is a plentiful resource. This report from Morten Petersen is timely. More than 40 years ago, I visited Denmark for the first time and I saw wind turbines around Copenhagen harbour. I saw the future. Sometimes it takes a while for the good things to arrive. Many countries have harnessed ocean energy, but there is vast untapped potential. Offshore wind is valuable, but we must better integrate this energy with our electricity demand. Making green hydrogen will help, but so too will the European supergrid. The Celtic Interconnector between Ireland and France is moving towards construction. But let’s connect the electricity grids of Ireland with Spain and Portugal to better use this wind resource. That’s a project of common interest that I think everybody would buy into. But there’s also a nature angle on this. ‘It is a gift to nature’, as my colleague Margrete Auken says, because offshore wind farms can protect areas from bottom trawling. And I think that can be a good thing.

Mr President, transport poverty is a widespread phenomenon in the European Union, and yet it scarcely features in our discussions on transport. There are varying definitions, but being transport poor is generally accepted to be someone who has little or no transport options for their daily needs, or transport spending pushes them below the poverty line or is excessively dangerous or time consuming. You could also add that exposure to things like air and noise pollution is higher amongst the most marginalised in society – think of the housing estates beside motorways versus the leafy suburbs. Many people in the European Union can be described as transport poor. However, I would warn that some are trying to weaponise this issue to fight against crucial environmental measures, and these issues are not mutually exclusive. More public transport, more cycling, more shared mobility, more rail, means less transport poverty in rural and urban areas, as well as less of an impact on our environment. I don’t believe that everyone needs an SUV or has a right to fly across Europe for a stag party. These acts are fuelling climate breakdown. In the last couple of days we’ve heard about the accelerating collapse of the west Antarctic glacier, which could see sea levels rise by 65 centimetres. This is doomsday stuff, so I would ask the Commission not to succumb to those who portray the environmental discussion as meaning less mobility for people. In fact, it means more, safer and greener mobility for all, and we need to marry environmental and social justice.

Mr President, there have been winners and losers in this awful pandemic. And I read this morning that container shipping companies made profits of almost USD 50 billion in the third quarter alone of this year, and that kind of money surpasses the profits of tech giants like Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google, despite the fact that most of the underlying costs for these companies haven’t changed. And these spiralling costs of shipping, up almost a thousand per cent for some routes from China to Europe, these are disrupting supply chains and they are increasing costs for consumers. And the impact of these increases, it tends to impact most on the less well-off and smaller countries. And, of course Covid and the Suez Canal blockage played a role, but we also know that there are competition concerns in the shipping centre. And when can we expect some action from the Commission on concentration in the market? I do find it interesting that we constantly hear from the shipping industry and from some MEPs that tackling the climate crisis will negatively impact EU shipping’s competitiveness or be too expensive. And this argument is at the core of the opposition to even mild attempts to decarbonise the sector. Of course, such a short-sighted view conveniently ignores the fact that competitiveness is irrelevant if parts of the Earth are uninhabitable. So my question to the shipping companies is, will you be investing the tens of billions of euro of profit into truly clean technologies to save us from the climate emergency? And another crucial and related issue is that some of our trade flows are inherently unsustainable, sending apples from New Zealand to Ireland is surely unsustainable and we need to tackle all of this. So the true cost of some things in our economy is rarely reflected, and this is particularly true in the field of transport. If we’re serious about the price of carbon, we must take action. We must tackle the shipping sector and ensure that the decarbonise.

Mr President, as you said yourself, Commissioner, the good news is that renewables overtook fossil fuels as the EU’s main electricity source last year. We could only dream of this a decade ago. But the bad news is that we’re subsidising fossil fuels by over EUR 100 per year for every man, woman and child in the European Union. So when we see forest fires and floods and storms on our screens, in a sense we are paying for it with our taxes. And should we really be subsidising this and subsidising air pollution in Kraków, in Cremona, in Slavonski Brod? I don’t think so. I think if you let the citizens of Europe decide – if you gave each of them a cheque for EUR 100 – they would spend the money on clean air, on fresh water, on solar power. They’d invest in energy storage, demand management with an ambition, a tenacity and a resolve that would put politicians to shame. This is the future that the citizens of Europe deserve.

Mr President, despite much fanfare, the Western Balkans Summit earlier this month turned out to be a disappointment. It failed in one of its most crucial tasks, that of offering a tangible and credible path to EU membership for those in the Balkans who continue to dream of a future within the European Union. Despite numerous enacting demands and targets, those countries continue to be offered only false promises. The EU, of course, is the most successful peace project in history. Yet in a country so recently ravaged by war, we continue to undermine accession to this peace project. And I remember half a century ago the excitement in Ireland when we joined the European Economic Community. It brought economic, social and environmental progress to our island. And the longer we continue to dash Balkan people’s hopes of joining the EU, the more disillusionment will grow with the European project. So we need to be clear in our demands regarding requirements for accession, but we cannot endlessly break promises. We can no longer play with people’s hopes and dreams because of domestic politics. Of course, internal reforms are needed and institutions need strengthening, but this is a separate and internal matter. And I strongly regret the continuous undermining of the long stalled start to accession talks for North Macedonia and Albania by Bulgaria on very questionable grounds. And it’s wrong that some member states refuse to even consider setting 2030 as a target date for membership at the summit. So I call on EU Member States to approve accession talks with these two countries as a matter of urgency and to set clear commitments to other Balkan states. We were given that option half a century ago, the least we can do is offer it to our colleagues in southern and Eastern Europe.