What Robert spoke about.

10

Nov

2021

NL Speech

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The escalating humanitarian crisis on the EU-Belarusian border, in particular in Poland (debate)

Mr President, the situation on the Belarusian border is appalling. We should be grateful to Poland and Lithuania for continuing to fight the ongoing hybrid attack on the Belarusian regime at the EU’s external border. The influx of migrants organised by Lukashenko is criminal. Turkey and Morocco have also recently used these barbaric methods. The EU should provide financial assistance to Poland and…

20

Oct

2021

NL Speech

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Preparation of the European Council meeting of 21-22 October 2021 (debate)

President. This week, the European Council will exchange views on vaccination strategies in the European Union. The vaccination strategy of this Parliament recently became clear: After offering voluntary vaccinations, which I am very much in favour of, the EP is now moving to vaccination coercion. Vaccination is a right, not a duty. In order to gain access to work, Parliament's assistants and Memb…

19

Oct

2021

EN Speech

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The Rule of law crisis in Poland and the primacy of EU law (debate)

Mr President, today we are discussing a Polish court decision saying that, in cases where the EU has no competence, Polish law applies. This should not be controversial. Last year, the German Constitutional Court came to similar conclusions. The truly controversial decision was made in Luxembourg, with European judges interfering in the organisation of the Polish justice system, which clearly fall…

6

Oct

2021

NL Speech

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European solutions to the rise of energy prices for businesses and consumers: the role of energy efficiency and renewable energy and the need to tackle energy poverty (debate)

Mr President, today we are discussing the sky-high price of gas with a high risk of energy poverty. According to Mr Timmermans, ‘the irony is that if we had previously switched to renewable energy sources, we would not be in this situation now’. The real irony is that it is precisely climate policy that has ensured that coal and nuclear power plants have been closed down and gas extraction has bee…

15

Sep

2021

NL Speech

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State of the Union (continuation of debate)

Mr President, the EU is a wonderful addition to Europe, provided the right decisions are taken. The euro should be a choice for Member States. Current monetary policy is creating bubbles, making housing, among other things, unaffordable for our children. The EU must stop giving free money, because that makes people lazy. However, it must maintain the original rules that we agreed in the Stability …

14

Sep

2021

NL Speech

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Presentation of the Fit for 55 package after the publication of the IPCC report (debate)

Mr President, the ‘Fit for 55’ package is an irresponsible experiment with our economy. According to the Commission, the proposals will cost EUR 1300 billion, but according to more realistic estimates this will amount to between EUR 4 and 5 000 billion. What result do we achieve with that? Only 0.004 degrees Celsius less warming, four thousandth degree. An immeasurably small result. What the packa…

7

Jul

2021

NL Speech

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Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 24-25 June 2021 (debate)

Mr President, President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, two weeks ago, migration was on the agenda of the European Council. I took this opportunity to call on European leaders to embrace the Danish immigration model. Handling asylum applications in safe locations outside Europe seems to be a very promising way to stop disruptive migration flows of often hopeless asylum seekers from safe co…