What Petros spoke about.

22

Apr

2024

EL Speech

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Preventing plastic pellet losses to reduce microplastic pollution (debate)

Madam President, with the Green Deal we are committed to a world with zero pollution, a world less toxic and dangerous to humans. Today we are talking about measures to reduce plastic pollution in a world full of plastics, microplastics and nanoplastics that are now everywhere: At sea, in the food chain and in our bodies, each and every one of us eats about 5 grams of plastic per week. One deck a …

13

Mar

2024

EL Speech

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Rising anti-LGBTIQ rhetoric and violence: recent attacks in Thessaloniki (debate)

Mr President, following the recent attack in Thessaloniki, we had yesterday an attack on a cinema by para-religious groups and a 32-year-old man has also been arrested in a new attack on one of the two LGBTIQ people who were at risk of being lynched by a black mob in the city's main square. A city that has experienced an unprecedented degradation, economic collapse over the last thirty years and r…

12

Mar

2024

EL Speech

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EU climate risk assessment, taking urgent action to improve security and resilience in Europe (debate)

Mr President, Southern European countries are already facing a critical risk of crop failure and significant threats to their energy supply. Coastal floods and storm waves will become more frequent and more severe, with potentially devastating effects on Europe's population, infrastructure and economic activities. Crop production is already facing significant climate risks with potential shortages…

6

Feb

2024

EN Question

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EU2040 climate target (debate)

Mr Terheş, thank you for accepting the blue card. I understand you have studied theology. I would be very much interested in hearing your views on the Pope’s encyclical.

6

Feb

2024

EL Speech

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EU2040 climate target (debate)

–Mr President, Commissioner, just a few weeks ago at COP28, the European Union and, through it, the 27 Member States made a commitment to the world and the younger generation to phase out fossil fuels. At Union level, we have done our job with the climate law that wisely provided for the independent scientific committee that is today calling on us to set the 2040 emissions reduction target of at l…

18

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Recent ecological catastrophe involving plastic pellet losses and its impact on micro plastic pollution in the maritime and coastal habitats (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, yesterday here we debated about the decision of Norway to drill the deep sea in the Arctic, and we asked for a moratorium. If that doesn’t happen, they drill. Do you know what they will find? They will find plastic. There’s so much plastic. Ska calculated there is 100 billion tonnes every year. There is a great plastic garbage patch – Plastic Island –in the Pacific O…

17

Jan

2024

EL Speech

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Rule of Law and media freedom in Greece (debate)

Madam President, as a Greek I am deeply ashamed and saddened that once again Greece is the subject of a negative debate in the European Parliament. Unfortunately, however, the New Democracy government continues to override the limits of the rule of law and from surveillance to interference with independent authorities, violations of human rights, if all this happened in a candidate country, we wou…

17

Jan

2024

EL Speech

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Norway's recent decision to advance seabed mining in the Arctic (debate)

Mr President, I would like to thank Members of Parliament very much for supporting the Left's proposal to discuss Norway's decision to allow deep-sea mining. This is a very wrong decision, at a time when the whole world has agreed to a moratorium until the scientific community recognises what is in the deep waters, when we have reached the historic agreement on the protection of biodiversity in in…

18

Oct

2023

EN Speech

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Outcome of the SDGs Summit (18-19 September 2023, New York) – transformative and accelerated actions leading up to 2030 and beyond (debate)

Mr President, Madam Commissioner, dear colleagues, in 2015, at the apex of multilateralism, all countries of the world signed on the SDGs – the political twin programme of the Paris Agreement, a universal language of evidence-based policy to protect the safe space of humanity from climate collapse and extreme inequality by 2030. Today, at half time, we are losing miserably. More poverty and more h…

4

Oct

2023

EL Speech

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Energy Charter Treaty: next steps (continuation of debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, only a coordinated withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty will remove the obstacles to the implementation of our legally binding climate targets. How much longer will we allow oil and gas companies to challenge governments' climate policies and file lawsuits seeking billions in damages from European taxpayers? When will we follow the path ope…

12

Sep

2023

EL Speech

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Ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe (debate)

Madam President, air pollution, mainly from the use of fossil fuels, is a public health bomb, affecting billions of people around the world. In the European Union, more than 300 000 people die prematurely each year due to poor air quality. In my country alone, in Greece, the exposure of citizens to air pollutants is responsible for about 15,000 premature deaths each year, mainly due to a contribut…

12

Sep

2023

EL Speech

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Towards a more disaster-resilient EU - protecting people from extreme heatwaves, floods and forest fires (debate)

Mr President, two days ago we passed for the first time in the world of one and a half degrees above. A world that we have been warned will be unlivable. And disasters across the globe, in Europe, in my country, are horrific, but emissions continue to rise and fossil fuel subsidies have reached a record high of 7 trillion this year worldwide, and in Europe over one billion. Our policies are destro…

12

Jul

2023

EL Speech

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Delivering on the Green Deal: risk of compromising the EU path to the green transition and its international commitments (debate)

Mr President, Mr Timmermans, we have created the European Green Deal to protect future generations and establish the right to public goods for all. This is a profoundly humanitarian political ambition. The climate law binds us to a depth of twenty-five years, as does the law on nature restoration, which today proved that the struggle for a just transition to a human- and social-friendly world is t…

14

Jun

2023

EN Speech

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Implementation and delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (debate)

Madam President, Mr Commissioner, colleagues, thank you very much for this lively conversation and this great participation in today’s debate. It really goes to show that the Sustainable Development Goals are a holistic system to address the general problems in our societies, in our economy, and there is a platform of unity where colleagues from all the political parties, except those from the ext…

14

Jun

2023

EN Speech

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Implementation and delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, President—in—Office, dear colleagues, it is very pleasing to see what started as a dialogue among a small group of MEPs – the SDG Alliance led by Barry Andrews – to have grown into a collective cross—party effort to place the SDGs at the heart of our institution and policy—making, debating today in plenary the Annual Report on the state of implementation of the Susta…

13

Jun

2023

EN Speech

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Ensuring food security and the long-term resilience of EU agriculture (debate)

Mr President, no nature means no food. This simple truth must be acknowledged and embraced. Our food systems are intricately tied to the health of our natural environment, and the loss of biodiversity poses a grave threat to our ability to sustainably produce food. It is essential to prioritise the protection and restoration of nature as a fundamental pillar of our food security strategy. Preservi…

12

Jun

2023

EN Speech

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EU Day for the victims of the global climate crisis (debate)

Mr President, Madam Commissioner, the global climate crises take and shorten millions of lives, cause immeasurable damage to private property and public infrastructure, deliver enormous economic losses, devastate communities, obliterate ecosystems, and bring untold misery to millions of people. We do well to honour the victims, but we cannot escape the fact that the climate crisis is the result of…

31

May

2023

EN Speech

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Social and economic costs of climate change in light of the floods in Emilia Romagna, Marche and Toscana and the urgent need for European solidarity (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, , as summer returns to the Northern Hemisphere we to start again to talk about extreme weather events, these extreme weather disasters, as we do every year – floods in Germany, floods in Italy, droughts in Spain, droughts in Italy, fires from Greece to Siberia to Canada and China. Today it is Emilia Romagna. Tomorrow it’s going to be your community. The World Mete…

20

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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IPCC report on Climate Change: a call for urgent additional action (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, I have one minute, one more time to talk about the implications of the sixth and final IPCC synthesis report of our collective scientific knowledge on the effects of our actions on our only habitat, Planet Earth. To summarize, instead of more words, I should ask us all to stand for a minute of silence for the world of cars and fires that we will deliver to our own ch…

20

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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IPCC report on Climate Change: a call for urgent additional action (debate)

. – I would like to ask you to explain a little bit. What do you mean? What is the relationship of Greta Thunberg to the IPCC? Do you think that she is a scientist… that she is part of the scientific process of the IPCC? I would not comment on your characterisation of her as a hysterical person. I also think that she has grown beyond school age by now.…

17

Apr

2023

EL Speech

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Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System - Monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions from maritime transport - Carbon border adjustment mechanism - Social Climate Fund - Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System for aviation (debate)

Mr President, a just transition is at the heart of the European Green Deal and must be carried out in such a way that no one is left behind, especially the most vulnerable. Those who are least responsible for emissions are exposed to greater damage and losses and have the least capacity to invest to free themselves from carbon sequestration, energy and transport poverty. Social climate plans must …

16

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Advancing the 2022 Bridgetown Agenda (debate)

Mr President, we welcome the Bridgetown Agenda proposed by Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, as the first step towards an international financial system fit for the 21st century. A few months ago, at COP27, we arrived at the historic, brave and just recognition of the liability of the Global North for loss and damage in the Global South. The idea is that those most affected by climate chang…

17

Jan

2023

EL Speech

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Surge of respiratory infections and the shortage of medication in Europe (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, the pandemic has shown that the invisible hand of the market, the small state and chronic disinvestment from society and public health are – if not the cause of the public health crisis – insufficient to address it. It demonstrated that democratic governments can and should take radical measures to protect public health and highlighted the need for a common European pub…

13

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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Suspicions of corruption from Qatar and the broader need for transparency and accountability in the European institutions (debate) (debate)

Mr President, as we see photographs of piles of cash found in the hands of members of our European Parliament community, how can citizens not wonder how much money is there that we don’t see? It is really existential, too, for the integrity of our House to immediately and radically reform our governance structure and provide the transparency and accountability that the citizens we represent demand…

18

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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UN Climate Change Conference 2022 in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt (COP27) (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, COPs are always about emissions. However, this one is really about justice. As António Guterres explained, today it is Pakistan. Tomorrow it could be any country. In fact, already today we experience a climate disaster every day on the planet, and this is only going to get worse as global emissions keep actually rising. These disasters of our own making fall on those…