What Petros spoke about.

6

Oct

2022

EL Speech

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The urgent need for an EU strategy on fertilisers to ensure food security in Europe (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has significantly disrupted global agricultural markets and caused a large increase in the production costs of the primary sector across the European continent. In my country, Greece, the prices paid by farmers for the purchase of products and services for their farms have increased by 25% compared to last year, acco…

13

Sep

2022

EL Speech

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Consequences of drought, fire, and other extreme weather phenomena: increasing EU's efforts to fight climate change (debate)

Mr President, extreme climate disasters are now affecting all countries, rich and poor. We experienced it on a large scale in this hottest and driest summer in Europe’s history – the coldest, however, of what our children will experience. In the face of this most visible, gloomy future, it is necessary to open our eyes to reality and confront our political inertia, guided by science. We know that …

5

Jul

2022

EN Speech

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Objection pursuant to Rule 111(3): Amending the Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act and the Taxonomy Disclosures Delegated Act (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, the taxonomy is perhaps one of the greatest achievements of this House – a true innovation of climate policy and finance, a non—binding but powerful tool that uses science—based targets to eliminate greenwashing and to crowd private investment towards activities that significantly contribute to the Union’s environmental and climate goals. On the other hand, the deleg…

22

Jun

2022

EN Speech

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Implementation and delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, I would like to thank everybody for their contribution. It shows, with a plethora of views and a plethora of concerns, how holistic this agenda is and how much we need to take care of the whole picture. I would like to take a moment to note the great work that’s been done by the JRC and agencies in the Commission in providing monitoring, in tying data, especially …

22

Jun

2022

EN Speech

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Implementation and delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (debate)

Mr President, Mr Commissioner, dear colleagues, the reason that I am here today is because I believe that until 2030, the single duty of all politics is to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the political twin of the Paris Agreement. We all know that our world is in dire straits and in dire need of systemic change. There can be no starker, nor crueler, proof of our current systemic …

7

Jun

2022

EL Speech

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Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System - Social Climate Fund - Carbon border adjustment mechanism - Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System for aviation - Notification under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) (joint debate – Fit for 55 (part 1))

Madam President, Mr Timmermans, this transition is being made to protect us from the great danger of climate catastrophe and to lead us to an end to dependence on fossil fuels and the uncontrolled rise in their prices, which threatens the resilience of societies and democracy. We have the opportunity to move from an economy of energy poverty to an economy of energy abundance. It is wrong to see de…

6

Jun

2022

EL Speech

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EU islands and cohesion policy (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, rapporteur, in my own country, Greece, the islands are the subject of a very dangerous geopolitical revisionism. But the report on islands and cohesion policy, which we are debating today, shows the need for a drastic review of the development model of European islands. The design of a modern European island policy and the faithful implementation o…

4

Apr

2022

EN Speech

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Sixth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (debate)

Madam President, allow me to quote for the record what the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report states as scientific fact. Any further delay in concerted, anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all. Approximately 3.6 billion people live today in con…

9

Mar

2022

EL Speech

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General Union Environment Action Programme to 2030 (debate)

Madam President, the new 10-year environmental action programme is particularly crucial, as the new IPCC report shows that time is running out dangerously for humans. The longer we delay, the more urgent the need for more and more radical measures will be. It is the immediate systemic change in the economy that will guarantee that all people can live well within planetary boundaries. The inclusion…

8

Mar

2022

EN Speech

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Rising energy prices and market manipulation on the gas market (debate)

Mr President, earlier today, the Commission issued the REPowerEU communication. It is a welcome realisation that the invisible hand of the market is incapable of defending either our political or our climate security. The decision to enforce public controls on the retail price of energy is monumental and long overdue. The decision to tax excess profits of fossil fuel companies is only fair to the …

24

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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Outcome of the COP26 in Glasgow (debate)

Mr President, politics is the art of the visible. It is still possible to arrest our race towards extinction. In Glasgow, the Paris Agreement rulebook was finalised, and now the framework for international cooperation for climate action is finally operational. In Glasgow, all nations finally submitted to the veracity and the ferocity of the IPCC science and committed to the 1.5-degree goal and not…

23

Nov

2021

EL Speech

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Common agricultural policy - support for strategic plans to be drawn up by Member States and financed by the EAGF and by the EAFRD - Common agricultural policy: financing, management and monitoring - Common agricultural policy – amendment of the CMO and other regulations (debate)

(off-microphone intervention principle) ... worthy of the European Green Deal. But we are giving Member States for the first time the opportunity to draw up their national strategic plans based on their real needs and advantages. We therefore expect governments to exceed the thresholds set by the new CAP and to aim higher through transparency and broad consultation. Make use of this powerful and f…

20

Oct

2021

EN Speech

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UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, the UK (COP26) (debate)

Mr President, as our resolution states, it is vital that the COP26 forge a new consensus on the necessary climate action and ambition to achieve global climate neutrality by the mid—century, and on robust short-term and medium-term policy measures. In our resolution, we acknowledge and commit to act upon our responsibility for our historical greenhouse emissions and the development gap between the…

18

Oct

2021

EL Speech

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Farm to Fork Strategy (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today's report on the Farm to Fork Strategy paves the way for a radical transformation of food systems for the good of producers, consumers and the land. Spreading organic farming and setting binding targets to drastically reduce chemicals in fertilisers, pesticides and antibiotics on farm are essential to ensure that the food on our plates not …

6

Oct

2021

EL 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)

Madam President, according to the European Commission, in 2018 imports of fossil fuels cost us EUR 331 billion. At today's prices, this annual cost will be close to one trillion euros, well above our joint investments for the Recovery and Resilience Fund and slightly below the entire seven-year EU budget. So our dependence on fossil fuels not only destroys our children's future, it not only holds …

15

Sep

2021

EL Speech

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EU contribution to transforming global food systems to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (debate)

Mr President, food systems have a unique momentum of transition towards sustainability, crucial for the success of all global goals. As Europe plans its resilience in the era of pandemics, it must and must carry out a massive transformation in the key food sector. This is not only our duty to future generations, but also a real opportunity to create a new paradigm of production and consumption tha…

14

Sep

2021

EN Speech

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Natural disasters during the summer 2021 - Impacts of natural disasters in Europe due to climate change (debate)

Mr President, we all experienced a summer of social, economic and environmental devastation, even in countries with state-of-the-art public infrastructure and civic protection capabilities. As the IPCC report makes crystal clear, these disasters are not natural. They are not acts of God. They are the acts, or rather the inaction, of our governments to follow science and act to adapt and mitigate. …

7

Jul

2021

EL Speech

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General Union Environment Action Programme to 2030 (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, I believe that we have all understood that climate ambition is essential in all policy areas. The admitted failure of the 7th Program makes us more demanding today. This new 10-year programme is our last chance, as our own competent scientific services have repeatedly warned us that we are delaying action and that this will lead to widespread and irreversible destructio…