What Rob spoke about.

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NL Written Statement

Situation in Afghanistan (debate)

The European Commission looks at the world with pink glasses. Timmermans’ green landslide is leading to unaffordable energy prices, the ECB’s ultra-low interest rate policy is creating unaffordable housing and the excessive COVID-19 measures are further polarising society. My biggest concern, however, is the arrival of migrants from Afghanistan. We must prevent this from being a repeat of 2015. In…

12 Dec

2023

NL Speech

European Health Data Space (debate)

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Mr President, if you call the electronic patient file in the Netherlands, a lot of people know that. Many people were concerned that their most intimate medical records would end up on the streets. And the Senate – the ‘First Chamber’ in the Netherlands – agreed with these people. In 2010, thirteen years ago, our Senate voted to stop its introduction. Instead, the National Switch Point has now bee…

12 Jul

2023

NL Speech

The need for EU action on search and rescue in the Mediterranean (debate)

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Mr President, I have heard it a few times today, the illusion of the left-wing populists here to take away the business model of the smugglers by persecuting them. From low risk, high return we are going to make high risk, low return. Look at the fight against drugs and how successful it has become. There is no market in the world where as much money is made as in the cocaine trade. The higher the…

13 Jun

2023

NL Speech

Artificial Intelligence Act (debate)

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Mr President, there is a tidal wave coming at Europe. Artificial intelligence can and probably will also be the biggest revolution of this century. Our way of life will change completely. For me, the first priority – and we all agree on this here – is to remain a free society in which people’s fundamental rights are also safe. I always look very critically at legislation from the European Union. I…

1 Jun

2023

NL Speech

Foreign interference in all democratic processes in the European Union, including disinformation - Election integrity and resilience build-up towards European elections 2024 (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, the ‘Head of Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press’, as it was called in the Soviet Union. ‘The Central Propaganda Department’ is what it is called in China. And with the so-called EU DisinfoLab, we also have our Ministry of Truth, which determines what people are allowed to say. How far does the EU go in its crusade against dissent? A…

10 May

2023

NL Speech

Externalising asylum applications and making funding to third countries conditional on the implementation of return agreements (topical debate)

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Mr President, it is spring again and mass immigration is reaching record after record again. We all agree on that, from left to right. The asylum system is broken. It is time for a fundamentally different policy. And the goal is clear: There should be much less migration to Europe. We only allow immigrants who are of added value to our society. We provide emergency assistance in third countries. A…

18 Apr

2023

NL Speech

The need for European solidarity in saving lives in the Mediterranean, in particular in Italy (debate)

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Mr President, this debate has a very nice title: “The need for European solidarity in saving lives in the Mediterranean, in particular in Italy”. There, as already mentioned, the government has declared a state of emergency a few times. The influx of illegal immigrants has been unsustainable for a long time. It will be an annual ritual. As soon as spring comes, the southern European coast begins t…

18 Jan

2023

NL Speech

Criminalisation of humanitarian assistance, including search and rescue (debate)

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Mr President, we are talking here tonight about the fundamental lies that underlie this debate. The title of the debate is: ‘on the criminalisation of humanitarian aid, including search and rescue’. The suggestion made here is that migrants from Africa are shipwrecked and should not be helped. But that is of course not the case. Many migrants deliberately enter rickety boats, often even without a …

18 Oct

2022

NL Speech

Continued internal border controls in the Schengen area in light of the recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (C-368/20) (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, Council, ‘If you have no borders, you have no country.’ This was said by former US President Trump, and he was right. Schengen – as has just been said – can only survive if the EU’s external borders are strictly guarded, if the walls of Fort Europe are not cracked. But right now, illegal immigration is reaching record after record. The smuggling NGOs are bringing tens o…

14 Sep

2022

NL Speech

Situation of fundamental rights in the EU in 2020 and 2021 (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today we are talking about the report on fundamental rights in the European Union. The years 2020-2021. And I am sure that for everyone who lived in Europe in those two years, it should be very clear which topics should definitely be in it. And I'll name four here. First of all, dot on one, the introduction of a QR code. In doing so, the European g…

3 May

2022

NL Speech

Strengthening Europol’s mandate: cooperation with private parties, processing of personal data, and support for research and innovation (debate)

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... from Europol. To date, Member States have entered the data on the suspects in the Schengen Information System. If you all agree with this proposal, you give Europol the right to enter data itself, even for people who have never been convicted. That is another step closer to a federal EU police force. I have exactly the same objections to this as to many other federal agencies: far from the cit…

4 Apr

2022

NL Speech

Revision of the Market Stability Reserve for the EU Emissions Trading System (debate)

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Mr President, the European energy tax ETS was introduced in 2015 to make fossil-generated energy artificially more expensive than green energy. This was done at a time when a cubic meter of gas cost about a fifth of the current rate. In 2018, this ETS tax was increased. And today we are debating the extension of the increase in this ETS tax. We do this at a time when the term ‘energy poverty’ is f…

9 Mar

2022

NL Speech

Batteries and waste batteries (debate)

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Mr President, thank you to the rapporteur for this report. When talking about the circular economy, the Farm to Fork Strategy or the Green Deal in this Parliament, the targets often cannot be high enough. I think it is important to have a realistic policy. Policies that promote rather than undermine food security. Policies that allow my constituents to pay their energy bills and also have money le…

6 Jul

2021

NL Speech

Annual Report on the functioning of the Schengen area (debate)

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Mr President, this report condemns the reintroduction of internal border controls in the Schengen area. Member States have temporarily closed their borders more than 260 times since 2015: 12 times as many as in the previous eight years. Of course, COVID-19 has been the main reason for this, but terrorism and acute illegal immigration flows have also played a role. A country without borders is not …